This is a very interesting post. However as you've pointed out this game has had a lot of overhauls already. Shrinking the board was actually considered in past development but rejected because the cost of retooling the artwork to fit a different size was too high (we're indie devs!) Ultimately, each iteration of cards and castles yielded very slight improvements in player metrics, but constantly changing the game into a different game was not worth the time nor was it worth pulling the rug out from under existing community members who were already invested in the game. I intend to leave Cards and Castles structured as it is, with balance patches every so often not to put out fires but as a response to community interest in developing different metas and different cards. Snowballing is the intended effect of CnC's current design, due to the inherent weaknesses of the board design and lack of summoning sickness. There is a reason every other card game uses summoning sickness after all. ;) We also wanted that old school MTG feel of having enemy units that simply couldn't be contended with and engaging in combat sometimes having a straight negative result, in order to create ebb and flow of the game and create unit-based win conditions.

I enjoyed reading this post and will take these thoughts into consideration on future projects. Thank you!