Dominion is a deck-building card game where players start with identical small decks and compete to acquire the most victory points by strategically purchasing cards to build their decks. It was the first deck-building game and established the genre.
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The Verdict
based on 33 reviews
“The reviewer hails Dominion as an unequivocal modern classic that defined the deckbuilding genre, highlighting its elegant design, ease of learning, and exceptional replayability as its core strengths, despite minor criticisms regarding its often-maligned theme and occasional less-than-ideal card setups.”
“Dominion is awesome. If you feel an inkling of interest from what you just have read, I implore you to check it out, this game can suck you in, and keep you chained to its quick, mindful, intense way of deck building.”
The reviewer praises Dominion as the definitive and highly replayable original deck-building game, highlighting its fast-paced gameplay, accessibility for all ages, and strategic depth due to its fixed market, though noting it involves a lot of shuffling.
The reviewer regards the base game 'Dominion' as a fantastic game and unequivocally places it among his top five favorite board games.
“In Dominion, you step into the shoes of a monarch, much like your ancestors, ruling over a small, picturesque kingdom. Your goal is to expand your territory, transforming these modest lands into a vast dominion filled with diverse landscapes and resources.”
“Dominion is one of those critical and commercial successes that hits the hobby only once every few years. The game founded the deck-building genre, and even now, years after its release, no deck builder has achieved the same level of acclaim.”
The reviewer regards Dominion as his personal favorite deck-building game, highlighting its streamlined gameplay, remarkable depth, and enduring appeal that he believes surpasses many other deck-building titles that have followed it.
“It’s pretty easy to see from the video review of Dominion that Jaden absolutely loves it. It’s also a big hit with Trevor. And extremely addicting for dad.”
The reviewer considers Dominion one of their all-time favorite board games, praising it as fantastic, incredibly replayable, easy to teach, and rich in strategy, affirming its status as a classic that is still highly enjoyable today.
“Like the best traditional card games, Dominion is easy to learn and fun to play, but reveals levels of complexity and difficult choices as you move past your first few plays.”
Shelfside highly recommends Dominion Second Edition, praising it as an excellent, streamlined deck-building game for its accessibility, fast gameplay, strong replayability, and potential for expansions, despite acknowledging that it involves a significant amount of shuffling and offers somewhat limited direct player interaction in the base set.
“Dominion is a great game, accessible to your gamer friends and non-gamer friends as well. Its unique game play experience, combined with its short play time and easy to learn rules make it a big win in my book.”
“The reviewer highly recommends Dominion, praising its engaging deck-building, diverse game setups, and quick playtime, making it enjoyable for both new and experienced players, despite a minor critique regarding limited player interaction.”
The reviewer highly recommends Dominion, praising it as the enduring "granddad of deck builders" that continues to be an excellent game and holds a spot in his top 100 games of all time.
“Here's a hot take: no game has done deckbuilding better since Dominion pioneered the mechanic in 2008. Dominion remains lean, mean and relentlessly fascinating.”
“This is a game that I intend to keep and expand upon for a long time to come, and one I will enjoy playing with both new and experienced hobbyists alike, I am sure.”
The reviewer praises Dominion as a classic deck-building game that, despite its somewhat uninspired art, remains light, quick, and highly engaging, offering an excellent and accessible introduction to the genre.
“It’s what made Dominion and its tapestry of different expansions one of my absolute favorites for game night – and pretty much any night, as you never get the same game twice.”
ProZD praises Dominion as the foundational and purest deck-building game, highlighting its simple yet deeply strategic gameplay, quick turns, and extensive replayability through numerous card combinations, even with a non-existent theme.
Dominion is praised as a remarkable and intuitive classic within the deck-building genre, offering significant replayability and ease of learning, making it highly recommended for diverse groups of players despite the emergence of newer games.
The reviewer found Dominion: Adventures to be a solid and enjoyable expansion that rekindled his interest in the game, praising its new card types and mechanics despite acknowledging some added complexity and fiddliness for newer players.
“The reviewer praises Dominion as a revolutionary, incredibly fun, and smartly designed deck-building game that offers immense replayability through its various card combinations and expansions.”
The reviewer highly praises Dominion as a classic, intuitive, and easy-to-teach deck-building game with high replayability, making it accessible for a wide audience despite some minor drawbacks like its cost, somewhat thin thematic integration in the base game, and the need for expansions to maintain long-term freshness.
The reviewer regards Dominion as a remarkable and classic deck-building game, highlighting its intuitive mechanics, ease of learning, broad appeal, and significant replayability, even if its thematic integration is not its strongest aspect.
The reviewer praises Dominion as a timeless and highly accessible classic, noting its intuitive gameplay, ease of teaching, and broad appeal make it a remarkable game that remains relevant despite the emergence of newer deck-building titles.
The reviewer highly praises Dominion as a remarkable and classic deck-building game, emphasizing its intuitive mechanics, ease of teaching, high replayability, and broad appeal that makes it enjoyable for a wide audience. They note its enduring relevance as an original in the genre, having personally played and enjoyed it for over a decade, especially with expansions.
The reviewer highly praises Dominion as a classic and influential deck-building game that remains relevant due to its intuitive mechanics, ease of teaching, and broad appeal for a wide range of players.
The reviewer highly recommends Dominion, calling it a remarkable and enduring classic among deck-building games due to its intuitive mechanics, broad appeal, and significant replayability.
“Temple Gate’s Dominion app is as great as it should be. All I could ask of it are minor improvements.”
The reviewer in the reaction video ultimately rates Dominion a 7 out of 10, acknowledging its status as a great, accessible, and simple deck-builder that effectively achieves its design goals, even while reflecting on an earlier 8 out of 10 rating from the channel's first review of the game.
“What it does, it does well, but there are just so many others that do it better.”
“I’m inclined to forever appreciate Dominion and its legacy but ultimately let it rest in peace. This concludes my exploration of Dominion: How Has It Aged?”
“My lack of interest in Dominion stems from my strong preference for high-interaction games. The general ease with which Dominion can be converted to complete solitaire play is, from my perspective, not a positive attribute.”
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