Review: Deck building the Deck Building game

What's going on everyone! I reached out to Paul at Greater Than Games to check out Deck building and I'm glad to say he enthusiastically replied.

So a few days later I got the nice surprise in the mail of this great game. Now, going into it I had no idea what to expect but let's check it out! Sit back, put your tools down for a minute(unless the foreman is around, then just look "busy" and take a look at Deck building the Deck Building game!

As always, here's an excerpt for the game:

"Get your lumber and your tools - it's time to build the deck you've always wanted! You and your neighbor are competing to make the best deck possible given the materials at hand, and only one of you can win!"



In Deck Building players are competing to make the best deck before the other. It's a quick 2 player game and it's really simple to learn and play.

To start out, there are 2 draw decks made from the cards that are put in the middle of the table. These are you "lumber" decks and in these are cards you will purchase to make your personal deck larger so as to have more options and resources when building. Next to those are a pile of small "Stain" chips.

The stain is a great concept in this game to as it used to protect your other cards from having the other player place anything on them like rotten wood or something. (You read that right, You can sabotage your opponents work!)


So once you start out in the game you'll only be given three cards, two pine and a rotten wood card. These are pretty much your base cards and will be the ONLY ones that you start with in every game. From there, it's up to you to buy more cards using the amount of screws that each card is worth. Here's the catch though, you only get 2 Actions per turn.

The following actions are your choices each turn:

• Buy cards from the center of the table(one card per action)
• Build cards from your hand to your deck or another players deck(one card per action)
• Buy/Place a stain token on your deck.

In this instance you have a total of 5 Screws in hand when you combine the totals on your cards. Therefore, you can purchase up to 5 Screws worth of cards from either of the Lumber Decks. The total of your purchase must NOT exceed 5 but you can purchase two cards that are 3 and 2 which equal 5.

Looking at the top of the decks in the center of the table, you could do the following:

•  Purchase the one with 3 Screws and take a chance at uncovering another card that has 2 Screw on it.
• Purchase the one on the left with 4 Screws on it and take a chance at uncovering another card that has 1 Screw on it.
• Purchase only ONE of the cards and play a card from your hand.
• Play a card from your hand and purchase stain to put on and protect it.
• Play TWO cards from your hand.

As you can see, there are quite a few options that make for some great strategy so you're always thinking and at the same time wondering what your opponent is going to do on their turn.

Once you decide what you're going to do and have executed it, You then discard the remaining cards to your discard pile. If you purchased a card or two, those ALSO go to your discard pile. When you run out of cards from your personal draw pile, you simply shuffle up your discards and draw 3 new cards from them.



So as the game goes on, you continue doing these actions until an end game situation is triggered. The following are ways to trigger the end game:

• Have no cards in your discard, draw or hand.
• Draw the last card from one of the decks in the center.

Once this happens, players then tally up their scores and see who wins. The way to tally up your scores is simple and also feels rewarding because you can get some HIGH scores in the game.

So, My opinion on the game:

Game Art: For what it is and the theme of the game, I really like the art for this one. It is clearly visible when you have to know how many screws you hold in your hand as they are not only on the back of the cards (because that's their cost) but also on the front of the cards marked by little screw heads in the upper left corner of your cards.

Game play: The game play is fast and fun, it's VERY easy to learn and has a nice replay value to the game. Even with such a small game, you have PLENTY of options which is nice.

Game Quality: The box, rules, cards and chips are all of great quality and definitely worth the price. The components should last quite a while and even though we've played through about 10 - 20 games of it, there's no wear apparent on the cards yet.



Overall, This game is great. Like I mentioned before, it's fast, fun and easy to learn. It's a quick 2 player game you can shove in your bag, purse or even pocket and take out anywhere to enjoy with a friend!

Check it out and GET YOUR COPY HERE!

As always, thank you for reading and take care! :)
-Tim