Uno strategy

You can’t control what you draw, but nearly every turn gives you a choice: which matching card to play, which color to call, whether to spend an action card now or keep it. Good players use those choices to keep their own options open and close down everyone else’s. The tips below are written for the rules of our game, and we point out where common house rules change things.

A few rules in our version have a big effect on strategy. If you haven’t read them yet, the full Uno rules cover them in detail.

• Stacking is on. A Draw Two can go on a Draw Two, and a Wild Draw Four can go on either. A draw card in your hand is a defense as well as an attack.
• Wild Draw Four is always playable, even on top of a pending stack. No other card is that flexible.
• First out wins. There are no points, so the value of the cards you’re left holding doesn’t matter. Only going out first does.
• After drawing, any legal card can be played, not only the card you drew.
• The UNO penalty is automatic. Play down to one card without pressing UNO and you draw two.

Keep the game on your longest color

If you hold five greens and one yellow, you want the pile to stay green. Every turn it stays on your strongest color, you’re very likely to have a match and won’t need to draw.

Use number matches to switch colors

A number match is a free color change. If the pile shows a red 6 and you hold a blue 6 plus three other blues, the blue 6 moves the game into your color without spending a Wild.

Get rid of lone cards when it’s free

A single card in a color you otherwise lack is the card most likely to get stuck in your hand. When a number or symbol match lets you play it, take the chance.

Ask what each play leaves you

When you have more than one legal card, pick the one that leaves you the most possible plays next turn. Holding three or four colors plus a Wild means almost any top card works for you.

Your draw cards are your shield

With stacking on, a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four in your hand lets you pass on a penalty aimed at you. If you only hold one, it’s often worth keeping it as protection rather than firing it at the first chance, especially when the player before you has been playing draw cards.

Only a Wild Draw Four answers a Wild Draw Four

A Draw Two can’t be stacked on a Wild Draw Four. Once a Wild Draw Four is on top of a stack, the next player needs another Wild Draw Four to escape, so it’s far more likely the stack ends there.

Be careful hitting a player on one card

A draw card aimed at someone with one card left normally stops them. But if their last card is a draw card that can stack, they play it and win. Against a one-card player, a Wild Draw Four is the safer choice, since only another Wild Draw Four gets them out.

Think about where a stack will land

A stack keeps growing until someone can’t add to it. In a small game it can travel all the way round and come back to you. Before adding to one, check that you’d be happy to face it again if it returns.

• Skip the threat. If the next player is down to one card, a Skip stops them from playing it this round. A Draw Two does the same and adds cards to their hand, but they can stack on it.
• Reverse to move the danger away. With three or more players, Reverse sends play back the other way. If the player after you is on one card, a Reverse makes them wait while everyone else plays first.
• Change colors with a symbol match. A Skip can go on any other Skip and a Reverse on any other Reverse, whatever the color, which makes them a handy way to switch the game into your strong color.

Head to head, every Skip and Reverse gives you another turn, and a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four also brings play straight back to you after your opponent draws. That changes how you should play:

• Chain action cards. With a green Skip, a green Reverse and a green 4, you can play all three in a row once the pile is green.
• Save a chain for the finish. Holding two or three action cards of one color near the end lets you go from several cards to zero without your opponent getting a turn.
• Draw cards are extra turns too. A Draw Two adds two cards to your opponent’s hand and hands the turn straight back to you, unless they stack on it and send the penalty your way.

• Your neighbors matter most. Skips and draw cards only hit the next player. When the direction changes, so does the person you can affect.
• Target the leader, not the last person who hit you. Spend action cards on whoever is closest to going out.
• Stacks get bigger with more players. More hands means more chances for someone to add to a stack, so holding a draw card for defense is worth more.
• Let others do the work. If two players are trading draw cards, stay out of it and keep your hand small.

• Plan your last two cards. A yellow 3 and a yellow 8 is a better finishing pair than a yellow 3 and a blue 8: after the 3, your last card already matches, and you only need yellow to survive one round.
• Press UNO at two cards, every time. The two-card penalty can undo several turns of good play.
• When someone else is on one card, think about the color you leave on the pile. Avoid the color they’ve been playing, and if you use a Wild, call a color they recently drew on.

• Spending a Wild when a normal match was available.
• Calling a color you only hold one card of.
• Forgetting to press UNO before playing your second-to-last card.
• Firing your only draw card early and having nothing to stack with later.
• Attacking the player who annoyed you instead of the one about to win.
• Ignoring the card counts shown for each opponent.