Wizard is a card game invented by Ken Fisher of Toronto, Ontario in 1984. Wizard cards were first printed in June of 1986. A Wizard deck consists 60 cards: a regular set of 52 playing cards, 4 Wizards and 4 Jesters. The Jesters have the lowest value, then the 2 up to ace, with Wizards highest in value. The game is licensed in Canada, The United States, Germany and Italy. Wizard is a trick-taking game for 3 to 6 players. It is derived from Oh Hell and bears some resemblance to it. The game is played in a number of rounds from 10 to 20, depending on the number of players.

German Cards

The popular German version of this game has a completely different design, with a fantasy-themed character on each card. Each character has a title such as der krieger (the warrior) or die priesterin (the priestess) printed at the top of the card. There are 2 male and 2 female versions of each character. The German decks contain four non-standard suits with values from 1 to 13, four Z cards labelled either der zauberer (the sorcerer) or die zauberin (the sorceress) and four N cards labelled der narr or die närrin (the fool).

The Wizard Card Game

The object of the game is to bid correctly on the number of tricks that will be taken in the subsequent round of play. Points are awarded for a correct bid and subtracted for an incorrect bid. The person with the most points after all rounds have been played is the winner.

Each round consists of three stages: Dealing, Bidding, and Playing.

Dealing

A dealer is chosen by dealing one card to each player. The highest card deals. On the first round of play, each player is dealt a single card. Two cards are dealt on the second round, three on the third, and so forth. After each round of play, the deal passes to the left. The next card in the deck is turned up after the deal to indicate the trump suit. A Jester indicates no trump and a Wizard is dealer's choice. The final round will be no trump and will always use all the cards since 60 is evenly divisible by 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Bidding

After looking at their cards, starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player states how many tricks he or she will take, from zero to the number of cards dealt. This is recorded on a score pad.

Even bid rule

If the dealer, who is the last to bid, has more points than any other player, she may not bid a number of tricks that would make the total number of tricks bid equivalent to the number of cards in hand.

Playing

Play is started by the person to the left of the dealer. Any card may be led from the hand by placing it face up for all the players to see. Play continues clockwise, with each player laying a single card face-up from their hand. The card laid must follow the suit of the card led if possible, with 2 exceptions. A Wizard or a Jester can be played anytime, even if the player's hand contains a card of the suit led. Once each player has played one card, the winner of the trick is determined by

• the first Wizard played
• if no Wizards were played, the highest trump played
• if no trump were played, the highest card of the suit led

The winner of the trick leads the next trick until all cards in hand are played, signifying the end of the round.

Leading Special Cards

If a Wizard is led, it will win the trick and other players may play any card they wish, without need to follow suit. If a Jester is led, the suit to be followed is chosen by the next card played. Jesters will always lose, with one exception. If all the players play a Jester, then the first one played will win the trick.

Scoring

At the end of each round, each player is given a score based on his performance. For predicting the number of tricks taken correctly, a player receives 20 points plus 10 points for each trick taken. For predicting the number of tricks taken incorrectly, a player loses 10 points for each trick over or under the bid.

Options

Canadian rule

This is a modification of the even bid rule that always allows a bid of zero, even if it makes the bids add up to the number of cards in each hand.

No bid limitations

The game can be played without the even bid rule.

Hidden bid

Each player writes his or her bid on a piece of paper and they all reveal them before playing each round. Obviously, the even bid rule makes no sense in this context.

Quick play

Hand size increases by 2 cards instead of 1 each round to speed up play. The final round should always use all the cards, thus 3 or 5 player games start with a hand of 2 cards and 4 or 6 player games must start with a 1 card round.