I enjoy trading card games a lot, and was wondering if there was such a board game that could capture that feeling at higher player counts (without spending money on booster packs)
Think Radlands, but for 3-4 players
Unmatched can support up to 4 players if you get a box set that has a larger playing board. Plus there are some great resources for homebrew character decks if you’re up for a little bit of diy you could have a lot of options fairly cheap. One of the more recent official box sets, Houdini vs the Genie were both fan created characters that got an official release.
I agree unmatched is a really fun option. There’s even a digital version that was recently released which is an easy way to try it out to see if you’d want to get the physical sets. Think there’s fan created rules online for a 3 person match if you don’t have 4.
Official 3 player rules were introduced in the first Marvel set, I think it was. But they are online if you don’t have any of those sets.
My game group plays 3 almost exclusively.
Great game. So many fun combinations of characters. We just did Houdini vs Dr Strange vs Spider-Man last weekend.
Shards of Infinity, or perhaps Dice Throne?
I personally prefer DT as a 2P game, but have played it 3-4 players on occasion and it still plays great.
Take a look at Res Arcana! Everyone gets a small deck of cards, a few resources then u choose one of 2 (out of 8 different) mages and battle for the places of power in the middle of the table!
For a while my friends and I were really into Smash Up which tried hard to simulate the TCG feeling without everyone needing their own deck and boosters.
Basic premise of the game is your deck is comprised of two different factions, and you play minions to attempt to capture the locations in play. But then all of the cards have specific rules to add twists to things. It’s been a few years since I’ve actually played it. The one thing I do remember is that you’ll need to be ready to make judgements on how the rules work a lot.
And since it’s been out for like a decade or more now, it has a bunch of expansions. And it’s designed for up to 4 players, so it’s nice to have expansions so the number of faction combinations increases exponentially and it doesn’t feel like everyone is always playing the same strategy over and over.
I never tried it but check out Millenium Blades. It’s a meta boardgame that emulates the feeling of a CCG. I always found to concept quite interesting but the anime artwork is a huge turnoff for me personally.
Tyrants of the Underdark is a deckbuilder with a strong area control element that plays up to four. I’ve only played at 2 so far and liked it a lot but I think the area control element would really shine at full player count. BGG player count votes concur.
On the lighter side Bunny Kingdom is a lot of fun at 4. It’s drafting rather than card ability style battling but it can get pretty confrontational with a lot of hate-drafting. And it has the designer creds for MTG players :)
Star Realms has 4 player rules, I think getting one of the later box sets will have everything included (I think it’s Star Realms: Frontiers, which I haven’t played for a while).
Go to boardgamegeek and search for deck builders. Dominion is a pretty strong one. On the more comedic side, I do enjoy wiz-war. Munchkin is a classic.
The old wow tcg had a boss mode where you’d play as onyxia vs 3-4 other players as a raid
Consider Sentinel’s of the Multiverse for something different than what’s suggested so far.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102652/sentinels-multiverse
Instead of going head to head against each other, all the players are heros joining forces against a comic book villan. The different decks are flavourful and most play in a unique way. And it feels like an epic fight against evil.
