Rain: when to hold your 7, and when to fire it

Rain (Prší) looks like a game about playing cards. It's really a game about not playing them: the 7 you keep for later, the Queen you save for a bad turn, the Joker that only matters once.

Here's how to decide. It's advice, not rules — the rules come first, in short.

The rules in one minute

• You win when your hand is empty. Your hand has no size limit.
• On your turn you play one card that matches the top card's suit or rank, or draw one card and end your turn.
• Penalties: a 7 makes the next player draw 2, the King of Spades 4, a Joker 5. Taking a penalty ends your turn.
• A Queen goes on anything and lets you choose the suit. An Ace skips the next player.
• If you want the full rules, start with our guide to Prší. These are the classic rules; the house rules change them, and some of the advice below depends on which ones you've set. The post says when.

Your 7 is a weapon, a shield, or both

(Assumes Penalty Stacking is on.) With stacking on, a penalty can be passed back instead of taken. Answer a 7 with another 7 and your opponent now faces 4 cards, not 2. A Joker answers any penalty.

So a 7 in your hand is not just something to throw. It's your answer to their 7. If you fire it the moment you get it, you've spent your defence, and the next 7 that comes at you lands.

With stacking off, nothing answers a penalty (apart from the special Queens and Jokers described below), so a 7 is only ever an attack. Fire it when it hurts most.

Fire when they can't answer

A penalty is strongest when the other player can't pass it back. There are only so many cards that can:

• A 7 can be answered by the other three 7s, or by any of the four Jokers: seven cards in all.
• The King of Spades can only be answered by a Joker. There's just one King of Spades in the deck, and you've just played it.
• A Joker can only be answered by another Joker: the other three.

So the 7 is the penalty most likely to come straight back, and the King of Spades and the Joker are much harder to answer. Count what's been played, and what's in your own hand: when most of the answers are gone, fire. (With the Diplomat or the Shield in the game, a Queen or a Joker can answer anything. See below.)

Fire, too, when it costs them the most. A penalty takes the victim's whole turn, and every card they draw is another card to get rid of. Against someone with two cards left, that's worth far more than against someone with ten.

A Queen is your way out

A Queen goes on anything, so it's the card that rescues you when you're stuck holding the wrong suit. That makes it worth keeping back until you need it.

When you play one, choose the suit with care. Name the suit you hold the most of, and you've turned one card into a whole run of plays. And if your last card is a Queen, you still win: pick the suit, and the match is over.

(House rule: The Diplomat.) With the Diplomat, a Queen cancels any penalty waiting for you instead of choosing a suit, with or without stacking. It becomes your best defence, which is a good reason not to spend it early.

Count their cards, and read their draws

You can see how many cards your opponent holds, but not which ones. The number alone tells you a lot. When they're down to two or three, every penalty you send matters twice, and every turn you spend holding something back is a turn they might win on.

Their draws tell you more. (With Forced Play on.) You can only draw when nothing in your hand fits. So if your opponent draws while no penalty is waiting, they had no card of the live suit, none of the same rank as the top card, and no Queen or Joker. (A Shield is the one exception: it can't be played without a penalty. And it doesn't hold if the Executioner or the Contagion is in play, which stop them playing some cards.) Name that suit with your next Queen, and they're drawing again.

When an Ace pays

An Ace doesn't make anyone draw. It skips the next player, so you play again. That's a free turn: two cards gone for the price of one.

It's worth the most when you have something to play straight after it. The card that follows has to match the Ace's suit or rank (or be a Queen or a Joker), so an Ace♥ with another heart behind it is the ideal pair.

With stacking on, your opponent can answer with an Ace of their own, and now you're the one facing the skip. There are four Aces in the deck, so every one you've seen makes yours safer. With stacking off, there's nothing they can do: an Ace is a guaranteed extra turn.

What the Shield is really for

(House rule: The Shield.) The Shield is a Joker that can only be played when a penalty is waiting. It becomes the card that attacked you and sends the exact same penalty back, and your opponent has to take it. They can't stack it back. Only a Diplomat Queen can still cancel it.

So the Shield isn't an attack, and you can't fire it first. It's insurance. That has two consequences:

• Keep it for a big penalty. It sends back whatever is waiting, stacked or not. A Shield against a +2 is a waste. Against a +8, it's the turn of the game.
• It's dead weight until then. While no penalty is on the table, it's a card you can't play, and in a race to empty your hand that matters.

One more tip: keep your pairs

(House rule: Multi-Drop.) With Multi-Drop on, you can play several ordinary cards of the same rank in one turn: three 5s at once. Pairs of ordinary cards are the fastest way to empty a hand. (The 7s, the King of Spades, Queens, Jokers and Aces do their own thing, so they don't count.)

It all changes with the house rules

Stacking on or off, a Shield or a Diplomat in the room, Forced Play: the same hand can be a good one or a bad one. That's what the house rules are for. Set the ones you like, and the same advice gets a different answer.