texts: How does trample interact with damage prevention effects and indestructible blockers?

texts:
Say I have a 4/4 creature with trample. I attack, and my opponent blocks with a...

0/1 creature that is indestructible: Does my 4/4 trampler's extra 3 damage carry over even though the blocking creature wasn't dealt lethal damage? Does the situation change if my 4/4 trampler also has infect?
0/1 Creature that cannot be dealt damage: Can I even deal lethal damage to it?
0/1 Creature with protection from my creature's color: Can I deal damage to it at all?

When does the damage carry over to my opponent? I made all of these hypothetical creatures 0/1 for simplicity's sake. I know the creatures actually linked to are slightly different, but I believe this will simplify the answers.


texts: What is the duration of copyright on a board game map?

texts:
If copyright on a board game map exists, how long will it last? When does the map become public domain?

For example, there are plenty of Sokoban maps on-line.
Some of them were created by Thinking Rabbit, some by Yoshio Murase.
When will their copyright expire?


texts: How does the timing work when area-of-effect damage creates new targets?

texts:
In Sentinels of the Multiverse, the villain Gloomweaver has this power: "Whenever a Cultist is destroyed, search the Villain trash for a Zombie card and put it into play."

Suppose that I use a power that "deals three damage to all non-hero targets".  If this power kills a Cultist and thus brings a Zombie into play, does the power also deal three damage to the Zombie?


texts: How many iterations of the legend rule have there been?

texts:
I remember hearing LSV talk about how back in Urza's block people would play Crop Rotation to tutor for a Tolarian Academy just so that with the old legend rule, your opponent could not play the legendary land.

That made me wonder how many versions of the legend rule have there been, and how has it changed over the years?


texts:
In traditional draughts, the rules written on our copy of the game say a king can take in any direction even if there are empty spaces between the king and the piece it will take.

Is this right? Even if it is, I don't fully understand the rules.

For example, if the diagonal has b - - w - - w - and the black piece is a king, can the king jump over both white pieces and take them?
Also, can a king take a piece then change direction and take another one?

Some more Internet research suggests that this variant is actually called International Draughts with flying kings, despite what it says on our box.


texts: Can a Special Event be used to help another player during their turn?

texts:
Special Events cards can be used at any time, even if it is not your turn, and many of them begin with "The current player may", e.g. Borrowed Time, Re-Examine Research, Mobile Hospital, Special Orders, etc.

Can they be used to benefit another player, not the owner of the Special Events card, if I play the Special Event on someone else's turn?


texts: My son really wants to play a game with the coin tokens. What are all the cards that use coin tokens?


texts: I've massively over-sprayed my models! Help!

texts:
I foolishly over-sprayed some of my Warhammer models. They are now have a thick coat that obscures some details and has cracked in places.

Can I remove this coat at all? Do I use chemicals? Do I just sand them down?


texts: Can Hour of Devastation kill Heliod, Sun-Crowned?

texts:
Hour of Devastation says:

  All creatures lose indestructible until end of turn. Hour of Devastation deals 5 damage to each creature and each non-Bolas planeswalker.

Let's say my opponent has Heliod, Sun-Crowned and four Healer's Hawk in play. This hits the Devotion threshold, so Heliod is a creature. Now I cast Hour of Devastation to clear the board.

Does Heliod die because it's a creature that has taken 5 damage + no longer indestructible, or does Heliod survive because the Healer's Hawks dying makes it no longer a creature (Devotion not met) and so no amount of damage can kill it?


texts: What happens if a player enchanted by cruel reality has Tamiyo, Collector of Tales on the board?

texts:
A player has Tamiyo, Collector of Tales on the battlefield, and is also the target of opponent's Cruel Reality.
The player with Tamiyo can not sacrifice her, but does he lose 5 life when Cruel Reality triggers?


texts:
I would like to sell my DBZ cards but I don't have any idea of the value of each one.

Could you please tell me a little bit more about the value of each card please?


texts: Do I draw a card if I enchant an opponent's Eidolon of Blossoms with Hypnotic Siren?

texts:
The situation is just as stated in the title: my opponent controls Eidolon of Blossoms:

  Whenever Eidolon of Blossoms or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

I target the Eidolon of Blossoms with Hypnotic Siren, gaining control of it:

  Bestow 5UU (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an
  Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's
  not attached to a creature.)

  Flying

  You control enchanted creature.

  Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has flying.

Do I draw a card for Hypnotic Siren coming into play?  My instinct says yes, because of rules 603.6b and 603.6d:

  603.6b Continuous effects that modify characteristics of a permanent do so the moment the permanent is on the battlefield (and not before
  then). The permanent is never on the battlefield with its unmodified
  characteristics.

  603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous
  effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger
  conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like.

but I'm not 100% certain.  (I had it ruled the other way at FNM this evening; at the time I agreed with the ruling, but now I'm less sure.)


texts: Citadels - Can a warlord destroy a district for free?

texts: If a district is worth one gold. Can the warlord destroy it without paying?


texts:
My wife and I were playing Settlers of Catan and she moved the robber onto one of the numbers where only my settlement was. She took her hand off of the robber and told me to spread my cards. I was out of cards and told her I had none for her  to steal. She then grabbed the robber, said "just kidding" and proceeded to place it on another player's settlement.

I believe that the robber should stay on the original settlement as "a robber laid or placed  is a robber played". My wife believes that because she did not take a card from me she has the right to move the robber again even though she had already placed it somewhere.

Who is right and why?


texts: how to find that 8 number puzzle is solvable or not?

texts:
I'm working on 8 number puzzle, where 8 numbers are randomly generated and placed in 9 cell board. One cell at bottom right corner is kept empty where we can swap with adjacent (top-bottom-left-right) cells if any available.

The puzzle can be solved if all numbers are arranged in sequence starting from top left cell.

Now after some trials, I found that some arrangements of (randomly generated) numbers in starting of the game are not solvable.

I think, after generating random numbers, we can find mathematically that random numbers can be solved after placing on board or not.

Can anybody help to find the solution/algorithm/mathematical formula to determine that numbers can be solvable or not?


texts: Can I trade my own resources in exchange for another player's Settlement, City, or Road?

texts:
In Catan, can I trade my own resources to "take over" another player's Settlement, City, or Road?

For example, can I offer 5 Bricks and 3 Ore to another player to have them convert one of their already placed Road pieces from their (e.g. blue) piece to my (e.g. red) piece? i.e. They would no longer have the Road that they had played along the edge of a hex, I would have it instead.


texts: Does anyone know the Campaign Badges for the Second Purging of Lastrati or the 3rd War for Armageddon?

texts: I am in the process of painting an obscure Space Marine army of mine called the Storm Giants. Due to having a similar name to the Storm Lords, I was looking to include a campaign badge from either of the aforementioned campaigns. However, I am having trouble finding images online of badges from either campaign. Does anyone know where I can find these badges, or know what they look like?


texts: In Scarborough Fair, how is the length of a path defined?

texts:
The rules say that the customer always takes the shortest number of paths to the next stage.  It also says that the number of tents along the way is irrelevant.  Is path defined as a segment between tents, or is a path defined as a segment between stages?

Put another way, there's a couple places on the board that have paths between stages which have only one tent along the way.  Is the length of these segments one (stage-to-stage), or is the length two (stage-to-tent-to-stage)?


texts: What does a combo deck based around Thran Lens look like?

texts:
I like building casual decks based around obscure rares. This one has been sitting in my collection forever, and I've never used it. I'm completely stumped.

Thran Lens is a two mana artifact that reads

  All permanents are colorless.

Other than making Black creatures vulnerable to Dark Banishing and the like, what is this card good for? My ideal deck would use the Lens as part of a winning, or at least very annoying combo. I'm not worried about how feasible the combo is to execute - Rube Goldberg machines based on many cards are welcome.

There is one important extra caveat. My collection is strictly old-school. I can only use cards from Scourge or earlier, since those are the only cards I possess (or am willing to buy). On the plus side, I do have most of them...


texts:
If your opponent plays a card with the fuse special rule and opts to play both sides you get a chance to respond.

If you're holding a counterspell do you dispel one or both spells of the fuse?


texts: How can I keep track of which outbreaks I've resolved?

texts: In a situation where outbreaks chain into other cities, how can I manage cube placement so that I know which cities I've resolved? If I just place the cubes into the city, it's easy to lose track of which cities still need cubes.


texts: Why would one want more than 40 cards in their deck?

texts:
Assemble your favorite cards into a Deck that follows these rules:

  The Deck must be 40 to 60 cards.
  You can only have up to 3 copies of the same card in your Deck,
  Extra Deck and Side Deck combined.

  Also, some cards are...

Yugioh Rulebook, Pg2 , emphasis mine.

In YGO, I (and most people) normally have 40 cards in their decks. This is because I'd have more chances of drawing the card they want on their next turn. Therefore, why would I want any more?


texts: Munchkin Booty Ships are 'items', but are Ship Enhancers permanently bound to the ship?

texts:
According to the rule book:

Ships are Items, and follow normal Item rules.
There are also a few Items that specifically enhance Ships.
A Ship with an Enhancer has the Enhancer’s gold value added to its own.
Enhancers cannot be moved between Ships.

Reading this, I would expect enhancers to be permanently attached to the ship. So if the ship is stolen, the enhancers are also stolen with it. Also, enhancers cannot be stolen off the ship separately, as that would a) have no point (rule #4) and b) have their value now attached to the ship (rule #3).

Is that a correct read?


texts: Does affecting an action card affect the Minion it has been played on?

texts:
Can an ongoing action card played on a minion be destroyed when an action played on a base is preventing minions from being affected?

For example:

A minion has Tooth and Claw... and Guns applied to it.

  Play on a minion. Ongoing: If an ability would affect this minion, destroy this card and the ability does not affect this minion.

If another player uses Disenchant on that minion,

  Destroy an action that has been played on a minion or base.

Would Wildlife Preserve (played on that base) block this entirely?

  Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here are not affected by other players' actions.

Does the play of the Disenchant destroy Tooth and Claw... and Guns and avoid the base card (Wildlife Preserve) since its play doesn't affect the minion?

Or, does this actually affect the minion by effectively "un-guarding" the minion?


texts: Are there any simulators for Monopoly that meet my specifications below?

texts:
There are simulators for "deterministic" games like chess and Go that will estimate each player's win probabilities (probably using Monte Carlo simulation), and also combat resolution simulators for wargames such as Axis and Allies. I was wondering if there are simulators that will estimate your "win chances" in Monopoly, based on the positions that occur after a given trade.
Example: I won a game after giving an opponent the green monopoly in exchange for the maroons. I won the game because I had $1200 cash (and quickly built three houses on each) while my opponent had only $200 cash. (Consider the remaining properties to be "evenly" distributed, including two railroads and one utility for each person.) I would guess that the outcome might very well have been different if my opponent had the $1200, and I the $200.
This isn't a simulator, but it is a calculator that calculates the theoretical value of properties given various "states" of building development. The main thing that is missing is the role of players' cash positions in win chances, because more cash means that you can develop faster than your opponents.
Is there a simulator that can estimate my win chances given starting monopolies and starting cash, (and assuming that the other properties were evenly divided)?


texts: What are some good house rules to balance the sides in Saboteur?

texts:
My group of gaming buddies, after playing plenty of Saboteur, has found that the "good dwarves" can pretty easily win consistently once they learn which pieces are most valuable and how to best respond to revealed saboteurs.

What are some good house rules to even things up?


texts: Why are the decks in Agricola called Komplex, Interactive and Easy?

texts:
Komplex - presumably from the german for Complex, but in what way are they complex? More difficult to play or to be able to play them, less beneficial, or do they complicate the overall game?

Interactive - Given the Komplex and Easy names, you would expect this to be called Intermediate, as another named difficulty level. How are these cards any more interactive than any of the others? Is it to do with synergies?

Easy - same as question for Komplex, how are these actually any easier to play with than the others?

I ask this because I've now played with all of the decks (including mixed decks) and haven't really noticed any difference in game difficulty. If anything, the excellent buffs included in the Komplex pack seemed to make gameplay easier...


texts: Just recently started playing Dominion. The rules say you can count remaining cards, but not in your deck or discard. I was wondering if it would be legal to keep tally marks on paper for specific card draws - both for my cards and an opponents. This might need to just be a house rule, unless it is specifically forbidden. And of course you still might miss something, throwing your count off.


texts: Ticket to Ride, Warehouses and Depots: How to collect train cards?

texts:
We have T2R Europe, and just tried out the 1912 Expansion pack which includes warehouses and depots.

To my knowledge one must put the first train card to any given players warehouse before drawing to themselves.
Each player also gets a free action, which is the option to take one or more depots and place them on the map, in their turn.

But here's where the rules are not clear enough. For us that is:
When one player uses their turn to put a new depot onto the map and they also claim a route. Is it then possible to put a depot to a city where they, in the same turn, are claiming that route to?

Here's an example:
You are in Paris, and it is your turn.
First you place a depot in Frankfurt (as a free action).
Then you claim that route: Paris - Frankfurt. When you do that, according to the rules regarding claiming a route into a city where there's a depot, you can "buy" the cards by discarding one of your own depots. But, can you do that in the same turn?

That's like 3 actions in one turn.
1. place depot
2. claim route
3. empty a warehouse

To me that feels a bit too much and a bit suspicious, but how is the rules to avoid such a scenario?


texts: In Hearts, played by experts, what is ratio of shooting the moon?

texts:
Because nobody knows the game-theoretical-optimal strategy in Hearts, I am looking for an approximation based on empirical data. For example, based on logs of games between expert players from an online server, or from records of championship events.

I'm particularly curious about the J♦ variant, and the difference in the shoting the moon ratio w/o the J♦ variant.  In that variant, the J♦ is worth -10 points.

NOTE:  This is not a duplicate of this question.  That question doesn't qualify in what context the game is being played.  This question does, and as such, it will have an objective answer, but only if someone has access to a decent data set of games.


texts:
I love mafia/werewolf/resistance/secret hitler type games, but my kids frequently want to play when there are too few people. Typically mafia is best when there's more than about 6 or 7.

So I thought about a variant aimed specifically at the 3-6 player range. Here's how it works:

Sit around a table and distribute secret roles with cards.
The roles are 1 x mafia, 1 x juggler, and the rest are villagers.
Everyone determines their own role in secret, and then tries to vote off the mafia.
If the mafia is found, that player loses and the rest of the players win.
If the person is not a mafia they show their card to the group to prove it, and then everyone places their card face down in front of them on the table so that everyone can reach everyone else's card.
At night time, everyone closes their eyes (moderated by anyone).
The mafia wakes up and swaps his card with someone else's. He can knock the table when done, or just be given enough time.
Then mafia goes back to sleep, and the juggler wakes up. The juggler swaps any two cards.
Then go back to 3 and continue from there.

My kids are playing this right now and seem to be enjoying it.

It would be nice to have a better theme. Perhaps a cursed item is being passed around and everyone is searching for it?

So my questions are somewhat open-ended:

  What themes make the most sense to make some more intuitive sense of the roles here?
  What improvements or suggestions do people have? What specific issues might come up?

I'm new to this forum, so apologies for any faux pas. Let me know how I can improve this question and what tags might be more appropriate.


texts: Is it always better to play a knight immediately?

texts:
I'm fairly new to Settlers. I was playing online last night and drew a Knight card.  The robber was already on a tile that had two of the game leader's cities attached.  I had few resource cards at the time, so I wasn't close to being able to get something I needed, so I saved it for a few turns. When I finally played it, the other player went off on me for not playing the knight sooner.

Also, no, I did not already have two other knights, so it would not have gotten me the largest Army token.

So my question is this: Is it always better to play the knight immediately, or can it make more strategic sense to play save it?


texts: Which player is responsible for completing a pawn promotion in tournament-level chess?

texts: Given that players want to conserve their clock time, which player is responsible for placing a pawn-promoted piece on the board, is it the pawn-promoter or the opponent? Related: is there a rule about where captured pieces must be placed during the game?


texts: What happens if opponent has infinite turns, but cannot kill me because I have infinite life?

texts:
Let's say I have the Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Spike Feeder combo in play, which allows me to gain an arbitrary amount of life at instant speed. Meanwhile, opponent has the Nexus of Fate combo running, which allows her to take arbitrarily many turns. She still needs to convert these turns to a win, though. She is playing Biogenic Ooze as her win condition, but in this case I have arbitrary amounts of life, so Biogenic Ooze is ineffective.

However ... she can continuously make more Oozes and attack for arbitrarily large damage. The board state is changing and so are our life totals, but she cannot kill me, and she cannot pass the turn and win by milling either since eventually I'll draw my Walking Ballista and kill her.

How would the game end?

Related: What happens in the event of a standoff in Magic? However, this doesn't seem like it falls into one of the standoff rules, since it's not a loop. As opponent attacks for ever-larger numbers, I have to respond by gaining ever-larger amounts of life.


texts:
In dead of winter Plaid Hat game, when I draw a card that add survivor(s), do I have a choice:

to ignore the card?
to make noise to find another type of card?


texts: Can I use a spell after I complete all the tasks?

texts: Can I use a spell to heal all my stamina after I complete the final task?


texts: How does It That Betrays' triggered ability work in a multiplayer game, if two of us controls a It That Betrays, and a third player sacrifices a card?


texts: How many missed triggers are necessary before you begin to have Game Losses and/or DQs?

texts:
While reviewing the latest changes to the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide, I notice that a missed trigger is considered a Warning, but that,

Judges should not intervene in a missed trigger situation unless they intend to issue a Warning or have reason to
suspect that the controller is intentionally missing his or her triggers.

A conversation arose between a friend and I about what would happen if someone were to build a deck around purposefully forgetting his triggers. For the sake of the argument, let it be given that he's an incredibly good liar (20+ Charisma? What, wrong SE site? You mad?) and is able to convince any judge or other person at any time that it was unintentional, but that it was actually intentionally missed.
As the day progresses (and some of these tournaments have 14+ rounds) it is inevitable that a number of his opponents will notice his, err, forgetfulness. However, the IPG doesn't seem to indicate how these infractions begin to roll up into heavier sanctions. At what point does his forgetfulness warrant a game loss, and eventually DQ? Surely after a certain number of warnings, you start having serious consequences.

Kate: You were in default when we sent you delinquency notices.
Peter: I thought those were just warnings.
Kate: They were warnings.

Disclaimer: I'm not advocating such a strategy. Even without ethical concerns of trying to cheat and get away with it, I think this strategy would involve purposefully selecting corner-case scenarios which probably won't happen, and that you'd be better off finding solid strategies that don't require you to hope your opponent doesn't notice.


texts: How can the traitor win scenario 49 in this way?

texts:
[Spoilers ahead for scenario 49]

Six players are playing Betrayal and the haunting has begun. It is scenario 49, "You Wear It Well".

One way the traitor can win is when the "Astral Spirit inhabits the soulless body of a hero". This occurs when the spirit makes six successful sanity rolls on a hero and places that many Sanity Roll tokens next to his or her body.

The good guys begin a haunting by taking six knowledge tokens and six sanity tokens and setting them aside. A hero can acquire one of these tokens by making a successful attack of that type against the spirit.

The game only comes with six sanity tokens.

The spirit needs six tokens to win by possession, but as soon as the heroes make one successful sanity attack, there are fewer than six remaining in the "set aside" pool.

Which of the following, if any, is the correct interpretation?

Once a hero gets a single sanity token, the spirit cannot ever win via possession. If he wants to win this way, he must make the possession before the heroes land a single attack. (this seems unlikely because he would need to fend off five attacks per round for a minimum of six rounds, with a printed sanity stat of 1)
Once a hero gets a sanity token, the spirit can return it to the "set aside" pool by killing that player.
If the spirit needs to acquire a sanity token and there are none left in the "set aside" pool, then he can take one from any hero of his choice.
If the spirit needs to acquire a sanity token and there are none left in the "set aside" pool, then he can take one from the hero whose body he is attempting to possess, assuming they have one.
Your game box is defective and was supposed to come with 12 sanity tokens. Make six more out of scraps of paper or similar.
You should treat the sanity token pool as if it were infinite. If it runs out of actual tokens, make new ones with scraps of paper or similar.


texts: Bridge game individual movement split between "Pro"s and "Am"s

texts:
I'm interested in whether anyone knows of bridge movements for individual events in which the players are split (by experience) into "pro"s and "am"s. Thus in each partnership there is a pro player and an am player.

I'm aware of collections of individual movements, but none of them seems to enforce this split.


texts: Is a vehicle still a vehicle if it's no longer an artifact?

texts:
Let's pretend I have a vehicle (say, Smuggler's Copter) enchanted with a Siege Modification. This vehicle creature has not been crewed this turn. I also control a Neurok Transmuter and activate the second ability of the Transmuter, targeting the Copter.

The Copter is a creature due to the Modification.

  As long as enchanted permanent is a Vehicle, it’s a creature in addition to its other types.

The Transmuter takes being an artifact away.

  Until end of turn, target artifact creature becomes blue and isn’t an artifact.

Is the Copter still have the Vehicle type and therefore is a 6/3 blue creature? Or does not being an artifact mean not being a Vehicle, and therefore, the Copter is a blue permanent with no types, and the Modification falls off?


texts: Does Hellkite Tyrant in combination with Mycosynth Lattice steal lands?

texts: Say you attack someone for player damage with Hellkite Tyrant whilst Mycosynth Lattice is in play (played by you if it makes a difference). Do you get control of all of your opponents lands? The answer to this question says that lands are permanents, and since all permanents are turned in to artifacts does Hellkite Tyrant steal them? I'm asking this because it feels so OP that I'm wondering if there is more to this.


texts: MTG Arena: Enter battlefield ability denied by killing the creature causing it?

texts: I played Acquisitions Expert in MTG Arena. My opponent reacted with Stomp adventure of Bonecrusher Giant and killed the Acquisitions Expert. Even though I saw my Acquisitions Expert's ability still being on the stack after Stomp resolved, Acquisitions Expert's ability did not resolve and opponent did not have to discard a card. Why did this happen? I just can't figure it out.


texts: How to reduce total screw-overs in Ticket to Ride so there's always a potential path toward victory?

texts:
My family and I have very much enjoyed playing the original Ticket to Ride, but I've noticed one issue that keeps coming up. It is very easy to be cheated out certain critical routes that could easily cost you 30+ points if they stopped you from completing a big destination card. In the American map every city has a least 3 ways out of it, but losing a critical route, even one that's only one train long in the case of Portland, can force you to use alternatives that are over 9 trains long, IF they are even available.

I understand part of the strategy of the game is making sure you get the critical routes you need, but its gotten to the point where people want to quit if someone takes the last route out of a major city they needed as they now have almost no chance of winning. A good strategist will try to avoid this at all costs, but it seems unfair that if you get a tiny turn of bad luck at a critical point you're basically doomed to compete between last or second to last place.

I've found in most other games, like Settlers, Citadels, Dominion, etc., even if you get a streak of bad luck you can usually find some path that will lead you to victory...if you can find it. This doesn't seem to be as true with TTR. When I was in this situation I started to focus on blocking everyone else and getting as many points as possible through 6 car routes, but I was only able to squeak out 100 points for 4th place, only beating the least experienced player.

Have I just not played the game enough? Is there always a path to victory in TTR that will out-weigh whatever bad luck you've been hit with, be it bad train cards, terrible destination combos, or loosing critical routes? What can I do to reduce these total screw-overs to make the game slightly less cut-throat and luck based if I'm playing with new gamers? This is currently one of the few things holding TTR back from being one of my top choices as an intro game.

Here's some of my ideas:

You can create a duplicate route between any two cities that can only be claimed with the same number of locomotives. This would help if you lost that critical one-train route, but would still make you pay for not claiming it earlier.
You can always create new routes by using twice as many cards of the required color. This still makes claiming long routes normally important, but lets you snag that other one you needed in proportion to how difficult it was to take from you.
add trading to the game. I know TTR was not designed with trading in mind and doesn't have the most conducive environment toward it, but it would make for a very different game and allow more ways to catch up. I'll probably start a different question for how specifically to add trading to the game and keep it as playable and well-balanced as possible.


texts: Can I summon Blue Eyes Chaos MAX from my deck?

texts: What if I have Chaos Form in my hand, with the required materials but Chaos MAX is not in my hand. Can I summon it from the main deck?


texts: How semi-cooperative games handle players who have nothing to lose?

texts:
After watching Jumanji I wondered if the eponymous game was meant to be a co-op or a competitive game. Having difficulty figuring it out on my own, I have asked that question on a different stack exchange, and that's how I found out about games that are semi-cooperative: where one player might win, but all players can also lose.

I used to think this kind of games would be unplayable, as the cooperative part can quickly crumble once players whose assistance is required realise that they have no chance to win ("If I can't win, what's the point of me trying just to give you the win?" etc). Turns out, however, that those games do exist, as shown in the list above.

How do they circumvent the problem?

Out of all those mentioned I have only played Arkham Horror and for the life of me I was sure that it's pure co-op (wasn't the goal to defeat the Old Ones together?). Jumanji itself isn't much of help either - it basically forces the players to metagame and doesn't seem to give any reward of note to the winner (turning it into a co-op game in all but the rules).


texts: Are token creatures considerd as a creature spell?

texts: Are token creatures considerd creature spells? For instince when I use Drana's Chosen tap effect combined with Zendikar Resurgent would it allow me to draw a card?


texts: Can I use a meeple the turn after begging?

texts:
In Champions of Midgard, the rules state that I can Beg with one of my meeples:

  If you find yourself unable or unwilling to activate a board location, you must Beg. To Beg, lie a worker down on your player board then take 1 Food and 1 Blame from the supply.

Can I then use that meeple on a subsequent turn (within the same worker placement phase of the current round) or is that meeple effectively placed at a location on the board and unavailable to me for the rest of the round? The meeple stays on my player board, so it seems that I would be able to use it on my next turn, but is that correct?


texts: Citadels: Does the crown switch hands if the king is killed?

texts: In Citadels, Ann has the crown and Bill chooses the king. The assassin kills the king. Who keeps the crown at the end of the turn?


texts: Does Cycling a card to trigger an ability allow you to target a creature protected by the color of the card you're cycling?

texts:
If I'm going to use the Cycle ability of a card of a certain color, and that activated ability is connected with a triggered ability that needs to choose a target for its correct resolution, it is possible to activate it by targeting a creature that has the ability to protection from the same color as the starting card, ie the card with the Cycle ability?

For example -
 if I have the blue card Choking Tethers in my hand,
  and the opponent has on the battlefield a Serra Angel,
with the Aura Blue Ward that enchants him,
I can avail myself with success of the Cycle ability of the Choking Tethers,
and tapping this way the Serra Angel?


texts: in Spades, when to bid such that the sum of bids equal 14?

texts:
In the game of Spades, sometimes I see a strong player bid such that the sum of bids is 14.  This means that one of the contracts will be set.

In what conditions this "complete-to-14" bid is a strong play?


texts: Are the larger base cards available for Smash Up?

texts:
In Geek & Sundry's episode of Table Top featuring Smash Up, they were using larger base cards that featured a built-in counter for the break point:

I just bought Smash Up, and it came with base cards that lack the counter, and are the same size as the rest of the deck cards for the game.

Are these bigger versions available?  Can I download them from somewhere and print my own, or does the manufacturer offer them?


texts: Can a J-T combination be counted as a single honor under a "two honor" rule?

texts:
There are times in bridge (e.g. when opening a "weak two") when a bidder needs a strong suit headed by at least two out of the three "top" honors, that is A-K, A-Q or K-Q. The weakest of these, K-Q, has one guaranteed "top" trick.
The rule is designed to prevent bidding (under these circumstances) with suits headed by two card combinations like Q-J, K-J, Q-T, K-T, and worst, J-T, where you are not guaranteed at least one top trick.
So in these situations, a Q is acceptable as "one" honor, with the K as the second honor. But if you had J-T behind the Q, and counted the combination as a second honor, the Q-J-T combination would guarantee one top trick.
So are there systems or experts who would allow a bidder to open a "weak two" with a suit headed by Q-J-T, K-J-T, A-J-T etc., counting the J-T combination as "one" rather than two honors?  (With a Q-J-T headed suit, I would want a side honor for a 5-10 point "weak two..")


texts: How do you configure the people playing Werewolves to not give each other away?

texts:
Werewolves, if you're not aware, is a group game played with hidden roles. It's also best played with a fairly large group -- 10, 15 or more.

During various stages of the night, people need to do certain things. However, both noise and movement can give certain things away. (Reaching across a table, or walking across a room, to flip a card, etc.)

One solution we've come up with is to play very loud music during those times. This helps to mask a lot of the secret play.

Unless, however, you're in a very large space, too, you can often feel the person near you move regardless of how loud the music is.

So, does anyone have any good ideas to such issues with this game? I realize it's also up to the players to "play fair" -- otherwise there's no point. But you also don't want to be accidentally handed the answer.

Thanks!


texts: How does a renege that is discovered later in a bridge game affect the scoring?

texts: In a recent bridge game, the contract was 2C doubled.  The contracting team discovered, at a point in the game after a trick had been played that the opposing team had reneged.  They assert that there should be a two trick penalty, and that those two tricks should be scored below the line.  Since the contract was made, with two overtricks, the result would be that the contracting team earned a game since the renege gave them two extra tricks below the line, and that was doubled.  Opposing team argues that they did not double the contract into game, and the four should be treated as overticks.  I had never heard that a renege was a below the line penalty...this is new to me.  I cannot find any information regarding this.  Can you help?


texts: Do the coins that are on your Pirate Ship Mat need to disappear (go back to the coin pile) when you opt to use them in your buy? Or do they stay there for the entire game, being used whenever you have the Pirate Ship card come up and opt to do so?


texts: Does Thrumming Stone ripple after ripple

texts:
The card Thrumming Stone says:

  Spells you cast have ripple 4. (Whenever you cast a spell, you may reveal the top four cards of your library. You may cast any revealed cards with the same name as the spell without paying their mana costs. Put the rest on the bottom of your library.)

Does this mean then when I cast a spell (e.g. Relentless Rats):
I look at the top 4 cards which contains a Relentless rat,
I cast this card and then ripple again?

And if I find two rats in one ripple does this mean I can look at my next 8 cards?


texts: Is a player in checkers required to take a jump if one is available?  What about a double or triple jump if that is available?


texts: Additional Turns and Emrakul, the Promised End

texts:
When the round time expires in a sanctioned event, the current turn plus 5 additional turns are completed before a game still in progress is a draw.

Emrakul, the Promised End has the text:

  When you cast Emrakul, you gain control of target opponent during that player's next turn. After that turn, that player takes an extra turn.

If Emrakul, the Promised End was cast in the additional turns, how would the controlled turn and extra turn be counted?

Example for clarity: Player A casts Emrakul, the Promised End targeting Player B on turn 1 in additional turns. Is turn 2 Player B being controlled and turn 3 Player B's extra turn?


texts:
I just got Stone Age as a gift and I've played it one time so far. But I have a question about how the tools work.

They way we played from how I understood the rules:

  A player places two people and decides to use 1 value-1 tool to gather
  wood in the forest. Thus the player rolls 3 dice (2 for people, one
  for tool). He rolls 3+4+5 = 12. Divides that by 3 and takes 4 wood.

This quickly resulted in not having enough dice to handle a single job. Considering you could place 5 people and use 8-value tools which means you'd need 13 dice.

I read online that other people play this way:

  A player places two people on wood. Rolls two dice, gets 2+3=5. Then
  decides to use 1 value-1 tool to up his sum to 6 which lets him get 2
  wood instead of 1.

Which way is correct?


texts:
This afternoon my wife tried to play a green 8 on top of a red 2 in Uno.

Obviously a mistake on her part and I could find nothing in the rules to suggest that there was a penalty so we allowed her to withdraw the green 8 and play another card.

The rules do state that a Wild Draw 4 play can be challenged, but no other misplays are called out that I saw.

Is anyone aware of this situation being covered, perhaps in a previous ruleset, or maybe I'm just overlooking it (It's been known to happen!)


texts: Where can combat dice and extra units be bought?

texts: As a beginner I got axis and allies 1941 and noticed the game has only 4 dice and very few pieces. I had to use a lot of substitution chips (they can get confusing) and make my own paper slips with the units name on them. Where can I buy additional units and dice?


texts: What is the largest amount of pebbles in mancala to win with?

texts:
This question has puzzled me for quite a while. It was a statement on the box that I own that triggered it, translated it says:

  The strategic player can outwit his opponent and win all his pebbles".

My 3 year old son loves the game since he wins every time (his victory condition is to be the first with no pebbles left to play). It gives me the opportunity to try to get as many as possible. The most I finished the game with, was 46 six pebbles, though I'm not sure if something was amiss there (like misplaced pebbles). And I am as of yet unsuccessful at recreating this end-game condition.

I'm talking about the normal 6 holes * two players * 4 pebbles a hole game = 48 pebbles.

So, is it possible to get all of the pebbles? Or do strategic players embody the mantra

  If you are not trying to cheat, you are not trying to win.


texts: Can I attempt to get rid of my Cursed condition on the same reckoning phase that a Warlock inflicts me?

texts: The warlock monster can inflict the closest investigator with Cursed during the Reckoning Phase. Since conditions are handled after monsters during the reckoning phase, can I then roll to see if I can get rid of the Cursed condition during that Mythos phase, or do I have to wait until the next Mythos phase?


texts: Did I overstate my values on the following bidding?

texts:
Nobody vulnerable, partner, South, dealt and opened one spade.
West overcalled 2C.

Sitting North, I called 2H holding (s) xx (h) KQT8xx (d) xx (c) Kxx. (All x's are 7 or lower.)

Partner bid 3d, so I bid 3S (see why below) and partner raised to 4S. He had 14 hcp points (plus a singleton and doubleton for distribution), with 5-5 in spades and diamonds and we went down one.

Partner accused me over overbidding. With 8 hcps, I would have bid 1NT, but West's overcall precluded that option. So I said that my 2H suggested a strong suit, not a "two over one" hand, and a desire to compete. Partner also expected three spades for my three spade bid, I said that this bid was a"preference" for his first suit with my two cards in each, not a desire to go to the four level.

Did I, in fact, overbid? Or did partner take my bids out of their proper context?


texts: Is there an official rule on "setting up" your deck before play?

texts:
It never occured to me that this might not be an action sanctioned for tournament, but me and my friends have always done it as long as I can remember.

Every time before a new game, we look through our decks and separate the lands from the non-lands, shuffle the non-lands, and build a deck (assuming a 2:1 ratio of non-lands to lands) 2 non-lands then 1 land -- repeat until no cards are left. Then give a light shuffle and begin. This is used to ensure that there's no long strings of only land or no land.

I've done a quick search for others doing this behavior but I can't seem to locate any reference to it. But based on a couple games in Magic online, I've noticed that quite frequently I'll mulligan a hand and then get back an unhealty ratio of lands to spells and I basically lose the game right away because of it. This leads me to think that the official tournament rules are that you just shuffle your deck and play.


texts: Where do you go for the 'nearest railroad' in Monopoly?

texts:
In the American edition of Monopoly, there is a Chance card that says:

Advance token to nearest railroad
Pay owner twice the rental to which he/she is entitled. If railroad is unowned, you may buy it from the bank.

However, is this the closest railroad, or the next one? If you are standing on the Chance spot in the light blues, do you go all around the board to Reading, which is the closest to you, or do you go to Pennsylvania, which is the first one you land on?


texts: Are players permitted to resolve errors between themselves, without involving a judge?

texts:
Suppose that a game play error occurs during a tournament. Both players agree that they would rather handle the error themselves than call a judge, and so they agree on a resolution and continue to play.

Examples:

Sarah accidentally looks at the top two cards of her library during her draw step. She asks her opponent, "Is it okay if I just take the top card, and shuffle the other card back into my library?" Her opponent says that this is okay, and so Sarah does this, and both players continue.
During combat, José mistakenly believes one of his creatures has taken lethal damage, and puts it into his graveyard. His opponent doesn't notice the mistake. A couple of turns later, José's opponent realizes José's mistake and points it out. José says, "It's okay, we'll just keep playing", and his opponent agrees.

Is this legal, or is it an infraction of some kind (perhaps collusion or cheating)?


texts: How can I tell how replayable a cooperative game is?

texts:
I've been reading reviews on various cooperative games trying to find some more to add to my collection. (I currently have Pandemic, Forbidden Island, and Shadows over Camelot). In reviews, I've seen people give games low ratings for a few reasons, complexity, playing time, and various other very predictable things that you can easily use to judge if you want to buy a game or not.

The other issue that tends to come up is replayability. This is really important to me, because if its not replayable there's no way I'm getting it. But how can I really judge this? It can't be easily reduced to an objective number. Are there any tips for telling how replayable a game is before buying, particularly cooperatives?

Recently I've taken my cooperatives and added a ton of new stuff to them to make them more interesting. I added 9 new roles to pandemic and 13 new special events, some taken from other places I'd read. I did something similar with Forbidden Island and might add some new knights to Shadows over Camelot. I'm confident I can overcome any lack of replayability with my own creativity, but I thought I'd ask this anyway to tell if I'm going to NEED to add my own extensions to a game in order to keep it interesting past 10 plays.


texts: Boggle Rules - Two same letters to make a word

texts:
Why can't we use two dices at different positions that have the same letters to make a word?

For example:

-DEED --> INVALID

-NEON --> INVALID

Why..?


texts: Does "sacrifice those creatures" happen all at once?

texts:
Do the sacrifice triggers of Wake the Dead happen at the same time, or do I get to stack them?

As an example, say I cast Wake the Dead targeting Liliana, Heretical Healer and another creature. Assuming no other creature dies until it's time to sacrifice the two, can I "save" Liliana into her Planeswalker form by sacrificing the other creature first?


texts: What happens when a land attacks then stops being a creature?

texts:
The card Nature's Revolt is out, then a mountain and is declared as an attacker, then the enchantment is destroyed.

What happens to the mountain? Is it still attacking, can it be blocked e.t.c.


texts: Can I cast Killing Glare with X=0 while no creatures with zero power are on the battlefield?

texts:
I wonder if I am able to cast Killing Glare if there are no powerless creatures on the board?

For example to Extort after casting.


texts: How does having multiple permanents with the same name affect those permanents' abilities?

texts:
Many abilities in MTG use a permanent's name in the ability. Does this mean that if I have 2 copies of that permanent, the ability will affect both permanents?

Activated ability example:
Vector Asp - If I activate the ability of one of my Vector Asps, can I choose which of them gain infect until end of turn? Or will they both gain infect?

Triggered ability example:
Sin Collector - If I cast a second Sin Collector, when it enters the battlefield, will each Sin Collector trigger and allow me to exile a total of 2 cards instead of 1?


texts: Calculating the probability of NOT drawing a traitor card in Dead of Winter

texts:
If you're playing a 3 player game and hand out 1 card to each player, out of a deck of 3 ally and 1 traitor cards, how likely are the players all allies?

I think the math is you have a (3/4)^3 or approximately %32 chance of everybody being an ally. Is this correct? Thanks.


texts: Can you place a draw 2 (+2) on top of a draw 4 (+4) in regular Uno?

texts: So, the way I've always played you can't add a draw 2 on a draw 4 but I've seen plenty of other people do it. So I'm wondering if you can or can't?


texts: Six-sided dice traditionally have opposite faces adding to a constant, and this tradition is carried over (unquestioningly, it seems) to other dice.  Is there a good reason for it?  Why wouldn't you instead seek to make opposite ‘hemispheres’ as equal as possible, ideally arranging that the center of gravity of the pips is the geometric center of the die?  (This is not possible for D6; I haven't tested it for any other numbers.)


texts: Can shootouts happen in the town square?

texts:
The rules are a bit confusing about where shootouts can happen. All of the examples, both in the Welcome to Gomorra tutorial and in the rulebook, show shootouts happening in order to contest control over a deed card. The rules consistently mention the "location" that a shootout is occurring, but don't seem to ever define what counts a location. Is it just deeds or does the town square count as well?

So can shootouts occur in the town square?


texts:
I was wondering what is the technically highest score one can achieve in Seven Wonders (with Cities and Leaders) in a 3+ player game, considering all players are working with the performer.

Has anyone heard of an algorithm that calculates that, or some information about it? I've tried get out my head around it but there are SO MANY parameters that I'm almost tempted to brute-force this solution.

Any ideas or information?


texts: Should Eldritch Tokens only be used as tokens for the original reason they were placed?

texts:
Eldritch tokens are often used for differing purposes and different mythos cards and effects.  Can they or should they be used generically across all active effects?  Here is an example.

The Cthulhu ancient one spawn Eldritch tokens on any sea space occupied by an investigator when a reckoning effect occurs and the ensuing effect is investigators traveling through these spaces get delayed (stopped in their tracks).  One of the mysteries for this ancient one places Eldritch tokens on each sea space nearest each investigator and allows them to test against it and spend clues toward solving the mystery.

Does this then mean every Eldritch token, whether it was placed by the Cthulhu reckoning effect or this mystery now delays investigators, and every Eldritch token is a candidate for being tested against to progress through the mystery, or do we have to have some way to keep track of which tokens were placed by which mystery/effect?  I can see either approach as being easier or harder in both cases, so using the "harder on investigators" reasoning doesn't work.  The sensible storyline approach argues that the tokens should be unique to the mystery/effect that created them.

I lean toward the sensible story approach but it is rather fantastic to consider that so much is going on in this wild flurry of activity that maybe it is worth simply saying an Eldritch token is simply indistinguishable from any other token once it's placed.

Update: The reference guide indicates that

  When the active Mystery is solved or removed from play, discard all tokens on it or placed by it. Then draw a new Mystery, placing it on top of any solved Mysteries.

so at least there is some maintenance of the eldritch tokens (pulling them off) as these get solved.  I do not know if mythos cards result in eldritch tokens being placed in locations.


texts: can you activate abilities during a resolving stack?

texts: So for example: I have Krenko, Mob Boss with Thornbite Staff equipped. He is targeted with Doom Blade. In response I tap Krenko to make 1 Goblin token. I also have Goblin Bombardment to sacrifice the token. Can I sacrifice the token after it has been made to untap Krenko and make more tokens before Doom Blade resolves?


texts:
Many board games use square cards that are 70mm × 70mm, about 2¾″.

Are there any that use larger square cards?  If so, what's the largest square card that is in use?

I'm mainly interested if there are any square cards larger than 70mm. I'm working on a game that needs square cards, and 70mm isn't big enough. The company I'm at wants to use sizes of cards that are already in use, where possible.

The reason the cards need to be large is because people are putting tokens on top of them when they're in play, not because they have to display much information.


texts: Optimal Dominion strategy with only the Mine action card

texts:
Consider a Dominion game where the only cards are Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province and Mine, i.e. the only action card is Mine.

Is there an obvious optimal strategy/strategies in this simplified game?


texts: What is the difference between "flying" and "this creature can only be blocked by creatures with flying"?

texts:
Tons of creatures have flying in Magic:The Gathering, but I noticed Treetop Rangers have this ability:

  Treetop Rangers can't be blocked except by creatures with flying.

Obviously this means that Treetop Rangers can't be blocked by creatures with Reach, which can block creatures with flying. Is that the only difference? When else would this distinction matter? Is Treetop Ranger's ability generally 'better' than flying?


texts: In the Pokémon TCG, is there a combination of cards that prevents you from milling out?

texts:
One way to lose in the Pokémon TCG is to have no cards left to draw at the beginning of your turn.

Is there an combination of cards that prevents you from ever running out of cards to draw?


texts: What can I do with my late game mana in Commander

texts:
I'm building some EDH decks and I keep running into a problem - lots of mana, no spells to cast. Now, this is moderately acceptable, but only because my opponents are often in the same state.

It seems if I could do something with this mana, I would have the edge. But there seem to be very few mechanics that exist on enough cards to create a theme, but are efficient enough to be worth while. In fact, the only one I've really found is firebreathing. But that's not viable for any non-mono-red deck.

What mechanics are mana dumps that are plentiful enough to bake into an EDH theme? Do the effects even need to synergize, or should I just take random efficient mana dumps as they come?


texts:
I've heard it said that Scry 1 is equivalent to 0.5-0.75 of a drawn card; is there a similar number of card draw that Surveil 1 represents?
Edit: this link has a reddit discussion that attempts to put a number equivalence on scrying: How much is 'Scry' worth in terms of card draw?.


texts: Casual playing of Magic the Gathering MTG

texts:
me and my GF started playing casual MTG together. I used to play so I know alot about the game and i taught her already so we know about playing. I had alot of cards from past but now we bought "a set of 3000 cards". They are mostly common, uncommon, few rares and its mostly War of the Spark, Throne of eldraine and so on. So now we are digging into this pile of cards but we are kinda lost about what should we do.
I was thinking about some page or a software, where I could put all the cards and it would tell me what decks consist of some of my cards so I could buy the rest or something like that.
Also we were looking at the Duel decks, but there are so many and alot of people say that they are unbalanced or not worth for the money.
Or should we just find decks lists we like and go buy them to our local store?
We have lot of cards, but kinda dont know what to do with them, because most of all they are commons and uncommons.


texts: Can opponents ask for "alerts" in bridge?

texts:
Suppose a bidder makes an unusual bid that is "alertable." The bidder's partner is then supposed to say "alert," and then field questions about the bid.

But suppose the partner fails to do this. Can the opponents ask for an alert?

What happens in the two opposite cases, if the opponents do ask for an alert and 1) the bid is alertable and the partner forgot to alert (opponents are wrongly deprived of information) and 2) the bid is not alertable (opponents may ask for and get unauthorized information)?


texts: In the following scenario, does a double word premium apply to both words made on the same turn? Player 1 plays the word "book". Player 2 plays the word "shot", placing the "s" on a double word score space, and also forming the word "books".


texts: Getting Joker from the existing groups in Rummikub

texts:
I have a group of tiles made up of 3 fours and a joker:

  4 4 4 Joker

Now, if a player removes the joker, do they have to replace it with another 4?


texts: Do I have to reveal all allies found by Munda, Ambush Leader?

texts: When I cast Munda, Ambush Leader and choose to look at the top four cards of my library, do I need to reveal all ally cards, or can I choose which ally cards I reveal and put the rest beneath my library?


texts:
The past few months I was working on a fun project which basically uses the traditional chess pieces and their move sets. On top of that I added Sudoku limitations to restrict movements. In order to make that work I also changed the board size to 9x9. In the following images you can see an example of how the restrictions affect the movements of bishops. Note how either of the bishops can't be in the same 1) row 2) column and 3) square as the other one:

Now, finally, my question:
Can anyone think of a good initial setup for all pieces? The traditional chess setup obviously doesn't work here thanks to the Sudoku restrictions.

To make this answerable: the accepted answer will be the one closest to the traditional setup.

On the one hand, I'd like to keep it as close as possible to the traditional setup. On the other hand, feel free to bring in your own ideas. Anything is possible! (Even placing pieces on the opponent's side of the board or multiple queens. Just saying...)
The one exception: there can only be 1 king of course (or maybe not?).

Quick link to Wikipedia chess rules


texts:
In what scenarios or formats can a player draw even when they are going first?

For example: I usually play that if there are more than 2 teams (each team having 1 or more players) then the first team can draw on their first turn.

Are there other scenarios or formats that affect this?


texts: How can I improve my deck building skills?

texts:
I've been playing M:tG for nearly a decade now. I understand the rules very well, I've participated in a few draft tournaments, and I've built a few decks that I'm very proud of.

Nonetheless, I seem to have hit a wall in my MtG deck-building ability. In draft tournaments I rarely finish in the top half. I see other players pulling cards that I've discounted as low-power or junk, then I'm astounded at how effective they make them. (I rarely read MtG sites, so I'm not often aware of what the "buzz" around the best cards is.) When I look at the deck listings for top tournament decks, I often can't understand how they're supposed to play or why they're so powerful. I realize that the better players are able to see interactions between cards and identify sources of power that are effectively invisible to me.

How can I get past this block? I realize that this is a broad question, but I'm wondering if there's a blog, a book, or a series of articles that can help a middling, mostly casual player up his level of play.

Details on my play style, which may help focus answers:

I'm definitely a Johnny. I strongly prefer the black/green/white side of the spectrum. I almost never play red/blue. I find that I'm naturally drawn to the following mechanics, and tend to build decks that contain lots of:

Life gain
Creature buffs, +1 tokens, regeneration, etc.
Creature destruction, -1 tokens, etc.
Mid-size creatures (neither 1/1 weenies nor 8/8 monsters)
Enchantments of all kinds
Non-land mana generation

Whereas I consistently underestimate the effectiveness and fall prey to decks that contain:

Direct damage
Creature control
Artifacts
"Draw a card" spells and abilities

Even when I've tried to stretch myself and build a deck using these mechanics, what I built was much weaker than what a friend of mine built starting from the same card pool. Furthermore, I have a hard time building decks that can successfully resist a deck that's heavy in creature control or direct damage.


texts: Can 'Eyes in the Dark' be played on an Investigator with a Torch?

texts:
Torch Investigators may Ignore Darkness in your room.

Eyes in the Dark: Requirement Basement or any room in darkness.

We took the ruling that the mythos card could not target the investigator as he was ignoring the darkness token.

We felt that there was an argument that while the investigator was ignoring darkness, he was still in fact in a room that was dark.


texts: What advantages do you have when attacking a village in Civilization?

texts: In Civilization, when I attack a village, do I or the village receive some sort of combat bonus or extra standing force cards?  Also, the rule book for the game seems fuzzy on what combat bonuses actually do for you during a battle. I have played Civilization only once so far, and to me the battle system seems pretty random. Are there any recommendations you may have for buying certain units near the beginning before attacking a village or another player?


texts:
Can you have more than one "Legendary Token"? I don't think so, but I have a creature named Tolsimir Wolfblood that allow me to tap it to create a 2/2 Legendary Wolf token named Voja.

If you can't have more than one legendary creature on the field, would you have to sacrifice the wolf token or Tolsimir Wolfblood? How does that work?

Are legendary tokens and legendary creatures different from each other? Or is it that legendary creatures can't have the same name as the other?


texts: My opponent used Huatli's ability with a creature that had died. Was that allowed?

texts:
Recently, I played a match where a player used a card that killed off everyone’s creatures above a certain power, including one of his own. Immediately after that card, when no other card was played by anyone else and in the same turn, he used a Planeswalker ability from Huatli, the Sun's Heart to regain the life points from the same creature he sacrificed.

Is that allowed since he activated the ability after?


texts: Does Athreos work on countered or discarded creatures?

texts: So I know that if I have Athreos, God of Passage on the field and a creature spell is countered, it still counts as dying and Athreos's effect still kicks in. I was told it's because the creature (even though it never officially hit the battlefield) will still go into my graveyard. Would this also be true for discarded creatures, since they will go into the graveyard and not exile? I am using Athreos with Pack Rat and I was wondering if it would give me the ability to clone Pack Rat for basically free so long as he is on the field.


texts:
I'm deciding to buy The Mind, but before that, I wish to know how fun is playing this game with only two players? Is it worth buying if you can only play with two players most of the time?
I'm asking this, because the best way to play this game is 4 players according to BoardGameGeek.


texts: Does Epic Experiment let me pull creatures out of the graveyard that were exiled during its casting?

texts:
My brother showed me Epic Experiment today.

Now he says you can use it to put creatures in the graveyard and then fish them out with the free spells you get, because the free spells get put on the stack before the original card resolves, whereas I think that the spells will go on the stack at the same time as the creatures go into the graveyard when Epic Experiment resolves.


texts: One of my partners is nearly blind and has trouble distinguishing between hearts and diamonds and between spades and clubs.  Is it proper for me, as Dummy, to call out the cards as they are played on the table so the my partner leads the proper suit?


texts: How to build decks with cards not present in my MTG Online collection

texts:
Previously in MTG Online was possible to build decks with cards not present in your collection. This is not possible any more in the latest MTG Online client.

Can someone advice on how I can build a deck with cards which I do not own, pls?


texts:
I’m fairly new to Magic and still learning but got the basics.
My problem is as follows.
My friend person A : white deck (basic starter)
Me person B : red deck (basic starter)
Scenario
Person A declares attack with Inspiring Unicorn “when this declares attack each creature you control gains +1/+1 until end of turn” alongside another generic 2/2 creature.
Person B casts an instant, Shock, before declaring blockers, then proceeds to block other creature with 2/3 creature.
Now this is where I was confused as I thought shock would resolve first killing the unicorn before it could apply its ability or am I wrong?? As person A said they were right and the unicorns ability resolved first as he declared an attack so gains the stat increase before shock so shock would be useless.


texts: Betrayal at House on the Hill -- what counts as a turn for attacks?

texts: For the monster turn -- if I have several zombies (as an example), can they each attack on the turn? So, I move one zombie and attack someone, and then I move another and attack someone else? Until I have moved and/or attacked with each zombie? Just want to make sure we are understanding the definition of "turn".


texts: In bridge, can "good" players get away with bidding "light"?

texts:
The conventional wisdom is that it takes 26 points to make a game. But authors such as Terence Reese have written compendiums of how they made games with 23-25 points by "outplaying" the defense; tricking a defender into a bad discard, or setting up a complicated squeeze/endplay pattern.

My understanding that the dynamics are something like the following: With 24 points, the chances of making game are about 50-50; with 26 points, 65%-70%; with 28 points, 80%-85% (mostly bad suit breaks, 5-0 or 4-0 will hurt you).

Do experts like Reese bid "light" because they can beat the above odds? Or did they blunder into contracts "light" and then find a way to pull them out.

Once I surprised a partner by making a game (3NT) when we had only 24 HCP points between us. But I had AJT9x in a key suit, opposite her Qx. After losing a trick to the king, we made four tricks in the suit with only 7 HCP, leaving 17 to make five more tricks.

I argued that the JT9 sequence was really "three jacks" and we had 26 HCP de facto, if not de jure. Could it be that experts have a better sense when "24 or "25" points are really more like 26?


texts: Arkham horror expansion compatability diagram

texts:
I once came across a nifty little diagram that had all the Arkham Horror expansions on it with lines drawn between them showing which ones worked well together.

For the life of me, I cannot find this diagram (even though I am certain I had it printed out before). I've trawled google for the past couple of days but cannot find it. I'm starting to think that I might be going mad and just imagined the whole thing!

Help appreciated! =)


texts: In Evolution (North Star games) if two carnivores attack each other can they both go extinct? Does player order matter?  Would player 1's carnivore live while player 2's dies off?  Do they eat each other at the same time?


texts: Tapping land for mana with free cast and X in cost

texts: If I have Galvanoth out and the card that is revealed is Skyscribing, am I able to tap lands to pay for the X amount?  Would this be any different with Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge?


texts: How can I make Betrayal at House on the Hill less confusing?

texts:
A love to play Betrayal at House on the Hill, it's my favourite game at the moment and I'm sure it'll stay that way for a long time. Some of my friends have complained that it gets long-winded and complicated (though I don't see that).

How can I make this game less confusing, given that we still have unknown haunts to play through?


texts: Can I spell queller a reduced-cost spell?

texts:
My opponent casts Starfield of Nyx with Herald of the Pantheon in play. Herald reduces the cost of Starfield by 1 to 4.

I cast Spell Queller.

Can I quell the Starfield as it's CMC has been reduced to 4 or is it still 5?


texts: Can Alolan Pokémon evolve to non-Alolan or vice versa?

texts: If I have a regular Ninetales in my hand and an Alolan Vulpix on my bench, can I evolve the Alolan Vulpix into the regular Ninetales?


texts: Can you target a creature with my creatures enter the battlefield ability if they both enter the battlefield at the same time?

texts: I have a single copy of Meteor Golem in my sideboard to go against Show and Tell decks, but I am wondering if my opponent show and tells their Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, can I show my Meteor Golem, target it and destroy their Emrakul?


texts: What is the significance of a Scene ending in the Extraction mission?

texts: The Extraction mission notes where Scenes end, but doesn't say what happens when a scene ends.  What is the significance of even saying the Scene ends, then?


texts: Has Counterspell always been able to target any spell on the stack?

texts:
I read this question What spells can be countered? on HNQ and was quite surprised.

It is a long time I played MtG, but some 10+ years ago I was a somewhat enthusiastic player in our local town, participated in a number of official prereleases.

It is possible I am mixing something up, but has it always been that Counterspell could target (technically) any card on stack?

As far as I remember, the players down here used Counterspell as if it only could target sorcery and instant spells on stack. So you couldn't target e.g. a creature or artifact while it was being played. It's been a long time though.


texts: Power Tile Combo: Initiative combined with Crusade

texts:
When using the Initiative power tile (which destroys two units pre-battle) combined with the Crusade power tile (which gives Ankhs per units destroyed in battle):

Does the attacking player get ankhs for the units destroyed 'pre battle'?
If the is no battle because the defender had two units or less, does the attacker get any Ankhs?

The mystery here is that the escape DI card cancels a battle, but also works for initiative, which seems to indicate that units killed by initiative are in some sort of odd edge-case.


texts: Manland and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch

texts:
Sentinel of the Eternal Watch says, "At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, tap target creature that player controls."

Can the opponent activate a manland after this ability and attack with it to prevent getting the manland tapped?


texts: When must you resolve spells cast with Diluvian Primordial?

texts: Yesterday I have cast Diluvian Primordial, and my playgroup was trying to convince me, that I can cast one of their spells during the entire turn I had cast it, and that I could cast a spell from one of them, then cast a sorcery speed spell from my hand, and then continue casting spells from other players graveyards (the ones I had not targeted before). I think that this is nonsense. Can I cast a creature or a planeswalker from hand during the resolution of the Diluvian Primordial enter the battlefield trigger?


texts: Lathliss, Dragon Queen + Where Ancients Tread interaction

texts:
Recently I constructed a Lathliss, Dragon Queen EDH deck, and just last night was at my LGS for some casual play.

At some point in the game I had on the battlefield a Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Where Ancients Tread, and was about to cast Scourge of Valkas.

My thought process was, if I activate Lathliss' ability to give my Dragon creatures +1/+0 then when Scourge of Valkas enters the battlefield it would enter as a 5/4, and therefore trigger Where Ancients Tread's ability.

The table seemed to conclude Lathliss' ability only applied the buff to Dragon creatures I currently controlled on the battlefield.

I'm confused, because it appears Lathliss' ability would apply to all Dragons, much the same as having Honor of the Pure on the field while casting a white creature with 2/2 would not cause Mentor of the Meek to trigger because the creature entering would actually be a 3/3, due to the added buff from Honor.

Could I have some clarification on this? Was my table right in that the interaction was not valid?


texts: Game of Thrones: What if we run out of all the order tokens and are compelled to use special order tokens?

texts:
If a player is not allowed to use any special order token (tokens with star) and they still want to play an order token of a kind (eg. 3 march orders), can they play the special order token as a regular order token?

In an extreme case, what if all the other kinds of regular tokens are used and no special order tokens can be used?


texts: In Carcassonne, how does the Bazaar play and count in different situations?

texts: In Carcassonne, does the Bazaar in the farm play and count like a cloister in the farm? What about on the road and in a city?  We understand how to initiate the auctions but are not sure how to treat the Bazaar itself and for scoring purposes.  We assume it completes or ends a road.


texts: What do you recommend putting in an Arkham Horror quick reference sheet?

texts:
I've played Arkham Horror twice and am still boggled by the complexity of the mechanics and the number of rules. During both games I wished for a quick reference guide to summarize the turn order and key mechanics (e.g. combat order, a key to interpret the icons on the monster tokens, the definition of a successful roll and how the roll modifiers work, etc.).

I did some searching and found some Arkham reference sheets (#2), but the first was way to long to be accurately called a quick reference guide (IMO) and the second spent an entire page just to explain combat.

Neither seemed to be what I was looking for, but I'm inexperienced enough that I can't even really define what I was expecting. (The best example of a good reference guide that I could think of is from Warhammer Fantasy.)

What information would you recommend including in a one- or two-page Arkham Horror reference manual?


texts: How did the Greek campaign affect Afrika Korps?

texts:
In the Avalon Hill game, Afrika Korps, the British receive reinforcements in June, 1941, several months after the game begins. These are survivors of a futile campaign to save Greece. I am asking the following two questions in order to try to assess the impact of the Greece campaign on the game (and real life events).

How do the reinforcements from Greece compare to the force sent to Greece? (I'm not claiming that they were sent from Egypt, only that they would have been available for Egypt if not sent to Greece. Was the order of magnitude one-third, one-half, two-thirds, or closer to some other number?
Let's assume that the returning reinforcements were never sent to Greece, but that the British start with those June "Greek reinforcements" at Alexandria at the beginning of the game. How (if at all), would that change the balance of power in the game?

(My sense is that the "sent" force was two to three times the size of the "retrieved" force, but that even allowing the British the "returned" force at the beginning of the game might make it better for them.)


texts:
When resolving a march order, you can split the movement of your troops into several adjacent territories, but only one of those territories may contain units of another house. Does moving into an area containing another house's power token (but none of the house's combat units) count as an act of aggression precluding you from attacking from the same territory?

For example, can Baratheon use one footman in Harrenhal to attack Lannister's footman in Stoney Sept and the other to take Blackwater, which is controlled by Lannister's power token?


texts:
On the card Myr Welder it says two things.

  Imprint -- {T} : Exile target artifact card from a graveyard.

  Myr Welder has all activated abilities of all cards exiled with it.

My question is about how it can have abilities if it's been exiled? IIRC being exiled means it it cast out of the play past the graveyard, never to return.

Does it possibly mean it has the abilities of the cards it's exiled (tapping each time), while it remains in play, i.e. instead of "exiled with it" it should read "exiled by it"?


texts: What are the changes in the second edition of Doctor Who: The Card Game?

texts: I own the original edition of Doctor Who: The Card Game, published in 2012 by Cubicle 7. What is new in the second edition, published in 2014? Is it just different companions and such on the artwork? Or are there mechanical changes?


texts: In bridge, what happens if a bidder makes a wrong bid that can't be corrected?

texts:
Suppose opener bids one spade. Second seat doubles (takeout). Responder redoubles. Then fourth seat "bids" one club and the opener declines to let it stand.

That is an easy fix. Fourth seat has mentioned clubs, and is now forced to say "two clubs" to make the bid sufficient.

But suppose fourth seat (a newbie) says something like "double," or "double the redouble." You can't play one spade for eightfold stakes. But the bidder has presumably given away unauthorized information. So in a tournament, what would be the penalty and how would it be assessed?


texts: New Transform Rules and Archangel Avacyn

texts:
Archangel Avacyn says (in addition to other abilities): "When a non-Angel creature you control dies, transform Archangel Avacyn at the beginning of the next upkeep".

Since the triggered ability isn't the actual transform ability, but instead creates a delayed triggered ability, if you put it on the stack while another trigger wants to transform Avacyn, will she transform back? (e.g. Non-Angel died. Go to upkeep, another non-Angel dies. Will she transform back on the next upkeep?)


texts: In Bridge, should a defender "encourage" with a "stranded honor?

texts:
In the example in Today's New York Post, the bidding went: S 1 spade, N 2 clubs, S 2 NT, N3 spades, S 4 Spades (East and West passed throughout).

West led the 9 of hearts, which as between these defenders, meant "top of nothing" in a two or three card suit,  probably looking for a ruff. With A732 of hearts, East signaled with the 7, got a heart lead to the ace when West came in with a high spade trick, and led back a heart for a ruff.

North's hearts were KJxx. Suppose East had the QUEEN of hearts instead of the ace, but the ace of DIAMONDs instead. With a supposed "stranded" honor (assuming West's top of nothing lead denied the ace), should East have DISCOURAGED on hearts and have West lead a diamond?


texts: Do reserved cards get returned when gold token is spent?

texts:
I am playing with my son and he reserves a card I wanted and gets a gold token. On his next turn he buys another card and uses the Gold token in his purchase.

What happens to the reserved card?  He now has no gold token, a card I want in reserve.

Does the reserved card get brought back in to the game?


texts: Rival Executioner draws Robespierre...does this end the day?

texts:
The Rival Executioner card requires that, upon his execution, you take the noble from the top of the deck and "collect" it. My friend drew Robespierre, who, when collected, ends the day.

We didn't like the way it affected the game (my friend was in second place, and it was day three), so we let it go. But I'm still curious...do you reap the side effects of the card drawn after beheading the Rival Executioner?

Rival Executioner reads:

  Collect the top noble of the noble deck after you collect this noble

Robespierre reads:

  The day ends after you collect this noble. Discard any nobles remaining in line.


texts: What games are suitable for a large number of people with only a pack of playing cards?

texts:
What card games work well with a large number of players (say 6+ players) and only require a standard pack of playing cards?  I'm particularly interested in games where the rules can be explained fairly quickly, but there is still a reasonable level of tactics.  Also it would be preferable if the game can be played in a single room.

One game per answer please.


texts: Does a light fourth seat opening work on the same principle as fourth seat "balancing?"

texts:
If dealer opens. second seat needs to be at least somewhat careful taking actions such as doubling or overcalling. That's because third seat may theoretically having "everything" (not held by first and second seats), leaving partner with nothing.

But if left hand opponent opens, partner passes, opponent's partner passes, then right hand opponent is limited, meaning that fourth seat can double or overcall light. That is, s/he can "balance" with a king or so less than in second seat by "borrowing" it from partner, who clearly has something.

Likewise, I was taught that a fourth seat person could open a major suit with about a queen less than in the other seats, because both opponents (as well as partner) was limited. That is, while one needs something like (s)AQxxx (h)Qxx (d)xxx (c)Ax to open in the early seats, it would be ok to open with (s)AQxxx (h)xxx (d)xxx (c)Ax in fourth seat.

Do most experts feel that way? And how would they feel about opening a junky five card major in fourth seat with 11 high card points, something like (s)97532 (h)KQx (d)Qxx (c)Ax?


texts: Can I sacrifice an enchantment when it is going to be destroyed?

texts: My opponent had an Elvish Lyrist and activated its sacrifice to destroy my Seal of Fire. I sacrificed Seal of Fire after that. Would my Seal still do its 2 points of damage?


texts: Can you hide your number of cards in Uno?

texts: Can you hide your cards so other players can't see how many cards you have left? So if you don't remember to say UNO, others can't know if you had only one card left.


texts: Life Link on an opponents creature by enchantment

texts:
With cards like spirit link does the controller of the spirit link gain the life or does the controller of the creature that is dealing the damage gain the life?

The card is worded so that it says "...whenever enchanted creature deals damage, you gain that much life." does this mean you as the controller of the creature or the controller of the enchantment?

Life link is very clear. It says the controller of the creature, but does spirit link not give the creature life link?


texts: Can I sacrifice a permanent to pay an ability cost while the permanent's spell is still on the stack?

texts:
At what point does a creature/artifact/whatever become a legal candidate for being sacrificed to pay an activation cost?

For example, suppose I cast an artifact creature spell, and my opponent responds with an instant that would kill it (like a Lightning Bolt). I have an Atog that lets me sacrifice an artifact to give the Atog +2/+2. Can I use the artifact creature, even though the spell that "summoned" it has yet to resolve, to pay the Atog's ability's activation cost?


texts: Is there any economical game which demonstrates social-democratic economy rather than capitalism?

texts:
As much as I enjoy games like Monopoly or Settelers of Catan, I'm very concerned about the way these games affect players' concept of economy, as they demonstrate extremly capitalistic economical rules where the goal of each individual is to financially crush his/her friends.

I know that since competition is an important factor in many games, the use of capitalism is natural, but I'd anyway like to find out about any economical board games that demonstrate a different approach.


texts: Unbound Flourishing and Alternative costs

texts:
The rulings for Unbound Flourishing state

  Spells with additional costs that include X won't be affected by Unbound Flourishing. X must be in the mana cost.

Avacyn's Judgement has a cost of {1}{R}, but has a madness cost of {X}{R}. Am I right that if I pay the madness cost, {X} will be in the mana cost and the spell will be copied? Likewise for Flashback costs and Mutate Costs.


texts: Leonin of the Lost Pride and undying creature

texts: How would Leonin of the Lost Pride interact with an opponents creature who has undying? The player with the undying creature sacrificed it and he also had out Dictate of Erebos, which when the undying creature died player 1 sacrificed the Leonin. Does the Leonin trigger prior to the undying creature coming back?


texts: If more than one user is on a twist phase do they each draw their own phase?

texts:
In Phase 10 Twist there are only 10 twist phases.  If everybody drew their own twist phase then we'd run out really quickly.

So, if more than one person is on a twist phase at a time, do they all play the same twist phase or do they each draw their own phase and we just recycle the cards when we run out?


texts: What's the order of scoring when completing a city with a Princess?

texts:
Yesterday, I played with The Dragon, the Fairy and the Princess for the first time. We came upon a situation that wasn't completely clear in the rules.

What if there's an almost completed city, with one of Alice's followers in it, and Bob completes that city on his turn, with a Princess tile (which removes a knight from the city the tile is added to)?

Is Alice's knight removed, after which the city's score goes to nobody, or does Alice get the points, after which the Princess has no knight left to remove?

I found an answer which I'll add below, but I'd like to hear your input as well.


texts: Is the number of cards in my opponent's library public knowledge in Magic: The Gathering?

texts: The number of cards in players' hands is public knowledge, as is the number of exiled cards and cards in anyone's graveyard. But is the number of cards in your library public knowledge at all times as well? This could strongly affect decisions for players who frequently run mill decks.


texts: Can a cipher copy be countered by a counter spell? Or, since the card has been encoded to a creature, does it act more like an ability, and can only be countered by cards like Stifle and others like it?


texts:
I've had arguments on the interpretation of 2 different missions in the last week. To me the interpretation is pretty obvious but I do want to verify. I'm hoping you guys can help :)

  Mission: Conquer one territory on 5 different continents. Play at the end of your turn.

Now to me I interpret this as, in one turn, you need to attack and win in 5 different continents. My opponent argued that he already owned Africa so he only needed to do so in 4 different continents. His argument was that if he owned 3 different continents, would that stop him from completing the mission? I said yes. Who's right?

  Mission: Control 3 different continents. Play at the end of your turn.

I interpret this as owning 3 different continents at the end of your turn. So at the beginning of my turn if I don't own any of them, and at the end of my turn I own 3, I've fulfilled my mission. My opponent was arguing that control means you have to hold it for a turn (which is usually true) but since specifically said to play at the end of your turn, I think doing this all in one turn is fine. I also think in a game of mission risk holding on to three different continents for a whole turn is almost impossible.


texts:
Thee infect mechanic from Scars of Mirrodin has never seemed fair to me in any way.

All of the game's win conditions have always been equally difficult to achieve: dealing 20 damage, milling an entire library down, or meeting the conditions for one of the other win cards, like Battle of Wits, etc. All of them take a fair amount of time, none are much faster than the others really.

But with infect, you only have to deal 10 damage. It renders the normal life totals pointless. I have trouble thinking of it as some special win-condition when all it really means is that "dealing 10 damage is enough to win," and you can just ignore life totals.

I don't see how infect is considered fair or balanced. Can someone maybe give me some insight as to why it doesn't get more backlash from the community?

Prior to Scars of Mirrodin, there were so few creatures with it that it was hard to achieve a victory that way. Scars of Mirrodin changed that, hence my present confusion.


texts: What is the best play in two player Downfall?

texts:
Downfall (or Downspin/"New Downfall") is a two player game published in 1970 with perfect information.*  The rules are quite simple and generally we play with ten disks each in the normal order.

I am interested to know if anyone has already solved this game (or a variant of it) to find out which player should win and what the best set of moves is.

Also - do different editions have different wheel configurations?  From what I could find out they all had the same configuration.

* In practice, due to the design of the game then it can be hard to remember all the information.  Also note that some variants have a randomised starting position or four players.


texts: Why are the old Pokémon TCG sets not allowed in modern tournaments?

texts:
I've heard that the Pokémon TCG cards from the old sets, like base, jungle, fossile etc, aren't allowed in tournaments anymore. Why are they forbidden? The old cards seem to be consistently weaker, so it can't be a balance issue. Are there incompatibilities between the rules?

Also: Which sets are forbidden?


texts: What effect does Attack Left vs Attack Right have on MtG multiplayer strategy?

texts:
Kelly Digges played both, but didn't make any comment on how/if it affected gameplay in any meaningful way. He also doesn't list any difference in his What's in a name Multiplayer Variants article. I seem to remember that either Anthony Alongi, or the Ferret commented on the differences between the two, but cannot seem to find their articles.

What effect (if any) does Attack Left vs Attack Right have on MtG multiplayer strategy/gameplay?


texts: Can a settlement disrupt roads in Settlers of Catan

texts:
Let's say my opponent (o) has a road network:

o - - - - - o

       |
       x

as x, can I:

o - - -x- - o
       |
       |
       x

?

And break his already existing road?

My question is not whether or not this will break his road; my question is if it is legal for me to build there and break an already-established road.

At a previous game, there was considerable controversy as to whether this was a legal place to build a settlement.


texts: When a land becomes a creature, is it untapped?

texts: A friend had the land Mobilized District on the battlefield. He was activating its ability to change this land to a 3/3 Citizen creature. When he activated this ability, he also tapped Mobilized District to add one more mana to pay the costs of this activated ability. Now, when this land becomes a creature, does this creature untap or does it stay tapped because he also tapped this land to produce an additional mana?


texts: Is there a site to play Go online against a computer?

texts:
There are many go servers but all of them seem to be for player-player games. I want to play online against a computer. I found some but it is not an actual go. I was not able to find a real go brain online. Are there any at all?

PS: In the end, I registered to KGS and later at WBaduk (but liked KGS much more) and I ended up playing against human players only. I found it much more fun than playing against a computer and since I tried it for the first time (online) I never went back to playing against the computer.


texts: Is it better to go first or last in Vinci?

texts:
My son is convinced that it's best to go last in Vinci because you have the more complete information of seeing where other players have started their civilizations and you always get last turn (like having home field advantage in baseball). I see these 2 advantages, but I wonder if these outweigh the disadvantages such as not having first pick on civilizations, not being the first to go into decline, and perhaps other factors I haven't even considered (we're all new to the game). So:

Is it better to go first, last, in between, or is the game so well balanced that it hardly matters?


texts: Can a runner play events during the run? Timing structure of a run says that paid abilities could be played. What about events?


texts: What happens to the current color when you successfully challenge a Wild Draw 4?

texts: What happens If you challenge a player who say nominates red with his/her wild draw 4 card and you challenge successfully, then the person who played the card would pick up 4 cards instead of you. My question is, does the colour stay as red in this situation or to the colour just before it was reds?


texts: How do multiple copies of Merrow Commerce interact?

texts: If I have more than one copy of Merrow Commerce in play, they both trigger during my end step. Can I take actions after the first one resolves, but before the second one does? I'm thinking of something like tapping my Silvergill Douser and Merfolk Thaumaturgist to pick off an opponent's creatures, then having them untap again.


texts: Can a red spell (Sorcery, Instant, etc) affect a green creature?

texts:
I have a red/green deck. Can I use my red spells on my green creatures, and my green spells on my red creatures?

I am fairly new to MtG so I am sorry if this appears as a sort of nooby question.


texts: Should spiderines be allowed in 'A Dig Too Far?'

texts:
I was playing the Small World Realms scenario 'A Dig Too Far' with some friends the other night.  The map has 'veins of gold' that must all be dug from top to bottom, simultaneously.  Strategically placed chasms force players (or should) to work their way down the veins into 'monster races' that are working their way up the veins.

The third player to pick got the first shot at spiderines and immediately grabbed them.  Spiderines (as we read the rules) are able to pop up out of any chasms no matter where they are on the board, so the thing that is supposed to inhibit movement along the veins actually helps him get there faster and more efficiently.  He got all three of the first layer on his first turn (good for 7 bonus coin) and then he abandoned the regions and let the monster races flood out.  On his next turn, he was able to easily take over 2 of the three 'B' layers, and immediately got two relics for his trouble (stinky socks and the welcome mat... a deadly combination.)  From then on (the second or third turn), he was basically unstoppable and beat the rest of us handily.

I controlled the Balrog, but could never get close to him because he could always pick up and pop out of a different chasm.  He could also guarantee that the monsters (even when they were numerous) would never attack him by making sure he had more heavily defended squares when near monsters (they always choose to attack weaker spaces first.)  Basically, they seemed insanely overpowered for this specific map / scenario.  Has anyone else noticed this?  The instructions explicitly say to take flames, sorcerers, mummies, and skeletons out of the game, but it seems to me that spiderines are almost as overpowered as flames in this game type.  Was this just an oversight on the designers' part?  Does anyone have a good strategy against early spiderines on this map?


texts:
If my opponent plays  Ruinous Path and pays the Awaken cost, then I make the creature it targets invalid (e.g. bounce, protection, destroying it myself, ...) is that enough to counter the spell due to targeting rules:

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal... The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. ...

Are there 1 or 2 targets here? Does the land count as an additional target - so it still resolves because there is at least one valid target? Or is there only one target (the creature), as the other instance of the word "target" only appears in the reminder text not as actual rules text.


texts: Bang! Is a Bang needed to shoot back with Backfire?

texts:
The Backfire card says "The player who shot is the target of a BANG!"
Does that mean that the player who shot is automatically a target of a Bang, or does the player playing Backfire need to use a Bang with it to actually backfire on the other player?


texts: Will Splinter Twin and Combat Celebrant provide an indeterminant number of combat phases?

texts:
If Combat Celebrant is enchanted with Splinter Twin, and tapped during the Beginning of Combat portion of the Combat Phase to produce a token that is a Copy of Combat Celebrant, could this result in an indeterminant number of combat phases?

Chain of events:

Beginning of Combat: Tap enchanted Combat Celebrant to generate the token copy.
Declare Attackers: Declare the Token Copy and any number of other creatures attacking. Exert the Token Copy, untapping all other creatures including the original Combat Celebrant.
Declare Blockers: Opponents involvement.
Combat Damage: no surprises.
Additional Combat Phase Happens: Return to Beginning of Combat above, repeating the cycle.


texts: Teferi, Time Raveler says that enemies can only cast spells at sorcery speed. Does this prevent spells that are getting cast off of Cascade from casting?


texts: One Night Ultimate Werewolf: If your card is moved, whose team are you on?

texts:
I've been playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf (ONUW) for a few years, and I'm afraid we've been doing it wrong.

I play so that if you're a Werewolf at the start of the game, you stay on the Werewolf team even if your card is moved. Thus, if you discover your card was swapped with a Villager, for instance, you would want to convince people to vote for your card so that a villager is killed and you (the Werewolf) wins. Is this wrong?


texts: Are there dice that have both positive and negative numbers, where the average result is zero?  I'm imagining a die labeled something like: -2, -1, 0, +1, +2.  I feel like I've seen dice like this, but I'm not sure what they'd be called or how to find them.