Shards of Infinity

Shards of Infinity makes no attempt to disguise its deck-builder bones. Good. It takes a familiar recipe, puts it in a small box with no unnecessary decoration, and adds enough malice for the table to produce both delight and grievance.

You begin with ten cards, draw five, play them, buy from the centre row, attack if you can, then refill for the next player. Straightforward at first. But you are not merely building a tidy little engine here; when the moment comes, you point it directly at the person opposite.

Card acquisition supports several routes, with combos that reward a plan and heavy attacks for anyone determined to keep the pressure on. Focus is the pleasing third stat: hard to raise, able to improve particular cards, and central to the race for 30, where infinite damage can begin. There is, naturally, the familiar luck of a shared centre row. You will wait for the card you need and somebody else will take it. A fine start to an argument.

The base card pool has enough substance that it does not immediately ask for more, and the game remains thoroughly enjoyable even when the centre row declines to cooperate. Shards of Infinity is a well-made, good-value deck-builder that lets you build a plan and, better still, use it against your friends.