Will an ability on the stack resolve if its source is removed? Player A casts and resolves Nekrataal. Nekrataal's enters-the-battlefield ability triggers and A and targets Player B's Suntail Hawk.

In response, Player B casts Swords to Plowshares, targeting Nekrataal.

The stack looks like this (top first):

Swords to Plowshares, targeting Nekrataal.
Nekrataal's triggered ability, targeting Suntail Hawk.

Does the Suntail Hawk die?

My thinking is mixed. If I remove the source of the triggered ability, what happens?

The ability doesn't happen. Either the ability is removed from the stack when its source is removed, or the ability is removed when it tries to resolve and sees that the source isn't there.
The triggered ability is simply an object on the stack, and it doesn't matter what happens to the Nekrataal that created it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Your Hawk will die. Once a triggered ability has triggered, it is independent from its source:

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source because the effect needs to be divided checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.


Effect of "Thran Lens" on Devotion I want to know the effects of Thran Lens on a devotion-dependent enchantment creature, like a god or something.

I read somewhere that, when a permanent becomes colorless, the Thran Lens makes the 'cost symbols' turn into 'colorless'. With this in mind, if I have Heliod, God of the Sun on the battlefield will he ever be a creature while Thran Lens is on the battlefield?

Mana cost and color are two completely separate characteristics. Thran Lens only modifies the color, not the mana cost, and so Thran Lens has no effect on devotion.

Devotion

  700.5. A player’s devotion to [color] is equal to the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents that player controls.

Mana Cost

  202.1. A card’s mana cost is indicated by mana symbols near the top of the card.

Color

  202.2. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame.

  202.2f Effects may change an object’s color, give a color to a colorless object, or make a colored object become colorless


How does this interaction between Black Sun's Zenith and Geralf's Messenger resolve? My opponent has a Geralf's Messenger in play with a single +1/+1 counter on it. He also has a  Diregraf Captain in play. Due to the combined effects, the Messenger is a 5/4.

When I cast a Black Sun's Zenith with X declared as 3, what happens to the Messenger?

From a first glance, the messenger would die while it still had a +1/+1 counter on it. Is this correct?

In this particular instance, the Messenger comes back.

For the general reasoning, take a look at this answer: "Why doesn't Undying trigger if a creature with +1/+1 counters dies from -1/-1 counters?"

The important thing in this specific scenario is that the game checks state-based actions in multiple "waves":

  704.3. ... If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that
  are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the
  check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been
  performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are
  waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority.

What happens when you BSZ for 3 with a Diregraf Captain and a 5/4 Geralf's Messenger in play?

When BSZ resolves, you put three -1/-1 counters on both creatures. Then, after it has resolved, you check state-based actions:

Diregraf Captain is at -1/-1, so it would die. Geralf's Messenger is at 2/1 (3/2, +1/+1 from its +1/+1 counter, -3/-3 from the -1/-1 counters, +1/+1 from Diregraf Captain), so it stays on the battlefield.
Simultaneously, +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel, leaving the Geralf's Messenger with zero +1/+1 counters and two -1/-1 counters.

So, now you put Diregraf Captain in the graveyard. Then, before anyone gets priority or any triggers are checked (e.g. Blood Artist's), check SBAs again:

Now Geralf's Messenger is a 1/0 (3/2, -2/-2 from counters), so it dies.

When the Messenger dies, its unambiguously last state on the battlefield was having no +1/+1 counters. So, its undying ability triggers. You'll check SBAs again to make sure there are no new ones, then put the trigger on the stack, and then the active players gets priority  (with the undying ability still on the stack).


What aspects of a game are not protected under copyright? Certain aspects of a game are protected by copyright, while others are not. You certainly cannot copy the particular expression of the rules, but the mechanics themselves aren't copyrightable.

For example, why does the d20 Open Gaming License exist since Hasbro only releases game mechanics (at least usually) as open content, and this material is already not protectable by copyright law?

Fundamentally, the OGL exists to (1) allow D&D 3.0 supplements to be made by 3rd parties and (2) to ensure the 3.0 Dev Team could take their mechanics with them if they got fired.

(1) can be seen in the explosion of material in 2000-2002.(2) can be seen clearly in Pathfinder and Arcana Unearthed.

While mechanics can't be copyrighted, and the US Patent Office almost never¹ grants patents on game mechanics, the Open Gaming License provides a means of reusing the literal text, and is a two-way license. Any mechanics you don't declare as product identity are likewise open.

This sharing could have been bidirectional with Wizards, but they appear to have decided not to go that route in the 3.x era.

The ability to use the literal text, combined with the lack of a formal OGL mark², only the D20 STL one, at the time of inception, allowed D&D-compatible d20 System games to flourish; they all "required" the D&D core rules³, and thus helped drive sales.

In general, it made D&D 3E one of the most used game systems in print... at least until Wizards moved on to 4E. And the D20 SRD is still one of the most used reference documents in the open gaming movement; D&D 4E no longer is part of that. (It will be interesting to see how 5E fares, and if it uses the OGL or not.)

Sidebar: Fonts

ML-111 specifies that typefaces are not copyrightable in the US unless individual characters constitute recognizable works of art.

ML-443 reads, in part:

  Pursuant to Congress's judgement in the 1976 act and case law, the Copyright Office does not regiser claims to copyright in typeface designs as such, whether generated by a computer program, or represented in drawings, hard metal type, or any other form.

It does note that the program to generate a picture might be copyrighted, but the font itself can't be even if the font-as-program is.

The earlier  ML-393 notes that font-as-program is unregisterable as the font itself is in fact not copyrightable, with the exception of fonts that are comprised of recognizable artwork.

It should be noted that the particular "look and feel" is a viable and defensible trademark, and for games, Fonts are part of that look and feel.

This isn't legal advice; for legal advice, contact an attorney at law licensed for your jurisdiction.

Notes

¹: The exceptions are few and thus highly notable. Wizards' patent on "Tapping" in card games being the most notable of the lot.
²: The OGL mark is a later add-on; Wizards only released the d20 system logo and a license for it requiring one to not include certain mechanics...
³: not that most of them can't be played without them. The missing content issue was solved in several d20 games by simply publishing an OGL-only web-enhancement with the missing rules.


Can Dismember kill my Gloryscale Viashino after I cast Armadillo Cloak? I have a Gloryscale Viashino creature on the board. I cast the spell Armadillo Cloak to enchant this creature. My opponent responds playing Dismember.

His intention is to kill my creature before it gets the bonus from the enchantment and before it gets +3/+3 (Armadillo cloak is a multicolored spell). Here is the rules text from Gloryscale Viashino:

Whenever you cast a multicolored spell, Gloryscale Viashino gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

I think that he cannot kill my creature, because he already got the +3/+3 from its ability when I cast the spell, not when it resolves. This means that my Gloryscale Viashino should be 6/6 before Dismember resolves. What is the correct ruling here?

Your opponent can kill your creature, because he can respond to the trigger that gives it +3/+3 until end of turn. Here's the sequence of actions:

You cast Armadillo Cloak, putting it on the stack. Then the triggered ability from Gloryscale Viashino goes on the stack.

  Stack:

  triggered ability
  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 3/3.

Your opponent casts Dismember.

  Stack:

  Dismember
  triggered ability
  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 3/3.

Both players yield priority (decline to cast anything), so the top item on the stack resolves.

  Stack:

  triggered ability
  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a -2/-2. It gets put in the graveyard for having 0 or less toughness.

Both players again yield priority, so the top item on the stack resolves. That's the triggered ability, but it doesn't do anything because Gloryscale Viashino is no longer in play.

  Stack:

  Armadillo Cloak

Both players again yield priority, so the top item on the stack resolves - or would resolve, except that it's a spell with an illegal target, so instead Armadillo Cloak gets countered.

For educational purposes, here's what could happen if your opponent cast Dismember at the wrong time (for him):

You cast Armadillo Cloak, putting it on the stack. Then the triggered ability from Gloryscale Viashino goes on the stack.

  Stack:

  triggered ability
  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 3/3.

Both players yield priority, so the top item on the stack resolves. This is the triggered ability which pumps the Viashino.

  Stack:

  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 6/6.

Your opponent casts Dismember.

  Stack:

  Dismember
  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 6/6.

Both players yield priority, so the top item on the stack resolves.

  Stack:

  Armadillo Cloak

  Gloryscale Viashino is a 1/1.

Both players again yield priority, so the top item on the stack resolves. This time, the target of Armadillo Cloak is still legal, so it resolves as normal.


Under what circumstances is a declare allowed to "pause" upon seeing the dummy? My understanding is that this is allowed when a declarer has "technical" problems. So in a sense, the question is about what constitutes a legitimate technical problem.

If the declarer wins the first trick, he can pause, because there is the issue of what to lead next.

But suppose there is a singleton of the first led suit in the dummy, the play of which is forced. Suppose the declarer anticipates having a technical problem in the closed hand regarding whether to accept or refuse the first trick. Can he pause to study the whole hand before playing from dummy or does he need to play immediately from the dummy and wait until the trick arrives at his closed hand before pausing? That is to say, since he is playing both the dummy and hand, can he pause at the dummy based on a problem in hand?

Suppose dummy has a singleton, East plays the ace, declarer has Kx (or Qx), and wants to make a decision whether or not to false card with the honor. Is this an allowable technical problem for a pause either at dummy or in hand?

If the opponents retain the lead, must the declarer wait until he has a technical problem regarding an opposing lead to pause and study the hand?

And finally, can the two sides mutually agree that the declarer will not play from dummy for at least say, five seconds, so that BOTH sides will have a chance to study the board?

Always - it is a recommended action.

As Declarer I always pause for the 5 or so seconds you recommend when Dummy comes down; as East I will do so (by initially playing my card to the first trick face down) whenever Declarer has been so discourteous and undiscerning as to not do so. Occasionally I have to pause longer, for particularly complex hands, but I do so with the understanding that I have keyed this difficulty to the opponents, perhaps earlier than they otherwise would have.

Because of restrictions on Dummy during play of the hand, Declarer need not be concerned with the provision of Unauthorized Information to partner. However there is great benefit in not keying moderately difficult hands to the opponents. Develop the habit of always studying Dummy before playing to the first trick and your results will improve slightly.

It is always improper and potentially unethical for Dummy to play a card from Dummy before said card is specifically called by Declarer - even if that card is a singleton to be played to the opening lead. It is very possible for Dummy to provide Unauthorized Information to Declarer, and that is a reason for many of the restrictions on Dummy's actions during play of the hand.

from Laws of Duplicate Bridge - 2008

  Law 41 - COMMENCEMENT OF PLAY

  D. Dummy's Hand

  ... Declarer plays both his hand and that of dummy.

  Law 43 - DUMMY's LIMITATIONS

  Except as Law 42 allows:

  A. Limitation on Dummy

  (c) Dummy must not participate in the play, nor may he
  communicate anything about the play to declarer.

  B. If a Violation Occurs

  Dummy is liable to penalty under Law 90 for any
  violation of the limitations listed in A1 and A2
  above.

The above is very clear. If my partner ever suggests the play of a singleton from Dummy (which as noted above is all that Dummy can do, as only Declarer is able to make a play from Dummy by specifying the card.) I will call the Director myself to further reinforce the inappropriateness of the action.


Are the gods of Theros considered creatures in my hand? For example if I have one god of Theros in my hand like  Xenagos, God of Revels Can I play it using a  Quicksilver Amulet even though I dont have enough devotion?

You can still play it with the Amulet. On Xenagos' page:

  The type-changing ability that can make the God not be a creature functions only on the battlefield. It’s always a creature card in other zones, regardless of your devotion to its color.


Selfless Spirit Vs Unsummon My opponent plays Wrath of God. In response I use Chord of Calling to get Selfless Spirit, so I can sacrifice Selfless Spirit and have all of my creatures become indestructible. Then my opponent responds to that action with Unsummon.

Would the Selfless Spirit's ability still resolves before the Wrath of God (and would it be sacrificed) - or - will Selfless return to my hand (and its ability will not resolve)?

Costs are paid when the ability is put on the stack.  Sacrificing Selfless Spirit happens as soon as you put the ability on the stack. The selfless spirit is no longer there to be the target of unsummon, even though the ability is still on the stack.


point buy TCG CCG deck building mechanics what games are there that use a point buy system for deck building instead of a card limit?
what are the obvious effects this would have on the style of play?

I am only currently aware of one example from the video game Rage, there is a CCG mini-game where your deck is built of 75 points and each card has a specific point cost.  This example is a very basic one and i am interested in using this mechanic in a more expansive custom game.

Conan had a "point buy" system for elements of it's build (in addition to the Netrunner commented above).

The biggest flaw is book-keeping - it's fairly easy to count that you have X cards, or that you only have Y copies of a card. Counting the total number of points in a deck is a lot more math, and that's not always a selling feature.


The Proper use of Stations in Ticket to Ride Europe I played a game of Ticket to Ride Europe recently, I don't own it but am vaguely familiar with the rules. When we started playing however there was some confusion about the placement of stations and I was out-voted 3:1. What the rules specifically say:

  A Train Station allows its owner to use one, and only one, of the routes belonging
  to another player, into (or out of) that city to help him connect the cities on his
  Destination Tickets.

My interpretation is that this allows you to do what it says, use a single route owned by another player. The next bit toward the end of the section however states:

  If a player uses the same Station to help connect cities on several
  different Tickets, he must use the same route into the city with the
  Station for all of those Tickets. The Train Station owner does not
  need to decide which route he will use until the end of the game.

At this point the same route into the city statement was picked up really strongly. The group believed that this means several routes going out of a city could be used, as long as the same route into the city was used. In the end this meant that during the scoring they believed in the following diagram (red routes):

A continuous path from Frankfurt->Madrid exists.
No continuous path from Brest->Madrid exists because it didn't use the same route into Paris as the Frankfurt route, and therefore couldn't share the blue link.

Can someone confirm if I'm correct, in that you can only use 1 link, and in this scenario both destination tickets are completed at the end of the game. If so can you think of any convincing arguments I can put forward to the group?

There's no concept of direction of travel in Ticket to Ride.

  If, by the end of the game, a player has created a continuous path of his color plastic trains between the two cities named on a Destination Ticket he holds, he scores the additional points indicated by the Point Value on the Ticket. If he has failed to complete a continuous path between those cities, he deducts the Point Value on the Ticket from his total score.

A path between cities must be created. Nothing about traveling from one of the cities to the other city.

As such, the Brest-Madrid path exists because it did use the same route into Paris as the Frankfurt-Madrid path, the Pamplona-Paris route.

Ticket to Ride is a simple game with straightforward rules. It's obvious to me that the purpose of the second rule you quoted is to prevent the station from being used to borrow two different routes. In fact, this is stated explicitly earlier in the rules (quoted below). It's a botched attempt to clarify this rule (which was already plenty clear).

  A Train Station allows its owner to use one, and only one, of the routes belonging to
  another player, into (or out of) that city to help him connect the cities on his
  Destination Tickets.

This means your group is clearly wrong when they believe that several routes going out of a city could be borrowed.

My proposed rewording of the second rule you quoted is the following:

  Only one route is ever chosen per station. This means that a player can't have a station grant him the use of two routes for two different tickets, but any number of tickets can use the chosen route. The Train Station owner does not need to decide which route he will use until the end of the game.


If both players have Boros Battleshaper, can I cancel out my opponent's ability with mine? Boros Battleshaper's ability reads

  At the beginning of each combat, up to one target creature attacks or blocks this combat if able and up to one target creature can't attack or block this combat.

My opponent and I each have a Boros Battleshaper, and my opponent is attacking. If she targets one of my other creatures to prevent it from blocking, can I use my Battleshaper’s ability to ‘force’ the effected creature to block?

No. If you tried, then the creature would have both “blocks this combat if able” and “can’t block this combat”. The latter would win. First off, the first one says “if able”, and it isn’t able. A tapped creature wouldn’t be able to block for the same reason.
Second, even if it didn’t say “if able”, it wouldn’t matter because “can’t” always wins.

The Magic Golden Rules

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.


Parcheesi dice roll of double when all pawns still in nest We are in debate as to the roll of a double on the dice rule when the player throwing the dice has all of the pawns still in the nest.  Since this does not appear to be 100% clear in the rules, it is being debated that regardless if all pawns are in the nest or not, that if a double roll is thrown, then that player is allowed to throw the dice again.  The contention is that if all pawns are in the nest, then that player has no pawn in the field of play and should not be allowed to roll again.  We have searched for a ruling on this and have not found any clear answer.  Please give some clear ruling on this!

Depends on which rules you're using.
If you're playing with these Parker Brothers rules, you only get another turn if you used all of the double roll. If you can't use all of the roll, you don't get an extra turn.

Doubles
If a player throws doubles he has another turn and continues to have another turn as long as he throws doubles, excepting that if he cannot complete the total move on the dice he does not have another throw.

(emphasis original)
If you're playing with these Milton Bradley rules, you get another throw regardless, unless it is your third doubles in a row.

Doublets
A roll of matching dice is called doublets. [...]

If you roll doublets before all of your pawns are entered, take your turn as usual, and then roll again.
Doublets Bonus: If you roll doublets after all four of your pawns are entered, use the four numbers on the tops and bottoms of the dice for movement. [...] If you can't take all four parts of your move, don't move your pawns at all. Whether you move or not, roll again.
Doublets Penalty: The third consecutive time you roll doublets, you may not move forward. Instead, your pawn closest to HOME (even if it's on your home path) must be returned to your START circle and re-entered later. This ends your turn.


Weird Chance and Community Chest Cards I recieved a monopoly set for Christmas. Version C1009.
The Chance and Community Chest cards are non standard. For instance one instructs you to throw all the 100 dollar bills in the air.
Does anyone have a list of the Chance and Community Chest Cards that are accepted as the gold standard for tournament play?

The following website gives the list of cards for the american versions.
List of Chance and Community Chest cards
If you are playing a version for another country, e.g. U.K. or Australia, the cards will differ. Also, tournaments must use officially licensed Hasbro Monopoly games.
For more details, there is a Wiki How to host an official Monopoly tourment:
Wiki How to host a Monopoly tournement


I’m in a diplomatic fix! I’m England and as you can see I’m in quite a conundrum, I missed an earlier build period so was unable to supplement my forces and be in a better position. Me and France are allies however Germany and Russia are my enemies.

Russia has tried to be friendly, but I can’t trust it too much but I guess he might be desperate as he’s spread too thin. As England what are my best moves now?

I was thinking I should do move my fleet in EDI to NWG, convoy my army in YOR to NWY by way of my fleet in the North Sea and use SKA to support its move into Norway. There has been some friction between Russia and Germany (who are allies) so I can kind of assume that Sweden may not support Russia and the fleet in Denmark may move to the Baltic as it afraid of Russia doing the same. But this is wishful thinking.

Or should I attack Denmark and move EDINto NWG and the army in York to EDI so next time I can convoy it? But then perhaps Norway would be occupied that my support into Norway could possibly be cut off!

I’m trying to deal with the worst case scenario, diplomatic overtures haven’t garnered any responses yet. What should I do!?

Big picture, if Russia joins Germany, you're in trouble.  Russia isn't spread thin at all: Turkey isn't doing anything, Austria-Hungary is dying, and you're tied up with the British; if Russia allies with Germany, there is no pressure on them from anyone.  In that case, your enemies would have 4 fleets to your 3, plus an army in Stp that can take Norway, which means that you can stall but will eventually lose to pure numbers unless you can bring to bear other pressures on Russia + Germany.  Let's examine options for those pressures:

The low countries.  France can take Belgium if you ping Holland from the North Sea (they can ping Bur from Mar and do a supported move to Bel.  They don't actually want to dislodge Bur because a German retreat to Gas would be disastrous).  Alternatively, you can move NTH to HEL and refill NTH from SKA or Edi and set up to take Belgium in the fall and then attack Holland next year, but Germany is likely to move Kie to HEL which would foil that.  If you pull it off, this puts Germany on the defense at least on land.  You will have to stall in the sea long enough for this to matter, so it's not a perfect plan.
Attack Denmark.  Taking Denmark in the spring is largely useless.  If you took it, there will be 3 if not 4 fleets ready to kick you right back out before supply updates (expect BOT to BAL), and you would only have 2 fleets to defend, but you are probably not going to be able to take it in the Fall, especially if Germany moves Kie to HEL (which I would expect).  If you're going to take it, you need to do so hard, namely with the North Sea filling the North Sea from Edi.  This leaves you with 3 fleets to defend (if it works), which might be able to hold it.  Alternatively, you could convoy the army over, which still leaves you with three strength to hold Denmark but also lets you go to the Norwegian Sea.  This plan has several risks, notably that you can still end up in a 4 on 3 situation in the Fall and get kicked right back out of Denmark.
Gain other allies.  This is probably your best option.  You may have leverage on Russia because Germany took Sweden (a traditionally Russian territory).  You may need to offer Russia a lot of concessions, Sweeden and Berlin at the very least.  But if the fleet in BOT helps you against Germany, the whole situation changes.  Now Germany is losing ground in both the low countries and Scandinavia and will quickly collapse.  You could also try to court Italy.  You (or France) could offer them Munich in exchange for one unit of help against Germany, which changes the German land offense from a slow slog through the Netherlands to a real threat against the German heartland.

I'm curious to see what happens.  You should post an update in 1904.


Thinking of getting Pandemic...should I buy one or both of the expansion packs along with the base game? I enjoy games and puzzles, although I don't have many people to play with (usually 2 players, sometimes 3). I've heard that Pandemic is a good solo game so I'm especially interested in it. I'm thinking of just purchasing the base game and later getting the expansions if we like it but I've seen extremely positive reviews of the expansions so it may be worth getting them too.

Never played Pandemic solo so I've been hesitating waiting for a better answer, but as you have none...

I'd get the base game; you can always add later if you really enjoy it solo. Pandemic's base game is good anyway - it's not a game that needs its expansions.

If you're thinking of buying the set to save on future postage, then that's your call ;-)  It would not be a bad decision to do so.

Do buy the latest edition so any expansions you buy later match artistically.

'The Brink' expansion's main feature is to be able to play with 5/6 players, less relevant to you, though you do need it for 'In The Lab' (which I've not played, so I'll stop there :-)


Is it possible to have a tie in Munchkin? One of my friends asked me this question recently, and I couldn't answer it, so I thought I'd pass it along:

Is it possible to have a tie in Munchkin (elf assisting in a victory to have two people land on level 10 simultaneously)?

Yes that is one way to achieve a tie. A SJG representative confirmed it (with a slight clarification with regard to being enthralled):

Q: I was playing the original Munchkin game as an elf who gains a level for each monster that they help kill. I was enthralled to fight by a bard. We were both level 9 and killed the three monsters. Since we both gained the three levels we were both level 10 at the same time. Who wins?
A: It's a Level gained by killing, so the Elf can, in fact, get the winning Level by helping.
Missed the Bard wrinkle, so here's the proper official answer: The Elf couldn't have been enthralled in the first place. Had he been enthralled, before the win was on the line for the Bard, he still could have won the game, but if suddenly the Bard had the chance to win the game as well, the enthralled Elf leaves the combat outright. The Bard can still get help, but has to do it based on his real personality, not some Svengali like ability. . .


Palafico round in Perudo We played a game of Perudo the other day and ran into a situation during a palafico round.

Assume there are three players left.  Player A has just lost their 4th die, Player B also has only one die left, and Player C has a few left.  A opens with a bid of two aces.  Can B then bid two twos?  How about three twos?

The rules state that during a palafico round aces are not wild, but it doesn't seem to clarify whether a bid in non-wild aces is still worth double.

Good question! I agree that the rules aren't completely clear here. We play this by treating the aces in a palafico round exactly as if they were normal numbers. So in your example both two twos and three twos would be valid bids by B.

Think about the purpose of the doubling rule for wild aces. In a normal bid, when you say five threes, you are making an estimate about the number of threes plus the number of aces. But when you bid on aces, you are bidding on aces alone. The doubling rule exists to make these bids comparable.

But during a palafico round, aces are not wild; they're just ordinary numbers. It thus doesn't make any sense to require the doubling rule, because in this round, no bids benefit from additional aces. In other words, all bids are made on equal terms.


Phase 10 Twist, If I lay down a phase how will I get enough cards to continue? I was given Phase 10 Twist as a gift.

Most of the rules seem straight forward enough, but when trying to play it I'm confused on one point.

There came a time I laid down a phase and had 5 cards left. When my turn came I drew one card and discarded one as you are supposed to, but I still only had 5 cards.

How am I supposed to get enough cards to complete the next phase if every time I have to draw one card and discard one?

The rules aren't making any sense on that to me.

After you complete a phase you must get rid of all the cards in your hand by hitting on existing Phases and discarding cards you can't play. Once someone who has completed a phase runs out of cards the hand is over and all the cards are dealt out again and players who completed the Phase can move on to the next Phase.


In Keyforge, what happens to the Æmber on a creature that is archived? Vezyma Thinkdrone lets a player archive his creature which is in play (not on his hand). If in this case there is Æmber on that creature, what happens to it? Will the archiving player get it, or his opponent, or is it just discarded?

Capture rule says:

  When a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool.

So if a creature is archived from play, does this mean it "leaves play", and therefore the opponent will receive the Æmber on it ?

All the Æmber currently on that creature will go to the opponent's pool.

From Keyforge's Rules

The glossary for Leaves Play reads (ellipses and emphasis mine):

  If a card that is in play leaves play (is returned to hand or deck, destroyed, discarded, archived, or purged), all non-Æmber tokens and status cards on the card are removed, [...].

  If a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool. If a non-creature card with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is returned to the general token pool.

Therefore, all the Æmber on a creature will be placed in your opponent's Æmber pool when it leaves play, not only when it's captured.


What is the name of this fantasy game with cards and little treasure counters? I don't remember the name of this game I played with a friend many years ago (more than 15 years).

It had something to do with dragons and the game had each player draw cards and used round wooden tokens that I think represented your "hoard". I remember very clearly that there was one card that allowed my friend to "steal" from my hoard when I wasn't looking; which he did and admitted after the game (I still won!).

Does anyone know what this game is called?

I've been googling around and finally found it. The game is called "Dragon's Gold" and was released in 2001 and re-released as a second edition (with some rule changes) in 2011.

Additional photos can be found here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold

Here is the box art of the game I played (first edition):


In response to Meren's end of turn trigger, could I sacrifice a creature? When the end of my turn comes around, Meren of Clan Nel Toth lets me target a creature in my graveyard to either bring back to the battlefield or return to my hand. In response to this trigger being put on the stack, could I sacrifice a creature with something like Ashnod's Altar or High Market, thus killing it and sending to the graveyard and being able to be targeted by Meren of Clan Nel Toth's ability?

The reason I am asking is so to see if I can flicker a creature with Conjurer's Closet, then sacrifice it, then reanimate it with Meren of Clan Nel Toth.

You cannot sacrifice a creature in response to Meren's triggered ability and then bring that creature back with the ability, but you can sacrifice a creature at any time before that in the turn and bring it back with the ability.

For all abilities and spells, including triggered abilities like on Meren, you choose targets as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack. So by the time you have a chance to respond, the target is already set. In the situation you describe, the sequence of events plays out like this:

The end step begins. Meren's ability triggers.
You put Meren's ability on the stack. As part of the process of doing that, you choose the target, which has to be a creature card that is in your graveyard at this time.
You gain priority, which means that you have a chance to respond. At this time you can sacrifice a creature.
Meren's ability resolves and it returns the creature chosen in step 2 to the battlefield or your hand.

Adding in a Conjurer's Closet doesn't really change anything, but that situation plays out like this:

The end step begins. Meren's ability and Conjurer's Closet's ability both trigger.
You put Meren's ability on the stack first. As part of the process of doing this, you choose the target, which is a creature card that is in the graveyard at this time.
You put Conjurer's Closet's ability on the stack second, on top of Meren's ability. As part of this process, you choose the target, which is a creature you control.
You have a chance to respond with both abilities on the stack.
Conjurer's Closet's ability resolves. It exiles the creature chosen in step 3, then returns it to the battlefield.
You have a chance to respond to Meren's ability. At this time you can sacrifice a creature.
Meren's ability resolves and it returns the creature chosen in step 2 to the battlefield or your hand.


Statistically when to stop rolling in Greed I want to reduce the level of chance associated with the game Greed (also known as Farkle and Zilch).

Has anyone looked into this or have a source that can give some good stats to answer the following questions.
At what score should I stop rolling:

When I have 1 die left?
When I have 2 dice left?

Edit: ... to maximise my score and minimise risk. Assume that I've entered the game already (scored 500).

In other words: when is it worth rolling a single die to try to get a re-roll.

Greed (a.k.a. Farkle) has an extensive amount of statistical analysis done on the game.

Now that you have updated your question, here is my updated answer.

If you want to maximize your score, what you need to figure out is what is your expected score if you risk rolling, compared to your score if you choose not to roll. So, the first thing you need to know, is what is your expected number of points you will earn for rolling 6-dice. Below is a chart of the different possible Patterns (6-of-a-Kind, 5-of-a-Kind, etc.), the possible ways of ORD 'ering those particular patterns (which are all the same combination), the number of DIF 'erent patterns that can be made with other numbers from 1-6, and the Total permutations (which should add up to 6^6=46656).

+-----------+----+---+-----+
|Pattern    |ORD |DIF|Total|
+-----------+----+---+-----+
|a,a,a,a,a,a|   1|  6|    6| 6-Kind
|a,a,a,a,a,b|   6| 30|  180| 5-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,a,b,b|  15| 30|  450| 4-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,a,b,c|  30| 60| 1800| 4-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,b,b,b|  20| 15|  300| 2 * 3-Kind
|a,a,a,b,b,c|  60|120| 7200| 3-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,b,c,d| 120| 60| 7200| 3-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,b,b,c,c|  90| 20| 1800| 3 Pair
|a,a,b,b,c,d| 180| 90|16200| (possible farkle, possible '1' or '5' score)
|a,a,b,c,d,e| 360| 30|10800| (possible '1' or '5' score)
|a,b,c,d,e,f| 720|  1|  720| straight
+-----------+----+---+-----+
|      Total|1602|462|46656|
+-----------+----+---+-----+

I didn't separate these individual patterns by how much they actually score, because it would be way to big of a table. The table would have to differentiate from each different kind of 3-of-a-Kind, and possible '1' and '5' single die scores. I did separate them when running a calculation of the average (total points/permutations). The only important information from that computer analysis is:

1080/46656 : The odds that when you roll 6 dice, you cannot score anything. (Farkle)
388.033 : The average number of points that you make on your first roll of 6 dice, if you score.

You can use the above information, you can examine all possible outcomes of rolling a single die, and look at the risk (how many points you will lose if you fail to score) versus the amount of points that you will gain. You can think of this as you would any sort of gambling question.

Question: Imagine a game where you pay $X, and you roll a die. If you roll a '1' you win $100 plus your original bet ($X), if you roll a '5' you win $50+$X, if you roll anything else you lose your bet ($X). How much would you pay to play this game?
Answer: Anything up to $37.50. Until that point, you expect to win more money than you lose. The sum of your losses multiplied by their probability of happening (-37.5 * (4/6) = 25 = ((100*(1/6)+(50*(1/6)) is equal to the sum of your winnings multiplied by their probability of happening.

1) +$100

2) -$37.5

3) -$37.5

4) -$37.5

5) +$50

6) -$37.5

Now, lets add up all the possibilities for Greed assuming you have X points already, and you intend to roll six dice if you win the single die roll.

|Outcome              |Odds the Outcome Occurs | Points *Odds |
+---------------------+------------------------+--------------+
|Lose rolling one die |4/6                     | -4/6*(X)     |
|Win  50 +Avg six dice|(1/6)*(46656-1080)/46656|(AVG+50)*Odds |
|Win 100 +Avg six dice|(1/6)*(46656-1080)/46656|(AVG+100)*Odds|
|Lose rolling six dice|(2/6)*(1080/46656)      | -(5/648)*(X) |
+---------------------+------------------------+--------------+
                Total | 1.0                    |              |

Time for Some Algebra

Solve for the sum of all the above outcomes equals zero.

(add each line above together)

0 = -(4/6) * X - (5/648) * X + (2*AVG+50+100)*(1/6) * (46656-1080)/46656)

(multiply the first X term by 108 to get the same denominator for both X terms)

0 = -(432/648) * X - (5/648) * X + 150.771547

(Add X term to both sides, simplify two added terms)

(437/648) * X = 150.771547

(Solve for X)

X = (648/437) * (150.771547) = 223.6 (approximately)

Since scores are always a multiple of 50, you should stop rolling when you hit 250 points. I leave the the 2 dice question as an exercise for the OP. You should have all the tools necessary to calculate it (I will check your work if you attempt to answer it. If you do attempt to answer it, post the question in a new thread linking back to this thread, and explain your work).

Optimal Strategy for Multiplayer

Another more difficult question to answer is what is the optimal strategy to win. The calculations for this are more complicated, because you have to take into account how likely the opponent is to win before you (their likely score before your next turn, etc.) I have no doubt that a nearly optimal Greed computer program can be created for (two players). As you increase the number of players though, the problem gets exponentially more difficult. You might want to check the links in this post that talks about how optimal Yathzee for one player was created, and how the two player version is pretty close to optimal.


Evasion checks for investigator attacking a monster in a space with another monster If an investigator is in a space with two monsters (A, B) and attacks one (A) of them, does he have to make an evasion check for the one (B) which he is not attacking?

The rules don't explicitly confirm nor deny this, and it seems sensible to play this way, but I would like to have the opinion of some more experienced keeper.

No, you do not perform an evade test on either monster when performing an attack action.
The rules are explicit on this (page 14):

Evade Tests - An investigator must make an evade test against every monster in his space before moving or performing non-attack actions.
An evade test is an attribute test that is resolved immediately before the investigator attempts to move or take the action. In order to evade a monster, the player makes a Dexterity test modified by the monster’s awareness (the white number at the top right corner of the monster’s token).
If the player passes this test, then the investigator suffers no ill effect. If he fails this test, the keeper may have the monster damage the investigator (equal to the monster’s damage value – see page 23). Regardless of whether he passes or fails, the investigator may then move or perform the intended action. After having attempted to evade a monster, the investigator may freely move and take actions without having to try to evade the same monster that turn.

It specifically allows attacking on page 15:

Attacking a monster does not require making an evade test. This attack may be unarmed, with a weapon, or with an “attack” Spell card. This attack does not need to target a monster in the investigator’s space.

or again on page 9:

Attacking a monster is the only action that an investigator can perform while a monster is in his space (unless he evades the monster, see “Evade Tests” on page 14).


Do you get bonus points at the end or during play for these quest rewards? With the exception of Larissa Neathal, all Lords of Waterdeep give a bonus for completed quests if they are of a certain type. These points are scored at the end of the game - in part because your Lord is hidden.
There's also several Plot Quests that reward you with a bonus for completing certain types of quests. For instance:

Quell Mercenary Uprising

Reward: 8 VP
Whenever you complete a Warfare quest, you score 2 VP

Is this bonus added at the end, also applying to each Warfare quest you've completed before? Or is this quest popped up open next to your tavern to provide the bonus for every Warfare quest completed from then on? And, if the second interpretation is the right one, would this quest qualify for its own bonus?

"Whenever" infers present tense, you score 2 VP at the exact time you complete a Warfare quest happens.
If it were to refer to end of game or count anything retrospectively then that would have been clearly stated.
I don't think the card would qualify for its own bonus.  The rules say.

To complete a Quest, remove the required Adventurers and Gold from
your Tavern. Return those tokens to the supply. Then collect the
specified reward.

"Then collect" happens after the mission was completed.  not during.

When you complete a Plot Quest, place its card face up near your
player mat to remind you of the ongoing effect.

So "Whenever you complete a Warfare quest, you score 2 VP" is an ongoing affect.  It's usually in games for this to mean from now on.  if it applied to itself and all retrospective missions it should state that clearly.


Dream Eater leaves battlefield before Surveil Dream Eater's ability says:

  When Dream Eater enters the battlefield, surveil 4. When you do, you may return target nonland permanent an opponent controls to its owner's hand.

The second half of the ability is referred to as a "reflexive triggered ability".  So, with the first half of the ability on the stack, can you remove the Eater so the second half doesn't trigger?

No, having the Dream Eater become a new object does not affect its ability on the stack.

A reflexive triggered ability follows the same rules as a delayed triggered ability:

  603.12. A resolving spell or ability may allow a player to take an action and create a triggered ability that triggers “when [a player] [does or doesn’t]” take that action or “when [something happens] this way.” These reflexive triggered abilities follow the rules for delayed triggered abilities (see rule 603.7), except that they’re checked immediately after being created and trigger based on whether the trigger event occurred earlier during the resolution of the spell or ability that created them.

This just means that the second half of the ability ("When you do...") is triggered by actually doing the first half ("surveil 4") instead of something happening later as with regular delayed triggered abilities. Delayed triggered abilities can potentially never trigger if its trigger event happened before the ability was created. This can't happen for reflexive triggered bilities. For reflexive triggered abilities, the second half can only not trigger if the first half never  happens, for example if the first half was replaced.

Either way, Dream Eater's ability does refer to the Dream Eater that created it, but it doesn't affect it, so 603.7c does not apply.

  603.7c A delayed triggered ability that refers to a particular object still affects it even if the object changes characteristics. However, if that object is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at the time the delayed triggered ability resolves, the ability won’t affect it.

Therefore, removing the Dream Eater does not affect the ability it created. Once it has entered the battlefield and triggered the ability as a whole, removing it won't do anything.

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


Can i get infinite mana from Krark-Clan Ironworks and Welding Jar? If i play Krark-Clan Ironworks and Welding Jar, can I sacrifice the Jar to activate the Ironworks, and then use its ability to regenerate itself? If so, this process could be repeated infinitely, to generate an infinite amount of mana?

No, for several reasons:

Regeneration doesn't prevent sacrifice. Only death due to damage or a "destroy" effect.

Here's a quote from the MTG basic rules:

  Sacrifice

  To  choose  one  of  your  permanents  on  the  battlefield
  and  put  it  into  its  owner’s  graveyard.  You  can  sacrifice
  only  permanents  you  control.  Sacrificing  a  permanent
  is different from destroying it, so the permanent can’t be
  regenerated. You can sacrifice a permanent only if a spell
  or ability tells you to, or if it’s part of a cost.

Timing. I know what you're thinking here: triggered and activated abilities (except mana abilities) use the stack. But their costs (the stuff before the ":") are paid when you put the ability on the stack, not when you resolve the ability. So sacrificing the Welding Jar to the Ironworks or to itself isn't something you can interrupt or preempt in any way. (Though an existing replacement effect, such as Rest in Peace, might change what happens.)

Thus, there is no way to "respond" to the sacrifice after you've initiated it. Nor can you sacrifice the Jar to activate two different abilities at the same time, since each cost must be paid in full independently.

(If you'd like a rules reference, look at page 9 of the basic rules: to cast a spell or activate an ability, you pay the costs, then put it on the stack, allowing for responses.)


In the Great Dalmuti, should I be attempting to improve my seat position or shoot for the win? The Great Dalmuti is a game where you attempt to get rid of your hand, a climbing card game like Tien len or Asshole. The deck consists of 80 cards, with different point values. There is one '1', two '2's, three '3's, ..., twelve '12's and two wilds that are '13' unless played with any other card. Rounds consist of the Great Dalmuti or whomever won the last trick laying down any number of cards with the same value. Players in clockwise order can either 'pass' or play the same number of cards as the previous player but of a lower value (i.e. if the first player played three '10' value cards, the next player could play three '9', three '8', etc.), or by playing a larger set of the same value as the previous set of cards.

When a player has played the last card from their hand, they score one point for each person they beat, with the last person scoring zero. Going out first or second (becoming the Greater or Lesser Dalmuti) gives another privilege: at the start of the next round, the Dalmutis receive the one or two best cards from the Peons (the two players who went out last), while returning any cards from their hand. (The Greater Dalmuti swaps two cards, the Lesser Dalmuti one.) This gives the Dalmutis significantly better hands: they get better cards, and can get rid of singletons that would slow down their hands. It is very important not to go out last, or second to last.

If you are playing a game to some point value that is quite a few rounds away (lets say 10 or more), what should be your strategy for improving your score? How can you determine if you have a hand that can hold onto control of enough rounds to get rid of your high value cards (in other words, how can you determine if by go off during a turn you will likely improve your seat position or maintain it, instead of ending up going out last).

How do you know when to take control, and attempt to get out of the game?

Does the strategy of shooting for first seat get easier/harder with more/less players?

The two big tricks to figuring out when you can go out are counting cards and figuring out how your cards will play.

What's in your hand?

Figure out where your "losers" are in your hand - sets where you will be unable to take control: middle triples, pairs, singletons, etc. where you have no high set to establish control. These are the cards that you play dead last. It's possible to have two losers in the same number, e.g. a pair of 12s and a pair of 11s (with no other pairs to take control after you've played those). Similarly, determine if you have any "winners" - card combinations that you think nobody can beat (a triple in threes or fours, a pair of twos or threes, etc.). Finally, look at your hand and see how many middle-rank sets you have - cards you can slip into somebody else's play, or that you can slip into the middle of your own plays as you're going out.

Note that the definition of "winners," "losers," and "middle sets" will change as cards are played; your triple seven starts as a middle set, but as you see the sixes, fives, fours, and threes get played, they will become a winner. I usually keep track of all of the cards rank six or better as they're played, but if your memory is better than mine, you'll keep track of every card played, along with good guesses of who can hold the remaining cards. (It's usually a bad idea to split a set of cards into multiple smaller sets, so if somebody plays a single six, they're almost certainly out of sixes.)

A good enough hand

You can go out when you have:

At most one loser (which you'll play last)
Middle sets that you can slip in before playing your winners for that set

Ideally, have some powerful middle sets: they may not be winners, but nobody wants to expend their own winners to top them yet.

Enough winners to get all of your middle sets out
Luck: that your winners actually are winners, or that the other players don't care to top them at the moment you play them.

When all's said and done, the distribution of the cards between other players will make or break your attempt to go out. If the cards went weird, or some player tops your triple twelve with a triple nine (preventing you from playing your own triple nine that's a middle set for you), or someone topped your triple three with a triple one when all you have left is your last loser, then all you can do is pick up the pieces and hope next round will go better.

Going from the bottom to the top

Jumping from a low position to a high one takes a very lucky hand, and other players that don't care enough to play their high cards early on. As Hackworth says, it takes some large sets of cards, and the ability to gain control. Your "winners" are sets that are 4+ cards apiece, and you have more than one of them. You take control (while hoping against hope that nobody is willing to top your pitiful pair of sixes!), lay down your monster sets, and take your crown.


How many possible starting moves are there in Abalone? I have not found a listing or reference to the initial number of moves.

I believe there are 44, but I'm not sure if this list is complete: https://github.com/void4/pyabalone/blob/master/allinitmoves.txt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abalone_(board_game)

I agree with 44.  Here's my break down:

Diagonal X2 (once for each diagonal direction):

6 moves with a single marble
5 in-line moves with 2 marbles
4 broadside moves with 2 marbles
3 in-line moves with 3 marbles
1 broadside move with 3 marbles

Horizontal

2 moves with a single marble
2 in-line moves with 2 marbles
2 in-line moves with 3 marbles

(6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 1) * 2 + (2 + 2 + 2) = 44.


What are the most busted cards in Agricola? There's quite a few Occupations in Agricola that elicit a traumatized shudder from hardened Agricola players.  I'm thinking of cards like the Taster, which basically allows one player to be in a position BETTER than being starting player during any round of the game, for the low low cost of 1 food per round.  I've heard that a lot of groups have physically removed the Taster from their set, rather than have to deal with the imbalance it creates.

Having said that, I've had very tight games both playing and playing against the Taster, and I completely crushed an inexperienced player who laid an early Taster in a 5-player game a few days ago, so I'm not TOO worried about "busted" cards.  Even so...

Have any cards been played in one of your Agricola games that seemed to tip the balance too far in favour of one player, too quickly?  In our group, we groan when we see the Field Watchman (such a no-brainer) and the Wet Nurse; cards whose value is just a little bit too transparent.  What about your group?

Also, Minor Improvements tend to be a little bit better balanced on the whole (coming with costs and limitations as they do), but I'm sure some of them are a LOT better than others.  Any suggestions?  I'm never disappointed to have a plough of some kind among my opening seven...

Field Watchman, Head of the Family, and Braggart.

In statistics gathered from about 2000 games that used drafting, these occupations were picked on average earliest by the player who won the game.  See this forum post for the full details, and a list of the first chosen minor improvements too.

Edit: It turns out that several occupations are not included in these results as they were voted too overpowered by the game participants.  These are:

Ratcatcher
Taster
Chamberlain
Lover
Wet Nurse


What happens when I draw cards if I've built the Library and the Observatory? In Citadels it's possible to build both the Library and Observatory:

Library

  If you choose to draw cards when you take an action, you keep both of the cards you have drawn.

Observatory

  If you choose to draw cards when you take an action, you draw three cards, keep one of your choice, and put the other two on the bottom of the deck.

What happens when I draw district cards when I have both districts in my city?  Do I draw three cards and keep all of them, or do I draw three cards and keep two of them?

Q: What if a player has both Library
and Observatory in his city? How do
their effects combine?
A: If this
player draws cards, he draws three and
keeps two.

(Source)
That's straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.


In Gin-Rummy, what are the chances to start with a Gin? In Gin-Rummy, in the start of a round players draw 10 cards.

What is the probability to draw 10 cards such that all the cards are part of some  meld?

1 in ~118,000, according to 2+2 forum post.  Using a brute force, that checked for Gin each of the 15.8B hands.
1 in ~117,000, according to the book How to Win at Gin Rummy: Playing for Fun and Profit which state that there are 136,694 Gin hands out of 15,820,024,220 hands.  See page 65:


Can I get a go and last card when opponent is out of cards in cribbage? My opponent runs out of cards during pegging, I have 3 left, can I get a go and then last card?

Absolutely!
The American Cribbage Congress - Rule 7. The Play clearly states.

Rule 7.2 Scoring
8 b.
When a player's opponent has no more cards or calls "go," the other player may play all playable cards in succession and announce the points scored before pegging the total at one time.

So yes, after your opponent runs out of cards you shall play our all your remaining cards, in any order you desire, scoring all points thereby accrued.


Can proliferate be used on life counters? Can you use proliferate to add life counters to a player to give them life?

No, life total does not use counters.

Players can use whatever they want to track how much life they have, but their life points do not count as "counters" ever. A counter is always a specific thing that a rule or card effect will refer to as a "counter" using that word specifically.


Game with many black and white pieces and 3 red I played this game a while back and thoroughly enjoyed it but forgot the name. It consists of a board, 3 red pieces and a ton of black and white pieces. Each player can move a piece in any straight line in their turn, even onto opponent pieces, but cannot end on an empty space. Stacks are owned by the player with the colour on top of the stack, and each stack can only move the same number of spaces as pieces in the stack. If a piece is not directly connected to one of the red pieces (which I believe have the same name as the game), it is removed from the game. The winner is the player with the largest stack at the end of the game.

Is it dvonn? That seems to fit the bill

DVONN is played on a board with 49 spaces. The board has a hexagonal layout 5 hexes wide. One player has 23 black pieces to play, the other player has 23 white pieces. There are also 3 neutral red pieces, called DVONN pieces.
The game starts with an empty board and proceeds in two phases. During the first phase, the players place their pieces on the board, starting with the three red DVONN pieces. Pieces can be placed on any unoccupied space. White starts, and the players alternate. So Black is the first to place a piece of his own color. The first phase ends when all pieces are placed on the board, filling it completely.
The second phase involves the building of stacks of pieces (a single piece is also considered a stack) by moving stacks onto other stacks. A stack is controlled by a player if his color is on top. A stack is immobile if it is surrounded by 6 neighboring stacks. The white player has the first move in this phase. Any mobile stack of height n (with n > 0) can be moved (in a straight line) in any one of the 6 directions by exactly n spaces by the player controlling it, if it lands on another stack. Jumping over empty spaces is allowed, as long as the tower does not land on an empty space. Single DVONN pieces cannot be moved, but they can be once they are part of a stack. After each move, all stacks that are not connected via a chain of neighboring stacks to any stack containing a DVONN piece are removed from the board.


Does equipping an equipment go on the stack? Say we're in a game of MTG Commander/EDH. I already have Lightning Greaves on the battefield from the previous turn.

I begin my main phase and I play my commander (Let's say it has no abilities or ETB effects for simplicity).
No one responds.
I then activate lightning greaves to equip it to my Commander creature. Can someone play a destroy spell like Murder in response?

So does that mean Murder is on top of the stack, and my equip is at the bottom? No other responses from other players. The stack then tries to resolve. My creature is destroyed and my artifact effect cannot resolve. Thus my commander did not get Shroud.

Is this correct?

Equip is a regular activated ability. It goes on the stack and can be responded to. If it didn't resolve yet, the targeted creature is not yet equipped and does not benefit from the equipment in any way.

702.6a Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”
602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. [..]


How are skill check modifiers prioritized and ordered in Arkham Horror? Time and time again, skill checks in Arkham Horror have been made without remembering to include certain factors, such as environments and the presence of stat-modifying items.  For organizational purposes, is there a flowchart by which all the skill check modifiers can be ordered and accounted for so that none may be missed?

For example, Combat Checks can be processed in the following order:

If the monster is Dark Pharoah then the base stat is Lore

Take the base stat of Fight if not set already

Look for skills that affect base stat of Fight

Look for allies that affect base stat of Fight

Look for Mythos environments that affect base stat of Fight (e.g. Heat Wave)

Look for skills that negate Physical, Magical, or Weapon Immunity

Look for allies that negate Physical, Magical, or Weapon Immunity

Look for tradeable items that negate Physical, Magical, or Weapon Immunity

Check if the monster has Physical, Magical, or Weapon Immunity

Look for skills that negate Physical, Magical, or Weapon Resistance

Look for allies that negate Physical, Magical, or Weapon Resistance

Check if the monster has Physical, Magical, or Weapon Resistance

Look for items that passively affect combat without being equipped (e.g. Cross against Undead)

Ask the player for non-combat spells that affect stats (e.g. Voice of Ra)

Ask the player for equipped common items, unique items, or spells

For each equipped investigator card, apply relevant immunity unless negated

For each equipped investigator card, apply relevant resistance unless negated

Subtract monster's combat rating

Subtract bonus combat rating from Ancient One

Roll the skill check value

If Mandy is an investigator and her ability hasn't been exhaused then ask whether the player would like to invoke "the Mandy ability"

Check the number of successes via state of Blessedness/Cursedness

Double successes scored with 6 in case Shotgun was used

If there are no successes:

Look for skills that allow re-rolls (e.g. Marksman)

Look for allies that allow re-rolls

Look for items that allow re-rolls (e.g. Bullwhip)

If Mandy is an investigator and her ability hasn't been exhaused then ask whether the player would like to invoke "the Mandy ability"

Check the number of successes via state of Blessedness/Cursedness

Double successes scored with 6 in case Shotgun was used

Ask for clue tokens if the player wants additional dice

Add an extra die for every Fight skill

Add an extra die for every clue token if Joe is the investigator

If there are no successes:

Look for skills that allow re-rolls (e.g. if the original value was 7, and 3 clue tokens were spent, Marksman would roll 10 instead)

Look for allies that allow re-rolls

Look for items that allow re-rolls (e.g. Bullwhip)

Roll the skill check value

If Mandy is an investigator and her ability hasn't been exhaused then ask whether the player would like to invoke "the Mandy ability"

Check the number of successes via state of Blessedness/Cursedness

Double successes scored with 6 in case Shotgun was used

I don't even know whether the above flowchart covers all the cases.  And this is only for the Combat Skill Check alone.  In the Arkham Horror Wiki (http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Skill_check), Step number one for making a Skill Check involves getting the value of a skill check involving all relevant factors, but there's no mention of the order by which these relevant factors should be processed.

Are there flowcharts for other kinds of Skill Checks besides Combat (i.e. Speed, Sneak, Fight, Will, Lore, Luck, Evade, Horror, Spell)?

With all due respect to the amount of time you put in making that list, I think you may be asking the wrong question.

First of all, there's generally no fixed order or prioritization which requires a flowchart. You add up all the things that affect the modifier, and addition is commutative. If you have things that let you reroll, they can be used in any order you want. That is, the "flowchart" would be:

Add up all modifiers
Roll that many dice and see if you passed
If you failed, consider your options for re-rolling, re-roll if desired/possible, see if you passed, and repeat.

The bulk of your question, then, is just how to make sure you got the modifier right, and perhaps how to make sure you didn't forget a way you can re-roll. And I would argue that your list is not going to help you there, because your list is longer than the number of cards typically in play. It will be faster (and just as reliable) to simply look through everything in play every time a skill check is made than to consult a list like the one you're proposing.

Remember, there are relatively few global cards in play - perhaps an environment, perhaps the ancient one affects skill checks, and other things are very uncommon. Everything else is either on your investigator sheet or the little cards (items + skills + allies) right in front of you, and you can very quickly scan through those, until you start remembering that your shotgun always doubles sixes, and that your dark cloak doesn't affect luck checks.

If you want, you could try to use counters/dice/sliders to remember all the global modifiers (e.g. when the Heat Wave environment appears, set global indicators for fight to -1 and lore to +1), but that gives you yet another thing to remember to do (adjust those indicators when environments change) so honestly, you might as well just look at the environment card every time if you're having trouble remembering. Same goes for everything else - you could perhaps keep track of your current net stats, but it's easier said than done.

So, in general, just try to get all the players to keep an eye on everything, and probably someone will notice if you slip up. Keep your cards in consistent places: environments always in the same place, organize your items into combat and non-combat items. And don't worry so much - if you realize after the fact, you can probably either fix it or just let it slide.


Mechanism to balance all game stages I am designing a game in which players add tiles to the board (similar to Carcassone) in order to create sequences of symbols (which are on the tiles) - they are then used for playing cards.

This mechanism works nice, but the problem is, that the first few rounds - there are just not enough tiles (and symbols) on the board so players can only place a tile and pass the turn because they are unable to play any card.

Midgame is fine and at the end of every round, there are enough symbols on the board to play almost any card you have in your hand... which is not what I was hoping for when designing the game.

Do you have any idea for a mechanism, that would eliminate this "slow" start and too "easy" end of every round? I was thinking about dealing some tiles on the board in the beginning at random and limiting the total numbers of tiles avaliable, but I am not sure if this wouldnt spoil the game...

I havent found any boardgames which uses this exact kind of mechanism (paying for cards with sequences of placed tiles) so I am trying to come up with something that would balance the gameplay.

Thanks for any tips (I can provide some additional info if needed)!

I was thinking about dealing some tiles on the board in the beginning at random and limiting the total numbers of tiles available

You need to try it and see. It's the most natural solution, and that's what playtesting is for. If it turns out not to be fun, you can always bail midgame.

Other suggestions:

Are all the symbols the same rarity? If some are associated with more "basic" or introductory actions, you could choose a few specific starter tiles that contain only those symbols and start the round with those in play.
You could include cards that can be played for a reduced effect without the appropriate matching symbols. This would encourage players to match the symbols, but give them something to do early on while the board develops.
As midgame passes, perhaps players move to replacing existing tiles rather than placing entirely new ones. This would keep the board from becoming too full of options while not cutting the round short.


Can players activate Quick-Play spells or Traps as face-down monsters are flipped face-up in battle? Player A's monster attacks player B's face down monster.
Both players decided not to chain the attack while monster is still face down
Monster is flipped face up, which is Kelbek
Player A activates Quick-Play spell Forbidden Chalice on player B's Kelbek so its effect is negated.

Question: Is player A allowed to activate Quick-Play spell after the monster is flipped face up?

Kelbek:

  A monster that attacks this card returns to the hand. Damage
  calculation is applied normally.

Forbidden Chalice:

  Target 1 face-up monster on the field; until the end of this turn,
  that target gains 400 ATK, but its effects are negated.

It Depends On What the Card Does.

So, keep in mind that because the monster is being flipped face-up in battle, it means that we're in the damage step at the time of the flip. Because of this, there are some restrictions on what kinds of cards can be activated. A card/effect may only be activated during the damage step if:

It is a counter-trap card
Its activation is mandatory
It negates the activation of a card/effect (Note Activation, not Effect of)
It directly modifies the Attack/Defense of any monster(s)

Forbidden Chalice happens to hit one of the criteria here (modifies ATK/DEF), so it can be activated in the given scenario. If, on the other hand, one wanted to use Breakthrough Skill, one would not be able, since it does not meet any of the above criteria.


Can you put a wild card back in your hand when no longer needed in Monopoly Deal? If you have a wild card on the table within a set, and you later pick up a true color needed for that set, can you return the wild card to the cards you are holding in you hand, or must you leave it on the table?

You can't take it back to your hand.  From the rules:

Cards can NEVER go back to a player's Hand

However, you can move it to be part of a different set of properties on your turn:

Property Wildcards:
Use Property Wildcards as substitutes for property cards of one of the colors shown on the card.  You can swap these around among different sets on your turn.

So, if you have two Oranges and a Red, and are using a wild as a third Orange, you can move the wild to be a Red any time on your turn.  You could do this for lots of reasons, including to increase the values of the Reds for charging rent, to avoid the Deal Breaker card, or because you drew a third true Orange and want to replace the wild with it.


What advantages do you have when attacking a village in Civilization? In Civilization, when I attack a village, do I or the village receive some sort of combat bonus or extra standing force cards?  Also, the rule book for the game seems fuzzy on what combat bonuses actually do for you during a battle. I have played Civilization only once so far, and to me the battle system seems pretty random. Are there any recommendations you may have for buying certain units near the beginning before attacking a village or another player?

You get several advantages when attacking a village.

1. You are the attacker and know what units they have

Being the attacker means they must play the first unit.  Even if you have not bought any additional unit cards, have no combat bonuses, nor have any unit upgrades from technology, and attack with a single army, you can still win the battle off of this alone as follows:

The village plays a unit (without loss of generality, let's say an archer)
You play the trump to that unit (in this case a horesman), killing it without taking damage
The village plays the trump to your unit (a spearman), killing it without taking damage
Etc. (you play an archer)
Etc. (they play a horseman)
You kill their last unit (you play an infantry)

Result: you win, losing 2 units

The big piece of variance here is the innate strength of the units.  Units range in base strength from 1 to 3.  A good draw for the village means they may have units that are stronger than yours, whereas a bad draw could leave them with units weaker than yours.  If the average strength in your deck is less than 2, do not attack a village with only one army.  Another problem here is that, while you win the battle and get the village token, you may lose your army since you lost 2 units in the battle.

2. You can bring more than three units

By attacking with multiple armies and having bought extra units, you can attack with more that the three units.  Not only will this practically guarantee victory, it also gives you more options in terms of what to play, allowing you to send your worse units out first (causing them to die and improve the average strength in your unit deck) and have more options with trump units.  Here is an example battle with 5 units (assuming all units are base strength 2):

The village plays a unit (let's say an archer)
You play the unit that is trumped by that unit (in this case a spearman) on a new front, since they no longer have a unit that can trump it
The village already played the trump to your unit, so they must play the same type (a spearman), killing both
You play the unit that is the trump to their remaining unit, which you know because they always have the same unit composition (they have horseman left, so a you play another spearman)
They play their remaining unit (a horseman) on a new front, since anywhere else it would be trumped
You play your remaining units on new fronts since there is no benefit to killing the village's units

Result: you win, losing only one unit

While you could do this with only three units in your battle hand, it is much less likely, since it requires them to play a specific one of their units first, which they probably won't do (especially if they have been paying attention to your purchases).

3. You can have combat bonuses

A combat bonus is part of the determination of who wins the battle.  A battle consists of each side playing all of the units they are allowed to bring as a result of their battle hand size.  Units may be killed during the battle, and this death is permanent.  However, you need not kill units to win the battle.  The winner of the battle is the person with the highest total of strength of surviving units, plus their combat bonus.  So, while a combat bonus does nothing to keep your units alive, it helps in you being considered the winner of the battle, independent of what happened in the fighting.  Since villages always fight with 3 rank one units and have no combat bonus, the most strength a village can ever have at the end of a battle is 9, so a +10 combat bonus guarantees that you will beat a village regardless of what happens in the battle, even if you have no units in your deck to fight with!  Obviously this is an extreme example, but even in less extreme cases, combat bonuses help you get the village token regardless of in-battle losses.

4. Your units can be higher level

This is the big one.  The other boons help you win, and having more units can help a lot.  This one helps a ton.  The villages always have the same units and their units are always level 1.  That means they deal at most 3 damage and have at most 3 health.  If any of the units you have in your battle hand are level 2 or level 3, that means you can now be running around with guys of 4 or even 5 strength; 3 strength also becomes much more common among your units.  With several level 3 units, you can sometimes win the battle without losing any units at all.  Leveling your units makes the threat of the village getting a good draw just so much less scary.  If there are still villages left by the time you get level 4 units, go pick them up.

5. You can use other technology abilities

You can use abilities on technologies like Mathematics or Animal Husbandry to help you win the battle.  The villages do not have any resource abilities at their disposal.  Spending a resource to win the battle can be a bit silly though, since beating the village may just give you the resource you spent to capture it (using an iron to capture a village that gives you an iron is not a great use of time or units).  The exception to this of course is if you have some other reason to want to win the battle, such as getting a coin on Code of Laws.  Abilities like 'Animal Husbandry' though (which are free), can help you win a no-casualties battle, especially if you have higher level units.

Conclusion

No, you don't get free units or inherent combat bonuses when fighting villages, but you do get to bring all of your technological might against their primitive army.  Consequently, fighting a village right out of the gate is probably a bad idea since that is when you have the fewest advantages.  Wait until you either have two armies and five units to bring to the battle, or until you've gotten a technology to level one of your units so that you only have to lose one or no units fighting the village.  These are the same things you will want for fighting other players as well.  The things you want to have are:

Higher ranked units
Combat bonuses from barracks/academies
More units (note that this requires you to have both more units in your reserves and multiple armies to allow you to bring extra units into battle)

One more thing to keep in mind: when fighting a village, killing their units doesn't matter; it's just about winning.  Consequently, don't waste your units that have a base strength of 3.  These units remain the best as you increase in technology; don't get them killed fighting barbarians.  Conversely, do lead with your units with a base strength of 1.  These units are not great to have in your deck and playing them early will not only cull them from your army, but will also force the barbarians to spend battle turns killing your crappy units instead of your good ones.


Is it better to close gates or save up clue tokens to seal them? Imagine that we've got a couple of gates open and every investigator has 3 clue tokens. All other things being equal, is it better to try to immediately attempt to close those gates or would it be better to save up to 5 clue tokens in order to seal them? By better, I mean more likely to result in the investigators winning the game.

It depends. Mostly on how likely a gate is to open again at that particular location.

It's better to wait and seal gates with lots of gate mythos cards in the deck, to prevent them from continuously re-opening.

It's better to quickly close gates with few gate mythos cards and many clue mythos cards, as it will be unlikely to open again, and blocking access to valuable clues while it sits unaddressed.

The specific frequencies can be found in this document.


Chess - Learning to Sacrifice Pieces for the Greater Good I have trouble with learning what pieces to sacrifice when.  Any good examples or playable scenarios on the web to help guide with that?  My biggest problem is in the early game, learning what to sacrifice to move pawns out of play so I can move other pieces up the board.  Any assistance would be appreciated.

A sacrifice made at the beginning, with no clear and immediate advantage, is called a gambit.

There is no hard "rule" for when a gambit is worthwhile or not; it all comes down to what imbalances it gives you, and whether you think you can use those to your advantage.

For example, in the Danish Gambit (accepted), white sacrifices two pawns, hoping the extra space/development he gains will help mount an early attack.  In the Queen's Gambit (accepted), on the other hand, white sacrifices the pawn knowing he will either get it back, or black will have to severely weaken his position to hold onto it.


Can you change your mind after discarding during Monolith Arena? In Monolith Arena, the rules state:

after the tiles have been drawn, the player must DISCARD ONE OF THE
THREE TILES into the discard pile.

This is during the player upkeep step, so the sequence of events:

Draw three tiles
Discard one tile
Consider the remaining tiles and potentially play them

Is it against the rules to retract the discarded tile or change your mind, directly after discarding it, without input from the other player(s)? Asking for a friend.

I don't know this game at all but will answer this in a broader etiquette sense.
In games people make mistakes or they start taking a move and realise that they want to do something different.  When I play games with people the rule is people can take back things provided it has no effect on anything else or a random event hasn't happened.
So if a player (in any game) is asked to discard a card and then decides they should have discarded another this is fine.  No other player has taken a turn and the only person is disadvantage is the player who exposed a card.
If a player decides to take an action such drawing a card or rolling a dice then this couldn't be taken back after.
When playing games it's about trying to have fun and being reasonable.  Telling a player they can't undo something that has no effect on anything else would be unreasonable.


Does "Stink Bomb" damage the Paladin when he is the first hero? Can the Paladin get damage from the Trap card "Stink Bomb" if he is the first hero when activating the Trap?

I don’t have the exact card text, but from my memory (translated from the German edition) it says:

Move the first hero to the last position (unless it’s a Paladin).
The new first hero gets damage.

As the card says "new", it could be argued that it doesn’t damage the Paladin. The Paladin was and is the first hero, so he isn’t new at this position. Is this interpretation correct?

As @Samthere said, the word new is to clarify they are refering to the character that is in the first position after the first effect of the card.
Anyway, let's go to the rulebook, page 17, Paladins:

  The paladin is a special adventurer that is always at the front of
  the party. Any new warrior will push ahead of everyone but
  the paladin.

So the card specifies the Paladin won't move so it does not go against this primary rule, but the Paladin will take the damage anyway.


Do I have to play a Dead of Winter event card as soon as I draw it, or can I choose to play it later? When you draw an event card which says to add new people to your colony, does that go into effect right away or can you decide when to play it?

You decide when (or if) to play any card from the item deck, including Event cards that add survivors. Players may play item cards (including event cards) on their turn, but they are not required to do so.

The one difference with Event cards is that they are not added to the waste pile but are instead removed from game.

Unfortunately the rulebook doesn't do a good job explaining Event cards, but this topic has come up repeatedly on the BGG rules forum. One such link posted below where one of the co-designers Jonathan Gilmour comments on a thread specific to this rule.

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/17160807#17160807


If I have 10 gems, can I still reserve a card? In the game 'Splendor', if I have 10 gems at the beginning of my turn, can I still reserve a card and get a yellow gem (and discard another to respect the 10 gems limitation) ? Or it's not possible ?

Yes, absolutely.

Very simply, if at the end of your turn you have more than ten tokens discard down to ten by returning your choice of tokens to their respective piles.  The only time when having more than ten tokens is relevant is very specifically at the end of your turn.

From the rulebook:

  Selecting tokens

    A player can never have more than 10 tokens at the end of their turn (including jokers). If this happens, they must return tokens until they only have 10 left. A player can return all or some of those they’ve just drawn. The tokens owned by a player must be visible by all players at all times.

    Reminder: players may not take 2 tokens of the same color if
    there are less than 4 tokens available of that color.


What happens when a non-creature receives "+1/+1 until end of turn" effects, then later becomes a creature? A recent question, Can Disallow prevent me from crewing a vehicle?, brought up the following scenario: Veteran Motorist is tapped to crew a vehicle, but the crew ability is countered by Disallow. The vehicle remains a non-creature with no power or toughness (301.7b). However, Veteran Motorist will try to give it +1/+1:

  Whenever Veteran Motorist crews a Vehicle, that Vehicle gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

This ability does get triggered, even if the ability was countered, because Veteran Motorist was tapped to pay a crew cost:

  702.121b A creature “crews a Vehicle” when it’s tapped to pay the cost to activate a Vehicle’s crew ability.

What happens to this "+1/+1 until end of turn" effect? If I successfully make this vehicle a creature later this same turn, will it have a +1/+1 boost, or will that have disappeared somehow and not apply?

Let's suppose I have another untapped creature around and I'm going to use it to crew the vehicle, or I have Ensoul Artifact or Tezzeret's Touch or Tezzeret the Schemer's emblem ability available to use.

Thinking about it in a regular usage scenario, doesn't the vehicle get the +1/+1 effect before becoming a creature?

When you tap the Veteran to crew, isn't the stack:

Vehicle gets +1/+1
Vehicle becomes a creature.

So, the vehicle gets +1/+1 before becoming a creature, but the effect applies after becoming a creature. In fact, there's never a point in time where it is a creature without the +1/+1.


Can you trump the first trick in Spades? I just played a game of Spades with some family. The Ace of clubs was led on the first trick, and I was out of clubs. Needing quite a few tricks, I chose to trump. My fellow players instantly responded with complaints about a rule that the first trick cannot be trumped.

Obviously, house rules can always be in play. My question is whether this is a common rule to play by, or if this is relatively unheard of. I've been unable to find any sources online that indicate forbidding this action. Is this a common rule to play by?

Mainly I'm looking for grounds for opening the next game with stating explicitly, "Trumping the first trick is legal, as long as you meet the normal requirements," hopefully adding, "That is the way almost everyone plays," to avoid this sort of dispute again.

No trumping the first trick is definitely a house rule, insofar as rules for the game actually exist (there are no official ones). It's hard to say exactly how common it is; for what it's worth I think most people I've played spades with used it. But I haven't found it listed as an actual rule in any of the versions of the rules I've found. So sure, you could call it "just" a house rule, but at the same time, there are obviously people out there successfully playing spades with it.

So can you? Depends who you play with. And honestly, even if we could take a quick representative poll, it doesn't matter that much what most people do. It matters how you and your family want to play. If you want to try to talk them into your version, go for it. Or you can just play their way; it's not going to drastically warp the game.

The real problem you had this game was that different people had different versions of the rules in their head, and you didn't find out until you were actually playing, not necessarily that anyone's version was clearly right or wrong. You can avoid the dispute simply by settling on a rule before you play; no need to get into a big argument about what the correct rules are, or annoy anyone by flat-out stating that your rules are the rules.


What happens to a creature enchanted with totem armor if both are destroyed at the same time? If a player controls a Boon Satyr enchanted with Hyena Umbra providing totem armor, and an opponent plays  Fracturing Gust to destroy all artifacts and more importantly enchantments. What happens?

An aura with Totem armor replaces destruction of the enchanted creature with destruction of the aura itself. Boon satyr is an enchantment creature.

This question may become more important due to the printing of  End Hostilities.

On the rulings for hyena umbra:

  If a spell or ability (such as Planar Cleansing) would destroy both an Aura with totem armor and the permanent it's enchanting at the same time, totem armor's effect will save the enchanted permanent from being destroyed. Instead, the spell or ability will destroy the Aura in two different ways at the same time, but the result is the same as destroying it once.


When two card texts confict, which takes priority? Let's suppose there are creatures in play and someone plays Humility.

It's clear that all the creatures lose their abilities.

How is this situation changed if True Conviction were in play?  Is the situation changed if True Conviction were played after Humility?

Is the solution to this question that the card with the newest time stamp is in effect?

How is this situation changed if True Conviction were in play?

It doesn't.

Is the situation changed if True Conviction were played after Humility?

Yes. Each creature of the controller of True Conviction will be a 1/1 creature with Lifelink and Double Strike.

Is the solution to this question that the card with the newest time stamp is in effect?

Yes. Section 613. Interaction of Continuous Effects of the Magic Comprehensive rules describes the order continuous effects are applied.

613. Interaction of Continuous Effects
613.1. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:
613.1a Layer 1: Copy effects are applied. See rule 706, "Copying Objects."
613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.1c Layer 3: Text-changing effects are applied. See rule 612, "Text-Changing Effects."
613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.
613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding and ability-removing effects are applied.
613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

Humility is an ability-removing and power/toughness changing effect. True Conviction is an ability adding effect. Since both effects use the same layer 6 and aren't dependent upon one another, the order the effects are applied is done in timestamp order.
Also note

613.5. If an effect should be applied in different layers and/or sublayers, the parts of the effect each apply in their appropriate ones. If an effect starts to apply in one layer and/or sublayer, it will continue to be applied to the same set of objects in each other applicable layer and/or sublayer, even if the ability generating the effect is removed during this process.

So the power changing effect of Humility will always be applied last, no matter what.


Is Felray's ability global or local? This lovely lady is Felrey, a mercenary from the new expansion for Twilight Imperium 3rd edition.

She's rather fast, but has limited evasion.

The question surrounds her special ability. Some of the mercs have global abilities:

  The cost of technologic advancements is reduced by 1.

and others have local abilities:

  When participating in a combat, assign one hit to an enemy fighter or
  ground force.

But this one clearly says:

  At the start of a battle, draw 1 Action Card.

Does that mean that Felrey does not need to be a participant in that battle?

Mercs are very neat, and battle does not come cheap in any case. I haven't seen any errata or FAQ covering this, and if one goes with "rules as written", it seems to get an action card at the beginning of every battle, making this lady an interesting leech.

On the other hand, some players argue it as an "obvious thing" that she has to participate herself. Who is right?

Felrey's ability will only trigger when she is present in the combat.

From the section on P12 of the Shards of the Throne expansion rulebook "Using Mercenaries In Battle":

  Any Mercenary abilities that work during battle may only be used if
  the Mercenary is participating in the Space Battle or  Invasion
  Combat.

You could argue that "at the start of a battle" should not technically count as "during a battle" I suppose, but that sounds like excessive rules-lawyering to me!


Does Rayami, First of the Fallen exile itself? If Rayami, First of the Fallen dies does its ability exile itself?

Relevant card text:

  If a nontoken creature would die, exile that card with a blood counter on it instead.

Yes.

The first paragraph creates a replacement effect. A replacement effect changes what happens as it happens, rather than reacting to it like a triggered ability does.

When Rayami, First of the Fallen would die (would be moved to the graveyard from the battlefield), it must necessarily be on the battlefield. As such, it is subject to its own ability.

Put differently, a game of Magic is a sequence of discrete states. This means that a creature that dies is on the battlefield one instant, and in the graveyard (or exile) the next. It's never in between. That means that Rayami must be on the battlefield when you decide to where to move it (because it couldn't possibly be in the graveyard or exile already).

Of course, if Rayami is your Commander, you don't have to exile it; you could choose to move it to the Command Zone instead. In that situation, you'd have two replacement effects vying to change Rayami's destination, so you get to apply the effects in the order of your choice (though the order doesn't matter here).


Playing off previous cribbage runs During cribbage play, (three) players play (for example) 7-9-8, last player scores 3, and the next player plays a 7 and claims that he scores 3 points for the last three cards.  Is that double-counting and not allowed, or is it fair?

That's completely valid. One player scoring a run doesn't stop those cards being used in a following run.