What is in the Property Rush card decks: Treasure and Surprise, counted
Property Rush has two decks of 24 cards each, Treasure and Surprise. I counted them from the game's code so that nobody has to be surprised by the Surprise deck.
Treasure: mostly kind
| Type | Cards |
|---|---|
| Advance to Start | 2 |
| Money (11 pay you, 4 charge you) | 15 |
| Pardon from Prison | 2 |
| Go to Prison | 1 |
| Collect from every other player | 2 |
| Repairs, charged per house and hotel | 2 |
The 15 money cards net +580 across the deck. So a Treasure draw is a good one far more often than a bad one.
Surprise: mostly movement
| Type | Cards |
|---|---|
| Advance to a named tile | 9 |
| Advance to the nearest airport or utility | 4 |
| Go back two or three tiles | 2 |
| Go to Prison | 2 |
| Pardon from Prison | 1 |
| Money | 3 |
| Pay every other player | 2 |
| Repairs | 1 |
Fifteen of the 24 cards move you. Of the nine named tiles, several are cities, one is an airport and one is Start. The airport and utility cards raise the traffic of those tiles above the dice alone, and airport cards charge double toll.
What it means
Surprise is the deck that decides where tokens end up. Treasure is the deck that decides how much money moves. If you own the airports, a Surprise deck sends tokens to you.
The Prison cards
Three cards send you to Prison, one in Treasure and two in Surprise. Three pardon cards, two in Treasure and one in Surprise, let you out. They are worth holding.
The repairs
Repair cards charge you per house and hotel you own. They are the only cards that punish the builder, and there are three in 48.
A rule of thumb for the Surprise deck
Fifteen of 24 Surprise cards move you, and several of those move you to a city that someone owns. If you are low on cash, a Surprise draw is the one to fear. If you are rich, it is the one that finds you rent to collect. That is why I try to hold some cash back when my token is about to draw.
Why count at all
When you know the decks, you stop being afraid of them. Most cards are kind or move you. A few are costly, and they are known.
Ahmed Moaz builds Boardit, a free browser game site.