Strike Gold 2026

Every player starts with a 3×4 grid of face-down cards and a shared deck to dig through. On your turn you draw one — from the deck or the top of the discard pile — and decide: swap it into your grid, sending whatever was there to the discard, or throw it away and flip one of your face-down cards to see what you're sitting on. Everything you place stays face-up, so the table can always see what you're working with. The goal is a low total. Negative cards and zeros are gold. Tens, elevens, twelves are dead weight you want out of your grid as fast as poEvery player starts with a 3×4 grid of face-down cards and a shared deck to dig through. On your turn you draw one — from the deck or the top of the discard pile — and decide: swap it into your grid, sending whatever was there to the discard, or throw it away and flip one of your face-down cards to see what you're sitting on. Everything you place stays face-up, so the table can always see what you're working with.

The goal is a low total. Negative cards and zeros are gold. Tens, elevens, twelves are dead weight you want out of your grid as fast as possible. And if you can line up three matching values in a column, the whole column clears off and scores nothing — which is the real engine of the game.

The round ends when someone flips their last card. Here's the catch: if that player actually has the lowest score, great. If anyone else is sitting lower, their score doubles. Go out at the right moment and you strike gold. Go out too early and you've been chasing fool's gold all along.ssible. And if you can line up three matching values in a column, the whole column clears off and scores nothing — which is the real engine of the game. The round ends when someone flips their last card. Here's the catch: if that player actually has the lowest score, great. If anyone else is sitting lower, their score doubles. Go out at the right moment and you strike gold. Go out too early and you've been chasing fool's gold all along.

—description from the designer