I have to admit that when I first heard of Alpha Playing Cards (tjgames, 1997 - Tim Shutz), I wasn’t terribly interested. But when I read a description that it was the word game equivalent of the piece pack, I acquired a copy. And I have to say that the description of the deck is spot on. There’s no single game that defines the deck - rather, it is a set of tools that one uses to play a variety of games. Considering how inexpensive this deck is, it’s certainly worth the price. The cards are of high quality, and several of the games are sure to tickle someone’s fancy.
The deck comes with seventy-three cards: forty-two consonants, thirty vowels, two wild cards, and a summary card of card distribution. Each card has the letter printed on it (or a question mark on the wild cards) as well as a point value for that letter. The vowel cards are unique in the fact that there are two different vowels on each card, giving them a great deal of flexibility. My cards have gone through a great deal of wear and tear and still look pretty new, so I’m pretty impressed by the quality.
The games that can be played with the cards are varied and can be found in various locations on the internet, as well as a few printed ones that come with the game. Most of the games can be found at the official internet site, http://www.tjgames.com/alphagames.html . I’ll mention a few that I’ve had a chance to play...
- New Word: This game simply has a player use the cards to make words, using some of the letters of the word the previous player made. It’s an okay game for adults but can actually be fairly useful for those teaching languages or spelling.
- War of Words: A two-player game that plays like a word version of Schotten Totten. Players play cards to form words at seven locations. The player to score the highest point valued word, or the first player to lay down a seven-letter word wins that location. The first player to claim three adjacent locations, or five locations total, wins the game. This is a favorite of mine, since Schotten Totten is one of my favorite two-player games. It’s a little harder to “prove” that you can’t be beaten at a location, but it’s a tremendous mind exercise. If this was the only game you could play with the deck, I’d be satisfied.
- Word Poker: This is played similar to poker, but with some changes - mostly allowing words to be added to the card rankings. I enjoyed this - not as much as regular poker, but it has a time and a place - especially when played with kids learning English.
As you can see from a couple of my comments, the deck makes an excellent teaching tool - probably one of its better uses. There are a few decks out there that have letters on them, but this is the best one I’ve used. I really like the fact that the vowel cards have two different letters each on it - it keeps the game from getting too stifled. The games are interesting with War of Words being my favorite. Considering the inexpensive price of the game, I think it’s definitely worth picking up - both as teaching tool, and an excellent deck of cards useful for playing a variety of games.
Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games.”
