T10: Animals

In this must-follow and trump trick-taking game, teams compete to win tricks, all while avoiding the dreaded 4s in the deck. Along the way, when players lose tricks, they can upgrade their cards to the trump suit. Teams are trying to control the flow of the trump suit, and they’re competing to catch tricks, but not all tricks, since 4s are negative points.

In trick-taking parlance, this is a mix of trick-taking and trick avoidance. Your team wants tricks, but the right tricks. Namely, you always want to avoid tricks with more than one 4. But otherwise, it is always good to take tricks. There's a balance to be had: you want (and indeed need) to take tricks. But you don't want to overdo it, because you’ll end up capturing the cards worth negative points.

This is the teams version of Kansas City: The Trick-Taking Game.

—description from the designer