Avant Carde is a deck-building game about assembling a collection of cubist artwork. Each player begins with the same ten modest cards and builds from there, buying better cards from the gallery to put on stronger exhibitions.

How it plays

Your starting deck has ten cards: 1s and 2s in six mismatched colours, plus four high-value cards, each in a different colour. Each turn you draw seven cards and play the best exhibition you can by matching colours and numbers. Every card played earns $1, which you can spend on cards from the gallery stacks, where a card costs the same as its number. Once per turn you can move the top card of a gallery stack to the bottom. Unspent money earns a change token worth $1 if you don't already have one. At the end of your turn, discard everything and draw a new hand of seven.

Patrons

Six patrons, numbered 2 to 7, give cards extra powers. Playing the most 2s earns an extra $1, a 3 lets you trash a card, a 4 can change its colour or number, a 5 earns extra money for each 5 played, and a 7 draws additional cards. The box includes multiple sets of patrons, which can be used on their own or mixed together.

Winning

Earn at least $6 in a turn to gain an award, with higher amounts earning more awards. $11 is worth four. When the award deck runs out, the player with the most awards wins.