Cuttle
Cuttle is a combat card game from the 1970s, played with a standard 52-card deck. It predates Magic: the Gathering but has similar mechanics such as units and effects. A simple alternative to the ever-growing complexities of MTG and the like.
open problems
- is there a first player advantage?
- do the variants make the game more strategic?
- can an AI play better than a person?
- can we learn strategy from an AI?
software
rules
First player starts with 5 cards, second player starts with 6. Rest of the cards are in the draw pile. There is an empty scrap pile
Each turn either
- draw a card
- put a point card
- put a permanent card
- play a one-off
- scuttle a point card
A player wins if they their total points is at least 21. JQK are permanent cards Ace to 10 (except 8) can be played as a point card or one-off 8 can be played as a point card or a permanent card scuttle is to put a higher (suits ordered CDHS) point card on top and move both to the scrap pile
1 scrap all point cards 2 scrap any card except point cards OR scrap a one-off 3 return any card from the scrap pile to your hand 4 opponent scraps two cards of their choice 5 draw two cards 6 scrap all cards except point cards 7 draw a card and play it immediately else scrap it 8 play this as a permanent card with the effect that opponent plays with hand revealed 9 return any permanent card to its controller’s hand 10 no effect J play on top of a point card and it changes control Q your cards cannot be the target of opponent’s J, 2 and, 9 K reduce the points needed to win, 1: 14, 2: 10, 3: 7, 4: 5
variant: 4 opponent scraps two cards randomly 9 return any permanent card to the top of the deck
- Ace – One of the following:
- Discard any non-point card in play.
- Prevent a one-off effect from occurring (after this it is opponent’s turn again, also works on one-off of a card drawn by Six’s on-off)
- Two - Discard all point cards that are in play.
- Three - Discard all non-point cards that are in play.
- Four - Return any card in play to the top of the stock.
- Five - Choose 2 of your opponent’s cards that they must discard. If they have more than 5 cards after this, they must then discard down to 5 cards.
- Six - Draw 2 cards. Return 1 card to the top of the stock. Use the other card immediately.
- Seven - Add any card from the discard pile to your hand.
- Eight - glasses Eight get to see the 2 cards that are drawn for an opponent’s one-off Six, and the 3 cards that are drawn for an opponent’s one-off Nine.
- Nine - Draw 3 cards. Return 1 card to the top of the stock. Add the other 2 cards to your hand.
- Ten - Steal a card from your opponent’s hand.
- Jack - Transfer control of an opponent’s card in play.
- Queen - (are not protected by themself or by other Queens. if a Queen was Jacked, it does not protect that Jack just like it does not protect itself)
- King - Reduce the number of points needed to win by 7.