Card games are among the oldest of game formats, starting with table card games like cribbage and eventually evolving into tabletop board games like Dominion. This evolution carried on into video games, with games such as Slay The Spire helping to popularize the use of cards in video games.

Although rogue-like deck-builders are among the most popular digital card games, not all digital card games fit this description. Other card games take on the form of digital trading card games like Marvel Snap, or digital adaptations of board games such as Dune Imperium.

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11 Marvel Snap

A Fast-Paced, Tactical Card Game

Marvel Snap is a digital card game set in the Marvel universe that tasks players with contesting three separate locations, attempting to control at least two of them. These locations each have their own unique effects on the game, and can dramatically change the way each match plays out.

While some valid complaints have been made towards Marvel Snap's handling of balance and live-service, the gameplay itself remains solid and consistent. Players build lean decks out of simple cards that each follow straightforward rules, and the game's "snap" system injects an element of bluffing into the experience that spices up the gameplay.

10 Gloomhaven

A Well-Crafted Board Game Adaptation

Gloomhaven is a tremendously popular and impossibly large tabletop dungeon-crawler with a unique card-based combat system. Its digital counterpart removes much of the tedium, allowing the game's card-based gameplay to shine.

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Gloomhaven is a turn-based dungeon-crawler RPG with seventeen unique playable characters. Each card in the game has a top and bottom half that provides a different effect. On each turn, players pick the bottom and top of two cards. This makes not only the choice of which card to play, but how that card is played, an important strategic decision.

9 Fights In Tight Spaces

High-Octane Turn-Based Tactics

• Platform(s): PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
• Released: 2020
• Developer(s): Ground Shatter

This highly stylized turn-based tactics game tasks players with playing cards as they participate in brutal, close-quarters brawls. Fights In Tight Spaces features deep gameplay that's easy to learn but hard to master, made deeper by its variety of play-styles.

Fights In Tight Spaces aims to emulate the atmosphere of slick action thrillers like John Wick, mostly composed of fist-fights. The gameplay may be extremely combat focused and somewhat mechanically dense, but Fights In Tight Spaces is a satisfying digital card game for fans of turn-based tactics.

8 Griftlands

A Unique Deck-Building RPG

This rogue-like deck-builder from Klei Entertainment, the minds behind games such as Oxygen Not Included and Don't Starve, is a mash-up of card-based combat and RPG mechanics. The game features a wonderful art style that keeps the tone of Klei's other games, a unique dual-layered combat system, and an injection of RPG gameplay that helps it to stand out.

The combat of Griftlands allows players to fight violently, or negotiate. While the former plays out similarly to games such as Slay The Spire (albeit with, at times, more party members), the latter is a more unique system that has players managing an entirely different deck. Furthermore, since killing NPCs can have an effect on the game world, players are sometimes rewarded for negotiating instead.

7 Cobalt Core

A Thematic Rogue-Like Deck-Builder

• Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch
• Released: 2023
• Developer(s): Rocket Rat Games

This cozy, science-fiction rogue-like features deck-building gameplay with a unique tactics twist. In Cobalt Core, players take the helm of a spaceship, moving it on a single-axis in order to avoid enemy attacks and line up their shots.

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Cobalt Core is extremely thematic, featuring a well-written story and a charismatic cast of characters that each have their own unique set of cards. Each run, players must build a crew of three from this roster of distinct characters, making each run feel unique.

6 Stacklands

A Card-Based Survival City-Builder

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2022
• Developer(s): Sokpop Collective

This unique combination of city-building, card game, and survival tasks players with stacking cards on top of each other to trigger unique interactions. Stack two wood cards, a stone card, and a villager card together, and the result is a house.

Stacklands revolves entirely around this simple yet creative mechanic. There's plenty of satisfaction to be had in stacking the various cards, but players will also have to play strategically and efficiently to keep their villagers alive.

5 Inscryption

An Ever-Changing, Immersive Experience

This strange combination of escape-room, card game, and horror is an immersive blend of ideas and mechanics. Inscryption is best played with no prior knowledge of the game, as its ideas are so fresh that to detail them would spoil it.

Inscryption's card game, which players will spend a lot of time playing, is highly strategic. The game features deck-building elements and a unique lane system that tasks players with strategically playing their various minion cards.

4 Dune Imperium

A Deep, Digital Board Game

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2023
• Developer(s): Dire Wolf

Set in the universe of Frank Herbert's iconic Dune, this digital adaptation of the strategic tabletop game features a combination of tactical deck-building and worker-placement mechanics. Dune Imperium may look intimidating with its cluttered user interface and board-game aesthetic, but its mechanics are deeply satisfying.

The game's card economy is also a matter of strategy. Players will often be torn between purchasing the cards they need and preventing their opponents from acquiring powerful cards. Furthermore, Dune Imperium's skirmish system adds some risk and reward to the otherwise consistent gameplay.

3 Slay The Spire

A Revolutionary Rogue-Like Deck-Builder

This iconic combination of rogue-like and deck-builder tasks players with battling through a dungeon, playing cards, and creating powerful synergies. Slay The Spire is packed with satisfying card-based gameplay, plenty of unique cards and strategies, and a rogue-like relic system that helps encourage specific synergies.

Slay The Spire also features several playable characters, each with their own unique set of cards, which helps add a great deal of replay value. While the idea of a rogue-like deck-builder is more common now, Slay The Spire still remains a stand-out digital card game.

2 Balatro

Rogue-Like Poker That Anyone Can Play

This Poker-themed rogue-like tasks players with playing optimized Poker hands and breaking the rules of the game with a set of unique Joker cards. These Jokers are at the heart of Balatro's gameplay, acting as powerful passive abilities that allow players to build powerful synergies.

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Balatro is a remarkably stripped-back experience, with a clean UI and a straightforward gameplay loop. This makes Balatro one of the most accessible digital card games, and helps it to feel like a focused experience. Balatro also offers plenty of replay value, featuring an Endless Mode, several difficulties, a variety of playable decks, and an abundance of Jokers.

1 The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection

Modern Innovations in Solitaire

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2022
• Developer(s): Zachtronics

Zachtronics is best known for mind-boggling hits like EXAPUNKS, Opus Magnum, and Infinifactory, but they have also released various twists on the classic Solitaire. As its name suggests, The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection puts all of these Solitaire experiences in one tidy place.

The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection features seven unique Solitaire games, each with its own unique visual style and twist. For players that enjoy classic Solitaire, The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection is a great bundle of digital card games with plenty of interesting ideas.

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