Phase 10

Description

Introduction

Phase 10 seems simpler than Uno since there are less types of cards, but don’t be fooled. The game can be quite challenging to win, especially since you need to constantly slow down your opponents, e.g. those who are have already advanced up the Phases ahead of you, and you always find yourself trying to guess which cards the person after you needs – and not provide him/her these cards (by discarding them) if you can help it. A fair amount of luck is involved; if you’ve been dealt a favorable hand of cards, it ensures a speedy Phase completion.

Each box of Phase 10 comes with 110 cards. There are 2 identical Reference cards (each listing the 10 Phases), and 24 x 4 numbered cards of Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow cards respectively (each color in two sets of numbers 1 to 12). Besides them, you have 4 Skip cards, and 8 Wild cards. These symbol cards are very important to the game, as we shall see.

Skip Card – This card enables you to force someone to skip or lose a turn for that particular rotation/round. Once you discard or play it down, you can choose anyone to lose their turn. The Skip card may not be picked up from the Discard Pile, only from the Draw Pile. If it’s the first card to be turned up at the start of the game, the first player to start will lose a turn.

Wild Card – This is the most powerful card of all, and a life saver. You can use a Wild card to replace any card in your Phase, even though you lack that number or color. Any number of Wild cards can be played down on your turn if you have them, as long as you have a single normal card to lay down when you form your Phase. Once a Wild card is laid down as part of a Phase, it cannot be picked up and re-used elsewhere. If turned up at the beginning (to form the Discard pile), the first player to start can pick it up.

What is a Phase?

A Phase is a combination of cards that fulfils the Phase criteria for the particular player, which the player lays down in front of them in view of the other players. Each player has to complete all 10 Phases of the game and if they fail to complete a certain Phase in a hand, he/she must try again in the next hand. A hand ends when someone manages to form a Phase and discard all his/her cards in hand. According to Phase 10 rules, the official 10 Phases are:

• Phase 1 – 2 sets of 3
• Phase 2 – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 4
• Phase 3 – 1 set of 4 and 1 run of 4
• Phase 4 – 1 run of 7
• Phase 5 – 1 run of 8
• Phase 6 – 1 run of 9
• Phase 7 – 2 sets of 4
• Phase 8 – 7 cards of a color
• Phase 9 – 1 set of 5 and 1 set of 2
• Phase 10 – 1 set of 5 and 1 set of 3

For those Phases which require more than 2 combinations, e.g. Phase 1, you must have all the cards in hand ready to form BOTH combinations, before you lay them down; one combination is not enough, neither are any partial Phases acceptable.

A Set is defined as two or more cards with the SAME number. Color is unimportant here. For example, if you have three “9s” and three “2s” and three “5s”, you have enough cards to complete Phase 1 during your turn. Choose two of the sets and lay them down, while getting rid of the rest by discarding them

A Run is defined as four or more numbered cards that are sequential. For example, you might have the cards “1″, “3″, “4″, “5″, “6″, “8″, “10″, “10″, a “Wild”, and a “Skip”. Your task is to build Phase 2. You can select “3″, “4″, “5″, and “6″ as a Run of 4. Color is irrelevant here. Meanwhile, the “10″, “10″, and “Wild”, can complete a Set of 3.

A group of one color (as in Phase 8), is simply defined as all cards being of the same color. Numbers are irrelevant here, including repetitive numbers. It can be all seven green cards, or seven blue cards, or seven red cards