Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Easier to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
More strategic control
How it plays
How does it play?
Play tricks while seeing only the suits on your own card backs, deducing their hidden ranks before committing one mysterious card as your bid.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Magic Trick is a trick-taking game built around a hand you cannot fully see. Its deck contains seven suits numbered zero through seven, but players see only the suit printed on the back of each card. Before play, a neighbor secretly sorts each hand by rank, giving its owner a crucial positional clue. Players must follow suit when able, hearts are trump, and the winner leads the next trick. During the hand, each player sends one face-down card “up their sleeve”; its hidden value becomes the player’s bid. Exact bids score strongly, with an additional bonus for capturing the same number of suits, so deduction and timing matter as much as conventional trick play.
