Following on from
this mini-discussion, the idea of a Reserve Attack continues to intrigue me. How might that happen?
As I said there, the most obvious thing would be the Wine Merchant trick: a really strong attack which then went in Reserve and cost you something to get back.
Another possibility would be a "Put this on your tavern mat. At the start of your turn you may call it. When you play or call this..." thing. That would mean it was an "Attack" when played, but not when called. My instinct is that this would be an issue, but then again Noble Brigand got made.
Or maybe a nasty attack that is its own defence: "[Evil stuff].Put this on your tavern mat. -- During your clean-up phase, you may discard this from your Tavern mat. -- While this is in reserve, when another player plays [one of these], it doesn't affect you." Whether or not to keep it in reserve could be an interestingly difficult decision.
Though I started out thinking about how a card might have both the Attack and Reserve types, Donald X later in the thread said "Yes, it would be confusing if calling a card hurt the other players."
So... what about cards that
aren't attacks, but hurt other players when called?
My first thought is a "+1 Action. Put this on your Tavern mat. -- When you would gain a card, you may call this. If you do, the current player gains it instead." Is this actually a workable version of the oft-discussed defence which turns an attack back on the attacker? (One key point is that the attacker could see in advance what they were up against; another is that it looks uncommonly intuitive and free from nasty corner cases.)
Thoughts?
Has anyone put work into this area before, that Google isn't finding for me?