Spite and Malice is a turn-based competitive patience game for two to four players. Everyone races to empty their pay-off pile of 20 face-down cards by playing them onto shared build piles that run from Ace (1) up to Queen (12). You may play from your hand, the top of your pay-off pile, or the tops of your own discard stacks; a turn ends when you discard one card from your hand. Jacks are wild. The first player to clear their pay-off pile wins.
Play now — it's freeEach player brings one 48-card deck: A, 2-10, J and Q in four suits (two decks = 96 cards for two players, three decks for three, four for four — the classic "one deck per player" way to keep 20-card pay-off piles stocked at any table size). Kings are not used.
Each player receives 20 cards face down as their pay-off pile and turns its top card face up; a five-card hand is dealt from the same shuffle and the rest forms the face-down stock in the middle. Whoever shows the higher pay-off card plays first.
A build pile starts with an Ace and then rises one rank at a time — 2, 3, 4 ... up to Queen. Suits do not matter. There are always four build pile spaces; a pile that reaches the Queen (or a Jack played as a Queen) is complete: it is removed immediately and shuffled back into the stock so the space can be used again.
| Card played | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Ace on an empty build pile | Yes |
| Jack on an empty build pile (as an Ace) | Yes — Jack is wild |
| Next higher rank on a build pile (6 on 5) | Yes |
| Any rank two or more steps up (8 on 5) | No |
| Jack on any build pile | Yes — it stands for the next rank |
Start by drawing from the stock back up to five cards. Then play as many cards as you like to the build piles. Every card you play may come from three sources: your hand, the top card of your pay-off pile, or the top card of one of your own discard stacks. Buried cards are out of reach until the cards above them are played.
Your turn ends when you discard exactly one card from your hand face up onto one of your own discard stacks — you may keep up to four of them, and you may cover an existing stack (its older cards become temporarily unavailable). You can never play a pay-off card to a discard stack, move cards between discard stacks, or take anything back off a build pile.
If you manage to play all five cards from your hand without discarding, you immediately draw five more cards and keep playing. Only a discard ends your turn — that is what makes long building chains possible.
A Jack may be played on any build pile and represents the next higher rank than the card it covers — so a Jack fills any gap. On an empty pile it stands for an Ace. You can also discard a Jack to one of your own discard stacks without declaring what it represents; its meaning is decided when it is finally played to a build pile.
The game ends the moment a player plays the last card of their pay-off pile to a build pile. If the stock ever runs dry and nobody can move, the game is a stalemate: the player with the fewest pay-off cards remaining wins, and only an exact tie is a draw.
For a scoring match, the winner of a round scores the cards left in every opponent's pay-off pile; this site also tracks a running total — reach 100 and you are crowned the Spite & Malice loser of the session.
Play your pay-off card the moment you can — everything else is preparation.
Keep Aces and 2s handy: build pile spaces are the scarcest resource at the table.
Save Jacks for the rank your pay-off pile actually needs, and never burn one on a gap a numbered card could fill.
Discard in descending runs on your stacks (Q on 10 on 8) so a future hand can play them in sequence.
Watch your opponents' pay-off cards: leaving a build pile stuck one rank short of their card is the "malice" half of the game.
One 48-card deck per player (A, 2-10, J, Q in four suits) — 96 cards for two players, 144 for three, 192 for four. Each player's pay-off pile is 20 cards and the hand is 5.
Two to four at one table. In a quick match you are seated at a 4-player table and AI fills the empty seats.
Your personal face-down stack of 20 cards. Only its top card is visible and playable; each card you play to a build pile reveals the next one. Emptying the pile wins the game.
Four shared piles, each starting with an Ace and rising one rank at a time to the Queen. A completed pile is removed and shuffled back into the stock immediately, freeing the space.
The Jack is wild: on a build pile it represents the next higher rank than the card it covers (an Ace on an empty pile), and you can discard it to your own stacks without declaring a value.
By discarding exactly one card from your hand onto one of your own discard stacks (up to four stacks, and you may cover a stack). If you play all five hand cards without discarding, you draw five more and keep playing.
At spitemalice.yeeqia.com — directly in your browser, no download and no sign-up required.
Yes, the site is mobile-first and runs in any modern Android or iOS browser.