Card Exile

Each puzzle displays a RULE ("Exile all football cards," "Exile cards worth over $5K," "Exile non-rookies," etc.) and four candidate cards. Exactly ONE card violates the rule — that's the Exile. Click the violator. Correct picks score 15 base + up to 10 time-bonus (≤5 seconds = +10, ≤10 seconds = +5, above = 0 bonus). Five daily puzzles. 125 points maximum. Grades: S (115+), A (95+), B (75+), C (50+), D (25+), F below. Deterministic daily seed = community-comparable board.

Card Oddball: rule is HIDDEN — 3 cards share a trait and 1 does not, you figure out which is the outlier. Card Exile: rule is SHOWN — the category is explicit ("Exile post-2000 cards") and you pick the one that violates it. Oddball tests pattern recognition; Exile tests rule application and fast card scanning. Complementary mechanics. Card Exile is easier (the rule is given) but time-pressured (bonus scales aggressively with speed).

AGE rules (Exile pre-1990, Exile post-2010, Exile anything older than 2000, Exile vintage). SPORT rules (Exile all football cards, Exile all baseball cards, etc.). ROOKIE rules (Exile all rookie cards, Exile all veterans). VALUE TIER rules (Exile cards worth under $100, Exile anything over $5K). Combined rules also appear (Exile rookie football cards, Exile vintage baseball). Each puzzle randomly selects a rule category — educational signal for learning the card taxonomy.

The procedural generator specifically seeks configurations where EXACTLY ONE of four cards violates the rule and the other three are all clean. If the pool can't produce a valid puzzle, the generator swaps categories until it finds one. So the answer is always unique per the given rule — no ambiguity. However, OTHER incidental traits might differ across cards (e.g. four baseball cards of varying years, but only one exiled for age) — focus on the STATED rule, not incidental differences.

Card Exile is a speed-recognition game, not a deep-thought puzzle. The rule is given, so the only variable is how fast you scan the cards and identify the violator. At ≤5 seconds you get the full +10 bonus (rewarding instant pattern recognition). At ≤10 seconds, +5 (rewarding considered scanning). Above 10 seconds, no bonus (rewarding accuracy without punishing failure). Pattern: fast recognition is a trainable skill; this game lets you train it with an explicit incentive gradient.

Yes. Daily mode is one-shot per day and saves to your streak + gradeCounts stats. Free-play mode generates fresh puzzles with no stats tracking — pure practice. Use free-play to drill specific rule categories (keep pressing "New round" until you get an AGE puzzle, for example) or to warm up before your daily attempt. Wordle convention: daily is serious, free-play is for fun.

After the 5th puzzle, click "Share result." The format is compact 3-line: "Card Exile [date] · [score] / 125 · Grade [letter]" plus a 5-emoji ribbon (🟢 correct fast, 🟡 correct slow, 🔴 wrong). Matches Wordle daily-share convention — recognizable at a glance on X, Discord, Bluesky. Share text does not reveal the actual cards or rules, so friends who have not played yet can still compare grids without spoilers.

First, READ THE RULE FIRST — scan the rule text for ≤1 second before looking at the cards. Second, know the rule taxonomy by heart (age / sport / rookie / value) — you'll start recognizing "Exile non-rookies" and instantly know to scan for the veteran. Third, trust the card metadata tags (RC badge, sport-color strip, year, value) — the tool surfaces these explicitly, which is your visual scan grammar. Fourth, don't second-guess — the rule is explicit and the generator ensures exactly one violator. If you're pretty sure, click. Speed matters more than 100% certainty; the 10-point time-bonus is worth more than a coin-flip re-read.