Can you cast a creature with Bestow while you control a Steel Golem? You control a Steel Golem, which says "you can't cast creature spells". Can you pay the Bestow cost on, say, a Hopeful Eidolon, and cast it as an aura enchanting the Steel Golem?

My reading of the rules is that you can't: Paying the bestow cost doesn't make the card into a (non-creature) Aura until after it's on the stack, and Steel Golem's restriction doesn't let you put a creature spell on the stack.

In general the ordering of steps in casting a spell is:

Choose a spell to play and place it on the stack.
Choose modes and targets.
Choose which costs to pay and pay them.

When applied to a Bestow spell, these become:

Place the bestow creature on the stack.
(No modes or targets to choose yet, since it's a creature spell).
Choose to pay the bestow cost.
The spell stops being a creature and becomes an Aura (702.102a).
The spell's controller chooses a target (702.102b).

But if "you can't cast creature spells", then you can't complete step 1, since your Hopeful Eidolon is still a creature. And (per 601.2) "If, at any point during the casting of a spell, a player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the casting of the spell is illegal".

(The converse situation seems to arise with Aurelia's Fury, where a Bestow card is playable because it's not a noncreature card until after the Bestow cost is payed.)

Does this sound correct or am I missing something?

Under the current rules, you can bestow despite "you can't cast creature spells."
The rules changed in the Magic Origins rules update to tweak the spell casting procedure and also to address the bestow interaction explicitly.
Matt Tabak (then the rules manager) writes:

I made some tweaks to the procedure of casting a spell or activating an ability. It basically boils down to the proposal of the spell, including making all necessary choices such as modes and targets. Then the game checks to see if what you've proposed is legal. Finally, assuming the spell is legal, you calculate and pay costs. In practice, not much is changing. Bestow gets a little easier to figure out. For example, if an effect stops you from casting creature spells, you can still cast one as an Aura. There are some strange cases with things like split cards or flash that become a bit clearer as well.

(emphasis mine) and

We've deleted [rule 601.5] that says you can't begin to cast a spell that's prohibited from being cast. The legality check now happens at one defined point, according to the changes to rule 601.2. [...]

The updated rules now include 702.102c which explicitly addresses this interaction:

702.102c. The check for whether a spell can legally be cast happens after its controller has chosen whether to pay its bestow cost; see rule 601.2e.
Example: Aether Storm is an enchantment with the ability "Creature spells can’t be cast." This effect doesn't stop a creature card with bestow from being cast for its bestow cost because the spell is an Aura enchantment spell, not an enchantment creature spell, when the game checks whether the spell is illegal.


ticket to ride new york - do I have to pick destination cards? I just claimed my final route and now have 2 cars left, so everyone gets one last turn, including me. Must I pick new destination cards on my final turn and then lose those points in the final tally?

Or more to the point, must you pick new destination cards when you have fulfilled all your routes, no matter what turn you are on?

You are never required to obtain additional destination tickets cards, even if you've completed the ones you have.

You have three options available to you:

You could claim a route. Remember, routes are worth points, and nothing prevents someone from claiming routes once their destination tickets have been completed.
You could pick new destination ticket cards. You might get lucky and get one or more that's already completed! If you don't think you're winning, this can be very effective.
If you're unable or unwilling to take the above actions, you can effectively "pass" by drawing more transportation cards.

While I used the terminology of New York in this answer, this answer applies to all of the following:

Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride: Asia
Ticket to Ride: Europe (You also have the option to build a train station.)
Ticket to Ride: Germany
Ticket to Ride: India
Ticket to Ride: New York
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
Ticket to Ride: Pennsylvania
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
Ticket to Ride: United Kingdom (You still have the option of buying a technology card before your normal action.)

I have no experience with the other Ticket to Ride titles.


Monopoly Deal Discarding Extra Cards What happens if a player doesn't discard the extra cards (more than 7) at the end of his/her turn and non of the other players catches that player?
But they do later...
1. When others have started their turn?
2. When it's the player's turn again who didn't discard, but the other player catches the extra cards then?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'catches'  to me that sounds you think its the other players responsibility to stop cheating. Checking the rules from here and here (I couldn't find a copy of official game rules on a quick search)  It reads that a player is not allowed more than 7 cards.  This is more commonly called a 'hand limit' in other games.

There isn't anything that says other players have to 'catch them'  to enforce a rule.  Nothing says you can have more than 7 cards if no one spots them.  This could be because either a player is cheating or more hopefully just made a mistake.

Its impossible to give a definitely answer about what happens in this game as its not covered in rules.  What I would suggest is to if possible just apply the hand limit as soon as error is noticed.  If this would give a player an unfair advantage then maybe discard at random although that could be unfair.   The links above say the came has a quick start guide?  I assume this mentions the order to do things on a turn including the hand limit?  Many games come with something like this and its a good idea to use it to follow you turn.  Say out loud to other players that you are discarding help each other and remind each other of rules mistakes happen less often.


What happens if you use a Clone Effect on a Double Faced Card that's Transformed? Say someone has Ludevic's Test Subject, which is a 0/3 Defender, and after some mechanics, transforms into a 13/13 Lizard Horror with Trample.

Say this someone managed to transform said card into its 13/13 Trample form, and then cast Phyrexian Metamorph on it (or any other clone type card if it would matter between different ones). Does the Metamorph/Clone/etc. come into play transformed, or as the 0/3 Defender?

If an effect tries to copy a double-faced permanent, it sees whichever side is face-up.
There's actually an example in the comprehensive rules that covers this sort of scenario:

711.3. Except for determining whether or not a permanent can transform, a spell, ability, effect, or rule that needs information about a double-faced permanent sees only the information given by the face that's currently up.
Example: A Clone enters the battlefield as a copy of Wildblood Pack (the back face of a double-faced card). The Clone will be a copy of the Wildblood Pack. Because the Clone is itself not a double-faced card, it can't transform.

Whenever a clone-style effect tries to copy a permanent, it copies the copiable values of that permanent. In the case of a double-faced permanent (that isn't already a copy of something else), those values are whatever is printed on the face that is currently showing.
Note, however, that if a permanent can only transform if it's actually represented by a double-faced card. If you create a copy of Ludevic's Test Subject before it transforms, you can add as many counters as you want, but it will never become Ludevic's Abomination.

701.25a Only permanents represented by double-faced cards can transform. (See rule 711, “Double-Faced Cards.”) If a spell or ability instructs a player to transform any permanent that isn‘t represented by a double-faced card, nothing happens.


I tend to focus on one aspect of a game. How do I take the necessary balanced approach that's necessary in games like Seven Wonders? My personality is to pick one thing, and then go all out on it. For instance, if I play Civilization, I might tons of a single unit. Or Settlers I might focus on roads. Often this negatively hurts me. The problem is that I just don't have an intuition for how to handle many different aspects of a game. How do I change my mindset when playing?

7 Wonders is a game that rewards flexibility.  Moreso than anything else, the winner will be the one who has identified the key weaknesses in the rest of the players and exploits that.

The problem that many players have is they think "I'll go science" or "I'll go military" or some other strategy.  Alternatively, they just pick the juciest looking card every time, with no thought to the ultimate purpose for the card.

Both of these methods are bad.  7 Wonders is a game about optimising your draft options.  Sometimes that means forgoing wonder levels.  Other times that means forgoing brown resources and other times that means neglecting yellow buildings.  In all cases, what you should realise is that while your civ has strengths, your opponents are revealing vital information about their game plans in each and every draft.

In one 7 Wonders game I played I was Rhodes (who are very, very strong).  I went a very early military building and then pure science and won.  The reason that I did that was that I identified early on that nobody was going science and my neighbours were scared of me going military.  They went heavy brown resources and yellow/blue buildings.  In another game I didn't get a single science card but picked up early game blue cards (which were being ignored by the board), enough military to get my 18 points and denied my neighbours the use of their marketplaces (which were both pointing away from me) by snagging and preventing key resources for their strategy.

In all cases, realising that the game was not multiplayer solitaire was enough to give me resounding wins.  Remember not to fixate on a strategy, rather, fixate on your opponents strategies.  You won't be able to counter them all, but you will be able to identify the gaps in demand and exploit them.


What do you do when you run out of Zombies? When playing with the base game Zombies, is there an official rule for what to do when you run out of Zombies? I checked BGG and the official rulebook and found nothing.

You're right, the official rulebook doesn't cover this, but their FAQ does:

  What if I run out of zombies or tokens?

  Use any kind of markers you can get a hold of. You can keep track of the zombies you have killed in other ways, such as glass beads, and return the zombies to the pool.

If you want more zombies, Twilight Creations sells a Bag O' Zombies for $10, which I believe contains 100 zombies.


Where do trashed Travellers go? In Dominion Adventures, when you trash one of the Traveller cards, where does that Traveller go?

The rules seems to imply the Trash pile.

However, since there are only 5 of each pile, I was wondering if there was some specific rules for cards that weren't in Supply like Travellers and Spoils.

If you trash it, then it goes to the trash pile like a normal card.

Same for Spoils and Ruins.

If you exchange a traveler, then it goes back to the original pile.


What are the differences between Small World and SW Underground? I was excited to see Small World Underground on the shelves of the local game shop yesterday, but neither the box nor the official web site seem to offer a succinct comparison with the original game.  It's clear that the races and maps have changed, but what else?

Additionally, how well does Underground work when used as an expansion for the original game (or vice versa)?  Some races have terrain-dependent powers, but at a glance, Underground doesn't appear to use any of the original terrain types.  Similarly, which expansions for the original game work with Underground?

There's a great "first look" at Small World Underground here.  This section in particular caught my eye:

  After you choose a map, do not use powers that depend on features
  that are not present.
  The following features are considered equivalent concerning their
  interaction with powers:
  -- Black Mountains / Mountains
  -- Mudpools / Marshes
  -- Mushroom Forests / Forests
  -- Mines / Mine symbols
  -- Mystic Crystals / Magic Symbols
  -- Rivers / Seas & Lake

  I would add that some of the special powers in SWU duplicate racial
  powers in SW, or vice versa. If they happened to get combined
  (Immortal Elves, for example), I would simply put them back in the bag
  and draw again. [Edit: Many such combos are OK, since they enhance
  each other -- e.g. Commando Ogres, Vampire Sorcerers -- just like
  Pillaging Orcs in SW.]

From the sound of it, there has been some effort to "integrate" the two different games so that they are not basically incompatible (i.e. making sure there are analogous terrain types), but this only goes so far.  Some races may not work, and some races may get special powers that duplicate their racial powers.  So it could prove a bit annoying making them work together, if you like things to be really neat and tidy...


Are there bridge behaviors that are technically within the rules that could be considered unethical? I would imagine that there might be more than one example, but the one that occurs to me is connected with "pysch" bids. That is the practice of bidding values that one doesn't have, in order to confuse the opponents in the bidding and subsequent play. Such bids might also tend to confuse partner, and it is this aspect that makes them "in bounds," ethically.

But suppose a player (perhaps even inadvertently) made a practice of refraining from such bids when ahead (in points), and stepped up the use of such bids after falling behind, to the point where partner could make educated guesses about the frequency of such bids just by knowing, or at least estimating,(in duplicate), the score. This pattern might actually help very sophisticated opponents, but would make things unusually difficult for many opposing pairs.

Could such a pattern around "psyching" (or other unusual practices in bridge) move the action to the wrong side of the ethical line? Is it "randomization" that makes such behavior ethical?

First: I'm speaking sanctioned duplicate bridge.  What happens in the rubber clubs is out of my experience; the Laws are different, and obviously when money is on the line, different things are ethical or unethical.

To answer your title: yes.  Because the ethics of the game are fully defined by the Proprieties (which were moved from "guidelines" to actual Laws decades ago), and "considered unethical" is frequently in the eye of the beholder, there are many things that are entirely Proper that society, even bridge society, would side-eye you for.  I remember explaining to a newer player that misbids were legal, and in fact, deliberately misdescribing your hand was legal under certain conditions (for instance, as you say, that it truly is a misdescription to all three opponents, and not something partner "expects').  She said that lying is totally unethical.

The other common ones I get complaints about are Law 72B2: no obligation to draw attention to an infraction committed by one's own side [except mistaken explanation], and frustrations when people have got a good score via Law 10C4: [excepting use of UI] it is appropriate for the offenders to make any call or play advantageous to their side, even though they thereby appear to profit...

There are other behaviours that are definitely "borderline unethical" that don't cross the actual letter of the Proprieties.  Many of them are made illegal by regulation of the Bridge Organization running the game (for instance: ACBL's Zero Tolerance for Bad Behaviour policy, or the EBU's Better Bridge Program).  And it is unethical to deliberately violate a Lawfully created regulation of your NBO (Law 72A, Law 80B2f).

To answer your question specifically, the Law 40C1 says, in part: Repeated deviations lead to implicit understandings which then form part of the partnership’s methods and must be disclosed in accordance with the regulations governing disclosure of system.

As others have answered, tendencies of your partner (as opposed to tendencies of players in general, even flight A players who psych more than 0%) become implied agreements very quickly.  It doesn't take more than one or two times partner opening 1NT on KQTxxx of clubs and out (and passing Stayman) for you to be aware partner might be doing this.  Now that it is an implied agreement, it may be an illegal agreement in your bridge organization ("Comic 1NT", 15-17 or a 2-level preempt, is illegal in the ACBL for instance). If it is not illegal, if you do not explain your actual agreement (which includes "but partner has been known to have ... instead"), you are misinforming the opponents, which is also an infraction.

Also, many bridge organizations have provided regulations or guidelines on psyching.  The ACBL has this to say about psychic bids.

In particular it points out three things that would be concerning, and should be investigated:

Excessive Psychic Bidding — When three or more psychic initial actions by members of a partnership have been reported in any one session and are called to the attention of the Director, the Director should investigate the possibility that excessive psyching is taking place. [The onus is on the player to prove that it is not, in this case]

[Note what is considered excessive, though - two or three in 26 boards.  Most players who do psych make it to two or three in a year]

Frivolous Psychic Bidding — Any psychic action inspired by a spirit of malicious mischief or lack of will to win may be interpreted as frivolous.
Unsportsmanlike Psychic Bidding — Action apparently designed to give the opponents an abnormal opportunity to get a good score, psychs against pairs or teams in contention, psychs against inexperienced players and psychs used merely to create action at the table are examples of unsportsmanlike psychic bidding.

It also has the category, totally banned, of risk-free psychics; those that are protected by system in any way.  A classic example is, after an opening 10-12 NT, agreeing that partner's 2 of a suit (to play) MAY NOT BE raised by opener, even with AKQT.  If that is because you would ever bid 2 hearts with xx to pick off their suit, your agreement is illegal.


Do harbor pieces count for determining the end game phase in Ticket to Ride Rails and Sails? The game moves towards its end once a player has “6 or fewer pieces”. Question: are the “harbor” pieces included in this count or only “locomotives” and “ships”?

It only includes Ships and Trains. The English rulebook is a bit unclear on this point, but other translations make it clear.
The specific wording form the English rulebook:

When any one player’s supply of plastic pieces contains six pieces or fewer (regardless of their type), each player, including that player, gets two more turns, after which the game ends and players calculate their final scores.

Note that "plastic pieces" is also used in the rulebook in other places, such as when talking about exchanging pieces. Because you start with all your harbor pieces anyway; you would never need to exchange them; you are only exchanging trains for ships or vice-versa.
From the French rulebook:

Lorsque la réserve de wagons d’un joueur tombe à 6 pions (wagons et bateaux confondus).

Google Translate:

When a player's wagon reserve drops to 6 pawns (wagons and ships combined)

The German rulebook:

Wenn ein Spieler am Ende seines Zugs nur noch 6 oder weniger Figuren (egal ob Waggons und/oder Schiffe)

Google Translate:

If, at the end of his turn, a player has only 6 or fewer pieces (regardless of whether they are wagons and / or ships)


In Phase 10, can a Skip card be played in the first round of a hand? Can a Skip card be played before all the players have had at least one chance to play? Or can it be played at anytime?

There is no such restriction. From the rules:

  The player ends the turn by discarding one card of choice onto the discard pile.

And

  SKIP CARDS: When discarded, a "Skip " card causes another player to lose their next turn. The player who discards the "Skip " card chooses the player who loses their turn. When a player draws a "Skip " card, the player may discard it immediately or save it for a later turn. A "Skip " card may never be used in making Phase 8, or any other Phase. A "Skip " card may never be picked up from the discard pile.


Carcassonne: Replacement/Extra player sets. So far I've found MeeplePeople and BoardGameExtras carrying replacement/extra sets for Carcassonne. I am however missing Mayor, Farm and the Cart(?) from those sets (possibly some expansion I have not played has other tokens as well).

Does anyone know where I can get extra/replacement parts for the full range?

Did find possible Farm & Cart replacement on BoardGameBits not the correct ones but if it is for replacement it might help someone.


Pedro Ramirez super power From the rules:

  during phase 1 of his turn, he may choose to draw the first card from
  the top of the discard pile or from the deck.

Are the cards in the discard pile visible?

Doesn't this incentivize the previous player to put the worst one on top when throwing many cards in the discrad pile?

Yes, the discard pile is face up. This is standard in almost any game, unless the rules specify otherwise. While the rulebook for Bang! doesn't seem to specifically state this either way, it does say that brown-bordered cards are

  played by putting them directly into the discard pile and applying the effect described with text ore symbols on the cards".

This wouldn't make sense if the discard pile were face-down, as you wouldn't see the card that was just played if that were the case.

And yes, if someone is discarding multiple cards at once, they could put the least helpful card on top to try and hurt Pedro Ramirez. However, it is not common that a player will actually be discarding many cards at once; most cards that go into the discard pile go there from being played. Only if you have exceeded your hand limit at the end of your turn would you be discarding more than 1 card at a time.


Will Exquisite Blood trigger even if the life loss eliminates the player We are trying to workout a ruling for a multi player game of mtg involving 8 players and a 1 player with an Exquisite Blood.

So lets say there are eight players. Player #3 has Exquisite Blood. Player #5 hits player #8 for 100 damage. Player #8 dies and Exquisite Blood triggers (For 100).

The confusion comes in for when Exquisite Blood resolves. As the opponent that lost 100 life not longer exists, will Exquisite Blood still resolve?

Player #3 will gain 100 life.

The fact that #8 is no longer in the game has no effect on Exquisite Blood's triggered ability. All of its effect was put on the stack when #8 lost 100 life. It does not require #8 to be in play when it resolves, because it does not check for any current information about that player. Even if it did, rule 800.4g would take effect:

If an effect requires information about a specific player, the effect uses the current information about that player if he or she is still in the game; otherwise, the effect uses the last known information about that player before he or she left the game.

Only effects that require a target are affected if that target is no longer legal or does not exist anymore; they would be countered in that case.


Can I use Extort in a deck that isn't both white & black? One of the creatures I have is color black and has the skill Extort which could be paid in white or black mana. Can I use this card in a commander deck with a mono black commander?

Yes, because extort is merely a keyword. The color symbol {hybrid white/black} is not part of the card, but only exists in reminder text, which is not officially part of the card.
Here's the official ruling on the matter:

EXTORT
With the release of Gatecrash, we'd like to clarify our stance on extort by confirming that, as always, reminder text has no effect on color identity. Extort adds no colored mana symbols to a card outside of its reminder text, and therefore is legal for play in Commander decks of any color or colors (as long as the card it appears on is otherwise legal, of course). There will be no updates to the rules in the foreseeable future that affect how extort works in Commander.


Does Nyxbloom Ancient replace the entire mana ability or just the part that produces mana? Nyxbloom Ancient has the following replacement effect:

  If you tap a permanent for mana, it produces three times as much of that mana instead.

I'm wondering whether the replacement effect ("instead") applies to the entire mana ability or just to the part that produces the mana. For example consider Empowered Autogenerator:

  {T}: Put a charge counter on Empowered Autogenerator. Add X mana of any one color, where X is the number of charge counters on Empowered Autogenerator.

With Nyxbloom Ancient on the battlefield, do I get to place the charge counter on Empowered Autogenerator?

Nyxbloom Ancient only modifies the mana produced. Empowered Autogenerator still gets a counter.

Rule 106.12b says

  A replacement effect that applies if a permanent “is tapped for mana” or tapped for mana of a specific type and/or amount modifies the mana production event while such an ability is resolving and producing mana or the specified type and/or amount of mana.

Empowered Autogenerator's activated ability has two separate instructions: first you add a counter, then you add mana. Only the second part is the mana production event, so only that part gets modified by Nyxbloom Ancient's ability.


Mafia-type game which a secret message is communicated During a recent visit to Europe, I saw some students playing a game that looked something like Mafia that played roughly like this (linguistic difficulties prevented me from any further understanding):  a group of 5-7 people were having essentially a normal conversation, and there were 2-3 "spies" who were trying to communicate some sort of message between each other, such as a pair of rhyming words or the beginning and end of a phrase.  The spies did not know each other's identities and were trying not to be "caught" by the other players, so the idea was that they had to weave these phrases into the conversation naturally.  There were other players with their own objectives as well, but I couldn't follow what they were.

Does this kind of game ring any bells with anyone?  Wikipedia is not returning anything useful.

Not a perfect fit, but it sounds a bit like Speakeasy, a party game in which you use a secret password to identify your teammates and try to deduce as much as you can about the other side, including their passwords and roles etc.

There are two sides (Feds and Mob) which are equally balanced and the game includes roles and "powers" which mix things up a lot.


Can an enchantment tutor find me auras? Would I be able to use cards such as Enduring Ideal to search for Auras?

If so can I then attach them to a creature when they enter the battlefield?

Yes and yes, assuming the aura enchants creatures, you couldn't attach say Abundant Growth to a creature, though you would be able to attach it to any land in the same way if you fetch it with Enduring Ideal.
Enduring Ideal searches for any enchantment, and aura is a subtype of enchantment. When an aura enters the battlefield with no target, you are able to attach it to any legal object.
It's worth noting that this means you don't target when you put an enchantment into play this way, so you can power up a creature you have with shroud using an enchantment, or Arrest an opponent's shroud or hexproof creature using this. This doesn't help when a creature has protection from that aura's color, as 702.16c prevents auras from attaching based on protection, it does not care about targetability like shroud and hexproof.
From the comprehensive rules:

303.4f If an Aura is entering the battlefield under a player’s control by any means other than by resolving as an Aura spell, and the effect putting it onto the battlefield doesn’t specify the object or player the Aura will enchant, that player chooses what it will enchant as the Aura enters the battlefield. The player must choose a legal object or player according to the Aura’s enchant ability and any other applicable effects.
702.16c A permanent or player with protection can't be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action.

This effect is a big part of how Zur the Enchanter EDH decks play, he grabs an enchantment and puts it on himself as soon as he attacks so the effects are there before blockers and damage.


Why are Gatorbacks so expensive? David Blaine's Gaterbacks sell easily at around the £20 mark. However, as far as I know, they aren't marked, they don't come with any gaff cards and other than the foil backs they aren't custom or even on a rare card-stock.

As a fairly new magician, I struggle to understand why such playing cards are as expensive as they are! Fontaine's are very limited, hence their price... are gaterbacks also very limited? What's so special about them?

Simply because it is a name brand that focuses on quality. Looking at the official site they put an emphasis on quality and combine that with a very big and popular name brand you get a higher price.

Having to license the David Blaine name and brand is most likely very expensive and is why you see a higher price on many name brand products.


Elimination when a player loses all herds, but still has a Chupacabra I'm looking for a rules clarification for "Chupacabra: Survive the Night" by Steve Jackson Games.

The rules state:

  Any player who loses all his dice is out of the game, even if he hasn't attacked yet on that round!

If a player rolls a combination of herds and at least one Chupacabra and all of their herds are taken are they eliminated? They still have at least one dice because of the Chupacabra.

The clause stating "even if they haven't attacked" seems to allow for them to have Chupacabras and still be eliminated.

From talking (on the phone) with the lovely people at Steve Jackson Games in Austin:

If you still have a die, you're still in the game.

Rolling a Chupacabra essentially means you're safe and can't get kicked out of the game that round. There's no way to "kill" a fellow Chupacabra.

I think that when the game rules say "Even if they haven't attacked" they mean "Even if they haven't had a turn yet".


In Monopoly, what happens if the auction winner cannot pay his/her bid? Let us imagine a situation when we play Monopoly and one of the players refused to buy a property. It was sent to auction. Auction passed succesfully, but the problem is that the winner cannot pay his/her final bid. He/she does not have enough money. And even selling houses and hotels and mortgaging properties does not help.

What do the game rules say about this situation, is it possible at all? And must players calculate their total amount of money before an auction is started? Thanks.

The player who cannot pay has just properly incurred, according to the Rules, a debt to the Bank that cannot be paid. That is the definition of Bankrupt.

If the player is unable to relieve the bankruptcy, then all their assets go to the Bank, which then auctions off all properties to the remaining players, as per the Official Rules for Bankruptcy.

The property originally landed on is part of the Bankruptcy Sale of the Bankrupt player's properties.

Capitalism is harsh boys and girls - no second chances in Monopoly.


Why couldn't I declare Tsumo with this hand? I recently played a game of Mahjong on the internet, and I had gotten this hand

[2 Characters]
[3 Characters]
[North Wind]
[North Wind]

[4 Characters] <- Drawn Tile

[Melded Pon of 2 Bamboo]
[Melded Chi of 3-5 Bamboo]
[Melded Kan of 1 Characters]

but it wouldn't let me declare Tsumo.
I had a few possible reasons why I couldn't but I don't know the game that well. Can you not have a pair of Winds to complete your hand? Or is my hand invalid in some way?

Here is my discards, it might serve some purpose -

[Characters] 7
[Bamboo] 4, 3, 1
[Dragons] Red, Green, White
[Winds] East, West

Riichi Mahjong has a one-yaku minimum before you can complete your hand.  While tsumo gives you a yaku if the hand is still closed, it won't give you anything if you've already opened your hand by calling melds.

For further details, you can read the related answer here: Why couldn't this hand win with ron?

Your hand, as it stands, doesn't have any yaku.  If the North wind was active (i.e. if you were playing in the North seat) you could earn a yaku by calling or drawing a third North tile, but then you would be stuck with a pair wait on one of the 2/3 character tiles.  Beyond that, about the only way you could win with that hand (short of hoping for a winning tile on the last draw or a kan draw) would be to swap out the characters and replace them with a set of dragons or an active wind.


How slippery are the Fantasy Flight Sleeves? I want to protect my Arkham Horror game cards with sleeves, but I have had bad experiences with sleeves which are too slippery. With tall decks, the sleeves produce decks that are not stable enough.

How slippery are the Fantasy Flight Sleeves?

Fantasy Flight sleeves are quite thick, durable and good quality. They're quite comparable to Ultra Pro sleeves for Magic: The Gathering.

Straight out of the packet, they are very slippery when you first sleeve your decks. Over time, or with some extended shuffling, they will become much less slippery.

The decks in Arkham aren't that tall, so I haven't found the slipperiness to be a problem in practice. Personally, I quite like sleeving in general as it makes the decks easier to shuffle. But if you really don't like slippery decks, and don't have the patience to break them in, then you might want to skip the sleeving.

A few other points to consider.

Buying sleeves for all your cards is fairly expensive, especially if you have lots of expansions.
Storage in the Arkham boxes is already quite tight. Sleeving the cards makes the decks significantly thicker, so that may be an issue.
Consider how much wear the decks receive in practice. If cards aren't shuffled often or aren't being held in-hand for extended periods of time, then sleeving may not be worthwhile.

If you do decide to get them, you'll need the "Mini American" (colour-coded yellow) for the small decks (items, etc.), and "Standard American" (colour-coded green) for the full size decks (e.g. Mythos cards). FFG's sleeving guide will also tell you how many of each pack you'll need, per Arkham expansion.


What is the order of Waterfront Bouncer's ability + Basking Rootwalla + Intruder Alarm on the stack? I have some confusion about the ordering of specific triggered abilities on the stack which can be summarized with this sequence:

Waterfront Bouncer (no summoning sickness) and Intruder Alarm are on the battlefield under my control.
Basking Rootwalla is in my hand.
I activate Waterfront Bouncer's ability, paying the cost by tapping an Island and Waterfront Bouncer, and discarding Basking Rootwalla.

What is the order on the stack, and does Waterfront Bouncer untap? Can I target Basking Rootwalla with Waterfront Bouncer's ability?

This is the order of events:

You announce that you wish to activate the Bouncer's ability. As part of activating the ability, you pay the costs and choose the target (which has to be on the battlefield). The Rootwalla goes from your hand into exile when you discard it, the Bouncer is tapped, and you put the ability on the stack
The madness ability triggers, and you put that on the stack on top of the Bouncer's ability
Each player gets the opportunity to play spells and activate abilities (a "priority wave" happens; I'll go ahead and assume that no additional spells and abilities are played, but I'll indicate where players have the opportunity)
The madness triggered ability resolves, during which you get to choose whether to play the Rootwalla or put it into your graveyard. I'll assume you choose to play it. This makes the Rootwalla a spell on the stack, on top of the Bouncer's ability
New priority wave
The Rootwalla resolves, and becomes a creature on your battlefield
The intruder alarm's triggered ability triggers, and is put on the stack on top of the Bouncer's ability
Priority wave
Intruder alarm resolves, untapping all creatures
Priority wave
The Bouncer's ability resolves, returning the originally targeted creature to its owner's hand


Are omens dropped as items We played the haunt where the betrayal controls a zombie lord and many zombies. There was one omen (I do not remember its name) that can kill the zombie lord. Only this item can kill it. The hero caring it died. As per the rules they dropped only their items. What happens to that omen? Is it lost forever? Is it returned to the stack or is it dropped?

Most Omens are also regular items, yes.

From the first edition rulebook (sorry, second edition rulebook isn't available online anywhere).

  Most omen cards (except the Bite card) are also items you keep,
  and they’re used like other items.

And

  Some omens, like the Dog, aren’t items at all, so they can’t
  be dropped or traded. They’re companions that follow
  the explorer who has custody of them. (The Dog, Girl, and
  Madman all work this way.)

The second edition added the keyword "Companion" to The Dog, Girl, and Madman.

A Companion can't be dropped, traded, or stolen. But if it is lost, usually due to the owner being killed, then it stays where it is until another player enters the room with it; at which point it starts following the new player instead.

  If you die and you have a companion (the Dog, the Girl, or the Madman), its token stays in the room where you died. Set aside that omen card. If another explorer enters the room, he or she gains custody of that companion (and takes that omen card).


What are good strategies against counterspell decks? I'm currently honing a white-green tokens deck for Standard tournament play. I feel like I have a good handle on my game-plan for most of the other common archetypes, but I'm really stymied playing against the counterspell-heavy blue decks.

It's not hard for a blue deck to run 4x Mana Leak, 4x Dissipate, 4x Vapor Snag, and 4x Snapcaster Mage, giving him plenty of options to counterspell or bounce literally every single spell that I try to cast. I've tried two basic options:

Go aggro. Cast spells as quickly as you can, try to exhaust his supply of counterspells, and hope that one of your plays will eventually stick. (This usually doesn't work.)
Play the waiting game. Wait for him to tap out on my end step and then sneak in a Midnight Haunting, or, more rarely, hope that he eventually taps out or runs out of cards on his turn and gives me a chance to play some creatures. (This works a little better, but is very inconsistent. It depends on Villain eventually giving me an opening, and every turn I wait is another turn where he gets a chance to draw his finishers.)

Is there another way to play against this deck?

Tactics in Play

Counterspells are powerful because they're a broad-brush answer to a lot of spells. Whatever spell type is central to your opponent's game plan, you can stop it on the stack. This versatility comes at a price, though: timing. If you've got a threat on the board, I can use Doom Blade to deal with it whenever is most convenient for me; with a Mana Leak, though, I have to cast my spell while yours is on the stack -- meaning I have to have the card in hand then and there, and the mana open to use my counter. Exploiting this weakness is the foundation of anti-counter tactics.

(Note that I'm assuming you're playing in a more "conventional" environment like Limited or Standard here. The dynamics of Legacy or Vintage are pretty different, but would require long digressions about a couple of particular cards.)

Play an aggressive early game. Most 1-drop counters are very situational, meaning they likely won't see widespread play in a control deck. So, right off the bat, you have 1-2 turns to establish an early board presence. Rush out permanents that will help you build board position or pressure your opponent's life total.

When you do this, be mindful of sweepers (like Wrath of God). A typical control-deck strategy against aggressive starts is to use just enough counters or spot removal to survive to drop a sweeper, and then clear the board and try to "take over" with raw power and card advantage. Generally speaking, early pressure is good, but disgorging your entire hand ASAP is not necessarily an optimal plan.
Exploit your opponent's limited mana in the mid-game. In the mid-game, your opponent will have enough land for counterspell mana, but you can still exploit the limitations of her mana base. Playing 1-drops and 2-drops straight into counters can put you at a mana advantage over your opponent. If you're both at 4 lands and she Dissipates a 1-drop, you still have 3 mana to pay for other spells. It helps if you have a key card that your opponent can't easily answer once it's on the battlefield: just holding enough mana open to cast your big threat creates pressure on your opponent to let your other stuff through.

Another trick is to save your instant-speed plays for your opponent's end step. This puts your opponent in a double bind: if she counters your current play, then she'll be tapped out on your turn, and you'll get to play a thing; if she doesn't, hey, you just got to play a thing!
Plan for the end-game. Your opponent has to play threats of her own to win. They're likely at the top of her curve (for a pure control deck) or at the bottom (for an aggro-control deck).

Against control or combo-control: Your opponent is using counterspells to slow down your development while she plays out lands to pay for her big stuff. Eventually she'll drop some big finisher or set up an engine that gives her ever-increasing advantage. Having an answer for it will help you avoid defeat (or at least force your opponent to wait a few more turns to play it, so she can have counter backup), but fundamentally you'll still want to win on speed.
Against aggro-control: Your opponent is trying to win on tempo. This involves setting up an early clock and then using counters and bounce spells to keep it going. Her undercosted threats become less and less powerful as the game wears on, though. Unless you can straight-up out-race her, you need to focus your efforts on stopping her clock. If you can do this, you can often grind out a win once her deck runs out of steam.

Deckbuilding Strategy

You can make deckbuilding decisions to beat counterspell-heavy decks, too.

Include counter-proof lines of attack. Even though they're highly versatile, counterspells still can't counter everything. So, just play offensive cards that are impervious to counters. Thrun, the Last Troll is a popular sideboard card for this reason, being immune to counterspells and most removal (as a regenerating 4/4 for 4, he's also awesome enough to maindeck). Cavern of Souls can make any of your creatures uncounterable. Cards like Inkmoth Nexus and Moorland Haunt allow you to play offense with your land drops even if all your spell cards are getting zapped with counters. This is probably the easiest way to deal with permission-heavy decks without spreading your deck too thin (though watch your color density).
Sideboard specific hosers. When all else fails, if you're having lots of trouble with any particular matchup, it's sensible to devote some space to it in your sideboard. Cards like Defense Grid or Vexing Shusher can restrict counterspells. Cards like Summoning Trap can punish them. Note that your hosers don't have to be focused on the counterspells themselves — if your opponent's deck is light on threats, you can disrupt them with cards like Slaughter Games; if they require lots of mana, try land destruction like Molten Rain to delay them.
Don't play midrange without disruption. "Midrange" is a term for archetypes that try to straddle the line between aggro and control. They try to beat aggro decks by being "a little bigger" and control decks by being "a little faster". The problem is that "a little faster" doesn't work all that well. Oftentimes you do beat aggro (by going "a little bigger"), but counterspells clobber your deck because you're playing most of your stuff in the midgame (when your opponent has mana for counters) but the spells in your deck generally aren't big enough that you can win the game just by getting one of them to stick. The most successful midrange-style decks typically use focused hand disruption (e.g. Thoughtseize) to clear an opponent's counters and removal.


Starting items for investigator not available During a recent game, a player was defeated. He chose another investigator but when he came to receive the starting items, we realised that they were actually with another investigator in the game.

What should happen in that case? Does the new investigator just miss out on those items or do they take them from the other investigator?

If the items are unavailable, the new investigator cannot take them.

From the official errata & FAQ:

  Q. What happens if a new investigator’s starting possessions are
  being used by another investigator?

  A. When a player chooses a new investigator, he receives
  that investigator’s starting possessions from the decks,
  discard piles, or reserve. If the starting possessions are not
  in these places, such as if another investigator or a defeated
  investigator has them, the new investigator does not start
  with those possessions.


Do effects that can destroy a Commander and generate a token prevent the Commander from being put in the Command Zone? If the Commander is turned into a 3/3 monkey, or another type of token creature by a different effect, can it still be put in the Command Zone instead of in the graveyard?

There are two different kinds of effects that are similar to the one described. One is a card like Pongify, which has this text:

  Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller creates a 3/3 green Ape creature token.

If you cast Pongify on a commander, the commander is destroyed when the spell resolves, and its controller can choose to move it to the command zone at that time. Once the Pongify resolves, the Ape token exists as a completely separate creature from the commander.

There are also cards like Turn to Frog, which has this text:

  Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a blue Frog with base power and toughness 1/1.

If you cast Turn to Frog targeting a creature, it still counts as the same creature; it has just changed characteristics. But the property of being a commander is inherent to the card and doesn't change after the game begins, so that creature is still a commander, and can still be moved to the command zone when it is destroyed.


Principato: availability of cubes In Principato two basic resources are gold and food. When 4 people play the game the bank runs out of these cubes pretty quickly. The rule book says nothing about this.

First question: I assume that it is so on purpose to give players more options to play against each other. Is that correct? Or should we have as much food and gold as we want?

One observation I've made is that it becomes very different when 3 players play. Availability of cubes is much better and I expect that with 2 players it's not a problem anymore. It changes the mechanics of the game.

Second question: Shouldn't cubes' availability be limited in some way when only 2 or 3 players play? I haven't found anything on this in the rule book but my feeling is it would make sense.

There is no FAQ from the designer, and he has never answered definitively on BGG, but without any rule in the rulebook to the contrary.

The cubes are lmited.

For example, take:

Monopoly the houses are limited, but cash has a specific rule that it isn't.
Puerto Rico the goods and buildings have a limit, but if victory points run out keep track on paper.
Race for the Galaxy the VP points if you run out, you are told specifically to keep track some other way.

Unless a rule tells you otherwise, I would assume that components are limited by their physical natuire unless otherwise noted.


MTG: Is there a lower-limit for life total? If I am playing a game where I have a card in play that makes it so I don't lose from loss of life, and go to -1 life, would I need to gain 2 life in order to be safe without the anti-loss card anymore, or does the negative 'reset' to 0 after damage effects and cards on the stack resolve?

You can go into negative life totals. If that doesn't cause you to lose, subsequent events still affect your life total normally: you could gain life back to zero or above, and losing more life will push you further negative.

The rulings on Beacon of Immortality confirm this:

  2/1/2007  If you double a negative life total, you do the real math.  A life total of -10 becomes -20.

  7/15/2007     Beacon of Immortality's effect counts as life gain (or life loss, if the life total was negative) for effects that trigger on or replace life gain (or life loss).

So yes, if you're at -1 life, you'd need to gain 2 life to get back to 1 life and be safe without whatever was keeping you from losing.


Choosing the right Duel Deck In our gaming circle there is one person who's unfamiliar with M:tG. Now, we had the idea of buying a duel deck to get her into it (at least so her presence is not excluding / excluded by Magic as The Game of the Night), but then we fell short. We couldn't find any comparison (comprehensive or otherwise) between different decks. All we can find on the internet is reviews of single sets.

What's most important to us is basically balance between the two deck and how well they complement eachother. I.e. the Izzet vs Golgari has graveyard shenanigans pitted against burn and control, while Ajani vs Bolas seems to be more of a white weenie vs heavy hitter. Of course, how fun the decks are to play also matter a great deal. So does availability, unfortunately, but I'll look into that later.

Bottom line, is there any comparison of the different duel decks out there, or do I need to go through reviews of each one and see which one feels most fitting?

(Full Disclosure: I've purchased a lot of the Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons, Venser vs. Koth, Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas, Izzet vs. Golgari and Sorin vs. Tibalt.)

If I was trying to teach a new player, I actually wouldn't use any of the Duel Decks. They are classified as 'Expert' level products by Wizards of the Coast, so they may contain a lot more complexity than a new player is ready for. The complexity comes from the actual cards in the decks and the strategies that one deck needs to use to beat the other. (Side note:  Also, if you plan on playing in Standard or collecting for it, most of the cards in the Duel Decks won't be Standard legal.)

In my experience, one of the Duel Decks is typically stronger than the other, usually to provide contrast between a fast aggro deck and a slower control or ramp deck. For example, in Knights vs. Dragons, the Knights win a LOT, because the deck is full of really strong, low casting cost creatures. The dragons are bigger and tougher, but have a much higher casting costs. The Dragons deck does have SOME ramp, but most of the time it will take a early beating before it can get established, and not recover.

(Also in Knights versus Dragons, there's a Knight with Protection from Red. The Dragons deck has a grand total of two ways to remove this guy. One colorless burn spell and one artifact creature. If you don't drawn into those, or if you use the burn spell on something else, you've got trouble.)

The same thing happens in Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas; Ajani has a lot of strong threats that are very cheap to cast. Bolas is more of a control deck, but it's not as well built of a control deck as you could hope for. The control is spread all over the place: a couple of counters here, a couple of discard spells there, so it's not very focused on one aspect of control, and therefore weaker. Again, most games go with Ajani taking the early lead and Bolas hoping to catch up and win.

The imbalance in the Duel Decks could lead to very frustrating games, especially for a new player. That could be mitigated by having the players switch decks, but all in all, they are likely to see that one deck is stronger than the other and wonder why the weaker deck is there at all.

In short, Duel Decks are great for experienced collectors and veteran players, but not so hot for new players. What you should try is....

If you are trying to have them learn the game from square one, a Booster Battle Pack is the way to go. A Booster Battle Pack has 40 cards total. Those are split by color into 5 lands and 5 other cards. The colors that you get are randomized, so you might get one that includes Red, Black, White and Blue, but no Green. You select two of the colors and then have a deck of 20 cards that you use to play a short game.

The small deck size helps a new player to get to playing the game right away, without a bunch of rules explanations. Once you've played several games, you can swap around the colors and try different combinations. The Booster Battle Pack also contains two actual booster packs, that you can crack open and add to your decks.

I used Booster Battle Packs to teach my fiancee how to play and she's really enjoyed it. For Magic Veterans, it seems like a useless product because of the simplicity, but you'd be surprised at how much fun the (mini) games can be.

Once your player understands the fundamentals of the game, have them play someone else's decks until they get a good idea of which deck archetype they like. (Aggro, Control, Combo, etc.) That way, the new player doesn't have to invest any money, but still gets to try out a range of different decks. Or, you could have the other players sit down and donate cards from their collections to build a deck of them.


Phage the Untouchable as a Commander? I was looking through the Black Legends with thoughts of building a mono-black EDH deck, when I came across Phage the Untouchable. Am I right in assuming that if she is cast from the command zone, you lose the game? (As the command zone is not considered your hand.) Is there any way to get her from the command zone into your hard or graveyard so you could cast her without losing the game?

The only one I can come up with is having a Platinum Angel in play, so you don't lose the game when you cast her.

Torpor Orb should work. You could make the deck have a minor focus on creatures that normally are a pain to get out, like Leveler...


What are these Strange Pattern Yugioh Cards I came across these bizarre looking Yugioh cards in my collection. They look nothing like my other cards. They clearly say Yugioh cards...are they knockoffs? If so, why do they look so bad.

Thanks!

They clearly say Yugioh cards...are they knockoffs?

Those are fake cards*, although from the image I see they use the actual names of existing, original cards, and even the correct effects (for example Hiro's Shadow Scout).
Further reading on counterfeit cards.
*I know they are fake because... experience. But just to point out some of the details:

The YuGiOh logo on the back of the card is clearly not the same as the original YuGiOh logo
The colors are off. Those monsters look red (like trap cards) and trap cards look more like the monster color
The displayed attack on the monster card mimics the one on OCG/Anime (displayed on the bottom right in its own box), whilst the text is English - a clear mix-up


How would you "study" Risk? This question is not about a particular situation in the game, but rather how to study the game in the sense of if I wanted to learn Scrabble, I would spend time focusing on how certain uncommon letters can be used in words of length X or the goals of different strategies.

If no one had ever played Risk before, how would we go about learning to evaluate which moves are better for a particular situation?

This is purely off the top of my head, but the following come to mind:

Learn the most likely die rolls
Look at paths of contact (eg, you can only get to Australia through Siam)
Find "choke points" (building off the contact paths)
Note that Continent bonuses are in proportion to not only size, but difficulty in holding/winning them
Gameplay can be wildly different with two players instead of 3, 4, 5, or 6

ultimately all games devolve into 2 player games, but knowing how to handle the higher number of players is key to surviving long enough to be in the final pairing

The Neutral player in a 2 player game can have some interesting consequences when playing strictly

because they are not required to be eliminated to win, you might only attack to gain a Risk card
depending on how the cards were dealt, they can be used to your (or the other player's) advantage as a buffer to weaken attacks (or strengthen defense), forcing the attacker to expend more armies to defeat the defender

Everything else I can think of come with time and practice:

like when to attack / when not to attack

for example, if your contact territories are heavily defended, but your non-contact territories only have one or two armies, it may be a Bad Idea™ to attack from there if the enemy territories are moderately-well defended (ie, they could attack back form multiple directions easily against a weakened contact territory and wipe-out the middle of your holdings)

when to hold cards / when to turn them in

for example, if you know that your opponent must turn his cards in on his next turn (he has 5, and therefore has a set), but you have the option (perhaps you have a set, but you have four cards, and can therefore wait a turn), it may be worthwhile holding yours till after he turns his in to get the next-higher army value from them
in my experience, holding your trades only notably impacts the game early on (before the turn-in exceeds 10 armies)

etc

And don't forget the psychology of the game, too:

Some players "want" Africa and will do [almost] anything to get/keep it (for example)
Aggressive vs non-aggressive play styles
etc


What are the strengths and weaknesses of the factions in the Call of Cthulhu LCG? What are the mechanics and playing styles that best suit each of the factions? What combinations of factions can offset each other's weaknesses?

I only have the seven factions in the core set, but feel free to comment on all eight. Also, feel free to limit the tips to things that are good for a beginner playing casual games only. You can assume I'm familiar with all the (core-set) rules, just not any strategies or particularly strong cards and card combinations.

I've done a bit of my own research, so I can provide what I've learnt so far. It's worth mentioning that this is not what I've learnt from extensive play, but rather what I've gleaned from comments and articles about the factions.

Agency - Quite straightforward strength in combat, plus some have Willpower which offers resistance to being driven insane. Supposedly they're well balanced and a good "support" faction.

Syndicate - Sneaky. Lower play costs allow them to be played early, plus the ability to manipulate other characters (via exhausting and reducing stats) and stories (via switching) make them hard to pin down. Decent at combat but vulnerable to insanity.

Miskatonic U - Tons of investigation, plus decent arcana, but pretty awful combat and terror effectiveness. Also has decent deck control (drawing and filtering) and can sometimes manipulate the struggles to their advantage.

Cthulhu - Very powerful combination of combat and terror. The downside is that it's an expensive faction to play so takes a while to get moving. Card destruction is the big theme within the faction.

Hastur - Terror (plus lots of non-struggle insanity) and hand manipulation, as well as the ability to prevent effects are the strength of this faction. Weaknesses include the inability to actually destroy other cards, and a shortage of decent characters.

Yog-Sothoth - Card filtering and discard pile manipulation, but with some weakness to insanity. No particularly great characters, but they'll keep coming back.

Shub-Niggurath - Acceleration and characters that improve each other when they're all on the board together. Decent combat and terror, but lacking in arcana and investigation and not particularly good at removing opponent's characters.

Hopefully these notes can give a decent starting point.


Taranika, Akroan Veteran's ability When Taranika, Akroan Veteran's ability triggers and I untap another creature, can I declare this creature as an attacker as well? Or maybe attackers are already declared? What happens here?

No, it is too late to declare another attacker; the triggered ability won't even trigger until it's too late, and after it triggers it must go on the stack and resolve.

From the rules:

  Declare Attackers Step

    508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 723, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

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

      [...]

      508.1m Any abilities that trigger on attackers being declared trigger.

    508.2. Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)

      508.2a Abilities that trigger on a creature attacking trigger only at the point the creature is declared as an attacker. They will not trigger if a creature attacks and then that creature’s characteristics change to match the ability’s trigger condition.

      508.2b Any abilities that triggered on attackers being declared or that triggered during the process described in rules 508.1 are put onto the stack before the active player gets priority; the order in which they triggered doesn’t matter. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)

This does mean that you can target another creature that attacked along with Taranika, to untap that creature and also buff it.


What's this game depicting an old viking in the middle of a big character sheet with futhark script? On a French-language boardgame site, someone is looking to identify this game.

I did a google image search of this and after following a few leads I found it is from Runaljod: The sound of the runes.  BGG link here
The image in question can be found of the games Kickstarter page as the "Berserk" character.


What happens when Mathas, Fiend Seeker's bounty counters go away and come back again? Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a new Commander card with this ability:

  At the beginning of your end step, put a bounty counter on target creature an opponent controls. For as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it, it has “When this creature dies, each opponent draws a card and gains 2 life.”

A Gatherer ruling clarifies I can pick the same creature multiple times, and it stacks:

  If Mathas’s ability resolves two separate times targeting the same creature, that creature will have two instances of the triggered ability. Each triggers separately when that creature dies.

This regularly means I can pick the same creature three times, and when it dies, each opponent will draw 3 cards and gain 6 life. (The extra bounty counters are redundant -- it just needs to keep at least one.)

However, what happens to those triggered abilities if all of the bounty counters vanish, and then later the same creature is bountied again?

Let's consider this scenario:

I place a bounty on someone's Charging Badger. It gets a bounty counter, and acquires a new triggered ability: “When this creature dies, each opponent draws a card and gains 2 life.”
Someone else plays plays Aether Snap, Thief of Blood, or Vampire Hexmage — the bounty counters vanish. If Charging Badger dies now, nobody draws cards or gains life, that's OK.
When it's my turn again, I bounty the exact same Charging Badger a second time. It gets a bounty counter, and acquires a new triggered ability (again): “When this creature dies, each opponent draws a card and gains 2 life.”
That Charging Badger finally dies.

How many bounties trigger then? Do we draw 1 card and gain 2 life (from one bounty), or draw 2 cards and gain 4 life (from two bounties)?

I can see this mechanically working out two different ways and I'm not sure which one's accurate:

We draw 1 card and gain 2 life: in step 2, the Charging Badger's bounty triggered ability vanished. In step 3, it gets one back, but it's as if it's never been bountied before.
We draw 2 cards and gain 4 life: in step 2, the bounty triggered ability just became sort-of-not-there in some way. In step 3, when the Charging Badger gets a bounty counter again, the previously-there triggered ability also comes back along with the new one we just placed there.

The bounty will only trigger once.

For as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it..." is a continuous effect.

The effect itself being that it has the triggered ability, and the duration being "as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it".

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it.

The moment the first bounty counter leaves the creature, the continuous effect ends, and thus it loses the triggered ability. The fact that it later gets a new, second bounty counter is irrelevant to that first ability.

It's worth noting that if you give the same creature 2 counters, and then it loses just one of those counters (such as through Medicine Runner or something), then it will still have 2 instances of the triggered ability, because neither continuous effect will have ended.


Is there a way to Bring to Life my Lucky Clover and still cast Animating Faerie? Say I have Lucky Clover on the battlefield, which I want to Bring to Life (this is the adventure side of Animating Faerie). So I cast Bring to Life. Lucky Clover triggers, and there's a 2nd Bring to Life on the stack. Lucky Clover is the only artifact I have, so I only have one legal target, so the 2nd Bring to Life must target Lucky Clover as well.
Now the stack resolves. The copied Bring to Life resolves first, which turns Lucky Clover into a 4/4 creature. The original Bring to Life now perceives that the Lucky Clover is no longer a legal target (since it can only target noncreature artifacts), so it's sent to the graveyard without any effect.
This interaction seems pretty silly to me - my own permanents are hurting my own cards - so I'm wondering if there's anything I could've done to prevent this from happening. Do I have a way to get Animating Faerie to the adventure zone while simultaneously animating Lucky Clover?

Nope, your analysis of what should happen is spot on.  Short of having another card or ability to use, there's nothing you could have done.  You'd need to have a way to stop the triggered ability (Stifle), counter the copy or have another legal target.
Silly as it might seem, sometimes normally beneficial effects have detrimental edge cases.  That's just part of Magic.


Are there any rules differences between the two versions of Unexploded Cow? Cheapass Games' first game was Unexploded Cow, which like many of the company's early products, consisted of just the basic cards and required players to scavenge other game components from elsewhere (e.g. getting money from Monopoly). Recently, they released Unexploded Cow Deluxe, which includes color cards and all of the game pieces.

Are there any rules differences between these two versions? Or is the only real difference the components included?

Cheapass Games did a fair bit of retooling the game.  The core is the same, but the mix of cards and costs is a bit different, and they've also altered the rules:

Ante used to include filling the Pot (for general play) and the Bank (a prize for whoever won the city game).  The Bank has been eliminated, and the game works with just the Pot and the 500 franc ante from each player.
Speaking of, all the amounts have been converted to "francs" to use the new tokens that are included.
The starting money is now 5000 francs, not $2000, but the ante is now 500 francs, and not $100.
If the Pot becomes empty in the old game, it stays empty, and no one can get money from it until more funds end up being put in through normal play.  In the new game, it can still run dry and fail to provide funds, but all players must re-ante if the Pot starts a turn empty.  Keeps the money flowing.
City cards in the old game just run number values from 1 thru 12.  Now they have varying values (the highest is now 6 or 7, more average towns), and a second effect (take money, get another cow, etc)
A bomb roll simply used to count down from the right side of your field and then around the table until it matched a cow to explode, yours or someone elses.  It still does but now rolling a six forfeits the roll, you fail to find a bomb completely, and the player to your left gets a free roll using his field, as though it was their turn (yes, this means they can take a city on your turn, if you screw up the bomb roll).
Instead of taking the bank for winning the City score, the game now ends in a Sudden Death roll-off.  Players keep doing bomb rolls and exploding cows until they earn out the last of the pot.  Winning the City score earns you the first roll.

The rest of the game remains the same.  The event cards like "Natural Causes" and special cows like spies, mechanics, and generals remain the same.  Some of the costs and values are tweaked slightly for balance, but that's it (sadly it looks like I won't be able to show card-by-card here, but there are several shots of the new game online, and Cheapass has released the original version for free as a print-yourself-and-play).  So it's a polished up game, plus the remade art (which I have to mention is great and continues the hilarity of the theme) and much much better card stock.


If I gain control of an equipped creature, do I keep the equipment when it dies? If I use Act of Treason on an equipped creature then sacrifice it while under my control, can I equip the equipment to one of my creatures during the same turn or does the equipment go back to the original owner the moment I sacrifice the creature?

No.

You don't control the equipment.

Control of the equipment is separate to control of the creature. The same is true for attached auras, or any other kind of permanent. If something gives you control of one, you only control that one unless stated otherwise.

If timing allowed it (e.g. if you took control of the creature permanently, or with an instant-speed equip ability such as Cranial Plating), the equipment's controller could attach it to something else.

However, a lot of equipment cards give abilities to the creature. For example, Hankyu gives the equipped creature the ability to add or remove counters on the Hankyu. You could, for example, tap the creature to waste any counters they built up.

Conversely, Umezawa's Jitte's ability is on the equipment itself. The controlled creature's attacks would generate counters for the equipment, but the controller of the Jitte would be the one to activate its ability.

If you gained control of the equipment (e.g. Steal Artifact), it would remain attached to their creature, but you could use the equip ability to attach it to something else.


Name of empire building game with negotiated alliances? Over the summer I played a board game in which players took on the role of 19th(?) century European powers, and accumulated score by owning 'control points' in various geographic regions around the world. It was an extremely fun game mechanically, though the primary scoring mechanic of oppressing/eradicating indigenous populations was questionable.

Here are the salient features I remember from my one day of playing:

Game is divided into three 'wars', each of which has 5-6 rounds of player turns
At the start of each war, players bid to decide which 'alliance' each player is part of
Players send their armies or population abroad to colonize such areas North America, India, The German Confederation, etc. Also to seize (partial) control of these areas from players in the opposing alliance.
Combat is resolved by rolling two dice and subtracting the high number from the low, plus some modifiers for army size/navy/technology

I can remember all sorts of details, but the name escapes me. I think 'empire' was in there somewhere, and possibly 'war', but these are probably the least helpful terms when looking for obscure board games. Could anyone help me figure out the name of this game?

EDIT:

Additional info about the board and game pieces.

The board itself contained a map and several spaces for book-keeping. The map was dominated by Europe in the upper-right-hand corner, with the Americas to the left (divided into North America in brown, the Caribbean in purple, and South America in green). Africa, India, and the East-indies in boxes along the bottom.

Player pieces were tiles color coded by empire, but otherwise mostly the same. Infantry armies were represented by two crossed rifles superimposed on an early 1800s infantry hat (tall with a brim and a feather), Forts by a start fort, and navies by tallships; all were square any ~2 cm on a side. There were also  circular tokens for the control points, which showed the heraldic device of the empire in question and were maybe 1 cm in diameter.

There were also a large number of tiles players could buy, such as Ally Tiles ('Gauchos', 'Saxony', 'Cossacks'), Technology Tiles ('Logistics', 'Press-ganging', 'War office' ), and Company Tiles ('East-India Company', 'Baltic Company', 'Sugar Company'), which conferred various benefits. These were larger and bore pictures representing the tile's benefit.

The board described is that of Struggle of Empires.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1597401/struggle-empires


Flashcards to learn Blackjack strategy table? I want to remember this basic Blackjack strategy table.

Is there a flashcards deck to learn them? (by spaced repetition)

Preferably in Anki format, but other formats are fine too.

Yes, there are flash cards in the excellent book by Ken Uston titled "Million Dollar Blackjack"  This is a great book with interesting stories and strategies for different house rules.  Applies to counters and non-counters; single, double, and multiple deck games.  Vegas, Reno, AC rules explained as well.  I think you can find it for less than $20.
Good luck at the tables!


Which boardgames need expansion sets before they work properly? I think, sad to say, this is still a common problem in modern boardgaming.  You buy a game and it's maybe okay, but then you discover that there's an expansion set that makes all the difference.  If you don't go out and buy that too, you're not really experiencing the game as it was meant to be played.

It's in all of our interests as consumers to know which games are going to be satisfactory straight out of the box, and which have hidden costs involved.  Which games in your collection wouldn't really be complete without one or more of their expansions?  Obviously I don't want vague answers like "Dominion is really good but Dominion with all the expansions is even better": please provide concrete explanations of the actual problems a game's base set has, and how the expansion set goes on to fix them, if possible!

I have a bugbear or two of my own to tell you about, but rather than shoehorn them into the question as "examples", I'll post them as an answer below!

Civilization

It's really a great game, but the so-called "expansion" Advanced Civilization is actually more of a "revised version", which fixes things which were a bit broken, and adds some variety.


How does casting a card for its miracle cost interact with cost modifying abilities? If I reveal and cast a miracle like Temporal Mastery, Bonfire of the Damned or Entreat the Angels, When I am choosing a value for X, must it take into account effects like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Council of the Absolute?

e.g. If I tap 6 mana to Miracle cast Entreat the Angels whilst Council of the Absolute is in play (naming Entreat the Angels), is X 4, or is X 6? Similarly, if I miracle Temporal Mastery under the same circumstances, does it cost only a single Blue mana?

Yes, the cost is still increased or decreased. For your example, X would be 6, because Entreat the Angels for x=6 only costs you 6.

  117.9. Some spells have alternative costs. An alternative cost is a cost listed in a spell’s text, or applied to it from another effect, that its controller may pay rather than paying the spell’s mana cost. Alternative costs are usually phrased, “You may [action] rather than pay [this object’s] mana cost,” or “You may cast [this object] without paying its mana cost.” Note that some alternative costs are listed in keywords; see rule 702.

    117.9a Only one alternative cost can be applied to any one spell as it’s being cast. The controller of the spell announces his or her intentions to pay that cost as described in rule 601.2b.

    117.9b Alternative costs are always optional.

    117.9c An alternative cost doesn’t change a spell’s mana cost, only what its controller has to pay to cast it. Spells and abilities that ask for that spell’s mana cost still see the original value.

    117.9d If an alternative cost is being paid to cast a spell, any additional costs, cost increases, and cost reductions that affect that spell are applied to that alternative cost. (See rule 601.2e.)

Note that you don't pay whatever mana you want, and then calculate what X is, though.. it's the other way around. You choose an X, and then pay that cost. In your example, you can choose X=6, which would normally cost you 8, but it is reduced to 6.

  107.3a If a spell or activated ability has a mana cost, alternative cost, additional cost, and/or activation cost with an , [-X], or X in it, and the value of X isn't defined by the text of that spell or ability, the controller of that spell or ability chooses and announces the value of X as part of casting the spell or activating the ability. (See rule 601, "Casting Spells.") While a spell is on the stack, any X in its mana cost equals the announced value. While an activated ability is on the stack, any X in its activation cost equals the announced value.


Does a shadow effect that doesn't do anything return Mountain Warg to staging area? When a shadow card is dealt that has the shadow keyword but the effect doesn't do anything, does Mountain Warg go back to the staging area?

For example, "If this attack is undefended..." and the attack is defended.

The rules refer to a "Shadow Effect Icon", the thing that separates the shadow effect text from the rest of the card's text:

  Shadow Effect Icon: If a card has a shadow  effect, that effect is denoted by this icon,
  which also serves to separate the shadow effect from the card’s in
  play effect.

As such, I take the presence of such an icon on a card to be the key factor in determining whether or not the card "has a shadow effect" in rules terms, even if the effect does not actually do anything when it resolves.


Does a robber block maritime trading? As the title says. If someone places the robber in one of the outer hexes which has a settlement or city that lets them do 3/2:1 trading, does the presence of robber block them from trading?

No. From the almanac, p11:

Players with settlements and/or cities adjacent to the target terrain hex receive no resources from this hex as long as the robber is in the hex.

That's it; the robber rules say nothing about maritime trade and the maritime trade rules say nothing about the robber. In the absence of some rule telling you there's an exception, the normal rules must be assumed to apply, i.e. you can continue to trade normally.


Gain doubloons timing At what moment of their turn do players get doubloons from development cards they own? Do players get doubloons in the same turn they acquire a development card?

This happens at the end of the progression phase. This means you get coins from them in the same turn you get them. See this thread in BGG.


Can I change the order of cards when they change zones? While goldfishing with my new UG self-mill standard deck, I realized that I have a particular habit that is probably not legal. When I cast Forbidden Alchemy, I have a habit of unintentionally re-ordering (similar to how I shuffle my hand while playing) the four cards I'm looking at before selecting the one to put in my hand and putting the rest in my graveyard.

I realized that the order of things in your graveyard actually matters, and that what I was doing probably isn't kosher. When I'm looking at cards in a particular zone before moving them to another zone, can I change their order?

Fear not!

  404.3. If an effect or rule puts two or more cards into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of those cards may arrange them
  in any order.

In addition,

  404.2. Each graveyard is kept in a single face-up pile. A player can examine the cards in any graveyard at any time but normally can't
  change their order. Additional rules applying to sanctioned
  tournaments may allow a player to change the order of cards in his or
  her graveyard.

Basically, in formats where no cards care about graveyard order, players don't have to care about graveyard order either. This rule was created in order to "retire" graveyard-ordering in a graceful way.

DCI-sanctioned tournaments follow section 3.14 of the MTR:

  In formats involving only cards from Urza's Saga and later, players
  may change the order of their graveyard at any time. A player may not
  change the order of an opponent's graveyard.

Thus, you may freely rearrange your own graveyard in Standard, Extended, and Modern, as well as modern-day Limited formats. (Word of caution: doing this too often might come off as weird and cheaty. So feel free to arrange your graveyard with all the flashback cards or reanimation targets on top, but try not to get in the habit of fidgeting with it compulsively the way you might fidget with cards in hand.)

Note also that it's perfectly legitimate to spread out your graveyard, as long as you don't create confusion between it and other zones. For example, I like to tile my cards in columns so I can see all my options at a glance.


Illegal jobs, warrant issues and particular scenario The other day playing Firefly with friends, we were playing a scenario where when completing an illegal job you get issued a warrant.

As far we understand from the basic rules, all your jobs (legal or illegal) get cancelled when you get issued a warrant.

That would imply that you can be working at most one job when doing illegal jobs throughout the game making the game slightly slower, regardless the fact that illegal jobs get you more money.

Is there something we missed or is this the proper and expected behavior of such scenario?

You only discard an Active Job if you get issued a warrant while working that job.

Firefly Rules, pg 14

  If you receive a Warrant while Working a Job, discard the Job, returning it to the discard pile of the issuing Contact.

This is the only mention of discarding Active Jobs when you get a Warrant. You only lose the Job you are using your Work action for, you don't lose other Jobs, and gaining a Warrant outside of a Work action doesn't effect your current Jobs at all.


What happens if Jace, Telepath Unbound is returned to your hand? So if Jace, Telepath Unbound is returned to your hand, does it turn back into Jace, Vryn's Prodigy to be recast or does it in effect go to your graveyard because Jace, Telepath Unbound cant be recast?

When it enters a new zone, it resets back to its default characteristics. Namely as a creature card. So, you can then recast it as Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.
This is based on two rulings on Gatherer:

While a double-faced card isn’t on the battlefield, consider only the characteristics of its front face.
A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default, unless a spell or ability instructs you to put it onto the battlefield transformed, in which case it enters with its back face up.


In a two-player game, is it allowed to choose the flag symbol to bid 0 during war? When declaring war, one tactic might be for a player to choose the white flag on the war die to mean "0 war cost", and have no intention of forming an alliance. Normally, an alliance is formed when both players in a war choose the white flag symbol:

  If both players chose a white flag, a peaceful alliance is formed

However, the rules clearly state that

  Players cannot form an alliance in a 2 player game.

Is it still permitted to choose the white flag symbol to bid 0 during war, knowing full well that an alliance cannot be formed? If yes, what happens if both players choose the white flag? Does that mean that it is a tie of 0, and then standard tiebreaker rules apply?

Michael Coe, the designer of Tiny Epic Kingdoms, responded to this question and said that it was allowed:

  Yes, a flag is a zero in 2 player games. If both choose zero, it's a tie and regular rules apply (tie goes to defender).

As Benjamin Cosman pointed out in his answer, a player may be forced to choose the flag if they have no resources available, so it would be very problematic for the flag to be disallowed in a two-player game.


Can somebody continue a road after it has been cut off/separated from its nearest city? I have - - - - - o (a settlement at the end of my road).
Now an opponent builds -- x ---o (a settlement along my road).
Can I do o - - x - - - - o (build a second settlement at the other end), or do I lose my road once it is cut off from my original settlement?

To build a settlement, you just need to obey the relevant rules for building a settlement, which are:

  You may only build a settlement at an intersection if all 3 of the
  adjacent intersections are vacant (i.e., none are occupied by any
  settlements or cities—even yours).

  Each of your settlements must connect to at least 1 of your own roads.

Assuming that the site you want to build at isn't adjacent to another settlement or city, then all you need to worry about is that you have a connecting road.  And in this instance you do: there's no reason to suppose a road ceases to be yours just because someone has interrupted its length.


Go game set with balls or spheres Once in a documentary I saw an exquisite Go Set.
The stones were not double or single convex, they were actually balls (round spherical stones).
The board had carved channels or grooves, so as you put a ball to an intersection it stayed there.

I tried to find such a board on the internet and could not even find a picture.
Does anybody know of such boards?
(I am not interested kurokigoishi boards, they might be exquisite, but they are not balls).

GO ARK , a 9x9 Go set designed by Japanese designer Junji Masamitsu, fits your description.  The set is also sold on amazon.jp, shown as "out of stock" at the moment.


Should I prefer Farmers or other followers? My friends and I have played three or four games of Carcassonne with varying winners, and fortunately we're all about the same experience with board games in general.

I'm beginning to find, however, that our games are being decided by the farm at the end. It is common for thirty or forty points to be decided at the very end. With this in mind, should I start shifting my strategy toward keeping only one or two followers open for quick road/city/abbey completions and lay down more farmers?

It sounds like you are pretty new to Carcassonne.  It's pretty easy to start playing and have your group think that nearly everything should be finished and the board should look nearly square at the end without many blank holes in the grid.

If this sounds familiar, then yes, there are likely to be big farms and its a good idea to get in early on the farm.

You could change your style though.  I view every meeple played by my opponents as something to be attacked and stranded!

When an opponent plays a farmer, that meeple isn't moving ever again.  You need a good reason to extend that farm in any way.  Play around it.  The next road juncture you play should be positioned to cut off the farm.  Do not play city tiles on the farm.  Just leave it alone!


Where can I download The Resistance rules? I've been googling around and cannot find the Resistance official web site where I can download the rules.  Does the site even exist?  Where can I read the rules?

I found the publisher's page..

The link to the rules is a tiny button right under the red navigation menu on the left hand of the screen.


Do I need mana to play an instant that lets me block my opponents attack? It is my opponent's turn and I decide to play Spidery Grasp (1 Green mana and 2 generic mana) to attempt to untap my creature and block his creature. However all my mana is tapped, so can I still do it?

Yes, you need mana in order to cast spells that require mana. You can't just cast Spidery Grasp for nothing; it costs {2}{G}. If you have no mana available, and all your mana sources aren't available to be used (e.g. all your lands are tapped out already), you will have no mana to cast it with.

Lands and cards like Llanowar Elves can be tapped to give you mana, but won't give you mana merely by existing.

I suggest you give the game's Quick Start Booklet (PDF link) a read. It might clarify things for you.


Can "Fling" target a Player? If I cast Fling, can I deal damage to my opponent equal to the sacrificed creature's Power or does it only target Creatures/Planeswalkers?

The rules say (emphasis mine):

115.4. Some spells and abilities that refer to damage require “any target,” “another target,” “two
targets,” or similar rather than “target [something].” These targets may be creatures, players, or
planeswalkers. Other game objects, such as noncreature artifacts or spells, can’t be chosen.

So yes, if a spell says "any target", a player will always be a legal choice (assuming no other cards currently in effect restrict whether players can be targets).


End of game questions I have a couple of questions.... Firstly, do the bad guys reveal themselves before the end of the game and talk to the assassin or does he simply rely on himself. Also, does Oberon reveal himself at the end of the game too? Lastly, can the good guys talk when the assassin is choosing, or must it remain completely silent?

At the end of the game no role cards are reveled until the Assassin declares who he thinks Merlin is. The Assassin should be able to remember who the evil players are and determine who Oberon is based on game play.

  Without revealing any Character cards, the Evil players discuss and the player with the Assassin character card will name one Good player as Merlin.

There is nothing mentioned about the good players remaining silent or being able to speak.


Yellow cards that change the trading rules: how many coins should I pay? If you have a yellow card that gives you the right to buy something for one coin, do the opponent's resources still take effect?

For example if my opponent has two stone and I have the card that changes the trading rules for stone, if I need to buy one extra stone would I pay one coin or 3 coins (one coin plus one coin for every resource my opponent has)?

Regardless of the number of resource producing buildings your opponent has, you always get to buy the given resource for 1 coin

Quote from the official rules:

  Some commercial Buildings (yellow cards) change the trading rules and
  set the cost of some resources to 1 coin.


Can you place any three cards in Monopoly Deal, eg 3 properties at a time or 3 action cards? I read the instructions as stating that you can place an action and/ or a money and/ or a property. But others say you can do any combination of the three in any of the three piles.

The three cards can be any combination of properties, actions, and/or money.  From the rules (abbreviated for clarity):

PLAY UP TO 3 CARDS from your hand, onto the table in front of you. You don't have to play any cards if you don't want to. Play your 3 cards in any combination of the following: A, B, and/or C.
A: Put Money/Bank cards into your own Bank
B: Put down Properties into your own collection
C: Play Action cards into the center


When can you take commodities out of the warehouse? In Mundus Novus, the rulebook says the warehouse allows you to store products in it at the end of the progress phase. The problem is it is not clear when you can take products out of it.

Can you take a commodity out of it in the trade step, or only in the progress step?
Can you swap the commodity found in a warehouse, replacing it with somewhing else in your hand? On what step?

Play as if the cards are in your hand (besides the obvious new rule: you don't need to discard them).

So when can you use them? When you like. Replacing? Assume all the cards are you in your hand, so this question is now irrelevant. When? In the progress step.

Justifications:

  At the end of this phase, the players must discard all unused cards
  (unless they are placed in a warehouse).

Note it does not say the cards are put on top of the warehouse cards.

  Warehouses are valuable because they can
  store unused goods at the end of a round.

That's all warehouses do - there are no further clarifications on timing or anything else because there doesn't need to be any.

Practical:

In play, I tend to put the cards that can fit into my warehouses, on top of the warehouse cards - just because it permits me to play quicker, knowing that I've set aside the cards that I believe are important to keep and thus calculating the rest of my purchases can continue unencumbered. Understand that this convention is not in the rules, nowhere does it say you need to put your cards "on top" of the warehouse.