DeckHand: Race for Infamy preview — Thar be treasure in this here box

I’m always searching for good small box games that can fit easily into a bag to take along to a coffee shop or a friend’s house. Add in a small table presence and a pirate theme and you’ve got a winner in my book. 

DeckHand: Race for Infamy is an upcoming game from designer Batiste Bieler and it’s coming to Gamefound in early 2026. DeckHand: Race for Infamy is a quick playing engine building, card drafting game for 2-5 players in which players will build cards for their resources and end game points. A game takes place over five rounds with each round having two distinct phases.

In Phase 1, players will be dealt five cards apiece and a card draft will take place. Players will look at their cards and take one to add to their hands. Then the deck will be passed to their left or right depending on the round and the process happens again. Once players have drafted five cards, the phase ends.

Phase 2 is where the meat of the game takes place. Each player chooses one of their cards to build from their hand or chooses to pass, giving up their turns until the next round. All cards are revealed simultaneously by all players and then players will pay the cost for the build. To pay for the cards, players can use icons on already built cards or discard cards from their hands to cover the cost. There are a variety of combinations of discarding cards to earn icons and coins. Once built, players will get a permanent icon to be used in future builds and potential banners, end game points, and other bonuses that allow you to draw more cards or mess with the state of the game.

Recommended for experienced players, there are five different icons players can use to alter the game state. A telescope allows players to alter a central bonus card row accessible to all players. Players claim these cards by collecting banners from built cards. Compasses allow players to draw extra cards during the draft phase. Swords start battles allowing the victors to draw cards, hooks allow players to steal cards from other players, and collecting tentacles serve as tie breakers. 

Once all players have passed, the next round begins. After five rounds, the game ends and points are tallied. The player with the most points wins!

DeckHand: Race for Infamy is a fantastic little card battler that ticks a lot of boxes for me. There are a bunch of strategies that come into how you draft and build cards. Some cards are going to be taken as a throwaway to pay for another card, while others may be saved for multiple rounds for a big pay off down the road. As with any good engine builder, the more you can build the basic cards, the easier it will be to build bigger cards down the road. The banner system also adds a great element. People will be battling for the central row of Infamy cards for the points and advantages they give and there are some cards that give end game bonuses based on the banners in your crew. The game also scales nicely with more players since most of the game is played simultaneously. The big changes come in the drafting phase and whether or not you will see the same cards make it around the circle and the battle for the central row with more players vying for the points. It's definitely a different strategy when only playing with a couple of players and knowing that your starting draft hand is going to be seen a few more times in the round. Adding in the advanced icons into the game is definitely the way to go after learning the basics of the game. While not really cutthroat, there is still some gamesmanship that comes into play when you can manipulate facets of the games that other players cannot. The portability of the game also gives it another tick in the win column in my book.

While I don't usually comment on component design or artwork for prototype copies, the artwork already included in the game is fantastic. Going through the GameFound page shows the cards going from concept to finished product and my hope is that they continue with the style and artwork already included.

Overall, I had a blast playing DeckHand: Race for Infamy and if you’re interested in learning more about the game, check out the Gamefound preview page and be on the lookout for the crowdfunding launch in late January 2026.