It may sound like sacrilege, but I’ve never liked trick-taking. I grew up around Bridge and Euchre and Hearts, but they never really did anything for me. As a result, I’ve ignored all the “modern” trick-taking games like Wizard, Skull King, and The Crew. Something changed the other day when I watched a video of Cat In The Box, and suddenly I realized that there were interesting things happening in this space and I should pay more attention.
Now I’m on a quest to buy up all the greatest trick-taking games out there! My only caveat is that they should work with 2 or 3, as I’m not really a fan of team play and I don’t often have 4 available.
I actually usually feel the same way as you about most trick-taking games, so I usually avoid them.
I did play “Scout” with my group a couple months ago, and found it to be pretty good, so you could give that one a try.
I did recently purchase a copy of Scout, which I’ve heard described as a Climbing game rather than strictly a Trick-Taking game - but they seem to share a lot of the same DNA, same as Haggis or Tichu.