I work at a toy retail company (middleman between the manufacturer and Amazon) and I've seen a ton of games go through that looked really interesting. One, in particular, was Dominion from Rio Grande Games. I finally got a chance to take a copy of Dominion Intrigue home and my girlfriend, here mom and I played last night and had a blast. We didn't play by the exact rules because I misread them (used more cards than we were supposed to and forgot to do some stuff on the cards the first couple turns) but I think it was good to get a feel for the game.

Dominion is a deck building game where you try and have the most victory points at the end of the game. Each player has their own deck they build up by buying cards from the Supply (cards anyone can take from). You have action cards (do stuff), treasure cards (buy stuff) and victory cards (use towards victory points).

Also, there's a free iPhone app for Dominion. It plays really well and is a great way to see if you'd enjoy actually buying the real game.

It's a ton of fun and anyone who like Magic The Gathering or anything like that would definitely enjoy it. Anybody here play?

I'm DLing the app now, thanks for the heads up

A very well-designed game through and through. Some luck required and you will always lose once in a while, but over an extended amount of games the player who best balances the odds will always win the most.

And if you like Dominion you can try Quarriors, a slightly less tactical game with dice building mechanics instead of cards (faster and with less deck shuffling).

No problem. I had to search for it and all the reviews said the same thing of "I'm so happy you guys made this!"
Watching a review on it right now and it looks pretty good. I do like the idea of dice. Shuffling the deck all the time in Dominion (especially on the beginning turns) gets slightly annoying.

We just got Dominion: Seaside for Easter. What an awesome expansion. I really love the abilities the cards have and the new strategies the Duration cards add. Also, Treasure Ship is just fun and cruel haha. The artwork on them is a nice contrast to Intrigue. Intrigue is quite dark with Swindler and Torturer whereas Seaside is bright and oceany, even if there is a Ghost Ship and Sea Hag. The only card I don't like the artwork for is Navigator.

We're (me, my girlfriend and her mom (the people who play)) looking at all going in together and buying the Big Box this summer. It's an Amazon exclusive that includes Dominion, Alchemy and Prosperity and it ends up saving you $15-$20 than buying each individually.