Games like Slay the Spire
The three best games after Slay the Spire are Balatro (the purest 'numbers go wrong in your favour' engine since), Monster Train (StS with more moving parts and a faster tempo) and Inscryption (a deckbuilder inside a story you should not spoil). The ranking sorts ten games by what they add to the formula — and flags the one whose additions subtract.
Slay the Spire built a genre out of one insight: drafting a deck one card at a time, under threat, with full information about the next fight, is close to a perfect decision loop. 217,000 Steam reviews at 97% later, every roguelike deckbuilder is answering the question it posed.
The ten below are ranked by how well their answer holds up for someone who has already climbed the Spire a few hundred times. Session lengths, co-op and pace differ wildly between them — each entry says which axis it moves on.
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How we picked these
- Every run buildable into something that feels illegal — ceilings matter more than floors.
- Full information where it counts: enemy intents, odds, or both visible.
- Runs decided by drafting choices, not by unlock walls.
- Out of early access, 80% positive or better on Steam.
- Distinct from Spire in at least one axis worth naming — no pure clones.
The list
01 Balatro
Poker hands as the combat engine, 150 jokers as the build pieces, and scoring that escalates from 'pair, 20 points' to numbers in scientific notation. 98% positive across 197,000 reviews and the genre's one true crossover hit since Spire itself. The purest drafting high available; see our full games-like-Balatro list if this one lands.
02 Monster Train
Spire at double tempo: three vertical floors to defend at once, five clans that pair into wild hybrid decks, and a covenant ladder that out-cranks Ascension. Where Spire is chess, this is speed chess — less dread per decision, more decisions per minute.
03 Inscryption
A deckbuilder wrapped in an escape room wrapped in something better left unspoiled — 97% positive from players who mostly refuse to say why. The card game underneath is real (sacrifice economics, board lanes), but you are buying the whole experience. Go in blind.
04 Monster Train 2
The 2025 sequel: new clans, room-sized card effects, and quality-of-life the first game earned over years, at 95% positive. Ranked below the original only because if you own neither, the first is cheaper and teaches the same core — buy this one when you have exhausted it.
05 Griftlands
Two decks per run — one for fights, one for arguments — because in Klei's bounty-hunter world, negotiation is combat too. The most story per run in the genre, with characters, side jobs and grudges. Mechanically softer than Spire; narratively far richer.
06 Across the Obelisk
The co-op answer: up to four players each pilot a hero in one shared party, and the drafting becomes a negotiation. Solo it is a decent party-builder with MMO-ish keyword bloat; with three friends it is the best deckbuilding night in the genre.
07 Vault of the Void
Made for Spire players who want the training wheels off: you see enemy attacks fully, purge cards freely, and pick your exact draw with a void-energy system. Zero randomness apologetics, solo developer, absurdly generous with respecs. The optimiser's pick.
08 One Step from Eden
Deckbuilding at reflex speed — Mega Man Battle Network grid combat where your deck fires in real time. The drafting brain and the dodging brain must cooperate, which is exactly what Spire never asked of you. Brutal at first; unique when it clicks.
SKIP09 Wildfrost
Skip if you are chasing Spire's sense of fair loss — Wildfrost's adorable exterior hides swingy counter-timing math where runs die to board states you could not reasonably see coming, and its 83% rating is that frustration made visible. If you want cute-but-deep, Balatro is the honest version.
10 Darkest Dungeon
Not a deckbuilder — your party is the deck. Heroes are drafted, stressed, and spent like cards, and learning to accept losses is the actual skill being trained. For the Spire player who felt most alive at 4 HP with a plan. The narrator alone is worth the price.
Similar but different
FTL: Faster Than Light
The pre-Spire blueprint: run-based pressure, drafting (weapons, crew, systems), and death always one bad jump away. Still the best 'oh no' generator per minute in roguelikes.
Hades
Boon drafting is card drafting with a dodge roll attached. When your hands miss having something to do during the math, this is the bridge back to action.
Into the Breach
From Spire's other parent studio lineage — perfect information taken to its endpoint: every enemy move telegraphed, every turn a solvable puzzle. Chess to Spire's poker.
FAQ
What is genuinely closest to Slay the Spire?
Monster Train for feel and structure, Vault of the Void for decision purity. Balatro is the better game to most people but plays a different muscle — long-term engine building over per-fight tactics.
Is Slay the Spire 2 out?
It entered early access in 2025. Our list only ranks finished games, so it sits out until 1.0 — early impressions are positive, and the original loses nothing in the meantime.
Which of these works best in short sessions?
Balatro — a run ends or explodes within about half an hour, and losing takes seconds to shake off. Monster Train is the next fastest; Griftlands wants a full evening per run.
Is Inscryption still worth it if I know the twist?
Diminished but yes — the Kaycee's Mod free update turns its first act into a proper replayable roguelike, which is where the deckbuilding is strongest anyway.
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