09/17/2026
Not all board games need a board. Honestly, some of my very favorite experiences fit right in my pocket and only consist of a handful of cards. Here’s a few that I’ve been carrying with me when I actually manage to touch grass.
An absolute banger of a two player lane-battling game. You deploy beautifully illustrated desert critters around different oases, group them to activate powers, manipulate their positions, and fight for control.
This is my wife’s and my favorite game to play together, period. And the increasingly hammered box proves how often we take it places 😂 it’s real roughed up in person, trust. Weast Coast Games arguably makes some of the best games in existence.
Coined as “Go Fish for gamers” in the best possible way. You’re using memory and deduction to uncover matching trios, but you can only request the highest or lowest card in someone’s hand.
It’s quick, accessible, and one of those rare games that genuinely works across a huge range of ages. Easier and harder than you’d expect all at the same time.
Love the art in this one. It’s all origami and so cute. You draw cards, build scoring sets, use pairs for special actions, and either call end of round when you’ve hit 7 points, or risk giving everyone else one final turn to score even bigger. It took me a little while to understand just how much game is hiding inside these simple rules, (and let’s be honest, the go-don’t-go-end-round-don’t-end-round thing broke my brain for a while) but now I’m a huge fan.
The expansions are killer too, and I always bring them with the base game.
If you haven’t seen me explain this game with a great costume on, you’re missing out. This one is a super accessible card-shedding game where you play increasingly powerful sets and runs while recruiting public cards into your crew. It has killer aesthetics, teaches incredibly easily, and still gives you plenty of opportunities to disrupt everyone else’s plans.
Go bust up everyone on the street. See if I care.
This one’s a quick deck-building game where you shuffle your entire deck, flip six characters into a grid, and trigger combinations based on who lands where. You’ll use the “Fame” they generate to recruit
