February 3, 2026
Deck dreams, wallet screams
The Everdeck: A Universal Card System (2019)
Universal deck drops: fans cheer, wallets boo, newbies panic
TLDR: The Everdeck is a 120-card “universal” deck aiming to replace multiple game sets with one clever pack. Commenters are split between praising its design, balking at high shipping, and questioning if it truly fits games like Mu—while casual players worry it’s too complex to crack.
A 120-card “play anything” pack just hit the table, and the comments are louder than a Vegas shuffle. The Everdeck promises to stand in for tons of games, from classic 52-card favorites to word puzzles, stuffed with animal art, eight suits, and even letter scoring tricks. But while designers are swooning over its smart, minimalist patterns—one fan calls it “excellent foundations for a board game”—the crowd is split between love and loud side-eye.
The biggest fight? Price and shipping. One commenter’s mic-drop “$21 deck, $27 delivery” turned into the thread’s catchphrase, with replies joking the box must be shipped by carrier falcon. Meanwhile, strategy diehards are testing the “universal” claim. A seasoned trick-taking fan says it almost works for Mu (a cult-favorite five- or six-player game), but the point values aren’t quite right—cue debates over whether “almost” counts. Newcomers peek in, see eight suits and dots and letters, and whisper, “This looks complicated,” while designers flex, plotting prototypes and bragging they can finally publish their “Calvin Deck.”
So yes, it’s brainy, pretty, and on sale at DriveThruCards with fans rallying on BoardGameGeek. But the real game right now? Watching hype, sticker shock, and “is it truly universal?” battle it out in the comments.
Key Points
- •The Everdeck is a 120-card, eight-suit system designed to adapt to many traditional and modern games.
- •Cards include ranks (0–9, X–A), suit markers, and 1–5 point values; each card is uniquely named and numbered with animal themes.
- •The deck can map to a standard 52-card deck, create four-color configurations, and combine into double standard decks.
- •Suit groups (“soft” vs. “sharp”) and treating sharp suits as +10 enable configurations like 4 colors × 25 ranks.
- •Letter frequencies and evenly distributed point values across suits support word game scoring and uneven-rank game requirements.