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I will preface this post by saying that designing and developing a game is what made me think through and write all this down. While the majority of this post is just a general analysis of the topic, there is some self promotion at the end.
While sharing many similarities, deck construction and deck building are mechanisms in games that provide differing experiences, yet people often conflate the two into one mechanism. I do not fault anyone for this confusion; âbuildingâ and âconstructionâ are synonymous after all. I also understand that for many, this distinction may be small, but I hope to explain here how I see their differences affect the games they are a part of and how each offers a distinct experience.
Deck construction involves players preparing a deck of cards prior to âplayingâ with those cards. (Note, preparing the deck certainly can be seen as âplayâ and is part of the game, but for ease of this discussion, I am not referring to that aspect of deck construction games when I say âplaying the gameâ.) There is a clear separation between the part of the game where you prepare a deck and when you play with the cards you prepared. While playing the game, it is typically quite rare that you are able to make significant alterations to the deck you prepared. The most classic example is Magic the Gathering, with Flesh and Blood being a popular more recent example.
Deck building involves altering the deck of cards as you play with those cards. In these games you typically start with a small deck that you gradually improve upon through the course of the game, either by adding better/more synergistic cards to the deck or removing weak cards that are slowing it down. A classic example is Dominion, with Lost Ruins of Arnak being a popular recent example.
Understand not all games involving deck construction/building fit cleanly in these categories. For example, in Challengers, you start with a weak deck that you gradually add cards to each round like a deck builder. However, the portion of the game where you alter your deck is completely separated from the part where you âplayâ with the cards and the game freely allows you to remove cards from your deck during this phase, which is more similar to deck construction games.
These are of course very related mechanisms and I could spend a long time just discussing the experience they both provide (such as allowing players to express themselves in their deck, rewarding probabilityâŚ), but the purpose of this post is to point out their differences. Understand not all these differences I provide are cut and dry. Some of these are what the mechanism typically leads games to, not inherently tied to the mechanism.
One simple, but I think fairly significant difference is the setting where decks are created. In a deck construction game, it is generally assumed players prepare their decks alone, so they are prepared to play with the deck when they meet with other players. In deck builders, assuming you are playing a multiplayer one, all creation of the deck happens in the presence of the other players. There is a certain social factor of seeing other players' decks come together and being able to see the reactions of other players as you alter your own (the look of confusion from newer players as I trashed my entire hand with Chapel in Dominion is one of my favourites). However, watching others read and mull over a card market can lead to downtime as well.
The likely largest difference is how you plan the procedure in which you create your deck. This is quite simple in a deck construction game (at least in theory, weâll get into the caveats later); look at the selection of cards you have available, identify the combination of cards that you believe achieve your goals best and use those cards. Deck building is far more convoluted in this regard. In deck building you have to assess what your deck will be like after each individual alteration, as you are constantly using your deck as you build it. Additionally, in most deck builders, cards have some cost/prerequisite you need to meet to acquire them, so you have a further obstacle to creating what you want.
Deck builders adding additional steps and âgamifyingâ the process of creating a deck can be quite compelling. Deck builders will tackle âgamifyingâ the process in different ways, greatly varying the the type of experience (reaching certain money thresholds to acquire cards in Dominion makes for a very different experience than âstealingâ cards from your opponentsâ âdiscardsâ in Fort), but regardless, this almost always puts a focus on the creation of the deck, given that players have to think more about the process and the additional rules associated with altering a deck contribute to the gameâs complexity budget (developers will often limit themselves to how many rules a game has, to ensure the game is accessible to the audience it is intended for). This means that regardless of the other mechanics at play, deck builders almost always have some sort of clear progression to them, as players' decks become better over time. They also often offer clear strategic decisions between investing in tools that will allow you to further improve your deck or tools that will progress you towards the victory condition. Deck construction games on the other hand, with their deck creation and gameplay separated, can deviate more in their gameplay. This does not mean deck construction games cannot have progression or short and long term strategies (many do), but it also opens up to more tactical based games, like Sakura Arms, where playersâ strength ebbs and flows throughout the game.
Having very few limitations during deck creation means deck constructors better serve the idea of envisioning the âperfect deckâ, then getting to play with it. Deck builders on the other hand are more about gradually and continually improving a deck, likely without ever reaching perfection. A common complaint you will see people voice after playing a deck builder is they didnât have enough time to build what they had planned, or didnât get to fully play out their combo once they built it.
Being locked into a deck from the start of play enforces asymmetry more in deck constructors. Without being able to change your tools mid match, you must always play to the strengths of the deck you created, compared to deck builders where you can adapt your deck to tackle whatever the current scenario is. Deck builders can lead to players mimicking each other's strategies, especially if there is nothing preventing players from simply copying the same alterations to their deck the most experienced player at the table is making.
Deck builders are better at creating progression, not only through getting to play with your deck from its weakest point to its strongest, but also in a progression of the playerâs learning. In a deck builder, players constantly get feedback on the changes they made to their deck (as they play with the changes they made to their deck) and are given ample opportunities to apply that feedback. By comparison, in a deck constructor, players are locked into all their decisions they made while creating their deck for the entire game, giving players less frequent opportunities to apply what they have learned through gameplay. So, despite deck builderâs inherent added complexity associated with their additional rules for deck altering, deck builders often end up being more approachable and forgiving. You start with a deck you play a couple of rounds with, essentially acting as a tutorial, then slowly add more cards to your deck which eases you into the complexities of the experience.
Deck construction games on the other hand have a bit of a chicken and the egg problem in this case; you need to play the game to understand what you want in your deck, but you need a deck to play the game. In many deck construction games, players will opt to play multiple games with a pre-constructed deck (basically decks someone else recommended) before even engaging with the deck construction, so they have an understanding of the game before they make their own. This is fine for some, in fact some people avidly play games that involve deck construction and solely use decks they find online (they never create them themselves), but for others, deck construction may be the draw of the game, and needing to play multiple games before you are able to experience that is a huge barrier.
This probably is linked to deck construction games commonly being lifestyle games (singular games people devote the majority of their free time to). As already mentioned, the expectation in deck construction games is that players prepare their decks individually, then play when they meet. This is an extra time investment to play. In addition to the time investment, many deck construction games have huge monetary investment to continue to play. Many of these games (and play groups) expect you to update your cards with newly released cards multiple times a year. Additionally, those newly released cards may add new rules to the game you will have to know to play with or against them, and it is expected you keep up to date with the ever increasing rulebook.
This brings me to the self promotion part of this post. I hope I made it clear how I feel deck building and deck construction provide differing experiences and one does not perfectly fill the same experience as the other. The issue is, while it is easy to bring a deck builder to a game meet-up and play a game within an hour or two: without ample preparation, the same cannot be said about deck construction games (at least if you want to experience the deck construction part). Over the past few years I have prepared to publish MonstaTama; a stand-alone deck construction game, built from the ground up to provide deck construction gameplay in an experience that is as easy to take out and play as any other medium weight tabletop game, and can be played with 1-4 players! (most deck construction games are exclusively 2 player) A Kickstarter to fund the game will be launching soon, you can follow it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertdurant/monstatama
You can play the game now on Tabletop Simulator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891690733
tldr: While providing a similar experience, there are many specific elements exclusive to deck building/construction games. I wanted to share a deck construction experience with my friends, but unfortunately deck construction games are almost exclusively âlifestyleâ games that are difficult to share. I made MonstaTama, a deck construction game built from the ground up to be a stand alone experience that is easy to just take out and play (links to the game provided above).
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