Monster Arena

From BoardGameGeek:

Players are monster breeders at the monster breeding academy and have to pitch their creatures against each other in series of three rounds. The game begins with a drafting phase. Each player has 3 dueling cards and 9 drafting cards. Out of those nine cards, they add three to their dueling cards and distribute the rest among the other players. The process is repeated with the cards they hold afterwards. The players distribute the 12 cards they hold now into three stacks: 3 for the first round, 4 for the second and 5 for the third. During each round, players can choose to reveal some of their cards; for each revealed card, a point token is added to the pool (from the bank). Then players can choose to participate or withdraw. All participating players reveal their remaining cards and the highest total wins the pool (losing players add tokens to the pool). This is repeated through rounds two and three, then cards are distributed again. The game ends after the round when someone has gained 50 points. The strengths of the monsters are often interdependent, so holding certain combinations makes them stronger. To win, players must use these combinations cleverly.