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[X-tra]

Put +$1 token on this.
Draw your deck.
Play Judge A.
Play Judge B.
Play Judge C.
Now you can replay Judge B.
...

Need to stop loops.

Ach, you are right. Welp. On to attempt number 3 now:

JUDGE (Action - Duration - Reaction) +1 Card +2 Actions When you play this, if there is another Judge in play, + and trash this. Otherwise, this stays in play during each of your Clean-up phases. While this is in play, discard this when another player plays an Attack card. You are unaffected by that Attack.

• It now gets trashed if another Judge is in play. Should stop the loops.
• Reworded the Duration part. Looks better that way imo.
• Changed the art. This one is more representative of what a Judge should be.
• Added a version and expansion logo because I care about such things I dunno. 

When I hit "Post", you sniped me Grep. Didn't see the Gavel suggestion, woopsie.


Edit: I got to test this card for a couple of games with my partner and a couple of issues became apparent with the way Judge V3 worked. So, I decided to Village our dear Judge. This ensures that there'll be a +2 Actions card in the Supply for you to play an Attack card to discard your opponent's Judge and to then put your own Judge down (a second Judge in fact, since your first one'll be trashed). There's also now a small benefit of + to reap if you want to trash your Judge. All in all, this increased the price of the Judge to , because it is a Village with some neat stuff. If there are no Attack cards in the Supply and someone plays a Judge, then all subsequent Judges played act as Mining Villages you have no choice of trashing for less.

[Saul Goodman]

Modified my original entry to address the obvious problem: if you have a bunch of Criminals running around trying to steal coffers, who is going to keep their coffers?  So now we have a landmark that makes coffers count for VP.

This is a split-pile.  You will need a good legal team and some money to get that Judge on your side.  But man, he's worth the effort when you see what he can do with The Gavel.

[segura]

Criminal is crazily overpowered. 2 Coins into 1 Coffers is already too good as an Event and this does some more.

[Saul Goodman]

Criminal is crazily overpowered. 2 Coins into 1 Coffers is already too good as an Event and this does some more.

I agree on point #1.  I'm not sure I follow the second part (in bold).

What price seems right to you?  Is $3 too cheap, still?

Here is the other thing: it starts off as -1VP (a curse) because all Verdict Tokens start face down (see The Gavel).

[naitchman]

24 hour warning?

[spineflu]

24 hour warning?

sure. I somehow managed to finish some schoolwork ahead of schedule, so yeah. Watch this space tomorrow night.

[spineflu]

This was really tough yall. Great job at making me do recursion to Judge Judges.

Also I'm sure I made typos typing all these up, so be generous, it was A Lot.
Rather than organize these by name, I'm going to organize them by entrant, (since most are just named "Judge").


Barbarossa

Judge • $5 • Action - Reaction - Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
-
When another player plays an Attack card, you may discard any number of copies of this from your hand to set that card aside onto that player's Jail mat with a debt token on it for each copy discarded.  Each time they shuffle their deck, they remove a debt token, then if the card has no debt tokens on it, place the card on the bottom of their deck. During a players turn, they may spend a buy and $3 to remove a debt token.

Having Judge block an attack is a good impulse, but this card needs some work. For one, I don't think it can be an Attack - you aren't playing this card when you react with it, so if the original attacking player used a Moat, it wouldn't do anything.

For another, read up in the Fan Card Creation Guide about why the "No U" reaction doesn't work - Donald X has a good mini-essay about it.

The debt jail mechanic is pretty neat though. That could probably be developed into something cool. (sort of reminds me of the richard garfield Battletech card game a little, with how you'd build mechs to deploy. Probably some fertile ground there in terms of design space.)


X-tra

Judge • $4 • Action - Duration - Reaction
+1 Card
+2 Actions
When you play this, if there is another
Judge in play, +$1  and trash this.
Otherwise, this stays in play during each
of your Clean-up phases.
-
While this is in play, discard this when
another player plays an Attack card. You
are unaffected by that Attack.

It's been neat seeing you refine this over the course of the week.
I think all the infinite loops are out of this - there's still iterative ones if you draw your deck and have a ton of lurkers and also a Procession or two, i think - but this is quality.

A thing I'm not nuts about is the compulsory attack blocking - imo that's one of the neat features of moat, is that if you decide the attack isn't going to be too painful, you can just weather it, as opposed to the Duration-Moats (Champion, Lighthouse, Guardian) - and the ability to turn off everyone elses Moat-capabilities here indefinitely would've been very clever.

As-is, this does a lot of stuff - village; peddler, kinda; moat - and it does it decently. I don't love the compulsory trashing though - couldn't you just say "if there's a card named Judge already in play, discard this during your Clean up step"? The loop problem was from unexpected moving so just... don't move it, no?

I don't know how well it does adhering to the idea of a Judge - the "judgement choice" you're making here is whether to play it or not, but you make that with every card, no? - but you should be proud of this, this is a decent card.
Also don't think this needs to be a Reaction. Maybe. Not sure.


Majiponi

Judge • $6 • Action - Attack
You may sentence "Guilty". If you do, +$2, each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and discards a card, your choose. Otherwise, gain a Gold to your hand.

This is super beefy compared to Pillage. I think someone said that already but this is too powerful. Also non-terminal with Capitalism, which is something you'd probably want to avoid with something anywhere close to this powerful. 
I like the "you may sentence guilty" flavor but should probably avoid that.


Saul Goodman

Criminal • $2 • Action - Attack - Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may take one Coffers from each other player.
-
When you buy this, +1 Coffers. This stays in play until the beginning of your next turn.

Criminal: A Coffers attack! Novel! Comes with an incentive to use that Coffer you got right away; may prevent others from going for this at all if you get one of these and get a shuffle right away. Probably too good for $2.

Advocate • $6 • Action - Attack
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Coffers
Choose one: trash an opponent's Criminal or gain a Criminal from the trash.
-
If you have two or more of these in play, you may pay $3 to gain a Judge.

Advocates are probably overpriced - they're under a bunch of other cards, right? You can probably drop the cost to $5. I know I personally wouldn't buy them at $6. Advocates also may create accountability problems when trashing from other player's in-play zones. I should write a thing about how to not cause problems with card-moving for the FCCG.

Judge • $8* • Action
+ 2#
Choose two: Gain a treasure to your hand; or Gain any number of Criminals from the trash; or Take the Gavel.
-
You may only gain this if you do not have another Judge.
(This is not in the supply.)

Judge, it's weird to put "you may only gain this if you do not have another Judge" - that's not really a thing on any existing cards. I guess it works with the canon as-is, although if there's ever a blind masquerade style passer, someone could already have a Judge and not know it. "Gain a Treasure to your hand" is going to be overpowered in Fortune, Bank, or Platinum games - you may want to say "Gain a Gold to your hand" or "Gain a Treasure costing up to $6 to your hand" and then if someone can work some price-reduction magic, good for them. Might also be too beefy in Guildhall games, given that there's multiple routes to alt-vp here. Can the choices for Judge be the same (even if that's "bad" choices like taking the gavel twice)?
On a copy-editing note, this should have a type - i'm assuming leaving off "Action" was a typo? I suppose I'm also assuming it should be an Action because of the background color.

The Gavel • Artifact
You may flip one Verdict token over (all Verdict tokens start face down).
-
If a player's Verdict token is...
...face down: Criminals and Advocates count -1% each.
...face up: Criminals and Advocates count +2% each.

The Gavel is maybe too good. It's going to lead to swingy situations, where one person can line up a Judge early and everyone who also went for Crim/Advos gets penalized for their less-lucky shuffles. When can the player with the gavel flip a Verdict token? It might be better if this was an "At the start of your turn" situation, so if there's endless bickering between Judging players there's no VP adjustment. The point range on this is A Lot - essentially a Duchy per card if there's an even split on Crim/Advos. This is a very political "attack", given you're targeting one other player specifically.
Copy editing note - you shouldn't have the + on the face up option (+ means take VP tokens). Also you could probably break that up into a two-sided Verdict state for each player - one side is "Verdict: Innocent" and reads "1% per Criminal or Advocate", the other "Verdict: Guilty" and yadda yadda yadda.

Courtroom • Landmark
Every three (3) coffers you have (rounded down) = +2%

Courtroom alone is probably fine, actually. Doesn't qualify on its own for the contest, but provided it's in a game with some Coffers-generating capacity, it's a pretty reasonable landmark. Copy editing note on that: Should probably read "2% per 3 Coffers you have (rounded down)"; Again, you'll want to omit the + portion unless it's giving victory chits.

One last copy editing note on your setup/randomizer card - you'll want to include a type on that ("Action - Attack" works best, I think) because there's card-like-things (the Adventures token placing events, probably others) that care about the Pile's type, and this is what communicates that (rather than the top card of the pile - think about the Knights / Castles and how they handle that).

Overall, this was a good effort, and I really enjoyed analyzing it. The design is very centralizing here - I'd be wary of that going forward. A card should be ignorable in the right circumstance, or victory through it is not a foregone conclusion. This still needs a little work.


[TP] Inferno

Judge • $5 • Action - Attack
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Each other player gains a Copper.
If you have at least one other Attack card in play, discard a card.

Very clever lab variant. I suspect it will slow games down a lot, given the Copper junking, but that's also to the player's own detriment, I suppose - doubling down on any sort of attacking will only cause you to handsize attack yourself.

I'd really dial up the self-attack aspect-
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Each other player gains a Copper
Discard a card per Attack you've played this turn.

which lets this not allow freebies on attacks like Pillage that move out of play.


Fragasnap

Judge • $5 • Action - Attack
+$3.
Each other player who has Sentenced returns it and discards their hand.

Each other player who doesn't have Condemned or Sentenced may reveal a hand with no cards costing $5 or more in it. Otherwise, they take Condemned.

Condemned • State
At the start of your turn, flip this over to Sentenced

Sentenced • State
When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2, you may return this.

Love the concept here but i have an implementation question - why not just give Sentenced right away and have it say "When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2 on your turn, you may return this"? Otherwise the Condemned state just lasts from between when Player A played Judge and Player B starts their turn.

If there's supposed to be a one-turn gap in there, why not have Condemned flip at the start of Clean up?

Is the goal that player B can shake off the targeting right away? or that they aren't targeted for hand discarding until their turn? Basically, did you want there to be a one-turn gap before players are targeted for attack?

Otherwise, very strong but dodgable attack, and a terminal gold, hey why aren't there more of those? Very cool / into it.


NoMoreFun
Split pile (5 of each, Executioners on top). The Innocent token starts on Estate, the Guilty token starts on Province.

Executioner • $3 • Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Trash a card from your hand. If its pile has the Guilty token, gain a Gold to your hand. If it has the Innocent token, gain a Curse.

Judge • $5 • Action
+$3
Place the Guilty and Innocent tokens on Supply piles of your choice.

Hey look another terminal gold! I like those.

Clever token use here. I think that's a real area where there's lots of design space available, "global" adventure tokens. Judge is maybe kind of plain-jane but it's more an enabler for Executioner.

Thing is, until you dig the Judges out, all Executioner does is discourage you from trashing Estates. That's. ... idk. We've got Hideout for that already. Could be a long game if Executioner is the only trashing, or if one player moves the Innocent token to Curses.


grep
Alright! I'm glad someone went for the Traveller line.

Law Student • $2 • Action - Traveller
+2 Cards. Discard a card.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Clerk.

Clerk • $3* • Action - Traveller
Gain a card costing up to $3 into your hand.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for an Attorney.
(This is not in the supply)

I don't really have much to say about Law Student or Clerk (as is the way with most Travellers) other than they seem like reasonable first and second stage Travellers.

Attorney • $4* • Action - Traveller
Name an Action card. +3 Cards. Discard 3 Cards. You may play the named card from your hand, if you did, +1 Action.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Prosecutor.
(This is not in the supply)

Attorney is a beast. I'd probably buy that at $5. Quality Conclave action on a Warehouse action. It's good though - the two existing Traveller lines have competent 4s that you might want to stop on rather than progress (during some games, or maybe you've already got a Teacher or something). The cycling from this can also help you get several Travellers going simultaneously for that big Judge trash-your-deck/empty-the-coffers payout.

Prosecutor • $5* • Action - Attack - Traveller
+1 Action, +$2. Each other player discards an Attack card or reveals a hand with no Attack cards.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Judge.
(This is not in the supply)

Prosecutor's attack is kinda weak but as a non-terminal Silver it's decent. If I were to pick at one of these as the weak link, it'd be this, but also I recognize it's a stepping stone. I don't let my Heroes fart around in my deck too often either.

Judge • $6* • Action - Duration
Now and at the start of each of your subsequent turns: +1 Buy, you may trash a card from your hand for +1VP.
(This remains in play)
-
While this is in play, when another player plays an Attack card, choose one: +1 Coffer, or you are unaffected by the attack.
(This is not in the supply)

Judge is going to be real good. Goons esque, if it's the only source of +buys, and it can provide its own fodder for trashing.

Overall this is a really strong entry that I can tell a lot of work went into.
Honorable Mention


somekindoftony

Judge • $5 • Action
Shuffle all cards from your deck, hand, and discard pile into two random piles. You may look through each pile. Then choose one to trash. Shuffle the other as your deck and draw five cards.

I really like this card - most of my designs for a "Judge" card have included a "make two piles" mechanic. I think this needs some FAQ/Errata type stuff to specify if it has to be two as-equal-as-possible piles or whether a player can make one pile of 20 and one pile of 5. It can also come down in price to be a "for sure affordable in opening" card - probably a $4? maybe 5 debt? - since that sort of drastic-lucky trashing being available unevenly can lead to a game being over before it begins.
Honorable Mention


mandioca15

Judge • $4 • Action
+$2
-
When you gain or trash this, move the Sanction token to a Supply pile. Cards from that pile cost $2 more (after cost reductions).

I Love this. Pile denial is an underdeveloped mechanic - we've only got like, Embargo, Taxes, and Contraband, right? - and it's really good that you specified "after cost reductions" so that they bottom out at $2 rather than $0.

I'd really love to use this in a Band of Misfits game. Big-time power boost to that card.

Be prepared for $10 province games with this. I might've specified that it has to go to a Kingdom pile or an Action or Treasure supply pile (other than Copper).
Honorable Mention


Snowyowl

Judge • $3 • Action - Reaction
+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. Draw it, or trash it and draw a card.
-
When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to put that card onto your deck.

I really love topdeck groomers. Like if I had to pick a card type that's among my favorite to use and design, it's that.

I think this would be a quality replacement for Watchtower if DXV ever decided he was tired of Watchtower. Lets you get a little more modular with payload, while retaining the reaction content if you only have one inbound junk card to deal with. Clever stuff.

Is this intentionally phrased "Draw a card" (instead of +1 Card) to try to get around the -1 Card token or something? I don't think this quite does the trick.

Honorable Mention


King Leon

Judge • $6 • Action
+1 Action
Reveal the top 5 cards of your deck. Pick two of them. The player to your left chooses one: discard the picked cards or the other cards. Put the rest into your hand.

Clever superlab implementation/Envisor variant.
Good Patron enabler, too, even if they don't get selected.
This is solid and probably hard to counter.
Honorable Mention

Aquila

Judge • $5 • Action
+$2
Choose one: take the Gavel; or take the Law Book; or if you have the Gavel and the Law Book, each player (including you) takes Guilty.

Gavel • Artifact
At the start of your turn, you may play an Action card from your hand.

Law Book • Artifact
At the start of Clean-up, if you didn't gain any cards during your turn, you may gain a non-Victory card costing up to $5

Guilty • State
When scoring, -5% if you have this.
At the start of your turn, you may go straight to Clean-up. If you do, return this.

When I first read this, I was puzzled - "How is Gavel not just +1 Action" - but then I read the Guilty state and whoa. Nice. Subtle. I liked the legal puns you sprinkled throughout your OP.

I feel like this'll be swingy but not in the usual random-outcome swingy, probably more high vs low skill swingy.

I've got reservations about its viability/guilty-distributing ability in 4+ player games - feel like there'll always be someone around to take an artifact from you.

Copy editing note: On guilty, you could probably get rid of the first sentence (shorten it to just "- 5%") if you put a space between the - and the 5. Stops it from being gigantic. Card generator is finnicky that way.
This is a Runner Up


4est

Judge • $5 • Action
+$2
The player to yor left names 2 differently-named Action cards from the Supply. Gain a copy of one and each other player gains a copy of the other.

I really love this card. Concise, powerful gainer, and an interesting decision space to mess with your opponents head. This can probably be counted on to force players to take a sub-optimal card to avoid emptying piles in 4+ player games.
This is a Runner Up


naitchman

Judge • $5 • Action - Attack
+$2
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals 3 cards of their choice from their hand and discards one that you choose.

This is a fantastic variation on Villain. It throws out everyones middlest card. It's nonterminal in Capitalism games but its attack doesn't really stack. It may slow down games a little - attacked players have to make choices, then the attacker makes choices but honestly, I love it.
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Thank you all for entering, it was an honor to judge these, there were so many really great, viable cards. If you've got any outtakes or b-sides you feel were interesting, toss 'em in the Outtakes and B-sides thread.

[Snowyowl]

Is this intentionally phrased "Draw a card" (instead of +1 Card) to try to get around the -1 Card token or something? I don't think this quite does the trick.

It was because vanilla bonuses like +1 Card always go before the ability, but this mechanic only makes sense if the draw comes after the grooming. Now that you point it out, I forgot that conditional bonuses can can come after. Thanks for the feedback.

Well done naitchman!

[Aquila]

Fragasnap

Judge • $5 • Action - Attack
+$3.
Each other player who has Sentenced returns it and discards their hand.

Each other player who doesn't have Condemned or Sentenced may reveal a hand with no cards costing $5 or more in it. Otherwise, they take Condemned.

Condemned • State
At the start of your turn, flip this over to Sentenced

Sentenced • State
When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2, you may return this.

Love the concept here but i have an implementation question - why not just give Sentenced right away and have it say "When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2 on your turn, you may return this"? Otherwise the Condemned state just lasts from between when Player A played Judge and Player B starts their turn.

If there's supposed to be a one-turn gap in there, why not have Condemned flip at the start of Clean up?

Is the goal that player B can shake off the targeting right away? or that they aren't targeted for hand discarding until their turn? Basically, did you want there to be a one-turn gap before players are targeted for attack?

Otherwise, very strong but dodgable attack, and a terminal gold, hey why aren't there more of those? Very cool / into it.

Condemned like this prevents 2 Judges played every turn locking everyone else out the game.

[Saul Goodman]

Spineflu, thanks for the feedback.  That was awesome to read.  Congrats to Naichman!  Cool card.

[spineflu]

Fragasnap

Judge • $5 • Action - Attack
+$3.
Each other player who has Sentenced returns it and discards their hand.

Each other player who doesn't have Condemned or Sentenced may reveal a hand with no cards costing $5 or more in it. Otherwise, they take Condemned.

Condemned • State
At the start of your turn, flip this over to Sentenced

Sentenced • State
When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2, you may return this.

Love the concept here but i have an implementation question - why not just give Sentenced right away and have it say "When you gain a Victory card or a card costing at most $2 on your turn, you may return this"? Otherwise the Condemned state just lasts from between when Player A played Judge and Player B starts their turn.

If there's supposed to be a one-turn gap in there, why not have Condemned flip at the start of Clean up?

Is the goal that player B can shake off the targeting right away? or that they aren't targeted for hand discarding until their turn? Basically, did you want there to be a one-turn gap before players are targeted for attack?

Otherwise, very strong but dodgable attack, and a terminal gold, hey why aren't there more of those? Very cool / into it.

Condemned like this prevents 2 Judges played every turn locking everyone else out the game.

ah that makes more sense. that wasn't clear to me.

[X-tra]

Spineflu, thank you so much for this very thorough and in-dept retro-action. I could never dream of doing an analysis as detailed as yours. So again, thanks for taking the time to comment on our cards one by one.

(Just a little something though: The Judge thematic part of my card was the fact that once he's on the table, unlawful actions would be deterred. Unlawful actions as in Attacks ).

Congrats Naitchman, yours was truly a fantastic card! My personal favourite was Snowyowl's. But it goes without saying that all of you guys' entries were very cool and interesting to think about how it would interact with 9 other Kingdoms.

[naitchman]

Thanks Spineflu. That was fun.

Chllange 61: Create a new simple mechanic

So I've always found it fun when new mechanics are introduced into Dominion, however, I hate having to deal with the setup (looking at you adventures). My favorite are the mechanics that are self contained within the card itself.

For this challenge create a new simple mechanic that can be used on different cards. Also provide some cards that can use this mechanic (at least 3 but no more than 10). I will be judging more on the mechanic than on the cards themselves (unbalanced, not priced right, etc.); they are more a way to showcase what the mechanic could add to the game.

By simple mechanic I mean the mechanic must have no extra setup (beyond the pile itself) - No tokens, Mats, extra piles/cards that have to be pulled from the box (even if they are exclusive to that pile like Hermit, Urchin, Young Witch, travelers, or Artifacts etc.), or cards to replace starting deck (Heirlooms/Shelters). Having a specific order (like split piles) or random order (knights, castles) is okay. Also sideways cards are okay (even though you technically have to pull out one more kingdom pile when you draw it). New types of cards are allowed as long as they don't have extra setup.

Here is a list of current Dominion mechanics that would be ok:
1) Choices on cards (introduced in Intrigue)
2) Duration Cards
3) Reaction Cards
4) On Gain/Buy Effects
5) On Trash Effects
6) Overpaying
7) Events
8 ) Landmarks
9) Night Cards
10) Split Piles

Here is a list of Dominion Mechanics that wouldn't work
1) Potion Cards (Extra Pile of Potions)
2) Colony/Platinum
3) Shelters
4) Looters
5) Spoils
6) Coffers
7) Villagers
8 ) Vanilla Bonus tokens
9) Journey token
10) Travellers (because of the extra piles)
11) Debt
12) VP Tokens
13) Gathering Piles
14) Fate and Doom cards
15) Heirlooms
16) Artifacts
17) Projects (because of the cubes)

I will be judging based on how much depth the mechanic adds to the game, how versatile the mechanic is (can it be used in a variety of ways?), and how fun it is. Good Luck!

P.S. I probably will give an extra day until judging because of my schedule.

[Gubump]

I assume that Reserve cards would go in the list of "wouldn't work" due to the Tavern mat?

[naitchman]

I assume that Reserve cards would go in the list of "wouldn't work" due to the Tavern mat?

Yep. Knew that I forgot something.

[Snowyowl]

How about different cardbacks, like Stash?

[grep]

Hopefully this works.
It's a two-sided event card - when you buy the current side, the other side gets available. The two sides are expected to have some synergy when the player buys both in one turn.

Reformation $3 - Event Trash your hand. Flip this over. (This event starts Reformation side up)	Renaissance $3 - Event Gain a card from Trash. If you did, gain a card costing up to $5. Flip this over.

A few other examples of two-sided events:

Plough ($2, Event) +1 Buy. Look at the top 5 cards of your deck and put them back in any order. You may put your deck into the discard pile. Flips over into Seeds.
Seeds ($3, Event) +1 Buy. Set aside a card from the discard pile. At start of your next turn, put it into your hand. Flips over into Plough.

Passage ($1, Event) +1 Buy. You may discard two Victory cards, if you do, +1 Card at the end of this turn. Flips over into Thrift Market.
Thrift Market ($1, Event) +3 Buys. -1 Buy for each card in hand. Flips over into Passage.

Commodore ($3, Event) Set aside an Action card from play. Play it at the beginning of your next turn. Flips over into Flagship.
Flagship ($5, Event) Gain a card with $ cost exactly equal to the number of differently named cards in play. Flips over into Commodore.

Obviously, existing tokens can be reused:
Seasonal Worker ($2, Event) +1 Villager, if you have 2 or more Villagers, +1 Buy. Flips over into Wanderer
Wanderer ($2, Event) +1 Coffer, if you have 2 or more Coffers, +1 Buy. Flips over into Seasonal Worker

[mandioca15]

My mechanic is a new card type, Follower. When shuffling your deck, Followers are shuffled separately and placed at the bottom of your deck. By definition, this means they will be played less often, unless you can engineer gaining them to your hand or onto your deck. Followers will usually have the entire discard pile to interact with, so you can do things like this:

Alchemist (Action-Follower, $4)

+1 Action
Do this twice: look through your discard pile and put a card from it into your hand; if you can't, +1 Card.

It's similar to Laboratory, but you won't get to play it as often on average, so it costs less.

[naitchman]

How about different cardbacks, like Stash?

That would work provided it's something you do for more than one card. Remember the goal is to have a mechanic that can be used on more than just one card. So stash itself wouldn't work, but a series of kingdom cards that all have different backs for some reason would work.

[naitchman]

I just want to say that while I won't disqualify an entry that has less than 3 examples, I think it's to your benefit to have more than one to give examples of what the mechanic can do.

[Gubump]

My mechanic is a new card type, Follower. When shuffling your deck, Followers are shuffled separately and placed at the bottom of your deck. By definition, this means they will be played less often, unless you can engineer gaining them to your hand or onto your deck. Followers will usually have the entire discard pile to interact with, so you can do things like this:

Alchemist (Action-Follower, $4)

+1 Action
Do this twice: look through your discard pile and put a card from it into your hand; if you can't, +1 Card.

It's similar to Laboratory, but you won't get to play it as often on average, so it costs less.

Followers is already the name of a card, so you might want to rename the type. Alchemist is also already taken.

[Sheogorath]

Judge
$3 - Action - Reaction

+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. Draw it, or trash it and draw a card.
--
When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to put that card onto your deck.

Am I missing something, because this seems like it's strictly better than a Lab? Guaranteed to draw two cards, +1 Action, and the option to trash one of those cards along with a top-decking reaction.

[spineflu]

Morning Cards
Morning cards are kingdom cards. They can be thought of as temporary projects or artifacts that affect everyone simultaneously.

Morning cards are a Kingdom card; they're playable in your Morning Phase, which happens after the start of your turn but before your Action Phase.
You may play as many Morning cards as you like.

There can only be one Morning card in play at a time.
When a new Morning card is played, any in-play Morning cards are discarded and stop doing things. Morning cards are assumed to have "While this is in play:" at the top of their text.

Morning cards stay in play until a new Morning card is played (or they're trashed with something exotic like Bonfire).

The in-play Morning card affects all players, but still is "in play" only in one player's area - that player may have slightly better effects from it.

(N E W) At the start of a player's cleanup phase, they may reveal a Morning card from their hand, set it aside, and add it to their hand before drawing new cards (so if one is drawn during the Action phase, its playable on the next turn); that player will still have 5 cards in hand after drawing (or more, if they have other bonuses like The River's Gift). This can only be done with one Morning card, so if you draw two or more, you'll have to choose which you do this with.

The player who is referred to as "you"/"your" is the player who played the Morning card. When a Morning card says "Now and at the start of each player's turn", only player who played it gets the "Now" benefit, not each player. The person who played the Morning card still gets the benefits of the "Each player" portion - it's not "each other player".

Each pile of Morning cards has four distinct cards in it; in a 2 player game, use two of each (8 total to the pile); otherwise use three of each (12 total to the pile, like Victory cards). The piles are mixed/shuffled, and all but the top card are kept face-down (like Knights).

Each pile of Morning cards has a group type (similar to how Knights does) - this is just to help you keep them separate from each-others piles.

Design notes:

• Morning cards should be affordable for the opening
• Morning cards should never be an Attack or Attack-like.
• Morning cards with drastic effects should probably be an optional/"you may" card
• Morning cards should always follow the 4 distinct cards per pile schema
• Morning cards should always affect everyone
• The "Extra Custom" color for Morning cards on the shard of honor card generator is 1.35, 1.35, 0.95 / 0.5, 0, 0.05 / 0.7, 0.7, 0.35 / 1.55, 0.8, 0.5.

I've mocked up exactly one card because this is a long post as-is, but here's three Morning card piles - Sunrise, Cityfolk, and Weather

Dawn Chorus • $3 • Morning - Sunrise
Now and at the start of each players turn, they get +1 Card
Now and at the start of your turn, +1 Action

Dew • $3 • Morning - Sunrise
Now and at the start of each players turn, +$1
Now and at the start of your turn, +1 Buy

Rooster • $3 • Morning - Sunrise
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may discard a card for +1 Card.
Now and at the start of your turn, if the card you discard for this costs $5 or more, +$1

Sunrise • $3 • Morning - Sunrise
Now and at the start of each players turn, +1 Action
Now and at the start of your turn, +1 Buy

Rag and Bone Man • $4 • Morning - Cityfolk
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may trash a card from their hand.
When you trash a card with this, you may gain a card costing up to $1 more than the trashed card.

Farmhand • $4 • Morning - Cityfolk
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may reveal their hand to gain a card costing up to $1 per differently named card in their hand.
When you do this, gain that card to your hand.

Vicar • $4 • Morning - Cityfolk
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may trash a card from their hand.
When you trash a Copper with this, +$1

Wayfarer • $4 • Morning - Cityfolk
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may reveal the top card of their deck; if it's a Victory card, they may discard it.
When you do this, if it's a Copper or Curse, you may put it in your hand.

Clear Skies • $3 • Morning - Weather
All players play with their deck face up.
Now and at the start of your turn, you may discard the top card of your deck.

Fog • $3 • Morning - Weather
Before shuffling, players may discard their deck.
When you shuffle, you may choose a card from your discard pile to put on top of your deck.

Red Skies • $3 • Morning - Weather
Now and at the start of each players turn, they may trash an Action card from the Supply.
At the start of your turn, you may trash a Copper from your hand.

Snow • $3 • Morning - Weather
While this is in play, Actions cost $1 more and Treasures cost $1 less.
Now and at the start of your turn, +1 Card, then discard a card.

Judge
$3 - Action - Reaction

+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. Draw it, or trash it and draw a card.
--
When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to put that card onto your deck.

Am I missing something, because this seems like it's strictly better than a Lab? Guaranteed to draw two cards, +1 Action, and the option to trash one of those cards along with a top-decking reaction.

This doesn't draw two cards - it either draws the card you're looking at, or it trashes that to draw the one under it.

[Gubump]

Judge
$3 - Action - Reaction

+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. Draw it, or trash it and draw a card.
--
When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to put that card onto your deck.

Am I missing something, because this seems like it's strictly better than a Lab? Guaranteed to draw two cards, +1 Action, and the option to trash one of those cards along with a top-decking reaction.

You parsed it wrong. The options are draw it; or trash it and draw a card. Not draw it or trash it, then draw a card.

[King Leon]

Judge • $4 • Action
+$2
-
When you gain or trash this, move the Sanction token to a Supply pile. Cards from that pile cost $2 more (after cost reductions).

I also love the interaction of that card and Remodel. You can buy this for $4 and remodel it to a Province later.