Make a run movable before making it longer.
Spider relatives ask you to assemble descending runs in the tableau. The useful question is whether your next move improves access to the cards needed for a complete same-suit King-to-Ace run. Stock timing applies only to the relatives that have a stock.
Last updated: September 2026
Build runs you can move
In the Spider engine, you may place a card or a movable group on a card one rank higher, regardless of suit. A group moves together only when it descends in the same suit. A heart Jack on a club Queen is therefore a legal placement, but the two cards cannot later move together. The same-suit King-to-Ace run is removed automatically when complete.
Before making a mixed-suit placement, name the card it exposes and a place where the moved card can go later. A temporary mixed stack may be useful if it reveals a needed card; making one just to tidy the top of a column creates an access problem.
Use an empty column to change access
An empty column accepts any legal movable group. It can hold a run while you uncover a buried card or split two suits apart. Clearing a column is most useful when the new space enables a specific follow-up move. Filling it without an exit plan can simply move the blockage elsewhere.
In a four-suit open position, one column ends K♥–Q♥ and another ends 9♠–J♥. You can move J♥ onto Q♥, making K♥–Q♥–J♥. Elsewhere, a lone 8♦ can move onto 9♣, clearing its column but forming a mixed 9♣–8♦ stack.
The first move lengthens a movable heart run but leaves both source columns occupied. The second gives you a free column for staging, at the cost of later separating 8♦ from 9♣. Choose after checking which buried card the new space would let you reach. Both transfers are legal in the Spider movement engine; neither implies a win.
Stock-based Spider: prepare before adding a row
Standard Spider begins with 104 cards across ten columns. Fifty cards remain in the stock, which deals one card onto each column per draw. Standard Spider requires every column to be occupied before a draw. Compare productive tableau moves first: can you expose a face-down card, join a same-suit run, or clear a column that helps with either? A draw covers each column top and may postpone those moves.
One-suit, two-suit, and four-suit modes use the same rank placement rule. With fewer suits, more descending links are also same-suit links and can move together. In four-suit play, a mixed placement is more likely to require later separation. Do not assume that a legal move is useful solely because it extends a visible sequence.
Relaxed Spider: a draw is allowed with an empty column
Relaxed Spider keeps the two-deck, ten-column layout and the same run goal. Its rule change is permission to deal from stock while a column is empty. The stock still places one card on every column, including the empty one. The empty space does not survive the draw. Use it for rearrangement before dealing, or accept that the next row will fill it.
Spiderette: the short columns are an opening option
Spiderette deals one deck into seven columns of one through seven cards. The 24-card stock supplies three full seven-card rows, then three cards to columns one through three. Every column must be occupied before a stock deal, including the final partial packet.
A short opening column can become empty with fewer moves, but a longer column may hide the next card needed for a suit run. Compare the card a move reveals with the use you have for the resulting space. The shared movable-run and mixed-suit lessons above apply; the smaller deal does not make every short-column clear the best opening move.
Will O’ the Wisp: compare equal-depth columns
Will O’ the Wisp starts all seven columns at three cards. Its 31-card stock supplies four full rows and a final three-card packet to columns one through three. As in Spiderette, a stock deal requires every column to be occupied.
No column starts closer to empty by length alone. Compare candidate moves by the face-down card they expose and whether the moved group stays movable. A mixed placement can be worthwhile when it opens a useful card; an apparently neat same-suit extension may leave a needed card covered. Apply the stock and working-space lessons above to the actual seven-column position.
Which advice transfers to the relatives?
- Spiderette has one deck, seven columns, and a 24-card stock. Its shorter opening columns offer different space choices.
- Will O’ the Wisp also has one deck and seven columns, but opens with three cards in each column.
- Simple Simon deals all 52 cards face-up with no stock. Access planning replaces draw timing.
- Mrs. Mop deals 104 cards face-up across thirteen columns with no stock. Its supplement focuses on choosing which blockers to move first.
- Beetle starts with 44 face-up cards and a stock that skips empty columns, changing when space is worth clearing.
- Scorpion, Wasp, and Three Blind Mice let a face-up stack move without the same ordered-group requirement; use the specialist guide for that branch.
- Rouge et Noir builds alternating-color runs and color foundations; its separate guide covers those choices.
- Päckchen uses packet redeals and Ace-up foundations, so its strategy is distinct despite catalog membership.