Where can I find more Brood War scenarios? The Brood War expansion of Starcraft introduces the idea of the Scenario Game Mode, which basically comprises a pregenerated galaxy setup with special victory conditions.  Often, playing scenarios provides a more enjoyable (or at least quicker) alternative to playing the normal game.

Unfortunately, the rulebook for the expansion only provides four Scenarios, each with its own particular requirements for number of players.  This puts a significant limit on my options.

Designing my own scenarios is of course a possibility, but due to the time and effort involved, and the inescapable fact that some other avid gamer out there has inevitably done it already, I pose the following question:

Does there exist, somewhere on this wide vast internet of an Internet we call home, any  collection of further Scenarios which can be used to augment the playing experience?  Ideally these should be at least somewhat balanced and play-tested, of course, but I'm desperate enough to play anything really.

Other than a few posts on the BGG forums, randomly interspersed among what is a clear majority of non-Scenario variants and house rules, my own searching has come up with naught.

Sadly the answer is no. After talking with some hardcore Starcraft Board Game people, and a FFG crew member, I have come to the conclusion that noone (as of yet) have made a collection or site with Starcraft scenarios.

They really hoped for more scenarios, but most fans called that the possibilities were too limited.

I was able to find a few scenarios on this lovely list, but it's not exacly a collection.

If you are feeling creative, Im sure the community would love a site about this.

BoardGameGeek : StarCraft Brood Wars scenarios, variations and maps


How many meeples should I have according to the expansions that I'm currently using? Like many of you, I start playing carcassonne base game with 72 tiles and 7 meeples, but I start adding expansions, and now I have more that 150 tiles in game

With just 9 meeples by player (counting the phantom and big one) I think I have a meeple deficit, how many meeples should I have for each player?

The list of expansions that add pieces for each player are as follows:

Base game

7 meeples, plus one for scoring.

Inns & Cathedrals

Adds the Big Meeple.

Traders & Builders

Adds the Builder and the Pig.

Abbey & Mayor

Adds the Mayor, the Barn, and the Wagon.

Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars

Adds 2-3 bridges and 2-3 castles, depending on the number of players.

The Phantom

Adds the Phantom.

Of the new pieces, only the Big Meeple, Mayor, Wagon, and Phantom are truly meeples.  The rest of them change the rules but can't be placed on their own.  In the games you listed, you're right, you should have 9 meeples.


What is the name of this marble game? My friends play this marble game often, but we don't know the name of it.

You play with 2 decks of cards. Play in 2 or 3 teams of 2 players each. (The image below is setup for 2 teams of 2.)

Goal is to get both players on the team all filled up in their base. Have to get into the base with an exact number.

Each player takes turns playing cards:

A: Forward 1 or out of start
K: Back 1 or out of start
Q: Forward 12 or out of start
J: Switch
3: Back 3
Forward number on card

Some of the rules include:

Have to use an A/K/Q to move out of start before any cards can be played to move a marble any further.
Can't pass your teammate
Can use the backwards cards from the start to loop around to the end of the board.
Landing on an opponent puts them back to start
Black places are safeties

And a handful of other rules.

What is the name of this game?

The name of the game is Dog or Brändi Dog. It's a little bit like Parchesi, except you use cards and not dice to go.

You can play it on BrettSpielWelt for free, if you want to confirm it's the good game.


How can I destroy Possibility Storm? If an opponent plays Possibility Storm , what would be the best way to destroy it? If I played a card which allowed me to destroy target enchantment, would this destroy Possibility Storm before my card becomes exiled or would I need to rely on one of the cards I need to draw?

Also does Possibility Storm trigger when playing creatures or lands/basic lands?

It triggers whenever you cast a spell from your hand, no matter what kind of spell. This includes an instant or sorcery you might play to try to destroy it, as well as creatures. (Playing lands is not casting a spell - it's a special action you can do.)

So yes, it's difficult to destroy. Keeping it from ever reaching the battlefield by countering it is of course the easiest way. If you happen to have something on the battlefield with an ability that can destroy it, like a Keening Apparition that'll work too. Similarly, if you're lucky enough to have a spell with Flashback already in your graveyard like Ray of Revelation, you could use that - it's not cast from your hand, so it's not affected.

But otherwise, yes, you'll have to rely on luck - cast your spells, and hope you hit something good. Do note that you don't necessarily have to destroy it; you could well cast a vanilla 1/1 creature and luck into something enormous, and your opponent is just as dead if you kill them without being able to control what you cast!


In Stone Age, can I use the resources gained on a turn to pay for the cards? In the current round, I have no resources but have placed 1 meeple on a card and the rest on wood. I roll the die and get a few wood resources which can cover the cost of the card. Am I allowed to use the resources gained in the current turn to buy the card?

Yes, of course you can. The only "problem" is that you risk not getting the resources you need and then you won't be able to pay for the card and thus you may waste that worker's turn.

That's not to say that good Stone Age play doesn't involve such risk-taking as long as it's realistic.


What are the ramifications of turning a planeswalker into a creature? An answer on another question tells of a way to turn planeswalkers into creatures:

  Basically you start by playing the Mycosynth
  Lattice
  which turns all your permanents into artifacts, this includes
  Planeswalker.

  Then you play March Of the
  Machines
  turning your Planeswalker into an artifact creature with power and
  toughness equal to it's casting cost.

What are the ramifications of doing this? In particular, I'm curious about the answers to the following sub-questions:

Can the loyalty abilities still be activated?

Can they be activated after the creature has attacked? (ie. during the 2nd main phase)

Does the creature die if it's loyalty hits 0?
Does the creature die if it has lethal damage counted on it?
Can damage applied to the creature be directed to apply to the loyalty, on only counted as damage on the creature? (ie. counted against it's toughness)
Since the permanent is still a planeswalker, can it still be attacked like a normal planewalker? (ie. a creature attacking the planeswalker instead of me, the player)

Is there any other interesting fallout of converting a planeswalker into a creature that I'm missing?

Can the loyalty abilities still be activated?
  Can they be activated after the creature has attacked? (ie. during the 2nd main phase)

Yes and yes. Nothing stops loyalty abilities from being activated just because Planeswalker is not the only type on the card. Actually, nothing stops a loyalty ability from being activated even if the permanent has not the Planeswalker type. Also, a loyalty ability doesn't include the tap simbol, so it doesn't matter if the creature is tapped or has summoning sickness.

  Does the creature die if it's loyalty hits 0?

Yes:

  704.5i If a planeswalker has loyalty 0, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard.

  Does the creature die if it has lethal damage counted on it?

Yes:

  704.5g If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and the total damage marked on it is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed. Regeneration can replace this event.

  Can damage applied to the creature be directed to apply to the loyalty, on only counted as damage on the creature? (ie. counted against it's toughness)

It counts for both. So if the creature-planeswalker is dealt two damage, you remove two loyalty counters and mark two damage on it (remember that damage does not reduce thoughness).

  Since the permanent is still a planeswalker, can it still be attacked like a normal planewalker? (ie. a creature attacking the planeswalker instead of me, the player)

Yes. Planeswalkers can be attacked by creatures. There is no exception in the rules for a planeswalker that is also a creature.

As a wrap-up: to a permanent that is both a creature and a planeswalker, both rules for creatures and rules for planeswalkers apply.


What is the gold token used for in Kitty Paw? Just opened our game of Kitty Paw and there is a gold paper/cardboard token not listed on the game components, does anyone know what this is? I also don't see it mentioned anywhere in the rules.

I think it's just a mistake. When I checked the unboxing video on BGG there wasn't any token looking anything like that in the game parts.


Are there different "imperatives" for the four players when choosing starting settlements in Catan? For instance, a You Tube video opined that "the third player should focus on the scarcest resource." This may or a may not be good advice, I used it only for illustrative purposes.
What, if any, are the differences that a player should use in making settlement choices in the first, second, third and fourth positions?

Catan's initial setup follows a snake draft structure, so the strategies available to the players in different positions are fairly different. As a general rule, the players at the beginning of the settlement placement should focus on the raw production numbers of their settlements while the players towards the end should focus on specific resource combinations.
In the first or second seat, your first settlement will likely have good production numbers and/or good resource combinations. On almost every setup, there will one or two hexes of a fairly rare resource (like brick or ore) with decent production numbers (5, 6, 8, 9). Only one or two of those locations will have good neighboring hexes (a 5, 8, 10 location is much better than a 8, 10, 11). This means that the first few players will likely get the "best" single settlement locations. However, the second settlements will likely be a bunch of leftovers. It's hard to plan for what will be left for the second settlement, so focusing on the best first settlement is the main strategy.
In the fourth seat, the most abundant locations will likely already be taken. However, you get to play your settlements back-to-back. This means that you can choose the best synergy between your two settlements. While your raw resource production will likely be not as good as those with the "best" locations, you'll probably have an easier time getting resource diversity. Strategies like trying to get a 2:1 trader and placing your other settlement on an excellent production location are possible.
Third seat can be awkward to play, but it drafts more like fourth seat than the first two. You just don't get the back-to-back placement, so it can be hard to set up more specialized strategies.


Where are the MTG Lexicon pages? I fail to find more recent than 2005 MTG Lexicon pages in the Archives

Those are the ones I already have:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/lexicon-archive-2002-01-15
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/lexicon-2003-09-04
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/lexicon-throwback-edition-2004-11-30
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/lexicon-ravnica-edition-2005-10-05

Are there more recent pages published?

First, collect the Google results of site:magic.wizards.com inurl:lexicon.

Then, check the longer results of site:magic.wizards.com lexicon.


What happens if a blocking creature is killed with Double Strike before all the damage is dealt? With an attacking creature with Double Strike, if the first strike deals lethal damage to a normal blocking creature, does the normal damage go to the defending player?

No, once a creature is blocked, it remains so even if the defending creature dies. From the Comprehensive rules

  Blocked Creature: An attacking creature that another creature blocks or that an effect causes to become blocked. It remains a blocked creature until it's removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. See rule 509, "Declare Blockers Step."

  510.1c. A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage.

A creature with Double Strike and Trample (Stampeding Rhino that has gained DS) could deal damage to the defending player, but this is because Trample modifies the normal assigning of combat damage rules.


In what order do unblocked creatures assign damage? Scenario:

Player A has two unblocked creatures attacking player B, each with power 3 with an ability that triggers upon dealing combat damage to a player, let's say Brago, King Eternal and Doubtless One.
Player B has a damage prevention effect preventing the next 4 damage dealt to himself.
No creatures have first strike and no other replacement or prevention effects are active.

Which of the two creatures abilities triggers and why?

Player B gets to choose exactly which of the 6 damage is prevented.
The two creatures deal damage simultaneously. Rule 510 deals with the combat damage step, and days among other things (emphasis mine):

510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action
doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time
combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.

So how does the prevention happen? Rule 615 speaks about prevention effects, and we find that the affected player (or the controller of the affected permanent) decides freely what damage to prevent if multiple sources deal simultaneous damage:

615.7. Some prevention effects generated by the resolution of a spell or ability refer to a specific
amount of damage—for example, “Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to any target this
turn.” These work like shields. Each 1 damage that would be dealt to the “shielded” permanent or
player is prevented. Preventing 1 damage reduces the remaining shield by 1. If damage would be
dealt to the shielded permanent or player by two or more applicable sources at the same time, the
player or the controller of the permanent chooses which damage the shield prevents. Once the shield
has been reduced to 0, any remaining damage is dealt normally. Such effects count only the amount
of damage; the number of events or sources dealing it doesn’t matter.


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

If you are trying to rush the game - which is certainly a valid strategy if your early rolls force you in that direction - just buy developments whenever you can. If you have fewer cities, every turn you spend playing catch-up is a turn your opponents with more cities can buy either more-expensive (and more VP) developments or monuments. You're trying to dash across the finish line before they can reap the benefits of their well-developed engines. You won't be able to make much use of your developments, so just get what you can afford and gives you points.

One advantage of this is that if you are threatening the end of the game, say with 4 developments, your opponents will have trouble committing to the big, efficient monuments (that aren't worth anything if incomplete) and will have to settle for the smaller ones that are worth fewer points per worker. This is particularly troublesome for them if you're later in the turn order.

If you or your friends finds that a rush strategy makes the game too short, you may prefer the official Late Bronze Age variant that user1873 alluded to.


Can I stop a Counterspell of Goblin Grenade by sacrificing a Goblin Gardener? I want to cast Goblin Grenade, but my opponent wants to counter it. Can I prevent them doing so like this?:

I play Goblin Grenade.
As part of the cost, I sacrifice Goblin Gardener (whose text reads: “When Goblin Gardener dies, destroy target land.”).
I use this ability to destroy one of my opponent’s 2 Islands.

Can he counter the spell, or does the destruction of the Island happen before he can play Counterspell, since it’s a direct result not of my spell itself, but of paying its cost?

You cannot prevent the Counterspell with a Goblin Gardener.
Here is what happens, step by step.

You declare you are casting Goblin Grenade and put it on the stack.
You choose the target for Goblin Grenade.
You pay the cost for Goblin Grenade. At this point, you may use any mana abilities you currently have to produce the red mana you need (or in fact, any mana at all), use any red mana you produced earlier, and you sacrifice Goblin Gardener.
Sacrificing Goblin Gardener triggers its ability, but nothing happens quite yet.
You finish casting Goblin Grenade.

Now the game checks to see if any abilities have triggered. It sees the Goblin Gardener trigger, and you put that ability onto the stack above the Goblin Grenade. You choose the target for the ability.
Now there is both a spell and an ability on the stack. Neither resolves quite yet.
Now you get priority, which means you can cast any instants or spells with flash, or activate any abilities that you want. If you do not wish to do so, you will pass priority to the your opponent, who could choose to do the same.
When your opponent gets priority, they can cast Counterspell, moving it onto the stack, choosing Goblin Grenade as the target, and tapping the targeted land to use its mana ability as part of paying the cost.
Even if they do not wish to cast Counterspell quite yet, they can also choose to activate the targeted land's mana ability, tapping it to gain the blue mana. The mana will not vanish until the phase or step ends, which will be after all spells and abilities on the stack have resolved and all players have passed priority.  If your opponent wanted to, they could tap the island, let the gardener ability resolve, and then cast Counterspell with the mana they gained. Or they could simply cast Counterspell while the Gardener ability is on the stack, and counter the Grenade before the land is destroyed.
Either way, they can easily Counterspell the grenade if they desire.


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

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

Your opponent should have drawn the extra cards on the next turn (the bonus one awarded by Outpost).

From the Seaside rules, about Outpost:

  If you play Outpost as well as a "Now and at the start of your next turn" card, such as Merchant Ship, the turn from Outpost will be that next turn, so you'll get those coins then.

I think you can replace Merchant Ship with Wharf and get the same result.


May a creature declare an attack while it is exhausted? In Berserk: War of the Realms, if a creature 'may declare a magical strike' on some condition, does that apply even when it is exhausted? For example, the Elf Spellslinger 'may declare a magical strike' if an adjacent creature of the opponent becomes exhausted. Is he allowed to use that even when he himself is exhausted?

According to this post on BoardGameGeek abilities can be declared even if a creature is exhausted.


Adding an additional same phase? Nothing in the rules? For example, it says 1 set of 3::1 run of 4

But if I have 2 sets of 3 can I put down a second set of 3?

I could find nothing in the rules on this and nothing in any of the questions here?

Thank you!

Short answer: No, you can't.

The rules say: "1 set of 3". So you can't put down 2 sets of 3. The line from the rule states:

"A player may lay down more than the minimum requirements of a Phase, but only if the additional cards can be directly added to the cards already in the Phase."

So in this case, you could lay down addition cards in the set, or cards to extend the run. For full coverage the phase descriptions when you lay down could be described as:

Phase 1: 2 sets of at least 3
Phase 2: 1 set of at least 3 + 1 run of at least 4
Phase 3: 1 set of at least 4 + 1 run of at least 4
Phase 4: 1 run of at least 7
Phase 5: 1 run of at least 8
Phase 6: 1 run of at least 9
Phase 7: 2 sets of at least 4
Phase 8: at least 7 cards of one color
Phase 9: 1 set of at least 5 + 1 set of at least 2
Phase 10: 1 set of at least 5 + 1 set of at least 3

Which also clarifies the point that each time you go down, you can only complete the current phase you're on, not the next one.


Does destroying a server mean the run is unsuccessful? Maybe I'm missing this from somewhere, but a situation came up in a recent game that I need clarification on.

The runner plays Dirty Laundry on a remote server with no ICE and only one card installed in the server.
The corp, before the runner can declare the run successful, rezzes that card.  That card is Jackson Howard.
The corp trashes and removes Jackson Howard from the game, using his ability.

At this point, what happens to the run the runner was on?  The server is technically destroyed.  I get it that the runner can't access any cards at that point, since there is nothing else in the server.  But when is the server considered 'destroyed'?  Immediately after Jackson is trashed?  Or does the runner get to finish their turn, access all the cards in the server (which is 0), and consider it a successful run?  This has implications for run cards, obviously, but it also has implications for cards like John Masanori.  If John gives you a tag on your first unsuccessful run, this is an easy way to tag a runner with their own cards.

From the official FAQ, page 4:

Destruction of Servers
[...]
If there are no cards installed in or protecting a remote server, then the server immediately ceases to exist. If a server ceases to exist during a run, the run immediately ends. Unless the run has passed step 4.4 of the timing structure of a run, it is not considered to be successful or unsuccessful.

In particular, you do not gain money for Dirty Laundry and neither do you draw a card nor do you take a tag for John Masanori as the run was neither successful nor unsuccessful. A run like this also doesn’t allow the corp to play cards like Successful Demonstration on his or her next turn.


Can black win in this Go situation? Can black win here with or without this move? Or is in every way dead?

That is a good try for Black, because it is a "net" play. But it doesn't quite work.

White descends, one spot right of the "marked stone. Black "fills" below. White cuts to the southeast, atariing two Black stones, Black escapes. White cuts again south of the marked stone, atariing one Black stone, Black escapes.

White's next move to the left is an atari on the marked stone, and the following move connects to the White stones to the left, while trapping five Black stones.


What happens to permanents modified by effects like Chance for Glory that change their card type? For instance, Chance for Glory grants creatures indefinite indestructibility. What if said creature was a temporarily animated artifact, land, or enchantment that then loses the creature card type at a later time?
I can see arguments for both versions: since they were an eligible target their text has been modified and they don't lose the indestructibility since it's just on the permanent, at the same time, chance for glory does specifically say creatures are granted indestructibility, really not sure about this one.

They will still be indestructible. This is because granting indestructible is a continuous effect that happens as part of Chance for Glory resolving, and the set of objects affected is determined at that time. Once the creature has been granted indestructible, there is nothing that would cause it to lose that just because it changes types.
Note that this is different than a static ability such as Eldrazi Monument. In that case, it only affects creatures, and anything that stops being a creature would stop being affected.

611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. (Note that this works differently than a continuous effect from a static ability.)


Rummikub: Initial meld with a joker The following tiles are on the table (these were the initial meld from another player):
10 BLUE, 11 BLUE, 12 BLUE
And I, having not yet made an initial meld, have the following tiles on my board:
7 BLUE, 8 BLUE, 9 BLUE, JOKER, 13 BLUE
I use the first four tiles to make my initial meld.
Questions:

Am I allowed to play other tiles in the same round that I played my initial meld?
Am I allowed to add my 13 BLUE to the other player's run, take the 10 BLUE to replace the JOKER in my initial meld, and re-use that JOKER, all in the same round?

I've never played this game but reading rules here it seems clear enough.  The rules say (emphasis mine)

In order to place tiles on the table, each player must make an initial
play of at least 30 points in one or more sets.
These points must come from the tiles on the player's rack and not
from tiles already played on the table. A tile is worth its face
value. A Joker may be used for any tile and its point value is that of
the tile it represents. The penalty for holding a Joker if another
player wins the round is 30 points. If a player cannot enter the
round, or purposely chooses not to, the player must take a tile from
the pouch and the turn ends.
After players have made their initial plays, they can also build on
other sets on the table with tiles from their racks.

so 1) No you are not allowed to play other tiles the same turn.  The rules are clear that you must use your own tiles and not other players.  It isn't until after all players have made an initial meld or passed you may start building off other players.
The rules for jokers state

A joker can be retrieved from a set on the table by a player who can replace it during his turn with a tile of the same numerical value and color it represents. The tile used to replace the Joker must come from a player's rack and not from the table.

So you can't reuse the joker since the 10 Blue was not in your hand.


When should I send my current civilization into decline? In Vinci, you play a civilization for some period of time and then declare it to be "in decline", meaning you sit out a turn and then start a new one.  If you go into decline too quickly you're signing up for unneeded churn, but if you wait too long your rate of gaining points drops and you fall behind.  What's a good strategy for deciding when to make this change?

Factors that seem to be relevant: the queue of upcoming civiliations (though there will be some turnover before your next turn), how "far along" the other civilizations are toward decline, score you're currently earning and its rate of change, board position (how hard will it be to enter the board with a new civilization), and...what else?  Which of those are the most important?

Well, there is no perfect answer to this question, or else the game wouldn't be fun at all for anyone. But…

1) If you guess that the next turn, you won't make more points than this turn, no need to move, then it is preferable to use this turn to decline.

2) If you spot a "perfect civilization" (for the given situation) in the queue and need to take it before anyone gets the same idea, go for it!

I have some trouble answering your question with a straight answer for one reason: this aspect of the game is purely second guessing; whatever you do depends of what the others will do and vice-versa. Having a neighbour that wants to destroy your civilization or being the border line between two enemies is very different (I am not speaking about pure strategy here but about the more or less logical desires of the players).

This is to say: no, there is no perfect strategy, but points 1) and 2) may be good hints.


What are desirable planeswalker characteristics? Some planeswalkers, such as Jace, Architect of Thought and Domri Rade have seen a lot of tournament play, while others, such as Gideon, Champion of Justice and Vraska the Unseen are rarely used in tournaments. Why is this? Gideon, for example, can turn into a huge threat pretty quickly, while Domri does little to directly improve your board.

What makes a planeswalker tournament-playable? What characteristics are desirable in planeswalker?

In general, Planeswalkers are slow to do anything by themselves, so the ones that see tournament play are the ones whose early abilities complement the deck or give immediate card advantage.

Gideon, Champion of Justice

Gideon takes about 4 turns to get out (by mana cost). His +1 doesn't do anything useful immediately, and even when he does get big he can be stopped by 1 chump blocker a turn. His ultimate is good, and will probably win you the game, but it takes a long time to activate and it puts all of your eggs in one basket, making you very vulnerable to a Swords to Plowshares

Vraska the Unseen

Vraska, again, probably doesn't get out until turn 5. Her +1 ability does nothing but deter your opponent from going after Vraska, which does nothing to stop them from killing you. Her -3 is useful, but half of her loyalty is a bit of a steep price to pay to destroy just one permanent. And her ultimate, which you're optimistically getting off on turn 8, does nothing if your opponent has 3 bears to block with.

Domri Rade

Domri, on the other hand, gets out on turn 3 and immediately starts helping you get cards. With him on the field in a creature heavy deck, you are much more likely to be able to play a creature every single turn. And if you do manage to get his ultimate off, then the double strike+trample combo makes even a few moderate powered creatures into a major threat.

Jace, Architect of Thought

Jace, like Gideon, gets out on turn 4. However, his +1 ability immediately protects both you and him by weakening your opponent's creatures, and generally just slows them down, which is very useful for a control player. His -2 ability is also one of the best effects in the game (consider that it's strictly better than "Reveal the top 3 cards of your library. Put 1 into your hand and the rest on bottom in any order"). His ultimate is very situational, but you don't really need it when the other abilities are doing so much for you.

Conclusion

Domri and Jace share two major qualities. First, they complement existing major deck archetypes: Domri accelerates a Red/Green aggro deck, and Jace helps a mono Blue control deck both by slowing the opponent down and by getting the player the cards they need when they need them. Second, they both give the player card advantage. Getting more cards into your hand from your library every turn is very useful both because it helps you play more quickly by making it more likely that you'll hit land drops and have cards to play, and because it makes it more likely that you'll have the cards you need when you need them.


"Blocked or was Blocked By" Time to Reflect says:

  Exile target creature that blocked or was blocked by a Zombie this turn.

It's completely and utterly clear what the intention of this card is. That you can exile a target if that target blocked a Zombie, or if that target was blocked by a Zombie

However, what it says is that blocked or was blocked by a Zombie.

Magic is a rules-lawyer, literal-text-interpretation game, and that sentence (on its own) does not link that blocked to a Zombie.

If that sentence had been "return any creature that died or was blocked by a Zombie to hand, whatever zone it is currently in" then you would clearly allow it to target any creature that died for any reason whether or not it pertained to a Zombie.

A) Is there a specific ruling clarifying this anywhere (there's no card-ruling on The Gatherer)?
B) If not, then what would happen at an FNM or at a formal tournament if I tried to argue my case?

The sentence on that card is to be read as "Exile target creature that (blocked or was blocked) by a Zombie this turn"; parentheses mine. Both "blocked" and "was blocked" are linked to "by a zombie". You can confirm that from the rulings at the bottom of the oracle page of Time to Reflect that you linked:

Time to Reflect only cares that the second creature was a Zombie at the moment it blocked or became blocked by the target creature. If that Zombie has become a non-Zombie creature or left the battlefield, Time to Reflect can still target the first creature.

The two other cards containing the phrase "blocked or was blocked" are Heat Stroke and Sea Troll. Heat Stroke in particular would not make sense if "blocked" and "was blocked" were not both connected to "this turn", because "blocked" would not have any limitation in time. Similar for Sea Troll and Time to Reflect; if "blocked" was meant to stand alone, it would still contain some sort of time limitation, even if was something like "this game".
As for your second question regarding Time to Reflect, it can only target creatures. A creature is any object on the battlefield whose card types includes "creature" and that has values for its power and toughness. A creature card in the graveyard or anywhere else but the battlefield is not a creature, therefore it's never a valid target for Time to Reflect. Whenever you read a combination of card types without additional qualifiers, such as "creature", "land", "artifact enchantment" and so on, that is always shorthand for a permanent of those types, i.e. "creature permanent", "land permanent", "artifact enchantment permanent", and so on. Objects are permanents if and only if they are on the battlefield.

110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a permanent as it’s moved to another zone by an effect or rule.
114.2. Only permanents are legal targets for spells and abilities, unless a spell or ability (a) specifies that it can target an object in another zone or a player, (b) targets an object that can’t exist on the battlefield, such as a spell or ability, or (c) targets a zone.


Where to take briefcases from? In Black Friday, when all three sales tables on the right have been used up, the rulebook says to reload table 2 and use that one for the rest of the game.

  After all markers are adjusted, he places the drawn briefcases in the market. The player places all colored briefcases from the table that initiated the price adjustment into the bag. If a sales table initiated the adjustment, the players place the black briefcases from this table in the bag, too. Then, the players use the next sales table. After the third sales table is cleared, the players load the second sales table. When that is cleared, they load the second again and will continue to reload the second table for the remainder of the game.

Where are the briefcases taken from to reload this table - The market or the bag?

Looks like a bad translation from German to English.

Here's the corresponding paragraph from the german rulebook (no prototype!), page 5:

  Nachdem alle Kurse angepasst wurden, kommen die gezogenen Aktenkoffer in den Markt. Die Leiste, die die Preisänderung ausgelöst hat, wird komplett (ggf. inklusive schwarzer Koffer) in den Beutel
  geworfen. Hat eine Verkaufsleiste die Preisänderung ausgelöst, wird ab sofort die nächste Verkaufsleiste darunter genutzt. Erst wenn die dritte Verkaufsleiste abgeräumt wurde, wird wieder eine Verkaufsleiste aus dem Markt bestückt. Hierbei wird die zweite Verkaufsleiste genutzt.

Let me translate the last two sentences:
"Only after the third sales table has been cleared, a sales table is filled again from the market. This is done using the second sales table."

The german rulebook is the original because the game designer (Friedemann Friese) is german.


Effect of using Two of a Kind or Favor on an empty hand in Exploding Kittens? In Exploding Kittens, it is possible to have an empty hand. When using Favor or Two of a Kind, what happens if the chosen player's hand is empty?
First, consider what happens if Favor is used on a player whose hand is empty.

FAVOR 4 CARDS
Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you.

It seems like there are two possibilities, but which is intended?

A player whose hand is empty cannot be selected. Favor and Two of a Kind are unusable if everyone else's hand is empty.
The selected player gives nothing. Favor and Two of a Kind are usable without effect if someone's hand is empty.

The same question as above applies to using Two of a Kind on a player whose hand is empty.
"everyone else's hand is empty" is a rare game state, but it seems reachable by having 2 players left:

P1 has 3 cards and uses uses Three of a Kind, asking for a card that P2 doesn't have
P1 draws 1 card
P2 uses Two of a Kind to empty P1's hand
P2 uses Favor on P1

You have it right: the selected player gives you nothing. Whether you want to restrict playing the card (or pair) in that way (to no effect) is up to you (EK is not the kind of game to get official answers on such things), but since playing the card/pair that way is only bad for the player playing it, the restriction won't come up.


King of Tokyo Complete Destruction card question I roll 1,2,3,3,3,3 on my first roll and after rerolling I achieve 1,2,3,energy,punch,health do I get the 9 victory points or does re rolling cancel out the bonus 9 points; do I need to roll them on my first roll or just a normal final roll?

You only ever tally/score/use your roll when you're done rolling.  Typically, this is after the third roll.

Thus, Total Destruction only cares about what dice are up at the end of your third roll, so you score the 9 in your scenario.


How do I tell potential game designers their ideas are bad? Many groups of gamers will eventually attract potential game designers. I love testing games or playing with mechanics and enjoy play testing or theory crafting. But a good boardgamer does not a designer make and I find that most ideas are terrible or have already been done a few times.

This also encompasses most of the fan variants and expansions for games. People, generally speaking, have no idea how to make a game. Unfortunately, I have problems being too direct or speaking in wild absolutes. This tends to make these potential designers (who are often friends I would like to keep) offended or defensive.

This question boils down into two parts:

How can I explain my objections or concerns clearly without being too direct or aggressive?
What are these potential designers actually expecting from me? Am I putting myself on too high a pedestal in thinking they want me to respond as I have been?

As a game designer, I know I want the truth from people I show the game to.

I also know that most people just don't give critical feedback. By "critical," I mean a skilled judgment or analysis, as in "critical thinking." I've been involved in enough creative endeavors to know that most think only as far as, "I liked that," or, "That sucked." I've shown short films to an audience, watched them laugh uproariously, and then say, "It was OK," when asked if they liked it. So I've learned to take feedback for what it is, and not to hang too much of my own self-worth on it. I don't know if your game designers have grown the requisite thick skin or not.

But this combination of factors makes me able to give you advice about giving feedback - good or bad. I know it seems easier to say, "That was fun!" but both kinds of feedback should follow the same rules.

When someone asks you to test a game, if you don't want to put the effort in to provide decent feedback, just politely decline.

If you decide to accept, you now have a responsibility to think about the game and what you like and don't like about it. Instead of just a blanket, "This rocks!" or, "That was awful," you owe the designer the courtesy of considering the question, "Why?" And then you can give the designer the answer to that question.

For instance, I have an RPG in playtest right now, and something like, "I felt like it was too hard to succeed - even things my character was good at seemed out of reach," is good feedback. It gives me something to look at, or even questions to ask the playtester. And I would rather have critical negative feedback than thoughtless positive feedback.


Does the Ward keyword trigger Baral's card draw clause? Ward, the new keyword introduced in Strixhaven, counters spells and abilities that target that creature unless you pay a cost.

Ward {2} (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays {2}.)

Now, Baral, Chief of Compliance says this:

Whenever a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.

Does the Ward keyword count as an ability for the purposes of Baral's draw ability?

Yes, this is confirmed by the Strixhaven mechanics guide:

Ward is a triggered ability.

More generally, a triggered ability is defined as (Comprehensive Rules 603.1):

Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

The reminder text for Ward meets that pattern; while reminder text formally has no bearing on the game, it is intended to be helpful and it would be very unhelpful for the reminder text to meet the pattern of a triggered ability without being one.


How many people can play in Euchre? I have seen Euchre played with up to 6 people before (3 pairs) and was wondering if adding more people in to the game would be possible or if it would cause issues with the intended probability of the game. Is there a threshold for the number of people per suit?

i.e.

2 players (A K Q J 10 9)
4 players (A K Q J 10 9 8 7)
6 players (A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5)

Could 8 players play with the six player deck? Would they also need 2 more numbers in the deck or would they possibly need more?

Wikipedia has rules for 8- and 9-person Euchre (along with a host of other variations), although we have to make some assumptions because the entries are missing some information. The entry for 8-person games:

  The players divide into four teams of two players. Teammates should be sitting directly across the table from each other (there should be three people between partners on either side). There will be 4 bowers, 1 right and 3 left.

  The rank of Trump goes as follows:

  Right Bower (jack of trump)
  1st played (left Bower) jack
  2nd played (left Bower) jack
  3rd played (left Bower) jack
  Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9.

  Scoring

  If a team calls trump and wins the hand (with 2, 3 or 4 tricks), they get 1  point.
  If a team calls trump and ties another team (each with 2 tricks), then both teams get 1 point.
  If a team calls trump and does not win the hand, the winner gets 2 points (if 2 other teams get two tricks they are both awarded 2 points).
  If a team takes all 5 tricks they receive 2 points (whether or not they called trump). If a person should choose to play the hand alone, they can get four points by taking 4 or 5 tricks.
  If they go alone and take less than 5 tricks, standard scoring applies.

  First team to get 10 points wins the game.

Given that the only ranks are A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9, this has to be played with two 24-card decks in order for there to be enough cards for 5 tricks (8 players X 5 tricks = 40 cards; this leaves 8 cards in the kitty). You'd also have to deal with duplicate cards played in the same hand. For example, a player leads of AH, which isn't trump, the next player also drops an AH, and miraculously everyone has to follow suit and no one plays a bower or trump card. Who gets the trick?

If nothing else, this variation changes the probability of getting a useless hand. If I'm fourth from the dealer, and my deal is 9H, 9C, 10C, QH, and KD, and someone in front of me calls Spades, I have no chance of taking a trick; there will always be someone who can play a bower or trump in five tricks. This problem also exists if you just expand the card pool down to include A through 3 (48 cards). As the card pool increases, the randomness also increases, leading to a higher chance for hands that can't win.


Returning agents to pool in in Waterdeep Harbor phase If I move an agent from Waterdeep Harbour and complete a quest which allows me to return agents to my pool, can I assign those agents again this round?

If so, can these agents be placed in the harbour?

Yes, you can reassign the returned agents; you do so immediately before continuing with the Waterdeep Harbour phase. But no, you cannot place them in the Harbour. From the FAQ:

Q: If I complete the "Recruit Lieutenant" quest as a result of reassigning an agent from "Waterdeep Harbor", do I get to assign that agent immediately?

A: Yes. If any effect puts a new agent into your pool during reassignment from "Waterdeep Harbor", you assign that agent immediately. However, you can't assign him to "Waterdeep Harbor" (he follows the same rule as the "Research Chronomancy" quest, a returned/new agent can't be assigned to "Waterdeep Harbor" during the reassignment phase of the round).


Is there a normalized scoring format for Scrabble? While mostly skill, Scrabble does of course have that chance element.  You could lose to an inferior play or beat a more skilled player based upon tile distribution in the game.  Is there any system out there which adjusts the score at the end based upon the tiles that each player has drawn?

This could be for example one player got all 4 S tiles and both blank tiles and would be expected to score highter.  Or it could be one player played 55 tiles and the other played 45 tiles during the course of a match. Maybe even handicap systems based upon the players respective ratings entering the match where the weaker player gets and additional 10 or 20 points.

Duplicate scrabble Is a form of scrabble that is highly normalised and the standard form for competitive play in French. It can involve an arbitrary number of players who are not "competing" on the board, but only to find the highest score.


Can Bloodrush satisfy a forced discard? If my opponent makes me discard a card and I choose a creature card with the Bloodrush ability, can I pay the cost during the forced discard in order to activate the ability?

No you cannot.  The ability you are looking for is called madness.  Here are the cards that have madness:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&text=+[madness]


If I lose my central tile, do I lose the round? I was playing a game of Galaxy Trucker the other day when one of the players took a small meteor to his exposed central tile.  He had a number of other occupied crew pods, but I was under the impression that if you lose your central crew pod, your ship is destroyed and you lose the round.

If I lose my central crew pod and still have other crew members left, can I continue on with the remainder of my ship, or do I lose right away?

There are four cases where you give up:

If you choose to give up (which you can only do before revealing the next adventure card).
If you reach an Open Space card with zero engine power.
If an adventure card leaves you with no human crew on board.
If you are lapped in turn order (i.e. the player in the lead loops around the board and overtakes you) [courtesy of Samthere]

While the most obvious place to have human crew is in your starting tile (and indeed it will always start with two humans in it, never an alien), if you have another crew cabin with humans in it as part of your ship then it doesn't matter if you lost the starting tile or the crew in it, you can continue your flight.


If my opponent takes control of my creature, then it's exiled and later returns, is it still theirs? I was wondering, if someone casts Kari Zev's Expertise and I cast Seal Away on it, when it returns from exile does it return under my control or theirs? For example if I Blink of an eye the Seal Away?

The creature will return to play under its owner's control.
The comprehensive rules have the following to say on the matter:

610.1. A one-shot effect does something just once and doesn’t have a duration. Examples include dealing damage, destroying a permanent, creating a token, and moving an object from one zone to another.
[...]
610.3 Some one-shot effects cause an object to change zones “until” a specified event occurs. A second one-shot effect is created immediately after the specified event. This second one-shot effect returns the object to its previous zone.
610.3a If the specified event has already occurred when the initial one-shot effect would cause the object to change zones, the object doesn’t move.
610.3b An object returned to the battlefield this way returns under its owner’s control unless otherwise specified.

So exiling a creature is a one-shot effect, and Seal Away causes a creature to change zone from the battlefield to exile "until Seal Away leaves the battlefield", which means that 610.3 applies.
Thus according to the rules, as long as the Seal Away was still on the battlefield when its triggered ability resolved (so that the exiling happens at all, see 610.3a above), whoever owns the creature gets to control it when Seal Away is removed form the battlefield. Normally, that means whoever started the game with that card in their library (although there are exceptions, like a commander starting in the command zone, or cards brought into the game by the different wishes).


What are you allowed to do if you only have 1 card in hand, and no Canastas yet? In a four player game, if a player has only one card left but his team does not have a canasta, can he pull a card from the stack and discard one, still leaving him a card in his hand?

If the card he pulls is playable may he play it and pull another card until he has a discard that he could not play?

If the player cannot pick up the discard pile because he cannot meld the card on top, or it is frozen, then he has to pick up the top card of the draw stack, and just discard 1. He has no other choice.

He cannot play a card from his hand, unless playing that card would turn a 6-card meld into a 7-card Canasta, because he is not allowed to go out without a Canasta.

There is no rule that would allow him to play a card, and then draw another card. You only draw once per turn.


What are the differences between first and second edition Yomi? I have the first edition of Yomi, but recently encountered cards from the second. I noticed that normal attacks draw you cards, but I didn't know if this is true in general. I haven't been able to find a list of differences between the two editions.

What are the rules changes from first to second edition?

If relevant, are the characters changed in other ways, as well?

General Changes
The following rules were added to the game (source):

Hand limit: 12 cards. At the end of the turn (after the powerup phase), discard down to 12 cards if you have more. There's no limit to hand size during the rest of the turn.
Normal draw rule: If your normal attack is blocked or wins combat, draw a card. (this helps to encourage some early attacking)
Double knockdown: if you're both knocked down, cancel the knockdown effect next combat.
Time Out: when a player draws the last card from deck, time is over. The winner is the player with the highest hit points. (If tied, it's a draw.)
Life Total: Cannot go above starting values.

Character Changes
Some characters were tweaked for balance and to work with new characters. The changed items are mentioned here. New stats can be found here. I looked at my physical copy for the old stats.
Argagarg

10: The "counter" ability now puts the cancelled card on the bottom of the opponent's deck (if it was played from hand) instead of discarding it.

DeGrey

DeGrey's character ability now applies to supers (aces) as well as specials (face cards).

Geiger

Geiger's character ability prevents the opponent from activating innate character abilities from blocking if they took block damage from a Time Spiral.

Grave

Grave's character ability now only searches for the queen if you win the combat with the revealed card. If you lose, you draw a card instead.
10: The "counter" ability now also requires you to discard a face card.

Jaina

Jaina's character ability now costs 3 damage for each card, but can't return queens or aces. While on 35 life or less Jaina can return queens and aces for 4 damage each.
2-6 attack: normal attacks in red suits only now deal X-1 block damage (where X is the card rank) instead of 3 block damage.
7: Unstable Power no longer rotates a card at the cost of 10 damage. It is now played after drawing, causing knocked down opponents to stand and preventing you from playing aces, but allowing you to rotate your combat card. If you hit this combat, you search for 2 aces, otherwise you take 7 damage.
10: If the opponent dodges and this is in your discard pile, the opponent still takes 2 damage but you no longer return the 10 to your hand. You can't power up with 10s.
J: Charged Shot is now a 4.6 speed starter, not an 8.6 speed can't combo. Flame Arrow is unchanged.

Lum

Lum's Roll the Dice, 2-3: You gain 4 hit points -OR- draw the bottom card of your deck.
Lum's Roll the Dice, A: Draw 3 cards then peek at the bottom card of your deck.
10, throw: extra cards discarded to the throw add 4 damage each, rather than 3.
Q: Listed as being changed but I don't see the difference!
A, Blackjack: Now you can't choose to put the cards into hand (unless you hit exactly 21).
A, Great Pandamonium: Requires 2 aces for 21 damage, instead of 1 ace for 10.

Midori

Midori's dragon attacks can't be blocked by normal dodges only (previously could not be dodged at all).
When you block an attack or joker while in dragon form, you may return a non-joker from your discard instead of drawing a card.
K: Talon Swoop is now 1.8 speed, not 2.2.

Rook

Gained the additional character ability "Defense Mastery" (opponents don't draw when you block their normal attacks).
3 block: instead of getting to discard a card for 8 damage, this card now knocks down the opponent, deals 5 damage, and makes your attacks/throws 3 speed faster in the next turn. Neither version of this block draw you a card or return to your hand.
K: this throw now beats normal attacks with speed 5 or faster, but you still take the damage from it.

Setsuki

10: Can no longer counter character abilities.

Valerie

10: "Burst of Speed" pushes moves to a minimum of 1 speed, not 0.
K: Can now only be blocked by a block of the same colour suit (red/black).

Style Changes
Characters now have ability cards which summarise their different abilities and stats, and which abilities they have on their normals.
The template for abilities on cards has been cleaned up slightly, making it clearer which phase to use them in by using a heading separate to the ability text.


What happens when two Ochran Assassins are attacking? What happens if I attack with 2 Ochran Assassins? Which Ochran Assassin must be blocked?
Also, can my opponent cast spells (respond) after the Ochran Assassins have assigned damage?

Your opponent may choose for each creature which of the two Ochran Assassin it blocks (or both, if it's a Palace Guard).

  509.1c The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must block, or that it must block if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of blockers is illegal.

If your opponent has two creatures, they'll need to fulfill four requirements, but "the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions" is two, and as long as both creatures are blocking, two requirements are fulfilled.

And there's no opportunity to cast spells between damage assignment and damage dealing:

  510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.

(quotes are from the Comprehensive Rules)


I need a cheat sheet for PACG I have a "Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull And Shackles" set.  One of my players is sick this week, so I've recruited a substitute.  We're partway through Adventure Deck 3.

I need to explain the rules of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game to my new player in a way that will bring him up to speed quickly.  Ideally I'd like to print out a cheat sheet.  I imagine it would say things like: "Here's the list of things you do in your turn" and "here's what happens when you reveal a card, display a card, recharge a card, discard a card, bury a card, banish a card".

I did some brief websearch and could not find a cheat sheet.  Does anyone know where I could find one?

When looking for materials to help out with games, always check out boardgamegeek.com. In the case of your question, they have a downloadable 'rules summary and reference cards'

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/151007/pathfinder-adventure-card-game-skull-shackles-base

(I know link-only answers aren't great, but the question really seems to be looking for a link...)


Is a monster considered "destroyed" if I tribute it? Say that I have activated the Trap Card Shattered Axe on my opponent's monster:

  Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up monster on the field. During each of your Standby Phases: It loses 500 ATK. When that target is destroyed, destroy this card.

Before I get a chance to attack it in battle, my opponent manages to tribute the target. Does this mean that the target is "destroyed", and thus Shattered Axe is destroyed along with it? Or is the target not destroyed and Shattered Axe remains on the field, despite the fact that the target is no longer there?

I ask because Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (a mobile version of the game) does not destroy Shattered Axe if the target card is tributed. It just sits on the field clogging up space and having the turn counter run indefinitely if the monster is removed by tribute. I don't know if that's a bug or intended behavior.

According to the official rulebook of Yu-Gi-Oh!, "destroy" means

  A card is destroyed when it is sent to the Graveyard due to battle
  between monsters or by an effect that destroys a card. A card that is
  returned from the field to the hand or Deck, or, that is sent to the
  Graveyard as a cost or Tribute, is NOT considered “destroyed.”

This can be found in the rulebook in the glossary part.

Even though Duel Links is a simplified version of the original game, it should follow the basic rules.


A question about Morophon, the Boundless The question is simple if an effect caused Morophon, the Boundless' enter the battlefield effect, "As Morophon, the Boundless enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.", to trigger twice would the second choice replace the first choice? Or would they both stick?

Morophon, the Boundless' second ability is a replacement effect:

  614.1c Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.

Replacement effects don't 'trigger' and AFAIK there is no way with the current Magic cards to make them apply twice. Yarok, the Desecrated only duplicates triggered abilities, not replacement effects. One of the rulings below the card in Gatherer mentions this as well:

  Abilities that apply “as [this creature] enters the battlefield,” such as choosing a color with Diamond Knight, are also unaffected.


Does armor prevent non-combat damage? There are a lot of cards that deal damage to creatures.

Does the target creature's armor reduce that damage, or is armor only useful in combat damage (when attacking or being attacked by other creatures)?

ARMOR
Some creatures have an armor value to the right of the card title. Armor prevents an amount of damage equal to the armor value that the creature would take each turn. For example, if a creature has two armor and is dealt one damage, that damage is absorbed by the armor, leaving the creature with one armor for the rest of the turn. If the creature is later dealt three more damage during that turn, one damage is absorbed and the other two damage are dealt to that creature.
[...]

It absorbs all forms of damage, not just damage resulting from combat.
Note that the armor value is the amount of damage that is absorbed per turn, not per damage event.


Difference between unit and target unit? I noticed that some cards such as Cut the Strings state:

Deal 2 damage to a unit you control

While other cards such as Blood Transfer say:

Deal 2 damage to a target unit you control.

The FAQ says the term target is:

  : A term that is used to identify that the effect
  of a spell, ability or dice power is directly affecting
  something (including, but not limited to, an alteration
  spell, a unit, a player, or a Phoenixborn).

But I'm still sure why the game uses the term target in some instances but not others. Is there a difference between a "target unit" and a "unit"?

The difference is actually pretty similar to the difference in Magic: The Gathering.  When the word Target is present, the effect must point directly at the unit, and will trigger abilities that look for the unit to be targeted. Blood transfer, however, is worded this way to prevent abuses of similiar effects.

Assume there's a unit that you control that says 'when this card is targeted, do x".  Blood transfer would let you do X on demand, which could cause things to spiral out of control.


Twilight Struggle: When are we allowed to do a Realignment Roll? I know this sounds like a silly question, but the rules are kinda awkwardly worded and I've seen some videos of Twilight Struggle where this restriction is overlooked.
From the rules (section 6.2.1):

To attempt a Realignment roll, the acting player need not have any Influence in the target country or in any adjacent country — although this improves the chance of success greatly.

This sounds perfectly clear, except the added last bit which confuses me. However, the next section (6.2.2) says:

Each player modifies his die roll:
• +1 for each adjacent controlled country,
• +1 if they have more Influence in the target country than their opponent,
• +1 if your Superpower is adjacent to the target country.

Why claim it's "each player"? And then the following example says:

The US player targets North Korea for Realignment. There are 3 USSR Influence points in North Korea, while the US player has none. The US player has no modifiers—he does not ￼control any adjacent countries and has less Influence in North Korea then the Soviets.

Why mention it at all? Shouldn't the example say "the US player has no modifiers because as the acting player he may not have any influence in that country or adjacent countries"?
Section 6.2.2 is even more confusing by stating:

Each player rolls a die and the high roller may remove the difference between the rolls from their opponent’s Influence in the target country.

Shouldn't one of the players (the acting one) not have any influence at all in the first place?
Obviously the wording here is poor. But how should we play this?

It sounds like you are reading "need not have any influence" as "must have no influence". Rather, it means "the acting player may take the action whether or not he/she has any influence in the target country."

When Ops points are used towards realignment, in a single "Realignment roll", both players roll a die and add their relevant modifiers. The winner removes the opponent's influence, if any, from the target country. So if you have no influence in the target country, you have nothing to lose, but less of a chance of affecting your opponent. You make one such "Realignment roll" per point spent, and you may target a different country with each roll (or the same country more than once).


When does the dragon deck shuffle? I have the Revised Edition of Dungeon Quest.  I remember playing the original edition, and the dragon deck automatically shuffles if there are no heroes inside the treasure chamber.

But I can't find anything in the revised rules for when the dragon deck shuffles.  Reading the "Dragon Rage" card, it seems the deck shuffles whenever someone draws that card and waked the dragon.  In the original version, drawing that card forced everyone out of the treasure chamber, and that caused the deck to reshuffle as a side effect.

So in the revised edition, does the dragon deck shuffle when there are no heroes in the treasure chamber?  Or only when someone is unlucky enough to wake the dragon?

The deck is only shuffled when the card instructs you to do so.

This way it's semi-guaranteed that the Dragon will eventually wake up. With the " shuffle when there are no heroes in the treasure chamber" rule the Dragon could potentially never wake up - the heroes could reset his "timer" by leaving and re-entering the chamber.


Wooden circular tower with independently revolving multi-holed layers and wooden balls In the 60s or 70s my parents played a game that looked like a layered circular wooden tower. Each layer could be turned independently, and had holes around its perimeter. The game was played by loading red or black coloured wooden balls onto the top wooden layer. The balls would fall into the holes. You turned one or more of the lower layers to get the holes to line up, thereby getting one or more of the wooden balls to fall out of the lowest wooden layer, which you could count towards points. The game consisted of loading balls into the top layer, turning lower layers so many times, and then the next person would have a go. I don't know what the victory conditions were---maybe first person to accrue so many points. Could have been a Euro game.

There is a similar question here but none of the answers provided match with I remember: What is this game involving moving circular levels and small balls that get moved up and down them?

Might it be Tårnspil aka Tower by Skjøde Skjern?

Marbles are placed into a tower with three wooden tumblers that can be turned in either direction. Players earn points when marbles fall out of the bottom of the tower.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22667/tower


How does the Commander 2018 Storm cycle work with Partner commanders? Commander 2018 includes a cycle of cards that say:

  When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you've cast your commander from the command zone this game.

How does this relate to Partner cards? Suppose I've cast one of my partner commanders 3 times, and one of them 4 times. Does that count as 7 casts—and 7 copies—for the purposes of one of these cards, or do I have to choose one of my commanders and copy it only 3 times or 4 times? The first option is like how we treat split cards, the second is like how we treat Command Beacon.

I expected a ruling on the Commander 2018 release notes to clarify this, but they didn't.

It would count all 7 times.

  702.123e If an effect refers to your commander while you have two commanders, it refers to either one. If an effect causes you to perform an action on your commander and it could affect both, you choose which it refers to at the time the effect is applied.

"It refers to either one"... so in this case we can treat the ability as:

  When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you've cast [either one of your commanders] from the command zone this game.

In other words, it is how many times have you done the act of "casting your commander from the command zone".

This has been confirmed by Gavin Verhey, a Senior Magic: The Gathering Designer at Wizards of the Coast, on Twitter:

  I double checked with rules manager @EliShffrn and indeed: you get a copy for each time you have cast any of yout partners. So if you have cast Pir and Toothy each once, you will receive two copies. :)

Also, (thanks @Jorn), the "Designing Commander" article specifically backs this up:

  These "commander storm" cards have quite the history. Handed off from design, the effects changed quite a bit, but the key mechanic didn't: caring about how many times you cast your commander. (Also, yes, these do work really well with partner commanders like those found in Battlebond!) This mechanic was a lot of fun!


Will Aegis of the Gods negate my opponent's Erebos, God of the Dead for me? I am playing a life gain deck and I find that if an opponent plays Erebos, God of the Dead my deck is ruined because of its effect "your opponents can't gain life." If I run Aegis of the Gods, whose effect is "You have hexproof", does that mean Erebos' ability is negated, or because it doesn't actually say "Target opponent can't gain life" Aegis' effect doesn't actually work?

Aegis of the Gods will have no effect. You still won't be able to gain life, for the exact reason you suspect. From the definition of Hexproof:

  702.11c "Hexproof" on a player means "You can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control."

Since Erebos' ability doesn't say 'target' anywhere, it doesn't target you, and Hexproof has no effect.

Alternately, you can find a way to remove Erebos from the battlefield. Exiling is one way. Erebos can't be destroyed, since Gods have Indestructible. Have you considered cars such as Deicide or Banishing Light?


What's a good handicap for a less experienced player in an MTG Draft? My drafting group has a few hardcore players like me who have been playing magic for a while. We've memorized almost all the commons and uncommons in the sets we're drafting (usually Innistrad or 2012), know a lot about how to win at drafts, know the good archetypes, and have a bit more deck-building experience compared to some of the other people we'd like to add to the group. The new people know the mechanics of the game and have played enough to know how to build a decent deck, but I'm worried that the rest of us will have a significant advantage that takes away from everyone's fun.

What handicaps can be used when drafting that give a weaker player about an equal chance at winning while removing as little of the fun as possible? Obviously we'll coach them a bit about the techniques we've used that have been effective, but until they're completely up to speed I don't want them to be annihilated and quit. Should we give them a handicap during the actual draft, like an extra few picks from another booster after the draft is over, or a handicap during the actual games? What handicapping techniques have you used that work well?

To be contrarian: in my experience, if you're adding a sufficient number of new people (which it sounds like is the case here), I'd encourage not handicapping them at all.  My recommendation would actually be to start not with drafting but with some form of sealed-deck play (maybe a simple three-round league or the like), so that the new players have fewer decisions to make and can learn what the core elements of a limited deck are.  Once they understand the essentials of limited then just let them loose on a draft - the experienced players may well run the table, but the newer players should still be able to have interesting games with the experienced drafters and excellent games among each other (this is why you need a sufficient number of new people), and IMHO the (slightly) 'deep-end' approach (along with some measure of coaching, post-draft analysis, etc) is the best way to get truly interested players motivated to get better.

One plausible alternative, though, that might be worth looking at is some form of team draft/sealed, where each of the new players is paired with a more experienced player that they can directly watch, talk with, and learn from; 2HG is a tough format to draft (as opposed to playing sealed with), but it's a great and underutilized choice for this sort of thing.


Name of a card trading game When I was young, there used to play a game where we traded cards.

Two people used to split one pack of cards, these cards usually had information on cars. you would then compare specifications, and the one that had the highest spec, could take the other person's card.

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the game.

The description of play sounds like Top Trumps, but I'd never seen a cars version.
Wikipedia confirms the existance of car-based packs:

Top Trumps was a card game popular with adults and children in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s, especially amongst boys, for whom it was a popular playground pastime. The topics tended to reflect this, and included military hardware, modes of transport and racing cars. The packs tended to be priced so that children could collect new packs by saving pocket money for a few weeks.
The original Top Trumps were launched in 1977, with eleven different packs published by a company named Dubreq. Dubreq was also known for the Stylophone. Dubreq was taken over by Waddingtons in 1982, and they continued manufacturing packs until the early 1990s. The packs from this period are now collectible.[2]

The game having been relaunched in 1999 with new packs by a new company, the same mode of play is available.


Can an investigator ever have more than 1 of a kind of condition The Growing Madness rumor says

  the lead investigator gains a madness condition then discards 1
  eldritch token from this card for each madness condition he has

I would have expected the card to simply say

  the lead investigator gains a madness condition. Then, discard 1 eldritch token from this card.

The wording makes it seem like there are situations where one might have to discard more than 1 token. Is this possible considering the  quick reference says, under Conditions:

  An investigator cannot have multiple copies of the same condition. If he would gain a condition he already has a copy of, he does not gain another copy of that condition.

Jefromi has pointed out that there is more than one Madness condition, such as Paranoia, Amnesia, and Hallucinations. Consequently, an investigator can have more than one madness condition, as long as they are not the same. I hadn't realized madness was a category of condition.


Wild Card colour change rule When using a Wild Card, can we say the same colour as the current colour in the game?

E.g. If the current colour was red and my brother played a Wild Card and said the colour will stay red so that he can discard his red card and win. Is it the correct way?

I felt that a change of colour should have happened?

According to the official rules found via a google search 'uno rules' (emphasis mine):

  Wild Card - When you play this card, you may change the color being played to any color (including the current color).

This means that when you play a Wild Card you can name the current color.


what is this card game called? It's a game for 4 players. It has a board similar to Crib, but shaped differently. Each player has 4 pegs that start off the board.

You deal cards to each player. You can get your peg into play if you get an A, 2, or J. You then try to move the pegs around the board to get them safetly into your house. Other players try to land on your peg to knock them off the board.

If you get a K, you can kill someone else's peg by putting your peg there. Once you safetly get your pegs into your house, you are the partner of the player kitty corner to you. The team that gets all 8 pegs safely into their houses win.

What is this  game called?

You seem to describe the game Dog: 2 vs 2 parcheesi with cards instead of dice.


Randomly but Evenly Distributing Tokens on a Board I'm designing a board game where, as more sections of the board are added, tokens are randomly placed on the new board section. Each board section is 2'×1' (24"×12"), so we using dice to randomise coordinates: 4d6 for the X coordinate and 2d6 for the Y coordinate.

Note that the board is not in a grid; the dice results just correspond to inch measurements on the board.

For some reason this system doesn't seem to work very well, as tokens tend to be grouped together rather than spreading evenly. Are there better ways to distribute the tokens more evenly?

The more dice you use to generate a single random value, the closer each random value will be to a certain average. You can see this happening in Catan: rolling two dice results in a lot more sevens than twos.

If you do this with 4 dice, almost everything will be centered around the 14th coordinate. If you don't mind some normalization, you could use 2d12 instead of 4d6.

You could give the players some say in where the pieces are placed. There are many ways in which you could do this, either before or after the dice are rolled.

If you want 'complete' randomness with dice, you'll need a 1d10 and a 1d20, or two decks of numbered cards.


Sea of Blood seems broken, what did we miss? We started some time ago a Descent campaign on Sea of Blood, but ran across some heavy problems.

Currently we are stuck on a battle with a lieutenant of the evil lord on a sea chain siege, trying to stop it. The problems are:

Apparently the ship can't turn and can only go forward, with a bit of steering.
The rocks sink the ship oneshot, and are hardly avoidable right at the beginning on the battle map we got (Wild Vortex)
The lieutenant (Siren) can move freely 10 spaces in the water and go behind the ship.
Because of this the players are forced to swim ti go hit the siren, but they don't have Swim and the current is moving them in the opposite direction.
The cannon is also useless here because of distance and accuracy.

What could we do to tweak this? Did we miss some rules? Is the game supposed to be this hard?

Feel free to correct me and suggest anything related with SoB player/game master balance.

"Apparently the ship can't turn and can only go forward, with a bit of steering."

You are correct, this is something my heroes often complain about that I explain by saying the map is too small for the ship to turn meaningfully. It's a design flaw that isn't easily fixed without changing the course so it isn't squares.

  "The rocks sink the ship oneshot, and are hardly avoidable right at the beginning on the battle map we got (Wild Vortex)"

Your crew has some options here. The obvious, and kind of difficult one, is scoot the ship towards the vortex until it clears that troublesome chunk of three rocks. At that point the ship should be able to avoid the vortex and/or flee.

I made a house rule where players are allowed to roll to stabilize the wheel to prevent the ship from being dragged by the current. So long as the number of movement points rolled by the hero holding the wheel exceeds or is equal to the distance tugged horizontally by the current, the ship doesn't move. This helps avoid unintentional death that does seem pretty unfair.

About fleeing, since the rocks are placed rather inconveniently for a quick escape for the Revenge, I think a loophole in the rules is for the heroes to simply swim off the edge of the ship. While I didn't allow this for some time, in rereading the rulebook, I found something weird on page 18: "a lieutenant may flee off of the board through an edge of the map just like a hero." While the game doesn't really say heroes specifically can do this before this part is mentioned, it does say that lieutenants can leave off the edge of the map, just like a hero, so it follows heroes can leave just like lieutenants. A bit of a lame escape, swimming away from your ship. Surely you wouldn't die that way! But apparently it's allowed, and I don't like ignoring rules that help the heroes.

  "The lieutenant (Siren) can move freely 10 spaces in the water and go behind the ship."

While I would prefer hiding behind the rocks to try and draw the Revenge closer to an accidental death, going behind the ship is a pretty clever trick. The quickest solution would be to drop anchor to prevent the Siren from taking too much advantage of a blind spot, or you could always flee. A riskier attack plan would be to try and use the cannon's Knockback ability to maneuver her into the center of the vortex, immediately killing her. Since she can swim though, it's unlikely she'll be dragged in.

  "Because of this the players are forced to swim ti go hit the siren, but they don't have Swim and the current is moving them in the opposite direction."

Sounds like the players aren't placing themselves so they current does their work for them, allowing them to move towards the Siren rather than past her. In general, the best solution for this appears to be to flee.

  "The cannon is also useless here because of distance and accuracy."

Other than giving the Overlord a pat on the back for avoiding some devastating cannon fire, my only concern for your heroes is the singular. Tell them to get some more cannons. If they can't kill the Siren on this encounter draw, they should flee and draw a new zone.

Overall, the best solution for the heroes here is to run away. The Siren has quite an advantage if the Overlord is willing to wait, but the heroes can be patient and wait her out too with carefully placed rest orders (trust me, my heroes did it to me). Another zone will probably present a more favorable outcome for the heroes (see whichever terrible zone lets them control the sharks). Outfitting the ship properly should happen quickly too to prevent the Overlord from having too much of an advantage at sea.


Will my Pelakka Wurm still deal trample damage vs Deathtouch? I was playing my son using a green deck.  I played a Pelakka Wurm which has trample.  He played an Eldrazi with deathtouch.  He is a firm believer as soon as the attackers and blockers are announced, the deathtouch would kill the Wurm.  I tried to get him to understand it would be taken care of in the damage phase and the Trample would in fact still do its damage.

Now, I know that Trample damage will take affect on the defending player only after it does lethal dmg to the blocking creature.  So, I announce the attackers and he announces the defenders.  The issue I have is, would my dmg take affect before his deathtouch does.  I believe my dmg is resolved first, activating the trample.  His dmg is activated second, satisfying the rules for deathtouch to work.  That card would destroy the Wurm, but the Wurm would complete the Trample before.

All combat damage happens at the same time.

Your son assigns the damage with the Eldrazi. You assign the damage with Pelakka Wurm. If Wurm's power is higher then Eldrazi's toughness you'll be able to assign the surplus to your son.

Then all damage is dealt at the same time. Your wurm dies, as Eldrazi had deathtouch. But the Wurm also does it's damage to the Eldrazi and, possibly, your son.

If Eldrazi had First Stike - that would be a different story.


Does Largest Target affect only whoever uniquely has the most HP? The Largest Target Crossfire card says

  At the start of each turn, if any runner has more HP than the others,
  that runner takes 1 damage.

Does this mean that each turn if there is a single runner with more HP than every other runner, he takes 1 damage? Brutal.

This card only affects a player when they have the highest HP and aren't tied with someone else.

So, this is one of those weird phrases in games that's always used but doesn't make any sense as to why it gets used still.  What' we're looking for is the relationship between hp of players.

At the start of the turn, let's say I have 5 and Jim has 6 HP.  Jim will take 1 damage, since he has more hp than the other runner in the game.  At the start of the next round, we both have 5 HP, and nobody takes damage because nobody has more HP than anyone else.

For a more complex example, lets' say I have 4, Tina has 3, Jim has 4, and Al has 2.  In this case, I have more HP than Tin and Al, but not Jim.  I won't take damage.  Jim will say the same, since he's got the same HP as me, and more than Tina and Al.


Is there a MTG card similar (either in image or name) to R2D2 for a Star Wars theme deck? I'm putting together a theme deck and I've already selected the following:

Nephalia Smuggler
Sylvan Yeti
Black Knight
Brass Man

There are several candidate cards for Leia or Luke or even light sabers, but I'm unfamiliar with the newer sets, and can't think of anything that even remotely resembles R2D2.

Is there such a card?

I think Mindless Automaton looks a bit like R2D2


How can I tell the difference between early Magic: The Gathering card editions? I have a few Magic: The Gathering cards whose editions I'm having trouble identifying. They are obviously from either Alpha or Beta, since they have black borders and the same design as the Unlimited edition, but how can I distinguish between both editions?

ALPHA cards are black bordered and have very very rounded edges (2mm radius) compared to all other kinds of magic cards (1mm radius). Just pick up a black bordered card and overlay them on top of each other. If the corners are VERY different then you have ALPHA, otherwise you have BETA.

There are several cards that were corrected between alpha and beta and can be used to instantly identify extremely worn cards. As cited on Wikipedia

Circle of Protection: Black was accidentally omitted from Alpha.
Cyclopean Tomb had no casting cost, instead of a casting cost of 4.
Death Ward incorrectly credited Dan Frazier as the artist rather than Mark Poole.
Elvish Archers had its power/toughness listed as 1/2 rather than 2/1.
Force of Nature was printed with the letter G in its text box rather than the green mana symbol, and the artist's name was spelled incorrectly.
Orcish Artillery had a casting cost of 1R rather than 1RR.
Orcish Oriflamme had a casting cost of 1R rather than 3R.
Phantasmal Forces was printed with the letter U in its text box rather than the blue mana symbol.
Red Elemental Blast was printed as an instant rather than an interrupt, making half of its ability unplayable under the rules of the time.
Sedge Troll incorrectly credited Jeff A. Menges as the artist rather than Dan Frazier.
Volcanic Island was accidentally omitted from Alpha.

One set that recently came to my attention that is not identified on the identification chart for English cards (see below) is called "Alternate 4th Edition".
More info about those cards can be found at The Magic Librarities, here are the main points:

This set is only available in starter decks. Their ISBN is 1-880992-26-4 instead of 1-880992-25-6.
The back of the Alternate Fourth Edition cards feel glossy, very much different from normal Magic Cards.
Alternate Fourth Edition cards do not glow under ultraviolet light, while normal cards do.
Alternate Fourth Edition cards have a darker blue colour at the top of the letter A from the word MAGIC while normal cards have a light blue colour.
The printing pattern is very different. Regular cards have a hexagon pattern, while Alternate 4th Edition cards have an indiscernible pattern.

This Magic Set Identifier flowchart will help you determine the set of English cards up to about 2001, beyond there it's fairly easy to identify from the set symbol on the card. Thanks to Hackworth for providing an up to date url for it!

There is an updated version of that flowchart that includes foreign language cards as well. While identifying English cards is relatively easy, there are some difficulties with other languages, especially with German Revised White Border Cards (aka "Unlimitierte Edition" (unlimited edition) - not to be confused with the Unlimited set!). Some of them are almost undistinguishable from Fourth Edition cards.

The Green Disenchant Project has some more in-depth information and scans that may help identify such cards.


3/4 creature versus a 3/3 creature, why would the 3/4 creature die? I found myself in a situation where my adversary attacked with a 3/3 creature and I blocked him with a 3/4, what happened later was that both creatures died.

Shouldn't my 3/4 creature be alive with 3/1? In other situations this was always the case and I didn't get confused.

To clarify, there was no instantaneous card activated and there was no active spell that could be used to improve the enemy's creature.

Damage does not modify toughness, so your creature will not become 3/1. It will remain a 3/4, but it will be marked with three damage. (Some video game versions of Magic show this as 3/1, but that is inaccurate.) That alone is not enough to kill it, so something is missing from your description.

Maybe your creature was marked with damage earlier in the turn.
Maybe an effect enhancing your creature's toughness was removed.
Maybe the attacking creature had deathtouch.
etc

A more detailed description of the scenario would allow us to give a more detailed answer.


Can Angel's Grace set your life total to 1 when you have Negative Life? An opponent plays a storm combo, ending in Tendrils of Agony. In response I play Angel's Grace. After the storm of Tendrils finishes resolving, I am at -10 life, but I have not lost the game because of the Angel's Grace effect. If I take one point of damage (from something like City of Brass).

What will my resultant life total be?

For a weird case like this, it's best to consult the Oracle rulings.

In this case, we're in luck, since this situation is covered directly:

  If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1.

So, according to the official rulings, damage from City of Brass can't "reduce" your life total to a higher number than its current value.

So, the remaining question is: does your life total stay -10 or become -11? My best guess (and it is a bit of a guess, to be honest) is that your life total becomes -11 because the "instead" just doesn't apply at all.


Does the Well Stocked improvement apply to epidemic infections? The Well Stocked infection card improvement says

  If there are 2 or more supply cubes on this city when this card is drawn, do not remove any supply cubes.

Does the card drawn from the bottom of the infection deck during the Infect step of an epidemic trigger this ability? Or is it only cards drawn from the top of the deck during the normal Infect phase at the end of a turn?

If the Well Stocked city has 2 supply cubes and is the bottom card of the Infection deck during an Epidemic, you will not remove any cubes.

On page 13 of the rulebook (emphasis mine):

  Infect: Draw the bottom card from the  Infection deck. Remove all the Supply cubes  from that city and put them in the stockpile.  (Do not add Plague cubes if the city has no  Supply cubes.)

Well Stocked applies any time that city is drawn from the Infection deck, and step 2 of an Epidemic is a draw effect. The exact wording indicates you won't remove any supplies cubes. Users on BGG agree here and here.

Edit: The BGG threads reference the back page of the manual, which makes this explicit (emphasis mine):

  Infection improvements are in effect during:

  Game set up
  The Infect step during an Epidemic
  The Infect step at the end of every player turn


Are the Goons un-fun? At my weekly boardgames night earlier this evening I was roped into an all-expansions, 6-player game of Dominion.  A girl on the sidelines piped up: "You should take out the Goons card.  It takes all the fun out of the game."

Needless to say... one of the ten cards randomly selected was the Goons.  Those of us who hadn't played with the most recent expansions inspected the card.  Forcing everyone else to discard down to 3 did seem liable to slow the game to the crawl... but the card did cost a pricey 6.  How bad could it be?

I started with a 2-5 copper split and bought a Haven and a Trading Post.  From there I was able to whittle my deck free of Coppers and Estates until it was a pretty efficient collection of Silvers and Golds.  Even though the player who was buying up Goons was hitting me more turns than not, the three cards left in my hand tended to be worth 5-8 before too long, leaving me in a good position to keep buying Gold, Province and Duchy cards.

I ended the game with 36 points; second place.  The "Goon player" had a fairly crazy 48 points.  What annoyed me about this is that he hadn't really needed to bother scrabbling to buy Provinces with the rest of us: just playing a lot of Goons and buying stuff had allowed him to amass a stack of victory point chips that left the rest of us in the dust.

It's true that there was a pile of Secret Chambers on the table that most of us failed to buy; I could certainly have done with a few, to sculpt my hand against the Goons and dodge the Spy attacks that almost all the other players at the table seemed to be throwing around with abandon.  But it still seems to me that there may be a fair accusation to be levelled against the Goons.  For the price of a Gold, they're a much improved Silver - they can easily net you a couple of Estate's worth of free victory points every time you play them, with none of the downsides to the efficiency of your deck! And if that wasn't bad enough, they are also a really annoying attack, with, as previously mentioned, the potential to slow the whole game to half speed if they are constantly being played.

Obviously no card in Dominion is unconditionally broken: for any card, there will always be a configuration of available cards that will combat it efficiently.  But are Goons too far along the un-fun end of the spectrum?  Was the girl at my group right to propose that they should be removed from the game for its own good?

Personally, I like that goons opens up the possibility of winning without buying green cards as well as the possibility to have monstrous turns when you've stacked a few goons.

But fun is subjective, if it's not fun for a subset of the players in your group, it is simply not fun for them.

While attacks usually get meaner in Dominion games with more players, Goons isn't really one of the attacks that gets nastier in larger Dominion games.  Since being hit by 10 goons is no worse than being hit by 1, the number of players doesn't matter so much.  Contrast this with a card like witch, where the damage done scales in proportion to how many are played.

Messing with all 5 opponents isn't necessarily better than messing with a single opponent.  You still have to beat all of your opponents.  Imagine you could either get 5 points, or cost every opponent in the game 3 points.  In a 6 player game, you could theoretically cost each opponent 3 points, for a total of 3 * 5 = 15 points, but you'd still only have a relative advantage on each opponent of 3 points.  If instead you took the five point gain, you would have gained 5 points on each of your opponents.  Even though the "net damage" increases with the number of players, the "relative advantage per player" is really the important metric, which is often number of players invariant in Dominion.


Does Persist, Modular, and Hardened Scales give me an infinite loop? First off, let me preface with that I do know that +1 and -1 counters cancel out.

Now, the cards for this play are:

  1 : Arcbound Worker(or any modular 1 critter)
  1+: Hardened Scales
  1 : Cauldron of Souls.

To set the field, all are in play, and Arcbound worker has 2 +1/+1 counters on it. (Achieved when it was brought into play, triggering Hardened Scales)

The question is, if I give the Worker persist, have it swing, and try to bring it back from the grave, does it come back with a -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter, and an additional +1/+1 counter thus resulting in a possible loop? Or do the counters cancel out before I can say Scales triggers?

The Arcbound Worker will return with 2 +1/+1 counters and one -1/-1 counter on it, resulting in one +1/+1 counter after state-based actions.

Hardened Scales' ability is not a triggered ability. It is a static ability with a replacement effect, so while it is in play, the Worker will always enter the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it; the game will never see the Worker with a single +1/+1 counter on it before state-based actions or other effects are processed.

Therefore, when the Persisted Worker returns to play with Hardened Scales on the battlefield, the Worker will have 2 +1/+1 counters (from Modular and Hardened Scales) and a -1/-1 from Persist. State-based actions cause the -1/-1 and a +1/+1 counter to cancel out, resulting in a Worker with one +1/+1 counter on it before a player gets priority.


In cribbage, during the play, what is the count for four 5s in a row? If the person to the left of the dealer starts play with a 5, the next person plays a 5, the third person plays a 5 and finally, the dealer plays a 5, what is the count for the dealer?  Obviously the count is 20 and the points would be 12 because of four-of-a- kind.  But within that, could the 15s add up another 8 points (four combinations of 15 for two)?

Player 1 plays a 5 - Total = 5 - No Points
Player 2 plays a 5 - Total= 10 - Two Points to player 2 for a pair
Player 3 plays a 5 - Total = 15 - Player 3 get 8 points (2 for the 15 total, and six for the triple)
Player 4 plays a 5 - Total = 20 - Player 4 get 12 points for the four of a kind.

Nice if you can get it :)