Winning Race for the Galaxy Without 6-cost Developments? My brother-in-law bought me Race For The Galaxy for Christmas so I've been playing a few games recently.  Obviously we are nowhere near mastering it; but what I've been seeing in all of our scorelines so far is someone getting a ton of points off one or other of the 6-point developments, and running away with the victory.

Personally I've been desperate to make a Produce-Consume strategy work, but so far I've had no luck at all.  It just seems as though having the right 6-cost development and building as many things as possible mentioned on that card completely trumps getting an "engine".

A few questions therefore occur.

(1) Are 6-cost developments really this good?  If I don't see a good one early, should I be Exploring +5 in a frantic attempt to find one?

(2) If I'm just being generally incompetent, and I expect I am, what are some efficient strategies for competing with someone whose 6-cost development is going to earn them ~10 extra points at the end of the game, when I don't have one of my own?

(3) What's the best way to get a really good Produce-Consume strategy working for you?  I expect it only seems slow and clunky to me right now because I'm doing it wrong.

Please help me to zoom ahead from last place in this Race!

I don't want to make this sound too much like an argument from authority, but I've won the WBC RftG tournament 3 years in a row.  I also mantain the Race for the Galaxy Statistics page, which has some interesting play data on cards from 160,000 games played.

(1) 6 devs are usually important for winning, but not required for doing so.  I build at least one 6 dev in more than 80% of the games that I play.

On the other hand, calling explore +5 early game isn't really a good move unless your whole hand is bad.  It's better to establish card flow so that you can keep most of the (somewhat fewer) cards that you see, instead of repeatedly exploring, which will leave you poor.  Repeatedly calling explore +5s leaves you too far on the quality over quantity spectrum.  It's not very useful to have great cards that you can't afford to build.  6 devs, especially multiple 6 devs, aren't great to have very early in the game, because they soak up valuable hand space that you need to get your card engine going.

(2) Produce/consume is indeed the most viable way to win the game without building a 6 dev.

First, basic strategy.  Early game you want to get card flow.  The best way to do this is to settle a windfall world and trade off it.  The second best way is to settle a production world, produce on it, and then trade.  Windfall settle/trade is better than Production world settle/produce/trade because it is a turn faster.  This is pretty general opening advice for any strategy.

(3) The key to a produce/consume strategy is to build production worlds early.  So ideally you want to settle/trade a windfall, and then call some mix of settle, trade, and produce.  You want to avoid calling develop, which mostly fills up your tableau without increasing your production capacity, until you have at least 2 production worlds and a windfall.  After this, you might want to dev once to put down an efficient consumer card.   Mining Conglomerate, Diversified Economy and Consumer Markets are the best non-6 cost devs for consumption in the base game.  Free Trade Association and Mining League are good 6-cost consumers.  But you can likely use an opponent's develop, or settle worlds with consumption powers instead.  Galactic Trendsetters, Tourist World, and Old Earth are the best worlds for consumption in the base game.  You want to call trade rather than consume 2xVP until you can get at least 6 VP per consume 2xVP.  Also important with a consume/produce engine is the ability to draw cards so that your engine doesn't stall as you are produce/consuming.  It's especially good to have cards that draw on produce.  This makes cards like Lost Species Ark World, Mining World, Comet Zone, and Gem World particularly good production worlds in the base game, as you can see at the graph on the base game rftgstats page.

Addendum: How does this change for expansions?

Produce/consume itself becomes marginally weaker in the expansions.  With the card stats by game version animated graph, you can can see Galactic Trendsetters hastily moving left (less often played) and down (less winning when played), which is a bread and butter produce/consume world.  This is due to two factors.

The addition of goals, which give an extra point source that is mostly rewarded for building.  P/C itself sometimes misses early builds to set up production capability.
The second is the introduction of the card Improved Logistics, which lets players settle twice in a single settle phase.  This card lets opponents quickly end the game, before a produce/consume player can get many cycles in.

However, the card Alien Toy Shop by itself is a 4 VP/cycle engine, which helps P/C a bit.

Still, the fundamentals for produce/consume are the same, but the fraction of times you want to produce/consume should decrease with the introduction of the first expansion.

The expansions also introduce another viable way to win without building a 6 dev, the tableau rush.  Since you can now get a substantial amount of points from goals, especially with the aid of improved logistics, you can grab a couple of goals and end the game really quickly with a middling score in the 30s.  But remember, the game is not about scoring big, it's about scoring more than your opponents.


Does a player rolling a 7 have to discard half their cards if they have more than 7? If I roll a "7" every player that has 8 or more cards has to give to the bank the half. Does that include the player who rolled the "7"?
If playing with then Seafarers expansion I can choose the Pirate after rolling "7" Does every player have to discard half of their cards when pirate is selected?

Yes, every player, including yourself / the player who rolled the 7.
From the rules:

every player who has more than 7 resource cards must select half...

With SeaFarers, you can choose to move the pirate instead of moving the robber. But that's the only difference. The discard half applies either way.
The rules specify only the pirate/robber choice. Leaving it up to the reader to remember that there's also the discard. But for confirmation, see this blog post:

Rolling seven is the same as in the original Catan in that the player who rolls seven gets to move the robber, and can take a resource from any player effected [sic] by where they move it to. Additionally any player with seven or more cards in their hand still has to discard half of them (the lesser half in the case of an odd number, i.e. if I have 9 cards with a seven is rolled I must discard 4).


How many times per turn can a thief steal? Assume I'm a level 1 Thief. Is there a limit to the number of times I attempt to steal something? Can I just attempt over and over again until I get the thing? Does it even have to be on my turn?

There's no limit on attempts per turn, but you do have to discard a card to attempt it, so you can't just attempt forever. From the FAQ:

Q. How often can a Thief steal?
A. As long as he has cards to discard.
Q. What happens to a Level 1 Thief who fails an attempt to steal? Does he die?
A. Nothing happens to him. You can't go below Level 1. (Beware the Level 1 Thief – he literally has nothing to lose!)


When do you enter the Mighty Mech? In Tiny Epic Mechs when you enter the zone with the power mech, it says you "immediately take control of it". I was wondering where this falls in relation to other things that happen immediately. Specifically, mines, power up and attacking other players.

A mine could prevent you from getting the Mighty Mech as you'd lose health.
It would greatly affect a battle, whether you're in the suit or not.
Being able to heal or power up and jump into the Mighty Mech in one step would be very useful.

The order of actions I know are:

Mines -> Combat -> Turrets -> Action

Where should entering the mighty mech fall into this?

The general consensus in BGG is that entering the Mighty Mech is the first thing to do when entering a square, before any other action or check. So if otherwise allowed you could first enter inside the MM and then check for mines, combat, actions, etc.

But I could not find a written rule or clarification on the web.


Carcassonne: two builders on the same city? When using the Traders and Builders and two players have one city each with their builder in it, and that two cities become one I always asumed that the builders keep working the same way (giving a extra turn for their player).

But in one of my recent games it almost happened something that left me wondering: if one of the players sharing that city with two builders has more pawns than the other in it, does that affect the other player's builder or they would keep working like normal?

At any time when the builder is on the table, it functions as documented in the rules.

The number of builders in a single city does not affect the way in which each builder functions. Nor does the number of knights. Only the active player gets an extra play if he/she extends the road or city. A builder can be deployed even if there are thieves, knights, or builders of other players on the road or city, as long as you have a thief or knight present.

Furthermore, the builder is not counted when calculating the majority. This is because the builder is not considered a follower.

Only if, due to expansions like The Tower or The Dragon, a player's last follower is removed from a road or city, the builder will no longer function. At this point, you're supposed to return it to your supply.

Source


Which creature deals damage with the Ninjutsu mechanic, and can I block the creature that comes in? Ninjutsu allows you to return an unblocked creature to your hand and put a creature card from your hand into play tapped and attacking.

Does this mean if I didn't block, my opponnent could attack me again and deal damage again? Or does ninjutsu simply replace an unblocked creature, and if it was replaced the first creature doesn't do damage?

Also what happens if my opponent attacks me with a creature that can't be blocked, declare blockers step never happened so I could block the second creature that enters the battlefield tapped and attacking (the ninjustu creature)?

Only one creature deals combat damage, the unblocked creature or the Ninjutsu creature. There is no second combat phase or declare blockers step.
The complete rule for Ninjutsu is:

702.48. Ninjutsu
702.48a Ninjutsu is an activated ability that functions only while the card with ninjutsu is in a player’s hand. “Ninjutsu [cost]” means “[Cost], Reveal this card from your hand, Return an unblocked attacking creature you control to its owner’s hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.”
702.48b The card with ninjutsu remains revealed from the time the ability is announced until the ability leaves the stack.
702.48c A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). The creature with ninjutsu is put onto the battlefield unblocked. It will be attacking the same player or planeswalker as the creature that was returned to its owner’s hand.

A creature can be an unblocked creature only during combat, while it's attacking, as the Ninjutsu rule and rules reminder on every Ninjutsu card says. It becomes an unblocked creature only after the declare blockers step. Once combat ends, it's no longer attacking or unblocked, so it can't be Ninjutsu'd any more.

Declare Blockers Step

509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

As for unblockable creatures: Contrary to your assumption, the declare blockers step still happens normally, you just can't assign any creature to block an unblockable creature during it. A creature becomes unblocked only after the declare blockers step, and there will not be an additional declare blockers step just because you couldn't block any creatures at that time.


Can non-creature permanents have +1/+1 counters? Say I have a Blinkmoth Nexus and Steel Overseer out. I tap the Steel Overseer for his ability to put +1/+1 counters while my Blinkmoth is a creature, and it gains a counter. After my Blinkmoth goes back into a land, does it keep the counter, or does it lose it?

Lands (any permanent, really) can have +1/+1 counters just fine. In fact, Llanowar Reborn enters the battlefield with one! The counter(s) will not go away just because your blinkmoth stops being a creature.

Of course, the +1/+1 counter doesn't do anything until the land becomes a creature again, but the +1/+1 counter will still be there.


Examples of board games with good/interesting rules for trading? Trading is in my opinion often an overlooked aspect of rules for board games. The lack of such rules often results in players modifying or making up these rules themselves. While making up the rules can be part of the fun I was wondering if you know of any games that already have good such rules/mechanisms? Any examples of games that make trading and the interaction between multiple players when doing so an interesting part of the gameplay would be appreciated.

Settlers of Catan is a classic game with trading elements.  Each player needs to build roads and buildings with various resources (wheat, clay, ore, sheep, wood), but most players will have scarcity in one or more of the resources needed; thus, they must trade resources with other players to be able to complete purchases.

The key is that you need all of the resources, at some points, to win the game.  There is no strategy where you can get by on just three or four of the five, so you must trade often to win.

Often times you will see resources traded at uneven ratios.  A few groups add more advanced sorts of trading, such as futures, but those are not allowed in the basic rules.


Crystalline Sliver and targets Text on card says:

  Slivers cannot be the target of spells or abilities.

Does it mean that other slivers cannot affect each other, while Crystalline Sliver is in play.

For example, Fury Sliver won't give double strike to all slivers?

The Oracle text of Crystalline Sliver now says:

  All Slivers have shroud. (They can't be the targets of spells or abilities.)

It applies to all Slivers, not all other slivers. (Which, would be worded that way if that is what they meant.) It means precisely what the reminder text (or the cards old text) says, Sliver creatures cannot be targeted by spells or abilities that have target in the rules text. Fury Sliver still gives Slivers double strike, Muscle Sliver still grants Slivers a +1/+1 Power/Toughness bonus.

What it does prevent is Spells like Assassinate from targeting a tapped Sliver, or Slivers with activated or triggered abilities (or any other Activated or Triggered Abilities) from targeting Slivers with their abilities.


In bridge,should a responder devalue her hand if short in opener's suit? I opened a "strong two clubs." Partner bid 2 NT, which between us, meant "9-plus points, slam interest."

I bid my suit, 3 spades, with the following: (s) AKQxxx (h) AKx (d) Ax (c) xx. That's a 6-card suit with 22 points (20 in high cards, two more for the minor doubletons).

Responder bid 4NT, and we ended up in 6 Spades, which went down, because my left hand opponent had JTxxx of spades.

Partner had: (s) x (h) xxxx (d)Kxxx (c) AKxx.

She said, "I had 10 HCP, 12 counting the spade singleton. That, with your 22 should mean a small slam."

My response was, "Spade singleton" was the whole point. You should have downgraded your hand when you  heard 3 spades, because you didn't have normal trump support. If you had xxx or Jx, the contract would probably have been made."

Should partner had "downgraded her hand" and refrained from bidding the slam with shortness in my spade suit?

"Bidding your suit" typically means 4 or 5 card length.  Because of that, I would expect the bidding to go more like this:
Partner sitting there with one card in that suit would then respond with their suit (4C in this case), which denies support for your spades and shows that clubs is their best suit.  The new suit bid is forcing, so it's now back to you to decide what to do.  Partner doesn't have your spades, but you can rebid them since you've got 6 of 'em.  If you really want to you can make a NT bid, since partner should have your one weak suit covered.  Whatever you reply with, partner has a chance to correct if they're significantly over the 9+ they've promised.  With the length you've got, a spade rebid is valid and 4S should be a solid contract.  After that you each have to decide if you're going to go to Blackwood and look for the slam possibility.
Sure there's interest in slam, but there's no 8-card fit.  And the bidding should show that.  Someone has to make the call as to whether or not to go there, and at what point the bidding stops.  That's whoever makes the Blackwood bid.  With an even split, you get it.  Without, you don't.  As long as the player making that bid understands the risk involved and wants to go for it, it's all good.
If both of you understood the danger you were getting into and the possibility of a bad split ruining it all, then I can't say you've got any problems in the bidding.  If on the other hand someone thought the slam was solid, then I'd say that your bidding needs to be a bit more descriptive.

In specific though, YES, there are two specific situations where shortness doesn't give ANY points:
1) In the trump suit
2) In a NT contract

And that's one of the more reliable rules in bridge.  8 )


Sorceries in Combat phase Can I cast sorceries in combat phase, or only instants? For example, could I cast Press into service after blockers are declared to take control of a declared blocker?

You may only cast sorceries when it is your turn, during one of your main phases, while the stack is empty. So no you cannot cast them during combat.

  307.1. A player who has priority may cast a sorcery card from his or her hand during a main phase of his or her turn when the stack is empty. Casting a sorcery as a spell uses the stack.


Can investigators easily avoid being stuck in the Bent Pyramid and avoid the Sanity loss from Nephre-Ka's reckoning? This is a multi-faceted question and revolves around Nephren-Ka's reckoning which says

  Each investigator may move 1 space toward the Bent Pyramid. Then each investigator that did not move loses 1 Sanity.

If I end up moved to the Bent Pyramid, I can spend 0 actions moving away from it as far as Tel El-Amarna, Cairo, or Alexandria as a function of the rule enabling me to

  ...move along any number of interconnected Local paths without performing an action.

If the reckoning hits when I am in Cairo, I end up moving one space toward the Bent Pyramid and end up in The Pyramids, correct?

It seems trivially easy to avoid being caught there. Am I misunderstanding any part of this?  Part of my confusion may be not understanding why being drawn toward the Bent Pyramid is such a big deal apart from some of the time working against the movement objectives of my investigators.

You're being drawn there from anywhere on the board, not just from locations that have convenient local paths.
If you're already on the Bent Pyramid, then you'll lose 1 Sanity as you did not move.
It's not necessary a big deal. Some Ancient Ones have effects that are more thematic than hindering. I think this is the case here. Pretty often this effect helps investigators as it can move you into desired position, and you may take it into account while planning your travels.


In Diplomacy, can a fleet in a coastal province be used to convoy? The situation I had in mind was that in Spring, 1901 Italy orders army, Venice to Albania. The Austrian Fleet Trieste does a convoy, since the fleet in the Trieste coastal region is adjacent to both the other two coastal regions. (This would be a Lepanto opening.)
Another player argues that this is not possible. His reasoning is "the convoy is only possible if the fleet vacates Trieste and moves into Adriatic Sea."
According to Diplomacy Wiki, "A fleet can convoy an army that is adjacent to it into another land space that is adjacent to the fleet."
Who is right?

Fleets in coastal provinces cannot convoy.  To convoy, you have to be in the open water.  From the rules (emphasis mine):

Convoying an Army Across One Water Province
A Fleet in a water province (not a coastal province) can convoy an
Army from any coastal province adjacent to that water province to
any other coastal province adjacent to that water province.

Convoying an Army Across Several Water Provinces
If Fleets occupy adjacent water provinces, an Army can be convoyed
through all these water provinces on one turn, landing in a coastal
province adjacent to the final Fleet in the chain

Thus, in the situation you describe, a fleet in Trieste cannot convoy; it would need to be in the Adriatic Sea.


When is it optimal to purchase a Mint on a 5/2 split? Every now and then, what seems like a golden opportunity comes up: you start the game with five coppers, and the Mint is in play.  By purchasing this, you can instantly trash five of your starting copper.  However, this leaves you with only two copper in your deck: not enough to purchase a silver.

Say your second buy is the third copper you need for the silver.  Now there are seven cards in your deck: three copper, three estates, and a mint.  This means there is about a (correct me if my math is off) 30% chance that you'll only draw two coppers on your third draw.

If some 2 cost cards are in play, this is less of a problem.  Having a Moat or Cellar, for instance, could draw out coppers, and Secret Chamber or Lighthouse could provide the necessary money to obtain the first silver.

This has already been discussed a bit on Dominion Strategy, but there doesn't seem to be much of a consensus.

When, if ever, is buying a Mint for your first or second buy an optimal move?

Almost never. A first turn Mint wrecks your economy, and being able to buy good cards on turns 3 and 4 is really important in order to not fall behind your opponent.

Mint/Fool's Gold is an elite opening because it allows you to get a massive density of Fool's Gold in your deck quickly.

Mint/Lighthouse is acceptable, especially if there are lots of attacks, but you need a plan to transition your deck into higher value cards quickly.

Every other opening is sub-optimal, according to the Councilroom statistics (which are derived from Isotropic games).


Is a bridge defense easier if the values are about equally distributed? The conventional wisdom is that a bridge declaration for game will have about a 50-50 chance of success if declarer has about 25 high card points, and the defense has 15. That's "all other things being equal."

But a 24 point declaration might well succeed if they are divided about equally between declarer and dummy, because of good "transportation," while a 26 point declaration divided 22 points and 4 might fail because of bad transportation.

Does a similar line of reasoning hold on defense? If one defender has made an opening bid or takeout double, the implication is that defender holds most of the defensive values, (and this fact is known to declarer). Is that a disadvantage? Or are there offsetting advantages, such as the information being made available to the other defender?

Having the defensive values split between the hands is better for the defense for the same reason as declarer, but the advantage is not as strong for defenders as for declarers. This is because defenders are more likely to choose the wrong suit to work on as they have less information about their combined strength, and less coordination. For example, it's more difficult for one defender to lead clubs and the other defender to switch to spades to get the entry to partner's hand, than it is for declarer to lead up to dummy's clubs, and then switch to a spade to get back to declarer's hand.


How do you place your initial settlements in Settlers of Catan? Initial settlement placement in Catan can really affect the outcome of the game.  What strategy do you follow in Settlers of Catan for initial settlement placement.  Does this strategy change if you have first, or last placement?  Also, when playing Seafarers, do you alter your placement strategy?

If I'm the first player, I always go for the most powerful settlement, since I have no idea what I'll get when it comes back around to me.

If I'm last, I grab spots that based on the numbers and the available ports will get me an advantage.  I also like to try to place the second settlement on a brick/wood combo so I can start with a road.

The other positions are variations in between the others.

In general, I try very hard for number diversity.  I love it when I can get both a 6 and an 8 placement.  Next in line is at least 3 of the following: 5, 6, 8, 9.

The final thing you have to look out for is that you have somewhere to go.


What is a solid basic strategy for surviving Arkham Horror? First, I should note I've only played Arkham Horror once in a 2 player game and loved it. I am curious if the game is even survivable, and if so, what factors contribute to that success?

I am delighted at the thought that all players eventually get devoured by the Eldar Gods, and "winning" consists of having fun and the game going a long time. Seems much like life itself, to me.

If at least one player can survive, I am guessing that several factors would help, such as:

Lots of luck
Lots of cooperation among players
Lots of players

If at least one player can survive, what other factors have you found contribute to that?

People survive, and quite frequently as well. Here's a Google Doc of recorded games that a guy on the FFG forums has been keeping. It's got some pretty interesting statistics on it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AliZyklaTCWzdEszdXpoRVJQNGltTU5wMi1qWEJnQkE#gid=2

As far a good strategies go, it's pretty simple. As you can see from the speadsheet, games with more investigators generally have a higher rate of success than games with less investigators. I've found that four investigators is generally a good number to play with. Any more and people can get bored with down time, any less and there's a good chance there's too much going on to take care of. It's also a nice middle ground for the number of gates that are allowed to be open, the number of monsters in Arkaham, the number of monsters in the outskirts, and you still only have one monster appearing per gate opening.

It's important to keep the gate count under control. Even if you can't seal a gate, make sure you have people going through gates so they have enough time to travel through and close without hitting the limit. Assuming one new gate per turn is a bit high, but it's a good rate to keep in mind for higher player games. I've had games end on the second turn in an 8-player game just due to unlucky Arkham encounters that opened gates. It can sneak up on you!

Which gates you seal/close is also important. It's slightly less predictable with expansion boards added in, but in the base set you have the 'Big 4': Independence Square, The Witch House, Unvisted Isle, and the Woods. These locations have gates that open significantly more frequently than other locations. If you close a gate here without sealing, odds are there's going to be another gate there soon enough, which adds a doom token to the track. Those are also the locations where Monster surges are more likely to happen. Conversely, locations such as the Historical Society, the Lodge, Hibb's Roadhouse, and the Science building, are targeted by Mythos Cards much less frequenty; it's less dicey to close those gates without sealing.

You may think it's important to have a dedicated monster killer (or at least someone good at it), and it definitely helps, but you can get by without it. Don't be afraid to spend a clue token or two to sneak past a monster guarding a gate so you don't have to deal with it. Also, don't forget that closing a gate removes all monsters with the matching symbol from the board.

Don't get sucked into spending all your clues to pass a check! I've seen so many instances where a player just decides, "Well, I've already spent two, might as well spend more..." only to burn their entire clue pile and have nothing to show for it at the end. Don't be afraid to fail a check!

Have a decent amount of health before wandering into an Other World. Don't go into R'yleh with one Sanity and one Stamina. And please don't go into Unknown Kadath with one Sanity and one Stamina. If you're going for a seal, having more than five clues going in helps, obviously. The extra buffer isn't necessary, but it's comforting.

Some people will swear by getting retainers from the newspaper or bank loans to get cash to buy weapons, but more often than not my group can get by just fine with our starting equipment and the odds and ends we pick up while playing. Encounters spent trying to get money and good items could be spent getting clues, either off of the board or from random encounters. It's up to you to decide what would be more useful.

Most importantly, have fun!


do all players win star realms pirates co-op OK, with the Star Realms Pirates of the Dark Star co-op challenge, if a player dies but at least one other remaining team member still beats the Pirates, is it a team win or an individual win? e.g. if Bob and Sally play, and Bob is eliminated, but Sally still hangs on and wins it, is it a team victory, or was it just Sally who won?

By the nature of it being a co-op then everybody wins.  I can't anything specific in those rules to say an eliminated player doesn't win so I wouldn't rule that just those surviving are winners.  It seems very against the spirit of a co-op game to try and claim you won solo unless thats specifically in the rules such as Archipelago where everyone wins/loses and if players win there is a 'grand winner' amongst them.


Merlin always gets stabbed I've been playing The Resistance: Avalon with a group and we're finding that the games usually end with the Good Guys passing 3 missions, but then the Forces of Evil win by assassinating Merlin. This has happened 4 times out of the last 5 games.

We usually play with 7 or 8 people, although we've played with 5 or 6 people on occasion. For extra roles we usually add in Percival and Morgana. With 7 or more we also use the Lady of the Lake.

So 3 questions:

1) Can we change which roles we use to make Merlin's death less likely?

2) If I'm Merlin, how do I steer things in the right direction without outing myself to the Forces of Evil?

3) If I'm Percival (or even just a normal Good Guy), what can I do to protect Merlin?

Merlin's Death is generally not due to the cards, but to play style.  However, in general Evil needs to keep track of things, so the more 'confused' evil can be the better.  The best configuration for this (which I would try in your group, first) is Merlin, Percival, and Oberon.  This gives good maximum information and evil the least.  If this configuration affects the Merlin kill, then great, but I doubt it will much.

The bigger problem seems to be that "Good generally wins".  This shouldn't be the case.  Merlin is there to balance the information on both sides, since Evil knows Evil.  In general, games should end 50/50.   Merlin giving out too much information should be the only reason these scales tip away from 50-50.

As for question #2, how do you steer things?  The short answer is you don't!  The biggest reason for Merlin kills is not based on how Merlin behaved, but how all of the other good players behaved.  My guess is all the rest of your loyal knights are acting timid and confused, while Merlin is acting confident, bored, or aggressively.   You need to be aggressive, talkative, and opinionated in order to get the information out there to the other good players, ergo, the other good players also need to be aggressive, talkative, confident, opinionated, etc.  If they're not doing that, there's very little that can be done by Merlin.  I call this "giving Merlin cover".

Note, this isn't just Percival's job.  It's everyone's.  Percival is there mostly for late game use when you need a perfect team on quest 5.  Think "I'm Percival, this is the team you need".  He knows this because he's been carefully watching Merlin all game and Merlin has communicated to him who the bad players are (in some way).

As a normal loyal servant of Arthur, your job is pretend you have all the information and any 'mistakes' you make are a ruse to throw people off the fact that you're Merlin.  This usually means a wild guess.  However, these guesses often pay off.  With 2-3 loyal knights guessing maybe one of them is accurate and this gives Merlin the cover he needs (as Merlin too will look like a random guesser).

Finally, don't discount the power of voting.  The game relies on people voting in their best interests, as such, voting is a VERY reliable indicator of someone's knowledge and preferences.  If you're being fingered as Merlin too often and this is because you're speaking, try switching up the strategy.   Instead of speaking, try being totally silent, but just consistently voting for all good teams and down voting all bad teams.  If the other players are paying attention to votes you can give full information about team evil without saying a word.  Of course, at some point they might catch on to this, so you might need to change-up the strategy.

When I'm Merlin, I play exactly the same way as when I'm not.  For me, this is trying to do a logical tally and deduction of votes and to point out table behavior and it's consequences.  Usually, even without being Merlin, I can fully figure out Team Evil by the end of the game with this method, so when I do it as Merlin I need to carefully act the same.  Still, in the absence of any cover, I will still lose.

Things you generally shouldn't do as Merlin (though deception always allow for exceptions):

Vote for losing teams.  This 'fools evil' far less than it screws good.
Approve team with 2 Evils early.  While this is a sound strategy, it can confuse good players who are trying to find you, and can convince them an evil player is good.
Claim to be Merlin at the end of the game.  This ploy generally doesn't work.

Things that are perfectly okay to do as Merlin:

Claim to be Merlin near the beginning of the game.  I've used this strategy effectively several times, even pointing out the exact bad guys.  It's often so bold that it fools the opponents, but, of course, it can only be used sparingly, and it too needs cover (e.g. by players randomly doing this in some games)
Speak your concerns.  It's okay to think that a bad guy is bad and say so.  Often a Merlin 'tell' is being afraid to 'give away' anything, as that fear will come across and garner suspicion.
'wink' to Percival.  While perhaps not a literal wink, Percival is going to be looking right at you, so dammit look at him and acknowledge each other!  This is especially important in games with Morganna.

Overall this is a game about information and mis-information.  At the start Evil has an information advantage, so that needs to be made up with by good player speak.  Likewise the thing evil doesn't know (Merlin) needs to be covered up by a lot of misinformation from Good.  The more stuff you put out there, the more Evil needs to consider and the more cover Merlin will have.

Enjoy!


What type of hands are suitable for minor suit contracts after an NT opener? I know that when you hold a 6-card minor suit and a really weak hand (such as holding Jxxxxx in the minor and not much else after 1NT opener), you would play some system to transfer into the minor.
However, if you held a stronger hand and no major suit fit, would you prefer a game in NT or the minor (since if the minor suit holding is strong/long enough, you can run it)?
How does

Overall strength (for partscores, games, and slams)
Overall shape
Suit strength
Suit length

factor into this?

This does depend on the scoring method somewhat as well as the cards, but "almost never".
Hamman's rule: "If you have a choice of reasonable bids and one of them is 3NT, then bid it."  You never want to play 5m instead of 3NT.  Sometimes you have to, however. It should be obvious from your hand (though less so after a strong NT opener, definitely not obvious from a 2NT opener).
The same things apply as deciding to play 3m instead of 1NT:

suit you aren't sure is reasonably solid (though remember for 5m it can't really be much more than one loser), or
that you can't guarantee you can get to in NT once declarer sets it up.

The fact that you have zero losers in some other suit because you're void doesn't really matter as much if partner has it stopped and your suit runs - you have two more tricks you can afford to lose in 3NT than at the 5 level.  Of course if it's not going to run, theirs is...
But really, the big time to play 5m instead of 3NT is "tried for 6 and had to stop."  Note that again, it's "don't want to be there, but have to."
Now, none of that depends on the scoring method.  So why did I mention it first?  Because matchpoints.
If you can take 11 or 12 tricks in a minor suit, the chance of taking 10 or 11 in 3NT is quite high. If you're playing IMP scoring, or rubber, then the difference between 5m making and 3NT making is tiny (zero, or -1 or 2 IMPs (30 or 60 points above the line) if 3NT made overtricks).  If you're in a matchpoint game, though, while 5m= ties 3NT=, even 5m+1 loses to 3NT+any.  The only time you win at matchpoints by playing in the minor is when 3NT fails.
There's a line that is often said as a joke, but it's not wrong: "At matchpoints, 5m is an invitation to 6" - because if you're booked for a poor score anyway for playing in the minor, the upside of bidding 6 (below average -> top) when it makes is much larger than the downside of bidding 6 when it doesn't (below average -> bottom).
There's another comment that fits this discussion: "At matchpoints, play the highest scoring contract.  At IMPs, play the safest contract."  If you can't tell which one's safer, almost certainly 3NT is.
Long answer shortish: over 1NT, only plan on 5m instead of 3NT if it's obviously right.  Over 2NT, you never want to play in 5m.  If you look for slam and are off two keycards, sure, stop in 5m, but you're not getting a good (matchpoint) score.


Blocking One Attacker with Multiple Creatures In what situation would I want to have multiple creatures block one attacker? If one creature can absorb all of the damage, why subject more creatures to the excess damage? Other than trample, is there any advantage?

The simplest case is using multiple weaker creatures (say, two 1/1s) to block and kill a single 2/2. Using only one creature would (under normal conditions) be rather bad.
Even better, use two 1/3s to block and kill a single 2/2, while your creatures survive combat unharmed (barring any instants being cast).


If a permanent is tapped, are enchantments on it also tapped? Say I have a Forest in play enchanted with Utopia Sprawl. Opponent has a Mesmeric Orb in play, which has this text:

Whenever a permanent becomes untapped, that permanent's controller mills a card.

On my turn I tap the Forest for mana. On my next turn when the Forest untaps, do I mill one card or two?
Intuitively I'm guessing one card, but I'm not aware of any rule that says it should be one card, so I'd like to check.

No, each permanent individually can be tapped or untapped; tapping or untapping a permanent does not tap or untap any enchantments on it. Similarly, tapping or untapping an aura enchantment does not affect the permanent it is enchanting.

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


What's the best strategy to win a tic-tac-toe variant on a 5x5-board? First: We assume that every player is playing at its best

Rules 5x5 board

Player 1 begins and puts every turn one cross “X”.

Player 2 puts every turn two circles “O”. They don’t have to be next to each other.

A player wins as soon as he has five of his pieces in a horizontal or vertical line.

We also agree that player 1 “X” wins if the board is completely full.

What is the best strategy for each player to win the game?

This is a generalized version of @Guvante's answer.

O (player 2) always wins in 4. The diagonals are not necessary to achieve a win.

Examples are included in bold, but this strategy works for all choices made by X.

X places a piece at (a,b): (1,1)
O chooses a row that is not a, and places two pieces in that row, but not in column b: (2,2) and (2,5)
Now, O is attacking on the chosen row (2), and on two columns (2 and 5). X will have to defend against one of these three attacks: (2,3)
O chooses a free row and places two pieces above or below his previous pieces: (5,2) and (5,5)

This is what the board looks like at this point:

 X1|  |  |  |
   |O1|X2|  |O1
   |  |  |  |
   |  |  |  |
   |O2|  |  |O2

Now O has 3 different attacks going on. In our example these are row 5 and columns 2 and 5. X can block one of these, and O can expand the other two to three-in-a-rows. Then X can block one of those, and O completes the other. Game over.

Since this is done in 4 moves, there's no risk of X getting 5 in a row so this is of no concern.

EDIT: step by step images, colors depict dominance.


What are the applications of brand? Brand is a red spell with which you "Gain control of all permanents you own". What does this actually do? Wouldn't you already have control over your permanents? When would this card be useful? Does this apply to permanents that where exiled or sent to your graveyard?

Magic has this definition for "permanent":

  110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a permanent as it’s moved to another zone by an effect or rule.

So, Brand only cares about cards and tokens currently on the battlefield.

Magic has the following rules about ownership:

  108.3. The owner of a card in the game is the player who started the game with it in his or her deck. If a card is brought into the game from outside the game rather than starting in a player’s deck, its owner is the player who brought it into the game. If a card starts the game in the command zone, its owner is the player who put it into the command zone to start the game. Legal ownership of a card in the game is irrelevant to the game rules except for the rules for ante.
  110.5a A token is both owned and controlled by the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.

And one about control:

  110.2. A permanent’s owner is the same as the owner of the card that represents it (unless it’s a token; see rule 110.5a). A permanent’s controller is, by default, the player under whose control it entered the battlefield. Every permanent has a controller.

Basically, the permanents you own are the cards you put in your deck and the tokens you made, and you start out controlling the permanents that you put into play.

There are some cards that allow you to put cards your opponents own into play, like Beacon of Unrest, Bribery, and Gather Specimens.

Other cards let you take control of a permanent already on the battlefield, such as Act of Treason and Blatant Thievery.

Still others allow you to exchange control of a permanent you control and a permanent someone else controls, such as Daring Thief and Shifting Loyalties.

Some cards even allow you to give an opponent control of a permanent you control, such as Donate and Zedruu the Greathearted.

Brand allows you to regain control of any permanents you lost control of in any of those ways. For example, you can exchange control of a bunch of permanents you control with permanents your opponent controls, and then cast Brand to get your permanents back.


does gaining control of an aura gaining control of a permanent give me the permanent? If my opponent steals a creature from me with Control Magic, I could steal it back by casting another Control Magic on it and (I think due to timing?) I would control the creature.

If instead I cast Steal Enchantment on the Control Magic, does the "You" become "me," and would I now control the creature?

Yes, if you take control of your opponent's Control Magic, you also take control of the creature it enchants.
The "you" on objects always refers to the controller of that object. If you take control of that object, you become the new "you". In the case of Control Magic, that also means that you take control of the enchanted creature.

109.5. The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller, its would-be controller (if a player is attempting to play, cast, or activate it), or its owner (if it has no controller). For a static ability, this is the current controller of the object it’s on. For an activated ability, this is the player who activated the ability. For a triggered ability, this is the controller of the object when the ability triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability. To determine the controller of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

If you cast your own Control Magic after the opponent played his, you would also take control of the creature. However, it's not due to timing, which governs who can take action and when, but because of the more recent timestamp of your Control Magic vs. your opponent's Control Magic timestamp, meaning the latest timestamp "wins":

Interaction of Continuous Effects

613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.2. Within layers 1–6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer. (See rule 613.7.)
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.


Can I use Datasucker without icebreakers? I've got a Datasucker. Can I use its ability "Hosted virus counter: Rezzed piece of ice currently being encountered has -1 strength until the end of the encounter" even if I do not have any icebreaker with strength equal or greater than ice's currently encountered?

There's no restriction on using the ability aside from what's printed; you must be encountering a rezzed piece of ice. Datasucker is not an icebreaker, so the strength of the ice doesn't affect the ability. There are reasons to do this, such as Parasite


Is circle a "completed" road in Kids of Carcassonne? In Kids of Carcassonne game basic rule is to complete road. In rules it is written (translating from my localized version - Slovak/Czech):

  Road is completed in moment when both ends end in house or elsewhere in country. Road is closed also with crossroads, or city (place surrounded with walls).

Circular road does not fit this definition. So should it be considered "completed" or not?

If cicle does not count as "completed" road it could be used against opponents, that is why I am primarily asking.

A road is also closed when it forms a complete loop.
  If a part of a closed road has a color that no
  player is using, nothing is played on that part.

http://riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_313_gameRules.pdf

This is from the rules for Die Kinder von Carcassone. As this is German for "The Kids of Carcassone", I assume it is the same game.


How to encourage stealing of gifts in a white elephant gift exchange? I am arranging a white elephant gift exchange game. In previous years, guests were too polite, refusing to steal gifts from others, so the game amounted to nothing more than people choosing a number from a hat and then choosing a gift from the table in the order of their numbers. Are there any steps I can add to the game to motivate people to overcome their politeness?

That's simple. Get two secret gifts worth at least as much as the exchange. At the end of the exchange, everyone votes for the most devious steal. Both the thief and the victim get one of the surprise gifts.

And great times were had by all!


Is "The Aristocrats" the first WBR deck to top 8 a Pro Tour? Tom Martell won Pro Tour Gatecrash with "The Aristocrats", a white-black-red deck that plays Cartel Aristocrat, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Blasphemous Act.

This is a historically poor color combination. Is this the first time a deck using precisely those colors has top 8ed a Pro Tour? If not, what is the most recent other example? I've looked back through 2010 without finding any.

(Note: TCGPlayer's deck search claims that Ken Yukohiro's deck from PT Avacyn Restored is of this color combination, but it includes Forests and Borderland Rangers, so I'd say it shouldn't count...)

There are at least several decks that almost qualify:

Nearly-pure WBR in a heavily-multicolor format: Takayuki Koike got to the top 8 at a 2007 Extended Pro Tour in Valencia with a Domain Zoo deck where Tarmogoyf was the only green card.
A true WBR deck in a team format: Tomoharu Saito played a WBR deck as part of the winning team at a 2006 Pro Tour in Charleston. It featured the red-green hybrid card Giant Solifuge but no green sources.

So, why is WBR rare?

Playing WBR means forgoing green and blue. What are you (typically) giving up when you do that? Mana ramp and color-fixing (G), countermagic (U), card filtering (U), card draw (both), and usually the biggest mid-sized creatures in the format (G) — basically a lot of the tools that help you cast big things faster or dig in for the long game. This implies that most WBR tournament decks will be on the aggressive side.

Top-tier aggro decks are all about consistency. Mono-red is the most enduring aggro archetype not because red somehow has all of the best and fastest aggro cards, but because this is a deck that just wants to curve out super-consistently in every game. When your whole strategy is to prey on decks that make themselves too slow or greedy or fragile in pursuit of raw power, you can't afford to slip on mana yourself. So multicolor aggro decks mainly appear when a format supports very consistent multicolor mana bases, above and beyond the level that enable successful multicolor control and combo decks, or in aggro-heavy environments where you're looking for some kind of special advantage in the mirror.

In some environments, such multicolor aggro decks are viable. However, WBR is a "wedge" color combo. Most seasons of Standard, Extended, and Block Constructed featured better support for "shards" (allied-color groupings, like WUB). Why play WBR when you can play Jund (black, green, red — black and green together give you removal as flexible as white's) with better mana?

In environments with even better mana, decks are more likely to just end up in all colors. Look at Koike's Zoo list above, or Jakub Slemr's five-color black weenie list from the 1997 World Championship. When it's so easy to splash for a powerful card like Tarmogoyf or Man-o'-War (1997 was a very different time), why not?

Martell's PT-Gatecrash list or Saito's 2006 list benefit greatly from mana bases that support all color combinations equally (since both Ravnica shocklands and the Innisrad/M13 "buddy land" megacycle equally cover ally and enemy color pairings). But they could just as easily have been very consistent two-color decks. After all, all three colors generally have a lot of overlap when it comes to aggro cards (cheap aggressive beaters and efficient removal of various kinds). So, why build three colors, especially WBR? I believe powerful multicolor cards like the eponymous Aristocrats or Lightning Helix and Hit are the main reason these decks ended up as three-color WBR. (How good is Hit? Apparently good enough to justify losing 8 life to a Dark Confidant flip when your deck can't even cast Run!)


Diplomacy - failed attack Right now I'm the game master and we discuss the following scenario:

Greece is empty
all troops move at the same time
Austrian fleet:  Ionian Sea - Greece
Osmanian fleet: Aegean Sea - Greece
Italian fleet: East Mediterranean - Aegean Sea

So the result is that Greece stays empty but what happens to the Aegean Sea?
In my opinion the Osmanian fleet gets defeated in Greece and comes back to the Aegean Sea but there is the Italian fleet waiting.

We have

Austria
  F Ion-Gre

Turkey
  F Aeg-Gre

Italy
  F EMa-Aeg

F Ion-Gre bounces with F Aeg-Gre because both have strength 1 so nobody wins.   As a result the fleets never leave their spaces and thus F Aeg stays at Aeg.

So F EMa-Aeg attacks an occupied space. Both have strength 1 so both stay at their spaces with the end result that nothing changes.


What are the differences between the 3 versions of Carcassonne? I see this question was partially answered on B&CG for scoring differences between the 3 versions of Carcassonne. Are there any other differences?

Besides the scoring differences listed, there is also the "youngest player" goes first rule in 1st. Edition. For a list of all differences between editions, see this excellent annotated rules list and FAQ that covers the Basic Game and 11 expansions.


Can # Colorless pay Colorless Mana? Looking at the notes for Inspiring Statuary, I noticed:

Is this accurate?  Is it specific to the Improvise ability or does it go for any # colorless cards (for example Cloudpost)?

Improvise has the following definition in rule 702.125a:

Improvise is a static ability that functions while the spell with improvise is on the stack. “Improvise” means “For each generic mana in this spell’s total cost, you may tap an untapped artifact you control rather than pay that mana.”

A generic mana cost is represented by a number in a circle, and can be paid for with any type of mana. Colored and colorless costs are not generic, so they cannot be paid for with improvise.
Cloudpost is a different matter. Cloudpost adds colorless mana to your mana pool, and that has always been the case. Its current text is

Cloudpost enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {C} for each Locus on the battlefield.

There is no such thing as generic mana. Any card that is printed as adding {1} to your mana pool actually adds {C}.


How does Starfield of Nyx interact with the Theros Gods? Starfield of Nyx has the ability

  As long as you control five or more enchantments, each other non-Aura enchantment you control is a creature in addition to its other types and has base power and base toughness equal to its converted mana cost.

Heliod, God of the Sun, for example, says

  As long as your devotion to white is less than five, Heliod isn't a creature.

What are Heliod's characteristics in the following situations:

My devotion to white is less than 5 and I control fewer than 5 enchantments.
My devotion to white is less than 5 and I control at least 5 enchantments.
My devotion to white is at least 5 and I control fewer than 5 enchantments.
My devotion to white is at least 5 and I control at least 5 enchantments.

Does this change depending on the order in which Starfield of Nyx and Heliod enter the battlefield, or any other ordering?

The general idea is that each ability is either "on" or "off" depending on whether its "as long as" clause is satisfied, so we just apply the abilities that are "on" to Heliod's base characteristics.

Situation 1. (Devotion < 5, enchantments < 5.)

In this situation, Heliod's "as long as" condition is true and Starfield's is false, so the only relevant active effect from those cards is

  Heliod isn't a creature.

So, Heliod is just a White Enchantment.

Situation 2. (Devotion < 5, enchantments ≥ 5.)

In this situation, both "as long as" conditions are true, so the following effects are active for Heliod:

  Heliod isn't a creature

and

  [Heliod] is a creature in addition to its other types and has base power and base toughness equal to its converted mana cost.

This is the only one of these situations in which timestamp matters.

Both relevant abilities here are static abilities that generate continuous effects. Rule 613.6a says

  A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

So, the order in which we apply these effects depends on the order in which the permanents entered the battlefield.

Heliod enters first

In this case, we apply Heliod's effect first. So we apply the effects as follows:

In Layer 3, Heliod's ability makes it not a creature, then Starfield's ability makes it a creature. The result is that Heliod is a creature.
In Layer 7b, Starfields' ability sets Heliod's base power and toughness to 4.

So,  Heliod is a White 4/4 God Enchantment Creature.

Starfield enters first

In this case, we apply Starfield's effect first. So we apply the effects as follows:

In Layer 3, Starfield's ability makes Heliod a creature, then Heliod's ability makes it not a creature. The result is that Heliod is not a creature.
In Layer 7b, Starfield's ability sets Heliod's base power and toughness to 4, but that doesn't matter because Heliod is not a creature.

So, Heliod is again just a White Enchantment.

Situation 3. (Devotion ≥ 5, enchantments < 5.)

In this situation, neither "as long as" condition is true. So, Heliod has its base characteristics, and it is a 5/6 White God Enchantment Creature.

Situation 4. (Devotion ≥ 5, enchantments ≥ 5.)

In this situation, only Starfield's "as long as" condition is true, so the only active effect on Heliod is

  [Heliod] is a creature in addition to its other types and has base power and base toughness equal to its converted mana cost.

So, Starfield redundantly makes Heliod a Creature and sets its base power and toughness to 4. The end result is that Heliod is a 4/4 White God Enchantment Creature.

As a side note, if you replace Starfield of Nyx with Opalescence, situations 2 and 4 apply in exactly the same way. If you replace Heliod with a regular (non-God) enchantment creature, situations 3 and 4 apply in exactly the same way.


POKER - Is it best to sit out your blinds? Blinds are paid when in the worst position (1st to act).
If you sit out your blinds, & re-enter on the button, (or just after)
you must now 'buy the button' (pay your missed blinds, or sit-out until
the next tie it is your blinds.

Strategy wise, isn't is best to do this?
Now you are putting your blinds in, while in position.

No.

You can't re-enter on the button (or the small blind)(at least in any game run by sensible and fair people). This would require moving it past the player who has just been in the hands where they paid their own blinds, denying them the position opportunity you are trying to aim for.

The earliest you re-enter is one before the button, defeating the purpose of sitting out.

If this was a viable strategy, everybody would repeatedly do it, paying both blinds on the button and never at any other time. Clearly this doesn't happen.


When do you collect income in Patchwork? I find a slight ambiguity in the manual for Patchwork regarding when the special event spaces are triggered. From the rules:

  The Time Board

  Regardless of the action you take you always move your time token on the time board. Some spaces of the time board are marked. Whenever you move onto or past one of those spaces, resolve the corresponding event.

The problem is that the markers for the marked spaces are actually placed between two spaces. When exactly does the button pay out? The same applies to the special patches. In the example Green has definitely moved onto or past the button, but has Yellow? It is also possible that the button itself is a space.

Maybe this is a situation for a house rule, or I could just be missing something.

The English rules aren't very specific here so I looked at the German rules by the same publisher. They use the word 'überqweren', which means 'to cross' (as one would with borders).

I don't know why it says 'onto' in the English rules, it's not possible to land on buttons or special squares.
According to the link that Znorg provided, this is because in an early prototype version of the game the markings were on specific spaces. This was later changed, but overlooked when the rules got their review.

The correct reading is this:

  There are markings between some spaces of the time board. Whenever you move past one of these markings, resolve the corresponding event.


Do artifacts have a value? Ashcan Pete is allowed to gain assets.  Do artifacts, and unique assets for that matter, have values like normal assets?  He can only gain less than his observation skill, so it can be useful to know.  No rule book seems to have the answer.

I also was unable to find a definitive answer in the rule books, reference guide and FAQ. So let's look at it thematically.

Look first at Pete's character card.

  After you perform an Acquire Assets action, you may gain 1 Item or Trinket Asset with value less than your Observation from the discard pile.

So after looking at the shops, you can scrounge around the garbage for anything that has been discarded but might be useful for you. Notice that it says "the discard pile", as you discard into specific card type piles, it seems appropriate to limit this to the common assets discard pile.

If we were to ignore that, and deem it appropriate to delve through the unique item discard pile or artifact discard pile, what value do we assign to those items and trinkets? Well those items are priceless, not able to be purchased by anyone through normal means.

Instead blood, sweat and tears (and probably sanity) must be spent to bring these items into your possession. It would be reasonable to say they have a value greater than any mere common item, and would always exceed Pete's observation skill.

This also fits into the general concept for the game of "if you're uncertain about the rules, choose the interpretation that makes it more difficult for the players". You're fighting against unmentionable evils, ancient things, and it shouldn't be as easy as picking up an artifact of immeasurable power from the trash heap.

Summary: Pete's skill is limited to the related discard pile, not the others. Ignoring that, unique items and artifacts are of unknown wealth and can not be purchased, so have no known value, but it should be assumed they are all valued well above Pete's observation skill.


Sacrificing in response to a triggered ability that would place -1/-1 counters With the new Amonkhet series, if an ETB trigger says to put -1/-1 counters on target creature you control (e.g. Baleful Ammit, Exemplar of Strength), can you in response sacrifice that creature (supposing you have a sacrifice outlet) and not put the -1/-1 counters from the triggered ability on anything? I can't seem to find any info on this anywhere in the rules.

Yes, you can sacrifice the creature in response to targeting it with the enter the battlefield triggered ability and that will result in the ability being countered (fizzle) because it has no legal targets when it resolves and no -1/-1 counters will get placed on anything.

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. [...] The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal.

You should know that you must indicate that you wish to maintain priority as you identify the creature that you are targeting with the ability (e.g. "I will target my Oashra Cultivator with this ability and maintain priority. In response to the ability on the stack I will sacrifice my Oashra Cultivator"). This is more important when playing online or in formal play settings but it's a good habit to be in.


Where do you recharge a card from? Playing Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game, we encountered a Pirate Captain.
The first line states "Before you act, recharge a card.".  My first reaction was recharge from the discard pile, but then I couldn't rationalize why the Pirate Captain would be helping us.  However on more thought, I also couldn't rationalize why the Pirate Captain would be doing anything like this (best guess is "stealing" but not sure then why not buried/discarded).
I didn't see anything in the rules or online where you recharge from when unspecific.  We went with "from hand" because it seemed most penalizing.  Did we play this right?  Any references that can be cited to reflect?

You have it right: from the hand.
From this thread on Paizo:

Unless a specific card says otherwise (for example, as you say, the Sandpoint Cathedral), you can't recharge a card from the discard pile. "Recharging" is a "playing a card" action (p. 10) and you can only play cards from your hand.


Send Evil Troy back to the hell that he came from! Oh, wait it's gone already? Sorry for the click bait title, but I have a rules query about Evil Troy as a necromancer. His card states:

  When killed, put him back in his Spawn Zone and don't remove a Spawn Token, unless a Damage 3 (or more) Attack or Dragon Fire was used.

Emphasis is mine.

From the rule book, when you kill a necromancer, you can:

  Killing a Necromancer slows the invasion . If you manage to kill it, choose a Spawn Zone (including its own Necromancer Spawn Zone) and remove it from the board . If the Necromancer Spawn token is still on the board after this removal, replace it with a standard one.

Suppose I have killed a necromancer other than Evil Troy and I decide to remove Evil Troy's spawn zone. What happens if I kill Evil Troy after his spawn zone is removed? What happens if I used a weapon with a damage of less than 3?

My interpretation of the rules is this:
When you select a Spawn Zone to remove you have 2 choices:

A regular Spawn Zone (not a Necromancer Spawn Zone)
The Necromancer Spawn Zone for the defeated Necromancer

In the first case the Necromancer Spawn Zone for the defeated Necromancer becomes a regular Spawn Zone.

This means you cannot choose the Necromancer Spawn Zone for any other Necromancer currently in play. Thus, when Evil Troy is killed, his Necromancer Spawn Zone should still be on the board.


Warhammer 40K backstory Is there any backstory to the different races in Warhammer 40K...?

A basic introduction is available via Games Workshop, and a general overview can be found on the Warhammer_40,000 page on Wikipedia.

Beyond that, there is an enormous amount of information available in the Codexes.  Games workshop produces a Codex for each race which contains a lot of backstory as well as units and rules specific to that race.


Where can I find protective sleeves for my Dixit cards? I'm afraid my Dixit cards will get worn or marked over time. I want players to be able to manipulate them without being afraid of ruining them.

Where can I find protective sleeves for my Dixit cards?

Mayday Games has 80 x 120 mm in stock which is what you need.

I'm told that 3 x 5 recipe card covers will work as well.  You can find them on Amazon if you can't find them locally.


Are tokens copying Essence of the Wild still tokens? Some of my friends and I got into an argument about Essence of the Wild.

With Essence on the battlefield, I played Fungal Sprouting and put 6 1/1 green saproling creature tokens on to battlefield. These saprolings obviously became Essence of the Wild as they entered the battlefield.

When I played Rootborn Defenses, I tried to copy what I assumed was a creature token version of Essence of the Wild (created as described above). This is where the argument occurred. The claim was that I could NOT populate my Essence of the Wild (one of those created with Fungal Sprouting), as the creatures were no longer considered tokens because the card they copy is not a token.

Are they still considered tokens and can I populate them?

A token cannot become a card through copying. It's not one of the things copied [CR 706.2].

A token cannot become a card by any means. A card refers to a physical MTG card [CR 108.2]. The rules cannot create physical objects, and thus, they cannot create cards or change something into a card.

They are still tokens, and thus, you can have populate copy them.

  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.

  706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, expansion symbol, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set characteristics, and by abilities that caused the object to be face down. Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.


Citadels - Can a warlord destroy a district for free? If a district is worth one gold. Can the warlord destroy it without paying?

Yes.

This is explicitly stated in the rules.

  8) Warlord

  You receive one gold for each military (red)
  district in your city. At the end of your turn, you
  may destroy one district of your choice by paying
  a number of gold equal to one less than the cost
  of the district. Thus, you may destroy a cost one
  district for free, a cost two district for one gold,
  or a cost six district for five gold, etc. You may
  destroy one of your own districts. You may not,
  however, destroy a district in a city that is already
  completed by having eight districts (or seven
  districts when the Bell Tower is in play).

[Emphasis added]


When buying and playing a Villa in Dominion do you in a sense get 3 buys for that turn? So I buy a Villa in my buy phase (buy #1), then I go back to my action phase. I play Villa and follow it with 2 actions, then proceed to my second buy phase with +1 treasure +1 buy (buy #2) from the Villa. As I go into this second buy phase do I get another free buy as I just started a new buy phase (buy #3)?

You don't get a new free Buy, sorry. Nice thinking though.

The base game rules do say that when you enter a Buy phase you get one default Buy, but the card-specific notes for the Villa in the Empires rules (page 11) clarify (or revise?) that you only get one default Buy in the entire turn, not one each buy phase:

  If you buy Villa, that uses up your default Buy for the turn, however playing Villa will give you +1 Buy and so let you buy another card in your second Buy phase.

Another way to think about it might be that the game gives you +1 Buy as you start your turn, but not each Buy phase as the base rules might imply.

Once you re-enter the Buy phase you will have 1 Buy left from Villa itself, in addition to whatever other action cards you've played this turn, but not 1 free Buy from the game. From what you described you only have 2 Buys this turn.


Mimic Vat and Misthollow Griffin Given that Misthollow Griffin can be cast from exile, if you somehow use Mimic Vat to imprint the Misthollow Griffin and then cast Misthollow Griffin and remove it from exile, can you still make Misthollow Griffin tokens via Mimic Vat?

No. The exiled card has ceased to be in exile, so the activated ability will be unable to find it when it resolves. Misthollow Griffin isn't even required for this question, sinceMimic Vat itself is constantly exiling creatures, and then returning those cards to their owners graveyard. You can no longer make copies of cards that were returned to their owners graveyards, neither can you copy Misthollow Griffin if it changes zones.

Mimic Vat contains linked abilities. The first triggered ability exiles cards when they die (technically, these do not have to be creature cards, they only need to be creatures when they die). The second activated ability returns a token copy of the card to the battlefield until the beginning of the next end step. There are some unusual corner cases where it is important to know which ability was responsible for exiling a particular card, if some card gains multiple exile abilities, since only the abilities that are linked are able to refer to the cards exiled in that way. (Note: The CR give an interesting example with Quicksilver Elemental, Arc-Slogger, and Sisters of Stone Death that I won't review here)

  607.2a If an object has an activated or triggered ability printed on it that instructs a player to exile one or more cards and an ability printed on it that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards “exiled with [this object],” these abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to cards in the exile zone that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability.

  406.5. An object may have one ability printed on it that causes one or more cards to be exiled, and another ability that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards “exiled with [this object].” These abilities are linked: the second refers only to cards that have been exiled due to the first. See rule 607, “Linked Abilities.”

So, what happens if the card is no longer in exile (or is exiled again by some other effect)? It becomes a new object, with no relation to it's precious existence. What this means is that Mimic Vat cannot find the card that was exiled, and therefore cannot copy it.

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule: ... (seven exceptions removed for brevity, none apply)

  406.6. If an object in the exile zone becomes exiled, it doesn’t change zones, but it becomes a new object that has just been exiled.


Does Brain in a Jar let you cast a Sorcery at Instant speed? This question is about the wording on a new card Brain in a Jar:

  {1}, {T}: Put a charge counter on Brain in a Jar, then you may cast an instant or sorcery card with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Brain in a Jar from your hand without paying its mana costs.

Does this mean that we can cast a sorcery at instant speed? On an opponents turn?

Yes, Brain in a Jar allows you to cast a sorcery at any time that you can resolve the ability, even during your opponents' turns. But technically, you're not even casting it "at instant speed". When a spell or ability instructs you to cast a spell, you go through the process of casting the spell while that spell or ability is resolving. Doing so completely ignores the standard timing restrictions of non-instant spells.

The reason this works is that the rules don't actually restrict when non-instant spells can be cast. They actually just allow you to cast the spell at certain times. So, the rule for Instants, 304.1, says

  A player who has priority may cast an instant card from his or her hand.

And the rule for Sorceries, 307.1, says

  A player who has priority may cast a sorcery card from his or her hand during a main phase of his or her turn when the stack is empty.

As you can see, the rules do not by default allow you to cast sorceries in as many situations as it allows you to cast instants, but neither rule says that those are the only times when you can cast those spells.

So, when you activate Brain in a Jar's ability, it essentially says "you can also cast an instant or sorcery (with a particular CMC) during the resolution of this ability".

Remember that if a spell explicitly says that you can only cast it at a certain time, or that you can't cast it at a certain time, Brain in a Jar does not allow you to avoid that restriction. So, Brain in a Jar does not allow you to cast Berserk after the combat damage step.

This difference between rules that allow you to cast spells at certain times and text that restricts when you can cast spells is the reason that cards that let you cast spells like Bring to Light have rulings like this one:

  If you cast the exiled card, you do so as part of the resolution of Bring to Light. You can’t wait to cast it later in the turn. Timing restrictions based on the card’s type are ignored, but other restrictions (such as “Cast [this card] only during combat”) are not.


What is Doppelganger's attack when in the HQ? While playing the scheme Invade the Daily Bugle News HQ, I ended up having a single villain in the city: Doppelganger from Maximum Carnage. I drew a Scheme Twist card, which triggers the following event:

  KO a Hero from the HQ. Put the highest [attack] Villain from the city into the HQ space.

This required me to put Doppelganger in the HQ. Doppelganger's card reads:

  Doppelganger's [attack] is equal to the [cost] of the Hero in the HQ space under him.

Now that Doppelganger is in the HQ, what is his attack?

Doppelganger's attack would then be 0.

The rules insert for Paint the Town Red explicitly covers this case under the Card Clarification for the Invade the Daily Bugle HQ scheme:

  If there is a Villain in the HQ space under Doppelganger, or if Doppelganger is in the HQ, then Doppelganger's [attack] is 0.


In Dice Masters, does an opponent's active character trigger your effects? For example, Robin has the card text

  While Batman is active, each of your Robin dice gets...

Does this apply when my opponent fields a Batman die, or only when I do?

Your Robin only gets a bonus from your Batman, and would not get a bonus from your opponent's Batman.

From Page 19 of the rules at http://dicemasters.com/wp-content/uploads/mdm/MDM_Rules.pdf

Powers, Abilities, and Card Text:
Card text that names a character only considers your characters for its effects. Your card’s
text doesn’t trigger because your opponent has the same character, nor do your dice get a
bonus from your opponent’s cards of the same name.

Active and Fielded:
When game text says, “While active,” that means “When one or more of this card’s dice are in the field.”


Does a Geologist get their gold if they're locked up? At the end of a game I just played, there were 5 crystals on the table, and the geologist was locked up.

Everyone else in the group said the geologist didn't get the gold, but nowhere in the rules did it say they didn't get their gold when locked up at the end of the game.

What is the real rule? Does the geologist get their gold?

I believe the answer lies in the description of the Trapped card (which is used to lock someone up). This comes from the official rules of Saboteur2:

  Play this card face-up in front of another player of your choice. This
  player is trapped and cannot play any more path cards. If a player is
  trapped when the round ends, they don‘t get counted as one of the
  winners and don‘t get a cut of the treasure

The Trapped card does not specify this status only applying to certain roles. So if a Geologist is trapped, that player would not get their gold.

I also found a post on a BGG forum for Saboteur 2 from Frederic Moyersoen, the game designer who states that a Trapped Geologist gets no treasure.


Whats a good house rule to give the Rogue a chance at winning Dungeon? I was playing the new release of Dungeon! by wotc with about 6 young players.  Looking at the cards, I noticed that its nearly impossible for the Rogue to ever win.

What is the best way to give the rogue a fighting chance?  Should we reduce the amount of loot required to 5,000 or 8,000?  Or should we perhaps give the rogue a "sneak attack" +1 to all dice rolls (on top of the magic sword)

I would agree that the Rogue is the weakest class, although I don't have hard data to back that up. The reasoning is simple: she needs the same treasure count as the cleric, but is weaker in combat. Their special power to pass secret doors is a very poor compensation, not least because it's unreliable, and is easily copied with a secret door card.

The easiest adjustment is to change the amount of treasure required to win, but I have little idea what an appropriate target would be. Instead, you might consider adjusting the Rogue's special power:

Have Rogues find secret doors all the time, without a dice roll.
If they pick up a secret door card, treat it as a +1 magic sword (which compensates for their combat weakness).

Personally, I find it more fun just not to use the Rogue. Four is a sensible number for a good game of Dungeon, and two clerics and two warriors offers good balance, simple rules (no special powers) and plenty of competition without too many players hunting in the same levels.


Killing planeswalker before taking out the player? So I have heard a few different things and wanted to know for sure.
If a player has a planeswalker on the field, do I have to destroy the planeswalker before I can attack the player?

If not, what happens to the planeswalker if I lose all my hp? I've heard a few different things about this as well.

You are not required to attack planeswalkers before the player.
When you attack, you may attack either the player or any planeswalker they control. The rules on declaring attackers quite simply state you choose attackers, then you choose which player or planeswalker each one is attacking:

508.1 First, the active player declares attackers. [...]

508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that they control, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.

508.1b If the defending player controls any planeswalkers, or the game allows the active player to attack multiple other players, the active player announces which player or planeswalker each of the chosen creatures is attacking.

So, totally up to you whether you want to attack the player, one of their planeswalkers, or a combination.
If I had to guess, you've heard people share strategy advice that you should attack planeswalkers before the player so as to prevent the player from activating that planeswalker's ultimate ability—ultimates often turn the tide of the game permanently for whoever activates them. Some of them might've even put it as strongly as "you must attack planeswalkers first!" — but that's advice, not a game rule. Attacking the player remains a valid option; after all, a player who's hit 0 life and lost the game can't activate an ultimate either. :)

If not, what happens to the planeswalker if I lose all my hp? I've heard a few different things about this as well.

If you hit 0 life you've lost the game. The game is over, or if it's multiplayer, all cards you own leave the game entirely. So what happens is your planeswalker card is out of the game at that point.
Assuming you have something like Platinum Angel out which prevents you from losing the game for having 0 life, then nothing happens. You've just hit 0 (or negative) life. You continue play because you haven't lost. You still have out whatever you had out before you hit 0 life, and none of it has changed, just the same as nothing would change from you dropping from 10 to 5 life.
Your life total and your planeswalkers' loyalty are wholly unrelated things and do not interact.


What was the first Infinite Combo in Magic: The Gathering? I started wondering when the first time an infinite combo was possible in Magic: The Gathering.  I went through Alpha and, as far as I could tell, there wasn't an infinite combo available among the cards there, although there were a couple pieces to well known infinite combos.

The first two cards that I noticed from Alpha were Basalt Monolith and Time Vault but I didn't notice any way to go infinite with them using just Alpha.

Looking into their famous combos, the first one that I could come up with was the Basalt Monolith / Power Artifact combo that existed as far back as Antiquities, the fifth set to be released by Wizards.

Are there any infinite combos that existed before this two card combo?  Specifically, I'm looking for infinite combos that are legal to execute by tournament standards.  So for example, using Basalt Monolith to tap and untap itself repeatedly wouldn't count as it doesn't advance the board state.

According to this Reddit post, the first infinite combo was Animate Artifact, Time Vault and Instill Energy.

By animating and untapping Time Vault and then tapping it would gain the player infinite turns.

This is the first infinite combo in Magic.


Understanding "Events" I just bought the "Dominion Empires" expansion (German edition) and have a question about how events work.

Is my understanding correct, that the randomly selected events lie on the table openly, available to every player in each turn to be bought (and thus triggered) and since they are not taken, remain available for the next player?

Also, since they are not consumed or taken when bought/triggered, if I have played a card with "+1 buy", would I be able to buy/trigger the same event twice (using both of my buys), provided I have sufficient funds?

Your understanding is all correct.

While Events are printed on cards in a landscape shape; the event itself is not a physical thing like a card, but rather an task or action that you get to perform. Each time you buy an event you use up 1 of your buys (and however much money it cost). So if you have enough buys an money, you can buy an event repeatedly.*

From the Empires Rulebook:

  Events are not Kingdom cards. In a player’s Buy phase, when a player can buy a card, they can buy
  an Event instead. Buying an Event means paying the cost indicated on the Event and then doing the
  effect of the Event. The Event just stays on the table, the player does not take it; there is no way for
  players to gain one or end up with one in their decks. Buying an Event uses up a Buy; normally a
  player can either buy a card, or buy an Event. A player with two Buys, such as after playing Villa,
  could buy two cards, or buy two Events, or buy a card and an Event (in either order). The same Event
  can be bought multiple times in a turn if the player has the Buys and available to do it.

*Note that certain events from the Adventures expansion specify "once per turn" or even "once per game". These are an exception to the usual rule of being able to buy one repeatedly.


Only card in hand is a skip card What happens in Exploding Kittens when the only card in your hand is a skip card? Do you lay it down and still pick up a card anyway?

On your turn you can play any number of cards from your hand, including zero cards. So you only need to play the Skip card if you think it is worth it.
If you did decide to play the Skip card, your turn ends immediately without drawing a card.
If you choose to not play the Skip card, you would just draw a card.
From the rules (page 1 under Taking Your Turn):

1 Look at the cards in your hand. Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile, and following the instructions on the card.
2 After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you’d like.
Or, play no cards at all; that’s cool too.

And on page 2:

Skip
Immediately end your turn without drawing a card.

Note that the linked rules are for the Party Pack Edition, but the base game rules say essentially the same thing in a slightly different way.


Ticket to Ride United Kingdom Map Collection competing technology cards clarification There are two technology cards in this set which either scores you points or lose:
Risky Contracts for the most completed Tickets
and
Equalising Beam for the longest Route.

The rules are very short for each:

"At the end of the game, score 20 if you have the most completed Tickets. If not, lose 20 points."

"At the end of the game, score 15 points if you have the longest Route. If not lose 15 points."

What happens if multiple players have the most or longest? What is the rule for a draw?

The rules for longest path say, "In the case of a tie for the longest
path, all tied players score the 10 point bonus."

So all players whom have the longest path or most tickets would qualify to score the bonus from the permits if they had them.


Number of Agenda Cards Scored How many agendas of each type of agenda can be scored? It is possible that only one of each type can be scored and the corporation wins the game with 7 agenda points total.

Agendas typically follow the same rules for deck composition as any other card in Netrunner.  This means there is a maximum of three copies of the same card allowed in a deck. Either player can score multiple copies of an agenda, especially if the reward for scoring it aids their playstyle (e.g., using Priority Requisition to rez big ice in a glacial build, or Astroscript Pilot Program in a fast advance deck).

There are a couple exceptions to this rule, but they will say specifically on the card that only one can be included in a deck (the most recent card like this is Jinteki's Philotic Engagement).

If you are playing core only, you should take all of the faction specific agenda AND all of the neutral agendas for your deck. This will mean three copies of Priority Requisition, and Private Security Force, plus the in faction ones. In a typical built deck (49 cards), you will need 20 agenda points to be in the deck, made up however you want from the available neutral and in faction agendas.


What happens when I play a Swindler and no cards with the same cost as the trashed card are in the kingdom set? Swindler: +2 Coins, Each other player trashes the top card of his deck and gains a card with the same cost that you choose.

Say my opponent has played a Black Market and now the top card of their deck is a 4-cost card they purchased with it. There are no cards in the kingdom set that cost 4, and I play my Swindler. My opponent trashes the 4-cost card from the top of his deck, but what, if anything, does he gain since there are no other 4-cost cards in the kingdom set?

As always in Dominion, you do as much as you can of what the card instructs. Since there is no card to gain that has the same cost, your opponent gains nothing. You still trash the card that was turned over because you can do that part of the card's instructions.


Why do effects that exile a card from the graveyard use the characteristics the card had in the graveyard? Dread Defiler has the ability

  {3}{C}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Target opponent loses life equal to the exiled card's power.

with the ruling

  Use the card’s power as it last existed in your graveyard to determine how much life is lost.

The cards Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Soul Separator also exile cards from the graveyard and check their characteristics, and they have similar rulings indicating that they check the characteristics the card had in the graveyard, not in exile.

These rulings surprise me. I would expect them to check the characteristics of the card as it currently exists in exile, based on the highlighted section of rule 608.2g:

  If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it’s in the public zone it was expected to be in; if it’s no longer in that zone, or if the effect has moved it from a public zone to a hidden zone, the effect uses the object’s last known information. See rule 112.7a. If an ability states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.

Deicide, for example, works the way I would expect. It has the text

  Exile target enchantment. If the exiled card is a God card, search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with the same name as that card and exile them, then that player shuffles his or her library.

but its corresponding ruling is different:

  Deicide looks at the card in exile, not the permanent that was exiled, to determine if it is a God. For each of the Gods in the Theros block, it won’t matter what your devotion to its color(s) was. The card is a God card when not on the battlefield.

So, why do cards like Dread Defiler, Soul Separator, and Varolz look at the characteristics the cards had in the graveyard, not the characteristics they have in exile?

There is a flaw in the basic premise of the question that these are conflicting rulings on comparable cards.

Deicide has an effect that moves an object to another zone and then further examines that card.  This is what 'the expected zone' clause in 608.g covers.  There is consistency in the rulings when an effect moves a card between public zones and then checks types using the present tense, it looks in the new zone.  (See Defy Death). As opposed to an effect that moves a card between public zones and checks its type in the past tense (lots, Death's Caress). It seems that does not have particularly clear basis in comp rules without rulings clarifying the intended interpretation.

Dread Defiler has an effect that looks for characteristics of an object.  Paying the cost for the ability that generated the effect moved that object, but the effect did not move the object.

So the two rulings are not in conflict.

Soul Separator is not doing a conditional check, so, assuming the ruling on it is correctly worded, that seems to be our plausible explanation.  If it said "if that card is Power 5 or greater" we'd be in a pickle for which zone to check in I think...

I agree it is entirely possible for a rational person to have come to different conclusions from reading the comp rules and cards in isolation.  Sometimes a card like Deicide with odd nonstandard templating just needs the guy who wrote it to explain what they intended.  (The use of 'God card' rather than simply 'God' combined with two public zones makes it close to unique.  Almost everything that checks the type/subtype of a "card" rather than a game object and involves a zone change also involves a hidden zone)


In 2-3 player Citadels, can your second character build a 9th district? In Citadels, if a player builds his 8th building we finish the round with the remaining roles and the game ends.

In 2-3 players rules, I may build the 8th district with my first character. When comes the second character's turn, can I build an additional district?

Page 8 of the rulebook says (regarding 2-3 player games):

  The game is played normally, except that each player will have two
  turns during each round (one turn for each character). Players do not
  have to separate their gold or their districts between their
  characters, as they still only have one city.

Page 7 of the rulebook says (regarding Game End):

  When a player builds his eighth district, the game ends after the
  current round is completed. At the end of the game, each player
  receives points for all of the following...

The rules do not say that you cannot build a 9th district with your 2nd character. It simply states that once the 8th district is built, the current round will be the last round. So each player gets two turns during each round, and you have to finish all of the turns for the final round. Yes, you may build an additional district.


Do spells targeting creatures work on token creatures? My friend has Mystic Confluence and tried to target a token creature to be returned to the owner's hand. I have read that token creatures are considered creatures, but why would you be able to put a token creature into a hand since you can't necessarily spend mana to play it from your hand.

Token creatures are creatures, so they can be targeted and affected by anything that refers to "creature(s)". If a token is returned to a player's hand, it disappears, so it doesn't matter that they wouldn't be able to cast it. This is stated in rule 111.7:

  A token that’s in a zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist. This is a state-based action; see rule 704. (Note that if a token changes zones, applicable triggered abilities will trigger before the token ceases to exist.)


Use of the joker from your hand You have a joker in your hand, can you play it by adding to an existing run or set? Or do you have to play it with at least 2 additional tiles from your hand?

You can add it to an existing run or set, the only time you have to play 2 tiles with it is if you are replacing it from the board.


Are the larger base cards available for Smash Up? In Geek & Sundry's episode of Table Top featuring Smash Up, they were using larger base cards that featured a built-in counter for the break point:

I just bought Smash Up, and it came with base cards that lack the counter, and are the same size as the rest of the deck cards for the game.

Are these bigger versions available?  Can I download them from somewhere and print my own, or does the manufacturer offer them?

Edit:
It appears that the manufacturer has decided that it was economically unfeasible to release the new base cards.

Todd Rowland, one of the Game Designers/Publishers, has confirmed that the base cards in the episode were made by AEG (the publisher), and will be made available later this year:

  No we made them, and we've made them for AL9K and Cthulhu as well.

and

  We will make them available later this year.