texts: Does 'counter a spell' mean 'put a creature into its owner's graveyard'?

texts:
For example, when I use the card Double Negative, I counter two spells. Does it mean I can put two of my opponents spells (which may be enchantments or creatures) into its owner's graveyard?

I am new to MtG so I might ask stupid questions.


texts: Does Alien Fuel Refinery count as having a trade power in Race for the Galaxy?

texts:
In Race for the Galaxy, does the Alien Fuel Refinery restriction ("you may not trade a good from this world") count as a "trade power" for the purposes of Trade League, or in other words do I score a point for having Alien Fuel Refinery in my tableau if I also play Trade League?

It seems a bit strange to me that Trade League gives you points for not being able to trade, but (unless I've miscounted) Keldon's AI thinks that it does. Is there anything more official out there as a ruling on this one?


texts: Can a player tap lands for mana, in response to Elder Deep-Fiend tapping those lands at the beginning of the turn?

texts:
I have Elder Deep-Fiend, a creature which has flash and allows me to sacrifice another creature towards the cost of its mana. When the creature is played, it allows me to tap 4 target permanents.

I have been doing this during the upkeep step/beginning phase of my friend's turn to tap 4 of their lands so they can't use them. However, they say they have priority and add mana to their mana pool before I can.

As I am playing an instant creature which has an ability when it enters the battlefield, just after they have untapped, I think they shouldn't be able to tap their lands first as they are not up to that phase yet.

Basically, they are saying I can only use it to tap creatures before their combat phase.

Who is right?


texts: What are some alternatives to using dice in Settlers of Catan?

texts:
In Settlers of Catan, there's a variant where instead of rolling the dice, you use a stack of 36 cards with each combination. This reduces the luck component, but has as disadvantage that you can predict future rolls to some extent.

The iPhone Catan game also allows this rule variant.

Have you tried this and do you think it's an improvement?

EDIT: Have you tried other methods of reducing the importance of luck?


texts: How do you play the Master Spy in Guillotine?

texts:
Guillotine is a fun, quick, bloodthirsty little card game that would grace any group's collection.  It is very simple, which is just as well, as the rulebook errs on the side of vagueness.

There is one card, though, where it's hard to work out how the creators envisaged it to be played.  The Master Spy goes to the back of the line after any action card is played.

There are two ways of interpreting this.  Either the action card is fully resolved, and then the Master Spy goes to the back of the line.  This means that, basically, the Master Spy cannot be executed except fortuitously, when he is the only person left standing at the end of a day.

The other interpretation is that the action card is played, the Master Spy goes to the back of the line, and then the action card is resolved.  So, supposing you play an action that reverses the line: the Master Spy goes to the back of the line, then the line is reversed, and then THWACK!  It's off with his head.

The latter way of playing appeals to most of the groups I've been part of, simply because it allows for clever play (or at least as clever as you can get in a game like Guillotine).  I do suspect us of approaching the game too much like diehard Magic: the Gathering rules lawyers: drawing a fine temporal distinction between a card's being played and a card resolving is probably not something that would occur to casual card players.

I was wondering, if anyone else here has ever played Guillotine, how do you play the Master Spy?  (I can't imagine Guillotine is a serious enough game for there to have been an "official ruling", but if there has, that would constitute an even better answer!)


texts: How do you awaken the Ancient One by opening the gate of Kadath?

texts:
The Arkham Horror Statistics spreadsheet lists one of the ways to awaken the Ancient One as "Opening the gate of Kadath". To date, it has never been achieved and I'm curious about why. I took a look through all of the encounter cards for Unknown Kadath but didn't see any that referenced opening a gate that would awaken the Ancient One.

So how does one open the gate of Kadath and why is it so difficult that it has never been accomplished yet?


texts: What is the probability of obtaining the right, left, Ace, King, and Queen of trump in a 5-card hand in euchre?

texts: Take into account that in order for that hand to be the best hand, the dealer must also flip over a card that matches the suit that your best hand is for.


texts: Noxious Revival and Street Wraith interaction

texts:
I’m asking myself if I can get back a cycled Street Wraith using the cycle ability and a Noxious Revival.

The idea is:

Use cycle ability, pay two life and discard, the ability goes on the stack
Play Noxious Revival targeting Wraith in the graveyard to put it on top of the deck
Resolve Noxious Revival
Resolve the cycle ability to draw the Wraith

The discard part of cycle is part of the activation cost? So does it resolve before the ability?

The reason to do that is to take advantage of life loss in a deck like death's shadow


texts: In Gin-Rummy, when both players Pass, can the active player make a Pickup?

texts:
In Gin-Rummy, if both players pass the first face-up card, does the first player must Draw from the pile or she can Pickup the first discard?

Obviously, there is no benefit in first pass a card, then when the opponent also show no interset by passing, to pick it up, however, does the rules allow it?


texts: How literally should I take the "Man of War" in Pirate King?

texts:
I've encountered the following card while playing Pirate King:

  "Man of War: Fight ship of equal value: win 1 crew 1 cannon and 500 bronze"

I'm not sure how to interpret it and I haven't really gotten a consensus from my fellow players either.

So far we have two different interpretations:

That this is a challenge and the recipient must actually fight a ship of equal value in game combat, and if they win, they receive the stated reward.
That this is simply an event that has occurred, like cargo spoiling, and that it has already played out in the recipient's favour.

I can see how both interpretations work, and I'm not sure which one to pick as the "right" answer. The instructions don't provide much guidance on this issue.

Has anyone else come up with a definitive answer for this card? What logic or source did you use to make your decision?


texts: In Eldritch Horror do the small expansions with no board just add on to the first game?


texts: How does the two room penalty work in Grand Austria Hotel?

texts:
One of the Emperor Tiles for Grand Austria Hotel looks like this:

The rules contain the following explanation for the penalty:

  Penalty: You must remove 2 occupied rooms from your Hotel board. These must be the occupied room in the highest possible row and the next possible room below it, if any.

Does this mean that if I have two occupied rooms in the top row then should I choose which to lose?  Assuming I get to choose which occupied room in the top row I lose then am I allowed to pick based on what's below it?  Finally, if the room below it isn't occupied then do I have to lose a room below that instead? (i.e. does "below" mean "adjacent and below" or "aligned and below"?)


texts: Seems like there would never be any reason to attack yourself in Stratego.. unless you do screw up the placement of your pieces like a noob. So I ask, can you attack yourself? Of course, it doesn't say so in the rules, probably because they hope no one is stupid enough to need to. I'd like an answer with some kind of reference or "proof".


texts: I don't really understand how the expansions/data packs work in android netrunner

texts:
I bought the core set a while ago and now I'd like to get some more cards, afaik there are multiple ways to do that:

data packs
deluxe expansions
big box?

What's the difference between them? As I've read the data packs each belong to a cycle, what's that all about? What's the bigbox? I got that term from the wiki at reddit:

  Unlike FFG's other Living Card Games, Netrunner doesn't require that you pick up the "big box" expansion before getting the data packs from that cycle.

I'd be really thankful for a quick summary of how all of this works.


texts: Is there a white or green card that turns an artifact into a creature?

texts: I'm looking for white or green cards that turn an artifact into a creature indefinitely while retaining their abilities (similar to March of the Machines).  Is there a card like that?


texts: What pauper cards are legal in paper but not MTGO

texts:
Note: This is exactly the opposite question of:

What pauper cards are legal in MTGO but not paper?

I am trying to collect most cards relevant to pauper. Because MTGO pauper is more popular than paper pauper, and because it is so easily available electronically, it is easy to find data and analysis on the most frequently used cards in pauper. I did this.

The problem is that there are some cards (most notably Hymn to Tourach and High Tide) not available on MTGO but available as paper commons. Other popular pauper cards include Goblin Grenade, Desert, Pyrotechnics, and Sinkhole. They are easy to miss when starting a paper pauper collection, though I suppose you'd eventually come across them in pauper tournaments.

The pauper format continues to grow in popularity so perhaps Wizards of the Coast will eventually develop official rulings on this. Some people feel that any common card in either MTGO or paper should be legal. However, for now, many local stores only allow paper commons.

The question:

Is there a list maintained of cards printed at common for paper, but not MTGO? If so, please provide link. If there is no such list but it turns out to be very few cards, then the answer should contain the list of cards.


texts: On chess what exactly is the "En passant" trick?

texts: I've heard of a trick called "En passant" but what does it mean?


texts: In Munchkin, can someone who doesn't participate in a combat play cards that benefit a player who is fighting a monster?

texts: This situation happened in our friendly game where 2 players had feelings for each other and were keen on helping each other. Because we already had a house rule in play that limited the amount of times someone could offer their help, eventually they couldn't legally help each other. However, when a player A was fighting a monster, player B who was not in that combat, played "-5 to a Monster", thus making player A win. Player A was not on level 9, so the result wouldn't end the game, but I felt it was against the rules. However when they argued with me, I couldn't find anything in the rules that would explicitly say Munchkins can't help each other outside of combat. Any words about "the competitive spirit" wouldn't matter to them.


texts: What are the rules differences in Empires in Arms?

texts:
The only version of Empires in Arms that I have ever seen is from 1986 by Avalon Hill.  The game was originally released by the Australian Design Group in 1983.

I've often seen comments that Avalon Hill extensively rewrote at least a few sections as well as added most of sections 10-12.

Does anyone know exactly what rules were changed?


texts: In Manila, what are the strengths of focusing on investing in cheap black market wares and controlling the landing outcomes of the punts?

texts:
The harbor master is obviously a critical role toward selecting and initializing the punts (boats), and the pirate and large and small pilots are the only remaining fine-tuning mechanisms to the landing outcomes of the boats. The wharf and shipyard bets seem short term incidental, more gambling bets, to me and less longer term ones such as investments in the black market value of the wares.

My general thoughts are to put a premium on obtaining harbor master early as long as the cost is not too prohibitive and to obtain as many shares across the board of wares at 5 pesos, then shift to giving up harbor master and driving up the price of bids (as long as I can be sure I won't accidentally win it), then focusing on being the pilots and pirates as a means to drive the boats to the wharf or shipyard of my preference to stall the game as long as possible and increase the black market value of my shares.  The ideal would be to encumber as many of my shares as possible and use that equity to manipulate the outcome either by being a reasonably priced harbormaster or placing accomplices on the pilot or pirate spaces.

This feels like a solid long term goal with occasional bets on the punts, shipyard and wharf (although these seem much more short term and apparent to everyone in terms of their likelihood, risk, etc, so they are either more long shot or quickly taken when more of a sure thing).

The key to whether this approach becomes viable lies behind whether the cost to be harbormaster justifies the potential gain in the wares. A 5 peso ware maybe reaching 20 pesos becomes a break-even proposal if you pay 15 pesos just to obtain harbormaster and costs of 5 and 2/5 for pirate and pilots make it seem more likely that players who grab up spots on the punts will come out positive more than this strategy might.


texts: What is a good generic strategy for playing as Geralt?

texts:
In the Witcher Adventure Game, you can play as one of four characters trying to complete a set of quest. Geralt is clearly a monster slayer and as such should pick quests form the combat desk.

Is there a good generic strategy that can be applied to Geralt?


texts: Is "Longest Road" an overrated strategy in Settlers of Catan?

texts:
At one level, "longest road," is an "obvious" way to win the game.

At another level, could it be too obvious? That is, a player clearly pursuing this strategy might stir too much fear in opponents, who will then try to break up the road, or hamper him in other ways?

Also it requires an abundance of certain materials, namely wood and brick. Could a single-minded focus these materials hurt a player's game in other ways?

Is there a "better" way to build the longest road, i.e. build settlements with "short" roads some optimal distances apart, then connect them "naturally" toward the end, when opponents' attentions are focused elsewhere?

Do people in your games use a "longest road" strategy too much, or conversely, "too little?"


texts: Can I move to mortgaged property when rolling 'Mr Monopoly' on Speed Die

texts:
If I roll Mr. Monopoly on the speed die, and all the properties have been bought, according to the rules I have to move to the next place that I have to pay rent.
What is the rule, if the next place I would have to pay rent happens to be mortgaged - and I do not therefore have to pay rent. Do I have to go to a non mortgaged property?


texts:
Assume Black 10, Blue 10, Red 10 and Joker are on the board as a set of four:
The Joker, at this point has to be an orange 10.
Questions:

Can you take one of the three non-joker 10's from the set to use elsewhere on the board?
Leaving a three tile set.
This would have the effect of now making that joker one of two colors, instead of just orange.
Can you split up all four 10's keeping the joker an orange 10 elsewhere on the board?


texts:
So I was playing a lot of backgammon lately, and I noticed something. It seemed like I was "going out" on doubles more often than not. And my initial reaction was "Shouldn't that be, at best, a 1 in 6 chance of getting doubles on that final roll?"

But then my math/statistics side kicked in and I realized it's probably slightly more complicated than that.  So being out of practice, I figured I'd drop this hear to get a "proper" answer, and correct my math :) I also wasn't sure whether I should ask here, or over in : https://math.stackexchange.com/questions  But figured I'd start here. If it get's too "mathy" perhaps I'll re-ask over there :)

Here's my thoughts so far:

our end states are:

5+ checkers
4 checkers
3 checkers
2 checkers
1 checker

Now with 5+ checkers left, we cannot go out, so whether we roll doubles or not is irrelevant, it will leave us with 1, 2, 3 or 4 checkers, at which point we could go out if:

1) 4 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to or larger than the Runner (the checker farthest in)
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3, 4 and 5 point in your home, we need to roll double 5's or double 6's to go out)
2) 3 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to or larger than the Runner (the checker farthest in)
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3 and 4 point in your home, we need to roll double 4's, 5's or 6's to go out)
   b) roll doubles of a value equal to half or more of the Runner, and equal or larger than the other 2.
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3 and 4 point in your home, we can go out with double 3's: half of 4 is 2. next largest is 3. so double 3's puts us out)
3) 2 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to half or more of the runner.
         (ie if we have a checker on 2 and 4 point. We can go out with double 2's)
4) 1 checker:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to a quarter or more of the runner.
         (ie if we have a checker on the 4 point, we can go out with double 1's)

I'm not sure these are all the cases .. but it's showing that there's a lot of variations .. and I'm not sure how to go about calculating all the variations accurately :)

So back to my question :

How to calculate the odds of going out by rolling doubles ?
(let's ignore the chance your opponent goes out first at any time ... or interferes in any way ... )


texts: Can Expansion Combining "Break" the Game?

texts:
There are a lot of different Carcassonne expansions available and I'm curious if anyone has any insight in to telling if combining them may break game play?

Recently we've been using Inns & Cathedrals with Cult, Siege and Creativity. It seems to have drastically changed the balance so that it's very dangerous to try and build a city of any size. Most cities end up being 2-3 tiles, putting a ton of them in the field. Sieged cities make being a farmer even more attractive. Last game, every big meeple was a farmer and three players had 5 meeples each in one large field.

Is there any general advice on combining expansions? Are we just experiencing different game play thanks to different tiles?


texts: Can I draw something on my card and play tournaments with it?

texts:
Just out of curiosity, what can I do to the card, so it's still legal to play it in official tournaments?

Can I draw something over ruling texts?
Can I draw something over artwork?
Can I draw something over mana cost?
Can I draw something over its name?

I'll be glad to see some official rulings about it. :)


texts:
Per the mockup above...

What is this game called? It's been in my family since I was a kid and I never could find it on the web. Here are the rules:

It's two player
Each player gets five cards in their hand
Player one's cards are objective-0, discard-0, discard-1, discard-2, discard-3, and discard-4.
Player two's cards are objective-1, discard-9, discard-8, discard-7, discard-6, and discard-5
The objective of the game is to remove cards from your own objective pile (12 cards each) by playing them into the four play areas (play-0, play-1, play-2, and play-3).
You can only play into the central areas by sequential rank. Ace being first, then two, then three, all the way to king. Once the king is played, that pile get's shuffled back into the deck-0.
If you can't play anything you discard one of our cards from your hand into the discard piles to end your turn.
[EDIT] The game is played with two decks.


texts:
Players in my Catan groups never reneg on deals, so we have a number of common contracts. For example, we often sell each other a "Not-Hit," the right to be avoided the next time the seller gets to move the robber. We also often sell future cards -- I give you my wheat now in exchange for your next two rock.

It took us a while to commoditize these now-ordinary contracts, though. What are other common contracts people use in Catan?


texts: Skat tool to determine the probability for a win

texts:
Does anyone know a skat tool with the following feature ?

You can enter the three hands and the contract of the solo-player (grand,spades,hearts,diamonds,clubs,null). The program determines the
winning chances assuming open cards and best play of both sides. (double-dummy-analysis)

This program would be very useful to estimate how good specific hands are to play specific contracts.


texts: Does tapping a creature force it to attack?

texts:
I was playing with my little brother, and during my turn he used Black Oak of Odunos's ability, paying the black mana and tapping Oreskos Sun Guide so that on his turn turn he could untap Oreskos and gain two life.

Does tapping the Oreskos Sun Guide mean that it's attacking?


texts: If I play an enchantment which gives hexproof on an opponent's creature, whose spells is it protected from?  Does it gain protection from my spells because it's his creature, or from his spells because it's my enchantment?


texts:
The first time I ever played Axis and Allies, the player teaching me said that, for the first turn, play skips the USSR and begins with Germany, as a way to simulate the end of blitzkrieg.

The more I've played, the more questionable this seems, so I'm curious:
In any variant of Axis and Allies, is there a rule stating that the first turn skips the USSR?


texts: Wake the Reflections and Young Pyromancer

texts:
I think i got this right, but I'd like to make a sanity check.

If you cast Wake the Reflections with Young Pyromancer in play, the pyromancer's trigger will resolve first, so that you will get a token to populate even if you originally had none, right?


texts: What energy type does poison use and does it stack?

texts:
I am new to Pokemon but not TCGs in general.

I have a Skrelp (Psychic Type) which has a Spit Poison ability (also Psychic Energy) that it used on Honedge which has a resistance -20 to Psychic Energy. The Spit Poison ability applies one stack of poison to the target. So does poison use the caster's or the caster's ability energy type or is it energy agnostic?
Can poison be cast multiple times on the same target to create multiple stacks of poison?


texts: Does Nyxathid trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing if my opponent has cards in hand?

texts: Say you have Sarkhan's Unsealing, and you play Nyxathid. Let's say your opponent has 4 cards in hand. Does any of Sarkhan's Unsealing's abilities resolve?


texts: Why does Tales of the Arabian Nights have the victory condition it has?

texts:
In the setup for Tales of the Arabian Nights, each player secretly chooses a victory condition: a number of Destiny points and a number of Story points that together add up to 20. When you have enough points, you can return to Baghdad, reveal the numbers you picked, and attempt to claim victory.

I don't have any problem with this mechanic—Tales isn't exactly hyper-competitive, so one way of deciding that the game is over is as good as another. But it seems arbitrary and complicated, in a way that's somewhat out of character with the rest of the rules. I've never felt any need to change it, but I always mutter: why do they do it this way?

Has the designer made any statements about the rationale for these rules? Failing that, is it demonstrable that less complicated rules wouldn't serve the game as well as the printed version?


texts: Does Coat of Arms work on various Artifact Creatures?

texts: So I decided that it would be fun to start an artifact deck, and was wondering if I could use Coat of Arms to give +1/+1 to an Artifact Vehicle and an Artifact Creature Construct if they were the only artifacts/creatures on the battlefield?


texts: Does the rent for the 'Double the rent' card need to be paid in two steps?

texts:
If I have played the rent card + the double the rent card, do the other players need to pay me for the total doubled amount or do they have to pay it in two steps?

Example:
I play Rent card (6m) + double the rent.
Now they need to to pay 6m + 6m or 12m?


texts:
If I attack with my Voltaic Brawler (3/2), then cast Built to Smash (+3/+3), Uncaged Fury (+1/+1 with double strike) and another Built to Smash (+3/+3) in that order, do I hit for 17 or 20?
Thanks in advance... basically a stack sequence question.


texts: 7 Wonders: Do board resources (brown and gray) count for VPs when counting guild and commerce points?

texts: Three guilds (Workers, Shipowners, Craftsmens) award VPs for resource cards. Also some commerce cards (e.g., Haven) award coins and VPs for resource cards. Do you include Board resources in the count, or only cards? The instructions say "cards," but I'm making sure they are specifically restricting this, and not using the term more broadly.


texts: Does "defeat" trigger before/after battle abilities?

texts:
Specifically in regards to Mawgarn's Axe which allows defeating a monster when moving through a dungeon area.

Unfortunately Defeat is not addressed within the Lexicon.


texts: Spy Kit + Oddly Uneven: How can I determine what should occur?

texts:
Suppose a creature is equipped with Spy Kit, and Oddly Uneven gets cast. Then in order to figure out whether the creature is destroyed, I need to determine whether the total number of words in all names of non legendary creatures is even or odd.

What is the best way (i.e., simplest database query) to accomplish this?

(This originally came up on Mark Rosewater's tumblr.)


texts: How can white checkmate black in this chess puzzle?

texts:
I was thinking about making some good chess puzzles and I found an interesting approach .

White to move.

Assuming both players try to checkmate their opponent's kings , who will win the game?


texts: How many Planeswalkers appear in Core Set Displays

texts:
I'm a bit confused regarding the MTG sets. Currently I'm looking at several options to buy for a draft:

Core Set 2021 Display (36 Core Set boosters)
Expansion Set Display (36 Expansion Set boosters)
Core Set 2021 Planeswalker Deck (5 premade decks including planeswalkers)

My questions are the following:

How can I get proper cards to build several decks, is it necessary to have cards from the Core Set in order to use cards from an Expansion Set, or do the Expansion Sets work standalone?
Does it even make sense to go for a Core Set display, if there is the Core Set Planeswalker Deck, which includes (I assume) the strongest cards of that set and guarantees Planeswalkers? Getting the display would most likely result in worse cards, maybe not even a single Planeswalker, or am I missing something? Maybe they are more common than I think?
How important are Planeswalkers for a proper deck, is a deck without inherently worse than a deck with or is it just a nice additional, which needs utilization?

Depending on the answers, I don't quite understand how drafting can be fair, in case a display contains only 1 Planeswalker, which which will give one player a huge advantage.
Update: We went for 10 Boosters each and built decks, which is more or less the play mode „Sealed“. After that we did the same again and now have a good pool of cards to build proper „constructed“ decks. One of us pulled a Planeswalker, the other didn‘t, but it was fair nevertheless; as pointed out in the answers a Planeswalker does not mean an unfair advantage whatsoever. I can highly recommend this way of getting into MTG if you already have knowledge of the game but lack the cards.


texts:
I've been casually playing Magic with a friend, about twice a month, for the last 3 months, and the phrase "until end of turn" has always puzzled me, particularly on effects that give +1/+1 (for example, shades). Whose end of turn is meant by the ability?

For example, imagine I used a shade's ability to boost it from 2/2 to 4/4 during my attack phase, and it were blocked, taking 2 damage. Will its toughness drop down to 2, and its health respectively to 0, the moment the enemy turn begins, or will it remain at 4 toughness and 2 health until the end of my enemy's turn and thus undergo regeneration? What if the same situation occurred, except the ability used was not the shade's ability, but Giant Growth?


texts: How many moves can I make in a single turn in Maharaja?

texts:
The Maharaja rules state that I can take my two actions any way I like.  I can even sub-divide the actions.  So for example, given the "build palace and house" action, I could build a palace in one city, move my architect to the next city, and then build the house of that same action in the new city.

So far so good.

The question I have is: how many times can I make moves during my turn?  Only once?  More than once?  For example: after taking one action, moving, and taking part of my second action - can I then move a second time to another city and take the remainder of my second action?  If yes, then I could perhaps have visited as many as four cities in one turn (based on two actions, with each action sub-divided).

Anyone know?


texts: Does the Machine Gun also affect the player using it?

texts:
The description of the Machine Gun card says: "Your attack will affect all characters in your attack range."

Does this mean that the player himself gets damaged as well? That wouldn't make much sense logically from a machine gun, but the rules seem pretty clear about it.


texts: Leyline of the Void and exiling stolen permanents

texts:
What I love about M:tG is the fact that even after 10+ years of playing you always come up against new situations. This one stumped me earlier tonight though.

I've gone up against Leyline of the Void a few times over the years, but earlier I had mind controlled the Leyline's owners creature, then sacrificed it for an ability, pretty standard fare.

He immediately swiped back the card putting it into his graveyard and stated that I don't actually get any benefit for the sacrifice and definitely don't get to exile his creature from the Leyline's ability?

I said he was wrong based on my understanding of graveyard triggers. I thought that, even though I don't own the permanent, it still triggers graveyard entry, even if it essentially can't exist in my graveyard and goes to the owners. For example sacrificing a token still counts as a creature dying and entering a graveyard, even though they cease to exist after triggering entering the graveyard. So I thought his creature would exile even though he was the owner, I was the controller and anything that goes to my graveyard exiles?

It was late and we agreed that he was right to move game on, but ironically the 2 judges in our group had gone by then and I think he just wanted to keep the card in his graveyard so he could recur it. So was I wrong to challenge him? Just having and playing a card doesn't mean you know how it plays.


texts: Carcassonne: two builders on the same city?

texts:
When using the Traders and Builders and two players have one city each with their builder in it, and that two cities become one I always asumed that the builders keep working the same way (giving a extra turn for their player).

But in one of my recent games it almost happened something that left me wondering: if one of the players sharing that city with two builders has more pawns than the other in it, does that affect the other player's builder or they would keep working like normal?


texts:
I have some questions regarding Catalyst Field's third effect. It reads "Once per turn: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; banish 1 Gemini monster you control, that is treated as an Effect Monster and has gained its effects, until your opponent's End Phase, and if you do, destroy that card."

The questions would be:

1) At what point does my opponent's card get destroyed? When I banish the Gemini monster or when it returns at the end phase of my opponent's turn?

2) If my monster is banished by this effect and my opponent destroys Catalyst Field while the monster is banished, will it come back at the end phase or will it stay banished?

3) The banishing of the Gemini monster is a cost? For instance, if my opponent activates something that would negate the activation of a spell effect (not card) in response to the banishing effect of catalyst field, would my monster get banished anyway (as a cost)? Or would negating the activation of the effect stop the banishing of my monster altogether?


texts: Identify this game - 4X board game between 2000 and 2010

texts:
Around 10 years ago, I've met a bunch of people who swore this game was THE best thing one could play. At the time I was mostly confused and didn't get all the awesomeness, and now, never found it back. The name still is a mystery so far...

The game played in ages - somehow like Seven Wonders except the actions were quite different between ages, in Age 1 for example you could wage war with neighbors and build infrastructure, in Age 2 you could explore by land and search technologies, Age 3 you could wage war with distant countries and form alliances etc... Each ages took around 1 hour to play, it was really a very very long game.

The game was set in Europe, or at least Western Europe around the 14th century or something. The main board contained at least the Italian states, pretty sure it had Vienna, Paris and Barcelona in it, it was quite a long time ago sadly I do not recall every locations on the main map.

The game used miniatures and cards, if you had some cards you could have a town, castle or something like that built in one location. The board was MESSY. Lot of information, lot of "provinces" and things to move around.

The battle system was a dice and card combo, every contestant rolled dices, you could use cards to help, but it costed money (or something like that).

The starting position were focused in Italy IIRC, kinda sure there was someone who picked Milan and someone else who played as Venice.

With enough technology you could invest, discover a random sub-map and play things in it. If Venice discovered Mexico for example, no other player could go there unless a certain age is discovered, it was very useful to hit the victory conditions.

Pretty sure to win one had to have a certain number of victory points AND a fixed amount of provinces, IIRC it depended on the starting position (Venice needed more victory points less provinces etc) but it might have been technology or external factors that reduced/increased it.

There was a lot of random events that could screw people, like revolts, plague etc, that happened more frequently to the one on top, don't remember if it was dice-based or cards based but it was advertised on the box of the game.

IIRC the box was red-ish and the name in yellow or something. The name was something like "Conquest" or related to war.


texts: Redirecting counterspells to Redirect itself

texts: If I cast Redirect on a some kind of counter spell can I choose the Redirect as new target for the counterspell?


texts: Stream of Thought/Creeping Chill Interaction?

texts:
What happens stack-wise when Stream of Thought mills Creeping Chill?

My understanding is that the triggered ability of Creeping Chill gets put on the stack but doesn't happen until Stream of Thought is finished resolving. So if you choose to shuffle back Creeping Chill with Stream of Thought, then would the triggered ability fizzle?

Any thoughts?


texts:
I have looked all over for this and can't find any good information on the sleep status, even in the rule book.

This came up because in a game recently with a friend: I was put to sleep with an attack that had 100% chance to do so, after I had less cards in my deck, effectively causing me to lose.

As I currently understand it, flipping to remove the sleep status happens after my turn, so even if I remove it they can just apply it right away again.

Is this the correct way that sleep works? If so, how do I avoid automatically losing as soon as an opponent has a sleep attack?


texts: Calculating the probability of a combo hand

texts:
Before I ask the question, I should mention I already saw this and just don't get it.

I have a 40 card deck with cards I'll label:

A (3 copies)
B (3 copies)
C (3 copies)
D (2 copies)
E (1 copy)
F (2 copies)
G (3 copies)
H (1 copy)
I (11 copies)

And I need to know for a hand of 5, and a hand of 6, what the likelihood of getting any one (or more) of the following is:

(A and B), (A and G), (A and C), (A and F), (H alone), (E and I), (E and C), (E and H), (E and G)

What is it/how can I do it?


texts: Can Apex Install Non-Virtual Resources via Assimilator?

texts:
Apex has the abilities:

You cannot install non-virtual resources.
When your turn begins, you may install 1 card from your grip facedown.

Assimilator says:

[click], [click]: Turn one of your facedown installed cards faceup. If that card is an event, trash it.

Can I install a non-virtual resource face down using Apex's second ability and then turn it face up with Assimilator?
The second sentence of Assimilator indicates that Apex's second ability allows you to install things that you couldn't normally install, such as events.


texts: Can I complete a quest during the "Waterdeep Harbor" phase?

texts:
Can I place an agent in Waterdeep Harbor, complete a quest, and later, after all players have finished, place my agent on another space and complete a second quest?

Using this strategy, a player could potentially complete six (or eight) quests in a turn.


texts: In Eldritch Horror, when a mythos card refers to a monster's toughness, does it mean its current or max toughness?

texts:
The Blood Flows mythos card says under its event:

  The Lead Investigator discards 1 Monster of his choice and loses Health equal to its toughness

Do I use the monster's current or max health?


texts: Do two monsters only emerge from the gate from the first mythos card in the Dunwich Horror setup?

texts:
The Dunwich Horror expansion says in the setup:

  With five or more players, place two monsters on the gate indicated by the mythos card instead of one.

Is this something that only occurs in the very first mythos card's gate, or does this requirement for 5+ players occur elsewhere as well?


texts: Illegal jobs, warrant issues and particular scenario

texts:
The other day playing Firefly with friends, we were playing a scenario where when completing an illegal job you get issued a warrant.

As far we understand from the basic rules, all your jobs (legal or illegal) get cancelled when you get issued a warrant.

That would imply that you can be working at most one job when doing illegal jobs throughout the game making the game slightly slower, regardless the fact that illegal jobs get you more money.

Is there something we missed or is this the proper and expected behavior of such scenario?


texts:
Apologies if this has been answered, but
How many parties can you have in MTG?
I’m aware that a party consists of 0-4 so cleric, rogue, wizard and warrior.
But if I have a full party and say another 4 creatures, (1 from each) does that mean I have 2 parties or is the maximum allowed 1 party?


texts: How long does mana from Burning-Tree Emissary stay around?

texts: Does mana added to your pool from Burning-Tree Emissary get destroyed when the card that added it is destroyed?


texts: How can I elegantly increase the difficulty of Elder Sign?

texts:
I think there's consensus that Elder Sign is not satisfyingly difficult. The variants I've seen suggested are either too long for my taste, or don't look play-tested.

Has anyone found a satisfying (read: you've played it at least once and liked it) way to tweak the difficulty up without adding more than, say, half an hour to the base game or ramping up the complexity and housekeeping?

I would love for the change to meet most of these conditions:

Add no new mechanic or a very simple one
Add more decision making rather than more chance
Add no more than half an hour to the game
Tweak the win rate down to somewhere between 50% and 80%

That said, if you have something you love, post it regardless.


texts:
Let's say my board is Blade Instructor, Boros Challenger, and Goblin Cratermaker. Can I:

Attack with all three;
Two mentor triggers go on stack;
Stack triggers such that Blade Instructor's trigger goes first, have that target Boros Challenger;
Boros Challenger's mentor trigger targets Goblin Cratarmaker;
Both triggers see a valid target, therefore I end up with 3/1, 3/4 and 3/3?

I'm not sure if #2 actually works - it is possible that Boros Challenger's mentor ability won't trigger because it, at the time it goes on the stack, had no legal target (or does it trigger anyway, just not resolve?).


texts: Can Axis and Allies be played with two players, and does it require all countries to be picked?

texts: I had just recently bought the game and I was wondering if we needed more than two players to control all the countries. We had already decided that I would take the UK and USA while he would take Germany and Japan. Do we need somebody to play as Russia or could we just play without Russia?


texts: In Battlestar Galatica Pegasus expansion, does the cylon team win if the cylon leader wins?

texts:
In the pegasus expansion, these points happen:

The cylon players win.
The cylon leader reveals his agenda
and he completed it successfully.

Did both cylons and cylon leader win the game OR did the cylons lose the game and only the leader wins?


texts: Getting started (Advanced) with Magic: The Gathering, and where to play

texts:
I am a recent college grad without many friends who play MTG, but I am interested in starting to play again. I am familiar with most of the rules, including things like turn phases and the stack.

I have only played casually and do not know where to find any of my old cards. I am looking for a place to play with other people, and the first two things that come to mind are online applications and local board game clubs.

One thing that I am not sure about is how to stay up to date on the "relevant" cards. I have always been a casual player, mixing cards from 10 years ago with cards I just found in the newest release. I have heard that many players nowadays prefer only making decks with a limited pool of cards to choose from, but I do not know the names of the sets or the methods by which cards are phased out/in.

In short, I have three questions:

What are the available online communities for MTG?
How can I stay up to date on the current set of cards that might be used to play in more serious games and tournaments?
Is there anything else that a casual Magic player looking to return to the game in a more serious way should know?


texts: What is the purpose of opening this package in March?

texts:
Spoilers for the Pandemic Legacy Season 1 Legacy Deck for the beginning of March below.

According to the legacy deck in Pandemic Legacy Season 1, in the beginning of March, you are instructed to open box 5.

I opened all the other packages that you are also instructed to open, and all of them related to

   military base construction

but I cannot figure out for the life of me what the items within box 5 are for.  Was this a misprint and they will become useful later, or did I miss something?


texts: Any games like Werewolf for two persons?

texts:
I am totaly new on board cards games. I tried WereWolf for one night last weekend, and I wonder what other games in same logic ?

If to take into account that I want a board game playable for 2 persons, it's not possible with werewolf, but any other games in same logic please ?


texts: Why do the opposing sides of a D20 generally add up to 21

texts: Most D20s I own (with the exception of poorly made foam ones or MTG spin-down dice) seem to have all opposing sides add up to 21 (20 + 1, 15 + 6, etc).  Why is this?  Who started this?


texts: Can a Cyclone's "Dual Covering Fire" Special Action be used if the Cyclone is engaged in melee?

texts:
This question came up last night while we were playing a game of Warmachine.  A friend was running a Cyclone, and he noticed that the Dual Covering Fire special action is an *Action, not an *Attack.

Does this mean that it can be used even if the Cyclone is engaged?  The Action is attached to the ranged weapon however, so does this make it the equivalent of an *Attack?


texts: Why isn't Selvala, Explorer Returned's ability restricted from being used as a mana ability?

texts:
Selvala, Explorer Returned's ability is very similar to the ability of Charmed Pendant, so I don't understand why the latter has an instant speed restriction and Selvala does not. I'm looking for insight into this difference.

In the history of Magic, there are three cards with abilities that have the clause "Activate this ability only at any time you could cast an instant" (more when you include times when it's in reminder text, but I do not). In all three cases, the ability is a mana ability, as that's the only thing with less timing restrictions than an instant (as you can activate it while casting a spell). These three cards are Lion's Eye Diamond, Rhystic Cave and Charmed Pendant. For LED, this is to stop people from dumping their hand after the spell is already on the stack. For Rhystic Cave, one could attempt to cast a spell, then revert game state if an opponent pays to stop the Cave, and try again forever. Both these cases are fine and I include them mostly for completeness.

Charmed Pendant mills a card, then gives you mana based off that card. Selvala makes everyone reveal cards (and draw), then gives you mana based off those cards. These abilities seem very analogous, yet Selvala can be activated mid-cast and Charmed Pendant cannot. Why is this?


texts: What happens if you get lost while rescuing Jenny?

texts:
In scenario 3 of Robinson Crusoe, your task is to build a raft to rescue Jenny, and then build a lifeboat to escape your deserted island before a hurricane arrives. (Let us not consider the wisdom of "sailing through a hurricane in a cobbled-together lifeboat" too much.) Until you rescue Jenny, she takes some damage every round; after you rescue her, she does nothing but rest and eat your food.

As a result of Jenny's terrible post-rescue utility, my last game involved abandoning Jenny for quite some time before getting around to constructing a raft. As it happened, she had exactly one wound remaining when we rescued her, and we rolled the dice and got a random event when we did. The random event was "you're lost and will be outside the camp tonight."

Does this mean Jenny is outside the camp, or could she plausibly have returned to the camp while you remain lost? (In this case, being outside the camp would cause 3 wounds: 1 from lack of shelter, and 2 from lack of food.)

(The first explanation is the most obvious, but I argued for the second on the theory that Jenny is, in every important way, a separate character, and that the event happened to the character who explored, rather than to Jenny.)


texts:
"Group Hug" card in Teddy Bears Faction reads:

  Give one of your minions +1 power for each other minion at the same base until the end of the turn.

Player A (owner of Teddy Bear faction who is playing Group Hug) proceeds to play Group Hug on top of 1 of their 3 in-play minions on that base.  Player A thus has 2 other in-play minions at the time on that base (total of 3, the one on which Group Hug is played + 2 more).  The rest of the base looks like this:  Player B has 1 minion in play, Player C has 2 minions in play.

How many extra points does Player A garner from playing Group Hug:  3 or 5?  In other words, does Player A get to count only other players' minions as the +1 power, or does Player A also get to count their own "other minions" as extra points here?  It goes to how do you define "other minion"?


texts: In Bridge, What Is "Playing the Card You Are Known to Hold?"

texts:
If you're a declarer, and West leads the queen of spades, with dummy showing the Kx of the suit, while you have Axx in the closed hand, you might take the trick with the K from the dummy, thereby not exposing the A that you hold. That, I can understand.

On the other hand, this concept is more of a defensive maneuver, where both defending hands are closed. In that case, cards can't really be "known" but can merely be inferred (e.g. when someone fails to cover a card that's being finessed).

Apparently, playing certain cards that are "known" is considered a form of, or at least related to, falsecarding. But if a card that is played is "known," how can it be "false?"


texts: Can a spell keep track of its target if the target changes controller?

texts:
Let's say I'm in a multiplayer game. I cast Assassin's Trophy targeting opponent A's Sol Ring. Opponent B controlls Aladdin and responde by activating the ability targeting the same Sol Ring. Aladdin's ability resolves and opponent B gains control of Sol Ring.
Will Assassin's Trophy fizzle or will it still destroy the Sol Ring but allow opponent B to fetch the basic land instead?


texts: What knowledge do players get when Hangman is sent to another game using Side Quest?

texts: At a un-draft I had the pleasure of sending Hangman to another silver bordered game with Side Quest. We played it with both players having no knowledge about the hidden word and me confirming if the letters were in the word. Also we didn't give them knowledge about what else had been guessed. Was this the correct way to play this?


texts: How does Dig Through Time work with Courser of Kruphix?

texts: When Courser of Kruphix is on the battlefield and I resolve a Dig Through Time, do I reveal the top card of my library AFTER I pick two cards from the seven I get to look at, or does the top card become revealed while I am looking at my seven cards?


texts: In Magic, when and why did the rules change to check life totals “continuously” instead of at the end of each phase?

texts:
In the old days, the rules of Magic specified that players' life totals were only checked at the end of a phase, or at the beginning or end of combat. The modern rules, however, specify that life totals are checked as a state-based action, every time a player would receive priority.

This means that by the time somebody's life hits 0, it's too late to play spells or resolve triggered abilities that would save them. The correct play is to take preventative action before the fatal event would occur.

When did this change take place? Was there any specific reason for it, aside from obvious factors like streamlining and consistency?


texts: For Sister Grimm's Super Power, where does the plot twist go if you can't play it?

texts:
The Sister Grimm supporting character's Super Power reads:

  {C} Any Combat {Y}: Search your deck for an {C} Combat plot twist with a different name from each plot twist in your KO pile and play it if able.

What happens if you can't play it? I assume that if I search for a card and can't play it, it stays in my deck. Part of the problem here is that I'm used to MtG, where the card would explicitly tell you what to do in the alternative case.


texts: Sinuous Striker query around pump in reaction to combat/defending

texts:
So I heard a while ago that damage doesn't kill creatures, state based actions kill creatures. Not relevant but this was a judge who said it.

So I wanted to ask, is it possible for someone to attack with say a 4/4 Bitterblade Warrior and me to declare 2/2 Sinuous Striker as a defender then attacking opponent casts a spell or combat trick on another minion or maybe does nothing in this example, then I say before damage is dealt to pump the Sinuous Striker by two to be a 4/0 so that it's damage is enough to kill the 4/4 Bitterblade Warrior. Does a State based action check happen before damage is dealt or is the move I'm talking about legal to do at this stage? The finer points of movement between phases still eludes me as I'm getting my head around it.

If anyone can explain this as clearly as possible (as opposed to just saying 'no you can't do that') I would be quite grateful, I'm looking to also learn about phasing and how it works here and how each steps resolves as the stack steps through the corresponding actions.

From my own perspective this is how I imagine it would work:

Combat starts
Attacker declared
Blocker declared
Nothing from the opponent like spells etc,
Defender gets priority to respond before damage and pumps creature
Damage is then resolved
State based action happens then it sees the 4/4 attacker and the 2/2 defender are now 4/0 and 4/-4 respectively ergo they both die as their toughness is 0 or less.


texts: What happens if installed Medium is trashed during access on R&D?

texts:
Let's say Runner has a Medium installed with 3 virus counters on it and performs a successful run on R&D, choosing to access the maximum 3 cards they are entitled to.

If the first card is a Sapper for example and causes that installed Medium to be trashed, does the Runner still get to access the remaining two cards?

My understanding is that the number of cards to access is set at the point where the run is successful and therefore even if the Medium which triggered that ability is trashed during accessing, they Runner can still access the same number of cards, but could someone confirm where this is clarified in the rules or an FAQ or similar?


texts: Possible to use mana ability in response?

texts:
Mana abilities don't go onto the stack and are resolved immediately. If my opponent tried to play Shock (deal 2 damage) to Maraleaf Pixie, would I be able to use its mana ability in response? (Tap: add G or U).

There's a lot on forums about the other way around. If I initially tapped Maraleaf Pixie, and my opponent tried to kill it, they would not be able to because the mana ability resolves immediately.


texts: Say you have Ambuscade Shaman and Warstorm Surge out on the battlefield and you cast a 1/1 creature. Does it deal 1 damage or 3?


texts: In Hive, can a beetle go up/down into an empty space?

texts:
Consider a Beetle surrounded on 5 sides, thus there is a space in the ring around it.

Can the Beetle move from the centre of this arrangement, into the space?  A normal 'planar' move is prevented under these circumstances but a Beetle can move vertically.  It could climb on to a neighbour then down into the space in two moves; but can it do the move up-and-down into the space in one move?


texts: Can the Bishop select a player who discarded the Handmaid?

texts:
In the premium edition of Love Letter, the player with the Bishop gets a heart if they correctly guess the card another player is holding. This doesn't directly affect the player being guessed upon, other than that they may discard their card, and that others get some information about that player's hand if they decide to keep it.

Can the player holding the bishop guess the hand of a player who is protected by the handmaid?


texts:
What is the third hole at the start of the cribbage for?

It's shown behind the 2 pegs in the image below:


texts: Do you die instantaneously if your life total hits 0?

texts:
Way back when, the first combo I built a deck around was

Force of Nature
with a
Spirit Link
on it. If, at the beginning of my upkeep, I have less than 8 life and I don't pay the upkeep, will I lose the game before the life gain kicks in?


texts: Does Consult The Prisoner move jump track again, after an auto-jump?

texts:
Here's the scenario:

The fleet is one away from
auto-jumping, i.e. at the -1 location
on the jump track
Consult The Prisoner is drawn during
the Crisis step
Current Player chooses to attempt the
skill check
Humans pass the skill check
The jump track is advanced to
auto-jump (from passing the check)
The jump is resolved

What happens next? Do we still resolve the Activate Cylon Ships (there are none) and Prepare For Jump steps? I see no reason not to, but it just seemed a little odd. So the fleet moves to the second spot on the jump track, right?


texts: How can I beat green Tron with a control deck?

texts:
I've been building a Modern control deck based around the Gifts reanimator engine. The general gameplan is to slow your opponent using counters and removal until you can reanimate a big creature for massive advantage, hopefully negating a bunch of your opponent's cards.

Based on playtesting, my worst matchup by far is green-based ("mono-brown") Tron. I can barely win about one match out of ten against the deck.

Compared to blue-based Tron decks (UR with Through the Breach and UW with Unburial Rites combo), green-based Tron has fewer critical spells and a higher density of threats, making it more resistant to counters and disruption. They also have a broader variety of angles of attack, thanks to the easier inclusion of cards like Karn and Mindslaver. I've had games where I've Needled Karn, Extracted all four Mindslavers and Urza's Towers, only to still lose to an Emrakul hardcast the hard way.

The deck is practically all colorless once it gets past the first few turns, so Iona isn't nearly as strong as she is against the Gifts-based Tron deck.

Which creatures (i.e. reanimation targets) are most advantageous against Tron decks?
What general strategies can a blue-based control deck employ against green Tron decks?

For reference, this is my current decklist.


texts: How do the Batman Cuffs work in Batman Fluxx?

texts:
The Batman Cuffs card says you can hide a Creeper.

Does this mean that Creeper is now under your control?
Can you hide someone else's Creeper?
What happens when you choose to unhide it? Is it yours or your opponents'?

Unclear still on how the Batcuffs work based on these two official sources:

Q: How exactly do the Batman Cuffs work? (Batman™ Fluxx FAQ),
http://looneylabs.ning.com/forum/topics/rules-question-batman-cuffs (dead link, verified on 29.12.2020).


texts: Does Unknown's special ability still work after revealing?

texts:
Unknown's special ability is

  Deceit: When given a Hermit Card, you may lie about your identity to trigger the card or to say "nothing happens". You do not have to reveal your identity to use this Special Ability.

After Unknown has revealed, can he still lie about the effect of a Hermit Card?


texts: What do I say when an opponent asks if I'm "tapped out", especially if I still have a means of casting a spell?

texts:
When my opponent asks if I am "tapped out" is it reasonable to assume they are referring to land only?

Say for example my opponent goes to declare attackers and asks if I am "tapped out". I have no land available but 3 untapped white creatures on the field and and Devouring Light in my hand. I might mention them as blockers, but if they could not block his creatures for some reason I might just say yes. Would that be considered dishonest? What is the best way to answer this question?


texts: Agricola Family Growth importance threshold

texts:
From comments and such on here and boardgamegeek.com, quickly building rooms and getting family growth seems to be just about the most important early part of Agricola. The hard part is balancing getting rooms and family growth with feeding the family.

In context of a 3 player game (no +2 of any resource you want, only +1), my other two friends and I will fight tooth and nail over reed to get those rooms out. It is to the point that there is almost never 2 reed on the reed space. If there is one reed on the action space we will not let the starting player get that two reed for that advantage, so one of us non starting players will take the single reed.

In general, we all seem to do OK as far as points go, but I am wondering if anyone can weigh in on their thoughts as to how efficient this is? Is it worth it to take a single reed twice for that first room (or even second)?

Sometimes this is easier if someone has a card that provides reed somehow, or a reduced need for reed, but there are times when none of those cards come out.

As a bonus/addon question, is it worth it to build all 5 rooms as fast as possible, or build 4 and use family growth even without room. This should be in context of both situations of having cards that give bonus points for 5 rooms, and not having those cards.

EDIT:
It seems my friends and I were playing wrong. When I learned a couple years ago, I was taught when grain was harvested, we take all 3 grain from the field at the harvest. AND, when animals bred, 2 sheep ( for example ) would make 1 more sheep, 4 sheep would make 2 more, 6 would make 3, etc...

With that being said, other actions have quite a bit more value than they did with our erroneous rules, so reed is no where NEAR of a prominent bottleneck as it was before. For instance, we now value taking that extra turn to get out the Seasonal Worker and use the Day Laborer action space more frequently.

I suppose the abstract question still exists, "Is early family growth worth taking a couple inefficient turns to get early."


texts: Does the Changeling ability count for Happily Ever After?

texts: In Magic: The Gathering, there is a card that allows you to win automatically if you meet 3 specific conditions, one of which this question is about. On the card Happily Ever After, it states that if there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard (and the other conditions), then you win the game, but I am unsure if specific creature types count. The MTG Gatherer states that supertypes (such as legendary) do not count but I do not know if creature types count.


texts: Dominion: when playing the Big Money strategy, when should you switch from buying Gold to Duchy?

texts: When there are how many Provinces left (if that is the way the game will most likely end), should you switch from buying Gold to Duchy (when you don't have 8 money)? Does this amount change for 3, 4 player? Is there a good rule of thumb based upon the number of players/potential buys before your next turn?


texts: When you use 'Rebound' does the card go to the graveyard?

texts:
Someone suggested I read the basic guide of mtg because I'm new to the game, so I was reading it and on page 7 (Game Zones) where it talks about Exile it says:

  If a spell or ability exiles a card, that card is put in a game area that's set apart from the rest of the game. The card will remain there forever, unless whatever put it there is able to bring it back. Exiled cards are normally face up. This zone is shared by both players.

So if you played a card like Staggershock and next turn you use rebound, spell happens, does it remain in exile or go to the graveyard?

(Also, not a question but a side note, all players share the same exile? Thats interesting I didn't know that till just now.)


texts: Can I cast a spell while another spell or ability is resolving?

texts:
My opponent has a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad with scads of loyalty. I've got a Gideon Jura and a Nihil Spellbomb on the battlefield.

He activates Sorin's "ultimate" ability, targeting Gideon.

  -6: Destroy up to three target creatures and/or other planeswalkers. Return each card put into a graveyard this way to the battlefield under your control.

Is there any way I can use the Spellbomb to prevent my opponent from stealing Gideon after he is sent to my graveyard?


texts: Can I deal damage to Hornet Nest multiple times before it dies?

texts: If I have a Hornet Nest on the battlefield, can I cast 2x Lightning Axe on it to get 10 tokens? Or does the creature die between the first Lightning Axe and the space that the opponent has to respond? I think I can play as many instants as I want on the same creature before the stack resolves and the creature dies, right?


texts: Combo question: urborg tomb of yawgmoth, torpor orb, kormus bell, dark depths = free Marit Lage?

texts:
If I have the following in play:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

  Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.

Kormus Bell

  All Swamps are 1/1 black creatures that are still lands.

Torpor Orb

  Creatures entering the battlefield don't cause abilities to trigger.

And I play Dark Depths:

  Dark Depths enters the battlefield with ten ice counters on it.

  {3}: Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths.

  When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, put a legendary 20/20 black Avatar creature token with flying and indestructible named Marit Lage onto the battlefield.

What I am hoping happens is: The Urborg makes my Dark Depths also a swamp, so Kormus Bell makes it a creature, so then Torpor Orb makes its comes into play ability not trigger, so the Dark Depths will not enter play with any counters, allowing me to immediately sacrifice for 20/20 Marit Lage. Any reason that would not work?


texts: A&A 1942 2nd ed: Is it necessary to build an industrial complex in order to mobilize units?

texts:
If Russia doesn't build an industrial complex, can units be mobilized in any controlled territory?

I don't see any complexes printed on the board itself to start the game off, does that mean I have to buy one in order to mobilize units?


texts: In the Epic card game, when is event damage resolved during the attack?

texts:
In the Epic card game I understand that damage taken and received as part of an attack is resolved simultaneously at the end of the battle.

However, if I attack with two creatures and both receive enough damage via events to kill (break) them, before the defender selects blockers, are the creatures killed instantly, or do they still need to decide whether to defend or take the damage from the attack?


texts: Go - How does one count territory in these scenarios?


texts: May a creature declare an attack while it is exhausted?

texts: In Berserk: War of the Realms, if a creature 'may declare a magical strike' on some condition, does that apply even when it is exhausted? For example, the Elf Spellslinger 'may declare a magical strike' if an adjacent creature of the opponent becomes exhausted. Is he allowed to use that even when he himself is exhausted?


texts: What is the meaning of the starting player rules in Tzolk'in?

texts:
The rules of the board game Tzolk'in state (page 4, bottom left): "Give the Starting Player Marker to the player who most recently sacrificed something.  In case of a tie, give the Starting Player Marker to the player who volunteers for the next sacrifice."

My question: What does this mean?

Probably this is a joke?  (But then, who starts the game?)  Or does this refer to some part of the game which I haven't discovered yet?


texts: What does MAX apply to on the Memory Cards in "Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Card Game"?

texts:
In Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Card Game, some memory cards have score wording on them that are unclear to me.
For example, the Winter Memory Card Crisp Evening has a score of "4+?" and the card text says

?=1 point for each token you have at game end. MAX 12.

I am unclear about if the MAX applies to the total card score (the whole bottom of the card that says "4+?") or only the "?" that is part of the score equation.

In the example above, if the maximum refers to the card's total score then it would only count up to 8 tokens and would get up to 12 points for this card.
The other way to read it is that the maximum refers to the "?" alone, so you can count up to 12 tokens and would get up to 16 points for this card.
There are some card instances where both the score and "?" are the same so the maximum applies to both, but in this instance because of the "4+?", the score and "?" are not the same and it is unclear which the maximum applies to.
Clarification on this would be very helpful, as there is nothing about this in the Autumn Harvest rule book.


texts:
In all board games I played that include 3D figures (plastic, metal etc.) the figures itself can be easily changed to flat cardboard tokens.

My questions is do you know any games in which the actual shape, orientation and modules of it play more significant role than just a token?


texts: What happens if I use Sudden Disappearance?

texts:
I just saw this card: Sudden Disappearance. Suppose I use it in my first main step.
I attack while my opponent has his cards exiled. At the end step he gets them back.

My question: Will those cards have summoning sickness when his turn comes? (for creatures)


texts: Can the Tower capture the Wagon and/or the Mayor in Carcassonne

texts:
When playing Carcassonne with "The Tower" and "Abbey and Mayor" expansions, can adding a level to the tower capture either the Mayor and/or Wagon?

There are no rules that I have seen that either authorize and/or forbid doing this so it's ambiguous.


texts: How does the Ticket To Ride:1910 expansion change the original game?

texts:
What does the expansion contain?
What are the different ways to play with it?
How is each different from playing without the expansion?
Is there anything else I should know about the expansion before buying?


texts: Turning in cards when you have five or six cards

texts:
In regards to turning in Risk cards, the rule book says if you have five or six cards you must turn in at least one set.

My question is why do they give you the option of five or six?
If you have five cards you will have a set of three. You can only get one card per turn so you would never move from 4 to six in one turn. It seems a bit confusing.
I was playing with a group and there was a disagreement about this and my opponent said he was going to wait until he got six.


texts: Does Chief of the Edge's ability count as a +1/+0 counter? I want want to use it for other cards such as Ainok Bond-Kin's ability ("each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter gets first strike"). I cant find confirmation anywhere.


texts: If I control a Renegade Doppelganger and I play Umara Raptor and choose for Renegade Doppleganger to copy it, would the Renegade Doppleganger get the +1/+1 counter?


texts: Can I use cards like Gilded Lotus and Spectral Searchlight in a colorless EDH deck?

texts:
With cards that let me add mana of any color, can they be used in a colorless commander deck? Some examples being Spectral Searchlight and Gilded Lotus in a Kozilek, the Great Distortion deck.

I am asking because I think I remember seeing something saying I can not, but I do not remember if I am remembering correctly.


texts:
Wizard's somewhat recently changed the wording of uncounterable spells to be:

  "This spell can’t be countered."

The old wording was:

  "[Card name] can't be countered."

For example, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has changed between Modern Masters 2015 and Ultimate Masters.

This change seems to have happened as part of the April 2018 rules change where spells and abilities with invalid targets changed from being countered by game rules to just fizzling.  As a result of this, they needed to change the wording on cards that said "[Card name] can't be countered by spells or abilities."  But this doesn't explain the change from "[Card name]" to "This spell", nor does it explain why they needed to issue errata for cards that didn't have the "by spells or abilities" component.

So why did they make this change?

Also, the Gatherer Oracle for Nezahal, Primal Tide appears not to have been changed.  Is this an error?


texts: Can Calamity Janet play a Punch as Missed?

texts:
She can play BANG! cards as Missed! cards and vice versa: can she use a Punch (or any other BANG card, e.g. Knife or Buffalo Rifle) as Missed?
Vice versa, can she use an Iron plate as a Bang?
If I take, for example, Jourdonnais, he can use his ability also when he's hit by something different from the card BANG!. I'd tend to think the same is true for Calamity Janet too.


texts: Will Panharmonicon entering the battlefield duplicate ETBs it triggers?

texts: If I have a Reckless Fireweaver on the battlefield, and I play a Panharmonicon, will the Fireweaver's ability trigger twice?


texts: How do I Make this Backgammon-Spinoff more Level and Fair?

texts:
I call it March-Fall Gammon, or M-F Gammon for short.  Played with regular backgammon board, chips, and dice.  Game consists of 2 parts: The March and The Fall.  Start with a clean board, roll, and then use your 2 die rolls to either put chips into your home quadrant, or to move chips across the board into the opponent's home quadrant.  Once all your chips are in the opponent's home quadrant, you can start bearing off.  Once you fully bear off, your Fall begins, where you do the same thing, starting from the Opponent's home quadrant, and working your way back to your own home quadrant to bear off there.  First one to do that wins.

There's a case where, if you start your Fall before your opponent starts theirs, you can place a single chip on the board and move it down as fast as possible and start hitting the opponent while or even before they are bearing off on their March.

If you hit them, they have to start that chip all the way back in their home quadrant.  If they hit you, you also have to start back in their home quadrant.

Basically, if one person is on their March while the other is on their Fall, they share the same restart quadrant, and are moving in the same direction.  Meaning, the penalty of being hit for the person on their March is far greater than the penalty for the person who has already started the Fall. And even if they do hit you back, you guys will be getting back out in the same place, so you have a potential to roll and hit them again just by the act of getting off the bar, and further, you can 'chase' them all the way back to your own home quadrant where they are still trying to bear off.

If there is too much of a buffer between the beginning of your Fall and theirs, it becomes super easy to destroy all their progress, while making considerable progress of your own.  At that point, it actually becomes a good strategy to leave your own chips open, if it means having a greater chance of hitting ANY of your opponent's chips, even if they are all the way at the other end of the board, because if they hit you back, you just break even, and if they don't, its all profit.

How could I change the rules, so that this pole-reversal doesn't supremely benefit the person currently in the lead?

Things I DON'T want to do:

Limit the movement of players on their Fall
End the game at the end of the March
Bear into your home quadrant and bear-off in the opponent's home quadrant each time, or vice-versa (I like that you move one way, then move back, sort of like a real war or crusade.)


texts: If i have a sorcery or instant or creature ability that allows me to return target permanent to its owners hand, can I use that ability or spell to return permanents from my graveyard


texts: I played a 4, opponent played a six then I played a 5. Easy to count.....3 for run and 2 for the 15. However, what about if it was also a go for me. Do I get one point for the go as well?


texts: "Enchantment Creatures" and "Enchanted Creatures"

texts: Is a enchantment creature card considered to be a creature that is enchanted? I need to know for Winds of Rath, which destroys all creatures that aren't enchanted.


texts: Transports onload/offloading adjacent to enemy controlled sea zone

texts:
We're playing the 2004 board edition of Axis and Allies. Page 13 of the rulebook states:

  A transport may not load or offload in a territory adjacent to a hostile sea zone

To me, that means that if Australia has a British infantry, and Britain has a transport on sea zone 40, but Japan has an aircraft carrier on sea zone 38 (on the total opposite side of Australia), the transport could not load the infantry.

Is that correct? Or does it mean that the Japanese carrier would have to be adjacent to the transport as well?


texts: What happens if Humble Defector is sacrificed before its ability resolves?

texts:
Humble Defector reads

  {T}: Draw two cards. Target opponent gains control of Humble Defector. Activate this ability only during your turn.

Anthony controls Humble Defector and Butcher of the Horde. He activates Humble Defector's ability and holds priority. He then sacrifices Humble Defector to activate Butcher of the Horde's ability.

When Humble Defector's ability resolves, does Anthony draw two cards?


texts: Can Necron Deathmarks shoot in your opponents turn?

texts:
Necron Deathmarks get to intercept an enemy unit when they deepstrike, deepstriking themselves.

Because they appear in the other player's turn, I've heard arguments to say that this means the Deathmarks can fire immediately. The reasoning I've heard is anything from 'Why else would you play death marks', to very special readings of the turn phase in the master rulebook.

This video is what got me thinking about this.

How should this be played?


texts: How do bonus tiles and booty tokens work?

texts:
In Pantheon, you represent... the collective interests of a pantheon that's trying to get worshiped. (You score points for getting deities worshiped, but the scoring system isn't picky about which deity gets the praise or which culture does the praising.)
At the beginning of the game, you get Bonus Tiles, which have varying effects: extra movement during the spread-civilization phase, a free random god, a free upgrade to an offering tile, etc. During the game, you can pick up Booty Tokens that have similar effects to the Bonus Tiles. The rules, unfortunately, are quite sparse on what to do with the tiles and tokens. (The rules are also poorly copy-edited.) When can you use the tiles: are they only usable immediately, or can you keep them until some useful moment later and use them then? Does the "Bonus Movement" tile grant you bonus moves every time you do the Movement step, or is it usable only once and then it's gone?
Some of the bonus tiles are much better than others; here's a quick overview.

Bonus Movement: if usable once, has the effect of half a card. If usable repeatedly, is equivalent to one of the less powerful gods. (But there's a booty token that has two bonus movement, which could well be over-powered if it's usable repeatedly.)
Random God: In perfect circumstances, worth 13 victory points. On average, worth one victory point plus some continuing bonus that will last throughout the game.
Upgrade a Sacrifice Tile: If you're required to use this immediately after the game starts, it's worth 1 gold coin plus part of one buy action. If you can hold it for later (upgrading a sacrifice tile from 3 to 4), then it can be worth up to 4 gold coins plus the part of a buy action to do the upgrade.
Place a Column anywhere: Depends on whether you're trying to win via placing columns or not; worth between 2 and 8 victory points.

Since the effect of the bonus tiles varies greatly depending on when and how you can use them, I really do want to know exactly how they're supposed to be used.
(Side note: I'm talking about the Pantheon game published in 2011 by Hans im Gluck and Rio Grande, not any of the other games that happen to be called Pantheon.)


texts: Will countering a spell that left the stack still trigger abilities?

texts:
Situation
I control Baral, Chief of Compliance, a sufficient amount of mana, and have Mystic Confluence in hand. My opponent casts Grizzly Bears, to which I cast Mystic Confluence in response, choosing the first mode three times, each targetting the Grizzly Bears.
Question
If my opponent chooses to pay for the effect all three times, obviously, the spell won't be countered and Baral won't trigger.
However, if they do pay no mana and therefore having the spell countered, how often will Baral trigger?
In other words, will an effect that attempts to counter a spell still counter it if the spell isn't on the stack to be countered anymore?
Rules Background
I looked at the following rules, trying to determine what would happen. First...

608. Resolving Spells and Abilities
608.2b. If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. Illegal targets, if any, won’t be affected by parts of a resolving spell’s effect for which they’re illegal. Other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them. If the spell or ability creates any continuous effects that affect game rules (see rule 613.10), those effects don’t apply to illegal targets. If part of the effect requires information about an illegal target, it fails to determine any such information. Any part of the effect that requires that information won’t happen.

Those rules clearly relate to determining whether the spell would resolve. Since in the example given, Mystic Confluence's targets are all legal, the spell isn't countered and will resolve normally, handling all three modes one after another, even though for the second and third time, the targetted spell will already be illegal and therefore the ability might do nothing.
To determine that, I looked at the keyword action's rules:

701.5. Counter
701.5a. To counter a spell or ability means to cancel it, removing it from the stack. It doesn’t resolve and none of its effects occur. A countered spell is put into its owner’s graveyard.

I noticed that there's no qualifier that states whether the countering will still occur, regardless of the spell still being legal - likely due to the fact that normally, a spell like Counterspell would be countered on resolution if that were to occur.
As a possibly noteworthy mention, other keyword abilities do have equivalents to such a qualifier, such as the rules about tapping an untapping stating that permanents that are already (un)tapped may not be (un)tapped again, clarifying whether abilities on cards like Reckless Racer would trigger.


texts: Monster unaffected by Spell/Trap vs. Monster given protection via Spell/Trap

texts: If a monster's effect makes it unaffected by spells/traps, what happens if it attacks a monster protected by Waboku or something? Does it still get destroyed?


texts: Do I take two prize cards when a Pokemon-EX is discarded?

texts: When using the Cursed Shovel trainer card and you remove two cards from your opponent’s deck, if one of the discarded cards is a Mega Mewtwo EX, does it entitle me to take two prize cards?


texts: What happens if I take damage with Worship out while at negative life?

texts:
Let's say I'm at -10 life but Phyrexian Unlife is keeping me alive. I have a random creature in play as well as Worship when opponent hits me for 5 damage. Does my life total go back up to 1? -10 life is less than 1, so presumably Worship's effect would occur, but if I go from -10 to 1 life, my life total wouldn't be "reduced".
What about Phyrexian Unlife's effect - do I gain 5 poison counters? What if instead of Phyrexian Unlife it is some other effect like Platinum Angel keeping me alive?
Text of relevant cards:

Worship: If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

Phyrexian Unlife: You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life. As long as you have 0 or less life, all damage is dealt to you as though its source had infect. (Damage is dealt to you in the form of poison counters.)

Platinum Angel: You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game.


texts: In Pokemon, is the 'Attack' action the last action that is performed on your turn?

texts: Is the 'Attack' action the last action you take during your turn or can you take other actions after this is done?


texts:
Two of my friends and I were playing MTG and someone (we'll call her player 1) had played Siren of the Fanged Coast (SFC) and she was going to use its 'control creature' ability against one of player 2's god, which player 1 couldn't pay it's devotion cost to keep it as a creature.

My question is this: After player 1 ends her turn (while controlling the god) and it then became an enchantment would she still be in control of it? My reasoning is since SFC's ability isn't like Mind Control, where as that's a passive ability of the card, SFC's ability is a one-off thing. You officially have control of the god, it just so happens to become an enchantment shortly after you take it.


texts: What happens when you need to tear-down a hotel but no houses are in the bank in Monopoly?

texts:
Strictly following the rules of Monopoly will show that just because you have the cash to out-right buy hotels for your properties, you cannot if there are not enough houses in the bank to support an even build (ie, there are less than 12 in the bank for a 3 property street).

Likewise, when tearing-down hotels, there need to be an appropriate number of houses available to support the even tear-down (at least four houses to remove one hotel, and 8 more if you want to remove all of the improvements on a 3 property street).

What happens if you cannot tear-down your hotels because there are fewer than four houses in the bank (or fewer than 12 for the whole street)?

The scenario is not that far-fetched - a property group has been fully improved, some large rent is now due, and the player needs to recoup the sunk cost of their improvements to pay the rent due.

If they cannot tear-down the hotels, they cannot pay the rent. But property cannot be traded between players if improvements are on it.

What is the appropriate resolution to this case?


texts:
Through this answer I learned of a game called Shut the Box.

The rules are very simple. The numbers 1 through 9 are "open". Two dice are rolled and numbers are shut that sum up to the number rolled. A player keeps rolling until no numbers can be shut, at which point that player's score is the sum of the numbers still open. The goal is to score as low as possible.
Luck is a big factor here, but is there a strategy to this game? Does the strategy change based on the numbers still open?


texts: Does Wizards of the Coast still package World Championship Decks?

texts: The most recent decks that I can find are from 2005. Are the top 4 championship decks from each year still being packaged for retail? If so, where's a good place to buy them?


texts: Why can the first pawn move in chess move two spaces?

texts: That is, what is the actual reasson this was written into the rules?  I'm not very into chess so pardon me if there's an obvious answer.


texts: Should the Deck Marker change more frequently?

texts:
The Deck Marker never changes for me - should it?

The Deck Marker has three symbols - Morning, Noon, and Night.  According to the rules, it begins the game on Morning, and then change each time the Encounter Deck cycles.  Once it is at Night, it remains on Night indefinitely through any subsequent shuffles.

  Place the morning marker next to the deck.  When  there  are  no  more
  cards  in  the encounter deck, reshuffle the discards and re-use them.
  Also, replace the morning marker with the noon  marker. If  you
  reshuffle  a  second  time,  replace  the  noon  marker  with  the
  night  marker.   (If you need to use the deck a fourth time, leave the
  night marker in place.)

The only problem is, the game never seems to last long enough for the Encounter Deck to cycle, even once.  I've played the game about a dozen times, and I've never seen the Encounter Deck run out.  Ever.  This includes some games with the maximum of six players, which should be very long.

Are we doing something wrong, or misunderstanding how the Marker is supposed to be used?

Since we've never played in any time of day other than morning, there seems to be a good chunk (upwards of 2/3s?) of content we're missing out on.  Is this normal?


texts: Can I cast a spell in combat check after having rolled?

texts:
In the Arkham Horror board game, consider the following:

I am about to do a combat check fighting a monster. I already decided I want to use a spell in combat (e.g. "Wither"; it is untapped, I have enough hands). Can I roll the dice without casting the spell at first and if it is not enough, try casting the spell and (if successfull) roll additional dice?

I could not find a convincing answer in the rules and FAQs. It definitely states two different things:

In order to use spells, you have to have enough hands
In order to gain their bonuses, you have to successfully cast them

So while you have to decide on the choice of your weapons / spells / hands before a combat check, just carrying a spell (or, more accurately, "spellbook") into combat does not seem to force you to cast it. Moreover, using hints works exactly this way (you can choose to use them to roll additional dice).

Is there any information on this that I have missed? I know the question might seem odd at first, but the longer I think about it, the less sure I am about the answer.


texts: How does US/UK scoring work for the invasion of Japan?

texts:
In the game Churchill, how does US/UK scoring work for the invasion of Japan?  We've been poring over the rules, coming to several different conclusions.

If all US/UK fronts invade Japan at once, how many points do the US/UK each get for the invasion:

24,
8,
or some other amount?

Japan can be invaded by four different fronts: the USSR from the north, and the US/UK from the west, south, and east.  For this question, we can ignore the northern front.

At the end of the game, anywhere from zero to three of these fronts could be occupying Japan.  According to the rules (p 18):

  A Front scores points for the furthest space it has advanced toward, or into, an Axis country.  A player does not score points for spaces that the Front passed through, just the last space it advanced into, to include an Axis country.

and, regarding how many points players get if Germany/Japan surrender:

  8 [points] per Axis country where they have a Front (all US and UK Fronts give 8 points to both the US and the UK)

So let's say all three fronts have made it into Japan (since we're ignoring the northern front).  How many points is that worth for the US/UK?

24 points, because (regarding surrendered Axis countries) "all US and UK Fronts give 8 points to both the US and the UK"
8 points, because players receive "8 VP per Axis country where they have a Front"

24 points seems unlikely, because that's an enormous number of points to get, in a game where the US/UK get only 8 points for conquering Germany.

8 points seems unlikely, because that would mean the US loses two points for invading past Kyushu and Okinawa.

How does the scoring actually work?


texts:
I never played Magic. I briefly tried the original Vampire: The Masquerade (V:TM) themed CCG (Jyhad?). I had some Illuminati: New World Order (INWO) cards. I bought and listlessly toyed with a deck of the A Game of Thrones CCG. I really, really tried to like HeroClix. But every single time, the collectible element drove me away. I just couldn't see the merits of the game outweigh the pressure that random buys would put on my completist nature.

Now, there are a number of games that seem to take the good parts of the collectible games and do away with the collectible part. Can anyone offer a compare / contrast thumbnail of what seem to be the big deck-building games out today?

Dominion
Thunderstone
Ascension
Nightfall

I'm an experienced RPG and boardgamer, so it's not like I'll be put off by some complicated rules or emergent complexity arising from multiple card interactions. And it's not like I can't hit BGG for some reviews. I just want to know what these games share and how they differ.

If there's another game like this, I'd be open to hearing about that, too. I'm not sure that the Fantasy Flight Games Living Card Games for A Game of Thrones  and Call of Cthulhu qualify - aren't they just repackages of the old CCGs?


texts: Can I cast adventures from my graveyard?

texts:
Say I have a creature with Adventure in my graveyard, for example Murderous Rider, and something allowing me to cast creatures from my graveyard (for example Liliana, Untouched by Death ).
Am I allowed to cast the adventure part of the card from my graveyard?

What if I'm allowed to cast instant and sorceries instead of creatures?


texts:
So anyone who has been looking at the spoilers for Ixalan has probably come to the conclusion that the Jace, Cunning Castaway + Doubling Season is ridiculously broken.

Following on from this combo, if I created an arbitrarily large number of Jace tokens (say 1,000) and some number (say 500) used their +1 ability, would they all stack meaning if I then connected with the opponent I could potentially deck myself? Or would I just draw a single card.

I'm wondering for the feasability of a Laboratory Maniac combo.

td;lr Is Jace, Cunning Castaway + Doubling Season + Laboratory Maniac possible?


texts: Where can I get custom Magic: the Gathering cards printed?

texts:
I have made up some custom MtG cards, and I am trying to get physical copies made (to mess with my friends, and for casual use). Does anyone know where I can get them made?

Disclamer: These cards will be clearly fake, and for personal use only. I'm not trying pull any shenanigans here. In the interest of openness, a graphical list of the cards can be found here. The back will be a custom back that I am still working on...


texts: Can one search action advance multiple search parties?

texts:
Question in spoiler tags

   The search action requires you to discard a card to advance the search party one or more spaces. From September at least, it's possible to have one city which matches the requirements for two searches: a rioting Faded city (immunologist) with a military base (paranoid soldier). If I perform a search action in such a city, can I advance both tracks?


texts: How does one evaluate a "locomotive" (rainbow card) in "Ticket to Ride?"

texts:
A locomotive or "rainbow" card can be a train of any color you want. That's good, and that's the reason why you can draw only one rainbow card from the board, in lieu of two regular cards from the board, or from the deck. (You're allowed to draw two cards, one or both of them "rainbow," from the deck because it's random.)

As a newbie, my feeling is that rainbow cards are more valuable if your routes need five or six trains of one color, and less valuable if there routes are shorter, and/or or can be spanned with multiple color combinations.

So how do you decide when to take a single rainbow card for sure, take two (other) "known" cards from the board,or draw two "random" cards from the deck?


texts:
Lets say I have a Kiora, Master of the Depths in play that has 2 loyalty because I used her -2. I also have a Felidar Guardian in play and a Restoration Angel in hand.

Now here is the question: Can I minus Kiora (potentially killing her), flash in a Restoration Angel targeting Felidar Guardian causing its enter the battlefield trigger to go on the stack and blink Kiora with Felidar saving her and getting value off of the minus ability, or is she just dead because she has no loyalty? I'm assuming the latter because I'm thinking it would be similar to -1-1 counters because taking away loyalty is the cost of the ability. (If anything I'm just making sure)


texts:
In San Juan, is the Crane card useless?

I haven't found it useful at all.  My conclusions about it are:

Pros

Allows you to build a high cost building for less cards.

Cons

Lose abilities of over-built building
Lose points of over-built building
Lose pace with others, slower to reach 12

Is the Crane card ever a useful build?


texts: What should I consider when selecting a Prize to take with my Tournament?

texts:
Straight forward really: What are the strengths and weaknesses of each Prize? What play styles do they complement well?

Also, apart from the obvious (late in the game), when should I take a Duchy instead?


texts: Is the 4-player variant unbalanced? Is there a fix?

texts:
In Game of Thrones (second edition):

I have marveled at the balancing put into this game, specifically for 3-player games, where the whole south of the map is blocked, forcing the game to stay in the north, and thus creating a very good balance between the 3-players.

The 5-player variant is also very well balanced. Including all of the map in the game with no blocked territories, the only difference is that house Martell is gone which releases some tension on the board so the game is simply delayed a bit, but still very balanced (IMHO).

And the 6-player version (the recommended) is obviously balanced, as it is the main design of the game.

However, I feel that the 4-player version of the game is extremely unbalanced compared to the other variants.

First of all, there are no blocked territories, creating a huge empty space in the south, the only thing to hinder a rush are neutral troops which can be easily defeated after the first few turns.

But worse still is that house Tyrell's starting spot (Highgarden) is left completely unguarded, almost requiring house Lannister to move in.

House Baratheon is almost unhindered in its capture of all of the south unless Stark moves in aggressively or Baratheon moves inland or north, which barely happens when the south is so seductive.

House Lannister can also grab for the south, but much keep care of Greyjoy as they have easy access to the lands as well. As long as Lannister leaves the Riverlands and goes south, they are pretty safe from Greyjoy for the start of the game.

House Greyjoy, the extra house which makes the difference from 3 to 4 players, is stuck between Lannister and Stark, but with the empty south, and both Baratheon and Lannister moving down the board, Greyjoy is pretty free to take the Riverlands, unless Stark moves in, which would weaken both players and block their progress, and let Lannister or Baratheon get a big lead at the start.

House Stark has a great time of this board, being able to see what the other players are doing, and where they are focusing, and then adapting. Being able to go either direction on the board, and also into the Riverlands, they are in a great situation on the 4-player board and it is very difficult to do anything to them.

If Baratheon moves against Stark, Lannister or Greyjoy can easily grab the Riverlands, or the south, if Greyjoy moves to the Riverlands and north then Lannister can land-grab in the Riverlands or move south with ease.

The above are just a few examples of some of the things I feel are wrong in the balance of the 4-player game.

I would like to know if others have suggestions on how to improve the balance with house-rules, or if I am overlooking something, to please inform me as to how it actually is balanced.