In Conquest of Planet Earth, Do I conquer a Location with my remaining Alien Ships after Losing the final Fight Round? Consider a scenario where I land 2 Alien Ships at a Location with a Resistance level of 1. This means there will be 1 Fight.

From the Battles, Fights, and Fight Rounds section of the Rules Wiki:
Another very important set of terminology to differentiate are the terms Battle, Fight, and Fight Round. A Battle is all of the Fights at a given Location, a Fight is single combat against one Human Resistance (or a grouping of enemy Aliens), and a Fight Round is one round of combat between the Aliens and the Resistance to see if either side is defeated. So one Fight is a subset of an entire Battle, and a Fight Round is a subset of a single Fight.
As an example, if your Aliens attack a City Location with a Resistance Value of 3, which would be a Battle involving 3 separate Fights (one Fight for each of the Resistance). Each of those Fights would then be resolved in a series of Fight Rounds.

At the conclusion of that Fight Round, the Resistance has a higher Strength Total. That means that they win the Fight Round and I lose an Alien ship.

From the Resolving the Fight section of the Rules Wiki:
Whichever side has the higher Strength Total (including Fight Dice rolls) wins the Fight Round.

Since that is the only (and, therefore, final) Fight of the Battle, the fighting should be completed for my turn, I believe, because it says may, below. This would only be true if there were more Fight Rounds to be completed.

From the Resistance Victory section of the Rules WIki (Emphasis added by me):
If the Resistance wins the Fight Round, 1 of the Alien Saucers involved is Destroyed and returned to the player’s Alien Pool. If there are still Aliens at the Location, you may start a new Fight Round. If there are no Alien Saucers left at the Location, the Battle is over and the Aliens have lost (any remaining Resistance cards are discarded).
Next time this Location is attacked by Aliens, a brand new Battle must be fought from the beginning; with entirely new Resistance (any Fights previously won here are ignored).

Does this simply mean that the remaining Alien Ship stays on that Location (and can therefore start the attack over again on my next turn), or does it mean that I have survived all of the Resistance that the humans can throw at me and I have therefore conquered that Location (and should place a Conquest Marker on it, gaining the associated Terror Points)?
P.S.: If someone with 150+ Reputation could add "conquest-of-planet-earth" as a tag, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
EDIT: thesunneversets response got me thinking...
The Exploring Empty Spaces section says...

to conquer a Location you must fight a number of Human Resistance equal to the Resistance Value of that Location."

...but it doesn't say you must win the fight, just that you must fight them. Later on in the Battle at an Existing Location section, it says...

If you have one or more Aliens at a Location with a Resistance Value of 1 or higher that has not been conquered (no Conquest Marker on it), you must fight a Battle there as described in the section on Fights below.

...and similarly in the Fight any Enemies at a Location section,

If you have one or more Aliens at a Location (or Landing Site) with one or more Resistance Counters or enemy Aliens, you must resolve a Battle at that Location as well.

Because these rules seem to indicate that an Alien Ship could be on a Location without explicitly having moved there in the same turn, I'm inclined at this time to think the Alien Ship can stay there, but the Conquest Token doesn't get placed.

I don't think the line "you may start a new Fight Round" means that the Alien Ship can stay on the Location, or claim a victory.  I think it means "you may carry on trying to defeat the Resistance by starting a new Fight Round... or choose another valid option".

What other valid options are there?  See the next section of the rules:

  After each Fight Round is resolved, the Aliens have the opportunity to
  escape; immediately ending the Battle as though the Aliens had lost.

I think it's completely intuitive, based on other similar boardgames, that you should have to keep attacking until you either win fairly or are forced to flee.  No sneaky short cuts!


When does a special (non-green) die leave your die pool? I just started playing Elder Sign, and the wording in the rule book made me think maybe there was some way to keep using the yellow/red die beyond the current turn, if it was unused. Is this the case?

The updated rules state:

  Unless dice are locked or secured by a spell, the player returns any
  dice granted by common or unique items to the supply at the end of the
  Resolution phase.


Does a card that affects 'each' creature affect creatures that enter the battlefield after it resolves? My opponent casts Predatory Rampage, which resolves, then he attacks with his creatures.

In my hand, I have a creature card with Flash. If I summon this creature before the declare blockers step, will it be affected by Predatory Rampage's blocking requirement?

It varies a lot depending on the specifics.

In the case of Predatory Rampage, we're talking about two continuous effects generated by something other than a static ability. One modifies the characteristics of objects, and the other doesn't. Both of those situations are covered by 611.2c.

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

As such,

"Creatures you control get +3/+3 until end of turn." affects only the creatures that existed when Predatory Rampage resolved.
"Each creature your opponents control blocks this turn if able." affects all matching creatures at all times.

Both of these are covered by rulings in Gatherer.


How does the last turn of an epoch run in Priests of Ra? Just bought Priests of Ra and am really enjoying it, but am not quite sure how the final turn of each epoch should be played. The rules state an epoch ends when the final sun is flipped over, so what happens when the second to last sun is flipped over? Does the player with one remaining sun get to keep drawing tiles on his own, and can call "Ra" and bid on them with no-one opposing him? This seems a little odd.

Seems like yes, I was correct in my original question, the final player gets to keep drawing tiles until the epoch ends, e.g. by the Ra track filling up.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/811805/last-person-have-sun-tile


Oregon Trail Card Game Oxen I'm confused about how oxen work in this game. For example, the calamity card for Bad Water states that if I get 2 bad water cards in a round, then my oxen die. Is the number of oxen I have based on the number of oxen supply cards the team has, or do I have a specific number of oxen innately that can be replaced with oxen supply cards?

Your oxen count is not based on the number of supply cards you have - it is as you mentioned that you just have an automatic 2 oxen.  When calamity cards affect your oxen they will just affect/kill all of them, and a single oxen supply card can save you from being stranded without new ones.


Can Rhonas the Indomitable attack if I pump Voltaic Brawler? I have a Voltaic Brawler (3/2) on board and also a Rhonas the Indomitable.
I am going to pump the brawler up with an energy counter to make the brawler a (4/3) and attack with the brawler.  Will Rhonas also be able to attack now?

You can't get Rhonas attacking that way, unfortunately. This is because of how we handle declaring attackers:

We enter the Declare Attackers step.
You choose attackers. They're declared attackers simultaneously. (At this point, Voltaic Brawler can attack, but Rhonas cannot.)
The active player receives priority, and in the process of them receiving it, triggered abilities go on the stack, including Voltaic Brawler's.
You get the opportunity to choose to pump Voltaic Brawler with +1/+1.

At this point, declaring attackers is done. You can't declare new ones. It's too late.

This would be different if you used Rhonas's activated ability before combat to get a 5/2 Voltaic Brawler before declaring attackers. (That's exactly what it's there for: to benefit your strategy and help Rhonas attack. Every Amonkhet god has an activated ability that moves you closer to them being able to attack and block.)


MTG: Can I use the ability of my Five-Alarm Fire before it getting destroyed? How does priority works here? Say for instance my opponent uses Demystify against my Five-Alarm Fire ... can I use the counters on it to deal damage before it getting destroyed? Also can I use those counters to deal damage at anytime in any players turn?

Yes, and yes for the most part.

Unless an ability has a timing restriction (e.g. it says "use this only during your upkeep") or is on a summoning-sick creature, you can use it whenever you have priority. Side-note: Mana abilities, which are like Tap: Add G to pool, have slightly different rules but those aren't relevant to this.

So for part one, he'll go to demystify, which'll put it on the stack and can either put another action on the stack or pass priority. Assuming he passes, you can then respond with activating it and put that on the stack above the demystify. He'll have a chance to respond to that. If he passes, he gets shot, a priority wave happens, his demystifies resolves and your Five-Alarm blows up.


Why do some cards which counter abilities say they can't counter mana abilities? Some cards, like Voidslime, counter abilities - but they say they can't counter mana abilities. Why is that?

Because mana abilities get special treatment that prevents countering: they resolve instantly, without first going onto the stack. That leaves no opportunity to target them with anything - such as a counter spell - before they resolve.

Rule 605.3 describes this for activated abilities (as in Elvish Mystic), and rule 605.4 describes this for triggered abilities (as in Lotus Cobra).

  605.3. Activating an activated mana ability follows the rules for activating any other activated ability (see rule 602.2), with the following exceptions:

  605.3b An activated mana ability doesn't go on the stack, so it can't be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)

  605.4. Triggered mana abilities follow all the rules for other triggered abilities (see rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities"), with the following exception:

  605.4a A triggered mana ability doesn't go on the stack, so it can't be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after the mana ability that triggered it, without waiting for priority.

  Example: An enchantment reads, "Whenever a player taps a land for mana, that player adds one mana to his or her mana pool of any type that land produced." If a player taps lands for mana while casting a spell, the additional mana is added to the player's mana pool immediately and can be used to pay for the spell."

Note that Voidslime's italicized "(Mana abilities can't be targeted.)" is reminder text. It's a statement about how these rules work, not a specific limitation of Voidslime.

Rule 605.1 defines what counts as a mana ability. At the time of writing, it has to meet three criteria: "it doesn't have a target, it could put mana into a player's mana pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability." This means Deathrite Shaman's first ability is not a mana ability.


Can you remove a special ship part and keep it for later? With special I mean ship parts which you get as a reward, not the ones you have researched.

So what do you do to the special ship parts when you remove them (to make space for other ones)? Do you remove them from the game or do you keep them for re-installation later?

Page 7 of the official rulebook states in relation to Ancient Ship Parts (which are the special type of parts you are referring to):

  you may place this part in any of your Ships (returning an existing part
  if needed); you may also keep the part next to your
  board and place it later with the Upgrade action; if you later want to
  replace an Ancient Ship Part, it is discarded.

So to answer your question they are discarded.

Source: [Official English Rulebook]


Does a dedicated transport for a troops unit retain objective secured after the troops disembark? If I take a devilfish for my strike team in a combined arms detachment, will the transport have objective secured even after the unit has disembarked? If so, can I disembark the fire warriors on an objective and then take the devilfish to score at another objective?

It does, and you can. You don't even have to start the Strike team in the devilfish, so you could begin the game holding two objectives. A transport bought separately (generally most other transports are Fast Attack) will not have Objective Secured unless it is "Troops" or the mission says it's type has ObSec.

It's worth noting that if you have Pathfinders in a Devilfish and Firewarriors in a second, only one of them will have Objective Secured. The only really confusing situation is if both units disembark and then switch vehicles... Units in a transport do not confer (or revoke) ObSec status to the vehicle.


Does Travelin' Farmer deal damage when owner replaces him? In "Adventure time Card Wars Finn vs Jake" there is a Travelin' Farmer creature with description:

When Travelin' Farmer leaves play, deal 1 Damage to your opponent for each card in his hand.

Can player replace the creature to trigger this ability and deal damage to opponent?

Yes, replacement counts as "leave a play"
This is clarified at boadgamegeek.com forum. The author asks

Does "leaves play" only refer to when the Travelin' Farmer is defeated in battle, or can the owner of this creature replace him and do damage to his opponent at the same time?

And here is the answer from the Matt Hyra (one of the game designers; you can see his name in credits section of the rule book):

Creatures leave play when defeated in combat, when you replace them, or if you use an effect to return it to your hand. Each way makes him work.


Tidal Warrior and Islandwalk Tidal Warrior has an ability which says:

  {T}: Target land becomes an Island until end of turn.

If I use this ability to change an opponent's land to an Island, then attack with a creature that has Islandwalk, would this mean that creature can't be blocked?

Yes, you can do this.  Islandwalk prevents a creature from being blocked as long as the defending player controls an Island1.  It doesn't matter whether that Island used to be a different kind of land - after using Tidal Warrior's ability, your opponent controls an Island1, and creatures with Islandwalk cannot be blocked.

1. Note that "controls an Island" means "controls a permanent that has the subtype 'Island.'"  The name of the card is irrelevant.


Does this game or similar games exist? Ok, First I have zero  knowledge about boardgames, I browsed some in the past and have watched some youtube videos a while ago and this will seem really , really weird, but today I woke up witha  really vivid dream about a board game, I don't know if I have just made it up or I have seen it being played and that made went into my mind.

The game was like this. the first (darker) rows from each side , were the "teachers" and the second (lighter) the students, I actually remember some rules:

Students can move forward 1 circle
Teachers can stack upon students,
when student has 1 teacher it can move 1 circle in any direction,
For each aditional teacher upon a student it can move the amount of
teachers upon itself: 2 teachers = 2 circles in any direction, 3
teachers = 3 circles in any direction.
A piece can only take another
piece of the same value or below a student can take a student a
student+1 can take a  student+1 and a student a student+2 can take a
student+2 , student+1 and a student
teachers can't move unless there are no students on the board
once this happens teachers can be stacked in the same manner as students
a player loses when there are no more teachers available

I know it may be taken as offtopic, It just seems awfully specific for a dream and is bugging me , so I had to post

A somewhat similar game to this exists, called DVONN, in which pieces stack onto each other and then a stack can move a number of spaces equal to the number of pieces in the stack.  However, the rest of your game is different and as far as I know is not identical to any currently existing game.


Cards entering the battlefield simultaneously and "Enter the Battlefield" effects I was playing modern with the owner of a shop.  He played a Scapeshift which he used to bring in 7 lands: 5 basic mountains and 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle cards.

He then claimed that each Valakut triggered 5 times (killing me).  I am doubting this now.

Here is my reason: The two Valakut cards entered at the same time as the other 5 basic lands.  That means when they were on the battlefield and their ability was in effect, the other 5 basic lands were already there too.  That seems too late to trigger a "Enters the Battlefield" effect.

So here is my question.  Am I right or wrong?  If I am wrong, please show me how the enter the battlefield effect can trigger for something that enters the battlefield at the same time as itself.

If I am right, please show me the rules that prove it.  I now have two shop owners that are convinced that this is a legal play.  If it is not legal, I am going to need clear rules citations to convince them.

Side note:  If I am wrong and it is a legal play, then I have a follow up scenario.  Say I have 2 Champion of the Parish cards and 5 other human cards in my graveyard.  If I play a spell that lets me return all of them to the battlefield at the same time (say Angel of Glory's Rise), would the Champion cards get 6 +1/+1 counters on them?

To me, if the trick that was played on me with Valakut is legal then my Champion cards should also get the +1/+1 counters.

Your opponent is correct, whenever multiple objects enter the battlefield at the same time, their enters the battlefield triggers will all see all of them as on the battlefield.

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

And:

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

Note that the trigger happens AFTER the cards actually enter the battlefield. There is no time that Valakut was on the battlefield but the other Mountains weren't; so by the time Valakut's "enters the battlefield" triggers, they are all on the battlefield. If it did not work this way, any card such as Elvish Visionary that had "when [CARDNAME] enters the battlefield..." wouldn't work, because its ability doesn't technically exist until the card was put on the battlefield.

This is also a well-known combo for Valakut.

This means that this works for Champion of the Parish as well; the Champions would get 6 +1+1 counters in that case.

See similar question here.


Can you pick up a locomotive if it's revealed as a replacement card? In Ticket to Ride: Europe, on your turn you can pick up two cards from the face-down deck, two cards except locomotives from the face-up cards or one from each. When I pick up one card from the face-up deck, it gets replaced right away from the draw pile.

If the replacement card is a locomotive card, can I keep it because if I had picked up two from the face-down deck, it would have been mine?

No, once a card has been revealed as a locomotive, you have to "spend" two draws to pick it up, which means you can't do so since you've already drawn one of your two cards.

From the official rules (PDF), emphasis mine:

  If a Locomotive card is one of the five face-up cards, the player who draws it may only draw one card, instead of two. If, after having drawn one card the replacement card is a locomotive, the player cannot take it.


In 2-3 player Citadels, can the unique district abilities be triggered twice? Since having 2 turns in a 2-3 player, does the ability of a unique district trigger for each character turn?

For example, I have the Laboratory in play, can I trigger the ability to discard 1 card to gain 2 gold, for each character I play?

Yes you can use the unique ability twice.

The rules here state the following regarding 2-3 player games.

  each player has two turns each
  round (one turn for each character).

So if a card says it can be used 'once per turn' then you will get to activate once during the turn of each character you took.

The rules make a distinction between 'round' (The process from character selection and calling each character in order) and 'turn' (when a character takes and action and/or builds a district and uses special abilities.


Open the Graves and blocking segment Let's assume the following situation: On the battlefield on my side lying these permanents: Open the Graves, Thallid Soothsayer and another non-token creature. My opponent is attacking me with two creatures.

Am I supposed to do this: With my non-token creature I block one of the creatures of my opponent. Then I sacrifice my creature with Thallid Soothsayer so I get a token Zombie creature. Can I now block the other creature of the opponent with the token Zombie creature?

Unfortunately that plan does not work. The "Declare Blockers" step only happens once during combat, and all your blockers must be declared at the same time at the beginning of that step. So if you declare one blocker and then move on to the part of the step where you can activate the sacrifice ability, it is too late to go back and declare another blocker afterward.


Clarification on Provoke the Trolls I'm not sure if I understand what Provoke the Trolls spell does correctly.
If I cast this spell on Knight of Obligation and it resolves, does it basically mean that it becomes a 7/1 creature until end of turn (3 damage and +5/+0 until end of turn)?

Yes, that's a reasonable simplification.
To be more precise, it's a 7/4 with 3 damage on it. This may matter in the case of another card which wants to know the toughness of the creature like Abattoir Ghoul. If you attack with the Knight and your opponent blocks with the Ghoul, they'll gain 4 life, not 1.
Also, resolving Provoke the Trolls is not enough; it needs to actually deal damage. If the damage is prevented, e.g. with Avacyn, Guardian Angel's first ability, it doesn't get the +5/+0 bonus.


What happens when I sacrifice a creature when my Teysa Karlov is on the battlefield? Let’s say my commander Teysa Karlov is on the battlefield, ready for action. Then, I sacrifice Resolute Watchdog. What happens? Can I give one or two creatures indestructible?

The relevant details of Teysa and the Watchdog, respectively:

  If a creature dying causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

  1, Sacrifice Resolute Watchdog: Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn.

According to my more experienced friend my creatures need to die for Teysa to work. But doesn't sacrificing count as dying too, since they go to the graveyard?

Related:

What exactly "triggers an additional time" in the interaction between Afterlife and Teysa Karlov?

Resolute Watchdog's ability is an activated ability not a triggered one, so it isn't affected by Teysa at all.

602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]”
603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event],
[effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

As an addendum, sacrificing a creature (typically) counts as it dying, so your friend is wrong.  So sacrificing a creature could potentially cause Teysa's ability do something.

700.4. The term dies means “is put into a graveyard from the battlefield.”


What is this 4x4 board game? This board game has been circling around the office and nobody knows what it is.

This is what we know:

4x4
8 pieces
The pieces change colour depending on in what direction and on what tile you place them
If you place the piece in the same direction but on another tile it changes colour
All pieces seem to show the same colour when placed on the same tile in the same direction
There are 4 colours: Red, green, yellow and purple
Made by All in 1 products Ltd. in China 2005

What is this game?

This is Sata (released in some countries as Tactigo).


In Commander, does color identity prevent me from taking control of a different colored permanent? In trying out EDH for the first time last night we ran into a confusing issue. I was using Olivia Voldaren as my commander.

One opponent activated Ajani Goldmane's 6 point ability to summon a white avatar creature, which I then used Olivia to vampire and steal. I think this is okay because despite being white the avatar wouldn't have any non-black, non-red dots on the face.

I then wanted to steal another one of his creatures that was white and had white mana on the face, but I wasn't sure if this was allowed.

So in EDH, I know that I can't construct my deck with cards outside of my commander's colour identity, but does this stop me taking control of creatures outside of my colour range?

No, stealing an opponent's creature of any color is fine.

The only limitations are the ones explicitly imposed by the rules:

Color identity applies during deck creation. You may not put a white card or a card that uses white mana symbols in your red/black Olivia deck. (You could include a black card that creates a white token, though; or an extort card, since that's just reminder text.)
(Historical only.) Before 2016, there was a special rule limiting how you generate mana: mana outside of your color identity would become colorless when it entered your mana pool. So if you were playing Olivia Voldaren and you would add {W} to your mana pool, you'd get colorless mana instead. This meant you would might trouble activating the abilities of some of the creatures you stole with Olivia.


What well designed Icehouse games are available for two people? Recently the Icehouse game system has caught my eye.  I've looked through a ton of rules on the Icehouse Wiki but haven't found any really engaging game for two players.  What well designed Icehouse games are available for two people? The amount of stashes is not really and issue for me.  I'm looking for games that flow well, are not too complex, and are enjoyable for two players.

My favorite 2-player Icehouse game is Volcano, you need to print out one sheet of paper with the "board" (though you could still play without it), rules are simple but the game is quite deep in strategy. The game requires 6 stashes of different colors.


Is it better to start with M13 and splash in RtR and GTC when building a deck? I've been doing some reading on deck building and I'm getting the feeling that using the RtR and GC expansions are better mixed in with a solid M13 deck.  However, I can't really confirm this anywhere, which is why I'm asking here.

I've been focusing my booster pack purchases on RtR and GTC but I think I need to spend some more M13 time if this is the case.  Any advice?

Generally speaking, whichever option you choose, this is no big deal. Expansions and core sets released together are designed to play well with each other. But core sets are also designed to be reasonable stand-alone products.

Learning Magic

Core sets are designed to help you learn Magic. The mix of cards is targeted towards newer players. The creatures and spells are generally about as powerful as the ones in expansions, but many of the lower-rarity cards are simpler. In particular, you're less likely to find surprising or "counterintuitive" mechanics that change the basic resource relationships in the game; cards are also less likely to have difficult requirements or restrictions.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. In my experience, new players learn best when they're interested and excited about the game, regardless of what exactly it is that they're doing. The expansion sets are more complex but not overwhelmingly so. If you're really excited by the idea of taxing your opponent to death, for example, then by all means, grab that (Gatecrash) Orzhov intro deck — there may be a bit more up-front complexity in figuring out how to use the cards well, but your enthusiasm will also help you get up the learning curve faster. My wife learned to play just fine with Myr of Mirrodin, an expansion intro deck; the deck's strategy just clicked naturally for her, so within two or three games she was already making substantive improvements using cards from boosters.

The complexity difference is most noticeable in drafting. Core-set drafts tend to be much more forgiving, with more of a focus on deckbuilding fundamentals like building your deck around a mana curve and choosing cards that support a consistent game plan. Drafting an expansion set well, in contrast, tends to demand a good understanding of the internal synergies and idiosyncracies of the enrivonment.

Building a strong deck

Cards in expansion sets like Return to Ravnica aren't necessarily any more powerful than cards in the core set. Core sets usually have the "basic" version of an effect, whereas expansion sets tend to feature a modified version that plays to the set's mechanical themes (compare Cancel and Dissipate, for instance). However, there are always at least a few high-powered staples in core sets — cards like Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt, and Farseek — as well as powerhouse "bomb" cards like Sun Titan and Thragtusk.

Tournament decks pretty much universally have cards from a lot of different sets, because being able to cherrypick the best cards available gives players a competitive edge.

Specific themes

One area where the expansion sets really shine is exploring specific themes. Core sets often have some themed cards, like the different Soldiers in M13, but with fewer cards than a full block and less specialized mechanics, they don't go as deep as the expansions do. If you want to build a graveyard-abusing deck, or an elf deck, or an all-artifacts deck based around Tempered Steel, you'll likely want to focus on cards from a particular expansion set that focused on those themes.


Are there ways to estimate the value of development cards in Catan? In Catan, a development card costs one sheep, one wheat, and one ore, three resources in all. Here are development cards that you might be able to get for those three resources:

Year of plenty. Two resources of your choice. This is a 3- for -2 trade, but you get two "scarce" resources for three that are (presumably) abundant. If you are playing an ore-wheat-sheep game, you are probably short of brick, and/or wood. This may be close to a "breakeven" trade.
Two roads. Two brick and two wood. Four resources for three. Plus the fact that brick and/or wood is likely to be scarce resources for you as discussed above.
Monopoly. Depending on when and how it is played, it can be an "explosive" card, both for helping your own development, and hindering all of your opponents.' Arguably the best card in the deck.
Victory point. Establishes a "basic" trade ratio of three resources for one victory point.
Largest army. Requires at least three knights, sometimes four or more. Let's say an average of four. Then you need 12 resources to get two victory points. That works out to six resources per victory point. The difference between knights and the above is that in addition to getting you two victory points, the four knights save you resources (and hurt opponents' production) by moving the robber away from you. These can be valuable if relatively few sevens are rolled in the game.

Are there experts (tournament players or at least bloggers/you tubers) who have created tables analogous to mine that can be used for a "check?" How do these tables differ from the above? Have I missed or overlooked anything?

I'm not aware of any tables like what you're looking for, however many years ago I did read a Catan strategy article which gave the advice that you should treat every development card as a victory point. What the author meant was that generally they should be played in a way that immediately gains you points. For example, the Year of Plenty could get you the resources that allow you to surprise other players and build a settlement or the road building card might let you get to an important spot before another player to build a settlement before they can.
Overall I think you underestimate the power of the development cards, the year of plenty isn't simply trading the cost of the card for three new resources, you're getting three resources that can be called on at almost any time yet until you use the card they cannot be robbed and don't increase the size of your hand.


What happens to cards cast from exile? There are a few cards that allow you to exile cards and then cast them later (Narset, Enlightened Master for example). After a spell cast this way resolves, does it go back into exile, or does it resolve normally including being placed in its owner's graveyard? (assuming nothing else effects where it would go after being cast)

What happens to a spell after it's been cast is not affected by where it was cast from. It's the usual rule about cards being by default "reset" whenever they move from a zone to another.

Unless the spell itself (e.g. Pull from the Deep, White Sun's Zenith...) or another card (such as Rest in Peace) says it doesn't go to the graveyard, that is where it will end up.


If Soulflayer exiles a Winged Sliver from the graveyard via delve does it gain flying? Soulflayer has delve and reads

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

Winged Sliver reads

  All Sliver creatures have flying.

My question is... does Soulflayer gain flying if a Winged Sliver that was in the graveyard is exiled?

No, the Winged Sliver does not have flying but grants itself that ability along with all other sliver creatures. The first ruling on the Soulflayer page says that it does not happen.

  Creature cards that have abilities that grant the listed keyword abilities to themselves won’t count. For example, exiling a Battle Brawler (a creature with “As long as you control a red or white permanent, Battle Brawler gets +1/+0 and has first strike”) with Soulflayer’s delve ability won’t cause Soulflayer to have first strike, even if you control a red or white permanent.

Also, for further clarification on the Winged Sliver page

  If the creature type of a Sliver changes so it’s no longer a Sliver, it will no longer be affected by its own ability. Its ability will continue to affect other Sliver creatures.


Does Phantom Flock still prevent damage if it has no counters left? Was having an argument with a friend, and couldn't really resolve the issue via google.  Let's say, Phantom Flock ("If damage would be dealt to Phantom Flock, prevent that damage. Remove a +1/+1 counter from Phantom Flock.") is on the field, along with Aven Brigadier out, giving Phantom flock +2/+2. So the Phantom Flock is a 5/5, with 3 +1/+1 counters, and the buff from the Aven Brigadier.  Let's assuming then that I deal damage three times to the Phantom Flock, making it a 2/2.  If I then deal two more damage to it, does it die, or is the damage still prevented, removing an "invisible" +1/+1 counter from it?

The damage is still prevented.

The Gatherer rulings even mention this:

  The damage prevention ability works even if it has no counters, as long as some effect keeps its toughness above zero.

This happens because whenever you can't do everything a card says to do, you do as much as you can. (As the rules, say, "609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.") The card says to prevent the damage, so it's prevented. It also says to remove a +1/+1 counter, and there's not, so you don't remove one. Oh well. This is the same reason that if something says sacrifice three creatures, and you only have one, you still sacrifice that one.

If instead the card said "If damage would be dealt to Phantom Flock, remove a +1/+1 counter from Phantom Flock. If you do, prevent that damage." you would be able to kill it with damage once the counters were gone.


Temporary gain control effects, what happens if I give the permanent to another opponent before the effect ends? Let's say that I temporarily gain control of an opponents permanent through some means, and then, before the temporary effect ends, I give it to another opponent (though let's say Harmless Offering). Will the permanent still return to the original opponent (presumably the owner), or will it stay under the control of the second opponent?
I can see this working differently in different scenarios, so let me give two examples:

Gaining control of a creature through Act of Treason which creates an effect that lasts until end of turn.
Gaining control of a creature through Control Magic, and then having Control Magic be destoryed after the creature has been given to the second opponent.

In both cases, the opponent you gave the permanent to will keep it.
When you take control of the permanent, you create a continuous control-changing effect that gives you control of the permanent. When you give the permanent to another player, you create another continuous control-changing effect that gives control of the permanent to that player. Once the first effect ends, either because the Act of Treason time runs out, or the Control Magic is destroyed, the second effect keeps working, so the opponent you gave the permanent to will still control it.


Opener rebid priority I'm playing/studying SAYC. So I know that game in major comes first then notrump then game in minors.

When I open with 1 Club partner responds with 1 Spade -- I have 18PTS and 4 hearts and NT distribution, should I bid 2Hhearts, 3Hearts, or 1NT?

With SAYC a balanced hand would normally be bid as follows:

13-14 points - open 1 of a suit then rebid 1NT
15-17 points - open 1NT
18-19 points - open 1 of a suit then rebid 2NT
20-21 points - open 2NT

Your rebid should be 2NT. If you bid this, your partner has a very good idea of what you've got and can then decide how best to proceed.

It's also worth noting that when your partner responded he should have been "bidding up the line". So if he had the same number of hearts and spades, he would bid hearts rather than spades. A heart fit is therefore unlikely.


Card game where you're dealt two role cards you keep hidden I played a game a couple of months ago that was pretty minimalist. Everyone (6+ players) was dealt two cards that they kept hidden. Each had a role, I think some included Assassin, Baron or Duke(?), Courtesan(?). During each person's turn, you could do some basic action, an improved action permitted by your hidden role cards, or bluff another action. You lose when both your cards are revealed through people calling your bluff or they're killed.

The game had a short name that I can't for the life of me seem to figure out. Anyone have any ideas?

The game you're thinking of is called The Resistance: Coup.

It was originally a kickstarter game that has lots of different publishers/distributors depending on what country you're in, but it's available from Amazon either way.


Can I discard a ticket if it can't be completed? In Ticket To Ride, what happens if I have a ticket that can’t be completed because other players have already used that route?  Is there a way to trade it in or drop it? Or am I just stuck with it?

There is no way to get rid of a destination card once you already have it.

Destination cards count as negative points against your score if you do not complete them for a reason (think of it thematically - you are playing as a company who has taken on a contract to connect two specific cities by train, and if your company doesn't finish the contract there are penalties), and this is part of the consideration you have to make when drawing 3 and keeping 2 or 3 at the start of the game, or drawing 3 and keeping 1, 2 or 3 later in the game.

You have to strategically choose which one(s) you have drawn that you think are possible to complete, taking into account how likely it is for other player's actions to block you.

Sometimes you may be able to build around a more direct route that has been blocked by other players (especially in early- to mid-game, but less likely during the end of the game), and sometimes it is even worth your while to not take the most direct route, especially where 2 or more of your destination cards include nearby locations.


What happens to my cards exiled by an opponent's Oblivion Ring when they lose the game? My opponent in a multiplayer game had exiled 2 cards I controlled during a recent game with an Oblivion Ring like ability.  On my next turn I hit him for lethal.

What happens when he loses the game? Do the 2 cards remain exiled or do they re-enter play under my control?

Permanents exiled by Oblivion Ring stay exiled when its controller loses. To quote Ask a Magic Judge from March 16th 2018:

deg99 asked: In multiplayer, if a card is banished with a card like Oblivon ring, and oblivion ring's controller loses, is the banished card returned to play?
Judge: No because the separate return trigger never gets to go on the stack.

This is because a player who's lost can't put any abilities on the stack—they're no longer in the game. From the multiplayer rules (where “an object” includes things like triggered abilities):

800.4d If an object that would be owned by a player who has left the game would be created in any zone, it isn’t created. If a triggered ability that would be controlled by a player who has left the game would be put onto the stack, it isn’t put on the stack.

(We can also reference March 30th 2013 for this situation.)
The answer is different if Oblivion Ring's owner loses, but they weren't controlling the Ring at the time. Suppose Player A cast the Ring, and later Player B gains control of it. When Player A loses the game, their Oblivion Ring also leaves, and the exiled cards will come back. Quoting the judge again from March 14th 2015:

mightym79 asked: What happens when the owner of an Oblivion Ring loses in a multiplayer game while another player controls it (e.g. because of Zedruu giving it away)? Does the permanent come back?
Judge: Because Oblivion Ring’s controller is still in the game, the “leaves the battlefield” ability will trigger and resolve as normal, returning whatever was exiled.

This situation is entirely because Oblivion Ring has a separate triggered ability that returns the permanent. This will occur the same way with any other permanent meeting that pattern, such as Detention Sphere or Fiend Hunter.
If instead your permanents are exiled with Banisher Priest, Banishing Light, or any other card which says approximately “exile those cards until this permanent leaves the battlefield”, your permanents will return as the Banisher Priest leaves the battlefield. This is because the effect keeping them exiled simply ends.


Good set for building several casual level decks I want to build several decks for casual playing. My plan is to choose a set, buy 6-7 of each common, 3 of each uncommon, maybe some cheap rares, a stack of basic lands plus whatever tokens I need and use this to build a deck for each single colour and for each pair of colours. As I have never played Magic a lot, I don't know the sets so choosing the set to build this from is hard for me.

I am looking for the following:

coherent theme (I was thinking about Modern Horizons but cards from all over the place drove me off it)
good availability (easy to buy, not very expensive, a lot of bulk rares)
possibility to build 15 decks (mono and two colours) of similar power and playing differently, with all major Magic deck archetypes represented

Which set would you recommend for this?

Core sets like M20 are pretty much built for this kind of "introductory" play, although if you want to represent EVERYTHING magic has to offer you might need to bleed across multiple core sets.

I'll also say that core sets tend not to have very much multi-colour support - Return to Ravnica springs to mind as a set that explicitly encourages dual-coloured deck building, if you're willing to branch out even further.


When is my last opportunity to turn a manifested Kytheon face up and still cause his trigger? I have 3 creatures that have attacked, one of which is a manifested Kytheon, Hero of Akros. Assuming he will survive combat, when is my last opportunity to "un-manifest" him from a 2/2 and still receive his planeswalker flip trigger? Can I do it after damage, or do I have to do it after blocks, or even as far back as before I declare attackers?

The only restriction is that you have to do it before the End of Combat step, so you can do it after damage is dealt.

When Kytheon's ability says "if Kytheon, Hero of Akros attacked..." it means "if this creature attacked...". Specifically, rule 201.4 says

  Text that refers to the object it's on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

and rule 701.31a says

  "Manifest [a card]" means "Put [that card] onto the battlefield face down." That permanent is a 2/2 creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. That permanent is a manifested permanent as long as it's face down. The effect defining its characteristics works any time the card is face down and ends when it's turned face up.

The point here is that Manifest is an effect that changes the creature's characteristics, including its name, but it's still the object that "Kytheon, Hero of Akros" refers to.

Rule 110.6 says

  A permanent's status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.

and rule 701.31b says

  Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested permanent you control face up. This is a special action that doesn't use the stack (see rule 115.2b). To do this, show all players that the card representing that permanent is a creature card and what its mana cost is, pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up. The effect defining its characteristics while it was face down ends, and it regains its normal characteristics. If the card representing that permanent isn't a creature card or doesn't have a mana cost, it can't be turned face up this way.

As both of these indicate, when a manifested creature is turned face up, it is the same object that it was when it was face down.

Finally, rule 511.1, the rule describing the End of Combat step says

  First, all "at end of combat" abilities trigger and go on the stack.

Therefore, as long as Kytheon's ability exists when the End of Combat step starts, and you met the requirements, it will trigger and Kytheon will flip. The last time you gain priority before the End of Combat step is during the Combat Damage step, after damage is dealt, so that is your last opportunity to turn Kytheon face up and have the ability trigger.


If ants are better than spiders, why are there more? I recently picked up the game, and have been thinking about it (since I haven't had someone to play it with yet).

In chess, the pawn is the weakest piece and also the most numerous at 8. The rooks, are much more powerful, but you only have 2, and queen is unique.

So why in Hive are you given 3 ants (infinite slide... almost free choice) and 2 spiders (exactly 3 slides)?
It seems that ant/spider roles should be reversed.

I know they're different games, and I haven't tried Hive enough to draw conclusions, but I was wondering if anyone who's more experienced had any insight on the flow of the game. I know i could use house rules and just switch their roles, but would that make the game too slow/difficult to complete?

It seems as if spiders would be throw away early pieces, with the ants doing a lot of the mid-late game work?

The way Hive is played is that a lot of pieces end up trapped by the 'one hive' rule. Ants are very good at this. Once your ants are trapped, it's hard to win. Spiders are weaker pieces and get sacrificed easily. With too few powerful pieces, it would be hard to keep the game interesting. The boardgamegeek faq adds:

Aren't spiders just weak ants?
A spider is indeed strictly weaker than an ant. Some people are bothered by this and propose many variants to "fix" the "problem". Others are not bothered by it, and say "A rook or bishop is strictly weaker than a queen in chess, too." While more limited, Spiders are useful in many circumstances, particularly in the early phase while the hive is small. Learning to use your spiders correctly can give you an advantage, especially in a circumstance where you might have just used a soldier ant. If used correctly, you'll usually only use them once, and they'll give you the pinning power you need early on, without wasting your soldier ant pieces for when you'll really need them in the late game.


WoW TCG Magtheridon Raid Strategies I'm going to be running Magtheridon for some friends and was looking for advice in general and wondering specifically about bloods. Should I try to keep them around, or spend them on various effects?

We will be running the raid allowing only cards that had been released at the time.

The way that you phrase the question makes me think that you misinterpreted the rules for how Blood works. Blood is not spent by cards like "Brush Aside". The "for every-" means that you just count the amount of blood. Blood is resource and you need to make sure that if you need them, you have them. Constantly using "Power Returns" will make it hard for you to use other abilities effectively, but it's a nice card to have when you are running low on options.


Rivals For Catan - Riots My daughter and I have been playing this game, and disagree on what happens if riots occur and you can’t pay. Yes, you have to put a card back under the stack. BUT, can the person who returned the card immediately pay to exchange a card and look through the stack and get that card back (assuming the riots occurred on their turn)?

If you discard a card at the start of your turn, you can pick it back up at the end of your turn.

There's nothing that would prevent this from happening. As the last part of your turn, you are allowed to exchange one card from your hand, and you may pay to look through a draw stack and pick any card you want. The game doesn't place any restrictions on what card you can take, nor does it have any "memory" about where the card has been in the past. You can even do this to pick up the card that the other player discarded. Note that this can't happen "immediately" as you suggest, since you don't exchange cards until the end of the turn, so Riots will take your unit out of commission for at least one round. But it's perfectly legal to discard a unit due to Riots at the start of the turn, pick it back up at the end of the turn, and then play it again on the following turn.

Also note that with expansions, there are non-unique units, so it'd be pretty impractical to disallow a player from picking up the same unit they just discarded - after the fact, it would be impossible to prove if you exchanged for the Chief Cannoneer on the bottom that you just discarded, or the one that's second from the bottom that you didn't discard.


Monopoly Deal Wild Property and paying debts If a player has a wild property down and is charged a rent, are they able to withhold the wild card?

Specifically, if it is their last card, and they still owe, can it be kept?

According to this site, the wild cards have no value and cannot be used to pay debt...  however, does that mean a player gets to keep them if they owe and cannot pay otherwise?

Yes, they are able to (and indeed must) withhold the card. This follows from the fact that the card cannot be used to pay rent (as you cite) and that

  If you have no cards in front of you worth any monetary amount shown on the corner of the card, you do not pay anything.

(Quoted from this site)


Clan rat shields in skirmish Me and a friend have just started Aos  skirmishes. Skaven have the below rule for Shields:

But in skirmish units are single models. How should this rule work?

We currently give the +1 save for each model that has a shield no matter the count of other models on the field. It seems fair as rats are so squishy, but are we doing the correct thing?

Competitive/Matched Play answer.

No. They shouldn't get the save, since each individual unit is a single model.

Narrativist/Open Play Answer.

Yes. If it makes your game more fun, and everyone agrees, change things however you all like. It's your game do what you want even if it's not technically correct.


Laquatus's Champion and Torpor orb I have a Laquatus Champion who entered the battlefield while there was a Torpor Orb on the field (and thus it's first ability didn't trigger). What happens when it then leaves the battlefield ?

The second ability reads "When Laquatus's Champion leaves the battlefield, that player gains 6 life." But which player gains life is chosen in the first ability (in this case it never happened).

My guess is the ability doesn't trigger/can't resolve and nobody gains life, but I'm not sure.

PS : a similar situation may happen if all players have shroud when the Champion comes into play.

You are correct that nothing will happen. The Champion's abilities are what are called Linked Abilities, and the second one depends on choices made from the first one. Since nothing was targeted by the first ability there is nothing for the second one to reference.

Think of it like Fiend Hunter since the first ability didn't exile anything there is nothing for it to return when it leaves the battlefield, the Champion works the same way but with life.

  607.1. An object may have two abilities printed on it such that one of them causes actions to be taken or objects or players to be affected and the other one directly refers to those actions, objects, or players. If so, these two abilities are linked: the second refers only to actions that were taken or objects or players that were affected by the first, and not by any other ability.


What counts as a coastline in Catan Seafarers? I was wondering about the coastline on islands not the main lands.
Does the coastline refer to the whole island? Where it's either road or boat?
Or are they separate coastlines on the same island.

So let's say one side of the island I use ships, then on the exact same island on the other side I use roads...

Or is the coastline refering as one, whether its boat or ship that surrounds a whole island

"Coastline" is used three times in the rules. The following is the first instance:

  Roads and ships may not be built along the same coastline.

The very next sentence explains what this means.

  There can only be one ship OR one road along any given coastal hex side

As such, the rules define "coastline" as "coastal hex side". And for any given coastal hex side, you can't use both a ship and and road.

The following are the other two instances:

  If your shipping route reaches a coastline, you can then build a new settlement on that coast

  [You] may elect to place either or both of their starting settlements on the coastline. If you do so, you have the option of placing a ship, instead of a road, adjacent to that settlement.

Since settlements can't be placed on hex sides, this is obviously a different usage of the term. The standard English definition applies here: The coast or coastline is the line that separates water from land.


When does paying activated ability costs occur in mtg? I was playing a game of Commander with my friends a while ago and I had a Seal of Doom in play alongside a Starfield of Nyx and enough enchantments to make all my enchantments creatures. My opponent throws a creature removal spell at my Seal of Doom. In response I use Seal of Doom's activated ability and sacrifice it in order to destroy a creature. My opponent then responds by playing Snakeform on it.

My friend says that i can't activate its ability since it's no longer Seal of Doom and the ability reads "Sacrifice Seal of Doom: Destroy target creature". But isn't the cost payed once the ability goes on the stack and therefore isn't Seal of Doom already in the graveyard before his instant spell resolves? Or am I wrong and can you counter an activated ability this way?

Costs are payed as part of the process of activating an ability. Once you start activating an ability, nobody has an opportunity to respond until after modes, costs, and targets are chosen, and costs are payed. So, the situation you describe should have played out like this:

Your opponent casts a creature removal spell targeting Seal of Doom.
In response, you activate Seal of Doom's ability. At this time, you sacrifice Seal of Doom.
Your opponent has an opportunity to respond while Seal of Doom's ability is on the stack, but they can't target it with Snakeform because it is no longer on the battlefield.
Seal of Doom's ability resolves.

The rules for activating activated abilities use the rules for casting spells, and these are the relevant steps:

602.2a The player announces that he or she is activating the ability. If an activated ability is being activated from a hidden zone, the card that has that ability is revealed. That ability is created on the stack as an object that’s not a card. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. Its controller is the player who activated the ability. The ability remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.

[...]

601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.

601.2i Once the steps described in 601.2a–h are completed, the [ability becomes activated]. [...] If the [ability]’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

Keep in mind that the original creature removal spell never does anything to Seal of Doom. Seal of Doom is sacrificed and the ability resolves all before that spell ever resolves. So even if that first creature removal spell had been another Snakeform, it wouldn't have mattered.

A Variation on the Ability
I would also like to clarify that even if the ability worked more like how your opponent thought it worked, they still wouldn't be able to stop it with Snakeform. Consider the hypothetical card Seal of Delayed Doom with the following ability:

{0}: Sacrifice Seal of Delayed Doom. If you do, destroy target creature.

The difference here is that the "Sacrifice Seal of Delayed Doom" clause is part of the effect instead of the cost, so you wouldn't do it until the ability resolves. If you had that instead, your situation would instead play out like this:

Your opponent casts a creature removal spell targeting Seal of Delayed Doom.
In response, you activate Seal of Delayed Doom's ability.
In response, your opponent casts Snakeform targeting Seal of Delayed Doom.
Snakeform resolves, and Seal of Delayed Doom becomes a 1/1 Green Snake with no abilities. But importantly, it's still the same Seal of Delayed Doom object, just with modified types, abilities, and color.
Seal of Delayed Doom's ability resolves. At this point, it instructs you to sacrifice Seal of Delayed Doom, which refers specifically to the object that created the ability. So even though it's a Green Snake and doesn't have the ability, the Seal of Delayed Doom is still on the battlefield and you can (and must) still sacrifice it. You do so, and the targeted creature is destroyed.

This is specified by rule 201.4:

Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

Split Second
There is one way that the opponent could have destroyed Seal of Doom without allowing you to sacrifice it in response: the ability Split Second prevents players from responding to it's on with other spells or activated abilities that aren't mana abilities. If the opponent cast any of the following spells as or instead of the first creature removal spell, then you would not be able to activate Seal of Doom in response or after the removal spell resolves:

Krosan Grip
Molten Disaster (kicked, with X at least 2)
Sudden Death
Sudden Shock
Sudden Spoiling (would need to follow up with another removal spell)
Take Possession (would need to sacrifice the Seal of Doom while you control it)
Wipe Away
Word of Seizing (would need to sacrifice the Seal of Doom while you control it)


Do on-death triggered abilities of creatures happen in multiplayer when a creature's owner loses at the same time? So my friend had gained control of my Wurmcoil Engine and attacked me. When damage resolved Wurmcoil Engine and myself had lethal damage, so both myself (player) and my creature with a "when this creature dies" effect die at the same time. Would my friend controlling the Wurmcoil Engine still receive the two tokens from Wurmcoil Engine dying? my understanding is that when I die, everything I own is removed from game thus when the check is made on the ability of Wurmcoil being in my graveyard to generate the tokens, it would not be in my graveyard but instead be in exile along with everything else.

A good resource in this situation is http://chat.magicjudges.org/mtgrules/ - their answer follows:

  Both them losing and Wurmcoil dying happens as part of the same "set" of State Based Actions.  Wurmcoil will hit the graveyard and they will lose at the same time.  Wurmcoil will still trigger in that case since it did, in fact, die.

Edit: Relevant rules

  118.6. If a player has 0 or less life, that player loses the game as a state-based action. See rule 704.

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

  704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:
      704.5a If a player has 0 or less life, he or she loses the game.
      704.5g If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and the total damage marked on it is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed. Regeneration can replace this event.
      704.5h If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and it’s been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based actions were checked, that creature is destroyed. Regeneration can replace this event.


Exciting skirmish: a family versus a shovel. Who wins? When playing with 2 players the amount of tribe members is irrelevant. Suppose that one player takes a family to the skirmish, and the other a shovel. With that, both players have fight 0. Is this a draw or the player showing the family wins?

Only tribe members ("people") may fight in a skirmish, so the only player that is actually involved in the skirmish is the player that had the tribe member card.

However, since you need to win a skirmish by 2 (when playing with only two players), and the tribe members have 0 attack,  the outcome of the above example skirmish would be considered a draw and the contested card would go to the junk pile.


The Witches: A Discworld Board Game - Defeating Count Bela When you defeat Count Bela Magpyr, the rules says that all Magpyr figures are removed from the board. What will happen with the points in that cards? Are for the player who defeat Bela or just are removed from the game (points go for no one)?

The removal of all other Magpyrs is part of the special reward for defeating the Count. Player who defeated him gets to keep his token and score the points just for him, all other are simply set aside and no one gets the points for them.


Why doesn't WotC use established keywords on all new cards? In War of the Spark, we have the returning mechanic of proliferate. But we also have additional returning mechanics that don't use the associated keywords, namely Evolution Sage with landfall. This seems to happen a few times per set, where instead of printing the keyword they decide to explain the full mechanic on new cards. Is there a reason that WotC doesn't use established keywords with cards that use the associated mechanic?

Landfall isn't an established keyword since it's not a keyword; it doesn't have its own article in the Comprehensive Rules, rule 702. Rather, it is an ability word which does nothing more than link a group of cards with a common theme/mechanic together.

  207.2c An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that they tie together cards that have similar functionality, but they have no special rules meaning and no individual entries in the Comprehensive Rules. The ability words are addendum, battalion, bloodrush, channel, chroma, cohort, constellation, converge, council's dilemma, delirium, domain, eminence, enrage, fateful hour, ferocious, formidable, grandeur, hellbent, heroic, imprint, inspired, join forces, kinship, landfall, lieutenant, metalcraft, morbid, parley, radiance, raid, rally, revolt, spell mastery, strive, sweep, tempting offer, threshold, undergrowth, and will of the council.

(the list might be updated when a new set comes out)

Having said that, it looks like Evolution Sage is the only card in that set with  landfall a landfall-like ability. Having only one card with that mechanic is (apparently) not enough to return a key- or ability word from a previous block; they generally only do so for evergreen keywords like lifelink, vigilance or shroud.


Limits on using new words in scrabble The example from Scrabble manual have the following picture illustrating the scoring:

  In the following, the words added on five successive turns are shown in bold type. The scores shown are the correct scores if the letter R is placed on the center square. In Turn 1, count HORN: in Turn 2, FARM; in Turn 3, PASTE and FARMS; in Turn 4, MOB, NOT and BE; in Turn 5, BIT, PI and AT.

But on turn 3 besides FARMS and PASTE the word ARMS is also formed, but I don't see it scored. Also, on turn 2 only FARM is scored while ARM is also there.
Why?

Let's check the Hasbro rules (http://scrabble.hasbro.com).
It's not verbose but it can be inferred from the text.
Rules are different for the first play and for subsequent plays.
Bold is mine.

  The first player combines two or more of his or her letters to form a word and [...].

Note that the rules for the first play say to form "a word", not "words". So one word is inferred.

  Play passes to the left. The second player, and then each in turn, adds one or more letteres to those already played to form new words.
  All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down
  the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same time,
  they touch other letters in adjacent rows, those must also form
  complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player
  gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his or her turn.

Note that letters must be placed in one row to form a "complete word", "crossword fashion". So it's not explicit but to form complete words in crossword fashion seems to imply that subsets of words are not allowed (in crosswords each row across or down is a single word).


Do I use the original start tile when playing The River? Yesterday I bought the Carcassonne board game and it comes with the mini-expansion The River.

I read the rules but they don't clarify whether the removed/replaced first tile is removed from the game or mixed with the other tiles for future use after the 12 river tiles are played.

What do you do with the original game's start tile when playing The River?

If you're playing with the River (or the River II) don't play with the start tile from the basic game - it has a different coloured back and so will stand out during the tile draw.


Learning to build multi-color decks in Magic I'm a MTG noob, and currently I've only built single-color decks. However, I want to explore the art of building decks that use cards of multiple colors.

What are the advantages of a multicolor deck? Why do people decide to build them? What goes into the process of deciding which colors and cards to combine? Do people decide to build a red-green deck and then find the best cards to use, or do they decide on the kind of cards they want and later figure that red-green would probably give the best results?
Do multicolor decks usually have an equal amount of lands and spells of each color? Or can you have one primary color and one secondary color? Which is more efficient/better and why?
How can I choose what spells of each color to add so I get color-screwed as little as possible? If all my creatures are of one color, and I don't get any land of that color, I'm in trouble. Likewise, if I have a lot of spells that require multiple mana of one color, they will be harder to cast in a multi-color deck than in a single color one.
What cards become more/less valuable in a multicolor vs. single color deck? Obviously cards that can generate mana of different colors become more valuable and cards that require lots of mana of one color become less valuable for starters. How can I take maximum advantage of cards that are better in multicolor decks and avoid those that are weaker?

The other answers have explained pretty well what the advantages of a multicolor deck are, but I think I can add something on this point:

  What goes into the process of deciding which colors and cards to combine? Do people decide to build a red-green deck and then find the best cards to use, or do they decide on the kind of cards they want and later figure that red-green would probably give the best results?

It depends on what level you play at. A beginner might very well decide to make a deck of a specific color combination, and then perhaps be guided toward a particular strategy by that choice of colors - for example, choosing to play red-green kind of pushes you toward playing a deck with strong creatures and burn spells, or blue-white would push you toward a control deck with counterspells, white removal, and a few flying creatures.

But at higher levels, people don't think that much about colors when building a deck, at least not right at the beginning - for one thing, even once you choose a color or colors, there are still many thousands of cards to pick from in those colors. Pro deck designers usually build around a specific card, or more often, a specific combination of two or three cards, which typically sets the color scheme for the deck. For example, the Exarch-Twin deck that's currently popular relies on Deceiver Exarch (blue) and Splinter Twin (red), which requires that the deck is going to be blue-red. Or Valakut decks need Primeval Titan, so they pretty much have to be green-red (unless you have access to Prismatic Omen, but that's a different story). The Tempered Steel deck from Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed is an example of a deck whose color (white) was set by a single card - of course, that was only possible because the cards that Tempered Steel works well with happen to be colorless.

In some other cases (actually this is pretty common), you might start out with one or two cards and begin building a deck around those cards' color(s), but then you discover that the deck doesn't work very well without a certain kind of effect that you can only get in a different color. A good example of this is Pyromancer Ascension. You could, in principle, build a mono-red deck around that card, but in order to get the enchantment active, you typically need to find and cast two copies of two different cards - for example, two Lightning Bolts and two Shocks. That's not likely to happen before your opponent kills you, unless you have a way to filter through your deck looking for multiple copies of spells - and that's where blue spells like Preordain come in. This is why Ascension decks are blue-red, and in fact why a lot of different decks (like the Puresteel Paladin/equipment combo deck) like to add blue, even when you might not think it's necessary.


Are white bordered cards allowed in DCI sanctioned tournaments? Everywhere I look has specific ban lists for Magic. I have heard that "all white border cards are banned in DCI sanctioned tournaments" But my 'Stream of Life' is white bordered and not listed on the modern banned list.

Are all white bordered cards banned in DCI events?

Yes, white bordered cards are legal.

From the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules (English version):

  Players may use any Authorized Game Cards from Magic: The Gathering
  expansions, core sets, special sets, supplements, and promotional
  printings. Authorized Game Cards are cards that, unaltered, meet the
  following conditions:

The card is genuine and published by Wizards of the Coast

  It is important to remember that fake Magic cards exist. Usually,
  these cards can be identified as fake under scrutiny. If these cards
  are found to be in use in a tournament, they should not continue to be
  used. Also, the player using the card may not realize that they are
  using fake cards, so aside from alerting them that they are using fake
  cards and informing them that they must replace them, we, as judges,
  should not take further action unless we believe they knew and were
  using such cards intentionally.

  Also, Tournament Officials do not have the legal authority to
  confiscate fake cards and should not attempt to do so. Stopping their
  use in the event is sufficient.

The card has a standard Magic back or is a double-faced card, or is a card that is part of a meld pair.

  Artist proofs are published by Wizards of the Coast, but do not have a
  standard Magic back. They are, therefore, not usable in tournament
  play.

The card does not have squared corners.

  Collectors’ Edition cards have black borders on the face, but square
  corners and a gold border on the back. These are not legal for
  tournament use. Also, uncut sheets of cards are sometimes cut for use.
  It is important that these cards have the same corners as all other
  cards.

The card has non-silver borders.

  Cards from Unglued and Unhinged have silver borders with a standard
  Magic back. These are not legal for play. Gold bordered cards also
  exist, though they do not have a standard Magic back.

The card is not a token card.

  Tokens are used to represent objects that don’t exist as normal Magic
  cards. While some official tokens exist, it is not required that they
  be used during tournament play.

The card is not damaged or modified in a way that might make it marked.

  Significantly creased cards can be distinguished from other cards in a
  deck, even sleeved. Also, altered cards may be thicker than the other
  cards in the deck, depending on the method used to alter the card. If
  any cards can be distinguished from the other cards in the deck
  without viewing its front face, then those cards are marked and not
  legal for tournament play.

The card is otherwise legal for the tournament as defined by the format.

  The cards being played in the deck must be printed in a set that is
  legal in the format, even if the printing being used is from an
  otherwise illegal set. For example, it is okay to use the Stronghold
  printing of Mana Leak in Modern even though Stronghold is not a legal
  set for use in Modern.


How can I tell when to take a mulligan in Magic? Determining when to mulligan is a very important skill in magic. But how can I hone my abilities in that skill? Obviously if I had no/all land I'd probably want to mulligan as the opportunity to actually cast some of my spells are worth the 1 card penalty. But what about when I only have 1 land or 1 spell? Are there any good rules of thumb to help me make this decision? How can knowing my deck make these choices easier? What other elements of my hand should I look at when making this decision?

Unfortunately, knowing your deck inside out and comparing your draw against it are the only universal rules that can apply, so it's a highly individual decision that depends on those two factors. If you already have a good idea of the opponent's deck, that also helps, of course. Essentially, experience is where it's at.

You can ask yourself a few questions.

How many more spells/lands do I need to draw in succession to get things going as planned?
How badly is my strategy damaged if I fail to draw more of what I need?
In case of land shortage (mana screw), how many of my spells can I play with the cards I currently hold?
In case of excess lands (mana flood), how powerful are the spells I hold?
Do the cards I 'can' play help me getting more spells by themselves (card drawers)?
Or are they strong enough to put pressure on my opponent, so I can buy a few turns to benefit from the regular card draw phase?
In multi-color decks and holding the wrong mana (color screw), how many colored mana am I missing to cast the majority of my hand, or how many more spells of the wrong color could follow?
What is the strategy of my opponent's deck? If he wins by putting out many fast creatures or direct damage, then losing a few turns may well mean defeat. If your opponent is playing a combo deck, all you may need is a single counter-spell that you can play at the right time.

Note that if you often get into a situation where you must consider mulligan (assuming careful shuffling before each game), then there might be an issue with your deck. Adjust the number of mana sources and/or the mana curve of your spells.

Shuffle thoroughly to ensure that the deck is randomised. Shuffling helps to ensure that if clumps of land or spells do occur, they do so naturally. Pile shuffling alone is not an acceptable means of shuffling. Mash shuffling and riffle shuffling are acceptable.

Mulligans are decided upon in APNAP order. They are acted upon in parallel. First, the active player chooses whether or not to mulligan. Then, the non-active player does the same. After both players have made a decision, mulligans are taken in parallel. This repeats until one player chooses not to mulligan. Then, the remaining player takes his or her remaining mulligans alone.

Some important piece of information is born from this process. When the non-active player chooses to mulligan, the active player should have already stated his or her choice. This extra information may influence the non active player's decision to mulligan. For example, a hand full of one for one spells may be acceptable to keep against a player who is taking a mulligan, because one for one trades generally favor the player with more cards.


How is "shifting" supposed to work in Death Angel? I've read and re-read the rules for shifting marines, but I'm still completely baffled as to how shifting is supposed to work in Death Angel.
This evening I had the following setup:
Dark Corner - Brother Claudio - Ventilation Duct - Genestealer
       Door - Brother Zael    - Corridor
              Brother Goriel
              Brother Noctis
              Brother Omnio

I used Brother Claudio's "Heroic Charge" attack, and since my die appears to be loaded, I rolled yet another 0 and Brother Claudio died.
The rules for shifting state:

Shifting is resolved by taking every Terrain card, Space Marine card, and Genestaeler card in the smaller segment of the formation and moving them up or down to fill in the slain Space Marine's previous position.
The smallest segment is defined as the half of the formation that contains the least Space Marine cards.  If both segments of the formation are even, the bottom segment is shifted up.

So once Brother Claudio dies, I'm left with this:
Dark Corner - ??????????????? - Ventilation Duct - Genestealer
       Door - Brother Zael    - Corridor
              Brother Goriel
              Brother Noctis
              Brother Omnio

Question 1:  When are the formation halves determined, before or after the marine dies?  And what happens when you have an odd number of marines, what exactly is a segment?  And in this case, does it really even matter?
Question 2: Should (1) the Dark Corner, Ventilation Duct and Genestealer from Claudio's row shift down to Brother Zael, placing the Dark Corner and Door both on Zael's left, and the Ventilation Duct, Corridor and Genestealer on the right?
Door / Dark Corner - Brother Zael    - Ventilation Duct / Corridor - Genestealer
                     Brother Goriel
                     Brother Noctis
                     Brother Omnio

Or (2) should Zael shift up to where Claudio was, Goriel shifts up to where Zael was, and Noctis and Omnio stay where they are, leaving the formation as follows:
Dark Corner - Brother Zael    - Ventilation Duct - Genestealer
       Door - Brother Goriel  - Corridor
              Brother Noctis
              Brother Omnio

Can anyone more clearly sum up the rules for shifting?

by my understanding...

the halves are determined by looking at the space left by the dead marine. So it's after removing him.

I believe that, yes, when claudio dies in your example, the terrain all winds up at the front.


Axis and Allies Europe edition: Neutral Territories? So, as far as I understand it, the rulebook for Europe states that if a country invades a "strict neutral" (that is, any neutral that doesn't specify if it is Pro-Allies or Pro-Axis) then ALL other strict neutrals go pro-"non attacking side." For example, let's say that Italy invades Greece. Greece is a strict neutral, so according to the rules, all of the other "strict neutrals" would now become Pro-Allies....

If the U.S. invades Brazil, why would Greece care, or Switzerland for that matter?

I do not play with these rules, since I think they don't make sense.  What variations of this have you played?

For years a group of us in Michigan have played a set of house rules that includes a diplomacy system where you can pay for diplomatic overtures to neutrals to try to sway them to lean toward you ( adding their economy to yours 1$ for sumbness like Rio de Oro, 4$ for Switzerland) and letting you move through their territory or base there.  If you get a spectacular result (11+ on 2 d 6) or two partial results they join you activating their armed forces in your color (rangeing from 1 inf for Rio de Oro to 3 inf a tank and a fighter for Spain).  I agree that attacking one European neutral should not sway the opinion of Asian and American neutrals.


What does "if there are previously drawn cards in your hand, rearrange the hand so that four cards are visible" mean? In one-handed solitaire, after discarding cards the rules state "If there are previously drawn cards in your hand, rearrange the hand so that four cards are visible."

What does this mean?

In one-handed solitaire, your "hand" is all the face-up cards on the top of the deck. You are always supposed to have the top four of these cards visible, which can be achieved by fanning out the top four cards.

So this rule means that "if the number of visible cards is less than four, and the total number of face-up cards on the top of the deck is at least four, then fan out the top four cards so that you can see them all".


Are there any cards that permanently take control of opponents creature I know that the cards I'm familiar with such as Act of Treason and Act of Aggression all specify gaining control until end of turn. I'm wondering if something such as Illusory Gains, Beguiler of Wills, or Blatant Thievery would take control of a creature permanently. I know that the answers on this question Does Illusory Gains make someone else's Commander my own forever? indicate that is not the case but I'm wondering if there is a rule that indicates that effect doesn't last when it's not specified and furthermore are there any cards that do specify the effect lasting permanently?

Control-changing effects aren't really special cases. What you're seeing here is just that some effects are permanent and some aren't. If you put Goblin War Paint on a creature, it gives that creature +2/+2 and haste - but if the aura goes away, so does that effect. It doesn't give +2/+2 and haste forever, just as long as it's around.

Specifically, continuous effects generated by an object last only as long as that object generating them is around:

  611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.

and continuous effects generated by spells or abilities last as long as they say they're going to last, and if no duration is specified they last until the end of the game:

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it (such as “until end of turn”). If no duration is stated, it lasts until the end of the game.

Also perhaps relevant is:

  611.3a A continuous effect generated by a static ability isn’t “locked in”; it applies at any given moment to whatever its text indicates.

So an Aura that has an effect on the creature it's enchanting always applies just to that creature, even if it gets moved around.

Illusory Gains is an example of an effect generated by an object that's not around forever in the realm of gaining control, but a more obvious one is the classic Control Magic. Its effect lasts only as long as the aura is on the battlefield enchanting a creature. If you Control Magic an opponent's creature, and they destroy the Control Magic, they get their creature back. If you move it to a second with an Aura Finesse, you'll lose control of the first creature and gain control of the second creature.

Illusory Gains is the same idea. It gets moved around, and it only says you control the creature it's enchanting, not any other ones, so when it moves away from a creature, there's no longer an effect giving you control of that creature.

Another way a continuous effect might not last forever is if it's created by a spell or ability which specifies a duration explicitly (like "until end of turn"). This is what's going on with Act of Treason. That case is pretty obvious from the text on the card.

The last case is if the spell or ability which creates it doesn't specify a duration. In that case, it lasts until the end of the game. So Beguiler of Wills and Blatant Thievery give you control of things indefinitely: they just say gain control, and don't say "...until end of turn" or anything like it to specify a duration.Since the rules work this way, there aren't cards that explicitly say "gain control forever"; they don't need to.


Hypergenesis vs Containment Priest - How does it resolve? In an upcoming Legacy event near my residence, a friend of mine intends to play using an Hypergenesis deck.

However, recently we have a certain abundance of Containment Priests in our region. This creature makes things with Hypergenesis a bit messy, since it can severely cripple its combo.

I'm aware how Hypergenesis resolves triggered abilities. However, what is not clear to me is what happens in this scenario:

Player A casts Hypergenesis using cascade/suspend/whatever. Player B doesn't counter or respond to it.

Player A puts an Admonition Angel on the table.
Player B puts an Containment Priest on the table.
Player A puts a random land on the table, lets say, a Mountain.
Player B doesn't put anything on the table.
Player A puts a random creature that doesn't trigger anything, like, let's say, Progenitus.
Neither Player B or A puts anything else on the table, thus, Hypergenesis finishes resolving and is sent to the graveyard.

Now, what's the end result of the table, after Hypergenesis resolves?

Does Containment Priest exile Progenitus?
Does the Landfall ability of Admonition Angel trigger?
Does Containment Priest exile anything at all during Hypergenesis?

Containment Priest exiles just Progenitus. Admonition Angel's landfall ability triggers once.

Containment Priest's ability is a replacement effect (rule 614.1a says "Effects that use the word 'instead' are replacement effects."). Rule 614.4 says

  Replacement effects must exist before the appropriate event occurs—they can’t “go back in time” and change something that’s already happened. Spells or abilities that generate these effects are often cast or activated in response to whatever would produce the event and thus resolve before that event would occur.

Admonition Angel enters the battlefield before Containment Priest, so it is not exiled. But by the time Progenitus would enter, Containment Priest is already on the battlefield, so Progenitus is exiled instead.

Admonition Angel's Landfall ability (like any Landfall ability) is a triggered ability because rule 603.1 says

  Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[Trigger condition], [effect],” and begin with the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” They can also be expressed as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect].”

Rule 603.6d says

  Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. [Several exceptions that don't apply here].

Like with Containment Priest, immediately after the Mountain enters the battlefield, the Admonition Angel is already on the battlefield, so its ability triggers.


What happens if I go past Phase 10 in Phase 10 Twist? In the Phase 10 Twist rules, they say the winner is whoever gets past phase 10. Say I'm on Phase 9, and I go out, dropping all my cards. I'm supposed to go 3 spaces forward, but can't because Phase 10 is the only spot left. Do I win automatically or do I sit on Phase 10 spot and play that spot to win?

The rules cover this, under the "If you land on the PHASE 10 Space..." section:

  You may skip over the 10th Phase space by earning a 2 or 3-space move from one of the two preceding spaces.

So you indeed win if you go out while on Phase 9.


A&A 1942 2nd ed: Is it necessary to build an industrial complex in order to mobilize units? If Russia doesn't build an industrial complex, can units be mobilized in any controlled territory?

I don't see any complexes printed on the board itself to start the game off, does that mean I have to buy one in order to mobilize units?

If you look at the setup charts for each country, some territories have "Industrial Complex" listed of one of the units to be placed.  I suspect that they were not printed directly on the board because they could then get covered up by other pieces.

You can find a copy of the setup charts at
http://www.axisandallies.org/resources-downloads/setup-chart-axis-allies-1942-second-edition/


Are there names for the different types of adjacency in a square grid? See the image. How do you call the blue cells in relation to the black cell?

I've seen "orthogonally adjacent" for the first picture and "diagonally adjacent" for the second picture, but that leaves a void for the third picture (other than "orthogonally or diagonally adjacent", which is really long-winded).

If I were feeling inventive, I could make up "edge-adjacent", "corner-adjacent", and "edge- or corner-adjacent". That last one's still long-winded, but less so. The problem is, well (a) it's long-winded, and (b) "corner-adjacent" is a bit ambiguous. Technically, even the edge-adjacent cells share a corner with the black cell! So it might refer to the third picture.

(If I could enforce nomenclature, I would actually make people say "edge-adjacent" for the first, "corner-adjacent" for the third, and leave a void for the second (we don't need it anyway).)

Another option I can make up is "weakly adjacent" and "strongly adjacent", but again it's not clear if "weakly adjacent" refers to the second picture or the third.

So, what are the names for these types of adjacency? I mean this both in the "What's the official name" sense and "What would you call them" sense. I'm most interested in a name for the third picture; you can leave a void for the second picture for all I care. An example usage would be "The king can attack all [name] squares."

(I'm asking this in the board games forum because it seems like it'd important for talking about game rules.)

(Notice, by the way, that the Wikipedia page on Minesweeper just gives up, leaving the words "neighboring" and "adjacent" ambiguous.)

A common way to describe this in game rules is surrounded or 'surrounding spaces`.

As an example from the rules of Carcassonne

  A monastery is completed when it is surrounded by 8 tiles. Each of the
  monastery’s tiles (the 8 surrounding tiles and the one with the
  monastery itself) is worth 1 point.


Can I defeat an opponent with their own commander? I know that if I gain control of my opponent's commander, it won't lose the status of commander. How is the commander damage calculated in this case? Can I do the 21 commander damage with the stolen commander to win the game? Does the damage add to the damage of my own commander?

Yes, you can make a player lose by dealing 21 total damage to them with their own commander. (If it keeps getting stolen by yourself or others, a cumulative total 21 damage from their own commander will make them lose.)

The rule, from mtgcommander.net's Rules — Play section, is:

  If a player has been dealt 21 points of combat damage by a particular Commander during the game, that player loses a game.

That is any one specific commander card, including their own. Commander damage from different commander cards doesn't count together: if you've successfully stolen every commander on the board and dealt 20 damage with each of them to one opponent, they still haven't lost to commander damage.

Also, commander damage never makes anyone win directly, it only makes players lose. You'll only win if them losing made you win, e.g. they were your only opponent.


Can a Special Event be used to help another player during their turn? Special Events cards can be used at any time, even if it is not your turn, and many of them begin with "The current player may", e.g. Borrowed Time, Re-Examine Research, Mobile Hospital, Special Orders, etc.

Can they be used to benefit another player, not the owner of the Special Events card, if I play the Special Event on someone else's turn?

Yes, you can play special events on other players' turns, and "current player" means the player whose turn it currently is. The rulebook says:

  These cards may be played at any time (even on a fellow player's turn)...

That's why they say "current player" not "you", and explicitly say you can play them any time, not just on your turn. Being able to use them to benefit any player is really the point. They'd be pretty weak without that flexibility.


How many kings is it possible to have on the board at once? Keeping in mind the force capture rule, how many kings is possible to have (of one colour) on the board at once in Checkers? What is the sequence leading up to this?

For American checkers on an 8x8 board, it is possible to get 24 kings on the board from the initial position. Here is a Java applet with a proof game of 211 moves.

For International draughts on a 10x10 board, it is possible to get 40 kings on the board from the initial position. Here is a Java applet with a proof game of 389 moves.