Can you link up twice in one turn in Age of Steam? During the Move Goods phase you have the option to either:

Move a good
Increase your Engine Links

Then each other player goes and you then get a second chance to move a good.  Can you choose the Increase Engine Link option for both goods?

I have the game, and dug out the rules to clarify.

Under section 5, Move Goods, it states the following:

  In ONE of the two opportunities to Move Goods, the player may instead
  opt to move their disk on the Engine Track up one link. The maximum
  number of links is still 6 links.

Therefore, you may not use the Increase Engine Link option twice, and move no goods.


What adjustments do you have to make if partner leads "third highest" instead of "fourth highest" to open?" I would imagine that when using the "rule of 11," you would subtract the card's rank from 12 instead of 11 to get the number of outstanding cards higher than the led card outside of the opening leader's hand. Is this correct?
And suppose partner had A-Q-T-8-x, or A-Q-9-7-x  that is five "disconnected" cards. Using "fourth best," partner would lead the 8 or 7, and "third best, partner would lead the T or 9. How would one distinguish such a lead from the "top of nothing?" Or is the whole point being that if you are leading "third best, you should lead x (low) from T9x or 98x?
What other adjustments need to be made, if any?

Yes, The Rule of 12 is used, except it is the Rule of 10 and 12. Third best is led only from a holding 3 or 4 cards and fifth best is led from holdings of 5 or 6 cards. Opening Leader's partner is expected to apply the result of subtracting from both 10 and 12, with the information available from seeing Dummy and hearing the bidding, to make an appropriate assessment on Opening leader's holding.
The rationale is:

Remove the ambiguity from leads of 3rd best from 3 and 4th best from 4;

More readily allow partner to identify holdings of 5 cards by Opening Leader; and

Combine more consistently from Coded 9's and 10's Leads (vs NT), where Opening Lead of Jack denies the Queen, and that of either the Ten or Nine is either top of a sequence or show the next higher card in a broken sequence, as any of: AJT, KJT, AT9, KT9, QT9.


What happens if one of a spell's targets goes away before the spell resolves? During the prerelease my opponent casts Rites of Reaping to give his creature +3/+3 and my creature -3/-3. In response I sacrifice my creature with the Golgari Guildmage.

From my understanding the card is similar to Switcheroo where if the second target is no longer existing the spell will fizzle.

Rites of Reaping will not fizzle, because some of its targets are still valid. The spell will only be countered if all of its targets are illegal. Instead, the spell does as much as possible, which is to give +3/+3 to his creature. This is defined by 608.2b.

Your probably came to the wrong conclusion because your understanding of what happens with Switcheroo is incorrect. It won't be countered (fizzle) if only one of the targeted creatures disappears. However, it won't have any effect either. An exchange requires something to be received and something to be given, so it cannot happen if one of the two targets is illegal.

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets are illegal, the part of the spell or ability’s effect for which it is an illegal target can’t perform any actions on that target, make another object or player perform any actions on that target, or make that target perform any actions. The effect may still determine information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.


How many units can a new factory produce? Playing my thirty-year-old copy of Axis & Allies for the first time in 20 years...I recall a rule from my childhood that a factory that is purchased and placed during the game can only produce units during a turn equal to (or less than) its territory's IPC value. I.e. if the UK builds a factory in South Africa it can only output two units per turn.

Now I'm teaching my son and told him this rule, but can't actually find it in the book: is it a real rule? Was it released via some errata? Was it a commonly-applied houserule in the 80's/90's that I somehow internalized?

According to the Wikipedia article Comparison of Axis & Allies games, some versions of the game had that restriction and some didn't have it.

  The number of units that may be deployed in territories with Industrial Complexes per turn varied depending on the game: in Classic and Pacific, Industrial Complexes that were held by the player at the start of the game (including those that were lost and subsequently recaptured) allowed an unlimited number of units to be deployed, while captured or built ones were able to deploy units equal in number to the value of the territory (to a minimum of 1 in Classic). Revised simplified the rule to all Industrial Complexes' production being limited to the value of the territory.

Checking a few different versions of the rules I was unable to find any that removed the IPC rule completely, however they did move around where they list the restriction. Some versions have it right under the Mobilize New Units heading, and some have the restriction under the subheading Restrictions on Placement.

Regarding your specific version, I was unable to find that version of the rules. However I did find the 1986 version which also has the 4423-X1 serial/catalog number. It states on page 21, under Section 7 Place New Units On Gameboard:

  Other considerations:
  The production capacity of industrial complexes: Original complexes (ones you started the game with) give you unlimited capacity - you can place any number of newly purchased items in a territory with such a complex; new complexes (one you purchased and placed or captured) give you limited capacity per turn - the number of unites you can place is equal to the income value of the territory the complex is in.


List of blue counterspells that can be played for free? I looked around on the internet for a list of blue counterspells in Magic: the Gathering that can be played for no mana. (Alternative costs or a mana cost later is fine.) Does anyone have a list or know where to find a list?

There are 5 Blue counterspells that can be cast for alternate costs:

Daze
Disrupting Shoal
Foil
Force of Will
Thwart

I found these with the following search on Scryfall:

  o:"rather than pay ~'s mana cost" o:counter c:u

This searches for spells with alternative costs (first clause) with "counter" in the text (second clause) that are blue (third clause).

In addition, Mental Misstep only costs {UP}, so you can pay life instead of mana.

If you also want to count spells with mana that needs to be paid later, Pact of Negation has a mana cost of {0}, but it also says

  At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay {3}{U}{U}. If you don't, you lose the game.

Besides that, there are 3 spells that can be used to effectively counter a spell that can be cast without paying any mana:

Commandeer lets you take control of a spell and change its targets. You can choose a target that is (more) beneficial to you, or, if the other spell is a counterspell, you can redirect it to target Commandeer so that it is countered for having an illegal target after Commandeer leaves the stack.
Mindbreak Trap lets you exile any number of spells, but you can only cast it for free if your opponent has cast at least 3 spells this turn.
Misdirection also lets you choose new targets for a spell. Of course, it is only useful for dealing with targeted spells, and you can use it to deal with counterspells the same way you can use Commandeer.


Ral, Storm Conduit and 2x Expansion // Explosion Imagine I have Ral, Storm Conduit on the field.

Then I cast a Shock, followed by Expansion copying the Shock. In response I cast another Expansion targeting the first Expansion. Will this create an endless loop of spells/copies causing Ral's first ability to trigger infinitely?

Yes, you can use this combo an arbitrary number of times, as long as you choose the first Expansion on the stack as the target of your copied Expansions.

Just to clarify: after casting (but not resolving) the first Expansion (card A), the stack looks like this:

Expansion (A), targeting Shock
Shock
-----

(the target for Shock or for Shock's copy isn't really relevant for the combo)

You cast your second Expansion (card B), targeting the Expansion:

Expansion (B1), targeting Expansion (A) and choosing Expansion (A) as the new target for the copy
Expansion (A), targeting Shock
Shock
-----

Now Expansion B1 resolves and creates a copy (let's call it B2); note that the card itself is moved to the graveyard:

Expansion (B2), targeting Expansion (A) and choosing Expansion (A) as the new target for the copy
Expansion (A), targeting Shock
Shock
-----

You can repeat this process: when Expansion Bn resolves, it will create a copy Bn+1

Expansion (B(n+1)), targeting Expansion (A) and choosing Expansion (A) as the new target for the copy
Expansion (A), targeting Shock
Shock
-----

To exit the loop after n iterations, you only need not to choose new targets for Bn+1 copying A (which is targeting the Shock):

  706.10c Some effects copy a spell or ability and state that its controller may choose new targets for the copy. The player may leave any number of the targets unchanged, even if those targets would be illegal. If the player chooses to change some or all of the targets, the new targets must be legal. Once the player has decided what the copy’s targets will be, the copy is put onto the stack with those targets.

So even if the opponent managed to counter the Shock somewhere during the loop, which removes it from the stack, Bn+1 can still end up targeting it, and by rule 608.2b it won't resolve. If the Shock is still there, Expansion Bn+1 will 'become' a copy of Shock and resolve. Then, it's Expansion A's turn to resolve (or not to resolve, if the original Shock isn't there anymore), and finally the original Shock.

You see, copying spells this way is dangerous for your opponent the sanity of Stack Exchange users. Thanks @murgatroid99 and @Taemyr for helping out.


Monopoly: The Mega Edition Bankruptcy rule for distribuiting properties of creditor Lets suppose player "A" goes bankrupt to player "B".

B owns 3 properties of red color and has built hotels on each of them.

A has the 4th property and it goes to B as part of bankruptcy.

Should B evenly distribute the hotels / houses on all 4 of the red colored properties.

Suppose if A had that property mortgaged
2. Should B unmortgage it and distribute the hotels/houses on all 4 of them?

Yes, you must un-mortgage the property and redistribute the building across all the properties.
Rules

Owning all but one

  You may build houses and hotels once you
  own all but one property in a color group

Accruing the last one

  If you acquire the
  final property of a group, after previously building on its other
  properties, you must un-mortgage this property immediately
  (if mortgaged) and build it up according to the “even” building rule or, if you can’t afford to do so, you must redistribute
  existing houses among all properties of the group. You may
  need to break down hotels to do this


Damage Trample and Lifelink which cause Damage Both attacking and defending players have 1 life left
Attacking player is attacking with a 3/1 creature with trample
Defending player blocks with a 1/1 creature with lifelink
Defending player also control an artifact with "Every time you gain life, deal 1 damage to target opponent"

What would happen?
I cannot figure it out.
I think the artifact's ability will be ignored because the combat damage was made and defending player already lost.
Therefore the game ends and attacking player wins.

Assuming nothing else happens, in the combat damage step, P1's creature will deal 2 damage to P2 (and 1 damage to P2's creature), and P2's creature will deal 1 damage to P1's creature.
Lifelink modifies the damage dealt, so at the very same time, both creatures are dealt 1 damage, P2 is dealt 2 damage, and P2 gains 1 life.

119.3f. Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller to gain that much life, in addition to the damage’s other results.

The artifact triggers, but before the trigger is put on the stack, State-Based Actions are checked and see P2 at 0 life, causing that player to lose the game.

116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, “State-Based Actions”), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities”). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. (...)
704.5a. If a player has 0 or less life, he or she loses the game.

The trigger from the artifact is never put on the stack, and certainly never resolves.


Can multiple people build at the same time in Monopoly? From the Monopoly rulebook:

  If there are a limited
  number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish
  to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at
  auction to the highest bidder.

I don't quite understand this scenario. I thought that in Monopoly you could only build on your property on your own turn. Given that, I don't see how the scenario of two or more players trying to build at the same time could happen. Is my understanding of the rules incorrect? Is building houses on another player's turn allowed? If so, can it be done after the player rolls the dice and lands on your property?

I always thought the same thing, but the rule book actually states:

  Following the above rules, you may buy and erect at any time as
  many houses as your judgement and financial standing will allow

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf

So, yes, the quoted scenario could happen


Is it legitimate/ethical to treat the same bid from different people in different ways? I play in a bridge "round robin" using Chicago scoring, with three other people. Call them, A, B, and C, with three different styles.
A will open, say one spade with as few as ten high card points (HCP) and a 6-4 or 5-5 distribution, or 11 hcp and a 5-4 distribution using the "rule of 20." (The sum of hcp and length in the top two suits needs ot equal 20.)

B bids "Standard American."

C will never open with less than 13 hcp, sometimes passing with them, and needing 14.

Suppose I have 6 points as a responder. I will sometimes pass with A, unless I have something extra, like a fourth trump or a good sequence (KQ, or QJT), but bid with B. With C, I may shade my points down to 5 with "something extra."

In a tournament, when paired with A or C, I should disclose our unusual bidding practices, right?

But suppose I do this in a round robin when I will be partnered with A for four hands, B for four hands, and C for four hands, etc. Is this objectionable?

It is legitimate, as long you disclose the known tendencies to the opponents.

If you don't, it is similar to having undisclosed agreements.


Do I lose the "High" or "Dark" modifer if I gain a race? The Reloaded expansion for standard Munchkin adds High and Dark modifiers to your class. If I get the High card without already having a race, I become a High Human. If I then get a Race card such as Elf, do I become a Dark Elf? Or do I lose the High card because I changed races?

Both High and Dark say: "Add this card to a race card". In my reading this means that you can't be a High Human, and so the question is not applicable.


Heroic fantasy god game I am looking for the name of a board game that I played in uni (6 years ago). It's an heroic fantasy game where each player is god and can take control of any race on the board and have them fight any other race. Each player is secretly dealt a race that they have to make grow.

Just googled the description and this came up (Age of Gods)
https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13636.phtml
Is this the one?


What happens when two players both play Control Magic on the same creature? For example, I control a Pathraizer of Ulamog. One of my opponents cast Control Magic on it to take control of it. Then my other opponent casts the same spell. How can they both control it?

The last effect created takes precedence.
Section 613 resolves interaction of Continuous Effects. The rules relevant to this specific question are the following:

613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.
613.6a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

Continuous effects are continually reevaluated. This means that destroying the second Control Magic gives control of Pathraizer to the controller of the first Control Magic.


How do I promote a board game to the masses? I created a board game for playing while watching American Football with your friends. We always had a great time playing it and anybody outside of our group who saw it immediately loved it. So I thought it's a no brainer, it's time to sell this.

The name of the game is Big Bucks Football. And I built my website and twitter and Facebook and YouTube, and I believe I have about 8 hits. I am active, I tweet on twitter, I share on Facebook, I have instructional videos on YouTube, but still no success.

My question is, has anyone here had any success, or have any ideas on how to promote the game? I have a limited budget but I'm willing to put the time in. I just started my Kickstarter campaign, but I'm already worried if that doesn't work I may start pulling my hair out cause I'm out of ideas.

Promoting a board game (design, prototype, print&play or kickstarter) should definitely involve BoardGameGeek, and similar communities.

I could expand, but everything's covered in this article: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/322382/game-design-self-publishing-resource-game-designer

You should provide print&play materials for playtesting groups, to see if most people actually agree on your game's quality. And the feedback can lead to an improved game.
If your game is better than good, the word will spread (forum threads growing longer, enthusiastic playtesters recommending it to their neighbours' moms, etc.)

And: the "masses" (as in: everybody not actively following the boardgaming industry) will only encounter a game once it's physically for sale in shops. That's why every family with two kids has a copy of Monopoly but not Agricola, Diplomacy or Twilight Struggle.


Optimal Dominion strategy with only the Mine action card Consider a Dominion game where the only cards are Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province and Mine, i.e. the only action card is Mine.

Is there an obvious optimal strategy/strategies in this simplified game?

Using the Dominiate Online Simulator I simulated a few Mine and money strategies in two player games against Big Money. The best strategy I could find was to play Big Money, but buy a Mine in preference to Silver if there is enough money. The simulator upgrades Silvers to Gold rather than Coppers to Silvers if there's a choice (the Dominion Strategy Guide agrees with this decision here).

I tested varying the number of Mines to aim for and simulated 1000 games against Big Money.  Here are the results:

1 Mine:  59.1% wins
2 Mines: 56.3% wins
3 Mines: 53.1% wins
4 Mines: 49.7% wins

After the first Mine, additional Mines hinder your deck, as you start to draw two terminal actions in some hands. This is backed up by Matt Sargent's investigation where he tried to find the optimal number of various different single cards in 'Single Action plus Big Money' decks.

If you want to try simulating this yourself, here's the strategy I was using:

{
    name: 'One Mine and Money'
    author: 'tttppp'
    requires: ['Mine']
    gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
        "Province" if my.getTotalMoney() > 18
        "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 4
        "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
        "Gold"
        "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 6
        "Mine" if my.countInDeck("Mine") < 1
        "Silver"
    ]
}


What happens if the first card is a Flip Card in UNO Flip? I have a couple of questions regarding the use of the Flip card in UNO Flip.

What happens if the card turned over to start the Discard pile in the beginning of the game is a Flip card? Do we then start with the Dark Side or the Light Side?
What happens when we use a Flip card and then it reveals when flipped that the Discard pile's first card is a Wild Draw Color card?

Since according to the Mattel's UNO FLIP! rules there are no special instructions for a Flip Card turned over at the start of the game.

  NOTE: If any of the Action Cards (symbols) are turned over to start the DISCARD pile, see FUNCTIONS OF ACTION CARDS for special instructions.

If the card turned over to start the DISCARD pile is a Flip Card you should "flip over" all the cards and play the Dark Side.

  Flip Card – when you play this card, everything flips from the Light Side to the Dark Side. Once the Flip card has been played, flip over the Discard Pile (the card just played will now be on the bottom), then the Draw Pile, then everyone’s hands must flip to the other side...

Question 2 is answered here:
What to do after flipping the discard pile in Uno Flip?


Can you play three skips then a reverse? In a two-player Uno game, can the same person play 3 skips and immediately continue with a reverse of the same colour?

Yes, in a 2 player game, playing a skip would make it your turn again, so you could play another skip if you have one.

Playing a reverse will also skip your opponent’s turn, only in a 2 player game.

From the rules:

  Rules for Two Players - The following special rules apply to two-player UNO:

    Playing a Reverse card works like playing a Skip card. By playing the Reverse card, you may immediately play another card.
    By playing a Skip card, you may immediately play another card.


How to solve Free Cell games fast? (in under 2 min) In freecell, I make the same number of moves as the best player, but she wins the game in a 1.5 minutes while I need 5.5 minutes.  Is there a trick to play fast?

My best time in Expert in FreeCell in Microsoft's Solitaire Collection is 1:04.

I think I obtained that time in one of the "Daily Challenges", so it may not have been a "real game". That said, I have reached close to that time on other occasions. In fact, while trying to obtain a screenshot of the score screen to include in this post, I believe I have gotten my second best time ever.

(I play all games to completion now, but I abandoned some games early on. My goal is to get the win rate to 99%, which requires playing another 2692 games.)

Rather than spending time pondering my next move, I prefer to experiment and use Undo with impunity. Undo can be performed rapidly by pressing Ctrl-Z. (Holding allows to quickly undo multiple moves, and even reset the board.)

Additionally, the discovery of "Single Tap To Move" option has greatly sped up my game significantly (although my best time was made without it this setting off).

With this option, I regularly get times around 2:00, which I would have considered exceptionally good before.

As for my actual strategy? I really wouldn't know how to describe it.


How do you stop this combination? Consider the following combination of cards in the Standard Format of Magic the Gathering, encompassing Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch.

In Play: Zada, Hedron Grinder and Seeker of the Way

Player casts: Arcbond and Valorous Stance, each targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. Order is irrelevant.

Player Casts: Wild Slash targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder.

Result: Zada creates a copy of Arbond, Valorous Stance, and Wild Slash for each creature the Player Controls. Since Prowess has been triggered for Seeker of the Way thrice, Ferocious is satisfied for Wild Slash: Damage can't be prevented this turn. Each Creatures is Indestructible.

A cascading, near uninterruptable chain of Arcbond reflected creature damage will deal infinite damage to each player and creature on the battlefield. Seeker of the Way's lifelink will keep the Player alive until everything else is dead.

What can stop this combination from ending the game in a draw?

Assuming that everything described in the scenario resolves, and nobody does anything to stop it, the player with the combo wins. Once the copy of Wild Slash resolves, the triggers play out as follows:

Arcbond targeting Seeker of the Way triggers. Seeker of the Way deals 2 damage to you, your opponent, and Zada. Since Seeker of the Way has lifelink, you also gain 6 life
If either player has 0 life, they lose the game.
Arcbond targeting Zada triggers. Zada deals 2 damage to you, your opponent, and Seeker of the Way.
If either player has 0 life, they lose the game.
Goto step 1.

Throughout this sequence, the original copy of Wild Slash is sitting at the bottom of the stack, waiting to resolve. So, even if it was possible to counter a triggered ability in Standard, that would be insufficient to stop the combo unless the opponent could do so twice.

If the opponent controls Tainted Remedy, then the last part of step 1 would instead say "you also lose 6 life", so in most cases, this would cause you to lose instead of win.

This sequence can be stopped at any time by removing one of the creatures, either by exiling it (e.g. with Complete Disregard), or by returning it to its owner's hand (e.g. with Force Away), or even by flickering it (e.g. with Eldrazi Displacer).

Stepping back further, as you mention, the combo can be broken by countering either the original or the copy of the Arcbond or the Valorous Stance, or by destroying one of the creatures in response to Valorous Stance.


Can I exile a token from the graveyard? So if I had a token that died could I immediately exile it from the graveyard using Necrogenesis? I know that a token is only in the graveyard for an instant, but could I exile it in that instant?

Your question, literally, can be answered very simply: You cannot exile a token from a graveyard, because tokens that have left the battlefield cannot change zones:

  110.5g A token that has left the battlefield can’t move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.

This alone doesn't prevent you from using Necrogenesis's ability to get a saproling, though, because it doesn't prevent you from targeting it with the ability; the ability just wouldn't exile the token when it resolved. You still can't get the saproling for several reasons.

You do not get priority before state-based actions are checked:

  704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no state-based actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

The token ceases to exist as a state-based action:

  704.5d If a token is phased out, or is in a zone other than the battlefield, it ceases to exist.

You do not have a chance to activate Necrogenesis's ability between the time the token enters the graveyard and the time it ceases to exist. Even if you somehow did have a chance to activate it, a token is not a "creature card", so it isn't a legal target for the ability:

  108.2. When a rule or text on a card refers to a “card,” it means only a Magic card. Most Magic games use only traditional Magic cards, which measure approximately 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) by 3.5 inches (8.8 cm). Certain formats also use nontraditional Magic cards, oversized cards that may have different backs. Tokens aren’t considered cards—even a card that represents a token isn’t considered a card for rules purposes.

Also, state-based actions are checked again after you activate the ability, because you receive priority again after:

  116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.

A similar ability that could target a token in a graveyard (which does not currently exist) would still not work, because the token would cease to exist before you get priority again just after you activate it. It would no longer be an illegal target, and the ability would be countered if it had no legal targets remaining. In the case of Necrogenesis, the ability has only one target, so it would be countered. During resolution, this happens:

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


Where can I practice MTG draft online and actually play against my opponents for free? I've been having fun practicing drafts on draft simulators like this one, but sometimes I'd like to actually be able to play with the deck I built. Since all of the other players on these simulators are Bots, I have to be content with always wondering if I actually drafted well or not.

Are there any ways to do this on the computer? All I really want is the ability to be able to draft and then play against my opponents without having to pay every time; I don't really care if they are human or not, but I'd prefer it if they were actually decent at the game if they are bots. I also don't care about the creating a virtual collection as I have all the pictures of cards I could possibly want on this cool little website.

I know there is Magic Online, but it's my understanding that it is far from free, so unless somebody knows of a way I can draft as many times as I want on MTGO without ever paying a dime, it does not meet my requirements. Am I doomed to never being able to get any experience similar to MTGO without shelling out a decent amount of money every time I want to play? Or is there some way to practice realistic drafts complete with swiss rounds online without paying a continual monetary upkeep?

You can draft at CCGdecks.com, tappedout.net, or drafts.in, and the free client Cockatrice is excellent for playing.


Can a single card use Dredge multiple times? My Stinkweed Imp was in the graveyard, and I used Dredge to return it to my hand, and replayed it.  Later in the game, the imp died a second time.  Can I use Dredge on it a second time, or is Dredge a one time use?

Yes, you may use Dredge as many times as you want.

Whenever a card changes zones, it becomes a new object.  It no longer remembers anything that it did, or was done to it in the previous zones.  So even if an ability said "You may only activate this ability once per game", then the process of moving the card to your hand, then to the battlefield, and then to the graveyard would make the card "forget" that it had ever activated the ability in the first place.

Secondly, Dredge does not have the text "You may only activate this ability once", and in the absence of specific rules limiting how often you can use an ability, you can use that ability as many times as you want.


How can I play Mystic Sanctuary and not auto-lose to Boil? Mystic Sanctuary is one of the best cards from Throne of Eldraine in eternal formats, because it can be fetched with fetchlands and guarantee a strong draw step. The cost is that it requires islands, which means everything dies to Boil. It's especially bad since Boil is instant speed.
Is there a way to play Mystic Sanctuary and not automatically lose to Boil if it resolves? Right now all the options I'm seeing are subpar:

Force of Negation could counter Boil (it must be Force of Negation since Boil is instant speed, it can cast in response the blue deck doing whatever at the end of the Boil player's turn), but it is obviously not a good solution since it's an inherent 2-for-1, and it's often not great against the rest of the Boil player's deck either.
There are a variety of blue-producing lands that are not Islands, e.g. Glacial Fortress. But they don't trigger Mystic Sanctuary.
Mana rocks such as Talisman of Progress could produce blue mana, but they're also not ideal because blue decks typically do not want mana rocks.

I'm looking for cards that can be played either maindeck or sideboard that will help the Mystic Sanctuary deck beat Boil. The format is Modern.

The main threat of Boil is that it is a single card that can destroy multiple Islands at once. If you are in a situation where you have multiple Islands to get destroyed, you should be able to have some of them untapped. So you can just handle it like any other threat and play regular countermagic like Negate or Mana Leak or Cryptic Command, and keep mana available when your opponent is threatening Boil.


In Yggdrasil, which character abilities are most useful/effective? I've played enough Pandemic (another co-operative game with varying player abilities) to know that some characters' abilities are more useful than others, or at least lead to a higher probability of winning.

I've only played Yggdrasil a couple of times, but I already wonder if some characters are more likely to win than others. Abilities like being allowed to re-roll dice (Tyr) or +1 to all combat (Thor) seem more useful than, for instance, the ability that lets you use the same action more than once in a turn.

Is this fair? Are some characters' abilities demonstrably better than others?

Edit: The abilities are:

Odin

  Takes two Enemy cards from the stack instead of one, chooses which one he wants to play and puts the other one back on or under the deck.

Thor

  Has a permanent +1 bonus for combat.

Frey

  Can perform 4 actions during his turn (instead of 3), but they still have to be performed in different worlds.

Heimdall

  Can take 4 counters instead of 3 when he looks for souls.

Tyr

  Can roll the die twice and choose one of the results in
  any situation.

Freyja

  Can perform 2 of her 3 actions in the same world.

Yes, there are tiers.

In order of effectiveness and efficiency:

Frey - 33% more actions than any other god, can excel either as pointman, support, or solo, since his play engine is self-sufficient

Thor - always present combat bonus gives great advantage for two worlds, Asgard and Jotunheim; less need for Nidavellir, Alfanheim, and Midgard

Tyr - better combat ability; reroll can affect a number of enemy effects (Fenrir, Jormungand, Hel, Surt); less need for Nidavellir, Alfanheim, and Midgard

Freyja - very situational advantages; otherwise, no direct efficiency bonuses:

-- can upgrade weapons faster than any other god, which lets other gods equip weaker versions on their turn, since gods cannot get equipment unless the next version is available, great for early attacks

-- double Midgard to get over a sunken island on her turn is more cost efficient than using the Vanaheim track

-- double Niflheim to re-distribute elves and vikings quickly

-- can pull off miracle saves for when three enemies cross the line for defeat conditions, by pushing back two enemies on Asgard and then using the Vanaheim track for the third, a feat that not even the mighty fighter Thor can do

Odin - only better if he comes before Tyr in the play order, to manage enemy effects

Heimdall - drains the viking pool too quickly after cleaning the white/blue bag; three enemy effects shut down his power very easily

With fewer players, usefulness of Freyja's ability decreases, usefulness of Frey's ability increases

With more players, usefulness of Frey's ability decreases, usefulness of Freyja's ability increases (due to weapon sharing restrictions)

See this thread on BoardGameGeek titled The powers of the gods - Odin awfully unmighty? Frey the best of all?


Marrying Mr. Darcy - Can Kitty Bennet play one more turn after the last turn? In the card game "Marrying Mr. Darcy", Kitty Bennet's special power states that

When it's time to draw an Event Crad, she can choose to draw the top discarded Event Card instead.

Usually, when the last Event Card is drawn, the game ends. However, if the last Event Card is drawn by the player to the right of Kitty Bennet, can Kitty still take one more turn by re-drawing that same last Event Card after it is discarded? or is the game immediately over when the last Event Card is intially drawn regardless of Kitty's special power?

No, she can't take one more turn by re-drawing that last event card. The game enters the Proposal Stage as soon as that last card was played.
From the rules:

When all Event Cards have been played, the Proposal Stage
begins immediately


instants and sorceries with activated abilities while on the stack I only know of one instant with an activated ability: lightning storm. Are there any other instants or sorceries that have an activated abilities while on the stack? Also are there any permanents that have an activated ability that only works on the stack?

Lightning Storm appears to be the only spell with an activated ability that functions on the stack.

There are a couple of other spells that have an unusual static ability that functions on the stack: Torrent of Lava and Kaervek's Torch. (There's also the more common "(this spell) can't be countered" static ability or the "when you cast (this spell)" triggered ability found especially on Eldrazi cards.)

We can check this by by searching for all instants and sorceries with an : in their text (and we'll filter out mention of Eldrazi scion/spawn tokens for convenience) — the only one in there with an activated ability that functions on the stack is Lightning Storm.

We can also make a regex search for cards that mention the word "stack" at all. For abilities to function on the stack, they'll have to mention being able to function that zone. From that search we also see Torrent of Lava and Kaervek's Touch.


Magic: Shuffle face down cards after opponent looked at one? As I understand it, there is basically hidden and public information in Magic. Now let's suppose I have multiple face-down cards on the battlefield, and my opponent gets to look at one of them. Is there anything in the rules that specifies what I can do to those face down cards and what I can't? My opponent now knows what one of my face down cards is, but does he have the "right" to know which one it is, or may I shuffle them so that he no longer has access to that information? My guess is shuffling is ok, but I have no idea where I'd look in the rules...

No, you can't do that.

From Comprehensive Rules (bold mine):

  707.6. If you control multiple face-down spells or face-down permanents, you must ensure at all times that your face-down spells and permanents can be easily differentiated from each other. This includes, but is not limited to, knowing the order spells were cast, the order that face-down permanents entered the battlefield, which creature attacked last turn, and any other differences between face-down spells or permanents. Common methods for distinguishing between face-down objects include using counters or dice to mark the different objects, or clearly placing those objects in order on the table.


Identify a game involving placing cardboard food into a mouth using forks I'm trying to remember what game was just a heads and neck made of cardboard. It came with forks and cardboard junk food. You had to put the food in the mouth one at a time then it would tip and dump it out

This is possibly Big Mouth, published by Schaper in 1968 (BoardGameGeek also lists Hasbro as a publisher, but doesn't list a specific version that they published).

This seems to match most of your description. From the website:

  Each player is given a large 14" red plastic fork and a paper plate on which there are 6 different plastic food items and a green bug. A thin piece of cardboard is placed over a plastic bowl. The cardboard is designed in the shape of a cute clown with a hole forming the entrance to his oral cavity, which is formed by the bowl.

The biggest difference between your description and this one is that the food is plastic, not cardboard. It also doesn't look like there is a dumping mechanism, but everything else seems to fit.

If this doesn't quite fit your game, please let us know why and perhaps edit your question with more details


Condensing Carcassonne & expansions into a single box I've got a large collection of boxes piling up for Carcassonne, both the little ones that fit in the palm or your hand (like River and The Count) and the medium size ones like (like Inns & Cathedrals and The Princess and the Dragon)--currently three of each size.

Is there an elegant way to store the pieces all in the main box for easier storage and transportation?  The little boxes fit just as they are, but the bigger ones are little trickier. It seems there should be a good way to make use of all these cardboard inserts, but their shapes are all pretty generic and they waste a lot of space. Is there a good way to cut then up and reuse them?

Space-wise, all the pieces from the expansions fit easily into the main box, but they are really loose. I also want to keep the tiles from each expansion grouped together and easy to pull out one at a time.

A great solution to this struck me as I was falling asleep a few nights ago (strange how the brain works): I won't need the expansion boxes anymore, so I could cannibalize those into smaller boxes.

After a lot of careful measuring, I took the expansion box lids and scored them across the top in three places with a pair of scissors and a ruler, creating straight fold-lines.  Then I trimmed off the bottom edge and a portion of each side, and folded on my scored lines.  I made my boxes a few eights of an inch taller than they are wide, but I think an even square (i.e. three equally spaced score marks on the lid) would be just fine, maybe even better, since a couple of mine turned out to be a tighter fit than I intended.

I kept the two corners in the upper portion of the lid intact, so it could serve as a lid on my smaller box, hinging at one of my folds.  I folded the whole thing up and, after some final trimming, I taped the corners together.  I also supported each folds with a strip of tape, to make sure they don't wear out and fall apart later.

The new box with hinged lid closed:

The box holds tiles and a baggie with game pieces.  The lid is the intact portion from the top of the original box lid.  The front, bottom, and back are all from the top of the original lid, all rolled up along my score marks.  I kept a square from the sides of the original lid for the end pieces of the box.

I trimmed the original cardboard insert and just kept the long narrow part that holds the tiles (bottom of last photo, below).  This left room for my three re-sized expansion boxes (Princess, Traders, and Inns), plus my small expansions (The Count, King & Scout, River II, and River (rubberbanded)) and my meeples in a bag.

I'm not sure if all Carcassonne expansions would fit using this method, but I own most of them, and it fit nicely for me.

Edit

My attempt at a diagram.  This is the expansion box lid in original form, with cuts and folds marked.  Create a mock-up with a piece of scratch paper first, if that helps.

Use scissors to score the three dashed lines across the top of the box (equally spaced).
Cut out the X'd portions - the entire bottom edge and the center portion of each side edge.
Fold the three scored marks to transform the large surface of the original lid into the front, back, bottom, and top of the new box.  The top edge of the original lid will now be the front flap of the new box.
The new lid will be just a little too tall for your new box, so trim it to match.
Tape up the corners.  You can also tape the folded edges for durability.


Supernatual Stamina + Commander I've been wondering a seemingly stupid question, can Supernatural Stamina work more than once on a commander card? Instant grants ability to creature, commander is the same creature while changing zones. Could it be a loophole or am I missing something?

You can not use Supernatural Stamina to return your Commander to the battlefield multiple times.

Whenever a creature leaves the battlefield and returns it is treated as different object. This is covered in the gatherer rulings for Supernatural Stamina:

  Supernatural Stamina’s effect works only once. If the targeted creature dies and is then returned to the battlefield, it’s considered to be a new creature. If that new creature dies, it won’t come back a second time.

Additionally, while your Commander is still considered your Commander while changing zones it is still treated as a new object every time it changes zones as covered in the comprehensive rules:

  903.3.: Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the object represented by the card; rather, it is an attribute of the card itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.

and:

  400.7.: An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are nine exceptions to this rule:*

*(None of the exceptions apply)


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

Yes, that creature's power and toughness will change as the number of creatures in your graveyard changes. It doesn't say something weird like "when it enters the battlefield, count the creatures in your graveyard, etc etc". It just says:

  Boneyard Wurm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard.

So that's what it does. However many creature cards are in your graveyard right at this moment, that's its power and toughness. Add one, they go up by one, remove one, they go down by one.


Is the card "Outshine Them All" from the MLP CCG useless? In the MLP CCG there is a card from the Twilight / Applejack theme deck called "Outshine Them All": http://mlpccg.wikia.com/wiki/Outshine_Them_All_(Premiere)

You have to pay one action token to use it, and it only gives you any action token profit if there's a troublemaker in play.

Is it useless?

(Also, if you feel like giving an opinion:
Should it give you two action tokens for winning a faceoff?
Or should it be one point (vs action token) for winning a faceoff?)

I'm mainly interested in whether or not it's useless and why/why not.
Perhaps even a reason it could even be useful if it's not useless.

I wouldn't say it is useless, although it doesn't seem particularly useful. You may pay an action token now to receive possibly several action tokens in the future (by defeating several troublemakers at the problem and possibly again when you are in a problem faceoff at the problem). As a strategy, this is troublesome because of the opportunity costs of using the action token in the first place, the uncertainty of winning the final problem faceoff, and the fact that your opponent may not play multiple troublemakers at the problem to avoid giving you additional bonuses.

Here is the scenario where I would be inclined to play this card: It's the main phase and I now have what I consider to be an acceptable power at the troublemaker to win the faceoff next turn. I have a remaining action token after playing all of the other cards I wanted this turn. I can spend that action token now and I can expect to get it back during the troublemaker faceoff next turn. After that, I will have the opportunity to continue to collect additional action tokens for wins at the problem.

As for your second question, winning a faceoff with the card at a problem will earn you one action token plus the normal amount of bonus points.


Why are there five extra turns in tournament Magic? In tournament Magic, once time is called in a round, the game stops and the players have a total of 5 "extra turns". If, after those five turns, the game is still not over, the game ends in a draw.

Why are there five extra turns? This rule seems like it gives the player who takes the first extra turn a large advantage - after all, that player has three more turns, while the opponent only has two. Why not six or some even number?

The imbalance is intentional. It gives every player an incentive to have the time limit hit during their opponent's turn, and therefore to finish their own turn quickly. As a result, it helps each tournament round stay within the time limit and reduces the need for turn extensions.
From the Tournament rules (pdf)

2.5 End-of-Match Procedure
If the match time limit is reached before a winner is determined, the player whose turn it is finishes their turn and five additional turns are played in total. This usually means that one player takes three turns and the other two, but a player taking extra turns may affect this. If a player has already passed priority in their end step when the time limit is reached, that is considered to be in their opponent’s next turn.

When the time limit hits, the currently active player finishes their turn and, as you correctly note, is disadvantaged by getting only two extra turns vs. the opponent's three. That means you do NOT want to be the active player when the time limit hits. The best way to not be the active player is to finish your turn, so you have an incentive to finish your turn as quickly as possible and pass that "hot potato" to your opponent.
Additionally, with an odd number turn extension, the non-active player also gets the last turn. In a damage race situation with creatures on both sides, the player who has the last turn does not have to plan for the opponent's backswing, and can go all out with the last attack.
By providing each player an individual incentive to play quickly (in addition to regular slow play infraction penalties), the whole tournament benefits. If the turn extension was an even number, no player would have this particular incentive to play quickly, because it wouldn't matter who the active player is at the time limit. The active player would also get the last turn, so it would be an overall benefit to the currently active player and therefore an incentive to play slowly.


Can I cast a spell in combat check after having rolled? In the Arkham Horror board game, consider the following:

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

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

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

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

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

From the Rules (Page 13)

  Skill Checks / Modifiers
  This number is added to or subtracted from the investigator’s skill value before the player makes the check. The result is the number of dice the player rolls to make the check. Note that modifiers always apply to the number of dice a player rolls for a check, not to the results of the individual dice.

A combat check is a skill check, and a spell is a modifier (with additional rules) to that check, therefore you must decide to use the spell before rolling the combat check, and you can not change your mind after the check to roll additional dice if you failed.

Thematically it makes sense as well, spells are hard to cast, require preparation and mental strengthening, so it's best to have them at the ready and in hand.


When should I pay to invade a neutral country in Axis and Allies What factors should be considered when deciding whether to invade a minor country and pay the 3+ IPC's?

At a basic level, I weigh the 3 IPC payment and the opportunity cost of the units I used to invade it against the benefit to be gained. That's pretty generic so some examples might help:

As Japan, I often find myself invading Panama in the mid- to late-game because my navy has nothing else useful to do. If America doesn't have any tanks in Western US, chooses not to use them, or if I have enough extra transports that I was able to land a blocking infantry in Mexico, then America will be unable to kill any units that landed in Panama. In this case, I'll typically invade Venezuela on the next turn and then take Brazil. The 3 IPCs from Brazil are an equal trade for the 3 I lose for invading a neutral, the value from really throwing a monkey wrench into America's plans is high, and the opportunity cost was low, since the navy wasn't busy anyway.
As the Allies I've landed in Spain before just to open up another front for Germany to defend. It can be very difficult to stage a successful amphibious invasion because of the lame attacking power of infantry, the one tank per transport limit, and the ability to lose your entire air force because of the no retreat rule. So to prevent having to attack, I've invaded Spain as the UK and dumped a full load of infantry followed by the US on their turn. Now Germany either has to counter attack (with only the infantry in France and without any tanks in EEU or further East) or give me a foothold in Europe I'll likely never give back.
I've also played with a house rule before where land units could cross the Bosporus if Turkey was occupied. So I tried invading Turkey as Germany to help me ferry troops into Africa. This didn't work that well as it's still a long way from the Fatherland.


Telepresence Board Games I was wondering if anyone has had any success in playing board games with remote players? I have a few friends that live too far away to make a regular game night with however they really enjoy board games.

We were thinking that we could have a screen for the remote people, a webcam on the local players, and an overhead one on the play area.

Try Diplomacy!

I have found Diplomacy to be an amazing solution to this sort of  issue. Originally played by mail in the 60s (famously known as US President John F. Kennedy's favorite game), Diplomacy maintains a strong remote gaming presence, but now in an online setting. The original game has 7 players but they have variants with down to 2 players, or up to 36.

HOW IT APPLIES TO YOU

You can all get on with your buddies and set the game up to have 15 minute phases between moves (if everyone presses ready, it automatically processes to save time) and you can play for 3-5 hours to make for a fun game night that way while voice calling or in-game chatting (be careful of your volume when someone screams after a backstab hahaha).

Or you can set the phases to 24 hours so people have more time to play and can focus 10 minutes everyday on it. (best for people with busy schedules like me)

Just make sure you make these games private as the community is very good and playing with friends is considered "cheating" as it may provide you with reasons outside of the game to remain loyal to someone / an alliance.

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Modern Minimalist Interface, No Variants, Medium Community, free, no ranking system what-so-ever:

Backstabbr

Easy-To-Read Interface, Some Variants, Large Community, free but you can donate, competitive point system:

Web Diplomacy

Easy-To-Read Interface, Most Variants, Small Community, free, point system:

Variant Diplomacy (Made by Creators of WebDiplomacy as a 'experimental website')

Modern Easy-To-Read Interface, Very Few Variants, Large Community, paid subscription for extra variants and other features, point system:

Play Diplomacy

I personally used Backstabbr until the frequent CDs from online players got to me. I am a proud WebDiplomacy user now. I like the interface of PlayDiplomacy but I do not entertain the idea of a paid subcription for "premium" features.


Puerto Rico, 3-player: Which role order in the first round? What would be the best role choice order for the first round in a 3-player game of Puerto Rico (without extension)?

I often see:

Settler (→ Quarry)
Builder (→ Small Indigo or Small Sugar)
Major (staffing corn)

I sometimes see:

Settler (→ Quarry)
Craftsman (no bonus)
Major (staffing corn)

And also:

Settler (→ Quarry)
Craftsman (no bonus)
Builder (→ Small Market)

What should player 1 (Indigo), player 2 (Indigo) and player 3 (Corn) choose?

Is Settler (selecting a Quarry) the only advisable role choice for player 1?

I'm also interested in choices for player 2/3 if player 1/2 chose something unusual.

For a 5-player game, see Viable, alternative, first round role orders in 5-player Puerto Rico

The first round is almost always:

Settler (P1:Quarry, P2:Corn(or Sugar if Corn unavailable), P3:Indigo (other choices are also good)
Builder (P2:Small Market or related production building, P3:Small Market, P1:Pass or (Small Market if available, sometimes Small Indigo)
Mayor (P3:Corn and Small Market, P1:Quarry, P2:doesn't matter)

An in depth analysis would take pages, but your two latter cases make no sense, because Craftsman gains Player 2 no advantage. Clearly, they could have chosen Builder, built the Small Market for free (1 VP), and prevent Player 1 from getting the opportunity to build it for free with a covered Quarry.

If Player 1 chooses Mayor, Captain, Craftsman, or Trader then no choices can be made so I won't cover those. If Player 1 chooses Builder, Player 2 should build either Small Market or Small Indigo, Player 3 should probably build Small Market. This gives Player 2 the opportunity to get the first Quarry by selecting Settler (cash is king in the early game), or Mayor to cover both Indigo slots. If they choose wisely though, that would leave Player 3 with Mayor, covering their Corn+Small Market.


What is the benefit of having an "Inflict X damage to your opponent" spell card that does less damage than others? I have noticed that there are a number of cards that have the following text (or a variation of it):

  Inflict [some amount of] damage to your opponent's Life Points.

Cards that follow this format are:

Sparks: 200 points
Raimei: 300 points
Hinotama: 500 points*
Final Flame: 600 points
Ookazi: 800 points

But why would you ever want to choose Sparks or Raimei when Ookazi does the exact same thing, but deals more damage?

This doesn't seem to be a matter of power creep; these cards all seem to have come out at about the same time: 1999 for the Japanese versions, 2002 for the North American versions, and 2004 for the worldwide versions. So all of these cards were available at about the same time, (and Ookazi was in the Kaiba starter deck, so it wasn't hard to find).

When a spell card exists that says "Inflict 800 damage to your opponent's Life Points", why would you ever want to include a card in your deck that says "Inflict 200 damage to your opponent's Life Points"?

* There is also Goblin Thief that deals 500 points of damage to your opponent and you gain 500 points. I understand why someone might want to choose Goblin Thief over Ookazi, but not why someone would want to choose Hinotama over Goblin Thief.

There is no benefit whatsoever. The only reason why someone would use this sort or not-as-useful card is that there are some decks that mainly focus on damage from spell or trap cards, such as 'Magic Cylinder' These decks basically only contain cards that deal instant damage. It is one of the most quickest way to deplete someone's LP. The benefit is that not many decks are prepared for this type of damage, and since there are only three copies of a single card within a single deck, varieties of a card are necessary.


Is there a viable "Japan First" strategy for the Allies in Axis and Allies? In the "real" war, the Allies concentrated on, and defeated Germany before Japan. That might not have been the case if Hitler had not declared war on the United States in 1941, and the U.S. had concentrated on fighting Japan.

The "Japan first" strategy might be better for the revised edition, with four Pacific "victory cities," but mine is the earliest edition.

Reasons for concentrating on Japan might be the following:

Japan is weaker than Germany, hence easier to beat.
In "real life," Japan occupied (or threatened to occupy), the more populous part of the world in Asia. The revised edition clearly reflects that.
If the "Japan" player is better than the "Germany" player, it might be wise to give priority to containing "Japan."

My plan for a "Japan first" strategy would be to have the U.S. fleet engage the Japanese fleet in the Pacific, to keep Japanese air power way from "Asia."

Then BOTH Britain and the U.S. build "factories" in India and Sinkiang, respectively. (The idea would be that Japan then could't capture both.) Russia would move forces east to protect India, and Sinkiang and ultimately to capture Manchuria. Each turn, the Americans would spend 10 of their IPCs manufacturing armored units in Sinkiang, while using their remaining 26 IPCs to neutralize Japan's 25 IPCs in the Pacific.

The armor manufactured in Sinkiang (and Britain's India) would recapture Kwantung and Indochina. Together, the Allies would capture nine IPCs and kick Japan off the mainland.
The downside is that the Germans would probably capture most of Africa (10 IPCs) in the meantime. But both sides would have "consolidated," the Germans in Europe-Africa, and the Allies in Asia.

Does the above, or any other plan, represent a viable "Japan first" strategy?

This response for Japan First is based on the 1986 Second Edition version and assumes No Russia Attack first round house rule.

The allies should under no circumstance look to divert SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES (i.e. more than U.K.'s dollars to an India IC/tanks thereafter).
If you send more dollars (U.S. IC, Russia support, etc), you are weakening the Shuck-Shuck which ultimately means a delay to round 4 assuming a smart Axis German player will suicide his fighters on a weakened initial shuck-shuck attempt. ORRR you are needlessly increasing Germany's short initial window to attack Russia by not placing all Russia defense troops possible of reaching Karelia as defense.
Allies should concentrate their initial 90 IPCs as much as possible towards Germany's 32 IPC's, this tilts the ground war in their favor the quickest as Germany starts out with an IPC advantage day 1 which must be overcome via Infantry-push tactics.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1) If all but you gets cards that provide $ from 1 or 2 valued rolls, then it kind of does devolve into that.  Early on, get a few of those cards, but then shoot for 2 dice, and some cards that trigger on the 4 - 10 range.  You'll be able to leech off of the single-die players, but can still do your own thing.

2) play with the variant where not all cards are available at all times.

3) The expansions add even more cards to the mix that allow #2 to be even more feasible


Alternative to Dixit Odyssey voting boards+pegs I recently bought Dixit Odyssey to enable more players at the same time. One thing about Odyssey that I absolutely don't like, is the new voting system with the cards and pegs. It's a lot harder to tell who's already placed a vote and we generally end up needlessly waiting for everyone to vote (when everyone already has).

We'd really like to go back to using upside down numbered tokens to vote with. Where can I get those for 12 players (in the right colors)?

There aren't official tokens for more than 7 players. Instead, you can have the rule that people hold their hands over their voting cards on the table to indicate readiness. That makes it easy to tell if someone is still deciding, and if you hold the voting card face down against the table it stops the pegs falling out.


Cost for the CAFS Firefighter to extinguish fires The CAFS Firefighter has 3 AP plus 3 free extinguish AP per turn. Do these extra AP allow him to extinguish a fire for 1 AP, or does it still cost 2 AP to extinguish a fire?

The Action Point (AP) cost is unchanged. From page 4 of the rule book

A player  gets 4 Action Points (AP) to spend on their turn. Each Action has a corresponding AP cost to perform. A player may select from any of the available Actions in any order and spend the appropriate AP to perform it. An action may be performed more than once per turn, so long as the AP cost is spent each time that Action is performed.
Players may pass. Unspent AP are saved from turn to turn. [...]
Extinguish – Use your gear to fight the fire in the Firefighter’s space or an Adjacent space:

Remove a Smoke marker from the Board: 1 AP • Flip a Fire marker to Smoke: 1 AP
Remove a Fire marker from the Board: 2 AP

It is usually best to completely Extinguish Fire (2 AP); Smoke is liable to reignite.

So, the CAFS Firefighter has to spend the normal 2 AP to fully extinguish fire, but they can use their free Extinguish AP that cannot be saved between turns.

CAFS Firefighter - 3 AP plus 3 free Extinguish AP per turn. Free Extinguish AP cannot be saved.


How can I set up a game of the Resistance without anyone needing to close their eyes? Thinking about this question reminded me of a problem I thought of some time back.

I love playing the Resistance (particularly with the plot cards), but I always find the eyes closed, open, closed, open business slightly awkward.  This is particularly the case if there is someone in the group that I don't know very well, or who hasn't played before.

For anyone unfamiliar with the game, the setup is as follows:

Everyone watches while a deck of role cards is created with x good and y bad cards where x+y is the number of players (the exact values of x and y are given in the rules, but it's not relevant for the question).
All players are dealt a role card telling them whether they are good or bad.
All players close their eyes.
All bad guys open their eyes and look at each other.
All bad guys close their eyes.
All players open their eyes.

The result is:

Everyone knows how many bad guys there are.
The bad guys know who each other are.
The good guys have equal suspicion of all other players.

Is there a neat* way to initialise the game without players having to close their eyes?

* In particular a way that doesn't require a computer or a moderator.

This solution would work, though it may take a minute to perform. For p players, with t traitors and n "normals", you need:

t "You are a traitor" cards and n "You are a normal" cards, obviously
p "player" cards marked with unique colours (or numbers or whatever)
1 card with an identical back to the player cards and a blank face (a kind of joker)

Deal each person a "Traitor/Normal" card so they know their faction, then the process is:

Everyone takes a coloured "player" card. Show them publicly since they identify each player.
Everyone holds their player cards with their hands under the table.
The first player takes the blank card face-down under the table too.
Players will pass the spare card around under the table, BUT, if they are a traitor, they will instead pass their own player card.
Once the spare card gets back to the leader, he should keep it face-down on the table, since it reveals the identity of a traitor! Then, everyone secretly looks at their card. Normals will see their own card again, of course, but traitors will see the card of one other traitor (or the joker if they were the first traitor).
Perform steps 4 and 5 a total of t+1 times.
Now all players (including traitors) should have their own cards back and the leader can flip the joker to reveal that it IS the joker. If it isn't, someone cheated/messed up. The traitors should have each learnt a new traitor's identity on each lap (except for one). Everyone should reveal their colours again to remind everyone what they were (though it's only relevant for traitors).

A detailed example
Alan (Red), Ben (Blue), Chris (Green) and Dave (Yellow) are sitting round a table. Ben and Chris are traitors. Alan, the leader, takes the joker and, because he is not a traitor, passes it to Ben. Ben IS a traitor so he keeps the joker and passes his own card to Chris. Chris - a traitor - keeps Ben's card and passes his card to Dave, who, being a normal, passes it on back to Alan. Alan puts it face-down to one side.
Everyone looks at their cards. Alan and Dave see their own. Ben sees the joker (so he can already deduce that Alan is not a traitor). Chris sees the blue card (Ben's), so he knows his co-traitor.
Alan now takes the face-down card (Chris' green card) and passes it again. After they repeat the process, Ben has Chris' card and Chris has the joker. Then they perform the rotation one more time so that the traitors both get their cards back and the joker is flushed out.
Everyone reveals their coloured cards and Chris confirms the owner of the blue card, while Ben confirms the owner of the green card. The game begins.


What are the four Dutch exclusive cards in Munchkin Koethulhu? Munchkin Koethulhu, the Dutch language version of Munchkin Cthulhu, consists of the translations of Munchkin Cthulhu, Munchkin Cthulhu 2: The Call of Cowthulhu, and Munchkin Cthulhu 3: The Unspeakable Vault, along with 4 exclusive Dutch cards.

Which cards are these?

According to this post on the Steve Jackson games forums, the four Dutch exclusive cards are Verwilderd, Inburgeringscursus, Ontlastingsdienst, and De Dodenrit.

Note that the linked post listed one of the cards simply as Dodenrit while this image on BoardGameGeek shows it as De Dodenrit - so I can't guarantee the listed names are 100% complete, or if there a slight difference in versions between the two sources.


When does Rainbow's talent activate? Rainbow's talent says, "If you have played another minion here, draw a card."

Does this mean that any other minion I have played on the same base, regardless of which turn it was played on, allows me to activate the talent?  Or does this mean that when you play another minion on the same base after Rainbow is already on the base that you can activate the talent?

Suggested reading:

  Talent: If you have played another minion here this turn, draw a card.

This is a reasonable interpretation, limiting the time per turn to match the talent usage. This solves long-term memory issues (remembering what's been played, moved and removed) and also has the game effect of encouraging the player to continue playing minions in the same place, which suits the faction well.

This is also supported by Barliman on BGG, who says that this was the intended functionality during playtesting.

Under this interpretation (and the RAW interpretation coming next), it doesn't matter if the qualifying minions were played and subsequently removed. It also won't work if minions have only been moved there.

Read as written:

As a talent, you can draw a card if you have ever played a minion other than that Rainbow on the base that Rainbow's currently on. This functions similarly to the above rule mechanically, but without the time limit and without a reason for the player to continue piling minions up.

Alternate reading:

  Talent: If you have another minion here, draw a card.

While this seems like a reasonable way to play the card, it would be odd that it wasn't worded like this. It's not too dissimilar, but it doesn't remotely match the way the card is written.


magnetic mat for card sorting game I'm looking for a magnetized mat solution to a game that is played on a large laminated mat. The mat is laminated and currently the cards, once sorted, have to be affixed to their spaces on the mat with sticky tack (the goal at the end is to have a completed mat where the cards don't move around so the "results" can be shared with others--each person has his/her own mat). Since each person has a mat (or game board), I need a solution where each person can have a 3x3 mat (folded into 4 squares and unfolded to full-size) and magnetized cards to move about on the mat. Ideas?

It seems like what you need is not magnetic mats, but instead simply a metal playmat, and magnetic cards. Unless you produce it yourself, I doubt you're going to find magnetized sheets that fold, whereas you might find a foldable metal whiteboard, or could build one yourself. From there, making the magnetic cards could be as easy as attaching magnets to the back of paper cards, or get the cards printed on magnetic sheets. Of course, how feasible this is depends on your board and card sizes.

The combination of metal and foldable sounds like it wouldn't be much fun sliding things over the surface, nevermind if either part is magnetic. Since you're already dealing with uncomfortable movability, have you considered using hook and loop fasteners (also called Velcro, because of it's manufacturer/trademark holder) instead? This would be consideably cheaper and more portable than a solution involving metal components, nevermind less likely to break and - if you make everything out of fabric material - even washable.

If all you need is a solution to be able to fix the cards into place, you might want to go with a wooden base plate and use tacks to fix the cards on the surface once you're satisfied with the position. This is the most budget-efficient variant I can think of. It comes with the downside of not being infinitely reuseable, as both the board and the cards will be damaged a little bit each time they're used, but this is certainly something you could go with for testing purposes one way or another.

You could also go more fancy and use a base layer out of any rigid material of your choice, along with a cover layer out of a transparent, equally rigid material such as acryllic glass. You could move the cards around without the inhibiting factor a magnet would have, and when you're done, place the transparent layer on top and affix it in a suitable way that depends on what you're trying to do with it.
You may be fine with some kind of clamps, but if you need to pin it on a wall or need to otherwise store it in an upright state, you would be better off using screws (you could fix them to the base plate, reducing the amount of loose parts while making the final assembly easier) and wing nuts, which are easy to use and don't require tools.

If I'm missing what you're trying to do entirely, please clarify your question, providing details about anything you can think of. Brainstorming requires some kind of ground under the feet.


How does Rageblood Shaman's ability work? How does the static ability of e.g. Rageblood Shaman work?

The wording is "Other Minotaur creatures you control get +1/+1 and have trample. "
The questions I have are:

a) If Rageblood Shaman is on the battlefield and another Minotaur comes into play does it get/have trample and/or +1/+1?

b) If Rageblood Shaman is removed from the Battlefield do other Minotaur creatures still in play lose +1/+1 and or trample?

c) Since this effect has no cost and no trigger it is a static ability, it applies at any time as long as Rageblood Shaman is on the battlefield. If a Minotaur gets +1/+1 at any time it becomes a infinity/infinity creature. I assume this to be wrong but why?

This ability is a static ability. The important rules from that page say

  604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they're simply true.
  604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 112.6.

From the first rule, Minotaurs "getting" +1/+1 isn't an event that happens (and definitely not repeatedly), it's just stating a fact: that each other Minotaur has one more power and toughness than it would otherwise.

Regarding continuous effects, the rules say

  611.3a A continuous effect generated by a static ability isn’t "locked in"; it applies at any given moment to whatever its text indicates.
  611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.

Basically, any time Rageblood Shaman and another Minotaur are on the battlefield, that Minotaur gets +1/+1 and trample. It doesn't matter which entered first, and it only works when the Shaman is on the battlefield.


What does it take to play a Battle of Wits deck successfully at a tournament? Magic tournament rules specify that players must be able to randomize their decks in an appropriate amount of time (three minutes for pre-game procedures).

As Matt Sperling points out, this may be difficult with a 250-card deck. I can't even shuffle a sleeved 100-card Commander deck without splitting it in half!

Yet Battle of Wits decks, in all their piled-high glory, have clearly seen real tournament play over the years:

What shuffling techniques and procedural tricks do players use to make sure their oversized decks don't violate tournament rules for proper randomization, timely shuffling, and avoiding slow play?

Since Battle of Wits has been around for years, is there any consensus about how to handle this kind of big deck among judges?

Three minutes is your time limit for sideboarding, shuffling, and presentation.

  2.3 Pregame Procedures

  The following steps must be performed before each game begins:

  Players may exchange cards in their decks for cards in their sideboards. Players may only do this after the first or subsequent
  game of the match and not for games that are restarted or games that
  are drawn before any game actions are taken.
  Players shuffle their decks. Steps 1 and 2 may be repeated.
  Players present their decks to their opponents for additional shuffling. The sideboard (if any) is also presented at this time.

  Players may not use more than three minutes to perform steps 1 through
  3.

Additionally, there is a specific definition that is used for "shuffling"...

  3.9 Card Shuffling

  Decks must be randomized at the start of every game and whenever an
  instruction requires it. Randomization is defined as bringing the deck
  to a state where no player can have any information regarding the
  order or position of cards in any portion of the deck. Pile shuffling
  alone is not sufficiently random.

Taking the above two into account, the official rules state that you have 3 minutes to completely randomize your deck. There is no standing consensus for how to achieve this with a massive deck. Combining two methods, such as a pile shuffle followed by a quick riffle shuffle of ~80 card stacks is generally the accepted method. A 250-card pile shuffle should take a bit less than 2 minutes for a dexterous player, so time is really tight when sideboarding.

Another technique I have seen for shuffling massive decks is to do something similar to the following:

Split the deck into 4 piles (a,b,c,d).
Shuffle pairs of piles together (a+b, c+d)
Repeat 1-2, but shuffle the resulting 4 piles in a different combination to not arrive at the same 2 piles again.
Repeat 3 a few times, throwing an overhand shuffle or two in between.

The real danger becomes when you must shuffle during the game, since shortcuts such as only shuffling the top half are not acceptable for randomization. Presenting an non-randomized deck for your opponent to cut is an easy way to rack up warnings.

There will always be times when a particularly rules-lawyering opponent will attempt to call you on slow play at 181 seconds or for taking too long to shuffle in-game, but such is the danger of having a massive deck. Just play your fastest and you should have little trouble.


Arcbound Ravager and Shortcuts According to the Magic Tournament Rules, one of the accepted shortcuts is that when player A puts something on the stack, they automatically pass priority unless they specifically state they're holding priority. A corollary to that is if player A says they want to put multiple things on the stack (eg. "I activate Shivan Dragon's ability X times"), what they actually are proposing is to do it once, pass priority, and repeat X times.

An opponent, player B can interrupt the latter shortcut by saying "After the Yth activation, I do Z", in which case whatever player A planned on doing after the Yth activation is dropped, and they can respond how they wish. These shortcuts exist to stop play from turning into a painful slog of explicitly passing priority over and over, without those annoying "GOTCHA" moments where someone assumes you stacked a bunch of activations and try to blow you out (sidenote: these rules are relatively obscure so it's worth remembering them and not letting yourself get screwed).

This brings me to my main question, which has to do with Arcbound Ravager in modern affinity. The scenario often comes up where one wants to sacrifice all of their artifacts to Ravager, and it seems similar to the above shortcut, but unlike on Shivan Dragon, the order in which the artifacts are sacrificed matters. Of course if the opponent just says "Ok", then I sacrifice my board and carry on, but what if they don't?

If I'm in a tournament and I say "I sacrifice all of my artifacts to Arcbound Ravager", not knowing my opponent has a response, what will happen?

A) My opponent asks me to specify order, and I must give an order including ALL the artifacts I wanted to sacrifice. Then, if they decide they want to respond, they say which sacrifice they will respond to, and we carry on as normal. If they decide they don't want to respond, my board is sacrificed (I can't take it back!) and we carry on. This is the answer I gave my befuddled friend the other day, and the one that makes the most sense to me.

B) My opponent asks me to specify order, and now suspicious, I say I only want to sacrifice one artifact (say, Darksteel Citadel) to Ravager. My friend was arguing that this shortcut rule is bad because stuff like this can happen, but I believe that the rules don't allow for this kind of take-backsy silliness.

C) It's too late, my opponent calls a judge, and I get a warning for misrepresenting gamestate or miscommunicating?

D) Some other unlisted thing occurs?

You have to specify the order of sacrifice when asked to, and you still have to propose a shortcut that involves sacrificing all your artifacts, as originally proposed.

Since the Ravager only allows you to sacrifice one artifact per activation, the proposal of "I sacrifice all of my artifacts to Arcbound Ravager" was technically not legal in the first place. From the CompRules:

  719.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices.

Of course, if the order of sacrifice didn't matter to any player, it would still be an acceptable proposal. However, since it did matter, your opponent can force you to spell out the order of sacrifice. You may not modify your play as a reaction to your opponent asking about the order of sacrifice. From the Tournament Rules:

  4.3 Out-of-Order Sequencing

  All actions taken must be legal if they were executed in the correct order, and any opponent can ask the player to do the actions in the correct sequence so that he or she can respond at the appropriate time (at which point players
  will not be held to any still-pending actions).

  An out-of-order sequence must not result in a player prematurely gaining information which could reasonably affect decisions made later in that sequence.

  Players may not try to use opponent's reactions to some portion of an out-of-order sequence to see if he or she should modify actions or try to take additional ones.

While the examples for out of order sequencing don't include one similar to your scenario, combining individual actions that can't be combined arguably also fall under that rule.


King of Tokyo: Number of points/hearts On the monster cards, there are dials for both hearts and stars. The start dial goes up to 20 because that's the point at which a player would win.

Does a player need to hit 20 stars exactly to win? Or can they have more?
How high does the heart dial go?

You do not have to hit 20 points exactly, you just need at least 20. While the rulebook doesn't state this explicitly, this is how pretty much every game works unless it specifically states otherwise. Getting 21 points DOES mean that you've gotten 20 points; just like how I literally do have $20 even if I also have more money than that.

The heart dial goes to 12 because certain card effects can increase your health above 10.


Are players required to make conquests on their turn? I did not find it clear in the rules if a player is required to make conquests on his/her turn.  Is it legal to turtle on your turn by not making any actions, redeploying troops and then scoring?

No, it is not required. There's nothing wrong with just leaving everything exactly as is.

  Leaving in place one Race token in each Region they occupy,
  the player may take all his other Active Race tokens from the
  map back in hand and use them to conquer new Regions.

Note the "may".

Also:

  The active player can repeat this process to conquer as
  many new Regions as he wishes during his turn, provided he
  has enough Race tokens left to accomplish these successive
  conquests.

"As many new Regions as he wishes." 0 might be as many as you wish.


If Soulflayer is returned to play from your graveyard, does it retain abilities it was granted? The abilities for Soulflayer are...

  Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 1.)

  If a creature card with flying was exiled with Soulflayer's delve ability, Soulflayer has flying. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, reach, trample, and vigilance.

...but if you play the card and exile a creature with Flying using Delve, then Soulflayer is put into your graveyard, then you return Soulflayer to the battlefield will Soulflayer still have flying?

When it is in the graveyard, Soulflayer has none of those abilities, and it will not have them if it returns to the battlefield. When it is put into the graveyard, it becomes a card with no memory of its existence on the battlefield, and when it returns to the battlefield, it is a completely new creature.

Rule 400.7 says

  An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule:

When you cast Soulflayer, you can exile cards from the graveyard to pay for its cost, and it keeps track of those exiled cards. While it is on the battlefield, it remembers those cards, and gives itself abilities based on what abilities those cards had. This falls under the third exception to that rule:

  400.7c If an ability of a permanent requires information about choices made as that permanent was cast as a spell, including what mana was spent to cast that spell, it uses information about the spell that became that permanent as it resolved.

Once the Soulflayer leaves the battlefield, it forgets about its previous existence, including the cards exiled when it was cast. If it returns to the battlefield, it no longer has any associated exiled cards, so it doesn't give itself any abilities.


Are the odds of drawing mythics greater when purchasing individually packaged boosters over booster boxes? From personal experience I tend to draw mythic rare cards about one in five purchases when buying individually packaged boosters at Target, Walmart, etc, like the ones in this picture:

In booster boxes I have never gotten more than 6 mythics. This led me to think about this for a moment. If Wizards can profit more from individually packed boosters, wouldn't they want to have people draw mythics more often from them? My reasoning is that a non-serious gamer would not buy a booster box, but would be more likely to buy individual packs. If this person gets mythics with just a few packs, that would be a good incentive to come back for more.

So my question is this: Are the odds of drawing mythics greater when purchasing individually packed booster card packs over booster boxes? Has anyone ever compared the odds? (I'm not quite ready to shell out $1000 to find out.)

The only differences between single packs out of a booster box at a LGS and blister packs at a big box store are:

The blister packs can't really benefit from mapping1 like the boxes for some sets can.
People can more easily steal cards out of the blister pack and repack them with terrible cards not even in the same set.

Number 2 is especially true if the blister pack comes from Walmart, who have a very generous return policy.

Normal2 MtG packs have a 1/8 chance to contain a mythic (roughly, depending on the size of the set), regardless of where the pack comes from.

"Mapping" a set means determining how the cards in the set are printed and distributed (a process that is generally crowdsourced). Once the set is mapped, one can potentially open a small number of boosters from a box and from there determine what every rare in the box is, and which packs have them. Mapping does not generally cover foils, however. Wizards has spent great effort to prevent the capability of mapping sets, and these days while it is still possible, it is generally unprofitable.
By "normal," I mean to exclude things like special packs used for prereleases such as the guild-specific packs in the Return to Ravnica block. I am not certain on their mythic distribution, so I'll not comment on them.


Can the player choose a different player as a target? In a Twilight Imperium (3rd edition) game, when the "Checks and balances (LAW)" card is in play, which states

  When a player chooses a Strategy Card during the Strategy Phase, he must give the chosen card to another player (who does not currently have a Strategy Card).

And if somebody then uses the Action Card "Public Disgrace", which says

  After a player has chosen a Strategy Card, play this card to force the player to return that Strategy Card and choose a different one.

The question is: can the player then use a different target for the new Strategy Card, or should the target stay the same and would he get the next card too?

I couldn't find any rules that back up this specific situation but this is my interpretation. The trigger for the LAW states:

  When a player chooses a Strategy Card...

So if someone were to play an action card which forces that player to put their current strategy card back and choose a different strategy card, the LAW would trigger again allowing the player to choose the same person to give the strategy card to or a different person.