Wizard

Designed by Ken Fisher, 3-6 players

While the American version of this card game is rather bland, the German deck features awesome fantasy art with humans, dwarves, giants and elves. Either way, Wizard a fun trick-taking game where players must guess how many tricks they will take in a round - no more, no less. There are 60 cards in the deck, with 4 colored suits having numbers with 1 through 13, thus resembling a standard deck. There are also 4 Wizard cards, which are higher than any trump card. Lastly, there are 4 Fools, which are lower than every other card - these come in super handy when trying to avoid taking a trick. Before each round, a trump color is drawn and each player says how many tricks they think they will take based on their hand. Card play follows the standard trick-taking formula, with follow-suit requirements, except that Wizards and Fools may be played at any time. Guessing the right number of tricks earns 20 points plus 10 points for each trick taken. Incorrect guesses are penalized at minus 10 points per trick (so if a player said 2 and got 4, it's -20).

The first round has only one card, with one card added each subsequent round; a full game will, in the last round, use all the cards in the deck. It can be devilishly difficult to match predictions, especially once the cards in hand gets above a dozen. And there's plenty of opportunity to mess with others - are bids set so they match the possible number of tricks, or are Wizard cards employed to menacingly top the trump 13? These choices make Wizard a fun, fast-paced card game that requires adaptability and just a tad bit of foresight.