Poker Hand Deckbuilder
Experimenting with folding poker bluffing and gambling into the established genre of Deckbuilding
- Start with a standard Deck building template:
- Each player has identical 10 card starting decks
- Variable market in center of table
- On their turn each player draws 5 cards, which they can use to purchase more cards from the market
- Some cards are temporary (gold/instants), others stick around between rounds (creatures)
- In addition to its normal abilities and effects, each card in the game has a Suit and numeric value in the top right corner, like a standard deck of cards.
- 2-10, J, Q, K, A - 4 suits
- After playing your hand of cards, each player holds some cards from their hand aside for the "showdown" face down.
- After each player has played, each player declares how many cards they kept aside face down.
- Each player may check, bet, or fold.
- Normal poker rules
- If everyone but one person folds, they don't have to show what they kept
- once everyone has called or folded, everyone reveals.
- Strongest poker hand wins
- Poker hand is comprised of cards "held back" from their turn, + the card value of "creature" cards that remain face up in front of them.
- Winner takes pot, and gets a bonus draw from a stronger card deck.
The core concept is to force players to have to interact with their cards in two ways - what they do when played, and their utility in building strong poker hands. Building your deck should be a tightrope balance between trying to make sure you'll get consistently strong hands, without making your engine wildly inefficient.
Other odd ideas:
- Instead of holding back cards to compete at the end of the round, perhaps each round begins with players having a poker showdown using the 5 card hand they draw
- "Permanent" engine building cards purchased and in play may give some players hand editing powers
- Stud: Discard some cards and draw to replace
- Players can bet banked resources (with small and big blind making betting mandatory)
- Winner gets the pot to spend at the market on their turn, and takes the first action of the round.
- Everyone who stayed "in" to the final round of betting reveals their hand.
- Revealing your hand might influence how other players want to play around you.