Shaman

Shaman
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
+1 Action + You may trash a card from your hand. In games using this, at the start of your turn, gain a card from the trash costing up to .

Shaman is an Action card from Plunder. It is a trasher, but its mere presence in a game also means players are constantly gaining from the Trash. So in a game with Shaman, trashers (including Shaman) in effect become delayed-action junking attacks. Meanwhile, trash-for-benefit effects such as remodelers get more risky, since if you trash a good card for a strong benefit, your opponents might just gain the card you trashed on their next turn!

FAQ

Official FAQ

• In games using Shaman, for the whole game, at the start of each of your turns (including extra turns), you gain a card from the trash costing up to . This is mandatory.
• If there's no such card, you don't gain one.
• This applies even on your first turn (relevant with Necromancer, from Nocturne).
• It applies even if no-one ever gets a Shaman.
• The gained card goes into your discard pile. It's a card you gained, and can trigger things that care about that; for example gaining an Estate would trigger Cage's ability.

Other rules clarifications

• You can order the gaining with other start-of-turn abilities. So if there are 0 cards in the trash, you can:
  • First resolve Shaman, gain nothing, and then trash a Copper with Rope (for the next player to gain).
  • First trash your Cabin Boy from play, and then gain it back from the trash with Shaman.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Action + You may trash a card from your hand. In games using this, at the start of your turn, gain a card from the trash costing up to .	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Schamanin			+1 Aktion + Du darfst eine deiner Handkarten entsorgen. In Spielen mit dieser Karte nimm zu Beginn deines Zuges eine Karte aus dem Müll, die bis zu kostet.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Shaman is the inverse Cathedral. This game, the junk will keep coming; you will have to figure out something there.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, * Plunder Previews #5: More Stuff *

Cost limit

When asked why the cards Shaman gains from the trash have a maximum cost of , Donald X. answered:

It's not because gives us more gameplay. It's not because the gameplay there is bad. I never tried those specific versions; I had experience from other cards.

If you trash a good card to Shaman, your opponent (or, the one to your left) can get it; we always enjoyed that. It's no accident.

It's possible it could have been allowed to [gain] trash[ed] Provinces; since I didn't test that, I don't know. But it sounds bad.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

Secret History

For strumphf's 2022 advent calendar, Donald X. went in-depth on the development of Shaman.

Hmmm, where does this story start. The first remotely related card in the file is "+1 Action, This turn when you trash a non-duration card, you may play it, leaving it there. Trash a card from your hand." Let me just wrap my head around that. So you trash Copper and get the +; you Remodel a Gold later in the turn and get the +, and so on. I don't remember that one, but it sure didn't last. Then I had an attack that gave out Curses and also said "The next time you gain, trash or discard a card in your Action phase, +." The idea being that you had to meet the condition to get the card back for another attack. Briefly that sounded good. Then I was back at the Remodel combos, with a Cursing attack with + next turn and "Until then, when a player trashes one of their cards, they discard it." With various phrasings, messing with exactly when the card came back. Near the end of work on the set, Cade singled this out to complain about. The thing was, maybe somebody gets to trash 3 cards near the start of the game, and then there's no more trashing possible, and it's pretty random and how fun is that, for an expert like Cade. So I tried a version with an "In games using this" phrasing. That fixes that problem, but when we sat down to try it, I had another version I think we never played, and then the gain a trashed card every turn idea. Well that one was great, except it needed a cost limit, getting back Spell Scroll for example seemed problematic, especially when you could do it at start of turn with e.g. Enlarge. But this definitely seemed like the direction. Then Matt suggested that it shouldn't be a Witch, and I tried making it a trasher instead. Hooray, we got there. And it ended up one of my favorite cards in the set.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Plunder

Donald X.'s opinion

Shaman is a set highlight for me. It shakes things up, you have a new experience. I am used to multiplayer; Shaman does not hurt as much as a regular junking attack like Witch. I've played a lot of Plunder games against the TGG, and Shaman stayed a highlight all through that. I have to figure out how to play those boards, in a way I didn't with e.g. Ambassador.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

Should this be a Treasure?

Now I am looking through the cards, wishing I'd tried Shaman as a Treasure. +1 Action, + - it's perfect. Of course it would have needed the verboten small font then.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

The final version of Shaman was one of the last changes in the set. If it had been around for a longer period, it probably would have turned into a Treasure. It's not an Action "just because"; it was just not something I could endlessly consider while endlessly considering everything else I endlessly considered, and there wasn't much time for me to notice I could make that change.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Plunder is online