Grail is a deckbuilder where the deck fights for you — and that's the whole point

Grail, the latest game from Sokpop Collective, is a roguelike deckbuilder with a twist: once you've built your deck, the cards play themselves. A demo is live on Steam right now, with the full release set for September 1st.

You start with just three cards and no control over which ones get played — you watch the match unfold automatically. Cards cost energy to play, and you have four points to work with, replenishing one point after each card fires. Once every card in your deck has been played, they shuffle back in and the cycle repeats, with each reshuffle increasing the speed of play. After 40 turns, both you and your opponent start taking health damage to force a conclusion. The strategy lives entirely in the deckbuilding phase — you're hunting for cards that synergise and compound over repeated cycles, like a damage-boosting card that keeps re-triggering alongside your attack cards.

Sokpop Collective is a Dutch two-person studio known for releasing small, inventive games at a steady pace — often experimental takes on familiar genres. Grail fits that mold: it strips the in-match decision-making out of the deckbuilder formula entirely, which sidesteps the card-by-card anxiety that makes games like Slay the Spire stressful for some players. The tension shifts instead to the pre-match deck construction, which is a genuinely different feel.

The demo is available on Steam now if you want to try it before committing. Rodent-themed pixel art is apparently part of the package, which is never a bad sign.