texts: Penalties for Thursday theatre slot in Trickerion

texts:
The Thursday slot on the theatre section of the board in Trickerion has a penalty of -1 fame and -1 gold for any tricks performed.

Does this penalty apply if you only have your workers backstage and do not have your magician on the performance slot.

This is for the situation where another magician performs a playbill with your tricks on it without your magician actually being present at the theatre


texts: Is putting multiple counters onto a target an atomic action?

texts:
Consider these two cards:

Fathom Mage

  Whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on Fathom Mage, you may draw a card.

Dragonscale Boon

  Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature and untap it.

Would Fathom Mage's effect trigger once or twice?


texts: March of the Monarchs vs Negate Tribute Summon

texts:
Player A already has March of the Monarchs active on their field, which protects their tribute summoned monsters from being targeted or destroyed.

Player A attempts to tribute summon a monster face-up, but player B activates Solemn Judgement.

Question: Can player B activate Solemn Judgement?


texts: In Pandemic, can yellow infect black, after black has been eradicated?

texts: Let's say that black has been eradicated. Can yellow come into the black cities and infect?


texts: How many counters does Kalonian Hydra get with two Corpsejack Menaces on the battlefield?

texts:
Suppose I have 2 Corspejack Menaces on the battlefield. I play a Kalonian Hydra which is given haste by another effect, and decide to attack with it right away.

How many counters are actually put on the Hydra by the time damage is resolved?

One of the issues were if the Corpsejack Menace reacts to the Hydra being played. Since the Hydra comes into play with 4 +1/+1 counters on it, is that considered counters placed on it?

And does one Corspejack Menace react to the other Corpsejack Menace?


texts: Is there a competitive version of werewolf/mafia?

texts: I'm trying to devise a point-based scoring system for a variant of Mafia/Werewolf. The idea is that there are teams coming in, and so individual players should be able to earn points regardless of role which add to the overall team score. Is there anything like this out there that might help me balance the point values?


texts: When trying to quickly end the game, is it better to skip building cities?

texts: In Roll Through The Ages, there are two game-end conditions: all monuments have been built (collectively among all players), or any player has purchased 5 developments. I've played this game about five times, so I'm still pretty new to this. I usually play to build cities first, and then end on monuments and developments more-or-less simultaneously, but I wonder: If you're trying to finish the game very quickly on developments (while your opponents are still building up their cities), is it better to just try to buy a development every turn, or should you aim to build a city or two on the way there?


texts: Do I have to use Link monsters on my Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck?

texts: Like the title reads, I was just wondering whether or not I need a link monster in my deck to play Yu-Gi-Oh! at tournaments or my local game store.


texts: Is a crazy camel that lands on a normal camel's square placed under it, or over it?

texts:
In the game "Camel Up", a "crazy camel", moving backwards on on the racetrack, may land on a square where there is "normal camel".

When that happens, does the crazy camel go underneath the normal camel, or is it placed on top of it?


texts: What is this game with 16 pegs and 36 spools to fit on them?

texts:
This board has 36 spools that fit on 16 pegs or sticks.
It looks like it might be 3D checkers or something like that.
Interested in the name and how to play.

Someone took a lot of time making this really nice board game and I would like to use it properly.


texts: Does snapping reset the plusses (e.g +4) in uno?

texts: I wanted to know if you snap a +4 or +2 does it reset the amount the person picks up?


texts:
Which was the first cooperative board game?
For the purpose of this question, we can define "cooperative" as "there is more than one player, and at the end of the game, they either all win or all lose".
My unsuccessful attempts to answer the question:

At the time when I am writing this, the history section on Wikipedia mentions an 'alternative ruleset' for The Landlord's game (1903) as an early example (without claiming it is the first); I could not easily google this ruleset to confirm that it fits the criterion.

Some sources cite Community (1972), but that seems quite late, given the other games mentioned on Wikipedia.

Boardgamegeek has a cooperative game category, but many of the listed games are clearly not cooperative with this definition, as their descriptions mention winning and losing teams. And there are various pages of games without a publication date in the list.


texts:
While plenty entertaining in the original version, the game Thunderstone looks like it could be played in many more ways.
Besides the most obvious modifications like playing with more (or less) monster, item or hero classes, what are the most popular/best modes? I'm interested in single- as well as multi-player ones.


texts: Who decides which of the "or" effects is applied?

texts:
When playing a spell card such as Searing Spear. Where the card deals 3 damage to target creature "or" Player.
Who decides what the "or" effects?  The player casting the card or the opponent receiving the effect of the card?


texts: What do minor improvements and occupations add?

texts:
This question isn't about the mechanics or rules of the game, but what dynamics it adds.

After playing several games of the the family friendly version of the Agricola, I played a game of the full version with one other.

What I found was that the minor improvements and occupations acted and somewhat of a distraction and confusion to the game.

Using them definitely adds to the game play time, because there's more time spent examining your cards, etc.

The question is - what do the minor improvement and occupations add, that make them worth playing with, given that they are essentially an optional feature of the game?


texts:
My wife and I had a heated discussion on whether the move below was permissible under the official Scrabble rules. In this case, I added the letters O, I to form OE and OI. She claims it was a double movement, as OE was permissible because it was attached to the ending of MAZE, but OI was not permissible because I is attached to a word I just created hence the double movement. She claimed that if I wanted to add additional letters it can only be in the horizontal direction as it’s attached to the original word on the board being MAZE.
I claimed it was permissible as I went in one direction (vertical) whilst creating a word that was originally on the board being MAZE.
Can you please confirm whether my move was permissible?


texts:
This lovely lady is Felrey, a mercenary from the new expansion for Twilight Imperium 3rd edition.

She's rather fast, but has limited evasion.

The question surrounds her special ability. Some of the mercs have global abilities:

  The cost of technologic advancements is reduced by 1.

and others have local abilities:

  When participating in a combat, assign one hit to an enemy fighter or
  ground force.

But this one clearly says:

  At the start of a battle, draw 1 Action Card.

Does that mean that Felrey does not need to be a participant in that battle?

Mercs are very neat, and battle does not come cheap in any case. I haven't seen any errata or FAQ covering this, and if one goes with "rules as written", it seems to get an action card at the beginning of every battle, making this lady an interesting leech.

On the other hand, some players argue it as an "obvious thing" that she has to participate herself. Who is right?


texts: Can I discard a race or class card directly from my hand to avoid charity?

texts:
In Munchkin (or any of its various sets) the rules say that "You can discard a Class card at any time, even in combat: "I don't want to be a wizard anymore." When you discard a Class card, you become classless until you play another Class card." It also says the same thing for Races, Accents, etc. for the various game sets.

This wording suggests that the intent is that you can discard an "in play" Class at any time, but it isn't clear about such cards in the player's hand. I would prefer to discard the extra Elf card in my hand so that my opponent doesn't get it during the Charity phase. Can I discard the card rather than give it away?

Note: The rules I am using are the most current rules from the 1st Edition, 23rd printing of Munchkin published May 2012.


texts:
I have been practicing basic strategy in BlackJack, and I have noticed that with every basic strategy chart I find that in terms of hard totals they all stop at 17. Why is this? And if I want to find my best course of action for a hard 18 (Jack, Queen King) and an 8, how would I figure this out? I'm sure there's something I'm certainly, missing, I'm just not sure what it is. Examples:

I am dealt a hard 18, King and 8. Blackjack basic strategy charts don't dictate how do this, why? and how do I figure this out?

I am dealt a hard 19, King and 9. Same questions as last time.

My chart is Here


texts: Can big miniatures share their square in Arcadia Quest?

texts: Normally, at most two miniatures can occupy a square. Some miniatures are larger than others. Do the larger miniatures such as the minotaur fill a square by themselves, or can they share the square with another miniature?


texts: What do you do with the Basement Entrance Exploration card if you choose not to discard it?

texts:
The Basement Entrance card says after entering:

Add 5 cards from the Exploration deck to the Unknown deck.
Also, you may discard this card during this Scavenging to draw and resolve 2 Findings cards instead of one.

I do not understand this wording.  Are you supposed to be able to, by default, discard these cards to get 1 Finding?  The quote above seems to imply there is some base behavior allowing me to obtain 1 Finding.  Further, What do you do if you choose not to discard it?  Doesn't it get discarded at some point anyway?


texts: What happens if a target for removal becomes ineligible after a card has been cast?

texts:
When you have a card like Complete Disregard which reads "Exile Target Creature with power 3 or less", as I understand it, it becomes untargetable if the opponent's creature power increases thanks to a pump spell like Brute Strength.

But what if the Disregard is already on the stack and targeting; and they respond with Brute Strength? I'm pretty sure (and my opponent with Brute Strength was certain) that it won't exile the creature, but I don't know which rule states this, and there's no gatherer ruling on the spell.


texts: Can I cast a spell multiple times in one round across different investigators if I trade it?

texts:
Can I cast a spell and then have it traded to another investigator to cast that round?
This would work great with Blessing of Isis to ensure blessings all around.

Some spells say "once a round you may etc" so my thinking is that these cannot be cast more than once, but the wording literally could still mean each investigator can cast it once per round right?
After all, it would seem like they are meant to keep an investigator from preventing healing or stamina loss from all attacks all the time, which is sensible.
Passing it to another to cast once themselves sounds like a reasonable ruling.
Is there an official ruling?


texts:
Do you always need to keep track of what cards have been drawn in a turn?

The reason I ask is because of Sylvan Library. While it's on the battlefield it's pretty obvious that you have to do it because you can put back any card you've drawn that turn back on top of your library.

But what about when Sylvan Library is not on the battlefield? I can't find any rules about it. As far as I have known people are are allowed to shuffle the cards in their hand and I've seen it happen a lot as a tactic to confuse your opponent. But what about the following corner case situation:

You have a Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield and no Sylvan Library
In you upkeep you cast some spells that let you draw some cards
You shuffle your hand a bit
Still in your upkeep you cast Sylvan Library
Sylvan Library triggers in your draw step

Now what? you have no way of telling what cards you have drawn in your turn. This seems to suggest that at all time you need to set the cards you've drawn aside. Can anyone clarify this?


texts: Where does the phrase "MTG is not a game about reflexes" come from?

texts:
I recently got talking to a long term payer who when I asked him why he got into MTG told me that he was heavy into the FPS shooters of the 90's but as a teenager developed a tremor in his hands that made dexterity-based FPS games impossible for him to play competitively.

He told me that he read somewhere that MTG is not a game based on dexterity and he got curious as to what that meant and got into the game from there.

I'm curious as to where this phrase originates from. I have heard rules experts quote it before. It seems rather famous.


texts: What is the etiquette behind "thanking" partner for dummy?

texts:
When you are a (bridge) declarer, and partner lays down dummy, it is customary to say "thank you partner."
But suppose a declarer got into a sloppy habit of saying "thank you partner" when dummy is good, and not saying anything when dummy is not so good.
That would be a "tell" that gives away information. On the other hand, your partner doesn't get to play (s/he is dummy) so the people that are likely to benefit are your opponents.
Is this a situation where you should either "always" or "never" say "thank you partner?" Or is this more a case of "no harm, no foul?"


texts: How well does the Axis & Allies Chess variant work?

texts:
My curiosity in this variant was piqued by this comment in my 'Games that have no element of luck' thread.

I'd love to read an expanded explanation of the rule changes and peoples experience (positive or negative) with them.


texts: Can routed ships retreat to port in the same sea area?

texts:
Playing the Game of Thrones board game and using the Clash of Kings Port rules expansion, I was Stark and my ships in the Narrow Sea were attacked by Baratheon and lost. Baratheon didn't have any swords, so my two ships were still alive, but routed. However, there were no rules describing whether routed ships could enter the port of the same sea, in which I had just lost the battle, or whether I was required to retreat to another sea area.

It's difficult because the port in the Narrow Sea is controlled by the land area of White Harbor, which I owned, so there's an argument that the routed ships could limp into port. But I could also see Baratheon's view that he won the sea battle and it was a little unfair that I could limp into port in the sea area he has just taken, only for me to recover and attack in the next few rounds, especially after he just defeated me. In fact this is exactly what happened next turn, because there was a mustering and I reclaimed the sea. Baratheon wanted me to retreat into the Shivering Sea, as the ships would have fled the battle after losing.

As the decision would affect the whole game and the deciding player didn't want to decide, we flicked a coin.

Any suggestions? Can routed ships limp into a port of the same sea area, or do they have to retreat to another sea area?


texts: Recording Go games and importing into software

texts:
In chess, algebraic notation is the standard for recording games and Portable Game Notation (PGN) is a format for importing games (notation plus metadata) into chess software or even forums.

The Go books I read never use notation, only diagrams where moves are numbered. I played a few games against the Go software Cosumi. After a game, it allows me to replay (using a slider) and generates notation like this:

(;GM[1]FF[4]PB[COSUMI]PW[You]SZ[19]KM[6.5]RE[B+92.5]
;B[pd];W[dd];B[qq];W[dp];B[fc];W[ec];B[fd];W[ee];B[gf];W[fe]
;B[ge];W[ff];B[gh];W[fg];B[fq];W[gg];B[hg];W[ej];B[cf];W[dg]
;B[bd];W[ce];B[be];W[df];B[cd];W[de];B[iq];W[cg];B[db];W[dc]
;B[cc];W[eb];B[lq];W[bf];B[cb];W[em];B[ie];W[hh];B[hi];W[ih]
;B[gj];W[fh];B[gi];W[ii];B[ig];W[ij];B[gl];W[hk];B[gk];W[hn]
;B[fb];W[ea];B[fa];W[gm];B[mf];W[fm];B[mn];W[jl];B[pm];W[kn]
;B[oi];W[lh];B[kg];W[jh];B[nh];W[jg];B[jf];W[kh];B[ok];W[ml]
;B[dq];W[ep];B[cq];W[eq];B[er];W[cp];B[bq];W[bp];B[lg];W[mi]
;B[ap];W[ao];B[aq];W[bo];B[fp];W[fo];B[go];W[ho];B[gp];W[fn]
;B[nm];W[hp];B[hq];W[kp];B[kq];W[jp];B[mk];W[mj];B[lk];W[ll]
;B[nl];W[jq];B[jr];W[kk];B[lj];W[nj];B[oj];W[nk];B[mh];W[li]
;B[lp];W[lo];B[mo];W[mm];B[ln];W[ko];B[lm];W[kj];B[km];W[jm]
;B[ip];W[io];B[af];W[ag];B[ae];W[bg];B[da];W[jn];B[bb];W[ac]
;B[ni];W[kl];B[ga];W[gn];B[gr];W[ed];B[];W[])

Is this a Go standard similar to PGN? What websites and software can I import this into to generate diagrams for the whole game? I am hoping to analyse the games afterwards and post them on Go forums for stronger players to give advice.


texts: The Creeper's from the upgrade pack state "during your turn, if you discard a Keeper you have in play you may move this to another player." Does the Creeper alone allow you to discard a Keeper or do you need another card's effect to discard a Keeper then use the Creeper's effect? And can you get rid of two Creepers with a single discarded Keeper?


texts: Resolving an ambiguous game state caused by mixing restricted mana

texts:
Anthony activates Mishra's Workshop to add {3} to his mana pool. He casts Bronze Sable, leaving him with {1} in his mana pool. This mana comes with a restriction that it may only be used to cast artifacts.

Next, Anthony activates Xenagos, the Reveler to add {G}{G} to his mana pool. He casts Elsewhere Flask. This leaves him with one mana in his pool. Elsewhere Flash resolves, and Anthony draws a card.

We arrive at an ambiguous game state. Anthony failed to specify exactly which mana in his pool he was using to cast Elsewhere Flask. Does he have {1} in his pool with a restriction, or {G} in his pool with no restriction? Does the game back up to before it became ambiguous? Does Anthony get to choose? Are any penalties awarded?

Assume that this scenario occurred at Regular AND Competitive REL. Describe the outcome of both if they happen to be different.


texts: What exactly is Edmond Tanair's (scenario #03) scoring criteria? Is it "a mountain per tile score you a victory point"?


texts: Clarification of Pillbug movement rule in Hive

texts:
The fourth exception on Page 3 of the rulebook for the pillbug states:

  The Pillbug may not move a piece through a too-narrow gap of stacked pieces (violating the Freedom to Move Rule).

What excactly would be considered a too-narrow gap of stacked pieces?

Our guess was a situation, where the bug to be moved is between two stacks of pieces (two Beetles on top of the hive, both also adjacent to the pillbug). But I don't see how this would violate the Freedom to Move rule.

Another option (ignoring the word stacked): If the bug to be moved would not be able to move by itself (e.g. surrounded by 5 pieces), the pillbug can not move that piece, either.

The English explanation sounds kind of different to the German rule (translated by me):

  The Pillbug may not move a piece, if this movement would also move other pieces or if the piece is surrounded.

So, the Pillbug is not able to 'rescue' a surrounded piece? Also, can the Pillbug move a piece into a location (e.g. enclosed space) the piece would not be able to move into?


texts: I've recently started playing Go and I would like to study some annotated 9x9 games, but can't seem to find anything. Does anyone know where I could find such games? If it's free that would be even better.


texts: In MTG, can I use Stave Off to save my creature from Oblivion Ring?

texts:
I was asked this question by a player at an M12 draft over the weekend, and I would like to get the question & answer up on the internet for all:

Can I use Stave Off to save my creature from Oblivion Ring?

The player was asking while deck building, so there was no specific game state to go with the question. Considering that, please be complete when providing an answer.


texts:
In Small World, the only combination we've encountered that we consider "broken" in any way is Merchant Elves - the Merchant property doubles the value of every occupied area, while the immortality of the Elves means that eliminating that race becomes impossible.

Especially deadly is the situation where Merchant Elves are taken by a player who put his first race into decline early.

Has anyone found a counter for this (admittedly rare) problem in Small World?


texts: How do I search the collection for a weakness?

texts: When I have to search the collection for a weakness, do I just go to the game box and randomly pick a weakness that wasn't used in our hands, then after applying the weakness, place it into my discard pile?


texts: Can Non-Robot Minions be Reclaimed via Microbot Reclaimer?

texts:
When a Microbot Alpha has been played, it gives an ongoing action of

  [...] All of your minions are considered Microbots.

Does this include minions in your discard pile?

The question came up in a game where a subsequent Microbot Reclaimer was played, which states:

  [...] Shuffle any number of Microbots from your discard pile into your deck.

Does this combination allow for reclaiming minions "considered" as Microbots, even when they are in the discard pile as well as from another faction?


texts: How do I tune my magic arena (MTGA) deck for 3 lands in my opening hand, under the new mulligan rule and selection algorithm?

texts:
Is it 22 lands? Did I understand the algorithm correctly and did I draw the correct conclusions, or am I getting it wrong?

From what I have read, the arena algorithm takes 2 virtual copies of your deck, shuffles and draws a hand from each. It then picks the hand (and deck) with the ratio that is closest to the ratio in your deck.  (maybe i already got that wrong?).

21-land-deck with ratio = 0.350 (21 / 60)

1-land-hand -> ratio = 0.143 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.21
2-land-hand -> ratio = 0.286 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.06 -> 2-land-hand gets picked :(
3-land-hand -> ratio = 0.429 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.08

22-land-deck with ratio = 0.367 (22 / 60)

2-land-hand -> ratio = 0.286 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.08
3-land-hand -> ratio = 0.429 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.06 -> 3-land-hand gets picked :)
4-land-hand -> ratio = 0.571 -> distance to deck ratio = 0.20

So as I understand it, in a 21-land-deck, if one of the 2 opening hands contains 2 lands, it will always get picked if the other hand has a different number of lands.

And in a 22-land-deck, it's always the 3-land-hand that wins.

So it's 22 lands?

Resources:

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/arenas-new-opening-hand-rule-has-radical-implications-for-how-we-play-the-game/

Update 2019-09-04:

I must say I changed back to 24 lands recently, because I was getting 2-land opening hands in what felt like more than 50% of the time, when it should have been closer to 30%. But I didn't actually record any numbers, so it might just be my perception.


texts: What happens if I flip a token face down?

texts: Lets say I have a Voidmage Apprentice and make a token copy of it. What happens if I target the token copy with Master of the Veil? Do I get a face-down token creature? Does it stay face up?


texts:
When is a good time to backstab an ally in Diplomacy?

Should I backstab if I can grab a Supply Centre or two, or should I wait for an opportunity to eliminate an enemy?


texts: Can I peek at the cards under Bomat Courier whenever I search my library?

texts:
Say I've attacked with Bomat Courier three times, and they're the only cards I have that are exiled face down. Therefore when I search my library, I am in principle able to deduce which cards are under Bomat Courier. This could matter a lot if, e.g., two of those cards are a Force of Will and a blue card to pitch to it (the Force of Will is even immune to targeted discard).

However, to figure out what's under Bomat Courier from searching my library is time-consuming. Therefore, can I just peek at the cards under Bomat Courier whenever I search my library?


texts: Do the destination tickets in Ticket To Ride require that the player completes the routes, or only that the tickets are completed?

texts:
In other words, if the two cities are connected, is that sufficient for gaining the points on the destination ticket, or does the holder of the destination ticket have to connect the two cities using his own trains?

I have read over the official rules but it does not seem to be explicit about it.

I would appreciate a citation for answers if possible.


texts: Can double-faced cards still transform if they have lost all abilities?

texts:
Let's say I have a Lone Rider and I've gained enough life to trigger it. Opponent is holding a Merfolk Trickster and wants to stop Lone Rider from transforming. Can opponent use Merfolk Trickster on my end step (after Lone Rider has triggered) or must opponent cast it in the main phase before the end step?

Usually removing the source of the trigger doesn't stop the trigger, but in this case, after Merfolk Trickster revolves, Lone Rider has no abilities anymore. Does an ability-less Lone Rider still "know" it can transform?


texts: Help Determining a Card Game w/ 4 Stacks and Hidden Card Bidding

texts:
I played a game about 5 to 8 years ago with the following rules:

The deck was similar to a Skip-Bo deck (Numbered cards with no suits)
Each player was dealt a hand and 4 "piles" were created
On each round the players would each secretly bid a card and reveal it all at once.
Starting with the (don't remember either highest or lowest card), you get to play your card in increasing numbers on one of the 4 stacks.  If you cannot play, you have to keep your card.  Object to to clear through all cards in hand.

Thanks for your help!


texts:
Myself and some friends meet up for some games every so often, and enjoy a good game of Descent to Darkness.

We recently tried a campaign over an extra long weekend (the idea of carrying equipment and characters over to a new game sounded appealing) but found that we'd barely scratched the surface, and that a lot of time was spent setting up and messing around in markets etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations (or even better, tested method) for a middle ground between an evening's single dungeon and full-on month-lasting campaign?


texts: How inappropriate is it to track semi-secret information using paper or other memory aids?

texts:
Many board games have information which is semi-secret, where it's possible to keep track of it, but not easy.  For example, which resources you get and spend in Catan is public knowledge, but which resources you currently have is secret.  If I was able to mentally count every player's income and expenditures, I'd know exactly what they were holding, but that's a lot of information to keep track of.  Similarly, many games make earning victory points public, but the total number earned private.

This gives an advantage to players with better memories.  It's not necessarily an unfair advantage, and there's only so much you can generally do with the information, but it is an advantage.

Given this, how appropriate or inappropriate would it be to keep a record of this information?  I can write down every resource card someone collects, and scratch them off when they spend them, or keep a running total of points earned.  Assuming I'm accurate, this would be even more precise than the people with good memories.  But is it good sportsmanship?

Obviously, a group of friends who regularly play together can establish whatever social norms or house rules they want.  I'm more interested in the general case, where you're playing with people you may not see regularly or may not know at all.


texts: How can I use Sliver Overlord to find non-Slivers?

texts: I have Sliver Overlord as my commander. Is there a combo that will let me search for non-Sliver combo cards using Sliver Overlord? Id like to be able to use Sliver Overlord to find said card/ cards as well


texts: Is there a term for games that use kinetics?

texts:
Is there a particular name for categorizing board games that have some kinetics?
Some of the examples are Fireball Island (monster throwing fireballs), Monopoly Jackpot (push button spinner) etc.


texts: What are similar black and/or white permanents to Divine Visitation?

texts:
For my Commander deck I'm looking for black and/or white permanents that have similar mechanics to Divine Visitation and Teysa Karlov, respectively:

  If one or more creature tokens would be created under your control, that many 4/4 white Angel creature tokens with flying and vigilance are created instead.

  Creature tokens you control have vigilance and lifelink.

I'm looking for cards to buff my tokens, preferably enchantments but creatures will also suffice. By "buff" I mean: increase the statistics and/or add keywords to the tokens. Similar to the cards above, but the buffs may vary.

As a sidenote: any tips on how I can conduct such research by myself––such as a website––is greatly appreciated.


texts:
I'm having a hard time figuring out when Chancellor is useful. Forcing a reshuffle of the deck just seems of little use to me, at least relative to the other actions I could buy with 3 coins.

I've seen a few suggestions that Chancellor is useful when paired with cards in some of the other expansions, but can you help me see how it could be useful in the base game?

  +2 Gold.  You may immediately put your deck into your discard pile.  (Cost 3)


texts: What are some fun setups for Dominion for two players?

texts:
At present I only own the Dominion Base set and my girlfriend and I have only played the game a few times. I figure we'll stick to the starter layout for a few more games but after that I'm curious what are some fun initial setups for 2-person play?

As I noted in comments below I'm looking for multiple setups which will be well suited for a fun two person game. By fun I mean multiple strategies and some interaction. I'm playing with my girlfriend, when we've played random setups we have had fun but have found many that aren't as engaging as others. Cards such as Council Room (which some don't like) at least engaged the other player during a turn.

I am open to buying expansions in the future but initially I'm looking for suggestions to have fun with just the base set.


texts:
If Gray Merchant dies and is revived by something like Undying Evil, does it repeat it's loss of life when it is revived?

Also, if you used a card like Twilight's Call and he was revived with a bunch of other black creatures would the other revived black creatures count towards your devotion?

Thanks.


texts: Can resources in Alexandria's side A second wonder be bought by other players?

texts:
On the Alexandria board side A, are players allowed to buy the resources given in the second wonder? Or are they 'special resources' like the ones give by yellow cards... aka not transferable to other players.

edit:
Sorry the rules state that "Clarification: these resources cannot be bought by neighboring cities."


texts: How does searching a library with Planar Bridge work?

texts: If I activate Planar Bridge, does it mean I can search my library for any permanent card I want or do I have to search until I find the first?


texts: Data on how large a particular Magic the Gathering tournament was?

texts:
So I was looking through the official Wizards of the Coast site:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage

The formatting is kind of all over the place. I was trying to figure out how many people participated at particular events but I can't seem to find the official count.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can get this data.


texts: Winning the round before all players have had a turn in Phase 10

texts: Would it be correct to say that before the round can be officially 'over' in Phase 10, everyone playing should be able to take a turn? For example: three people are playing Phase 10 and just started a new phase, we'll say Phase 6: 1 run of 9.  Player 1 picks up from the deck and discards a card from his hand; Player 2 picks up that card and is able to lay down 10 cards and discard the last card-thus, completing and finishing the phase.  However, would Player 3 be entitled to a turn before the round is completed? I can't recall if this is an actual rule in the Phase 10 rule book or if over the years our family had just adopted the rule to let the example Player 3 have a turn to try and be fair.


texts: In Rubber Bridge scoring, If the player wins two games with the opponent having an intervening game,does the opponent get 300 for their game?


texts: Are There Any Real-Life Applications of Chess?

texts:
Chess seems to develop a specialized skill set that in my experience is mostly irrelevant to everyday life. However, I would like to know of any real-life applications that I have overlooked. I am a novice chess player.

[edit]For Example: My brother's University Statistics teacher was a veteran Blackjack player and used the game to teach statistics (and keep the class interesting).  More abstractly: There is an ancient game called Go, which still poses real problems for artificial intelligence; unlike chess for which Deep Blue has already been programmed to win (I think that might technically be an application).


texts:
RHO: 1C --> LHO: 1S --> RHO: 2D

Does this mean 4-4 in clubs/diamonds, or 5-4 in clubs diamonds. Is it a reverse? (e.g.18+ pts?).

Assuming opponents play SAYC.


texts: Chandra, Awakened Inferno vs Gods Willing

texts:
If Chandra, Awakened Inferno does its last ability for -x to my creature and I respond with Gods Willing to give my creature protection from red, does Chandra's -x to my creature fizzle?

I guess the specific question also, does Chandra's ability considered to be red colored?


texts: Please recommend a good shuffling machine

texts:
The shuffling question What is a safe and accurate technique for shuffling cards? reminded me of a recent game of Munchkin with many expansions that taxed our shuffling endurance to the limit.  My wife picked up a cheap shuffler locally but it has several problems:  The left side doesn't draw cards as effectively as the right, so it always has remaining cards.  It also deposits the cards into an annoying tray which is difficult to remove and prone to spilling the cards.  It actually takes far longer to rotate a normal deck through the machine than to riffle it by hand.  We had hoped it would speed up Cribbage games (with many short hands) but we went right back to alternating between two decks.

Can anyone recommend an effective, fast card shuffling machine?


texts: Is False Lead's effect activated when it is forfeited by another card's effect?

texts:
Is the text interpreted as
"When this agenda is forfeited: if the runner has 2 or more clicks remaining, they lose 2 clicks." or
"Forfeit this agenda to activate this ability: if the runner has 2 or more clicks remaining, they lose 2 clicks."?
For example, would the runner lose 2 clicks if False Lead was forfeited as an additional cost to Archer?


texts: If you have a private gaming group and want to get into LCG games.  Does every player need to buy a set to build his deck ?  Or does the group buy one set and possible expansions and build their decks from cards available ?


texts: Clarification of the typo in the Almanac's entry for Intrigue

texts:
I'm confused with the Intrigue Politics Progress Card. I've learnt it's easily the most useless Progress Card. It's fundamentally equal with the Deserter card, the sole difference is that instead of removing, the opponent only has to displace their knight (without using your own), but only if his/her knight is blocking your road to a common intersection (which is very rare, considering no one wants their road to be interrupted or left open, lest the Diplomat strikes).

If an opponent has displaced their knight from our common intersection to another, do I have to build a basic knight on the spot that their knight originally was, as with Deserter? Can I do that only if they had no choice but to remove said knight? The Almanac says

  The displaced knight must be moved
  to an empty space. If he cannot, then remove him from the board (return it to its owner). After the knight is [sic] displaced, board), you may place a basic knight instead, following the normal rules.

Did the phrase "displaced, board" meant "removed from the board"? What's with the word "board"? Why wasn't the knight-hiring part specified in the card? If I don't have a basic knight to place, can I instead hire a knight of higher rank or, say, the same rank of knight my opponent removed?


texts: Mutate and replacement effects (Example, Darigaaz Reincarnated) and triggered abilities (ex: Sigil of the New Dawn)

texts:
How does mutate exactly work with any replacement effects?

For example, lets say I have 2 creatures Mutated on top of Darigaaz Reincarnated, when that creature dies,

A. Darigaaz returned with the mutated creatures on top of him, as 1 being/permanent (I feel this is likely)

B. Darigaaz returns with the other 2 creatures, but as 3 permanents

C. Darigaaz returns alone (but, doesn't mutate count the other 2 creatures as being part of him?)

Also, how does a creature with mutations interact with something like Sigil of the New Dawn?


texts: During cribbage play, (three) players play (for example) 7-9-8, last player scores 3, and the next player plays a 7 and claims that he scores 3 points for the last three cards.  Is that double-counting and not allowed, or is it fair?


texts: When do you collect income in Patchwork?

texts:
I find a slight ambiguity in the manual for Patchwork regarding when the special event spaces are triggered. From the rules:

  The Time Board

  Regardless of the action you take you always move your time token on the time board. Some spaces of the time board are marked. Whenever you move onto or past one of those spaces, resolve the corresponding event.

The problem is that the markers for the marked spaces are actually placed between two spaces. When exactly does the button pay out? The same applies to the special patches. In the example Green has definitely moved onto or past the button, but has Yellow? It is also possible that the button itself is a space.

Maybe this is a situation for a house rule, or I could just be missing something.


texts: Can land and sea units adjacent to the territory or sea zone being attacked ( also units range permitting) move in and help defend?

texts: My friend and I recently started playing a&a 1941. I played the germans which attacked Caucasus then my friend started moving in units from other territories into Caucasus to defend. Can you do that?


texts:
What's the most cards I can own at once in a game, presumably with the cooperation of all players?
I think it's something like Graveyard Busybody with an Abyssal Persecutor, so the opponent(s) can have all their cards in the graveyard and the game still goes on.
That gives a player ownership of all the cards that's possible to be played in a game.
But are there ways beyond that? Like my hypothetical "turning an infinite number of tokens into 'cards' a.k.a 'things that will persist beyond death'", is currently impossible, but are there other ways?


texts: Clarification of a Pandemic rule involving the Medic

texts:
The rules of the French edition of Pandemic are a little unclear about the following game situation. Once a cure for a disease (let's say blue) has been found, at any point the Medic is in an infected city, what happens?

  (a) the city is instantaneously cleaned, or
  (b) the whole disease is wiped from the board?

The literal wording of the French rules may be construed to mean (b), but after only one game like this, it seemed to make the game so easy to win that we felt it was obvious it had to be (a) instead.


texts: How fast can you win against a passive opponent in the Innistrad block format?

texts:
There have been legacy decks in the past that were able to win a game in the first round, without even giving your opponent a chance to act. I wonder how many rounds minimum it would take to win a game in the Innistrad block format. In this format there are only cards allowed from Innistrad, Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored.

The assumptions are:

Your opponent is totally passive and does not play more than a single land each turn until he loses.
You start with the perfect hand and each card you draw is the perfect card.
The deck must be legal.

Please show the winning sequence with your answer.


texts: Does Welcome Decks 2016 contain cards that aren't reprints?

texts:
There's a new Magic: the Gathering product called Welcome Deck 2016.  This consists of five 30 card preconstructed decks, and has its own expansion symbol.

The webpage "Magic Welcome Decks" on Wizards Play Network says

  Each deck includes 1 special rare that cannot be found in other Magic products!

But from Gatherer, it doesn't seem like that's true.  Gatherer lists five rares in this product: Aegis Angel,  Nightmare,  Shivan Dragon,  Soul of the Harvest,  Sphinx of Magosi.  All five of those are already accessible as rares in recent core sets or expansion sets that predate this product.

The linked page also indicates that the product was released on April 9 of an unknown year.  I guess that the year is 2016 or perhaps 2015, so the product was already released.  This is confirmed by the Tournament Rules which says all cards of that set are legal in the Standard format.

Does this product really have cards that don't appear in other M:tG products?  If so, which cards are they?


texts: Can the robot used to play the single player variant added by The Gather Storm expansion be used to played with other expansions (or the base game without the addition of the Gather Storm cards), or can it only be used to play The Gathering Storm?


texts:
One of the actions you can do on your turn in Jaipur is to trade cards from your hand with an equal amount of cards from the market. I wasn't sure how this worked mechanically as well as its interaction with the 7-card hand limit.

I have 6 cards in hand
I take two cards from the market, my hand is now 8
I put two cards back into the market, my hand is 6 again

Is this a legal move, or at no point can my hand exceed 8? I would think inbetween an action resolving, you can have >7 cards in hand but the rules are ambiguous.


texts: If I use a Mystery Play in Fluxx, does that count as a play?

texts:
As far as I know, Free Action on a New Rule means it doesn't count as a Play when used. If I use the Mystery Play rule or any of its analogues does it count as a Play?

Analogues of Mystery Play include (some with slight variations such as conditional requirements for use):

Wormhole in Star Fluxx
Magic Shoes in Oz Fluxx
Egads! in Batman Fluxx
Open The Door in Monster Fluxx
Magic Portal in Adventure Time Fluxx
Chemical X in Cartoon Network Fluxx
Time Doorway in Regular Show Fluxx
Great Idea! in Stoner Fluxx


texts: Can I play a straight with phoenix on top of a 1-A straight?

texts: Is it authorized to play a 2, ..., Ace, Phoenix straight on top of a 1,..., Ace straight ?


texts: Does a Angel of Glory's Rise and a Fiend Hunter combo work like I think it does?

texts:
The scene I envision is that I have a graveyard full of humans, one of which is a Fiend Hunter. I play Angel of Glory's Rise and put all my humans from my graveyard and onto the battlefield, and when the Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield I target my Angel of Glory's Rise to be exiled.

So, does that mean that when the Fiend Hunter who is holding my Angel in Glory goes to the graveyard, the Angel of Glory's Rise comes onto the battlefield and thereby returns Fiend Hunter to the battlefield again, triggering his ability to exile a target creature anew?

If so, how does spells like Cloudshift effect that Fiend Hunter? If I used Cloudshift on the Fiend Hunter that was keeping my Angel of Glory's Rise in exile, would order of events look like this?

Cloudshift targets Fiend Hunter
Fiend hunter leaves battlefield - Angel of Glory's Rise returns from exile
Angel of Glory's Rise "enters the battlefield" ability triggers
Fiend hunter enters battlefield - Angel of Glory's Rise goes to exile

Or would using Cloudshift not trigger the Fiend Hunter's "leaves the battlefield" ability, exiling my Angel of Glory's Rise forever?

Finally, what if I had two or more Champion of the Parish that entered the battlefield from the graveyard due to the Angel of Glory's Rise's "enter battlefield" ability? Do they both come into play at the same time, so that both of them get a +1/+1 counter because they are both "another Human" to one another, or do they enter the battlefield one at a time?


texts: Replacing face-up cards when only two regular Train Cars remain

texts:
The Ticket to Ride rules include this process:

If at any time, three of the five face-up cards are Locomotives, all five cards are immediately discarded and five new ones are turned face-up to replace them.

The designation "any time" seems to indicate that this replacement process will repeat when the new cards match the conditions for replacement. The designation "three" seems to be a minimum.
With the above interpretation, an infinite loop would occur when the cards players have not drawn include at least four Locomotives and only two regular Train Cars.
If this is the intended interpretation, how should the practical player continue the game when the infinite loop would occur? If this is not the intended interpretation, what is intended?


texts: Does "+X +X until end of turn." effects remain on creatures in the graveyard and/or exiled until end of turn?

texts: If I use Culling the Weak to sacrifice 4 creatures for 16 black mana, then use 15 of that mana on Whispering Shade to make it stronger, can I then sacrifice them to get 5 mana for Living Death to bring all my creatures back with Whispering Shade  being a 16/16?


texts: Does the possibility of claiming tricks prevent the defense from profitting from declarer's errors?

texts:
Suppose, the declarer claims 12 tricks in a slam, but you have the opinion that
declarer can make a mistake.

Can you demand declarer to play it out, or does the tournament director decide
how many tricks declarer can claim ?

If the last answer is right, does this not prevent the defense from profitting
from declarer's errors ?


texts: How do I determine a character's probability to escape from combat in DungeonQuest (third edition)?

texts:
I have 4 cards with the following numbers on them: 1, 2, 3, 4.

My opponent has 4 cards with the following numbers on them: 2, 3, 4, 6.

We both randomly draw a card from our decks, if my number is equal to or higher than my opponent's I will escape successfully. What is my probability of escaping? Please show how you arrived at the proper answer. Thanks!


texts: Tournament and League Rules For Dominion

texts: Where can I find official tournament and league rules for Dominion?


texts: If I can't "win the game" in multiplayer, do my opponents still lose?

texts:
Let's say I'm playing a multiplayer game, and I'm drawing from an empty deck with Laboratory Maniac out while an opponent has Platinum Angel.

  104.3h In a multiplayer game, an effect that states that a player wins the game instead causes all of that player’s opponents to lose the game.

Is 104.3h a replacement effect created by the game rules, or does it modify the effect "win the game" on the card?

A different angle: Platinum Angel says "your opponents can't win the game". Does this refer to the game action "win the game", which instead causes your opponents to lose, or to actually winning the game? (or both?)

If 104.3h is a replacement effect, and "can't win" precludes following the "win the game" instruction, then nothing would happen. The event for 104.3h to replace didn't occur. I think this is the more likely outcome.

Otherwise, if we can follow the Maniac's instruction, then each opponent loses the game, except Platinum Angel's controller, because they can't.

Paraphrased from a comment for clarity: This question might boil down to "can game rules be replacement effects?" I haven't seen why not. The question I have regarding PA's effect is does it stop just the game event of "you win", or does it stop everything that, due to language, looks like "you win"? i.e. if 104.3h changes the game to mean the game action "you win" has nothing to do with winning, it might slip through, but if 104.3h is a replacement effect then it never sees LM's ability to replace it.

Further development: @ikegami commented: The confusion stems from the fact that 104.3h effectively turns "win (the game)" into a keyword action with a different effect than "actually winning the game". So which one does PA prevent now, the pseudo-keyword, or "actually winning the game"? or both?


texts: If I am building a road and I use the same tile twice, do I count that tile twice in order to determine the length of the road?

texts:
It normally doesn't make a huge difference, but I just got the King expansion, which gives major bonuses for those people who build the largest city and the longest road, and this slight difference in scoring may change the outcome of the game.

The situation is similar when it comes to cities that use the same tile twice. In that case though, it seems to me that you wouldn't count the tile twice; the size of the city can be measured as the number of tiles it spans.

However, when it comes to the road, it's not about size, but about length. If you score a point for every tile that you go through, and your road is long enough to circle back to a tile you already scored, do you score it again?

What are the "official" rules about this?


texts: Are there any alternative rules for Settles of Catan to rely less on luck?

texts:
Are there any rules to reduce the luck component is Settlers of Catan?

I know there is one stated here, but I didn't understand this. How does this work? Are there any others?


texts: What happens if I set up for a "29 hand" and miss?

texts:
Inspired by an answer to "Why does a run of 4 in Cribbage score only 4?".

  The best possible hand in cribbage is 29, which involves the Jack that counts for nobs and all of the 5s. Now although hands with lots of fives are always good, often retaining just one or two will only result in a mediocre score where you count a few 15s, a pair, and are done.
  ...
  For example if you're drawing for the best possible hand failing to get that last 5 as the up card will cost you 14 points, as you'll only score 15-8, a pair royal for 6 and 1 for his nobs for 15.

Note: I think the count given is a bit off, or assumes something not explicitly stated - 555J on its own, with the J not matching any of the 5s - scores 14. Four 15s (8), plus trips (6). So, any up-card that doesn't add to that score in any way costs you 15.

As stated above, the best possible hand in cribbage is an extremely rare case. It first requires a player to be set up with a hand that happens rarely on its own (555J, all different suits). Then, it requires the up-card to be one specific card - the 5 matching the in-hand J.

Playing for this scenario, when dealt the proper hand, could be a very risky proposition. There's about 15 points of difference between the minimum and maximum possible values of this hand, depending on the up-card. Though the minimum score of 14 is still a fairly decent hand, there's many ways that the opponent could easily out-score this hand.

Additionally, keeping this hand sets the player up to have points pegged against him which might be more easily avoided with a different hand selection. If the player is forced to play a 5 when the count is zero, there's a very strong possibility their opponent has something to make 15 with.

Of course, the risk/reward scenario isn't just a matter of "I might score 14 or I might score 29". There's still a number of possibilities in between. So, what are the general odds that the final hand score might still be favorable? What possibilities exist between 14 and 29 here, and which are most likely?


texts: House rule to fix vindictive behavior in Princes of Florence

texts:
In Princes of Florence, the bugbear is this rule:

  A player may move his figure backwards
  on the fame track at any time during
  the game.  For each space moved
  backward, the player takes 100 Florin
  from the bank. (p.10)

What I've seen (and experienced...) a few times is a player sacrificing their chances of victory by spending ludicrous numbers of prestige points to deny other players auctions in the late game.

Basically, I'm trying to find a house rule that will prevent this "taking you with me" behavior.


texts:
If I control 2 copies of Primal Vigor which reads:

  If one or more tokens would be put onto the battlefield, twice that
  many of those tokens are put onto the battlefield instead.

  If one or more +1/+1 counters would be placed on a creature, twice
  that many +1/+1 counters are placed on that creature instead.

Marath, Will of the Wild reads:

  Marath, Will of the Wild enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1
  counters on it equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it.

  {X}, Remove X +1/+1 counters from Marath: Choose one —
  Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature; or Marath deals X damage to
  target creature or player; or put an X/X green Elemental creature
  token onto the battlefield. X can't be 0.

When Marath, Will of the Wild enters the battlefield if I have spent 3 mana to cast it, he enters with 3 counters, because those tokens weren't placed on it, but it had them already when it entered. A: Is this Correct?

When I pay 3 and remove 3 +1/+1 counters from Marath and put them on itself, it now has 12 counters, because both Primal Vigors trigger, the first replacement effect changing 3 counters to 6, and the second replacement effect changing 6 counters to 12? B: Is this correct?

Or does Marath die, because between payment and when the ability resolved, it ended up with 0 toughness? I guess the removing is part of the cost, as it comes before the colon.


texts: Why does Cryptbreaker need to specify "untapped" Zombies?

texts:
The card Cryptbreaker has the following ability:

  Tap three untapped Zombies you control: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.

Why is it necessary to specify that the three Zombies must be untapped? You can't tap an already tapped creature, or use tapped creatures to pay a tap cost. MtG cards usually have a very good economy of words, so why include this seemingly unnecessary text? Would the card function differently in any circumstance if it just said "Tap three Zombies you control"?


texts:
Most Level Up abilities clearly benefit the Boss, but Robobo's is:

  Each opponent mush choose and destroy one Room in his or her Dungeon.

The opponents get to destroy a room (often quite beneficial), and Robobo doesn't!

Is there any way - short of only building a four room dungeon - that Robobo can avoid using this ability? What play strategies can Robobo use to maximize his Level Up ability?


texts: Can a card cast using its flashback ability be countered by a spell such as Cancel?


texts: How many IPCs does the USA receive in Axis & Allies Global?

texts:
In the combined global game for Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 and Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940, how much money does the USA receive before and after it is engaged in a war? Many references I've seen list the USA economy at 52 IPCs, but is this the starting economy?

I've also read that the USA is supposed to receive a boost of 30 IPCs when they are at war. Are these 30 IPCs in addition to money potentially gained from fulfilling national objectives, or does it simply mean the player is now eligible to receive up to 30 from national objectives?


texts: Playing with less or more than 10 Kingdom card types in Dominion

texts: In Dominion you choose 10 of the 25 Kingdom cards to play with in a given game, generally at random. Is it possible/advisable to play with less or more sets? I've considered playing with less to make it simpler for new players, and likewise more to add possibilities for players that are already familiar with the card types, but I've never heard of anyone else trying it before. It would throw off the end conditions (one of which is running out of three stacks of Kingdom cards, which is respectively more/less likely in my examples); would it unbalance any other game aspects or lead to problems?


texts: Do physical implementations of single player board games have any advantages over their electronic counterparts?

texts:
While multiplayer board games can give you the enjoyment of hanging out with your friends and family, and all the social benefits you reap from those kinds of interactions face to face, instead of being in front of a computer screen...

What benefits does a physical implementation of a board game offer a solo player, that cannot be better implemented in software? (Is there something that software cannot implement better?)

For all those single player game enthusiast, what reason would you play a physical version of a solitaire game, if a computer implementation existed?

(Note: Please no "It doesn't require batteries" comments)


texts: How does Elemental Resonance convert a Mana Cost to a Mana Source?

texts:
With the new updates to how mana is shown and displayed, someone pointed out to me that Elemental Resonance effectively converts the generic mana in its target's casting cost to colourless mana.

While I can see the gatherer rulings, is there anything more fundamental in the comprehensive rules about converting mana costs to mana sources?


texts: What planeswalker cards can be used as commanders in the Commander format?

texts:
Can any Planeswalker be used as a Commander, or just the ones that say "XXXX can be your Commander" on the card?

(N.B. This question has nothing to do with the Brawl format.)


texts: Damage redirection in Warhammer Invasion

texts:
Some cards like Warrior Priest from Empire deck has a damage redirection rule. How exactly does this rule work?

For example: if my opponent assigns 1 damage to my Warrior Priest can I simply move the damage token to any unit surviving the battle and ignore the damage on the Priest or is it an extra damage that Priest will deal but will die anyway because he was assigned enough damage to kill him?


texts:
In a recent game of Miller's Hollow, the game ended when a werewolf killed a witch, and the witch killed the werewolf with their poison potion. In a situation such as this, which group wins?
The problem is, the rulebook says that

The Townsfolk win if they manage to eliminate all Werewolves.
The Werewolves win if they kill the last Townsperson.

The timing on death is only described as the following:

The Moderator will reveal the results in the morning.

Seeing as the Witch can heal themselves,

The Witch can use either potion on him/herself if he/she wishes.

That means that the answer isn't that the witch dies before they can act. Who wins?


texts: Do artifacts count as creatures when they are put into a graveyard while March of the Machines is in play?

texts:
Say I have March of the Machines in play, along with Sunbeam Spellbomb and Salvaging Station. I pay {W} and sac the Spellbomb to gain 5 life. Does the Spellbomb trigger the untap-ability on Station?

I tried to find if this was already answered and found a lot of threads dealing with entering the battlefield, but nothing about leaving it.


texts: Does the " Heroic " special power protects you against the Ice Witches special power?

texts: I'm kind of confused because in the digital(steam) version you can place ice markers to territories protected by the hero tokens.(which should protect you from special powers)


texts: Instantaneous creature death and checking conditions

texts:
I have a Night of Souls' Betrayal, and so does my opponent. Creatures get -2/-2.

I have a Marchesa, the Black Rose, relevant text:

  Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step.

I play a Rakdos Cackler, a 1/1 with Unleash.

If I choose to have Rakdos Cackler enter with a counter, will it have a +1/+1 counter on it when it dies? Will Marchesa's ability return Rakdos Cackler to the battlefield at the next end step?


texts: Could Japan's and the US fleets meet on another battlefield than the North Pacific In Axis and Allies?

texts:
In World War II, the US and Japanese navies battled it out in the north Pacific. That's understandable because Japan controlled the western edge, the US the eastern edge, and the ocean was the route from one to the other.

But maybe one or both of them of them could have benefited by employing their fleet and airpower elsewhere. And if "elsewhere" happened to be the same place, might they more logically meet at "that place"? And where might that be?

Japan can use its battleships to capture the Soviet Far East, Australia, and other places. Its aircraft might do better service against Chinese armies than American ships. Soon they could all head for India, then to Africa to support the Germans.

Maybe the U.S. would prefer to take on the Japanese fleet in a war of "mutually assured destruction" in the north Pacific (particularly if the Japanese player is better than the German). That actually happened. But it might have delayed the invasion of Normandy by a year (four turns).

Perhaps the US battle fleet should support Allied operations in the Mediterranean or Europe instead. And maybe that would lead to a direct clash with the Japanese fleet trying to do the opposite.

Would you rather fight the opposing fleet in the north Pacific, around Africa, or at another locale of your choice as Japan? The US?


texts: Will an object trigger if the source is sacrificed to pay a cost?

texts:
Will "When/Whenever Foo" trigger if the source is sacrificed to pay a cost for Foo?

Examples

If I activate Birthing Pod's ability and sacrifice Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient, will Kurkesh trigger, allowing me to copy Birthing Pod's ability?

If I cast Life Legacy and sacrifice Basilica Screecher to pay for the cost, will Basilica Screecher trigger, allowing me to extort?


texts: Can instants be played after I decide not to block?

texts:
My friend has a green Infect deck. When he declares a creature to attack and I allow it to go through unblocked, he suddenly plays all these Instants that 'pump' the creature up, and because of Infect, it's an instant loss most of the time. We solved that issue (without really understanding the full rules) that it wouldn't make sense to pump his creature up for an instant win without allowing me to block, although recently, my friend told me that 'Instants' can be played 'anytime' so once I allow a creature to deal me damage, technically, he's allowed to play all those Instants.

I'm really confused about it all, and would like to get an answer once and for all for this.

Also, once he has stacked all the pumps for his creature and attacks me (after I initially let it pass to hit my life because I did not expect the pumps) am I allowed to play Holy Day?


texts: I have a 3/2 with six +1/+1 counters on it, making it a 9/8. My friend used Prey Upon targeting it with his own 5/5. He said the +1/+1 counters didn't count while fighting, and that it was just considered a 3/2. Is that true?


texts: Multiple enchantments on a single player

texts: Can you place multiple copies of one curse, enchantment, on a single player? For example, can one person have multiple Curse of the Bloody Tome placed on them? The enchantment is not legendary but I wasn't sure of the ruling.


texts: If I have a Recurring nightmare and a Pia's Revolution in play, can I sacrifice an artifact creature and then return it to my hand along with the Recurring Nightmare and an additional creature card from my graveyard?


texts: Stalled Active Auction Plants in a 2- person Power Grid game?

texts:
In a two player version of Power Grid we normally get to a point in the game where 2-3 of the Active Auctions have little to no value to add to our grid. Either they power too few cities than what I currently power or cost more resources to power the same number of cities. This creates an issue where only 1 power plant in the active auctions has the possibility of helping a player but if no one buys it then we will never get a new plant in the auction. Sometimes even that 4th plant is not in the long term plan of either player so the auctions get stuck.

Our normal way of handling this is to agree on a certain number of plants to discard from the game (2 or 3), yanking them from the bottom of the active auctions, then pulling the next 2-3 cards off the top of the draw deck and place them in their proper order int he auction. Usually this will push 2 possibly helpful plants into the active auction and get the purchasing part of the game going again. Do other players do this or have run into this issue with a stalled auction especially in Step 2? Is it possible to buy a power plant you do not want and immediately discard it as your extra plant? What other ways could we handle this situation?


texts: Is there an online site to play Titan Boardgame

texts: I know of ACTS and it works quite well. But in times of Web 2.0 I wonder -- is there an alternative to play Titan against friends (and mybe foes)?


texts: I understand that the longest route means the most number of continuous trains, but does continuous mean "connected?"  In other words, are spur routes included as long as they are connected to the main route?


texts: Am I permitted to see my own combat cards?

texts:
While engaging in combat within Scythe, player can insert one combat card (yellow, small) per mech/character behind power dial, which serves as attack boost.

However, I fail to find in the rules book whether I am permitted to see values of my own combat cards and choose respectively. Both ways make sense (random choice and possibility to see), thus I am very uncertain.


texts: How to encourage rolling two dice in Machi Koro?

texts:
I've played Machi Koro a number of times, most often with in a group of 3 players, sometimes 4.  So far the prevailing strategy usually ends up being to roll only one die and to:

Buy as many Convenience Stores as you can.
Occasionally buy some Cafes and Bakeries, but primarily:
Save up for a Shopping Mall.
Construct the Radio Tower, then the Amusement Park, and then the Train Station.

So basically the Shopping Mall makes Convenience Stores powerful.  Even though Convenience Stores activate only on your turn, you have a 1/6 chance of hitting them, and there's a sizable payoff if you do.  Meanwhile buy other 1-6 cards so that even if the Convenience Stores don't hit, you can have a 100% chance of hitting something on your own turn. (You might not get income if other players have sufficient Cafes, but that's significantly mitigated once you get the Radio Tower.)

My group has tried this where 1 of 3 players sticks with only one die and where 2 of 3 players stick with only one die.  So far the players who stick with one die usually end up with more money.  Going for two-dice cards requires a greater investment, and since it's harder to get coverage for all possible dice rolls, provides more opportunities to not hit anything on your turn.  It seems hard to justify rolling two dice and giving up nearly guaranteed income.  And if most of the players aren't rolling 2 dice, then buying Mines and Family Restaurants is a lot less attractive.  If nobody has any interest in buying cards >6, then the game seems broken.

Are these experiences atypical?  If not, are there any good house rules to combat this?

Update #1: From the comment discussion in one of the answers, it also occurred to me that if I started rolling two dice, other players could just buy Family Restaurants.  Assuming that they also have Cafes, if I roll 2 dice instead of 1, I now have a 1/4 chance of paying other people instead of 1/6.  The threat of Family Restaurants thus seems like another disincentive to ever bother with 2 dice.  Is my analysis incorrect? (If I take expected values into account, Family Restaurants get even more weight, although I'm notably not calculating the expected values for a Cheese or Furniture Factory strategy.)

I suppose I should try to write some Machi Koro bots and run a few thousand simulations...

Update #2: I've had a few ideas about how to address this (which I've posted as separate answers to this question), but I don't actually play Machi Koro enough with the same set of people to have been able to play-test them.


texts: What happens if both players have the ability to pump their creature an unlimited number of times?

texts:
Say that both players each had 2 Leaden Myr, 2 Myr Galvanizer, and a Nantuko Shade. (Or any other way to get unlimited mana, and a Nantuko Shade).

Player 1 attacks with his Nantuko Shade, and player 2 blocks with his Nantuko Shade. Before damage is assigned, each has chances to pump up their Nantuko Shade as much as they want. They can't just declare them to be "infinite," but each can always one-up the other player. What happens?

It seems there would be a loop of events, but would one player eventually be forced to break the loop as per rule 714.3? Is it considered the same game state after each player pumps their creature a bunch as it was before?

This was discussed at length on the Draw3Cards Magic Q&A site (which is no longer available), but no conclusion was reached. Some felt that the game would simply be a draw, others felt that the active player would be forced to make a different decision to break the loop. Others felt that you would just have to call a judge and see what he decides.


texts: Keeping track of many independent variables on a physical board?

texts:
I have a large number of independent variables which I would like to represent on a physical game board. One idea I had was to implement these using rotating disks, a little like the metal spinning mechanism used to select numbers on some types of lock.

Would it be possible to implement these spinning mechanisms on a physical board game as smaller plastic spinning disks? Have any games made use of this idea? Three or four of them would have to fit on a little square with many of these little squares on the board.

Alternatively, is there some other mechanism that would solve the problem more elegantly?

Here is a picture of what I am considering implementing. However I am not sure of the feasibility of adding about a hundred of them to a board.


texts: How does the Commander interact with Banishing Light or Oblivion Ring?

texts:
What happens if a commander is sent to the command zone via Banishing Light and then enchantment is destroyed? Can the commander return to the battlefield from the command zone?.

I think that Oblivion Ring would not allow that to happen.


texts: Can Ass Whuppin' be used to target a permanent in your own game?

texts:
Ass Whuppin' is a silver-bordered card from the set Unhinged whose card text reads "Destroy target silver-bordered permanent in any game you can see from your seat."  Technically, if me or my opponent have silver-bordered cards in play, I can probably see them from my seat, so can I target them for removal with this spell?  Or does it have to be a silver-bordered permanent from a different game?  I've checked the Unhinged FAQ and Google, and can't find any answers to this scenario.  The FAQ does mention that the target has to be in a silver-bordered game, i.e., a game where at least one player is using a deck that uses at least one silver-bordered card.  But that's about it.  Technically, if I'm using Ass Whuppin', then I'm in a silver-bordered game myself.
Edit:  It's occurred to me I should probably provide the FAQ:  Unhinged FAQTIWDAWCC


texts: Is it true that all computer chess programs can be forced into a three-fold repetition draw?

texts:
Disclaimer: I know very little about chess: basically, how to put pieces on the board, how to move them, and how to lose (I'm a pro at this). I have no idea about my Elo rating, but I guess it's in the two digits range. Thus, please be forgiving of possible blunders in my question.

One of the few things I thought to know was that today computers are stronger than humans at chess. Programs such as Stockfish, Komodo and Leela Chess Zero should be able to regularly beat GrandMasters, and even give the World Champion a hard time. However, an acquaintance who is a way better player than me,, told me that you can draw against any computer chess program just by using threefold repetition. In other words, you make your move, the chess program makes its own, you go back, the chess program does the same (??), repeat three times and voilà, you get your draw. He said he used this strategy against chess engines you can play with on the Internet, and it works.

This seems unbelievable:

Even I could write a program which doesn't fall in such a trap. Just compare the current move with the preceding one: if they're the same, increase a counter, otherwise set it to 0. When the counter gets to 2, remove this move from the list of candidate moves. In other words, never perform the same move three times. Of course, there may be cases where actually performing the same move three times could be the best strategy: in that case, just offer a draw to the human opponent. But on the average, just avoid making the same move three times consecutively.
Different chess engines also use very different algorithms (e.g., Leela Chess Zero is based on neural networks, RL, and MCTS, while Stockfish and Komodo use other approaches, including opening databases, list of hard-coded heuristics, etc.), so it seems highly unlikely that a single approach could exist which can force a draw against all existing chess engines.
A chess engine's next move doesn't obviously depend only on my (the human opponent's) current move. I guess it depends on the full move history of the current game, as well as on the estimation, done by the chess engine, of which moves are more likely to lead to victory further down the game. Why should my current move be so important for the chess engine, that it would keep repeating the same move just because I do so?

I conclude that this is "fake news", or at most a silly bug in the chess engines this acquaintance played against (maybe not a major bug, because people who play chess on the Internet probably are not interested in a cheap trick to draw against the computer, but still a bug). But definitely not something that happens when playing against the major chess engines, such as the three I mentioned initially. Am I right?


texts: When playing Remodel in Dominion, must you gain a new card?

texts:
In Dominion, do the rules permit you to use the Remodel card to trash a card without gaining a new one?

For instance, could I just Remodel a Curse without taking an Estate (or other card costing up to 2)?


texts: Do I draw cards from playing Lich at negative life?

texts:
I have negative 10 life, such as due to Platinum Angel and I play Lich.  Lich says:

As Lich enters the battlefield, you lose life equal to your life total.
If you would gain life, draw that many cards instead.

Does playing Lich in this situation cause me to draw 10 cards (by means of causing me to gain 10 life and then replacing that with card draw)?


texts: To play one of the Catan expansion extensions do I need the extended version of the base game?

texts:
I’ve got the base version of catan and was going to buy the explorers and pirates expansion and the relevant extension for extra players. Do I also need to buy the extension of the base game?

Thanks!


texts: What happens when all your cards (the whole deck) are in play?

texts: I am particularly fond of going through my entire deck each turn. However while I like to do this, are there any actual rules for handling cases like "You just played a smithy, but there are only two cards in your deck which aren't either in play or in your hand"?


texts: If a creature loses flying after blockers are declared, is the block still legal?

texts:
My opponent declared attack with a flying creature, after that I declared a blocker with my own flying creature. He then cast Turn to Frog, targeting my blocker.

My creature was a 6/6 flying, my opponent had a 3/3.

The judge said that after he casts Turn to Frog my creature still blocks the flying but turned to 1/1.

Is it correct that my creature still blocks the flying creature but becomes a 1/1 before dealing and taking damage?


texts: Why is there no black dragon in Mahjong?

texts: A pretty simple question to which I haven't been able to find an explanation (if there is one). The Mahjong set contains red/green dragons, and a white dragon, but no complementary black dragon. I was just curious if there's a reason behind this, since the black dragon is usually associated with bad things. But on the other hand, it's pretty weird to see the Yin without the Yang.


texts: In Yu-Gi-Oh, when you banish cards from the field, can you banish spell and trap cards in addition to monster cards?

texts:
I have a Eater of Millions:

  Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 5 or more cards from your hand, field and/or Extra Deck, face-down, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each face-down banished card. This face-up card on the field cannot be Tributed, nor used as Material for a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon. Once per turn, at the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles an opponent's monster: You can banish that opponent's monster, face-down.

Am I allowed to banish spells and traps from the field too?


texts: What are some options on using the blank cards in the The Gathering Storm Expansion?

texts: I just got the Race For The Galaxy: The Gathering Storm expansion and it come with 18 blank cards.  What are my options for setting up these blank cards?  I'm worried I'll drastically alter the game play if I'm not careful.  Any ideas on how I can find a way to add these cards to the game without breaking the game?


texts: Why didn't Crawling Barrens grow larger when mutated with my Gemrazer?

texts:
My turn on M:tG Arena. I've got my Crawling Barrens as a 12/12 creature due to twelve 1/1 counters. Then I mutated a Gemrazer over it (aka "above"). The Crawling Barrens stayed 12/12. After my turn end, the Crawling Barrens+Gemrazer stayed on the table as a creature but became 16/16.
Why this happened? Why mutated Crawling Barrens did not become 16/16 immediately after mutation?
Text of relevant cards:

Gemrazer: Mutate 1GG (If you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put
it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into
the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.). Reach.
Trample. Whenever this creature mutates, destroy target artifact or
enchantment an opponent controls.

Crawling Barrens: 4: Put two +1/+1 counters on Crawling Barrens. Then
you may have it become a 0/0 Elemental creature until end of turn.
It's still a land.


texts: Card that deals damage and adds a +1/+1 counter

texts: Simple question: Is there a permanent that has "Pay 1 Mana: Target creature takes 1 damage and gains a +1/+1 counter" or "Tap: Target creature takes 1 damage and gains a +1/+1 counter"?


texts:
I've been thinking about how backgammon might be extended to 3 or more players. Below is a mockup of my current idea of what the board might look like. The concept could technically be extended to any number of players, but it would be less and less fun with more players probably, because each player only encounters the checkers of the players on either side of him or her.

I'm excited to try this out with some friends but haven't been able to yet because of COVID-19. So for now I'm looking for feedback on problems that may make the game unworkable, or improvements to the board layout (the flow of the pieces is a little awkward but it's the best I've come up with so far).


texts:
Say I have a
Keldon Marauders  on the battlefield. The card reads:

When Keldon Marauders enters the battlefield or leaves the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target player.

I then cast Worldfire.

Exile all permanents. Exile all cards from all hands and graveyards. Each player's life total becomes 1

I assume Worldfire would resolve first and the players' life would be set to 1, then Keldon Marauders would leave the battlefield and deal 1 damage to a player?


texts: Changing decks in test of leadership in Arena?

texts:
I created a throw away deck, and entered it as a test of an idea into the current "Test of Leadership" in Arena.
Now, it appears I am unable to modify or otherwise alter that deck?  Am I stuck with a crap deck for the next 4 days of this event?
Realize this is an Arena question, but I know several readers play it, and I never get Arena questions answered on Arqade...


texts: MUs from Memory Strips for Deep Data Mining?

texts:
Do memory units provided by MemStrips count as free slots for Deep Data Mining? The hard part is the "use the MU on MemStrips only for virus programs" note on the MemStrips.

For example, I’ve got 3 MUs used by some non-virus icebreakers, 1 MemStrips installed and I play the Deep Data Mining. What is the count of free MU to resolve this run ability? 1 or 4?


texts: Is it possible to cast 2x Final Payment while sacrificing just one creature?

texts:
Situation:

Player A controls 2 creatures.
Player B controls 1 creature.
Player B plays 1x Final Payment and declares his creature as additional cost.
Before resolving the spell, Player B plays another Final Payment, once again declaring his creature as additional cost.

What happens here?

Option 1: Only the second Final Payment is executed since the additional costs for the previously casted spell aren't paid.
Option 2: Both creatures of Player A are destroyed while Player B only sacrificed one creature.

I suppose it's option 1 but we had a draft the other day where my opponent claimed that option 2 would be correct.


texts: When do you gain life from lifelink when attacking?

texts: When do you gain the life from lifelink when attacking?  Is it right when the attacks happen, or is it at the end of your attack phase?


texts: Can I use a fetch land to shuffle my deck while the opponent has Ashiok, Dream Render in play?

texts: Ashiok, Dream Render prevents the opponent from searching their library. This neutralizes cards like the fetch lands (like Polluted Delta). Would the land's controller still be allowed to activate it in order to shuffle their deck, without searching for the land?


texts: What Are The Key Features Of The "Fantunes" Bidding System?

texts:
Zia Mahmood's Bridge column for the Guardian newspaper today tells of two players with world titles to their names, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes, who apparently have an intriguing bidding system:

  They play a bidding system that is unique in top-level bridge: opening bids at the one level are forcing, while opening bids at the two level are not weak - they just show not enough points to open at the one level.

In the example deal, Fantoni and Nunes quickly jump to 3S with 11 points between them (!) as North and South, stymying poor old West who is holding 21 points, and ends up in an unmakeable 6H due to lack of bidding space (6C or 7C would have been much better).  Score one for the rogue system!

What are the key features of this interesting system?  According to a link kindly provided by Aryabhata, some people are wary of "Fantunes" because of its high amount of variance.  It must be possible to get to the very top using it, but could this be more down to Fantoni and Nunes' playing skill than the strength of the system?


texts: How likely am I to have a key card in my starting hand in Brawl?

texts:
I'm playing the Brawl format (a 60-card singleton format), and I really want one specific card in my starting hand.

I'm willing to take two mulligans (leaving me with a starting hand of 5 cards after putting 2 on the bottom of my library).

What are the odds of drawing the card in my opening hand within 2 mulligans?


texts: What is an example of a perfectly played checkers game?

texts: The board game American Checkers on an 8x8 board was weakly solved in 2007 and shown to be a draw (PDF link).  What is an example of a perfectly played game of checkers?


texts: What happens if I cast Green Sun's Zenith while Grafdigger's Cage is on the battlefield?

texts: Grafdigger's Cage doesn't prevent me from casting Green Sun's Zenith from my hand, but what happens if I do?


texts: When and Why did the Catan number distribution change

texts:
I've recently had to replace my 3rd Edition Catan set and the new version has a different number distribution as shown in these two images taken from the respective rule books.

Is there a reason that the layout has changed? Using the 5th edition set up, we've had both nines touching, and looking at the layout below it seems possible to have a 6 and 8 together which is disallowed by the rules under variable set-up in the Almanac. These oddities never happened with the spiral A-B-C set up in the 3rd edition.


texts: In Elder Sign how does removing a monster via a card effect work?

texts:
I am trying to figure out how to resolve "Flute of the Outer Gods" and "Bind Monster".
The Flute removes a monster after rolling. The Bind Monster does it at any time.

Can either item/spell be used mid-adventure?  When the monster is removed, does it reveal the task underneath that now must be completed? Is this different for the two cards?

When using the flute, does defeating the monster count as a success and allow a re-roll without assigning any dice nor losing a die (normal success)? Can you still complete a task on this die roll?


texts: Do creatures from outside the game go to the graveyard?

texts:
Okay, so I was looking through some eldrazi to purchase and I came across Spawnsire of Ulamog.

I want to purchase it for my deck but I want to know how it works before I buy it. My question is, when you bring creatures from outside the game to the battlefield with this ability, when/if those creatures die, where do they go? Do they hit the graveyard or get removed from play?


texts: What happens if someone builds a MtG Turing Machine in a tournament setting?

texts:
In this paper, the authors prove that it's possible to construct a Legacy-legal combo deck where the comboing player constructs a Turing Machine through mandatory actions, which begins to execute a series of actions that will result in one player either winning or losing the game, but determining which of these actions will occur is as hard as the Halting Problem.

What would occur if a player were to construct and execute this combo in a real Magic: the Gathering tournament?


texts:
Narset Transcendent can give any sorcery or instant rebound.

Seasons Past says "put on bottom of owners library".

What happens if I rebound Seasons Past and then cast it?


texts: Why do people call an n-sided die a "d-n"?

texts:
e.g. "d6", for a 6-sided die.
Put the letter after the number, and that makes sense. That's an abbreviation for "six-dimensional".
When you've got a tuple, for example, you just call it an "n-tuple". Why not an "n-die"?
I read Wikipedia but it's not enough information for me to comprehend the convention. I don't understand why an abbreviation is necessary, especially verbally. "Die" is only one syllable, and three letters.
Note: This sort of naming is common in source code, as most programming languages don't allow type or variable names to start with numbers. (See Table 2.3 here for examples. An int3, for instance, is a data type that comprises three integers. It should actually be called 3Ints, but that name won't compile.)
You might name a type, in code, Die6, but in English, a reversal of the position of the number is standard. e.g. As a Vector3 is really a "3-vector", so I'd expect a "Die6" to represent a "6-die".


texts: So I was thinking of ways to get rid of Commanders other than destroying and exiling them. I found that some cards just plain out remove creatures and other permanents from game entirely. I was wondering if its possible to remove them that way because it's not like it went to the graveyard or exile.


texts: Do board game publishers design games 'in house', or do they merely publish games by external designers?

texts:
My understanding is that a book publisher typically publishes the work of an author, and takes responsibility for the printing and distribution of the book, and take some kind of percentage of the sales of the book.

Are board games published in a similar manner, or do board game publishers design games 'in house' and pay designers a fixed salary?


texts: In Sequence, can I add to both ends of a completed sequence to make it 2 sequences?

texts: Can we win in Sequence by having 5 in a row using the middle numbers and then add on to both ends to create a total of 10 in a row?


texts: Can I challenge a character with a '-' ability to a duel?

texts:
The rules on having a '-' attribute only say that they are not able to participate in conflicts of that type. However, if a card that has "Political 1, Military -" is in a Political conflict, can I challenge that card to a Military duel, or is it not a valid target?

And if it is a valid target, what is its Military skill in this situation? Can it add any modifiers it gets from being Honored or from attachments for the duel score?


texts: In Arkham Horror, does the first player look at the drawn monster before deciding how to place it?

texts: What is the accepted procedure for drawing monsters? If I need to draw 8 monsters for 3 gates, it's easy to determine which two will get the extra monster, but do I draw them one by one, looking at them then placing them, or do I draw them all at once and distribute after looking at all 8, or do I blindly distribute them adhering to the agreed upon numbers at each location?


texts: Does casting a copy of a spell count count for "whenever you cast a spell" triggers?

texts:
Do effects that instruct me to cast a copy of a spell (e.g. Spelltwine, Isochron Scepter, Elite Arcanist) trigger "whenever you cast a spell" abilities, as found in Prowess, Charmbreaker Devils, etc?

I'm conscious that copying a spell on the stack (a la Pyromancer's Goggles) doesn't count as casting that spell, but I'd like to be clear on whether casting a copy counts.


texts: Is Risk a computationally difficult game

texts: I have a free Risk app on my phone. I am amazed by how bad the AI plays even on the highest setting. Is Risk a computationally challenging game to implement in AI or is the app just bad?


texts: Can I intentionally play cards that cannot damage obstacles?

texts: If I cannot do any damage to obstacles, can I intentionally play cards that are useless just to reduce my hand size to 3 to draw two cards? It seems like the game would stall badly otherwise.


texts: Which words count for a double word score?

texts:
In Scrabble, if you make a new word and one of your letters adds onto another word making a whole new word, but this letter falls onto a double word score and you want to count it for the higher word score (the word you added the letter to) can you do this?

My dad is trying to say you can only count the double word score for every new word you make but by adding this one letter to a previous word, I think I am making a new word so that should count as well.


texts: How much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering?

texts:
I've heard a lot (of good things) about this game and I'm interested in exploring it; however, I'm slightly worried about the initial cash investment involved.

  About how much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering?


texts: Why does Bonded Horncrest have to attack with another creature?

texts:
Bonded Horncrest has the ability:

  Bonded Horncrest can't attack or block alone.

However, if Bonded Horncrest must attack, the ruling is:

  If an effect says that Bonded Horncrest attacks or blocks if able and you control another creature able to attack or block, you must attack or block with Bonded Horncrest and that creature.

Why must you attack with both creatures if only Bonded Horncrest must attack?  Isn't attacking with another creature an optional "cost" that you don't have to pay (like having to pay {1} to attack)?


texts: Are the A-sides and B-sides of the wonder boards really balanced?

texts:
I know the rules claim the sides are balanced and can be mixed in the same game, but I have my doubts. In general, the B-sides feel a little stronger to me, but it's sometimes hard to compare because they are so different. In most cases, it probably comes down to style of play and strategy to be used in a particular game. However at least in the case of Rhodes, the B-side seems to have an advantage. Here's a comparison:

Completing all wonders of A-side yields:

10 Victory points
2 Shields

Completing all wonders of B-side yields:

7 Victory points
2 Shields
7 Coins

Just looking at this alone, there is little difference between the benefits of the two sides. Since the 7 coins can be converted to 2.33 victory points, the A-side has only a very slight edge. However, there are some other things to consider which tip the scales in favor of the B-side:

3 coins are worth more than a victory point. At a minimum 3 coins equal a victory point, but coins are the tie-breaker, so 3 coins is greater than one victory point. Also, coins have more utility as they can be used to purchase other things, if desired.
The B-side gets a Shield bonus and 3 coins after building the first wonder, making it much easier to get a military victory at the end of the first Age, and the coins are very helpful early on. The A-side doesn't give any benefit for the first wonder (aside from the victory points, which don't help until the end of the game).
The A-side requires 2 Wood, 3 Clay and 4 Ore to build its three wonders, respectively. The B-side only requires 3 Stone and 4 Ore. The 3 Clay and 3 Stone are basically equivalent, so the B-side avoids needing two of a third resource (Wood).
The B-side only requires two turns to build all wonders, while the A-side requires three. With the extra action a B-side player could simply discard a card for three coins, giving it a total of 10 coins, which then puts its rewards ahead of the A-side as the 10 coins would give 3.33 victory points. But the B-side player also has the option to put an additional card into play, which could be worth much more than 3 coins.

All of this makes a strong case that the B-side of Rhodes is not balanced with the A-side. About the only advantage I can think of that the A-side has is for cards that count number of wonders built: Arena and Builder's Guild. Depending on the setup, Builder's Guild may not even be in the game. And, the B-side has the advantage of weakening that card for your neighbors. Arena is a nice card, but it's not a big loss, IMO. Does the A-side have some other advantage I'm missing?

I'm not sure if the A-side of Rhodes is underpowered or the B-side is overpowered, compared to other boards. When using the wonder cards to randomly determine which wonder board each player will play, we've taken to letting players choose the side they want to play because the consensus is some sides are just weaker than others.

Do any of the other boards exhibit similar imbalance? I haven't examined the others that closely.


texts: Does mixing Dominion expansions lessen the power of card combinations in random kingdom setups?

texts:
Although they can be mixed together, Dominion sets seem to have many cards that were designed to combo with other cards in the same set. Scout works better with the cards that are both victory cards and actions (Great Hall) or coins (Harem), rather than cards that are just Victory cards, such as those found in the basic set. Seaside's Treasure Map works really well with Warehouse's deck-digging ability. Cornucopia benefits from the Tournament Prizes that help diversify your deck.

Does mixing 3+ sets of Dominion together and selecting 10 random kingdom cards lead to games that are less focused on card interactions? In other words, does individual card quality become more of a driving factor?


texts: In Smash Up, is the Zeppelin action ongoing?

texts: The Zeppelin action, from the SteamPunk faction, has a talent to move a minion to or from the base on which it was played. It does not specify "ongoing" in its text, but it seems that this has to be implied with the talent, otherwise it seems entirely useless. Is there any guidance on this?


texts: While covering the Queen, what happens if I pocket only an opponent's coin?

texts: I pocket the Queen and then, while covering, pocket only an opponent's coin instead of my own. Both players still have more coins left on the board. Does the Queen count as being covered by the opponent or will it be put back on the board?


texts: Why can the activated ability of Genju of the Fields stack multiple times?

texts:
According to a ruling on Genju of the Fields, its activated ability can be activated multiple times to enhance its lifelink effects:

  8/1/2005: When activated multiple times, it will have the triggered ability multiple times. When the animated Plains deals damage, the ability will trigger once for each copy of the ability. If, for example, you activate the ability three times, the Plains will deal two damage, and you'll gain six life.

I would like to know why because I interpret it differently.

I think that the ruling was made with the thought that the creature and ability were separate, such that even though the land becomes a creature multiple times with no effect, the ability accumulates.

This confuses me because I've always had the notion that when a land becomes a creature with its abilities listed out, it replaces the other types. This (misconception?) is reinforced by the fact that when lands become creatures, they inherently stop being lands unless they say otherwise.

Can somebody point me to the comprehensive guide ruling that causes this behavior?


texts:
We played a couple of dozen games over the weekend.

Is it all right to talk about things that are transpiring during the 'night' phase? There does not seem to be anything that discourages it.

For example, is 'I hear someone moving cards' a fair thing to communicate?


texts: Is there a variant of chess such that in the starting position Bishops and Knights are switched?

texts:
White's back row would look like this: RBNQKNBR and Black's would undergo an equivalent change.

Where can I learn more about this variant/play this variant with someone experienced?