Streak
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Best
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The Russian attack-and-defend card game. Beat every card thrown at you or pick them all up — the last player still holding cards is the durak, the fool.
A 36-card deck (6 to ace). The card shown beside the deck sets the trump suit, and any trump beats any card of another suit.
When you attack, tap a card to play it. Your rival must beat it with a higher card of the same suit or with a trump. Once they have beaten it you may add another card, but only of a rank already lying on the table. Tap Pass when you are done: everything on the table is discarded and your rival attacks next.
When you defend, tap a card that beats the attack, or tap Take to pick up the whole table. If you take, your rival keeps the attack next turn and may first throw in more cards of matching ranks.
After every bout both hands refill to six while the deck lasts. Once the deck is empty, the first player to run out of cards wins; the one still holding cards is the durak. Your score is your win streak.
Durak is not about winning bouts — it is about running out of cards. That flips the usual card-game instinct: throwing in extra cards is almost always right, even when the defence is holding, because every card that leaves your hand is progress and every card your rival picks up is a setback for them. The only cards worth hoarding are the ones that will still be unbeatable at the end.
Trumps are the whole endgame in one suit. While the deck is deep, spending a jack of trumps to beat a loose seven is a bad trade — taking the seven is often cheaper, since you will refill to six anyway and the trump you saved may win the last bout outright. Once the deck is low that logic reverses: cards you are still holding when it empties are cards you have to shed the hard way, so defend freely and dump everything you can.
Watch the count beside your rival's hand more than your own. When they are down to two or three cards you want long bouts that force them to defend repeatedly, so attack with ranks you hold in pairs — beating two sixes costs them two cards, and if they take, they are further from empty than before.
The throw-in rule cuts both ways. Because you can only add ranks already on the table, leading a rank you hold twice or three times opens the door to a long attack, while leading a lone ace opens nothing. Keep the deck's last card in mind too: it is the face-up trump and whoever draws it takes a guaranteed trump into the endgame, so count the remaining deck and work out who that will be.