I hope you'll forgive late reply, I didn't want to effect anyone's ratings of my game!
The honest reason for the choice of RPG Maker is because I'm a beginner at programming, and I needed the means to make the game in case our programmer (Cooper) had to attend to personal life matters. He didn't have to- so the game turned out great instead of passable!
Card effects are planned for a future update, though I have no timeframe for when that'll be.