Replace Spades with these great trick-taking games
The classic card game has plenty of worthy successors.
We’re going a bit short this week (well, I’ll try!) with Thanksgiving rapidly approaching. While I know there are plenty of you outside the United States reading (thank you!), I hope you all get a chance to play board games this week, whether it’s because of family festivities or because of the weekend.
One of my favorite features in this newsletter is my Replacing the Classics series, where I focus on games will scratch the itch you get from classic board games while also offering something new. (Occasionally it’s a “these games are better” sort of thing, but not often. Games are usually classics for reasons, not simply by default. There are, of course, major exceptions.)
This week, I’m revisiting that series by looking at some great replacements for classic card games. We’ll not dive in too deep on any particular game; I’d rather like to take a broad look today. As you might expect, we’ll focus on trick-taking today, but that’s not just because I love trick-taking. It’s also because classic games are often trick-takers. Spades, Hearts, Bridge, Euchre, Whist — the list goes on. I won’t go through every classic trick-taking game here, though, because it’s simply a busy week. We’re looking closely at Spades here, so you’ll get games with bids or partnerships — or both! Those are features of Spades that are well-loved.
Replacing Spades
Spades is a classic card game, but it’s not so old that we can’t trace its origins. It first appeared in the 1930s, and it remains a successful game today. It’s a must-follow trick-taking game for four players, and players on opposite sides of the table form partnerships. Each player bids a number of tricks they think they’ll win, and together with their partner, they must win a count of tricks equal to their combined bid.
These games have at least some of those important qualities. There are some team-based games here, and there are some games that incorporate interesting bidding structures.
Mü (2–8p) is a German trick-taking game in which partnerships aren’t fixed across the table, but rather emerge through a series of bids made by revealing cards from your hand. A captain is joined by a partner, and they’re opposed by a vice and the remaining players. There’s a lot of strategy here, from how you bid to how you play your tricks. Designed by Doris Matthäus and Frank Nestel, published by Amigo.
Tichu (4p) is a partnership climbing game in which your goal is to be the first team to have both players shed their hands. There’s a really dedicated following to this game, and for good reason. There are four special cards that really change the shape of the game. Designed by Urs Hostettler, published over the years by numerous companies.
Bacon (3–6p) is a partnership climbing game with a great six-player experience. It’s got the usual features of a climbing game, with lots of options for bombs — melds that will interrupt the normal flow of play. The best part? When you win a round, you get to choose who leads the next trick — you or one of your partners. Designed by Sean Ross, published by Allplay.
Le Plateau (2–6p) is one of the most unusual trick-taking games I’ve played. The game, which is played with a French tarot deck, includes a hexagonal board, with spaces on the board filled with discs representing cards in the deck. When you win a trick, you’ll place discs of your team’s color, and your goal is to connect some number of sides together. Each round, you bid on how many sides of the board you can connect and whether you’ll need a partner to do it. This is such a wildly cool game. Designed by Dr. Steven Brown and Raymond Gallardo, published BrownCastle Games.
There are so many great games that aren’t team or partnership-based but do offer some nice bidding mechanisms.
Nokosu Dice (3-5p) takes bidding the number of tricks you win and adds a big twist: You’re bidding with dice that you collect at the beginning of the round, and you can also bid to take zero tricks — and most importantly, those dice are also your cards. Designed by Yusuke Matsumoto, published by Engames.
Cat in the Box (2–5p) is an odd little game. Your cards have suits, but only when you’ve played them, not when they’re in your hand. There are five of each card and only four suits, so you’ll rapidly advance toward a pardox: Each rank and suit combination, you see, can only be played once. If they would be played again, you’ll end up in a paradox. Designed by Muneyeki Yokouchi, published by Bezier Games.
Xylotar (2–5p) has players unable to look at the front of their cards — only the back where the suit’s visible. Your neighbor will arrange your cards for you in order, and you’ll have to make some logical leaps to figure out what you’ve got where. The best part: You’ll be placing your bid with one of the cards in your hand, so you’ll be tasked with trying to figure out how many tricks you can win while also having often a best-guess idea on what you’ll actually win. Designed by Chris Wray, published by Bezier Games.
Ghosts of Christmas (3–4p) is highly unusual in that you’re playing to three different tricks — one in the past, one in the present, and another in the future. It’s all about manipulating those tricks and who wins each, because you’re all the while trying to hit your bid. Designed by Taiki Shinzawa, published by Allplay.
Thanks for joining me this week for Don’t Eat the Meeples! I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll be back next week with another something or other — maybe we’ll look at replacing Hearts, or maybe we’ll look at some game I’ve been loving. Maybe we talk about The Gang? If you’ve got something you’re itching to read about and discuss, drop a comment.