Can I attack both the player and a planeswalker the same turn? Can I have some creatures attack the planeswalker and other creatures attack the player?

Yes, after you choose which creatures are attacking, you may choose whether they are attacking the defending player or a planeswalker that player controls.

From the comprehensive rules:

  508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn't use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player
  follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the
  declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with
  any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game
  returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 717, "Handling
  Illegal Actions").

  508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped,
  and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the
  active player continuously since the turn began.

  508.1b If the defending player controls any planeswalkers, or the game allows the active player to attack multiple other players, the active
  player announces which player or planeswalker each of the chosen
  creatures is attacking.


Mahjong Betting Rules Have been playing Mahjong for over 45 years and played today with a lady who filled in and we had a discussion regarding payout for betting.
For purposes of this question:
Playing with 4 players at the table and the 5th as the better.
Player A calls Mahjong with a self drawn tile.

The hand was a 25 cent hand which would then be doubled to 50 cents since it was a self drawn tile for Mahjong.
Since it was also bet on the bettor would also get 50 cents for the winning hand.
SO each player would pay both the winning player and the bettor each 50 cents. Total for each of the two players would be $1.50 each. Am I correct???

The lady who filled in was insistent about the following.
She said since the player who called Mahjong was also bet on by her then the total that each player needed to pay both the winning player and she, the bettor, was to be double the 50 cents to equal $1.00 total to each of the two players.
This would then make the player with the winning hand paid a total of $3.00 and the bettor also be paid $3.00.
So instead of each of the other 3 players paying out $1.50 to each for a total of $3.00, she insisted it was to be doubled since it was also bet on to a $1.00 payout for each the winning player and also the bettor for a total payout for the 2 players to $6.00.
She insisted that this was National Mahjong Rules.
As I stated have been playing a very long time and have never had any player state this.
Thanks much for your responses.

The official mahjong rules do not allow for "cross" bets by players on each other, or by outside parties on or against players.

Now this lady may have been playing by "house" rules in "her" games. But those rules do not apply to your table unless you all agree to them.


How do Platinum Angel and Darksteel Reactor interact? I have a Darksteel Reactor on the battlefield, and my opponent plays Platinum Angel. How does the Reactor's effect resolve when it hits 20 counters with the PA in the battlefield? Do I win the game or not?

The game will be a draw. Darksteel Reactor will trigger, attempt to win you the game, and then resolve and do nothing (since you can't win the game). Once resolved, Darksteel Reactor will see that it is still in play and still has 20 counters, and it will trigger again.

  603.8. A state-triggered ability doesn't trigger again until the ability has resolved, has been countered, or has otherwise left the stack.

This will continue without moving the game forward until a player removes either Darksteel Reactor or Platinum Angel or both. Since the game can't move forward, it is a draw.

Note: in a multiplayer game, "You win the game" is translated as "Each opponent loses the game." So if Player A had Darksteel Reactor, player B has Platinum Angel, and player C had nothing, player C would lose and players A and B would tie.


Can I play a first turn Simic Growth Chamber to have 3 mana available in the second turn? Using a card like Simic Growth Chamber (there are others for other colour combinations) in the first turn and a "normal" land in the second, can I have 3 mana available in the second turn?

Simic Growth Chamber enters the battlefield tapped.
When Simic Growth Chamber enters the battlefield, return a land you control to its owner's hand.
Tap: Add {G}{U}.

Can I really play this card without any land on the battlefield?

No. If you play Simic Growth Chamber without any other lands in play, you still must return a land you control to its owner's hand ... which happens to be the Simic Growth Chamber itself. So while it is legal, it is not useful to play it the first turn.


Which enchantments allow tapping a creature to inflict direct damage? What creatures across all sets and expansions have the ability to inflict direct damage, à la Prodigal Sorcerer?

Are there any Enchant Creature spells that have target creature gain "Tap to do 1 damage to target creature or player" or something similar?

Edit: My apologies for such an easily query-able answer. I was not aware of the existence o such comprehensive databases and easily-searchable databases like magiccards.info before posting these questions. I will surely do more research from now on. Thank you!

There are a few Aura cards that grant creatures the ability to tap to deal damage to a target (some with more restrictions than others). To find these cards, I used the magiccards.info search o:"Enchant Creature" o:"Enchanted creature has" o:deal o:"{T}", which finds Auras that enchant creatures that mention dealing damage and have an ability with a tap cost. Those cards are:

Archery Training

  At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put an arrow counter on Archery Training.

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals X damage to target attacking or blocking creature, where X is the number of arrow counters on Archery Training."

Burning Anger

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player."
  Fire Whip

  Enchant creature you control

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."

  Sacrifice Fire Whip: Fire Whip deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Hermetic Study

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."
  Hypervolt Grasp

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."

  {1}{U}: Return Hypervolt Grasp to its owner's hand.

Lavamancer's Skill

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature."

  As long as enchanted creature is a Wizard, it has "{T}: This creature deals 2 damage to target creature."

Lightning Prowess

  Enchanted creature has haste and "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."
  Power of Fire

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."

Predatory Urge

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature. That creature deals damage equal to its power to this creature."
  Psionic Gift

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."

Quicksilver Dagger

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target player. You draw a card."
  Sinstriker's Will

  Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target attacking or blocking creature."


If the Axis capture a factory in Axis and Allies, would the game tilt in their favor? Despite the fact that the odds in the "real" war were heavily skewed in favor of Allies, the game is almost balanced. That is, if it is played with the "No Russian first turn attack rule," bidding shows that the Axis players will expect to win abaout half the time if they were given 12 more Industrial Production Certificates (IPCs) more than they get in the actual game.

Axis and Allies - Is there a best country?

Some British players like to build a factory in India (or perhaps South Africa), and some US players like to build a factory in Sinkiang, even though these factories are at risk of being captured by th Axis and therefore "turned." But a factory represents 15 IPCs (30 if you count the "swing" from being pro Allied to pro Axis), which is to say more than the 12 IPCs alluded to above that would "balance" the game?

Does this mean that if say, Japan captures an Allied factory in India or Sinkiang that the Axis would then have the advantage? Or is it more true, that as game theorist Donald Rae suggests, this would happen too late in the game to make a difference?

And would such considerations cause the U.K. to build their factory in Australia, rather than India or South Africa?

In Axis and Allies, should the UK Build a factory in Australia?

Or the U.S. to build a factory in Brazil, instead of Sinkiang?

In Axis and Allies, Should the U.S. Build a "Factory" in Brazil?

(These factories are "out of the way" and NOT likely to captured.)

Speaking from general principles, as one who as never played the game but as played a multitude of board games over the past 45 years:

Barring extreme good fortune allowing a very early capture of said factory, I believe the concentration of effort required to achieve such a capture would provide compensating benefit to the Allies that would essentially neutralize the capture.

In any WWII game one of the disadvantages that the Allies face early on is where to defend, as they cannot defend everything. Even just seeing the Axis concentrate forces to take said factory might help the Allies by relieving other strategic areas from stress. I see building such a factory as a gambit by the Allies:

  "Sure, you can take this factory, but is it worth while to do so?"


Why are all changelings Shapeshifter creature type? I noticed a few days ago that all creatures with Changeling key word have Shapeshifter as their type (e.g. https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?text=+%5BChangeling%5D). This seems superfluous as they will already be that type (and every other).

Is there any functional reason for this? Would the rules of the me be any different in any way? Or is it just a convenience thing?

You're right in that even without the Shapeshifter subtype, they would have that subtype in any relevant situation, due to Changeling being a characteristic-defining ability.

That said, there are a number of Shapeshifter creatures that don't have the Changeling ability, and many have existed before the ability was introduced in Lorwyn as a carbon copy of Mistform Ultimus's ability (a card that's curiously not a Shapeshifter).

Changeling is not an evergreen mechanic, meaning it is only used in several sets - as of now, Lorwyn and Modern Horizons. The subtype Shapeshifter however has been used frequently throughout sets and indicates that it is more than a mechanic to the designers - it is a part of the lore of the multiverse, and despite one might more easily interpret function into "Shapeshifter" than "Kor", it is nevertheless a race of beings within the world.

This is hinted at in the phrasing of a DailyMtG artcle by Devin Low:

  [...], the designers had given the five-card cycle one more thing to share besides having all creature types. "How would a race of Shapeshifters fight?" the designers asked.


Does the result of the last game of Euchre determine who gets to deal first in the next game? I have always played where a new game gets a new "Jack for deal" scenario.  Playing with my nephew this week he was ADAMANT that since he and his partner won the last GAME, this gave him the privilege of dealing first.  I say a new game has absolutely NOTHING to do with previous games.  Who is right?

I would have to agree with you. A previous game definitely has nothing to do with the proceeding game. It is equivalent to playing a game then a few years later the winner is still able to be the dealer without the blackjack deal (well maybe not quite that far, but you get the point). But just clarifying we are talking about entirely new games, not rounds? If we are talking about games then yes redo the blackjack deal.


Should I tell my opponent about a jump they don't see? In checkers If I see my opponent can make a jump and they don't see the jump should I tell them?  What if I have a plan for after they make the jump and they don't take it. That spoils my plan.

It depends on if you are playing with mandatory capture rules or not. If you are playing with mandatory capture and they make a move instead of capturing a piece then you should tell them because they would be required to make the capture instead of another move. If you are not playing with mandatory capture then it doesn't matter but you can still tell them if you chose to.


Can you play a reaction to an event, if that event is the thing that let you draw the reaction? I attacked, and broke, my opponent's "The art of war", which says that you get to draw 3 cards when it breaks.

One of the cards my opponent drew, had as an ability "Reaction: when you lose a military conflict, play this card from your hand."

It was a military conflict that broke the province. Would she be allowed to play the card in response to losing this conflict?

Would she be allowed to play the card in response to losing this conflict?

According to my analysis, yes.

Seems that The Art of War has an interrupt effect, which basically means that it resolves before the other effect or condition that triggered. From the rulings on interrupts (p.10):

  An interrupt is a triggered ability whose text is prefaced by a boldface “Interrupt:” precursor. An interrupt ability interrupts the resolution of its triggering condition, sometimes canceling or changing the resolution of that condition. Always resolve interrupts to a triggering condition before resolving the consequences of the triggering condition itself.

Therefore, your opponent drew those cards before the Military Conflict came to a resolution. This enabled her to be able to use the reaction from her card, as "it was there" before she "lost the military conflict".

This last sentence is important, as Reaction effects require that it "may be initiated only if its specified triggering condition occurs." (also from the rulings, p.13). If The Art of War were not an Interrupt, it will require for the Conflict to end in order to take effect, situation that will result in the card being pulled out to lose timing and not be able to activate (as the last thing that happened was the resolution of the last effect, and not the end of the Conflict).


Picking up multiple dropped objects following death or toad-ification in Talisman (4th ed.) As I understand it, if a player is turned into a Toad they instantly drop all their followers, objects and gold on their current space.  Similarly if a character dies.

If a player lands on that space, do they have their choice of a single item (f/o/g) to pick up, or can they can they pick up multiple things, say, a follower and 2 gold pieces?

Moreover, do they have to encounter the space first, or the cards?  Sometimes a card may be helpful for handling the encounter, so the order is important.

There is a short description in the rules section called "Encountering a space - other spaces" but it is not clear to me what the ordering of events is, or whether "any f/o/g may be taken" means any amount, or any single thing.

The Talisman app allows you to encounter all of cards/gold on a space, so if a player dies or is turned into a toad you get to go through ALL of their items and pick what you want to keep.  However, you still go in encounter order, so you have to fight monsters first.  The space works the same as if a player had purposefully left item(s) behind if they drew better objects and couldn't carry more.

This all is from how the app plays, but I'd hope that they got the rules right! :)


End-of-the-turn casting in Magic Arena I'm playing Magic Arena after quite a long time away from Magic. I still remember how to play but there's something that's keeping me confused about the priority system.

When I'm passing the turn, eventually the opponent plays an instant speed spell before his turn, and the game does not allow me to respond to it. I didn't remember this rule but still OK (although that make instants and permanent spells with flash much more powerful than I thought they were).

But in my last game I just played an enchantment with flash at the end of my opponent's turn, hoping that my opponent could not answer to it with a counter spell, but they were able to respond and indeed countered it.

I searched for rules of end-of-turn casting and I think that it's just a glitch of the game (it's still on beta and there's some of them), but I'm not sure. Any help will be appreciated.

You can activate full control mode.

MTG arena has policies in place to speed up the gameplay considerably. This auto pass of priority is an attempt to remove the slow gameplay that has plagued MTGO.

You can deactivate this feature temporarily by pressing CTRL, you can turn it off permanently by pressing CTRL + SHIFT. Take note that when I say permanently, I mean for that game only; it will revert back to the default of setting when you start a new game.

Read more here.


How can I put custom symbols on the side of blank foam dice? I have designed a game that requires custom dice. Specifically, I've wanted to create dice approximately 3" in size, for party games. My first round of making dice used styrofoam and paint. After several games, the dice chipped - as to be expected.

The second attempt at custom dice used foam dice from Oriental Trading painted over to fit the needs of the game. These, too, had paint coming off.

As Oriental Trading and other retailers have proven, however, it is possible to have permanent images affixed to faces of a cube on foam dice. Wood, metal, and other hard surfaces are undesirable as they are too hard for use indoors. What ways are there to create dice that look like those found on Oriental Trading?

You may have better luck if you start with a coat of primer that is intended for foam, such as this: http://www.krylon.com/products/craft-foam-primer/

Also, a clear top coat might help.


Unlcear about noise making as a useful tactical move One of the actions one can take is to make noise. This adds one noise token to one's current location. In addition, as far as I understand the rules, each character makes a noise automatically.

This means that making a noise is only useful in a very narrow set of circumstances: zombies have no line of sight, there is no big group of characters, and no other noise around (breaking doors, some spells, etc...)

Have I missed something?

These are the cases where I've used the noise making tactic:

To avoid splitting. If a group of zombies has 2 equally noisy target zones to move to, and you want to avoid adding extra zombies due to splitting (i.e. an odd number of zombies in the starting zone), then making noise clarifies the target zone
As a lure. For example, luring zombies onto a dragon fire trap, luring a group of zombies away from a necromancer who is about to escape, luring a group of zombies into a room to trap them using the lock it down skill etc.
To use towers more effectively. Towers (in the Wulfsberg expansion), allow for archers and spell casters to have more safe shots at zombies. It may be useful to lure zombies towards the tower (to get more shots) or away from the tower (to allow a survivor to escape the tower)
To allow a survivor to escape. Particularly useful when a survivor is in a dead end, or you want zombies to head towards survivors with armour/ironclad skills/regenerate etc.


Do spells that change power/toughness of all creatures until end of turn affect creatures played afterwards? If I play Overrun or Infest, THEN play a creature after the prior spell resolves, is that creature affected? I assume so, but is this ever not true?

No, it will not be affected.

The answer varies based on what created the effect, and what the effect does. The following are the three cases:

A continuous effect generated by a static ability.

This is covered by 611.3a.

  611.3a A continuous effect generated by a static ability isn’t “locked in”; it applies at any given moment to whatever its text indicates.

A continuous effect generated by something other than a static ability, and it modifies the characteristics of objects. (Characteristics are defined CR 109.3, included below.)

This is covered by the first half of 611.2c.

  611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. [...]

A continuous effect generated by something other than a static ability, and it doesn't modify the characteristics of objects.

This is covered by the second half of 611.2c.

  611.2c [...] A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability that doesn’t modify the characteristics or change the controller of any objects modifies the rules of the game, so it can affect objects that weren’t affected when that continuous effect began. [...]

For both Overrun and Infest, we're talking about a continuous effect generated by something other than a static ability, and it modifies the characteristics of objects. As such, only the permanents that were creatures when the spell resolved are affected by the spell.

  109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. Objects can have some or all of these characteristics. Any other information about an object isn’t a characteristic. For example, characteristics don’t include whether a permanent is tapped, a spell’s target, an object’s owner or controller, what an Aura enchants, and so on


Why is there a Dummy in Bridge? I'm not a Bridge player, but I have been reading about the game. This part of the rule surprises me. After the contract is closed, Dummy lays down his/her hand and thereafter doesn't take part in the game anymore.

From a game design perspective this looks silly. It excludes one of the players from the game. Dummy essentially becomes a spectator, which is certainly less fun. If it can't be avoided (e.g. making an incorrect accusation in Cluedo) then yeah, but Bridge offers an obvious way to keep Dummy in the game - just don't have Dummy drop their hand after bidding finishes and play normally.

What is the advantage of having Dummy?

This isn't for the purpose of excluding the player from the game - and typically the player in that seat will physically move the cards requested by the declarer to be played. The idea is that dummy's hand (and only that hand) becomes public information, creating an asymmetry - the declarer knows all 26 cards that will be used to try to make the contract, but the defenders must infer each others' holdings from the play.

Why create this asymmetry? I can think of two reasons:

It creates strategic depth. In particular, consider finesses. The skill set expected of declarers includes understanding the play of a finesse, as well as being able to determine whether to attempt them (based on conditional probabilities as well as the risk and reward involved according to the scoring system). If dummy's hand is closed, this becomes impossible - one player on the declaring side may intend to lead into a finesse, but the other player won't know this is the intent, and is torn between the priorities of ensuring the trick is won and sending lead-directing play signals. If we instead open one of the defender's hands in addition to dummy's, the play again becomes impossible - since everyone can deduce everyone else's hand, there is no longer a question of risk.
It makes bidding more competitive. Because of the trick-winning advantage inherent in declaring the contract, it's often possible, when the honours are evenly split, for either side to be able to make a 2- or 3-level contract even without unusual suit length. This enhances another skill component: deciding whether a sacrifice contract will be preferable to letting opponents make their game or slam (in rubber bridge, one might even sacrifice against a part-score contract if it would complete opponents' game).

Okay, but why not just reveal dummy's hand to declarer privately? I can think of three reasons:

It would violate a sacred design principle. Players are only supposed to communicate with each other via their actions - including publicly-known codes in bidding (I believe you asked a separate question about this).
It would be mechanically difficult to implement. If declarer only gets to look at the hand once, it creates memory issues; if multiple times, then it involves repeatedly passing cards across the table, which is messy and creates potential for cheating (by swapping cards between declarer's and dummy's hands, which defenders wouldn't know about in this hypothetical).
It would unbalance the advantage created by making it too strong. As is, defenders can take dummy's hand into consideration when choosing leads (except the first) and responses (i.e., avoid playing an unnecessarily high card when declarer is trying to exit with an unavoidable loser). Overly competitive bidding would ruin the scoring system. (While it might be feasible to calibrate that to match, the game was after all developed pretty organically. The current balance works; why disrupt it?)


Are you required to call a judge if you're not involved in the game? If you're a spectator to a game at either competitive or professional REL and you see a gamestate error occur, should you call a judge?

What happens if you don't call a judge?

Is it different if you see blatant cheating or bribery instead of a gamestate error?

Covered by the Tournament Rules:

  Any person physically present at a tournament and not in any other category above is a spectator. Spectators are responsible for remaining silent and passive during matches and other official tournament sections in which players are also required to be silent. If spectators believe they have observed a rules or policy violation, they are encouraged to alert a judge as soon as possible. At Regular or Competitive REL, spectators are permitted to ask the players to pause the match while they alert a judge. At Professional REL, spectators must not interfere with the match directly.

(Emphasis mine)


After using Act of Treason and Cloudshift, does a creature re-enter the battlefield under my control? If player A has a creature, and then on player B's turn, he/she uses Act of Treason on it, and then Cloudshift, does that card, once it has been cloudshift-ed, return to the battlefield under the control of player B, and thus, not return to A after B's turn has finished?

My thinking is that the card will be under player B's control until the end of the game/ or until the creature in question has been put into the graveyard or removed from play - because, Act of Treason states that you 'gain control of target creature until the end of turn' but cloudshift states that you 'exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control.'.

Any thoughts? Can this be done?

It works just as you hope.

Previous "flicker" effects returned the target to play "under its owner's control".  Cloudshift returns it to play "under your control".

Act of Treason gave you control of the creature, making it a valid target for Cloudshift.  Cloudshift returns it into play under your control, and with no memory of its previous life as either the opponent's creature, or of having had Act of Treason cast on it.  It's yours for keeps, or at least until the game ends or another control-changing effect takes place...

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it (such as “until end of turn”). If no duration is stated, it lasts until the end of the game.


How to help kids to hold their cards in their hands ? I'm trying to show some card games to my kids (4 and 6), but they have difficulty holding the cards in their hands. Maybe it's because their hands are too small, or not strong enough...

Does anyone have a trick to help them?

Patience is the only thing I can think of, with my kids (aged 6) I started by fanning them out and place them in their hands finished, lately they collect them and take a grip and I only fan them out for them.

As an alternative just buy a couple of Playing Card Holders and worry about it later on :)

These should be available a little everywhere but the image is taken from: Peta (first image of them I found on google image search)


2 Investigators in Mansions of Madness I now have a few games of Mansions of Madness under my belt, all of them with three players - a Keeper and 2 Investigators. And I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be time for them (the Investigators) to get even the majority of the house explored or make much progress once the objective is revealed.

So, I turned my designer's eye on it and thought this thought:

  In a 5-player game (a Keeper and 4 Investigators), the Investigators will have 4 actions per turn. So an Event card that takes 3 turns to flip expects 12 actions to occur before it's activated. With 2 Investigators, only 6 actions have been taken in the same span. Since the Event card timings do not scale with the number of Investigators, it is no wonder that it seems the players are running out of time.

I saw two possible fixes for this:

Give Investigators in a 3-player game 2 actions per turn.
Scale the number of tokens required for an event to keep the number of actions between events the same for a given number of players.

I have decided that the "2 movements and one action" structure of the Investigator turn is too integral to mess with. So I am thinking of doubling the number of "clock ticks" between events for my next game - I'll almost always have 2 Investigators playing.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Have you solved it?
How?
Is your solution satisfactory?

Multiple Investigators

After my last 2-Investigator game, I was explaining this issue to one of the players and proposed the "scale the time between events solution."

She said, "Why don't we just each run two adventurers?"

Why didn't I think of that?

I think that from now on, MoM will be a 4-investigator game, with players running enough investigators to make up the difference. It works great in dungeon-lords.

EDIT: There are additional benefits to this solution:

Scaling the time would drastically reduce the sense of urgency in MoM.
Not only the number of actions but the reduced breadth of abilities is unaccounted for in a fewer-than-four-Investigators game.

This is decidedly my preferred way to play the game now. I would only consider less than four Investigators as a way to bump the difficulty for players that consistently win too easily.


Clarification of cards in King of Tokyo The Monster Batteries card states that two energy cubes are fed back to the player every turn. Is it every turn of the game (my assumption)  or every turn of that player?
The card also reads that it is not discarded until the player receives the last energy cube back. My rationale on this (seeing as it is a "keep" card) is that you can replenish the stock of energy cubes in successive turns to receive more of the 2:1 bonus. Is this correct?

Is it every turn of the game (my assumption) or every turn of that player?

You are right. Notice that Mimic reads At the start of your turn, while Monster Batteries reads At the start of each turn. Interpreting the cards literally also makes the batteries a card that might be worth buying. :)

  My rationale on this (seeing as it is a "keep" card) is that you can replenish the stock of energy cubes in successive turns to receive more of the 2:1 bonus. Is this correct?

Being a Keep-card does not imbue it with more rules than are stated on the card. The only time you can put energy cubes on it is when you buy it. So you better have a fair number to make it worth your while.


A trail card says I pass if I roll an even number and die if I roll a 1. What happens if I roll a 3 or 5? In The Oregon Trail Card Game, there is a trail card that says the following:

  Roll an even number and ford the river. Roll a one and die by drowning.

What happens if I roll a 3 or a 5? Other cards have you lose a supply card on a failed roll, so I'm not sure if that happens here. But since it doesn't say, I'm wondering if there is any consequence.

This question was raised in a review of the game at Ars Technica.

A Board Game Geek user sent in some rules questions to Pressman Toys and received responses from the company president and game designer. They were kind enough to post them on Board Game Geek, and this question was one of them:

  1) River card: “Roll an Even number to ford the river. Roll a 1 and die by drowning.” What happens then when the person rolls a 1 and dies? Would you take that to mean the river was forded, but lost that player to drowning? What happens if a 3 or 5 is rolled?

  -When players are trying to ford a river and they don’t drown or ford the river play passes to the next player, who rolls to try to ford the river. This continues until all players drown or a player fords the river. No player may play another Trail Card until the river has been forded.

In other words, a result of 3 or 5 means that the river is not forded, but there are no other ill effects. The next player then attempts to ford the river. Only when a person rolls a 2, 4, or 6 is the River considered to be forded and a new trail tile may be drawn.


"Can't attack you unless" in Two-Headed Giant How do cards like Ghostly Prison and Propaganda work in 2HG?

More specific, how do you apply the "Can't attack you unless X" to the game. Does it work for both players, i.e. no matter which player you attack you need to pay mana. Or does it only protect the player who controls the effect. In the latter case it would significantly reduce the effectiveness.

Propaganda etc. apply whenever the enemy team attacks your team.
In 2HG games you cannot be attacked individually, you always attack or defend as a team, so all attacking creatures attack both players at once and Propaganda costs will have to be paid for those creatures that don't attack Planeswalkers.

810.7a Each team’s creatures attack the other team as a group. During the combat phase, the active team is the attacking team and each player on the active team is an attacking player. Likewise, the nonactive team is the defending team and each player on the nonactive team is a defending player.
810.7c As the declare attackers step begins, the active team declares attackers. If an effect of an object controlled by a defending player prohibits a creature from attacking him or her, that creature can’t attack the defending team. The active team has one combined attack, and that set of attacking creatures must be legal as a whole. See rule 508.1.
508.1g If any of the chosen creatures require paying costs to attack, the active player determines the total cost to attack. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. Once the total cost is determined, it becomes “locked in.” If effects would change the total cost after this time, ignore this change.


Who takes the trick in All Five (variant of All Fours) if the 10 and Ace are played from the trump suit? Who takes the trick in All Five (a variant of All Fours) if the 10 and Ace are played from the trump suit?

The Ace has 4 pts but the 10 has 10 points. The rules say that the Ace is the highest ranking card. I am confused.

Rank matters during play; points during scoring. So during play the ace is the best and will take the trick, but during scoring it's more important to have collected the 10 than to have collected the ace. This non-alignment of rank and score can make the strategy more interesting - if ace were highest scoring, you could just play the ace and you'd collect all those points for sure, but collecting tons of points off of a lowly ten takes much more skill.


Do Inhabitiants Stick Around? If one Chapter introduces Inhabitiants but the next doesnt say they disappear, do the Inuabitiants stick around per chapter until the story tells us to remove them?

Yes.

Eventually, the Legacy deck will tell you during setup to place the existing inhabitants into the Tomb and replace them with new ones.

Bear in mind that if you kill an inhabitant, they get moved to the Tomb without the Legacy deck telling you to and do not appear in subsequent chapters.

Do not destroy inhabitant cards unless the game explicitly tells you to as they may be relevant to the game later.


Mille Bornes Fast Play Rules Clarification The Dujardin version has Fast Play Rules (see page 7 in the manual). One of the rules allows players to immediately play a Remedy card right after receiving a Hazard card, and then immediately draw a new card, and then the game play will resume according to the normal flow of play. However, unlike the "Coup Fourré" move, the player does not gain or lose points.

I'm confused by what "resuming the normal flow of play" means in this context, especially compared to the Coup Fourré situation.

Let's say we have 4 players: North, East, South, and West, and the order of play is clockwise (N-E-S-W-N-E-S-W-...). North puts down a Hazard card onto South.

In the "Coup Fourré" move (page 12 in the manual), if South has a Safety card, then South can immediately put that card down to remove the Hazard card, draw a replacement for the Safety card, and then South gets a move by drawing another card and then play/discard another card. After that, it's West's turn. East doesn't get any turn. Therefore, effectively, South hijacks the turn, interrupting the normal flow.

Under the Fast Play Rules, South is allowed to play a corresponding Remedy card immediately after North plays a Hazard card against South. Then South draws a replacement card for that Remedy card. So far this is simliar to the Coup Fourré move. Now, who's playing right after South draws that replacement? Is it West, just like in the Coup Fourré move? Or is it East, because it was North who put down the Hazard card, and East was supposed to play next (hence "resuming to the normal flow of play")?

The Fast Play Rules are not in the classic version but I still wonder which makes more sense.

I believe the "resume in normal order" text is there to emphasize the difference between this and the normal Coup Fourré move -- that is, that in your example, after South draws their replacement card, and North's turn ends, East takes the next turn as normal.


Premptive bid with too much strength in Bridge What happens if opener bids 3 diamonds (a preemptive bid) and everyone else passes and then it is discovered that opener had 14 points, too many to preempt?

Whatever the result of playing 3D was stands. Bidding incorrectly is not (usually) a violation of the laws of contract bridge.


7 Wonders: Do board resources (brown and gray) count for VPs when counting guild and commerce points? Three guilds (Workers, Shipowners, Craftsmens) award VPs for resource cards. Also some commerce cards (e.g., Haven) award coins and VPs for resource cards. Do you include Board resources in the count, or only cards? The instructions say "cards," but I'm making sure they are specifically restricting this, and not using the term more broadly.

No.
The guilds in question specifically award points for cards.

Workers Guild: 1 victory point for each brown card present in the neighboring cities.
Shipowners Guild: 1 victory point for each brown, gray and purple card in your city. Clarification: the Shipowners Guild counts towards this total.
Craftmans Guild: 2 victory points for each gray card present in the neighboring cities.

And the last sentence in the base game Rulebook makes it clear this only refers to actual cards. [Emphasis added]

Clarification: Resources produced by boards are NOT considered as cards (Vineyard, Bazaar, Guilds, ...).


Can I use Plaxcaster Frogling to temporarily shut off Species Gorger's ability? I'm currently working on a deck which is built around Species Gorger and its ability to return creatures I control to my hand. In order to make my deck work as intended, I need a way to "turn off" or avoid SG's ability from time to time. I was wondering if Plaxcaster Frogling could do the job. For the record, SG's ability reads:

  At the beginning of your upkeep, return a creature you control to its owner's hand.

Let's say I control a Species Gorger and a Plaxcaster Frogling. The Gorger has a +1/+1 counter on it. At the beginning of my upkeep, I have to return a creature I control to my hand. If I choose the Gorger to be returned, and use the Plaxcaster's activated ability to make sure the Gorger doesn't leave the battlefield:

Will the Gorgers triggered ability be neutralized? or,
Will the Gorger just look for another creature to send to my hand, since I have chosen an invalid creature to send to my hand in the first place? After all, it says return a creature you control to your hand.

Since it dosn't say target creature, I'm not sure if the Plaxcaster would have to use its ability on all creatures on my battlefield, that I don't want to return to my hand, or if it is enough to "protect" the one creature that was originally chosen for the Gorger to send to my hand?

Species Gorger's triggered ability does not target. Abilities that target use the word "target". As such, it does not interact with Plaxcaster Frogling's activated ability or any other shroud effects.

In addition, because the triggered ability does not target, you make the choice of which creature to return while the ability is resolving (which means the choice can't be responded to in any way).


Kess, Dissident Mage and adventure cards I have a question about Kess, Dissident Mage and interaction with adventures cards like Brazen Borrower.
Example:
When I have my Brazen Borrower in Graveyard and Kess on the battlefield, can I cast Brazen Borrower for its alternate cost?
Instant - Adventure
Return target nonland permanent an opponent controls to its owner's hand.

If yes where does my Brazen Borrower go? To exile as an adventure (and I can recast it for its creature cost) or to exile by Kess rule?
I tried to search that on internet but there is nothing that explain why it is possible.
Thank you in advance.

Yes, you can cast an Adventure as an instant with Kess. For those details, see this question. Because that's a duplicate, I'll just focus on the second part.

You will get to choose the order to reply the replacement effects, so as long as you choose to apply the effect from the Adventure first, the card will end up exiled as an Adventure, and you can cast it later as a creature.

We can see that both effects are replacement effects:

  614.1a Effects that use the word “instead” are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word “instead” to indicate what events will be replaced with other events.

And the rules for choosing which one comes first:

  616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).

Once the first one of the replacement effects is considered; the other one will not do anything:

  616.1e Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated (taking into account only replacement or prevention effects that would now be applicable) until there are no more left to apply.

You are correct that if Kess, Dissident Mage's replacement effect causes the card to go to Exile, then you will not be able to cast it as a creature later; because the ability to do that is part of the replacement effect on the Adventure itself:

  715.3d Instead of putting a spell that was cast as an Adventure into its owner’s graveyard as it resolves, its controller exiles it. For as long as that card remains exiled, that player may cast it. It can’t be cast as an Adventure this way, although other effects that allow a player to cast it may allow a player to cast it as an Adventure.


How do character upgrades interact with Dispatcher's special ability? (This should be spoiler free, all of this info is available at the start of the season.)

In our game we upgraded the dispatcher with the Pilot upgrade to Direct Flight without discarding the card. Pilot seems especially powerful since the dispatcher can then move anyone to himself and then trade them that cities card.

Last night the question arose about could he Direct Flight another player's pawn without discarding the city card and without moving himself to that city, for example, moving the medic to a city with a cured disease to instantly treat it?

My instinct says that this is a legal use, as the Dispatcher ability says "Move another player's pawn as if it is your own" and his pawn has the ability to Direct Flight without discarding.

Yes, this is a legal move, and it is clarified in the rules (page 5) (emphasis mine):

  When the Dispatcher moves a player’s pawn as if it were his own:

  • use the Dispatcher’s scars and upgrades, not those belonging to the
  character he is moving,

  • cards that need to be played or discarded (for Direct and Charter Flights
  or to enter a collapsing or fallen city) come from the Dispatcher’s hand.
  A card discarded for a Charter Flight must match the city the pawn is
  moving from.

The Pilot upgrade allows your character to take a Direct Flight without discarding the card. I don't see an upgrade that allows you to take a Charter Flight without discarding, however, so be sure you're using the correct action. Looking around on google, a Pilot Dispatcher is a very common combination, as it is very efficient to move players around that way.


Can a spell fizzle because a cost-reducing effect is removed? In this scenario, would my Aerial Responder fizzle because the mana cost is higher than I can pay?

I have a Ballyrush Banneret out on the battlefield, which says "Kithkin spells and Soldier spells you play cost {1} less to play."

I play Aerial Responder for WW, tapping my only two plains.

In response to this, my opponent casts Lightning Bolt on Ballyrush Banneret.

We begin to resolve the stack, and first of all, Lightning Bolt kills Ballyrush Banneret.

Now Aerial Responder is going to be resolved. Does it still only cost WW, or does it now cost 1WW? Would it fizzle? If instead of only having two plains when I cast Aerial Responder I actually had 3, could I tap the final plains in response to this so that Aerial Responder could be cast?

No, a spell can never fizzle because you're unable to pay the cost.

Among the steps involved in casting a spell are the following:

you announce that you're casting the spell
you determine what it costs
you pay the cost that was previously determined1

These steps (and a few others) occur immediately back to back; your opponent can't do things between them. The whole process of casting a spell is one "block" of actions that can't be interrupted. Once the "block" finishes, the spell is considered paid for. Period. If the spell's cost were somehow to change later, that doesn't matter; all that matters is that you paid the cost that was required at the time you cast the spell.

Even if you find yourself unable to pay the cost of a spell during the casting of the spell (i.e. at the third bullet point), the spell does not fizzle. Instead, you back the game up to before you started casting the spell in the first place (unless you are using Selvala, Explorer Returned, then you call a judge and watch them cry).

There are some effects, for example Mana Leak and Frost Titan, which counter a spell unless its caster pays a certain amount of mana (or takes some other action, e.g. Reality Smasher). It's important to note that these do not change the casting cost of the spell, and even if they did, it wouldn't matter because the spell has already been paid for. What Mana Leak does is create an entirely separate cost, which has to be paid at the time that Mana Leak resolves, long after the spell has been cast.

1In rare circumstances the action of paying the cost can change what the cost would be, but it doesn't change the amount you actually have to pay. For example, suppose you wanted to cast a Soldier spell costing {1}{B}{B} that said "As an additional cost to cast [this], sacrifice a creature", and you have Ballyrush Banneret in play. You would first determine the cost you need to pay, which is {B}{B} and sacrificing a creature. That gets "locked in" before you start paying it. So you can safely sacrifice Ballyrush Banneret, and it doesn't mean you have to pay any more mana.


Why do cards miss their timing? My specific question is regarding Lightpulsar Dragon and why it misses it's timing (such as when synchro summoning), while cards like Tuningware don't. I am mainly just looking for an explanation as to how and why cards miss timing, as I have been playing Yugioh for years, but have never quite understood why timing is such a frustrating rule to understand.

Pulsar says when, tuningware says if.

When Pulsar is sent to the grave during synchro summoning is in the middle of a resolving chain, and nothing can occur other than the resolving chain.

However tuningware and similar cards that say if only require it to go to the grave sometime during a chain to have their effect go off


Use of Executive Order in Battlestar Galatica As seen in this question ...Playing "Executive Orders" on self

Executive Order lets another player take 2 Actions if they don't move.  From my understanding of the rules this means the other player could:

Play another Executive Order on me, allow 2 players to take many actions in a row.
Allow Cylons to do as listed above, which can be devastating.
Allow a player to move out of Sickbay without penalty.
Allow a player to move out of jail (does Executive Order 'allowing moving' trump jail 'not allowing moving'?)

This seems too powerful.  We play with the following modified rules.

No chaining, 1 Executive Order allows the receiving player to play any action other than an Executive Order.
A player may use the Move to exit jail, however this forfeits the 'action'.

Does anyone have an official rule source on this?

Much of this is covered in the FAQ and Errata, which you can find a link to here.

You can't play 2 Executive Orders on the same turn.  Under Errata:

  The “Executive Order” Skill Card should include the following
  text: Limit of 1 “Executive Order” card may be used per turn.

Revealed Cylons can't play Executive Orders on each other (though un-revealed Cylons, sure!). Under Cylon Players:

  Q: Can a revealed Cylon player be targeted by the “Executive
  Order” Skill Card or Quorum Cards?A: No.

Yes. Under The Brig and Sickbay:

  Q: Can a player in “Sickbay” move out of that location if
  targeted by an “Executive Order” Skill Card?A: Yes. If the player moves out of “Sickbay” before the start of
  his turn, then he will not be restricted to drawing a single card.

I read it that a player may not move out of the Brig voluntarily, not even due to an Executive Orders free move. I don't think anything explicitly states this rule, but I generally feel that "You may not move" from the Brig trumps the "You may move" from Executive Orders.

As for your house rules, the first rule is good (and in the Errata).  The second rule seems to be not strictly in the rules, and I personally don't think it's a good idea - it would make Executive Orders more powerful than it already is (which is already quite powerful!) and the Brig less bad.  The Brig is supposed a scary place to be and hard to get out of; being able to Executive Order someone out of it seems like it diminishes that too much for my tastes.


What variables should a Zendo game contain if it's being played with new players? The game Zendo is an icehouse game of inductive logic. There are many different variables possible in the game (size, shape, orientation, pointing, etc...). One way of limiting rule difficulty is to limit the number of variables allowed in the rule.

What is your favourite set of variables when playing with new players? What's the best way to introduce new variables to escalate difficulty? What variables have caused more problems then they're worth?

The most basic, and easily visible, attributes are best for beginning players are the most obvious and easy to see. Color, size, basic orientation, number of pieces.

Rules that involve simple combinations of these attributes are good (a koan has the Buddha nature if it has a small red piece). Rules that have too many relations going on (touching, pointing) at once are somewhat more difficult (a koan has the Buddha nature if it has a small red piece touching a large green piece). Rules that involve pip count arithmetic can be quite difficult for beginning players. Rules with an "and" in them (a koan has the Buddha nature if it has a red piece and a flat piece) are OK for beginning players, as long as they aren't too complicated; an "or" (a koan has the Buddha nature if it has a red piece or a flat piece) are more difficult and should probably be avoided at first.

There are a few features that can be fairly non-obvious or hard to express for beginners (groundedness, weird orientation) and so should probably be avoided at first and introduced slowly. Also, introducing non-standard relationships (corner pointing, nesting without touching) should be avoided until people have a little more familiarity with the game.

Another way to simplify the game for beginners is to remove one color. With only three colors, it becomes much easier to figure out and test rules that involve colors.

One thing to remember with Zendo is that it's almost always better to err on the side of a rule that's too easy rather than a rule that's too hard. It's frustrating when no one figures out the rule in Zendo. It's very easy to come up with a rule that's too hard, especially if you're trying to be "clever" about it (one of the more frustrating rules I've played with was "the sum of yellow and blue pips must be a fibonacci number"; that was especially bad, because 0, 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all fibonacci numbers, and you run out of pieces quickly when trying to test higher numbers to figure out the pattern).


Where to find lists of cheap Cubes? I'm an occasional social Magic player (not crazy about the game). I like playing drafts more than constructed to avoid the arms race, but they're not cheap, and one of my friends had a real problem with buying cards for a while, so I was thinking about putting together a Cube so that when we draft every now and again, no one would have to buy anything. It also seems like it would lend itself well to inexpensive cards, since having a consistent power level would allow competitive games even if that level is low.

However, I don't want to spend much time or money doing so (I'd rather just suggest 7 Wonders or something like that). Is there any resource that has Cube lists, maybe specifically for "budget"/Pauper-type selections that provide a fun experience? I did a cursory Internet search, but all the lists I came across seemed peppered with at least a few cards I know are pricey.

If you are on a budget, you probably don't want to buy any cards - by definition, for a Cube you need the best cards of all times. The power 9 alone would run you into the thousands of dollars.

You do have 2 inexpensive options:

Cube works with any set of cards, just take the best cards you have. No money involved, only time to decide on the cards. You don't have to use any list, just use whatever you have. Advantage: You learn a lot about your the cards in your collection and you have to make a conscious effort grading their relative power, which can only benefit you as a player.

Second, if you don't mind using proxies, simply take a cube list you like and print proxies of everything you are missing. There are many resources where you can get card scans, or use the Gatherer text for the latest errata. This will take some time to prepare the printing run, and depending on your circumstances, could cost you a few dollars for paper and/or ink. Advantage: You get to play the best cards of all times for crazy powerful decks, should be loads of fun, you (probably) get to know many new cards.


Revealing cards sorcery The Pieces of the Puzzle MTG card states:

  Reveal the top five cards of your library. Put up to two instant and/or sorcery cards from among them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

My question is: does it mean a player should show which cards he revealed from the library or not? Should the player show which cards he puts into his hand or not? If not how to check that player plays honestly?

Yes, you not only need to show all five cards, you need to show which of those you picked.

No action is taken in secret; all players are to be made aware of all actions taken and what they effect. And since the cards are revealed when you pick them, they get to know not just what card you picked, but it's name as well.

  701.14a To reveal a card, show that card to all players for a brief time. If an effect causes a card to be revealed, it remains revealed for as long as necessary to complete the parts of the effect that card is relevant to. If the cost to cast a spell or activate an ability includes revealing a card, the card remains revealed from the time the spell or ability is announced until the time it leaves the stack.

(Emphasis mine)


Move Animals Between Pens During Harvest During the feeding stage I end up with one sheep in a pen for four and three cows, two in a pen for two and one pet.  After breeding I no longer have room for the cows.

After breeding there is no longer room for the additional cow unless I can shuffle the animals around. Is there a way to manually move them about on the iPad version of the game even if there is no swap space available on the farm?

Usually you can drag the animals to the storage bar at the bottom of the screen to assist in moving them around.  Just like whenever you get new ones and have to drag them out, I have usually just dragged them onto that bar, near the location of their little respective icon.


Buying resources from your neighbor In 7 Wonders,when buying resources from your neighbor.  Do they have an unlimited supply of resources for you to buy, or just what is showing?  For example can I buy 3 stone from them when they only have 1 stone showing in their resource pile, or am I only allowed to buy up to the number they are showing?

You can only buy the amount that they have.  Here are the relevant rules:

The resources of a city are produced by its Wonder board, its brown cards, its gray cards, and some yellow cards.  To build a structure, a player’s city must produce the resources indicated on its card.  Example: Giza produces 2 Stones, 1 Clay, 1 Ore, 1 Papyrus and 1 Textile.
Often,  a  player  will  want  to  build  a  structure  requiring  resources  he  or  she does not produce.If these resources are produced by a neighboring city – players sitting directly to the left or right of that player – the player will be able to purchase the missing resource(s) through commerce.

You are buying resources that they produce and the rules for production indicate that each symbol only produces one resource.
Note that you buying these resources does not prevent the owner or the person to the other side of the owner from using it.  The rule is a little weird, but each player can use each produced resource once:

Selling a resource to a neighboring city DOES NOT prevent a player from using it, during the same turn, for his own construction purposes.


Are Item Finder and Dowsing Machine the same card? Item Finder is a card from the original Pokemon TCG Base Set. Dowsing Machine is a card that has the same effect, but was printed as an Ace Spec in the much more recent Plasma Storm set.

I would like to a build a deck for the Unlimited format that includes 4 Item Finder and also includes 1 Dowsing Machine as my Ace Spec card.

I have read that the original Japanese names for the cards Item Finder and Dowsing Machine are the same. Does this mean that they are supposed to be treated as the same card for deck building purposes?

I have found some discussions online that assumed one way or the other, but I haven't found any source that seemed authoritative. I know that in the Pokemon TCG a card is supposed to be played using the text of its most recent printing, but I don't know if these two cards count as the same to apply that ruling.

Since there is no official source saying they are the same card, even though they have the same effect, you should be fine playing with 4 and 1 in Unlimited. There's no reason to assume the rules are different than any other two cards, if this were a special case it would be outlined somewhere.


What rules changes have there been in Uno? A previous question revealed that there has been at least one (albeit minor) rules change for Uno recently.

This makes me curious to know if there have been any other changes to the rules over the years.

How does today's Uno differ from the Uno of my youth?  I'm only referring to standard Uno, not any themed version.

A definitive answer would require someone who has a collection of all the printing of UNO since the beginning in 1971 to present day. The only one likely to have such an museum quality collection is the estate of the inventor of the game, Merle Robbins, an Ohio barber. He spent $8,000 to have 5,000 copies made. He sold the rights to the game to International Games Inc., which was bought by Mattel in 1992, who now owns the rights to the game.
Here is my best attempt at answering. I am going to assume that the 1983 International Games, Inc. edition is the same as original 1971 printing. The differences in the many spin off versions of UNO ([30th Anniversary Edition], Batman UNO, Hanna Montana UNO, Spongebob UNO, Dora UNO, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse UNO, Cars 2 UNO, Harry Potter UNO, etc.) are thankfully not included. I will mention that in general, the spin-offs have nearly identical rules, but instead of including blank cards like the most recent printings, these blank cards are replaced with special cards that have some unique effect. I would guess that the reason for the +4 blank cards from the original printing is related to card manufactures changing from 54 cards=9x6, to 56 cards=8x7 sheets.
The complete rules for the 1983 version are listed, with only differences for other versions listed. The 4 previous versions (1971-1981) are assumed to exist, because they are listed as additional copyright dates within the 1983 rule book. There are gigantic gaps in the editions, because I have been unable to find scans of the intervening years. To summarize the differences though, most versions have nearly identical rules. The earliest version only uses the (0-9) face cards for First Dealer selection, requires a challenged player to only reveal the color of the cards in their hand, if "caught" in a challenge they keep their Wild Draw4 card, and specifies a penalty for suggesting plays to your opponents. The 2001 editions (including 30th Anniversary) have a printing error in my mind, because no other versions I have seen make you Draw 4 cards when failing to call "UNO." I don't think the game rules have changed much in 40 years.

1971 First Edition
1973
1979
1981
1983 International Games, Inc.

Components - 108 cards, 4x Wild, 4x Wild Draw4, 4 colors each;19x (0-9);2x Draw2;2x Skip;2x Reverse
Object - Score 500 points by emptying your hand before your opponents
First Dealer - Non-number cards are not used. Players who draw a non-number replace it in the deck and draw another. (This differs from all subsequent versions I have found. In newer editions, non-number cards are not replaced in the deck allowing that player to redraw a card. There are other differences from later editions that will be noted, but this difference will only be noted here). Shuffle and deal 7 cards to each player, place the top card in the discard, and the remaining cards become the drawpile. The person to the left of the deal starts. With the exception of the Wild Draw4 (replace in deck redraw) and the Wild (starting player decides color), Special Word cards affect the stating player in the normal manner.
Summary of Play - Play a matching number, color, word, or wild to the top card of the discard. If a player cannot play, they must draw a card (which can be played immediately if it matches). Play passes to the next player. If the drawpile is depleted, resuffle all cards except the top card of the discard to form a new drawpile, and continue play.
Reneging - You may choose to draw a card, even if you have a playable card in hand. If you do so though, only the drawn card can be played. You can play a drawn Wild Draw4 card, but might be subject to getting "caught" if you have a playable color card in your hand.
Special Word Cards - Wild can always be played. Choose a new color. Wild Draw4 can only be played if you do not have a matching color (matching number/word is ok) without being subject to "caught" rules. Choose a color, the next player draws 4, play continues with the player after the next. Draw2 the next player draws 2 cards, play continues with the player after them. Skip the next player is skipped, play continues with the player after them. Reverse the direction of play is reversed until the end of the hand, or the next Reverse card.
Going Out - As a player plays his next to last card, they must say "UNO" before the card hits the discard. If they fail to do so before the next player has draws/plays a card and are "caught", they immediately draw 2 cards. After the next player plays/draws, they are safe. When a player plays their last card, the hand is over. Points are scored, all cards are collected, the deck is shuffled, and a new hand begins with the player to the left of the dealer. If the last card played is a Draw2 or Wild Draw4, those cards are added to the next players hand before points are scored for the hand.
Scoring - When a player goes out, all other players card values are added that players total. First player to 500 points wins. Wild, Wild Draw4: 50 pts, Draw2, Skip, Reverse: 20 pts, All number cards (0-9): Face Value. Variation: Running totals for each player can be kept instead. When one player's total reaches 500 (or some other value), the game is over and the player with the least points wins.
Penalties - Fail to call UNO on next to last card draw 2 cards, Make a suggestion to another player on what card to play draw 4 cards, Play a Wild Draw4 card with/without another legal color draw 4 cards. The next player is the only one who can challenge. If they do, you must reveal the color of the cards in your hand to verify if the play was legal. If it was, the challenger draws an additional 2 cards (6 total), if instead you are "caught", you draw 4 cards. (Challenge In this version, only the color of the cards in your hand need to be revealed. Subsequent versions do not clarify what "reveal your hand" means. Another peculiarity of note here, is that in this version the Wild Draw4 card is returned to the "caught" player's hand, and the a correct color card is played. All subsequent versions leave the Wild Draw4 in the discard pile. This does have an unusual effect on the gameplay. With this rule, it is not possible to sacrifice getting "caught", with the only goal of changing the current color.)

Note: Houserules you might have played with. Piling On/Progressive UNO - It allows the normal recipient of a Special Word card to pile on the result to the next player. (i.e. If someone plays a Draw2 card on you, you can play a Draw2 card, making the next player draw a total of 4 cards.). Draw until you have a playable card - Instead of drawing a single card when you cannot make a legal play, you continue to draw until you have a playable card.

1984-1992 International Games, Inc.
1992-2001 Mattel, Inc.
2001 First Dealer is highest point value card. Going Out failing to call "UNO" and getting "caught" draws 4 cards, no penalty for opponent play suggestions. 4x Blank Cards for adding special rules, or just replacement cards.
2002
2003 First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties New penalty for making incorrect plays, the offending player takes the card back and draws 2 cards.
2004-2006
2007 Deluxe First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties no penalty for opponent play suggestions.
2008 First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties no penalty for opponent play suggestions. First mention of Houserule Progressive UNO.
2009-present


Can I play lands from the graveyard more than once in a turn with Crucible of Worlds? So I have Crucible of Worlds out and I summon then sacrifice an Evolving Wilds from my graveyard. Can I then replay Evolving Wilds from my graveyard that turn or will it have counted as playing my one land for the turn?

If you look at the Gatherer page for the Crucible, it tells you that

  Crucible of Worlds doesn’t change the times when you can play those land cards. You can still play only one land per turn, and only during your main phase when you have priority and the stack is empty.

(Emphasis mine.) So the lands played from the graveyard do not get a separate land-playing quota.


Phase 10 rules on discard pile In phase 10, can I pick up a card from the discard pile and then relay that card back down in the discard pile?

Yes.  The rules say that you must draw a card and that you must discard a card as part of your turn. (At least my edition) It does not state specifically about not being able to discard the draw off the discard pile.

However, I do question it as a strategy.  If the card to be picked up from the discard does not help the hand, then there is a much greater probability that the card from the draw pile will help the hand.


Small World: Seafaring Necromancer! We played a 6-player game of Small World with the Necromancer Island expansion and a lot of fun it was too.  Our Necromancer pulled off a narrow win by getting his 14th ghost onto the map at the very end of the final turn, it doesn't get much more climactic than that!

Part of the Necromancer's success of course was getting himself into a position where it was nearly impossible for the other players to effectively oust him from the map; and in part he achieved this by investing in Seafaring, and taking both one of the map-edge sea regions... and also the lake surrounding Necromancer Island.

The thing is, the rules are slightly unclear about how Seafaring interacts with the Necromancer Island expansion.  Necromancer Island itself does not count as a normal board region, and the rules explicitly state that the island's "Lake Region is immune to other players (even Seafaring ones)".

So does that mean that, with the Necromancer's Island expansion in play, the central Lake region is completely out of bounds to Seafaring races?  Or out of bounds to other Seafaring races, but available for conquest by a Seafaring Necromancer?  Or that the Lake region can be conquered by Seafaring as usual, but the island is unconquerable (and can still attack territories bordering the lake even if the lake is occupied)?

I ruled on the night that the Necromancer could conquer his own Lake... if only because the Seafaring power seems pathetically bad in a Necromancer Island game otherwise!  But it's not at all clear to me that it's the right answer.  If anyone knows of, or can hazard a guess at, an official ruling, it would be much appreciated!

While not explicitly stated, it seems clear to me that the lake region no longer exists outside of Necromancer Island.

See the example of play on the smallworld-game website.  There is also a statement from the publisher on BGG agreeing to the statement, "Seafaring is hosed"

Reminder - the Necromancer only checks for victory on his own turn, not the other players.  He cannot spawn his way to victory on other players turns.


In bridge, should you be more careful with takeout doubles over one spade? With a hand like (s) Axxx (h) KQxx (d) Kxxx (c) x, I would gladly make a takeout double over one club. That's because my partner would have a choice of three suits to bid at the one level.

Change the hand so that the (singleton and bid) were in spades: (s)x (h) KQxx (d) Kxxx (c)Axxx. Now, if I make a takeout double, partner would have to respond in a suit at the TWO level, possibly with as little as (s) xxxx (h) xxx (d) xxx (c) xxx.

In this situation, I would double one spade (reluctantly) if not vulnerable versus vulnerable, and pass otherwise.

Edit: Opposite a "Yarborough," I expect my hand to be worth five tricks on offense. Thus, I am willing for my partner to contract for seven tricks but not eight, thereby "overbidding" by two tricks, but not three, with equal vulnerability, against the opponents' presumed game.

Does one need to be more careful about takeout doubles over a spade bid than a minor suit? That is to say, is my reluctance to risk down three well founded, meaning that I have "drawn the line" in a good place? A certain expert seems to think so (in the daily question).

This question is for rubber bridge; duplicate is a different animal.

If your partner has as little as that, your opponents are easily making 3NT and will find it difficult to double your side for penalties (low-level doubles are almost all for takeout these days). However, if your partner has as much as

xxx JTxxx AQx Kx

(and your partner might well hold that much even as a passed hand), your side can make 5H and your partner will be unable to bid over the 2S call that is no doubt coming from your LHO.

So, the answer to your question is that you must double with an opening hand and shortness in the suit opened by your RHO. If your partner has so little that a 2-level contract is going down, you may prevent opponents from finding their best game. If, as is more likely, your partner has enough to make a part-score, you need to get into the auction to avoid handing free plus-scores to your opponents. Finally, if your partner has enough values to get your side to game but lacks the shape to enter the auction (not the most likely outcome after opponents have opened, but not particularly unlikely either), you are doing your side a great disservice by failing to double.


How do Yarok, the Desecrated and Doubling Season interact? If you control Doubling Season and Yarok, the Desecrated, how do the triggers work for +1/+1 counters from ETB effects and loyalty counters from planeswalkers? Counters in general?

Doubling Season and Yarok, the Desecrated have no direct interaction. Doubling Season's ability creates a replacement effect. It is not a triggered ability on which Yarok's ability could trigger.
As per this Q&A, Doubling Season affects permanents as they enter the battlefield with counters already placed. These static abilites create replacement effects, which are different from triggered abilities. Yarok only affects affects triggered abilities.

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

Replacement effects have a variety of wordings. The most common wordings that apply to permanents are:

614.1c Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.
614.1d Continuous effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield . . .” or “[Objects] enter the battlefield . . .” are replacement effects.
614.1e Effects that read “As [this permanent] is turned face up . . . ,” are replacement effects.

These are affected by Doubling Season if they involve placing counters on a permanent, but do not trigger Yarok.
If counters are placed on an object due to a triggered ETB ability, Yarok will double that ability, and Doubling Season will double both effects, for example if you choose the +1/+1 counters on Knight of Autumn


Under what circumstances can Carrion Grub trigger Garruk's Uprising? Garruk's Uprising triggers whenever a creature with power >4 enters the battlefield. A ruling on the card says "If a creature is entering the battlefield under your control, consider static abilities to determine whether its power is 4 or greater. Spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities can’t be used to raise the creature’s power in time to have Garruk’s Uprising’s last ability trigger or to lower it in time to stop it from triggering."
Meanwhile, a ruling on Carrion Grub says "Carrion Grub’s first ability applies only while it is on the battlefield. In all other zones, its power is 0."
In which of these scenarios will Carrion Grub trigger Garruk's Uprising?

I have no cards in my graveyard and Garruk's Uprising in play. I play Carrion Grub, which mills a 4-power creature.
I have a creature with >4 power in my graveyard when I play Carrion Grub.

I'm guessing that in the first case it will not trigger (because Garruk's Uprising explicitly says triggered abilities aren't in time) but I am not so sure about the second. The ruling on Carrion Grub explicitly says it has zero power until it's on the battlefield, which could be before or after Garruk's Uprising checks for a creature entering.

Your guess is correct; in the first case Garruk's Uprising will not trigger; in the second case it will.
Because Carrion Grub's mill ability is a triggered enters-the-battlefield ability, it doesn't do anything until it is too late for it to help with Garruk's Uprising. First a creature with power 0 enters the battlefield, and then later that creature grows into a 4-power creature. It never happened that a 4-power creature entered the battlefield. It is similar to a land that is on the battlefield later becoming a creature; you don't get "when a creature enters the battlefield" effects.
In the second case, Garruk's Uprising will trigger because Carrion Grub's first ability is a static ability, it is always true while Carrion Grub is on the battlefield. The moment it enters the battlefield, the game checks to see what happened, and it will see that there is a creature on the battlefield with 4 power that wasn't on the battlefield before.

603.6b Continuous effects that modify characteristics of a permanent do so the moment the permanent is on the battlefield (and not before then). The permanent is never on the battlefield with its unmodified characteristics. Continuous effects don’t apply before the permanent is on the battlefield, however (see rule 603.6d).

603.6d Some permanents have text that reads “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield tapped.” Such text is a static ability—not a triggered ability—whose effect occurs as part of the event that puts the permanent onto the battlefield.


What is the interaction between Muraganda Petroglyphs and Humility? Are all my creatures 3/3 with both Humility and Muraganda Petroglyphs in play?

Yes, they are. The reason for this is the layer system described in rule 613. The relevant portions are:

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:
613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding effects, ability-removing effects, and effects that say an object can’t have an ability are applied.
613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.
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.)
613.3a Layer 7a: Effects from characteristic-defining abilities that define power and/or toughness are applied. See rule 604.3.
613.3b Layer 7b: Effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Effects that refer to the base power and/or toughness of a creature apply in this layer.
613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don’t set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.

Let's look at a Giant Spider you have on the battlefield.
In layer 6, Humility removes its Reach, which is important because it now qualifies for Muraganda Petroglyphs.
Layer 7a is the value printed on the card, in this case 2/4.
Then, layer 7b applies: Humility sets the power and toughness to 1/1.
Then, layer 7c applies: this is Muraganda Petroglyphs' bonus, setting power and toughness to 3/3.


Do you shuffle the already played cards back into the deck when using the 'Winter Is Coming' card? In the Westeros decks I and II there is a 'Winter Is Coming' card, which says:

  Immediately shuffle this deck. Then draw and resolve a new card.

Are you meant to shuffle the cards of that deck that have already been played in previous rounds, or are they left out?

It makes sense that you would put the discard pile back into the deck and re-shuffle - this is what we have always done in our games. This obviously means that you can have the reappearance of cards that have already been drawn once before.

It wouldn't make sense to just shuffle the remaining cards - what would be the difference between that and not shuffling the remaining cards? They're still unknown and already/still in a random order.


Has any mathematical analysis of The Resistance been done? I played The Resistance for the first time a couple weeks ago and am interested in writing a simulation program to test strategies. I know that mathematical analysis has been done on Mafia proper, but does anyone know of work that has been done to analyze The Resistance?

Here's a mathematical analysis of a potential winning strategy for the Resistance side: http://amininima.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/the-resistance/

And there's a thread on Boardgamegeek where they're trying to determine a formula for "spy-ness": http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/759016/using-excel-to-find-spies

Hope this answers your question!


Is it not popular to play with old standard decks? It seems not common to play a format where you would be allowed to play with any deck that was once legal at the end of a Standard rotation.

I think I would enjoy it because that format has a lower power level/cost (than Modern or other eternal formats). Plus you can really work at a deck over a long time so that if you make a good change, it's because you understood the strengths and weaknesses and were able to reevaluate the set, and not because a new card was introduced to you. And there could be more variety because you can't reach for the same proven cards for your archetype like in other formats.

On the down sides, others might not be able to validate the legality of your deck as easily, and the sets could be mismatched in power.

Am I correct in saying it's not common? What are the reasons?

Card Kingdom has a YouTube series called Gauntlet of Greatness - Historical Standard where they pit the all-time great standard decks against each other. It's not exactly what you're talking about since they are copies from actual decks at the time, which are catered towards their own standard meta-game, not the meta-game of the historical standard format. But even so, the power-level and cost of some of these decks are pretty comparable to those in Modern. The problems with the concept as an actual format are many:

Rock-paper-scissors. A standard format is designed so that if something is intended to be powerful there are answers built into the format. If they let X be powerful, then it's okay because Y exists. Well, if you get to play with X deck in historical, other decks will simply not have access to Y. Compare this to other eternal formats where including X also includes Y into the format. There will be many lopsided matchups because certain standard periods simply don't have the tools to beat decks from other standard periods.
Clarifying legality. Standard rotates multiple times per year and each standard-banning essentially splits a format as well, giving potentially hundreds of legal time periods to choose from. Then the format itself will likely need a banned and restricted list as well, but which periods do they apply to? All periods containing that card? Only periods where that card is problematic in the greater format? You're basically creating a list of hundreds of card pools to choose from, as opposed to just one like every other format, and that will be an absolute pain to deal with. I can't see this being done in paper.
Card availability. Cards from older sets will be incredibly hard to come by. Some are powerhouses in eternal formats and are very expensive. Some of them might even be on the reserved list. Others might have been ignored when they were current or after their rotation, but suddenly become sought-after due to this format and are impossible to get a hold of.


Why can the first pawn move in chess move two spaces? That is, what is the actual reasson this was written into the rules?  I'm not very into chess so pardon me if there's an obvious answer.

The reason is history.

At some point in history (between 1200 and 1500 AD in Europe when the old game of Shatranj evolved into Modern Chess), there was a lots of experimenting with different rules in chess, and the double move of the pawn made the game more dynamic and pleasant for the Chess players, therefore it stayed.


Is there a real disadvantage for the player kicking off step two in power grid? Maybe I am just playing the game incorrectly.

The perceived disadvantage is that you are the last player to then be able to expand and be the second player in a city.

There is a significant disadvantage to kicking off Step 2, which is something a player will have to do deliberately by building their sixth/seventh/eighth city (depending on the number of players). As you point out, the other players will be much more interested in saving their money to buy the (likely-cheaper) second spot in several cities instead of buying additional cities this turn (which probably have high connection costs at this point).

In most games I've played, someone kicks off Step 2 for one of four reasons:

They think that the extra income this turn, and having more cities sooner, is profitable enough. If you enter Step 2 with 8 cities, and everyone else has 7 or fewer, you might be able to stay ahead of your rivals in city-building. If you build to 9 or 10 cities, this is an even bigger advantage and you're more likely to be the person who builds the game-ending number of cities. And if you're the person who builds the game-ending city, you can control when the game ends, and not build that city unless it's advantageous to you. (About half of the games I've played end with the winner not powering all of his cities, just having the most powered cities and building the game-ending city.)
They've gotten bored with waiting. The games I play sometimes have a full turn (or even two or three!) of everyone sitting with one-less-than-the-Step-2-trigger number of cities.
They desperately need to build a city somewhere, and avoid being hemmed in.
They don't understand the full implications of going last when building cities, the turn that second slot opens up in each city.


What is the largest amount of pebbles in mancala to win with? This question has puzzled me for quite a while. It was a statement on the box that I own that triggered it, translated it says:

  The strategic player can outwit his opponent and win all his pebbles".

My 3 year old son loves the game since he wins every time (his victory condition is to be the first with no pebbles left to play). It gives me the opportunity to try to get as many as possible. The most I finished the game with, was 46 six pebbles, though I'm not sure if something was amiss there (like misplaced pebbles). And I am as of yet unsuccessful at recreating this end-game condition.

I'm talking about the normal 6 holes * two players * 4 pebbles a hole game = 48 pebbles.

So, is it possible to get all of the pebbles? Or do strategic players embody the mantra

  If you are not trying to cheat, you are not trying to win.

First, the issues:

1: you've not defined which version. Yes, I know, yo've specified some starting conditions. But not the capture conditions.
2: There are literally hundreds of variants of Mancala, and at least 3 different capture mechanics I've played.
3: the normal setup is 12 pits... 6 per player...

Still, despite these, I think I can answer the question.

Given that I'm most familiar with Oh-wah-ree, the 3M bookcase game, which has a capture condition of "last stone played landed in an opponent's pit with 1, 2 or 3 stones already present, regress backward for additional pits captured"... And Oh-Wah-Ree's end is only one player can move, and can't provide a piece to another player (which is required if possible).

It is possible, in theory, to capture all the stones on the board in this variant.

In most variants, it's possible to capture all the stones, but not easy.

In the variants where you sow to the capture pit at each end, it's virtually impossible as your opponent must sow at least the starting number of pebbles worth into their own capture (if your capture is at the end of your side) or you must sow theirs (if your capture is at the beginning of your side).


In Pathfinder ACG, what happens if I must encounter the Villain because of another effect? In a recent game, I encountered and defeated a henchman at the Swallowtail Festival location. The location card reads:

  When Closing
  Defeat or acquire the next card in the deck. If there isn't one, you may close this location automatically.

When I revealed the next card, it was the villain. What should I do in this scenario?

Treat it as a villain. All other players may temporarily close locations, then I encounter the villain. If successful, the villain flees to another open location or I win, as appropriate. The location is (double!) closed.
Treat it as just another monster. I encounter the villain. If I succeed, the location is closed because I completed its requirement, but the villain does not flee. Because the location contains the villain, the location actually remains open and all non-villain cards are banished.

I ruled it as the second option in play, but in hindsight, the first one seems increasingly plausible, though I'm still not convinced which is right.

I wasn't able to find an official answer, but here's an answer on behalf of the BGG community answers here:

It seems that my latter intuition was probably correct. When you reveal the next card, all the effects trigger, including if it was a villain.

Therefore, in this case, option 1 is correct. I should attempt to temporarily close locations and then attempt to defeat the villain, just as if the villain were encountered in normal play.


What is Nemesis 2.0? I'm interested in buying Nemesis but in my country's only place that sells it it is listed as a pre-order for Nemesis 2.0 (2020).
Link (in Bulgarian): https://boardgames-bg.com/nemesis-2.0-2020-board-game.html
Does anyone have any idea if there IS such a thing as "Nemesis 2.0" as I didn't find anything about it on The 'Net?

It's just the next printing of the game.
See https://www.rebelgames.eu/games/nemesis-1003.html

Next print of Nemesis is expected q3 2020.


Varolz, the Scar-Striped rulings with double-faced/flip cards Varolz, the Scar-Striped says

  Each creature card in you graveyard has scavenge. Their scavenge cost is equal to its mana cost.

My question is simple: do I get to choose which side I can scavenge?

The answer is simple: No. You must choose the card's front face (the face which has the sun symbol in the top-left corner.) In the case of flip cards, you must choose the card's normal characteristics.
Rule reference:

711.2a In every zone other than the battlefield, and also on the battlefield with its front face up, a double-faced card has only the characteristics of the front face.
709.2. In every zone other than the battlefield, and also on the battlefield before the permanent flips, a flip card has only the normal characteristics of the card. Once a permanent is flipped, its normal name, text box, type line, power, and toughness don't apply and the alternative versions of those characteristics apply instead.


Jaya, Venerated Firemage + Chandra's Pyrohelix = 4 damage among two targets? I have a Jaya, Venerated Firemage in play and cast Chandra's Pyrohelix, targetting two creatures.

Jaya's static ability reads:
If another red source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals that much damage plus 1 to that permanent or player instead.

Pyrohelix reads:
Chandra's Pyrohelix deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two targets.

Does this mean that the two targets both get dealt two damage, because 1 damage gets replaced by 1+1 damage, so Pyrohelix deals four damage in total?

It would be four damage; this is indicated in the rulings below the card on Gatherer:

  If damage dealt by a source you control is being divided or assigned among multiple permanents an opponent controls or among an opponent and one or more permanents they control simultaneously, divide the original amount before adding 1. For example, if you attack with a 5/5 red creature with trample and your opponent blocks with a 2/2 creature, you can assign 2 damage to the blocker and 3 damage to the defending player. These amounts are then modified to 3 and 4, respectively.


What counters can be attached to a player? Steady Progress allows you to choose any player, and put another counter on them, of a type that already is on them.

I am only aware of poison counters on players.  Are there others?

At present, there are three types of counters that can be placed on players.

Poison (Originally seen in Legends, prevalent in Scars of Mirrodin block)
Experience (Commander 2015)
Energy (written as {E}) (Kaladesh)

We can search through Scryfall for cards that give players counters to determine that those are the only ones. As we can see with cards like Caress of Phyrexia and Aether Hub, cards that explicitly put specific kinds of counters on players use the wording

  [Player] get(s) [amount] [counter description]

Since Scryfall supports regular expression search, we can turn that into a regular expression to search for cards with that wording. For now, let's see what we get if we pretend that counters are the only things players can get. We can search for that with the following regular expression:

  re:"(player|opponent|you) (get|gets)\b"

This mostly finds relevant cards, but it also finds some irrelevant cards, including planeswalkers that grant emblems and Paradox Haze. So, we can also exclude cards that give players emblems or additional votes or steps, or make players get you something:

  re:"(player|opponent|you) (get|gets)\b(?! (+|-|you|an (emblem|additional)))" -is:funny

This is the same search before, but it looks at the next word to exclude sentences like "target opponent gets you [something]", "you get an emblem", "that player gets an additional [something]", and "creatures attacking you get -1/-0". It also removes joke cards. This results in 83 cards, all of which put some sort of counter on a player. A visual inspection shows that they all add poison, experience, or energy counters.


Alpha, Beta, and Arabian Nights in Tournaments? With the exception of basic lands, are all Alpha, Beta, and Arabian Nights cards banned in sanctioned tournaments? Does that also include Deserts?

There is a special limitation on Alpha cards to account for their differently-cut edges. From the official Magic The Gathering Floor Rules:

102. Authorized Cards
Alpha cards (cards from the first print run of the basic set) may be used in decks  containing non-Alpha cards only
if all cards are placed in completely opaque sleeves  and only if the
sleeves could not be considered marked. If sleeves are not used, Alpha
cards may be used only in decks that consist exclusively of Alpha
cards.

There are no such restrictions on Beta or Arabian Nights cards however, which are (hopefully) less easily distinguishable by their shape from modern cards.
As rahzark's answer rightly suggests, individual cards may be restricted or banned in different tournament formats, but there's no prohibition against cards from older sets as a whole.