There is just something so deeply, endlessly addictive about watching a deck of cards you've so carefully, so painstakingly pieced together just spin into beautiful, devastating motion. Every single choice, every gamble on a risky card, every beautiful little scrap of synergy players have managed to find...it all builds toward that one, perfect, glorious moment, where a single hand just dismantles an opponent like a finely-tuned clockwork machine.
Best Deck-Builders That Offer Freedom In Play-Style
While Deck-Building games offer a great deal of flexibility, these games enable players to play how they want.
These are the games that take that brilliant core idea and just push it even further, weaving in stories, brilliant new mechanics, and wonderful roguelike twists, until the simple act of drawing the next card feels like pulling the trigger of fate itself.
Slay The Spire
Climbing The Tower, One Perfect Shuffle At A Time
Slay the Spire
- Released
- January 23, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Tobacco Reference
- Developer(s)
- Mega Crit
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike, Deckbuilding
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
This is the blueprint. The one that so many other brilliant deckbuilders have studied, learned from, and built upon. Every single run up that spire is an ever-shifting, ever-changing puzzle, forcing players to constantly adapt their strategies on the fly. One moment, they’re a master of a thousand cuts, stacking up a mountain of poison as the Silent. Next, they’re a lumbering giant, building a fortress of pure block with the Ironclad.
And what makes the game stick is how no two decks ever feel the same. The relics players find will throw these wild, beautiful wrinkles into the best-laid plans. The enemies will punish predictable patterns. And victory, glorious victory, will always come down to whether one's choices, gambles, and desperate, last-minute pivots all come together to form a cohesive, beautiful, world-destroying machine.
Monster Train
A Train That Never, Ever Stops Running
Monster Train
- Released
- May 21, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
All aboard the Hell-bound express. Monster Train took the brilliant Slay the Spire formula and then just…stretched it. Vertically. Across three different floors of beautifully chaotic, strategic battles. And suddenly, one's deckbuilding isn't just about chaining together powerful card synergies; it's also about where players physically place their demonic units and how they defend their precious, glowing Pyre at the top of the train. The result is a game that feels like this perfect, beautiful, frantic mix of card play and tower defense.
Every clan that players choose introduces a wildly different flavor, from demons who literally thrive on death to angels who can scale their stats endlessly with buffs. Runs will spiral into a beautiful chaos as players' decks fill with units, spells, and relics that will all interact in ways they could never have possibly planned for.
Inscryption
The Deckbuilder That Isn't At All What It Seems
Inscryption
- Released
- October 19, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
This game is a trip. A dark, twisted, and utterly unforgettable trip. At first, Inscryption just masquerades as a creepy, atmospheric, woodland card game, with its mysterious, shadowy opponent staring at players from across a rickety wooden table. The deckbuilding mechanics will feel familiar enough at first, with sacrifices and resource management dictating every move. And then…the game starts to peel back its layers.
20 Of The Best Recent Deck-Builder Games, Ranked
From the iconic Slay the Spire to releases like Griftlands and Signs of the Sojourner, these are some of the best recent deck-builders.
The sheer brilliance of it is how it makes players feel so complicit in its twisted little game. Cards will start to talk to them. The rules will bend and break. New mechanics will just appear out of nowhere and completely rewrite strategies on the spot. Few games have ever made the simple act of building a deck feel so alive, so fragile, and so deeply unsettling.
Griftlands
Politics, Punches, And Playing The Long, Beautiful Game
Griftlands
- Released
- July 11, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Klei Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Indie Games, Adventure, Strategy
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS
Griftlands is a game that puts negotiation and deckbuilding in the same room. Physical combat plays out with one deck. And arguments unfold with another. Players have to constantly weigh whether they want to win a situation through brute strength or through clever, cutting persuasion. The conversations here have real weight, and they will shape the storylines just as much as the battles will.
The writing is so, so sharp. The characters are vibrant, and the branching storylines ensure that the decks feel completely tied to one's choices, not just to the luck of the draw. There is this wonderful feeling of playing a long con, of stacking decks with cards that will slowly but surely wear down your enemies or rivals, until they're boxed into a corner that they can't escape.
Balatro
All In On Pure, Unadulterated Chaos
Balatro
- Released
- February 20, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Gambling Themes
- Developer(s)
- LocalThunk
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Digital Card Game, Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Android, iOS
This isn't just a deckbuilder. It is a dangerously addictive substance. Balatro takes the familiar rules of poker, tears them to shreds, and then rebuilds them into one of the most brilliant and hypnotic deckbuilders ever made. Players aren't just aiming for a simple flush or a straight anymore. Oh no. They're stacking modifiers, game-breaking Jokers, and mind-bending multipliers, until one's humble hand explodes with numbers that break the screen.
5 Best Co-Op Deck Builders
Deck builders are typically single-player affairs, which is why these co-op deck-building games are such a breath of fresh air in the genre.
There's no deep, complex lore. Just pure, beautiful momentum. Runs will often collapse in a spectacular ball of flames when your luck turns sour. But when the synergies finally line up, when that one perfect Joker appears at just the right moment…the sense of power borders on the absurd. Watching a single, humble hand snowball into millions of points is so intoxicating, so purely satisfying, that players will shuffle up and go again before the victory screen has even had a chance to fade.
Across The Obelisk
A Party-Based Spin On Deckbuilding
Across the Obelisk
- Released
- April 8, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- Digital Card Game, Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- PC
The whole gang comes together for this one. Across the Obelisk is a game that combines the best parts of a traditional, party-based RPG adventure with the deep, strategic satisfaction of a deckbuilder. Players guide a party of four heroes through big, branching storylines, all while managing four unique, individual decks at the same time.
Each hero has their own specific role to play, so success will hinge entirely on one's ability to weave them all together into a seamless, beautiful engine of support, damage, and control. And the co-operative element sets it apart. Playing with your mates, debating which card you should draft next, and watching different strategies either clash or harmonize in beautiful, chaotic ways adds wonderful layers of tension and fun.
