Trick-taking, where each card is a step on the dance floor
💃 Tango is a little card game from @grailgames that we grabbed at Gen Con last year. We couldn’t leave it there, as a 2-player trick-taking duel game sounded too good. 😊 There are more and more of these, and I know some roll their eyes upon hearing “trick-taking” (some might even say they hate them like Anakin hates sand) - but I really grew to love them, at least when they have a fun twist and work well at 2p. Both of those are true here. 👍
The main twist of Tango is that players have cards both in their hand and in front of them on the table. 🧐 For each trick, players thus play 1+1 cards (first from hand, then from the table), meaning each trick will consist of 4 cards.
The core gameplay is familiar: There are 4 different suits/colors in the deck. 👉When a trick is started, then the lead color has to be followed if possible. Then whoever played the biggest number in the lead suit wins 🏆 - or alternatively the trump suit wins if you managed to play it into the trick. The trump suit (aka. “dance style” 🕺) itself is determined by a card at setup, however every time someone loses a trick they can optionally swap out that card with one from their hand, changing the trump!
A round is over after 10 tricks, and you check who earned more points: 🕵️ Each trick is worth 1 point, but additionally 1s, 2s and 8s are worth 1 point each, and 9s and 10s are a negative point. There is also the so-called Rose card which is worth 2 points, and it works a bit like a joker with some special rules. Winning one round isn’t enough, as you are playing to see who wins the best of 3. 😉
💬The twist on the formula is simple, but it really makes the game much more tactical. My biggest gripe with trick-takers usually is how they can feel random (at least I’m bad at card-counting), so having an array of cards faceup on the table does a great job to give you more agency in choosing what cards to play - and yet still enough secret info in your hand so it’s not deterministic. The scoring system is also clever, as you gun for high scoring tricks, while trying to feed your opponent minus points. This is a great little 2p game in a tiny box! 😊
