Ninja

Ninja
Card back
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack - Shadow
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Rising Sun
Illustrator(s)	Elisa Cella
Card text
+1 Card Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. You can play this from your deck as if in your hand.

Ninja is an Action–Attack–Shadow card from Rising Sun. It is a discard attack that you can play from your deck without having to wait to draw it first.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play Ninja, you draw a card, and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. You can play this from your deck as if in your hand.	Rising Sun	August 2024

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Ninja			+1 Karte Jeder Mitspieler legt seine Handkarten bis auf 3 ab. Du kannst diese Karte aus deinem Nachziehstapel spielen, als wäre sie in deiner Hand.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

I went through lots of ideas, trying to find something that worked and also felt even a tiny bit like a Ninja. Many of the ideas were not so Ninja-like, but did I mention that working was also important? It was always a Militia. The first version had two optional +1 Cards, and let you look at your top card any time in games using it. Then you had to gain a Ninja to turn on the peeking for the rest of the game (yes without tracking, ala Kintsugi), and it was just one optional +2 Cards. You know - optional because hey maybe when you peek at the top, you won't want to draw it somehow. Then instead of getting screwed if you didn't draw, it was your choice, + or +2 Cards. I feel like that one hung around for a while. Then the bottom changed to, once gained, you could use Action plays as Buys and vice-versa. That turned into that part of Flourishing Trade. I should mention, a bunch of these Ninjas cost . Then there was a Ninja that... did something I may still make some new card do. It was cool but needed work and maybe wanted to be an Event and then didn't get to be an Event, while meanwhile Ninja looked for other stuff to do. Then briefly, a Reaction Ninja that gave you +1 Card if it was revealed, ala Patron. Then a version that you put on the bottom of your deck, and could play from there as if in your hand. Wait, we got there. It got a special card back and then turned into the whole suite of Shadow cards. Which changed to let you play the card from anywhere in your deck, so you weren't worrying too much about the order when you had multiple Shadow cards. And then I moved the shuffling text to the card back, because Ninja in particular was cramped for space. And also, I finally changed it to costing instead of . That was just much better; in general debt costs are problematic.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Rising Sun Cards

Retrospective

There are people who hate attacks, and for sure Ninja will be one of the ones they especially hate. It was clear in playtesting. There are also people who love attacks though (I always mention the woman who told me that her favorite Dominion card was Familiar), and for those people Ninja is great. IRL it's easy to say "let's not play with that"; way easier than playing with a card that doesn't exist. Online you get to ban 5 cards, or play unrated games with whatever cards you want.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2024

Since 2006, most of my playtesting has been IRL, with 3+ players. In those games, Militia hits you every turn, starting turn 3. Even if there's no draw. So, Ninja wasn't a concern there; it's business as usual. I recognize that it's better at attacking every turn earlier in 2-player games than Militia is.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.