You just sold me on it.

~SE++

Sounds more like Dominion than Ascension from that description.

It probably is. I've just never played Dominion somehow.

I am buying and trying Smash Up. Had fun with it at a friends house .

I'm rather fond of Kanzume Goddess personally. It has an interesting chain mechanic (basically you can only play one card a turn, but each card has a color and two colors it can "chain" into letting you potentially play a whole bunch in one go), and it uses all the cards in randomized piles, so instead of just having a pile of Shanty Towns, buying Gemini might make a Capricorn available. Also you win by either getting to a certain number of points or reducing your opponent to 0 points by attacking them, which adds that bit of interactivity Dominion sorely lacks (Yeah, there are attack cards and reaction cards, but they feel more like an afterthought than a core game mechanic) One caveat though is that the art was clearly designed for 13-year-olds, but if you can overlook that it's pretty fun.

Also Dice Masters is basically a deckbuilding game, except with dice instead of cards. It plays kind of like Magic, but with some interesting twists ("Destroyed creatures" get to be rolled again next turn, potentially coming back or providing more "mana" and unblocked attackers go to your discard pile, so you can sometimes let something nasty hit you just to get rid of it for a while).

I really feel that the supply containing consistent cards is a major design strength. You could make the argument that it front-loads the decision making, but I rather enjoy that.

True, honestly I don't think either is better or worse, just different. Hell, one of the things I like about Dice Masters is the lack of hidden information. But I think random is the right choice for that game, the color chain rules kinda reuire all cards be used, so it adds some variance (Plus it adds a nice element of "Do I buy Taurus while I have the chance or risk that nobody else is gonna take it?").