4 Things About Deck-building Games

Pick Up and Deliver

Brendan shares his thoughts about what makes deck-building games fun or interesting. Join us, won’t you?

• Previous episodes:
  • Pick Up & Deliver 015: Deck Construction
  • Pick Up & Deliver 239: Duel – Valley of the Kings vs Arctic Scavengers
  • Pick Up & Deliver 246: My top games for the 10 additional mechanisms Kris Hickman suggested (part 3)
  • Pick Up & Deliver 267: Gentle Conflict Mechanisms, part 2
  • Pick Up & Deliver 407: Combos
• Deck construction vs deck building
• 1. Variety in setup or variety in player choice
  • Static market setup
    • Dominion
    • Arctic Scavengers
    • Aeon’s End
  • River market setup
    • Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
    • Ascension
    • Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
• 2. Gimmicks / Innovations
  • Brawl: Arctic Scavengers
  • Shared reserve: The Big Book of Madness
  • Deck de-construction: Valley of the Kings, Dale of Merchants
  • Board manipulation: A Few Acres of Snow, Clank!
  • with Worker Placement: Lost Ruins of Arnak, Dune: Imperium
  • Don’t shuffle: Aeon’s End
  • Evolving Static Market: The Quest for El Dorado
• 3. Varying Amounts of Randomness and Control
  • Dominion
  • Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
• 4. Eyes Bigger Than Your Stomach
  • The Quest for El Dorado
  • Clank!

What deck-building games do you enjoy? Share your thoughts over on boardgamegeek in guild #3269.