Does everyone need a set in a LCG If you have a private gaming group and want to get into LCG games.  Does every player need to buy a set to build his deck ?  Or does the group buy one set and possible expansions and build their decks from cards available ?

Tl;dr: One set probably suffices for Limited play, but you probably need more than one to play Constructed unless you want to limit what people can build.

Most LCGs (and ECGs, which are the same thing), offer two broad categories of play: Constructed and Limited.

In Constructed play, you build decks from the cards available, usually with some restrictions like a maximum number of copies for each card. ECGs I'm familiar with come with at most enough cards for a single player to build an arbitrary Constructed deck (sometimes many fewer, e.g. in Epic Card Game you are allowed up to 3 copies of each card but the set comes with only 1 of each). So to play Constructed, you'll probably need multiple sets, or you'll need to (potentially severely) restrict what each player can build. For example with one copy of Warhammer: Invasion and two players, you could decide that one player will build an Order deck, one will build a Destruction deck, and no one will use more than half the copies of any neutral card; with four players you could just assign each player a race.

In Limited play, you build a deck immediately before playing, often using a random and/or competitive building process. For example, there's often:

Sealed - deal each person a random pile from the communal pool, then let them remove cards they don't want until they're down to minimum deck size.
Draft - deal each person cards from the communal pool, then each selects a card and passes the rest to another person. Keep selecting and passing until everyone has a deck (or more than a deck, and then cuts some out).

There are many variants of these, and the ECGs I'm familiar with all support some kind of Limited play using only one set. For example, in Epic Card Game you can draft with up to 4 people out of one set.


Cthulhu flux metamorphosis/ madness clarification If one of these two cards are attached to an investigator, is it no longer an investigator? (not talking about the powers the investigator has)
E.g. if Madness is attached to Pickman, is it still an investigator?

Madness: You cannot win if you have this unless conditions say otherwise. If you have any Investigator Keeps in play, you must choose one to attach this to. Any special powers of the Keeper become ignored. Both cards stay together until discarded.
Pickman: ???

He's still an investigator.

When you attach a Creeper to a Keeper that is also an Investigator, it doesn't suddenly stop being an Investigator. There are two reasons for this:

Investigator is an icon, not a special power, so Madness does not remove it. (Attaching a Creeper to something with Doom icons doesn't remove those Doom icons, either.)
Just because they're stark raving mad doesn't mean they've stopped investigating or stopped being human. (Unless the Creeper is Metamorphosis. But even then, they're still an investigative... being.)

The "special powers" are the ones printed on the card in addition to the standard Keeper text, like the power that the Federal Agents have to discard any Creeper by discarding themselves from play. So the Federal Agents can't discard themselves to remove the Madness that they've been afflicted with (regardless of how appropriate that would be).


The 'speed' of conceding a game During a game of Commander at my local store last week some of the folks I was playing with stated that conceding the game was a 'sorcery speed' action. The playgroup made some valid points about this preventing collusion and also the somewhat-irritating situation where one player takes control of someone else's creature and swings for lethal damage with it, only to have that creature's owner leave the game, taking the creature with them.

At the time I just accepted that this could well be the case and got on with the game (I had no intention of conceding) but in a moment of curiosity decided to do a quick google search which brought me to the below entry from the comprehensive rules:

  104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. A player who concedes loses the game immediately.

This makes it pretty clear to me that by normal rules a player can concede at any time, they don't even need to have priority.

Does anyone know whether this supposed sorcery speed concession is just a myth/common misconception or is it some sort of rule enforced only in multiplayer tournaments?

As you have shown in your question, it is a house rule. That said, it's not a particularly surprising house rule as generally the kind of concession this would arise in could easily be a jerkish move, though not necessarily.

104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. A player who concedes leaves the game immediately. He or she loses the game.
101.1. Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 104.3a).
712.6. The controller of another player can’t make that player concede. A player may concede the game at any time, even if he or she is controlled by another player. See rule 104.3a.
405.6. Some things that happen during the game don’t use the stack.
405.6g A player may concede the game at any time. That player leaves the game immediately. See rule 104.3a.

Conceding isn't covered by the rules governing timing and priority. It is not listed in the rules under special actions. Rules as written; it can be done at any time, even when not in control of your own turn.


Can "Stealth Tower" copy your opponent's bases? If I play a "Stealth Tower" base on my turn, can it copy a base that my opponent still has in play? The text says any base in play, but are your opponents bases considered in play during your turn?

Bonus question: If I destroy the base that "Stealth Tower" is coping, does it affect "Stealth Tower" or is it still a copy until end of turn?

Your opponents bases are In Play so Stealth Tower can copy them too.

After Stealth Tower copies a base, it remains a copy of that base regardless of what happens to the original (destroyed or returned to hand, etc).

This relies on an understanding of what "In Play" means in the context of this game.

  A Player Turn consists of three phases: Main, Discard and Draw.

  1) Main Phase

  At any time during your Main Phase you may perform any of the
  following actions, in any order you wish.

  Play cards from your hand
  Use the Primary Abilities of in-play Bases
  Use the Ally/Scrap abilities of in-play Ships and Bases
  Use Trade to acquire new cards from the Trade Row
  Use Combat to attack an opponent and/or their Bases

  Playing Cards: There is no cost to play a card, simply place it in-play (face-up on the table in front of you [the active player]).
  There are two types of cards you can have in your deck: Ships and
  Bases.

  Bases: Unlike Ships, Bases are not discarded at the end of the turn.
  Instead, they remain in-play until they are destroyed or scrapped.

  2) Discard Phase

  Lose any Trade remaining in your Trade Pool
  Lose any Combat remaining in your Combat Pool
  Put all in-play Ships into your Discard Pile [and leave all Bases in-play]
  Put any cards left in your hand into your Discard Pile

  3) Draw Phase

  Draw five cards, then your turn ends

In the Main Phase the first action says you can play cards from your hand. Playing a card involves putting the card from your hand in-play in front of you. During the Discard Phase all in-play Ships are discarded, but Bases (and Outposts, which are Bases) remain in-play. Therefore Bases Played by any player are in-play, even after their turn ends.


Why do older players keep their money under the edge of the board? I've been seeing a strange behavior that I don't understand.  It seems to only happen with somewhat older players.

When they have paper money in a game, they slide it partway under the edge of the game board.  Where is this behavior coming from?  Is there a game that teaches it?

I've asked, and they've said it's just what you're supposed to do in board games.  It's particularly disconcerting when the board is modular and being explored during the game, or when lifting the board to slide your money under it causes pieces to be knocked over.

I've even seen players lose money this way, money that gets slid too far under the board and isn't discovered until we're cleaning up.

Is there a clear, understandable reason for this?

This has most likely been passed down throughout the generations as "the way to do it", without any actual backing reasons, but there are some situations where it is beneficial to put the money under the edge of the game board.

Small playing areas (such as a small table) where space is at a minimum, so it makes sense to conserve space by putting money under the edge of the board.
Playing outside (where it can be windy) or inside with a fan can cause the money to be shifted constantly, so sliding it under the board allows it to be pinned down.
In games where money is not the driving factor (such as Monopoly, where the Title Deeds are more important), it helps to keep your focus on what matters.
It makes it easier to keep the denominations in separate piles (if that applies) as you don't need to worry about sifting through a single pile to find the right denomination.

Joey has already mentioned the playful/imagination aspect of it which may also apply in some cases.


Resolving triggered abilities I control the following two enchantments: Bottomless Pit and Necrogen Mists. At the beginning of my opponent's upkeep do I get to choose which one of the triggered abilities that goes on the stack first or will my opponent make that choice?

Since you control the source of both triggered abilities, you choose the order they are put on the stack (and then they resolve in reverse order). If your opponent also has abilities triggering at the same time, he will do the same. The active player (the player whose turn it is) puts their triggers on the stack first, followed by the triggers of all of the other players in turn order. (Thus, the active player's triggers resolve last.)

This applies to any situation where multiple triggers would be placed on the stack at the same time.

It's important to know where the trigger is actually coming from. For example, you can control Pendrell Mists, but on your opponent's upkeep the triggers that are put on the stack are actually coming from his creatures, not your enchantment, because Pendrell Mists is granting an ability to the creatures, rather than having a trigger itself.


In War, what if one player runs out of cards mid-war? In war, if two people play the same card they go to war and have to stake multiple cards on the next play. If another person and I go to war, but the opponent only has one card left (can't stake enough cards) then how is the game supposed to proceed? Should the opponent place down their last card? And should I still put down three cards?

Answers vary. From pagat.com:

Most descriptions of War are not clear about what happens if a player runs out of cards during a war. There are at least two possibilities:

If you don't have enough cards to complete the war, you lose. If neither player has enough cards, the one who runs out first loses. If both run out simultaneously, it's a draw. Example: Players A and B both play sevens, so there is a war. Each player plays a card face down, but this is player B's last card. Player A wins, since player B does not have enough cards to fight the war.

If you run out of cards during a war, your last card is turned face up and is used for all battles in that war. If this happens to both players in a war and their last cards are equal, the game is a draw. Example: Players A and B both play sevens, so there is a war. Player A plays a card face down, but player B has only one card, so it must be played face up. It is a queen. Player A plays a card face up and it is also a queen, so the war must continue. Player B's queen stays (B's last card) while player A plays a card face down and one face up, which is a nine. Player B wins the war and takes all these seven cards (the five cards that A played and the two cards that B played) and the game continues normally.


Can having a short break help improve at Go? I'd like to know if taking a little break can be a good idea in go.
I've read several threads saying that people became stronger after a short break.

Can it be true ? Is there some subconscious learning while not practising ?
Is there a possibility to forget bad habits during this period ? And how long should the break be ?

Yes, it CAN. There is no warranty that a short break will improve your Go, but it can help. Take a typical vacation (about two weeks) as a good measure for the time.

The probably best recipe for improving Go is quite to the contrary: Do every day something with Go, 10 minutes per day are sufficient (e.g., solving a life and death problem or finding a tesuji).

Personally, I found the playing over-the-board tournaments (being immersed with Go one weekend long) helps a lot.


What do minor improvements and occupations add? This question isn't about the mechanics or rules of the game, but what dynamics it adds.

After playing several games of the the family friendly version of the Agricola, I played a game of the full version with one other.

What I found was that the minor improvements and occupations acted and somewhat of a distraction and confusion to the game.

Using them definitely adds to the game play time, because there's more time spent examining your cards, etc.

The question is - what do the minor improvement and occupations add, that make them worth playing with, given that they are essentially an optional feature of the game?

At first, the additional complexity definitely feels like a downside. But once you play enough, the decisions present in the family version become much more intuitive and faster. At that point, the additional complexity becomes a good thing: deciding which minor improvements and occupations to use (and when) becomes a big, interesting decision. And it's not just wasted time making decisions; using them well has a large effect on your score. In fact, they can be much more meaningful than the worker placement decisions you might agonize over in the base game.

So in addition to making the game more interesting to play, they'll also make it a more interesting competition. Once everyone's pretty good at the family game, you'll start to lose control of your destiny: everyone will be able to pick their actions and plan fairly well, so it'll get harder to win by virtue of good strategy. But throw the minor improvements and occupations, and suddenly there's again a lot of room for good (or bad) strategic decisions.

On top of that, they also add a lot of variety and replayability. Since you don't see the same set of cards every game, you're forced to adapt your strategy to suit the cards you have, giving you different decisions to make each game, not just more decisions.

So in a way, the things you dislike about them now are some of the good things that they add to the game: they add additional decisions, making for a deeper game. Right now that's a bit overwhelming, and you're not able to take full advantage of it, but if you play enough it'll become a positive, defining part of the game.


How do I put a double-faced card in my deck? I was reading recently about double-faced cards. Basically, they are cards that are otherwise typical creature cards, but some condition allows you to flip them over so that they become a new card.

Meld cards, introduced in the Eldritch Moon set, are one fairly noteworthy example. For instance, this

Becomes this when you flip them over

How do you actually put double-faced cards like this in your deck, given that they do not have Magic: The Gathering card backs? Is it only playable with sleeves (requiring you to pull it out and flip it over)? Or is there some other aspect that I'm unaware of?

You can use card sleeves, as you suggested, or use checklist cards, which were included in booster packs of Eldritch Moon. These checklist cards are single faced, and included a list of all of the double faced cards in the set. I've also seen people write on basic lands to note the card (though this isn't allowed in tournaments).


If a protection effect "doesn't remove Auras", can auras that are not cast be placed on the permanent? The card Spectra Ward has this ability:

  Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from all colors. This effect doesn't remove Auras.

The rulings on the card say that you can't cast more Auras targeting the creature:

  Although Auras that are already attached to the creature aren’t affected by Spectra Ward, the enchanted creature can’t be the target of further Aura spells that have one or more colors.

But what happens if an Aura enters the battlefield some other way (from the effect of Enduring Ideal, for example)? Can that Aura be attached to a creature with Spectra Ward already attached?

Yes, the Aura can still be attached, as long as the ability doing the attaching doesn't target or is from a colorless source.

Protection from a quality normally gives protection from DEBT.

Damaged: Can't be damaged by a source with the stated quality.
Enchanted/Equiped/Fortified: Can't be Enchanted, Equipped or Fortified by an permanent with the stated quality.
Blocked: Can't be blocked by a creature with the stated quality.
Targeted: Can't be targeted by a spell with the stated quality or by an ability from a source with the stated quality.

Spectra Ward's ability provides a neutered form of Protection. Auras are not prevented from Enchanting the protected permanent by the Protection provided by Spectra Ward.

  702.16m Some Auras both give the enchanted creature protection and say “this effect doesn’t remove” either that specific Aura or all Auras. This means that the specified Auras can legally enchant that creature and aren’t put into their owners’ graveyards as a state-based action. If the creature has other instances of protection from the same quality, those instances affect Auras as normal.

This means:

You can't cast a colored Aura targeting the permanent protected by Spectra Ward. (It's protected from being targeted.)
Colored Auras already attached to the permanent won't fall off. (It's not protected from being enchanted.)
You can attach a colored Aura the permanent protected by Spectra Ward.

For example, Enduring Ideal isn't hindered by Spectra Ward. (The permanent to which the Aura is being attached isn't protected from being enchanted, and the ability doesn't target.)

For example, Bruna, Light of Alabaster's ability will still work even if it's protected by Spectra Ward. (It's not protected from being enchanted, and the ability doesn't target.)

However, Aura Finesse would not be able to attach an Aura to a creature protected by Spectra Ward because the creature is protected from being targeted by Aura Finesse.


Can I use Oko's ability targetting a creature with protection from green? I'm going to play a deck with a Oko, Thief of Crowns. And my question is: can I use his abilities targeting a creature with protection from green? I know that normally I couldn't do that, because I can't even target creatures with protection from green with green spells, but for example Oko's abilities? He is blue and green, but his abilities aren't.

A creature with protection from green can't be targeted by Oko:

  702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.

It doesn't matter that his ability doesn't have a color, protection cares about the color of the source of that ability. So unless you find a Thran Lens or something similar, you won't be able to target the creature.


Can a player with cards pass but not declare end of round? If I have no cards in my draw pile but I have some in my hand, can I choose to not play any cards but also not declare end of round, or must I declare end of round if I do not play cards? If I must declare end of round in that case, does playing a skill allow me to avoid doing so?

You can take a regular turn and do nothing. However, you will end up discarding at least one card.
Everything I reference here is from these rules.
Page 5, "A Player's Turn":

If your Deed deck is empty at the start of your turn, and if the End of the Round has not been announced yet, you may forfeit your turn and announce the End of the Round. If you do, each other player takes one more turn, and then the Round is over.

b. You must announce End of the Round if your Deed deck is empty and you have no cards in your hand at the start of your turn.
c. If you have cards in your hand, but your Deed deck is empty, it is up to you whether to announce End of the Round, or whether to play your turn.

If you do not forfeit your turn, you have two options: playing a Regular turn, or Resting.

a. In both cases, you have to play or discard at least one card during or at the end of your turn (except if your hand is empty but there are still cards in your Deed deck at the beginning of your turn).

If you rest you'll end up discarding cards anyway. During a "regular turn", you don't have to move . As long as you're not in an area with a mandatory action you don't have to do anything. However, this is dealt with later on.
Page 9, "End of the Turn":

7. Drawing new cards:
a. Before drawing, you may discard any number of non-Wound cards from your hand, if you wish.
• If you did not play or discard any cards during your turn, you must discard at least one card now.
d. If you run out of cards in your Deed deck while drawing, stop drawing. Do not reshuffle your discard pile unless you have the Night Tactic card “Long Night” (see that card).

If you want to stall out the end of the game, you can do so for as many turns as you have cards in your hand. Playing a skill doesn't change the fact that you haven't played or discarded any cards at the end of the turn so it won't stall the game out unless it can put more cards in your hand.


Creative handicaps in Settlers of Catan? I've gotten really into Settlers of Catan recently.  There are a few people I regularly play with and these games are really fun / intense; however, when any of this group splits off to play "friendly games" with "casual players", the games are really one-sided.

"Playing easy" on purpose isn't fun for anyone involved; is there a more creative way to introduce a handicap?  I would prefer something subtle, in which the casual players aren't even aware that a handicap is involved.

An example would be "don't buy any development cards" (development cards are the bread and butter of my current play style), but I'm hoping to get some (more creative / more varied) suggestions.

[Edit] As a disclaimer, I am by no means calling myself "a good player"!  I'm just pointing out that I've played a bit more (30+ games?) than most casual players that have only touched the game a few times, and that as a result, I've gotten used to certain strategic ideas that casual players haven't been exposed to yet.

The best handicapping is to require the more skilled player to have no 6's nor 8's in their chosen starting spots; a step harder is to also block the 5's and 9's, but that often results in not being able to find a spot to place starting bits.

Commensurately, the biggest problem for casual players is NOT picking at least one common number spot...

An additional option is to restrict the number of cities and settlements for the experienced players. Reducing one each still makes the 10 point win possible ((3x2)+4), but only just.


Damage rarely matters in two-player RoboRally. How can I houserule it to be more interesting? In the original version of RoboRally, I'm finding that damage rarely matters in two-player games. Over the course of the game, maybe four hits happen. No registers are locked, and drawing fewer cards doesn't seem like enough of a downside to make a difference.

What house-rules can I do to make damage matter more, as it does in a 6 or 8 player game? Would simply making the damage track smaller (say, 6 spots instead of 9) fix it?

Use a smaller board.

One tile and 6 flags create an interesting game for two players.

And place the flags so that you pass a few bottlenecks on the way.

The idea is to create as much interaction between the two robots as possible.


mansions of madness using a non-action equipment requires evade? In Mansions of Madness, the rules say that "an investigator must make an evade test before moving or performing non-attack actions."
What if the investigator uses an equipment card which does not have the word "Action" on it. Does that require an evade test ?

You have already quoted all the relevant rules.

Does this equipment require you move?
Does this equipment require you to take a non-attack action?

If yes, make an evade test first.
If no, You don't make the evade test.


What is the tallest Jenga tower ever created? Under the standard rules of Jenga, what is officially recognized as the tallest Jenga tower ever created?

According the the 2008 Vintage Game Collection version of Jenga, the tallest recorded Jenga tower was made by Robert Grebler in 1985 with a tower 40 2⁄3 levels*, using an original Jenga set produced by Leslie Scott, the designer of the game.

Board Game Geek's gallery for Jenga includes a picture that nearly matches this at 40 levels tall. The user Romir posted a picture of a tower 43 levels tall, but it looks like they didn't follow the rule to complete a 3 block story before starting another one.**

For fun, there is a YouTube video of the Tallest Game of Jenga Ever Assembled at 66 inches (5.5 feet, 1.68 meters), using multiple sets.

* Presumably, the "2/3 levels" means that the Robert Grebler placed 2 out of a possible 3 blocks on the top level before the tower collapsed. In Jenga, you must place three blocks on a level before starting a new level.

** As described above, a level must have three blocks on it before starting another level. Therefore, it's not possible for both the top level and the one below it to only have one block, as shown in the picture.


Forsaken Lore expansion for Eldritch Horror: what are the new mysteries for the base game AOO? Eldritch Horror is starting to feel a bit same-y for me so I`m thinking of spicing things up with an expansion (one of the small ones, since the big ones are ridiculously expensive for me, at that price - or cheaper -  I can get a whole new game). But anyway, after researching what Forsaken Lore and Strange Remnants offer I incline towards the latter.

However, what Forsaken Lore has and I find really interesting is the fact that you get 2 new mysteries for the 4 base-game AOO. This sounds great, because a big part of the repetitive nature of EH for me is the fact that in each game you tackle 3 out of only 4 possible mysteries.

Hence my question: can you please let me know what the 8 mysteries in Forsaken Lore (2 for each base game AOO) do? Photos would be great, but if you think that could raise copyright issues a text description of them would be enough, don`t much care about flavour text. If the new mysteries are interesting enough and feel significantly different than the base game ones I just might get Forsaken Lore for now, even though I find Strange Remnants more attractive (thematically, investigator and AOO-wise). Thanks a lot!

Azathoth

  Voice of Azathoth
  When an investigator would gain an Artifact, he may gain the Massa di Requiem per Shuggay Artifact instead.

  At the end of the Mythos Phase, an investigator may spend Clues equal to [Number of Players] and discard the Massa di requiem per Shuggay Artifact to solve this Mystery.

  The Green Flame

  When this card enters play, spawn the Tulzscha Epic Monster on a random space.

  At the end of Mythos Phase, if the Tulzscha Epic Monster has been defeated, solve this mystery.
  Additional info: At each reckoning, Tulzscha adds 1 Eldritch token to the omen track.

Cthulhu

  Queen of the Deep Ones
  When this card enters play, spawn the Hydra Epic Monster on space 8.

  When an investigator would gain an Artifact, he may gain the Sword of Y'ha-Talla Artifact instead.

  At the end of Mythos Phase, if the Hydra Epic Monster has been defeated, solve this mystery.
  Additional info: Hydra can't be damaged without the Sword of Y'ha-Talla.

  Threatening Seas
  When this card enters play, each investigator places 1 Eldritch token on the nearest Sea space that does not contain an Eldritch token.

  As an encounter, an investigator on a space containing an Eldritch token may attempt to prolong Cthulhu's slumber ([Lore]-1). If he passes, he may spend 1 Clue and discard 1 Spell to place that Eldritch token on this card.

  At the end of the Mythos Phase, if there are Eldritch tokens on this card equal to [Number of Players], solve this Mystery. Do not discard the Eldritch tokens from the game board.

Yog-Sothoth

  The Stone Circles
  When this card enters play, place a number of Eldritch tokens equal to half [Number of Players] each on a random space.

  As an encounter, an investigator on a space containing an Eldritch token may attempt to disrupt the ritual ([Lore]-1). If he passes, he may spend 2 Clues to place that Eldritch token on this card. If he fails, a Cultist Monster ambushes him!

  At the end of the Mythos Phase, if there are Eldritch tokens on this card equal to half [Number of Players], solve this Mystery.

  Void Between Worlds
  As an encounter, an investigator on a space containing a Gate may travel to the void between worlds by drawing and resolving a Void Between Worlds Special Encounter.

  At the end of the Mythos Phase, if there are Eldritch tokens on this card equal to half [Number of Players], solve this Mystery.
  Additional info: These encounters are a harder version of Other World encounters. A successful encounter allows to both close the gate and put an eldritch token on the Mystery.

Shub-Niggurath

  Blasphemy of the Black Goat
  When this card enters play, spawn the Yeb Epic Monster on space 19.

  At the end of Mythos Phase, if the Yeb Epic Monster has been defeated, solve this mystery.
  Additional info: When spawned, Yeb spawns 2 additional monsters on it's space.

  Hour of the Moon Lens
  When this card enters play, place the Mystery token in London.

  As an encounter, an investigator on London may watch a ritual that transforms the worshipers of Shub-Niggurath into goat spawn; a Goat Spawn Monster ambushes him! If he defeats it, he may spend 2 Clues to place 1 Eldritch token on this card.

  At the end of the Mythos Phase, if there are Eldritch tokens on this card equal to half [Number of Players], solve this Mystery.


Points of influence gained by Lord power In Oriflamme, say you have 4 cards of your family in a row and reveal the second one which is a Lord.
Do you gain 3 points of influence (because the Lord has cards of your family as direct neighbors) or 4 points (because you have 4 adjacent cards of your family) ?

The rules say:

LORD: Earn 1 (influence), plus 1 (influence) per adjacent card that is
in your family.
Each adjacent card in your family earns you 1 (influence) regardless
of whether it is revealed or covered.

So you would count all adjacent cards.  if you have a total of 4 adjacent cards you would score 5 points.  one for the Lord and 4 for the adjacent family members, revealed, covered or not.
Note these need to be adjacent to the Lord,  just having family members in the row, as you give in your question, would not be enough.  Adjacent means they have to be part of a stack next to the Lord card.


What should Mono-B put in sideboard against GW-Tokens? My brother plays a Mono-Black standard-format deck against me often. He has some big threats in there like Phyrexian Obliterator, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Lashwrithe as well as many cards with phyrexian mana to fuel his rage extractors. Smaller creatures I see all the time are Porcelain Legionnaire and Vault Skirge. In addition to that he has some discard spells for control. I don't have his exact deck list but that's what I am facing all the time.

The main idea is to stall me as long as he needs to get his threats out and overwhelm me in the end. This works really well against most of my decks and compete almost on even ground against my strong decks like "elves", "tempered steel" and "solar flare". His weakest match up at the moment is against my GW-Token deck, similar to this one, except that I have 4 Oblivion Rings in the main deck and no Timely Reinforcements.

What should he put into his sideboard to be able to compete against this deck? I would suggest some Ghost Quarters to deal with Gavony Township but this still leaves him with the problem of Shrine of Loyal Legions, Intangible Virtue and Elspeth Tirel which he usually has no real answer to. Especially when I use my Oblivion Rings on his threats it is game over.

Which Mono-Black or Phyrexian-Mana spells can address this problem in Standard (Scars - Innistrad - M12)?

Black Sun's Zenith and Ratchet Bomb can help gain some time and clear the way for his creatures to hit.

If the planeswalkers and the Shrine are still a problem, Hex Parasite should really help fix that!

You can also look at Pro Tour Honolulu deck lists for inspiration. I'd recommend you to watch Jasper Johnson-Epstein's mono-black deck tech — deck list can be found here (search for his name).


Instantaneous creature death and checking conditions I have a Night of Souls' Betrayal, and so does my opponent. Creatures get -2/-2.

I have a Marchesa, the Black Rose, relevant text:

  Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step.

I play a Rakdos Cackler, a 1/1 with Unleash.

If I choose to have Rakdos Cackler enter with a counter, will it have a +1/+1 counter on it when it dies? Will Marchesa's ability return Rakdos Cackler to the battlefield at the next end step?

Yes, it will trigger every time it returns.

Let's start when the Cackler is on the stack, when you originally cast it.

If no one has a response, it resolves. When it is resolving, you choose whether or not to have it enter with a counter. Assuming you do, it enter with a counter on it, as a 0/0, because of the Night of Souls' Betrayals.

At this point, state based actions are checked. The Cackler dies, but Marchesa will see it with a +1/+1 on it, and this process will repeat every end step.


Can I activate an ability after part of a spell has resolved? (please read example) I made a Phelddagrif group hug deck with Windfall as my win condition (obviously I would only use it in an emergency) and Elixir of Immortality.

So, I cast Windfall with, say, 40 cards in my hand, the text says "Each player discards their hand, then draws an amount of cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way". So, could I use Elixir of Immortality after I discarded my hand, but before I drew 40 more cards? I know this sounds silly as I'd think that it wouldn't work, but if it does then I can do a lot more with my deck. Thanks!

As you guessed, this little trick doesn't work. There are only two ways to activate an ability or cast a spell while another spell or ability is resolving, and your combo doesn't fall into either one:

If the spell/ability that's resolving lets a player pay mana, that player can activate mana abilities.
If the spell/ability currently resolving explicitly tells you to cast a spell or allows you to cast a spell, you can cast that spell. Even in this case, the newly cast spell waits on the stack until the current spell/ability finishes resolving.

  CR 608.2f If an effect gives a player the option to pay mana, he or she may activate mana abilities before taking that action. If an effect specifically instructs or allows a player to cast a spell during resolution, he or she does so by putting that spell on top of the stack, then continuing to cast it by following the steps in rules 601.2a–h, except no player receives priority after it's cast. The currently resolving spell or ability then continues to resolve, which may include casting other spells this way. No other spells can normally be cast and no other abilities can normally be activated during resolution.


Can Wear / Tear destroy a Chalice of the Void with X=1? What happens with Wear / Tear when there's a Chalice of the Void with X=1? Does the Chalice recognize the Wear as having a casting cost of 2 or does it somehow see the Tear and a casting cost of 1?

The Wear // Tear will not be countered
As per the rules on Split cards:

708.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.
708.3a Only the chosen half is evaluated to see if it can be cast. Only that half is considered to be put onto the stack.
708.3b While on the stack, only the characteristics of the half being cast exist. The other half’s characteristics are treated as though they didn’t exist.

Your fuse card will either have the CMC of three in all zones except the stack, it can also have a CMC of one or two depending on which part of the split card you use or also a CMC of three on the stack if you fuse it.
It could very easily be countered if you try and destroy an enchantment with it but that is not part of your question.


Good Introductory Strategies for Steam I was lucky enough to play my first Martin Wallace game last night - a 5 player game of Steam.  Unfortunately I was tired and couldn't really grasp the intricacies of the game from a quick runthrough of the rules; I decided to not worry about it, play at random and get a feel for the game.

Of course I got trounced: I was way too slow to develop my locomotive, failed to utilise towns to maximise my number of route links, and missed the fact that goods cannot move through a city of their colour on their way to another one.  At least I was only a few points behind the players in 3rd and 4th places (though a long way behind the leaders of the pack).

I really liked the look of Steam (which felt like a kind of cross between Power Grid and Caylus) though, and would happily play it again.  To save me from future embarrassment though, what are some simple strategies I could adopt to give me a fighting chance of a good finish next time?  I've probably suggested some to myself in the list of mistakes I think I made in my first game, but I'm sure people who really know the game can give me some better pointers.  Any takers?

You need to be planning a way to build up to routes of various lengths, up to 5 or 6 long, from the very beginning of the game.  Look at the resources on the board and route them mentally to places that are far away, then fill in where you need to place tracks.  Realize that resources near other cities of the same color are probably going to go away before you complete the longer routes.

You might eventually need Urbanization to help you build the routes you want.

A lot of new players will "land grab" the routes that give immediate gratification but then realize they don't really have a good growth strategy thereafter.  Don't worry if your start is slightly slower than such players, although you definitely need to get some goods delivered early.


Can something have multiples of the same aura? Can I have duplicate enchantment auras on the same creature?
Example: I enchanted my Kor Spiritdancer with Ethereal Armor, can I cast another Ethereal Armor on her?

Yes or no, and what's the ruling reference?

Yes you can. The only limit on enchantments is the same limit that all permanents have: the Legendary rule. You can only have 1 permanent in play of a given name if they are legendary.

However, even if you enchant a creature with the same enchantment, subsequent enchantments might not do anything. For example, you can only get lifelink once.

Take your Ethereal Armor example, the power/toughness bonus would stack, and presuming those are your only enchantments on the board, each would provide +2/+2 for a total of +4/+4.  However, granting the First Strike ability on the 2nd enchantment would do nothing, since that ability is already granted by the first enchantment.


Can you do a field of ruin and kefnet the mindfull combo Can I use a land with a sacrifice ability, like Field of Ruin, where you have to sacrifice the card for the ability to activate, then whilst the ability is on the stack, use Kefnet the Mindful's ability which returns a land I control to my hand? Since abilities will trigger even if their permanents are removed from the battlefield, would it still activate the ability because I remember reading a rule that said that a card's ability or function will activate as most as possible (if that makes sense).

No, you can't do this.
The reason is that sacrificing Field of Ruin is part of the cost of its ability; not part of the effect. The cost is paid when you activate the ability, as part of the process of activating the ability. So by the time you can respond to the ability while it is on the stack, Field of Ruin is already in the graveyard; no longer on the battlefield, which means that you no longer control it.
From the comprehensive rules:

602.1a The activation cost is everything before the colon (:). An ability’s activation cost must be paid by the player who is activating it.
602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.

The rule that you are thinking of is that an ability can still resolve even if the source of the ability has left the battlefield. So if someone destroys Kefnet in response to you activating his activated ability; it won't stop you from drawing a card and being allowed to return a land you control to your hand. Be careful not to casually use the phrase "abilities will trigger", because a triggered ability is a specific type of ability; activated abilities never "trigger".


How does "Concealment" transfer to Dedicated Transports? I have been looking over the combat benefits from the various force organisations granted by Gladius Strike Forces. The one that interests me is the 10th Company bonus where all units in this Company gain Concealment (Stealth until almost anything other than embarking, disembarking or shooting). However, I have a number of land speeder storms that act as dedicated transports that gain this status as well. So my question is if I disembark a concealed unit and its transport moves, does the entire unit loose concealment or just the Transport?

The 10th Company's special rule Concealed Positions gives Stealth to each unit in the formation that deploys using the Infiltration rule.  We also know that the Dedicated Transport is a separate unit from the unit that disembarked.

  Dedicated Transports do not use up any slots on a Force Organisation
  Chart, but otherwise function as separate units.

Therefore, if the transport moves, only the Dedicated Transport will lose Stealth. Each unit--independently--will have special rule Stealth until it performs an action that cancels it.


Can a pawn be promoted to queen if the player is missing a knight, bishop or rook? My classmate says that you can't have another queen if one of your chess officials (knights, bishops and rooks) are captured and not yet replaced.

Is this true?

You can promote a pawn to any piece (other than a Pawn or King), regardless of how many of that piece is on the board. In theory, you could have nine Queens by the end of the game (unlikely, of course).

Piece availability is not a concern, either. An upside-down rook (if available) is the recommended stand-in for a queen, though you may have to improvise due to limited resources (stacked checkers tiles also work well).


Are permanent +1/+1 counters considered enchantments? If a creature has one or more permanent +1/+1 counters are those counters considered "enchantments"?

No. They are not objects on the battlefield, and they don't have the enchantment card type.

An enchantment is a permanent with the card type "enchantment".

  109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

A counter fails to match the definition of an enchantment for two reasons.

Counters aren't permanents. They aren't even objects.

  110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. [...]

  121.1. A counter is a marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics and/or interacts with a rule, ability, or effect. Counters are not objects and have no characteristics. Notably, a counter is not a token, and a token is not a counter. Counters with the same name or description are interchangeable.

Counters don't have the enchantment card type. They don't even have a card type. They aren't even objects.

  300.1. The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, tribal, and vanguard.

  109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, expansion symbol, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. Objects can have some or all of these characteristics. Any other information about an object isn’t a characteristic. For example, characteristics don’t include whether a permanent is tapped, a spell’s target, an object’s owner or controller, what an Aura enchants, and so on.

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

  121.1. A counter is a marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics and/or interacts with a rule, ability, or effect. Counters are not objects and have no characteristics. Notably, a counter is not a token, and a token is not a counter. Counters with the same name or description are interchangeable.


Do Bloodreavers gain an extra attack from a Bloodsecrator's Rage of Khorne ability? In Age of Sigmar, a unit of Bloodreavers has the KHORNE keyword and the Frenzied Devotion ability:

  Frenzied Devotion: If this unit is within 12" of
  a CHAOS TOTEM from your army when it is
  selected to attack, then all models in this unit make
  2 attacks rather than 1, and the Chieftain makes 3
  attacks rather than 2.

Meanwhile, a Bloodsecrator has the CHAOS and TOTEM keywords, and has the option of using its Rage of Khorne ability:

  Rage of Khorne: This ability affects all KHORNE units in your army within 18" of this model at the start of your combat phase. When they attack, add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of all melee weapons used by units affected by the Rage of Khorne. In addition, players do not have to take battleshock tests for any KHORNE units within 18" of this model.

With all of this in mind, consider the following scenario:

In the hero phase, the Bloodsecrator uses its Rage of Khorne ability.
At the start of the combat phase, a unit of Bloodreavers is within 12" of a Bloodsecrator.
The unit of Bloodreavers is selected to attack an enemy unit.

In this scenario, how many attacks does each Bloodreaver make?

The description of Frenzied Devotion does not mention the Attacks characteristic of the models, and it could be interpreted that the new number of attacks is only gained when the Bloodreavers would make 1 attack (2 in the case of the Bloodreaver Chieftain). However, this would mean that the only benefit the Bloodreavers would gain from the Bloodsecrator's Rage of Khorne ability is not having to take battleshock tests - which seems nonsensical from both a gameplay and flavour perspective.

As with most rules in AoS the simplest solution is usually the correct one and rules stack.

Therefore if you have a unit of BloodReavers:

within 12" inches of a Bloodsecrator you get 3 attacks
between 12" and 18" of a Bloodsecrator you get 2 attacks
over 18" from a Bloodsecrator you get 1 attacks

The Chieftain gets an additional attack on top.

I actually wasn't 100% of this so I asked on TGA. Here's the quote directly from Killax:

  Frenzied Devotion gives them an additional attack if they are within
  12" of  Chaos Totem. This ability is not cumulative. The Bloodsecrator
  has the Chaos Totem Keyword but the Bloodsecrator is not the prime
  Keyword for Frenzied Devotion to be activated.
  - Rage of Khorne is an ability that the Bloodsecrator only has if he 'activates' Portal of Skulls. This is something you have to declare in
  the Hero phase and not something that continues once you do. This
  ability is cumulative because it adds 1 to all melee attacks.

  So depending on wether the Bloodsecrator has activated the Portal of
  Skulls or not the Bloodreavers will have two attacks instead of one if
  they are within 12" of the Chaos Totem (which can be a Bloodsecrator)
  and depending if the Bloodsecrator has used the Portal of Skulls or
  not you can add 1 attack in the Combat phase thanks to Rage of Khorne
  if they are within that range aswell.

  The common mistake I see here is:

  Frenzied Devotion does not look for Bloodsecrator Keyword but Chaos Totem Keyword.
  Portal of Skulls leads to the Bloodsecrator having the Rage of Khorne ability. It is NOT a permanent ability.


What requires MTG players to remind their opponents of “may” parts of effects? Section 3.7 of the IPG defines Tournament Error — Communication Policy Violation as follows:

  A player violates the Communication policies detailed in section 4 of the Magic Tournament Rules and the judge believes their opponent has taken an in-game action or clearly chosen not to act based on the erroneous information. This infraction only applies to violations of that policy
  and not to general communication confusion.

It goes on to list an example:

  A player casts Path to Exile, and forgets to remind their opponent that they have the opportunity to search for a basic land.

Which parts of the IPG and the MTR require players to make such reminders if they do not wish to commit a CPV?

The Magic Judge Blog version of that IPG section has a more detailed description of why those examples are problematic:

  In each of these examples, a player takes an action or fails to take an action in a way that is impacted by illegal communication. In the first example, the opponent makes a choice regarding the discard spell assuming that the player has three cards in their hand, while they actually have four. In the second, the player has violated section 4.7 of the MTR by keeping a creature with their lands, and the opponent assumes that the player has no blockers. In the third case, the player violates MTR 4.2 by assuming that the opponent chose not to search. In each case, it isn’t the illegal information that causes the infraction, but rather the opponent acting on the illegal information. If a player keeps their Llanowar Elf with their lands, but the opponent doesn’t make an attack assuming that the player has no blockers, then no infraction has occurred. However, judges should step in to clarify the board state before an infraction occurs.

This is referring to the following statement in the Magic Tournament Rules section 4.2:

  During the resolution of one of their spells or abilities, a player may not assume their opponent has taken a shortcut. They must seek confirmation that a choice with no visible impact was taken.

The explanation for that statement makes this very explicit:

  A player must make sure an opponent has chosen not to use an optional effect from their spell or ability. If a player casts Path to Exile on the opponent’s Grizzly Bears, and the opponent does not search for a basic land, they must be told that the spell allows them to do so. (Failure to do so may be a CPV).


How do Wounds, Damage, Saving Throws and Invulnerable Saves interact with each other? I have read the freely available Battle Primer, which explains the core rules. However, I am still a bit confused regarding how exactly to resolve damage.

Imagine a unit of Space Marines gets 10 shots at a unit of Orks. The weapons of the Space Marines have an Armour Penetration value of -2, and a Damage Value of 2 as well.
Out of those ten shots, six shots hit. Of those six hits, four of them wound.

The next step would require me to allocate "Wounds". How many Wounds did I generate? Is it 4, because 4 shots hit and passed the Wound roll? Or is it 8, because each shot would deal 2 damage?
The Ork player would then have to allocate the wounds and roll Saving Throws. Let's assume his Orks have a saving throw of 4+. Does this mean he has to roll 4 individual Saving Throws (one per shot) or 8 individual Saving Throws (one per damage).
Imagine one Ork had the ability to roll Invulnerability Saves. Are those Save rolls per-shot, or per-damage?

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the procedure. This is basically the same regardless of whether it's in Close Combat or Shooting.

Select an Eligible Unit.
Declare targets for all weapons before making any hit rolls (important in units with mixed weaponry)
Pick one weapon type (in some situations you may need to attack with each weapon one at a time, but usually you can save time by rolling groups at once) and make your to hit rolls.
For every Hit make a wound roll. Again sometimes you'll need to roll the wound rolls one at a time, but usually you can group them.
For every wound your opponent needs to pick a model and make a save. If the AP (Armour Penetration) of your weapon makes their regular save worse than their Invulnerable save they'll use the Invulnerable. For a unit w/ multi-wound models, if a model already has a wound it must be picked first for this step. If the damage of the weapon is greater than the wounds of the picked model and that model fails the save it is removed and a new model is chosen for the next wound. Keep going until all the wounds are applied.
Sometimes a unit will have an effect (often from another unit, or a psychic power) that lets it ignore damage (such as Disgustingly Resilient). Often this will be referred to as "Feel No Pain" as there was a universal rule with that name in previous editions. If so, for each point of damage it takes from failed wounds (or Mortal Wounds) it gets to make a FNP roll. If successful that damage is ignore. However note that a roll is made for each point of damage. So if a 2 wound model failed its save from a 3 Damage wound, it would need to make at least 2 of its FNP rolls to avoid dying.

If you've got mixed save units w/ FNP and multi-damage damage wounds you'll need to go through the process one at a time as things can get complicated. Once you've played a few games you'll figure out when and where you can speed things up by rolling multiple saves/FNP at once.

Note that mortal wounds ignore saves (regular and invulnerable) completely but don't usually ignore Feel No Pain type effects...

In the specific example of 8 hits > 4 wounds, the orks would make 4 saving throws (needing 6s). If you had a single ork with an invulnerable save, you could choose to roll against its Invulnerable, but if it fails that ork in particular would die. Since they're all single wound models, the extra damage is wasted.


Proper use of Dominion card Upgrade In what situations is Upgrade (Intrigue) useful? I have never seen anyone buy Upgrade in the games I've played where it was available. Whenever I play with Upgrade and Swindler, I always give Upgrade to my opponents in exchange for their 5-cost cards. They never know what to do with it... What are we doing wrong? How can we make use of this card?

Upgrade is quite strong by itself for two reasons:

You can use it to trash 0-cost cards that you no longer want in your deck (coppers and curses). Trashing curses is obvious, but regarding copper: do not underestimate the power of having a really small deck!
You can use it to turn your Estates into Silver (always a good choice) or, even better, into a highly contested 3-cost card in a 3 or 4 player game (think Village in a pool where it is the only action-gaining card).

These reasons are enough for Upgrade to be something you want to have in your deck, and not only in one copy. There are also, in my experience, two factors stemming from the kingdom card pool that "modify" Upgrade's usefulness:

If the pool is very strongly combo-oriented (lots of cards with +actions and +cards plus cards with +gold and/or +buy), Upgrade may be too slow. For example, in a pool with Festival/Smithy/Village/Nobles/Throne Room I don't think you 'd have the time to do enough with Upgrade before combos start exploding left and right.
If the pool has no +buy actions, Upgrade is stronger. It's the only way you will have to gain a second card in your turn. In this case, lots of Upgrades (3-4) can serve to turn your initial turn buys (2-4 cost) to 5-6 cost cards.

And finally, don't forget that if you have too many Upgrades you can always use one to turn another into a Gold.


Can you play a rent card and then a double the rent card? Can you play a rent card and charge them rent? then a double the rent card on top of it to charge additional money

Yes, mostly. You double the amount collected in that one rent payment. Usually this is the same as collecting the rent a second time, but note that "Just Say No" would cancel the whole thing, not just the second payment, so it may be slightly different than you're thinking:

  Play immediately after a standard Rent card to double the amount of rent collected. Can also be banked as money. Bank value: 1M. (NOTE: Playing this card along with a Rent card counts as two of your three possible card plays for your turn, per Hasbro).

  Playing a Just Say No card cancels both the Rent card and the Double the Rent card, per Hasbro.

Quoted from https://monopoly.fandom.com/wiki/Monopoly_Deal#The_Cards_In_Detail


What's the AP of Eldrad's Staff and Yreil's spear? The 6th edition of 40K introduces AP for melee weapons.  Previously many melee weapons where listed as "Ignores Armor Saves".  Now they have an supposed to have Armor Penetration value just like ranged weapons.

Eldrad's weapon's rules are listed as:

  ...a melee weapon that wounds on a 2+ regardless of toughness and ignores armor saves

Yreil's weapon's rules are listed as:

  ...as a Witchblade that ignores armor saves

Nowhere in the rules are they called out as being power weapons, which according to the new edition would cause them to be classified as Unusual Power Weapons and get AP3.  They are also neither listed in the Master Rule Book appendix which is supposed to update all existing weapons for the new edition,

My inclination is to interpret them as written and say that no one can take armor saves against wounds caused by these weapons.

Is that the correct interpretation, or am I missing something in core rule book that would clarify the issue?

You are correct in that neither weapon entitles a model wounded by them to a standard armour save. Invulnerable armour saves would be taken as normal.

The approach to determining this is if a weapon or a weapon's special rules are not covered in the Rule Book ("Big Yellow Book" or BYB, 6th edition) then you take the description as written in the Codex.

In the case of these two weapons:

Staff of Ulthamar

There is no mention that this is a weapon listed in the BRB, and so we use the description on p51 of the current Codex: Eldar:

  "In combat it always wounds on a roll of 2+ and ignores armour saves."

The Spear of Twilight

The Codex mentions on page 53 that this is a Singing Spear and adds a further rule, ignoring armour saves, to that weapon description:

  "It is a Singing Spear that ignores armour saves (see page 27)."

Referring to Page 27, the Singing Spear is a weapon that is similar to a Witchblade but note that it is not listed as a Witchblade. It has it's own weapon profile, rules and description listed in this Codex and these are not overridden by anything in the new rule book.

As a result we use the profile detailed on this page, remembering to add in the "ignores armour saves" rules mentioned in the Spear of Twilight's own description.


What distribution of ICE should I have in my deck? When building Corporation decks for Android: Netrunner, I've been finding it difficult to get the balance of ICE in my deck right. For instance, in my most recent deck, I've found that I've put a little too much in my deck resulting (to some extent) in dead draws.

What proportion of my deck should be ICE? I expect it varies by strategy too, so what should I take into consideration when deciding whether I should go slightly higher or lower than the "correct" proportion?

And, once I know how much ICE I'm using, how should it be distributed with respect to barriers/code gates/sentries? Should I have an even variety of the three, or is it feasible to have more of some types than of others?

This is more of a 'How I pick my ICE/General ideas' than anything else, but here goes:

Generally, corp decks will run anywhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of their deck as ICE (most decks landing somewhere in the middle). When I build decks my starting point is 18 ICE out of 49 cards with 6 of each type. That's basically my boilerplate average deck idea. Then that'll change depending on which corp I'm building. In faction, here's what you're looking at for ICE:

Haas lacks an early game barrier and a late game code gate but is pretty solid everywhere else.
Jinteki has a late game barrier [Wall of Thorns] and...yeah. A fair amount of early game ICE but none of it has stopping power.
NBN has a good barrier [TMI] (as long as the trace succeeds the first time), a good sentry [Data Raven], and a great code gate [Tollbooth].
Weyland's ICE is cool in that you can advance a number of them to increase their strength [Shadow, Ice Wall, Hadrian's Wall], so early game ICE is potentially useful later as well, but completely lacks code gate ICE.
The neutrals Wall of Static, Enigma, and Chimera are all useful early game ICE as well.

Generally I try to have an early game and late game (ie. cheap/expensive) ICE of each of the three types, but I think early game ICE are more important. Tollbooth doesn't do you any good if it's your only code gate and you can't get it on the table. And a single Wall of Static can work wonders if the runner just isn't pulling t[heir barrier breaker. Chimera is a really good piece of ICE early game as it's whatever you need, but can get expensive quickly.

You can cover for the various ICE deficiencies inherent in corps by adding in neutral cards and pulling from other corps. Not having ICE of a specific type will hurt since the runner no longer has to care about playing one of their icebreakers. Tollbooth is a popular code gate to pull in, and Archer is a popular sentry if you think you've got the ability to sacrifice an agenda (NBN) or stand a good chance of rezzing it for free (Haas).

Other than that, you can play to your corp's strength/keep their weaknesses in mind!

NBN loves traces and tags but remember that all the traces in the world won't help if you can't stop the run & the runner removes the tag before your turn
Haas has a good economy and strong ICE, but bioroids can be bypassed very easily by runners with extra time on their hands. E3 Feedback is your worst enemy. A single bioroid on a server is significantly less dangerous than three bioroids on one server.
Weyland also has a good economy, but needs to spend a lot of time to bump up their early game ICE, if that's the route you're going.
Jinteki has a weaker economy and a more tricksy playstyle, so it's hard to give more definitive advice other than cheap ICE is your friend.

You can also take a look at what it takes for the various runner to break through ICE and compare that to a particular piece of ICE's cost, but that's less helpful since runners can pull icebreakers from each other to mitigate weaknesses.

Anarchs: Hard to analyze. Either they can get through for very cheap/free (using Ice Carver + Datasucker + Parasite) or they can't get through at all.
Criminals: Have to bump up strength in >1 increments and have the only breakers that cost 2 credits to break 1 subroutine. So consider what levels of strength could be most inconvenient. ie. A strength 1 Draco is just as annoying as a strength 5 Draco to Ninja. Ninja is arguably the best sentry breaker in the game.
Shapers: Pretty balanced, especially with Personal Touch and Modded. Gordian Blade is a great Code Gate breaker.

So as an example, if I were building a Weyland deck I know I'll have easy money, so I'd pull in my big hitters [Archer, Hadrian's Wall, Tollbooth]. These also cover the three types pretty well for late game play. After that I'd pull in Chimera since Weyland can feed it pretty easily. I wouldn't really care about having another Code Gate since Enigma is pretty weak and I'd personally prefer to spend the influence somewhere else rather than pulling in Viktor or Viper. For remaining sentries I'd want to avoid relying on traces since I'm already looking at spending most of my money in other places. Maybe a Data Raven. Possibly a Shadow or Caduceus if I think the runner would let me get money from those subroutines. Wall of Static is my go-to barrier, so that would get included easy. At this point I'm sitting on 16 pieces of ICE (assuming you don't have multiple base boxes) and would probably include one more 'thing' that would totally vary depending on how I'm feeling. Probably some piece of ICE that's cheaper for me to rez than it is for them to break once.

But this is all just my .02! I've never won any tournaments, etc. etc. but hopefully that'll give you some idea of what goes through other people's heads when building decks.


Winning The game of Unstable Unicorns If a player has 7 unicorn cards and a magic card have they won or do they need to get rid of the magic card before they can win.

They've won (besides, you can always just discard the magic card at the end of your turn anyhow).
Rules:

The first person to successfully collect the required
number of Unicorns in their Stable wins! Each Unicorn
card counts for one Unicorn (unless otherwise stated).

2 – 5 Players: 7 Unicorns to win
6 – 8 Players: 6 Unicorns to win


PDS II space cannons of third-party players The PDS II upgrade allows your PDS units to use their Space Cannon abilities on adjacent systems (as does the Xxcha Flagship).  How does this work for third-parties involved in the combat?

For the sake of example, the L1z1x control Mecatol Rex and the Federation of Sol attacks Mecatol Rex (anyone getting deja vu?).  The Xxcha player have Space Cannon (x3) in an adjacent sector that can be applied to Mecatol Rex.  Which of the following is the Xxcha allowed to do?

Not fire their space cannons
Fire against the Sol ships (the active player)
Fire against L1z1x ships (the inactive player)
Split their space cannon dice among the Sol and L1z1x ships

The valid options are #1 (not shooting) and #2 (shooting the ships of the active player).
Shooting space cannons is optional for any player (so #1 is always an option).  Then, #2 is an option but not #3 or #4 because space cannons apply their hits to the ships of the active player, with the only exception being for the active player's space cannons.
Here are the relevant rules for Space Cannon Offense from the rules reference (my emphasis):

Beginning with the active player and proceeding clockwise, each player may use the “Space Cannon” ability of each of his units in the active system by rolling a specific number of dice for each of those units; these are called space cannon rolls.
If a player has the “Deep Space Cannon” technology, he can use the “Space Cannon” ability of his PDS units that are in systems that are adjacent to the active system. The hits are still assigned to units in the active system.
The active player must choose and destroy one of his ships in the active system for each hit result produced against his units.
If the active player is using the “Space Cannon” ability of his units, he chooses a player who has ships in the active system. That player must choose and destroy one of his ships in the active system for each hit the space cannon roll produced.

This is corroborated by the Learn to Play:

After the active player’s ships move into the active system, each player’s units in the active system may use their “Space Cannon” abilities against the active player’s ships in that system. The active player may also use his units’ “Space Cannon” abilities at this time.


I found this deck of cards and have no clue what it is called or how it is played Example of card names: The Magil, Sirens of Aphron, Tristes Unum, Cerga Mobster etc.

I have 64 cards. All 64 cards are different. Top left of the Cerga Mobster card is written 14 FrP - 12 Gui - 9 Lck as do other cards but with different amounts. See attached pictures.

I have no idea at all what these are, but based on the complete lack of google entries, I am guessing they are homemade.

Regarding the three stats 'FrP', 'Gui', and 'Lck'.  I'm not sure what FrP is, but maybe the others are Guile and Luck?  Perhaps these are for some role playing game with those three character statistics?

My guess is that these were printed by someone for a campaign in some role playing game, maybe even a homebrew RPG.


In Arkham Horror, can Shrivelling be used to compound bonuses? Probably the generic question is whether combat bonuses can be compounded at all or if it works like Eldritch Horror where '+' bonuses are only ever used for one item while re-rolls can be compounded. Thoughts?

Yes, combat bonuses are cumulative as long as you do not exceed the 'hands' requirement. Shrivelling requires 1 hand so this rules out other two handed weapons or spells.

Skill bonuses such as Fight+1 will also come in to effect.


Wake the Reflections and Young Pyromancer I think i got this right, but I'd like to make a sanity check.

If you cast Wake the Reflections with Young Pyromancer in play, the pyromancer's trigger will resolve first, so that you will get a token to populate even if you originally had none, right?

You are absolutely correct. When a "Whenever you cast" trigger is triggered, the ability will go on the stack above the spell that caused it, meaning it will be resolved first.

Here's the sequence of play.

I cast Wake the Reflections. Populate does not require selecting a target, so I don't have to make any choices about it when the spell goes on the stack.
Young Pyromancer's ability triggers ("Whenever you cast") and goes on the stack. This puts it above Wake the Reflections on the stack.
(Both players pass, so the top of the stack resolves.) We resolve Young Pyromancer's ability, creating an Elemental token.
(Both players pass, so the top of the stack resolves.) We resolve Wake the Reflections. I make a new token of any type I already have, including the 1/1 red Elemental I got a second ago.


How does a Channel ability work with my commander? How does Channel (the Kamigawa mechanic, not the card) work when your commander has such an ability, such as Arashi, the Sky Asunder?  Can I use it from the command zone? Do I pay the tax when I use channel? Does it increase when I use channel?

You cannot use channel from the command zone. Channel is an ability that has both a mana cost, and the requirement to discard the card. Discarding a card is only from your hand, not from the command zone.

This means you need to somehow get your commander into your hand (such as with Command Beacon or Road of Return). Once they're there you can activate their Channel ability and discard them, and this wouldn't involve the commander tax since it doesn't involve casting your commander from the command zone.


Eclipse: some House rules to cut down on chance in die rolling? My group and I enjoy Eclipse, but it has fallen out of favor because of the extreme chance in battle on die rolls. Heck, I can't even get my wife to play at all because the first three games she played, each time she would be in a good early spot to take a good resource hex with a single alien on it and would instead get obliterated (we are talking like 80% or 90% chance to take win). That is no fun. We have moved on to other games like Smallworld and Agricola where it is more about strategy than luck, but I would like to find a way to put Eclipse back into the rotation.

Has anyone tested any house rules that would lessen the harshness of chance in die rolls?

One thing that came to my mind is a self-made technology that could be purchased and would allow the player to re-roll on a 1.

Average Dice:
The easiest solution would to use an average die, i.e. a d6 with the faces:
0/1/1/2/2/3

0 is a automatic miss
3 is a automatic hit

A modified 3 is a normal hit, e.g. a rolled 1 with +2 from computers is a hit.

While the extreme swings (all dice show automatic hit/miss) are not mitigated, the impact of the modifiers (computers, shields) is twice as large, decreasing the overall randomness.

When an average die is rolled you must remember if it is yellow (1 hit = 1 damage), orange (1 hit = 2 damage) or red (1 hit = 4 damage). Potentially rolling the dice of different colors after each other to prevent confusion.

All other rules should be applicable. Outside of combat, still normal d6 are necessary (e.g. for hive hexes).

Average dice are available online (either physical or as an app) and are useful in numerous games to reduce the randomness of the dice.

No Automatic Hit/Miss
If you want to address the extreme swings, then remove the automatic hit/miss parts of the game, i.e. a 1 can hit with +5 modifier and a 6 misses against -1 shield. I wouldn't recommend this, as shield become too powerful (ships cannot be hit at all), but if this suits your taste, why not?

Lastly average dice and not automatic hits/misses can be combined for an drastic reduction of the luck in the game.


When can power be converted? When another player builds next to you, you can choose to taken power (and lose the #power-1 points). But when the number of power you can take is greater than the number of tokens you can move to your third power bowl, can you immediately convert power into something else?  Or do you lose the rest?

You lose the rest. Conversions are performed only on your turn. According to the rulebook (p. 13):

  Anytime during your turn, on top of your Action, you may do any number of Conversions.

and from p. 9:

  Once all Power tokens are in Bowl III, you cannot gain further Power.

Therefore, if you are close to the limit of your Power, and expect to gain more before your next turn, you may want to consider Converting some of it to a useful resource.


Stealing a "play at any time" item as a thief in Munchkin? A thief went to steal the Demonic Wishing Eye (Adventure Time Munchkins) by discarding a card and then declaring "I am going to steal the demonic wishing eye".

The Demonic Wishing Eye has the "PLAY AT ANY TIME" text on the top. The owner of the Demonic Wishing Eye therefore decided to play it straight away, before the thief had rolled the dice and hence completed the attempted steal.

The owner's justification was that it had the "play at any time" text. The thief did not think this was fair.

The group and owner of the game could see both sides to the argument as to why the thief would/should be able to steal it without the person playing it and vice versa. We were all wondering if there is an official rule for this interaction, the interaction being if the thief can steal the item before they can play it, or if they can play it before the thief can steal it after the thief declares they are going to and discards a card.

You say the thief went to steal the item, but here's no such game mechanic. Either the thief has stolen the item, or they haven't. Stealing is not something that has a duration, so you can't "interrupt" it. There's no mechanism for time travel or precognisence in Munchkin, so an action (e.g. stealing) must be completed before another one can be started.

If the thief hasn't stolen the item, the owner original (and current) owner can play it.

If the thief has stolen the item, the owner original owner can't play it since they no longer own it.


Limiting the number of silver and gold cards available in Dominion One of the interesting aspects of Dominion is how you have to plan which kingdom cards you're going to get while they're still there. If there's 2 attack cards available and somebody's snagged all the moats, you're going to be in trouble. Victory cards are obviously in limited supply as well. The basic treasures, copper, silver, and gold however, are pretty much unlimited, at least that's what I've found in my games. We've never even come close to running out of any of them, even with 5 players. There's 60 copper, 40 silver, and 30 gold.

Then I had the idea of limiting the treasures, like all the other cards. Not very restrictively, but enough to come into affect if multiple people are playing big money. Maybe 8 silver per person and 5 gold per person. They're silver and gold, they should be rare!

Has anybody ever played this way before? Do you think it would have a huge difference on the game? Do 8 silver and 5 gold per person seem like good ratios?

Personally, I don't think this seems like a good idea.  The game is balanced around the availability of these treasures.

The Kingdom piles change from game to game, so the only reliable element for your deck is treasure at 3 and 6 coins respectively.

The first player to buy a Gold already has a statistical advantage in Dominion, but this would enhance that advantage even further, since late-peaking players might not be able to GET any Gold.

It seems to me that, depending on how MUCH you limit, this change would have one of two effects:

No effect, because there's still more Silver and Gold than your players buy anyway.  In many of the games my group plays 5 Gold per player would seldom run out, for example.
An overly punishing effect.  You got 6 coins this turn, but there are no decent 5-cost Kingdom cards and the Gold is gone!  You just got screwed.

You say "This would create a little more competition in getting treasures into your deck" but when I play Dominion I'm always competing to get treasures into my deck.  If an opponent lands 2 or 3 Gold before I get one, I know I'm in trouble and had better pull off something amazing if I'm going to have a chance.  Making the piles run out won't make me any more competitive, it'll just harm everybody later.  I'm already always keeping other players' treasure levels in mind, because that determines how soon the Provinces may run out and whether I can even count on being able to afford Provinces or should just go for Duchies.

If the intent of this change is merely to discourage players from playing Big Money, I don't think this is the way to do it.  Big Money is not an optimal strategy and will lose frequently to even relatively simple Action-based strategies once players figure them out.  Play the base set a few times buying one Smithy or Laboratory+Chapel and see how long they keep playing Big Money!

It also feels like this change would bog down the middle-to-end game of every game as you would be unable to keep the treasure and victory levels of your decks balanced.  Even if everybody got exactly the same amount of Gold during the build-up, your decks will all get slower and slower as you start buying the Provinces, since you won't be able to offset those with more Gold.

All in all, the game was definitely designed so that Treasure is not expected to run out - the Intrigue rules even say "these cards are intended to be in abundant enough supply to not run out".  I think there are good reasons why Silver and Gold are effectively unlimited, and I don't think limiting those piles would make for much more fun in the long run.  Experienced players will already be competing for Gold regardless of the supply, and will already be tracking their opponents' treasure levels to adjust their strategy.


Please recommend a good shuffling machine The shuffling question What is a safe and accurate technique for shuffling cards? reminded me of a recent game of Munchkin with many expansions that taxed our shuffling endurance to the limit.  My wife picked up a cheap shuffler locally but it has several problems:  The left side doesn't draw cards as effectively as the right, so it always has remaining cards.  It also deposits the cards into an annoying tray which is difficult to remove and prone to spilling the cards.  It actually takes far longer to rotate a normal deck through the machine than to riffle it by hand.  We had hoped it would speed up Cribbage games (with many short hands) but we went right back to alternating between two decks.

Can anyone recommend an effective, fast card shuffling machine?

I own this 6-deck shuffling machine. I can highly recommend it for the specific circumstances we purchased it for: shuffling lots (4 decks) of expendable (i.e. cheap to replace) cards. We just run the decks through, cut a few times, and repeat. Say 3 or 4 times. It fed evenly from each side for us, but I could see an identical model not not working as well; it's not like its precision machinery.

We like it because the only real way to shuffle that many cards by hand is to split the deck up into multiple piles to be shuffled by humans and then combined, re-parsed out, and reshuffled. This way is much faster.

Reasons I would not recommend this machine for your purposes:

it's not worth the trouble to load it for a single deck (although for Munchkin with expansions perhaps it would work)
it also has a tray, although we didn't have problems with it
it's murder on cards (they're technically riffled, but get slammed together so hard the edges start to break down) we replaced the decks fairly frequently
you still have to strip, since this machine only riffles

It looks like there are professional models that riffle and strip, but they're expensive, like $500 instead of the $15 we paid.


Are "three way" trades allowed in Catan? My basic understanding is that all trades must involve the player whose turn it is.
Alice, whose turn it is, has ore and wants wheat. Bob wants ore and offers brick, which is not acceptable to Alice. Carol wants brick, and is willing to give wheat for it. So a three way trade would have Alice sending ore to Bob, Bob sending brick to Carol, and Carol sending wheat to Alice. Put another way, Alice gives ore to Bob and receives wheat from Carol.
Would such a trade be permitted under the rules? Looked at one way, Alice has dealt with both Bob and Carol. Looked at another way, there was a Bob to Carol leg (Bob sends brick to Carol) that did not involve Alice.
That is unless Alice first trades ore for brick with Bob, then brick for wheat with Carol. Can these two trades be made "simultaneous" through an "escrow" type arrangement? Or is this feature only reserved for say, "house rules?"

No (or yes, depending on how you define a single trade).
The person whose turn it is can trade. Each trade is with that person and one other person.
If you can accomplish what you need in a series of trades, you're welcome to try. But any promise of future trade is non-binding: your later trading partner may legally decline the trade when it comes time.
Rules:

Important: Players may only trade with the player whose turn it is.

Also note that each trade has to involve a card from each player in the trade. You can't just give a card away for nothing in return.
So in your example:

A trades ore to B in exchange for brick.
A trades brick to C in exchange for wheat.

This is legal, but it is two separate trades.
There are no escrow rules: C is free to decline the trade after trade 1 has happened.


Is the number of cards in my opponent's library public knowledge in Magic: The Gathering? The number of cards in players' hands is public knowledge, as is the number of exiled cards and cards in anyone's graveyard. But is the number of cards in your library public knowledge at all times as well? This could strongly affect decisions for players who frequently run mill decks.

Yes. From the comprehensive rules:

  401.3. Any player may count the number of cards remaining in any player's library at any time.


Do I get copy of my opponents creature with Helm of the Host? I know I can't equip Helm of the Host to my opponents creatures. The scenario I was wondering about was, if I somehow get control of my opponents Trostani Discordant, like with The Eldest Reborn, I equip it on my first main phase. At the beginning of my combat step, I get another copy. In the end step, Trostani triggers and my opponent gains control of it, still equipped with Helm. What happens next? I would think, that on my opponents combat step nothing happens (since I am the controller of the Helm), and that I get another copy on my combat step, but I am not sure.

Yes, that all works the way you expect. You will get copies of your opponent's creature at the beginning of your combat step.

The most relevant rule here is rule 301.5d:

  An Equipment’s controller is separate from the equipped creature’s controller; the two need not be the same. Changing control of the creature doesn’t change control of the Equipment, and vice versa. Only the Equipment’s controller can activate its abilities. However, if the Equipment grants an ability to the equipped creature (with “gains” or “has”), the equipped creature’s controller is the only one who can activate that ability.

So, even after you no longer control the creature, you still control the equipment and it stays attached to the creature.


Multiple blockers and trample I just thought about the fact that you can deal as much damage to one creature when multiple blocked

So lets say I have an 8/8 with trample
I attack with it

Im blocked by a 1/1 a 2/2 and a 3/3
(Maybe they wanted to stop 6 of the 8 damage but don't have the creatures to kill my 8/8 or maybe they have a card to play or something, thats not really important but maybe thats why they multi blocked without enough to kill the 8/8)

Could I assign 8 damage to the 1/1 and 0 to the 2/2 and 3/3?
If so, would the trample damage go to the player?

You have to assign lethal combat damage to all blocking creatures before you can assign any to the player.  From the rules (emphasis mine):

  702.19b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking
  creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned
  as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the
  player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for
  assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the
  creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during
  the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that
  might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The attacking
  creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all those
  blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to the
  player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

Short answer: no, you can't assign 0 to the 2/2 and the 3/3 and still hit the defending player.  You have to assign enough damage to all the blockers to otherwise kill them before you can assign any leftover damage to the player.


Why does this player not have a straight? I'm relatively new to poker so bare with me.

Community cards: J, Q, K, 2, 4
P1: A,6
P2: Q,Q

A site determined that P2 won with three of the kind. Is this wrong? How does player P1 not win with a straight by playing only 1 hole card? The way this was graded confuses me!

The problem is that a straight cannot be made with an Ace in the middle of the straight. Ace can be considered either the lowest card (forming a straight with A, 2, 3, 4, 5); or the highest card (forming a straight with 10, J, Q, K, A). It cannot be both low and high at the same time; so J, Q, K, A, 2 is not a straight.

In the case of this hand, player 1's best hand is A,K,Q,J,6; which doesn't form any combination; it is simply an Ace-high hand.

https://wiki.c2.com/?PokerGame

  The ace is the highest-ranking card in the deck, followed by the king, the queen, the jack, and the numbered cards in order. The 2 is the lowest-ranking card. In some hands, however (such as the straight and straight flush), an ace can be used as a "1" card - Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a valid straight, as is 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace. The ace cannot be in the middle; one cannot form a straight with Queen-King-Ace-2-3.

Another source, since there is no one difinitive rulebook for Poker to cite:

  The best possible straight in poker is the Ace-high straight (TJQKA) often referred to as “broadway”. The Ace can also be used to formulate the lowest possible straight A2345, often referred to as “the wheel”. Note however that it is not possible for the Ace to appear in the middle of a made straight. I.e. QKA23 is actually just Ace-high, not a straight.

Note that you never get to choose "how many" hole cards you play. You always play a total of 5 cards; whichever 5 of the 7 options give you the best hand. IF player 1 had been holding a 10 instead of a 2, then player 1 would automatically play 10, J, Q, K, A; and would win the hand because of the straight, playing 1 hole card as you suggest.


Does "any" mean "all" or "one" for cards like Cheetah? Cheetah's ability is to "gain any card with cost 4 or less from the line-up." While playing the game the group has been split on whether this means take one card or take all cards.

There are some cards that specify to take all cards and I think some others specify to take one.

According to this BGG thread (which cites a play-tester), it means you can take any one card. At the end of the thread, game designer Matt Hyra (one of the co-designers for the game) corroborated this and added the following:

Just as an FYI for future card reading: If a card gains "all" of something, it would be written like:
Gain all cards with cost 4 or less from the Line-Up.

This is pretty common in card game terminology (citation needed I suppose?) where being able to take all cards would say "all" or similar.


If I play a Priest with sewers, do I get + $2 for trashing the card with sewers? Priest reads:

  +$2. Trash a card from your hand. For the rest of this turn, when you trash a card, +$2.

Sewers reads:

  When you trash a card other than from this, you may trash a card from your hand.

When you play a Priest, and then you trash a card with Sewers, do you get + $2?

You do not.

The "For the rest of this turn" bit of Priest's instructions will have not happened yet by the time you trash your Sewers card. It would play out like this.

Play Priest

Get +$2
Trash a card from your hand

Sewers triggers, so you trash a card from your hand

For the rest of this turn, when you trash a card, +$2

This was confirmed by Donald X in a post here:

  You play Priest. You get +$2. You trash a card. Sewers triggers and you trash a second card. Now Priest's "this turn when you trash +$2" becomes active. It wasn't active during either card trash.


Does tapping a creature force it to attack? I was playing with my little brother, and during my turn he used Black Oak of Odunos's ability, paying the black mana and tapping Oreskos Sun Guide so that on his turn turn he could untap Oreskos and gain two life.

Does tapping the Oreskos Sun Guide mean that it's attacking?

No. It's the other way around: attacking with a creature requires tapping it. (Unless it has vigilance!)

If you do something else that causes a creature to be tapped, it never causes it to attack. Only actually declaring it as an attacker (during the declare attackers step in the combat phase) will do that.

If you do want to force a creature to attack, you have to do it directly, using something like Shipwreck Singer.


Can I bring multiple prerelease packs into a prerelease tournament? So... Kaladesh Prerelease. I'm wanting to purchase two prerelease packs. My question ISN'T: "Can I fuse boxes and have more rares than anyone else and dominate?" My question is, can I open both boxes at the event and choose which card pool I would like to use? Or can you only use one predetermined box and open the other later? Are there even rules regarding this?

You cannot bring extra prerelease packs into the tournament like that.
Limited tournaments (such as drafts) work like this: The tournament officials (such as the game store owners running the pre-release) issue you boosters/cards, and they must issue everyone the exact same amount of cards. They will issue you one pre-release box, because if they issue you two, they have to issue everyone else two as well. That is the one and only box you get to use.
If you happen to possess other boosters or pre-release boxes, they don't count (even if you bought them from the tournament organisers, since they weren't issued to you for use in the tournament). They're outside the tournament scope, and you can't bring them into the tournament and use the cards inside them for that tournament, even to pick between them and another box. You use exclusively the box and boosters given for the tournament entry, or you're breaking tournament rules. (Suffice to say, breaking those rules will get you a stern talking to from your hosts, and/or disqualificiation from the tournament.)
MTG Tournament Rules as of May 2014:

7.3 Card Use in Limited Tournaments
Cards must be received directly from tournament officials. This product must be new and previously unopened. Pro Tour, Grand Prix, World Magic Cup, and World Championship events may have had boosters opened in order to stamp them. Each player (or team) must be given exactly the same quantity and type of product as all other players participating in the tournament. For example, if one player receives three Return to Ravnica boosters for a booster draft, all other players must also receive three Return to Ravnica boosters.

Emphasis added. If you bought extras, they're just extras you'll use in your own time. Don't bring them into the tournament.


What happens if opponent has infinite turns, but cannot kill me because I have infinite life? Let's say I have the Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Spike Feeder combo in play, which allows me to gain an arbitrary amount of life at instant speed. Meanwhile, opponent has the Nexus of Fate combo running, which allows her to take arbitrarily many turns. She still needs to convert these turns to a win, though. She is playing Biogenic Ooze as her win condition, but in this case I have arbitrary amounts of life, so Biogenic Ooze is ineffective.

However ... she can continuously make more Oozes and attack for arbitrarily large damage. The board state is changing and so are our life totals, but she cannot kill me, and she cannot pass the turn and win by milling either since eventually I'll draw my Walking Ballista and kill her.

How would the game end?

Related: What happens in the event of a standoff in Magic? However, this doesn't seem like it falls into one of the standoff rules, since it's not a loop. As opponent attacks for ever-larger numbers, I have to respond by gaining ever-larger amounts of life.

Your opponent cannot win, and forestalls losing to Walking Ballista by looping Nexus of Fate. Therefore, you would win the game either by direct judge decision because you explain the inevitable sequence of events, or by the judge forcing your opponent to let you draw cards and eventually getting you to the Walking Ballista.

There is clearly a loop happening. Remember that "game state" is not a defined term. Even gaining and losing life does not alter the game state if it foreseeably does not decide the game at any point, as is the case in your scenario.

Case 3 of the answer to the question you linked does apply. Your opponent can propose a loop with any (finite) number of attacks, and you can counter-propose the same loop, except you first gain enough life to survive all those attacks. Then a significantly different choice has to be made, i.e. your opponent must let you take a turn. You will eventually draw your Walking Ballista and win.

  721.3 Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.

From the tournament rules:

  The judge is the final arbiter of what constitutes a loop. A player may not 'opt-out' of shortcutting a loop, nor may they make irrelevant changes between iterations in an attempt to make it appear as though there is no loop. Once a loop has been shortcut, it may not be restarted until the game has changed in a relevant way. Proposing loops as an effort to use up time on the clock is Stalling.


Can I Special Summon Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon from the graveyard? If it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, but I Ritual Summoned it before, can I special summon it from the graveyard?

I mean, it says it "must be Ritual Summoned" but unlike Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon it doesn't say it can't be special summoned by other ways.

can I special summon it from the graveyard?

Short answer, no... The card says it Must be Ritual Summoned, so you can't Special Summon it unless it's a Ritual Summon. Longer answer...

I mean, it says it must be Ritual Summoned but unlike the Chaos Max it doesn't say it can't be special summoned by other ways.

I understand your confusion, and I was also confused at first. Seems that Konami recently changed the phrasing of such restriction on their cards, and updated it from the previous way of writing it they had. It is not uncommon for Konami to update or change their phrasing (but not the effect) to reduce ambiguity and shorten the text.
Let's see why analyzing MAX Dragon... Currently, there are two (three, but two of the same set) printings of Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon.

The first one is from a movie pack, code MVP1-EN004 released on 2016 which reads:

You can Ritual Summon this card with "Chaos Form". Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. [...]

The second one is from the Legendary Duelists, code LED3-EN000 released two months ago (2018), which had it's phrasing updated (just the phrasing, though, not the actual effect). It reads:

You can Ritual Summon this card with "Chaos Form". Must be Ritual Summoned. [...]

This tells us that Konami now rephrased such part of this card's effect (and of others) so it is shorter. Now, cards that read "Must be X Summoned" are restricted to such kind of summoning only.