Deck Building - a Modern Card Mechanism

I like the codices from Codex. The asymmetric market for each player; not buying cards but getting to choose any two every turn; the culling that doesn’t just thin your deck but also adds to you income, forcing you to decide which card you will get rid of because you want the money; the choosing of paths which limits your market as the game progresses.

Sagrilarus wrote: One of the things I like about Dominion is that you essentially need to detune your deck at the end of the game in order to win, because your victory condition is junk in your deck. So that makes the challenge of turning that corner from making your deck better to making your deck more valuable an interesting part of the play.

I don't think I have seen a deck builder that does something similar. Are there any out there that do?

I think a lot of deck builders do this to some extent. You usually have to pivot at some point from building up your economy to just using your cards and - hopefully - get rid of those money cards that won't help you reach your end goal.

Rune Age is a bit different here, I think, because you'll often lose your cards and then have to rebuy them. But since you use your cards on your turn and when defending event card effects, you cycle through your deck faster which means you can benefit from buying new cards even late in the game.

That's the other thing I like about Rune Age: the dual currencies. You need gold to buy your regular dudes, but influence to get anything from the neutral market. So you don't have to completely bog down your deck with gold to buy everything that you need, because conquering locations will give you the other type of currency to pick up neutral units and spells. (And, of course, if you're playing the Dwarves, keeping some of those gold cards can be really effective in the mid- and late game.)

Sagrilarus wrote: One of the things I like about Dominion is that you essentially need to detune your deck at the end of the game in order to win, because your victory condition is junk in your deck. So that makes the challenge of turning that corner from making your deck better to making your deck more valuable an interesting part of the play.

I don't think I have seen a deck builder that does something similar. Are there any out there that do?

Valley of the Kings. This is the whole premise.

All of the cards in your deck have to potential to be worth points, but ONLY once they are removed from your deck. You can build a great engine, that allows you to do all the things and play with all the levers, but you'll have to tear it all down if you want to score any points.

Starting cards are worth nothing, but you still want to get rid of them for efficiency. The bigger cards that have the really cool actions are worth the most points.

The game has a fantastic tension about when to shift gears. Too early, and you seriously hamper your ability to get things done. Too late, and you've lost the game because you didn't score enough points.

Dominion was one of the first games I played when I started getting into modern games. It floored me, and I thought deckbuilding was the mechanic for me. I dabbled in Marvel Legendary, Star Realms, Trains, Ascension, Puzzle Strike and Arctic Scavengers and came to realize I actually just liked Dominion. I would never choose any of the others over Vaccarino’s masterpiece. Without the limits on actions and buys, they just didn’t have the same tension as Dominion. You bought the best card when you could and played it when you could. No worries. No thought.

It’s funny how limitations increase decision space.

Anyway, I’ve been playing Dominion again these past few weeks, a few expansions for the first time. Vaccarino hasn’t lost a step. I get overwhelmed checking new kingdoms and seeing a night phase and split piles and debt and heirlooms and events, but then I get them on the table. They’re clean and fun. All at once the new rules are too much but taken in order they’re good and open so much design and play space.

If you haven’t checked in over the past few, give Dominion another shot. There is so much happening in it right now.