Card game
Play a two-phase, two-deck patience game where you first build across the Zodiac ring, then convert the finished layout into eight ascending foundations.
Phase 1: Play Equator cards onto the Zodiac, or draw from the stock.
Stock (72)
Waste
♣
♣
♦
♦
♥
♥
♠
♠
Equator (Reserve)
Zodiac (locked until Phase 2)
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
Solitaire.City includes classic builders, pairing games, and larger two-deck patience variants, so you can jump between quick rounds and longer strategic layouts.
Zodiac Solitaire is a two-deck game with a distinctive two-phase structure. In the first phase (“the Zodiac phase”), all 104 cards are placed onto a circular Zodiac tableau using Equator helper cards as routing points. In the second phase, the positioned cards are used to build eight foundations from Ace to King by suit. The game is won or lost largely in phase one: how well you arrange the Zodiac tableau determines how easily the foundation phase completes.
Two 52-card decks (104 cards). The Zodiac is a circular layout of twelve fan positions (one per astrological sign). Equator cards serve as a temporary dealing row. In phase one, cards are dealt from stock and placed onto Zodiac fans by suit in a specific pattern.
In phase two, eight foundations are built upward by suit from Ace to King using cards from the Zodiac fan positions. Win when all 104 cards reach the eight foundations.
Most solitaire games have a single continuous objective (build foundations, assemble runs, clear the tableau). Zodiac splits this into two sequential phases with different rules and priorities.
Phase one is a placement optimization problem: arrange all 104 cards in the Zodiac fans so that phase two can build foundations cleanly. Suit placement matters enormously — cards of the same suit should be accessible in the order foundations will need them. A convenient phase-one placement that tangles suit sequences will be expensive to work around in phase two.
In phase two, you work through the Zodiac fans to surface foundation-ready cards. The Zodiac fans are circular and accessible from their top positions; the exact access rules depend on how the Zodiac tableau was laid out in phase one. A well-organized phase one produces a phase-two board that flows naturally toward foundation completion; a poorly organized one creates dependency chains that require many intermediate moves.