Shaman
From DominionStrategy Wiki
| 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!
Contents |
[edit] FAQ
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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:
[edit] Strategy
[edit] Versions
[edit] English versions
| 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 |
[edit] Other language versions
| Language | Name | 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. |
(2023) | |
| Polish | Szamanka | +1 akcja + Możesz wyrzucić na Śmietnisko kartę z ręki. W rozgrywkach z tą kartą, każdy z graczy na początku każdej swojej tury dodaje ze Śmietniska kartę kosztującą do . |
(2023) |
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Preview
Shaman is the inverse Cathedral. This game, the junk will keep coming; you will have to figure out something there.
[edit] 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.
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.
[edit] 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.
; 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
– it's perfect. Of course it would have needed the verboten small font then.
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.
