Rules
How to play Spite & Malice
Spite & Malice is a race between two or more players. It is also known as Cat & Mouse, and it is the game the commercial card game Skip-Bo is based on. Everything below matches how the game is played in the Humri app.
The goal
- Every player starts with a stock pile.
- The first player to empty their stock pile wins.
- Only the top card of a stock pile is face up.
What you start with
The deck
- 48 numbered cards per deck, four each of 1 through 12.
- Plus wild cards: eight per deck on Chill, four on Challenging.
- One deck per player, with a minimum of three decks in Classic and two in Quick and Sabotage.
Each player has
- A stock pile: 30 cards in Classic, 10 in Quick and Sabotage.
- A hand of five cards.
- Four hold piles, which start empty.
Shared in the middle
- Four build piles, which every player uses.
- Build piles run upward from 1 to 12.
- Reaching 12 clears the pile, and those cards are shuffled back into the deck.
Taking a turn
- Play cards onto the build piles Cards can come from your hand, the top of your stock pile, or the top of any of your hold piles. A build pile only accepts the next number up, so a pile showing 6 will take a 7.
- Keep going as long as you can There is no limit on how many cards you play in a turn. If you empty your hand mid-turn, it refills straight away and you carry on.
- Hold a card to finish When you are done, move one card from your hand onto one of your four hold piles. That ends your turn, so the card you choose, and the pile you put it on, is the decision that matters most.
Wild cards
- A wild card can be played as any number on a build pile.
- Wilds are the fastest way to reach a stock card you are stuck behind.
Hold piles
- You have four, and you can stack anything on any of them.
- Stacking in descending sequence sets up chains you can play later.
- Burying a card you need is the most common way to lose a turn.
The three modes
Classic
- A 30-card stock pile. First to empty it wins.
- The longest game of the three.
Quick
- The same rules with a 10-card stock pile.
- Built for a single sitting.
Sabotage
- A 10-card stock pile, played over rounds.
- Completing a build pile adds one card to every opponent's stock pile.
- A countdown drops each round. If your stock pile is larger than the countdown, you are out.
Scoring
- Each stock card you play is worth 5 points.
- Every other card played is worth 1 point.
- Play 11 or more cards in one turn and a run multiplier starts: every card past 10 adds 0.1x, up to 2.0x at 20 cards.
- The multiplier applies to everything you scored that turn.
Play it free
Against CPU opponents or online. iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later.