Pious

Pious
Info
Type	Trait
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Trait text
When you gain a Pious card, you may trash a card from your hand.

Pious is a Trait from Plunder. When you gain a card with this trait, it allows you to trash a card from your hand—as if the card permanently had your trashing token on it.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Each time you gain a Pious card, you may optionally trash a card from your hand.

Strategy

The pious trait adds a relatively slow one-time trashing effect on gaining cards. Pious cards are always at least as attractive as they would otherwise be, because the trashing is optional. They are usually slightly more attractive, but not dramatically more attractive because the effect is one-time and relatively weak. Pious thus can make a strong card slightly overpowered, or an otherwise weak card more viable.

Buying or gaining multiple pious cards can facilitate the construction of a thinned engine on boards where there is some trashing but the trashing would otherwise be too weak to build an effective engine, but pious cards alone are not usually sufficient to build a thinned engine. More often, pious merely provides an incremental boost in the early game, when buying cards for just about any strategy, as it tends to trash an Estate when gained in the opening. When the pious card is attached to a card that plays well with a money strategy but not an engine strategy, it can shift the balance slightly in favor of the money strategy.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		When you gain a Pious card, you may trash a card from your hand.	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Vroom			Als je een vrome kaart pakt, mag je een kaart uit je hand verietigen.
German	Fromm			Wenn du eine Fromme Karte nimmst, darfst du eine deiner Handkarten entsorgen.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Pious. Maybe that shows up on uh Smithy. So this game, when you gain a Smithy, you also get to trash a card from your hand. Well that's bound to be handy.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, * Plunder Previews #2: Durations & Traits *

Secret History

Unchanged.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Plunder