Unstable Unicorns Rules: A Complete Game Guide

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Everything you need to know from setting up the game to winning it

Co-authored by Derek Pederson and Hunter Rising

Last Updated: July 10, 2024 Fact Checked

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Setup

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Playing a Turn

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Card Types

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Key Terms

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Winning the Game

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Advanced Rule Clarifications

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If you’re looking for something fun to play with friends, Unstable Unicorns is the perfect addition to your game night. During the game, you’ll build up a collection of cute and unique Unicorn cards, but it’s a race against other players. The rules are so simple, and we’ve got everything you need to know to get started. We’ll walk you through the setup, taking a turn, and how to win the game, including some clarifications on some confusing cards.

Unstable Unicorns Objective & Overview

Win Unstable Unicorns by being the first player to get 7 unicorns in your Stable. Take turns drawing a card, playing an action, and discarding so you always have 7 cards in your hand. Use Upgrades and Unicorn cards to get closer to winning or use Magic cards and Downgrades to slow down other players.

Section 1 of 6:

How to Set Up Unstable Unicorns

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Play the game with 2–8 players who are 8 and older. Unstable Unicorns plays best when you have more players because you get to use all of the cards in the deck. Because there are a lot of cards with unique powers and effects, the game might be confusing for children who are any younger than 8 years old.^{[1]
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- If you have younger kids, try playing Unstable Unicorns for Kids with anyone 6 or older.
- Unstable Unicorn expansions add new cards to the game, but some of them may be inappropriate for children.
- If you’re looking for a more adult version of the game for players who are over 18, try out Unstable Unicorns NSFW instead.
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Give each player a Baby Unicorn and a reference card. Find the Baby Unicorn cards with a purple horn icon in the top-left corner. It doesn’t matter which Baby Unicorn card each player uses since they all have the same effect, so let everyone choose their favorite. Place the Baby Unicorn card face-up along with your reference card in front of you.^{[2]
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- The area in front of each player is called their Stable and it’s where you play and keep cards throughout the game.
- Place the rest of the Baby Unicorn cards in a face-up stack in the middle of the table. The stack is known as the Nursery.
- If you’re playing with 2 players, find the “Neigh” cards with a red exclamation point in the top-left corner, and give one to each player.
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Shuffle the deck and deal 5 cards to each player. Take all of the cards with the black backs and shuffle them until they’re thoroughly mixed. Then, deal cards to all of the players face-down. Each player can look at their own hand of cards, but keep them secret from everyone else. Set the rest of the cards face-down in the middle of the table to create the deck.^{[3]
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- Leave a little space next to the deck so you have room for a discard pile as well.
- If you’re playing with 2 players, remove the following cards from the game before shuffling the deck:^{[4]
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  - All Basic Unicorns
  - Queen Bee Unicorn
  - Seductive Unicorn
  - Rainbow Unicorn
  - Mother Goose Unicorn
  - Necromancer Unicorn
  - Nanny Cam
  - Sadistic Ritual
  - Slowdown
  - Yay!
The person who’s dressed the most colorful is considered the “most unicorn-like,” so they get to go first. Alternatively, just choose a starting player randomly or have the youngest player take the first turn.^{[5]
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Section 2 of 6:

How to Play a Turn in Unstable Unicorns

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Activate beginning-of-turn effects on cards in the Stable. If it’s the first turn of the game, there are no cards to activate yet. When a played card has the phrase, “If this card is in your Stable at the beginning of your turn…” then perform the effects listed on the card.^{[6]
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- An effect might be playing a Unicorn from your hand, drawing extra cards, or stealing cards from another player.
- Card effects that have the word “may” are optional. Otherwise, the effect is mandatory.
- If you have multiple cards with abilities that trigger at the beginning of your turn, their effects happen all at the same time and you can choose the order to do them. If a card tells you to end your turn after activating it, you can still use the effects from other cards in your Stable.
Take the top card of the deck and simply add it to your hand. Keep it hidden from the other players so they can’t see what you’re holding.^{[7]
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Take one action of the 5 available actions. Players only get 1 action per turn, however playing some cards may give you additional effects or actions. We’ll cover the card types and their effects later, but choose one of the following actions to take:^{[8]
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- Play a purple, blue, or indigo Unicorn card
- Play a green Magic card
- Play a yellow Downgrade card
- Play an orange Upgrade card
- Draw a card from the deck
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Discard down to 7 cards in your hand. On your first turn, you won’t have to discard. As you play more rounds, you’ll gain more cards but can never end your turn with more than 7 in your hand. Choose the cards you don’t want to keep and set them face-up next to the deck in a discard pile.^{[9]
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- After finishing a turn, the next player to the left takes their turn and play continues clockwise around the table.

Section 3 of 6:

Types of Unstable Unicorn Cards

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Unicorn cards Every Unicorn card has a horn symbol in the top left corner of the card. When you play a Unicorn card, it stays in your Stable unless it gets sacrificed or destroyed by another card. There are 3 kinds of Unicorn cards:^{[10]
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- Baby Unicorns have a purple horn icon. Each player starts with 1 Baby Unicorn in their Stable, but Baby Unicorn cards never go directly into your hand. Instead, card effects will let you move a Baby Unicorn from the Nursery to your Stable.
- Basic Unicorns have an indigo icon. Basic Unicorns don’t have any special effects when you play them, but they count towards the number of cards you need to win.
- Magical Unicorns have a light blue icon and extra effects that trigger when you play them or at the beginning of your turn. For example, the Rainbow Unicorn allows you to play an additional Basic Unicorn from your hand.
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Magic cards Magic cards have a green star icon in the top left corner. When you play a Magic card, activate the effect listed on the card. After you finish resolving the Magic card’s effect, set it in the discard pile.^{[11]
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- Magic card abilities can vary. A card like Dragon’s Breath lets you destroy another player’s Unicorn card while one like Silver Tongue forces other players to show you their hand or give you a card.
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Downgrade cards A Downgrade card has a yellow arrow pointing down as its symbol. Downgrade cards have negative effects, and you target another player to put them at a disadvantage. These cards stay in the player’s Stable until it’s destroyed or sacrificed.^{[12]
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- Downgrade cards like Tiny Stable make a player sacrifice a Unicorn card if you ever have more than 5 in your stable, while ones like Broken Sundial force a player to skip card effects at the beginning of their turn.
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Upgrade cards Upgrade cards have an orange arrow symbol pointing up in the corner. These cards give strong bonuses that can help you win the game more quickly. Upgrade cards stay in a player’s Stable until they’re either destroyed or sacrificed.^{[13]
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- Upgrade cards can have effects like Double Dutch, which allows you to play 2 cards when you take actions, and Ugly Holiday Sweater, which prevents your Unicorn cards from being stolen by other players.
- You can play an Upgrade card on any player you want, including yourself.
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Instant cards Instant cards have a red exclamation point in the top corner. These cards are the only ones that you can play on another player’s turn to prevent other players from taking an action.^{[14]
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- A common Instant card is Neigh, which sends the card another person is playing directly to the discard pile instead without resolving any effects.
- You can play any number of Instant cards during a single turn.

Section 4 of 6:

Key Terms

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When a card effect tells you to draw, take the top card from the deck and add it to your hand without showing another player.
If a card tells you to discard, choose 1 card from your hand and set it face-up in the discard pile.^{[15]
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When an effect tells you to sacrifice a card, choose one of the cards in your Stable and put it in the discard pile. Sacrificing is a great way to get rid of Downgrades that have been played against you.^{[16]
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When an effect instructs you to destroy a card, choose a card from another player’s Stable and set it face-up in the discard pile.^{[17]
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If a card tells you to steal, choose another player and take any card from their Stable. Then, put the card directly into your Stable.^{[18]
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Section 5 of 6:

How to Finish and Win Unstable Unicorns

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Win the game if you’re the first to play 7 Unicorns to your Stable. Every Unicorn card you play counts as 1 towards your goal, but some Unicorn card abilities and card effects may change the total. As soon as a player plays their 7th Unicorn card, they automatically win!^{[19]
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- If you’re playing with 6–8 players, then you only need 6 Unicorn cards to win.
- If the deck runs out of cards, it automatically ends the game. Whoever had the most Unicorn cards is the winner.
- 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. If there’s still a tie, then no one wins.

Section 6 of 6:

Advanced Rule Clarifications

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Resolving Effect Chains When card effects activate at the same time, like at the beginning of a turn, all the cards are considered in the same “link” of an effect chain. If an effect triggers the ability of another card, the second card is part of a different link. Resolve all the card effects of one link before moving on to the next one.^{[20]
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- If multiple card effects have you target another card, you may not select the same card twice in the same link.
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Card Effects with Multiple Actions Some cards have multiple effects that trigger automatically or if a specific condition is met. Always resolve the effects in the order they’re written.
- If the word “and” separates the actions, you must perform both of them.
- If a card says “then”, perform the first action. If you’re able to successfully do the full action, then you may also do the second action.
- When a card says “If you do”, do the second action only if you chose to do the first action.
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Impossible Actions If you’re not able to perform an action that’s listed on a card, then you may not play that card. If another player’s card makes you do an action you’re not able to perform, then just ignore it. Some common impossible actions are:
- Discarding a card when you have an empty hand
- Destroying a card when you don’t have anything in your Stable
- Sacrificing a card that isn’t allowed to be sacrificed
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Targeting Players Each card effect uses specific phrasing to determine who you can target.
- If the card says “Any player,” you can target one player including yourself.
- If the card says “Another player,” you can target anyone except yourself.
- If the card has “Each player” on it, then target every player including yourself.
- If the card has “Each other player” on it, then target every player except yourself.
- When a card says “Any number of players,” choose as many players as you want except yourself.
“Playing” a card refers to playing a card from your hand as your turn’s single action or using an Instant card. “Bringing” a card to your Stable doesn’t count as playing it, so another player can’t use a Neigh card to make you discard it.
If a card tells you to “pull” a card, choose it randomly without looking at what it is. If you get to “choose” a card from someone’s hand, then you can look at all the options available before deciding which one to take.
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Searching for Cards If a card effect lets you search the deck or discard pile for a card, then show every other player which card you picked before adding it to your hand. This helps keep the game fair.
- If you search the deck, shuffle it afterward.