Roguelike deckbuilder

A roguelike deckbuilder joins a deck-building card game to roguelike runs. You start each run with a small deck, add cards from rewards and shops as you go, and after a death you begin again with the starting deck. Combat is usually turn-based.

Where the name comes from

The earliest use of the full name found is a PC Gamer column from 6 February 2018, “The Gollop Chamber: Rise of the roguelike deck builder”. Sources name Dream Quest, a 2014 mobile game by Peter Whalen, as one of the first; Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield said he “became completely hooked” on it. The card side goes back to Dominion (2008), the first tabletop deck-building game.

Where the edges are

People disagree on which half is the parent, the deck-builder or the roguelike, and on whether games this far from random dungeons are roguelikes at all. Some trace the line back to the 1997 Magic: The Gathering video game rather than Dream Quest. The sheer number of releases is its own debate: Steam listed 861 in 2024.

Key roguelike deckbuilder games

Each game links to its article; the last column links to the source that puts it in the genre.

Related genres: Roguelike, Roguelite, Auto battler.

At a glance

Parent genres

Roguelike, deck-building game

Name first found

6 February 2018, PC Gamer

Early example

Dream Quest (2014)

Breakthrough

Slay the Spire (2019)

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

1. Roguelike deck-building game — Wikipedia
2. The Gollop Chamber: Rise of the roguelike deck builder — PC Gamer
3. How one of gaming’s most intimidating genres spawned a legion of hits — The Verge
4. Why there are 861 roguelike deckbuilders on Steam all of a sudden — Ars Technica