Single Card Focus
- So far, we have learned about the two types of clues: Play Clues and Save Clues.
- But all of the Play Clues and Save Clues that we have seen so far have only "touched" a single card.
- Obviously, it is also possible to give a clue that touches two or more cards.
- We agree that if a clue touches two or more cards, the clue only delivers a message about one specific card. This is referred to as the focus of the clue.
- With every clue, only one card is focused. Nothing specific is implied about non-focused cards (except that they will be useful at some point later on).
- For example, if Alice gives a Play Clue to Bob that touches two cards, then Bob can only play the focused card. He has to hold on to the non-focused card for later.
New Cards
- When determining the focus of a clue, you need to look for "new" cards.
- New cards are specifically defined as cards that are touched by a clue that did not have any clues "on" them already.
Determining the Focus: 4 Steps
So, when two or more cards are touched by a clue, which card is focused?
- If no cards are new, then the focus is on the leftmost re-touched card.
- If only one card is new, then the focus is on the new card.
- If two or more cards are new, and one of them was on chop, then the focus is on the chop.
- If two or more cards are new, and none of them were on chop, then the focus is on the leftmost new card.
Example 1: Leftmost Focus
- In the example below, Alice clues red to Bob. This must be a Play Clue.
- Before this clue, Bob's hand was completely unclued. So, with this clue, two new cards were introduced - the red card on slot 2 and the red card on slot 4.
- Bob knows that in this situation, the focus of the clue is the leftmost of the two new cards. This must be a Play Clue on a red 1.
Example 2: Chop-Focus
- In the example below, Alice clues red to Bob. This must be a Play Clue.
- Before this clue, Bob's hand was completely unclued. So, with this clue, three new cards were introduced - slot 1, slot 2, and slot 5.
- Before this clue, Bob's chop was slot 5. So, since the clue touched his chop and Chop-Focus has precedence, this must be a Chop-Focus Play Clue on a red 1.
- Note that even though it touches Bob's chop card, Bob knows that this cannot be a Save Clue. Specifically:
- It can't be a 5 Save on a red 5, because Alice would have clued number 5 for that.
- It can't be a 2 Save on a red 2, because Alice would have clued number 2 for that.
- It can't be a Critical Save, because there are no red cards in the trash yet.