YORKTON - Trick taking card games are a staple for many gamers with many variations on the mechanic available for both traditional card decks and decks specific to a game.
For The Meeple Guild trick takers are popular with about half the members, so when a new offering pops up it’s generally of some interest.
Trickadee a 2025 release from designer Rob Newton, artist Kelsey King and publisher Coin Flip Games is the latest trick taker – well sort of at least to hit the table.
While the game was launched via Kickstarter with a physical edition available we were provided print and play files to review, and we are very happy we were given the opportunity.
To start with the 55-card deck is based around 11 species of birds, and King’s art is very nice, an important element in a game where cards are in your hand to look at all the time.
But, it’s the game play which endears Trickadee the most.
On the surface it’s a trick taker but in actuality that is a very small part of the overall game.
Players do play cards to tricks in a fairly normal fashion – a player leads and you follow suit if able, play a trump suit card, or throw anything else if you do not have the lead suit and do not wish to trump. There are a few game specific rules – largely because there are only five cards per colour which can make for some mixed bag tricks late in a round – especially with four or five players – but tricks play smoothly.
Then things get interesting.
The trick winner picks whichever card among those played to place into a personal ‘flock’ – think a rummy-esque meld.
A flock can be a sequence of cards, a set of a single colour or species (or both), or a set etc. It is the flocks which ultimately score after each of three rounds played.
After the trick taker chooses a card, other players in turn of highest card played – generally – pick one card. Non-trick winners also collect valuable ‘seeds’ which can be spent to do things in-game to one’s flock. Each round three cards are dealt with specific rules – move a bird to another flock as an example – are available to use once per trick per player if you pay the required seed cost. It is in these three cards you can really strategize if you have those coveted seeds. It is why often you don’t want to win a trick as the seeds can be so important – oh yes if you pick last in a trick you get two seeds – so failing in tricks can be a planned strategy at times.
Designer Newton said this is where the heart of the game lies.
“Trick-taking fanatics might be surprised by Trickadee,” he said via email. “I would say that the primary mechanic in the game is related to building flocks. You need to play cards into each trick to aim for a specific position rather than counting cards or hoping to run a particular suit down.
“Instead, you might have to think about what you can play to come in second place during the drafting phase. That’ll earn you an early pick of a bird, but also a single sunflower seed.
“For players less familiar with trick-taking, I’m hoping that Trickadee will be a gentle introduction to the genre with some elements from other games that they are familiar with. Set collection and drafting are very common in a lot of modern board games. So the tricky bit is just learning how to play your cards effectively in different trick-taking situations.”
You play three rounds, scoring after each.
Our experience suggest games are rarely going to be lopsided. A win by five points seems to be a near anomaly.
Likewise no one is a distant last.
That said getting behind more than a few points after round one will put you in a difficult position to catch up.
“There are some really subtle things going on with Trickadee that players often figure out by the end of their first play,” said Newton. “The suits in Trickadee are not equal, but they do overlap. This gives an implicit hierarchy to the suits (Purple being the “worst” and Red being the “best”). So, by this logic, the Purple Chickadee is the “worst” card in the game, but often you can use bad cards to make big moves. Coming in last in a trick may get you the sunflower seeds you need to spend on an ability that nets you more points than if you had first pick in the card drafting.”
So, there are lots of decisions to be made here – when to go for a trick win for a card, or to play for those two seeds for being the worst, and which ‘abilities’ to pay the coveted seeds to use and when. It’s the multiple decision opportunities which keep this game fresh – you feel like you if you make the right choices good things will happen.
As Newton noted, “Trickadee is a unique take on trick-taking games. You have to think tactically about each trick and weigh the options of using a card to win or lose a trick or saving it so you can swap it into a flock later. Each card having multiple uses is one not often seen in small box card games . . .
“Trickadee is a unique take on trick-taking games. You have to think tactically about each trick and weigh the options of using a card to win or lose a trick or saving it so you can swap it into a flock later. Each card having multiple uses is one not often seen in small box card games”
While a long way from year-end Trickadee is going to garner a lot of consideration from ‘guilders’ when it comes time to pick their top-five for 2025.
Check it out at www.coinflip.games
