How to Play War
The deck for a first card game
Animal Deck — $14.99
Hand-illustrated wild animals. Every flip is a matchup: does the lion beat the bear?
Shop the deck or the Mythology Deck (gods at war) →Players: 2 · Deck: standard 52 cards; aces high · Goal: win every card in the deck.
Want a quick round now? Play War online.
Setup
Shuffle and deal the whole deck face down, one at a time, so each player has 26 cards. Keep your stack face down and don't look at it.
How to play
- Both players flip their top card at the same time.
- The higher card wins. The winner puts both cards face down at the bottom of their stack.
- Cards rank 2 (low) through 10, then Jack, Queen, King, Ace (high). Suits don't matter.
When it's a tie: War!
If both cards match, it's war. Each player places three cards face down, then one card face up. The higher face-up card takes all ten cards on the table. If those tie too, go to war again.
If you don't have enough cards to finish a war, play your last card face up; if you have none left, you lose.
Winning
The player who collects all 52 cards wins. Short on time? Set a timer and whoever holds more cards when it rings wins.
Variations
- Quick war: place one card face down instead of three.
- Three-player war: deal 17 each (remove one card); the highest of three flips wins.
- Math war: each player flips two cards and adds them. Great practice for young kids.