For me, one of the biggest flaws of most other deck-builders is that they have variable supplies
I agree with you, but it’s interesting how this flaw is considered a merit by many other people. I’ve seen people shrug at Dominion, but they love the variable supply. It makes me wonder if the divide is between people who plan their endgame in advance and people who wing it with whatever they’re given.
Games like Clank and Ascension scratch that latter itch. I really enjoy Clank even though I can’t plan ahead as well as with Dominion. Maybe it’s because the fallback cards are usually pretty good. There’s probably not quite as much synergy to maximize in Clank, so you don’t feel like you’re getting screwed. Conversely, in Ascension, you need to maximize that synergy, and if you buy a faction card in the hopes of scoring big with it, you may be disappointed when you never see that faction ever again.
You can see that difference between my wife and me. I love Dominion and will work out several strategies for my deck in the long run. She prefers the randomness of Ascension, which I cannot bank on. But we both dig Clank! and Mystic Vale. The latter perhaps because crafting the card is a really neat mechanic. I suppose that one could combine the card crafting with the static supply of Dominion, though I feel like this game works better with a variable supply.
Another deck builder that’s almost as fun as Dominion (or could be) is Trains. Of course, that’s because it is almost Dominion. If you take the Dominion base set and change the names and a few numbers then you get the basis of Trains. What Trains adds is an area-control aspect. It’s okay. It’s not great, and you could probably win while ignoring the board entirely. The “Provinces” are devalued, so there’s some incentive to focus on the board. The downside is that focusing on the board usually adds junk to your deck, which is usually less fun. But hey, at least it’s voluntary junking, as opposed to the Witch or Sea Hag.
I felt Marvel Legendary was a really weak theme, but part of that is also that they make it competitive within a cooperative framework. Considering that the loser can tank the game so that nobody wins, this seems like a horrible concept for a superhero game. It was their first Legendary, so mistakes were made. I played the Aliens Legendary, and I felt this was a much more solid game. Each player has a role, so they have cards they may favor over others. I think it’s also fully cooperative with none of the competitive. I’ve not played any other Legendary game yet. I heard that Firefly is pretty poor and that Big Trouble in Little China is really good. Or was it the other way around? Obviously I just need to play both and find out for myself.