When drawing cards for each produced good, does it include goods produced on windfall worlds? My friends and I have had disagreements about how one particular kind of production power works in Race for the Galaxy: powers that involve drawing cards for each good produced, e.g.

Diversified Economy:

  draw 1 card for each kind of good you produced this phase

Research Labs:

  draw 1 card for each Alien technology good you produced

When combined with powers that produce goods on windfall planets, such as the power of the Produce action card itself, do you draw cards for goods produced using the 'produce on windfall' powers?

In part it is that I don't understand what "no power can interrupt another" means in the RFTG rulebook and also because online versions of the games vary with how this applies.

Yes, you draw a card regardless of what kind of world the good was produced on. The rulebook mentions, (page 7) under Produce, that players who choose Produce get to "produce" a good on one Windfall world. It also gives an example of a special power that produces goods on windfall worlds. Since Research Labs draws cards for each good of a specific kind produced, and the rules indicate that goods on windfall worlds can be "produced" either as a bonus based on a players chosen action or card effects, you draw a card regardless of whether that good was produced on a halo/solid world.

Players who chose Produce, as a bonus, produce a good (if possible) on one of their windfall worlds that does not already have a good.
Some cards, such as Genetic Labs, can also produce goods on windfall worlds (without goods).

What does "no power can interrupt another" mean?
What is meant here, is that you should resolve a power/effect completely before applying the results of another power/effect. Example: If you have an Alien world (yellow) that allows you to Discard a Card to produce an Alien good, but you have no cards in hand and no way to produce yellow goods. You could draw cards from Diversified Economy (for producing goods on other worlds), and then discard one of those cards to produce an Alien good. This would not entitle you to draw another card from Diversified Economy for producing another kind of good, because you already resolved it's effects. If you control a Research Labs as well though, you could draw a card from it's power by resolving it's effect after Diversified Economy and the "Discard to Produce Good" effect of the Alien world.


World of Warriors - how to play? I've been googling away, but I just can't find any resources that explain the rules of how to play World of Warriors (the Topps card game, not that app).

Does anyone know a resource? Or could anyone explain the rules?

WORLD OF WARRIORS is a game for 2 players. The aim of the game is to defeat your opponent’s team of warriors.
Choose 12 warrior cards each and place them face down into 3 piles of 4 cards. Decide who will go first.
Player 1 picks their first warrior to attack with. If player 1's warrior's attack is greater than player 2's warrior's health, they win and place their card in the won pile. The loser places their card in their lost pile.
Players should also compare elements. If player 1’s element is stronger than player 2 they can add their elemental power boost to their attack score. If player 2’s element is stronger than player 1 they can add the elemental power boost to their health score.

fire is strong against earth, and weak against water. Air has no effect.
earth is strong against air, and weak against fire. Water has no effect.
air is strong against water, and weak against earth. Fire has no effect.
￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼water is strong against fire, and weak against air. Earth has no effect.

If there is a draw, refer to the Armour score.
You can use one talisman card per game. The talisman boost rating is added onto your warrior's attack or health score.
Play continues, taking it in turns to attack the other warrior’s health.


When a 7 is rolled, are the cards discarded randomly? When a 7 is rolled, and a person has more than 7 cards, do the cards get discarded randomly or does the card holder get to pick which one(s) to discard?

No, the card holder chooses.

From the rules, page 11 (emphasis is mine):

  Each player counts his Resource Cards. Any player with more than 7 Resource Cards (i.e., 8 or more), must choose and discard half of them.


I'm looking for a card game with a deck of noun cards and a deck of occupation cards It's a party game, players have a hand of noun cards and the 'in' person each round picks an occupation card up and chooses one of the occupations on the card like "I'm a firefighter".  Then all the other players pick two of their noun cards to make an 'item' and do their best to sell their item to the player for their occupation, and the 'it' player chooses the most convincing.  It's very silly and very fun and I can't remember the name or find it anywhere, please help!

In this instance it's Snake Oil. You combine two nouns from your hand to sell to the active player to help them in their occupation

Fun-Employed is similar in that the active player has a job posting to fill and players have a 4-hand 'resume' and can swap cards from their hand with a set of 10 cards on the table to best tailor their hand to the role.


What are some Battlestar Galactica Daybreak Human Strategies? My group and I have recently acquired the Battle Star Galactica Daybreak expansion. We also have all the previous expansions and base game. To give context, the previous expansions made it very difficult for a single cylon to win the game on there own. With Daybreak a single cylon can easily bring the human players to their knees, with the strategy of always drawing treachery cards and playing them appropriately in the skill checks and reacting to the current situation on their turn (Human Fleet, Cylon Fleet, Caprica).  For instance, giving out mutiny cards as best you can to brig human players, and sending players to the sick bay when they are on Demetrius' missions so they also get a crisis.

So, is there a valid strategy for playing humans besides get to Demetrius ASAP and get through the missions?  Also, is there a strategy for playing the humans without Demetrius (i.e. Kobol or Ionian Nebula)?

The strategies vary based on which expansions are being used and the number of players in the game.  For purposes of this answer, I'll assuming you're using ONLY the base game and Daybreak (which is my favorite way to play BSG), and have a full complement of 7 players (including a Cylon Leader).

Overall, Battlestar is a resource management game.  For the humans it means spending resources evenly as the game progresses.  Resources are skill cards, fuel, food, morale, population, (lack of a) mutiny card, (lack of) enemy ships in space, (lack of) damage to Galactica, raptors, and vipers, nukes, etc.

Usually, if human are losing too often, it's because they're not using some of their resources properly.  What does this mean?  Well, after a loss take a look at what unconsumed resources you have.  Maybe population is still in blue when you run out of food?  In this case you should have spent more population (letting civilian ships die) to save cards for food checks.  Maybe Galactica was undamaged at the end, in which case you should have spent less time shooting things in space.  It may seem counter intuitive, but you have to let a lot of bad things happen (e.g. intentionally fail skill checks), to have the resources later when you need them.

You check/validate your resources by how far you've progressed on the jump track.  So, based on jump track/jump distance you can evaluate where you 'should be' on resources.  Fuel is an easy one to see, and can be used as a guide, as it tends to steadily drop throughout the game as you jump.  The same should occur for other resources.  If you're halfway through the game, and all of your resources aren't at half, then start consuming the higher ones to save lower ones.  Remember, things like mutiny cards in your hands work the same way.  If half of the players have mutiny cards halfway through, that's fine, don't spend them, but if everyone has one at the halfway mark, half of you should spend them to get back up.  About 3/4 of the way through the game, let Galactica stay damaged, don't repair it, if you can avoid it.

As for Demitrius, the most important space is the Captain's Cabin.  For one action you can get everyone a card.  In a 7 player game, this is very powerful.  It's even better to have someone sit there and be XO'ed to do it twice for effectively 1 action.   Be careful about spending time searching the mission deck and running those missions.  In a 7 player game (early), this is probably fine, as the threats haven't built up and you can get some extra distance, but actions are everything, so consider the opportunity cost of not spending them elsewhere.

For games with 3-5 players, I would consider ignoring Demitrius (including the cabin), it simply takes too long and with fewer players it's harder to hit the skill targets.

Carefully decide weather or not to play mutiny cards.  They again cost you an action, and if your only purpose is to avoid the brig, reconsider if being in the brig is all that bad.  You still draw cards, you still can XO (executive order), and the president can still use quorum cards, PLUS you don't draw crisis cards.  This increases your effective skill-card-draws per crisis card draw.  If it happens, consider leaving someone in the brig at least until people are starting to reach their skill card limits.

Things don't change too much for the non-Earth destinations.

In general:

Don't over-pass your skills checks, this is a waste of resources.
Intentionally fail at least 50% of skill checks.
Make sure your Admiral is not a Cylon (most important)
Make sure your President is not a Cylon (less important).
BE Presidential, 1 resource for one action (e.g. Inspirational Speech) is VERY powerful.
Don't waste too much time hunting for Cylons.
Trust each other.  If you don't, the Cylons have already won.
Always XO.
Advancing the jump track is more important than anything else
Use the early FTL jump if you have extra population for that stage in the game.
And most importantly, HAVE FUN!


What happens when Progenitor Mimic copies a legendary creature? In a recent multiplayer game I played Progenitor Mimic to copy an opponent's Niv-Mizzet, Parun.

  You may have Progenitor Mimic enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it has "At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature isn't a token, create a token that's a copy of this creature".

The table explained to me that because Niv-Mizzit is a legendary creature, Progenitor Mimic couldn't continue copying the creature. So the next turns only one Niv-Mizzet copy remained in play under my control. And we left it at that.

Now post-game I'm wondering, which permanent was actually on my battlefield? Did the original copy of Niv-Mizzit with Progenitor Mimic remain (destroying the token copy each turn), or did the token copy remain because the original copy got destroyed when the token copy came into play with the same name?

I'm still pretty new to the game, so it would be great if anyone could tell me what happens exactly when you play Progenitor Mimic to copy a legendary creature. Please include the turn of playing it, and the next one (or more turns, if anything changes).

Related:

Does Progenitor Mimic create copies of itself even when it isn't a creature?
Progenitor Mimic copying a creature with counters

If a Progenitor Mimic copies a legendary creature, then each time its triggered ability resolves and you get a token copy of the creature, you have to choose to keep either the token or the Progenitor Mimic copy, and you put the other into your graveyard. This happens as a state-based action, which means that it happens immediately after the ability resolves, before any player gets priority to take any other actions.

This is covered by rule 704.5j in the state-based action section of the comprehensive rulebook:

  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.”


Investment Mechanics I'm designing a board game about gem collecting. To collect gems players must invest on different gems in their turns (i.e. resource collecting is done using investment). Investment part in my design is as simple as follows:
There are 6 mines that can produce different gems, numbered 1 through 6. Each player chooses 3 gem mines then toss a d6 die. If the die number is equal to one of the chosen gem mines, then the player collects a gem.

This mechanic doesn't work too well for me, so I am looking for suggestions to improve it.
If you have a suggestion and you know that another game exists that uses a similar mechanic, please include that in your answer.

I think the mechanic you came up with doesn't work well for 1 dice per player. Basically you're taking the luck of the dice roll, and adding another luck factor. You can cancel this out by allowing the use of more dice. What if the gems you collect can be used to purchase more dice?

You should take a look at the way resource collection is managed in Stone Age, as an inspiration.


Eclipse 4 player FFA Convergent Strategy I can't see how a 4 player game cannot go but one way, every time, if the following (rational) rule applies:

You attack whoever is weaker than you but poses a threat.

So you have four players. All roughly equal strength (normal distribution, variance proportional to time). The following sequence occurs:

Player A becomes stronger than another (B)
Player A attacks B because they are likely to win.
Player B is defeated (-10 strength), but player A is also weaker due to attacking and unable to defend simultaneously (-5).
Player C is now stronger than A, so they attack.
Player A is defeated (-10 strength), but player C is also weaker due to attacking, but less so because player A was already weakened, so -3 strength for player C.
Player D is now strongest, and attacks the next strongest player, C.
Player C (likely) loses, player D is now most likely to be victorious.

Basically, whoever attacks first starts a cascade of attacks, A->B, C->A, D->C, where the greatest advantage is to whoever attacks later, or latest, after everyone else is done weakening each other. And whoever attacks first is most disadvantaged overall.

Unless some massive swing of luck where someone can beat the odds stacked against them, or some alliance mechanics are introduced, how can the game possibly deviate from this pattern, if only for exceptional cases?
Other than relying on people making irrational decisions (attacking someone stronger, or someone not a threat to their victory)

I believe this is a more general 4 way zero-sum game problem, but Eclipse is the example I'm thinking of.

Edit: I think this bit of game theory, about 3 way duels, basically proves there's only one optimal way to play Eclipse FFA. Don't play.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truel

In the pattern you propose, players A, B, and C all come out losing, and given what you propose, they should have known they would come out losing. Thus, they didn't make the best choice for them.

It is true that Eclipse, unlike most Eurogames I've played, rewards attacking weaker players, as opposed to encouraging you to go after the person in the lead to prevent him from winning. However, there are a few things that players could have done differently in your scenario:

Build up more. A shouldn't have attacked B when he did. If he knew that this would leave him weaker than C and thus be attacked by C, then he shouldn't have done it. Instead, he could have continued to build up, to a point where attacking B wouldn't weaken him when he does.

One way to do this is to rely on missiles instead of cannons. This tends to be very strong in the base game anyway. But when you win with missiles, you walk away as strong as you were when you went into the battle; rather than both sides taking casualties.

In games I've played, often attacking doesn't happen until the last several rounds. The beginning of the game is all about building up, and attacking only ancient ships that you are pretty sure you can beat without losses.
Teaming up. In the Rise of the Ancients expansion, you can officially team up, but even without that you can make alliances. If A was the strongest, then B, C, and D could have worked together to go after him. While you can't actually team up in a given battle, each player could attack a different one of A's territories, leaving him unable to defend them all.
Take chances. It doesn't require a "massive swing of luck" to defeat an opponent that has better odds than you do. Sometimes a better opponent may just have a 60% chance of winning. Even though you wouldn't generally attack someone in that position, there are times when taking that 40% chance of victory is your best hope at winning the game.

Similarly, on the other side, don't automatically attack someone just because the odds are in your favor. Even if you have a 75% chance of winning, often the penalty for losing will be enough that it's not worth the risk.
Rock-Paper-Scissors. This isn't a strategy to follow, but just a fact about the game. It is not always the case that just because A is stronger than B, and B is stronger than C, that A is stronger than C. A may be strong against things that B has, but weak against things that C has. This is especially true of things like missiles vs extra hulls. Consider this situation:

Player A has missiles and no extra hulls or cannons.

Player B has lots of cannons and a few extra hulls.

Player C has many hulls and a single cannon.

Here, A will usually defeat B. B will usually defeat C. And C will usually defeat A.

This shows that you can's simply order players in order of strongest to weakest.


Summoning Beast King Barbaros with Majesty's Fiend on the field My opponent summoned Majesty's Fiend on their turn, I have Beast King Barbaros in hand. May I summon Beast King without tribute with Majesty's Fiend on the field and what is Beast King's attack when I do?

Beast King Barbaros
3000 ATK

  You can Normal Summon/Set this card without Tributing, but its
  original ATK becomes 1900. You can Tribute 3 monsters to Tribute
  Summon this card. If you do: Destroy all cards your opponent controls.

Majesty's Fiend

Cannot be Special Summoned. Monster effects cannot be activated.

Beast King's attack will be 1900 if you normal summon without tribute.

The effect that lets you normal summon him and decrease his attack is a continuous effect, not an activated effect, so Majesty's fiend will have no effect on it.


Time's Up! rule to guess a number In the third part of Time's Up! (the Peter Sarrett game), I have to mime without speaking. Let's say my partner has to guess the movie "Seven Samurai". Is it allowed:

to mime the figure with seven fingers?
to mime another figure (six) and mime to add one?

I would assume a normal charades-style ruleset applies to the mimed round of Time's Up.  Looking at the "Rules of the acted charade" as given on Wikipedia I see the following:

  Most commonly, the actor is allowed to make any gestures other than
  blatantly spelling out the word. In more stringent sets of rules,
  indicating anything about the form of the phrase is prohibited, even
  the number of words, so that only the meaning may be acted out.

I don't see how there can realistically be a prohibition on holding up seven fingers to "mime" the word seven.  Any more than it should be illegal to mime "head" by pointing to one's head!  It just so happens that numbers are unusually easy concepts to mime...


Does it make sense for a defender to lead a short major when opponents fail to find a fit using Stayman? Both vulnerable, at rubber, South dealt and bid 1NT, North 2 clubs, South 2 hearts, North 3NT.

You, West, have (s) 64 (h) AJ7 (d)J8752 (c) Q84.

North clearly has four spades, but not hearts. Any spade strength on your side is with East, behind North. You like the strength you have behind South's hearts. Apparently, the bulk of North-South strength is in the minors.

The actual West led the 5 of diamonds. It was a "friendly" lead from a weak suit that gave North and South all the time in the world. Reasoning from the previous paragraph, I would have lead a small spade (and hoped for a heart return).

This is a bit unconventional but does this make sense? If declarer thought that I had length and strength in spades, could that cause a misplay? (In the example, East actually had five to the king, but of course, I wouldn't know this until later.)

Put another way, how much weaker could the diamond suit be, before it is not worth leading?

If opponents have only 24-25 points the auction would likely have involved acceptance of a game invitation. Instead there was a jump to game by responder without a slam try, each opponent having 4 cards in a different major; opponents rate to have 29 points +- 3. You have 8 points in hand, giving partner 3 points +- 3. The likelihood of being able to set up and run a suit in partner's hand is extremely remote.

However if partner has QTx in diamonds and an entry you might be able to win a race against Declarer in that suit. Lead your fourth best diamond as was actually done at the table. This also gives partner a clear signal as to what to lead back to you when he gets in the (probably) one only time that happens.

On this particular hand I see no reason for method of scoring to matter, but as a matter of good form it should be specified.

It is important to note also that partner is going to be squeezed in both Majors. Clubs are splitting 3-3 for Declarer. Combined with the fact that opponents jumped to game rather than accepting an invitation, at Matchpoints I am going to be happy to get four defensive tricks for Average plus against all those who make an overly aggressive, and desperate, attempt to find unavailable tricks in partners hand. Even sitting patiently for my third defensive trick will often be a good Matchpoint result on this hand.

In short, to answer your specific question: No, it is pointless to search for major suit tricks on this auction. Partner has neither the suit strength nor the entry to make searching for his suit profitable. The only chance to set this hand is a miracle of clashing honours for opponents, and even then you will have to have set up cashing tricks in your hand to collect on the good fortune.

Revisiting this, the biggest problem with a Spade lead are that these three scenarios are most likely:

Partner wins the Spade lead and returns it, setting up his Spade winners. You now have no more entries to partner's tricks, and have lost two tempos for setting up Diamonds.
Partner wins the Spade lead but sees no future in the suit, and makes a random guess as to which minor to return guessing wrong 50% of the time. Either one or two tempos for setting up diamonds have been lost.
Partner has Qxxx or Jxxx unsupported in Spades and you have just guaranteed Declarer four Spade tricks and the contract.

Potentially settable Notrump contracts are a race between Declarer and Defense, and the loss of even a single tempo nearly always guarantees losing that race. It is imperative for the Defense to chase long-suit tricks in the hand with entries. Here, it is very unlikely that Partner can have enough points both to make Spades worth setting up and have an entry making them cashable.

Form of Scoring:

In Rubber (as here) of IMPS one always makes an extreme effort to set the contract, as overtricks are very rarely of import. Lead a diamond.
In Matchpoints, one is looking to not get a bottom on the opening lead. Experience has taught me that leading from jack empty fourth is a nearly guaranteed bottom - but leading from jack empty fifth or longer is often a winning play. The decision is now more complex. It is possible that Partner's Spade trick is dead unless you lead the suit now, so that lead might be right. I am personally an aggressive defender, so would usually lead a Diamond, but would accept a Spade lead from partner as reasonable.


What is this (solitaire?) card game called? I'm not sure if this falls under the solitaire category, but it is played with one player.  Someone taught me this card game and was under the impression that it was called Kings, but apparently it's not, as upon looking it up, I didn't find this game.

The player deals the cards in 13 piles, 4 to each pile, face down.  Jokers are not used.  Each of the 13 piles represents a rank.  The player starts by picking up a card from the top of the King rank pile, looks at the card, then places it underneath the corresponding rank pile, face up.  Then the player picks up a card from the top of the previous rank pile and places it under the next corresponding rank pile.  To win the game, the player must return each rank to its proper pile before all the Kings are returned to their pile.

For example, the player picks from the top of the King pile and receives a Four of Clubs.  The player places the card underneath the Four pile face up, then draws a face-down card from the top of the Four pile.  The player receives a Jack of Spades, which he/she places underneath the Jack pile face up, and so on.

This is Clock Patience (or Clock Solitaire), although as the Wikipedia article describes it is usually played with the piles arranged in a circle and the King pile in the centre.


What is the point of Jacob's Ladder? I have the artifact Jacob's Ladder (from the Patriarchs expansion). For the life of me I can't figure out its use or why I'd want to include it in a deck.

The text on the card reads:

  "Holder may choose which Lost Soul is to be rescued during Holder's
  rescue attempt. Holder must have access and may only rescue that Lost
  Soul."

First, this text makes it appear that this only affects the holder (ie, owner) of the card. This ability looks like it restricts which Lost Soul you can attempt to rescue. If anything, this is a restriction placed on you the player and not on your opponent. I'm not sure why I'd want to do this.

Second, that style of restriction (ie, player's choice) is always used for Type II deck tournaments (as opposed to Type I deck tournaments, where that restriction apparently doesn't exist).

So...can anyone explain to me the point of this card? If I'm building a Type II deck, I already have to play by those rules (good idea to follow tournament rules). And if I'm building a Type I deck, why would I want to place a restriction on myself?  Is there something I'm not understanding? Is there a ruling on this card by which it is played differently? Does anyone out there use this card?

From the Redemption rulebook:  In the detailed Hero Wins section:  " your opponent
must select and surrender to you one available Lost Soul from his Land of Bondage. "
(Redemption Rules)

Since it's always your opponents choice, this card is valuable in situations where the Lost Soul you rescue matters.   It allows the Hero to choose instead of the Evil opponent.


If a spell tells me to draw then discard a card, can I cast it before discarding it? Suppose I have only Force Away in hand, then cast it. It says "you may draw a card then discard a card". Am I able to cast the drawn card which leaves me with no cards in hand to discard, or am I not allowed to cast it? What happens?

No, you can't cast a spell in the middle of that draw-then-discard instruction.

Whilst a spell or ability is resolving, players can't do anything that the spell or ability doesn't tell them to do. This means you draw, then discard, then afterwards you'll get a chance to cast spells. If Force Away was the last card you had, you're back down to a hand size of 0 with no cards to cast.

Magic's system for casting and resolving spells involves some concepts of the stack and priority, which you can read about here. Understanding that system is pivotal to understanding when you can/can't cast spells, and the post I'm linking to there is what had me understand it when I started out playing.

This type of ability is colloquially called "looting" — it's not meant to give you more cards than you had before, it just gives you a chance to swap out a card that isn't useful right now for one that is. It also adds cards to your graveyard which can be helpful. As you might know, Force Away came from Khans of Tarkir which also featured the Delve mechanic — one extra card in your graveyard is one extra card to delve with later.

There's an exception: cards with Madness allow you to cast them for their Madness cost as a result of discarding them. So if you happened to draw then discard Distemper of the Blood, that's an opportunity to cast it, meaning you did wind up with one extra spell to cast.


MTG Necromancer's Magemark Necromancer's Magemark says

Enchant Creature
Creatures you control that are enchanted get +1/+1
If a creature you control that's enchanted would die,
return it to it's owners hand instead.

Is that a +1/+1 counter? Or is it just a modification to the P/T?

Also, given the language it reads as if it means to say any creature enchanted by any enchantment. Correct?

Since the card text does not use the word "counter" it is not a counter. It's just a modification to P/T.  See also: Are +1/+1 counters different from +1/+1 effects?

And the return clause says "a creature" which means any creature (you control), so yes, any enchanted creature you control returns to hand instead of dying.


When to use card sleeves for a board game? Card sleeves are probably be a no-brainer for board game collectors who want to keep their games in pristine condition for as long as possible, or for CCGs where an individual card may be very difficulty to replace.

For non-collectors playing games like Agricola, 7 Wonders, Mage Knight, Pandemic, etc, when does it make sense to use card sleeves and when doesn't it make sense?

There are a few situations where you want to consider sleeving your cards

You want to prevent marking caused by uneven use (ever play Euchre with a normal deck of cards?)
You want to prevent marking caused by tears, folds, scratches and nicks (especially in games with a lot of shuffling or playing cards repeatedly)
You want to protect the value of the cards (for collectible card games, such as MtG)
You want to protect the condition of the cards (because you want them to remain in a nice state)
The cards are difficult or expensive to replace

And a few reasons you might want to not sleeve your cards

They will not fit nicely into the original packaging you have with sleeves
The cards no longer stack nicely with sleeves
It doesn't have much impact (if any) on the game if cards become marked (resource cards in Settlers of Catan, for example)
There is information on both sides of the card that needs to remain visible (you can, however, buy transparent sleeves)
The cards are easily replaceable (such as a normal deck of playing cards)
And, of course, sleeves cost money

So, in short, it's really a matter of personal preference.

I sleeve my cards when playing MtG as some of the cards are valuable and marking can be an issue.

I don't sleeve my cards for Arkham Horror as (although they are very worn) it isn't very important to keep information secret. The cards also come in various sizes and sleeving them all would be annoying.

For another game, Citadels, some information is very important to keep secret (roles) so I sleeve these cards to prevent marking, but other cards (buildings) are not as important to keep secret so I do not bother sleeving them. The same idea applies with Battlestar Galactica.


Kingsbridge Scarlet: trade 1 cloth for 3 VP In Chapter 4 long-term (blue) event card, there's one that says:

Each player may trade 1 cloth for 3 VP

If this were a one-time card, there wouldn't be any issues. However, as this is a blue permanent card, there might be different ways to interpret this text.

You can do this once in Chapter IV, does not matter when.
You can do this once per turn, may be at a specified time, such as after an event card is placed, and before the personal income is resolved (i.e., at the time when the grey one-time cards are usually resolved)
You can do this as many times as you want on your turn.

Well, Option 1 is not really compatible with the concept of a permanent card, and tracking who used it, and who has not, is difficult. Options 2 and 3 seem to give too much to the player who happened to have the wool and/or cloth in Chapter 4: otherwise, one cloth would be worth 2 points if you sell it for money, the second cloth would be worth 2 points if you played "Privilege" to sell it, as well, and others would not be worth anything. One of the players managed to get 12 or 15 points with this card though in our recent game (although she still lost to a powerful project builder); we played it as Option 2. I was unprepared enough to discard my "Cloth production" in the first turn of Chapter 4 before this blue card appeared.

Are there any official explanations for this card? What are the existing house rules for this card? One possible way to mitigate its power is to say that you can trade cloth for VP in place of your action, for instance -- nothing except for "Build project" can give you 3 VP at once, and one, obviously, is not allowed to play it four or five times in a row.

I cannot find an authoritative source, but according to my best reading of the rules and BGG's forums, you can make the trade once per turn, during the phase of your turn when you play your action card, as long as that event is in play.

My justification:

p. 7 of the rulebook indicates that "for long-term events, you may make the trade once per round."
p. 3 indicates that blue event cards must be taken into account when playing your action card.

Together, I take these to mean that you can only make the trade once, but that you can make it every turn, and around the time of your turn when you are using your action card.

These threads on BGG suggest the same thing. One of the posters cites an official Mayfair answer, but it's not linked anywhere.


How to properly play activated abilities of twilight drover and other creatures? When playing Twilight Drover with multiple counters, I have the following questions which also apply to other creatures:

How many times can I play the activated ability within one turn when it does not have the TAP symbol? I want to clarify as some people say once and other people say as many times as long as I have mana for it.
Can I only play the activated ability on my turn or can I also play it when it is not my turn?
If the creature had two different activated abilities and neither ability had the TAP symbol nor asked you to only choose one, then can you play both of the abilities or only one of them?
Can any of the activated abilities be countered?

1: Activated abilities always have the pattern "cost:effect", and as long as you can pay the costs, you can activate it as often as you like. There are a few exceptions where you have a limited number of activations per turn, but those will always be printed on the card. Note that the TAP symbol is a cost like any other, and if you manage to untap your permanent, you can use that ability again without issue.

2: You can activate non-mana, non-Planeswalker abilities at instant speed. Again, exceptions are printed on the card.

3: There are no such restrictions, except for Planeswalker abilities.

4: Yes, but very few cards do that, like Stifle. An ability is not a spell, so cards that counter spells do not work on abilities.


Can the Wildlings attack twice in a turn? In Game of Thrones, Second Edition, if the revealed event cards have both sufficient Wildling symbols to bring the Widling threat to 12 and there is a "Wildlings Attack" event, do the Wildlings attack once or twice?

The Wildlings attack twice.

From the rulebook under "Wildling Attacks"

  Note: In rare circumstances, it’s possible for the wildlings
  to attack twice during one Westeros Phase. This would occur if
  enough Wildling icons were drawn to make the Wildling token
  reach the “12” position on the Wildling track, and the Westeros
  card “Wildlings Attack” was revealed

If the Wildings are defeated on the first attack, the second attack will still happen, but with a threat of 0, in which case they are automatically defeated, but players may still bid to win the boon given to the highest bidder.  From the FAQ:

  Q: If the Wildling Threat token is on the “0”
  space of the Wildling track and a “Wildlings Attack”
  Westeros card is drawn, is it still resolved as normal? Is
  there still the possibility of defeat?

  A: The “Wildlings Attack” card is resolved
  regardless of the position of the Wildling Threat
  token. Players still go through the process of
  bidding Power tokens against the Wildlings, but in
  this case, they are guaranteed victory.

Note that the Wildlings do not get an extra attack if the threat level would go to 16 because any advances beyond 12 are ignored:

  Advance Wildlings Track: Count the number of Wildling icons on the three revealed Westeros cards (if any) and move the Wildling Threat token forward that many spaces on the Wildlings track.  If, during this step, the Wildling Threat token reaches position “12”, a Wildling Attack is immediately resolved (ignore any surplus Wildling icons).


What are some good tactics for the early game in Risk? In general what do you recommend at the beginning of the game?

If you are an offensive player, Craig Reade wrote a good strategy page discussing starting in South America, which is a continent I like to start in, if I can.  The basic elements of the strategy are:

Don't play defensively.  You'll get boxed in and die.
You don't want to gain the continent, but lose the game because it cost you too much to take it.  That said, if you are not holding onto the entire continent early, you'll find yourself in an indefensible position, surrounded by foes and your turns will be numbered.
Grab some North American territories during initial placement - especially Central America.  North America is likely to be the next area you'll be heading into, so any territories you can grab now, go for it.  Plus Central America makes a great early buffer against attack.
Don't play defensively.
Ideally, plan on having gained a second continent before your Australian opponent starts their offensive push.
Don't allow yourself to get trapped.

If you can hold both of the Americas, you're in excellent position: 2 continents with 13 territories and only 3 access points.  Sweet.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but you don't want to play defensively ;-)


How is the cost of landing on a property with x houses determined? I’m trying to make a digital version of Monopoly, and it would be easiest for me if I could use the base rent of a property to determine the rent with any number of houses. Is there a formula/equation that can be used to do so?

There is no formula that the game uses, different properties go up at different rates, and not always a consistent rate. You'll need to hard code the per property rent values into your system unfortunately.


Clarification of rulings on Carrionette It is my understanding that the individual card rulings on Gatherer are essentially clarifying comments.  i.e. they are "just" an application of the comprehensive rules to that specific card.

With that in mind, the rulings for Carrionette state:

  A creature with Protection from Creatures can’t be targeted by this card’s ability.

But, when Carrionette is in the graveyard, it is not a creature.  My guess is that rule 112 covers this somehow, but I'm not seeing it.

'creature' is not only a permanent type, but also a card type. Rule 702.16a states:

  702.16a Protection is a static ability, written “Protection from [quality].”
  ...
  If the quality is a card type, subtype, or supertype, the ability applies to sources that are permanents with that card type, subtype, or supertype and to any sources not on the battlefield that are of that card type, subtype, or supertype. This is an exception to rule 109.2.

  109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

(emphasis mine)

so even though while a graveyarded Carrionette is not a creature by rule 109.2, it's still a card with type 'creature' which is sufficient for the protection ability.


Pandemic - Will the expansions really make a difference? Hi i just bought myself Pandemic and played for the first time last night. I have mixed thoughts about the game. I love the setting, and i think it looks fab, but there's definitely something lacking with the game which i can't quite put my finger on.

I've played it 3 times. We won on the intro game. We won on the normal game, we cured 3 of 4 diseases on the hardest game. I thought this was meant to be a hard game?

I read somewhere that the expansion packs are what make Pandemic, but as i find myself finishing off my Gumtree ad to sell the game, i can't help but wonder if i should be giving it another chance. I think my major problem with it is that it's a co-op game, and i really am not big with co-op games, i just wanted one in my collection.

Any advice on the expansions you prefer or your thoughts on the game would be welcomed.

Thanks in advanced.

First make sure you are playing the game correctly. From BoardGameGeek FAQ:

  Q: Our first game was easy! Are we doing something wrong?

  A: Probably. But the game is easier with fewer players and/or fewer Epidemics in
  the deck. You may also visit this thread to see if you missed
  something: Common mistakes.

Also try the game with different number of players. A two-player game is different and apparently easier than a four-player game. There is also quite a big lucky factor involved depending on how the infections are distributed and how early the epidemic cards occur.

If you still find the game too easy but otherwise like it, consider buying On the Brink expansion. It adds variety to the game by providing a lot more roles. It can also make the game harder by offering new challenges.

If you don't like the game, you probably don't like it with the expansions either. For me the base version was fun on it's own and hard enough, as we failed to find cures for any deseases on the first game with the easiest difficulty level when playing with four people.


Is it possible to combine the Jungle variant tile with Cities & Knights? The Jungle Variant involves a jungle hex that produces "Discovery Tokens" which can be used toward purchasing Development Cards.

Obviously, Cities & Knights has no Development Cards to purchase. Is there any sub-variant that allows you to combine the jungle tile with Cities and Knights? Any alternative rules for its use when you play with C&K?

There is no official ruling on combining the Jungle hex with Cities & Knights, but there are documented suggestions.

This site has two suggestions:

Two Discovery Tokens may be traded in for one Resource or Commodity card of your choice.
Three Discovery Tokens and one Commodity Card may be traded in for one Progress Card of that color.


Three player all-in with a tie Three players are all in, and two tie for the win. Does the loser pay both players the full amount of their chips bet?

The answer will depend on who has the most chips.  Let's assume that there are 3 players, A, B and C.

A has 100 chips, B has 50 chips, and C has 10 chips.  All three go all-in.  There will be two pots.

The first pot, called the "Main Pot", will have 30 chips in it, 10 chips each from A, B, and C (the value of C's all-in). A, B, and C are eligible to win this pot.

The second pot, call the "Side Pot", will have 80 chips in it, 40 from B and 40 from A, the value of B's all-in.  Only A and B are eligible to win this pot.

A still has 50 chips on the table that is not in a pot.

If C loses:
- A and B split all of the chips in both pots evenly.
- C is eliminated. A has 105 chips. B has 55 chips.

If B loses:
- A wins the 80 chip pot, A and C split the 30 chip pot.
- B is eliminated. A has 145 chips. C has 15 chips.

If A loses:
- B wins the 80 chip pot, B and C split the 30 chip pot.
- A has 50 chips.  B has 95 chips.  C has 15 chips.


Does Doubling Cube's ability affect the mana used to activate it? Rules Question: When Doubling Cube doubles mana, does that include the mana used to activate the ability?

No, Doubling Cube does not copy the mana used to activate it.
When you activate an ability you pay costs before the ability takes effect. Specifically, rule 602.2 describes the steps for activating an ability:

602.2a The player announces that he or she is activating the ability. [...]
602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.
...
601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.
601.2i Once the steps described in 601.2a–h are completed, the [ability becomes activated]. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

Normally, players would get a chance to respond before the ability resolves, but Doubling Cube's ability is a mana ability, so 605.3b says

An activated mana ability doesn’t go on the stack, so it can’t be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)

Then, rule 608 describes how spells and abilities resolve. Specifically, rule 608.2g says

If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. [...]

This means that the Doubling Cube checks the mana to be doubled when the effect resolves, which is after you spent the 3 mana on the ability's cost.


Can I sequence Twilight Drover triggers to get around an overloaded Cyclonic Rift? If I have Twilight Drover and a bunch of tokens, along with infinite/sufficient mana, can I work around Cyclonic Rift?

The overloaded Cyclonic Rift resolves.
I stack the leaves the battlefield triggers of Twilight Drover such that of n of my tokens, n-1 resolve putting a bunch of counters on Twilight Drover.
In response to the last token's trigger, I then activate the activated ability of Twilight Drover, to make 2(n-1) spirit tokens.

By step 3, the Cyclonic Rift has resolved, so I don't lose the new tokens?
Is this the correct sequencing?

No, this does not work
The key problem with your plan is that Cyclonic Rift will bounce the Twilight Drover as well as the tokens, at the same time before you're allowed to respond.  Meaning that even though the counter generating triggers go onto the stack and resolve they won't actually do anything (the Drover is gone), and for the same reason you won't be able to activate the drover's ability.
As a general rule, it's impossible to activate the ability of a creature on the battlefield to produce a token that will survive the same wrath that kills the creature with the token producing ability. Either you activate it before the wrath resolves (possibly in response) and the new token dies too, or the wrath resolves first and you then can't activate the ability because the creature with the ability is gone.


What happens if 2 separate abilities require you to sacrifice a creature? If i have two cards that force opponents to sacrifice every upkeep like for example
Mogis God of Slaughter "At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, Mogis deals 2 damage to that player unless he or she sacrifices a creature."

And Indulgent tormentor "At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card unless target opponent sacrifices a creature or pays 3 life."

Does the oppenent have to sacrifice twice? Or if they sacrifice Mogis's ability have they not allowed me to draw from indulgent tormentor?

Your opponent has to sacrifice a different creature to each effect to stop that effect from happening. Note, however, that in your particular example, Mogis triggers only on your opponents' upkeeps and Indulgent Tormentor triggers only on your upkeep. However, if we consider the case where you control two Indulgent Tormentors, it's still basically the same question. And in that case, your opponent will have to sacrifice two creatures to stop you from drawing any cards.

More specifically, here's the order of actions:

As your upkeep begins, you choose who to target with each Tormentor trigger. In the interesting case, they both target the same player.
Assuming nobody does anything else in between, the first triggered ability resolves. Your opponent chooses whether or not to sacrifice a creature. If they don't, you draw a card.
The second triggered ability resolves. Your opponent again chooses whether or not to sacrifice a creature. If they don't, you draw a card, independent of what happened in step 2.


Casting Goblin Matron with Plague Engineer on the battlefield If my opponent has Plague Engineer on the battlefield, with Goblin as the chosen creature type and I cast a Goblin Matron (1/1, when enters the battlefield search for a Goblin card), I know that I would lose the Matron on resolution but can I search for a Goblin? I presume/hope I can.

Yes, you can. The Goblin Matron enters the battlefield, and her ability will trigger then, and even though she's gone by the time the ability resolves, that doesn't matter.

  603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

There's no such rule as 'whenever the source of an ability dies, the ability is countered'. Actually, somewhere else is mentioned that

  113.7a 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.

A similar situation (with an activated ability and a spell to destroy the source) was asked about in Can I use Naturalize to "counter" an activated ability?


Opener's rebid of 2NT (system: Simple SAYC) I opened with 1H - Partner bid 2C - (I have 5 hearts, 12 pts, 3spades 3diamonds 2clubs). I have to respond, but responding 2NT would mean I have 18 pts (my written source on this is: http://www.math.cornell.edu/~belk/opening.htm#1.5Notrump: "With 18 or 19 HCP and a balanced hand, you should open in a suit (usually a minor) and then jump to 2NT on your next bid.")

I've been told that in this case (the case where partner responded on 2-level) - 2NT rebid would not mean 18pts (e.g. that it's ok to bid 2nt here). Can someone point me to the appropriate material on the web that discusses this?

The SAYC card specifies strong jump shifts by responder after a 1H opener, further explaining that it invites a slam. This suggests a 17-19 HCP range with 5+ cards and a good honor holding in the bid suit (though I warn you that point-count is insufficient to evaluate many slam invitational hands, and e.g. AKJxxxx Axx Kx x is a 15-count that suggests a strong jump shift).

Though 2NT only promises a minimum opener as explained by Aryabhata, your first priority must be to show your support for partner's spade suit. Your proper rebid is 4S by the principle of fast arrival. You know enough to sign off: your hand is not good enough to accept a slam invitation (thus the game), and you know your partnership has a spade fit (thus the strain). Bidding 3S here suggests to partner that slam is still a possibility.

If you'd like to read more about opener's rebids after a strong jump shift by responder, the bridge bum has a good summary.

Edit The question has been updated to make the auction start 1H-2C instead of 1H-2S.

SAYC suggests that 1H-2C-2NT should show a balanced hand, 12-14 HCP. Be aware that if the club bidder is an unpassed hand, 1H-2C promises a second bid from responder, and so you're forcing your side to the three level with a 2NT response. You should probably consider a different rebid if your hand doesn't stop the other suits (especially spades, the other major, as defenders prefer to lead majors against no trump contracts).

1H-2C-2H does not promise a 6th heart (as opposed to 1H-1NT-2H or 1H-1S-2H, which do). So if your 5-3-3-2 12-count is something like Jxx AKJxx Qxx Jx, I would rebid 2H. If instead it's AJT KJxxx QJx xx, 2NT seems better.


Game (like tic-tac-toe, but with a hole in the middle) where players have to score by getting temples on tiles? The game has eight square pieces placed in a 3x3 array with the middle empty. Think tic-tac-toe but with a hole in the middle.

Each of the eight tiles has a matrix of squares on it, around 8x8 or maybe 10x10.

Each square is water, woods, mountains, vulcanos, large/small temples and, possibly something else too.

During the game play, each of the 8 tiles can be rotated or moved.

The aim of the game is to score by getting many temples, getting temples on many tiles etc.

Each player places his minions along a line they choose, creating a series of dudes, like a nomad clam traveling.

What is the name of the game? Where can I look to find out, should nobody here recognize it?

Dokmus

This is the part where I describe the game to show that it lines up with your memories, but honestly you've described it in pretty good detail, and there isn't really anything for me to add.  The tiles are 7x7, though.

The tile movement powers are drafted each round by the players, so each player gets 1 special power and three worker placements.


Is a creature turned face down with Ixidron still affected by Halls of Mist? The card Halls of Mist says that a creature cannot attack if it attacked during its controller's last turn. Does Ixidron turning the creature face down affect Halls of Mist, therefore allowing the creature to attack, even though it attacked last turn? Effectively, does turning a creature face down alter effects applied to the creature beforehand?

A creature that is turned face down is still the same object, so effects still apply to it and rules modifications like on Halls of Mist track it as the same creature.

Being face up vs face down is a status as defined in rule 110.5:

  A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.

Like tapping or untapping a creature, turning a creature face up or face down doesn't make it a different creature or make effects lose track of it.


Smite vs creature with trample Scenario is  a 10/10 with trample attacks. Defender blocks with a 1/1 and plays smite

My understand was that in order for smite to work, the attacker must be blocked. If the attacker is blocked, then isn't damage already assigned?

Would the defending player take 9 damage and the 1/1 is destroyed? Or would the destroyed creature not deal any damage?

The attacking creature will die, the blocking creature will survive, and the defending player will not take damage. If you destroy a creature before the combat damage step, or otherwise remove it from combat, it will not deal combat damage. There is an opportunity after declaring blockers to play spells like Smite to accomplish that.
Combat has the following steps:

Beginning of Combat
Declare Attackers
Declare Blockers
Combat Damage
End of Combat

In each step, after taking the relevant turn based actions, such as declaring attackers or blockers, or dealing combat damage, each player gains priority, which is the opportunity to take actions such as casting spells and abilities. This means that the defending player can cast Smite during the declare blockers step, before the combat damage step begins.
The important thing, in this particular situation, is that combat damage is both assigned and dealt in the combat damage step, and no players gain priority in between those two actions. This is described in the following rules regarding that step:

510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage, then the defending player announces how each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. [...]
510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.
510.3. Third, the active player gets priority. (See rule 116, “Timing and Priority.”)


"Counter target spell unless its controller pays X" spells If I  cast for example Miscast to counter an instant my opponent controlls, and my opponent pays 3, what happens to Miscast? Is it countered? And what about priority? Do I have a chance to put next Miscast on the stack? It's quite confusing to me.

Miscast resolves normally, it just so happens that part of resolving normally in this case involves a thing that may or may not happen. It's similar to if you cast a spell that says "destroy all creatures" (Such as Day of Judgment) while there are no creatures on the battlefield. It would resolve, but its instructions have no effect on the game - although to be more accurate, it did have an effect; it cost your opponent mana.
When Miscast resolves, that's when your opponent gets the choice of whether to pay X or not. Whether they choose to or not, the spell has already resolved. Priority would go to the active player as it always does after a spell resolves. Whether you are the active player or not, you will still get a chance to cast another Miscast or any other instant before your opponent's original spell resolves.

608.2d If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect.

608.2f If an effect gives a player the option to pay mana, they may activate mana abilities before taking that action.

117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

117.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.


What is the 'duration' of Charmed Sleep? I have a question that relates to untapping a creature enchanted by Charmed Sleep. It says "Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step".

Does this apply to the following controller's untap step, or for any untap step?

(That is, does the enchantment last for one round or forever?)

It lasts permanently (as long as it's enchanting the creature). It simply states something which is true, so it will apply to all untap steps (of the creature's controller), not just the following one.


If the ancient one awakens after an investigator dies in the mythos phase, does the player draw a new investigator? When an investigator is defeated after the ancient one awakens, that player is eliminated. What if the investigator is defeated and the ancient one awakens before the end of the mythos phase?

The ancient one is awake when the investigator would be replaced, but wasn't awake when the investigator was defeated.

In our session, the defeat of the investigator caused the awakening. My reading of the rules is that the player is not eliminated as a result of this. Is there a documentation implying otherwise?

The player draws a new investigator and continues play.
From the FAQ (emphasis mine):

If an investigator is defeated, the player controlling that investigator chooses a new investigator at the end of the Mythos Phase.
...
After the Ancient One has awakened, when an investigator is defeated or devoured, the player controlling that investigator is eliminated.

Resource guide says the same thing.
This isn't MtG, there isn't a stack.  My understanding of the "wait til the end of the mythos phase to start new guy" rule is to prevent any/all confusion about what actions (and interactions) that person can take.


Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Leyline of the Void Does Leyline of the Void prevent the Scion of the Ur-Dragon's transformation by exiling the dragons?

Even with Leyline of the Void in play, Scion of the Ur-Dragon's ability still works.

The relevant part of the ability is

  Search your library for a Dragon permanent card and put it into your graveyard. If you do...

This is actually a cost, as defined in rule 117.12:

  Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, “[Do something]. If [a player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” or “[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The “If [a player] [does or doesn’t]” clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

As you can see, the last part of the rule says that the effect happens as long as you choose to pay the cost, even if the outcome is different. In this case, as long as you find a Dragon permanent card and choose to put it in your graveyard, even if it doesn't actually end up in the graveyard, Scion of the Ur-Dragon still becomes a copy of it.


Can you store cargo on your outfit's "unused" spaces? In Xia: Legends of a Drift System, you can upgrade your ship with outfits.  These outfits take up several spaces in your cargo hold.  Many of the spaces on the outfits have game-significant features, such as arming points.  However, some of these spaces are effectively blank.  Is it legal to store cargo on top of these spaces in the outfits, or are they considered to be filled space?

You cannot store cargo on the unused spaces of an outfit. The unused spaces are there to add complexity to the placement of your outfits and to also have a place for you to put damage on an outfit without it being disabled


How can I arrange a Christmas gift exchange for board game geeks? My circle of board game geeks usually celebrate Christmas by a simple gift exchange game where we take turns rolling dice to accumulate gifts, and have 2/6 chance to get a new gift but 1/6 to lose one.

However, I feel like we're playing the rock-paper-scissors or Monopoly of gift exchanges. How can we spice this up a bit to make it more worthy of board game geeks? Just playing games and giving the winner a gift doesn't cut it, because we want it to be fair.

If there's one wrapped gift per person, you could do it as a white elephant exchange with pick position determined by a game of Settlers.  Or Dominion, or Agricola, or anything else that produces a score that can be used to determine not just who won but 2nd place, 3rd place, etc.

Whoever got the low score opens a present.  It's theirs!  For now.

Now, everybody takes turns choosing a present, starting with the second-lowest scorer and working up to the winner.  When it's your turn to choose, you may either open a new present, or steal an opened present.  If your present gets stolen, you're presented with the same choice; steal somebody else's, or open a new one.  (A given present may only be stolen once per round.)  The round lasts until somebody finally grabs a previously unopened present.

Thus, whoever goes last gets the choice between the best of the N-1 known quantities, or take a chance on the Mystery Box Of Mystery.

I do this with both friends and family every Christmas, with the order being determined by random draw rather than a game.  Makes for a good time.


Thebes: extending your turn past the end of the last year In the game Thebes, does my last turn have to end exactly on the last week of 1903, or can I extend it into 1904?

If it can be extended, is there a limit on how far into 1904 I may go?

According to the reference document at OrderOfGamers.com,

  Once players are in 1903, when a player’s marker crosses space 52 he must end on space 1. He may use no more weeks. Once all players have reached
  the space, the game ends and scoring commences.

You must stop on week 1 of (what would be) the year 1904, and you may not use any weeks beyond that.


What are good strategies for deciding which expeditions to start in Lost Cities? I've been enjoying playing Lost Cities a great deal, but find it very difficult to decide what to do over the first few turns — in particular deciding things like:

How long is it worth waiting to see if an investment card comes up, if you have some good high cards for an expedition?
What are enough points in a city to make it worth starting?  I've been typically waiting until I have about 15 points, and I'm guessing this is too cautious.
Is it worth starting an expedition if you just have three low cards, say?
How do you deal with having a hand of high cards (which you don't want to discard) but nothing lower to start off an expedition with?

Of course, part of the fun has been in taking a big risk because you don't have any better options, but I wondered if people had any tried-and-tested rules of thumb to help beginners deal with the opening of the game?

1) You want to wait, but you can't wait all that long.  Sitting there with half your hand made up of cards that you don't want to play is normally a huge problem in Lost Cities, and you risk giving up a huge amount of tempo to your opponent, in the very small hope of drawing one specific card.  Sometimes you just have to quit hoping and start playing - after all, your opponent may have those investment cards in HIS hand!  (Of course, holding out can result in the dream scenario - your opponent laying down multiple investment cards for a colour in which you hold a balance of points...)

2) With multiple investment cards?  15 sounds a safe-ish bet.  But let's not forget that you can embark on expeditions without investment.  I'm perfectly happy to start off expeditions with barely any cards sometimes - just because putting pressure on and psyching out your opponent can easily be worth the potential loss of 10+ points.

3) As above.  I certainly would, but I almost certainly wouldn't risk multiplying my losses by 3 or 4 by playing investment cards first!

4) Possibly the most difficult scenario - you don't want to discard high cards and you don't want to play high cards, so what do you do?  It can be quite good to bait your opponent by discarding medium-value cards, while holding the higher values so when they snap your discard up, you know they're on a hiding to nothing.  But I agree, it's a hard situation to deal with comfortably.  (Then again, it's difficult for me to feel much sympathy for someone whose "problem" is being dealt a hand of strong cards!  Just play out an 8-9-10 for +7 points, and see what you draw in the meantime: a few investment cards would obviously have been nice to have, but it's not like you've really lost anything, is it?)


Do two monsters only emerge from the gate from the first mythos card in the Dunwich Horror setup? The Dunwich Horror expansion says in the setup:

  With five or more players, place two monsters on the gate indicated by the mythos card instead of one.

Is this something that only occurs in the very first mythos card's gate, or does this requirement for 5+ players occur elsewhere as well?

This was already in the base rules (top of page 10, Mythos phase, part C3):

  Exception: If there are five or more investigators playing, then draw and place two monsters instead of one.

The Dunwich rules are just saying explicitly that you also do this on the first mythos card of the game. That was already true in the base rules, since they said to do it as described above:

  Finally, the first player draws the top card of the mythos deck and resolves it as described in the Mythos Phase section of the rules.

It's just more explicit in Dunwich, in the same spirit as all the FAQ provided at the end of the rules.


MTG: Creature can't attack unless X after "declare attackers" Say that I have Desperate Castaways and Walking Ballista with 1
 +1/+1 counter on the battlefield. This means that Desperate Castaways can attack at the moment.

What would happen if I declare Desperate Castaways as an attacker, and then, at the beginning of "declare blockers", remove the +1/+1 counter from the Walking Ballista? The Ballista dies, of course, but does that mean that Desperate Castaways will be removed from combat, or does the "can't attack unless X" restriction apply only to declaring it as an attacker (which would mean that it would remain as an active attacker)?

It remains an attacker.

508.1k Each chosen creature still controlled by the active player becomes an attacking creature. It remains an attacking creature until it’s removed from combat or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. See rule 506.4.
506.4. A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, if it phases out, if an effect specifically removes it from combat, if it’s a planeswalker that’s being attacked and stops being a planeswalker, or if it’s an attacking or blocking creature that regenerates (see rule 701.13) or stops being a creature. A creature that’s removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. A planeswalker that’s removed from combat stops being attacked
506.4a Once a creature has been declared as an attacking or blocking creature, spells or abilities that would have kept that creature from attacking or blocking don’t remove the creature from combat.


How is France played in Allies and Axis Europe 1940 (Second Edition)? In Allies and Axis Europe, France's capital, Paris, typically falls on the first turn. As a result, most games do not have a player playing France alone. Instead, either the US or UK player is typically assigned to play France. Then the question is what does this person get to do with France? I'm confused by a rule that says "France will be managed as a separately controlled power, including its IPC economy," which suggests that it has an economy.

Is France played under "China rules" from Allied and Axis Pacific when it is left only with its overseas holdings? (China has lost its capital (Nanjing) and has no industrial centers but still gets to collect income from its remaining territories and gets to build infantry using this income.) China is typically played by the U.S. or one of the UK players. In that case, it would make sense to assign a player to play France from the beginning.

Or is France played under "standard" rules (its pieces stay on the board until eliminated, but it can't collect income or build new units until Paris is liberated, at which time it gets four "Free French" units on Paris)? Then wouldn't it make sense to let the liberator (UK, US or possibly Russia) play France (separately from its own pieces) instead of assigning a player early on? Because there's a possibility that Paris won't be liberated, in which case, wouldn't playing France be moot?

Yes france is moot and standard rules.  Liberation is only hope. and if original French territory is taken by axis and then taken by allies while paris is not liberated, the original French territory may belong to the ally (until paris is liberated).


Is there a functional difference between "all" and "each"? Take the two cards Fiery Cannonade and Golden Demise.

Fiery Cannonade reads:

  Fiery Cannonade deals 2 damage to each non-Pirate creature.

Golden Demise reads (among other text):

  All creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.

I noticed that both could easily be rewritten to be consistent:

  Fiery Cannonade deals 2 damage to all non-Pirate creatures.

or

  Each creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.

Is there a reason for the difference in wording, or any edge cases where the difference in wording would matter? MTG is usually high consistent for clarity, is this difference simply artistic choice of the writers?

There is no functional difference between "each creature" and "all creatures" in MtG rules.

The difference here is grammatical :
 - "All" considers creatures as an ensemble
 - "Each" considers all creatures in a group individually

So an effect that is usually considered "global" will use "all" :
 - Destroying a bunch of things -> Wrath of God
 - Giving a group of creatures -X/-X -> Engineered Plague

While effects that are relative to each permanent will use "each" :
 - Dealing damage -> Deafening Clarion
 - Giving some creatures +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters -> Song of Freyalise or Harbinger of Night


Majesty's Fiend vs Michion the Timelord Majesty's Fiend:

  Cannot be Special Summoned. Monster effects cannot be activated.

Michion the Timelord:

  Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. If you control no monsters,
  you can Normal Summon this card without Tributing. Cannot be destroyed
  by battle or card effects. You take no battle damage from attacks
  involving this card. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card
  battled: Halve your opponent’s LP. Once per turn, during your Standby
  Phase: Shuffle this card into the Deck.

Q1- Can player A's Michion be normal summoned from hand without tributing if Majesty's Fiend already on player B's field?

Q2- If Michion battled Majesty's Fiend:

Will Michion be destroyed or not?
Will Michion's owner take battle damage?
Will Michion's effect of halving LP apply?

Q3-: Will Michion be shuffled to the deck on standby phase (if both monsters didn't battle)?

Q1: Yes, Michion can be Normal Summoned from hand.

This is not an activated effect, but a condition on the card itself that grants a summoning procedure. Therefore, Majesty Fiend's effect does not prevent it.

Q2: No to all three.

Michion's effects which prevent his own destruction and prevent damage from battle are not activated effects, but continuous effects. Therefore, Majesty's Fiend does not prevent their application. The effect of halving the opponent's LP, however, is an activated effect (you can tell by the presence of the colon); it will not be activated at the end of the battle phase due to Majesty's Fiend.

Q3: No, Michion will remain on the field.

Michion's effect to shuffle itself back into the deck during the standby phase is an activated effect (again, note the colon), and therefore is prevented by Majesty's Fiend.


Taking counters from Hangarback Walker with Fate Transfer If I cast Fate Transfer onto Hangarback Walker taking it's counters, does it just die or create Thopters?

Hangarback Walker will die without creating any Thopter tokens.

After Fate Transfer resolves, Hangarback Walker has no counters on it, making it a 0/0 creature.  At this point, state-based action 704.5f is applied, sending the Walker to the graveyard.  This triggers the Walker's ability, which checks the number of counters that were on Hangarback Walker immediately before it left the battlefield.  Since that number was zero, no tokens are created.

This is in contrast to the situation described in the Gatherer rulings:

  If enough -1/-1 counters are put on Hangarback Walker at the same time to make its toughness 0 or less, the number of +1/+1 counters on it before it got any -1/-1 counters will be used to determine how many Thopter tokens you get. For example, if there are three +1/+1 counters on Hangarback Walker and it gets four -1/-1 counters, you’ll get three Thopter tokens. That’s because Hangarback Walker’s triggered ability checks the creature’s existence just before it leaves the battlefield, and it still has all those counters on it at that point.

The key difference between the two situations is the manner in which the tokens were removed.  If Hangarback Walker is "killed" via -1/-1 counters, there are actually two state-based actions at play: 704.5f, which sends creatures to the graveyard if their toughness is 0 or less, and 704.5r, which "cancels out" +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters.  Since all state-based actions are applied simultaneously, the Walker loses its counters and goes to the graveyard at the same time, meaning that the Walker still had its counters before it left the battlefield.


Can I make a space marine army and then have them ally with the tau? I already had tau that my relative gave to me and I wanted to know if I could employ them as allies to the custom space marine chapter I'm making.

If you mean can you use them in the same army, no, you can't.

Your army needs to share a keyword, your space marine army's keywords would be the name of the chapter, "Adeptus Astartes" and "Imperial". None of these keywords are on any tau units, so they cannot be included in the same army.

8th edition did away with the allies matrix, keywords are all that matter now, and they do not share any keywords.


How can I modify an existing deck for a wide-open environment? Say you've got a fairly competitive Magic: the Gathering deck you really like. It's likely to be tuned to the particular environment it developed in, whether that's what's most popular among your friend group or the metagame at your local FNM (or this month's big-tournament metagame, for that matter -- netdecks are a popular thing).

A lot of MTG play is informal play between relative strangers. It's not "Vintage" because you're not playing with decks designed to win Vintage. You can sit down for some "casual play" at a convention or game store and see everything from an old Lorwyn-era Standard deck to Legacy-grade Countertop to a cross-set mono-green beatdown deck -- and you'll get to play some pretty dang serious games against them.

Clearly this is an environment that favors breadth over really specific answers and hosers and threats. As an example, Gut Shot is a pretty widespread card in M12-Scars-Innistrad Standard because it deals with turn-1 Delver or Stromkirk Noble; it's rather a crap choice against an aggro deck using cards like Loam Lion, Vampire Lacerator, or Goblin Guide, though. Lightning Bolt, in contrast, is a card that is almost never considered useless.

What approach should you take to improve the breadth of a deck for this kind of never-know-what-you're-going-to-face environment?

I think perhaps you are asking the wrong question.

When I was going to an event for casual play, I'd normally bring more than one deck and I'd either ask for an opponent for a specific format or else ask the other person what format and break out the appropriate deck.  Obviously, I didn't carry a deck for every conceivable format, but if I brought my current standard deck, and an extended deck, and a "completely-casual-deck to play against beginners" I'd be able to find something "close enough".

If you really want just one deck to take to take to a gathering, then I would make a fast, solid aggro deck with some removal but no specific hosers (except just maybe in sideboard).  I would go with aggro over control or combo for a couple of reasons:

It always exists in about the same form in most formats, where control really needs to be tuned to the metagame to work right, so it can be broadly competitive.
You are describing a fairly casual environment of pick-up games.  Of course any competitive player would be happy to face combo or control, but it frustrates and surprises a lot of casual/new players.  So, for the sake of everyone having fun, I tend to run aggro in pick-up games and save combo/control for more competitive environments.

When building this deck to take to such an open environment, I would avoid anything that was designed as an answer to a specific threat (one with nothing for instance saw tournament play due to the metagame at the time, but it was an answer to one specific threat type).  I would also look more than normal at cards that could have multiple purposes (green has often had cards that would act as a creature, or kill an artifact).  Of course, such versatility often comes at a cost in terms of mana, but in that type of environment (might face anything, but generally on the casual side) that might be a fair trade off.

Finally, you can blunt a lot of the "random-deck" problems by playing multiplayer.  Even if you don't have an answer to a major threat, another player at the table probably does.


Carcassonne city scoring If a city has two knights for one player and one knight for another, does the player with two knights get the double point bonus for that city?

When the city is completed, the player(s)[1] with the most knights in the city gets points for the city in the amount of two per tile plus two per banner[2]. No other player receives any points for that city.
For example, when completing a three-tile city without banners, the player with two knights will receive 6 points, and the player with one knight will receive none, just like if there was only one knight in the city.

In the event of a tie, each of the players tied for the most knights gets all of the points.
Half that for incomplete cities at the end of the game.

A city is complete when it is surrounded by walls and there are no gaps in the walls or the city. There can be any number of sections in a city. A player who owns a knight in a completed city scores 2 points per tile in the city (count the tiles and not the sections). Each banner in the scored city also gives the player 2 points.
What if there are more than one follower on a completed road or city? With some clever tile placements, it is possible to connect road and city sections, resulting in a road with more than one thief or a city with more than one knight. The player with the most thieves or knights scores the totality of the points. In case of a tie, the tied players each score the points.
During the final scoring, incomplete roads, cities or monasteries are scored. A player who has a follower on an incomplete road, city or monastery scores 1 point per tile. For cities, each banner is also worth only 1 point. In case of a tie, use the same rules as for completed features.

(Emphasis in original)


How is Ondu Cleric's Rally ability resolved when more than one ally enters the battlefield at once? If I start with an Ondu Cleric on the battlefield and cast Allied Reinforcements, how much health would I gain? I know it is somewhere between 4 and 6.

Posible options in my mind:
a. The tokens enter at the same time, but the rally ability only counts there being two creatures on at once: The Ondu Cleric, and the token who activated Ondu Cleric's ability. This happens twice, so 2*2 is 4. (Didn't seem likely, but hey, this might be the case)
b. The tokens enter one at a time, and the rally ability gives 2 health, then 3 health for a total of 5.
c. The tokens enter at the same time, and the rally ability counts 3 creatures both times it is activated for a total of 6 (2*3).

Optional Question: What if I started with 2 Ondu Clerics on the battlefield? Would that just double the health gained, or would something else happen?

When Allied Reinforcements resolves, the two tokens enter the battlefield at the same time.  Ondu Cleric will see both ally tokens enter the battlefield, and will have its ability trigger twice.  The number of allies on the battlefield is checked when the trigger resolves, so barring any other allies on the board, you will gain a total of 6 life ( 3 for each trigger).

If you had a pair of clerics on the board, each cleric would see both tokens enter, for a total of 4 triggers at 4 life per trigger, giving you a total of 16 life.


Our copy of Mansion of Madness, second edition doesn't contain the original 8 investigators cards, is this correct? we had Mansion of Madness, second edition (core game) for Christmas (don't have the original) but the game doesn't have the original 8 investigators. Is this correct? We have 16 other investigators cards. The box say it should come with 8 with matching 8 figures, we have 8 figures but 16 cards. (Not sure if they match) the game comes with a conversion pack which it says has the 16 extra cards. Are we missing the 8 investigator cards??
I'm so confused!
Thanks for any help.
(The box was all sealed, etc.)

It seems to be correct. From the second-edition rulebook, page 4, "First Game" sidebar:

  Before choosing a scenario, if you own the first edition Mansions of Madness base game and/or any of its expansions, you can integrate the components of those products as described by the Conversion Kit rules insert.

  Players can play any investigators from the integrated first edition products, and the app can use any of the monsters or map tiles from those products during the game.

I think it's reasonable to infer that the original investigators (and monsters and map tiles) are intentionally separate from the second edition.

I don't own the game, so I can't physically confirm this.


Order of Operations on Actions If a First Mate (power of 2) has been poisoned

  [...] Ongoing: This minion has -4 power. (Minions have minimum power of 0.)

Also, if a Howl action card has been played

  Each of your minions gains +1 power until the end of your turn.

How much power is the card worth after Howl has been played?

Is the +1 from Howl added before Poison? After Poison? Or are all modifiers added up at any given time during the turn?

(Base 2 - Poison 4 + Howl 1) = -1 –> Min of zero
(Base 2 - Poison 4 (Min of zero)) + Howl 1) = 1

Do cards with minimums apply before other actions, or do they adhere to the commutative property of addition?

As I've mentioned in the comments here, you add up the modifiers acting on the minion.

  The power of a minion not in play is only the number printed on it, but once in play its power includes all modifications. Its power may never go below zero.

So you add up all the modifications, and if it's below 0 at the end, it's 0 instead. If a new modification comes in, you reevalute.


Using an omen card, can you kill yourself? Let's say I have Sanity 3, the last Sanity step on my character sheet, and I choose to use the omen card Mask. I roll a 4+, which means I can put on the mask to gain 2 Knowledge and lose 2 Sanity. Did I just kill myself when I have only one Sanity step left? Does my Sanity level drop to a minimum? Or does it drop to 0, killing me? Can I decide after rolling 4+ that I don't want to use the mask?

The text on the Mask omen 4+ roll reads "You can put on or take off the mask.", keyword here I think being "can". If you attempt the roll and get the 4+, read as written you can choose not to put the mask on.

That being said, if losing 2 sanity would cause you to go lower than the lowest sanity level on your character, yes, putting the mask on would cause your character to "go insane" and your character would die and drop the Mask.

The one stipulation to this being that your character cannot die before the haunt has begun, so this only applies post-haunt beginning. That rule is on page 8 under "Making an Attack".


How can we play Game of Thrones as a league game? Our group of players has increased in size quite a lot, and we wanted to start having tournaments and league games. However, we don't want to restrict ourselves to 2 player games only, like Twilight Struggle or Android: Netrunner (even though these are great games!)

We would like to have a league in Game of Thrones. How would you do it?

(The simplest answer is "rank everyone and give points to the top 3", or something like that. I'm sure there are better ideas out there.)

In simplest tournament form
In each round winners advance to next round, losers do not. If an alliance wins, they advance together for that round only. 2nd place matters not...
For a longer format
Everyone gets to play up to X games of Y game opportunities. Winners (individual or alliance) get 3 points each, losers get 1. After the Y
th opportunity has been played, count up total points. Top 4-6 players by points advance. If more than 6 are tied, have two tables, and divide the tied players between them, and then take the winners from both, and if needed the 2nd place players from both, to make a 3-6 player final.
In each of the x games, randomize from those present - I recommend using 3x5 cards with player names on them, and tracking of wins and losses.
2nd place - why not?
awarding points for non-victory is a complication that, while it can advance consistently passable players to finals, doesn't actually select for the best players. THe best players are good and consistent.
What If I want to push for solo wins?
In that case, Solo victory is a 3 point, alliance victory is a 2 point, and anything less is still 1 point
Why do losers get a point?
Because it pushes them up the rankings for being consistent in showing up. This is a benefit for league play.
Example
A 13 player league, players A-M, has 6 weeks and enough sets for 3 tables per week. The option to endorse solo wins over alliance wins is in place. Week 6 will be "finals"
Week 1, Everyone's present, and so the tables are 5, 4 and 4. AFGHM, BCIL, and DEJK are the table layouts. A wins solo, BC win as an alliance, and J wins
Week 2, A is sick. Tables are thus 6 each for two tables. BDFHJM and CEGIKL. KL win alliance, BD wins shared.
Week 3, D, K and M are stuck at work.  2 tables, 5 each. ACEIJ BFGHL. AC win shared, G wins solo.
Week 4,  N joins the league (late but enjoys play). there's a storm. Only ADGHN make it. H wins solo.
Week 5, Everyone shows. 5-5-4 tables. ADIKN BEGJM CFHL. A wins shared. BG win shared. H wins solo, as does N.
Final is H (with 9) G (with 8) A B (with 7), C & J (with 6).
    Wk  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N
    1:  3  2  2  1  1  1  1  1  1  3  1  1  1  -
    2:  0  2  1  2  1  1  1  1  1  1  2  2  1  -
    3:  2  1  2  0  1  1  3  1  1  1  0  1  1  -
    4:  1  0  0  1  0  0  1  3  0  0  0  0  0  1
    5:  1  2  1  1  1  1  2  3  1  1  1  1  1  3
  Tot:  7  7  6  5  4  4  8  9  4  6  4  5  4  4

Now, if run without the penalty for shared, the numbers look like this:
    Wk  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N
    1:  3  3  3  1  1  1  1  1  1  3  1  1  1  -
    3:  0  3  1  3  1  1  1  1  1  1  3  3  1  -
    3:  3  1  3  0  1  1  3  1  1  1  0  1  1  -
    4:  1  0  0  1  0  0  1  3  0  0  0  0  0  1
    5:  1  3  1  1  1  1  3  3  1  1  1  1  1  3
  tot:  8 10  8  6  4  4  9  9  4  6  5  6  4  4

The finals would be B (10), GH (9) AC (8). we don't go to the 6's because that would trigger a second table.
Note that the longer the league plays, the more important consistent play is.


Basic lands during booster draft What do you do in the event that you open a basic land in a booster draft? Do you just treat it like all other cards in the booster?

Basic lands are not removed from the booster pack in booster draft. They are drafted as any other card in the booster pack. From official MTR (Magic Tournament Rules):

7.7 Booster Draft Procedures
All players must open and draft the same type of booster at the same time. Players open their first booster pack and count the cards face down, removing token cards, rules cards, and any other non-game cards.


Does "Max 1 per conflict" mean per player, or in total? Some neutral cards have the text "Max one per conflict" on them. Does this mean that a player is only allowed to play one per conflict, or does it mean only one of the players is allowed to play this?

For example, Court Games has this. If my opponent plays Court Games, am I allowed to play my own Court Games later during that conflict or do I need to wait for a new conflict to happen?

As per the Rules Reference, page 10 (which is much more detailed than the rules delivered with the box):

  All limits are player specific.

Which means that yes, if my opponent plays Court Games, so can I during the same conflict.


Living Lands versus Living Terrain If you have Living Lands on the battlefield, making all of your Forests 1/1 creatures, and you then enchant one of those Forests with Living Terrain, does the enchanted land become a 1/1, a 5/6, or a 6/7?

The abilities of these cards create continuous effects, so we're interested in [CR 613], "Interaction of Continuous Effects".

  613.1. The values of an object’s characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:

  613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.

  613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.

  613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

  613.2. Within layers 1–6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer. (See rule 613.7.)

  613.3. Within layer 7, apply effects in a series of sublayers in the order described below. Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. (See rule 613.6.) Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a sublayer. (See rule 613.7.)

  613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied.

  613.5. If an effect should be applied in different layers and/or sublayers, the parts of the effect each apply in their appropriate ones. [...]

The timestamp order of effects is the order in which they were created.

If Living Lands entered the 'field before Living Terrain (as in your scenario),

Layer 4, It becomes a Forest Land Creature, then it becomes a Treefolk Forest Land Creature.
Layer 5, Its color changes to green.
Layer 7b, Its P/T is set to 1/1, then its P/T is set to 5/6.

So it's a 5/6 green Treefolk Forest Land Creature.
If Living Terrain entered the 'field before Living Lands,

Layer 4, It becomes a Treefolk Forest Land Creature, then it becomes a Treefolk Forest Land Creature.[1]
Layer 5, Its color changes to green.
Layer 7b, Its P/T is set to 5/6, then its P/T is set to 1/1.

So it's a 1/1 green Treefolk Forest Land Creature.

And the tie breaker,

  613.6g If two or more objects would receive a timestamp simultaneously, such as by entering a zone simultaneously or becoming attached simultaneously, the active player determines their timestamp order at that time.

It gets to keep its Treefolk subtype because its current (new) types support it.[CR 205.1].


How do "Maro" effects work when you cast your last card to pump them? If a creature's power and toughness are equal to number of cards in your hand (e.g. Maro), and if I play an enchantment from my hand giving that creature +3/+3 leaving no cards in hand, will it make the creature 0/0 before the enchantment resolves?

Yes, the creature would die.

When you cast a spell, you move it from your hand to the stack, and other players get the chance to react to that spell. State-based actions would cause the creature to die.

Rules references:

  Casting Spells

  601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.

That means the card goes from your hand to the stack and will no longer count toward Maro's ability. But even though it's 0/0 at this point, it's not quite dead yet.

  601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

Every time, whenever a player gets priority, state-based actions are checked first:

  State-Based Actions

  704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions [..]

  704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:

  704.5f If a creature has toughness 0 or less, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. Regeneration can’t replace this event.

If the spell you cast was your last card in hand, and Maro goes to zero toughness, it will die as soon as you finish casting that spell. By the time it can resolve, Maro is already moved from the battlefield to the graveyard.

Note that there are certain spells that require you to discard cards, then draw one or more, such as Windfall or Wheel of Fortune. Those cases are different. During the resolution of such spells, you temporarily go to zero hand cards as well, and Maro goes to 0/0 temporarily, but state-based actions are not checked during resolution, and Maro will not be destroyed because of such a spell:

  704.4. Unlike triggered abilities, state-based actions pay no attention to what happens during the resolution of a spell or ability.