Is the roof a floor? While playing through Saloon Tycoon for the first time, we weren't able to figure out whether the roof counts as a floor or not. There are two possibilities:

1. The Roof is a Floor
In which case the tallest section would be:

Floor 3: Roof
Floor 2: Another room
Floor 1: Saloon

This is how we played it, since the roof is a tile just like any other it seemed like it should follow the same rules. This led to problems with the Luxury Suite, which is required to be on the third floor.

2. The Roof is not a Floor
In which case the tallest section could be:

Floor 4. Roof
Floor 3. Another room
Floor 2. Another room
Floor 1. Saloon

This helps the Luxury Suite make sense, but it causes a conflict because the roof is now different than other tiles. It essentially becomes a fourth "floor".

The roof is neither a building nor a floor. You can build 3 tiles and when the 3rd one is finished with all cubes placed you get a roof.

This is covered on page 6 under the rules for finishing a tile:

  If the [finished] tile is on the 3rd floor, take the appropriate Roof tile (Small or Large), turn it over, place it on top and score +4 Reputation points.

Additionally, the example turn on page 8 illustrates this. The text and picture for step 4 shows a roof being added to a three-story building.


Cribbage and scoring 31 plus go Recognizing that I am arguing against pretty clear rules, but my buddy and I got in an argument regarding the logic behind only getting two pegs/points (Vs. 3) when you get a "go" from your partner and then place one or more cards down to eventually get to 31.

My logic (working against the rules) is that I should get 1 peg/point for my partners "go" and 2 pegs/points for reaching 31 (total of 3 points for the flurry of activity).  My argument is based on the fact that at any other time during the game when my partner says "go" I get 1 point......the only exception to this is when I place my cards down after the go and they result in a 31.  I argued with him last night that if the inventor of cribbage was alive today and I pointed out that I should get 3 points (1 for the go and 2 for hitting 31 directly) that they would say "hmmm....you are right....I missed that".

His rationale, is that when scoring 31, you are getting one point for hitting 31 exactly and 1 bonus point representing your partners' inability to play an additional card (his "go").  Hey says "whether a "go" is said or not, the go is implied when you place the last card at the end of the round to make 31....thus giving you two points when you reach 31 even when a "go" is communicated".

Any insight into how to argue either side of this scoring mess?

The official cribbage rules make this incredibly clear:

  Rule 1.6 - Definitions
  ...
  go: Called by a player who cannot play a card without exceeding the cumulative count of 31; the opponent scores one point, or two if reaching exactly 31.

In this, calling a 31 is just a special case of a go.


If your Commander is in your graveyard when your graveyard is exiled can you return it to the command zone? My understanding is that you can chose to put your commander in the command zone instead of putting it in the graveyard or it being exiled. Putting it in the command zone is a replacement for putting it in the graveyard, so "When X is put in the graveyard" effects don't trigger if you put it in the command zone when it "dies".

However if you put your commander in the graveyard to  trigger a "Graveyard effect" on it and your graveyard is subsequently exiled can you put your commander in the command zone rather than exiling it?

Yes, you can put it back into the command zone when it's exiled from your graveyard.

  903.12. If a commander would be put into the exile zone from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead.


APNAP rulings applied to world effects Assuming you are an active player you play an Oracle of Mul Daya or Crucible of Worlds. Could you play your land before they kill Oracle of Mul Daya? Would you be able to play lands off of Crucible of Worlds if they would try to destroy it?

APNAP doesn't factor in. APNAP is used when multiple players need to make choices simultaneously, and when stacking triggered abilities of multiple players. These questions are strictly about priority.

As the active player, you get priority after a spell resolves.

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

If you were to play a land then (a special action), you would get priority again.

  116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.

So the answers to both questions are yes.


Can characters be summoned into a unit? With the arrival of new summoning spells in the End of Times expansion there is a new spell which allows the wizard to summon a character (worth up to 65 points).

Can this spell be used to summon a character directly into an existing unit or do they have to appear nearby and walk in during the movement phase?

The rules for Summoning Spells (Nagash Book 1, pg 14) state that "the Summoned unit must be deployed wholly within the spell's range and at least 1" away from all other units, buildings and impassable terrain."

The Spell "Kandorak - The Harbinger" (Nagash Book 1, pg 15) does not state that the charcter summoned has an exception to this rule.


Element, wind melds worth it to reach minimum han requirement? Just wanting to confirm whether I'm understanding these rules correctly. The rule set from which I'm deriving most of my (Rīchi-)Mahjong knowledge only has this short paragraph about tiles being worth han:

  三元牌、圏風牌、門風牌を飜牌とし、その刻子、槓子組ごとに一飜とする。
  連風牌はニ飜とする。

Which I translate to:

  Elements tiles, prevailing wind tiles and player wind tiles are han tiles, with each triple or quad meld of them being worth one han.
  Double wind tile melds are worth two han.

In a game with a one-han minimum requirement, does this mean if I have any element meld or a meld of any of the two relevant wind types, I can complete my hand? Meaning, it may be worth it to make a call for these tiles and opening my hand, even if the rest of my hand is not really worth much?

Your understanding is correct.

  Yakuhai (役牌), also known as Fanpai (飜牌), is a 1-han yaku consisting of a pon/kan of any of the following:

  Dragons (elements)
  Your current seat wind
  The current round wind (typically east or south)

As it is a yaku, it will net you the 1-yaku minimum required to complete your hand.  It doesn't matter if the hand remains open or closed, so calling a discarded tile to complete the set is perfectly legal.

Whether it is the best choice in any circumstance is highly dependent on the rest of your hand; the point value of an open set is only half that of a closed set, and there are many other potential yaku which are unavailable when a hand is opened.  In particular, you lose out on the ability to call riichi, which would also provide the 1-yaku minimum and give you a chance for ura-dora as well.


What variations are there on Solo whist? This was the second trick-taking game that I learned as a kid and it involved bidding and gambling (we played for tiddlywinks). Needs 4 players and you can play to lose. It was used as a  training-wheels simple introduction to the concepts of contract bridge (my dad was a bridge-player).

Since childhood, I've never heard of anyone else playing the game - is it known as something else? I've found it in the odd card game book, but the rules were slightly different to what I recall.

The Pagat site is very useful:
http://www.pagat.com/boston/solowhist.html

It explains the main game "Solo Whist", and also lists some minor variations, and other similar games in this "Boston group".

They say that it is mainly played in Britain. Here in Australia we also play it. Solo Whist was taught to us as children to introduce us to card games, and has held us in good stead for Bridge.

Regarding the "Prop and Cop": We believe that that is an important aspect of the main game.  We do have that bid, and we find it to be very enjoyable. It is an opportunity to collaborate as two teams, rather than three people collaborating to defeat the solo declarer. If a Prop-and-Cop does not eventuate, then we also sometimes do the "Goulash" deal.


Status of non-top mutated creature cards Ikoria's new Mutate ability allows two or more creature cards to be fused into a single creature, with the creature on top gaining the abilities of the creature cards below it.

From a rules perspective, what exactly are the non-top cards? While they wouldn't be considered creatures in their own right, are they still considered permanents? Are they still targetable? Do they count as being on the battlefield?

I'm primarily curious about two specific edge cases:

Is it valid to play a "Destroy target nonland permanent" targeting a non-top mutate creature card? If so, would the entire mutated creature be destroyed or would the targeted creature card be effectively removed from the mutation?
If a Legendary creature card is a non-top card in a mutation, is a Legendary with that name still considered to be on the battlefield for the purposes of casting a second Legendary with the same name? If it still counts as being on the battlefield, what happens when the second Legendary is played and you choose to get rid of the first one? (I suppose that partially boils down to the above question as well.)

As the official rules haven't yet been released (to my knowledge), I'm aware that some of these questions may be difficult to answer. However, there may already exist related or similar rules/mechanics (that I'm not aware of) that already provide a clear answer to such situations. Any relevant quotes from Wizards employees may also shed some light on the subject.

The cards are considered only 1 creature; 1 permanent. The cards on the bottom do not exist in any meaningful sense as their own thing. They are not objects in the game; so nothing could target them. A bottom card has no types, no name, no mana cost, nothing; so it would not interact in any way with the legend rule.

From the Ikoria mechanics article:

  As a mutating creature spell resolves, instead of entering the battlefield, it merges with its target into one creature.

Emphasis mine. The new spell with mutate, if cast for its mutate cost, never actually enters the battlefield.

  You'll end up with a pile of cards (or tokens—we'll get to that in a second) that all represents a single creature. That creature will have all the characteristics of the top card, and it will also have the abilities of every card underneath.

So there is only a single creature. The only text on the non-top card that has any meaning is the abilities that it grants to this single creature.


Bridge: Holding both 5 card majors which should I bid first in Jacoby transfers In SAYC my partner bid 1 NT showing 15-17 HCP (no void, no singleton and only one doubleton).  I was holding a hand of 10 HCP with 5S, 5H, 2D and 1C.  Using Jacoby transfers should I have responded 2D (showing 5H) or 2H (showing 5S)

This is mostly a matter of agreement.

The reason this is so, is that what you decide to do with a 5-5 game forcing hand would effect other hand types.

Here are some hand types the responder can have:

5-4 majors game forcing.
5-4 majors invitational

5-5 majors game forcing
5-5 majors invitational.

They are multiple ways of bidding:

For instance, some folks play 3H response to 1NT as invite with 5-5 majors and 3S response as GF with 5-5 majors. This allows them to transfer and bid the other suit to show some 5-4 hands etc.

So there is no one way to bid this, and is something you need to agree with your partner.


What brand of card sleeves are most reliable for Magic the Gathering? I use Dragon Shield, KMC and Ultra-Pro.

The reviews and forums don't seem to have a consensus on the question, "Which brand is the best?"

But have there been any quality control tests that show statistically one brand is more reliable than the others?

I have not seen any independent quality assurance tests comparing the various sleeves, and I sincerely doubt there is a comprehensive one to be found. It's probably not economical for anyone involved, since QA comparisons like that can be quite expensive.

From anecdotal evidence at my local shop, which has ~80 player FNMs every week, most players seem to agree agree that:

KMC sleeves (matte or normal) are generally the most durable.
Dragon Shield will start split during shuffling.
Ultra-Pro Pro-Matte will become dirty fairly quickly.

These are the three most popular sleeve types at the shop.


In what ways does the Arkham Horror Toolkit app improve or detract from the experience? In what ways do people find using the Arkham Horror Toolkit reduces the play time, and how much does it further enhance or detract from the experience? I can imagine one negative is that it simply isn't as fun to tap a screen as it is to draw a physical card and roll dice, but a significant saving in time spent would be nice. Just how much does it make a difference, and are there other benefits or downsides?

Since I've never used the app before (I have android devices, not Apple) I can only answer from what I've seen with other apps like this and tailor it to what the Toolkit claims to do.

Since it has a full list of every event card and gate card, it does save on the setup of the game significantly.  However, since it doesn't have the Mythos deck set up and tracked, it doesn't help the app very much in that regard.  You still have to pull out cards and, when you're setting up, you might as well pull everything out and set it down instead of leaving just the event cards and gate cards.

It also gives you a dice roller, which I don't see as really a time-saver.  Plus, it feels better to roll dice physically.

The investigator tracking sheet is nice to remember what your current stats are for all of your skills, how many clues you have, how much damage you've taken, ect.  It really clears up the clutter of the board.  Down side?  It doesn't show you everything about your character, so you still need the card out.  And it only tracks your character, not all the others.  You'd need to buy the thing for a lot of people.

Lastly, it gives you maps of each of the boards (so long as you buy them as add-ins).  This helps in reading the board for yourself, but you have to have the board out for you in the first place, so I don't see this as a time saver either.


How many cubes can the containment specialist remove in Pandemic On The Brink The Containment Specialist role card says the following:

  When you enter a city with 2 or more cubes of the same color, remove 1 cube.

We played yesterday with the mutation purple disease, and had a city with two red and two purple cubes.  When the Containment Specialist entered that city we weren't sure whether we could remove one cube in total, or one cube of each colour.

In the instance, we opted to allow the removal of one of each colour, but still ended up losing because we ran out of cubes.

How many cubes should we have removed?

One cube from each disease with 2 or more cubes

The "On the Brink" rulebook states this on page 3:

  If there are multiple diseases with 2 or more cubes present, remove 1 cube from each such disease.


Is your commander still a "commander" if it gets turned face down? Does your commander still count as being your commander if it is turned face down?

For example, I have my commander on the battlefield and my opponent plays Ixidron. Ixidron then turns my commander face down.

From Gatherer:

  Creatures turned face down by Ixidron are 2/2 creatures with no text,
  no name, no subtypes, no expansion symbol, and no mana cost.

Will my face down commander still:

deal commander damage?
enable "Lieutenant" abilities?

Is the result different if my commander is turned face down by another means?

I just discovered that this exact circumstance is described in the rules. It will remain your commander.

  903.3. Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the object
  represented by the card; rather, it is an attribute of the card
  itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.

  Example: A commander that’s been turned face down (due to Ixidron’s
  effect, for example) is still a commander. A commander that’s copying
  another card (due to Cytoshape’s effect, for example) is still a
  commander. A permanent that’s copying a commander (such as a Body
  Double, for example, copying a commander in a player’s graveyard) is
  not a commander.


Who wins if the game ends with one player having 6 colonies and 1 or more players with 5 colonies? It is possible to end a game of Cosmic Encounter with 6 colonies (i.e. Parasite wild flare). The rules for the FFG version of Cosmic Encounter state that:

  The winner(s) are the first player(s) to have five colonies on any
  planets outside his or her home system . . . It is possible, through
  alliances and successful negotiations, to have more than one player
  gain five colonies at the same time. In this case, the players share a
  win.

This could be interpreted to mean 5 or more colonies, but the rules do not specifically say that. A devious tactic could be to invite someone along as ally to each achieve a 5th planet simultaneously, but then because the parasite flare was played the attacker ends with 6 colonies vs. the ally's 5 colonies.

So . . . who wins if the game ends with one player having 6 colonies and 1 or more players with 5 colonies?

I received the following e-mailed answer from Jonathan Bove of FFG:

  Since all of the players fulfilled the victory condition at the same
  time, it is a joint victory. However, this shouldn't stop the player
  with 6 colonies from bragging about his or her intergalactic skills!

Since this is direct from FFG, I will take this to be the official answer.


Catan - Mixing German base game with English extensions and expansions Has anyone tried to use the German edition of the Settlers of Catan base game (published by Kosmos) with the English editions of expansions and extensions (published by Mayfair)? Is it possible? (How much) Are they compatible?

I am asking because I have a Serbian edition of the base game which is an exact copy of the German edition, but I don't speak German, so I would like to have English editions of expansions/extensions. But I also wouldn't like to have to buy the English edition of the base game also.

Per se it should be possible to mix german/english or in your case serbian/english editions. But you should have a close look which edition you're buying (also depending on which edition you already own) there are even (minor) compatibility problems inbetween english editions (this should apply on german editions too)
Also hava a look on this answer.

Besides the form factor english editions of the game have those (in my eyes ugly) white borders around their tiles. Additionally other graphics are used (in my opinion those are shrill compared to the german ones)

I hope I could help you slightly.


For master rule 4, why can't I occupy two extra monster zone? I am a beginner at the Yugioh card game. I use sky strikers. Based on the link monster, I can summon the monster from the extra deck to the place where the monster point. Here is a figure:

However, I cannot do this in my practice. Am I  missing something?

For balance reasons, Konami introduced a special rule for the second extra monster zone.
It is possible to occupy both, but only under certain circumstances. Just having a link monster point there is insufficient.
To occupy the second extra zone you need what is called an extra link. This means having monsters co-linked from one extra monster zone all the way to the other.
You can find this illustrated here:
https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Extra_Link


Can Auction be played on a deed that is already Private? The Action card Auction says the following:

  Noon: Choose a deed in play. It becomes Private. If you own and control that deed, gain 1 ghost rock for each dude controlled by another player at that deed.

Is it possible to play this card on a deed that is already Private? Or is it only playable on a deed that is initially Public?

There is an in depth discussion of costs vs. requirements by the rule team here. It boils down to this: the first sentence after the bold text & colon is a cost and must be paid in order to use the card. Everything after that you try to execute, but if you are not able to do so just continue on.

So for Auction, the cost is simply "Choose a deed in play." The only restriction in that sentence is "in play", so already Private deeds are fine. The rest of the text then executes. "It becomes Private" has no effect, but the text about gaining ghost rock executes as normal.


Iron will and negative pass-effects. Loophole? Yesterday I played a game of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game with all expansions. We got the crisis card "Reactor Critical" (from the Daybreak expansion), with a difficulty of 7, and the effects:

  Pass: The current player draws 2 Treachery cards
  Fail: -1 Fuel

Now, both the pass and fail effects are negative. However, I had the leadership card Iron Will (from the Exodus expansion) on my hand. It is a skill check card which reads:

  Skill check: If total strength is within 4 of the difficulty, do not trigger the fail effect. If total strength in this skill check is 0 or less, lose 1 morale

The first part of this card is very interesting. If you don't pass the skill check, we should of course not trigger the pass effect. However, if we get 2-6 points, the effect of Iron Will triggers, meaning we should also not trigger the fail effect. So neither of the negative effects from the skill check should be triggered.

Have I understood this correctly, or is there some rule I have not seen?

Btw, the skill check failed massively, so we didn't bother discussing it.

You're correct.

However, Iron Will's second part will still trigger and cause a loss of morale if the check is 0 or less (e.g. if you Jury Rigged on a 7 check and get 0).

Iron Will doesn't make you pass. It just stops the labelled fail effect from triggering. It isn't a loophole in general; sometimes you miss out on good stuff on the pass, occasionally you can avoid bad stuff on the pass.

Note that if you have a 12 check with an 8+ effect, Iron will won't stop the 8+, only the effect labelled with "fail".


What are useful guidelines for deciding when to power down in RoboRally? I'm having trouble putting my finger on clear guidelines for choosing when to announce a power down, and would love to hear some analyses.

There are several things to take into account:

Your position in the race. If I 'm comfortably ahead, I will be somewhat more inclined to power down (willing to accept a known handicap rather than possibly risk an unknown turn of events if I take much damage quickly). If I 'm trying to catch up, I will only power down if it seems my progress is getting way too slow due to locked registers.

Terrain. Contrary to other answers, I will be more inclined to power down on conveyor belts that take me closer to where I want to be. I might even power down when I normally would not consider doing so, because it's unlikely that I would be able to effectively utilize all 5 registers while at the same time staying on the belt. From that perspective, it costs less to power down in this situation. Of course all of this assumes that I will stay on the belt, which brings us to...

Proximity to other robots. Obviously powering down when near other robots is risky, even more so if there is deadly terrain nearby. In this situation I would consider powering down only if in imminent danger of being destroyed, and even then I might risk it if my last archive was close by.


Are spells mostly a dubious strategy in Quarriors? Granted we only have the basic set, it seems every time we play the games don't last long enough for spells to be useful. I can see how it would be a good idea to ramp resources, provide yourself with some threat removal and similar pursuits in games that are slower paced. Quarriors so far doesn't seem like the kind of game where you can don the Control player or the Midrange player hats. Especially in games with 3 or 4 people, the amount of glory required to win is so low, just a few creatures who score will win pretty fast. Is there a way I can come out of nowhere with these spells? I don't see it.

The original Quarriors rules do indeed discourage buying anything except creatures. You've put your finger on the problem: the game is too short for spells to be in the same range of usefulness as creatures.

The solution is in an optional rule in the back of the Quarmageddon rulebook: to score glory, you must cull the creature that scored. (If you want to keep the creature, you can opt to not score it.) This has three effects:

The game is slower.
An early lucky buy of a powerful creature no longer nigh-guarantees victory (though it still helps).
Spells are more worthwhile: buying a spell once means you can use it several times, but buying a creature once means you can only score it once.


Discard a card not working? Ok so I was playing against the AI (Star Realms Android app) today and every time I played a card that should have had my opponent discarding ( Imperial Fighter), it instead made ME discard as I played the card. In addition, the AI still drew 5 cards at the start of their turn. This has to be a bug, right?

The campaign game changes some of the rules, depending on which mission you are playing.

For example, on Mission 3 "A test of strength (hard)", the rules are

  [...] If you would make your opponent discard a card, you gain 2
  Authority instead. [...]

I'm pretty sure you were playing a mission with special rules.


Sequence of fast and triggered effects - Enchantment Alteration, Abduction This is a multi-part question because I have no idea how to predict the interplay of effects of two cards:

Abduction
Enchantment Alteration

Probably I'm missing some basic timing rules information.
(Also, if the answer would be different prior to 9th Edition or so, I'd like to know both answers as pretty much all of my cards are that old so I tend to prefer the older rules for casual games.)
Several situations I'm wondering about:
Let's say I've played Abduction on one of my opponent's creatures (doesn't matter what for this question, call it creature A).  Then, when the creature is about to be destroyed in combat with creature B (either as an attacker or a blocker, if it makes a difference I'd like to know both), I play Enchantment Alteration and move my Abduction to creature C.
What happens to creature A?  Since it's no longer enchanted, I think it wouldn't be put back into play under owner's control, right?  But would it be taken out of combat since I don't control it?  Would creature B be saved from being killed?  (Let's say creatures A and B are both 2/2s.)
Also, would creature C be untapped by moving Abduction onto it?
What if I moved Adbuction onto creature B instead?  (From one creature in the combat to the other?)  Or from a noncombatant to an enemy combatant?
Overall I just need to understand how transition of control affects combat, and also in particular whether moving Adbuction off a creature right before it dies prevents the "put into play under owner's control" effect of Adbuction.

If you move Abduction off of a creature that is in combat and would die from combat damage, one of two things will happen:

If you control the originally enchanted creature anyway, that creature still dies in combat, and Abduction's last ability does not trigger.

If the creature instead returns to an opponent's control, it leaves combat and does not die.

If the enchantment moves onto a creature you don't control that is in combat, that creature will also be removed from combat.

In this scenario, the last opportunity you have to cast Enchantment Alteration before the creature dies is during the declare blockers step. Once it resolves, if the creature it moved from and/or the creature it moved to change control as a result, they leave combat. This is a result of rule 506.4:

A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, if it phases out, if an effect specifically removes it from combat, if it’s a planeswalker that’s being attacked and stops being a planeswalker, or if it’s an attacking or blocking creature that regenerates (see rule 701.15) or stops being a creature. A creature that’s removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. A planeswalker that’s removed from combat stops being attacked.

Then combat damage is evaluated, and state-based actions are checked, which may result in some creatures dying. If the creature now enchanted by Abduction dies this way, it will be returned by Abduction's last ability. The creature previously enchanted by Abduction is completely unaffected by Abduction's abilities. All that matters for Abduction's last ability is whether the enchantment is attached as the creature dies.
Abduction's first ability says

When Abduction enters the battlefield, untap enchanted creature.

Attaching Abduction to a different creature does not cause it to leave or enter the battlefield, so Enchantment Alteration does not trigger that ability.


Containers for decks of small cards? What sorts of containers have been found to be appropriate for storing large amounts of small cards?  For example, in Descent: Second Edition, There are 155 cards which must be stored, and which measure 41mm by 63mm.  Once they are sleeved (in these), they no longer fit in their little baggie;  is there some company that makes/sells boxes that fit these small cards?  Are there any commonly available containers that work well to fit these card sizes?

You can get little plastic boxes in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/fullrange_rub.php

Also the little clear plastic bags with press-in tops (known as zip-lock)

http://www.ziploc.com/Products/Pages/default.aspx?products=all

For storage of multiple card-based games there are all kinds of small craft storage units with drawers of varying sizes. Personally I use the bags for games with lots of elements such as Agricola, and just keep all the bags of pieces/cards in the Agricola box.

Magic: the Gathering fat-pack boxes are excellent for storing multiple cards in (I have a friend who stores Race for the Galaxy, Gloom, The Great Del Mutay, and some regular playing cards in one) You can get empty ones from ebay or M:tG stores such as Troll and Toad (I'm limited to 2 hyperlinks).


At what point does a land become controlled? Shrine of the Forsaken Gods has the ability:

  {T}: Add {C}{C}. Spend this mana only to cast colorless spells.
  Activate this ability only if you control seven or more lands.

Golgari Rot Farm has the text:

  When Golgari Rot Farm enters the battlefield, return a land you control to its owner's hand.

I have 6 lands on the board including Shrine of the Forsaken Gods.  If I play a Golgari Rot Farm, can I tap Shrine of the Forsaken Gods for {C}{C} before bouncing the land from Golgari Rot Farm?  Do I control seven lands at that point?

Yes, you can.

Golgari Rot Farm's ability goes on the stack as soon as it enters the battlefield, and while it is there, all players get priority to do something before it resolves and you need to bounce a land. At that moment, you control seven lands and can tap Shrine of the Forsaken Gods for two colorless mana. This will work even though you might want to use it to cast a creature (which you can't if the stack isn't empty); you can 'float' the mana, because you will lose it only at the end of the current step or phase.


How competitive are MTG Arena qualifier events? I finished last season ranked mythic on MTG Arena. I wasn't paying attention to the season, had no idea something was up, and was simply playing for fun (like, if I'd known what was at stake and was playing to qualify, I would've stopped playing immediately after reaching mythic at rank ~150). Therefore it came at a great surprise to receive this email from Wizards:

Looking at the magic.gg website, it seems this is going to be a BO3 constructed event coinciding with a set release. I suspect this format is not my forte, because making and testing completely new decks is not something I'm very interested in - I usually just copy some established deck and change some cards. If there is a new set then everything is in flux and I would have to figure out the metagame.
Questions:

How competitive are these events? In particular, how do they compare against paper Magic events such as Friday Night Magic, Grands Prix, GP Day 2s, Pro Tours?
How much preparation is necessary to succeed in these events? How do people even prepare? I'm not part of a testing team or anything like that.
If I decide not to play, can I pass the invite to someone else?

I would've stopped playing immediately after reaching mythic at rank ~150

Slightly an aside: that probably wouldn't have qualified you; your rank goes down if you don't play as others get wins and move up.

How competitive are these events?

Pretty competitive. They include what are by some definitions the best 1200 players in the world1. That puts them well above the "entry level competitive" FNM. The closest analogy to "the old world" is probably a Grand Prix, but it isn't a perfect match at all; certainly below the old Pro Tour level, which had only a few hundred of the best players in the world.

How much preparation is necessary to succeed in these events?

That's not a question we can answer, particularly given that Magic is a high variance game. Some people will put hours and hours into understanding the metagame, then designing and tuning decks to find what they think will be most successful... and drop at 0-4 after some unlucky draws. Other people will just take their favourite deck unchanged and make Day 2.

How do people even prepare?

Test, test, test. Perhaps the important thing to note here is that the tournament metagame is likely to be significantly different from the Arena ladder metagame - the ladder always features a lot more aggro than tournaments as aggro decks allow players to play more games quickly on the ladder and move up quicker. As an example, while the infamous Temur (or 4c) Reclamation decks made up 25-30% of the top end of the Arena ladder, they made up 55% of the recent Players Tour Finals decks.

If I decide not to play, can I pass the invite to someone else?

No.
1. Yes, Arena ladder to some extent rewards quantity of play over quality of play. But the old qualification systems rewarded spiking a couple of tournaments over sustained quality of play, so neither were perfect.


How are storage costs computed for RMUs and FIUS? In Business Strategy, at the beginning of each month, each player must pay storage costs for their RMUs and FIUs.
For RMUs, the costs written on the player board are the following :

«... storing 7 or less costs $300 per unit, storing 8 or more costs
$200 per unit.»

How should this rule be interpreted?
$300 per unit for the first 7 units and $200 for each unit over 7 ? $2300 for 8 units
OR
$200 per unit for all of the units, if the number of units is over 7 ? $1600 for 8 units
Avalon-Hill's 1973 game Business Strategy

It should be read as each unit costs that much. Something else to note is that once you hit 8 units you will actual pay less than you would for 7 units until you get up to 11 where it costs more than 7 units but is still cheaper per unit.

1 unit: $300 - $300 per unit
2 units: $600
3 units: $900
4 units: $1200
5 units: $1500
6 units: $1800
7 units: $2100
8 units: $1600 - $200 per unit
9 units: $1800
10 units: $2000
11 units: $2200


Did I overstate my values on the following bidding? Nobody vulnerable, partner, South, dealt and opened one spade.
West overcalled 2C.

Sitting North, I called 2H holding (s) xx (h) KQT8xx (d) xx (c) Kxx. (All x's are 7 or lower.)

Partner bid 3d, so I bid 3S (see why below) and partner raised to 4S. He had 14 hcp points (plus a singleton and doubleton for distribution), with 5-5 in spades and diamonds and we went down one.

Partner accused me over overbidding. With 8 hcps, I would have bid 1NT, but West's overcall precluded that option. So I said that my 2H suggested a strong suit, not a "two over one" hand, and a desire to compete. Partner also expected three spades for my three spade bid, I said that this bid was a"preference" for his first suit with my two cards in each, not a desire to go to the four level.

Did I, in fact, overbid? Or did partner take my bids out of their proper context?

Normally your 2H bid would show around 10 points in that situation, so the question is whether you consider your hand to have that value.  You have 8 HCP, plus some bonus for the heart length; so maybe you could stretch that to a 2H overcall. I don't think I totally mind it, but it's aggressive for neutral vulnerability; and you shouldn't mind the game push by partner after it.  Personally, though, I wouldn't bid it.

You do have a legitimate alternative that you're discounting, though, which is the negative double.  Normally that shows 4 hearts and 6+, but it can also be used with a below-game level heart hand with more than 4.  It's not an ideal bid for your hand, of course, but it keeps the auction lower.  Imagine this auction:

1S - 2C - X - P
2D - P - 2H - P
2S - p - P - P

Your partner might bid 3D instead of 2S, and you'd pass that as well with no preference between the two I imagine (or you could bid 3S, clearly not wanting a game then).

Either way you stop well short of game, and you adequately describe your hand, as that's the way you bid 6-9 5+ hearts.  The 2H bid after the X perfectly shows your hand, your partner knows what you have, and you end up in a reasonable contract.


Dealing Damage to Creature soulbonded to Deadeye Navigator A scenario played out last night that at the time I felt was correct, but the more I think about it, the more I feel uncomfortable about it. I had on the field:

Goblin Bombardment
Furnace of Rath
Dictate of Twin Gods
~10 0/1 creature tokens

My opponent had:

Deadeye Navigator
Nevermaker
6 blue mana available

Here's what happened:

I sacrificed a creature token to Goblin Bombardment to deal 4 damage to the Nevermaker.
In response, my opponent paid 1U and exiled the Nevermaker.
As the Nevermaker leaves the battlefield it's ability triggers, it targets my goblin bombardment to place on top of my library.
Before the Nevermaker resolves, I sacrifice 2 tokens and deal 8 damage to the Deadeye Navigator.
My opponent pays 1U to exile the Deadeye Navigator.
Deadeye Navigator leaves the battlefield, and then returns, soulbonding to the Nevermaker.
I sacrifice two more tokens to deal 8 more damage to the Deadeye Navigator.
My opponent pays 1U to exile the Deadeye Navigator.
Deadeye Navigator leaves the battlefield, and then returns, soulbonding to the Nevermaker.
My third Goblin Bombardment fails to resolve as the Deadeye Navigator is a new instance of the creature and thereby a new object.
My second Goblin Bombardment fails to resolve as the Deadeye Navigator is a new instance of the creature and thereby a new object.
Nevermaker's use of Deadeye Navigator's ability resolves and it leaves the Battlefield.
Nevermaker's ability trigers and my Goblin Bombarment in placed on the top of my library.
Nevermaker returns to the battlefield and is re-soulbonded to Deadeye Navigator

I feel like somewhere in the 10-12 range is where it goes awry. None of my abilities resolve because her cards are new instances of themselves, but this does not seem to hamper her at all. Was this all resolved correctly. Is there I way that I could have destroyed either the Deadeye Navigator or the Nevermaker?

Is there I way that I could have destroyed either the Deadeye
  Navigator or the Nevermaker?

Yes.

Start out the same way, sending 4 damage to the Nevermaker. Your opponent activates its flicker ability. You let the flicker ability resolve, and the Nevermaker leaves and then enters the battlefield again.

This causes 2 triggers to be put on the stack, one is the Nevermaker's "leaves the battlefield" ability, the other is the "soulbond" ability on Deadeye Navigator (since your opponent controls both, he/she can arrange their order on the stack as desired). While both are on the stack, you can respond by activating Goblin Bombardment as you wish. Since neither Navigator or Nevermaker are soulbonded, they do not have the "flicker" ability anymore.


How can a blue control deck be made more efficient? It seems like my games last a long time and I don't do that much damage. Is that what it's supposed to feel like when using a control deck? How can I win more efficiently?

Here is my deck:

Lands
19x Islands
1x  Glacial Fortress
1x  Terramorphic Expanse

Artifacts
1x  Adaptive Automaton
1x  Scepter of Empires
1x  Throne of Empires
1x  Isochron Scepter
2x  Elixir of Immortality
3x  Kraken's Eye

Blue Creatures
1x  Wall of Frost
1x  Augury Owl
1x  Zephyr Sprite
2x  Aether Adept
2x  Aven Fleetwing
4x  Skywinder Drake
3x  Belltower Sphinx
1x  Phantasmal Image

Blue Spells
4x  Mind Control
4x  Cancel
4x  Unsummon
4x  Ice Cage
2x  Jace's Erasure
2x  Negate
2x  Mana Leak
2x  Sleep
1x  Ponder

This answer may have gotten a little out of hand... what can I say, I'm procrastinating ;-) plus I couldn't resist a chance to share my love of control decks.

  It seems like my games last a long time and I don't do that much damage, is that what its supposed to feel like when using a counter deck?

Well, do you mean you're not doing much damage quickly, or not doing much damage at all? In the latter case, that's a problem because you never get to kill your opponent, but the former case is exactly how a control deck is supposed to work. Your game plan is to establish control over the game: get to the point where you can counter, destroy, exile, or otherwise eliminate any spell or permanent that poses a threat to you. Once you do that, it doesn't matter how you win or how long it takes you to do it (although there is something to be said for not letting your opponents get bored).

Of course, the downside of playing a control deck is that you can get overwhelmed in the first few turns of the game, before you're able to establish control. So to make a good control deck, you need to make every card count in the early game. For one thing, that means using lots of cheap counterspells. I notice that you've got a couple of cards in the deck which aren't Standard-legal, so I'm assuming you're drawing from the entire Magic card pool, and in that case the #1 most important spell you should be playing is the original Counterspell. Mana Leak is probably the other staple of most good counterspell decks. I see you have a couple Mana Leaks already, but I'd suggest "upgrading" to 4 of each card if you can get them. Beyond that, you want an assortment of different kinds of counterspells for different situations:

Cheap or alternate-costed counterspells to support you through the first couple of turns:

Daze
Foil
Force of Will
Force Spike
Mental Misstep
Spell Pierce
Spell Snare

Utility counterspells that have side effects:

Cryptic Command
Discombobulate
Dismiss
Dismal Failure
Dissipate
Forbid
Lay Bare
Mana Drain
Miscalculation
Quash
Rewind
Trickbind

X spells for versatility:

Condescend
Disrupting Shoal
Logic Knot
Spell Burst

Some of these are rare and really expensive ($$, not mana, e.g. Force of Will is probably a $150-ish card), so I gave you a bunch of choices. There are others as well, which you can find on Gatherer, but these are the ones I'd consider most potentially useful for a mono-blue deck.

In some cases you can choose between different counterspells in each group based on which of their side effects is most useful to your deck, or what you expect to play against, or what you're able to acquire, but generally for a counter-heavy deck you'd probably want 2-4 from the first list (that is, 2-4 slots in your deck), 4-5 from the second list, and optionally 1 or 2 of the X spells. Combined with 4 Counterspell and 4 Mana Leak, that gives you 15-20 counters total.

The next thing to think about is your removal. You won't be able to counter every spell, so you need some way of dealing with permanents that sneak through the cracks. Unfortunately, blue isn't very good at this, so if you want to stick to one color, you're not going to have access to the best removal options. One of the best blue cards available to deal with permanents is Capsize, which lets you repeatedly bounce a permanent until you're able to counter its spell. You'll probably also have to dip into artifacts, for things like Nevinyrral's Disk or Ratchet Bomb. Since creatures tend to be the most annoying permanents, it's fine to include a couple of creature control cards like Mind Control or Sleep (note that usually only one or the other of these will be good, depending on what kind of deck you're playing against: Mind Control against big creatures, Sleep against weenies), but I wouldn't go overboard on them. I think your current decklist uses too many of these, since they're not that useful against decks that can do things without creatures, and besides, that's what the counterspells are for.

Another key component of any good control deck is card drawing and filtering. The reason here is that, since your deck is so focused on preventing your opponent from doing stuff, you always need to have at least as many counterspells or removal spells as they have action spells, and in order to make sure of that, you need access to more cards than your opponent. Recently, planeswalkers have been doing well at this; in particular, any of the three versions of Jace:

Jace Beleren
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (still rather expensive despite being banned, but it's really good)
Jace, Memory Adept

Back in the day, Whispers of the Muse and Accumulated Knowledge were popular choices for card draw. These days, people mostly use Preordain and Ponder. You can supplement those with Azure Mage, which is not only reusable but also gives you a creature to attack or block with. Of course there are many other choices, which you can look up on Gatherer.

Finally, you need to figure out a way to win. Again, since it shouldn't matter what your deck does once you have control, you need to think about what will be best at protecting you in the early game. Belltower Sphinx is not bad if you're pursuing a mill strategy, though it is a little expensive. The thing to keep in mind here is that once you've fit in the counterspells, the removal, the card draw, and of course lands, there's not going to be much room left in your deck for win conditions, so you need to pick a win condition that basically ends the game as soon as you cast it, or does double duty by also filling one of the other roles in your deck (such as Azure Mage, which helps you draw cards while also being a creature, or the Worldwake man lands - but those are all double-colored).

With that in mind, let's look at your decklist:

  Lands

  19x Islands
  1x  Glacial Fortress
  1x  Terramorphic Expanse

With no white cards, there's no reason to include Glacial Fortress, and since you only have one color of mana, Terramorphic Expanse is pretty useless as well - unless you also have Halimar Depths, then it lets you shuffle away unwanted cards. Also, counterspell decks are pretty mana-intensive, so you should have a lot more than 21 lands; I'd suggest around 26. You can include some specialty lands that help with the aspects of your game plan, such as Halimar Depths (filtering), Quicksand (removal), or Stalking Stones (win condition), but for mana production I'd stick with just Islands.

  Artifacts

  1x  Adaptive Automaton
  1x  Scepter of Empires
  1x  Throne of Empires
  1x  Isochron Scepter
  2x  Elixir of Immortality
  3x  Kraken's Eye

Throne of Empires is a great win condition because it can produce a whole swarm of creatures while only taking up a single slot in your deck. Other than that, most of these are probably not helping you. Isochron Scepter can have a neat interaction with cheap counterspells but I don't see it being that useful most of the time, since running out of cards should not be your problem.

  Blue Creatures

  1x  Wall of Frost
  1x  Augury Owl
  1x  Zephyr Sprite
  2x  Aether Adept
  2x  Aven Fleetwing
  4x  Skywinder Drake
  3x  Belltower Sphinx
  1x  Phantasmal Image

For these, think about what creatures can advance your game plan, like Azure Mage (as I mentioned above). Most of these creatures don't really do much to help you out there. Aether Adept is sort of removal-like, but usually your opponent can just replay the creature you bounced on the next turn, and then all you got is a 2/2 for 3 mana and perhaps a turn off from being attacked. While that's not bad, it's not particularly exciting either. Phantasmal Image is particularly iffy because your opponent has a surefire way to destroy it which your counterspells can't even stop. I'd leave it out unless you have something really cool for it to copy.

  Blue Spells

  4x  Mind Control
  4x  Cancel
  4x  Unsummon
  4x  Ice Cage
  2x  Jace's Erasure
  2x  Negate
  2x  Mana Leak
  2x  Sleep
  1x  Ponder

Again, I think you have too many Mind Controls. You only want to be stealing your opponent's biggest and best creatures; it should be something that really makes it worth spending 5 mana to get it. Most things are better off being countered. Unsummon seems lackluster for the same reason as Aether Adept, and Ice Cage for the same reason as Phantasmal Image. Jace's Erasure is okay if you're pursuing a mill strategy, but it doesn't do anything else to directly help you, so I think you can do better.


Best way to get into Pokemon? So I'd like to introduce my son to a basic card game like Pokemon since he loves the creatures, etc. When I go to a store and look at all the 'starter' decks, and packs, etc I'm a little confused.

What's the best way to buy and start into the game with him? Just buy a basic starter kit at the store and go? I would need something with 'how-to-play' instructions as well as I've never played it before either.

I want to give a more general answer that applies to all trading card games. Find a local store that specializes in selling the cards and, even better, hosts tournaments. The people running the shop:

Know exactly what you need.
Will teach you how to play.*
Will occasionally give new players free starter packs or cards (mine does).
Make far more money off of return customers than they ever will off of starter kits. They want you to come back, and so they generally won't try to screw you.

The point is that they want you to get into the game, and you want their instructions, guidance, and merchandise. Don't go to Walmart and leave wondering whether you bought the right thing for your kid.

*Unless a tournament is running (and if they are busy they will usually tell you when to come back and enjoy a quiet game)


Does sacrificing a permanent cancel its effects, or do they still resolve? I read here that tapped permanents can be sacrificed, but if a permanent creates an effect before it is sacrificed, does the effect still resolve or is it cancelled?

The reason I want to know is that I use Orcish Lumberjack to sacrifice a Forest that I also tap for {G}.

Is a sacrifice equivalent to bury or destroy in that all three put the permanent in its owner's graveyard? Does sacrifice have any special side effects on the sacrificed permanent and any effects it has created?

If a permanent does an effect before it is sacrified (ie a land tapped for mana or a creature tapped for a special ability), does this effect is canceled by the sacrifice?

No. In general, once an ability has been activated or triggered, it does not get "canceled" for any reason. There are two exceptions:

It is explicitly countered (for example, by the card Cancel, pun intended)
If the ability has targets, and if all the targets are gone or invalid when the ability resolves, then it is implicitly countered. Remember that the thing that caused the ability to happen is not a target. Targets are only the things that you explicitly choose because the ability's text includes the word "target."

  Ultimately, is a sacrifice equivalent to burry or destroy, or has it special side effects on the sacrified target and its effects?

Nope. The only thing involved in sacrificing a permanent is that you put it in the graveyard. However, keep in mind that regeneration does not prevent this from happening - in other words, if you regenerate a permanent, and then sacrifice it, it still goes to the graveyard. This differs from being destroyed: if you regenerate a permanent, and then it gets destroyed, the regeneration replaces the destruction so that the permanent doesn't go to the graveyard after all.


Lord of the Ring LCG: Silvan Refugee forced effect When I use "The Tree People" to return a Silvan ally in my hand, does the forced effect on "Silvan Refugee" trigger?
More generally, does returning an ally to one's hand count as this character leaving play/being dead?

The Tree People (Event)

  Action: Return a Silvan ally you control to your hand to search the top 5 cards of your deck for a Silvan ally. Put that ally into play and shuffle the other cards back into your deck. You can only play 1 copy of The Tree People each phase.

Silvan Refugee (Ally)

  Forced: After a character leaves play, discard Silvan Refugee from play.

Yes, no matter where it goes from play, to discard, to deck or to hand as your case asks for, the card is no longer in play, so the forced of Refugee will trigger.

If however you use The Tree People to return Silvan Refugee to your hand, it will no longer be in play to trigger, letting you replay the relatively cheap Refugee again later.


Can I use Hibernation Sliver to return slivers from my graveyard? I have a Hibernation Sliver in play which states that all slivers have "Pay 2 life: Return this permanent to its owner's hand."

I have slivers in my graveyard. Can I pay 2 life and return a sliver card to my hand from my graveyard and if I can't, why not?

No, for 2 reasons. First, because unless they say otherwise, abilities of permanents only function while they are on the battlefield.

  112.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack.
  Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:

None of the exceptions relate to the ability in question.

Also, Slivers that are in your graveyard will not even get that ability in the first place. When a card says "All Slivers", it refers to all Sliver permanents, and a permanent is a card or token on the battlefield.

  609.2. Effects apply only to permanents unless the instruction’s text states otherwise or they clearly can
  apply only to objects in one or more other zones.

  Example: An effect that changes all lands into creatures won’t alter land cards in players’
  graveyards. But an effect that says spells cost more to cast will apply only to spells on the
  stack, since a spell is always on the stack while a player is casting it.

And:

  110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield.


Killing with Divine Deflection I am at 2 life, and my opponent is at 3 life. It is my opponent's turn. He attacks me with a  Kindercatch. After blockers are declared (none) but before the combat damage step, I cast  Divine Deflection, targeting my opponent with X declared as 4.

Who wins?

The oracle rulings of Divine Reflection state:

If Divine Deflection prevents damage, excess damage (if any) dealt by
that source is dealt at the same time. Immediately afterward, as part
of that same prevention effect, Divine Deflection deals its damage.
This happens before state-based actions are checked, and before the
spell or ability that caused damage to be dealt resumes its
resolution.

So, the damage is done at the same time and only after are state-based actions checked.

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.

As checking the life totals is a state-based action, both players will have 0 life at the same check, thus the game ends in a draw!


What happens if I take damage with Worship out while at negative life? Let's say I'm at -10 life but Phyrexian Unlife is keeping me alive. I have a random creature in play as well as Worship when opponent hits me for 5 damage. Does my life total go back up to 1? -10 life is less than 1, so presumably Worship's effect would occur, but if I go from -10 to 1 life, my life total wouldn't be "reduced".
What about Phyrexian Unlife's effect - do I gain 5 poison counters? What if instead of Phyrexian Unlife it is some other effect like Platinum Angel keeping me alive?
Text of relevant cards:

Worship: If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

Phyrexian Unlife: You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life. As long as you have 0 or less life, all damage is dealt to you as though its source had infect. (Damage is dealt to you in the form of poison counters.)

Platinum Angel: You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game.

You will get the 5 poison counters if you have Phyrexian Unlife, and lose 5 life if you have Platinum Angel.
The card Serra the Benevolent has an ultimate ability that creates an emblem with Worship's ability. It has a ruling that says this:

If you have less than 1 life and somehow haven’t lost the game, damage dealt to you reduces your life total further below 0 (as normal).

So, Worship has no effect if you have less than 1 life, so damage will be dealt to you as normal and Phyrexian Unlife will modify it as normal.


Storage Wars: MtG Black Lotus, others, actual worth? Storage Wars had an episode in 2012 where Daryl Sheets finds a bunch of MtG cards, some loose, some bindered. They sell the entire lot at Frank and Sons Collectible Show for $700, basically the price of the three cards below. (If you read online, you can find that all the other cards were commons/uncommons )

Question: What are these cards really worth in their present condition? (And did Daryl Sheets get ripped off? )

Google search link for this episode

It's not really fair to judge if he got a decent price or not based just on retail value.  Just like trading in a car, you usually could have gotten more money selling it yourself, but the additional time requirements and overall hassle do not always make economic sense for your situation.  I need a new car now, not after I eventually find a buyer for my old one, Darrel needs to get whatever value he can out of his locker before the next episode so he can buy another locker, not when he eventually finds a Magic collector interested in that card.

So since he knowingly chose to turn them in to a dealer instead of attempt to retail them himself, it's more fair to look at buy-list prices than retail prices.  As of May 2013 Star City Games is offering 1000USD for a Mint Condition Unlimited Black Lotus (white-bordered printing), Troll and Toad is offering 1130USD.  (Just two of the largest and best known Internet retailers, chosen arbitrarily by me.)

Now the Lotus in that picture appears to have a rip in the lower left corner, which makes it basically worthless to collectors (who wouldn't usually be all that interested in the white-bordered printing anyway).  It only has whatever value it has to people who actually want to use it while playing the game.  Ever tried to sell a comic book with torn cover?  More or less the same.  I am no professional dealer, but I think giving around half the mint price for a torn card is very fair.

The other two have square corners, meaning they are from a special set of printings known as the "Collector's Edition," which are not considered "real" Magic cards and cannot be used in official tournaments.  They have some street value because some people like to have the "almost real" version when playing the game in formats where fake cards are allowed.  The current buy list value for both combined is $65 in May 2013.

If the card is not torn and is only creased, then yes he probably could have eventually done a bit better by retailing it, but we're back to the used car analogy.  It's also arguably even harder to move that product than a car if you're not already an established retailer.  A retailer like Star City Games can sell a white-border Lotus for $1500 online because Ben Bleiweiss is a household name in the collector community and people trust him not to sell them a counterfeit card.  If a seller with no history of moving Magic cards at all tossed a damaged Black Lotus up on eBay expecting people to be willing to pay anything resembling retail for it, they will find themselves relisting that auction for a very long time.


How have coop board games prevented a player(s) from taking over decision making A 'problem' with some coop board games is that it's easy for a dominant person or people to take over all decision making in the game.

I personally see this happen in Pandemic all the time, even though it tacitly tries to prevent this.

I can only think of three techniques.

Hidden information.
Each player has information only they can see, so all players can be involved as information sources.

Pandemic.

As a side note, as far as I have seen this is not very effective, it's usually very easy to get all the 'pertininent' information quickly and move onto decision making

Timed turns
The players have a limited amount of time to make their decisions, and there are more decisions to make than one person can make, or more information to analyse than one person can consume.

XCOM - The Board Game
Space Alert

Distrust
Players cannot trust the information other players give, so they must make their own choices.

Shadows over Camelot
The Resistance

This type predominantly uses a traitor or potential traitor to cause the distrust. Perhaps there are other games that use a different mechanic such as forcing players to lie about certain things etc?

Simultaneous choice is another method of forcing players to stumble over each other a bit. Space Hulk Death Angel uses this to great effect - players have to choose between their available actions, placing the card facedown, before all choices are revealed simultaneously and then executed in order. Robo Rally can be played in teams, and there you can really get in each other's way by accident.

"Active Player chooses" is another mechanism a lot of FFG coop games use to pass the decision making load around. Yes, everybody else has to keep their mouth shut while the player makes a choice, but if you aren't following the rules you're not really playing the game, are you? In a way I think this is a good way to allow table talk most of the time but give players short, important windows where they can keep from doing it.

Keeping everybody busy with their own problems seems a reasonable approach, and the LOTR LCG does this fairly well - enemies are dispensed from a central "staging area" to engage with a particular player, and in this way they fade from everybody else's view a little bit. I suppose a succinct way to phrase this approach would be "specialization".

Hidden information can be pushed farther than it is most of the time. Hanabi is an example of a cooperative game in which information sharing is really the central mechanic, and it's the first coop game I've played that really couldn't possibly be done as solitaire.

Narrative can also help remove the "single decision maker" problem by engrossing all the players in the events and giving them agency. I recently played a game of Mansions of Madness in which my daughter made some choices against my advice that cost us the game, but really they were in character for her (too much curiosity is what did it), and I was glad she felt confident enough to go ahead. We also talked afterward about lessons learned. :)

Lastly, regarding distrust, Shadows and Resistance each have a "bad" player from the start, but in some games (e.g. the Insanity mechanism in Mansions of Madness) a player can become bad, or have other weird behaviors emerge unbeknownst to the other players as a result of game events.

@matt points out in another answer that randomness (which is essentially information hidden from all the players) can help.


Are there any Magic cards capable of generating loops alone? My first reaction to this question was "of course not, there is no card which is able to generate such loops by itself". Such a card would be just too easy to abuse; generally speaking, one needs two cards to work together to generate a loop of actions (which can be executed an arbitrary number of times (see rule 720 for more details). Many of these combos require a third card to actually profit from the loop.

But is this actually true? Or are/were* there any Magic cards capable of generating such loops alone? I don't expect the loops to win the game by themselves, of course.

*: cards may have later received errata to prevent loops; I'd be interested in those cases as well.

Basalt Monolith can tap and untap itself infinitely without any other cards. You do need another card to get any payoff from doing that.

A number of cards have abilities that cost {0} and without specifically prohibiting you from activating them repeatedly. Like with Basalt Monolith, they generally don't have any inherent benefit from activating them repeatedly. The main payoff for that is Crackdown Construct.

Skyshroud Elf can tap for mana, and has an ability to pay {1} to get {R} or {W}. This can be activated indefinitely, but it's even harder to find a payoff for a loop like that.

Lich's Mirror can do this, sort of. You need other cards to set up the game state necessary, but once you have it Lich's Mirror starts and sustains the loop by itself. Specifically, if a player controls but does not own Lich's Mirror, and then gets 10 poison counters somehow, Lich's Mirror will replace the state-based action with its own effect but it will not go anywhere because it is not a permanent that the ability's controller owns. Then the player still has 10 poison counters so the same state-based action will apply again, and Lich's Mirror's effect will replace it again, forever. This is a mandatory infinite loop and results in a draw.


In Robo Rally, can any number of robots be pushed? The rules imply to me that one robot can push a line of robots away. Does anyone know of clarifications or have another reading of it? What I mean is the situation where A robot on cell 1A pushes toward a robot on cell 1B and there are more robots occupying 1C, 1D, etc.

  Pushing Other Robots:
  When robots collide, one will push the other. Robots can be pushed anywhere on the board (or off the side!), even into a pit or onto a conveyor belt. A robot can’t be pushed through a wall, though, so the movement of a pushing robot will simply stop if the pushed robot runs into a wall.

They had the same discussion on bgg. Yes you can push multiple robots.


Can you choose how to sacrifice a creature if you are forced to? If an opponent, or anything else, makes me sacrifice a creature, and I have a Blood Host or something similar, can I choose to sacrifice the creature with the Blood Host?

As a general rule - No.
In response to your opponent forcing a sacrifice, you can trigger your Blood Host's ability to the top of the stack.  This will then sacrifice your creature for the Blood Host, and then any other abilities remaining on the stack will resolve.  If this is the only creature that you have on the table, then the original sacrifice effect will be unresolved, exactly as if you were unable to sacrifice at the time the spell was cast.
If you have multiple other creatures on the field (As would be the case with your Blood Host being on the battlefield to begin with), you would have to chose another sacrifice for the initial effect.


Is summoner monk on the banlist? I was looking my self didn't see it but I could have missed the Summoner Monk.

A quick search on the Current Official Banlist we can see that he is not on the list at all.

This means that it is Unrestricted, and you can use up to 3 copies of it in your deck builds.

However, also according to that Official page, seems that next Ban List is soon to come (this month), so there could be a chance the status of Summoner Monk changes.

On another note, I have always liked Summoner Monk, and the fact that it is at 3 copies may strengthen some strategies out there. It is particularly useful to decks that have a high Spell Card ratio on their builds or that focus on Lvl 4 Xyz summoning (Harpies, Spellbook, Rescue Rabbit, Noble Knight, Gladiator Beast, and many, many others.).

In the case of my Harpies, this is a great addition to the deck, as it enables you to pull any Harpie (specially Harpie Channeler) from the deck. The best possible scenario is to pull a Summoner Monk and activate its effect by discarding Hysteric Sign.

This means you get to summon a Harpie from the deck (opens many plays with Channeler) and at the end of the turn you get to search for up to 3 Harpie cards by effect of the Sign, refilling your hand for further combos next turn.


What is the term for a stalemate or locked board in Magic? I listen to the Limited Resources Podcast quite a bit, and I always hear this word used that sounds like "Parody". In context:

  My opponent and I were at "parody"; neither of us could do anything.

I cannot find this term anywhere online. I've searched for "parody", "parroty", "peredi"... It must sound silly, but what is this word they are using?

Parity, in this context meaning equality (of game state, in some sense). In general, equality of game state doesn't necessarily mean a stalemate or locked board, but in Magic it's often the case that the player to make the first move is at a disadvantage.


How Can One Create Game Balance Axis and Allies WWI? My gaming circle does not feel Axis and Allies WWI is balanced. None of us has yet achieved victory as the Central Powers. What rule modifications would you suggest to balance the game?

The standard way to create balance in Axis & Allies is to use secret bidding. For example, bid an amount of money that Germany would get extra at the start of the first round of the game (the one bidding lowest gets to play Germany).

For example, two players bid in secret.  Player A bids 20 and player B bids 25.  This means Player A gets to play the Axis and that Germany gets an additional 20 IPC the first round.  The rest of the game unfolds as normal and Germany does not get additional money in later rounds.

The upside with this bidding is that nobody can complain that the game was not balanced any longer (if they thought differently they should have bid differently).


1932 Finance board game We inherited board games from my husbands grandmother who died in the 1980s.  Among them is a practically brand new (doesnt look used) board game called Finance.  The instruction booklet says copyright 1932. Some googling reveals that this was a precursor to Monopoly and was bought out by Parker Brothers a few yearslater. Do people collect old board games? Would this have some value?

Finance was published by Dave Knapp and was one of the candidates to buy the patents of Elizabeth Magie who invented The Landlord's Game.

The other candidate was the company Parker Brothers which acquired the patents and turned The Landlord's Game into Monopoly.

If in good or even better mint condition, you'll get more than $50. As mentioned by Nancy H and I myself didn't find any version of the 1932' Finance (in comparision to the more common Parker Brother 36' and 58' publications) so you might want to get it curated.


Does my creature still get a +1/+1 counter? My creature gets a +1/+1 counter whenever another creature I control dies. I block a 3/3 with a 2/2 that I can regenerate. It takes the damage and I regenerate it. Does the other creature still get a +1/+1 counter?

No, your creature does not get a counter.

The exact meaning of "regenerate" is this (from rule 701.13a):

  If the effect of a resolving spell or ability regenerates a permanent, it creates a replacement effect that protects the permanent the next time it would be destroyed this turn. In this case, “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn, instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature, remove it from combat.”

So, in your situation, the 2/2 would be destroyed, but instead, you remove all damage attached to it, tap it, and remove it from combat. This means that it doesn't die, so your creature doesn't get a counter.


Baahsto destroyed mid action When using the The Enclave of Endlings environment deck how do you handle it when the Baahsto card is in play and is destroyed while it is being resolved. For example while a hero is resolving the effects of the card that was put in play it causes Baahsto to be destroyed due to chain AE damage happening. When this happens does the card still fully resolve and all hero's put the top card into play? Or does it stop at the point where it was destroyed? They way my group looks at the rule is the card needs to fully resolve and all hero's play the top card of the deck even if it was destroyed while it is happening.

Baahsto (7 HP)
"At the end of the environment turn, put the top card of the villain deck into play.
Then, put the top card of each hero deck into play in turn order. If a limted card already in play would be put into play, discard that card instead."

I have to assume that the core rules are not changed in some way by this expansion as I cannot find the rulebook online. The core rulebook has this to say on conflict resolution:

  Over the course of a game, there are situations in which multiple effects would occur simultaneously or have competing effects. In all situations, card effects that happen simultaneously occur in the order in which the card entered play.

Since Baahsto entered play first you should play each hero's top card first from his effect. Once that has resolved you should go through the effects (if any) of the hero cards in the order they were played (turn order).

EDIT:
In short: I was wrong, there is now an errata.

Relevant passage:

  Destroying a card before it’s finished

  When a card is destroyed before it can finish its effect, any remaining effect is cancelled.

  For example, Ra has his “Flame Barrier” out, and a villain target deals
  all hero targets damage. The players decide to target Ra first, and Ra
  immediately retaliates, dealing enough damage to destroy the
  attacker. With the attacking target gone, there is nothing to continue
  dealing damage to the rest of the hero targets.

So destroying Baahsto stops the remaining hero(es) from drawing a card from their deck.


Lazax ally advantage conditions In Rex Lazax ally advantage allows Lazax player to give influence to an ally before she makes a legal bid on a strategy card. The tricky point which prompted questions when we played is: is the ally required to have sufficient amount of influence to make a bid before Lazax gives him some?
E.g.: Sol is allied with Lazax but has no influence, so he cannot make a bid by himself. Can he receive influence from Lazax in such situation to make a bid?

The ally does not need to have enough to make the bid before the transfer, as long as the ally has enough to

The rulebook indicates:

  The Lazax may give his ally any amount of influence during this
  Bidding Phase. This influence must be given before the player makes a
  legal bid on the current Strategy card.  The ally
  is not required to bid all of the influence given

(Note the implication that the ally is very much allowed to bid influence that has just been given.)

Then, in the rules for bidding:

  Bid: If a player wishes to bid, he announces how much influence he is
  willing to pay for the card. ... A player cannot bid more influence
  than he has in his reserve.

The transfer from the Lazax comes before the player makes the bid, and the requirement is only that the player has enough to cover the bid at the time the player makes the bid.

In your example, Sol would be able to receive influence from Lazax and then subsequently make a bit with it.


Fury of Dracula 3rd Ed. Stake vs Seduction In a game I played last night, it came up that a hunter using a stake found a vampire and I, as Dracula, played a seduction event card.  Which resolves first: is the vampire encounter discarded from the stake effect?  Or is the hunter bitten as per the seduction event?

If the stake would resolve first, was I required to play the seduction card?  I don't have the text in front of me, but it says something like "Play after a hunter has searched to reveal a vampire encounter" which sounds like it may be required to be played when that condition is met.

4th Edition clarifies this, as determined by the game rules editor on BGG
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/30655996#30655996

SEDUCTION (new):
Play when a hunter performs a search action and before any hunter cards are resolved.
If there is a vampire encounter in this hideout or lair, instead of resolving the encounter, that hunter is bitten. Then, return that encounter card to your hand.


Can you banish maiden with the eyes of blue even if it is face up? I play Yugioh at school and the main person I play against has a Blue-Eyes deck. He uses Maiden with Eyes of Blue and says I can't destroy it. But I read somewhere that you can banish it.

Is this correct?

Let's read Maiden with Eyes of Blue's effect, emphasis mine:

  When a card or effect is activated that targets this card (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand, Deck, or GY. When this card is targeted for an attack: You can negate the attack, and if you do, change the battle position of this card, then you can Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand, Deck, or GY. You can only use 1 "Maiden with eyes of Blue" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

We can see that nowhere on it's card text reads that it cannot be destroyed. Thus, otherwise there is another card your opponent has, the Maiden is not indestructible by herself.

When you target her with any effect, she special summon a Blue-eyes, but she does not negate that effect.

When you attack her, she negates the first attack, and special summons a Blue-eyes. However, if you attack her again she will take the hit.

In short, you can target and destroy the Maiden by various means, as nowhere on it's text is indicated otherwise. Just, be ready to handle the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that comes with you doing that.


Alchemists Vial rules Can you use Alchemist's vial's ability as an instant, if you are able to pay the cost? For example, can it be used to prevent my creature from attacking, once i have declared it.

You are able to activate it anytime you could cast an instant.

However once a creature has been declared an attacking or blocking creature the Vial's ability doesn't do anything, since it prevents a creature from being declared an attacker/blocker but doesn't undo that declaration.

From the Gatherer Rulings:

  Activating the last ability of Alchemist’s Vial targeting a creature that’s already attacking or blocking won’t cause that creature to stop attacking or blocking. It will prevent that creature from attacking or blocking in any additional combat phases the turn may have (although this is unusual).


How to make Rotate Dial with rivet? First off I'm not sure what a Rotate Dial is actually called. I am thinking of something similar to a HeroClix base (a rotating top piece with a hole, which reveals different stats on the bottom piece as it rotates), but I'm trying to make them out of cardboard. So a 2 circle pieces of chipboard, one with a notch cut out, and somehow attached.

I was thinking I can attach them together with a plastic (or metal) rivet. However since my pieces are smallish ~1.5in, I'm having a hard time finding a small enough rivet.

Is there a name for this?

Is there a known good way to make this thing?

It looks like "wheel" and "dial" (or "game dial") are other names for this.

I found a couple BGG threads with some suggestions:

How do you make a game dial?
Plastic grommets for cardboard wheels (ala BSG)

The main things you could search for are:

(paper) binding screws/screw posts/chicago screws (there's a site called Chicago Screws that sells them, but it's also a generic name)
paper rivets
brads/brass fasteners

I know you said it you couldn't find small enough rivets, but I searched a bit and it looks like paper rivets are made down to a few mm across,


Could I still play cards from the activated ability of Golos while the Epic effect is active? Spells cast with the keyword Epic, like Eternal Dominion prevent the player from casting other spells for the rest of the game. However, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim says:

  Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play them this turn without paying their mana costs.

Would I be able to use Golos's activated ability and cast cards after using Eternal Dominion?

Yes, you would be able to activate Golos's activated ability.
No, you couldn't cast cards exiled by Golos's activated ability (but you could play lands exiled by the ability).

Golos's ability instructs you to play a card.  To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell.[CR 701.13b]
Epic creates a continuous effect that says you can't cast spells for the remainder of the game.[CR 702.49a]
For non-lands, we have a conflict resolved by the second Golden Rule:

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.

This means the restriction from Epic's continuous effect trumps all instructions to cast spells, including the permission granted by Priority (the normal way of casting spells) and effects from abilities such as Golos's.
If Golos's ability exiles a land, you may play it as a land (subject to the usual timing restrictions and the limit on the number of lands per turn).
If Golos's ability exiles a non-land, you may not play it, as that would involve casting it.

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.
701.13b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.
702.49a Epic represents two spell abilities, one of which creates a delayed triggered ability. “Epic” means “For the rest of the game, you can’t cast spells,” and “At the beginning of each of your upkeeps for the rest of the game, copy this spell except for its epic ability. If the spell has any targets, you may choose new targets for the copy.” See rule 706.10.


What is the best first development to purchase in Roll Through the Ages? Played my first 4 player game of Roll Through the Ages official last night.  I've played the solo game quite a bit but I quickly discovered that the multiplayer game plays a bit differently!

What development should be purchased first and why?

@invisiblejon -
The Late Bronze Age was developed months after the game as sold in the box. I added some additional developments for those gamers looking for something meatier. (The publisher didn't water anything down.)

...and I like Irrigation as a first purchase too!


Aftermarket Cases for Board Games So I've picked up the Battlestar Galactica: Exodus expansion, and now have the base game, the pegasus expansion, and the exodus expansion.  It has reached the point where it is near impossible to fit all of the components/cards/boards/pieces in the actual box, whilst retaining any semblance of organization.  Does anyone have any recommendations on the best way to build a custom case for this game?  It would have to fit the main board, the New Caprica board, the Pegasus board, the Cylon fleet board.  Ideally, it would have a means to store the 6 different small-sized card decks for the skill cards seperately so that they could be easily stored and retrieved.  Also, if it had small trays for segregating the various ship types (raptor/viper/mk7 viper/raider/heavy raider/basestar/civilian ship) and all the various tokens (damage/trauma/ally/etc) that would be great.  It'd also have to have space for the hundreds of crisis cards, the loyalty cards, the new caprica crisis cards, the super crisis cards, the secret agenda cards, the trial cards, etc.  These tend to be more standard-sized cards, being slightly slimmer than Magic cards but about as tall.

My initial impulse is some kind of modified tackle box.  Are there any better solutions?

In general I try to do as little box customizing as possible, but here's some tips I've developed for storage:

Check out the fishing section of your local department store. Not for whole tackle boxes, though. You want the little plastic divided trays. There's a lot of different sizes available and most brands even have repositionable dividers for further customization.

So that takes care of the organization. And by the way, even if everything does fit back in the original box, I recommend getting these trays to organize bitsy games.

For storage, if you can't fit it into the original box (and if you're using a few tackle box trays you probably won't be able to) then you need a new box.

There are a lot of plastic tubs you can get (think halfway between a rubbermaid leftovers box for the fridge and a giant put-it-in-the-basement-and-forget-about-it box). Some places even have decent looking storage solutions. I was at walmart the other day and they have canvas-covered storage boxes in a variety of sizes that could be repurposed into game storage.

I don't really decorate my storage boxes, but if you wanted to there's plenty of images available for download from boardgamegeek.com for the particular game you're storing. You can print them out on full-page stickers and cut them out with an X-acto for an easy way to label what's in each storage box you make.

Here's a picture of what I did for Dungeon Lords:

Luckily the box was big enough that everything fits back into it. You can see the tray has moveable dividers; some of them are in place for smaller bits, some are removed so I can fit the decks of cards in. You can also see there that I decided to use one big bag for all of the wooden bits. They could be broken out by type, but they're easily divided up come game-time.

Hope this helps!


Can you chose fewer targets than a spell permits? Say I have a spell like Victimize that says, among other things "choose two target creature cards in your graveyard"...  what if I only have one creature card in my graveyard? Can I still cast the spell? Do I need to have two valid legal targets to actually cast the spell?

No, you can't. You need to specify all targets. It would say "up to two targets" if you could target less. That is also for example the downside of the card Hex.


If I activate Shambling Vent's ability after it has been 'awakened', what happens at the end of the turn? Let's say I control a Shambling Vent and then cast a spell with Awaken 3, targeting the Vent. The Shambling Vent becomes a 0/0 Land Creature - Elemental with 3 +1/+1 counters on it, no problem there.

I then activate Shambling Vent's second ability, turning it into a 2/3 white and black Land Creature - Elemental with lifelink and 3 +1/+1 counters on it. I know that the new P/T setting ability overwrites the first so I effectively have a 5/6 Land Creature, still no problems here.

However I'm not sure what happens when the turn ends and Shambling Vent's ability wears off. Does it go back to being a 0/0 elemental or does it stop being a creature entirely?

Both Awaken and Vent's ability generate a continuous effect that applies changes in layers 4 and 7b – type and power/toughness accordingly (also some other layers which do not intersect).

611.1. A continuous effect modifies characteristics of objects, modifies control of objects, or affects players or the rules of the game, for a fixed or indefinite period.
613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Effects that refer to the base power and/or toughness of a creature apply in this layer.

Awaken's effect is not "overwritten" by Vent's ability. Rather, Vent's ability is applied "over" it and takes precedence due to being more recent (timestamp rule).

613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp

Therefore, after Shambling Vent's ability wears off it will go back to being a 0/0 Land Creature - Elemental due to Awaken's effect.


How do I manage double-faced cards in Innistrad (MTG) tournament play? I read about the new mechanic in Innistrad, the upcoming MTG edition, called double-faced cards. These cards have two faces, and no standard Magic back. They have actual creatures on both sides. In the linked article they describe two options for handling those cards:

  To put a double-faced card into your deck, you have two options: You
  can put your entire deck in opaque card sleeves, as many players
  already do, or you can use the checklist card provided in many
  Innistrad packs. If you're using checklist cards to represent any of
  the double-faced cards in your deck, you must use checklist cards to
  represent all of them.

I am not happy with either of these options. As a card collector I want my cards nice and clean and I will definitely not remove them from their sleeve during actual play, which is required for the first option. Those cards would take damage really fast. So this option does not work for me.

The alternative is using those checklist cards, but as far as I understand it, this requires me to keep the real cards on a separate pile. Every time I play a checklist card, I will search this pile and put the right card into play. Shouldn't be a problem if you are playing for fun at home or with people who know your deck well. But in a tournament situation, this will leak important information to my opponent. How many double-faced cards am I playing? How many of those are left? It is also very likely that my oppponent my get a glimpse at some of them while I search for a card in the pile, because double-faced cards are hard to hide.

I am considering additional cards to act as decoys. Lets say I only have 4 checklist cards in my deck but I bring 20 different double-faced cards for the exchange-pile. Would this be allowed in a tournament? Or are there better ways to handle that?

Yes, there's been a lot of anger about double-faced cards online.  Obviously they're going to "kind of, sort of" work, but only in a really clunky and annoying way.  No one want to have to be constantly subjecting their cards to wear and tear by sleeving and resleeving them - and players with bad memories are going to keep forgetting what's written on the second face too!

To answer your question, I cannot imagine there could be any possible objection to you keeping the number and nature of your DFCs secret.  I personally would probably want to invest in a deck box and keep the double-faced cards in there with your trades or casual decks.  Having any sort of visible "exchange-pile" (beyond your 15-card sideboard) when you sit down gives your opponent too much information: really, you don't want him knowing if you're playing double-faced cards at all, until you play one.

And if you think playing in Constructed tournaments is going to be annoying, just wait until you consider the implications for Draft.  Curse you, Wizards!  You've gone too far this time! :D


Can a 0/0 creature with +1/+1 counters on it (like a Hydra) be regenerated? Since I fairly new to the Regeneration deal I have a question about regenerating Hydra creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. My friend seems to think that if he Doom Blades, Supreme Verdicts, or any destroy creatures/target creature on my side of the field, that I can't use the regeneraton effect from Golgari Charm on my Primordial Hydra or Savageborn Hydra. He thinks that they become 0/0's and the counters thus go away so regenerating a Hydra with no +1/+1 counters on it since I cant recast it means my Hydras are dead. Is this correct?

Those two spells Destroy. Regeneration replaces destruction, which means the destruction doesn't happen, which means it doesn't cause anything to go to the graveyard. If you cast the regeneration mode of Golgari Charm in response to Doom Blade or Supreme Verdict, your Hydras will be safe. They will not lose counters, enchantments, or equipment; they don't gain summoning sickness; spells targeting them don't lose sight of them; LTB and ETB abilities don't trigger; etc.

  614.8. Regeneration is a destruction-replacement effect. The word “instead” doesn’t appear on the card but is implicit in the definition of regeneration. “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn, instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature, remove it from combat.” Abilities that trigger from damage being dealt still trigger even if the permanent regenerates. See rule 701.12.

Regeneration will not save the Hydras from being sent to the graveyard as a result of having non-positive toughness, but nothing in the scenario you gave reduces their toughness (by removing +1/+1 counters or otherwise).


Does Sproutback Trudge's cost reduction get applied when we cast it from the graveyard? Sproutback Trudge is a 9-mana costing card that costs 1 less for each life you gained that turn. It can also be cast (at the beginning of the end step) from the graveyard when the owner gained life that turn. So, when [Sproutback Trudge] is in the graveyard and the owner gains life on their turn, can they cast it from the graveyard in addition to it being discounted for each life gained that turn?  For instance, can one cast this card from the graveyard for just the two green mana if the owner gained 7 life that turn?

Yes, you can get both benefits in the same turn and from whatever zone you cast it.
Sproutback Trudge's first ability applies the mana cost reduction whenever you cast it. Since it makes no limitation otherwise, it does not matter when or from which zone you cast the creature.


What are some good strategies against land takeovers in Alexandros? I recently purchased Alexandros and after a few games I found that getting a head start makes you the primary target for land-takeovers. A slow start can also cost you the game, however, and make it very difficult to catch up.

Being targeted for land takeover twice can leave you trailing so badly that it's impossible to come back. Usually, the player in second place benefits the most.

Are there any strategies to mitigate this?

Disclaimer: I have never played Alexandros, but have read the rules and examined the board.

Try to be the player in second place during the early and mid-game. This is known as the bicycle race strategy. Occupy small to medium value provinces. Spend turns collecting cards to position yourself to occupy a high value province while appearing to just be coasting. To keep the leader from getting too much of a lead, break up his provinces with Alexander.

Let another player grab a province from the leader first. With any luck, they'll use their excess cards fighting trading land grabs. Then us all those cards you've been accumulating to grab a big province and levy taxes.


When and how do I use token and checklist cards? I have a little problem. I just started playing MTG and in booster packs (4, 2 for each intro pack) I found two token cards (creature - 'Wolf' and artifact - 'Thopter'). Also, there was a checklist in two of them.

When and how should I use the token cards? What are the checklists for?

Certain cards instruct you to place tokens onto the Battlefield (e.g. Silverfur Partisan, Aspiring Aeronaut). You may use token cards as those tokens, though you need not use those. Any physical object will do as long as you can clearly represent whether the token is tapped or not.

  100.2. To play, each player needs his or her own deck of traditional Magic cards, small items to represent any tokens and counters, and some way to clearly track life totals.

Keep in mind that token cards are not considered cards as far as the rules are considered.

  108.2. When a rule or text on a card refers to a “card,” it means only a Magic card. Most Magic games use only traditional Magic cards, which measure approximately 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) by 3.5 inches (8.8 cm). Certain formats also use nontraditional Magic cards, oversized cards that may have different backs. Tokens aren’t considered cards—even a card that represents a token isn’t considered a card for rules purposes.

This means your deck can't contain tokens.

Double-faced cards don't have the normal back other Magic cards have. Such cards would be identifiable in your deck, in your hand, etc.

One solution is to place your deck in truly opaque sleeves.

The other is to use a checklist card as a proxy when the double-faced card isn't on the battlefield.