Cuttle is a two-player combat card game with unknown origins. Special thanks to Richard Sipie, Pagat.com contributors, and the cuttle.cards community for keeping this game alive. Please check out their sites!
Goal: Be the first to reach 21 points (or less with Kings) by playing point cards.
Setup: One player is dealer, deals 6 cards to themselves and 5 to opponent. Non-dealer goes first.
On your turn: Draw a card OR play a card (point, scuttle, one-off, or permanent).
Hand limit: Maximum 8 cards. Can't draw when at 8.
Empty deck: You may pass instead of drawing. Three consecutive passes shuffles the scrap pile back into the deck.
Choose one action per turn:
Play for an immediate effect, then the card goes to the scrap pile.
Stay in play and provide ongoing effects until destroyed.
Destroy an opponent's point card by playing a higher-value card from your hand. Both cards go to the scrap pile.
A single Queen protects your other cards but not itself. Two Queens protect each other and can only be removed by a Six.
Countering an Ace or destroying a key permanent often outweighs 2 points. Consider what threats you might need to answer before playing for points.
Playing Ace as a one-off clears all points from both sides. Consider using it to prevent an opponent's victory.
A well-timed Jack on a 10 swings the game by 20 points. Target high-value cards for maximum impact.
Seeing your opponent's hand is valuable, but a second Eight provides no additional benefit. The extra 8 could be worth more as points or a scuttle.
High cards (7-10) can scuttle most point cards. Holding one back could prevent an opponent's winning play.
Player skill is tracked using a Glicko-2 rating system for matchmaking games between registered users. See our policies for fair play guidelines.
Your skill level. New players start at 1500. A ? after your rating means you haven't played enough games yet for an accurate estimate.
How certain the system is about your rating. New players start at 350. As you play more games, RD decreases. Below 100 means your rating is well-established. RD increases slowly if you don't play for a while.
Simple percentage of games you've won out of total completed games.
To appear on the leaderboard, players must have completed at least 10 rated games and have an RD below 100. This ensures rankings reflect established skill levels rather than provisional estimates.