Designer: Muneyuki Yokouchi (横内宗幸)
Publisher: Ayatsurare Ningyoukan
Players: 3-4
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Times Played: 5 on a purchased copy

Cat in the Box is a trick-taking game that continues the “tradition” of untangling suits and ranks from their natural connection. When we think about card games – trick-taking or not – we go to rank and suits: games played with a traditional deck of cards have it (e.g. rummy, poker, blackjack).  Uno has it. 

Cards have one number and one suit.

As best I can tell, this changed in 2005 with Joe Huber’s small release Transportation Tricks.  Players are dealt a hand of a fixed amount of cards that show only a number and a variable amount that show only a suit. The suits have a fixed hierarchy, and after using one of their number cards to set the value of the suits for the round, players will play two cards to each trick: one number and one suit.

This twist doesn’t seem to show up in another published trick-taking design until dois’ first release in 2014.  Rather than playing one suit and one number to each trick, dois’ has one of the two persist.  That is, if you play a 7 (rank) and a Crosswalk (suit) to the first trick, you’ll replace either the rank or the suit for the second trick, but the other will remain – you will be playing either a 7 or a Crosswalk card to the second trick.

In these first two examples, an unstated symptom is that there’s no lever controlling the distribution.  A hand may see many copies of the same “card” played, and others not played at all.  (This is something that also happens in dice-based trick-taking games.) Taiki Shinzawa, the designer of dois, followed that design up the next year with mantel, a game that puts us closer to the Cat in the Box setup, as it ensures each person will play the ranks 1 through 12 exactly once each in a hand.  In almost the converse setup of Cat in the Box, players are each given cards 1 through 12, suitless, and face up on the table, but are “dealt” a hand of colored cubes that will represent the suits. In each trick, choose a cube from your hand and place it on a rank; that’s the only time you’ll play that rank this hand.  This ensures that each of 1 through 12 is played 3 times, but the distribution of the 4 suits is still left to wander.

Cat in the Box adds additional structure to the available card distribution by fixing the play space to exactly one of each card in the distribution, such as 1 through 8 in each of four suits. It doesn’t do this perfectly, but puts the onus on you to make sure it works out.  And if you mess it up – welcome to Paradox City!  The hand ends, adversely for you, and closer to fine for the other players.