Scorpion
Scorpion borrows from both Spider and Yukon: you build in suit, any face-up card moves with everything lying on it, and a finished run from King to Ace leaves the table.
How to play Scorpion
Scorpion uses one pack. Forty-nine cards are dealt into seven columns of seven. In the first four columns the three lowest cards are face down; every other card is face up. The last three cards stay in the stock.
- Build down in the same suit: the 9 of hearts on the 10 of hearts.
- Any face-up card may be moved together with all the cards on top of it, in order or not. The card you take hold of must land on the next higher card of its own suit.
- Only a King, with whatever lies on it, may go into an empty column.
- A complete run from King down to Ace of one suit, all in one column, is taken off the table.
- When you are ready, tap the stock: its three cards go onto the first three columns. That happens only once.
- The game is won when all four suits have been taken off as runs.
Strategy and tips
Find the buried Kings
A King that lies face down under other cards is the classic Scorpion trap: it can only ever go to an empty column, and everything above it has to move first. Free the hidden cards in the first four columns as early as you can.
Move cards to where they really belong
Because whole groups move, it is tempting to shift cards around just because you can. Each move should bring a card onto its own suit's next higher card, or uncover something.
Choose the moment to deal the stock
The three stock cards land on columns one to three and can bury cards you were working on. Many players deal them once the first easy moves are done, before those columns are tidy.
Empty columns are for Kings with work to do
When a column is empty, put in the King whose group blocks the most useful cards.
Questions and answers
Can every Scorpion deal be won?
Far from it. Scorpion is one of the harder games: for the numbered deals our solver won 24 of the 120 seeds it tried. Only those won deals are in the Scorpion library, so each of them can be won.
Where are the foundations?
Scorpion has no building up on foundations. A complete King-to-Ace run of one suit leaves the column by itself and is placed at the top of the table.
Which three columns get the stock cards?
The first three, from the left, one card each.
