Scorpion Solitaire

Blocks move regardless

How to play Scorpion Solitaire

Forty-nine cards go into seven columns of seven. The first four columns bury three cards each under four face-up ones; the last three columns are dealt entirely face up. That leaves twelve hidden cards and three left over — the tail.

There are no foundations. You build downward inside the tableau by exact suit, and when a column contains a complete run from king down to ace in one suit, that run is finished and leaves the board. Four runs wins the game.

The move rule is the interesting part, and it is borrowed from Yukon: pick up any face-up card and every card stacked above it comes with it, in whatever order it happens to be. Only the card you selected has to land legally.

What you may drag

What Scorpion lets you drag

Dragging well

Scorpion Solitaire strategy

Start in the open columns. Five, six and seven are fully visible, so before your first move you can read exactly which cards sit where and plan two or three moves deep. That planning is free, and it is the only free information the deal gives you.

Dig the first four columns early. Twelve face-down cards is not many, but they are all in the same four columns, and every one you leave buried is a card that might be the 9 of clubs your run needs at the end. Uncovering beats tidying, every time.

Deal the tail while it can still help. Held back as insurance it usually just becomes three more obstructions. Played when one of the first three columns is close to opening something, it can be the move that unlocks the deal.

Protect the low cards. A run only counts when it reaches the ace, so aces and twos of the suits you are assembling are the cards to keep reachable. Because the packet rule lets you dump anything anywhere legal, burying one by accident is depressingly easy.

Three ways to stall

What ends a Scorpion deal

Spending the tail to escape a stall

Three cards onto the first three columns is all you get, and it lands wherever it lands. Taken early it can unblock a column; taken as a last resort when nothing else moves, it usually just adds three more cards to piles that were already stuck.

Burying a low card of a suit you are assembling

The packet rule means you can drop anything anywhere legal, and it is easy to park a stack on top of the 2 of spades you will need at the very end. A run only completes when it reaches the ace, so the low cards are the ones to protect.

Emptying a column with every king already buried

Clearing a column is achievable here and feels like real progress. It is worth nothing if no king can reach it — and unlike Yukon there is no colour choice, so a specific king has to become available, not just any of the four.

Scorpion's chances

Is Scorpion Solitaire winnable?

Some deals, not most. Scorpion is harder than Yukon despite sharing its move rule, because same-suit building removes roughly half the destinations and there are no foundations to unload onto — every card stays on the table until its whole run is finished.

Skill matters a great deal here, more than the difficulty suggests. Because three columns are open from the start and only twelve cards are hidden, a player who plans before moving will clear far more deals than one who does not. We do not publish a figure: Scorpion versions differ on whether spaces take any card, and that single rule moves the number a long way.

Kings only, strictly

Scorpion, Wasp, Yukon and Spider

Scorpion sits between two families: it moves like Yukon and it scores like Spider. The table shows what each neighbour changes.

Wasp is the one to try if this page defeats you. It is Scorpion in every respect except that an empty column will take any card, and that single difference turns a frequently hopeless game into a frequently winnable one.