Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20mins
Age: 12+

Star Realms is the hugely popular, fast-paced deck-building game where players are building fleets of spaceships and doing battle in the deep space of the far future.

In Star Realms all players start with an identical deck of low-powered cards.  Some cards give the player Trade which works as currency in the game to buy better cards from the shared Trade Row in the centre of the table. Other cards give the player Combat which you use to attack the other players to reduce their Authority. The aim of the game is to reduce your opponents to zero Authority.  Each turn players draw and play 5 cards from their deck, resolving their abilities, buying new cards and attacking their enemies. 

The Trade Row is made up of random cards drawn from the 80 card Trade Deck.  These cards are from four the different factions in the game, Trade Federation (who’s cards are blue), The Blobs (green), Star Empire (yellow) and Machine Cult (red),  when cards of the same faction are played in the same turn there are certain benefits described on certain cards so it is rewarding for building your deck in certain ways.

Star Realms is one of the most addictive card games I have ever played. Games are quick and fast-paced and once a game has finished you will instantly want to go back for more. It recalls classic deck-building games like Dominion but also has elements of trading card games like Magic: The Gathering. There are several expansions available that add new rules and cards as well as a stand-alone fantasy version of the game called Hero Realms which is just as good! 

Deck-Building
Easy to Learn
Sci-Fi
Fast-Paced

You can buy star realms here