Monad

Monad is a fascinating and skillful card game for 2 to 4 players. Advance planning is essential as each player attempts to strategically trade, buy and leap his way from the lowest cards to the highest.
The special deck of playing cards is sorted into seven different sets. Each set contains six different colors � three warm colors (red, orange and yellow) and three cool colors (purple, blue and green). Each Bonus card shows three bonus combinations of these colors; only one of the six colors appears on each of the player Identity cards. Each of the Common, Bi, Tri, Quad and Quint cards has a point value which appears in the center of the card; the Bonus and Identity cards function only as reference cards and thus have no point value.

A game of Monad begins with all the Bi, Tri, Quad, and Quint cards dealt face up on the board. Each player is dealt 6 Commons, with the remaining Commons placed face down to create the draw deck.

The object is to advance from the Commons through the Bi, Tri, Quad and Quint cards to the Monads by trading, buying and leaping. During a turn, you may make as many trades, buys and/or leaps as you wish. (All transactions are made with the table, not with other players.) If you cannot or do not wish to make any of these plays, you may use your turn to either draw from or �flip� the Commons deck or to pass. Each player must make his decisions skillfully in the race to obtain the required number of valuable Monads�and win the game!

Monad is one of Sid Sackson�s best games�though still relatively unknown. It�s a highly strategic game, yet game play is easy enough for any novice to learn quickly. Partnership play is also an option.