Siren

Siren
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
Each other player gains a Curse. At the start of your next turn, draw until you have 8 cards in hand. When you gain this, trash it unless you trash an Action from your hand.

Siren is an Action-Duration-Attack card from Plunder. It is an inexpensive curser and source of duration draw; its low cost is offset by the fact that you ordinarily have to trash an Action card to keep it once you've gained it. Occasionally, loopholes involving the stop-moving rule can allow you to get around that requirement.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you gain a Siren, it's immediately trashed unless you trash an Action card from your hand.
• However if you manage to move the Siren from where it was gained (whether it was gained to your discard pile or somewhere else) before resolving this ability - for example putting it on top of your deck with Insignia - then it will fail to be trashed (though you can still trash an Action card if you want).

Other rules clarifications

• The important part of getting around Siren's self-trashing effect is to move it when it's gained. This is why Insignia works, but the following does not:
  • Some cards directly gain a card somewhere (e.g. Invasion gains an Action directly onto your deck). This does not actually move the Siren, so it will still trash itself.
  • A few other cards gain a card and then move it later. So if you gain a Siren with Spell Scroll, the Siren will trash itself, and the Spell Scroll will fail to play it.
• If you have an Action in hand, you can decline to trash it, and let the Siren trash itself. This may still be useful if you want to trigger when-trash effects (such as Sewers or Market Square).

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Each other player gains a Curse. At the start of your next turn, draw until you have 8 cards in hand. When you gain this, trash it unless you trash an Action from your hand.	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Sirene			Iedere andere speler pakt een Vloek. Aan het begin van je volgende beurt: trek kaarten totdat je er 8 in je hand hebt. Als je deze kaart pakt, vernietig hemdan, tenzij je een actiekaart uit je hand vernietigt.	(2023)
German	Sirene			Jeder Mitspieler nimmt einen Fluch. Zieh zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges, bis du 8 Handkarten hast. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, entsorge sie, es sei denn, du entsorgst eine Aktionskarte aus deiner Hand.	(2023)
Polish	Syrena			Każdy z pozostałych graczy dodaje Klątwę. Na początku twojej następnej tury: dobieraj karty aż będziesz miał ich 8 na ręce. Kiedy dodajesz tę kartę, wyrzuć ją na Śmietnisko, chyba że wyrzucisz na Śmietnisko kartę Akcji z ręki.	(2023)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Siren is just some new Duration card. It's a little hard to get; someone has to get lured to their doom. There are some subtle combos for getting around that penalty; see if you can find them.

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

Secret History

A flavor-based card; what could a Siren do? They lure sailors to their deaths, but I didn't want an attack that punished Duration cards. Finally I thought of having to trash an Action to get one. And that's that, the card was done.

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

Rules

Many tricks around dodging Siren's self-trashing effect require knowledge of the stop-moving rule, and paying attention to how specific cards are phrased.

There were concerns about, making it work, and making it clear how it worked.

At some point, when I've got a cool card on my hands and you can say, "but these interactions require you to know the stop moving rule," I throw my hands in the air and say, "15th expansion!" It's the 15th expansion. The cards have to keep doing new things. This is what happens.

Maybe there is a phrasing that better does the concept, with less rules knowledge invoked. When you look for it, make sure to avoid "would," and try to keep the text fitting on the card in that font size.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

I wouldn't possibly have said "additional costs must be paid to gain cards" or what have you; when you gain a card directly, you aren't paying the cost, and man let's not confuse those things.

The best way to do an additional cost is to make a symbol for it and put it right in the cost, like . I've considered that family of mechanics, for different costs. Then of course you couldn't Workshop it. So far I haven't felt like I was getting enough there, relative to how confusing symbols in the cost have turned out to be.

I could have just added "first" to get rid of a bunch of the combos and thus confusion associated with them. Somehow I didn't.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

The Siren shenanigans aren't a deliberate part of the design. They're just what fell out of the wording.

For me the combos mostly came up in online testing. And I had fun with them and also may have signed off on the set already, not sure. But I didn't think, "wait this requires knowing stuff." It was just me and the bot, and the bot was showing me what for.

As I mentioned there's "first." "When you gain this, first…" I didn't consider that at the time. I haven't worked through if it basically fixes it. "When you gain this, first," if ever used, does not mean "when you buy this." "When you gain this" happens directly after putting the card wherever it goes, e.g. in the discard pile. "First" means "before other things that trigger at the same time." (Except, if multiple things have "first" then obv. you still order those between each other.)

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2023

Complexity

Donald X. has since said that Siren was the biggest mistake in Plunder.

I remain pleased with Loot and displeased with Hexes. There are just a few cards in Plunder that are an issue in terms of complexity, with Siren standing out. Obv. 100% of the issue with Siren is, under what circumstances do you get around needing to trash something. You can't get away from needing rules for "what if we lose track of a card" unless your game rules out broad swaths of effects. You can simplify things by e.g. not letting you Throne a Horse, but that ship has sailed (and it did something twice on the next turn).

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2023

I would be removing most of the combos if the card weren't published yet. And it's still possible for a reprint someday. My first guess is, "When you gain this, first..." 100% of the problem with cheating on Siren is that it's too complex. People know it's possible and still aren't sure which things work and which don't. If it were simple it would be fine.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2023