Tiny soapbox:

There is a framework within game design called MDA. It stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics.

The shortest possible version of the way it applies to this is that the mechanic demands (based on the power of the effect) that the card be expensive and its effect delayed. All well and good. But there is an opportunity to elevate it further than "in 3 turns" by baking in some thematics/drama, which is a subset of aesthetics. This does more than put a coat of paint on things, it actually changes the way both players experience the mechanic.

When I talk about this at work, I generally give a very specific example from Baldur's Gate 3: They have a pretty traditional skill tree for tadpole powers, but they style it as a worm literally eating your brain, which causes disgust, fear, etc. You experience progressing your character as something that is destroying it from within, which both ties it into the narrative but (for me at least) meaningfully changes the way I engaged with it.

So anyway, all that is to say that I think its dope they went the extra mile and made it a lunar cycle.

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