Deck Building Games

Trashdome is back!!!! This week Deck Building Games.

The first CCG was Magic: The Gathering, designed by Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. My wife told me the owner of furniture she worked at made enough money from selling Magic the Gathering cards that he started the furniture store. At the same time many other people spent a fortune on Magic or other CCGs. In the 2000s Living Card Game (LCG) games were started. LCG didn't take the constant investment in new cards like CCGs. In 2008 Dominion was released. Designer Donald XXX Vaccarion started the deck building on the fly revolution.

This week we'll be focusing in on the Deck Building games not on CCG or LCGs. Also, we'll be excluding Mage Knight and Few Halifax Hammers of Snow or games that use deck building as part of a larger game.

Example deck building games: Artic scavengers, Ascension, Blood Bowl Team Manager, Briefcase, Core World, DC Comics, Dominion, Eaten by Zombies, Rune Age, Star Trek Deck building, Eminent Domain, Night Fall, Puzzle Strike, Quarriors, Toanto Cuores, Thunderstone and Yggdrasil.

So your job is to rank your top 5 Deck Building games. Please list your top 5 favorite Deck Building games. I'll tabulate the results on Friday.

1)puzzle strike (favourite to play)
2)dominion (well designed, good to play online)
3)thunderstone (enjoyable solo game)
4)trains (have not played but this is the dbg i would most like to)
5)core worlds (see trains, but more interested in trains)

As you can tell, not a big fan. I don't care for games where on another player's turn you're watching them play a game of combo Magic.

I like this genre because they are generally fast games and because I like shuffling (or bags in the case of PS)

1/ Rune Age - for the combat (with expansion that is)
2/ Nightfall - for the combat (also with expansions)
3/ Puzzle Strike - for the one on one combat (no expansion)
4/ DC the DBG - for playing drunk with non gamers
5/ Dominion - for the strategy

th..th..th..th..that's all folks...

What if I don't have a top 5?

Also, why is Yggdrasil a deckbuilding game? I get the cleaning and seeding of the bags, and the buying of weapons, elves, and vikings, but I'm not seeing a deckbuilding mechanic there.

1) Rune Age
2) Yggdrasil (?)

Blood Bowl Team Manager is not a deck building game, if we're going to count it as such the then Starcraft The Boardgame is a deck building game and A Few Acres of Snow is a deck building game.

1) Puzzle Strike
2) Dominion
3) Quarriors
4) Nightfall
5) Ascension

1. Nightfall
2. Puzzle Strike
3. Core Worlds
4. Eminent Domain
5. Ascension


I would have at one time put Dominion in there, but...

1. Between AI version, BSW, and face-to-face, I've played the ever-loving shit out of it

and

2. The level of interaction and thematic elements in those I listed render Dominion obsolete.

1. Dominion (with expansions) - Best Strategy DBGame
2. Nightfall - Best melding of CCG mechanics into a DBGame, but it's only really good as 2p

The others aren't really good enough to vote for. Thunderstone, Ascension, Rune Age, even Puzzle Strike... I am perfectly happy never playing them again.

1. Puzzle Strike

All the rest are okay but don't hold my interest. I play about 10-20 games of PS per day.

1. Bloodbowl TM (although id argue this is a game that uses a bit of deckbuilding)
2. Core worlds

wadenels wrote: What if I don't have a top 5?

Good question no problem having less than 5 games. I'm going to give 1st place votes = 5 points, 2nd place = 4 points, etc. To set the rankings. Then next week the top 4 games will go into the final 4 for some real head to head Trashdome.

The only builder that I enjoy playing is Quarriors, so that gets my vote. Assuming the usual variants and/or advanced rules (two buys, etc.) are in effect.

1. Mage Knight
2. Thunderstone
3. Puzzle Strike
4. Dominion

1) Ascension
2) Quarriors
3) Dominion

1. Resident Evil


I think the only others Ive played are Dominion and Ascension but I didnt care for either.

Mage Knight's not a deckbuilder. Blood Bowl Team Manager is closer, but not exactly. It was originally billed to be one, but they took that description off when the design was finalized. I'd say Race for the Galaxy is kind of close to being a deckbuilder. It's a tableu-builder I suppose.

1. Ascension (iOS)
2. Nightfall (iOS)
3. Rune Age
4. Dominion

Those are the only four I've played, which is why Dominion is even ranked. Deckbuilders are best on iOS where you don't have to deal with any of the shuffling, sorting or dealing.