The complete guide: the "pick and pass" draft, three rounds, scoring for rolls, tempura, sashimi and nigiri, wasabi and pudding bonuses, plus the controls on muta.pro.
Sushi Carousel is a light card drafting game. Over a game of three rounds players score points by laying dish cards out in front of themselves. The winner is whoever ends up with more points across all rounds than their neighbours.
Every turn is a small trade-off: take a point for yourself now, or avoid handing a tasty card to whoever it gets passed to next. The rules take a minute to explain, and the whole game flies by.
At the start of each round every player is dealt an identical hand of sushi cards. The hand size depends on the number of people at the table — the more players, the fewer cards each one gets (roughly 7 to 10).
The table in front of each player is empty, except for pudding cards: they are not discarded between rounds but pile up right to the end of the game. All the other dishes are scored at the end of the round and cleared away, freeing the table for the next round.
From your hand you take one card and place it on your table. All players choose at the same time and in secret.
Once everyone has chosen, the remaining hands are passed around to the next player. Now you pick from your neighbour's hand.
Picking and passing repeat until the cards run out. That is how the whole round is played — card by card.
At the end of the round the dishes on the tables turn into points according to the table. Puddings stay put, the other cards are discarded.
The table is set up again, a new hand is dealt — and so on three times. Round scores are added together.
After the third round the accumulated puddings are counted, and only then is the winner decided.
Points are awarded for the dishes you collect:
Current scores are shown right in the players table as the round goes on. After the third round the final totals are compared, including the pudding bonus — the player with the highest score wins.
Wasabi only works on a nigiri played after it. Lay the booster down in advance and save up an expensive nigiri.
Two tempura without a third for a pair, or two sashimi without a trio, are lost points. Finish your sets.
A card you did not take will pass to the next player. Sometimes it pays to grab a strong card just to avoid strengthening an opponent.
Puddings decide the outcome right at the finale: both the leader's surplus and the trailer's shortfall are punished — stay in the middle or pull ahead deliberately.
Sushi Carousel is won not by one lucky hand but by understanding the circle: everything you do not take moves to your neighbour and comes back to you weakened. A good player counts not only their own points but also which dishes the opponents will get one or two passes later.
The hand will go around the table and come back to you, but shorter by the number of players. Work out in advance which of the valuable cards will most likely not reach you again — and take them now.
Sashimi (10 for a trio) and tempura pairs give a lot, but they are grabbed greedily. Take the key cards in the first picks of the hand, and pick up the obvious rolls and weak nigiri towards the end.
Decide what you are building the round on — rolls, sets, or nigiri with wasabi. Darting between three strategies is worse than seeing one through.
The third sashimi closes the trio for +10 — take it first, before your neighbour intercepts it.
Every choice is at once a plus for you and a minus for an opponent. Sometimes it is better to take a card you do not need, just so as not to gift it to whoever sits after you.
If your left-hand neighbour is finishing a sashimi trio or preparing a nigiri for wasabi, take the missing card for yourself. Even if it scores zero — you have taken 10 points away from them.
One tempura and one sashimi on your table apply psychological pressure: the opponent starts blocking your "set" and gets distracted from their own plan. Sometimes a bluff is worth one card.
Open dishes are open information. They show who is going for what; adjust your draft so you are not fighting a neighbour over the same type.
Wasabi ×3 on an expensive squid nigiri (3) gives 9 — if you snatched the wasabi from a neighbour, you spoiled the same jackpot for them.
The game feels different depending on how many people are at the table. It affects both the hand size and how quickly the valuable cards disappear.
The hand goes back and forth between two players, so the view is almost complete. Here the draft turns into pure calculation: you almost always know what will come back.
The optimal format: the hand shrinks noticeably each cycle, valuable cards vanish, but a plan is enough for a set. Pudding becomes more important — it is harder to track.
Hands are short, and only leftovers reach you. Betting on long sets is risky: rolls and cheap nigiri, which pile up steadily, win more often.
At any player count rolls give a reliable, if small, flow of points. In a chaotic five-player game they are your base income.
In the third round, when sets can no longer be built, it makes sense to pick up puddings: the difference between the leader (+6) and the trailer (−6) is a full 12 points.
Most losses in Sushi Carousel are not about bad luck but about unfinished sets and forgotten pudding. Here is what to avoid.
An unpaired tempura is worth zero — do not start a set if the second card will not come back to you.