What is the order of permanents destroying via "Destroy Them All!"? An opponent has a creature "powered" by the Backup Copy. I play Destroy Them All! and target both the upgrade and the creature. Does the creature go on the top of the opponent's deck and why?
In other words, what is the order of destroying? Upgrade, then creature → creature goes to the discard pile? Creature, then upgrade → creature goes on top of the deck? In the latter case, the upgrade does no get destroyed by the Destroy Them All! effect actually.

Backup Copy will work. From the rules:

Page 10
DESTROYED
When a card is destroyed by a card effect or when a creature has damage on it equal to or greater than its power, that card is tagged for destruction. After it is tagged, then that card’s “Destroyed:” abilities trigger, and finally the tagged card is placed into its owner’s discard pile. If multiple cards are simultaneously tagged for destruction, the active player chooses the order in which to resolve the “Destroyed:” abilities of any of those cards. All the tagged cards are put into their owners’ discard piles simultaneously, and the active player chooses the order in which those cards are arranged in their owner’s discard piles.

So as per "Card Abilities" (page 7), we resolve Destroy Them All in the order it's written. First an artifact is chosen (if possible), then a creature (if possible), then an upgrade (if possible). When each one is chosen, it is marked for destruction and its destroyed abilities are triggered. None of them are actually destroyed until all have been marked and triggered any destroyed abilities.


Who draws a card from Curious Obsession? If I have enchanted an opponent's creature with Curious Obsession, which player draws the card after damage is dealt?

The creature's controller draws the card.

This is because Curious Obsession grants the draw ability to the creature:

  Enchanted creature [...] has “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.”

The “you” here refers to the controller of whatever object the ability is on (CR 109.5). The ability is on the creature, so the creature's controller will be drawing the card.

This is contrast to Curiosity which will cause the aura's controller to draw a card, because the ability is on the aura itself.

  109.5 The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller. [...] For a triggered ability, this is the controller of the object [that the ability is on] when the ability triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability.


Why Do Modern Players Use "Negative Doubles" In Bridge Personally, I think that too many people overcall. Meaning that we need a penalty double for it in bridge. But the modern fashion seems to be for "negative doubles" over overcalls. These seem to mean, "I don't like your suit, and I don't want to defend the opponents' suit, therefore I'm strong in the remaining two suits. At least relative to my 8-10 points. Meaning that it largely precludes the penalty double.

With some reluctance (and with certain partners), I used a double that means, I like the "remaining" major suit(s). (I hate minors.) It could be either negative or penalty, depending on the circumstances. Some examples:

1 Club (You) 1 Diamond (Opponent) Double (me). I like one, possibly both majors. Negative.

1 Heart (You) 2 Clubs (Opponent) Double (me). I wanted to bid one spade, but 2 clubs shut me out. Negative.

1 Heart (You) 1 Spade (Opponent) Double (me). I like one of the majors (and not yours, because I didn't raise, with Qxx or better). Penalty. (I have AKxxx or QjTxx and hope you'll pass me out.)

Should I stick to penalty doubles? Are negative doubles so compelling that I have to "switch?" Or is it possible to use a "blend" strategy like the one above?

The short answer is - use whatever your partner and you are comfortable with using.

The long answer is - the penalty double at the one or two levels rarely works out the way you think.  Either their partner will switch to a different suit (where you may not want to double for penalties again), they will SOS redouble for takeout (again to a suit that you may not want to double), or they will play in the doubled contract.  You'll find they'll make this contract a maddening percentage of the time, or only be off one.  The times that you have the strength to set them a large number at such a small contract, you could have bid game or slam yourself and make at least as much, if not a lot more.

This is why people really don't penalty double at the low levels anymore.  In competitive auctions, it's much more useful to use the double to find a fit.


What's the strategy for Shut the Box? Through this answer I learned of a game called Shut the Box.

The rules are very simple. The numbers 1 through 9 are "open". Two dice are rolled and numbers are shut that sum up to the number rolled. A player keeps rolling until no numbers can be shut, at which point that player's score is the sum of the numbers still open. The goal is to score as low as possible.
Luck is a big factor here, but is there a strategy to this game? Does the strategy change based on the numbers still open?

Any panels you close on a turn will, by rule, always have the same sum, so a given roll will always reduce your score by the same amount.

So all you can do is leave open as many possibilities as possible for future rolls. You do this by closing as few numbers as possible on each roll.  Closing 5 is better than closing 2 and 3 because if you roll a 2 or a 3, the 5 won't help you, but the 2 and 3 together can serve any purpose the 5 could serve.

A table is available that shows which numbers are best to close given the currently closed numbers and the current dice roll.


After being drawn into a gate during an Encounter, do you have an Other World encounter in the same turn? The encounter phase is split into two, 1st the locations, then the otherworlds. So you do all the locations, then after that you do all the otherworlds.

So, if you are drawn through the a gate in the Arkham Encounter phase, do you also draw a 2nd otherworld encounter card?

Yes.

Arkham Horror rules (page 10) says your character gets delayed after being sucked be a gate. Beign delayed means that in the next turn, during the movement phase, the only thing you do is to stand your character token (page 16). Nothing else is affected, so you should have your other world encounter.

For reference, below is the wrong answer I wrote before @Jefromi commented it.

No, although I'm unaware of any specific ruling about this.

Arkham Horror rules (page 10) says your character gets delayed after being sucked be a gate. Beign delayed means that in the next turn, during the movement phase, the only thing you do is to stand you character token (page 16). Nothing else is affected, so you should have your other world encounter.

But the FAQ (page 4) says:

  Q: Why is an investigator delayed when a gate opens up in their
  location, but not delayed if he enters the gate normally?

  A: If the investigator was not delayed by a gate opening up in his
  location, he would be able to get through the Other World having only
  one Other World Encounter rather than two.

So it seems that an investigators sucked through a gate should have exactly two Other World encounters. Should you have an Other World encounter this turn, next turn you'd stand your character marker, have an encounter in the first Other World position, then in the following turn you'd move to the second position to have a third encounter. This seems to contradict what is suggested in the FAQ. In this situation, the only thing that you can do to avoid violating more specific rules is to not have an Other World encounter when you're sucked by a portal during an encounter.


Question about '...only as a sorcery.' abilities This is a (hopefully) quick question, there are several abilities that can be cast 'only as a sorcery', like a planeswalkers loyalty, or the Outlast ability.

Can these be used multiple times in one turn, if not forbidden (i.e. because the card is tapped)?

The ability text "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery" only affects when you can activate it, not how many times or anything else. Rule 602.5d says

  Activated abilities that read "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery" mean the player must follow the timing rules for casting a sorcery spell, though the ability isn't actually a sorcery. The player doesn't actually need to have a sorcery card that he or she could cast.

The Outlast ability can be confusing because the reminder text is worded "Activate only as a sorcery," but that is just because the wording is shortened to fit in reminder text. The full wording of the Outlast rule is

  Outlast is an activated ability. "Outlast [cost]" means “[Cost], {T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."

Planeswalkers have their own rule that specifically forbids activating their abilities more than once per turn:

  306.5d Each planeswalker has a number of loyalty abilities, which are activated abilities with loyalty symbols in their costs. Loyalty abilities follow special rules: A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent he or she controls any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of his or her turn, but only if none of that permanent’s loyalty abilities have been activated that turn. See rule 606, "Loyalty Abilities."


Teysa + Painter's servant replacement I am building a commander deck for my little brother with Teysa, Orzhov Scion as commander and I noticed that Teysa + Painter Servant is a nice combo, but Painter's servant is expensive and I believe not even legal in commander. I really liked this interaction though, so I was wondering if there is another card I could use as a replacement (that's not too expensive).

The combo in question being the following:

Have Painter's Servant replacement named black
Have 3 white creature (tokens) to sacrifice
Use Teysa's activated ability to exile a creature
Teysa's second ability triggers on each of the tokens dying, generating 3 new tokens
Repeat the process until you opponents have nothing left

Thanks in advance.

No, there is no such replacement for Painter's Servant.

There are some permanent cards that change the colors of all creatures, such as Shifting Sky or Darkest Hour, but none of them add colors to creatures, they all replace them with a single color.

With Sleight of Mind or similar cards you could replace all of occurences of "black" on Teysa with "white" or vice versa. That would allow that specific Teysa to do the combo with any 3 white (or black) creatures. However, with all such cards being blue, they would be outside of your commander's color identity and thus not legal for a Commander deck.

For future reference, under http://gatherer.wizards.com you will find the Oracle database, the official and searchable MtG card database.


Why is Whitby missing in Fury of Dracula (FFG, 3ed)? Fury of Dracula mostly true to the book.

But one thing bugs me - Whitby is not on the board and is replaced by Manchester! Moreover, (real life) Manchester is in the west, not the east.

My question is, have the designers ever commented on why Manchester replaces Whitby?

The lack of Whitby is consistent with earlier editions
First Edition

Second Edition

In all these editions, Manchester exists in the United Kingdom region, but not Whitby.
However, Manchester is more or less in its proper location in both of these versions. It would appear that Manchester's seaside location in the 3rd edition is an error, perhaps in an effort to create more space on the board between it and Liverpool.
Or they confused it with Manchester-by-the-Sea.
There does not appear to be any designer statements about this change
Given that the game first came out in 1987, not a lot of information about its design or release is available online. In fact, the only reference I could find to Whitby in the game were players of the 3rd Edition with similar concerns as yours.
The game designer for the first edition (who has credit in later editions) is Stephen Hand. I thought about reaching out to him and asking about this, but it doesn't look like he has a website, Twitter, or other way to publicly contact him, so we're out of luck there.
If I were take a guess, the game was designed with some recognizable cities in mind, rather than a strict adherence to the source material. Besides, the first edition was released in 1987 and the internet and electronic books were still in their most primitive forms. It's quite possible that it was simply an oversight, and then later editions just remained consistent with earlier ones rather than correcting it.


What's the probability to start a game of Vintage Dredge with Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand? I want to pick up Vintage Dredge in the card game Magic - The Gathering and I want to know the probability of starting with Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand.

We can assume that this is a 60-card deck with 4 Bazaar of Baghdad and 4 Serum Powder, and that we will mulligan aggressively for the Bazaar. Then we will perform the following procedure: we start by drawing 7 cards. After each draw, if the hand contains a Bazaar of Baghdad we are done. Otherwise, if the hand contains a Serum Powder, we use Serum Powder's ability to exile the hand and draw the same number of cards. Otherwise, we mulligan normally, drawing 1 fewer card. If we get to 1 cards without drawing a Bazaar we have failed. What is the probability of finding a Bazaar this way?

I approached this question numerically and drew one billion (1,000,000,000) sample hands.
My assumptions: The deck contains 60 cards, 4 of which are Bazaar of Baghdad and 4 are Serum Powder. No further assumptions regarding the deck building are required.

Then I draw the opening seven cards. If it contains at least 1 Bazaar, the hand is considered a hit. If I draw a Serum Powder, the hand is removed from the game and I draw the exact same number again. If I miss on both, Bazaar and Powder, than I take a mulligan (e.q. reshuffling the deck and drawing one card less).

This continues until I reach the point where I reshuffle a one-card-hand, since it was considered a miss and start the game with a zero-card-hand. In this situation I consider the somewhat new mulligan scry rule, which let's you scry one after mulligan. So even if I start with zero cards in hand, there is a chance that a Bazaar is in the top 2 cards of my library and (thanks to the scry) can be found within one draw step. That probability is also included in my end results.

My findings:

Probability of starting with a 7 card hand: 54.2 %
Probability of starting with a 6 card hand: 22.12 %
Probability of starting with a 5 card hand: 9.91 %
Probability of starting with a 4 card hand: 4.79 %
Probability of starting with a 3 card hand: 2.43 %
Probability of starting with a 2 card hand: 1.23 %
Probability of starting with a 1 card hand: 0.52 %
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand: 4.8 % (this means no Bazaar of Baghdad was found)
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand and Bazar on top (including scry 1): 0.9 %
Probability of complete failure: 3.9 %
Probability to hit: 95.2015011 %
Probability to hit with scry: 96.1029072 %

For the curious people, here is a plot how those probabilities converged:


Can I use Naturalize to "counter" an activated ability? I have a question regarding activated abilities.
My opponent has an Isochron Scepter (untapped). He wants to play the ability and taps it.

Is it possible to destroy the Isochron Scepter with Naturalize beforehand? So if I play Naturalize, is he able to cast the spell imprinted in the Scepter? Or is the Scepter destroyed before the ability triggers?
And if it would be destroyed before the ability triggers, is it then possible to "replay" the Isochron Scepter ability in response again?

Once the ability is put on the stack, destroying the Isochron Scepter in response will not take that ability back off the stack.  First the Naturalize will resolve, destroying the Scepter; then, next the Scepter's ability will resolve and you can copy the imprinted instant card (using the last-known-information rule).

I'm not quite sure what you mean about "replaying the Scepter's ability in response" - the Scepter has been tapped in order to play its ability.  Of course, you can use a spell or effect to untap the Scepter in response to the Naturalize, and pay 2 to pay its ability again.  In which case the Scepter's ability would resolve twice, once before Naturalize resolves and destroys the artifact, and once afterwards.  If this is what you're asking?

This para from the Comprehensive Rules may help to understand the finer points of destroying a permanent while its ability is on the stack:

  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.


Rules to decide which wonder side (A or B) to play in 7 Wonders? In the rules it is recommended for the first games to use side A of the wonders only. After these first games (if I understand the rules correctly) players play the side that is at the top of the wonder card they draw. So some would play side A and some side B (probably). This question discusses if the two sides are balanced.

I wonder if this is really the best way?

I see several possibilities how to handle which side to play:

randomly drawn wonder cards, but all players use side A (recommended for the first games)
randomly drawn wonder cards, but all players use side B
randomly drawn wonder cards, all players use the side that is at the top when the card is revealed (the normal rule)
randomly drawn wonder cards, all players use the side they like more

I feel like variant 4 would be the best (each player may select the side) for a casual playing group, as otherwise some side A players might feel that the side B players have an "unfair" advantage (as the special abilites on B seem to be better). Would it be problematic/unbalanced to use variant 4?

How does the side get selected in tournaments?

EDIT: The rules also allow that players (if all agree) can choose which wonder to play. In this case, variant 4 is probably used (variants 1 and 2 would be possible, too), while variant 3 would be rather pointless (you'd select a wonder yourself but randomize which side to play). Anyhow, this question is about randomly chosen wonders.

This is a tricky one. The rulebook makes seems to specify option #3 pretty specifically:

  Shuffle the 7 Wonder cards, face down, and hand one to each player. The card and its facing determine the Wonders board given to each player, as well as the side to be used during the game.

However, when I demoed the Leaders expansion from Asmodee at a convention, option #4 was used; the cards were dealt randomly but players were allowed to choose their own sides. This was the first I had seen this rule, but it seemed to work well and I immediately started using it in casual games as well. Not only do players get to choose the board they like better, but there's no worry about making sure to maintain the orientation on the Wonder card when revealing it. I encountered the same rule at GenCon 2012, when I played (with little success, sadly) in a tournament.


Removal in response to the Helm of the Host's triggered ability What happens if my enemy removes a creature equipped with Helm of the Host in response to the helm's triggered ability? Does the rule 112.7a apply? (the copy is generated normally). I am confused because the creature is not the source of the triggered ability.

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won't affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, "Prodigal Sorcerer 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.

I found this on Gatherer:

  If the equipped creature leaves the battlefield before the triggered ability of Helm of the Host resolves, or if there is no equipped creature, no token is created. However, if Helm of the Host leaves the battlefield while its triggered ability is on the stack, a token will be created of the creature it last equipped. If that creature has also left the battlefield, its last known information is used to determine what the token looks like.

So, in this case, no token will be created.


Do Dragon Spirits like Kokusho trigger Lathliss's ability? I have found some really cool Dragon variations to use with Lathliss, Dragon Queen, but I'm not sure if Dragon Spirits like Kokusho, the Evening Star trigger her ability.

When searching for Dragon cards, different Dragon Spirits came up as part of the selection, but that may just have been part of the keyword search. So I'd just like to clarify things with "yes Dragon Spirits will trigger her ability" or "no, it won't"

Yes, Lathliss's ability will trigger from any creature with "Dragon" in the type line, including Dragon Spirits like Kokusho.

Each word of the type line is a separate type that is treated independently. So when you look at a card with "Dragon Spirit" in the subtype, you do not threat that as a single unit, it means that it is both a Dragon and a Spirit. This is stated in rule 205.3b:

  Subtypes of each card type except plane are always single words and are listed after a long dash. Each word after the dash is a separate subtype; such objects may have multiple types. [...]


If two things say "You may pay (cost)" and I pay that cost once, do both things happen? If I own two Flameshadow Conjurings and play a Spawn Of Thraxes, both Flameshadow Conjurings would go on the stack. Once I choose to pay 1 red mana, do I get two copies or one? Since the rules text says "if you do" it seems like both cards would see I did and I'd get two copies.

If you don't pay a mana the second time you are instructed "you may pay {R}", you do not get a second token.

When the creature enters the battlefield, the abilities of both Flameshadow Conjuring trigger. You place them on the stack in the order of your choice.

Only one spell or ability resolves at a time.

First, the newest instance of Flameshadow Conjuring's ability on the stack resolves. As part of resolving, it gives you the option to pay a cost, and creates a token if you do.

Later, the other instance of Flameshadow Conjuring's ability resolves. As part of resolving, it gives you the option to pay a cost, and creates a token if you do.

Neither of these abilities care about costs payed by similar abilities in the past. They just check if you payed the cost they gave you the option of paying.


Can a Palace Guard block for both a player and a planeswalker? I attacked my friend and his planeswalker,  who had a Palace Guard in play. Now can his card block for himself and his planeswalker at the same time? Or would he have to choose which one it blocked for, meaning himself or the planeswalker?

When a player declares blockers, they declare which attacking creatures they will block, not which planeswalker or player they will defend. From the official rules:

  509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that’s attacking that player or a planeswalker they control.

Palace Guard has an exception written on its card that it may block any number of creatures instead of just one, but there are no rules that forbid a card from blocking for multiple attacking 'targets' simultaneously.


Does the legend rule affect 2 creatures with the same general name? Suppose I have Squee, Goblin Nabob on the battlefield. Does the legend rule apply if I then play Squee, The Immortal?

No.

The following is the "legend rule":

  704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

There's nothing concerning controlling two or more legendary permanents with similar names.


Can I challenge a character with a '-' ability to a duel? The rules on having a '-' attribute only say that they are not able to participate in conflicts of that type. However, if a card that has "Political 1, Military -" is in a Political conflict, can I challenge that card to a Military duel, or is it not a valid target?

And if it is a valid target, what is its Military skill in this situation? Can it add any modifiers it gets from being Honored or from attachments for the duel score?

As per the rules reference, page 5, under "Dash (-)", the following bullet point is relevant (emphasis mine):

  A character with a dash skill value cannot be a challenger or challengee in a duel of that skill type. (see D.2 on page 23)

So, no, the character you describe cannot participate in a military duel, either as the challengee or the challenger.

The bullet point immediately above it covers the case where such a character's skill value is needed by an effect and that value is a dash (which can happen), in which case the skill value will always be 0 at the time it is checked by the effect and cannot be modified.


Is drawing multiple cards an atomic action? Is drawing multiple cards an atomic action, or do effects triggered by drawing a card trigger for each card drawn instead?

Consider Spiteful Visions, which reads:

  Whenever a player draws a card, Spiteful Visions deals 1 damage to that player.

If a player were to be compelled to draw more than one card, would that player be dealt the damage all at once, or one at a time? For example, how many times would Circle of Protection: Black need to be activated to prevent all damage?

Furthermore, if there exist additional effects that are triggered by damage dealt in this way, are such effects resolved together atomically or is each resultant effect resolved individually?

How about tutors, or other cards not using the word 'draw', eg: Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar

  If you would draw a card, look at the top three cards of your library instead. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Spiteful Visions would trigger once for each card drawn, so if you cast Divination to draw 2 cards it would trigger twice and you would be dealt 1 damage for each trigger, and CoP:Black would need to be activated twice to prevent all the damage. Anything that triggers off of this damage would then trigger once for each time the artifact triggered.

For Tomorrow it would not trigger because it does not contain the word "Draw", if it doesn't specifically say "Draw" it does not count as drawing cards they are just put into your hand.


How does the timing work when area-of-effect damage creates new targets? In Sentinels of the Multiverse, the villain Gloomweaver has this power: "Whenever a Cultist is destroyed, search the Villain trash for a Zombie card and put it into play."

Suppose that I use a power that "deals three damage to all non-hero targets".  If this power kills a Cultist and thus brings a Zombie into play, does the power also deal three damage to the Zombie?

Cards are resolved in order. So for instance in this scenario if you deal your damage you might look like this:

Gloomweaver 3 damage (Because he's the first card that came out) <-- not actually true, damage is dealt in player's choice order
Environment Card (Because something has been sticking around)
Villain Card (Dead; Add Zombie)
Villain Card (3 Damage)
New Zombie (3 Damage)

So yes you would do that damage to the zombie.


What is the reason why the commentator said that? I was watching this video. When I was confused by what one of the commentators said. The commentator said basically that Daniel's pair of deuce would get beaten if Phill Laak would hit a 9?

Why is that?

He's talking about what Daniel is thinking. He's saying that Daniel is pretty sure that his pair of 2's is the best hand, unless Laak is holding a 9, which he could be (from Daniel's perspective).

So he's not saying that Laak needs another 9 on the river to win; he's saying that IF Laak were holding a 9, then he would be winning after that 9 on the turn.


In Hive, can a beetle go up/down into an empty space? Consider a Beetle surrounded on 5 sides, thus there is a space in the ring around it.

Can the Beetle move from the centre of this arrangement, into the space?  A normal 'planar' move is prevented under these circumstances but a Beetle can move vertically.  It could climb on to a neighbour then down into the space in two moves; but can it do the move up-and-down into the space in one move?

If a beetle is not climbing up onto or down off of a piece, it moves exactly like a Queen Bee. A beetle cannot move into a space it cannot physically slide into.

reference: http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Hive_FAQ#toc10


Is this a case where a figure doesn't have LOS to an enemy because another figure it doesn't have LOS to is in the way? While playing Star Wars: Imperial Assult, we had a strange situation where an Imperial had two Rebel figures down the field. One of them was clearly not within Line of Sight because one corner of the Imperial figure could not draw a line to two of the Rebel figure's corners. So the Imperial decided to target the other Rebel.

But that's when we remembered that figures block line of sight. If the other Rebel figure wasn't in the way, the Imperial player would clearly have line of sight. But because this Rebel is where it is, it would appear that a Rebel that the Imperial doesn't have line of sight to is somehow blocking line of sight to another figure.

Is this a correct interpretation of the rules? Realistically, it makes no sense, since the only reason a figure would block line of sight is because it would be hit by a blaster bolt instead.

I believe that your interpretation of the rules is correct, since they do seem to be pretty clear on that point; here's the "Line of Sight" section from the Rules Reference Guide, page 16:

  To determine line of sight, the player draws two imaginary, nonintersecting lines from one corner of the attacking figure’s space
  to two adjacent corners of the target’s space. If either of these lines
  passes through a wall, figure, or blocking terrain, then the figure
  does not have line of sight to the target.

(I've added the emphasis on "figure", the other is in the original.)

The way I'd justify this slight oddness to myself is that when you're targetting a figure, it's one particular figure that you're trying to target - there's no way to say, "this would probably hit one of these two rebels", and if there were that'd have to take into account their different distances, etc. It'd be a much more confusing combat system if that possibility were taken into account. So I guess it's a nice simplification to say that you're just targetting one figure, and anything that might get in the way blocks that intention, even if it's another hostile figure rather than blocking terrain.


How to "dematerialize" a deck in the Magic Assistant card manager? (I'm hoping that a question about a utility related to Magic: The Gathering is on topic here, otherwise I apologize.)

I am trying to organize my collection using the open source Magic Assistant program. Since much of my collection is already built into decks, I've created a number of them and added cards from the database. The remainder of my collection has been added into my "main" collection area, so every card I physically own is accounted for exactly once. Now, I want to break down a few of those decks and use the cards elsewhere, but I don't want to lose the card lists.

It seems like I want to use something called a "virtual deck" here, but I'm not sure exactly how these work. I have figured out how to build a virtual deck from scratch, and later "materialize" it into a real deck. This moves the cards from "main" collection into the deck and converts it to a physical one.

What I can't figure out is how to go the other way and "dematerialize" a deck. I have a physical deck, and I want to move all the cards back into the "main" collection, but I don't want to lose the deck list. So far, everything I've tried has resulting in either:

The card disappearing from the deck and moving back into my "main", or
An extra copy of the card ending up in my collection.

Is this something that's supported by Magic Assistant? If not, is there any way to do it manually, other than moving all the cards out and re-creating the virtual deck from scratch?

It looks like you can accomplish this by doing the following:

Open up the deck you want to convert.
Select the entire list of cards.
Right click and click Edit Card...
Change the Ownership dropdown to "Virtual" and click OK.
Copy the list of cards, and paste into the main collection.

This will result in each card appearing as physically owned in the collection and virtually owned in the deck. If you do this, you may want to also modify the deck's properties to make it Virtual so that cards you add to it in the future will be virtual.


Delayed and detained Say your investigator gets delayed (cannot perform any actions bare "standing up") and then get Detained (for example, via a Mythos card). The Detained condition states that the investigator can only perform one action: roll influence to escape the detention. However, this means that you cannot "stand up" thus are still delayed.

I can see these solutions: (i) Stand up, you cannot roll influence and thus get the full bore of the Detained. (ii) You roll influence thus potentially escaping the detention but are still delayed at the end of your turn. (iii) You cannot have both conditions at the same time.

Is there an official one?

The influence roll on the Detained card is a Local Action, meaning any investigator on the space, yourself included, can roll to perform the action.  Normally, you would be able to roll on it to try to remove the Restriction.  However, being Delayed adds an additional restriction indicating that you cannot perform any actions.

I believe the question is based around if the act of standing up from being Delayed is an Action.  As the rule book states:

  A Delayed investigator cannot perform actions.

The only logical way for an investigator to cease detainment is for the act of standing up to not count as an action.

The net result for your round would be:

Any investigators before you, who are also on your space, can roll as a local action to try to discard your Detained card
On your turn, regardless of Detained status, you stand up and perform no other actions due to being Delayed
Any investigators after you, who are also on your space, can roll as a local action to try to discard your Detained card
During your encounter phase, if the Detained was not removed, flip the card and encounter the back


Political Prowess someone else's activation? In Battlestar Galactica, there is a card (Political Prowess) whose text reads thusly:

  Play before making a skill check triggered by a location.  Do not make the skill check; instead, it automatically passes or fails (your choice).

Another player is in the Brig.  He wishes to escape, so he attempts to activate the location.   Can I use this card to force him to autofail the check and remain in captivity?

The core question here seems to be: does "make a skill check" refer only to yourself, or just refer to executing a skill check regardless of who triggered it?

My gut feeling is that this phrasing usually means you can only use this on skill checks YOU triggered at a location.  The person taking the action is "making the skill check".

For one thing, this card would be extremely powerful (for cases like the one you describe) if it could be used on anybody's skill check any time.


Mystery at Stargazer's Manor: Doable with only 2 players? My SO got me Escape the Room: Mystery at Stargazer's Manor with the intent we could do it together but didn't see the game was labeled for 3+.

Without spoilers, was wondering if anyone who played this thinks it could be done with 2 players or if I should follow the box advice for maximum fun.

From light reading (again avoiding spoilers), I expect this is a one shot, so am seeking advice rather than trying and seeing=)

Yes, Escape the Room: Mystery at Stargazer's Manor can be played with any number of players, even one.

With that said, I would recommend 2-4 players. As with most escape room-type games, the more the merrier, although there is only so much physical material to pass around between players.

Source: personal experience™


Brain transference in Star Fluxx The card Brain Transference reads:

  You and a player of your choice switch seats at the table (leaving your hands). You each take over the other player's entire position in the game, as if you were in that position all along.
  Your turn ends immediately. The person next in order from your original seat goes next unless that's you, in which case the player after your new seat goes next.

(Leaving your hands) wording in card description is unclear to me.
When I change seat, do I keep my hand of cards or also switch cards with my opponent?

The cards currently in your hand are left on the table. The keepers and creepers in front of you are left where you were.

You take over your targets position in the game, and they assume yours.


How does the effect of tile 22 (from Tower of Babel) apply to tokens (from Great Projects)? In the Babel rules, under the section "Playing with the other expansions", it says (English PDF, page 7):

  If you play with the Tower of Babel expansion, the effect of tiles 19 and 22 also apply to Conflict tokens from the Great Projects.

Tile 19 modifies the "taking of military Victory tokens".

Tile 22 modifies the "taking of military Defeat tokens".

While the Great Projects expansion has a reward token where you get Victory tokens (so the effect of tile 19 is clear), there is no reward nor penality token where you get Defeat tokens.

So when would the effect of tile 22 "apply to Conflict tokens from the Great Projects"?

Despite not having, yet, a Project that hands out defeat tokens as penalties, the phrase "apply to Conflict tokens from the Great Projects" is still in the rules just in case a relevant Great Project will be released, either as a promo or in a future expansion. That's my best guess.


What happens if I give double strike to a creature right after the combat damage is dealt? The rules sais

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

So the scenario is the next:

If I attack with a normal creature, let's say is a 1/2, and it's blocked by another 1/2, the combat runs normal, attackers -> blockers -> combat damage.

Right after the damage is done, I play a Boros Charm just after the damage is dealt, giving my 1/2 double strike until the end of turn...

Will it create a second combat damage step?
If so, will all the creatures do damage again? (because as said in the rule The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began)
Or no other creature do damage because they are not the remaining creatures?

No, this won't create a second combat step. We only check for double strike (and first strike) at the start of the combat damage step, and not at any other time during. This means the rules have already determined there won't be another combat damage step. Here's what they saw:

Do any creatures have first strike or double strike? No.
Let's do regular damage then move on to end of combat.
End of combat.

So once combat damage has already started, it's too late to give anything double strike. You'll need to give your creatures double strike during the Declare Blockers step, before moving on to combat damage, so that the rules will see something has that ability and create that extra combat damage step at the start.

The relevant rule from the comprehensive rules for the combat damage step, emphasis added:

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

Side note (thanks to @Malco): In a different scenario, you could give double strike to a creature that already had first strike, once you get priority just after first strike damage has been dealt. This creature has already ensured that a first strike combat damage step exists, and giving it double strike allows the creature to deal damage in the regular combat damage step as well. This works since this is one of the points we do check for double strike in the middle of the step. From the end of the quote above, emphasis added:

  [If we created a first strike combat damage step, then] the only creatures that assign combat damage in [the regular combat damage step] are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike.


Is a pawn allowed to capture onto a promotion square? I was playing chess with my father.

My pawn was on the second-to-last square before promotion. He had two rooks side-by-side blocking my pawn, therefore I naturally took the rook beside it because a pawn moves diagonally to take the piece.

He said this was an illegal move and not allowed, that a pawn cannot take a piece diagonally and then gets promoted because it's on the other side. Is this true?

No, this in incorrect. A pawn may capture and promote on the same move, there's no rule prohibiting this (§3.7 of the official rules regulate pawn moves, including captures and promotions).

With two rooks next to each other, the pawn might be 'pinned' because your king is on the same column and there are no other pieces or pawns in between; then, a capture would put your king in check. Otherwise, capturing is just as legal as moving forward.


How to defeat an active Digglet Pokemon when oppenent has an additional on bench The Digglet from XY - Evolutions protects itself as long as it's on the bench. How is it possible to defeat the active Diglett if there's also a second one on the bench, causing each to protect itself?

Diglett card from XY - Evolutions expansion has an interesting ability:

  Ability: Submerge
  As long as this Pokémon is on your Bench, prevent all damage done to this Pokémon by attacks (both yours and your opponent's).

The phrase this Pokémon is special in Pokémon TCG - it refers to this one and only particular Pokémon, not any other, not even other Pokémon of the same species.

Thus it's quite simple to defeat two Digletts, because the active one can be damaged without problems. Just knock out the first one during one turn, then the second one during later turn.


King of Tokyo, effects of cards after monster death In King of Tokyo, when a monster dies does the effects of shrink counters or poison counters placed by that monster still apply, or do those counters fall away with the eliminated monster ?

There are no rules that say effects that originated from a monster go away once that particular monster has perished, so they persist.

Other than being logical it saves on bookkeeping too, otherwise you'd need to track who gave you which counter because powers can be stolen and multiple monsters may have given you a counter from the same power...


Do Pack Rat copies give devotion? If I make a copy of Pack Rat using its ability, does that copy retain the mana cost, and thus increase my devotion to black by one?

ie. I have nothing on the battlefield but one Pack Rat and some swamps. I discard a card to Pack Rat to create a copy of it. Is my devotion now equal to 1 or 2?

Yes. Each of the Pack Rat copies will have a mana cost of 1B, which counts for devotion to black.

Most tokens (like Elspeth's Soldier tokens) don't have a mana cost because the effect creating them doesn't specify one.

Pack Rat, however, creates a token that is a copy of the card, meaning that it gains all of the original card's "copiable characteristics":

  706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object's characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The "copiable values" are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by "as . . . enters the battlefield" and "as . . . is turned face up" abilities that set characteristics, and by abilities that caused the object to be face down. Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.


When to choose Terrans and how to make the most from them I love Gaia Project. But there are some races I havn't quite "cracked" yet. So I figured I would try to start a thread here for each race. I will try with this one, and if people like it, I will follow up with each of the other races in turn.

I will start with one of the races I do think I've got a fair handle on.

I will then provide a response with the do's and don'ts that I've figured out so far.

Some things are always relevant before you choose a race. Such as the amount and layout of the planets. The more planets of the right colour, the better. Even more so, if there are planets nearby, that only needs to be terraformed a single step to become habitable. And hopefully they are not all situated near the border of the map. You also want to start near other players. No need to address these points each and every time.

So: When to choose Terrans, and how to make the most from them?

Summary of the Terrans, for those who do not remember :
Start one place up the Gaia tech track, making you start with one of the three terraformers activated.
Once the Planetary Institute has been built, every Gaia phase, you may obtain resources for the powerdiscs that are moved back into your power bowls. 4 discs for a QI cube. 3 discs for an Iron. 4 discs for a Tech. 1 disc for a Gold.

Terrans will become more attractive to pick, the more of the following are true:

You are able to pick starting positions, where you can use your terraformer. Ie. the purple planet is next to or close to a blue planet. Preferably both your starting planets.
During the first or second turn, you will get bonus points for building your Planetary Institute
During the game, you will get bonus points for colonizing Gaia planets.
The round booster giving points for colonized Gaia planets is available.

During the game, you will probably want to:

Get your Planetary Institute on the board early, enabling your special ability to obtain stuff for free during the Gaia phase.
Get hold of the tech tile, which allows you to take a special action giving you 4 power.
Use this tech tile in combination with your terraformer. Use the terraformer to move a bunch of power tokens from your 1-bowl into the Gaia bowl. In the next turn, these will return to your 2-bowl. And with the special action, your will quickly have 4 power pushed into your 3-bowl. Once they are spent, one of your last actions that turn, should be to use your terraformer, thereby emptying your 1-bowl. Clean-rinse-repeat.
If one of the late game turn bonuses is the 4-points for colonizing Gaia Planets, you may want to go deep in the Gaia tech track, enabling you to terraform three purple planets on the turn just before that, and then follow up with colonizing three Gaia planets and netting 12 points.
If it suits your plans, you may also want to pick up the tech tile, that gives you 3 points every time you colonize a Gaia planet. The earlier the better.


Monster equipped with 2 Safe Zone then 1 of them is destroyed Q1- If I activated 2 Safe Zone cards on my monster, then if one of them (the 2 Safe Zone cards) is destroyed:

The monster won't be destroyed because it's still protected by the other Safe Zone..?
Or, the monster will be destroyed because the undestroyed Safe Zone's effect protects against opponent's card effects only, while the destroyed Safe Zone is my own card's effect..?

Q2- I activated 2 Safe Zone on my opponent's monster, then one of them (the 2 Safe Zone cards) is destroyed, then all 3 cards are destroyed?

Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up Attack Position monster on
  the field; that face-up monster cannot be targeted or destroyed by
  your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. It cannot
  attack your opponent directly. When this card leaves the field,
  destroy that monster. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this
  card.

Since Safe Zone explicitly mentions protection from your opponents card effects, it will indeed not protect your monster from a second Safe Zone you control, equiped to it.

For your second question, the same logic applies. The monster may not be under your control, they are still your Safe Zone. So yes, all 3 cards will be destroyed.


What Are the Requirements for a "Jump" Bid Opposite a Takeout Double in Bridge? My left hand opponent opened one diamond. Partner doubled. Right hand opponent passed. I was sitting in fourth seat with eight points, and something like

(s) KJxxx  (h) Jxx (d) xx (c) Kxx.

I "jumped" to TWO spades (instead of bidding the minimum one spade). With Qxx in spades and 13 points, partner took us to four, which went down two.

Partner said, "I thought your jump meant you had an opening hand. That, opposite my 13 means game." My opponents were also confused by the sequence.

My reply was that since I was forced to bid one spade with "nothing," a jump to two spades (which was the right level), meant that I was making a "non-forced" bid with a real (intermediate) hand of 7-10 points. Given that he had a minimum takeout double (and a minimum spade holding), I expected partner to pass.

Opposite a takeout double, does a jump bid of "one more than necessary" in a suit indicate moderate values? Or was partner right to expect an opening hand?

I believe you're correct, and your partner is talking nonsense when he says "I thought your jump meant you had an opening hand".  Everything I can find on the subject suggests that the jump is appropriate for a hand with 8+ HCP, or perhaps 9-11 modified HCP as per this bridge tip from pro player Eddie Kantar:

  When responding to a takeout double, add one extra point for an unbid
  four card major and two extra points for an unbid five card major.
  Then if your total comes to 9-11 working points ( do not count
  anything for jacks or queens in any suit bid by an opponent) make a
  single jump response, not forcing. With less than 9 working points,
  make a non-jump response. With more than 11 revalued points, cuebid
  the opponent's suit.

With 8HCP and a diamond doubleton, you might be borderline, but you're still within your rights to test the waters.  Tell your partner (and opponents) to read up on responses to takeout doubles!


Player targeted by Executive Order card must obey the other player order? The Executive Order card says:

  Action: Choose any other player. He may move his character and then take 1 action OR not move and take 2 actions.

This does not state that the player targeted by the Executive Order should do what the player who played the card order (or even if he can order something). So, this is the question: When someone use the Executive Order, he can order other player to do something or the card just let the other player do whatever he wants?

You can try giving orders, but the other player is in full control of the actions.

For this reason, never XO the person to your left unless all Cylons have been positively identified.  Giving a Cylon 3 actions in a row is very hard to overcome!


Is 'Enchantment Creature' a creature type? I'm specifically looking at interactions with Descendant's Path. If I have an enchantment creature on the battlefield, let's say Aegis of the Gods, and then Descendants' Path reveals Agent of Erebos, does the shared 'Enchantment Creature' feature allow Agent of Erebos to come into play, or does the Path just look at the Human Soldier and and Zombie part, putting the Agent on the bottom of my library?

According to the rules, possible card types are:

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

Agent of Erebos shares the type with Aegis of the Gods. However, Desendants' Path looks not at the card type, but on Creature Type:

  302.3. Creature subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash: “Creature — Human Soldier,” “Artifact Creature — Golem,” and so on. Creature subtypes are also called creature types. Creatures may have multiple subtypes. See rule 205.3m for the complete list of creature types.
  Example: “Creature — Goblin Wizard” means the card is a creature with the subtypes Goblin and Wizard.

Aegis and Agent don't share a creature (sub)type, therefore you will have to put the Agent on the bottom of your library unless you control more creatures one of which is a Zombie.


Does Angel of Jubliation prevent repeating Lim-Dûl's Vault? Does Angel of Jubilation stop people from paying life for Lim-Dûl's Vault? My understanding is that it does not, since paying life is part of the resolution of the spell, but Magic the Gathering's rules never fail to surprise, so I figured I'd ask to make sure.

You are correct, it does not prevent the cost to repeat the effect of vault. Angel of Jubilation specifically stops you from paying life or sacrificing creatures as a cost of casting, this is not a cast. From the rulings on Angel of Jubilation:

[Emphasis mine]

  Other things may still cause players to pay life or sacrifice creatures, such as a resolving spell or ability.

What would prevent this is something like Platinum Emperion.


Can Auras be moved between creatures? Say I play Valeron Warden and then play Knightly Valor, enchanting Valeron Warden. Valeron Warden now has +2/+2 and Vilgilance.  On the next turn, I play Archangel of Tithes, a much stronger creature. To make it stronger, can I move the enchantment, Knightly Valor from Valeron Warden and enchant Archangel of Tithes?

All I can find on this is that it must have a target and that it can be sent to the graveyard if the target is sent to the graveyard.

In general once an Aura is enchanting an object it stays enchanting that object. There are no rules that allow you to move Auras from one object to another, therefore you cannot do it.

There are exceptions though, cards like Simic Guildmage have the ability to move Auras to different permanents, and Illusory Gains moves itself whenever a creature enters the battlefield.


If an attacking creature is sacrificed after being blocked, can I redeclare the block? I was playing a quick game, and my opponent played Shidako, Broodmistress and attacked with several creatures, I declared my blockers, and my opponent proceeded to pay the forests and sacrifice all of the creature I blocked to buff the one that got through, my question is, now that all of the creatures I blocked are no longer attacking, am I able to redeclare blockers, due to the change of creature prescence?

No.  The step for declaring blockers only happens once, followed by the ability to play abilities and effects, which can result in any number of situations including attackers or blockers no longer doing so, being destroyed, buffed, or whatever.  Regardless of the circumstance that results, blockers cannot be changed and the players must deal with the consequences of the units continuing with their combat orders to the best of their ability.


In this Go game why does the territory appear as being completely captured I've been learning to play Go for the past few days, and in this game I'm playing I don't understand exactly how I captured the whole board in one move. These images show what happened.

A corner invasion can in some cases can make a huge difference. In this case the play on th 3-3 point threatens to cut the white group in the upper left into three pieces, two of which have no chance at life and the third is in bad shape.
That siad, I think the AI is a bit premature in declaring all these stones dead.  A play by white to connect  at the 4-3 point or to undercut at the 3-2 point could lead to life for at least the largest part of the white group, depending on the further line of play by both players. I am not an expert (I was about 10 Kyu at my best, years ago), but I would not concede with the white position after this move,
I agree with the comment that a larger board size may avoids tactical oddities with this AI.
Addition: A comment by @ilkkachu points out that in the 2nd image it is black's turn, not white's, Given that, white doesn't seem to have much chance. If as the comment suggests black extends to the left of the previous store, ther does not seem a plausible line for any white group to form eyes, assuming reasonable play by black. I had incorrectly read the 2nd image as white to play, that makes a sizable difference.


How many cards can I access in R&D / HQ? My girlfriend and I started playing Netrunner this weekend, and after our first game taking roughly 4 days, we're now enjoying it!

I'm assuming that I'm just being thick here, but the manual never actually states how many cards you get to access in R&D / HQ. It says what happens "When accessing multiple cards", so in our first game we just assumed it was a choice about whether you wanted to carry on accessing cards or not.

However, when we ran across The Maker's Eye, this method of play suddenly seemed wrong. Am I to assume that I only get to access ONE card from R&D/HQ unless I have a card that allows me to access more?

Thanks!

It's in the official rulebook, under Access Phase in the section on Runs:

  • R&D: The Runner accesses the top card of R&D, and any upgrades
  in its root...

  • HQ: The Runner accesses one random card from HQ and any upgrades
  in its root...

  • Archives: The Runner accesses all cards in Archives and any
  upgrades in its root...

  • Remote Server:  The Runner accesses all cards in the server.


How does lifelink affect indestructible creatures? My 4/4 lifelink creature is blocked by his 1/1 indestructible creature.
How much life do I gain, if any?

You will gain 4 life.

Lifelink and indestructible have no special interactions with each other. Your 4/4 will deal 4 damage to the 1/1, and you will gain 4 life. This is the same as if your 4/4 had dealt damage to any other creature. It doesn't matter how much toughness the defending creature has, or whether it will eventually die.

  510.1a Each attacking creature and each blocking creature assigns combat damage equal to its power. Creatures that would assign 0 or less damage this way don’t assign combat damage at all.


Can I spend Stimhack credits after accessing cards? Stimhack gives me 9 credits that I have to spend during a run.

Cards like Clone Chip allow me to install programs during a run. I can obviously use my Stimhack credits to pay for these programs.

My question is, let's say I'd like to save my money for trashing cards in a server: Once I've accessed and trashed cards, is it too late to then spend what I have left using Clone Chip or similar?

My understanding is that Clone Chip (etc.) requires a paid ability window to install a program. There doesn't appear to be such a window between accessing cards and ending the run.

Am I forced to spend "spare" credits prior to accessing and guess how much I need to keep to pay for trashing, losing any that still remains?

An example to explain:

I Stimhack into a remote server. I break the only piece of ICE, leaving me with 6 Stimhack credits left. I suspect the only card in the server is a SanSan City Grid which I'd like to trash (and which would cost 5 to do so). I access the card and see that it's actually a Red Herrings and I trash it for one credit.

Option A: I still have 5 credits left so I spend them to install Crypsis from my heap using Clone Chip (rather than lose the 5 credits). Then the run ends.
Option B: My 5 credits are lost.

According to the run sequence on the back page manual, a run includes "Access Cards", so obviously, one can use the credits from stimhack to trash any accessed cards.

Now, for the Clone Chip part of the question: this is a Paid Ability, so you need a paid abilities window (the green arrow on the path charts) to use the chip.  If you look at the Revised Run structure in the FAQ (last page, here), you will notice that the last Paid Abilities window is 4.3,  which is after passing the last piece of ICE but before any cards are accessed.  So, in your situation, you would not be able to install Crypsis and the 5 credits would be lost.


Does Guttersnipe's ability count as attacking? Does Guttersnipe dealing damage to a player from an instant being played count as it attacking you and therefore triggering Revenge of Ravens?

No, Guttersnipe's ability does not count as "attacking".

In Magic the word "attacks" as used on Revenge of Ravens specifically refers to declaring a creature as an attacker in combat. Guttersnipe's ability does not do that; it just deals damage to players.


In Pandante, why is the fine for a failed challenge against a player telling the truth multiplied by the total number of players? From the rules of Pandante, about resolving the winner of a gambit:

  When you’re challenged as lying about your poker hand, your two options are: a) keep your hand secret, fold, and pay each challenger 5 gold or b) reveal your hand to prove that you are telling the truth and each challenger pays you 5X gold where X is the number of players in the game.

Other fines in the game are fixed, and do not individually scale with the number of players.  In general, the number of players seems to be taken into account by the fact that the more people challenging etc the more money changes hands, naturally.  Why is it different in this specific instance of challenging a truthful best hand?

The only thing I can think of is that, the more players there are, the harder it is to successfully be the best hand at the end, without lying, and so achieving that deserves more reward.

With more players in the game the chances of at least one player deciding to challenge you go up.  To counteract this, you need to make it less attractive to each individual player to challenge you, which can be done by modifying the payouts in the way described in the question.


In the game of Stratego, is it possible to destroy all 40 enemy units? Stratego. Both opponents have 40 units each at the start of the game. My question is, is it real to destroy/kill/capture all forty enemy units during a single game? By "destroy" I mean also passive or mutual destruction, not necessarily an active kill. For example, if the opponent's spy is attacking our general, it is still counted as we have killed him.

As Dennis_E mentioned, it is possible, but I would say it is improbable.

To destroy all enemy units, you would have to avoid the flag until the 40th capture. Additionally, one of the enemy's non-stationary pieces must be the 39th piece to be captured, and it must suicide itself on one of your pieces.  Otherwise, the game would have ended beforehand as the opponent would have been unable to move any piece during their turn, thus losing before you could destroy all 40 pieces.

What makes this improbable is that without assistance from your opponent, you would have to identify all the non-flag stationary pieces and destroy them before destroying the flag while ensuring the opponent maintains an additional non-stationary piece, which they must voluntarily throw at a piece that would destroy it on a turn preceding one where you are able to capture the flag.

I really cannot see a human opponent not forfeiting at this point unless they were colluding with you.


If I can't win, but can stop my opponent from winning, is the game drawn? Here's an article published on Hipsters of the Coast about a 107-minute MTG Arena game. The core idea is, one player was playing a deck that had no win condition except 4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. The deck wins by first getting Teferi to its ultimate, cast some spells to exile all the opponent's permanents, and then use Teferi's -3 to put itself back to the library. Since the opponent can't cast spells, they'll eventually draw their entire library and lose.

At least, that's the plan. In this particular game, the opponent countered or killed all four Teferi. That leaves the player with no way to win. However, he's still able to loop Nexus of Fate to take all the turns and never lose either.

Question: if this happens in paper Magic, is the game drawn?

No. If you in a situation like that in paper magic, you'll have to create a shortcut per CR:

  720.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a "loop"). In that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them, and how the loop is broken.

Also per MTR 4.4, you can't ‘opt-out’ of shortcutting a loop:

  A player may not ‘opt-out’ of shortcutting a loop, nor may they make irrelevant changes between iterations in an attempt to make it appear as though there is no loop. Once a loop has been shortcut, it may not be restarted until the game has changed in a relevant way.

The game could be drawn if both players were involved in a loop both would choose to continue indefinitely, but this is not the case:

  If two or more players are involved in maintaining a loop across turns, each player chooses a number of iterations to perform, or announces their intent to continue indefinitely. If all players choose to continue indefinitely, the game is a draw.


Can I pocket and cover the Queen in a single strike and win? If I pocket my last C/m and the Queen in a single strike, is this a win or a lose or do you put the pieces in the center again?

"If while shooting for the Queen you also sink one of your pieces, the Queen is automatically covered, no matter which went in first." Carrom.org

By this rule the game would be won along with the bonus for the Queen.


How far can you safely extend from your own wall? When extending into what is basically open territory, how far can you extend to increase your influence/moyo, without inviting an invasion?

Choosing the right distance for an extension basically depends on your goal in extending as well as the relative strength of stones in that area. Also, we need to differentiate between extensions to just explore open areas and extensions from existing walls.

Extensions from a wall

Let's start with the basics first. There is a well known rule of thumb, called the "wall plus one" rule. If you got a wall of height n, extend n + 1 spaces.

Assuming your wall has a height of 2. Consequently, the basic distance for an extension should be 3 spaces.

$$Wcm1 Wall of 2, extend 3
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . W . . . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

For a "wall" of height 1 (that is, a single stone), the safe distance is 2 spaces.

$$Wcm1 Wall of 1, extend 2
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . W . . O . . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

"Safe" means that is is difficult to invade and split your stones. The reason why it is safe is that you can either capture an invading stone, or at least connect your stones so you're not left with two weak groups. There are several midgame joseki that revolve around this, and the details will become more apparent as your reading grows stronger.

$$Bcm1 Safe distance: Difficult to invade, white can choose from A or B to kill or cover the invading stone
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . a b . O . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O . 1 . O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

Extending further than wall-plus-one distance means your position is more open to invasion and typically leads to bad shape (it's difficult to fix the invasion point without becoming overconcentrated). On the other hand, extending less wide leads to immediate overconcentration. Neither is desirable, so especially beginners should heed the wall-plus-one rule.

$$Bcm1 Unnecessarily difficult: Two wide extensions are far easier to invade.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . 2 . , . O . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . 1 . . O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

Extensions to explore open areas

Sometimes, you simply want to extend along a side without having any kind of wall. In that case, the usual idea is to simply play in the center of the stones on that side (no matter whom they belong to).

$$Bcm1 Simple extension along the side
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

This means that, since you intentionally ignored the wall-plus-one rule, your opponent will be able to invade and split you. However, since you played right in the center, you can simply extend to get a base (this leads to the concept of miai), while your opponent will be left with a single stone stuck between two relatively safe groups of yours.

$$Bcm1 Invasion is possible, but we can handle it
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 3 . . 1 . 2 . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

Occasionally, you want to adjust the distance slightly, but this dives into the realms of tactics already.

Relative strength adjustment

The stronger you are, the further you should go, and the stronger the opponent, the more tight and defensive should you be. What does this mean in practice?

If your opponent is strong around, sometimes the wall-plus-one rule should be changed to wall-plus-zero, i.e. a tight extension. This means, in the classic sense of the word, overconcentration, but it makes for more safety which might be more important. Typically, this is chosen if the opponent already has a checking extension that interferes with your extension.

$$Wcm1 It's a good idea to hold back sometimes.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X . . 1 . . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

Extending further may provoke an invasion.

$$Wcm1 After B6, black can connect on either 'a' or 'b' and white has cuts.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , 3 4 . O O . X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . 1 . 2 . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . b . 6 . a . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

White can try to dodge, but is left without a base while black got extra points.

$$Wcm1 No base, no points.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . 7 5 3 . O O . X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . 1 4 2 . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 8 6 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

Compare to when there is no extra stone on the lower side.

$$Wcm1 The invasion does not work that well: Black can't escape, the invasion failed.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . 5 6 . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , 3 4 7 O O . X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . 1 . 2 . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------

On the other hand, if you're really strong somewhere, the correct distance is "as far as possible"; ignore the vast space and go right to your opponent's corner. If he dares to invade and split your extension stone, attack him and make him suffer by using your thickness.

$$Bcm1 Wide extension is desirable
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . X X O O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . X . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . O . 1 . . . . . . X . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -----------------------------------------


How difficult is Eldritch Horror with differing numbers of players? Removing the element of how easy or hard it is to work as a group, and assuming that you are 1 player controlling all 1 to 8 players, what numbers of players are easier or harder to win Eldritch Horror, and roughly how much easier or difficult? I don't expect statistically significant replies, just interested in what people's impressions are by feel.

It already seems evident that playing with 1, 3, 5, or 7 players is a disadvantage due to the number of clues spawned, gates spawned, and monsters surging being identical to those for player-counts one greater.

The jump from 4 players to 5 players seems to makes the game tougher. While stronger monster surges start at 3 players, it's easier to cover the entire world with a 4 player team. I find gates spawning is the most dangerous issue that needs to be dealt with since leaving gates open will help advance doom. Having extra monsters is also bad, but some monsters will sit quietly until you go deal with them. A few cards look at how many monsters are on the map, so you don't want to let the total number of monsters to get to hight. That being said, monsters that move to expedition locations often don't have retribution effects and tend to be ignored in many of the games I've played.

If you have Akachi as one of your investigators, she can control where the next gate spawns by using her ability to look at the top two gate locations and putting one of them on top of the stack and one on the bottom. I'm not sure how powerful this strategy is, but it certainly is an option in a four player game. Once you get that second gate spawning, it's no longer an effective strategy.

If you want to alter the difficulty of the game and make it easier, I suggest altering the mythos deck and removing the hard mythos cards that have tentacles. Then build your mythos deck from the remaining cards. To make the game harder, you can remove all of the easy mythos cards. The mythos cards that come up heavily effect the difficulty of the game.


Warhammer 40K White scars Im trying to work out what rules still apply to white scars. I have watched lots of videos about the different space marine factions and white scars Play style appealed to me. Since getting the support codex I can't find the rule that lets them charge after falling back or advertising this being the main point of the videos I have watched as there are not very old I didn’t think it would be a redundant rule. So if anyone could shine some light on this rule it would be a great help.

James Otter's comment is right. The rule you're looking for the the Lightning Assault is the White Scar's "Chapter Tactic" and allows a Charge after Falling back or advancing.

It's covered in detail her Goonhamemr Review
The Supplement itself was first published in August 2019 according to its Amazon listing. But the rules for the Chapter Traits appear in the main Space Marine Codex.
Note that the linked articles are from the 8th Edition period, and Space Marines as GW's poster children are the most subject to frequent change. I'm unaware if these rules have been modified by the recent 9th Edition release.


How can Glacial Chasm be useful? Glacial Chasm reads:

Cumulative upkeep—Pay 2 life. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
When Glacial Chasm enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land.
Creatures you control can't attack.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.

Wondering what the strategy to use this card is? In a 2-player game, the game is essentially over regardless who controls the card. Please give me your insight, thanks.

It's a little hard to tell from your question, but it sounds like it might be worth making sure you understand what the card does.

First off, "Cumulative upkeep - Pay 2 life". The definition from the comprehensive rules is:

  702.23a ... “At the beginning of your upkeep, if this permanent is on the battlefield, put an age counter on this permanent. Then you may pay [cost] for each age counter on it. If you don’t, sacrifice it.” ...

So the first upkeep after you play this, you'll pay 2 life, the next you'll pay 4 life, then 6 life, and so on, until you decide not to pay and sacrifice it instead. So assuming you start at 20 life, and aren't gaining any, the longest you can keep it is three turns, at which point you'll have paid 2+4+6=12 life, and paying 8 more would kill you. You could also sacrifice it after less than that if you don't want to pay that much life.

In the meantime, it's preventing all damage that'd be dealt to you. So if your opponent is trying to kill you with damage, which is reasonably common, you're pretty much invincible for three turns. If it prevents more damage than the life you've paid to hold onto it, you've come out ahead on life (though you'll be down two lands).

So, is that useful? Could be, in the right sort of deck.

If your deck is one that struggles to survive until it sets up for victory, that could be quite helpful. Maybe a couple turns of preventing damage is all you need, and then you can kill your opponent before you even have to worry about not being able to pay the upkeep. Maybe all you really need is to prevent damage for one turn, and then you'll be able to stop what your opponent is doing some other way, and can sacrifice it before you even need to pay life. If you're in situations like this, you don't care at all about whether your creatures can attack, and you may not even have any creatures.

On the other hand, if you don't manage to get ready to win the game in time, you'll eventually have to sacrifice it and your opponent will be able to hit you again - and you'll have been paying life, so you'll be in worse shape to survive.

In all, this is a pretty niche effect. On top of that, it's an old card that can only be played in formats with all kinds of other powerful old cards, so it faces pretty stiff competition for inclusion in serious decks. There are plenty of other ways to stave off defeat for a couple turns (including dealing more directly with threats), and often it's better to try to win faster than to try to just delay your opponent.

But, nonetheless, it still sometimes sees play in legacy lands decks like this one. That's a deck built around using lands to provide effects, so it's actually a bit of an upside that Glacial Chasm is a land: it can be searched up with Crop Rotation or brought back from your graveyard with Life from the Loam. It'll still only be useful in certain situations, so it's just a one-of in a sixty card deck, and many lands decks don't include it at all. But some do, so there you go: sometimes useful.


Are the number and colours of cards in player's hands private information? Is a player allowed to ask, and get an accurate answer for, the number of a given colour of card in an opponents hand?

For example: I want to know the number of yellow (summer visitor) cards in an opponents hand, to decide if I can safely make other actions and wait to play my own yellow card, is my opponent obligated to tell me this information, or at least show me their hand (face down) so I can see for myself?

From the rules link here it says on page 2.

  All information on a
  player’s vineyard mat as well
  as available workers, amount
  of lira, and number of cards
  is public information and
  cannot be concealed.

This specifically says 'All information'  That would certainly include the colour on the back of the card.  If a player has to clearly display how many cards they have when asked then the colours will be visible.

The game didn't come with screens and cards are also taken from stacks publicly so I see no reason why it would be then secret.  It strikes me that your opponent refusing to tell you is incredibly unsporting and just that player trying to gain what every spurious advantage they can!


What is the penalty for bidding out of turn? In duplicate bridge, what is the penalty for someone bidding out of turn?  Specifically, opening the bid by accident while sitting to the right of the dealer.

Here is a summary of the relevant rules that @Pieter Geerkens linked to. I am leaving out some of the more sophisticated points, for example, the fact that an artificial/conventional pass call is treated as a bid for the purposes of these rules. The guiding principle is not to punish the out-of-turn bidder, but to make it impossible for the offending team to benefit from the information improperly exchanged. That's why many of them refer to Law 23, which allows a TD to further adjust the score if it is determined that the offending team gained an advantage by the improper call.

In most cases, a bid on LHO's turn is treated as a change in call, which is treated separately. In practice this is a difficult mistake to make--you don't usually make two bids in immediate succession.

Pass out of Turn

If no player has bid yet, offender must pass at next opportunity.
After any player has bid, offender must pass at next opportunity; in addition, if offender passes at his partner's turn to call, offender's partner may not double or redouble.

Bid out of Turn

If offender bids on RHO's turn, and RHO passes, offender must make the same bid, but there is no other penalty.
If offender bids on RHO's turn, and RHO does not pass, offender may make any call. If the call is the same "denomination" as the original call (same suit or NT), offender's partner must pass at next opportunity. If the call is any other denomination, offender's partner must pass through the entire auction, and if offender's team defends, lead restrictions will go into effect (more on that in a bit).
To explain the differences above: If partner bids 1C, and I get excited and bid to 2C before RHO passes, no harm done. If partner bids 1C, and I hasten and bid 2C, and RHO says, wait! I wanted to bid 2H, and I say OK, fine, 3C, that's not a very big deal. But if I say, wait, based on opponent's 2H bid, I want to bid diamonds instead... that conveys a huge amount of information about my hand to my partner, and allowing partner to continue to bid would be unfair.
If offender bids on partner's turn, partner must pass through the entire auction, and lead restrictions may apply here as well.
Lead restrictions: If a specific suit is named, declarer can require the offender's partner to either lead, or not lead, that suit at the player's first opportunity. A prohibition to lead the suit lasts as long as that player keeps the lead. If no specific suit is named, the declarer can prohibit offender's partner from leading any one suit.

Double / Redouble out of Turn

In all cases, opponents have the choice to allow the double or redouble to stand. In this case, there is no penalty.
If offender doubles on partner's turn, partner must pass through the auction.
If offender doubles on RHO's turn, and RHO passes, the offender must make the same double or redouble, and offender's partner must pass at the next opportunity.
If offender doubles on RHO's turn, and RHO does not pass, the offender may make any bid, but offender's partner must pass through the auction.


Help identify old advertising card game Over the weekend I picked up a deck of cards that was originally intended to advertise the 'Page Woven Wire Fence'. Each card has 4 little phrases on it about the company or the product.

Each card has a number from 1 to 13 in the upper left and right corner (same number in both corners). There are apparently 4 cards of each number (I've got a couple of numbers that are missing a card, but I assume that they are just lost).
Some cards (I think it's one of each number) have a number of miles at the top center. The others in that number have a leaf in the top center.

I feel certain that this was meant as a game, with the idea being to put the company's products in front of the prospective purchasers regularly, but I'm not familiar with the game.

I'd like to properly identify it, just for my own edification.

Some potentially relevant facts:
Page Woven Wire Fence Company was established in 1886 (Scanned Catalog) and one of the cards (not shown in the picture) indicates that the company is less than 10 years old, making the deck no later than 1896. Another card (in the picture) says business doubled in 1894 over 1893, so I peg the deck's design at 1895.

UPDATE:
As noted in the comment by SQB, the deck could certainly be used to play Go Fish. But that wouldn't explain the 'Mileage' notations. I wonder if it could be something like a precursor to Touring? I've found the patent for Touring, but it doesn't list any pre-cursors, though with the patent date of 1906, I wouldn't be shocked if it were an improvement (by adding the various hindrances) of a prior game.

The card you are missing is

1       (rose)         1
The Officers
The Factory
The Page Woven Wire Fence Co
The Business

After studying the cards, I have come to the conclusion that the order of the titles on each card is irrelevant. I do believe that the purpose of the game is to match the numbers by drawing from a deck. It would be simple, of course. Discard 1 card, draw 1 card or take the top card of the discard pile. When you have 4 of a kind, you place them down face up and replenish your hand. When the deck runs out of cards, the discard pile will be shuffled and play will continue until no more new cards may be drawn.

Now, the miles on top of the cards represent contracts that were made with the Page Woven Wire Fence Co. in 1894 (actual contracts). The purpose of the game would logically be to collect the most mileage of fence.

The item you have is very likely highly valuable, and I doubt no more than 20 copies were produced (6 is my actual estimate).

The game can be played without the 1 set if you intend to actually play.

The game was apparently created to offer insight on the company to potential clients.

I hope this has proven to be helpful to you. I also hope I am accurate, as much of what I said was speculation (albeit speculation based on several hours studying the cards and the company).

Value of the antique? Without the card I mentioned, probably 700 dollars. If you find a copy of that card, you could probably double that. Maybe push to triple.


Dungeon Petz strategy What would be the key strategy points in dungeon petz which may improve the chance of winning? Which kind of pets are more beneficial to have? Having one pet seems like it is mostly not enough for winning.

What I know is choosing a pet with one or more similar color needs may help, however I'm not sure which colors are wise to pair or choose. Pets' food needs are sometimes really hard to fulfill. Mostly, it is really costly to be the first to the right food market or catch a potion card.

I think that there are a few things you can focus on that will improve your chances of winning. In no particular order:

Take cages that allow you to use imps for other purposes. These are the cages that feed/play with/clean up after your pets without needing imps. If you need to hold back imps in order to deal with your pets, you aren't using them to gain additional resources. This can also be accomplished with add-ons, but don't rely on them.
Take additional imps when possible (but don't pay too much for them). This is especially handy in round three and four where you get a high rate of return. I wouldn't ever take this action using more imps than the number you will get back. This is especially true in later rounds
Take pets that are omnivores. This allows you to take either meat or vegetables, making it less likely you'll be fighting over resources with other players.
Try to get two pets in the first three rounds. This will help with both exhibitions and business.
Decide on one of two strategies for your need cards early on. (1) Keep as many of one type of need card as possible (e.g.: hunger needs; anger needs). This is a high risk/high reward strategy, where if a customer wants a trait you have a lot of, you can get a good sale. In this case, you also need to allow for the possibility you aren't going to be selling pets to certain customers. (2) Diversify your need cards as much as possible so your pets can be acceptable to a larger number of customers. The reward here is lower, but more consistent over the course of the game.
Ignore the hospital unless you have imps that need healing. The potions generally are not worth the imps. You could instead be setting up for the market by adding an imp to the platform, or taking artifacts that have a higher likelihood to be helpful over the course of the game.

You'll notice that the first three things have something in common: they allow you to maximize your imp usage. The more free imps you have, the more actions you can take, so the more resources and options you're going to have.

If you're noticing a player that consistently places a bunch of imps on the first burrow so they can take the first action, let them. They are taking fewer actions over the course of the game and paying a premium for those actions. You may want to overpay in rounds one or two so that you can get the cage that saves you more imps down the line, but don't do this for the whole game. If you set up well at the beginning, you shouldn't have to overpay in rounds three, four, or five.

Try not to worry about the color combinations of your pets. You're going to be drawing a need card for each of their colors anyway, and in general, this is going to be an aspect of the game that's hard to control. Focusing on other parts is probably more important.


What is this 2 player pegboard game? When I was young in the 1960s, a friend had the following game (my memory is rusty so take this description with a grain of salt).  It was a small square pegboard, with two sets of pegs (silver and gold), one for him and one for me. The interesting part: his job was defense (to protect the center) and my job was offense (to get to the center). I forget the moves, but somehow we could take each other's pegs until someone won.
Can anyone identify this game?

Looks like it's Breakthru.
Breakthru is a modern game based on historic Tafl games, released in 1965.


Use of Event cards without corresponding rules The game board reserves a space for Event cards, but how they come into the game is a secret, thus spoiler protection below.

   The "sign the board twice" envelope introduces the Event cards, with rules concerning them to be pasted into the rulebook. I know this from an earlier group. My current group has not yet opened that envelope, but we did just open the "all nine minor cities" envelope, which contains a few event cards like Resistance and Riots. Are we supposed to play with those few event cards now, or set them aside until the rules take effect?

Answering my own question: In fact, the event card rules are printed in the rulebook from the beginning, not revealed in an envelope. I wasn't able to review the rulebook until my group met again to play, but I'm glad that I checked for it there in time to play correctly.


Magic the gathering question Sarkhan the masterless +1 ability. It becomes a 4/4 dragon with flying. Can it attack that turn? Does it depend if the planeswalker was on the field already or just played?

From the rulings in Gatherer:

  A planeswalker that becomes a creature due to Sarkhan’s first loyalty ability can’t attack unless you’ve controlled it continuously since your turn began.

Once it is a creature; it follows the summoning sickness rules just like any other creature.


Are items discarded on use? As far as I can tell the rules are very vague on if items are discarded on use.  The rules for magical friends and spells however are very clear and specifically say discarded on use.  The reason I have doubt (and this question) is because I've encountered several items (ironically?) that save items and have yet to encounter anything that makes you discard an item.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1705755/rules-problemsclarifications does denote that in order to remove an item you have to discard it, which I can see from the rules now that I read this, but wonder if I'm just biased by this opinion.  It would at least make an application for "saving" items however.

That entire thread above just seems to be users answering other users questions, which is great but hoping for a more official source if one exists.

Items are not discarded after use.

I've found a video in which the creator of the game explains the rules. Items are mentioned at 4:30. He says:

  Magical Items can be played at any time during your turn, you keep them and hold on to them, but you can only hold as many as your backpack can hold.

He then describes the backpack-property of the character he chose, Medlissa.


Is a tapped creature an illegal target? I was playing the Magic 2015 game on my xbox 360 (I know it has a lot of problems but its midly entertaining, I much prefer the card game though but this brought something to my attention and made me want to know if the game on box is wrong or if I am, since when I play with the cards I need to know the rules since we obviously won't just have a judge sitting there the whole time haha)

Pretty simple story
They attacked with a 4/1 (Don't remember what it was but it had no abilities) so after combat it became tapped

I cast Flesh to Dust but it refused to let me target their tapped creature
Flesh to dust has no special rules on targetting just "Target creature"

I think it doesn't matter if their creature is tapped. Am I wrong?

Flesh to Dust says "target creature", so the target must be a creature. Period. Whether it's tapped or not is of no consequence. Same goes for Akroan Mastiff's ability; it simply won't do anything on resolution if the creature is still tapped then.

Hexproof, Shroud, Protection and other abilities can impose additional limits. Don't forget that creatures can be granted abilities (e.g. Lightning Greaves), and that creatures can be the subject of continuous effects created by abilities of other permanents.