Frigate

Frigate
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Claus Stephan
Card text
+ Until the start of your next turn, each time another player plays an Action card, they discard down to 4 cards in hand afterwards.

Frigate is an Action-Duration-Attack card from Plunder. An unorthodox handsize attack, it makes your opponents discard after they play Action cards, rather than immediately. This effectively turns most of their draw cards into sifters, and prevents them from achieving the large hand sizes that many engine strategies rely on.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This applies each time another player plays an Action, until your next turn. That includes later on during your turn, if they manage to play an Action then (for example a Stowaway).
• They completely resolve playing the Action before discarding.

Other rules clarifications

• An affected player can order this attack with other effects that trigger after playing an Action card. For example, they can first discard down to 4 cards in hand, and then spend a Favor for Fellowship of Scribes.
• Unlike other Duration Attacks (such as Swamp Hag), Frigate does nothing at the start of your next turn. This means that if this attack won't affect anyone (e.g., each other player blocks it with Moat), you'll immediately discard Frigate from play during your Clean-up.
• If a player reacts to Frigate being played with a Reaction that plays itself (e.g. Guard Dog), they won't discard down to 4 cards after playing that, because the Frigate's attack isn't active yet.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ Until the start of your next turn, each time another player plays an Action card, they discard down to 4 cards in hand afterwards.	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Fregat			+ Tot de start van je volgende beurt: elke keer dat een andere speler een actie kaart speelt, moet hij daarna kaarten uit zijn hand afleggen totdat hij er 4 heeft.	(2023)
German	Fregatte			+ Bis zum Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: Jedes Mal, wenn ein Mitspieler eine Aktions­karte spielt, legt er danach seine Handkarten bis auf 4 ab.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

The first version made +; that was too much. It also triggered on drawing cards; triggering on playing Actions is simpler and worked out. Initially you get the + next turn; it felt like it needed the push of giving you the + up front.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Plunder

Donald X.'s opinion

Frigate, well typically the weakest card in a set these days is an attack, what can you do. It's because some people hate attacks, and Witches are the only ones without issues; people are terrified of Knights, and Spies are so slow, and Militia doesn't allow for much variety. And then Duration attacks are tricky and wordy. So, there's always a Raider or Gatekeeper or something, that avoids breaking the game and being hated by being weak instead, and well I can live with that, at least the attack fans still get a card. Oh they voted Frigate at the top you say? Huh. Uh. Nevermind.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

I just think about Frigate so much differently. Frigate doesn't stop you from drawing your deck. It stops you from having a big hand of payload at the end of it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2023

During playtesting my guess was that it was on the weak side, though fine. Now, more or less the same. Some people are scared of it, but I endlessly saw tracer build engines despite Frigate being in play every turn. It's an attack card; it's intentionally bothering the other players, that's what attacks do.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.