Color Match rules

Setup

Color Match uses a special deck of cards in four colors — red, yellow, green, and blue — numbered 0 through 9, plus action cards (Skip, Reverse, Draw Two) and wild cards. Each of 2 to 6 players is dealt 7 cards, and one card is flipped face up to start the discard pile. The remaining cards form the draw pile. On Discard Party, the room deals for you the moment the host starts the game.

Taking a turn

On your turn, play one card onto the discard pile that matches the top card's color or its number or symbol. A red 5 can be covered by any red card or any 5, for example. Wild cards can be played on anything, and when you play one you choose the color the next player has to match.

If you have no playable card, draw one from the deck. If the card you draw is playable, you may play it immediately; otherwise your turn passes. You never have to keep drawing until you find a match — one draw and play moves on.

Action cards

Skip makes the next player lose their turn. Reverse flips the direction of play (in a two-player game it acts like a skip). Draw Two forces the next player to pick up two cards and lose their turn. Wild lets you choose the active color. Wild Draw Four is the heavy hitter: the next player draws four and is skipped, and you pick the color — but you're only supposed to play it when you have no card matching the current color. The victim may challenge: if you played it illegally, you draw four instead; if the challenge fails, they draw six.

Winning

When you play your second-to-last card, call out that you're on your last card. If another player catches you before you announce it, you draw penalty cards. The first player to play their final card wins the game, and the room can deal again with one tap for the rematch.

Common variations and house rules

Around a kitchen table, groups love to bend these rules: stacking lets a Draw Two victim pile on their own Draw Two to pass the damage along, jump-in lets you slap down an identical card out of turn, and some tables make the 7s and 0s swap hands. Discard Party plays the standard rule set — including draw-four challenges and last-card callouts — so everyone at the table is on the same page from the first deal.