Even 40+ years after Eddie Joseph released Premonition, it remains one of the strongest card effects you can do for a lay audience (or for a bunch of magicians, for that matter).  In Joseph's original, a thought of card is missing from a deck of cards and is removed from your pocket.   It is very clean, but there is a price to pay for the ultra-cleanliness of the effect:  it requires two specially gimmicked decks and another deck fully pocket indexed...   Too much set-up and pocket weight for most contemporary working performers. 

Enter Project X, by Mark Ellison, and put out by Alakazam a few years ago.   The effect is similar:  a card is thought of, and then the deck is counted onto the table.  Only 51 cards, the thought of card is missing, and the performer removes it from an envelope that has been on the table since the beginning of the effect.

Only one deck is used, and only one prediction card in the envelope.  So much more practical than the original Premonition method.  The effect is slightly different, of course -- in Premonition, the thought card was somehow removed from the deck in advance, whereas in Project X, the card is seen in the deck, then vanishes.  

Unlike the original Premonition, where a spectator could name any card off the top of his head, in Project X, the spectator looks at a card as the deck is riffled before his eyes.  So the "thought of" card is glimpsed by the spectator, but not ever touched or selected.   One simple sleight is necessary during the routine, but lots of misdirection to execute it.  

A strong effect and a practical method.  With blue Bicycle poker cards, and printed instructions. 

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