texts: Suppose I have Nefarious Lich and Words of Worship in game. When I draw a card, I can pay 1 to draw 5 cards instead. But can I pay 2 and draw 9? Or, repeating this, can I pay X to draw 4X in addition to that first one?


texts: Freecell: How many cells are used in one "supermove"

texts:
A supermove in Freecell is when you move more than one card at the same time and automatically takes into account any free cells and free columns you have in order to maximise the number you can move.
The exact formula is not a problem: 2^emptycolumns * (freecells+1)

My question is, when I make a supermove how can I calculate how many moves were made to cells.
I am not talking about how many cells were used. This would be easy to calculate.
What I mean is, for example, you move 10 cards because you have 4 free cells and 3 free columns, it is simulating a number of steps that include moving to cells and columns and back.
So, how many moves were to cells?

Edit: FreeCell: How many cards can be moved at once? does not answer my question. That just gives the formula to calculate how many cards can be moved but not how many cell moves are needed.


texts: Can a noncreature artifact be destroyed by reducing toughness?

texts:
I was reading through the answers of this question when I suddenly wondered about Vehicles in their artifact state.

They have a listed Power and Toughness. If I were to reduce that toughness to 0 and the Vehicle is not crewed (i.e. does not have the Creature type, only Artifact), is it destroyed?

Are there other examples of this, like enchantments that have a power and toughness even though they are (at the moment) not creatures? Can those permanents be destroyed by reducing toughness?


texts: When should I add life gain cards to my deck in MTG?

texts:
One common mistake in MTG is to overvalue life-gain cards (at least in 2 player games) because they don't do anything to actually help you WIN the game, and only make you lose slower. This makes them seem like the kind of card that's good in any deck, but not great in any either.

But are there any decks where cards whose primary purpose is life gain really shine? In what type of decks are they significantly better or worse than other types of cards? What combos or strategies upgrade them from average cards to truly great ones? How can I tell if I should add some life gain cards to my deck?


texts: Can I equip Skullclamp on a creature I am sacrificing?

texts: I have a "self-sacrificing" creature, such as Diligent Farmhand or Dawntreader Elk, and Skullclamp on the field.  Can I pay to sacrifice the creature and then in response equip Skullclamp, Or vice versa? I know in some cases the card may be gone but the trigger is still on the stack.


texts:
I have created a simple card game called Poker Auction.

Rules

All players are dealt 2 cards each facedown. They have a fixed amount of money (say 1000 pts.) A card is opened from the deck, and auctioned to the highest bidder. Minimum bid is 50 pts. (unless you have less than 50, in which case you can go all-in as a bid) and any increment of 10 is allowed. Bidding is in cyclic order starting with the left of the dealer (which changes every game), and a person can place upto 3 bids. You may place a bid that is impossible to beat. Players who lose an auction get back their money, the winner loses money equal to his bid.

This process is repeated until every player has 5 cards (or the deck finishes, and it is a draw). If all but one player have 5 cards, and 5 cards have been 'passed out of the game' with no bids, this last player is obliged to take the next card(s) till he has 5 cards.

Person with the best hand (poker-style) wins the game. In the rare occurence that the first 5 'passed out cards' form a better hand than every player, it is a draw.

Question

So far it works almost fine. The problem is that some hands (such as straight) are nearly impossible, and others become easier the usual (flush maybe easier than 3 of a kind, I'm not sure). Does this change the required precedence of hands? Maybe some maths will show, please help.


texts: Is there a real shift in balance if Blueprints players violate their blueprint?

texts:
After being taught how to play Blueprints, I was told that building your blueprint was completely optional, with the only downside that you would miss out on the 6-point bonus if you don't follow it. I took this to mean that you could place and stack dice any way you wanted to on the card.

I later learned that, according to the written rules:

You cannot play dice on the filled-in spaces.
If you cannot legally place a die, you must take one from the supply, discard it, and re-roll a new one.

Before playing according to those rules, however, we never discarded dice; no matter what your blueprint, every player got to place six dice and score them accordingly.

Does playing this way disrupt the game's balance at all? To me, it seems negligible; you're still forfeiting your 6-point bonus by placing a die where it isn't planned to go.


texts: In EDH/Commander, what is the 'color identity' of a double-faced card?

texts: The official deck construction rules for Commander (nee EDH) at http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php say that 'A card's colour identity is its colour plus the colour of any mana symbols in the card's rules text.'  How does this apply to dual-faced cards with faces of different colors, such as Civilized Scholar / Homicidal Brute out of Innistrad or Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound from Dark Ascension, where the color of the transformed face of the card is different from the color of the 'main face'?  The spirit of the rules would seem to suggest that these cards are the colors of both faces for deck construction purposes, but not only are these spells always cast as the front face, the front face is the only one 'seen' in other game zones: for instance, when the card's in the library, you could find Elbrus by searching your library for an artifact, but you couldn't find Withengar Unbound by searching your library for a creature card.  Could Elbrus then, for instance, be played in any Commander deck, or just one with a (partly) Black general?


texts: I know there are points for each chess piece, but is there a way to - imprecisely, for sure - measure/point chess moves?


texts: Can the choice to move a commander to the command-zone be delayed?

texts:
903.12. If a commander would be put into the exile zone from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead.

If the owner chooses to let a commander go into the graveyard with the expectation of returning it, but the return fails, can the owner then move the commander to the command zone so it can be cast from the command zone? Or does the choice to move the commander to the command zone need to be made immediately?


texts: Can the Xxcha predict a special victory for Sol or Hakan?

texts:
The Xxcha have the ability to predict a winner (solo or from an alliance).

Can they use this ability to predict the special win conditions?

IE: Can the Xxcha player predict a Hakan victory on turn 8 (from his special condition, and not from normal strongholds?)

If so, then the Xxcha player's best choice is to do this (imho) since then all he has to do is make sure no one wins by the end of the game, and have at least 1 unit in one of Sols special win location (preventing Sol from winning, and thus giving the win to Hakan - and subsequently to themselves)