We love to think of unicorns as beautiful majestic creatures frolicking through meadows. But neigh. That’s just not true for all of them. Some of them are outright destructive, dangerous, and want to take you out.
In Unstable Unicorns, your goal is to manage your cards to build an army of eccentric unicorns and edge out your competition as you claw your way to the top. Use your magic to make even the most basic of unicorns indestructible. Protect your stable from your enemies as you race to build a beautiful, mythical army faster than your opponents. The race is on!
We’re sensing that you like offbeat, quirky games that will make you laugh while you attempt to absolutely destroy your friends. Nice style. If you’re looking to add some more flippancy to your game nights, look no further than our list of 5 games like Unstable Unicorns. Find 5 alternative card games to play below.
Table of Contents
5 Games Like Unstable Unicorns
Llamas Unleashed
Players: 2-8
Playing time: 30-45mins
Ages: 14+
Complexity: 1.5/5
Who let the llamas out?! Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?
Okay, but seriously, when given the choice to play with majestic unicorns or prancing llamas, the answer is always both. But if you really are torn between the two, just know that both Llamas Unleashed and Unstable Unicorns are created by TeeTurtle. So you’ll see very similar hand management elements and adorably silly quirks in both games.
In Llamas Unleashed, players need to build their fields with diversified animals like rams, goats, alpacas, and llamas before their opponents. Of course, that’s not as easy as it sounds. As you inch closer to your magical win, your opponents are simultaneously trying to destroy your chances of winning in both games. You’ll find similar upgrade, downgrade, and magical cards as you would in Unicorns Unleashed that will really shake things up.
The games are played very similarly with some of the actions on the cards having slightly different effects. But they will end in the same fashion — whoever has 7 different animal cards in their field at the end of Llamas Unleashed wins!
Happy Little Dinosaurs
Players: 2-4
Playing time: 30-60mins
Ages: 8+
Complexity: 1.25/5
Life is tough and destructionmay be upon you, but there’s a glimmer of hope in those beady little eyes. In Happy Little Dinosaurs, you and your dino-buddies are just trying to survive. While imminent doom hangs in the air, keep an eye on your points as you inch your way to safety.
The characters in Happy Little Dinosaurs are a little too relatable. Play as Cry Ceratops, Bad Luck Bronto, Nervous Rex, Stego. Each cute little dinosaur has its own unique characteristics that will prove advantageous or detrimental to your play. How each dinosaur handles different disasters is unique to them.
Do you fear being chased by a shark with legs more than you fear your friends leaving you behind on that epic road trip? Or is your spa day being ruined by you sinking into hot tar your biggest nightmare? In both games you know you can rely on your luck of the draw to either help or hinder your progress.
While you will find the same hand management mechanics and humor in this game as you’ll find in Unstable Unicorns, reaching your end goal will be a little different. Unlike Unstable Unicorns, this game is about earning points and steering clear of death. It’s a cute take on a bit of a heavy theme.
Instead of collecting 7 dinosaurs here, you want to collect 50 points or be the last one standing. Your points will fluctuate as you battle with all life’s disasters, but finding lucky charms may help you escape disasters headed your way, so good luck.
So basically, you really just need to outrun your friends. Collecting 3 of the same disaster cards, or 3 different disaster cards renders you unlucky, and you probably never had a chance of survival anyway.
Rainbow Pirates
Players: 2-5
Playing time: 15-60mins
Ages: 7+
Complexity: 1/5
While in Unstable Unicorns you’re filling your stable with cards, in Rainbow Pirates, you’ll be filling your island. Same concept, different theme. Players will earn treasure points by making sets of cards as they try to fend off pirate attacks. With another silly theme, you’ll find that you can keep pirates at bay by bribing them with their favorite things like bubble baths and kittens. Arrrr!
In this game, you’ll collect an army of points instead of unicorns. But similar to Unstable Unicorns, you’ll need to manage your cards and be wary of your opponents who are out to steal and destroy your treasure. Any booty on your island is at risk of being attacked by pirates. Oh — and keep your eye out for the rainbow cards, they are the best ones after all.
All cards have their own strengths and capabilities and while you don’t need to be worried about being turned into a panda, you do need to worry about things being stolen or blown up. Pick and choose your battles and look for the magical rainbow at the end of the storm.
Goat Lords
Players: 2-6
Playing time: 30mins
Ages: 7+
Complexity: 1.5/5
In Goat Lords, we are headed back to the farm. Hey, weren’t we collecting goats earlier in this list? Yeah, but seven goats won’t be enough in this game as you work to create the biggest goat herd. And the game intensifies as you go head-to-head with your opponents to steal and even blow-up other goats.
Like in Unstable Unicorns where you need to find the baby unicorn in the beginning, you’ll need to birth a set of goats in Goat Lords. Now you can begin building your herd. From here you can choose more cards, duel, or birth more goats.
Once again, you’ll need to work hard to defend your herd and stop your opponents from growing theirs. The main difference between games is herd size and the outright duels as opposed to downgrades or pulling the neigh card.
You’ll find all kinds of quirky animals in both games that will keep you laughing. As for the clever artwork, it also resembles the cards in Unstable Unicorns. So, if you’re looking for a similar game where you can play a fire-breathing goal and totally justify your intrusive thoughts to “burn everything,” we think you’ve found your next game.
Bears vs. Babies
Players: 2-5
Playing time: 15-20mins
Ages: 7+
Complexity: 1.25/5
Let’s get ready to rumble!
In Bears vs. Babies, players won’t necessarily be collecting mystical creatures, but they will be creating them. Assemble an army as you take turns drawing cards to build peculiar baby-eating monsters. Maybe you’ll make a unicorn pug with a squid body and chainsaws for arms. The more body parts on your monsters, the stronger they are. And you’ll need strong monsters to take down these babies. We’re talking hairy babies, bearded babies, dinosaur babies, and torpedo babies.
Just like in Unstable Unicorns, your opponents will be trying to sabotage your progress. If your monsters aren’t strong enough when your opponents interrupt the babies’ nap, you can wave bye-bye to the monsters you’ve worked so hard to build. Chomp! These babies can finally eat solid food — namely your monsters. Eat them before they can eat you.
This game is also filled with strategy and of course betrayal as you sacrifice your friends to save yourself. You may be fighting the babies, but you’re really fighting each other. You’d like to think you’re above messing with other people’s monsters by severing their limbs. But you’re really not.
If you love the unusual creatures that lurk in Unstable Unicorns, you’ll love the interesting monsters and babies in Bears vs. Babies. Be honest, this is the match you’ve always wanted to see.
Wrap-Up
We hope you enjoyed our list of 5 games like Unstable Unicorns! If you’re looking for a funny, hand management, set collection card game, then look no further! These games will keep the party going when you’ve played as much Unstable Unicorns as you can handle.
If you enjoyed any of these games, we can assure you that you’ll love these other titles too: Exploding Kittens, Secret Hitler, The Resistance: Avalon, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and Codenames. Have you tried any of the games on this list? Drop a comment below to let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you.
Liz has no objections to being referred to as “nerdy.” Maybe it’s the educator in her — or her maturity level— but when it comes to board games, those best suited for children are the ones that spark her interest. When she’s not looking for the next game to incorporate into the classroom or play with her niece and nephew, you can find her trying out nature-themed games like Wildcraft or Trekking the National Parks.