DOS

Overview

DOS is Mattel's 2018 follow-up to UNO, and it is a genuinely different game rather than a reskin. Instead of one discard pile you match against a Centre Row of at least two face-up cards, and instead of matching one card you can match with two cards that add up.

You shout "DOS" at two cards left, not one. First to 200 points wins.

Written against Mattel's instruction sheet, item FRM36 (PDF).

1. The deck

108 cards:

Cards	Count
Blue	24 — three each of 1, 3, 4, 5; two each of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; two Wild #
Green	24, same composition
Red	24, same composition
Yellow	24, same composition
Wild DOS	12

There is no 2. The Wild DOS card fills that role, which is the joke in the name. Numbers run 1, then 3 to 10.

2. Setup

1. Each player draws a card; highest deals. Symbols count as zero.
2. Deal seven cards each.
3. The dealer places two cards face up in the middle to form the Centre Row, with the deck beside it and room for a discard pile.

3. A turn — match or draw

On your turn you either match against the Centre Row or you draw.

Single Match — play one card matching the number of a Centre Row card. Colour is irrelevant. A 7 takes any 7.

Double Match — play two cards that add up to a Centre Row card. Against a 7 that is 5+2, 3+4 or 6+1.

You may match each Centre Row card, but only once each per turn. With two cards in the row, that is up to two matches a turn.

4. The colour bonus

Matching the colour as well as the number is where the game is won.

Single Colour Match — your card matches number and colour. At the end of your turn you put one card from your hand face up into the Centre Row. That is a card gone from your hand for free.

Double Colour Match — both cards in a double match share the target's colour. Then:

1. every other player draws a card, and
2. you add one card from your hand to the Centre Row.

The double colour match is the big swing in DOS, and the reason you hold low cards of a colour rather than dumping them.

5. Drawing

If you cannot (or do not want to) make a match, you must draw a card. If you can make a match after drawing, you may do so. If you have drawn and still cannot make a match, put one card from your hand face up in the Centre Row.

Note the sting in the tail: a failed turn still costs you — you drew a card, and you must also push one of your own into the Centre Row, which grows the row for everyone else to match against.

6. Ending your turn

Take everything you played and the Centre Row cards you played them on, and put the lot in the discard pile. Then:

• Refill the Centre Row from the deck until it holds at least two cards.
• Add one card from your hand for each Colour Match Bonus you earned.

There is no maximum Centre Row size, so a run of bonuses leaves a wide row.

IF THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO CARDS IN THE CENTER ROW, YOU MAY MATCH ANY OR ALL OF THEM.

A wide row cuts both ways: more targets for you, more targets for everyone.

7. The wild cards

Wild DOS — counts as a 2 of any colour. You choose the colour when you play it, and if it is sitting in the Centre Row you choose the colour when you match to it. It is most useful making up a double match.

Wild # — counts as any number from 1 to 10, in its own printed colour. You choose the number on play, or when matching to it in the row. Because it keeps its colour, a red Wild # can earn a colour bonus against a red card; a green one cannot.

8. Calling "DOS"

If you ever have EXACTLY TWO CARDS in your hand, you must shout out "DOS!"

Two, not one — the commonest mistake by anyone arriving from UNO. Miss it and if another player calls it first you draw two. If it happens mid-turn, the penalty cards wait until the end of your turn.

9. Scoring

The player who goes out scores the cards left in everyone else's hands:

Card	Points
Number cards 1, 3–10	Face value
Wild DOS	20
Wild #	40

First to 200 points wins. The previous round's winner deals the next one.

If the player going out earned a Double Colour Match on their final turn, the other players draw their cards before scoring — so the winning move can add to everyone else's penalty.

10. What the sheet does not say

• Nothing about the deck running out. Every other Mattel card game says to reshuffle the discard pile; DOS does not print it.
• Nothing about a Centre Row of only wild cards, and what number you are matching against then.
• No two-player variation.

Commonly argued

• You shout at two cards, not one.
• There is no printed 2 — Wild DOS is the two.
• Colour only matters for bonuses, never for whether a match is legal.
• You may match each Centre Row card once per turn, not repeatedly.
• A failed turn costs you a card into the Centre Row as well as the draw.
• Wild # keeps its own colour, so it can earn a colour bonus; Wild DOS takes whatever colour you name.
• The game ends at 200 points, not 500.

Where this comes from

Mattel's instruction sheet for DOS, item FRM36, ©2018, hosted by Mattel. One printing of one SKU, unversioned. Later DOS editions exist and we have not checked their sheets against this one, so treat this as the 2018 original.

Where this entry and the sheet disagree, the sheet wins. Tell us.