• Best Two Player Card Games
• Best Two Player Card Games For Couples
• Best Two Player Board Games
• Best Two Player Card Games Reddit
• Best Two Player Card Games For Adults

If you're anything like us, Valentine's Day brings to mind iconic images of candlelit dinners, boxes of chocolate, roses, and, of course, board games.

• Crazy Eights – is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players. The object of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the player’s cards to a discard pile by matching the number or suit to the current card in the discard pile. Super fun for kids to! Spoons – Don’t be left without a spoon!
• The game is full of bluff/strategy as each player aims to win the value card with the minimum bet - eg, if I thought you were going to bet a 6 to win the 7 I might play an Ace or two. But then you might think I'd do that and play a 3 to win.
• Crazy Eights – is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players. The object of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the player’s cards to a discard pile by matching the number or suit to the current.

'What tabletop games are best for couples?' is a question we get all the time here at Ars Cardboard, and today we're answering (again) by reprising our 2016 two-player guide with fresh new picks. Of course, you don't have to be romantically linked to your gaming partner to enjoy these titles; our recommendations are perfect for any time your group is running behind and you only have one other person to push some cubes with. Or maybe you don't have a group—all you need to play these games is one other willing (or kinda-sorta willing) partner.

Two-player card games, such as Crazy 8's, are not only entertaining to teach kids how to play, but the game also teach them how to be a friendly player of any game. While the primary point is to win a certain game, it is also very important for little kids to know that sometimes it is more than simply about winning or losing.

The games below are new-player-friendly card and board games (sorry, we're not tackling miniatures or wargames today) that can be played in an hour or less. While most board games accommodate two players—many quite well—we've found that the best two-player experiences are often those built from the ground up for duos. So we're sticking with two-player-only games for this list (including one that has recently added support for other player counts).

If your favorite game didn't make the cut (and with the endless list of great two-player games, it may not have), share your picks with us in the comments.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders Duel, a two-player version of the modern classic 7 Wonders, retools the civ-building-with-cards mechanism of the bigger game into something quick, tense, and interesting from turn one.

On every turn, spread across three 'ages,' you select an available card from the table in front of you and either build it with resources, discard it for money, or use it to build one of the game's titular 'wonders.' Building cards gives you wood, stone, glass, bricks, parchment, scientific achievements, military power, or luscious, unadulterated victory points.

You win the game in one of three ways: victory points, military invasion, or complete scientific dominance. (A clever military track across the top of the game spaces uses a 'push-pull' mechanism between players to track military supremacy; move the shield pawn all the way into the opponent's base and the game ends immediately.) Along the way, you'll build your personal set of wonders to provide powerful bonuses, more resources, and occasionally additional turns.

While the full 7 Wonders uses card drafting to make these same mechanisms work, Duel relies on drawing from specific geometrical card arrangements, such as a pyramid in which every other row of cards is face down and certain cards are only available once the cards below them are removed. This turns the process of card collection into a puzzle of its own, as you don't want to expose powerful cards that you want (or cards you want to deny your opponent) until you're in a place to snap them up.

Best of all, the whole thing offers a meaty experience in around 30 minutes and stores its goodness in a small box. Stop what you're doing right now and go buy this game.

Jaipur

The best gaming partner you have access to might just be your real-life partner. And unless your significant other is as much of an uber-gamer as you are, you'll need to pull out something less intimidating than Terra Mystica when you want to get a game in. Atop the pantheon of two-player games sits the storied 'couples game,' and Jaipur, a game about trading goods in India, is perhaps the perfect realization of the form. It's a snap to teach, it plays in about 30 minutes, and it's interactive in the best of ways.

At the beginning of the game, both players are dealt a hand of cards representing various goods—spice, silk, leather, etc.—and camels, which aren't goods but can be used in trades. A central market of five more goods cards is dealt to the middle of the table. On your turn, you're presented with a deceptively simple choice: get new goods or sell the goods you already have. To get goods, you can either trade cards with the market or take a card from the market without giving anything up. If you decide to sell, you'll discard all the goods of a certain type and be rewarded with tokens representing money. The value on the money tokens goes down as more and more goods are sold, so you want to sell quickly to get the best price. But conflicting with this 'SELL NOW' mentality are the stacks of bonus tokens. The more goods you sell at once, the better bonus you'll get. Do you sell your two silk now to get the best price, or do you hold out and hope to collect more so you can get that nice, juicy five-card bonus token?

Jaipur is a great game of tug-of-war that provides a surprising amount of tense decisions within a small decision space.

KeyForge: Call of the Archons

Best Two Player Card Games

Any self-respecting list of two-player tabletop games must include a card dueling game, and our pick this year is Richard Garfield's super-hot 2018 release Keyforge: Call of the Archons. The game's schtick is an odd one: Keyforge is a CCG-style card game that forbids deckbuilding. Instead of asking you to buy booster packs or chase down coveted cards on the secondhand market to build a killer deck, KeyForge wants you to let it do heavy lifting for you. Specifically, an algorithm assembles every deck and assigns it a unique name and card back—you buy it and play it, no alterations allowed.

But beyond the intriguing distribution premise, the game is a ton of fun to play. There's no mana economy to manage; instead, each deck has cards from three of the game's 'houses,' and you can only play and activate cards from the house that you declare as active at the beginning of your turn. Creatures you play can attack each other, of course, but the goal of the game is not to reduce your opponent's health to zero. Instead, three 'keys' must be constructed by using the game's 'ember' resource, and collecting ember is one of the actions available to creatures, forcing you to choose between attacking and resource gathering. There are a lot of fun and interesting decisions to make.

KeyForge has a nascent tournament scene, but although the game has some baked-in mechanics for balancing powerful cards and decks, I'm not sure the game has competitive legs. As a kitchen-table brawl between friends, though, it's a blast. A starter set, which includes tokens and four decks (two handcrafted 'learning' decks and two regular, algorithm-constructed decks) is available for around $40, or you can just pick up two $10 packs and see what you get.

Patchwork

A light, two-player game about quilting from the designer best known for the heavy serf farming epic Agricola, the heavy Frisian farming epic Fields of Arle, and the heavy dwarf farming epic Caverna? Yup—and it couldn't be better.

Patchwork is a two-player game about picking up fabric pieces and assembling them, Tetris-like, onto your personal square game board while simultaneously trying to maximize the number of 'buttons' (essentially, money) that these pieces deposit in your personal treasury. The game uses a wonderful circular movement mechanic to ensure that, on each turn, players have a choice of just three fabric pieces—but that these three change constantly.

The rules can be explained in a couple of minutes, the gameplay is quick (20 minutes) and non-confrontational, and play is smooth and engaging. Many Tetris-like puzzle games have flooded the market over the past few years, and Patchwork remains our favorite.

It's easy to turn a boring night at home around if you have a pack of cards. There are even plenty of games designed for two players. Check out these 10 best two-player card games for a fun time with your pal.

Having a deck of cards on hand is always a good idea in case you're in the mood for an impromptu game night. You can choose from a whole slew of games if you have a standard deck of cards, including classics like Slapjackand Double Solitaire. If you don't have a deck of cards handy, there are also online card games that work just as well.Here are some go-to card games to play during your next hangout with a physical deck or online.

Best Two Player Card Games For Couples

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1. War

The simple card game, War, is available free of charge on the App Store and Google Play, or you can play with an actual deck of cards. After you divide the deck evenly, each player turns up a card at the same time, and the highest card wins both cards and puts them face-down at the bottom of their deck. If you happen to get cards of the same rank, it is war. You can see the full rules here.

2. Rummy

Rummy is a popular card game in the United States. Each player has the goal to create matched sets with groups of 3 or 4 of a kind, or sequences of 3 or more of the same suit. If you're playing with one other person, the winner of each hand deals the next. You can see the full rules here.

3. Double Solitaire

Double Solitaire is a variation of classic Solitaire and has similar rules. The main goal of the game is to rearrange your deck by suiting and ranking the cards and put down all your cards. You can find the full rules here.

4. Slapjack

Slapjack is always an entertaining game to play that leads to tons of laughs. You'll want to be the first to slap each Jack as it's played to the center. If you beat your pal and slap the Jack first, you'll take the card as well as all the cards beneath it. You can find the full rules here.

5. Matching

Matching is available for $2.99 on the App Store. The concentration style game is packed with fun sounds, graphics, and animations. You'll also boost your memory as you match pairs to win the game.

6. Exploding Kittens

Best Two Player Board Games

Exploding Kittens has an odd name, but it's always crowd-pleaser. Although, you can still have fun even if you only have two players. If you draw an exploding kitten card, you lose the game. To win, you'll simply need to avoid exploding. It's super easy to learn how to play and takes 15 minutes to play.

7. Go Fish

You can easily play Go Fish with only two players. The aim is to win the most 'books' of cards, which is any four of a kind such as four aces. There are 13 books in total to win. You can find the full rules here. You can also download Go Fish - The Card Game to play virtually. It's available in the App Store and Google Play.

8. Crazy Eights

To win Crazy Eights, you'll want to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. All eights are wild cards, which means you can play them at any time during your turn. You can find the full rules here.

9. Trash

In Trash, your aim is to be the first person to complete your layout of 10 cards from Ace through 10. You'll want to watch out for Queens and Kings, which will end your turn automatically. You can see the full rules here.

Best Two Player Card Games Reddit

10. Scattergories

Best Two Player Card Games For Adults

Scattergories is a fast-paced game for people of all ages. Each time a category and letter combo is revealed, you'll want to be the first one to slap the 'I Know' card and give the right answer. The player who gets the most cards at the end wins the game.