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[GendoIkari]

I'm pretty sure the only hidden zones in Dominion are the hand, the discard pile, and the deck. A legitimate reaction must trigger in one of these three zones. (And good luck with writing a reaction that triggers from the deck.)

I think you could do something like "when you draw this", similar to what Magic did recently with Miracle costs. It could do something that makes it different than revealing from hand. (When you draw this, if your draw deck is empty, you may reveal and discard this. if you do, gain a Gold). Combos great with Pearl Diver!

[Drab Emordnilap]

I think you could do something like "when you draw this", similar to what Magic did recently with Miracle costs. It could do something that makes it different than revealing from hand. (When you draw this, if your draw deck is empty, you may reveal and discard this. if you do, gain a Gold). Combos great with Pearl Diver!

I think that'd be revealed from your hand, for the same reason that Tunnel is revealed from your discard pile.

"When you put this card on the top or bottom of your deck..." 

[GendoIkari]

I think you could do something like "when you draw this", similar to what Magic did recently with Miracle costs. It could do something that makes it different than revealing from hand. (When you draw this, if your draw deck is empty, you may reveal and discard this. if you do, gain a Gold). Combos great with Pearl Diver!

I think that'd be revealed from your hand, for the same reason that Tunnel is revealed from your discard pile.

"When you put this card on the top or bottom of your deck..." 

You can't reveal it from hand, because once it's in your hand, you no longer have proof that it was the card you just drew. It would have to be revealed before it's actually added to your hand...

[Drab Emordnilap]

You can't reveal it from hand, because once it's in your hand, you no longer have proof that it was the card you just drew. It would have to be revealed before it's actually added to your hand...

But you can't reveal it from your deck; when it's in your deck, you don't know what it is yet. And there isn't any zone between the deck and the hand...

I think this is probably a good argument against the idea altogether.

[GendoIkari]

You can't reveal it from hand, because once it's in your hand, you no longer have proof that it was the card you just drew. It would have to be revealed before it's actually added to your hand...

But you can't reveal it from your deck; when it's in your deck, you don't know what it is yet. And there isn't any zone between the deck and the hand...

I think this is probably a good argument against the idea altogether.

I dunno. I mean the specific card as worded is problematic because of it's extreme swingyness. But I don't see a problem with asking the player to reveal something after it leaves their deck and before it enters their hand. Magic does the exact same thing with Miracle cards. I just checked, the wording they use is "as you draw it."

You may reveal this card from your hand as you draw it if it's the first card you've drawn this turn. When you reveal this card this way, you may cast it by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost

As far as I know, they didn't need to include any other rules or explanations about what "as you draw it" means. So I think the same thing could certainly work for Dominion.

[eHalcyon]

If you have a "when you draw this" action, then you need to draw each card one at a time and check it before putting it in your hand, or else there are accountability issues.  I think it would work, but it would be annoying to play.

[Davio]

I think it would be more annoying than fun.

[rinkworks]

The existing Dominion cards that require any kind of preprocessing of drawn cards before they're added to your hand are worded in such a way as to remove any chance of an "oh, this card in my hand is one of the ones I just drew, honest!" ambiguity.  Library has an "as your draw them" clause, thereby requiring you to draw the cards one at a time.  Scout has you "reveal" the top cards of your deck as an explicit step prior to "add them to your hand."

The implication is that other kinds of draws do not and need not require more than a single step.  When Smithy says +3 Cards, I generally count out three cards and add them to my hand before I've even looked at them.  Sometimes, if someone plays a Council Room while I'm still reshuffling and dealing my next hand, I just deal myself six cards and completely lose track of which one was the sixth.

Having a "when you draw this" reaction card would necessitate slowing down the mechanical process of the game by removing shortcuts like this.  It's a similar problem as "When another player plays a card...."  Depending on the reaction effect, this could easily require people to play each card individually, wait to see if there's a reaction coming, then do the next card, and repeat -- instead of just laying all five Coppers down at once, or playing a Village/Smithy chain at full speed because it's not like anything can interrupt you.

That said, you might be able to have a "When you draw this" on a card with a unique back, like Stash.

[Drab Emordnilap]

I dunno. I mean the specific card as worded is problematic because of it's extreme swingyness. But I don't see a problem with asking the player to reveal something after it leaves their deck and before it enters their hand. Magic does the exact same thing with Miracle cards. I just checked, the wording they use is "as you draw it."

You may reveal this card from your hand as you draw it if it's the first card you've drawn this turn. When you reveal this card this way, you may cast it by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost

As far as I know, they didn't need to include any other rules or explanations about what "as you draw it" means. So I think the same thing could certainly work for Dominion.

But you're not revealing it "after it leaves their deck and before it enters their hand". It's in the hand when it's revealed.

I don't dispute someone could make a balanced card with this mechanic; the original question was "how can someone make a card that reacts from the deck", and I don't think this qualifies. Personally. 

[Rush_Clasic]

The Miracle mechanic from Magic triggers only if its the first card drawn that turn, which helps to keep players honest and let them know what to look for. In practice, it's still one of the least enjoyable mechanics I've ever played with in 14 years of playing Magic.

I was recently thinking of a card that triggers whenever it becomes revealed from your deck or your hand. As in, if you have it in your hand, and someone plays a Cutpurse with you having no Coppers to discard, this reaction would trigger upon you revealing your hand to Cutpurse. After a lot of thought, I couldn't call it a reaction because it doesn't required the actual reaction process. I just thought that was an interesting tidbit to stumble upon.

[eHalcyon]

The Miracle mechanic from Magic triggers only if its the first card drawn that turn, which helps to keep players honest and let them know what to look for. In practice, it's still one of the least enjoyable mechanics I've ever played with in 14 years of playing Magic.

I was recently thinking of a card that triggers whenever it becomes revealed from your deck or your hand. As in, if you have it in your hand, and someone plays a Cutpurse with you having no Coppers to discard, this reaction would trigger upon you revealing your hand to Cutpurse. After a lot of thought, I couldn't call it a reaction because it doesn't required the actual reaction process. I just thought that was an interesting tidbit to stumble upon.

I think it's interesting and deserves a "reaction" typing, but happens too rarely.  Except maybe it doesn't?  Someone should make a list of things that cause cards to be revealed.  A few:

Cutpurse, Bureaucrat, Golem, Loan, Sage, Library, Hunting Party, Menagerie...

[Rush_Clasic]

The Miracle mechanic from Magic triggers only if its the first card drawn that turn, which helps to keep players honest and let them know what to look for. In practice, it's still one of the least enjoyable mechanics I've ever played with in 14 years of playing Magic.

I was recently thinking of a card that triggers whenever it becomes revealed from your deck or your hand. As in, if you have it in your hand, and someone plays a Cutpurse with you having no Coppers to discard, this reaction would trigger upon you revealing your hand to Cutpurse. After a lot of thought, I couldn't call it a reaction because it doesn't required the actual reaction process. I just thought that was an interesting tidbit to stumble upon.

I think it's interesting and deserves a "reaction" typing, but happens too rarely.  Except maybe it doesn't?  Someone should make a list of things that cause cards to be revealed.  A few:

Cutpurse, Bureaucrat, Golem, Loan, Sage, Library, Hunting Party, Menagerie...

The reason I think it doesn't require the reaction type is that it always triggers from being revealed by something else, hence its never in a hidden place. I want it to be a reaction, but it doesn't seem to require it by the standard's we've set.

As for that list...

Bureaucrat
Spy
Thief
Adventurer

Shanty Town
Wishing Well
Ambassador
Cutpurse
Pirate Ship

Apothecary

Loan
Mint* (if it's also a Treasure)
Rabble
Venture

Fortune Teller
Menagerie
Farming Village
Young Witch* (if it costs $3 or less)
Harvest
Hunting Party

Crossroads
Oracle
Noble Brigand

Ironmonger
Knights
Mystic
Pillage
Poor House
Rebuild
Rogue
Sage
Vagrant
Wandering Mistrel

That's a hefty amount of cards. Dark Ages really chipped in. I might have done this for this round if I hadn't already discussed it openly.

[Drab Emordnilap]

I agree the proposed card wouldn't need to be a reaction. I think I'd probably make the proposed card also reveal cards from somewhere. Something like:

Action
Reveal your hand. +1 Action per Action card revealed.
--------
When you reveal this, +1 Card.

[WheresMyElephant]

It's probably worth noting there is a big class of workable on-draw reactions where the timing issues don't matter, like "When you draw this during your Action phase, you may reveal this. If you do, +$1 and +1 Buy." If you're okay with ugly wording you can even have "If you do, set aside a Silver from the supply. At the beginning of your Cleanup phase, gain all these cards."

You can argue there's an accountability issue in some technical sense if you're drawing cards straight into your hand and mixing them around, but realistically it's no easier to cheat this way than by mixing a Tunnel from your hand into your Lookout draw. Maybe in tournaments they make you put your hand down when you play a Lookout, but probabl nobody will ever use this set in a tournament anyway.

[rinkworks]

You can argue there's an accountability issue in some technical sense if you're drawing cards straight into your hand and mixing them around, but realistically it's no easier to cheat this way than by mixing a Tunnel from your hand into your Lookout draw. Maybe in tournaments they make you put your hand down when you play a Lookout, but probabl nobody will ever use this set in a tournament anyway.

I have to disagree here.  When I draw cards from Lookout (or Cartographer, etc), they never ever join your hand, so you can't mix them up.  I don't put my hand down, but I hold the drawn cards between a separate pair of fingers.  It's crystal clear to anybody caring enough to watch what I'm doing with those cards.

When you draw cards with Smithy, they go directly into my hand before I even look at what they are, and indeed before I should have to look at what they are.  It's a completely different operation, both logically and according to the Dominion rules.

This is not to say people can't experiment with reactions like that and see how they work in practice.  I just don't believe it can work without changing the mechanics of how Dominion is played in a tedious, fiddly kind of way.

[AJD]

When you draw cards with Smithy, they go directly into my hand before I even look at what they are, and indeed before I should have to look at what they are.

(But note that it is the case, according to the rules, that when drawing multiple cards you may look at each card as you draw it before drawing the next; this matters when you need to reshuffle mid-draw and want to know what's in your hand already so you can decide where to place your Stashes.)

[rinkworks]

When you draw cards with Smithy, they go directly into my hand before I even look at what they are, and indeed before I should have to look at what they are.

(But note that it is the case, according to the rules, that when drawing multiple cards you may look at each card as you draw it before drawing the next; this matters when you need to reshuffle mid-draw and want to know what's in your hand already so you can decide where to place your Stashes.)

Correct, certainly.  But you don't have to -- my point is that a react-to-draw card would force people to slow down and do this every time they draw.

[Sakako]

What about if, instead of being reveal on draw, something like "After you draw cards from your deck, you may reveal this." I know it's not really the same thing, but it gets rid of the problem of drawing one at a time.

[Schneau]

I thought of a new "hidden zone" (besides hand, discard, and deck) that may allow for a legitimate reaction: "look at". Only a handful of official cards have you look at cards without revealing them to other players, but a reaction could self-synergize by having you look at cards and react to looking at cards. So, a card could be something like:

Billygoat
$4 - Action-Reaction
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one in your hand, discard any of the others, and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
--
When you look at this card from your deck, you may reveal it. If you do, discard it and gain a Silver in your hand.

I'm not saying this mechanic is that interesting, especially considering how few cards have you look at cards without revealing. But, it's another option!

[Drab Emordnilap]

Billygoat
$4 - Action-Reaction
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one in your hand, discard any of the others, and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
--
When you look at this card from your deck, you may reveal it. If you do, discard it and gain a Silver in your hand.

What happens when you play Lookout, and reveal and react with one of these? My guess would be that you resolve this reaction, then trash and discard for Lookout, and no card goes on top of your deck.

[Kirian]

Billygoat
$4 - Action-Reaction
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one in your hand, discard any of the others, and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
--
When you look at this card from your deck, you may reveal it. If you do, discard it and gain a Silver in your hand.

What happens when you play Lookout, and reveal and react with one of these? My guess would be that you resolve this reaction, then trash and discard for Lookout, and no card goes on top of your deck.

Agreed.  Though you got a Silver in hand instead, so it's hard to complain too much.  Unless you drew Billygoat/Province/Province...

[Drab Emordnilap]

Agreed.  Though you got a Silver in hand instead, so it's hard to complain too much.  Unless you drew Billygoat/Province/Province...

In which case you don't reveal, and then trash Billygoat, of course.

[Sakako]

Billygoat
$4 - Action-Reaction
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one in your hand, discard any of the others, and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
--
When you look at this card from your deck, you may reveal it. If you do, discard it and gain a Silver in your hand.

What happens when you play Lookout, and reveal and react with one of these? My guess would be that you resolve this reaction, then trash and discard for Lookout, and no card goes on top of your deck.

What if you could choose Billygoat to be trashed anyway? It was one of the three cards on top of the deck. My gut feeling is you can discard for the Silver, then choose it to trash, putting another card on top and one in your discard.

[GendoIkari]

Billygoat
$4 - Action-Reaction
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one in your hand, discard any of the others, and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
--
When you look at this card from your deck, you may reveal it. If you do, discard it and gain a Silver in your hand.

What happens when you play Lookout, and reveal and react with one of these? My guess would be that you resolve this reaction, then trash and discard for Lookout, and no card goes on top of your deck.

What if you could choose Billygoat to be trashed anyway? It was one of the three cards on top of the deck. My gut feeling is you can discard for the Silver, then choose it to trash, putting another card on top and one in your discard.

I do believe that you can indeed choose Billygoat to be trashed; but it will not be trashed because of the lose track rule.

1. You look at the top 3 cards of your deck because you played Lookout.
2. You reveal and discard Billygoat, gaining a Silver.
3. You choose Billygoat to trash, but Lookout can't find it, so it does nothing.
4. You choose Province to discard, so it's discarded.
5. You choose Province to put on top.

[werothegreat]

Sent in my entry.