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[BryGuy]

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Howdy All,

This week's mechanic is Trope, a new kind of Horizontal. Like how Traits affect a Kingdom pile, Tropes affect every player's Deck the same. There would be only one Trope used per game unless something explicitly stated otherwise.
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Your task is to design a Trope that would work well.

Here is a Trope made from one of DXV's Projects:


Here are two of the five i have made:


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My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the card useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the card is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: uses this mechanic in an interesting way

Since entries seam to be in short supply as of late, I'll run the contest for a minimum of a ten days, but long enough to garner three entries. Then i'll provide a deadline notice.
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Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.
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Secret History: Shortly after i saw Traits, i though why not something to affect each player's deck, so i started to design some Tropes.

[NoMoreFun]

Frolicking
Trope
Play with the top card of your deck revealed. If it's a Victory card, first get +1 Action when you play an Action

Rules clarification: You get the +1 Action before following the action's instructions

[Will(ow|iam)]

How do tropes come to affect the player's deck? Does a trope apply to everyone if it's pulled from the randomizer? Or is it that sometimes, each player gets a different trope? Or do some effects put tropes on the decks, like artifacts and states?

[BryGuy]

How do tropes come to affect the player's deck? Does a trope apply to everyone if it's pulled from the randomizer? Or is it that sometimes, each player gets a different trope? Or do some effects put tropes on the decks, like artifacts and states?

Good question - i updated the original post to answer. Usually there would be just one Trope per game that would affect each player's deck the same.

[LibraryAdventurer]

Switch
Trope
At the start of your turn, you may discard a card to take a card from your discard pile costing no more than the discarded card, and put it in your hand. You may not use Switch on the first two turns of the game.

FAQ: You may only use switch's ability once per turn.

[Will(ow|iam)]

Mob
Trope
When you shuffle, you may take any amount of debt, to pick one card per debt taken to go on top.

[bigpotato]

Frugality
Trope
At the start of your Clean-Up phase, you may put a card from your hand on the bottom of your deck.

[BryGuy]

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24-hour Notice
               
Please get your entries in to be judged.
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[emtzalex]

Meet Cute Trope When you shuffle, pick a card to set aside. During your Clean-up, if you have 5 or more cards set aside, take them instead of drawing a new hand.

Meet Cute lets you set aside cards from your deck, then (once you have 5+ set aside) take them in place of drawing a new hand. The most obvious use is for cards that like/need collisions (e.g. Treasure Map). Conversely, it can be used to keep bad cards out of your hand for a while, although doing so risks a lost turn when they all come back. Alternatively, you can try to build a mega-turn, but doing so will keep some strong cards out of your deck--possible for a while.

[BryGuy]

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Contest Closed
               
I plan to post results in less than 24-hours.
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[BryGuy]

Thank you to all who submitted an entry. These were all interesting.

NoMoreFun's Frolicking
Balance:     7/10 An extra Action when a Victory card is showing seams fairly powerful, but it mitigated by any draw.
Playability:  8/10 I'd love to play with this. Big Money may be the only deck that would not care about this.
Simplicity: 10/10 Super simple, should have no issues understanding this.
Topicality:   9/10 This is definitely an interesting use of the mechanic.
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LibraryAdventurer's Switch
Balance:     7/10 Switching a card for a discard one seams fairly powerful, although you may not always have anything in your discard pile.
Playability:  9/10 I'd love to play with this. This should work with any deck.
Simplicity:  8/10 Fairly simple, should have no issues understanding this.
Topicality:   4/10 Unfortunately this did not appear to affect a player's deck. If this was done just before a shuffle, this could have scored higher. It is definitely an interesting idea.
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Will(ow\iam)'s Mob
Balance:     9/10 This appears well balances as you take debt to place a card on top for each.
Playability:  7/10 This is interesting. It should work with any deck.
Simplicity: 10/10 Super simple, should have no issues understanding this.
Topicality:   6/10 This is an interesting idea.
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bigpotato's Frugality
Balance:     7/10 This appears to be quite powerful to allow a player to cycle some cards faster than others.
Playability:  7/10 This is interesting. It should work with any deck.
Simplicity: 10/10 Super simple, should have no issues understanding this.
Topicality:   6/10 This is an interesting idea.
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emtzalex's Meet Cute
Balance:     9/10 This is interesting since it could be used as an alternative temporary trash or as means to a future big hand.
Playability:  9/10 I'd love to play with this. This should work with any deck.
Simplicity:  8/10 Fairly simple enough that it need no FAQ.
Topicality:  10/10 This definitely uses the mechanic in an interesting way.
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2nd Place: NoMoreFun's Frolicking
1st Place: emtzalex's Meet Cute

[emtzalex]

Thanks, BryGuy. I'll try to post a new contest later today.