Palace

Palace is a shedding game with a staircase of an endgame. Your cards sit in three layers: a hand you play first and refill from the stock, three face-up cards waiting on the table, and three face-down cards under those — played blind, one at a time, when everything else is gone. Each turn you play a card at least as high as the top of the pile, or pick the whole pile up.

The magic cards keep it moving: a two resets the pile so anything can follow, a ten burns the pile out of the game entirely, and four of a kind on top burns it too. Before play begins you may swap cards between your hand and your face-up row — what you leave showing, your opponent studies all game. First player to shed every card, blind ones included, wins.