Tag: Deck Building

Deck Building is a mechanic where players build a deck of resources that is randomly drawn and used for future turns.

Call to Adventure

| T3d-1978
Call to Adventure

Call to Adventure

Make your fate! Inspired by character-driven fantasy storytelling, Call to Adventure challenges 1-4 players to create the hero with the greatest destiny by acquiring traits, facing challenges, and overcoming adversaries.

Call to Adventure features a unique “rune rolling” system for resolving challenges, a point-based system that encourages storytelling, and over 150 unique cards. Players begin each game with an origin card that provides their backstory as well as two “starter” abilities. Each round they may either acquire trait cards from the board or face a challenge. Challenges each have two possible paths a player can choose from. For example, players who encounter the Thieves’ Guild may choose to train as a spy, or train as a killer. Each challenge has a difficulty that must be overcome by rolling successes on carved runes. The more a player has of the abilities required to overcome the challenge, the more runes they will be able to cast.

Failed challenges lead players to acquire experience points that may be spent to “push” through tougher challenges. But beware, while some negative experiences will help your hero grow, too many tragedies set them on a dark path.

As players’ heroes grow in ability and experience, they move on to harder challenges, eventually facing deadly adversaries and acquiring more and more destiny points. The player whose hero has the highest destiny score wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.02

Behext

| T3d-1978
Behext

Behext

The more powerful the magic, the more danger in the wielding.
BEHEXT is a magical combat deck-building game, where your hand of spells is both your only defense and your only currency. To that end, you must sacrifice cards from your hand, and even your own willpower, to custom build your arcane arsenal.

Begin as one of 6 unique Battlemages specialized in their own magical discipline. Then, tailor your deck to your strategic tastes and in reaction to emerging opportunities. Curse and counter-curse your opponents into submission… without being Hexed yourself by the wild magics that have since passed beyond your control.

An unconventional deck-builder that is highly interactive as you constantly deflect Hexes around the table. You are not building a resource engine so much as constructing your deck to deliver the types of interactions you want to have with other players. Will you specialize in forcing discards to deprive them, focus on negation magic, attack their Willpower with direct damage – or take on chaotic and possibly dangerous spells to build Victory points into your deck at great risk to yourself?

Plus, newly conjured spells are not put into your discard pile, rather than forcing you to wait for their return, but are placed directly into your hand. You can play them immediately – right when you need them most.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 50 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Baseball Highlights: 2045

| T3d-1978
Baseball Highlights: 2045

Baseball Highlights: 2045

American baseball was on its last legs as a spectator sport. Football had become the predominant national pastime — that is until the year 2032, the year baseball decided to revolutionize the game and regain the throne!

Starting in 2032, baseball games were shortened to six innings. Pitchers were encouraged to have bionic arm implants to improve their pitching. These cyborgs, or ‘Borgs as they’re affectionately known, were immediately popular and soon ruled the league. In 2041, robotic players were introduced to get more offense back into the game. These robots were similar to designated hitters in that they were used only to bat and did not field. However, recent reports indicate fielding ‘Bots are on the way.

Now in 2045, human players are still in the game and known as Naturals. They are the best fielders by far but are sorely challenged when it comes to hitting and pitching. Some Naturals have learned to hit by swinging before the pitcher starts his windup, which gives them a chance to hit the ball. Although it’s hard for a Natural to get into the league, those who do are popular. Many Naturals have named themselves after the great players of pre-2032 baseball by taking a first and last name borrowed from different star players of the past. The fans love them, and their presence on the team ensures good revenue!

The stage is now set! The fans are energized and root fanatically for their new favorites, be they ‘Bots, ‘Borgs or Naturals!

Baseball Highlights: 2045 is like watching TV highlights of early 21st-century baseball games, with the gameplay being full of theme with no outs or innings and without bogging down in a play-by-play baseball simulation. In this quick and interactive game, two players build their teams as they play, combining both strategy (building your team) and tactics (playing the game) without any of the downtime. During each “mini-game”, each player alternates playing six cards to simulate a full game’s highlights. The mini-game includes defensive and offensive actions, and your single card play may include elements of defensive and/or offensive plays. Do you try to thwart your opponent’s pending hits, put up strong offensive action of your own, or use your better players to do both? Players buy new free agents after each mini-game to improve their roster, and the team who wins the most mini-games in the series is the champ!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1, 2, or 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.21

Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

| T3d-1978
Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Ascension: Deckbuilding Game — originally released as Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer — is a fast-paced deck-building game designed by Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour champions Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty, and Brian Kibler, with artwork by Eric Sabee.

Ascension is a deck-building game in which players spend Runes to acquire more powerful cards for their deck. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategy accordingly. Each player starts with a small deck of cards, and uses those cards to acquire more and better cards for their deck, with the goal of earning the most Honor Points by gaining cards and defeating monsters.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Ascension: Curse of the Golden Isles

| T3d-1978
Ascension: Curse of the Golden Isles

Ascension: Curse of the Golden Isles

Be ye brave or be ye foolish, the race to reach the cursed treasure of the Golden Isles is a perilous one. The waters are home to ancient horrors. On the islands, monsters stalk the caves and marshes. But, the true terror of the Golden Isles haunts the mists and the storms – the cursed crew of the Crimson Askara!

Ascension: Curse of the Golden Isles returns players to the Severed Seas, as they venture to recruit Heroes, build mighty Constructs, and raid their opponents’ Treasure as they vie to gather the most Honor before the game ends!

Along with the classic gameplay mechanics seen throughout Ascension’s ten year history, Curse of the Golden Isle introduces a new gameplay mechanic: Cursed Treasure. Players that collect pairs of Cursed Treasure tokens may use them to gain valuable Runes, Power, and more!

But, beware! The ghostly crew of the Crimson Askara is also sailing the Severed Seas, spending eternity to reclaim these lost treasures and wreak havoc on your noble crew! Can you reach the cursed treasure and gain its bounty before your opponents and the ghastly pirates aboard the Crimson Askara!? Only clever deckbuilding and cunning decisions will aid you in this latest adventure on the Severed Seas!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Ascension Tactics

| T3d-1978
Ascension Tactics

Ascension Tactics

Ascension Tactics is a revolutionary new game, pioneering a brand-new genre by combining the best of tactical miniatures games with the fast-paced strategy of deck-building games. Ascension Tactics brings the most iconic characters from the award-winning deck-building game to life as highly-detailed paintable 3D miniatures.

  • Many ways to play! Battle through the campaign mode or try the various PvP, Cooperative, and Solo Scenarios.
  • PvP drafting mode allows players to build their armies before a battle.
  • Players acquire cards from the ever-changing center row to power up their forces.
  • Even the smallest miniature can take down mighty beasts by gaining command points and equipping magical constructs.
  • No dice rolling required!

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Art Decko

| T3d-1978
Art Decko

Art Decko

Art Decko, first released as Promenade, is a light strategy game for 2 to 4 painting collectors in which you try to create a valuable deck of gold and painting cards over the course of play. These cards — gold and paintings — both count as currencies in the game, and you can use them to purchase more paintings, acquire more gold, and pay for exhibition space in a museum. Your long-term goal is to manipulate the market value of certain styles of artwork, while also earning points by placing paintings in the museum.

The game includes paintings from five styles of art — Art Nouveau, Pop Art, Renaissance, Surrealism, and Impressionism — and you start with five random painting cards in your deck. Each art style starts with a value of 1 gold for a painting. You also have five starting gold cards in your deck, with the cards being worth 1 or 2 gold, with some cards having a special ability on them.

To start the game, shuffle your deck, then take five cards in hand. Fill the four galleries with 2-3 random paintings each, then place two random 3-gold cards (each with a special power) in the bank, along with the deck of 5-gold cards. Paintings in galleries cost 1-8 gold, while gold cards cost 5 or 8 gold. On a turn, take two actions from these three choices, repeating an action, if desired:

• Haggle: Discard a card from your hand to draw two cards from your deck.
• Acquire: Pay the acquisition cost of a painting or gold card by discarding cards from your hand, then place that card in your discard pile. Increase the “market rating” of the painting’s art style or gold by the value listed in the gallery/bank. As the market rating of an art style increases, each painting in that style is worth more gold, effectively increasing its buying power; that art style is also worth more points at game’s end.
• Exhibit: Pay the exhibition cost for a gallery, then place a painting into that gallery that matches one of that gallery’s invitation markers. (A gallery might want, for example, 2 Impressionistic paintings, 1 Renaissance painting, and 1 painting of any type.) Mark that painting with one of your ownership tokens, then place the related invitation marker on the highest available victory point (VP) space, scoring those points for yourself immediately. That painting is now removed from your deck.

If you use the special ability on a gold card instead of its listed numerical value, remove that card from the game.

At the end of your turn, discard any number of cards from your hand, then refill your hand to five cards. If a gallery has no paintings in it, refill all of the galleries with 2-3 paintings, then replace each empty gallery’s cost token with the next highest one available. When at least twelve paintings are in the museum, the painting deck is empty, or an art style or gold reaches a market rating of 70, finish the round, then proceed to final scoring.

The value of gold depends on its market rating, with its value ratio ranging from 6:1 to 1:1. Each painting in your deck is worth 1-7 VPs depending on the market rating of its art style. Each exhibition space in the museum also has a random bonus that was revealed at the start of play, and you can earn additional points through these bonuses. In the end, the player with most VPs wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Economic

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.31

Aquatica

| T3d-1978
Aquatica

Aquatica

Aquatica is a deep, but easy to learn family engine builder about underwater kingdoms.

In the game you will become one of the mighty ocean kings, struggling to bring glory to his realm. To win the game, you need to capture and buy locations, recruit new characters, and complete goals; each of these actions gives you victory points at the end of the game. To do so, you need to play cards from your hand (each with a unique set of actions) and combine them. Don’t think it’s simple! With a good strategy during your turn, you can take up to ten actions in a row.

You will encounter plenty of mysterious ocean creatures and take them to your hand. With their help you will explore the unknown locations and raise found resources from the ocean depths to your kingdom. Mechanically this is represented with the help of three-layered player board and the unique mechanism of card-rising.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.27

Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game: Collected Edition

| T3d-1978
Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game: Collected Edition

Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game: Collected Edition

Apex is a deck-building game, played solo or with up to 3 friends (publisher recommends 2-4 players). You play as a prehistoric predator competing for territory and resources against other predators. Each playable species has a unique deck to master. Each deck has different strengths, weaknesses, and strategies—creating a varied and constantly evolving experience.

Your species must overcome a very brutal environment including harsh climate changes, disease, attacks from predators, grievous wounds, infections, and deadly prey. The game incorporates many dinosaurs that behave in their own distinct way. The goal of the game is to endure the environment, build up the population and evolve your species, and become the apex predator.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 160 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.58

Adventure Mart

| T3d-1978
Adventure Mart

Adventure Mart

From dank dungeon entrances to magical market squares, Adventure Marts magically pop into existence wherever they are needed. Busier locations require more than one store, and each one needs a manager — that’s where you come in!

Outsmart your competition and serve a fantastical array of adventurers as you battle to make more gold than your opponents! Adventure Mart is a fresh new take on deck-building games with added twists and plenty of player interaction.

The life of a store manager is brief, but glorious. Can you become “Manager of the Week”? Or will you be banished to the abyss?

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Deck Building
  • Economic

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40