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As promised yesterday, I will be talking about the Monopoly Deal card game.

There are different types of cards in this game. First are the money cards, of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 million denominations.

These cards have to be played on the table to be paid out for rent. An interesting rule of the game is that no change should be given paying let’s say a 5 million bill for a 1 million rent, creating interesting strategy.

Second type is of course the property cards. Again these have to be put down on the table to be played. There are also wild cards that can be used for up to two color groups, and wild cards that can be used for any color group, but have no monetary value. The other properties have monetary value, and must be paid out if one has no more money but has to pay rent or such to other players.

To win, by the way, one needs to have completed three property groups, although for two players, we have upped this to five property groups just to make it a bit longer than the short games we had experienced.

Besides these, the utilities and the railroads, there are also the house and hotel cards, which can only be added to full sets. The house adds a value of 3 million to the property when renting, the hotel 4 million.

Lastly there are action cards. These allow players to pass go (draw two more cards) charge rent, double the rent one time, ask for birthday payment, collect debt, force a deal on property (not part of a complete set) with different players, steal a property from another player (again not part of a complete set), steal a full set from another player, and the all powerful “Just Say No” card for negating all the previous actions. In fact, a cool play in the game is having one No card negate another no card, which means the first actions still continues.

These action cards, when one has no use for them (like a hotel when one hasn’t even drawn a house yet) can also be played as money, but once used as money, they will stay as money until the end of the game.

The rent cards, for example, come in two types: one for all players and one for just a specific player.

With Park Place and Boardwalk as a complete set for example, with a house and a hotel and a double the rent card, one can charge other players (up to five players for a single deck) 30 million each!

That could effectively give you enough property to win the game, with wild cards rearranged and all.

So it is not just about building your own monopoly, but also tearing down that of others to prevent them from leading.

Yes, it is not very challenging, but then again, it does say 8 years old and above on the package.

I hope to be able to post pictures soon of us playing this game under the trees of the golf course near Carmel Mall in the middle of the day, which may have contributed to my fever last Monday.

I am in school already by the way, having already spent enough time indoors the past two days as much away from the heat as possible with an almost industrial fan for ventilation, as well as the laptop I was using.