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Personally, I think best of all time is the Shields system from Duel Master.
Each player puts five cards from the top of their deck face-down at the start of their game; these are their Shields. Whenever a player takes damage, one of their Shields breaks and goes into their hand. Many cards would have "Shield Trigger" effects that would allow them to be played after entering your hand this way. Some, such as Holy Awe, could turn the tide of the match.
All I see in Holy Awe is power-lactating tits.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Space dick pissing
Does a videogame count? In Inscryption, when you lose a run you're able to make a custom card by combining three of the cards you collected in that run. After doing this several times you can make a ridiculously OP card that makes the run a breeze.
Inscryption is amazing, and I'm not even a card game person. Fuck that damn egg deck, though.
I also choose Inscryption but for the ability to sacrifice cards to add their ability to another card, which can also get ridiculously OP.
For example, if you put the Cockroach's Unkillable Sigil on a Skink, whenever it dodges an attack it creates an Unkillable Lizard Tail card that's free to play and can be sacrificed repeatedly, as well as used to block. This is one of the ways of dealing with the Kaycee's Mod challenge that makes the bosses spawn 8 Grizzlys.
There's so many weird combos and stuff to discover in the game, even after completing all the challenges in Kaycee's Mod I wish there was more to do.
I'm stuck at the Angler currently
For me that would be the transparent plastic cards used in gloom so that piling them over each other can add values or abilities or modify them.
Favorite? Meld in Magic
https://www.thegamer.com/magic-the-gathering-mtg-every-meld-card-strongest-ranked/
There's only 6 pairs of them across all of mtg. You meet some conditions and mush two cards together to make a bigger card. Some are good, some are meh, but they are large and that's what counts
I like how strategic use of cards can ruin any relationship in Uno.
Pretty much everything Elder Scrolls Legend did. Only card game I liked but one thing that stood out was the two lanes. One half was just a regular battle field but the other half was called the shadow lane. Any cards you placed there were protected for the first turn.
I can think of a lot of mechanisms that I like, but I can't think of anything that really "stands alone". I mean, I think that good games that involve trying to exploit mechanisms like TCGs, cardbuilders, and most roguelikes also involve trying to make use of the synergy between different mechanisms, so how well a mechanism works is heavily dependent upon how the rest of the game interacts with it.
I wouldn't call it my favorite, but prize cards in Pokemon are an interesting mechanic. More often than not a curse.
Always thought it was more of a win more mechanic that kind of wrecked things
It can be a win more mechanic, but since it's random cards, it can also lock a key card out of your deck.
Star realms had a good way to negate first player advantage by giving the first player less cards in a starting hand.
You would probably like the current Digimon card game. Very similar mechanic with security, and their energy system is pretty neat
I really enjoy the multi-use card mechanic in The Bloody Inn amongst plenty other games. Each card can possibly used in 4 or more different ways; You just have to choose how you want to use them.
I don't know a lot of card games, but I thought the row system was neat in Gwent (i.e. frontline, middle, backline).
I also like the aura enchantments in Magic: The Gathering. They tend to change up the battlefield in interesting ways.
Start wars unlimited has another cool battle arrangement system
I like xyz summoning in yugioh. There were plenty of cards that could swarm the fields with monsters, but they were usually weak af; basically glorified tokens. With xyz you just put em together into a boss monster with some power behind its effect. Then the rank up spells where you can summon one with another really added some extra flavor.
Shame the game got a little too fast after 2023. I mean I like it faster and having more options than "eat shit til you draw an out," but it feels like there's more outs than deck
The best card game I've played is Innovation.
Cards contain different icons, which indicate supremacy for the player who is displaying the most of that icon on their tableau.
Supremacy means that a player can demand things of players who are showing less icons.
The standout card-mechanism is when you perform an action to 'splay' one of your stacks of cards, thus revealing extra icons from the cards below.
An elegant and exceptional game.
Highly recommended to try.
Available to play online, with a free account, on yucata.de:
https://www.yucata.de/en/GameInfo/Innovation
Review here:
https://islaythedragon.com/game-reviews/sprint-through-the-ages-a-review-of-innovation/
I love how in Netrunner the runner can hack into the Corp deck or even his hand, stealing cards that the Corp hasn't had time to use or even see.
