The forbidden list of mechanics

So within my design schemes, there are a couple of mechanics that I either tread very carefully with or just outright avoid mostly because they don't align with the goals I have for the game, this is an evolving list and not everything here is concrete and unchangeable.

4.3.1 removing cards from the stamina line

This is probably the strictest thing on my forbidden list and one I'm unlikely to change at any point. Basically I don't want a card that comes down on the field and just immediately takes a stamina card from the opponent.

A big part of the game is maneuvering in order to land hits on an opponent, a card that comes down and makes an opponent lose a stamina card skips that's part of the game, not to mention it would be incredibly uninteractive since this game doesn't have instant speed cards.

4.3.2 alternate win conditions

Essentially, cards that say "if x, then you win the game". I'm against these for many of the same reasons I'm against cards that just take Shields without question or interaction. It distracts from what the game is about and in my opinion, encourages play patterns that I don't consider to be ideal

I will proudly declare my hatred for combo decks that want to durdle around for several turns and then throw down two cards and say "the game is over". We're here to play dodgeball, you win by being good at the game of dodgeball.

4.3.3 hard removal actions

here is where we get out of the absolutes and more into the area where application matters.

I want to emphasize on board interaction as the main form of removal in this game, quite often in card games with abundant spot removal it creates a situation where the stats of the creatures really don't matter that much, it all dies to Doom blade so what truly matters is if they've got a good on play effect

Stats are very important to this game, I mean one of the central mechanics to it is the fact you can just pay one resource to put a strength boosting counter on any creature at any point of the game.

This is why I primarily favor bouncing and using shredder as my answer to absolute, no questions asked hard removal.

Not to mention, once you have an action card that can just make any balloon go away regardless of size, it puts design pressure on higher cost balloons to be really worth it because they can be removed quite easily otherwise.

Personally I prefer the approach of a hard removal card being a speedy balloon with shredder. At least it has a window to respond to.

4.3.4 Board wipes

This is another mechanic that really depends on how it's executed. The main use case of board wipes is to counteract Rush strategies that involve swarming the board with a bunch of creatures. So naturally they should work under some kind of size limit.

This is how twister works, it bounces everything on someone's board if it's size 5 or less, this means getting a key balloon out of twister range means actively investing in it, and some balloons can escape twister because their limit keeps them too low.