🏠 The Emissary

The Emissary is a solitaire trick-taking game designed by Wilhelm Su, one of ten solitaire games in his Isaludo collection along with Skyway and Loot the Loop.

A YouTube video explaining the rules is available courtesy of Board Games with Thomas.

The game lasts up to eight rounds, with your hand starting at eight cards each round. There are eight cards per suit in the deck, with aces valued as one.

After examining the hand you have been dealt, you commit to a contract, ie number of tricks to win that round. The position of each column is the number of tricks you need to win, and each contract can only be selected once per game. If you succeed at all eight, you win.

The suit of the king or queen on a given column (kingdom in the game's theme) is the trump suit, which can be changed using a spade advisor. The suit powers of the advisors work as follows:

Clubs

Increase the size of your hand, getting an extra card for each club in your hand.

Diamonds

Draw two additional cards, but then discard two cards of your choice.

Hearts

Decrease the size of your hand by discarding all of the current trump suit.

Spades

Change the current trump suit by switching the ruler of the selected kingdom with another unplayed one.

Each round, your _advisors_ start with the four jacks. They are joined by kings and queens of a given suit you capture by meeting their corresponding contract, but these are only used once per game.