Iron Court: A Powerlifting & Weightlifting Card Game

IRON COURT

A card game for lifters

Three attempts. You choose the weight, play the cards, and roll.

Every kilo on the bar is a decision you live with.

PLAY IT BEFORE YOU BACK IT

You don't have to take our word for any of this.

Iron Court is playable free right now: in your browser at playironcourt.com, or as an app on the App Store and Google Play. The complete rules are online. The full card list is online. There's a rules bot that answers questions about any card in the game.

We think that's how this should work. Go play a meet, then decide whether you want the deck.

The playthrough animation on this page was made by Syed Animations. If you need 3D animation for your own project, they did great work for us.

WHAT IT IS

Iron Court is a 2–4 player strategy card game that simulates a sanctioned lifting meet. Weightlifting or powerlifting, your choice — both are in the box.

It is not a game about lifting in the abstract. It is a game about attempt selection: the specific, agonizing decision every competitive lifter makes three times a day, where you weigh what you can probably make against what you need to win, knowing you only get three tries.

If you've ever stood in a warm-up room doing math on someone else's third attempt, this game is about that.

HOW IT PLAYS

1. The bar is on the table. Every weight sits face-up in a shared pool, each one showing its Difficulty — the number you'd need to hit on two dice. Everyone can see every bar, and two lifters can call the same one.

2. Declare in secret. Everyone writes down the weight they're attempting. All declarations reveal at once.

3. The lightest weight lifts first. Exactly like a real meet. Go heavy and you lift last — which means everyone has already seen your number before you touch the bar. That information cuts both ways.

4. Then everyone fights over one number. Before the dice, you can play Technique to lower your Difficulty — and Energy to pay for the good ones. Meanwhile your opponents can play Interference to push it right back up. Getting a lift through isn't only about the weight. It's about who wants you to miss.

5. Roll 2d6. Meet the number and it's a good lift. Miss, and you take a Doubt token — and every one of those adds to the Difficulty of your next attempt. Misses compound, publicly, where everyone can see them.

6. Highest successful total takes the meet. Tied? The lighter lifter wins, same as the real thing.

Three attempts per lift. No do-overs. Miss all three and you bomb out with nothing, same as the real thing.

THE NUMBERS ARE REAL

This is the part we spent the longest on.

The Difficulty ladder isn't invented. It's fitted to actual competition data — 405,539 recorded attempts from international weightlifting results, run through simulation to calibrate how often a given attempt should succeed. The powerlifting odds come from federation data. The bodyweight tiebreak works the way a real tiebreak works.

Every printed number in the game derives from a single source file, so the rulebook, the cards, and the app can't drift apart from each other.

You will not find a card that makes a 200kg snatch a coin flip.

WHO THIS IS FOR

Weightlifters. Powerlifters. CrossFitters. Coaches. Anyone who has ever argued about attempt selection in a group chat.

You don't need to be a board gamer — a meet takes 15 to 30 minutes and the quick-start guide has you playing in about five.

And you don't need to lift to enjoy it. But if you do lift, you'll notice we got the details right.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX

Core deck — Lifter cards with individual passive abilities, Momentum, Interference, Support, and Reference cards

Weightlifting Edition — snatch, clean & jerk

Powerlifting Edition — squat, bench press, deadlift

Full rulebook — complete rules, reference tables, examples

Accordion quick-start — eight panels, teaches the game in one sitting

2d6

Both disciplines are in the base box. There is no second purchase required to play the complete game.

STRETCH GOALS

Every stretch goal goes into every box. That includes each copy in the Gym Bros, Squad and Gym Pack pledges.

$5,000: Custom Iron Court dice. A custom pair replaces the standard dice.

$8,000: Energy dials. A set of four mini bumper plates, one in each competition color, for tracking Energy at the table. Turn the face and the count clicks over.

There is more on the ladder. We only announce a goal once we have priced it, so the next ones get revealed as we climb.

ALSO COMING

Board Game Arena. The digital port is built — full server-side game logic, all lifter passives implemented. It goes live for everyone, free, whether you back this or not.

Mobile. Iron Court is live on the App Store and Google Play now, free.

WHY WE MADE IT

Iron Court comes out of Butter Side Up, a small games label under King Butter LLC in Indiana.

It started because there was no good game about this sport. There are plenty of games about sports. There was nothing that captured the specific tension of a meet — the secret declaration, the lifting order, the third attempt where you either go for the win or take the safe number.

We built it, put it online free, and enough people played it that printing a physical deck started to feel like the obvious next step.

That's the whole story. We're funding a print run, not a company.