Terraformers deals you cards from 10 decks. The game starts with 4 of these decks. The game deals you one card from each deck in turn until it has dealt you one card from each deck currently in play. As the game progresses, it gradually adds more decks.

If you are drawing at least 10 cards a turn, you will always see 1 card from each deck. This is particularly important if you absolutely need another Expansion card to claim map spaces.

While general types of cards in each deck remain the same, many cards don't appear until later in the game. A Hydroponics Farm, for example, is a Food card, but it typically won't appear until turn 25.

In order, the decks are:

Food
Power
Exploration / Life
Support
Expansion
Science
Trade / Cards
Terraforming
Habitats
Colonization

If all the decks are currently active, you will always draw cards in that order. If a deck isn't active, it gets skipped.

For example, at the start of the game, the order is Food, Power, Science, Habitats, because the other 6 decks are not active.

Most of the deck descriptions are self-explanatory, but the Trade / Cards and Exploration / Life decks lump together cards of very different types. Check the relevant sections for more detais.

The game only draws from the Colonization deck every other rotation. That is, it appears in deck rotations 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, etc.

The starting decks are Food, Power, Science, and Habitats. The first 4 cards you draw are always Tuber Farm (food), Tritium Generator (Power), Laboratory (Science) and Habitat (Habitats).

On turn 3, you always get a special event that offers you the choice of a Laboratory, Habitat, or Tuber Farm. Any time the game offers you extra cards as a special event, including the turn 3 event, these count as card draws. Special events draw cards after the normal card draw.

On turn 3 you draw Habitat, Food, Power. Since the special event draws Science, Habitat, and Food, the first card you draw on turn 4 is Power.

Additional decks appear after you have drawn enough cards.

While I've done my best to categorize cards by deck and arrival time, there may be some errors. Arrival time in particular is hard to test. I've assigned cards to "early" that you can definitely get as soon as the deck unlocks, but estimating the precise arrival of later cards can be difficult.

In particular, there's a transition where ocean-related cards start appearing, and some cards don't show up until the very late game.

The food deck contains buildings that produce food.

Early cards:

Greenhouse, Tuber Farm.

Mid-game cards:

Cultured Meat Farm, Soil Factory, Orbital Farming.

Late game cards:

Hydroponic Farm, Insect Farm, Food Factory, GMO Lab.

End game cards:

Outdoor Duck Farm, Outdoor Potato Farm, Outdoor Sheep Farm, Outdoor Wheat Farm, Vineyards, Bee Colony, Outdoor Cattle Ranch, Rice Fields, Seaweed Farm, Fish Farm.

The Power Deck includes any building that produces power. It also includes a handful of buildings that produce other resources, notably the Exhaust Processor.

Since power is vital need in the early game, it's common to assume you will receive at least 3 Generators, but it's important to be aware that you can receive windmills, regolith burners, and incinerators. If you draw one of those cards, you're not getting a tritium power generator that rotation.

Regolith burners are an unpleasant surprise in the early game, since they're expensive and your starting city has no rocks, so a Burner doesn't get the atmosphere generation benefit.

Early game cards:

Tritium thermo generator, regolith burner, windmill, waste incinerator

Early-ish cards:

Magnetic fusion plant, Resonance station, photovoltaic field, Composting facility, Exhaust processor

Mid-game cards:

Heliostat power station, load balancing station, orbital solar panels, Electron Beam Printer

Late game cards:

Bio generator, Thermal updraft tower

End game cards:

Water barrage, airborne wind turbine

The Science deck includes buildings that produce Science, or which are Science-adjacent, i.e. the Applied Science Center.

The Think Tank produces 1 Science, but is considered a Habitat, not a Science card. The Citizen Science Center produces 2 Science, but appears in the Trade / Cards deck.

Early cards:

Laboratory, School

Mid-game cards:

Hard conditions research lab, University, Applied Science Center, Planetary Engineering Lab, Orbital Telescope on Phobos, Robotized Laboratory, Man-Machine Cooperative Academy, Seed Vault

Late game cards:

Quantum Data Center, Research Campus (NOT a habitat card), Ocean Laboratory

End game cards:

Massive Radio Telescope, Particle Collider

The Habitat deck contains most cards that house workers.

Early game cards:

Habitation Module, Eco Homes, Marsha, Igloos

Mid-game cards:

Combined Living Quarters, Miner's Cottage, Think Tank Condominium (NOT a Science card), Skyscraper

The Expansion deck includes most cards that claim map spaces but which aren't habitats.

Expansion cards are naturally critical to growth. You can expect expansion cards on turn 4, 6, 8, and 10. They become less common as the game progresses, until they're eventually every 9th or 10th card.

It's important to remember that your first expansion card may be a Bus Station, which means you're not drawing a Robot Hub until the next rotation.

Early game cards:

Robot Hub, Bus station

Mid game cards:

Android hub, Train Station, Delivery Drones (NOT a support card), Robot Ingenuity Center, AI Guided Road Network, Road Paver Depot, Expansion Hub

Mid-late game cards:

Dock, Shipwright

Late game cards:

Hyperloop

The Support Deck includes cards which increase Support or Comfort. Cards which offer other resources (i.e. food or science) and give Support as a side-benefit are not in this deck.

Early cards:

Entertainment center, Public Baths, Hospital, Household Robot Dispatch Center, Coffee Shop

Mid-game cards:

Space Hotels, Domed Park, Restaurant District, Brine Electrolyser, Warehouse, Touring Company, Stone mason, Luxury Workshop, Local Culture Center, Martian Worker's Association, Rural Community Retreat, Urban Planning Office, Automated Robotic Workforce, Food Monitoring Office, Courthouse, Blimp station, Aerogel Manufacturer, Public Space Transport

Late-game cards:

Beach club, Beach resort, seafood restaurant, Interplanetary tourism office, Martian Sailing School, Self-driving flying taxis, airport, Mountain huts, Nature Reservation, Scuba Diving School

End-game cards:

Beach resort, Underwater hotel, Martian Festival Grounds, Theme Park, Nature Park

The Trade / Card deck is a bit less cohesive in concept than the other decks, because it includes both buildings that add trade routes, and buildings that draw more cards or let you keep more cards.

Early game cards:

Landing pad

Mid-game cards:

Spaceport, Orbital Ring, Research Center, Development Center

Late game cards:

Citizen Science Center (NOT a Science card)

The Colonization deck includes cards from the DLC for colonizing other planets.

Early game cards:

None, the deck unlocks in the mid-game. The first exploration mission does award an Extra-Martian Exploration Mission, however.

Mid-game cards:

Observatory, Extra-Martian Exploration Mission

Mid-late game cards:

Space Colony Habitat Modules, Extra-Martian Development Center

Late game:

Habitat with Cooling Unit, Habitat with Heating Unit

End game:

Modular City Deployment

The Exploration / Life deck contains exploration cards and cards that spread life.

Early game cards:

None, the deck unlocks mid-game.

Mid-game cards:

Rover Exploration Center, Rover Optimization Center, Bacteria Spreader, Lifeform Delivery, Gene Vault, Radioactive Refinery (feels out of place)

Mid-late game cards:

Plant Spreader, Animal Spreader, Dew Collector

The Terraforming Deck includes all the cards that directly affect terraforming.

Early game cards:

None, unlocks mid-game.

Mid-game cards:

Oxygen Factory, Co2 Factory, Gas Factory, Cloud Seeder, Import Oceans from Europa / Rings of Saturn / Enceladus / Ceres, Import Hydrogen from Gas Giants, Import Methane from Titan

Mid-later game cards:

Giant Heater, Controlled Nuclear Meltdown, Botany and Forestry Center, Giant Space Mirrors

Late game cards:

Oceanic Electrolysis Facility, Molehole Project