Magnate is an economic game for the Decktet in which players vie for control of five districts by developing sequences of cards. Higher ranked cards cost more, but contribute more towards your income (even while only partly developed) and your score. The (taxable) currency of the land is suit tokens, collected by selling unwanted cards, or earned from partly or fully developed cards on a roll of the dice, as in Catan.

• Learn about the Decktet at the official Decktet site
• Magnate rules at the Decktet wiki
• An interactive rule sheet, including a roller and (virtual) dice deck
• Magnate at BoardGameGeek
• More Decktet Games at Abstract Play

Several Magnate variants are supported at Abstract Play:

• Courts: Fully built Courts are worth ten points when scoring districts, but earn no income. They cost ten suit tokens, with the usual deed/buy restrictions of at least one token in each suit.
• Courts for Pawns: For variety, the roles of pawns and courts may be reversed.
• Acey deucey: Aces normally score one point per card of that suit in the player's own district, including the Ace itself. In this variant, Aces score a point of all matching cards on both sides of the district as well as the Pawn, if applicable.
• Mega-Magnate: A scaled-up double-deck version of the game by Greg James, with nine districts, six-card hands, and two card-consuming moves per turn. The last two variants are intended for Mega-Magnate:
  • Stacked deck: to ensure a fair distribution of cards, each player draws from their own complete deck until those decks are exhausted. The discards are shuffled into a single draw deck, once, as usual. (This variant does nothing when selected alongside the base game.)
  • Double Taxation: Two taxation dice are rolled, so two suits may be taxed. When they match, only a single suit is taxed. (This variant may also be used with the base game.)

Magnate also has multiplayer and solo variants, which pose implementation challenges and so are not supported at Abstract Play but may be of interest:

• Magnate Empire is a reimplementation for 3-4 players
• Pentagon Magnate shapes the districts in a pentagon and supports up to 4 players.
• An older three-player variant by Jason Wallace
• A solo automaton by Karen Robinson

A Decktet economy: develop card sequences in five districts, earn suit tokens, and control the most districts.

Inventor: Cristyn Magnus

See Decktet wiki: Magnate. Uses the Decktet.

Control the majority of the five districts after two runs through the deck. Ties are resolved by total property value, then remaining tokens.

Hidden hands. Five district rows. Suit-token bank. Dice for income and tax. Default deck includes Courts, but this is not currently automatically defaulted for you at AP.

Actions (engine names):

• Buy (fully develop a new property),
• Deed (start a property),
• Add (put tokens on a deed),
• Sell a card,
• Trade 3 tokens for 1 of another suit.
• Prefer sets which token you take on deed payouts that happen during the opponent’s turn.
• Choose is mandatory when the roll on your turn causes a deed of yours to pay out.
• Undo backs out the last incomplete action during your move.

On each turn you may earn income on a resource roll; if taxation occurs (when the lower of 2d10 is 1) the affected suit is displayed to the side of the board.

Courts in the deck, and/or swapped with Pawns.

Aces score matching cards on both sides of the district.

Mega-Magnate uses a double deck, nine districts, six-card hands, and two card actions per turn. The Stacked Deck variant is Mega-Magnate only and is intended to balance out the luck of the draw somewhat: each player's first run of cards is through their own (shuffled) Decktet; for the second run through the deck, all discards are shuffled together.

Taxation occurs at the same rate, but two tax dice are rolled so two resources are (usually) taxed.

• Current engine version: 20260303 (2026-03-03). On Abstract Play since 2026-03-19.

• Resource rolls happen between turns; only the final die is shown (distribution is still 2d10 take higher).
• The Pawn or Excuse of a district you lead is outlined in your colour.

• http://wiki.decktet.com/game:magnate
• https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41090/magnate