I Fixed Deckbuilding, You’re Welcome!

I know, I know, the title is clickbaity — but come on, you know the times we live in. If I don’t smack you with a headline, you won’t even look here. So here we are: you, curious how I supposedly fixed deckbuilding, and soon after, you, annoyed it was just a clickbait trick.

But here’s the good news — it’s not entirely clickbait. Yes, I’m exaggerating, yes, I’m asking myself for mean comments below, yes, I’m being cheeky… but working on Bohemians with Jasper, we genuinely tried to bring something fresh to the deckbuilding mechanic. I think we spotted a few of its weaker spots and gave them a bit of a polish. Let me tell you about two elements of deckbuilding we decided to tinker with.

The Market

You’ve got a good draw, 7 gold in total. You look at the market — you can afford the most expensive card. It doesn’t quite fit your deck, sure, but it’s powerful, no doubt about it. It doesn’t really click with your engine, but hey, you’ve got the 7 gold right now — better not waste it. You take it and add it to your deck.

We’ve all been there. Dominion, Aeon’s End, Star Realms, Mistborn — doesn’t matter. You’ve got the money, in many cases, you just buy the most expensive thing. Letting gold go to waste feels bad.

So I put a board on the table. I named it The Atelier. “If you’ve got any leftover gold, you can store it here,” I told the players. “Nothing goes to waste from now on.”

Believe it ot not, people stopped buying always the most expensive cards. They started choosing. They’d have 7 gold and wouldn’t just grab the top-cost card — they’d make actual decisions. One player bought a card for 5 and banked 2 gold in the Atelier. Another grabbed something for 3 and added 4 gold to the Atelier. Suddenly, buying a cheaper card didn’t feel bad at all.

I mean… shocker. I freakin’ fixed deckbuilding.

I know, I know, I’m exaggerating — but I love the sound of this phrase.

Trash

Whoever gets the first Trash ability usually wins. Trash, Remove, Cull — whatever you call it — it’s the most important ability in every deckbuilder. Deckbuilding is just as much about buying new cards, as it is about removing them from the deck. The further you get into the game, the more it’s about trimming the fat. You’ve bought those shiny new cards; now it’s time to make your deck hum. And it will — just as soon as you get rid of that starting junk. Give me Trash! I need to Remove!

We’ve all been there. Dominion, Aeon’s End, Star Realms, Mistborn — same story. The sooner you ditch that starting crap, the faster your combos start flying across the table.

So I put a board on the table. I named it The Atelier. “If you’ve got any money left, you can spend it to Trash any card you played this round.”

Believe it or not, in Bohemians we don’t have Trash ability on cards. You don’t have to buy such cards, and pray and wait for them to show up in the market. You’ve got it from turn one, right there in the middle of the table, on the Atelier board. At any moment of the game, you can Trash.

Players gained full control over their decks. For those metaphorical 7 gold, they could either buy something amazing to add to their deck or spend it in the Atelier to Trash any card. Every round, it was the same clean choice — add card to your deck, or remove something from the deck. Decks stopped bloating. Decks started looking like sleek Lamborghini engines — slim, fast, built to tear down the road.

I mean… shocker. I freakin’ fixed deckbuilding.

I know, I know. Still exaggerating.

Bohemians

Bohemians isn’t a head-to-head, punch-your-face-in space brawl. It’s not a race to kill your opponent first. It’s an absurdly thematic, casual game about the life of an artist in Paris. Gorgeous art, strong theme — we could’ve wrapped development three months earlier and shipped a polite, safe, industry-standard card game.

But… I love deckbuilders. And Jasper was always up for another test, another variant, another brainstorming session — always ready to see how we could make this game better. So we did.

Bohemians is indeed a medium-light, casual card game about an artist’s life, you indeed will play it with friends and family without scaring anyone away with rules. But if you’re into deckbuilders, you are in for a treat here. You will lift the hood and you will see the engine inside this innocent little game. You’ll smile. 

Then you’ll shift into fifth gear and, sadly, obliterate your unsuspecting relatives who came to play a casual card game about artists.

I’ve seen it happen. In the right hands, Bohemians has teeth.

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