An evolutionary sidetrack?

Looks like designing an Evolution Magic deck isn't all I'm up to.

In parallel I'm working on a completely new card game called "Survival of the Fittest". Why not take one idea and use it to spawn a similar - but quite different concept.

"Survival of the Fittest" is based on the concept that 2 or more players are trying to dominate the world which consists of 4 territories: sky, sea, jungle and desert. Notice there is no reference to mountains or savannas (can anyone say Expansion pack?).

Players score points by controlling different numbers, groupings of creatures - for example having 1 creature in each territory in play gives a point.

The player him/herself takes on a sort of semi-deity aspect - fighting other deities for control of the planet.

Using controlled creatures, you can attack other players' creatures, or add experience to your existing creatures to make them more powerful. General events come into play like disease, natural disasters, or localised predators. This can be directed at players or can come into play affecting all players. Various state-based effects for given creatures can cause them to evolve (become more/less powerful). Dual creatures can exist which can be chosen in one of two territories (ie amphibians might be either sea or jungle, snakes might be both jungle and desert etc.)

The idea is that from a central deck of cards, one card is drawn initially as a global card. If the card is an event card it affects all players. If the card is a creature card, one of the players can use a summon card to place the card in his/her power. Then a second card is drawn by the player to form part of his/her hand. A card is then played out of the hand which can be to put a creature into the game, place an experience counter on a controlled creature, a cripple card on an opponents creature, direct a nasty event like a cyclone at the opponents flying creatures etc... Then there is an attack round where a creature can attack an opponents creature to move it to the graveyard. A more powerful creature will win the conflict with the opponent relying on a dice roll to see if the creature managed to run away without being killed. An even match up will require both players to roll against each other. Termporary andrenalin cards can be played during combat to even up a match or turn the tables on a predator.

Alot of the concepts are still swimming around in my head, but I've started test-playing the concept with my partner to see how the mechanisms work. After the first game, quite a few of the concepts were rewritten.

The game could be open to quite a few expansion opportunities including the adding of new regions (and therefore more creatures) and the adding of new mechanics. For example, the creatures that evolve might be part of an expansion pack, using mating cards to create offspring from two of the same creatures, creatures that follow a specific lifecycle (eg start with power 0 and add a counter each turn to signify reaching full maturity and then losing a counter each turn to signify age until the creature is removed altogether).

Anyway - alot of options there. I'm inclined to continue discussing both the MTG deck and the Survival of the Fittest game in this blog - because, well why not?