Facilitation card decks give you an entire facilitation toolbox in your pocket. 

Because these decks remind us of card games, they feel like play. Participants leave their work personas behind and embrace silliness, vulnerability, and fun.

Some decks help you plan your entire workshop flow. Some are great for prompting meaningful conversation and making every voice heard.

Others help you pivot during a session if needed with a quick activity. Some cards are very methodical and structured, while others are versatile—encouraging playfulness and creativity.

To help you pick the best deck for your workshops, we’ve gathered recommendations from the Butter Community that cover:

• Session design
• Creativity and ideation
• Innovation and strategy
• Starting conversations and improving team dynamics
• Debriefing and reflection

We'll be keeping this post updated, so make sure to bookmark it and check back any time you need a little creative inspiration!

And if you want to take these decks from the physical to the virtual, we’ve introduced flashcard decks as a tool in Butter—so you can pre-load your favorite cards and activities to your virtual sessions and use them whenever you want.

Card Decks for Session Design

All the decks in this category make it easier to plan your next workshop or to adapt your workshop on the fly by giving you activities, frameworks, and methodologies for an awesome session.

1. Facilitator Cards

Available at: Facilitator.cards

Deck type: Session design

Facilitator Cards is a 60-activity card deck designed by Meg Bolger and Sam Killermann of Facilitating.XYZ.

Facilitator Cards offer many activities that make it easy to plan your workshops, but they’re also helpful in-session when something unexpected happens and you need an activity to pivot on the spot.

In addition to the physical deck, they also have Virtual Facilitator Cards.

😍 Why we love them: Facilitator Cards are categorized into four color-coded categories (Emotion, Ideation, Clarification, and Execution), making it super easy to pick a relevant activity on the fly!

📒 Further reading: How to increase workshop participation with Facilitator Cards & Butter

2. Workshop Tactics 

‍Available at: Pipdecks.com

Deck type: Session design, ideation, strategy

Designed by Charles Burdett, Workshop Tactics is a curated list of the best agile and design-thinking workshop techniques for product teams.

You can use each tactic independently as a mini workshop, or combine multiple cards and tactics to plan entire sessions.

In the deck, you'll find creative ideation workshops, energizers, icebreakers, retrospectives, root-cause analysis workshops, decision-making matrices, and core facilitation techniques.

😍 Why we love them: Their Workshop Strategy System decision tree helps you choose the right workshop at the right time. It’s a great place to start if your team needs to get unstuck.

3. Liberating Structures Cards

Available at: TheLiberators.com

Deck type: Session design

Liberating Structures are built on the idea that conventional structures are either too inhibiting (e.g., presentations and status reports) or too disorganized (e.g., brainstorms). Liberating Structures are intentionally simple activities that help you get more out of your group.

Created by Holisticon, Liberating Structures are easy-to-learn microstructures that enhance relational coordination and trust, quickly fostering lively participation for groups of any size. 

For example, the Wise Crowds Liberating Structure provides a session structure where some participants act as consultants and others act as clients, allowing you to learn from the collective expertise of a group.

Each deck comes in a paper box with 33 cards, one for each Liberating Structure. It also includes four cards with additional information. 

You can also access all Liberating Structures for free at LiberatingStructures.com.

😍 Why we love them: Because they help you create strings and combine Liberating Structures, these cards make it easy to design full workshops, team meetings, or scrum events.

4. Foresight Cards 

Available at: ivto.org

Deck type: Session design, strategy

Foresight Cards are used to assess your external environment—for example, to discuss uncertainties, stress test a business model, or to create awareness of past, current, and future changes.

This pack of cards contains 125 external forces from macro/contextual environments. The forces are classified based on STEEP categories (social, technological, economical, environmental and political). 

These cards can be used for many types of strategy sessions, including SWOT analysis, Porter analysis, business model, system diagram, and scenario planning.

The deck also contains three complete workshops:

• create awareness
• stress testing business models
• determine key uncertainties for scenario planning

😍 Why we love them: The cards are all multilingual, so each card features English, Nederlands (Dutch), Deutsch (German), and Español (Spanish).

5. Model of Care for Co-design Cards

Available at: beyondstickynotes.com

Deck type: Session Design, team dynamics and cohesion, wellbeing

If you want to be more inclusive in your co-design sessions, consider using this thoughtful deck from Kelly Ann McKercher.

As Kelly Ann explains in their blog about the Model of Care for Co-design, “We need to work harder to create and maintain safety with traumatised and historically under-invested in groups of people. Without safety, it's hard (if not impossible) to join-in, stay included and express our creativity.”

This deck starts with the belief that we need to care for each other during co-design activities, and then turns this philosophy into simple prompts that promote care during the co-design process.

😍 Why we love them: The 16 cards offer concrete tips that encourage you to care of your participants’ needs by creating a safe space together before jumping straight to doing. The cards are distributed in two categories: “Before togetherness” and “Together and beyond”.

6. Transform Deck

Available at: untoldplay.com

Deck type: Session design 

The Transform Deck, designed by Untold Play founder Terry Pearce, was made to transform your learning content into engaging activities.

The 45 cards are sorted into five categories:

1. Assess: Help learners assess a variety of options
2. Arrange: Help learnings arrange or structure new materials
3. Create: Exercises to develop new ideas and ways of thinking 
4. Solve: Activities and tools to integrate puzzles and challenges
5. Apply: Tools to help participants apply learning to their real world 

😍 Why we love them: While the deck won't create your training for you, it will provide inspiration and streamline your workshop design process. Plus, each card comes with concrete tips on how to use each method effectively.

7. WonderCards 

Available at: petranovskaja.com

Deck type: Session design

Speed up your workshop preparation time and adapt on the fly with this deck by Nadja Petranoskaja. The 40-card deck comes with warm-ups, models, exercises, energizers, and workshop formats for groups of any size.

The deck is great for designing any workshop, training, or team development activity.

‍😍 Why we love them: The deck is available in both Tarot and Pocket size, so you can choose whether you prefer visibility or mobility! Plus, the cards are also available in German here.

8. MethodKit for Workshop Planning

Available at: methodkit.com

Deck type: Session design 

The MethodKit for Workshop Planning gives you 60 illustrated cards to plan your workshops. You can use them for brainstorming, planning, discussing, prioritizing, and evaluating your work.

Each of the 60 cards has a key issue to keep in mind when planning a workshop. For example, there’s a card for props and materials, a card for facilitation styles, and a card for creating an engagement atmosphere.

The deck is primarily intended for helping you plan workshops as a group, but the cards are also useful as an individual facilitator as they give you a visual overview of all the building blocks of your workshop. 

😍 Why we love them: MethodKit also released the digital version of these cards, which you can download here, available in 10 languages. But wait, that’s not all! MethodKit has this great article on all the possible ways you can use the card decks in your workshops.

Card Decks for Ideation and Creativity

Need to spark your next great idea? Need to get people in the creative zone before a larger session? These decks are all designed for next-level brainstorming and ideation.

9. 75 Tools for Creative Thinking 

Available at: 75toolsforcreativethinking.com

Deck type: Session design, ideation

This set of cards takes you through the entire ideation process with fun and out-of-the-box activities. They can be used by anyone who’s looking for some creative inspiration.

The deck takes you through five stages. You start with activities to explore and better understand the challenge you’re facing. Then, you can collect insights and gather feedback from participants to better understand their needs. You can then structure these insights before moving on to ideation. Finally, finish by defining the criteria and evaluating ideas to pick the best ones. 

😍 Why we love them: In addition to the physical card deck, 75 Tools For Creative Thinking is also available as an iPad and iPhone app.

10. IDEO Method Cards

Available at: ideo.com

Deck type: Session design, ideation

IDEO Method Cards are meant for inspiring designers looking for a creative spark in their work. Each of the 51 cards describes one ideation method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it.

It's not a how-to guide—it's a design tool meant to explore new approaches and help you develop your own. Use the deck to get a fresh perspective, inspire a team, turn a corner, or try a new approach.

😍 Why we love them: The cards are divided into four categories: Learn, Look, Ask, and Try, making it easy to choose the right cards for your session.

11. Triggers Ideation Cards

Available at: trytriggers.com‍

Deck type: Session design, ideation, strategy

Triggers has 14 different decks available, so it was hard to choose just one. They have decks on Brand Strategy, Business Design, Human-Centric Design, Innovation, and more. They come in a variety of packages, which you can check out in their online shop.

If you’re a design agency that works with all kinds of different creative projects, the Complete Triggers Collection contains all of their decks and will help you with any type of ideation project.

This pack includes 780 Triggers cards (60 per deck) with questions that will help you generate ideas as an individual or with your team.

😍 Why we love them: Triggers has a deck for nearly every design use case, so it’s a great place to start! 

12. Creative Whack Pack Deck 

Available at: creativewhack.com

Deck type: Ideation, creativity

Designed by Roger von Oech from Creative Whack Company, the 64-card Whack Pack deck is packed with stories, examples, and questions that are designed to “whack” you out of your usual ways of thinking and to inspire your creativity.

The deck is divided into four different suits, each representing roles or creative types: Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior. Some cards show you how to discover new information, others offer decision-making advice, and others give you techniques on how to come up with new ideas. 

If you’re looking for a way to stimulate thinking in workshops, give these a try!

😍 Why we love them: Beyond the activities on the cards, the hand-drawn illustrations on the cards are enough to jog your mind. The deck is also available as a mobile app, where you can find the 64 original cards, plus 20 extra Heraclitus strategies to stretch your thinking even further.

13. Know Brainer 

Available at: thesolutionpeoplestore.com

Deck type: Ideation

Designed by Gerald Haman, the Know Brainer cards help your workshop participants navigate the “Accelerated Innovation” process, which is broken into four stages:  

• Stage 1: Investigate needs
• Stage 2: Create ideas
• Stage 3: Evaluate solutions
• Stage 4: Activate plans

Each stage has five stimulus types designed to spark innovation:

1. 10 Questions to provoke creative thinking
2. 10 Nouns to make you think about the “what” and the “who”
3. 10 Verbs to put your focus on actions and thinking patterns
4. 5 Quotes to inspire you
5. 8 Images to spark your imagination and help you visualize ideas

😍 Why we love them: In addition to having an awesome pun for a name, this deck is versatile. It can be used in innovation and creativity sessions, for facilitating change and growth, in coaching sessions, or even as a tool to help you plan more creative products, services, brands, events and basically anything else!

14. Free the Genie

Available at: ideachampions.com

Deck type: Ideation, creativity

Designed by Mitch Ditkoff, Free the Genie is a 55-card deck that helps you bring something new and extraordinary into your life, business, or the world. 

The deck gets its name from its purpose: it’s a personal genie for open-minded thinkers. It’s a 24/7 oracle that’s always ready to help you realize your vision.

The cards are divided into five categories: Attend, Intend, Suspend, Extend, and Connect. You can use them as an individual or as a team to “seek counsel, clarity, and increased personal insight.”

These cards lift you up to higher ground to a place where you’ll find creativity, inspiration, breakthrough ideas, and commitment to those ideas.

😍 Why we love them: You can also use the deck as a team card game. The deck can help your team brainstorm, solve problems, and accelerate the innovation process.

15. ThinkPak 

Available at: amazon.com

Deck type: Ideation

ThinkPak was designed based on the idea that every new invention is just a modification of something that already exists. So coming up with your next great idea is about seeing your problem in a new light.

Designed by Michael Michalkom this deck gives you a step-by-step methodology to coming up with new ideas, products, services, processes, and more.

You can shuffle, mix, and match the cards to generate new insights, and then use the deck’s critical evaluation techniques to distill your ideas into realistic solutions. 

Shuffle, mix and match the cards to spark fresh insights, then use the critical evaluation techniques to test and refine your creative ideas into realistic and feasible solutions.

😍 Why we love them: The cards follow the famous SCAMPER creativity method coined by Bob Eberle. This theory assumes that all innovative breakthroughs come from at least one of these principles:

• Substitute something
• Combine something
• Adapt something
• Modify or magnify something
• Put something to another use
• Eliminate something
• Reverse or rearrange something

16. Design Kit Travel Pack

Available at: designkit.org

Deck type: Ideation

Need some design inspiration? Created by IDEO.org, the Design Kit Travel Pack is a set of “bite-sized tools to spark creativity and collaboration” based on human-centered design principles.

This 32-card deck is full of exercises that help creatives shift their thinking about a project to be able to move it forward. The deck helps you overcome roadblocks to deliver top-notch products and services.

The deck is divided into three sections to help you:

• Find inspiration
• Take bigger creative risks
• Test your ideas in the real world

😍 Why we love them: The cards are beautifully designed! Each colorful card has a hand-drawn illustration to give you a little extra design inspiration.

17. Make It Pop 

Available at: makeitpopgame.com

Deck type: Ideation, conversation starter

“Let us help you unlock your inner creative baddass!” That’s the website tagline for Make It Pop, and we couldn’t say it any better ourselves.

Make It Pop takes inspiration from Cards Against Humanity and turns it into a framework for coming up with unconventional design tasks.

It’s very simple: choose a black task card (e.g. Design a landing page for…), then choose a white or red client card (e.g. Bob Ross), and get started!

😍 Why we love them: This activity makes an awesome icebreaker for designers or creatives that gets them in the right mode of thinking rather than defaulting to the usual “get to know you” questions.

18. Oblique Strategies

Available at: rtqe.net

Deck type: Ideation, creativity, conversation starter

We’re throwing it waaaay back with this deck. 

Back in 1975, artist Peter Schmidt and musician Brian Eno created the original Oblique Strategies card deck. They drew on their own work as artists to develop a deck of 100 cards, each of which suggests a course of action or thinking to help you in any creative situation.

The deck is brutally simple. Each card has a cryptic phrase or remark to prompt ideation or brainstorming activities.

😍 Why we love them: The prompts in this deck feel constraining, but these constraints can be mentally freeing. By narrowing your thinking down with constraints, it actually becomes easier to see a clear path to a solution. Limitation can be very useful!

19. Killer Questions Card Deck 

Available at: innovation.tools

Deck type: Innovation, creativity 

The Killer Questions deck is made to help you come up with killer ideas! Whether you use it alone or as a team, you can use the 40-question deck to:

• Help you look at a situation in new light
• Trigger a brainstorming or ideation session
• Practice your creativity
• Launch or rebrand a business, product, or service

The deck was created by Phil McKinney, author of Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation, and the host of the podcast Killer Innovations.

😍 Why we love them: The deck has 40 question cards, but each question card comes with a number of extra so-called “sparking” questions to help you dig deeper for ideas as you go exploring. So there’s lots of value in a small deck.

20. SPARK 

Available at: lmi-academy.com

Deck type: Creativity, conversation starters, team dynamics and cohesion

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then you’re getting a quarter of a million words in this deck!

The Spark deck has over 250 photographs taken by over 100 photographers. Each photo was chosen to spark feelings, memories, and sensations. The pictures depict concepts, metaphors, and stories to inspire self-reflection, ideation, communication, and even relationship building.

😍 Why we love them: The deck also comes with an image appreciation technique card that gives you practical tips on how to “read” the images in the deck.

21. Zig Zag Creativity Cards

Available at: keithsawyer.com

Deck type: Innovation, creativity 

The Zig Zag deck is inspired by scientific research on how people create. The deck is based on Dr. Keith Sawyer's book, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. 

The deck’s 52 techniques are grouped into eight powerful and yet simple steps: 

1. ASK: How to Ask the Right Questions
2. LEARN: Prepare Your Mind
3. LOOK: Spot the Answers Around You
4. PLAY: Imagine Possible Worlds
5. THINK: How to Have Great Ideas
6. FUSE: How to Combine Ideas
7. CHOOSE: Make Good Ideas Even Better
8. MAKE: Make Your Ideas Visible. 

To develop these techniques, Sawyer explored the stories and habits of exceptional creators as well as the science on everyday creativity. He explored how creative people question assumptions, get beyond their creative blogs, and how they deal with adversity.

‍😍 Why we love them: This deck is versatile, as you can use the cards for solo games, group games, or as facilitation techniques.

22. A Few Minutes of Design 

Available at: amazon.com

Deck type: Creativity, innovation

Desinged by Emily Campbell, this colorful, handy deck gives you 52 exercises to get your creative juices flowing at the start of a new design project or to help you get unblocked in a project you can’t quite finish.

Each exercise digs into the small details of great design. For example, how could you establish a pattern or continue a series? Or how could you say something without words? 

These cards are sometimes playful, sometimes challenging, but always inspiring!

😍 Why we love them: The activities are practical and hands on, but can all be done in under 15 minutes! They’re the perfect way to kick off a design workshop or ideation session.

Card Decks for Innovation and Strategy

These cards challenge participants’ ways of thinking, stimulate innovation, and help you evaluate your strategic choices.

23. Innovation Tactics Cards

Available at: doblin.com

Deck type: Innovation, strategy

Doblin’s Innovation Tactics Cards are based on their Ten Types of Innovation framework. Their model breaks innovation into three groups:

• Configuration: Profit Model, Network, Structure, Process
• Offering: Product Performance, Product System,
• Experience: Service, Channel, Brand, Customer Engagement

To help you turn these innovation categories into business ideas, they’ve created over 100 Innovation Tactic cards to inspire ideation activities.

😍 Why we love them: If you’re looking for specific, actionable tactics rather than abstract prompts, this is your deck. The tactics in this deck are very specific, so they’re the perfect companion for your product and service innovation sessions or business strategy workshops.

24. Myndset Cards

Available at: myndset.cards

Deck type: Innovation, strategy

The Myndset Cards game is a 30-minute workshop meant to inspire innovative ideas backed by emotions.

The deck consists of five decks:

1. The first deck helps you develop a vision of how you want to achieve your goal
2. The second deck focuses on trends and technology that might help you
3. The third deck focuses on understanding your target audience
4. The fourth deck focuses on the emotions you want your audience to feel
5. The fifth deck helps you formulate your pitch

😍 Why we love them: Myndset Cards come with a companion app that lets you scan your Myndset cards to find more detailed information and additional content for each card. Plus, the team behind the product made a free Udemy course explaining how to best use the card deck.

25. FUTREP Cards

Available at: artefactshop.com

Deck type: Strategy, futurecasting

If you want to work out your product design skills, FUTREP Cards are a great place to start.

By pulling combinations of characters, objects, systems, and environments from the deck, you’ll be given a scenario for which you’ll have to design a response. 

The cards were designed with flexibility in mind. Rather than giving you long, drawn-out scenarios, they provide you with seemingly unconnected concepts that stretch you to your creative limits.

😍 Why we love them: The cards are cut to the same dimensions as their Artefact Plus cards—blank, colored cards that allow you to visually capture your thoughts on the cards, and design your own processes and prompts from scratch.

26. Kickstart Creativity

Available at: amazon.com

Deck type: Innovation, creativity

Kickstart Creativity is a 50-card deck that’s designed to prompt unexpected ways of thinking. 

The cards are divided into three categories: Intention, Action, and Perspective. The action cards teach you new skills, perspective cards make you look at the world in a novel way, and intention cards help you make more meaningful decisions.

At the start of a personal challenge or group project, you can draw three cards from the deck and then reflect on how they relate to your current challenge.

😍 Why we love them: You can also use cards from the deck as a daily creativity booster. For example, they recommend drawing one card at random to start your day for a quick hit of inspiration with your coffee.

27. Innovating for People

Available at: luma-institute.com

Deck type: Decision design, strategy

This wonderful 36-card deck by LUMA Institute introduces you to their human-centered design system. 

The 36 methods are organised into three key design skills that take you through the full design cycle: 

1. Looking: methods for observing human experience
2. Understanding: methods for analysing challenges and opportunities
3. Making: methods for envisionining future possibilities

Each card has a photo of the method in use, a short description, a quick guide, and helpful hints. 

😍 Why we love them: The deck is great for running design thinking sessions, but you can also use it to teach human-centered design methods in a more tactile format.

28. Barriers to Change Cards 

Available at: xplane.com

Deck type: Strategy

This deck, designed by Xplane, helps you introduce empathy to your strategy sessions. It helps you close the gap between your current state and where you want to be.

The deck covers the most common reasons people resist change, including how to overcome those barriers to make stuff happen!

😍 Why we love them: The team at Xplane wrote a helpful article detailing how exactly you can use the cards in a workshop to probe the stage that your team or organization is currently at when it comes to understanding and embedding change. 

29. Think Clearly Question and Strategy Cards

Available at: thnkclrly.com

Deck type: Conversation starter, strategy, creativity 

We’re absolutely obsessed with the simplicity of these two free sets of printable cards, designed by Mathias Jakobsen from Think Clearly.

The Question Cards can be used for both individual and group reflection. They are divided into four categories: Beginnings, Feelings, Insights and Actions.

The Strategy Cards include cards that provide structure for the conversation, as well as cards that prompt discussion. 

😍 Why we love them: Their minimalistic black and white design really keeps your focus on what matters most: the prompts. The best part? Both decks are available for free download here.

Card Decks for Starting Conversations and Creating Connections

These decks are made for starting meaningful conversations, promotion wellbeing, creating connections, and facilitating cohesion.

30. Catalyst Cards

Available at: catalyst.cards

Deck type: Versatile and creative, conversation starters

Created by Rich Goidel of Dangerous Kitchen, Catalyst Cards draw on the power of metaphorical thinking to tap into deep-seated mental models to form complex thoughts.

Each of the 52 cards in the deck features a hand-drawn archetype used to trigger visual association as a gateway to the conscious and subconscious. 

The cards themselves are simple—for example, “A day at the beach," “Goldfish," or “A wizard’s hat."—but they can be used as mental triggers or starting-off points for all kinds of activities.

For example:

• Icebreakers: Fan out a handful of cards and ask which card each participant most identifies with
• Conversation starters: Give each participant a card and ask them how the card relates to the discussion topic or problem at hand
• Past, present, future: Give each participant three cards and ask them to choose which card represents their past, present, and future

You can play around with the online beta version here. 

😍 Why we love them: Whereas most of the other cards on our list contain activities these cards serve as metaphorical inspiration. Because the cards are so versatile, they can be used for any type of session—from team building to retrospectives, innovation sessions, creative exploration workshops, personal development, and more. 

31. Intùiti® Creative Cards

Available at: intuiti.it

Deck type: Versatile and creative, conversation starters

Combining concepts from design, Tarot, numerology and Gestalt psychology, Intùiti is an inspirational pack of 78 hand-drawn cards and tales that help you unlock your creativity.

Designed by Matteo di Pascale at the Polytechnic University of Milan and initially funded on Kickstarter, Intùiti cards are a rich collection of archetypes—each related to a thinking model that belongs to our culture. 

The deck is made up of 22 primary cards linked to archetypes and existential moments (e.g. The Beginning, The Gestation, The Change) and 56 secondary cards linked to the four elements and emotions (e.g. Air/Mind, Water/Emotion, Earth/Material). 

For a complete guide on how to use Intùiti, check out their free manual.

Intùiti is available in both English and Italian.

😍 Why we love it: The cards are beautifully illustrated. You can explore them all in the Intùiti Virtual Experience.

32. The Box of Emotions

Available at: uncommongoods.com

Deck type: Wellbeing, conversation starters

This set of 80 cards is a tool to help groups put words to their feelings. The deck was designed by researchers at the Centre for the History of the Emotions in London to help you make sense of your moods and to develop your sense of self-awareness.

Each card features a specific emotion, a miniature essay on its nuances, and a visual to match. 

You'll find the classic emotions like cheerfulness, irritation, or calm, along with some new ones, like ‘fago’—a unique blend of compassion, sadness, and love. 

😍 Why we love it: Sometimes, our emotions block us from coming up with great ideas or taking the next step. Using these cards to name your emotion and work on resolving it can be mentally freeing.

33. The Emotional Culture Deck 

Available at: ridersandelephants.com

Deck type: Wellbeing, conversation starters

Designed by Riders & Elephants, ​​The Emotional Culture Deck is a unique card game that facilitates face-to-face human conversations about what matters. It nudges vulnerability, builds empathy, creates connections, and fosters trust within teams. 

The Emotional Culture Deck is a simple card game toolkit that helps leaders uncover what motivates their people and then map your team’s desired team culture.

You can either use the deck with organizational leaders or employees. Each person gets their own deck to avoid groupthink. For leaders, it asks questions like “How do we want our people to feel at work?”, which leads to a collective agreement on how people should behave at work.

😍 Why we love them: They have a free PDF that you can download and experiment with right away!

34. At My Best Cards

Available at: atmybest.com

Deck type: Wellbeing, team dynamics and team cohesion

At My Best has a series of card decks that are based on the principles of positive psychology—helping people develop narratives around their own strengths and successes. 

They currently have two physical card decks available, Strengths Cards and Good Questions Cards, as well as a collection of virtual card decks at deckhive.com (which is still in beta).

😍 Why we love them: Sometimes all that’s needed is a little positive encouragement. These decks are great for reminding yourself of why you’re awesome!

35. Superpowers 

Available at: superpowers.sypartners.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, conversation starters

Superpowers is a tool to help participants and teams learn about their individual superpowers, and how to use them to be at their best. It’s designed by SYPartners and available as a physical card deck and as a paid Apple or Android app. 

The deck is designed to help teams understand how each member can uniquely contribute to the whole of the team. The deck features 21 superpowers, such as empathy, motivation, and creative thinking.

😍 Why we love them: For remote teams, it can be hard to get to know each other’s greatest strengths—as most remote icebreakers focus on personal questions. Superpowers is a great way to learn more about your team’s “work” selves.

36. The Meeting Spicer

Available at: meetingspicer.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and team cohesion, conversation starters

Are most of your meeting unproductive? The Meeting Spicer is a coaching tool designed to help teams own and hack their meeting culture. 

The deck consists of three types of card:

• Micro activities: 30-second activities designed to help your team examine their habits, goals, and team dynamics in order to take more responsibility for their actions and be more present. There are start cards for the beginning of each meeting (e.g. “Ask everyone to think silently for 20 seconds about what outcome they expect from the meeting”) and end cards (e.g. “Ask someone remoteIf we achieved just one single thing today, what is it?”
• Role cards: Meeting participants are given roles and responsibilities for the meetings, such as “Time Keeper” or “Call Facilitator.”
• Time cards: Double-sided time cards that you can hold up to show how much time is remaining for a topic or activity.

😍 Why we love them: It’s easy to agree on best practices for meetings, but hard to enforce them on a regular basis. The Meeting Spicer deck builds structure into your meetings without a lot of prep work.

37. Holstee Reflection Cards

Available at: holstee.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and team cohesion, conversation starters

Tired of the same old team-building icebreaker questions? Holstee’s Reflection Cards are a fun way to spark meaningful conversations and deepen relationships with your team or the people in your life.

Every 52-card deck includes over 100 thought-provoking questions centered around mindful themes like adventure, creativity, and resilience.

😍 Why we love them: The Reflection Cards are great for team building, but you can also use them with friends, family, and coworkers.

38. Digital Connection Cards

Available at: theschooloflife.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, Conversation starter

This deck’s tagline says it all: “Foster Closeness at a Distance”. This Digital Connections deck contains exercises, questions, and prompts designed to foster richer interactions. 

In a nutshell, these cards help us communicate and build authentic connections online. 

‍😍 Why we love them: The deck’s tone is a mixture of humorous, kind, vulnerable, and touching. The prompts aren’t your typical icebreaker questions. Some of them invite participants to sit in silence for 80 seconds, others invite them to draw their feelings in an abstract way, while others might invite a personal and vulnerable conversation around things we’d like to forgive, or things we regret.

39. We! Connect Cards

Available at: weand.me

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, conversation starters

Use these 60 square cards to spark conversations that built trust and connection. 

Designed by Chad Littlefield, the deck provides you with fast-paced prompts that move beyond icebreaking in favor of fostering real connections. 

The questions are designed to break down communication barriers and management hierarchies within teams and organizations.

Check-out the We! Engage Cards as well—a deck of 56 cards, each with an inspiring, thought-provoking quote on one side and a powerful photo on the other. 

‍😍 Why we love them: The cards are divided into three categories: the green cards ask fun and light questions, the blue cards go a bit deeper, and the 20 purple cards encourage self-reflection. This allows you create safety as you move from green to blue to purple.

40. ULEAD Facilitation cards 

Available at: uleadinc.org

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, conversation starters

This multi-faceted 54-card deck will help energize your group, inspire participation, manage change, overcome resistance, and most importantly, promote fun! 

The deck comes with 5 activity cards with 10 concrete activities that use different combinations of quotes, questions, letters, images, emotions, and animals.

😍 Why we love them: The activities are awesome for getting people up and moving. For a preview of the activity cards, have a look here. They also come in a metal flip-top case, which is a treat in and of itself! 

41. The Values Cards

Available at: qcards.com.au

Deck type: Strategy, team dynamics and cohesion

The Values Cards by Qcards help individuals, couples, teams, and organizations explore what truly matters to them in their relationships or work. 

This exploration helps clarify core values and inspires positive changes. The words used in each of the 53 values in the cards are deliberately open to individual interpretation, which helps participants express their own values.

😍 Why we love them: The authors have also included three blank cards for values that may crop up in conversation, but are not represented in the set.

42. Improv Cards

Available at: management30.com

Deck type: Conversation Starters, Team Dynamics and Cohesion, Creativity 

Want to get participants out of their comfort zones? Improv Cards are perfect as a little creative icebreaker. 

Improve Cards teach people how to be better communicators and stretch their personal limits as you work through change management or work on increasing employee engagement.

They’re impossibly simple: you pull as many cards as you want and ask someone to improvise a story based on the drawings on the card. You can place constraints on the activity or just let the imagination run wild.

😍 Why we love them: You don’t even have to wait for your printed deck to arrive. You can screenshare their fully digital version as part of your next remote workshop.

43. Teamwords: The Working Deck 

Available at: askthesherwins.com

Deck type: Team dynamics and cohesion, session design

If you’re ever aligning new teams, helping teams that are in trouble, planning for future growth, or encouraging dialogues around cultural differences, give these cards a whirl.

They help you identify your team’s goals, describe your shared values, and agree on what behaviors will lead to success.

😍 Why we love them: The deck simplifies the process of identifying and talking about our individual values and then linking these with concrete behaviours. They make a topic that’s usually fluffy and ground it in reality.

Card Decks for Debriefing

Alright, so we only have one deck in this category. But it’s a good one!

44. The Debriefing Cube

Available at: kilearning.net

Deck type: Debriefing and reflection

The Debriefing Cube is a debriefing set designed by Chris Caswell and Julian Kea with the goal of helping teams solidify their learnings after group sessions, games, or workshops. Each set consists of 61 cards, 4 dice, and either a wooden or paper box.

The six sides of the dice represents a different reflection lens or perspective (Goal, Process, Group Dynamics, Communication, Emotions, and Take-away). Each perspective is represented by a color in the deck, so participants can choose debriefing questions that relate to their perspective, allowing you to answer questions, such as:

• Goal: “How is your understanding of the goal different now?”
• Process: “How could you have made the process more/less pleasant?”
• etc.

😍 Why we love them: Besides the beautiful wooden box, you can also download the debriefing cube PDF for free here.

Butter up your flashcard decks

With the release of Butter Flashcard Decks, you can now use your favorite flashcards directly within the window of your next virtual session—there’s no more need to hold up physical cards to your screen.

With Butter’s Flashcard decks tool, you can easily recreate any of the above decks as a tool in your Toolbox, and then use the decks again and again in any session.

Here’s a quick demo from Jakob, our CEO, on how to upload your own Flashcard Deck:

For full directions, you can check out the Flashcard Decks page in the Butter Handbook.

To try flashcards in your next session, try Butter for free right now!