Munchkin: card attributes in the event of helping another player Assume that a player turns up the Ogre Achiever upon kicking down the door, and cannot kill it alone.

Given that the card's description (excluding 'Bad Stuff') is:

  +5 against anyone who doesn't have a Class and a Faction.

(bold emphasis mine)

If the original player who looted the room and the person helping both do not have a class and a faction, would the resulting monster have +10 against the team of 2 players?

If so or if not, a specification from the rulebook would be appreciated! I have had no luck in finding anything in the original game's rulebook nor the expansion (Pathfinder).

I haven't been able to find a specific rule in either the rule book or FAQ but the following post from the Steve Jackson Games forum. According to them, the card must explicitly state that the effect stacks. So in your case, the maximum would be +5 to the monsters level.

  In my examples, x will always be 5, y will always be 2. A will be
  Dwarf and B will be Elf. The Dwarf/Anything or Elf/Anything means
  Anything except human. The reason behind this is because of the
  Half-breed card that allows you to ignore disadvantages of the single
  race you have, as long as you have Half-breed too.

  1: +x against A & B = +x if A and/or B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf & Elf

  It means that the monster gets a +5 if you're a Dwarf, Dwarf/Anything,
  Dwarf/Elf, Elf/Anything, Elf.

  2: +x against A & B and it stacks = +x if only A or only B, +2x if A & B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf & Elf, and card specifies that it
  stacks.

  It means that the monster gets a +5 if you're a Dwarf OR an Elf. If
  you're a Dwarf AND an Elf, the monster get +10 in this case.
  Dwarf/Anything minus Elf and Elf/Anything minus Dwarf only get +5.

  Important note; a Monster getting a bonus against multiple races
  usually only get the bonus once. Same for multiple classes, or other
  such things, since they're the same source; Bonus vs Race, or vs
  Class, or vs whatever. HOWEVER, a combination of those, a Bonus vs
  Race AND a Bonus vs Class will always stack, since it's a different
  source. Only the monster cards that SPECIFY that their bonus stack for
  2 different Races, Classes or Whatever, will have it stack. An example
  of such cards would be #3.

  3 +x against A, +y against B = +x if only A, +y if only B, +(x+y) if A & B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf, +2 against Elf. +7 if both.

  This one is fairly simple. It means that if you're a Dwarf or
  Dwarf/Anything, minus Elf, the monster gets a bonus of +5. If you're
  an Elf or Elf/Anything, minus Dwarf, the monster gets a bonus of +2.
  If you're Dwarf/Elf, the +5 and +2 stack, and create a +7 bonus for
  the monster, hence the "if both".

  Negatives can appear instead of those positive Bonuses. Some might
  even have both, in which case one would be added and the other would
  be substracted. In my examples, it would be something like +5 against
  Dwarf, -2 Against Elf. In this case, it doesn't have to specify "if
  both" because, while they're from the same source (Race), one's a
  Disadvantage (the +5 against Dwarf) and the other's an Advantage (the
  -2 against Elf).

The rules (in bold) themselves supposedly come from Steve Jackson (although I can't confirm that), the further explanations are from a forum member.


Does priority matter in Magic? When does priority actually matter in magic?  I have been playing Magic since Time Spiral and have never once seen the rules for priority matter.  I've never heard a question from a player about a game situation to which the answer was, "Oh, well it's right here in the rules for priority."

Let me elaborate.  Most other games handle questions of precedence (I want to do this but my opponent wants to do something conflicting) with a system of priority.  Magic handles questions of this type with the stack.  Here are some examples:

What tap effect has precedence?
I have a 2/2 and I want to play Giant Growth on it while my opponent wants to kill it with Lightning Bolt?  Resolved by the stack.  Priority doesn't actually matter here.  It's not a question of who has the option to act first, it's about who does act first, and because the person that acts first in this situation loses, the solution (given both players run Telepathy) is for both players to pass and the game to move on to the next step or phase.  But this isn't a quirk of priority, this is that the Nash Equilibrium given perfect information and how the stack works is for neither player to cast his/her spell.
I want to cast Silence on my opponent during his/her upkeep but he/she wants to cast Lightning Bolt on me first.  Sure, a player get's priority on his/her turn before other players, so he/she has the option to cast a spell before I can cast Silence, but it doesn't matter!  Since this all happens during the upkeep, the spell I want to cast has to be instant speed anyways, so it can be cast in response to Silence while Silence is on the stack.  Since Silence only takes effect on resolution, what order it and another spell are cast in won't change either spell's resolution (unless the other spell is a counterspell).  In almost all situations, Silence only changes the ability for the player to cast things post-upkeep.

In all of the above situations, the stack is what determines what happens.  Players priority in putting things on the stack doesn't matter since in the above cases (and the overwhelming majority of cases I've seen), as it is the ability to react that matters, not the ability to act first.

So, given how the stack works, does priority actually matter in Magic?  If so, what types of situations are the rules for priority needed to actually determine what happens?

For reference, here are the rules for priority:

  116.3. Which player has priority is determined by the following rules:

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

  116.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability
  on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or
  step ends.

Priority can matter, but only in rare corner cases.  Here are the main types of situations where priority matters.  Some of these are pretty obscure.

Split second cards
It's your turn.  You have in hand Dark Depths and Vampire Hexmage for the infamous Marit Lage combo.  Your opponent has Sudden Death in hand.  Can you summon Marit Lage?  The answer is yes.  You retain priority through playing Dark Depths and casting Vampire Hexmage, then your opponent gains priority while Hexmage is on the stack (which is still too early to cast Sudden Death on it), but then your opponent cannot respond again between the Hexmage resolving, entering the battlefield, and you activating its sacrifice ability.  As the active player, you can retain control through this entire process.  That said, if you were putting the Hexmage onto the battlefield on your opponent's turn through Aether Vial, they would be able to Sudden Death it before you could use its ability because they have priority.
If instead your plan is to win via Chance Encounter + Frenetic Efreet, you can still do it facing a Sudden Death if it is your turn and you play Chance Encounter first.  After the Efreet enters the battlefield, you have priority and retain it through as many activations of its ability as you want.  You can have a billion activations of its ability on the stack by the time your opponent has the option to Sudden Death it, giving you near statistical certainty that you will have enough counters on Chance Encounter to win.
The reason split second cards matter with priority is that they temporarily change how the stack works.  Instead of a player being able to respond at any time, they can't respond until the split second card has finished resolving, meaning when you can cast them matters since players cannot react with other spells or abilities once they are cast.

Sorcery speed abilities (such as planeswalker abilities)
When a planeswalker spell resolves, assuming it was the bottom spell on the stack and cast by the active player (so not cast using Vedalken Orrery or the like), the active player has the option to activate one of it's abilities before anyone else can do anything.  This is important because if someone else could do something, they could Lightning Bolt your planeswalker before you could use one of its abilities.  This pretty much only matters with planeswalkers because their abilities are sorcery speed.  Almost all other activated abilities of permanents are instant speed.  Those that aren't also benefit from priority.  This is anything with the text "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery." such as Aggravated Assault.  Basically, if you have a permanent enter the battlefield under your control, you can put one of its sorcery speed abilities on the stack before anyone else can kill or destroy the permanent.
The exception to this is if the card with a sorcery speed ability triggers an enter the battlefield ability, in which case the stack will not be empty when you gain priority and players will be able to use instant speed removal before you can use its abilitiy.
Also in this category are the ability to trigger abilities with sorcery speed cards, such as the situation in this question.  If the active player has just cast Kor Spiritdancer and it resolves and doesn't trigger any enter the battlefield abilities, the active player will be able to cast an Aura and consequently trigger the Spiritdancer's ability before the other player has the chance to play instant speed removal.

A change in casting eligibility as a result of a non-stack action (such as paying a cost, activating a mana ability, or unmorphing a creature)
You are playing a mill deck against a burn deck.  Your opponent has Searing Blaze in hand and you are at 1 life.  Meanwhile, your opponent has three cards left in his/her library, and they are all copies of Lightning Bolt.  You have Altar of Dementia on the battlefield and a beefy creature in hand.  Who wins?
This matters includes, but also goes far beyond, priority.  First, Searing Blaze requires that you have a creature on the battlefield for it to be cast.  The requirement is just for casting; the creature need not be there on resolution since as long as any of a spell's targets are still legal, the spell will resolve.  Additionally, sacrificing a creature to the Altar is part of the cost for the altar, and so the sacrifice doesn't use the stack.  Consequently, there is an action that doesn't use the stack that changes whether or not another action can be put on the stack.  It's a fairly rare situation, but it is one where priority matters.  If it is your turn, your creature can enter battlefield and then be sacrificed to the altar without your opponent getting priority.  By the time he/she has priority, the creature is already in the graveyard, and so Searing Blaze cannot be cast.

Retaining priority after playing a land
This is also going to be a bit contrived.  You have some creature that you need to give double strike in order for you to win.  You have Assault Strobe and a Mountain in hand, and several Mountains on the battlefield.  Your opponent has Mana Short.  Because of priority, they cannot stop you from casting Assault Strobe.  If they cast Mana Short before your main phase, you can just play the Mountain on your main phase and then cast Assault Strobe with it.  Meanwhile, if they wait, you retain priority after playing the land, and so can still cast Assault Strobe before they cast Mana Short.  The first chance they have to cast Mana Short during your main phase is in response to Assault Strobe.  Basically, this just means that Mana Short should be played before your opponent's main phase and that it doesn't deprive them of mana sources they get after that point, but this isn't exactly news.
As is the case for the sorcery speed abilities, if the land entering the battlefield triggers an ability, the stack won't be empty when you receive priority, so your opponent will have a chance to use Mana Short before you can cast Assault Strobe since sorceries can only be cast when the stack is empty.

Breaking the symmetry of hidden information
This is one introduced in comments and is perhaps the hardest to formalize.  Take the example in the question where a player is attacking with a 2/2 and has Giant Growth while the defender has Lightning Bolt.  It is now the declare blockers step, the last time to cast spells before combat damage.  If neither player knows about the other's threatened instant, than each player is eager to cast his/her card but whoever does so first loses the interaction.  Here, that the active player must chose first is a disadvantage because it causes the active player to be the one to make the bad decision rather than the non-active player.
That said, the application of priority rules here is only relevant if players are using a low degree of short-cutting (namely the non-active player waits for explicit verbal confirmation that the active player is not acting during the declare blockers step before announcing "I do this during the declare blockers").  In addition, no player trying to win will invoke priority rules here if he or she is erroneously skipped; the ability to respond is far more valuable.  As a final point to why this situation is particularly rare, both players must have to have basically equal willingness to take an action that is disadvantageous given full information.  For this to actually be the case requires fairly specific setups of both game board and player psyche, and occurs rather rarely in practice.

Multiplayer
If multiple players want to respond to a particular event (such as by countering a mass-removal spell), whoever is earlier in priority will be at the disadvantage of acting first.  Perfect information in this situation doesn't help.  The first player with the option to counter the spell cannot know for certain the true priorities of the next player with the option to counter it.  The first player must chose whether to counter the spell or risk it going uncountered where the second player has the leisure of only needing to counter it if the first does not.


Identify this standard-deck solitaire with a 7x7 tableau This game has 7 cards facing up in the first row and goes into descending order to the last row that has one up and 6 down. There are 3 cards left to use if no moves available. Aces go up when cleared and moves are by suit. Low cards are placed on higher ones if clear. This could mean moving many cards from one row to place on an exposed one. If a row is cleared, a king could be placed there.

It sounds like a variation of Scorpion.

Scorpion also uses 7x7 layout, but with a sub rectangle of face-down cards (the exact size varies) rather than a triangular arrangement like you describe.

And it builds King-to-Ace in place (in the tableau) rather than moving Aces up and stacking Ace-to-King above the tableau.


Myram Lamm - how to apply magic abilities? In A Prophecy of Dragons, how does one correctly apply the magic abilities of Myriam Lamm? As an example, Myst Bolt shows 1 star: remove 2 shields from your space. What happens if you roll more than 1 star?

Does it mean that you can remove 2 shields for every star you roll, or merely that if you roll one or more stars you can take 2 shields off, no matter how many you roll?

A member of Space Cowboys cleared this up in a Board Game Geek thread:

Maryam should actually be worded more precisely. This is a typo and
will be corrected in the next printing.
Mystic Bolt: 1 star or more:
Minor Healing: 1 star or more:
Divine Healing: 2 stars or more:


Exploring locations in Pathfinder In PathFinder: Rise of the Runelords, how many times can you explore a location? I can discard a BotG to explore:

Can I explore as many times as I want in my turn? Imagine I start with 3 BotG, a weapon and a Cure spell:

Can I explore, then discard a BotG and explore, then discard and explore, then discard and explore, THEN play the Cure, target myself, shuffle all the blessings into my deck, and end the turn by drawing all cards until I have 5 again?

Yes and No
According to page 8 of the Rise of the Runelords rule book, you start your turn with 1 free 'explore' action (which must be your first explore), and you can discard certain cards from your hand to gain additional explore actions with no limit (other than what's in your hand).
But I think you misunderstand how Cure works:
The cards are moved from the Discard pile back into the Deck (not to your Hand), so without a mechanism to draw additional cards, its nearly impossible to reuse the same blessings in the same turn.


In Bridge, Is it Sometimes Good to Lead an Opponent's Suit on Defense? I was "West," that is, the opening leader. My left and right hand opponents had alternated diamond and spade bids, neither supporting the other, suggesting something like 6-1 misfits in both suits (which actually turned out to be the case), and South bought the contract at four spades.

I held something like:

♠xx
♥Qxx
♦JTxx
♣Qxxx

led a low heart (the unbid major). This gave the opponents a free finesse, and the contract was (barely) made.

I had also given consideration to a diamond lead from the JT sequence. Since South had only one diamond, he couldn't finesse out the T or capture it when guarded by xx, after capturing the J with a higher honor. With honors in all three plain suits, I even thought of (and rejected) the "safe" lead of a low trump. The last alternative was to lead the fourth club, which at least left TWO guards for the queen.

Did I make a bad lead? Should I have led either a diamond or spade, instead, even though both had been bid by the opponents?

Assuming the opponents were not overbidding, your lead was perfectly fine. (though with lead problems, you ought to give the complete auction, as that matters a lot).

Elaborating on my comment to thesun...'s answer:

Usually when dummy bids and rebids a suit and you have a weak stopper like JTxx, there is real danger of that suit being set up or losers from declarer's hand immediately going away (for instance AKQxxx opposite void and declarer throws away heart/club losers).

Such auctions (where dummy shows a real suit) usually call for an attacking lead and a trump lead is quite bad in that respect. There is also the distinct possibility the dummy is void in trumps and you are giving declarer a finesse he could not take, if you lead a trump.

A diamond lead is similarly bad as you are just giving declarer the option to throw away his losers immediately.

So the only reasonable choices (IMO) on this hand are either a heart or a club and either is ok, as to beat the contract you would probably need tricks from both suits.

btw: Try not to make conclusions from just one hand. Even a 90% odds on play has to fail 10% of the time.


Citadels first game setup for 3 players In Citadels 2016 the rule book has a recommended first game setup. However that setup does not include a 9th rank character. For a first game (with 3 players), should players use Artist or Tax Collector?  Or should they use a different preset option?

I've read the Dutch rulebooks of the base game and the expansion. The expansion introduces the ninth character, and it states that in a 3-player game, you only have 8 characters. It's highly recommended to leave out both the Tax Collector and the Artist.

Note that, as mentioned in the comments, the original game had only 8 characters. The expansion came with 10 characters in total: replacements for characters 1-8 and two picks for spot 9. So now, you can pick from two characters for each spot in the turn order. However, as mentioned in the rules (here - and in Dutch -, for completeness sake) 3-player games (and by extension, 2-player games) should e played with only 8 characters.


Reanimating a creature with undying A creature with undying has already come back to the battlefield due to its ability (and gained the +1/+1) dies again. Raise Dead is cast and once more returns that creature to the hand, which is then summoned again. Is its undying "reset", or does he still have that +1/+1?

It will not have a +1/+1 counter.

We never actually move an object from one zone to another. Instead, we create a new object in the new zone and the old one ceases to exist.[CR 400.7] Any counters on the old object ceases to exist along with it.[CR 121.2]
That means the card in the graveyard (a new object) doesn't have the original +1/+1 counter. If you use Raise Dead to return that card to your hand, the card in your hand (yet another object) won't have the original +1/+1 counter. And finally, if you cast that card from your hand, the new creature (a fourth object) won't have the original +1/+1 counter.
But does it gain a new +1/+1 counter from undying when you recast the creature card after getting it back from the graveyard using Raise Dead? No. Undying is a triggered ability that triggers when a permanent with Undying is placed into a graveyard.[CR 702.92a] It is not triggered when a card with Undying is cast from your hand, so it doesn't add any counters in that situation.

121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.
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 nine exceptions to this rule:
702.92a Undying is a triggered ability. “Undying” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a +1/+1 counter on it.”


If I'm controlling an opponent's turn, do I get to chose where their commander goes? While I'm controlling my opponent's turn, and, say, their commander dies in combat... do I get to choose whether or not their commander goes to the command zone? I'm assuming 'yes', as it is at the choice of its owner, and I'm currently making decisions for the owner.

Yes, you do get to choose.

  714.5. While controlling another player, a player makes all choices and decisions the controlled player is allowed to make or is told to make by the rules or by any objects. This includes choices and decisions about what to play, and choices and decisions called for by spells and abilities.

Where the commander goes is a choice they're allowed to make by the rules. There's no special exception or anything here, so yup, you can let their commander go to their graveyard if it dies in combat.


How do you score 5,5,5,5 in-hand with a non-ten, non-face card turned up? You are dealt 6 cards and find you have four 5s plus two other cards. You put those two non-scorers in the crib. You hope for a ten on the turn-up, but it's an off card that doesn't help anything. How do you score the 5s?

You have 6 pairs (CD,CH,CS,DH,DS,HS), and 4 ways to make 15 (CDH,CDS,CHS,HDS), for a total of 20 points.


Extra Adventures for Castle Ravenloft Where can I find other adventures for Castle Ravenloft? So far I've only found the two bonus adventures that WotC released.

BoardGameGeek Castle RavenLoft has quite a few used-made scenarios and extra characters.

The most are listed in the Variants forum, although you may look around in there a bit and find some others under "rules" maybe.

One of my favorites is "Crypts And Creepers", although it's more of an 'expansion', not just another scenario.

WotC is also having a "Build your own scenario" competition, so you should see more available on-line when that happens also.

Here's a link I just found that has most of the user-created adventures listed and ranked:

BGG Castle RavenLoft Adventure Database


Is there any economical game which demonstrates social-democratic economy rather than capitalism? As much as I enjoy games like Monopoly or Settelers of Catan, I'm very concerned about the way these games affect players' concept of economy, as they demonstrate extremly capitalistic economical rules where the goal of each individual is to financially crush his/her friends.

I know that since competition is an important factor in many games, the use of capitalism is natural, but I'd anyway like to find out about any economical board games that demonstrate a different approach.

Puerto Rico is an economic game but it's hardly purely capitalistic.  While you can trade goods for money, you get at least half if not more of your victory points by shipping goods, and each type of good is worth one victory point regardless of value.  However, I'm not sure what you mean when you say Catan is capitalist.  It's a pre-capitalist barter economy with no money.  You use raw materials to build settlements and roads, and there is no mention of leveraging worker's labor to maximize your personal wealth.  Perhaps you are conflating capitlism with societal /economic competition, which is not remotely the same thing.


How does face-down Attack Position (via Darkness Approaches) work? The card Darkness Approaches has the following text:

  Discard 2 cards from your hand. Select 1 face-up monster and flip it face-down, but do not change its battle position.

Because it specifically says to not change its battle position, this would allow a face-up Attack Position monster to become a face-down Attack Position monster.

How does this work exactly? If a monster attacks a face-up Attack Position monster, what happens? Does it flip in response to the attack? Can I Flip Summon a face-up Attack Position monster? Are there other oddities that I need to be aware of?

Sometime in mid-2017 (after this question was originally asked), the card text for Darkness Approaches was errata'd to no longer allow face-down Attack Position monsters:

  Discard 2 cards from your hand. Select 1 face-up monster and change it to face-down Defense Position.

Still, it's interesting to keep this question around for historical purposes.

There are no oddities that you need to be aware of, but you will need to remember the technical details of each action to ensure you do not breach a rule or create a tactical blunder for yourself, as explained below.

Face-up monsters are given one (1) attack per turn. Face-down monsters are not face-up, so they cannot be used to attack.
If a face-down attack position monster is attacked, it is flipped and stays in the same position. The damage step is worked out as if it had been face-up attack position the whole time.
No, you cannot flip-summon an attack position monster. If the face-down monster is in attack position, it does not meet the second criteria below, and therefore is not being flip-summoned. The flip-summon is

a manual change
from face-down defence position
to face-up attack position.


When exactly does an attacking creature become tapped? I have a creature on the board, which is eligible to attack, however my opponent has enchanted it with Brink of Disaster. Now as I attack with the creature, does it first become tapped (and will therefore be destroyed) or does it first deal damage?
And in case it becomes tapped before dealing damage, does it become tapped before the opponent declares blockers or after?
When exactly during the action of attacking does the attacking creature become tapped?

The attacker becomes tapped during the Declare Attackers step.  The steps of combat are:

Beginning of Combat
Declare Attackers
Declare Blockers
Damage Resolution
End of Combat

So, since the attacker becomes tapped during step 2, it is destroyed before step 4 where it would normally deal damage.

For a full breakdown of a turn, see this post


How to find a game of Munchkin? I've been playing Munchkin for about two years.  I just moved to a new city, and now that I'm away from my friends, I've realized that not many people know the game even exists and most have no interest whatsoever. How do I go about finding people to play with?

Look for stores that sell board, CCG, or role playing games.  I'd start with store finders on sites like Wizards.com. If you don't have a specialized hobby store, you can try more general stores that sell that product type such as Hastings. People at these locations might know other players, or even have places set up to play / hang out.

Check sites like Meetup and Facebook for board game groups. Also check any local universities for that type of group as well.  Sometimes you have to dig, but there are gamers out there!


In bridge, is an "uppercut" a special case of a "forcing game?" In a standard forcing game, you the defender, may have four (or more) trumps, and ypu lead a long suit in which declarer is void in order to force him to ruff, thereby shortening his trumps to your number (or less).

In an uppercut situation, you might have something like Qx. Nevertheless, if you lead a long suit in which both your partner and declarer are void, your partner ruffs with a J, and declarer (sitting to your right with AK ) is forced to overuff with a king, you and partner have "shortened" his high trumps enough so that he can no longer capture your queen with AK. So is this a special case of a forcing game?

And suppose you are declarer (South) and the final trumps are Q in your hand, 2 in dummy, JT in East. If you lead a suit in which dummy and East are void, and dummy ruffs with his 2, forcing an overuff with the T, so you can now draw East's last trump, does this work like an uppercut? Is there a special name for this kind of play?

I don't think there is a strict definition of the terms, but usually forcing game is reserved for cases where you strive to get opps to lose trump control.

Uppercut is to create trump tricks. If people thought it was like forcing, they might not have chosen to name it :-)

In the third one, east is not obliged to overruff. so not so sure about that. Crossruff comes to mind...


Card Organization: Multi-Color Cards As my collection has started growing (new to MtG) I'm now needing to organize.  I've done quite a bit of blog reading on the different methods and strategies but one thing I can't quite seem to determine is how to handle multi-color cards.  I have 2 examples:

One Thousand Crashes

Initially what I'm doing is calling this a white since it is the first colored cost symbol.

Beckon Apparition

This one is an either or so I have no real good idea what color to put it with.  Any suggestions on these types of cards?  Is it just preference on my part?

I follow the same procedure for organization that my LGS does.  I have a big 4 row box. In each row, I have a set.  So, right now one of my boxes has (in order): Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, M13.  What do all of these sets have in common?  They rotate out at the same time.

Now, for organizing each set, I follow WoTC's number system, and I put like cards together in penny sleeves (clear sleeves that generally cost $1 per 100). This way, they are organized by color, and then alphabetically.  This makes searching for cards much faster, at least for me.

Now, the order that WoTC does things is Colorless/White/Blue/Black/Red/Green/Gold/Hybrid/Artifact/Lands.  Also, if you look at the bottom of each card, there is a number associated with it.  For instance, the One Thousand Lashes you linked, is card number 183.  So, it would go 183rd in my box.

I hope that this helps.


How does the Commander interact with Banishing Light or Oblivion Ring? What happens if a commander is sent to the command zone via Banishing Light and then enchantment is destroyed? Can the commander return to the battlefield from the command zone?.

I think that Oblivion Ring would not allow that to happen.

Yes, you are correct that in the situation you describe, Banishing Light will return the commander from the command zone to the battlefield, but Oblivion Ring will not do that.

The main reason that it works this way is rule 610.3:

  Some one-shot effects cause an object to change zones “until” a specified event occurs. A second one-shot effect is created immediately after the specified event. This second one-shot effect returns the object to its previous zone.

Banishing Light's effect is one of these. The important thing to note is that returning the object to its previous zone does not depend on which zone it originally moved to.

Oblivion Ring, on the other hand, has two separate abilities, which are called linked abilities. Rule 607.2a describes how this kind of linked ability works:

  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.

Because Oblivion Ring's second ability refers to "the exiled card", it can only find cards that are actually in the exile zone when it resolves.


Does a face-down creature with morph retain its damage when it is turned face up? I have a face-down morph creature that has received 1 point of damage. If my opponent casts Shock or another thing to kill it, can I flip at that point to make the damage disappear or my card still have it (now flipped) until the end of my turn?

After turning the creature face up, the damage is still marked on the creature, it doesn't somehow disappear. It's still the same creature, only in a different 'state'.

120.6. Damage marked on a creature remains until the cleanup step
707.8. As a face-down permanent is turned face up, its copiable values revert to its normal copiable values. Any effects that have been applied to the face-down permanent still apply to the face-up permanent.

But if the creature has a high enough toughness (4 or more) or protection from red, it might still survive the Shock.
Note that turning a creature face up doesn't use the stack, so an opponent cannot cast a Shock in response to turning a creature face up to kill it while it's still morphed.


How to minimize Puerto Rico setup time? It takes quite a lot of time to set up Puerto Rico, especially when switching between games with a different numbers of players; a quarter of an hour I'd say. The problem is that it is rather time consuming to separate the different types of chips, count the colonists and victory points, restrict the number of plantations, putting the buildings on the board, etc...

I'm probably asking the impossible, but does anyone know a trick to cut down this rather long set up time?

Certainly -- the trick is do all the prep work after you finish a game.  Once you are done with the game, sort everything out for the next game.

These instructions all assume you will want to take into account the 2-Player variant when sorting; if you want to ignore the 2-player variant, ignore the bullets flagged with two stars (**).

Personally, I play a lot of the 2-player variant because I have a hard time finding a third, so I have plastic bags labelled 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, and 5 Players.

** For the 2-player variant, I have sorted out 2 of each production building and 1 of each purple building into one of the trays, and have the remaining buildings in a separate tray labeled "3+ Player Buildings".
** I have removed three of each type of plantation, and placed the remainder of the plantations in one of the tray spaces.
** The 2 Player  bag contains:  65 victory points, 42 colonists.  It also contains all the barrels of goods except for 2 barrels of each type (per the 2-player rules).
The 3 Player bag contains 10 more victory points, 13 more colonists, and the remaining plantation tiles and goods barrels.

Alternately, if you don't ever plan on playing with only 2 players, the 3 Player bag should contain the base 75 victory ponits and 55 colonists.  You won't need to sort out plantations or barrels in this case.

The 4 Player bag contains 25 more victory points, and 20 more colonists.
The 5 Player bag contains the last 22 victory points, and the last 20 colonists.

If you write the contents of what the 3, 4 and 5 player bags should have, you can fill those up, and the remainder goes into the 2 player bag.

Now all you'll have to do is fish out the necessary corn and indigo plantations to determine who goes first, and you're all set.


Can a noncreature artifact be destroyed by reducing toughness? I was reading through the answers of this question when I suddenly wondered about Vehicles in their artifact state.

They have a listed Power and Toughness. If I were to reduce that toughness to 0 and the Vehicle is not crewed (i.e. does not have the Creature type, only Artifact), is it destroyed?

Are there other examples of this, like enchantments that have a power and toughness even though they are (at the moment) not creatures? Can those permanents be destroyed by reducing toughness?

The Gods from Theros aren't creatures sometimes.

208.3. A noncreature permanent has no power or toughness, even if it’s a card with a power and toughness printed on it (such as a Vehicle).
208.3a If an effect would be created that affects the power and/or toughness of a noncreature permanent, that effect is created even though it doesn’t do anything unless that permanent becomes a creature.

Thus, they have no power and toughness that can be reduced to below 0.


Strategies for Scattergories I suck at Scattergories. I've played the game dozens of times, and as far as I can remember I have never gotten anything other than last place. Usually the gap between me and the next lowest score is large. I just finished a full 16-round game with a final score of 51. Only 24 words were crossed out due to others having them; 1 or 2 words tops were crossed out due to challenge. That's an average of just 4.7 words that I filled in per 12-word list. I believe that putting something down for each line is the most important aspect of the game, so clearly I'm doing something wrong.

Here are my strategies for filling up the slots on each list:

Think of any and all words starting with the letter and find a category that they might fit in, selecting the most obscure category to avoid overlapping with another player.
Think of any and all words associated with the category on the list, and see if any of them start with the letter. Usually this involves visualizing the category. For example, with “things in a junk drawer” I visualize my own junk drawer, name each item, and check the first letter for a match.
Read the list, the instructions, and any text in the room for words that start with the letter. Any that do, find a category for them if possible.
Sound out in my head the letter followed by a common next letter, waiting for my brain to fill in a word. For example, the letter is “S,” so in my head I say “sh...” and “se...” until words like “shout” and “seer” pop up. Then, find a category for that word.
Write the first letter to see if my brain will auto-complete a word simply by muscle memory.

You might be tempted to comment, “it's a party game, just have fun with it.” Since I'm not particularly competitive, that's basically what I have done in my dozens of attempts. However, at this point the pattern of suckage is hard to ignore, and I'm quite curious what key aspect of the game I must be missing.

I think your techniques are sound if, first, you've read the categories so they are in the forefront of your subconscious when you consider the letters.

Scattergories is a bit similar to 'Boggle' (Parker Bros.) and 'dig-it!' (Cadaco), in that words one's opponents also use are not scored, but different from Scrabble (Hasbro) in that...well, everyone knows Scrabble.  But all these games primarily rely on vocabulary and imaginative thinking (neither of which is improved by your techniques).

Anecdote Alert: My Scrabble play dramatically improved once I got the Scrabble Player's Dictionary (SPD); which I read (past-tense) daily.  My other dictionaries didn't have many that are found in the SPD and I never would have known of them otherwise.  During gameplay, I let others use the SPD to find words and to challenge mine, I don't use it except for challenges.

I would suggest you do something to increase your Scattergory vocabulary.  Because of the aforementioned "duplicates don't count" mechanic the words/terms you'll want are those that don't normally come to mind.

People tend to be predictable in how they think and what they think about.  Your goal should be to think differently, outside the mainstream (but not so far you can't defend a challenge), and increasing your Scattergory vocabulary will help do that.

Each day, pick a category (the ones that are most difficult for you), search the internet for a "list of ____", print it out, and scan it 2-3+ times during that day.  Don't try to memorize it, just say the words aloud, imagine what it looks like, think about which ones others may not know so well, and you're done.  Keep your list nearby during game play in case you're challenged.

For some categories, "lists" may not be practical because they would be too long. (My game is in storage so I'm going to guess...)

IE. "Movie Stars"/"TV Stars", look up ie. "movie/TV stars of the 1940's";

"Boy's Name", look up "boys' names of [pick a country that uses the same/similar alphabet or translates well]...the Old Testament of the Bible works well if the other players are Christian (not Jewish), Greek and Gaelic names might work if one uses the English (not Greek/Gaelic) form, etc.

"Things in a kitchen", also break larger things down to their component parts but make sure those components aren't too ambiguous, ie. "pilot light", "heating coil", "drawer knob", "pot lid", "garbage bag", "dog dish", "sponge", "coffee filters".

If an item appears on a list you don't know, look it up, learn it, and not just for the game but for the sake of learning.

All I'll say about "having fun" and "being competitive" is that games are all about challenging oneself and enjoying the "striving to do better next time".  The other players are there for companionship, laughter, randomizing the game, and "fog of war" (FoW).


Do type-changing static abilities allow triggering? If I have March of the Machines and Soul Warden on the battlefield, what happens when I cast a non-creature artifact like Azorius Signet? When exactly does the card type change?

Soul Warden's ability will trigger.

  603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. [...]

That means it's the types the Signet has on the battlefield that are checked by Soul Warden's triggered ability.

  604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they’re simply true.

That means there isn't a moment that a non-creature artifact on the battlefield is not affected by March of the Machine.

As such, the Signet is seen as a creature by Soul Warden's triggered ability, and it will trigger.


Are weighted games in Goko Dominion adventures winnable by sheer strategy? I'm playing through the adventure mode in Goko's online Dominion game, and I've reached the point (in the Intrigue adventure) where the game starts being weighted very heavily against me. For example, my current particular position is Act I, Level 14, and my opponent's starting deck includes 3 silver and 2 duchies replacing some of the standard copper and estates. (Not only that, the 2 duchies are taken from the supply, leaving only 6 at game start - on a board with Duke...)

I could easily even the odds using the game's "zaps," but that's not my question. What I want to know is, are Adventure levels "fair" as strategical challenges, with a viable strategy for victory? Or is it just "here's an impossible level, use zaps or die"?

There have been numerous threads discussing this topic on the Dominion Strategy Forum, including this one. But, to boil it down, it seems like the answer to your question is "no, some levels are essentially unwinnable without using zaps". I think that all of them are beatable if you just use enough zaps to bring yourself back to even starting decks with your opponent, but many aren't beatable without using zaps.

One money quote:

  I would not try those levels with no zaps. You get free zaps though, usually five. Just click on cards to zap them. It's a decision as to what to zap - although using three on Provinces is mostly automatic. At first I was upset by it, but I mean, in the end it's a variant and there's nothing especially wrong with it.
  -- Donald X.

In addition, there appear to be ongoing efforts to modify/improve the adventure campaigns for better balance, and to create additional adventures. Current status of these efforts may vary. This being said, some reliance on zaps in most adventures is probably going to remain.


Are two teams that attempt a planet mission present with each other I have two teams that attempt a planet mission one after the other.
The first team has a Emergency Transport Unit. Now the second team encounters a dilemma that would kill one of the personnel.

Emergency Transport Unit says that:

  When your personnel present is about to be killed, you may return this equipment to its owner's hand to place that personnel on your ship at this mission instead. He or she is stopped.

There is extra ruling specifying what "at this mission" means, but not what "present" means (or at least I couldn't find it)

Can I use the Emergency Transport Unit to safe that personnel?

The answer is actually in the core rules (p 13). Section "Present"

  If a  card is  on   a  planet, it  is  present with any    other personnel and equipment on the same planet


Is there a variant of chess such that in the starting position Bishops and Knights are switched? White's back row would look like this: RBNQKNBR and Black's would undergo an equivalent change.

Where can I learn more about this variant/play this variant with someone experienced?

Swapping the knights and bishops is one version of displacement chess. I'm not sure what you wish to learn though; the main aim of displacement chess systems, such as Fischer random chess, is to negate the benefit of rote learning. Learning how to play this variant well by studying sounds like a strange goal!


Seedborn Muse & Sands of Time on the stack If an opponent has Seedborn Muse out in play, I cast Sands of Time, then the opponent's turn comes back around.
How would the stack resolve between these two cards on their turn?
Does Sands of Time trigger resolve first or does Seedborn Muse? Or does the opponent pick which happens first since both trigger onto the stack at the same time?

Sands of Time makes everyone skip their untap step.  Period.  It is a continuous effect, it doesn't trigger.  Seedborn Muse will do nothing in this scenario as there are no untap steps during which to untap it's controller's permenants.


Returning an attacking creature equipped with Trepanation Blade If my opponent attacks with Trepanation Blade and I use an instant that returns all attacking creatures to their owners hand, will the effect of the blade still play out?

The Blade says:

  Whenever equipped creature attacks, defending player reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a land card. The creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn for each card revealed this way. That player puts the revealed cards into his or her graveyard.

Yes, the ability will do as much as it can when it resolves

  609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

Trepanation Blade triggers whenever the equipped creature attacks. The ability is now on the stack, no matter what happens to the creature afterwards. If the creature has left the battlefield by the time TP gets to resolve, boosting its power will be impossible, but TP will still do as much as possible, i.e. the defending player has to reveal cards and put them into his or her graveyard.


Jacoby transfer bid after responder bids If my partner responds 2D to my 1NT opening bid. I have zero to 2 cards in Hearts.
What do I bid?

tl;dr 2H

I think you need to understand the concept of Captaincy.

During the process of bidding, it is not always the case where both players are trying to exchange information on an even ground. Sometimes one player will become the Captain and await his partner to give him the information. In other words, the Captain has the say to this bidding sequence. His partner should follow and respect the Captain's decision.

In your scenario, whenever you open a natural 1NT, you immediately surrender your hand to his partner. Your partner will dictate how the bidding should go. If he decides a transfer should complete this bidding, you are obliged to accept this transfer.

There are two circumstances that you can have a say about the bidding:

1) When partner passes the ball back to you. Example: You open 1NT, letting your partner do whatever he likes. He now bids a natural 2NT as an invitation. Now he passes the ball to you and you will decide whether you should go game or settle for partscore.

2) When you like what your partner is doing and decide that a simple "I accept" response is not enough to allow partner make the correct decision. Example: You open 1NT, your partner bids 2D as a transfer to 2H. You hold massive (say 4-card) support and good controls, and you are afraid that a simple 2H response will make your partner ship miss a light game. You can refuse this transfer by bidding 3H, or some other bids that your partnership has agreed to.

You open 1NT thereby letting your partner be the captain. He asks you to bid 2H. He does not pass the decision to you and you actually dislike Hearts. You have no choice but to believe 2H is the correct bid. After all you are not sure what hand he has - he may have a massive hand wanting to bid some more after you accept the transfer, or he may have a Yarborough with only a string of Hearts and you definitely want to play in 2H. Your partner is the Captain and you better respect his decision.

As for why you would have a void in Hearts after opening 1NT, you will explain this to your partner. But even holding a void you should still accept this transfer: better play in 2H than some four-level nonsense doubled.


When would you "slot" points in backgammon? In backgammon, substantial value is placed on making consecutive points in your home board. So much so, that some players would use say, an opening 6-2 to place a lone, exposed, man on the five point, slotting it, and hoping to cover it on the next turn.

Suppose you got an opening 3-1 and "made" your five point. Would you then slot the four point with a 6-3 or 5-4, the way one might have slotted the five point with a 6-2?

I like to play an early 5-3 to the three point, because it increases the value of slots to the five and four points. Would many authorities recommend this play? Would they use 5-3 to slot the five point (like a 6-2)? Or would they play "safe" by taking two builders from the midpoint and putting them on the eight and ten points.

This depends heavily on what the opponent has done so far with his runners. If both runners are still on your 1 point, or if only one runner remains in your home board, slotting forward from your 6 point often has a good risk reward. If two split runners exist in your home board (or one runner and one or more opposing men on the bar), you must be much more cautious slotting in your home board.

Additionally, the thickness of your wall to date allows more aggressive play moving it forward. If you have pointed on 5-6-7-8 already, slotting on 4 might be considered even against split runners, but the shape of your opponents home board is important also.

Weighing all these factors is good judgement, which comes only form the experience of having made decisions with bad judgement and learning form it.


Card game vocabulary I am building an online version of the game of Set, and I want to get my vocabulary straight. So far, the words I have are "card", "deck", "(card) feature", "set", "player" and "dealer".

I am missing words describing:

the initial laying of 12 cards (lay out? initialisation?)
the addition of 3 cards when a set has been found (add on? filler?)
the set of cards that are face up, on the table (board? table?)
the attempt made by a player to demonstrate a set (move? call? attempt?)
the different types within a feature (variations?)

What are the technical terms used in card games, such as Set?

(Part of) the rules of Set read as follows:

  The dealer shuffles the cards and lays twelve cards (in a rectangle)
  face up on the table so that they can be seen by all players. The
  players remove a 'Set' of three cards as they are seen. Each 'Set' is
  checked by the other players. If correct, the 'Set' is kept by the
  player and the dealer replaces the three cards with three from the
  deck. Players do not take turns but pick up 'Sets' as soon as they see
  them. A player must call 'Set' before picking up the cards. After a
  player has called 'Set', no other player can pick up cards until the
  first player is finished. If a player calls 'Set' and does not have
  one, the player loses one point. The three cards are returned to the
  table.

As such, I'd recommend for your terms: (1) layout, or possibly deal; (2) replacement; (3) the cards [on the table]; (4) calling 'Set'; and (5) variation.  (Not in the above paragraph, but earlier in the rules I'm looking at, it states "Each card has a variation of the following four features".


How are the maps provided with Diplomacy supposed to be used? (I'm planning a game of Diplomacy with my friends for this weekend. The problem is, none of us have ever played before, so I'm trying to fill the gaps in my understanding so that our inexperience doesn't reduce the fun.)

How do you use the paper maps that come with Diplomacy? I know they are supposed to keep track of the units on the board while you go elsewhere with your negotiations, but I'm not sure of the best way to do that. Should I pencil in letters to show where the units are and update them as the game goes on? Does this usually prove difficult enough that you only keep track of your own units and your neighbors'? What updates do you usually make to your map after each round is finished? How would you recommend a new player use their map?

An image of a map being used during a game would be great if possible! :)

Make copies of the map (it's expressly authorized) but you'll find most folks won't write on them.  The pattern I see in both home and tournament play is that during adjudication everyone will write down the units they have down the left side of what will become their order sheet.  During negotiations they'll consult their list and look at the map, often indicating moves by tapping their pencil at the start and end of the move their discussing.  Once they're ready to write orders their turn their inventory list into their orders and submit it.

My larger piece of advice is to keep the pace of the game as fast as you can.  Start the negotiation timer as soon as the previous turn has been adjudicated (don't let everyone take time outside of negotiation to write their units).  Similarly, don't give separate time to write orders after negotiation is done -- that's something you do during negotiation and if you don't get them done your units are in civil disorder.  Along those lines be sure to enforce the "no negotiation during builds


"Would draw" with "Can't draw" Folks, I would like to know if an effect like "players can't draw cards" prevents/cancel effects like "if you would draw a card, instead do X".

Because I wouldn't draw a card anyway, the effect does not takes place?

For a concrete example, think on Maralen of the Mornsong with Forbidden Crypt.

Can't beats can. So when something tells you to draw a card (say the beginning of your draw step), and Maralen telling you that you can't draw cards you do not get to draw a card. Since you are not drawing a card the Crypt's replacement effect doesn't have a chance to apply.

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.
614.7. If a replacement effect would replace an event, but that event never happens, the replacement effect simply doesn’t do anything.


How can I tell how replayable a cooperative game is? I've been reading reviews on various cooperative games trying to find some more to add to my collection. (I currently have Pandemic, Forbidden Island, and Shadows over Camelot). In reviews, I've seen people give games low ratings for a few reasons, complexity, playing time, and various other very predictable things that you can easily use to judge if you want to buy a game or not.

The other issue that tends to come up is replayability. This is really important to me, because if its not replayable there's no way I'm getting it. But how can I really judge this? It can't be easily reduced to an objective number. Are there any tips for telling how replayable a game is before buying, particularly cooperatives?

Recently I've taken my cooperatives and added a ton of new stuff to them to make them more interesting. I added 9 new roles to pandemic and 13 new special events, some taken from other places I'd read. I did something similar with Forbidden Island and might add some new knights to Shadows over Camelot. I'm confident I can overcome any lack of replayability with my own creativity, but I thought I'd ask this anyway to tell if I'm going to NEED to add my own extensions to a game in order to keep it interesting past 10 plays.

It's tricky to evaluate a game's replayability before buying it, as the primary question I ask to assess this is:

"Does the game support multiple viable paths to victory?"

My thinking is this: If a game has one optimal path to victory, repeated plays will likely become boring (since you're just doing the same thing over and over again).  To figure this out, I typically need to play a game at least once, carefully assessing the opportunities and tools that the game presents during play.

If I couldn't play the game, I'd try to read the rules and look over any primary game components (like card decks, character roles, etc.).  I'd also check out reviews, of course.

The second question I ask is:

"Does this game use one or more modular/randomizing components as a core component?"

Do you lay out tiles to form a different board each game?  Is the game driven by one or more decks of cards with critical goals or events shuffled in at semi-random spots?  Is there a character creation system, or are the characters the same from game to game? -- All of these things contribute to replayability.

Again, it's nice to play the game to see all the components interact with each other.  However, this is a bit easier to assess from just looking at the box or reading the list of parts.  It's also easy to assess from reading the "set up" portion of the rules.


Does Blowfly Infestation create a loop with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons? Does Blowfly Infestation create a loop with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons?

The card text is as follows

'Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had a -1/-1 counter on it, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.'

When a token dies it goes to the graveyard and then disappears, so it looks like you keep generating a token and killing it.  Or does the generation of the creature allow you to cast in between.

If there is a creature with 1 toughness on the battlefield when a creature with a -1/-1 counter dies, you can create an arbitrarily large number of enter the battlefield triggers as @gendolkari explains.

This is an optional infinite loop and so the game won't end in a draw because you can always choose to end it by giving Haptatra the a -1/-1 counter from blowfly infestation.  If Haptara has more that 1 toughness, the loop will end because a creature does not die.  If Haptara has 1 toughness, the loop will end because her ability is no longer active.

  421.2. If the loop contains one or more optional actions and one player controls them all, that player chooses a number. The loop is treated as repeating that many times or until another player intervenes, whichever comes first.


Foil rares in booster boxes? Is it guaranteed that there is a foil rare in every booster box? I've recently finished opening a box and there was no foil rare and many duplicates. I already searched the web to see if it is guaranteed and couldn't find anything. I'm wondering if it was a printing/manufacturing error, or just bad luck.

No. It is a strong statistical possibility that a foil rare can be found in a box, but it isn't assured. It is statistically possible to open a booster box and find zero premium cards, as well as zero mythic rares.

The probabilistic expectation, if you were to open an innumerable amount of booster boxes, is that there will be six premium cards per booster box, with one of those six premium cards being a rare. Further, it is expected that one foil mythic rare will be opened for every eight booster boxes.


How do Steam Vent and Esper Dash interact? When Bal-Bas-Beta and Setsuki Hiruki are playing against each other, the moves Steam Vent and Esper Dash have directly conflicting actions.

Steam Vent:

  Start of your turn: Push an opponent from a dark space away from you one space. That opponent can't dashing strike on his next turn.

Esper Dash:

  You move: You may move again or dashing strike.

If I use Steam Vent against my opponent, can he move and use Esper Dash to dashing strike me anyway? Or, if he uses Esper Dash, is he required to take the extra move action, since he can't dashing strike?

According to Sirlin (the creator of the game):

In all my games and also in MtG:
If an ability says "You can do X" and another ability says "You can't do X," then "You can't do X" takes precedence.

This means that Steam Vents would prevent Setsuki from using her Esper Dash to use a dashing strike on the next turn.
Note: Sirlin's answer was originally posted here, but these forums have since been removed.


What factors should be considered before doubling pawns? I know the basic strength of double pawns is that it may open up a rank for a rook, and that the weakness is that the pawns can no longer defend one another.  Other than an obvious material advantage, what are the long-term strategic factors to consider when you're faced with the decision of doubling your pawns?  I know that specific openings accept doubled pawns, but beyond memorizing openings, what should influence my decision?  For example, are doubled pawns more acceptable in the center than near the edge of the board?

Jeremy Silman, author of many books on chess strategy (as well as my favorite endgame book) always pushes not thinking in terms of static strengths - having a bishop over a knight - vs. weaknesses - having doubled pawns - but rather in terms of imbalances.  After all, in a closed position, a knight will do better than a bishop, and you mentioned yourself one way doubled pawns can actually be an advantage.

So, the questions you should really be asking yourself are, What are the imbalances in the position?  What new imbalances will this capture create?

For doubled-pawns, the common imbalances are:

Material.  Since you must capture to get doubled pawns, you'll be gaining (or recapturing) material.
Space.  As you mentioned, moving the pawn out of the way opens a file/diagonal for your pieces.
Central (key square) control.  When capturing towards the center, you'll now have an extra pawn to attack the center - or, when capturing away from the center, you lose some of that control.  Note that if the capturing pawn is a central pawn, you may gain more central control, due to the open file/diagonal.
Also, later in the game other squares may become important to control.  You should take these into consideration as well.
Pawn Structure.  Doubling your pawns tends to weaken your pawn structure, especially if they are isolated.  Doubled-isolated pawns are easy targets for your opponents, so expect to lose at least one of those pawns later.

Lastly, and most importantly, it's rarely a matter of a single move, meaning other imbalances will come into play as well.

If I move here, there's a possibility he'll move here, leading to a series of moves in which my pawns will be doubled and he'll gain the double-bishops, but I'll have the initiative.

In every line of play, existing and potential, you will always need to compare the imbalances that favor you to the imbalances that favor your opponent, and ask yourself:  "Do the imbalances in the position favor me over my opponent?  How do I make the existing imbalances favor me even more?  Can I create even more favorable imbalances for myself in this position?"  Learning how to answer these questions is one of the most important skills in getting better at chess.


Does the "Rule of 15" suggest that you should pass with 13 points (and short spades) in fourth seat? Only you vulnerable, you have a  13- high card point hand like the following: (s)x (h) AJxx (d) KJxx (c) KJxx. (No x is higher than a 7). Three passes have preceded you.

The "Rule of 15" suggests that you open in fourth seat only if the sum of your high card points and spades add up to at least 15. It works most often for 11 point hands with four spades. Here, you have the full opening point count (13), but are weak in spades, the highest ranking suit.

On "average," your partner will have nine, or one third of the remaining 27 points, giving your side about 22 (out of forty). Balanced against this is the near-certainty that the opponents own the spade suit. (Partner would have opened with a "weak two" spades with six, unless they were very weak.)

Does this consideration suggest that you should pass in fourth seat, even though you might have opened, say one diamond, in first, second, or third seat?

Edit: I am now also assuming unfavorable vulnerability, that is "only you vulnerable" (the original version of the question said both vulnerable). Does vulnerability make a difference in this borderline case?

Rule of 13 trumps Rule of 15.

If you have 13 points you open.

If you read the first few sentences of the article you linked, it says clearly you only apply that when you have 9-12 points.


Yarok and Animate Dead I've seen multiple viewpoints on Animate Dead while Yarok, the Desecrated is out, and just want to get a final answer. Does it Animate 2 creatures and then immediately die, thus activating any etb triggers those creatures may have? Do they not enter at all? Do they stay out? Does one stay out? Do Dance of the Dead and Necromancy work differently? What do they do differently?

It would act more or less the same as if you did not have Yarok out.

Animate Dead is still an Aura spell, which means that it is targeted; and you choose that target when you cast the spell, before it enters the battlefield:

  303.4a An Aura spell requires a target, which is defined by its enchant ability.

So you must target a creature card in a graveyard. This target is not going to change or get doubled or anything like that by Yarok.

Animate Dead does have a triggered ability that triggers when it enters the battlefield, so due to Yarok, this ability will trigger twice. The full effect of the ability that triggers is:

  When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.

So that will trigger twice. This means there will be 2 copies of that ability on the stack, and they will resolve one at a time.

When the first ability resolves, you will do these things in order:

Animate Dead loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead."
You return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it.
Then it sets up a delayed trigger for when Animate Dead leaves the battlefield.

When the second ability resolves, you will still go through these steps in order, although certain things will now not function the same:

Animate Dead loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead."

Animate Dead didn't have the ability it's supposed to lose, so it won't lose anything. It will gain "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead" again, but having 2 of that ability is redundant.

You return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it.

The enchanted creature card is already on the battlefield, and Animate Dead is already attached; so this instruction won't do anything extra.

Then it sets up a delayed trigger for when Animate Dead leaves the battlefield.

This will set up an additional delayed trigger, but that extra delayed trigger won't do anything special, because you won't be able to sacrifice the same creature twice.

Day of the Dead is exactly the same; all the relevant wording is identical.

Necromancy is different, however. Because it is not an aura spell, you do not choose a target as part of casting Necromancy. Instead, the triggered ability itself is what targets. This means that you will have 2 targeted triggered abilities on the stack, and you can choose a target for each ability when you put it on the stack. You could choose different targets for each one; which would allow you to return 2 creature cards to the battlefield. Necromancy will attach to the first one, then "move" and attach to the second one. The first one will remain, without Necromancy attached to it.


Action Tiles Optional? In Betrayal Legacy there are some tiles that are eat and drink. Drink is an action so the question is whether or not these tiles are mandatory when you enter the room?

The actions such as DRINK are optional. Per the rulebook, on page 14, you can only choose to do one of each action keyword per turn, so you may have the option to DRINK on one tile -- or to use the DRINK action on an item card, for example.


Which monster does the summon focus on? Long way around, avoiding traps, or get stuck behind a player? We're a bit confused about how to select Monster Focus and Player Summon Focus. Check out the situation below:

We use little miniatures for the player summons instead of the disks. So the little dog/wolf miniature in the image is one of the creatures summoned by a player. It has 2 movement.

What will the summon choose as its focus?

And what path will it attempt to take to get to the focus?

Paths 1, 3, and 4 all lead to Living Bones 6.
Path 2 leads to Living Bones 9.

Both Living Bones 6 and 9 are 2 hexes away, so by default I would assume that it tries to focus on Living Bones 6, but we're not sure how to resolve it.

If it tries to take Path 1, it gets stuck behind the player and cannot attack.

Path 4 is 4 hexes, but it goes through an obstacle, so for determining focus I believe we're supposed to treat obstacles as barriers unless there is absolutely no other possible path. (Is that right?)

Path 3 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 6. Path 2 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 9. Since both of those paths are 5 hexes long, I assume the initiative order is the tie-breaker and so it would focus on Bones 6.

The summon has 2 movement. If it takes path 3, on turn 1 it will move one hex and then get stuck behind the player. On a subsequent turn, assuming it's still focusing on Bones 6, would it continue to be stuck since it can't move 3 to get all the way through the players?

The trap in Path 4 does enough damage to the kill the summon. Would it take Path 4 because it's the only path that would actually allow it to get closer to its target, even though it'll die doing it?

Or would the summon see that it wouldn't be able to get through Path 3 and would it try to avoid the trap in Path 4 and therefore choose Bones 9 as its focus?

Or, as a wildcard option, would the summon choose to focus on Bones 6 but take Path 5 because it's the only path that it could ACTUALLY fully complete? (With the understanding that while it's moving along path 5, on the next turn it will be obviously closer to Bones 9 and its focus will change to 9 at that point.)

We downloaded the flow chart on how to determine monster focus, but our group has some disagreements about what it means to have a "possible path", etc and so we aren't agreeing on what the flow chart means and when a monster/summon will throw itself on a trap or not.

Focus: Living Bones 6
Target Hex: The hex next to Living Bones 6 and Living Corpse 6.
Path: Path 3
Move To: First hex of Path 3.

1. Determine the focus.

I'm assuming the summon doesn't fly, and that the summon has a melee attack.

The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Bones 6 (without setting off the trap) is 5.
The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Bones 9 is 5.
Even if given infinite movement, the summon can't attack Living Corpse 3.
The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Corpse 6 (without setting off the trap) is 5.

This rules out Living Corpse 3, and leaves us with a three-way tie. Proximity is the first tie breaker.

Living Bones 6 is 3 hexes away.
Living Bones 9 is 3 hexes away.
Living Corpse 6 is 4 hexes away.

This rules out Living Corpse 6, and leaves us with a two-way tie. Turn order is the second tie breaker. Living Bones 6 acts before Living Bones 9, so the summon will focus on Living Bones 6.

2. Determine the target hex.

I'm assuming the summon doesn't fly, that the summon has a melee attack, and that the attack targets a single opponent.

There is only one hexes from which the summon can attack Living Bones 6, so the summon will move towards that hex.

3. Determine the path taken.

Giving an infinite movement, Path 3 is the only shortest that doesn't set off the trap.

4. Move as much as possible along the path.

The summon will end its movement in the first hex of Path 3.

If you have access to the Forgotten Circles expansion, check out the back cover of its scenario book. It does a good job explaining the monster/summon AI. Also, you should take both of these quizzes: Basic Quiz (PDF), Advanced Quiz (Geeklist).

  Both Living Bones 6 and 9 are 2 hexes away, so by default I would assume that it tries to focus on Living Bones 6

This is not correct. They are 3 hexes away, and proximity is not the primary criteria for choosing a focus. The primary criteria for choosing a focus is the minimum amount of movement needed to get into range to attack the candidate.

  If it tries to take Path 1, it gets stuck behind the player and cannot attack.

Even given an infinite movement, that path won't ever be fruitful. That rules out that path.

  Path 4 is 4 hexes, but it goes through an obstacle, so for determining focus I believe we're supposed to treat obstacles as barriers unless there is absolutely no other possible path. (Is that right?)

Correct.

  Path 3 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 6. Path 2 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 9. Since both of those paths are 5 hexes long, I assume the initiative order is the tie-breaker and so it would focus on Bones 6.

You first need to rule out Living Corpse 6 (also 5 hexes). See above.

  The summon has 2 movement.

This isn't relevant any point in the decision process. Always assume an infinite movement of the current type (flying or not).

  On a subsequent turn, assuming it's still focusing on Bones 6, would it continue to be stuck

There's no point in guessing what it will try to do next turn as that's also irrelevant.

  The trap in Path 4 does enough damage to the kill the summon.

Not relevant.

If the only path to its focus would bring it to the trap (which isn't the case here), it will go through the trap even if it kills it.

  Or, as a wildcard option, would the summon choose to focus on Bones 6 but take Path 5 because it's the only path that it could ACTUALLY fully complete?

There's no point in guessing what it will try to do next turn as that's also irrelevant.


Guillotine: Action cards on the field Small arguement for the game Guillotine. In the instructions it states that at the end of the day you keep all action cards in hand, and you keep all nobles in your play area. The question now, is do you keep action cards that you have played that effect the end of the game (such as +1 to all red nobles), or do they discard at the end of the day?

I understand the confusion because the rules don't explicitly say it but logically:

You should also keep all action cards that are in the play area because they effect the points at the end of the game. If you discard them each end of day, then they are worthless in the first two days of the game. And that ruins a large part of the game.

I suppose you could play in a way where the action cards that effect points only affect the day they were played, so that you add up your points each day before discarding them. That could be an interesting variation but that is obviously not the original game because the rules do state that action card points are added at the end of the game:

  When the third day is over, each player counts up the points on his or her noble cards...and any action cards that might add to or subtract from the point total.

Since it never says to add up the action card points before that, then we must assume they are held on to until the end of game.


How does +1 damage interact with a power with two damage types? Consider a power like the Legacy's "Galvanize":

  Until the start of your next turn, increase damage dealt by hero targets by 1.

How does this interact with powers that deal two different types of damage, such as Fanatic's "Exorcism":

  Fanatic deals 1 target 1 melee damage and 1 radiant damage.

Does Fanatic deal 2 melee damage and 2 radiant damage? Or 2 of one type and 1 of another type of the player's choice?

It increases damage dealt by hero's each time they deal damage so in this case Fanatic would deal 1 target 2 melee damage and 2 radiant damage. It should be remembered that in a case like Fanatic each hit if the damage is considered a different damage. And in the case of Legacy it increases all hero damage.

Now where you need to be careful is if you where dealing with something that said the next time the character did damage or the first time that turn they do damage in a case like that only the melee portion of the damage would be increased.

This is how the it works in the iPad app when using Fanatic's power while Legacy's power is in effect.


Can the last player in a trick win with Change Rage? In the game Rage, who wins the trick if the very last card played is a Change Rage card?  We're playing as though the person who played the Change Rage card is the winner since they changed the Trump color.

Does anyone have experience with this and if so, how did you determine the winner?

No, the last player cannot win in this way. From the wikipedia link

  The 14 Rage cards in the deck have black borders and, with the
  exception of the Wild Rage card, do not count as being of any suit and
  therefore cannot win a trick.

Honestly, I'm not really sure where the confusion is. The card changes the trump color. You then evaluate the other cards played on the trick, find the highest card of the new trump (or the highest of the led suit if there are no cards of the new trump), and it wins. The only player that can't possibly win the trick is the one that played the Change Rage.


What's the difference between Puerto Rico and San Juan? I've heard people describe San Juan as Puerto Rico's little brother. What's actually the difference?

How is the game-play changed?
Is it any easier to teach new people?
Is it worth buying if I already have Puerto Rico?

Game Play Differences
While the games are thematically the same, and San Juan was designed as the "card game version" of Puerto Rico, the gameplay is actually quite different.
Role Selection

In Puerto Rico your choice of role has many implications. You need to consider how the role will affect your success, how it will affect the other players, and every bit as importantly, how your success and that of others will be affected if another player chooses it. You're commonly making a choice that, for example, hurts you the least, or hurts the leader the most, etc.
In San Juan role selection has minimal affect on others. You do want to choose the role that's best for you, but that's about as far as it goes.

Strategic Play

Puerto Rico strongly calls for selecting an overall strategy near the beginning of the game and sticking to it, very broadly the "shipping strategy" or the "building strategy." There are clever things you can do within each strategy, tactical stuff that requires good decisions every turn, but if you don't decide on a strategy early or switch strategies mid-game you're very likely to lose.
San Juan is much more tactical, with very little in the way of strategic play. There are a few cards that call for trying to push the overall game in a certain direction, especially the game-end bonus cards, and some cards complement each other better than others, but it still hard to call it real strategy.

Newbie Forgiveness

Puerto Rico isn't kind to new players, but worse, new players can easily throw the game to a certain player without realizing they're doing it. Sitting to the left of the newbie is an easy way to dramatically increase your odds of winning; seen from the other players' perspective it means the newbie can give you the game.
San Juan isn't a game you're likely to win the first or second time you play if the others are experienced, but you're not going to "give" the game to anyone due to sub-optimal play, and you'll likely score within 20% of the winner no matter how poorly you play.

Seating Order

Seating order doesn't just affect the possibility of a new player giving the game away in Puerto Rico, it also has a strong affect on how easy it will be to achieve your goals. If after a few rounds you decide that your game strategy is to grow and ship as much tobacco as possible, if the player to your right starts growing tobacco you're screwed. The same holds true for the shipping/building strategy lines in general: if the person to your right is using the same broad strategy as you, you're going to have a much tougher time.
Due to San Juan's general lack of interactivity, you're much less likely to be affected by seating order. I've yet to hear a compelling case for it mattering.

Teaching the Game
San Juan is definitely easier to teach to new players, though I wouldn't say massively so. However, it is much easier to teach how to play well than is Puerto Rico, and so is more forgiving.
Is It Worth Buying?
I absolutely consider it to be worth buying. If it's like any game, it's really most like Race for the Galaxy (see below for inside scoop), but a much lighter version. It's much faster to play than Puerto Rico, and is actually quite fun with just two players, something that can't really be said of Puerto Rico. The two games are so dissimilar in play style and feel, you'll never mistake one for the other in any way, even if you played them back-to-back.

Just a short bit of gossip about San Juan and Race for the Galaxy: the story goes that when Alea Games saw the (comparatively) great success of Puerto Rico, they started hinting around that they were interested in a card game version. One submission was a game very much like Race for the Galaxy, though many years earlier. The Race-like game wasn't selected as the winner, but the eventual game, San Juan, turned out to have incredible similarities, including the cards-as-resources, cards-as-money, and cards-for-their-face-function game concepts. Whether any ideas were copied or not, in the end Race needed a fair bit of redesign to make it less like what San Juan turned out to be.


Can I use Helm of the Hosts to copy artifacts enchanted by Ensoul Artifact? If I used Ensoul Artifact to enchant an Artifact, forcing it to also be creature, can I use Helm of the Host to have multiples of that artifact?

Yes, you can copy the animated artifact, but it will not necessarily be a creature token. It will be a token copy of the original artifact. The effect of Ensoul Artifact will not be copied.

For example, if the artifact with Ensoul Artifact on it was Damping Sphere, then the copy you create will simply be the original, non-creature version of Damping Sphere. If the original was a Guardians of Koilos, the copy will be a 4/4 as the original, not 5/5.

  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, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.


Can you Clone a creature with protection or shroud? So, Clone doesn't say the word "target" anywhere in its text:

  You may have Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.

Does this mean that it isn't targeting the creature it's cloning, and could therefore be used to copy a creature with shroud (or hexproof) or a creature with protection (like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn)?

A spell or ability that targets must use the word "target" in the rules text, or the rules of the Keyword ability on a card. Everything you need to know is covered under rule 114, where 114.1a-e covers targeted spells and abilities and when those targets must be selected. Most spells and abilities that target will say "target" directly on the card, unless their Keyword ability rules covers this already (i.e. Auras, Equipment, Haunt, etc.).

Reminder text, which shows up in many base sets or on cards with new Keyword abilities, might appear on a card in italics with the word "target" to inform you an ability is targeted.

  114.9a Just because an object or player is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t make that object or player a target of that spell or ability. Unless that object or player is identified by the word “target” in the text of that spell or ability, or the rule for that keyword ability, it’s not a target.


Is Old Betsy immune to dynamite and gasoline? If Old Betsy is placed on the board and dynamite is subsequently thrown onto that space or a gas marker in that space is ignited, what happens to Old Betsy?

The rules for dynamite say:

  Roll a D6 for each model in that space. Zombies are Killed on the roll
  of 2+. Any Hero in that space is Killed on the roll of 5+.

Does Old Betsy automatically survive, or does she count as a Hero in this situation?

Old betsy will survive. The only things affected are those listed on the card (zombies and heroes)


What is the quickest way to setup Dune: Imperium from DireWolf playing single, double or more players? I recently purchased Dune: Imperium to play with my family over Christmas.   What is the quickest way to setup the board game for single player or multiple players?  Is there a cheat sheet that provides easier entry to the setup or game play?

As with all my current "big' games, I would have set up the entire game once, including every player's starting components, then bagged them as individual sets before packing away the game.
The exceptions are general resources that have larger pools, which are kept together in their own bags, and  cards like the Leaders, which are ordered (you could choose alphabetically and/or complexity, especially if you expect to have new players for the foreseeable future).
All other decks are bagged separately, with the bags labelled to make repacking eaiser, so that they can be pulled out and shuffled and placed immediately. If you must bag decks together,

two decks: face to face, backs out, making separation easier

three or more: facing the same way, stacked in the order they would be placed by the board

The remaining tokens (Mentat, Factions) are bagged together.
When setting up to play, first put the board, decks and resources in the correct place according to the instructions (for solo/pair play, there is a separate sheet, or you might use the app to reduce effort on physical setup). Then, players choose their leader and a bag of individual components, and do their own setup.
This way, you only unpack the components you will definitely need, and they are not spread throughout the box. Following the rulebook requires slight adjustment as you complete the collective and individual setups separately. For example, the F1 step is left until individual setup, when each player picks up their own water in their own time.
There are benefits of this process for new players. They can help by unbagging and shuffling during collective setup, then mimic your individual setup afterward.


Does die unfairness visibly influence real-world games? I'm thinking about designing some custom dice, and the easiest way to prototype would just be to put stickers/paint on wooden cubes.

Does their fairness (clearly imperfect, especially so with artisanal dice) actually come up in real life, or is die fairness more of a theoretical problem? How can I roll dice so that their "unfairness" is dampened?

How often have you noticed a die being unfair in real life?

I think all it's really possible to say here is that yes, it's a real potential problem. Dice can be unfair, and if they are, you can't really avoid it with rolling technique, and it will skew your game.

I think it's fairly uncommon with commercial games, but I'm not sure how that's relevant to your homemade dice. For what it's worth, my copy of Small World has a wooden die that I eventually found to be slightly unfair (based on test rolls, it has a statistically significant bias), so if it can happen with commercially manufactured wooden dice, I wouldn't be optimistic about homemade ones.

For your actual problem, initial playtesting with custom dice, I would personally just use regular dice with a mapping from numbers to your custom dice faces. If that bothers you too much, or you're to the point where you really need to be prototyping the actual design, I'd put stickers on real dice (preferably blank - it's easier, and they're likely more fair), rather than wooden cubes, so you know they started out as fair as possible, and if the stickers are the same size and placed the same on all the faces, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.


What is the formula of rank difference to handicap stones? When the difference in rank is one stone the weaker player takes black and the komi is 0.5 for white (sometimes called "no komi" even though that's not technically correct).

From then on add one handicap stone per stone difference (black goes first without komi is equivalent to one handicap stone if free placement is used).

However, this formula doesn't work after about 5 stones as handicap stones start reinforcing each other. With some discussion I was able to find others who seem to know this is true. I can find no authority however, nor anybody who seems to have any idea of the correct formulation.

Regarding your question: To my knowledge, handicap is intended to be linear.

The observation that large handicap games tend to end with a large score difference is not necessarily true. A large difference in score is usually a group dying involuntarily, which happens in both high handicap and even games on a regular basis.

However, it is far less common to resign in handicap games. Regular games in comparison often feature a high score difference as well, but those games are usually just won by resignation.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the rank system in use may very well be wrong for larger rank differences. You can see this very clearly by just comparing the rank difference of various players in different rank systems. For instance, KGS ranks tend to be a little bit more spread out than EGF ranks.

This means that two players with a difference of 8 stones on KGS may be only 7 stones apart in EGF rank. Which makes you wonder which is correct - and unless you got a huge database of high handicap game results, you won't know which of the systems is closer to the statistical truth.

This leads to my final thought: The EGF rank system (along the European Go Database) clearly specifies the intended win percentage for certain rank differences, also taking into account handicap. According to their formula, it is linear. I believe that AGA uses a similar system, too.

Edit (2018): I have recently worked more closely with rank computations than I hoped, and there is one thing I want to add, described here (I should note that some other information on that page appears to be outdated or wrong, in particular regarding AGA rating).

The skill difference that is supposed to be balanced by handicap stones depends on the skill of the players. That is to say, a single handicap stone in a high level match has a lot more impact than it does in a game between beginners.

This can in fact be quantified: A handicap stone in a pro game equals around 300 elo difference, around 150 for high dan amateurs and only around 50 (!) for kyu players. This adds another dimension in how rank differences and stone differences between players interact.

By the way, these data also show that adding more handicap stones is linear at least up to 4.


How does the wording "for each" work? Some cards in magic has something happen for each {something}. For instance: Alive // Well makes you gain 2 life for each creature you control. Tapping Selvala adds one green mana to your mana pool, and you gain 1 life for each non-land card revealed.

How is this life gained: all at once or "one bit" at a time? Say I tap Selvala and 1 land, and 2 non-lands are revealed: do I gain 2 life, or do I gain 1 life two times? Would Ajani's Pridemate have one or two +1/+1 counters placed on it if I had it in play at that point?

How is this life gained: all at once or "one bit" at a time?

Count the verbs. There is only one instruction to gain life, so all the life is gained simultaneously.

  608.2e Some spells and abilities have multiple steps or actions, denoted by separate sentences or clauses, that involve multiple players. In these cases, the choices for the first action are made in APNAP order, and then the first action is processed simultaneously. Then the choices for the second action are made in APNAP order, and then that action is processed simultaneously, and so on. See rule 101.4.

Life Burst has two instructions to gain life (two verbs), so there would be two life gain events.

  Would Ajani's Pridemate have one or two +1/+1 counters placed on it if I had it in play at that point?

Since all life is gained simultaneously and it all came from the same source, there is only one life gain event, so it would only trigger once.

Note that if you simultaneously gained life from multiple sources, that would count as multiple life gains events, and the ability would trigger multiple times.

  118.9. Some triggered abilities are written, "Whenever [a player] gains life, . . . ." Such abilities are treated as though they are written, "Whenever a source causes [a player] to gain life, . . . ." If a player gains 0 life, no life gain event has occurred, and these abilities won’t trigger.

That applies very narrowly to life gain. It doesn't apply to taking damage. For example, if Boros Reckoner is simultaneously dealt damage from two sources, its ability will only trigger once. It would need the wording of Nested Ghoul's ability to be triggered twice.


Coaching in Team Sealed events I'll be doing my first Team Sealed event soon. I watched a video covering Grand Prix Providence and recall seeing one player sitting, playing his deck, while his two teammates coached heavily ("Don't play that, play this instead", "Play this first, then attack", etc.). I had some doubts about how it works that weren't covered by the resources I found onlne.

Is watching/coaching allowed by my teammates?
Do all 3 players play matches at the same time?
If coaching is allowed and everyone plays at the same time, do I have to be finished with my match in order to coach my teammate?

Any additional insight you'd like to share about this format is appreciated as well.

You are allowed to help your teammates, the tournament is based on the skill of the team and decisions made therein. If you watch the worlds coverage you will see plenty of coaching there.

All 3 players play their matches at the same time. They can coach each other at any point, including mulligans.

Bear in mind though that you still have to play in a timely manner.