I don't get the Cotton -> understand connection, but at this point in the game I'm willing to basically go with anything lol.

I think down then cotton would be far too obvious, so it's probably wrong

Cotton is colloquial, like reckon. Probably of southern origin.

I sort of assume that if the clue is deemed invalid, I'll rand again and clue again? But what do I know.

Cinco could fit with either one (number) or money (peso).

Tactics makes me think scare or strategy, but nothing from the previous round fits with that.

Plank and Apple could fit together for platform (plank in a political platform and Apple's iOS platform).

So, one option could be 3 (cinco/one = number) 2 (tactics = ???) 4 (plank/Apple = platform).

I like plank and apple; I was also thinking tactics in the military sense, maybe fitting it with one, like "army of one"?

if plank does allude to platform, then the word could also just be more generally politics-related, in which case money/plank might fit

i feel like it's a leveling game to try and figure out if irtm was using apple to refer to a clue other than 4 because one of tactics/plank were so OBVIOUSLY related to 4 that his team would know that apple would go somewhere else...so i'll just note it and not linger on it

i'd be inclined to say that cinco doesn't go with one, because misdirection is more likely

in summary, i might go tactics with one (word 3), cinco as unpaired (word 2), and plank with either money (1) or apple (4)

so 321 or 324

not married to that, and interested to hear Nich's thoughts

i feel like i'm much better at intercepting sequences live, when the cluegiver doesn't have as much time to think through how the clues will sound in conjunction with the existing clues

we could also just assume that irtm meant apple to go where apple went in round 1 (so word 4), and that cinco, as the "apple" replacement, should go in that slot too

i wouldn't argue too hard against that idea; it has the benefit of simplicity

I think IRTM was trying to use the apple clue for a different word. But mostly I'm trying not to factor in IRTM's apple clue at all, since we really should never have seen it to begin with.

Regarding your other ideas, I agree that cinco and one is likely misdirection, and I'm fine with using cinco for the non-clued word (word 2). And I like the plank/apple combo (word 4). Not sure I buy the military connection between tactics and one, but I'm good with it if you like it.

So, I am agreeable with 324.

(The tricky thing about this is that Prip's initial clues fooled his own team badly -- they got none of the words right. So I don't know how good of a job we can do in pairing IRTM's clues with Prip's if they were inscrutable to his own team.)