Solitaire abstract games
by Kerry Handscomb
Spider is distinguished from many other card solitaires in that complete suit sequences need to be built in the layout before they can be discarded, with the object finally of getting the whole deck off in suit sequences. Almost every game involves puzzling situations that need careful thought. In 150 Ways to Play Solitaire (1950, p. 146), Alphonse Moyes writes, “The devotees of Spider, who are legion, claim it as the king of all solitaires.” One famous devotee of Spider was American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George F. Hervey in The Illustrated Book of Card Games for One (1977, p. 129) even suggests renaming Spider, "Rooseveldt's Favourite."
This article will describe several versions of Spider played with alternative decks: the Decktet, the Tarot deck, the Mah Jong deck, and a six-suited deck. It will give me the opportunity to highlight several interesting design features of these Spider games.
Here is an early version of the rules of Spider, from Culbertson’s Card Games Complete. which may be regarded as the standard and original form of the game:
This article will describe several versions of Spider played with alternative decks: the Decktet, the Tarot deck, the Mah Jong deck, and a six-suited deck. It will give me the opportunity to highlight several interesting design features of these Spider games.
Here is an early version of the rules of Spider, from Culbertson’s Card Games Complete. which may be regarded as the standard and original form of the game:
According to the frontispiece of this edition of Culbertson's Card Games Complete, the book was originally published in 1917. I contacted noted card-game expert David Parlett for confirmation of the origins of Spider, who responded that 1917 is likely to be too early for a Culbertson book. Nevertheless, in 1917 it is possible that Culbertson was in Paris, making a living from his skill with cards. Indeed, Hubert Phillips, in the forward of the version of the book I am referencing, writes that he is involved in preparing the English edition. It seems plausible that the book was originally published in French in Paris in 1917, when Culbertson would have been 26 years old.
Another relatively early description of the rules of Spider is found in The Complete Book of Solitaires and Patience Games by Albert H. Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1949). The authors cite the following passage from Somerset Maugham’s The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930):
“I reproached myself as I set out the cards. Considering the shortness of life and the infinite number of important things there are to do during its course, it can only be the proof of a flippant disposition that one should waste one’s time in such a pursuit . . . But I knew seventeen varieties of patience. I tried the spider and never by any chance got it out . . . .”
Maugham’s story is autobiographical, about a trip through parts of Southeast Asia in 1922. David Parlett wrote in response to my query, "Spider itself, I think, derived from German Patience, which was recorded in one of Mary Whitmore Jones's many volumes of patiences. She died around 1917." It seems clear that Spider originated sometime around the end of the Nineteenth Century and the beginning of the Twentieth. Perhaps the rules shown in the image above do indeed date from 1917 and are one of the very earliest descriptions of Spider.
With the growth in use of personal computers from the end of the Twentieth Century, and the inclusion of Spider as a solitaire in various operating systems, Spider is probably now more popular than ever. In this article I wish not to investigate Spider itself, but rather Spider as it might be played with alternative, non-standard decks.
Spider positions often require considerable thought. For example, you may need a particular card that is buried deep in the layout. Often, to make progress, you must create empty columns, for empty columns facilitate the movement of sequences of cards that are in number sequence but not suit. Empty columns, too, are the only way to get Kings out of the way. As cards are dealt, row on row, the layout typically becomes more and more entangled. The first complete suit sequence is usually the most difficult, but once one or two complete sequences are removed the game opens up and becomes much easier. Still, I have lost many of these "won" games!
All of these features of standard Spider, and more, are present in the variants below. Myrmex is a relatively quick game, as is Wizard's Tower. Sparrow, however, is a large game, more reminiscent of a campaign than a single battle. Starfish is even bigger and requires a whole-game strategy. If you love Spider, you may enjoy these other games, too. Perhaps even non-Spider players may be drawn to the King of Solitaires and its variants.
Myrmex
An inspiration for this article was the Decktet, as described in the article on Bhargage in this issue. An excellent version of Spider played with the Decktet is called Myrmex (2011), designed by Greg James. Actually, Myrmex needs two Decktets, without the Pawn, Court, and Excuse expansions, and with one copy of each of the Aces and Crowns removed. The base version of Myrmex, therefore, uses 60 cards, which is somewhat smaller than standard Spider. There are expanded versions of Myrmex using the Pawns and Courts, but I will describe here only the base version of the game, which I think is perfect. Indeed, it almost seems as if the Decktet suit system were designed for a version of Spider. I should note, however, that the version presented here is the easiest, or entry-level, game, and there are many levels of difficulty in Myrmex.
The author told me how he came up with the name Myrmex. In standard Spider, the game is solved when eight full suit-sequences of cards are removed with solved sequences, two of each suit. The solution to Myrmex results in six suit-sequences, one for each suit. Spiders are of course eight-legged creatures, but Greg has an interest in ants, which are six-legged animals in the Order Myrmedae. Hence, he called his game Myrmex.
Instead of the ten columns of the 104-card standard Spider, Myrmex uses eight columns, with four cards initially in each column, as shown below.
Another relatively early description of the rules of Spider is found in The Complete Book of Solitaires and Patience Games by Albert H. Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1949). The authors cite the following passage from Somerset Maugham’s The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930):
“I reproached myself as I set out the cards. Considering the shortness of life and the infinite number of important things there are to do during its course, it can only be the proof of a flippant disposition that one should waste one’s time in such a pursuit . . . But I knew seventeen varieties of patience. I tried the spider and never by any chance got it out . . . .”
Maugham’s story is autobiographical, about a trip through parts of Southeast Asia in 1922. David Parlett wrote in response to my query, "Spider itself, I think, derived from German Patience, which was recorded in one of Mary Whitmore Jones's many volumes of patiences. She died around 1917." It seems clear that Spider originated sometime around the end of the Nineteenth Century and the beginning of the Twentieth. Perhaps the rules shown in the image above do indeed date from 1917 and are one of the very earliest descriptions of Spider.
With the growth in use of personal computers from the end of the Twentieth Century, and the inclusion of Spider as a solitaire in various operating systems, Spider is probably now more popular than ever. In this article I wish not to investigate Spider itself, but rather Spider as it might be played with alternative, non-standard decks.
Spider positions often require considerable thought. For example, you may need a particular card that is buried deep in the layout. Often, to make progress, you must create empty columns, for empty columns facilitate the movement of sequences of cards that are in number sequence but not suit. Empty columns, too, are the only way to get Kings out of the way. As cards are dealt, row on row, the layout typically becomes more and more entangled. The first complete suit sequence is usually the most difficult, but once one or two complete sequences are removed the game opens up and becomes much easier. Still, I have lost many of these "won" games!
All of these features of standard Spider, and more, are present in the variants below. Myrmex is a relatively quick game, as is Wizard's Tower. Sparrow, however, is a large game, more reminiscent of a campaign than a single battle. Starfish is even bigger and requires a whole-game strategy. If you love Spider, you may enjoy these other games, too. Perhaps even non-Spider players may be drawn to the King of Solitaires and its variants.
Myrmex
An inspiration for this article was the Decktet, as described in the article on Bhargage in this issue. An excellent version of Spider played with the Decktet is called Myrmex (2011), designed by Greg James. Actually, Myrmex needs two Decktets, without the Pawn, Court, and Excuse expansions, and with one copy of each of the Aces and Crowns removed. The base version of Myrmex, therefore, uses 60 cards, which is somewhat smaller than standard Spider. There are expanded versions of Myrmex using the Pawns and Courts, but I will describe here only the base version of the game, which I think is perfect. Indeed, it almost seems as if the Decktet suit system were designed for a version of Spider. I should note, however, that the version presented here is the easiest, or entry-level, game, and there are many levels of difficulty in Myrmex.
The author told me how he came up with the name Myrmex. In standard Spider, the game is solved when eight full suit-sequences of cards are removed with solved sequences, two of each suit. The solution to Myrmex results in six suit-sequences, one for each suit. Spiders are of course eight-legged creatures, but Greg has an interest in ants, which are six-legged animals in the Order Myrmedae. Hence, he called his game Myrmex.
Instead of the ten columns of the 104-card standard Spider, Myrmex uses eight columns, with four cards initially in each column, as shown below.
The version of Myrmex I am describing has all cards face up initially, whereas standard Spider would have all but the last row face down. All variations of Spider that I will describe here start with all cards face up. This provides for more opportunity to plan and a more skilful game, in my view.
In Myrmex, two or more cards stacked together in a column are in "suit sequence" if they all share at least one suit. Just as with standard Spider, cards stacked together in descending number sequence and suit sequence at the bottom of a column can be moved as a unit to stack on a card at the bottom of another column that is one higher than the top card of the moving sequence. Cards that are not in suit sequence can only be moved one by one, just as with standard Spider. These rules regarding the moving of whole sequences of cards provided they are in suit sequence are common to all versions of Spider.
When you get stuck in Myrmex, deal another row of cards to the bottom of each column. There will be three re-deals of eight cards, and then a final deal just to the first four columns. Standard Spider requires that all columns be filled before a re-deal, but in Myrmex one or more columns can be left empty for a re-deal. Again, I think this provides for a more skilful game, and this is the rule used for all versions of Spider described herein.
Complete sequences of cards at the bottom of a column, from Crown to Ace, which are also in suit sequence, can be removed and discarded from the game. The objective is to remove all six suit sequences of ten cards each.
The image below shows a game in progress from the starting position above after two re-deals. If the 3-2-1 sequence is moved from the bottom of the first column to stack on the bottom of the second column, the whole sequence in Wyrms from Crown to Ace can be discarded.
In Myrmex, two or more cards stacked together in a column are in "suit sequence" if they all share at least one suit. Just as with standard Spider, cards stacked together in descending number sequence and suit sequence at the bottom of a column can be moved as a unit to stack on a card at the bottom of another column that is one higher than the top card of the moving sequence. Cards that are not in suit sequence can only be moved one by one, just as with standard Spider. These rules regarding the moving of whole sequences of cards provided they are in suit sequence are common to all versions of Spider.
When you get stuck in Myrmex, deal another row of cards to the bottom of each column. There will be three re-deals of eight cards, and then a final deal just to the first four columns. Standard Spider requires that all columns be filled before a re-deal, but in Myrmex one or more columns can be left empty for a re-deal. Again, I think this provides for a more skilful game, and this is the rule used for all versions of Spider described herein.
Complete sequences of cards at the bottom of a column, from Crown to Ace, which are also in suit sequence, can be removed and discarded from the game. The objective is to remove all six suit sequences of ten cards each.
The image below shows a game in progress from the starting position above after two re-deals. If the 3-2-1 sequence is moved from the bottom of the first column to stack on the bottom of the second column, the whole sequence in Wyrms from Crown to Ace can be discarded.
This sample game above can then quickly be won. As with all versions of Spider, the most difficult sequence to remove is usually the first. As cards come out of the layout, space opens up, and the game usually gets easier.
The Decktet is brilliantly appropriate for playing Spider, because of the way that the card suits interweave in number sequences. The choice for any card with two suits is which of those suits is primary in constructing a ten card suit sequence. Suit sequences are fluid in Myrmex in a way that is simply not present in standard Spider.
The version of Myrmex I have described is much easier to win than standard Spider. Several factors make this so. To start, only ten cards need to be stacked up to form a suit sequence rather than 13. Likewise, in standard Spider only two possible cards can be stacked on another in suit and number sequence, whereas there are four possibilities for each card in Myrmex—setting aside the Crowns and Aces.
In every version of Spider, the key to winning is the ability to get empty columns. Sequences in number but not suit can be moved as a whole, but usually only if there are empty columns that can take cards temporarily while shifting the sequences over, where the cards, remember, can only be moved one by one. Empty columns are easier to form, and the game therefore easier to win, with more columns and fewer cards initially in each column. Depending on which type of deck is used for playing Spider, these choices concerning the number of columns and the number of cards initially in each column are key ways for balancing the ease or difficulty of the game.
The version of Myrmex described here, as well as several other more challenging variants, can be played here, in the brilliant app by M. C. DeMarco.
Wizard’s Tower
Standard Spider and Myrmex might be called "pure" versions of Spider, because there is only one type of card and sequence. The next kind of Spider, Wizard's Tower (1998) by Karen Deal Robinson, is played with a 78-card Tarot deck, and is the first of the two Spider games presented here that is not pure, as it were. The Tarot deck contains four sequences of 14 cards each, but also a separate sequence of 22 "Trump" cards. The rules for stacking the regular suit sequences and the Trumps are different.
Wizard's Tower is unusual also because it contains fewer cards than most other versions of Spider, and all are dealt face up initially, in six row of 13 cards each. The image below shows a typical starting position. I have used the Rider-Waite Tarot images, although any Tarot deck will work. However, the layout is quite large, and the miniature version of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck works well in a limited space.
The Decktet is brilliantly appropriate for playing Spider, because of the way that the card suits interweave in number sequences. The choice for any card with two suits is which of those suits is primary in constructing a ten card suit sequence. Suit sequences are fluid in Myrmex in a way that is simply not present in standard Spider.
The version of Myrmex I have described is much easier to win than standard Spider. Several factors make this so. To start, only ten cards need to be stacked up to form a suit sequence rather than 13. Likewise, in standard Spider only two possible cards can be stacked on another in suit and number sequence, whereas there are four possibilities for each card in Myrmex—setting aside the Crowns and Aces.
In every version of Spider, the key to winning is the ability to get empty columns. Sequences in number but not suit can be moved as a whole, but usually only if there are empty columns that can take cards temporarily while shifting the sequences over, where the cards, remember, can only be moved one by one. Empty columns are easier to form, and the game therefore easier to win, with more columns and fewer cards initially in each column. Depending on which type of deck is used for playing Spider, these choices concerning the number of columns and the number of cards initially in each column are key ways for balancing the ease or difficulty of the game.
The version of Myrmex described here, as well as several other more challenging variants, can be played here, in the brilliant app by M. C. DeMarco.
Wizard’s Tower
Standard Spider and Myrmex might be called "pure" versions of Spider, because there is only one type of card and sequence. The next kind of Spider, Wizard's Tower (1998) by Karen Deal Robinson, is played with a 78-card Tarot deck, and is the first of the two Spider games presented here that is not pure, as it were. The Tarot deck contains four sequences of 14 cards each, but also a separate sequence of 22 "Trump" cards. The rules for stacking the regular suit sequences and the Trumps are different.
Wizard's Tower is unusual also because it contains fewer cards than most other versions of Spider, and all are dealt face up initially, in six row of 13 cards each. The image below shows a typical starting position. I have used the Rider-Waite Tarot images, although any Tarot deck will work. However, the layout is quite large, and the miniature version of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck works well in a limited space.
Stacking in the suit cards by number is in the order King (high), Queen, Knight, Page, and then from 10 to 2, and lastly Ace (low). The four suits are Wands, Cups, Discs, and Swords. As usual in Spider games, sequences stacked in suit order can be moved as a whole, and otherwise cards are moved singly. The four suit sequences are discarded from the board as they are completed.
The Trumps have different stacking and removal rules from the suit cards. One Trump can be moved and stacked onto any other Trump of higher number. Remember, the 22 Trumps are numbered from 21 (The World) down to 0 (The Fool). Trumps that are stacked in number order without gaps in the counting can be moved as a whole—this is the equivalent for the Trumps of stacking in suit sequence. For example, the sequence 9-8-7-6 of Trumps can be moved as a whole, and stacked on the 10 or put at the top of an empty column; but the sequence 9-8-7-5 cannot be moved as a whole. Only the Trump 5 can be moved from the bottom of the column, to stack on a higher Trump or to be put into an empty column.
When The Fool, Trump 0, is uncovered at the bottom of a column, it can be taken out of the layout and set aside. When thereafter the Trump 1 is uncovered, it can likewise be removed from the layout, and stacked on top of the 0 to one side of the main layout. And so on for the Trump 2, and on up to Trump 21, stacking them one-by-one as they become exposed, until there is a complete sequence from 0 to 21 to one side of the main layout. This complete trump sequence is the "Wizard’s Tower."
The image below shows a development from the opening layout shown above, on the way to a won game:
The Trumps have different stacking and removal rules from the suit cards. One Trump can be moved and stacked onto any other Trump of higher number. Remember, the 22 Trumps are numbered from 21 (The World) down to 0 (The Fool). Trumps that are stacked in number order without gaps in the counting can be moved as a whole—this is the equivalent for the Trumps of stacking in suit sequence. For example, the sequence 9-8-7-6 of Trumps can be moved as a whole, and stacked on the 10 or put at the top of an empty column; but the sequence 9-8-7-5 cannot be moved as a whole. Only the Trump 5 can be moved from the bottom of the column, to stack on a higher Trump or to be put into an empty column.
When The Fool, Trump 0, is uncovered at the bottom of a column, it can be taken out of the layout and set aside. When thereafter the Trump 1 is uncovered, it can likewise be removed from the layout, and stacked on top of the 0 to one side of the main layout. And so on for the Trump 2, and on up to Trump 21, stacking them one-by-one as they become exposed, until there is a complete sequence from 0 to 21 to one side of the main layout. This complete trump sequence is the "Wizard’s Tower."
The image below shows a development from the opening layout shown above, on the way to a won game:
Very quickly now in the above game, all the Trumps can be taken off to complete the Wizard’s Tower. The suit sequences will then fall one by one. Other won games I have played of Wizard’s Tower have one or two suit sequences removed before making substantial progress with the Trumps. I have not played enough to determine which is most normal progress of the game
Wizard’s Tower can be challenging, although I think that standard Spider may be even more difficult. A benefit of Wizard’s Tower is that the distribution of all the cards is known at the outset. This means that careful planning is possible from the start. And, of course, if you see a number of key cards deeply buried at the outset—primarily The Fool!—you can just shuffle the cards and start again.
The author recommends "weaving" for an easier game. In other words, you can take off any card from the bottom of a column and set it aside. The card can be re-entered to the layout later, if it can be properly stacked at the bottom of a column or put at the top of an empty column. Thereafter, another card can be taken out of the layout—and so on, with the player allowed to weave one card at a time.
Spider parameters
The reason that Wizard’s Tower is relatively difficult is that there is only one copy of each card, and therefore a unique set of cards is needed to complete each of the suit sequences. In standard Spider, there are two copies of each card. Likewise in Myrmex there are two copies of each card, although the suit system in Myrmex makes direct comparisons difficult—there are usually four cards that can stack on any numbered card in Myrmex. Moreover, the suit sequences in Wizard's Tower are long, at 14 cards, compared with 13 in standard Spider and 10 in Myrmex. The difficulty of Wizard’s Tower is mitigated because of the fewer number of cards, the large number of columns, and the openness of the game.
A good way to think of Wizard's Tower is that the main objective is to remove the suit sequences. The Trumps are there as blockers, and the taking off of Trumps in sequence is the way to combat the blocks. The special nature of the Trumps and the way they are handled means that Wizard’s Tower is not a pure Spider.
These various parameters of standard Spider, Myrmex, and Wizard's Tower apply also to the two other forms of Spider that I will present below, Sparrow and Starfish. Please refer to the table below. Generally, with more suits and longer sequences Spider variations are harder; with fewer copies of each card and fewer columns, Spider variations are easier. The degree to which the game is open affects the amount of planning that can be done initially, potentially making the game easier. With Spider variations that are not pure, with different rules for different cards, some of the cards may be viewed as blockers. Sparrow is similar to Wizard's Tower in this respect.
The number of rows dealt initially is an interesting parameter. With fewer rows dealt initially, there is less untangling to be done, and it is easier to get empty columns—crucial in moving around non-suit number sequences. However, fewer rows initially means that the game is less open, and less planning can be done, making the game potentially harder.
Wizard’s Tower can be challenging, although I think that standard Spider may be even more difficult. A benefit of Wizard’s Tower is that the distribution of all the cards is known at the outset. This means that careful planning is possible from the start. And, of course, if you see a number of key cards deeply buried at the outset—primarily The Fool!—you can just shuffle the cards and start again.
The author recommends "weaving" for an easier game. In other words, you can take off any card from the bottom of a column and set it aside. The card can be re-entered to the layout later, if it can be properly stacked at the bottom of a column or put at the top of an empty column. Thereafter, another card can be taken out of the layout—and so on, with the player allowed to weave one card at a time.
Spider parameters
The reason that Wizard’s Tower is relatively difficult is that there is only one copy of each card, and therefore a unique set of cards is needed to complete each of the suit sequences. In standard Spider, there are two copies of each card. Likewise in Myrmex there are two copies of each card, although the suit system in Myrmex makes direct comparisons difficult—there are usually four cards that can stack on any numbered card in Myrmex. Moreover, the suit sequences in Wizard's Tower are long, at 14 cards, compared with 13 in standard Spider and 10 in Myrmex. The difficulty of Wizard’s Tower is mitigated because of the fewer number of cards, the large number of columns, and the openness of the game.
A good way to think of Wizard's Tower is that the main objective is to remove the suit sequences. The Trumps are there as blockers, and the taking off of Trumps in sequence is the way to combat the blocks. The special nature of the Trumps and the way they are handled means that Wizard’s Tower is not a pure Spider.
These various parameters of standard Spider, Myrmex, and Wizard's Tower apply also to the two other forms of Spider that I will present below, Sparrow and Starfish. Please refer to the table below. Generally, with more suits and longer sequences Spider variations are harder; with fewer copies of each card and fewer columns, Spider variations are easier. The degree to which the game is open affects the amount of planning that can be done initially, potentially making the game easier. With Spider variations that are not pure, with different rules for different cards, some of the cards may be viewed as blockers. Sparrow is similar to Wizard's Tower in this respect.
The number of rows dealt initially is an interesting parameter. With fewer rows dealt initially, there is less untangling to be done, and it is easier to get empty columns—crucial in moving around non-suit number sequences. However, fewer rows initially means that the game is less open, and less planning can be done, making the game potentially harder.
Game |
Pure |
Total cards |
Suits |
Copies of each card |
Length of sequences |
Columns |
Initial rows |
Openness |
Spider |
Yes |
104 |
4 |
2 |
13 |
10 |
5-6 |
10% |
Myrmex |
Yes |
60 |
6** |
2 |
10 |
8 |
4 |
53% |
Wizard's Tower |
No |
78 |
4 |
1 |
14 (22) |
13 |
6 |
100% |
Sparrow |
No |
144 |
3 |
4 |
11 (4) |
12 |
6 |
50% |
Starfish |
Yes* |
162 |
6 |
2 |
13 |
12 |
6 |
47% |
* Starfish is pure with only one kind of sequence, but there are wild cards.
** Myrmex has 6 suits, but most cards have 2 suits each, so it does not fit into the regular pattern.
** Myrmex has 6 suits, but most cards have 2 suits each, so it does not fit into the regular pattern.
Sparrow
The initial inspiration for this article was some email communication I had with Peter Geiger over the summer of 2020, about ShenZhen solitaire. Shenzhen is a fairly standard type of solitaire with a layout and foundations that have to be built up, except that it is played with Mah Jong cards. ShenZhen is not a Spider, but it started me wondering what Spider would be like when played with a Mah Jong deck. A Mah Jong Spider already existed, but it only used the suit cards, without Dragons, Winds, or Flowers and Seasons. Chinese Spider has only three suits, there are four copies of each card, and there are 12 columns, which makes it very much easier than standard Spider. The question was how to use the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons as blockers to make a more challenging game, inspired by the manner in which Wizard's Tower works.
Sparrow, or Mah Jong Spider, is the game that I came up with. The name "Sparrow" was suggested by Don Kirkby, because the meaning of "Mah Jong" is "sparrow," inspired by the manner that the click of tiles when shuffling resembles the chatter of sparrows. My thanks to Don, too, for testing Sparrow and the next game, Starfish.
Because Sparrow has never been described before, I present the rules below more fully than I have done for Spider, Myrmex, and Wizard's Tower. For the diagrams I use a Mah Jong font. I know this is not ideal, as it does not include any numbering or naming on the tiles in English. However, you should be able to follow the diagrams as examples even without fully understanding the meaning of all the characters, and the diagrams are not essential for understanding how the game works anyway.
To play Sparrow, a Mah Jong set will work perfectly well. However, since this is a Spider game where you will need to move long sequences of cards back and forth now and then, you may find it easier to use Mah Jong cards. For my own play, I use a Mhing deck. Mhing is essentially a Mah Jong variant that uses the same set of tiles (or cards) as Mah Jong. A Mhing deck is perfect for Sparrow.
A Mah Jong set consist of four copies of three suits each, which run from 1 to 9. The three Suits are Bamboo, Coins, and Characters. The suits total 108 cards. Then there are four copies each of the three Dragons, Green, Red, and White; and four copies of each of the Winds, East, South, West, and North. The deck is completed with one copy each of four Flowers and one copy each of four Seasons. In total there are 144 cards/tiles.
To start with, the Dragons are counted as the tenth and highest card in each Suit: Green with Bamboo, Red with Coins, and White with Characters. The use of the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons will be described below. In the diagrams, Bamboo is green, Coins are red, Characters are black and white (with the White Dragon blank), Winds are blue, and the Flowers and Seasons are yellow.
(I chose to associate the Dragons with the suits in this order because it fits with our diagrams, and works with the colours of the Mhing deck. The standard association for special hands in Mah Jong is Green-Bamboo, Red-Characters, and White-Coins.)
Shuffle the cards and deal 6 rows of 12 cards face up. In typical solitaire fashion, each row of cards can be placed overlapping the row above to save space. The remaining cards, the stock, are set aside face down. See the example deal below. Our diagrams mimic the use of Mah Jong tiles, and are shown without overlapping.
The initial inspiration for this article was some email communication I had with Peter Geiger over the summer of 2020, about ShenZhen solitaire. Shenzhen is a fairly standard type of solitaire with a layout and foundations that have to be built up, except that it is played with Mah Jong cards. ShenZhen is not a Spider, but it started me wondering what Spider would be like when played with a Mah Jong deck. A Mah Jong Spider already existed, but it only used the suit cards, without Dragons, Winds, or Flowers and Seasons. Chinese Spider has only three suits, there are four copies of each card, and there are 12 columns, which makes it very much easier than standard Spider. The question was how to use the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons as blockers to make a more challenging game, inspired by the manner in which Wizard's Tower works.
Sparrow, or Mah Jong Spider, is the game that I came up with. The name "Sparrow" was suggested by Don Kirkby, because the meaning of "Mah Jong" is "sparrow," inspired by the manner that the click of tiles when shuffling resembles the chatter of sparrows. My thanks to Don, too, for testing Sparrow and the next game, Starfish.
Because Sparrow has never been described before, I present the rules below more fully than I have done for Spider, Myrmex, and Wizard's Tower. For the diagrams I use a Mah Jong font. I know this is not ideal, as it does not include any numbering or naming on the tiles in English. However, you should be able to follow the diagrams as examples even without fully understanding the meaning of all the characters, and the diagrams are not essential for understanding how the game works anyway.
To play Sparrow, a Mah Jong set will work perfectly well. However, since this is a Spider game where you will need to move long sequences of cards back and forth now and then, you may find it easier to use Mah Jong cards. For my own play, I use a Mhing deck. Mhing is essentially a Mah Jong variant that uses the same set of tiles (or cards) as Mah Jong. A Mhing deck is perfect for Sparrow.
A Mah Jong set consist of four copies of three suits each, which run from 1 to 9. The three Suits are Bamboo, Coins, and Characters. The suits total 108 cards. Then there are four copies each of the three Dragons, Green, Red, and White; and four copies of each of the Winds, East, South, West, and North. The deck is completed with one copy each of four Flowers and one copy each of four Seasons. In total there are 144 cards/tiles.
To start with, the Dragons are counted as the tenth and highest card in each Suit: Green with Bamboo, Red with Coins, and White with Characters. The use of the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons will be described below. In the diagrams, Bamboo is green, Coins are red, Characters are black and white (with the White Dragon blank), Winds are blue, and the Flowers and Seasons are yellow.
(I chose to associate the Dragons with the suits in this order because it fits with our diagrams, and works with the colours of the Mhing deck. The standard association for special hands in Mah Jong is Green-Bamboo, Red-Characters, and White-Coins.)
Shuffle the cards and deal 6 rows of 12 cards face up. In typical solitaire fashion, each row of cards can be placed overlapping the row above to save space. The remaining cards, the stock, are set aside face down. See the example deal below. Our diagrams mimic the use of Mah Jong tiles, and are shown without overlapping.
A card at the bottom of a column can be moved to the bottom of another column provided the card at the bottom of the target column is one higher than the moving card, regardless of suit. Thus, a 5 can be built on a 6 of any suit. 9’s can be built on Dragons. A Dragon cannot be built on anything, and can only be moved to an empty column. There are special rules for the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons, which I will describe later.
A sequence of cards in the same suit (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved as a unit. Thus 6-Bamboo, 5-Bamboo, 4-Bamboo can be moved together onto 7-Bamboo (or 7-Coins or 7-Characters).
Any single card or sequence of cards in the same suit (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved to an empty column. As mentioned above, empty columns are the only way to move Dragons (or a sequence in the same suit with its respective Dragon at the top).
Whenever you form a sequence of ten cards in the same suit, with its respective Dragon at the top, these ten cards can be gathered up and discarded from the layout. The objective is to discard all cards from the layout, including 12 of these suit sequences. When each Dragon is complete with its tail, it takes flight! The Winds, Flowers, and Seasons are dealt with differently.
The diagram below shows a development of the initial layout above, after three deals and a set of four Winds has been removed (see below), and you are ready now to discard a complete Bamboo sequence in the ninth column, headed of course by the Green Dragon.
A sequence of cards in the same suit (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved as a unit. Thus 6-Bamboo, 5-Bamboo, 4-Bamboo can be moved together onto 7-Bamboo (or 7-Coins or 7-Characters).
Any single card or sequence of cards in the same suit (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved to an empty column. As mentioned above, empty columns are the only way to move Dragons (or a sequence in the same suit with its respective Dragon at the top).
Whenever you form a sequence of ten cards in the same suit, with its respective Dragon at the top, these ten cards can be gathered up and discarded from the layout. The objective is to discard all cards from the layout, including 12 of these suit sequences. When each Dragon is complete with its tail, it takes flight! The Winds, Flowers, and Seasons are dealt with differently.
The diagram below shows a development of the initial layout above, after three deals and a set of four Winds has been removed (see below), and you are ready now to discard a complete Bamboo sequence in the ninth column, headed of course by the Green Dragon.
Now to the rules for the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons. The Winds are effectively a fourth suit and the Flowers and Seasons are a fifth suit.
Winds can only be moved and built singly on another Wind or into an empty column. There is no order among the Winds, and one Wind can be built on any other. However, a maximum of three Winds can be stacked together in a single column. If the bottoms of four different columns have the Winds North, South, East, and West in any order, then these four Winds can be taken from the board and discarded, similarly to the sequences.
The diagram below shows a further development of our example game, where a set of Winds can be discarded from the layout, at the bottom of the 2nd, 6th, 9th, and 10th columns.
Winds can only be moved and built singly on another Wind or into an empty column. There is no order among the Winds, and one Wind can be built on any other. However, a maximum of three Winds can be stacked together in a single column. If the bottoms of four different columns have the Winds North, South, East, and West in any order, then these four Winds can be taken from the board and discarded, similarly to the sequences.
The diagram below shows a further development of our example game, where a set of Winds can be discarded from the layout, at the bottom of the 2nd, 6th, 9th, and 10th columns.
Likewise, Flowers and Seasons can only be moved and built singly, on another Flower or Season or into an empty column. There is no order among the Flowers and Seasons, and one Flower or Season can be built on any other. However, a maximum of three Flowers and Seasons can be stacked together in a single column. If the bottoms of four different columns have four Flowers and Seasons, then these four Flowers and Seasons can be taken from the board and discarded, similarly to the suit sequences and the Winds. Note that for the Flowers and Seasons, unlike the Winds, any set of Flowers and Seasons can be removed. Indeed, the diagrams show only one Flower or Season image, which reflects how the game is played, all eight of them are effectively the same.
In the diagram below, the four Flowers and Seasons can be discarded from the bottom of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th columns. The game is well on the way to being won.
In the diagram below, the four Flowers and Seasons can be discarded from the bottom of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th columns. The game is well on the way to being won.
Thus, there are four sets of Winds to be removed altogether, and two sets of Flowers and Seasons. The game is won when all 18 sets (12 suits, 4 Winds, and 2 Flowers and Seasons) are discarded from the game.
Whenever you get stuck, or sooner if you like, deal another set of 12 cards, one to the bottom of each column. Half the cards are dealt out initially, and the remainder will be dealt out throughout the game as six new rows. It is not necessary to fill an empty column before dealing another row.
Now and then you may get more than three Winds or Flowers and Seasons stacked up in a column after you deal another row of cards. This is all right and unavoidable. You are simply prohibited from stacking up four or more Winds (or four or more Flowers and Seasons) by moving cards during the play.
There are four copies of each card in Sparrow, compared with two copies in standard Spider; Sparrow has three main suits, compared with four in standard Spider; suit sequences in Sparrow are only ten cards long, compared with 13 in standard Spider. These factors indicate that Sparrow should be easier to solve than Spider—and it should be, except that the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons act as structural impediments in the array. The three-card stacking limit for Winds, Flowers, and Seasons is carefully chosen so that these cards provide the right degree of structural impediment. As it is, the game is very winnable, without being too easy.
There are opportunities for skilful play in Sparrow that are not present in standard Spider. For example, if you start stacking up Winds (or Flowers and Seasons) to move them out of the way to get at cards above them, you are impeded from creating four columns with the necessary set of Winds (or Flowers and Seasons) at the bottom. A balance needs to be struck between moving the Winds and Flowers and Seasons in the short term, because they are structural impediments, against your chances to get them off the layout entirely.
Starfish
The last of the Spider variants presented here is the six-suited Spider called Starfish. The number of suits is a key factor in the difficulty level of Spider. Six suits, rather than four, makes a huge difference. Six-suited Spider would be very, very hard to solve without some other adjustments in the rules. I devised Starfish as a proof of concept, to show that a form of Spider is indeed playable with more suits. As with Sparrow, above, the Starfish rules do not appear anywhere else, so I have presented them more thoroughly than the other games here.
Starfish requires two decks with six suits each. Each suit contains the regular 13 cards, King, Queen, Jack, and then Ten down to Ace. Each deck just has two additional 13-card suits, with different colour and different symbol.
I have been using the Blue Sea Deck of P.D. Magnus, designer of the Decktet. The additional suits, both blue, are Stars and Squids. The regular Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds constitute the remaining four suits. There are thus 78 cards in each deck. In addition, three Jokers accompany each deck, and we need to use these, too. P.D. Magnus has redesigned all the cards, and his court cards especially exhibit the whimsical characterization that makes the Decktet itself much beloved. The two decks together plus six Jokers make up the 162-card Starfish deck,
Starfish has twelve suit sequences to remove, unlike the eight of regular Spider. The Squid suit gives the deck somewhat of a nautical flavour, and I suspect the Stars are sea stars (i.e., starfish) rather than stars in the sky. Starfish can have twelve legs, and hence Starfish is the name of the game.
The increase from four suits to six provides special challenges for a Spider-type game. If Starfish were played as regular Spider, even with the number of columns in the layout increased to twelve, it would be extremely difficult to win. The Jokers play a special role in Starfish which helps to mitigate what would otherwise be a very tough game.
Set aside the six Jokers, leaving a deck of 156 cards. The six Jokers constitute the Troupe, and are kept aside ready to be used as required in the layout. Deal six rows of twelve cards face up, overlapping the rows to save space, as is usual with card solitaires. Set aside the remaining cards face down to one side as the stock.
The order of the cards is the usual King (high), Queen, Jack, Ten, 9, ...., Ace (low). A single card can be moved from the bottom of one column to be built on another card at the bottom of another column provided the card it is built on is one higher. For example, a 5 can be built on a 6. Any card can be placed in an empty column. In fact, the only way to move a King is to an empty column. Two or more cards at the bottom of a column that are in suit-sequence order (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved as a unit. The moving suit sequence can be built on a card at the bottom of another column that is one higher than the top card in the moving suit sequence, or the moving suit sequence can be moved to an empty column. Indeed, an empty column is all that will take a moving suit sequence with a King at the top.
Whenever a 13-card suit sequence is completed at the bottom of a column in the layout, from King to Ace, it can be gathered up and discarded from the layout. The goal is to complete all twelve suit sequences to win the game.
As soon as you get stuck, or earlier if you like, deal another row of twelve cards to the bottoms of the twelve columns. Empty columns do not have to be filled before dealing another row. There will be seven additional rows of twelve cards to deal after the initial six.
The Jokers have a special role. At any time in the game a Joker can be played from the Troupe to replace any card in the layout. The replaced card must be immediately built to the bottom of a column or placed in an empty column, according to the usual rules. If the replaced card cannot be built in this way, the Joker is not permitted to replace it.
Whenever, in the usual course of play, a Joker is subsequently uncovered at the bottom of a column, the Joker is immediately taken up and returned to the Troupe.
Note that if the Joker replaces a card that is part of a suit sequence, the suit sequence is broken by the Joker, and the suit sequence can no longer be moved as a unit.
The game is very winnable with six Jokers, as described. You may try with fewer Jokers, and I think just four Jokers in the Troupe is the minimum for a reasonably tough but winnable game.
Starfish strategy
Use of the Jokers is key to Starfish strategy. Should you save them to fill in the last few cards of a sequence you are trying to construct, or should you use them as much as possible earlier to untangle cards? One Joker strategy is to hold them back as much as possible until there are enough cards of a suit in the layout to complete a full suit-sequence, and then go all out with all the Jokers to complete this suit sequence.
The most basic way of using Jokers throughout the game is to move sequences that are not in suit, as shown in the series of images below.
Whenever you get stuck, or sooner if you like, deal another set of 12 cards, one to the bottom of each column. Half the cards are dealt out initially, and the remainder will be dealt out throughout the game as six new rows. It is not necessary to fill an empty column before dealing another row.
Now and then you may get more than three Winds or Flowers and Seasons stacked up in a column after you deal another row of cards. This is all right and unavoidable. You are simply prohibited from stacking up four or more Winds (or four or more Flowers and Seasons) by moving cards during the play.
There are four copies of each card in Sparrow, compared with two copies in standard Spider; Sparrow has three main suits, compared with four in standard Spider; suit sequences in Sparrow are only ten cards long, compared with 13 in standard Spider. These factors indicate that Sparrow should be easier to solve than Spider—and it should be, except that the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons act as structural impediments in the array. The three-card stacking limit for Winds, Flowers, and Seasons is carefully chosen so that these cards provide the right degree of structural impediment. As it is, the game is very winnable, without being too easy.
There are opportunities for skilful play in Sparrow that are not present in standard Spider. For example, if you start stacking up Winds (or Flowers and Seasons) to move them out of the way to get at cards above them, you are impeded from creating four columns with the necessary set of Winds (or Flowers and Seasons) at the bottom. A balance needs to be struck between moving the Winds and Flowers and Seasons in the short term, because they are structural impediments, against your chances to get them off the layout entirely.
Starfish
The last of the Spider variants presented here is the six-suited Spider called Starfish. The number of suits is a key factor in the difficulty level of Spider. Six suits, rather than four, makes a huge difference. Six-suited Spider would be very, very hard to solve without some other adjustments in the rules. I devised Starfish as a proof of concept, to show that a form of Spider is indeed playable with more suits. As with Sparrow, above, the Starfish rules do not appear anywhere else, so I have presented them more thoroughly than the other games here.
Starfish requires two decks with six suits each. Each suit contains the regular 13 cards, King, Queen, Jack, and then Ten down to Ace. Each deck just has two additional 13-card suits, with different colour and different symbol.
I have been using the Blue Sea Deck of P.D. Magnus, designer of the Decktet. The additional suits, both blue, are Stars and Squids. The regular Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds constitute the remaining four suits. There are thus 78 cards in each deck. In addition, three Jokers accompany each deck, and we need to use these, too. P.D. Magnus has redesigned all the cards, and his court cards especially exhibit the whimsical characterization that makes the Decktet itself much beloved. The two decks together plus six Jokers make up the 162-card Starfish deck,
Starfish has twelve suit sequences to remove, unlike the eight of regular Spider. The Squid suit gives the deck somewhat of a nautical flavour, and I suspect the Stars are sea stars (i.e., starfish) rather than stars in the sky. Starfish can have twelve legs, and hence Starfish is the name of the game.
The increase from four suits to six provides special challenges for a Spider-type game. If Starfish were played as regular Spider, even with the number of columns in the layout increased to twelve, it would be extremely difficult to win. The Jokers play a special role in Starfish which helps to mitigate what would otherwise be a very tough game.
Set aside the six Jokers, leaving a deck of 156 cards. The six Jokers constitute the Troupe, and are kept aside ready to be used as required in the layout. Deal six rows of twelve cards face up, overlapping the rows to save space, as is usual with card solitaires. Set aside the remaining cards face down to one side as the stock.
The order of the cards is the usual King (high), Queen, Jack, Ten, 9, ...., Ace (low). A single card can be moved from the bottom of one column to be built on another card at the bottom of another column provided the card it is built on is one higher. For example, a 5 can be built on a 6. Any card can be placed in an empty column. In fact, the only way to move a King is to an empty column. Two or more cards at the bottom of a column that are in suit-sequence order (from high to low at the bottom of a column) can be moved as a unit. The moving suit sequence can be built on a card at the bottom of another column that is one higher than the top card in the moving suit sequence, or the moving suit sequence can be moved to an empty column. Indeed, an empty column is all that will take a moving suit sequence with a King at the top.
Whenever a 13-card suit sequence is completed at the bottom of a column in the layout, from King to Ace, it can be gathered up and discarded from the layout. The goal is to complete all twelve suit sequences to win the game.
As soon as you get stuck, or earlier if you like, deal another row of twelve cards to the bottoms of the twelve columns. Empty columns do not have to be filled before dealing another row. There will be seven additional rows of twelve cards to deal after the initial six.
The Jokers have a special role. At any time in the game a Joker can be played from the Troupe to replace any card in the layout. The replaced card must be immediately built to the bottom of a column or placed in an empty column, according to the usual rules. If the replaced card cannot be built in this way, the Joker is not permitted to replace it.
Whenever, in the usual course of play, a Joker is subsequently uncovered at the bottom of a column, the Joker is immediately taken up and returned to the Troupe.
Note that if the Joker replaces a card that is part of a suit sequence, the suit sequence is broken by the Joker, and the suit sequence can no longer be moved as a unit.
The game is very winnable with six Jokers, as described. You may try with fewer Jokers, and I think just four Jokers in the Troupe is the minimum for a reasonably tough but winnable game.
Starfish strategy
Use of the Jokers is key to Starfish strategy. Should you save them to fill in the last few cards of a sequence you are trying to construct, or should you use them as much as possible earlier to untangle cards? One Joker strategy is to hold them back as much as possible until there are enough cards of a suit in the layout to complete a full suit-sequence, and then go all out with all the Jokers to complete this suit sequence.
The most basic way of using Jokers throughout the game is to move sequences that are not in suit, as shown in the series of images below.
|
In this first way of using Jokers, they are recycled Jokers, taken immediately back into the hand.
A second use of the Jokers is to release cards that are buried deep in the layout, without immediately releasing the Jokers back into the Troupe. These buried Jokers may be difficult to uncover again and may even stay buried for much of the game.
As the game begins, there will typically be many opportunities to recycle Jokers to move even quite long non-suit sequences. The Jokers may enable many of the cards in the first six rows to be put in suit sequence order, and throughout the game recycled Jokers will play the same role in helping to untangle the cards.
One point to bear in mind, when collecting cards for a particular suit sequence, is that only 1/6 of the cards in the deck can contribute to any particular suit sequence. In comparison, 1/4 of the cards can contribute to a suit sequence in standard Spider. What this means in Starfish is that it may take several rows dealt over the original six before even one complete suit sequence is present in the layout, however tangled.
The recycled Jokers are used to help untangle cards in the layout as much as possible. Keeping more Jokers in the Troupe means it is easier to move cards around.
However, as more rows are dealt, the layout necessarily becomes more convoluted and unmanageable, no matter how efficiently the Jokers are recycled—unless complete suit sequences are removed from the layout. Buried Jokers, nevertheless, can keep things moving, but at the cost of depleting the Troupe, at least temporarily.
The appearance of one or more complete suit sequences after a deal inspires the use of recycled and buried Jokers to get these sequences in the proper order to remove them from the board. With fewer cards in the layout, it becomes easier to recycle the Jokers to further untangle the cards.
There is a balance to achieve in using the Jokers. Early in the game you should avoid burying Jokers, but recycle the Jokers as far as possible to untangle the cards. As the layout becomes larger and more unmanageable, the pressure to bury Jokers rises. You must give in to this pressure for the game to be winnable, but the balance is to keep recyclable Jokers in the Troupe, despite the pressure to bury Jokers.
With so many cards, Starfish is a long game, but there is a rhythm to the swinging back and forth of the sequences. Unless you are burying a Joker, you will soon find it enough to keep an eye on the number of Jokers in the Troupe and the number of empty columns to see whether a sequence can be moved—without having actually to play the recycled Jokers to the layout. The size of the Troupe needed to accomplish the movement of sequences is balanced by the necessity of burying Jokers to release important cards.
Conclusion
Standard Spider is a much beloved game, probably played by millions around the world, either electronically or still with physical decks of cards. The basic version of Spider is very skilful, even though it is highly closed, and the distribution of few cards is known at the outset. Another rule of standard Spider that reduces the skill level a little is that empty columns need to be filled before dealing another row, removing the choice that it might be better to leave the column empty and increase the chance of being able to empty it again after just one card is dealt into it.
I recommend amending these two rules, even for standard Spider, where the rows are dealt face up initially and columns can be left empty before another row is dealt. There is a version of Myrmex that is more closed, with the first three rows dealt face down initially. However, I do not recommend this version in order to maximize the skill level in the game. Of course, Wizard's Tower is one hundred percent open anyway, and is perhaps more of a puzzle than a game in this respect. Otherwise, all games presented here, including also the brand new games Sparrow and Starfish, use an open deal to start and permit columns to be left empty before re-dealing.
Wizard's Tower and Sparrow demonstrate the possibility of non-pure Spiders, with mixed ways of handling the cards. The Trumps in Wizard's Tower and the the Winds and Flowers and Seasons in Sparrow are structural impediments in the layout that increase the difficulty level of games that would otherwise be too easy—even for Wizard's Tower, I suspect.
Starfish answers the question of what Spider would be like with more suits. Six suits seems a reasonable limit in this direction. I have experimented with eight suits, but I have not succeeded yet in making a playable and interesting game with eight suits. As far as I know, the Jokers in Starfish provide a completely new mechanism among Spider games. Both Sparrow and Starfish have a fairly high level of skill, the first because of the decisions around how to handle the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons; the second because of the decisions around how to use the Jokers.
So there it is, an answer to my question of the forms that Spider would take when played with different types of deck. I hope there are many more Spider games out there, lying dormant in still other decks. I hope that readers may be inspired to investigate this topic further.◾️
A second use of the Jokers is to release cards that are buried deep in the layout, without immediately releasing the Jokers back into the Troupe. These buried Jokers may be difficult to uncover again and may even stay buried for much of the game.
As the game begins, there will typically be many opportunities to recycle Jokers to move even quite long non-suit sequences. The Jokers may enable many of the cards in the first six rows to be put in suit sequence order, and throughout the game recycled Jokers will play the same role in helping to untangle the cards.
One point to bear in mind, when collecting cards for a particular suit sequence, is that only 1/6 of the cards in the deck can contribute to any particular suit sequence. In comparison, 1/4 of the cards can contribute to a suit sequence in standard Spider. What this means in Starfish is that it may take several rows dealt over the original six before even one complete suit sequence is present in the layout, however tangled.
The recycled Jokers are used to help untangle cards in the layout as much as possible. Keeping more Jokers in the Troupe means it is easier to move cards around.
However, as more rows are dealt, the layout necessarily becomes more convoluted and unmanageable, no matter how efficiently the Jokers are recycled—unless complete suit sequences are removed from the layout. Buried Jokers, nevertheless, can keep things moving, but at the cost of depleting the Troupe, at least temporarily.
The appearance of one or more complete suit sequences after a deal inspires the use of recycled and buried Jokers to get these sequences in the proper order to remove them from the board. With fewer cards in the layout, it becomes easier to recycle the Jokers to further untangle the cards.
There is a balance to achieve in using the Jokers. Early in the game you should avoid burying Jokers, but recycle the Jokers as far as possible to untangle the cards. As the layout becomes larger and more unmanageable, the pressure to bury Jokers rises. You must give in to this pressure for the game to be winnable, but the balance is to keep recyclable Jokers in the Troupe, despite the pressure to bury Jokers.
With so many cards, Starfish is a long game, but there is a rhythm to the swinging back and forth of the sequences. Unless you are burying a Joker, you will soon find it enough to keep an eye on the number of Jokers in the Troupe and the number of empty columns to see whether a sequence can be moved—without having actually to play the recycled Jokers to the layout. The size of the Troupe needed to accomplish the movement of sequences is balanced by the necessity of burying Jokers to release important cards.
Conclusion
Standard Spider is a much beloved game, probably played by millions around the world, either electronically or still with physical decks of cards. The basic version of Spider is very skilful, even though it is highly closed, and the distribution of few cards is known at the outset. Another rule of standard Spider that reduces the skill level a little is that empty columns need to be filled before dealing another row, removing the choice that it might be better to leave the column empty and increase the chance of being able to empty it again after just one card is dealt into it.
I recommend amending these two rules, even for standard Spider, where the rows are dealt face up initially and columns can be left empty before another row is dealt. There is a version of Myrmex that is more closed, with the first three rows dealt face down initially. However, I do not recommend this version in order to maximize the skill level in the game. Of course, Wizard's Tower is one hundred percent open anyway, and is perhaps more of a puzzle than a game in this respect. Otherwise, all games presented here, including also the brand new games Sparrow and Starfish, use an open deal to start and permit columns to be left empty before re-dealing.
Wizard's Tower and Sparrow demonstrate the possibility of non-pure Spiders, with mixed ways of handling the cards. The Trumps in Wizard's Tower and the the Winds and Flowers and Seasons in Sparrow are structural impediments in the layout that increase the difficulty level of games that would otherwise be too easy—even for Wizard's Tower, I suspect.
Starfish answers the question of what Spider would be like with more suits. Six suits seems a reasonable limit in this direction. I have experimented with eight suits, but I have not succeeded yet in making a playable and interesting game with eight suits. As far as I know, the Jokers in Starfish provide a completely new mechanism among Spider games. Both Sparrow and Starfish have a fairly high level of skill, the first because of the decisions around how to handle the Winds, Flowers, and Seasons; the second because of the decisions around how to use the Jokers.
So there it is, an answer to my question of the forms that Spider would take when played with different types of deck. I hope there are many more Spider games out there, lying dormant in still other decks. I hope that readers may be inspired to investigate this topic further.◾️
Acknowledgments
- The header image is Black spider Free Vector, an Abstract Vector created by macrovector_official and downloaded from freepik.
- The Decktet images were created by P. D. Magnus and are used with permission; images were downloaded from the GitHub site kept by M. C. De Marco; borders were added for this article.
- The Mah Jong font was downloaded from dafont.com.
- Blue Sea deck cards are photographs of original cards designed by P. D. Magnus; the images were cleaned up in Snapseed, with borders added.
- Tarot card images are scans of original untouched cards from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck by Pamela Coleman Smith (1909). The cards were scanned by Holly Voley for the public domain, and retrieved from the Wikipedia site for the Rider-Waite Tarot.