Flip 7: With a Vengeance Strategy for Experienced Players

Lesson 10 introduced Flip 7: With a Vengeance, the standalone sequel from The Op. It keeps the heart of Flip 7: hit or stay, bust on a duplicate, 15 points for seven different numbers, and the race to 200. Then it hands every player ways to wreck everyone else.

The rules here come from the publisher’s With a Vengeance rulebook (Ruleset Edition 1) and its With a Vengeance FAQ.

What changed, in one paragraph

The deck has 108 cards. Numbers run from 1 to 13, with as many copies of each as its value, so thirteen 13s. Three special number cards bend the rules: The Zero, the Unlucky 7 (one of the seven 7s), and the Lucky 13 (one of the thirteen 13s). The modifiers all hurt: -2, -4, -6, -8, -10, and a divide-by-two, one of each, and you can play them on any player who has not busted. The actions are Just One More, Swap, Steal, Discard, and Flip Four, two of each. And the FAQ says you must use an action card if it has a valid target.

Staying is not safe

This is the big change. In the original, staying takes you out of reach. In With a Vengeance, players who have stayed can still be hit. The FAQ says a Flip Four can be played on someone who has stayed: they flip the four cards, and if they do not bust, they stay out of the round. Modifiers can also go to players who have stayed.

So the bust count from lesson 4 keeps mattering after you bank. A stayed row of 13, 12, and 11 is a fat Flip Four target; a stayed row of 1, 2, 3, and 5 is a poor one. That changes what a good stay looks like:

• Bank risk, not just points. Of two rows worth the same, the low, wide one is safer to bank.
• Stay a little later with a safe row, since a stay does not shield you anyway.
• Count the danger cards. If the Flip Fours and Swaps are still in the deck, a big risky row is exposed whether you stay or not. If they have all gone by, a stay is nearly as safe as in the original. The tally from lesson 7 works here too.

Aiming the new action cards

Flip Four. Four forced cards, stopping early on a bust or a Flip 7. Action and modifier cards drawn during it wait until all four are done, and per the FAQ none of them can save the player from a bust during the four. Aim it the way lesson 6 aimed Flip Three: at the longest, highest row, stayed or not. Avoid a low row with six numbers, where four cards likely finish a Flip 7.

Steal. The player who receives it must take a face-up card from the table into their own line. The FAQ’s example is brutal: if the only other card on the table matches a number the target holds, they must steal it and bust. So give a Steal to a player when every card they could take would duplicate one of theirs.

Swap. Exchange two face-up cards, yours and another player’s, or two other players’. The FAQ confirms a Swap can bust a player, even two at once.

Discard. Force a player to discard one card of your choice, such as the leader’s biggest number.

Just One More. The target takes exactly one more card and then must stay. On a long, risky row it is a one-card Flip Four. On your own row, you can play it on yourself to take one card and bank.

Where the minus cards hurt most

The scoring order for With a Vengeance, per the rulebook: add your numbers, halve them if you have the divide-by-two (rounding down), subtract the minus cards, then add 15 for a Flip 7. In the standard rules a round score cannot go below zero.

That order tells you where to aim:

• The divide-by-two costs its target half their number total. On a row worth 40 that is 20 points, more than any minus card. Give it to the biggest number total on the table.
• Minus cards cost a flat amount, but only down to zero. A -10 on a row worth 6 costs just 6. Give the big minus cards to rows that can absorb all of it.
• Neither touches the Flip 7 bonus, since the 15 is added last.

The special number cards

The Zero. It counts toward seven, but your round scores zero unless you Flip 7. Once it lands, the rules say you must keep hitting on your turn: your only payday this round is the bonus, so lesson 8’s low-row logic applies. Special number cards can be stolen or swapped, and their effect leaves with them, so a Swap that moves The Zero to the leader is a strong play.

The Unlucky 7. You cannot bust on it, but it discards every other number and modifier in your row and keeps only the 7. The FAQ says it takes effect even if you already hold a 7. It hurts most on a big row.

The Lucky 13. You may hold it alongside one other 13 without busting. A third 13 still busts you.

Brutal Mode

The optional Brutal Mode lets round scores go below zero, lets modifiers go to players who busted, and lets a Flip 7 subtract 15 from another player instead of adding 15 to your own. Late in the race from lesson 9, taking 15 from a leader near 200 can matter more than adding 15 to yourself.

Is it for your table?

With a Vengeance suits players who enjoy being targeted as much as targeting; our piece on take-that games can help you judge. The original Flip 7 stays the better first game for new players.