Card histories
How forty cards
became
Superjack.
The history of Superjack: The Game—from a childhood discovery of Magic to years of testing, a forty-card deck, and a community of players.
A familiar Jack, ready for another game.
The idea was easy to say: could you make something like Magic: The Gathering with standard playing cards?
Eric and I had already spent years inventing games together, often with an ordinary deck. Magic was something we’d loved since school. Giving familiar cards a new set of jobs seemed like a good game to try making.
It took years of play to turn that question into Superjack.
Magic, poker, and chess
Magic contributed the appeal of creature battles and answering an opponent’s move. Poker offered combinations the deck already contained: pairs, straights, and four of a kind, with the luck of the draw changing what you could do.
Chess offers another useful comparison. Each Superjack player starts with the same set of tools: a separate deck with identical contents. You have different hands and decisions to make, but access to the same cards.
The game eventually developed its own rules and rhythm. Number cards became gems. Pairs could equip a creature. Jacks could combine into a growing stack. An Ace could enter as a creature or answer another play. The short introduction shows how it feels at the table.
The Superjack timeline
This timeline follows our recollections. Some early milestones have approximate or relative dates; the game grew through years of testing.
- Around 1999
A friend introduces Magic
CJ shows me his Magic cards during a visit to West Allis, Wisconsin. Back in Palm Springs, I start playing with my school friends.
The co-creator’s account - Years later
Making Superjack with Eric
After years of inventing other games together, Eric and I start developing a battle game with ordinary cards.
The co-creator’s account - Years of testing
Thousands of games
We play thousands of games, trying rules and revising them. Removing the 8s, 9s, and 10s improves the ratio of gems to creatures, making face cards more likely to be drawn.
The co-creator’s account - A couple of years later
A deck from Croatia
I buy Eric a deck in Croatia and discover that its forty cards have exactly the ranks Superjack needs.
The co-creator’s account - Ready to share
The rules go online
I put the rules in a Google Doc. For years, superjackthegame.com points there.
The co-creator’s account - Over the following years
Players find the game
Pagat lists Superjack, and Reddit readers find it over the years. When players ask for a Discord server, I make one.
The co-creator’s account
The twelve cards that came out
The main reason we removed the 8s, 9s, and 10s was to improve the ratio of gems to creatures, making you more likely to draw a face card. It also made the game easier to follow. That left each player with forty cards: six gem ranks in four suits, plus Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces.
The decision came through testing. Discovering traditional forty-card decks came later, when a pack bought for Eric in Croatia turned out to be a deck used for Briscola. The supposedly incomplete souvenir had the right structure all along.
That connection is what brings Superjack into this collection. Napoletane and Triestine already have an Ace, six number cards, and three courts in each suit. Translate the knight to the Queen and agree on the suit colors, and you have all forty Superjack cards.
From a Google Doc to other people’s tables
When the rules felt ready to share, I put them in a Google Doc. For years, superjackthegame.com pointed there. The game was listed in Pagat’s invented games directory and combat games index. Reddit readers found it over the years, and requests from players led me to make a Discord server.
The longer story starts with CJ showing me his Magic cards in Wisconsin around 1999, then follows our school friends, playtesting, and that unexpected deck in Croatia. I’m glad to have those memories written down alongside the game.
If you’re here to play, bring two ordinary decks and the rules, or try Superjack in your browser. I hope you find a few good games in it.