Wizard Hearts
Game Style: A trick-catching game where Wizards try to avoid catching points similar to the game known as Hearts.
Number of Players: Three to Seven (best with Six or Seven).
Time to Play: 10 Minutes per hand, 60 Minutes per game.
Object: To have the fewest points when one or more players reach a score of 25.
Set Up: Pick a dealer.
Dealer finds the “Shun” suit: The dealer shuffles and cuts the Wizard Cards and shows the top card. This will be the suit players will try to avoid during this hand. If the dealer reveals the Luck suit, they will continue to show cards until some other suit other than Luck is revealed as Luck can never be the Shun suit.
Important: The opposite Queen is another card to avoid. The opposite Queen is the Queen of the opposite suit from the Shun Suit. Notice that the suits come in pairs (Sun and Moon, Fire and Ice, Potions and Spells). If the Shun Suit is Sun the Opposite Queen is the Queen of Moons. If the Shun Suit is Ice the Opposite Queen is the Queen of Fire. Note that if the Shun Suit will never be s Luck since there is no opposite for the Luck suit.
Deal the Cards: The dealer shuffles the Wizard Cards and deals an equal number to each player until too few cards are left to deal another card to all players. The dealer places any leftover cards away and these will not be used in play this hand.
The table below lists:
Number of Players: Three to Seven (best with Six or Seven).
Time to Play: 10 Minutes per hand, 60 Minutes per game.
Object: To have the fewest points when one or more players reach a score of 25.
Set Up: Pick a dealer.
Dealer finds the “Shun” suit: The dealer shuffles and cuts the Wizard Cards and shows the top card. This will be the suit players will try to avoid during this hand. If the dealer reveals the Luck suit, they will continue to show cards until some other suit other than Luck is revealed as Luck can never be the Shun suit.
Important: The opposite Queen is another card to avoid. The opposite Queen is the Queen of the opposite suit from the Shun Suit. Notice that the suits come in pairs (Sun and Moon, Fire and Ice, Potions and Spells). If the Shun Suit is Sun the Opposite Queen is the Queen of Moons. If the Shun Suit is Ice the Opposite Queen is the Queen of Fire. Note that if the Shun Suit will never be s Luck since there is no opposite for the Luck suit.
Deal the Cards: The dealer shuffles the Wizard Cards and deals an equal number to each player until too few cards are left to deal another card to all players. The dealer places any leftover cards away and these will not be used in play this hand.
The table below lists:
- the number of players,
- cards in each player’s hand, and
- the number of cards in The Cauldron area.
Card Passing: Each Round, cards may be passed according to the following guide:
Play:
Wizard Hearts is a trick-catching game. Each player will play one card into the middle of the table and the player who plays the highest card wins the trick. Note the suit of the first card played outranks all other suits. The cards within the lead suit are ranked from highest to lowest as follows:
Ace
King
Queen
Jack
Wizard – Counts as the lowest face card, outranks the Ten but lower than a Jack
Ten
Nine
Eight
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two - Lowest
For example, if the following cards are played and the Fire Jack is played first. The player who played the Fire King will take the trick.
- The player with the Two of Luck will be the first to play a card for the first trick. They will lead the Two of Luck. After this, the winner of each trick will lead the next trick. During the play of a trick, players will play their cards one at a time in a clockwise direction.
- During the first trick, no cards from the suit to avoid may be played.
- Also, the opposite Queen cannot be played during the first trick.
- During the first trick, no cards from the suit to avoid may be played.
- Once all tricks are played, the players will add up the points they received in this hand based on the following:
- A player will receive one point for each card of the Shun Suit they caught.
- The player who caught the Opposite Queen will receive 13 points.
- For each Wizard a player catches they get to reduce their score by two points.
- Deal passes to the player on the left for the next hand. Play continues until one player’s score reaches at least 25.
Winning:
The winner is the player who has the lowest score at game end.