Monopoly Deal Card Game - Tips & Strategies

The tides of battle can turn fast and no other card can turn it faster in a 2 player game than the Deal Breaker. If you have a problem with 2 player games always being decided with the deal breaker card it is easy to take it out of the to take that huge swing out of the game. Personally I like it in as it adds to the feel of the game.

I discovered this combo mid-game awhile back, which is always the best to way discover something fun in a game like this.

Use a Force Deal to swap two non-complete deeds with an opponent. Ensure the card you are giving them will complete one of their sets. (Obviously, make sure this move doesn’t win the game for them). Next action, use a Deal Breaker to take the newly completed set from them.

Especially useful for players that tend not to complete sets to avoid deal breakers. You just finished it for them, and steal it anyway. 🙂

Always get cash out first, do not lead with properties if you can help it. Always hold onto a No Thanks for a big play like a Deal Breaker that would ruin you. Also not making a set can protect you from the Deal Breaker. Do not play out all your cards each turn just because you can. Holding onto property cards whilst getting money out is very important. Smile and have fun.

If you see another player is getting close to having 3 sets use one of your cards to do a swap and take away one of their non completed sets of 2 or 3.

Complete your sets quickly to protect them from being broken up.

Play cards if I have to…

In the beginning of the game you can skip putting anything down for one turn. Especially, when you have a “It’s My Birthday” in your hand. Allowing your opponents to place things down first gives you chance to steal it on your next turn with your birthday card. By doing this, you’ll acquire more cards than you could’ve put down on your previous turn.

If you don’t have a birthday card in your first hand, you can still skip your turn in the beginning to prevent your things from getting stolen. Especially, if you have all property cards in your first draw. This will give you a chance to acquire cash or action cards for the next turn.

-Enjoy Yourselves!

When my girlfriend and I play the game, we take out half the cash. We found after a few times through that we would both have a nice stock of cash we were just trading back and forth without any real damage or interaction between us. Taking out half the cash forced us into a position where we would have to give up some of our properties when rent was due.

Because of the inevitable turtling that happens, especially in 2 player games, where someone will complete their monopolies all at once, you can try this variation:

As the Title says, simply change the win condition to needing to complete 4 monopolies to win the game.

This also slows the game down a bit which can be a plus or minus depending on your opinion.

Wild property cards have two colors representing one of the property sets the wild belongs to. The game rules allow you to move this card or switch the use of color at anytime during your turn. To make things a bit tougher or to make you think a bit more about strategy, make switching your wild one of your three actions you can perform so it cost you something to do.

As others have mentioned, when only playing with 2 people, this game can just be a game of “pass the money back and forth” with no real danger to the property cards. In order to increase the odds of property being exchanged, when playing with only two people, just make all rent cards “wild” rent cards that can be used on any property. This way, the resources will become more restrained and the game will become more interesting.