Scorpion Solitaire is a single-deck cousin of Spider that trades brute reshuffling for careful untangling. You build downward strictly by suit, but the signature twist is that you may grab any face-up card along with the whole pile resting on top of it and drop that bundle onto the next-higher card of the matching suit. Weave the tangled columns into four clean King-to-Ace suits to win — a tactical, knot-cutting challenge that feels like a natural step up from Spider.
How to play Scorpion Solitaire
Scorpion Solitaire deals 49 of the 52 cards into seven columns of seven, holding the last three cards back in a small reserve. In the first four columns the top three cards are face down; the remaining columns are fully exposed. Building runs strictly by suit and downward in rank, you move cards onto the card one higher of the same suit — a seven of clubs goes onto the eight of clubs, and nothing else will accept it. The crucial freedom is that you never lift a loose ordered run; instead you pick up any face-up card together with every card piled on top of it, buried or not, and relocate the entire column of them in one move. That is how you dig out cards trapped deep in a pile. When you have completely stalled, release the three reserve cards onto the first three columns to reopen the position. Feeling brave? Compare its knot-untangling to the two-deck sprawl of Spider.
Scorpion Solitaire strategy & tips
Because you can haul buried cards along with whatever sits above them, Scorpion is a game of freeing the right card at the right moment — think about what a move uncovers, not just what it connects. Prioritise turning face-down cards face up in the four hidden columns early, since those concealed cards are what usually lock a game. Kings are your dead weight: a King can never be placed on anything, so an exposed King effectively demands an empty column, and clearing a column to rehome one is often a winning investment. Hold the three-card reserve until you are genuinely stuck, because once dealt it can bury a card you needed and cannot be recalled. Above all, look several moves deep before committing — a chain that reunites a broken suit is worth far more than a single tidy placement.
Common Scorpion Solitaire mistakes to avoid
The trap that catches most newcomers is playing Scorpion Solitaire like Spider and expecting alternating colours to matter — here only suit counts, and building a red-black sequence achieves nothing. Another frequent error is spending the reserve deal too soon, blowing your one lifeline while easy tableau moves still remain. Players also tend to shuffle exposed cards around aimlessly, chasing neat-looking columns while the face-down cards stay stubbornly hidden; every move should be earning you a flip or freeing a key card. Finally, watch for self-inflicted deadlocks — dropping a large pile onto a card you will later need to move, or stacking onto your only empty column, can seal the board with no recovery. Undo liberally, and treat each move as a small commitment rather than a reflex.