Scorpion Tail Solitaire
How to play Scorpion Tail
Scorpion Tail is a one-deck solitaire dealt like Wasp, where cards build down in alternating colours and a finished run from King to Ace may mix suits as long as the colours alternate.
Wasp built down in alternating colours, with only a King filling an empty pile.
The goal of Scorpion Tail
Build four runs of thirteen cards from King down to Ace in alternating colours, whatever their suits. A finished run leaves the table at once, and the game is won when all four are gone.
How to set up Scorpion Tail
Scorpion Tail is dealt exactly like Wasp: one deck of 52 cards, 49 of them in seven piles of seven. The first four piles each have three face-down cards under four face-up ones, and the last three are face up all the way down. The other 3 cards are the stock.
Scorpion Tail rules
A card can be laid only on a card one rank higher of the other colour, so a red Seven goes on a black Eight.
Any face-up card can move onto a pile whose top card it builds on, and every card lying on it moves with it, whether or not those cards are in order.
Only a King can fill an empty pile, together with any cards lying on it. When a move leaves a face-down card on top of its pile, that card is turned face up.
Press the stock to deal its three cards face up onto the first three piles. It deals only once, and it deals even while piles are empty.
When thirteen cards run from King down to Ace in alternating colours on top of a pile, whatever their suits, they leave the table at once for a foundation, whether a move or a deal completed them.
Click a face-up card to move it with every card lying on it onto the first pile it builds on, else into the first empty pile that takes it. Drag a card to choose its place yourself.
How to win at Scorpion Tail
You win when all four runs are off the table. There is no redeal and no auto complete, since finished runs already leave on their own.
Scorpion Tail strategy tips
Every run starts with a King, and only a King can fill an empty pile, so a pile emptied early is best used to start a run.
A run's colours follow from its King: under a black King every Queen, Ten, Eight, Six, Four and Two is red and every Jack, Nine, Seven, Five, Three and Ace black, and under a red King the other way round. So the two runs under the black Kings take every black Jack, and the two under the red Kings every red one.
A card does not have to be on top of its pile to move. If the card you need is buried, move the card lying directly on it, and everything above goes along.
A card goes on either card of the other colour one rank higher, so most cards have two places to go: a red Seven fits the Eight of clubs or the Eight of spades. Choose the one that leaves the other free for the second red Seven.
Apart from a King, the one way to fill an empty pile is the stock, whose three cards land on the first three piles even when they are empty. A gap among those three at the deal takes whatever card comes, King or not.
Scorpion Tail questions and answers
How do you play Scorpion Tail solitaire?
Deal one deck as in Wasp, into seven piles of seven with three face-down cards in each of the first four, and keep the other 3 as the stock. Build down in alternating colours, moving any face-up card with every card lying on it, and fill an empty pile only with a King. You win when four runs of thirteen from King down to Ace in alternating colours have left the table.
What is the difference between Scorpion Tail and Wasp?
Scorpion Tail builds down in alternating colours instead of in suit, and its finished runs alternate colours too, whatever their suits. Only a King can fill an empty pile, where Wasp takes any card. The deal and the stock are the same.
Can every Scorpion Tail deal be won?
Not necessarily. Of 791 shuffled Scorpion Tail deals the game's solver searched, at up to a million positions each, it proved 63% can be won, against 89% for Wasp, which is dealt the same way. The share counts proved deals only, so it is a lower bound. Within the Hint's 250,000 positions, 100 fresh deals came to 57 wins and no losses, with 43 left unsettled against 5 in Wasp. With Winnable on, in the menu beside New deal, every new board is a deal the solver has proved can be won. Hint asks the same solver for a winning line before it suggests a move.
Is there a daily Scorpion Tail game?
Yes. Scorpion Tail has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. You need to be logged in to play it.