Wizard game rules
Wizard is a trick-taking game for 3–6 players. The goal isn't to take as many tricks as possible — it's to predict exactly how many you'll take.
The deck
The game uses 60 cards: four suits (red, green, blue and yellow) numbered 1–13, plus 4 Wizards and 4 Jokers.
The Wizard is the strongest card — it always wins the trick. The Joker is the weakest — it never wins (unless a trick is all Jokers, in which case the first one played wins).
Players and rounds
3 to 6 players. The number of rounds depends on the player count: 3 players → 20 rounds, 4 → 15, 5 → 12, 6 → 10.
Round one deals each player a single card, round two deals two, and so on — the final round deals out the entire deck.
The dealer rotates one seat every round.
Trump
After dealing, the next card of the deck is flipped: its suit is the round's trump.
If a Wizard is flipped, the dealer chooses the trump suit. If a Joker is flipped, the round is played without trump. In the final round there is no card left to flip, so there is no trump.
Bidding
Before play, each player bids how many tricks they will take. Bidding starts left of the dealer; the dealer bids last.
The “hook” applies: the bids may never add up to the number of cards dealt — the dealer cannot pick the bid that would even it out. Someone is guaranteed to miss every round.
The blind first round
In round one (a single card) you don't see your own card — you see everyone else's and bid based on that.
After the last bid, the cards play out automatically.
Playing tricks
The player left of the dealer leads the first trick; each following trick is led by the winner of the previous one.
You must follow the led suit if you hold it. Wizards and Jokers may always be played regardless of suit.
A trick is won by: the first Wizard played; otherwise the highest trump; otherwise the highest card of the led suit.
If a Wizard leads the trick, everyone else may play anything. If a Joker leads, the first “real” card sets the suit to follow.
Scoring
Exact bid: 20 points + 10 per bid trick. Example: bid 2, took 2 → 40 points.
Missed bid: −10 points per trick of difference. Example: bid 1, took 3 → −20 points.
The player with the most points after the final round wins the game.
Online specifics
You have 60 seconds per move — when time runs out, an automatic move is played (the lowest legal card, or a bid of 0), so a slow connection never blocks the table.
Games with bots and solo games don't count toward the league — the ladder only tracks real games against real players.