I really like Shadowrun: Crossfire and – a bit lower on the scale – Xenoshyft: Onslaught because they give a new way with buying cards directly into your hand. I like that it turns the classic deck building idea into something where you directly gain a benefit from buying for your hand, without needing to go through your discard. The downside with Xenoshyft is setup – it’s kinda like Dominion or Thunderstone Advance, in that you set out a full store of stuff. That just takes a while to do. Shadowrun is much faster to set up. And obstacles are more varied in SR than in XS.

Paperback is among my favorites, too, mostly because it is so super easy to get new players into it. It is something I can play with allmost everybody at our weekly open game night.

I still like Ascension for it’s simplicity. It helps that I really like it’s quirky art style, too. In the same vain I like Star Realms. Both are just very easy to teach and play, but still giving deep play. And both are super easy to set up.

I am a bit curious about Time of Crisis, an upcoming deck builder crossed with war game from GMT about playing romans fighting for control. Sounds a bit like A Few Acres of Snow, but with a theme that is more in my line of interest. Obviously haven’t played it, since it doesn’t exist yet, but definitely one of the deck builders I am looking forward for 2016/2017.

I really like Shadowrun: Crossfire and – a bit lower on the scale – Xenoshyft: Onslaught because they give a new way with buying cards directly into your hand. I like that it turns the classic deck building idea into something where you directly gain a benefit from buying for your hand, without needing to go through your discard. The downside with Xenoshyft is setup – it’s kinda like Dominion or Thunderstone Advance, in that you set out a full store of stuff. That just takes a while to do. Shadowrun is much faster to set up. And obstacles are more varied in SR than in XS.

Paperback is among my favorites, too, mostly because it is so super easy to get new players into it. It is something I can play with allmost everybody at our weekly open game night.

I still like Ascension for it’s simplicity. It helps that I really like it’s quirky art style, too. In the same vain I like Star Realms. Both are just very easy to teach and play, but still giving deep play. And both are super easy to set up.

I am a bit curious about Time of Crisis, an upcoming deck builder crossed with war game from GMT about playing romans fighting for control. Sounds a bit like A Few Acres of Snow, but with a theme that is more in my line of interest. Obviously haven’t played it, since it doesn’t exist yet, but definitely one of the deck builders I am looking forward for 2016/2017.

Onirim felt more like solitaire than a real game to me. Nice aesthetics, but flimsy card stock and mechanically it is “shuffling, the game”. I barely get it out anymore.

Friday is a cute little funny solo deck builder with some neat ideas but the problem of “solvability” – after you see the main strategy to beat it, it is only luck of the draw that decides the outcome. A bit of a one-trick-pony, but still a fun one. Would get it out more often if it wasn’t for the next one.

Shadowrun: Crossfire – man, what a great deck builder. Especially with the High Caliber Ops expansion. It evens out the punishing nature a bit by adding obstacles that are not totally nasty and gives a few different missions to take on. My favorite is Freefire for All, because there you can make obstacles attack each other. Go for two runners, you get a little boost that way and it works quite nicely solo. By far the best of the three options you list in my book.

Onirim felt more like solitaire than a real game to me. Nice aesthetics, but flimsy card stock and mechanically it is “shuffling, the game”. I barely get it out anymore.

Friday is a cute little funny solo deck builder with some neat ideas but the problem of “solvability” – after you see the main strategy to beat it, it is only luck of the draw that decides the outcome. A bit of a one-trick-pony, but still a fun one. Would get it out more often if it wasn’t for the next one.

Shadowrun: Crossfire – man, what a great deck builder. Especially with the High Caliber Ops expansion. It evens out the punishing nature a bit by adding obstacles that are not totally nasty and gives a few different missions to take on. My favorite is Freefire for All, because there you can make obstacles attack each other. Go for two runners, you get a little boost that way and it works quite nicely solo. By far the best of the three options you list in my book.