Do you know the name Scabby Queen? What about Old Maid? For those who do will know it is a card game. And for those that don’t, well now you know it is a card game – and you may have played it by another name as it has a few, including Avoid You-Know-Who – the Harry Potter themed version of it.
Avoid You-Know-Who is a matching and pairing card game for 2 or more players aged 6 and over. It has a playing time of around 15 minutes and the objective of the game is to get rid of all your cards and not be left holding You-Know-Who.
The Avoid You-Know-Who card game is supplied in a handy carry tin. It contains a deck of 48 cards featuring 13 characters from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The cards are thick good quality cards with child-friendly images of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Professor McGonagall, Sirius Black, Professor Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Professor Snape, Professor Trelawney and of course, You-Know-Who (aka Lord Voldemort).
It is a very simple game to play, one that all ages will have no problem playing. The cards are dealt out between all the players (you need at least 2 people to play). Players must sort through their cards (without the other players seeing them), creating as many matching pairs as they can and disposing of them in the centre of the table face up so that everybody can see them. When all the players have sorted through their hand and removed all the matching cards, play starts with the youngest player.
To play, players fan out their cards in their hand with the backs of the cards facing the other players. The youngest player starts with the player to their left taking a card from their hand, if they have a matching pair they discard it on to the pile on the table. Play then continues with the player on their left talking a card from their hand discarding a matching pair if they have one and play continues around the players until there is only one card left.
The objective of the game is to get rid of your hand of cards and not be left holding You-Know-Who. The player who is left with You-Know-Who is the loser.
Overall, Avoid You-Know-Who is lots of fun for children and families. It is a quick and fun Harry Potter themed card game. It is fast to play, the rules are simple to understand and the Harry Potter characters make it very appealing to children.
The game takes up very little space and is packaged in a durable travelled-sized tin. As it so small and well packaged it is perfect for taking on car and train journeys, on holiday, to a friend’s house and anyway else that you want to go and can be played anywhere. The cards themselves are excellent good quality thick cards, feel good to hold and are very well illustrated with Harry Potter characters.
With only one of the villainous You-Know-Who Lord Voldemort cards in the deck, there is always going to a loser, so you must try to keep a straight emotionless face if you have or take the You-Know-Who card so that other players aren’t aware, but it is such a fun game to play.
This is an excellent little game for quick fun play and one that will really appeal to Harry Potter fans as well as non-fans. A perfect short game for when you haven’t got time to play a board game but want to play something that won’t take too long.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £7.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
