In the first post of this series we looked at Dominion and its role in establishing the deck building card game format. In the second post we looked at the challenger to the throne, Thunderstone. In this post we explore what happens when three professional Magic players get into the act and create the game Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer.

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer was published in 2010 by Gary Games and designed by Magic Pro Tour champions Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty, and Brian Kibler. In Ascension 2 to 4 players start with a small army of Apprentices (providing runes, a magical currency for buying other cards) and Militia (power cards used to defeat monsters). The goal is to build up that army and accumulate the most honor points, either by defeating monsters or by purchasing other valuable cards.

[Does Ascension slay the competition? Read more...]

In the previous post we looked at Dominion and its role in establishing the deck-building card game as an accessible alternative to collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering. In this post we look at the second title to adopt the format, the dungeon adventure Thunderstone.

Thunderstone was created by game designer Mike Elliott and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2009 on the heels of Dominion’s success. The game supports solo play or up to 5 for competitive play. The publisher claims an average game length of 60 minutes although it has been my experience that certain setup conditions may make the game take much longer. The mechanics of Thunderstone are so similar to Dominion that many initially dismissed it as simply a clone or rip-off of the original deck building concept. At this point those accusations have largely subsided and Thunderstone is recognized as the second entry in the new genre of deck building card games.

[There be dragons beyond the jump…]

Space. Hulk. Death. Angel. Dominion. Those are, like, all of the best words in a row! To kick off Bob Gallo’s series on deck-building card games, we’re giving away two copies of Space Hulk: Death Angel, from Fantasy Flight Games, and a copy of Dominion, from Rio Grande Games.

Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, 1-6 person card game SH: DA pits Terminator Space Marines (another awesome series of words) against the Genestealer threat. Dominion is quaint by comparison: rival monarchs compete to snatch up the most land. He who dies with the most sheep wins!

The Official Rules: All you need to do is leave one comment—duplicates won’t count—on this post before 11:59pm EST on Friday, January 21. The three winners will be randomly chosen from these comments. Please check your email Monday and Tuesday; if we don’t hear back from the winner within 24 hours of being contacted, another winner will be chosen.

Richard Garfield revolutionized the gaming industry in 1993 with the introduction of Magic: The Gathering. Magic has been a phenomenal sucess spawning a multitude of clones and popularizing the use of cards in games not traditionally thought of as card games. By 2006 Magic: The Gathering’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, reported over 6 million players in 70 countries. After nearly 17 years the game is alive and well with league play and tournament fees being the primary source of revenue for many local game stores. Despite this success there is also a growing population of former players like myself that can no longer afford the investment of time (and frankly, money) for competitive play.

In 2008 game designer Donald X. Vaccarion turned the collectible card game concept on its head with the release of Dominion published by Rio Grande Games. The goal was to offer the experience of a collectible card game in a single box without the time investment in deck preparation and cost associated with collectibility. To achieve these goals Dominion incorporated two important innovations; it made deck-building a part of the game and eliminated the collectability aspect by allowing players to “purchase” cards in-game from a common pool. Dominion has been very successful with a large well established player base and 4 expansions currently in print. A number of similar games have been released from other publishers as well. What follows is a series of posts looking at the four most popular deck-building games; Dominion, Thunderstone, Ascension, and Resident Evil and also a brief look at what we can expect in 2011.

[First up, Dominion…]