Building Out Decks and Bags - Deck-Building Mechanics

 Decks, Bags and Pools To Build

As usual, here's the bog standard BGG definition of a "Deck, Bag and/or Pool Building": "Players play cards out of individual decks, seeking to acquire new cards and to play through their decks iteratively, improving them over time through card acquisition or card elimination.

It may include a 'random-draw' to form a hand from the deck for the current round (as in Star Realms) and the deck is automatically reset once the draw pile is exhausted; or it may allow access to all available cards at once (as in Concordia) until the discards are retrieved. The latter may embody the Action Retrieval mechanic, where the card use activate actions.

This category also covers Bag Building, Pool Building, and related mechanisms (using chits, dice, etc)."

As for my own take of what a "Deck, Bag, or Pool Builder" is, I think the definition provided here on BGG is actually pretty good, but it does get a bit dry at the beginning. Essentially, any game that has this mechanic allows players to build a deck, bag, or pool of their own personal items (deck, bag, pool, etc.) that grows as the game is played. The reason that "pool" is included in the mechanic is that there might be games that have a set of items that don't necessarily fall in the other categories. Too Many Bones falls directly in this category as players choose from a pool of dice on their turn to roll from, which is definitely not a "deck" or "bag."

It is one of those mechanics that I hadn't ever truly thought about until I played around with it and found that I thoroughly enjoyed games that had this mechanic as it often resulted in me having to choose something different than I originally anticipated due to the item I wanted being unavailable. There's a level of strategy and inherent chaos that comes with these types of games and when paired with other mechanics, often results in some really fun mixes of gameplay. With these types of games, I find myself losing just as much as winning them since there's often a level of randomness that I cannot account for and I find it extremely fun to play.

As I've done in the past, here are 10 games that I've played and enjoyed that have the mechanic of "Deck, Bag, and Pool Building" and ones that I would recommend trying in the genre, in no particular order:

#10
Game Name:Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: This one is going to be a bit different than the rest of the games on here since it's not technically been released yet. However, there is a current version available to play on Tabletopia (https://tabletopia.com/games/dead-cells) that allows players to go through the first two biomes of the game. There's quite a bit missing from the game and it's still a bit buggy to play, but it does give a great feel of how the game is going to play.

That being said, the meat of why I included Dead Cells on this list is because of the very nature of the game being a "rogue-lite" game. In essence, a "rogue-lite" in video games is a game where players are expected to die over and over again, making small incremental changes to their available weapon and ability pool to make the game easier and offer more abilities and possibility to complete the game. I've sunk several hundred hours into Dead Cells and I expect to do the same with the board game since it offers much of the same idea.

In Dead Cells, your first few runs of the game are going to be rough since your initial card deck is going to be small and weak. But you will have opportunities to build out your deck with new cards that add additional abilities and new weapons can be added to your weapon pool that you will pull from, including new legendary weapons that will have special effects. Each run, players pull from a deck of cards that is specific to their character and will be upgraded as the game progresses through each play. Runs may last as little as 15 minutes if you're unlucky, but the "saving system" allows players to keep all unlocked upgrades to their run out and begin where they left off, even allowing differing player counts to join and leave while the game is played.

Hidden secrets abound in the game and there's always something new to find in the depths of what awaits players in Dead Cells. Even after players "finish" the game by defeating the final boss, I have a feeling that there will be significant secrets and changes that will still be available to find. Additionally, the game can be completely reset at any time, allowing players to reexperience the joy of finding new equipment from the very beginning and resetting all decks back to their base components.

I'm super excited about this game and I cannot wait to get it on the table to play. The deck-building, rogue-lite, metroidvania style of the game is so exciting to me and being able to put it on my table to play is something that I'm truly looking forward to.

#9
Game Name:Robot Quest Arena
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: I'm a humungous BattleBots fan, so when I found out there was a game that was basically that on the table with an added element of deck-building, I was hooked. The cutesy art style and absolutely hefty little robot minis were fantastic and the board and cards were excellently designed as to make everything easy to understand with the simple iconography.

What floored me was how well the game played and how it not only pushed players to fight one another's robots, but to actively destroy them for the points. The health system worked as health points, victory points, and as a way to track when the end of the game would occur (via the blue cubes) and when a player's robot's HP was reduced to zero, rather than being removed from the game, they refilled their health, took a blue cube and returned back to the arena. The game ended once all blue cubes were taken and a robot was defeated and players would then total points (via the health points taken from others).

The clever deck building came from players having a personal deck that they could pull from that would allow them to attack, maneuver, and purchase new cards for their personal deck. Each deck (like most games in the genre) was a standard set of cards, but players could purchase new cards to add to their deck utilizing the "power" resource that some cards contained. Like many deck-builders, each card had a various set of abilities and while some allowed for additional attack power, or specialized attacks, they often were more expensive or came at the caveat of not providing power, which would allow for more cards to be added to the player deck.

I was absolutely floored with how clever the game felt and how good the deck building aspect of the game was. There wasn't a time where I felt that any of the options available to me to purchase were not good enough and I often found myself adjusting my strategy on the fly with my purchases to account for what the other players were doing in the arena. While it is not the deepest of deck-builders, I absolutely loved how it paired that aspect with the robot-fighting of Battlebots and makes this a high recommendation from me.

#8
Game Name:Not Alone
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: Another game that really falls outside of how most deck-building or pool-building games work with most mechanics. I found Not Alone to be a really interesting take on the asymmetric player versus players genre. As a big fan of One Night Ultimate Werewolf and it's ilk, I probably was already predisposed to liking Not Alone, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt.

Not Alone features two different factions that each have their own win conditions: one player plays "the Creature" who is attempting to hunt down each player and assimilate them into it's being, while the other players play "the Hunted", crashed astronauts who are attempting to escape the planet that they found themselves trapped on alive. Each turn the "Hunted" players choose from a set of cards in their hand for locations to visit while the "Creature" places their token on one of the five initial locations available to the players.

Since each location has a specific ability, such as restoring played cards to the hand of the Hunted, or pushing the distress beacon icon one step further, it becomes a game of "Cat and Mouse" where players attempt to outwit the Creature and get off the planet unscathed. Each player has to play a card from their hand and once played, it remains on the table until one of two things happens: Players visit a location that allows them to draw cards back into their hand, or they spend "Willpower" to refill their hand full of cards.

As the game progresses, players will open up additional locations by visiting a specific location that allows them to take one of five additional cards that are available, allowing them more freedom to explore the planet. However, this is offset by the Creature obtaining additional cards that can be played each round, allowing for it to have more freedom on where to attack and investigate, making the game incredibly intense.

The round tracker board features two separate tracks that meet in the middle on the "escape" icon. If the crashed Hunted manage to retain their willpower and successfully make their token reach the middle space, they escape and win, but their track is longer than the Creature's, who has to successfully guess where the Hunted have chosen to go in order to move it's token along the board.

The growing location pool paired with the cards in hand as well as powers that are usable by both Hunted and Creature make for a really intense but fun game. It becomes a game of attempting to guess what the other players will be attempting and there is certainly some tense moments where each side is attempting to outwit the other. I absolutely loved this on my first play and would love to attempt it again, especially now I have a better grasp of pool-building games.

#7
Game Name: Friday
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: I feel like I'm really pushing the limits here with the "deckbuilding" mechanics and Friday feels like initially at first glance that it technically shouldn't be included on this list, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with it's inclusion. The game is played entirely solo and tasks the player with building a deck of cards to ward off and beat any dangers that the island might throw at Robinson Crusoe.

What I find very clever about this game is that the cards that you manage to "beat" then get flipped over and added to your deck for an inclusion later on in the game. When players exhaust their deck, an "aging" card is added to the player deck and all "defeated" cards are then reshuffled to form a new deck that the player pulls from. Higher powered cards or cards with special powers often have more difficult challenges that are associated with them, creating a risk/reward system for the player. When paired with the "food" system that allows players to draw additional cards at the cost of life force, Friday really delves dep into the strategy that comes with building a working deck to survive on the island and defeat the pirates at the end of the game.

With each completion of the Hazard deck that players draw against, the difficulty of the hazards increases by one step. Cards that initially had a hazard rating of 1 or 2 might then be more hazardous with a rating of 3 or 5, but if players build their deck cleverly enough, it should mitigate the overall concerns. However, retaining life force is a tenuous process at best and players will have to not only build their deck wisely, but also maintain it and get rid of additional cards whenever able to make it more effective.

The game itself also comes with four separate difficulty levels, with cards and life force being added or removed based on difficulty. This adds an additional level of challenge when working with the Hazard cards and final Pirate faceoff as negative cards might be added to the pool of cards which further increases difficulty of the game. It's an excellent tradeoff and a very clever way to ensure that the game has additional replayability even when it's "completed."

As far as solo card games go, Friday is one of the most clever that I have encountered and represents a significant challenge, even for the most hardcore of board gamers. With clever deck-building, it can be completed easily, but trial and error is most likely the best lesson here when building your deck to help Robinson survive the wilds of the island.

#6
Game Name: Quacks of Quedlinburg
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: It's hard to make a list without including one of the best games in the genre. Quacks of Quedlinburg is definitely the epitome of what a good "bag builder" looks like. For those who have yet to play, each round players draw from their bag that has the same base ingredients to start, and each player has a cauldron that they place ingredients into, which is reset each round. Players can choose to continue drawing ingredients until they either choose to stop on their own, or they draw a total of 7 cherry bombs.

Once the preparation phase has been completed, players then are able purchase new ingredients for their bag, each of which that has their own special abilities when drawn. Players can choose up to two separate ingredients if they have the points to pay for them, which allows further changes to the bag that each player builds from, allowing for more and more gold and points to be earned each round. Additional ingredients get added to the pool to purchase in later rounds which add further customization options for players to add to their bags.

What makes the game even more fantastic is that each ingredient comes with four separate options (in the base game) for what benefits they offer the player. Games can be customized with various loadouts of the ingredients making for lots of different play options. With the game being pure press your luck, a winner isn't determined until the final round has been completed, especially with the fantastic catch-up mechanic.

I absolutely love that the game allows for even people who haven't played the game to win, since the game is purely based on the pulls that people choose to take nor not take. It's a great game that I would highly recommend at least trying it once to see what it has in store for you. It may not be for everyone, but it's still a blast (pun intended) to try.

#5
Game Name: Dune: Imperium
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: This, to me, falls a bit more on the "deck-building lite" side of the genre of things since there's so much going on with Dune: Imperium. That's not to say that the game isn't fantastic, since it's a masterpiece in using a small amount of pieces to create a significantly deep and mechanically complex game. Initially upon seeing the board, I went "that's it?", but as I played the game, I found that each turn had a significant amount of complexity and depth to it and each move that I made could potentially have long-reaching effects.

The game is a combination of a worker-placement, deck-building, resource gathering, and force commitment. It's an interesting mix of a bunch of different genres and while deck-building is featured and does play into the game itself, I think that it's only part of the equation when it comes to the game. There's quite a bit of determination of what actions you can take with the deck that you build for yourself, but with only 10 rounds in the game, quite a bit of thought has to be placed on how the deck is built. Each action has consequences and cards that are bought significantly change what abilities each player has.

It's a masterful build of a game that incorporates deck-building into the main mechanics of how the game is played, but as I noted, it's not the primary mechanic of the game, so if you're looking for a pure deck-building or pool-building game, this might not necessarily be for you. However, if you're looking for a mechanically-complex and deep game that doesn't take up too much table space, I'd say give this one a try.

#4
Game Name: Clank! (Family)
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: Another game put out by Renegade Game Studios, the Clank! family takes the deck-building mechanic and makes it integral to the gameplay. Players take turns by playing five cards that they draw from their own personal deck, allowing them to move, attack monsters, and purchase new cards to add to their ever growing stack of cards, all in the hopes of being able to steal treasure and make it out alive. At the end of the game, players total their points on artefacts, tokens and cards and the player with the most points wins the title of "best thief" (ok not really, but that's what we've awarded the winner of our games).

While initial thoughts on Clank! were a bit rough, it has since become one of my favorite games to play two-player with my wife most nights. Since purchasing the game in March of this year, we've managed to log 38 separate plays between both Clank! and Clank! In! Space! in just a few months. It's easily our favorite game to play together and each time we play, there's a new set of chaos that we get to experience, making the game just that much more fun to play.

Clank! and it's counterparts (Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated, Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure, and Clank!: Catacombs) all feature the main mechanic of deck-building paired with dungeon crawling experience. While some might have a bit more modularity than others (Clank! Catacombs is different each time you play, and Clank! In! Space! has modular setup with different modules), each one adds it's own twist to the formula that makes them feel unique and distinct from one another.

If I had to make a recommendation on where to start, it would either be Clank! or Clank! Catacombs, but that's just my personal opinion on things. Enjoy your exploration of the Clank! universe in your own way and make sure to be as quiet as possible!

#3
Game Name: One Deck Dungeon
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: One Deck Dungeon make clever use of the "deck-building" mechanic by taking all necessary information to play the game and putting it on one set of cards that fit in the "deck." There are multiple dice that come with the game as well to help with performing actions, but as it all can be completed with one deck, it fits the theme of deck-building nicely. Each of the cards has multiple uses, including adding additional dice to a pool of the player to pull from, acting as items, enemies/traps, or even potions.

The entire game is built around the premise of a solo dungeon crawl (or two players if you prefer it) and having it contained within one deck. Overall, it's definitely not one that I would find myself coming back to again and again, but it is a nice diversion if you're looking for something quick and easy to play that fits in one box.

#2
Game Name: Dice Forge
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: This is another odd one when it comes to "pool building" since the things that are being built are your dice rather than a deck or bag. While playing Dice Forge each time a player takes a turn, the entire table rolls their dice and receives the resources that are shown on it, allowing the active player to gain new faces that they can "forge" onto the dice, or move their player pawn to another location to purchase a new card that activates an ability, adds an ongoing effect, or even allows a new dice face to be added.

The clever mechanic of being able to upgrade your dice that you use allows for the game to have wildly different builds of each of the dice that are being used by each player and often results in each player having very different games than one another. Due to the inherent chaotic nature of dice and how they are rolled, players have to be clever about how they upgrade the different dice and what faces to replace. It makes for a really interesting game that is wholly unique, even beyond the mechanic of "pool building."

#1
Game Name: Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Gameplay and Mechanic Implementation: While I include Heat: Pedal to the Metal on this list, the deck-building aspect of the game is more nebulous. While there is a gameplay option to include a drafting mechanic that allows players to choose three separate upgrades for their vehicle, the meat of the game is managing the "Heat" (as portrayed by cards) in your car's engine. Players have to maintain the heat cards in their engine and can use them to perform additional actions while playing the game, but they also clog up player hands if not properly dealt with.

Pair this mechanic with multiple boards and alternative ways to play the game that are included in the base game and there is a surprising amount of depth to Heat: Pedal to the Metal. I personally loved being able to mix and match how I played the game with the included materials as it allows for new and clever ways to play the game. Additionally, the inclusion of a fantastic "Legends" module allows for the game to be played with a challenging solo mode that pushes player understanding of the mechanics to the limit.

While Heat: Pedal to the Metal might be about pushing your car and driver to the limit of their abilities, it's definitely not one that should be slept on, especially for those who love a good racing game.

Final Thoughts: There are quite a few games that I know that I could include on this list that, including Lords of Waterdeep(as pointed out by Dmarsee, Lords of Waterdeep falls under the "worker placement" mechanic, not the "deck/bag building" mechanic as I mistakenly posted originally) Obsession, Dominion,Great Western Trail: Second Edition, Concordia, and Lost Ruins of Arnak, but as with my previous lists, I like to keep this list contained to games that I have personally played and can provide a recommendation for. I also would like to point out that I tried to keep the listed games on this list fairly unique from one another and despite my personal belief that Lost Ruins of Arnak should be on this list, it was fairly close to Dune: Imperium gameplay and rating-wise and I wanted to offer several options that weren't usually listed on collections like this.

As I noted at the beginning of this post, having just really started diving into the world of board games these last few years, there's so much more for me to discover and play and I cannot wait to see what everyone here recommends for their favorite games in the genre.

Give me your thoughts:What are your personal favorite mechanics to include with a bag/pool/deck builder mechanic? What games have I missed on this list that you think deserve a shoutout? What are some lesser-known board games that you'd recommend that have the deck-building (or other *-building) mechanic?

Thank you so much for checking out this blog. If you liked it, please hit the green thumb at the top of the page and feel free to leave a comment on the post. I appreciate all interactions and will respond to everything that I can. If you really liked the post and want more ramblings, feel free to subscribe and get new posts every Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

*Originally Posted on BoardGameGeek on 27/5/2024*