Having had a long time interest in card games, I've tried many of the games found on Pagat.com with a regular card deck, a deck modified to simulate a german or latin deck, and even some of the tarot deck games. I've also played with other game systems such as the Icehouse pieces or Piecepack. As a matter of fact, I had only recently found someone who was as eager as I was to try as many games as possible of these various systems. While looking for new Icehouse games, I stumbled across one that linked to Magnate, one of the Decktet games.

A new game system! Well, new to me, anyway, and I'd never even heard of artscow.com before. Next thing you know, I've ordered my deck, and even printed off the rules compilation I found here at BGG.

Upon arrival, I was excited to try a game, and we figured we'd start with something simple -- a rummy-type game. There was a bit of confusion initially in terms of what constituted "binding", as I hadn't heard that term used before in the games I've played, but we soon sorted it out and played like old hands.

Bharg is a game in which you are trying to form specific sets within your hand, and then your goal is to lay them all down at once and go out. In this manner, it is closer to Gin than Rummy, but that's a mere technicality.

Your hand consists of 7 cards. Interestingly, rather than allowing for sets that are sequential runs or cards of the same rank, the only valid set is a group of cards containing exactly one of each suit symbol. Since the number cards each contain 2 suits, and aces and crowns each contain 1, this means that a valid set can be composed of anywhere from 3 to 6 cards.

The twist in this game is that there are two separate discard piles: one that you can draw from, and the other containing only discarded aces. The top card in the ace pile lets you go out with cards that are not otherwise part of a set, provided they all contain the suit of that ace.

This aspect is similar to another game I own, Corsari, in which the game begins with a "tavern" of cards, although Corsari allows you to draw from this pile. When you lay down your hand, cards that would otherwise count against you as penalties are zero points, provided they match the color of the current top "tavern" card.

Once we understood that similarity (even if the mechanism is slightly different), we found we were able to grasp the strategy of arranging cards in our hand and going out much better.

Some games were quick -- one or the other of us got lucky and was dealt a hand that already contained two sets. Some took a little longer as we broke up some potential sets to form others. Once, I even managed to go out with all 7 cards matching the ace I discarded (given that there are only 10 cards containing any given suit symbol, including the ace, this was a bit of a longshot on my part).

My wife immediately fell in love with this game and has requested it repeatedly. A sure sign of a good game is when the person you're trying it with immediately wants to play it again several more times.

Adding the extended cards (4 pawns with 3 suits each and the Excuse, with no suit) changes the game up slightly. Having a card with 3 suits means that's one less suit to try and match up with another card, but also increases the probability of duplicate suits when trying to complete your set. The Excuse is essentially a freebie card, unable to be part of a set, but considered to always be "bound," and thus worth no penalty points.

To summarize the gameplay - each player is dealt 7 cards. Your turn consists of drawing a card from either the deck or the discard pile, then either going out with a discard, or simply discarding. If you discard an ace, it goes into a separate pile that may not be drawn from. To go out, you lay down all your cards at once, and then discard. A valid hand consists of "bound cards," which can be one of three things:

1. The card is the Excuse (if playing with the extended Decktet)
2. The card contains a suit matching the ace at the top of the discard pile (note that if your last discard is an ace, this may change which suit counts as bound)
3. The card is part of a group of cards in which all of the 6 suits are represented 1 and only 1 time each.

Your opponent then lays down their cards (without drawing). You score points equal to the ranks of the unbound cards in your opponent's hand (Aces = 1, Crowns = 10).

This is a fun game, easy to remember and teach, and will be a regular at my table.

"BLARG!"

Actually, we've kinda gotten in the habit of calling it that too. Similarly, Biscuit became "Bisquick", Quasenbo became either "Quasimodo" or "Qwijibo"....as yet, Magnate has managed not to acquire a nickname, but it's only a matter of time.