When can you change a monster's position? Can I change a creature from attack position to defense position or vice versa only during either of my Main Phases, and only once per turn per creature? Is that correct?

Is that correct?

Yes, it is correct.

Unless otherwise specified or restricted, you can do that what you describe.

You can't, however do so on the turn you Summon a monster, as once you place it on certain position then it has to remain that way until you can legally change it again (either by card effect or rulebook effect). Think of it as the "summoning sickness" that MTG creatures have, just that it applies to position instead of attack permission.

Also, some cards may prevent you from doing so. Examples are Level Limit - Area B, or well any Cloudian Archetype monsters, which can't be placed on defense position or they are destroyed.


Does Pushing Need To Be Adjacent? It's not specified if, when pushing, does the monster need to be adjacent? Some cards say specifically adjacent some don't, so the ones that don't does that mean infinite range?

Sources with answers please!

Adjacency is not required for every Push. It depends on the card.

Push is an effect that is either attached to an attack (which can be ranged or melee) or is a part of another non-attack effect. Adjacency is only needed for melee attacks or for special abilities that explicitly state the requirement or imply it with a range of 1.

From Page 22 of the rules:

  Attack abilities will often have effects that increase their power. If
  an attack effect is listed on an ability card after an attack, the
  target (or targets) of the attack is subject to the additional effect
  as well, after damage from the attack is resolved. Attack effects are
  applied regardless of whether the corresponding attack does damage.
  Some character actions can also apply these effects without an attack,
  and in such cases the target of the effect is written on the ability
  card.

The phrasing of the Push mechanic, which is considered an attack ability, is range agnostic.

  PUSH X – The target is forced to move X hexes in a direction specified
  by the attacker, but each hex moved must place the target farther away
  from the attacker than it was previously. If there are no viable hexes
  into which to push the target, the push ends.

For an example of a ranged Push card, see the Cragheart's Crater card.


Can the Trader destroy a disease card? The trader card says:

  Village: In addition to your by, you may destroy 1 card to take any non-Hero card worth up to 2 cost more from the village.

Disease doesn't have a cost listed, so even if it can be destroyed it is somewhat ambiguous as to what you could acquire afterwards.  Does anyone know how this should be played?

The publisher's representative (Ryan Metzler) states in this thread that trashing a disease with a trader is an illegal move:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/622651/village-trader-question

The rest of it sort of falls apart because he missed that they were erroneously talking about gold values, not cost, but it's the closest thing to an official answer I could find that you can't trash a card with no-cost to the Trader.

Also, clearly stated here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7763776#7763776


Is an early escape normal in encounter 1C? In First Scenario 1C

Scenario objectives :

Win : Kill 2 investigators
Lose : Investigators escape from Foyer

During my game session investigators revealed objective very quickly, and most of them managed to escape mansion before event was triggered and door's become locked with rune puzzle

Is this normal situation?

Yes, this is a normal situation.  It isn't very fun, sure, but it is a normal one.  I've had it happen several times and each time I swear off playing this scenario until I find a new group of victi-- friends who have not yet experienced my wra-- version of fun.

In fact, I had a situation where one of my players simply wanted to "try and leave to see what happens".  Everyone else followed.  Game over in the first couple of turns.


MTG planeswalker-flicker ruling Lets say I have a Kiora, Master of the Depths in play that has 2 loyalty because I used her -2. I also have a Felidar Guardian in play and a Restoration Angel in hand.

Now here is the question: Can I minus Kiora (potentially killing her), flash in a Restoration Angel targeting Felidar Guardian causing its enter the battlefield trigger to go on the stack and blink Kiora with Felidar saving her and getting value off of the minus ability, or is she just dead because she has no loyalty? I'm assuming the latter because I'm thinking it would be similar to -1-1 counters because taking away loyalty is the cost of the ability. (If anything I'm just making sure)

You're correct in assuming that that trick won't work.  The entire process of paying the loyalty cost and then having the Planeswalker die due to state-based actions doesn't use the stack, so there's no opportunity for a spell or ability (which would use the stack) to preempt it. Between the time you pay the -2 cost (bringing her to 0 loyalty) and the next time you'd be able to use a spell or ability, she's been moved to the graveyard.

If you want to preempt a state-based action, your only option is a replacement effect, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a replacement effect that would save a Planeswalker at 0 loyalty.


Necroskitter and clone/ board wipe interaction I had Necroskitter out and my opponent has Clone which cloned some 3/3 monster. I play Puncture Blast to kill it. I believe that I get Clone card because of the following steps

Cast puncture bolt
Target Clone creature
Opponent has no response so there for it dies
Because it has -1/-1 counter when it was sent to the graveyard it triggers my Necroskitter
I get to put Clone into my battlefield

I believe I am right but my friend says that [Clone][2] comes back as 0/0 as therefore dies. Who is right?

I believe I am right but my friend says that Clone comes back as 0/0 as therefore dies. Who is right?

You are correct.

Clone's ability reads

  You may have Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.

This ability applies any time Clone enters the battlefield.  The person who controls Clone (in this case you) gets to choose a creature to copy as it enters the battlefield.  It will not die.


Do heroes recover health and fatigue at the end of each quest? Do heroes recover health at the end of each encounter or at the end of each quest (usually two encounters)?

Heroes do not recover health at the end of each encounter, only fatigue. Heroes do recover full health and fatigue at the end of each Quest (two encounters).
The rule book regarding Quests (page 18):

Heroes keep all damage suffered during Encounter 1.

Heroes recover all fatigue suffered during Encounter 1.

and (page 20) The Campaign Phase

2). Cleanup: All heroes recover all damage and all fatigue....


Building a mana base for WGB Tokens in Standard So Wizards heard my prayers and has given me something to make my favored W/G tokens deck even better. Unfortunately, those somethings are black:

Dark Ascension isn't out yet, so we can't brew with full information, but I'm already working on a decklist for the upgraded WBG tokens. All of the following are strong candidates for inclusion in the deck (though some of them will eventually have to be cut):

Name                        Cost
=================================================
Doomed Traveler             W
Accorder Paladin            1W
Honor of the Pure           1W
Intangible Virtue           1W
Gather the Townsfolk        1W
Midnight Haunting           2W
Lingering Souls             2W, 1B flashback
Fiend Hunter                1WW
Hero of Bladehold           2WW
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad    2WB
Geist-Honored Monk          3WW
Gavony Township             {T} 2WG ability
Vault of the Archangel      {T} 2WB ability

The first thing to notice about this list is that it's very nearly mono-white, with three different cards costing WW. The second is that we actually have more B than G (though there's a little more G in the sideboard, as I'll probably continue siding in Autumn's Veil, and either Naturalize or Ray of Revelation.)

Now the W/G tokens deck had a very reliable manabase, what with having Razorverge Thicket, Sunpetal Grove, and Avacyn's Pilgrim available. Building WBG is quite a bit trickier: the only W/B land in standard is Isolated Chapel, unless Dark Ascension gives us another rare land cycle, which seems unlikely. How would you go about it? Or are we perhaps better off dropping Gavony (the only maindeck G) and going just WB?

This is functionally a mono-color deck with some "color splash".

You don't need any color but white early on, so you can forgo playing Scars-block "fast duals" in favor of the appropriate "buddy duals", which are Isolated Chapel and Sunpetal Grove. If almost all your other lands are Plains, it's going to be pretty easy to get them to always come into play untapped.

However, if the green is mostly an afterthought, I would play Swamps before I run Woodland Cemetery. This is because you need more black than green, and it's nice to have lands that come into play untapped. Also, a couple of Swamps in your deck ensure that an opponent can't use Ghost Quarter to color-screw you out of casting Sorin.

Your mana base could easily support green splash, but I think Gavony Township might be too much of a "win more" card in this deck, since you've got so many other pumping effects going already. Township doesn't really start doing its thing until the late game, and my suspicion is that getting there in the first place means your opponent is likely using lots of removal to keep your creatures off the field. Initially, I was thinking that I'd prefer to have access to Moorland Haunt (to generate more Spirits) rather than Gavony Township (which is useless if I have no guys to pump up), and sideboarding in blue countermagic against Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb. However, with the full Dark Ascension set spoiled, I'm not thinking you're better off with green to support:

Ray of Relevation to answer Curse of Death's Hold and your opponent's anthems in the mirror.
Garruk Relentless as another token-maker and an Overrun effect.


How to determine starting player in Betrayal Legacy chapter 12? The setup card for chapter 12 tells us that the first player should be (forgive the inexact quote - I don't own the game so am working off memory from 2 days ago):

   the player who most wants to destroy Him

Our eventual interpretation from a quick group consensus was that it should be the player who had least often been the traitor (this narrowed it down to two of us, and we picked from there based on who had directly defeated the traitor in the previous scenario).

But some other possible ideas for it have occurred to me since, including the player with the most family deaths, the player who had least recently been the first player (purely for some fairness),

   by consulting the helm, or the player with the most family crests on the helm.

Is there any established criteria that we should have used to determine starting player, or is what we did as correct as we could have gotten?

We interpreted it as

   The player whose family crest appeared the most times on the BACK of the helm (due to a side-quest of cursing Him earlier in the game).


How can I do better than chance in Uno? Just started playing Uno. What are the most important strategies that might improve my game? Of course luck is important, but I'm trying to do better than crossing my fingers.

For example, before and after a player announces "Uno", should my play be different? While there's a "wild" card, how should I decide which color to switch to?

@paul-marshall thanks for the reply. I understand that normally i shall change color to the one that i have most cards -- but is there any occasion that i shouldn't do so?

For the wild card, let's say now i have one blue, one yellow, and one wild card, and the table is playing red. shall i use wild card to change color (to blue or yellow), or, just hold the card and hope i could discard yellow and blue later? is there some thumb rule when shall use wild card and when not?

You're trying to run out of cards, and the opportunities to change colors are somewhat limited. Your goal, therefore, should be to play the last card of one of your colors, then be able to switch to another color you have on the next play. This doesn't always work, of course.

When changing colors (via wild or matching the card), you should switch to the color that you have the most of. Switching to the color that you have the most cards in gives you the best chance to "even out" your hand; if you're stuck with 7 cards in your hand, it will be easier to play when you have 2 yellows, 2 reds, and 3 greens than to play when you have 5 yellows and 2 reds. Note that it will be easy to play one card when you have a four-card hand consisting of one of each color, but it will be hard to go out with such a hand: changing colors is somewhat difficult, and you can't count on it happening when you want it to.

When somebody calls "Uno," it's best to assume that their last card is the same color as the previous card they played; otherwise, the player going out is hoping against hope for a lucky play. Therefore, you change the color in play after somebody calls "Uno," by whatever means is handy. (Or inflict a Draw Two or Draw Four Wild against them.)


When do "when you cast this spell" effects resolve? If I cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and target my opponent's two Plains on the board, does the exile effect resolve before my opponent has a chance to tap one of the lands to play Path to Exile?

My guess is that the cast effect would go on the stack & resolve prior to Ulamog being on the field and in play as a legal target for Path, but I'd like some confirmation to be certain.

You can exile your opponents' Plains before Ulamog resolves, but you can't stop your opponent from getting mana from them. Assuming no one has anything else to do besides the things you mentioned, it'd go like this:

You cast Ulamog.
Ulamog's "when you cast..." ability triggers, and you target your opponents' two Plains.
Your opponent taps both Plains for white mana, leaving it in their mana pool. (They float two white.)
The triggered ability resolves, exiling both Plains.
Ulamog resolves, entering the battlefield.
Your opponent spends one of the white mana to cast Path to Exile.

From your question it sounds like you might be thinking of lands and mana as being the same thing, but as that sequence of events pretty clearly shows, the lands are separate from the mana they produce.


Bridge auction and play with a 5521 hand opposite 1255 Playing at a matchpoint Swiss pairs event yesterday, I played this hand as north.

Our auction went 1♤-2♢-2♡-3NT-4♡. I had difficulty choosing what to bid over 3NT. South could have bid the fourth suit to look for a major fit so I knew I would likely be playing in a seven card fit. What action would you take and why?

I also found the play interesting. East lead ♡10, Q - K - A. I then made a plan for the play: ♤ AK, ♤ ruff, ♧AK, ♧ruff high, ◇A,◇ruff low and then get a trick from ♡8x (since the lead makes it look like the Jack is onside). Roughly I need 4-3 spades, 4-2 diamonds, 4-3 or 2=5 clubs. Is there a better line of play?

You could attack Diamonds before touching clubs, while the A♧ is still an entry to south. This sets up a long diamond, but it works only if the opp with short diamonds is also short in trump. On the actual lie, the long diamonds will be trumped.

You don't mention it, but on your line a diamond must have been discarded on the second club trick so that the second diamond can be trumped.

You also don't mention but in the 4-card ending when you hold ♤Tx ♡8x  in the north hand, (after the Diamond ruff) you must lead a spade so that the opponets will have to lead trump into your 8x. This works on the actual lie.

I don't see a celarly better line of play.

On bidding, I agree with the comment that you could stop in 3NT. But on the actual lie, i don't see a play for 9 tricks, with neither black suit breaking favorably.

And I don't see a good reason to try for slam over 3NT. It certainly doesn't work on the actual lie, but with no running suit and no more than 28 HCP between the hands, it is hard to see how slam is plausible. Also the 3NT bid seems to deny any slam inters.


What is the effect of a scout standing at an enemy barracks? A barracks add +2 to the owners Combat score and 2 Trade.
A scout allows you to effectively block or steal the benefits of an opponent's buildings by standing on them.

When I have a scout on an opponent's barracks what happens with the Combat score bonus?

Do I steal it? (His score:0 Mine:+2)
He just loses it? (His score:0 Mine:0)
Or nothing, I just get the trade? (His score:+2 Mine:0)

Military bonuses can be blockaded, but not stolen. So you get the trade, but nobody gets the combat advantage.

Source Blockading a Great General (Board Game Geek), from the the designer

  Military bonuses CAN be blockaded, however, scouts CANNOT steal
  military bonuses (military bonuses weren't originally icons, and I'm
  pretty sure that could be game breaking).

  Scouts can send home anything they're on top of except wonder
  abilities and military bonuses (even in another player's outskirts,
  even on top of a wonder, building, or great person).


What exactly is Legendary Cube/Vintage Cube in MTG Online? They are definitely not sets, editions and more resemble Game Format since cards get in and get out.

What are the Cubes exactly?

In general 'Cube' is a Magic format where a person creates their own custom draft environment, choosing which cards are included. They can take cards from any sets the creators choose and can have any sort of theme their creators choose.

The Legendary Cube is one such cube created by Wizards of the Coast that is meant to showcase Legendary Creatures. Originally every creature was legendary, though it has since been updated to include non-legendary ones too. Also it was used to release some cards from various Commander products that hadn't been released in digital form yet.

The Vintage Cube (previously known as the Holiday Cube due to only being available around December) is another cube developed by Wizards of the Coast that is designed to be a 'power cube' or a cube that has many of the most powerful cards ever released in the game. This cube doesn't really have a rotation like Standard, but they do change the cards in it slightly in order to add cards from new sets and vary the environment slightly.


How does Blood Scrivener work if I "draw 2 cards"? Blood Scrivener reads:

  If you would draw a card while you have no cards in hand, instead draw two cards and lose 1 life.

If I cast  Divination as my last card, how many total cards do I draw?

You draw three cards and lose one life.

"Draw two cards" means "Draw one card. Draw one card."[CR 120.2]

For the first draw, Blood Scrivener's replacement effect would kick in[1]. You draw two cards and lose one life instead.

For the second draw, Blood Scrivener's replacement effect would not kick in because you have two cards in your hand[2].

Referenced Rules

  120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that player performs that many individual card draws.

Notes

Divination was the last card in your hand, and it moved from there to the stack when you started casting it.
Assuming you had at least one card left in your library. If you didn't, you'd lose another life. This isn't likely to matter, as you would normally lose immediately after the spell finishes resolving anyway.


Assigning damage to multiple blockers Okay so when I was looking up the answer to a different question I had I found this

  You assign 2 damage on the first target, but he's not dead yet until you assign all 5 damage that you have. So all the remaining creature are still 2/2 so you are forces to a assign at least 2 damages on each so assign 2 damage on the second in the row, and 1 damage to the 3rd creature for a grand total of 5 damages. The forth creature receive no damage.

So if this is correct, this is something I didn't know about blocking multiple creatures (I'm fairly new to the game and have never actually had it happen, only been reading about the fact that you can double block)

So if I attack with 6/6, and am blocked with 4/4 and 2/3

This is how I thought it worked

I choose order of 4/4 then 2/3
So 4/4 dies because I did 6 damage, 6/6 took 4
2/3 dies because I did 6 damage, 6/6 took 2
My 6/6 died because it took a total of 6 damage

So is that correct? Or is it like this

Attack with 6/6
Blocked by 4/4 and 2/3
Order of 4/4 then 2/3, 4 damage and 2 damage (Total of 6, my creatures attack number)
4/4 dies because it took 4 damage, 6/6 takes 4 damage
2/3 lives because it took 2 damage, 6/6 take 2 damage
My 6/6 dies because it took a total of 6 damage

Source

The latter. Each creature deals damage equal to its power to all blockers, attackers and defending players or planeswalkers, not to each of them.

Simultaneously,

The 6/6 deals 4 damage to the 4/4[1].
The 6/6 deals 2 damage to the 2/3.
The 4/4 deals 4 damage to the 6/6.
The 2/3 deals 2 damage to the 6/6.

Shortly after, when State-Based Actions are performed, the following happens simultaneously:

The 6/6 is destroyed for having damage equal to or exceeding its toughness.
The 4/4 is destroyed for having damage equal to or exceeding its toughness.

That's assuming the minimum damage is dealt to each creature. You can choose to "overkill" if you so desire, but it's rarely helpful.


Identify board game with a castle divider, air plungers, soldier-shaped plugs? I remember a game my grandparents had, but I have never found it searching on the web.

This game was likely made in the 1970s, it was 2-player.

It had a green board that was injection molded plastic, it had a set of plastic castle towers and a cardboard castle wall as a divider. The top of the main board was a grid of holes, underneath the holes were interconnected by a network ducts.

The pieces were little soldier-shaped plugs that fit in the holes. It also had two colored air plungers.

The game mechanic was a bit of a cross between checkers and Battleship. You moved a piece and were allowed to plunge a hole as turn elements. If you plunged a hole on your side and the adjoined hole on the opponents' side had a piece in it, it would fly out and be removed from play.

Has anyone heard of or played this game?

I think you might mean Battleboard.  I found it typing "air plungers board game castle" into google image search

According to information on BGG it was from 1972. It is a two player game.

The photos fit your description of being green with a castle.

the description says :-

  Each player has four knight pieces and one king piece. At the
  beginning of the game they are placed in the row furthest from the
  dividing wall. Players take turns moving one of their pieces one space
  (orthogonally). They then get to use their "air catapult" to try to
  pop out one of their opponent's pieces. This is done by placing their
  plunger in one of the vacant spaces on their side of the board and
  then banging it. If their opponent has a piece in that corresponding
  space, it will pop up into the air. Pieces captured in this way remain
  out of the game until that player moves his king up to the dividing
  wall, at which point he can claim a captured knight piece back (but
  also tips off his opponent that his king is in the front row). The
  first player to move two pieces into the front row (next to the
  dividing wall) wins the game.


Is Ace high? Or low? Or both? When playing the cards, Ace is worth 1.  When counting runs, A 2 3 is worth 3.  I've often played with Q K A also being worth 3.  I've even played with K A 2 being worth 3!  Definitely good ways to get more points in the game (you know, if you need that kind of thing), but it seems (from looking through the rules) that Ace should always be low and never anything else.  This is, however, merely insinuated by "Ace is 1" and the examples of A 2 3 and J Q K.

Finally, the question: Is there any definitive discourse on Ace always being low and why that is?  Perhaps "Ace is high" is a common variant?

Aces are low in cribbage. Their point value is one in pegging and in adding up to 15 during pegging, in the hand, or in the crib. The American Cribbage Congress' Rules of Cribbage define a straight as "a sequence of three or more consecutive cards", and the card order is shown with King as the highest descending normally through Ace as the lowest.

I've never heard of Ace being played high in cribbage, so from my personal experience I don't think it's a common variant, but you could definitely play it that way as an uncommon variant! I don't think it would change the game a great deal.

As far as reasons for Ace being only low, I would use the consistency argument as in your answer. There's no inherent inconsistency in scoring if you think of the order of cards being circular rather than linear, but it does introduce a discontinuity in value.  To be consistent, you could play with Aces as in blackjack, taking either 1 or 11, but that would probably make them overpowered, especially in the pegging. And that would introduce more complications, such as would a A 10 4 be counted as one 15 or two? All-in-all, it's more straightforward to stick with the traditional: Ace's value is 1, and it is low.


If an effect destroys multiple creatures, in what order are they destroyed? If I use a card like Gateway to Dis to destroy multiple creatures, how do we decide in which order they are destroyed, what effects can be applied, and in what order they land in the discard pile?

If an effect destroys multiple creatures, they are destroyed simultaneously, so any effects on the creatures being destroyed are not eligible to be applied on the other creatures (e.g. Tolas would not gain you anyone any aember, since it is also destroyed). For an effect to be applied, it needs to still be in play after the destruction is finished. The cards also all hit the discard pile at the same time, but the active player does get to choose the order in which they go in.
Reference video.


How often can I trigger private security force So let's say I've scored private security force and the runner is tagged. On my next turn can I use all 3 clicks to do 3 damage? I'm a bit unclear at what points I can perform these kind of actions.

As long as you have scored a private security force, and the runner is tagged, you may use a Click to do one meat damage, in the same way you can use a Click to draw a card, or play a card.

It's perfectly allowed to do nothing but 3 meat damage a turn from then on, if you want to!


Online Rules for Primordial Soup: Freshly Spiced Are detailed rules for the extension Primordial Soup: Freshly Spiced available online?

All I found online is a low quality picture of the cards and an analysis of the new genes.
And the linked Official English Rulebook doesen't show the details of the genes.

Download this player aid file available here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/1493/ursuppe-fisch-abgeschmeckt-rulespdf

The final 2 pages have a list of all of the genes in the expansion plus their description/explanation.  This should give you all of the information that you need.


Axis and Allies 1940, why are the axis always losing I‘ve been playing A&A 1940 Europe (without Japan) and everytime the Axis Powers losses. I‘ve tried Sealion and stuff but its still everytime the same. At the beginning Germany is beating up france and some small parts of Russia but them the americans lands in europe and Germany cant hold it. What can i try to win with the Axis power?

One strategy to deal with one side always losing is to have an auction to decide who gets which side: each person bids a certain amount of IPC. Whoever gives the highest bid takes the Allies, and the other person gets to place units equal to that bid at the start.


Do free buildings give accumulated victory points? Some quests (like Lure Artisans of Mirabar), and maybe some intrigue cards, allow you to place a building from Builder's Hall into play at no cost. Does the player also score the accumulated victory points (gems)?

I don't see why you wouldn't get the gems. The quest on your cards says:

Put 1 building from Builder's Hall into play and under your control
at no cost.

The rules for Builder's Hall say:

Choose one of the face-up Buildings available for purchase and pay
its Gold cost. You immediately score any VP for that Building and
place its tile in one of the open spots on the board. Place one of
your control markers on that tile to show you are the owner. After you
purchase a Building, immediately draw the top tile of the Building
stack and place it face-up on the vacated space.

So after paying the gold cost of Zero you would surely take the gems and then fill the vacated space with a new building.  Usually if in a game you don't get something the mission card should state you don't get the gems.
The Lords Of WaterDeep FAQ at BGG also answers this question specifically saying you take the gems.  BGG game FAQ:

Q: Does an effect that places a building, or puts a building into play count as buying/purchasing the building?
A: No. You count as having bought a building only if you assign an agent to "Builder's Hall" and pay the gold cost of the building. Putting a building into play by other means (such as by completing the "Lure Artisans of Mirabar" quest) does not count as buying the building. However, if you put a building into play under your control from "Builder's Hall" and that building has any VP tokens on it, you gain those VP's regardless of whether you bought it or simply put it in play.


Can anyone explain the last move on this go board I’m learning so I’m going through all beginner problems I’m finding and I do not get this:

The problem starts like this; I am trying to protect the black stone on the right side.

After I played, the board looks like this:

But the problem doesn’t get completed unless I play that last move:

And I don’t understand: what does this move bring?

The black group in the upper corner has two liberties, as does the main white group before you play that last piece.  Therefore, if you had instead decided to play elsewhere on the board, white could have decided to capture the black group and done so before you could save it.

With that final spot filled in, you are now guaranteed to capture the white group before the black group is captured. That means you are free to play elsewhere on the board without being in danger of losing this corner - if white ever plays here you can always safely respond.

Superficially, it may look like that last piece is easily captured, but every move that white could make has a response that puts them back at one liberty away from capture, so it's not as vulnerable as it appears.


How do I score rounds 2 and 3 when I am the only player with a kind of building? Last night at the end of round 2, I was the only player with any Pavilion tiles in my Alhambra. First place gets 8 points, second place gets 1 point. How do I score this? Do I get all 9 points? Or just the 8 points for first place? It's only 1 point, but I could see a situation with higher-value kind of buildings where this division would matter.

You only get the points for first place. There simply is no second place person to receive those points. If a game wanted to let you get the second place points also in that case, it would need to be spelled out as a special rule.


What happens if Combat Celebrant is killed during combat? What happens if Combat Celebrant attacks and is killed by blockers? Would the second combat phase still happen?

Yes, the second combat phase will still happen.

Abilities are completely separate from the source of the ability.

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability.

In this case, Combat Celebrant has a triggered ability that causes the additional combat step. Once that ability triggers (upon exerting it), that ability is completely separate from the Celebrant itself.


No power plants available to buy I just got done a really interesting game of power grid.

In the end all players had all the power plants that they needed except each of us needed one more 6 value power plant to be able to power 17 houses and win the game. At this time we were in step 2 and had already removed the other high plant form the game.

At this point the actual market was: 2 3 4 6
and the future market was: 2 4 4 5

I bought the 6 one and no one out bid me. They thought more 6-7 value plants would come up but none did until the end of the game.

In this situation though, am I doing this right?

One thing I thought the other players could do is buy up the small power plants in order to get newer plants up to the current market faster.

Is this situation possible to get into? Am I playing it wrong?

In the end, the players had these plants:

6 6 5 = 17

2 6 5 = 14

4 4 7 = 15

You did do something wrong: the market should always be in order by cost.

  When players add new power plants to the power plant
   market, players rearrange all power plants in the power plant market in ascending order with the 4 cheapest plants in the actual market.

That's the whole market - all 8 power plants - that you sort. (The lists you provided were possibly sorted within the actual and future market individually, but that doesn't do anything. The point is to make sure that only the cheaper ones become available for purchase.)

While things can get out of order a bit - for example power plant 20 is a 5 and power plant 22 is a 2 - there's no way a 6 is going to come before a 2, and in most cases, it'll be after the 4s too. With the power plants sorted properly, you wouldn't have been able to buy that 6. Your actual market would've more likely just contained 2, 3, 4, 4.

Given that you missed that rule, it's possible you also missed another: during steps 1 and 2, in phase 5, you remove the highest numbered power plant from the market, replacing it with a new one.

  Update the power plant market: Place the highest numbered power plant from the future market face down under the draw stack and draw a new one to replace it.
  Rearrange the market appropriately (see phase 2: this will change in Step 3, see the steps of the game). Because of this, the highest numbered power plants are collected under the »Step 3« card and become available during step 3 in the game.

This makes it much, much less likely that a 6 even becomes available in the early game. On top of that, it gets you to step 3 faster, when suddenly high-numbered power plants start becoming available more rapidly, making it less likely that one player gets one long before others.


Are there Magic: The Gathering lore books for the recent blocks? I'm trying to find information on the lore of the recent blocks, namely Battle for Zendikar, Shadows over Innistrad, and Kaladesh.  It looks like all the previous sets up through Theros had an accompanying 2-3 book series.

Are there book series' for the recent sets?

Wizards of the Coast stopped printing physical novels with the Return to Ravnica block due to them not selling particularly well. Starting with Battle for Zendikar they started a series of books that showcase the art from the current plane and give an overview of the story from that plane, these books are titled The Art of Magic: the Gathering - [Plane Name].

During Return to Ravinica block they still had novels, but they were only released in ebook form. After Theros they moved all of the story for Magic to the Magic Story (previously called Uncharted Realms) column on their website. Periodically they compile several stories into an ebook format and release that (they usually do this every block or so), for example the Magic Origins and Prologue to Battle for Zendikar.


Stealing and Phasing Say I borrowed an opponent's creature (e.g. via Threaten) and then let it phase out (e.g. via Reality Ripple). Under whose control does it phase in, and when? Under whose control does it phase in if Time and Tide is cast the same turn?

When the creature phases in on your next untap step, your opponent will control it. It phases in on your next untap step because rule 702.25a says

  Phasing is a static ability that modifies the rules of the untap step. During each player’s untap step, before the active player untaps his or her permanents, all phased-in permanents with phasing that player controls “phase out.” Simultaneously, all phased-out permanents that had phased out under that player’s control “phase in.”.

Since the permanent phased out under your control, it phases in on your untap step. Your opponent will control it because rule 702.25e says

  Continuous effects that affect a phased-out permanent may expire while that permanent is phased out. If so, they will no longer affect that permanent once it’s phased in. In particular, effects with “for as long as” durations that track that permanent (see rule 611.2b) end when that permanent phases out because they can no longer see it.

The Threaten effect lasts "until end of turn", so at the end of your turn the effect ended. Therefore, when the creature phases in, the effect that made you control it expires and control reverts to the previous controller.

If Time and Tide causes the permanent to phase in during your turn, you will still control it until your turn ends. Rule 702.25d says

  The phasing event doesn’t actually cause a permanent to change zones or control, even though it’s treated as though it’s not on the battlefield and not under its controller’s control while it’s phased out. Zone-change triggers don’t trigger when a permanent phases in or out. Counters remain on a permanent while it’s phased out. Effects that check a phased-in permanent’s history won’t treat the phasing event as having caused the permanent to leave or enter the battlefield or its controller’s control.


Are there any known "available for purchase" life spans for expansions for Android Netrunner? As far as I know, a lot of cards (in TCG world) are stopped being produced (and available in stores) at some point. Is there a known life span for Android Netrunner expansions? For example is there a known life span such as 2 years at which the "Genesis" six-pack will no longer be produced and available in stores so if you don't get it until then you'll have to get it second-hand from somewhere?

Theoretically?  I don't see them ending production on a specific cycle.  The way Fantasy Flight talks and creates cards, they plan on keeping all of those options available for the future.  The LCG philosophy makes it so that no one person is going to wreck another one because of the super power of money.

Realisticly?  I'm sure FFG will find a time in the future (given that Netrunner continues to run for a long time) where they don't see as many sales of the older cycles.  At that point, I can see the company doing one of two things: they will either roll up an entire cycle and sell it as a bulk set at less of a price (say the entire Spin Cycle as one whole purchase) or they will try and discontinue the set and put it into archive.

All of that being said, my suggestion to you is to NOT be behind more then one cycle of cards.  Right now, if you don't have the whole Genesis Cycle, you need to get it.  Also, if you don't have a few packs of the Spin Cycle, you're a little behind.  And if you don't have Creation and Control, I feel that your deck building options aren't as robust as they could be.  I'm not saying you won't be able to make a deck.  But the newer cycles, C&C and H&P all have some 'golden' cards that are defining the meta of the game right now.  You can still play, but competitive play will be seeing people playing along with the meta.

EDIT:

A few months ago, FFG did mention that they will be cycling out current sets of cards as being tournament viable.  Much the same way that Magic has a Type 1 and Type 2, Netrunner will only have the latest 6 cycles active at any one time.  Meaning that when we get to the 8th cycle, Genesis and Spin cycle will be phased out of tournament play.  This does NOT mean that they'll end production on these cards, but it's a pretty good guess.


What do I do if the draw pile is empty? When you need to draw (more) cards, and the draw pile is empty, what do you do?

You reshuffle the discards to form a new draw pile.

This is specifically stated in the rules (page 2, at the end of the section GOING OUT):

  If no one is out of cards by the time the DRAW pile is depleted, reshuffle the DISCARD pile and continue play.


Timing conflict with debt card effect We were playing a game of 7 Wonders with the following expansions: Cities, Leaders, Great Projects (comes as part of the Babel expansion).
At the end of a particular round, we ran in to a conflict in regards to how to resolve effects that occur simultaneously.

One player had played a card that forced each player to discard a certain amount of gold (I believe it was related to the number of military victory tokens).

The other player built a stage of his wonder (Halicarnassus B) which allowed him to build a building out of the discard pile.
The building he chose was of the type required by the Great Project. He just needed to pay additional gold to get a participation token.

The conflict was that if he resolved the other players effect first, he wouldn't be able to participate in the great project. If he resolved his effect first, he would just need to take debt tokens.
I went through the rules and couldn't find anything obvious stating how to resolve these kinds of conflicts. Does anyone know how this situation should be handled?

From the Cities rule book (4):

  Important: monetary losses are always resolved at the end of a turn, after players have played their cards, possibly having paid for trade and/or obtained money...

The player is able to participate in the project, but he/she would have to take debt afterwards.

As for whether that player has to participate in Great Project if he/she was going to, I haven't found ruling on it. Player consensus is this being optional and that player may make decision on it after they discovered debt threat.


1942 Battle Ship Bombardment When my battleship does a bombardment, can the battleship stay on the board for the remainder of the turn and get the 2 hit advantage.

I.e.

My battleship comes in with a transport and some infantry men. The battleship does a bombardment. After my attack, I defend. If the defending player gets a hit, can I allocate that hit to my battleship?

No - land units can never hit a naval unit in any event. Plus, the only purpose of a battleship during an amphibious assault is to conduct a shore bombardment. Once completed, the battleship is removed from the battle-board and is no longer part of the combat.


Tapping a creature on the turn it enters play Let's say, for example, I summon a Gemhide Sliver this turn. Am I allowed to tap the Gemhide sliver for it's ability the moment it enters into the field, or is it affected by summoning sickness?

It will have summoning sickness; you cannot active its ability this turn.

From the comprehensive rules:

  302.6. A creature's activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can't be activated unless the creature has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can't attack unless it has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning sickness" rule. Ignore this rule for creatures with haste

A creature that has the Haste ability can tap immediately, so unless you have a Reflex Sliver on the 'field, you will not be able to tap a Gemhide Sliver for mana on the turn it comes out.


Does an ability that increase the number of creatures affect the instant or sorcery that triggers it? (For example) Talrand, Sky Summoner has the ability:

  Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying onto the battlefield.

If I have cast an instant or sorcery that relies on the number of creature I control, for example Massive Raid, does that number increase by one?

I guess I'm asking what the order of resolution is.

Short answer: the creature created by Talrand, Sky Summoner counts for Massive Raid.

Long answer:

The result would depend on the wording, There isn't a general rule.

Spell are cast and then, after players have had the chance to play spell or abilites in response, resolve.

When a spell is cast, it is put on the stack, its total cost is paid and targets are choosen (a few other things happen, I have just put the more important things that affect this situation).

When a instant or sorcery spell resolves, its instructions are followed in order (again, this is a simplification, but the more precise rules don't matter in this situation).

Talrand, Sky Summoner triggers when a spell is cast, not when a spell resolves. Triggered abilities are put on the stack when a player would get priority. Players get priority before Massive Raid resolves (priority is the system that allow players to play spells and abilities), so the triggered ability is put on the stack and resolves before Massive Raid resolves. Therefore, the drake created will count for Massive Raid.

If you want a detailed explanation of how the stack and priority work, you can read this answer: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/6019/2474


Can I activate ninjutsu between first strike and normal damage steps Say I control a creature with first strike, that does not get blocked when attacks are declared.

Can I have it deal the first strike damage before activating/resolving the keyword ability ninjutsu on a ninja card in hand?

The comprehensive rules say about ninjutsu that, among other things,

  702.48c A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the battlefield is unblocked
  (see rule 509.1h). The creature with ninjutsu is put onto the battlefield unblocked. It will be
  attacking the same player or planeswalker as the creature that was returned to its owner’s hand.

Since it's referencing 509.1h, which happens to be in the section on the declare blockers step, let's see what that rule says:

  509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a
  blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as blockers for it becomes an unblocked
  creature. This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that
  it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature
  remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

So yes, a creature which is attacking and unblocked stays that way until combat is over (which includes a step after all damage is dealt but before your second main phase), unless something happens to it. Note that it is only an unblocked creature once blockers have been declared. You can even ninjutsu out your ninja after regular combat damage has been dealt. Or, as you say you want to do, after your attacking, unblocked creature has dealt its first strike damage, but before regular combat damage is dealt, for an effective "double strike".

There is a funny subtlety here, though. If you, for some reason, have a ninjutsu creature with first strike on your hand, and there are no creatures with first strike in combat, and you want to ninjutsu out your creature so that no damage is dealt to the defending player neither by your attacking unblocked creature nor by your ninjutsu creature, then that cannot be done. That's because if there are no creatures with first strike or double strike in combat as the declare blockers step ends, then there is no first strike damage step. So either you ninjitsu out your creature after blockers are declared, and you get a first strike step, or you wait, which means the game goes straight to the regular damage step, where the unblocked attacking creature deals its damage.

And even if there is a creature with first strike in combat (say one of your other creatures that got blocked), so you do get a first strike step, it wouldn't help, as who deals damage in the second damage step actually doesn't really care whether creatures have first strike. In that step, damage is dealt by creatures that have double strike, as well as creatures that didn't deal damage in the previous step. So if you ninjutsu after first strike damage is dealt, then your ninjutsu creature with first strike deals regular combat damage.

There are more important applications of this subtlety, though, and what I suspect is the reason behind why the regular damage step doesn't care about first strike directly: giving first strike to an opponent's creature with the right timing doesn't prevent it from dealing its combat damage. Similarly, there are a few instances where a creature could lose first strike. But no matter how you try to time it,  that would not give it an opportunity to double strike.

Back to your situation, it would also mean you would get to deal damage with both creatures even if the ninjutsu creature had first strike. I can't find any such creatures in Gatherer, but an effect like "creatures you control have first strike", of which there are several, would actually make this situation happen.


What does Opener's rebid here mean? Dealer opens 1D and Partner responds 1H.  Dealer then rebids 2NT.
What does Dealer's 2NT rebid mean? Opponents have passed throughout.

Playing a system such as Standard American this shows a balanced or semi-balanced hand with 18-19 HCP. It would usually deny holding 4 Hearts unless with a 4333 distribution, though partnerships playing some form of Check-Back Stayman may relax this. One might look for an alternative sequence with a holding worse than Qxx in an unbid (Clubs and Spades here) suit.

The rationale is that it is covering the range too weak for an initial 2NT opening bid, now usually played as 20-21 HCP, and too strong for either a !NT opening (12-14 if weak and 15-17 if strong) or a 1NT rebid (the ranges just mentioned reversed).


Publishing a board game with an existing game company I've read the other questions on publishing games and have noticed that a few of them have been closed for being too broad. Hopefully this question will be a bit more specific.

OK I have a game in development at the moment. I'm realistic enough to realise it probably isn't the best game in the world and getting it published by a traditional company is going to be an uphill battle. So I came up with an idea about how to get round this problem.

Lets say I approach a game company and offer to pay them all the expenses they incur when distributing, marketing, manufacturing and selling my game. That way they wouldn't take a financial hit if the game is an absolute failure and I would be the one who would foot the bill for the failure. In order to encourage them to agree to the deal I would offer them a percentage share in my company which owns the rights to the game. Therefore if it fails they don't lose anything and if it succeeds they would get a percentage of the profits via dividends paid through their shareholding in my company.

My question is this. How would one go about talking to game companies and making this offer? As far as I can tell it would be a win win situation. If it fails they haven't lost anything and if it succeeds they get a share of the profits. I am aware that game companies are (and companies in general for that matter) protective of their reputation and brand name so they wouldn't even need to have their company name on the product if they are worried that it will have a negative impact on their brand.

I just don't know who the people to talk are in these game companies? I live in the UK so could try and go to some game conferences or similar and see what people say. Are there any direct lines of communication between games companies and small game designers?

That deal doesn't seem very likely. You plan to cover any expenses they may incur during production, marketing, and distribution, but I do not believe you have considered their opportunity cost for taking on the project. Whatever time and resources they are devoting to your game (even if you are footing the bill) could be spent elsewhere on a product with a greater expected return on investment.

It sounds like you are looking for the board game equivalent of vanity publishing (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_press), which is usually not a good idea for anyone except the publisher. If you do find a company willing to let you cover all costs, it may not be as good of a deal as you think.


Does Goblin Arsonist's ability deal 2 damage when there are two in play? Does having two Goblin Arsonist on the battlefield cause their ability to deal 2 damage when one dies?

No, it deals 1 damage

Whenever you see a card's own card name within the the rules text of a card, it isn't referring to all cards with that name. It is referring to itself. I believe at one point, the Oracle text replaced this self reference with ~this~ (or perhaps, the database allowed searching using "this"). You can think of the triggered ability in that way:

  When [~this~] dies, you may have it deal 1 damage to target creature or player.

From the Comprehensive Rules:

  201.4. Text that refers to the object it's on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

If you were looking for abilities that would trigger multiple times, you need cards that trigger "Whenever a Goblin ...". These cards only care about the creature subtype in question. For example:

  Boggart Mob - Whenever a Goblin you control deals combat damage to a player, you may put a 1/1 black Goblin Rogue creature token onto the battlefield.

  Boggart Shenanigans- Whenever another Goblin you control dies, you may have Boggart Shenanigans deal 1 damage to target player.

Two Shenanigans won't trigger off of themselves, because of the another, but both will trigger when another Goblin permanent is sent to the graveyard from the battlefield. (Note: Boggart Shenanigans will do 1 damage twice, which is not the same thing as to deal 2 damage once.)


How exactly does "fight" work? Of all keywords, fight is the most confusing to me.

Whan creature X fights creature Y, do you only count plain power/toughness? How do you count enchantments, counters, static abilities of other creatures? Can you activate abilities? Can you cast instants?

The Fight keyword action is defined in rule 701.10:

  701.10a A spell or ability may instruct a creature to fight another creature or it may instruct two creatures to fight each other. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature.
  701.10b If a creature instructed to fight is no longer on the battlefield or is no longer a creature, no damage is dealt. If a creature is an illegal target for a resolving spell or ability that instructs it to fight, no damage is dealt.
  701.10c If a creature fights itself, it deals damage equal to its power to itself twice.
  701.10d The damage dealt when a creature fights isn’t combat damage.

The bolded sentence is the part that describes what it actually does.

Power and toughness are calculated like usual, and, like with every other effect in the game, you can't cast spells or activate abilities while it is resolving. There has never been a card that cares about or uses a creature's base power or toughness.

A Fight effect is a one-shot effect, which means that you will only see it on an activated or triggered ability. Both of those go on the stack, which means that you can respond to them with instants and abilities like anything else.


Do Triggered effects stack? Lets say I have a Suture Priest creature that says "Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain 1 life."
and I currently have all 4 of them in the battlefield. Then I cast another creature and : Do I get 1 or 4 life? Does that effect trigger for every priest or just once? thanks for help

You get four lifes in total: one when each of the four triggered abilities resolves.

Since you have four copies of Suture Priest on the battlefield, you have four copies of the triggered ability. Each time the event a triggered ability is indicating happens, it triggers. Since you have four copies, it trigger four times.

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers.

Since there is no rule that stops several copies of the same triggered ability to trigger at the same time, they all work.


How do Butcher of Malakir and Extractor Demon interact with Barter in Blood? Suppose my opponent has a Butcher of Malakir and an Extractor Demon on the field, and they have no other creatures, and I have a Nuisance Engine and let's say, oh, eight 0/1 colorless Pest artifact creature tokens on the field, and then I cast Barter in Blood, which says that "each player sacrifices two creatures".

Nuisance engine is tapped and has no passive abilities, so it's irrelevant here, except that it created the Pests.  Butcher of Malakir says that "Whenever Butcher of Malakir or another creature you control dies, each opponent sacrifices a creature," and Extractor Demon says "Whenever another creature leaves the battlefield, you may have target player put the top two cards of their library into their graveyard."  Extractor Demon also has an Unearth ability, but I think that's also irrelevant here.

Now, I've read the card texts, I've read the rulings, but there's a lot going on here, so I just wanted to make sure I got this right.  When I cast Barter in Blood, it is not countered and is allowed to resolve, I choose two of my Pests to sacrifice, and my opponent chooses to sacrifice Butcher of Malakir and Extractor Demon.  So then all the creatures are sacrificed, and Butcher of Malakir's ability goes on the stack twice, because Butcher and Extractor Demon died, and Extractor Demon's ability goes on the stack three times (with my opponent targeting my library), because Butcher and two of my Pests left the battlefield, and these all go on the stack simultaneously, so my opponent chooses to put both of the Butcher abilities on the stack first, then all of the Extractor Demon abilities.  The Extractor Demon abilities all resolve, one after another, and result in a total of six cards being milled from my library, and then Butcher's abilities resolve, and I have to sacrifice a Pest, twice.  And since Butcher of Malakir is no longer on the field, there are no more active effects, or passive abilities, or whatever they're called, and that's the end of that.

tl;dr: So if I got this right, my opponent sacrifices both of his creatures, I wind up sacrificing a total of four Pests over the course of this mess, and losing six cards off the top of my library, and have four Pests remaining, as well as my tapped Nuisance Engine.  Did I get this right?  This was a lot to process.

You are basically correct.
You are correct that you will have to sacrifice 4 total creatures and lose 6 cards from your library. However, you say "these all go on the stack simultaneously" which might be wrong depending on what you meant. 2 things cannot ever go on the stack "simultaneously", but there are 5 total triggered abilities that all need to be placed on the stack, and your opponent, who controls all 5, gets to chose the order.
In this case, it makes no difference what order your opponent chooses; they could put both Butcher of Malakir's abilities first, then the 3 Extractor Demon's abilities. Or 1 Extractor, then 2 Butchers, then the other 2 Extractors, etc.
This all works this way because when triggered abilities trigger, they don't immediately do anything, but they wait until the next time state based actions are checked, right before a player gets priority.

603.2. 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.
603.3. 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.

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose.

So you will sacrifice 2 creatures at the same time when Barter in Blood resolves, then a third when Malakir's first trigger resolves, then a fourth when Malakir's second trigger resolves.


Does Juragedo always cause a replay? If I SS Juragedo during the battle step, does it always cause a replay?

  During either player's Battle Step: You can Special Summon this card
  from your hand, and if you do, gain 1000 LP. You can only use this
  effect of "Juragedo" once per turn. During either player's turn: You
  can Tribute this card, then target 1 face-up monster you control; it
  gains 1000 ATK until the end of the next turn.

No Juragedo does not always cause a replay. A replay only occurs if the number of monsters on the field changes while an attack is being declared, but before the damage step. Therefore Juragedo can cause a replay, but does not always cause one. If Juragedo is summoned as soon as the Battle Phase starts, then a replay will not occur, but if it is summoned immediately after an attack, then a replay will occur.


How to shorten Puerto Rico to fit one hour? I do love Puerto Rico, it's mostly strategy oriented over random factors.

But this board game is so long to play, I would like to shorten the play time to fit one hour.

Do you have suggestions for this?

We have played 2-3 times a month for a long time.

Of course games are shorter with fewer people and go faster when everyone is well acquainted with the game.  We have played normal extended version games in about an hour with 3 people.

We recently added a column of property spaces on each town to extend play - you could remove a column to shorten play.

You can deal out some random plantations at the start to accelerate play (like a bunch of Hacienda plays.)  You may give everyone a quarry to accelerate play.  You may add squares to the trading center or to the ships to accelerate play. You may add 2 coins jnstead of one to unused roles. Note that any of these steps will alter the playing strategies from a normal game.

Cheers.


Counting in Blackjack using Uston APC Note: Please see my edit to see how I am doing it now.

I am making a simple blackjack game that only uses 1 deck and I read that Uston APC is the best one for just 1 deck. There is no doubling or splitting, it's a very simple game for a class.

I read here: http://www.countingedge.com/uston-apc.html and a few other sources and it seems the way I implement it is keeping a running count based on this chart:

2   1
3   2
4   2
5   3
6   2
7   2
8   1
9   -1
10  -3
J   -3
Q   -3
K   -3
A   0

I will call this running count "running_count". I also keep track of how many ace's ive seen, which I will call "ace_count".

When it comes time to make a bet, my decision for how much to bet is based on running_count - (3 * ace_count), that is for every ace i've seen subtract 3 from running count. This new count I will call "temp_count". If "temp_count" is 2 or higher, then bet the minimum bet multiplied by the temp_count. So if temp_count was 5 you would bet 5x minimum bet. If temp_count is anything lower than 2 then just do minimum.

After betting has taken place, I disregard "temp_count" and go back to my "running_count" and "ace_count".

Is this how Uston APC works? is there a table on how I should play based on dealer card and my total compared to the running count? Right now I am using:

Hard:

•  totals 11 or less, he always hits.
•  totals 12, he stands if the dealer shows 4, 5, or 6; otherwise he hits.
•  totals between 13 and 16 inclusive, he stands if the dealer shows a 2 through a 6 inclusive; otherwise he hits.
•  totals 17 or greater, he always stands.

Soft:

•  totals 17 or less, he always hits.
•  totals 18, he stands if the dealer shows a 2, 7, or 8, otherwise he hits.
•  totals 19 or greater, he always stands.

But I wasn't sure how these might change based on the running count of Uston APC.

Edit:

A bit more about the strategy, dealer stands on 17 (soft or hard)

To make my programming a bit more simple, because there is just 1 deck it kind of seemed silly to count aces separate from the normal counter so instead I just had it do count = count - 3 when it saw an ace. Effectively using -3 instead of 0 in the table described above.

I found his matrix for APC but it seems to talk about a "running count" and a true count. My understanding was a running count is as it seems, the count based on cards seen, and the true count is the running count divided by the number of decks used thus far. Some people even use half decks for it, so because I have just 1 deck, I decided to make my true count always running count / 2. Based on this I am now using this strategy as an exception to the one given above:

if hand value is 16 dealer upcard is TEN and running count is  >= 0
    stand

if hand value is 16 dealer upcard is NINE and true count is  >= 6
    stand

if hand value is 15 dealer upcard is TEN and true count is  >= 4
    stand

if hand value is 13 dealer upcard is TWO and running count is  < 0
    hit

if hand value is 13 dealer upcard is THREE and true count is  < -1
    hit

if hand value is 12 dealer upcard is TWO and true count is  >= 4
    stand

if hand value is 12 dealer upcard is THREE and true count is  >= 2
    stand

if hand value is 12 dealer upcard is FOUR and running count is  < 0
    hit

if hand value is 12 dealer upcard is FIVE and true count is  < -1
    hit

if hand value is 12 dealer upcard is SIX and running count is  < 0
    hit

This seems to do lose money at around 5000 hands but at 50,000 hands it can turn 10,000 into 15,000

The above rules are good, but there are a couple of things you can do to improve your odds.

With a total of hard 16, against a dealer's T, it is very close whether you should stand or hit. You should hit if the count is at all negative, because you will make a winning hand often enough to compensate for the times that both you and dealer would have busted.

With a hard 13 against a dealer upcard of 2, you should hit if the running count is -1 or lower. Dealer is a favorite to improve, and with a low running count, you need to "keep up."


Dominion - Defeating the Alchemist I have a friend who loves this card.  I know that every time it's on the table, he will load up on them, and chain long turns that take ages.  It's even more powerful when Scout and/or Apothecary are available, too.

Obviously, I should be able to defeat this strategy by 1) beating him to it (which winds up being more of a luck thing), or 2) augmenting it with a particular card he may not have noticed on the table.  But to me, that makes all Alchemist games very monotonous.

I realize that sometimes an Alchemist deck is just the best strategy, but I also know that this shouldn't always be the case.  What are the weaknesses of this strategy?  Are there sorts of cards I should look for to play an alternate strategy that can still win out over an Alchemist-heavy deck?

In the short term, cards that make him discard cards are the best way to go.  Minion is the best because it makes him discard all of them:

Other cards that help in the short term:

(sadly, Ghost Ship does not)

In the long run, there are several strategies:

If Embargo is in play, Embargo Alchemist early on.

Destroy his cards using Saboteur or Swindler.

Destroy or steal his money using Thief or Pirate Ship.  Note: These two cards will also flip his top two cards even if they aren't money.

Give him Curses, or use Ambassador to give him unhelpful cards.

One last note: Each time he buys an Alchemist, he's buying another action card.  If he's buying action cards, he's not buying money cards.  As bad as it sounds, Alchemist-heavy can often be defeated by Big Money decks, even if they have 5 Alchemists in their hand (and thus essentially start with 10 cards).

Also, make sure he isn't putting the Alchemists on top during turns he doesn't have a Potion in play.

Edit:
It's been a while, but one thing I noticed I forgot to mention when I answered this in 2010: Alchemist is only +1 Action, which means unless they have a +2 Action card somewhere, they only have one action at the end of the chain.


Is voluntarily revealing a card from your hand considered proposing? Inspired by some comments on this question where someone might play two sorceries at the same time, a different question arose. Namely, if someone is to reveal cards from their hand (without an obvious reason like "reveal a card at random from your hand") does this count as casting? Or more accurately, does it count as proposing as laid out in rule 601.2a which is the first step in casting?

I'm unable to find any clarity on the matter, though that may be more to do with a restrictive internet filter I'm behind at the moment than the lack of availability of an answer out there on the Internet.

You can reveal your hand and cards at will. It doesn't count as casting.

3.12 Hidden Information
Hidden information refers to the faces of cards and other objects at which the rules of the game and format do not allow you to look.
Throughout the match, a draft, and pregame procedures, players are responsible for keeping their cards above the level of the playing surface and for making reasonable efforts to prevent hidden information from being revealed. However, players may choose to reveal their hands or any other hidden information available only to them, unless specifically prohibited by the rules.


Will a Theros God with low devotion enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild? Essence of the Wild has a rather unique ability:

  Creatures you control enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild.

The gods of Theros say:

  As long as your devotion to (color/colors) is less than (five/seven), (this God) isn’t a creature.

Let's say my devotion is too low for the God to count as a creature once it's on the battlefield: I'm casting Thassa, God of the Sea with 0 blue devotion, or I'm casting Nylea, God of the Hunt whilst Essence of the Wild is my only nonland permanent (only 3 devotion, 4 once Nylea enters). Typically that God wouldn't enter the battlefield as a creature.

However, I'm unsure how Essence of the Wild will see that God as it transitions from the stack to the battlefield, and I'm unsure how this interacts with the recent rules changes to how we evaluate entering the battlefield.

Will the God enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild?

Does the answer change if the God would add enough devotion to activate itself? E.g. consider if I have two Essence of the Wilds out, and I cast Pharika, God of Affliction who would bump my devotion to green and black up to 8 and see herself activated.

No, the God will not enter as a copy of Essence of the Wild for the first case, but it will for the second.

According to the Gatherer rulings:

  9/15/2013: If a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color (including the mana symbols in the mana cost of the God itself) will determine if a creature entered the battlefield or not, for abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield.

As @murgatroid99 aptly noted, this ruling refers specifically to triggered abilities. However, it's supported by CR614.12 (specifically, the emphasized snippet):

  614.12. Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. (See rules 614.1c–d.) Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To
  determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.

Since Thassa has only one devotion at the time it enters the battlefield (which is its own 1 blue mana symbol), it's not a creature, and therefore it won't be affected by Essence of the Wild's continuous effect. The same is true for Nylea.

Likewise, as Pharika enters the battlefield with 2 Essences of the Wild, it will already be a creature, and it will be affected as any other creature would by Essence of the Wild.


What state and trigger events apply when you "put creatures onto the battlefield?" For instance, the -8 ability for Liliana Vess says,

  Put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under
  your control.

This sounds distinct from casting/summoning, and there's no casting cost paid, which might imply (to me) that there's no summoning sickness. But, these creatures are also technically entering the battlefield, which implies that those abilities would trigger. Is that correct?

Do the creatures enter without summoning sickness?
Do "when this card enters the battlefield" abilities activate?
Are there other potential "casting" or "playing" abilities that could trigger?

It is distinct from casting or summoning. It is placing the creature onto the battlefield without casting. Normally creatures enter the battlefield by casting, but it's not the only way.

So:

It doesn't trigger any "when you cast" abilities
The creatures enter the battlefield, so they trigger "When this creature enters the battlefield" abilities
The creature wasn't under your control since the beginning of the turn, so they have summoning sickness.


Is there a movement penalty when starting in the same room as an opponent? In Betrayal at House on the Hill there is a rule for Moving Past Opponents on page 17:

  For each opponent in a room with it after the haunt starts, an
  explorer or monster must use 1 extra space of movement to leave that
  room. (Heroes slow down the traitor and monsters, and vice versa.)

  No matter how many penalties you have on a turn, you can always move
  at least 1 space. This is also true if a monster rolls a 0 for
  movement (see "How Monsters Work," page 18).

  Stunned monsters don't slow an explorer's movement in this way.

I interpret "moving past an opponent" as walking into a room with an opponent, then walking out. Is there a movement penalty if you are ALREADY in the room with your opponent at the beginning of a turn?

For example, say I am in a room with 3 zombies at the start of the turn. Does it take me 4 movement points to leave the room (1 for each zombie and 1 as a normal movement point) OR does it take me 1 movement point?

I interpret "moving past an opponent" as walking into a room with an opponent

It doesn't say "to move past an opponent", it says "to leave that room."

  Is there a movement penalty if you are ALREADY in the room with your opponent at the beginning of a turn?

Yes, there's a movement penalty for leaving a room with an opponent. This penalty is not conditional on you having started in another room.

  For example, say I am in a room with 3 zombies at the start of the turn. Does it take me 4 movement points to leave the room (1 for each zombie and 1 as a normal movement point) OR does it take me 1 movement point?

It will take 4 points if you have at least that many. If you have less, it will take however many you have (including none) since you can always move at least once.


Looking for an Online Card Shuffler and Drawer For some play-by-forum games I'm looking into creating specific card based games that allow people to moderate on their own.

Specifically I'm looking into 7 Wonders. The only thing a mod needs to do is distribute hands at the beginning of each Age (including Leaders). Once everyone has received his initial hand he can just pick a card and send the rest along to his neighbor. For this we've used a token (just post DONE after you've picked your card) after which you'll receive your next hand from your neighbor. Obviously this requires some trust that you've actually picked a card and not just posted that you've done this, but on our forum it hasn't been an issue.

This leaves me with shuffling and drawing cards. Is there any way (an online app maybe) to allow people to draw cards from the same deck without seeing the cards that have been drawn by the other players? The order that they draw cards in doesn't matter much as long as each player just gets a hand of 7 random cards and gets it only once.

Any thoughts?

The game Tabletop Simulator has many games on the workshop, including 7 Wonders.

Tabletop Simulator (TTS) is exactly what the name implies: it simulates a tabletop. You can play chess, checkers, poker, or any game really since the game has extensive support to import own games. Even more, there is a whole scripting environment to automate actions/mechanics in games.

One of the great features TTS has is that you can shuffle cards and deal to all players. You can simulate this for your forum group, but if you guys want to take it real time you can all acquire TTS and play together. Online.

This is why TTS is so popular. It allows players that normally don't have that much time to come together play awesome games. It is also used a lot for playtesting custom games, so if you're into that, you might want to check it out as well.


How do continuous effects interact with the stack, your hand, and other zones? For example, Chief of the Foundry has an ability that says:

  Other artifact creatures you control get +1/+1.

If I were to cast a 1/1 Artifact Creature it would enter the battlefield as a 2/2 due to the Chief of the Foundry's continuous effect.

Am I correct that continuous effects do not normally apply to cards in your hand?

Ex: I believe that in my hand that same Artifact Creature would be considered to be a 1/1.
What would its power and toughness be on the stack?

Ex: In response my opponent casts an instant that says:

  Counter target creature spell with power 1 or less.

Would the Artifact Creature be a legal target for that counter spell?
Would the Artifact Creature card be affected in other zones? (Graveyard, Library, Exile, etc.)

The creature card would have 1 power and 1 toughness in all zones other than the battlefield

  609.2. Effects apply only to permanents unless the instruction’s text states otherwise or they clearly can apply only to objects in one or more other zones.

The only things that can change a creature card's power/toughness off of the battlefield are Characteristic-Defining Abilities, like what Tarmogoyf has.

  208.2a The card may have a characteristic-defining ability that sets its power and/or toughness according to some stated condition. ... This ability functions everywhere, even outside the game. ...


In Risk Legacy, when are the "come-back" powers active? (Spoilers) I have opened the packet with "come-back" powers and assigned a new (blue) ability to one of the factions.

Is this ability now active for this faction all of the time, or only when the player has been knocked-out and re-joins the war?

Please restrict discussion to this packet, since players may not have openned the other packets.

All powers listed on the faction cards are active and available at all times, so once a come-back power or other sticker has been added to a faction card they are affected by it from then on.


Are power and toughness "used up"? Let's say I get two creatures to fight. One is a 4/4 the other is a 1/1. The 4/4 destroys the 1/1, but does the 4/4 become effectively a 3/3, so that later in the combat step it will only be able to assign 3 damage? Or does it get its power back after the fight so it is effectively a 4/3 (a 4/4 with 1 dmg counter on it)?

Or say a 4/4 attacks and a 3/3 blocks. Combat resolves, the 3/3 is dead and the 4/4 is now a 1/1, so if a 2/2 then fights the 1/1 (4/4) it dies? Or does the 4/4 just become a 4/1 after combat resolves?

I'm just trying to understand whether power can be used up like toughness in a turn, or if it just assigns it for the fight or combat step then resets back to full power. I understand fight is totally different to combat.

Toughness never gets used up. Damage doesn't change toughness (or power), and it doesn't use counters, it's simply marked on creatures. If a creature ends up marked with damage greater than or equal to its toughness, it dies. But the whole time, the creature still has its original toughness. You probably shouldn't even think of it as having its toughness effectively reduced; that might confuse you in other situations.*

Similarly, power never gets used up. When a creature deals damage, whether fighting or in combat or any other way, its power doesn't change.
If you look at the reminder text for fighting, or the full rules for it or combat damage, you'll see something like "...deals damage equal to its power." That's all that happens: the power dictates how much damage it deals. There's nothing about the power changing.

In your first example, if you get a 4/4 and a 1/1 to fight, you end up with a 4/4 with one damage marked on it, and a dead 1/1. If subsequently that 4/4 gets into combat or fights again, it'll still deal four damage. It'll only take three additional damage to kill it, since it already has one marked on it. So for example, if it were blocked by a 3/4, they'd kill each other: it'd deal 4 damage to the 3/4, and the 3/4 would deal 3 damage to it, bringing it up to 4 damage, enough to kill it.

Basically the same thing happens in your second example. If a 3/3 creature blocks a 4/4 creature, the 3/3 will take 4 damage and die, and the 4/4 will take 3 damage and live. It'll still be a 4/4, but it'll only take one additional damage to kill it. If it then fights with a 1/4, they'll kill each other: it'll deal 4 damage to the 1/4, and the 1/4 will deal 1 damage to it, which brings it up to 4 damage, enough to kill it.

* For example, if you have a 4/4 that has 3 damage marked on it, your opponent can still use Valorous Stance ("Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater.") to kill it, since its toughness is still 4.


Are the Munchkin original and Munchkin Guest Artist Editions identical? Do the "Guest Artist Edition" Munchkin packs have the exact same cards as their original counterparts, just with different art? Or do they have their own unique cards?

For example, would Munchkin Guest Artist Edition have the same cards included in Munchkin/Munchkin Deluxe (except obviously in a different art style)? And would Munchkin Legends contain the same cards that come with Munchkin Legends Guest Art Edition (again, merely in a differing art style)?

Munchkin Guest Artist Edition is identical to Munchkin Deluxe, just with the cards and board illustrated by different artists.

From the Munchkin: GAE web page:

  This Guest Artist Edition includes completely re-illustrated game cards, a new gameboard decorated with Ian McGinty's interpretation of the Munchkin world, and male and female standies for each player.

Other Munchkin properties that have Guest Artist Editions follow suit in a similar fashion.

UPDATE: I double checked with SJ Games just to flesh this answer out a bit. Their response to my twitter message was this:

  They contain the same cards as their respective versions, just all new art, yes. -HS


Axis and Allies 1941: Who, when and to where can you retreat? Official rules only, not house rules.

How and when are you allowed to retreat, both in an amphibious landing and a land battle?

The rules say that you can't retreat in an amphibious battle.  What happens if the battle ends with both sides taking one casualty? Does the attacking force fall back to the transport from once it came and the defender stays put?

In a land battle, can the defender choose to have all (land and air) units retreat to an adjacent friendly/unoccupied territory? Or is the option to retreat restricted only to the attacker?

TLDR

Retreats are possible for the attacker.
Retreats are not possible for the defender, ever.
Land and Sea units retreat as expected. They all withdraw to a friendly adjacent space. They only possible unexpected point is that even if they came from different spaces, they all retreat to the same space that at one of the "units" attacked from initially.
Air units retreat after the noncombat movement phase as if they had a successful attack. I assume this gives your opponent a chance to destroy it prior to a successful retreat.
The only attacking units that can not retreat are the units that landed during an amphibious assault.

So I downloaded a copy of the rules from the axis and allies website. First thing I came across regarding your question is this on page 14

  ...If no seaborne land units survived the sea combat, or if the attacking sea units retreated from the sea combat,...

So yes, retreats are possible. Then I came across the actual retreat section:

  Retreats: Keep the attacking overland and seaborne land units separated on the battle strip. Attacking seaborne units cannot
  retreat. Attacking overland units and aircraft can retreat as normal at the end of any round of combat (see “Step 6: Press Attack
  or Retreat” on page 17). All attacking overland units must retreat together as a group, at the same time and to the same place.
  They can retreat only to where at least one of those units moved from. Attacking air units, whether involved in the sea combat or the attack on the territory, can retreat as normal. Air units and
  overland units (if any) must retreat at the same time. However, the air units do not land until the Noncombat Move phase.

I do not know for sure but I assume that the reason the seaborne attack could not retreat is because in real life the transport would get off the beach for the next transport to unload and/or to not get destroyed by enemy fire for no reason.
The section on page 17 regarding retreating says as follows:

  Condition B—Attacker Retreats
  The attacker (never the defender) can retreat during this step.
  Land and Sea Units: Move all attacking land and sea units in that combat that are along the battle strip to a single adjacent
  friendly space from which at least one of the attacking land or sea units moved. In the case of sea units, that space must have
  been friendly at the start of the turn. All such units must retreat together to the same space, regardless of where they came
  from.
  Air Units: Retreating air units remain in the contested space temporarily. They complete their retreat movement during the
  Noncombat Move phase using the same rules as air units involved in a successful battle.


May dice used to complete a task be secured? The rules state:

  the player places the card faceup in front of him after rolling dice
  during his turn. Then he chooses one die from that roll. Without
  changing its result, he places the die on the Spell card’s securing
  icon.

The rules do not say, "and before completing any tasks" or, "and before resolving the Adventure", so is it possible to secure a die after using it to complete a task?

The timing for Spells that secure dice has been updated to make it clear that you can choose to use the Spells that allow you to hold dice, after you roll. The FAQ agrees with this as well, but in any case all versions of the rules make it clear that held dice only remain on the spell card until they are used to complete a task.

  Spells that hold dice are cast after a player’s roll, not before. The player looks at the roll, then, if he wishes to save a particular die, casts the spell and places the die on the spell. The ‘held’ die remains on the spell card until used to complete a task or until removed (as described below).

The revised rules say:

  To cast such a spell, the player places the card faceup in front of him after rolling dice during his turn. Then he chooses one die from that roll. Without changing its result, he places the die on the Spell card’s securing icon.
  When a die is secured on a Spell card, it remains there until any player chooses to use it to complete a task, removes it from the spell to roll it (see “Removing Secured Dice” on page 14), or until another effect locks that die (see “Locked Dice” on page 12).

  For spells that secure multiple dice, the player may remove dice from it one at a time or all at once.

The original rules say:

  Spell: Most Spells allow a player to place the spell card next to the play area immediately before any roll of the dice. Then, after the player rolls, he chooses one of the dice and, without changing the die’s result, places it on the Spell card on the following icon:

  While a die is on the Spell card, it is not re-rolled when the active player tries to complete a task, but the die’s result may be used to meet a task’s requirement. Only one die may be placed on a Spell card (unless otherwise indicated on the card) and a die on this card remains on it until it is used
  to complete a task.


If I untap all my attackers, do they stay attacking? I have declared attackers and tapped them as stated in the rules. After the defending player has declared blockers, I cast Tenacity ("Creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain lifelink until end of turn. Untap those creatures.") Can I now Untap them while they remain being attackers? Or do they stop being attackers? While the mechanics of this spell are clear when cast as a defending player before declaring blockers, the attacking side confuses me. I have been unable to find an answer over the internet.

This is answered in the magic comprehensive rules, rule 506.4, in particular 506.4b:

  506.4 A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, if it phases out, if an effect specifically removes it from combat, if it's a planeswalker that's being attacked and stops being a planeswalker, or if it's an attacking or blocking creature that regenerates (see rule 701.12) or stops being a creature. A creature that's removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. A planeswalker that's removed from combat stops being attacked.

  ...

  506.4b Tapping or untapping a creature that's already been declared as an attacker or blocker doesn't remove it from combat and doesn't prevent its combat damage.

So the attacking creature is not removed from combat when it is untapped.


What spells can be countered? From the Gatherer:

Does this mean it can counter anything? If so, what other counter spells are there?

It can counter almost anything. Notable exceptions are lands (they are played, not cast) and abilities (you'll need something else, like Stifle, to counter those).

112.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, “Casting Spells”), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner’s hand. (See rule 405, “Stack.”) A spell remains on the stack as a spell until it resolves (see rule 608, “Resolving Spells and Abilities”), is countered (see rule 701.5), or otherwise leaves the stack. For more information, see section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”
305.1. A player who has priority may play a land card from their hand during a main phase of their turn when the stack is empty. Playing a land is a special action; it doesn’t use the stack (see rule 116). Rather, the player simply puts the land onto the battlefield. Since the land doesn’t go on the stack, it is never a spell, and players can’t respond to it with instants or activated abilities.

Some spells can't be countered because they say so on their card (like Akroma, Angel of Fury). Sometimes, the rules make it very difficult to do so (like Krosan Grip – its Split Second ability ensures you can't cast Counterspell or similar spells, but triggered abilities like the ones found on Counterbalance or Kira, Great Glass-Spinner can, under certain circumstances, still counter them).
There are many other counterspells out there; you can find most of them via a Gatherer search.


What kind of paper should one use to print custom cards? I am interested in printing custom cards for Ticket to Ride. I have some experience with printing (I used to run a magazine), so I would to print the cards with a regular printer or with a Kinko's. This is a bit more DIY than going with a custom printer who specializes in playing cards and games. What kind of paper stock should I use to print custom cards?

at least 110# card, probably not above 200# card. 110# is thicker than my playing cards, as an FYI. I've used it for quite shuffleable cards for playtest games.

Once you get past 200# stock, you're into stuff too stiff for comfortable shuffling.

A high rag content is good, as well, as it's more resilient than pure wood-pulp stocks. High clay content is bad, for the same reason, and because it results in longer drying times, higher chance of backs being marked, and in my experience, higher chance of laser printing wearing off.

Note that if you're doing print and play for long term use, it's better to use some form of ink printing rather than laser/photocopier, due to face wear. (Remembering that inks soak in, while laser toner is actually a surface deposit, and thus wears off.)

Remember: for small runs, odds are that the copy shop will simply photocopy (usually using a laser copier) the material. If you can afford offset for the run, it's probably the most durable.

For playable home use, 110# white cotton bond no-clay card is fine, especially if using an inkjet.


Spawning Zombies inside buildings I have a couple of questions about the spawning of zombies inside opened buildings in Zombicide.

1) When an actor opens a door, should we draw a zombie card for every room of the building, or just one per building?

2) If the players begin the game inside a building, are there zombies in it?

1) One per room.

2) No.

Quoting rules summary:

  Opening the first door in a building (except the start area) generates Zombies in each zone. For each zone, draw a Zombie card and place them accordingly.


When would I use Leyline Phantom? I'm a relatively new MtG player, and among my first batch of cards was Leyline Phantom:

At first I wondered what I'd do with a card that might return to my hand regularly. Is it a relatively cheap source of power and toughness at a trade-off? I figured this would be mainly used for triggering various effects, but I had no idea what they were until yesterday. It would work very well in at least these two situations:

It cooperates well with Sage's Row Denizen from the Dimir Delusion starter, which mills the opponent a little bit each time a blue creature is played and can help strengthen other Dimir Delusion cards.
It could be used to regularly trigger evolution in Simic Combine creatures.

Now I'm wondering what other uses for it I'm missing, and whether there's even more to the above two points than what I've mentioned.

How can I take advantage of Leyline Phantom?

You've pretty much summed it up yourself. While you probably would not put Leyline Phantom in a constructed deck, it saw a fair amount of play in limited, since it both has a pretty big body for the cost and has various synergies with a few other cards in the same limited environment.

I would not spend to much time trying to figure out other ways to use the card; since the card is just not very powerful. I'm sure there are plenty of other cards that combo with Leyline Phantom, but for most of those there are lots of other cards that combo even better (e.g. the "gating" creatures from Invasion block).


Can I sacrifice 5 creatures? I have Westvale Abbey, it reads:

  {5}, {T}, Sacrifice five creatures: Transform Westvale Abbey, then untap it.

Can I just sacrifice 5 creatures? Or do I need another creature or sacrifice spell to carry out the sacrifice?

Sacrificing creatures here is part of the cost, so you can simply sacrifice five creatures (all at once) to pay for the ability.

Costs are always things that, if you're able to spend the resource in question or perform the action in question, you can do so to pay for the ability. If something has mana or energy as a cost, you can pay mana or energy for it. If a permanent has an ability with tapping as a cost, you can tap that permanent to pay it. If it requires you to discard cards, or exile cards from your graveyard, or sacrifice creatures as a cost, you can do so to pay it.

So no, you don't need anything separate, and in fact, you can't sacrifice the creatures for anything separate. They're the cost for this ability, and that cost has to be paid here, just like a mana cost would be - see Can I pay two different costs with the same payment?


Can you change your mind about how a multi-target burn spell assigns damage after casting it? So, my brother and i are playing mtg for fun. I have down a
Nezahal, Primal Tide, a 7/7. He plays a Fight with Fire and kicks it, distributing 7 damage to Nezahal and 3 to other creatures. In response, I play a Moment of Triumph, giving my Nezahal +2/+2. He then declares that he is “redistributing damage”, doing 9 damage to Nezahal and 1 elsewhere. Can he do this?

Nope.

The Gatherer rulings for Fight with Fire have this to say (emphasis mine):

  You choose how many targets Fight with Fire has and how the damage is divided as you put the spell onto the stack. Each target must receive at least 1 damage if Fight with Fire is kicked.

Fight with Fire is already on the stack when you respond with Moment of Triumph, so it is too late to make any changes to the way damage is divided.