Mystical Eddies is a trick-taking game for The Mystique Deck, in which the player who leads the trick must assume she won't win the trick, because a subsequent player determines the context of the card she leads.
The game can be played either for a fixed number of rounds, or to a target score.
When leading a trick, you can play any card you like; however, because the Mystique cards have three aspects (suit, number, color), the next player chooses which aspect to follow. Everyone else in the trick must follow the same aspect (or toss a card if unable, like most trick-taking games). If the second player's card followed two aspects, then the other players must follow both.
This game uses the following ranking:
suit: suns > moons > arms > crowns
number: 5 > 4 > 3 > 2 > 1
color: yellow > red > blue
The trick winner is determined as follows:
Following suit: Highest number; tie goes to highest color.
Following color: Highest suit; tie goes to highest number.
Following number: Highest color; tie goes to highest suit.
Following suit and color: Highest number.
Following suit and number: Highest color.
Following color and number: Highest suit.
Should no one be able to follow a led card, the trick leader wins the trick.
Each trick won is worth 1 point.
Advanced Scoring Variant: Balance
Each player earns points in three categories:
Tricks won following suit.
Tricks won following color.
Tricks won following number.
When a player wins a trick, she earns one point in the appropriate category. If she won a trick that followed two aspects, she earns one point in each of those two categories! Your category with the lowest score is what counts toward winning.