Better than Magic?

Discuss.

Easily.

What? What is this crazy game?

The game that gave rise to the Deckbuilding genre, by Donald X. Vaccarino. Pretty cool shtuff.
Google and BGG is a thing, as always.

Dominion is pretty fun

Had a buddy who told me he played it and said it was pretty good... never did check it out for myself.

~SE++

It is an excellent game. Loads of fun. I have never introduced anyone to it yet that didn't love it. It's like Settlers of Catan in that way. Magic, that learning curve can really drive people away.

I have created my own custom set of Dominion actually. Am I allow to post it here?

Nothing is better than magic. Except maybe kittens.

Sarah, you've gotta try it. It's fast, easy, endlessly customizable, pretty deep in strategy, and... well, hell, you can play the base set for free online!


I absolutely encourage it. I was doing a lot of custom Dominion design over at dominionstrategy.com, but it's totally different than Magic. The things you have to worry about are so different and I can't help but fall for the same pit traps as every newbie, even after 10+ years of game design. Totally refreshing. It also has way less design space than MTG, so I'd be interested to see what you've whipped up.

I hate Dominion. All you do is buy Markets and Villages and Witches.

I agree completely with the design philosophy. When I first started I was thinking it would be easy, but it is surprisingly difficult to create the cards. It was like starting from scratch. And after the first place test I had to go right back to the start. Costing is so different it proved to be one of the most difficult aspects.

I will make a thread here and post them up later today. I have images for them all, but their not hosted anywhere yet.

Netrunner is better. And so is Magic. But Dominion is cool as a gateway game.

I think Dominion works fairly poorly as a gateway game, it's extremely difficult for a newer player to compete.

The ease of entry works well for making it a good gateway game, but I don't know of any strategy card games that really allow for beginners to start winning against experts right away. And in Dominion's case, it can be pretty easy to hit a simple strategy like Big Money Smithy and beat an "expert" whose convoluted combo doesn't work out or who made some judgment errors. Especially in multiplayer where going for something strong like a Chapel start can be neutralized by someone going for Militias, with the third newbie sticking to Big Money and thus cruising through the damage of both.

It's much more forgiving than it seems.

I don't know about better than Magic, but it's definitely fun and engaging; I've only played once, a new player demo game at a local store, but I quickly got sucked into the play and strategy.

Arise from the grave, my undead minion!

*ahem*

We got this for our kids for Christmas. So far, me, my wife, and my daughter (turns 13 in 1 month) love it. My son (turns 12 in 2 months) says he doesn't like it - but I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that his sister likes it.

I like that of all the cards that are there, you only use 10 at a time. Just swapping one for another next time changes the entire dynamic enough.

It's fun. I definitely wouldn't rate it above Magic, but it's not a bad way to pass time.

It's no kittens, that's for sure.

I don't think that kittens are that great. I find that they can often be very accurately described as vicious idiots. Really, I get that they're nice and furry, but isn't it time we got over that?

I mean, it's only fur.

I dislike Dominion. Too straight forward, no hidden information, and there's always an optimal play, which is usually "buy markets"