How to Play Wizard Card Game Rules

Wizard Card Game Rules are explained in simple steps.

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How does the game Wizard work?

In each round of the Wizard card game, accurately predict the number of tricks (games) you will take. You take a game when you have the highest-ranking card in the round. Points are awarded for correct bids and subtracted for incorrect bids. At the end of all rounds, the player with the most points wins.

Wizard Card Game Setup

Decide who is the dealer. You do this by randomly picking cards from the standard deck and the player with the highest-ranked card is the dealer. Also, the player who picked the lowest-ranked card must keep score. The dealer adds the Wizard and Jester cards to the deck and shuffles the cards.

Step-by-Step Wizard Card Game Rules

Step-by-step guide on how to play the Wizard Card Game. The gameplay is clockwise. In the 1st round, each player is dealt a card. This increases by one every round until all cards from the deck have been dealt. The dealer rotates clockwise after every round. Based on this, that will be 20 rounds for 3 players, 15 rounds for 4 players. 12 rounds for 5 players, and 10 rounds for 6 players.

Determine Trump Card for the round

After cards are dealt to each player for the round, top card of the remaining card deck is turned over and is the Trump suit (i.e hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, or nothing (a Jester card). If there are no cards left (on the last round), there is no trump for that hand. When a Wizard card is turned over, the dealer selects the trump suit.

Players bid/predict the number of tricks they will win

Each player calls aloud the predicted number of tricks they think they can win, starting with the player on the dealer’s left. The scorekeeper records bids on the score sheet. Anyone can reference it during the round.

Card play

The player on the dealer’s left starts the trick by playing a card. If the card played is not a Jester or Wizard, it will be the leading card suit and all other players will have to play a card that matches the suit.

Winning a Trick

The player who plays the highest card matching the leading suit or the first Wizard wins the trick.

When a Wizard is the leading card, players can play any card. If more than one Wizard is played, the first Wizard wins the trick.

When a Jester is the leading card, the next suited card becomes the leading card. If a Wizard is played immediately after the leading Jester card, remaining players can play any card. If every player plays a Jester, the first Jester wins the trick.

Scoring the Wizard Card Game

Points are scored based on how accurate each player’s trick wins prediction at the beginning of the round.
When you correctly predict your trick wins, you earn 20 points plus 10 points for each trick won.
If your prediction is incorrect, you lose 10 points for each trick over or under your prediction.

Winning Wizard Card Game

The player with the highest score at the end of the final round wins the game. Note that it is possible for a winner to have a negative score.

Tools:

52 standard playing cards
4 Wizard cards
4 Jester cards

Frequently Asked Questions about Wizard Card Game

Can you play Wizard Card Game with 2 players?

Wizard Card game can be played with 2 players using this rule variant. A dummy hand is introduced and placed on the dealer’s right so that the hand doesn’t lead the first trick. The dummy hand is placed face-down in a stack. Dummy hand does not make any bids before the round, nor does it have to follow suit. You simply play the top card off of its stack in each trick. The dummy takes a trick just like how other players do. As the dummy never leads , it must play the leading suit, play trump, or play a Wizard to take the trick. The human players bid and score normally. The dummy gets 10 points per trick taken and never gets a negative score.

How many cards do you get in the Wizard Game?

In the first round, each player is dealt a card. Players are dealt an additional card after each subsequent round until the card deck is exhausted. This results in 20 rounds played for 3 players, 15 rounds for 4 players. 12 rounds for 5 players, and 10 rounds for 6 players.