Anyone familiar with the game of Scrabble is aware that there are 4 tiles which score significantly more than all the others. These letters, commonly referred to as “power tiles” were given higher values by Alfred Butts, the game’s inventor, because they appeared with much less frequency in the English language than others. These power tiles are the J and X, which each score 8 points, and the Q and Z, which each score 10.
Unsurprisingly, many of the highest scores in games of Scrabble will include clever use of these power tiles and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard stories of someone’s grandmother playing XI for 50 points and winning the annual Christmas game!
What many Scrabble fans maybe don’t appreciate, however, is the extent to which the English language has developed since Alfred first undertook his analysis of letter usage from a variety of US newspapers. As such some of the power tiles have started to become more prevalent – and hence usable – making their high value even more potent for racking up the big scores. In this blog, I’m going to look at each in turn, ranking them by how powerful they *actually* are in the modern Scrabble game.
Q – sitting sadly in 4th place is the Q. At 10 points, of course it does have potential, but the Q is much more dependent than any other power tile on specific combinations of other tiles to support it. Obviously, the U is a *big* contributor to Q power, but the vowel-hungry Q still needs 2 or 3 more vowels before it becomes dangerous. Knowing U-less options like QI (its only 2 letter word) QAT, QIBLA, QEEMA, WAQF or QOPH will help you even more, but too often you’ll find yourself holding onto it longer than you should, hoping for a big play but ultimately limiting yourself to just 6 playable tiles. The Q appears in only 413 7-letter words and 627 8-letter words making it the least bingo-friendly of the power tiles – and by bingo I mean words using all of your tiles and gaining that magical extra 50 point bonus.
J – valued 2 less than the Q at 8, the J comes with more flexibility which makes it more useful and gives it a rightful 3rd place. It is used in twice as many 2-letter words (well, 2! – JA and JO) and 34 3-letter words (vs 5 for the Q…) Still, I can’t rank the J above third place because it also only plays well with certain letters. If you have the J, you should keep “round” vowels, like a, o and u, but avoid i’s. The J should be used for shorter 3-5 letter plays as it isn’t going to be great for scoring those long 7- or 8-letter bonus moves to get the extra 50. It only appears in 684 7s and 597 8s (interestingly the J is the *only* power tile to appear in fewer 8 letter words than 7s….)
<Spoiler alert – the X and the Z are both great scoring tiles, with high values and high flexibility, however recent dictionary changes have made one stand out far ahead of the pack…)
And so, in second place we have – the X.
X is a great 8 point tile featuring in more 2-letter words than any other power tile. Combining with *every* vowel (AX, EX, XI, OX, XU) it’s a real threat in short plays (an easy 48 points if played two ways on a triple letter square) and isn’t as picky about who it associates with as the Q and J. At 717 7-letter words it’s marginally more effective than the J (let’s face it, it’s still not a common letter!) but surges up to 940 when you look at the 8s.
However the X cannot beat the sheer scoring potential of the Z.
As a 10 point tile, the Z already has a heavy-hitting value in its favour. However, recent dictionary updates have introduced the very handy ZE as well as ZA and ZO as two letter words for those ever-useful overlap plays, and its presence in longer words ending in –IZE makes it a relative powerhouse even in longer words. In fact, even though its 10 point value should suggest it’s a less common letter, the Z appears in over 1000 (1004 to be exact) 7 letter words and 1216 8 letter words. So, in summary, if there’s a letter (other than the universally useful S and blank) that you should be coveting in your Scrabble game, it’s the Z. At all levels of play right up to the very top, most people agree it can be a game-changer.
By Brett Smitheram
Brett Smitheram is the UK Number 1 rated Scrabble player, former World Champion and has been ranked in the World Top 10 for more than 20 years. Originally from Cornwall, he now lives and works in London as Head of HR for an energy company in Canary Wharf.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
