In any of the other suits the rank would be:—
Matadores. The club Jack is always the best trump, and every trump card in unbroken sequence with the club Jack is called a Matadore, provided the sequence is in the hand of the same player. This rule holds whether the sequence was in the hand originally dealt to him or part of it is found in the Skat, should he become possessed of the Skat cards. For instance: Clubs are trumps, and a player holds these cards:—
He has only one Matadore; but as the Skat cards will belong to him if he has made the trump, he may find in them the spade Jack, which would complete his sequence, giving him six Matadores, instead of one. As one side or the other must have the club Jack in every deal, there must always be a certain number of Matadores, from one to eleven. If the player who makes the trump has them, he is said to play with so many; if his adversaries hold them, he is said to play without just as many as they hold. The difficult thing for the beginner at Skat to understand is that whether a player holds the Matadores or not, the number of them has exactly the same influence on the value of his game. If one player held these cards
and wished to make hearts trumps, he would be playing “with two.” If another player wished to make the same suit trumps with these cards:—
he would be playing “without two,” and the value of each game would be exactly the same, no matter which player actually made the trump. Matadores must be held; they do not count if won from the adversaries in the course of play.