On Sunday, September 28, 2025, word game enthusiasts across the globe found themselves drawn to their screens for a fresh challenge from The New York Times. The daily Strands puzzle, now a staple in the NYT’s growing portfolio of digital brain teasers, delivered a theme that was both familiar and cleverly layered. With the phrase “Hit the deck!” as its guiding clue, players were tasked with unraveling a web of words all tied to the classic 52-card deck—a nod to a pastime as old as the games themselves.
Strands, for those who haven’t yet succumbed to its daily lure, is a relatively new addition to the NYT’s suite of puzzles, sitting comfortably alongside the likes of Wordle and Connections. Unlike Wordle’s straightforward five-letter guessing format or Connections’ groupings, Strands presents players with a six-by-eight letter grid. The goal? Connect adjacent letters to form words that fit a given theme. But there’s a twist: each day, a “spangram”—a word or phrase that stretches across the board, touching two opposite sides—serves as both a thematic anchor and a final hurdle. According to The Economic Times, this spangram is unique to Strands, acting as a key to unlock the puzzle’s logic and tie the day’s challenge together.
On this particular Sunday, the spangram was “IN THE CARDS,” a phrase that neatly encapsulated the “Hit the deck!” theme. The puzzle’s theme words—JACK, KING, QUEEN, DIAMONDS, HEARTS, SPADES, CLUBS—were all staples of the playing card world. As Parade described, the hints for the day included “Four suits in a deck” and “Highest ranking royal face piece,” nudging solvers toward the answer without giving the game away entirely. For those who needed a little extra help, the puzzle offered the first two letters of each word (JA, QU, KI, CL, HE, DI, SP, IN for the spangram), along with a helpful nudge: “Shuffle and deal.”
Players found the puzzle approachable, especially if they were familiar with card games. Many breezed through the challenge, with The Economic Times noting that the difficulty was rated just 1 out of 5 by most solvers. Still, as any seasoned puzzler knows, what’s easy for some can be perplexing for others—especially if the theme doesn’t click right away. One player, writing for a daily Strands blog, admitted, “After finding QUEEN and JACK right away, I assumed that the theme was referring to names of ships or something to do with the sea—The Queen Mary or Jack Sparrow, anyone? However, the in-game clues pointed me in the right direction.”
For newcomers, Strands offers a friendly learning curve. The rules are simple: find all the theme words, which remain highlighted in blue, and the spangram, which glows yellow when discovered. Words can snake in any direction—horizontally, vertically, or diagonally—and every letter on the board is used. As Parade explains, there’s no overlap between theme words, so each discovery brings the player closer to a fully cleared grid.
Hints are built into the gameplay, rewarding players for finding non-theme words of at least four letters. Every three such words unlock a hint, which reveals the letters of a theme word—though not their exact path. This system, as detailed by NerdsChalk, encourages strategic thinking: “Don’t just burn hints—use them strategically when the grid feels impossible. Sometimes a single revealed word unlocks the entire board.” On September 28, extra words like PASS, RACE, QUACK, STARE, SASS, CHEAT, SAID, CHAT, and RADS were suggested as useful for unlocking hints, according to daily Strands coverage.
The appeal of Strands lies in its blend of crossword-like logic and visual pattern recognition. Players must not only draw on their vocabulary but also on their ability to spot patterns and connections—a skill that becomes more refined with each puzzle. As The Economic Times put it, “Strands offers a refreshing alternative: rather than a daily guess or match, it requires building links across a web of letters—an exercise that sharpens focus and vocabulary simultaneously.”
The Sunday puzzle’s theme, rooted in the world of playing cards, was a crowd-pleaser. The suits—CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS, SPADES—alongside the royal face cards—JACK, QUEEN, KING—are instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever played a hand of poker or bridge. The spangram “IN THE CARDS” tied the theme together, both literally and figuratively, as it stretched across the grid and encapsulated the day’s challenge.
For those who struggled, the puzzle’s hints and the availability of online guides ensured that frustration didn’t get the better of them. As one solver reflected, “Many solvers found this edition of Strands relatively straightforward. With words like JACK, KING, and QUEEN standing out quickly, today’s puzzle was rated 1 out of 5 in terms of difficulty. However, as with most puzzles, difficulty is subjective. Players familiar with card games breezed through, while others unfamiliar with the full deck structure might have hesitated before landing on the correct suits.”
Strands’ rise in popularity is a testament to the enduring appeal of word games and the NYT’s knack for creating puzzles that are both accessible and challenging. As Parade observed, “With daily themes and ‘spangrams’ to discover, this is the latest addicting game to cross off your to-do list before a new one pops up 24 hours later.” The game’s format—one puzzle per day, resetting at midnight—mirrors the addictive cadence of Wordle and Connections, ensuring that fans return day after day for their next fix.
As the September 28 puzzle fades into memory, replaced by Monday’s new challenge, it’s clear that Strands has found its niche among the NYT’s offerings. Whether you’re a seasoned card shark or just someone who enjoys a daily word search, there’s something “in the cards” for everyone in this clever, ever-evolving game.
