The original wizard card game review

He wanted a card game that he could play with his wife and young son as well as other vacationers during the quiet evening hours. Building on the basic game play of the traditional card game "Oh Hell," Ken modified some of the rules and added 8 additional cards, 4 Jesters and 4 Wizards, which radically improved the game.

The rules are very simple, but the strategy involved in playing Wizard makes it both enjoyable and challenging. Ken was not new to the games industry. Earlier, he had created "Super Quiz," which generated six popular "Super Quiz" books and three successful "Super Quiz" board games as well as a syndicated "Super Quiz" newspaper feature which continues to be carried by over 30 North American newspapers.

Wizard Card Game was self-published in with a first production run of 10, games. In , fueled by an enthusiastic public response to Wizard, a complete graphical redesign was undertaken which brought the card-fronts essentially to their present design.

In , Ken Fisher granted world rights to U. Games Systems, Inc. The overall quality of the cards was vastly improved and the current card back was instituted. A deluxe version was later created, which included bidding wheels. Bidding coins were also added to the product line, which indicate to other players the number of tricks won and remaining to be taken.

In a license was granted to Amigo-Spiele for manufacture and distribution in Germany of a Fantasy Wizard version.

In , www. The annual Wizard World Tournament is held in a different country each year. However, we should take some time to mention what many consider to be their "flagship" game, that being "Wizard. You might be under the impression that in order to be fun a game has to be complex.

Wizard is a trick-taking game: there are four suits of cards with values from 1 to After dealing, one of the remaining cards is revealed to determine the trump suit. The first player plays any card from his hand, the other players then have to follow suit or, if they cannot, either play a trump to win or throw in a card from another color to get rid of it.

The trick goes to the player that had the highest trump or, if no trump was played, the highest card in the original suit. The first round is played with only one card per player, each subsequent round with one more until finally all 60 cards are dealt out on the last round, coincidentally not leaving a card to determine the trump suit. There are two sets of special cards that add some spice: Wizards and Jesters. Both Wizards and Jesters belong to no suit but can be played at nay time, even when you could follow suit.

The first Wizard in a trick always wins that trick, no matter what other cards are in it. A Jester never wins any tricks, except in the rare case that the trick contains only Jesters — in that case, the first one wins again. If a Jester is revealed for trump suit, this round has no trumps; in case of a Wizard the dealer chooses a trump suit after seeing his cards. Before the first card in a turn is played, every player must make a bet how many tricks he is going to take this round.

The only way to score points is through fulfilling this bet: 20 for succeeding at all plus 10 for every trick you took. Any trick more or less than your bet not only gets you nothing at all for this round, you even lose 10 points for every trick by which you miss your bet. The most-played and in my opinion most interesting variant of Wizard demands that the bets of all players never add up to the real amount of tricks available, making sure that there will not be a peaceful solution.

But the first few rounds are only for warming up: from round five on, you have many more options to consider and many more ways to contribute to your own success.

Sometimes you need to find a way to lose high cards because you find that your bet was too low. You will want to base your bet on these and a couple of other things, like the number of Wizards and Jesters in your hand, but also your distance from the start player. And sometimes you just have to recognize a truly bad hand and bet low in order not to lose points.

And there you have it: a game with very simple rules that is nevertheless engaging and quite difficult to master. Distributor of Blue Angel products. Currently, U. Please email usgs usgamesinc. Apply for a reseller. Add to cart. Wizard FAQs are available here. Strategy Games. You Might Also Like Drop items here to shop.

Out of Stock. HeartSwitch Wizard Combo Pack This exciting new combo pack combines two of your favorite trick-taking card games into one convenient gift pack. Any card can be lead. Each subsequent player plays a card and must follow suit if possible. The exceptions to this, and there are only two, is that a Wizard or a Jester may be played at ANY time, even if the player is holding a card of the suit led.

If the first card played is a Jester, then the next non-Jester card laid sets the suit for the hand. Each player attempts to either win or lose the trick, depending on how many tricks they need for that hand. To win a trick, you must have played: a.

The winner of the trick starts the next hand. To lose a trick, you can play a Jester, which is almost always a guaranteed loss. If they managed to win the correct amount of tricks they guessed, they earn 20 points for being right. Then they also earn an additional 10 points for each trick earned. Examples: a. If a player did not end up with the correct amount of tricks, then not only do they earn 0 points for being wrong, but 10 points are subtracted for every trick over or under their bid target.

And yes, the score can go into the negatives! If they guessed 3 tricks and earned 1, they subtract 20 points from their running total. If they guessed 2 tricks and earned 5, they subtract 30 points from their running total. Too Many Wizard Cards! If, during play, you find yourself at your bid total, and you still are carrying a Wizard card in your hand, you can discard it and avoid a possible over-pointage situation if a Wizard precedes you.

Feed The Greedy: If a player is in the lead points-wise and they just bid a high number of tricks, try and feed them an extra, un-wanted trick. Hidden Bid : all players reveal their bid at the same time. Delayed Reveal Bid : if you are a Wizard card game aficionado, you'll appreciate this simple variation.