Hey everyone, I've had yet another idea for a two-player card game recently...
The Idea:
Both players bring a pre-built deck of cards to the game. In the center of the play-area is a mancala-style board with about six different 'bowls' arranged in a ring. There are several different 'elements' in each bowl.
At the beginning of your turn, you choose a bowl, and move all the elements in that bowl around the ring in a clockwise fashion, dropping one of the elements in each bowl you pass over. (See Mancala.) Each of the bowls has a special action associated with it, and you may take the action of the bowl in which your last element drops.
After moving around some elements, players can play cards from their hand. However, each card has a cost on it, similar to the mana cost in Magic and many other games. In order to play a given card, there must be a bowl that holds exactly the specified resources on said card.
For example: You want to play card x, which costs three water and one fire. On your turn, you first move some elements around such that you create a bowl that holds three water and one fire. This will allow you to play said card later this turn.
Questions:
Has this been done before? If so, can you point me towards games which have employed a similar mechanic?
Does this idea sound like a fun core mechanic for a competitive two-player card game?
What theme stands out to you? (I'm feeling a sorcerer-on-sorcerer theme where the 'elements' are stars orbiting around a fictional world. However, I'm worried that the whole 'wizards fighting' theme is way too cliché.)
