texts: In Descent, can you make an attack without an implement?

texts:
In Descent each character has a number of dice representing their skill with melee, ranged, or magic.  There are also dice added for their weapons.

Can a character attack without a weapon?  Are there any special rules for this?


texts: Can you use the Annihilation card on a Giant Skunk that someone else is fighting?

texts:
Sometimes people will try to save the Giant Skunk for when they're level 9 to fight it to prevent people from screwing them over too much at the end. However my friends and I have debated about whether or not you can use the Annihilation card to remove the Giant Skunk card from the game after someone plays it.

  Giant Skunk: They may not help you, backstab you, or use any cards either for or against you -- except for Wandering Monsters and monster enhancers.

  Annihilation: Play this card at any time to permanently remove any one card from the game. It does not go to the discard pile . . . put it back in the box and forget it. The target card must be in play when you use Annihilation on it. If an opponent had just played it, it is canceled and has no effect.

Some people say yes, others say no, and still others say it depends on the timing. Which is it?


texts: Exactly when does an attacking creature stop being an attacking creature?

texts:
I've been looking at the rules for the combat phase and its steps, but I can't find this. It's clear when a creature becomes an attacking creature (when it's declared as attacking, created as attacking, or an effect otherwise says it is), but when does it stop?

I'd expect it to be either the beginning of the "end of combat step" or the end of the combat phase, but the distinction is important.

The situation that made me question this was, if you were playing as Oracle (Vanguard), could you use its ability to untap a creature after combat damage during the "end of combat step"? That would allow you to then use tap abilities (e.g. Llanowar Elves) or keep them as a blocker, effectively giving your creatures vigilance. This also goes for cards such as Maze of Ith, or even Kill Shot if you really wanted to kill a creature after letting it deal damage.


texts: If the starting card is a Wild, does the starting player still play after picking a color?

texts:
I've noticed that while playing Uno with friends we had a situation that came up that I am not 100% sure with, again we are playing official rules.

If the first card off the top of the deck is a wild card, I understand the person to the left of the dealer chooses a colour but does he/she also place/draw a card in the same turn or is it up to the player next to him/her?


texts: Diplomatic Immunity, card's self abilities and equipments

texts:
I have card Diplomatic Immunity (from Mercadian Masques)

It says that both the enchantment itself and the creature enchanted can't be target of spells or abilities (called shroud now, it seems).

If I enchant a creature that have, for e.g., R: Gets +1/+0 until end of turn, will this card block the creature's self-ability also?
Considering any Equipment (which have a cost for equipping on something), does that card block the equip also? If yes, if I equip first then enchant, will the equipment be removed or will it stay shrouded also?


texts: Can Veil of Summer force an opponent to target their own creatures with Swift End when Lucky Clover is on the battlefield?

texts:
Let's say my opponent has Lucky Clover in play. This card has the text:

  Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy.

Opponent targets my creature with Swift End (which is the adventure side of Murderous Rider). Here's my picture of what happens:

Opponent casts Swift End having chosen a target.
Lucky Clover triggers.
In response to the Lucky Clover trigger, I cast Veil of Summer.
Veil resolves, which draws me a card and turns all my permanents hexproof.
Lucky Clover trigger finishes resolving. Now there's another Swift End on the stack, and opponent has to choose their own creature/planeswalker, since all my permanents are hexproof.
Opponent's creature dies, opponent takes 2 damage (from Swift End's effect), the original Swift End is countered, and the Murderous Rider ends up in the graveyard.

Is this correct? I vaguely remember this not working out when I tried it on Arena, but I don't remember the precise sequence. If this is correct, it's possible I mistakenly let the Lucky Clover trigger resolve first, after which I won't be able to force my opponent to kill their own creature anymore.


texts: What are the rules on revokes in bridge game

texts: If "Sam" calls a revoke and he is incorrect, does the other side receive any score points for Sam's incorrect call?


texts: House rules to speed up Citadels play time?

texts: I enjoy Citadels, but find the game can often quite a long time. Since players must draft their role card in sequence, there ends up being a lot of down time while other players make their selections. The game is particularly prone to analysis-paralysis. Even limiting the game to a small number of players (4 or 5) and triggering the end game sooner (first player to build 7 buildings instead of 8), the game can still draw out. Any more ideas on how to improve the flow of this otherwise great game?


texts: How many times can Proxima Cenatauri Scholars use its owner benefit?

texts:
I am a bit confused about the owner benefit for Proxima Cenatauri Scholars.

The Scholars may not place or removemore than one field generator per turn. Does this mean :

a) the Scholars can only place one generator, or remove one generator - ie use the benefit only once per turn

OR

b) the Scholars can remove and place a generator as many times as they like, as long as it is the same generator each time? eg pay 6 fuel,  place the repulsor on the Rev to get an agenda victory point, remove the repulsor, then place it on another territory?

Thanks very much


texts: Cast high-mana creatures quickly in Amonkhet Standard

texts: I'm looking for a Standard-legal version of the Dark Ritual + Entomb + Exhume combo. Basically, trying to get a 7 or 8 mana creature onto the board by turn 3 without casting it. There are lots of great alternatives in Legacy/Vintage, but so far I have not come up with anything for standard. This does NOT have to be Ahmonket, anything in standard will do. Also, by 'casting' I simply mean getting the fatty onto the BF, not necessarily concerned with anything else.


texts: What happens when you clone a face-down creature, for example with the cards Clone and Sagu Mauler? Does the clone become a 2/2 with no abilities?


texts: Does Curse of Exhaustion and Possibility Storm hard lock your opponent out of casting anything?

texts: Does a Curse of Exhaustion enchanting my opponent hard lock my opponent out of playing anything when there is a Possibility Storm in play?


texts: Best way to improve ourselves when playing against a computer

texts:
It's often said by world-class Backgammon players that the best way to improve one's play is to analyse one's games with a computer program such as gnubg, JellyFish or Snowie.

gnubg has a "tutor mode" that evaluates the quality of the player's proposed move, to know before making a move if this one is bad. I assume the same exists for chess programs (hence the tag).

Alternatively, it's also possible to do all the analysis at the end and walk through our moves to look at the errors. My question is whether one of the two methods is better.

A third way I often use is to play normally and ask the computer to analyse the move when I'm unsure of the best answer. I do this just after my thoughts, but without following the computer's advice (to stay motivated).

Do you know of any public statement from top Backgammon or Chess players, or a study regarding the best way to improve oneself by playing against a program, using these or other methods?


texts: Can the Balrog be used before going into decline?

texts: My friends and I had an argument over this the other night. The rules say that the Balrog can be used at "any point during your turn." So I attempted to use him to ruin my friends day (taking out one of his places of power) and then go into decline. He claimed that I could not do this as I had started conquest by moving the Balrog and therefore could not decline. I countered with the "Any point during my turn." would imply I could do it pre-conquest as that is still during my turn. I searched elsewhere on the internet but only found discussion boards and forums with similar arguments to the one my friend and I had.


texts: Is it legal to pick up cars from a previously claimed route and replay them elsewhere?

texts:
On two occasions, I have been one train car short of claiming a route. I would like to pickup cars from routes I've already claimed, and replay them elsewhere.

Early in the game, those routes had been blocked. Later in the game, I had the tickets to claim a new route, but not the train cars. While removing the cards would cause a loss of the points for that route, being able to pick a larger route later in the game, or complete a Route, would provide a net gain of points.

Since there isn't a rule in the Rule book saying that I can or can't remove train cars from a claimed route, can the Internet settle this?


texts: In bridge, are the two "equal vulnerabilities" basically equal?

texts:
To me, "equal vulnerability" means both sides vulnerable or both not.

In sacrificing against a major suit game, "down two" means -500 when vulnerable versus -300 when not. This compares against opposing games (plus bonuses) of 620 and 420 respectively. In either case, you are saving 120 points.

But if you go down one (undoubled) against a part score, it's -50 not vulnerable, and -100 vulnerable. Counting a part score bonus of 50, either result represents a savings against a part score of 60+50=110. But down one vulnerable represents a loss against a part score of 40 (plus the 50 bonus for 90).

So the two "equal vulnerabilities" are "equal" against a game but not against all part scores. Is this a large enough factor to bid differently when both vulnerable than both not? This question is probably more applicable at matchpoints and perhaps IMPS than rubber.


texts: Would a Necromantic Selection and Angel of Glory’s Rise combo work?

texts:
I’m trying to kill all of my opponents creatures but still have most of mine stay alive. To that end, most of the creatures in my deck are human.

I have a Angel of Glory's Rise on the battlefield, and cast Necromantic Selection to destroy all creatures. I use the second part of Necromantic Selection's effect to return the Angel to the battlefield. Would the Angel enter and then exile itself? Would the rest of its ability still resolve?


texts: Use of Executive Order in Battlestar Galatica

texts:
As seen in this question ...Playing "Executive Orders" on self

Executive Order lets another player take 2 Actions if they don't move.  From my understanding of the rules this means the other player could:

Play another Executive Order on me, allow 2 players to take many actions in a row.
Allow Cylons to do as listed above, which can be devastating.
Allow a player to move out of Sickbay without penalty.
Allow a player to move out of jail (does Executive Order 'allowing moving' trump jail 'not allowing moving'?)

This seems too powerful.  We play with the following modified rules.

No chaining, 1 Executive Order allows the receiving player to play any action other than an Executive Order.
A player may use the Move to exit jail, however this forfeits the 'action'.

Does anyone have an official rule source on this?


texts:
Is it legal to play a Beer card in Bang! even if I am at full life?  Some scenarios where I might want to do this:

I don't want someone else to "Panic" it from my hand
I'm Suzy Lafayette and I want to empty my hand so I can keep drawing more cards


texts: Interaction between Leyline of Anticipation and Teferi, Time Raveler

texts:
With the reprint of LeyLine of Anticipation in Core Set 2020, the interaction with Teferi, Time Raveler came to mind and I couldn't figure out what is right.

If I have the Leyline and my opponent has Teferi, may I cast spells during my opponent's turn?


texts: Computer Go algorithms applied to other games?

texts:
Fairly recently, Computer Go programs became able to compete with humans using Monte-Carlo Search trees:

  A Monte Carlo (MC) go program plays random games and easily evaluates the terminal position (win or loss). A MC program searches for moves that have high win rates, calculated from playing out at least a few hundred random games.

(This is a very simplified description. In practice one want to explore interesting branches with higher priority, so the randomness has to be controlled in some way using collected results. To play go at a reasonable level several millions of random games still have to be played out. But, hopefully it's quite fast to play randomly…)

I feel like a lot more games could be “addressed” using this method, and that could include maybe a vast majority of board games…

Two questions:

Has the Monte Carlo method already been applied to other games? (Are there concrete implementations available?)
For which kind of games, among those that have clearly stated rules and won't rely on complex communication between players, this method can be expected to fail?


texts: What are the different rarities of tokens in Magic: The Gathering?

texts: Anyone who has opened a decent amount of MTG boosters will notice that they get much more of some tokens than of others. I understand that this comes from varying needs for them, because far fewer people are going to need a planeswalker emblem than need a spirit token, but are there different rarities for tokens like there are for regular cards? Or does each token in a set have its own unique frequency of occurring?


texts:
In Haunt #22, The Abyss Gazes Back, the house is collapsing into The Abyss.

The traitor is sometimes allowed to choose the next room which will collapse into the abyss. One of the ways they can do this is with the following rule from the Traitor's Tome:

  If the Abyss engulfs a whole floor, it moves to the next floor up, starting in an unoccupied room of your choosing with an unexplored door.

If there is no such room available, which room should be collapsed by the traitor?


texts: Cluedo and the Great Museum Caper characters

texts: Are there any other games in the Cluedo series that has the same characters? The only other one I could find was The Great Museum Caper...


texts: Question about Shuttle Flight (spoilers)

texts:
Locations are connected to the grid if you can trace a line from them to the starting havens. The Shuttle Flight action allows you to move from a haven or supply center to another haven or supply center on the grid.

   Is a haven that has not yet been accessed, but has a sea lane to it (from another city on the grid) , a valid destination for the Shuttle Flight? Technically it is a haven connected to the grid, but RP-wise it seems like we shouldn't be able to shuttle to it.


texts: Bridge, when does dummy hand get laid down?

texts: Does the dummy hand lay down trump before or after the first card is played?


texts:
I want to know the effects of Thran Lens on a devotion-dependent enchantment creature, like a god or something.

I read somewhere that, when a permanent becomes colorless, the Thran Lens makes the 'cost symbols' turn into 'colorless'. With this in mind, if I have Heliod, God of the Sun on the battlefield will he ever be a creature while Thran Lens is on the battlefield?


texts: Do bombardment counts for "invading planets"?

texts:
The rules specify that:

  Ground Forces destroyed by bombardment are removed immediately, do not receive return fire, and will not participate in the upcoming Invasion Combat.

However, some political cards, action cards and special abilities refer to "When invading a planet with a Ground Force on it". So, if one invades a planet with Ground Forces on it, bombards them to death and then have a successful invasion, does that count for "when invading a planet with Ground Forces on it"?

(Sure, the Ground Forces did not count for the invasion combat, but they might count for the invasion itself as a whole..?)


texts: In Flash Point: Fire Rescue can you "pick up" a victim marker with the Ambulance by driving past it?

texts: Quite often while playing Flash Point: Fire Rescue my wife and I end up carrying a victim from the building through an exterior wall that has been destroyed. We know an ambulance can only drive to certain parking spots. If a victim is outside of the building, can we "pick up" that victim with the ambulance as we drive past it?


texts: In Gin-Rummy, how likely is that a round ends in a Draw?

texts:
In Gin-Rummy, when the deck reach the last two cards and no player have knocked, the rounds end in a draw.  In games of experts, or at least experienced players, how often a round ends in a draw?

I would like to get an estimation of an experienced player.

EDIT: Some terminology:

A game consist of several rounds
a round consist of several turns.
A game can never end in a draw, since in each round only one player receive points.  Thus the first answer is incorrect.


texts: How long does it take to play Cuba? And does the playing vary considerably between different numbers of players?


texts: Game from 1978: Why does this fuseki position favor black?


texts: Is there a term for defensive effects that only/primarily function for attacking creatures?

texts:
There's a category of effects in Magic that I'd like to be able to name & categorise effectively, but I've never known the proper label for them: effects which minimise risk & harm to attacking creatures. Usually these effects grant first strike or indestructible to attackers, or prevent damage from being dealt to them. Whilst annotating the functions of cards in decks, I'd like to have a descriptive category name saying "I included these cards to protect my attackers, but they don't really help me defend at any other time."

Some example cards:

Ankle Shanker: "Whenever Ankle Shanker attacks, creatures you control gain first strike and deathtouch until end of turn."
Iroas, God of Victory and Dolmen Gate: "Prevent all damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control."
Frontline Medic: "Whenever Frontline Medic and at least two other creatures attack, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn."
Stonehoof Chieftain: "Whenever another creature you control attacks, it gains trample and indestructible until end of turn."
Winds of Qal Sisma's Ferocious effect: "[...] prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures your opponents control."
Legion Loyalist: "Whenever Legion Loyalist and at least two other creatures attack, creatures you control gain first strike and trample until end of turn and can’t be blocked by creature tokens this turn."

Potentially in this category, or potentially not, are effects which let you control who's blocking, which lets you maximise damage, minimise losses, and potentially evade completely:

Brutal Hordechief: "Creatures your opponents control block if able, and you choose how those creatures block."
Odric, Master Tactician: "Whenever Odric, Master Tactician and at least three other creatures attack, you choose which creatures block this combat and how those creatures block." (A ruling suggests you can just choose that each creature won't block, which also makes this potentially an evasion effect.)

It's never felt right to call these effects any of the following:

Fog effects: they don't simply protect everyone like Fog does.
Anthem effects: they don't simply make everyone more powerful like Dictate of Heliod does.
Defence effects: they're not in the same category as Ghostly Prison or Blazing Archon.
Evasion effects: they don't evade the way Barrage of Boulders or Archetype of Imagination function.

Is there a commonly accepted name I should be using to categorise and describe these kinds of effects? If I'm actually conflating multiple categories which I should be naming separately, what are those category names I should be using? If it is commonly accepted to call them something like fog/anthem/defence/evasion effects, please do point that out to me.


texts: Is bidding in contract bridge just a matter of applying a set of rules?

texts:
Some years ago I tried to learn to play contract bridge with some friends and I never really understood the philosophy (for want of a better word) of bidding.  It seemed as if we just had to learn a set of rules and apply them - e.g. if you have N points and a balanced hand, open with [whatever], if you're responding to your partner's bid of [whatever] do [something depending on your hand], etc.  It was some effort to learn even the basic set of these rules, and it appeared (at the very basic level we were playing) as if the whole bidding process could have been done perfectly by an algorithm running on a computer (or your phone :))

As I understand it, in bridge competitions one is obliged to disclose which conventions you and your partner use, which also suggests to me that the intention is that your bids are an open and deterministic description of your hand.

So, with apologies for my naivety, my question is really where the skill lies in bidding well?  Or to what extent is the interest largely later on in the game, when applying what was learned through the bidding in playing the hand?


texts: How would first strike and deathtouch interact with multiple blockers in this scenario?

texts:
How exactly would the following work?

I have a creature with first strike and deathtouch, it's enchanted to be able to block any number of creatures (Entangler). Lets say its a 2/2 and it blocks five 3/3's - what exactly would happen?

Suppose the same creature is instead enchanted with Lure:

  All creatures able to block enchanted creature do so.

Lets say I attack with that 2/2 and my opponent has five untapped 5/5's that are forced to block. Again, what exactly happens?

I'm hoping to build a green/white/red deck based off of these combos but I'm a little confused about the mechanics of it all.


texts: Do you get to choose your hand, or is the highest hand chosen automatically?

texts:
Say you were a beginner in poker and the showdown comes and you lay down your hand as KK proposing to go with pair of kings. The cards on the table are TJQA4. The suits are such that you could have a royal flush.

Assuming an opponent has a hand that is better than a pair of kings but worse than a royal flush, do you win because your hand can form a royal flush, or do you lose because you didn't notice the royal flush and tried to go with pair of kings?

In other words, do you choose how to play your hand in the end, or is the most valuable combination of cards automatically and involuntarily chosen?


texts: In Go (board game) under Chinese rulings how does the scoring of empty territory work?

texts:
I am reading up on the Chinese rules of Go and have trouble understanding the ‘area scoring’ rules they use.

I get that each player gets a point for each stone that is alive, for each empty field in their territory and for each empty field in neither territory, but how exactly is any of this figured out?
As far as I understand it, after a game both players agree on which stones are dead and which empty positions count towards which player's territory. This doesn't seem very satisfying.

If I were to write a computer program that is supposed to score a given board state at the end of the game, how would such a machine make these decisions? It can't, can it?

I can see how this would work in case of eyes, as there is no way of placing an opponent's stone there, but for everything bigger then that it seems obscure to me how that decision (black, white, neutral territory) is made.


texts: In the Constellations game the rules say that there are 44 point tokens for tracking scores, but they are hidden from players until the end of the game. What does it mean "hidden"? Should there be one person counting and not giving out the current score, or each player should keep tokens in secret, or they just belong to each player and there is no indication of who is leading.


texts: Identify a card game where you need to play a higher card or pickup the discard pile?

texts:
The first time I played was elementary and no one remembered the name so we've called it "the game with no name" for years.
Setup: The game starts with three cards dealt to each player, face down on the table, these will be the final cards a player uses. Then five cards to each players hand.
Play: The lowest card goes first, players draw to always have 5 cards in their hand, until the draw pile is empty. Players go around the table discarding higher cards or picking up the discard pile when they can't play. After the discard pile is empty, a player wins when they play their three cards on the table.
Special cards: 2's reset the discard pile, Aces are the highest, 10s or four of the same card in a row "blow up" the pile and those cards are out of play for the rest of the game.


texts: In Axis and Allies, do infantry units start at the industrial complex or anywhere I want?

texts: I love playing Axis and Allies but think I have been playing it wrong. I place my troops on all of my properties. Is that wrong? Where are they supposed to start when I buy them? At the industrial complex, or anywhere?


texts: Fortifying an already fortified city (or placing a caravan in a city with a caravan)

texts:
In Civilization Fame and Fortune expansion, a player may disband his army/scout figure in one of his cities. Disbanding a army figure is called fortification, and this gives an additional one-time-use +2 combat bonus. Discarding a scout is called sending a caravan, and it gives a one-time-use +2 production to the city.

Is it a legal move to discard scout/army figures voluntarily and without benefits to an already fortified/'caravanicated' city?


texts: What does it mean to banish a card from the grave yard? I have a card that says to banish a card from the graveyard and I don't know what it means.


texts:
Quite simple, how do I play 4D TicTacToe? Anybody can imagine a dot. Anybody can imagine a line. Anybody can imagine a plane. Most people can imagine a solid. What about a four dimensional object? No one can picture that - or smart people can.

I would like a full guide of how to play with examples!

P.S. I know that people would class this as 'too broad', but it is not, since unlike things like scrabble or monopoly, there is only on way! Thanks in advance!


texts: Which programs can break subroutines on a trap?

texts: If I Rez a trap (eg: Howler) which programs can break subroutines on it? Is it just AI like Crypsis or are there others?


texts: How many times can you use a port in settlers of catan?

texts: The instructions don't say (from what I see) and I need to know for the game.


texts:
Certain spells in Arkham Horror can only be cast on upkeep. One example is "Voice of Ra":

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

The rules state:

  During the Upkeep Phase, each player takes the following actions, in
  order.

  Refresh Exhausted Cards
  Perform Upkeep Actions
  Adjust Skills

The Adjust Skills action states:

  Finally, each player may adjust his investigator’s skills using the
  three skill sliders he placed on his investigator sheet during game
  setup. This process, as well as a general description of how skill
  sliders work, is explained in the “Adjusting Skills” diagram.

Casting a spell doesn't fall into any of those categories. I suspect that these are the things you must do on your upkeep, but you can also do additional things, such as cast spells. But the use of the word "Finally" in the Adjust Skills action could mean that this must be the last thing you do during your upkeep, although I don't think that is the case.

Question:

When during your upkeep can you cast upkeep spells? Can I cast them even before the Refresh Exhausted Cards action? In the case of "Voice of Ra" this would allow me to cast it twice in once turn.

Edit

Answers so far have said that casting spells is a mandatory upkeep action. This may be the case, but I still think the rules are ambiguous about that. The rules for upkeep actions state:

  After refreshing his exhausted cards, each player must review his
  investigator’s cards to see if any of them have an Upkeep action. Each
  player must perform all Upkeep actions listed on his investigator’s
  cards every turn.

You are not required to cast Voice of Ra every turn. Therefore, Voice of Ra is not an upkeep action. This makes no distinction between optional and mandatory upkeep actions. The text of Voice of Ra however may make the casting of it optional. This too seems a little ambiguous. Even if this is the case, how are spells that are castable during "Any Phase" treated. Can they therefore not be cast during the upkeep (even though upkeep is a phase) because they don't have an upkeep action?

Also, if spells must be cast during the upkeep action, it means you will not be able to adjust your skills before casting. It seems a little strange to me that a spell you are casting this turn must be based off last turn's skills.


texts: What is the benefit of being solid with Amnon Duul (Travel Hub)?

texts:
I was playing the Firefly board game last night and we realized that we couldn't find any particular benefit in Amnon Duul's bonus for being solid, specifically "You may load any number of passengers and fugitives at Space bazaar, no limit."

We couldn't find any use for said passengers or fugitives in the rule book, the only thing we could think of was if - while on a mission- a fugitive/passenger dies (perhaps due to the Reaver Cutter encounter) you can refill without having to do any misbehaving again.

Can you use passengers and fugitives loaded at space bazaar for anything other than re-obtaining those lost during completion of a mission?


texts: Why is there a bonus for holding honors in bridge? Isn't having 4-5 of the highest trumps privileges enough?

texts:
After I read about honors in bridge, I quickly started wondering why they were added to the scoring system. Its obviously a privilege to be holding the cards required, so I can see why the scoring might want to reward that. But isn't holding the honors and having the power of playing them enough? Why was it necessary to add an additional bonus just for having them?

It feels like the rule is just adding luck to game that was designed to be about skill, in the sense of getting points for just getting the right cards, and not having to know anything about the strategy of how to play them. If you do hold the honors, you're almost definitely going to get more points because they allow you to take more tricks, which are the whole basis of how to get points anyway. Being automatically given points for receiving good cards that will help you win points during the actual game-play seems kind of paradoxical, almost like getting an extra $5000 every time you have a great idea that will let you make a lot more than that if you are able to develop it skillfully.

Does the rule do any more than just give you points for what you should be able to use to get points anyway?
When does it actually influence your decisions in the game?
How would bridge be different if it didn't have this rule?

(I'm a very novice bridge player, and I'm sure that my reasoning is incorrect, but I've been unable to prove these assumptions wrong on my own, and thought you guys would be able to help a noob like me understand. :)

Honours                 Points
All 4 aces in NT        150
5 top trumps (AKQJT)    150
4 out of 5 top trumps   100


texts: Do deathtouch and deathtouch-like effects stop trample damage?

texts:
My friend has a trample deck, and I have a Stinkweed Imp that says "Whenever Stinkweed Imp deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature."  Can a creature destroyed this way still deal trample damage?

What if I block with a creature that actually has deathtouch?


texts: Why creature enchantments aren't playable?

texts:
I've read an article recently about the M 2013 core set and it states that:

  Well, everyone knows creature enchantments aren’t playable...

Why exactly creature enchantments aren't playable? I'm talking about the context of Constructed games.


texts: Can I counter Rite of Replication by destroying the copied creature?

texts:
Let's say my friend casts Rite of Replication on one of his creatures. Right after that, I play an instant--Flesh to Dust--and destroy his creature. Would that counter the sorcery?

If not, would I have to cast the instant right when he casts Rite of Replication?

Or say something like "before you cast that spell I'm destroying your creature..."


texts: With Molten Primordial I've taken a creature from opponent 2, which had been previously taken from and is owned by opponent 1. When I lose control of it at end of turn to which opponent does it go?


texts: Arena, Triumphant surge without legal target

texts:
Just playing Arena using the Workshop:Heroes of Theros - Devotion deck.

I tried to cast Triumphant Surge when there was only my Transcendent Envoy on the battlefield. The Triumphant Surge just hung in the air over the stack part of the screen, not doing anything for about 10 turns. occasionally it would light up blue but mostly it sat in the way, I couldn't read the cards on the stack and didn't gain my 3 life. Then later in the game, when there was a legal target, I could cast the card by clicking on it where it was suspended on the rhs of the screen; it destroyed opponent's creature (4/4) and I gained 3 life.

Can I cast Triumphant Surge without a legal target to gain 3 life? Is this just a bug in Arena, or am I mistaken?


texts:
The question

In Guillotine, the Confusion in Line -action card says:

  Choose a player. Randomly rearrange the line just before that player
  collects his or her next noble

The Master Spy card says:

  After each action card is played, move this card to the end of the
  line.

If the Master Spy is in the line, will he go to the end of the line after the card is placed on the table, or after the line is shuffled? i.e. Is it possible to collect the Master Spy with the Confusion in Line (and luck), when there are multiple cards in the line?

Additional info

As Zags noted, user Robrob in BGG has asked a question from the makers of this game (WoTC)

  The Master Spy card goes to the back of the line each time an Action
  Card is played. There are two possibilities: a) an Action Card is
  played - the Master Spy is moved to the back of the line - the Action
  Card is carried out or b) an Action Card is played - the Action Card
  is carried out - the Master Spy is moved to the back of the line

and got a reply

  The answer is B, there is no way to play a card to get the master spy
  to the front of the line without him just going back after the cards
  effects.

But this does not answer the questions, which will arise from the usage of Confusion in line -action card:

c) No action cards are placed on the table - Effect of an action card (Confusion in line) is triggered - Does the Master Spy move? - Noble is beheaded.

or

d) Action card is placed on the table - No effects of an action card is resolved (played Confusion in Line, +2 points at the end of the game, or similar) - Does the Master Spy move? - Noble is beheaded.


texts: When Hellcarver Demon's ability triggers and I sac all my permanents and discard my hand then cast Second Sunrise do I have to keep track of the discarded cards? because second sunrise say s return to play all artifact, creature, enchantment and land cards that were put into the graveyard from play this turn. Since my hand was discarded I don't think it satisfies the second sunrise condition. I think I just answered my own question but I'll ask anyway to make sure I'm right.


texts: Nivmagus Elemental interactions with nivix cyclops, guttersnipe, and young pyromancer

texts: if I exile a spell with Nivmagus Elemental, will the spell still cause the abilities of Nivix Cyclops, Guttersnipe and Young Pyromancer to trigger?


texts: How does Perplexing Chimera work with Strionic Resonator?

texts: I have a Perplexing Chimera and a Strionic Resonator on the battlefield. My opponent casts Shock. I choose to use my Strionic Resonator's activated ability to copy my Perplexing Chimera's triggered ability. What would happen?


texts: What types go well together in a Pokémon deck?

texts: Which types combine well with water types in Pokémon? I have water types, so I need to know which types go well with them so I can make a good deck.


texts: Is the Elder God Health affected by the number of board expansions in play?

texts:
We have been playing that the number of board expansions does not effect the successes required to defeat the elder god, as it does not seem in the spirit of the rule.  The rules seem to back this up but do not explicitly state it.

Successes Required to Defeat the Elder God:
When the Elder God wakes the number of successes is set to the number of Players(I take this to mean agents if some players are playing more then 1) times the number of spaces elder gods doom track.

Combining Multiple Expansions:
"The rules are unchanged when using more than one expansion city, except that the number of players should be counted as being one less for each expansion board in play beyond the first. So, if six players are playing a game using both Dunwich and Innsmouth (for a total of two expansion cities), they are counted as having one less player, for a total of five players. This modified number of players is used for such things as the monster limit and the maximum number of gates that can be open at once, and it reduces the level of difficulty for the players since they have so much more ground to cover"


texts: Does Dimir Doppelganger trigger ETB effects?

texts:
Does Dimir Doppelganger trigger ETB (enter the battlefield) effects?

My guess is, that the card doesn't trigger ETB effects, since it's already in play. But the lack of rulings that specify this case make me unsure.

To compare, on Lazav, Dimir Mastermind's gatherer page, the rulings mention ETB effects:

  Enters-the-battlefield abilities of the creature card Lazav is copying won’t trigger as Lazav is already on the battlefield when it becomes a copy of that creature card.

Dimir Doppelganger's gatherer page doesn't specify any such ruling. Can I assume it's the same for it as well?


texts: If I have only one creature in play, is it on a flank?

texts: Many cards (e.g. Valdr, Hand of Dis) reference creatures that are, or are not, on a/the flank. If I only have one creature in play, is it considered to be on a flank?


texts: How fair is an almost perfect riffle shuffle?

texts:
I've been practicing an in-hands riffle shuffle, just to make it look and sound smooth. In doing so, I've noticed I'm able to weave the cards almost perfectly.

An almost perfect shuffle.

Is such an almost perfect shuffle, repeated a reasonable number of times, less fair than one with a higher proportion of imperfections?

Note

The question is about almost perfect shuffles. Obviously a perfect shuffle does not randomize the deck at all, as anyone who has seen a magician do a faro shuffle knows.

Simply observing an almost perfect shuffle randomizes the cards less is not an answer. The premise of the question implicitly states that. How much does an almost perfect riffle shuffle randomize or not randomize the deck? Do eight almost perfect riffle shuffles mostly not reorder the deck, with perhaps a dozen cards out of order? Or do the errors compound with each shuffle such that it's really impossible to shuffle unfairly if the shuffle is done N times? How big must N be?

Please, no speculation or guessing. Cite sources, or show some math.


texts:
If I have a Shaman en-Kor and creature with Enrage (For this instance lets says it's a 0/2 with Enrage). An opponent casts a spell which would deal 2 damage to all creatures.
I used the Shaman's (0) redirect ability twice to direct the damage to my Enrage-Creature. Would enrage...:

... Enrage trigger just once since all damage is dealt to it at once
... Enrage trigger twice because of damage from two different sources.
... Enrage trigger twice because of damage from the spell, then the triggered ability of the shaman hits it?- And can you respond with an instant in-between the damage?
... Enrage trigger three times total. Once from the spell damage, then twice more since the Shaman's ability redirected two instances?

I've found this question/answer but it skirts around the answer I am looking for:
What's the timing on Warrior en-Kor's damage redirection?


texts: Can I get an enters-the-battlefield effect out of a second legendary before I must sacrifice it?

texts: If I have a legendary creature out, and I make a copy of it (such as by enchanting it with Splinter Twin or making a Clone), do I get enters-the-battlefield effects from the creature before I have to sacrifice it to the legend rule?


texts: What specific strategies have the highest win:loss ratio in Uno?

texts:
I decided to delve deeper into this question to discover exactly how effective certain strategies would have on your win percentage. This led me to this Stanford Computer Science project that pits students' individual UNO strategies against each other.

This particular UNO simulator has some issues that I have corrected:

A proper pseudo-random number generator (PRNG-Mersenne Twister)
Support for 2-15 players
Scoring for wins instead of points
Proper rules implementation of initial special cards
Hhandling of draw cards when going out.

I opted not to add a "catch"/bluff mechanic when playing Wild-Draw4, so those can only be played when you don't have a matching color.

I have implemented some basic strategies that you will be playing against:

Play random legal
Play most color
Play most point
Play highest rank in most color
Call random
Call color I have
Call color most
Call points most

These strategies will face off in 100,000+ games multiple times to get a Confidence Interval (CI) for how effective the strategy is. (I am open on direction of how to accomplish this best. Should it be a 4-player game, with 2 copies of the strategy seated non-adjacent to each other (ABAB)?)

So: what is your Uno strategy? Be specific: I'm going to write a program to execute your strategy, and since computers are dumb like me, instructions need to be specific. (If they are not, I will post comments for you to clarify)

Things to think about in your answer:

What card do you play next? Do you try to get down to one color or number, or always keep as much variety as possible in your hand? If you have a pair of 0's and a 9, do you play the 9 to reduce your point count, or play a 0 to keep up some variety in your hand? Do you play Skip, Reverse, Draw Two, Wild, and Wild Draw Four early or late, or does it depend on how many cards other people have?
What do you do if you must change color? Do you call a color with the most cards, most points, least variety in ranks? Do you think about what opponents might have, or only consider your own hand?
Does your strategy change if someone is very close to winning the entire match, i.e. somebody's close to 500 points? How close to 500 do they have to be for you to change how you play?
Does your strategy change if you're losing the hand? How do you decide if you're losing? (Do you start ditching the high-point cards like Wild and Draw Two?)

Don't worry about answering all of those questions, but if you change your play depending on circumstances around the table, please mention it in your answer. Being precise helps me program a strategy that matches what you do, but if you cannot, just give me a general idea and I will post pseudo code of what the computer will do.

Don't worry about having the absolute best answer. I will program your strategy, and edit your answer to show its actual win-rate against other strategies.


texts: Is my black-bordered foil from 8th edition a counterfeit? Where can I find more copies?

texts:
I have a black-bordered 8th edition foil Thorn Elemental. I really like this card, and I tried to find a place where I can buy it again. However, I can only find white-bordered versions of this card in the 8th edition.

Does this mean I have a counterfeit card, or is there a black-bordered foil version in the 8th edition? I have not coloured in the border as other questions have suggested. I just can't seem to find a black border 8th edition foil, even on the main Magic wizards site.

I know that white-bordered cards can be played. I'm just a bit confused as to how my black-bordered card cannot be found anywhere.


texts: Effective way of shuffling small form cards

texts:
My shuffling skills leave a lot to be desired, in particular when it comes to small form cards, such as those found in Arkham Horror and number of other Fantasy flight games.

What are some effective techniques at shuffling these small cards without damaging/bending them? If I've sleeved the cards, I just push equal piles of them together and it seems to work, but not all my games have been sleeved.


texts: I thought planeswalkers are legendary permanents and thus subject to the legend rule. While playing on Arena my opponent played three copies of Gideon Blackblade from their hand. Does this card become non-legendary during the owner's turn, or is there some other exception that makes this legal?


texts:
In today's bridge column, opener opened 1NT with (s)A94 (h)AQ97 (d)763 (c) AQJ. Responder had
s)KT (h)KJT863 (d)K52 (c)86.

At two different tables, both pairs got to 4H, but in different ways. At Table 1, responder bid directly to 4 hearts, played and made it. At Table 2 responder bid 4 diamonds (transfer), and opener bid 4 hearts, and was set by a diamond lead through responder's K52, and the K of clubs "offside" opener's AQJ.

My understanding is that the reason for transfer bids was to protect the opener when the responder had a weak hand. For instance, a responder might bid "garbage Stayman" with (s)xxx (h)xxxx (d)xxxxx (c) x. That is, zero hcp, and a clear desire to play in anything except clubs (or NT). Likewise, a responder might bid two diamonds (transfer) with "nothing" and an indifferent five card heart suit. Of course, a responder might also bid Stayman or a transfer, with 8-10 points, while needing help to determine the ultimate suit and level of the contract.

But in the above example, the responder had 10 high card points and a six card suit, enough to bid (and play) game on his own. Why use a transfer in such a case?

Do some pairs play that only two level bids are transfers and higher bids are "natural?" Or do most transfer bidders keep the transfer mechanism even at the four (game) level? Put another way, does a transfer at the two level follow one convention and a transfer at the four level follow another convention?


texts: How many points are won/lost during this exchange?

texts:
$$ six=two
$$ -.a.....
$$ -.......
$$ -...OOOO
$$ -4....XO
$$ -1OOOOOX
$$ -XOXXO.X
$$ -2X5.XX.
$$ -3......
$$ --------

White territory around a is safe.
Move 2 and 4 can be swapped for identical result.

Most moves have a name (at least in Chinese) I believe 2 would be called 破 (pò) = break (not absolutely sure)
Does it have a name in english?

More importantly, in terms of points what is lost or won by both sides?


texts: I played my first game of Agricola yesterday.  Naturally, I'm left with a bunch of questions, but chief among them is: How do you pronounce the name of this game?  Our group was split pretty evenly between "AG-ri-co-la" and "a-GREEK-o-la".  Which side (or maybe neither!) is correct?


texts:
I'd like more concrete info about what you can do with items that are being carried or equipped.

Carried items:
Q: Can you use the "if you discard this card" effect for items you carry?
Q: What kind of cards can be carried? example can I carry a class card?
Q: Is there limits to what I can carry? example I'm carrying 4 armor cards.
Q: Can I sell cards for gold that I'm carrying?
Q: Are cards you carrying considered to be "in play"?

Equipped items:
Q: Some items don't have body icon, is there limits of how many of that type of item I can equip? example in the adventure time version I had a book and a math card that are not one shots but don't have an icon for which body part they belong to.


texts: Starting items for investigator not available

texts:
During a recent game, a player was defeated. He chose another investigator but when he came to receive the starting items, we realised that they were actually with another investigator in the game.

What should happen in that case? Does the new investigator just miss out on those items or do they take them from the other investigator?


texts: How can I prevent my old card sleeves from sticking together?

texts: I've been playing Magic: the Gathering for a while now, and I have collected a fair amount of the "penny" card sleeves (clear plastic, no frills). Now they're old and, due to humidity or some other factor, they have a tendency to stick together. Is there a way to store them and/or play with them to fix/prevent this?


texts: Will the mana that has been added to your mana pool by Koth of the Hammer's -2 ability empty as your turn ends, or is the mana from the -2 ability added for the rest of the game?


texts: Is Mana Weaving ok if it's followed by a thorough shuffle?

texts:
My friends and I are relatively new to MtG. At some point, one of them introduced us to the idea of mana weaving, and we'd do this to declump our decks prior to a very thorough shuffling. However, at the Theros pre-release, one of us was asked not to do this, and we learned it was frowned upon and ceased to do it.

I just now came across Shuffling Do's & Don'ts, and it sounds like mana weaving's only bad if you use it to leave your deck in an even distribution, and it's OK if your deck is then thoroughly shuffled. In hindsight, the judge may have simply thought my friend wouldn't have shuffled afterwards, but at the time I came under the impression it was frowned upon even if you did shuffle afterwards.

So: is mana weaving my deck OK, if I shuffle it very thoroughly afterwards?


texts: Uno: With a last card power card, are you allowed to play it after you draw a card?

texts:
Assuming you play with the following rules:

You can't end on a power card (+4, color change)
If you can't play and draw a card you are allowed to play it immediatly if that card does match

If you're holding a power card and you draw a card since you can't end on a power card, can you then play the power card instantly (in the same turn like rule 2) since you have 2 cards now?


texts: What is the highest score recorded for a single play in Words with Friends

texts:
You can only play 7 tiles in one turn in Words with Friends, so that makes a maximum of eight words you can make at once. By maximizing use of the bonus squares (Triple Word Score etc.) you can get some very high scores.
What is the highest score anyone has achieved in a single turn in Words with Friends?


texts: How do you determine which Dominion sets to play with?

texts:
I'm well aware of the randomizers available for Dominion, but how do you determine which sets to include in a randomizer?

For example, I own Base, Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity & Dark Ages. Lately, I've been using a randomizer between all the sets but I feel like I'm losing out on the built in interactions. How do you do it? Do you choose a handful of sets? If so, how do you determine which ones and how many?

Thanks


texts:
A coin was very close to falling into the pocket (let's say 70-30 over the edge). It stayed there for some time.

In one of the plays the striker hit the edge of the board so hard that the coin fell into the pocket (the striker never touched the coin or anywhere near the coin). The colour of the coin was same as the player's coin colour.

What should happen to the coin?


texts: In the Megaman TCG, what does a collector number that starts with "4" indicate?

texts:
The collector's numbers on most cards in the Megaman Trading Card Game list the set number, the rarity, and the number within the set for the given card.

Because there were only three sets released, I expected the set numbers to be only 1, 2, and 3. However, some of my cards have a 4 in the set number position.

Some examples are BambooLance (4 U 35), BugCharge (4 U 38), Geyser (4 U 40), and MagBolt3 (4 U 42).

What does the 4 mean on these cards?


texts: Timing of the activated abilities of creatures

texts:
I have a card with the following ability:

  {T}: Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.

If a white card like Pacifism has been attached to the creature, am I able to tap the creature in order to give it protection from white and thus removing the white spell?


texts: When can an Ætherling use its blinking ability?

texts:
If an Ætherling blocks something that could kill it, can it then use its blinking ability before it takes damage? I can't stop it with anything as it blocks and leaves with no damage.

  U: Exile Ætherling. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
  U: Ætherling can't be blocked this turn.
  1: Ætherling gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
  1: Ætherling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.


texts:
When does the Tax Collector's ability trigger for characters that have abilities that involve the end of their turn? My specific examples are as follows:
The Alchemist builds a district with all of their gold. Does the gold he spent return and THEN he is taxed, or is the tax ineffective because there is no gold and only then he gets his gold back?
The Diplomat's ability says that at the end of his turn, he may use the swap ability. Can he do this (and thus use up an remaining gold he has) or must he pay the Tax Collector first?


texts:
Watching A Hard Days Night and they're playing cards in the train. Ringo shuffles the cards and someone (John?) says "Aye Aye, the liverpool shuffle" as Ringo doesn't actually shuffle the cards.

He splits the pack, riffles them (but the halves are a few inches apart), and then puts the two halves back together again.

Why is this called the Liverpool Shuffle?


texts: How to generate numbers from a Pareto distribution?

texts: I need to generate numbers from a Pareto distribution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution) for a game I'm making. Ideally with xm=10, and alpha = 2, but approximately is good enough. Is there anyway I can do this? I want to do it an "analogue" way (like with dice, cards, etc.) Thank you.


texts: What exactly is affected by the new rule 614.16?

texts:
In the Ixalan Comprehensive Rules Update Bulletin, one of the sections says that rule 614.16 is changing, with this explanation:

  This new rule hops in and bumps the existing 614.16 down. The new rule establishes that when a replacement effect watches for "an effect" creating a token or putting counters, it'll do its thing if a replacement effect or prevention effect causes these things to happen. This covers some weird cases where Doubling Season may or may not double the counters and tokens.

What are those "weird cases" and how are they affected by this change? Are any other cards affected?


texts: What order do triggered abilities happen in if multiple things trigger at the same time?

texts:
I had several humans on the battlefield.

On turn three, I played Triumph of Ferocity. On turn four, I played Descendants' Path. On turn five, during my upkeep, this question came up.

At this point, I need to draw/reveal three cards. If I reveal a human, Descendants' Path will allow me to cast it without paying its mana cost.

So, does it matter when I draw the human?

The static abilities state "at the beginning up your upkeep..." which leads me to believe that those two draws/reveals would happen before my normal draw. If that's the case, does the draw order happen in the same order that I played the enchantments?

In the end, that's how we decided to do it. I drew first for Triumph of Ferocity, then I revealed for Descendants' Path, then I drew for my turn. Did we do it right?


texts: My brother and I play this game using 8 white checkers and 8 black checkers on opposite sides of the board. We take turns flicking the checkers across the board to knock the opponent's checkers off the board. Once all the opponents checkers are gone, you win that round. We called this game "Chinese Checkers", but apparently Chinese Checkers is a different game using a hexagonal board rather than a square one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_checkers . So, what is this game supposed to be called?


texts:
I just bought a 300 piece poker set and none of the pieces have a denomination on them.  I have white (100 count), red (50 count), green(50 count), blue (50 count), and black (50 count) pieces.

I have about 6-12 people coming over this weekend to play.  How should I break up the chips and have them be assigned?  For value assignments I was thinking of: 10 (white), 25 (red), 50 (green), 100 (blue), 500 (black).


texts: Heritage Druid lets you tap three elves you control to add GGG to your mana pool. Stifle counters activated or triggered abilities. My question is...  if I use Heritage Druid to tap three elves and then that ability is countered are the elves still tapped?


texts: Do abilities that trigger when a card is turned face up trigger when that card is in exile?

texts: If I have a card with an ability that triggers when it is turned face up, such as Coral Trickster, does it still trigger when turned face up in exile, for example  when imprinted on a dying Clone Shell?


texts:
Unstable release is being listed as UST in

magiccards.info https://magiccards.info/ust/en.html
wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_sets

Yet we see it having hashtag #MTGUN3 at official product page https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/unstable

Will it be UST or UN3 eventually?


texts: Is buying older power plants than what you have disallowed?

texts:
In a recent game of Power Grid, someone we play with regularly insisted on a rule that you're not allowed to purchase a "lower" technology power plant than you already have.  e.g. if you have 13,17,25 as your power plants, you can't buy 24 or lower if they come up.

He also insisted that if a player didn't win their power plant auction that the market isn't refreshed before they got another chance to bid.  e.g. Player A bids cost, player B bids cost + 1 and player A decides not to bid higher.  In this scenario player A only gets to choose from the 3 remaining plants next.

The question: are these official rules?  I have scanned the rule book and didn't see either, but may have missed them... I also found them quite hard to work with.


texts: Is it better to learn to play bridge by reading about it, or just playing?

texts:
I'm an avid card player, and I have a particular love for trick-taking games (above all, Hearts and Spades). I've wanted to learn to play bridge for a long time, and I've bought two different books on the subject, but neither really launched me into playing. For experienced players, what is the best way to learn to play bridge, for someone who is already experienced and comfortable in four-person trick-taking games?

Should I just master the most basic rules and then try playing? I find this works well for Hearts and Spades, but I'm not sure that the complexity of Bridge will be as easily acquired.


texts:
"The border of the 4th edition Settlers of Catan is too small for the board hexes.  To be exact, each hexagonal tile is about 79 mm wide.  Five of them, end to end, form the longest stretch of land requiring 395 mm of width within the shore tiles. And now, the distance between the shore tiles? About 393 mm. Yup, 2 mm short."  http://www.tinysci.com/2010/07/04/the-settlers-of-catan-something-completely-different/

Lots of custom boards out there because of this problem.

Is there an inexpensive commercially-available border that actually fits?


texts: Can You Choose To Beg When You Have Enough Food?

texts:
Normally, in Agricola, it would be crazy not to spend food on feeding your family - at a cost of 3 VPs per, it is difficult to imagine any situation where a food token could be worth more in the future than sparing you a Begging card now.

However, here's the corner case I'm currently in.  I have in my hand the Mendicant Occupation.  It seems quite likely that I'll go into the first Harvest with only 3 food tokens.  Is it acceptable for me to feed my Family with only 2 of the Food, taking 2 Begging cards (both of which I plan to ditch to the Mendicant later on), and saving 1 Food for the purposes of paying for a second Occupation in Round 5?

I'm pretty sure you can't be forced to convert resources into food to feed your family if you don't want to, but it seems to me that the rules are slightly less clear on whether food must be eaten if you have it.  (I'm playing this game online, so it will be interesting to see if the option to not eat food is even given by the program...)


texts:
I remember a rummy variant that I played as a child. I was taught it by older family members, who are all long dead. They called it "Michigan Rummy" but it was quite different from the game that I find online by that name on several different sites. Can anyone tell me the correct name of the game I knew, and point me to full rules?
The game was much like many rummy variants, in that the object is to form combinations or melds. These were of two types: a "set" composed of three or more cards of the same rank, and a "run" or "sequence" composed of four or more cards of adjacent ranks, such as 6, 7, 8, 9 or K, Q, J, 10. Ace could be high or low, but not both at once. I can't recall if a run had to be all of the same suit.
Each hand had a separate goal. In the first hand, the goal was two sets. The following hands were one run and one set,  two runs, three sets, two sets and one run,  tow runs and one set, and finally three runs. A player could go out only by completing all of the required melds for that round. Extra melds were not allowed, but IIRC one was allowed to "lay-off" cards on the melds of other players.
I think two or three decks were shuffled together. Three players was the minimum, 4-6 more common.
On each turn a player drew or picked up a discard, optionally set down one or more melds, and ended with a face-up discard. Any other player could claim this discard, and picked it up along with the total discard pile. If no player wanted the discard, the player to the right of the previous player drew a card from the stack, and the discarded card remained face up until another discard was placed on top of it.
If more than o0ne player wanted a discard, whoever called for it first got it, leading to fast and raucous play.
To start, each player was dealt a hand of 6 cards. Thus in each round but the first, a player would have to take the discard pile at least once to have enough cards to make the required melds. A player scored positively for cards in melds or laid off, and lost points for all other points. Spot cards were worth there face value two thru ten, face cards ten each, and aces fifteen.
When a player went out, other players were not allowed to  meld cards left in their hands -- these counted negatively. The player who went out could make a final discard, or not.
On the last round special rules applied -- no melds might be put down except by going out, and the player who went out had to make a final discard. This was summarized as "down and out with a discard".
All this is remembered from more than 40 years ago, and I may have some details incorrect. Can anyone identify this game and point to full rules?


texts: Did a bridge column make errors in discussing a hand?

texts:
This is from yesterday's New York Post. North-South are playing at four spades. Vulnerable, they had bid 1 spade, 2 spades, 4 spades, no opposing bids. Here's the hand:

        North
        (s) AQ9
        (h) K63
        (d) 854
        (c) 7432

  West                  East

(s) 53                 (s) 42
(h) JT97               (h) AQ852
(d) QT72               (d) 963
(c) Q98                (c) KT5

         South
        (s) KJT876
        (h) 4
        (d) AKJ
        (c) AJ6

South has six easy trump tricks, two side aces and a king for an easy nine. The tenth trick will come from a finesse or end play into one of South's minor suit tenaces.

West leads the Jack of hearts, which East correctly overtakes with the Queen in order to lead a diamond to West's Queen. South intercepts with the King, and leads a trump to dummy in order to lead a low club. East covers with the King. All understandable so far. Here's where I think the narrative goes wrong, with a focus on the part in bold:

"South took the ace, led a trump to dummy, and returned a second club, five Jack, Queen. He ruffed the next heart, lost another club, and got to dummy with a trump to pitch his Jack of diamonds on the good club."

Doesn't South need to cover East's five of clubs with the six so that West wins with the nine? Then cover the T with the Jack on the third round so West wins with the queen? All to keep East off lead. Because otherwise, East wins on the third round and shoots another diamond through South.

The narrative also attributed South's difficulty to "good play" by the defenders. It's true that East played well, but it seems to me to be only "ordinarily" well.

My understanding is that the issue in the club distribution. For instance, if East has KQx of clubs instead of KT5, he has a forced win of a club, and the chance to take the minor finesse diamonds. Ditto if clubs split 4-2, and East has KQ. If clubs split 2-4, South can win only if West has KQ or KT so East doesn't get the lead.

Is my understanding correct?


texts: Does building over rooms render the old room inactive?

texts:
When you build a room over an existing room, is the existing room considered deactivated, or does it still effect game play?

For example if you build a Monster's Ballroom over Goblin Armory does the Ballroom count the Armory as a monster room, and does the Goblin Armory still have its ability, damage and /or treasure.


texts: Warlock Quest is to take life from another player, but I'm not allowed to attack them. Can I complete the quest?

texts:
We had a situation in Talisman 4th Edition Revised where a player got the Warlock Quest "Take One Life From Another Player".

  "Seek the one with the mark of the Talisman - a mark that only you will see. When you find him, vanquish him in combat. His blood shall be your key. His suffering shall be your salvation."

The trouble was that the character wasn't allowed to attack another player. We were playing with the Lightbearers alternative ending that disallows player versus player combat, but this could also happen if, for instance, you are the Knight and all other players are Good for the time being (or worse, they are characters like the Knight who are permanently Good), since the Knight can't attack Good alignment players.

Is there any way to complete this Warlock Quest if you can't attack other players?


texts:
The enchantment Into the Wilds allows a player to look at the top card of their library and play it if it's a land.

If I have 4 Into the Wilds in play, can I look at the top card four times, and, in theory, play 4 lands before my draw step?


texts: What's the hexagon symbol under the Sanctuary?

texts:
In Terra Mystica, under most structures, you find the income that building generates. But, the Sanctuary also has a weird hexagon:

The gold outline looks just like those used on the town tokens. I couldn't find anything about it in the rules, looking under anything I could find related to the Sanctuary or towns (based on the shape). I don't see the image anywhere either.

It looks important. What am I missing?


texts: Would the +1/+1 counter from Curse of Stalked Prey save my creature?

texts:
My question pertains to a situation that happened last night when my friends and I were playing Magic: the Gathering.

There was a game of Two-Headed Giant going on and I had Werewolves on the battlefield with Trample. My partner had previously enchanted an opposing team member with Curse of Stalked Prey. I had a Reckless Waif with a 3/2 power and toughness (via Mayor of Avabruck and Full Moon's Rise) attacking said opponent. Their only blocker was a 2/2, so they blocked.

Curse of Stalked Prey reads "Whenever an opponent is deal combat damage..." and goes on to say the creature that dealt damage gets a +1/+1 counter. Is the counter immediately added, thus saving it from the 2/2 blocker?


texts: Redeeming sets on Magic the Gathering Online

texts: I just got a full set from a treasure chest and was wondering if I need to open it to redeem it or if I need to leave the set in my Other Product section of MTGO.


texts: In Arkham Horror, are Ally cards treated specially in setup?

texts:
The rules say this in setup:

  The players shuffle the Common Item, Unique Item, Spell, and Skill decks, then return them face down to their places next to the board. Whenever players draw cards, they draw them randomly from the tops of these decks.

There is no mention of the Ally decks, yet in one bgg contributor rulesheet I found here, it says the following in the setup box:

  Distribute Allies. Assign any Fixed Allies to Investigators. Draw 11 Allies from remaining supply to create the Ally Deck. Assign any Random Allies to Investigators from the Ally Deck

Is there an official reference to what to do with the Ally cards that I overlooked? I didn't see it in the Rulebook or FAQ. I assumed the omission from the rulebook setup text was just an oversight, but seeing this snippet in the contributor rule sheet has me second guessing.


texts: When to use card sleeves for a board game?

texts:
Card sleeves are probably be a no-brainer for board game collectors who want to keep their games in pristine condition for as long as possible, or for CCGs where an individual card may be very difficulty to replace.

For non-collectors playing games like Agricola, 7 Wonders, Mage Knight, Pandemic, etc, when does it make sense to use card sleeves and when doesn't it make sense?


texts: Can you play Big Two with multiple decks for more than 4 players?

texts:
We have 5-7 players, which is too much for one normal game and not enough for two. We could just deal less cards per player, but it would reduce the strategy involved. Are there any variants for using multiple decks?

Alternatively, are there any obvious problems with just dealing out 65-91 cards from two combined decks? We're  not concerned with the increased game length due to having more players. I'd imagine cards playing the same value would tie and therefore wouldn't be allowed after each other (i.e. you can't play a 5 of clubs on a 5 of clubs). This might also open up new poker hands (e.g. 5 of a kind)


texts: Does killing a creature mana source that's being tapped for mana to pay for a spell counter that spell?

texts:
If an opponent is using an Avacyn Pilgrim (and three forests) to cast a Cudgel Troll, and I Lightning Bolt the monk, does that counter the Troll being cast?

Would the same be true for a Loxodon Smiter?


texts: Can I counter a spell that can't be countered?

texts: Specifically, can I counter Dragonlord Dromoka with Voidmage Apprentice's triggered ability?


texts: Does Saheeli Rai's (-2) targeting Riddleform make a creature?

texts:
Consider Saheeli Rai and Riddleform.
Saheeli Rai's -2 says:

  Create a token that's a copy of target artifact or creature you control, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types. That token gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

So, turn 2, I cast Riddleform. Turn 3, I cast Saheeli Rai, a noncreature spell, and elect to have Riddleform become a 3/3 Sphinx creature with flying.

Though it would be a legal target, I don't think it is an intelligent target for the -2. Does the token come in only with the copiable values, making it not a creature?

As a tangent, suppose it's later in the game, with Saheeli Rai and Riddleform in play. I cast noncreature spell A, electing to make Riddleform a creature, and then use Saheeli Rai's -2 to make a token that is a copy of Riddleform. If I cast a second noncreature spell, can the token then become a creature?


texts: Do bestow count toward cards that say "when [sub-type] enters on the battlefield"

texts: Champion of the Parish gains +1/+1 "Whenever a another human enters the battlefield under your control". If I play Nyxborn Shieldmate as a bestow does it count toward this effect? I know it does not count as a creature but it is still a human is it not?


texts: What is the origins and evolutionary track of Go game?

texts:
I didn't find any source explaining the "origins" or "evolution", rather than just history of Go.

Book and article suggestions would also be helpful.


texts: what does frozen and unfrozen discard pile mean? I've been playing for a while and never heard that term?

texts: What makes the discard pile locked or frozen? I've never heard of this term.


texts: Can you buy a property on your next roll?

texts: Let’s say a player rolls and he lands on Park Avenue but doesn’t buy it. On his next turn before he rolls Can he buy that property?  Or does he lose this opportunity?


texts:
I've been playing Hanabi for a while now with a few groups of people.

Recently, we realized that there was a considerable discrepancy in how some people understood the rules. Specifically, one person gave a clue saying "None of your cards are red".

We turned to the rule book, but even then couldn't find a definitive answer. The rules specify that if you give a clue, you have to give a color or a number, and you must point to every card that matches this information in the player's hand. For example, you can't say "red" and point to only one of their red cards.

There doesn't seem to be anything allowing or disallowing giving a clue that matches none of the cards.

Some of our players were absolutely fine with that (according to them, if nothing says you can't, it means that you can)

Some of our players were against it (you are not cluing cards, therefore the clue is invalid), and some even thought it was insanely powerful for advanced plays because your available alphabet for communication becomes publicly known and much larger.

Are there any other editions than mine where the rulebook actually specifies if this is allowed or not? If not, are there any other sources that could answer this question? (ex: interview with creators, official community consensus, etc)


texts: Wurmcoil Engine vs. Oko, Thief of Crowns

texts: A Wurmcoil Engine becomes a 3/3 Elk creature due to Oko, Thief of Crowns’ second ability. Wurmcoil Engine is then sent to its owners graveyard. Does Wurmcoil Engine’s death ability trigger?


texts: Can I choose "Artifact Creature" as a creature type as Adaptive Automaton enters the battlefield?

texts:
I want to use the card Adaptive Automaton in my white artifacts deck. Most of the creatures in the deck are artifact creatures. Now, I am not sure if "artifact creature" is a correct creature type. Let's take Palladium Myr for example. It is of creature type "Myr" and also an "artifact creature". Are both attributes real creature types?

In case I cannot choose "artifact creature", those automatons will find a new home in my Elves deck, but I would prefer to have them in my white artifacts deck.


texts: What are some good introductory rules to bridge?

texts:
I've tried to learn how to play bridge before, but there are so many variations (even on the Wikipedia page) that it's hard to keep track of everything and pin down exactly one way of playing it that I can use as a base to learn all the variations from.

As far as I've learned, the game is similar to (and derives from) whist, which is the most basic trick-taking game, where a team scores points for winning tricks past six. But past that, I looked at the rules for playing bridge, and couldn't make head nor tail of them. There are variations like rubber bridge and contract bridge, and among those variations on how to score points. For example, the first rulebook I ever saw bridge in had the club-trump suits worth 2 points, diamonds worth 4, etc. up to no-trump worth 10, and a team won once they scored 30 points worth of odd tricks. But then I learned from somebody else that a single trick was worth 30 points, and then from somebody else that a contract was for six plus the bid, but I didn't know what the contract was even used for and what purpose it had in scoring.

Between rubber and contract, which one is more popular? What do all the variations have in common besides their origins in whist? Please help this beginner.


texts: In A&A-Europe - When does an economic attack makes sense?

texts:
I've been playing Axis & Allies Europe (first version) for a long time and have never found a real value in using my bombers to run Economic Attacks.

It seems that the strength of the bomber is to inflict a lot of damage while supporting ground attacks.

I'd rather destroy a tank that cost 5 IPCs plus the 3 turns to get it to the front than to gamble on the off-chance that I could remove 6 IPCs in an Economic Attack.

Am I seeing this wrong? Is there an advantage to Economic Attacks that I'm not seeing?


texts:
I was wandering around on boardgamegeek and I saw this picture of a guy painting Descent figures, but the post doesn't exists anymore - thank you google - and the figures are just amazing

I'm not sure this is descent figure, but photos are taken on Descent v2 tiles so I guess it may be an extension I don't know.


texts: Do Age II or earlier events happen at the end of the game?

texts:
The front page of the "Through the Ages - A New Story of Civilization" Code of Laws says, at the end of the game:

  All Age III events in the current and next events deck are evaluated in any order.

Having not yet played a full game, I haven't had it happen, but it certainly seems possible that there might be Age II (or earlier?) events in the current (or next) event decks at the end of the game. Are those evaluated too? It seems strange that you would skip over those, but is that the intent?


texts: How do Captivating Vampire and Deadeye Navigator abilities interact?

texts:
In a recent casual game, an opponent controlled a Captivating Vampire and had enough untapped Vampire creatures in play to use its ability.  I had a Deadeye Navigator on the battlefield, and on my turn I played a Craterhoof Behemoth, soulbonding it with the Deadeye Navigator.  Due to an abundance of mana, I also chose to activate its soulbond ability to exile the Craterhoof Behemoth and return it to the battlefield several times.

At the start of this process, my opponent declared his intent to tap five vampires and activate Captivating Vampire's ability to gain control of my Craterhoof Behemoth, preventing me from activating its ability.  We were unsure of how to proceed from there, as we should both theoretically be given the opportunity to react to each others activated abilities by activating our own creatures' activated abilities, each of which were at odds with the other in regards to who controlled the creature once everything resolved.

Can anyone explain to me how this scenario should have played out, or if there may have been different results depending on when and how each ability was activated?


texts:
As a followup to this question, what happens in the following two scenarios? In each, the turn order is Green -> Red -> Blue -> Yellow, and no pictured player has any fences left.

1) Is Red allowed to play the purple fence? If so, what happens over the next two moves?

2) Is Red allowed to move their pawn downward? If so, what happens over the next two moves?

In both scenarios, it seems like if you allow the move in question, Blue is forced to move downward as the next move, and then Yellow has no legal moves. The options I see are:

Escape both scenarios through increasingly tortured readings of the existing rules. For example, in scenario 1 say that the fence placement is somehow banned by the fences-can't-completely-block-people rule (even though in a different turn order it would be ok), and in scenario 2 say that Red and Blue can move down and then Yellow can somehow use the diagonal jump rule to move to Red's former location (even though that rule only applies if there's a fence in the way, not a player).
Accept that the current rules aren't quite sufficient and change them. My vote would be for "In the rare event that a player has no legal move, their turn is skipped."


texts:
Suppose I start out a chess game in this manner: http://goo.gl/reCxP

From this advantage, I have a few questions:

Which item should I sacrifice so I can gain better ground position?
Should I advance the pawns on the right, or leave as protection for the king?
Any other advice?

Thanks.


texts: Snow-Covered Lands and Blood Moon interaction

texts:
How do Blood Moon and e.g. a Snow-Covered Plains interact?
When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect. I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".


texts: Game where you guess whether something is true

texts:
Once at a board game café in Toronto, some friends and I played a game I really enjoyed. I can't seem to remember its name or find it by Googling relevant phrases.

The premise was: A card is drawn that has some item of trivia. Unlike most trivia games, this is intended to be unreasonably obscure, something the vast majority of players are unlikely to know. Each player puts down a chip to guess whether the statement is true or false, as well as an optional "certainty" chip that doubles their points gained or lost for the guess.

The idea is not to test the breadth and randomness of your knowledge, but to test your intuition about what sorts of things could be true of the reality we live in. You evaluate plausibility.

Can anyone who's played or seen this game identify it?


texts:
Increasing Vengeance states "Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. If Increasing Vengeance was cast from a graveyard, copy that spell twice instead. You may choose new targets for the copies."

Does "You may choose new targets for the copies" apply only if Increasing Vengeance was cast from the graveyard?


texts: What makes a cooperative board game actually a game?

texts:
Most board games are competitive, where you have players competing against each other, trying to win.  Some board games are described as "cooperative", where the players are trying to do...what exactly?

In a competitive game, there isn't usually a single optimum path to victory, since the actions of the other players will change in response to what one player does.  Someone might publish the so-called "best" strategy for Dominion, yet it isn't going to win every game, since the other players can adjust their strategies in response.

In a cooperative game, once someone has worked out an optimum strategy, the game can't respond by changing its strategies (or can it?) so there's nothing left for the players to do but carry out that optimum strategy.  If they fail, it's just due to the roll of the dice (or draw of the cards, etc.).

So what makes a cooperative board game actually a game?

Just so you understand, I'm not asking this to be snarky, or to disparage cooperative games.  It's that I simply don't understand how such games could retain playworthiness once they've been played a few times.


texts: Dominion Seaside cards. Wharf and Outpost in the same hand

texts:
I was playing in a two player game recently in which both Wharf and Outpost were being used. My opponent played both these cards in one turn. We decided that the extra turn dictated by Outpost, did not count as "the start of your next turn" dictated by Wharf. As a result he played Outpost with three cards and one buy, rather than 5 cards and two buys.

My question is did we do this right? Should the extra 2 cards and 1 buy from Wharf go the the extra turn from the Outpost, or should the duration phase of Wharf follow my turn that follows his bonus Outpost play?


texts: Identify this board and card game relating to 19th century race horses

texts: Does anyone know the name of the board game in the picture below please?


texts: Can Auction be played on a deed that is already Private?

texts:
The Action card Auction says the following:

  Noon: Choose a deed in play. It becomes Private. If you own and control that deed, gain 1 ghost rock for each dude controlled by another player at that deed.

Is it possible to play this card on a deed that is already Private? Or is it only playable on a deed that is initially Public?


texts: What is the penalty for bidding out of turn?

texts: In duplicate bridge, what is the penalty for someone bidding out of turn?  Specifically, opening the bid by accident while sitting to the right of the dealer.


texts: 40k - Kustom Force Field and Vehicle Explosions

texts:
I've asked this numerous places and no one can seem to agree or provide a completely sound explanation on it...

When a transport containing a unit that includes a KFF explodes, do the models inside benefit from the cover save? What about the models outside?

One explanation I've heard is that no one benefits from the save because as the process goes, the vehicle is wrecked, the models take hits/wounds, then are placed on the board. During the hit/wound process they are essentially "in limbo" (not on the board) so it's impossible to measure distance for the KFF and therefore it does not apply. While this is the only explanation I've heard that cites rules, it sounds like a cop-out technicality and therefore I don't completely agree with it.

The other argument I've seen is that since the explosion isn't a shooting attack, models don't benefit from a cover save. I can agree with this more than the previous explanation, however the Ork FAQ details a situation where models can receive a cover save against a Deff Rolla (sp?) from a Battlewagon, which doesn't even happen in the shooting phase, therefore I think this argument isn't quite valid either.


texts: Can I gain a random Ally card from the reserve if the deck and discard do not have one?

texts:
When instructed to gain a random Ally card, if the asset deck and discard do not have any ally cards (and the reserve has 1), can I take the Ally from the reserve?  The rulings of interest are from the reference guide
Under Gaining Possessions and Conditions, the guide says:

Gaining a Card with a Specific Trait: Some effects instruct an investigator to gain a card with a specific trait (for example, “Gain a Madness Condition”). The investigator searches that card type’s deck then discard pile for the first card matching the specified trait and gains that card. Then he shuffles the deck.

Note that this does not say you can take a card from the reserve, but it also is speaking of not just the asset cards but others, such as conditions, spells, etc, so the omitted mention of the reserve could be a candidate for clarification.
The guide says, for specific cards:

Gaining a Specific Card: Some effects instruct an investigator to gain a specific card by name (for example, “Gain an Axe Asset”). The investigator searches that card type’s deck then discard pile for the first card matching the specified name and gains that card. Then he shuffles the deck.
•  If the named card is in the reserve, the investigator gains that card instead.

So for a specific card the reserve is game, but to the letter of the rules, the directive was to gain a card with a specific trait, not a specific card.
My house rule on this was to allow the reserve to provide the ally card, and if there were more than one, for it to be drawn randomly.


texts: What happens, when you immediately draw Exodia as Player 2?

texts:
I'm not too familiar with Yu-Gi-Oh, but I was wondering, what happens, when Player 2 (the one going second) draws all Exodia, the Forbidden One pieces in his opening hand?

Does he win automatically, before Player 1 goes into his Standby Phase, or does it have to wait, until the Draw/Standby phase of Player 2?


texts: Sac outlet, Cyclonic Rift overload, & Chronozoa

texts: Say I have a Chronozoa with no counters and a free sacrifice outlet on the field when an opponent overloads Cyclonic Rift. If I were to sacrifice the Chronozoa in response, what happens? Will I create the tokens that are copies of it before or after the CR Overload resolves?


texts: When exactly does the commander tax get added?

texts:
Does commander tax increase for each time the commander has been cast, or for each time it has been removed from the battlefield?

For example, if an opponent would kill my commander but I manage to let it go back to my hand instead of the command zone, could I avoid that the tax increases? Or does it still count, because it died?


texts: Second line invasion of two-space extension

texts:
The two-space extension is a very common pattern and forms a base. I've found lots of material here, and here, and elsewhere on how it cannot be cut and how to defend against various invasions.

Nevertheless, in one of my games I was confronted with the following non-standard invasion:

$$cm1 Non-standard invasion of two-space extension
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . . O . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Question 1: Ignoring the three marked stones, how would one usually defend this invasion? Is J17 correct here?

Considering the option for black to connect up to the left and the white wall at the right, I played H18, which resulted in utter chaos and a miserable result for white. Below is my failed attempt at defending against this invasion.

$$cm1 Failed defense
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 1 . 3 4 . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . 5 O 7 . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . 6 . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

With this, Black was able to connect to the right. I've been playing around with various options, but couldn't find anything useful.

Question 2: Is white 2 above already a horrible mistake? Or does there exist a follow-up after black 3 that kills the invading stones?

Question 3: How strong is the two-space extension? In the initial situation where black invades at 1, what is the best white can expect to get?

Question 4: I found myself at quite a lack of knowledge when it comes to defending such non-standard attacks, however, most resources (like SL) only cover the typical attacks. Is it worthwhile to invest a lot of time into learning how to deal with strange attacks? Or should one expect to get this simply by experience?


texts: Can you throw animals into the stewpot if you don't have enough pasture room for any of them?

texts:
In Agricola, the Fireplace and Cooking Hearth both allow you to convert animals to food "at any time." Can you use this ability to cook animals if you don't have room in your pastures?

In particular, if you have zero pastures and grab four sheep, can you cook three of them and keep the fourth as a pet (or cook all four), or do you only get to keep/cook one of them, while the other three presumably wander off and get eaten by wolves as you dither over which one to eat first?


texts: Do any precolumbian board games survive?

texts:
A number of board games survive to the present day from quite ancient times in the Old World: mancala, go, even the physical components of the game of Ur survived (though we don't know the rules).

Do any board games survive from the New World that predate Columbus?


texts: When should I use Avacyn's Glory's Restoration Angel?

texts: When and how should I use Restoration Angel in the Avacyn's Glory deck? I understand Flash means it can be used any time like an Instant. What is the purpose or situation for exiling a non-angel I control then regaining control?


texts:
The rulebook says in the "Consume" section:

  Each consume power can be used only once in a consume phase. Some powers allow multiple goods, “up to” some number, to be discarded, with each good producing an effect. Such powers must be fully used, if possible, when invoked.

    Thus, a player with a tableau containing three novelty goods, New
    Vinland, and Free Trade Association, cannot consume two goods
    using FTA’s power (to consume up to 3 novelty goods for 1 VP
    and a card apiece) and then, based on the cards received, decide
    to consume the third novelty good using New Vinland’s power (to
    consume a good for two

Let's consider a slighty modified example: The player has a tableau containing two novelty goods, New Vinland, and Free Trade Association. Since FTA power cannot be fully used because the player does not have three novelty goods, the player decide to use it to consume just one novelty good. The rules above do not forbid that. Then the player uses the New Vinland power for the remaining novelty good.

If the rules intention was to forbid that, they would say instead of "Such powers must be fully used, if possible, when invoked" something to the effect "Such powers must consume as many matching goods as the player has, up to the specified number".

Did I get this right? I'd like an authorative source, please.


texts:
Does Dryad Arbor remain a creature with Blood Sun in play?

This is a follow-up question to this one.


texts:
My friend and I are buying an RTR booster box mainly in hopes of getting some chase rares, but also for some fun.
What are some Draft Variants for only 2 players?


texts: How can I handicap Ticket To Ride: USA, without seeming patronizing?

texts:
I'm struggling to find a good handicap for Ticket To Ride.

When I'm playing with newer, or less strategic players, I'm beating them by 50 points or so.

I don't like a simple points handicap, as that can seem patronizing. Instead, I prefer to have a personal handicap, that I don't tell the others about.

I've tried a 'Keep all three tickets to start, and then for first turn immediately draw another three' system, but that often backfires if I get a good bonanza get a massive score achieving them all.


texts: How can I add a taste of adventure games to my game?

texts:
I'm designing a card game based on an ancient fairy tale book. So far my game consists of some hero or character cards with 3 attribute: coins, strength and intelligence. And there are quest cards with the same 3 attributes and what you do is to pick character cards and when you reach to a quest card level, make it complete and then you do that card's actions.

My game at this time is basically a hand management game and somewhat similar to games like splendor and "Quests of Valeria".

But what if I want to add a taste of adventure games to the game with heroes, quests, items, treasures and so on? I still insist on it being a card game without a board.

How can I make my game a little bit more adventur"ish"?


texts: Do face-down creatures with death trigger activate normally?

texts: If a face-down creature has a "When this dies [...]" effect (i.e. because of Ixidron), will that effect activate when it dies?


texts:
Example:

I cast my commander from my command zone, paying no tax.
Commander dies
Goes to command zone
Summon from command zone, paying tax (2)
I bounce my Commander to my hand, play him from hand
He dies a second time.

The next time I play him from the command zone is his tax (2) or (4)?


texts: Are my opponents unable to cast spells for the rest of the game if I cast an Epic spell with Hive Mind on the battlefield?

texts:
I have a question about the interaction between cards with the "Epic" mechanic and Hive Mind.

Since the Epic ability happens on resolution instead of casting, that means if the original spell is copied, those copies will be epic as well.  If I have hive mind out and cast something like Enduring Ideal, my opponents will be forced to copy it as well.

Does this mean that as long as my original cast isn't countered, all my opponents will be stuck with an epic ability and are unable to cast for the rest of the game?

If so, this seems like a powerful combo that could shut down most opponent decks, while you (having expected this outcome) pull a million enchantments out of your deck.


texts: At what moment of their turn do players get doubloons from development cards they own? Do players get doubloons in the same turn they acquire a development card?


texts: If someone casts Prosperity with X being 100 and one player has 50 cards and the other has 60, does the one with 50 cards lose first since he runs out first or do you wait until the spell resolves and it ends up to be a tie?


texts:
What happens if points (Life Points, Attack Points or Life Points) should be halved, but are a odd number?

Some cards like Solemn Judgement can half a variable, while some monsters like S39 Utopia Prime have weird stats that can generate odd stats by halving.

I tried to find out the answer and I found this talk: https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Forum:25_Life_Points_divided_by_2%3F

But I did not find some serious source. Is it halved up to the next integer?


texts: Armory Automaton and Dowsing Dagger/Sword of the Animist

texts:
What happens if I cast Armory Automaton and equip to it Dowsing Dagger and/or Sword of the Animist that an opponent controls?

When Armory Automaton attacks while equipped with Sword of the Animist, will I or my opponent search for a land?
When Armory of Automaton deals damage to an player while equipped with Dowsing Dagger, will I or my opponent get control of Lost Vale

More generically, if the equipment says "When equipped creature attacks, do XXX" (where XXX is draw a card, gain life, put counters etc) - Who will do it, me or my opponent?


texts:
I am playing with the Cities, Babel, Leaders, and Wonder Pack expansions for 7 Wonders. There was a situation last night where two players attempted to look through the discard to play a card at the end of Age III.

My question is: which player gets to look through the discard first? Is there any specific game-balancing reason why?


texts: Can I use a weapon that makes noise when there's no room for more noise tokens?

texts: Is it possible to use a weapon making noise if there's no more room for noise tokens on a location? And is it possible to use a weapon making noise in the colony, knowing that you can't put noise token on the colony?