How to play a quicker game of Monopoly? Is it possible to play a quicker game of monopoly that lasts under one hour on average with only two players? If so, how? I am not looking for anything that specific, but I need house rules that will speed the game up. By the way, I lost my Speed Die.

First of all make sure you are following the base rules for Monopoly as there are a lot of different house rules that are used that make the game take much longer then it should. Judging on the accepted answer it seems that you are indeed using some house rules that make the game take longer.

I am including 3 rules that are commonly changed by house rules that make the game take much longer, though there are other house rules that cause problems.

Also I have included some official suggestions on making a game shorter.

Official Rules

Buying Property.

When someone lands on any unowned piece of property it will either get purchased by them or by someone at auction so there should be no reason to need more money to buy property at the start.

  BUYING PROPERTY… Whenever you land on an unowned property
  you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You
  receive the Title Deed card showing ownership; place it face up in
  front of you.
  If you do not wish to buy the property, the Banker sells it at auction
  to the highest bidder. The buyer pays the Bank the amount of the bid
  in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player,
  including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed
  price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.

Free Parking

This space does not give the player that lands there anything.

  “FREE PARKING”… A player landing on this place does not receive
  any money, property or reward of any kind. This is just a “free”
  resting place.

Passing Go

You do not get double the amount for landing on go

  “GO”… Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO,
  whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays
  him/her a $200 salary.
  The $200 is paid only once each time around the board. However, if
  a player passing GO on the throw of the dice lands 2 spaces beyond it
  on Community Chest, or 7 spaces beyond it on Chance, and draws the
  “Advance to GO” card, he/she collects $200 for passing GO the first
  time and another $200 for reaching it the second time by instructions
  on the card

Suggestions from the rules for a short game

Suggestion 1

  There are five changed rules for this first Short Game.
  1. During PREPARATION, the Banker shuffles then deals three Title
  Deed cards to each player. These are free— no payment to the Bank
  is required.
  2. You need only three houses (instead of four) on each lot of a
  complete color-group before you may buy a hotel. Hotel rent remains
  the same. The turn-in value is still one-half the purchase price, which
  in this game is one house less than in the regular game.
  3. If you land in Jail you must exit on your next turn by 1) using a
  “Get Out of Jail Free” card if you have (or can buy) one; or 2) rolling
  doubles; or 3) paying $50. Unlike the standard rules, you may try to
  roll doubles and, failing to do so, pay the $50 on the same turn.
  4. The penalty for landing on “Income Tax” is a flat $200.
  5. END OF GAME: The game ends when one player goes bankrupt.
  The remaining players value their property: (1) cash on hand; (2) lots,
  utilities and railroads owned, at the price printed on the board; (3) any
  mortgaged property owned, at one-half the price printed on the board;
  (4) houses, valued at purchase price; (5) hotels, valued at purchase
  price including the value of the three houses turned in.
  The richest player wins!

Suggestion 2

  TIME LIMIT GAME… Before starting, agree upon a definite hour of
  termination, when the richest player will be declared the winner.
  Before starting, the Banker shuffles and cuts the Title Deed cards and
  deals two to each player. Players immediately pay the Bank the price
  of the properties dealt to them


What are some cards that allow for returning Monsters to my hand? I'm looking for cards that allow me to return one or more Monster Cards from my own side of the field to my hand repeatedly. By repeatedly, I mean that they can be used several times per turn, including with some workaround. An example of what cards fit my needs is Genex Ally Birdman, who returns one face-up Monster Card to Special Summon itself, then if I somehow get it back into my hand, I can use it again (and yes, I'm aware it banishes itself, there are still ways to get it back).

What I'm not looking for:

Trap Cards. I need cards that work immediately.
Cards that return any number of Monster Cards once. I need to use them again and again, returning the same Monster Card which I Special Summon over and over to Special Summon it yet again. Returning all at once doesn't help unless I can do it as often as I like.
Cards that return a specific Monster Card. I need to return generic Monster Cards.

Also, Monsters that must be Normal Summoned are of limited use unless their effect can be used as often as I like. Swap Frog comes to mind, but he's more or less useless because he returns either himself or exactly one Monster and that's it.

For some context, and to make it easier to evaluate whether your idea fits the requirements, here's the intended in-game purpose of this: I want to re-use cards like Spell Striker, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning or Trap Eater in order to banish all Spells/Monsters from my GY/eat all the Traps.

Well I'd say Penguin Soldier falls into your "what I'm not looking for", but as you mentioned SwapFrog it just came to my mind, that I used to have two penguin soldiers sending back each other and a second card.

Your very specific need might not be satisfied by it, but it actually sounds like there is no 'perfect' card for you?


Can a creature with deathtouch be killed by a creature that it is killing? If I attack with a Gifted Aetherborn (2/3 deathtouch and lifelink) and my opponent blocks with a creature that's a 3/3 (no abilities), does my Gifted Aetherborn die?

Without deathtouch it would, but since the Gifted Aetherborn only needs to deal 1 damage to kill the other creature, he should live, correct?

Both creatures receive lethal damage and as a result die.

In the Comprehensive Rules it says the following regarding deathtouch:

  702.2b A creature with toughness greater than 0 that’s been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based
  actions were checked is destroyed as a state-based action. See rule
  704.

So according to this rule any creature that get deathtouch damage gets destroyed.

But who gets to deal damage first? Is the the deathtouch creature? Is it because he only has to do one damage to do lethal damage? Let's find out in the next paragraph!

  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 the 2 damage from Gifted Atherborn and the 3 damage from a 3/3 creature is dealt simultaneously resulting in them both perishing.

If you want to destroy the enemy creature with combat damage before it kills your creature you should take a look at first strike and double strike.

  510.4. If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat
  damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in
  that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that
  step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets
  a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat
  damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had
  neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step
  began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently
  have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of
  combat step.


How do the various Pathfinder base sets differ? Pathfinder Adventure Card Game has 3 versions or base sets:

Wrath of the Righteous
Rise of the Runelords
Skull & Shackles

What is the difference between them?

In terms of system and rules all of the base sets are relatively similar with minor differences stemming from rules clarification and the system refinement that comes with the game makers continuing to improve.

The biggest differences are thematic ones, with different settings and characters for each set, for example Skull & Shackles has a ship based movement system, because it's set on the sea, whereas Rise of the Runelords and Wrath of the Righteous are land based.

The similarity is evidenced by the ability to use characters from one set in any of the others. However the adventures are designed to be started with new characters, so you wouldn't want to start with a previously leveled character.


Weird m "placeholder" card A while ago a friend of mine pulled an interesting card in a pack of Urza's Legacy. The back was normal, but the front was solid black with a white M on it. I can't find the card right now, but I made an image of roughly what it looked like.

I think at the time I was told it was a placeholder for when there was extra room on the cutting sheet, and was accidentally included in the pack. I cannot remember which rarity slot it occupied.

I am trying to find out how much it is worth, or if there is any information about it online? Googling "magic m placeholder" and variants of that are not turning up anything useful.

This appears to be called a "filler" card, and that word seems to be key to successful Googling.

See here for more info, entry 031 is the one you posted.

http://www.magiclibrarities.net/348-rarities-filler-cards-english-cards-index.html

Seems to be pretty rare.


When are Keeper actions available? In Star Fluxx, some Keepers give you abilities that don't take up an action. Are Keeper abilities in Star Fluxx available immediately after the Keeper is put on the table, on the next turn, or just the next time you have an action available?

This is the answer from Loney Labs (Alison Looney)

  We would rule that you can use the power of a Keeper as soon as you
  play it.  There's no way it would depend upon keeper or hand limits,
  or play rules.  Your turn is not over until you have taken all
  optional extra actions, including those based on special Keeper powers
  and extra actions on Rules.  So, as soon as you play that Keeper (or
  that Rule) you can do what it says you can do, because your turn is
  not over until you have taken (or decided not to take) that optional
  extra action.

  It may happen that a Keeper power has no effect at a given time.
  Example: in Star Fluxx, you could steal a crew member with the Captain
  as soon as you play the Captain - but if no other players have crew
  members on the table to steal, then that's not going to be an option.
  Another example: In Zombie Fluxx you could kill a Zombie with your
  Shotgun as soon as you play the Shotgun, but if there are no Zombies
  to kill, obviously nothing's going to happen.


If using an anagram solver is possible/permitted in Scrabble, what additional strategies should you use? Often on online multiplayer apps of Scrabble and Words With Friends, you have unlimited time to make your move. As a result, most people use anagram solvers to "cheat". However, because this "cheating" is so common, it's been the norm and possibly may need to use it to be competitive in the app.
What additional strategies should you use given that you have an anagram solver tool? I would think aiming to get "Bingo" more often, playing 7 letters to get 50 bonus points.

Take advantage of the board
If both players play the same number of tiles, then they will on average play the same number of points.  By playing your tiles on the multipliers of the board, you can increase the number of points you get to greater heights than your opponent, while denying your opponent the ability to use those same multipliers
Prevent your opponent from taking advantage of the board.
It is only possible to play on squares that are accessible to the existing tiles on the board.  Your opponent will play immediately after you - they have an opportunity to use any multipliers that you've uncovered before you get a chance.  Deny them this opportunity whenever possible!
Use as many tiles as possible
The number of tiles you draw each round is dependent on the number of tiles you play.  So if you play exclusively 6 tile words while your opponent plays only 3 tile words, then you will end up drawing twice as many tiles than your opponent, which means you will have access to twice as many points.  This is in addition to the massive point bonus achieved for using all 7 tiles, which should be taken advantage of whenever possible.
Maximize the use of your high value tiles
A multiplier space is only as good as the tile you place on it.  A 3x letter multiplier is only worth 2 extra points if you play an 'S' on it.  But if you play a 'Z' on it, it's worth 20 extra points.
Maximize the use of the existing tiles on the board.
The points you get are more than just the tiles in your hand - it's also the tiles already on the board that are part of your word.  That means you should look for ways to use the high value letters already on the board in order to add their points to your own, and to prevent your opponent from using them.

Very frequently, these strategies will be in conflict with each other.  It is up to you to weigh them and figure out which one is to your maximum benefit at any given point in the game.


Is a crazy camel that lands on a normal camel's square placed under it, or over it? In the game "Camel Up", a "crazy camel", moving backwards on on the racetrack, may land on a square where there is "normal camel".

When that happens, does the crazy camel go underneath the normal camel, or is it placed on top of it?

The rules state:

  Should a camel unit ends its movement on a space with another camel unit, it jumps on top of that other unit.

And also later (not directly relevant but possibly helpful):

  If a crazy camel lands on a spectator tile, its movement is influenced in the same way, just in the opposite direction to the racing camels.

So the rules set out that the crazy camels move in the opposite direction to the other camels, but otherwise follow the same rules. So if it moves into the same space as another camel, it will go on top.


Do I remove eldritch tokens placed on the board after a mystery that placed them is solved? Some mysteries will require you to place eldritch tokens on various spaces. When such a mystery is solved, do you remove the eldritch tokens placed by that mystery?  I have concluded that the tokens are meant to be used generically across cards and effects that cause them to appear, so my thinking is that the answer is "no, they remain on the board, even if they currently have no meaning."

According to the Reference guide, page 8:

  When the active Mystery is solved or removed from play, discard
  all tokens on it or placed by it. Then draw a new Mystery, placing
  it on top of any solved Mysteries.

So, in almost all cases, tokens placed my mysteries would be removed, and then replaced if the next drawn Mystery card requires additional tokens to be placed on the board.

If an individual Mystery card specifies differently, the text on the card supersedes the text in the rules.  E.g., there is a Cthulhu-specific mystery that specifies that all eldritch tokens placed as a result of that card remain even after the mystery is solved.


Clarifying house rules for Monopoly It seems likely that I may be involved in a game of Monopoly soon.  I'm not a big fan of Monopoly for a number of reasons, one of which is that part way through the game someone will reveal that they assumed we were playing with a house rule that no one else has heard of.

Obviously the most straightforward way to deal with this is to collectively read through the rule book before the start of the game.  In practice this is going to be very unpopular, and will add a significant amount of time to an already long game.

What house rules have you encountered and what set makes for a better more well rounded game?

It's important to note that there's a direct relationship between the near-ubiquitous Free Parking and no-auctions rules and people's perception that Monopoly is a game that takes forever to play.  The playing time of Monopoly is a function of how fast people run out of money, which is a function of

a) how quickly all the properties get sold and developed and

b) how slowly new money enters the game.

If you don't auction properties, it takes a lot longer for all the properties to get sold.  If you put fines in Free Parking, they come back into the game.  You've now turned a 60-90 minute game into one that takes 3-4 hours to play.  The next step in this process is getting on boardgamegeek.com and telling everyone how terrible a game Monopoly is.


Accumulation and timing of heal Is it possible to play Refreshing Walk (2 Move and 1 Heal) prior to a combat and then use the heal provided after the combat?

Refreshing Walk can only be played in the movement phase; the right to use the healing part of the effect expires before the combat phase (in which healing effects can't be played anyway).  By the time combat has finished, the window of opportunity to benefit from the healing qualities of the Refreshing Walk is long since over.

It would be quite bizarre to be able to save parts of an effect and have them happen in the distant future in general, I think (unless such a possibility was specifically allowed in writing).


Snakeform and buff ineractions This came up in a game.  I controlled Prossh who has an ability that gives him +1/+0 whenever I sacrifice a creature.  After I sacrified 6 creatures to Prossh's ability (+6/+0), my opponent cast Snakeform which turns it into a 1/1 with no abilities for the turn.  My question is, what is Prossh now?  Would it have been different if I used Prossh's ability in response to the Snakeform cast?

Your Prossh will be a 7/1 green snake creature. The different effects are applied in the layer system order. First layer 7b is applied:

Any Power/Toughness setting effects

Then layer 7c is applied:

This covers all effects that modify Power/Toughness so long as they don’t set P/T to a specific value

So first the effect changing your Prossh into a 1/1 is applied, then the +6/+0 is applied. Because the effects take place in 2 separate layers (even though they are both sublayers of layer 7), timestamp order is irrelevant.
Note that if you used Prossh's ability in response to Snakeform (while Snakeform is on the stack), then this is no different at all than the other way; in either case Prossh's ability has resolved before Snakeform has resolved. And you cannot use Prossh's ability after Snakeform resolves, because at that point Prossh no longer has any abilities.
More details on the layer system can be found here.
The comprehensive rules detailing this:

613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Effects that refer to the base power and/or toughness of a creature apply in this layer.
613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don't set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.


What is the best lead when calling next on a declined bower? Let's say that we have a scenario where the dealer has declined a ♠J.

You are sitting to the dealer's left, with ♥A, ♣K, ♣9, ♢Q, ♢10.

The advice I read at this site says that calling clubs is a reasonable call as it is likely the dealer was strong in red.  My own experience and skill level agrees with this.

The article also notes that a poor lead would be ♥A, as any spare club could pick up the trick (again agreed).

What seems to be the best lead from this position?

My thought would be to lead ♢10 and give my partner a chance to jump, but is there a better general strategy?  Leading ♢Q improves the odds of picking up the first trick myself, but to my mind, only marginally.

My general line of thought is that since I am void in spades, I'm best to become void in diamonds to increase my chances of using my trump on off suit leads by my opponents.

I'm not a Eucre expert by any means, but in my opinion, not leading the ♡A is foolish advice.

If that's the only heart in your hand, then the odds are greater that your opponents will also have hearts. As you say, the dealer is likely strong in red. The best chance you have of winning the trick is on the opening lead. Why would you lead a suit which relies on your partner having an ace or being void in diamonds?

The worst case scenario: they will have to trump your ace, and since you only have two trump, neither top, and one bower is turned down, it is good to force your opponents to use their trump in that situation rather than, say, using their trump to overtrump yours.

Secondly, and more importantly, after you lead the Ace you will be void in hearts, and able to trump any further heart tricks. You're already void in Spades and can trump any of those tricks your partner can't take. You can slough off your diamonds on spades or hearts if your partner takes those tricks.

  My general line of thought is that since I am void in spades, I'm best to become void in diamonds to increase my chances of using my trump on off suit leads by my opponents.

Why lead a suit that you have two cards in when you can void hearts immediately?


Accessing advanced agendas Say a runner accesses an agenda that already has advancement counters on it, but hasn't been scored. As well as the runner stealing the agenda, what happens to the tokens? Are they trashed, or stolen as well?

They would be trashed as well.  The runner has no use for those tokens, since they add the agenda to their scored point total as soon as they access it.


I have the Dominion base set only, in what order should I buy the expansions? I've heard a lot about the different Dominion expansions, but I'm still not really sure which direction to go.

In what order would you suggest I buy the expansions?
How does each one change the game?
what different behavior/strategies does each one promote?

Personally, my favorite expansion is Prosperity.  My least favorite expansion is Alchemy.

So, if I had to suggest an order, it would be:
Prosperity, Dark Ages, Seaside, Intrigue, Hinterlands, Cornucopia, Guilds, Alchemy.

Here are the major new things in each set:

Intrigue

New Mechanic: Multi-type cards (ex. Action – Victory)
Actions tends to be more complicated than Base's actions
Nastier attack cards
Standalone (doesn't require Base)
Emphasis on attacks and special actions

Seaside

New Mechanic: Durations (Multi-turn actions)
New types of Attack cards
Tokens and Mats for use with certain cards
Emphasis on setting up your next turn

Alchemy

Smaller set (12 Kingdom cards instead of 25)
New basic Treasure card: Potion, costs $4 worth 1p
Powerful cards, but 10 of 12 take a Potion to buy
Emphasis on extra actions/action chaining

Prosperity

New basic Treasure Card: Platinum, costs $9 worth $5
New basic Victory Card: Colony, costs $11 worth 10vp
8 Kingdom Treasure cards that act like actions when played during Buy phase
New Victory tokens, worth 1vp or 5vp each
Emphasis on treasure and victory points

Cornucopia

Smaller set (12 Kingdom cards instead of 25)
Emphasis on Actions and Drawing cards
Doesn't mix well with Prosperity
Jester is the real star of this set as it lets you gain one of a card an opponent flips up.

Hinterlands

Several new Kingdom Victory cards with special effects
New Mechanic: On gain, do X
Emphasis on +Cards and gaining cards
Puts a new twist on some existing card ideas (ex. Margrave instead of Militia)

Dark Ages

More new Kingdom cards than any other set
Shelters provide an alternative to starting with 3 Estates
New card type: Ruins. An action card that isn't very useful (brown border)
Emphasis on giving other players junk and action chaining

Guilds

Smaller set (12 Kingdom cards instead of 25)
New Mechanic: Coin tokens that you gain and can spend later
Emphasis on trashing cards and gaining coin tokens


Can a creature with 0 power attack? If I have a creature with 0 power, can I still attack with it? I am asking in regards to Silent Skimmer but also in general.

Yes, creatures with a power of 0 can attack.  Otherwise, it would be very hard to use creatures like Signal Pest which buff your team when they attack, but don't have any power of their own.

The rules just say that a creature attacks.  There's no stipulation based on power:

  506.2. During the combat phase, the active player is the attacking player; creatures that player controls may attack. During the combat phase of a two-player game, the nonactive player is the defending player; that player and planeswalkers he or she controls may be attacked.


In bridge, is there a way to determine when and where to "transfer control" to defeat a squeeze? I am West, defending a no trump contract. (No bids by our side, no other bids than NT by the opponents.)

We're down to the last few cards, and I have two suits, call them diamonds and clubs, like this:

(d) Kx (c) Qxx

I am guarding two suits, and when South leads a third suit, e.g. a heart, I will likely be squeezed because I have two "secondary" (non top honors) that need to be protected by x cards.

If I knew that partner had e.g. Qx of diamonds, I could "transfer control." of that suit by discarding K, and then x, while protecting the club suit. If I knew partner had Jxx of clubs, I could discard my Qxx of clubs and protect diamonds.

How do I know whether (and in which suit) I can transfer control to partner in this fashion? What should I have been doing/looking for in earlier play to help make this decision?

Sufficiently advanced partnerships will have good enough signaling that you should be able to narrow down which stopper partner might have. For example:

Partner may give suit preference signals throughout the hand, as described in "A Switch In Time" by the Granovetters, so you should know whether partner has the missing Q.
Partner may give count throughout, so you should know whether partner has 3 clubs (and therefore may hold Jxx), if this is in doubt.
Partner may give attitude discards while declarer is playing down the squeeze suit; giving negative attitude for diamonds would eliminate the possibility they have the Q.


When does the next player start their action? I played my first game of Small World recently with a group of people who also were just playing the game for the first time, so we were unclear on some of the rules.

One sticking point in particular that we had was when play would pass to the next player.  The language in the rules isn't super clear, and we saw two possibilities:

Player 1 picks a race (if applicable), conquers some areas (or goes into decline), then scores victory points.  Then, Player 2 does the same, and so on.
Player 1 picks a race (if applicable).  Player 2 picks a race (if applicable).  Other players pick races.  Once everyone has a race, Player 1 conquers areas or goes into decline.  Then Player 2 conquers areas or goes into decline, etc.

Which interpretation is correct?  Does each player perform all 3 parts of the turn, and then play passes, or does each player perform a part of the turn, and only start the next part of the turn once everyone is done with that phase?

#1 is correct.

I can't find a place in the rulebook that makes this super-obvious/clear, but there's this:

  The game then proceeds clockwise,
  from player to player. Once all players have had a turn, a new
  turn begins.

And:

  During his turn, each player must now either:

  Expand the reach of his race through new conquests
  OR
  Put his race In Decline to select a new one.

Basically, all the parts of a turn that are described are what one player does on his own turn, before the game moves to the next player's turn.


Can Rebel Alliance Snowspeeder Launch Bay affect vehicles outside combat? I was recently playing a "pure" Rebel Alliance deck. I happened to put my Snowspeeder Launch Bay (from the Battle of Hoth set) into play and also got one of my Snowspeeders (from either the Desolation of Hoth set or the Battle of Hoth set) into play. I put the Snowspeeder up to attack.

My opponent put up a Heavy Stormtrooper Squad to fight me. He had a TIE Attack Squadron back in his play area.

I won edge and thus inflicted one damage on his trooper and one damage on the target engaged objective, but lost my Snowspeeder to his trooper.

Afterwards I re-read the text of my hanger bay:

  "Reaction: After you strike with a Speeder unit, deal 1
  damage to a target enemy Vehicle unit. If the target is a
  Walker unit, also place 1 focus token on it. (Limit once per phase.)"

I noticed the lack of the words target participating enemy unit. Since participating wasn't mentioned, this let me to believe that the target Vehicle can be targetted outside of combat as well. If this is true, I could damage my opponents TIE Attack Squadron as well, causing it one damage due to the reaction from the Snowspeeder Launch Bay.

Does this make sense? Is it legal? Or can this reaction only apply to units in combat?

Anyone play this card in any tournaments? Do you know the ruling on this?

So far all my searching of forums has yielded only one result. Apparently someone asked the same question on boardgamegeek and received the following answer:

  "Yes, the vehicle doesn't need to be in the engagement for the Speeder Bay's ability to take effect."

Meaning, that yes, my speeder should have been able to damage the TIE Attack Squadron.

See post on boardgamegeek.


How did the Greek campaign affect Afrika Korps? In the Avalon Hill game, Afrika Korps, the British receive reinforcements in June, 1941, several months after the game begins. These are survivors of a futile campaign to save Greece. I am asking the following two questions in order to try to assess the impact of the Greece campaign on the game (and real life events).

How do the reinforcements from Greece compare to the force sent to Greece? (I'm not claiming that they were sent from Egypt, only that they would have been available for Egypt if not sent to Greece. Was the order of magnitude one-third, one-half, two-thirds, or closer to some other number?
Let's assume that the returning reinforcements were never sent to Greece, but that the British start with those June "Greek reinforcements" at Alexandria at the beginning of the game. How (if at all), would that change the balance of power in the game?

(My sense is that the "sent" force was two to three times the size of the "retrieved" force, but that even allowing the British the "returned" force at the beginning of the game might make it better for them.)

Your base assumption concerning the relationship of the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force to Greece is incorrect. That force comprised three fully (or nearly so) re-equipped units:

6th Australian Division - Fought in Syria after being evacuated from Crete, and then was transferred to the Pacific Theatre in January 1942. Given the supply priority of units sent to Greece, it was probably three 2-2-6 brigade units.
New Zealand DIvision (only later re-designated as 2nd New Zealand Division) - after evacuation from Crete was integrated into Eight Army proper, but returns to the game in November 1941 as part of the Crusader reinforcements. This may be un-historical, as I could find no record of a rebuilding of the division required before it returned to combat duties. In game terms this division comprises three 1-1-6 brigade units.
1st British Armoured Brigade This unit returns to the game in November 1941 as a 2-2-7 armoured unit, but in April 1941 was similarly equipped to other British armoured brigades, so likely a 4-4-7 armoured brigade and 1-1-12 reconnaissance battalion. If not sent to Greece it would likely have been available at El Alamein I April 1941, having just been re-equipped with new tanks to replace those lost during, or unserviceable after, Beda Fomm.

From all research I could find the order of Battle of the June and July replacements listed in the game would be unchanged. It is possible that they would have been better equipped however, so perhaps a couple or three of the 1-1-6 units would have appeared as 2-2-6 units instead.

It is worth noting that the game designation of British infantry brigades as 1-1-6 or 2-2-6 units clearly is not intended to represent an accurate reflection of some such units being either twice as effective as others, but rather as a means of expressing an average combat value of about 1.5, while still providing the British with the ability to allocate weaker or stronger forces to specific locations. Certainly some units arrived in the theatre better trained or better equipped, or achieved greater renown while there, but the difference was never so great as 2 to 1.

Thus making these troops available almost doubles starting British forces, though they would have been scattered from Alexandria to perhaps Tobruk rather than being available in Western Cyrenaica. The British were well aware of Rommel's reinforcements of earlier that spring, but badly under estimated the speed with which he was able to prepare and assemble them for an offensive out of El Agheila - they estimated that such an offensive would not be possible until May or June.

As the game is finely tuned match and readily balanced in tournaments by the simple expedient of adjusting Supply rolls (see Side Determination and Bidding for Supplies), any change in the starting British forces would require a severe adjustment to the victory criteria. In essence, you are building a new game based on an unhistorical assumption.

Churchill in The Grand Alliance notes that the deciding factors in sending an expeditionary force to Greece were:

The belief that Rommel could not launch an offensive in Cyrenaica until May or June; and more importantly
That not doing so, after having granted public assurances to Greece and being seen to have available forces in Egypt, would have had possibly dire effects on the neutrality of both Spain and Turkey.

Summary of Bidding with supplies:

German player gets ability to nullify a number of Sunk results on Supply Table (after the die roll), and/or start with additional Supply units, a number of times equal to the British player's winning bid.
British player gets ability to nullify a number of Arrived results on Supply Table (after the die roll) equal to German player's winning bid.
If both players bid for separate sides no auction occurs.


Three beginner clarifications about Cribbage I started playing Cribbage on my phone 2 days ago and want to play with my friends, so I have some questions:

How do you determine who leads the next hand? I know the after the deal, the Pone leads, but after that, who leads?
After scoring a play, does each player take back their cards so that they can score their hands later?
Are cards shuffled every time the dealer changes?

The non-dealer leads the play for each hand.  If either player is unable to play a card without breaking 31, he calls "Go" after which the opposing player plays any other cards in his hand that are playable.  The player who called "Go" then leads the next play, starting at zero. During the show, when the hands are scored, the non-dealer also leads.
During the play, each player places his own cards face up in front of himself, calling out the current total of played cards.  The cards in each players hand remain separate at all times so the hand may be scored at the end.
The cards are shuffled with every deal.

These rules are based on the standard two player game.  For three players, the game is played clockwise with the player to the dealer's left leading the play and the show for each hand, and the player to the left of the last person to play a card leading after a "Go".


in Tic-tac-toe on an NxN board, what is the minimum goal (number in a row) that guarantees a tie? I've been working on a Tic-Tac-Toe AI (Minimax with AB pruning).

As far as I can tell, for an NxN board, player 1 can always win if the goal is to get less than N-1 in a row (for N > 4). Is there a known bound for the number in a row or the size of the board?

This generalization of Tic-Tac-Toe is called m,n,k-game. (the goal is to get k in a row on a (m,n) board).

Some known bounds: (source wikipedia)

(5,5,4) is a draw.
(6,6,5) is a draw.
(7,7,5) and (8,8,5) are draws.
(15,15,5) is a win.
(9,6,6) and (7,7,6) are both draws via pairings.

When the goal is 9 or larger (k>=9) the second player can force a draw:

  When k = 9 and the board is infinite, the second
  player can draw via a "pairing strategy". A draw on an infinite board
  means that the game will go on forever with perfect play. A pairing
  strategy involves dividing all the squares of the board into pairs in
  such a way that by always playing on the pair of the first player's
  square, the second player is ensured that the first player cannot get
  k in a line. A pairing strategy on an infinite board can be applied to
  any finite board as well - if the strategy calls for making a move
  outside the board, then the second player makes an arbitrary move
  inside the board.


Locking Assigned Dice During Resolution Phase in Elder Sign I came across a situation when attempting a mystery that had a terror effect that spawned a monster.

The player had completed one of the tasks using the yellow die. On the next roll, the terror effect triggered, spawning a monster that was supposed to lock the yellow die.

We ruled that the since the yellow die was already used to complete a task, it didn't make sense to remove it to put it on the monster and cause the task to become incomplete again.
Once the resolution phase was over, we then locked the die on to the monster card.

Was that the correct ruling?

Yes, that would be correct.

The task on the current adventure is complete, and absolutely nothing in the rules states that anything can change that task state back to incomplete during the current turn.  So up until the adventure card is completed and awarded, or in the end is failed and all the dice cleared, it's good.  Even if it was a monster task, there is no rule that states the task can then be failed.

The specific text under the "Locked Die" says that:

  Locked dice cannot be in the dice pool until they are unlocked.

If the die hadn't yet been used and was still in the pool, it would have immediately been removed from the pool and you would have been out of luck.  Since it wasn't in the pool, just set aside to mark the task completion, the ruling was fine.

It could have been moved immediately to the locked marker and it would have simply been "understood" that the task was still complete, or as you did, simply moved it after it was no longer needed to mark the task.


If Maiden with Eyes of Blue is targeted for an attack and is face down, can it still activate? I have Maiden with Eyes of Blue and it says that when targeted for attack, it can change position, cancel the attack, and bring forth a Blue Eyes White Dragon. But can its effect still activate if it was face down when attacked?

The reason I'm asking is because if it doesn't activate when face down, then everyone will know that it will bring forth a Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Unfortunately, you can't activate a monster's effect unless they are face up.

It is true that at some point you will have to flip Maiden to perform battle calculation, but her effect activates only when she is targeted for an attack as the card text reads.

To use the summoning effect the Maiden has to be face up when targeted for an attack.


How to make a hexagonal board? Two of my friends and I are developing a board game based on moving around a hexagonal board. We're testing it on the map printed on 4x A4 sheets merged with adhesive tape. What I'm trying now is to make it on a cork board.

Do you guys have any ideas of how to construct hexagonal grid on a cork board? I've already tried to draw it using a pair of compasses, but it isn't a good idea to do this on a cork board. And the board is pretty big (about three hundred hexagons) so it would take a lot of time to draw each hex separately.

I think the easiest way to do this would be to use a stencil:

Most craft shops should stock something like this.

Paint the cork one colour, then use the stencil with a different colour / shade of paint (spray paint would probably be best).


FreeCell: How many cards can be moved at once? I'm working on a FreeCell implementation and I'm currently stuck determining how many cards the user is allowed to move from tableau to tableau at once. I've seen multiple formulas for this, but no explanation them. (empty_columns is decreased by 1 if we move to an empty column)

2 ^ empty_columns + free_cells
2 ^ empty_columns * (free_cells+1)
(empty_columns+1) * (free_cells+1)

What I'd like to know is if one of these is correct or (even better) anyone knows a small algorithm to move cards like the in Microsoft implementation

I'm asking this in this stack because this question is not about the implementation itself, but about the game mechanics.

Technically, one

In FreeCell, you are only allowed to move 1 card at a time, either to or from a free cell or from one stack to another.

That said, it is trivial to move an entire stack of N+1 cards, where N is the number of free cells, by moving N cards to the cells, moving the last card to the new stack, and then pulling down the stored cards onto the new stack.

Most computer implementations of FreeCell allow you to move entire stacks without having to step through the intermediate storage on the free cells (as long as there are enough free cells).  An implementation without this ability would be totally playable, but it would be aggravating to use because simple actions would take significantly more work on the part of the player.

Empty columns can be used as free cells, simply adding 1 to your free cell count.  But they're also much more powerful than that, because they can hold stacks.

If you have a single empty column, you can transfer N+1 cards to that column, N+1 cards to the new stack, and then transfer the N+1 cards from the formerly empty stack onto the new column, for a total of 2*(N+1) cards moved.  Obviously, this only works if you're not transferring cards to the empty column, in which case you're limited to only using the free cells, for N+1.

If you have two empty columns, you can transfer 2*(N+1) cards to that column (using the other empty column, N+1 cards to the second column (since you no longer have an empty column to use), then N+1 cards to a new stack, then reverse that process to pull all 4*(N+1) cards onto the new stack.

With three columns, the third column will be able to store 4*(N+1) cards, leading to (4+2+1+1)(N+1) = 8(N+1) cards being movable.

I hope you can see at this point that the trend will continue, and the total formula is
(2^M)*(N+1), where M is then number of empty columns and N is the number of empty stacks.

All of that said, transfers that utilize columns to their maximum effect are more complicated, less common, and less labor intensive than just using free cells.  If your implementation forces players to use columns manually it won't have the same excessive effect on quality of play that not using the free cell shortcut would have.  Experienced players would probably be unhappy, but it would still be playable.

Additionally, it's not necessarily obvious to new players how to get the maximum transfer using 2+ empty columns, so by doing those maneuvers for them you are possibly allowing players to make moves that they couldn't figure out on their own.  Remember, the goal here is to shortcut routine, obvious, and boring moves without actually providing strategic aid to the player.  That's a judgement call on your part.

My vague memories of Microsoft's earlier implementations was that it either only shortcutted free cell moves, or free cell + one empty column moves, and if you wanted to use more than one empty column you had to figure it out yourself.  I don't remember for sure, though.


Eldritch Horror skill test for multiple combat encounters on same turn I bought the base game for Eldritch horror recently and I have one point that I needed clarification on. I have two monsters on a particular space and I cast the Wither spell for my first encounter successfully gaining three strength. I did not defeat the monster and for my next combat turn, would I still have the three extra strength or would I have to pass a lore test again? Also, on the next turn, would I have to cast the spell again for its effect or would the effects stay since I am battling the same monster. Kindly advice.

From the base rule book, page 9:

  Combat Encounters

  If an investigator is on a space containing one or more Monsters, he
  must resolve a single Combat Encounter against each Monster on that
  space, one at a time, in the order of his choice. Combat Encounters
  are described in detail on page 14.

  After an investigator resolves all Combat Encounters, if there are  no
  Monsters in his space, he may resolve another encounter.

  The card effect only lasts as long as the combat encounter, and the
  combat encounter lasts only for fighting a singular monster.

The Wither Card states:

  When resolving a Combat Encounter, you may test Lore. If you pass, gain +3 Strength during that encounter.

Hence, the combat encounter is the process in fighting a singular monster and you can have multiple combat encounters in a singular encounter phase. Wither only lasts for a singular combat encounter (single monster) and gives +3 strength for it.

You would need to cast the spell again in the next combat encounter if you wanted it's effects again.

Make sure you flip the card each time you cast the spell to resolve the effect on the back.


How do I find players willing to participate in test-playing my games? I have some game ideas that are currently in the prototype phase. I am now looking for groups who are willing to test these games.

I am somewhat afraid that they won't like the game and would not be willing to play again.

Do you know where I can find players that test new games?

Andrew Looney (Fluxx, Icehouse) has written several great articles about game design on his blog, which I'd encourage you to check out (even if you don't like Fluxx). For the purposes of your question, I think this graphic is very helpful (and funny).

He breaks playtesting down into three phases: inner circle of friends, outer circle of friends and random strangers. I have conducted playtesting on one game, and I agree wholeheartedly with these divisions. I don't know how far along you are, so I'll write this assuming you've only done the "mental" playtesting necessary to build a prototype and are looking for a first test run. There might be more detail in here than you need, but I think it's important to define the phases in order to help you find the appropriate people to fill them.

For initial testing, it's important to have people who are both friends and gamers. For me, this was my game group. To your concern about them not liking it, Looney's instruction about this phase is to "repeat until fun", and I think that's a great distillation of the point: until the huge bugs are ironed out, you don't want to "waste" the interest level of people you don't know until your product is fairly polished. The friends part is important because they'll be patient with you, and the gamers part is important so that they'll have some frame of reference for any familiar mechanics, be able to make good suggestions from experience, and roll with things if you need to change them midstream. I'll also add that you shouldn't bother with a rulebook at this phase, at least not for others; you may end up changing things mid-game, let alone between games. Think of this as alpha or maybe even pre-alpha testing. If you don't have any gamer friends (and don't want to pay people to playtest), you really should make some if you want to have success designing. Many areas have game groups that you can find via BoardGameGeek or Meetup; if not, try starting a Meetup group yourself. (You may have success pulling pre-alpha testers off the street, but then I think your concern about them not liking the game and never coming back is valid.)

Once you've gotten things to the point where everyone is having fun (for me, my metric was when my friends started requesting the game), you can move on to the outer circle. For me, this was people like my father-in-law; he'll play games if asked, but won't seek them out on his own. It's helpful to get fresh eyes on it at this stage because the people who've seen the game since its inception have preconceived notions about it and, often, you'll run into situations where a mechanic or situation is a lot better than it was, but still not good enough. These folks are still friendly enough with you that they'll put up with a game with some kinks in it, but often not patient enough to sit though the broken sessions of your pre-alpha period. Family members and non-gamer friends (unless they're militant non-gamers) should do nicely here. This is probably more like alpha testing; you still should be the one explaining the game and possibly playing, but things should be less volatile at this point; changes should be more along the lines of tweaks than overhauls, and you probably shouldn't make any significant changes mid-session "to see what happens".

By the time you get to random stranger testing, you should have a product that someone could pick up off of a shelf and teach themselves how to play. The artwork doesn't have to be professional (or existent), but rules and player aids should exist, and everything should be clear. It's better at this point if you can be there in person, but don't say anything unless the group has answered a rules question incorrectly. This is the fly-on-the-wall point, like dropping your baby off at their first day of kindergarten and letting them go off into the world. Finding players for this stage is fairly easy, because you can find plenty on BoardGameGeek if you can't find anyone locally. I did my testing at a convention, which is a convenient place if you've got one you can reasonably get to. The key part here is to know your audience. If you're making a children's game, Origins or Gen Con is probably not the best place to approach people. Likewise, you wouldn't try a church youth group if your game is a 4-hour brain burner with a provocative theme. Try to find random strangers who are in your target audience; typically, this will be gamers, but not always.


King of Tokyo: Acid Attack In King of Tokyo, what are the consequences of the acid attack card? Specifically, the following questions:

Who does the damage effect?
Does the damage count as an attack?
If damaged by acid attack while in Tokyo, can the monster leave Tokyo?

The damage will hit any valid target of a normal dice-based attack, so if you are in Tokyo (City or Bay) all players outside Tokyo are hit, but if you are outside Tokyo the player(s) in Tokyo are damaged. (Taken from the official-ish FAQ from BoardGameGeek)

The damage from Acid Attack does not count as an attack, and a monster in Tokyo cannot yield their place as a result of it. It is explicitly stated on page 4 of the rulebook:

  [Life] lost dealt from a Power card effect is different than [dice Claw symbols]. A Monster can only Yield Tokyo when losing from [Life] from [dice Claw symbols].


Is there an industry standard definition between "Board", "Card", and "Table Top" game genres? A friend and I have been developing a game but we've had some difficulty establishing the specific genre we think it should fit in.

Our game design uses printed cards to be distributed CCG-style in randomized, rarefied (common/uncommon/rare/etc.) sealed packs and starter boxes, but these cards are used to represent the unit stats, leaders, equipment, special abilities, and so-on for a tactical table-top based game (think Magic The Gathering meets Mage Knight 2.0).

Are there specific ways to determine how we should identify our game that are identified by the industry as a whole, or do we simply need to pick our 'closest match' and try to clarify how we cross genres in the actual description of the game?

Is there an industry standard set of definitions between game generes? If so, what is it based on (game mechanic, distribution mechanic, production medium, etc)?

For example, in the automotive industry, pretty much all cars get categorized as either "coupe", "sedan", "truck", "van", or "SUV", but then they try to identify themselves as something more specific (e.g. "Crossover Hybrid SUV"). I imagine there are pretty simple and standard concepts of why something is a sedan instead of a coupe, so I'm hoping there are similar ways to identify the root 'type' of a game.

Your game is a CCG.

What you do with the cards - the actual mechanics of the game - is irrelevant here. A game's "type" is metadata. It's defined, roughly speaking, by the central piece of "equipment" needed to play it: a board, a table, minis, role playing, dice, an AV system, or, in your case, cards. Subtype, if any, usually describes the central mechanic. For example, Dominion and Magic the Gathering are both card games, but Dominion has a single showpiece mechanic which can be easily described (deck building), while Magic doesn't.

  Is there an industry standard definition between “Board”, “Card”, and “Table Top” game genres?

Not that I've ever heard of. As you can see just from looking at this page (the comments, boardgames.stackexchange.com, etc.) these terms are somewhat nebulous and different people take them to mean different things.

  Are there specific ways to determine how we should identify our game that are identified by the industry as a whole

Perhaps surprisingly, yes, there is an industry standard practice for supplying this sort of information about your game. Call it whatever you think succinctly, accurately and interestingly describes your game. For example, Netrunner self identifies as a "living card game"; Dominion, as a "deck building game"; Ra, as an "auction game"; Power Grid, as an "economic game".

  do we simply need to pick our 'closest match' and try to clarify how we cross genres in the actual description of the game?

How you identify this aspect of your game is solely a question of marketing, and it's entirely up to you. Don't waste words trying to explain how your game straddles common genres in the industry. From a marketing perspective, it's boring, invites arguments, and most importantly, doesn't advance the idea that the game is worth buying and playing. Talk about the actual game itself and why it's cool and fun instead. The gaming community will naturally figure out which of the "traditional" labels fits best.


How to add red fives to a riichi set? when using the rule for adding the three red fives in riichi mahjong, does one add the fives to the set, or do they replace fives already in the set with the red fives?

You replace them, because otherwise we will end up with five copies of the 5-numbered tiles, which is not the intention of using red fives.


How does Intrigue change your general Dominion strategy? I've seen a lot of discussions about the basic strategies newcomers to Dominion develop:

First you buy as many action cards as you can get you hands on.
After several games, someone discovers Big Money and wins over the clogged decks of strategy #1
You realize that selective purchase of just a few action cards augments Big Money enough to give winning strategy.

In general, I feel like the base set stops there.  I bought the base set several months ago, and soon after my friend bought Intrigue and Seaside.  My general strategy evolved into something a lot like #3 above, where his became huge on action chaining (and annoyingly long turns with some card setups).  When Prosperity came out, we both bought it, but for me, it just seemed to take my general strategy a little further with bigger money cards.

Obviously, owning the base set affected my key strategy a lot differently than owning Intrigue did for my friend.  He and I seem to be pretty equally paired when we play, however, when I go over to isotropic and play online, I find I get slaughtered especially when Intrigue (and sometimes Seaside) cards make up most of the 10 kingdom cards.

So here's my question: Most players went through stages 1 through 3 above when they get the base set.  What follows those after picking up Intrigue?  I feel like I'm really missing something when it comes to the Intrigue cards; a lot more cards work together in a lot more combinations in a way the base set doesn't, so how do you learn to capitalize on that better?

Intrigue generally has nastier attack cards than Base does, and you really need to avoid getting hit by them or at least learn how to deal with their fallout.  The three major attacks are:

Saboteur:

This is the only card in the game that can force you to trash a Colony or Province (and not get one back).

Swindler:

This allows your opponent to force you to trash a card and give you one of the same cost.  Essentially, they can dilute your deck, and even give you Curses if you trashed a Copper.

Luckily, for Colony and Province, this just wears down their respective piles, as the cost has to be the same.  Note: For any card, if there is no card of the same cost left, you just lose that card.

Very late Edit: There is one other card that costs 8... Peddler.  I suggest not playing a game with both Peddler and Swindler in play.

Torturer:

A nasty card, particularly when used with Base's Throne Room or Prosperity's King's Court.  Unlike Militia, Ghost Ship, or Goons, Torturer does not stop when you only have three cards.  Also of note is that the Curse goes into your hand should you choose to take it, so you can use it with things like Chapel when your turn rolls around... or if it's King's Courted, take two curses then discard them for the third.

There is one more attack card (Minion) and two pseudo-attack cards (Masquerade and Tribute; they're not attack cards, so you can't block them)... you really should look through all the Intrigue cards to see what they do.


Detention sphere triggers I have a Pithing Needle on the battlefield naming my opponent's planeswalker. My opponent on his turn plays a Detention Sphere targeting the pithing needle. I have a Naturalize in hand. Do I have the ability to cast the Naturalize and get rid of the Detention Sphere before my opponent can activate one of his planeswalker's abilities?

Does the answer to this question change if instead of a Detention Sphere, the opponent plays Banishing Light?

If your opponent uses Detention Sphere, he will be able to activate his Planeswalker's ability at least once, but not if he uses Banishing Light instead.
Since it is your opponent's turn, he or she will always have priority after he or she has cast a spell or activated an ability, or after a spell or ability has resolved. Therefore, once the Detention Sphere's exile trigger resolves and the Needle is removed, your opponent will have priority and the opportunity to activate one of his planeswalker's abilities. You can only react to that activation once your opponent has passed priority, but by that time, Naturalizing the Detention Sphere has no effect on that previous activation. If you destroy the Detention Sphere while its exile trigger is on the stack, the Needle will be exiled permanently.
Banishing Light works slightly differently from Detention Sphere - if Banishing Light is destroyed before it exiles the Needle, the Needle will not be exiled at all, and your opponent can't activate his Planeswalker's loyalty ability.
The order of play with Detention Sphere is:

Your opponent casts Sphere. You cannot Naturalize it yet because it's not on the battlefield yet.
The Sphere resolves and triggers its ETB ability.

If you Naturalize now, the Sphere will be destroyed, its LTB ability triggers and resolves but does nothing because the Sphere hasn't exiled anything yet. Its ETB trigger is still on the stack, will resolve, and will indefinitely exile your Needle.

If you don't Naturalize now and let the Sphere's ETB trigger resolve, then the Needle is exiled, the stack will be empty and your opponent gets priority because he is the active player and an ability resolved.

Either way, your opponent can now activate his Planeswalker. You cannot cast Naturalize first because you don't have priority.
If you still have your Naturalize, you can cast it now and return the Needle from exile, but it's too late to prevent the Planeswalker's activation.

With Banishing Light, you simply respond to the Light's ETB trigger with Naturalize, and the Needle will remain on the battlefield.

The key to answering this question for Detention Sphere is the priority system. Priority determines who may cast spells and activate abilities. Generally, the active player (the player whose turn it is) receives priority first. These are the complete rules on who receives priority when:

116.3. Which player has priority is determined by the following rules:
116.3a The active player receives priority at the beginning of most steps and phases, after any turn-based actions (such as drawing a card during the draw step; see rule 703) have been dealt with and abilities that trigger at the beginning of that phase or step have been put on the stack. No player receives priority during the untap step. Players usually don’t get priority during the cleanup step (see rule 514.3).
116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.
116.3d If a player has priority and chooses not to take any actions, that player passes. If any mana is in that player’s mana pool, he or she announces what mana is there. Then the next player in turn order receives priority.

Your opponent will receive priority after the Detention Sphere has resolved:

601.2i Once the steps described in 601.2a–h are completed, effects that modify the characteristics of the spell as it’s cast are applied, then the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

Your opponent can activate Planeswalker abilities at sorcery speed, i.e. the stack is empty, it's your opponent's main phase, and your opponent has priority. Everything is given once the Detention Sphere trigger has resolved.


Magic card database for websites How is it that websites like SCG or CFB created their card database inventory. How would i be able to do this myself now? I want to create a similar website where a user can search and find any card with images. Obviously entering manually into a sql server is not feasible. Any help on easiest way to get this done?

There's a program called Gatherer Extractor which can extract all info and images from Gatherer. You can export it to an XML file which you can import easily into (eg) a MySQL database.

You can check the sets which you want to download, and the info you want.

Link: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=303454


Fate Reforged Booster Pack contains a Khans of Tarkir Fetch Land I'm kind of new to Magic.  Today I opened a Fate Reforge booster pack that instead of containing a basic landed contained a Windswept Heath.  That is a fetch land from Khans.  Is it normal for the Fate Reforge boosters to contain Khans cards?

Yes, Fate Reforged packs may contain KTK Fetchlands.

More information at: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/fetching-look-fate-reforged-2014-12-24


Can non-exile related return effects bring a card out of exile? So I stumbled upon this land, Karakas.  Can this return effect reach a card in exile?  I read the rules regarding exile, and it appears to me that Karakas' effect (and similar return/play/add effects) are fully capable of accessing the Exile Zone.

Karakas' ability:

  Tap: Return target legendary creature to its owner's hand.

Karakas returns a creature. Creatures only exist on the battlefield, everywhere else they are usually creature cards (or spells, on the stack).

  109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn't include the word "card," "spell," "source," or "scheme," it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

So Karakas can not target cards in exile.


If spirit monster's effect is negated for 1 turn, does it return to hand by end phase? So let's say player A summoned Dark Dust Spirit, then:

Case 1: Player B activates Forbidden Chalice on Dark Dust Spirit so its effect is negated until end phase. Does it return to hand by end phase?

Case 2: Player B activates Skill Drain on Dark Dust Spirit so its effect is negated. Then on next turn (player B's turn), Skill Drain was destroyed. Will Dark Dust Spirit stay on the field for all the upcoming turns?

Dark Dust Spirit:

  Cannot be Special Summoned. During the End Phase of the turn this card
  is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Return it to the hand. When
  this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Destroy all other
  face-up monsters on the field.

Forbidden Chalice:

  Target 1 face-up monster on the field; until the end of this turn,
  that target gains 400 ATK, but its effects are negated.

Skill Drain:

  Activate by paying 1000 Life Points. The effects of all face-up
  monsters on the field are negated while those monsters are face-up on
  the field (but their effects can still be activated).

No, It Does Not Return To Hand

The effect written on Spirit monsters is an activated effect, which activates during the End Phase. When a monster's effect is negated "until the end of this turn," this applies throughout the End Phase; i.e, the effect(s) will be negated until the beginning of the next player's turn.

Case 1:

Forbidden Chalice negates the effects of Dark Dust Spirit until the end of the turn. During the End Phase, the effect of Dark Dust Spirit will activate, but be negated by Chalice - Dark Dusk Spirit remains on the field.

Case 2:

The effect of Dark Dust Spirit activates during the End Phase. Because Dark Dust Spirit is a face-up monster on the field, that effect will be negated by Skill Drain - Dark Dust Spirit remains on the field.

It Will Remain On The Field Each Turn

The effect's activation timing is "During the End Phase of the turn this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up:". After that initial turn of its summon has passed, the effect will not activate again on any subsequent turn - unless, of course, it incidentally happens to be flipped face-down and back up again.


How effective is a shield component during the first round? I was looking over the Adventure cards for Round I of Galaxy Trucker.

Adventure Cards

4x Open Space (move forward X engine power)
4x Abandon Ship -1 Day,(-2 Astro:$3, -3 Astro:$4, 5 Astro:YG, 6 Astro:RR)
3x Purple -1 Day,(4 Laz:-2 Good/YGB,6 Laz:-3 Astro/$5, 5 Laz:3 shots Front ssL/$4)
3x Meteor (ssss TBLR, Lss TLR, LsL TTT)
4x Planet (-2 Day:RR,RBB,Y#-2 Day:GG,Y,BBB#-3 Day:RGBBB,RYB,RBBB,RG#-3 Day:YGBB,YY)
1x Stardust (-1 day per open connection)
1x Combat Zone (least Astro -3 Day, least engine -2 Astro, least Laz shot sL BB)

It looks as if shields would only matter on 2 adventure cards, if you have no open connectors. You would only have open connectors if you got shot by the single Purple encounter, or the Combat Zone (or you built your ship that way).
How effective is a shield on average during the first round?
Would you ever place a shield in the first round?, why? (Statistcal evaluations appreciated)

Shields are not very effective during the first round.
First, it should be noted that the negative effects of the Pirate, and the Combat Zone adventure cards are some what avoidable. In the Pirate encounter case, if you make sure that your ship has 5+ Laser power, you will not be shot at. With the Combat Zone, you just need to make sure that you don't have the least Laser power.
Second, you need to figure out the odds of drawing that particular Adventure Card. The chances that you will actually draw a particular adventure card during the first round is 8/20 = 40%, if you don't look at the Adventure cards. Since a single shield component can either face up or down. The majority of the small laser fire, and small meteors come from the front, so you should probably orient the shield to face forward. If you do place a shield component, and you happen to draw the Pirate encounter and you don't have the required 5 Laser power, your shield will only be effective 24/36 = 66.7% of the time for each small laser (since rolling 2-4 or 10-12 misses your ship anyway). This means, that if you don't look at any of the adventure cards, you are only going to effectively block:

Block 0 Small Shots: (60%) not drawn + (40%) x (12/36) x (12/36) = 64.4%
Block 1 Small Shots: (40%) x 2 x (12/36) x (24/36) = 17.8%
Block 2 Small Shots: (40%) x (24/36) x (24/36) = 17.8%

                ___
11.1% 5     ___|   |___
13.9% 6 ___|    ___    |___
16.7% 7|       |___|       |
13.9% 8|        ___        |
11.1% 9|___ ___|   |___ ___|
         5   6   7   8   9
        11% 14% 17% 14% 11%

Nearly 65% of the time, it wouldn't matter if you bought a shield or not and only 18% of the time you would have prevented 1 lost component, and 18% of the time you would prevent 2 lost components. This isn't a completely accurate though. It depends a player in-front of you defeats the Pirate encounter for 4 Credits, or you draw the Pirate adventure card before drawing one of the other Meteor Cards. If you draw the Meteor Cards after you draw the Pirate encounter, then your shield is more likely to be effective, but not that much more effective.
For example, if you where shot from the front, and later draw any of the Meteor cards, you have an increased chance of losing another component because of additional exposed connectors. The increased chances are only the chances that you roll the same column/row of the component that got blasted from the front. For example, if lasers destroyed 7 & 8 from the front (Note: Getting hit 2 or more times from the Purple encounter happens about 30% of the time), then if you draw the Lss (TLR) Meteor card:

Small Meteor No Hit: (26/36) x (26/36) = 52.2%
Small Meteor Hit 1x 6/8: 2 x (10/36) x (26/36) = 40.1%
Small Meteor Hit 2x 6/8: (10/36) x (10/36) = 7.72%

You only have a another 50% chance of getting hit again by a small meteor one or more times. I won't work out the exact math, but realize that the odds of losing extra pieces from small meteors is fairly small (60% of the time it won't be in the adventure deck. When it is, only half the time you will draw the Meteor card after the Pirate encounter, and finally even if you do draw the Pirate encounter first only half that time will you be hit by a small meteor hitting an exposed connector).
If you do look at the adventure cards, and neither of the cards are in the 6 cards, you only have an additional 14.3% chance that the Pirate card will be in the remaining 2 Adventure cards.
In general, you should probably avoid placing a Shield component. The only exception would be if you saw the Pirate encounter or the Combat Zone card, and you were unable to meet the requirements of 5+ Laser or not the least laser power.


What happens with Lifelink when a creature's power exceeds its blocker's toughness? Lifelink typically says:

  Lifelink (Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life.)

Suppose I attack with a 5/5 creature which has Lifelink, and it's blocked by a 1/1 creature.

Do I gain 1 life or 5?

You will gain 5 life in that case.  Creatures assign and deal damage equal to their power in combat and do not "Pull their punches" if the blocker happens to have lower toughness.

  510.1a Each attacking creature and each blocking creature assigns combat damage equal to its power. Creatures that would assign 0 or less damage this way don’t assign combat damage at all

  ...

  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. This is a change from previous rules.

Assign equal to power.
Deal what was assigned.
Size of defender does not factor into it.


What is the priority sequence during a turn? I know that at the beginning of each step and phase the active player recieves priority, and that the active player recieves priority after a spell resolves. I want to make sure that I am right about getting priority during a turn. Please tell me if I'm right and correct my mistakes.

Beginning phase:

Untap step: nobody can casts spells
Upkeep step: players get priority in order of active player, nonactive player
Draw step: the same as in upkeep

First main phase:

active player has priority during the entire turn and nonactive gets it after active passes, at the end of the turn

Combat phase:

after every step players get priority in order active player, nonactive player

Second main phase:

the same as in first

End phase

End step: players get priority in order active player, nonactive player
Cleanup step: nobody can cast spells

You seem to have things basically correct, but some of your wording is confusing; especially as it relates to the main phase.

You say that the active player gets priority "during entire turn" and that non-active player gets it after active passes, "at the end of the turn". Priority in the main phase works exactly the same as it does in the other phases and steps... active player gets priority first, and when active player passes priority, non-active player gets priority.

You are correct about which steps don't give players priority: untap step and cleanup step are the only ones; during all other steps the active player gets priority, and then non-active player gets priority when active player passes it.

Note that in many steps; something else happens before players receive priority, such as drawing a card in the draw step; declaring attackers in the declare attackers step, etc.


If an after-effect cannot be fulfilled, can the action leading to that after-effect be performed? In the Carnevale of Horrors expansion, there are locations that contain consequences for leaving the locations, such as

  Forced - After you leave Rialto Bridge: Lose 1 action.

or

  Forced - After you leave Academia Bridge: Lose 2 resources.

If I do not have the named lost items available, can I still leave the location?  I presumed that if the designers intended for investigators to pay the cost in order to leave, it would be clearly worded as "when leaving" or simply "Spend 2 resources to leave" etc, so have played it accordingly for example using up all but one of my actions before leaving a location that will make me lose an action 'after' leaving.

You have played it correctly.

Abilities using the After keyword initiaite once you have finished resolving the trigger, not before, and when resolving a Forced ability, if it cannot change the state of the game, it just does not trigger at all.

From the rules reference (page 2 under Forced Abilities):

  If a forced ability does not have the potential to
  change the game state, the ability does not initiate.

and on page 3:

  A forced ability with a timing point beginning with the
  word “after...” automatically initiates immediately after that
  timing point’s impact upon the game state has resolved.

This means that as soon as the investigator has finished moving out of the location, they would then lose the listed actions/resources - it is an aftereffect of leaving, not a price you need to pay to leave.


Does a cultist's on death effect trigger during it's own turn? Somewhat similar to: Gloomhaven - are monster abilities in effect prior to their turn, but this is happening during the monster's turn.
In Gloomhaven, the cultist has an ability card that includes an on death effect. It looks something like this:

Move -1
Attack -1
On Death: Attack +2, target all hexes adjacent to the cultist.

If the cultist dies during it's move or initial attack action, (due to a trap, retaliate, or some other effect) does the on death effect get triggered?
This occurred in a game last night, and we were unsure how to proceed. We ended up ruling that the attack did not happen, as we hadn't reached that line on the ability card yet, so the on death effect wasn't yet active.

It's unusual, but you're correct. The rules on page 10 state

  A monster will perform each of these abilities in the order listed (if possible) and then end its turn.

So if a Cultist has a wound and 1 HP, it will die before taking any of the actions, and thus setting up for 'on death' doesn't happen.

This is similar to how a figure with retaliate doesn't retaliate if it's killed or exhausted by an attack.

Also, remember that abilities such as disarm and stun also prevent the 'on death' ability from taking place if those status effects were in place when the cultist activated.


Differences between Axis and Allies 1941 and classic edition This may seem obvious, but apparently Axis and Allies 1941 has eliminated the construction of factories, and AA guns?

How do these changes affect the play of the game as compared to say, the Classic Edition?

AA guns tend to reduce the value of "strategic" bombing. Hence you would do this more (and spend more researching heavy bombers) than in other versions of the game.

There are many players that believe that heavy bombers unbalance the game, and one should not be allowed to research them. If they are disallowed, AA guns would be less necessary, and can be eliminated from the game to simplify it.

The construction of factories is most important for Japan and Britain, who start with only one (everyone else starts with two). Hence, it makes these two countries harder to play.

There are some problems with the Factory Rule. The first is that one costs a "flat" 15 IPCs to build. But that doesn't reflect the fact that factories are easier to build in some places than others (e.g. in "real life," it's almost impossible to build factory in Sinkiang). Second, most countries would not "export" aerospace technology, meaning that realistically, it would be possible only to produce infantry, but not airplanes in a foreign factory.


When should I get rid of the queen of spades in Hearts? Whenever I play the QS on the 3rd or 4th round everyone gets mad at me and says that's a low down nasty thing to do! I thought the QS should be dumped asap so as not to get stuck with it myself - which has happened more times that I care to recall, even when I have 4,5 or 6 Spades backing her up. What is the proper etiquette for dumping the QS in Hearts?

There is no etiquette required when playing the QS.  It is worth half of the available points in the hand.  Anyone expecting you to be "polite" with it (whatever that means) is unrealistic and should go back to playing against the computer.

There are strategic exceptions.  For example, it may be advantageous to pass on an opportunity to play the Queen if you are trying to stick a specific opponent with it and think you can do so safely later in the round.

That being said, are you sure they are actually upset?  Maybe they are trying to trash-talk or joke about their misfortune and just not doing a very good job of it.


Scenario #98 Question Spoiler tags to prevent accidental disclosure.

   Can my Craighart move the fountain?

 It might make the scenario a bit easier to move the fountain closer to the ships, but unlike the 2 tile wall obstacles, it is not listed as special by the scenario rules.

My copy of Forgotten Circles is still in shrink so hopefully this answer is valid based on my understanding of rules and what I would check.

   On the map of scenario what colour is the border around the fountain?  If it green then it is an obstacle and any Cragheart abilities that affect them will after the fountain.
 [Rules page 14] explain that anything with a green border is an obstacle.  If that scenario which I've not seen doesn't say the fountain is special then I'd assume it can be thrown or destroyed as per abilities.  Even if that makes little thematic sense! 1


How do undying triggers resolve against exile and other players reanimating my graveyard? So I play casually with a sacrifice and undying combo, which plays around with instant speed self sacrificing to avoid pesky control tactics. I'm wondering if it actually works how I think it does. Say I have a Geralf's Messenger that I just cast. I pass priority and my opponent attempts to exile it with Stasis Snare. In response, I pay Viscera Seer's cost to activate his ability sacrificing the messenger. It dies, comes back to the battlefield, does it's enter the battlefield thing, I scry 1, and then the Stasis Snare resolves. I get that typically when an object moves from one zone to another, it forgets what it used to be, but it had never left a public zone, so does 400.7g apply? Am I misinterpreting anything here?

Additionally, my opponent once tried to outsmart my undeath by using the enchantment Grave Betrayal. Both the undying trigger and the Grave Betrayal trigger occur from the same event, but since I control the object(creature), I choose the ordering for the abilities, right? I wouldn't want to get off easy against my opponents just because of confusing wording.

Your first example works as you want: the stasis snare doesn't exile your creature. When it moves between zones, unless otherwise stated, it and everything that targets it forgets that it was something else. Note that 400.7 says zone, not just public zone.

For your second example, you get to keep your creature. Grave Betrayal triggers at the beginning of the end step (technically, it creates a delayed trigger that triggers at the end step), while Undying triggers immediately. Once Undying resolves, it's back on the battlefield and is a different object than what Grave Betrayal is attempting to steal.


How many jokers can you use in a run or set in Rummikub? Can I use two jokers in the same run or set or are you only allowed to use one joker per set or run?

You can use them all.
The only restriction on jokers in the rules is that you have to use a joker that you have replaced.


How to tell which old cards can deal damage to planeswalkers In the Dominaria rules update, they got rid of the planeswalker redirection rule, where non-combat damage dealt to a player could be redirected to a planeswalker that player controlled.  As a result of this a number of cards (such as Lightning Bolt) have been given errata so that they can now deal damage to planeswalkers.

Obviously the current oracle text is the source of truth for which cards can and can't deal damage to planeswalkers now, but is there a simple set of rules for which cards were changed so that you do not need to look this up every time in casual play?

The Dominaria Frame, Template, and Rules Changes article has the set of rules they used to decide which cards to errata (under the "Planeswalker Redirection Rule" section).  To summarize:

"target creature or player" --> "any target" (ex. Lightning Bolt)
"target player"/"target opponent" --> "target player or planeswalker" (ex. Lava Spike and Jeskai Charm).  Exception: the text is unchanged if the amount of damage is calculated by using information about that player or objects they control (ex. Sudden Impact or Jovial Evil)
Everything else has not changed, except for Vial Smasher the Fierce, which can optionally damage any planeswalker that player controls.

Spells that deal damage to a player and then do something else to at least one permanent that player controls (like Bonfire of the Damned) have been additionally patched: “that player controls” → “that player or that planeswalker’s controller controls”.

These rules do not apply to cards printed in or after Dominaria. For example, Gravitic Punch cannot target planeswalkers as it was printed post-errata. You can tell that a card was printed before Dominaria if it meets one of these criteria:

It has a copyright date of 2017 or earlier.
It was from the Rivals of Ixalan set, which has the set code RIX and this set symbol:
It was from the Masters 25 set, which has the set code A25 and this set symbol:


What's the technical term for the period of time between when an opponent concludes their turn and mine begins? Apologies if this is poorly phrased.  I'll try to make this as clear as possible...

I recently realized that I can utilize the period of time between a players turn and my turn in Magic. What's the name of this period?  What is the appropriate verbiage/ettiquette to indicate doing something during that time? I don't think its "during your upkeep"...

Essentially, I'd like to use this time to activate lands like Arid Mesa search my library for land that I want without losing a cycle doing that.

There is no between turns; the end of one turn transitions immediately to the beginning of the next. The last time you can definitely activate abilities and play instants before your turn is during your opponent's End Step, which is after their second main phase. The end step is is followed by the cleanup step (the last step of the turn), when players usually do not gain priority, and that is followed immediately by your untap step.

The standard way of indicating that you want to do something during this time is to wait for your opponent to say "I end my turn." (or equivalent), and then you say "During your end step, I activate my Arid Mesa's ability."

Technically, this falls under the Shortcut rules. The official tournament rules (section 4.2) list "Your turn" (and equivalents) as meaning "I propose a shortcut: that I pass priority until you have priority at my end step" and when you say "I would like to do something at your end step" it means "I accept your shortcut, and when it is complete I do something."


Would Rakdos, Lord of Riots allow a free Endless One cast? I have a commander / EDH deck running Rakdos, Lord of Riots as my commander. (This isn't a tournament legal deck by the way, just for casual play with friends) I've got Endless One in the deck as well. My question is, though: With Rakdos out, could I be able to get Endless One out, for free, with as much +1/+1 counters in it as there was damage dealt to opponents that turn? Or would I have to pay even one mana for it?

Yes, if you choose a value for X that is less than or equal to the amount of life your opponents have lost this turn, you can cast Endless One for free.

While casting a spell, one of the first steps involves making choices, including the value of X. Then, later, the cost is calculated, including cost increases and cost reductions. So, in this situation, you first choose the number you want for X, then you calculate the cost after Rakdos reduces it. Then you pay that much mana (note that it can't go below {0}).


Effective combinations of Shermans out of Blood, Guts, and Glory The new lists for 4th and 7th armored divisions let you mix and match Sherman M4A3s, M4A3 76s, M4A3E8s, and Sherman Jumbos.  The various versions vary greatly in terms of firepower, speed, and points cost, so I'm having trouble coming up with an effective selection.  I would like to have a unit that is as homogeneous as possible, but I'd also like to use some Easy Eights.  Unfortunately, they are limited to only two per platoon.

What are some good combinations of Sherman types for both an Armored Company and as support in an Armored Rifle Company?

Balanced platoon

In most cases a solid 1-2-2 platoon will do the trick.

1 jumbo to act as the shield.
2 m4a1 76 mm for fire power.
2 vanilla m4a1 or m4a3s, if you think you will benefit from the protected ammo stowage.

This type of platoon will be a great advancing platoon for a reasonable cost.

Spearhead platoon

2 M4A3 76s or M4A3E8s
2 m4a3
1 m4a3 105mm

Great platoon to spearhead attacks. All tanks use the Detroit's Finest special rule, giving you a slight edge when it comes to flanking and taking objectives.

Tortoise platoon

1 jumbo to act as the shield.
2 m4a3e8; utilize the smooth ride special rule by not moving more than 15cm on any given turn, keeping RoF up while denying penalties.
Lastly, you can fill it with either m4a1 or m4a3s.

Good luck!


Coup: Do you lose your coins when trying to assassinate a Contessa? In Coup if you claim to be an assassin and try to assassinate someone. If they claim to be a Contessa and you believe them you lose you three coins to the bank correct?

I had this argument with my friend, but to me it just makes sense it would be the same as if you try to take foreign aid and someone claims to be a Duke and blocks you. You can call them out and then if they were lying your action would go through. But if you don't the action is blocked so in this case the assassin would lose their coins and no one would be assassinated.

Yes, you do lose the coins.  While the rules are not available online, this  action flowchart has been verified by the game's creator as being correct.  I'll go and try and find out what I've done with my copy and try and get a direct quote from the rules for you, but hopefully this should suffice.

Edit: Joe's comment is correct - although this is from the Coup: Reformation rulebook, it is under the basic rules, not the expansion rules.  On the fourth page, under the Counteractions heading, the last line reads "If an action is successfully counteracted, the action fails but any coins paid as the cost of the action remain spent.


In warhammer 40k can I combines these armies? I have an Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians, which is a dark angels HQ and I have a grey knight army. Can I use Ezekiel as my HQ?

Short answer: in the 7th edition of WH40k, you can create an X point Unbound army from any units you have, so yes. (Note that Unbound armies have some limitations when it comes to holding objectives, etc., so look it up in the rulebook.)

Longer answer: based on your comment to your question and depending on what rules your game group has on army building, you probably want to create a Battle Forged army, which you cannot create with the 1500 points of non-HQ Grey Knights and a Dark Angels HQ.

Grey Knights and Dark Angels can be taken as allies, but as per the rules for taking allies, you need to take the allies in an Allied Detachment and your main force in a Combined Arms Detachment.

For a Combined Arms Detachment you need, and can have:

1-2 HQ
2-6 Troops
0-3 Elites
0-3 Fast Attack
0-3 Heavy Support
0-1 Fortifications
0-1 Lord of War

So you need at least one Grey Knights HQ for your main detachment. For an Allied Detachment you need, and can have:

1 HQ
1-2 Troops
0-1 Elites
0-1 Fast Attack
0-1 Heavy Support

So to wield Ezekiel with your Grey Knights in an appropriate detachment you would need to take at least one Dark Angels Troop with him.

If you're just playing with your friends, you can probably agree with them that you would both play with 1500p, and you would just not have a HQ. But for more organised games, you need to get a Grey Knights HQ, but you would only need a single model to make your army follow the rules. After all, every army needs a leader!


Are there games with board presentation similar to Talisman and Relic? I'm referring to the way the art for different spaces spills over into other areas of the board, creating a panorama or telling a story with the outer and inner regions of the board. Are there any games with similar presentation?

In that graphical sense a really wonderful game that strikes me as similar is Yggdrasil.  It is Norse mythology based, cooperative, a good challenge, and pretty enough to be a poster.


Where to find MTG statistics: Starting player winrate, average turns, polarity? A question about MTG statistics:

There are several MTG statistics websites (e.g. AetherHub, MTGArenaPro), which do a great job to provide specific statistics about how good individual cards and decks are doing. However, there are some more general metrics I am interested in and can't find anywhere. Namely:

Winrate when starting first/second, for BO1 & BO3
How many turns doesan average game take (histogram, if possible)
Polarity of the meta (Originally used in Hearthstone, it is a measure of rock-paper-scissors of the metagame. Here, polarity=0 would mean that for any two tier 1 decks the winrate of one against another would be approximately 50%, whereas polarity=1 would mean that for any two tier 1 decks the winrate of one against another would be approximately 100%)

If you know of a website that computes any of these three, please tell me. I am not sure why I can't find them anywhere. Maybe it is somehow unethical to ask these questions? If this is the case, tell me as well

Wizards of the Coast deliberately obscures this data.
Several years ago, some fans created a website that used bots to automatically crawl Magic the Gathering Online's matches to construct a table containing the meta percentages and the win/loss rates of each deck. However, Wizards later changed how MtGO's systems worked with the specific goal of preventing this, much to the disappointment of the MtG competitive scene. They stated that this was done in order to slow down the process of "solving" the meta.
To quote the article they posted announcing this:

As stewards of Magic, we in R&D feel that this action is necessary to prevent data mining that contributes to Constructed formats growing stale before their time. At its essence, Magic is best when it's a game of exploration and puzzle-solving: this is why providing new formats and new experiences are so important. By gathering large sets of data from Magic Online events, a given format too-rapidly changes from exciting exploration to cold statistical analysis. While the analysis may be fascinating, it generally makes for far less compelling gameplay. This leads to reduced enthusiasm about the analyzed format, which in turn ultimately hurts not just Magic content creators worldwide, but the game as a whole.


Board games involving players' consensus for who wins? I'm looking for inspiration about mechanics for a game I would like to design for a course in education.

I'm juggling with the idea of a board game related to calligraphy. The theme is exploited in smartphone apps to a certain extent but they don't teach the actual tool. My main issue is with envisioning how players would decide who wins each round.

Calligraphy has certain types of drills that are done on paper, sometimes with models to trace over (example, and another example). The idea is to do it as clean as possible. My initial thoughts is having multiple players doing a certain drill like a race against time. But then the players would have to reach consensus about who wins this round, based on precision, cleanliness, speed of execution, etc.

I've seen this type of game done in phone applications with some scoring associated to the end product, but I've never seen a game that uses consensus among players for deciding who wins a round and it seems like it would be too fragile to make any sense but I'm curious... Are there such games?

For starters, you cannot objectively have the scoring based on precision, cleanliness, etc. Players will vote however they want, which - depending on the system you use to collect votes - can allow for votes in bad faith, votes in error, and random votes. To compound the situation, more players voting on a single set of submissions will result in fewer and fewer unanimous votes.

For voting, you should look at Apples to Apples/Cards Against Humanity for one person judging all the other submissions. Bad Medicine has each player submit and judge each round. Dead Last is a different sort of voting system, but it could be very cool to implement this system in a more subjective context (e.g. All players secretly and simultaneously vote on the single best of several entries. After simultaneously revealing the votes, all players who did not vote with the majority lose).

You could also look at the video game "Quiplash", as part of the Jackbox party packs.


Do you pay one or two mana to bounce a transformed Delver of Secrets with Repeal? Do you pay one or two mana to bounce a transformed Delver of Secrets with Repeal? In total I mean, does x have to be equal to 1 or 0?

Two mana; for the converted mana cost (CMC) of a transformed card, you have to look at the untransformed side:

  711.4b While a double-faced permanent’s back face is up, it has only the characteristics of its back face. However, its converted mana cost is calculated using the mana cost of its front face. If a permanent is copying the back face of a double-faced card (even if the card representing that copy is itself a double-faced card), the converted mana cost of that permanent is 0.

Since Delver of Secrets' converted mana cost is 1, X = 1 and you'll have to pay 2 mana to Repeal it.

Insectile Aberration's side doesn't show a mana cost, and while for some cards that means they have converted mana cost 0, not so for double-faced cards

  202.3a The converted mana cost of an object with no mana cost is 0, unless that object is the back face of a double-faced permanent or is a melded permanent.

It used to be different; before Shadows of Innistrad, this exception didn't exist and Insectile Aberration had a CMC of 0. See this link mentioned by @J.Sallé in the comments.

Please note that 'flipped' is another (but similar) mechanic where a card is rotated 180 degrees but its front face stays up, e.g. Akki Lavarunner. The same idea applies there too, though (see rule 709.1c).


Which enemies count in Time Stories - A Prophecy of Dragons? In A Prophecy of Dragons, there is a point

   when the scenario is won, when defeated enemies count for victory points

where it mentions enemies counting and mentions a location name that seems vague - does it just mean in the one previous location, or something larger than that?

(It seems like it could be hard to remember beyond the immediately previous encounter, but I wonder if an official answer is out there?)

There are several threads on the BoardGameGeek forum about this problem. The answer here is merely a copy/paste of what is said there

  ! The score card says:
  You score the following points according to your performance on Linaïs.
  For each opponent defeated: 3MP.

  ! It turns out Linaïs is the name of the planet, not the last dimension.

  ! Technically speaking, the rules say: Every time you defeat an enemy you remove him from the location as you won't encounter him there if you come back. So to score you just count all those guys. But only from this run, as they come back to their place in each run.