Uno Variation: Special Wild Card Showdown

Overview

Requirements: 1 or more Uno decks (any variety); Unique Wild Card Rules

Players: 2+

Time: ~5-10 min/round

Rating: 7/10

Rules

This variation puts all of the Special Wild card effects from various Uno themes at your disposal. When any Wild card or Special Wild card is played, the player gets to choose any Special Wild card effect to use with the card (click here for a substantial list of Special Wild card effects). Players can either choose beforehand which effects will be available or they can use all of the effects by printing out the list of unique wild card effects to use as a reference.

While players are getting used to new effects, it is helpful to start with just a few such as the Zar'Roc Card (look at a player's hand and exchange one of his cards for one of yours), Power Card (blocks Draw 2s and Draw 4s), Merlin Card (choose a color and all players draw until they get a card of that color), and Wild Downpour Card (all other players draw 2 cards). Check out the full list of Special Wild cards for more effects.

Advantages

This makes Uno a high-powered game. Wilds become paramount to the game and very unpredictable. The wide variety of effects available keep this interesting and always changing.

Disadvantages

Some games will simply be dominated by the person who has the most Wild cards as they can use the cards in the perfect way to suit their needs. The other minor disadvantage is that once the best effects are discovered, the others become unused and the variety is limited (this disadvantage can be removed by playing Special Card Roulette instead).

Review

This is a fun variation that lets you try out a variety of new rules and adds a very different level of strategy to the game. Give it a try!

Additional Notes