Topic summary
Trumps
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Trump (card games).
The introduction of trumps is one of only two major innovations to trick-taking games since they were invented; the other being the idea of bidding. Trump cards, initially called trionfi, first appeared with the advent of Tarot cards in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards. The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods.