Deck of Spies
Card Capture
Jack and Jill Reclaim the Hill
Blackjack River ResearchRules summary
Goal
Face all 36 spies. When the last one has been dealt with, you win if your own deck holds 7 or more of the 12 Key Spies, the Jacks, Queens, and Kings.
Cards
Use a standard 52-card deck without Jokers. The 16 Aces, 2s, 3s, and 4s are your Draw Deck, and the Aces are your Double Agents. The 36 cards from 5 to King are the Spy Deck.
Ranking
An Ace is worth 1, a number card its number, a Jack 11, a Queen 12, and a King 13.
Setup
Shuffle the 5–7s, the 8–10s, and the Jacks, Queens, and Kings as three separate piles. Stack them into the Spy Deck face up, so the 5–7s come first, then the 8–10s, then the Jacks, Queens, and Kings. The top card is the spy you face. Shuffle your Draw Deck and draw 5 cards.
Play
Each turn, deal with the top spy in exactly one of three ways.
- Counter it. Discard cards from your hand whose values total at least the spy’s, with no card to spare: without any one of them you’d fall short. The spy goes face down to the Spy Discard, and your cards go to your Draw Discard.
- Recruit it. The same, but every card you play must be of the spy’s suit. An Ace of the spy’s suit makes your other cards count as that suit for the turn, and you may add it even when you don’t need its value. The spy and your cards all go to your Draw Discard, so the spy joins your deck.
- Assassinate it. Only when your whole hand totals less than the spy. Remove one Ace from the game, from your hand, Draw Deck, or Draw Discard. If it came from your Draw Deck, shuffle that deck. The spy goes to the Spy Discard and the rest of your hand to your Draw Discard. If you have no Ace left, you lose.
After a counter or a recruit you may retire once: put 2, 3, or 4 cards of the same value from your hand into the Spy Discard.
Then keep the cards you didn’t play and draw back up to 5. When your Draw Deck runs out, shuffle your Draw Discard to make a new one.
Scoring
When the Spy Deck is empty, count the Key Spies in your hand, your Draw Deck, and your Draw Discard. You win if they outnumber the Key Spies in the Spy Discard, which means holding 7 or more of the 12. A Key Spy you retire goes to the Spy Discard and counts against you.