Does Neutron Shark cause me to discard, even after destroying itself? If Neutron Shark destroys itself due to its own Play/Fight/Reap effect, how much more of its effect resolves? Does it just stop? Does it discard, then stop? Or can it even repeat after it’s destroyed?

You discard, but don’t repeat.
From Brad Andres (developer at FFG), via email:
“The effect will continue to resolve and the top card of their deck will be discarded, but no matter what card it hits the effect will not be able to resolve again because the card is no longer in play. Hope that helps.”


Hello World game for many game systems Ron Hale-Evans mused about creating a benchmark game that could be ported to many different game systems as a design exercise. Do you think that would be a useful tool, and can you suggest a game that would be simple enough and flexible enough to fit in many game systems, such as piecepack, Stonehenge, Icehouse, standard playing cards, or even Decktet?

I think the benefit of the exercise would be that someone could compare several game systems by seeing how their differing components were used to implement similar mechanics.

Porting Games

Porting a game to a game system means to take an existing game and modify its rules so that it can be played with a multi-purpose game system. Some examples of game systems are piecepack, Stonehenge, and the others I mentioned above. Some games are trivial to port, such as Nim. (It just involves piles of objects and removing objects from one pile at a time.) But many games are quite a challenge, and can require elegance to bring the essence of the game without all the original equipment.

You can see some examples of porting games to the piecepack in the Good Portsmanship contest, and further discussion of porting games in the contest announcement.

Zendo is an Icehouse game which can be ported to different game systems; none of the fundamental rules refer to any sort of specific pieces, you just need pieces that can be combined together into structures such that there can be some rule that distinguishes two classes of structures built out of the pieces; or if you're familiar with Zendo terminology, you need to be able to build koans out of the pieces, and come up with a rule that distinguishes which koans have the Buddha nature.

I've played Zendo with playing cards before (rules can be things like "a koan has the buddha nature if the red cards add up to 10"), and it could just as well be played with Piecepack ("a koan has the buddha nature if it has at least one sun square and one moon coin"), or likely could be adapted to most any game system.

The nice thing about porting Zendo to other game systems is that the rules you make up will adapt to the attributes of the game system in question; the mechanics don't rely on things you could do with any pieces whatsoever, like count them or put them in piles.

For some other game systems than Icehouse, it might help to have more than one copy, as you need to be able to use identical pieces in different koans to test out theories. An Icehouse set is almost ideally suited, as you have 5 copies of every piece, with just enough attributes different between the pieces (4 colors, 3 sizes, a few different orientations you can place them in, a few ways to stack them) that rules are relatively easy to judge and not too hard to guess; but you can use pretty much any game system you want.


How long should a draft round last by official rules? I'm making an app for assist player during Magic gameplay, and I'd like to add a section for drafting.
But I can't find anything official, the only official source about it, is inside the comprehensive rules document, in the paragraph about Conspiracy Draft.
It only say that a draft consists of three draft rounds, in which a player drafts one card in front of him, then passes the rest to the next player (in the first and third rounds the booster pack are passed on the left and on the second to the right).

And that's all.

Where I go to play, the tournament organizer has an app that sets a timer for each round, every "draft" from the same booster becomes progressively shorter, and the last two last no more than 5 s. Also, the third round is overall shorter than the first two (as a player now knows what deck he can build).

But I haven't found anything from Wizards about timing.

Are all these rules house rules or there are some guidelines from Wizards? I'd prefer to stick to those if they exists.
But if they don't, how do you manage timing in your drafts?

Appendix B of the Tournament Rules provides required and suggested time limits for official events. Check this document for all the details you need.

In general:

Required minimum game time is 40 minutes. Recommended game time for typical Limited/Constructed Swiss rounds is 50 minutes.
WotC recommends giving players 30 minutes to register and construct a draft deck.
The individual booster draft timer values in judge apps come from a chart in Appendix B (page 43 as of the current revision). Note the sentence after the chart that provides short "evaluation" periods in between packs as well.

Note that organizers are allowed to deviate from most of these conditions, but are required to announce it clearly in advance.


Does 'The plot thickens' make the game easier or harder? Just curious for games going forward.

Because the expansion allows you to see how people have played on missions, can reveal people's cards, etc, it seems like these are all an advantage mostly to the resistance.

In people's experience - does it make it easier for the resistance?

The Plot Thickens basically adds more opportunities to link players together, thus creating longer and more complex chains of information.
What I mean by chain of information is something like this:

Player A and Player B both were on a failed mission.
Player B knows Player C's role card.
Player C has declared players D and E to play success cards, but their mission with player A failed.

Chains make it easier to deduce information, thus making the Resistance players' role easier. But of course, experienced Spy players can learn to work with, or around, such cards, to confuse people even more.

Tl;dr: The Plot Thickens makes the game more balanced.


Boss monster spell cards This weekend we had a discussion while playing Boss Monster regarding spell cards.

The scenario that we were having is that one of us destroyed his room during the build phase, forcing the other to discard a random spell card. As a reaction, that guy played the spell card (one that could be played in the build phase) to trigger Liger's Den in order to get a new spell card.

Since the latter used to play Magic The Gathering, he claimed that it was a valid move, as it is a reaction that comes on the stack. The other disagreed and said that it was invalid and he should just discard his spell card and not take a new one.

Was playing the spell to trigger Liger's Den a valid one, or did he just need to discard the card?

He probably shouldn't have been able to play the spell.

The game doesn't have comprehensive rules on the order of announcing spells. However, there's no "stack". The stack is a feature of Magic and nobody should assume that Magic's reactionary play and LIFO resolution system applies to other games without them saying so. The majority of games (especially light games like this) work on the assumption that stuff happens as soon as you play it, unless something else explicitly says it can be played in response.

The closest the rules get to this is the following (page 5):

  When you’re the “active player” (when you’re building a Room, or Heroes are moving through your dungeon) your Spell effects are resolved first. Other players’ Spells and effects are resolved in XP order.

Essentially, everyone piles in with their desire to cast a spell and then you see how they resolve. This makes it clear that the designers understand more than one person can be casting at once, and how to resolve it (i.e. not a stack).

In the situation above, the destruction of the room already occurred, causing the discard. Unless the spell is specifically worded to be played in reaction to that situation, I'd recommend just resolving things as they happen.


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

As you say, whatever you do, be consistent.  Good contract, bad contract, plays itself, requires incredibly careful play, whatever.  If you do not do that, the opponents know.
Yes, sometimes that leads to some fun, after say 3C-X-p-p; p and partner dropping a 4=4=5=0 four count and hearing "thank you partner, nice hand" from declarer.  But just because it's obvious to the opponents doesn't mean that it isn't more obvious if declarer's response is "well, that's not great".
Thanking dummy when it comes down is traditional, and courteous.  It is extraneous communication, not illegal, but not required either.  Many partnerships have given up on it, and just pause 10-15 seconds or so and call for the card.  If that fits with you and your partner, do that.  If partner feels that that is discourteous, find something else that works.
But do it consistently.  Any tell you give accidentally the opponents can use; a "purposeful tell" to mislead the opponents is illegal.  So you can only lose by not being consistent.
From a regulation POV, you have it exactly. Law 73D1 in the Duplicate Laws (my emphasis):

It is desirable, though not always required, for players to maintain steady tempo and unvarying manner. However, players should be particularly careful when variations may work to the benefit of their side. Otherwise, unintentionally to vary the tempo or manner in which a call or play is made is not an infraction. Inferences from such variations are authorized only to the opponents, who may act upon the information at their own risk.


Do chest traps happen before loot is distributed? If the player says they're opening a chest, and the overlord plays a trap card, does the trap effect take place before or after the chest is opened?

This is particularly important in the case of death or being monkeyed, as neither monkeys nor dead people can open chests (and hence collect the loot).

The trap effect resolves before the contents of the chest are distributed. From the FAQ (page 4)

  Q: When a chest contains curses, can the overlord use the threat generated by the curses to play a trap on that chest? Does the trap go off before or after the rest of the chest
  contents are distributed?

  A: Curses are always the first thing distributed from a chest, and threat from curses may be used to play a trap card in response to opening the chest. The rest of the chest
  contents are only distributed after the trap card (if any) resolves. In the case of a Mimic or similar card, this could be several turns later!


In Santorini, can Dionysus chain additional moves? In Santorini, the God Power Dionysus states:

  Each time a Worker you control creates a Complete Tower, you make take an additional turn using an opponent Worker instead of your own.

If I use my opponent's worker to complete a tower, do I get an additional turn with one of their pawns? Does that count as a "Worker I control"?

According to Gavan Brown of Roxley Game Laboratory,

You take another turn as Dionysus using opponent's workers as your own, therefore:
• You do not gain your opponent's God Power
• You can chain additional extra turns together


Catan : Multiple extension combination I just bought the extension Cities and Knights (I don't know the rules very well at the moment).

I already have the base game and the Seafarers of Catan.

Is it possible to combine, on the same board, the Basic game of Catan, the Seafarers of Catan extension, and the Cities and Knights extension?

The rules for Cities and Knights (pdf) address combining it with Seafarers (page 13). They warn that only certain scenarios work well, and provide rules for things like how to treat ships as roads and how a knight can chase away the pirate. There is also a FAQ on combining the two expansions, which addresses a few points that the published rules don't cover.

One crucial point which they don't cover, in either the rules or FAQ, as discussed in an earlier question, is how many victory points to play to. It seems that the consensus is that when combining Seafarers and Cities and Knights that you should add 2 victory points to the victory conditions listed in the Seafarers scenario. See the other linked question for more detail.


How can we finish Titan in 4 hours? We like to play Titan but the game always feels too long, it usually takes 6-8 hours.

We've tried the quicker game variant suggested in the rules (skipping the first level of recruits and going straight to the second tier), but found it unsatisfying because of the lack of variety.  Most of our time seems to be spent in board management, not combats.

What have other people tried and found successful in reducing the total play time to under four hours for Titan?

Play more aggressively -- beginners at Titan often underestimate the attackers advantage with a summoned Angel and don't attack when they should.  On your first split (not counting the initial pre-game split), you should be setting up one of the two split legions as an attacker, which strives to maximize immediate combat power rather than longer term recruiting.  Then use that guy to attack.

Even more aggressive -- use your Titan legion as the main attacker -- this is particularly effective if you roll a 6 for your first turn and get a Warlock.  The goal here is to build up your Titan legion by earning Angels rather than recruiting and win the game before anyone else can recruit anything more powerful than an Angel.

When attacking you should ALWAYS offer a deal to resolve the battle without playing it out, unless its Titan vs Titan.  The goal is primarily to speed up the game, but it can also be a useful way to cooperate against against a 3rd player who is winning.  Figuring out what is the proper offer requires some experience, but often it is worth taking more losses than would likely have occurred in the actual battle to avoid summoning an angel when you don't particularly want to or to get rid of weak characters in a legion.  When making (or evaluating) an offer for battle resolution, take note of the board situation around the battle.  Leaving an enemy legion weakened in a spot where another player will get the benefit (points) of crushing it is not to your advantage.

When defending, if you're outnumbered you should generally flee (to avoid giving the attacker full points) unless you have a decent chance of inflicting crippling losses on the attacking legion.  Just killing 3 or 4 weak creatures is not worth giving you opponent and angel and boost in Titan strength.


How does Double Strike work with Trample? Player A has a Wrecking Ogre (4/4 double strike) and decides to use the Bloodrush ability of Ghor-Clan Rampager, so now the Wrecking Ogre is a 7/7 with Double Strike + Trample.

If Player B decides to block it with 3 2/2 creatures, on the first combat, Wrecking Ogre's power will be down to 1/1,and that 1/1 will go to the player because it has trample.

My concern is about the second strike of wrecking ogre. Since there are no more blockers, will it deal 7/7 damage or 1/1 damage?

And if wrecking ogre is blocked by 2 5/5 creatures? Will it be dead before it can attack again? Will the Trample and Double Strike will be useless?

It's power and toughness never change. It's never 1/1 or 1/7 or 7/1. It's 7/7 throughout. It merely gains marked damage.

In the first Combat Damage Step, the Ogre assigns 7 damage. It will assign and deal 2 damage two each of the 2/2[1] (and kills them) and 1 to the player.

In the second Combat Damage Step, the Ogre assigns 7 damage. It will assign and deal 7 damage the player.

If the damage it did the second step was reduced by the damage it did in the first step, it would never deal any in the second as a creature always deals its power in damage.

  and if wrecking ogre is blocked by 2 5/5 creature?

Only creatures with First Strike or Double Strike participate in the First Strike combat damage step.

Assuming these 5/5 have neither,

First strike combat damage step: Ogre deals 5 to one 5/5 (and kills it) and 2 to the other (which survives with 2 damage).
Normal strike combat damage step: Ogre deals 3 to the remaining 5/5 (and kills it) and 4 to the defender. The 5/5 deals 5 to the Ogre (which survives with 5 damage).

It's possible to assign more, but there's rarely a reason to assign more than the minimum.


Can I use the Power Grid Expansion "Northern Europe / United Kingdom & Ireland"? I just bought the Power Grid expansion pack Northern Europe / United Kingdom & Ireland.
If you look at the photo, you will see the label Recharged Version and, at the bottom, you will see the following warning:

  The maps and power plant cards of Northern Europe/United Kingdom &
  Ireland in this expansion can only be played with a copy of Power
  Grid.

I have Power Grid 2004 from Rio Grande Games. Will I be able to use the extension with my copy of Power Grid , or will I have to buy Power Grid Recharged. It's still shrink-wrapped, so I could return it if necessary.

You can use the expansion with your existing copy of Power Grid,
with one caveat: the backs of the power plant cards have changed, which means you need to shuffle the deck while both the fronts, and backs are hidden when using the Northern Europe part of the expansion.

If you chose to use only the United Kingdom & Ireland part of the expansion no adjustments are needed.


The rules for Bamboozle I have this peg board game called Bamboozle.  There is a deck of cards from zero to 99 to match the holes in the board.  The object of the game was to get five in a row, and when you held a card in your hand you were only allowed to play it and place your peg equal to or higher than the card played.

But for the life of me, I can't remember how many cards you played with and what the rules were.  Can anybody help?

This game has been produced over the years in a number of very slightly different versions, originally stemming from a sociological study done in the 1960s; so while I haven't been able to find the rules for this version explicitly, an almost identical version was sold under the name "Poo-Ka-Boo", which helpfully has the rules printed on the back of the box.

For a slightly different version, 5ive Straight (aka The Game of 99!) is still produced.


What is the use of Lady of the Lake card in avalon? I have always wondered what is the use of this card. It would be great if someone could help me out with it.

It is to enable players to get more information about each other out in the open. If it starts out on a good player they can use it to help identify other good players. On the other hand if it starts in a bad players hand they can use it to cause confusion.
https://www.ultraboardgames.com/avalon/optional-rules.php

This token is an optional player ability. The player with the Lady of the Lake will be able to look at the loyalty of another player. Unlike the other character powers, the player that has this ability is open information.
At the beginning of the game, give the Lady of the Lake token to the player on the Leader's right.
Immediately after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Quest is resolved, the player with the Lady of the Lake token will choose one player to examine. The player being examined will receive a pair of Loyalty cards and pass the card that corresponds to the loyalty of ther character card to the Lady of the Lake. Using the wrong loyalty card will result in losing the game.
The lady of the Lake may discuss, but cannot reveal the Loyalty card passed.
The player being examined receives the Lady of the Lake token. The Lady of the Lake will only be used three times in the game. A player that used the Lady of the Lake cannot have the Lady used on them.
Note: the Lady of the Lake is best saved for games of 7 or more people. Adding the Lady of the Lake into a game will make the Good side more powerful and win more often.


Space Marine Attack Bike Twin-Linked bolter According to page 62 of the Codex: Blood Angels (5th), the Space Marine Bike are equipped with twin-linked bolter.

According to the army list, neither Attack Bike Squad nor Bike Squad mentions this option.

My understanding is that even if not mentionned in the army list (and not errata has been written on this), the attack bike will thus have the TL bolter + a heavy bolter. Both SM on the bikes also carry a bolter pistol.

My understanding is that during the shooting phase I can fire both TL bolter and heavy bolter (same target)? Or that I can fire the heavy bolter and a bolter pistol, or even just two bolter pistols.

Am I correct?

Now, if an attack bike loses a life point (out of two), can I still fire both TL bolter and heavy bolter?

On a bike you can fire as many weapons as there are riders.  So an attack bike can fire up to two weapons since it has two riders.  This is regardless of how-many wounds the bike has sustained.

The entry for the the Space Maine bike in the equipment list will indicate which weapons it has.  Much like the entry for Terminator Armor indicates that it allows deep-striking. The twin linked bolter is mentioned there.

And there is no good reason to shoot anything but the heavy weapon and the twin linked bolter.  You suffer no penalties for using them on a bike and are hands down a better option than the pistol in every way.


Celestial Flare Question declaring blockers Celestial Flare is an instant that says:

  Target player sacrifices an attacking or blocking creature.

Suppose the instant is played on on the attacking player after the defending player has declared blockers, and the attacker sacrices a creature that was being blocked. What happens to the creature that was blocking the now-sacrificed attacking creature?

Does the blocker now block nothing, or is it assigned to a different attacker, or are blockers redeclared?

This was done in a multiplayer game by a third party who was not involved in the blocking or attacking.

The blocking creature now blocks nothing. You cannot have it block another creature and blockers cannot be assigned again.


When a trigger requires you to sacrifice something, can you sacrifice said something using something else? Let's say Glacial Chasm enters the battlefield under my control. The card states that when it comes into play I must sacrifice a land. Can I in response to its ETB ability sacrifice a land using say Zuran Orb? When Glacial Chasm entered, a land was sacrificed. Is this allowed, and more to the point: is Glacial Chasm's ETB requirement met in this scenario?

Most instances* of "enter the battlefield" denote triggered abilities, so they go on the stack and you can respond on them before they resolve, e.g. by activating another ability which can be played at instant speed, such as Zuran Orb's.

However, the land you sacrifice for Zuran Orb (even if it's Glacial Chasm itself) does not count for Glacial Chasm's enter the battlefield ability. So you'll have to sacrifice another land (unless you don't have any).

*: some cards have "As [card name] enters the battlefield"; those are replacement effects and don't go on the stack. Those never involve sacrifices, though.


Activate ignition effect from hand? I have 2 questions, one generally-scoped and one specific:

Can I activate the effect of Disenchanter while it is still in my hand?

In general, can one activate monsters' ignition effects from the hand?

Disenchanter:

Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up Spell Card on the field; remove 1 Spell Counter from anywhere on the field, and if you do, return that target to the hand.

Quite simply, no. It is common knowledge that a monster has to be on the field or revealed from the hand/graveyard/banished zone (if the card permits it) to be able to resolve ANY effect, given the conditions (if any) are met, unless the card says otherwise.

You can always play Disenchanter on the field,  THEN activate its effect.


Identify a game: escape from a labyrinth of square cards on an alien spaceship Can anyone identify this game?

The players are contestants trapped in a labyrinth on an alien spaceship, racing to find the exit.

Locations are square cards that can be rotated during the game.  At the beginning of the game all locations are upside-down, getting revealed as the players explore.

In some locations players can find items that they can use to help themselves or hinder the other contestants.

It is a rather new game, created some time in the last five years, I think.  The designer lives in California.


Can I activate Sinister Shadow Games if I have no Shaddolls in my main deck? Can I flip 'Sinister Shadow Games' if I have no Shaddoll cards in my main deck?

  Sinister Shadow Games

  Send 1 "Shaddoll" card from your Deck to the Graveyard, then you can
  change any number of face-down Defense Position "Shaddoll" monsters
  you control to face-up Defense Position.

and if this is so, do I get it's secondary effect to flip up a face down Shaddoll?

A player cannot opt to activate a card or effect with an apparently non-resolvable mandatory component.  By "apparently non-resolvable," I mean that if the card or effect were to attempt to resolve at the time of activation, it could not properly do so.

This means that Sinister Shadow Games cannot be activated unless there is at least one "Shaddoll" card in the Main Deck at the time of activation.  This reveals the second question to be meaningless.  However, if instead Sinister Shadow Games was legally activated, but when it attempts to resolve, all of the "Shaddoll" cards have been removed from the activating player's Main Deck, Problem-Solving Card Text can be applied to determine the outcome of the ruling.

Effects which take the form "Do A, then do B" are such that A and B are sequential components.  A resolves, then B resolves.  For effects worded this way, if A does not resolve properly for any reason, B should not be resolved either.  So if Sinister Shadow Games is activated, and an effect is Chained which removes all "Shaddoll" cards from the activating player's Main Deck, no "Shaddoll" monsters will be flipped face-up.


In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, what are some common opening moves? From only a handful of plays I've gathered that a few moves might be to

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

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

that's basically it. The game is about being convincing. You have to pick an option and stick with it. Convincing everyone that you're telling the truth. There's not enough information to do much more than that.


Can Crypt Rats be used from Graveyard Can Crypt Rats be activated while in the graveyard?  There is no tap, which is why it seems possible.

If not, then why can cards like Rot Farm Skeleton have activated abilities that are usable only while they are in the graveyard, yet do not explicitly say that "use this ability only when XXX is in your graveyard"?

You can only activate Crypt Rats on the battlefield. You can activate Rot Farm Skeleton from your graveyard because its ability specifies "from your graveyard."
As a rule of thumb, you can only activate an ability from the battlefield unless its text would only make sense in another zone.
From the comp rules:

112.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:[...]
112.6b An ability that states which zones it functions in functions only from those zones.[...]
112.6k An ability whose cost or effect specifies that it moves the object it’s on out of a particular zone functions only in that zone, unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone.
Example: Reassembling Skeleton says “{1}{B}: Return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.” A player may activate this ability only if Reassembling Skeleton is in his or her graveyard.


In Diplomacy, how does a time limit per round affect overall gameplay? I want to introduce a group of people to the game Diplomacy. To make it manageable, I want to impose a 10 minute time limit per round (7 player game). I heard this type of limits are sometimes used in Diplomacy tournaments.

How would this time limit affect gameplay?

The diplomacy phase is the significant part of the game. So limiting this will affect the game. This site advices a longer period:

  Combinations and agreements among the players may affect the course of the game a great deal. These are determined during the diplomacy
  period which takes place before each move. This period lasts 30
  minutes before the first move and 15 minutes before each move
  thereafter. These periods may end sooner if all players agree at the
  time.

So 10 minute is slightly shorter. This is no problem for experienced players. But with inexperienced players it is possible too short. Not everybody will have the time to meet with everybody. People will miss out on some opportunities and they possibly get frustrated.

My advice is to limit the diplomacy phase, for the first year to 20 minutes and add another 5 minute to write down the orders. For the next year, you can go to 15 or 10 plus another 5 top write down the orders. This will create a more friendly game for new players.


What happens when I successfully attack a player's home stronghold? Each player has a home stronghold, which has a bonus token, which adds combat strength.

The question is - if I attack it and successfully take the territory - what happens? - Is the token discarded? What happens if that player retakes the territory?

The token, representing the garrison of the stronghold, is removed once it has been taken by an enemy player.

If the original owner of that territory retakes it, the token is not replaced.

Relevant quote from the rule book, page 26

  If a Garrison is defeated in combat (whether defending by itself or
  with other friendly units), it is permanently removed from the game,
  regardless of the number of Sword or Fortification icons on House
  cards played in the combat.


Playing Catan for the first time, what should I know? Tonight I'm going to play Settlers of Catan for the first time. The thing is that I will play with very expérienced players and they strongly recommended me to gather the more information I could in order to start playing at a fairly good level. I took the time to read a lot on the ruling, the game, how to manage ressources and how to arrange my board but I feel I won't do as great as I could for a first time. I don't need to be as good as them but they really don't want to have a ''noob'' in the game since they play for a long time.

So my question is, what would be your best to-go pro tip for a beginner and what should I focus on for my first game in order to not be a dead mass in the game.

Thanks in adance !

The placement of your initial settlements is very important.

Your initial settlements (along with the first couple rounds of dice rolls) have a large impact on your game, affecting whether you get off to a quick start or lag behind. Some things to keep in mind when placing your initial settlements include:

Probability of numbers: All else equal, a space bordering more dots is better than a space bordering fewer dots.
Diversity of numbers: In general, starting with, e.g., 4-5-6-8-10-11 is going to give you an easier game than 4-4-6-6-10-11, since you will receive cards on more dice rolls, which then helps you build and/or trade more consistently, and helps you avoid having too many cards in your hand when a 7 is rolled.
Mix of resources: All else equal, it's better to have direct access to more resources.

Subpoint: In general, wheat is important at all stages of the game, sheep tend to be slightly worse than other resources (due to lower need and relative abundance). Note that the usefulness of resources changes as the game progresses.

Scarcity of resources: However, there will usually be one resource that is scarcer than other resources. Having access to this resource can give you an advantage in trading. A simple way of evaluating scarcity is to count the dots on each resource.
Don't ignore ports: Sometimes, ports (especially a 2:1 port) can increase the appeal of a spot. A wood-wood-__ spot next to a 2:1 wood port may be more appealing than one with three different resources. (Of course this depends on many other factors.)
Don't count on being able to expand to the good spots -- or the interior of the board: In general, it tends to be harder to expand into the center than towards the edges.

Make sure you consider the consequences of your trades

Sometimes a trade that in other situations would be relatively even will give one player a large advantage. Trading a card to a player so that he can build a settlement on a wood port before his neighbor can might be a fine move, even if it upsets his neighbor a bit. But if that player has settlements on 8-wood, 6-wood, and 4-wood, it might give him too much of an advantage.

Consider the robber placement

Placing the robber on a player with an unplayed development card might not be the best move, since it is relatively likely that the player has a soldier to move the robber away.

Don't neglect development cards

Soldiers (the most common card) provide you with a resource, deprive an opponent of a resource, free your number (if blocked by the robber), block an opponent's production, and can potentially provide 2 VP. Road Building, Year of Plenty, and Monopoly are nearly always useful, except perhaps for a late-game Road Building. Victory points are of course useful. But make sure to evaluate the potential drawback of using (in particular) ore and wheat for a development card instead of a city.

Longest road is nice -- when no one else wants it

In my experience, many beginners go for the 2 VP from the longest road. Roads are easy to build since they only require two resources, but also provide the fewest benefits. The best way to claim the longest road bonus, in my opinion, is (1) in the mid- or end-game, after establishing a good resource engine with multiple settlements (and therefore multiple resources / numbers), (2) when other opponents are not focused on attaining the longest road, and (3) when you have an excess of wood and brick and other players aren't willing to trade at a good rate for either. Otherwise, it's probably better to focus on building settlements, cities, and even buying development cards. In short, don't just build more and more roads because they're easy to build.

Other resources

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137013/tips-beginners-catan-dummies
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/7450280#7450280


What's the expected damage from playing Terror of the Peaks, when I have Mirror March out? If I play Terror of the Peaks while I control
Mirror March, what is the expected damage? That is the average of winning 1, 2, 3, ... 'Infinity' flips? I'm sure it's a converging sum, but I'm not sure how to work it out.

Let's go through this:

The first Terror (the one you cast) comes out, the March triggers, but not the Terror. The March resolves, and you flip coins, getting N heads, meaning N Terrors enter the battlefield. Including the one already there, they all see all the others enter the battlefield, see rule 603.6a (emphasis mine):

  603.6a Enters-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent enters the battlefield. These are
  written, “When [this object] enters the battlefield, . . . “ or “Whenever a [type] enters the
  battlefield, . . .” Each time an event puts one or more permanents onto the battlefield, all
  permanents on the battlefield (including the newcomers) are checked for any enters-the-
  battlefield triggers that match the event.

So that's one Terror that deals damage N times, and N Terrors that each deal damage (N-1) times, for a total of 5*N^2 damage.

The probability distribution of N (assuming a fair coin) is given by

  P(N=n)=2^(-n)

By definition of expectation, the expected damage dealt is therefore:

  P(N=0)*5*0^2 + P(N=1)*5*1^2 + P(N=2)*5*2^2 + ...

According to WolframAlpha, this comes out to be 30.

If you want to know how to actually get 30 from this, math.SE is probably a better place to ask for the details. I'd be happy to answer it for you over there, as would many others I'm sure (as long as you stick to our guidelines for a good question). It's a lot easier to write math there as well.


Do conquered locations still help the Resistance? In Conquest of Planet Earth, the foolish Humans are resisting the implacable might of several alien overlords, who go about conquering various Locations until the Humans finally give up their doomed efforts. Several Locations give bonuses to the Human Resistance, such as the Train Station, which gives +1 Resistance to adjacent Locations.

Does this bonus still apply after the Train Station has been conquered by the ravening alien hordes? Are the Aliens dumb enough to keep the trains running on time, even if the trains are chock-full of weapons, ammunition, recruits, intrepid reporters, Meals Rejected By Ethiopians, teddy bears, and other material that the Resistance needs? Similarly, does the text of other Locations still apply after they've been conquered?

Also, do Demolished locations keep their text? (It should be obvious, but I couldn't find anything explicit in the rulebook about this.)

Conquered Locations text is still in effect after being conquered. Demolished Locations text is not in effect after being demolished.
The rules don't make any mention of conquered locations losing their rules text. The demolish markers replace the text of the locations they are in, so naturally the locations rules are no longer in effect. This in confirmed by the lead designer and president of Flying Frog Games, Jason C. Hill in this BBG thread

Location Text remains in effect, even after that Location is conquered. The only time a Location's text is canceled is if it has a Demolished marker on it (which has its own text that replaces the text of the Location).
Location text DOES apply as soon as it is placed, so yes, Aliens do have to roll to see if they stumble into the powerlines with the Electric Power Plant as soon as the Location is revealed in their space.


Aethersnatch vs Walking Ballista What happens when player A casts Walking Ballista (costing xx) for 170 colorless mana(meaning 85 for each x).

Then player B casts Aethersnatch to gain control of target spell?

Does it resolve under their control with counters or does it die when it hits the battlefield because it’s natural power and toughness is 0/0?

In this case Walking Ballista resolves under player B's control with counters.  That's because the mana has been already spent. Aethersnatch just gives the control of the spell to the opponent. On the stack the spell "remembers" how much mana was spent to cast it, and if opponent takes control of it, that doesn't change this fact.

From the comprehensive rules:

  107.3a

  If a spell or activated ability has a mana cost, alternative cost, additional cost, and/or activation cost with an {X}, [-X], or X in it, and the value of X isn’t defined by the text of that spell or ability, the controller of that spell or ability chooses and announces the value of X as part of casting the spell or activating the ability. (See rule 601, “Casting Spells.”) While a spell is on the stack, any X in its mana cost or in any alternative cost or additional cost it has equals the announced value. While an activated ability is on the stack, any X in its activation cost equals the announced value


How do I handle a gameplay error when I have an equivalent play available in a tournament? For example, suppose I have 3 Mountains. I play another Mountain, cast Koth of the Hammer, use the +1, and attempt to attack for four. However the Mountain I target is the one I freshly played (discernible since it has different art). Can my opponent call a judge and stop the attack, since Koth does not give haste so the mountain should be summoning sick?

I'm wondering if there are rules around these kind of "it doesn't matter situations". Since I have four Mountains, I could clearly have targeted another Mountain. I'm clearly not trying to cheat, but I'm also playing loosely. Do I get to hit for four after all?

If the answer to this depends on REL, I'm interested in all REL levels.

The attack was illegal. Your opponent can call a judge at any time, and is required to do so as soon as he noticed the error. The consequences of that error depend on the rules enforcement level (REL) and the judge's call. The illegal attack will be reverted, but you will not be allowed to animate and untap a different mountain at any REL.
In the Tournament Rules, it is stated that, among others, that

Players are responsible for:
• Maintaining a clear and legal game state.
• Calling attention to any rules or policy infraction they notice in their matches.

As you noted yourself, the mountain you untapped and turned into a creature has summonig sickness and cannot attack. Therefore you committed a game error.
As for consequences, given the circumstances you describe, a judge would probably not come to the conclusion that you were trying to cheat, because you had an equivalent, legal play at your disposal. Therefore, a game loss or worse seems out of the question here.
At regular REL, such as Friday Night Magic or pre-release tournaments, with relatively minor prizes at stake, the judge would most likely decide to rewind the game state to before your illegal attack.

A player makes an in-game error not mentioned above
This will cover the bulk of player errors, and usually the least disruptive option is to leave the game as it is after fixing anything that is currently illegal (e.g. an Aura enchanting an illegal permanent). If the error involved a player forgetting to draw or discard cards, have them perform the appropriate action now. Otherwise, if the error was caught quickly and rewinding is relatively easy, you may undo all the actions back to the point that the illegal action happened. [..]

Note that, since untapping the recently played mountain was perfectly legal, you would probably not be allowed to rewind that action, also for educational purposes:

Player education is a priority; remind the players to play more carefully, but avoid being heavyhanded in order to keep your events fun and relaxed. If a player continues to repeat a mistake despite multiple reminders, you may warn them that the next occurrence will result in a Game Loss.

Further consequences should not be expected. As you yourself admit to playing sloppily, this seems like a textbook case of an educational ruling.
At competitive or professional REL, the following rule applies:

2.5. Game Play Error — Game Rule Violation — Warning
Additional Remedy
First, consider a simple backup (see section 1.4).

This would already be a remedy to fix the game state, as the backup is trivial in your case.
You would receive a Warning penalty for a Game Rule Violation infraction. Had your opponent not noticed and reported the error within a short time, he would have received a Warning for a Failure to Maintain Game State:

For most Game Play Errors not caught within a time that a player could reasonably be expected to notice, opponents receive a Game Play Error — Failure to Maintain Game State penalty. [..]


Jace, Cunning Castaway +1 Ability So anyone who has been looking at the spoilers for Ixalan has probably come to the conclusion that the Jace, Cunning Castaway + Doubling Season is ridiculously broken.

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

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

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

Yes, that combo would work to win you the game.

Jace, Cunning Castaway's -5 ability and Doubling Season would allow you to create an arbitrary number of Jace copies. Those Jaces that didn't use an ability yet this turn can activate their +1 ability, and all of them would trigger on your combat damage. With Laboratory Maniac under your control and more Jace +1 triggers than cards in your library, you would win as soon as the (n+1)-th trigger has resolved.


How can I efficiently filter MagicCards.info searches down to cards castable with only certain mana colours? I've been constructing a green/white commander deck, and doing a lot of searches on MagicCards.info for its cards. To cut out all the cards I can't use, I've been using the search term c!gw to get just green and white cards. But I just realised that's a terrible way to search — it filters out all the off-colour hybrid mana cards!

For example, a search of c!gw o:"enchant land" o:"mana pool" yields a lot of green/white land ramping enchantments. But it excludes Trace of Abundance, which costs {R/W}{G}, making it red and excluded from the search, despite being perfectly castable with just green and white mana and exactly the kind of card I want.

Using a more inclusive filter of c:gw would also include lots of three-colour cards which I cannot cast.

How can I filter a MagicCards.info search down to only those cards I can cast with particular mana colours? If my mana pool is exclusively green and white, is there a filter that will include cards I can cast with those colours, even if they're off-colour cards like Figure of Destiny and Trace of Abundance?

(Colourless cards can be included or left out. They are simple enough to search for separately with c:c, or exclude from the search with -c:c.)

(Also, it's been pointed out to me my group's been accidentally playing without the color identity rule. Doesn't matter! Still good. Question ahoy!)

What you are asking for is effectively equivalent to "the mana cost does not contain {U}, {B}, {R}, {U/B}, {U/R}, or {B/R}" because those are all of the mana symbols that cannot be paid from your mana pool. This can be equivalently expressed by negating the expression that says "the mana cost contains any one of those symbols". So, the resulting query is

  -(mana>=u or mana>=b or mana>=r or mana>={U/B} or mana>={U/R} or mana>={B/R}) o:"enchant land" o:"mana pool"

Note the - at the beginning that negates the bolded expression. As you can see, this does in fact list every card your search found, plus Trace of Abundance. It also incidentally includes colorless cards and cards with Phyrexian and colorless hybrid mana symbols (e.g. {UP} or {2/R}) because it is possible to play those without spending any mana of their colors at all.


Does newer card text on a Magic: The Gathering card override the old wording? While going through the Gatherer database I noticed that the Alpha version of Icy Manipulator says,

  {1}: You may tap any land, creature, or artifact in play on either side.

whereas the Tenth Edition of the Icy Manipulator says,

  {1}, {T}: Tap target artifact, creature, or land.

This has me wondering, does the newer Tenth Edition card text retroactively apply to the Alpha card or does the Alpha text still apply when that card is in play? In other words, if I were to play the Alpha version, would I play by its rules, or the newer rules on the Tenth Edition card?

All versions of a card are considered to be equivalent and are played with the same text: this text is known as the Oracle wording of the card.  From the comprehensive rules:

  108.1. Use the Oracle(TM) card reference when determining a card's wording. A card's Oracle text can be found using the Gatherer card
  database at http://gatherer.wizards.com.

Note that a card's wording isn't always the most recent text on a card!  There are a handful of cards that have errata of one form or another - for instance, Time Vault's Oracle text has changed numerous times, and it's still different in a few small ways from the card as printed.

As far as Icy Manipulator specifically goes, note that the wording on the Alpha (and Beta) versions isn't as different from the 10th Edition version as you might think; while neither uses the tap symbol, they both have the type 'Mono Artifact' which by the rules of the time meant that they were tapped as part of their usage (and thus could only be used once in a turn).  Again, quoting from the comprehensive rules:

  Mono Artifact (Obsolete) An obsolete term that appeared on the type
  line of artifacts with activated abilities that caused the artifact to
  become tapped as a cost. Cards printed with this text have received
  errata in the Oracle card reference to simply say "Artifact," and
  those abilities now include the tap symbol in their costs.


How can a casino offer 99%+ RTP plus 1% cash back? So I am checking out a legal, regulated casino and they have video poker with over 99% RTP (return to player) games. And then I also noticed they have a deal where by loading funds using a credit card you get 1% cash back on it.  If you loaded the funds using their credit card method and say for example played a video poker game with 99.54% RTP wouldn't that make for a total 100.54% RTP and you could actually make money playing video poker ? Am I missing something ?

You are doing the math correctly.

Start out with $100.
Get 1% cash back, so essentially you have $101.
Now, 99.54% RTP, gets you 0.9954 * 101 = $100.54

So, on average every $100 you play, you would make 54 cents.  (It's far more likely that RTP is closer to 99%, in which case, the result is $99.99, but let's say it's really 99.54%)  According to an article from WizardOfOdds.com, this is not unheard of.

On the face of it, this sounds like a money making machine.  But you have to keep in mind...

How long does it take to "play" $100?  If it takes an hour, you're "making" 54 cents an hour.  This doesn't seem like a particularly profitable means of making money.  Even if it takes 5 minutes, you still are only making $6.5/hour.
How much are you spending to make this money?  You may get free drinks, but probably you'll be purchasing food at some point.  How much is that going to cost you?
Are you good enough to actually achieve that kind of return on the game?  The makers of the game can easily make it so complicated that no humans can actually play well enough to achieve that kind of payout level.  There is a game mentioned on the Wikipedia article for Video Poker that has a payout of 100.1.  But with the caveat that no one can play it well enough to achieve that....
Do you have enough capital on hand to "ensure" you make money.  Consider the following 99% game.  (It's not video poker, but the point is to illustrate the idea.)  You win $1,000,000 with probability 1.99e-6, or you lose $1 with probability (1 - 1.99e-6).  How many times on average do you need to bet in order to win?  You need to bet on average $500,000 in order to win once.  So, in that game you have to have $500K cash on hand "on average" to win.  This is an extreme case, but even for more "reasonable" games, the numbers are still in the favor of the house.  You will go broke, before you hit the big money.
Some cashback bonuses have conditions.  For example, some casinos only offer cashback when you lose a bet.


How does the Hickory Woodlot card work? I'm a little unclear on the The Magic the Gathering card Hickory Woodlot

Hickory Woodlot enters the battlefield tapped with two depletion
counters on it.
Tap, Remove a depletion counter from Hickory Woodlot:
Add {G}{G} to your mana pool. If there are no depletion counters
on Hickory Woodlot, sacrifice it.

The card is a land, so can it be tapped without removing a depletion counter to produce mana as normal?
Do you sacrifice it immediately after removing the counter? In other words do you have to have counters on it to use it's ability or can you use it one last time without?

Lands can only have the abilities printed on them. Any land that has one of the basic land subtypes (Plains, Island, etc.) also has an inherent ability to tap for one mana of the appropriate color. Hickory Woodlot is a land, but it has no basic land subtype, so it has no additional abilities of that sort besides what is printed. You can only tap this card for the ability using the depletion counters, to add 2 Green mana to your mana pool.

As to your second question, You perform all steps of an ability in order. First, you pay all costs (in this case, tapping and removing a depletion counter) and then, you perform all effects. The first effect is to generate the mana, then, there is a check against the depletion counters. This will check AFTER the counter has been removed, so you can essentially use this ability twice, and immediately after the second use, the land is sacrificed.


Advice on teaching Go to a kid I am a 7k EGF. There is a 7 year old girl, that is a relative of my wife and lives next door. Once I managed to start her interest in Go by playing several Atari-Go games against her. I decided to move to territorial Go after an Atari-Go game where she didn't allow me to do any capture. But maybe this was premature. We play from time to time. She beats me on 9x9 5h, but mostly loses on 4h. If I correct some of her obvious mistakes (like putting herself in atari, missing an obvious way to capture a stone on 2nd line etc.) we can play quite evenly on 3h.

Some of my observations:

She wants to play and is happy to do it almost any time and doesn't get bored even after playing for about 45 minutes.
She doesn't show any signs of being discouraged by losing.
She plays very fast and often repeats the same mistakes.
I believe she wants to capture very much, not so much securing her territory.

My questions:

Should I correct and allow to undo bad moves or just exploit them?
Should I do some review of the game after it is finished? (this two questions have obvious answers for adults, but is it true for children as well?)
Is it a good idea to do simple tsumego with her or should we just play as much as possible?
What should be the sign, that it is possible to move to 13x13?
What else can I do to improve her strength without discouraging her?

My recommendation is to:

Introduce recording of the games. This would allow her to study her own games offline, and come back with questions. The habit of recording one's own games is a gift beyond price, and the sooner introduced the stronger the habit will be.
Ask this young girl her own opinion on these questions. A sense of control I believe is vital, and she may well have different choices each meeting. In presenting these choices try to describe them in purely factual terms - just the data without any bias you may have. For the 13x13 board, describe how the balance between corner-play and centre-play will change for example, and ask her when she thinks she is ready for that. Avoid presenting it as a "promotion", so there is no shame in going backwards. Just present it as two different variations that will practice different skills.
In regards tsumego, I would introduce the various types of study, joseki and others, and show her that these are specialty skills that can be practiced and studied on their own. Then let her choose.

I was just two yeas older when I learned chess. Every Thursday evening at 7:00 my dad and I would setup the board under his favourite chair, and I would lose. I bought a book on Openings and another on Combinations and studied those  during the week. I found a couple of friends to play against as well. Eight months in I got my first draw against my Dad, and a couple of weeks later my first win. One of my fondest memories.


Does anyone know a good way to play Forbidden Island with one player Noone wants to play board games with me and I was wondering if you would need to change the rules at all to play with one player in Forbidden Island

In Forbidden Island, the players have no secrets from each other. There is also no real-time component to the game or other physical limitation that benefit from multiple real players. As such, you can simply play alone by playing with more than one character. Each character has its own hand and plays in turn as if they were played by different people.


Unstable set official abbreviation Unstable release is being listed as UST in

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

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

Will it be UST or UN3 eventually?

The set code is UST. It's already official, and you can see it printed on the bottom left of your card, in this case on Adorable Kitten:

The set code is always present there.

The hashtag may be #MTGUN3, but it's still UST for a set code.


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

The wording on Cursed Shovel says

If the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out by damage from
an opponent’s attack, discard the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck

Looking at The rules here for Pokémon-EX say

When one of your Pokémon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

The appendix for 'knocked out' says

A Pokémon is Knocked Out if it has damage greater than or equal to its
Hit Points. That Pokémon goes to the discard pile along with all cards
attached to it. When one of your opponent’s Pokémon is Knocked Out,
take one of your Prize card

So you would not be entitled to take two prize cards.  You only take a prize card when you knock a Pokemon out.  Cursed shovel places Pokemon in the discard pile, it is not the same as 'knocking out' and would not give a prize at all.


Can I combine Exploding Kitten decks to allow for more players? As the game clearly states the game is designed for 2-5 players. This is based on the game mechanic and resource level of the namesake kitten. Once you draw an exploding kitten and cannot defuse it, you are out and then the last remaining player winds. Since there are only 4 exploding kittens you can only have 5 players or there would be multiple winners.
Would it be possible to combine two whole game sets to allow for up to a maximum of 9 players (since there are now 8 exploding kittens)? Would this change cause any other game mechanics to break or be unfair?

Absolutely. From the website, Exploding Kittens is a:

Party game for 2-5 players (up to 9 players with 2 decks)

I often combine the Original and NSFW versions, to play with more than 4 players. You just have to make sure that there is always exactly 1 Exploding Kitten card less than the number of players.


Opening "best of minors" "My wife and I play a version of best of minors that was questioned by a friend as "I never heard of such a thing." We open best of minors seeking a four card major, but by opening with one club we offer three clubs, maybe four, and expect a two club response by partner if she has five clubs, thus giving us eight or nine clubs altogether. Or, when we open one diamond we promise four diamonds, expecting a two diamond response from partner if she has four or five diamonds thus giving us eight or nine diamonds altogether.

Does this make sense, or are we out of touch? What should we tell our friend?

Your opening style seems fine, but responder should prefer to bid 1 heart or 1 spade holding four cards in the major to go along with support in your minor. That is, after you have opened 1C, partner should respond 1H holding

x
xxxx
xxx
AKxxx

There are a number of reasons for this; perhaps the most important is that making ten tricks in a major-suit contract is almost always easier than make 11 tricks in a minor-suit contract when you have a 4-4 fit in the major and a 5-4 fit in the minor.


Can creatures with summoning sickness be tapped for convoke? Can creatures or creature tokens be tapped for mana the turn they entered the battlefield when casting a spell with convoke or do they need haste?

For example, can I cast Raise the Alarm for 2 soldier tokens, then on that same turn tap the soldiers to help pay for a Stoke the Flames.

Yes, they can. You are probably thinking of the "summoning sickness rule", which does not apply here:

  302.6. A creature‘s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can‘t
  be activated unless the creature has been under its controller‘s control continuously since his or her
  most recent turn began. A creature can‘t attack unless it has been under its controller‘s control
  continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning
  sicknes" rule.

So this rule doesn't prevenet creatures for being tapped for any reason other than paying the activation cost of that creature or attacking with that creature.


Is it possible to respond to a "part" of a triggered ability? (with multiple sentences) Here is the scenario that came up multiple times when playing Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, which says:

At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a 2/1 blue Myr artifact creature token. Then you may choose a token you control. If you do, each other token you control becomes a copy of that token.

I move to combat, Brudiclad's ability triggers
Nobody responds to the trigger
The 2/1 myr token is created
I choose to make all my tokens copies of another token I have, like a Darksteel Juggernaut
Another player "responds" to that with Path to Exile, targeting the Juggernaut
Juggernaut is exiled, Brudiclad's ability loses target and nothing is copied

Is that a legal response? Couldn't find a good ruling explanation about responding to multiple sentences in a triggered ability.

No, this is not legal, but it isn't because it is a multi-part ability with separate sentences.
The key is that choosing the token you want everything to become a copy of is something you do when the ability resolves, not something you do when you put it on the stack.
When you cast a spell, or in this case when you put a triggered ability on the stack, you choose things such as any targets it requires, and what mode you are using if it is a modal spell. But other choices such as "choose a token you control" are not made at this time.
When the player is choosing the token they control, the ability is already resolving, and no player gets priority to do anything until after the entire ability has resolves.
Contrast to this alternate wording for Brudiclad:

At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a 2/1 blue Myr artifact creature token. Then each other token you control becomes a copy of target token you control.

If Brudiclad were worded like this, then you would choose your token to copy when you put the ability on the stack, because it uses the word "target". In that case, your choice could be responded to.

Resolving Spells and Abilities

608.2d If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect.

Casting Spells

601.2b If the spell is modal, the player announces the mode choice
601.2c The player announces their choice of an appropriate object or player for each target the spell requires

This applies to triggered abilities the same as spells:

603.3c If a triggered ability is modal, its controller announces the mode choice when putting the ability on the stack.
603.3d The remainder of the process for putting a triggered ability on the stack is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2c–d.


Is modification of the face of a card legal? I have been running a set of cards for a while (Flower cardian) where the summoning of some forbids the summoning of out-of-archetyle cards after them, and some do not.

In order to help me remember, I was planning to put a mark on the face of the cards that still allow it.

Are there any rules against this? Does it make the card in any way illegal or unplayable?

As a bonus: can I do this to the (inside) of the sleeve instead?

Looking at the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki and they have a section on tournament that covers marked cards and it appears to only be concerned about identifying the card without needing to see the front of the card. I have also found some specific topics regarding the penalties for marked cards and a topic just defining what one is.

From what I can see the front is not as important as long as the normal text on the card isn't interfered with (so players know what it does) and the card can't be identified while it is in the deck that marking them on the front should not be an issue.

  A card is considered to be marked if it can be identified without seeing the front of the card. This includes but is not limited to warping, creases, discoloration, card thickness or texture, and water-marks. Ifthe cards are sleeved, this includes but is not limited to sleeves with identifying marks or other unique characteristics that distinguish it from other cards in the Deck. Cards that have been physically altered to add or subtract layers of foil, etc, are not legal for Sanctioned tournament play.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Tournament_Rules
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Marked_Cards
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Marked_card


Can multiple activated abilities be resolved after each other while something is on the stack This came up during a commander game this evening. Someone targeted Ghave, Guru of Spores with a damage spell doing just enough to kill him. Can I use his first activated ability to take a counter off another creature and create a Saproling, then after that resolves sacrifice that Saproling to put a counter on Ghave, all before the spell on the stack resolves? It was decided this didn't work, but I'm not sure.

Yes, you can do this.

After Ghave has been targeted with a damage spell, the damage spell goes on the stack.  You then respond to that spell by using Ghave's first activated ability, which also goes on the stack.

At this point (as long as nobody else plays in response), each player has passed priority, triggering rule 608:

  608.1. Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves.

Ghave's activated ability resolves, and a Saproling enters the battlefied.  Rule 116 then comes into play:

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

Priority returns to the active player (which could be you or your opponent) before going around to each of the players again.  No other spells or abilities on the stack will resolve until each player has passed priority.

When you get priority again, you can use Ghave's second ability to sacrifice the Saproling and place a counter on Ghave to save him.


Could I turn Mistform Dreamer into a Shrine? Mistform Dreamer says I can turn it into any creature type until the end of turn, could I turn it into a shrine for use with any of the Hondens?

No. Alas, Shrine isn't a creature type, it's an enchantment type.
Rules reference:

205.3h Enchantments have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called enchantment types. The enchantment types are Aura (see rule 303.4), Curse, and Shrine.
205.3m Creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types. The creature types are Advisor, Ally, Angel, Anteater, Antelope, Ape, Archer, Archon, Artificer, Assassin, Assembly-Worker, Atog, Aurochs, Avatar, Badger, Barbarian, Basilisk, Bat, Bear, Beast, Beeble, Berserker, Bird, Blinkmoth, Boar, Bringer, Brushwagg, Camarid, Camel, Caribou, Carrier, Cat, Centaur, Cephalid, Chimera, Citizen, Cleric, Cockatrice, Construct, Coward, Crab, Crocodile, Cyclops, Dauthi, Demon, Deserter, Devil, Djinn, Dragon, Drake, Dreadnought, Drone, Druid, Dryad, Dwarf, Efreet, Elder, Eldrazi, Elemental, Elephant, Elf, Elk, Eye, Faerie, Ferret, Fish, Flagbearer, Fox, Frog, Fungus, Gargoyle, Germ, Giant, Gnome, Goat, Goblin, Golem, Gorgon, Graveborn, Gremlin, Griffin, Hag, Harpy, Hellion, Hippo, Hippogriff, Homarid, Homunculus, Horror, Horse, Hound, Human, Hydra, Hyena, Illusion, Imp, Incarnation, Insect, Jellyfish, Juggernaut, Kavu, Kirin, Kithkin, Knight, Kobold, Kor, Kraken, Lammasu, Leech, Leviathan, Lhurgoyf, Licid, Lizard, Manticore, Masticore, Mercenary, Merfolk, Metathran, Minion, Minotaur, Monger, Mongoose, Monk, Moonfolk, Mutant, Myr, Mystic, Nautilus, Nephilim, Nightmare, Nightstalker, Ninja, Noggle, Nomad, Octopus, Ogre, Ooze, Orb, Orc, Orgg, Ouphe, Ox, Oyster, Pegasus, Pentavite, Pest, Phelddagrif, Phoenix, Pincher, Pirate, Plant, Praetor, Prism, Rabbit, Rat, Rebel, Reflection, Rhino, Rigger, Rogue, Salamander, Samurai, Sand, Saproling, Satyr, Scarecrow, Scorpion, Scout, Serf, Serpent, Shade, Shaman, Shapeshifter, Sheep, Siren, Skeleton, Slith, Sliver, Slug, Snake, Soldier, Soltari, Spawn, Specter, Spellshaper, Sphinx, Spider, Spike, Spirit, Splinter, Sponge, Squid, Squirrel, Starfish, Surrakar, Survivor, Tetravite, Thalakos, Thopter, Thrull, Treefolk, Triskelavite, Troll, Turtle, Unicorn, Vampire, Vedalken, Viashino, Volver, Wall, Warrior, Weird, Werewolf, Whale, Wizard, Wolf, Wolverine, Wombat, Worm, Wraith, Wurm, Yeti, Zombie, and Zubera.


Where can I find good tile layouts for Settlers of Catan? I just bought a copy of Settlers, and noticed that there was a suggested starting layout that is included in the Almanac. I noticed it was mentioned online as well:

  "new editions of the game also depict a fixed layout in their manual, which has been proven to be fairly even-handed by computer simulations, and recommend this to be used by beginners" wikipedia

I have found a pretty decent tool for generating random boards, but I find myself flipping through multiple ones that place 6s or 8s next to their respective ports, or place all the clay on 3s, 11s, and the like.

Is there a list of user created recommended starting positions for tiles? Perhaps for tournament play? What do competitive players do to ensure variety and balance? I understand that the rules say to place the tiles randomly, but it can sometimes lead to long and boring games.

We have also experimented with a "drafting" of tiles as we lay them down, with rules about putting too many of the same resource touching, or near a port. I'm open to any suggestions in this regard as well.

We use Better Settlers.

  The Better Settlers Board Generator is for use with the offline board
  game Settlers of Catan. Not only does it allow for faster game setup,
  it generates a fair and engaging game.

  We love playing Settlers. We've noticed that sometimes the game seems
  to be over in the first fifteen minutes--and no matter how fairly we
  try to distribute resources and probabilities during setup, natural
  bias creeps in. So we developed the Better Settlers Board Generator.

  The algorithm for the generator is designed to create fair play. The
  result is more riveting and engaging play.

  You'll have a better game of Settlers.

I have no idea what the algorithm that they use is, but in all of our games so far its worked fairly well.  There is also an android app.


In solo play, am I the player to my right? Last night I was playing Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game using the standard solo rules. The villain group in my game was Underworld, from the Dark City expansion. On one of my turns, I flipped Blackheart who has three abilities:

Ambush: The player to your right (does something)*
Fight: Same effect.
Escape: Same effect.

Am I the player to my right? In other words, do I have to do the effect on this card if I am playing by myself?

I can't remember what this something is, but that's unimportant to the question.

Yes, you are the player to your right (and left) when playing solo.

From Devin Low, the designer of Legendary:

  Blackheart's effects say "The player on your right reveals a [MARVEL KNIGHTS] Hero or gains a Wound." When you do this effect in a two-player game, the other player is the player to your right, so that player must reveal or gain a Wound. In a solo game, the player to your right (going around the table) is yourself, so you gain a Wound.


How do you play Scrapheap Scrounger's ability? Scrapheap Scrounger has an ability that allows you to return it from the graveyard to the battlefield. However, it doesn't say you can play this ability while the card is in the graveyard. I am trying to figure out the order of effects that would let me use this.

I assume that the idea is you can play it in response an effect that would destroy it or otherwise send it to the graveyard. But, wouldn't the Scrounger's ability then resolve first, at which point the card is still a creature on the battlefield and not a card in the graveyard? Then whatever effect is about to kill it would resolve and kill it? Doesn't that even apply to dying from attack damage?

Scrapheap Scrounger's activated ability works if and only if it's in the graveyard. That is implicit for all such abilities, when they wouldnt make sense otherwise.
Generally, you are correct in that abilities on permanents only function on the battlefield. There are, however, exceptions to that. The Scrounger's ability falls under one of them:

112.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:
112.6k An ability whose cost or effect specifies that it moves the object it’s on out of a particular zone functions only in that zone, unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone. The same is true if the effect of that ability creates a delayed triggered ability whose effect moves the object out of a particular zone.


Part game (leg) scoring in bridge In either "party" or "rubber" bridge scoring, what is the value of a part score when you either stop playing or come to the end of a "party" round?  Some people award 50 points for a part score, some 100 points.  Which is correct?  Is there a difference if you are vulnerable or not?

In Chicago, or four-deal scoring, a team gets a 100 point premium for making a part score only in the fourth and final deal of the game.  If a team is carrying a part score forward from a previous deal, and do not convert it into a game score by the end of the fourth deal, they do not receive a premium.


In Ticket to Ride, do cities have to be connected in the same order as on the ticket? Is the direction of the ticket important? Do cities have to be connected in the order shown on the ticket?

For example, if I am attempting to claim the Rostov-Erzurum ticket, can I connect Erzurum to Rostov instead of connecting Rostov to Erzurum?

In both Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: Europe, routes can be completed in any order, and there's no concept of direction of travel. All that matters is whether you can reach one of the cities from the other at the end of the game.

  If, by the end of the game, a player has created a continuous path of his color plastic trains between the two cities named on a Destination Ticket he holds, he scores the additional points indicated by the Point Value on the Ticket. If he has failed to complete a continuous path between those cities, he deducts the Point Value on the Ticket from his total score.

A path between cities must be created. Nothing about traveling from one of the cities to the other city.

For example, you could satisfy a Rostov-Erzurum ticket by having built Erzurum-Sevastopol, Rostov-Sochi, and Sevastopol-Sochi in any order.

This is a related question about Train Stations in Ticket to Ride: Europe.


Can I attach Batterskull to a creature of my choice when I put it on the battlefield with Quest for the Holy Relic? Assume my board state is as follows: Quest for the Holy Relic with 5 quest counters on it, any creature (call it Bob for now), any rest. I activate the Quest's ability, allowing me to find an equipment in my deck, put it on the battlefield, and attach it to a creature I control. For this, I pick Batterskull, an equipment with Living weapon:

  When this Equipment enters the battlefield, create a 0/0 black Germ creature token, then attach this to it.

Now my question is: Does the Germ enter the battlefield before or after I need to attach the Batterskull to a creature as by the ability of the Quest?
As depending on that, two scenarios may occur:

If the germ is spawned first, then I can attach the weapon to any of the two I like.
If not, the weapon is first attached to Bob, then the Germ will spawn and Batterskull will be attached to the Germ (as by the effect of Living weapon) (please also state if I am wrong on this one).

Your creature will briefly have Batterskull attached to it, but you will end up with the Batterskull equipped to the 0/0 token.

The effect of Quest has 3 relevant steps:

Search your library for an Equipment card,
put it onto the battlefield,
attach it to a creature you control.

After step 2, Batterskull's Living Weapon triggers and is waiting to go on the stack. You finish resolving the Quest ability, and Batterskull is now attached to Bob.

Once the Quest ability has resolved, Living Weapon goes on the stack. When it resolves, you follow its instructions normally - you create a 0/0 token, unattach Batterskull from Bob, and attach it to the token.

  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.


Can Arlinn Kord's -1 ability target planeswalkers? Can Arlinn Kord's -1 ability (deals 3 damage to target creature or player) target another planeswalker?

Yes, it can. In fact the text has been errataed to say:

  −1: Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon deals 3 damage to any target. Transform Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon.

“Any target” means any creature, player, or planeswalker.

Before Dominaria, we had a rule called the planeswalker damage redirection rule: it meant when we were dealing damage to a player with a spell or ability, we could make that damage hit one of their planeswalkers instead.

Dominaria removed that rule, and any pre-Dominaria card that said “target creature or player” now says “any target” to remain functionally the same. There are a few other changes that were made too: you can read about those in Dominaria Oracle Changes under the “Planeswalker Damage Redirection” heading near the start.

If you see a card from before Dominaria that says “target creature or player”, it now has errata to say “any target” instead.


Stateful equipment use for Red Sign of Shudde M'ell in Arkham Horror In Arkham Horror, players may use the spell Red Sign of Shudde M'ell to lower a monster's toughness by 1 (to a minimum of 1) until the end of this combat.  In the event that an investigator has multiple copies of that spell (let's say 5) against a monster with a high enough toughness (almost like the Dunwich Horror), can that investigator cast all those spells over multiple combat rounds to effectively reduce that monster's toughness to the minimum of 1?  Or reduce all of its abilities to absolutely nothing?

I believe that both effects of that spell are stateful and affects the monster's traits waaaay after the spells are cast and subsequently released, but I just want to make sure.

The Arkham Horror rules state that:

  A spell or weapon that gives you a bonus (even one that says it lasts until the end of combat) only continues to give you the bonus while you devote the required number of hands to it.

Normally, for spells like Withering, which gives a combat bonus of three (3), that means the bonus goes away the next combat round when you've released the spell.  However, the Red Sign of Shudde M'ell does not provide any combat bonus whatsoever.  Just like the item "Shotgun", which confers a raw 6 ability distinct from its combat bonus, the spell has an effect outside of its normal combat bonus of zero (0).

So after successfully casting and exhausting two of those spell cards, the player can release both hands and then successfully cast another two copies of that particular spell to both reduce the toughness of a monster by four blood drops and remove four of either "Overwhelming X", "Endless", "Physical Immunity", "Physical Resistance", "Magical Resistance", and "Ambush" at the end of two combat rounds.

To recap: Can you release the hands used for a successfully cast Red Sign of Shudde M'ell after a combat round without forfeiting the spell's benefits in later combat rounds?

OT: Terse recapitulation is hard.

My understanding is that the term bonus in:

  A spell or weapon that gives you a bonus...

is that it refers to any advantages that you may have using the specific card.

Also taken in mind that this card has a hand on it, then it is sure for me that whenever you stop casting it by releasing your hand, then its effect is being cancelled.

I hope my thoughts make sense :)


Supernatural Stamina & Vehicles I crew a Vehicle to block. Once it's a creature, I cast Supernatural Stamina, targeting the Vehicle. Text for Supernatural Stamina:

  Until end of turn, target creature gets +2/+0 and gains "Whenever this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control."

If my Vehicle dies, does it return to the battlefield because it met its trigger by dying, or does it remain in the graveyard because the effect checks for a creature, and it's an artifact in the graveyard? If it does return, does it return as a creature until end of turn, or as an uncrewed vehicle?

Your vehicle will return to the battlefield, uncrewed and not a creature.

The first part is because of rule 201.5:

  201.5. If an ability of an object uses a phrase such as “this [something]” to identify an object, where [something] is a characteristic, it is referring to that particular object, even if it isn’t the appropriate characteristic at the time.

Supernatural Stamina is using "this creature" as a flavorful alternative to "this object". :)

Meanwhile, it returns as an ordinary uncrewed vehicle because of rule 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 these exceptions apply here.]

Once it returns to the battlefield, it has absolutely nothing to do with the previous crewed vehicle object that was represented by that same card. It's a brand new vehicle.


Does "[card name] or another [type]" require [card name] to be in the proper category? Inspired by this other question, what happens if a card such as Ivy Lane Denizen has Nim Deathmantle equipped; so that it is not green?

When you play a green creature such as a Grizzly Bears, will Denizen's ability trigger? In other words, does "another green creature" stop working when Denizen is not itself a "green creature"?

Similarly, if you control a Conspiracy, with "Bear" named as the type, will Lantern Scout's ability trigger when it enters the battlefield? It says "Whenever Lantern Scout or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control..." Does this imply that Lantern Scout must be an Ally in order to trigger?

One more example, perhaps more simple than the others. You control Anafenza, the Foremost, and it has vigilance due to whatever. When you attack with it, are you still able to put a counter on "another target tapped creature you control"? Or does "another target tapped creature" imply that Anafenza must be tapped in order for there to be "another tapped" creature?

The only rule I can find dealing with this isn't helpful:

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

It doesn't define anything about the word "another"; or how to handle triggering events with an "or" in them.

The rules do not explicitly cover this, but in Magic card templating, the phrase "another [characteristic]" is consistently used to mean "an object that is [characteristic] and is not this object". So, in all of these cases the ability will trigger whether or not the object itself has the mentioned characteristic.

In general, this doesn't come up in rulings, but Ephara, God of the Polis, for example, has an ability that refers to "another creature", and there is no indication that it only functions while Ephara is a creature.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's a sensible interpretation of the new rules?

I am going to assume you mean the rule you quoted above. Mystery Cards are a new card type that is available in Gloom: Unhappy Homes. Mystery Cards unlike Modifiers, Events, or Untimely Deaths may be placed on Locations. Gloom's card components are mostly transparent, but the parts that are not, cover up previous cards that were played before the current one (and remove those previous effects if they are covered). From the rules on Atlas Games

  You can't play Modifiers, Events, or Untimely Deaths on a Location. Nothing can take your house rule away from you, so enjoy it while you can.

What's the purpose of the pathos points on the blue-themed mystery cards if the residences are unkillable?

Those points count towards a families final total. From the Official Site.

  A Mystery is the only card that can be placed on a Residence (and only a Residence), and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays. It gives that Residence's player a special effect and Pathos points that count toward his final Family Value. A Mystery remains even if the requirements for playing it are lost. You may discard a Mystery from your hand as a free play.


Interaction between Carcassonne: Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars and other expansions Last night we played with the Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars expansion for Carcassonne.  We also played with a few other expansions, but ran into several situations where we weren't sure of the rules.  Previously, for unfamiliar expansions, we have used the annotated rules by Matthew Harper, but they don't go as far as this expansion.

Does anyone know of a list of interaction rules for this expansion?

Edit to give examples: We weren't sure about the effect of builders in a bazaar round, from which tiles dragons can eat knights in castles (if at all), whether the castles can be used over two tile cities where the tiles aren't simple curves. Also whether the bazaar breaks the road and how to do bazaars near the end of the game when there's not enough tiles left (these last two aren't to do with interaction with other expansions).

Edit to give another example: Also do castles count as cities for the purposes of scoring the king?

Note: I'm fairly certain I've missed off lots of combinations here, but the annotated rules has cleared up all the questions we've had with previous expansions.  I'm really after a reference like it for this expansion.

Some Ideas

Admittedly I haven't tried the expansion yet, but here is my take on the specific issues you mentioned:

Builders in bazaar round: Just as bazaars gotten during bazaar round don't count as bazaars because it's not normal tile placement, the builder shouldn't do anything special, either.
Dragon with castle: I would force the follower to stay on the tile where he was before the city was converted, but I look forward to a more authoritative answer.
Non-oval castles: The rules specify "consisting of only two semi-circular city segments".
Bazaar road: It looks to me like it breaks it just as much as the Cloister from I & C, which must break the road, unlike the other Cloister in the Bazaar pic.

Bazaar near end of game: No idea on this one.


Questions on banding and combat damage Question 1

I attack with a Benalish Hero and a Lord of the Pit banded together, and my opponent blocks with 3 10/10's. Can I assign all 30 damage to the hero and have the Lord survive?

Question 2.1

I attack with the Lord and my opponent blocks with a 5/5 and 4 1/1's. I choose to first deal 5 damage to the 5/5, then 1 damage to two of the 1/1's. Can my opponent wait until I've selected this damage assignment to play Heal and save his 5/5?

Question 2.2

If he can not save his 5/5 with heal in Question 2, why would I ever choose to assign more than lethal damage to the first blocker during damage assignment?

For this question, it's important to note that damage assignment happens in the Combat Damage step, but damage assignment order happens in the Declare Blockers Step.
Main Question
You will be able to assign all damage to the Benalish Hero and save Lord of the Pits.
First of all, the rule that allows you (as the attacking player) to assign combat damage, rather than the defending player:

702.21k During the combat damage step, if a blocking creature is blocking a creature with banding (...), the active player (rather than the defending player) chooses how the blocking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature's combat damage as he or she chooses among any number of creatures it's blocking. This is an exception to the procedure described in rule 510.1d.

This allows you to ignore the damage assignment order that's set by the defending player ¹ ²

509.3. Third, for each blocking creature, the defending player announces that creature's damage assignment order, which consists of the creatures it's blocking in an order of that player's choice. (...)

¹ http://magicjudge.tumblr.com/post/75765284769/explain-banding-now
² https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU552Z7PeAc

Question 2.1 and 2.2
As for part 2.1 of your question, banding isn't part of the question whatsoever, you don't get the benefit of 702.21k. Damage assignment happens a step further ahead, but you will have to assign the damage assignment order right after being blocking by those creatures. Assuming your choice is "5/5, then 1/1, then 1/1, then 1/1, then 1/1", your opponent will know that you intend to kill the 5/5. After declaring blockers and assigning the damage order, there is a round of priority:

509.5. Fifth, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

So they may cast Heal after knowing what you intend to do. Heal will prevent the next damage dealt to a creature, not actually increase it's toughness, so assigning 5 damage to it will be enough to justify the "deal lethal damage" requirement. This means that you get the choice of dealing 5 damage or more to the 5/5, but you will have to deal 6 damage to it to actually cause it to be destroyed.
This is a great example of why it's useful to assign more damage than a creature has toughness at times.
Another possibility is that the second creature you're blocking is a Phyrexian Obliterator or a similar card that you want to avoid at all costs that it's being dealt damage. There are a lot of other good reasons in a game as complicated as Magic, and listing more would likely overcomplicate the issue, as I believe this scenario covers the most interesting one.


Can I have two similarly-named legendary creatures on the field? If I have two different Ulamogs, can they both be on the field? They both share Ulamog as part of their name, but their entire names are different.

One is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, while the other is Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Does legend rule carry across instances like this, or would it only apply if I had two of either of them on the field?

Legendary permanents trigger the Legend Rule only if they have the same exact name.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre have two different card names, so you can have both out simultaneously (even though they're both variants of Ulamog, lore-wise).

  201.2. A card’s name is always considered to be the English version of its name, regardless of printed language.

  201.2a Two objects have the same name if their names are identical.

  704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

Planeswalker cards used to have a slightly different uniqueness rule:

  306.4. Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a “planeswalker uniqueness rule” that stopped a player from controlling two planeswalkers of the same planeswalker type. This rule has been removed and planeswalker cards printed before this change have received errata in the Oracle card reference to have the legendary supertype. Like other legendary permanents, they are subject to the “legend rule” (see rule 704.5j).

This used to be the case if you, for example, controlled Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Steadfast. One of them would die, not because they have similar names, but because they both have the same planeswalker type, Ajani.

The planeswalker uniqueness rule has been removed with the Ixalan rules update. All planeswalkers have received errata to be legendary, they follow the regular legendary rule now, and their planeswalker type does no longer matter for uniqueness.


Companion commander question Haven't seen this covered, but can you use a companion card such as Jegantha, the Wellspring as your commander instead of as a companion?
The text on the card reads If this card is your chosen companion you may cast it once from outside the game.
Does this mean if I don't choose it as a companion I can use it like any other regular legendary creature?

Thanks.

Yes, you can.

The Companion keyword only functions outside of the game. This means that if a card with Companion is in your deck, whether as a Commander or just any regular card, then the Companion part of the card doesn't do anything; it's just a normal creature. In the case of a Commander deck, it would just be a normal Legendary Creature which is therefore valid as your Commander.

  702.138. Companion

    702.138a Companion is a keyword ability that functions outside the game. It’s written as “Companion—[Condition].” Before the game begins, you may reveal one card you own from outside the game with a companion ability whose condition is fulfilled by your starting deck. (See rule 103.1b.) If you do, once during that game, you may play that card from outside the game.

  Commander

    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.

Jegantha, the Wellspring is a legendary creature, therefore it can be your Commander.