After this type of card is played, it goes to the discard. It is added to the discard pile in the order played.
Example: A player throws down a zombie on their brains family of five and says 'Brains!' Before they are able to say, '5 to the graveyard', an opposing player says 'Seduce' and tosses down a succubus, and steals the whole brains family plus the zombie. The succubus goes on the discard pile. The stealing player immediately say '5 to the graveyard!' and begin scooping up their loot. Another player throws down a preacher with the phrase 'Christ compels you!'. Since the prayer was said incorrectly, the prayer fizzles out and that preacher is placed immediately on the discard pile. This same player has a second preacher and throws it down, and this time, gets the phrase right, exclaiming, "The power of Christ compels you!". Now the zombie explodes and is destroyed. The preacher and zombie are placed in discard. Player two, who successfully stole the brains family, gets to keep the brains family on his area of the table. Now he needs to get another zombie to haul that family to the graveyard.
After Taking A Family to the Graveyard
Turn your family face-down, and place it in your graveyard. Take the vampire or zombie out and place it in discard. If the draw deck gets flipped, recycle the corpses in your graveyard to the shuffle deck, and record your score on a piece of paper.
Discarding Strategies
Since you can only draw 1 card per turn, it is not advantageous to play only 1 card to the board. Avoid this. You might as well just discard, and lighten your hand of a card not needed.
Instead, wait until you can discard 2 or more to the board. This will ensure that on your next turn, you can accelerate by drawing 2 cards -- or more!
By now you know you can play a run of 2 or more blood or brains families to the board. Here's a tip. You can also play 2 or more monster cards (zombie, vampire, preacher or succubus) to the board simultaneously.
Example: On turn 1, Cathy discards normally. She now has 4 cards. John attempts to go to the graveyard, so Cathy plays a Preacher from the hand, preventing him. She now has three cards. On her turn, she draws another Preacher, and a 3 of Brains, which matches up with her 2 of Brains. So on her turn, she plays the 2-3 of brains to the board, and also puts her Preacher and a Vampire she has, to the board, into the Monster Mash. She's down to 1 card. On her next turn, she will draw 4 cards! She stands a good chance of drawing a match for her brains family or another monster card. This is an excellent strategy.
Monster Mash Strategy
Putting your monsters on the table is not a good idea. But it is useful! You may decide to risk it. On the one hand, storing monsters in your Monster Mash is a good way to empty out your hand, and let you draw more cards on your next turn. On the other hand, it allows anyone with a succubus to STEAL your entire Monster Mash. Be sure you understand the risk associated with storing any monster on the board. It's definitely a gamble.
Vampire / Zombies Binding
There are two ways to play a vampire or zombie to the board.
- Put it in your monster mash. At this point it is not FEEDING. You have not USED it. Therefore you do not have to say 'Blood!' or 'Brains!' in a super creepy voice.
- Attach it to a family. Now it starts to EAT. And you have to activate it by saying 'Blood!' or 'Brains!' in a super creepy voice. Failure to do so will mean you lose the monster, and it goes into discard (however another player has to call you on your mistake and/or lack of enthusiasm).
Once a vampire or zombie has begun feeding, it cannot be interrupted (detached from its host family). You cannot take a 3-4-Zombie, pull the zombie off, and attach it to a different 7-8-9 family. This is illegal. You can add humans to the 3-4 family. That is your only choice with regard to this zombie. Or you can get a fresh zombie and add it to the other, separate 7-8-9 family.
Nor can you break up a 2-3 family that is already on the board, to pull off the 2 and add it to the 3-4-Zombie family. The 2-3 family is a unit, and cannot be broken. Once you start a family, it cannot be broken up -- ever. It is permissible to join families in whole units though. If you had a 3-4-Zombie family, and wanted to add a 5-6, there would be no conflict.
So we see there is a distinct disadvantage to prematurely attaching a feeding monster to a family. At this point the monster is 'bound' and can't be moved. Also, a succubus could steal your family, and this would include any monster that was feeding on it. So if you have a 3-4-Zombie family on the table, and I have a 2 of Brains and a Succubus, I can steal your family, complete it with the 2, and go immediately to the graveyard.
Let's explore then, why it is a GOOD idea to attach feeder monsters to families, and to do so right away. It is to prevent steals. Look, it takes time to say the required phrases. If you have a 3-4 of brains on the board, and a zombie in the Monster Mash or in your hand AND a 2 of brains or a 5 of brains in your hand, you have to speak very, very fast. You have to say two things. First, after you lay down your 2 or 5 of brains onto the table, completing your family, and then put down your zombie, you have to say 'Brains!' in a creepy voice. Then right after that, you have to say '3 to the graveyard!'. If you fail to get through the second phrase fast enough, anyone with a succubus can steal your whole family plus the zombie. That's why you might want to attach the zombie ahead of time, and get the 'Brains!' utterance out of the way. This will speed up matters when you finally get a 2 or 5 of brains. At that point, no one will have any warning, and you can just slap down the final family member and say '3 to the graveyard' before anybody knows what is happening... and viola! You have just scored 3!