Secluded Shrine

Secluded Shrine
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
+ The next time you gain a Treasure, trash up to 2 cards from your hand.

Secluded Shrine is an Action-Duration card from Plunder. It is a trasher that is activated when you gain Treasure, and waits in your play area until that happens.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This can trigger on any player's turn.
• It triggers even if the player can't or doesn't want to trash anything; they don't have to trash anything, but Secluded Shrine is done, and is discarded that turn.

Other rules clarifications

• See the Additional rules section for Duration cards in Dominion: Plunder regarding things happening "the next time".
• If you gain a Gondola and play a Secluded Shrine, that will trigger your other Secluded Shrines, but not the one you just played (it triggers off your next Treasure gain).

Strategy

Secluded Shrine is a situationally-useful trasher that eliminates itself from your deck under the circumstances that you stop buying treasures. It is finicky and not always a good choice to buy. It is not ideal for building action-heavy engines, because these engines often buy mostly actions and thus do not activate the trashing. This conflict, the fact that engines often benefit the most from trashing, makes it less powerful. It is also slower than some trashers, and subject to unreliability due to chance. The best scenario for buying this card is when the board is such that at most price points, there is a toss-up between buying a treasure and an action, with both being pretty good buys. This allows you to time exactly when you want to activate this card's trashing. This is more likely when Alt-Treasure is on the board.

Another problem with this card is that the cards must be in your hand to trash them, yet the trashing power only activates if a treasure is gained. Usually you do not want to buy Copper, but in some circumstances, such as if you draw 2 copper and 3 Estates, doing so might be forced if you want to activate this card's power. For this reason, if you know such a draw is likely on your next turn, you might opt instead to trash Coppers and buy a Silver on the turn you played it, but again, this may force you into a sub-optimal play. For the same reason, if two of these cards end up in play, buying Copper is again usually forced if you want to trash four cards. Because of this weakness, it is rarely beneficial to buy more than one Secluded Shrine. The scenario can also arise where you have cards in your hand that you want to trash, but your otherwise optimal purchase is not a treasure, which can either lead you to make a sub-optimal purchase, or delay trashing.

When this card sits in play for multiple turns as treasures are not bought, this card combines with Emporium, Berserker, and Peddler by counting as an action in play. It does not, however, count as an action played on the current turn, so it will not help Conspirator. These combos are usually not game-changing, only small incremental improvements. In a game with Peddler on the board, opening with two of these may be the fastest route to buying Peddlers if your plan is to pack the deck with them, and they will stay in play as you continue to buy actions.

This card becomes slightly more attractive in the presence of gainers able to gain a silver, as it provides an alternate mechanism to activate the trashing power.

This card becomes much more desirable in the presence of strong junking attacks, especially when there are good options for actions to buy. In this scenario, you can choose on which turn to activate it, so if you draw it without any junk in hand, you can just buy an action. This can make it much easier to line up with the junk than other trashers. In this scenario, the game is probably a slog and buying copper, which might end up being forced, is less of a downside than it would be in most games, and the benefit of + also probably carries more benefit. However, this use must be weighed against the need to win a cursing race; for example in a game with Witch it is usually more beneficial to go for more buying power to buy one or two Witches as early as possible, than to add a slower trasher such as this; this card can then be bought slightly later, ideally right after purchasing your last Witch.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ The next time you gain a Treasure, trash up to 2 cards from your hand.	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Einsamer Schrein			+ Das nächste Mal, wenn du eine Geldkarte nimmst, entsorge bis zu 2 deiner Handkarten.	(2023)
Polish	Ustronna kapliczka			+ Kiedy następnym razem dodasz kartę Skarbu, wyrzuć na Śmietnisko maksymalnie 2 karty z ręki.	(2023)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Secluded Shrine is a basic one. Get a Treasure, and you'll get to trash two things. When you're done getting Treasures, Secluded Shrine will quietly leave your deck and just sit there forlornly in play.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, * Plunder Previews #4: Next Time *

Secret History

This didn't change. A simple showcase for next-time.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Plunder