Top 10 deck building board games

1. Dominion
2. Aeon's End Legacy
3. Clank
4. Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle
5. Dale of Merchants
6. Marvel Legendary
7. The Taverns of the Old Town
8. Fort
9. Harry Potter Defense Against the Dark Art
10. Heroes of Tenefyr

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What is a deck building board game?

Before we share our top 10 deck building board games with you, it might be useful to explain what a deck builder actually is. In a deck building game, everyone starts with a deck, or a stack of cards. These are often cards with money, victory points or actions on them. At the start of your turn you take a number of cards (usually 5 or 6) and use those cards to perform actions, the most important of which is the action 'buy new cards'. During the game you will try to improve your deck by buying more expensive cards with better actions, more money or more victory points. You place the cards you have played on your discard pile and when your deck of cards is empty, you shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. That's how a deck building board game works!

1. Dominion

Dominion is kind of the mother of all deck building board games. Donald Fortunately, because we are also not tired of Dominion for a long time! Due to the enormous amount of cards (especially with all the expansions), every game is different. Curious which extension adds what exactly? And do you want to know which Dominion expansion is the most fun? Check our Dominion page for the answers to all these questions.

2. Aeon's End Legacy

Aeon's End Legacy game is a cooperative deck building game. So you play against the game together. And it is therefore a legacy game, which means that new game elements and rules are added during the game and that things change permanently in the game. Of course, we won't reveal what is in the mysterious boxes. In Aeon's End Legacy you work with money cards (diamonds) and spell cards with which you cast spells to damage the enemy. The nice twist about this deck builder is that you don't shuffle your discard pile, but turn it over to form your new deck. This allows you to influence which cards should come first. Useful!

3. Clank

Clank is a deck building game with a racing element. The players descend into a dragon's lair, steal an artifact there and try to get back up as quickly as possible. Sounds simple, but there is a catch with Clank : you only win if you manage to uncover the most valuable treasures. Do you stay longer in the dragon's lair to steal more expensive artifacts, but at the risk of waking the dragon with too much noise or a wrong step? Or do you grab the first thing you find and shoot back up as quickly as possible, with the risk that the other players have collected more? Clank is a wonderful thematic deck builder with awesome expansions.

4. Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle

Potterheads, take note, because we have the perfect deck building board game for you: Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle . Granted, not all Harry Potter games are a hit, but Hogwarts Battle certainly is! In this cooperative board game you go through the 7 books per game. You play your favorite character and of course fight together against our great friend Voldemort. But before you get to Vollie, you first have to defeat a lot of other bad guys. Finished with the 7 parts of Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle ? Then you simply start again or add one of the expansions to the game!

5. Dale of Merchants Collection

Dale of Merchants is a deck building card game with the cutest animals ever. This game is all about building your market stalls. If you manage to build a market stall with 8 different columns, you have immediately won the game. So you don't have to count points with this deck builder! Of all the Dale of Merchants games, the Dale of Merchants collection is by far our favorite. That's because this box is so much more complete. There is a lot of game material included, such as characters and other bonuses. As a result, no two games are the same!

6. Marvel Legendary

There are of course a lot of Marvel games (luckily!), but Marvel Legendary is really a deck builder through and through. The nice thing about this board game is that it is semi-cooperative. So you work together to defeat the bad guys in the city, but in the end you also try to win by scoring as many victory points as possible. That's very nicely put together. You want to work together as much as possible, but not completely. And if you've seen the base game of Marvel Legendary , no problem, because there are a million expansions .

7. The Taverns of the Old Town

We should buy a BAR! Whether you call it 'Puzzles' or not, your bar will definitely be the coolest bar ever. The Taverns of the Old Town is a deck building game where taverns compete with each other and where drinking brothers and noblemen drink their beers and drinks. You are the innkeeper and only by making the right investments will you manage to become the best in the old city. Attract new customers, invest in tables and staff and find the best suppliers of the golden liquid. The Taverns of the Old Town is very well put together and has very high replayability due to the four modules. Great! Also for people who don't like beer...

8. Fort

Fort is a deck building game with a very cute and original theme. This time you are not a human, not a hero and not a monster. No, you're a child! And children only find three things important in life: building huts, eating pizza and making friends. And those friends are important in this deck building game, because they give you bonuses and new actions. But be careful, because you can easily lose friends you don't pay enough attention to. Fortunately, there are always your best friends to help you out in Fort .

9. Harry Potter: Defense Against the Dark Arts

Would you like to play a Harry Potter deck builder, but would you rather compete against each other than against Voldemort? Then you should play Harry Potter Defense Against the Dark Arts ! This game is inspired by Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle, but - in addition to an even longer name - has a competitive mechanism. In this fast-paced card game, players take turns playing cards, taking actions and acquiring new cards to build an increasingly powerful deck. To win you must stun your opponent a total of three times. Sounds dangerous? Well, strange things happen at Hogwarts and with the noticeable increase in Dark Arts activity, Professor Dumbledore has approved the practical lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts to ensure that all students are ready to defend themselves!

10. Heroes of Tenefyr

Heroes of Tenefyr is a cooperative deck builder in which you compete against different monsters together. You try to defeat those monsters, because that way your own deck keeps getting better. Ultimately you can then take on the final boss. Did you beat them? Then you have won Heroes of Tenefyr ! Heroes of Tenefyr is a fun game in which you have to work together and solve tactical puzzles to defeat all the monsters together.