Cerealian

Cerealian is a trick-taking card game from Japan that only uses 12 cards. Play is standard must follow trick-taking rules (play the same color card if you can), except in Cerealian players can follow suit using cards played in previous tricks. The cards played in a trick are divided into players score area, where they are kept face up, vulnerable to be stolen and played into a trick.

My Thoughts

• Cerealian has a clever twist on trick-taking games that makes it work with just 12 cards.
• Scoring has a couple steps which make it odd to explain, but after one play it is pretty simple to understand.

• Can’t carelessly play your low cards into a trick you aren’t winning because they are useful for having a large difference in scored cards.
• Effectively has a shoot the moon mechanic of collecting a run of 3 sequential cards, which keeps you in danger of having a very low difference between your scored cards if the round ends before you complete the run.

Other Small Box Card Games from Mamé Wasabi