Four-by-four grid, tiles numbered in powers of two. Swipe and everything slides; two tiles of the same value merge into one of double the value. A new tile appears after every move. Reach 2048 before the board fills.

It is the purest version of the economy Magic Sort runs on: space is the only resource, and every move either creates room or consumes it. The difference is that 2048 works against you actively — a new tile spawns whether you wanted one or not.

The strategy that actually works is corner-anchoring. Pick a corner, keep your largest tile there permanently, and only ever swipe in the two directions that cannot dislodge it. Most losses come from a single upward swipe that moves the big tile out of its corner and fragments the row beneath it.

Use the up arrow as rarely as possible if you have anchored at the bottom. That one rule is worth more than everything else combined.