Sinful Hero wrote:
A brief overview of Deck Builders-
Unlike Magic: the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh where two or more players bring pre-built decks to face off with, in deckbuilders each player has a set starting deck, and then adds cards as the game progresses. Pretty simple.
Here are the ones that I've tried out and enjoyed-(and my opinions on them)

Ascension

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

Dominion

Spoiler:

Review by spiralingcadaver

Heroes of Metro City

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

High Command

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

Kanzume -Goddess-

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Kanzume is a very fun deckbuilder that pits you or you and your teammates against your friends. The fluff of the game is that the Greek gods divvied up the world- Poseidon over the Seas, Hades the Underworld, Zeus the sky yadda yadda. Unfortunately for them, the Norse Gods were none too pleased with this arrangement, and are waging war upon the Greek pantheon!

Each player with play as one of these Gods as they try to decide the fate of the world. Fairly easy to pick-up, and a blast to play. The game can be played one of two ways- 2 teams or free-for-all. Either way you play, the game goes(mostly) the same. Each player(or team) randomly chooses a pantheon. Teams will select their Gods, while in free-for-all they are all randomized. There are two types of cards to acquire during the game- Disciples and Warriors. Disciples will either Guard against attacks, or generate Faith points(the currency of Kanzume). Warriors can do all of those, and a lot more(like attacking). The buying pool is randomized into several piles, with just the top card showing. This helps avoid situations like in Tanto Cuore where every player buys all of a card until it runs out. Each player can play as many Disciples as they want, but Warriors have a catch. In the top left of each Warrior card are 3 colors, one large, two small. The large circle is the card's main color, while the smaller circles determine which color you can play next. This forces you to chain your Warriors one after the other in a certain order, and is something you have to be aware of when buying Warriors. If you end up buying a green Warrior, who has allows you to play a red or blue Warrior next, and you only bought a yellow Warrior, you won't be able to play both of them. I feel this adds another tactical layer to this game that others are sorely lacking.

Overall I highly recommend this game; there were only a few snags. There are a few interactions that are a little unclear, and might require a good once over of the rules. Unfortunately, there are a rare few that can't really be answered by the rules pamphlet, so if you play with a very strict group you need to be aware of it. When we played, we just house-ruled whatever wasn't clear and moved along.

- Highly Stylized Anime-esque Artwork
- Greek vs Norse Gods
- Player vs Player or Team vs Team
- No expansions as of yet
- 2-6 players
- 30 minutes

Legendary

Spoiler:

holden88 wrote:
Legendary - The Marvel Super Heroes Deck Building Game

Before the game players choose a scenario card to play against. This outlines some set-up conditions, the victory and/or defeat and special conditions the game will be played by.

Then players then choose a Mastermind who is the big bad of the game (ie: Doctor Doom, Magneto etc). This is the main villain the players are trying to defeat.

Players then construct a villain deck by choosing different groups of henchmen and villains, adding in some special cards and shuffling everything together.

Finally, players construct a Hero deck made up of 5 different heroes. Each Hero has their own 14 card "deck" made up of two different groups of 5 common cards, 3 uncommon cards and 1 rare card. The rarer the card the more expensive (in recruit cost) it is and the more powerful it is. All of the hero cards are shuffled together to make the Hero deck. There is always a row of 5 hero cards revealed that anyone can recruit into their deck by paying the recruit cost. When a Hero card is recruited by a player it is immediatly replaced by a new card from the top of the Hero deck.

Each player starts with a basic deck made up of Shield Agents (for recruit points) and Troopers (for attack points).

At the beggining of each players turn the top card of the villain deck is revealed and put into play. A player then has the opportunity to attack the villains/mastermind and/or recruit new Hero cards into their deck. Defeated villains are placed into a players score pile.

As the game progresses players upgrade their decks and eventually become powerful enough to defeat the mastermind.

The game ends when the scenario is lost (as defined by the scenario cards) or they will defeat the Mastermind four times (as a group). The game also ends if the Villain deck runs out of cards (the game is considered a draw). If the players win then the player with the most points in their score pile is the overall winner.

Overall, it is one our groups favorite games. If you love super heroes, then it is a no-brainer. Highley recommended.

Lord of the Rings

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

Pathfinder

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

Quarriors

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
This is another non-traditional deck builder in that it uses dice instead of cards. This makes the game a lot more random(and IMHO a lot more fun!) Each player gets a dice bag, and several dice to start with- as the game goes on you add more dice to your bag. Each turn a player rolls a set number of dice, and any creatures that you play stay on the field and fight other player's creatures. If your creature makes it through the gauntlet of each other player, you score it. There are other types of dice, such as spells, and dice that have effects or creatures depending on the face you roll. Each creature die has several different stats for the monster: sort of like levels 1-3 of a creature. It can sometimes be frustrating for some players when they really want to roll a specific side they need to win, and the dice just refuse to roll anything but the in-game currency(called Quiddity).

- Lots of dice to roll
- Player vs Player
- Several Expansions
- Players 2-4
- ~30mins

Resident Evil

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
This is another deck builder revolving around a "dungeon" and players earning points by killing monsters. It actually has three different styles of play- Story Mode, Mercenaries, and Versus. Each player gets a character that has abilities that affect the game- Such as more damage with Knives for example.
-In Story Mode, each player attempts to get better equipment to take down monsters in the Mansion. The game ends when the boss monster has been cleared from the Mansion.
-Mercenaries plays a lot like Story Mode, but with a time limit. I recommend playing it this way- it doesn't get bogged down and it's very fun.
-Versus is almost self-explanatory. No Mansion, just players. Each player gets a character and tries to eliminate the others.
Our group has a lot of fun playing this one, but we've also had a few issues mainly with the characters. Some of them are completely useless if you're not playing with 2 characters per player. The Story Mode can also take quite a long time to grind through.

- Modern setting/Video Game setting
- Player vs Player/Dungeon
- Several Expansions
- Players- 1-4
- ~60mins(this will vary depending on the mode)

Rune Age

Spoiler:

 Alfndrate wrote:
Rune Age:

Rune age is a deck building game by Fantasy Flight Games that takes place in their Runequest World (so if you've played Runequest or any of those games, the same races are used). The game has 'scenarios' which allow for replayability and feature a variety of regular gameplay (both co and counter operative), an everyone from themselves scenario, and a "either we win together or we lose together". There is 1 expansion that introduces 2 new races as well as updates for the main scenarios and a new scenario or two.

It's easy to each, and can take anywhere from an hour to several hours to play.
Cons: it is a ffg game, so there are lots of tokens and oddly sized card sleeves will be required, and the game can be extremely hard in some scenarios.

Pros: Lots of replay value as each a scenario can be played with each of the factions and scenarios there are 6 to 8 different scenarios that can support 4 players per game

Smash Up

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Smash Up isn't really a traditional deck builder- It's more like a deck shuffler. Each player takes two races(chosen from things such as Dinosaurs, Aliens, Robots, Zombies, Pirates, Ninjas, Wizards, and Leprechans) and shuffles the two piles of cards to form a deck they use against the other players. Points are scored according to taking over locations. Each deck is full of actions and creatures, and each creature has a numeric value. Once you have a high enough number of creatures on a location, it's scored, and points are divvied up (usually) to the player with the most, 2nd most, and sometimes 3rd most numbers of creatures on the location.(hopefully that's not too confusing ) Either way, it's a lot more simpler when you start to play the game, and it goes pretty fast as well. Another game I find very enjoyable.

- Lots of crazy creatures
- Player vs Player
- 2 Expansions
- Players 2-4
- ~45mins

Tanto Cuore

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Tanto Cuore is a japanese deck builder revolving around the idea that you are the lord of a house, and you hire maids to work for you. Some maids have victory points, which at the end of the game determine the winner. A very simple game, that doesn't take much to remember. From what I understand, the game is almost identical to Dominion, but with maids instead of a medieval setting. But if you like the anime style, and a simple and quick game this is a good start.

- Highly Stylized Anime-esque Artwork(of Maids!)
- Player vs Player
- 2 Expansions
- Players 2-4
- ~45min

Thunderstone

Spoiler:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
In Thunderstone, the object of the game is to grow your deck with heros, weapons, and spells to defeat monsters. Each monster gives a number of victory points, that at the end of the game decide the winner. The game ends when the Thunderstone in the deck is removed, and captured. There are several resources to manage, such as gold, light, and attack power, which are each used in turn to buy other cards, make monsters easier to fight, and to kill monsters. This is one of my favorite deck builders, and is a blast to play. Some minor hiccups- If you use a lot of the expansions, and randomize the village, and what monsters you face, you sometimes can get un-fun situations- such as no spells, and the majority of the monsters are physical damage resistant. The game can also be a bit complicated starting out, and players can get paralyzed with choice from all the available cards to choose from.

- Fantasy
- Player vs Player/Dungeon
- Lots of Expansions to add
- Players- 1-4
- ~60min

Trains

Spoiler:

*Coming Sometime*

Any deck builders of your preference, or feel that others should check out?
I'll also be more than happy to quote in anyone's reviews/comments.

 Laughing Man wrote:
You have the end condition on RE story mode wrong, incidentally. You just need to kill the boss in the mansion for the game to end.

 Ahtman wrote:
I'm surprised to see that Sentinels of the Mutiverse isn't listed, nor the Pathfinder card game.