Deck of Spies
Deck of Spies Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
To win Deck of Spies, at the end of the game you must have more than half of the Key Spies (J, Q, K's) in your deck.
Setup
Use a standard deck of cards without the jokers.
Make 4 shuffled piles, face down:
- A, 2, 3, 4's
- 5-7's
- 8-10's
- J-K's
Place the 8-10's face down on top of the face down 5-7's and then place the J-K's face down on top of all of those.
Turn the entire deck (5-K's) face up so that the top card (a 5, 6, or 7) is showing. This is the Spy Deck. Place toward the left side on the table.
Place the shuffled A-4's face down in front of you. This is your Draw Deck. You will add new, more powerful spies to this deck and remove the weaker spies throughout the game. Place it to the left side on the table, as well.
Note: A's are your Double Agents and will be key to your victory.
Draw 5 cards from your deck into your hand.
Play Area
The rulebook's play area diagram labels these areas: Spy Deck (left), Spy Discard Pile (right of the Spy Deck), Draw Deck (left), Draw Discard Pile (right of the Draw Deck), and Hand (below).
Gameplay
The top card on the Spy Deck represents a spy that you must outwit. Each turn you must either counter or recruit the spy that is face up on top of the Spy Deck. Optionally, you may be able to retire spies from your hand in addition to your counter or recruit action. If things aren't going well, you may be forced to assassinate your target.
Counter
To counter, discard any number of cards with combined value equal to or greater than the value of the spy on the Spy Deck (A=1, J=11, Q=12, K=13). So, to counter a 5, you could discard a 2 & 3, a A & 4, or a 7, for example. You may not discard cards just to get them out of your hand (so if you encounter a 5 and you choose to use a 3 & 4, you may not discard an extra 2, though you may use a 3 & 4 instead of a 3 & 2).
Countered spies are turned face-down and set in the Spy Discard pile, to the right of the Spy Deck. Cards discarded (used to counter) from your hand are placed face up to the right of your Draw Deck to form the Draw Discard pile.
Assassinate
If you do not have enough combined value to match or exceed the value of the card on the Spy Deck, you must compromise a Double Agent and assassinate the spy. To assassinate, choose any A from your hand, Draw Deck, or Draw Discard pile and remove it from the game. Place the card from the Spy Deck face down on the Spy Discard pile and place any cards in your hand into the Draw Discard pile that is the end of your turn. If you removed an A from your Draw Deck, shuffle your Draw Deck. If you must assassinate but you have no more A's, you lose the game.
Recruit
In order to improve your deck, you will want to recruit spies. To recruit, you must play cards from your hand like when you counter, but the cards must all match the suit of the spy you are trying to recruit. So, if the top card of the Spy Deck is a 7♥ and you have a 3♥ and 5♥ in your hand, you may discard the 3♥ and 5♥ to recruit the 7♥.
Recruited cards are placed face-up in your Draw Discard pile and cards discarded from your hand (used to recruit) are also placed face-up in the Draw Discard pile.
When recruiting, you may use an A from your hand to change the suit of any number of cards from your hand to the same suit as that A for the remainder of the turn. For example, you want to recruit a 9♣ but only have a 4♣ and A♣ and all the other cards in your hand are different suits. You may play the A♣ and any other combination of cards from your hand that total up to 9 or more (A counts as a 1) in order to recruit the 9♣. Then all of the cards used to recruit, including the A♣, are placed in your Draw Discard pile.
Note: You may always use an A for its ability to change card suits, even if its value is not needed to recruit.
Retire
Along with gaining more powerful spies, you will also want to get rid of weaker spies by retiring them. To retire cards, you may discard from your hand any set of cards whose card value matches. So, you could discard 2, 3 or 4 of the same card value, but not a single card. You may do this only once on your turn but you must first counter or recruit on that turn, whether you retire cards or not.
For example, if your hand is 2♣, 2♥, 2♠, 3♠, 9♦ and you use the 9♦ for a counter action, you may discard two or three of the 2's in your hand to the Spy Discard pile to remove them from your deck for the rest of the game.
Turn End
Your turn is over after you complete the counter or recruit action (and optionally retire). You do not discard any remaining cards to your Draw Discard pile. You then draw cards from your Draw Deck until you have 5 cards in hand.
Once your Draw Deck is empty and you need to draw a card, reshuffle the Draw Discard pile and place it face down to become your new Draw Deck and continue drawing cards as needed.
Game End
When you complete your turn and there are no more cards in the Spy Deck, the game is over. Count up the number of face cards (J, Q, K's) in your hand, Draw Deck, and Draw Discard pile. If that number exceeds the number of face cards in the Spy Discard pile, you have sufficiently infiltrated the spy networks and you win the game!