and announce "building nine," provided they have a 9 in their hand. The two cards cannot be split up for pairing or combining and are treated as a single nine. Builds of this type may be taken in by any player by pairing. The building player's adversaries may also take in a build by combination, increasing the capturing number; that is, an eight build may be combined with an ace if an adversary holds a nine. Any player may also continue to build on a build, for example, a seven build could be built to nine by a player with a 2 and a 9. The player who originally builds may also re-build, but only if they hold all appropriate cards: they would have to hold both a 7 and a 9 to make the required building steps. Under the second type of building, called "multiple building," "natural building", or "double building," a player may lay one card on top of another if their values are the same, and announce that the two cards are built together. That is, a player can place a 7 on top of another 7, or on top of a 5 and a 2 which have been built to 7, and announce "building sevens," provided that a 7 is held. The built cards are gathered only with another 7. As with the first build type, a player must hold the card necessary to gather the build for the natural build to be permissible. Importantly, the capturing number of a multiple build can never be changed. An optional rule is that, when building in this manner, players may combine other cards on the table, and build in the first manner. For example, suppose the cards on the table are 2 K 6 5 8, and the player holds a 3 and an 8. They may play their 3 onto the 5 to "build eight" and in the same move "build eights" by gathering the 5-3, the 8, and the 6-2 together onto one pile, taking in all five cards on their next play. Advantages gained through building Building exists as a means of protecting cards from being captured by adversaries. The first form of building is a weaker form of protection, and primarily protects cards against combination by mid-to-high range cards. Natural building is a much stronger protection, and prevents adversaries from taking cards unless they