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Wild meld option

Posted: 15 May 2025, 19:57
by Hervor
I'm new to playing Canasta on BGA. Can someone explain to me what the wild meld enable/disable option does?

Re: Wild meld option

Posted: 01 October 2025, 20:38
by snem
Hopefully you've figured it out by now but if you discard a WILD (a 2 or a joker) it freezes the discard pile. This means the pile cannot be picked up unless you have two of the currently discarded card IN YOUR HAND - your melded cards don't count for picking up the pile. For example, if we are playing and I discard a 2, on your turn you draw and play and discard like normal and lets say you discard a 7. Well because the discard pile is FROZEN with the 2 under your 7, I can ONLY pick up the discard pile now if I have two 7's in my hand, even if I have 7's on my melded board. If I have two (or more) of the top discarded card, if I choose to take the discard pile it is then returned to normal play. You are now able to pick up the discard pile as normal. So setting the frozen setting you can make it so you ALWAYS have to have the double in your hand rather than utilizing cards currently in play. Hope that helps! Happy Canasta-ing!

Re: Wild meld option

Posted: 03 October 2025, 18:16
by Jaky Hostinec
snem wrote: 01 October 2025, 20:38 Hopefully you've figured it out by now but if you discard a WILD (a 2 or a joker) it freezes the discard pile. This means the pile cannot be picked up unless you have two of the currently discarded card IN YOUR HAND - your melded cards don't count for picking up the pile. For example, if we are playing and I discard a 2, on your turn you draw and play and discard like normal and lets say you discard a 7. Well because the discard pile is FROZEN with the 2 under your 7, I can ONLY pick up the discard pile now if I have two 7's in my hand, even if I have 7's on my melded board. If I have two (or more) of the top discarded card, if I choose to take the discard pile it is then returned to normal play. You are now able to pick up the discard pile as normal. So setting the frozen setting you can make it so you ALWAYS have to have the double in your hand rather than utilizing cards currently in play. Hope that helps! Happy Canasta-ing!
They asked about the Wild meld option, which allows you, when activated, to create melds with only wild cards, going to a 7-card wild meld being worth 2000 points. You explained them the Frozen discard pile option.