Easy difficulty
Wish
A stripped 32-card deck in eight piles of four — pair off matching ranks until the table is clear.
Also published as The Wish.
| Decks | One deck |
|---|---|
| Suits | 4 |
| Typical length | 5 min |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| How much skill matters | Low |
| How much the shuffle matters | High |
| Family | Standalone |
| Good for beginners | Yes |
There is no playable version of Wish on this site yet — this page covers its rules and strategy. The game suits a touchscreen well, so it is a good candidate once a build exists.
About Wish
Wish is the smallest game in the catalogue. Take a deck, throw out everything from the two to the six, and deal the remaining thirty-two cards into eight little piles of four. Then pair off matching ranks until the table is clear.
There are no foundations, no sequences, no reserve and no stock — just thirty-two cards and one rule. With only four of each rank in play the matches come readily, so it plays fast and wins often, and the name suits it: it is less a puzzle than a wish that the piles fall the right way.
How to play
Strip every 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 out of the deck, leaving thirty-two cards — Ace and seven through King in each suit. Deal them into eight piles of four, three face down with one face up on top. The only move available is removing two face-up cards of matching rank, and suit is completely irrelevant. Each removal flips the card beneath. Clear all thirty-two and you win; run out of matching pairs with cards still down and you have lost.
Strategy
With only four cards of each rank and eight face-up cards at a time, the odds of a match are high and the decisions are few — when three of a rank are showing, which two you take determines which pile flips next, and that is essentially the whole game. Prefer the removal that uncovers a pile you have not seen into. Rounds last about five minutes, so it is a game to play in gaps rather than to study.
What works
- The fastest game here — around five minutes
- Only thirty-two cards and a single rule
- Compact eight-pile layout, ideal on a phone
What to know
- Almost no decisions to make
- Face-down cards mean a loss can arrive with no warning
- Nothing to come back to once you have played it a few times
Frequently asked questions
- How many decks does Wish use?
- Wish is played with a single standard deck.
- Is Wish good for beginners?
- Yes — Wish has straightforward rules and is a reasonable game to learn early on.
- Is Wish based more on luck or strategy?
- Wish is largely determined by how the cards fall — there's limited room for strategy to change the outcome.