CARD DISCARD
Removing cards from hand as a cost, effect, or engine — discarding to power abilities, cycling weak cards to dig for strong ones, or suffering forced discards as an attack — making the hand itself a managed resource.
- SOLO-DEV COST LOW
- TIMING TURN-BASED
- COMMON IN DECKBUILDER · CARD-GAME · ROGUELIKE
Slay the Spire threads discard through its energy economy: cards that cycle themselves, builds that want cards in the discard pile, and curses whose whole cost is clogging your draw. Hearthstone historically made discard a deck identity (Discard Warlock), turning a downside into a build-around with cards that benefit from being thrown away. Designers use discard to create hand-management decisions beyond 'play the best card' — choosing what to lose is often deeper than choosing what to keep — and to price powerful effects in tempo and options rather than just mana. Discard also enables draw engines to exist safely: cycling smooths variance without inflating hand size infinitely. Key decisions: whether discard is chosen or random (chosen is a skill test; random is drama and feels-bad moments), whether the discard pile is a resource (recursion, reshuffle timing) or a void, and how forced discard plays in PvP, where attacking someone's options frustrates more than attacking their life total. Pitfall: discard costs on cards that don't justify them — players hoard cards instinctively, so under-tuned discard effects simply never get played.