Level 4 Challenge Questions

These questions are for level 4 strategies.

Question 1

Question

• It is the Early Game.
• Red 1 and blue 5 are played on the stacks.
• Previously, Bob played blue 3 from slot 2 and blue 4 from slot 4.
• Cathy has two unknown 2's saved on chop.
• Alice clues number 1 to Bob which touches the cards in slot 2 and 3.
• Bob plays his slot 3 card. It is a green 1 and successfully plays.
• What slot will Cathy discard next?

Solution

• Since Bob previously played a card from slot 2 and 4, he has drawn two cards.
• As a result, his slot 3 card must have been in his starting hand, while his slot 2 card must have been drawn after playing the blue 3.
• Thus, his slot 2 card is a "fresh" one and his slot 3 card is a "normal" one from the starting hand.

• As established in level 3, unknown 1's are supposed to be played in a particular order. Specifically, fresh 1's are supposed to have precedence.
• This means that Bob was expected to play his slot 2 card instead of his slot 3 card.
• Thus, Cathy knows that Bob intended for an Order Chop Move. Cathy Chop Moves her slot 3 card. Her new chop is slot 2, so that would be the slot that Cathy would discard next.

Question 2

Question

• It is the first turn of the game.
• Alice clues number 1 to Bob.
• The order of playing these 1s is from right to left.

• Bob plays the rightmost one. It successfully plays as red 1. (Bob draws a new card.)
• Cathy does something unrelated.
• Alice clues red to Bob. It touches Bob's chop. This must be a Play Clue on a red 2.

• Bob plays his slot 5 one. It successfully plays as blue 1. (Bob draws a new card.)
• Cathy does something unrelated.
• Alice gives Bob a number 1 clue again, touching Bob's two new cards as well as re-touching the 1s from his starting hand.
• Which card is Bob expected to play?

Solution

• Sometimes, fresh 1s are touched in the same hand as 1s that have not played yet.
• When this happens, the play-order notes on previous 1s are erased and the order of playing the 1s is re-calculated.
• For this calculation, the precedence remains the same:
  • Chop
  • Fresh 1s (left to right)
  • Starting Hand 1s (right to left)
• Thus:
  • Bob erases the notes on his 1s.
  • Bob's slot 2 is chop, so Bob writes "1st" on it.
  • Bob's slot 1 card is a fresh 1, he writes "2nd" on it.
  • Bob's slot 4 and slot 5 cards are 1s from his starting hand. He writes "3rd" on slot 5 and "4th" on slot 4.
  • Additionally, Bob knows that he has four 1s in his hand and only three 1s need to be played. Thus, from Good Touch Principal, his 1 on slot 4 will never play, so he marks it as known-trash.
  • Bob plays his slot 2 one. It successfully plays as yellow 1. (Since this is expected, it does not Chop Move any player.)