> the first game to incorporate a mechanic rarely ends up also being one of the ones that put it to the best use
This definitely applies to board games. Dominion was the first deck-builder board game and is still fairly popular, but it has been superseded by many other superior deck builders that came out afterwards.
Definitely disagree. There are other successful games that use deckbuilding as an element of a larger game (in the vein of Clank or Quest for El Dorado), but no pure deckbuilding game has come close to overtaking Dominion as top dog.
If we use logged plays for the past month on BGG as one datapoint, Dominion has more than than Aeon's End, Ascension and Marvel Legendary combined.
Sure, there is a specific population of people who log their plays and it differs from the gameplaying public as a whole, but if anything it veers more towards "cult of the new" and away from people who still play an older game because it's what they have.
EDIT: It looks like Star Realms has almost as many logged plays this month as Dominion, but I would still maintain that Dominion is in no way "superseded" even if it is no longer the only relevant game in its genre.
I have yet to come across a better deck builder than Dominion.
It is so pure and focused that it is absolutely the best deck builder there is IMO.
So many other deck builders either completely mess up the extremely careful calibration of chance that exists in a deck builder or the 'other' game that is tacked on to the deck building engine interacts badly or in very swingy ways.
This definitely applies to board games. Dominion was the first deck-builder board game and is still fairly popular, but it has been superseded by many other superior deck builders that came out afterwards.