Best Deck Building Games
Deck Builders and Deck Building games continue to be one of the most popular groups of games out there. I find them to be one of the better ways to bring new players into the modern board gaming world. Since most deck-builders rely on the text of the playing cards, they don’t rely on a complicated rule book as much. What are some of the best deck-building games, and why are they so popular?
Deck Builders vs Other Card Games –
Most deck-builders will allow a player to “build” a deck that will look and play different than others in the game. Often players are constructing the deck from a shared pool of cards.
A little clarification – Deck Building games are different from collectible card games. If you have ever played, or heard of, “Magic the Gathering” (MTG)- that is a CCG or Collectible Card GameGame. This means you have a customized pre-set deck of cards that only you play with at the start of the game. Other players don’t access to your deck or cards like it (unless they already start with them). Another example is the very popular Arkham Horror – game. Like MTG, at the beginning of a game, your deck will differ from your other teammates and/or opponents.
What makes Deck Builders so popular?
Easier to learn –
- Generally speaking, deck builders are a bit easier to learn. In lieu of a lengthy manual, much of the gameplay relies on the text on the cards. Why is that good? It is good because instead of having to understand the whole manual at once – you often only need to understand the cad you are playing. It makes it easier to learn a game.
Get your motor running –
- Sometimes deck builders are also called engine builders. At the beginning of the game, you start equal footing with your opponent. The plan is to try to build the “best engine” out of the cards available. Most of the time you are going to try and generate the most points, currency, or something else of value. It is a great gaming moment when you get that engine running and start churning out your desired result.
Replay Value-
- Several of the great deck builders have many expansions. Expansions can add more cards or components that breathe life into the game. Adding expansions can create thousands of “different” games using new cards available to the players. It is not uncommon for a base game to release an expansion at least once a year.
Best Overall:
Dominion
You can’t have a discussion about great deck building games without acknowledging Dominion. Not only was it the first – it was and continues to be the best in our estimation. It was the first to launch the genre on the map in 2008. This deck-builder uses cards only in a struggle to gain the most victory points. Based on the number of expansions you may have, there may numerous ways to achieve that goal. Early critics of the game thought that the game was to easy; that you only needed to snag a lot of treasure, and then buy your way to victory. They may have been correct early on – but my friends the game has changed. The designers revamped two of the earliest additions of the game. A few of the cards early on were dead weight and didn’t contribute to the game. The designers have made changes to correct that flaw. With the addition of expansions – you can’t always just simply buy your way to victory. Correctly analyzing the cards available, and put them to use is what makes this game great. With all the expansions that have been added over the years – the game remains true to its early rules.
I can summarize the rule booklet with 4 words – One Action, One Buy. Nearly all the other rules are included on the cards themselves.
It is THE quintessential engine builder. A game where you can have strings and strings of actions, cards, and buys. The actions may let you play more cards, earn buying power, or attack your opponents. You can find ways to improve your deck by destroying or adding cards to it. Your early buying power of at most 5 coins, can balloon into over 25 a turn – sending crushing blows to your opponent.
Not only a great engine builder – Dominion has a well-earned reputation of turning out outstanding expansions. This without a doubt, with the addition of expansions, is the most replayable game I’ve ever played. The most recent expansion released in 2020- 18 years after the original hit the shelves. For those keeping score that’s 13 expansions. With the exception of 1 (Alchemy) – they have all been very well received. That is quite a run dating back to 2008.
Best For Families
Clank
Both as a Dungeon Crawler and Deck Builder – Clank! Offers a quality base game, a handful of expansions – and two re-themes – Clank in Space and Clank Legacy.
What I like about Clank! is how it incorporates the cards into a board game. The cards in your hand are literally the “engine” that will move you through the board. The card play itself doesn’t reveal a lot of big combos like Dominion, instead, it affords you a choice of actions and consequences to choose from. Some will allow you to recover treasures, fend off enemies, or produce skill points. But if you push your luck too far – you most certainly will find trouble. There is very much a push your luck element in the game. Players will want to go deeper into the dungeon looking for high scoring treasures. Take care, the farther you go, the more likely you’ll wake up the dragon and not make it out with your loot.
We picked this for our family selection because it has a light kid-friendly theme. At first glance, the board looks very busy and hard to understand – but that is the secret to its success. At first glance of the board, it looks very complicated. However, the gameplay is based heavily on the use of icons in lieu of text making it a bit easier for kids to digest. The big hit for us, and the reason we added it for families, is the theme. We just really like the concept of a family exploring a dungeon together. Yes it is a competitive game, but it nails the theme in such a matter, everyone will enjoy escaping the dragon. The game itself can be played a number of times before it feels stale. With the addition of some expansions to add to it – we feel confident that your family will enjoy it for quite some time. On the off chance you get tired of the original Clank! and its expansions – Clank! In Space is a great way to rediscover the game.
Oh – and if that wasn’t enough – Clank! for you – Clank Legacy is our top Legacy Game pick. Adding a campaign/customization component to the game is brilliant. You’ll find yourself simply immersed as much into the story as you are in the gameplay itself.
Best for Co-Op
When I first took a look at Aeon’s End – it reminded me of the game Rune Age. Rune Age is another deck builder that also happens to be cooperative, with a few solo variants. Some of the “missions” in Rune Age involve taking down some pretty bad ass dragons/minions and Aeon’s Age takes that and amplifies it. Like Rune Age, there is a deck that is working against you and your fellow mages – the Nemesis Deck. Players will have their handful working together to take down the Nemesis Deck.
Aeon’s End is a game set in the fantasy world. The theme shines through with the characters you choose from and the cards you will be using. More than that, the game play emphasizes the fact that you need to work together to beat the various bosses.
Aeon’s End “engine” has two quirks to it. First, you don’t shuffle your cards. You can attempt to be deliberate on how you play and place your discarded cards. Second, the turn order is random
as well. Again – you’ll need to plan as much as you can. Without careful thought and planning, it could end up that the Nemesis deck will act against you twice, and you need to be ready for that.
Aeon’s End has 7 expansions you could bring into the fold. And if you are looking for even more – consider their fantastic legacy edition – which yes can be solo played as well!
Because of the way the mages can benefit from, and rely on each other is why we selected it for the best co-op deck builder. That being said – if you are looking for a challenging solo adventure, Aeon’s End will give you all that you can handle.
Best Solo Play
If I were to ask a bunch of seasoned board gamers what their favorite game to play solo is – I could almost guarantee that a large portion of them would call out Mage Knight as their favorite. Mage Knight is part RPG, part traditional board game, and part deck builder. It has great success in being able to combine the best elements into this game.
What makes Mage Knight stand out is that it incorporates other aspects of gaming. Drawing from RPG and only using deck building as one part of the game, and not the game itself. The result is a great storyline and great gameplay throughout. The cards you end up acquiring along the way – make for an interesting reflection of the character itself. The cards you acquire become a personalized reflection of the decisions you have made, the adventures you’ve completed, and the setbacks you’ve overcome. It makes for a very personal experience, which is why we are keeping it in the solo spot.
The theming is simply gorgeous and completely relatable to the game. I’m not sure it has quite the same “get your engine going” going fevor as say Dominion. You won’t ever complete a great chain of events. However, there are great moments of synergy that tie the game together. Another reason we have this as our solo pick is that there can be a fair amount of complex decisions on what to do with any given hand. This can lead to analysis paralysis and slow a game down – which isn’t necessarily an issue when you are playing a solo game.
There is a lot of built-in replayability in this box. But for those that want more – there are expansions available.
One growing criticism has been that this game has been hard to find. If this game is on your watch list, and you see it, be sure to grab it right away.
Best Two-Player Game
Star Realms is the only game on the list designed for specifically two players. Star Realms has a quality game designer by name of Darwin Castle. Castle also helped designed another great deck builder by the name of Ascension. The game is a spaceship combat game and does a great job with the theme of spaceships, bases, and outposts.
Because the game itself is relatively small in content – its very easy to learn. One feature that also makes it stand out – is that it is very explosive in its scoring. Most deck builders take a few turns to get the engine going. With other games, it can take several turns before you are able to create combos that generate currency, victory points, or other desired outcomes. Star Realms condenses that time to 3 to 4 rounds before you start dealing out big plays. There is a bit of luck because you need the right ships/bases/outpost to be able to buy to hit those big scores.
Because you can get to those fun explosive combos – reaching victory comes at a quicker pace. That may a turn-off for some, but I really like the idea of getting several games in when I’m playing a great two-player game. Most games will have a 20 minute to 30 minute playing time which is a real asset for this game.
Star Realms has more expansions than I can count or hope to play. If I was good at math I’m sure I could calculate the total number of different games you’d end up playing with all the various expansions iteration. Alas I’m not, so I won’t – but let’s just say – there is a lot. You will not grow tired of this game due to a lack of variety.
At a price point often under $20, this is just one we think everyone should have and makes a great stocking stuffer if you happen to be looking around the holidays.
Best for more than 3 Players
Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game & Legendary A Marvel Deck Building Game
Ok – I know – I picked two for one category. It was difficult to choose one over the other in this particular instance. We’d lean toward Legendary Encounters – but we’d really be splitting hairs.
Both games embrace the themes they are representing. Either the Alien movies or the Marvel Universe. Both are cooperative games, but both shine when you have more players. That is to say they scale well. Each play better with three players instead of two. It isn’t that the game is played differently, it is that they are more fun game experience.
Each game play is very much what you’d expect from a deck builder. You start with a limited deck, and you are working your way towards better cards. The fact that its co-op makes it a bit different. Instead of working towards a victory based on points, you are working to a shared victory, trying to take down a boss or settle a common objective.
What makes these two games stand out is theming. Both games do a great job using the cards to bring out their respective universes. For example, in Marvel you are subject to various plot twists, masters villains, and a persistent mastermind you must defeat. In Aliens, each card may reveal a hidden alien and sudden doom, scarce resources, and mission entanglements.
While the game play differs as far as acquiring cards and getting them in play. Each game will demand that you to be strategic in how you get them down. With limited resources and time, you need to play the cards in such a fashion that your whole team benefits.
Legendary Marvel has plenty of expansions to choose from, offering a host of heroes and villains to add to your game. Legendary Alien likewise has some expansion available as well, though not as many. But the pièce de résistance is that they can be played together! Fancy Wolverine taking on Aliens! To be sure it isn’t seamless, but now, not only do you have a highly thematic game, with careful integration, you can write your own story!
Honorable Mention
If Clank wasn’t such a good game, we could have slipped this one in the family spot. Century is a very easy game to learn. Instead of text, the game uses icons. When a game uses icons in lieu of text it usually piques my interest. Absent text, I know my young kids who aren’t reading yet have a decent chance of being able to catch on to the game.
The play itself reminds a bit of Splendor. Instead of gems, as in Splendor, players are dealing in spices. With the right combination of spices, players can purchase cards that: have varying amounts of victory points, allow you to receive other spices, or some other benefit.
Some cards allow you to collect spices, while others will have you trade 1 spice X to receive 3 spice Y, or some fashion thereof. You can produce some interesting and lucrative combos. One could for example take one brown spice cube, and through a series of trades (cards played) convert it into a green(s), red(s), and perhaps even that brown(s) one back!
Where it falls down a bit is on the theme. If you like a fun engaging theme – this isn’t where to look. In all honesty, the theme could be anything. It just happens to be using spices. It is also part of the reason we don’t see it as a better option than Clank. An older crowd may not care too much about the theme one way or another. We think it will be tough for a kid to get to exciting about trading spices.
Critiques aside – the gameplay is solid. Nailing those combos to get max value of your spices is pretty fun and satisfying. There are plenty of interesting choices and decisions to be made. There are other Century games that integrate with each other. This will give lots of replay value as well.
Conclusion
When looking at the timeline of games – in a way Deck Builders were a bit late to the party. It wasn’t until 2014 did we see some high-quality deck builders hit the market. Sure Dominion has been there since 2008, but it seems the ones with real staying power came later.
I love the expansions that deck building games seem to lend themselves to. As a publisher, it is a lot easier to add more cards to an existing system than it is to write a new game. Cards aren’t expensive to reproduce compared to other components. Most of the time, you will find expansions cheaper than their base games. When looking at expanding a board game collection, it may between spending say $25 or so on an expansion of a game you know, or spending $40+ on a game you have only heard about. We like expanding your base.
I also like the fact they are so easy to learn. For instance, look at a game like Aeon’s End. At first, the big box and components may look daunting. However, the way they constructed the manual, and the way the cards are written – it is very easy. Or look no further than the godfather of the genre – Dominion – One Action/One Buy. From those 4 words, an extremely successful franchise has been born.