Elemental Duels
Bid your tricks, then go win them.
Elemental Duels is a trick-taking game where the real decision happens before a card is played: you bid, in secret, how many tricks you expect to win, then have to make the cards agree with your own prediction. Winning too many tricks punishes you as much as winning too few.
Objective
Say how many tricks you'll win, then win exactly that many. Not one more, not one less.
How to play
- Round 1 deals 1 card each, round 2 deals 2, and so on. Before anyone plays, everyone secretly bids how many tricks they'll win. Bidding 0 is fine.
- Play goes in turn order, one card each per trick. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one, so winning early can be a trap if you bid low.
- With 2 players, a ghost hand called the Wanderer plays one card every trick. It never bids or scores, but every trick it wins is one neither of you gets.
Scoring
Hit your bid exactly to score. Miss it, over or under, and you lose points.
Example round
- It's round 4, so everyone holds 4 cards. Ana bids 2 tricks, Ben bids 1, and Cleo bids 0.
- Ana leads a Water card. Ben follows with a higher Water card, winning the trick and leading the next one.
- Ben, already sitting on his bid of 1, now has to actively dodge winning a second trick he never wanted.
- Cleo plays her Mist card on a later trick — the weakest card in the ranking — deliberately staying clear of any trick she doesn't want, protecting her bid of 0.
- At the round's end, Ana lands exactly on her bid of 2 and scores well for it, while Ben overshoots his bid of 1 by a trick and takes a penalty scaled to how far off he landed.
Strategy tips
- Bid conservatively in early rounds when hands are small — with only one or two cards, your control over the outcome is limited, so a low, safe bid usually beats an ambitious one.
- You must follow the suit led — Water, Earth, Air, or Fire — if you're holding one, so track who's played what: once you're void in a suit, you're free to save your strongest cards for one you can't be forced out of.
- If you're already sitting on your bid, deliberately play your weakest card (or the Chameleon as an Escape) on tricks you don't want to win.
- Hold the Unicorn as insurance against a Dragon — it's the one card that beats one.
Best with
Works with 2 players for a tight head-to-head and scales up well since more players means more competing bids fighting over the same tricks — suits a group that enjoys a slower, strategic card game.
Variations
- Leave every optional ruleset (Volcano, Eclipse, Confluence, Capture Bonuses, Attuned scoring) off for a first game, then turn one on per session as the group gets comfortable.
- Agree to play a fixed number of rounds rather than letting the hand size escalate indefinitely.
- For a team variant, pair players up and sum their bids-versus-tricks accuracy across a round instead of scoring purely individually.
FAQ
What happens if I bid 0 and win a trick anyway?
Missing your bid costs you regardless of direction — winning tricks when you bid 0 counts against you the same way falling short of a higher bid would.
Can two players bid the same number of tricks?
Yes — each is scored against their own bid versus their own tricks won, independent of what anyone else bid.
What makes the Unicorn special?
It sits outside the normal power ranking — worthless against most cards, but the only one that beats a Dragon, and if both land in the same trick, whichever Unicorn was played first wins.
When I play the Confluence card, why doesn't the game ask me to pick an ally?
It isn't meant to — Confluence never lets you choose. Playing it plays like a Mist (it can't win the trick) and automatically, secretly allies you with whoever ends up winning that trick. Neither of you picks the other; you only find out the alliance existed if you both hit your bid that round, when you each score a bonus.