card on top of discard

[AdamH]

Frequently I'll look at the card on top of my opponent's discard pile and it will be an Estate. They have no control over what card shows up there yet it's a card that gives me information.

If you're going to go through the trouble of showing me a pretty card on top of the discard pile but not bother to give people control of what shows up there, the default should at least be a card that was in play.

[ryan.echternacht]

You're totally correct, and yet it feels like something that most people won't care about, and doesn't matter most of the time. But every now and then it does, and I wish I had control at those times.

[Ingix]

To summarize: If you had cards in play when the Cleanup happens that end up discarded, you want the game put one of them on top of the discard. If not, and you have cards in hand that will be discarded, let the game choose you which one to put on top.

I have to confess that I'm still not totally sure on what exactly should happen.

While you can discard your hand completely and 'mask' all but the top card, I don't think you can combine this with discarding your in-play cards in such a way as to mask all of your discarded cards from hand. Because we know that in theory the discard of in-play cards happens one at a time, with various things possibly triggering from them (Hermit, Travellers,...).

So I *think* that you cannot hide at least one card discarded from your hand from your opponent. In this case, showing one of those cards on top of opponent's discard pile woule be correct.

Of course, the argument that the discarding player has no control over what that card is is still valid.

[markus]

I think it's fine, if the first thing is done:
-) put one card that was in play on top of the discard pile.

Yes, there are few turns when you just pass. But having to select one of the cards to go on top of the discard seems like adding insult to injury. For sure, having this as the default option would be just confusing to the average player. And having it as optional seems too much effort and not the most relevant part of info leakages.

I'd rather have a random around 1 second pause, when the opponent has to discard something, but only has copies of 1 card such that it's done automatically.

[AdamH]

I think it's fine, if the first thing is done:
-) put one card that was in play on top of the discard pile.

This is what I think the best option is as well.

[jeebus]

To summarize: If you had cards in play when the Cleanup happens that end up discarded, you want the game put one of them on top of the discard. If not, and you have cards in hand that will be discarded, let the game choose you which one to put on top.

I have to confess that I'm still not totally sure on what exactly should happen.

While you can discard your hand completely and 'mask' all but the top card, I don't think you can combine this with discarding your in-play cards in such a way as to mask all of your discarded cards from hand. Because we know that in theory the discard of in-play cards happens one at a time, with various things possibly triggering from them (Hermit, Travellers,...).

So I *think* that you cannot hide at least one card discarded from your hand from your opponent. In this case, showing one of those cards on top of opponent's discard pile woule be correct.

Of course, the argument that the discarding player has no control over what that card is is still valid.

The ruling from Donald is that you can always choose to put a card from play on top, no matter in what order you discard cards in play/hand. If needed, I can find you the source.