by MythiccRare

The Fox in the Forest is streamlined.

Played with a svelte deck comprised of a mere 33 cards, The Fox in the Forest is a tight 2p experience that remains an ideal introduction to trick-taking and one of few true duels in this mechanical genre. Fox was my first foray with a pure trick-taker beyond the standard deck classics Hearts and Spades, and some aspects of the design feel like send ups to those timeless titles. As in Spades, you start each round of Fox with a hand of 13 cards. As in Hearts, your highest scoring potential requires you to nearly or totally sweep the round in a challenge similar to shooting the moon. With only two players at the table, however, Fox plays fast, and you only need one friend handy to fit in a game.


Said Fox
The Fox in the Forest is strategic.

There is no bidding in The Fox in the Forest (like you'd find in Spades, Bridge, or Oh Hell!), but the game’s bipolar scoring rubric makes hand evaluation and management consistently consequential and lends a strategic quality to each round. Once the cards are dealt, you need to consider the 13 that are in your hand, the value and suit of the decree card, and which of the remaining 19 cards your opponent could be holding in their hand. How many tricks are you likely to win? How much leverage do you have to change that number using any of the game’s several different card selection and control abilities?

Your answers to those questions will help you choose whether you’re more likely to win between seven to nine tricks or to lose at least ten. Then you'll set out to achieve either goal by skillfully managing your hand through all 13 tricks. More information is revealed with each trick, of course. If your initial strategy proves a little dubious as the round unfolds, there may still be time to take the other path, provided you’ve got some fairy tale allies. Every round offers a fresh repetition of this rather satisfying strategic challenge, and the factors involved are comfortably quantifiable.

The Fox in the Forest is balanced.

Luck is a factor in determining the distribution of cards in each round, but its impact is ultimately smaller than I expected thanks to the agency afforded by the deck’s odd-numbered cards. The heart and soul of The Fox in the Forest lies in that odd half of the deck, where the cards let you bend the rules of the otherwise straightforward trick-taking contest. With these, you’ll exert control over who leads or follows, nudge a mid-powered hand toward a narrow victory, or hold a too-strong hand back from the disaster of winning too many tricks.


Plenty of Odd-Numbered Cards
When you’re riding the edge between scoring thresholds, the last few tricks of a round can be real nailbiters because your opponent has access to these powers as well. The overall experience is one where two players who understand the implications of the odd-numbered abilities have the opportunity to win most hands. Fox also artfully allows for marginal progress in defeat. Winning a couple tricks with Treasures (the Sevens) in them nets one point per Treasure and may keep you in the game even as your opponent celebrates a victorious round.

The Fox in the Forest is bare.

The even-numbered half of the deck is purely functional, with card fronts featuring only numbers and pips. All the card backs feature a nondescript floral pattern. The Fox in the Forest does have a theme, however, and conveys it through eighteen unique character images decorating the odd-numbered cards. This art adds some fairy tale faces and bolder splashes of color to the components, but doesn’t exactly immerse you in a storybook world. The characters seem vaguely adjacent to the mechanics associated with them, at least. The eponymous Foxes (the Threes), for example, must be sly and crafty critters as playing them lets you swap a card in your hand for the current decree card, potentially changing the trump suit mid-trick. Sadly, the text on these cards serves only to remind you of their special ability. There are no names, no quotes, no story snippets to be found here. Fox’s theme isn’t bad. It’s just not all that relevant.

Game Box
(Image: Foxtrot Games (Publisher))
Play The Fox in the Forest.

True 2p trick-taking is an underserved niche (and, I assume, a steep design challenge). This is one of the few breakout games in the category and it is deserving of its praise. The Fox in the Forest packs solid gameplay into a pocket-sized package at a budget price. Needing only the 33 cards themselves to play, this one will travel exceptionally well. There are dedicated Steam and Android apps for Fox, and it is also available on Board Game Arena as of 2024. With its strategic nature and relatively low number of actions per game (~60 per player), it works well as a turn-based game on BGA. If Fox clicks for you, Jekyll vs. Hyde and Claim both offer different spins on 2p trick-taking that will also be worth checking out.

Or don’t.

It might be difficult for trick-taking newcomers to wrap their heads around the “Humble” win condition in Fox, which calls for you to lose lots of tricks on purpose. Also, the race to 21 points typically takes four rounds, but might easily go one shorter or one longer. When the game does go to five (or, rarely, six) rounds, Fox can start to feel like a slog. The rulebook suggests trying shorter 16-point games, but that lower threshold naturally allows less room for comeback wins. I think 21 is the ideal format. Played that way, Fox is fast, but not lightning fast.

The game is also very competitive and interactive, which can make for an awkward evening if there's a substantial skill gap between the two players at the table. The Fox in the Forest Duet subverts the game’s conflict model by making it cooperative. For some, this may have more appeal than the knife fight in a phone booth experience of competitive 2p trick-taking. If you like that, there’s also Sail and Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard. If you're not into trick-taking at all, consider Jaipur, which offers a portable 2p set collection contest with more conventional scoring and a fast playing best-of-three round format.

Good luck and have fun!

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