Scorpion Solitaire
Move any face-up card and the whole pile above it travels too. Nothing is sorted for you and only a King opens an empty column, so every early move mortgages a later one.
ObjectiveAssemble four complete King-to-Ace runs, each in one suit, inside the columns themselves.
The solitaire with no separate goal pile
Scorpion deals seven columns and buries twelve cards — three under each of the four left-hand columns — with a three-card stock held back. The goal is not to move cards off to foundations — it is to assemble four complete King-to-Ace runs, one per suit, inside the columns where they lie. When a run completes it lifts off the table, and four cleared runs win the game.
Movement follows the Yukon family rule: grab any face-up card and everything on top of it comes along, in whatever order it happens to be. Building is same-suit, one parent per card, and only a King may start an empty column.
- Move any face-up card with the entire pile sitting on top of it.
- Columns build downwards in the same suit.
- Only a King may start an empty column.
- The stock holds three cards, dealt to the first three columns.
What building in place changes
In nearly every other patience the tableau is a workspace and the foundations are the exit. Cards leave, the board empties, and the game gets easier as it goes. Scorpion barely has one: there are four foundation slots, but a run only reaches them once it is finished, so nothing leaves early. The workspace and the goal are the same seven columns, the board never thins out, and nothing is ever safely out of the way.
The consequence is that order of operations matters more here than anywhere else on the site. A card sent to the wrong column is not merely misplaced — it is occupying space you needed for the run you were assembling, and moving it again costs the pile on top of it.
- In-place run
- A King-to-Ace sequence assembled inside a column. Completing one removes it from the board.
- Reserve
- The three stock cards. Dealt once, one each onto the first three columns.
- Deadlock
- Two cards of a suit each needing the other moved first. Usually fatal if left to form.
Building where you stand
- 01
Untie the cards trapped under their own suit
A Seven of Hearts buried beneath the Six of Hearts is the knot that decides most Scorpion games: each needs the other moved first. Spot those pairs in the opening and untie them while you still have free moves.
- 02
Work backwards from each King
Every finished run is anchored by a King, so find its Queen, then that Queen's Jack, and read the chain before you start moving. Scorpion rewards knowing the destination of a card before you touch it.
- 03
Hold the three stock cards until the board locks
Where those cards land is fixed, but when is entirely yours. Dealing them adds a card to three columns and can bury precisely what you were about to use, so they are an emergency measure rather than an opening move.
- 04
Empty a column rather than build a pretty run
An empty column is the only way to relocate a King, and Kings anchor everything. A half-built run in the wrong place is worth less than the space that would let you move it.
Scorpion compared with Spider
| Spider | Scorpion | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs are completed | Then removed to foundations | In place, then removed |
| Tableau building | By rank, suit ignored | Same suit only |
| What moves as a group | Same-suit runs only | Any card, plus everything on it |
| Stock | 50 cards in five deals of ten | 3 cards, dealt once |
| Hidden cards at the deal | 44 | 3 |
Deals are screened by the solver — every provably dead shuffle is discarded before dealing. Russian solitaire is the natural sibling if you want the same movement freedom with foundations to escape to, and Spider if you want the run-building without the suit restriction.
Questions about this game
- What does the stock do in Scorpion?
- It holds exactly three cards, dealt face up onto the first three columns whenever you trigger it — once, and that is the whole stock. Most strategy agrees on saving it for the moment the board genuinely stalls.
- Why did my finished run disappear?
- That is the win condition working: a complete King-to-Ace run in one suit leaves the table as soon as it forms. Clear four and the game is over.
- Can I move a pile onto an empty column?
- Only if the card leading the move is a King. The pile behind it can be in any order, which makes a King with a long tail one of the strongest moves available.