Uno reverse card

English

Etymology

From the popular card game Uno, which includes a "reverse card" that flips the direction of play. First used in the idiomatic sense around 2018.

Noun

Uno reverse card (plural Uno reverse cards)

1. (figuratively, humorous) A notional card that can suddenly reverse a situation when played.
   • 2021 August 29, Sebastian High, “Montreal Canadiens: Kotkaniemi Offersheet Puts Habs Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, in A Winning Habit‎^[1]:

     The Habs could of course match the offer and work on an 8-year deal for Kotkaniemi to sign in the next year, which would have always come in at a figure above $6 million. But Marc Bergevin could pull out the Uno reverse card to the Hurricanes Uno reverse card and not match the offer, leaving them in the tricky situation of paying four centremen over $4.75 million a year and just taking the compensation and hope that the Canes miss the playoffs.

   • 2021 December 10, Phil Hayton, “Google Play could turn your Windows rig into an Android gaming PC in 2022”, in PCGamesN‎^[2]:

     PC games are slowly, but surely, becoming more mobile, with the likes of Valve’s Steam Deck and Razer’s cloud handheld making portable big-budget gaming a possibility. Yet, at the Game Awards 2022, Google played an Uno reverse card, as the company revealed it’s bringing mobile games to gaming PCs via a Play Store Windows port.

   • 2022 August 23, Jack Alban, “'First time ordering a drink?': Customer complains about size of ice cube in $18 drink, sparking debate”, in The Daily Dot‎^[3]:

     Many viewers criticized @msmabelmartinez for seemingly not being familiar with how much liquid a cocktail should contain. […] Others remarked that the TikToker was hit with an Uno reverse card of sorts, as it appeared that she was trying to put the restaurant on blast. "Comment section isn’t going the way you thought it would," one claimed.