Supreme King Gate Zero's role/s in a Dark Magician deck? Update (to old question: Does Supreme King Gate Zero's negation apply to Dark Magician the Dragon Knight after the latter has left the field?): Wait I think I get it now. The reason why I couldn't special summon DMTDK was because DMTDK was not special summoned properly, that is, fusion summoned.

If right, please skip next part.

With a Dark Magician deck, I was playing against a Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck. I couldn't use Eternal Soul to revive DMTDK, and it may have been due to DMTDK being special summoned with SKGZ.

Could Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon have had something to do with it? I don't think it was on the field.

Deck: I used ver2.0 here but Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring instead of Maxx "C".

Programme: I used an experimental "Ygoproes" which I had foolishly tampered with for an unspeakable amount of hours to try to get the program to play an exodia quasar deck instead of a frog deck. I didn't want to say this out of looking like one of those n00bs who think that there's a bug in the programme instead of thinking there may be a ruling issue.

So, SKGZ is mainly for Rank 7 summoning as described here rather than using its ability? What other roles could it serve? I guess it can be used for Allure of Darkness.

As your answer indicates that you suspect:

To Improve The Chance That Dark Magician Is Summoned On Turn 1

In the deck/article you've linked, the purpose of Gate Zero is to be used in tandem with Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm and Destrudo the Lost Dragon's Frisson to summon Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, and subsequently Ebon Illusion Magician. This inclusion of Darkwurm/Gate Zero exists solely to achieve this opening move, so that Dark Magician can more consistently exist on the field on Turn 1.

As the name sort of implies, the "Dark Magician" deck tends to prefer having "Dark Magician" in play; so it is quite desirable to optimize the likelihood of him entering play as early as possible. Gate Zero is a means to this end.

The other capabilities (although, certainly not the intended purpose) of Gate Zero are to summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight and destroy it in a seldom-occurring pinch, or to set up a pendulum scale from 0 to 5 with Darkwurm, allowing the player to Pendulum Summon any of Maxx "C", Magician's Rod, and/or Flamvell Guard. And as you've noted, of course, it is a legal card to banish via Allure of Darkness.


Name and official (?) rules for this cards game I half remembered There is this card game I like to play whenever I have 5+ people around and the group includes some 'not so serious' gamers.  The problem is I have sort of forgotten the real rules over the years and I feel like I forget a few every time I teach new people to play.  Here is the basic idea:

Deal our all the deck.
Whoever goes first plays either a single card, a pair, triple, or 4 of a kind.
The player to their left then must play the same thing but with a higher number (if a pair of 4s was played the next person has to play a pair of 5's or higher).
2s are considered the highest card, playing one two at any time will 'win' the trick and let you lead a new card.
The first person out is the... president? Some title. At the start of the next round the last person out must give the president their 2 best cards, and the president then returns 2 cards of his choice.

Soooo what game am I playing?  Are there real rules for it I can brush up on?

You are playing asshole, a classic drinking game. Rules vary, but here's a pretty standard set: http://www.webtender.com/handbook/games/asshole.game


In Elder Sign, after rolling, can I do both - complete a task AND use any dice previously secured by a spell to complete a second task? For example: I have secured dice by a spell which can complete a full task on the adventure, but, it is an adventure with an order arrow, and the secured dice are needed for the last task. Now I roll my remaining die/dice and get exactly what I need to complete the first task, however, now I have used up all my dice. But I still have my secured dice, which would perfectly fit to complete the last task. Can I complete the last task using the secured dice, even though I can't roll any dice before moving on to the last task.
Thank You!

Yes.  In your example, technically speaking, you are really performing another round of rolling - rolling zero dice - and then resolving the final task.  The die you have secured in your spell is a usable part of your dice pool, thus allowing you to meet the requirements of the adventure task even though you didn't physically roll any dice.  Remember that the spell is discarded after you use the reserved die in that way.

However, if you still have more unfocused/unreserved dice to roll, you do have to roll them.  In your example, you had exactly no dice left to roll after completing the first task and when moving on to the second.  If you did have dice left, however, you'd have to roll them, which gives the risk of rolling a Terror result, which could have consequences.  Thus it's important to note that, strictly speaking, you cannot complete multiple tasks at once (and in your example, you are not really doing so).


Assigning damage less than power Is it possible to assign damage to a single blocking creature that is less than the attacking creature's power? If so, it is possible to assign less than lethal damage?

Suppose I attack with a big 20/20 creature, and my opponent blocks with Saber Ants (Whenever Saber Ants is dealt damage, you may put that many 1/1 green Insect creature tokens onto the battlefield). I don't want to give him 20 tokens, so can I just assign 3 damage and not the rest? Maybe I want to keep his Ants alive for some reason - can I assign less than lethal damage?

The attacker has to assign all combat damage to creatures blocking each of his or her creatures.

  510.1c A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage. If exactly one creature is blocking it, it assigns all its combat damage to that creature. [..]

One notable exception to that rule is if the attacking creature has the trample ability. In that case, you only have to assign lethal damage (3 in your example) to the creature(s) blocking it, and the rest may be assigned to the defending player or the blocking creatures as you want.

  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. [..]


In bridge, should East consider "overtaking" his partner's lead if able? One example is if West leads a Q (top of a sequence) against a NT contract, and East plays K from Kx to unblock. If allowed to hold the trick, East would lead back the x.

My understanding is that bridge play is designed to protect certain vulnerable holdings, such as tenaces, in the declarer's hand from direct attack by the opening leader, West.

But if the tenace suit is led by East, its vulnerability will be fully exposed. Should East be on the lookout for potential vulnerable holdings in South, and overtake West's lead if an examination of his cards and dummy (and a review of the bidding) leads to a suspicion that South may have such a vulnerable holding?

No; overtaking partners honour should not be on East's list of possible actions as dummy comes down.

That is not to say that it is never right for East to do so; or that East should never take such an action.

Rather, there are far too many more important things for East to be studying as Dummy comes down than a check-list of rare and unusual plays. Any such bold action can only be performed confidently through an extremely good picture of the hand, and how the defensive setting trick is to be developed. Such an understanding of the hand will only be hindered, significantly, by spending (need I say wasting) valuable seconds considering a list of circumstances that only occur every one or two hundred hands.

If the action is correct, and one obtains through more efficient means a sufficient picture of the hand to predict this as required to establish the setting trick, it will then become an obvious action.


In the English version of Citadels, what is the action text on the card named Armory/Weaponry? I happen to have a Bulgarian version that does not specify if the player can destroy 1 enemy building, while sacrificing it, or the whole city. It's hard to explain, but I think it was translated by someone unfamiliar with the exact Bulgarian meaning.

What does the English version of the card say?

From this thread on BoardGameGeek, someone posts:

  The card says:
  During your turn, you may destroy the Armory in order to destroy any other district card of your choice in another player's city.

The Wikipedia page for Citadels refers back to that thread.

Later in the thread, the game designer (Bruno Faidutti) mentions that the ability to destroy one district can be used when a player builds an eighth district (which would end the game at the end of that round), even though normally you can't destroy a district in a city that's already completed.

  BF: I admit the rules are ambiguous on this, but my idea was that it is allowed.
  Q: Would the game still end, as the card says the game ends after the turn, even though the condition is no longer met?
  BF: Yes, it would.


What kind of cost is the effect on Trinisphere? At a tournament this past weekend my opponent controlled a Trinisphere. I drew a Temporal Mastery as my first card for the turn, and the judge told me that it costs three to cast.

Five minutes later against the same opponent, I had a similar question about Gigadrowse. The judge said that I need to figure out the total cost, including whatever I would pay for Replicate, and if its still less than three, then I pay three.

I want to learn how to calculate the cost without calling a judge, but I can't figure out what kind of cost Trinisphere's effect is. It doesn't seem like an alternative cost, additional cost, or a cost increase. What kind of cost is it?

Trinisphere's ability is an effect that directly changes the cost and takes place after all cost reductions and increases have been taken into account.
This is covered in the rulings on it's gatherer page:

Trinisphere’s ability affects the total cost of the spell. It is applied after any other cost increasers or cost reducers are applied: First apply any cost increases. Next apply any cost reducers. Finally look at the amount of mana you have to pay. If it’s less than three mana, you’ll pay three mana.
Even with a cost reducer on the battlefield, spells can’t cost less than three mana to cast.
If a spell costs at least three mana due to additional costs, such as kicker costs, that’s fine.

So to simply determine the costs for spell that you cast normally while a Trinisphere is on the field you can:

Start with the mana cost or alternate cost of the spell. (Temporal Mastery's Miracle is an alternate cost.)
Add any additional costs (Kickers, Replicate, etc.)
Add any cost increases (effects like Chill).
Subtract any cost reductions (effects like Baral, Chief of Compliance).
Check to see what the total cost of you spell is, if it is 0, 1 or 2 CMC you will pay 3 instead. If it is 3 or more CMC you will pay that cost.

Note that this order is the same order outlined in the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

601.2f: The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions. If multiple cost reductions apply, the player may apply them in any order. If the mana component of the total cost is reduced to nothing by cost reduction effects, it is considered to be {0}. It can’t be reduced to less than {0}. Once the total cost is determined, any effects that directly affect the total cost are applied. Then the resulting total cost becomes “locked in.” If effects would change the total cost after this time, they have no effect.


Why don't triggered abilities immediately go on the stack? Rule 603.2 of the Comprehensive Rules says:

  Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

Lower, in 603.3 the Rules continue:

  Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority

Why does it work this way? Is there a compelling reason why the ability can't immediately go on the stack? I know state-based actions will now happen before the ability is put on the stack, but I'm not sure why this would affect it.

Magic is designed to avoid any interruptions to the resolution of a spell or ability

It might seem like placing triggers on the stack is a minor thing that would not cause any problems, but some triggers target and that means that now somebody is making decisions in the middle of the resolution of the spell.  Even worse, some abilities trigger when the permanent becomes a target of a spell or ability, meaning that this interstitial trigger can trigger other triggers!  (And one card, Scalelord Reckoner, targets when triggered by being targeted,  which could cause it to trigger a third trigger!).

The rules are almost certainly capable of handling such complication, but it's not really beneficial to the game to have to do so.

Having all the triggers placed all at once reinforces the general intuition about how Magic treats simultaneity - how if multiple creatures enter the battlefield all at once, they all see each other enter for their triggers.

It also means that you don't have to figure out where various objects are at the exact moment the trigger happens when choosing targets.  Everything waits until resolution is complete and everything is settled and stationary before target choice happens.

Additionally, if abilities entered the stack while a spell or ability was resolving, that would meant that you are now resolving an effect that is somewhere in the middle of the stack, which is philosophically not how the stack is meant to function.


Can this game still be won? I am black and white has expanded more than I thought. It’s almost at tie at this stage but I can’t see how to win.

Can this game still be won?

Edits: corrected my miscount of Black area, possible White gain
If my calculations are right, you seem to have lost or won depending on the rules in force, but you had a chance in any case!

Your score

In your position, using area scoring, I count your central group as 40 points as follows:
Counting in vertical pairs left to right two horizontal lines at a time (numbers in diagrams can only go up to 10; f, s, e stand for 4, 6 8; the 40th point is the marked ◯ at J1).

$$Wcm1 Counting
$$ +---------+
$$ |...XXXO..|
$$ |24680OOO.|
$$ |OOXX.XXO.|
$$ |O2fs80OO.|
$$ |O2X4X6O.O|
$$ |OOOOMXOOM|
$$ |XOXO802OX|
$$ |.X.OX..4s|
$$ |...OOXeXP|
$$ +---------+

Note that the SE corner is yours as far as J3, which White cannot capture, but White should get J4.

Your problem

Since you needed 41 points to win (unless the next paragraph applies), you were there, if you took one of the two neutral points (marked with crosses), namely E4, making it ⬤41:◯40½.

However, some rule sets award White a point for each handicap stone1, meaning you would need 5 or 6 more points than White to win for a 4- or 5-stone handicap respectively, i.e. 43:38 or 44:37.

1 See the section on Handicap go at [https://senseis.xmp.net/?TerritoryAndAreaScoring#toc6]

Your chance

But you had a chance to

   win anyway, by making a seki2 in the SW, if White blundered by answering ⬤E4 immediately at ◯J4: you could then play ⬤A2, forcing ◯C2 (otherwise you play there and capture), then ⬤B1 gives you an eye in the stomach, and neither group can capture the other. In this case you get another 5 area points and White does not get a point for C1. However, this comes at a cost: White can now capture at J2, and when Black captures at J3 White can recapture a stone at J2 and when Black plays J1 White can connect at J3, forcing Black to connect at G2! This reduces your area in the SE by 2, making the area score 44:1:36, so you win in spite of komi even if you had a 5-stone handicap.

 Unfortunately, if White correctly answers ⬤E4 with ◯C2, they capture the SW and still get ◯J4, yielding the same result as above (they win if compensated for the handicap)! Moreover, if you play 58 in the corner before filling J4, the only hope I see is ⬤B1, ◯A2 ⬤A1, ◯C2 ⬤A3, ◯A2 (which White wins) or ⬤A3 (double ko, which White is bound to win) or ⬤A1, ◯C2 (which White also wins).

2 seki: A stand-off where neither side can capture the other

With territory scoring

If you use territory scoring (Japanese style), we want to know how many captives there were. Since the last move was White 57, you must have had a handicap, and there must have been 29 white and 28 black stones played. I count 32 black stones and White can have taken at most 1 captive (at H5), so you had a 4-stone handicap and White has no captive or a 5-stone and White has one; both seem consistent with the position. I count 26 white stones, so you must have taken 3 captives (at F2, G2, G1 or C6, D6, E7).

At the end of the game you can expect to capture at J2, giving you a score of 10 territory + 4 captives = ⬤14; while White has 14 territory + 3 or 4 captives + ½ komi + perhaps 4 or 5 handicap compensation = ◯17½ to ◯23½. Again, you lose (by 3½ to 9½ points), unless

   White blunders as previously described. In that case, your score is unchanged3 at 14, but White loses 11 points in the SW, which is enough for you to win.
3 I am assuming your rules count no points in a seki; otherwise you both get one more point in the SW, which cancel out and make no difference.


using real names / images in a board game I am thinking of creating a soccer game, can I use real player name / images in this game or are there any legal implications?  For example can I use Lionel Messi and his image on a card?

Thanks for your help and time

Images tend to be copyrighted. You'd have to take into consideration both the rights of the photographer, and the depicted person. I'd expect you would have to get both the player's and the photographer's permission to use the images. That permission will most likely cost you a lot of money, especially for people like Messi.

You should probably just read this Wikipedia page about photography and the law. The biggest problem is that copyright law is different in each country. Depending on where you are and where your game will be made available, you'd need to simultaneously comply to a bunch of different countries' copyright laws.


Does monetary loss to everyone not affect your partner? This source suggests any action which causes a monetary loss to everyone does not affect your partner. Is this true?

If you are playing by the official Cities rules, it clearly states

  When a player puts in play a card which causes a monetary loss, the
  player’s  teammate must also pay that loss.

The thread you are referencing is talking about differences between the official rules and some unofficial team rules, stating that in their unofficial rules, the teammate does not have to pay the loss.


Does the controller go back to the supply after use? Does the controller go back to the supply after use? The rulebook (which I can’t find online) doesn’t seem to specify, but there is mention of it being in the supply after the beginning of the game, and I don’t see any badges that would put it there.

Answer from this thread on BGG:
It only gets returned to the supply in solo. When not playing solo, the controller doesn't go back into the supply.
Pre-production Rulebook:

Whenever any player (including the player with the Controller) visits a destination with Scout on it, the player with the Controller may choose to gain a Sun Crystal or a Fast Travel token from the supply.

Solo Mode: Playing Against Scout
If you visit the same destination as Scout, you must spend a Sun Crystal or return the Controller to the supply.

Tabletopia Rulebook:

When any player visits a
destination with Scout on it, the player with the Controller may choose
to gain a Sun Crystal or Fast Travel pass from the supply.

Solo Mode
[...] if you wish to visit a destination with
Scout, you must spend a Sun Crystal or return the Controller
to the supply.


Does Progenitor Mimic create copies of itself even when it isn't a creature? Progenitor Mimic can be cast as a copy of cards like Mutavault and Simic Keyrune whilst they're in their creature state. When it does so, it can become something other than a creature: a land, an artifact, etc.

However, its copy ability states:

  At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature isn't a token, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of this creature.

Suppose my Progenitor Mimic becomes a Mutavault^. At the beginning of my upkeep, it will be only a land. Will Progenitor Mimic create a new Mutavault token, or is this prevented by the fact it isn't a creature?

^ For those who may not know, it will copy exactly what's printed on the Mutavault card and be a fresh Mutavault, not a 2/2 creature, because of how copy works. You can check the 4/15/2013 rulings on Progenitor Mimic.

Yes, it does. When a card says "this creature", is still refers to itself even if it is no longer a creature, so the ability still triggers and resolves.

According to rule 201.5,

  If an ability of an object uses a phrase such as "this [something]" to identify an object, where [something] is a characteristic, it is referring to that particular object, even if it isn't the appropriate characteristic at the time.


Do I have to pay the Equip cost each turn to equip a creature with an Artifact Equipment? In Magic: The Gathering, once I have cast an Artifact - Equipment and then paid the Equip cost to place it on a creature, does it come off the creature at the end of my turn?

Must I pay the Equip cost each turn to attach it to the same creature?

No, you would only pay the equip cost again if you wish to equip it to a different creature. There is no rule that causes equipment to automatically fall off each turn.

  702.6. Equip

    702.6a Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

    702.6b For more information about Equipment, see rule 301, “Artifacts.”

    702.6c “Equip [quality] creature” is a variant of the equip ability. “Equip [quality] [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target [quality] creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.” This ability doesn’t restrict what the Equipment may be attached to.

    702.6d An “equip [quality] creature” ability is an equip ability, and an “equip [quality] creature” cost is an equip cost. Any effect that modifies how or whether a player may activate an equip ability of an object affects “equip [quality] creature” abilities of that object. Any effect that increases or reduces an equip cost will increase or reduce a “equip [quality] creature” cost.

    702.6e If a permanent has multiple equip abilities, any of its equip abilities may be activated.

In order for equipment to automatically "fall off" at the end of the turn, 702.6a would basically need to read "Attach this permanent to target [quality] creature you control until the end of turn."

The full rules for equipment are here, but really the real rules support for the answer is simply the fact that no such rule exists that would cause something to become unequipped at the end of the turn.

  301.5. Some artifacts have the subtype “Equipment.” An Equipment can be attached to a creature. It can’t legally be attached to anything that isn’t a creature.

    301.5a The creature an Equipment is attached to is called the “equipped creature.” The Equipment is attached to, or “equips,” that creature.

    301.5b An Equipment is cast and enters the battlefield just like any other artifact. An Equipment doesn’t enter the battlefield attached to a creature. The equip keyword ability attaches the Equipment to a creature you control (see rule 702.6, “Equip”). Control of the creature matters only when the equip ability is activated and when it resolves. Spells and other abilities may also attach an Equipment to a creature. If an effect attempts to attach an Equipment to an object that can’t be equipped by it, the Equipment doesn’t move.

    301.5c An Equipment that’s also a creature can’t equip a creature. An Equipment that loses the subtype “Equipment” can’t equip a creature. An Equipment can’t equip itself. An Equipment that equips an illegal or nonexistent permanent becomes unattached from that permanent but remains on the battlefield. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.) An Equipment can’t equip more than one creature. If a spell or ability would cause an Equipment to equip more than one creature, the Equipment’s controller chooses which creature it equips.

    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.

    301.5e An ability of a permanent that refers to the “equipped creature” refers to whatever creature that permanent is attached to, even if the permanent with the ability isn’t an Equipment.


In Shadowrift, can a player user more than one villager per round? I've seen multiple mentions on forums and in YouTube videos that a player can only 'use' a single villager per round. However, I don't see anything about this in the rulebook.
All it says about using villagers is:

  Seek Aid: You may move a
  Villager with the Aid term on its
  description from Town Square
  to the Town Discard to gain its
  effect.
  Example: An attacking hero may
  pay 1 Coin and discard the Smith
  to add +1 damage to their attack.

The epic actions, which are only allowed once per round, are explicitly called out.

Yes, there is no restriction on how many times each hero can Seek Aid in the second edition of Shadowrift.

In this forum post on BGG, Jeremy Anderson (the game's creator) confirms that the following statement is correct.

  ...under the new rules ALL the villagers in the [Town Square] can now
  be asked for help and all of them could be asked by a single hero.

He goes on to explain:

  So many of the effects are global or
  monster-targeting (such as the Baker and Priest, respectively) that it
  was actually pretty rare the rule would even matter other than
  requiring the players to do a little fiddly bookkeeping. I agree that
  I'm all for table-talk and interesting decisions, but this wasn't a
  consistent enough place to produce them and mostly just penalized
  smaller player counts (and sure, smaller player counts have an easier
  game so one could argue that's just a positive balancing element...).
  It also made little (if any) thematic sense. Limited capacity to
  perform actions makes sense. Limited capacity to receive help from
  others...a little less so.


New Transform Rules and Archangel Avacyn Archangel Avacyn says (in addition to other abilities): "When a non-Angel creature you control dies, transform Archangel Avacyn at the beginning of the next upkeep".

Since the triggered ability isn't the actual transform ability, but instead creates a delayed triggered ability, if you put it on the stack while another trigger wants to transform Avacyn, will she transform back? (e.g. Non-Angel died. Go to upkeep, another non-Angel dies. Will she transform back on the next upkeep?)

No, Avacyn will not transform again at the following upkeep.

The new rule 701.25e says

  If an activated ability of a permanent tries to transform that permanent, the permanent transforms only if it hasn't transformed since the ability was put onto the stack. The same is true for triggered abilities of a permanent that aren't delayed triggered abilities. If a delayed triggered ability of a permanent tries to transform that permanent, the permanent transforms only if it hasn't transformed since that delayed triggered ability was created.

Avacyn's ability creates a delayed triggered ability, so the last clause is the relevant one. So, the situation you describe plays out like this:

A non-Angel creature dies. Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability goes on the stack.
Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability resolves, and creates a delayed triggered ability.
At the beginning of the next upkeep, the delayed triggered ability goes on the stack.
Another non-Angel creature dies. Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability goes on the stack.
Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability resolves, and creates a second delayed triggered ability.
The original delayed triggered ability resolves. Archangel Avacyn has not transformed since that delayed triggered ability was created, so Archangel Avacyn transforms into Avacyn, the Purifier.
At the beginning of the following upkeep, the second delayed triggered ability goes on the stack.
The second delayed trigger resolves. Avacyn has transformed since the second delayed triggered ability was created, so she does not transform, and remains Avacyn, the Purifier.


Settlers of Catan : "Can we build after rolling a 7" In Settlers of Catan (base game or the 5-6 player expansion). Can we build after  rolling a seven.?  As per the FAQ here: http://www.catan.com/faqs/93?page=3

I know I can't trade with others and can play any one development card, but what about Maritime trade?.

I was confused because on the same above mentioned FAQ page it said : You can continue with your normal turn after rolling a 7. If you can't trade with other what is this "Normal" here. Please help on this

To quote the FAQ:

Q: After rolling a “7,” can I still trade with another player or blackmail him before moving the robber?
A: Trading: No. (...)

This is to prevent players from using a trade to save themselves from the robber. After moving the robber, you can do whatever you want: build, trade, play development cards... just like any other turn.


Stonehewer Giant questions Obviously an interesting card. A few rules I'm trying to clarify here, all regarding fetching an equipment as an instant for some other attacking creature.

Note Stonehewer Giant is not attacking here.

1) After declare blockers step (say defending player said no block), and before damage, can you use the Stonehewer Giant's ability to go fetch a Worldslayer to blow everything up, without a chance for defending player to announce blocks?

2) After declare blockers step, say defending player has announced blocking with a black creature, can you then to use the ability of Stonehewer to go fetch, Sword of Feast and Famine (give protection from black), and completely void the blocker?

and 3) After you announce attacks, and they announce a blocker, can you then use Stonehewer to go fetch Argentum Armor and have its ability trigger? Basically after the blocker is announced, and if I then attach Argentum Armor to the attacking creature as an instant, does the ability trigger (Whenever equipped creature attacks, destroy target permanent.)?

Yes, you can do that. Since you're activating the ability when you receive priority back from the declare blockers step, your creature hasn't been blocked and cannot be blocked after that.
If your intention is to have your creature deal its damage to the defending player, then no, you cannot do that. When a creature is blocked, it has been blocked regardless of whether you give it any kind of evasion ability or protection. What will happen in this case is that your creature will deal its damage to the blocking creature, and the (black and/or green) blocker will deal no damage to your creature since it has protection from black and green. This falls under rule 509.1b (emphasis mine):

  509.1b The defending player checks each creature he or she controls to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met). If any restrictions are being disobeyed, the declaration of blockers is illegal.
  A restriction may be created by an evasion ability (a static ability an attacking creature has that restricts what can block it). If an attacking creature gains or loses an evasion ability after a legal block has been declared, it doesn’t affect that block. Different evasion abilities are
  cumulative.

No. You can fetch and equip Argentum Armor with Stonehewer Giant's ability, but the equipment will not trigger, since it's been equipped after the attackers have been declared. This falls under CR508.2a (emphasis mine):

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


Can Eldrazi Processor effects "counter" madness? In a couple of weeks cards with the madness mechanic, Eldrazi Processors, and Eldrazi Displacer are going to be in standard together. The text for Madness reads as follows:

  “If a player would discard this card, that player discards it, but may exile it instead of putting it into his or her graveyard” and “When this card is exiled this way, its owner may cast it by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost. If that player doesn’t, he or she puts this card into his or her graveyard.”

With a board of Eldrazi Displacer and some ETB Processor like Wasteland Strangler, can I respond to a card being exiled through madness by displacing my Wasteland Strangler and putting the exiled card into the graveyard, thus effectively countering madness and triggering my process ability?

If this is the case what is to stop my opponent casting the exiled card in response to this?

Yes, you can remove a card discarded through Madness from exile before your opponent has a chance to cast it.

As per the the relevant rule you already quoted, Madness has two parts to it.

  702.34a Madness is a keyword that represents two abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the card with madness is in a player’s hand. The second is a triggered ability that functions when the first ability is applied. “Madness [cost]” means “If a player would discard this card, that player discards it, but exiles it instead of putting it into his or her graveyard” and “When this card is exiled this way, its owner may cast it by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost. If that player doesn’t, he or she puts this card into his or her graveyard.”

The first part says that the card with Madness is put into exile rather than the graveyard if it was discarded.

The second ability triggers off the card getting discarded to exile by Madness. Only if and when that second ability resolves can that player cast that spell for its alternative Madness cost. You can respond to the second ability by removing that card from exile with your Displacer/Processor combo. Since that causes the card to change zones and become a new object, the triggered Madness ability will lose track of that object and your opponent cannot cast that spell when the ability resolves.


What has been the popularity trend for D&D Miniatures? How have D&D Miniatures been faring in terms of popularity? Has it been decreasing or increasing; slowly or fast? Recently (as in the last year), and if possible, on a broader scale as well. On the internet as a whole, as opposed to local trends.

Anything conclusive within a limited scope is a welcome answer (e.g. number of topics/tags on a given card game site). Also the answer could be solely based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence thought to be representing of a broader trend, such as popularity perceived from internet forums.

The last expansion for the game was Lords of Madness in 2010. The release of the Dragon Collector's Set this December -— a 5-figure fixed set -- suggests that the future of the line will be in the arena of figures to assist the play of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG. This evidence supports the idea that the "popularity trend" for this game is declining, if not moribund. However, Wizards of the Coast has announced that, in 2012, a new miniatures-based skirmish game will rise to replace it.


In Star Fluxx, how does the game end with Play all? I know that there has been complaints about other cards being overpowered, but after playing a few games with my sister, who had never played before, she won almost every game by strategically using the play all card.

Her strategy was to remove the hand limit, increase the draw limit and decrease the play limit so that she could keep her cards in her hand. She would then wait until she got the play all card and a goal that matched two of the keepers in her hand. Then she would win the game by playing the play all rule and then playing only the cards she needed to win.

I thought that perhaps the rules required for all cards to be played first and then determine if she had won, but she reminded me that I had told her "The game ends when the current goal conditions are met".

So what's the actual verdict on this situation?

Your sister is correct. The Fluxx rules do say that "as soon as someone meets these conditions, they win!"

I don't think this should be an issue, it requires her to find the "play all" (or play 3, etc.) card and there are plenty of ways you can disrupt her strategy:

Change the rules so that there is a hand limit
Change the rules to increase the play limit
Use an action or surprise card to disrupt this strategy: Trash a new rule, Trade hands, rotate hands, rules reset, That's Mine! etc.


Deviation of 3-3 invasion - how to live/kill? I know the following is joseki for an approach of the 4-4 stone followed by a 3/3 invasion...

$$cm1 A normal 3/3 invasion joseki (incomplete)
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 7 3 . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 5 4 O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . 6 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

.. and this is a possible continuation:

$$cm1 Continuation of the joseki
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X 1 2 O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | 4 O O . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 3 X 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

If I understand correctly, a white move at E18 has to be answered by black, or white A16 kills. Eidogo lists only black 7 as above at this point. It does not list the following variation, hence, I assume it is somehow bad for black, but I am not sure why.

$$cm1 Deviation from joseki
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 3 1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | O O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Am I correct that black is alive like that? If not, please show how to kill black.
Given that black is alive in both variants, why would one prefer the default variant? I first thought that 7 may be sente, but with E18 threatening to kill it seems gote just as well, while getting fewer points?

(I'm sorry if this is a duplicate question, but I have no idea how to search a stackexchange site for go-deviations really)

In the deviated form, white can play at B18 and the corner will live or die as a ko, or it can end up in seki.  Even if black has more than enough ko threats to win the battle, it is unlikely ever worth it.

$$Wcm4 Continuation of deviation: Ko
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | 7 . 3 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 2 1 a X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 4 X O O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | O O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

The corner lives or dies depending on who wins the two stage ko; black's normal defense of playing 7 at a won't work due to a shortage of liberties.

Alternatively, if white does not have sufficient ko threats the whole corner could end up as a seki as follows:

$$Wcm4 Continuation of deviation: Seki
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | 8 a 3 6 5 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 2 1 . X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 4 X O O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | O O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Note that in this variation, black can choose to start the same ko by playing 11 at a instead.


What happens with multiple copies of Humility and Glorious Anthem on the battlefield? What happens with multiple copies of Humility and Glorious Anthem? For example, I have 2 copies of each of them; creatures are 1/1, plus +1/+1, or +2/+2 or  are they going to be just 1/1? Does the order that they come to the battlefield affect anything?

Humility sets the base power and toughness to 1/1 for all creatures. Glorious Anthem, and other effects like +1/+1 counters are still applied on top of the base power and toughness, so (barring other effects), with one or more Humilities and two Glorious Anthems on the battlefield, your creatures will be 3/3s.
The relevant rule is 613:

613.3. Within layer 7, apply effects in a series of sublayers in the order described below. Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. (See rule 613.6.) Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a sublayer. (See rule 613.7.)
613.3a Layer 7a: Effects from characteristic-defining abilities that define power and/or toughness are applied. See rule 604.3.
613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Effects that refer to the base power and/or toughness of a creature apply in this layer.
613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don't set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.
613.3d Layer 7d: Power and/or toughness changes from counters are applied. See rule 121, "Counters."
613.3e Layer 7e: Effects that switch a creature's power and toughness are applied. Such effects take the value of power and apply it to the creature's toughness, and take the value of toughness and apply it to the creature's power.

Layer 7a is the creature's power and toughness as it's printed on the card, say a 2/2 Grizzly Bears.
Layer 7b (note the use of "base power and toughness" in the rules) is where Humility comes into play, it makes it a 1/1.
Layer 7c is Glorious Anthem's layer, if you have two of them both apply and the 1/1 becomes a 3/3.


Building Houses Evenly in Monopoly I was playing Monopoly with my friend one day and I had an orange full set AND a red full set. I started to add houses to the sets. However, as soon as I added a second house onto Vine Street/New York (the formation of houses for the oranges and reds were 1-1-2 0-0-0), my friend suddenly told me that I wasn't following the rules of building evenly. According to him, I had to build houses on the reds, i.e. 1-1-1 1-1-1, before I could start on second houses.

  The properties in a color group must be developed evenly, i.e. each house that is built must go on a property in the group with the fewest number of houses on it so far.

This is what the rulebook says about building houses evenly across a colour set, however, I couldn't find anything that says that houses had to be built evenly across colour sets.

Is what I did against the rules?

You played within the rules. Houses must be built up (and sold off) evenly within a color group, but different color groups can be built up differently without regard to each other.

The section of the rules you quote is exactly the section that supports your play.

Addendum: not an official source, but this same question came up on boardgamegeek (with the same answer).

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/435348/confuse-about-building-evenly


Does Welcome Decks 2016 contain cards that aren't reprints? There's a new Magic: the Gathering product called Welcome Deck 2016.  This consists of five 30 card preconstructed decks, and has its own expansion symbol.

The webpage "Magic Welcome Decks" on Wizards Play Network says

  Each deck includes 1 special rare that cannot be found in other Magic products!

But from Gatherer, it doesn't seem like that's true.  Gatherer lists five rares in this product: Aegis Angel,  Nightmare,  Shivan Dragon,  Soul of the Harvest,  Sphinx of Magosi.  All five of those are already accessible as rares in recent core sets or expansion sets that predate this product.

The linked page also indicates that the product was released on April 9 of an unknown year.  I guess that the year is 2016 or perhaps 2015, so the product was already released.  This is confirmed by the Tournament Rules which says all cards of that set are legal in the Standard format.

Does this product really have cards that don't appear in other M:tG products?  If so, which cards are they?

There do not appear to be any cards that were only printed in the Welcome Decks.

The most likely explanation I see is that the rares you mention appear in the Welcome Decks but not in the concurrently released Shadows over Innistrad block. So, the quotation you reference could mean

  Each deck includes 1 special rare that cannot be found in other Magic products [that we are currently publishing/distributing]!


Werewolves of Miller's Hollow Tie In a recent game of Miller's Hollow, the game ended when a werewolf killed a witch, and the witch killed the werewolf with their poison potion. In a situation such as this, which group wins?
The problem is, the rulebook says that

The Townsfolk win if they manage to eliminate all Werewolves.
The Werewolves win if they kill the last Townsperson.

The timing on death is only described as the following:

The Moderator will reveal the results in the morning.

Seeing as the Witch can heal themselves,

The Witch can use either potion on him/herself if he/she wishes.

That means that the answer isn't that the witch dies before they can act. Who wins?

Yes the game can end without any player alive. It happens sometimes. And in that case, the game is a tie.

With the basic rules, there can be as much as four deaths in a single night.

Wolf eats hunter
Hunter shoots witch
Witch poisons wolf
Civilian lover of wolf dies of love sickness

All the actions are simultaniously. And winning is declared in the morning and right after lynch.

By the way, during the day a complete kill can happen too:

Wolf and civilian lover vote for last player who happens to be the hunter.
Hunter shoots wolf
Civilian lover dies of life sickness.


Card Game Name: 5 points and you’re out I recently learned a new card game and the person didn’t know the name. Maybe someone else does. Goes like this...
A round begins with each player having been dealt 4 cards except the starting player is dealt 5. Cards are scored as face value except all face/ace/joker cards are 10 points. Each turn, you lay your highest card (ideally) and then draw from the deck or the top card off the discard. You can also lay multiples if they are the same number/face. Once someone reaches a card score of 14 points or lower, they can show their hand and play stops (or continue to attempt to get a lower hand). If they show and aren’t the lowest, they get a point against them. Otherwise, the person with the highest card score gets the point against them. A new round then starts with shuffled cards. Once anyone hits 5 points, they are out and rounds continue until only one person is left, the winner.

Your game's type is Draw and discard.  Knowing the nationality of your teacher could narrow your search.  Your description sounds a lot like a variant of Yaniv / Jhyap.
Yaniv description in Pagat:

Deal: Five cards are dealt to each player

The objective of the game is to have a lower total value of cards in your hand than the other players. When you think you have achieved this, you call "Jhyap" in Nepal or "Yaniv" in Israel to stop the play and compare hands.

Each game is composed of rounds, and each player's total score is updated after each round. The goal of the game is to keep your score to a minimum. Players with more than an agreed maximum, for example 200 points, drop out of the game, which is then continued until there is only one player left.


In what kind of deck is Aether Vial good? I'm pretty much a beginner at deck building, and I'm toying around with a Modern GR Shaman tribal deck. It's too slow to be competitive, but there are a lot of options and things to try out.

I find it hard to decide whether Aether Vial is good in it, and what adjustments I should make to the deck if I decide to include it. Aether Vial seems like an awesome card at first sight (putting creatures on the board for free, at instant speed, for an initial 1 mana? Huh?) but I note that very few competitive decks run it.

Arguments against and for I can think of: by itself, it doesn't do anything yet, and having multiple in your starting hand means you probably have too few creatures. You can only use it for creatures with the right CMC, and you can only add counters, not remove them. On the other hand, it does save mana that can be left up for other things, and instant speed is nothing to sneeze at. My creatures have CMC of 1, 2, 3, 4 (too spread out?) but I don't have many 1-drops, and Vial is one, so that helps. Those are things I see. But I can't decide.

What kind of reasoning should I use to decide whether Aether Vial is worth it in any given Modern deck?

Obviously Aether Vial does best in a creature-heavy deck where many of the creatures have low CMC. Having to tick up a Vial to 3 or 4 means waiting 3 or 4 turns before it gives you any value.

In addition to the points you listed above, one advantage that you missed is that creatures put into play by Vial are not cast, and therefore sidestep counterspells and related effects.

This property also enables the Vial to break symmetry on effects that prevent players from casting spells, or affect the costs to cast spells: (e.g., Trinisphere, Standstill, Sphere of Resistance, Rule of Law).

Multiples are not completely redundant: in addition to being able to vial in multiple creatures per turn, you can hold the vials at different number of counters, for creatures with different CMC.

I would say the reason you don't see it more often in competitive play is that simply putting more creatures on the board isn't always that strong of an effect. Many decks with lots of cheap creatures are on an aggro plan, and so Vial is both tempo loss and card disadvantage. The positive benefits of Vial accrue over multiple turns, so it does the most work in a deck that wants somewhat longer games, and also has lots of cheap creatures, preferably with redundant synergy (e.g., Fish).


Bridges, Castles and Bazaars with Die Belargerer (the Siege) I was playing with the Bridges, Castles and Bazaars and Die Belargerer (a rerelease of The Siege with 6 tiles).

If you have one in a city, it causes the city to score 1 point per tile and 1 per pennant if it is completed. Now Castles Score what ever the next finished feature in it's 6 tile influence scores.

At the end of game a besieged city is worth 2 cities to a farmer and a castle is worth a +1.

So 3 of the 6 new tiles can be used to create the 'clam' cities you can use for castles.

The way we played is that by making it a castle, it is a castle and ignore the Siege tile from then on.

Is this the correct way to interpret the rules?

When using castles, if a 'clam city' is completed you then make the decision to either score it as a city or turn it into a castle. If it becomes a castle, then no scoring relating to cities applies to it (and scoring for the castle does not occur until and unless a neighboring feature is completed). Since the scoring of siege tiles only applies to cities, it does not affect the scoring of a castle. A castle is worth 4 points to a farmer.

Link to official rules:

http://zmangames.com/rulebooks/Carcassonne_Exp8.pdf


Does playing a "Double Rent" card in Monopoly Deal count against your card play total on a turn? According to the Action Card directions on a Double Rent card, it can only be played with a Rent card.

Given that it is the only card that cannot be played alone, does it count against your total cards played count for a given turn (which cannot exceed 3)?

It counts as two cards out of your three for that turn. Taken from the FAQ monopoly-game.net:

  Q - IF I USE A ‘DOUBLE THE RENT’ CARD WITH A STANDARD RENT CARD, DOES
  THIS COUNT AS ‘PLAYING’ 2 CARDS, OR 1? A - This would count as 2 out
  of the possible 3 cards you can play per turn.

Additional sources that confirm this:

MonopolyDealRules.com on rules for Rent cards


Do improvement token bonuses count as skill bonuses when determining the highest bonus to apply to a test? When one has an asset that grants +2 skill and one that grants +1, the effective bonus is not additive. Rather, we apply the highest bonus. My questions is: do the bonuses from improvement tokens count as similar "+" bonuses or are they separately added as "additional die rolls" are. Namely, if I have a +1 improvement token on my strength and I hold an asset that grants me +1 to strength, is my effective bonus +2 or merely the best "+" bonus (ie +1 in this case)?

Improvement tokens are neither a "skill bonus", nor "additional dice", they provide dice in a separate step.

  When an investigator resolves a test, he performs the following steps:

  Determine Dice Pool: The investigator determines the number of
  dice he will roll. This number is his DICE POOL.

  •  He starts with a number equal to the skill being tested.
  •  He adds or subtracts the test modifier (the number that follows
  the skill icon on the effect).
  •  If he has an Improvement token for the skill being tested, he
  adds the Improvement token’s modifier.
  •  He may use one effect that provides a bonus (for example “Gain
  +3 Will”). If multiple effects provide a bonus, he uses only the
  highest bonus.
  •  He adds any “additional dice” he gains from effects that apply.
  Additional dice are cumulative and are in addition to other
  effects

Source: Reference Guide, "Tests" (page 11)

Everything, except "skill bonuses" stacks.
Only the effects worded as "gain +X [some skill]" are skill bonuses.
All other effects are not skill bonuses, and stack.


What does a combo deck based around Thran Lens look like? I like building casual decks based around obscure rares. This one has been sitting in my collection forever, and I've never used it. I'm completely stumped.

Thran Lens is a two mana artifact that reads

  All permanents are colorless.

Other than making Black creatures vulnerable to Dark Banishing and the like, what is this card good for? My ideal deck would use the Lens as part of a winning, or at least very annoying combo. I'm not worried about how feasible the combo is to execute - Rube Goldberg machines based on many cards are welcome.

There is one important extra caveat. My collection is strictly old-school. I can only use cards from Scourge or earlier, since those are the only cards I possess (or am willing to buy). On the plus side, I do have most of them...

There are at least two good choices:

Invoke Prejudice - Affects all opponents in multiplayer.
Intimidate (or Fear) - Shadowmage Infiltrator is probably the best Fear creature.


Canasta - Discard Pile Pick-up May I pick-up the discard pile if the top card is the same in as the ones in my already-completed canasta.
(i.e. it has the needed seven (7) cards)

Yes. Here are a few sources to confirm this.

Hoyle gaming says "you can pick up the discard pile if you can use the upcard in an existing meld or in a new meld" and that a "canasta is a meld."
Bicycle cards says "...a player may take [the discard pile]: ... by adding the top card to a meld he already has on the table. Having taken and melded the top discard as described, the player takes the rest of the pile into his hand...." and that a canasta is a "meld comprising seven or more cards."
Pagat says "In order to [pick up the discard pile], you must be able to meld the top discard, without needing any of the other cards in the discard pile to make your meld valid."

Note: Wikipedia has been updated since the original post, so the below is currently incorrect.

I did find that Wikipedia contradicted this, claiming a player "may only pick up the discard pile if they can use the top card by making a new meld along with two other cards from their hand," but this is the only source where this appears to be written.


How do Mana Flare and Mana Reflection interact? I've been thinking about integrating Mana Flare and Mana Reflection into a deck.

As far as I can tell, by reading the Layer's rules (rule 613).  They resolve in timestamp order.

That is, if Mana Flare is played first, and Mana Reflection is played second, each mountain I tap would give me {R}{R}{R}{R}.

However, if Mana Relfection is played first, and Mana Flare is played second, each mountain would  give me {R}{R}{R}.

Is this interpretation correct?  I'm still new to this layer stuff.

Layers don't apply here. There aren't any continuous effects interacting.

Mana Flare is a triggered ability (it says "whenever"). It would normally use the stack, but since it's a mana ability, it simply resolves immediately after the event that triggered it. Mana Reflection is a replacement effect (it says "instead"). It just happens as you tap the permanent.

So if you tap a Mountain, Mana Reflection causes it to produce RR instead of R. Mana Flare also triggers, and when it resolves, you add an additional R to your mana pool, for a total of RRR.

Even if they were both replacement effects, or both triggered, layers still wouldn't come into play. You'd get to pick the order, presumably choosing to maximize the generated mana.

If two replacement effects apply to the same event, the affected player picks what order to apply them in. (If the event affects an object, that's the controller of the affected object, or its owner if it has no controller.)

If two triggered abilities you control trigger at the same time, you choose the order to put them on the stack. If they're controlled by different players, the active player puts their triggers on the stack first. (If they're mana abilities like this, you still get to pick the order, even though they don't use the stack.)

In both cases, if they're both affecting you tapping a permanent for mana, you get to pick what order they happen in.

Layers are used for determining interactions of continuous effects, which are effects that are simply stated as a fact, something like "Enchanted creature gets +1/+1" or "Target permanent becomes blue". Fortunately, the most common time they matter is with power/toughness effects, and the vast majority of those are simply setting base power/toughness before applying things that change it.

You can get a pretty good idea of the kinds of things where layers matter by simply reading what the layers are: copy, control-changing, text-changing, type-changing, color-changing, ability-adding/removing, and power/toughness. If the effect isn't in in one of those categories, it's a good bet you don't need layers. (Timestamp order is only used within layers as a last resort.)


Adaptive automaton effects I know that when a card like Elvish Archdruid leaves the battlefield the +1/+1 effect is lost. Is this also true for Adaptive Automaton? Or does the  power/toughness remain on the chosen creature type?

As with Elvish Archdruid, the effect only exists when Adaptive Automaton is on the battlefield.

Elvish Archdruid and Adaptive Automaton both have a static ability that creates a continuous effect that alter the power and toughness of some creatures, and static abilities only work as long as long as their source is on the battlefield.[1]

  604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 112.6.

The wording of Adaptive Automaton's ability and Elvish Archdruid's are both of the form "[Creatures that match some criteria] get +1/+1." If you explained why you think these practically identical abilities might work differently, we could better explain why they don't.

Some static abilities work in zones other than the battlefield, as explained by 112.6. This is not one of those cases. These static abilities can be summarized as follows:

Abilities of sorcery and instant objects (which usually work on the stack)
Characteristic-defining abilities (which work in all zones)
Abilities that only make sense if they work in other zones (which work in those zones)


Is this interaction of Grunn, the Lonely King, and Run Amok correctly examined Active player controls Grunn, the Lonely King at x/x, and has Run Amok in hand. Assume that we've just entered the Combat Phase.All Players Pass.

Active Player declares Grunn attacking. Since Grunn is attacking alone, the last ability triggers.

The Active Player gets priority. Grunn's last ability is added to the Stack. In response, the active Player casts Run Amok, targeting Grunn.

Run Amok resolves, Grunn gains +3/+3 until end of turn: x+3 / X+3.

Grunn's last ability resolves: 2(x+3) / 2(x+3).

So, can I cast Run Amok before the last ability resolves?

You have it correct; you can cast Run Amok before Grunn's triggered ability resolves.

During the Declare Attackers step of the combat phase, players each get priority after attacking creatures have been declared.

  508. Declare Attackers Step

    508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. [...]

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

    508.2. Second, the active player gets priority.

So after Grunn's ability triggers when you declare it as an attacker. When you get priority, you will put that triggered ability on the stack, and can then cast Run Amok in response to the triggered ability.

Grunn's ability will double the power and toughness as it is when the ability resolves, which will include the +3/+3 it got from Run Amok.

The Gatherer rulings for Grunn say:

  If an effect instructs you to “double” a creature’s power, that creature gets +X/+0, where X is its power as that effect begins to apply. The same is true for its toughness.

It doesn't matter what the power is when the ability triggers, or when it is being added to the stack.

The comprehensive rule that backs up this ruling:

  701.9b To double a creature’s power, that creature gets +X/+0, where X is that creature’s power as the spell or ability that doubles its power resolves. Similarly, an effect that doubles a creature’s toughness gives it +0/+X, where X is that creature’s toughness. Doubling a creature’s power and toughness gives it +X/+Y, where X is its power and Y is its toughness.


Green Horde: Do Orc Fatties spawn with 2x Orc Walkers? The answer to this question pertaining to Black Plague suggests that Orc Fatties don't get an escort because it's not specifically stated in the rule book; as Green Horde is also a stand-alone core set, is it safe to assume this holds true for it, as well?

I think, you can safely assume that, because it is not in the rules (I checked all the instances of fatties and the relevant sections) they do not get an escort.

But if you think that is too easy, you can always add them.


How do I build a Pokémon TCG deck? It's a bit hard to build a deck. There's so many cards I can barely think of an idea, or how I'm supposed to build one! Could anyone lend me a hand on this?

How do I build a Pokémon TCG deck?
Deck building 101
What's the starting point from building a deck? Before deciding on this you must have clear what actually makes a deck win games.
Consistency
I cannot stress this point enough. A consistent deck is one where every single card work towards a well focused strategy. Let's make some examples on this to explain this better.
I'll list a theme deck, say, Ice Shock from Boundaries Crossed:
Pokémon: 30

2 Black Kyurem
1 Blastoise
2 Wartortle
3 Squirtle
2 Golduck
3 Psyduck
1 Jellicent
2 Frillish
3 Pikachu
2 Electrode
2 Voltorb
1 Electivire
2 Electabuzz
2 Lopunny
2 Buneary

Trainers: 12

2 Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Search
2 Great Ball
1 Pokémon Communication
2 Switch
2 Cheren
1 Skyla

Energy: 18

11 Water Energy
7 Lighting Energy

Now, can you tell me the strategy this deck uses? Sure, one could go like "let's load a lot of energy thanks to my only Blastoise and attack!". But ask yourself the following:

Where are we focusing our efforts?
What are Pikachu, Electrode, Electivire, Lopunny, Golduck and Jellicent doing here? Better yet, what is each card in this deck doing to make a win easier?
Are we ensuring we will get what we want whenever we want?

When building a deck always make yourself these questions. If a card looks cool enough with a decent effect, but you aren't sure if this will help your strategy, think again or remove it entirely. At the end of this post there's a Blastoise/Keldeo-EX deck. Let's say we think Jellicent from the deck I just listed looks cool enough for inclusion. "Sure!", you might say. "It's a decent card and we can still give it lots of energy thanks to Blastoise!". And maybe it might be a good idea, but what is it doing to help us win, or better yet, how does it help our main strategy, which consists of fast and powerful attacks with Keldeo-EX? Personally I see no reason for it to be here.
On that regard, the deck I listed at the bottom of the post might not be the most optimal build, but at least it keeps a level of consistency in that no card is there for no reason.
Speed
You might have a consistent deck. It can be a REALLY consistent deck. But if it's not fast enough, consistency won't win games. Speed is important. You want to take a prize before your opponent does.
Keep in mind: one Stage 2 line removes from your speed. Don't think this means you shouldn't use Stage 2 cards, but be aware that two Stage 2 lines might be too slow. Back in the DP-on and MD-on era we even had a Stadium Card (Broken Time-Space) that allowed us to evolve Pokémon as fast as we wanted, meaning we could just skip the evolution constraints. Nowadays we don't have such a card and we can just rely on Rare Candy and maybe the newer Clefable. What we can do though is to use strong Basic Pokémon, like Pokémon-EX, to speed up things. Or, we can use Stage 2 Pokémon with little energy requirements and that can hit hard, such as Garchomp and Empoleon.
Speed is important. If you don't have speed in your deck, you might have a good strategy and be pulling it decently but your opponent might have already taken two or three prizes, meaning you're already losing.
Strategy
Why would I want a strategy? I just play with my friends! And that's perfectly fine. If you're not going to play in tournaments and are completely fine with building a deck with your favorite cards and don't mind losing, it's perfectly fine. However, if what you want is to take a step forward, then a strategy is a must.
For choosing a strategy, choose a combination of two or more cards. Some good combinations are Eelektrik and Zekrom (Zekrom discards [L] energies you can retrieve with Eelektrik), Gabite, Garchomp and Altaria (Gabite searches for [D] Pokémon, Garchomp hits 60 for [F] and Altaria is a [D] Pokémon that adds 20 damage to [D] Pokémon when in play), Empoleon and Emolga (Emolga fills your bench and Empoleon deals damage with [W] and adds more damage the more Benched Pokémon you have, plus it lets you draw two cards by discarding one) and Blastoise and Keldeo-EX (which I'm going to talk about now).
Choosing a strategy
The first thing you should ask yourself is: "How do I want to win?" Let's double check the possible ways to win a game, since that's what you build your deck for.
You win a Pokémon TCG game by fulfilling one of the following conditions:

Defeat all of your opponent's Pokémon. This means, when you knock out your opponent's active Pokémon, your opponent should not be able to move a benched Pokémon to an active position.
Draw all your prizes. Usually this means defeating six of your opponent's Pokémon, but Pokémon-EX allow you to draw two cards and "Lugia-EX" allows you to draw an extra prize, so did "Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND". Also there are cards that can increase the amount of prizes your opponent has to take.
Your opponent cannot draw a card at the start of his or her turn. Keep in mind this does not apply to other effects that would allow you to draw cards. For instance, "Professor Juniper" states that you must draw 7 cards from your deck. If you have less than that, you draw all of them and it doesn't cause a game loss condition; you only lose if you cannot draw a card at the start of your turn.

Keeping all of this in mind, we must choose one or more ways to win. For the sake of simplicity (and because most decks use this as a basis), we will use the first two winning conditions.
Choose a combination
The best way to see what cards would allow us to win in the way we've chosen, we must find a combination of two or more cards that would let us win in the fastest way possible. Why fastest? In the current format (BW-on), speed is important. There are so many Pokémon-EX we cannot just ignore speed. We must hit hard and fast before our opponent get a chance to use their Pokémon! And this doesn't just apply to Pokémon-EX but to any metagame. Even in the old days of Base Set/Jungle/Fossil we had to deal with this, namely the Haymaker deck which won many games hitting fast and hard.
There's a combination we can use for a simple deck (keep in mind this combo is actually being used): Blastoise (Boundaries Crossed) and Keldeo-EX. Why?

Blastoise - 140 HP - W
Stage 2 - Evolves from Wartortle
Ability: Deluge

As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a [W] Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokémon.

[C][C][C][C] Hydro Pump - 60+

Does 10 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokémon.

So, it's a Pokémon that allow us to attach as many [W] energy as we want to our Pokémon! Now let's see Keldeo-EX:

Keldeo-EX - 170 HP - W
Basic Pokémon
Ability: Rush In

Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokémon is on your Bench, you may switch this Pokémon with your Active Pokémon.

[C][C][C] Secret Sword - 50+

Does 20 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokémon.

Pokémon-EX rule: When a Pokémon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

So, the idea is: we take out Blastoise, draw as many [W] energies as we need, attach them to Keldeo-EX and use Rush In to make it active. Great synergy!
Building the core
Now that we've decided our core strategy, we must now build the basic core! Just keep in mind we cannot place more than 4 cards of each type, except for Basic energies. Let's do it!
Pokémon: 16

4 Squirtle (BC)
4 Wartortle (BC)
4 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Why 4 of each? Not only this is our core, but the cards we will be using the most. It's only natural we want the most of them!
But, do we really want 4 of each?
Firstly. How many Blastoise do we need in play? Only one. So maybe four Blastoise is a bit overhead. We can try reducing this to a smaller core (keeping four Squirtle in case of being catchered [Pokémon Catcher allows you to switch our opponent's Pokémon with any other of his or her bench]):
Pokémon: 16

4 Squirtle (BC)
3 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

We can still reduce the Wartortles with help from Rare Candy, which lets us evolve one of our Basic Pokémon to its Stage 2 card. If we include all four Rare Candies we can reduce Wartortles to just one (and one to avoid Item locks such as Gothitelle, which wouldn't allow us to play that card):
Pokémon: 12

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Trainers: 4

4 Rare Candy

It's still 16 cards, but now we can have Blastoise at turn 2 and be ready to attack. It's way faster than what we had before!
Supporting cards (not Supporter cards though)
Now that we have our core, we must focus on cards that will support our main strategy. Do not confuse the title with Supporter cards. We will add them here but I'm not talking exactly about these.
What do we need to take these Pokémon as fast as possible? Here you can be creative and add whatever cards you would think will help the strategy. I'll describe some cards you should consider when building a deck (and that might be useful for this particular deck):

Computer Search: An ACE SPEC card (meaning we can only have one of them and no other ACE SPEC card) that allows us to discard two cards and search for any other card in our deck.
Gold Potion: Another decent ACE SPEC card that heals 90 damage from one Pokémon.
Great Ball: An Item card that lets us look at the first seven cards of our deck, choose a Pokémon from there and place it in our hand.
Heavy Ball: Another Item card that lets us search for a Pokémon with a Retreat Cost of 3 or more. Blastoise has 4 so we can consider it.
Professor Juniper: A Supporter card (we can play one of these during our turn) for discarding our hand and drawing seven new cards. Good for hand refreshing, also a staple.
Cheren: Draw three cards. Straightforward.
Bianca: Draw a card until you have six in your hand.
Eviolite: Keldeo-EX will love these. A Basic Pokémon with this tool attached will receive 20 less damage from any attack.
Rescue Scarf: Another card for Keldeo-EX. If you don't worry that much about damage, consider retrieving them when they get KO'd.
N: Supporter. Each player shuffles their hand on their deck and draw one card for each prize card remaining. Good disruptor.
Random Receiver: Item, reveal one card from your deck until you find a Supporter. Good in a pinch.
Skyla: Search your deck for any Trainer card.
Ultra Ball: Discard two cards from your hand and search for a Pokemon in your deck.
Super Rod: Search for three cards in any combination of Pokémon and Basic Energy cards and shuffle them in your deck. A good recovery card, include at least one of these in your deck.
Pokémon Catcher: Switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with a Pokémon on his or her bench. A must for every deck, 3 or 4 will do.
Pokémon Communication: Change one Pokémon from your hand with one from your deck.

If you notice, Trainer cards can be roughly classified as:

Hand refreshing: They allow us to refresh our hand. You must have some of these in every deck. Juniper and N are examples of this.
Drawing: They draw more cards for us to have mor play options. Bianca and Cheren do this.
Searching: They let us search for specific cards. Skyla and Heavy Ball are examples of this.
Disrupting: They alter the way your opponent plays, such as N and Pokémon Catcher.
Recovery: They help us retrieve things that were discarded, or to turn around the table when things look bad. Super Rod, and in a certain way, N, are excellent for this.
Combat: They help us during combat, when receiving and dealing damage. Gold Potion and Evolite do this.

All in all, we shouldn't just include one of each and be done. What we must be pursuing is consistency. Our deck must be able to pursuit the goal we've defined before in all times and each and every card must help with this. Keeping all of this in mind, I've decided to include the following cards:
Pokémon: 12

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Trainers: 29

4 Rare Candy
1 Computer Search
2 Ultra Ball
4 Great Ball
2 Super Rod
4 Cheren
3 Bianca
3 N
4 Pokémon Catcher
2 Skyla

29 trainers?! Isn't it a bit excessive? No. Actually no. Most of your deck should consist of Trainers, believe it or not.
Completing the deck and adding other cards
We have a solid deck but we're lacking two other things:

Energy Cards
Techs

What's a tech? It's a card we include in order to deal with threats to our deck! What can threat our deck SO much???

Mewtwo-EX: The more energy cards we have attached, the more damage we will receive thanks to X Ball. We must deal with this somehow!
Sigilyph: It basically nullifies our Keldeo's attacks.

Sigilyph can be easily dealt with: We load a Blastoise with energy, retreat a Keldeo, and send it to attack. A Blastoise with [W][W][W] attached will KO it in no time. The real problem is Mewtwo-EX. Sadly the best way to counter it is with another Mewtwo-EX. So, we will include two of these.
Now we have 43 cards in our deck. How about adding three more cards? I would bet for Energy Retrieval, which recovers two Basic Energy cards from our discard pile. So adding three of these will be great. The remainder of the deck will be water energies - limit yourself to no more than 18 Energy cards and that's for a deck that actually needs many of them.
The final deck
Pokémon: 14

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)
2 Mewtwo-EX

Trainers: 32

4 Rare Candy
1 Computer Search
2 Ultra Ball
4 Great Ball
2 Super Rod
4 Cheren
3 Bianca
3 N
4 Pokémon Catcher
2 Skyla
3 Energy Retrieval

Energy: 14

14 Water Energy

Conclusion
We've gone through building a deck from the very core of it to an actual full fledged deck. Keep in mind this might not be an optimal build, but I think it's enough to illustrate the point and to help starters getting going with their very own deck.


Confused by Magic the Gathering Arena trigger damage order (Revenge of Ravens) I was playing MTG Arena and I had a funny situation where my opponent had Revenge of Ravens (ROR). I attacked with a bunch of monsters and soon after died.
Something similar happens in this video at 0:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdqIZbeDss
and I was puzzled at the order in which damage was assigned. Here's what the text says:

Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, that creature's controller loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

So I would have thought that the damage due to the attacks would be assigned before the effects of ROR.
But instead the opposite happened and as a result I died before my opponent like in the video. It felt very counter-intuitive to me given the text... because I died before any of my attacks ever even "happened".
My question is are all enchantments related to combat triggered like this (ie the effects of the trigger are assigned before the combat damage is assigned). Or are there some enchantments whose effects are assigned after combat damage? Thanks.

Revenge of Ravens works correctly. It deals damage as soon as creatures attack, before they deal combat damage.
The combat phase is a multi-step process, it doesn't simply happen all at once. In the most simple terms, first the attacker declares the creatures which attack, then the defender declares the blocking creatures, then creatures deal combat damage.
Between each of these steps, players can cast spells, and abilities like ROR can trigger and resolve. ROR triggers on that first step, when creatures attack, so it can absolutely kill the attacking player before any of their creatures can deal combat damage.

506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat.

The priority system determines which player, if any, can cast spells and activate abilities. The priority system also determines when spells and abilities on the stack resolve.

117.3a The active player receives priority at the beginning of most steps and phases,


Can resources in Alexandria's side A second wonder be bought by other players? On the Alexandria board side A, are players allowed to buy the resources given in the second wonder? Or are they 'special resources' like the ones give by yellow cards... aka not transferable to other players.

edit:
Sorry the rules state that "Clarification: these resources cannot be bought by neighboring cities."

As the asker points out, the rules specifically clarify that the resources are like those provided by yellow cards and cannot be bought by neighboring cities.


Parcheesi question - only one possible move Parcheesi. The rules say" "If either of the two rolls must be forfeited, the player must forfeit the lower number". Question. What if it's not a question of "either" but you roll 5-3 and can only take the 3?

If you can only use the lower number, you are free to do so (and indeed must do so).
Note the "citation needed" on that one rule you're quoting on wiki. Likely the source for that includes clearer text to the handling of the rule. It means if it is possible to use either of the dice but not both, then the player must use the higher number.
It cannot mean that if you cannot use the higher number that you would somehow be prohibited from using the lower number.
That is not a universal rule, however. The source cited just above that uncited rule on wiki says only that:

If you cannot move by the count of both dice, you may move one pawn by the count of either one of the dice.

The "must use the higher if possible" rule, given its lack of sourcing, should probably be treated as a house rule.


Do you restock hand cards at the end of each turn? Different language editions seem to have different rulings Do you restock hand cards at the end of each turn, yes or no?

We've always played it so you restock your hand to four cards, as is explicitly stated in the Dutch rules. Other languages aren't as specific.

The English rules for Alhambra, by Queen, describe the actions at the end of a turn as follows:

  English
  When your turn is over it is the next player's turn. Before the next player decides what to do, any money cards or building tiles which have been removed are replaced with new ones so that there are four of each again.

Now, if I look at the Dutch rules (also by Queen) and translate them, there's a significant difference.

  Dutch
  When your turn is over it is the next player's turn. Now all money cards and missing building tiles are supplemented until every player once again has 4 cards.

Normally I would look to the German rules (also by Queen) for an answer, since the game is made in Germany. This one reads:

  German
  After you end your turn, the next player is up. For that, missing money cards and missing building tiles are restocked to four each.

You don't restock your hand of cards, you restock the four money cards on the board which are available to take, the same way you restock the tiles available to buy. That looks consistent with the English and German rules; I would assume the Dutch is the mistake, that they meant until each supply has four cards/tiles.

I would say the English and German rules are fairly specific about that, and it takes some substantial stretching to get them to mean anything else. And the Dutch sounds like fairly awkward phrasing for restocking the supply on the table, which surely must be done.


What happens if I must attack with two creatures, but am only allowed to attack with one? I'm a little confused about what happens when the enchantment Dueling Grounds and Juggernaut.

Juggernaut must attack each turn if able. Dueling Grounds only allows one creature to attack each turn. What happens if a player has multiple Juggernauts and Dueling Grounds in play?

I'm thinking there are a couple options here. The first is that rule 717.1 applies, which reads:

  717.1. If a player takes an illegal action or starts to take an action but can't legally complete it, the entire action is reversed and any payments already made are canceled. [...]

This rule would indicate that both Juggernauts become untapped and neither are declared as attackers. If this is the case, is the whole Declare Attackers step reversed? The illegal action occurs as part of rule 508.1 at the beginning of the game:

  508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn't use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 717, "Handling Illegal Actions"). (emph. mine)

Because the player declares two attackers as part of 508.1, but the player isn't allowed to, this seems to indicate that the game returns to pre-508.1 conditions. But if this is the case, does the player get to declare another attacker?

My intuition tells me that the Active Player must declare both Juggernauts as an attack, which is illegal and is reversed, sending the phase back to the beginning of Declare Attackers. At this point, they could declare one of the two Juggernauts as an attacker. However, this is an inordinately complicated interaction, and I have very little confidence that I'm right.

Could somebody possibly clarify what happens in this situation?

You have to declare one of the Juggernauts as attackers. You cannot declare both of them as attackers. The important rules that you missed are under 508.1:

508.1c The active player checks each creature he or she controls to see whether it's affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can't attack, or that it can't attack unless some condition is met). If any restrictions are being disobeyed, the declaration of attackers is illegal.

508.1d The active player checks each creature he or she controls to see whether it's affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must attack, or that it must attack if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of attackers is illegal. If a creature can't attack unless a player pays a cost, that player is not required to pay that cost, even if attacking with that creature would increase the number of requirements being obeyed.

If you declare both Juggernauts as attackers, it would violate the Dueling Grounds restriction, so it would be illegal per 508.1c. If you declare neither as an attacker, you are following 0 of the 2 relevant requirements, so it would be illegal per 508.1d.
However, if you declare one of the Juggernauts as an attacker, then no restrictions are disobeyed, so it passes 508.1c, and 1 requirement is obeyed, which is the maximum number that could be obeyed with Dueling Grounds on the battlefield. That makes it a legal attack.
It's important to remember that when the rules say that a choice is illegal, it doesn't mean "you should go back and make a choice"; it means "you never should have made this choice". Rule 717 is there to handle the case where you broke a rule and the game state is fixable. There is never a case where you must make an illegal choice.


How to play Werewolf/Mafia with exactly 6 players? Wikipedia claims that werewolf/mafia requires "At least 6 people" but all calculations for that I can figure out results in the "evil" side winning the vast majority of the time.  I would like to play something similar to this game live but have not been in a large social group (more than 6) that might enjoy such games for a number of years. I do, however, meet up with a group of 6 people where we do play board games occasionally. We have played 1 Night Ultimate Werewolf but that (though sometimes fun) ends up being a completely different game because players don't know their roles. I want to know if there is a smaller variation or modification to Werewolf or Mafia which can be played with the following requirements:

Exactly 6 players are involved initially (though this number will obviously decrease)
Players are eliminated by a voting process.
All players know their own identities.
Each side has a reasonably even chance to win.
The game is fun

As of yet, Resistance (very fun) is the closest I've found but no players are eliminated.  I think incorporating multiple "lives" into the game would work but I'm not aware of how that rule would be implemented.

I've found one option I overlooked until after I asked this question.

It appears that the "good" side has a 44.4% chance of winning if all votes are random, they have the option to not lynch someone on a particular day, and there is only 1 mafioso. A large portion of this, however, relies on the 16.7% chance they successfully guess the mafioso at their first vote. This would make it more of a "serial killer" game.  This is far better than I initially thought.

I suspect it might be most fun if players are told they only win if they survive, multiple rounds are played, and they can lynch as many players as they like on a particular day as long as each defendant received a quorum of the votes as required in the original mafia game.

This answer is only speculative and, therefore, not a good answer.


Bridge: Which transfer do you use with both majors - one 5 carder and another 4 carder Partner opens 1NT.

With a 4 carder Spade and a 5 carder Heart, what do you do?
And with a 5 carder Spade and a 4 carder Heart?

Specifically, should you use Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, or some other convention?

The most common answer to this problem is called Smolen, which applies when you have game-forcing values. In Smolen, you start with Stayman. If partner shows a 4-card major, proceed as normal with that suit as trumps. If partner denies a major, you bid your 4-card major at the three level. Opener now chooses a strain.

With less than game-forcing values, your choices really depend on what other bids mean in your system, but the following is usually workable:

With 5 spades, 4 hearts, and invitational values, bid Stayman and rebid 2S after opener's 2D.
With 5 hearts, 4 spades, and invitational values, transfer to hearts and rebid 2S after partner accepts the transfer.
With 5-4 and less than invitational values, consider using "Crawling Stayman." This is a rebid of 2H after 1NT-2C-2D, and it shows a weak hand with the majors. Opener passes or corrects.


Can the doctor still save someone else if killed? In games that have more than one type of killer (werewolf, vigilante, hunter), what is the outcome if:

werewolf attacks villager, doctor heals villager, vigilante attacks doctor

Is only the doctor dead? Are both villager and doctor dead? Can the doctor heal the villager but then die later?

Hunters (shoots another player when killed) and vigilantes (hunts for werewolves) are not uncommon in the game, but I've never seen the issue of killing a doctor brought up in any forums.

In my version of the game, a vigilante dies of guilt if he kills an innocent, so in this scenario the villager, doctor and vigilante could all potentially die in one night.

There are many variants of this game, and I can't find any place where rules state it (oficially) but there's no order when character's skills are played at night.
Doctor will save its target even if he's targetet by the werewolves/vigilante.

You don't need to look for a logical way of how does it happens, as it's not logical either a doctor healing someone from a werewolf attack (how is he supposed to heal someone ripped off?).

The only way of negating effects is with skills which state they negate the effect (some variations of the game include the escort, who stops someone from using his action that night).

Edit: in the scenario you proposed doctor would die but save the victim of the werewolf. Vigilante would die of guilt next day.


Is it allowed for the next player to take the next tile while the current player hasn't finished his move yet? A Korean-Japanese player I occasionally play Mahjong with insists that it's okay for the next player to take a tile from the wall and contemplate it while the previous player hasn't yet discarded. She keeps pushing players to do so to move the game along speedily. That obviously clashes with chī and pong calls sometimes, at which point she simply "rolls back time" to accommodate that.

Is this practice actually officially allowed or encouraged, in any of the Mahjong cultures?

Tom Sloper, an apparently very experienced American player, writes about etiquette. It turns out that "One person's bad etiquette is another person's official rule" - so you have to adapt. There is a huge difference between tournament play and casual games with friends. Also, you need to consider house rules. In the end, there is a definite answer to your question in the rule book, but its usage in practice depends on the circumstances.

  DISCARDING AHEAD -- When I play with my Japanese friends, they yell at
  me if I claim a discard and then make the exposure before discarding
  (nobody can play until I discard, and they want to PLAY!). But when I
  play with my American friends, they call me dead if I discard before
  making the exposure. One person's bad etiquette is another person's
  official rule! Why it's a bad habit -- Do it with players who strictly
  follow the rules (like in a tournament) and you'll be called dead.

  PICKING AHEAD -- Many American players think "picking ahead" (AKA
  "playing with a future") is the correct way to play. But when these
  players come to a tournament... watch out! Old habits die hard. And
  picking ahead is the surest way I know to get called dead in a
  tournament. In case anybody's been living in a cave, picking ahead is
  a no-no. That other mah-jongg association (I'm not naming names, but
  their initials are NMJL) HATES picking ahead! Read their rulebook and
  yearly bulletin sometime if you don't believe me. Why it's a bad habit
  -- (1) It causes too many conflicts when someone wants to claim a discard. You might think that it makes the game go faster, but it
  really doesn't. (2) Do it in a tournament and you'll be called dead.

He adds a few more points to consider (including "avoid making everyone wait"), it's a very interesting read.


What are the requirements to build a city? In order to build a city you must have a settlement to upgrade, and enough resource for the upgrade.

However, are there any other requirements like having at least 3 settlements?

There's only one other requirement: You need to have a spare city in stock.

To summarize, all the requirements are:

You need to have the required resources.
You need to have a settlement on the board.
You need to have a spare city in stock.


Reraising in no limit texas holdem If one player reraised and the next player behind does not complete the bet can the next player reraise?

Yes.  If someone bet (or reraise), other players can reraise after him.  The round of bets is finish when all players either: called, fold, or bet all-in.


Can anyone tell me what game these dice come from? There are 7 d6 and a d10.  Sides contain horseshoes, crossbows, swords, wings, faces, etc.

Could it be you have Dragon Dice? Looks like this particular photo includes D8 not D10.


Does Enlist trigger itself? In Scythe, one of the actions that you can take is to enlist a recruit. When you do, you get on ongoing benefit for the rest of the game. Does the "rest of the game" include the action that you just took?

If it does, then enlisting the recruit from the Enlist section of your player board will always give you +1 popularity right away, because that is the benefit associated with the Enlist action that you just took.

From page 20 of the Scythe rules:

  "For the rest of the game, whenever you or the player to your
  immediate left or right (these players are shown in the icon in the
  red circle) take the bottom-row action in the section of the Player
  Mat from which the recruit was taken, you may gain the specified
  bonus."

My group guessed "no", but we felt that the wording is ambiguous. Can anyone come up with a FAQ or designer comment that will clarify the issue?

No, you would not gain the benefit the same turn you enlist it.

Jamey Stegmaier, Scythe designer, answered this question in a thread on boardgamegeek

  The costs and benefits for the player mat are those that are visible before you take the action, so you would not gain the ongoing recruit bonus from the enlist action until your next enlistment.


Opening bid in first seat opening bid, I have:

S: AKQ9873
H: AQ
D: xx
C: Qx

Could I ever justify opening 4 spades?

I have more than eight tricks in my own hand, with seven of them in spades. At the same time, I fear the weakness of my minor suit doubletons.

Tl;dr: No, bid 1♠.

There are many different sets of bidding conventions in bridge. In the one I learned (some further information here: http://www.rpbridge.net/3j00.htm), 4♠ is a preemptive bid that signals a very long spade suit (which you have) and several points below the regular opening strength of 12 high card points. Your hand is too strong for that (even if you play where the unprotected Qs aren't worth points), so you should bid 1♠ instead and then further tell your partner about your amazing spade suit by rebidding it at your next opportunity, probably jumping a level when you do so (e.g. 1♠ - 2♣ - 3♠).

While other conventions may differ somewhat, it is unlikely that any will tell you to open 4♠ with that hand. This is because, although your hand is quite likely to make 4♠, if your partner has any strength you might be able to make a slam instead, but if you start the bidding high then there's very little bidding space for you and your partner to figure that out.