Back to The Mock Turtle Elsewhere Solution
Nothing but a Pack of Cards
"I thought a good way to pass the time might be building a house of cards, but I can't seem to find any cards," sighed the Mock Turtle. "You'd think they'd be easy to find in Wonderland!"

The Mock Turtle needs your help in finding cards for his card house....and then building it, too (turtles lack the opposable thumbs necessary for proper card placement).

You must make a free-standing card house of at least N levels using at least M cards. If x is your team size, then:

N = ceiling(log_2(x) / 2)
M = floor(4 * sqrt(x)) + 20

Note that your team (Hunt HQ) registered as having n/a members.

There are 104 cards available. In order to obtain these cards, you must bring us the matching item as listed below. For every item you bring that successfully matches an item listed, we will give you the matching card. This is the only way cards can be obtained. Do not bring your own cards for use in the card house.

As a bonus, for any four-of-a-kinds or royal flushes obtained from the same deck, you will receive a bonus joker. Jokers act as wild cards and can be placed anywhere in your card house.

Cards may only be placed in the card house above other cards with greater or equal value (aces are high). You may not bend the cards in your card house. Your card house must stand for 30 seconds with no external support.

Once you think you've acquired the necessary materials to build an acceptable card house, please call HQ.

MIT Deck

CLUBS DIAMONDS HEARTS SPADES
2: scavenging something from reuse@ something from free-food@ an ethernet cable a 2×4
3: news a copy of The Tech a copy of Technique a copy of How to GAMIT a copy of Voodoo
4: years an undergraduate a graduate student a postdoc a professor
5: Brass Rats a Brass Rat from before 2000 a Brass Rat from after 2010 something brass a rat
6: progression an MIT admissions tube a "101 Things To Do Before You Graduate" poster an MIT diploma MIT academic regalia
7: old school a scantron an overhead projector a 5 1/4" floppy disk a PalmPilot
8: new school a certificate of completion from edX an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Air belonging to the same person 10 terabytes of storage a clicker
9: codes a pair of semaphore flags a book written in Braille a telegraph key a Dvorak keyboard
10: Hunt history a poster for the 33rd Annual Conference on Maturing Young Scientific Theories: Emerging Resolutions for Yielding Heuristic Unphysics using Noncomputation Techniques a past Mystery Hunt coin an Indian Head penny a summary progress report of a team from a previous Hunt (given to you at the wrapup of a previous Hunt)
JACK: hacks R2D2 a police car a cow an Apollo Lunar Lander
QUEEN: self-indulgence a copy of Atlas Shrugged Old Spice something made by SC Johnson: A Family Company a Kappa Sig(!) jersey
KING: people a HASS major someone with unnaturally-colored hair someone in a fraternity someone from another team
ACE: skills someone who can do a split someone who speaks four+ languages someone who can solve a Rubik's Cube in less than one minute someone who can do 100 pushups

Wonderland Deck

CLUBS DIAMONDS HEARTS SPADES
2: suits a club a diamond a heart a spade
3: props a mushroom a cupcake a chess set a deck of cards
4: rhymes a tea set a p-set a crumpet a trumpet
5: games a Scrabble board a Monopoly board a deck of tarot cards a Clue board
6: rabbits "White Rabbit" on vinyl, CD, or tape rabbit ears (TV antenna) a rabbit's foot a Rabbit wine-bottle opener
7: source material Alice in Wonderland (book) Alice in Wonderland (movie) someone named Alice a CharlieCard (your ticket to the Wonderland T stop, of course)
8: sizing something oversized (not a person) something undersized (not a person) something that drastically changes size (no penises) something that lies about its size (not a person)
9: time a pocketwatch a grandfather clock an hourglass a sundial
10: animals a cat a mouse a hedgehog a turtle
JACK: more props a sword a dollhouse a looking-glass a ladder
QUEEN: attire someone wearing a mock turtleneck someone wearing mouse ears someone wearing cat-eye glasses someone wearing a blue dress
KING: people someone between 4' and 5' tall someone taller than 6'6" someone older than 80 years old someone younger than 2 years old
ACE: doubles identical twins two people with the same birthdate two people with the same first and last name two people with the same height and weight