It’s time to grab some friends – and decks – as we check out the best card games for adults!
Long gone are the days when it was assumed that tabletop gaming was essentially a kids pastime, except for the rare occasions when Monopoly would be brought out at family gatherings – inevitably to worsen already strained relationships.
These days, tabletop games are a more than acceptable pastime for adults – and it’s arguably more popular than ever before.
Card games aimed at more mature audiences are also becoming increasingly common – yet it’s difficult to know what might hit or miss with other adult players.
So come with us here at Card Gamer, as we recommend what we think are the best card games for adults!
1. Magic: The Gathering
Having been around for over three decades, Magic: The Gathering (or MTG) has been continually refined and expanded, with numerous different ways to play.
Given its rich history and the often bewildering number of products available for MTG at any one time, it can be pretty daunting to get into if you’re a new player, even as an adult.
If you’re a new player who would look to play regularly with a group, we’d recommend checking out the Magic: The Gathering Game Night set, which provides five decks, each using a different colour of Mana (MTG’s resource cards, used to bring other cards into play) and relatively straightforward cards that don’t feature any intimidatingly complex keywords.
It also features enough life trackers, tokens, counters and reference cards for up to five players, and it’s a great springboard for an adult gaming group to properly learn the game, which sees players using the cards in their decks to summon creatures to battle each other and spells to assist, with the ultimate aim to reduce the life total of their opponents from 20 points to zero.
The cards are fully compatible with any other sets or packs you may buy. With MTG being the world’s first Collectable Card Game (or CCG), this means that you can customise and build your own deck of cards from those you have in your collection.
This is an element of MTG that makes it so incredibly satisfying and addictive to play; given that you can use the Game Night cards in this way (even just by using the cards included in the five separate card decks to build your own deck, if you’re feeling adventurous), it really is an excellent starting point.
MTG is more traditionally played (in its standard format at least) by two players, so for that we’d highly recommend checking out a Starter Kit, which performs a similar function to Game Night, albeit cut down and with a scripted, tutorial style game to make it even easier to learn.
If you’re already familiar with the basics of MTG, or you have a group of friends who are keen to play, we’d recommend checking out any set’s Commander Decks, which provide a slightly different game style and deck building rules; as one of the most popular ways to play MTG right now, Commander is well worth learning and, if you have game stores near you, you’ll likely never be short of opponents to take on!
Beyond that, Magic: The Gathering is a straight up excellent game and, thanks to its longevity, it’s a certainty that it’ll be around for a very long time, so it’s well worth jumping in, finding new ways to play and making new friends!
If it still seems a bit intimidating, don’t worry; here on Card Gamer we have our very own how to play Magic: The Gathering guide to help teach you the basics.
Note that we here at Card Gamer can’t be held responsible for the lifelong addiction to the game that will inevitably ensue for you and four of your friends!
2. Star Wars Unlimited
The appeal of the Star Wars saga truly crosses generations, thanks to the first film trilogy beginning in 1977, with both prequel and sequel trilogies kicking off in the late 90s and mid-2010s respectively.
Numerous spin offs, in book, comic, cartoon and TV show form, over the years have kept Star Wars alive for successive generations as well as keeping older and original fans engaged, so recommending a Star Wars card game feels like a no brainer.
Unlike MTG, Star Wars Unlimited is a very new title, but like the aforementioned game it’s also one in which you’re free to build your own decks from the cards you collect in booster packs.
Star Wars Unlimited is very simple to get into; just get hold of a two player starter set and you’ll have everything you need for yourself and an opponent to learn and play, including accessories, a deck box and tutorial style play mats alongside the two ready-to-play card decks.
Star Wars Unlimited is a game in which the aim is to reduce your opponent’s Base to zero health, with each player having a powerful Leader card that can, later in the game, be deployed as a unit.
Units fight in either the ground or space arenas, with battles taking place on both; this, along with the nicely thought out cards and their abilities, gives the game an authentic, thematic feel.
It’s a fast paced, exciting game that’s easier to pick up and play than MTG, though of course the card selection and product range in general is definitely much smaller.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, particularly for beginners!
Check out our Star Wars Unlimited review for a more in-depth look at the game, and if you’re a big Star Wars fan (as I am!), you’ll want to check out our feature on the history of Star Wars CCGs!
3. Star Realms: Frontiers
From two games with sprawling, ever expanding card collections, to one that’s more self-contained: Star Realms.
A two player deck building game, Star Realms sees players building fleets of starships and using bases to strengthen and defend themselves, with the aim of getting their opponent’s ‘Authority’ (basically their intergalactic political power) total to zero.
Cards are drawn and used from an initially small deck of 10 cards, with your first ships having basic attack or coin values. Coins are used to purchase more ships (and bases too) from a central marketplace row, which are then added to your discard pile.
When you run out of cards to draw, you shuffle your discard pile to create a new draw deck, giving you access to all of the shiny, upgraded new cards you’ve just been buying!
It’s an incredibly addictive and easy game to learn; even though it’s self contained, it is possible to buy numerous expansions, some of which function as standalone games in their own right and don’t need the base game to play.
Star Realms Frontiers is one of the best of these expansions, in our opinion.
That’s because it gives you everything you need for up to four players to take each other on, as well as both solo and co-op variants of the game, with no need to buy any more boxes or expansions!
So if there’s more of you, or even just yourself, or you fancy taking on the game itself rather than each other, you can do so, all from this compact and reasonably priced box of cards!
4. Love Letter
As small and minimalist as Star Realms is, even in its slightly larger Frontiers edition, it’s got nothing on Love Letter.
The entirety of the Love Letter package (which comes complete with, and fits into, a small, slightly larger than card size, felt drawstring bag) consists of just 27 cards and 13 tokens.
Even then, several of those cards are reference cards to hand out to each player, making the number of cards you actually use in the game even smaller.
So, what makes Love Letter such an excellent game?
Partly, it’s the pick up and play accessibility of the game, in which you have just one card in your hand, then on your turn you draw one more and choose one of the two cards to play.
Your objective in Love Letter is to be the player that delivers the titular document to the Princess, but the theme is pretty abstract; in practice, you’re actually looking to be the only player left after everyone else is eliminated from the round, which will win you a Favour Token.
Get enough Favour Tokens and you’ll win the game; with rounds taking minutes to play through at most, thanks to the simple gameplay, you can easily play a full game with multiple players in 10 minutes, sometimes even less.
It’s one of those games which you’ll always want to play again too, and given its brevity, you’ll almost always have time to do so!
The Regency period art is beautiful and the cards themselves are of good quality, with solid, plastic tokens too.
If you’re really not fussed about the theme, or you want a slightly different experience, there are a few variations on the base game, such as Infinity Gauntlet, which has a Marvel theme and pits one player against everyone else (with Thanos vs Heroes!), or Jabba’s Palace, which adds new rules and thematic Star Wars touches to the base Love Letter game.
5. Bohnanza
Don’t be fooled by the cartoony look of Bohnanza; this clever game of bean trading and negotiation has been a mainstay of the tabletop ever since its initial release in 1997.
In Bohnanza, players have a hand of cards – and must collect sets of beans that they ‘plant’, then sell, with the aim of the game being to have the most coins at the end of the game.
Each type of bean has a different level of rarity and therefore a different value for the varying volumes of beans you sell; some may be highly sought after and others, well, not so much.
The ace up the sleeve of Bohnanza is the fact that you are absolutely forbidden from rearranging the cards in your hand, so you can only make use of the cards at the ‘front’ of your hand when planting.
You’re free to trade from anywhere in your hand, however – so the trick is to pass on cards you may not need to other players, giving you access to the cards that are most valuable to you at any given point in the game.
It’s incredibly clever, necessitating a huge amount of negotiation and discussion at absolutely every step of the proceedings; this means that every player constantly feels involved in what’s going on, no matter who is currently taking their turn.
Given its age, there have been numerous versions of Bohnanza over the years, not to mention an incredible number of expansions that add to and even transform the feel of the core experience, and the current edition commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the game.
This version includes a Magpie Bean, which allows players to steal beans from the beanfields of other players!
Though suitable for all ages, it’s a phenomenally addictive game for adults to play together, making it a fantastic choice for the list of the best card games for adults.
6. Turf War
A two player deck building game of feuding neighbours and their attempts to impress the snobs in their street with the most beautiful garden, Turf War packs a seriously addictive game into an impressively tiny package.
In Turf War, players start with a 3 x 3 grid of undeveloped soil – and must cultivate it using a small hand of tools, then make it look good by adding flowers, fancy ornaments and dazzling features.
However, this can only be done while players are at home.
While they’re at work, they earn money with which to buy more cards for their garden when they get home – but they also leave their garden unattended, which opens the opportunity for their rival to invade, lay weeds and infest their plots with pests!
It’s a delicate, thematic balancing act of knowing when to stay home to guard and improve your garden, then timing it right to go to work – in order to get yourself more resources, as well as bringing purchased and played cards back into use.
It’s beautifully designed, highly portable and very competitive in nature – and its unusual theme steers clear of the oft-used fantasy and sci-fi themes that deck builders are often based around.
Saying that, there is a mini fantasy expansion that allows you to add a slight medieval flavour to your garden and neighbours, if the theme does feel a little mundane for your taste.
Though gardening may be a dull pastime for many of us as adults, Turf War is anything but – being a nail biting struggle to be responsible for the most impressive lawn in the neighbourhood!
7. Terrible Monster
Just like Love Letter, Terrible Monster is a game which contains very few cards, being comprised of just 16 basic cards in a shared deck.
However, the theme of Terrible Monster could not be any different, with players as rival Voodoo practitioners looking to rid themselves of their opponent, by using their magic and attacking them with deadly beasts, with the titular Terrible Monster being the most devastating of them!
Though the gameplay is straightforward enough to be enjoyed by players of any age, the imagery and themes are a bit dark for kids; therefore, it’s a perfect game for adult players.
Players have a hand of cards to choose from on each turn, and can use certain cards to get more card plays or draws, extending the options available to them.
Each player starts with 4 Life, and the Terrible Monster deals 4 damage, which can wipe out a player in a single turn!
Interestingly, however, as you can see from the image above, you can’t play the Terrible Monster itself.
Instead, you need to use a Summon card to get the Terrible Monster into play; this means that the person who can successfully get themselves the Summon and the Terrible Monster together is certain to win, with numerous ways to do this, but also several methods to stop it happening!
It’s a fascinatingly minimalist piece of game design, with a lightning fast pace and addictive, clever gameplay that improves as you get to know each of the cards and their abilities.
8. Dome Crushers
Carrying on the theme of minimalist card games, Dome Crushers is another title that uses a surprisingly small number of cards.
In the case of two player game Dome Crushers, however, each player has their own deck, with each card having a different effect depending on its orientation when played.
Playing cards vertically means that they attack; if you instead opt for placing a card horizontally, it activates its ability.
Players compete to score the highest number of points in a round where their giant monsters take each other on in arena-based combat; in practice, this just means playing one card against another, adding attack strength and triggering abilities, until one player wins!
The a unique scoring system in Dome Crushers makes it feel unlike anything else I’ve played; with its oversized cards and beautiful art of highly detailed, battling monsters (plus, try and spot each of the human handlers on each creature!), it’s an excellent, highly competitive game for two players.
Given its small size and low cost, Dome Crushers is another self-contained game that’s perfect for two competitive adults!
9. Arkham Noir
If ever a game was to fit the definition of ‘for adults’, Arkham Noir is it.
Based on the cosmic horror stories of HP Lovecraft, the Arkham Noir games (there’s more than one version, with the above pictured being Case #1: The Witch Cult Murders) see players attempt to solve a gruesome mystery before time runs out.
Or you could always go insane; either way, you lose unless you solve the case!
Interestingly, the Arkham Noir games are played solo; that is, they’re set up and played by a single player, with the deck and drawn cards providing clues, challenges and the time limit.
The cards are evocatively illustrated with dark imagery, giving the game an unusual, oppressive ambience.
It’s an excellent, puzzle-style experience with a clever system based on symbols and card abilities; if you do want to try out solving different mysteries, there are other case files available too!
10. Sussed
Though it feels like a little bit of a cheat having Sussed in this list, it does classify itself as a card game.
The reason it feels like a cheat is that it’s not like a traditional card game, though you can also argue something similar about Arkham Noir, which I have also included on this list!
However, with Sussed, the included cards each contain questions.
You’ll read one out and each player has to guess what your answer would be, for example, a question may be: what would I rather eat?
There’ll be three choices, and players choose which one you’ve secretly written down on your score sheet.
If they get it right, they score and after a certain number of rounds, the player with the highest score wins.
Though that sounds incredibly basic, that’s because it is; however, the true genius of Sussed is in the conversations that answers provoke, as well as discovering things about friends or family members that you may not know!
Though most sets of Sussed are family friendly, conversations between adults can of course be as restrained or open as necessary. There’s also an ‘Emotional Intelligence’ set, which is slightly more mature than most versions of the game (which you can see in the photo above) and an ‘After Dark’, adults only set too.
So there you have it, our list of the best card games for adults; if you need a game for when the kids aren’t around, regardless of your group size (or even if you’re alone!), there’s something for everyone in the list of ten games above!
