Card Cycling

In many card games, especially trading card games (aka Collectible Card Games), players have the option of replacing the cards in their hand by drawing extra cards from a randomized deck. These mechanics may appear in the rules for the game itself or show up as part of another card's effect. Drawing new cards is always a powerful option, as it is one of the most important resources in card games, sometimes called "card" or "draw advantage".

If cards whose presence is negative, such as Deck Cloggers, are a card type that exists in the game, then "cycling" them from the hand with would usually be both possible and a good thing.

As the oldest known non-baseball CCG, Magic: The Gathering culture and fandom had a strong influence over some of the terms used in card gaming, but the mechanic is at least as old as the Poker variant, "five-card draw". In some cases, games allow players to "mulligan" at the start of the game if their opening hand is not good enough. This allows the player to replace their starting hand with new cards to hopefully improve their starting hand. The term "card cycling", or simply "cycling", refers to discarding a single card and drawing a replacement. In addition to existing nicknames for the mechanic, the specifics of implementation can vary heavily:

• The "draw" may occur before or after the "discard".
• The action may occur because of a game rule or a card effect.
• The cards removed from the hand may be randomly or specifically selected.
• The new cards added to the player's hand may either be randomized draws or specific selections.
• The exchange may exclusively involve moving cards in and out of the player's hand, or involve additional resource costs.
• The cards removed from the hand may be sent to a discard pile separate from the deck (ensuring that they won't be drawn into), or sent back into the deck.
• The overall card advantage from the exchange may be neutral or non-neutral. Many "good" versions of these mechanics are based on recognizing that card selection can be as important as pure card advantage.

Subtrope of Draw Extra Cards. Not to be confused with Discard and Draw, where a character loses their old powers, but soon gains a replacement set of powers that typically function differently than their old powers.

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Examples:

Board Games

• Mysterium allows the ghost to spend ravens to cycle vision cards out of the hand, choosing any cards to discard then draw replacements. There's a limited number of ravens based on difficulty.
• Res Arcana has the Divination magic item, which lets you draw 3 cards then discard 3 cards, one of the few magic items to be resource neutral. In the game design, its purpose is to help a player dig for a card they need, or just bail them out of a bad draw by replacing bad cards with better ones. The Lux et Tenebrae Expansion Pack introduces the Diviner mage, who has the same ability.
• Shadows over Camelot: Sir Bedivere's special ability lets him discard and replace one white card per turn as a free action.
• Twilight Struggle: Because it's possible to have a large number of cards with detrimental effects, there's the Mid-War card "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You...", a US event that allows the US player to discard as many cards as desired from their hand and draw an equal number of cards from the deck to replace them.

Card Games

• Cardfight!! Vanguard: Before the game starts, each player has the right to return as many cards in their hand as they wish back into the deck, and then draw the same number. Once.
• Disney Lorcana allows a player to Alter their starting hand by placing any number of cards on the bottom of their deck, then drawing that many cards.
• Dominion has many cards that let the player cycle cards, with the most straightforward being Cellar ("Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded."). The purpose of these is to help players find the cards they want, or at least replace mediocre draws or Deck Cloggers with something better.
• Hero Realms: The Wild faction has an ability that allows the player to add one card to their hand and discard one card from their hand.
• Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot:
  • The card "Geneva Convention" forces a player to discard all their weapons and refill their hand from the deck.
  • The card "Cool Change" lets the player discard some or all of their hand, then draw new cards to refill it.
• Magic: The Gathering:
  • Mulligans: Replacing the first drawn cards if they're bad, which has gone through multiple versions:
    • The first was "all land/no land", which was single-use per game. If a player drew either none or all lands in their opening hand, they'd reveal that hand to their opponent and shuffle it back, drawing a replacement hand of seven cards.
    • The rules that all other mulligan variants are based on are the "Paris Mulligan": If you are not satisfied with the initial seven cards, you may shuffle them back into the deck and draw a new starting hand, with one fewer card. This option may be repeated until you have no cards in your starting hand. Newer versions involve something like the Scry mechanic. Scry 1 being: "Check the first, a.k.a 1st card of the library, a.k.a pile to draw from, and choose whether to move it to the bottom of the pile.":
    • "Vancouver" style is Scry 1 after finished mulligan-ing.
    • "London" only practically, not functionally, reduces card draw each time. Instead, the mulligan repeatedly draws the same starting number of cards, 7, just that it treats it as if the draw had already been scried for the number of mulligans. having to place the same number of cards from the hand to the bottom of the deck after having concluded the mulligan-ing.
  • Red and Blue have card effects that help cycle through their cards, letting you sift through your deck and filter through cards you don't need. Red's version discards before drawing (nicknamed "rummage" for Rummaging Goblin) in line with the impulsive nature of the color, while Blue draws before discarding (nicknamed "looting" for Merfolk Looter) for a more analytical approach to the trope.
  • The ([Type]-)Cycling mechanic, for a cost, usually some Mana, to discard the card and draw some amount of (Type) cards, and comes in regular, a.k.a any-type, or Types such as Land or Sliver. Such as Starstorm: "Cycling 3, Discard this card: Draw a card."
• Pokémon: Playing "Professor's Research" makes its player discard their entire hand and draw seven new cards as a replacement.
• Poker: The "Five Card Draw" variant, in which each player has their own hand of five cards and there are two rounds of post-ante betting, between which each player can discard cards from their hand and be dealt new ones from the deck.
• Smash Up: The "Deck" is where cards are drawn from, and cards can only be discarded from the hand:
  • Lose whole hand:
    • And draw 5 new cards:
    • The Wizards have the "Winds of Change" Action Card:

      Shuffle your hand into your deck and draw five cards. You may play an extra action.

    • The Zombie Base, "Evans City Cemetery", when it "scores" a.k.a activates, the owner of the highest power minion on it, "discards his or her hand and draws five cards".
    • The Russian Fairy Tales' Mass Transformation Action:
      Each player places their hand on the bottom of their deck and draws an equal number of cards.
  • The Mages' Scroll Shufflers:
    Discard a card. Draw a card.
• In Star Realms, the Star Empire suit/faction specializes in cards that preserve the number of cards in their player's hands. A.k.a letting them draw another card to replace the one that was just played, a.k.a activated.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • "Magical Mallet" is a Spell Card that lets you shuffle any number of cards from your hand into the Deck, then draw the same number of cards from the top of your Deck.
  • "Card Destruction" forces both players to discard their entire hand, then makes both of them draw from their Deck such that they refill their hand with the same number of cards. Notably, this card can be used in deck out strategies as activating it while the opponent has more cards in their hand than in their deck (such as drawing via the effect of "Maxx "C"") will cause them to lose instantly.
  • "Trickstar Reincarnation" does this to your opponent by banishing all cards in their hand and then forcing them to draw cards equal to the number of cards banished. This is beneficial as the Trickstar archetype revolves around dealing effect damage whenever the opponent adds cards from their Deck to their hand.
  • There are numerous cards (several tied to an archetype) that are some variant of "discard 1 card, draw 2 cards." They're all spinoffs of "Graceful Charity" which lets you draw three and discard two. Examples include "Trade-In", "Destiny Draw", and "Allure of Darkness". There's no net change in hand advantage, but you can set up a combo by putting something important in the Graveyard.
  • All of the monsters from the "Danger!" archetype share the collective effect to reveal themselves then randomly discard a card from the hand. If the revealed card (or any card with its name) was not discarded by this effect, then they can Special Summon themselves and then draw a card.
  • The "Dark World" archetype relies on discarding themselves to generate advantage, so to recuperate lost advantage they typically allow the player to also add or draw cards from their deck when discarded.
  • "Helmer, Helmsman Fur Hire": If a player Special Summons a "Fur Hire" monster to their field while they also have a Helmer on their field, then Helmer's player can choose to use Helmer's once-per-turn action to discard a "Fur Hire" card in their hand, and replace it by drawing a card from their deck.
  • "Runick Fountain" allows the user to cycle back used Runick Quick-Play Spells by targeting up to 3 Runick Quick-Play Spells in the user's Graveyard, returning them to the bottom of the Deck, then allowing the user to draw cards equal to the number of cards returned to the Deck by this effect.
• "Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel" has a series of monsters with low stats that allow you to discard a monster that shares its type in order to draw a new card (such as "Mystic Dealer").

Video Games

• Card City Nights:
  • In the first game, three cards, when activated, remove the player's current hand from the game and have it replaced with a set of 5 new cards drawn from somewhere in the "deck" depending on the card. In early versions of the game, this allowed "skipping" some of your "depleted deck" turns and if the AI survived those, it would softlock instead of losing; this has since been fixed.
    • Cards that draw the new set from the bottom:
    • Dan: Activates when combo-ed with another two defense icon cards.
    • Uppohoppa: Activates when combo-ed no matter the combo type, even though it's a defense card.
    • Tarrot is the only card that draws the new set from the top, and it happens when placed.
  • In the second game, playing "Casual Jenny Berry" means that her player must shuffle the rest of their hand back into the deck they came from, then on their next turn, they draw a new hand of 5 cards from their deck.
• In Crop Rotation, the Trading Post cards are consumables that let you exchange one animal or permit for another of the same tier level.
• Dicey Dungeons:
  • The Jester's "Magic Trick" Limit Break lets them discard their hand and draw new cards.
  • In the Inventor's Reunion episode, Tabula Rasa scraps all her other cards in exchange for new ones since they're replaced with random ones every time she breaks them.
• Fate/Grand Order: A player draws their cards from a deck of 15, 5 for each of a player's three servants, and every turn, a random hand of five is drawn out from it until it's exhausted, whereupon it refills and reshuffles. All effects that force the current hand to be redrawn from the deck, also force it to be discarded first, and the new hand to come from a refilled and reshuffled deck.
  • The Mage's Association Uniform's "Command Shuffle" Mystic Code.
  • Altria Pendragon Ruler's "Royal Card" skills.
• Guilty Gear -STRIVE-: Asuka, having his whole moveset themed around deck-building, has an Overdrive where he freezes the game to enter a state of concentration; he can then press any attack button to replace the card assigned to it.
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft:
  • "Darkshire Librarian" is a minion card that makes the player discard a random card when played, then draws a new card when it dies.
  • "Plot Twist" is a warlock spell that causes the player to shuffle all cards in their hand back into their deck, then draw back to their original hand size, which makes the "Supreme Archeology" quest more achievable, since it needs to draw 20 cards before a Hero Power upgrade effect is used.
  • "Secret Passage" is a rogue spell that makes the player unable to play the other cards in their hand for 1 turn, drawing 4 new cards from the deck to replace them. At the end of the turn, any of the 4 cards that were not played are shuffled back into the deck, and the player regains access to their original hand.
  • "Glide" is a demon hunter spell that allows the player to shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 4 new cards. If it's an "Outcast", a.k.a the left-most or right-most card in the hand when played, then the other player is forced to do the same.
  • The "United in Stormwind" expansion added cards with the "Tradeable" effect, allowing the player to spend one mana to shuffle them into the deck and draw a new card.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, the Crystal Clusters collectible lets you redraw your hand during card challenges.
• Legends of Runeterra: The Shadow Isles region provides enough friendly cards that the card "Glimpse Beyond", which allows the player to draw two cards at the cost of sacrificing a friendly card already on the field, is a net positive 1 cards in the hand, without being as great a loss as it might otherwise be.
• MARVEL SNAP: Loki's ability turns all the cards in your hand into randomly-picked copies of cards from your opponent's starting deck, and makes them cost 1 less.
• Mega Man Battle Network: There are ways to manipulate the chips available to you in the Custom Screen.
  • The "Add" function in the second and third game lets you discard your current chip selection, fight without chips for a turn, and for the rest of the battle, your custom capacity is increased by the number of chips you discarded.
  • In the fourth and fifth game, Search Soul lets you Shuffle the unselected chips in your Custom Screen up to three times, helping you put combos together. There's a "Shuffle" NaviCust program in the sixth game that replicates this function, but only lets you Shuffle once per turn.
  • Dust Cross in the sixth game lets you "recycle" your current chip selection, returning them to the folder and drawing replacements immediately once per turn in the Custom Screen.
• Monster Train: The Stygian Guard has a few offering-themed cards that allow the player to cycle through their hand:
  • Offering Token is just a "discard one, draw one" card.
  • Deep Offering discards your entire hand and draws five cards.
• One Step From Eden: By putting cards back into the deck if the card is the last one cast, then it's immediately redrawn, for a net 0 change for cards in hand:
  • Rock Cycle returns itself to the deck when its caster has Flow, a.k.a Flow Cast, meaning it's immediately redrawn if it's Flow Cast while being the last card.
  • Viruspell puts a copy of itself in the battle's version of the deck when cast. If it's the last card of the deck, then duplication means that it's immediately redrawn, and the deck never runs out for the battle, so long as it keeps being cast.
• Shanghai.EXE: Genso Network: Cards are "Chips" and manual activation is the only way to use the "Custom Screen", which allows choosing more of them, but discarding any that haven't been used. It has the "Add" function to discard loaded chips and fight one turn without any chips so that the Custom Screen's chip selection expands by the same amount of previously loaded chips, on the next turn.
• Signs of the Sojourner:
  • After every conversation, regardless of how it went, the player is forced to replace one of their ten cards with one the other person was using. It symbolizes letting go of the past to grow from the new experience.
  • The Reconsider card discards your entire hand to draw new cards.
• Slay the Spire:
  • Discarding and immediately replacing cards is one of The Silent's specialties. She possesses many cards which allow her to draw and/or discard cards, as well as unique power ups that benefit from discarding cards:
    • "Prepared" is a no cost card that lets the player choose a card to discard, then draw a replacement card.
    • Tools Of The Trade, once played, has the player choose a card to discard, and draw a replacement card, every turn.
    • "Calculated Gamble" discards the current hand and replaces each card with a newly drawn card.
  • The Ironclad also performs this in an indirect manner by Exhausting cards with his Burning Pact card, which exhausts 1 card in exchange for drawing 2. Unlike discarding, cards Exhausted aren't returned to the draw pile mid-combat, but this lets him thin out the deck and erase unwanted debuffs or curses.
• In Sonic Shuffle, the deck is made of twenty-eight cards, one of which allows a player to exchange cards with another player.
• Touhou Lost Branch Of Legend has several ways to cycle cards, usually made to help improve your hand, and evade the end-of-turn negative effects of Statuses and Misfortunes, such as Refracted Sunlight dealing 5 damage; or trigger cards like Ship's Phantom(+), an unplayable card that rewards the player with two blue mana (and one Philospher's) for getting rid of it.
  • An Exhibit that lets you discard any number of cards from your opening hand and redraw
  • The Travel Preparation card lets you draw cards and discard the same amount drawn.

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