Miss Milligan

Miss Milligan is a two-deck game with an unusually punishing rhythm. Eight columns, alternating colours, foundations up by suit — familiar enough — but the stock deals eight cards at a time onto every column whether it needs them or not, so every stall costs you a fresh layer of clutter on top of work you had just finished.

Its saving grace is one late privilege with a lovely name: waiving. Once the stock is spent you may lift a card or a whole sequence out of the tableau and hold it in hand until it can be legally played. One use, and knowing when to spend it is most of what separates a good Miss Milligan player from a frustrated one. Around one deal in twenty goes the distance.

Two decks, eight columns, opened with a single row of eight cards. Build down in alternating colours, send Aces up as they appear and build the foundations by suit, and move sequences whole or in part. Only a King, or a run headed by one, may occupy an empty column. Whenever you run out of moves, another eight cards are dealt — one to every column whether it is full or empty, which can bury a column you had just cleared. Once the stock is exhausted you get one privilege: waiving, which lets you lift a single card or sequence out of the tableau and hold it until it can be played legally.

The deal rule is the enemy: eight more cards land on every column, empty ones included, so an empty column you cannot immediately fill with a King is an empty column you are about to lose. Get Kings into vacancies promptly. Because the deal is forced rather than optional, tidy the tableau before you stall — anything you leave loose gets covered. Save the waiving privilege; it is one use and it is most valuable late, unlocking a single card that releases a chain. At roughly 1 in 20 this is one of the harder games here, and most of the difficulty is the forced deal rather than the building rules.