Thorncaster Sliver and Venom Sliver vs. Priority or Lack Thereof I have been gone from MtG for some time now and recently played a couple games with some of my old friends. Midgame the same thing happened that always happens when I play with that group. A fight.

Long story short, it happened like this:
My opponent had a Thorncaster Sliver, Venom Sliver as well as several other slivers out; while I currently had a Master Transmuter, several artifact creatures out and a Ethersworn Shieldmage in my hand.

My opponent declared their attack step and then proceeded to deal damage to my Master Transmuter. In response I played my Ethersworn Shieldmage, he then dealt damage to that with another creature and then damaged my Master Transmuter again with another one of his attacking slivers. I tried explaining to him that although I messed up and played my response a little too early, he could not damage something and kill it before I responded to the damage.

Eventually after fighting for a couple minutes, I just gave in and had him kill all my creatures, and gave him the game.

He has been hounding me now for weeks about the actions and still telling me I am wrong. Looking for some answers to prove my point to him, I decided to research a previous inquiry here:
Do Thorncaster Sliver's triggered abilities go on the stack?
However it did not provide all of the information I needed.

Now here is the real question (again been away from MtG for a while, so I might be wrong), am I right or wrong in the following train of thought. Using the previous thread as an example, however inserting our previously stated creatures into the equation.

As in the example let's say he attacks with 5 slivers, one being a Thorncaster Sliver and a Venom Sliver.
Using the previous thread as an example he moves straight to step 3, while skipping over step 2. Basically trying to resolve damage before he declared all of it. I tried to tell him that all of his creatures attack at the same time, thus he would have to declare the damage at the same time BEFORE he can pass me priority (during the game I kind messed this up by playing my Shieldmage when he first applied the damage and waited for my response). Is this correct?
That being said the damage that he declares cannot be resolved UNTIL I have priority, correct? Meaning that he would have to pass me priority after he declares all of who he wants to damage, but before it is applied or that (if in the case he does not pass priority) the damage carries over until the declare blockers step (CR 112.3c) when I would have priority, correct?
As I said during the game I kind messed things up by playing my Shieldmage when he first applied the damage and waited for my response; however his ability still goes onto the stack and he cannot damage it or other creatures until he resolves, correct? Meaning that any creature damaged before he comes into play would be destroyed via Venom Sliver's Deathtouch ability, however after he comes into play all creatures I had in play would not receive damaged. So technically it doesn't matter when I play him because once he resolves it nullifies anything before he was on the stack and after (especially if I played him during the example thread's step 2, like I was trying to do), because the damage would have to resolve and he can't be dealt damage before he comes into play.

That being said, am I right or wrong in this? I'm trying to understand "Priority" and how it would relate to the above scenario. I believe that I'm right, but I could be just as wrong in this...

The simple answer is that your opponent cannot use any of the abilities from Thorncaster Sliver to deal damage to Ethersworn Shieldmage, and Ethersworn Shieldmage can protect all of your artifact creatures from all of the damage.

This is the exact sequence of events for how your example should play out:

Your opponent declares 5 Slivers as attackers, with both Thorncaster Sliver and Venom Sliver on the battlefield.
For each attacking Sliver, your opponent puts their triggered ability from Thorncaster Sliver on the stack. This is part 508.2 of the Declare Attackers step. At this time, your opponent declares which creature each ability is targeting (see rule 603.3d and rule 601.2c).
Your opponent gains priority (rule 508.3). From how you described your example, they choose to do nothing and pass priority.
You gain priority. At this time, you cast Ethersworn Shieldmage.
You gain priority again, but you have nothing else to do here so you pass priority.
Your opponent gains priority. They have an opportunity to act here, but they can't do anything with the abilities from Thorncaster Sliver, because those are already on the stack. Once you do nothing and pass priority, Ethersworn Shieldmage resolves and enters the battlefield. At this time, the Shieldmage's ability triggers, and goes on the stack.
Your opponent has another chance to act, but they still can't do anything with the abilities from Thorncaster Sliver. They pass priority, and so do you.
Ethersworn Shieldmage's ability resolves. For the rest of the turn, any damage that would be dealt to any artifact creature is prevented.
The abilities from Thorncaster Sliver resolve. All of the damage that they would do to artifact creatures is prevented.

Your opponent did one major thing incorrectly: they tried to deal damage to the Master Transmuter in response to you casting Ethersworn Shieldmage. You didn't have an opportunity to cast Ethersworn Shieldmage until after all of those abilities were on the stack, so there is nothing they could have done to make one of those ablities resolve before Ethersworn Shieldmage.

However, since you revealed the Ethersworn Shieldmage out of turn, it would have been reasonable for your opponent to choose non-artifact creatures as the targets for any abilities that they had not yet declared targets for.


How can I quickly estimate my level in go by playing against a computer/tablet? I would like to have an idea of my level in go (in kyu). This would for instance help me choose the most appropriate go books to read. I would like to do this through playing against a program—because I can play anywhere anytime.

I read on Wikipedia that each difference of one point in kyu is equivalent to one stone of handicap, and also that one stone is valued to 13–16 points in score difference. So, if I knew the level of the program I play against, this would allow me to quickly adjust the handicap (depending on the score difference) so that games are balanced, and then counting one kyu of difference for each stone of handicap.

But what is the level of computer/tablet programs? Is there a reference somewhere, or some resources that would give some information on that? In my case, I would love to have some idea of the current level of Little Go on iOS (which is based on Fuego), for 19x19 go.

There are several rating systems, for most players their KGS rating and EGF rating will be different, and it can be different from national rating systems (e.g. it is often assumed that French and British ratings for the same player are 2 stones different). So, in a sense, your question cannot be answered unless you specify the rating system you want to be measured against.

The benchmark could be a KGS rating, because KGS is so widely used. The best way to know your rating is to play on KGS with the real players, and KGS will answer your question.

It might be more psychologically comfortable to play against robots, but, from a personal experience, I would not recommend it, they do not help you to improve at the rate that the games against humans will. Also, they have flaws that you might identify and this will allow you to win the games against these robots, but this won't translate in your improved ability to play against humans.


Etali and returning casted cards questions With our EDH group we can't completely figure out what happens in the following cases:

After attacking with Etali, Primal Storm and casting some of the exiled cards, some of them for example creatures, are now on the board for player John. John is the one playing Etali.

Let's say one of the creatures was originally in Ben's deck. That creature gets killed. Does this creature go back to Ben's graveyard? Or does the card go back to exile?

The answer to Q1 is: The creature goes to it's owner's (in your case, Ben's) graveyard.

This is supported by CR701.7a:

  701.7. Destroy

    701.7a To destroy a permanent, move it from the battlefield to its owner’s graveyard.

Q2 already has an answer here.


What chess-opening does this cat play I just saw this funny cat video where the cat gets beaten in chess by a trick opening. It is not the well known fool's mate, but I guess it is a famous opening too. Can anyone identify the opening that is played here?

That appears to be the Scholar's Mate, the four-move game that ends with 4. Qxf7#.

  In chess, Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6? 4. Qxf7#. The moves might be played in a different order or in slight variation, but the basic idea is the same – the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate). Sometimes Scholar's Mate is referred to as the Four-Move Checkmate, though there are other ways to checkmate in four moves.

Obviously this is a fake video. I've never met a cat who would fall for this move.


Can Mr. X move into or through a detective occupied field? As I read through the game and did enjoyed a few rounds one question appeared a few times.

When a detective moves into Mr. X's field the game ends with Mr. X getting captured.

BUT can Mr. X can move into a detectives field himself, or via a double move go through a detective occupied field into a different field without loosing the game?

Info: Mostly talking about New York Chase (a variant of Scotland Yard), but I can't make new tags. Although also interested in the Scotland Yard answer since it's probably the same.

In Scotland Yard, if Mr. X ever occupies the same location as a detective, he loses on the spot, regardless of if it was by the detective's move or his own move (forced as it may be). This is explicitly mentioned in the Scotland Yard rules, and Scotland Yard does not explicitly allow a double-move to bypass this (so implicitly, you still lose if you do a double-move that passes through a detective's location). This game also doesn't seem to permit Mr. X to remain in a location, noting that Mr. X effectively has an unlimited ticket supply (in theory, it is possible that Mr. X could end up unable to move, but such a situation requires deliberate actions on both the detectives' parts as well as Mr. X's that it should never come up in normal play)

From what I can get of the rules for the game you're specifically asking about, N.Y. Chase, it does not appear to specifically indicate this as a game end, only that if a detective moves to the station that Mr. X is at or if all routes away from Mr. X's location are blocked. Unlike in Scotland Yard, N.Y. Chase's rules account for the possibility that Mr. X may lack the ability to move due to not having appropriate tickets. If Mr. X has options that he cannot take due to not having the tickets, he announces that he has to remain where he is, but the detectives must still locate or completely trap him to win.


Can you shuffle your discard pile? Is there any rule or reason why you can't shuffle your discard pile during moments of downtime, in order to get a better shuffle once your deck is fully depleted? My understanding is that the discard pile is a space to which order and sequence don't apply.

To clarify: I do not mean shuffle discard pile back into draw pile, I simply mean shuffling the idle discard pile with itself, and still following the rules for when to reshuffle for a new draw pile.

edit: The OP was not clear whether it meant "shuffle the discard pile and put it back in the draw pile" or just "shuffle the discard pile". Now that's clear, I'm adding the following:

True, as the rules stand right now, the order in the discard pile does not usually matter (sometimes it does, see below). Theoretically, you could shuffle the discard pile at any time and just keep it away from the draw pile. The rules do not let you still do it for the following reasons:

The status of your discard pile might still change before the "proper" reshuffle, thus you might still have to reshuffle. Consider the following example:

Draw pile: 0 cards
Cards in hand: Market, 4 others

You are going to play the Market, which lets you draw a card, so why not shuffle the discard pile while waiting for your next turn? Well, you might receive a Curse until then, so you'll still have to reshuffle with the Curse in it.
Reserved for future "discard pile" rules. Currently, there are no cards that do something, say, with the top card of the discard pile, so the order in it does not matter. Despite that, the rules still don't explicitly let you shuffle arbitrarily, because DXV likes to have as much room as possible for future cards. For example, one day he could design a card that does something with the top card of the discard pile.
For the sake of completeness, there are actually cards that care about the order of the discard pile: Watchtower. When you gain a card, you may reveal the Watchtower to trash that card or top-deck it. If you do, then the Watchtower expects to find the card on top of the discard pile. Consider the following:

You have a Watchtower in hand.
You gain an Inn.
Now, there are two things that happen at the same time: you either trigger the Inn or the Watchtower first.

Suppose you resolve the Inn first.
You choose as many action cards as you want from your discard pile and you shuffle them in your deck, but not the Inn.
If you leave the Inn somewhere inside your discard pile, but not on top, then you may not reveal the Watchtower to topdeck/trash it, as the Watchtower has lost track of the Inn.
Nevertheless, if you leave the Inn on top, then you may reveal the Watchtower (source).

According to the base-game rules, you only shuffle the discard pile when you need to do something with the draw pile (e.g., draw cards, reveal cards, etc) and there are not enough cards to do so. You cannot arbitrarily shuffle the discard pile whenever you want to, for a couple of reasons, including:

An opponent likely holds a Witch (or any curser) in hand. Your draw pile has been depleted and you hold your last 5 cards in hand. You would like to reshuffle immediately, so that the Curse will "miss" the reshuffle and will not see it soon.
You are ready to buy your first Province and you're close to reshuffle. You'd like to reshuffle immediately, so that you won't see "soon" the Province.
You have just reshuffled and played a key card (e.g., Witch). You discard the Witch, but you have over 30 cards in your deck. You'd like to immediately reshuffle your discard pile so that you'd see the Witch again.
Any cards that you gain go immediately to your discard pile (unless stated otherwise). Thus, if you shuffle the discard pile, these cards will enter the draw pile, whether you'd like it or not.
There are cards that do something with the discard pile, like Counting House, Hermit, Inn, Herald, etc. Arbitrarily shuffling the discard pile (or not) directly affects these cards.

Thus, there is a general, fair rule, that makes sense as well: you shuffle only when there are not enough cards to do something.


Is it legal to continue building a route after it has been cut off by an opponent's settlement? Say I have a 6 road segment path with only a settlement at one of the ends.
If an opponent were to intercept at halfway and place a settlement, splitting my road in half of 3 segments, can I continue developing (placing more roads, building new settlements) the half which has been cut off from the origin settlement?
Thanks in advance!

Yes.
The rules state that that you must build connected to your own buildings/roads, which you still are in the situation in question.
From the rules:

A new road must always connect to 1 of your existing roads, settlesments, or cities. Only 1 road can be build on any given path.

And

You must meet 2 conditions when building a settlement:

(1) Your settlement must always connect to 1 or more of your
own roads

(2) You must observe the Distance Rule


Does Heroic trigger on a static effect? War-wing Siren has the Heroic ability:

  Whenever you cast a spell that targets War-Wing Siren, put a +1/+1 counter on War-Wing Siren.

Captain Of the Watch states:

  "Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance."

With Siren in play under my control, I cast Captain Of Watch. The Captain has an effect on Siren: +1/+1 and vigilance.  Does this count as casting a spell that targets Siren?  Should Siren get a +1/+1 counter?

I see "Target" to mean the recipient of some spell or effect.

No, the Siren does not receive a +1/+1 counter. Although your understanding of the word 'Target' makes sense in english, it has a rather specific meaning in Magic.

A creature is only targeted by spells or abilities that actually have the word 'target' on it. For instance, Giant Growth. From the Comprehensive rules:

  114.1a An instant or sorcery spell is targeted if its spell ability identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],”

The Siren needs to be identified as that 'target [something]' in order for Heroic to trigger. On instants and sorceries, this is spelled out; casting an Aura (ie Unholy Strength) on War-Wing Siren also triggers the Heroic ability, as they have an implicit target:

  114.1b Aura spells are always targeted.

Casting an equipment would not trigger the ability, as they enter play unattached and not targeting anything.  Their equip-ability is not the same as 'casting a spell', so it doesn't trigger Heroic. The same goes for other activated abilities with a target (Spikeshot Goblin does not trigger Heroic, also see this question).

To look a little closer at what spells do and do not target the War-Wing Siren:

Twiddle would trigger the Heroic ability.
Turnabout wouldn't, because the card doesn't target a creature, it targets a player.
Call to Glory would not trigger the Siren's Heroic ability, as it doesn't target anything.

(Thanks to @diego for suggesting these cards)


Noxious Revival and Street Wraith interaction I’m asking myself if I can get back a cycled Street Wraith using the cycle ability and a Noxious Revival.

The idea is:

Use cycle ability, pay two life and discard, the ability goes on the stack
Play Noxious Revival targeting Wraith in the graveyard to put it on top of the deck
Resolve Noxious Revival
Resolve the cycle ability to draw the Wraith

The discard part of cycle is part of the activation cost? So does it resolve before the ability?

The reason to do that is to take advantage of life loss in a deck like death's shadow

Yes, you can do this.

Street Wraith has the ability

  Cycling—Pay 2 life.

which (as the reminder text states) is shorthand702.28a for

  Pay 2 life, Discard this card: Draw a card.

Since this is an activated ability, everything to the left of the colon (:) character is the cost that must be paid to use the ability.602.1a  You pay the cost (discard the card and pay 2 life) and the ability is placed on the stack.

Once the ability hits the stack, it follows all the usual rules for resolution - including allowing players to respond by using different spells or abilities.602.2b  At this point you can use Noxious Revival; it also goes on the stack.

Once everybody passes priority, the spells resolve in LIFO order: Noxious Revival resolves first, letting you place the Street Wraith on top of your library, followed by Street Wraith's cycling ability, which lets you draw a card.


7 Wonders scoring question (Olympia B, copying a guild) on BSW On BrettspielWelt, I played Olympia (B) and built the 3rd wonder stage (copy a guild). The end score confused me, and I think BSW might have implemented the scoring wrong.

We were 3 players. Everyone had one guild.

Red had the science guild:

Blue:

Green (me):

As you can see, Red got no guild points. So I assume these are included in the score for science cards (didn't screenshot his science cards, unfortunately).

Blue got 5 guild points, which is correct (Red had 3 yellow cards, Green had 2).

Now, I (Green) got 10 guild points. How comes that? My own guild card gave me 6 points (2 browns + 3 greys + 1 purple). Now I get a guild card copy:

If I'd copy Blue's guild, I'd get 4 points (Red's 3 yellow cards + Blue's 1 yellow card). Ha. That would be 10 points.
But if I'd copy Red's guild, I'd have completed two science sets. So with this guild, I should have got 31 science points (instead of my 21).

Am I missing something or is this a bug on BrettspielWelt? Why did the system copy Blue's guild for me, instead of Red's guild (which would have made me the winner)?

I agree with your assessment of how the scoring should've played out, so I would guess it is a bug, likely because copying that guild gives you 0 purple points so it thought that Blue's guild was better (failing to recognize that it gave you more science points).


What set of attributes can be used to describe, compare and contrast various board games? A recent question about a good mix of board games got me thinking about how one could even objectively define "a good mix".

My idea is to try and define a set of attributes that could describe, compare, and contrast various board games. I hope this exercise will help me discover some attributes unrepresented by my gaming experience and achieve better insight into the common elements of my favorite games.

An example attribute might be inter-player cooperation, which would slide along a continuum from fully co-operative to team-based to free-for-all, with arkham-horror axis-and-allies and risk being examples of each type, respectively.

I think answers could either work as one-per-attribute (with votes for ones that make sense) or as a comprehensive set of attributes (with votes for the most thorough and complete answers). Comments seems like a good place to flush out the pros and cons of each approach.

Attributes that I use to evaluate games:

Replay value (Over time how much do you enjoy it)
Randomness (how much it's out of your hand)
Learning curve
What kind of skill does it require (strategy, resource management, deductions, spatial orientation, etc)
Time required to set it up
Expected time to have a game
Time-ness (is it per turn? all at the same time? you bid for who to be first?)
Degree of interaction (it's similar to what you say but it includes more things. Games like Bingo are outside of your scale)
Handicap-aware (How does it react to players with different levels. Is it easy for a newbie to give by accident the game to another player?)


Can I summon Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon in response to The Monarchs Stormforth? Player A activates The Monarchs Stormforth, tribute summons a monster from hand by tributing 1 monster on player B's field and sends it to the graveyard.

Player B has Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon in hand, can he special summon it in response?

No, Player B cannot special summon IPPT Dragon in this scenario.

  If a monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.

Tributing a monster is not considered destruction, so the requirements to activate IPPT Dragon's effect have not been met. Note that any card effect is not considered to destroy anything unless it explicitly states so.


Oversight AI Woodcutter behind a Chum I am the runner and on a run I encounter a Chum, but I don't break its subroutine.

I encounter the next piece of ICE which happens to be a Woodcutter (rezzed with an Oversight AI) without advancement counters and thus no subroutines. I pass it.

Have I broken all subroutines on the Woodcutter?

If yes, I don't get three netdamage from Chum and the Woodcutter is trashed alongside the Oversight AI.
If no, I get the three netdamage from Chum and Woodcutter is not trashed.

I heard that you don't take the damage, and that Woodcutter is not trashed. But why should it be like that?

At one point there was a rules ruling via e-mail that it wouldn't be trashed to OverSight AI, and separately that Chum wouldn't do the damage. In the latest FAQ It has been clarified that this didn't make sense, and so for consistency "all" would apply to "0" and so all the subroutines are broken, and so chum does not do damage and oversight AI means the ice is trashed.

  “All”

  The word “all” includes the number zero.
  Example:
  The Corporation plays an OversightAI
  and rezzes a Woodcutter. The Runner encounters the Woodcutter while it has
  zero subroutines. The Runner is considered to have broken all the
  subroutines on the Woodcutter, and the ice is trashed.

(Previously, it was decided that since there were no subroutines the number broken was unknowable and so effects wouldn't trigger, but that gets rather confusing rather quickly with rules effectively throwing null pointer exceptions!)


Etymology of Borborygmos? Recently found out that the word "borborygmus" exists (a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines), and my immediate thought was of Borborygmos, the Gruul legend. I'm assuming that there's just about zero chance that the etymology of Borborygmos has nothing to do with borborygmus, but I'm curious as to how the legend/giant himself has anything to do with intestinal gastric gurgling. Any insights as to the etymology/connection there?

This is speculation, but Borborygmos has a heavy flavor angle of the barbarian trope of fighting and feasting.  The flavor text on the original printing of Borborygmos references the only other two cards in the original Ravnica block referencing Borborygmos, Wreak Havoc (where he is quoted saying, "Crush Them!") and Protean Hulk (where he is quoted saying, "Meat and eggs.  We eat!").  What better name for him than the rumbling of the intestines?  It combines his two obsessions of brawling and eating.
See the flavor text on the following three cards:


Please identify this game - 4x4 diagonal squares, 4 red and 4 blue pieces - nice wooden board Can anyone please tell me what this game is called AND /OR how to play it?
Many thanks

I believe the game your looking for is Oska.

I found it by typing various descriptions into Google image search and found a similar looking games called 'queah'  then came across Oska whilst trying to find similar games to that.


Stack resolving with planeswalker and instants I play Nissa, Voice of Zendikar a planeswalker. When it's in play my opponent plays Devour in Flames to deal 5 damage to my planeswalker. I want to use my effect "put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control" what will be resolve first? Does my creatures get +1/+1?

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is a Planeswalker, which means that you can only activate her abilities on your turn, and Devour in Flames is a Sorcery, which means your opponent can only cast it on their turn. In other words, if your opponent is able to cast Devour in Flames, then you don't have a chance to activate Nissa's ability.


Thud! - Can the Trolls win? In every game of Thud! that I have played, the Dwarves win hands down.

It is somewhat off-putting as whoever is playing the Trolls seems to have to simply minimise the losses.

Are there any opening gambits that allow the Trolls at least a fighting chance?  The instructions imply that there are, but don't give any hint as to what they are.

I have found that it is possible for Troll to actually play a strong game, however, there is a fundamental issue with seeing that one could win with either the trolls or dwarves.

Remember, Thud! is an asymmetrical game--and in actuality a complete game comprises of what more closely resembles a "match"--a player plays one game as as each and the remaining value of the pieces are summed to determine the winner.

Thus, if you find your games really only feel like loss-minimizing--and lack strategy--the same applies to your opponent on his turn.

There isn't a lot of openly available games downloadable for analysis for Thud! as it is rather unpopular, but I'm basing this on my own personal play vs a computer opponent that I myself have designed: Thudgame on github. While the AI itself isn't an infalliable player, you might find that the Troll AI can often be quite threatening and I believe there's much that can be learned from it.

Unfortunately, there's not much depth to the openings (the board is symmetrical).  Some common openings I see the Trolls winning with are pretty much one of these two moves:

It's not always the same trolls, but you choose your attack vector based on the initial dwarf move (whether you want to hit the dwarf-swarm or the side dwarves are neglecting).

There's a system in how well you can get a single troll to defeat far more than his own value (5 dwarfs per troll is winning), but I have a hard time generalizing it. Give the bot a shot and I think you'll see some winning patterns emerge.


Solitaire all cards dealt face up in 13 columns, then 12, then 11, 10, 9 I’m trying to figure out the name of this card game.

First turn: Deal out 52 cards, all face up in 13 columns (4 rows). The cards in each column overlap. Can move single cards only. A card can be moved by placing card of same suit in descending order (6 of hearts can be placed on top of 7 of hearts). Kings cannot be moved. Aces get moved to foundation stacks. The goal is to stack by suit Ace-King on the four foundation stacks.

Second turn: first column gets placed on top of second, second on top of third and so forth (all face up). Re-deal In 12 columns. Same rules apply.

Third turn is 11 columns. Fourth is 10 columns and final turn is 9 columns.

I can’t seem to find the name of it or where I could download it on my phone.

It is not exactly the same rules but it is very similar to Perseverance

It's a solitaire game starting with 12 columns, not 13 (the 4 aces are moved to the foundations at the beginning)
You have to build the foundation from ace to king
you can only stack cards of the same suit in the columns
when you are stuck you pile the columns without shuffling and re-deal in less columns. Not specifically 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 as you mentioned but in pile of 4 cards.


Should I avoid getting any pot in Poison or try to pick a color and get as much as possible? What is the better strategy in Poison (BGG)? Trying to get nothing at all may be a good strategy, but sometimes hard. Is it better to try to get the most of a color, so that this color doesn't count for you? Avoiding the poison, without a question.

I certainly favor taking a color. With good players it's impossible to get nothing, and if you pick a single color you'll have some control.

Once you start specializing in a color other players are unlikely to take any of that color if they can help it, ensuring you'll get the majority.

Once you have that solid majority, towards the last half or third of the game, you can foist pots of that color onto other players, knowing they'll be stuck with points. This gives you power that you don't have if you take nothing.

Of course, everyone else is trying to do the same thing. :)


How to resolve multiple "at the start of turn" effects when one changes another? We were playing Betrayal on Saturday and the scenario required that the traitor and monsters lose 1 from all traits at the beginning of his turn.

The music box card was also in play and was left open in the same room as the traitor.  The music box requires any explorer or monster who starts their turn or enters the same room as the open music box to make a sanity roll and on a result < 4 become mesmerized.

In this case, which happens first?  Do the traits get reduced, then the music box triggers, or vice versa? It matters because if the traits are reduced first, the player has a reduced chance of resisting the music box.

In this case we gave the traitor the advantage in the situation based on game context (the traitor started at a severe disadvantage during the haunt given the outcomes of earlier item draws and omens), but what is the correct way?  Is there one?

The rules do not specify what to do in this circumstance. As such it is up to each individual play group to decide how to handle this situation. Different games tend to handle this in different ways and there are a number of options. Below is a non-exhaustive list of what might work for your group.

Traitor's advantage - As you suggested the house is in league with the traitor (or, the traitor has prepared the house to his advantage). As such, the Traitor chooses the order in which such simultaneous actions occur. This would then apply for all such instances, including events on another player's turn.
Active Player's choice - The way such situations are sometimes resolved is that the currently active player is given the option of which actions are performed first. This gives the currently active player freedom to minimize the impact, or maximise the benefit, of actions they are taking.
Owner's choice - In the circumstance that items, abilities or powers are all acting at the same time, it can make most sense for the "owner" of those items to decide the order in which they resolve.
Timestamp order - Another possible way to resolve the situation is based on the time at which the effect came into being. Did the music box start playing before the Haunt? If so, the music box could take effect first.
Proximity order - The last option I can think of is proximity order. I should note, I haven't read or played this particular haunt. What is it that causes the Traitor's traits to decrease? Is it the waning power of what unleashed them in the first place? Is it some magic the heroes possess that is slowly draining the strength of the traitor? The key question is, can it be pinpointed to a specific location? If so, whichever action originates closest to the affected player (either the music box or the source of the trait loss) acts first.

Of the options, I have to say my preference would be "Active Player's choice", as it keeps control of the events happening on a person's turn with that person. Maintaining high player agency and involvement is an important factor in keeping people engaged. I can totally see why Traitor's advantage might be preferable though.

There is no way to give an answer for which of these options provides the best balance between traitor and players (at least, without extensive playtesting), so it will have to be whichever "feels right" to you and your group.


How does Athreos, God of Passage respond to creature tokens? If I have Athreos, God of Passage on the field and a creature token dies, does Athreos' effect trigger and they automatically lose three health because I can't return a token to my hand, or does it not because its a "creature token" that dies and not a "creature"?

Neither of these scenarios happen. What does happen is called out in a ruling on Athreos:

  4/26/2014: Athreos’s last ability will trigger if a token creature you own dies. The target opponent has the option to pay 3 life, although the token can’t return to your hand.

The ability triggers as normal, since a creature died, even if it's a token. Your opponent is still given the choice to pay 3 life or pay nothing — no choice is made "automatically".

However, tokens cease to exist after they leave the battlefield. Even if your opponent declines to pay 3 life, the token won't ever enter your hand - it's already gone to the graveyard and will cease to exist there. So the result is the same either way: the token disappears. Naturally, your opponent is likely to just not pay the cost.


Can the power of an attack be reduced below two? When you are attacking in Illuminati and you're in the phase where players are spending Megabucks to aid or hinder the attack, is there a limit to how money can be spent to reduce the power of the attack?

Let's say that, after all the modifiers for alignment, the power of my attack is 8. Can another player reduce the power to -2 by spending 10 Megabucks? If so, do I actually get to roll the dice, or does the attack not take place at all? Or are they limited to spending 6, which gives me at least a miniscule chance to succeed on the attack?

There are no limits.

To succeed you need to roll the target number or less on two dice.  If the target number has been reduced to 1 (or less) then the roll is moot.

This isn't stated explicitly in the rules, but more importantly there are no limits placed on spending.  It is alluded to though, on page 5 in the "Spending money to Attack " section:

  For instance, if an attacker uses enough money
  and power to exceed the target’s resistance by 20, the
  defender would have to spend 20 MB to get the attacking
  roll back down to zero again!


Board game design dictionary Are there any dictionaries specific to the subject of board game design or board game culture? This would contain words describing elements found in board games or used by designers or players.

The one I'm aware of is on boardgamegeek.com...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Glossary

A similar one for RPGs is on the sister site, RPGGeek.com...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/RPG_Glossary#
I include this because many of the terms overlap, and especially for dice, are not in the BGG glossary.


Karn, the Great Creator - Does "from outside the game" have to be Standard if we're playing casual? So my sons and I are having a debate about Karn, the Great Creator's ability to use a "card from outside the game" and its format. The way I interpret the text is that in a casual, non-tournament game, I can choose any artifact outside the game from my collection and put it in my hand. Does that chosen card have to be within the format we are playing? In other words, if I'm playing standard, does my "chosen card" have to be within the standard format or can it be from any set? And if so, can it be one that's on the banned play list?

This really depends on what you mean by casual.  Karn has a card specific ruling:

  In a casual game, a card you choose from outside the game comes from your personal collection. In a tournament event, a card you choose from outside the game must come from your sideboard. You may look at your sideboard at any time.

But if you are playing a specific format, the banned card list for that format prevents the use of those cards in general.  In tournament play, it is sufficient to ban them from main decks and sideboards.  In casual, this should be extended to include cards pulled in from outside the game.

See Spike, Tournament Grinder as the exception that proves the rule.  Spike is a joke card (not legal in any tournament formats) that lets you use cards that are banned in the current format.  Normally you cannot do that when pulling in cards from outside the game.


Custom Heroes - Charmy pile order reversal Charmy is a special ability in which reverses the numerical order of play. My question is about when the ability actually takes effect. Here's the rule text:

  After a player activates this special ability, the direction of the pile changes. If the values were ascending, they start descending, and vice versa. This effect lasts for the rest of the round. For example, after a Charmy is  played, to beat a pair of 4s, you would need to play a pairs of 4s or lower.

What I need clarification about revolves around the words Afterin the first sentence and after in the third sentence.

Does that mean that Charmy is played in

normal order and the reversal occurs after that play, or
immediate reversal on the play that Charmy is activated?

Examples of each

two 5s
two 7s
two 8s with Charmy activation
two 3s

Or

two 5s
two 7s
two 4s with Charmy activation
two 3s

Normal order and the reversal occurs after that play.

I'm not sure where the confusion lies because the description literally says the effect starts "after a Charmy is played". In fact, it mentions the reversal only happens after you play the card and activate the ability not once, but twice. Until you activate the ability by playing the card, you still need to play a card of equal of greater value.


Why is Sword of Body and Mind regarded as the weakest of the Swords? Sword of Body and Mind is part of a 5-card cycle:

Sword of Body and Mind
Sword of War and Peace
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow

All cards in this cycle have seen some amount of tournament play, but Sword of Body and Mind is generally regarded the weakest of the five, and is the least expensive in most stores.

Why is that? Sword of Body and Mind doesn't look any less powerful than the other swords, and it is the only one that directly improves your board position by making tokens.

Why is Sword of Body and Mind generally regarded as the weakest of the five swords? What advantages do the other swords provide that Sword of Body and Mind doesn't?

It's just not very good. Sword of Body and Mind's abilities aren't as powerful individually, and they have very poor synergy with each other.

Sword of Fire and Ice is great for a tempo deck beating down on another tempo deck:

Draw a card: +1 card advantage.
2 damage to target creature: often +1 card advantage. Lots of creatures worth killing have 1 or 2 toughness (e.g. Dark Confidant, Mother of Runes). At worst, it speeds up the clock a little.
Protection from red: negates red-base removal, which is plentiful because Lightning Bolt is SOOOO good.
Protection from blue: very marginal, but means your opponent can't win tempo by bouncing your creature.

Sword of Light and Shadow is a great card for creature-based midrange:

Return a card to your hand: consistently +1 card advantage in a deck with a reasonable number of creatures (16+).
Protection from white and protection from black together in one card: negate almost all of the non-damage-based creature removal in the game. +2 toughness also helps make your creature resistant to red removal.
Gain some life: marginal, but it can help one midrange creature deck beat another in a damage race.

Sword of Feast and Famine is superb in midrange control decks like Cawblade:

Opponent discards: often +1 card advantage. You don't get this if your opponent's already running on empty, but if that's the case you've likely already got them on the ropes.
Untap your lands: this is a massive strategic advantage. Very easy to keep up mana for counterspells or removal while still developing your board.
Protection from black: negates a lot of removal.
Protection from green: a lot of the biggest creatures are green, so it's nice to be able to slip past them. Thanks to the Sword's untap ability, you can easily attack with one dude and then move the Sword to another one so you'll have a pro-green creature to block your opponent's Tarmogoyf. The real value is that it's stapled to protection from black, though: you're giving your creature bonus toughness (to get it out of burn range) and making it immune to black's targeted removal and making it immune to damage from giant green creatures — sure to give Jund fits.

Sword of War and Peace is a massive clock swinger, useful to any reasonably fast deck:

Damage your opponent a whole bunch if they're hoarding cards: basically makes your creature a very fast clock against control.
Damage your opponent and gain life: creates significant life swings in an aggro/tempo damage race.
Protection from red and protection from white: negates a lot of removal, including cheap removal all-stars like Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile. Pro white also lets you bypass token swarm defenses like Lingering Souls.

Sword of Body and Mind is, in contrast, a mishmash of abilities that aren't so great by themselves and don't really fit together:

Make a token: technically +1 card advantage, but a Grizzly Bear is kind of a bad card. In most cases this is flat-out inferior to drawing a card, getting a creature back from your yard, or being able to blast something with a bit of damage (since you can remove weenie creatures with actual abilities).
Protection from blue and from green: these are the two colors in the game with the least removal.
Mill: meh. Mill's not always terrible, but here you only mill them when you are inflicting damage. In most cases, that's strictly inferior to any kind of effect that just lets you inflict more damage.


Can you use Halicarnassus' special ability to build the wonder or to discard the card for 3 gold? The wonder Halicarnassus has a special ability (second stage on side A, all stages on side B) that lets the player choose a card from the discard pile.

Instead of building the card for free, can the player also choose to build the wonder (paying the corresponding costs), or to discard the card for 3 gold?

No. The special ability can only be used to build the structure (for free).

The rules say "build it [the card] for free", which excludes the other two cases (where you discard a card, or build a wonder stage, not the structure/card itself).

Also confirmed by the official FAQ:

  Q: Using Solomon (take a card from the discard pile and put it in play for free) or stages of Halicarnassus, can I use this card to build a Wonder stage?

  A: No.

It’s the same with Olympus (side A, second stage).

Only with the special ability of Babylon (side B, second stage) it is possible to build the wonder OR to discard the card OR to build it (paying its costs!).

Related threads on boardgamegeek.com:

Halicarnassus - playing from the discard - is it like playing any other card?
Mausoleum Question
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus?
Olympus 2 Stage Wonder
Olympia board wonder - 2nd stage question


Is there something like Gatherer but with inventory management? Gatherer is great (sort of) for building decks, but I'd like the additional filter of specifying the search specifically to the cards I own.  Is this a feature I'm just not seeing or is there an app of some sort that does this?  I'd also like if it were always as up to date as Gatherer is.

To manage my collection, I have used deckbox.org. Since it uses gatherer as a "database" to know what all the cards are, it stays up to date with the current set. You will have to tell it what cards you do own however, so there is some up front work to tell the collection manager what you have.

It also uses magic.tcgplayer.com to let you know both the individual pricing of your cards and the contents of your entire collection.


Do elders help the villain in a non-showdown fight round? I'm having a Fight Round with the Villain outside of a Showdown (Deadly Encounter Mystery card) and an Evil Elder has joined him already (it's cooperative mode and the elder has been investigated and revealed to be evil).

Since Evil Elders helping the Villain are only mentioned in the Showdown section and this is specifically not a Showdown, my thinking is that the elder should not provide the usual +1 Combat and +1 Wound... but is that really the case in cooperative mode?

The Villain gets +1 Combat skill during the single Fight Round

Actually, the rules do mention Evil Elders outside the Showdown section. Specifically, on page 15.

  Evil Elders - When a Town Elder is shown to be evil, they cease to be a Town Elder and instead become an Evil Elder. The card is flipped over, any Secrets they had are discarded, and they are repositioned next to the Villain’s Record Sheet. Evil Elders give the Villain +1 Combat and have one Wound.

This bonus is applied to the Villain's Combat, regardless of whether this is a Showdown fight or not.

  Fighting the Villain - Occasionally a hero will have to engage in a single Fight Round with the Villain due to a Mystery Card or Minion Chart result. These Fights are NOT considered a Showdown and consequently, the Villain cannot actually be hurt. In these cases, a single Fight Round should be played out between the Hero and the Villain as described above (the Villain rolls Fight Dice equal to its Combat).


How does Dredge work with drawing more than one card? How does dredge work with drawing multiple cards at once? For example, let's say I cast Windfall and discard three cards, a Golgari Grave-Troll, and a Stinkweed Imp. With the at least five cards I am drawing from Windfall, could I dredge two of the draws with the troll and the imp? If so, how exactly do I do that properly? Do I get to select which of the five draws I am dredging?

Yes and yes.  Yes you can dredge both cards, and yes you can select which of the five draws you are choosing to replace with a dredge.  More than that, though, when you draw cards, you do so one by one.  So you could in theory be like "I'm looking for a specific card.  Draw 1?  Not it.  Draw 2?  Not it.  Draw 3?  Ok that's what I want, I'll Dredge using my other 2 draws instead of drawing".
To do this "properly" in the most formal way, you would say "I'm drawing a card and replacing my draw with CARDNAME".  Then you return CARDNAME to your hand and mill that many cards.  If you would like to dredge multiple cards in 1 action, you can shortcut this by saying "I'm going to draw 2 cards, I'm going to replace those draws with dredging CARDNAME1 and CARDNAME2".  Then you return both of those cards to your hand and mill a number of cards equal to the sum of their Dredge numbers.
Relevant sections of Comprules:

121.2. 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.
702.51a Dredge is a static ability that functions only while the card with dredge is in a player’s graveyard. “Dredge N” means “As long as you have at least N cards in your library, if you would draw a card, you may instead put N cards from the top of your library into your graveyard and return this card from your graveyard to your hand.”


Can the Tower capture the Wagon and/or the Mayor in Carcassonne When playing Carcassonne with "The Tower" and "Abbey and Mayor" expansions, can adding a level to the tower capture either the Mayor and/or Wagon?

There are no rules that I have seen that either authorize and/or forbid doing this so it's ambiguous.

In the file Carcassonne CAR (this is the link https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/87531/carcassonne-standard-complete-annotated-rules ) page 52, section the tower, before note 120 says: "Whenever a player places a tower piece, he or she may take one follower prisoner. Builders and pigs cannot be taken prisoner" So any meeple than can be considered a follower and it's not a pig or a builder can be captured.

In page 57, section abbey and mayor, note 137 says: "The mayor and wagon are followers, subject to the usual rules of deployment and affecting the majority. The barn is a special figure, not a follower.".


Soul-Scar Mage and Nin, the Pain Artist with lifelink I control a Nin, the Pain Artist (without summoning sickness) equipped with a Basilisk Collar (or anything else which gives her lifelink) and a Soul-Scar Mage.
When I activate Nin's ability and deal e.g. 3 damage to an opponents creature, will I gain life, or will the Soul-Scar Mage with his replacement effect "put that many -1/-1 counters on that creature instead" prevent me from gaining life.
Also, will the replacement effect prevent the opponent from drawing cards? (I suspect not, since the card draw isn't tied to the damage)

Your assumptions/guesses are all correct.
A replacement event completely replaces the thing it replaces with something different.
In this case, Soul-Scar Mage replaces the damage produced by Nin with -1/-1 counters.  Because Nin is no longer damaging something, lifelink from the Basilisk Collar doesn't happen.
The opponent still draws X cards, because the X is tied to the mana spent to activate the ability, not to the amount of damage dealt to the creature.


Counting runs during play When playing Cribbage, if I played a 7, and my opponent played an 8, (making a 15 for 2 points), can I then play a 6 for a run of three, or do they have to be in consecutive order?

According to this site Yes it is a run.

Example: Cards are played in this order: 9, 6, 8, 7. The dealer pegs 2 for fifteen when he plays the six and pegs 4 for run when he plays the seven (the 6, 7, 8, 9 sequence). The cards were not played in sequential order, but they form a true run with no foreign card.

I have seen written rules by Hoyle where they are required to be played in order, but every single web site I looked at allow for them to be out of order as long as they aren't interrupted with non-run cards.


Can I copy a counter spell to then counter said counter? Is it possible to create a copy of a counter spell to then use to counter the copied counter spell?

I'm not sure if the copied spell will have resolved before the copy can target it.

For example:

Player A: Casts "insert random none-special creature that can be
countered"
Player B: Casts Cancel
Player A: Casts Reverberate and targets the original Cancel
with the copied cancel

Yes, that's a perfectly valid play.
For this specific case of Reverberate, these are the rulings you should take into account:

8/15/2010: Reverberate can target (and copy) any instant or sorcery spell, not just one with targets. It doesn't matter who controls it.
8/15/2010: When Reverberate resolves, it creates a copy of a spell. You control the copy. That copy is created on the stack, so it's not “cast.” Abilities that trigger when a player casts a spell won't trigger. The copy will then resolve like a normal spell, after players get a chance to cast spells and activate abilities.
8/15/2010: The copy will have the same targets as the spell it's copying unless you choose new ones. You may change any number of the targets, including all of them or none of them. If, for one of the targets, you can't choose a new legal target, then it remains unchanged (even if the current target is illegal).
8/15/2010: If the spell Reverberate copies is modal (that is, it says “Choose one —” or the like), the copy will have the same mode. You can't choose a different one.
8/15/2010: If the spell Reverberate copies has an X whose value was determined as it was cast (like Earthquake does), the copy has the same value of X.
8/15/2010: You can't choose to pay any additional costs for the copy. However, effects based on any additional costs that were paid for the original spell are copied as though those same costs were paid for the copy too. For example, if a player sacrifices a 3/3 creature to cast Fling, and you copy it with Reverberate, the copy of Fling will also deal 3 damage to its target.
8/15/2010: If the copy says that it affects “you,” it affects the controller of the copy, not the controller of the original spell. Similarly, if the copy says that it affects an “opponent,” it affects an opponent of the copy's controller, not an opponent of the original spell's controller.

Notice that, if you're copying a spell such as Disrupting Shoal, you'll probably not be able to counter it, since Disrupting Shoal requires the spell's CMC to be equal to X, and its CMC on the stack will always be X+2. The same is true for spells such as Remove Soul or Overwhelming Intellect, which have a specific requirement that says they can only counter creature spells.
Also, quoting Arcanist Lupus' comment:

Worth noting perhaps that if you use Reverberate and don't choose a new target for the copy, then your copy of the counterspell will counter the original spell, and the opponent's counterspell will be countered as a state-based effect. This has very little utility, but could come up in a multi-player game if, for example, one opponent was playing a Guile-based control deck, and they counter a spell that you also want countered.


Who acts as Capo after Capo is wacked? The situation came up in a recent game where the Capo was wacked. The question that arises is who acts as Capo, breaks ties, etc. in the interim after the Capo is wacked and before a new Capo is appointed. Is it the player who controlled the Capo and has the ring, or would the Capo responsibilities fall to the next lowest rank?

It's not the Capo that breaks ties, etc. It's the player with the Capo ring. This is described in a couple sections of the rules, seen below.

Controlling the Capo
The player that controls the Capo immediately takes the Capo (First
player) Ring. If no one controls the Capo, the player who currently has
the Capo Ring retains it. The Capo Ring moves as soon as a new player
has the most Influence markers on the current Capo – even if it is in the
middle of a phase!

Also, later, in the Position Special Powers section:

Since the tie breaking power is tied to the Capo ring, not the position, it
cannot be canceled.

In your case, the player who previously controlled the Capo (previous to the whackening) will retain the Capo ring and, thus, retains the affiliated tie-breaking power, etc.


Spell with no chosen targets Bit of a strange one - sorry. My question is: is the following correct?

Sacred Excavation is a sorcery which says:

  Return up to two target cards with cycling from your graveyard to your hand.

If I cast it choosing no targets, to return no target cards to my hand, then Rule 608.2b states:

  … The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal.

It's vacuously true that every target of my spell is illegal: there are no targets, so every target is the King of France, and every target is legal, and every target is illegal. So Sacred Excavation is countered.

The effect is the same as if it had resolved, except in some very niche edge cases - "when something is countered" effects would trigger, and anything spliced onto that spell would not happen, for instance.

It does not work like that. The spell will not be countered. It will resolve and it will do nothing.

This is explicitly stated in Oracle rulings on cards where the difference matters more: spells that affect "up to [some number] of target..." and also have another effect. Adverse Conditions, for example, has the following ruling:

  You can cast Adverse Conditions with no targets. When it resolves, you’ll get an Eldrazi Scion. However, if you cast Adverse Conditions with any targets and all of those targets are illegal as it tries to resolve, it will be countered and none of its effects will happen. You won’t get the Eldrazi Scion in that case.

Note that the beginning of the rule quoted in the question, 608.2b, says

  If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal...

and rule 114.5 says

  Spells and abilities that can have zero or more targets are targeted only if one or more targets have been chosen for them.

I think that saying that a spell "specifies targets" is the same as saying that it "is targeted", and I would conclude that the procedure in rule 608.2b is intended to be performed only on spells for which one or more targets have been chosen.


In Twilight Struggle, can I place influence in countries that border my superpower? For instance, as the US, I want to place influence in Mexico.  The only other influence I have in Central America is in Panama, a few spaces away.

Thematically this seems obvious, yes. They're directly connected to me. But I don't get a precise answer from the rule book.

The rules say the following [my emphasis]:

  6.1.1 Influence markers are placed one at a time. However, all markers must be placed with, or adjacent to, friendly markers that were in place at the start of the phasing player’s Action Round.

Does the superpower space count as a friendly marker?  According to 2.1.6, it is adjacent

  2.1.6 Countries are connected to one another via the black, red and brown lines on the map. Brown lines represent connections within a region. Red dashed lines represent connections between countries in different regions. The black lines indicate connections between countries and superpowers. A country is considered adjacent to all other countries to which it is connected.

I don't see a definition of "friendly" elsewhere in the rules.

Upon closer inspection of the rules, I found the answer:

  6.1.4 Influence markers may always be placed in any country that is adjacent (connected) to the phasing player’s superpower space.

So, yes, the US player can place influence in Mexico, just because it's adjacent.


Does the Strive mechanic give the opportunity to cast the spell multiple times, or just have multiple targets? I'm wondering if the strive mechanic counts as one spell that can be cast multiple times by paying the extra cost, or is it just one spell that can affect multiple targets if you pay the mana?

I'm wondering if the prowess ability of the Jeskai would stack with one spell cast with the stride mechanic and subsequently paying the extra mana. Would that trigger prowess a second, or third time?

It's just one spell with (potentially) multiple targets. It doesn't count as being cast multiple times, and it will only trigger Prowess once.

Taking Aerial Formation for an example, the text says:

  Strive — Aerial Formation costs {2}{U} more to cast for each target beyond the first.

  Any number of target creatures each get +1/+1 and gain flying until end of turn.

This is known as an additional cost. As its name might suggest, it just increases the mana cost of the spell—it won't count as casting it more than once. Incidentally, it's handled by competitive rule 601.2b, the same rule that handles the {X} in mana costs. It's the same kind of thing: another flexible mechanism where you pay more to improve the spell.

Suppose you want to target three creatures: you announce you intend to pay that cost twice, so you add 4UU to the mana cost of the spell (normally just U), making the spell cost 4UUU total. Then you pick your three targets, pay the cost, and put the spell on the stack. Now the spell's cast, and Prowess is triggered once.

Other abilities which add additional costs to spells are Kicker (Citanul Woodreaders) and Buyback (Capsize). Then there's Multikicker (Bloodhusk Ritualist) which, like Strive, can be paid any number of times.


Why does the Humility/Opalescence interaction work? There's a ruling on Opalescence that explains the interaction with Humility (as mentioned in this question).

However, I'd like an explanation of why this is the case. I get that, due to the layers, the type-setting applies first.

However, ability-adding/removing applies before power/toughness. Why do Humility and Opalescence both set power and toughness after Humility has removed the abilities from both cards?

Is it that, once you start applying some of a single ability, you apply the entire ability, even if that application happens across multiple layers? If this were so, the interaction only occurs because Opalescence "gets in early" by setting type, which means that it will still finish being applied after Humility removes its ability?

You are correct on both points.

The entire ability will be applied in the appropriate layer, as mentioned in the first part of Opalescence's gatherer ruling :

  [...] the type-changing effect applies at layer 4, but the rest happens in the applicable layers. The rest of it will apply even if the permanent loses its ability before it's finished applying. [...]

Opalescence's type-setting ability works because it's applied in an earlier layer (layer 4) than Humility's abilities-removing (layer 6).

Edit : Also works because Opalescence's doesn't affect itself, as Benjamin Cosman mentioned.


Can a captain take money from someone who died blocking or challenging it? When I steal from another player with only one card, if they challenge me and lose (or if they try to block and I challenge them and they lose), they are now out of the game.  According to a strict interpretation of the rules, they now have to return all their money to the pool and it seems like this would happen BEFORE the steal completes which means I now no longer get the money.

But when I play with friends we generally assume the captain gets the 2 coins and the rest is returned to the pool.

Which is correct?

I checked russian rules and under "challenges" section it mentions that if an action is successful, it resolves. Also, there is an example of play with exactly this situation (player, who being stolen from, unsuccessfully tries to defend and is out of the game) and it explicitly says that captain still gets 2 coins.


How would Etrata work with double strike? If I give Etrata, the Silencer double strike, what happens? Am I able to get off the second hit and exile a second creature? Or would she shuffle herself away after the first strike damage (and before the normal damage)?

Double Strike causes damage to be dealt at 2 separate times, with a chance for triggered abilities and other responses to happen in between.

Because of this, after Etrata deals damage the first time, during the First Strike damage step, she will be shuffled into the owner's library and won't deal damage a second time.

  510. Combat Damage Step

    510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage[...]

    510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously[....]

    510.3. Third, the active player gets priority.

    510.4. If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of combat step.

So Etrata will deal damage in step 2, which causes her ability to trigger. That triggered ability is put on the stack at the start of step 3 (whenever a player would get priority, as per 603.3). Her ability resolves after both players pass priority in step 3; which causes her to be shuffled into her owner's library.

She is now removed from combat and cannot deal (or take) any damage.

  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 701.14) 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.


Two Rooms and a Boom with few players I've had groups of 8, 10, and even 20+ to play Two Rooms and a Boom, and it was always a fantastic time. There was enough unknown information and things were hectic enough that things kept being interesting.

However, I've also tried it with just 6 players, and the game felt really weak. There were few enough people that by the end everyone had correctly determined everyone else's role, so the game always ended up as essentially a Rock-Paper-Scissors match at the last second between the two team leaders, each trying to guess what the other would do for the last switch. With essentially no other unknowns, most players felt powerless and uninvested in the outcome.

There are lots of ways to play Two Rooms and a Boom, what with many character types and card burying, but I haven't spent the time trying them out. What extra rules, if any, help the game stay strong with less than 8 players?

2R1B is designed to work well with larger groups, so it's difficult to make it work well in the 6-8 player space. I assume you're already following the rules that for 10 or fewer players you only have 3 rounds and cannot colour share.

Beyond that, the main considerations are to make card sharing risky while still being necessary, and encouraging deals, so I would suggest that with 6 players you might want to have President, Bomber and 4 Grey roles. As to which Greys, potentially something like Ahab+Moby, or Sniper+Target+Decoy, where it's highly beneficial to know who the other Greys are without giving away your own role, which might involve trying to find the President or Bomber and making a deal with them. Romeo+Juliet is also good, although they're actively trying to find each other so they're probably more open to publically revealing.

Burying a card can also make things interesting, although with only 6 players if you're burying a card then you either need to ensure that President and Bomber aren't buried, or you play with President's Daughter and Martyr plus 3 Grey cards, and try to make sure that those three don't cause issues with burying (either by only burying one of the four Red/Blue cards, or picking Greys that don't depend on each other). There's still an issue there, though, that you'll wind up with one team who has 2 players against one who may have only 1, which gets a bit unfair. You could make one of the Greys the Amnesiac/Drunk instead, who gains the role of the buried card in the last round, but that just means that you're really playing with the normal 6 cards but someone doesn't know how to play until round 3 (unless they can somehow divine their card earlier), which may wind up being even less fun.

The print-and-play rules include a number of suggested sets that go down to 6 players - the first group are more tutorial ones, but from page 21 (of the v4.0 rules) onwards there are several that are more designed to make for interesting decisions around card sharing and hostage trading. For example:

2 Rooms, 1 Boom and a Gunshot

President/Bomber
Sniper/Target/Decoy
Hot Potato

This one has a lot of potential for crazy shenanigans - the Hot Potato always loses, but anyone who card shares with it trades roles, so even if the President has worked out who the Bomber is, or the Sniper their Target, things can still go awry if they don't keep an eye on them.

6 Player Instant Death

President/Bomber
Doctor/Engineer
Tuesday Knight/Dr Boom

In this one, the President and the Bomber both know they need to card share with the Doctor and Engineer respectively, or risk their team losing. At the same time, if they share with Dr Boom or Tuesday Knight, it's an instant loss for them and a win for their opponents. So Dr Boom and Tuesday Knight will probably be claiming to be the Doctor and the Engineer. But then if that role is in the same room, they can counter-claim. Or maybe knowing that that's expected they'll try an even trickier tactic. Maybe the Engineer can claim Bomber to lure out Tuesday Knight - or claim President to try to find a teammate in Dr Boom (or find the Doctor).


Does Chance for Glory make your creature indestructible indefinitely if you skip the extra turn? If I cast Chance for Glory, and skip the extra turn using Sundial of the Infinite, do my creatures retain their Indestructible?

Your creatures will stay indestructible and you will not lose the game if you are able to prevent the end step of the extra turn from happening.
The effect of Chance for Glory has three parts:
The first part of the effect gives the creatures you control (on the battlefield) the Indestructible ability. This is a permanent change to those objects.
The second part of the effect creates a new Turn after the current turn that the controller of this Effect will take.
The third part of the effect creates a delayed trigger. The trigger refers to the turn that was just created.

603.7b A delayed triggered ability will trigger only once—the next time its trigger event occurs— unless it has a stated duration, such
as "this turn."

If that extra turn never happens or never gets to the end step then the trigger does not fire and the effect does not happen.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=452909

10/5/2018 Creatures you control gain indestructible indefinitely. If
you find a way to not lose the game during your next turn, they’ll
continue to be indestructible for as long as they remain on the
battlefield.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=228118

9/22/2011 If Sundial of the Infinite’s ability is activated before the
end step, any “at the beginning of the end step”-triggered abilities
won’t get the chance to trigger that turn because the end step is
skipped. Those abilities will trigger at the beginning of the end step
of the next turn. The same is true of abilities that trigger at the
beginning of other phases or steps (except upkeep).

Ending the Turn

713.1c The current phase and/or step ends. The game skips straight to the cleanup step. Skip any phases or steps between this phase or step
and the cleanup step.
713.3. Even though the turn ends, “at the beginning of the end step” triggered abilities don’t trigger because the end step is skipped.


Another Scenario: Can monster be targeted? Inspired by this question, I was curious if removing one vertical column of tiles would change the result. Id est for the following configuration:

H░█░
░█░M

is the Monster (M) a valid target for a ranged Hero (H) attack through the Obstacles (█)?

My thoughts are that M is a valid target for H because a line can traced from the top right corner of H to the bottom left corner of M that merely passes through the corner (specifically not along the edge) of both obstacles.

TL;DR Yes

Please have a look at the below given sketch. The line through the upper right corner A = (1,2) of the ranged Hero and the bottom left corner B = (3,0) of the monster is described by the equation y = -x+3. This line doesn't intersect any of both given obstacles since for any x < 2 the corresponding value of y is greater than 1 and for any x > 2 is smaller than 1. Hence, the solely common point is C = (2,1). Since the line (quoting "Line of Sight" (page 12) from the Rules of Play)

  only touches the corner of a blocked space (without passing through the space itself ), the target space is in line of sight.


Can you build a settlement anywhere if you have the resources for a settlement and a road? In Settlers of Catan, it says you need a road to build a new settlement (placement rules apply). If you have the resources available to build both at the same time, can this settlement be played wherever the player wants it to go?

No

Your first two settlements (placed during set-up) are special and can be placed in any valid position on the board, after that new settlements must be connected by road to existing settlements.

The relevant parts of the rules are:

Under building roads (bottom of page 4) it says "A new road must always connect to 1 of your existing roads, settlements, or cities."
Under building settlements (top of page 5) it says "Each of your settlements must
connect to at least 1 of your own roads."

Note that you can build as much as you like per turn, so you could build several road segments and a settlement in the same turn (as long as you have the resources).


Which alternative methods of choosing a starting player actually WORK? So I've been noticing that there's a vogue in gaming recently for the starting player to be chosen by some method other than simple lot.  I'm wondering if this is a good fashion, or if it's just getting silly.  Here's a representative list of some of the starting-player-choosing mechanism I can think of off the top of my head:

Youngest player first (e.g. St Petersburg)
Player with the longest beard first (Once Upon A Time)
Player with the pointiest ears (Small World)
Most well-travelled player (Ticket To Ride)
Nicest player (Dungeon Lords)
Player who lives closest to water (Le Havre)

Others can probably add a few examples of their own.  My question is: are any of these actually superior, on a long-term basis, to just choosing at random?

I do like "youngest player first" in games where the first player has an advantage, on the assumption that if you're playing with children it's nice to give them a little help - but on the other hand, if the youngest player at your table is in their 30s and a boardgames fanatic, the rule may end up hurting more than it helps.

Likewise, in Ticket To Ride the "best travelled-player" is charming to start with, but can get annoying as the same person who spent 3 months seeing Europe by train goes first forever.  And this is before we get onto largely subjective quantities like ear-pointiness and niceness (in all fairness to Dungeon Lords, I think that's a joke and really you're meant to end up choosing the start player randomly).  Are these rules mostly just there to be cute - and quickly ignored - or should be follow them religiously?

As a corollary question, are there any games that vary the starting player by means other than pure randomness?  (I suddenly remember Gloom, where the player who's having the worst day goes first; but again this is really subjective.)  Also, are there any games that have rules for fairly assigning seating order - since in some games sitting "upstream" of the correct player can be even more important than who goes first?

We use Start Player every time.  That gives us the fun and twisted subjective criteria that is such a blast to work out, but also injects the truly random so that no one player continuously gets picked as the starting player for any particular game.  Plus, the cards are hilarious!

It is the best of both worlds.


Boss Monster expansion problem I Have both Boss Monster and Boss Monster The Next Level. If I was to combine the two of them would a shuffle all the decks together or is there a maximum number of cards for both decks.

When combining Boss Monster with Boss Monster: The Next Level you still use the standard hero allocations, i.e.

  Two Players: 13 Heroes, 8 Epic Heroes
  Three Players: 17 Heroes, 12 Epic Heroes
  Four Players: 25 Heroes, 16 Epic Heroes

But you choose the hero sets from either two packs. For example, you can use the regular Heroes from Boss Monster, and the Epic Heroes from The Next Level, or vice-versa.

Heroes marked with a star can then be added on top of those numbers, or used in place of ones marked with the appropriate number of players (the star heroes are mostly promo ones, and are intended to make the game harder/more interesting).

You also combine each of the Spells, Rooms, and Bosses decks from both sets to form larger decks.


Are there a limited number of counters that can be used? Poison Spit adds poison counters to other players. If I run out of poison counters, can I keep giving them, ie use other tokens to represent them?

The rules don't cover this, so you have to decide as a group. However, my advice is that there's no reason running out of tokens should limit the effect. You wouldn't run out in a 2-player game, so why should you run out when there are 6 players? If you have to give out 5 tokens and only have 3, how do you decide who gets one? The simplest solution is, as you said, just use something else to track them.


"Target attacking creature gets -3/-0 until end of turn" Help a noob out! So I understand the concept of dealing damage in the form of -X/-X to a creature.

The card in question is Elven Palisade.
But with the example in my title, what's the point? If I use this enchantment on my opponent to give a creature of his -3/-0 until end of turn, wouldn't that -3/-0 disappear at the end of my turn and then his creature would be back to normal again? If I was dealing damage and reduced his toughness to 0 or less then I'd understand the significance, it would kill the creature.

I know there are similar questions out there but they usually revolved around the toughness, not power. I'm also fully aware that my vocab here might make some of you cringe, but I'm just starting and trying to learn. Any help would be awesome! Thanks.

The -3/-0 of Elven Palisade is the effect of its activated ability. It's not something that happens when you cast the palisade (which indeed will usually happen on your turn).

You can activate the ability (and pay the cost of sacrificing a forest) any time you have priority. But (as noted in the comments by Gendolkari) you must choose an attacking creature as the target, so generally you will do this during the opponent's turn after they declared attackers and make one of the attacking creatures less powerful until the end of their turn.


Can I cast adventures from my graveyard? Say I have a creature with Adventure in my graveyard, for example Murderous Rider, and something allowing me to cast creatures from my graveyard (for example Liliana, Untouched by Death ).
Am I allowed to cast the adventure part of the card from my graveyard?

What if I'm allowed to cast instant and sorceries instead of creatures?

So this is what the Throne of Eldraine Release Notes have to say about this:

If you cast an adventurer card as an Adventure, use only its alternative characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast that spell. For example, if Giant Killer is exiled with the last ability of Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, you can't cast it as Chop Down.

This settles your first question. If you are allowed to cast creature cards (or Zombie cards in case of Liliana) you are not allowed to cast them as adventures.
Moreover, in contrast to any other answer you have received, it seems you can cast your adventure card from the graveyard, if you are allowed to cast instants and sorceries from your graveyard, for example by the emblem of Jaya Ballard. I was pretty sure this is not how Wizards intends this to play out as well though, and I thought they will make use of this bit of text in the rules about casting a spell:

601.3. A player can't begin to cast a spell unless a rule or effect allows that player to cast it. If that player is no longer allowed to cast that spell after completing its proposal, the casting of the spell is illegal and the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed (see rule 721, "Handling Illegal Actions").

Edit after rules update:
The rules update clarified this rules interaction by adding rule 601.3e to the rule book:

601.3e. If a rule or effect states that only an alternative set of characteristics or a subset of characteristics are considered to determine if a card or copy of a card is legal to cast, those alternative characteristics replace the object's characteristics prior to determining whether the player may begin to cast it.
Example: Garruk's Horde says, in part, "You may cast the top card of your library if it's a creature card." If you control Garruk's Horde and the top card of your library is a noncreature card with morph, you may cast it using its morph ability.
Example: Melek, Izzet Paragon says, in part, "You may cast the top card of your library if it's an instant or sorcery card." If you control Melek, Izzet Paragon and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, an adventurer creature card whose Adventure is an instant named Chop Down, you may cast Chop Down but not Giant Killer. If instead you control Garruk's Horde and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, you may cast Giant Killer but not Chop Down.

So, as it stands, it is legal to cast Chop Down with Jaya's Emblem from your graveyard. Note that in this case, the adventure card, if it is not countered, is exiled by its own ability, which means you could still cast the Giant Killer afterwards...
Note though, that what the other answers said about finding instant cards is still valid. You won't be able to cast Chop Down (or Giant Killer) with the ability of Torrential Gearhulk or any other card that specifically targets a non-creature card in your graveyard, because in your graveyard, it is not an instant and it would thus be an illegal target. As murgatroid already mentioned, if a card that targets creature cards allows you to cast that card, this is not restricted to casting it as a creature spell, so in this case you could also cast the adventure, if it is an adventurer card.
I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact, that cards that allow you to cast instants from your graveyard specifically mention instant CARDS, which is the term usually used for instants in the graveyard (or anywhere except the stack). Instants on the stack are usually referred to as instant SPELLS (Technically there is a difference here since copies of instants are spells but not cards). In this case, the card is the object itself as it CHANGES ZONES. The rules clearly state now, that only the characteristics of the part of the card you actually want to cast matter at that point, which is counterintuitive, because it behaves like it's on the stack already, whereas usually, the oracle text would not refer to a spell as a card (even if it obviously also is a card on the stack).
tldr: No for the first, Yes for the second question.


Do cards that say "all creatures" affect creatures with hexproof? When a creature or player has hexproof and a player casts a card such as Cleansing Nova:

  Choose one —

  Destroy all creatures.
  Destroy all artifacts and enchantments.

Do creatures with hexproof die too?

Yes, cards with "destroy all ..." don't target the permanents they affect, so Hexproof does not protect them from being destroyed.

Generally speaking, if the word 'target' doesn't appear on the card, the spell or ability isn't targeting. Auras are an exception (see rule 114.1b), and sometimes the word 'target' is in the reminder text (e.g. the provoke ability).
(There might be more exceptions, since Magic: The Gathering is an ever evolving game.)


Are there any non-green, non-artifact mana ramp cards? I have looked and can't seem to find any.

I have seen many green cards and some artifacts that do this, but nothing in Red, Blue, Black or White.

Are there any?

Note: By "Mana Ramp" I mean a card that generates mana, or one that lets you play more than one land per turn.  The end result, for example, would be on turn 4, playing a white only deck, I could tap more than 4 mana.  (Normally you only get one land per turn so a max of 4 mana on turn 4.)

There are, but they are purposefully few and far between.

Mana acceleration is considered to be in green's part of the "color pie," with the exception of the occasional black card, and a little bit of a fast-mana theme in red (formerly black). Blue and white occasionally get ways to cheat on mana a bit, but only when they're tied into some other element of those colors.

This answer has discussion tailored to Commander, which also applies pretty well to other casual and multiplayer decks.

In competitive terms, the most relevant cards are:

Dark Ritual is the classic mana acceleration card, in black. It's still an influential card in Legacy.
High Tide features in Legacy blue decks. The trick with this is to take one "big turn" where you develop tons of mana by playing cards that untap your lands, like Time Spiral and Candelabra of Tawnos.
In Modern, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Seething Song (this one's banned at the moment) — along with Manamorphose, which actually gives you extra mana if you have a cost-reducer or copy-card in play — are commonly played in storm decks.
In formats with fetchlands, Deathrite Shaman is a mana dork that doesn't actually require a green deck to work very effectively.

Note that there are a lot of colorless cards that are used to cast normal colored cards (like Ancient Tomb).

Also note that oftentimes it's more effective to "cheat" on costs (using reanimation or hand-to-play cards like Show and Tell) than to accelerate your mana.


copying with Saheeli, Sublime Artificer If I turn an artifact into any creature for that turn that has an enter the battlefield effect, such as Vizier of the Scorpion, do I amass one? what if the artifact entered the battlefield that turn?

A nontoken permanent “enters the battlefield” when it’s moved onto the battlefield from another zone. A token “enters the battlefield” when it’s created. See rules 403.3, 603.6a, 603.6d, and 614.12.

Cards such as Vizier of the Scorpion say "When Vizier of the Scorpion enters the battlefield, [do something]". But in this case you are turning an artifact that has already entered the battlefield into Vizier of the Scorpion. Since the artifact has already entered the battlefield, the trigger doesn't happen. It doesn't happen even if the artifact entered the battlefield this turn.

To get the artifact to amass 1, you need to turn it into a copy of Vizier of the Scorpion before it enters the battlefield, i.e. while it's on the stack.


Can I buy a district after landing there by taking the train? In Monopoly City can I buy a district after landing there taking the train via a station?

Background:
I rolled the dice, went forward and ended up on a district owned by me that includes a train station. I decided to take the train to Diamond Hills which had a train station as well, but was not owned by anyone yet. Can I now purchase Diamond Hills?

Yes, the rules specifically tell you you can. Under the Where Did You Land section on (page 7)

A district you own:
Do nothing unless there is a railroad on it. If so, you can immediately move to any other district with a railroad on it and buy it or auction it (if it is unowned) or pay rent (if it belongs to another player).


"Well" building special function clarification Well card text:

  During the producer phase, if the owner of a well produces at least 2
  goods, he draws an additional card from the card supply, adding it to
  his hand. It matters not whether he is the producer or not.

Let's say i have two production buildings.
The first is busy (one card face down on it), second one is empty.
Producer phase starts, i'm not the producer, so i produce an additional good on
my second building.

So I produced one good at this specific phase and I'm currently producing two goods in total as I have 2 busy production buildings at the end of the phase.

Question: should I draw an additonal card in this case?

Edit:

Another way to formulate the question would be:

Which one of this rewritten rule corresponds to the rule? :

During the producer phase, if the owner of a well produces at least 2 new goods, he draws an additional card from the card supply, adding it to his hand.
During the producer phase, if the total number of goods lying on production buildings is at least 2, he draws an additional card from the card supply, adding it to his hand.

No, you do not draw an extra card.

The rules say the following under the Producer role:

  If a player has no empty production buildings, he produces no goods in this round.

Consequently it's established that the production of a good is dependent on the availability of a building to do so. If you only have one production building free then you can only produce at most one good, and so you do not qualify for the Well bonus.

In answer to the edited part of the question:

The correct interpretation of the rule is rule 1 - i.e. the goods must be new.

I think your misunderstanding is shown by the following statement "I'm currently producing two goods in total". This is not correct - you have produced one good already, and in the current phase you are producing one new good.

Note that to produce two goods in a single Producer phase you must either be the Producer, or have an Aquaduct built.


If I use a Mystery Play in Fluxx, does that count as a play? As far as I know, Free Action on a New Rule means it doesn't count as a Play when used. If I use the Mystery Play rule or any of its analogues does it count as a Play?

Analogues of Mystery Play include (some with slight variations such as conditional requirements for use):

Wormhole in Star Fluxx
Magic Shoes in Oz Fluxx
Egads! in Batman Fluxx
Open The Door in Monster Fluxx
Magic Portal in Adventure Time Fluxx
Chemical X in Cartoon Network Fluxx
Time Doorway in Regular Show Fluxx
Great Idea! in Stoner Fluxx

Free Actions do not count as a Play so Mystery Play and its analogues do not count as a Play and can be used anytime during your turn either before, during, or after drawing and playing.

Reference: http://faq.looneylabs.com/fluxx-games/faq-for-fluxx-unthemed-versions#723


Damage redirection in Warhammer Invasion Some cards like Warrior Priest from Empire deck has a damage redirection rule. How exactly does this rule work?

For example: if my opponent assigns 1 damage to my Warrior Priest can I simply move the damage token to any unit surviving the battle and ignore the damage on the Priest or is it an extra damage that Priest will deal but will die anyway because he was assigned enough damage to kill him?

The order should proceed like this:

All damage is assigned (leave the damage tokens near the unit to be damaged)  Note: a target may be over assigned damage at the player's discretion but this is not required except in the case of damage cancellation even when you know the unit will survive due to other protective effects
Certain effects trigger and are resolved including redirecting damage.  In this case, the Priests are able to redirect one damage point, preferably to a unit with toughness
Damage is moved onto the card, destroying any cards that still have damage equal to its hit points.

Source - FAQ and Rules on Fantasy Flight's website


Can you pay more life than you have? If I have 35 life, and I have Lich's Mirror, which

  If you would lose the game, instead shuffle your hand, your graveyard, and all permanents you own into your library, then draw seven cards and your life total becomes 20.

can I play Aetherflux Reservoir?

  Pay 50 life: Aetherflux Reservoir deals 50 damage to target creature or player.

Would I be able to play Aetherflux Reservoir, use up 35 life, use Lich's Mirror to get back up to 20 and pay the last 15 life? Or would Lich's Mirror require me to shuffle the card back into my deck first? In which place could I use Exquisite Archangel?

  If you would lose the game, instead exile Exquisite Archangel and your life total becomes equal to your starting life total

Or would I just not be able to play this Aetherflux Reservoir in this manner at all?

If Rhox Faithmender

  If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.

is on the field when Lich's Mirror is played, do I get 40 life, or is he shuffled back into the deck first? Would I get 40 life if I used Exquisite Archangel?

If my opponent plays a card such as Approach of the Second Sun

  If Approach of the Second Sun was cast from your hand and you've cast another spell named Approach of the Second Sun this game, you win the game.

for the second time, and I have Exquisite Archangel and Rhox Faithmender, and I have 8 life, do I exile Exquisite Archangel and get 20 life, 40 life, or 32 life?

What would happen if I had 30 life when Approach of the Second Sun was played and I exiled Exquisite Archangel? Would I be reduced to twenty life, or could I remain at 30 life?

Sorry for all of the questions. I am somewhat new to magic, and just got a deck, and was wondering about the new combos that I could do with them.

No, you cannot pay more life than you have.  From the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

  118.4. If a cost or effect allows a player to pay an amount of life greater than 0, the player may do so only if his or her life total is greater than or equal to the amount of the payment. If a player pays life, the payment is subtracted from his or her life total; in other words, the player loses that much life. (Players can always pay 0 life.)

You're not allowed to "split the cost" to pay part now and part later, either.  All costs must be payed in full before a spell or ability can be activated.CR 117.3

In order to use Aetherflux Reservoir's ability, you have to have 50 life to pay the cost up front.


How do Heartless Hidetsugu and Gisela interact? Let's say that I have Gisela, Blade of Goldnight in play and my opponent controls Heartless Hidetsugu. We both have 20 life.

When Heartless Hidetsugu is tapped, each player takes 10 damage, which is half of their life. Gisela doubles the damage my opponent takes, so that 10 becomes 20. Gisela also halves the damage that I take, so I take 5 instead of 10.

Is this correct, or am I missing something? If this works, the Heartless Hidetsugu will always kill opponents with even life totals while Gisela is in play. If they have an odd life total, then they will be reduced to one life instead.

You didn't miss anything. Wizards preempted this with their ruling on Gisela

  Gisela doubles damage dealt to opponents and permanents your opponents control from any source, including sources controlled by those opponents.

So it's pretty straightforward: double of a half is a whole. As you noted, the rounding could put it at 1 instead of 0, but you're playing red: surely you have 1 point of burn somewhere in your deck, right? :-)

There's no rules that say "Super-powerful combos aren't permitted".

So yes, your opponent would be incredibly unwise to tap it, although you could always Act of Treason it and tap it yourself!


Gloomhaven: road events and scenario reset When you encounter a road event, it could cause your party to take damage. When you die in a scenario according to the rulebook you can retry it at full health, without doing another road event. Unless I miss understood, wouldn't it make more sense resetting the party health at the value after the road event? Feels like I can just exploit this rule and avoid the effects of the road event by dying intentionally in the encounter.

You understand the rules correctly. If you fail and retry the scenario, the Road Event effect no longer applies. Thematically, retrying the scenario isn't like loading your save in a video game. The failed attempt actually happened (which is why you only exhaust instead of die, and why you get to keep coins, treasure contents and experience). You could also view it as a balancing measure: if the scenario was too hard with the Road Event penalty, maybe it'll be just the right difficulty without one.

On the flip side: positive Road Event effects and Bless cards from donations also don't apply to retries.

And yes, you can game this system by dying intentionally, but then you could also repeatedly die intentionally to go through your entire stack of City Events in one go. With cooperative board games, the game kinda has to assume that you're willing to experience the game as intended, since no one can stop you from cheating if you would like to.