| Subject Name: | Phase 10 |
| Image Caption: | Cards used in Phase 10 (original version with colored Wild and Skip cards) |
| Designer: | Kenneth Johnson |
| Publisher: | Mattel |
| Players: | Two to six |
| Setup Time: | < 1 min |
| Playing Time: | > 10 min per hand (4 hours, 6 players) |
| Random Chance: | High |
| Skills: | Saving important cards; knowing when to put down those cards; matching, ordering |
Phase 10 is a card game created in 1982 by Kenneth Johnson and sold by Mattel, which purchased the rights from Fundex Games in 2010.[1] Phase 10 is based on a variant of rummy known as contract rummy. It consists of a special deck equivalent to two regular decks of cards, and can be played by two to six people. The game is named after the ten phases (or melds) that a player must advance through in order to win. Many people shorten the game by aligning it to baseball rules and consider 5.5 phases to be a complete game when running out of time to complete the full ten phases. Whoever is in the lead when play stops if someone has completed 5.5 phases or more is the winner.
Phase 10 was Fundex's best selling product, selling over 62,600,000 units as of 2016, making it the 2nd best-selling commercial card game behind Mattel's Uno.[2] In December 2010, Fundex sold its license rights to Phase 10 to Mattel.
The object of the game is to be the first person to complete all ten phases. In the case of two players completing the last phase in the same hand, the player who completed the last phase with the lowest overall score is the winner. If those scores also happen to be tied, a tiebreaker round is played where the tying players attempt to complete phase ten (or in variants, the last phase each player had tried to complete in the previous round).
For each hand, each player's object is to complete and lay down the current phase, and then rid their hand of remaining cards by discarding them on laid-down Phases, called "hitting". The player who does this first wins the hand and scores no penalty; all other players are assessed penalty points according to the value of cards remaining in their hand.
There are one hundred and eight cards in a deck:
With two regular decks of cards, the suits can represent the four different colors, kings can represent the wild cards, and jokers can represent the skip cards.
A phase is a combination of cards. Phases are usually composed of sets (multiple cards of the same value), runs (multiple cards in consecutive ascending order), cards of one color, or a combination of these. As the name suggests, there are ten phases:
Original and Master's Edition Phases:
Phase 10 Twist Phases:
One player is chosen to be the dealer (alternately, the deal can rotate to the left after each hand). The dealer shuffles the deck and deals 10 cards, face down, one at a time, to each player. Players hold their 10 cards in hand so that the other players cannot see them. The remaining deck is placed face-down in the center of the play area to become the draw pile. The dealer then turns the top card of the draw pile over and places it next to the draw pile to become the discard pile. A wild card turned up goes to the next player. During the first hand, all players try to complete Phase 1. Play consists of;
Hitting is the way to get rid of leftover cards after making a Phase. A hit is made by putting a card directly on a Phase already laid down. The cards must properly fit with the cards already down. Before a player can make a hit, their own Phase must already be laid down. A player may only hit during their turn. A player may hit any combination of their own Phase and other player's Phases, and may hit with as many cards as can be played from the player's hand on a single turn. Players are not allowed to replace a wild card in a Phase with the card from their hand matching the card the Wild stands for. Replacing Wild Cards is a possible Variant Rule.
After laying down a Phase, players try to "go out" as soon as possible. To go out, a player must get rid of all of their cards by hitting and discarding. Any players who completed their Phase, will advance to the next Phase for the next hand, while any player not able to complete their Phase remain on that same Phase for the next hand. Players count up the total value of cards left in their hands (the fewer cards left in their hand, the better) and score them as follows;
Each player's score for the hand is added to that player's running total (players who did not complete their Phase cannot have a score of less than 50 for the hand and often have far more with the inclusion of extra points for large values and wilds; this is known as being "set" similar to Hearts or Spades), the deal rotates to the left, all the cards are shuffled and a new hand begins. Again, if a player did not complete their Phase before another player went out, they must work on the same Phase in the next hand.
If only one player is attempting Phase number 10 on the hand and they complete the Phase, they become the winner and the game ends immediately. If two or more players complete Phase 10 in the same hand, then the player who has completed phase ten and has the lowest total points is the winner. In the event of a tie, the players that tied replay Phase number 10 and the first player to complete their phase and discard all their cards wins.
If someone has gone down and used a wild in their phase, if you have gone down you may replace their wild with the card it is placeholding for and move the wild to the left or right
Run of 9 alternating colors
A variation of play is to allow Floating. This is not written in the official rules but is how some people choose to play. Instead of going out by discarding their last card, a player draws a card and then play all cards in their hand without discarding. This is known as going out "floating". Because the player must be able to discard a card in order to actually end the hand, other players now have at least one extra turn in which to go out themselves or at least improve their score. In addition, a "floating" player must draw a card and play it if able, and must draw the top card from the discard pile if it can be played; thus the floating player can be forced to play on their next turn instead of drawing and discarding. The floating player can also be skipped as normal. If someone else goes out before the "floater", the floater receives a zero score, but does not technically win the hand.
The strategic value of floating is that the person immediately preceding the floating player is generally forced to try to "keep them afloat" for at least a few turns, either by discarding cards the floating player is required to pick up and play, or by skipping the floater. This generally puts the player preceding the floater at a disadvantage compared to the other players and makes it less likely that that player will be able to finish their Phase if they have not yet done so. Players can use this strategy to "gang up" on one player; the player after them will float, forcing the player to try to keep them afloat while all other players get a number of extra turns to try to lay down their Phase or go out. Of course, the player preceding the floater is not actually forced to keep them afloat and may be able to go out themselves, lay down their Phase (thus drastically reducing their score for the hand), or may simply concede the hand by allowing the floater to draw (the card drawn is likely to be an unplayable, thus discardable, card).
If a player is floating, and there is no possible card that could be discarded or drawn to prevent that player from being able to discard, they are known as "floating dead"; it is extremely likely the floating player will be forced to end the hand on their next turn. This is rare, and usually happens when the floating player completes a phase involving a long run of cards, no one else has completed their Phase, and the floater's run has expanded through all 12 values. If no one else can lay down a hittable Phase in that turn, only another player playing a Skip or the floater drawing a Skip will keep the hand going, and only four exist in the deck.
If the dealer turns over a wild card at the beginning of the hand to start the discard pile, the dealer gets to decide who gets the wild card, instead of it automatically going to the player to the left of the dealer. The recipient of the wild card will choose a card from their hand to discard (the card cannot be a Skip), and then play continues with the player to the left of the dealer (or if that player had received the wild card, with the next player to the left after them). This slightly reduces the luck component inherent in the game, increasing the strategic and/or social element.
A similar rule can be used in the case of a Skip card being turned over as the first card.
A "Wild" card can be played as a "Skip" card. (Truly Wild) This method was made popular in 1984 by Allison Steck.
The Masters Edition of the game can be played by two to four players and includes additional rules:
The Masters Edition comes with 10 Phase cards for each player to keep track of the Phases which they have completed during gameplay. The Masters Edition also includes only two Skip cards instead of the four that the original edition contains. This makes the playable number of cards 106, plus the forty phase cards, for a total of 146 cards in the box. (An alternate method of keeping track of phases played for each player to use ace though ten of a suit in regular playing cards.)
Same rules as Masters Edition except the player declares what phase they are completing as they lay down the phase.
Same rules as Masters Edition except;
In Anti-phase, you have to complete your phase in order to stay on your present phase, if you don't complete your phase you move down a phase.
In Anti-phase for others, a rule card is left in the deck and it is discarded as your last card. Then you get to name who moves down a phase...if it's stuck in your hand at the end of the hand you move down a phase. It also may be discarded face down but may be picked up by the next player who can draw from the deck.
Phase 10 Dice is dice game inspired by Phase 10 and also published by Fundex Games. The goal is the same, to try to complete the phases, 1-10, in order. Instead of cards, players each take turns rolling 10 six-sided dice, 6 marked with 5-10 and the other four with 1-4 and two wilds each. In each turn the player rolls all 10 dice, then may set aside any of them and re-roll the rest up to two times, for a total of three rolls. If they've completed a phase, the total sum of the dice used in the phase are added to their score and next turn they move on to a new phase. Like in the card game, failing to complete a set means having to try for it again next turn, and the game ends once a player finishes phase 10.[4]
The object of Phase 10 Twist is to be the first player to complete phase 10 by moving around the game board. Every player starts with their pawn on phase 1 on the game board. They must complete phase 1 in order to move their pawn. There are three pawn movements; move 3 spaces if you complete the phase and discard all of your cards, move 2 spaces if you complete the phase but do not discard all of your cards, or move 1 space if you don't complete the phase. If you land on a twist phase you can decide to play a twist phase or one of the phases on either side of the twist phase space. If you play a twist phase the pawn movements change to 6 spaces if you complete the phase and discard all of your cards, 4 if you complete the phase but do not discard all of your cards, or move back one space if you do not complete the phase.[5]
Postal Rules follow the standard Phase 10 rules with two additions: 1) No player can go out (play all 10 cards), thus ending the hand, until play has completed one circuit of the table and play has returned to the dealer, regardless if someone was skipped. The dealer is the first player who can end the hand by playing all 10 of their cards. 2) Players working to complete any of the first seven phases can use the number card that matches the phase they are working to complete as a wild card. For example, ones are wild for all players during the first hand. During the second hand twos are wild for those players who completed phase one in the previous hand, while ones remain wild for any player not completing phase one. This adds the challenge of remembering the wild card of the person on your left so as to not discard cards that, for them are wild, but for you are not. This variation is called Postal Rules in honor of the group of postal employees who have played Phase 10 everyday during lunch since 1996.
In 2007 Fundex and Magmic signed a deal that brought Phase 10 to BlackBerry devices.[6] In 2009 Magmic released the title for iOS,[7] with a Masters Edition in-app purchase available for download in February 2012.[8] In March 2012 Magmic released both a free and paid version of Phase 10 for Android devices. The Google Play Store also has a scorekeeper app for Phase 10. In September 2013, Magmic released Phase 10 Dice in the iTunes App Store.[9] In 2019, Mattel163 Limited released Phase 10: World Tour for Android and iOS, featuring the "Journey" mode which player travels to different worlds and completes levels by completing sets of unique different phases with opponents with different difficulties. The game also introduces Multiplayer, which players can play with others from around the world by spending "coins" and earn more coins if win, similar to the coin system in UNO!, which is another Mattel163's game.