Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

I never got into pure deck builders, Dominion and its kin, the mechanics are fine but the theme always felt bolted on after the fact, cards you’re buying for reasons that have nothing to do with what’s printed on them. Clank fixes that by literally putting your deck-building on a dungeon map. You’re drafting cards to recruit help, move through corridors, fight what’s in your way, and grab treasure, all while a dragon somewhere above you is getting steadily angrier about the noise you’re making.

That last part is the whole game, honestly. Every noisy action drops cubes in a bag, and every so often you draw from that bag to see who the dragon notices. It’s a push your luck system layered on top of a deck builder, and the tension of deciding whether to grab one more treasure room or start booking it for the exit is sharper than anything I’ve felt in a straight deck builder before. Escaping alive is worth more than anything else you’re carrying, and I’ve made peace with abandoning a full hand of loot more than once because the dragon was clearly done being patient.

One real wart, and I say this as someone whose whole professional life is handling worn paper goods, sleeve this game. The cards mark up fast from shuffling, corners going soft within a dozen plays if you don’t protect them, and once a card’s edges go, the whole deck starts feeling a little sad in your hands. It’s a small cost against how much table time this thing has gotten in my house, but it’s a cost.

The other complaint I’ve seen echoed plenty is that a player can get eliminated early and then just sit there watching everyone else finish, which happened to a friend of mine on his second play and soured him on it for a while. Worth knowing going in. Everything else about it, I’d recommend without much hesitation.