NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Four (two teams of two)

AGE APPROPRIATE: 12 to adult

THE DECK: Universal Card Deck – 54 cards (Sun through 1) and two Galaxy cards (Venus and Saturn)

RANK OF CARDS: Sun (high), Moon, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The two Galaxy cards are wild.

RANK OF SUITS: The six suits are divided into primary suits (Earth, Jupiter, Mars) and secondary suits (Neptune, Saturn, Venus). The ranking in the primary suits from high to low is E, J, M. The ranking in the secondary suits from high to low is N, S, V. The primary suits as a whole are not higher in rank than the secondary suits.

THE SHUFFLE AND CUT: Draw or cut for deal; high suit deals. If any players draw or cut the same highest suit, the card rankings go into effect. Dealer shuffles. The player at dealer’s right cuts the deck.

THE DEAL: All 56 cards are dealt face down, one at a time. Each player receives fourteen cards. Deal and play are clockwise.

OBJECT OF PLAY: For each team (both players collectively) to take all 9 cards of any one or more suits in a hand. The game is won when one team has captured/annexed all six planet suits over a series of hands.

THE PLAY: The player left of the dealer plays a card to start the first trick. The other players in clockwise order must follow suit if possible. If a player does not have a card of that suit, he/she must play a card from the same suit grouping; e.g., if a player cannot follow a Jupiter lead, he/she must play an Earth or Mars card if possible. The person who plays the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless a player cannot follow suit and chooses to play a card from a higher ranked suit; e.g., a Saturn card is led and a player who doesn’t have a Saturn card plays a higher ranked secondary card to take the trick. The player could also play a lower ranked card if he/she doesn’t want the trick or the lead. If a player cannot play a card from the same suit grouping as the lead card, he/she plays a card from the other suit grouping, knowing it has not power to take the trick; e.g. and secondary suited card is led and the player has to play a primary suited card. Keep in mind, if a secondary suit is led, only secondary cards will have any power. If a primary suit is led, only primary cards will have any power. The player taking the trick leads to the next trick.The two Galaxy wild cards can be played at any time to take a trick. If both wild cards are played on the same trick, the player with the Saturn Galaxy wild card takes the trick.As tricks are collected by one of the team members, the cards must be separated by suit and kept face up for all players to see which suits have been acquired.

SCORING: At the end of each hand each team determines if they have captured/annexed all 9 cards of one or more suits. The scorekeeper writes down which suits have been annexed by each team. If a team captures a suit that they already captured in a previous hand, the team gets to pick an “unannexed” suit to take its place. If that same suit is captured a third time, it is of no value. If the replacement suit gets annexed in a later hand, the team can pick another uncaptured suit, but not if the replacement suit is captured again.

©Copyright 2003 by John Frampton & Craig Richter