Top 10 Thematic Trick-Taking Card Games

[@BezierGamesInc]

You two are the two TRUE rebel princesses! We cannot wait to show you the DELUXE promo princess we have in store for Gen Con. You'll love her!

[@Hanes.Review]

the component is so beautiful I don't want it to get dirtied by fingerprint

[@anita4305]

will the promo work with the previous version of the game?

[@Hanes.Review]

@@anita4305 first promo, carmesina can works with the original version. Functionally, it just simply copy anyone's ability

[@ThinkerThemer]

Counting down the days!!! See you soon 👀

[@gorbi9555]

Nice list, several cool titles! A bit surprised Skull King was left out. It's the one we keep going back to because of the theme.

[@ThinkerThemer]

That actually was one that got replaced between our two panels! Very thematic for sure! Yo ho ho!

[@robertjackson8246]

"Once that happens, the theme reveals itself." Brilliant take...no reaction...I felt that in the feels.

[@losfp]

Oh man, I really wanted to get to your panel at Play Con but that was the day I wasn't there. I was actually playing Tegan's disc flicking game in Designer Alley on Sunday when you were talking to her and I was going to say hello but I looked up after one of my turns and you'd both disappeared! Next time. Love your channel - keep it up! Always love the trick taking lists. I have some of these.. some sitting on the shelf waiting to be played.. and a couple to add to my wishlist :)

[@ThinkerThemer]

Aww! We had just sat down at one of the tables next to there! I'm sorry we missed you and hope we can meet at another con. At least the panel topic is now here so really you didn't miss anything (OK except for Maggie's charades 😂) 💛 Hope you had a great Play Con!

[@ataleoftwomeeples]

So glad you decided to post the video version of this, I'd forgotten the names of all of the ones I wanted to look up! It was fantastic seeing this live with the bonus charades intro!

[@craigsomerton2359]

Great list with so may amazing thematic games. It was your recommendation that introduced me to Rebel Princess, which has proven to be an absolute blast with many different gaming groups. I'd also love to get my hands on the Roulette Taking Game - it just sounds cool. Jay from Cardboard East recently featured "Trick Stakes". A trick-taking game where winning tricks allows you to control horses in a horse race. Another that is impossible to find, but looks to be right up your alley. It was so exciting to meet you both at Playcon and to join you and Stella in a game of Witches Shot Delivery Service.

[@losfp]

And didn't we play the heck out of Rebel Princess at Cancon?? Fantastic game and a lot of fun :D

[@craigsomerton2359]

@@losfp We sure did, and with several copies circulating, you could always tell where Rebel Princess was being played due to the roars of laughter.

[@TurmoilByrd]

Great video! It is kind of incredible that modern trick taking games have blossomed so much that we can make top 10 lists now

[@StuTeacher]

I love Dokitto Ice. Got it just because it was cute but it's really fun. The second edition really simplified the rules to say that scoops and toppings are all just a point each with a race to 10. At first I thought it was maybe too simple but I realized the fun isn't the scoring but rather the scoops and pushing someone into overscooping and giggling.

[@sarahjoylagunzad6159]

I agree! I like the new simple rules, it can be mean but my group thinks it’s hilarious to make someone else over scoop.

[@tmcmurdo826]

Thank you for another wonderfully fun and informative video. Y’all are simply the best!

[@Skyrodin]

I love this video! Thanks for sharing it. And there are various reasons why I like this video so much. First, I was able to add some more games onto my wishlist. And then... I love this nod to the designers who put effort into making a well known mechanism different through theme. I only recently discovered your channel but what I've seen so far was great. I'll definitely stay around and wait for new videos to come out 😊 I think my favorite game from this list is For Northwood. It is just so cute and cute animals always get me.

[@deneglavas1796]

Can’t believe you had Dokkito Ice on your list, I was actually playing it at PlayCon and didn’t think anyone there would have even heard of it. Little did I know you’d be doing a presentation on it haha

[@JonTripp115]

Thanks for this list! I added a couple more to my wish list. :) Not on the list, one of my favorite trick takers that I've played this year is *Savage Bowl.* The theme is a hyper aggressive game of football (think American or Australian-rules) where the winning card is the most violent. However, there's a penalty on the play for roughness so the winner of the trick has to sit out the next trick. The goal of the game is to win exactly two tricks: win a third and you're ejected from the game and receive zero points for the hand. Great fun, especially at full 5 players. I think it's another one that's only available in Japan for now. I'm also excited to try *The Six of VIII,* which is themed around the marriages of King Henry VIII, and the trump suit changes in relation to the current queen (for example, Anne of Cleves was only Queen for a year, so her suit is only trump for a single trick), and there is a supertrump Church of England card that will "annul" a trick, among other thematic touches.

[@Cissewis]

Thanks for the video! :)

[@jonathanfranklin461]

Fun show! Have you tried Inside Job? It feels thematic too.

[@xandermichael78]

Another wonderful top ten! I've been looking for Peter's Two Sheep Dogs and Schadenfreude for over a year now and can't find it anywhere (reasonably of course). Hopefully there'll be a reprint one day.

[@ladameduloch5139]

I was not really a fan of trick-tacking games but I recently was surprised to actually love games like for Northwood, and now thanks to your video I really wanna try Peter's two sheep dogs 😍

[@Killrekob]

I really hope you can try The Barracks Emperors sometime. A wonderful area control trick taking game that shines in 2v2. Lots of fun forcing your opponents into painful plays and watching them contort to try and weasel out of a situation!

[@boardgame_buzzz]

Great games!❤❤❤

[@corynardin]

I love cat in a box. The theme is totally on point and the game play is good. I didn’t like the area control element at first but I find it does actually add some balance to the game.

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

OH YEAHHHHHH!!!!

[@melvinyong3148]

So glad you all still like playing Peter’s sheep dog!

[@ThinkerThemer]

HEY!! So nice to see you in the comments Melvin!! 🥰 Yes we are so grateful to have a copy thank you 🙏 have never seen it anywhere for sale 😅 Hope you've been well?

[@melvinyong3148]

@@ThinkerThemer I still watch all your videos as soon as they are posted but haven’t been playing a lot of the newer ones so don’t really have much input. Lol. I have just started my own channel too but it’s more on food and travel. Btw I was just in Tokyo and yellow submarine has really cut down on their boardgame selection especially in Shinjuku and the one near akihabana. Those two shops now mostly sell CCGs and plastic model kits. Their other akihabara shop I think has a better boardgame selection. Now yodabashi in Shinjuku on the other hand, has a huge boardgame collection now and I managed to get Wandering Towers at a great discount cos of tax free and yen exchange rate. :)

[@ko9]

I really liked last year's Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard (by Mandoo), great little back and forth campaign with increasingly difficult ways to balance the two sides of that personality

[@achang101]

What! - I was expecting to see Maggie do some charades first.

[@hansaugustsson7288]

This radioactive material has a 50% probability of decomposing within 1 hour. Could go quicker, could go slower. When decomposed, a mechanism will release poison inside the box, and the cat will die. The (thought) experiment is interrupted after exactly 1 hour, and until you see the cat it is not well defined whether the cat is dead or alive. Quantum mechanics theory has severe limitations on the macroscopic level, argued Schrödinger. In the game I believe it is the color of a card that is undefined until a certain decision point, right?

[@Hanes.Review]

Other thematic trick taking: -Hameln cave -jekyll vs hyde -draculav vs van hellsing

[@ThinkerThemer]

Good choices! We have these too. Some beautiful art!

[@february7438]

Can you talk about thematic two player games? Like BoV, Pagan and such

[@shawns3911]

Time chase is also a thematic trick taker

[@ThinkerThemer]

We actually just played this for the first time at the con! Agree!

[@unlimitedrabbit]

You can blur out For Northwood! until you can only make out the colors and I'd still be able to identify it. It only leaves my backpack when I'm going to play it.😊

[@JosephineCheung-v6r]

Have you played Five Cucumbers?

[@ThinkerThemer]

We haven't!!! It sounds interesting 🥒

[@JaredB001]

Actually Schroddinger was actually arguing the opposite of what you said. He was having fisty cuffs at the time with newish quantum physicist who were saying things like super position was possible in the quantum realm. He said a cat can’t be alive and dead at the same time so hence the quantum clock that kills the cat is not possible either.

[@normstewart546]

Thematic - I think Maggie let this slide ?

[@asaswain1031]

I was a little surprised not to see Arcs on this list. Have you had a chance to play it yet?

[@mtorresak]

Not sure it’s true trick taking

[@ThinkerThemer]

Yes we covered it as a prototype and got to see how the game evolved! Definitely a great game but feel the trick taking component is probably a bit more on the abstract side with the action selection!