The 108 cards in a standard UNO deck break down into a handful of categories. Most players know the basics — numbers, action cards, wilds — but the specifics get hazy fast. This page lays it all out, card by card, so when you sit down at a tournament table you know exactly what you're working with.
The four colours
Red, yellow, blue, green. Twenty-five cards of each. The colours don't have any inherent power — there's nothing better about a red 7 than a green 7 — but colour is the main matching mechanic in the game. Most cards can only be played on a card of the same colour or matching number/symbol, so colour distribution in your hand matters a lot.
Number cards (76 total)
The bulk of the deck. There's one zero in each colour (four total) and two of each number from 1 to 9 in each colour (72 total). Number cards do nothing special — they sit there, take up space, and let you keep the round moving. But that's actually their value in a tournament. They're flexible, low-risk, and help you reduce your hand size without burning a power card.
Strategic note: the zero card is slightly more valuable than people think. Because there are only four of them in the deck (versus eight of every other number), they're harder to match with another zero. So when you have one, you usually have to play it on its own colour — which means it pairs well with a colour-heavy hand.
Skip (8 total — 2 per colour)
Symbol: a circle with a slash through it. When played, the next player loses their turn. In a four-player game, this advances play one extra seat — which is sometimes useful, sometimes not. The Skip's biggest value is when used right before a player who's at one or two cards. Drop a Skip on their turn and you've potentially saved yourself from losing the round.
If a Skip is the starting card flipped at the beginning of a round, the first player loses their turn and play moves to the second.
Reverse (8 total — 2 per colour)
Symbol: two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Flips the direction of play. In a four-player game, that means play goes from clockwise to counter-clockwise, or vice versa. In a two-player situation it acts essentially as a Skip — play returns to you.
Reverse is more strategic than it looks. In a four-player game, if you're seated to the left of a strong player and you play a Reverse, suddenly you're "two seats away" from them in the new direction, which can buy you space. It's also useful when you're trying to feed a particular colour to an opponent who's struggling.
Draw Two (8 total — 2 per colour)
Symbol: "+2" in white. The next player draws two cards and forfeits their turn. Worth 20 points if held when an opponent wins.
Draw Two cards have a specific best-use moment: stacking points pressure on a player who's already low on cards, or right before a player who's about to win. Don't waste them in the middle of the round when nobody's threatening to close out — they're more valuable held until you can hit a specific player.
Wild (4 total)
Black card with a coloured pinwheel. Can be played on any card. The player who plays it nominates the next colour. Worth 50 points if held when an opponent wins.
Wilds are everyone's favourite cards because they feel like freedom. But they have a hidden cost: holding one in your hand at the end of a round you lose is brutal. Fifty points to your opponent. So while they're powerful, the right play is often to use them earlier than you'd think — especially if your hand is colour-poor.
Wild Draw Four (4 total)
Black card with "+4" and a coloured pinwheel. The most powerful single card in the deck. The next player draws four cards, loses their turn, and the player who played the +4 chooses the next colour. Also worth 50 points if held at the end.
The catch: officially, you can only play a Wild Draw Four if you have absolutely no card matching the current colour in your hand. Numbers and symbols don't count — only the colour. If another player suspects you of playing it illegally, they can challenge you. The challenged player must show their hand to the referee. Wrong play means you draw the four. Wrong challenge means the challenger draws six.
Most casual games skip the challenge mechanic entirely. Tournaments enforce it strictly. Be honest about when you can and can't play it.
Quick reference: card values for scoring
When a round ends, the winner scores the total point value of cards still in opponents' hands.
- Number cards (0–9): face value
- Skip: 20 points
- Reverse: 20 points
- Draw Two: 20 points
- Wild: 50 points
- Wild Draw Four: 50 points
Math check: a single deck contains 1,000 total points if you tally up every card. Most rounds end with hands totalling somewhere between 30 and 120 points held by losing players, depending on how lucky the draws were.
What about all the other cards I've seen?
You may have seen UNO decks with extra cards — Swap Hands, Wild Customizable, Discard All, special edition cards. Mattel has introduced these in various editions over the years. They are not used in the Falsonal Championship. We use the standard 108-card deck only. So if you've been playing with a deck that has Swap Hands cards in it: enjoy that at home, but don't expect to see them on October 15.
Why no variant cards in the tournament? Two reasons. First, the official Mattel ruleset (which we follow) doesn't include them. Second, variant cards introduce huge swings — Swap Hands in particular can completely flip a round on a single play. We want skill to matter more than draw luck. Vanilla deck only.