How to Play Spite and Malice
Description
A two-player battle where you're each running your own solitaire layout while actively trying to delay the other. First to empty their pay-off pile wins.
Also known as: Cat and Mouse
Objective
Be first to empty your pay-off pile onto the shared center stacks.
Setup
Two players, two decks shuffled together.
Each player gets a 20-card pay-off pile, dealt face down, with the top card turned face up.
Each player also gets a hand of five cards.
Rules
On your turn, play cards — from your hand, the top of your pay-off pile, or the top of your own side stacks — onto the shared center stacks, building up from Ace through Queen. Kings are wild and can stand in for any rank.
Up to three center stacks can be in play at once; a full stack (Ace to Queen) clears away.
You can also build up to four side stacks of your own, in any order — only the top card of a side stack is playable.
Refill your hand back to five from the draw pile, then end your turn by discarding one card onto a side stack if you have nothing left to play.
Winning
First player to play the very last card from their pay-off pile wins.
If the draw pile runs out before anyone finishes, the game ends in a draw.