Gold doesn't mean much to wizards. Aside from being a smart-ass and always being right, they care about having magic artifacts and spellbooks — but these items aren't easy to get, so sometimes magicians just decide to meet and compete against one another in a refined bidding ritual to take items from others. Whoever first claims two spellbooks wins!

Each player starts Zockende Zauberer with three vials (life points) and three gems: two bearing a pearl and one bearing an imp. Players also receive two spells at random from a shuffled decks of magic cards.

Each round consists of four phases: lay down, call, confirm, and score. First, everyone lays a gem face down, starting with the first player and with this happening up to three times. The active player can call out how many pearls or imps they intend to reveal from among the played gems, and the next wizard can increase this call with a higher number. Once everyone passes on going higher, the player who made the call starts revealing played gems, although they can't reveal two gems from the same pile.

If the call was correct, the active player claims a spellbook; if not, they lose one of their vials. Collect two spellbooks or be the last wizard standing, and you win!