It took me like 5 rounds to start to make sense of it and I found it pretty fun after I got it.
I have mixed feelings about not knowing exactly when the ball is going to explode. I think if you let the player know exactly when the ball will explode, it would make the gameplay feel more strategic and less random. The randomness of the card draws is already a challenge. Forcing the player to guess at the state of the ball and potentially waste their cards which were randomly distributed seems a bit unfair. However I do like the idea of the ball being like a hot potato that you throw around, but not when you have no control over the cards in your hand.
MAYBE if you had an entire 52 card deck to yourself instead of splitting it with your opponent you could strategize better by keeping track of which cards are left in the deck.
It might instead be better to play more than one card per turn, or play a card plus a spell. This would increase the pace of the game but would also allow you to set up a finishing blow instead of getting countered based on the complete randomness of the card distribution
I don’t play a lot of card games but I had fun with this one. The presentation was very nice with a level of polish I didn’t expect for a jam game. Music is also very catchy.
well done!