Skip to main content

Ejection Extensions

These are additional rules that can apply to Ejections, Discharges, and Charms.

The Out-of-Position Ejection​

  • Normally, players are only allowed to perform an Ejection on the very next player (similar to a Bluff).
  • However, if an Ejection is performed, and the very next player does not have a Second Finesse Position, then they cannot demonstrate to the team that an Ejection is occurring.
  • In this situation, the Ejection is on the next player with a Second Finesse Position. The player being passed over knows that the next player will blind-play, so they can either discard or give an unrelated clue. After that, the next player should blind-play their card immediately to demonstrate what is going on.
  • For example, in a 4-player game:
    • All of the 1's are played on the stacks.
    • Bob's has three 5's in his hand in slot 2, slot 3, and slot 4. (They were clued with number 5 as a 5 Save earlier on in the game.)
    • Alice clues red to Donald, touching a red 5 on his slot 1 as a Play Clue.
    • Bob does not see any connecting red cards in anybody's hand. Since the red 5 is three-away-from-playable, Bob knows that this must be a 5 Color Ejection.
    • However, Bob does not have a Second Finesse Position. (He only has one unclued card in his hand.)
    • Thus, Bob knows that this is an Out-of-Position 5 Color Ejection on Cathy.
    • Bob discards.
    • Cathy blind-plays her Second Finesse Position and it successfully plays as red 2.
    • Donald knows that since Cathy blind-played her Second Finesse Position card, this must be a 5 Color Ejection and that his red card is the red 5.
AliceClue GiverClue GiverBobBob discardsCathyRed 2DonaldRed 55
  • Note that you are not allowed to perform Out-of-Position Ejections in reverse, unless it is super-obvious what is going on.
  • Remember that just because OOP Ejections are technically legal in some situations, this does not mean that players should use them. Just like any other complicated move, only use OOP Ejections when it is super-clear to the rest of the team what is going on. Otherwise, a simpler line should be chosen.

The Out-of-Position Discharge/Charm​

  • First, see the section on Out-of-Position Ejection.
  • Just like OOP Ejection, it is possible to do an OOP Discharge or an OOP Charm in the exact same way.

The Stacked Ejection​

  • Normally, you are not allowed to perform a Bluff on a player that is already "loaded" with a blind-play for a Finesse. (This is because the next player will allow for the possibility of a Layered Finesse, and the Bluff will not resolve immediately.)
  • Similarly, since Ejections follow most of the same rules as Bluffs, you are not allowed to perform an Ejection on a player that is already "loaded" with a blind-play for a Finesse.
  • So, if a 5 was clued with color in this situation, the next player would assume a Queued Finesse instead of a 5 Color Ejection. Thus, they would then play the card from the original Finesse (or play nothing if the card from the original Finesse is not yet playable).
  • However, what if the next player can know that a Queued Finesse is impossible due to them not having enough possible cards to fulfill the Finesse? In this case, it would be a Known Stacked 5 Color Ejection.
  • When this occurs, players should immediately play their First Finesse Position (slot 2) instead of their Second Finesse position (slot 3).
  • For example, in a 4-player game:
    • Nothing is played on the stacks and it is the first turn of the game.
    • Alice clues red to Donald, touching a red 2. This is a Finesse on Cathy's red 1 (in her slot 1).
    • Bob clues blue to Donald, touching a blue 5.
    • Now, it is Cathy's turn. Cathy knows that she has a playable red 1, since no-one else on the team has a red 1.
    • Additionally, Cathy might think that Bob's clue was a Queued Finesse on the blue 5. However, this is impossible, because Cathy sees that no-one else on the team has any blue cards. Thus, for a Queued Finesse to be the case, Cathy would have to have red 1, blue 1, blue 2, blue 3, and blue 4, and Cathy only has 4 cards in her hand (since it is a 4-player game).
    • Since a Queued Finesse is impossible, Cathy knows that this must be a Stacked 5 Color Ejection.
    • Alice's clue Finessed Cathy. So after Alice's clue, Cathy's Finesse Position moved to her slot 2 and her Second Finesse Position moved to her slot 3.
    • Normally, Ejection calls for the Second Finesse Position, but in this case, Cathy knows that Stacked 5 Color Ejections call for the First Finesse Position instead of the Second Finesse Position, so Cathy blind-plays slot 2 (instead of slot 3).
AliceBobClue GiverClue GiverCathyRed 1Green 1DonaldRed 2Blue 5first turn

The Stacked Discharge/Charm​

  • First, see the section on Stacked Ejection.
  • Just like Stacked Ejection, it is possible to do a Stacked Discharge or a Stacked Charm in the exact same way.

The Double Ejection​

  • If a Play Clue and an Ejection are both possible as a 1-for-1, players are always expected to give a direct Play Clue. (We want to keep things simple and reduce the vector for mistakes to happen.)
  • What happens if a player breaks this rule and does an Ejection anyway? They must be trying to send an additional message.
  • After Bob Ejects in this situation, Cathy is expected to know that Alice really intended for a Double Ejection. Here, Cathy should also play her Second Finesse Position.
  • For example, in a 4-player game:
    • Red 1 is played on the stacks.
    • Donald has a globally-known red 2 in his hand. (It was given a Play Clue earlier with a number 2 clue.)
    • Alice gives a red clue to Donald, filling in the 2 as a red 2.
    • Bob sees that since the red 2 was already going to play on the stacks, Alice must be trying to communicate something extra. Normally, Bob would think that this is a Replay Double Ignition. However, it can't be that, because Cathy has a red 1 on her Finesse Position, which is trash.
    • Thus, Bob knows that Alice must be intend for a Replay Ejection instead. Bob blind-plays his Second Finesse Position. It is a blue 1 and successfully plays.
    • Just like Bob, Cathy is able to see that Alice's clue was a Replay Ejection. However, Cathy also notices that blue 1 was not blocked, meaning that Alice could just given a blue clue to Bob as a direct Play Clue. Doing a Replay Ejection in this situation does not make any sense.
    • Cathy knows that in this situation, Alice is intending for a Double Ejection. Cathy blind-plays her Second Finesse Position. It is a blue 2 and successfully plays.
AliceClue GiverClue GiverBobCathyDonald
  • Situations that call for Double Ejections are very similar to situations that call for Double Ignitions. Notice that if Cathy's Finesse Position is a playable or a one-away-from-playable card, Alice's Double Ejection would not work: Bob would blind-play his Finesse Position as a Double Ignition. However, since Cathy does not have a playable, Bob thinks to himself: "Even though this clue is pretty weird, Alice is probably just doing an Ejection as a 1-for-1 here because I have some blocking card in my hand." After Bob blind-plays his Second Finesse Position, Cathy sees that the move was Unnecessary. But unlike a normal Unnecessary move (where Cathy would be expected to blind-play her Finesse Position card), here Cathy knows that it makes more sense to blind-play her Second Finesse Position card (since her First Finesse Position card must be unplayable).