Unstable Unicorns is a card game designed for kids and introduced by Ramy Badie that was proposed on Kickstarter. The game is played in four phases where the beginning phase where players check if any cards have an effect, the draw phase where players draw a new card from the deck.
The action phase where players can play a unicorn, magic, downgrade, or upgrade card from their hand, or draw another card from the deck, and lastly, the end phase where players discard cards until their hand limit of seven is reached.
Unstable Unicorns Cards
- 13 Baby Unicorn cards
- 22 Basic Unicorn cards
- 30 Magical Unicorn cards
- 23 Magic cards
- 8 Downgrade cards
- 14 Upgrade cards
- 14 Instant cards
Unstable Unicorns Card Meanings
Instant cards
You can play an Instant Card at any time to prevent someone from playing a card. After use, the Instant Card goes to the Discard Pile.
Upgrade cards
You can play an Upgrade Card during your turn to give a positive effect to someone’s Stable.
Downgrade cards
You can play a Downgrade Card during to give a negative effect to others Stable.
Magic cards
You can play a Magic Card during your turn to create confusion. After use, the Magic Card goes to the Discard Pile.
Magical Unicorn cards
You can play a Magical Unicorn Card by placing it in your Stable during your turn. Each one comes with a special power!
Basic Unicorn cards
You can play a Basic Unicorn by placing it in your Stable during your turn and these cards does not hold powers, but they are still special!
Baby Unicorn cards
Each player starts with a Baby Unicorn in their Stable and only can summon more by using special cards!
Unstable Unicorns Rules
The aim of the game is to control seven unicorn cards by playing unicorns and upgrade cards, and controlling opponents with downgrades and other special cards. Players can also use special cards to inhibit other players.
Here are some rules to follow while playing Unstable Unicorns game:
- Number of players: The game can be played with two to four players, but some players say that playing with four to eight people is more fun.
- Starting the game: All players start with one baby unicorn and place it face-up in front of them to form their unicorn stable. The remaining cards are placed on the side of the main draw deck, which becomes the discard pile and the player wearing the most colorful clothes goes first, and play continues clockwise.
- Taking Turns: Each turn consists of four phases: draw, action, and end of turn.
- Draw phase: At the beginning of your turn, if any of your cards say “do this now,” do so and if you don’t, you can’t go back.
- Action phase: Play one card from your hand or draw one more card from the draw pile.
- End of turn phase: Discard down to seven cards.
- Effects: Blinding Light’s effect applies to any unicorn card that enters your stable, regardless of source applies before all stable effects that would be triggered for cards entering your stable and negates them.
- Winning: The first player to collect seven unicorns wins the game and if there’s a tie, count the number of letters in the names of all of the unicorn cards you played. Whoever has the most letters wins and if there’s still a tie, then no one wins.
How to Play Unstable Unicorns
To start the game, players prepare the cards by placing the main draw deck in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a baby unicorn card and places it face up in front of them as their unicorn stable.
The remaining baby unicorn cards go in the nursery in the middle of the table. The baby unicorns are then shuffled and five cards are dealt to each player, and the remaining cards are placed in the center of the table.
The player with the most colors goes first. At the beginning of your turn, draw the top card from the deck and add it to your hand. Keep it hidden from other players. Your turn has four phases: draw, action, and end of turn. There are different types of cards in the game, including baby unicorns, basic unicorns, magic cards, blinding light, A cards, upgrades, and downgrades.
The game ends automatically if you run out of cards in the deck. To win, you need to achieve the most Unicorns in your stable with two to five players, you need 7 Unicorns to win, those playing with six to eight players, you need to achieve 6 Unicorns in your stable to win. However, beware as each player has all of these tools at their disposal as well, and you may just find your plans foiled by a well-played “Neigh!” card.
