I decided that during 2024, I'd remix one game every month. Last month I created Rebel Blackjack. This month, I've created Magick jack, an extreme remix of Blackjack.
The colour pie in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) isn't often appreciated by people who don't play the game, but it's a useful concept. As a player, you claim a colour before the game starts, and that colour essentially becomes your avatar in the game. This allows the game designer to develop game mechanics that affect each player differently, based on the distribution of a specific colour in their decks. If you have lots of green cards in your deck, then you expect to usually win in contests of size and strength, while a lot of blue in your deck means you'll probably win in contests of knowledge and information, and so on.
The "colour pie" of Blackjack is simpler than in MTG. There's only red and black. That's enough, although you could declare all face cards a third colour if you felt the need for more variety.
In Magick jack, each card suit represents a different card type. In MTG, those include creatures, artifacts, spells, enchantments, instants, and so on. With a standard deck of playing cards, it's naturally hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. This helps define what cards are affected by any given rule-breaking exception. Without this constraint, it's difficult to design selectively, because either everything gets affected by every rule, or it's impractically complex to decide what does ("all cards with an even number less than 10 but greater than 4...").
The game is requires 2 or more players.
Shuffle the playing cards. This is the draw deck.
Winner: The first player to hit exactly 21 wins.
If the draw deck is depleted without anyone reaching exactly 21, then the player closest to 21 wins.
[arabic] . Each player must tap (rotate so that it's oriented horizontally on the tabletop) all red cards currently in their hand. A tapped red card is worth only 1 point, regardless of its face value. . You may sacrifice (move to the bottom of the draw deck) 1 of your face cards to move any 1 card from an opponent's hand to the bottom of the draw deck. . Steal any 1 card from an opponent's hand and add it to your own. . Place a +1 counter on any card in an opponent's hand. . Discard any 1 card from your own hand. . Each player must tap all black cards currently in their hand. A tapped black card is worth only 1 point, regardless of its face value. . Swap hands with an opponent. . Choose 1 suit in any 1 player's hand. Move those cards to the top of the draw deck in any order. . Swap all red cards with an opponent. . Take 1 card from your hand and add it to one opponent's hand. . Shuffle the draw deck. . Send all active face cards to the draw deck. Shuffle the draw deck. . Turn 1 red card in your hand face down. This card is immune to all effects, but you may reveal it and use it for its face value at any time. . Choose 1 suit and tap those cards. A tapped card is worth 1 point, regardless of its face value. . Swap all black cards with an opponent. . Discard any 1 card from your own hand. . Choose 1 suit that your hand contains. Swap any cards in this suit for cards of any other 1 suit from your opponent's hand. . Count how many players are in the game. Look at that many top cards of the draw deck. Place the cards anywhere back in the deck. . Turn 1 black card in your hand face down. This card is immune to all effects, but you may reveal it and use it for its face value at any time. . Discard any 1 card from your own hand.
One of the fun things about "magic" in games is that magic breaks the rules. It doesn't really because a game's magic system is actually just more rules, but it feels like it does. And that's really satisfying for players. It's cool to draw a card that gives you permission to do something that the normal rules of the game don't allow you to do.
Magic: The Gathering and lots of other card games can "break" the standard rules with some text on the card. Playing with a deck of standard playing cards don't afford that luxury, and I admit it's a little inelegant to have to roll a die and refer to a sheet of paper for special effects. I guess if I were going to actually manufacture this game, I'd just add rules to the cards, with the one-time effect triggering only when you're the player who drew highest that round.
Anyway, this version of the game isn't likely to displace the original, but I think it's a fun "power-up" version of Blackjack that's worth a try.
Header photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash.