Is it possible to build a wide variety of decks at low cost? If so, how? I was pretty reluctant to get into magic because I knew that:

Our game-centric family would want to build a wide variety of decks
We are not interested in spending hundreds of dollars on a single game

So, though I know it is possible to get started at low cost, I want to know how to participate in the richness of deck building without going over $100.

Is there a way to do this?

Yes. The key is to get common and uncommon cards, avoiding rare and mythic rare cards (Note: A year after answering this question, I wrote a lengthy comprehensive guide on how to keep cost low while still having fun with MtG. I still stand behind the following answer, but I did find out other ways to keep costs low).

Here's how:

If you don't already know the game, your buying will be much more efficient and effective if you learn it first. You can learn the rules and play some sample games on an iOS or Android device with the official app (at the time of this writing, it's Duels of the Planeswalkers). You don't have to spend any money to play a few sample duels but if you want to play all of the different duels you'll have to pay to unlock additional duels ($15 on iOS). You should begin to get a feel for different possible deck strategies.

Alternatively, if you have a friend with several (or more) decks, have your friend teach you the game using his or her decks. Be sure to try out several different styles of decks.

Read about deck types.

Armed with knowledge of the basic deck types, you're ready to go to a local store that processes a lot of cards. A good resource for finding a store near you is the official store locator.

Stores will vary in their policies so you'll have to find one that sells bulk common cards at very low cost. The store I go to lets me sift through many thousands of unsorted common and uncommon cards and pile them into a box that fits about 500 cards, at a cost of $5. It's time consuming, but I get to choose the cards.

This low card cost is possible because some stores generate so many common and uncommon cards as byproducts of events or buying collections that they can't possibly sell them all. They pick out the rares and unusually valuable uncommons/commons. The remaining commons/uncommons will eventually get recycled, so some store owners are happy to sell them for something.

The first time you do this, you will make mistakes, and you'll quickly realize that you don't have enough of certain kinds of cards and too many junky cards. That's okay. You've only spent $5. So you go back to the store a few more times. By your 4th trip you should be a lot better at knowing which cards are interesting and which to avoid. It helps to bring a list of what kinds of cards you want, including specific cards.

By the time you've accumulated around 2500-3000 cards (at least a few hundred of these will be lands and dual lands), you'll find that it's possible to construct a wide variety of decks and pursue a wide range of deck strategies. You have the potential to create hundreds or maybe even thousands of different, effective decks. However, you'll only be able to have 12-15 decks going at one time due to limited number of lands, and different decks competing for certain cards that tend to get used in many decks.

All this can be done for around $25-$30.

It is also possible to buy "fat packs" on sale for $30 or so, and then you can sell off the rares and mythic rares for $15-$45, depending on the market value of what you were lucky (or unlucky) enough to get. But doing it this way subjects you to a lot of randomness and you may get stuck with lots of commons you don't want.

If you decide to participate in tournaments (which you can do with the pauper format or the peasant format), you will likely want to supplement with a few commons you lack. So you may end up spending another $5 or $10 to supplement your several thousand card collection.

All told, it is possible to get quite a variety for less than $50, which will provide plenty of fun and variety in casual play. For a few more dollars, you can fine tune some of your decks to compete well in pauper or peasant formats.

EDIT: About half a year after writing this, I started to get serious about competing with Pauper. While still much less expensive than other formats, there is little chance of staying under $50 if you want many competitive pauper decks. Depending on how many competitive decks you want, your total cost could range from $300 to $1200 to have a wide variety of top pauper decks all built and ready to play.

Expenses for competitive pauper are higher than casual play because there is high demand for many "staple" commons that cost $2 or more, such as Lightning Bolt, Rancor, Gitaxian Probe, etc. that you are very unlikely to find in a penny commons bin. If you want to stay under $500 total you'll have to avoid cards costing well over $5 such as Sinkhole, Three Visits, Chain Lightning, and Oubliette. Most competitive Pauper decks do not need individual cards costing over $5.


Can I use the Caestus with a shield on? So, the Cestus has a special ability that, if you consume 3 Stamina, you can use it to attack, even when it is a "backup slot" of your weaponry.

Additionally, there is a rule saying that a player may make as many attacks as they have weapons in their hands.

So, if I have a primary weapon (the Longsword, for example), and a shield, and then place the Cestus in a backup slot (on the shield hand, for example) can I attack with the Cestus as well as the sword each turn, or does this just allow me to attack with the Cestus instead of the sword?

Yes, you can attack with both your sword and cestus.

The wording in the rule book (pg. 22) is as follows:

  During an activation, a character can make up to one attack
  with each weapon they are holding in their hand slots.

The special ability of the cestus explicitly states you can use it to attack even when it is in your 'backup slot'. There is no qualifier regarding how many weapons are equipped in your hands. This special ability on the card overrides the general rule on attacks (hence the reason it's a special ability)

This means you could have a 'two-handed' weapon equipped and your cestus in your backup slot, or two single handed items and your cestus in your backup slot.


Is the China Card removed from the Early War deck before the initial shuffle in Twilight Struggle? I have just been given the 2016 edition of Twilight Struggle. Quoting the rule book ...
3.0 GAME SETUP
3.1 Shuffle the Early War cards and deal each player 8 cards.
Place "The China Card" face-up in front of the USSR player.
... so clarification is needed. Should the first sentence have been, "Remove The China Card from the Early War Deck"? If not, three possible scenarios present themselves

The USSR player is dealt the card.
The USA player is dealt the card.
The card remains in the deck.

If scenario 2, then the USA player is now short of a card. If scenario 3 then the shuffled deck has to be turned face-up in order to extract the said card.
I believe that this is how the rules ought to look:
3.0 GAME SETUP
3.1 Remove "The China Card" from the Early War cards. Shuffle the remainder of the deck and deal each player 8 cards. Place "The China Card" which was previously removed, face-up in front of the USSR player.

Yes, the china card is removed from the Early War cards before the shuffle.  You are right, it is harder to make a mistake with your explanation.  However I think that the rules are clear as they are.
As a side note, there is a computer implementation of the game that enforce the rules. Playing that version can help discover rules that you might have missed.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/406290/Twilight_Struggle/


Can a deck with a mono-colored commander have cards with other colors than its commander in it? The basic rules for building a Commander deck state:

All cards must be in the color identity of the commander

Then the rules summary continues with:

COLOR IDENTITY
A card's color identity can come from any part of that card, including its casting cost and any mana symbols in its text. Every card in your Commander deck must only use mana symbols that also appear on your commander. Colorless cards are allowed as well.

(emphasis mine)
So reading these rules makes it pretty clear to me, giving a "no" to my question. However, a couple of weeks ago I played a multiplayer game with more experienced players, but nobody made any remarks on the (winning) deck featuring a mono-white commander* leading a red-white deck. So now I'm confused. Am I missing something, or was that deck technically illegal?

* I can't remember the exact card. It had doublestrike and was pretty cheap to cast, around 2-4 mana. It was not a flip-card, such as Archangel Avachyn in the example on the linked website.

As the rules you quoted say, the color identity of every card in a commander deck must be a subset of the color identity of the commander, where a card's color identity is the set of the colors of all mana symbols and color indicators in that card's rules text.

There are currently only three mono-white legendary creatures whose color identity contains both red and white:

Archangel Avacyn - color ID WR
General Tazri - color ID WUBRG
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain - color ID WUBRG

The only other candidate that's close to your description and could have been valid is Sylvia Brightspear.  She partners with Khorvath Brightflame, which is red.  In the case of partner, a deck actually has two commanders, and they both contribute to color identity.  It's possible Khorvath never got cast, or you simply didn't notice it was from the command zone when it was cast.

If none of the cases above are true, then your opponent's deck was not valid.


Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Grave Pact When I use Scion of the Ur-Dragon's ability and put a dragon card from my library into the grave yard, does that trigger Grave Pact?

No, Scion puts a dragon card directly from the library into the graveyard. Grave Pact triggers on things moving from the battlefield to a graveyard.

Note the Oracle text on the card has been updated to say 'Whenever a creature you control dies' instead of 'Whenever a creature you control in put into a graveyard from the battlefield', though they mean the same thing:

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


What's a good table-topping material for tile-based games? On my polished wood table any disturbance (and I have kids, so you can imagine the disturbances...) can shift tiles around, which I then feel compelled to try to adjust to be flush with those around them. I want to get a mat to fix this, and was wondering if anyone has had experience doing this, and can offer advice. Thanks!

Felt. A thousand casinos can't be wrong.
Padded felt also makes it easier to pick cards/chits up off the table.


Impossible Scrabble Words Are there any words that are impossible on Scrabble even if the blank tiles are used?

I mean that the words can't be played because there are not enough tiles to play it.

According to this reddit thread, the complete list of words in the allowed dictionary (which doesn't list words with more than 15 letters), the Collins Scrabble Words list from 2015, that you can't make with the available tile set is:

  BAZZAZZ
  BEZZAZZ
  PAZZAZZ
  PIZZAZZ
  PIZZAZZY
  BAZZAZZES
  BEZZAZZES
  PAZZAZZES
  PIZZAZZES
  KNICKKNACK
  RAZZMATAZZ
  KNICKKNACKS
  RAZZAMATAZZ
  RAZZMATAZZES
  RAZZAMATAZZES
  STRESSLESSNESS
  CLASSLESSNESSES
  POSSESSEDNESSES
  SENSELESSNESSES
  SUCCESSLESSNESS


Does the Extremely Clever Disguise discard your Training cards? In Ninja Burger, you can pick up various forms of training (such as Training Course: Combat), which give you a permanent +1 bonus to a skill (and can be used as an auto-success if played in response to failing a roll). They have one last line of text: If your current character is lost, discard this card.

How does this work with the card Extremely Clever Disguise, which lets you discard your character and pick a new one? (Because you've just been disguised as your old character until now.) You're not exactly "losing" your ninja, but you do discard the old character card.

You discard Training Course: Combat, because the rules text on the card specify, "If your current character is lost, discard this card." It did not specify how you lost it, only that you did. If it had said, "If your current character is lost, because you have no honor, discard this card." you would have a different answer. In general, I would play cards as written.

  You Have No Honor! -If your Honor is zero at the end of a round, you must apologize to your ancestors. This requires you to go to visit them, and unfortunately it will not be possible for you to come back. Discard all your cards and money. Now draw a new Ninja card and three Fortune cards . . . and see if your new character does better than your last one! You start with 6 Honor.


The Comeuppance of Commeuppance So this came up in a game of Commander the other day. Player A has Purphoros, God of the Forge in play without the 5 red devotion to make him a creature. They then cast Tempt with Vengeance, spending 20 for X.

In a bid to turn a losing situation into a win Player B casts Comeuppance to prevent the damage and turn it back on player A. Player A responds in kind with their own Comeuppance while Purphoros' 20 triggers are still on the stack.

As far as I can tell this will cause an infinite loop where the two instances of Comeuppance each prevent and then attempt to re-deal the damage back and forth between A and B, with no exit condition.

What happens in this case? I was led to believe that causing an infinite loop results in a game loss, but if this is the case, which player is considered responsible for the loop since it required them both to cast Comeuppance?

Since Purphoros doesn't have enough devotion to make him a creature there is indeed a loop, but it's not a loss for any player, but a draw:

  104.4b If a game that’s not using the limited range of influence option (including a two-player game) somehow enters a “loop” of mandatory actions, repeating a sequence of events with no way to stop, the game is a draw. Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw.


Getting started (Advanced) with Magic: The Gathering, and where to play I am a recent college grad without many friends who play MTG, but I am interested in starting to play again. I am familiar with most of the rules, including things like turn phases and the stack.

I have only played casually and do not know where to find any of my old cards. I am looking for a place to play with other people, and the first two things that come to mind are online applications and local board game clubs.

One thing that I am not sure about is how to stay up to date on the "relevant" cards. I have always been a casual player, mixing cards from 10 years ago with cards I just found in the newest release. I have heard that many players nowadays prefer only making decks with a limited pool of cards to choose from, but I do not know the names of the sets or the methods by which cards are phased out/in.

In short, I have three questions:

What are the available online communities for MTG?
How can I stay up to date on the current set of cards that might be used to play in more serious games and tournaments?
Is there anything else that a casual Magic player looking to return to the game in a more serious way should know?

Online Communities

There are a variety of online forums for discussing Magic, some more popular ones are:

MTG Salvation
TappedOut (This one also has a popular deck builder you can use to share and get comments on decks you build)
MTG Fanatic
Commander/EDH

There are many more out there, this is just a few from a search for 'mtg forums'

Staying up to date

Many of the above discussion forums have sections for MTG news, including spoilers for new sets (which officially start about 2-3 weeks before the set's pre-release), announcements of upcoming products, changes to banned lists, and various other Magic related info. You can also find most if not all of it from the official Magic website.

If you just want to know what is in Standard you can use the What is in Standard? site and it will tell you. Note that you can use any printing of a card as long as it was printed in one of the Standard legal sets (So you can currently use the Shards of Alara version of Knight of the White Orchid since it was also printed in Magic Origins which is legal in Standard).

Other useful info

To find the location of a store to play at you can use Wizard's Event Locator. To find lists of popular decks in a variety of formats you can use sites like Starcity games or TCGPlayer. Generally sites with decklists will also have various strategy articles and other information like that.


What datacards should a chaos space marines player use in a maelstrom of war game? My friend plays chaos space marines with the old codex. We want to play maelstrom of war and I think that having datacards to draw objectives is very handy. I can't find a chaos space marines datacard deck anywhere. What deck should he use? There are chaos daemons and chaos daemonkin, but I reckon that these are different armies from the chaos space marines. Is there any other option?

You have two options - there is a basic set of objective cards that is not army specific - any army can use these.  Additionally, the book "Traitor's Hate" details a new, Chaos Space Marine specific set of objectives that can be used.

It does not appear that you can buy these as a set of cards on their own, but it would not surprise me if this changed eventually.

Additionally, the only difference between any army's specific objectives and the generic objectives are in objectives 11,12,13,14,15,16.  You could use the basic cards, and replace those when they appear with the ones in the book (though, this requires you to pay more attention when drawing).


If I forfeit Breaking News, will the tags stick? Breaking News is an agenda that reads:

When you score Breaking News, give the Runner 2 tags.
When the turn on which you scored Breaking News ends, the Runner loses 2 tags.

If I find some way of forfeiting it during the turn I score it, does the second "clause" fail to fire, so the Runner keeps the tags?
The reason I think it's ambiguous is because the two effects are listed as separate paragraphs, with separate "when" statements, suggesting they may trigger separately, rather than being both-or-neither. If the card is no longer in play because it's been forfeited, the card text no longer has an effect on the game. (Compare a card like Joshua B, which has a "when this turn ends" effect as PART of the main effect, suggesting it would have already triggered regardless of whether the card remains in play or not.)

In the latest FAQ from FFG the case of Archer, Amazon Industrial Zone and Breaking News is mentioned.

  If the Corp scores
  Breaking News
  and then rezzes
  Archer
  through a card effect, forfeiting the Breaking News, does the
  Runner keep the 2 tags?

  Yes. The conditional ability on Breaking News has not yet
  triggered, and it will not trigger when the turn ends since the
  card is no longer active.

So yes, the tags stick.


Does the rent for the 'Double the rent' card need to be paid in two steps? If I have played the rent card + the double the rent card, do the other players need to pay me for the total doubled amount or do they have to pay it in two steps?

Example:
I play Rent card (6m) + double the rent.
Now they need to to pay 6m + 6m or 12m?

The double the rent card has to be played with a rent card, and doubles the rent to be payed for that rent card.
In your example, they would need to pay just 12m.


How can I beat Forbidden Island at Elite or Legendary difficulty with two players? The title says it all -- maybe it's just me, but the difficulty from going to Normal to Elite difficulty is more than a little challenging.  I've played with a combination of player combinations, but haven't been able to beat the game on Elite yet.

I seem to be struggling to win on either Elite or Legendary difficulty based on the following things:

keeping up with three flooded areas per turn right off the bat (instead of the usual two)
only able to hold 10 treasure cards (2 people * 5 cards per person)
being too spread out to keep shoring up flooded areas

Does anyone have any tips or strategies for dealing with three- or four-flooded areas per turn, and how best to trade and use special abilities?

Your limited power to hold cards is still going to be one of the most important parts of the game.

Since you're guaranteed to go through the deck at least once and probably more, don't be afraid to use your special action cards (helicopter and sandbags). You might already be doing this, but I know my group sometimes tries to save them when we could have easily gotten them again when the deck cycled through a second time and gotten almost double the benefit. The big exception is if you're toward the end of the game, have only 1 helicopter, and know you won't be drawing one soon.
If you have the cards to get a treasure, get it ASAP. Having to hang on to 4 cards essentially gives you a 1 card capacity and means you'll have to discard a lot of things you'd rather have kept. The sooner you can dump those cards for a treasure to free up hand space, the better.
Time is your enemy. You probably already knew this, but it's worth reiterating. You need to manage the cards that you draw as effectively as possible by getting treasures as soon as possible, because once you discard 2 cards of one color, you have to wait until the next reshuffle to even have a chance at getting them back. And with 3-5 tiles flooding per turn it's extremely difficult to shore them up fast enough. Thing will get worse every turn, so do whatever it takes to avoid having to wait a long period of time for a certain card.
Figure out what part of the island you really need to save. There are virtually always some tiles that are less important that you can let sink without much consequence. Since movement is so expensive, be very wary of what's worth moving for. If you're going to use your whole turn to move to a tile to shore it up, make shore its a tile that's actually worth it.
However, if you don't have to move to shore up a tile, I'd always do it unless you have something more urgent, like getting a treasure. Shoring up a tile guarantees that it will stay afloat at least until the next Waters Rise! card comes up, and having its flood card in the deck means that more important things won't be sinking. Any turn you shore up 3+ tiles, even if they're non-essential, is a well spent turn as long as you won't be forced to discard anything valuable.
As for trading, try to identify one part of the island you can keep afloat and both stay in to reduce movement needed to reach the other player. If you have 4 cards of one color between you, do whatever is necessary to get that treasure FAST so you won't be forced to discard 2 cards of one color and have to wait for another reshuffle.

I'd definitely say the game is most difficult with 2 players, so don't be ashamed if you have trouble winning. I'd probably leave out the navigator and messenger as Bryanjonker stated in his answer as their powers will be the weakest in a 2 player game. You'd probably have better odds of winning if you gave yourself a small handicap. My preferred way to playing is with 4 actions per turn and the initial water level cranked up 1 level. Things tend to stay about even, the game goes quicker, there's more tension, and IMHO more strategy. If you like you could also allow sandbag cards to be used as any color treasure to reduce the dreaded long wait for that one card you need to complete a set.


What happens if 7 Soldiers block a Phyrexian Obliterator? This is a situation I am confronted with more often than I want to. My opponent attacks me with his Phyrexian Obliterator (5/5). The card says:

Trample;
Whenever a source deals damage to Phyrexian Obliterator, that source's controller sacrifices that many permanents.

I have a lot of small creature tokens available to block with, lets take 7 Soldier tokens to make it simple. They are all 1/1. My opponent has 4 Mutagenic Growth in his deck and I have reason to believe that he has one of those in his hands.

The situation forces me to block, otherwise I would die. Lets assume I only have 1 life left.

I decide to declare all 7 Soldier tokens as blockers, so that I survive even if he uses a Mutagenic Growth. The question is what happens if he does not boost it and I am blocking the 5/5 creature with 7 Soldiers.

If I would block with a single 7/x creature, I would deal 7 damage and I would be forced to sacrifice 7 permanents afterwards. But what about the 7 individual creatures? Do they still deal 7 damage or do they deal only deal 5? I am afraid the answer is 7, because they all deal damage at the same time, but I am not confident about my interpretation.

The Phyrexian Obliterator takes 7 damage.

Besides first strike and double strike (which create a separate combat damage phase for first-strike damage), all creatures exchange combat damage simultaneously. So the Phyrexian Obliterator takes all 7 points of damage even though it only has 5 toughness.

To add insult to injury, its triggers go on the stack after state-based actions are checked (meaning it and 5 Soldiers are dead), so you'll have to sacrifice 7 permanents in addition to the 5 tokens you lost blocking it.


Does preventing damage also prevent poison? These two cards were played against my poison deck.

His reckoning is that I cannot put -1/-1 counters on the creature as it prevents all combat damage and infect uses damage.

He also says that as the white card prevents damage this would stop him from getting poison counters.

Is he right ? can anyone cite me some official rules to clarify this ?

Your friend is correct, he can prevent Wither and/or Infect damage just like regular damage.
The reason for that is that damage and damage effects are separate things. That difference is usually not important because in most situations, the steps to get from one to the other are walked over and the correct outcome is intuitively clear.
So, here's how it works in detail in case difficulties arise:
Most importantly, damage is just a number with a source. It knows nothing of life points, loyalty or -1/-1 counters.
At first, prevention and replacement effects happen. The damage number is increased, decreased, or the whole damage effect is replaced entirely.
Only after that step does damage have an actual effect.
When a source without wither or infect deals damage to a creature, the effect of that damage is that the affected creature gets that much damage marked on it; if the damage was dealt to a player, that player loses that much life.
When a creature with Infect and/or Wither deals damage, the effect of the damage is that that many -1/-1 counters are placed on the creature or; in case of Infect only, the player gets that many poison counters, loses life otherwise.
Damage dealt to a planeswalker will always result in that many loyalty counters being removed from it.
In any case, damage prevention effects like you cited above simply reduce the damage before the effect happens, so the effect is reduced accordingly.

119 Damage

[...]

119.3a Damage dealt to a player by a source without infect causes that player to lose that much life.
119.3b Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect causes that player to get that many poison counters.
119.3c Damage dealt to a planeswalker causes that many loyalty counters to be removed from that planeswalker.
119.3d Damage dealt to a creature by a source with wither and/or infect causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature.
119.3e Damage dealt to a creature by a source with neither wither nor infect causes that much damage to be marked on that creature.

[...]

119.4. Damage is processed in a three-part sequence.
119.4a First, damage is dealt, as modified by replacement and prevention effects that interact with damage. (See rule 614, "Replacement Effects," and rule 615, "Prevention Effects.") Abilities that trigger when damage is dealt trigger now and wait to be put on the stack.
119.4b Next, damage that's been dealt is transformed into its results, as modified by replacement effects that interact with those results (such as life loss or counters).
119.4c Finally, the damage event occurs.


How does Octopus Umbra interact with effects that change the base power and toughness of, and counters on, a creature? Context

My friend plays a Commander deck, lead by Tuvasa the Sunlit:

  Tuvasa the Sunlit gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.

She's in play and has +2/+2 — not counters — from the two enchantments on his battlefield. Then he plays Octopus Umbra, which reads:

  Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 8/8 [...]

and continues in the rulings with:

  Octopus Umbra overwrites all previous effects that set the creature’s base power and toughness to specific values. Any power- or toughness-setting effects that start to apply to a creature after Octopus Umbra becomes attached to it will overwrite this effect.
  (2018-07-13)

  Any power- or toughness-modifying effects (those that give +N/+N, for example) and counters will apply to the creature’s new base power and toughness, even if they started to apply before Octopus Umbra became attached.
  (2018-07-13)

A judge explained to him that, when playing the umbra,  every effect prior to playing the umbra disappears, and the new base power and toughness becomes 8/8. He explained that it has to do with the order of layers, which is still new and relatively confusing to myself and our table.

Now after reading the rulings, I'm confused about the "everything gets removed" part. How about Tuvasa's "passive" ability, which increases her P/T due to the amount of controlled enchantments? Isn't that checked constantly, making Tuvasa a 8/8 with +3/+3 from the enchantments?

Did we misunderstand the judge? Or is there something else we're missing? Any clarification would be much appreciated.

Question, in short

In this scenario, what is Tuvasa's power and toughness when playing the umbra? Please take in consideration the example where the umbra itself will be the third enchantment on his battlefield.
Do counters stay on the permanent when enchanting it with Octopus Umbra? Say Tuvasa also had a +1/+1 counter before the umbra came into play. My guess is that the counter stays, since they are placed on top of the base P/T, but I can't find the rules which support or contradict this.

The judge's ruling was correct. The various modifiers to power and toughness are applied in layers, and the 8/8 base P/T are in a different layer than the +1/+1 for each enchantment. With the three enchantments in your scenario (Octopus Umbra plus two others), Tuvasa the Sunlit will be 11/11 overall.
There are many continuous effects that can modify objects. They are applied in layers. Effects that modify power and/or toughness are applied in layer 7, and layer 7 has another 5 sub-layers. They are applied in the following order:

613.3a Layer 7a: Effects from characteristic-defining abilities that define power and/or toughness are applied. See rule 604.3.

Example: "This creature's power is equal to the number of knights you control".

613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Effects that refer to the base power and/or toughness of a creature apply in this layer.

7b is where the 8/8 modifier from Octopus Umbra is applied. It overwrites its original 1/1.

613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don’t set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.

7c is where the +1/+1 per enchantment from Tuvasa the Sunlit is applied.

613.3d Layer 7d: Power and/or toughness changes from counters are applied. See rule 122, “Counters.”
613.3e Layer 7e: Effects that switch a creature’s power and toughness are applied. Such effects take the value of power and apply it to the creature’s toughness, and take the value of toughness and apply it to the creature’s power.


Should our 1D opening be alerted? My partner and I play a weak 1NT (12-14 HCP) and 1C can be real (5+ card) or 15-19 HCP. If we have a 5 card major, we open it.

Because we have a bid promising a balanced hand with every range. This has lead to our 1D opening always promising an unbalanced hand.

The Dutch (I think they are just the international) rules say that every bid which your opponents might not know the correct meaning of should be alerted.

I have been alerting the bid saying "my partner promises real diamonds either 5+ or any 4441 (with 4 diamonds) and always an unbalanced hand".

Is it nessecary to alert this in regular contract bridge?

Rules on alerts are specified by the sponsoring organization, and may well be different for games played under different organization.
The ACBL alert chart does not specifically mandate an alert for a 1D bid wqhich promises an unbalanced hand, but does require an alert for "Natural Calls Not Specifically Noted" which show "Unusual strength, shape, etc". The ACBL Alert procedure says:

The objective of the Alert system is for both pairs at the table to have equal access to all information contained in any auction. In order to meet this goal, it is necessary that all players understand and practice the principles of Full Disclosure and Active Ethics. Ethical bridge players will recognize the obligation to give complete explanations. They will accept the fact that any such information is entirely for the benefit of the opponents, and may not be used to assist their own partnership.
This procedure uses the admittedly "fuzzy" terminology of "highly unusual and unexpected" as the best practical solution to simplifying the Alert Procedure. "Highly unusual and unexpected" should be determined in light of historical usage rather than local geographical usage. To ensure full disclosure, however, at the end of the auction and before the opening lead declarers are encouraged to volunteer to explain the auction (including available inferences)

In light of that, I would be inclined to alert the 1D opening. Or I might ask a local director before the game if such a bid should be alerted. If in doubt it is always better to alert than not.
Note that one should never say more than "alert" until and unless an opponent asks for an alert to be explained. Offering an explanation unasked can itself be a violation.
In an informal game not sponsored by any organization, procedures are whatever the players agree on.


Can you sacrifice a tapped creature? If a creature has both a sacrifice and tap ability can you tap it for the tap benefit and then sacrifice it for the sacrifice ability?

(Example: Gemhide Sliver taps for mana, Basal Sliver gives mana on sacrifice. So can I tap then sacrifice a sliver?

As a general answer: Whenever you are asked by a spell or ability for a certain target, or when you have to pay certain costs, then as long as the chosen object has all the required properties, all other properties can be whatever they are.

So if an ability requires you to "sacrifice a creature", it doesn't say anything about the creature being tapped or untapped, so as long as it's a creature, you can sacc it.


Is Ashaya still a land while enchanted with Kenrith's Transformation? Ashaya, Soul of the Wild has a static ability that turns all of your creatures into Forest lands.  Kenrith's Transformation turns enchanted creature into a 3/3 Elk creature with no abilities.
My Ashaya has been enchanted with Kenrith's Transformation.
Because type setting is in Layer 4 and ability removal is in Layer 6, Ashaya still turns all my creatures into forests despite losing their abilities.  However, Ashaya itself is being affected by two type-changing abilities - their own which turns them into a land, and Kenrith's which turns them into an Elk creature.
I would expect that the end result is that Ashaya's type line would read: "Legendary Creature - Elk".  But in the Arena game I just played, Ashaya's type line read "Legendary Creature Land - Elk Forest"
Which is correct?

You are right, Ashaya should not have the Land type in this situation.
When to effects are in the same layer, as the type changing effects are here, there are two ways that the order can be determined: dependencies, or timestamps if there are no dependencies.
The criteria for a dependency are defined in rule 613.8a:

An effect is said to “depend on” another if (a) it’s applied in the same layer (and, if applicable, sublayer) as the other effect; (b) applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to; and (c) neither effect is from a characteristic-defining ability or both effects are from characteristic-defining abilities. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the other effect.

This pair of abilities fails test b: Ashaya's effect only applies to creature permanents, and Kenrith's Transformation doesn't change whether Ashaya is a creature, so Ashaya's effect does not depend on Kenrith's Transformation's. On the other side, Kenrith's Transformation's effect is applied unconditionally to the creature it is attached to, so Kenrith's Transformation's effect does not depend on Ashaya's.
Since there is no dependency, timestamp order is used instead. Ashaya must have entered the battlefield before Kenrith's Transformation became attached to it, so Ashaya has the earlier timestamp. This means that Ashaya's ability is applied first, adding the Land type, then Kenrith's Transformation is applied, removing the Land type. The result is that Ashaya does not have the Land type.


Where can I get a short run of standard cards with custom backs? I want to print regular playing cards, with backs that I designed. Does anyone know where I could print a deck of cards for a good price with good quality cards? I only want about 50 to 100 decks to start with. Zazzle costs a bit too much for me ($20 a deck), and Bicycle doesn't give a set price.

Bicycle has a custom card page: http://www.bicyclecards.com/custom, but you must contact them for pricing. They have two tiers personalized which is 1-500 decks, or custom which is 2500+ decks.


Can a countered creature be regenerated? After a creature is countered by a spell such as Counterspell can it regenerate. I was trying to counter my friend's Mortivore, but he said it could regenerate from that. So I need help trying to figure if he is lying or not.

No, a creature cannot use Regenerate to avoid being countered.

When your friend casts Mortivore, it goes on the Stack as a Spell.  It is not a Creature until the spell resolves and leaves the stack.

Counterspell uses the Counter keyword action, which removes a spell from the stack.  This means the spell never resolves and does not have any effect.  In the case of a creature spell, the effect is to put a creature on the battlefield; if it is countered, the creature is never created.

The abilities on a creature card (including regeneration) cannot be used until the card has finished being cast and become a creature on the battlefield*.  Therefore, Regenerate cannot be used while Mortivore is on the stack.

Since Counterspell gets rid of Mortivore while it is still on the stack, your friend cannot use Mortivore's regeneration ability to avoid your Counterspell.

Note: Even if you could use a regeneration ability from the stack, it still wouldn't apply here.  Regeneration only applies when a permanent would be Destroyed, which is different than being countered.

*Except in certain exceptional cases, none of which apply here.


Can I see the card I draw before deciding to activate Dawn of Hope a second time? I have one Dawn of Hope and two Soul Warden on the field. Another creature enters the battlefield, triggering both Soul Wardens' effects. Since each Soul Warden causes a separate life-gaining event, I know that I can activate the effect of Dawn of Hope twice, to draw two cards.

But can I activate it once, look at the card I draw, and only then decide whether or not to activate it a second time? Or must I decide it all at once?

You can and will (by how the game mechanically works) see 1 card before choosing to use it a second time.

What will happen is as follows:

Both Soul Warden Triggers go on the stack, the order of which doesn't matter for this case.
Both players pass priority, causing the top of the stack to resolve (i.e. you gain 1 life from the first Warden trigger).
Dawn of Hope will trigger because you have gained life and will go on the stack, above the 2nd Warden trigger.
Both players pass priority
You can now resolve Dawn of Hope, where you decide if you want to pay for it then draw a card if you do pay for it.
Both players pass priority.
Second Warden trigger finally resolves and will follow steps 3-5.

For completion's sake: if you have multiple life-linkers attacking or blocking, they all will trigger Dawn of Hope, putting a trigger on the stack for each one. Each trigger will also resolve one at a time just as above.


Is bidding in contract bridge just a matter of applying a set of rules? Some years ago I tried to learn to play contract bridge with some friends and I never really understood the philosophy (for want of a better word) of bidding.  It seemed as if we just had to learn a set of rules and apply them - e.g. if you have N points and a balanced hand, open with [whatever], if you're responding to your partner's bid of [whatever] do [something depending on your hand], etc.  It was some effort to learn even the basic set of these rules, and it appeared (at the very basic level we were playing) as if the whole bidding process could have been done perfectly by an algorithm running on a computer (or your phone :))

As I understand it, in bridge competitions one is obliged to disclose which conventions you and your partner use, which also suggests to me that the intention is that your bids are an open and deterministic description of your hand.

So, with apologies for my naivety, my question is really where the skill lies in bidding well?  Or to what extent is the interest largely later on in the game, when applying what was learned through the bidding in playing the hand?

Wikipedia says that any bridge bidding system is a well-defined form of legal table talk:

  Each bidding system ascribes a meaning to every possible call by each member of a partnership, and presents a codified language which allows the players to exchange information about their card holdings.

That would seem to imply that there is no skill involved at all, but I think there's more to it than that.  I used to be a casual reader of the bridge quizzes printed in our newspaper.  They would tell stories of bridge tournaments where every table played the same hand, and different tables would arrive at slightly different contracts.  As the commenters have pointed out, there is some flexibility within the bidding system.  It's not an exact algorithm.  While everyone knows what your bid theoretically means in the context of your hand, you and partner still need to use that knowledge effectively to arrive at the most profitable contract.  The skill, therefore, is in correctly choosing the next bid, not in decoding the bids or deceiving your opponents.


Computer AI programs for Axis and Allies? Many classic board and card games have had their strategy studied, formalized, and "digitized," for lack of a better word. For instance, there are a plethora of computer programs that can analyze or play a game of Chess, Backgammon, Connect 4, various games of poker, and so on.

Is there any computer AI program for Axis and Allies? Ideally, I'd like to be able to setup certain scenarios and then watch the computer play against itself to learn new strategies. Also, a single player mode would be nice.

There is a (now serious outdated) Axis and Allies computer game, which I owned several years ago. This game had a single player option, meaning you could play against the computer, but the AI was very scripted and weak and the game lacked the ability to setup a scenario and let the computer play it out  (from what I remember).

At the tactical level, the AI for A&A is a minmax on a zero-sum game tree with some fuzziness.  We have a structure that represents game state (board and pieces), the relative score of each player for that state (value of troops and land income), and a set of transitions (i.e. moves) from that state to new states.  Transitions can weighted by probability of outcome (this is what the simulators in other answers supply).  The relative values of starting state and ending states can be compared to determine which moves seem good or bad. These results are scaled by the weight (likely outcome). More sophisticated implementations would go deeper into "promising" branches to check opponent payoff (i.e. whether this move give an opponent an even better counterattack opportunity).

This is a very, very big game tree. Pruning will be essential, and there are some obvious things to try ignoring (attacking with less than all your troops, for example).  But it's relatively straightforward AI problem and there is a lot of info about solving it on the web. Maybe it's a bit harder because of the 5 players, 2 teams mechanic.

In addition to picking battles, there's the purchase, non-combat move, and deployment phases. The interesting problem with these choices is their impact will be felt 2-4 steps down the game tree.  It might be possible to model this into the tactics tree, or its own separate tree, but the breadth intimidates me.  2-4 turns, 5 actors, 1-11 (on average) new pieces, 12 or so possible pieces, multiple possible deployments...  If I had to try this, I'd tackle it in separate stages.  Movement can be handled as first minimizing opponent payoff in one transition.  If payoff is minimized without movement, stack to strongest front.  If no strongest front, go to front of preference.  I'd probably hardcode deployment, and placement of any additional factories, until everything else was working and I had lots of free time.  I'd try purchasing as a kind of lookup table based on current troop IPC value, or if playing with infantry defends on 1, try purchasing with troop ratios (that is, try to have 6 infantry to 2 artillery to 2 tanks to 1 plane, etc.)

At the "grand strategy" level (i.e. if no strongest front), fronts of preference are defined per standard strategy--Axis prefer to attack Russia, then Britain, then US and Allies prefer to attack Germany, then Japan.

Of course, there are other ways to do it and mine is just one step removed from brainstormed.  There's surely better.


Can equipment be re-equipped to another creature? With Artifact equipment, say I've equipped it to one creature, and I want to move it to another, can it be equipped to another creature if I pay its equip cost again?

My thought process is that they aren't like Enchantment-Aura's which target a creature specifically, more so like an item that is not bound. Am I right in thinking then that they can be equipped more than once?

Yes, if you have an Equipment attached to one creature, you can pay its equip cost to attach it to another creature. Every Equipment has the Equip keyword ability, which is defined in rule 702.6a as

  Equip is an activated ability of artifact Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this Equipment to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.”

In addition, the Attach keyword action that the Equip ability uses is defined in rule 701.2a as

  To attach an Aura, Equipment, or Fortification to an object means to take it from where it currently is and put it onto that object.

So, if an Equipment is already attached to a creature, when you activate its Equip ability, you move it from where it currently is (attached to the original creature) and put it onto the new creature.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Equip ability is an ability the Equipment has, not the creature. So if, for example, a Suppression Bonds is attached to the creature, you can still re-equip an Equipment attached to that creature. However, if the Suppression Bonds were instead attached to the Equipment itself, you would not be able to activate the Equip ability.


Can monsters use items with Cheat? We all know by now that Cheat only allows you to use items you would not usually be able to use.

Is there anything in the rules to stop you from giving Cheat to a Monster, and if not, is "being a Monster" a condition that Cheat circumvents?

The cheat! card specifically says:

"You may have and use any one item that would otherwise be against the rules"

However, monsters are not items (they are an entirely different type of card, falling under the door category) so they are not valid targets for the cheat! card.

If, instead, you're asking if Monsters can use items when you use the cheat card, I would still say no, as the card specifically says "you may have and use any one item" rather than something more broad, such as "Disregard all rules for this item"


Can you forfeit or surrender? At some point it may become evident that it is impossible to complete your minimum number of objectives. Can you surrender or forfeit at this point, or must you continue playing things out until you actually lose? This could have consequences in terms of population loss due to plague cubes, exposure, etc.

You cannot forfeit

From the Season 1 FAQ:

  Is it legal to quit a game without finishing it because it's a lost cause, in particular, this would prevent additional panic stickers from being placed in case of outbreaks. Or, are we forced to sit there and see it through to the end?

    You are supposed to play until you actually lose.

So unless the Season 2 rulebook specifically states otherwise, it is reasonable to apply this rule to both seasons. The rulebook justification for this FAQ entry is that the rules for how the game can end do not include forfeiting as one of the ways it can end. The rulebook lists all possible ways for the game to end.


Could someone stay in market points more than one turn? It's about the Timeline game from Cheapass Games.

Could a player stay on market points and somehow skip his/her turn for multiple turns, waiting for buying some goods for high value?

Yes.

The rules of the game state:

  You don’t have to sell anything in a market, and you can even sit still and sell something on the following turn if you so desire. For example, you expect that the 4 you’re now sitting in will be connected to Oilpetrol on the next turn, so you wait there in hopes of selling your Oilpetrol next turn.

The requirement for moving is stated in the rules as:

  On each turn, you may move your pawn.

So you never have to move if you don't want to, and the rules specifically say you can wait on a market space for a good's price to reach a high value.


Statistical Approach to Winning Monopoly There was a computer simulation run a few years ago for Monopoly which calculated the most likely properties and squares to land on and some other data. Does anyone have or know the stats of the simulation?

Here are the (quite extensive!) results: http://www.tkcs-collins.com/truman/monopoly/monopoly.shtml

The first part of that page is the long-term probabilities for ending up on a particular square. The last column tells you the ranking: you will end up in Jail most often, Illinois second-most-often, then Go, then the B&O Railroad, etc. This is neat, but you'll need to figure out whether those most-frequently-hit squares are profitable in the short and long term; the next part is about the expected income per roll, and after that is how long it will take you to recoup the cost of things. (Fun fact: buying the third house is the fastest thing to recoup. That doesn't mean you should buy straight to three houses, or that you should stop there; it just means that you'll earn the money-for-the-third-house back fastest.)

The problem with that page is that it doesn't point you to The Best Strategy. Do you want to earn back your initial money fast? Do you want to earn the most money overall, even if you'll have less money in the early game? Do you just take a hedonistic joy in getting people to hand you money, and want that to happen as often as possible? You'll go far by picking up the properties that recoup your costs quickly, but those properties are the light blue and orange properties - they're nicely profitable and quick to set up, but they don't rake in the gobs of money you'll want in the end-game.


Does Doubling Season affect planeswalkers? According to 306.5b,

  A planeswalker is treated as if its text box included, "This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number." This ability creates a replacement effect.

A ruling on Doubling Season states,

  Doubling Season affects cards that "enter the battlefield with" a certain number of counters. Triskelion, for example, would enter the battlefield with six +1/+1 counters on it rather than three.

If you control Doubling Season, do planeswalkers come into play with twice as many loyalty counters as mentioned on the card?

Does using one of their 'Put X loyalty counters on this permanent: ...' abilities put twice that many loyalty counters on the planeswalker instead?

A planeswalker enters the battlefield with double the normal counters, but the counters gained or lost from activating one of its abilities are unchanged.

Doubling Season doubles the loyalty counters placed on a planeswalker entering the battlefield.

You've correctly identified the relevant rules.

From the comp rules:

  306.5b A planeswalker is treated as if its text box included, "This permanent
  enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal
  to its printed loyalty number." This ability creates a replacement
  effect.

And Doubling Season's Oracle rulings:

  10/1/2005: Doubling Season affects cards that "enter the battlefield with" a
  certain number of counters. Triskelion, for example, would enter the
  battlefield with six +1/+1 counters on it rather than three.

Doubling Season does not affect loyalty gain and loss from paying the costs for planeswalker abilities.

The loyalty spent or gained to activate a loyalty ability is a cost:

  606.4. The cost to activate a loyalty ability of a permanent is to put on or remove from that permanent a certain number of loyalty counters,
  as shown by the loyalty symbol in the ability's cost.

The game rules distinguish between costs and effects. A cost is a payment you make to perform an action:

  117.1. A cost is an action or payment necessary to take another action or to stop another action from taking place. To pay a cost, a player
  carries out the instructions specified by the spell, ability, or
  effect that contains that cost.

An effect is the result of that action:

  609.1. An effect is something that happens in the game as a result of a spell or ability. When a spell, activated ability, or triggered
  ability resolves, it may create one or more one-shot or continuous
  effects. Static abilities may create one or more continuous effects.
  Text itself is never an effect.

Taken together, these two rules mean that paying a cost is not an effect. While cards can change costs, Doubling Season's card text specifies "effects," so loyalty abilities are not impacted.

Here's confirmation from a level 2 judge.

Doubling Season does double the loyalty counters place on a planeswalker by an effect.

Just for completeness' sake: effects, however, are effects.

For example, Gideon, Champion of Justice has an ability that reads:

  +1: Put a loyalty counter on Gideon, Champion of Justice for each creature target opponent controls.

This has two parts:

The "+1" is a cost and is unaffected by Doubling Season (see above).
The "Put a loyalty counter..." part is an effect and is modified by Doubling Season.

So if your opponent had three creatures and you activate Bad Gideon's +1 ability with a Doubling Season in play, Gideon would gain seven counters: +1 when activating the ability, +6 (+3 doubled) when it resolves.

Likewise, if a card like Clockspinning or Inexorable Tide puts loyalty counters on a planeswalker, that effect will be doubled.


Can I tap all my opponent's lands while they're casting a spell to negate it? If my opponent attempts to play Molten Disaster (along with the kicker cost which gives it split second), can I play Mind Games to tap my opponent's lands to negate Molten Disaster?

No, you can't do that.

Casting a spell follows this basic process:

The player puts the card on the stack.
They make all choices for that spell, including targets, additional costs, etc.
They pay for the spell.

During this process nobody is allowed to cast spells, activate abilities, or do anything at all really — the exception is that the player can activate mana abilities while casting their spell to pay for it.

Only after this process does any player gain priority, meaning they are allowed to cast spells and activate abilities. The player who cast the spell gets priority first, then they can pass priority to the next player in turn order, and so on. (For more details on casting spells and priority see In plain English, how does casting spells and using creature abilities work with the stack and priority?.)

This means that by the time you are able to cast spells in response to your opponent casting Molten Disaster, it has already been fully paid for. It is too late to tap down their lands. Plus their Molten Disaster is now on the stack with split second so you can't cast spells at all until it resolves!

If you did want to tap down their lands, they can just activate them for their mana in response anyway while your spell is still on the stack, and use that mana right afterwards.


When is the Bureaucrat worth buying? When I first started playing Dominion, I saw the Bureaucrat and thought, cool, free silver and an attack!  I bought one almost every time it was available.  The more I played, though, I began to realize I didn't seem to do very well in the end when I used it heavily.

As I thought about it, I realized there is one big detriment to Bureaucrat: it adds to your draw pile, and thus slows down how quickly you can rotate through your deck.  It may help your next hand, but that Gold you just bought will take longer to come back around.

So my question is this: Are there key strategies that make excellent use of the Bureaucrat's abilities, and if so, what are they?  How do you capitalize on this card, and when are you best to ignore it?

Intro: What does Bureaucrat really do?

Bureaucrat does three things:

It slows down your opponent
It gives you a Silver on your next turn
It makes your deck bigger, and increases the money-to-other-cards ratio

In my experience, for Bureaucrat to be shine your game plan has to account for and benefit from all three of the above elements.

Analysis: slowing down the opponent

This only happens if the opponent will be drawing victory cards. At game start this will happen very often, but you have to foresee what course the game will take later on as well. Some factors that will help you decide are:

If there are good trashing cards in the pool (e.g. Chapel, Remodel, Upgrade) that will be seeing use (you can judge this yourself taking into account the number of non-terminal action cards and the pool composition in general) then the opponent will trash their victory cards and Bureaucrat's attack will be neutralized.
If the pool does not suit itself to chaining combos and there aren't many worthwhile game plans involving action cards (e.g. when all action cards are terminal, especially if there is no card that gives +2 actions), then going the money/victory route is tempting. Bureaucrat's attack will remain relevant in the late game if this happens.
If the pool contains victory cards that will be very desirable to both players (Nobles is the most prominent, but also consider Great Hall, Harem, Island) then Bureaucrat will be hindering the opponent quite heavily throughout the game.
The presence of cards that will let your opponent skip the victory cards they put on top of the deck also matters. There are cards (e.g. Library, Watchtower, Farming Village, Menagerie) that can nullify or even benefit from the fact that your opponent puts a useless card on top of their deck. If the opponent's game plan might go this way, Bureaucrat will usually not be a good choice.

Analysis: Getting more money

Although getting more money in your deck is usually the way to go, you also don't want to get too many money cards, and those that you do get should preferably be Gold (or even Platinum, if it's in the pool). This, in turn, limits the number of times you 'd ideally want to play Bureaucrat. On the other hand, getting free Silver in the beginning can be a pretty significant advantage. These two factors can be harmoniously combined if you take the other available cards into account:

If you plan on a heavy trashing strategy (Chapel, anyone?), one of the problems to be solved is how to transition from Copper/Estate to more desirable cards without gutting yourself in the process by leaving too little money in the deck (I believe I 'm not the only one who has drawn all their deck and realized that all their money is just 3 or 4 coppers). Bureaucrat can help with this by giving you the Silver that you need to trash all Coppers on sight with impunity. After the deck has been cut down to taste, you can also trash the Bureaucrat (even better, Remodel or Upgrade it).

Analysis: Making the deck grow

Making your deck larger is a disadvantage because you get to draw your expensive and powerful cards less often. This is not relevant in the beginning, when Silver will actually be one of your most powerful cards, but as long as the game progresses it will become more and more apparent. Also, playing Bureaucrat will increase the number of money cards in the deck. This can also be detrimental if you are planning on an action-heavy strategy.

However, both of the above effects can become irrelevant or even beneficial under certain circumstances, thereby increasing Bureaucrat's usefulness:

If the pool includes cards like Remodel or Upgrade, then you can plan on exchanging the Silver for more desirable cards (usually actions that help you combo). If you carefully balance the amount of Bureaucrats with your trashing-and-exchanging capacity (so that you don't drown yourself in Silver) then you can begin to look at Bureaucrat's effect as indirectly giving you a 4 or 5 cost action card for free, which is a very powerful effect. This is especially good if there are no +Buy cards in the pool, when a combo like Bureaucrat/Upgrade gives you a free buy in addition to the card you get to buy normally. Later on you will have the opportunity of exchanging this Silver for a 4, 5, or even 6 cost one.
If the pool is such that you plan on or foresee the possibility of going into turbo-Victory-buy mode (this might easily happen if one or both players goes for Big Money, or piles start running out and it becomes a race for the most Duchies and Provinces), adding money and victory cards in your deck is more beneficial than adding just victory cards. Sure, it's "just" a Silver, but the extra money in the deck might be just enough to offset the dilution you suffer due to buying victory cards. If these Silver make the difference between buying a Duchy and a Provice, or nothing and a Duchy, Bureaucrat can really shine. For maximum utilizations, consider the synergy with cards like Cellar or Warehouse that let you discard useless cards (victory cards most probably) and give you a chance of replacing them with more money to score a touchdown.
If the pool includes cards with a variable effect magnitude dependent on the size of your deck (e.g. Gardens, Philosopher's Stone), and the strongest strategy revolves around utilizing these cards to maximum effect, then adding more cards to your deck faster than the opponent can do the same should give you a sizable advantage.

Conclusion

J.R. Capablanca once said:

  The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a
  player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more
  evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding
  decrease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to
  the bishop.

I would connect this to Bureaucrat by saying that the weaker a player is in Dominion, the better cards like Bureaucrat seem to him; as the player grows stronger, the power of other cards becomes evident (Chapel is a good example) and thus the relative value of Bureaucrat decreases even more.

However, Bureaucrat can be put to good use under favorable circumstances as long as you keep the balance regarding your deck's composition. It's very useful to be able to recognize card pools where multiple of the above scenarios are applicable, thereby allowing Bureaucrat to operate at full power; and when it manages to do so, it can make the difference between two otherwise evenly matched players.


How literally should I take the "Man of War" in Pirate King? I've encountered the following card while playing Pirate King:

  "Man of War: Fight ship of equal value: win 1 crew 1 cannon and 500 bronze"

I'm not sure how to interpret it and I haven't really gotten a consensus from my fellow players either.

So far we have two different interpretations:

That this is a challenge and the recipient must actually fight a ship of equal value in game combat, and if they win, they receive the stated reward.
That this is simply an event that has occurred, like cargo spoiling, and that it has already played out in the recipient's favour.

I can see how both interpretations work, and I'm not sure which one to pick as the "right" answer. The instructions don't provide much guidance on this issue.

Has anyone else come up with a definitive answer for this card? What logic or source did you use to make your decision?

This is a challenge and the recipient must actually fight a ship of equal value in game combat, and if they win, they receive the stated reward.

From the All Hands on Deck (bottom left corner), hand management expansion:

  The Commodore's First Mate: Instead of challenging the Commodore, players may challenge the Commodore's First Mate when they land on the Commodore's spot. The First Mate's ship acts like a Man of War card. Player must fight a ship of equal in men and cannons to their own. If they win they gain 500 bronze, 1 crew & 1 cannon, but if they lose normal defeat conditions apply.


Caller of the Pack and Counter Placement If I were to place a sizable number of counters on Caller of the Pack and attack with it, do the copies created share its base power and toughness (8/6) or its current power and toughness at the time of the attack?

The copies are 8/6 because it's the printed values[1] that are copied.

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.

If the continuous effect that's boosting the original's power and toughness is from a static ability, and if the copies match the criteria for getting the boost, then (and only then) will they get a boost.
For example, power- and toughness-modifying counters only affect the permanent on which they reside, so they wouldn't affect the copies.
For example, Gaea's Anthem would affect the copies, but a previously cast Marshaling Cry would not.

611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. (Note that this works differently than a continuous effect from a static ability.) [...]
611.3a A continuous effect generated by a static ability isn’t “locked in”; it applies at any given moment to whatever its text indicates.
611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.

For cards, this refers to the values in Gatherer if they differ from the values actually printed on the card. For tokens, it refers to the values given to it when it was created.


Where do allies go when they don't have any colonies? I was playing Cosmic Encounter as the Masochist, and I was invited as an ally on the offsensive side. The defense played a negotiate card, so the allies were supposed to go back to their colonies, but I had played my last 3 tokens, so I didn't have any colonies.

Where should my ships go?

Hmm, good question. Putting your very last token(s) into battle is a risky thing. I think they should go to the warp. You give up a base when you remove your last token from it -- that shouldn't change if they're your very last. And having all your tokens in the warp doesn't remove you from the game or prevent you from capturing a new base on your next turn.


Catan setup order different than playing order When I get with my friends to play Catan (normal Settlers or Catan), we first roll the dice to decide who is going to put the settlement first.

The one that got the highest number goes first, the second highest number goes second and so on. When everyone finished their first settlements the order goes backward, which means the one with the smallest number puts the second settlement first and so on until the one with the highest number.

But at this point, everybody is already seated so we are not going to change seats to have the same order as we established our settlements, so what we do is, the one with the highest rolled number goes first and then the game continues to the right of that player.

I have 2 questions:

Are we playing correctly according to the rules?
If not (and this is a house rule), how does this procedure affect the game?

I think you have got how you work out start player wrong.
You said "the second highest number goes second and so on." The rules do not state this.
Looking at rules here it says :-

Each player rolls both dice. The player who rolls highest is the
starting player and begins.  The starting player places a settlement
on an open intersection of his choice. He places a road adjacent to
this settlement.  The other players then follow clockwise. Everyone
places 1 settlement and 1 adjoining road.

So whoever rolls highest is the start player.  All other dice rolls are irrelevant.
As an example for you imagine for players sat clockwise around a table A, B, C and D.
A rolls 11, B rolls 2, C rolls 8 and D rolls 4.
Player A rolled highest and placed the first settlement.  Player B is next clockwise and places next.  The fact Player B rolled the lowest number is irrelevant as the dice roll was for start player and not the turn order.  The player C, the D.  Then D again and back anticlockwise, C, B and finally A.
Settlers of Catan is not a game where the turn order changed during the game (such as say Caylus or Power Grid).  So you only need to randomly select a start player.  You do not need to randomly select the whole player order.
In my mind the point of selecting starting locations ABCDDCBA is to try and minimise disadvantage for selecting before other players by letter the player placing last get first pick of second settlement location.   If they placed them ABCDABCD then player D would be at a huge disadvantage.


Can outbreak chains loop? Is it possible for outbreak chains to loop - would it be possible for a city to experience an outbreak twice in the same round as a result of a chain?

No.  The rules state "Note that each city may only outbreak once in each chain reaction."


damage triggering a simultaneous modifier of damage Earl of Squirrel and Griffin Protector both deal combat damage to player. As Earl of Squirrel creates squirrels will it trigger the effect on a Griffin Protector before the Griffin deals damage to the player? Or will the griffon only receive it's bonus after it has delivered it's damage to the player...

The Griffin Protector will not get the bonus power and toughness from its ability until after it deals its damage.

All combat damage is dealt simultaneously (ignoring First Strike and Double Strike). So, in this situation, first the Earl of Squirrel and the Griffin Protector both simultaneously deal their combat damage, and the Earl of Squirrel immediately creates 4 squirrel tokens. This triggers Griffin Protector's triggered ability 4 times, and after this process is done, those 4 abilities go on the stack. Finally, assuming nobody responds, each of those abilities resolves and the Griffin Protector gets +1/+1 from each, for a total of +4/+4. As you can see, it gets these buffs significantly after it deals its damage, so the buffs don't apply to the damage it deals.

One simple way to change that is to give the Earl of Squirrel the ability first strike. If a creature has first strike, it deals its combat damage in a separate combat damage step before the regular one. In that case, the whole process I just described happens in the first combat damage step, except that only Earl of Squirrel deals its combat damage. Then, in the second combat damage step, after Griffin Protector gets those buffs, it will deal its combat damage.


What happens if the auction nominator is outbid? Seeking clarification on this issue:

In Powergrid, at the Auction phase, a player has the choice of passing, or nominating a powerplant for auction.

If they nominate the powerplant for auction, they must put the first bid on it.

If someone subsequently outbids them, what happens?
My understanding, is that the player then nominates a second powerplant (or still has the option of passing?).

Your understanding is exactly correct. From the rules:

  When the auctioning player wins the auction and gets the power plant, the next player in turn order takes his turn at offering a power plant for auction, if he has not
   already purchased a power plant this round. If he has, the next player in turn order may start an auction, and so on. When a player other than the player who started
   the auction wins the auction, the auctioning player may choose a new plant to auction from the actual market or pass.


Can the Corporation know which HQ cards were accessed? When the Runner accesses cards from the Corporation's HQ, does the Corporation get to know which cards were accessed, or are they returned to the HQ before the Corporation sees them?

According to the Netrunner FAQ:

Does the Corp know which cards the Runner accesses from HQ?
Yes. The Corp should know what cards are accessed and in what order.


Card game where you organize your hand In this card game, you have a hand of 10 cards where you try to order them by replacement. On your turn, you draw a card, switch it with one in your hand, and discard the other one. You can use the top card of the discard pile.

Seems you're thinking of Rack-O.

In Rack-O, you have a deck of 40-60 uniquely numbered cards, and start by filling your 10-card rack with them in a random order. You then take turns replacing cards in your rack with either the top card of the discard pile or deck, and the first player to get their cards in ascending order wins. If I remember correctly from playing it, you can't rearrange the cards in your rack either.


In Bridge, Can I Ask About Previously Played Cards to the Current Trick? In Bridge, one is allowed to look at the four cards played to the last trick (if the next round hasn't started).

Can I similarly ask about cards played to the current trick?

I was sitting at East, and the third round of a suit was led by West. Declarer followed suit from dummy immediately.

I asked: "Who played the master card?" (It was West, and I didn't want to trump partner's trick.)

Dummy protested, "You shouldn't have asked that question, because you just advertised your void." But partner had already played (as had dummy). So only declarer would "benefit" from my question.

Was my question proper or not in this context? If it was improper, was it for the reason dummy said? And do I have the right to ask declarer to play in a "measured" (rather than "immediate") fashion, so I can see the cards played?

It sounds like you're playing a less formal game, so I don't see a problem with asking the question.

In a more formal setting each card would remain in front of the player that played it so the question wouldn't be necessary and most likely an irregularity.


Go: How is a "suicidal" move that captures enemy stones handled? I am trying to get a better understanding of the basic rules of Go. Assume that black has surrounded a white group of stones which has exactly one eye (liberty) inside the group.

What would happen if black placed a stone into this eye? All the white stones will be captured, but what happens to the black one placed into the eye?

I guess my question revolves around the question how capturing is checked after a move. Is it the non-active player's stones first and then the active player's or both at the same time?

This is confusing to many new players. The rule is:

Always capture opponent stones first. That means all opponent groups which are without liberties.
Then, and only then, see if your own stone, or more precisely the group it belongs to, is without liberties

If (after capturing) your own stone is without liberties, the result depends on the rule set used:

In Japanese and Chinese rules, your move was simply illegal. So don't do this!
In New Zealand rules, your own stone (group) now gets captured.

For the second point, you may be wondering why one would ever intentionally play a stone that is immediately taken from the board. The simple answer is that this can sometimes be a ko threat. It can rarely also influence a semeai (capturing race).

There are a few details when performing suicide of a single stone regarding ko/superko, but you would likely never encounter it in practice.


What's the cheapest way to buy a large number of Magic: the Gathering cards on Cardmarket? I need cards for my new EDH decks and I want to buy them on cardmarket.com. They have this neat feature called the Shopping Wizard, which does all of the work for you. Last time I needed around 60 cards and I ended up buying from four different sellers to get all the cards in the most cost-efficient way.
The way the Shopping Wizard works is to try to combine low-cost cards in a way that minimizes both card cost and shipping costs. Since shipping costs tend to be fixed per seller, it is typically beneficial to have as few sellers/packages as possible.
Problem is, the Shopping Wizard can only handle lists of up to 150 cards. And I need 250.  So I will have to use the power of the Shopping Wizard algorithm at least twice. But I don’t know how to proceed. I sorted the cards by price, with the most expensive card on the list at about 15€ and the cheapest one just 0,06€. My goal is to minimize the overall cost of this purchases (including shipping). So now I don’t know if I should start with the 150 most expensive or cheapest cards. (Or some other combination).
Buying lots of really cheap cards usually results in few (or even just one) recommended sellers. Maybe I could get those cheap cards from someone else even cheaper, but less sellers means smaller shipping costs. A list with more expensive cards usually gets divvied up between multiple sellers. This obviously increases shipping costs, but if someone sells a card for way less than everyone else, it might sometimes be best to buy just one card from them.
In an ideal situation, all 250 cards would be split into groups for cheapest total cost, and then I would just have 2 orders based on those groups. But since I can't know the groups, I want to minimize breaking up the groups and causing more packages & shipping cost.
So my question is:
What’s the cheapest way to buy more than 150 cards of varying price levels on cardmarket.com?

There is no definitive answer to this. I've come across this problem myself and thought about it for quite a while to try to come up with a heuristic and/or reasoning.
In the end it depends how much time you want to spend. I believe I ended up using the 150 most expensive cards (or rather the cards above the ~0.10€ to 0.20€ threshold because below that everything is irrelevant) and sent those to the Shopping Wizard. Then I went through those five sellers and checked every one for the other missing cards (saved in a second Wants list of course). Here you have to cross-check etc but sorting by price and name worked for me.


Can one 40k army fight another of the same? My friend is starting a Necron army, and I was going to start a Space Marine army, but Necrons are really an interesting army to play, while the Space Marines are very generic. Could I build a Necron army and fight his Necron army? Is this against the rules?

There is nothing in the rules to prevent two armies from the same codex from fighting one another.  I would just be sure that you can tell who each model belongs to; this is not too difficult once they are painted, but it could be easy to lose track of who is on which side if there are all just bare plastic.

With the current fluff, Necrons Overlords have their own Dynasties and it is easy to justify a power struggle between two of them.  Most other codexes can have fluff reasons to fight amongst themselves.


If creatures enter the battlefield attacking, do they have to attack Gideon Jura? If my opponent activates Gideon Jura's first ability targeting me, and I attack with a Kessig Cagebreakers, do the tokens have to attack Gideon?

No, the tokens are not forced to attack Gideon the turn they are put on the battlefield. They can attack the defending player or another planeswalker.

Gideon's first ability is a requirement placed on the turn-based action of declaring attackers. That action is the first thing the attacking player do in the declare attackers step.

The tokens created by Cagebreakers are not declared as attackers when the restriction is being applied, therefore they are not affected by it.

See this ruling for Cagebreakers:

  Although the tokens are attacking, they were never declared as
  attacking creatures (for purposes of abilities that trigger whenever a
  creature attacks, for example).

And this ruling for Gideon Jura:

  The first ability only affects the declaration of attackers. If a
  creature is put onto the battlefield attacking (thanks to Hero of
  Bladehold, Preeminent Captain, or the Ninjutsu ability, for example),
  that creature's controller may choose the defending player or
  planeswalker that it will be attacking in the normal way.


Unable to play Agent P card in Phineas and Ferb Uno? So we were playing Phineas and Ferb Uno.  I got down to two cards, a green 0 and the "Agent P" wild card.  The card I had to play off of was not green. I laid down the wild card, said "Uno" and declared green.  But immediately I was told I could not play the "Agent P" wild card because the person before me had not played a draw card on me.

Reading from the rules they said:

  Agent P Card - Play Agent P Card whenever someone plays a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 on you and that person must draw the designated amount of cards from the discard pile. The Agent P Card is also a wild card where you choose the color that resumes play.

I claimed that because it says it is also a wild card I should be able to play it as a wild card.  They claimed that because that is only as part of the sentence where you resume play after a draw card was played on you, and also because it only mentions playing it when somebody plays a draw 2 or 4 on you, it only counts as a wild card in that case and otherwise it cannot be played.

I claimed this couldn't possibly be right that this disqualified me from playing it as a regular wild card because that would mean I was stuck with this card and wouldn't be able to ever play it - especially when everybody knows I have it, they are never going to play any draw card on me because they know I will just play this card and they will then have to draw the cards instead.

However I was overruled and as a result I couldn't play and had to draw.  Despite having to draw several more cards after a few minutes I actually managed to wind up down to the "Agent P" card as my only card again but didn't get another turn before another player went out - not that it would have mattered since I couldn't have played it anyway.

Is this really the way the game is supposed to be played?  It seems so inherently fair I stopped playing after that hand - I don't really care so much whether I win or lose, but rather I simply get too upset playing in a game that is so inherently unjust that it has a "cursed" card in it that you can't play if someone else finds out you have it, or if you are simply "unlucky" enough that nobody plays a very narrow set of cards right before you.

I looked through the rules myself and the above quote is the only place where it mentions the "Agent P" card.  There are also wild cards which are not "Agent P" cards as well.

To me it seems pretty clear that the card can only be played in response to a draw two or wild draw four. It is not the only card you can't play when you want to though in the other case it won't prevent you from playing your last card.

  Agent P Card - Play Agent P Card whenever someone plays a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 on you and that person must draw the designated amount of cards from the discard pile. The Agent P Card is also a wild card where you choose the color that resumes play.

My reading says this card is played in response to but getting an answer from the publisher would help.

Update:

A representative of Mattel Consumer Services replied as follows, confirming this answer as correct:

  Regrettably this card can't be played unless there was a Draw 2 or
  Wild Draw 4 card played.  I'm sorry this is not the answer you wanted
  to hear.  You can certainly make a house rule to make any changes to a
  game, but they must all be agreed upon before play begins.


Can you sell a house to cover cost of "street repairs"? Last night, someone got the Community Chest "You are assessed for street repairs - $40 per house $115 per hotel"
He didn't have the money to pay. This led to a long argument.
Can he sell some of the houses to cover the cost of the repair?
And if he does, do the sold houses count in the calculation of $40 per house?

You can sell houses and hotels at any time, for any reason.
From the rules:

Houses and hotels may be sold back to the Bank at any time for one-half the price
paid for them.

The amount of money you have to pay is based on the houses/hotels you had at the time you drew the card. Selling houses/hotels at this point would not reduce the amount you have to pay.
While this is not addressed directly in the rulebook, multiple sources confirm this in a FAQ.
http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/faq.htm

When assessed for street repairs, pay for all houses and hotels you own on the entire board at that time.


Where can I get free tarot cards images to print? I am looking to download some set/s of tarot cards in order to print them. This needs to be from a free site. Grayscale cards are also acceptable. It would be great if the images are designed specially for printing on A4, as then I could print sheets and cut them up.

Motivation of the question

The most popular version in the English speaking world is the Rider-Waite Tarot cards. These were published in the early 20th century.

This site has The Pictorial Key to the Tarot that contains B/W images of the Tarot cards (clicking those opens fair quality scans in color). The book and the images predate U.S. copyright laws.

These images here are the best high quality scans I have found of these old images.


Gleemax interactions This deals with Unhinged cards,  so competitive REL is useless here.  Imagine that I have a Gleemax on the field. It says:

  You choose all targets for all spells and abilities.

1) Somebody sitting next to me plays an Ass Whuppin' and tries to target my Gleemax. Can I choose the target for the Whuppin'?

  Destroy target silver-bordered permanent in any game you can see from your seat.

2) What if we both have a Gleemax? Then what?

Real Answer

Unhinged cards bend the rules. You and your friends should decide how to handle the situation.

How I Would Settle It

If someone in another game gives you an Ass Whuppin', there's nothing that Gleemax can do about it.

Gleemax must to be referring to spells and abilities in your current game. Otherwise, you would have to choose all targets for all spells and abilities for every game in the entire world. That's impossible to do in a timely manner. Also, by the time Ass Whuppin' crosses over between games, it's too late! It has already been cast, and the targets have already been chosen.

Multiple Gleemaxs follow timestamp rules. The controller of latest played Gleemax gets to choose all targets for spells and abilities.


Asymmetric "Jurassic Park"-esque 2 player game I remember playing a game at a board game event, but can't find its name for the life of me.
Two players only. One plays as a Velociraptor mother (and her younglings), and the other plays as a dinosaur hunter. The hunter tries to capture as many dinosaurs as possible and kill the mother, while the Velociraptor tries to escape with her young.
The box is on the smaller side, about 20x5x5cm.
Any help?

Could it be Raptor? From BoardGameGeek:

Mamma Raptor has escaped from her run and laid her eggs in the park. A
team of scientists must neutralize her and capture the baby raptors
before they run wild into the forest.
Raptor is a card driven boardgame with tactical play and some double
guessing. Players use their cards to move their pawns (scientists on
one side, Mother and baby raptors on the other) on the board. Every
round, the player who played the lowest ranked card can use the
corresponding action, while his opponent has movement / attack points
equal to the difference between the two cards values. The scientists
can use fire, can move by jeep on the tracks, and can even call for
reinforcements, while the mamma raptor can hide in the bushes, yell to
frighten the scientists, and call for her babies.


Debt condition abuse? The rules states that you cannot have two of the same conditions.  You can take a debt condition to gain two additional successes on your influence test to gain assets from the reserve. Thus if you already have a debt, does that mean that you automatically gain two additional successes for each gain asset actions?

If you have ANY condition (whether it be debt, or a dark pact, or hallucinations), you cannot gain it again while it is in play.  So, if you take a debt (getting 2 additional "bucks" or influence for that purchase), on any subsequent turn while you are still in debt you cannot do that again or get the bonus.  It only happens once.

If, on a later turn, you are able to rid yourself of your debt (e.g., through its reckoning event), you can take on another debt to get the 2 additional bucks for another purchase.  But this is only available if you can clear the previous debt condition, since you only get the 2 bucks when you gain the condition card.

EDIT: The official ruling is found in the Reference Guide on p. 4 under the "Conditions" header: "An investigator cannot have multiple copies of the same Condition. If he would gain a Condition that he already has a copy of, he does not gain another copy of that Condition." and "If a Condition’s effect does not list a limit, it may only be used once per instance of the triggered event."

It is probably discussed in the manual too, but I find it is easier to look things up in the Reference Guide, generally speaking.

The above should be understood in conjunction with the Bank Loan text on the board: "When performing an Acquire Assets action, you may gain a Debt Condition to immediately add 2 successes to your test result".  Again, you can only gain a condition you don't have so this only triggers once, when you gain the debt.


Can I build several connected roads on the same turn? If I have enough resources to build several roads, can I build them connected to each other on the same turn without any other of my settlements or roads to connect to them (excluding the first road)?

For example, if I have enough resources to build four more roads and get Longest Road, can I build a long chain of roads that only connect to each other (excluding the first road)?

If I have enough resources to build one or more roads and a settlement, can I build them connected to each other on the same turn without any other settlements or roads to connect to them (excluding the first road)?

For example, if I have enough resources to build a road and a settlement, but cannot build a settlement without breaking the Distance Rule, can I build a road to be farther away from other settlements and then build my settlement only connected to the new road on the same turn?

As stated in the Almanac under "Building":

  You can build as many items and buy as many cards as you desire - as long as you have enough resources to "pay" for them and they are still available in the supply.

So as long as you have enough resources in hand, and roads available to you, you can build out as far as you like in one turn, and then add a settlement wherever you want to place it (while obeying the Distance Rule, of course).

I'd note that while the Turn Overview says for building a road, "place next to one of your settlements or cities", that cannot be correct since then you would never be able to build a second settlement (since you could never build a second road out to satisfy the Distance Rule).


How do I have to arrange the remaining meeples after using the Ultra Bright Smile ability? The Super Secret ability Ultra Bright smile lets you eat escaped meeples then you can rearrange the remaining escaped meeples. My question regards rearranging the remaining meeples.

The first level of the escape board has 3 slots and the second has 5 slots. Lets say that after I eat, there are 6 meeples left. Do I have to fill the first row and put the remaining 3 meeples in the second row? Or could I put 2 meeples on the first row and 4 on the second?

From the rulebook:

Ultra-Bright(TM) Smile
Instead of eating the Meeples in your Neighborhood, you can eat the Meeples currently
on the Runaway board. Then reorganize the Meeples on the Runaway board without
triggering any effects.

For Side A:
It isn't particularly clear but I think the key phrase  is "Then reorganize the Meeples on the Runaway board without triggering any effects." That heavily implies that you should follow the normal placement rules (and are safe from re-triggering previously triggered negative effects). The normal placement rules are:

Place the Meeples on the Runaway board, starting with the top
line.

So I would say that yes, you should "fill the first row and put the remaining 3 meeples in the second row".
For Side B:
It shouldn't matter as they are organised by colour and so the only consequence is a completed track may now be open to be re-triggered in future turns.
For reference:
Manuals in French, English and German are available at the manufacturer's site.


What is this two-player card game? Per the mockup above...

What is this game called? It's been in my family since I was a kid and I never could find it on the web. Here are the rules:

It's two player
Each player gets five cards in their hand
Player one's cards are objective-0, discard-0, discard-1, discard-2, discard-3, and discard-4.
Player two's cards are objective-1, discard-9, discard-8, discard-7, discard-6, and discard-5
The objective of the game is to remove cards from your own objective pile (12 cards each) by playing them into the four play areas (play-0, play-1, play-2, and play-3).
You can only play into the central areas by sequential rank. Ace being first, then two, then three, all the way to king. Once the king is played, that pile get's shuffled back into the deck-0.
If you can't play anything you discard one of our cards from your hand into the discard piles to end your turn.
[EDIT] The game is played with two decks.

It seems quite similar to Spite and Malice, though that has four discard piles per player rather than five, and is typically played with multiple decks of cards (perhaps requiring more than four play piles).


Order of events with Stitcher's Apprentice My girlfriend has Stitcher's Apprentice, and she thinks that you can activate its ability, use the homunculus to block, and then sac the homunculus.  Is this possible, or does the sacrifice have to happen before the homunculus can be declared as a blocker?

When an ability resolves, all parts of it are resolved in the listed order. You can't interpose any other actions (including playing another ability, but also including ending a step). So, you must sac a creature immediately after the homunculus comes into play (before any ETB triggers even go off).

What you can do is chump block with a creature you already have on the field (including the Apprentice itself), then activate the Apprentice's ability between the declare-blockers step and the combat-damage step, sacrificing your chump. Even if you end up saccing the Apprentice to its own ability, you're still trading up to a 2/2 and getting a body in your graveyard, which is useful in an Innistrad blue deck looking for corpses to enable cards like Skaab Goliath and Stitched Drake.