I feel like reducing the cards down to three would invalidate the seal system more than the current system already does, to the point you would question why it's even there. On top of that I really don't think giving AST anymore oGCD heals is a wise thing, their kit is already obnoxiously overloaded with incredibly potent low-CD healing that anymore is just reaching overkill. I really do like the foresight concept though.

Personally I feel the old card effects were fine in concept, the problem was the execution caused by the opportunity cost of the Royal Road + Spread interaction. The reason Balance fishing was so prevalent wasn't just because Balance was broken, but because you were stuck in a decision loop caused by those two skills. You couldn't spread anything but Balance because if the next card you drew was Balance, you lose. On the other hand if you have royal road up you want to hold it for Balance because if you don't and the next card ends up being it you potentially lost yourself an AoE Balance later in the fight, especially if you draw a back-to-back Balance, so double lose. Utility and DPS cards can coexist but the system needs to be designed to allow a window for those utility cards to function on their own merit outside of the power vacuum of the DPS cards.

If I were to redesign the system I would first return all cards to their previous effects (Make Spire give DH, maybe change Ewer to ‘increased healing received’ since MP sustain is already too strong) and adjust potency/duration(make it around 18secs and keep potencies around 6% for dam and 10% for everything else). From there I would do something like this:

Draw
Same as before but re-united back with Play to cut-down on button bloat. Maybe add a 1 sec buffer to prevent players from accidently double taping it, which I'm guessing is the reason they split it in the first place?

Expanded Spread
Stored arcana will have 50% potency, extends effect to nearby targets

Extended Spread
Stored arcana will be double duration

Enhanced Spread
Stored arcana will have double potency

*Stored arcana cannot be the same across all spreads and cannot be used out of combat. All Spreads have a CD of 1sec.

Redraw
Stays the same

Sleeve Draw
3m CD
Returns to the previous effect where you draw three cards with three major differences .
- All three cards will be visible on your status bar in sequential order with a 30sec duration to use/spread. (inspired by your foresight idea)
-Doesn’t overwrite draw, if a card is drawn it will get pushed to the back of the line.
- All three cards drawn cannot be the same and this also applies to any currently held card and redraw(IE. if you Redraw the first card it will pick from the remaining one* in your deck)

Divination
3m CD
When activated enters a 10 second "Divined" state that converts all card skills to an associated Major Arcana (think Dancer steps) except for Draw (so if you goof and forgot to prep Draw you can still do so). The arcana played will have all Royal Road effects at once, so basically an Expanded without the reduction and double duration. As a consequence for manipulating the heavens the selected arcana will be removed from your Draw pool until Divination comes back off CD. Divined Arcana cannot stack with regular arcana or be overwritten by them.
*If you have Sleeve/ Spread or Draw arcana that is the same as the one selected during Divination they will be retroactively removed.


The system is characterized by two phases, deck building and deck maintenance. At the start you will open with Draw + Divination as normal (no need to wait on Draw as the 36sec divi arcana pretty much means you would sit on it regardless). Where the difference comes in is Sleeve Draw; with your current card + SD + Redraw you can manipulate the RNG to basically be a non-factor and spread all the cards you feel necessary to maintain for the next 3 minutes. So after Divined Arcana drops you can start playing and rotating cards based upon draws and dealing with what RNG hands you until reaching the two minute mark, where you’ll start offloading your cards in preparation for the next deck build.

The intention here is to compensate for four problems with the old/current system while maintaining the lore/ job fantasy of its former self. First it removes Balance from the draw pool by quarantining it with Divination. Secondly it offers multiple spread slots to hold utility cards for long periods to prep for future mechanics without competing with the rest, as you’ll want to funnel Spear/Spire through Expanded and Arrow through Enhanced or Extended to feed your cohealer/blm or whoever wont flip out over it. Lastly, it gives you an opportunity to control the RNG to a degree. The problem for utility cards is that you couldn’t have the opportunity to use them effectively without sacrificing damage or even just have one ready for the moment. Now you can effectively setup a defensive CD every 3mins without worry. And even if you get stuck with a dupe, you can just use and replace the old one if needed or toss out the drawn card with no RR buff. Lastly and a very minor one is this solves the quite annoying opener problems with rapid target swapping and weaving, especially on controller. As it stands you cannot play any cards while Divination is running so you have the full duration of SD to decide and spread yours cards at a somewhat lax pace.