Zero Day Triage

Rules overview

Zero Day Triage Card Game Logo Zero-Day Triage A solo containment puzzle about patching a live zero-day attack.

Players: 1

Time: 10–20 minutes

Complexity: Light rules, thinky turns

Core System: Diamonds attack; any black suit patches; clear then decay; binary win/loss

Intro

A zero-day detonates in your network: with one split deck and eight rounds, you’ll triage diamond attacks and deploy black-suit patches before the row spills over. This fast solo puzzle rewards timing and foresight—any black can save a diamond, wild 10s clear then decay, surges raise the cap—and only a clean board at the end counts as victory.

Components

Use one standard 52-card deck split into two piles.

• Red Deck (Attacks): Diamonds (♦)
• ♦2–♦10 are vulnerabilities
• ♦J, ♦Q, ♦K are Face Events that occupy a Threat Row slot and must be cleared (see Face Events)
• ♦A is a Zero-Day Surge (event; does not occupy a slot)
• Black Deck (Patches): Spades (♠) and Clubs (♣)
• 2–10 are numeric patches
• J/Q/K are Wild Patches (value 10 when patching numbers; temporary) and carry their printed rank only for clearing Face Events
• Aces are Admin Tools (no numeric value)

Hearts (♥) are not used in the baseline game. Optional variants appear later.

Guardrails (read once)

• No rank matching for numbers. When patching ♦2–♦10, black J/Q/K all count as 10; they are not 11/12/13.
• Faces are events with ranks. To clear a face, you must play a ranked wild: ♦J ← J/Q/K; ♦Q ← Q/K; ♦K ← K.
• Aces are not values. They only Shield a Wild or Promote +1 a numeric patch (and are sometimes disabled by faces).
• One patch per diamond each round.

Table Setup & Layout

• Red Deck: upper left, face down. Leave space to its right for Red Discard.
• Threat Row: center of table, a horizontal row of 4 slots for diamonds. Faces and numbers both occupy slots. If a Surge raises the cap this Threat Step, place the extra diamonds to the right. Cap resets to 4 next round.
• Black Deck: lower left, face down. Leave space to its right for Black Discard.
• Your Hand: keep 5 black cards in hand, below the Black Deck.
• Patch Placement: place each patch directly below its target ♦ (slight overlap).

[ Red Deck ] [ Red Discard ]

[ Threat Row: □ □ □ □ ] [ Overflow for this Threat Step → ]

[ Black Deck ] [ Black Discard ] [ Your Hand (5) ]

Build the Decks & Start

• From a standard deck, build:
• Red Deck: ♦2–♦10, ♦J, ♦Q, ♦K, ♦A (13 cards). Shuffle.
• Black Deck: all ♠ and ♣, ranks 2–10, J, Q, K, A (26 cards). Shuffle.
• Draw a starting hand of 5 from the Black Deck.
• Threat Row cap 4. Play 8 rounds.
• Reshuffle rule: Whenever a deck runs out, reshuffle its discard to form a new deck and continue (even mid-step if needed).

Round Structure

• Threat Step
• Patch Step
• Clear Step
• End Step

Threat Step

Reveal cards from the Red Deck until the Threat Row holds exactly 4 diamonds (faces and numbers both count; Aces don’t).

• Surge (♦A): when revealed, apply Overflow +1 to the Threat Row cap for this Threat Step only (Surge cards do not occupy a slot). Apply Stress (remove all unshielded Wilds currently in play). Discard the Ace, then continue revealing until the temporary cap is filled.
• You’ll usually see at most one Surge in a Threat Step. More can occur only if the red deck reshuffles mid-fill.
• Face Events (♦J/♦Q/♦K): when revealed, place the face into the Threat Row (it occupies a slot) and its effect becomes active until that face is cleared during a later Patch Step.

Patch Step

From your hand, play any number of black cards, with a maximum of one patch per diamond in the Threat Row.

• Numeric Patches (2–10): value must be ≥ the target ♦ value.
• Wild Patches (J/Q/K): choose either black suit; value 10 for numbers; temporary (decay at End).
• Admin Tools (Aces): play any number per round. Each Ace performs exactly one action when played:
• Shield: choose one Wild you control; the next Surge this round does not remove that Wild. You may play Shield the instant a Surge (♦A) is revealed, before Stress resolves.
• Promote +1: choose one numeric patch; it counts as +1 value for this Clear Step only (e.g., 9 acts as 10). Not stackable on a single patch.

Kill-Switch note: while ♦K is present, Aces cannot be used at all.

Clearing Face Events (during Patch Step)

Clear Step

For each diamond in the Threat Row, if a legal patch is present (numeric ≥ value, or eligible wild; after any Promote +1), clear that diamond.

• When a diamond clears, discard both: the ♦ to Red Discard, its patch to Black Discard.
• A patch only targets one diamond and cannot be reassigned this round.

End Step

• Wilds decay and are removed from play (any remaining Wilds are discarded now).
• Draw from the Black Deck to refill your hand to your current hand-size limit (normally 5, or 4 while Jam is active).
• Threat Row cap resets to 4 for the next round.
• Any faces that remain in the Threat Row continue to apply their effects next round.

End of the Game

After completing 8 rounds, you win if the Threat Row is empty. Otherwise, you lose. No tiebreakers, no score.

Examples

• Jam present: the row holds ♦J. At End Step you draw to 4. If you clear ♦J during Patch Step, you draw to 5 this End Step instead.
• Quarantine: the row shows ♦Q and ♦9. Promote +1 is disabled while ♦Q remains. You play ♣Q on ♦Q to clear it, and a numeric 9 (or wild 10) on ♦9.
• Kill-Switch: the row shows ♦K, ♦10, ♦7. While ♦K remains, you cannot play wilds on ♦10/♦7 and cannot use Aces. You play ♠K to clear ♦K; now Aces and wilds-on-numerics are allowed again.
• Surge with faces: the row already has ♦Q. During Threat you reveal ♦A: cap +1 for this step, Stress, discard the Ace, then keep revealing until the temporary cap is filled (faces already in the row count toward the cap).