Bunbury's Games for the Tarot of Loka

We can now start on the second half of the games collection. This family of games is distinguished from the first group in the way that it treats The Fool - instead of being a lowly excuse, he becomes Tomfool, the highest trump in the pack!

He does not quite become invulnerable however, as if all three of the honour cards are played to the same trick, The Magician wins it! This is called the Emperor trick.

The bulk of these games hail from Austria, where tarot - tarock, as they call it - is still very popular. There is also Cego, the last surviving game played in Germany, some interesting variations from the Slavic countries, and an impressive contribution from Hungary.

Quite often in these games, there is a less of a focus on the card points and more on bidding or declaring and winning various achievements. You should by now be familiar with The Sparrow - winning the last trick with the lowest trump - but these games add many of of this kind to the mix.