What is a deck-building board game?

Deck-building or deck-builder board games, are board games where players start with a relatively low level deck and build up to a better deck, be it to gain more actions and points, or to defeat enemies more easily and gather resources the fastest. 

There's all sorts of deck-building board games out there, from competitive, where players are in direct or indirect conflict with one another, to cooperative, where players work together to achieve a common goal, which is usually beat the game.

Deck-building board games have a great breath of variety, with some being campaign based, that Anjali is quite fond of, while other mechanics may focus on resource management, turn orders and more. 

We have our personal favourites when it comes to deck-building board games. A fan favourite so far has been The Quacks of Quedlinberg,  which we got to play at a friend's place. Quacks of Quedlinberg embodies a very chaotic fun, is simple to setup and understand and regardless of whether you brew a potion successfully or go boom, the game provides for a fun-filled evening. In Quacks of Quedlinberg, your deck ends up being a bag of tokens, and the tactile feeling only adds to the game's charm. 

Some of our other favourites in the cooperative deck-building board game space include Spirit Island, Frosthaven and Slay the Spire.

The haven games are a great example of deck-building board games - from Gloomhaven to Frosthaven, where you complete campaigns cooperatively by building up your own character's unique deck.

There's lots of other games we have our eyes on as well, from competitive deck-building board games like Clank!, Dominion, Tyrants of the Underdark, Ascension and more, to cooperative deck-building board games like Adventure Tactics, Aeon's End, Astro Knights and possibly other campaign based deck-builders if Anjali has any say in it.

If you go by the boxes, many board games will claim to have you finishing some long deck-building board games in 3 hours.
This is likely a lie. Do not believe it!

Well okay, sometimes its not a lie and it depends on the game, and there's lots of assumptions and nuance to this. For example, Slay the Spire mentions finishing a game in 30-150 minutes. This likely constitutes only one round, and if you're avid players like me and my friends, we've most certainly, definitely, totally, not spent 8 hours playing the game in a day and stopped only because we lost at the end of the third round.

So in all seriousness, some smaller games may take from 20 minutes to 2 hours, but the bigger, longer, complex and heavy games are likely to take a day, if not days of playing, like Frosthaven. Although, in all fairness, if you're playing Frosthaven, you can play a campaign in 3 hours (when you know your character really well and exactly what you're doing), or, if like us, you're new to the game, a day.

Make your decisions wisely. Always have a snack bowl and glass of water by your side!

Did anyone say min-maxing?
As you know, I, Anjali, absolutely love games that let me min-max. Deck building board games are perfect for min-maxing shenanigans and I enjoy the variety every game brings. Bonus points if the 'power ups' change between characters, buildings or actions to choose from, to further increase the variety every game brings.

Joshua loves deck-building board games for their strategic elements. When in a competitive setting he very much enjoys the ability to mess with other players, as deck-building board games often give you that chance. In a more cooperative setting he enjoys the shift in strategic thinking to plan for the best combos when striking foes down.

If you enjoy trading card games, you're likely to enjoy the deck-building board game genre, as they both share a lot of similar strategic elements and gameplay.

We'd also suggest this game to players that enjoy strategic games, however light or heavy, and see and feel a difference and variety in each game. Deck-building strategy board games can be among some of the most flexible games with several ways of winning, and in some games, you can't who the winner is till the points get tallied.