Opening Plan
Use the First Moves to Find Information
Hard-mode planning starts before the first stock deal. Your first priority is not to make the board look busy; it is to uncover face-down cards while keeping the few same-suit moves you have available. A legal move that only shifts visible cards can cost more mobility than it creates.
- Prefer moves that expose face-down cards or open a clear path to one.
- Keep a same-suit run intact when the alternative only rearranges visible cards.
- Use mixed-suit moves when they unlock progress, not because they are merely legal.
Mobility
Build Small Same-Suit Islands Before Big Mixed Stacks
A short same-suit run is often more useful than a longer mixed-suit stack because it can move later. Build movable islands that you can combine when empty columns appear, and avoid burying low cards under unrelated suits unless the reveal is worth the tradeoff.
- Keep same-suit groups together whenever possible.
- Use empty columns to untangle mixed runs.
- Do not bury aces and low cards under unrelated suits.
Evidence Note
Why 4-Suit Planning Deserves Its Own Page
The site's June 2026 opening-mobility study analyzed 75,000 seeded standard Spider starts: 25,000 each for 1 suit, 2 suits, and 4 suits. In that sample, 4-suit starts averaged 6.46 legal top-card moves but only 1.61 same-suit top-card moves. That supports a narrow strategy takeaway: the hard part is preserving mobility, not finding any legal move.
- Study source: 75,000 seeded opening deals using the live site's standard Spider deck model.
- Limitations: the study measured opening-board mobility only, not full-game win rates, solvability, user testing, or guaranteed outcomes.
Stock
Deal Only After You Have Prepared the Tableau
Every stock deal adds 10 new cards and can bury your progress. Standard Spider also requires every tableau column to contain at least one card before the stock can be dealt, so open columns must be used or refilled before the click. In 4 suits, that last scan matters because the next row can turn one repairable mixed stack into several.
- Take tableau moves before dealing if they improve access.
- Confirm that all 10 columns are filled before the stock deal.
- Avoid dealing into a cluttered layout unless there is no better progress.
- Use the deal to extend runs you can still separate by suit later.
Empty Columns
Use Open Space to Repair Suit Order
An empty column is not just storage in 4 suits. It is the place where you separate a useful same-suit run from a mixed stack, move a blocking King, or reveal a card that was trapped under unrelated suits. The most expensive empty-column mistake is filling the only open lane without improving the next decision.
- Keep one empty column open when it can untangle multiple stacks.
- Fill an empty column only when the move reveals a card, completes a run, or prepares a legal stock deal.
- Avoid parking a King in your only empty column unless it clearly improves the board.
Mode Progression
Use 2 Suits as a Warm-Up, Then Return to 4 Suits
If 4 suits feels chaotic, a 2-suit board is the closest practice step. It keeps the same stock, tableau, and mixed-suit movement rules, but reduces the number of suit conflicts you have to track. Use it to rehearse the same decision order, then return to 4 suits when you want the full hard-mode planning load.
- Practice separating two suits before managing all four.
- Return to 4 suits once you can preserve same-suit runs through a stock deal.
- Use the guide hub when you need rules, stock timing, and mode pages in one place.