Black Book is a rare deck-building game where the cards feel like a conspiracy, not like a deck from a Steam sale.

I came in for the Slavic folklore and stayed because of the tone. You're a young witch with a black book, a village nearby, and demons, kikimoras, and the undead talk as if they've always lived there—a great Slavic fantasy atmosphere. The battles aren't about "gaining synergy," but rather like reciting a spell out loud: a card, a word, a consequence. Between fights, the gameplay is even better: the hut, the road, the choice of who to save and which evil spirit to deceive.

Systematically, it's modest. The deck is built straightforwardly, some battles are repetitive, and the moral choices are sometimes too self-evident. But the atmosphere is dense and unique. The music, the language, the everyday details—everything contributes to the feeling that this isn't a "Russian cover for a Western deckbuilder," but a local story simply tucked into the cards.

It's not a masterpiece of the genre like Slay the Spire. Something else is more important to me: after an evening in Black Book, instead of searching for a new build, you want to sit in the hut and reread what the evil spirits whispered to you. If you love folklore and aren't afraid of text, this is a very warm, wicked, and homely game.