For solo play I have a fondness of fantasy deckbuilders, where within game or pre game deck construction is a primary mechanic, and the game usually culminates in a boss enemy, or a mission to complete. A campaign element may also permanently upgrade your card pool over time :
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1. Lord Of The Rings LCG (2011) – Fantasy Flight A living card deck themed construction game based, featuring amazing artwork. You embark on varied scenario quest challenges which are determined using a specific encounter deck from which locations, monsters and treachery events will emerge. To combat this you choose three hero characters to adventure with, and build yourself a custom deck of allies, events and equipment to support you. The choices each round are tense, as you decide each turn who to quest with and who will defend or fight for you. This is such a great solo or co-operative game and one of the toughest deckbuilders to consistently beat, but many expansions will enable better deck building which improves your chances of success. This is a hugely collectable game too. My more detailed overview > Lord of the Rings |
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| 2. Thunderstone Quest (2018) – Alderac Thunderstone was re-launched as Quest with fresh looking artwork, adding in new village locations, lovely dungeon room tiles to explore, wounds and generally making the gameplay more interesting and engaging. As a dungeon themed deckbuilding game, players each turn work from a hand of six drawn cards to build a strategy, gradually improving their deck by obtaining or upgrading heroes, and buying new weapons, equipment and spells and / or entering the dungeon tiles to and defeat monsters. This game has great theme and artwork, and is easy to learn and play, and more depth to the previous versions. Originally competitively designed, the excellent addition of the solo and co-operative expansion called ‘barricades’ enhances the game. My more detailed overview > Thunderstone Quest |
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| 3. Marvel Champions (2019) – Fantasy Flight A living card deck construction game where you get to play as your favourite superhero, flipping between your alter ego and hero states and calling on your allies to support you to defeat a villain and thwart his plans. This game features smooth card play, and a cut down deck construction experience where your core hero deck of 15 cards is supplemented by one of four aspect styles, which focus on leadership, aggression, justice or protection. There is so much variety in the game by using the different deck combinations as well as each villain having options of sidekick decks to change their difficulty level. The expansion content is now immense, there is so much choice and playing as a superhero is a really fun experience. My more detailed overview > Marvel Champions |
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| 4. Aeon’s End (2016) – Action Phase A solo and co-operative deckbuilding game where you play as a mage defending the home city of Gravehold from the invasion of a Nemesis creature. Originally released in 2016, there are now a number of core versions of this game, but the gameplay mechanisms have not changed over time, other than the addition of a loose campaign storyline called expeditions connecting battles. This is one of the smoothest deckbuilding games around, and is really straightforward to play. The nemesis each come with their own unique card decks and play boards, changing up the nature of their play, which keeps the game interesting. My more detailed overview > Aeon’s End |
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| 5. Ashes Reborn : Rise of the Phoenixborn (2021) – Plaid Hat Originally a competitive duelling card game, onto which solo and co-operative options have now been added in the shape of Chimeras to fight. This game has amazingly good artwork and style, and has Phoenixborn characters that come with pre built decks and different themes to utilise. There is an underlying spellcasting theme, with dice rolling for mana symbols to utilise and to pay for actions or bring allies and conhurations into you board. Whilst the mechanics are relatively straightforward, just two actions each turn, there is depth to your card play and choices to make on how and when to manipulate the dice rolled. This game has a lot of expansions already, but the addition of solo play has raised its profile. My more detailed overview > Ashes Reborn |
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| 6. Thunderstone Advance (2012) – Alderac This was the second edition of the dungeon themed competitive deckbuilding game, where players each turn work from a hand of six drawn cards to build a round strategy, improving their deck by upgrading heroes, and using gold to buy new weapons, equipment and spells from the village. With a good hand of heroes, enter the dungeon to fight creatures and earn victory points, and these enemy cards will go into your hand providing gold or occasionally extra abilities on future turns. This game has great theme and artwork, and is easy to learn and play, with so many different set up options for enemies and available village items. It is a customisable game and does have some basic solo rules which i added to, but is more a competitive game than co-operative. My more detailed overview > Thunderstone Advance |
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| 7. Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game (2015) – Fantasy Flight This small box is more a co-operative card and dice dungeon crawl game than a deckbuilder, and sets up neat character and player interaction, as your heroes interact and support each other to complete quests. Monsters will come thick and fast from the shadows, and your characters each have a set of four actions to use to combat the dungeon, and combining them is critical. There is a light but specific storyline being told by each of the quest cards, and the mechanic of using your card actions and dice rolling works beautifully. It is a relatively quick dungeon experience, and mostly about exploration and combat. I enjoyed the game so much i wrote four custom scenarios for the original game, which have become popular with game fans > Warhammer Quest Adventure |
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| 8. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (2013) – Paizo A co-operative game with mix of styles being card based, having slow long term deckbuilding with dice rolling resolution for skill checks and combat. The game is very hero character driven, all with roleplaying class character statistics which determine what skills you are good at. Your adventures take place over multiple short missions with levelling happening over multiple plays by gaining new card items, spells and equipment alongside skills upgrade which ultimately add to you dice rolls. The gameplay has a relatively easy card and dice rolling play style which does feature repetition, its artwork is for the most part good rather than best in class, and there are many adventure themed sets you can decide on with different themes and enemies. It is a great way to experience roleplaying games solo. My more detailed overview > Pathfinder Adventure |
| Previously Owned Deckbuilders …due to space and funding restrictions i regularly trade out games to fund and try newer ones, producing an ever changing favourites list, but one of these games may be right for you. Call To Adventure (2019) – hero crafting story game where you build your character via a tableau of cards to defeat a final adversary. It has solo, co-operative or competitive elements, excellent artwork, alongside a nice mechanic of casting runes but i prefer the Thunderstone series > Call To Adventure Dungeon Alliance (2018) – a dungeon themed deckbuilding game where you play four heroes questing to defeat a selected boss adversary within four game rounds. This is more a strategic puzzle game experience than an exploration journey > Dungeon Alliance Xenoshyft Dreadmire (2017) – aliens attacking the base survival deckbuilder, where heroes set up in defensive formation to repel the alien onslaught and prevent base damage. A good multiplayer deckbuilding game with great monster artwork but i chose to invest more in Thunderstone Dragonfire (2017) – dungeons and dragons themed deckbuilder with many expansions and characters. It’s has campaign options, but mechanisms and rules have overly fiddly elements, and it uses stickers to place upgrades on hero cards as you progress. Overall i felt Aeons End was better. Aventuria (2016) – a card based co-op or competitive adventure game which is essentially a light narrative driven combat game using 20 sided dice, with deckbuilding elements. I prefer Pathfinder ACG over this game > Aventuria Arkham Horror LCG (2016) – a fantasy flight living card game strong on campaign and storyline with a Lovecraftian theme. It is well regarded, however it’s token drawing for every test and solo play location map lock outs became tiresome, and i much prefer Lord of the Rings Marvel legendary (2012) – a superhero theme and generally a lighter less complex deckbuilder, and a nice entry point to the genre for newcomers or less experienced gamers. Has loads of expansions to collect, but for me has been replaced by Marvel Champions |