Magic and Wizards Mahjong

Runes, potions and wizardly bric-a-brac cover the tiles of Magic and Wizards Mahjong, and SOFTGAMES rotates fifty layouts underneath them, so the shape of the pile changes long before the artwork does. How that works is written out in Why Mahjong Boards Run Out of Moves.

Five boosters is an unusually deep bench for a tile board. Hint finds a pair, Shuffle redeals what is left, Undo takes back the move you regret, and Torch and Freeze exist to deal with the clock. That clock is the thing to plan around, because the board pays time bonuses for good play and also lets you spend extra seconds to finish a layout you have almost emptied. The race turns into a budget: seconds earned early are what pay for the awkward last dozen pieces. The Xmas Deluxe pile swaps the season and keeps the board.

The board sits in a squarer frame than most layouts of its size, and it accepts taps as well as clicks. A second stacked layout here is the Deluxe board.

1. Take in the layout and find two free tiles carrying the same rune or artifact.
2. Match them off, and keep matching to build up your time bonus.
3. Call on Hint, Shuffle or Undo when the pile stops offering a legal move.
4. Empty the layout before the clock runs out, or spend seconds to see it through.

• Bank time early — the bonuses in Magic and Wizards Mahjong arrive when the pile is easy, and those seconds are what fund the difficult end.
• Undo beats Shuffle — reversing one bad match costs less than rearranging a layout you had already learnt to read.
• Learn the fifty shapes — the artwork stays constant while the layouts rotate, so recognising a pile from earlier is worth more than recognising a rune.
• Hold Torch and Freeze — both exist for the clock, and the moment they pay is the last dozen tiles rather than the first.