Superior!: "Quien es mas Macho?"

A fast and furious card game for 2-4 players.
Written and designed by Jared A. Sorensen with help from Joe Reif.
"Tag-Team" multiplayer rules variant designed with help from Michael Mearls.

Playing cards graphics created from a font by Ryan Neaveill

What is Superior!? Superior! is a card game for 2 people. What's the goal? The point is to capture cards in order to score points. The person who empties their hand first ends the game. The player with the most points wins the game. What do I need to play: A normal 52-card deck of playing cards (remove the Jokers) and another player. How long does it take to learn this game? About five to ten minutes. Experienced players should be able to play a game in three minutes or less. How do I play? I'll tell you now!

Set-up Shuffle the deck and deal out 10 cards to each player. The dealer then flips over the top card of the deck and put it off to the side. The suit of the card is the dealer's Superior Trump. The other player does the same (note that both players might draw the same Superior Trump). The player who drew the higher card (Aces are low, Kings are high) gets to go first. If both players draw cards of the same value (two 8's, for instance), then they should re-shuffle those cards back into the deck and flip the top cards again until one person draws a higher card. I flip this card: My Superior Trump is Hearts. I drew a 3. You flip this card: Your Superior Trump is Spades. You drew a Jack. Jacks are higher so you get to go first. Set these cards to the side. They are out of play and are only used to remind you what your Superior Trump is. Terms The term number card refers to an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10. The term face card refers to a Jack, Queen or King. A Superior Trump causes the Ace of a specific suit to act differently than other Aces. A flip is when your opponent turns over the top card of the deck to get a random card.

Basic Bidding Start by bidding a card from your hand (2-10 only for now). Your opponent should then flip the top card of the deck (face-up). If that card is equal to or greater than the card you just bid, you win the bid card. Put it into your score pile -- it is worth a number of points equal to its numerical value. Place the flipped card into the discard pile. I bid this card: You flip this card: I win the bid and place the card into my score pile for 4 points. The 9 is discarded. If the flipped card is less than the card you bid, put both cards into the discard pile. I bid this card: You flip this card: I lose the bid. Both cards are discarded.   After the lost cards are discarded or the won cards are added to your score pile, your turn ends. Advanced Bidding Because the game ends when one player runs out of cards, it's often advantageous to unload as many cards as possible at one time. These advanced, multi-card bids are called Combos and Matches. Combos If you possess two or more number cards of the same suit, you may bid them together as one card. This is called a Combo bid. For instance, if I have the 2 of Diamonds and the 4 of Diamonds in my hand, I may bid them as together as a 6 of Diamonds. If the flipped card is equal to or greater than 6, I win the Combo bid. If the flipped card is less than the total of my Combo bid, I lose all the cards in the combo. Combo bids may not be higher than 10. I bid these two cards (a 9 of hearts): You flip this card:   I win the Combo bid and place the cards into my score pile for 9 points. The 9 of hearts is discarded.   Matches If you possess two or more number cards of the same value, you may bid them in succession. This is called a Match bid. For instance, if I bid (and win) the 6 of spades, I can then bid another 6. If I win that bid, I can continue until I run out of Match cards. If I lose any of the bids, I lose any cards that were bid before. In other words, if I bid the 6 of spades and win, then bid a Match with the 6 of diamonds and lose, I don't get any of those bid cards. I bid this card: You flip this card: I bid another 4. You flip this card: I bid a third 4: You flip this card: I win all three 4's and place them into my score pile for 12 points. The 9, 6 and 7 are discarded.   Combining Combos and Matches You may combine both types of advanced bids. For example, if I have the following cards in my hand: I could bid the 5 and 2 of clubs together as a Combo (making it a 7 of clubs). If I win that bid, I could then bid a Match with the 7 of Diamonds and then, if I win that bid, I can follow-up with a second Match bid with the 7 of Hearts. This would clear four of my cards and net me 21 points in a single turn ! Aces and Superior Trumps Aces each have a numerical value of 1 for purposes of bidding, flipping and scoring. The exception is the Ace of your Superior Trump. Superior Trumps always bid as 1, score as 11 and flip as 11. Aces (Superior Trump or not) can be used in Combos and Matches as well. Reversals Your opponent can steal bids using Face cards. This maneuver is called a Reversal. If you bid a card (or cards) and your opponent has a Face card of the same suit, he or she may bid that Face card to steal your bid and add it to his or her score pile (the Face card is discarded). This is done instead of flipping the top card from the deck. I bid this card: You Reverse with this card: I lose the 7. It goes into your score pile and the King is discarded.   If the bid to be Reversed is a part of Match, the last-bid card is used to determine the suit of the entire bid. You can perform a double-Reversal by bidding a Face card of the same suit after your opponent has stolen your bid. If your opponent has the third Face card of the same suit, a triple-Reversal can be made. Bidding and Flipping Face Cards When bidding cards, if a Face card is flipped from the top of the deck, the bidding player has the option to automatically win the bid or discard the bid and take the Face card into his or her hand. I bid this card: You flip this card: I could either take the 7 and put it into my score pile -or- I could discard the 7 and put the King into my hand. If you bid a Face card, the top card of the deck is turned over and you have the option of taking that card or keeping your Face card. Put the chosen card back into your hand and discard the other card. I bid this card: You flip this card: I could take either card into my hand. An Ace is only worth 1 point so I decide to discard it and put my King back into my hand. If you have no more number cards in your hand, you must bid your Face cards until you acquire a number card or until the game ends. Winning the Game Once a player has run out of cards in his or her hand, the game ends. Also, if the deck runs out of cards, the game ends. Discard any remaining cards in your hand and total up the cards in your score pile. Aces are worth 1 point each, unless the Ace is your Superior Trump. A Superior Trump Ace is worth 11 points. As stated before, each number card has a point value equal to its numerical value (2 is worth 2 points, 3 is worth 3 points, and so on). The winner (at his or her discretion) may then shout "Yo soy Superior!" and will deal the next round. At the end of the game, I have the following cards in my score pile: My Superior Trump is Spades. I have 7+6+3+11+1+9= 37 points. You can play as many rounds as desired.

Optional Rules: Multiplayer Superior! You can play Superior! with more than two players. Here's how: Free-for-All The first multiplayer variant is called Free-for-All. In Free-for-All, players play as normal except that anyone may perform a Reversal on any other player. At the end of the game, each player counts up his or her score separately. The player with the highest score wins. Tag-Team The second multiplayer variant is called Tag-Team. In Tag-Team, two teams of two players each are required. Deal out 6 cards to each player. Decide which two players (one on each team) will perform the preliminary turn-over to see who goes first and what each team's Superior Trump is. These players are the active players. The other two players are resting. When points are scored, they are scored as a team. The active players play against one another as normal. However, each resting player may become active by bidding Matches or Combos with his partner or by bidding Reversals against his opponent. If the active player bids a card, his resting teammate may add a same-suit card to the bid as a Combo. Combos may not be added to the bid once the top card has been turned over. If one player bids a card and wins it, their resting teammate may bid a same-value card as a Match. If the opposing team bids a card, either player may attempt a Reversal (which may then be countered by either opponent). Once the resting player bids a Combo or Match, he becomes the active player. His partner then becomes the resting player. The same applies to a resting player who performs a Reversal. When the deck has run out of cards, or when any player has run out of cards, the game ends. The team with the highest number of points wins the game.