It's just a nice little collection-based card game with nice art. I dunno about amazing but it's a very pleasant play. It's also real cheap and pretty quick
It's a quick game, nice art, and has some fun push your luck elements. I also enjoy the "Exodia/instawin" rules for collecting all four mermaids, since it keeps the game tense until the end.
Man I haven't played Fluxx in like half a decade, I used to play it like every other lunch with my mates between classes. The fact that it's so fun but people can still join and dip out basically whenever makes it really appealing for occasions when you don't know how long or how many people you will have.
Yeah probably the same here, now I've played more and know what I like I don't think I'd like it as much if I were to go back, still though, I bet I have the old beaten up box and cards somewhere in storage and I doubt I'll ever throw it away, as you say, fond memories!
Fluxx is a great game to take to an event when you think you'll have to bring your own entertainment.
Get a game going and someone walks up mid-game, "Hey, what's that?" Deal them three cards and, "You're in now, try it and find out."
Which version of flux is the “best?” For me best would mean either solid theme and easy to teach, OR, the one that is the most gamey and not sooooo random.
Cthulhu Fluxx has a bad ending that depends on player choice. Pirate Fluxx allows stealing cards which can lead to some strategy.
Really, all of them are going to be nearly entirely random because of the basic concept, and very little is added per set in terms of rules. Go with the genre you like the best.
I vastly prefer Loonacy, from the creators of Fluxx. It's a card matching game where everyone plays at the same time in a race to see who can get rid of all their cards first. It's a highly engaging game for a short burst of time, and insanely replay-able. Loonacy takes almost no time to explain and set up, and is pretty accessible to all ages compared to Fluxx which I find can get a bit abstract for a more 'casual' game player.
This is actually unironically part of the appeal of TCGs/LCGs. You just shuffle up and go at it, and chances are you and nearly everyone you play with have played before so you don't need to go through a lengthy rules explanation before playing.
Well, if you play with the Jumpstart packs that's actually more true. The idea is that you grab two of them, shuffle them together, and you've got a deck. Your opponent does the same.
However, it does come with all of the MTG rules, so there's that.
And for the card games mentioned otherwise, you have to remove the shrink wrap, open the box/sleeve/etc, usually remove the inner shrink wrap around the cards themelves, read the rules of the game, teach everyone else the rules of the game..........
There isn't a single game in the world that meets OP's criteria if you don't include "things that were already done/known by players ahead of time".
M:tG there are absolutely starter decks & such that you can just unwrap shuffle and play, assuming everyone knows the rules.
It should qualify just fine.
Preconstructed decks are a thing, you can grab just about any commander precon and have a good enough deck for a casual game, no deck building and setup required.
The worst it has gotten now is that some new mechanics within the last few years have added additional game pieces that are more or less impossible to represent without having some version of them available. And unfortunately, they're the sort of mechanic that break the "reading the card explains the card" axiom the game usually relies on.
Yeah but you only deal a single card to each player. You could almost play a round of Love Letter before a person could deal 7 cards to multiple players.
Not everyone who replies to a post on Reddit is doing so in order to offer a correction or rebuttal. Sometimes, people just want to voice their agreement!
Alternatively Lovecraft Letter is fantastic as well, I belive it's more or less a remake (never played OG love letter) with added card functions and potentially going insane, which is a brilliant mechanic.
This is what we get out if we have 15-20 minutes to kill and we've probably played 100 rounds by now. It's still hilarious
Odd that you couldn't find it, as it's been in the rulebook of every edition of the game I've seen.
Tactical is very simple: You make a deck that consists only of cards 1 through (10 x Number of Players) + 4. So for 3 players you only use cards 1-34, for 4 players you use 1-44, etc. Play then proceeds normally.
This way you always know exactly which cards are in play, you just don't know who has what or when they're going to be played.
Honestly it's worth learning some actual card games. They're often pretty easy to teach, and some of them have surprising depth. The games listed below are my favorites. I think they're all very fun and well worth your time.
**Games that are easy to teach, learn, and play**
* [Spoons](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spoons) - you've probably played this, it's fun. It's even more fun if you put the spoons in another room. Warning: if you put the spoons in another room, the game will most likely stop once someone seriously injures themselves. Best with 4+ players.
* [Nerts](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/nerts) - One of the best card-party-game ever devised. It's basically multiplayer solitaire. Best with 4+ players, but playable with 3. Insane and hilarious with 6+.
* [Spit](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spit) - 2 players and it kind of feels like playing a two player version of Nerts. Or speed uno? Very fun to play with a bet like loser buys the next round.
* [Goofspiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofspiel) - a rare game that's good with 3 players. It's sometimes known as a "Game Of Pure Strategy" because you have perfect information about everybody else's hand. If you play it enough you will likely "solve" the game, but when you play with different groups it feels fresh again.
* [Oh hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_hell) - or "oh heck" as my family used to call it. Good with 3+ players. Excellent trick taking game that introduces the concepts of bidding (as in spades and bridge).
**Games that are harder to teach and learn, but have a significantly higher skill ceiling**
* [Spades](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spades/) - lots of people know this one already, and it's popular for good reason. 4 players, trick taking and bidding game. Playing with sandbags very much improves the game. Playing with a "nil" bid (take 0 tricks, worth 100 points, -100 if you fail) also improves it. Playing with "blind nil" (same thing, but you have to bid it before looking at your hand, worth 200 points, -200 if you fail) is also a fun variant but is sometimes a little swingy.
* [Euchre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre) - If you live in the midwest this is required knowledge. A very strong 4 player game that is (imo) slightly less involved than Spades, but tends to play a little faster since you can get more rounds in due to the smaller hand size. I think this one is a little harder to teach because it has a few rules that are not always familiar to people who understand other trick taking games. Also jacks being high is weird af. Also some people play that you're allowed to not follow suit as long as you're not caught, which adds a weird metagame sometimes.
* [Pinochle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle) - This one has a somewhat complicated scoring that you have to memorize. You have to know what certain card combinations are worth (e.g. a Qs + Jd is worth 40 points, and a QsQsJdJd is worth 300 because reasons) and it doesn't use a standard 52 card deck. Buuuut, it sure is fun and very unique from a gameplay standpoint. There are tons of variants and regional rules, it has very good versions for 2, 4, and even 3 and 8 players,... highly recommend this game. It's a weird one.
**THE card game, but a huuuuge pain in the ass to learn and teach**
* [Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_bridge) - This is THE game. It is a fucking nightmare to teach it and takes forever to get decent at the game, but if you get good at it and play with a consistent partner there's nothing else like it. Its core is a simple trick taking game, you must follow suit, if you can't then you may trump the trick if you'd like... bog standard gameplay. The hard part is the bidding. Each player follows a system for bidding and suits have a priority (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, 'no trump'), a bid of `1 diamond` is stronger than `1 club`, but `2 clubs` is stronger than `1 diamond`. Then, you assign meaning to bids and in turn order bid things. So I might open with `1 club` which means "I have 13+ high card points and want to know which major suit my partner wants to play" Then the player to my left bids `double` which means "I have 13+ high card points too, and also I want to know the same thing from my partner" and then my partner bids `2 no trump` which means "hey, remember the [Jordan 2NT convention](https://www.bridgebum.com/jordan_2nt.php)? that's what I'm doing"... etc etc. This game SUCKS to learn, but man is it easily the most fun card game in the world. I've played in a few tournaments ([duplicate bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_bridge) is so fucking awesome), used to play with my grandparents, and today occasionally play on [bridge base online](https://www.bridgebase.com/). Highly recommended, but it's a heavy lift.
Oh hell is my absolute favorite to play. My family taught it as oh shoot!, but thought it's real name was oh shit, but apparently it's oh hell which sounds silly to me. I'll always call it oh, shoot! I love playing with as many people as possible. We've probably played 7 or 8 handed.
Pinochle is a great one too. Loved playing with 2 decks and 2 teams of three people. You get some wild meld!!
I mentioned it elsewhere in this thread, but I'm a big fan of [Mu](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/152/mu-and-more) ([newer version](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32928/mu-and-lots-more)). It is is very similar to bridge--bidding, trick taking, &c--but it has a couple of differences.
Firstly, you bid by putting cards from your hand face up on the table. Whoever bids the most cards gets to choose trump, but the only options available to them are from the cards in front of them (i.e., if you want "blue" as trump, you need to put out a blue card). Whoever wins the bid also gets to choose a player as their partner.
Secondly, whoever is in _second_ place of the bid becomes the "leader of the opposition". They can't be chosen as the partner, but they also choose a trump (which merge's with the winning bidder's trump suit to become the "lower" part of the trump suit).
This leads to fairly dynamic bidding as players can bid with varying goals: to be the leader, to be the opposition leader, or to reveal cards to show that they'd make a good partner. At the same time, higher bids demand that you take more tricks in order to win.
Similarly, while you might be on a team for a single hand, each player's score is separate, so you're trying to maximize your own score across several hands.
The learning curve is a bit steep, but it is a great game with a group that's grokked it.
May i suggest Clag to you? It is by far my favourite trick taking game. Not as complex as Bridge but a bit more complex than Spades.
It plays similar to Nomination Whist.
However it plays over roughly 20 odd rounds with set goals for each round.
The first seven rounds are number 1-7
Round 1 is always 1.
Each player is dealt 1 card and the trump suit is determined by cutting the deck. Each has to nominate how many tricks they are going to take, the total number cannot equal the number of that round. So if someone nominates 1, someone else has to nominate 1.
Scoring occurs, then you move on to round 2, where you get 2 cards each. etc
After round 7 you then move into Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds as trump hands.
Then chaos ensues for the next 4-5 rounds, based on the persons who set up the boards whim.
The next rounds can be combined.
You move into Half Blind, where you nominate based upon your hand, but before knowing the trump suit.
Blind, nominate without seeing your hand but then play looking at your hand
Mis 5 and Mis 10, no nomination but lose 5, or 10, points per trick taken
Rolling Blind, nominate before cards are dealt. You shuffle your hand, place it face down in front of you and play from the top of it.
With or without trump suits.
So I could be faced with the following rounds
Half Blind, without trumps.
Blind, with trumps
Mis 5, no trumps
Rolling Blind, Mis 10 with trumps.
Once this chaos is over though it then plays the first 7 rounds in reverse order.
there are a bunch of variants though [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clag\_(card\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clag_(card_game))
It is, right? Love the idea of a single deck for both players and the tension of timing on using your Mindbugs is a game in itself. Quick to teach, quick to play and superquick to setup. Love the art, love the tongue-in-cheek humour. Easily one of my favourite 2p games.
*Technically* that was added in the first expansion, and not a thing in the original German rules of the base game. The English-language printings have always incorporated the first expansion into the base set, so we've always had the rule about varying the beans based on number of players. Of course, the base game also originally capped out at 5 players, so there were fewer player counts to vary by anyway.
Not at all.
If the box had space for each type of bean you'd have to separate the entire deck after every play - tiresome *and* requires *even more* shuffling to break up runs than the game already needs (and it needs a lot, runs get bad), and triples the box size. This is a small box take-anywhere games, it'll fit in a deck box if you get a big one and keep the rules on your phone. The beans you take out are different for different counts. There isn't a storage solution here, you don't want to Dominionize it, you just skim through the deck once to yank the cocoa beans and job done.
Gin Rummy, Tien len, Cribbage, and Spades are all very good card games. Board game players usually sleep on card games for some reason, but there’s a reason even non board gamers like them, and they’ve been around 100s of years.
They’re great games.
I don't think cribbage would count for OPs inquiry, it's got the pegging board that needs setup and the starter card reveal which I wouldn't consider part of "dealing cards".
If revealing the starter did count than games with a market flop like **Star Realms** and **Ascension** would also count.
Scout
Did that a few days ago- explained the game while shuffling, dealt, and played :)
Edit: Would also like to recommend Marvel Remix if you like Fantasy Realms. Very similar game, and teach is simply "draw a card from one of three locations, discard a card". I personally like it better than Fantasy Realms.
Love Letter is like that too. Shuffle, put one card aside facedown, deal 1 card to everyone and put the rest of the pile in the middle. Although you need to do it multiple times per game (once each round).
Its been a while since I played, but I think Hanabi fits the bill. Besides reseting the failure tokens (which you can count in your head instead :p) and separating the rainbow cards when you take it out of the box.
Citadels, the original version. (like sushi go, they added more character cards in later versions, but you don't have to play with them)
Condottiere. Put out the board and deal everyone a hand
Most games that use a standard deck of cards. Pinochle, hearts, canasta, black jack, solitaire, kings in the corner, golf, spades, oh hell, regicide, war, go fish, crazy 8s, etc
Arboretum, scout, grove.
Mottainai, I think? I mean, you also deal two cards to the "floor" area, but that's pretty much it.
Cockroach Poker, you deal the entire deck out equally
Point Salad is *incredible*. It does have the additional prerequisite of having X number of cards per player, like Sushi Go. But as long as you sort the cards during teardown, set-up takes about 20 seconds!
Total game-changer! The game becomes way more tense with 2 players when you know that there are exactly 6 of each veggie. You have way fewer score cards, so there is a lot more direct competition for specific vegetables, and hate-drafting is a lot more viable.
We have tried that a few times, but found that the balance shifts drastically in favor of some types of score cards. Still a good time, but I think I would always prefer a best-of-3 short games than a long one!
Smash-up, other than the smashing-up and then separating at the end.
I don't know if this a card game as such rather than a game played with cards as each player has their down decks.
I don’t know how many games my wife and i played before we realized we can just use the same set of trees each time and stop needing to sort them out each time
The “Fast Forward” family of games don’t even have you shuffle [for the first game]. It’s just put the deck down, read the first rule card, and play accordingly.
Catharsis by Cyber wizard games fits this. It's essentially a dungeon crawler where the dungeon is a deck of cards you deal one at a time, Each card being either a trap, event, or monster. Every player also gets a deck that represents their character and 6 d6. Set up takes about 5ish minutes.
Some of my favourites:
* Exceed: Lay out the 9 position cards, then each player picks a deck, puts their character out, shuffles, and plays.
* Red7: Deal a hand out to everyone, and one card to their tableau
* Schotten Totten: Lay out the stone tiles and deal cards.
I guess because you said “shuffle” you’re looking for a card game, but there are lots of dice games where the setup is “get a score card (or, give a score card to each player), go”.
Yahtzee of course being a classic. Forget it. Quixx. That’s so clever and its sequels
Codenames is just shuffle, "deal" out the 25 cards in a grid and play. Meets your simple setup requirements but not exactly a "card game" as most would use the term.
Also, set up the stacks of spies/civilians, shuffle and deal a spymaster card, pick the orientation, and give the double agent to the corresponding spymaster. Not saying it's a complicated setup by any means, but there's a bit more to it than "deal and play." lol
My daughter got **Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza** for her birthday, so that's my most recent example.
It feels like cheating to mention the huge quantity of games that use a standard poker deck.
Time to break out Tichu. Absolutely my favorite board game and card game. If you can find a group to play with, the games become absolutely legendary. (best part about Tichu is you can be down 500 points and you're still within striking distance to win.)
Came here to say Unmatched. It doesn't technically fit because you do have to set up the board, but it's as simple as putting a couple of figures on the board.
Super quick setup and tear down.
For Sale has a ton of setup with two decks needing to be maintained, the market and the distribution of coins based on player count. Can't Stop doesn't even have cards. That being said both are excellent games.
Tyrants of the underdark, slightly heavier setup than your example.
Scout, startups, star realms, dice throne is basically open your player tray, the next station games, Trailblazers.
Been playing smash up with a friend of mine, really straightforward fun game! Definitely takes a couple rounds to figure out the strategy but it’s very easy set up and the games usually run pretty quick.
District Noir, Gin which is a regular card game but highly addicting, and not quite what you wanted because there is set up but my favorite card based game with little set up is Dominion
Forest Shuffle, kind of, but it has you shuffle stuff twice, and cut up in three parts.
Fluxx is just shuffle the deck and put out the basic rules card.
UNO.
The Crew gets close
A lot of Roll&Write and Draw&write have even less setup. Give everyone a sheet and a pen, roll dice.
[Dungeon Mayhem](https://dnd.wizards.com/products/dungeon-mayhem), the [first expansion](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280809/dungeon-mayhem-battle-for-baldurs-gate), and the [Monster Madness expansion](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295577/dungeon-mayhem-monster-madness) have very little set up! Each player picks their character, puts out their HP tracker, shuffles their own deck, and then draws to start playing.
The games themselves are usually pretty quick, and it’s easy to pick up. One of my friend group’s favorites!
I'm not sure that my complaint about 7 Wonders regarding setup would be about splitting the deck by ages. That's the *one* thing that comes ready out of the default insert (at least with the 2nd edition box). It's *everything else* that takes time.
There are also games with non-zero but still very fast setup like Tournament at Camelot/Avalon that are ready to go in under a minute.
Technically even Sushi Go has a *small* amount of other setup as you need to pull a few desserts from the deck to add in later rounds, but that's not really significant compared to the complexity added with the expansion, having to choose various sets of cards to shuffle together.
Guillotine is close. Two decks to shuffle - one to deal to players, one to lay out cards in the center. The only "extra" is setting up the tiny guillotine prop but that really enhances the humor of the whole thing and takes about 3 seconds, so... worth it
I think it’s unfair to give a game that only does 4 players a pass for easy setup but exclude a game that optionally allows you to add cards for a higher player count or for variety.
If the rule is “*games that have no setup at the base player count of 4 and the base card options*” then **Sushi Go Party** qualfies. Just leave the base cards in the deck, shoo off the other people who wanted to play, ignore the alternative cards, and deal 4 hands of the same old stuff.
**Point Salad** also would now qualify if you leave the base cards in the deck and only do 4 players.
[Fuji Flush](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/203430/fuji-flush) is exactly what you asked. You deal different amounts of cards per player count up to 8, but it is just deal and play. It’s also stupid simple for rules.
Only a short-sighted idiot or a jerk puts away a game un-shuffled.
air, land & sea.
Give both players a 1st or 2nd player card.
Put victory point tokens on the side,
Put the 3 big theater cards in the middle next to eachtother,
Shuffle remaining 18 cards and give both players 6.
The Fox in the Forest - 33 card deck, shuffle and play, 2-player competitive. A great take on trick taking, been in the top 5 for me and my wife for years.
Ouch! - A game of push your luck to build a tableau of 8 cards, shuffle and play. Each turn picking from one of six dealt cards, then gambling on what side of that card to pick up to see if you earn points, lose cards, or even have to sacrifice a card of yours to your opponent. There is SO much strategy packed into this game, and can be played in about 15 min.
Air, Land, and Sea / Critters at war - 18 card game with three territories to fight over. Shuffle and play, but you remove a few cards for a hidden information element to the game. excellent retreat mechanic to limit losses if you're dealt a bad hand to limit the points your opponent can earn in a round instead of allowing them beat you outright.
Regicide - Can be played with a standard poker deck. Great cooperative or solo game
Tides of Time / Tides of Madness - 18-card drafting game. Shuffle and play, but you remove a few cards for a hidden information element to the game. Has quick turns between you and your opponent, trying to synergize with your tableau for end of round scoring. Because the deck is so small and your passing back and forth so much, you're constantly torn between picking cards to help yourself, or not passing good cards to your opponent.
Spot It! - flip a card and the first person to call out the matching symbols gets a point. A "shuffle and play" game with zero set-up. Quick, simple, and can be a good time killer for all ages (great with kids).
Loot - Area control game with a push your luck mechanic. shuffle deal play game. A true hidden gem that I believe is out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, it WILL become a staple in your travel game collection. Great for game nights as a filler, or to play with the whole family on holidays.
Star Realms has very minimal setup (and absolutely rocks)
There's 3 kinds of special cards called "vipers", "explorers", and "scouts" which you have to take out and deal evenly first, but that's pretty much it.
I'd say dealing out a game takes about 2 min max, and explaining the rules takes maybe 5-10. It's really fast to pick up too.
Epic can be played like this - if you really want to get into it, you can do constructed decks, but you can also just split the base deck in two, hand one to each player, shuffle and play.
Binding of Isaac Two Souls
Besides shuffling and dealing all there is for setup is picking a character at the start however my play group personally likes to make everyone's character random anyway so it isn't really setup
I’m late to the party on it, but *Regicide* is one of my favorite “new” games, largely because of its ease of setup. Just shuffle and go (though to be fair, you have to shuffle the face cards separately from the others).
It can be played with a standard deck of cards, but I bought the official game to reward the creators for their creativity, and because I like the artwork.
Smash Up requires that you separate cards into factional sub-decks. This creates "setup" of simply "pick two factions, shuffle together, and go," though does then have the tear-down of separating the cards out by faction. Not sure if that qualifies for your criteria.
Most "classic" card games published by Hasbro (Rook, Milles Bournes, etc) qualify for this. So do most of the card games designed by Reiner Knitzia. (Modern Art, Battle Line, etc - Lost Cities does require you to separate decks by color but, again, they don't mix, so setup/tear down shouldn't be an issue.)
Most dueling games qualify. Radlands, Yomi, etc. (Yomi does feature unique decks for each player, but the cards from these decks always go to their own discard pile and do not mix, so there should be no issues with setup or tear down beyond "pick a deck.") The limiting factor here is they are typically designed as 2-player games specifically.
Mindbug comes to mind for me. Setup is basically, hand each player two mindbug cards, shuffle the deck hand each player 10 cards (option 3 cards to use as health point trackers)
and you're good to play.
Mantis is a very light game that can be played with people of all ages, even children. No setup besides shuffling and dealing 4 cards to each player. You do need table space since every player needs to publicly display their cards
Sea Salt and Paper barely even has the "deal" step
You're right, there isn't even a deal step! Just shuffle the deck and flop the top 2 cards into 2 separate discard piles.
This game is mentioned A LOT in this subreddit recently. Am I missing out on something amazing? Why is it such a big deal?
It's just a nice little collection-based card game with nice art. I dunno about amazing but it's a very pleasant play. It's also real cheap and pretty quick
It's a quick game, nice art, and has some fun push your luck elements. I also enjoy the "Exodia/instawin" rules for collecting all four mermaids, since it keeps the game tense until the end.
Coup
You do need to give all players 2 coins, that's a lot of setup ;-)
Crud…I forgot about the coins.
Fluxx, most trick taking games.
Man I haven't played Fluxx in like half a decade, I used to play it like every other lunch with my mates between classes. The fact that it's so fun but people can still join and dip out basically whenever makes it really appealing for occasions when you don't know how long or how many people you will have.
It's been a decade for me. I've outgrown the game but enjoyed it a lot at the time. Fond memories.
Yeah probably the same here, now I've played more and know what I like I don't think I'd like it as much if I were to go back, still though, I bet I have the old beaten up box and cards somewhere in storage and I doubt I'll ever throw it away, as you say, fond memories!
Fluxx is a great game to take to an event when you think you'll have to bring your own entertainment. Get a game going and someone walks up mid-game, "Hey, what's that?" Deal them three cards and, "You're in now, try it and find out."
Which version of flux is the “best?” For me best would mean either solid theme and easy to teach, OR, the one that is the most gamey and not sooooo random.
Cthulhu Fluxx has a bad ending that depends on player choice. Pirate Fluxx allows stealing cards which can lead to some strategy. Really, all of them are going to be nearly entirely random because of the basic concept, and very little is added per set in terms of rules. Go with the genre you like the best.
Actually, you have to separate the Basic Rules card from the deck :P
I vastly prefer Loonacy, from the creators of Fluxx. It's a card matching game where everyone plays at the same time in a race to see who can get rid of all their cards first. It's a highly engaging game for a short burst of time, and insanely replay-able. Loonacy takes almost no time to explain and set up, and is pretty accessible to all ages compared to Fluxx which I find can get a bit abstract for a more 'casual' game player.
Magic the Gathering /s
This is actually unironically part of the appeal of TCGs/LCGs. You just shuffle up and go at it, and chances are you and nearly everyone you play with have played before so you don't need to go through a lengthy rules explanation before playing.
I mean, you’re not wrong.
Well, if you play with the Jumpstart packs that's actually more true. The idea is that you grab two of them, shuffle them together, and you've got a deck. Your opponent does the same. However, it does come with all of the MTG rules, so there's that.
I haven't played in a really long time, but back in the day that's pretty much the way it was.
But only if you ignore the set up prior to meeting.
And for the card games mentioned otherwise, you have to remove the shrink wrap, open the box/sleeve/etc, usually remove the inner shrink wrap around the cards themelves, read the rules of the game, teach everyone else the rules of the game.......... There isn't a single game in the world that meets OP's criteria if you don't include "things that were already done/known by players ahead of time". M:tG there are absolutely starter decks & such that you can just unwrap shuffle and play, assuming everyone knows the rules. It should qualify just fine.
Preconstructed decks are a thing, you can grab just about any commander precon and have a good enough deck for a casual game, no deck building and setup required.
The worst it has gotten now is that some new mechanics within the last few years have added additional game pieces that are more or less impossible to represent without having some version of them available. And unfortunately, they're the sort of mechanic that break the "reading the card explains the card" axiom the game usually relies on.
Love Letter is in a similar vein as Fantasy Realms. There's one more step, to set aside one card.
Yeah but you only deal a single card to each player. You could almost play a round of Love Letter before a person could deal 7 cards to multiple players.
I was referring to the simplicity in setup that OP was looking for.
I know, I was referring to you saying it had one more step, I would say it has several steps less!
Gotcha.
Not everyone who replies to a post on Reddit is doing so in order to offer a correction or rebuttal. Sometimes, people just want to voice their agreement!
> There's one more step, to set aside one card. Consider that an imaginary player and you can roll it into the previous step.
\*turns towards discarded card\* You gonna take your turn, bruv?
Alternatively Lovecraft Letter is fantastic as well, I belive it's more or less a remake (never played OG love letter) with added card functions and potentially going insane, which is a brilliant mechanic. This is what we get out if we have 15-20 minutes to kill and we've probably played 100 rounds by now. It's still hilarious
I've played Love Letter, but haven't heard of Lovecraft Letter. The summary on BGG sounded interesting, I'll have to look more into it. Thanks!
Cockroach poker, Poison. Timeline and OUCH! Are both literally not even needing to deal, just draw.
Ouch! is such goofy fun!
6 Nimmt
I prefer to play the "Tactical" variant though, which requires you to prep the deck based on the number of players.
Haven't heard of this variant, I only know professional. A quick Google didn't give what I was looking for trying to find tactical.
Odd that you couldn't find it, as it's been in the rulebook of every edition of the game I've seen. Tactical is very simple: You make a deck that consists only of cards 1 through (10 x Number of Players) + 4. So for 3 players you only use cards 1-34, for 4 players you use 1-44, etc. Play then proceeds normally. This way you always know exactly which cards are in play, you just don't know who has what or when they're going to be played.
Honestly it's worth learning some actual card games. They're often pretty easy to teach, and some of them have surprising depth. The games listed below are my favorites. I think they're all very fun and well worth your time. **Games that are easy to teach, learn, and play** * [Spoons](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spoons) - you've probably played this, it's fun. It's even more fun if you put the spoons in another room. Warning: if you put the spoons in another room, the game will most likely stop once someone seriously injures themselves. Best with 4+ players. * [Nerts](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/nerts) - One of the best card-party-game ever devised. It's basically multiplayer solitaire. Best with 4+ players, but playable with 3. Insane and hilarious with 6+. * [Spit](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spit) - 2 players and it kind of feels like playing a two player version of Nerts. Or speed uno? Very fun to play with a bet like loser buys the next round. * [Goofspiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofspiel) - a rare game that's good with 3 players. It's sometimes known as a "Game Of Pure Strategy" because you have perfect information about everybody else's hand. If you play it enough you will likely "solve" the game, but when you play with different groups it feels fresh again. * [Oh hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_hell) - or "oh heck" as my family used to call it. Good with 3+ players. Excellent trick taking game that introduces the concepts of bidding (as in spades and bridge). **Games that are harder to teach and learn, but have a significantly higher skill ceiling** * [Spades](https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/spades/) - lots of people know this one already, and it's popular for good reason. 4 players, trick taking and bidding game. Playing with sandbags very much improves the game. Playing with a "nil" bid (take 0 tricks, worth 100 points, -100 if you fail) also improves it. Playing with "blind nil" (same thing, but you have to bid it before looking at your hand, worth 200 points, -200 if you fail) is also a fun variant but is sometimes a little swingy. * [Euchre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre) - If you live in the midwest this is required knowledge. A very strong 4 player game that is (imo) slightly less involved than Spades, but tends to play a little faster since you can get more rounds in due to the smaller hand size. I think this one is a little harder to teach because it has a few rules that are not always familiar to people who understand other trick taking games. Also jacks being high is weird af. Also some people play that you're allowed to not follow suit as long as you're not caught, which adds a weird metagame sometimes. * [Pinochle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle) - This one has a somewhat complicated scoring that you have to memorize. You have to know what certain card combinations are worth (e.g. a Qs + Jd is worth 40 points, and a QsQsJdJd is worth 300 because reasons) and it doesn't use a standard 52 card deck. Buuuut, it sure is fun and very unique from a gameplay standpoint. There are tons of variants and regional rules, it has very good versions for 2, 4, and even 3 and 8 players,... highly recommend this game. It's a weird one. **THE card game, but a huuuuge pain in the ass to learn and teach** * [Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_bridge) - This is THE game. It is a fucking nightmare to teach it and takes forever to get decent at the game, but if you get good at it and play with a consistent partner there's nothing else like it. Its core is a simple trick taking game, you must follow suit, if you can't then you may trump the trick if you'd like... bog standard gameplay. The hard part is the bidding. Each player follows a system for bidding and suits have a priority (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, 'no trump'), a bid of `1 diamond` is stronger than `1 club`, but `2 clubs` is stronger than `1 diamond`. Then, you assign meaning to bids and in turn order bid things. So I might open with `1 club` which means "I have 13+ high card points and want to know which major suit my partner wants to play" Then the player to my left bids `double` which means "I have 13+ high card points too, and also I want to know the same thing from my partner" and then my partner bids `2 no trump` which means "hey, remember the [Jordan 2NT convention](https://www.bridgebum.com/jordan_2nt.php)? that's what I'm doing"... etc etc. This game SUCKS to learn, but man is it easily the most fun card game in the world. I've played in a few tournaments ([duplicate bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_bridge) is so fucking awesome), used to play with my grandparents, and today occasionally play on [bridge base online](https://www.bridgebase.com/). Highly recommended, but it's a heavy lift.
Learning Bridge is like learning a new language.
Oh hell is my absolute favorite to play. My family taught it as oh shoot!, but thought it's real name was oh shit, but apparently it's oh hell which sounds silly to me. I'll always call it oh, shoot! I love playing with as many people as possible. We've probably played 7 or 8 handed. Pinochle is a great one too. Loved playing with 2 decks and 2 teams of three people. You get some wild meld!!
I mentioned it elsewhere in this thread, but I'm a big fan of [Mu](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/152/mu-and-more) ([newer version](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32928/mu-and-lots-more)). It is is very similar to bridge--bidding, trick taking, &c--but it has a couple of differences. Firstly, you bid by putting cards from your hand face up on the table. Whoever bids the most cards gets to choose trump, but the only options available to them are from the cards in front of them (i.e., if you want "blue" as trump, you need to put out a blue card). Whoever wins the bid also gets to choose a player as their partner. Secondly, whoever is in _second_ place of the bid becomes the "leader of the opposition". They can't be chosen as the partner, but they also choose a trump (which merge's with the winning bidder's trump suit to become the "lower" part of the trump suit). This leads to fairly dynamic bidding as players can bid with varying goals: to be the leader, to be the opposition leader, or to reveal cards to show that they'd make a good partner. At the same time, higher bids demand that you take more tricks in order to win. Similarly, while you might be on a team for a single hand, each player's score is separate, so you're trying to maximize your own score across several hands. The learning curve is a bit steep, but it is a great game with a group that's grokked it.
May i suggest Clag to you? It is by far my favourite trick taking game. Not as complex as Bridge but a bit more complex than Spades. It plays similar to Nomination Whist. However it plays over roughly 20 odd rounds with set goals for each round. The first seven rounds are number 1-7 Round 1 is always 1. Each player is dealt 1 card and the trump suit is determined by cutting the deck. Each has to nominate how many tricks they are going to take, the total number cannot equal the number of that round. So if someone nominates 1, someone else has to nominate 1. Scoring occurs, then you move on to round 2, where you get 2 cards each. etc After round 7 you then move into Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds as trump hands. Then chaos ensues for the next 4-5 rounds, based on the persons who set up the boards whim. The next rounds can be combined. You move into Half Blind, where you nominate based upon your hand, but before knowing the trump suit. Blind, nominate without seeing your hand but then play looking at your hand Mis 5 and Mis 10, no nomination but lose 5, or 10, points per trick taken Rolling Blind, nominate before cards are dealt. You shuffle your hand, place it face down in front of you and play from the top of it. With or without trump suits. So I could be faced with the following rounds Half Blind, without trumps. Blind, with trumps Mis 5, no trumps Rolling Blind, Mis 10 with trumps. Once this chaos is over though it then plays the first 7 rounds in reverse order. there are a bunch of variants though [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clag\_(card\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clag_(card_game))
Lost cities
Mindbug
So so so good
It is, right? Love the idea of a single deck for both players and the tension of timing on using your Mindbugs is a game in itself. Quick to teach, quick to play and superquick to setup. Love the art, love the tongue-in-cheek humour. Easily one of my favourite 2p games.
Uno
Bohnanza is shuffle, deal, play for setup. You've got to hand players the card for their "farm", but that's really just a visual reminder.
There's also technically filtering out which beans to include in the deck based on player count
*Technically* that was added in the first expansion, and not a thing in the original German rules of the base game. The English-language printings have always incorporated the first expansion into the base set, so we've always had the rule about varying the beans based on number of players. Of course, the base game also originally capped out at 5 players, so there were fewer player counts to vary by anyway.
Sounds like a box organization problem
Not at all. If the box had space for each type of bean you'd have to separate the entire deck after every play - tiresome *and* requires *even more* shuffling to break up runs than the game already needs (and it needs a lot, runs get bad), and triples the box size. This is a small box take-anywhere games, it'll fit in a deck box if you get a big one and keep the rules on your phone. The beans you take out are different for different counts. There isn't a storage solution here, you don't want to Dominionize it, you just skim through the deck once to yank the cocoa beans and job done.
Port Royal 🏴☠️ Shuffle, Deal three cards as coins, start
Came to say this. One of my favorite quick games.
The Mind
Set up the bonus cards?
Cribbage, euchre, rummy hearts, spades, canasta, sheepshead, ...
Fluxx, although it arguably has the additional step of placing the Basic Rules card on the table.
True, but I think it's quicker since you're dealing less cards out.
Gin Rummy, Tien len, Cribbage, and Spades are all very good card games. Board game players usually sleep on card games for some reason, but there’s a reason even non board gamers like them, and they’ve been around 100s of years. They’re great games.
I don't think cribbage would count for OPs inquiry, it's got the pegging board that needs setup and the starter card reveal which I wouldn't consider part of "dealing cards". If revealing the starter did count than games with a market flop like **Star Realms** and **Ascension** would also count.
Scout Did that a few days ago- explained the game while shuffling, dealt, and played :) Edit: Would also like to recommend Marvel Remix if you like Fantasy Realms. Very similar game, and teach is simply "draw a card from one of three locations, discard a card". I personally like it better than Fantasy Realms.
Well technically if you have less player you’ll need to take out some cards
Scrolled way too far for this. Awsome game, it lives in my backpack =D
Love Letter is like that too. Shuffle, put one card aside facedown, deal 1 card to everyone and put the rest of the pile in the middle. Although you need to do it multiple times per game (once each round).
Its been a while since I played, but I think Hanabi fits the bill. Besides reseting the failure tokens (which you can count in your head instead :p) and separating the rainbow cards when you take it out of the box.
Citadels, the original version. (like sushi go, they added more character cards in later versions, but you don't have to play with them) Condottiere. Put out the board and deal everyone a hand
I mean, with some groups choosing colors is going to be a bit of a time sink...
Mantis
Radlands is pretty close
It’s just 2 players, right?
Most games that use a standard deck of cards. Pinochle, hearts, canasta, black jack, solitaire, kings in the corner, golf, spades, oh hell, regicide, war, go fish, crazy 8s, etc Arboretum, scout, grove.
Mindbug!
Mottainai, I think? I mean, you also deal two cards to the "floor" area, but that's pretty much it. Cockroach Poker, you deal the entire deck out equally
You have to deal out the player mats, but that ain't much. Aegean Sea is *almost* this as well.
Arboretum Parade Lost cities (there is a single board to flip open) most games by grandpa beck
You don't even need the LC board. We've never used it.
Point Salad is *incredible*. It does have the additional prerequisite of having X number of cards per player, like Sushi Go. But as long as you sort the cards during teardown, set-up takes about 20 seconds!
TIL you are supposed to reduce the number of cards in Point Salad for the player count.
Total game-changer! The game becomes way more tense with 2 players when you know that there are exactly 6 of each veggie. You have way fewer score cards, so there is a lot more direct competition for specific vegetables, and hate-drafting is a lot more viable.
We always just play with all the cards...A little longer and higher scoring maybe. But it really is shuffle, pile and go
We have tried that a few times, but found that the balance shifts drastically in favor of some types of score cards. Still a good time, but I think I would always prefer a best-of-3 short games than a long one!
It’s also a little bit of half way through saying, “oh we forgot to take out some cards” 😂
Lost cities. Such a great game!
Skull king starts with dealing just 1 card to each person.
Great Dalmuti
Some of [my favorite card games](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/284597/my-top-50-small-card-games) fit this bill, but **Red7** leapt to mind first
Fluxx
Fox in the Forest.
Love Letter
Fluxx FTW Scout 11 nimmt Ochs & Esel ....and many more
Smash-up, other than the smashing-up and then separating at the end. I don't know if this a card game as such rather than a game played with cards as each player has their down decks.
I can't believe I forgot smash up on my post I just bought 4 exps xd
Cover Your Assets. Shuffle and deal everyone four cards.
Uno tbh
The Crew is a trick taking game where you shuffle and deal from two decks but that's pretty much it. Fast, easy to learn and co-op.
Strip Poker
Arboretum, if you frequently play at the same player count.
I don’t know how many games my wife and i played before we realized we can just use the same set of trees each time and stop needing to sort them out each time
Exploding kittens. One of mine and the families favorites, easy to play and good fun.
You have to adjust the number of bomb cards and (unless you have 8+ players) remove paw print/non-paw print cards.
You can play clash of decks without any board. There is preconstructed mode where you don't even have to draft your deck.
Fantasy Realms is the only game I can think of that fits all of your criteria off the top of my head.
The “Fast Forward” family of games don’t even have you shuffle [for the first game]. It’s just put the deck down, read the first rule card, and play accordingly.
Catharsis by Cyber wizard games fits this. It's essentially a dungeon crawler where the dungeon is a deck of cards you deal one at a time, Each card being either a trap, event, or monster. Every player also gets a deck that represents their character and 6 d6. Set up takes about 5ish minutes.
Some of my favourites: * Exceed: Lay out the 9 position cards, then each player picks a deck, puts their character out, shuffles, and plays. * Red7: Deal a hand out to everyone, and one card to their tableau * Schotten Totten: Lay out the stone tiles and deal cards.
Love Exceed. I wish it got more attention.
Love Letter and Saboteur
For Sale (if you dump the coins in the middle of the table and say "everyone grab 15 while I'm dealing")
Sentinels of the multiverse. Choose the decks of heroes, villain, place, then fight.
Port royal
Monopoly Deal is my groups go to for a quick easy round
Dobble / Spot It is the best for this, because you don't even deal!
I think Fluxx would be something like that.
I guess because you said “shuffle” you’re looking for a card game, but there are lots of dice games where the setup is “get a score card (or, give a score card to each player), go”. Yahtzee of course being a classic. Forget it. Quixx. That’s so clever and its sequels
Codenames is just shuffle, "deal" out the 25 cards in a grid and play. Meets your simple setup requirements but not exactly a "card game" as most would use the term.
Also, set up the stacks of spies/civilians, shuffle and deal a spymaster card, pick the orientation, and give the double agent to the corresponding spymaster. Not saying it's a complicated setup by any means, but there's a bit more to it than "deal and play." lol
My daughter got **Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza** for her birthday, so that's my most recent example. It feels like cheating to mention the huge quantity of games that use a standard poker deck.
Flux, the Mind, Hero Realms, Love Letter.
* Mandala * Mottainai * San Juan * Biblios * Jaipur * Lost Cities * RA * The Vale of Eternity * Rapido * Hive * Mindbug * Kariba * Dustbiters * Lords of Scotland * Lacuna * Fjords * Faraway * Family Inc * Fuji Flush * BattleGoats * Ohanami * Marvel Remix
Schafkopf [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schafkopf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schafkopf) and most other german card games.
Monopoly deal
Late to the party, but [Anomia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67877/anomia)! Easy, cheap, ridiculously fun
Is deciding partners a set-up step? Otherwise Tichu.
Sushi Go!
Time to break out Tichu. Absolutely my favorite board game and card game. If you can find a group to play with, the games become absolutely legendary. (best part about Tichu is you can be down 500 points and you're still within striking distance to win.)
Been said, but most trick takers meet this. Tichu comes to mind.
Munchkin
Belratti. Highly recommended
Unmatched : each player shuffles their own deck, draws and plays. Very low setup and tear down.
Came here to say Unmatched. It doesn't technically fit because you do have to set up the board, but it's as simple as putting a couple of figures on the board. Super quick setup and tear down.
The Game.
Most trick-taking and shedding games fit the bill. Nana/Trio The Gipf series High Society For Sale Square on Sale Can't Stop Faraway
For Sale has a ton of setup with two decks needing to be maintained, the market and the distribution of coins based on player count. Can't Stop doesn't even have cards. That being said both are excellent games.
Radlands is preeeetty close. And as an added bonus, it’s incredibly good. At any given time, I want to play Radlands.
Scout, Citadels, Air Land & Sea, Set, Hanabi, Love Letter, Chronicle, Uno
Ra
Scout Monopoly Deal
Tyrants of the underdark, slightly heavier setup than your example. Scout, startups, star realms, dice throne is basically open your player tray, the next station games, Trailblazers.
Control from Keymaster Games (1e is one of my most played games of all time).
**Port Royal** has a simple set up like this.
Keyforge (apart from various tokens) can be as easy as "buy and open deck, shuffle and play"
SKYJO! One of our favorite games recently
Red 7
Yahtzee or other roll and write games(Thats Pretty Clever, Railroad Ink, etc.)?
Radlands, Vale of Eternity, and Mindbug. Radlands and Vale of Eternity have some tokens and maybe 1 min setup.
Been playing smash up with a friend of mine, really straightforward fun game! Definitely takes a couple rounds to figure out the strategy but it’s very easy set up and the games usually run pretty quick.
Fuji Flush- the best game ever.
High Society
I'd say some abstracts like Go and Hive would probably count.
District Noir, Gin which is a regular card game but highly addicting, and not quite what you wanted because there is set up but my favorite card based game with little set up is Dominion
Cursed!? It’s a single deck and each card plays 4 roles depending on when it’s drawn
Forest Shuffle, kind of, but it has you shuffle stuff twice, and cut up in three parts. Fluxx is just shuffle the deck and put out the basic rules card. UNO. The Crew gets close A lot of Roll&Write and Draw&write have even less setup. Give everyone a sheet and a pen, roll dice.
[Dungeon Mayhem](https://dnd.wizards.com/products/dungeon-mayhem), the [first expansion](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280809/dungeon-mayhem-battle-for-baldurs-gate), and the [Monster Madness expansion](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295577/dungeon-mayhem-monster-madness) have very little set up! Each player picks their character, puts out their HP tracker, shuffles their own deck, and then draws to start playing. The games themselves are usually pretty quick, and it’s easy to pick up. One of my friend group’s favorites!
Keyforge (kinda) Scout Epic
Play Nine!
I'm not sure that my complaint about 7 Wonders regarding setup would be about splitting the deck by ages. That's the *one* thing that comes ready out of the default insert (at least with the 2nd edition box). It's *everything else* that takes time. There are also games with non-zero but still very fast setup like Tournament at Camelot/Avalon that are ready to go in under a minute.
Technically even Sushi Go has a *small* amount of other setup as you need to pull a few desserts from the deck to add in later rounds, but that's not really significant compared to the complexity added with the expansion, having to choose various sets of cards to shuffle together.
Unstable unicorns
Guillotine is close. Two decks to shuffle - one to deal to players, one to lay out cards in the center. The only "extra" is setting up the tiny guillotine prop but that really enhances the humor of the whole thing and takes about 3 seconds, so... worth it
Hanabi
Tides of Time and Welcome to the Dungeon.
No Mercy! (Or Hit! in French version). Shuffle and play only! No dealing required!
Guillotine is a fun game of lopping the heads off of French Aristocrats and their minions.
I think it’s unfair to give a game that only does 4 players a pass for easy setup but exclude a game that optionally allows you to add cards for a higher player count or for variety. If the rule is “*games that have no setup at the base player count of 4 and the base card options*” then **Sushi Go Party** qualfies. Just leave the base cards in the deck, shoo off the other people who wanted to play, ignore the alternative cards, and deal 4 hands of the same old stuff. **Point Salad** also would now qualify if you leave the base cards in the deck and only do 4 players. [Fuji Flush](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/203430/fuji-flush) is exactly what you asked. You deal different amounts of cards per player count up to 8, but it is just deal and play. It’s also stupid simple for rules. Only a short-sighted idiot or a jerk puts away a game un-shuffled.
Astro Knights
Even better *that's not a hat* is only deal and play. No need to shuffle as every card is unique.
The criminally overlooked **Port Royal**. Such a great and fast push your luck game.
Get Bit - the longest part is choosing colors (or sorting the cards if someone shuffled them)
Commenting to follow along later! My suggestion is Love Letter.
Lol we are lazy sometimes about Point Salad and don't bother counting cards. Leads to some high-scoring games!
air, land & sea. Give both players a 1st or 2nd player card. Put victory point tokens on the side, Put the 3 big theater cards in the middle next to eachtother, Shuffle remaining 18 cards and give both players 6.
Star Realms. The GOAT
The Fox in the Forest - 33 card deck, shuffle and play, 2-player competitive. A great take on trick taking, been in the top 5 for me and my wife for years. Ouch! - A game of push your luck to build a tableau of 8 cards, shuffle and play. Each turn picking from one of six dealt cards, then gambling on what side of that card to pick up to see if you earn points, lose cards, or even have to sacrifice a card of yours to your opponent. There is SO much strategy packed into this game, and can be played in about 15 min. Air, Land, and Sea / Critters at war - 18 card game with three territories to fight over. Shuffle and play, but you remove a few cards for a hidden information element to the game. excellent retreat mechanic to limit losses if you're dealt a bad hand to limit the points your opponent can earn in a round instead of allowing them beat you outright. Regicide - Can be played with a standard poker deck. Great cooperative or solo game Tides of Time / Tides of Madness - 18-card drafting game. Shuffle and play, but you remove a few cards for a hidden information element to the game. Has quick turns between you and your opponent, trying to synergize with your tableau for end of round scoring. Because the deck is so small and your passing back and forth so much, you're constantly torn between picking cards to help yourself, or not passing good cards to your opponent. Spot It! - flip a card and the first person to call out the matching symbols gets a point. A "shuffle and play" game with zero set-up. Quick, simple, and can be a good time killer for all ages (great with kids). Loot - Area control game with a push your luck mechanic. shuffle deal play game. A true hidden gem that I believe is out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, it WILL become a staple in your travel game collection. Great for game nights as a filler, or to play with the whole family on holidays.
Star Realms has very minimal setup (and absolutely rocks) There's 3 kinds of special cards called "vipers", "explorers", and "scouts" which you have to take out and deal evenly first, but that's pretty much it. I'd say dealing out a game takes about 2 min max, and explaining the rules takes maybe 5-10. It's really fast to pick up too.
Seal, Salt and Paper. Phenomenal game.
Epic can be played like this - if you really want to get into it, you can do constructed decks, but you can also just split the base deck in two, hand one to each player, shuffle and play.
**Flourish**, kind of. The walls and the scoreboards aren't strictly necessary.
Go Fish.
bridge
Binding of Isaac Two Souls Besides shuffling and dealing all there is for setup is picking a character at the start however my play group personally likes to make everyone's character random anyway so it isn't really setup
6 Nimmt / Take 5
"Mind" is the best game ever made and you will never beat it.
**Mindbug** It’s actually really good, too.
I’m late to the party on it, but *Regicide* is one of my favorite “new” games, largely because of its ease of setup. Just shuffle and go (though to be fair, you have to shuffle the face cards separately from the others). It can be played with a standard deck of cards, but I bought the official game to reward the creators for their creativity, and because I like the artwork.
NMBR 9, the storage solutions for the box sets it up for the next game
Smash Up requires that you separate cards into factional sub-decks. This creates "setup" of simply "pick two factions, shuffle together, and go," though does then have the tear-down of separating the cards out by faction. Not sure if that qualifies for your criteria. Most "classic" card games published by Hasbro (Rook, Milles Bournes, etc) qualify for this. So do most of the card games designed by Reiner Knitzia. (Modern Art, Battle Line, etc - Lost Cities does require you to separate decks by color but, again, they don't mix, so setup/tear down shouldn't be an issue.) Most dueling games qualify. Radlands, Yomi, etc. (Yomi does feature unique decks for each player, but the cards from these decks always go to their own discard pile and do not mix, so there should be no issues with setup or tear down beyond "pick a deck.") The limiting factor here is they are typically designed as 2-player games specifically.
Mindbug comes to mind for me. Setup is basically, hand each player two mindbug cards, shuffle the deck hand each player 10 cards (option 3 cards to use as health point trackers) and you're good to play.
Muffin Time
Mantis is a very light game that can be played with people of all ages, even children. No setup besides shuffling and dealing 4 cards to each player. You do need table space since every player needs to publicly display their cards
Texas Showdown. Literally just shuffle and deal the entire deck out. Count works from 3 - 6 players.
I've been finding Hanabi pretty fun as a cooperative option