Mantis

We played this at game night with my 8-year-old niece and my dad, and everyone caught on in about two minutes. The steal mechanic gets properly cutthroat once you realize you can swipe a whole set someone's been hoarding, and the games stay short enough to run it back over and over.

The steal-or-score mechanic is so clever—my 8-year-old picked it up in one round, but my dad and I still find ourselves plotting sneaky steals over gin rummy-like hands. Card quality feels sturdy enough for the nightly shuffling it’s been getting.

We've played this every night since it arrived, even the kids picked up the steal-or-score rule in minutes. It's got that perfect mix of fast matching and real strategy that makes it feel like a lighter gin rummy, and no two games play the same.