Card Games That Start With M - The Complete List

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The best-known card games starting with M: Mao, Mau Mau, Memory, Michigan, Mus, Machiavelli and Mattis play with a standard deck; Montana, Miss Milligan and Monte Carlo are solitaires; Magic: The Gathering, Munchkin, Mille Bornes and Monopoly Deal use their own cards.

Standard-deck games (grab a regular pack)

Traditional card games playable with one or two ordinary 52-card decks — plus a few that use regional packs.

Game	Players	What it is
Mao	3-12	The cult shedding game where nobody tells you the rules — new players learn by getting penalized. Crazy Eights with hazing.
Mau Mau	2-6	The German/Central European shedding classic — the direct ancestor of UNO. Match suit or rank, race to go out.
Memory (Pelmanism)	2-8	Lay all cards face down, flip two per turn, keep matching pairs. The matching game every kid learns first.
Michigan	3-8	Stopping game with a betting pool — play cards in sequence and win the chips on the cards you play.
Machiavelli	2-5	Italian rummy played with two decks — meld sets and runs, and freely rearrange the table's melds to dump your hand.
Mattis	3-8	Norwegian shedding game where the loser becomes the "mattis" — the game's official laughingstock.
Mus	4	The Basque Country's great partnership betting game — bids like poker, played with a 40-card Spanish deck.
Mariáš	3-4	The Czech national trick-taking game with bidding, marriages and a 32-card deck.
Mendikot	4	Indian partnership trick-taking — capturing the tens is what wins the hand.
Mizerka	3	Polish three-player trick game that uses the whole 52-card deck.
Manni	3	Icelandic trick-taking game played with a 48-card pack.
Mighty	3-8	Korea's favorite trick-taking game — partnership play with a joker-heavy deck and a target score bid.
Mustamaija	2-6	Finnish "black lady" — the queen of spades costs you the game, like a meaner Hearts.
Maw	2-10	Elizabethan Ireland's great game — ancestor of spoil five / twenty-five, once the most played game in Britain.
Manipulation Rummy	3-7	Also called Carousel — you win by rearranging existing melds, not just laying your own.
Marriage	2-5	Nepali/Indian rummy played with three decks — a marathon meld game.
May I?	3-5	A contract rummy variant — each round has a new contract and you ask "may I?" to buy a discard.
Mexican Stud / Mexican Sweat	2-10	Poker-family deal-and-burn betting games — no skills beyond nerve required.
Mississippi Mud	5-7	Poker-family stud game built for a full table.
Money	2	A compact two-player duel with a standard deck.
Mulle	2-6	Scandinavian fishing game in the Casino family — capture table cards to build and clear.
Myllymatti	3	Finnish three-hander — trick-play with a misère twist.
Magarac	3-4+	Balkan climbing game — shed your hand by beating the last play.
Moska	3-6	Eastern European shedding/stop game for a mid-size table.

Solitaire games starting with M

Single-player layouts — the M section of the solitaire shelf is surprisingly deep.

Game	Type	What it is
Montana Solitaire	Ordering	Remove the twos and slide cards left to rebuild each row in suit order — a pure puzzle, no luck once dealt.
Miss Milligan	Klondike family	A two-deck Klondike variant where you can stash a column in reserve — the stash is the whole strategy.
Monte Carlo Solitaire	Pairing	A 5x5 grid where you remove adjacent matching pairs and collapse the board — fast and brutal.
Martha Solitaire	Building	A two-deck foundation builder, friendlier than most — a good next step after Klondike.
Maze Solitaire	Ordering	Relative of Montana — reorder a dealt grid by sliding cards into gaps.
Mrs. Mop	Spider family	Brutal two-deck Spider variant — thirteen same-suit runs and almost no mercy.
Mount Olympus	Building	Two-deck builder where foundations climb by twos — odds and evens each get their own pile.
Matrimony	Building	Tricky two-decker where queens and kings must pair up on the foundations — hence the name.
Magic Castle	Klondike family	Accessible two-deck variant with an open reserve row.
Maya Pyramid	Pairing	Pyramid-layout pairing game — remove cards that sum to the target value to clear the structure.
Mountain Solitaire	Pairing	Tri Peaks-style layout — clear peaks by playing cards one rank up or down.

Games with their own deck

Commercial card games — no standard deck required because the box is the game.

Game	Players	What it is
Magic: The Gathering	2+	The original trading card game (1993) — build a deck, cast spells, duel. Still the biggest TCG on earth.
Munchkin	3-6	Dungeon-crawling parody card game — loot monsters, stab your friends, race to level 10.
Mille Bornes	2-6	The 1954 French racing classic — rack up miles while slamming opponents with flat tires and red lights.
Monopoly Deal	2-5	The fast card version of Monopoly — collect property sets, steal with action cards, done in 15 minutes.
Machi Koro	2-4	City-building game where cards are your buildings — roll dice to trigger them and fund your landmarks.
Minchiate	4	The 97-card Florentine tarot game — a living museum piece still played in Tuscany.
Mah Jong cards	4	The classic tile game exists as a money-suited card deck — same game, portable format.

Picking one

Two players, one deck?

Start with Mau Mau or Money for something quick; Machiavelli if you want a meatier rummy session; Memory if kids are at the table.

A party of 6+?

Mao is the legendary answer — its whole point is that nobody explains the rules. Michigan scales well for a big mixed table that wants light betting.

Solo?

Montana for a pure puzzle, Miss Milligan for a thinking Klondike, Mrs. Mop if you want to suffer.

Something to buy?

Mille Bornes and Monopoly Deal are the safest gift picks; Munchkin for groups that like arguing; Magic only if they're ready for a hobby, not a game night.