Predict your tricks exactly — a trick-taking game for 3–6 players
Wizard is a trick-taking card game by Ken Fisher, published in Canada in 1984 and a fixture in Germany since AMIGO's 1996 edition. The twist is simple and cruel: before each round you announce exactly how many tricks you will win, and you only score if you are exactly right. One trick too many is just as bad as one too few.
Sixty cards: the numbers 1 to 13 in four suits, plus four Wizards and four Jesters.
A Wizard always wins the trick it is played into. A Jester always loses. Both can be played at any time, even when you could follow suit — which makes them the only cards you can always legally play. If several Wizards land in one trick the first one wins; if the trick is nothing but Jesters, the first one takes it.
Round one deals a single card to each player, round two deals two, and so on until the deck runs out: 20 rounds with three players, 15 with four, 12 with five, 10 with six.
After the deal, the top card of the remaining stock is turned face up and its suit is trump. If that card is a Jester, the round is played with no trump at all. If it is a Wizard, the dealer chooses the trump suit — before looking at anyone's bid.
In the final round the whole deck is dealt out, so no card remains to flip and there is no trump.
Once you have seen your hand you announce how many tricks you intend to take. Bids are made in turn and everyone hears the ones before them, so the last bidder has real information — and the total of all bids rarely matches the number of tricks available, which is exactly what makes the round interesting.
Hit your bid exactly and you score 20 points plus 10 per trick. Miss it and you lose 10 points for every trick you are out, over or under.
A bid of zero that holds is worth 20 points, which makes it the steadiest bank in the game — and often the hardest thing to do, because the trick you cannot avoid winning is the one that costs you the round.
Wizard plays 3 to 6 players. The number of rounds depends on the count: 20 rounds with three players, 15 with four, 12 with five and 10 with six.
If your bid is exactly right you score 20 points plus 10 for each trick you took. If you are wrong you lose 10 points for every trick of difference, whether you took too many or too few.
A Wizard always wins the trick it is played into and a Jester always loses it. Both may be played at any time, even when you could follow suit.
The dealer chooses the trump suit. If a Jester is turned up instead, the round is played with no trump at all, and in the last round the whole deck is dealt so there is no trump card to turn.