Highlights
- Deck-building is a popular mechanic in board games and video games, allowing players to add better cards to their starting deck throughout the game.
- Combining deck-building with strategic mechanics can create unique experiences that are perfect for fans of strategy games.
- Different deck-building games, such as Cry Havoc, Star Realms, and 51st State, offer simple yet strategic gameplay mechanics that enhance the overall experience.
Deck-building is a popular mechanic in board games that allows players to add more powerful cards to a standard starting deck throughout the game, usually placing cards in their discard pile and shuffling the new, better cards in when they run out of cards to draw. This mechanic is so effective that, over recent years, it's also become a popular mechanic in video games.
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Deck-building as a mechanic can make up a game's entire gameplay loop, but it could be argued that deck-builders are at their best when combined with other mechanics. Strategy games are a prominent genre in board games, and the combination of deck-building and strategic mechanics can create fun, unique experiences that are perfect for strategy game fans.
Updated January 21, 2024 by Harry Ted Sprinks: Deck-builders have become increasingly popular over recent years, predominantly in video games, thanks to the release and popularity of titles such as Slay The Spire. These tabletop-inspired video games continue to be popular, with recent indie titles like Cobalt Core and Wildfrost providing evidence of this fact. However, there are still uniquely strategic deck-building games to be had on the tabletop.
1 Cry Havoc - An Asymmetric War Game
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.1
- Player Count: 2-4
- Play Time: 60-120 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 3.28
- Released: 2016
This asymmetric war game combines area control with easy-to-learn, light deck-building, and a science-fiction theme. Cry Havoc contains a lot of strategy and replay value thanks to its asymmetric nature that allows players to play one of four unique factions.
Deck-building in Cry Havoc is extremely simple. On a player's turn, they can use an action to draw two cards from one of four unique terrain decks, looking at both and picking one to add to their deck. This simple system forces players to make tough decisions every time they choose to add cards, and since players don't know the options they'll have when choosing to add cards, it helps to balance the game and prevents a particularly good player from building a perfect engine.
2 Star Realms (Boxed Set) - A Minimalist Deck-Builder
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.9
- Player Count: 2-4
- Play Time: 20 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.0/5
- Released: 2021
This sci-fi deck-building game for 2-4 players is arguably best when played with two. Star Realms is a small, highly portable box packed with thematic cards illustrated with spaceships and space stations alike.
Star Realms is an easy-to-learn, quick-to-play deck-builder that tasks players with taking out their opponent by whittling down their health over time. The game is fast-paced, with gameplay that focuses on a balance between economy management and damage output. Balancing the deck efficiently and not adding too many cards of a single type is essential to winning.
3 51st State (Ultimate Edition) - Post-Apocalyptic Deck-Building
Board Game Geek Rating: 8.2
- Player Count: 1-4
- Play Time: 75 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.72
- Released: 2023
This post-apocalyptic deck-building game tasks players with building new locations, hiring important leaders, and using their people to acquire resources. 51st State has players choosing new cards to acquire every round, and its focus on strategically developing locations adds an element of engine-building.
51st State also allows players to raze the locations of their opponents, though this often requires a lot of resources. Overall, 51st State's combination of deck-building and engine-building mechanics makes for a thematic and strategic experience.
4 Northgard: Uncharted Lands - A Tactical Area-Control Game
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.7
- Player Count: 2-5
- Play Time: 45-90 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.70
- Released: 2022
This game, based on the hit strategy video game, Northgard, is a tactical area-control game in which players lay tiles to create the game's board while trying to control as many territories as possible.
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Cards in Northgard are well illustrated and easy to read, allowing for a game that's easy to learn and understand, minimizing frequent trips to the rule book. The game's deck-building mechanics are simple, but they add an extra level of decision and strategy that helps to increase the game's depth.
5 Dominion - A Classic Deck-Builder
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.6
- Player Count: 2-4
- Play Time: 30 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.35/5
- Released: 2008
This legendary classic tabletop game is widely regarded as one of the first popular implementations of deck-building mechanics in board games, taking the deck-building mechanics of collectible card games and transferring them to a game-by-game structure.
Dominion is also packed with distinct cards, and because of the way cards are randomly selected at the start of the game, Dominion has an immense amount of variety right out of the box. Gameplay-wise, Dominion is very much about building an engine with cards, managing the economy efficiently, and creating a strategy that snowballs into the late game.
6 Moonrakers - A Sci-Fi Swashbuckling Deck-Builder
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.7
- Player Count: 1-5
- Play Time: 60-120 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.42/5
- Released: 2020
This beginner-friendly science fiction deck-builder tasks players with taking on a variety of dangerous contracts in order to earn "Prestige," the game's victory points. As players progress through the game, they slowly build up and improve their deck, which represents their unique spaceship.
Moonrakers features slick artwork and an elegantly designed gameplay loop that's both strategic and friendly to newcomers. The game also features elements of negotiation that may not be for everyone, but add a lot to the experience and theme.
7 Lost Ruins Of Arnak - Worker Placement Meets Deck-Building
Board Game Geek Rating: 8.1
- Player Count: 1-4
- Play Time: 30-120 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.91/5
- Released: 2020
This exploration-themed game combines popular worker placement mechanics with light deck-building to create a deep and strategic experience packed with interesting decisions, all in a brisk playtime that's relatively quick to learn.
Lost Ruins Of Arnak is highly accessible with its thematic artwork and quick playtime, despite the large amount of decisions it asks players to make. Unlike some games, Lost Ruins Of Arnak doesn't have much broad and sweeping strategy, but players can expect to spend a lot of time strategizing over their next move. The cards that players add to their deck and the locations they put their workers are highly important to success.
8 Tyrants Of The Underdark - A D&D Area-Control Game
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.9
- Player Count: 2-4
- Play Time: 60 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.55
- Released: 2016
This Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game for 2-4 players takes place in the Underdark and puts players in the role of a Drow matriarch, vying for control over the territory of the Underdark. The game is relatively quick to play and focuses on a distinct blend of area control and deck-building mechanics.
Despite its theme, players don't need any knowledge of D&D to play Tyrants Of The Underdark. The game is highly strategic, thanks to its focus on area control and troop deployment, and its deck-building mechanics help to deepen the typical simple structure of an area control game.
9 Undaunted - A Tactical WW2 Deck-Builder
Board Game Geek Rating: 7.8
- Player Count: 2
- Play Time: 45-60 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 2.25/5
- Released: 2019
The Undaunted games are a series of tabletop war games structured around deck-building. The games are set during WW2, with Undaunted: Normandy being the most accessible, and Undaunted: Stalingrad being a legacy-style game with a large overarching campaign.
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In Undaunted, players will fight over various objectives by controlling troops, represented on the board by cardboard tokens, but also represented in-hand with cards assigned to specific troop types and squad designations. Throughout a game of Undaunted, players can add new troops from their supply to their deck just like in most deck-building games. However, what makes Undaunted so thematic and unique is that when a player takes casualties, they must remove a card matching the troop's type from their deck and place it into the casualty pile.
10 Dune Imperium - A Strategic War Game Of Worker Placement And Deck-Building
Board Game Geek Rating: 8.4
- Player Count: 1-4
- Play Time: 60-120 Minutes
- Complexity Rating: 3.04/5
- Released: 2020
Set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe on the planet Arrakis, Dune Imperium is a strategy war game with deck-building and worker placement elements. Each game sees players begin with ten basic cards, adding more powerful ones as the game progresses to develop a winning strategy.
Despite its fairly straightforward deck-building and worker placement mechanics, Dune Imperium distinguishes itself from other games with its sub-game, the "Conflict," in which players compete to have the largest military power to gain various rewards, such as taking control of regions. Furthermore, many cards have multiple uses, adding an extra layer of depth to both the deck-building and card-playing.
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