Understanding Deck Building Games – A Guide To What You Need To Know

You may have heard of the genre within board gaming called Deck Building, and are wondering if it is something you might enjoy. Well, in this guide, we will give you a basic summary of what deck builders are, and how they work (game mechanics).

This is a relatively new genre of game, some say they are related to card builder games, like Magic: The Gathering, but are more of an enclosed system. Their origins are only rooted back in 2008 with the hit game called Dominion (See our Review of Dominion Here). Since then, there have been a number of spin offs or games with similar mechanics.

Well, as mentioned, these games are an enclosed system, so that means when you buy a game, you have all the components needed to complete the game. You don’t have to search for and collect the rarest cards, construct your deck, and then play against opponents.

In fact, almost all of these games, every player will start with the same starting hand and will build their deck from there. Your deck being your actual deck of cards that expands throughout the game.

Your starting deck in most case is a set number of cards, usually with a couple different types of cards within them… Usually these are currencies, action cards, or victory points.

Currencies in these games are a general term used to describe any card that will allow you to purchase more cards, or actions, or victory points, etc. Whereas, action cards, are just that, they allow you to take an action (depending on the game it can be exploring, attacking, etc.).

As mentioned to start the game, each player receives the hand of cards (eg. 3 Victory Points, 7 Bronze Coins), and they shuffle those up to form their initial deck.

What happens next is the players then draw a certain number of cards, eg. 5 cards, and that is their starting hand. So following our example you might end up with 1 VP and 4 Bronze Coins.

Now, lots of these games start to differ on the exact mechanisms of what happens next, but more or less follow the same principles.

The player, whose turn it is, then proceeds to the ‘action’ or ‘buy’ phase (sometimes these are separate things, sometimes they are one in the same). You will then use the cards in your hand to further enhance your deck, or try to gain Victory Points, or attack someone (again, depending on the specific game and its objectives).

After you have exhausted all you can do with your hand, you then put all the cards you ‘used’ (action done with them), into your discard pile, and replenish your hand up to 5 cards from your deck, and wait for your next turn.

If you don’t have enough cards in your deck to get to the allotted number of cards, you reshuffle your discard pile and add it back to your deck.

Buying/Action Phase

So as stated, you will have an action or buying phase. This is when you will use as much or as little of your currency to purchase stuff. Generally at the start of the game, this will be more cards.

The cards you buy will be added to your discard pile, which is eventually reshuffled and become part of your ever growing deck, hence deck building.

The cards you buy usually help you later in the game, some would even call this developing an “engine’ for your game. For example you may use your bronze coins (worth $1 each) to buy a silver coin (worth $2 each). This way, when you eventually draw the silver coin, your hand has more purchasing power.

Again, what you purchase varies massively from game to game, and is highly dependent on the type of deck you are trying to build.

Some examples to help you understand:

•  You could buy a card that allows you to pick up more cards from your deck when it’s played.

•  You could buy a card that makes your opponents discard 1 card from their hand.

•  You could buy a card that makes everything cheaper to buy.

The options are basically endless, but the general theme is that you will be trying to increase the capabilities of your deck so that every round you can do more actions, or get stronger, or buy better cards, etc.

How Does The Game End?

Depending on the game, you will have different end goals. Some games it is to deal damage to your opponent’s health points, others is to collect as many Victory Points as possible, whereas others there may be set number of rounds.

What generally happens at some point during these games is that at some point you stop building your deck, and start utilizing it towards your end game goal. Eg. You start using all your currency buy Victory Points, or you start using your deck to attack your opponent.

The timing depends on you! Whether you think your deck is ready, whether your opponent is already moving towards end game, and so on.

Each game will have its own rules as to when a game ends, such as the Victory Point stash is depleted, or an opponent is defeated, or a card stack runs out. These options are what make the different variations of these games so interesting.

Note: If you are interested, we have compiled a list of
The Best Deck Building Boards Games 

There are generally 2 different styles of games (or some combination of the 2), with respect to how the cards available for purchase are laid out.

These games can be very entertaining, and are a great new genre with the board gaming world. Hopefully this will give you an idea of exactly how deck building games work. If you are unsure about something, post a comment and we’ll do our best to answer you. Otherwise pick one up for yourself, since they are pretty easy to pick up and learn. There is now a tonne of variety in this category, from themes, to mechanics, some have a board included in them, some are more attack-y than others, so whatever you like, there is a game for you. And as mentioned earlier, if you need some guidance on which of these board games is best for you, check out our Top Deck Building Board Games (with Reviews).