1. Marvel Champions (63 hours)

Got into it this year (maybe the best or worst time to have discovered FFG LCGs), and taught it to my cousins. We've played it a ton, and haven't even gotten into replays yet. MtG players enjoy the deck construction, and everyone likes feeling powerful.

2. Terraforming Mars (32 hours)

Right now it just feels like the thinkiest engine builder I'm playing. Find synergies and strategies, compete for tile placement and achievements, and find out how to exploit your strengths to pull ahead. Prelude is a great addition, while I'm so-so on Colonies.

3. Arkham Horror: The Card Game (25 hours)

This game is an *experience*. It feels like it's trying to tell a story while also teaching that failure is not the end of the world. Expect failure, or at least shortcomings, and learn how to mitigate it or live with it, and you get an amazing tale.

4. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 (18 hours)

My first experience with a legacy game. Super fun with my group of 4, and the writing and plot twists got us all hooked. We'll probably be getting into Season 2 this year.

5. Quacks (17 hours)

What a surprise of a game! I thought it was going to be super heavy with how often I saw it mentioned, but it's actually a delightfully fun push-your-luck game that's accessible to families. Ended up teaching it to non-board gamers and they bought their own All-In copies.

6. Wondrous Creatures (14 hours)

I've described this as "Wingspan meets Worker Placement," but that could also describe Wyrmspan. It feels like a "best of" 3 different board games' mechanics. Long combo chains can make it harder for new players to plan or track, but it's very thinky.

Oh, yeah, 10 hours of DoE.

7. Dragons of Etchinstone

Boy I love this game. I brought this on vacation to play on the plane and in the car. It feels like a super clever puzzle game, where you actually have a lot of ways to plan ahead and mitigate "bad draws." Sometimes luck just gets you, but that's part of the journey.

8. Deep Regrets (8 hours)

Most of this was the solo mode, with 1 2-player game. I enjoy the theme and the puzzle of maximizing catch values with dice and madness, but sometimes it felt like 1 or 2 too many mechanics for what was an otherwise thinner game.

9. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (7 hours)

After my first play of this, I felt like it was such a generous/gentle way to teach Terraforming Mars that it became part of the onboarding route. It's less direct competition than TM, but also more reliant on the other players for phase selection.

10. Harmonies (7 hours)

What a clever game! There's this push and pull between creating an optimal landscape and earning as many points from animals as possible, and finding the clever positions to do well at both is incredibly satisfying. Had great success teaching it to lighter gamers.

I'll write some thoughts on the 10 games I spent the most time with:

I'll check out Calistree.

I use Finch, but it's still a struggle to get things done day to day. At the very least, it's a reminder that I *wanted* to have certain tasks done daily/weekly.

I've taught a small group of friends Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, full sized Terraforming Mars, Ra, and Furnace recently. Some of them weren't really board game enthusiasts until recently, so it's been fun guiding them into the hobby and discovering their tastes.

Tend is super cool. Very random, and you don't really have the time to try investing in every category each game. The early turns also feel pretty quick, since it takes a while to invest in upgrades and set up purchases to really cascade. It pays off with big elaborate chains in the last 3 rounds.

Quacks is a family favorite. I wasn't expecting it to crack my top 10 most-played games this year, but the fact that some people clamor to play it and will move their schedules to attend means that it comes up more often than expected. I'm considering getting a custom insert for it next year.

Harmonies continues to be enjoyable for a less-intense evening. Feels very satisfying when you can pull your landscape together to optimize your tile scores and animal scores.

It's only mildly interactive, since hate-drafting is often detrimental.

I sometimes find inspiration from Wirecutter guides, but a lot of the time I just think about things I use or would use. Pocketknife, sling bag, coffee gear, notebooks, pill cases, flask, chargers/batteries, blankets, slippers. Utility and/or comfort.

R1: Lost to Jund (mostly red) aggro. Incredibly fun, tight games.
R2: Beat Rakdos aggro. The firebending was cool and allowed their creatures to almost grow out of my range.
R3: Beat Grixis Azula. Almost died in 1 swing as they doubled a piece of flash equipment to double double strike.