texts: Are these "temporary defense gained by discarding cards" markers?

texts:
I just got the Race for the Galaxy: The Brink of War expansion, which I haven't played yet. It comes with some additional Takeover markers. These two markers look like "temporary defense gained by discarding cards" markers:

I can't find the card that gives this power. The rulebook states they are for Rebel Pact:

  Two counters are supplied to track a player’s total possible Military on
  defense (for use with Rebel Pact).

But Rebel Pact is part of the Rebel vs. Imperium expansion. In Settle phase, it gives

  +2 defense against a [takeover] for each... (Rebel military world) in your tableau; +1 defense for each other [military world]

and the Rebel vs. Imperium expansion already comes with markers for tracking Rebel Pacts defense:

  The Rebel Pact provides 2 Military for each Rebel military world
   and 1 Military for each non-Rebel military world in a player’s
   tableau at the start of Settle, when defending against takeovers.

What card are these markers used with? What do they mean?


texts: Looking through the discard pile in canasta

texts:
Suppose I have cards enough in my hand to pick up the discard pile in canasta.  For this scenario, it does not matter whether the pile is frozen or not.

Can I look through the cards of the discard pile to see if it would be worth my while to pick up the pile?

or

Is there a rule against browsing through the pile before picking it up?


texts: Does Avis or Iago have a better chance of winning a match?

texts:
In my quest to find the answer to this question, I have decided to start smaller. The rules of Button Men are here, and the characters are listed below.

Avis: d4, d4, d10, d12, dX (where X is d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20)
Iago: d20, d20, d20, dX (where X is d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20)

Note: Technically speaking according to the Button Men rules, the dX swing die can be any number within the range of 4 to 20 inclusive. For the purposes of this question, we will assume that the swing die will be one of the polyhedral dice listed.

If you want to take a stab at this question, be my guest. I will be attempting to brute force an answer over the next couple of days. If you want to post whether you believe brute forcing an answer is possible, and the total number of permutations that need to be examined, that would be nice (I will attempt to make a guess myself).


texts: How is my mouse's ability attack resolved?

texts:
We are a bit confused by how ability attacks work in Mice and Mystics, and in particular how they interact with equipped items.

Our Maginos has the ability Mystic Bolt, which states (emphasis mine):

  You may use this ability instead of performing a normal battle action. Choose a minion ... [who] is attacked by this mouse with a ranged attack. The battle value of that attack is equal to this mouse's lore.

Our Maginos is also equipped with an Enchanted Bow, which grants +1 to ranged attacks and has the text (emphasis mine):

  The first time this mouse attacks with this bow on a turn, if any [Bow w/ Star Symbol] were rolled in that attack, this mouse may attack 1 additional time with this bow.

Now, Maginos has a lore of 3, so if he uses the Mystic Bolt ability clearly the battle value will be 3.  The question is: how do we perform this attack?

Do we:

Roll 3 dice, hoping to roll [Bow Symbol]s?
Roll 4 dice instead of 3 due to the +1 from the Enchanted Bow?
Ignore dice completely and just count it as an attack that hits for 3?
Do something else?

Furthermore, if we do roll dice, does the special text from the Enchanted Bow (about sometimes making a second attack) come into play, and if so, how does the extra attack work?


texts: Equip from same Equipment, two times on stack (Leonin Shikari)

texts: I have Leonin Shikari on the board and want to equip a creature. Can I activate the equip ability a second time and put it on the stack? Like when giving a creature hexproof with an equipment, and an opponent casts a spell to destroy the creature before it gets hexproof, can I activate the ability a second time to have it on the stack above their spell?


texts: What does "you may not use any investigator cards in this encounter" mean?

texts: A science building encounter had a mi-go appear and stated I could not use investigator cards if I failed a speed check. What does this mean?


texts: Who picks a card name first for Null Chamber?

texts:
The card Null Chamber states

As Null Chamber enters the battlefield, you and an opponent each choose a card name other than a basic land card name.
Spells with the chosen names can’t be cast and lands with the chosen names can’t be played.

For political reasons, it's relevant to me who picks the card name first (betrayals and such).
When casting Null Chamber, in what order do me and the chosen opponent name cards?


texts: Prevent the next x damage and multiple unblocked creatures

texts:
I got attacked by 2 Blighted Agent (1/1 infect unblockable), a Latch Seeker (3/1 unblockable) paired with Tandem Lookout (2/1 and when paired both creatures get "Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, draw a card") and Tandem Lookout itself (which was unblockable due to an effect).

I tapped my Hallowed Healer (tap: "Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn") to prevent 2 damage to me.

My question is: who's damage will be prevented?

Does my opponent decide the order in which the attacking creatures attack during the Declare Attackers Step? Or does he decide that during the Combat Damage Step?

We couldn't find this in the Comp. Rules, so my opponent said his Latch Seeker(3/1) was prevented by 2, but this way I got 2 poison counters and he drew 2 cards. I would have liked to prevent the two poison counters or to only let him draw 1 card (by preventing Tandem lookout).


texts: How Does Syr Konrad Interact With Living Death?

texts:
I have two scenarios in which Syr Konrad, the Grim will be involved from two different perspectives, and I'm curious to see how Living Death will interact here.

Scenario 1: Syr Konrad is in play with a full board of creatures for each player. I cast living death. I'm fairly certain he sees all the other creatures die with him, but does he also see the creatures being removed from the graveyard as per Living Death's temporary "exile" effect for the creatures that are about to be brought into play from the graveyard?

Scenario 2: Same as above, except Syr Konrad is already in the graveyard. What does he see, if anything, once living death is cast in a board state full of creatures? My assumption tells me he doesn't trigger at all in this scenario but I am not 100% certain.


texts: How would an instant or sorcery with an effect that targets work with Feather?

texts: If I have Feather, the Redeemed on the battlefield, and target her with the support part of Shoulder to Shoulder, what happens? Would Shoulder to Shoulder exile as it resolves and return to my hand, or would it resolve normally?


texts: Do effects that remove abilities also remove counters?

texts:
I have a creature in play that has several +1/+1 counters on it. My opponent plays a card that has "remove all abilities from target creature".

Does this also remove the counters? What's the rule that clarifies this?


texts: Can Russia and Japan Follow A Mutual "Hands Off" Policy In Axis and Allies?

texts:
During World War II, the Soviet Union and Japan had a five year mutual non-aggression pact that was kept until the very end. Could a similar thing happen in Allies and Axis?

In some versions of the game, this policy is "enforced" by the fact that it costs 5 or even 10 IPCs for one side to attack the other's territories. Would you play such a game variation?

In other games, there are understandings between the two countries, derived during table talk. This may include not reinforcing territories that the other is likely to attack. For instance, Russia can reinforce British forces that have captured Norway, but not British forces in India.

Would you try to conclude such an agreement with the other party if you were playing Japan? Russia?


texts: Poker hand probabilities in Doomtown:Reloaded

texts:
The short version of my question is as follows:

What is the best way to compute the probability of different hand ranks after redraw in poker? Can this easily generalise to a stacked (non-standard) deck?

Doomtown Reloaded is a trading card game in which combat is resolved by hands of poker. Each card has an associated suit and value. Deck construction requires a 52 card deck with up to 4 cards of each suit and value. The ability of your 'dudes' alters the way you construct your poker hand. Some 'dudes' are stud shooters they allow you to draw more cards. Some dudes are 'draw' shooters, they allow you to discard and redraw. You are also allowed to include an additional 2 jokers (which can be used as any suit and value for the purposes of forming poker hands)

Computing how adding stud shooters affects your draw hand probability is relatively easy, however I haven't been able to find a description of how to compute the probability of different hands after redraw.

I want to know how to compute the likelihood of the 10 poker hand ranks (high card -> 5 of a kind) given the deck construction, number of cards you initially draw and number of cards you discard and redraw.

On the suggestion of mergatroid99 I've also asked this question at math.stackexchange.com here


texts: How many completed routes is typical in Ticket To Ride (for each number of players)?

texts:
I played Ticket To Ride for the first time yesterday.  I found myself wondering how many routes one typically "should" have completed at the end of the game if playing moderately well.  I assume this varies based on the number of players; more contention on the board means less opportunity to build for new routes.  I'd like to get a sense of this so I can calibrate my play in future games, and no one in our group has much experience with the game.  (Of course, knowing when to draw more and how to select them are related questions, but that's not what I'm asking.)

I understand that there are variants of this game.  We were playing from a set that was just called "Ticket To Ride" and used a US map.


texts: What is the expansion card stack in rivals for catan

texts: What is the expansion card stack in era of intrigue rivals for catan


texts: Rules do not explain the answers to these 2 questions

texts: What do you do when you don't have a discard during the game?  Also, what happens when you lay down a skip card?  Does the color change to what the next player lays down or do you have to use the color played before the skip card was played?


texts:
Question: What kind of mechanic would allow players to remove cards from their constructed decks in my game?

Theory: I'm making a deckbuilding game!  So, players start with a number of cards which aren't too powerful, but are necessary in the early game.  They will invariably collect cards early on that are bad in the mid-late game portions of play.  To increase the draw probability of good cards, you will want to prune your older bad cards.  So, I need a mechanic to remove cards from play so that they are no longer in your deck.

World Building: The game has a theme of trying to get elected to an alien senate.  You and your opponents are all candidates vying for power, and the cards you play are campaign staff who have different abilities.  The hiring row contains new staff that you may purchase to aid your campaign.

Gameplay:  At the start of the round, all players select 1 card from their hand to place face down.  All cards are revealed, and effects resolve based on priority markings on the cards.  Then, players take turns doing resource management (purchasing, etc.).  Players then discard their hands, draw 3 cards (shuffling their discard pile into their deck as needed), and the round ends.

Attempted Mechanics: One early mechanic was a card cycle whose effects are to remove other cards from your deck.  This can be a bit too slow, doesn't interact well with other mechanics, and is a little too similar to another game I've played before.

A mechanic that I like is for each card to have a "severance cost" at the bottom.  The problem is, I can't figure out when this would be activated.  Paying the cost as replacement of the effect meant having to use a marker to indicate your intention, because players were accusing each other of changing their mind after cards are revealed for the round.  But if the marker is visible while people are selecting their cards, it gives away too much information to the other players.  It was difficult for players to use the marker discretely.

I decided that maybe the firing cost could be paid once per turn during the resource management step.  But then there was the issue of "Can you only fire a card you played, one in your hand, or one in your discard pile?"  Each of these led to problems, especially when cards were fired from the discard pile.

What would be a possible way for cards to be removed from the deck?


texts: Hi I'm looking to buy card sleeves as a surprise for a friend who has Struggle for Catan but can't seem to find the cards' dimensions. Please help.


texts:
I have a question about the Sow action in Agricola. Namely, consider the following:
 - You sow a field, so now you have 3 grains on it.
 - Harvest happens, so you have 2 grains on the field and 1 grain in your personal supply.
 - You take the Sow action.

Question: does the field 'top up'? In other words, will the final result be that your field now has 3 grains on it again and you retain the 1 grain in your personal supply?

That's how we've been playing it, but rereading the rules I cannot find a mention of that particular case. If our ruling is wrong, it seems to me a bit strange - baking/sowing strategies have always been considered by us to be "weaker" than going straight for animal breeding -> cooking hearth -> 13 food/harvest with no extra actions, and any nerf to sowing hurts the baking strategies even further...


texts:
This reddit post explains an episode of Seinfeld:

  When deciding who gets the new apartment, Jerry tells George he'll 'choose' him for it after a failed attempt at coin flip. Jerry takes odds and George takes evens. What the hell are they doing? I have never heard of this game.

The answers link to an urban dictionary entry:

  Choose Game
  Basically, you choose odds or evens and remark "Once, twice, three, SHOOT!" each player either holds out a closed fist, 1 finger, or 2 fingers, therefore the total can either add up to 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. If it is 0, no player wins. If it is even (2,4) the evens player wins and if it's odd (1,3) the odds player wins.

  Seinfeld: George and Jerry played the Choose game in 'The Robbery' Episode to decide who should get the apartment, Jerry ends up winning.

Is the "Choose Game" an actual game?


texts: How many monster cards / what is the bonus value in the Alvin and Dexter Ticket to Ride expansion

texts: The Alvin and Dexter expansion looks like an interesting one, and one you could quite easily do yourself.  To that end, how many cards of each type of monster do you get in the expansion pack and what is the value of the bonuses for each monster.


texts: Who does the Runner pay if a piece if ICE states "runner... pays X Credits"?

texts:
If the runner triggers an ability that says they "pay" a number of credits, who should they pay? The bank or the Corp?

Is "pay" the same as "loses"?

Examples of "pay" abilities and subroutines include Tollbooth and Pop Up Window.


texts: Is an Awakened land an OK target for Ruins of Oran-Rief?

texts: I have an Awaken deck and I want to use Ruins of Oran-Rief. If I awaken a land that I placed on the battlefield earlier on the same turn, does it count as a legal target?


texts:
No doubt, Underrealm Lich is cool. Still I am wondering, how it interacts with dredge, such as on Life from the Loam.

As both are replacement effects, I should be able to choose which happens, shouldn't I?

Asking for a friend.


texts: Good rules for combining the various expansions start tiles

texts:
The river expansions, the wheel of fortune and other expansions all add their own sets of start tiles and blocks of tiles to the game.

Are there good rules for combining these starting tiles?


texts: When using the move action, do I gain coins in an equal number of the number of units I decide to move (up to 2)?


texts: Do Dragon Spirits like Kokusho trigger Lathliss's ability?

texts:
I have found some really cool Dragon variations to use with Lathliss, Dragon Queen, but I'm not sure if Dragon Spirits like Kokusho, the Evening Star trigger her ability.

When searching for Dragon cards, different Dragon Spirits came up as part of the selection, but that may just have been part of the keyword search. So I'd just like to clarify things with "yes Dragon Spirits will trigger her ability" or "no, it won't"


texts: Why does Mana-Burn exist in Magic: The Gathering?

texts:
My understanding of Mana-Burn is that if you have any left over mana in your mana-pool at the end of your turn, you loose that many life. But why is this rule necessary? The only time I see it come into play is when you have cards that give you multiple mana like Dark Ritual and Black Lotus, and isn't wasted mana penalty enough? I can't think of many times when I would purposely want to have extra mana left over in the first place.

When and how does mana burn usually happen? Why was the rule added? How would Magic be different without it?


texts: Can I still use Profane Memento if I have out Silent Gravestone?

texts: Can I use abilities of Profane Memento if I have out Silent Gravestone ?


texts: What's the order of resolution for "everybody discard" in MTG?

texts:
Usually, in MTG, when you play a card that requires multiple players to do something, like "Each player sacrifices a creature", players make choices in "APNAP" (active player / non-active player) order (going around the table in normal turn order if it's multiplayer), and then the effect itself happens simultaneously.

How does this work with hidden information? You'd still choose first, but when do you reveal the hidden information? Take, for instance, an "Everybody discard" effect (e.g. Liliana of the Veil): if I activate the ability, I'm supposed to choose a card first — do I immediately show my card to the other players, or do I set it aside face-down until everyone has made a pick?


texts: Should I use all actions before buying anything?

texts: For example, I have this hand. 3 coins, one market, one library. So first I play the market, then buy something with the coins (plus 1 coin from the market) and then play the library having nothing in my hand because I already used the coins and the market (so I draw seven cards or even more). Is that right?


texts: What type of hands are suitable for minor suit contracts after an NT opener?

texts:
I know that when you hold a 6-card minor suit and a really weak hand (such as holding Jxxxxx in the minor and not much else after 1NT opener), you would play some system to transfer into the minor.
However, if you held a stronger hand and no major suit fit, would you prefer a game in NT or the minor (since if the minor suit holding is strong/long enough, you can run it)?
How does

Overall strength (for partscores, games, and slams)
Overall shape
Suit strength
Suit length

factor into this?


texts: I'm playing Arkham Horror for the first time and I randomly drew Bob Jenkins as my investigator. With some of the other players' characters, their "purpose" is pretty clear. There's the guy with high fight who starts with a sweet weapon, the guy with high lore and tons of spells, etc. With Bob, I'm not seeing a clear path to how I can best contribute. What type of strategies or tactics should I be employing to make the best use of my turn?


texts:
What's a good strategy game for 8 players? Many games can be played by 8 players, but suffer from a loss of pace, and long waits between turns. What games have parallel planning phases, or lots of interaction during turns?

I'm looking for games that can safely be called strategy games, so apples to apples and some other party games don't really count.

This is basically an extension of this question for 6 players.


texts:
Playing Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game, we encountered a Pirate Captain.
The first line states "Before you act, recharge a card.".  My first reaction was recharge from the discard pile, but then I couldn't rationalize why the Pirate Captain would be helping us.  However on more thought, I also couldn't rationalize why the Pirate Captain would be doing anything like this (best guess is "stealing" but not sure then why not buried/discarded).
I didn't see anything in the rules or online where you recharge from when unspecific.  We went with "from hand" because it seemed most penalizing.  Did we play this right?  Any references that can be cited to reflect?


texts:
What should I do with an $8 hand that appears in Turns 3 through 6, in a game that only goes up to Provinces? Consider 4-player games primarily, but if games with other numbers of players significantly change this decision, please mention it.

(This might happen a few different ways: Coppersmith and a lucky draw will get you this in T3/T4, but even a simple Big Money strategy can pick this up on T5/T6.)

I realize the answer here is most likely "it depends," but what does it depend on? Does the availability of $7 cards make an early Province buy less tempting? If the other worthwhile cards cost only $5 (or even $4), does it change the answer?

I ask because I've been playing a fair amount of 4-player Androdominion, and early $8 hands crop up occasionally. I usually buy the Province, simply because victory usually occurs somewhere around 5 provinces, and I prefer the bird in the hand rather than trusting what the future might bring.


texts:
Just started playing Uno. What are the most important strategies that might improve my game? Of course luck is important, but I'm trying to do better than crossing my fingers.

For example, before and after a player announces "Uno", should my play be different? While there's a "wild" card, how should I decide which color to switch to?

@paul-marshall thanks for the reply. I understand that normally i shall change color to the one that i have most cards -- but is there any occasion that i shouldn't do so?

For the wild card, let's say now i have one blue, one yellow, and one wild card, and the table is playing red. shall i use wild card to change color (to blue or yellow), or, just hold the card and hope i could discard yellow and blue later? is there some thumb rule when shall use wild card and when not?


texts: When you don't have enough food on Christmas, what happens when you choose thumbs up?

texts:
In our game, we ran into the Christmas crossroads card while there was only 1 food in our supply:

Thumbs up: Spend 5 food. Gain 1 morale. If Forest Plum is in play [snip: the survivors get an extra 4 items].
Thumbs down: Nothing happens.

(We also had Forest Plum in play.)
What would happen if we give thumbs up? We can't pay 5 food, but we can totally follow instructions to take free stuff. Would we get our stuff and lose just our 1 food, or would nothing happen because we can't do the first part? Is there a clear answer sourceable from the rules or the developers?
Other games have a "do as much as you can" rule, but Dead of Winter doesn't seem to employ one. The food thing isn't listed as a prerequisite to the rest of the actions taking place. I've googled around but it seems others aren't sure either.


texts: What are the rules of this "Frog rescue game" from Boots?

texts:
I picked up this game second hand but found it doesn't include any instructions.
It has a cross-shaped board that you assemble jigsaw style with a tower in the middle. The back of the box says "in the exciting race to the castle, all the dice are rolled together on each turn and all the players move at the same time". Dice are coloured, one matching each player. But there also appear to be some elaborations on the basic structure of rolling dice and advancing eg there are some special squares - dragons and thorny bushes - and each player has three different characters - a knight, a wizard and a princess.
We'd love to know how all this is implemented. Of course we can make up our own house rules but would like to know the official ones too.
There's a date on the inside of the box of 2004 which could be when it was manufactured.
[1]:


texts:
Say my opponent has Elesh Norn on the table and plays Phyrexian Metamorph as a copy of her. As I understand from her Gatherer-page, all my creatures will now briefly have -4/-4.

So my question is now, suppose I have Obsidian Fireheart (or any other elemental with at least 3 toughness) in play along with two Incandescent Soulstokes, then obviously both my Soulstokes die as they have -1 toughness each, but will Obsidian Fireheart die as well? In other words, when exactly during this process does one copy of Elesh Norn leave the battlefield due to the legendary rule?


texts: Can you put down 2 melds of the same card? For instance, a friend accidentally started 2 piles of 5's. Should they have been combined?


texts: Can Cancel counter a creature on the battlefield?

texts:
Say, I have Cancel, which is an Instant, on my hand. It can counter any spells.

The opponent has had a creature, for example Ajani's Pridemate, on the battlefield for several turns attacking and blocking.

Can I use my Cancel onto Ajani's Pridemate and send it to the graveyard (or to its owner's hand)?


texts: Does the Quarantine Specialist prevent Epidemic in connected cities?

texts: So, by example, if the Quarantine Specialist is in London, and an Epidemic card is pulled and the affected city is New York (or another connected city), does the specialist cancel the placement of infection cubes in New York?


texts: How can you make Twilight Imperium games not take forever?

texts:
I really like Twilight Imperium (3rd edition), but I haven't really enjoyed my time playing it due to the long playtimes.  I've played one 4-player game, two 6-player, and one 8-player game.  The shortest game was the 4p - it clocked in at 6.5 hours.  And that was with experienced players.  I don't feel like anyone had serious Analysis Paralysis during the game but approximately one hour per full game round is just ridiculous.

One option is to play the variant where everyone starts with several systems (neighbor systems are just given to you for free).  I do enjoy the early expansion part of the game, so I'm leery about trying that.  Are there any other suggestions for speeding up play?


texts: Who gets the Commander if it dies or is exiled with a coin counter from Athreos, Shroud-Veiled?

texts:
In a game of Commander, I control Athreos, Shroud-Veiled and put a coin counter on another player's Commander.
If the Commander dies or is exiled, its controller gets to choose to put it back in the command zone, and the trigger says it should return to the battlefield under my control.
So who gets the Commander?
As a side note, this game took place before the Commander "dies trigger" rules change.


texts: How many units and resources will the Germans get when they research logistics?

texts:
Is there any official/de facto interpretation for this topic?

  After setup, each time the Germans research a tech that upgrades or unlocks a unit, they build one of that unit for free and gain one resource of their choice from the market."

It seems that this description is ambiguous and I think it can be interpreted as below:

They get three units and three resources.
They get three units and one resource.
They get one unit and one resource.


texts: How to keep the game interesting if a player is 95% certain to win?

texts:
Yesterday I played "Fury of Dracula" with 4 friends. One friend became the Dracula, and he is the owner of the game, so he's the one who explained the rules to us. He knew most of the rules.

We are fairly experienced in board games, so despite this is our first time playing Fury of Dracula, we progressed quite well. Found him within 5 days (by luck), and we proceeded to engage him. Unfortunately, streak of Dracula events turned the table, and after another 5 days, the influence counter already reached 12, and it's just a matter of days before he wins.

Because of that, we played like we don't really care anymore. We still tried to guess where he escaped, but it was not fun anymore. The mood dropped, and there's little to none interaction after reaching 12 influence.

This is our first time playing a long-session board game, and I don't want this keeping us from playing more long-session board games, especially those with "1 vs many" playstyle.

What can we do to keep the game interesting after the winning of one side is certain?

We played with basic rules.


texts: Confusion on militia rules (The optional event)

texts:
According to the rules of Arcana, at the end of the resolution phase all militia should be returned to their pile.

However, there is an event (part of the optional rules) which says that all militia should be returned to their pile at the start of the intrigue phase. Which would suggest that they were not returned the previous turns resolution phase.

But nothing in the rules suggests the option of being able to keep militia in play, so why is there an event card that specifically mentions they should be returned at the start of the intrigue phase?


texts: What card game was played in "Solo: A Star Wars Story"?

texts: Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon at the end by playing a card game. What game was that actually?


texts: Tak - Do you still win, if in creating your road, you also created a road for the other player?


texts: Which of the 5 resources in Settlers of Catan (base version) is most important? Why?

texts:
Experienced Settlers of Catan players know that the answer to this question will vary based on many board setup factors such as resource productivity, 2:1 ports, whether you can corner the market for one resource and thus trade for the resource you lack, etc. For the purposes of this question, let's exclude such factors, and consider the middle case where there are no obvious 2:1 port setups, nobody can corner a market, and the distribution of production is a middling 10 dots each for the brick and ore, 13 dots each for wood and grain, and 12 dots for sheep.

Which of the 5 resources in Settlers of Catan is most important? Why?


texts: How many copies did Risk's original 1959 version sell?

texts:
How many copies did the original version of 1959 of the board game Risk sell?

I found this article stating that it sold more than 100,000 copies in its first year. However there are no sources given from where this information is from.


texts: Which city is the one being searched for the virologist?

texts:
Question in spoiler tags below

    In July, searches are introduced. The Search for the Virologist indicates that if there is a quarantine marker in the city you are searching, advance the search party one additional space. Elsewhere on the card, though, when instructing how many spaces to advance, it refers to "your city". Is the city you are in the one you are searching, or is the city on the card you discarded the one you are searching?

The actual text of the card can be seen in this image

Relevant text copied below as well

   Take the search action if you are in a faded city with a research station
 Advance 1 space for each card you discard matching the color of your city
 If there is a quarantine marker in the city you are searching, advance the search party 1 additional space per search action.


texts: Are there good ways to "handicap" Midway?

texts:
In the Q&A section of the "rulebook," questions were asked about how to "handicap" the game in favor of either the Japanese or American player. The answers were to increase the "search" capabilities of the Japanese player, and to allow the American player one or two "B-17" (special bomber) attacks a day. I found these changes unsatisfying, because neither Japanese search capabilities nor B-17 attacks seemed to play a part in the real battle.

My "handicaps" include the following:

In favor of the Japanese: Start the game on June 4th rather than June 3rd. This allows Japan to bring three "waves" (out of four) ships on the first turn, with the remaining wave of five ships arriving at 5:00 p.m. the same day, thereby eliminating the "first day" disadvantage encountered by Japan's first wave. This was a plausible scenario that would be an improvement on the plan that Yamamoto actually followed, and would have been a clear "handicap" in Japan's favor, compared to the game.
In favor of the Americans: Triple (or at least double) Midway's plane complement (to 6 torpedo and 18 dive bomber squadrons in the basic game, add 18 fighter squadrons in the advanced game). This reflects the (superior) airpower actually available to the Americans at the beginning of June 3rd. The game totals were actually available on June 4th, after a day of Japanese bombardment, and were intended to create a "play balance" of both sides having similar number of ships and planes on the first day. But a restoration of the actual status quo ante would have been a "handicap" in favor of the Americans (relative to the game).
Use both changes to create a "matchup" of more Japanese ships vs. more American planes.

Do my "handicaps" improve the game by

following history closely
creating more variety and/or
creating a "good imbalance" of ships versus planes?

Edit: In answer to another question, one poster noted that because of the difference in cultures, the Japanese were more likely to launch "suicide" attacks (one way air attacks that did not have enough fuel for the round trip) than the Americans. While the original rules allow both sides to do this, maybe only the Japanese should have this privilege. Would this be a viable "handicap" that is also historically accurate?


texts: What is this game with Knights and Ogres and wolf riders I played when I was a kid?

texts:
I grew up in the 80s, so the game should of come out in the late 80s or early 90s. I believe that the game was made by the same makers that made Hero Quest, but I might be wrong.

The game was an War based game, that had 2 sides a good side and a dark side. The light side had knights and the dark side had a giant Ogre, wolf riders, and other stuff. I really liked it because there was different strategies based on the side you were on.

As a kid, I felt like the map was an 8' x 8' map.

Hopefully this is enough info that someone can answer me... I've done a bunch of googling, but have had no success...


texts: Small World: Why does it use 3-point coins?

texts: What is the point of using 3-point coins in a base-ten coin game? There are 5s and 10s, and you can almost never exchange the two for any multiples of 3.


texts: Catan: play development card after rolling robber

texts:
In Settlers of Catan, we have been discussing the possibility of playing a development card before moving the robber but after rolling a 7. The idea came from someone wanting to play a monopoly card before moving the knight in order to increase his chances of getting a specific resource from the robber steal.
He argued that he could play the monopoly card since you are allowed to play a development card whenever on your turn, but others feel that this is a bit cheap. Is there a concrete ruling either way?


texts: What's this German Go/Chess-like Game? "Heureka!"?

texts:
I was recently thinking back to a board game I played some 8 years ago. In my mind, I'm convinced the game was called Heureka (not Eureka), but after many days of fruitless searching, I don't think that's it.

So here go the other clues:

Two-player game
Played on an included board, segmented into halves, one for each player
Starting position is: All pieces from each player on their side of the board
The board was rectangular, not square
Each player gets about a dozen pieces
Each piece is more or less a wooden dowel pin, but a bit shorter and fatter than you'd encounter in IKEA furniture
The pieces for each player differ in the darkness of the wood (though only very slightly)
One piece per player has gold paint on one end (meaning there are two gold pieces in the game)
The game was acquired in Germany
It wasn't played on a checkerboard, neither a board with straight lines like Go

The above I'm 99% sure of. Now follow some guesses regarding the gameplay:

IIRC the goal is to move the gold piece to the opponent's end of the board, presumably without being captured
There was some kind of capturing and/or mate mechanism
The movements of the pieces were diagonal, with a checkers-like jumping mechanism.

That's it sadly. I hope this wasn't a one-off pre-production thing, because I think I had bought it at a toy convention. It didn't look like a prototype though. The appearance of the pieces is the strongest memory I have of it.

Edit: I asked my dad today and he too distinctly remembers the game being called "Heureka!" (lit. "I've got it!"). He had some guesses as to where the copy is, so I'll try to hunt it down when I'm there. He's also baffled as to why there is 0.00 trace on the internet about it.

On the off-chance that one of you does know it, I'll leave this question open. I'll be sure to digitize the board and manual when I do find the physical copy.


texts: Resource board game with villagers, huts, and breeding

texts:
About 5 years ago I played a 4-player board game.  It had villager pieces that you could assign to huts and they would breed.  There were resources like wood, and a trade/merchant/ports area where you would get cards that reminded me of development cards in Catan.

I think the win condition was victory points like Catan.

What was the board game?


texts: Trashing Market Square and another card at the same time

texts: I use a card that allows me to trash 2 cards from my hand (like Chapel).  I trash Market Square and another card.  Are the cards trashed simultaneously or sequentially?  Does either possibility allow me to use Market Square's effect?  If so, where does the Market Square end up?


texts: Perplexing Chimera and control changing enchantments

texts: Perplexing Chimera can steal spells but gives control of itself to that player.  But if I enchanted with an enchantment that says "You control enchanted creature" (such as Hypnotic Siren) would that enchantment let me retain control of the Chimera after stealing spells and basically have infinite uses of the chimera's spell stealing?


texts:
Does Diana Stanley gain sanity from doom tokens when the environment "Dream of a Sunken City" is in play?

Diana Stanley's unique ability:

  Dark Insight - Any Phase: Gain 1 Sanity or 1 Stamina each time a doom token is added to the Ancient One's doom track

Dreams of a Sunken City Mythos card:

  Mythos Ability: Investigators cannot gain Sanity except by receiving psychiatric care at Arkham Asylum (or from Carolyn Fern).


texts: If spirit monster's effect is negated for 1 turn, does it return to hand by end phase?

texts:
So let's say player A summoned Dark Dust Spirit, then:

Case 1: Player B activates Forbidden Chalice on Dark Dust Spirit so its effect is negated until end phase. Does it return to hand by end phase?

Case 2: Player B activates Skill Drain on Dark Dust Spirit so its effect is negated. Then on next turn (player B's turn), Skill Drain was destroyed. Will Dark Dust Spirit stay on the field for all the upcoming turns?

Dark Dust Spirit:

  Cannot be Special Summoned. During the End Phase of the turn this card
  is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Return it to the hand. When
  this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Destroy all other
  face-up monsters on the field.

Forbidden Chalice:

  Target 1 face-up monster on the field; until the end of this turn,
  that target gains 400 ATK, but its effects are negated.

Skill Drain:

  Activate by paying 1000 Life Points. The effects of all face-up
  monsters on the field are negated while those monsters are face-up on
  the field (but their effects can still be activated).


texts: Three players are all in, and two tie for the win. Does the loser pay both players the full amount of their chips bet?


texts: Fluxx: Does this person play all cards or does his turn end with new cards in hand?

texts: The "Play All" rule is on the table. Someone plays the new rule, "Get on with it" which states that "At any time before your final play, you may discard your entire hand and draw a new hand of 3 cards.  This is a free action but if you take it, your turn ends immediately."  So, if this player decides to discard his remaining hand & draw 3 cards, does he still have to play them, or does his turn end immediately with new cards still in hand?


texts: Interactions between Oblivion Sower and counter spells that make you pay mana to prevent them?

texts: Lets say I am casting Oblivion Sower. The on-cast effect would activate, exiling the top 4 cards of my opponents deck. The person decides to cast Mana Leak to counter my creature. Assuming I don't have enough mana to prevent the Mana Leak on my own, could I tap the lands, assuming I get three, that are exiled with Oblivion Sower to prevent Mana Leak from countering my creature?


texts: Can sheep farmer perform multiple exchanges at once?

texts:
We were playing Agricola last night and I ran into an unusual situation. I had three pastures, each able to contain four animals. I also had the House Goat minor improvement, which means I was not allowed to store any animals in my house. I had a total of eight sheep, and no other animals.

I had the Sheep Farmer occupation, and wanted to use its ability twice to convert six sheep to two boar and two cattle.  My question is, do the conversions have to be sequential, or can they be synchronous? In the first case I cannot store both the boar and the cattle as I have five sheep after the first swap which take two of my pastures. In the latter case I end up with a breeding pair of each type of animal.


texts: Cosmic Encounter Can I attack an empty planet

texts:
We had a disagreement about this the last time I played. The rules seem to allude that you can attack an empty planet in an encounter with another player but it doesn't seem to be made explicit.

Example: Green has 4 colonies in his home system, one planet is empty. If blue draws a green destiny card can he attack the empty planet?


texts: Can you trash fortress indefinitely with donate?

texts:
So the two cards* in question here are Fortress, which reads:

+1 Card
+1 Action

When you trash this put it into your hand

and Donate which reads:

After this turn, put all cards from your deck and discard pile into your hand, trash any number, shuffle your hand into your deck, then draw 5 cards.

And the question is whether after a Fortress returns to your hand can you trash it again with the same Donate, and thus trash the same Fortress a potentially unbounded number of times.
This question actually matters since the landmark Tomb grants a player +1 point for every card they trash, thus this scheme could potentially net an unlimited number of points if Tomb is active.


texts: Does exiling a creature after it has been destroyed or dealt lethal damage still count as if it "died"?

texts:
I'm actually working on an alternative card set. While designing tribal mechanics, I have encountered a problem with a single thing: does a creature exiled after being destroyed (instead of being put into graveyard) still counts as if it "died"?

So, let's imagine a situation:
Sengir Vampire deals damage to target 3/5 creature. Then, to finish the creature I cast Pillar of Flame... so, instead of dying (being put into graveyard) the creature gets exiled.

If Sengir Vampire dealt damage to a creature finished with Pillar of Flame, will he get +1/+1?


texts: Does monetary loss to everyone not affect your partner?

texts: This source suggests any action which causes a monetary loss to everyone does not affect your partner. Is this true?


texts: If Felidar Sovereign enters the battlefield during my upkeep, will he trigger?

texts:
Given that Felidar Sovereign is being reprinted in Battle for Zendikar, I have a question about the win condition and nobody I know can help. I was hoping someone on here could.

If I am at over 40 life with a Felidar Sovereign in the graveyard and I have a Sheoldred, Whispering One on the battlefield, can I use Sheoldred's ability to bring the Felidar back in my upkeep and win the game?


texts:
I'm a relatively new MtG player, and among my first batch of cards was Leyline Phantom:

At first I wondered what I'd do with a card that might return to my hand regularly. Is it a relatively cheap source of power and toughness at a trade-off? I figured this would be mainly used for triggering various effects, but I had no idea what they were until yesterday. It would work very well in at least these two situations:

It cooperates well with Sage's Row Denizen from the Dimir Delusion starter, which mills the opponent a little bit each time a blue creature is played and can help strengthen other Dimir Delusion cards.
It could be used to regularly trigger evolution in Simic Combine creatures.

Now I'm wondering what other uses for it I'm missing, and whether there's even more to the above two points than what I've mentioned.

How can I take advantage of Leyline Phantom?


texts:
A couple nights ago while playing Coup for the first time. During one of our games we came across the situation of someone challenging an Ambassador Exchange action. Given that both the   Ambassador's Exchange and the challenge are going to require the swapping of active influence cards, what is the proper sequence to change them in?

The following sequence is what we ended up using.

Claim to be an Ambassador and state intent to perform an exchange.
Leave current influence cards face down on the table.
Draw two (or one if only one influence left) new cards  from the court deck.
At this point the challenge was issued.
The player then revealed their Ambassador card to the table.
The Ambassador card was then reshuffled back into the court deck and a replacement was taken.
The player then continued on with the Exchange and could swap with either his existing influence card and the newly drawn card which replaced his Ambassador.

This seemed like the most sensible way of doing it. However the rules themselves didn't explicitly define this situation.


texts: How does Cairn Wanderer work outside the battlefield?

texts:
I'm a little unclear on how the wording of Cairn Wanderer applies when it is not on the battlefield (e.g. when it's in exile or in the graveyard itself).

The wording is:

  As long as a creature card with flying is in a graveyard, Cairn Wanderer has flying. The same is true for fear, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, landwalk, lifelink, protection, reach, trample, shroud, and vigilance.

So if there is a Vampire Nighthawk in the graveyard, and Cairn Wanderer is in any zone other than the battlefield, will it have Flying, Deathtouch and Lifelink?


texts: Do I decide {X} for cards in my library for effects and abilities asking for a particular CMC?

texts:
Suppose I have Yisan, the Wanderer Bard on the battleground with 5 verse counters.

And then suppose I have something in my library with an {X} in the mana cost, like a Genesis Hydra.

Do I get to play Genesis Hydra as though it were cast using {3}{G}{G}?

I'm aware of rule 107.3.g, which reads:

  107.3g If an effect instructs a player to pay an object’s mana cost that includes {X}, the value of X is treated as 0 unless the object is
  a spell on the stack. In that case, the value of X is the value chosen
  or determined for it as the spell was cast.

It's my understanding that Yisan's ability goes onto the stack. Does Genesis Hydra also go onto the stack, allowing me to choose {X}? Or ... ?


texts: Is there a good tic tac toe strategy for the second player?

texts:
The assumptions here are that your opponent will block whenever you could win on the next move, and also that given the opportunity to force a win (by creating two different directions with two in a row) your opponent will take it, but that otherwise, your opponent's moves are random.

In that setting, your best strategy if you go first appears to be (1st move) take the center, (2nd move) move opposite your opponent, (3rd move) create two directions of two in a row (which will always be possibly unless your opponents first two moves were corners, in which case the game will tie - this is even true if your 3rd move is actually blocking - blocking will create a forced win for you).

What is your best strategy if you go second instead? Is there an opening move your opponent can make which would allow you, as second player, to force a win, instead of just a tie?


texts: Can I redraw my hand at the start of the game in Sentinels of the Multiverse?

texts:
I was playing as Expatriette in a Sentinels of the Multiverse game and my starting four cards were all ammo cards.  As each ammo card says it has to be played next to a gun card, I effectively couldn't do anything with my hand.

Do the official rules allow a hero to trash and redraw their starting hand?  If so, is there a penalty?  I searched the official rulebook and the Rook City expansion book and didn't see anything, but I don't know if one of the later expansions or official rulebook clarifications added a provision about it.


texts:
I just grabbed VASSAL to play AoS with my brother in Korea.  However the only boards they support at the moment all seem to have non-standard rules.  Paris is multi-colors.  There are these white lines that go over water.  I am generally confused :)

I am looking for a good resource for the Age of Steam expansion board rules.  I have found a few of the rules on BBG but normally people talking about the rules and not a direct link to a rule book.  Maybe they are there and I just can't find them. :-\

(PS if anyone has a source for more AoS maps for VASSAL, that would be great too)


texts: Order of building landmarks in Machi Koro

texts:
The objective of the game (base game) is to be the first to build all four land marks. For fear of being stolen from or falling behind, I tend to buy them by order of increasing cost. If at one point I can afford more than one at the same time, I will buy the most expensive one. This works alright, but I've never really considered changing my strategy before

Are there situations where this is not a feasible strategy?


texts: Which card has the highest number of mana symbols in its mana cost?

texts: Color doesn't matter. No Un-Sets. In case of a tie, one card tied for highest number suffices. I need such a card as a test case for a computer program involving MtG cards.


texts:
If I play Soul Summons, and manifest a card from the top of my library,

1) Do I get to see the front of the card?

2) Does my opponent get to see the front of the card?

3) If I am not allowed to see the front of the card, how will I know if it is a creature or not?

4) Does a manifested card go onto the stack before it goes onto the battlefield?

5) Is the card manifested at the time that my manifesting spell resolves?


texts: In Poker is it true that "you must give action to get action"?

texts: In your experience, do most players "fold" when someone who seldom plays enters the pot? Does this mean that it is a good idea to play in some borderline (presumably break even) situations, just to weaken perceptions of one's being tight? And how, if at all, does this vary from low to high limit games?


texts:
I would like to play against other people.

Can't seem to find any sites.


texts: Benefits of not equipping skeletons with spears?

texts:
The vampire counts skeletons can carry spears for free.

What would be the benefit for not carrying spears?

Just seems weird to me. I don't see any reason to not carry them.


texts: Can an about-to-be-killed medical be stopped for Emergency Treatment of another personnel

texts:
I play an Ardent Predator and my opponent fails to meet the criteria so two personnel are selected to be killed.

(Example: A E.M.H. Program and a Picard)

None of the non-selected personnel has medical.

Can my opponent use Emergency Treatment (or any other card that requires a present medical)?

On the one hand, while the effect of Emergency Treatment takes place (When a unique personnel is about to be killed) takes place, the med is not yet killed. On the other hand the med is also about to be killed, so shouldn't be able to do something.


texts: Is the Gargoyle's Tail Sweep virtually ineffective against players who are less than or equal to 1 node away?

texts: The gargoyle's tail sweep turns to the closest player and moves 1 step toward them, effectively giving the player the option to get pushed into the space just vacated by the gargoyle (behind it). This not only makes the attack miss but also puts the player in a position to attack its weak spot. Is this simply a very weak behavior or am I misplaying the push (or other) dynamics?


texts: If a "The Phantom Knights" trap monster's effects are negated, is it turned back into a trap or no?

texts:
"The Phantom Knights" is an archetype that contains a number of Trap cards. They all have an effect that turns them into a Monster with an added effect that says they are not treated as Traps. For instance, The Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets.

  Send 1 "Phantom Knights" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to the Graveyard. When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack while you control no cards and this card is in your Graveyard: Special Summon this card in Defense Position as an Effect Monster (Warrior-Type/DARK/Level 4/ATK 300/DEF 600), but banish it when it leaves the field. (This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.) If Summoned this way, this card gains 300 DEF for each "Phantom Knights" Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard.

If their effects are negated, do they count as a Monster with negated effects or a Trap card?


texts: What's the easiest way to prototype a board game design?

texts:
In an idle moment I had an idea for a simple war game simulation. (Really simple - honest!) I'd like to prototype it, just to see if the game mechanic I thought of has any merit. I don't want to spend hours, though.

What it would need is a map (think Ticket to Ride), stackable tiles (eg the tiles in Carcassonne) with half a dozen possible values, and some little figurine-y things.

The simplest way seems to be to draw the map out on a big sheet of paper, and maybe use Scrabble tiles (each letter representing something...) Wondering what other people do in this situation?


texts: I recently read about a popular game that, similar to Jokers and Pegs, used cards to determine play. As I recall, it required multiple decks of cards - two more decks than the number of players, but I don't think it required a board of any kind. Supposedly easy to learn, suitable for adults or children, and about equal parts chance and skill. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the name. Does this sound familiar to anyone?


texts: Can Coastal Wizard bounce multiple other creatures?

texts:
I have been thinking about other ways to abuse the Aphetto Alchemist and Illusionist's Bracers combo.

Aphetto Alchemist {1}{U}
Creature — Human Wizard 1/1
{T}: Untap target artifact or creature.
Morph (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for {3}. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

Illusionist's Bracers {2}
Artifact — Equipment
Whenever an ability of equipped creature is activated, if it isn't a mana ability, copy that ability. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Equip {3}

I stumbled across Coastal Wizard.

Coastal Wizard {2}{U}{U}
Creature — Human Wizard 1/1

{T}: Return Coastal Wizard and another target creature to their owners' hands. Activate this ability only during your turn, before attackers are declared.

Can I tap Coastal Wizard (before I declare attackers) to target an opponent's creature, then hold priority, tap Aphetto Alchemist to untap Coastal Wizard and itself (with the Illusionist's Bracers trigger), allow the two untap abilities to resolve, then tap Coastal Wizard again to target another creature an opponent controls?
If I can and do, when Coastal Wizard's two activated abilities on the stack resolve, do both return an opponent's creature to hand, even though Coastal Wizard has already left the battlefield after the second activation resolves?


texts:
I have a question about a new Born of the Gods card.  The card is called Silent Sentinel.  It has the text that says:

  Whenever Silent Sentinel attacks, you may return target enchantment
  card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

I was listening to podcast Limited Resources episode 218 with Judge Joe Bono.  In that episode he says that Silent Sentinel could attach a Enchantment Aura to a creature that was protected from the color of the aura.  He then says that it would just drop off immediately. (This was right around the 1 hour mark in the show.)

I got to thinking about this and I wondered if any of the effects of the Enchantment would have any effect before they dropped off.

Here is an example to illustrate: My opponent has a White Knight in play. I have a Silent Sentinel in play along with 7 Swamps.  I have a Quag Sickness in my graveyard.

In my combat phase, I attack with my Silent Sentinel.  This allows me to bring back a Quag Sickness from my graveyard.  I attach Quag Sickness to the White Knight.  (Note: Because bringing an aura back with Silent Sentinel it does not require targeting to attach it.  So it can attach to White Knight despite it having protection from Black).

Now the arua will fall off right away, but before it falls off does any of the effects of it do anything?  (Meaning could it kill the White Knight.)

If the Quag Sickness in this example does not do anything, is there a scenario that would?


texts: Why Do People Use "Precision" Bidding in Bridge?

texts:
As I understand it, in the "precision" bidding system in bridge, you open one club with 16+ points (a greater than minimum opening hand), while all the other "one" level bids show 13-15 (a minimum). That includes 1NT, making it a "weak" 1 NT.

I was taught that "higher bids mean higher points." Precision blatantly violates this rule. Besides, I don't like the "weak" 1 NT because it's too hard to have all suits adequately covered with 12-14 points.

If you feel the system has merits, what are they? Or do you see a lack of merit like I do?


texts: Magic the Gathering - if a madness card gets discarded and you dont want to use madness does it still get exiled

texts: If a madness card gets discarded and you dont want to use madness does it still get exiled?


texts: Does marking a card affect its legality?

texts: I have a deck I am working on that I cannot find all the cards for yet. For use in casual play I have put in proxies that are land cards with the name of the card written on them. If I end up playing with the deck in an official tournament and forget to switch the proxies out will I still be able to use those as lands? Obviously they cannot be used as the card they are a proxy for, but does having them marked affect their legality as the card they actually are?


texts: How does Octopus Umbra interact with effects that change the base power and toughness of, and counters on, a creature?

texts:
Context

My friend plays a Commander deck, lead by Tuvasa the Sunlit:

  Tuvasa the Sunlit gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.

She's in play and has +2/+2 — not counters — from the two enchantments on his battlefield. Then he plays Octopus Umbra, which reads:

  Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 8/8 [...]

and continues in the rulings with:

  Octopus Umbra overwrites all previous effects that set the creature’s base power and toughness to specific values. Any power- or toughness-setting effects that start to apply to a creature after Octopus Umbra becomes attached to it will overwrite this effect.
  (2018-07-13)

  Any power- or toughness-modifying effects (those that give +N/+N, for example) and counters will apply to the creature’s new base power and toughness, even if they started to apply before Octopus Umbra became attached.
  (2018-07-13)

A judge explained to him that, when playing the umbra,  every effect prior to playing the umbra disappears, and the new base power and toughness becomes 8/8. He explained that it has to do with the order of layers, which is still new and relatively confusing to myself and our table.

Now after reading the rulings, I'm confused about the "everything gets removed" part. How about Tuvasa's "passive" ability, which increases her P/T due to the amount of controlled enchantments? Isn't that checked constantly, making Tuvasa a 8/8 with +3/+3 from the enchantments?

Did we misunderstand the judge? Or is there something else we're missing? Any clarification would be much appreciated.

Question, in short

In this scenario, what is Tuvasa's power and toughness when playing the umbra? Please take in consideration the example where the umbra itself will be the third enchantment on his battlefield.
Do counters stay on the permanent when enchanting it with Octopus Umbra? Say Tuvasa also had a +1/+1 counter before the umbra came into play. My guess is that the counter stays, since they are placed on top of the base P/T, but I can't find the rules which support or contradict this.


texts: Can a kinged piece jump another king piece?


texts: In Uno H2O, what is the difference between these two cards?

texts:
Today I was playing Uno H2O and I found these two cards, but I'm not sure what is the difference between these?
One looks like a Wild Draw 4, but it doesn't have the +4 on it, so I'm confused about its purpose.


texts: How does the ability of Bloodthirsty Aerialist resolve with other life link creatures?

texts:
Scenario:
I have Bloodthirsty Aerialist and a Blood Burglar on the board. I attack with both and both get a blocker assigned to them.

Does Bloodthirsty Aerialist's ability trigger before damage because of Blood Burglar's Lifelink? As in does Bloodthirsty Aerialist get a +1/+1 counter on it before the damage is done against the blocker?


texts: Why isn't "Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small" called "Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small"?

texts:
It's always been rather jarring to me that the excellent game "Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small" has that name, rather than the usual expression, "All Creatures Great and Small".

(Most people know the expression "All Creatures Great and Small" from the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" or the film and TV series of that title based on James Herriot's books.)

So, my question is: why wasn't the game's title the more familiar expression? Was it some kind of trademark issue relating to the works based on James Herriot's books? Or was the name chosen by someone who wasn't very familiar with the reference and got it a bit wrong, for example? It'd be really interesting if someone knows this story!

Update: someone's asked essentially the same question on Board Game Geek, but with no definitive answer there. It does add the interesting detail, though, that the German name for the game, "Agricola: Die Bauern und das liebe Vieh" is very similar to the German name for the James Herriot TV show, "Der Doktor und das liebe Vieh" so presumably the reference is deliberate. It's still very strange that the English name should have this discordance, though.


texts: How can I mitigate the luck factor of drawing destination tickets in Ticket To Ride?

texts:
I get the feeling that a big part of how well someone does in Ticket to Ride, is the drawing of their initial destination tickets, and the drawing of subsequent destination tickets, and how well they fit within the player's existing route, etc.

Are there any house rules for mitigating this? One suggestion might be that three destination tickets can be placed face up on the table, and players can draw from those, or elect to scrap them before drawing from them.

Note: I'm specifically asking about how luck dependent the game is, and if there are any house rules to reduce the luck factor. I'm not asking for strategies used to deal with the standard rules.


texts:
I'm a very weak go player, playing very occasionally. I however enjoy easy tsumego problems on the train on my phone, as I find it more fun than, say, crosswords or sudoku.

However, the app I use (Tsumego Pro) presented me with this problem, and gave me a "complete" mark on a solution I don't think will work. The hints in the program point to this "solution".

As far as I can tell, black is dead and white is fine despite this. In every scenario I play out myself, white is able to kill the black inside the formation and be fine. Is this really the solution? If so, what am I missing? If not, what is?

My apologies if I have screwed up tags, formatting or the question itself, I'm not a regular poster here :)


texts: I've seen multiple questions/answers about keeping track of all the games you and your friends play via websites and apps. However, I haven't seen any around a physical book that enables recording scores. I understand the book wouldn't have the flexibility of a website, but in my case the physical nature of the book is more appropriate. I'm currently using a regular old notebook and it works find but isn't fun or interesting to look at. Is there anything that is a little more fun and appropriate for keeping a history of game played, score, date, players involved, etc.


texts: Why is Whitby missing in Fury of Dracula (FFG, 3ed)?

texts:
Fury of Dracula mostly true to the book.

But one thing bugs me - Whitby is not on the board and is replaced by Manchester! Moreover, (real life) Manchester is in the west, not the east.

My question is, have the designers ever commented on why Manchester replaces Whitby?


texts: I am playing Parcheesi with cowry shells as dice. I am on the last square and need a roll of one to return the pawn to home. However, with cowry dice, only rolls of 10+grace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6+grace, 25+grace are possible. An exact throw is required. What is the solution to the problem? Can the 10 throw also stand for 1 in cowry dice?


texts: when using the rule for adding the three red fives in riichi mahjong, does one add the fives to the set, or do they replace fives already in the set with the red fives?


texts: Which is resolved first, new obstacles or new crossfire level in Shadowrun Crossfire?

texts: In Shadowrun: Crossfire, you draw a new Crossfire card after each round. On it are events, which have to be resolved. If you play the Extraction mission, each round new obstacles are revealed, which may have flipped actions that have to be resolved. Which comes first, a new Crossfire card or new obstacles? The order influences the results in some situations.


texts:
I am making a modern affinity deck with all the usual cards, Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion, Inkmoth Nexus and the like.

The problem is I can't afford the Mox Opals - they're over £200 for the play set and that's just crazy.

Mox Opals are used both for early mana ramp and mana colour fixing, not to mention thay are zero cost artifacts that power Metalcraft.

Basically I need a card or cards to replace the 4 Mox Opal missing from the deck that will replicate their function as best as possible.


texts: Shipping goods on an empty vessel in Puerto Rico

texts:
In a recent game of Puerto Rico, I had the following situation. It was shipping time, and I had some corn and some indigo. There already was a ship half full of corn and an empty ship, too. My question is:

Did I have to ship the corn? Or could I choose to send indigo on the empty ship instead?


texts: Can an ability track a card across multiple zones?

texts:
Here is the situation:

I use Jace, Telepath Unbound's -3 ability, targeting Walk the Aeons.

  −3: You may cast target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard this turn. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.

I cast Walk the Aeons with Buyback.
Walk the Aeons resolves and returns to my hand.
I cast Walk the Aeons again, without buyback.

Where does Walk the Aeons go when it resolves for the second time that turn? Can Jace's ability track Walk the Aeons across multiple zones?


texts:
Can I buy Two joker's and use them with two cubes from my hand?  For example. 3 j j 6.
Or is it necessary to have two cubes for each joker?


texts: If creatures targeted by Living Inferno's ability all die, what happens?

texts:
If I were to target a ton of creatures with Living Inferno's ability and then all those creatures were to die (or be sacrificed, per Dismiss Into Dream) in response to Living Inferno's ability going on the stack, what would happen?

I can see one of two things:

The creatures die, then LI's ability checks for the creatures, sees that they aren't there, and then fizzles.
When LI's ability goes on the stack it records the creatures power, thus ensuring that LI gets dealt damage when it's ability resolves.


texts: Do supply limits apply if you capture ships at a port?

texts:
In the situation where your armies are at supply limit, and you capture a territory that has ships in port, do you have to immediately disband armies, or you do you get to keep them until next supply round?

IMO it seems you should be allowed to keep them.


texts:
I've asked around among friends and also Reddit but we've not reached a consensus: How does Companion work after sideboarding?

I can find the following relevant rule snippets.

  Your companion's deckbuilding rule applies only to your starting deck, which is the deck you begin play with each game. It won't consider any cards in your sideboard, so those cards don't have to follow the deck-building rule.

(Source: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths mechanics)

  In Magic: The Gathering, a match is a multiplayer game or a two-player series of games (usually best-two-of-three) played in a tournament.

(Source: https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Match, referencing the official rules)

I cannot find the concept of a "starting deck" being mentioned anywhere in the rules.

Reading the above snippets makes me believe that in games following sideboarding a Companion card cannot be chosen as the Companion for that game if any of the cards in the new deck obtained after sideboarding violate the Companion requirements.

Is this correct?


texts:
Say I have a Liliana of the Veil that is also a 3/3 creature (possibly via Enchanted Evening and Opalescence).

My opponent attacks Lilly with a 4/4 lifelink, trample and I decide to block with Lilly.

Does my opponent gain three or four life from her creature?


texts: Can I look at my hand after revealing my card and before I pass it to the next player?

texts: After playing a card face down and flipping to reveal, should I be allowed to survey my hand a few moments before passing it to the next player? The rules don't strictly disallow it, but I've noticed it seems to be a general habit for players to face their hand downward before flipping, and when someone then peeks and ruffles through their hand after seeing what everyone has played (probably to see what combinations can then be obtained), there's often a knee-jerk reaction to consider that cheating in spirit.  It does slow down the game some as well.


texts: Is it possible to respond to a "part" of a triggered ability? (with multiple sentences)

texts:
Here is the scenario that came up multiple times when playing Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, which says:

At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a 2/1 blue Myr artifact creature token. Then you may choose a token you control. If you do, each other token you control becomes a copy of that token.

I move to combat, Brudiclad's ability triggers
Nobody responds to the trigger
The 2/1 myr token is created
I choose to make all my tokens copies of another token I have, like a Darksteel Juggernaut
Another player "responds" to that with Path to Exile, targeting the Juggernaut
Juggernaut is exiled, Brudiclad's ability loses target and nothing is copied

Is that a legal response? Couldn't find a good ruling explanation about responding to multiple sentences in a triggered ability.


texts: Can I activate ninjutsu between first strike and normal damage steps

texts:
Say I control a creature with first strike, that does not get blocked when attacks are declared.

Can I have it deal the first strike damage before activating/resolving the keyword ability ninjutsu on a ninja card in hand?


texts: Am I doing something wrong when I shuffle guild cards into the Age 3 cards

texts: In 7 Wonders Duel, the instructions say when you are preparing the Age 3 deck you should remove 3 cards from the deck and add 3 random guild cards. I assume the guild cards should be shuffled in so I usually just put the 3 cards in random positions and shuffle the deck. However, the guild cards have different colored backs (they are purple like the Age 3 cards but are darker) so I can clearly see where the guild cards are and know where they are going to be when I build the oval-shaped layout. This seems wrong to me. Should I close my eyes when I shuffle the deck or is there a reason why they stand out? Should they go in a certain position when the cards are placed?


texts: Is there a website where I can play against AI in the board game Abalone?

texts: I'm looking for something like this except online and with AI I can play against. If it's free, that's even better.


texts: In Axis and Allies, Should Germany build a first turn transport and try and control the Med/Africa?

texts:
When playing Germany in A&A 2nd Edition, is it a feasible strategy for Germany to buy a Italian transport on the first turn, for the purposes of cementing Germany's Mediterranean naval presence and enabling it to sustain troop transports into Africa?

Don Rae's essay on purchasing recommends this buy, but I rarely see it used and I wonder why. Is it because people think it's a flawed strategy (and thus never give it a shot), because they've tried it but not successfully executed (thus giving up on it), or because most people have simply never heard of (or independently come up with) the idea?

If you think this strategy works, what does it change about your first turn German attacks (i.e. presumably your med Battleship and Transport do not engage in naval battles, so how do you re-balance your attacks accordingly)?


texts: In Chess what is the Queens or Kings Indian?

texts: In Chess what is the Queens or Kings Indian, and why might it be useful?


texts: How are new conventions established in Contract Bridge?

texts: I was reading an article discussing the nature of cheating in Bridge, and started wondering: If all pre-arranged signals between partners are forbidden, then how do new bidding conventions come into being?


texts: Borborygmos Enraged's ability around dying in combat

texts: I attack with Borborygmos Enraged. My opponent blocks with a 6/6 (which means Borborygmos will die). When Borborygmos Enraged deals damage to the player, I assume I still reveal the top 3 cards and put lands into my hand as part of the triggered ability. Am I able to use the "Discard a land card" ability with the new cards I draw with the triggered ability or is he dead and I can't use that ability?


texts:
I'm a very new player to the Pokemon TCG, and have picked up two themed decks to play with (Ultra Prism).

So far in my experience however it seems that if one player gets their active Pokemon to its final evolution (for example Empoleon) before the other player, then that player has a massive advantage, and is able to one shot all of the opponent's Pokemon before they can do enough damage to knock out the evolved Pokemon.

Is there a strategy for countering this? It can turn a game very one sided very quickly.


texts:
I'll be doing my first Team Sealed event soon. I watched a video covering Grand Prix Providence and recall seeing one player sitting, playing his deck, while his two teammates coached heavily ("Don't play that, play this instead", "Play this first, then attack", etc.). I had some doubts about how it works that weren't covered by the resources I found onlne.

Is watching/coaching allowed by my teammates?
Do all 3 players play matches at the same time?
If coaching is allowed and everyone plays at the same time, do I have to be finished with my match in order to coach my teammate?

Any additional insight you'd like to share about this format is appreciated as well.


texts: Can a player take both a madness and injury card if his investigator gets reduced to zero stamina and sanity?

texts: The Dunwich expansion allows for drawing Madness or Injury cards in place of going insane or being rendered unconscious. Can this be used to draw both Injury and Madness when both go to zero? I believe given that this usually leads to being devoured and that there is no explicit mention of this in the Dunwich rules, the answer is no. Is there any supporting documentation otherwise?


texts: Arkham Horror -- multiple investigators assisting in a combat?

texts:
Despite Arkham Horror being a cooperative game, one of the glaring holes I noticed the first time I played was that it doesn't appear that multiple investigators can attack a single monster, and vice versa.

I've read the rules a couple of times, but wanted to make completely sure:

If two investigators are in the same space as a single monster, Investigator A has to either Evade the monster or pass a Horror check, then fight until they either win, flee or die.  If Investigator A flees or dies, Investigator B has the same option to either Evade or pass a Horror check, and fight as normal.  At no time can they somehow gang up together and add their Combat together against the monster, correct?


texts: What's the expected damage from playing Terror of the Peaks, when I have Mirror March out?

texts:
If I play Terror of the Peaks while I control
Mirror March, what is the expected damage? That is the average of winning 1, 2, 3, ... 'Infinity' flips? I'm sure it's a converging sum, but I'm not sure how to work it out.


texts: Betrayal at House on the Hill scenario where a hero dies after using a haunt-related item

texts: If I have successfully used the ring to perform an exorcism (one of multiple required) and later that hero dies, does the exorcism still count? Or, does the successful attempt die with character who was holding the ring when he died?


texts:
If I cast City in a Bottle, what cards are affected? I remember hearing something about a rules change revoking the set symbol as a characteristic, meaning that cards like this would affect all cards first printed in the Arabian Nights set, is this correct?

I cant find anything in the rulings or on gatherer to that effect


texts: How can I recognize games I should avoid buying if I only play with non-hardcore gamers?

texts:
I started with this question about good games for new players and got plenty of good answers. But now I want to look at things from the other end and figure which games I should definitely avoid.

I was thinking about buying Power Grid, Puerto Rico, and Arkham Horror to play with my family because they have tons of good reviews and are widespread. But when I asked if they would be a good choice at our local game store I was told to steer away from them due to complexity, and it seems there aren't many reviews on the complexity of games and friendliness to new people.

I love board games to death, and when I see a 40 page manual I think 'bring it on!' and have no trouble sitting there for a half hour learning to play the game.  Many of my friends aren't as hardcore, and they start to get bored if we don't get started in 15 minutes.

What are some good ways to recognize if a game is probably not suitable for non board game enthusiasts? The outside of the box is usually unhelpful, and it can be difficult to figure this out before actually buying the game. Sadly I don't live very near a board-game store, so I can't try all of them out. If you list a game, please include why it doesn't meet the criteria, how this can be recognized, and its implications for the game.


texts: To keep it short I'm making a Hydra Tribal edh deck and was thinking about including Cauldron of Souls. I am not sure how it interacts with hydra creatures where you have to pay X for them. If I have a Hydra with base 0/0 and 5 +1/+1 counters on it that dies and is brought back with Cauldron of Souls, is it now a 4/4 or does it instantly die as it is brought back as a 0/0?


texts: If two people wanted to play, would each have to buy the cards?

texts:
Would there be enough cards for two players to build adequate decks with only one copy of the base set and/or the Asylum Packs, or would each player have to have their own?

Thanks!


texts: How are Minor Improvement and Occupation cards meant to be selected for play?

texts:
I'm reasonably experienced playing Agricola - but the family friendly version only, because the people I've played with find the game complicated enough as it is.

I understand how the minor improvements and occupations are supposed to be used; at the start of the game each player will have seven occupations and seven minor improvements, which they'll play through out the game.

The question is - how do I decide which deck (E, I, K) to use, and how do I select nPlayers * 7 occupations and minor improvements from it?

From what I've seen, the purpose of the different decks is to provide differing levels of complexity to game, the E deck being more suitable for beginners and the K deck for very experienced players.

I also see there are various ways to distribute the initial seven cards, a draft commonly being used, as suggested in this question.

Say I am playing with a draft, with three players. Do I just randomly select 21 minor improvements from the E deck?

Can someone please provide a step by step guide to setting up the game, from deciding which deck to use, to selecting the cards for draft/mulligan and then drafting them?


texts:
Hi I just started playing mtg a week ago and bought a white/green intro deck. However, I would want to create a deck combining one of these colors (if possible) with one that focuses on a more aggressive play style. I understand red and black are the most aggressive ones (please correct me if I'm wrong), and this has made me think on building a white (defensive) / black (aggressive) deck in the following weeks. Is such a combination of colors viable? If it is not, what other combination would allow me to have a more aggressive play style without giving up all my defense?

Thank you very much.


texts:
What other games can I play with the zombies from Zombies?

It seems like a waste to have so many of the little guys and not use them to maximum effect.

What other rulesets or alternate games are people playing with their zombies?


texts:
I recieved a monopoly set for Christmas. Version C1009.
The Chance and Community Chest cards are non standard. For instance one instructs you to throw all the 100 dollar bills in the air.
Does anyone have a list of the Chance and Community Chest Cards that are accepted as the gold standard for tournament play?


texts: Looking for an Online Card Shuffler and Drawer

texts:
For some play-by-forum games I'm looking into creating specific card based games that allow people to moderate on their own.

Specifically I'm looking into 7 Wonders. The only thing a mod needs to do is distribute hands at the beginning of each Age (including Leaders). Once everyone has received his initial hand he can just pick a card and send the rest along to his neighbor. For this we've used a token (just post DONE after you've picked your card) after which you'll receive your next hand from your neighbor. Obviously this requires some trust that you've actually picked a card and not just posted that you've done this, but on our forum it hasn't been an issue.

This leaves me with shuffling and drawing cards. Is there any way (an online app maybe) to allow people to draw cards from the same deck without seeing the cards that have been drawn by the other players? The order that they draw cards in doesn't matter much as long as each player just gets a hand of 7 random cards and gets it only once.

Any thoughts?


texts: Are the Pokémon TCG "Team Rocket" sets balanced against XY cards?

texts:
My daughter received Pokémon XY cards for Christmas, and I have been thinking about buying a deck to play with her.  She has the XY trainer set, and I was looking at the other XY cards to buy.  Then, though, I considered the old Team Rocket and Team Rocket Returns sets.  These would be fun, as I could clearly be the antagonist, thematically.

I understand that these cards would not be tournament legal.  That will not be an issue.

Are they relatively balanced, though?  Do later game changes like EX cards and Break cards fundamentally shift the balance toward XY series, or are they just changes in how one constructs a deck?  Can I play a Team Rocket (Returns?) deck against an XY deck and not consistently lose because of changes to cards over the years?


texts: In Bang!, does the distance between characters decrease when a player is eliminated? Or, if a character is at a distance of 3 from you, will they always be a distance of 3 from you?


texts: Casting Emry, Lurker of the Loch with Gilded Goose & food tokens

texts:
Emry, Lurker of the Loch costs 1 generic mana less for each artifact I control. Gilded Goose can turn my food tokens into mana.

Let's say I have Goose, food token, and a land in play. Emry is supposed to cost 2 mana, but after I sacrifice the food token Emry costs 3 mana. I can pay two mana, but not three. Can I cast Emry or not?


texts: In Commander, if a player causes all of my cards to become a color other than the colors of my commander, do I lose the game?

texts: There are some cards in MTG, such as Painter's Servant, which allow you to change color identities of permanents. If I were use this card while the commander isn't in play, all the cards in play would become the color I chose. If I chose a color outside my opponent's commander's color identity, then all the cards they had in play would become illegal. Would that cause them to lose the game?


texts: When does the "choose a color" part of a spell happen?

texts:
For example Sejiri Steppe. I always did it as follows:
Opponent plays Sejiri Steppe, chooses a creature and a color, then I get to respond.

But today while playing, after my opponent played Sejiri Steppe, he said he was only supposed to say the color if the ability resolved.
Do I get to know what color the protection from will be before answering the ability, or I have to decide if I answer it before he decides the color?


texts:
Two of my friends and I are developing a board game based on moving around a hexagonal board. We're testing it on the map printed on 4x A4 sheets merged with adhesive tape. What I'm trying now is to make it on a cork board.

Do you guys have any ideas of how to construct hexagonal grid on a cork board? I've already tried to draw it using a pair of compasses, but it isn't a good idea to do this on a cork board. And the board is pretty big (about three hundred hexagons) so it would take a lot of time to draw each hex separately.


texts:
I'm trying to recall the name of a game I played approx 6 years ago with friends.  So they game may be older than that.
It is a top trumps style trick taking game themed in ancient olympics.
The game has (I think) 40 card each representing an athlete and shows how good they are in 5 different events.  These rankings I think were numbered 1-40 and each was unique so draws were not possible.
The game with with score tokens for different events which we're in a pile and increased in value.
At the start of the game 2 events were chosen to the the 1st and 2nd events contested.  Players simultaneously chose an athlete from there hand to compete and the card with number closest to 1 won.  (1 being 1st and 40 being 40th)
The winner of the event being contested would take the scoring token, however the last place competitor of the event got to decide which event would be completed at in 2 turns time.
I think there was a mechanic that is you played really bad athletes there was a limited supply of scoring tokens for doing so.
I think they game ended when a certain number of scoring piles for events we're depleted and the player with the highest sum of points of scoring tokens was the winner.
In my head the game had a name similar to 'Olympics' and a year in the name but I'm not certain.


texts: Can you remove a special ship part and keep it for later?

texts:
With special I mean ship parts which you get as a reward, not the ones you have researched.

So what do you do to the special ship parts when you remove them (to make space for other ones)? Do you remove them from the game or do you keep them for re-installation later?


texts: What does skipping a draw phase mean for an opponent in Gloom?

texts:
In Gloom, you can play modifiers on opponents' characters, and the action applies to that character's player.  For example, one card might say "discard your hand".  It has good stats, but the discard is a balancing downside.  You can use that against an opponent to make them discard their hand.

But, what does "Skip your draw step this turn" mean for an opponent?  Do they skip their (nonexistent) draw step during your turn, or does it apply the next time it can (their turn?).  Along with that, does a "Discard your hand. Skip your draw step this turn" mean an opponent would essentially miss two turns?


texts: How can I become a better Connect Four player?

texts:
I am good player at Connect Four and I want to become better.

One suggestion I found is:

  The ideal position is to have two potential connect-fours that need a final checker on two spaces that are on top of each other. This will usually lead to a victory, because you can threaten in the first space. If the opponent fails to block, you win. If the opponent blocks, you play on top to win in the next space. A simple way to set this up is to make a "7" with your checkers, such that finishing the horizontal or diagonal connect-four on the right will be two spaces on top of each other.

Are there any other tips for improving my Connect Four play?


texts: Where can I find Duel Monster tournaments in the U.S.?

texts: I really want to start getting in matches. I'm still a beginner but I want to practice versing people.


texts: Does Finn Edwards have to pay to upkeep his Bank Loan?

texts:
Finn Edwards has a power called Holdout:

  Any Phase: Finn never has to discard items or lose money, even when he is knocked unconscious or driven insane. He must still pay costs as usual.

He also starts with a Bank Loan:

  Upkeep: Roll a die. On a 1-3, pay $1 or discard all of your items along with this card. You cannot get another Bank Loan this game.

The player controller Finn thought that he could opt not to pay the Bank Loan's upkeep instead choosing to discard all items and the Bank Loan.  With the Holdout power, all he lost was the Bank Loan.

Is this the correct interpretation?


texts: Do I score fishermen for settlements on water?

texts:
The Fisherman kingdom card states:

  1 gold for each of your own settlements built adjacent to one or more water hexes.

With a harbor sector in play, I can move a settlement to a water hex. At the end of the game, do I get a point for settlements on water hexes in addition to hexes adjacent to water?


texts: Which Dominion Expansion Should we Buy for Passive Play?

texts:
We love Dominion, and it's about time we buy an expansion, but there are so many!

My wife and I like to play less directly competitive setups, focusing on cards like Woodcutter, Village, Mine and so on. We generally avoid attack cards, liking to just mind our own business as we push towards victory.

With that in mind, I'm trying to figure out which expansion would give us the most value.

So my question is; which expansion for Dominion would most support our preference for friendly (passive) play?

(Note: I've seen there are other versions of this question, but they're quite old and there've been more expansions released since.)


texts: How does the medic work in Pandemic - In the lab once a disease is cured?

texts:
The In the Lab expansion requires you to move cubes into dishes in order to cure diseases and beat the game.

Once a disease have been cured, the "automatic" ability of the Medic is that all of the cured disease cubes are removed when he enters a city.

In the rule-set it is stated that the ability of the medic cannot move any cubes to the sample dishes.

I interpret this as once a disease is cured, the Medic can no longer move any cubes of that color to the dishes, because when he is done taking his move action, the city already has all the cubes removed, before the treat action could be taken.

Is this the correct interpretation of the rules?


texts: "Wrath of God" -VS- "Chord of Calling" + "Selfless Spirit" sacrificed in response

texts:
My opponent plays Wrath of God. In response I use Chord of Calling to get Selfless Spirit, so I can sacrifice Selfless Spirit and all of my creatures become indestructible, preventing the effect of Wrath of God.

My opponent said I can't play this way because according to the stack rules, by the time he plays Wrath of God, Selfless Spirit is not in the battlefield.

Can I prevent my creatures from dying to Wrath of God this way?


texts: Checkers - with customized starting setups and AI agents

texts:
Does anyone know a Checkers program that allows customized starting setups when playing vs an AI?

My current app - Dammen (in Dutch) - has the possibility to customize the setup, but then I have to play both sides myself. If I could play against the computer, I could learn a great deal from it.


texts: Can I use a flicker effect to stop an opponents blocker from blocking

texts:
Pretty much what the title says. Supposing I have the ability to flicker an opposing blocker, can I force damage past it?

To give a concrete example:

Suppose my opponent has:

1 untapped vanilla creature on the battlefield
1 life
No lands on the battlefield
No cards in hand.
1 Enchantment saying, "In your upkeep, you win the game".

And I have:

1 haste-y creature on the battlefield
Flicker of Fate in hand (flicker and creature, for 1 white + 1 generic).
Two untapped plains on the battlefield

It's my first main phase.

Can I use flicker to prevent their blocker from blocking and win the game?

If so, exactly what is the timing?


texts: Why does Archfiend of Ifnir mention cycling, if it already mentions discarding?

texts:
On a recent promo called Archfiend of Ifnir, there is an ability that states:

  Whenever you cycle or discard another card ...

Why does it say “cycle or discard”? Since cycling involves discarding, wouldn't it be sufficient if it said “whenever you discard another card”?


texts:
I have a question about Fiend Binder's triggered ability regarding the stack. I just want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly.

It states:

  Whenever Fiend Binder attacks, tap target creature defending player controls.

It triggers whenever she attacks, but it also says to tap defending player's creature. At first glance I interpret this as when I attack with her I can just tap away any creature I want, but I a have suspicion this is wrong and it only qualifies when the player defends, which would result in what? Me tapping any other creature that is not defending?

I'm certain my question is straight forward, but just to make sure I understand let me run a scenario: If I control just Fiend Binder, and my opponent happens to just only control one creature also, am I permitted to tap my opponent's creature leaving him or her open for damage, or would nothing happen in this case as there is no other creature to tap?

Appreciate any clarification, I couldn't seem to really find straight forward answer as I've only been playing magic for almost a year and reading from the rule book is sometimes cryptic to me.


texts:
We all know that a really messed up rules situation must involve a Humility. So here we go.

This site discusses the scenario when an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth becomes animated (e.g. via Nissa, Worldwaker), while a Humility is on the board.

The author of the mentioned article comes to the conclusion that all lands are now swamps, yet Urborg itself cannot be tapped for mana, since it has lost all its abilities to Humility.

What I don't understand is: Urborg looses its rules text saying that each land is now also a Swamp. So why do the lands continue to be Swamps? Would they loose their Swamp type if Urborg left play?


texts: Magic The Gathering - Jace, Cunning Castaway's +1

texts:
I'm confused by this ruling for Jace, Cunning Castaway:

  The delayed triggered ability created by Jace’s first ability can trigger more than once in a turn if creatures you control deal combat damage at different times in a turn (most likely because one or more has first strike) or if creatures you control deal combat damage to more than one player at once.

I'm not sure because of it saying it can trigger more than once if creatures do combat damage at different times.

If I activate Jace's +1 Ability and attack with two creatures, and both do combat damage in the same combat damage assignment step, do I draw two cards or one?

If I attack with two double strike creatures and they both do combat damage, do I then draw four cards?


texts: Do I lose two levels just for choosing to fight King Tut?

texts:
I am really new to Munchkin and I had a question about a card.

The King Tut card says "Will not pursue anyone of Level 3 or below. Higher-Leveled characters lose 2 levels, even if they escape."

Does this mean that as soon as combat starts with King Tut the player loses 2 levels?  What if someone joins in the fight, do they lose 2 levels as well?  And what if someone plays a card that cancels the combat (for example switches the monster)?


texts: Is there a rule change in more recent versions of Bohnanza?

texts:
The first time I played Bohnanza and according to the Wikipedia summary, there is a rule that allows purchasing a third field.

However, I can't find any reference to this in the rules of the game I have, which is version 5.0 (2016).

Is it the case that this rule was ommited, and what is the reasoning?


texts: Can a player sacrifice a creature after declaring that creature as blocker while taking lethal damage?

texts:
I'm asking specifically about the lovely Magus of the Balance if that'll help.
So for example, If I were to attack with a theoretical 20/20 Savageborn Hydra, and then my opponent declares block with Magus, would my opponent still be able to sacrifice the Magus after declaring block?