Corporation tier list
These rankings lean on the best data that exists for your exact situation: tens of thousands of two-player games scraped from Board Game Arena, measured by rating gained rather than raw win rate (which mostly measures who picks a corp, not how good it is). Forum reputation is noted where it disagrees — because that’s what Matthew has probably read.
One honest caveat: the big dataset includes the Prelude expansion and card drafting; you two play base + Corporate Era straight. The relative order of the base corps transfers well, but treat tiers as strong priors, not physics.
The tier list (two-player, standard map)
Section titled “The tier list (two-player, standard map)”| Tier | Corporation | The one-liner |
|---|---|---|
| B+ | Interplanetary Cinematics | Best in the box at 2p — rich and flexible |
| B | Ecoline | The greenery rush, even better head-to-head |
| B− | Mining Guild | Real snowball, but easy to deny at 2p |
| B− | Credicor | Strong if played well — no free engine |
| B− | Tharsis Republic | Beware: the famous “best corp” is a 2p trap |
| C+ | Saturn Systems | Jovians are scarce; income trickle is fine |
| C | Teractor | 60 MC and nothing else — reliably average |
| D | Inventrix | Only with specific cards it unlocks |
| D | Helion | Heat is overvalued — overrated by good players |
| D | Thorgate | Never once beat a stronger opponent in 2,000+ games |
| D | Phobolog | 23 MC and a dead ability without titanium sinks |
| F | UNMI | The ability is a tax, not an engine |
The capsules
Section titled “The capsules”Interplanetary Cinematics B+
Section titled “Interplanetary Cinematics B+”30 MC + 20 steel — the richest opening in the box. Play it: find the building-tag cards in your hand and dump the steel into them immediately; farm the 2 MC event rebate; contest the Builder milestone. Skip it when: your hand has no building tags — then you’re holding 20 units of nothing. Its real strength is robustness: it’s good with many different hands, which is exactly what two-player rewards.
Ecoline B
Section titled “Ecoline B”Plants cost 7 instead of 8 per greenery, +2 plant production from the start. Play it: as a terraforming rush, not an engine — buy every plant-production card on sight, aim for 5+ plant production by gen 3-4, green next to oceans, push oxygen, end the game early. Don’t build cities — they slow the game, and a slow game is what beats you. Convert plants promptly; a hoarded pile is asteroid bait. Head-to-head it rises: fewer plant-hate cards in circulation and no crowd fighting you for greenery space. Skip it when: the hand has zero plant production.
Mining Guild B−
Section titled “Mining Guild B−”30 MC + 5 steel + steel production that grows from map bonuses. Play it: cheap tile-placement cards onto steel/titanium hexes, every bonus ratchets production, spend the steel on building tags, take Builder early. The 2p warning: one opponent who knows which hexes you need can cheaply take them — assume Matthew will. Skip it when: the hand lacks cheap tiles and building tags.
Credicor B−
Section titled “Credicor B−”57 MC; 4 MC back on every 20+ MC purchase. Play it: convert the pile into production fast (the corp gives you no engine — the cash is the head start), then late-game the rebate turns standard projects into discount tiles: greenery at net 19, city at net 21. Skip it when: the hand is all cheap cards — a hand of 8 MC cards never triggers the ability. Reputation says top-tier; the data says it only performs for players who route the spending correctly. Be that player or pass.
Tharsis Republic B− — the famous trap
Section titled “Tharsis Republic B− — the famous trap”The internet’s consensus “best corporation in the game” — at four players. The ability pays on every city placed on Mars, and tonight there’s exactly one other person placing cities. At two players it’s the measured favorite pick of weak players and a mediocre performer. If it’s in your deal: playable — two spaced cities early, Mayor milestone, Banker award — but it is not the free win Matthew may believe it is. If he picks it, quietly smile.
Saturn Systems C+
Section titled “Saturn Systems C+”+1 MC production per Jovian tag, anyone’s. Jovian tags are scarce in base + CE, so it’s a slow trickle plus titanium production. Play a normal economy game; treat Jovians as late VP, never force them early. Honest middle-of-the-road.
Teractor C
Section titled “Teractor C”60 MC, the most cash in the game, and an Earth discount that rarely matters (few Earth tags in the deck). It is, in effect, “a lot of money in a trench coat.” Spend it fast on a balanced engine and don’t distort your buys chasing the discount. Never spectacular, never embarrassing.
Inventrix D
Section titled “Inventrix D”±2 on requirements + 3 cards. Weak by default — flexibility is not tempo — but it has the widest skill range in the data (a top player went 11-1 with it). The only good reason to pick it: you can name the exact cards in hand the ±2 unlocks on turn one (early animal/microbe cards are the classic case). If you can’t name them, it’s a D.
Helion D
Section titled “Helion D”Heat-as-money sounds great and measures badly — heat production is systematically overvalued by the game’s own pricing, and strong players keep falling for it (the data’s “most overrated” pick). If dealt it: build a normal money engine and treat heat-as-MC as flexibility insurance, not a strategy. The all-in temperature rush also shortens the game, which can beat your own VP cards.
Thorgate D
Section titled “Thorgate D”Cheap power, no plan. The most damning stat in the dataset: across 2,000+ games it never once beat a higher-rated opponent. Reliably mediocre — every win with it was the player, not the corp.
Phobolog D
Section titled “Phobolog D”10 titanium but only 23 MC — the poorest liquid start in the game. The common failure: two nice space cards, then broke with a dead ability. Only defensible with multiple expensive space targets already in hand plus a plausible titanium-production line.
UNMI F
Section titled “UNMI F”Pay 3 MC for +1 TR, but only in generations your TR already rose — a tax on a plan it does nothing to fund. Worst measured corp at two players by a clear margin. Elite players pick it about once in a hundred games; take the hint. (Its one asset: it often claims Terraformer.)
The Beginner Corporation
Section titled “The Beginner Corporation”42 MC and all ten cards kept free (~72 MC of value). Genuinely fine for a first game or three, and a reasonable deliberate handicap in a mixed-experience pair — but you’re past it. The corp asymmetry is where the strategy lives.
Next: Choosing your corporation — because the real decision is never “which tier is higher,” it’s which corp your ten dealt cards actually feed.