I'd love a really good, modern, tactical-feeling game that

I'd love a really good, modern, tactical-feeling game that plays like something like a quacks of quedlinburg or a dominion that you could somehow play entirely with a deck of regular playing cards, it'd be great to just be able to crack out a pretty good game at all times

I have this soft theory that the ultimate flexible gaming platform is a legal pad, some pens, a baggie of colored dice, and two decks of playing cards, which can go anywhere and play most anything, and all you really need past that is maybe a few laminated rules pages ?