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Deck Unbuilding

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wshossein
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Joined: 12/28/2011

Hi everyone.
I was thinking about to do a deck building game and I started my research reading several rulebooks and after all I realized that all deck buildings are very close to Dominion and I didn't want to do another Dominion retheme. Trying to innovate in the deck building field I thought about a new mechanic that is the title of this post.

I don't have all the concepts yet. I did some tests that I will discuss later. Now I would like to discuss about the core concepts of this mechanic with you and grab some new ideas.
What is a Deck Unbuilding Game? Imagine a end game deck of your favourite Deck Building Game. Full of powerfull cards and with 4 times the size of your initial deck. Now the goal of game is to reduce your pile of cards to a optimized low size deck. Its like reverse engineering :P

Some concepts found in DB games will be there like discard all your hand to run faster through your card supply and the Action - Destroy (instead Buy) - Clean Up Phase. I'm thinking implement some tweaks found in new DB games but it will be related to my game thematic.
Another concept thinked is that your deck start with powerfull cards but not related with the victory condition and during game you destroy this cards to approach to the winning OR destroy this cards to buy/build Victory cards that is already in your stack. So every turn you need to choose carefully what card destroy to keep you in the game. The idea is that you can destroy the hard cards first but you need to save power for the last cards.

I searched games implementing this behavior and only found Furstenfeld of Friedemann Friese but isn't exactly what I was thinking but it helps with some ideas like put the discarded cards bellow the card suply instead create a separete stack.

Now I just want to hear you: do you know some games with this mechanic? What kind of thematic/game you think that fits with this system? Opinions? If you are interested in help create this mechanic join the discussion here :)
PS: sorry for the grammar mistakes.

Noimage
Noimage's picture
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Joined: 04/01/2015
Intriguing

This idea seems very intriguing. The one think that annoys me about deck builder games is starting really weak because it's kinda boring. I think reversing this mechanic would make a game,a lot of fun because you start at the fun part but instead of getting boring, it gets more intense, for you are forced to plan a lot more than a normal deck building game. The act of losing cards verses gaining,cards also seems like it Will make decisions more costly. People tend to be more willing to take cards rwther than wanting to get rid of their cards. Let me know if there is anything you need help wise, I'd be happy to help.

larienna
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Joined: 07/28/2008
I made a thread a few years

I made a thread a few years ago about it and many ideas came out:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/8688770

wshossein
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Joined: 12/28/2011
Great Thread

I read all comments and grab a lot of ideas from there. Your initial idea is close to mine but I thought something more like Dominion and not so Summoner Wars.
Now after some years do you want to try do something like that? If anyone else want to try I'm creating a chat group on facebook to discuss this ideas, concepts of mechanic and useful themes.
I post there too:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GameDesignersGuild/625467300887352

My name is Wyllian Hossein.

Thank You

wshossein
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Joined: 12/28/2011
That is the deal Noimage. I

That is the deal Noimage. I will organize all ideas that prople told me and post here the results and the state of this mechanic.

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