Star Realms: Deluxe Nova Collection

Star Realms was always a fair-value filler with a proper spark to it, before the flood of expansions made the whole thing feel rather like a drawer full of unrelated charging cables. The Nova Collection arrived after a long and difficult-to-defend delay from a company that knows how to make card games, but it did arrive as an object I am pleased to own. The production is first-rate; the foil cards catch the light like little neon signs, though that constant shine can tire the eyes if the table is not directly lit.

At the table, the heart of it is still the cards and the way they are mixed: each turn is a small run of choices from what has come into your hand, while the game gradually takes shape through the possibilities those cards provide. It does not burden the evening with procedure. It does the filler job cleanly.

Interaction comes from the way your choices meet everyone else's, rather than from any festival of nastiness. This collection's card mix has a pleasing range to it and leaves room for a laugh, so the tension stays playful instead of becoming the sort of Tuesday-after-work silence in which everyone starts looking at their phone.

It cannot erase the sourness of the wait, and the foil is no less showy for being expensive. But as a substantial, carefully made version of a game that already knew how to fill the space between larger things, it is quietly excellent.