Potato Man is a trick-taking game with the largely unused theme of potatoes in which you can sometimes achieve the highest scores with the smallest potatoes.
After dealing the cards out, players each play one card to the center of the table to form the "trick" – but each of the four colors can be played only once. (The exception: In a five-player game, one color can be played twice.) Whoever plays the highest card wins the trick – except that the three least valuable cards in the game (1, 2, 3 of yellow) win the trick if one of the three most valuable cards in the game (16, 17, 18 of red) is present. Whoever wins a trick leads to the next trick.
Each color has its own small deck of scoring cards, and when a player wins a trick, he takes a scoring card of the corresponding color. The red color, for example, has highest playing cards on average (cards 5-18, compared to yellow 1-13), but least valued scoring cards for a trick. However, once three tricks are taken with the same color, the scoring cards of that color are depleted and players take golden "joker" scoring cards, worth the most points. Therefore you might want to keep high cards of a frequently winning color in your hand in order to maximize your points – but the round ends as soon as a player cannot play a card due to the restrictions on which cards can be played in a given trick.
Players tally their points, then begin a new round, with the game lasting as many rounds as the number of players. In the end, whoever tallies the most points wins!
- neat idea
- five-player setup did not work
- four-player game did not engage
- not a big fan of trick-taking games
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Trick-Taking — Red deck high cards, Yellow Jack low cards; killed highest card; rules about not following suit after someone else.
- trick-taking with asymmetric decks and twist — Red deck high cards, Yellow Jack low cards; killed highest card; rules about not following suit after someone else.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's just too random too quick
- the game played itself
- I bought it because of the crazy art and you've got that crazy cover and it's just wonderful stuff and ideas in the box
- it's so busy
- the four player colors are gray black tan and brown they're the same colors so you're like is that a player color is that a resource
- backstabby
- incredibly abstract and really not engaging for me at all
- the idea of this just totally blew my socks off
- but ultimately it is a big old area majority game
- I've actually just posted before this video a full run through of this game, including that run through I played it three times and I'm just really into it
- grabbed it for only $20.9 bucks
References (from this video)
- Appealing, humorous artwork and theme that is kid-friendly yet surprisingly deep for a light filler
- Accessible rules with surprising strategic depth, especially with must-not-follow twist
- Good balance for family play; engaging for both adults and children
- Memorization and probability elements add meaningful strategy without heavy complexity
- Best experienced with four players; two to three players may reduce some strategic depth due to fewer suits
- First exposure to the must-not-follow mechanic can require unlearning standard trick-taking instincts
- Potato characters and a playful competition around earning points via tricks
- A light, potato-themed trick-taking card game suitable for families and casual players
- humorous, cartoonish, kid-friendly with subtle strategic depth
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Memory and probability — Players benefit from remembering which cards have been played and estimating what remains to improve decision-making.
- Must not follow — Unlike standard trick-taking where you must follow suit, in Potato Man you must not follow a suit that has already been played, creating strategic, non-traditional play.
- Point-based round end (potato sacks) — Winning tricks yields colored sacks worth points (e.g., five-point sacks), and points can rise for a color after its sacks are depleted.
- Trap/end-of-round mechanism — A round can end early if a player cannot play a card of a different suit, with no points awarded for that trick.
- Trick-Taking — Players play a card face up; highest card wins the trick, with color-suit groupings affecting scoring.
- Trick-taking with color/suit cards — Players play a card face up; highest card wins the trick, with color-suit groupings affecting scoring.
- Trump cards and special figures — Three trump cards exist, plus Lord Fry cards (high red values) that can dominate tricks in specific ways; Potato Man cards (1-3) act as special trumps under certain conditions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love the artwork
- it's a great sort of introduction to a certain kind of trick taking game
- visual memory is very important
- surprising depth in here
- fun for kids but strategic enough for grown-ups
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a super cool dice fest in this game
- I'm so excited about this game
- I loved it oh man it was everything I wanted to be playing these combos and getting all these resources
- potato man five players does not work very well
References (from this video)
- clever twist on standard trick-taking
- two-player friendly with crisp decisions
- compact and portable
- thematic silliness may not appeal to all players
- availability may vary by region
- color-based trick-taking with a non-follow-suit rule
- Humorous, abstract world centered on potatoes
- light, playful tone
- Jekyll vs Hyde
- AB Sucker
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- color-based trick resolution — Higher numbers win unless trumped by lower numbers in the presence of the Potato Man theme.
- no-follow-suit trick-taking — Players must play a different color when a color is led; following suit is not allowed.
- scoring via colored tricks — Points are awarded based on the colors represented in each trick; the villain (Potato Man) and hero (Potato) interplay affects scoring.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a really nice little trick taking game
- beautifully produced lovely artwork
- it's just as beautiful even if it's a little more two-dimensional
- it's a classic simple game of swapping trading swapping with that Central that Central display
References (from this video)
- Offers a traditional trick-taking framework with a twist
- The speaker is not a fan of trick-taking in general, reducing engagement
- traditional card play with a twist on following suit
- conventional trick-taking setting with color suits
- analytical, opinionated ranking commentary
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — Managing which cards to play to optimize low-value tricks for points.
- Trick-Taking — Players play cards; following suit is restricted; higher/numbers affect scoring.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I think out of all of these videos that I've done this is probably the highest quality list that I've done in terms of game recommendations
- gorgeous production I mean the pieces here are absolutely lovely on the table
- one of my favorite deduction games of all time if not my favorite game
- I like how pure and simple it is
- it's criminally underrated
- this one is an absolute absolute belter
- I could not recommend it enough
References (from this video)
- Removes suit following requirement
- vegetables
- Primal Plowman
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- board games are diverse but card games really could feature anything
- players are all doing this simultaneously and so you want to be the player that stays in the longest
- if you turn over to many matching cards then you end up with nothing
- auction games are are well served by the sort of card game mechanisms
- play very quickly for three to six players
- an excellent excellent game
- take that card games or I think the most combative sort of card games
- totally silly extremely random but essentially we're playing cards to attack other players
- still one of my favorite games
- each card is a floor on a building
- there's a whole genre of what we call take that card games
- you could place bombs or or murderers into these buildings or the police can then take away a murderer
- Seven Wonders was the sort of figurehead for the cloud drafting games
- sushi go has been an enormous hit
- now the figurehead for the genre is probably sushi go
- deck building was created really by the game of Dominion
- there's something delightful about the simplicity of a game like Dominion
- you can teach to people really easily and play very very quickly
- a form of set collection again
- classic tableau builder would be something like San Juan
- this is a fantastic card game
- buying cards laying them out in front of us and they're going to keep generating us money
- this really is one of my favorite genres
- anybody can play these games and not everybody can play them well
- I love speed games I think it's a fantastic category of card games
- trick-taking games very very straightforward in their basic format
- the basic mechanism can be turned into all these different games
- all tweak it slightly in different ways
- my top ten card game mechanisms
- hopefully I've given you a broad picture of the world of card games
References (from this video)
- Interesting twist on following-suit and trick progression
- Can be counterintuitive on first play
- Off-suit mandatory to disrupt traditional trick-taking; potato-themed tokens
- Whimsical, but deep strategic underpinnings
- Ladder 29
- Haggis
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- mandatory alternate-suit play — Players must play a different suit than any already played in the trick
- sack/point-token system — Winners receive sack cards; distribution affects scoring
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- trick-taking games are the most ancient form of card games dating back to the 10th century in China
- this is a top 10 style of trick-taking games top 10 different mechanisms used in trick-taking games and specifically in modern trick-taking games
- the first half of the game players reveal a card in an attempt to win a central revealed card
- bidding is a way to add a layer of strategy and prediction to the trick-taking format
- the most famous and popular example is the four player game teach you which is played in two teams of two
References (from this video)
- funny flavor, approachable
- humor may not appeal to everyone
- Cat in the Box
- Power Vacuum
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Trick-taking with humorous theme — Standard trick-taking structure with goofy potato-themed flavor and interactions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Skull King is an incredible party-esque trick-taking game with a rowdy, highly engaging energy.
- Trick and Snipers is an incredibly fast trick-taking game.
- Inside Job is the highest cooperative trick taker on my list.