Swamp Hag

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Swamp Hag
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Jessi J
Card text
At the start of your next turn +. Until then, when any other player gains a card they bought, they gain a Curse.

Swamp Hag is an Action-Attack-Duration from Adventures. It is the main curser for the set, and effectively Embargoes every card in the Supply until your next turn.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2022)

• Playing this sets up two effects for the future: you will get + at the start of your next turn; and until then, other players will gain a Curse whenever they gain a card they bought.
• Players who buy multiple cards will gain a Curse per card; players who do not buy any cards will not get any Curses.
• This is cumulative; if you play two Swamp Hags, and the player after you plays one, then the player after that will get three Curses with any card bought.
• This does not affect cards gained other ways, only bought cards; for example using Alms to gain a Silver does not trigger this.
• If you play Swamp Hag and then take an extra turn immediately, such as with Mission, you will get + at the start of that turn and discard Swamp Hag that turn, and other players will never be affected by it.
• If you want to use a Reaction card like Moat against Swamp Hag, you have to use it right when Swamp Hag is played.

Other rules clarifications

• Buying a card via Black Market still causes a Curse to be gained, even though it usually takes place during the Action phase rather than the buy phase.
• In 2022 Swamp Hag got errata to trigger on "when they gain" rather than on "when they buy". Other when-gain effects happen at the same time as Swamp Hag's effects; the Attacked player chooses in which order to resolve them. This can matter, for instance, in the case of Doctor's overpay, if it triggers a reshuffle.

Deprecated official FAQ (2016)

Playing this sets up two effects for the future: you will get + at the start of your next turn; and until then, other players will gain a Curse whenever they buy a Card. Players who buy multiple cards will gain a Curse per card bought; players who do not buy any cards will not get any Curses. This is cumulative; if you play two Swamp Hags, and the player after you plays one, then the player after that will get three Curses with any card bought. This does not affect cards gained other ways, only bought cards. Buying Events is not buying cards and so does not trigger this. If you play Swamp Hag and then take an extra turn immediately, such as with Mission or Outpost (from Seaside), you will get + at the start of that turn and discard Swamp Hag that turn, and other players will never be affected by it. If you want to use a Reaction card like Moat against Swamp Hag, you have to use it right when Swamp Hag is played.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2015 2016)

Gaining happens after buying, so when-gain effects (such as Ill-Gotten Gains' Curse giving) occur after you've gained a Curse. If there's only one Curse left when you buy an Ill-Gotten Gains after an opponent played a Swamp Hag, only you receive a Curse. When-buy effects happen at the same time as Swamp Hag's effects; the Attacked player chooses in which order to resolve them. This can matter in the case of Doctor's overpay, if it triggers a reshuffle.

Strategy

There is no strategy article for Swamp Hag, but the card has been discussed on the forum!

In general, Swamp Hag is considered to be a bit on the weak side for a Curser. It is, on average, weaker than cards such as Witch for two reasons. First and foremost, the Cursing attack can be circumvented. Your opponent only gets a Curse if they buy a card during their next turn, so the Curse can be avoided by not buying anything. For example, maybe they just wanted to buy something cheap and rather uninteresting anyway, like a Silver, and skipping the Silver buy to avoid getting a Curse might be worth it. The second reason is that Swamp Hag, being a Duration card, misses more shuffles, and on top of it, the Curses that your opponent might gain will also miss more shuffles, because they will be delayed.

There are cases in which Swamp Hag shines. It is important to note that Swamp Hag's attack stacks easily; it doesn't just go off if your opponent buys a card, it goes off with every card they buy. If your opponent wanted to buy 3 cards during their turn, they get 3 Curses with it if you played a single Swamp Hag. If you played two Swamp Hags, and they buy 3 cards, that's 6 Curses for them. Since Swamp Hag does not have a while-in-play clause, you can also successfully Throne Room it or call a Royal Carriage on it.

Swamp Hag, like Haunted Woods, has not just a delayed attack but also a delayed payout; it gives you + on the next turn. + is a lot of money, but the fact that you won't get it until next turn makes it harder to plan in advance what to do with it. In general, it's not nearly as strong as Haunted Woods' +3 cards on the next turn, nor is it better than Witch or Mountebank's immediate payout. It works best with other Duration cards that give a benefit on the next turn, since in Dominion, one very good and one very bad turn is often better than two mediocre turns. The + can be useful if you want to spike expensive cards early on.

Synergies

• Opponent's +Buy
• Other Duration cards, especially Tactician
• Throne Room variants
• Spiking expensive cards early: King's Court, Pathfinding, Prince (if there are good targets), Province with Tournament
• Cards that give you another turn like Mission. Play all your Swamp Hags on your last consecutive turn. Then your opponents are attacked by all of them, and at the end of your next turn all the Swamp Hags are discarded and ready to be played again during your additional turn.

Antisynergies

• Opponent's gainers
• Stronger and more direct cursers
• Possession

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Until your next turn, when any other player buys a card, he gains a Curse. At the start of your next turn: +	Adventures	April 2015
		Until your next turn, when any other player buys a card, they gain a Curse. At the start of your next turn: +	Adventures (2016 printing)	August 2017
		Until your next turn, when any other player gains a card they bought, they gain a Curse. At the start of your next turn +.	Adventures (2022 printing)
		At the start of your next turn +. Until then, when any other player gains a card they bought, they gain a Curse.	Prefer "Do X. Until then" wording	June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Heks uit het moeras (lit. witch from the swamp)			Tot jouw volgende beurt moet iedere andere speler die een kaart koopt 1 Vloek pakken. Aan het begin van je volgende beurt: +	(2015)
Finnish	Suonoita
French	Sorcière des marais
German	Sumpfhexe			Bis zu deinem nächsten Zug: Jeder Mitspieler muss sich für jede Karte, die er kauft, einen Fluch nehmen. Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +	(2015)
	Sumpfhexe			Bis zu deinem nächsten Zug nimmt jeder Mitspieler, der eine Karte kauft, einen Fluch. Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +.	(Nachdruck 2021)
	Sumpfhexe			Bis zu deinem nächsten Zug nimmt jeder Mitspieler, wenn er eine von ihm gekaufte Karte nimmt, einen Fluch. Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +.	(Nachdruck 2022)
	Sumpfhexe			Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +. Bis dahin nimmt jeder Mitspieler, wenn er eine von ihm gekaufte Karte nimmt, einen Fluch.
Japanese	沼の妖婆 (pron. numa no yōba)			あなたの次のターンまで、他のプレイヤーがカード1枚を購入するとき、そのプレイヤーは呪い1枚を獲得する。 あなたの次のターンの開始時に、+。
Russian	Болотная Ведьма (pron. bolotnaya vyed'ma)

Trivia

Official card art.

Swamp Hag is one of the available backgrounds in Dominion Online.

Preview

Swamp Hag showcases a type of Attack made possible by Duration cards. It makes the other players have worse turns. In this case, anything they buy will be cursed. Two Swamp Hags? Two Curses. It can be grim in multiplayer. They can just choose not to buy anything in order to dodge the Curses and well you will be happy with that too. Try to avoid playing Swamp Hag and Outpost in the same turn; that Swamp Hag doesn't end up Cursing anyone.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Adventures Previews #3 - Amulet, Swamp Hag, Hireling

Secret History

One of the first cards in the set. The attack was always the same, except for precise phrasing vs. things like Outpost. At first it gave + on both turns, then +1 Card; now it's + next turn.

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

Donald X.'s opinion

I like that it's novel, straightforward, compelling. We didn't have problems with it in playtesting. For sure the intention is not to create stalemates; to the degree that it does, that's bad.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

Avoiding terminal +1 Card

I do avoid it, because it feels bad, you are risking drawing a dead action and all you got for it was +1 Card. I tried it on Swamp Hag anyway, meaning it wasn't out of the question that the card end up like that. It was a negative but not forbidden. Of course when it's "Now and next turn +1 Card" the next turn part feels good.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Discussion of the Secret History of Adventures