Cuttle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Players and Cards
• Goal
• Setting Up
• Playing
• Actions
• Royals
• One-Offs
• Multiplayer Variants
  • 3 Player Cuttle: Cutthroat
  • 4 Player Cuttle: 2v2
• FAQ

Players and Cards

Cuttle is a 2-player card game, played with a standard 52 card deck, without jokers.

Goal

The goal is to be the first player to have 21 or more points worth of point cards on your field. The first player to reach the goal wins immediately.

Setting Up

One player (traditionally the dealer) is dealt 6 cards and their opponent is dealt 5. The player with 5 cards goes first. A scrap pile area is designated for scrapped cards.

Playing

On your turn, you must perform exactly one of the following actions, then discard down to the 8-card hand limit if you have 9 or more cards in hand.

Actions

1. Draw: Take one card from the deck. If there are no cards left in the deck, you may pass. Three consecutive passes ends the game in a stalemate.

2. Points: Play a number card from your hand. Worth its rank in points and lasts until scrapped. Ace-Ten score points for the number shown on the card (Ace is one point). The first player to have 21 or more points wins.

3. Scuttle: Scrap an opponent's point card with a bigger one from your hand. Ties are broken by the suit: Clubs (weakest) < Diamonds < Hearts < Spades (strongest).

4. Royal: Play a royal to the field for a persistent benefit -- as long as it stays in play.

5. Glasses: Play an Eight to reveal your opponent's hand (lasts until scrapped).

6. One-Off: Scrap a number card for an effect based on the rank of the card.

Royals

Royals (Kings, Queens, and Jacks) may be played to the field for a persistent benefit that remains in effect until the card is scrapped. Each Royal gives a different effect.

• King: Reduce the number of points you need to win (21, 14, 10, 5, 0 points with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Kings).
• Queen: Protects your other cards from being targeted by the effects of other cards. This protects your cards against 2's (both effects), 9's, and Jacks. Does not protect against aces, sixes or scuttling.
• Jack: Play on an opponent's point card to steal it. Point card returns to opponent if the Jack is scrapped or if another Jack is used to steal it back.
• Eight: Play a "Glasses Eight" to reveal your opponent's hand. This counts as a Royal and lasts until scrapped.

One-Offs

Number cards (except 8's and 10's) can be played for a One-Off effect, which scraps the card for an effect based on the rank of the card played. Whenever a one-off is played, the other player may counter it using a two to cancel the effect.

• Ace: Scrap all point cards on the field.
• Two (Multi Use Effect Card):
  1. Counter target One-Off Effect. Counters may be played during your opponent's turn.
  2. Scrap target Royal or Glasses Eight.
• Three: Choose a (non-three) card from the scrap pile and put it in your hand.
• Four: Your opponent discards two cards of their choice.
• Five: Discard one card then draw up to three cards from the deck.
• Six: Scrap all Royals and Glasses Eights on the field.
• Seven: Reveal the top two cards of the deck to both players and choose one to play however you choose.
• Nine: Return a card from your opponent's field to their hand. They cannot play it next turn.
• Ten: No effect.

Multiplayer Variants

Presently only 2-player Cuttle is available online, however Cuttle can be played with 2-4 players. 3 and 4-player Cuttle each have slight variations on the rules to optimize the game balance while changing the pace and the feel.

3 Player Cuttle: Cutthroat

Cutthroat is a brutally fast-paced 1v1v1 version of Cuttle, full of betrayal and pivotal moments! The rules are the same as above with the following changes:

• The win condition is reduced. Players need 14 points to win by default, 9 points with one King in play, 5 points with two Kings in play, and having 3 Kings in play immediately wins (goal becomes zero).
• To start play, deal each player 5 cards and the player to the left of the dealer goes first. Which player is the dealer rotates clockwise each game.
• Shuffle two Jokers into the deck. Jokers count as Royals with the effect "Steal target Royal".
• The hand limit is reduced to 7 (from 8).

4 Player Cuttle: 2v2

4 player Cuttle is a 2v2 team game. Each player sits across from their partner. Your team wins if either you or your teammate reach your respective goals, but players do not share cards on their hand or field (points are counted separately and your Royals do not directly affect your partner). The rules are otherwise the same as 1v1 Cuttle, with play proceeding clockwise from the left of the dealer, with the following other changes:

• Each player is dealt 5 cards, play starts left of the dealer and proceeds clockwise from there.
• Shuffle two Jokers into the deck. Jokers count as Royals with the effect "Steal target Royal". Similar to Jacks, they may transfer control of a Royal from any player to any other player.
• The hand limit is reduced to 7 (from 8).
• Jacks may be played to transfer control of any point card to any other player. You may therefore "steal" points from yourself (or anyone else) in order to give them to your partner, potentially winning on your turn with their points (their goal is still determined by the count of their own Kings on the field).
• Nines can be played for an alternative, similar effect. Whenever an opponent plays a Royal, you may immediately play a Nine in response to return that card to its owner's hand immediately, preventing its effect from taking place. Doing so may be done out of turn and does not take your turn, but does not prevent the target's owner from playing the card again on their next turn. Alternatively, you may still play a Nine for its original one-off effect on your turn (taking your turn to do so) to return a card to its controller's hand and prevent them from playing that card on their next turn.

FAQ

Can I play a two to counter a point card? What about a scuttle? Nope! Twos can only counter One-Offs. You can play a two to destroy a Royal or Glasses Eight, but this takes your turn, unlike countering.

Do Queens protect against countering with a two? Yes! Queens protect against targeting, when a card applies a unique effect to one specific card. This means your other cards (not the Queen, herself) are protected against Twos (either effect), Nines, and Jacks.

Do Queens protect against scuttling? What about Aces & Sixes? No! Scuttling doesn't count as targeting, and neither do the board-wiping effects of Aces or Sixes. Queens only protect against the effects of Twos, Nines, and Jacks.

Can I counter a Two with a Two? Heck yeah! Playing a Two to counter is a One-Off, which can be countered with a two. Stacked counters make for exciting plays and pivotal strategic moments.

Can I win by playing a King? Yes! If you meet the required number of points, you win immediately. This means if you play a King when you already have enough points to meet the new limit, you win on that turn.

If I play an Ace or a Six, are my cards destroyed as well? Yes. Aces and Sixes destroy all Point Cards and all Royals plus Glasses Eights, respectively. That includes any that you have out. Try to avoid destroying too many of your own cards!

My Seven revealed two Jacks and my opponent has no points. What happens? If playing both cards revealed by a Seven is impossible (namely revealing two Jacks and your opponent has no point cards in play), choose one card to discard and place the other back on top of the deck.

What if I play a Seven and there is only one card left in the deck? Reveal just the one card and continue play like normal. Similar to the above situation, if you reveal a Jack and your opponent does not have any point cards in play, that Jack is scrapped.

What happens when I play a five with an otherwise empty hand? If you have no other cards in hand when you play a 5, you simply skip discarding and draw three cards. This can be a powerful, but risky play. If it works, you end up with two more cards than you started with that turn, but if it is countered, you could have no cards at all!

What happens when the deck is exhausted? When there are no cards left in the deck, players may pass on their turn instead of drawing. If there are three consecutive passes i.e. player 1 passes, player 2 passes, then player 1 passes again, the game ends in a stalemate and neither player wins.

Where can I play Cuttle? You can play Cuttle anywhere you have a deck of cards and a friend. If you want to play online, there is only one place: cuttle.cards