How to play

Cards: four suits numbered 1–14 — Sun, Spear, Serpent and Bird — and four special cards: Jaguar, Shaman, Lizard and Monkey.

Your prophecy: after the deal, set aside a few colour cards (4 with 2 players, 3 with 3–4, 2 with 5–6). Their suits add up to the number of tricks you foretell: Sun 0, Spear 1, Serpent 2, Bird 3 (the dots on each card). Those cards aren't played this round. With 3 or more players, whoever is in the lead makes their prophecy first and shows it — except in the first and last rounds.

Tricks: the player left of the dealer leads. Follow the requested suit if you can — or play a special card; otherwise play anything. The highest trump wins, else the highest card of the requested suit. Trumps change each round: Sun, Spear, Serpent, Bird, Bird, Serpent, Spear, Sun.

Specials: Jaguar — the highest trump; led, it asks for trumps. Monkey — the highest card of the requested suit, unless that's trumps; led, you name a suit that isn't trumps. Lizard — the lowest card of the requested suit; led, you name any suit. Shaman — takes the suit of the card played just before it, half a point higher (so it beats that card); it can't lead — if it's your only card when you must lead, the player on your left leads, you lose that trick and score nothing that round.

Scoring: 1 point per trick, plus a bonus when your prophecy is exactly right (6 with 2 players, 5 with 3–4, 4 with 5, 3 with 6). Most points after 8 rounds wins; a tie goes to the most bonus points. The short game (5 rounds) starts the trumps on Bird, and in round 5 the Jaguar is the only trump.

Prophecy is by Christopher Haviland and Robert A. Kamp (IELLO). The card art here is our own. With 4–6 players the whole deck is dealt (15, 12 or 10 each).