I like your game. I had trouble with the first real fight because I didn't know how to attack with more than one monster at a time. The card entering the front of the hand and not the back meant I discarded card I wanted and had to play cards I didn't want. The dialog was fine, the story is fun and I like the people... bugs... things. I felt the firs real fight dragged a little. So many cards have "take that" abilities (reduce a cards attack, kill anting it attacks, hurt everything when it dies) It was impossible to have a plan that lasted more than two second which would have been fine if the fight ended after ten rounds, I can see fights getting really long and tedious. Having won the fight and looking back, I don't feel there is much I could have done differently. If I tried again it would likely still take fifteen minutes. I don't get the pumpkin mechanic. I understand you wanted to give the choice to not gain money in exchange for another action. No one would ever do that. It is an objectively bad choice. I could spend an extra action denying my enemy one pumpkin, but that is in most cases also a really bad choice. I would only do that if I was already winning.
TLDR; I don't feel I had any control in the fight. The game was fun in spite of that.