The “greatest card game of all time” is back, and like John McClane, it’s back with a vengeance. In a lot of ways the original had the opportunity to be quite vengeful in itself, so let’s see what this has in store for us.
Introduction
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a high probability that you’ve heard of Flip 7 – the push-your-luck card game from Eric Olsen and The Op Games that has a distinct Blackjack feel to it. Sticking or twisting on your turn to try and flip over 7 uniquely numbered cards in a race to 200 points. I was sceptical when I saw “greatest card game of all time” on the original box, but I’ve humbly eaten my words since.
The new kid on the block expands the deck up to 13 thirteens, swaps the positive +2, +4, x2 etc cards for their negative equivalents, and introduces five new action cards to increase the player interaction.
How does it all work?
Setup is no different. In fact, most of the game is no different – it’s more variation on a familiar theme. Shuffle the deck and deal a card face-up to everyone and then go round twisting as usual or staying which is a different and distinct action from the original game and makes a potentially safe hand quite vulnerable.
In essence your ‘stayed’ cards are still open to action cards played by anyone else still in the round making each round feel a little like a Mexican standoff. Nobody wants to flip a risky card, but staying leaves you open to your cards being stolen, discarded or swapped.
What are the differences then?
We’ll start with the easy stuff. The previous friendly modifier cards that would give you and additional 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 points, as well as the much sought after x2 multiplier are all gone and have been replaced with their malevolent evil twins, subtracting 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 points as well as the potential to divide your score by 2. These are much less friendly.
As mentioned above, there are now thirteen 13s in the deck but with them come some changes to three number cards in the deck. The zero card – previously doing very little apart from giving you a card towards your Flip 7 now automatically sets your score to zero unless you can Flip 7. It basically puts you in a no-guts-no-glory situation – removing a lot of risk because you might as well go for it.
One of the 7s is now the Unlucky Seven which basically means whenever you receive it, you discard all other number and modifier cards you had in front of you, though you can’t bust on a 7 when it is revealed to you.
Finally for the number cards, there’s the Lucky 13 – this is essentially a lifeline specifically for the 13s. If you flip a second 13 card you don’t bust and they’ll both then count towards your attempt to Flip 7. But if you turn over a third 13 at any point, you’re gone.
All that is well and good but the new and updated action cards are where things really get spicy.
Action stations
There are three brand new action cards in this version, with two of the original cards slightly reworked to be a bit more evil.
The Freeze card has become Just One More, so whoever you play it on takes one more card on their next turn but then stays until the end of the round. In some ways that’s a little kinder (and as we’ll see below, perhaps even risky) but in some ways you’re just tagging on an opportunity to go bust again.
Flip Three has become Flip Four, with the target of this action card having to flip four cards over, though this time if you bust or Flip 7, you stop immediately and don’t turn over any remaining cards within that four. A small rule change but it does serve to keep more of the deck hidden.
Our three new friends are Steal, Swap and Discard which essentially function exactly as you’d imagine. Steal lets you take any one card off anyone, Swap allows you to get rid of a potentially unfavourable card (the Zero perhaps…?), swapping it with a much safer card from someone else. The Discard action means whoever it is played on must discard one of their cards – though they get to choose which one.
And this is where all these fine layers of change come together… yes you might have passed. Well stayed¸ but guess what? I’m got a Swap card and my zero is heading your way as your 10 takes its place. Lucky 13? Well here’s a Flip Four to lower your odds.
Final thoughts
It’s hardcore is what it is and definitely puts you out of control of your own destiny much more than you’d like. Or at least much more than you might be comfortable with if you’re used to the original game. It’s not just more player interaction, it’s a lot more ‘take that’ and I think that’s the main thing that might sway you towards this version or the original.
If none of that is enough, there’s also a Brutal Mode that allows your score to go negative from the bad modifier cards. At least in the purely vengeful mode you can’t go below zero. This mode also allows you to give modifiers to players who have gone bust and if you do manage to survive long enough to Flip 7, you can choose to get your 15 point bonus as usual, or simply subtract 15 off someone else’s score!
I think the original still has my heart – I introduced so many people to it and got people to see games in a different light that it’s hard to turn to this one. But that said, this devilish version definitely has a place on my shelf with family gatherings and end-of-game-night shenanigans to be had
