Does a Sorcery with Support trigger Zada, Hedron Grinder's ability? If a sorcery (like Press into Service for example) has the support ability, would casting it and supporting only Zada, Hedron Grinder activate his ability? Is the "targets only Zada" requirement met by the support? Or would the card have to specifically say "target creature"?

Support has this definition:

  “Support N” on a permanent means “Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to N other target creatures.” “Support N” on an instant or sorcery spell means “Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to N target creatures.”

So, "Support 2" on Press into Service is the same as if the card actually had "Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to 2 target creatures" printed on it. This means that yes, if you cast a spell with Support N, and the only target is Zada, Hedron Grinder, then the ability triggers and the spell is copied.

However, note that this is impossible with Nissa's Judgement (and Press into Service if you want to actually take control of an opponent's creature), because they require you to choose another target besides the ones you support.


Eater trashed during the run: still can't acess card during the run? A runner makes run on a server protected by two ices. The second one is Nebula. The runner uses the Eater to break all subroutines on the first ice. Than runner encounters Nebula and it destroys eater. What happens with the Eaters effect "you cannot access more than 0 cards for the remainder of this run". Nothing?

You still wouldn't be able to access cards, because conditional effects of cards do not disappear when the card is trashed. Same way as with Sneakdoor Beta - if you start a run with it then it gets trashes midrun, you still apply it's access replacement effect for this run.


What's a good strategy for Shadows over Camelot? What are viable strategies for trying to win Shadows over Camelot? Our group always seems to lose when we play. :(

Shadows Over Camelot is actually unbalanced towards the Knights winning.  In fact, the base game has even been solved (guaranteed victory) when playing with 7 players.  The key to that victory lies in the special white cards.  Since they're reshuffled (both decks are reshuffled when you reshuffle one) when you run out of cards, what the Knights should do is keep their hands mostly full as often as possible, thus they can quickly cycle Merlin cards and other whites, instead of 'saving' them.

Therefore, when starting the game, everyone should spend time drawing up white cards at Camelot, until they reach their limit of 12.  Only then should someone go questing.  The only exception to this is Lancelot's armor.  The first knight who has a full house should immediately go claim the armor, as it's the most powerful tool for white victory in the game.

Because of this strategy, the most important Knight roles are King Arthur (for passing cards) and Sir Galahad (for playing the special whites for free).  In general, Arthur gives the specials to Galahad, then he stays at Camelot drawing them and playing them (Merlins included).

Remember, this is a race against time, so movement is the enemy.  Every time you move to a quest, you should lose a life to perform the quest's heroic action.

Now that bad blacks, life (through piety), cards, and even redrawing (through convocation) are dealt with, all that remains is how to complete quests.

As I said, the Armor is the most important.  Get that quickly.  Ignore the Dragon, for the most part.  When fighting Picts and Saxons, your goal should be to complete the quest with 2 or 3 picts/saxons on the board, since then, effectively, those would have been 'wasted' black cards (i.e. don't be too safe and not put any mercenaries on the one you're working on, and, of course, don't lose the quest).  Try to keep the Grail and the Sword, JUST SHORT of victory, until the armor is attained.  If you complete these quests too early, you'll just be adding catepults.  While this is happening, always take black cards, as they're the easiest.  Cats are much more expensive to deal with.

Once you've gotten the armor, and defeated a pict/saxon or two, then gang up to get the sword, draw back up on grails, and then gang up to finish the grail.  Since black cannot 'gang-up' on a quest, you're sure to have victory with the overwhelming numbers.  You do the Grail last (hopefully with a Heroism card on it), and get 4 white swords for it.  (Heroism is key to winning as well).  The traitor won't matter, since even flipping two won't affect the outcome.  Don't waste time on accusations.  The first person to accuse will be the traitor, so if he accuses, accuse him back and it's dealt with.

Late in the game (during the gang-up phase).  Use life points and cats to avoid drawing the black cards.

In terms of special blacks, most aren't that bad.  The ones to really worry about (i.e. use 3 merlins to stop) are Mists of Avalon (always), Vivian (always), and Dark Forest (if the grail is in danger of being lost, only).

Here's how a typical game might go:

Lancelot's Armor obtained (+ Heroism)  2 white swords.
Saxon's defeated (3 white total)
Picts lost (3 white 1 black)
Black knight lost (3 white 2 black)
Excalibur Claimed (+Heroism)  (6 white 2 black)
Dragon Lost (6 white, 4 black)
Grail Found (+Heroism) (10 white 4 black)

Traitor unrevealed (8 white 6 black)

White Victory.


Basic strategies for each country in Diplomacy I found out one of my friends has Diplomacy and wants to play. He's never played before, and neither have I, nor anyone else in the group. I'm confident I can explain the rules, but I don't really know a lot about the strategy as I've never actually played. I'll be able to convey the general strategies, like backstabbing at key times and making sure to make their key borders as well protected as possible.

However, I don't really know what to do about the strategies for specific country, and I think we'd all enjoy it more if I didn't end up advising them what to do due to time constraints and its opposition to the spirit of the game. Ideally, I want everyone to be as independent as possible, meaning not relying on other players for their strategies and moves because I think that's more how it was meant to be played.

Does anyone know of some brief, meaning a few paragraphs long, descriptions of strategy for playing each country? Something like this:

  Germany: Since you are in the center of the board, you will be in the middle of many other countries' way. Try to make alliances with 1 or 2 of them so you won't be fighting on all sides. [country] is most likely to attack you in [place] because it's critical to their expansion and future development, so watch for this early in the game. If you make friends with Italy, the two of you can proceed to conquer this area of the board and quickly grow in strength...

  Your ideal alliances would be with A and B, but if A refuses then you can do this to minimize your vulnerability...

As I said, I know nothing about diplomacy yet, so I don't know exactly how the game develops. But if I could give each player a piece of paper with some advice on it for certain situations, I think it could help a lot, especially in the beginning with answering the question 'what they heck do I do?!?!'.

Does anyone know of some good brief summaries that I can give each player to help them get off to as good a start as possible? Naturally these would be kept secret from other players and I wouldn't read any before-hand except for the one for the country I'm playing.

The Gamers' Guide to Diplomacy has exactly the brief summaries you're looking for as well as much more. It's hard to get hold of so I put it online here. p7 of the 2nd pdf has the brief country by country summaries.


Dark Charm and Objective tokens I'm playing Descent 2nd edition, in the Shadow Vault scenario.

One of my heroes is carrying the objective token. The Overlord plays Dark Charm targeting that hero.

Can the Overlord force my hero to hand the token over to Baron Zachareth?

In short, NO.

My reasoning is based on the two pieces of information:

The Dark Charm card mentioned above has the following text (emphasis mine):

  Play this card on a hero at the start of your turn. The hero tests Willpower. If he passes, draw 1 Overlord card. If he fails, you may perform a move or attack action with that hero as if he were one of your monsters this turn. You cannot force him to suffer Fatigue or use a Potion, but you may force him to attack himself.

The only two actions that the overlord can take after using this ability is to move or attack.

If that isn't sufficient, trading is described as follows (emphasis mine):

  Heroes may give or receive Shop Item cards, Relic cards, and Search
  cards to or from each other during a move action. At any point during
  his move action, a hero may trade any number of Shop Item cards, Relic
  cards, or Search cards with an adjacent hero. Trading does not require an
  additional action or the expense of movement points.

There's nothing here stating that the hero can trade with an enemy


In Rummikub, can you split a run on the end or it must be within the ends? ex- 34567 turned into 234...&...567 To me, it sounds as if the added tile must split the existing run (ex- 34567 to 345 567), not that a tile can be added to the start or end of a run & then split it apart.

If 34567 is on the table and you have a matching 5, you can split into 345, 67 and add the 5 to the 67 to get 567.

If 34567 is on the table and you have a matching 2, you can add the 2 to get 234567. You can then split into 234 and 567, but you can also keep it a full set.


Charter boat vs. Sea Lanes The action Charter boat states that one can move to a city as long as one can draw a route to it by sea.

The draw sea-lane action states that it's only allowed to cross one red line.

So my question is, which of the three interpretations is correct?

Charter boat refers to routes as previously defined sea-lanes.
Charter boat can move to any city to which there's a complete stretch of water.
Charter boat can move to any city to which there's a complete stretch of water, but only crossing one red line.

The rulebook (Page 6) is actually quite clear on this:

SEA LANES & SEA ROUTES
Locations are connected to each other in the ocean by sea lanes.
Locations directly connected by a sea lane are adjacent.
A series of connected sea lanes is called a sea route.

Given this definition of a sea route, you can only charter a boat from and to a location where you can trace a continuous series of series of sea lanes. So your option 1 is the correct interpretation.


How does Life and Limb interact with Conspiracy I control a Sporesower Thallid, Retreat to Emeria and a Kalastria Healer. Then I play Conspiracy and I choose Ally as Creature type. Then I play Life and Limb.

Now my questions are:

1) Will future Saproling tokens, made by the Sporesower Thallid, trigger both the Retreats Landfall ability, and the Healers triggered ability, when allies enters the battlefield?

2) Will future played forests do the same?

3) What will happen to forests already in play under my control?

Conspiracy and Life and Limb both apply in Layer 4.

  613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.

When two effects apply in the same layer, they are normally applied in timestamp order (the order in which you played them). However, when a dependency exists between two effects, we ignore the timestamp system and instead follow a dependency system.

  613.7a An effect is said to “depend on” another if (a) it’s applied in the same layer (and, if applicable, sublayer) as the other effect (see rules 613.1 and 613.3); (b) applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to; and (c) neither effect is from a characteristic-defining ability or both effects are from characteristic-defining abilities. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the other effect.

Life and Limb depends on Conspiracy. Life and Limb applies to Saprolings, but Conspiracy changes your Saprolings into Allies. Therefore, Conspiracy changes what Life and Limb applies to.

Conspiracy depends on Life and Limb. Conspiracy applies to Saprolings, but Life and Limb turns your Forests into Saprolings. Therefore, Life and Limb changes what Conspiracy applies to.

We have a dependency loop, so we revert back to just applying the effects in timestamp order.

  613.7b An effect dependent on one or more other effects waits to apply until just after all of those effects have been applied. If multiple dependent effects would apply simultaneously in this way, they’re applied in timestamp order relative to each other. If several dependent effects form a dependency loop, then this rule is ignored and the effects in the dependency loop are applied in timestamp order.

You played Conspiracy first, so by combination of the rules above:

Apply Conspiracy's effect first. All of your creatures become Allies.
Apply Life and Limb's effect second. All of your Forests become Saprolings in addition to their other types.

The result is that all of your creatures are now allies, except for your Forests which are now Forest Saprolings (but not Allies).

Phew! That was a mouthful. Now I can answer your questions:

  1) Will future Saproling tokens, made by the Sporesower Thallid, trigger both the Retreats Landfall ability, and the Healers triggered ability, when allies enters the battlefield?

Saprolings will enter as Allies. They will trigger Kalastria Healer's ability, but not Landfall.

  2) Will future played forests do the same?

Forests will enter as Forest Saprolings. They will trigger landfall, but not Healer's ability.

  3) What will happen to forests already in play under my control?

They will be Forest Saprolings, but not Allies.


If my creature with deathtouch and 0 power blocks one of my opponent's creatures, does my opponent's creature die? Deathtouch means that "any creature dealt damage by another creature with deathtouch is destroyed", but what if that creature with deathtouch is 0/1? I suppose a better title would be 'does a creature with 0 power deal damage in combat?', but it seems like deathtouch is the most prominent case where this would come into play.

No. Deathtouch still requires that damage be dealt:

  702.2b Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch
  is considered to be lethal damage, regardless of that creature’s toughness.

Here's the more general rule as well:

  119.8. If a source would deal 0 damage, it does not deal damage at all. That means abilities that trigger
  on damage being dealt won’t trigger. It also means that replacement effects that would increase the
  damage dealt by that source, or would have that source deal that damage to a different object or
  player, have no event to replace, so they have no effect.

A corollary to all this is that a creature with deathtouch can only kill as many creature as it has points of damage to assign -- for instance, casting Lure on your 2/2 Acidic Slime doesn't let you wipe out your opponent's whole team, just two blockers.


What Happens if I Manifest a Double-Faced Card? If I put a double-faced card onto the battlefield with Manifest (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card), what happens?  Does it enter the battlefield transformed, is it a 2/2 with no abilities, or is it not even possible to be manifested?

This article explains that double-faced cards can be manifested and enter as 2/2's with no abilities.  The actual implementation of this stems from the fact that the double-faced card must already be unidentifiable in your hand and library.  As a result, you already have the card in an opaque sleeve or you have a checklist card in your deck as a placeholder, and either of these can be put on the battlefield face-down as a state distinct from transformed.

It should be noted that double-faced cards can't be turned face down if they are already a face up permanent (such as by Ixidron).  The relevant rules are the following:

  711.9. If an effect allows a player to cast a double-faced card as a face-down creature spell, or if a double-faced card enters the
  battlefield face down, it will have the characteristics given to it by
  the rule or effect that caused it to be face down. That card remains
  hidden, using either a face-down checklist card or opaque sleeves. See
  rule 707, “Face-Down Spells and Permanents.”

  711.9a While face down, a double-faced permanent can’t transform. If it is turned face up, it will have its front face up.

  711.10. Double-faced permanents can’t be turned face down. If a spell or ability tries to turn a double-faced permanent face down, nothing
  happens.


Which battleforce should I buy as a newbie player? After playing some Mordheim games we decided with my friends to buy a Warhammer 40k battleforce and start playing Wh40k. I started reading all the codexes/forums but I feel a little overwhelmed with information. What I would like to sort out is which battleforce should I choose as a newbie? My friends will buy Dark Eldar and Tau battleforces and we agreed that for start we all should buy one.

I ruled out a lot of factions since I don't like them and these are the remaining ones:

Imperial Guard (Catachan)
Necron
Space Wolves
Dark Angels (Ravenwing or Dark Vengeance pack?)
Grey Knights (maybe?)
I also like Tau but I don't want to play a Tau vs Tau game

I'm not trying to choose against Tau and Dark Eldar but something which fits my playstyle:

I usually like to play long ranged hard hitting units with little focus on melee (I know it is necessary but I like kiting tactics more). I also like units with troll (fun) factor. For example the Necron Reanimation Protocol is one of them. I also do not like horde-like factions like the Tyranids (and IG possibly).

If nothing changes I will buy Necron but I'm just not sure at the moment.

A lot of this comes down to how you build the armies. Many armies can do "long ranged hard hitting units with little focus on melee", but not all armies are good at it.

Most Space Marines (Space Wolves and Dark Angels) and Necron armies will be doing a lot at 24", since most of their army has that range. They can both be quite potent at this range. They are both not bad at melee, and can still get stuck in if need be (with Space Wolves being pretty good at melee).

I'm not totally up on the new Grey Knights codex, but I presume they will still be about the same as marines, and be more mid-range.

The Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) are probably the longest range option, at least if you go mechanised. Between Leman Russ, Chimeras and Heavy Weapon teams (all three of which are in the Catachan battleforce I believe) you will be able to just sit back and fire away, with the footsloggers there to engage at mid range as the enemy close. Guard really do not want to get into melee unless you are designing the unit for it.

Of course, as mentioned, Tau and Eldar are better at long range then any of your options, so you may be in for some pain against that Tau player.


Do you move forwards or backwards on the King's Cross Chance card? If you draw the "Take a trip to King's Cross Station" Chance card, do you move your piece forwards or backwards?  The logical answer might be forwards because most Monopoly Chance cards say "advance".  However, in the case of this card, it says "If you pass go"; you would always pass go when moving forwards from a Chance space to King's Cross, so what’s the use of the word "if"?

Note: This is London Edition Monopoly; this space and card are the equivalent of Reading Railroad and the "Take a ride on the Reading" Chance card in standard edition.

Movement in Monopoly is always forwards (in the direction of the arrow on the Go space) unless otherwise specified (such as the "Go back three spaces card").  The only exception in regular monopoly is going to jail, which is usually written as "go directly to jail" to signify the difference.

Some older editions of monopoly had a much clearer version of this card (noting that Reading Railroad is the equivalent of King's Cross):

  Take a ride on the Reading. Advance token and if you pass Go, collect $200.

It is impossible to get to King's Cross/Reading Railroad from a Chance space without passing Go.  It says "if you pass Go" because that's the way all the other Chance cards are worded.  This card would be clearer if it said "when you pass go, collect $200" or "collect $200 for passing go".


Can I play a straight with phoenix on top of a 1-A straight? Is it authorized to play a 2, ..., Ace, Phoenix straight on top of a 1,..., Ace straight ?

No.

When using the Phoenix as a wild card, it must always take the value of another regular card from 2-A. Because there is no card with value "Ace + 1", there's no card there for the Phoenix to stand in for.

Only a bomb can go over any Ace high straight.


Proper way to play Ghostly Possession Enchantment Aura? When playing Ghostly Possession, since it would make the enchanted creature useless by both preventing all combat damage that would be dealt by and also dealt to enchanted creature then what is the purpose of even giving the creature flying?

Not fully understanding the proper way to utilize this card or the benefits.

If you play it on your own creature, you now have a flying blocker that can't be dealt damage. That's not 'useless' at all. If you play it on an opponent's creature, you can stop it from dealing damage, in exchange for giving them a really good blocker.


Does it really matter if dice are randomized? I was playing MTG with some friends the other day, when a guy walks up and challenges me to a game. He insisted that he would not roll my spin-down die to determine who goes first. When I pointed out that it doesn't matter, because probabilistically, each side should have a 1/20 chance of showing regardless of the order of the sides, he assured me that there exists a "technique" by which someone could throw an ordered dice such that he has a higher chance to win a dice roll.

Paranoia aside, does anyone know if such a technique exists? Is there any documentation on such a technique?

As I noted in a comment, there are techniques I've seen people use with spindown dice - most notably a sort of 'skitter along the table' throw where the die is primarily slid rather than tumbled - that can be used to great effect in rolling high numbers.  There's enough imprecision that shots can't really be called precisely, but for spindown dice where all of the faces around a high-numbered face are also high-numbered, they lead to significantly biased rolls.

You might ask why it matters, since both players are rolling the same die and both have access to the same technique - but the point is that there's an ethical asymmetry; one player is (presumably) trying to roll the die in a 'fair' fashion with an unbiased roll, either out of a sense of internal fairness or because they have no reason to suspect the other player is cheating them.  Meanwhile the shark is (also presumably) well aware of the skew in the game and willing to use that skew to his advantage.

For what it's worth, I don't believe most people rolling spindown dice do it with any intention to cheat; the life counter is just what they have handy, and so it's a natural choice.  But there are people who will use it for that purpose, and so anyone who isn't willing to is at a slight overall disadvantage.  Most of the time, at an FNM or in a casual game like the one you describe, it just doesn't matter; who cares if you're an underdog in a die roll that has a maybe 5% affect on the outcome of a game that's just for fun?  But there are certainly circumstances where it does matter, and some people just get in the habit of caring about every little thing so that they build the mental rigor for when it does matter.

As for myself, I usually don't care, though at something like a PTQ I'll insist on a more effective means of randomization.  My preferred choice is either to flip a coin with a call in the air (which is about as close to 'I cut, you choose' as a randomization method gets) or to toss about 5d6; they're quick enough to count, and hard enough to really skew that I can trust in the results.


Discard White Stone of Ancients to activate effect Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card is in the GY because it was sent there this turn: You can Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes" monster from your Deck.

That's the effect of The White Stone Of Ancients, so I'm not sure if I can use a card to discard it and then activate its effect, or if I need a card that's says "Send to the GY"

Update: Yeah, I know, what I am asking is, if after discarding it with the effect of another card (let's say, Dragon Ravine), can I activate White Stone of Ancients's effect? Because I sent it to the graveyard by discarding it, but I'm not sure if it works like that or I need to sent it there by using a card that says "Send to the GY"

Yes you can use the effect in the End Phase if you send White Stone of Ancients (WSoA) to the Graveyard by some means throughout your turn.

In your question you mention Dragon Ravine

Once per turn: You can discard 1 card, then activate 1 of these effects;
● Add 1 Level 4 or lower "Dragunity" monster from your Deck to your hand.
● Send 1 Dragon monster from your Deck to the GY.

As discarding a card implicitly sends it to the Graveyard you gain use the effect of WSoA if you discard it for Dragon Ravine's cost, or if you send it to the Graveyard as part of its effect.
Other means of getting WSoA out of your hand to use it's effect in the End Phase could be a card like Cards of Consonance

Discard 1 Dragon Tuner with 1000 or less ATK; draw 2 cards.

or you can summon it and link summon into Linkuriboh.


Why is there no ruling to offset Mandatory Loops? Why is there no ruling to offset Mandatory Loops?

As pointed out in a recent question: Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor - what happens when a loop has no exit?
Which states this ruling

  721.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw. (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)

Now I understand within the confines of the game that certain cards have been created and balanced with mandatory actions that once cast can not be deviated from. This is part of card design- which is a whole different topic, but sometimes these have the unintended consequence of looping forever.

Non-optional unintended loops are presumably outside of the preferred intended play by the designers, and it leads me to wonder if any effort has been done to investigate outs for when these situations arise (eg. after a mandatory-loop, loops x100 then remove any further triggered/replacement effects.)

Allowing a hard break to certain loops might allow some niche decks to arise, perhaps this might lead to a negative impact on certain formats, which might be why this decision was done?

So ideally I am looking for any sources which point to why they have decided to leave this rule as such, and for so long. Has any past attempts at reanalyzing this rule come up?

Disclaimers:
Mainly looking for reasons within sanctions tournament rules, or other official events, but creditable sources outside that may be acceptable answers.

There is no reasonable way to eliminate all mandatory loops, so this rule would still be needed for loops that can't be eliminated. For simplicity, it's better to just have the one rule.

The biggest problem with trying to stop mandatory loops is listing what exactly stops happening, and putting the game in a valid state afterward. The simplest loops are the kind you describe, where one ability triggers, and the resolution of that ability causes another ability to trigger, and so on until the first ability triggers again and you end up in a loop. But there are other kinds of mandatory loops that are a lot harder to cut off.

One of the strangest mandatory loops in the game involves the card Lich's Mirror. If a player controls a Lich's Mirror that they do not own, and gets 10 poison counters, the Mirror's ability replaces the state-based action that would make the player lose, but the Mirror itself stays on the battlefield, so when state-based actions are re-evaluated, exactly the same thing happens. Stopping this loop would require either suspending the rule that causes state-based actions to be rechecked after they do something, or making the Lich's Mirror's replacement effect no longer function. In other words, that player either loses immediately, or becomes nearly unkillable, and both changes have other unpleasant implications. Ending the game in a draw is a reasonable compromise.

There are also several cards with "state-triggered abilities", which trigger on a particular game state, instead of an event. Some combination of those cards allow those abilities to trigger and resolve without changing the game state, so they immediately trigger again. There's no good way to change the game state so that those abilities stop triggering.

In addition to that, there are more technical issues with defining such a rule. In particular, it's not clear how you would define an "iteration" of the loop, or how you would determine what part of an iteration to end it on. For player-defined looping shortcuts, the player makes those decisions, but a mandatory loop can involve both players equally, leading to difficult-to-resolve disagreements about how exactly such a loop should end.


How can I estimate my chances to win a Risk battle? I'm looking for an way to estimate the percent chance of winning a specific Risk battle.  Assume the maximum number of dice will be used.

It doesn't need to be a perfect calculation, just an estimate to give a general idea of whether to attack or not. It needs to be easy to memorize.

I'm sure there is a trade off between accuracy and easy of use, so I'm hoping there is more than one method proposed. I would be using this to estimate after each die roll so I can stop attacking when my winning percentage drops below a certain threshold.

Bonus free wild card if you can also describe a method of estimating armies left.

All of the detailed probability calculations and Markov analysis posted by Eric P. and ire_and_curses can be distilled into a simple set of Risk attack heuristics:

Large battles favor the attacker but only very slightly.
For small battles, attack if you have more armies, stop if you don't.

The rationale for these guidelines is outlined below.

A large battle is 3 or more attackers and 2 or more defenders. For large battles the army count has nothing to do with the outcome of any single battle, which means you only need to remember a single number: the net attrition rate, defined as the expected value of the difference between defender and attacker losses. This rate can be calculated from data in Table 2 of the Jason Osborne paper in Eric P.'s answer:

The expected value of the defenders lost is 1.08. The number of defenders lost by events pi_32x weighted by their probability.
The expected value of the attackers lost is 0.922.
This means the net attrition rate is 0.158 (i.e. over 10 rounds of combat, the defender will lose 1.58 more armies--on average). Over 20 rounds 3.16.

Leading us to our first heuristic:

Large battles favor the attacker but only very slightly. As the attacker, it takes on average 20 rounds to make up a three army deficit. Whether you should attack in any given situation is a strategic not a tactical decision, but tactically the attacking advantage is on average very slight. Remember as well that past events have nothing to do with future rolls.

For small battles, the full probability matrix is supplied above, but our second rule distills this knowledge:

For small battles, attack if you have more armies, stop if you don't. When outnumbered your probability of winning is no more than 0.417 and probably less. Otherwise your probability of winning is at least 0.656 but as high as 0.916.


Paying Costs you Cannot Afford Sometimes you get a crisis card that has a choice, such as "-1 Food OR Current Player Discards 3 Cards".  In situations where you cannot afford the cost of the latter, are you forced into the former?  For example, if the current player has no hand, are you required to lose 1 food?

No, in these cases you are welcome to choose the "discard 3 cards" option and merrily not do anything.

These effects of Crises are not really COSTS per se - in most games costs are non-optional, so your reasoning about being forced to do the other choice makes some sense if you think of these as costs.

But they really aren't costs, they're just the effects of that Crisis, and you're welcome to choose the one that impacts you the least, and execute as much of it as you're able to.


Storing Wooden Board Game Components I generally store my board game components in plastic bags as many do. Today I noticed that some of my games have a hole punched in the bags and it made we wonder if there was a reason for that.

Are there any benefits or issues caused by one storage method over the other? Or is it just to allow the air out making the game pack better.

It allows the air to be removed from the bag so it takes up less space.


When does a player choose the creature benefiting from Amass? Situation: My opponent has a Zombie Army with 3 +1/+1 counters, and also a another Zombie Army (say for example, Amoeboid Changeling). They cast a card with Amass (for example: Relentless Advance). I have a Jaya's Greeting in hand.

Question: Can I choose to respond to the Relentless Advance by destroying whichever creature will get the tokens? Or does my opponent choose after it resolves?

Amass doesn't target, so the creature will be chosen upon resolution, by which time it is too late to destroy it with Jaya's Greeting; the creature will receive the +1/+1 tokens before you get priority to cast a spell.


What is considered a good score in Scrabble? In Scrabble, what is considered a good score for:

A two player game
A three player game
A four player game

In a two player game with my sister, we once got a 236/249 scoring game.

When we played with my brother as well, we got 196/146/98

Are these good scores?

I checked out the recent NASPA 2016 North American Scrabble Championship playlist on Youtube which had ten videos of late round games. I've put the scores of those videos below. Note that competitive Scrabble is only 2 players.

  gibson 585 swift 243

  eldar 350 francillon 493

  gibson 358 li 311

  eldar 480 winter 374

  gibson 347 swift 333

  eldar 461 winter 460

  gibson 397 meller 501

  gibson 311 weinstein 449

  gibson 397 weinstein 371

  meller 438 sherman 436

The lowest score was 243, and it was the only one that was under 300. From this I can surmise that to be a top tier Scrabble player, you should be getting 300 a game on a regular basis. And this is against other very good players who will be attempting to limit your moves. Against regular players you would expect this to be even higher, as they will be less likely to take the doubles and triples.

The important thing, however, isn't to judge yourself based on what is a good or bad score. Rather, are you improving your scores? Are you enjoying the game? Do you know what causes you to get more or less points and how to get better? I think these are far more encouraging and productive questions than reducing yourself to a score comparison.


How do indestructible creatures actually work? If a First Striker does lethal damage to an indestructible creature, does this remove the creature from combat so it can not deal any damage?

Another scenario: An indestructible creature is dealt lethal damage, has destroy cast on it, or is hit during combat by a creature with deathtouch. Would casting Lava Coil in the second main phase cause it to be exiled?

No, indestructible is different from regeneration. An indestructible permanent simply ignores lethal damage and destruction effects and stays in combat.

  702.12b A permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed. Such permanents aren’t destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g).

A creature is removed from combat when it is regenerated, among others. Regeneration is superficially similar to indestructible, but still different. For example, regeneration removes all damage marked on a regenerated creature, while an indestructible creature retains all damage marked on it until it gets removed during the next cleanup step.

Note that an indestructible creature still dies when its toughness goes to zero (such as through -X/-X effects like Grasp of Darkness), or when it is sacrificed. If someone cast Lava Coil on an indestructible creature and it would die later that turn, it would indeed be exiled, even if Lava Coil itself couldn't kill that creature.


Why do cards like Isochron Scepter have more than one "may" clause? Isochron Scepter reads, in part,

  You may copy the exiled card. If you do, you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.

There are a number of other cards that give you the option of copying a card, and then give you the option of casting that copy.

Spellbinder
Spellweaver Helix
Panoptic Mirror
Reversal of Fortune (noteworthy for being the only one that doesn't have Imprint)

Effectively, each of these cards offers three options:

Don't copy the card.
Copy the card, but don't cast the copy.
Copy the card and cast the copy.

Why would I ever choose option 2? Is there ever a situation where choosing option 2 results in a different game state than if I had chosen option 1?

My perception is that WoTC usually tries very hard to avoid redundancy in card text, so I'm curious why they would choose a wording like this over something like,

  You may copy the exiled card and cast the copy without paying its mana cost.

Edit: and in fact now that I look at the images of the original Mirrodin block printings, the cards did originally have only one instance of "may" in the instructions for casting the copy. So by issuing this errata, WoTC very deliberately wants there to be two opportunities to make a choice. But why?

Warning: Clicking on the first link will download a .doc file.

From A Summary of Recent Rulings published by the Magic Rules Team in February 2005:

ERRATA -- ORACLE WORDING CHANGES

Isochron Scepter and Similar Cards

The Mirrodin(R) block contains a group of cards that create copies of cards and allow a player to play those copies.  The creation of the copy and then the playing of the copy are both optional.  The text has been clarified to indicate that each action is an optional choice.  If the spell can't be legally played, choosing not to use either option is acceptable.  There is no functional change in the way these cards are played.  The new Oracle text for the cards is as follows:
[...]

As spelled out here, the errata was not a functional change, which means that despite how the printed text may be interpreted today, each action has always been optional.

Why would I ever choose option 2? Is there ever a situation where choosing option 2 results in a different game state than if I had chosen option 1?

At the time this answer was written, option 1 and option 2 are identical. However, if a card were printed tomorrow with the text...

Whenever you copy a card, you gain 1 life.

... then suddenly the two options would be different.


If a single effect would destroy a permanent multiple times, can regeneration replace it? Nancy controls a Runeclaw Bear enchanted by Hyena Umbra. Hyena Umbra has a regeneration shield, granted by Reknit. Anthony casts Planar Cleansing. This causes two replacement effects to apply. According to rule 616, Nancy gets to choose the order in which they apply.

  616.1. If two or more replacement effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object, the affected object's controller chooses one to apply [...]

  616.1d Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated [...]

If Nancy chooses to apply Totem Armor first, and then Regeneration Shield, does Hyena Umbra survive?

I copied the answer from here, where a similar question was answered by Daniel Kitachewsky. Daniel is a high-level Judge from France, and the goto-guy when judges don't know the answer.

  Planar Cleansing resolves and destroys all creatures, artifacts and enchantments.
  I have a Runeclaw Bears enchanted with Boar Umbra.

  The replacement effect of the totem armor saves the Bears, but if I have a way to regenerate the totem armor, will I have to regenerate it once or twice?

If there are two regeneration shields, the Bear Umbra is regenerated no matter what.

If there's only one regeneration shield on it, it gets more complicated:
- If the same player controls Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra, that player may choose whether the Bear Umbra is destroyed or not.
- If the active player controls Runeclaw Bear and the nonactive player controls Bear Umbra, the Bear Umbra is regenerated.
- If the active player controls Bear Umbra and the nonactive player controls Runeclaw Bear, the Bear Umbra is destroyed.

Now for more detail:

What happens is that we have an event that's trying to move objects from one zone to another, and some replacement effects trying to change that event. Moreover, when two effects try to do mutually exclusive things to an object, such as destroying it twice, only one of these effects continues to exists, before being modified by further replacement effects.

A. In the scenario where one player controls both Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra, the event looks like this:

A1. Destroy Runeclaw Bear, destroy Bear Umbra

Two things try to replace this, regenerating the Bear Umbra and replacing destroying Runeclaw Bear by destroying Bear Umbra. The controller chooses which replacement effect to apply first; we'll see later if the other effect is still applicable.

If the controller chooses to apply regeneration first, we get

A2a. Destroy Runeclaw Bear, tap Bear Umbra

replaced thanks to totem armor by

A3a. Destroy Bear Umbra, tap Bear Umbra

ultimately destroying Bear Umbra.
If the controller chooses to apply totem armor first, we get

A2b. Destroy Bear Umbra, destroy Bear Umbra

modified into

A3b. Destroy Bear Umbra

because destroying an object twice is impossible, then replaced by

A4b. Tap Bear Umbra

And it's not destroyed!

B. If Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra are controlled by different players, we fall into one of the scenarios above, but we don't choose which one.

The active player applies the replacement effect trying to replace the event that affects the object he contols first, then the nonactive player gets to have his replacement effects.

So:
If the active player controls Runeclaw Bear and the nonactive player controls Bear Umbra, we first apply totem armor, then remove one of the "destroy Bear Umbra" effects, then regenerate it.
If the active player controls Bear Umbra and the nonactive player controls Runeclaw Bear, we first regenerate Bear Umbra, then apply totem armor, thus destroying Bear Umbra.


Can a dead player have life restored later to bring them back into the game? Bob, Timmy, and Susie are playing a Free For All in MTG and Timmy kills Bob by putting him at 0 life. On Susie's next turn, could she play something like Alabaster Potion to make Bob's life total go back up, allowing him to continue playing? Or is Bob completely out of the game? Similarly, when Bob is at 0 life, can Susie still make him take X amount of damage to Gain X life?

A player at 0 life loses the game permanently. Everything they own (including e.g. permanents that are under someone else's control) vanishes from the game; neither the player nor their stuff is a legal target anymore.
From the Comprehensive Rules:

104.3b If a player’s life total is 0 or less, he or she loses the game the next time a player would receive priority.
104.5. If a player loses the game, he or she leaves the game.

If you want more specifics on what happens when a player leaves the game, see rule 800.4.


If I deal multiple types of damage, do I need to deal them in the order listed? Consider a power like Fanatic's "Exorcism":

  Fanatic deals 1 target 1 melee damage and 1 radiant damage.

Can I choose to deal the radiant damage before the melee damage? Or do I have to deal the melee damage first because it is listed first? This would be important if I have an effect that deals bonus damage to the next damage that I deal, and one of the two damage types is preferred.

Effects on cards that are separated by an "and" happen sequentially, so the melee damage will happen before the radiant damage.

From user phantaskippy (tagged as playtester) on the Sentinels of the Multiverse game forums:

  Any use of "and" will happen sequentially. . . . All uses of "and" in situations where timing is relevant are intended to be sequential. It may not be obvious, but it is at least consistent.

This sentiment is repeated here by user Rabit (tagged as moderator and playtester) among the discussions about effect timing:

  Do things in the order described.

In reading through forum posts, the consensus follows this interpretation.

To answer the question about why this may be important, that is, you want to increase one damage type for a specific reason, Adam the Admin has this to say over on the forums (emphasis mine):

  The damage is intended to be dealt individually. This means if it's increased, both melee and radiant are increased by 1 separately, and the same goes for when it's decreased. A base reduction of -1 will make her do no damage at all, but a +1 will double her output. It essentially makes damage modifiers into multipliers for her innate power, which is in keeping with Fanatic being a high-risk/high-reward character.

So if you are looking to increase the radiant damage, you're in luck. Any increase to Fanatic's damage output will increase both the melee and radiant damage.


Can Mushin No Shin be played on any card? Thanks for reading:
Mushin No shin can be used to advance cards; I assume that that these
cards are only assets, upgrades or agendas that can be advanced. Does this mean that I can place advancement tokens on assets or upgrades that cannot be advanced, to trick the runner? Or is this move not legal?

Thank you,
Suman

The ability is:

  Install an asset, agenda, or upgrade from HQ in a new remote server.
  Place 3 advancement tokens on that card. You cannot score or rez that
  card until your next turn begins.

Unlike cards like Shipment from Kaguya, Mushin No Shin has no restriction here that the card must be a card that can be advanced.

Thus, any card that can be installed in a remote server, namely any Agenda, Asset, or Upgrade, is a valid choice.  For example, you could use Mushin No Shin on a Snare!


Can Unity play Mechanical Golems when she gets to play a card outside of her turn? All Mechanical Golems in Unity's deck say the following:

  This card cannot be played during your play phase.

It's pretty clear that this means that during your turn, you cannot play a Mechanical Golem card as the card you play after resolving start of turn effects and before using a power (that's the Play Phase).

I presume that this means that you can't also play a Mechanical Golem card through something like Inspired Repair, which lets you play another card (since you would have played Inspired Repair, and resolved its effects, during your Play Phase).

But say that during another player's turn, you are given the opportunity to play a card. For instance, say that Fanatic is defeated and uses her "One player may play a card now" ability. Since it is not happening during Unity's Play Phase, could she play a Mechanical Golem straight from her hand and bypass the regular restriction?

Yes, she can play a mechanical golem outside of her play phase as if it was any other card. All that card is saying is you can't play it during the play phase and it does not mention not being able to play it like any other card.

  This card cannot be played during your play phase.

Take this card for instance

  Scrap Metal - "At the end of your turn, either take 1 Mechanical Golem from play back into your hand, or destroy this card.
  At the start of your turn, you may play a card. If you do, destroy this card."

What that card lets you do after you take a mechanical golem from play in into your hand you can then play it during the start phase of your next turn allowing it to  return the play with full health. What this means is that you can play a mechanical golem during your turn as long as it is not the play phase. The start of turn, user a power, draw a card and end of turn steps (or during any other player/environment/villain turn) are perfectly legal to play a mechanical golem as long as you gain the ability to play a card during those steps.


Alliance and Territory Limit When you have formed an alliance with another player, does the max 2 meeples per territory limit go away (as in 2 meeples of each player and in total 4 meeples can thus occupy any one territory and earn its resources), or does the 2 meeples limit per resource territory still apply regardless of alliances?

The limit stays:

Page 5: Movement:

  At no point may more than two meeples, of any color, be in the same region

No exception is made for alliances.


What is the Chinese-language equivalent of gobase (main resource for SGF files)? I would find it hard to believe if someone tried to tell me that there was not such a website, and that people in China relied on gobase. Isn't there a Chinese-language resource for SGF files?

TOM qipu

http://weiqi.sports.tom.com/php/listqipu.html

Recent games, download SGF or view online with a java applet.

Flygo

http://www.flygo.net/jdqp.html

This one is a little gold mine if you know how to parse the page, old Chinese games, recent games...etc (downloadable SGF)

WeiqiOK

http://www.weiqiok.com/asp/English.asp

They have an english version. The kifu search is at the bottom of the page. (they also have tsumego, fuseki, joseki...etc.)

Here you can find a list of the players in their database.

Sina

http://duiyi.sina.com.cn/gibo/new_gibo.asp

On this page you can find recent professional games and games played on sina's weiqi server.

Eweiqi

http://www.eweiqi.com/qipu_more.asp

The Chinese portal for Tygem also has some Tygem + pro tournament kifu. (need to install an addon for IE to view)


Why is Pot of Greed banned? Out of all the Forbidden (banned) cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the one that confuses me the most is Pot of Greed. The card effect is simple:

  Draw 2 cards.

I don't see why this is so game-breaking that it has to be banned. You just get cards. What's the big deal? Heck, the anime uses it all the time (especially Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where Jaden and/or his opponents use it in nearly every episode), and it doesn't seem to cause problems there.

Most of the cards on the Forbidden list are clearly there because playing them makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for your opponent to win. The rest of them seem to be there because there is a loophole in the rules that creates an unintentionally powerful effect. But neither of those seem to apply to Pot of Greed. You won't necessarily win by just drawing two cards, and there aren't any loopholes.

Unfortunately, the Internet has been less than helpful. I just seem to get forums where people say that it's an incredibly broken card, but don't explain why.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe having three of them in an Exodia deck makes it too easy to win before your opponent can do anything. But even then, I don't see why it must be banned instead of limited to 1 or 2 copies.

So could someone please explain to a casual Yu-Gi-Oh! player why this card is banned?

The simplest terms I can think to put it is:

Your deck requires 40 cards. Imagine you could have a 12 card deck - your 4 best cards, 3 copies each. You'd probably win every game against those 40-card deck losers, since you're always drawing your best cards and deploying them.

Every card you put in your deck makes you less likely to draw those game winning spells. So you replace them with some themed cards to bide your time until you DO draw into them. So it makes sense that a 15 card deck is weaker than a 12, and a 20 weaker than a 15. The important fact is that a 37 card deck is stronger than a 40.

Now imagine Pot of Greed just said "draw 1 card" instead of 2. What it would essentially do is let you get take your 40 card deck down to a 37, because every time you drew Pot of Greed, you would immediately exchange it for the next card.

So if it were draw 1 card, it would immediately be banned because it turns any deck from 40 into a 37 card deck. And if at draw 1 it's too powerful, then at draw 2 it must be even more powerful.

Another very simple way to put it is this: when it comes to making games fun, the key is to make interesting decisions. Pot of Greed has no interesting decision: you play it, you always benefit. It's not like a burn spell where you choose a monster to burn, or a monster that you choose "should I put this out now? Or wait for him to use up his monster kills..." Pot of Greed doesn't make games more fun. It makes them less fun.


What happen if I gain the control of aura that enchants an opponent's creature? Would the aura stay attached? Imagine I'm playing vs Boggles Auras. Her Boggle has a Rancor and a Daybreak Coronet.

I cast Archmage's Charm on the Rancor.

Does the Rancor stay enchanting the Boggle?

Yes, most of the times it doesn't matter who controls the aura and who controls the creature. There are a handful of exceptions, e.g. Cartouche of Knowledge which can only enchant a creature you control; if you'd steal one of them it would stop enchanting a legal target and be put into its owner's graveyard.

  303.4c If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player as defined by its enchant ability and other applicable effects, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was attached to has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

Note that stealing an Aura isn't really useful if the Aura grants a bonus/ability to the creature (which is most of the time); it might be useful if the Aura has an ability itself.

  303.4e An Aura’s controller is separate from the enchanted object’s controller or the enchanted player; the two need not be the same. If an Aura enchants an object, changing control of the object doesn’t change control of the Aura, and vice versa. Only the Aura’s controller can activate its abilities. However, if the Aura grants an ability to the enchanted object (with “gains” or “has”), the enchanted object’s controller is the only one who can activate that ability.


When can I cast spells? I'm wondering if spell casting only happens after attacks and blocking has been declared or if it's just at the second main phase? I've spoken to a few players in my area, but there aren't many people around here who play,  and I'm not sure I understand.

Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers, and sorceries can be cast during your first or second main phase.

Instants, such as Lightning Bolt, can be cast during any step except for the untap step and most cleanup steps. You can cast instants after attacking but before your opponent has a chance to block. You cannot cast instants in the middle of another spell or ability resolving.

After any spell or ability resolves, the player who is currently taking a turn gets the opportunity to cast things first.

Some spells or abilities, such as Quicken, modify when you can cast things.

If you are interested in the nitty gritty details, Section 5 of the comprehensive rules, which covers "Turn Structure", has nearly 150 rules that you can read. Much of it has been condensed into this neat chart, but a lot of (situationally relevant) information has been left out.


Question about interaction: levitation, then gravity sphere, then oblivion ring on each, then tranquility. Who flies away? Here are the cards involved:

Levitation

  Creatures you control gain flying.

Gravity Sphere

  All creatures lose flying.

Oblivion Ring

  When Oblivion Ring enters the battlefield, exile a nonland permanent (card).
  When Oblivion Ring leaves the battlefield, return that permanent (card) to play under its owner's control.

Tranquility:

  Destroy all enchantments.

So, I play a Levitation, and all of my creatures gain flying. Next turn, my opponent responds with a Gravity Sphere, and so, since the Gravity Sphere came into play more recently, it overrides Levitation, so all of my creatures would then lose flying. So, I play Oblivion Ring on his Gravity Sphere, my creatures gain flying again. He then plays Oblivion Ring on my Leviation, they lose flying. I then play Tranquility, which simultaneously kills both Oblivion Rings and brings back the Levitation and Gravity Sphere. So at this point, does everyone fly, or do they all stay on the ground?

Short answer: your creatures lose flying.

Since both Oblivion Rings are destroyed at the same time, their triggered abilities "When Oblivion Ring leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner's control." are put on the stack. They are put on the stack in APNAP order:

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered
  abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she
  chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and
  resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities
  that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process
  repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no
  abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

Since we are in your turn (because Tranquility is a sorcery), the ability of the Oblivion Ring you control is put on the stack, then on top of that is put the ability of the other Oblivion Ring. First we resolve the one your opponent controls which returns Levitation to the battlefield. Then we resolve the one you control, and return Gravity Sphere. Since Gravity Sphere entered last on the battlefield, all your creatures lose flying.

Of course, if you somehow managed to destroy both rings on your opponents turn, then the result would be reversed and your creatures would have flying.

When you asked the question, you thought Levitation and Gravity Sphere were entering the battlefield simultaneously. You now know that's not the case here, but you probably still wonder what would happen if they did enter the battlefield simultaneously.

The order in which the effects are applied are defined in the section of the rules entitled "Interaction of Continuous Effects". As you've indicated, it comes down to timestamps in this case (whichever has the latter timestamp wins out). So which one has the later timestamp if they both entered the battlefield simultaneously?

  613.6g If two or more objects would receive a timestamp simultaneously, such as by entering a zone simultaneously or becoming attached simultaneously, the active player determines their timestamp order at that time.

Being the Active Player, you would decide the timestamp order.

If you decide that Levitation has the lower timestamp, it gives the ability then Gravity Sphere takes it away, so none of your creatures can fly.
If you decide that Gravity Sphere has the lower timestamp, it task away the ability then Levitation grants it, so all of your creatures can fly.


Losing the player board ability in the middle of the turn In a game the other day we came up in a situation where the blue player ended up in a complex situation:
He had selected the player board ability that lets him take the board action and also attack ghosts on the same turn. He took the board action that was to move a player, then a ghost. He moved a ghost to his own player board, and thereafter wanted to attack the ghost he moved. Then we realized that the ghost he moved was a ghost that blocks the player from using his player board ability. At this point, we ruled that he could not attack, as he had lost the player board ability in the middle of his turn.

You could argue that in most cases the player could have attacked first, then moved the ghost - but in this case he wanted to attack the ghost that was moved, and he could not reach it before it was moved.

We could not find a clarification for this. Did we rule it correctly?

The relevant rules:

  It may happen that a Taoist loses his  power because of a ghost
  ability. He can recover it as soon as the  responsible ghost is
  removed from his board.

I can't find anything in the rules that explicitly states when you lose your power, but I would assume that if you get them back instantly, that you can lose them instantly as well.

Regarding the symbol on the ghost card:

  As long as  this ghost is not defeated,  the power of the board  where
  the ghost card has been placed cannot be used (place an  Inactive
  Power token on the power stone of the board)

Even though this symbol might be in the immediate actions part of the ghost card, it is a ongoing effect that transfers to a new board when it is moved.

  The blue Taoist can act in a heartbeat. He may request villager’s help
  AND attempt an exorcism in the  same turn, in any order

This isn't explicit either about when exactly your power is used. If the blue player's power is such that the use of the power occurs before the attempted exorcism, or the use of a village tile, than I would say that you can in fact still do both actions. But this seems to be a strange interpretation to me. Since every player in the game can already can use a village tile on their turn, I would interpret the use of the blue Taoist's power to be when he tries to exorcise a ghost after having already used a village tile.

Therefore, I agree with your interpretation that you cannot attempt an exorcism because you need to use your power in order to attempt an exorcism after having already used a village tile.


Should the Awakening Center be rezed to host cards? Do I need to rez the Awakening Center to install cards on it, or it can host them even being face down?

Yes, card text is only active on rezzed cards. Awakening center must be rezzed to host ice.


Ticket to ride, 1910: What are the big cities Earlier today I bought the 1910 expansion in the mobile version of Ticket to Ride. In the big cities variant, there's an achievement called "Urban Traveller", described by "Win while connecting all 7 Big Cities", but I haven't found an easily accessible list of what those are, so that's my question.

From the rules pdf (also quoted in this blog post) :

  The Big Cities are Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle.


Reign of Terror on Through the Ages On the "Reign of Terror" event, do you lose one worker from the worker pool or the population bank?

On page 12 of the rule book, it states the following

  When a card says you must "decrease"
  your population, you return 1 yellow
  token from your Unused Workers Pool.
  If you have no Unused Workers, you
  must remove (and return to your
  Yellow Bank) a Worker from one of your cards. Do not forget to adjust
  your indicators.

Therefore, you must lose a worker from your Pool (or one of your cards if no workers in your pool).


1-on-1 unorganized tournament scoring system Assume I want to run a game tournament with 1-on-1 games (think chess) that have (for simplicity) just win or lose as the outcome and I need a way to rank the players. Formally speaking, I want a function that takes a list of (player1, player2, who_won) triples and returns a ranking of players, e.g. by attributing each of them a number (list of (player, score)).

Because the tournament is going to be informal and unorganized, I cannot in any way influence who plays against whom when. The scoring system I am looking for should have these properties:

The order of games should not matter.
If two (or more) players keep playing against each other over and over, with the same winning probabilities, the scores should not change (or not change much, e.g. converge).

It may be a system where one new games can affect the scores of all people, if necessary, and it might need a computer to be calculated.

What scoring systems fulfil this?

Try this, it's a system called Whole-History Rating. From the abstract:

  Whole-History Rating (WHR) is a new method to estimate the
  time-varying strengths of players involved in paired comparisons. Like
  many variations of the Elo rating system, the whole-history approach
  is based on the dynamic Bradley-Terry model. But, instead of using
  incremental approximations, WHR directly computes the exact maximum a
  posteriori over the whole rating history of all players. This
  additional accuracy comes at a higher computational cost than
  traditional methods, but computation is still fast enough to be easily
  applied in real time to large-scale game servers (a new game is added
  in less than 0.001 second). Experiments demonstrate that, in
  comparison to Elo, Glicko, TrueSkill, and decayed-history algorithms,
  WHR produces better predictions.

It's been used rather successfully by a game I play called Arimaa. For a tournament score, rather than a player skill rating, you will probably want to treat all games as being played simultaneously, as opposed to allowing the ratio to fluctuate over time.

If it's source code you're after, you may find this pure Ruby implementation helpful.  It can support any two player game, as long as the outcome is a simple win/loss.


AGoT: Attacking and winning unit dies We were playing A Game of Thrones, 2 ed, by FFG last weekend. One table was using the Battle Tide cards. This situation occurred:

Attacking force of one unit won the battle but defender drew a Battle Tide card with a skull, meaning the attacking unit is killed.

What happens with the region? Does the defender lose control of it? Does the attacker gain control of it?

tl;dr

  What happens with the region?

It's empty.

  Does the defender lose control of it?

Yes.

  Does the attacker gain control of it?

No.

The long version

Combat resolution is done in four steps, completed in order:

Determine Victor
Casualties
Retreat and Routing
Combat Clean Up

Steps 1 and 2, you don't appear to have an issue with: You know who the victor is, and you know how many casualties there will be for both sides.

Step 3 (page 21) says:

  After suffering casualties, the losing army must retreat from
  the embattled area (supporting units do not retreat.)

"the losing army" is the important part here; you've already determined the victor (and thus also the loser) in Step 1, which means casualties or not you already know exactly who "the losing army" is. They must retreat.

This is emphasised in the errata:

  Q: After winning a combat, if a player would
  suffer casualties that would eliminate all of his units
  in the embattled area, does the loser of the combat still
  have to retreat?
  A: Yes.

Step 4, Combat Clean-Up, then goes on to state:

  If the combat was won by the attacker, remove any Order token the
  defender had assigned to the embattled area (if one remains) as well
  as any Power token in the area

Again, the wording is clear "If the combat was won by the attacker" (Step 1). So in addition to retreating, the defending (losing) army also needs to remove their Power token in the area.

Therefore, the answer to your first question "Does the defender lose control of it?" seems to be an unambiguous "Yes". Without an army or a Power token, the defender no longer has any means to control the area.

Which brings us to the second question: "Does the attacker gain control of it?"

From the rules, I'd have to say "No". From "Controlling Areas" (page 24):

  A House is said to control a land area when it has at least one
  Footman, Knight, or Siege Engine in the area, or has previously
  established control in that area by placing a Power token there

If all your units are dead, you obviously don't meet the first criteria. So the question is, can you have "previously established control"? Further down the same page:

  A player may only establish control when vacating
  an area with a March Order. Events that would leave an area
  vacant (such as negative effects from a Wildling victory) does not
  permit a player to establish control after the last unit is destroyed.

You never actually vacated the area: Your units died before they ever had a chance to gain control in the first place (Step 2 of combat resolution (Casualties) happens before both Step 3 where the loser retreats and Step 4 where the loser removes his Power tokens).

Again, this is emphasised in the Errata:

  Q: At what point does the winner of a combat
  exert control over the embattled area?
  A: Control over an area does not change hands
  until all stages of combat are completed. In the case
  of a completely emptied area, at no point of time
  during the combat would the area be considered
  controlled by the attacker (and so would not count
  towards his victory condition).

And like before, with neither army nor Power tokens in the area, you the attacker also have no means to exert control over the area.

Of note, in the reverse situation (i.e. the defender wins but loses all units), the attacker would still be forced to retreat in Step 3 but the defender could still retain control over the territory if he'd previously placed a Power token, since that wouldn't be lost in Step 4 if he's the victor.


When using Fenians' benefit, do they also add their bomb value? In the second edition of A Study in Emerald, Fenians have a one-use benefit that allows you to have agents count as two Bomb points instead of one. They also have a Bomb point on them.

The rules for assassination say:

  Each card that you play that has symbols on is worth Bomb points equal to the number of such symbols on the card.

Since you are playing the Fenians card to use their benefit at this time, does it also add its own Bomb point, or do cards played for Bomb points have to be played exclusively as such?

No.

Page 6 of the English rulebook states under the sub-heading "A Short Interlude About Cards" that,

  In all circumstances a card can only ever be played for one type of symbol on it or
  the text effect described in the text box

When played for their ability, Fenians double all bomb points of cards you played to gain bomb points.  If you had two Fenians cards, you could play one for bombs and one as a doubler.

Hope this helps!


Can I activate Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar's ability in response to itself? I recently played a game of EDH that I think I won, but my opponent was convinced I didn’t. He had a board state that would win if he untapped. I played a Seismic Assault.

Seismic Assault has an activated ability:

  Discard a land card: Seismic Assault deals two damage to any target.

I had a Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar in my graveyard. Multani has an activated ability:

  1G, Return two lands you control to their owner’s hands: return Multani, Yavamaya’s Avatar from the graveyard to your hand.

I have Chromatic Lantern in play (all my lands tap for any color). I had enough untapped lands that, if I could bounce them to hand, I could discard them with Seismic Assault for enough damage to kill my opponent.

I contended that, in response to activating Multani’s ability, I could activate Multani’s ability again, and again, and again, bouncing all my lands to hand. My opponent argued that, since activating the ability required Multani being in the graveyard, and activating it caused Multani to leave the graveyard, I shouldn’t be able to do this. Obviously, it’s a really weird way to use her ability, but I should be able to activate the ability in response to itself as many times as I can pay for it, right? Then most of them will fizzle?

You can activate Mutani's ability in response to itself.
Your opponent was wrong in stating that activating it caused Multani to leave the graveyard. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect, separated by a colon.

602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as "[Cost]: [Effect.] (...)"
602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.

Returning Multani to your hand is part of the effect, so it will only happen on resolution. Because you can respond to your own abilities by retaining priority, until that ability resolves, you may activate the same ability again as many times as you're able to pay the cost (returning two lands to your hand).

116.1b A player may activate an activated ability any time they have priority.
116.3c If a player has priority when they cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action, that player receives priority afterward.


MTG - What is the set "Oversize Cards"? On tcgplayer.com (can anyone verify they are legit? Never bought anything from them. Might as well ask) there is a planeswalker for sale that is from the set "Oversize cards" (picture below). There are other planeswalkers for sale with the name being "Name (Oversize)".

Is the below pictured card actually different in size or any other aspect than a normal Planeswalker?

Oversized cards are bigger than normal Magic cards and are usually twice the size (the size of two regular Magic cards side to side.) Here you see a size comparison:

These oversized cards are not legal for tournament play and are mostly decorative.


Breaking ICE - exactly how should strength be treated? Sorry if this is quite a basic question, but I've reviewed the rule book a few times and haven't been able to answer it myself (although I appreciate that doesn't mean the answer isn't there, but I've just not been able to find it!).

When a Runner encounters a rezzed piece of ICE, that ICE has a numeric strength and perhaps a number of subroutines (as well as encounter events/abilities, but those are not relevant to my question). I think I understand that when it comes to the subroutines, as long as they are either broken or do not include "End the run" as an effect, the Runner is not prevented from proceeding past the piece of ICE, but I'm not 100% clear on how the strength of the ICE factors into this.

I know that the Runner must have an installed Icebreaker with at least the same strength as the ICE being encountered in order to be able to interact with the ICE (and therefore break the subroutines). But my question is: Does the type of the Icebreaker need to match that of the ICE being encountered to be able to use the strength to gain access to interact?

So for example, if the Runner has an installed Mimic icebreaker, which has a strength of 3 and the ability to break Sentry subroutines, can it be used to gain access to a non-Sentry piece of rezzed ICE which equal or lower strength, with a different icebreaker (with a strength lower than that of the encountered ICE) then used to break some/all of the subroutines (or not, if the Runner is happy to let the subroutines run)?

Unless otherwise stated, strength simply determines which icebreakers can interact with (typically meaning break subroutines on) a piece of ice. From page 16 of the rulebook:

  An icebreaker can only interact with ice that
  has equal or lower strength than the icebreaker.

Notice that the individual icebreaker whose breaking ability you want to use needs to have high enough strength, the strength of your other icebreakers isn't a factor. It's also worth noting:

  Many icebreakers allow the Runner to temporarily increase the
  icebreaker’s strength by spending credits...This strength increase
  lasts only while the current piece of ice is being encountered, unless
  otherwise noted by card abilities. After an encounter with a piece of
  ice, the icebreaker’s strength returns to the value shown on its card.

Just to be clear, it's certainly possible that at some point in the future an ice will be designed for which the strength factors into some other effect (e.g. "do X meat damage. X is the strength of this ice"), but I don't believe there's anything like that in the card pool today.


Will Panharmonicon entering the battlefield duplicate ETBs it triggers? If I have a Reckless Fireweaver on the battlefield, and I play a Panharmonicon, will the Fireweaver's ability trigger twice?

By the time Reckless Fireweaver's ability triggers, due to it being an ETB ability, Panharmonicon is already on the battlefield and will already work. Reckless Fireweaver will trigger twice.


What happens when you Magical Hack a Quicksilver Fountain? So Quicksilver Fountain is a pretty unique card that an ability to override land types with flood counters. However, I was wondering about how it interacts with Magical Hack.

Say that I choose Swamp for the basic land type for Magical Hack. From my own thoughts and looking around, it seems like there are 2 possibilities:

All flood counters instantly switch to using the other land type: All flooded Islands become Swamps instead. New counters also turn lands into Swamps.
Previously placed flood counters are unchanged (The respective lands remain as Islands), but newly placed ones will turn lands into Swamps. You can override the older counter by placing a new one on the respective Island.

I was wondering which of these was the case.

In addition, what happens when Quicksilver Fountain leaves the battlefield after being hacked?

Do the flooded lands remain as Swamps, or do they revert to Islands due to Quicksilver Fountain not being on the field anymore?

Lands with flood counters on them retain their latest type even if Quicksilver Fountain is hacked or leaves the battlefield.
That is because the Fountain's first ability is not a static effect itself, but a triggered ability that creates a one-shot effect that in turn creates a continuous effect. Each flood counter has its individual effect at the time it's placed on a land. As an analogy, you can think of flood counters as token enchantments, except it's a counter instead.
That means your option 2) is correct. Lands that got a flood counter before the Fountain was hacked remain islands after the hack, flood counters after the hack turn lands into swamps, and all lands with flood counters retain their respective type after the Fountain has left the battlefield.

Continuous Effects

611.1. A continuous effect modifies characteristics of objects, modifies control of objects, or affects players or the rules of the game, for a fixed or indefinite period.
611.2. A continuous effect may be generated by the resolution of a spell or ability.


Explanation of Selvala, Explorer Returned's ruling? Selvala, Explorer Returned has the following ruling:

    If you activate Selvala's ability while casting a spell, and you discover you can't produce enough mana to pay that spell's costs, the spell is reversed. The spell returns to whatever zone you were casting it from. You may reverse other mana abilities you activated while casting the spell, but Selvala's ability can't be reversed. Whatever mana that ability produced will be in your mana pool and each player will have drawn a card.

I have 2 questions about this ruling.

Does this mean that, in conjunction with rule 121.8,

    121.8 If a spell or ability causes a card to be drawn while another spell is being cast, the drawn card is kept face down until that spell becomes cast (see rule 601.2i). While face down, it’s considered to have no characteristics. The same is true with relation to another ability being activated. If an effect allows or instructs a player to reveal the card as it’s being drawn, it’s revealed after the spell becomes cast or the ability becomes activated.

if you are unable to cast the spell, and it returns to your hand, the cards drawn off the parley ability are kept face down... permanently? In my interpretation, even if you were to recast the spell, since it changed zones, it would have no knowledge of it's previous self, and therefore would not allow the cards to be seen. Is this correct?
Why does this happen? What rulings indicate that the spell should be "un-cast," and is this a unique case? Or is there a precedent with another ruling that does the same?

Your rule 121.8 is out of date. The current version says this:

  If a spell or ability causes a card to be drawn while another spell is being cast, the drawn card is kept face down until that spell becomes cast (see rule 601.2i) or until the casting process is reversed (see rule 723, “Handling Illegal Actions”). While face down, it’s considered to have no characteristics. The same is true with relation to another ability being activated. If an effect allows or instructs a player to reveal the card as it’s being drawn, it’s revealed after the spell becomes cast or the ability becomes activated.

As for why casting the spell is reversed like that, that is covered in the rules that describe the process for casting a spell. Rule 601.2 says

  To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. Casting a spell includes proposal of the spell (rules 601.2a–d) and determination and payment of costs (rules 601.2f–h). To cast a spell, a player follows the steps listed below, in order. A player must be legally allowed to cast the spell to begin this process (see rule 601.3). If a player is unable to comply with the requirements of a step listed below while performing that step, the casting of the spell is illegal ; the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed (see rule 723, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

Rule 723.1 says this:

  If a player takes an illegal action or starts to take an action but can’t legally complete it, the entire action is reversed and any payments already made are canceled. No abilities trigger and no effects apply as a result of an undone action. If the action was casting a spell, the spell returns to the zone it came from. Each player may also reverse any legal mana abilities that player activated while making the illegal play, unless mana from those abilities or from any triggered mana abilities they caused to trigger was spent on another mana ability that wasn’t reversed. Players may not reverse actions that moved cards to a library, moved cards from a library to any zone other than the stack, caused a library to be shuffled, or caused cards from a library to be revealed.

The quoted section is why Selvala's ability can't be reversed along with the rest of the casting process.


What is the name of the game called "Ace" in south Asia (specifically India)? This game has a standard deck of 52 playing cards. All the cards are dealt out to the players, and there can be any number of players.

The game goes like this:

First the player who has the Ace of Spades has to start the game by playing that card. Then each player plays a card of their choice matching the suit that was selected. If they already have a card in front of them, it's discarded first.

If any player doesn't have cards of the selected suit then he plays any card of his choice and then the player with the highest valued card will take all the played cards and add them to his hand, and then start a new round.

The game continues until only one player has cards remaining. That player is the winner.

Does anyone recognise this game?

I've found several references to it online as being called "Bhabhi":

http://s193890092.onlinehome.us/malton/bhabhi.htm

http://www.zymbiotic.com/bhabhi/rules

Also, someone on BoardGameGeek really likes it, so it must be bona fide:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/471299/the-perfect-card-game


Catan Seafarers Bonus points when you build a new settlement on a new island in certain scenarios In Catan Seafarers scenarios where you earn two bonus points for your first settlement on a new island, what happens when you upgrade that settlement to a City? How many points is that now worth?

You get the two bonus points for the first build on the island.
If you change the settlement to a city, it is not the first build anymore. So you keep the bonus points for the settlement.


Water damage on cardboard pieces Someone just spilled water on my Carcassonne tiles. The illustrations are coming apart from the cardboard (they're wrinkling).

What's the best thing to do? How can I dry them with best results?

Here's what I did, and they don't look bad.

Used a towel to pat dry the tiles.
Used my fingers to press out the wrinkles and squish the expanding cardboard back together.
Laid them down between two towels, put a textbook on top, and pressed down to get some more water out.
Pressed out the wrinkles and squish cardboard together again.
Laid them down between two paper towels (paper towels are thinner and I wanted to make sure they stayed flat) and laid several textbooks on top.
After several hours, squished with fingers again.
Dry paper towels and textbooks again.
The next day, I pulled them out and laid them on a dry towel.

At this point they're holding together really well and are only marginally thicker than the undamaged pieces.

The damaged piece on the left is only a bit thicker than the dry one on the right.


Can a runner end the run before accessing all cards? When playing casually, I have seen runners occasionally access some cards but decline accessing the remaining (typically due to hitting a trap and being concerned about subsequent traps).

The relevant rules I can see related to Accessing Cards are:

Runner can access cards in any order:

  When accessing multiple cards, the Runner accesses them one at a time
  in any order he likes.

Each card must fully resolve before the next is accessed. Agendas end the game IMMEDIATELY, stopping further access.

  The Runner must fully resolve his access to a card (steal it, pay to
  trash it, etc.) before accessing the next card. If the Runner scores
  an agenda that gives him seven or more points, he immediately wins the
  game, even if he would otherwise access more cards.

Clarification for the end of the access phase:

  After the Runner has accessed all required cards, he returns any cards
  not stolen or trashed to their original play states. For example, an
  unrezzed card in a remote server returns facedown to that server, and
  a card accessed from HQ returns to HQ.

There are some other clarifications as well for dealing with R&D, archives, and HQ.

The rules, however, don't explicitly state that a Runner can opt to stop accessing cards (in fact, the use of the term "required" makes me believe that it is quite the contrary).

For what it's worth, I am asking for cards similar to Shock that deal damage when accessed. If one is in Archives, does that mean that the runner must access the card (and take 1 net damage) every time he accesses cards in archives? Or can the runner simply access the cards he wants first, then stop accessing cards before hitting Shock?

Accessing Cards in Netrunner

Access in Netrunner is highly dependent on server location.  The following draws primarily from the latest FAQ, and is supplemented by my notes/clarifications.

Accessing Archives

From the FAQ, with additional emphasis:

  When accessing cards in Archives, the Runner turns all cards
  faceup in Archives before accessing them. Then he accesses and
  resolves individual cards one by one, in any order he wants.

So, the runner has a choice in terms of order of access (if there are multiple agenda points and 3 Shocks, they can access the agendas first and theoretically win the game before the Shocks flatline them), but they must access every card in the archive.

One note about accessing archives, if the Runner uses a replacement effect based upon a successful Archives run (such as Retrieval Run), then none of the cards there get flipped (e.g., the runner does not get a free peek at what is hiding there).

Accessing Multiple Cards from HQ

When you are given multi-card access from HQ, you must access your required number of cards (e.g., if you are successful making a run using Legwork, you must access 3 cards).  You do so one at a time, and fully resolve each access before moving on to the next.  Cards accessed in this manner do not return to HQ until you are finished accessing all 3 (so you pick one card from HQ, look at it, put it aside, pull another, etc.).

Accessing Multiple Cards from R&D

Similarly, when accessing multiple cards from R&D there are a few notes in the FAQ:

  The Runner can intersperse accessing cards from R&D with any upgrades installed in the root of R&D.

and

  The Runner cannot choose to access the cards in R&D out of order.

So, with multi-access, you always start with the top card of R&D and work your way down, fully resolving each before moving onto the next one (e.g., you can't fail to trash an installable asset, see the next card, and then decide to trash the previously seen asset).  At any point during these accesses you can alternate between R&D proper and its root (in the case of upgrades installed in the server).

Accessing Cards in a Remote Server

When you choose to access cards in a remote server, it works in a similar fashion.  Once committed to accessing, the runner must access all cards in the remote server, however they are able to choose the order of access (and it should be apparent which card in the server has been advanced, as well as which card was placed in the server most recently, if applicable).  For example, the Corporation is not allowed to shuffle the cards in the remote server.

Circumventions of the Above Rules

While in the majority of cases the number of cards available for access is completely dictated by access location and board state (e.g., access all cards in Archives or in a remote server, access 1 card from HQ/R&D if running without any special card effects), there are a few cards that do give the runner slightly more leeway.

For example, Medium states: "Each virus counter after the first on Medium allows you to access 1 additional card from R&D whenever you access cards from R&D". This is not a required additional access, like the other cards described above.  According to the FAQ, how this plays out is as follows:

  Before accessing cards from R&D at step 4.5 of a run, the Runner
  chooses how many cards he wants to access when using Medium.

So, after the run is successful (by passing all the ICE and deciding that you will access cards), the player must commit to the number of cards that they will access.  If Medium has 7 counters on it, the Runner could choose any number between 1 and 7 - however, once that number is chosen, they must access that number of cards.  There is no window to jack out after the number of cards has been declared.

This is in contrast to cards like Legwork, HQ Interface, R&D Interface, and The Maker's Eye, which all are mandatory effects (if run is successful, "access 2 additional cards" - there is no room to declare a different value).

Finally, it should also be noted that even if you are using one of these cards that have a mandatory effect for additional access, you do have a window at step 4.2 of a run to jack out after passing all the ICE but before committing to access. This can be especially useful if, for example, you face-checked a Komainu, and fear that some of the cards you access will cause you to flatline. For the purposes of other card effects, such a run would be considered unsuccessful.