FoxTrot by Bill Amend for February 23, 2025

It’s not in the cards, boys

From the idiots who brought you “Duct Tape Yourself to a Toboggan With a Drag Chute in a Windstorm” and “Sister’s Window Catapult” comes…whatever this is.

Would drive a gambler mad.

Today’s missing classic is

gocomics.Com/foxtrot/2004/03/07

That game may actually work if one more rule was added: Being hit with an Ace is an automatic loss. Theoretically, you could ask for a maximum of 22 hit cards, but each time, your odds of getting an Ace goes up.

Aren’t card games dead?

It’ll never replace Kleebob.

How come they don’t play Dungeons & Dragons anymore?

Wow, this makes sense.

These kids aren’t playing with a full deck

If someone wrote a book about time wasters, these 2 will be the protagonists. no offence, but they aren’t even that intelligent. Have you seen these past strips? They’ve done really stupid stuff. And they just research useless math crap.

Assign a mathematical function to each suit: Clubs are “plus,” Diamonds are “minus,” Spades are “multiply,” and Hearts are “divide.” Each player starts with one hold card, which has value but no function. At each round you can add a card, discard a card, or swap a card (or steal an opponent’s card?), the goal being to form an equation equalling exactly 21.

For workability I’m assuming that brackets can be placed wherever they’re needed, and that you can rearrange your cards (except your hold card) as you see fit, but of course the rules can be tweaked to make the game either easier or more difficult, according to taste (it may be more fun for Jason and Marcus if youre stuck with the sequence you’re dealt).

NOTE: Since the Ace of Spades would be “×1” and the Ace of Hearts would be “÷1” there’s an opportunity to give them special roles, but there may be value in them being de facto “lose a turn” cards.

It’ll Never be as popular as Double Fizzbinn.

This in not a bad idea, just not though through. It could work if say the face cards were negative numbers.

Baccarat.

Ahhhh, I remember the days when wasting time was of no consequence.