Get Ready for a Game of Mightiness!

Have you ever heard of the game called Mighty? It’s super popular in Korean universities, and let me tell you, it’s a blast! The goal of this game is to capture point cards, and let me walk you through the rules.

Let’s Start with the Cards and the Deal

Mighty is played with a deck of 52 cards and one Joker. Now, pay attention because the card rankings are a bit different in this game. In Mighty, 2 is the lowest card, while Ace is king of the hill. Keep in mind that all 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces are worth points, but the cards 2 through 9 have no point value at all. Oh, and there are three special cards that have special abilities. Exciting, right?

The Ace of Spades, known as The Mighty, is the most powerful card in the game, unless Spades are trump. When Spades are trump, the Ace of Diamonds takes on the title of The Mighty. The Mighty can be played at any time, and if it is played first, other players must follow its suit if they can.

The Joker is the second highest card, unless The Ripper leads the trick. When the Joker is led, the player who played it gets to choose which suit must be followed. However, the Joker cannot be played on the first or last trick.

The 3 of Clubs is known as The Ripper, and it is a special card that forces the Joker to be played while stripping it of its power. If Clubs is chosen as the trump suit, the 3 of Spades becomes The Ripper.

Let’s start by cutting the deck to determine who will be the first dealer. The person with the highest card will go first. If we play multiple rounds, the player who has the called card becomes the next dealer.

Each player will receive ten cards. The remaining three cards will be placed in a kitty in the middle of the table.

It’s Time to Play!

The Bidding Phase

The bidding phase begins with the dealer. If we play more than one round, the player who declared the trump suit in the previous round will start the bidding in the next one.

When it’s your turn to bid, you have to announce how many points you and your partner plan to capture and which suit you want to be the trump. The minimum bid is 13 points. For example, you could bid 14 with Hearts.

As we go around the table, you have two options: pass or raise the bid. When you raise the bid, you can either add more points or keep the same number of points as the previous bid, but without any trump. Let’s say the previous bid was 14 with hearts. You can raise it to 15 with diamonds or keep it at 14 with no trump. The highest bid possible is 20 with no trump.

Once you pass, you can’t jump back in with a bid. Bidding continues until all but one player has passed. The player with the highest bid becomes the bid-winner.

If everyone passes, we have one more round of bidding. If all five players pass again, the hand is considered a misdeal. In that case, the same dealer collects the cards and deals again.

CALLING & CARD EXCHANGE

Alright, let’s see what happens next! The person who won the bid flips over the cards in the kitty, so everyone can see them. They take those three cards and add them to the cards they already have. Then, they get to choose three cards from their hand to get rid of. These cards are placed face-down and won’t be used. Oh, and any point cards they discard will count towards points for their team.

Now, here’s an interesting twist. After the exchange, the bid-winner can change the trump suit. If they change the trump suit from one type to another, or from not having a trump suit to choosing one, they have to increase their bid number by 2 points. But if they decide to change from a suit to not having a trump suit, they only have to increase their bid number by 1.

Once we finish trading and determine the trump suit, I can ask someone to be my partner. All I have to do is mention a card, any card I like. Whoever has that card becomes my partner. It’s important that my partner keeps this a secret, though. The other players will only find out about our partnership when we start playing cards or when the called card is played.

But here’s the cool part: I can choose to play alone if I want to. I can either declare “no friend” or call a card from my own hand. And get this, I can even go alone by calling a card that’s in the kitty.

If I make a bid of 20 no trump, I can also specify which suit I want my partner to win after leading a trick. For example, I could say, “20 no trump and I want Diamonds from my friend.”

THE FIRST TRICK

When we start the game, the person who won the bid gets to lead the first trick. But here’s the catch – they can’t start with a trump card, the Joker, or The Ripper. We all have to play a card from the same suit if we can, but there are a couple of exceptions. We can choose to play The Mighty or the Joker, even if it’s not the same suit as the lead card. Just remember, if The Ripper is the first card played, the Joker loses its special powers and can’t ignore the lead suit anymore.

If we don’t have a card from the lead suit, we can play any card from our hand.

The person who played the highest card from the lead suit, the highest trump card, the Joker (unless The Ripper was played), or The Mighty will win the trick.

And guess what? The winner of the trick gets to lead the next one!

So, here’s how it goes: I don’t know who the friend of the bid-winner is, but they collect the tricks they’ve taken and put them face down in front of them. The other four players collect tricks too, but they put any point cards they’ve captured face up in front of them.

Now, here’s the interesting part: once the bid-winner’s friend is revealed or decides to come out and say they’re the friend, all the point cards captured by the partnership are handed over to the bid-winner.

We keep playing until all the tricks are taken.

Scoring

In this game, each 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace is worth one point. In total, there are 20 possible points up for grabs. To win, a team must capture at least 11 points.

Winning

The game is won by the team that captures the most point cards.

Hey, by the way! Meet Amber (they/them), an Austin writer and gaming expert. They’re a self-proclaimed gaming master who also happens to love dogs, plants, and D&D.