Chosen CCG - A game of hero vs hero combat

[Typherion]

Introducing Chosen
The Chosen CCG is a card game where each player takes on the role of a fantasy hero and engages in a battle, using their specialised attacks, defences and skills to defeat the opposing hero and claim victory.

Charge into combat as a mighty Warrior, overwhelm your enemies with torrents of spells as a  learned Mage, become a deadly blur of shadows as a cunning Rogue, or pass divine judgement over foes as a righteous Priest.

Chosen is intended to be a fast and light card game that lets players match fantasy heroes against each other in a cross between streetfighter and RPG style combat.

Turn Structure
Start Phase: draw a card and regain 1 Energy
Action Phase: play Attacks/Skills or Rest
End Phase: end the turn

Heroes
Heroes are the unique champions that represent each player. All Heroes belong to a Class and have an Energy bar, a Health bar and a Special Effect.

Class
A Hero can only use cards that have their Class icon marked on them. The four initial classes are: Warrior, Mage, Rogue and Priest. Each Class will define a unique style of play through dealing damage, mitigating damage and generating resources in different ways.

*Note that more Classes could be designed after the basic system has been developed. Each Class would share some broad themes with some other Classes allowing them to share some cards.

Energy  [] [] [] [] []
Used to pay for the costs of Attacks, Defences and Skills. Each Hero begins the game with 5 Energy and can never have more than 5 Energy. A Hero regains 1 Energy at the start of their turn. A Hero may Rest during their turn to regain 2 Energy instead of playing Attacks or Skills.

Health
A Hero's Health is reduced when they are dealt damage. Each Hero begins the game with 50 Health. Once a Hero's Health reaches 0 they are defeated and have lost the game.

*Note that I intend to design individual Heroes only after the rest of the system is more developed and each will have a different special effect that encourage a unique style of gameplay.

Ability Card Types
Attacks
Primarily used to deal damage to enemies. Some Attacks, if successful, may also grant buffs or inflict debuffs, or cause some other special effect. The active player may play an Attack during their turn by paying its Energy cost. There is no limit to the number of Attacks that may be played in a single turn. 

Defences
Used to block the damage dealt by Attacks or otherwise interrupt or evade Attacks. A player may play a Defence immediately after an Attack is played against them.
Blocking negates a set amount of  damage until the end of the turn.
Dodging negates a single Attack completely.
Interrupting an Attack prevents it from resolving, returning the card to the player's hand but not refunding the Energy already spent.

Skills
Used for a wide variety of non-damaging effects. Skills may allow a player to draw cards, search their deck, regain some Energy, restore some Health, buff the damage dealt by their Attacks, reduce the cost of Defences, summon a helpful minion, or grant some other advantage.


Design Notes
This card game intentionally draws inspiration from role-playing games and MMO's, especially World of Warcraft. Although there is already a WoW card game, I don't think it captures the experience of playing a character in the online game very well due to the emphasis on allies and a Magic-style resource mechanic. The resource mechanic I have used was inspired by Kongai, which I think is more appropriate.

With this game I hope to provide an experience that gets players involved more in deciding their character's every move in combat. The basic game design will focus on balanced PvP duels. From there it seems possible to implement multi-player arena PvP style battles and possibly even PvE boss encounters.

Concerns
I'm not sure about how Attacks and Defences are played. Any ideas to improve this?
The core system is extremely simple but hopefully designing many different status conditions will make the gameplay surprisingly deep.

[Typherion]

I will record any changes to the game system in this post.

Change: Lowered the amount of energy regained at the start of each turn from 2 to 1.
Reasons: Before it was possible to start a turn, regain 2 energy, Rest to regain 2 more, then unless a Defence was played in the opponent's turn, the player would regain another 2 at the start of the next turn. This made it too easy to cap energy after Resting even if starting from 0.
Result: Energy will become more important and players will likely have to Rest more.

[MegaMan]

have you started making the cards yet?

[Typherion]

Sorry for the slow reply, I've been busting my brain with uni assignments recently 

I have made some mockup cards using the WoW TCG template but I would really like to make a new template before I start showing cards. The game is still in the early stages and I'm not sure the mechanics for playing Attacks and Defences will actually work or not yet.

A sample Warrior attack card might be:
Name: Furious Slash
Cost: 2 Energy
Effect: Deal 5 damage. If this attack wounds its target, reduce the cost of your next attack this turn by 1 Energy.

The Warrior class will have lots of cards that care about dealing and blocking damage. If the Warrior's attack hits they can easily follow it up with even more punishment.

A sample Rogue attack might be:
Name: Backstab
Cost: 3 Energy
Effect: Deal 12 damage. You may only use this attack when you have more cards in hand than your opponent.

The Rogue class will care more about comparing resources with the opponent. In this case having more cards in hand represents initiative, which allows the Rogue to surprise their target with a devastating move.

A sample Mage skill might be:
Name: Premonition
Cost: 1 Energy
Effect: Check the top 2 cards of your deck, then return them to the top or bottom of your deck in any order, then draw a card.

For the Mage, knowledge is power. This class will emphasise card filtering and searching to control the flow of battle.

A sample Priest skill might be:
Name: Healing Touch
Cost: 2 Energy
Effect: Heal 6 damage.

The Priest class will have access to healing to try and turn battle into a war of attrition where the Priest comes out on top.

I'm planning to balance cards based on their Energy cost as follows:

1 Energy
Deal 4 damage
Block 5 damage?
Heal 3 damage?
Negate a 2 Energy Attack
Interupt a 3 Energy Attack
Draw 1 card

2 Energy
Deal 7 damage
Block 8 damage?
Heal 6 damage?
Negate a 3 Energy Attack
Draw 2 cards

3 Energy
Deal 10 damage
Block 11 damage
Heal 9 damage
Negate all Attacks for one turn
Draw 3 cards

[Typherion]

Ok, just got a big assignment done after not sleeping for a few nights and I'm still continuing to develop this game. I've just made a better system for creating balanced cards by assigning point values.

Card Point Value
+2 points = for the base value of each card
+4 points = for each 1 energy the card costs to play

So cards will be balanced around having effects worth 6 points, 10 points or 14 points depending on if they cost 1, 2 or 3 energy.

Effect Point Costs
Effects are costed as follows:
-1 point = for each 1 damage or 1 block or 1 healing
-4 points = for each card drawn or opponent discard
-4 points = for each energy regained or opponent reduction

Then if cards have conditional effects or limitations they can be made more powerful.

For example:

Pickpocket [Rogue] [Skill]: (1) You may play this card only if you have fewer cards in hand than your opponent. You draw 1 card and your opponent discards 1 card.

Slice n Dice [Rogue] [Attack]: (2) Deal 8 damage. If this attack wounds your opponent, you may return this card to your hand.

Desperate Dodge [Rogue] [Defence]: (1) Negate an Attack that costs 1 energy. If you have fewer cards than your opponent, negate an attack that costs up to 2 energy instead.

These cards show a bit more of the direction I want to go with the Rogue class. In flavour terms, when a Rogue Hero has more cards they have initiative and when they have fewer cards they have desperation. The Rogue can come out ahead during both the highs and the lows.

Speed?
I'm also considering whether I can and should implement a Speed mechanic to give more depth to the system or if it's fine the way it is.

If Speed limited when cards could be played, then it would allow me to make fast but weaker attacks that are difficult to defend against, or slower stronger attacks that pack more punch but let the opponent react more easily.

Defences could be split up so that Blocks are more effective against fast attacks and Dodges are better against slower attacks.

I have no idea what I would do with Skills, though because they can't really use Speed much I don't think. Maybe Speed could just be limited to Attacks and Defences? Or maybe I should just get rid of Skill cards altogether and roll them into Attacks and Defences?

[Typherion]

Here is an idea of what a Hero might look like. Note that everything is placeholder only.



The 5 yellow circles on the top left edge represent the Energy bar.
The icon on the top right (from WoW) represents the Rogue class.
This Hero's Skill "Stealth" costs 2 energy and buffs his next attack.

Removing Skill Cards?
I've been thinking about the Skill card type recently and it seems much better to remove it. Instead of having to include Skill cards in your Hero's deck, I think it will be much better to put those skills directly onto the hero card because they would have overlapped too much.

This also gives the Hero cards more flavour and lets players build decks entirely out of Attacks and Defences. Now I just have to decide how many skills each hero should have...

Secondary Resources
So right now all classes use Energy to fuel their Attacks and Defences. They will also make use of other factors to make each class unique but I worry that it won't be enough. I'm considering having each class use a secondary class specific resource system. Perhaps something like specific moves granting counters and others expending them for bigger payoffs...

[Typherion]

I have decided to hold off on getting rid of Skills until I know for sure that they should be cut.

Also, I just had a cool idea for the Priest class involving cards that become more powerful or can be played for free if the Priest has 0 energy. This reflects the priest's reliance on divine help.

Divine Protection [Priest] [Defence] (2): Negate all attacks this turn. You may play this card at no cost if you have 0 energy.

Divine Judgement [Priest] [Attack] (3): Deal 12 damage. If playing this card reduces your energy to 0, deal 18 damage instead.

Divine Inspiration [Priest] [Skill] (2): Draw 2 cards. If playing this card reduces your energy to 0, draw 3 cards instead.

Alternatively, this idea could be converted into a secondary resource system.

Faith: Each time your energy bar reaches 0 you generate 1 Faith. Faith can be used to boost the power of your attacks or play defences at no energy cost.

Either way, this mechanic will hopefully make the gameplay of the priest class unique by encouraging the player to use up all their energy. Then your opponent has to decide whether you are holding a miracle defence or just bluffing.

Does anyone have any ideas for mechanics for classes, or new attacks, defences or skills?

[Typherion]

I'm continuing to design secondary resources for each class and also thinking about the look of the cards.

Mage
Resource ? Charging: You may put a card with the Charging ability face-down on the field. You may play that card as if it were in your hand. At the start of each of your turns, put a charge counter on that card. Cards can't use more charge counters than their charging limit, so any extra charges will be wasted.

Examples
Meteor [Mage] [Attack] (3): Charging limit 3. You may only play this attack if it has 3 charges. Deal 20 damage.
Mana Shield [Mage] [Defence] (1): Charging limit 2. Block 6 damage + an additional 2 damage for each charge on this card.
Arcane Concentration [Mage] [Skill] (2): Charging limit 1. Draw 2 cards + 1 additional card if there is a charge on this card when you play it.

Notes
The charging mechanic is meant to reflect the theme of mages taking time to prepare or power up a spell before casting it. Mages who combo their charged attacks with effects that stop opponent's from defending will be able to ensure large amounts of burst damage during key turns. The charging mechanic also creates opportunities for bluffing and reading plays.

Template Design
Here is a mockup of what Attack cards might look like.



Top left: Energy cost
Top middle: Damage indicator showing how much damage the attack will do to the opponent.
Top right: Class icons (might be better to have a complete bar showing all class icons, with relevant class icons in colour and irrelevant class icons in grey)

[gwago]

First off, I really like the flavor all the different classes have.

Warrior seems like the straightforward attack/defense class, Rogue would be fun to play with and could have alot of card draw and cards that get more powerful the more cards you have in your hand. I'm also thinking they have weak basic attacks, but are "unblockable".

Mage and Priest are cool as well, but I wouldn't use the "Charge" mechanic too much as they will get very predictable. I like the idea of Mages drawing and filtering cards, but it seems like it would conflict with the Rogue class (Rogues want to draw cards but Mages actually get to). Also I think you can get rid of Faith as an actual resource and maybe just have it be keyworded or something... "Faith - When this hero has no energy, [effect]."

The one thing I'm worried about is the flavor behind Energy; I'm guessing it's essentially MP, but alot of effects (like Furious Slash from your first post) seem like they wouldn't use any of that up. I ran into the same problem in my Superhero CCG, but I figured that any Furious Slash attack would cost no energy (but be weaker as a result). I also have the advantage that ALL character cards in the game have powers, but your warrior class specifically seems like it wouldn't have much use for magic.

I'm thinking maybe this would be the warrior class' unique slant on things. Say you make Furious Slash cost zero energy (and require tapping your hero, preventing any other attacks from being played) and make it weaker and usable by all classes. The warrior class would have a lot of bonuses with "Physical" attacks and defenses that cost no energy. Like say:

Parry
Ability - Defense
Block target attack (if requirements XYZ are met). If your hero is a warrior, you may play a physical attack from your hand.

I dunno, just a little brainstorming. Warriors do seem like they need a little bit more "oomph".

Also, a last aside: only having one hero on the field really limits deckbuilding techniques, since you wouldn't be able to mix and match classes. Which is fine if you want to make it a fast and light game like you've said, just keep in mind that you'll need to work extra hard to make sure that Mage players don't all have the same decklist. And again, even if you have two or three Mage archetypes, there's nothing preventing players from taking the best cards from all archetypes and putting them in their decks. I'd suggest thinking about giving your heroes keywords or abilities that they can use (like having six or so different Rogues, but only two have the Blademaster trait allowing them to play with physical attacks based on bladed weapons). This would also allow those cards to be played by most warriors (since most of them could have that trait), adding variety to packs and making cards less narrow.

[Typherion]

Thanks a lot for the feedback! I was starting to think my idea was crap because nobody seemed interested.

First off, I really like the flavor all the different classes have.

Thanks! I've already thought of some new mechanics for many more future classes like:

Druid - Harmony: You have Harmony whenever you play a card and your Energy and the number of cards in your hand become the same.
Druids fight by becoming one with Nature, using the earth as armour and the wind as a weapon.

Death Knight - Hunger/Hatred: You have Hunger when you have less Health than your opponent / You have Hatred when you have more Health than your opponent.
Death Knights tap into their own life force to fuel their abilities and then replenish it by draining their opponent's.

Warlock - Perhaps self milling for bonuses to abilities?
Fighting as a Warlock is a race to kill your enemy before you lose your own mind.

Ranger - No idea yet!

Warrior seems like the straightforward attack/defense class, Rogue would be fun to play with and could have alot of card draw and cards that get more powerful the more cards you have in your hand. I'm also thinking they have weak basic attacks, but are "unblockable".

I know I want Warriors to care about attacking and defending but I'm not 100% sure how to do that yet. My most recent idea is Stances similar to the WoW online game. Each turn the Warrior chooses Offensive Stance or Defensive Stance and their abilities interact with these two states. This would be much lower risk/reward. You're right that Warrior needs still more work, though.

I'm hoping for the Rogue to feel like a higher risk/higher reward class. Its attacks will only be weak if they can't make use of the bonuses for Desperation/Initiative. Sometimes it might actually be better to have fewer cards than your opponent to enable your "desperation" moves. But yeah, the desperation moves should help you get more cards than the opponent again to then enable your "initiative" moves.

The one thing I'm worried about is the flavor behind Energy; I'm guessing it's essentially MP, but alot of effects (like Furious Slash from your first post) seem like they wouldn't use any of that up.

I see what you mean, but it's really the opposite in my game. There is no difference between using Energy for physical attacks or magical attacks. The Warrior gets exhausted from swinging his sword and shield around and the Mage gets tired from trying to smash your face in with blasts of magic. I'm trying to make the flavour of magic much more "physical". If a Warrior is strong enough, he's going to bust down the Mage's mana shield and start carving him up. If the Rogue is fast enough, he's going to get a dagger into that Priest before she can try to blind him with holy light.

Also, a last aside: only having one hero on the field really limits deckbuilding techniques, since you wouldn't be able to mix and match classes. Which is fine if you want to make it a fast and light game like you've said, just keep in mind that you'll need to work extra hard to make sure that Mage players don't all have the same decklist. And again, even if you have two or three Mage archetypes, there's nothing preventing players from taking the best cards from all archetypes and putting them in their decks. I'd suggest thinking about giving your heroes keywords or abilities that they can use (like having six or so different Rogues, but only two have the Blademaster trait allowing them to play with physical attacks based on bladed weapons).

Interesting idea and something I'll keep in mind. I'm hoping that if the cards are balanced well then decks will self-correct to some degree. So if one Mage decklist becomes dominant then it becomes much easier to predict and disrupt its important plays with smart defending.

Something else I've been thinking about recently is listing a few specific abilities on each Hero card as Key Abilities that they get some bonus or reward for using.

[gwago]

Druid - Harmony: You have Harmony whenever you play a card and your Energy and the number of cards in your hand become the same.
Druids fight by becoming one with Nature, using the earth as armour and the wind as a weapon.

Death Knight - Hunger/Hatred: You have Hunger when you have less Health than your opponent / You have Hatred when you have more Health than your opponent.
Death Knights tap into their own life force to fuel their abilities and then replenish it by draining their opponent's.

Warlock - Perhaps self milling for bonuses to abilities?
Fighting as a Warlock is a race to kill your enemy before you lose your own mind.

Ranger - No idea yet!

Really like these ideas, especially the Druid. One suggestion on them: instead of making it an on/off power, maybe have abilities that are more powerful the closer you are to achieving Harmony, like a buff that gives +5 minus the difference between your hand and energy. Also, if I may suggest, try not to "keyword" the abilities too much, the themes should come across through the cards anyway. Save those for card names. But I like where you're going with these.

I think you'll also get some classes that are natural enemies, such as Druids vs. a discard class (Warlocks?) that would provide some pretty cool interactions... Mages (who build up) vs. the equivalent of a speedy weenie class, etc...

Food for thought on some classes: Archer, Zombie/Undead, Paladin (has Magic-style protection from specific things), Ranger (might be lawful, punishes an opponent for "breaking the law"), Mercenary, Berserker, Summoner...

I know I want Warriors to care about attacking and defending but I'm not 100% sure how to do that yet. My most recent idea is Stances similar to the WoW online game. Each turn the Warrior chooses Offensive Stance or Defensive Stance and their abilities interact with these two states. This would be much lower risk/reward. You're right that Warrior needs still more work, though.

Yeah, the stance system seems a bit predictable though... basically if a warrior wants to attack he'll go into an offensive stance, if not he'll go defensive and his opponent will know to wait until he does attack to do the same. Also seems like a lot of baggage to attach to a class considering the others all look like they have natural abilities so far that don't require extra rules.

Maybe make their effects dependent on their remaining energy? You'd always want your warrior to have as much energy as possible... Heck, I'd even consider scrapping the class altogether if you can't figure anything out with it. It doesn't have as much flair as any of the other classic fantasy classes anyway, and you can probably transfer its effects to other classes, like Berserker or Ranger.

Nice ideas, I'm looking forward to seeing more!

[Typherion]

Thanks again for the feedback!

Really like these ideas, especially the Druid. One suggestion on them: instead of making it an on/off power, maybe have abilities that are more powerful the closer you are to achieving Harmony, like a buff that gives +5 minus the difference between your hand and energy. Also, if I may suggest, try not to "keyword" the abilities too much, the themes should come across through the cards anyway. Save those for card names. But I like where you're going with these.

That's a really cool idea. I don't want to make things too mathy, but it would be nice to have more mechanics that scale like the Mage "charging-up" effect instead of just turning on/off. Perhaps another idea for a mechanic is some kind of overheating system, so as you do X more you power up and reach a critical limit that you have to try to stay under.

Yeah, the stance system seems a bit predictable though... basically if a warrior wants to attack he'll go into an offensive stance, if not he'll go defensive and his opponent will know to wait until he does attack to do the same. Also seems like a lot of baggage to attach to a class considering the others all look like they have natural abilities so far that don't require extra rules.

I don't think stances would make things too predictable. With stances, the warrior would have to decide which is more important based on what they want to do, and what they think their opponent wants to do. If the warrior thinks his opponent is going for a big combo next turn, he might choose defensive stance (turning on and/or boosting his defence cards) or he might just be trying to bluff the opponent out of attacking.

Examples
Counterstrike [Warrior] [Defence] (2): Interrupt an attack and deal 6 damage. If you are in defensive stance, negate that attack and deal 6 damage instead.

Deflection [Warrior] [Defence] (1): Block 5 damage this turn. If you are in defensive stance, block 8 damage this turn instead.

But if you don't draw so many defence cards, maybe you might just stay offensive to keep getting full value out of your attacks while getting a bit less value from your defences. It shouldn't be such a big deal that opponents will always try to change their plays based on which stance the warrior is in, though.

You're right that it is a bit messy to take part of the mechanic outside of the cards, maybe I could have stances change depending on whether the last card you played was an attack or a defence? However, this kind of rewards playing the same card type repeatedly which could be bad.

Maybe make their effects dependent on their remaining energy? You'd always want your warrior to have as much energy as possible...

The main constraint with making these class mechanics is to be careful that they don't encourage players to stack their decks with just one kind of card in order to get the most out of the mechanic. I'd like all classes to benefit from having both low cost and high cost cards in their decks.

This mechanic could work, because it would allow players to get different value out of their cards depending on when they played them. I'm just not sure the flavour would match - warriors shouldn't be afraid of a little hard work 

Deck Construction
I think I could easily make up cards for each of the 4 starting classes now, but I'm unsure of the best proportions for deck construction. Right now I'm thinking 30 card decks with a limit of 3 copies per card. So basically 10 individual cards x3.

This would mean three copies each of about:
5 different attack cards,
3 different defence cards,
2 different skill cards.

Or, if I were to remove Skills:
6 different attack cards,
4 different defence cards. 

[Typherion]

Here's a picture of the Mage attack "Meteor Strike" with a new template. The energy cost and class icons aren't included yet. I made the template based on the interface of Diablo 3. I'll probably adapt it a bit more and use it for displaying the other game I'm designing, Summoner.

[nickyinprogress]

I feel that the amount of strategic decisions you make in a game decides how interesting that game is. Since it's primarity trading blows, there has to be + and - in every decision so it doesn't turn into a button masher (in this case, card masher).

Defences
Defences seem varied enough to keep it interesting. Let's look at the pros and cons of each choice:

Blocking:
(+) Negates a set amount of damage, % to negate the entire damage
(-) Maybe blocks are cheaper or more reliable, safe to use
Dodging:
(+) Negates the entire damage
(-) More costly to use than blocking, maybe even a coin flip to decide a successful dodge
Interrupting:
(+) If I understand correctly, negates the entire damage as well
(-) Returns card to player's hand

I think interrupt can be made even more interesting, maybe something like a counter? Not exactly negating damage but a free small hit. Or maybe something from Digimon World 2's Interrupt moves, like a counter, but you hit first. If you want to keep it purely defensive, perhaps it's a safer dodge in that it negates damage, returns card to the player's hand BUT the energy is refunded, sort of postponing the damage instead of blocking it.

Speed
Speed reminds me of this game: Elemental Duel. His game is similar to yours in that you're trading blows instead of summoning creatures, and an attack's speed will decide who's will hit, though in his system, slower attacks just don't hit at all instead of being second to damage.

Perhaps speed is a nice addition, adds more strategic choices, but different from Elemental Duel it just decides who goes first. A slow block will be useless against a fast attack, and so will a fast weak attack that kills you off before you deal a strong slow attack.

Secondary Resources
How about taking inspiration from Torchlight 3? Where different classes have a different charge bar that fills up as you fight. Berserkers get to deal 100% crits when his bar is full (and ONLY when full), while the Engineer's skills get a buff depending on how full his bar is, but even a 1/4 full bar already has an effect

More here: Torchlight 2's Charge Bar

Maybe each class has a different charge bar. A rogue gets an energy discount, warriors deal extra damage, priests have reduced damage, mage's have magic attacks boosted, etc.

I'll just post this for now, you have a LOT of things to read here.

EDIT: I still haven't read everything, but that last post about Meteors inspired me.

If you decide to implement a Charge Bar, maybe Mage's will be a class that relies on this bar. Instead of charging the spell itself, the Meteor spell can only be used at a certain Charge level and reduces it by a certain amount (the casting cost). That way, you don't need extra stuff like charge counters for the card, just on the mage.

Other than a casting cost, maybe spells become more powerful when you have even more Charge, and so effectively playing the mage means maintaining your Charge Bar, just like you would maintain mana in MMOs

[Typherion]

Thanks very much for the feedback! You gave me quite a few things to think about.

I checked out Elemental Duel and it looks pretty cool.
I liked that his game seems to use the same type of cards for attacking as well as defending. It wasn't clear to me whether the defending player can react after the attack is played or if both attack and defence are played at the same time.

I feel that the amount of strategic decisions you make in a game decides how interesting that game is. Since it's primarity trading blows, there has to be + and - in every decision so it doesn't turn into a button masher (in this case, card masher).

Yeah, I want to keep it simple but there should still be quite a bit of strategy in trying to maximise your Attacks and Defences while minimising your opponent's.

Defences seem varied enough to keep it interesting. Let's look at the pros and cons of each choice:

I'm working under the principle that Defences have to allow players to generate an advantage otherwise there is no point in using them over Attacks. But I also want them to only grant that advantage if they are used in the right situations. If used well, playing a Defence should usually give you a +1 Energy advantage over your opponent.

You've made me realise that once Speed is in the game, I could make every Attack a potential interrupt. But in that case, I would have the interrupted Attack return to the player's hand because the discard in Elemental Duel seems a bit harsh to me.

Secondary Resources
How about taking inspiration from Torchlight 3? Where different classes have a different charge bar that fills up as you fight. Berserkers get to deal 100% crits when his bar is full (and ONLY when full), while the Engineer's skills get a buff depending on how full his bar is, but even a 1/4 full bar already has an effect

More here: Torchlight 2's Charge Bar

Maybe each class has a different charge bar. A rogue gets an energy discount, warriors deal extra damage, priests have reduced damage, mage's have magic attacks boosted, etc.

Lots of interesting ideas here.

The intention with the charging mechanic for the Mage class is that it represents powering up one specific spell before unleashing it. Especially for Meteor Strike, it's supposed to let you see the Mage doing some kind of preparation, but you're not sure what he's planning until OMG WHAT IS THAT IN THE SKY!?

The goal is to get the Mage to plan things in advance while also teasing the opponent a bit with the knowledge that something is being setup. That's why I don't think it works if you take the mechanic from the card and put it onto the Mage.

I guess I probably could convert most of the existing class mechanics over to some kind of point system for a charge bar. So maybe Priests get +5 points on their charge bar whenever they hit 0 energy. Rogues might get +2 points each turn they have more cards then the opponent, etc. But then the Attack and Defence cards themselves might end up losing their flavour and become boring.

Instead of using a charge bar for classes, I might try using them for a set of character traits for individual Heroes. Kind of like the overdrive modes in Final Fantasy X. So maybe if your Hero has the trait "Avenger" they charge up every time they take damage, or if they have the trait "Daredevil" they charge up each turn while their HP is at 25% or less.

Then I'd have to think of some cool limit breaks / overdrives for each unique Hero to use with their charge bar.

Thanks again for the ideas!