texts: Has the significance of the term 'cast' changed?

texts:
Spellshock currently has the following wording in the Gatherer:

  Whenever a player casts a spell, Spellshock deals 2 damage to that player.

However, the original wording shown in the card image is this:

  Whenever any player successfully casts a spell, Spellshock deals 2 damage to him or her.

To me, the word "successfully" implies casting a spell which is not countered, though I'm not aware that the word "successfully" is ever defined in the rules. Otherwise, the word "successfully" means nothing at all, since it's pretty hard to fail at casting (as opposed to resolving) a spell. In more modern parlance, we might phrase the original ability this way:

  Whenever a spell resolves and is not countered, Spellshock deals 2 damage to that spell's controller.

Is this the original intent of the card? If so, when and why was the wording changed?


texts: Does lifelink apply before life loss during combat damage?

texts:
Let's say for example I'm at 1 life.

My opponent attacks with two creatures and I'm about to block one,
but my blocker has lifelink that would make me gain more life than I lose.
Do I still die due to the unblocked attacker or do I gain life before that?


texts: Can a "crippled" aircraft carrier launch airplanes in Midway?

texts:
In Midway, a large aircraft carrier (all of the Americans and two of the Japanese) can take five hits. If a ship has received one less hit than the critical number (four in this case), it is deemed damaged, to the point where its firepower capabilities are reduced to 1 (vs. ship) and 1 (vs. air), down from x y where it started, (where x and y are usually greater than 1). And I believe its movement factor is also reduced from 2 to 1.

In the Q & A of the 1960s version, a question was asked, that given the fact that an aircraft carrier with "ready" (fueled and armed) planes  would require one less hit to sink it, would getting planes "ready" after an attack sink an aircraft carrier? The answer was no, the ship would not be sunk, because the "readying" of the planes would not happen simultaneously with the bombing.

But a more important question is that would a crippled aircraft carrier be able to launch or retrieve planes, or would a carrier on its "last legs" have a ruined flight deck or crippled launching mechanism that would prevent this?

I don't remember the 1960s version of the rules addressing this point. Did the 1990s version do so, or were the 1960s rules clearer on this point than I remember? And if the answers were no, would the above be a reasonable interpretation that is in the "spirit" of the game?


texts: Can a route be included in more than one destination ticket?

texts:
The rules that come with the game do not specifically state the a route (between two cities) can be included in more than one destination string, but this is assumed when we play.

Is that a correct assumption?


texts: What's a good source of generic pieces/components?

texts:
I'm interested in building up a decent collection of generic components that I can grab when I want to throw together a quick prototype of a game. I'm not aware of any "component collections" that you can actually buy (I guess there may not be much of a market for them) but if I'm wrong, feel free to link me to one.

I expect then, that what I'm looking for is a game that has good value-for-money for the components since that's all I'm interested in. For that reason, the actual gameplay or rules are irrelevant to me.

As for the components themselves, I expect I'd be looking at a Euro for plentiful generic pieces (more Ameritrash games tend to have components that aren't particularly generic; I'd rather they not be moulded spaceships, or treasure chests or animals or whatever). For instance, I'm looking for lots of cubes in various colours, maybe a few meeples in different colours too. Cards aren't so important to me since they can be easily prototyped from index cards etc. Agricola came to mind when I first thought about it, but that's quite pricey. (But who knows? Maybe the price-per-component value is actually quite good).

I'm aware that prices etc differ in different places, so I'm not looking for a game guaranteed to be available cheaply near me, but I'd be interested to hear how people have solved this problem in the past.

Update: Thanks for the tips guys! The online resources look really good, but are all based in the US and I'm based in the UK! If anyone knows of any online solutions that can cheaply ship to the UK that would be great. The cost of shipping from the US kind of counteracts the cheapness in the first place!


texts: Why is Royal Flush ever listed separately from Straight Flush?

texts: Many sources (including here, here, here, and here) explicitly list Royal Flush as the highest poker hand. This seems unnecessary - it's the highest hand anyway as the highest Straight Flush. When designing a ruleset, unnecessary is harmful (e.g. it gives new players more to remember). So is there a good historical or game-mechanics reason why we treat the Royal Flush as a special case?


texts: What is the correct creature type for Lesser and Greater Werewolf?

texts:
I noticed that the text of the Lesser/Greater Werewolf card reads Lycanthrope but the oracle text at Gatherer reads the type as Werewolf.

I think that the Gather errata (oracle) should be the observed interpretation, but how can I put this in a simple way that will be accepted by other players and is consistent with the established rules?

I see this as a relevant question, as this card could be teamed with Mayor of Avabruck//Howlpack Alpha and gain the +1/+1 no matter which side was facing.


texts: Earthquake - does it affect units in docks?

texts:
So in a game of 'Mine a Million' aka 'The Business Game' the production card came up with Earthquake at Newport. The card's description officially says:

  All Warehouse stocks belonging to all players are lost

So the question is, if stock is kept inside a barge at the barge dock (or a ship in the ship berth) does that make it safe from the earthquake as technically the goods aren't in the warehouse?


texts: In Love Letter, can you discard a card instead of playing it?

texts:
Are players compelled to use the power of a card, or can they choose to not use it (and simply discard it)? For instance, can I choose to

not have anyone discard after playing the Prince
not to compare my card to another player after playing the Baron
not to trade hands with anyone using the King?

Those three are the cases where I could see a distinct advantage to being allowed to not use the power. Other cases that are more questionable when it comes to assisting the player are whether one can choose to

not look at anyone's card with the Priest
not use the Handmaid's protective power


texts:
Recently got my hands on this old gem, but the rules are a bit vague on some points.

When doing the defence action, do I defend only that combat phase or all of them?
Do I need to specify what area I defend?
How does shield damage work?


texts: Do great Scrabble players ever turn in their tiles?

texts:
Presumably you would trade in tiles if you thought you would get in one turn, after trading, more than what you'll get in the next two turns without trading.

But then, maybe you should make defensive plays even in some of those situations?


texts: Does the "forced response to a new suit" concept apply to both players in the Goren bidding system?

texts:
Does the "forced response to a new suit" concept apply to both the partner and the opening bidder during the course of bidding, assuming both have adequate point count to bid to game?

For example,
1.  Opening bidder bids 1♥,
2.  partner responds 1♠ (new suit = forcing),
3.  opener responds 2♣ (new suit = forcing),
4.  partner responds 2♦ (new suit = forcing),
5.  opener responds 2NT (inviting),
6.  partner bids 3NT,
7.  The contract is made.

Does this bidding sequence accurately depict forced response as applicable to both opener and partner?


texts: Can I create an online version of a game?

texts:
Can I create an online version of a card game? Just for experimenting. Is there any possible legal implication?
In this case the card game is called Rick and Morty: Total Rickall.


texts:
I need help to settle a disagreement. During a recent Commander game, my opponent played a Devastation Tide, Return all nonland permanents to their owners' hands. He had 4 tokens out, and claims this did not apply to the tokens. His logic was that tokens would not return to his hand since they never were actually cast, so they should remain.

I disagree for 2 reasons, first I play Duels as well and the table version, and that game counts tokens as permanents. Second, from my understanding, with a few minor exceptions, a nonland permanent would be ANYTHING except an instant, sorcery, artifacts, equipment, etc. that is not 'permanently' on the battlefield.

In the above scenario, the tokens should have been eliminated, I believe. Is this correct?


texts: In Arkham Horror, do you ignore counting items that can't be lost or stolen when going insane or unconscious?

texts:
The Arkham Horror errata says on page 6:

  Q: Some Items state that they cannot be lost or stolen unless you choose to allow it. When does this ability come into play?

  A: It would come into play when an investigator goes insane, gets
  knocked unconscious, or defaults on a bank loan. It would also come
  into play when any other game effect specifically instructs you to
  lose an item or tells you an item is stolen.

This answer is vague. Since you are choosing which items to lose when you go insane or unconscious, the only way I can see this answer making sense is that they are claiming these particular items could cause you to not lose half of your items (rounded down).

My interpretation is that if you have two items, both of which can't be lost unless you allow it, then you can retain both when you go insane/unconscious. What if you have 4 items that can't be lost and 2 that can.  Do you get to lose only 2 of the items in this case?  If you have merely 1 item that can and 1 that can't, is it basically no different than if you had regular items (and would mean you are simply choosing the one to get rid of)? This leads me to think that this quality of items only really comes into play if greater than "half of your items rounded up" have this quality. i.e. 3 out of 4, 4 out of 5 items, 4 out of 6 items, 5 out of 7 items, etc, in which case you could avoid losing the full "half rounded down" amount.  Do I have this right?


texts: Is there a card that turns +X/+X into X +1/+1 counters?

texts:
I'm building an Exalted deck, and I've been looking for a card that would completely break the mechanic and make my creatures nearly unstoppable. So far I've had no luck, but here's where I'm hoping you guys can help. I don't know whether it would be an enchantment, creature, artifact, or whatever, but here's a basic description of what I'd like the card to do.

"If a creature you control would get +X/+X, it gets X +1/+1 counters instead."

This would essentially make the Exalted bonus permanent and not just till the end of the turn. If you know of any cards (or combinations of cards, for that matter) that can do something like this, please let me know. Thanks!


texts: Would enchanting an opponents Stuffy Doll with Pariah cause a Draw?

texts:
I'm not sure how I haven't stumbled upon this amazing combo of cards before! I was just thinking, would it cause an infinite loop if I controlled a Pariah that was attached to an opponents Stuffy Doll?

In turn would this be a draw?


texts: Is there a reason for why were the five colors of MTG ordered, clockwise, white, blue, black, red and green?


texts: Can I kill an opponent in response to lethal activated abilities, and not take the damage?

texts:
Here's the situation.

Life totals: Not relevant

Player 1: Activates Borborygmos Enraged (Discard a land card: Deal 3 damage to any target) enough times for lethal, aims damage at Player 2. Passes priority.

Player 2: In response, uses Mirage Mirror's activated ability to copy Borborygmos Enraged, no responses. Activates the ability for lethal themselves, aims all damage at Player 1, no responses.

Player 1 dies.

Does Player 2 still live, or do the triggers persist after Player 1 loses the game?


texts: Scenario 55, can you attack medusa without the mirror?

texts: Played this scenario with a group today and got into a debate on whether or not you needed the mirror to attack Medusa. I know that the killing blow had to be made by someone with the mirror though.


texts: Is there an opposite for Guiding Ariadne?

texts:
Most pendulum monsters have an opposite. For example Dragonpulse Magician, Dragonpit Magician.  One is pendulum value 1 the other 8. My question is, is there an opposite for Guiding Ariadne? Something like:

Monster effect, Level 5 or 7, Pendulum level 6 or 8, Type Fairy, Attribute Light, Attack _____, Defense _____
Pendulum Effect: Each time you activate a counter trap card your opponent takes 500 damage.
Monster Effect: Each time you activate a counter trap card you gain 500 life points.

Basically a card that ties with the pendulum effect of Guiding Ariadne but is higher pendulum level.


texts: What is the use of Lady of the Lake card in avalon?

texts: I have always wondered what is the use of this card. It would be great if someone could help me out with it.


texts: Is there any theory or advice in how best to plan declarer play in a 4-4 trump fit. In what situations do you draw trumps, in what situations do you not draw trumps and any other advice?


texts: What's the point of the cardboard castles in Kingdomino?

texts: I cannot find a function for them; what is the point? Just marking each player's starting half-domino?


texts: How can I make Agricola vegetarian friendly?

texts:
Agricola is a great game, with good theming, and I'd like to introduce it to a couple of friends who are vegetarian.

The problem is they might feel uncomfortable with the 'eating your animals' aspect of the game.

How can I change the game's narrative so that they're not eating their animals, but doing something else that converts the animals to food?


texts: How does Phasing work with Phyrexian Unlife?

texts: I have the card Phyrexian Unlife on the battlefield, and I have less than 0 life. If I cast Teferi's Protection, what happens? Do I lose the game because Phyrexian Unlife is phased out? Or does it still keep me alive?


texts: Which property group colour gives the best ROI , undeveloped or fully developed, in Monopoly?

texts: Everybody always goes for the dark blues in Monopoly (Mayfair and Park Lane in the UK edition), but I'm convinced that the cheaper colour groups offer a better return on investment, partly because you can fully develop them quicker, and partly because you can own more squares, thereby giving you more "hits" and a steadier income. But is there any analysis to support (or refute) this view?


texts: if I have Mirror March out and cast Worldsoul Colossus with X=5. Would the copies keep the +1/+1 counters where the X paid effect would still be on the bottom of the stack under the mirror march copies or does that not matter and they'd enter as 0/0s and die?


texts: Can I activate Keegan Lane via Acme Consulting ability?

texts: Can I activate Keegan Lane (trash+"virtual" tag removal) during the runner's encounter with the outermost piece of ice if the id is Acme Consulting? The runner has no tags before the run and the ice does not give them.


texts: When would it be advantageous not apply Training Ground's cost reduction?

texts:
Training Grounds has an optional cost reduction ability, as indicated by the card-specific ruling:

  You may choose not to apply Training Ground’s cost reduction effect. You may also choose to apply only part of it (causing an activated ability of a creature you control to cost just {1} less to activate).

Why is this conditional?  Training Grounds never co-existed with Mana Burn.  Are there any situations in which it would be advantageous to not apply this ability?

(This is related to Paying more mana for a Flashed creature, but is about why you would not apply the cost reduction rather than whether or not you can.)


texts: The card in the following picture was included, probably by mistake, in a stack of Chance cards that were in a 1936 Monopoly box that I purchased on eBay a number of years ago. It clearly has nothing to do with Monopoly but it looks really old and finding it in a 1936 box seems to confirm that it is. I am curious as to which game it belongs.


texts: How can one reach 20 points in At The Gates of Loyang?

texts:
In all of the Loyang I've played, about a dozen games, nobody has reached 20 points. Have you or someone you've played with reached 20 points? If so, what kind of strategy was used?

I've noticed the following traits among game-winning strategies in the 17-19 point range:

Always pay 1 Cash to score 1 point at the end of each turn.
Selling to high-end casual customers (payouts of 10 or 11) is the easiest way to get 20+ Cash in one turn. You can simply pick them up and hang onto them until you have enough regular customers to get the +2 Cash bonus.
Get regular customers in the middle of the game. Regular customers must be acquired on or before Turn 6 to reach their max payout by game end (Turn 9.)
Plant all empty private fields each turn to ensure an adequate supply of vegetables.
In general, plant the most expensive vegetable each field allows.
Buy a cheap two-pack (0 or 1 cash) every turn or have lots of market stalls for exchanging vegetables.
In general, only take followers you intend to use immediately with the exception of game-changers like Squire. Stockpiling helpers for possible later use can end up being dead weight that makes those card picks a waste.

Which of these are also applicable to a 20-point strategy? What should be added to or removed from the above?


texts: Where can I find a database of Go games with move times

texts:
I am looking for a database of 19x19 Go games (complete games) including the time spent on each move, or the global time in each move. Other aspect is that its need to be without bots or any artificial intelligence, just people Vs people.
I have found databases (such as gokifu) with everything I want except for the time per move.


texts: Rolling and passing dice in Inn-Fighting

texts:
We picked up the d&d dice game Inn-Fighting by Wizards of the Coast yesterday and gave it a whirl.

A few questions came up that the rules and available FAQs don't seem to clarify.

I have a wizard adventurer, who has a defense ability that has me roll all 6 dice and deal damage other characters. If Bob attacks me and I sucessfully use this ability and roll all 6 dice, what will get passed to the next player - whatever my ability's roll came up, or should I reset the dice back to what Bob rolled before his attack?
On a similar note, what if the defense die shows an ale or dice, and someone needs to roll it. Do they reset it back to what it showed before they rolled, or pass it as whatever it just came up as?

We ended up ruling whatever any dice last rolled gets passed, but I'd love to have a clarification on that.


texts: Are the counters limited in Wrath of Ashardalon?

texts:
In the new D+D game Wrath of Ashardalon, suppose that you use a daily power that places counters (like Blade Barrier, Mirror Image, or Flaming Sphere) and then get the power refreshed (through an item, for example) while the counters are still on the board.

Can you use the power again, and if so, what happens (given that you don't have enough counters left to place more)?


texts: Does a vehicle require a crew if it is enchanted to become a creature?

texts: So, say I have a Consulate Dreadnought and I enchant it with Siege Modification. The Crew effect makes it to become an artifact creature, but if it is already an artifact creature, does it need to be crewed to attack?


texts: How do damage increases and redirects interact?

texts:
I ran into a weird situation today. I was playing Absolute Zero on Insula Primalis. Two obsidian fields were drawn:

Obsidian Field
Increase all Damage dealt by 1. At the end of their turn, 1 player may discard 2 cards to destroy this card.

I had the Isothermic Transducer in play.

Isothermic Transducer
When Absolute Zero is dealt Fire Damage, Absolute Zero deals 1 Target that much Cold Damage.

Now my power is to deal either cold or fire damage to myself. So how do these two interact? It seems like one of two different things should happen:

I deal myself 1 + 2 == 3 fire damage, and then deal 1 target 3 cold damage. This is what I ended up doing. Or

I I deal myself 1 + 2 == 3 fire damage, and then deal 1 target 3 + 2 == 5 cold damage.

2 is what I would like to do, but this seems kind of cheaty. Is this really how these two cards interact?


texts: Does guiltfeeder still cause loss of life if it's killed by an instant after attacking?

texts:
If an opponent attacks me with Guiltfeeder, and I destroy it with an Instant after it has been declared an Attacker, what happens?

  Fear

  Whenever Guiltfeeder attacks and isn't blocked, defending player loses 1 life for each card in his or her graveyard.

Since it has been destroyed, it's impossible to declare blockers against it, but the ability is still on the stack (I think?), so I'm not sure what the outcome is.


texts:
Is there any sort of limit to the number of weapons or items you can use during combat?

In Arkham Horror, the hand icons restricted the number of weapons/spells/items that you could use.


texts: In mahjong, how will joker tiles change the game strategy?

texts:
I'm developing a new ruleset of mahjong. It's supposed to be a hybrid of Japanese rule and Chinese rule. I'm also considering including the joker tile, also known as baida (百塔). Here is the sketch of how it works:

There are 8 joker tiles in total.

Upon calling Mahjong (和了):

if you have 2 joker tiles, they are considered as an arbitrary Pair (対子).

if you have 3 joker tiles, they are considered as an arbitrary Chow/Pong  (順子) / (刻子).

if you declared a concealed Kong with joker tiles, they are considered as an arbitrary Kong (槓子).

It is possible to declare Pon, Kan, or Ron to a joker tile.

It is not possible to declare Chi to a joker tile.

A Dora tile declares itself as a Dora. This also applies to a joker tile. But if the tile is a flower tile, it doesn't declare a Dora.

But I'm unsure how this will change the game strategy. How will the game strategy change, and why didn't Japanese rule and Chinese rule use joker tiles at the first place?


texts: Why did deathtouch not work against a double strike or first strike creature?

texts:
I am new to mtg, but I come across a lot of technical things that don’t make sense to me. One major thing that has infuriated me is why deathtouch doesn’t work when I block with it. I had Orzhov Enforcer and blocked with it against a Fencing Ace with a +1/+1 counter on it. It didn’t die though. My creature defended and dealt -1 damage which should’ve killed it, but didn’t. Why did this happen more than once with me.

There is another case where I dealt 2 damage with two 1/1’s against Tajic, Legion’s Edge and it did not die. The card says it prevents damage to other creatures you control not the card itself. So, why did it not die that time either?

In both encounters, the opponent did not have any enchantment, artifact, instant, whatever to prevent any damage or keep these two creatures alive. So, what is the deal? What am I missing?


texts: Replacing ships after taking control of enemy ports

texts:
Page 25 of the rulebook states:

  Taking Control of Enemy Ports - If the land area connected to a Port
  is successfully attacked and taken control of by another player, that
  player may immediately replace any enemy Ship units in the Port with
  an equal number of his own available Ship units (or as many Ship units
  as he has available, he desires, or is allowed by supply limits).
  Excess enemy ships are simply removed from the board.

What does available mean in this context? Available as in a player has ships left that (s)he has not yet mustered or available as in ships that have already been mustered?

Where do the own ships come from? Are they existing ships on the board that simply move into the port now or are new ships mustered instead?


texts: If partner opens one heart, what do I need to respond with one spade?

texts: If my partner opens one heart, and I respond one spade, am I showing four or five spades?


texts: Is there a list of routecards for Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries?

texts: Is there a list of all routecards with points on the internet for nordic countries? I tried to look for it but could only find them for the normal version.


texts:
On the board I had Dina, Soul Steeper and another creature with lifelink. My opponent had huge advantage on the board, but was at 1 life. He attacked with everything. I expected to lose dozens of lives, but trigger Dina by blocking one guy with lifelink creature, and cause opponent to go to 0, resulting in draw. Instead, I had just lost outright.
Why?


texts: Are union cards activated from your hand, or only from the field?

texts:
My Kaiba deck has the cards Y-Dragon Head, Z-Metal Tank, and X something.

Z-Metal Tank, for example, says:

  Once per turn, you can either: Target 1 "X-Head Cannon" or "Y-Dragon Head" you control; equip this card to that target.

It says other things, but this is enough to continue my question.

Can I activate this union effect when Z-Metal Tank is in my hand, as a sort of Special Summon, or can this only be done when it's already out on the field?

I guess this is a really basic question but neither the card text nor the beginner rule book accompanying the deck addresses this point.


texts:
Let say I have Hive Mind in game:

The opponent casts Counterspell on my creature spell. Can I counter the Counterspell with the clone of Counterspell I get from Hive Mind?


texts:
This game may not actually be an actual solitaire, as it might have been something my grandmother had me do when I was wee to keep me out of her hair.  But if anyone DOES know it, I would dearly like to know if I am forgetting some of the rules or playing it wrong.
Play: using standard 52 card deck, deal 4 cards, one into each of 4 piles.  If some of the cards have the same rank then move the matching cards to the rightmost, repeating for all matches.  Then deal another 4 cards, one onto each stack, and repeat.  If all 4 on top of a stack are the same card (four of a kind) you withdraw them from the deck entirely. You repeat until you have no more cards.
For example, if you dealt A 2 3 4, nothing would move.  If you dealt 2 3 3 4 on top of that, the left 3 would move onto the right three.  This would reveal the 2 that it had covered, and the 2 on top of the leftmost stack would shift to the right.
Once all cards are dealt, you pick them back up in sequence (This is the part I remember the least.  I THINK that the leftmost pile ends up on the 'bottom' of the new stack, and the rightmost pile on the top) and then deal through again until you win.
Thanks guys!


texts:
I'm afraid my Dixit cards will get worn or marked over time. I want players to be able to manipulate them without being afraid of ruining them.

Where can I find protective sleeves for my Dixit cards?


texts: Ordering of triggered ability and ETB effect

texts: Suppose I have a Rhonas's Monument and a 1/1 creature token on the field and I play an Ornery Kudu, putting the -1/-1 counter on the token and giving it +2/+2 via the Monument trigger. Does the token die immediately, or can I choose to apply the monument first so that the token lasts until end of turn (as a 2/2)?


texts: Atemsis, All-Seeing and Mask of Immolation interaction

texts:
Does sacrificing Atemsis, All-Seeing equipped with Mask of Immolation trigger Atemsis' second ability, or does it not trigger because Atemsis left the battlefield already?

Atemsis' second ability:

  Whenever Atemsis, All-Seeing deals damage to an opponent, you may reveal your hand. If cards with at least six different converted mana costs are revealed this way, that player loses the game.

Mask of Immolation's sacrifice ability:

  Equipped creature has “Sacrifice this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target.”

(Emphasis mine)


texts: If I have both Prismatic Omen and Gruul Turf on the battlefield, can I tap the Gruul Turf for two of any land type it's become now, or does it still only add one g and r?


texts: In this card game, you have a hand of 10 cards where you try to order them by replacement. On your turn, you draw a card, switch it with one in your hand, and discard the other one. You can use the top card of the discard pile.


texts: How do Sliver Overlord and Mirror Entity react together?

texts:
If you activate Mirror Entity's ability to give all your creatures all creature types, can you then search for any creature in your library using Sliver Overlord's ability?

I understand that you don't "control" your library, but you do control cards on the battlefield and stack. But when you search your library, does it not become part of your stack, or at least doesn't the card you find in it?

Btw I stated "cards" because I know the word permanent means something else.


texts: How can I make realistic looking homebrew cards?

texts: I am making a homebrew expansion for Dominion and I have been using the GoodNotes app for the card layouts. I thought they looked pretty good until I saw Asper’s Cards and was blown away by how good they looked. Is there any program usable on an ipad browser that can make cards that look like those?


texts: Multiple delayed triggers from Massacre Girl interaction

texts:
Recently on my usual EDH playgroup, we had an interaction of which we couldn't tell the outcome for sure.

I had a Massacre Girl out on the battlefield, enchanted with Kaya's Ghostform. I then cast an Altar's Reap, sacrificing Massacre Girl as the additional cost. After resolving the relevant triggered abilities, I had now a Massacre Girl on the battlefield and a delayed trigger that's been created by Massacre Girl's ability.

My turn then proceeds uneventfully until my end step, during which I use the ability from my Conjurer's Closet to 'blink' my Massacre Girl.

Assuming a creature died from the Massacre Girl's latest ETB trigger, both delayed triggers will trigger at the same time: the one created now, and the one created earlier this turn.

Both triggers read:

  Whenever a creature dies this turn, each creature other than Massacre Girl gets -1/-1 until end of turn.

My question then is: Will the delayed trigger created earlier in the turn also give -1/-1 to my current Massacre Girl, since it's considered a new object? And which are the relevant rulings for this interaction?


texts:
From The Shadow Rune campaign, The Cardinal's Plight quest, Encounter 2:

Special Rules extract:

  Once rescued, at the end of the last hero turn each round, Cardinal Koth performs a single move action. Koth cannot perform other actions.

The Overlord gets a master zombie, and if it dies he can reinforce it at the start of his turn. Assume the master zombie is always next to Cardinal Koth. The master zombie has Grab:

  Choose a hero adjacent to this monster. The hero must test Might. If the hero fails, he is Immobilized.

Cardinal Koth has a Might of 2, so with our assumption it's safe to say the master zombie will almost always immobilize Cardinal Koth.

And, for completeness, Immobilized:

  You cannot perform move actions or suffer Fatigue to gain movement points. Discard this card or token at the end of your turn.

How can this Overlord strategy be countered?

Once mobilized Cardinal Koth can outpace the master zombie, but situations like respawning the master zombie at the entrance or the Overlord playing Dash could immobilize us again.

Ideas:

Stun (don't kill) the master zombie. Then wait (forever?) for an unlucky roll.
Blockade Koth in a corner. Have to move him to a corner first plus minimum three heroes.
Use a search item to remove the condition. Requires lucky searching.
The quest rule that he gets a move action trumps?

  Page 18, "The Golden Rules": The first bullet point should read,
  “Some cards and abilities come in direct conflict with the rules found in
  this rulebook. Cards and abilities take precedence over the rules in this
  rulebook. Furthermore, many quest rules listed in the Quest Guides come
  in direct conflict with cards, abilities, and the rules found in this rulebook.
  The quest rules listed in the Quest Guides take precedence over cards,
  abilities, and the rulebook.”

  -Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition Errata and FAQ Version 1.6

I'm thinking there might be abilities or feats that can take care of this, but I'm not familiar with all the classes.


texts:
I'm new to proliferate and my friend was playing a proliferate deck. He had a creature with 3 +1/+1s on it and he played a Bloom Hulk. He said that his creature gained 3 +1/+1s because of proliferate and I thought that was weird.

We looked it up and it said you gain 1 for each kind of counter, so does that mean he gets 3 for each +1/+1 counter already on the creature or just 1 +1/+1 counter?


texts:
I read a review of Lanterns: The Emperor's Gifts that argued:

  The base game of Lanterns has a flaw, and it was one that threatened to kill the game for me over time. You see, the "four of a kind" tiles were statistically better than the other types, to a degree that if you did nothing but target them through most of the game (until they were depleted enough to make the card-cost-to-VP ratio more even with the other dedication types), you were probably going to win.

In a reply, the reviewer explained:

  So, in the base game, to start, it's 4 cards for 8 points, or 7 cards for 10 points for the first tile. The latter is wildly worse, for what I believe are obvious reasons. It's a 2:1 point ratio vs. something near 1.4:1. You get 2 less points, but keep 3 cards toward your next turn-in. At that point, those three cards are worth more than 2 points regardless of which dedication type you use. Now extrapolate that advantage across a whole game. Taking it a step further, a 6-point four-of-a-kind dedication is still a better ratio. Which is exactly my point. It takes a lot of depletion in four-of-a-kind before this isn't true. And if the other piles are being similarly depleted, it's often going to be true for the entirety of a game.

My experience is the game is very competitive. I just finished a 4-player game that ended 45, 43, 43, 42.  (I was 43 and my 7-year-old son was the winner!) We depleted the  3-pairs dedication and almost depleted the all-7-colors dedication leaving 4-of-a-kind barely touched. If one of us had saved their lanterns by going after 4-of-a-kind, would we have made up for the smaller payout of that dedication? Does the one-dedication-a-turn rule come into play in the analysis?


texts: Can the Mask of Avacyn be targeted by spells after being equipped to a creature?

texts:
Can the Mask of Avacyn be targeted by spells after it's been equipped to a creature?

This is an odd question, because the mask gives the equipped creature a +1/+2 and has hexproof  and says it "can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponent controls", where "it" refers to the equipped creature. However, can your opponent use a spell or ability to directly destroy the Mask of Avacyn (in this case an Artifact - Equipment card)?

Example: Mask of Avacyn is attached to a creature.  Can my opponent use the Planeswalker ability of Nicol Bolas that reads: "Destroy target noncreature permanent"?

Alternatively, can my opponent use a spell card that reads, "Destroy target permanent" or Recoil, an Instant that reads:, "Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card"?


texts: In 7 Wonders, when using a Leader to build Babylon (B)'s second stage before Age 3

texts:
With the addition of the Leaders expansion, you can use your leaders to build your wonder.

If you build Babylon (B)'s second stage (which allows you to play the card you would normally discard) with your third Age Leader, can you use this ability to play your fourth Leader or must it be used to play a third Age card?

As the fourth Leader would normally be discarded, the question was raised as we were playing tonight. I'm not sure how to answer it since, if you were using a Leader in any other Age, you would not be able to play another Leader as you would not be discarding a Leader at that time.


texts: When a monster is discarded, is it considered "defeated"?

texts: One of the Shub-Niggurath mysteries calls for action after a monster is defeated.  Does this include when you discard a monster from a Tokyo encounter or kill it from inducing a loss of health from Tokyo?  With no further clarification on the wording, I would think discarding an entire monster would be considered defeating it as it gets blasted from the Earth.


texts: Can special actions in the location card be attempted more than once during a scavenge?

texts: Can the special actions in the location cards be attempted more than once?  I'm talking about the ones that say "Return N cards to etc" and have you look up a numbered note in the journal.  These are in a black background sideways on the location card


texts: Does Harvey Walters' ability to reduce Sanity loss by 1 break the game?

texts: The professor has an ability to reduce san loss by 1. Therefore, he is able to cast any number of spells for free! Is this meant to be so overpowering?


texts: If a card tells you to swap the placement of two rooms in any dungeon  and you have multiple rooms on top of each other do you swap the placement of just the room on top of the stack or do you move the whole stack of rooms?


texts:
My office frequently raises money for charities holding lotteries or raffles. A coworker and I were considering more creative & entertaining ways to raise money, and we hit on the idea of playing Risk! Participants would be randomly assigned territories (most likely one territory per participant given the # of participants in my office) and could raise armies by donating money (say $1 per army token). Players would be free to form alliances & conquer neighboring territories as per the rules. Not sure if the Risk cards would be used in order to keep our rules as simple as possible. The winner of the game wins a prize, with runners up winning secondary prizes.

Questions: How can the rules of Risk be adapted to a fundraiser in order to maximize the amount of money raised? Once a player is knocked out of the game, how can she continue donating money in a meaningful way? How do we link # territories owned with # of armies you can raise without placing undue restrictions on donation amounts?


texts:
I'm an occasional social Magic player (not crazy about the game). I like playing drafts more than constructed to avoid the arms race, but they're not cheap, and one of my friends had a real problem with buying cards for a while, so I was thinking about putting together a Cube so that when we draft every now and again, no one would have to buy anything. It also seems like it would lend itself well to inexpensive cards, since having a consistent power level would allow competitive games even if that level is low.

However, I don't want to spend much time or money doing so (I'd rather just suggest 7 Wonders or something like that). Is there any resource that has Cube lists, maybe specifically for "budget"/Pauper-type selections that provide a fun experience? I did a cursory Internet search, but all the lists I came across seemed peppered with at least a few cards I know are pricey.


texts: Why does this ability have its mana cost written twice?

texts:
Korozda Monitor reads:

  Scavenge {5}{G}{G} ({5}{G}{G}, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)

I would like to know why the 5(G)(G) is listed twice, outside of the parentheses and inside. I've seen this format on other cards too.


texts: What general strategy exists for countering a white swarm/pump deck?

texts:
A white swarm/pump deck is a deck with a lot of small, inexpensive white creatures that are subsequently improved by enchantments such as Honor of the Pure or other bonuses.

The goal of this deck is to kill off the opponent before they can develop their strategy.

What deck types are effective in countering this sort of deck?


texts: When casting a spell, how can a mana ability be paid with another mana ability?

texts:
A situation was presented with Skyshroud Elf and Ashnod's Altar: apparently, you could generate WW or RR by:

Activate the Elf's filter ability ({1}: Add {R} or {W})
Activate the Elf's filter ability
Activate Altar to generate {2}
Resolve filter ability 1 (or 2?)
Resolve other filter ability

But, mana abilities don't use the stack, and once activated they resolve immediately. So, how can you "respond" to a mana ability in this way?

  605.3b An activated mana ability doesn’t go on the stack, so it can’t be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated

Credit to Pucatrade for the situation


texts: Is it unsportsmanlike to concede when you believe you cannot win?

texts:
I've had a long running debate with some folks I play with regarding concession. Some argue that is it is unsportsmanlike to concede a game if you are not doing very well. I contend however, that if it often more frustrating to sit there and be miserable if you know the outcome of the game; this is particularly true of longer games such as Catan with Cities and Knights.

Now, I'm not really talking about "just quitting" every time you don't get your way. And I'm certainly not talking about being rude, snide or otherwise contemptible in such cases. I've been on the other side of the fence too and it seem appropriate to "just call it" in many instances but some would rather drag it on.

Is there an acceptable middle ground or technique for dealing with these types of situations? Where one person has clearly won before they have actually won?


texts: How are jokers colored in decks with more than two jokers?

texts: So, normally you have two jokers, a big joker and a little joker. The big one is sometimes distinguished by being red (or colored). How does it work with decks with 4 or more jokers? Is is supposed to alternate black, red, black, red, or is only one supposed to be red, or should the red thing just be avoided with > 2 jokers and some other scheme used to identify their rank?


texts: Can we move the chair when we're playing?

texts: While playing carrom, if we're seated in a chair. Can we reposition the chair to play the shot better?


texts:
When can we stack checker(one on top of other) on a single point? Can I stack the checker on a single point when we have an only 3-4 checker on a point?
- Is there any rule regarding we can only put checker on top of another checker when we have more than 5 checkers on a single point


texts: How does Magic handle “Type – Subtype” lines that don’t fit on the card when translated?

texts:
This question links to a Russian version of Peel from Reality which has “Мгновенное заклинание” as its type line—literally, “Instant spell” rather than just “Instant” (I assume there is some Russian grammatical reason why just “Мгновенное” would be unacceptable).

“Мгновенное заклинание” takes up far more horizontal space than “Instant,” which got me thinking—what does Wizards do when the translation of a type line takes up more room than the available space? I know some Magic cards have substantially longer English type lines than “Instant,” and several fill up very-nearly the entire available space (e.g. Theros’s “Legendary Enchantment Creature — God,” though I see the Russian version of that is “Легендарные Чары Существо — Бог” and fits in the available space—though it’s getting even closer to the limit there).

So, does Wizards of the Coast limit type lines based on translations? Or do they accept that some translations aren’t going to fit—and if so, what do they do then? Clearly, “Мгновенное заклинание” suggests that they haven’t found as-short-or-shorter translations for everything, so this is a possible concern (not that I expect them to print a “Tribal Instant — Arcane” or anything like it any time soon, which seems like the only way “Мгновенное заклинание” itself could run into trouble). Do we have any examples where it was a real concern?


texts:
I'm south. I have:

♠ A 10 5
♥ A
♦ A K Q J 8
♣ A Q 10 8

East opened the bidding with 3♥.
What should I bid?


texts: Seafarers: The Fog Island -- discovering hexes with the Road Building Development Card

texts:
Scenario 3 of the Seafarers expansion to The Settlers of Catan is The Fog Island, in which players "discover" the hexes in the middle of the game board by building a road or ship that connects to the intersection of an unexplored hex. The discovered hex may be a land or sea hex.

The Road Building Development Card can be used to build two roads or two ships or one of each. I had a situation in which I was in a position to build a single road/ship to discover an unexplored hex, or a single different road/ship to discover a different unexplored hex. I also had the Road Building Development Card, so I could build two roads/ships at once. The question is:

Must I build both roads/ships from Road Building immediately and then uncover hex(es), or may I uncover hexes as I build the two roads/ships?

Put another way, can I build one road/ship from the Road Building Development Card to uncover the first hex, and then use that information to make my choice on where to build the second road/ship from the Road Building card?

As the player with the Road Building card I would prefer to uncover hexes as I build roads/ships so that I can make a more informed choice for the placement of the second road/ship. If the first uncovered hex is a sea hex, for example, I will probably prefer to build the second road/ship to uncover the second hex. But if the first uncovered hex is a land hex with a high probability chip, I might prefer to build the second road/ship alongside it in preparation for building a settlement.

The text of the Road Building Development Card seems to imply that the placement of both roads/ships occurs at the same time, in which case I would have to build the roads/ships before uncovering hex(es):

  Place 2 new roads as if you had just built them.

However, the rules for The Fog Island scenario (page 14) states (emphasis added):

  If you place a ship or road that connects to the intersection of an unexplored hex, you must immediately draw the top hex from the pile and place it face up in the empty space.

My opponents and I agreed (before I placed any roads/ships) that I could uncover the first hex before placing the second road/ship, based primarily on the use of the word "immediately" in the scenario description.

Is this the correct interpretation? Is this specific question addressed anywhere else? The rules for Seafarers has a small section on the Road Building Development Card, but only to say that it can be used to build roads and/or ships as opposed to just roads. Similarly, the online FAQ for Seafarers does not address this situation.


texts: What are the blue-backed cards in Dominion for?

texts:
There is a set of one of each card, but with blue inner border on their backs instead of beige.

What are they for?


texts: My friend and I were playing MTG and I cast Archetype of Imagination, except he countered it. Then I countered his counter, so does my creature stay on the battlefield or go to my graveyard?


texts: Pandemic's difficulty seems to rest on the placement of the first epidemic card in the deck

texts:
It's impossible to get an outbreak until the first epidemic has occurred.

As such the placement of the first epidemic in the player deck has a large effect on the game. If near the bottom, it allows the players to go through several turns before the game starts become risky. At that point they may have already cleaned up most of the disease cubes and largely mitigated the risk.

Now of course, having more epidemic cards in the deck increases the chance that one will be near the top. Also - if one isn't near the top, then it means that there's a higher concentration of later on.

However this does still seem like quite an unkiltering dynamic of the game, where a large amount of how the game goes is down to luck.

The question is - does this dynamic have a significant effect on the game, and how can it be mitigated?

One option I've considered, is that you might shuffle all except one card into the player deck, and then take the top 10 cards off, and without looking, shuffle the last one in. So there's guaranteed to be an epidemic in the first 11 cards.


texts: How can a blue control deck be made more efficient?

texts:
It seems like my games last a long time and I don't do that much damage. Is that what it's supposed to feel like when using a control deck? How can I win more efficiently?

Here is my deck:

Lands
19x Islands
1x  Glacial Fortress
1x  Terramorphic Expanse

Artifacts
1x  Adaptive Automaton
1x  Scepter of Empires
1x  Throne of Empires
1x  Isochron Scepter
2x  Elixir of Immortality
3x  Kraken's Eye

Blue Creatures
1x  Wall of Frost
1x  Augury Owl
1x  Zephyr Sprite
2x  Aether Adept
2x  Aven Fleetwing
4x  Skywinder Drake
3x  Belltower Sphinx
1x  Phantasmal Image

Blue Spells
4x  Mind Control
4x  Cancel
4x  Unsummon
4x  Ice Cage
2x  Jace's Erasure
2x  Negate
2x  Mana Leak
2x  Sleep
1x  Ponder


texts: If face down permanents have no abilities, why are they affected by "loses all abilities"?

texts:
The Khans of Tarkir Release Notes say:

  If a face-down creature loses its abilities, it can’t be turned face up [...]

This implies that Morph is an ability. However, the community here seems fairly certain that Morph is not an ability.

  Answer - Why is Morph not considered an ability?

If Morph is not an ability, then how does losing all abilities prevent a face down permanent from being turned face up?


texts: Do you lose/gain any life when you drain yourself

texts:
e.g. you activate Orzhova, the Church of Deals, targeting yourself. Do life gain conditions trigger (like Ajani's Pridemate) or not?

(it's simultaneous, so you gain 0 net life, which triggers nothing, right?)


texts: An activated ability of a card that affects that card

texts: If you have a Fleecemane Lion that is enchanted by Shielding Plax, and you pay to activate the ability Monstrosity 1, then would the creature fail to become monstorous and would not receive it's +1/+1?


texts: Space Marine squads and "Split Fire" rule

texts:
With the 6th edition rules, squads must all fire upon the same unit. An exception is made if the unit contains at least one model with the "split fire" rule (6ED, page 42).

Neither the Devastors, nor Tactical squads, in the Dark Angels codex (6ED, page 103), nor in the Blood Angels codex (5ED, page 95) have the "split fire" rule. As a side note, some Dark Angel units have it but no Blood Angels have it at all.

This youtube video (starting at 6:50) suggests that the squads have "Split Fire".

First question: where in the 6ED rules is it specified that Devastator squads have split fire?

Second question: do Tactical squads have split fire? If so, where in the 6ED rules is that specified?


texts: What happens when all 12 aliens are on board?

texts: Does the game end when all 12 aliens board the ship, or does it end when the ship needs 13 or more on board (or something else)?


texts: Are creature effects considered an Instant?

texts: I played Magic a long time ago, and I remember activated abilities on creatures were considered instants. Reading through the rules today, it isn't quite clear to me. The reason I am wondering is for the combination of Prodigal Pyromancer and Fire Servant. The does the Fire Servant's doubling apply to the Prodigal Pyromancer's "{T}: Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player."?


texts: What is the formula of rank difference to handicap stones?

texts:
When the difference in rank is one stone the weaker player takes black and the komi is 0.5 for white (sometimes called "no komi" even though that's not technically correct).

From then on add one handicap stone per stone difference (black goes first without komi is equivalent to one handicap stone if free placement is used).

However, this formula doesn't work after about 5 stones as handicap stones start reinforcing each other. With some discussion I was able to find others who seem to know this is true. I can find no authority however, nor anybody who seems to have any idea of the correct formulation.


texts: Can I sacrifice and regenerate Augur of Skulls multiple times in the same turn?

texts:
Augur of Skulls has

  {1}{B}: Regenerate Augur of Skulls.

and

  Sacrifice Augur of Skulls: Target player discards two cards. Activate this ability only during your upkeep.

Can I sacrifice and regenerate Augur of Skulls multiple times in the same turn as long as I have the mana open?


texts: Do supply limits apply when resolving march orders?

texts:
My understanding is that supply restrictions occur at two times:

When the supply card is drawn in the Westeros phase, and supply tracks are adjusted and armies reconciled.
During mustering, you can't create an army that would exceed supply limits.

However, the question is - is it within in the rules to say, during mustering create an army that does fit supply limits, and then use a march order to merge it with another army?

Or do supply limits also apply when applying march orders?


texts: Bridge convention after opponent opens 1NT -- specific question about D.O.N.T

texts: My partner and I have recently moved from T.O.N.T. to D.O.N.T., and are wondering if some of the latter's bids are useful even if there is interference. For example, if LHO opens the bidding with 1NT, your partner passes and RHO responds 2 clubs, do you still use 2 diamonds to show a distributional hand with at least 4 or 5 diamond pieces + 4 or 5 of a major?


texts:
In Kingsport, you can become Changed which confers rather a lot of nice abilities. However, I am not sure that the balance is right.  It takes 10 toughness or 2 gates or 1 gate & 5 toughness to get. In addition, it takes around 7/8 turns to get and be ready to use it.  This mean that the benefits are likely to be relevant for the last half-dozen or so turns before the game ends -- the end game basically.  This makes the Seal (part of changed) you get kinda useless since maybe one or two gates might open on its location and chances are small that they will be gate bursts.

Compare this with either the White Ship (link) or Deputy of Arkham (link) which in my not so humble opinion are of equal power to Changed and to each other and are well within reach in early to mid game.

So:

Is my analysis of Changed correct?
If it is broken, how can we fix it?

PS: I get that the last question might pool arguments and discussions. So, please adhere to the Good Subjective/Bad Subjective rules. Thanks!


texts: Do automatic battles end your turn in Neuroshima Hex?

texts: Your turn ends if you start a battle by playing a Battle Tile. Does starting a battle by filling the board also end your turn?


texts: Smallworld: scoring points during decline of second race

texts: If I have a race in decline and choose to decline my current race, do I score both races or just the new race in decline? I am assuming that just the new race, since we (normally) cannot have two races in decline.


texts: When Purifying the World, can you keep or track monsters you don't usually return to the drawing pile?

texts: Purifying the World allows an investigator to collect the monster tiles of defeated monsters and then flip the card to perform some action based on the number or toughness of tiles he's collected.  Can the investigator collect, or probably more appropriately keep track of, monsters which do not simply go back to the drawing pile, for instance ones that are set aside on the ancient one and used repeatedly in mysteries and encounters?  My thinking is that the most sensible thing to do is return them to their source (i.e. the ancient one sheet instead of making them "unavailable") and keep track of them mentally or on paper to count them when flipping the Purifying the World card.


texts: Can boars go inside the cave in Caverna?

texts:
So there is some ambiguity in the rules about Boars where the example seems to conflict with the rule statement.  This leads to the question:

Can Boars go inside the cave (For example in the base room or the mixed dwelling)?

Evidence that any kind of animal may live in the starter dwelling:

The text says 'pair of animals'

Evidence that only 'farm animals' may live in the starter dwelling:

p20 example says 'The entry level room of your cave can hold 2 Farm
animals of the same type.'

These seem to contradict each other mildly (farm animals or any animal?).  This inconsitency may indicate possible errors in rules diagrams.

More evidence for inconsitency in diagrams:

Dogs are counted as farm animals in the example on page 6
It is stated on page 10, 'Dogs are not considered farm animals'

These two pieces of information explicitly contradict.  Therefore we must conclude there may be errors in the diagrams on the rules.  However, if boars are explicitly farm animals, there is no issue.  So this ruling depends on what is actually a farm animal.

Evidence for Boars as Farm Animals:

They are in the house diagram on p10.
On p10, they are indicates as breeding animals, and it is stated that
only farm animals breed.
They are in pastures on pp 6,20

Evidence against Boars as Farm Animals:

They are called Wild Boars on Page 1 of the Rules book.  Farm animals
are not wild in the common language usage of the term farm and wild.
On Page 5, picture, states 'A forest stable can hold 1 Wild boar, but
no other animals'  This differentiates boars from the other animals.
There is no 'boar farming' action (which also true of cattle).
On p20, an explicit distinction is made between a stable in a meadow
and a stable in a forest.  'Boars may be in forest' which is
presented in the context of an exceptionary clause to farm animals
being able to be stored.
It is not explicitly stated anywhere that 'wild boars are farm
animals'

In summary:

There is an implication that boars are farm animals.
There is an implication that boars are not farm animals.
There are clear and explicit errors in exemplary diagrams which may
weaken the strengths of either side of these implications, and also
possibly, the authority of the diagrams as opposed to the text.

So, absent a clear, congruous and consistent set of words, the original question becomes valid:

Can Boars go inside the cave?


texts: Core Set ways of dealing with Magnum Opus

texts:
So, admittedly, I'm brand new to Android: Netrunner. I only own the core set, I've only played five or six times, and I've only played as the Corp. I have moderately strong gaming experience, and while a bit rusty, know my way around building a deck. My wife, so far my only opponent, plays Shaper and every time has managed to get Magnum Opus up and running pretty quickly. The economy it provides, up to 8 credits a turn, is significant, especially with Kate lowering install costs.

I've only beaten her once (not counting a rule-naïve technical win our second match). I attribute this to her skill, of course, but also to that damn MO. The ice I install is almost always easily dealt with, since credits are often no object. Given the newness of the game and my opponent, my play style has been more exploratory than outright ruthless, but still:

Besides flatlining, or fast-advancing, or just being lucky, what are good strategies (again, I just have the core set) for dealing with the advantage of MO?


texts: Balancing Creature battles in a new card game

texts:
First off, I don't know if this is the ideal site for this question. I am thinking of creating a card game and am currently trying to remove balancing issues concerning  creature battle system (looks like MTG's). After some intial failed draft ideas I started to employ a few mathematical functions to make sure everything is balanced. That is why I am unsure if this question is supposed to go here, since it looks rather much like a mathematical problem now. I will leave most of that away, but I could explain.

So what do I currently have and what is wrong:
In the game, there are 7 types of creatures. Creatures have an Attack, Defense and Health stat. When health hits 0 a creature dies. Every type describe a sort of base stats for every creature of that type. So type 1 could describe 4/4/4 and type 2 6/2/4 (with attack/defense/health notation that I will be using from now on). So every type has sort of unique creature stats.
 When creatures attack the attacked player can decide to block with one of his/her creature (again, like MTG. Both creatures deal damage to each other). To check if the system is balanced I make a table that has all seven type base stats horizontally as 'attackers' and all seven type base stats vertically as 'defenders'. Then I check every outcome and look if a certain type has more wins (wins being that the attacker survived and the defender died) than the others.

However all things I tried until now did not turn out to be balanced, or really boring. The first system of attacking worked as follows:
damage to health = attack - defense.
When I could not

Then it occured that I needed another system so I came up with this:
damage to health = highest_of_these_numbers(attack modulo defense, attack / defense)
This produced really weird results because of the modulo.

After that I came up with some other unpromising systems, which I have yet to test some of these of.
The testing takes quite a while and I thought that someone here might have a very good idea to make it balanced. Or maybe, some people tried it and found out it is impossible.

So the question is, what would make a balanced system of type base stats, seven of them and a good health damage calculation?


texts: Can hexproof remove an opponent's aura already enchanting my creature?

texts:
If a creature I control is being targeted by an enchant creature my opponent controls, can I equip it with an artifact that grants hexproof to counter the existing enchant creature?

Example: My opponent casts Kasmina's Transmutation on my Serra's Guardian. Several turns later I equip Swiftfoot Boots. Does the "hexproof" ability make Serra's Guardian an invalid target for Kasmina's Transmutation?


texts: Do mines pay out at the end of the last phase in Castles of Burgundy?

texts:
For Mines, the rules state:

  ...at the end of each phase, the player recieves 1 Silverling from the supply for each mine in his estate.

And in the Game End section:

  The game ends after the fifth phase has been played through to completion.

My reading of these rules are that after the final round of phase E players would receive 1 Silverling for each mine they have and then the final scores would be counted.  So effectively you'd get an extra point for each mine you have at the end of the game.

Is this correct, incorrect or something ambiguous where you could just agree on the interpretation before the start of the game.


texts: What happens when two units attack each other with equal support?

texts:
We have the following orders:
England:

F Nor - Swe.
A Den S F Nor - Swe.

Russia:

F Swe - Nor.
F St. P (NC) S F Swe - Nor.

Both have an equal strength. How does this resolve?


texts:
We didn't have a fourth player for some time so we switched from riichi to three player version with korean\japanese rules as described on Wiki (I guess that's the most popular version for 3 players).

Used to doras in riichi we played with one revealed dora. But I didn't find there what do do if a flower tile is revealed as dora.

Shuffling whole set again in this case seems too much so we decided that every flower sholds add one more bonus point. Is this right or is there some other commonly used rule?


texts: Question about targeting a Hexproof creature

texts:
I was at an official tournament held by Star City Games.  It was a draft.

My opponent had a Geist of Saint Traft. Having become a little frustrated with it, I had a momentary lapse in memory and I forgot that it had Hexproof. My opponent immediately called for a judge and told the judge to make me choose a new target.  And so the judge told me that I had to choose a new target.  This forced me to choose one of my own since he had no other creatures out.

I thought that I wouldn't be able to cast the spell at all since I never had valid targets chosen.

Can someone please explain what is supposed to happen at this point?  I still feel that ruling was wrong but want to get an unbiased second opinion.

Thanks for your help!


texts: What happens if the legend rule doesn't apply to only one of a pair of legendary creatures with the same name?

texts:
Brothers Yamazaki has the ability

  If there are exactly two permanents named Brothers Yamazaki on the battlefield, the "legend rule" doesn't apply to them.

So, say I control two Brothers Yamazaki (and there are no others on the battlefield), a Grizzly Bears, and a Leyline of Singularity, and I have a Spy Kit attached to one of the Brothers.

Spy Kit has the ruling

  The set of names the equipped creature has includes the names of all nonlegendary creature cards in the Oracle card reference, including the back faces of double-faced cards. Notably, the equipped creature won’t gain the names of tokens, such as Zombie, Goblin, and similar. It also won’t gain the names of noncreature cards that have become creatures, such as a Wandering Fumarole that has become a creature.

So, the overall result here is that I have 3 legendary creatures:

One named "Brothers Yamazaki"
One named "Grizzly Bears"
One with many names, including both "Brothers Yamazaki" and "Grizzly Bears"

Then because of the ability on Brothers Yamazaki, the "legend rule" applies to creature number 2, but not to creature number 3. What exactly does that mean? What happens to creature number 2?


texts: Does the event on CIA Created* have a one-time effect or last the duration of the turn?

texts:
The event on CIA Created* reads:

  The USSR reveals their hand of cards for this turn. The US may use the
  Operations value of this card to conduct Operations.

Playing as the US, am I allowed to look at the USSR's hand anytime during the turn which this was played or only one time, when the card is played?


texts: Where can I download The Resistance rules?

texts: I've been googling around and cannot find the Resistance official web site where I can download the rules.  Does the site even exist?  Where can I read the rules?


texts: Can Astral Slide plus Viridian Shamen kill Glimmervoid living off of Blinkmoth Nexus?

texts:
I'm slightly uncertain about the finer points of the rules and how they might play out in a match-up between the 2004 world championship decks of Julien Nuijten (slide) and Aeo Paquette (affinity).

Suppose Nuijten controls an Astral Slide and a Viridian Shaman and can cycle a card whenever he wants to. Suppose that Paquette controls Glimmervoid and Blinkmoth Nexus but nothing more.  Can Nuijten force Glimmervoid to be sacrificed?

(I'm much more interested in expanding my understanding of the rules than I am in whether the answer happens to be yes or no—the why is much more important than the what.)


texts: How do the +1/+1 tokens created when Hooded Hydra dies play during combat?

texts:
Recently played w/ a deck that contained Hooded Hydra (morphed to +5/+5). I was attacked with 3, 5/5 trampling rhino tokens. I assigned Hooded Hydra to block first, effectively killing it.
Enter the problem: Hooded Hydra's second effect which reads...

When Hooded Hydra dies, create a 1/1 green Snake creature token for
each +1/+1 counter on it

How does this resolve from the non-active player's defending combat phase?
My understanding goes:

Death is instant

That this effect is a trigger as when is included in the wording, and

That Hooded Hydra's counters are created upon its death, instantly.

So, thinking these things, I figured:

Let Hooded Hydra take 5 damage and die,
Immediately be able to put its 5, 1/1 tokens onto the stack
Use them to defend against the next 5 damage

All my tokens would die, of course, but they would effectively prevent the necessary damage that would mean me losing the game to trampling rhino tokens
My opponent objected to my actions saying:

Creature deaths only occur when things go to the graveyard, at the very end phase.
Therefore, I could not create the 1/1 tokens, and would not be able to block the 5 damage to prevent my loss.

I don't think that's correct. Hooded Hydra's card doesn't state the condition, "when sent to the graveyard... create 1/1 tokens". Anyway. Things got heated. And to keep things mellow, I let play go their way, died, and the game ended.
So... What is the correct answer? Are any of my understandings of combat actions correct? Is my opponent correct? Were/are we both wrong? None of my rule reading has shed light on a firm resolution. Just lots more assumptions and possibilities.


texts:
The Monster Batteries card states that two energy cubes are fed back to the player every turn. Is it every turn of the game (my assumption)  or every turn of that player?
The card also reads that it is not discarded until the player receives the last energy cube back. My rationale on this (seeing as it is a "keep" card) is that you can replenish the stock of energy cubes in successive turns to receive more of the 2:1 bonus. Is this correct?


texts:
My partner and I play a strong NT and 5 card Majors. However, we're unsure how to open strong hands with no long suits.

For example, how do we open a 4432 hand with 16-19 high card points or 20-22 high card points?

How do we open 4441 hands with 16 or more high card points?


texts: I control Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and two 1/1 creatures with lifelink. I attack with these two creatures, my opponent doesn't block them and they deal combat damage to him. My question is if Vito's trigger ability triggers once or twice? I know that damage is dealt simultaneously, so maybe I gain 2 life as "one piece"? Or maybe it's separated? It doesn't make any difference, because in both scenarios my opponent loses two life, but I am curios what will happen here.


texts: Does casting a Partner commander add a the +2 mana cost to your other commander as well?

texts: Since some commanders have the ability Partner, letting you have more than one commander at a time, and to recast a commander, you need to pay 2 mana for each time you recast them, does the +2 mana cost count towards both commanders if one leaves or does it just count towards the one that left the field?


texts: Do subtype changes remain after a card is transformed?

texts:
Say I have an Olivia, Mobilized for War on the field, who has this ability:

  Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control,
  you may discard a card. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that
  creature, it gains haste until end of turn, and it becomes a Vampire
  in addition to its other types.

I play a Werewolf and discard a card to pay for Olivia's ability. The Werewolf is also a Vampire now.

A turn passes without anybody playing spells, so the Werewolf transforms. Is it still a Vampire? Or is it only the subtypes written on the card's new face?


texts: What does Leovold, Emissary of Trest & Teferi's Puzzle Box do to opponent's hands?

texts:
Case 1:

Player 1 has Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Teferi's Puzzle Box on the Battlefield.
Player 2 starts with his draw phase and has one card in his hand.

I think he puts his card on bottom of his library and draws a new one.
However he is not able to take another.

Case 2:
Player 1 has Leovold and Teferi's Puzzle Box on the Battlefield.
Player 2 starts with his draw phase and has no card in his hand.

Therefore "nothing" happens with the Puzzle Box and he only draws a card.
Am I right or did I miss something? Do you feel this combo is that strong?


texts: Can I move the fairie on a bonus turn due to the builder?

texts:
I was playing Carcassonne with both the Traders & Builders and the Princess & Dragon expansions. Traders & Builders adds the builder meeple, which gives a bonus turn if a tile is added to a city or road the builder is on. Princess & Dragon adds the fairie, which can be moved if you do not place or move a meeple on your turn.

Let's say I place a tile onto a city (or road) which has my builder in it, and place a meeple on this new tile. This gives me a bonus turn. I place a second tile (anywhere else, it doesn't matter), but don't place a meeple on it. Can I move the fairie, since I didn't place a meeple on the second tile? Or, does placing the meeple on the first tile count as moving a meeple for the purposes of the fairie. Alternatively, let's say I moved the fairie after placing the first tile; am I now prohibited from placing a meeple on the second tile?

One advantage of the fairie is that it gives you a point at the beginning of your turn if you control it. The rules for Princess & Dragon explicitly state that you don't get 2 points if you get a bonus turn from the builder, but don't say anything about the situation above, that I could see.


texts: What is this hexagonal board game with 10 marbles to a side?

texts:
I saw this game at a friend's place but nobody knew what it was called. Google search and reverse image search didn't help.

This is a hexagonal board with:

10 white marbles
10 dark marbles
37 notches to put them in


texts: Changing a creature's base Power and Toughness until End of Turn

texts:
I have a question regarding spells that change other creatures' base power and/or toughness (for example, 3/3). I'm asking because in a few days I will probably receive my Oko Planeswalker Deck from Throne of Eldraine edition, and I know there are some such cards in it.

When I have an instant that says target creature has base power and toughness, for instance, 3/3 and I cast it and it resolves, only base statistics change, correct? Do counters, attached enchantments or equipment, abilities, other effects stay on my creature?


texts: Can I use the effect of the Winged Dragon of Ra from the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime in a real game?

texts:
The anime says that the Winged Dragon of Ra's attack and defense is what is added up by the attack and defense of the tributes to summon it. From the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki:

  When Summoned by Tributing 3 monsters, the ATK and DEF of "Ra" become the combined ATK and DEF of the Tributed monsters.

The card that is legal for tournaments does not say that on the card. Is the anime effect OK to use in a actual card game?

Similarly, people are saying how you can give life points for the attack like in the anime, but I'm asking if we can use the effect in a duel.


texts: Can your opponent counter the exert ability of Champion of Rhonas?

texts: Can your opponent counter the exert ability of Champion of Rhonas, either as a spell or an activated ability? Does it count as a spell being cast?


texts: Rivals For Catan – How do you draw a card when playing the Library

texts:
In Rivals For Catan, the Library card says that:
"When you build the Library, you may immediately choose a card from a draw stack."

Does this mean that you look through a draw stack and select which card to take? Or do you take the top card from a draw stack of your choice?


texts: Does Throne of the God-Pharaoh work with tapped vehicles?

texts:
Does Throne of the God-Pharaoh trigger with tapped vehicles?
At the beginning of end step, which happens first?

vehicles cease to be creatures
Throne of the God-Pharaoh triggers with tapped vehicles as they're still creatures


texts: What game uses dice with sides powers of 2?

texts: I have one die. It has six sides marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. Does anyone know what game uses this?


texts: How to kill the red army (Moloch) in Neuroshima-Hex

texts:
It seems to me that the red army in Neuroshima is the most powerful one, it has more tough and shield tiles than any other. On the other hand, it is very limited in movements.

When playing one-to-one game against Moloch, what strategy should one choose to win?

As far as I can say, the best way is to move often and to destroy it as early as possible before it gets to use the nuke.


texts: How does Decommission (and Revolt) work with multiple permanents leaving the battlefield?

texts:
A new Aether Revolt card, "Decommission", states: "If a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn, you gain 3 life".

I suspect that would mean if you sacrificed 3 artifact tokens, then played decommission later on you would gain 9 life.

My confusion is that I would expect to see "for each permanent that left the battlefield this turn" to give the total of 9 life.  As it is written, I am thinking just 3, but is "each" implied?  Pretty basic question I guess.  Thanks in advance.


texts: In Mice and mystics, Should party items be place in paw to use them?

texts:
I just finished first chapter in mice and mystics. I had a quick clarification to make.
To be able to use the party item, is it okay to have that in the pack? Or are those cards not counted as item cards at all.


texts: I'm confused about how oxen work in this game. For example, the calamity card for Bad Water states that if I get 2 bad water cards in a round, then my oxen die. Is the number of oxen I have based on the number of oxen supply cards the team has, or do I have a specific number of oxen innately that can be replaced with oxen supply cards?


texts: Stealing a "play at any time" item as a thief in Munchkin?

texts:
A thief went to steal the Demonic Wishing Eye (Adventure Time Munchkins) by discarding a card and then declaring "I am going to steal the demonic wishing eye".

The Demonic Wishing Eye has the "PLAY AT ANY TIME" text on the top. The owner of the Demonic Wishing Eye therefore decided to play it straight away, before the thief had rolled the dice and hence completed the attempted steal.

The owner's justification was that it had the "play at any time" text. The thief did not think this was fair.

The group and owner of the game could see both sides to the argument as to why the thief would/should be able to steal it without the person playing it and vice versa. We were all wondering if there is an official rule for this interaction, the interaction being if the thief can steal the item before they can play it, or if they can play it before the thief can steal it after the thief declares they are going to and discards a card.


texts: Can I sacrifice a treasure for mana not in my commanders colours?

texts:
Commander or edh is a format that, amongst other things places restrictions on the colours of the cards you play in the deck. See this faq.

  A card's color identity is its colour plus the color of any mana symbols in the card's rules text. A card's color identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects.
  Cards in a deck may not have any colors in their color identity which are not shared with the Commander of the deck. (The identity of each card in the deck must be a subset of the Commander's)

But if I have a card like flash conscription which has a rider on which colour of mana was used, can I put that into a deck that doesn't have that colour identity, and can I pay for it with something like a treasure token or some other effect that can make any colour mana?


texts: Looking for rules for board game called "Music Game"

texts:
I bought a game at a thrift store called simply "Music Game" and unfortunately it needs the rules.

The game says copyright Petina, 1989. It's a board game with piano keys around the edges and several piles of question cards of different colors in the middle to draw.

Without the rules I don't know when to draw cards and which pile to draw from. It seems to be a great way to teach music concepts, if only I had the rules.


texts: What does, "It can't be regenerated" mean?

texts:
I destroyed my opponent's permanent with Putrefy, an Instant that reads:

  Destroy target artifact or creature.  It can't be regenerated.

He returned it to the top of his library with Golgari Thug because it went to the graveyard (is it supposed to go to the graveyard?). Golgari Thug reads:

  When Golgari Thug dies, put target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library.

So whats going on? I destroyed a card and I thought it cannot be regenerated.  When Putrefy says, "It can't be regenerated" is it actually a counter for a card that can be regenerated?  For example:  Opponent has Manor Skeleton that has: “{1}{B}: Regenerate Manor Skeleton”.  I target it with Putrefy. Is his Manor Skeleton's regenerate ability countered and does it go to the graveyard?

Does, "It can't be regenerated" mean "It can not be regenerated from the graveyard", or does it counter a regeneration ability?


texts: Are there any Board or Card games that can be played where not players are not required to be there at the games start in order to play? I'm thinking a game that runs similar to an MMORPG where anyone can pull up a chair, play for awhile, and leave again without upsetting the flow of the game and still enjoying a decent, well-thought-out game.


texts: Is there a card that lets you put a card from outside of the game into play?

texts:
I played a commander game a while ago where one of my 5 opponents cast a card that let him grab a card that was outside of the game (not even in exile) and put it either in his hand or on the battlefield.

It was a while back so I am slightly fuzzy in terms of the context in which this was played.

I would like to know whether, firstly this card exists that allows you to acquire a card not in your deck and/or in any other zone in the game and place it either in your hand or on the battlefield?

I was in disbelief at this play but everyone around me in the game had more experience than me so I assumed it was legit.

The second thing I'd like to know is that if this card does exist (or something similar) what is its name(s)?

I figured it may be in one of the "unsets" like Unglued or Unhinged or any of the other funky experimental sets Wizards decided to curve-ball into existence...


texts: How does Cheat Code interact with Monster's Ballroom?

texts:
Cheat Code's Boss Item ability allows a player to choose a room in any dungeon and ignore its ability text for the duration of a turn. Monster's Ballroom deals damage *, where * is equal to the number of Monster Rooms in the dungeon it is in, but I am unsure whether the explanation for the * is considered ability text or if it should just be seen as explaining how to resolve the *. I checked the Room Card wikia page to see if Monster's Ballroom's text fell under any of the Room Ability categories and it seems to fall under passive, but this doesn't really get me any closer to an answer on this.

How does Cheat Code affect Monster's Ballroom? Does it remove the text that determines how the * is calculated and thus force this room to deal 0 damage for a turn? If the damage isn't simply set to 0 for the turn, how is the damage determined?

Or does Cheat Code simply not affect Monster's Ballroom, under the idea that the card's text is not considered an ability, but rather an explanation of the * (implying this card has no ability in lieu of it having the potential to be rather powerful)? I assume that this would be how Cheat Code would interact with Dragon Hatchery, as its "ability text" only says "This Room contains all four treasure types", but simply ignoring this text doesn't change the fact that it has all four Treasure Type icons, so I'm wondering if Cheat Code is similarly ineffective here.


texts:
In Red Dragon Inn, the priestess has a counter card called "they might not know you're cheating but my goddess does" where they negate a cheating card only if they are still In the round of gambling.

The cheating card played was "what's that up your sleeve" by Zot the wizard and Pooky. This card takes control of then round of gambling and picks a player to force them to leave the round of gambling.

In this scenario Zot forced the priestess to leave and following that the priestess tried to counter it with the card mentioned above. An argument ensued about whether the priestess was allowed to do this or not. Does anyone know the official ruling of this? In my opinion since Zot played first and forced the priestess to leave she was no longer in the round of gambling and therefore not allowed to counter.


texts: Ghost card says to play an action twice. The pixie is an action that allows you to trash it when you play it. What happens if I ghost a pixie? If I trash pixie the first time, do I still play it the second time?


texts: Can Breath of Life Put a Discarded Creature into Play?

texts:
Original versions of the white Sorcery Breath of Life read "Put target creature card from your graveyard into play." In later editions, they changed the text to read "Return target creature card from your graveyard to play."

Was this a functional change that retroactively modified how Breath of Life works? Can I use new versions of Breath of Life to put a discarded creature card into play, or does it have to have been on the battlefield?


texts: Viable, alternative, first round role orders in 5-player Puerto Rico

texts:
I'm a big fan of Puerto Rico.

But one thing that bugs me a little bit in my (5 player) games is how stable the first round is, with regards to role choices.

It (almost) always goes:

Settler
Builder
Mayor
Craftsman
Captain

The rationale is pretty straightforward:

A quarry will be manned by round 2*, since Mayor will almost certain be chosen
Guaranteed to have highest purchasing power, and all buildings are available
Guaranteed to have an unmanned building (with a chance of a first round indigo)
Practically guaranteed to have a manned corn, and no other player can produce 2 goods
No-one can ship for more than 2 victory points

Every now and then we'll get crazy and swap the order on Builder and Settler.

My question is, are there any significantly different first round role orders that are just as viable?

*Which is great efficiency for a quarry.


texts: Problems with learning curve and player elimination in Eclipse

texts:
I've just played my first games of Eclipse, and I kind of like it, but it hase some features that kinda bug me.

First of all - player elimination. For the first two games, I got crushed around round 5-6. Worse still, I was not eradicated, so I got to sit at the table feeling bored and frustrated, being able to do nothing of meaning but still not being able to leave and play something else. I know this is typical for Amerithrash games, but I would like to at least mitigate this effect in some way, or at least make the game shorter.

Second of all - randomness everywhere! In this game, you've got two enemies. The other players, and the game's random elements. Not only do you have to learn how to play and what to do in the first place, you learn how to work your way around the bad tile/technology draws AND you have to fight your opponents! This means you need at least a few games followed by a good analysis to start playing at least somewhat correctly.

Those two elements make a killer combo. The random tile draw mechanism just helps you make a bad decision or provides hurdles to get through before you can get to the realisation of your plans/hunting down other players. In both my games I put a loop around my own neck, but that would be fine - if it wouldnt mean sitting at the table for another hour doing nothing.

While I like the game, I like the theme, I like the action economy and almost simultaneous actions, the technology and ship building, but I cant imagine showing it to my playgroup. A game that needs  at least 4 plays to get a real hang of it, while each of them takes at least 2-3 hours and makes someone miserable for half of that time WONT see enough table time to our group to like it.

I really like most parts of the game:

Space theme
Tile placement
Fleet production and battles with other players using it
Resource/economy management
Some sort of tech upgrades for military/economy
Actions tied to economy with increasing costs per action (another example of a game using this mechanic would be the Expansion to Attack!) and players doing only one action at once to prevent huge downtimes.
I like that military conquest is not only way to win the game, and usually its not enough to win by itself.

What can I do to get the play experience of the elements mentioned above without discouraging my playgroup at the game introduction stage? How do I get all the cool stuff from eclipse without getting the steep learning curve and hard knocks during learning the game?


texts: Can I attack a player directly if they still have a flying defender?

texts: I have a 4/2 Spiked Baloth (with trample) and my opponent has an untapped 1/1 Bird with flying. He has only 2 lives and I want to finish him off. Can I attack directly even though my attacker doesn't have reach or flying (and his creature does)?


texts: Can an immobile vehicle expend movement points?

texts:
In a recent game, the following situation arose.

A stationary AFV attempted to use smoke dispensers and failed, thus not expending a movement point. It then expended a start MP, and was attacked by an anti-tank gun and was immobilized (D8).

The vehicle then wished to make a Bounding First Fire attack (D3.3), which appears to be permitted without the expenditure of movement points, but to attack the desired target needed to change its Turret Covered Arc. The change of Turret Covered Arc (D3.12) could be freely done but according to D3.12

  the TCA may also be changed freely with each movement point expended
  for movement, start, stop or delay purposes

which is the point at issue if the vehicle is immobile.

So, can an immobile vehicle expend movement points for the purpose of changing turret covered arc, bounding first fire, or (in a later turn) for attempting to use smoke dispensers (immobile vehicles appear to be granted a special exemption in D6.5 for the purposes of unloading passengers).


texts: What happens if you go bankrupt trying to pay the bank?

texts:
Let's say I land on someone's hotel. I'm short in cash. So, I sell houses, mortgage everything, and am still short in cash. I am now out of the game and that player gets my money and mortgaged properties. If I remember right, they pay the 10% tax or unmortgage at that time. And the game continues.

Now, let's say I had just barely enough cash to pay them. I'm safe and still in the game. I've got nearly zero money and all my stuff is mortgaged. The next turn I land on chance/community chest/luxury tax/jail and I need to pay the bank. I cannot pay.

Who gets the properties? Do they disappear from the game? Go back for sale as mortgaged? Unmortgaged?


texts: Bridge bidding - how do I decide whether or not to bid 1NT with weakness in a particular suit?

texts: If I'm inclined to bid NT with 15-17 points, but am weak in one suit, how weak can I be, and still bid 1NT, as opposed to bidding 1 club, to find out if my partner can show strength e.g. a stopper in my suit, by bidding it?


texts: Do I have to pay for a development card if I have a joker and the card needs only one type of resource?

texts:
Yesterday I've been introduced to Splendor (awesome game!), and there's one question stuck in my head. In one turn I've run out of options (no resources to collect, nothing to buy), so I reserved a card with a joker token. After some turns I bought it, and payed the full price (4 blue gems), and gave the joker token back.

Only afterwards did I realise that I didn't have to pay since I had the joker token - but does it work like this for a development card that requires only one colour?

Can I reserve a card that only requires one colour, nd then take it in the next turn by only giving the joker token?


texts: Alternative rules for SimCity: The Card Game

texts:
Back in the 90s, I enjoyed collecting SimCity: The Card Game. I can't help but feel excited that there's a lot of potential in the game, but that the rules are broken and in certain aspects, to be honest, downright absurd.

I am especially bothered by a number of things that are either annoying or out of balance:

The sheer amount of counting the rules have you do.

Once you have a decent city going, keeping track of the number residents within however many of blocks—either by road or rail—is a headache.
Worse yet, add a couple of Receive # for every [card type] within # blocks into the mix, and you'll spend a good deal of the evening counting.

Zoning bonuses become crazy. Once a residential zone has reached a modest size, the value of putting any card down is dwarfed by the massive bonus of appending it to a zone. There's no sense in trying to close off a zone, either, because your opponent will eat you alive.
Council members are useless. Never does the game reach a point in which rezoning is really an issue, because it takes too many members to veto the mayor and/or council chairman. You require much too many in the deck, and pretty much any other card yields more value in the long run.
City services pay off much too much. Put down a few schools and a few police stations, and you'll be "adding" & "receiving" yourself to bliss.
Many of the event cards are either extremely focused on the council, or, like Fire!, extremely destructive.
Phase one cards pollute your deck once you have passed beyond that phase, but there's a dilemma: you can't really have less than a third of your deck filled with them unless you intend to sit around collecting cards for the first hour or so.

Some of these rules might be somewhat alleviated by limiting the playing area to something like 6×6, and having the good sense not to add too many city services, but that doesn't cut it for me. I sometimes get the impression that I might not be fully understanding the rules, but the official rulebook leaves so many questions unanswered.

For some reason, I feel very attached to the game, but the rules just let me down. Are there any good alternatives?

This Flickr stream has some photos, for those who haven't played for the past 15 years and wish to refresh their memory.


texts: In what order are several properties auctioned by the bank?

texts:
When you go bankrupt to the bank, all of your properties are returned to the bank and auctioned.

Rule :

  Should you owe the Bank, instead of another player, more than you can
  pay (because of taxes or penalties) even by selling off buildings and
  mortgaging property, you must turn over all assets to the Bank. In
  this case, the Bank immediately sells by auction all property so
  taken, except buildings.

Source : The Rules of Monopoly - Hasbro

If you have surrendered several properties to the bank, in what order are they auctioned, one at a time: by order of value, or randomly?

Since the rules don't specify this, in the answer, I would appreciate an authoritative quote (e.g. tournament experience, book author), not just an opinion or house rule.


texts: What could 1NT mean opposite a partner's takeout double?

texts:
Here, for reference, is the entire hand that inspired the question. With only us vulnerable, left hand opponent bid one spade, partner doubled for takeout, right hand opponent passed, and I have (s)943 (h) A52 (d) AQJ (c)8732.

Normally, a bid of 1NT opposite an opening bid (and partner's takeout double suggests this range) would mean a balanced hand, 6-9 points. If the opponents have bid meanwhile, it would also suggest a stopper in opponents' suit.

The columnist (Frank Stewart) suggested a "craven" bid of 2 clubs. I disagree because that could mean (c)8732 with no honors, and seriously mislead partner into thinking that the hand belongs to the opponents when my 11 points means that the balance is in our favor.

My preference is to bid 1NT to alert partner to the fact that I have "real" strength. I assume that since I'm not making a "forced" suit bid, that it suggests the usual 6-9 points, not a bust. I don't have a stopper in the opponents' suit, but I do have a balanced "threesome," and two points over the presumed nine.

Is my 1NT response better than the columnist's suggested response? (With the queen of spades, I'd go to 2NT, but I don't have that.) Is there an even better response? I might cue bid two spades with a singleton or void in spades, but I don't have that either.


texts: How do multiple land creature affects work?

texts: If I already have a card effect turning my lands into creatures, for example: Life and Limb, then I deal combat damage with Liege of the Tangle, and I make all of my lands 8/8's with its ability, which effect takes priority? Do I choose?


texts: Can I tap Sliver Hive to pay for Hive Stirrings?

texts:
I am playing a game and have no white mana to play Hive Stirrings, but I do have a Sliver Hive under my control. Am I able to tap the Sliver Hive to play Hive Stirrings (assume I have enough mana to play Hive Stirrings)?

Would this work?


texts: Where can I find wooden pieces (or alternates) for Diplomacy?

texts:
I'd like to play Diplomacy, and have the old Avalon Hill version of the game which, unfortunately, comes with plastic pieces (stars and anchors). It also lacks indicators of who controls which supply centers.

I like the original wooden pieces, seen here:

Fleets are clearly fleets, armies are clearly armies, and supply centers are demarcated by the colored circles.

Another good example are these pieces:

What works as a viable replacement for these parts? Where can I find them? I've seen around suggestions to:

Make them myself - this is time-consuming, and (for me) generally doesn't work out well
Use wooden beads - while this works, it doesn't really look professional
Purchase parts sets - these are typically expensive; I haven't found anything that wouldn't require a large investment to complete
Use the original wooden Risk parts - these lack enough fleets required to run a game, as well as lack supply center indicators. They're also expensive

I'm looking for better options. Any ideas?


texts: Are there any playable Twilight Imperium 2 player variants?

texts:
I love TI 3rd edition, but can't always get together 3 players willing to commit the amount of time it takes to play a game.

Are there any 2 player variants of this game?


texts: Do the armies you get for a continent have to go on the continent?

texts: In RISK, when it is your turn and you have all the countries for a continent, do you have to place the bonus armies on the continent or can they go anywhere you have armies on the board?