Well, if you don't like the ACAAN plot, that's another matter. But the other things you mentioned can both also be achieved using the berglas approach. I don't think of it as a purely ACAAN plot, it can be that, or, named card to pocket without palming, or named card appears on top of/face of pack, top card/ face card transfigured to thought of card, an impossible prediction of a thought of card, a sandwich plot to locate a thought of card, really the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and tastes in magic. If you don't ever want to present it as ACAAN then you don't have to, but because of the method, the presentation can be more streamlined than any other ACAAN because all you say is, "name a card" "name a number" they say, 8 for example, you hand them the deck and say, "look at the eighth card" and there it is. The audience need never suspect you got lucky, because they'll assume, as so many magicians have, that what you did was exactly what you were going to do from the outset, therefore you must have had a sure fire method. Also, note that the odds are much better than you might expect, with a little psychology thrown in. And the outs need never be cumbersome either, I try to make any out I come up with as direct and clean as the "main effects". It's all about how creatively you approach it.

Am I wrong, but wouldn't breaking down the odds of it happening actually make it seem less impressiv? Unless I"m missing something, the odds of a named card being at a named number are 1 in 52. While impressive, it's not that impressive and certainly doesn't come off as impossible (gamblers place money on things with worse odds).

I don't have an ACAAN routine, but I do have a fairly simple CAAN that I use and it gets really good reactions. Basically a sealed envelope is given to a spectator to hold. Then a deck is given to the spectator to shuffle (and examine if they'd like). After returning the deck to the magician, the spectator holds their hand over the envelope, concentrates, and then writes the first number from 1 to 52 that comes into their mind on the envelope. The magician counts down to the chosen number and flips over the card (we'll say the two of diamonds). The spectator tears open the envelope and removes the prediction showing it was in fact the two of diamonds.

The method I use is simple, it's presented as simple mentalism, uses an ungimmicked deck, and it seems to impress enough that I can't imagine getting better reactions by using an ACAAN routine (which feels to me like it would be more of a pain in the butt than it's worth).

The argument that there are other tricks that also produce great reactions isn't really the point, if you have a trick that works for you, great keep it up, I'm sure we all agree magic would be a pretty stagnant art if all magicians did the same tricks, but it doesn't mean that any card at any number isn't impressive as well, or wouldn't also get good reactions. Also the probability argument doesn't really factor into it either, reducing it to strict probability is an analytical way of observing a magic effect, it's what magicians often do, but what spectator's rarely do. Spectators don't, as a rule, analyze the tricks scientifically, I'd rather show them something that feels impossible, even if it's not all that likely, than something that's actually impossible, if it doesn't feel unlikely. For example, an ace assembly is statistically very very unlikely, but most often looks like simple sleight of hand. It's exactly the sort of thing card magicians are expected to be able to do. But ACAAN is only 1 in 52 but done using the berglas method there is no causal link, no handling no influence of the spectators, it seems impossible because you can't have done anything. People don't suspect luck as an explanation because our brains are programmed to find causes for random events, it's the reason for superstitions, if you show people a trick, they will undoubtedly assume you did something to make it happen, they won't assume it happened by itself.

I hear what you're saying and of course I wasn't suggesting that all magicians should do the same tricks haha. But basically I do agree with exodus's take on this one. The reason I mentioned the trick I like to do is because there is a pretty close similarity between CAAN and ACAAN.

So do you currently have an ACAAN that works for you? And if so, how do you present it?