How is Scorpion different from Spider?

Two things. Scorpion builds strictly down in suit rather than allowing any suit for placement, and it lets you move any face-up card together with every card on top of it, in any order. Spider only lets you move properly ordered same-suit runs.

Do the cards I move have to be in sequence?

No, and that is the point of the game. You may lift a card with a completely disordered pile above it and place the lot onto a valid parent. Sorting happens by repeatedly moving cards rather than by preparing runs first.

What can go into an empty column?

Only a king. Because moving a king also lifts everything above it, clearing a column and dropping a king in is usually the most productive thing you can do.

When should I deal the three tail cards?

Only when you have no legal moves left. They land on the first three columns permanently and can easily bury a card you needed, so they are a last resort rather than an opening.

Can I win every Scorpion deal?

No. It is a hard game and a fair number of deals are unwinnable, especially with the traditional rule where completed runs stay on the table. Unlimited undo means a lost deal is often recoverable if you back up far enough.

Are completed runs removed?

In this version, yes — a full king-to-ace suit leaves the table and frees the space. The stricter traditional rule keeps them in place, which makes the endgame much more cramped.

Scorpion Solitaire

Scorpion looks like Spider and plays nothing like it. You can pick up any face-up card along with the entire messy pile sitting on top of it, which makes this a game about untangling rather than building.

Click a card to pick it up with everything above it, then click where it should go. Only kings may start an empty column.

Players	1
Deck	One standard 52-card deck
Play time	6–15 minutes
Difficulty	Hard — one bad drag can bury the game

How to play Scorpion Solitaire

Seven columns hold the cards. The first four columns have their first three cards dealt face down; everything else is face up. Three cards are held back as the tail — the small reserve in the corner.

The move that defines the game

You place a card on the card one rank higher in the same suit: the nine of spades goes onto the ten of spades, the queen of hearts onto the king of hearts. Colour and alternation are irrelevant; suit is everything.

What makes Scorpion unusual is that when you move a card, every card stacked on top of it comes too — in whatever order they happen to be. You can lift the jack of spades along with the ten of spades, the three of clubs and the king of hearts sitting above it, and drop the whole untidy column onto the queen of spades. Nothing needs to be sorted first. This is why the game is possible at all, and why a careless move is so destructive: you can bury four useful cards in a single click.

Other rules

Only a king may be moved into an empty column.
Any exposed face-down card flips automatically.
Clicking the tail deals its three cards onto the first three columns. Traditionally you hold this until you have run out of moves.
A complete king-to-ace run in one suit is removed from the table.

Winning

Assemble four complete king-to-ace sequences, each in a single suit.

Strategy

Because you can move anything, the constraint in Scorpion is not what is legal but what is wise. Almost every loss comes from a move that was available and stupid.

Flip the face-down cards first, and treat nothing else as progress

Twelve cards start hidden in the first four columns, and until they are visible you are working half blind. Any move that turns one over beats a move that tidies a sequence. If a drag exposes a face-down card, it is almost always the right drag.

Think about what you are burying, not what you are placing

This is the discipline the game demands. Moving a jack with three cards on its back places the jack correctly and simultaneously buries three cards somewhere new. Before committing, look at what is riding along and ask whether you will be able to get to it again. Beginners look only at the card they are moving.

Keep one column empty for as long as you can

An empty column takes a king, and a king in an empty column is the anchor for an entire suit. More importantly, moving a king out of the middle of a pile frees everything beneath it. Emptying a column is the single most valuable manoeuvre in Scorpion.

Do not deal the tail to see what happens

Those three cards land on the first three columns and cannot be taken back. Deal them only when you have genuinely exhausted every legal move, and preferably when you know what you want them to land on top of.

Work one suit at a time from the king down

Since sequences must be in suit, find the king of a suit whose lower cards are relatively accessible and build that one properly. Trying to advance all four suits simultaneously produces four half-finished piles and no space.

Variants

Clear completed runs off — the version played here. Finished king-to-ace suits leave the table, freeing space. Traditionally they stay put and must be played around, which is markedly harder.
Double Scorpion — two decks, ten columns, eight runs to build. Long and very difficult.
Wasp — the same rules but with the four face-down cards dealt face up and any card allowed into an empty column. Considerably easier and a good way to learn the movement rule.
Three Blind Mice — a close relative with a different deal, likewise permitting the drag-anything move.
Deal at will — allowing the tail to be dealt at any moment rather than only when stuck.

Where Scorpion came from

Scorpion is a modern patience of uncertain authorship, appearing in twentieth-century collections and sitting in the same broad group as Spider and the other multi-run building games. It is usually classed with Wasp and Three Blind Mice as a small family sharing one distinctive mechanic: the ability to move a face-up card together with any cards resting on it, without requiring them to be in sequence.

David Parlett, whose surveys of patience games are the standard English-language reference, groups these under the building patiences while noting the mechanic as the family's defining feature. The name follows the same loose convention as Spider — an arachnid or insect attached to a game with multiple building piles — and the "tail" of three reserve cards is presumably the same joke. Unlike Klondike or FreeCell it was never bundled with a major operating system, which is why it remains comparatively little known despite being one of the more interesting single-deck patiences.

Questions people ask about Scorpion

How is Scorpion different from Spider?: Two things. Scorpion builds strictly down in suit rather than allowing any suit for placement, and it lets you move any face-up card together with every card on top of it, in any order. Spider only lets you move properly ordered same-suit runs.
Do the cards I move have to be in sequence?: No, and that is the point of the game. You may lift a card with a completely disordered pile above it and place the lot onto a valid parent. Sorting happens by repeatedly moving cards rather than by preparing runs first.
What can go into an empty column?: Only a king. Because moving a king also lifts everything above it, clearing a column and dropping a king in is usually the most productive thing you can do.
When should I deal the three tail cards?: Only when you have no legal moves left. They land on the first three columns permanently and can easily bury a card you needed, so they are a last resort rather than an opening.
Can I win every Scorpion deal?: No. It is a hard game and a fair number of deals are unwinnable, especially with the traditional rule where completed runs stay on the table. Unlimited undo means a lost deal is often recoverable if you back up far enough.
Are completed runs removed?: In this version, yes — a full king-to-ace suit leaves the table and frees the space. The stricter traditional rule keeps them in place, which makes the endgame much more cramped.