Top 10 Deck Building Games 

No love for Tyrants of the Underdark? It's a fantastic deck-builder + area control which scales well with all player counts and has unique deck preparation each game.

Imperium: Classics and Legends are a massive pain to learn, but once I got my phd in the rules, it is easily one of my favourite pure deck builders. Domonion for the simplicity, Imperium for the complexity. I like Dune and Arnak well enough, but if I had to say what percentage of my time was spent thinking about the deckbuilding in either vs the other elements of the game, both are at less than 10 percent, so i would not really include them

I recently played Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade and I was impressed at how thematic it felt and actually how fun it was. I expected a cash grab. Instead I got a pretty good deck builder.

Tom, please make a top 11-20 deck builders video for those of us that are also huge fans of the mechanism 🙂

Tyrants of the Underdark is fantastic! Deck building and area control. excellent! And the deck building in Rococo Deluxe is amazing ( no shuffling of cards but you can choose).

The gaming experience, variety, and knowledge of these guys is mind boggling!

Tyrants of the Underdark is a very underrated deck building game.

In my opinion Clank! (as a system) is the best deck building game ever period. Also it is one of my favorite board games of all time as well but the deck building mechanism and how it works with the exploration and moving around the map - simply awesome!!!

Kodachi rules. A unique push your luck deckbuilder. Thanks for bringing this one into play, Zee. If people don't know about it, they should.

Since co-ops were mentioned a few times: Xenoshyft! I like the game arc, and I like the mechanism of being able to play cards onto other player's boards to get the cards into their deck. If you like small quirky deck builders, give Flip City a try. It combines with push your luck nicely, and it has 2 different win condions and seems to be about the right game length.

Thunderstone Quest is my favorite. I have so much fun I don't even care if I win. The feeling of leveling up heroes and equipping them with weapons and getting treasure is just so good. Has such a cool feel while still being a straight deck builder

Maaaaaaan!! Nobody EVER talks about Dale of Merchants, but it has been on my Wishlist since I first fell back into the boardgame hobby (You know, after a childhood of Sorry, Monopoly, and Catan, when you reach your 20s & realize that there is a whole world of boardgames unknown to the general population)

Very surprised Baseball Highlights 2045 didn’t make a list. I am aghast that that my #1 Deck Building game didn’t make a single list, Tyrants of the Underdark. Dudes on a map where gameplay is driven by deck building, c’mon!

Y’all need to give Arctic Scavengers another spin. The skirmish phase still shines on as an extremely unique mechanism to this day. Also extremely theme rich… something deckbuilding games STILL struggle with so many years later.

Dune Imperium is such a great game, top 5 all time for me. I do tend to like Deck Building as a mechanism within a bigger game, rather than the deck building being most of the game. Dominion is a weird one for me, where it’s obviously a classic, but I just can’t seem to muster any interest in it. It just looks so drab to me, but who knows, maybe if I gave it a try it’d surprise me.

I know it's not perfect, but there is a special place in my heart for DC Deck-Building Game.

Ruff Ghanor was just launched yesterday. Very cool story, great graphics and amazing gameplay.

I'd love to see this same list made by Mike, Joey and Roy... just saying!

Shards of Infinity has a "saga collection" coming to Kickstarter this summer (they're aiming for late June or early July) that will have a sort of remastered version of all the game content, all at once.

My Top 10 Deck-Building Games: 1. Legendary Marvel 2. Codex: Card-Time Strategy (surprised this wasn't on Tom's list) 3. Lost Ruins of Arnak 4. Eternal Chronicles of the Throne (HUGELY underrated) 5. Masters of Mutanite 6. Dungeon Alliance 7. Clank! 8. Path of Light and Shadow 9. Shards of Infinity 10. Tea Dragon Society (great intro game)

Shards of Infinity was the first deck builder I ever played and honestly I’m kind of sad that I started off on such a high note because to me there is nowhere left to go. Cannot recommend it enough

I have to say I'm with Zee. Pure deck builders don't do much for me, but as an element of larger games? Love it. Top 3 would probably be Dune, Lost Ruins if Arnak, and Endless Winter. Though I've not played a lot of the ones listed.

Every time Tom comments about Aeons End I feel like he’s playing a different game than me. I don’t feel like the game is very difficult to play well, my young son has enjoyed it as well and he does NOT play heavy games or anything. It’s also normally pretty easy to discard your cards, it’s typically just discard the card that gets more ether first or the spell that does more damage. If anything it’s a game I play less because it’s too simple personally.

Star Wars The Deckbuilding Game is getting a lot of love in our family. Yes the theme and artwork is perfect, but it’s the Force mechanic combined with the ability to attack enemy cards in the market row (galaxy row) with units plus Capital Ships protecting a series of “final boss” bases?! What?! Yes please, give us all the expansions, so good!

My personal favorite from ones i've played and in my library is Dale of Merchants. Another interesting one I discovered in a game shop library is Choosing Sides , I thought the combo mechanism it uses is very interesting.

Nice to see Siege of Runedar getting some love, it's a really fun co-op game and the deck building feels unique, when you get a new card you have to get rid of an old card, so your deck is always the same size.

I have a lot of Deckbuilding games. Rune Stones is one of my favorites but it doesn't seem to get much love.

I expected to not like Baseball Highlights (and it has such a stupid name), but what constantly impresses me about it is how so many games end up coming down to extra innings. The feeling of pulling it off against your opponent in Game 7 in extras is such a fantastic way to end a game.

I recently just started seeing Arnak more as a deck builder and my scores have indeed gone up. 🎉

Great list! Summer Camp is probably my favourite. Great theme, awesome race, and pretty light and quick.

The gulf of music knowledge that exists between Chris and Tom is one of my favorite things of all time.

I would love a top 10 dominion expansion list!

Where's Mage Knight?! It's really strange to me that it didn't show up at all. Did it even get a mention? (nevermind, it gets mentioned) It's probably the heaviest deck building and exploration game ever made with different Clix figure mages, some innovative mechanisms for combat, and a ton of content. Every action you take in that game is driven by card play from the deck you're building.

As much as the theme of the game is a little bit tough to digest, KamiGami Battles is one of my favourite Deckbuilders, specifically for the chaining mechanic, but i also just love a good combat/duel deckbuilder.

So, I’ve given myself some time to try to get used to the new seating arrangement. But, You guys sitting in a “living room” feels weird. Bring the game table back. You guys will have some place to put your clipboards, drinks, hands. You can sit more comfortably. Everything else is great, just slide the table back up to the chairs. You guys just don’t look as comfortable.❤

I must be the only in the world that like deck building games (Star Realms is my favorite) but can't stand Dominion. It really bores me to death

Summer Camp is a streamlined (but good) deck builder, but I think Flip City is even more streamlined. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but one of the reasons I own Flip City is as an entry level teaching tool for the deck building genre. Would I start people with Summer Camp now? Probably. 😊

Chris' pick of cowboy Bebop really surprised me. I don't ever hear people talk about that game. I have it surprisingly. I bought it back when it came out. My biggest complaint is the card quality is very poor. After a couple of plays the cards got kind of sticky. Definitely cards you need to sleeve to get several plays out of them. I'm more surprised by it than anything. There are dozens of better Deck builders out there but it's still a solid game especially if you like cowboy Bebop.

So many amazing deck builders not included. Tyrants Of The Underdark, Venom Assault, Arctic Scavengers, Marvel Legendary, GI Joe Deck Building.

On deck builder that I like a lot but is really a hidden gem is Battle for Greyport. Take a look at it, it's really good :)

Xenoshyft and Tyrants of the Underdark. Nightfall with expansions as well. Splendid Deckbuilders.

Star wars Deck Building game has 4 players rules in the box but you need 2 versions of the game. I hear its really good but i need to investigate further

Deck building games were initially thought to solve the problem of how to create a CCG in a box. Unfortunately there hasnt been one to come close to this experience. Puzzle Strike tries to incorporate head to head interaction which gets it close to a solution. Another issue is the constant hand shuffling limits long term planning which is a big part of CCGs (hand management). I personally believe that actual solution is NOT to combine the gameplay elements, but rather to separate them into 2 game phases. Phase 1 is the deck building phase where the players deck is created. The 2nd phase is where the decks are then used in head to head battle.

I love Undaunted. I also love that they now have solo modules for all of the scenarios for Normandy and North Africa. So well done.

I don’t think I’ve even played 10 deckbuilders, but I absolutely love the ones I do have. My ranking would probably go dominion, clank!, dune imperium, marvel legendary, lotr fellowship of the ring deck building game

Friedemann Friese’s Friday is a great deck building game.

Baseball highlights 2045 and hero realms (especially with the solo campaigns) are 2 of my favorites that I don’t really see getting much love.

We had a board game tournament at my house where after each game my kid and I rated the game. March madness style the higher score moved on. Dominion did okay but was beat by 4 other deck building games. Our winner was a deck builder, Star Realm. Surprised it did not make it on any lists. Too basic for them??? A pair of Cryptozoic made it pretty far: Penny Arcade and Rick and Morty (which to play with kids I had to remove 4 of the location cards from the game).

Heart of Crown is one of my favourites. It is from Japanime, so Tom dismisses it, but in this case he should not. Back a princess and build support. Great pure deckbuilder.

As a fellow Bebop fan I really appreciate that Chris put Space Serenade on this list. I've only tried it on Tabletopia but would like to get this at some point; I do think 10 is appropriate but as many franchise games aren't great this seems better by comparison.

I just bought Stalingrad as my first undaunted game. I'm loving it. So if you haven't played undaunted don't let the size and campaign of Stalingrad scare you off. It can be your first choice.

I'm a little surprised nobody mentioned Tyrants of the Underdark or Taverns of Tiefenthal. They're both fantastic games that would make my top 10 deck builders.

Zee´s reaction to Tom´s "rules" was awesome! 🤣

1:19:44 What card did Tom mean by the "blind pirates"? Couldn't find anything on google but i'm curious to see what's it like 😄

Zee you try a lot of button shy games. Try “at the helm”! It’s a deck building game with 13 cards but you will love it!!!

Aeon's End for me. :)

Love deckbuilding, love Dice tower -> Insta video like Thanks for the video!!

For me Heart of Crown replaced Dominion in my collection. It does everything Dominion does in a fraction of the shelf space.

I'm surprised Tom didn't even mention "Core Worlds" - I remember him loving this game.

Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade getting some recognition, yes! One of my fave deck builders

A problem for me with deckbuilders is that they seemed like the default mechanic for IP cash grabs for a while. It put me off the genre for a while, so there are a number of titles I maybe ought to try. My Sister-in-Law and Nephew love Star Realms so I'm probably going to end up trying some more eventually

I have the cowboy bebop game Chris. Bought it because of the show (my number 1 anime of all time) but it actually IS a good game!

Can't believe Star Realms didn't make the top 10. Lots of good expansion, including different ways to play.

It's hard to beat Dominion, since it's got so many options and endless different deck combos to play it with. Some suck, but with a random deck generator app, this game is always awesome to play. Sucks to try to keep up with a complete set though lol But totally worth it IMO

On Valley of the Kings being mean, I have this big box edition, and a couple of the various sets you can add have more interaction and can be slightly take-thaty. However, you plug and play with whichever sets you want, so you can really customize the style of gameplay and quite easily avoid meaner cards while still having a lot of options.

I just noticed I have only 4 deck building games in my collection. Clank in Space Dune Imperium Lost Ruins of Arnak Viscounts of the West Kingdom I would have a hard time to find 10 deck building games that I like enough to put into my TOP10 list. 3-4 spots would stay empty and #10 would be Dominion as an honorable mention because it basically started the genre. :D

I expected Clank! higher and on more lists however, watching this TOP makes me want to play ~80% of those games (I haven't heard of ~half of them, adding to at least to-watch-review list and then maybe to-play list).

Can confirm that Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade is real. I only played it once but had a lot of fun from what I remember (and being the deck building fan of my group, won)

I just want to thank you guys for at least including some deck building in your deck building games list. =P. Don't mind me i'm just salty that GI Joe didn't show up.

Surprised Eminent Domain wasn't on Tom's list. The Harry Potter co-op game is fun, as is the 2-player version of it. And I love the Cryptozoic game: The Hobbit and DC Deckbuilder. Dominion is my #1 game (not just deckbuilder) of all time by a lot, and I hope they keep pumping out the expansions.

a small correction about shards of infinity , it has 3 expansions not 2, and when you combine all three the game is an absolute masterpiece!

Valley of the Kings CAN and IS mean as it is advantageous to destroy things in the pyramid so that other people can’t complete their sets.

I had the reverse experience to Chris when I first played Dune Imperium. I thought it was trying to do too much, and ending up a jack of all trades as a result, master of none. But man was I wrong! One more play and I was hooked!

I love deck builders! Many of these are in my top 10. I also love Harry Potter and Tea Dragons

Tyrants of the Underdark is a very good choice! A deck builder / area control «War Game». In our gaming group, Tyrants or Dune is often chosen when playing this type of games. 👌

I loved that Stall out interaction 😊

I guess Eminent Domain is getting buried in the past XD. I'm surprised the Hunger get so little love.. we always crack up when someone fails to make it back in time bc they ate too many humans, it's kind of like when you esplode in Galaxy Trucker. Surprised Fort doesn't get the love. Surprised Monumental gets so high but Imperium's too complex? Glad someone finally mentioned Trains lol. Finally gotta give shoutouts to Ruthless, Seize the Bean, Gate, Flip City, and Rune Stones!

Top 10 hand building games please! Probably my favorite mechanism while I'm very meh on deck-building (I like El Dorado and Aeon's End). My top 5 hand building games: Spirit Island Concordia Obsession Aquatica Century

Chris Yi, starting off strong with the love for Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade! Love that game - stays in my top ten of all games (#9, currently), along with Hardback (#8) and Legendary Marvel (#4). Definitely helps to be a fan of the anime because the theme is so well done, but I also think the game plays very well.

tyrants of the underdark is pretty good. Somehow it just never gets mentioned.

I love how y’all can rattle off game after game that influenced others. I could see there being a series of videos on the history of games by type/genre/mechanism.

As much as I love Deck Building Games. I'm surprised how many of these I've not tried. I do enjoy the Hunger, but that has to do with that I see it as a racing game with deck building. However my favourite is the Resident Evil games. Tanto Cuore and Kanzume Battles are two quite fun deck builders from japanime. So you shut your mouth Mr Vasel 😉 Fort is also a light one. This was a fun watch now I need to go hunting a bit for some of these titles. Especially Undaunted!

H'mm surprised Tom forgot about Trains. He really liked it if I recall, especially Rising Sun.

Really surprised moonrakers wasn't on this list at all. I love it. Greate sitting on the edge of your seat deckbuilder. I think I like it more than Dominion.

I'm sure the Tim Fowers Word Games, Paperback and Hardback would be in Tom's Top 20. I would have put it in my Top 10 for how unique this one is. I love word games and deck building games and the combination is perfect.

Shadowrun crossfire is a great deck builder that’s always overlooked

I don’t consider Resist! a deck builder, but it’s a cool solo game for sure

Is Spellbound by the Lamont bros. considered a deck building game..never see much about this game..i love it

Chiseled is a little game about thinning out your deck that I really enjoy. It might be borderline for “deck building”, but it would have made my list.

Yeah I would like to see where Imperium:Classics/Legends is. I put it to the top of my list since the campaign style of the game plus so many different ways to matchup civs. Tough rulebook but worth it once you understand it all

Interesting one! Thanks for the List!

Quacks of Quedlingberg is more of a deckbuilder than century lmao. I do love it, it's a great builder, but it has only a hand and a discard, it has no deck.

Tyrants of the Underdark is still one of my Fav deck builders. I feel Lost Ruins is barely a deck builder in caparison.

I haven't played very many, but Millennium Blades is pretty fun.

Not surprised about Dominion. It’s a classic and is where most modern deck builders are based from. Such a soooliddd game. Great choice!!! Also, I am not surprised about how high Dune Imperium is. One of my all time favorite games as well ☺️😌😌

Every time deck builders are mentioned, someone will always say Android, Arkham Horror or Magic the Gathering. And I die a little inside. I'm so glad you spelt it out to avoid any confusion.

Of the less celebrated deck builders I love Trains, really quick snappy turns. How is Challengers not a deck building game, you draft cards to play them in combos and your deck carries over to the next round?

Dominion, Thunderstone, Tanto Cuore, Arctic Scavengers and Ascension. Then there was Eminent Domain, A Few Acres of Snow, Blood Bowl Team Manager, Core Worlds. Aaand Mage Knight. Then Quarriors around the same time, twisting cards into dice. That was a good game! I wish it got a 2nd Edition.

Interesting you mention the Dominion app... there WAS an app. I remember having it on the iPhone, then it disappeared.

need to play dominion again. so many combinations and variability even with just 1 or 2 expansions. would love a top 10 dominion expansions video!