QuartetTrainer
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Mnemonica Quartet Distances
QuartetTrainer is a practice tool for magicians working with Juan Tamariz's Mnemonica stack. It drills you on the quartet distances — the starting suit and distance numbers that let you instantly locate any four-of-a-kind in a memorized deck.
The concept comes from Pit Hartling's In Order to Amaze (2016, p. 118). Once you have these distances memorized, you can cut to any four-of-a-kind during a performance with speed and precision.
For each card value (Aces through Kings), there is one suit that appears first in the stack after an optimal cut — this is the first suit. From that card, you can reach the other three cards of the same value by counting forward a specific number of cards each time. These counts are the distances.
For example, for Aces:
| Card | Position | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| A♦ (first) | 39 | — |
| A♣ | 43 | +4 |
| A♥ | 51 | +8 |
| A♠ | 7 | +8 (wraps) |
A shuffled run through all 13 values. For each value, select the first suit and enter the three distances. After tapping Check, you see whether you were right, which answers were wrong, and the full position breakdown. Tap Next to continue or Restart to start a new session.
For each value, enter all four stack positions in any order. This mode builds a different kind of recall — rather than remembering distances, you work directly with positions. Tap Check to see which positions were correct.
A speed run through all 13 values. The timer starts when you tap Start and runs until you correctly complete all 13. Wrong answers must be corrected before you can advance — the timer keeps running. Your best time is saved and shown on the start screen.
A static table of all 13 quartet distances for quick study. Use this to look up values you're unsure about before or after a drill session.
QuartetTrainer is based on the quartet control concept from Pit Hartling's In Order to Amaze (2016), applied to Juan Tamariz's Mnemonica stack.
Developed by Kevin Haggard. Also see DeckClocker and SherlockTrainer.