texts: In Shadow Hunters, can only Hunters benefit from the Spear of Longinus?

texts:
Spear of Longinus text:

  If you're a Hunter and your attack is successful, you may reveal your identity. If you do, or if you are already revealed, you give 2 points of extra damage.

If a revealed, non-Hunter has the spear do they inflict the extra damage?

I think the intent of the card was probably to only benefit Hunters, but it could be read as any revealed character using the spear gives the extra damage. But, only Hunters would get the ability to reveal their identity on a successful attack.


texts:
I came across a strange green die. I'm wondering if anybody knew what it was from.

As you can see, the one on the die is replaced with an odd symbol.


texts: Is it possible to live with false eyes, only?

texts:
Sometimes, in a game of Go, we get a life where there is a false eye involved: There are two groups with a single real eye, each, but they are connected to one another via a false eye, allowing their individual eyes to join forces to ensure life. Something like this:

$$Bcm0
$$ .........
$$ .OOOOO...
$$ .OXXXO...
$$ .OX.XOOO.
$$ .OXXaXXO.
$$ .OOOX.XO.
$$ ...OXXXO.
$$ ...OOOOO.
$$ .........

While the false eye at a is not necessary (black could fill it and still live), it does not need to be filled either, directly providing a liberty to each of the two black chains. I wonder whether it's possible to construct a live that entirely relies on such false eyes?

In this question, I use a purely local definition of a false eye: A false eye is a free spot that is a freedom of two distinct chains. I am aware that there are other definitions of false eyes that would call the example above a living group with three eyes.


texts:
I'm making a poison deck and want to check the Infect rules.

If a 2/2 creature with Infect is blocked by a vanilla 3/3 creature, what happens?

I know the 3/3 gets two -1/-1 counters instead of damage, but does it do 3 or 1 damage to my 2/2 infect creature?

Can anyone give reference to official rules on when the counters come into play?


texts: I’m a newbie at chess and I was wondering why I am unable to capture the black rook threatening my king?


texts: Summoning Surge: do you put the event card in the discard before taking event action?

texts:
The Deep Dwarve's Summoning Surge event card states:

  you may remove up to 3 cards from your Discard Pile and place them on top of your Magic Pile.

The Illusionary Warrior event says this:

  Choose a common Unit that is in your Magic Pile. Place the chose Unit adjacent to a Deep Dwarf Champion or Gem Mage that you control.

Because of this second event card, the cards that go into the magic pile may have a certain level of significance.

My question is:

When you play the Summoning Surge event card, does the event card go into your Discard Pile first before adding 3 cards from the Discard to the Magic, OR do you take the 3 cards and THEN place the event card in the discard pile?


texts: What can I do to ensure that my friends' first game of Arkham Horror with me is as awesome as possible?

texts:
I bought Arkham Horror about 2 months ago and have played 2 practice rounds by myself. I'm confident I know all the rules and understand the game well enough to be able to explain them. However, I love the atmosphere in Arkham, and I really want to give my first time players the best possible experience and make the it more than just a game to them, but a role-playing experience.

I've figured out that I'm going to run the game as a sort of dungeon-master. I'm still going to play, but I will take charge of reading the mythos and encounter cards, and will frequently sprinkle in some actual description of what is happening. For example:

  As you walk into Ma's Boarding House, the terrible sinking feeling of evil you've been feeling fades away as you see the good friends of yours that have stuck it out thus far. However, you can't help feeling a terrible regret that you will eventually have to leave the shelter of this kind place and go back into the cruel world beyond it's doors.

  You tried to evade the fire vampire as it passed by sneaking into an alleyway and lying down next to a dumpster, but it was able to feel the fear beating in your heart and quickly turned to look at you with a gaze that penetrated far deeper than just your eyes and unleashes a blinding ball of fire at you.

I feel like its these bits of flavor text that really make the game 'come alive'. However, I've been considering taking things a bit further and giving the players some choices that they wouldn't have if we were just playing strait Arkham Horror:

  (I draw an encounter card to see what
  would happen if the player decides to
  have an encounter). As you as you walk
  up to the door of the Silver Twilight
  Lodge, you start to feel incredibly
  insignificant as you stare at the
  arched doorway and the tall spires
  atop the roof. Do you go in, or try to
  gather more information?

  (player) I'll try to get some more
  information.

  (Me) Okay, what does your investigator
  do?

  (player) uh...Put my ear to the door
  and listen?

  (Me, narrating) You can discern one
  voice in the distance, possible
  conducting a ceremony. However, it is
  far and distant, and you might be able
  to use the distraction to snoop around
  a bit.

  (player converses with friends) I think I'll open the door carefully.

  etc. etc. etc.

Has anyone here ran a game of AH like this, giving players more options than the game normally would (Perhaps they might get a combat bonus if they were able to use water against the fire vampire in the previous description...)? I've played D&D, but I've never really been the DM before. I'm considering playing a scenario like this one to enhance the experience and give me a bit of structure to build off of.

Any other advice about creating a good role-playing experience in AH, or general advice about introducing people to the game? I'll gladly read and up-vote any suggestions or shared experiences. :D


texts: Can I activate my "once per turn" effect twice if the activation is negated?

texts:
Let's assume I have two copies of "Spellbook of Secrets" in my hand. I activate one, and my opponent chains to it with their set copy of "Solemn Judgement". Am I able to activate my second copy? "Spellbook of Secrets"' effect reads:

  Add 1 "Spellbook" card from your Deck to your hand, except "Spellbook of Secrets". You can only activate 1 "Spellbook of Secrets" per turn.

Since "Solemn Judgement" negates the activation of cards, would I be able to activate my other copy, or does it not work that way?


texts: How do you handle two epidemics in a row in pandemic?

texts:
Instructions on epidemics ask that the discard pile be reshuffled and put back as the last action to take with the card. This means that if a player draws two epidemic cards at the same time, there won't be a discard pile for the pandemic to use for the outbreak step.

What's the most appropriate way to handle this situation?


texts: Dominion: Throne Room broken in base game?

texts: Me and my friends have been playing the base game of dominion and after about 10 games I’ve found a strategy no one can seem to beat. Three of the 5 standard sets have throne room and every time we play with it I win. Strategy usually includes 4-6 throne rooms, some draw cards like smithy, and some extra action cards like village or market. By late game I can cycle through a massive deck in a single turn about 50% of the time and usually buy a duchy and province each. Everyone feels there’s no viable counter to this strategy and as such refuse to play with throne room. Any suggestions for counter strategies that can make the game fun for everyone without banning my favorite card?


texts: How can I play Dominion by myself (like solitaire)?

texts: Is there any suggested way to modify the rules to play Dominion on your own, like a Dominion Solitaire? It seems possible given that you're mostly just building your own deck and collecting victory points, but I'm not sure how to replicate the scarcity aspect that makes the game competitive and challenging.


texts: If Bad Penny is destroyed by Yxilo Bolter's Fight/Reap effect, where does it go?

texts: When Bad Penny is destroyed, it goes back into my (its owner's) hand. But if Yxilo Bolter destroys it due to its Fight/Reap effect, it is purged. In this case, which effect "wins"?


texts:
The Diplomacy rules state that

  In some rare cases, orders are written so that an Army could arrive at its destination either by land or convoy. When this happens, the following qualifiers apply:
  If at least one of the convoying Fleets belongs to the player
     who controls the Army, then the convoy is used. The land
     route is disregarded.
  If none of the convoying Fleets belongs to the player who
     controls the Army, then the land route is used. However, the
     player controlling the Army can use the convoy route if he
     or she indicated “via convoy” on the Army move order
     in question.
  This prevents foreign powers from kidnapping an Army and convoying it against its will.

How would moving by convoy (regardless of whose Fleet is convoying) ever effect gameplay? How would it be any different from moving by land?


texts: Does Forbidden Words affect the character or player or both?

texts: In mansions of madness 2nd edition, there is an insanity card called 'Forbidden Words'.  The text specifies "You cannot speak.  You win or lose the game as normal."  There was some confusion as to if 'you' meant the player or the character.  That is, must the player stop talking or can the character no longer interact with person tokens on the map? Or is it both?


texts: Do cards that supply bonuses trigger on actions modified by other cards?

texts:
Many cards in Agricola give you bonus resources under certain circumstances. For example, the Stone Carrier occupation says:

  Whenever you take Stone with an
  action, you can also take 1 additional
  Stone. If you also receive other
  building resources, this costs you 1
  Food.

Many cards also modify existing actions. For example, the Quarry reads:

  Whenever you use the "Day Laborer"
  Action, you receive an additional 3
  Stone.

If you have a Quarry and a Stone Carrier, and you take Day Labour, do you receive 2 food and 4 stone?

Is this generally true for all cards that supply bonuses?


texts:
I recently bought the Civil War expansion for Marvel Legendary. In addition to the advertised contents, it also contained a number of cards with the standard Legendary back whose front was identical to the back except with the addition of a number at the lower right. There are ten with the number 1, four with the number 2, and sixteen with the number 3.

I didn't see any mention of these in the rulebook. What are they for? Do I need them?


texts:
My piece was on Mayfair [Boardwalk in US version].  After moving, I passed GO and landed on the Chance along Kingcross station [Reading Railroad in US version].

The Chance card reads "go to Pall Mall [St. Charles Place in US version] and if you pass GO collect £200 [$200 in US version]".

Can I collect £200 [$200 in US version] since I did pass go before landing on the chance space? What location is the Chance card concerned with?  My original space (Mayfair) or the current Chance space?


texts: Why can't I find a copy of Crystalline Sliver printing from the Tempest Remastered Set?

texts: Gatherer lists Crystalline Sliver under the Tempest Remastered set with a Block of General.  I would like to purchase that specific printing but have been unable to locate any physical copies of the card. Does any one know why these cards are so difficult to find?


texts: Bridge hand with high card points between 1NT (15-17) and 2NT (20-21)

texts:
A few years ago, I submitted a question here about opening a balanced hand in the so-called "no man's land" of 18-19 HCP, ie. too strong to open 1NT and too weak to open 2NT. Many thanks to those who responded.

Since then, I have learned to open one club with such a hand, and my partner responds in one of the following two ways depending on her HCP. With less than 7p, she bids one diamond, which we both understand as a denial. With 7 points or more, she bids as she would normally, and I rebid with 2NT. That bid is forcing to game, as the sum of the partnership's HCP (18+7) is at least 25, the minimum required for a game. The rest of the bidding is fairly straightforward thereafter.

My question is what should I rebid if partner's first response is the one diamond denial mentioned above ?  Of course, any other thoughts about how to bid such a "no man's land" balanced hand of 18-19 HCP will be most welcome, especially within the restraints of Standard American.


texts: How does Blood Sun interact with Cavern of Souls? Does the interaction depend on the order in which the cards are played? If I use the cavern's second mana ability and I never chose a creature type, what happens? Does the Cavern produce mana that can't be spent on anything?


texts: Is there a limit to a player's hand size in Summoner Wars?

texts: May a player have more than 5 cards in his hand at any time? This may happen when a card allows you to draw cards instead of attacking.


texts: Situation: Player1 moves into a sector containing a ship of Player2 and draws "Reaver Cutter" nav card (which means moving Reavers into the same sector and applying Reaver Contact effects immediately). Do Reavers attack both ships or only the Player1? I.E. does Player2 have the contact immediately or only on the start of his turn? There is a difference because Reavers may leave the sector before the turn of the Player2 begins.


texts: How to hook beginners on galaxy trucker by giving them an extra turbulent round one

texts:
I want all my friends to love Galaxy Trucker as much as I do.

Unfortunately if not enough pieces fall off your ship, the game isn't as fun. Then people don't want to play again.  This is quite common in the base game; often I just happen to get a mostly planets/open space draw. Do people have more sophisticated methods for (pseudo-)randomizing the cards in order to make sure there's a generous collection of meteoric swarms and laser-blast-dealing cards.

After all, if no one's ship falls apart by the end of the first round, then what's the point?


texts: Pocketing the striker while covering the Queen

texts:
Say I'm white, and the board has 1 white, 3 black and 1 Queen left on it.

I pocket the Queen. Then, when covering the Queen, I pocket both the remaining white piece along with the striker.

What is the outcome?


texts: What archetypes are most common/popular to include in powered cubes (preferably size 540)?


texts:
Assuming a drop pod place 2 inch away from a 6 inch wide impassible terrain (eg: river of lava).

Drop pod deviation says that it has to deviate 12 inches, in the direction that passes above said impassible terrain.

Does the drop pod stops deviation at the first boundary of the impassible terrain (and thus deviate only 2 inches), or does it cross/passes over the terrain since it can be placed freely on the other side of it?


texts: What's the etymology of the phrase "dead rubber". Googling attributes it to some obscure bridge reference, but I don't seem to understand it.


texts: 7 Wonders scoring question (Olympia B, copying a guild) on BSW

texts:
On BrettspielWelt, I played Olympia (B) and built the 3rd wonder stage (copy a guild). The end score confused me, and I think BSW might have implemented the scoring wrong.

We were 3 players. Everyone had one guild.

Red had the science guild:

Blue:

Green (me):

As you can see, Red got no guild points. So I assume these are included in the score for science cards (didn't screenshot his science cards, unfortunately).

Blue got 5 guild points, which is correct (Red had 3 yellow cards, Green had 2).

Now, I (Green) got 10 guild points. How comes that? My own guild card gave me 6 points (2 browns + 3 greys + 1 purple). Now I get a guild card copy:

If I'd copy Blue's guild, I'd get 4 points (Red's 3 yellow cards + Blue's 1 yellow card). Ha. That would be 10 points.
But if I'd copy Red's guild, I'd have completed two science sets. So with this guild, I should have got 31 science points (instead of my 21).

Am I missing something or is this a bug on BrettspielWelt? Why did the system copy Blue's guild for me, instead of Red's guild (which would have made me the winner)?


texts:
At my weekly boardgames night earlier this evening I was roped into an all-expansions, 6-player game of Dominion.  A girl on the sidelines piped up: "You should take out the Goons card.  It takes all the fun out of the game."

Needless to say... one of the ten cards randomly selected was the Goons.  Those of us who hadn't played with the most recent expansions inspected the card.  Forcing everyone else to discard down to 3 did seem liable to slow the game to the crawl... but the card did cost a pricey 6.  How bad could it be?

I started with a 2-5 copper split and bought a Haven and a Trading Post.  From there I was able to whittle my deck free of Coppers and Estates until it was a pretty efficient collection of Silvers and Golds.  Even though the player who was buying up Goons was hitting me more turns than not, the three cards left in my hand tended to be worth 5-8 before too long, leaving me in a good position to keep buying Gold, Province and Duchy cards.

I ended the game with 36 points; second place.  The "Goon player" had a fairly crazy 48 points.  What annoyed me about this is that he hadn't really needed to bother scrabbling to buy Provinces with the rest of us: just playing a lot of Goons and buying stuff had allowed him to amass a stack of victory point chips that left the rest of us in the dust.

It's true that there was a pile of Secret Chambers on the table that most of us failed to buy; I could certainly have done with a few, to sculpt my hand against the Goons and dodge the Spy attacks that almost all the other players at the table seemed to be throwing around with abandon.  But it still seems to me that there may be a fair accusation to be levelled against the Goons.  For the price of a Gold, they're a much improved Silver - they can easily net you a couple of Estate's worth of free victory points every time you play them, with none of the downsides to the efficiency of your deck! And if that wasn't bad enough, they are also a really annoying attack, with, as previously mentioned, the potential to slow the whole game to half speed if they are constantly being played.

Obviously no card in Dominion is unconditionally broken: for any card, there will always be a configuration of available cards that will combat it efficiently.  But are Goons too far along the un-fun end of the spectrum?  Was the girl at my group right to propose that they should be removed from the game for its own good?


texts: Why would you ever not assign your full crew on a job?

texts:
Just got the firefly boardgame a few weeks ago and have a couple group games and two solo plays done.
One thing I can't figure out yet is why you wouldn't always assign your entire crew to a job.
No matter if they are assigned they are need to be payed and will get disgruntled if you do an immoral job and they are moral, so the only reason I can see is if you are ready doing a Niska job and don't want to risk them getting killed.

I am still playing the stock game, no expansions yet.  Really looking forward to snagging pirates and bounty hunters, the added player interaction seems to be the one glaring hole in the mechanics so far.


texts:
If we had a blue city with one black disease cube due to an outbreak and we pull that blue city card during epidemic infection phase, is it an outbreak?
We thought that 3 was the max #of cubes one city can have (even if they are of different colors), but I just read one of the thread here that mentioned a city with 2 red cubes and 2 black cubes, total of 4 cubes in one city.


texts: How does drafting work in The Champion of the Wild?

texts:
We bought a copy of The Champion of the Wild first edition, and totally missed the second edition funding campaign.  One of the new things in the second edition is four new game modes involving drafting.

It looks like these should be playable with the first edition set, but we couldn't find details of the rules. In particular does the drafting happen before or after the events are revealed?  Or maybe are the two things interleaved, with some events being revealed at different stages of the draft?  Is this the same for all of the four variants?


texts: Catan: Cities and Knights- barbarian attack with a differential of 2

texts:
The scenario is as follows...
Player a has 3 cities and 2 knights, player B has 1 city and 1 knight, and player C has 1 city and no knights. The barbarians attack and given the state of the board, they have a strength of 5 but only 3 knights are activated. Player C obviously loses their city because they have the least amount of active knights but does player A also lose a city because they only have 2 knights to their 3 cities?


texts: I used Glaring Spotlight ability and granted my creatures hexproof and unblockable until end of turn. Then I exiled them with Legion's Initiative after attacking with Aurelia, the Warleader. Do they lose hexproof and unblockable when exiled and come back to the battlefield without hexproof/unblockable? Or will they have that ability until end of turn as stated by glaring spotlight?


texts: What is the converted mana cost of fuse cards

texts: If I were to play Blast of Genius and chose to discard Catch // Release Would the converted mana cost be the total cost of both halves or one?


texts:
Can I deal damage to opponent if I cast Fling on a Creature token?

I was playing on MTGO, and when I cast Fling the creature was sacrificed but no damage was dealt to the opponent. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a miss click, or that sacrificing tokens doesn't work with Fling.


texts: The End of Anubis vs Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon

texts:
I play with a Structure Deck: Zombie Horde and my friend is always using The End of Anubis against me. My Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon has the following effect:

  Gains 100 ATK/DEF for each Zombie monster on the field and in the GYs. When another Zombie monster is destroyed by battle: You can Special Summon 1 Zombie monster from either GY to your field. You can only use this effect of "Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon" once per turn.

We were wondering if The End of Anubis' effect

  While this card is face-up on the field, all effects of Spell, Trap, and Monster Cards that target a card(s) in the Graveyard or that activate in the Graveyard are negated.

negates the effect of my Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon.

Thank for your help!


texts: In Robo Rally, if I don't end in but rather drive through a pit, do I die? Instructions seem to literally say if they move into, but I'm not clear if it's strictly if they end there.


texts: Can different Aces have different values?

texts:
I understand that Aces are worth either 1 Point or 11 Points, depending on the player's will. But how are multiple Aces valued? Here are some examples:

Ace, Nine, Ace
Is this always x+9+x, where:
Case 1:
x = 1 or x = 11;
(This hand would always be 11 or 31)
Or can this be x+10+y, where:
Case 2:
x = 1 or x = 11;
y = 1 or y = 11
(This hand can be 11, 21, 21 or 31)


texts: If an attempt to equip fails, does the equipment fall off?

texts:
Let's say I have two Grizzly Bears, one of which is equipped with Short Sword. If I attempt to equip the other Bear and opponent responds with a kill spell, does the Short Sword cease to be equipped to the first bear?
I looked through the rules for equip and don't see why it would, but it's conceivable (certainly if opponent lets me equip before using the kill spell it would fall off), so I would like to check.


texts: Can the Mah Jong force out the Phoenix as part of a straight in Tichu?

texts:
Suppose I play a straight with 1-5 and wish for a 7. The next player has a 3,4,5,7, and Phoenix.

Does my wish compel the player to complete the straight using the Phoenix and fulfill the wish, or the usage of Phoenix exempt from the wish, since the Phoenix cannot be wished for under ordinary circumstances?


texts: Does a Joker has the value of the number it represents?

texts:
I played Rummikub yesterday and you know: To start a game, one has to lay down a minimum of 30 Points with new rows created.

However, yesterday, my Mom laid out following:

[11] [11] [JO]

In my Computer Rummikub, this isn't allowed. But my Mom said we will keep this rule. But I said that I will ask on a very good forum, if this is allowed.

So: When attaching the Joker to a row, will it get assigned the value of the number it represents? Or will it only stand for this number, as I think, with having a value attribute of zero?

Thank you!


texts: In Syme vs. UnSweet's second USTO 2016 Tak game, at what point should Syme have defended against a C-file threat?

texts:
In Syme vs. UnSweet's second USTO 2016 game (the commentator gets a few things wrong, worth noting), UnSweet won by tinuë on a C-file threat. This threat started to emerge very early in the game, and was identifiable even with the early Cc4 capstone move.

Obviously, at some point, Syme lost the white advantage by permitting falling into tak off the C-file threat. The question I'm wondering is, at what point should Syme have started to work against UnSweet's growing board advantage?

There are a few specific moves I'm wondering about:

On moves 6-7, the a2/b6 and c4/c6 response really seems like it lost Syme a lot of tempo. a2 does pin UnSweet's capstone, but also, UnSweet's capstone is in a great position for forming a tak threat anyway, so pinning it doesn't seem to do a whole lot. Then, trying to cut the C-file road with c4 seems like it leaves the flat stranded, where there are equally blocking moves that would persist in building a tak threat. Am I misreading these moves, or were these actual mistakes?
On the next move, where Syme plays d6 and UnSweet plays b4, would Syme b4 have been a better move? It would guarantee the the flats at c4, and partially guarantee b3, while rebuilding a tak threat - which seems to be exactly the threat that UnSweet then exploits. The other concern is that d6 can't adequately threaten c6, and therefore can't threaten a C-file tak threat. But leaving the 6-rank road to grow also seems like a poor idea, especially when d6 totally fortifies c6. So my secondary question is: would c5 have been a better move than d6?
Instead of placing on move 10, though, Syme then responds to this situation with b3+, which both breaks up their road and loses them a bit of tempo. Is this move an error? It starts towards rebuilding a road, but it doesn't seem to do it in a way that can't be easily counteracted by UnSweet, and really doesn't pose that much of a threat.

It seems like this section of moves (6-10) really messed Syme up. Is this roughly the region that I should be looking at when I dissect this game?


texts: Is it allowed to activate the ability of multiple planeswalkers in a single turn?

texts:
Suppose I have more than one planeswalker (different planeswalkers) in play.

During my turn, am I allowed to use both of their '+' abilities? Or can I only use one planeswalker ability from one planeswalker during my turn?


texts: Does my Dryad Arbor stop being a creature with a Blood Moon in play?

texts: Does my Dryad Arbor stop being a creature with Blood Moon in play?


texts: Robo Rally - Alternative rules for option cards?

texts:
Robo Rally is a fun game but the option cards totally break it if a person just sits on the wrench and hammer and collects them all.

Has anyone tried a house rule to discourage this behaviour?  How did it work out?


texts: At what level should one try to teach go?

texts:
I am now at a level where I don't consider myself to be a complete beginner, and I can now recognise at least some of the mistakes made by lower level kyu players.

I would like to help other people but I'm sometimes to afraid I'll give them wrong advice and push them in the wrong direction. Having someone stronger than me in the same room do a review of my review can eliminate that problem, but that's rarely the case.

How can one know when he's ready to teach weaker players?


texts: In Catan, can you put the robber on the desert?

texts:
In Settlers of Catan, we've always played that you cannot put the robber back in the desert.  But watching tabletop this week, they did exactly that, and in the youtube comments people have said that the 4th edition rules don't say you can't.

Is there a definitive ruling for this in the latest ruleset?


texts: Is it better to start with M13 and splash in RtR and GTC when building a deck?

texts:
I've been doing some reading on deck building and I'm getting the feeling that using the RtR and GC expansions are better mixed in with a solid M13 deck.  However, I can't really confirm this anywhere, which is why I'm asking here.

I've been focusing my booster pack purchases on RtR and GTC but I think I need to spend some more M13 time if this is the case.  Any advice?


texts: After a tile is placed but before a player indicates the turn is over by saying "Done", may he move a tile from his rack to a different position on the table after he has initially placed it?  May he place a tile down and then decide to remove it or replace it before saying "done"?  Or once it is on the table in a certain position it must stay there?


texts: Are activated abilities only abilities with mana costs?

texts: Example, if I had Archon of Redemption out and my opponent played Arrest on it (Arrest says that the creature's activated abilities cant be activated). When something with flying enters the battlefield can I still gain life equal to its toughness?


texts: Where can I find the rules for the Roc Pattern Storm Eagle?

texts: I've seen that its rules exist, but not in which book or web supplement to find them. Where can I find them?


texts:
I'm not sure if I understand what Provoke the Trolls spell does correctly.
If I cast this spell on Knight of Obligation and it resolves, does it basically mean that it becomes a 7/1 creature until end of turn (3 damage and +5/+0 until end of turn)?


texts: Can opponents keep Jeskai Infiltrator under their control past the end of their turn if it was manifested?

texts:
So recently, when I was vsing a friend, they used Act of Treason on my Jeskai Infiltrator, then attacked me. I took the damage without blocking, then Jeskai and the top card of their library was exiled, shuffled, and manifested because of the second ability.

Reading other posts on this site, it seems that they would keep control of the manifested cards past the end of their turn, but it was never directly stated. So I just want some clarification on the rules of this card: do they get to keep it?


texts: Have there been revisions to the rules of Catan?

texts:
I have been playing catan for at least 6 years, following a trip to the Netherlands where I encountered the game. For the whole time, I have played that, on a role of 7, the player cannot build or deploy dev cards, in addition to the robber business.

Recently I have checked the rules site and been disabused of this notion. Have the rules of Catan been changed at all since its creation?

I have a strong recollection of checking the rule book and verifying that one could not use dev cards on a 7 role, but I could well be delusional.

I enjoy playing with this set of house rules, but it is useful to be familiar with the RAW when you play with new people.


texts: If a Vesuvan Doppelganger is in play having assumed the characteristics of, say, a Royal Assassin, would cloning the Doppelganger at this point be tantamount to having cast a second Doppelganger? (...that could then change into something else next turn, after spending a turn as another Royal Assassin, but with summoning sickness?)


texts: Can you heal at the moment you get KO'd?

texts:
During my last game of Fortune and Glory, I played the event card Blizzard on another player (do d6 Wounds if the player/villain is in an Ice space). I rolled 6 damage, and he was playing Shelly Hargrove, who can take a maximum of 4 Wounds. He prevented 2 Wounds between his Defense and another item, but then he used the Spunky ability to "heal" two Wounds, thus avoiding being KO'd. Here's what the Spunky ability says:

  May pay 2 Glory at any time to Heal a Wound (except during a Fight Round).

Can you use abilities that heal you to prevent Wounds that would KO you, or does being KO'd prevent healing?


texts: Help Identify: 2-player Kingdom building Board Game with role selection

texts:
This is based off of a review that I remember seeing, and I've never been able to find it again, nor remember its name. I believe that the game was originally Japanese with English rules, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

It was a 2-player duel game where you would have a handful of identical cards that corresponded to worker cards that would grant you various powers. The active player would select three workers and put them face down, then the opposing player would also pick the three roles they thought would be selected. Both players reveal, and if the defending player guessed any workers correctly, the active player doesn't get those cards' powers for the round.

After that, the active player gets the powers of any cards that weren't chosen, gains resources, and can spend them on miscellaneous cards with the end goal to buy two of the three major cards that I think were castles. First player to buy two wins.

There is also one upgraded copy of each of the workers that were available to buy, which would replace the main worker but could still be cancelled by a defender like normal.

Does anyone know which game I'm trying to describe?


texts: I have a 4/4 creature with double strike and equipped with Kusari-Gama. I get attacked by a 5/5 and 3 2/2's. I block the 5/5 with my 4/4. Do I take damage from the 2/2's even though they die in the first strike phase?


texts: Does a game recommendation website exist?

texts: Is there a website that will collect your evaluations of various board games that you've played and will then recommend a board game that you will like, based on your evaluations and on those of other members?


texts: Revolution! with Anarchy expansion: when does the game end?

texts: Normally, Revolution! ends when all influence squares are filled. The Anarchy expansion adds Garden, Asylum, and Jail --- do these also need to get filled for the game to end? If so, how do you avoid a mad frenzy over jail and asylum in the end?


texts: What is the origin of the term "Alpha Strike" in board gaming?

texts:
I've head the term Alpha Strike used frequently, usually to refer to a single massive attack or a single round of heavy attacks, and I'm wondering where the term originated in board gaming and its history in gaming.

I'm looking for its origin or history in actual gaming rule books or gaming reference material, not just shared verbiage among players, nor am I looking for information outside of gaming.

The earliest reference that I'm personally aware of is in the old FASA BattleTech rules, but are there earlier references than this?


texts: Can you use the green Mosque tile more than once per turn?

texts:
I have a question about the green Mosque tile:

The rules say:

  When using one of the three Warehouses 2 3 4, you may pay 2 Lira to gain 1 additional good of any type.

On your turn, may you use this ability more than once?

The rules for the yellow tile include "Once on your turn", and the rules for the red tile say "(1x)", so one would guess that the rules for the green tile would include a restriction like that if it would be limited. However, the "1" (in "1 additional good") is printed in bold, while the "2" (in "2 Lira") is not. Is this a hint that you can only ever get one good per turn?


texts: Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Ruling for Keeper Of The Shrine scenarios

texts:
Scenario:  Keeper of the Shrine can be special summoned from the graveyard if a dragon is sent to the graveyard by battle or card effect.

Excluding Tributes.

If my opponent has Keeper Of The Shrine in his graveyard, and I use a monster such as Lava Golem or Winged Dragon of Ra Sphere Mode to tribute his monsters so that I can (as per the effect text) normal summon these cards, can he still special summon Keeper of the Shrine from his graveyard?

Although the card effect is that you can tribute monsters on your opponents side of the field, I can't figure out if this is labeled as "card effect" or a summoning condition and whether or not my opponent should be able to activate the special summon of Keeper of the Shrine.


texts: Power Grid - Korea : How are resources purchased?

texts:
From the Power Grid - Korea map rules :

Phase 3 : Buying Resources
In reverse player order, each player chooses one of the two markets
from which he will buy resources this round. He must buy all resources
for the round from the market he chooses. If the market chosen has no
more of a resource he wants, he will not be able to buy that resource
this round.

Source : Power Grid Korea Rules
Questions
Note : All of the following actions would be done in reverse turn order.

Case 1 : Do all players choose, each in turn, a market and then, all players, again each in turn, buy their resources?
Case 2 : Do all players choose a market and immediately buy their resources from that merket before the next player chooses a market and
buys resources?

The reason for my question stems from the aformentioned rule :

If the market chosen has no more of a resource he wants, he will not be able to buy that resource this round.

One has to admit that a reasonable player would not choose to buy from an empty market.
The only justification I can find for this rule is the following :
A non-empty market becomes empty after the player has selected it.
The only way for that to happen is that the previous player has bought all the remaining resources.
That could reasonably only happen in Case 1.


texts: How many turns does an average game of Checkers/Draughts go for?

texts:
How many turns does a checkers/draughts tend to last for, in the the American/English variation, on an 8x8 board?

I've been trying to google it but I can only find answers related to chess.


texts: Which boardgames need expansion sets before they work properly?

texts:
I think, sad to say, this is still a common problem in modern boardgaming.  You buy a game and it's maybe okay, but then you discover that there's an expansion set that makes all the difference.  If you don't go out and buy that too, you're not really experiencing the game as it was meant to be played.

It's in all of our interests as consumers to know which games are going to be satisfactory straight out of the box, and which have hidden costs involved.  Which games in your collection wouldn't really be complete without one or more of their expansions?  Obviously I don't want vague answers like "Dominion is really good but Dominion with all the expansions is even better": please provide concrete explanations of the actual problems a game's base set has, and how the expansion set goes on to fix them, if possible!

I have a bugbear or two of my own to tell you about, but rather than shoehorn them into the question as "examples", I'll post them as an answer below!


texts: Can I cast Kheru Spellsnatcher's spell after it leaves the battlefield?

texts: Kheru Spellsnatcher's morph ability is a good one. Suppose I've turned it face up and exiled a spell with its triggered ability, then Kheru Spellsnatcher dies. May I play the exiled spell still even if Kheru Spellsnatcher isn't around anymore?


texts:
Splendor is a great game, but the rules were written sub-optimally.

The following quotes the rules that specify what actions a player can take on his turn:

  On their turn, a player must choose to perform only one of the following four actions.

  Take 3 gem tokens of different colors.
  Take 2 gem tokens of the same color. This action is only possible if there are at least 4 tokens of the chosen color left when the player takes them.
  Reserve 1 development card and take 1 gold token (joker).
  Purchase 1 face-up development card from the middle of the table or a previously reserved one.

As written, it's not hard to get into a situation where it's impossible to perform a legal turn. I presume you can pass if you can't perform any of the actions, but there might be other options.

Can you reserve a development card if there is no gold left (taking the development card without gaining gold)?
Can you take gems if there are fewer than three colors of gems left (taking one from each of the remaining colors)?


texts: What's the etymology of the name Eldraine?

texts:
Ravnica is based on a Serbo-Croatian word for plain.

And the other planes, like Phyrexia (basically "land of Phyresis") seem to have etymologies for their names...

So, what's the etymology of the name Eldraine?


texts: Rules of MTG Dive Down and spells priority

texts: I'm playing MTGArena and I have one issue with the Dive Down spell. I have a Guttersnipe on battlefield, then my opponent cast Lightning Strike on it. I cast Dive down on Guttersnipe. And then my opponent cast another Lightning Strike that kills my creature. Why? I already used Dive Down. Why can the second Lightning Strike destroy my creature? Please explain.


texts: When I acquire assets, can I receive the item into my possession one at a time?

texts: If I can acquire multiple assets, can I acquire some into my possession and then, during the same acquire assets action, acquire the final card which then acts on those newly gained possessions, for instance enabling me to give any number of Item possessions to another investigator?


texts: I've read the manual but don't fully get multi-monster fights. It says you can't chose to fight one, and flee from others. But do you sum up all the monster points and try to beat that in one single combat, or do you fight one monster at a time?


texts: Ghost stories white moon - cemetery tile Qi

texts:
Ghost stories white moon.

When using the village cemetery tile to bring a player back, the revived player gets 2 Qi.

When using this same tile to bring a villager back from the graveyard, what happens with the Qi? Does the active player get them?


texts:
We were playing the Days of Wonder game Pirate's Cove earlier this evening; it's a lot of fun but the rules aren't exactly watertight, and more than once I felt there was considerable ambiguity in how they should be interpreted. Here's one that I remember:

If a pirate ship flees or is sent packing from combat, their opponents remaining in the fight get 1 Fame point for seeing them off. At one point two of us sailed to the same island and a third player sprang the Royal Navy on us. The Royal Navy crippled one ship, which was forced to set sail for Pirate's Cove. The question: does the remaining player get a Fame point, on the grounds that they have outlasted an opponent in battle? Our group majority-voted no, because at the time both ships were fighting the Navy together, so it didn't count as seeing off an opponent. But I wasn't so sure...


texts: Is there any limitation with Chimeratech Overdragon and Future fusion?

texts:
It seems that I can ban as much monsters as I want from my deck with Future Fusion and so I will have an overpowered Chimeratech Overdragon monster that can attack ten times with 8000 ATK.

Is there some restrictions with this two cards or something I'm doing wrong?


texts: Would this potential Saint Petersburg house rule work?

texts:
A friend mentioned a possible easy tweak of the Saint Petersburg rules: just pay out the buildings once again at the end of the game (perhaps disallowing observatory/debtor's prison except for taking the 1 VP).

This has two possible advantages:

It could enable a viable blue-heavy strategy to compete with the as-many-aristocrats-kinds-as-possible strategy.
The trading card phase at the end would actually matter for blues as well as aristocrats.

Can anyone shoot holes in the idea?  I'm curious for people to try this out and report how it goes.


texts: Casting instants between first strike/normal strike combat phases

texts:
Let's say I have a 1/1 with first strike that's attacking and blocked by a vanilla 4/4.

It deals first strike damage, but that's not enough to kill the defending creature. Right now, the attacking creature will have to take damage from the blocking creature.

Before the attacking creature takes that damage, can I “finish off” the blocking creature by casting Lightning Bolt and avoid it taking damage?

I am unsure whether,and when,a player gains priority during that step.

What, in my opinion, distinguishes this question from the others with which it can be associated, is the exact moment in which the players have the priority to cast spells again, which I believe should be placed exactly between the conclusion of the "first strike damage assignment phase" - in which first strike creatures assign their damage - and  the "ordinary combat phase" - in which other creatures without first strike assign their damage.

It should be specified when players gain priority and it is possible to cast spells able to damage creatures during combat, and if it is possible to do so; and, above all, if these damages due to spells are assigned without the possibility,for creatures without first strike, to respond to them.

I don't think these are trivial things ...


texts: Do Status Effects End In Mansions of Madness?

texts:
We played Mansions of Madness for the first time this weekend and I was surprised that fire was so devastating.

When a status effect is placed in a room, like fire, does it ever end without an 'action'?


texts: Two Headed Giant Sealed Events Card Trading

texts:
Origins is being released soon, and I plan on going to the THG prerelease for the first time. Me and my partner have been running pull simulations to see what deck strats come up often. We are noticing that we often get cards necessary for the other's strategy.

Is it legal to trade them cards before the rounds start?


texts: Is it better to try to reveal a Traitor early, or wait until later in the game?

texts:
Since a Traitor might help you, to avoid making it obvious they are a Traitor, is it better to wait to reveal them? The advantage of accusing early, is that if no White Swords are on the board, you don't get a Black Sword if you make a false accusation. You also prevent Special Cards being played by the Traitor (if they decide to reveal themselves) that can hurt everyone.

Does the strategy of when to Accuse change with the number of players? Why?


texts: Voice of Ra: does "all skill checks" apply to all players or just the caster?

texts:
Voice of Ra states

  You may cast and exhaust to gain +1 to all skill checks for the rest of this turn.

Is that all skill checks for the caster, or for all investigators?


texts:
The combination of having a Forerunner of the Empire and playing a Polyraptor is pretty well known, but I have yet to understand how many you would create.

How many Raptors would a player create before the forerunner (a 1/3 creature) dies to it's own damage?

How many Raptors would a player create if the forerunner had x/5 toughness before dying to it's own damage?

I understand the Forerunner's ability is a 'may' effect but I am looking for maximum value, stopping short of infinite loops.


texts: Does Mirrorworks still create a copy when the original has left the battlefield?

texts:
I have a Mirrorworks in play, play an artifact and my opponent destroys the new artifact before the trigger resolves. Can Mirrorworks still create a copy of it even though the original isn't on the battlefield anymore?
Can copies of cards that aren't in the battlefield be created?


texts: How viable are multi-colour decks in Digimon?

texts:
The recently-English released Digimon TCG has a lot of interesting things going on, but one thing I can't determine just from reading card effects is how viable multi-colour decks are. The game footage I've watched is completely dominated by single-colour decks that work towards getting out a single level 7 Digimon.
So, is building a deck around using two or more colours viable and what are the implications of that on how you can play the game?


texts: Does a Xantcha I cast trigger a Warstorm Surge I control?

texts:
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent has the ability:

  As Xantcha, Sleeper Agent enters the battlefield, an opponent of your
  choice gains control of it.

Warstorm Surge has the ability:

  Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, it
  deals damage equal to its power to any target.

If I cast a Xantcha, my opponent will ultimately gain control of it. But is it ever on the battlefield under my control, such that it will trigger my Warstorm Surge?


texts: Can I re-equip an equipped artifact to the same creature?

texts: Say I have Sun Forger equipped to my only creature on the battlefield. Can I re-equip Sun Forger to the creature it is currently equipped to? That way I can tutor a card with only one creature card out on the battle field?


texts:
The new rules for the "Gloom" expansion deck "Unhappy homes" states:

  "A blue-themed mystery card is the only card that can be placed on a Residence and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays"

I tried playing with this expansion deck with two of us last night but this new rule/deck proved problematic.

If we interpret that rule literally we cannot play death cards on a Residence ever and they  don't have to be killed to edit the game in the usual way. At first sight this seems to make sense - "killing" a Residence sounds odd and the blue-themed mystery cards have buffs that apply to the whole family, but two things make this seem wrong:

The reverse of the residence cards have death messages exactly like the rest of the families.
The blue-themed mystery cards have pathos points which seem pointless if you can't kill the residence because pathos points on living characters count for nothing according to the original rules and there's no exception to this in the expansion deck rules.

In light of this we tried to interpret this rule as permitting death cards also and requiring the death of a residence exactly like any family member, but with two players we twice played a full game where neither player was successfully able to play a blue-themed mystery card, due to the other requirements of these cards, and so were unable to kill the residences because they didn't have negative pathos points.

We gave up trying to kill the residences in the end both times because we each reached a stage where our entire turns consisted of discarding cards to get new ones when we draw back up, which frankly got a bit dull quite quickly.

What's a sensible interpretation of the new rules? What's the purpose of the pathos points on the blue-themed mystery cards if the residences are unkillable?


texts: After you get the longest road card, can you start building on it and still retain the longest road card?


texts: Can I resolve all special effects or just 1 at a time in turn with other players before and after bases score

texts:
The rules say that special effects are resolved starting with the current player and in turn clockwise. Can I resolve all of my multiple special effects when it is my turn, or do I only resolve 1, then give the next player a chance to, etc. Also, if I know a player after me has 2 effects, can I wait until he does both and then resolve mine (essentially passing then choosing to resolve)?

Edit: here are snippets of the rules:

  When a base has been chosen to score, each player first gets to use any Special abilities that happen “before” the base scores.

I've come to notice the distinction between "special abilities" such as certain actions and minions that can come into play as a base passes its breaking point (but isn't considered having been "scored"). The rules below apply to these cards:

  If more than one player wants to use a Special ability, start with the current player and go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence (if you pass and another player uses a Special, you can then still choose to use a Special of your own). If your Special allows you to play extra cards, you must play those immediately or not at all.

There are then effects having to do with cards already in play that occur "after" the base scores, as described shortly after:

  After scoring, players can use Special abilities that happen “after” a base scores.

After noting this, I'd like to clarify my question to specifically refer to these separate sets of phases, "before" and "after", and ask what people feel is the ruling on whether, starting with the player whose turn it is, they can play more than one card (or in the case of "after the base scores", resolve more than one card's "after the base scores" effect), or whether they must pick one at a time and wait until everyone else has had a chance to do so or pass before taking the second opportunity.

I lean toward one at a time if for no other reason than it seems like an interesting tactical consideration in itself.


texts: Why Do Modern Players Use "Negative Doubles" In Bridge

texts:
Personally, I think that too many people overcall. Meaning that we need a penalty double for it in bridge. But the modern fashion seems to be for "negative doubles" over overcalls. These seem to mean, "I don't like your suit, and I don't want to defend the opponents' suit, therefore I'm strong in the remaining two suits. At least relative to my 8-10 points. Meaning that it largely precludes the penalty double.

With some reluctance (and with certain partners), I used a double that means, I like the "remaining" major suit(s). (I hate minors.) It could be either negative or penalty, depending on the circumstances. Some examples:

1 Club (You) 1 Diamond (Opponent) Double (me). I like one, possibly both majors. Negative.

1 Heart (You) 2 Clubs (Opponent) Double (me). I wanted to bid one spade, but 2 clubs shut me out. Negative.

1 Heart (You) 1 Spade (Opponent) Double (me). I like one of the majors (and not yours, because I didn't raise, with Qxx or better). Penalty. (I have AKxxx or QjTxx and hope you'll pass me out.)

Should I stick to penalty doubles? Are negative doubles so compelling that I have to "switch?" Or is it possible to use a "blend" strategy like the one above?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What are common contracts in Catan?

The group I regularly play Settlers with has used a house rule about ports (I can trade resources for you at my port on your turn) for a long time. We got into the habit without realizing it was a house rule, and by the time we learned of it, playing without this freedom felt constraining.

Open ports make ports substantially more valuable. Fees for trading fluctuated for a while but then settled on a standard "2 trades conducted for 1 extra resource" rate of pay. Depending on the player, they might only accept certain resource types as the fee for trade, permit trades at multiple ports they own for the same fee, or even allow for a single port trade with post-payment made on certain conditions (one card for one trade was the opener... conditions might also be "the next wheat you get," etc.) We even evolved a system of using extra pieces (ships, for example, when not playing seafarers) to serve as tokens so that port users could save their second trade for later.

I have always been interested in other ways to "extend" Settlers through rule modifications that don't seem to disrupt gameplay. Specifically, I've wondered about launching side "businesses" in Catan that might offer incentives to multiple parties (hosting gambling with resource cards on my turn? offering to hold another player's cards as a "bank" and absorbing some risk of the 7 roll in exchange for a fee?). There is some economical calibration involved, but what I'm really seeking is more ideas to experiment with that are consistent with the game's premise yet extend and complicate the interactions and negotiations between players.

Do you have any "house rules" to share that add interest or variation to your Settlers games?


texts: In Diplomacy, Is the "Three Emperor's Alliance" a Good Strategy For Russia?

texts:
Russia, which gets an extra piece, is in some ways the most powerful country in Diplomacy. It is also one of the most vulnerable, insofar as it is surrounded by four potentially hostile countries. (Only Germany and Austria-Hungary is in such bad shape in this regard, an important fact for this question.)

The Three Emperors' Alliance between Russia, Germany and Austria was originally started by GERMANY's Bismarck (in real life). But as the strongest of the three, perhaps Russia could be the greatest beneficiary?

The idea is to use the weaker Teutonic powers to knock out the stronger enemies, England and Turkey. Russia gets Norway and Edinburgh in the north, Rumania and two, maybe three Turkish supply centers in the south. And in any event, secures both flanks.

Then Russia might ally with one Teutonic power against the other, or possibly with France and Italy against the two Teutonics. If they were playing a "short" game, where any three countries with a total of 18+ supply centers can declare themselves co-winners, they'd have the game won right there.

How would this compare with more "traditional" strategies, like the "juggernaut" of allying with Turkey?

I've never played Russia "on my own" but once "inherited" a Russian game from someone who had to leave early and had an alliance with Turkey.


texts:
If I make a copy of Pack Rat using its ability, does that copy retain the mana cost, and thus increase my devotion to black by one?

ie. I have nothing on the battlefield but one Pack Rat and some swamps. I discard a card to Pack Rat to create a copy of it. Is my devotion now equal to 1 or 2?


texts: Does the controller go back to the supply after use? The rulebook (which I can’t find online) doesn’t seem to specify, but there is mention of it being in the supply after the beginning of the game, and I don’t see any badges that would put it there.


texts: Do creatures put on the battlefield via a sorcery have summoning sickness?

texts:
I have a card named Doubling Chant, the effect of this card is "For each creature you control, Search your library for a creature with the same name and put it onto the battlefield. Then Shuffle your library".

After this phase can I then attack with the creatures gained this way or do they suffer from summoning sickness?

My guess is that If they do not have haste they suffer but doubling them seems to suggest a mirroring of the original creature at the time... Its a vague mechanic in all honesty


texts: How many meeples should I have according to the expansions that I'm currently using?

texts:
Like many of you, I start playing carcassonne base game with 72 tiles and 7 meeples, but I start adding expansions, and now I have more that 150 tiles in game

With just 9 meeples by player (counting the phantom and big one) I think I have a meeple deficit, how many meeples should I have for each player?


texts:
David Blaine's Gaterbacks sell easily at around the £20 mark. However, as far as I know, they aren't marked, they don't come with any gaff cards and other than the foil backs they aren't custom or even on a rare card-stock.

As a fairly new magician, I struggle to understand why such playing cards are as expensive as they are! Fontaine's are very limited, hence their price... are gaterbacks also very limited? What's so special about them?


texts: I am a beginner at this great game, and I would like to improve my skills at the game of Go. What resources would you recommend?


texts: Do multiple Gray Merchant of Asphodels trigger each others' enters-the-battlefield effects?

texts: If there is a Gray Merchant of Asphodel on the battlefield and a second Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters, do both cards trigger and opponent loses x life where x is devotion times 2, or does just the one card entering the battlefield trigger?


texts: Does the Valkyrie have to win to earn extra glory?

texts:
The Valkyrie monster upgrade card states, "Gain 2 glory per enemy figure destroyed in battle with this monster."

It does not say "per enemy figure destroyed in a battle with this monster."

It does not say "per enemy figure destroyed in battle by this monster."

I believed it to mean "destroyed with this monster", meaning that the Valkyrie has to be on the winning side of the battle to claim the glory.

It was argued that it meant in any battle involving the Valkyrie, all casualties gave the player 2 glory, even if the Valkyrie lost and was sent to Valhalla. In combination with Frigga's Domain, the Valkyrie can become incredibly powerful. Returning from the dead (for 1 rage!), your Valkyrie could lose in another battle, claiming 2 glory per destroyed figure.

How does the Valkyrie monster upgrade for Blood Rage work?


texts: If I have a Jhessian Thief enchanted with an Aqueous Form, and it deals damage to my opponent, do I get to Scry 1 before or after I draw a card from Jhessian Thief's ability?


texts: Instructions for Pegs and Jokers by Fundex

texts: Does anyone have the instructions and rules for the Pegs and Jokers Game made by Fundex? They used their own deck of cards instead of a poker deck.  I would also be interested in obtaining a complete game since the company no longer makes it.


texts: How do the various Pathfinder base sets differ?

texts:
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game has 3 versions or base sets:

Wrath of the Righteous
Rise of the Runelords
Skull & Shackles

What is the difference between them?


texts: Why does not being able to draw a card make you lose (in universe)

texts: Is there an in universe explanation for why being unable to draw a card would make you lose (Rule 104.3c)? Running out of life, or losing as the result of a spell or effect, all make sense to me in universe, but I don't understand why a planeswalker running out of new spells would make them die.


texts: How does Over My Dead Bodies interact with combat-related abilities of creature cards in my graveyard?

texts:
Over My Dead Bodies is an unstable card that has Graveyard creatures fight in a sort of undeath. We also know that whilst they're involved in combat, they're also effectively on the battlefield, at least for the purposes of global effects. From the Unstable FAQ:

Will global effects affect the graveyard creatures?
Here's where silver-bordered rules get fun. Over My Dead Bodies allows you to attack or block with creature cards in your graveyard. If you do, for the duration of combat, the attacking and blocking creature cards are treated as if they are creature cards on the battlefield which means they can be affected by spells or abilities that would affect creatures on the battlefield. That means, for example, if you have a Lord of Accursed on the battlefield ("Other Zombies you control get +1/+1"), all your attacking and blocking graveyard creatures (which Over My Dead Bodies makes into Zombies) would get +1/+1 while in combat.

I'm interested to understand how these creatures' abilities can interact with combat, if at all. Let's assume to that end that Over My Dead Bodies is out, and I have a Brutal Hordechief and a Raving Dead in my graveyard.
Raving Dead has an ability that enforces how it attacks at the start of combat, and triggers on it dealing damage:

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose an opponent at random. Raving Dead attacks that player this combat if able.
Whenever Raving Dead deals combat damage to a player, that player loses half his or her life, rounded down.

Brutal Hordechief has an ability that affects my attacks, and lets me choose blockers:

Whenever a creature you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
{3}{R/W}{R/W}: Creatures your opponents control block this turn if able, and you choose how those creatures block.

Do any of these abilities function while these creatures are in my graveyard? (Let's assume they're going to attack either way.) Am I dealing with just a vanilla 2/6 and a vanilla 3/3, or do I have to take into account any of these abilities as well? Are there specific kinds of abilities that do work and ones that don't? Has Mark Rosewater mentioned anything to clarify this?


texts: Where can I find a copy of Starbase Jeff?

texts:
One of my favorite games is a now out-of-print game from Cheapass games called Starbase Jeff.  I've been looking for a copy of it for years and haven't had any luck.  Sadly, the game wasn't designed by James Ernest but another game designer, so I doubt it will eventually join the other fine games that he has put out for free on the cheapass site.

Does anyone know where I could get a copy of the game?


texts: Is there any reason to use basic lands instead of basic snow-covered lands?

texts:
Ever since cards like Arcum's Astrolabe and Ice-Fang Coatl were printed, there've been payoffs for having snow covered lands instead of basics, with an entirely new archetype being spawned (Snowko).
Hence there are reasons to run snow-covered lands instead of "normal" basic lands. Are there any reasons to run the regular basic lands instead of snow-covered lands? If not, then one might as well use snow-covered lands since it can conceivably bluff the opponent into thinking they're playing against a different deck, at least for the first turn.


texts: What happens if Voldaren Pariah is exiled while transforming? Does it still force target player to sacrifice 3 creatures? Also if it is returned from exile, does it returned already transformed and if it does, does its triggered ability go on the stack then?


texts: Why wasn't Lava Golem allowed to attack on my turn?

texts:
During a duel1, my opponent summoned in my field a monster card known as Lava Golem.

When was my turn, I entered in Battle Phase and I go to attack with Lava Golem, but I couldn't.

Here is the description of the card:

  Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) to your opponent's side of the field by Tributing 2
  monsters they control. You cannot Normal Summon/Set the turn you
  Special Summon this card. During each of your Standby Phases: Take
  1000 damage.

I'm wondering, why is not possible attack with Lava Golem. In the linked source and in a quick Google search there's not mention about why such restriction exist in this monster.

1 I was playing the game version known as Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 5.


texts: Does a flush beat a straight in three-card poker?


texts: pandemic - can a city outbreak more than once per infect city turn?

texts:
Scenario:
- infection rate is 2
- Tehran currently has 2 cubes, Baghdad has 3 cubes

At end of turn, first infect card drawn is Baghdad. It outbreaks and adds a cube to Tehran so Tehran now has 3 cubes.
Second card drawn is Tehran, which outbreaks.

Question: Does the Tehran outbreak cause a chain reaction outbreak in Baghdad? Or is Baghdad skipped because it already had an outbreak on this infect cities stage?


texts: The dealer dealt all the cards to 10 players, 6 players are now in the hand, so he flopped 3 cards on the table and all 6 players checked. So as he was going to do the turn card he messed up the top 5 or 6 cards and he was not sure they went into the original order so he ruled the hand dead, Is this the right decision?


texts: using real names / images in a board game

texts:
I am thinking of creating a soccer game, can I use real player name / images in this game or are there any legal implications?  For example can I use Lionel Messi and his image on a card?

Thanks for your help and time


texts: Is the ability cost of the commander part of the color identity?

texts:
Consider the card  Rhys the Exiled. Are you allowed to play black (and green) cards in your deck with this commander?

Or are you only allowed to play cards that are the same color as the commander's cost? If so, would this then make it impossible to use his ability?


texts: I was just given this game from a box in my grandmothers house and we have no idea what it is. We think there may be some pegs missing and it uses a round solitaire board with two sets of pegs.


texts: MtG: making makeshift cards for home play

texts:
A friend and I got into Magic and get together to play a few games once a week. Each of us has ~110 cards, the bulk of them being a Magic 2012 intro pack, the rest boosters.

We thought we'd mix things up a bit with booster draft or sealed deck, but since our budgets are way too limited to make a cube or buy boosters every week, I thought we could improvise. The current entirely theoretical setup is to use a simulation website for those formats every time we play, then using a home-written program assign a number to each card that is chosen for a deck. The tokens representing the cards chosen with the draft simulator could be simple sheets with numbers 1 through 100 written to them (or as many as needed), inserted into card sleeves with a colored back.

Is there a better way to approach this, in particular the token creation?


texts: Does "Cheat!" effectively give you two more hands?

texts:
Suppose you have a player who has a two-handed weapon A and another two-handed weapon B. He can use either of them without any problems, but not both as he only has two hands.

With the card "Cheat!" he can use both of them. But now he gets a third card C, also two-handed, which he likes to use against a monster. So for one round he puts A and B in his back-pack (it's still in front of the player, but he does not use A or B, but C). Can the player in one of the following rounds use A and B (together, without C) again?

I thought Cheat! would disable the "checking-mechanism" once, when the card comes into game. After that, when anything else changes something with the card it would have to be discarded again. However, I'm not sure if that makes sense. For example, if you used Cheat! because the weapon is only usable by a thief and you are a blogger, it would seem strange to me if you lose the weapon because you changed to a kid.


texts: Are all jenga blocks of exactly same size?

texts:
If you ever play the game it's easy to conclude that blocks dimensions vary, otherwise the occurrence of loose blocks would be symmetric/regular when the tower initially built.

However, I was unable to find any reference to that fact anywhere in internet (apart a vague mention in this paper).

Hence, the question. Are all blocks exactly equal, and if no, what are exact sizes? How many different sizes of blocks are used? And as importantly, how do you know this?


texts: How does Ixalan drafting work with its double faced cards?

texts: Will Ixalan pack drafting change due to the double-faced cards? If the draft is sealed and not cube, people can see whether you have a double-faced card in your hand, if you are not careful.


texts: When does Mardu Hordechief's raid ability trigger?

texts:
I'm new to MTG and I'm quite confused about when exactly raid is triggered.
For instance, say I have Mardu Hordechief (which creates 1/1 tokens) and I tapped, let's say, 2 creatures to attack.

What exactly is his ability going to happen?
Is the raid ability triggered while/after the combat phase or even right after the declare attackers step?


texts: When a 7 is rolled, are the cards discarded randomly?

texts: When a 7 is rolled, and a person has more than 7 cards, do the cards get discarded randomly or does the card holder get to pick which one(s) to discard?


texts: As the first player, can I choose whether to perform a Special Activity after completing my Operation?

texts: When I'm the first player on a card in Cuba Libre, can I perform my Operation before deciding whether to perform a Special Activity or not? The distinction is important because the desirability (and even possibility) of certain Special Activities can vary based on the die roll(s) of an operation. Also, one might desire to see their operation through before deciding to Launder (which is only possible without Special Activity), particularly if depending on another player's Cash to Launder.


texts: Creatures with variable power and toughness

texts: If I summon a creature like Boneyard Wurm whose power and toughness depends on the number of creatures in my graveyard, and afterwards another creature of mine dies, do the Boneyard Wurm's power and toughness increase? What about the opposite: if a creature card is removed from my graveyard, do its power and toughness decrease?


texts: Is it common practice to publish/sell online versions of board games?

texts:
I bought the Ticket to Ride: Europe game by Days of Wonder, and it included an online registration code. Visiting the website, I noticed that some of the games had a free online preview available.

I have tried the Ticket to Ride one. It was a (Java) version of the original TTR game in not a very good quality.

My question is: Is it common practice for publishers to provide online versions of their games? Are they usually free, provided you bought the board game, or do they have to be bought separately?


texts: How does the ability on Urza, Lord High Artificer interact with Treasure Nabber?

texts: Does Treasure Nabber grab artifacts tapped with Urza, Lord High Artificer?


texts:
Suppose that my opponent plays an Aethering:

, and I can't counter it so it arrives on the battlefield. How can I remove that card from the battlefield? I'm playing Standard Constructed.


texts: If a Devotion God had a tap ability, would it be able to tap on the turn it came in if you didn't have enough devotion?

texts: If a Theros God that requires a certain Devotion enters the battlefield where you do not have enough devotion to fulfill the requirement to make it a creature does it still have summoning sickness for the purpose of a tap ability?


texts: Can I activate mana abilities before the Legend Rule kicks in?

texts:
I have kind of an obscure edge case that has been bothering me, as I am not sure how the rules work.

I have Teysa Karlov in my hand. On the battlefield:

Teysa Karlov, which doubles death triggers
Vindictive Vampire, which has “Whenever another creature you control dies, Vindictive Vampire deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain 1 life.”
Skirk Prospector, a goblin with a mana ability reading “Sacrifice a Goblin: Add {R}.”

I know that if I play Teysa Karlov one of them will die due to state-based actions, and that Vindictive Vampire will trigger three times. However, will I be able to use Skirk Prospector's mana ability to sacrifice it while both Teysas are still on the board? This would allow me to trigger Vindictive Vampire three more times.

Am I able to sacrifice Skirk Prospector after casting a second Teysa Karlov, but before one of the Teysas dies, to take advantage of multiple death triggers?


texts: Must a "target creature" be on the battlefield?

texts: If an ability says "target creature," does the creature have to be on the battlefield? I think I found a loophole that depends on the answer.


texts: Combined Catan player+player+bank transactions

texts:
Consider the following Catan scenario:

Player A has 3 wheat. Wants ore.
Player B has 1 wheat + 1 ore. Wants brick.

Question: Is there any official rule which would explicitly explain if the following trade is legal or not?

Player B agrees to give 1 wheat + 1 ore, if he gets 1 brick in return.
Player A doesn't have brick yet, but he gets his fourth wheat from player B. Immediately exchanges 4 wheat to 1 brick in bank. Gives brick to B.

Note, that this is not equivalent to:

Player A gives 3 wheat for 1 ore.

...because, in this case, player B ends up with 4 wheat, not 1 ore. (He may still exchange wheat for ore in his turn, but until such time, he has more resources.)


texts: What happens if two forces of unequal strength attacks the same province?

texts:
I'm the gamemaster for a diplomacy game played between a couple of friends, and we encountered a situation where we didn't really agree. I've looked through the rules and searched the internet, but I still couldn't find an answer.

What happens if two forces of unequal strength attack the same province?
The rulebook clarifies that an underpowered unit in such a situation has to make a retreat move, but it doesn't seem to mention what happens if there is no defending unit, only attacking units.

To clarify the situation I'll give you an example:

Germany:

A War - Gal
A Sil S A War - Gal

Russia:

A Boh - Gal

Here we see that Germany's attacking force is stronger than Russia's, and there are 2 possibilities (I think) of what happens next arises. Either the unit in Bohemia stays in Bohemia and the unit in Warsaw moves to Galicia, or the unit in Bohemia has moves to Galicia where it then has to make a retreat move and the unit from Warsaw stays in Galicia.

Is there any rule that I have overlooked which answers my question, or do you have any opinions of what might be the proper way to handle the situation?


texts: When a monster is tributed due to the effect of Soul Exchange, whose graveyard does it go to?

texts: The text specifies that I tribute the target of soul exchange "as if [I] controlled it". When I tribute a monster, it normally goes to my graveyard. Is that because I control it?


texts: Lethal damage while controlling Sower of Discord?

texts: I recently played a game of commander with a single opponent. When I played Sower of Discord, I selected my opponent and myself. I then swung with Serra Avatar. If damage is taken and the amount is enough to kill the opponent, who wins? Does anyone win?


texts: Does adding a subtype to a creature count as entering the battlefield?

texts: I have Seraph Sanctuary in play, which lets me gain life when an Angel enters the battlefield. If I play Call to Serve on a creature, turning it into an Angel, does adding the subtype like that count as an Angel entering the battlefield, so that I gain life?


texts: Can Laquatus's Creativity cause an opponent to discard their hand if you have Narset, Parter of Veils on the battlefield?


texts: In Arkham Horror, if I lose a turn and then am drawn into a gate, am I then only delayed?

texts:
I am not sure what 'losing a turn' is. Is it identical to being lost in space and time in that nothing, even monsters, affects you or fights you? Does being sucked into a gate that appears then convert me to simply being delayed?
Edit: Here is some documentation I found in the Dunwich Horror rules which implies that being drawn into a gate nullifies and previous delays and lost turns and 'resets' it in a way while retaining any possible benefits earned for the previous cost/penalty of delay/turn-loss. It likely means the accepted answer's latter section on what to do in these more complicated situations should be modified.
A link to the Dunwich Horror rules (part of interest on page 10)

Q: If an encounter, when failed, tells the investigator he must “stay here for 2 turns and gain 2 Clue tokens” but before the 2 turns have ended a gate appears at the location and draws the investigator into an Other World, does the investigator lose the 2 Clue tokens?
A: No. The investigator immediately receives the Clue tokens when he or she agrees to meet the requirements of the encounter. If a gate opens in the meantime, the investigator is sucked through the gate and becomes delayed in the Other World. He no longer has to miss two turns if sucked through on the first – the new condi- tion (being delayed in the Other World) is in effect.


texts:
In the advanced version of the rules for the Flash Point board game, there are Hot Spots which cause Flare-ups when targeted in the Advance Fire roll.
How are the players supposed to get rid of a hot spot? I haven't found a specific mention of it in the rules, so I just assumed it is removed when the fire and smoke in the given square are completely extinguished.

I have checked the official web, but the rule explanations there are only available for the Family/casual difficulty setting.


texts: Can i search a copy of a card in the battlefield in my library?

texts: If i use a Cackling Counterpart to create a token of a creature, can i use cards targeting that token (like Pack Hunt) to search my library for that same creature cards?


texts: Identify game: Intergalactic United Nations

texts:
Trying to identify a game I played at a convention a couple years ago. (No, it was not Diplomacy.) It was a fairly light and lighthearted game where you play the “Space UN” and debate what laws to pass. Every player has a species — one guy was the “Klingons” (but not), and I was the mind-controlling space slugs.
The name of the game was an outer-spacey pun of some sort — on “bureaucracy”, or “diplomacy” or the like.
You drew cards to determine what legislation to debate — card would have blanks in the topic, and you would draw from a second deck to fill in the blanks(?) — then two players would debate that legislation. Then other players voted who won each debate. One of the debates I recall was regulations on how many prosthetic limbs a being was allowed to add to their body (insert “arms control” joke here).
I believe it was a relatively recent game at the time, but it could have been a reprint of an older one. I probably played it three or four years ago


texts: Winged Dragon of Ra's Attack and Defense Points

texts: On the card of the Winged Dragon of Ra, the attack and defense points are ????. I am wondering that does the Winged Dragon of Ra has infinite power, and if not, what are his defense and attack points?


texts: Am I forced to choose targets for "may" abilities?

texts: Lets say my opponent is attacking with Necropede and Phantasmal Dragon. There are no other creatures on the battlefield. I cast Doom Blade on the Necropede. Is my opponent forced to choose a target for Necropede's triggered ability even if he or she does/will not plan to put a -1/-1 counter on it?


texts: Can I use a Murder to kill a planeswalker if it is a creature?

texts: Assume the other player has used Sarkhan the Masterless +1 to turn all of their planeswalkers into 4/4 Dragons can I cast Murder and destroy one of the planeswalkers, since they become creatures?


texts: How do you calculate the likelihood of getting at least one combo after drawing so many cards in a deck with more than one combo?

texts:
With a game like Magic the Gathering, I can use a hypergeometric calculator to determine the probability of getting a specific card after so many draws. What I would like to know is how you determine the probability of drawing into a combo (for the discussion that follows, I'm only considering combos that consist of two cards) after so many turns.

Say I have a standard deck of 60 cards with 24 lands and 36 other cards. Each of these other cards have a powerful synergy with another card, making 18 combos possible in the deck. What is the probability of getting at least one of these combos, that is having the two combo cards in your hand, in 3 turns, 6 turns, etc.? I don't care which combo it is, just that I have one in hand.


texts: The Oregon Trail Card Game: can I talk about my supply cards?

texts:
Players are dealt supply cards in the game to help get rid of "calamities".

The rules state this about Supply Cards:

  7: Players should look at their own Supply Cards, then place them face down on the table. Players may look at their own Supply Cards at any time.

This does not specify whether or not players may tell other players what they have. I could see where some player may ask the table if someone has for example, a Medicine, and another player may have it but choose to not to tell you. Is the "card's not displayed to other players" rule an effort to stop players from coercing other players into playing specific cards?

Or does this rule hint that players may not talk about what Supply Cards they have at all?


texts: With which "non-trump" holdings is a 4-4 fit superior to a 5-4 fit?

texts:
If a partnership has both a 4-4 and 5-4 holding on one deal, I could see why it would make sense to have the 4-4 holding be the trump suit. The 5-4 holding can take "long" tricks with the fourth and fifth cards (on the 5 side), while the only way to "lengthen" the trump holding is through ruffs.

But suppose that you have the 4-4 and 5-4 holdings in separate deals. And suppose that you have no other "long" (seven card or longer) suits in either deal, so that the eight card (4-4) holding is distributed 8-6-6-6 in the four suits, and the nine card (5-4) holding is distributed 9-6-6-5 in the four suits.

In this case, wouldn't it be better to have the 5-4 holding with the extra trump than the 4-4 holding? Especially since the ninth card guarantees a ruffable imbalance, e. g. 5-3-3-2 opposite 4-3-3-3, whereas the eight card holding could be 4-3-3-3 opposite 4-3-3-3? Or is there something I am missing?


texts:
I have the artifact Jacob's Ladder (from the Patriarchs expansion). For the life of me I can't figure out its use or why I'd want to include it in a deck.

The text on the card reads:

  "Holder may choose which Lost Soul is to be rescued during Holder's
  rescue attempt. Holder must have access and may only rescue that Lost
  Soul."

First, this text makes it appear that this only affects the holder (ie, owner) of the card. This ability looks like it restricts which Lost Soul you can attempt to rescue. If anything, this is a restriction placed on you the player and not on your opponent. I'm not sure why I'd want to do this.

Second, that style of restriction (ie, player's choice) is always used for Type II deck tournaments (as opposed to Type I deck tournaments, where that restriction apparently doesn't exist).

So...can anyone explain to me the point of this card? If I'm building a Type II deck, I already have to play by those rules (good idea to follow tournament rules). And if I'm building a Type I deck, why would I want to place a restriction on myself?  Is there something I'm not understanding? Is there a ruling on this card by which it is played differently? Does anyone out there use this card?


texts: Does undying triggers an addition of counter?

texts:
When a creature with undying comes back on the battlefield, does it get a +1/+1 counter or is the counter already on it?

For example: I have a Strangleroot Geist, a Hardened Scales and an Animation Module. My Geist is destroyed and comes back "with" a +1/+1 counter on it, does the counter is "placed" so it triggers Hardened Scale or Animation Module?

EDIT

There is an ambiguity on counters that are placed and cards that come with the counter already on it... are they "placed" anyway?

Does Winding Constrictor behaves as a replacement effect like Hardened Scales and do they cumulate?

Does Walking Ballista +1/+1 initial counters behaves like on undying?


texts: Methods to protect Salamangreat Sanctuary?

texts:
So, I see a lot of people who are playing Salamangreat play only 1 Salamangreat Sanctuary because it's effect is once per turn and drawing many would be a problem, so protecting it should be important.

My question is, what cards can be used to protect it? And is there any Salamangreat monster that can protect it with its effect? As far as I know Balelynx can prevent destruction but I doubt that it prevents the negation. I could add Twin Twisters I guess but I would like more recommendations.


texts:
I'm trying to play against simple online bot cosmi.net. I started playing about two days ago, so I'm a complete beginner, and even the easiest version on 9x9 board is really hard for me to beat. This is in fact the first time I managed to do that.

$$Wcm12
$$ ---------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . 4 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O . . . |
$$ | . . . X . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O . . . |
$$ | . . . X . X O . . |
$$ | . . 1 2 . X O . . |
$$ | . . a . . 6 5 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------

For some reason though, the bot marked black 17 as a bad move, and suggested to play at point "a" instead. Can anyone explain me why was that move marked as bad?


texts: Do morph cards suffer summoning sickness

texts: When you have the card face down then you morph the card to face up, does it suffer summoning sickness? My friend has lots of them in his deck and I'm not too sure and would like to know whether they suffer from summoning sickness the turn they are morphed.


texts: Return a creature with an adventure to hand, can i cast the instant/sorcery again?

texts:
Will returning Brazen Borrower from the battlefield to my hand using the -3 ability of Teferi, Time Raveler enable me to cast Petty Theft again?

The rulings say nothing against it but I have the feeling that this would be kind of broken. But on the other hand you don't remember something like a "card state" I guess.


texts:
Players draw resources, commodities (Cities and Knights), and fish tokens (Fishermen of Catan) during the course of various Catan games. It is almost always advantageous to draw your earned "goods" whenever possible, but is it required?

Forgetfulness

Players sometimes forget to draw the goods they are entitled to. If play passes to the next player before they remember, we often forbid the forgetful player from drawing what they forget. They should learn to pay attention, although I am very lenient with new players.

Strategy

I was recently in a situation where purposely not drawing all my goods would have been to my advantage had a certain number been rolled. A player may do this to avoid having more than 7 resources in hand when a win is otherwise clenched, or to avoid drawing the Old Boot in Fisherman of Catan (which requires the owner to have one additional victory point to win). Had someone reminded me to draw all my goods, I might have suspiciously declined.

What do the rules say (or imply) about this? Are players required to draw all their goods? Are forgetful players allowed to gather previously forgotten goods?


texts: In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, what are some common opening moves?

texts:
From only a handful of plays I've gathered that a few moves might be to

If you are on the good team, kick things off with full disclosure such as "I am the seer and I know for a fact you are a villager" to make a play to rightfully gain that person's trust. The immediate downside I see to this could be a claim from a troublemaker that your card was switched, making it just as convincing to that person that you are no longer the safe card you claim to be.
If you are a werewolf, take a stab at claiming one of the roles and run the risk that someone is that role or knows that role was in the center, and deal with the "my word against his" situation that could ensue.
Make an non-fully disclosing claim such as "I know you're a good guy" to gain someone's trust but not openly say you are the robber and now have their former card or you are the seer and looked at their card (as a means to protect against the troublemaker claim in point 1). This might be useful if you are the werewolf to lessen the chance you're called out for lying about having a specific card.

Are there other common basic openings? I've only played twice, and only with 3 players so my thoughts on strategies are mostly a thought exercise and not from experience. I did notice some paralysis in anyone making an statement, though.


texts:
A finesse is a technique which enable a player to win a trick when an opponent is holding a stronger card.
I read several articles about finesse in contract Bridge, and I interested, What are the best finesses to use in Spades?
I see 2.5 major differences between Bridge and Spades that may prevent some of the finesses:

There is no Dummy player with an open hand,

There is only one round of bidding, thus players have less information about other hands,

Signal scheme are much more common in Bridge than in Spades.

The theory of Bridge describes many types of finesses:

Basic finesse
Double finesse
High card finesse
Two way finesse
Deep finesse (defenders have 3 cards higher)
Secondary finesse
Repeat finesse
Entry retention finesse

For more see:

Many Ways to Finesse by John Grossmann
Richard Pavlicek list of finesse


texts: How and where can I propose new MTG cards?

texts:
Where - if anywhere - can I go to put forward a proposal of a new card in magic the gathering?

I figured that the cards must go through a process before being released. I was wondering if I could get my ideas onto the process chain. Can I contact anyone to do this?

Looking on the Magic wizards site, I kinda got lost in the FAQs looking for this and run up a blank.


texts: In Crisis Mode, what do you do with cards that involve villains in your deck?

texts:
In the instruction book for Crisis Mode it says:

When you buy or gain a villain from the Line-Up, destroy it.
When you defeat a Super-Villain, remove it from the game.

What do you when you have a card that involves villains in your deck? For example, "Canary Cry" from Heroes Unite:

You may put a Villain from your discard pile on top of your deck. If you choose not to, draw a card.
Defense: You may discard this card to avoid an Attack. If you do, you may put a Villain with cost 7 or less from your discard pile into your hand or draw a card.

What do you do with that?


texts: Does Barren Glory require its trigger condition to be satisfied when the ability resolves?

texts:
I was watching the most recent episode of Commander Clash in which Richard manages to pull of a win with Barren Glory. I believe the win wouldn't actually have worked out if not for MODO rules engine doing something funny.

We see that before Richard combos off with Barren Glory, when he doesn't meet the conditions, Barren Glory does not trigger at all. But once he satisfies the requirements, the trigger does happen and even though Tomer Blue Sun's Zenith's Richard in response to the trigger it appears that as long as Richard was able to satisfy the condition when the ability triggered he would have won. I'm just wondering how this would have worked out in paper with a judge and whether MODO did anything funny or I just don't understand how Barren Glory works.


texts: A board game called PALM BEACH or something to that effect

texts:
Does anyone remember a board game called PALM BEACH or something to that effect that was played similar to monopoly ? I am looking for a copy or more info.

From what I can remember, The characters all started out with $1,000,000 dollars except "the count" who started out with $500,000 -- that is the most distinct memory of the game I have that might assist someone in remembering.

Does this sound familiar to anyone ?

Also, it was not "palm-beach-opoloy" nor was it a monopoly re-skin - it was a distinct game onto itself.

Followup Q&A:
Q: when did you play it ?
A: it must have been around 20 years back


texts: How do monsters move on local paths to side boards?

texts:
How do monsters move along local paths to traverse the side boards in expansion games such as when effects instruct players to move a monster toward investigators?
For instance, a local path connects space 17 and Cairo, and an investigator would effectively be able to teleport from one to the other at no action cost.
Would a monster on space 17 be allowed to, for the cost of 1 move, travel to Cairo (or would it cost no moves)?
The fire vampire moves two spaces toward the nearest investigator, so would an appropriate step count be to move him from Shanghai to space 17, then to Cairo for a total of 2 spaces?


texts: What are the requirements for the achievements in Ticket to Ride: Europe?

texts:
In the electronic 'pocket' version of Ticket to Ride: Europe, I would like to acquire all the achievements, but I must have misunderstood some of them. Even when I think I've accomplished them, I do not get them. In particular:

"win while connecting all 4 surrounding countries"- which 4 countries are we talking about, surrounding what? Each other? Like Austria, Hungary, Italy and Croatia e.g.?
"win without claiming any tunnel route". I've won many times without using a single tunnel, but still no achievement. A route can be finished with or without tunnels, but does this requirement mean that when I get the map, there is no possible tunnel involved between the two cities?


texts: Catching an illegal move too late in Castles of Burgundy

texts:
I was playing The Castles of Burgundy last night, and early in the second phase, one of the players realized that he had made a major error the round before -- he had placed two of the same building into an area.

We had a good 10-20 min talk about how we should handle the issue:

Scrap the whole game and start over.
Undo his previous turn, and make him take it over.  (but we weren't 100% sure we could remember his die rolls, and that may have affected what other people did since his turn (eg, he had taken the last available mine)).
Undo everyone's last turn.  (also problematic, as we'd have to remember what everyone did, and their die rolls).
Undo the last two rounds, re-roll and play from there (not a chance in hell of us remembering everything we'd have to back out)
Force him to move the recently placed building to another area (with a different die cost), and pay workers to make up for the difference.  (note that he offered to make it even by the end of the turn (by placing a boarding house); I wanted him to burn a die immediately to get the workers to make it even)
Allow him to move the conflicting building placed earlier (multiple rounds before) to a different area, as there was an available hex with the same die value on it.
Declare him to have automatically have lost (which would likely have him walk out, affecting the rest of the game).
Assign some sort of a penalty for it.  (points, or for our tournament, time)
Just let it ride, as there was no good way to reconcile it.  (I was told this is how PrezCon handled a similar situation last year)

We have a sort of tournament ranking going, with the top winners from a 'season' getting to select the games we play next ... so there were issues with setting a precident in scrapping a while game (someone could do it when they knew they were losing, so they didn't slip in the standings), or in assigning a penalty (as someone might decide the penalty was worth it if they got caught).

Are there any recommendations for dealing with this situation, or similar situations in other games?


texts: Why can cards like Frost Breath tap creatures that are already tapped, but Teferi, Hero of Dominaria can’t untap lands that are already untapped?

texts:
609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

Because of this rule, I would expect Frost Breath to not work on creatures that are tapped. Why is it possible to tap a tapped creature, but it’s impossible to untap an untapped land with e.g. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria? This seems to be a contradiction to me. Can someone explain why it’s not? Thanks!