Decktamer

Ta bien.

Decktamer is like a deckbuilder, but simpler in most ways. It doesn't have a lot of "builds" and tactics common to the genera, and there are very few "gamebreaking synergies". The strength of the game is not in the mechanics, but the content. There are many creative creatures, both in concept and in (2D) art. And you can unlock simple descriptions of them after using them. There are multiple ending boss fights, and you also unlock new creatures as you play, so there is incentive to play more to see more content. And there are multiple game modes to play around with the content. All that and a reasonable price tag makes this a great beginner-level deck builder. There are two other mechanics worth mentioning in Decktamer. As the name implies, new cards are gained by "taming" the creatures you're battling, with food. But you have very limited food to do this, so you have to choose between 1) getting an opponent to 1HP, and taking their final attacks, 2) getting an opponent to about half health and using double food, 3) feed opponents whenever and letting the RNG pick one. It gives the player the choice between playing as a puzzle, as a careful selector of cards, or as a random collector. I played the first few bosses by getting as many cards as I could, and didn't need most of them, sometimes they got in the way. The final creative mechanic is the ability to remove ANY power (except curse) from any tamed creature and give it to another. Most of the time this doesn't help, because battles are short and creatures are well-designed. But sometimes there's a random combo or an upgrade to a weaker beloved card. Uses of this transfer are even more rare than food, except for a few special battle rewards. But you can make a super-powered creature with all the best powers of everything you've ever seen, which is a lot of fun even though it still needs support in battles. You might have to do this to fight end-game bosses, but I'm unlikely to play that long, because the early-unlock content has been enough for me.