UNO Teams! Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Are you looking for a specific UNO Teams! rule?  |  Set Up | Playing the Game | Card Meanings | Calling UNO | Playing Your Last Card | Winning the Game | Scoring | FAQ | Components |

Objective

The objective of UNO Teams! is to be the first team to get rid of all of your cards.

Set Up

• The players should divide into teams of two. You should sit across the table from your partner so the teams alternate players.
• Choose a player to be the dealer. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals seven to each player.
• Place the rest of the cards facedown on the table. These cards become the Draw Pile.
• Flip over the top card from the Draw Pile to form the Discard Pile. Should you flip over an Action card, ignore its effect and flip over another card.
• Each player chooses one card from their hand and passes it facedown to their partner. It is recommended that you pass a card to your partner that you think they can play.
• The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play moves clockwise to start the game.

How to Play UNO Teams!

In the game you are playing with your teammate. You will win or lose as a team. You can talk with your teammate at anytime. At no time can you tell or give hints to your teammate about what cards you have in your hand. That includes when wild cards are played. You cannot give any indication of what color your teammate should choose.

On your turn you will try to play one of your cards to the Discard Pile. In order to play a card it has to match one of the attributes of the top card on the Discard Pile. The card can match one of the following attributes.

• Color
• Number
• Symbol

Should you have a card that matches one or more of these attributes, you can play the card to the Discard Pile. You can only play one card on your turn. Should you play an Action card (any card that isn’t a number card), you will take a special action. See our UNO Teams! Card Meanings post for details on what each card does.

Some of the cards have the “Passing Symbol” on them. One of each number 1-5 card for each color has the symbol on it. Whenever you or your teammate play a card with the symbol, you and your teammate will pass one card to each other.

You can choose not to play a card even if you have one that can be played. If you choose not to play a card, you will treat the rest of your turn like if you didn’t have a card that you could play.

After you play a card your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order. To start the game play passes clockwise/left, but it can change when a Reverse card is played.

Drawing a Card

If you don’t have a card that you can play, or you choose not to play one, you will take the top card from the Draw Pile. Look at the card and see if you can play it.

If the card matches one of the attributes of the top card on the Discard Pile, you can play it immediately. Should the card not match any of the attributes, you will add the card to your hand. If you chose not to play a card earlier, you cannot choose to now play that card you passed on.

After drawing a card and potentially playing it, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order.

Should the Draw Pile ever run out of cards, you will shuffle the Discard Pile to form a new Draw Pile.

Calling UNO

When you only have one card left in your hand, you need to yell out UNO. This is to tell the other players that you are close to winning the game. Since you have a teammate in UNO Teams!, they can also yell out UNO for you.

Should neither you or your teammate say UNO, a player on another team can call you out. If they call you out before the next player begins their turn, you (the player who only has one card left) have to draw two cards.

Playing Your Last Card

Eventually you may play the last card from your hand. In the original UNO, this would end the round. In UNO Teams! the round does not end until both players in a team play all of the cards from their hands.

Should your teammate still have cards left in their hand, they will choose half of the cards from their hand and pass them to you. If they have an odd number of cards, they will keep the extra card. For example if they have seven cards, they will keep four and give you three. When your teammate only has one card left, they pass you no cards.

If the teammate of the player that went out has only one card left in their hand, they pass no cards to their teammate. The player who played their last card is temporarily out of the game.

Sometimes a player will be out of the game, and their teammate ends up drawing cards. This can happen in any situation where a player ends up drawing a card(s) for any reason. In this situation they will pass half of their cards to their teammate that has no cards.

Winning the Game

The game ends when both players on a team play all of the cards from their hands. The first team to get rid of all of their cards win the game.

Scoring

If you would like to play multiple hands, you can choose to keep score. When a round ends, the winning team collects all of the cards left in their opponent’s hands. The rules don’t specifically say what happens when the last played card forces a player to draw cards. Most versions of UNO require the player to draw the cards before the winner collects the cards. Therefore I would assume this applies in UNO Teams! as well.

The winning team scores points for each card they collect as follows:

• Numbers – face value
• Draw Two, Reverse, Skip – 20 points
• Wild, Wild Team Draw Four, Wild Team Play – 50 points

If no team has reached 500 points, you will play another round. The first team to reach 500 points wins the game.

UNO Teams! FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

• 18 Blue Cards (two each of each number 1-9, one of each number 1-5 has Passing Symbol)
• 18 Green Cards (two each of each number 1-9, one of each number 1-5 has Passing Symbol)
• 18 Red Cards (two each of each number 1-9, one of each number 1-5 has Passing Symbol)
• 18 Yellow Cards (two each of each number 1-9, one of each number 1-5 has Passing Symbol)
• 8 Draw Two Cards (two of each color)
• 8 Reverse Cards (two of each color)
• 8 Skip Cards (two of each color)
• 4 Wild Cards
• 8 Wild Team Play Cards
• 4 Wild Team Draw Four Cards
• Instructions

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Year: 2024 | Publisher: Mattel

Genres: Card, Family, Party

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 4-8 players in teams of two | Length of Game: 20-60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

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For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.