More combinations. The first ones are particularly important, as they are the only ones (I think) that are explained. You might try and deduce the others from them.
The thread already has a spoiler warning, but I still put the most juicy bits in a separate spoiler box down below.
Your next hand is better, a potential Triumvirate of Factions (the triple faces of the three of cats, bats and rats.)
It calmly puts down a straightforward Ascension of Cats: the three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.
It had an Ascension of Bats – the two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.
a full Conspiracy of Rats – knave, queen, king and ace
The best she can manage is a Brace of Hats, then a String of Rats.
A lucky Jack of Cats permits the Banishment of Queens, reducing his Perfidy of Sisters to a mere Disparagement. Your opponent’s sunny smile falters.
You bid, and the Bishop folds. He bids, and you fold. According to the Rule of The Third that Walks Beside You, you must both play on the third.
You smile, with insouciance, as he wastes a Unity of Bats on your trifling Bargain’s Fickle. He bids heavily against your Parliament of Cats and comes undone against a simple three card Succession Crisis.
He stakes all he has left on one final hand: a Conclave of Cats. You play a Procedure of Bats, and he is done.
Bet half your stake on a Sister’s-in-the-Well? Why not? Forgo a Bats-in-Flight for a speculative combination that has only ever been played once, three hundred years ago? Of course!
Later, he reveals a Marigold Doctrine against your Collusion of Violets, and it takes half a day of arguing over which of their prevailing Conspiracies holds sway in order to work out who won the hand (it goes to you).
The two of you call upon half the obscure variations and questionable precedents in the long history of the Marvellous. The Fall’s Audit, a Kingeater’s Sacrifice, the never-discussed exploit of the Lump at the End.
Pages lays down a Stone Pig and a Conspiracy of Kings. The Monkey blinks. Sheepishly, it reveals its Murder of Queens. A losing hand.
He wins one round with a Conclave of Cats; you take the next with a Polythremian Regret.
Your hand is as strong as it can be: a perfect All Manner of Things. […] The Monkey breathes out, long and slow, and turns over its own cards. It had The Thing in the Well: a useless combination which loses to all other hands but one: yours.
The Topsy King invokes Jochi’s Reversal, which has been outlawed since the Fourth City, and swaps his hand with yours. Then he plays one of your rats, making a Parliament, and uses it to swap the hands back. But what’s this? Somehow his Knave of Cats seems to have found its way into your cards. You play it, making a Parliament of your own, and reverse the reversal’s reversal. “Hop the bowsie!” Tristram cries, in feigned disbelief.
You reveal first. A solid hand: a Tragedy Procedure, with an accompanying Treachery of Seven. Opposite, the Monkey grins and lays down his cards: Four Crowns and a full Conspiracy of Rats – knave, queen, king and ace. Ordinarily, the Tragedy Procedure would beat his Crowns, but his Conspiracy undoes the Procedure, leaving his Crowns to take the prize. For a moment, he thinks that he has won. […] The Monkey frowns, and looks back to the cards. You sit back, and watch his face as he remembers your Treachery of Seven. The Treachery means sevens beat aces. His Conspiracy of Rats unravels, and your Tragedy Procedure reigns supreme.