Little Spider

Little Spider is a small, quick, one-deck game that has almost nothing to do with Spider. The name is a historical accident — the layout is eight piles in two rows with four foundations down the middle, and the mechanic is a race to build two suits up from their Aces and two down from their Kings.

What gives it character is the positional rule in the first half: cards in the far row can only be played to the foundation directly opposite them, so useful cards routinely land where they cannot be used. Then the stock runs out, the restriction disappears, and the game turns into a short and much freer puzzle. Two games in one sitting, both brief.

Eight cards are dealt in two rows of four with space between them for four foundations. The foundations are two Aces of one colour and two Kings of the other: the Aces build up by suit to King, the Kings build down by suit to Ace. While the stock lasts you may move a card from the top row onto any foundation, but a card from the bottom row only onto the foundation directly above it — and when you run out of plays, eight fresh cards are dealt one onto each pile. Once the stock is exhausted the restriction lifts: cards move freely between the piles and onto foundations, building up or down regardless of suit, and the sequence wraps so a King can sit on an Ace.

The positional restriction during the dealing phase is the whole game. A card you need in the bottom row can only reach the foundation above it, so which pile a useful card lands on matters more than which card it is. Take plays from the top row when you have a choice, since those cards can go anywhere and the bottom row's cannot. After the stock runs out the rules loosen considerably and the endgame is mostly a matter of unpicking the piles in the right order, so it is worth leaving the phase-one layout as untangled as you can.