For those who don't know, deck building is a mechanic where each player starts out with their own (usaually very small) deck of cards. Players will attempt to get new and better cards throughout the game, which are typically added to the discard pile. Once they run out of cards to draw, the discard pile is shuffled and the deck starts over, now with (hopefully) better cards.
1: Customizaion
Well, first off, this mechanic lends itself to a lot of variety. Dominion, and many others, employ a drafting system for gaining cards. You can see exactly which cards are available, letting you plan ahead. Do I get card X this game, or should I change things up and get card Y? Even in games where you can see exactly which cards are available, the cards to chose from are typically different every game. This gives these games a lot of replayability, with the attitude of 'never the same game twice.'
Plus, customization appeals to people. This is my deck. Most popular roleplaying games try to employ this idea too, giving players a myriad of options to make their characters feel more personal to them. You tend to get more attached and more invested in choices that you've made.
2: Progression
I once had a friend tell me that he's a sucker for any game with a level progression. "If I can level up in a game, I'm happy." A similar idea is used in MMOs, giving player small and gradual rewards as they invest hours (months) into the game. They can see and feel their characters getting better.
Deck building games are somewhat similar in the sense that you can definitely see your deck progress. Remember that gold I bought a few turns ago? Well now it's in my hand, and I have more money this turn than ever before! Not only do you get to mold your deck how you want, but you get to play it as it changes. You get to feel it gradually getting stronger and stronger.
3: Payout
So in Dominion, you can only play one action card per turn. Most of the cards that are available to buy are action cards, so cards that let you play extra actions on your turn can be valuable. Because of this, new players are often attracted to the Village card. This lets them draw another card immediately, and they get to play two more actions. This card basically plays for free, because it regains the card and action spent when you played it, but also gives you an extra action to use that turn. So not only are actions important, but this card plays for free, so new players will often try to buy as many of these as you can. Honestly, this isn't a good tactic but....... the payout is pretty nice. When I was new, I did similar combos. Pulling off an 8-card Village chain can feel very satisfying (despite being pretty much pointless). You build your engine (deck) to do cool things, and you've just now done this cool thing. It doesn't matter if that cool thing was pointless and lead nowhere, it felt awesome!
When you obtain your cards, you're not always sure if you're going to be able to do exactly what you want to do with them later. But, if you do, it's very satisfying, despite how little utility it might have in the end.
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So these are a few things that deck building games can tap on, that a lot of other games aren't able to. In Monopoly, you may be progressing in wealth, but you don't really feel like anything is really yours. You just buy as much property as you can, for the most part. You may feel great when another player lands on your hotel, but you didn't set up a trap for them to fall into... they just happened to roll and land on it.
The appeal of deck building games can be pretty strong, especially with the blowout success of Dominion. Lots of designers would love to make a fraction of its sales. The deck building market is rather saturated, and not all of them are that fun. Still, it's a fun and creative mechanic, and I'm thankful for Donald X. Vaccarino for making it popular.
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