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[ericflipp]

new to game...

how does the spy card work?

eric

[philosophyguy]

The general principle of Dominion is to do as much as you can of what the card says, from top to bottom. So, in the case of Spy, the card reads: +1 Card; +1 Action; Each player (including you) reveals the top card of his deck and either discards it or puts it back, your choice.

So: first you draw an extra card. Then, you gain an extra action for your action pool. This does not mean that you can play another action yet—you have to wait until you've finished going through the card.

Then, you go in player order (i.e., starting with yourself and going clockwise): One at a time, the player reveals the top card of their deck so everyone can see it. Then, you decide whether that person puts it back on top of the deck or discards it. Go to the next player.

Once you are finished with the card text, you can play another action because Spy gave you +1 action.

[Epoch]

Less mechanically and more generally, with Spy you generally want to leave your opponent's cards on the top of their decks if they're low-value-in-play cards (so, for example normal Victory cards (that is, besides Nobles, Harem, or Great Hall), or Coppers, or cards that have outlived their usefulness like a Cursing attack when the Curse supply has been depleted), and discard them if they're high-value-in-play cards (so, usually Treasures besides Copper (though sometimes Silver becomes a "bad" card too), or most Actions (besides ones that have been made obsolete like the aforementioned bad Cursing attacks).

The concept of the card is that you cycle past your own "bad" cards, and thus get to your "good" cards faster, while for your opponents, you make them have to go through a whole deck before they get to their "good" cards by discarding their "good" cards.  As you become more experienced, you'll have a much stronger intuitive sense of when a card is "bad" or "good."

Spy is notably...  not a terribly strong attack, especially if you just have one of them.  Militia and Witch are much, much more debilitating to your opponents.  It's slightly rare, in my opinion, for Spy to be a really strong buy, though because it's a "cantrip" (ie, +1 Card, +1 Action), it's very rarely a truly weak buy.  There are good Spy plays, but they're much more complicated than the more straightforward powerful attacks.

[Jimmmmm]

I see Spy as a good buy if you have $4-5 that you don't really want anything else for. Say you have enough Silver, or you particularly want action cards for some reason (Scrying Pool, Vineyard etc), then you "may as well" buy Spies. But having enough money almost always takes precedence.