Hum... if they are looking for rule designs, and if it was going to be similar to pokemon (in how they work along with the look), would personally recommend using a similar system for "energy" as WoW while using the pokémon gameplay. Could work rather well imo.

energy in WoW? how does that work?

Basically that there are "resource" cards (two types, locations and quests) these function as the "energy" for shit, and are often superior to use for enegery as they can be "used" most the time, and almost all quests then turn face down, and still acts as resources. Most locations stay in play even after use. BUT, the big difference from ex: Magic, is that ANY card can be made into a resource by putting it face down in your resource row. So, if combined with pokemon, you got your energies, BUT that any "pokemon" or card cna be made into energy, likely based on their type, assuming there are types.

that... is so confusing...

my initial idea was for something more yu-gi-oh, where it doesn't use energy to make attacks but the attacks are reletively weak unless boosted with a "magic" or "trap" card

It's quite simple once you learn it xP
And that might work too. I don't know nothing of that game though.

you don't know nothing? double negative! you know EVERYTHING!

Me and my gecko knows everything, it's just that all I don't know, she knows. So it's hard to get info on xP

hehehe

Do you mean like this Pony Card game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uy9PbOrg5k ?
Sounds cool to me! like 20% cooler than most TCG! (sorry I'll just go away now...)

hahaha well it wont have ponies in it due to them being copyrighted... BUT you can have your own character in it if you would like haha