Cuttle

Originally Posted 11/13/24

Brief Overview

Okay, this is a card game, however I felt this section was the best for it. Cuttle is a two player card game played with a standard 52 deck of cards. The goal of the game is to score at least 21 points before your opponent does. Cards have special abilities that allow you to do different things throughout the game. My girlfriend and I have been enjoying this game a lot as it scratches my desire for a game with a lot of strategy (like Magic) and her desire for a game with a lot of chance. I feel like it blends it well.

How to Play the Game

I want to start by saying that I'll be covering the rules as explained here. That link is a website that allows you to play cuttle with other people online. They've tweaked a few of what seem to be the standard rules to make the game more interesting (I think). You can read about more variations, as well as the original rules (I think) here.

An example turn

The game starts by the deck being shuffled, and the player that goes first is dealt 5 cards while the player that goes second is dealt 6 (this is typically the dealer). On your turn, you may take one of the following actions:

Draw a card - Draw a card from the shared deck. Max hand size of 8. Once the deck is gone, it does not get reshuffled and players may instead pass their turn. If a turn is passed 3 times in a row, the game results in a tie (So, if player 1 passes, then player 2, then player 1 again that's it). When the deck runs out of cards, one house rule would be playing with revealed hands for the rest of the game, as everyone has access to the discard pile at any point, it's possible to work out exactly what your opponent has when the deck is empty.
Play for Points - Place a number card on the field for points. You gain however many points are on the face of the card while that card is on your side of the field. First to 21 points wins. Face cards have no point values, and can only be played for their effects. The one exception is the ace, which is worth 1 point.
Scuttle - You can take a point card of higher value and use it to get rid of a card of lower value. For example, if my opponent has a 6 on the field I can discard a 7 from my head to remove their 6. You may also use the same number card if it's a higher suit. The ranking of suits, from lowest to highest, is Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. So if my opponent had a 6 of diamonds, I could scuttle that using a 6 of hearts.
Use a card effect - Each numbered card (except the 10) and all face cards have an ability. I'll list them below.

Once you do your action for the turn, it is then your opponents turn.

Card Effects

Aces - Scrap all point cards on the field.
2 -
- Effect 1: Counter target One-Off Effect. Counters may be played during your opponent's turn. Countering a card stops its effect from going off. For example, if your opponent plays an Ace for its effect, you can discard a 2 from your hand to stop that effect from going off. 2s can be countered by other 2s
- Effect 2: Scrap target Royal or Glasses Eight. Scrapping removes a card from the field
3 - Choose a card from the scrap pile and put it in your hand.
4 - Your opponent discards two cards of their choice.
5 - Discard one card then draw up to three cards from the deck up to the 8 card hand limit.
6 - Scrap all Royals and Glasses Eights on the field.
7 - Reveal the top two cards of the deck to both players and choose one to play however you choose. The other goes back to the top of the deck.
8 - Glasses. The 8 stays on your field turned sideways and allows you to see your opponents hand (they must play with an open hand for as long as you have the 8 on the field). When used this way, the 8 is not considered a point card, and so does not get wiped by things like an Ace, and it does not count towards your point total.
9 - Return a card from your opponent's field to their hand. They cannot play it on their next turn.
10 - No effect
Jack - Steal an opponents point card.
Queen - Protects your other cards from being targeted by the effects of other cards. This protects your cards against 2's (both effects), 9's, and Jacks. Does not protect against aces, sixes or scuttling
King - Reduce the number of points you need to win (21, 14, 10, 5, 0 points with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Kings).

Wrap Up

And that's the game! You go back and forth taking turns until someone reaches the point threshold to win (typically 21). My girlfriend and I often playing using cuttle.cards as that's the easiest way to play and it helps walk you through what the cards do. They even built a bot you can play solo agains to learn the game (though the bot has some slightly different card effects than what the website uses). They also have this nice little cheatsheet.

So go and give it a try! Let me know if I missed anything in this post, or if you need clarification on anything!