When gaining control of an opponent's target creature, who do effects of that card that apply to? So, I'm playtesting two of my decks, (yeah, I do that... I need friends...) and I'm confused about how the effects of my opponent's cards that come under my control (via cards such as Act of Treason, or Mind Control), which say "you and "your," would affect me and my opponent. The specific card in question is Yavimaya Elder, which I gained control of for the turn using Act of Treason. I plan to attack with it, then sacrifice it. But the card says: "When Yavimaya Elder is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library." (emphasis added)

I understand that as I sacrifice the card, it would go into my opponent's graveyard, as he owns it (I know that he is me since I'm playing myself, but for all intents and purposes, "he" refers to the player of the deck who owns Yavimaya Elder). However, since the card doesn't specify "your graveyard," does that mean that it's effects that say "you" would apply to me, as Act of Treason causes me to control it until end of turn?

So my main question is, would I, owner of Act of Treason, search my library for two lands, or would my opponent, owner of Yavimaya Elder, search "his" library for two lands??

In general, "you" always refers to an objects controller, or if it doesn't have one, its owner. This is specified with some more detail in rule 109.5. For example, if a card is on the battlefield, "you" refers to its controller, and if a card is in a graveyard, "you" refers to its owner.
In the specific example of taking control of Yavimaya Elder and sacrificing it, you (the controller) would search your library for the lands and put them into your hand. This is because Yavimaya Elder's ability is a "leaves-the-battlefield ability", which means that the following parts of the triggered ability rules apply:

603.10. Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities are exceptions to this rule; the game “looks back in time” to determine if those abilities trigger, using the existence of those abilities and the appearance of objects immediately prior to the event. The list of exceptions is as follows:

603.10a Some zone-change triggers look back in time. These are leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, and abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library.

This means that when Yavimaya Elder dies, its triggered ability considers how it existed when it was last on the battlefield. This includes the fact that you controlled it, so you also control the ability and the "you"s in the ability refer to you.


Can Emrakul's Evangel save me from "destroy all creatures"? My opponent played a "destroy all creatures" card. But I have Emrakul's Evangel on the field. Is there any way that if I use his ability so that some creature will survive?

Unfortunately, no. If you use that ability in response to their spell, you still lose everything. Here's how it works, assuming nothing else happens:

They cast Wrath of God (or some other card that destroys all creatures). It goes on the stack.
You respond by activating Emrakul's Evangel's ability, sacrificing some number of creatures. It goes on the stack on top of the spell.
The top thing on the stack resolves. That's Emrakul's Evangel's ability, so now you get your 3/2 Eldrazi Horror tokens.
The next thing on the stack resolves. That's the Wrath of God. It destroys all creatures, including the 3/2 tokens you just created.

If you want something to protect you from that kind of situation by giving you replacement creatures, it generally needs to be a triggered ability. For example, Abzan Ascendancy gives you Spirit tokens when your nontoken creatures die.


Yidris and Thran Temporal Gateway If I'm using Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder and I have Thran Temporal Gateway on the field, and I deal combat damage to a player with Yidris. Will using Thran Temporal Gateway's ability allow Yidris' s ability to trigger, because Thran Temporal Gateway doesn't use the text cast?

Permanents put onto the battlefield via Thran Temporal Gateway are not cast and do not cascade.

Casting a spell has a specific meaning - in short, it means putting the spell on the stack, selecting targets, and paying its mana and other costs. That is what's necessary to trigger cascade. After you cast a spell, it can eventually resolve and have its effect; permanent spells that resolve also result in that permanent being put on the battlefield.

Thran Temporal Gateway bypasses the casting process. The permanent card in your hand never becomes a spell and is instead directly put on the battlefield as a permanent, as Gateway's ability resolves. That means that the spell casting event for that card doesn't happen, the card doesn't get cascade from Yidris, and even if the card had cascade originally, it would not trigger.


When you go out in Tichu, does the current round continue? Pretend 10-10 is played and then I go out with J-J. Does the current round continue (players playing Q-Q or higher, etc), hence I would not claim the cards, or does it end (me still obviously being out) and the next player will lead?

Yes. The current round continues and someone else can win the trick, unless you're the third player to go out, in which a new round begins.


Identify this game - 4X board game between 2000 and 2010 Around 10 years ago, I've met a bunch of people who swore this game was THE best thing one could play. At the time I was mostly confused and didn't get all the awesomeness, and now, never found it back. The name still is a mystery so far...

The game played in ages - somehow like Seven Wonders except the actions were quite different between ages, in Age 1 for example you could wage war with neighbors and build infrastructure, in Age 2 you could explore by land and search technologies, Age 3 you could wage war with distant countries and form alliances etc... Each ages took around 1 hour to play, it was really a very very long game.

The game was set in Europe, or at least Western Europe around the 14th century or something. The main board contained at least the Italian states, pretty sure it had Vienna, Paris and Barcelona in it, it was quite a long time ago sadly I do not recall every locations on the main map.

The game used miniatures and cards, if you had some cards you could have a town, castle or something like that built in one location. The board was MESSY. Lot of information, lot of "provinces" and things to move around.

The battle system was a dice and card combo, every contestant rolled dices, you could use cards to help, but it costed money (or something like that).

The starting position were focused in Italy IIRC, kinda sure there was someone who picked Milan and someone else who played as Venice.

With enough technology you could invest, discover a random sub-map and play things in it. If Venice discovered Mexico for example, no other player could go there unless a certain age is discovered, it was very useful to hit the victory conditions.

Pretty sure to win one had to have a certain number of victory points AND a fixed amount of provinces, IIRC it depended on the starting position (Venice needed more victory points less provinces etc) but it might have been technology or external factors that reduced/increased it.

There was a lot of random events that could screw people, like revolts, plague etc, that happened more frequently to the one on top, don't remember if it was dice-based or cards based but it was advertised on the box of the game.

IIRC the box was red-ish and the name in yellow or something. The name was something like "Conquest" or related to war.

I think you talk about Conquest of the Empire (from 2005)

STRUGGLE OF EMPIRES is a better re-implementation of it.


Buster Blader the DDS did not affect Destiny Hero - Decider effect; why so? How come Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman with DNA Surgery set to dragons didn't stop Destiny Hero - Decider's effect from being activated?

How come buster blader the dragon destroyer swordsman with DNA surgery set to dragons. Didn't stop destiny hero decider's effect

I suppose you mean the effect Decider has that activates on the hand (to reduce effect damage inflicted to 0). Your Buster Blader couldnt' stop it because DNA surgery only affects monsters on the field, from it's text:

  Activate this card by declaring 1 Monster Type. All face-up monsters on the field become that Type.

Because of that is that Destiny Hero - Decider was still able to activate its effect, because when in the hand it is still a Warrior and not a Dragon.

Seems that you were asking about the effect that states "Level 6 or higher monsters your opponent controls cannot target this card for attacks."

From Buster Blader's card text, emphasis mine:

  [...] also Dragon-Type monsters in your opponent's possession cannot activate their effects.

However, that effect Destiny Hero - Decider you ask about is a Continuous effect. Those kind of effects do not "activate", as they are always and continuously taking effect. Thus, Destiny Hero - Decider does not activate that effect, this why Buster Blader couldn't prevent it from being "activated".


Can I sacrifice a creature before the creature spell resolves? Here is the scenario:

I cast a Goblin Piledriver.
In response, my opponent casts the Instant Murderous Cut to destroy it.
In response to that, I cast the Instant Collateral Damage intending to sacrifice the Piledriver before it can be destroyed and thus, deal damage to my opponent.

Will the sacrifice work? i.e. Can I sacrifice Goblin Piledriver out from under Murderous Cut?

You can, but not exactly in the way you think.

First, Goblin Piledriver has to resolve before it can be targeted with Murderous Cut.

Second, once the Murderous Cut is cast, it goes on the stack and hasn't resolved yet.

At that point, both players get priority, and you then could cast Collateral Damage. Now, what's important is that the sacrifice of Collateral Damage is a cost, which is paid as the spell is put on the stack. That means that your opponent can't target it with a spell (say, another Murderous Cut) before it gets sacrificed.

You both pass priority.

Collateral Damage does its, well, damage, then Murderous Cut tries to cut your goblin, but it isn't there anymore, so it fizzles.


Can you sell your properties for cheap to another player in Monopoly? Is it possible for example to sell a property you own to another player for 1$? I was playing with some friends and one of them had to pay me 1200$ and since he didnt have enough he sold all his houses reached 1200 gave me the money and then sold all his stuff for 1$ to another player.

Yes, you can sell your properties cheap.

No, you can't do this when you are resolving payment for the space you landed on.

From Can you force property onto players in Monopoly

  The only time a sale cannot take place is if a player will be cheated.
  For example, Player A lands on Boardwalk with hotels and owes $2,000
  to Player B. Player A cannot raise enough cash or make a trade with
  Player B, so he is effectively bankrupt and should turn over all
  assets. Player A would not be able to make a deal with Player C to
  sell some properties for less than their value (say the red properties
  for $1) since that would cheat Player B. He could sell them for more
  than their purchase value, however.


Village/Smithy strategy I am very newbie to Dominion. Looking at
Smithy Village strategy
which has the following buying script

$8 or more to spend: Province (if you have 5 or more Smithies)
$5: Duchy (if there are 3 or less Provinces left)
$2: Estate (if there are 2 or less Provinces left)
$6: Gold (max 2)
$5: Market (max 5)
$4: Remodel (1), otherwise Militia (1), otherwise Village (if you have
less Villages than terminal actions), otherwise Smithy
$3: Village $2: Cellar (max 2)

what does it mean if you have 5 or more Smithies? Does it mean 5 Smithies in my discard pile?).
Similarly when it says if there are 3/2 or less Provinces left are these in the supply pile? And max 2 or max 5 means 2/5 in the discard pile?
And if you have less Villages than terminal actions  means in the discard pile?
Finally this is a buy strategy. What should the strategy be as far as which actions to play?

"If you have 5 or more Smithies" means if you have 5 total Smithies in your deck (your deck being all cards you have; between your draw pile, discard pile, hand, in play, etc).

"If there are 3 or less Provinces left" means that the rule will only be followed when the Province pile is down to 0, 1, 2, or 3 Provinces. If there are still 4 or more Provinces in the Province pile, Duchies will not be bought.

Max 2 is like the first question; it means that once 2 Cellars have been bought total, no more will be bought.

The strategy for which actions to play is in this case programmed into the simulator. For the most part, it is trivial, though there are sometimes tricky decisions to make. For example, if you have some actions that give +1 action when played, and others that don't, you play the ones that give +1 action first. (If you play Smithy first, you can't play any other actions). If you have Market and Village, the order is irrelevant.

Occasionally, you would have to decide between playing a Smithy, a Militia, and a Remodel. Which is the best play would depend on a lot of factors including how late in the game it is, what else is in your hand, what is left in your draw pile, etc.

The simulator has a list of cards programmed that are considered "junk" cards that will be discarded when Cellar is played. I believe these include any victory cards, as well as Curses and Coppers. This is because any cards you draw in place of those will, on average, be better to have.

Welcome to Dominion!


How do you count troops in Shogun when they fall off the tower? We have a problem regarding how to count the troops that fall from the tower in every battle. From what we understood from the English and Spanish rulebooks, there is no way a player could get more troops that he throw in the tower. Also, from what we understood, green defends if there is no revolt mark. (The revolt mark is another topic!). But what happen if red has 4, yellow has 2 and, after throwing, fall 6 reds and 3 yellows? All are count and red receive 3? What about greens (somewhere said that green die first?) or the max used is the max throwed inside the tower?

After looking over the rulebook again, I see a potential confusion arising from the use of the words "participating armies", but I think it's resolvable.  In "General Rules for the Battle Tower":

  All battles are fought with the aid of the battle tower. A player
  takes all participating armies (colored cubes of the attacker and
  defender) and throws them into the tower together with all cubes lying
  in the tower tray at the start of the battle. In the process, some of
  these cubes will remain in the tower, and some that were already
  inside the tower will fall out into the tray, thus producing a chance result.

And a little further on in "Battle Results and Consequences":

  To determine the outcome of the battle, players count up the number of
  attacking and defending armies that come out into the tower tray. The
  side with the most armies in the tray wins. Armies not participating
  in the battle are disregarded and remain lying in the tray.

I think it's clear from these paragraphs, taken in combination, that other appropriately coloured cubes, apart
from the ones thrown in, can become part of the "participating armies" and contribute to the outcome of the battle; a "chance result" is the intended outcome.  "Armies not participating in the battle" doesn't mean "cubes that weren't thrown into the tower just now", it just means "cubes of the wrong colours".

As for the green cubes, the rules say:

  If there are no revolt markers in the defender's province, all farmer
  armies in the tower tray count for the defender. (After a battle that
  includes farmers, all green cubes in the tray are returned to the
  farmer supply. If farmers are not involved in the battle, the green
  cubes remain in the tray.)

So if 6 reds and 3 yellows fall out then red is probably going to win the battle, unless a lot of defending green cubes fell out too!  All the yellow and green cubes are returned to their respective supplies, and the same number of red armies also go to their supply.  Any remaining (victorious!) red cubes will be placed in the contested province.


What pauper cards are legal in paper but not MTGO Note: This is exactly the opposite question of:

What pauper cards are legal in MTGO but not paper?

I am trying to collect most cards relevant to pauper. Because MTGO pauper is more popular than paper pauper, and because it is so easily available electronically, it is easy to find data and analysis on the most frequently used cards in pauper. I did this.

The problem is that there are some cards (most notably Hymn to Tourach and High Tide) not available on MTGO but available as paper commons. Other popular pauper cards include Goblin Grenade, Desert, Pyrotechnics, and Sinkhole. They are easy to miss when starting a paper pauper collection, though I suppose you'd eventually come across them in pauper tournaments.

The pauper format continues to grow in popularity so perhaps Wizards of the Coast will eventually develop official rulings on this. Some people feel that any common card in either MTGO or paper should be legal. However, for now, many local stores only allow paper commons.

The question:

Is there a list maintained of cards printed at common for paper, but not MTGO? If so, please provide link. If there is no such list but it turns out to be very few cards, then the answer should contain the list of cards.

According to Wikipedia, all sets since (and including) "Invasion" have been released on MTGO. This means the Masques, Urza, Tempest, Mirage, (most of) Ice Age, and Homelands blocks are not included in MTGO. In addition, core sets up until 6th edition and the Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Revised, Legends, The Dark, and Fallen Empires expansions are also excluded from MTGO.

Rather than searching gatherer for these sets, it is better to exclude the sets that are in MTGO, because that will exclude cards from early sets that got re-printed in later sets.

As of the release of Magic Origins, the following gatherer search should provide a list of all commons that were only printed in the sets before MTGO was released.

shortened url: http://goo.gl/O8OdKM

full url:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=+![%22Magic%20Origins%22]+![%22Seventh%20Edition%22]+![%22Eighth%20Edition%22]+![%22Ninth%20Edition%22]+![%22Tenth%20Edition%22]+![%22Magic%202010%22]+![%22Magic%202011%22]+![%22Magic%202012%22]+![%22Magic%202013%22]+![%22Magic%202014%20Core%20Set%22]+![%22Magic%202015%20Core%20Set%22]+![%22Invasion%22]+![%22Planeshift%22]+![%22Apocalypse%22]+![%22Odyssey%22]+![%22Torment%22]+![%22Judgment%22]+![%22Onslaught%22]+![%22Legions%22]+![%22Scourge%22]+![%22Mirrodin%22]+![%22Darksteel%22]+![%22Fifth%20Dawn%22]+![%22Champions%20of%20Kamigawa%22]+![%22Betrayers%20of%20Kamigawa%22]+![%22Saviors%20of%20Kamigawa%22]+![%22Ravnica:%20City%20of%20Guilds%22]+![%22Guildpact%22]+![%22Coldsnap%22]+![%22Time%20Spiral%22]+![%22Planar%20Chaos%22]+![%22Future%20Sight%22]+![%22Lorwyn%22]+![%22Morningtide%22]+![%22Shadowmoor%22]+![%22Eventide%22]+![%22Shards%20of%20Alara%22]+![%22Conflux%22]+![%22Alara%20Reborn%22]+![%22Zendikar%22]+![%22Worldwake%22]+![%22Rise%20of%20the%20Eldrazi%22]+![%22Scars%20of%20Mirrodin%22]+![%22Mirrodin%20Besieged%22]+![%22New%20Phyrexia%22]+![%22Innistrad%22]+![%22Dark%20Ascension%22]+![%22Avacyn%20Restored%22]+![%22Return%20to%20Ravnica%22]+![%22Gatecrash%22]+![%22Dragon%27s%20Maze%22]+![%22theros%22]+![%22Born%20of%20the%20Gods%22]+![%22Journey%20into%20Nyx%22]+![%22Khans%20of%20Tarkir%22]+![%22Fate%20Reforged%22]+![%22Dragons%20of%20Tarkir%22]&rarity=+[C]

Edit: Looking at the results, it looks like the query wasn't perfect. But it's a good start.


Goldnight Commander and Thatcher Revolt I'm not 100% sure what happens if I have a Goldnight Commander on the battlefield and play a Thatcher Revolt. Do all three 1/1 red human tokens enter the battlefield at once, giving each of them +3/+3 (along with all creatures already on the battlefield)? Or does the first one get +3/+3, the second one +2/+2 and the last one only +1/+1?

I'm assuming the former, but it would be great if someone could confirm.

All three of your Thatchers will get +3/+3.  They do enter the battlefield simultaneously, and in the process of Thatcher Revolt resolving, Goldnight Commander will trigger three separate times.  By the time you reach the point of going to resolve each of the three Goldnight Commander triggers on the stack, Thatcher Revolt has long since finished resolving, and all your Thatchers are present on the battlefield, queueing up for their Giant Growths!


In bridge, what are some exceptions to "second hand low?" Most beginners are taught to play "second hand low." That is, play a low card if one is led to them, to give the partner a chance to take the trick. This is particularly to avoid situations where second hand plays, say, a king, and it is taken by partner's singleton ace.

Like all rules, it has some exceptions.  One is, play second hand high and grab the trick if you see a way to defeat the contract; e.g. running a suit in no trump. Another might be, if you let the opponents take a trick, it will be their game-winning trick (based on what you see on the board and infer from the bidding and play).

Are these valid exceptions to "second hand low?" What are other exceptions to the rule?"

The going up to cash your winners is a good reason.

Another common reason to play second hand high is to deny an entry.

Here is an example.

South below is in 3NT, you are West and you lead a heart.

         AJT9x
         xxx
         xxx
         xx

Kxx              Qxx
QJTx             xx
xx               QJTx
Jxxx             xxxx
         xx
         AKxx
         AKxx
         AKQ

During the bidding East/West know that South has no more than two spades (say the bidding goes 2C-2S-2NT-3NT starting with 2C by South, and East/West remaining silent).

South has 8 top tricks and needs one more.

South wins your heart Q with the K and leads a spade. At this point, you must play the K!

If you play low, declarer will play the 9. If East wins, declarer will make many overtricks (by repeating the diamond finesse). So East will have to duck this, but declarer will make his contract.

If you play the K, declarer can setup dummy's diamonds, but will not have an entry to cash them, and will only be able to make 8 tricks.

Another reason to play second hand high is to prevent declarer from ducking a trick to a safe hand.

As an example:

         xxx
         xxx
         Kxx
         xxxx

AQxxx            Tx
Qx               JTx
xxx              QJTx
Jxx              xxxx
         KJx
         AK9xx
         Axx
         AK

South is in 3NT and you are East.

Partner leads a low spade, and declarer wins your T with the J. (If he ducks this, he is down immediately).

Now declarer plays a diamond to dummy's K and plays a heart. At this point, you must play the heart J or T. If you play low, declarer will stick in the 9, losing the trick to the safe hand, which cannot continue spades without losing a trick and a tempo.

If declarer ducks your heart J, then you can push a spade through and beat the contract. So declarer will have to play the A or K, and partner will have to continue the good defence by dropping the heart Q! (else declarer can next play a low heart).

Since declarer has no more entries to the dummy, your Tx is safe from being finessed with the K9, and declarer will go down ultimately.


Winning the round before all players have had a turn in Phase 10 Would it be correct to say that before the round can be officially 'over' in Phase 10, everyone playing should be able to take a turn? For example: three people are playing Phase 10 and just started a new phase, we'll say Phase 6: 1 run of 9.  Player 1 picks up from the deck and discards a card from his hand; Player 2 picks up that card and is able to lay down 10 cards and discard the last card-thus, completing and finishing the phase.  However, would Player 3 be entitled to a turn before the round is completed? I can't recall if this is an actual rule in the Phase 10 rule book or if over the years our family had just adopted the rule to let the example Player 3 have a turn to try and be fair.

There is nothing in the rules about this. Yes, a round could end before a player gets a chance to play.

This isn't really any less fair than anytime a player other than the last in turn order ends up going out; in that case the last player has less turns than anyone else. Having 0 turns instead of 1 isn't all that different from having 4 turns instead of 5. So if you wanted a house rule to make it more fair, you should always end with the player who played last; not only if it happens in the first round.

The extra advantage of being the start player is balanced out by having the start player rotate.


Curse die rolls by dead taoists In Ghost Stories you can exorcise two ghosts at once if you are on a corner and there is a ghost on each space adjacent to you. I played a game where I successfully exorcised both of these ghosts but then had to roll the curse die for each of them. The first roll of the curse die caused me to lose a Qi which killed me. Do I still roll the second curse die? If it again comes up that I lose a Qi, what happens?

If I am already dead and there are ghosts on my board that cause me to roll the curse die on the Yin phase and I have to lose a Qi, what happens?

Well, the situation of dying with an unresolved Curse die isn't addressed specifically in the rulebook, but your second question is!

From page 7 in the rulebook, under "Death of a Taoist"

  His board becomes possessed (see neutral board below) and the ghosts occupying
  it continue to act, despite the Taoist’s death. The steps 1 & 2 of the Yin phase must
  be played. The other players will have to suffer the effects and consequences of
  the ghosts on this board.

From page 10 in the rulebook, under "Possessed Board"

  A neutral board that has lost all Qi tokens
  is called "a possessed board", Its specific
  power cannot be used anymore through
  neutral power tokens.
  Any further loss of Qi points (i.e. board
  overrun or tormentor) must be endured by a player of your choice (the green
  Taoist’s power is ineffective if Qi loss is due to the curse die).

So if a player is dead and a curse die roll triggered by a ghost on the dead player's board causes a loss of 1 Qi, somebody else has to lose the Qi. Whether that somebody else must be decided before or after the roll is made is unclear. I would apply this ruling to the situation you present in your first question as well, the game doesn't want someone to weasel out of a curse die roll!


Does Harmonic Sliver have to destroy a permanent? If I am the only player with any permanents then does Harmonic Sliver mean I must destroy one of my permanents? Can it destroy itself?

Harmonic Sliver says

  All Slivers have "When this permanent enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact or enchantment."

The Sliver's ability says "destroy target artifact or enchantment," not just "destroy target permanent." So it can only destroy something which is an artifact or enchantment. In particular, the Sliver cannot destroy itself unless it there is some ability in effect that makes it an artifact or enchantment.

Also note that the ability does not say "may" (as in "you may destroy target artifact or enchantment"). So you are required to destroy an artifact or enchantment if there is one on the battlefield. This makes no distinction as to who controls the artifact or enchantment; if you're the only player who controls any artifacts or enchantments, then you must choose one of your own to be the target of the ability. If there are no artifacts or enchantments in play when the sliver enters the battlefield, then the ability is removed from the stack (and nothing is destroyed).


How many different right-handed Power Swords are there on the sprues of the Space Marines? I am looking to make a group of Vanguard Veterans who wield Power Swords, but since they are not on the sprue I will have to pilfer them from other boxed sets. But since the GW website is rather incomplete regardings sprues, I cannot really tell where I can find these things.

Note that I am looking for right-handed Power Swords for models in Power Armor, either consisting of one part or the hand/weapon + weapon arm combination.

Alright, I have done some more research, asked around and I have come to the following conclusion regarding the Power Weapons on the sprues of the regular Space Marines. Some are entire arms, others are just hands. Likewise some weapons have one bladed edge, the others two.

Tactical Marines Squad

1 left-handed double-bladed Power Sword, hand.

Assault Marines Squad

1 left-handed double-bladed Power Sword, arm.
1 left-handed single-bladed Power Axe, arm.

(Note: on the older sprues these are both right-handed)

Devastator Marines Squad

1 left-handed double-bladed Power Sword, hand.
1 left-handed single-bladed Power Axe, hand.

(Note: this is on the sprues of the new boxed set)

Vanguard Veterans

1 right-handed single-bladed Power Sword, hand.
1 right-handed single-bladed Power Axe, hand.

Command Squad

1 left-handed double-bladed Power Sword, arm. Note that this one is intended for the Company Champion, not for the Sergeant as is usual.

Space Marine Commander

1 left-handed double-bladed Power Sword, arm.


Poltergeist haunt (#17) - do item tokens count for the poltergeist's damage track? In the poltergeist haunt, heroes are collecting item tokens (candles) to defeat the poltergeist. The Poltergeist wants to accumulate items to get stronger (move the damage track).

In our game, a hero died who was carrying two candles. I was the traitor. I had my poltergeist pick up the dropped candles and thought I should move the track forward but there was some disagreement since the candle item tokens weren't item cards.

In the rulebook it pretty clearly says that item tokens should be treated as any other item. Should I have moved the damage track forward for each item I picked up from dead heroes?

Yes, the candles should be treated as items.

At no point does the haunt specify item cards. Item tokens and item cards are all items, as are most omens. As you pointed out, the rulebook clarifies that item tokens are just like other items, except when the haunt specifies otherwise.


Does Rally the Righteous affect heroic? I found Rally the Righteous, and I'm wondering: are the creatures (after the first) being targeted to untap and does that affect heroic creatures?

And if I untap a multicoloured creature, like Anax and Cymede, does it effect red and white creatures or only red white creatures?

Rally the Righteous only targets one creature, and so it'll only trigger heroic on that specific creature. It says "untap target creature" — that's the one that gets targeted. It then further says "and each other creature that shares a color with it" — but it doesn't say "target" in that phrase anywhere, so you're not targeting any of those other creatures. (If it was targeting, it'd say something ike "each other target creature".)

If you target a multicolored creature, like the spell says, it'll affect any creature that shares any color with the one you untap. If you untap a red/white creature, you'll untap red creatures, white creatures, red/white creatures, red/blue, white/black, etc etc — because all of those have a color of at least red or white.


Are there times to pre-empt with a "strong" six trumps in bridge? Suppose you have something like AQJxxx of clubs (and no other values). If it were any other suit than clubs, I'd open with a with a "weak two" bid.

But two clubs is the STRONG two bid. Meaning that if I wanted a "weak" two bid, I'd have to go to THREE clubs. With such a strong honor holding, is it ok to do so with only six clubs, on the theory that your suit is actually stronger than a seven card suit such as QTxxxxx? (If your partner has nothing, you figure to win five tricks, going down four, but your opponents can make a small slam.)

Would you do this with another suit besides clubs, where you could bid a weak two? And how would vulnerability affect your answer.

Under most circumstances, I wouldn't. If your partner has 3 or 4 clubs and mediocre strength, and decides to support, you might find yourself in a disastrous 4CX or 5CX while your opponents didn't have anything better than a game.

It depends on your distribution as well. With 6-4-3-0 I might feel bold enough to try it. With 6-3-2-2, probably not.


Phyrexian unlife and life gain Phyrexian Unlife

If your opponent has ten poison counters, he loses the game, so you just need to get your opponent to zero, then deal ten more damage to him. He'll take it in the form of poison counters, and lose. It will buy him time - maybe he was almost dead and suddenly you need to get him to 0 then deal ten more damage - but he's not invincible.

After reading this it got me thinking; and correct me if I have missed something.

If you are at 1 life, and you get hit by a  5/5 creature, do you get 4 poison counters, or none, as you are now at zero life? (Excluding trample of course.)

That being said, once you're at zero life, can you gain 1 life and repeat this?

You will not get any poison counters in that case. All damage is done simultaneously, and at the time you took damage you were at 1 life, not 0 or less life. So, you will take 5 normal damage, and be at -4 life. Normally you would lose now, but Phyrexian Unlife keeps you alive instead, and the next time you would take damage, that damage will be in the form of poison counters.

If you do gain life to above 0 again, then Phyrexian Unlife will again stop you from losing the next time you take damage.

Also, trample does not interact in anyway with this, so when you say "Excluding trample of course" it makes me think that there's a basic rule you aren't understanding about how combat or trample works.


Do creatures with Defender have summoning sickness? Say I put down 2 Fog Banks during my turn, and once my turn ends would I be able to block creatures with trample, and cancel the effects of trample? Meaning that Fog Bank doesn't get destroyed, and no trample damage gets dealt to me?

Creatures with defender have summoning sickness, there's no exception for them.

But that doesn't affect how Fog Bank interacts with creatures with trample. Yes, if you play Fog Bank it will be able to block the next (opponent's) turn, but when a creature with trample is blocked by Fog Bank, it only needs to assign 2 damage (Fog Bank's toughness) to Fog Bank, and the rest will still 'trample over' to you.

  302.6. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the “summoning sickness” rule.

Note that that rule doesn't say anything about blocking.


What regions count towards support of another region? When attacking from a region into another region, do supporting units from territories connected to the region the attackers are coming from count toward their total strength? Or is it only supporting units from regions connected to the defender's region?

The following is taken from page 12 of the rules (emphasis mine):

  If you move one or more of your units into an area containing units from another house, a battle will ensue once you have completed all your movement from that March order.  If you move into such an area, you are considered the attacker, and the opponent currently occupying the area you entered is considered the defender.

Support can only be given to the area in which the battle takes place, and only if you have a Support order adjacent to the embattled area.  Since the March order is played out to completion before the battle starts, the only embattled area would be the area that the attacker moved into (i.e., the defender's area).  The concepts of attacker and defender don't even apply until after you've moved into this area.

This is explicitly clarified in page 18 of the second edition rules:

  Reminder: Support can be granted only from an area containing a Support Order that is adjacent to the embattled area.  Do not confuse the embattled area with the area the attacking March Order was assigned to (and from which the attackers marched).


Does Curator's Ward trigger when a creature it enchants and Curator's Ward get removed at (seemingly) the same time? Let's say you've got Curator's Ward enchanting a historic creature you control, and you target that creature with Portal of Sanctuary. Does the creature and Curator's Ward get returned at the same time, meaning that Curator's Ward's card draw effect doesn't trigger?

Does the creature and Curator's Ward get returned at the same time?

Yes. They are all returned to your hand simultaneously.

  ...meaning that Curator's Ward's card draw effect doesn't trigger?

Now this is where it gets interesting. For most triggers, the permanent watching for the trigger event must be on the battlefield just after the event occurs. But for some triggers, this doesn't work. Think about a creature with "When ~ dies, [do something]". If we went by the general rule for this ability, it would never trigger, since just after the event happened the creature is already in the graveyard.

For this reason, some kinds of triggers are given an exception. These triggers "look back in time" and determine if they trigger based on whether the ability existed just before the event happened. Leave-the-battlefield triggers such as the one on Curator's Ward are one kind of such triggers.

This is all to say that even though Ward is returned at the same time as the enchanted creature, its ability will trigger none the less.

Relevant CR:

  603.10. Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities are exceptions to this rule; the game "looks back in time" to determine if those abilities trigger, using the existence of those abilities and the appearance of objects immediately prior to the event. The list of exceptions is as follows:

    603.10a. Some zone-change triggers look back in time. These are leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, and abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library.

      Example: Two creatures are on the battlefield along with an artifact that has the ability "Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life." Someone casts a spell that destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. The artifact's ability triggers twice, even though the artifact goes to its owner's graveyard at the same time as the creatures.


Problem going out in phase ten I was playing Phase 10 tonight with one other person. Here is our dilemma:
During phase one, each were able to lay down the 2 sets. Let’s say the 4 cards used were: ones, fives, eights, and tens
How is either player supposed to go out in a timely manner if you have to keep drawing while always having cards other than those four cards in the phase to hit on? It seems impossible to ever be able to go because there are only 4 numbers to hit on. You can’t get rid of the cards in your hand because there aren’t enough choices/options to hit on.

It sounds as though you understand the rules correctly; in order to go out, a player needs to hit on an already played meld/phase (their own or an opponent's). It shouldn’t require an unreasonable number of turns to accomplish this though. After laying down your phase one, you have only 4 cards remaining in hand. There are every time you draw a card, you have about a 4 in 12 chance of it being a card you can use to hit, or a 33% chance... it’s a little less because 3 of each number you need has already been played, but then there are also the wild cards to help you out. But still, you should be able to hit with the card you drew for a turn about one out of every 3-4 turns on average. This would take about 16 turns to get rid of all 4 cards. Worst case scenario, most of the required numbers are near the bottom of the deck, but they would still get drawn.
Now if you and your opponent had happened to both lay down the same numbers as each other for your phase, it would be more difficult.. there would only be 2 different numbers to hit on, and 6 of the 24 cards number you need would already be used up. But even so, the right numbers would still get drawn eventually. Turns would be very fast at this point, so you aren’t wasting a lot of time playing this out.
However, if you feel like this part of the game is someone pointless; you would be generally right... the main reason to try and go out is to end the hand before your opponent can lay down their phase. Once all players have laid down their phase, it matters a lot less who goes out first. The only reason to care at all is to address the situation where there is a tie at the end where multiple players got phase 10 in the same round. If that doesn’t happen, then going out first makes no difference at all.
So if you are playing a 2 player game, and you have both laid down your phase already, you could always just flip a coin or roll a die to determine the points for hand. After all, if you both have 4 cards in hand, then it’s just 50/50 which of you will get 0 points this hand (with a slight edge to the person who gets to draw/play first). And the person who doesn't get 0 is very likely to only get 5, or maybe 10 points against them.


Why is it of high importance to control the center of the board in Chess? One reason for this is that from the center of the board, your pieces
have quicker access to the other parts of the board. Another is that
your pieces often attack a larger number of squares. What others are there?

I often find myself having control of the center, only to end up
thinking "Ok, now what?".
What advantages do I get, and how can I
make something useful out of these?

In addition to the points you made, controlling the center means that your opponent will then have to form his or her attack on the wings.  Think of not only what it does for your pieces but what it means for your opponent's.

Picture the movement pattern of a knight - if you control the center, the knight can attack all eight squares.  If your opponent's knights are forced along the side of the board they're likely going to be in the first, second, seventh or eight columns (files).  That means they're less effective. ("A knight on the rim is grim.")

If you have control of the center, it's usually the time to start planning an attack.  Has your opponent castled?  If so, start getting your pieces aligned to make an attack on the appropriate side.  If you're playing more of a positional game it's time to start marching forward, taking up real estate on the board and placing your pieces and pawns onto squares that make it difficult for your opponent to move/develop his or her pieces.


In Gin-Rummy, what are the chances to make Gin on the first turn? What are the odds for a Gin on the first turn?  That is, what are the odds for arranging 10 out of 11 random cards in melds.
In Gin-Rummy, at the start of a round, players draw 10 random cards. On the first turn the player decide to either pickup the face-up card or pass the turn.  Thus, for the first player to make a Gin on the first turn, she must take the face-up card and arrange at least 10 out of the 11 cards in melds. In an earlier question we found out that the probability of 10 random cards to form a Gin is about 1 in 115,733.  Great explanation for the counting process here.

I modified that program by Andrew Inwood to count them (including all the three-of-a-kinds, still), and it finds 5,379,372 11-card hands that contain a 10-card gin hand.
Out of C(52,11) hands, that makes the odds about 1 in 11,228 or 0.00891%


Does Solemn Offering affect auras? Solemn Offering reads "Destroy target artifact or enchantment", but can it affect auras that are attached to something? I've been searching around but haven't been able to find out one way or the other.

Yes. It can target any permanent with the Enchantment type, be it a plain old Enchantment, an Enchantment - Aura, a Legendary Enchantment Artifact, or an Enchantment Creature. Same goes for artifacts: it can destroy equipment, for example.

Aura is a subtype of enchantment, and something which says "target enchantment" doesn't care about subtypes, just that the permanent it targets has enchantment as a type. This is similar to the fact that something which says "destroy target creature" can target any creature, whether it's a Creature - Elf or a Creature - Ooze.


In bridge, what opening bid(s) should be made with a high card point in "no man's land"? Recently, I was dealt a hand with a high card point and distribution too strong to open 1 NT but not enough to bid 2 of a suit, i.e. in "no man's land".  Any advice you can provide about how I should open the bidding with such a hand would be much appreciated.

A hand "too strong to open 1 NT but not enough to bid 2 of a suit" is of two possible ranges of interest: 18-19 and 20-21. If we are talking a balanced hand with (according to the most common partnership agreements) at worst Kx or Qxx in every suit:

18-19 points opens one of a suit (preferably a minor) and jumps to 2NT as a rebid
20-21 opens 2NT

If the hand is unbalanced then it opens one of a suit and either jump-shifts as a rebid with 20+ points, or reverses as rebid with 18+.

Don't get in the habit of opening hands 1NT that are unsuitable for notrump play, just because they fall in the 15-17 point range; you sill seriously stunt your development as a bridge player, and alienate potential partners. There is a very good reason why Victor Mollo called the member of his menagerie prone to such bids the Hideous Hog.


1935 Paul Heath's New Battleship Game We recently found a game entitled "Paul Heath's New Battleship Game", 1935 buried in a box. It appears to be a resin board and the board contains rows of holes and the game includes many colored wood pegs.

I can't seem to find anything about this particular game online. Does anyone have any information about it?

It's a variation on the classic Battleship game, mostly played in the same way as normal.

There are possibly two versions as the patent for the game (US2058079) describes a different layout to the one that I've encountered.


Exchange Keeper Card In Zombie Fluxx, if you play an Exchange Keepers Card, can you give them a Creeper and they give you a Keeper so you can match the goal?

No, you are exchanging a keeper for a keeper, and a keeper is not a creeper.

That said, in some varieties of Fluxx (I don't have Zombie myself), certain creepers attach themselves to keeper cards you have on the table.  If that is the case, the creeper follows the keeper.  If you are trading the keeper that has an attached creeper, the other player will take the creeper as well.


Position of new words when adding to existing words If an S is added to the end of an existing word, does the S have to be the first or last letter of the new word or can it be somewhere between?

It can be somewhere in between. The rules are that the tiles placed must be in a straight line (horizontal or vertical) connected to the existing words, and there cannot be any empty spaces between tiles placed.

For more information it may help to know that this is called 'hooking': https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Scrabble/Rules#Gameplay


Best places to buy board games online? I have just recently found out about www.bookdepository.com and that they sell Fantasy Flight's games with very reasonable prices and ship the goods freely all over the globe. Since I live in the country that has very limited number of shops where you can buy board games and they tend to be very pricey (almost double the retail price in USA for example) - do you guys know any other online places like Book Depository which has nice deals and possibly free shipping?

Amazon has a lot but look through boardgamegeek.com marketplace plus eBay and coolstuffinc. Try googling the game, normally there is a result that you can purchase it from.


Can I use the Injury and Madness cards from Miskatonic Horror without Dunwich Horror? One of the components of Miskatonic Horror are additional Injury and Madness cards, which were originally for the Dunwich Horror expansion. The rules for Miskatonic Horror say this about the cards:

  If you are using the Dunwich Horror expansion, shuffle the new Injury, Madness, and Dunwich Horror cards into their respective decks. If you are not using the Dunwich Horror expansion, return all the new Injury, Madness, and Dunwich Horror cards to the box.

I have heard many players rave about how much fun the Injury and Madness cards make the game, but unfortunately I don't own Dunwich Horror.

Despite what the rules say, is it possible to play with these cards found in Miskatonic Horror without Dunwich Horror?

It's possible to houserule anything, and these cards aren't an exception.
Just have in mind that if you want to add these in using just the Dunwich Horror rules, it will decrease the game's difficulty considerably.

In the core game when your Sanity or Stamina drops to 0 you:

Discard half of your items
Discard half of your Clues
Recover 1 Sanity or Stamina

The Dunwich Horror leaves the above possibility intact, but also gives you an option to instead:

Keep your items
Keep your Clues
Recover full Sanity or Stamina
Gain an Injury or Madness card

Like this, it's already a convenience.
As it's entirely a player's choice to gain the Injury/Madness card, you'll simply choose the option that's less harmful in a given situation.
While Injury and Madness cards are somewhat debilitating, in many cases it's still more desirable to gain one than to lose your clues, stuff, and time needed to heal yourself.
To balance this, there's a risk included: If you ever gain another copy of the Injury or Madness you already have, you are instantly devoured.
If you only have Miskatonic Horror, you never risk gaining a second copy.
With this mitigating factor gone, Injuries and Madnessess become a more attractive option.

If you're fine with an easier game, then you're done.
If not, you have a lot of options in front of you. We're talking about house rules after all.

The easiest modification would be to remove the base game option of losing half of your possessions.
When gaining Injury/Madness is no longer a player's choice, they will more likely hit you when it hurts.
You may also consider a "baseball" variant:
When you have three "strikes" (total of both Injuries and Madnesses) you are instantly devoured.
This would be a proxy of the "double copy = devoured" rule.

It's impossible to list all the potential variants. I'm sure you'll find something that suits your gaming group.


40k 8th Edition Unit Customization TLDR

Has 40k lost a lot of its customization and character options?
Are the expected codices supposed to give more options/customization?
Can I take a unique item or character and modify it for my own use?
If so, and WYSIWYG still applies, how would I compute costs fairly?
Would it be fair to just double the cost of the normal version?
Is this something that I should not be as worried about in actual gameplay and just give them what I can from what exists?
How many of you use unique characters and how did you build them? (not sure if this should be a separate question by itself or if there is a better way to phrase or location to ask it)

First let me mention that although I have been a fan of 40k since I first learned of it back with the release of the third edition and I have purchased every rulebook and at minimum all of the codices for the Space Wolves since; I have only played on tabletop a few times, with the last time being almost a decade ago. Please bear with me as I know some of the rules and changes over the years, but the lore has always interested me more. I know a lot has changed over the years but may be ignorant to the intelligence behind some changes...

That said I am looking to jump back into the gaming aspect with the new edition. With the indices I feel like a lot of the customization options have been lost. My previous "build" of the Inquisitor for my army was an Inquisitor Lord, with a needle pistol, daemon hammer, artificer armor, grimore, a targeter, scourging, etc. and I had even had the chosen to take a specific entourage (astropath, etc.).

And while I do believe that those choices came from the options laid out in an older rulebook I loved that I could grab a bunch of different stuff to put into an independent character.

In the Imperium 2 Index I am looking to update my guy (as with the rest of my army) and I noticed that there is not an option for artificer armor or even to give him a boost as an Inquisitor Lord. His retinue seems to be limited to a host of acolytes, deamonhosts, and (thankfully still) a jokaero...

In the points lists it shows the points values for the 3 custom characters without wargear, but then then the master crafted weapons have 0 points. While the option to use them only exists for those special characters, I would like to use a master crafted power sword stat (it is actually a halberd) for my character. Would it be fair to just double the cost of the normal version?

I would like to keep my entire army as close to the rulebook as possible, but I would also like to give my unique guys gear that makes them special. Is this something that I should not be as worried about in actual gameplay and just give them what I can from what exists? How many of you use unique characters and how did you build them?

Has 40k lost a lot of its customization and character options?

Yes and no. In Matched play your options are much more limited, but in Open, and to a lesser extent Narrative play whatever your opponent agrees to is fine!

  Are the expected codices supposed to give more options/customization?

We hope so, but there isn't any definitive word on this.

  Can I take a unique item or character and modify it for my own use?

Absolutely. When and where you can play with that character will depend on how closely you hew to the Index/Codex and how strict events you go to are. If it's not an organized event, talk to your opponent first, and for anything custom strive for underpowered!

  If so, and WYSIWYG still applies, how would I compute costs fairly?

Something outside the rules probably won't fly in a Matched Play organized event. If you're playing with power, it shouldn't matter too much, but you might want to add a Power point or two to the cost of the unit to compensate.

  Would it be fair to just double the cost of the normal version?

Maybe, maybe not. This is way to situational to answer.

  Is this something that I should not be as worried about in actual gameplay and just give them what I can from what exists?

Probably. If you have a regular gaming group talk to them. If you are planning on going to tournaments stick to the rules


If a player rolls 3 consecutive 6s and on second six landed on another player’s token can they take a turn? After landing on another player’s token on second 6 when dice rolled third time (because previous turn was 6)

If a player rolls a 6 on third roll it cannot move further because of rolling three sixes. However, as they landed on another player's token on second six they gained an extra turn.

Does a player get another turn after third six?

tl;dr  On the the third roll of a 6 the players turn immediately ends.

As Ludo is a traditional game that is many 1000's years old its hard to find an official rules source.

The Wikipedia article here  says-

  When a 6 is rolled, the player may choose to advance a token already
  in play, or may enter another staged token to its starting square.
  Rolling a 6 earns the player an additional or "bonus" roll in that
  turn. If the bonus roll results in a 6 again, the player earns an
  additional bonus roll. If the third roll is also a 6, the player may
  not move and the turn immediately passes to the next player.

Rolling the 3rd 6 means the players turn immediately ends. I couldn't find anything in any other rules to contradict that.

Wikipedia also talks about different variants-

  To speed the game up, extra turns or bonus moves can be awarded for
  capturing a piece or getting a piece home; these may grant passage
  past a block.

As Ludo is such as old game it is not not surprising there are going to be many different variations including this rule which you used in your example. However the outcome is the same.

Here are two examples
1) Player rolls a 6.  They take an action. They roll again.
Player rolls a 6.  They take an action. They roll again.
Player rolls a 6.  There turn immediately ends.

2) Player rolls a 6.  They take an action. They roll again.
Player rolls any 6 and lands on an opponents piece.  They take an action. They roll again.
Player rolls a 6.  There turn immediately ends.


Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor - what happens when a loop has no exit? Marauding Raptor has:

  Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Marauding Raptor deals 2 damage to it.  If a Dinosaur is dealt damage this way, Marauding Raptor gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

Polyraptor has:

  Enrage - Whenever Polyraptor is dealt damage, create a token that's a copy of Polyraptor.

When my opponent had Marauding Raptor in play, and played a Polyraptor, the Marauding Raptor deals two damage to the original, then when a token copy was made the Marauding Raptor dealt to that, which makes another copy, which is also dealt damage, etc...

My question is, does this mean the game breaks and is over, or does the arbitrary loop stop of its own accord at some point?

(Neither of us were able to destroy or exile a Polyraptor token in response to the damage, to stop the loop.)

The game will end in a draw

If the loop cannot be ended by either player, instead the game ends in a draw.

  721.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw. (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)


What elements of Arkham Horror balance the difficulty across the number of players? I know the number of open gates that triggers the awakening of the Ancient One reduces as the number of players increase, and the number of roaming monsters in Arkham increases as well, so there is the crowdedness factor that seems more perilous. Also, there are two monsters per gate opening when there are 5+ investigators. Are there other factors? These factors don't seem as significant or maybe as linearly ramped as the balancing factors in Eldritch Horror where clues, gates, surges, and mystery requirements scale with every 2 added investigators.

The 'limits' that change with more players are:

Maximum number of monsters on the board before they go into outskirts
Maximum number of monsters in the outskirts before the terror track is moved
Maximum number of gates that can be open at any time
Maximum number of monsters that trigger the awakening of the Great Old One once the terror level has reached 10


How do multiple power increases and reductions affect this creature? So, I have on my board Chief of the Edge and Herald of Dromoka. My opponent plays Dovin Baan and uses his first ability on Herald of Dromoka.

What is the attack of the Herald now? Does it first go to 0 and then have +1 from the Chief or does it first gain the buff and then go to 0 from Dovin Baan?

Herald of Dromoka winds up with a power of 0 because it is affected by -3 and +1 power simultaneously, which is a -2 modifier no matter which way it occurs.

The first thing to help clarify this is that power can be in negative numbers. See Char-Rumbler for one of the only examples of cards with negative power. (It's got a ruling saying: "Yes, Char-Rumbler’s printed power is -1. While its power is -1 or 0, it simply deals no combat damage.")

Since power doesn't bottom out at 0 and can just keep going down into negative numbers, there's no actual difference either way you order it:

If Dovin Baan applies first, the Herald's power is reduced to -1 then increased to 0.
If Chief of the Edge applies first, the power is increased to 3 then reduced to 0.


Can You Directly Purchase A Hotel If All Houses Are Gone? Assuming all houses are already claimed, can a player purchase a hotel directly by paying the value of 5 houses in order to directly purchase a hotel?

No.

You can only build a hotel if you have four houses on your properties.

You must build houses evenly.  That is, if you have three properties, then you must buy 1 house for A, 1 house for B, 1 house for C, 2nd house for A, 2nd house for B, 2nd house for C, and so on.

You cannot buy a hotel on one property.

If the houses are gone, then you cannot buy them.

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf


Can I copy a spell that's in my graveyard? If I cast an instant and then activate League Guildmages ability, can I use the ability again next turn if that card I cast is in the graveyard?

No, because a card is a spell only while it's on the stack.

League Guildmage requires you to copy a spell, which is a certain kind of object:

  109.1. An object is an ability on the stack, a card, a copy of a card, a token, a spell, a permanent, or an emblem.

Spells only exist on the stack, which is the zone where spells and abilities remain until they resolve, are countered, or otherwise removed:

  111.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, “Casting Spells”), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner’s hand. (See rule 405, “Stack.”) A spell remains on the stack as a spell until it resolves (see rule 608, “Resolving Spells and Abilities”), is countered (see rule 701.5), or otherwise leaves the stack. For more information, see section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”

In zones other than the stack and the battlefield, a card is simply a card and cannot be copied by the Guildmage.

If you find a way to cast that instant from the graveyard, for example through Jump-start, then you may copy it again, because it doesn't matter for the Guildmage from where you cast it. But you do have to cast it first.


In go, is it possible to guess the opponent's strength from their play? Context : while playing against a complete stranger that hide its rank/level.

I feel like it would be possible to guess the opponent's strength by analyzing its responses to tesujis, probes, etc. during the game.

Is there some patterns (or moves or errors) that indicates that a player has or has not reach a certain plateau ?

If it's the case, is there any on-line resource on the subject ?

Probably the best way to gauge a player's strength (aside from playing against them of course) is to present them with Tsumego of varying difficulties. From Sensei's Library:

Tsumego, a Japanese go term adopted into English, are problems mainly about life and death, but also about ko, capturing races, cutting, connecting, etc. As a rule they are local problems, but a few involve the whole board.
There are many published collections of tsumego, or life-and-death problems, many in Asian languages but increasingly many in Western languages. Many collections are available on the internet. SL also has a growing collection of go problems.
Most professional players and top amateur players agree that solving tsumego is the best way to improve.

Sensei's Library has a plethora of tsumego from a variety of sources.
Personally, I've also used GoProblems.com a lot to improve my own skills. I like that they try to associate individual tsumego with what rank should be able to solve them. They also have an incredible number to choose from. As of this posting they claim to have 11,196 problems.


What is this game featuring plastic squares with numbers in each corner? What is the name of the game where there are 120 cream-colored plastic squares about an inch and a half on each side with a single number in each corner?  The numbers range from 0 to 5. I do know that Toys R Us doesn't recognize it, so it must be an older game.

If I knew what this game is called, I'd also like to find the instructions for how to play it.

Quad-Ominos by Pressman Toy Corporation, perhaps? The rules, in English and French, can also be found linked from that page.


How can I play Pandemic with 6 players? I've recently bought Pandemic, and really liked the game. But since the basic game is only 2-4 players, I ordered the expansion "On the Brink", which brings it up to 5 players.

Is there a rules variant that would let me play with 6 players?

I haven't seen recommendations for six-player, but I can't think of a reason it can't be done. I think the only thing that needs to be decided is the size of the players' starting hands. 4 and 5-player games start with two cards. You could either go with two or drop it to one. I'd probably stick with two. Beyond that I think you can just play. There's nothing in the game that will break by having six people.

That said, I'm not sure how well it will play. The consensus is that the game gets harder with more people, but fortunately it's very easy to tweak the difficulty in Pandemic. You can decrease the number of Epidemic cards, increase the Special Event cards, or allow players to choose their role, each of these will make the game easier to beat.

If I were going to try it, I'd probably go with two cards for the starting hands, four epidemic cards, and I'd put all 13 Special Event cards in. I'd see how that goes and then tweak it from there.


Do abilities that trigger when a card is turned face up trigger when that card is in exile? If I have a card with an ability that triggers when it is turned face up, such as Coral Trickster, does it still trigger when turned face up in exile, for example  when imprinted on a dying Clone Shell?

No, the turned face up ability does not trigger when the card is in the exile zone. Rule 112.6 says

  Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield.

This ability does not match any of the exceptions, so it does not function when the creature is not on the battlefield.


Stalling/Slow Play and Control As a control player, there are times where it takes a while to resolve the first game, and there are many times where I'm up a game. Are there any rulings against stonewalling the opponent and not taking any steps to end the game while playing at a reasonable pace? I feel prompted to ask this in light of Channel Fireball's article: Silvestri Says – It’s Time to Stamp Out Slow Play

No, there is no rule against playing so that the game as a whole progresses slowly, as long as you take all of your actions in a timely manner. The official tournament rules describe slow play (in section 5.5) as

  Players must take their turns in a timely fashion regardless of the complexity of the play situation and adhere to time limits specified for the tournament. Players must maintain a pace to allow the match to be finished in the announced time limit. Stalling is not acceptable. Players may ask a judge to watch their game for slow play; such a request will be granted if feasible.

Note that this rule is primarily concerned with turn length and the pace of play. Stalling in this case means not taking any action or passing, such as by staring at your hand without actually playing anything on your turn.

If this seems a little ambiguous, the Competitive REL infraction procedure guide describes slow play more simply (in section 3.3) as

  A player takes longer than is reasonably required to complete game actions... It is also slow play if a player continues to execute a loop without being able to provide an exact number of iterations and the expected resulting game state.

As long as you are completing game actions and turns in a timely manner, you won't break this rule.


Regeneration specifics: activation of the ability in combat I'm aware of this question about regeneration, which covers almost everything about it, but the focus of that question was on instants such as Shock or Doom Blade. My question is different and wasn't answered by that post.

If I block a 5/5 creature with two 4/4 creatures that both have a regeneration ability, but I only have enough mana to regenerate one of my creatures, can I regenerate after my opponent has assigned lethal damage to one of my creatures?

Does the creature immediately die from lethal damage since I can't predict where said damage will go (and therefore can't activate the shield beforehand), or can I still regenerate it?

In the declare blockers step, the attacker must specify the order of the blocking creatures.

What that means, in the scope of your question, is that the owner of the 5/5 creature must declare which of your 4/4s he is going to deal damage to first.  As such, you have a pretty good idea which creature you want to regenerate: the one the attacker put first into the firing line!  Unless something else happens, that creature will take 4 damage and be regenerated, the other creature will take 1 damage, and both your blockers will survive.


How do cards that generate restricted mana work with Kruphix and Omnath? Kruphix, God of Horizons makes it so mana, instead of emptying, turns colorless. On a similar note, Omnath, Locus of Mana, makes it so green mana does not empty between phases. How do these effects work with restricted mana, like mana generated with Food Chain or Shrine of the Forsaken Gods?

It's still the same mana —it simply changes/loses/gains color— so the restrictions remain.

From Kruphix's Gather rulings:

  4/26/2014 If unused mana in your mana pool has any restrictions or riders associated with it (for example, if it was produced by Cavern of Souls), those restrictions or riders will remain associated with that mana when it becomes colorless.

From Omnath's rulings:

  3/1/2010  If a green mana you add to your mana pool has certain restrictions or riders associated with it (for example, if it was produced by Ancient Ziggurat), they’ll apply to that mana no matter when you spend it.


2 Hg Team damage vs player damage So trying to read the 2HG format rules, and i'm not sure i understood how does it works.

Any team has a shared life pool starting from 30. Any damage to a player is taken from the shared hp, so when it reach 0 the team lose the game.

But the damage is dealt to a single player. So there could be a case where the team lose the game even if the shared health pool is not zero (excluding special cards).

For example:
if Team A cast a card that says i.e. "Deal 10 damage to target player", and now the team B has 20 life points. Team A deals 10 damages to player 1 in Team B, and he can't block this action (neither is teammate), it means that since the single player life is the (total life)/2 = 10 Player 1 of Team B reach 0 and then the team lose the game.

Correct?

Dealing 10 damage to a single player will not kill a team that has 20 life. This is where you are going wrong:

  the single player life is the (total life)/2

This might have been true years ago (more on that later), but by current rules, individual players in two-headed giant do not have life totals. You cannot divide the total life in half and assign that to each player. The shared life total is the only life total that a team has.

Correct: The team has 30 life.
Incorrect: Each individual player has 30 ÷ 2 life.

On the other hand, if the opposing team had 20 life, and you somehow dealt 10 damage to each opponent (e.g., with Fall of the Titans), then you would kill the opposing team.

Another user discovered that, prior to April 23, 2010, a rule for life totals in two-headed giant stated:

  If an effect needs to know the value of an individual player's life total, that effect uses the team's life total divided by two, rounded up, instead.

With the release of Rise of the Eldrazi, the rule changed:

  If a cost or effect needs to know the value of an individual player's life total, that cost or effect uses the team's life total instead.

This could explain part of your confusion. I omitted rule numbers intentionally, because they don't line up exactly with the current rules.


Priority and timing between enchantments and instants If I have priority and cast an Unholy Strength on a just summoned 2/3 creature, then, passing priority, my opponent casts a Lightning Bolt on that creature, does my creature survive? The first spell that resolves is obviously the bolt, that deals 3 point of damage to the creature; but immediately after, will the
Unholy Strength resolve (giving +2/+1), allowing the creature to survive?

It's not "immediately after" at all. Between the bolt resolving and the strength resolving, the game goes through a whole bunch of steps that are usually glossed over in casual play.

State-based actions are checked and then performed. This includes, but is not limited to, destroying creatures with lethal damage dealt to them, and causing players with 0 or less life to lose.
Repeat 1 until nothing new happens.
Abilities that triggered during the resolution of the bolt (e.g. "Whenever this creature is dealt damage") and during steps 1 and 2 are put on the stack.
Repeat 2 and 3 until nothing new happens
Players gain priority and may play instants and spells with flash.
If no player played anything, now the Unholy Strength resolves, sees that it has no valid target, and is removed from the stack to your graveyard with no effect.


What game with symbols and dice is this? There are 6 symbols, and dice has the same 6 symbols. You bet money on symbols.
There are three dice:
1 same symbol: you get what you bet
2 same symbol: you get double
3 same: you get triple
No same: you lose


Diplomacy: No units but 1 Non-Home Supply Center Hello Diplomacy enthusiasts.

I was recently playing an online game of Diplomacy with my friends and unfortunately drew Italy. All was going well until I was overrun by Turkey who made quick work out of Austria (and eventually went on to solo) and he agreed to let me survive in Tunis with an army so long I fight France and let him take my lands, as you do.

Anyways, in Spring 1911, he supported his fleet into my poor, 1 SC nation and I disbanded my unit. After a bit of negotiating, he vacated Tunis in the fall and I had 1 Supply Center that I couldn't build in, and 0 troops. When the game ended.

My question is whether I would have gained a share of the pot if I tied with the others.

Also, does it count as surviving?

Ok So I found the answer on this post:
All armies and fleets destroyed - Still in Game?

@bwarner said:

Even if it wasn't a home supply center they are technically not eliminated from the game. They could be included in a draw despite having no pieces on the board (and no way of getting more). You aren't eliminated until you have zero centers during a winter phase. – bwarner May 5 '14 at 13:31

So technically I would still be in the game.


What is the Monopoly M Symbol called? What is the post 2008 monopoly currency symbol called (M with two lines through it) and is there an alt-code for it? Below is an example of it from Monopoly Deal but it is also used in the regular monopoly game post-2008.

What is the M-symbol?

It is most likely just an imaginary symbol for Monopoly money.

For "everyday use", the closest symbol might be "₩" or "￦", just turned upside down. This is a symbol for Won, currency used in South and North Korea.

How to use it?: LaTeX

Since the Monopoly M is not a real symbol, it does not have an alt-code. It can be still used via LaTex. Dont worry, it's not very hard. Here's an little example.

For those who know Latex already:
Use this in your preamble

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

And this to make an alias

\newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}}

You may now use \M to insert the Monopoly M.

For those who are not used to Latex:

Copy-paste this into blank document in Overleaf.com, and edit it for your needs (You will need to sign up, but it is free). Then download your pdf or just use Print Screen, depending on your needs.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

\begin{document}
  \newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}} % make an alias '\M' for the upside-down Won.
  \Large
  \underline{\M { }stands for \M onopoly \M oney} \\[20px]

\large
\begin{tabular}{ll}
  Fish & \M 100 \\
  Chips &\M 50 \\
  Fish \& Chips \qquad \qquad & \M 120\\
\end{tabular}\\[20px]

\Large
 Normal: \M \qquad Bold: \textbf{\M}

\end{document}

Additional info: Unicode & HTML (Won sign)

As Wikipedia states, the first symbol (₩, WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point U+20A9, and has HTML code &#8361;. The second symbol  (￦, FULLWIDTH WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point  U+FFE6 and has HTML code &#65510;.


How the forced capture rule works with crowned pieces( in international checkers or...) If there is a possible capture two or more fields away from a king like b--w- or b-----w- are those count as a compulsory/necessary jumps or not?

It depends on the checkers/draughts variant that you are playing:

For American checkers / Britisch draughts (which are two names for the same game) and Italian checkers, kings are short-ranged and cannot jump over empty squares.
For all other variants (International/Russian/Spanish/Czech/Frisian/Thai draughts and Pool checkers), kings are long-ranged and can jump over empty squares as you indicated.

NOTE: in fact, for all but one (Thai draughts) of the long-ranged king variants, kings can also land on a sequence of adjacent empty squares behind a captured piece. In your notation, this would be patterns of the form B- - -w- - -, where the black king can land on any of the three - squares behind the white man.


Can a Dimir Keyrune receive a Cipher, and does the encoded spell stay? Here's the scenario (I hope I get this right by the rules): last turn, I summoned my Dimir Keyrune onto the battlefield. This turn, if I transform it into that "2/2 blue and black Horror artifact creature", I'll be able to attack with it. It will be unblockable, making it a good candidate for a Cipher spell. The transience of it being a creature, however, is a problem.

Whilst it's temporarily a creature, can I cast Paranoid Delusions and then encode it onto the Dimir Keyrune using Cipher?
When the Dimir Keyrune stops being a creature, what happens to the Paranoid Delusions encoded on it? Does Dimir Keyrune remain encoded? This would mean, I think, that in the future, transforming it back into a creature would mean I could attack with it and potentially cast Paranoid Delusions.

Yes, you can encode it on an animated Keyrune; and yes, it remains encoded even if the Keyrune stops being a creature.

A creature is a creature. It doesn't matter how it became a creature. It's even less relevant that it might stop being a creature. (Any creature could stop being creature.)

Enchantments, Equipments and Fortifications fall off because State-Based Actions (SBA) specifically ensure they are attached to a valid object. There is no such SBA for Cipher cards. As long as the Keyrune remains on the battlefield, Paranoid Delusions will remain encoded on it. Of course, you'll have to reanimate the Keyrune to take advantage of the encoded card.

There's a reminder rule that covers this:

  702.98c The card with cipher remains encoded on the chosen creature as long as the card with cipher remains exiled and the creature remains on the battlefield. The card remains encoded on that object even if it changes controller or stops being a creature, as long as it remains on the battlefield.


What is the fastest MTG Mill deck that can be made? I have been working on putting together a Mill deck and it occurred to me that there are likely much faster Milling decks out there. So, what is the fastest Milling win condition that can be achieved?

Deck limitations: Standard 4-card limit, and all cards except those from the Un-sets (Unglued and Unhinged) are legal.

Goal: Fastest win by Milling

Other considerations: You have perfect luck (you always draw the cards you need), your opponent won't be doing anything to disrupt you, your opponent has a 60-card deck that is susseptible to milling (ie. doesn't have any of the "shuffle your graveyard into your library" cards)

Also, if this sort of question isn't appropriate for this site, please let me know.

Opening hand:

Leyline of the Void
Helm of Obedience
2 Dark Rituals
1 Swamp

Turn 1:
Start with Leyline of the Void on the battlefield. Play a Swamp, then a Dark Ritual. Use one black mana to play another Dark Ritual. You will now have BBBBB in your pool. Play the Helm of Obedience and activate it for 1 mana. Your opponent's entire deck will be milled out because none of the cards ever goes to the graveyard.

Had someone use this against me in MTGO once and it took me a minute to work out how it had happened. Takes some serious luck to get this going on Turn 1, but if you can pull it off, it's definitely fun.


Can flip effects be in response to something? I cast a spell that would destroy my opponent's face down creature, and in response she flipped it to trigger its flip effect. Can she do that? I thought you could only do that as a Flip Summon during your Main Phase.

No, she cannot.

Monsters are only flipped face up under certain conditions:

Flip summon - a flip summon during the main phase, like you describe in your question.
Damage step - During the battle phase when a face down defense position monster is attacked.
Resolving an effect - When an effect specifically instructs to flip a monster face up, or instructs you to change a face down monster into attack position, which requires the monster become face up.


What are "triggered effects" in Unstable Unicorns? In the card game Unstable Unicorns there is a card called "Blinding Light", whose description states:

  Triggered effects of your Unicorn cards do not activate.

Does this refer to the abilities starting with "When...", or to those with "If..." or something completely different?

I'm specifically interested in any possible distinction between recurring ("at the beginning of your turn") and one time events ("When this card enters your Stable") and between automatic ("discard a card") and voluntary ("you may sacrifice this card") effects. In other words, can we treat this card as if it only said: "The abilities of your Unicorn cards do not work"?

Ok, so after looking through my game and rulebook and I read the "Triggered and Continuous Effects" section and all the examples you gave ("at the beginning of your turn, When this card enters your Stable, discard a card, you may sacrifice this card") are triggered.
The last two are triggered because "Some triggered effects are mandatory (ex. 'If this card is in your stable at the beginning of you turn, DISCARD a card'), while others are optional ('If this card is in your stable at the beginning of your turn, you may STEAL a Unicorn')"

The other two are triggered because triggered effects can also be preceded by a "when" like in your example ("Triggered effects are always preceded by an 'if' or 'when.'"). Some more proof that are triggered is that the next paragraph states that "Any effect on an Upgrade card, Downgrade card, or Unicorn card that is not a triggered effect can be assumed to be a continuous effect. A card's continuous effect is active as long as that card is in a Stable (unless otherwise stated)." and none of the examples you gave up in your question are continuous so therefore they must be triggered.

As for your "in other words", it's not the same because unicorn cards like the Queen Bee Unicorn can have continuous effects (If you're wondering what the Queen Bee Unicorn's effect is, it's "Basic Unicorn cards cannot enter any other player's Stable").


Arkham Horror: Is there any thematic introductory text out there for first time players? I'm going to play Arkham tonight with a couple of friends which they don't have any previous Lovecraft experience.

Is there any short text which I could use to introduce them to the Cthulhu Mythos and to what they're about to experience?

Thanks!

Each of the investigators has some flavour on the back of their investigator card. I've found using that gives the player some insight in to the strange going ons in Arkham, but leaves them just enough in the dark for it to remain mysterious.

Make sure you read out all the encounter cards and not just get to the business end of things in order to roll dice. Without all the flavour text from the encounters, things can get rather...maddening


Drawn through gate during an Arkham encounter Two investigators were in the same location in Arkham. The first investigator drew an encounter 'A monster and gate appear!'. He resolved that encounter by fighting the monster and then getting drawn through the gate. The second investigator also got drawn through the gate before having an encounter.

We also said that the two investigators did not have an Other World encounter as they were 'delayed' as they were drawn in to the gate. This ended up with the second investigator not having any encounters on this particular turn.

Was that the correct ruling?

Delayed has no bearing on whether an investigator has an Other World encounter or not.
However the gate takes precedence.  Both investigators should have been drawn through the gate first, then the monster appears.
From the Dunwich Horror FAQ:

Q: When a location card says a gate and a monster appear, which appearance is resolved first?
A: The gate appears first, and any investigators at the location are drawn through the gate. Then the monster appears. Monsters that appear as a result of these encounters stay on the board, count against the monster limit, can go to the Outskirts, etc., as normal.

And from the errata section of the same document:

Arkham Encounters
(pages 8-9 in the first printing of the Arkham Horror rules)
If an investigator is drawn through a gate that appears as
a result of an encounter (such as “A gate appears!” or “A
gate and a monster appear!”), then he is delayed, just as if
he had been drawn through a gate in the Mythos Phase.


What changes to the game will the "On The Brink" Pandemic expansion offer me? I'm trying to decide if I should get the pandemic expansion on the brink. Here's the obvious advantages I can see:

lets you play with 5 people
adds some variety with new cards
options to make the game harder

Is there anything else I should know before buying on the brink? Does it add enough to pandemic that its worth getting even instead of an entirely new game? Does it really make the game last about 15 minutes longer? Does it give the opportunity to stretch the game to 6 or 7 people without breaking?

To answer all your questions, but not in order:

Other things you should know:  Also adds some rather nice storage trays for the viruses, and some smaller pawns (including for the original base roles) which fit on the board better.  All of this stuff will just fit in the original box, but only if you're good at packing (the virus trays could actually do to be about 10% smaller).

The new roles add significant variation to the base game even without using any of the other new mechanics in the set.  (There's also a reprinted Operations Expert card with revised wording, which I recommend also using for the base game.)  It becomes tempting to add house rules for how you select powers; there's one new power that's related to (but a major variation on) each of the original roles, and some completely unrelated new roles on top.  This means that purely random draw can, if you're unlucky, produce some very odd or tricky mixes.  (Some groups, of course, prefer it that way.)

The expansion makes the game last longer only if you're using the new disease variants.  The bioterrorist option in particular takes longer, as it adds a hunt-the-hidden-player mechanic (a little bit like Fury of Dracula).  Mutating diseases add a little more complexity and hence a few minutes more playtime.  (They also make it harder, so they can dramatically shorten the playtime...)

Most of the variations on disease - and hence a lot of the set content - make the game more difficult. So if you regularly find Pandemic challenging, consider carefully: you might have trouble using some of the material without making it too challenging.

The question you linked addresses 6-7 players better than I can here. Short form: it works, but not at all well unless you add house rules to cope with the massive difficulty increase.  (Personally, I'd always rather play something else with 6 or 7; Pandemic really wasn't designed for it.)

Summary:

(Personal opinion: I found it to be fun, but expensive for the amount of content.)

Does it add enough that it's worth getting instead of an entirely new game?  Depends how much you play Pandemic.  If you play intermittently or are still finding the base game surprising you, probably not; use the revised Ops Expert wording and get another small game instead.  If you play Pandemic regularly and feel like you've seen all the base game has to offer, it's definitely worth getting.  If you regularly beat the pants off Pandemic and want some more challenging options, grab it.


Where can I download high quality images of poker cards? I am looking for high quality images of poker cards to download. I can use Google Images to download the images, but it would be impossible to find 53 identical cards in terms of style (52 cards + 1 joker card). Does anybody know where can I get these images from?

The deck linked by @Glorfindel is for French playing cards.

Here's a link to poker playing cards, in PNG or SVG format.

Poker cards are wider than French ones. This design is used by many decks, e.g. Bicycle Playing Cards, and will typically be the one you see in movies or at the casino.

  A full set of poker playing cards created using vector graphics. The
  .SVG source for each card is available as well as a high resolution
  rasterized .PNG version. These images are released into the public
  domain - attribution is appreciated but not required.

Here's the related blog post : Byron's Blog - Vector Playing Cards

As mentioned by @Dezza, there  are other alternatives:

  There's also SVG sets by revk at me.uk/cards with associated blog
  posts revk.uk/search/label/Playing%20cards


Does Commander Tax reset? Example:

I cast my commander from my command zone, paying no tax.
Commander dies
Goes to command zone
Summon from command zone, paying tax (2)
I bounce my Commander to my hand, play him from hand
He dies a second time.

The next time I play him from the command zone is his tax (2) or (4)?

The commander tax never resets, but it also doesn't count times when it isn't cast from the command zone; so you must pay an additional {4} in your case.

  903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the “commander tax.”

The additional 2 per time it has been cast counts every time it is cast from the command zone.


How do I avoid the endless trade negotiations in Settlers of Catan? When I play Settlers of Catan, I often find myself rapidly bored by the trading component of the game. This is normally because of one or two players who insist on endlessly protracted negotiations for any item. These always start at ludicrous extremes ("I want a lumber.", "I'll give you a lumber - for 3 sheep, a brick and two ore!", "No way!", etc. etc.) and take forever to converge (if they ever do). I find this type of thing can quickly suck the life out of the game. This is a shame, as, apart from that aspect, the game is quite entertaining.

How do you handle this sort of behaviour?

Don't engage in it. Start with your offer (Make it a fair one the first time round), and break it off as soon as someone tries to squeeze a little more out of the deal. People will tend to loosen up as soon as they realize they are not getting any deals done thanks to their negotiation urges.

Simple 'no's work best.


Can I double Furnace Scamp's triggered ability damage with a 3-counter Quest for Pure Flame? Assuming I have a Quest for Pure Flame with 3 quest counters on them and my Furnace Scamp deals combat damage to an opponent, can I then sacrifice my Quest in time to double the Scamp's triggered ability damage?

Yes, you can use the Quest for Pure Flame's ability to double the damage from the Furnace Scamp's triggered ability.

When the Furnace Scamp deals combat damage, both its triggered ability and the Quest's triggered ability go on the stack. For this to work, you have to put the Quest's triggered ability on top of the Scamp's ability. Then, do the following:

Let the Quest's ability resolve. The Quest now has four counters.
With the Scamp's ability still on the stack, activate the Quest's second ability and let that ability resolve. Now, for the rest of the turn, damage dealt by sources you control is doubled.
Now let the Scamp's ability resolve. Since the Quest's ability has already resolved, the damage is doubled.


In Axis and Allies, Should Russia Head East, West, Or Stay Put in the Early Going? Some Russian players like to send armies east. That is, to reinforce Allied outposts in Sinkiang and India. Maybe attack Manchuria on the first turn, if allowed. The theory is that Russia is strong enough to contain "only." Germany, so the need is to prevent Japan from becoming a swing factor in the game.

Other Russian players will launch spoiling attacks west as soon as allowed. Particularly in Norway, to open a window for Allied reinforcements.

A third strategy is "hedgehog." Push all the infantry into Karelia and Caucasus (roughly 2 to 1 in favor of the former) pull all the planes and tanks into Moscow for counterattack, and a last ditch stand. Then build 8 infantry each turn for about five turns. Here, the big worry is Germany. Let the Allies take care of Japan.

Which strategy do you prefer? East? West? or "Hedgehog?" And why?

You can have an Eastern front attack on Manchuria synchronized with the Allies to wipe out all of Japan/Asia on the third to fourth turn. Turn one, buy two anti-aircraft guns, three guys and a tank. Attack Belorussia with three guys and two fighters, Attack West Russia with four guys, a gun, two tanks. When successful,  move anti-aircraft guns to West Russia and Novosibirsk, move two remaining infantry from Russia to Caucasus, move a tank to Kazakh, one tank and one gun to Novosibirsk, two guys from Kazakh and two guys from Novosibirsk to Sinkiang, one guy to Soviet Far East and three guys to Yakut. Land your fighters in Caucasus. Phew.... place two guys and a tank and an a.a. gun in Caucasus and a guy and your last a.a. in Moscow.

Your Allies should build a factory in India, land the US bomber in Yakut s.s.r. US fighters and transport to prepare for an attack on Northern Europe. Secure the easy North Atlantic by the end of the first turn (or at least the second).

Second turn--you now have troops in place to secure Asia by the third or fourth turn. Buy whatever you want from now on and focus on the typical German slug fest. You are defended at home, have comitted a big enough force to make the diference in Asia and it's only the second turn. So... attack China with two tanks and four guys, and two planes if need be. Move the a.a. gun and the force in Novosibirsk into Sinkiang, the force in East Russia to Buryatia and get ready to take Manchuria. You can either hit it the next turn  or wait for the remaining force to arrive with the other a.a. gun. By now the US should be able to build two factories and have a force to hit Kwnagtung and UK should be able hit French Indochina. You can hit only one Japan land territory and mass, you can hit the zone with the factory, or you can take a weak sister and build a factory there.  Use your Asia allies to help destroy those lonely transports, have one ally clear the way for the next to hit a weak factory (if there is one). Don't forget, from Yakut the US bomber can hit either Norway or anywhere in Asia on the second turn.

IMPORTANT - for ally assisted operation, you must go US - Russia - UK   These all go before Japan gets another turn, you can use this formula to clean paths in mainland Asia, or even better, to hit and take out all three Japan land zones at once. But at the end of the first turn you've left Russia with a good army in West Russia, a strong force in Caucasus to defend and you've lost nothing in Asia. You've enabled at least one US factory, and with the added strength of two tanks and your fighters, on offense you should be able to take or assist in taking at least one if not all of the Japan land zones. You can also---on the third turn, before Germany even gets to go---have a factory in Karelia with British defense and US-occupied Norway. UK goes after Germany and can take Karelia, then the Russians move their force in and build a factory in liberated Karelia. These are a few neat moves for Russia to help in the battle for Asia. Any other ideas or great battle strategies I can use to whoop my friends (who are getting better each time)? Email me
john_ready@hotmail.com.