Alphanasta

A straight-forward adaptation of the card game Canasta into a word game. Instead of clustering traditional cards into melds of identical rank, lettered cards are melded into words.

A straight-forward adaptation of the card game Canasta into a word game. Instead of clustering traditional cards into melds of identical rank, lettered cards are melded into words.

The Alphanasta deck consists of two packs of 54 cards, which combined include: 40 vowels, 48 consonants, 8 doubles (e.g. J/K or W/X, where you can use it as either letter), 8 pairs (e.g. ER or ED, where both letters are used in the printed order, and 4 triples (ING). Vowels are worth 5 points each, consonants 10, doubles and pairs 20, and triples 50.

Each player is dealt 13 cards each, or 11 in partnership games. In a turn a player:
1. Draws: either A) the top of the draw pile, or B) the entire discard pile. B) can only be done if the top discard is used to extend an existing word, or meld a new word of 4+ letters using cards from the hand.
2. May do this as much as they wish: A) meld new words from the hand of 4+ letters; B) add cards to either end of an tabled word of theirs, making it a new word.
3. Discards a card from the hand, unless they are going out.