This is the continuation of Trick-Taking Week 2025, where I’ll be posting trick-taking related content all week. We here at The Opinionated Gamers love trick-taking games, and as I wrote two years ago, many of the writers in this group have contributed to the growth in the mechanic’s popularity in recent years.
The showpiece this year is a set of four different top 10 lists, which I assembled by gathering votes from OG writers and various trick-taking designers, publishers, convention hosts, and content creators.
Today’s list is of ten “most innovative” games of the trick-taking genre. In a genre where one little twist can make an entirely new game, I wanted to highlight games that have broken the model and started a trend.
I posted a greatest hits list on Sunday, the “hidden gems” list Monday, and the “most beautiful” list yesterday. This concludes the lists, although I have a set of reviews I’m publishing tomorrow and Friday.
The Methodology
For purposes of this project, I simply asked everybody to vote for 10 games that represented “innovative” games among trick-taking games, assessing art and production value. To be in the running, a game had to be a trick-taking game that helped innovate the mechanic. Anybody could add to the list assuming they were going to vote for it. Each voter was offered the chance to vote for up to 10 games, and they could give one game 15 points, one game 14 points, all the way down to giving one 6 points. We all put our votes into a spreadsheet. We then added up the points for each game and picked the top 10.
We had an astonishing 31 people vote, though only 15 submitted votes for the “innovative” list, and 24 different games received votes on the list.
To get on the list took a minimum of seven voters rating the game decently well. That wasn’t a rule, but rather how the breakdown naturally worked out. There’s actually great consensus towards the top of our list.
Below you’ll see designations for gold, silver, and bronze. Those represent the number of voters that put a given game in the #1, #2, and #3 spots, respectively.
The Voters
Rather than just having the Opinionated Gamers vote, I also asked trick-taking designers and publishers, plus hosts of trick-taking conventions and other trick-taking content creators. The OG has lots of trick-taking expertise, but the more the merrier. Week-wide, a little over half of the voters are OG members. The second largest category of participants are trick-taking designers: we had more than a dozen of them vote, and the games they made span the genre. The result is a voting pool that has an impressive set of viewpoints on trick-taking.
I asked certain voters — the designer, publisher, developer, etc. — to not vote for games on which they worked or had an affiliation. They could still vote, but just not for their games. (For example, I did not vote on Yokai Septet, since rules for one of my games is included in the second edition.)
Without further ado, here are the “most innovative” of trick-taking games!
HONORABLE MENTIONS (Counting Down)
15. Golpher
14. Bug Council of Backyardia
13. Peter’s Two Sheep Dogs
12. For Northwood!
11. Sail
TOP TEN
10. The Kakapo: Buddy & Party – 74 points, 7 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 0, Bronze: 0
9. Green Fivura / Fives – 78 points, 9 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 0, Bronze: 0
8. My Favorite Things – 96 points, 10 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 1, Bronze: 1
7. Potato Man – 113 points, 10 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 2, Bronze: 2
6. Twinkle Star Ship / Seven Segment Trix – 122 points, 11 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 0, Bronze: 2
5. Ghosts of Christmas – 150 points, 14 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 0, Bronze: 4
4. TRICKTAKERS – 153 points, 14 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 1, Bronze: 2
3. Cat in the Box Deluxe Edition – 170 points, 14 voters
Gold: 3, Silver: 4, Bronze: 0
2. Nokosu Dice – 178 points, 14 voters
Gold: 4, Silver: 3, Bronze: 2
1. The Crew – 220 points, 17 voters
Gold: 7, Silver: 4, Bronze: 2
Thoughts from Opinionated Gamers and Our Guests:
Chris Wray: I like our final list as much as I liked the first three! Every game here did something fresh and original, and each made a statement about what trick-taking games could be. The impact of some of them has already been clear. For example, The Crew has inspired campaign-style trick-taking games; Potato Man inspired must-not-follow games; Nokoso Dice inspired a variety of what I call “mid-hand bid” games, including some of my own designs.
I think there are two omissions from the final list that are worth noting. First, Stitch-Meister remains one of the most ambitious trick-taking projects I’ve seen, and I still love that game after years and years of playing it. Friedemann Friese, with just one title, showed just how broad trick-taking could go.
The other omission, which may have been left off because it is so new, is Daniel Newman’s game Agency, which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow. In that design, players share their cards with the players beside them. It is such a fresh idea — with so many possibilities — that I suspect it will inspire other designers in the future.
Looking at this list, I must acknowledge the enormous success of Taiki Shinzawa. Three of the games — Ghosts of Christmas, Twinkle Starship, and Green Fivura — are his games.
Also, congratulations to Nokosu Dice and Cat in the Box for making all three possible lists this week. Both appeared on the “Greatest Hits” list, and both appeared on the “Most Beautiful” list.
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Trick-Taking Week 2025: Most Innovative
This is the continuation of Trick-Taking Week 2025, where I’ll be posting trick-taking related content all week. We here at The Opinionated Gamers love trick-taking games, and as I wrote two years ago, many of the writers in this group have contributed to the growth in the mechanic’s popularity in recent years.
The showpiece this year is a set of four different top 10 lists, which I assembled by gathering votes from OG writers and various trick-taking designers, publishers, convention hosts, and content creators.
Today’s list is of ten “most innovative” games of the trick-taking genre. In a genre where one little twist can make an entirely new game, I wanted to highlight games that have broken the model and started a trend.
I posted a greatest hits list on Sunday, the “hidden gems” list Monday, and the “most beautiful” list yesterday. This concludes the lists, although I have a set of reviews I’m publishing tomorrow and Friday.
The Methodology
For purposes of this project, I simply asked everybody to vote for 10 games that represented “innovative” games among trick-taking games, assessing art and production value. To be in the running, a game had to be a trick-taking game that helped innovate the mechanic. Anybody could add to the list assuming they were going to vote for it. Each voter was offered the chance to vote for up to 10 games, and they could give one game 15 points, one game 14 points, all the way down to giving one 6 points. We all put our votes into a spreadsheet. We then added up the points for each game and picked the top 10.
We had an astonishing 31 people vote, though only 15 submitted votes for the “innovative” list, and 24 different games received votes on the list.
To get on the list took a minimum of seven voters rating the game decently well. That wasn’t a rule, but rather how the breakdown naturally worked out. There’s actually great consensus towards the top of our list.
Below you’ll see designations for gold, silver, and bronze. Those represent the number of voters that put a given game in the #1, #2, and #3 spots, respectively.
The Voters
Rather than just having the Opinionated Gamers vote, I also asked trick-taking designers and publishers, plus hosts of trick-taking conventions and other trick-taking content creators. The OG has lots of trick-taking expertise, but the more the merrier. Week-wide, a little over half of the voters are OG members. The second largest category of participants are trick-taking designers: we had more than a dozen of them vote, and the games they made span the genre. The result is a voting pool that has an impressive set of viewpoints on trick-taking.
I asked certain voters — the designer, publisher, developer, etc. — to not vote for games on which they worked or had an affiliation. They could still vote, but just not for their games. (For example, I did not vote on Yokai Septet, since rules for one of my games is included in the second edition.)
Without further ado, here are the “most innovative” of trick-taking games!
HONORABLE MENTIONS (Counting Down)
15. Golpher
14. Bug Council of Backyardia
13. Peter’s Two Sheep Dogs
12. For Northwood!
11. Sail
TOP TEN
10. The Kakapo: Buddy & Party – 74 points, 7 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 0, Bronze: 0
9. Green Fivura / Fives – 78 points, 9 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 0, Bronze: 0
8. My Favorite Things – 96 points, 10 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 1, Bronze: 1
7. Potato Man – 113 points, 10 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 2, Bronze: 2
6. Twinkle Star Ship / Seven Segment Trix – 122 points, 11 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 0, Bronze: 2
5. Ghosts of Christmas – 150 points, 14 voters
Gold: 0, Silver: 0, Bronze: 4
4. TRICKTAKERS – 153 points, 14 voters
Gold: 1, Silver: 1, Bronze: 2
3. Cat in the Box Deluxe Edition – 170 points, 14 voters
Gold: 3, Silver: 4, Bronze: 0
2. Nokosu Dice – 178 points, 14 voters
Gold: 4, Silver: 3, Bronze: 2
1. The Crew – 220 points, 17 voters
Gold: 7, Silver: 4, Bronze: 2
Thoughts from Opinionated Gamers and Our Guests:
Chris Wray: I like our final list as much as I liked the first three! Every game here did something fresh and original, and each made a statement about what trick-taking games could be. The impact of some of them has already been clear. For example, The Crew has inspired campaign-style trick-taking games; Potato Man inspired must-not-follow games; Nokoso Dice inspired a variety of what I call “mid-hand bid” games, including some of my own designs.
I think there are two omissions from the final list that are worth noting. First, Stitch-Meister remains one of the most ambitious trick-taking projects I’ve seen, and I still love that game after years and years of playing it. Friedemann Friese, with just one title, showed just how broad trick-taking could go.
The other omission, which may have been left off because it is so new, is Daniel Newman’s game Agency, which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow. In that design, players share their cards with the players beside them. It is such a fresh idea — with so many possibilities — that I suspect it will inspire other designers in the future.
Looking at this list, I must acknowledge the enormous success of Taiki Shinzawa. Three of the games — Ghosts of Christmas, Twinkle Starship, and Green Fivura — are his games.
Also, congratulations to Nokosu Dice and Cat in the Box for making all three possible lists this week. Both appeared on the “Greatest Hits” list, and both appeared on the “Most Beautiful” list.
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