No Thanks!

No Thanks! (2005) is a tactical card game where you play to avoid points. You work through a deck of cards of different values to avoid getting a point you have to spend a chip. Eventually, someone runs out of chips and has to take the card. It sounds simple but it's finely balanced because taking a card gets you the chips which can protect you from the next card.

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Once you have turned over a card from the deck, each player takes turns to either play one chip or take the card (and any chips on it). As you work through the deck of cards you manage two currencies. How many points you'll get versus how many chips you'll get. One leads to losing while the other increases your defences against the next card.

The deck is numbered from 3 to 35 so some cards are worth taking the hit on if it means you get some chips. But you need to think ahead and keep track of what's gone to ensure you are well-defended with chips when that big 25-point card turns up.

The game leans into these tactics with a couple of extra rules. If you end up with a run of two or more cards they only count as the lowest value. Before you start nine cards are removed from the deck so you don't always know if you can get the right connectors for runs. Also, chips take one point off your score at the end.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked No Thanks! 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 months ago.