Best Solo Card Games to Play When You Can't Find an Opponent

It happens to everyone. Someone misses the message, two people are traveling, one person "forgot." You have the itch to play cards and nobody's around.

Classic solitaire

Before Magic existed, people were spending evenings alone with a 52-card deck. Patience games have been around since the 18th century and hold up better than you'd expect.

Four worth knowing: Klondike is the one everyone pictures: seven columns, alternating colors, descending rank. FreeCell is the one where almost every deal is winnable because all 52 cards are face up from the start. No luck. If you lose FreeCell, you made a mistake somewhere. MTG players tend to find this satisfying for that reason. Spider scales with how much suffering you want — one-suit is casual, four-suit will make you feel like you're untangling a combo line under a clock.

Penguin is the deep cut. Invented by David Parlett (the scholar who also wrote The Penguin Book of Patience), it uses a "beak" card to set the starting rank for all four foundations. The seven flipper cells work like FreeCell's free cells, and sequencing decisions matter in a way that feels familiar if you play any stack-based format. Worth getting to once you're bored of the others.

Internet Solitaire has browser versions of all four, with undo and hints, no install.

Setting up with a physical deck

If you've got a standard deck sitting on the table, here's how to get started with each one.

Klondike: Deal 7 columns left to right. Column 1 gets 1 card, column 2 gets 2, up to column 7 with 7 cards. Only the top card of each column is face up, the rest face down. The remaining 24 cards go in a face-down stock pile. You'll need four spaces above for the foundations: one per suit, built from Ace up.

FreeCell: Deal all 52 cards face up into 8 columns. The first four columns get 7 cards each, the last four get 6. Leave space for four free cells (single-card holding spaces) and four foundation piles. Everything is visible from the start, which is the point.

Penguin: Flip the first card you deal. That's the beak, and it sets the starting rank for all four foundations. Whenever you deal one of the other three cards matching the beak's rank, pull it aside immediately as a foundation starter. Deal the remaining 49 cards into 7 columns of 7, all face up. Leave seven empty spaces as flipper cells. The beak itself stays in the layout until you work it free.

Spider (one suit): Spider normally needs two decks, but for one-suit you can fake it with a single deck by treating all cards as the same suit. Just build descending sequences regardless of suit and only score runs that are all the same. Deal 10 columns (use whatever fits your table): four columns of 6 cards, six columns of 5. Only the top card of each column is face up. The remaining 50 cards form five draw piles of 10. When you're stuck, deal one card face up to each column.

Goldfishing your deck

MTG players already do this, though it rarely gets called "solo play." Running your deck against a theoretically passive opponent shows you how consistent your opening hands actually are versus how consistent you thought they were. It won't teach you how to play through interaction. It will absolutely show you that your pet card misses its window every third game.

Combo and aggro benefit most. Shuffle to seven, play it out, keep notes.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

If you have a few hours, this is the real answer. Arkham Horror LCG is a cooperative Living Card Game from Fantasy Flight that plays better solo than in a group, because you control timing without waiting on anyone. You build a deck around an investigator with a class-based card pool (think colors, with restrictions) and run through linked campaign scenarios where your decisions carry forward.

It's not casual. The Dunwich Legacy campaign is where most people start. One honest warning: the base kit is cheap, but a full campaign gets expensive if you chase it, so it helps to know that going in.

Star Realms

Star Realms has a solo challenge mode that takes 15-20 minutes, you're playing against a boss with fixed mechanics, optimizing your deck through the buy row before it kills you. The app is $15 with challenges included. Good if you want something quick and competitive without scheduling anyone.

MTG puzzle scenarios

The MTG subreddit runs "solve this board state" threads regularly, and Magic Online has puzzle modes built in. Fifteen minutes of puzzles before a session is a decent warm-up for pattern recognition, spotting the line you'd miss in real time during a match.

Solo Card Gaming FAQ

What are the best variants for solo physical card play?

Klondike and FreeCell offer distinct tactical challenges. FreeCell relies entirely on strategy with open information, while Penguin introduces complex sequencing decisions based on a starter rank.

How does goldfishing improve Magic: The Gathering performance?

Goldfishing tests deck consistency against a passive opponent. It reveals open-hand probability, mana-curve efficiency, and combo speeds, helping players spot dead cards before a competitive match.

Which modern tabletop card games are designed for solo play?

Arkham Horror: The Card Game provides deep, narrative-driven campaign progression. For faster sessions, Star Realms features a dedicated solo challenge mode utilizing automated boss mechanics.