Designing Card Battle mechanisms before creating cards
Ich an absolute beginner game designer. I'm working on a way to ambitous project which is stupid but ok for me, since I'm doing this as a hobbyist without any pressure at all. One part of my game is a deckingbuilding & battle mechanism. So you play agains enemies or other players with your deck.
I want to make the duels quick and relatively simple but thematically fitting (Space-Fight). A little bit of strategy and a larger luck component to make the fights a bit less predictable. I have good workflows for creating and testing cards (Cider & Screentop).
I also come up with different ideas on how this could work. But what I'm really struggeling with is to decide if my approach is fitting and especially if it's fun. I would like to find this out BEFORE I have to create many different cards with effects etc.. I'm also unsure if things feel clumsy or not. Can someone give me some advice on what would be a good way to tackle this? Any input is much appreciated!
As an example for a popular game, take Slay the Spire. The Start Deck is very boring. The game gets more interesting after playing several rounds and creating your deck. How is something like that designed? How do you know if your battle system works and is fun before creating so many cards?