You Won’t Need Home Depot’s Help With These Five Great Deck Builder Games
Deck building games have become a staple since the days of Dominion. Today we highlight 5 great games with a deck building mechanic.
Dune: Imperium – Uprising
Dune: Imperium – Uprising is a standalone expansion to the base Dune: Imperium game. It can be combined with the base game, and those expansions as well, or played entirely on its own. The game combines the mechanics of deck building with the elements of worker placement. Plus, it’s obviously set in the Dune universe, so you’ll have to contend with nasty sandstorm and pesky sandworms.
Each player controls a different house from the world of Arrakis, and will build their deck with powerful cards with stunning card inspired by the latest movies. But on top of all that, you’ll also have to balance various resources to maintain a viable strategy.
Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated
The Clank! series of games are all great. They’re fun treasure hunting romps. The main thing about the game is as you progress through the game, you clank, that is, make noise. The noise you make awakens the sleeping dragon who will randomly burn one of the players. The more you clank, you more likely you’re the target.
Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated is a legacy version of Clank!, where players will work through a full narrative campaign. The results from the previous game will affect the following games. But beyond that, the choices will affect the game permanently. This mean when the campaign is finished, you’ll have a board that is uniquely your own for all future games of Clank!
Mage Knight
Anyone who’s been following me here at BoLS for a while shouldn’t be surprised Mage Knight makes the list. Even after a decade, it’s still one of my favorite games. It’s an open world fantasy exploration game with multiple scenarios and expansions. Plus, a new expansion on the way!
Mage Knight is absolutely a deck builder, but it plays more like a puzzle game. Each turn trying to find how to best maximize your actions. Exploring the wilderness, hunting monsters, saving or destroying innocent villages, delving into dungeons, and tons more. Mage Knight is a true open-world exploration RPG in a box.
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth is a deck building game that has a required, albeit free, companion app. I used to be pretty staunchly opposed to app-assisted games, but I’ve since come around. App-assisted games offer a wider array of mechanics and systems that would be otherwise impossible in a purely cardboard-based gaming experience.
Plus, Journeys in Middle Earth is just a fantastic game anyway. The app acts something like a GM for your gaming experience, but ultimately the gameplay is left up to the card you draw and how you build your character through the campaign.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
If theme is important in board gaming, which it is, then Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is the most important game ever made. It’s a game set in a dark and twisted version of Arthurian legend.
It’s like if Mage Knight got mixed with Eldin Ring, but Tainted Grail plays more like games like 7th Citadel. Players are exploring an ever expanding map of side quests and important locations. But ultimately fighting back against a wyrd and misterious threat. With a deep, narrative campaign to follow, it’s as much a thrilling tale of adventure as it is a deck building game.
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