Can you sacrifice a creature you block with to fulfill Annihilator? Lets say someone is blocking an Eldrazi with annihilator. Can they sacrifice a creature they blocked with to count as one of the things sacrifice with annihilator?

Annihilator happens before blocks.  When the attacking player declares attackers, the Annihilator trigger goes on the stack.  The defending player has to resolve it first.  Then the phase can move to the Declare Blockers step.  If you still have a creature at that point, you can block.


When do you flip a coin for conditions I understand that you flip a coin to check if a pokemon wakes up. Assume that my son puts my active Pokémon to sleep (he has a Litwick which does this very easily). At the end of his turn do I get to check if the Pokémon wakes up?

If yes but I get unlucky, or if not: since I can't retire a sleeping Pokémon I am basically stuck during my turn unless I have some special effect card that allows for switch, right? Now at the end of my turn do I get to flip at least?

Basically, who gets to flip at the end of whose turn? The rules online are not detailed enough...

According to Rulebook, page 15:

Asleep
Turn the Pokémon counterclockwise to show that it is Asleep.
If a Pokémon is Asleep, it cannot attack or retreat. Between turns, flip a coin. If you flip heads, the Pokémon wakes up (turn the card right-side up), but if you flip tails, it stays Asleep.

Flipping for sleep occurs between turns. On the same page, there is a brief description of what between turns means:

Before the game continues to the next player, take care of Special Conditions in this order:

POISONED     2. BURNED     3. ASLEEP     4. PARALYZED

Then, apply the effects of any Abilities (or anything else that a card states must happen between turns). After both players have done these things, check to see if any affected Pokémon were Knocked Out. Then, start the next player’s turn!

(emphasis mine)
It doesn't matter whose Pokémon is asleep, it doesn't matter whose turn is next.
In your example, yes, you get to flip before your round starts (that means 50% probability that you would be stuck with sleeping Pokémon) and after your turn ends, you get to flip again.


Is there any bonus to a second Plague knife on Plague Marines? I'm new to 8th edition 40k and as far as I understand you no longer receive the extra attack for 2 melee weapons. But the Death Guard codex gives the option:
"Any Plague Marine can replace their boltgun with either a bubotic axe or a second plague knife."

Is there any bonus to taking a second plague knife or a second identical melee weapon in 8th Edition?

You'll want to look for the Vectors of Death and Disease special rule which suggests that amongst it's other effects, having two plague knives increases the bearer's attacks characteristic.


Can the Planeswalker type be removed from permanents? I was in my local card store tonight and one of the people there mentioned some sort of combo to have multiple of the same planeswalker in play at once, involving some way to turn planeswalkers into non-planeswalkers to could avoid the Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule. He said he had some way to do this, but I didn't have a chance to hear what the actual combo was.

Now, I'm a bit skeptical of his claim, and can't figure out how to do this myself. I know Song of the Dryads can remove the type itself, but the side effects are counterproductive to the overall goal. On the other hand, I've seen ways of getting permanents both with every permanent type and no permanent type, so I can easily believe that some weird interaction could exist for this.

So in short, is there some interaction I'm missing that removes the planeswalker type from a card—or even better, all planeswalkers in play—to allow multiples in play?

306.4. If a player controls two or more planeswalkers that share a planeswalker type, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "planeswalker uniqueness rule."

If you somehow remove or alter the planeswalker type of a planeswalker (Jace, Nissa etc are the types), you can play another Planeswalker with the same name yes.

In your example, the use of Song of the Dryads makes one of your Planeswalkers a Forest (it loses its types Planeswalker and [Name], and it gets the types Land and Forest). However, it also loses its abilities. I can't think of cards right know that just remove a type of a Planeswalker.

If it were to keep its loyalty abilities, it could use them just fine. The only restrictions for activating a loyalty abilities over the standard restrictions for activating abilities (costs, targets) is that only one of an object's loyalty abilities can be activated each turn.


Has Magic always had tapped/untapped tokens? It's been a long time since I've played Magic.  (My "new" cards are from 4th edition.)

As I recall, tokens could be created and destroyed, but they could never be tapped or untapped.  In practice, people represented them with pennies or scraps of paper.

Now I'm seeing talk about tapping and untapping tokens, and cards being sold to represent tokens to make this job easier.

When did Magic start tapping and untapping tokens?

Alternatively, if they've always allowed it and my memory and/or understanding of the rules is simply faulty, feel free to make that clear in your answer.

Tokens could always be tapped & untapped.  They're (usually) supposed to be creatures, after all, and creatures tap & untap.

Exhibit A: The very first token-generating card, The Hive, from Alpha:

Note that the text says "mak[e] sure to indicate when each Wasp is tapped."


When should you take a scholar early in "In The Year of the Dragon"? In what cases does it pay off to take a scholar character early in the game?

The quick answer is: only if nobody else is doing it.

Scholars + research can be worth a lot of points. You'll start with a scholar and take another one early, then choose research as much as you can afford to. The other big advantage is that if it's not being fought over, you'll save money by choosing the research tile, and you can let your person points slide. If you have to pay to choose the research tile, this advantage goes away.

The disadvantage, of course, is that it doesn't help you gain any resources, so you need to look at the events. If plague is going to kill your scholars, or you're going to run out of building space, you need to handle those crises rather than wasting time on doomed scholars.


What the key minis for a new Ultramarine player to get? I am starting to play Warhammer 40,000 as an Ultramarine Space Marine player. I got the starter kit: Assault on Black Reach and have been enjoying painting stuff since.

Where should I look next to start building up my army? My goal is to have an army of around 2000 points eventually, while I build up my understanding of the tactics of the game.

Your obvious next steps are a copy of the Codex: Space Marines book and another squad of Tactical Marines.
You're going to need to book to effectively plan your army, and you will find it impossible to win games under the 5th edition rules without enough regular tactical marines around to hold objectives!

From there you'll need to make some key decisions in what type of army you want to have.
Drop Pod Army?
Mechanized (everyone in Rhinos and maybe a land raider for your terminators) Army?
Fast Assault Army with lots of jump pack marines and bike marines, land speeders?

An army that has a focus is usually much more effective in 40K than having one of each different unit type in the book.  The nature of space marines and the need to have tactical squads around means you can devote yourself to a focus that you find appealing without worrying too much about your army becoming entirely one-dimensional.  An upside for marines!

Of course your budget can also help guide early decisions.  An entire army of dudes riding in $40 drop pods adds up fast!  Having the codex will make it easier for you to see what different paths you can follow when making a plan to buy your army.


Do Time Stories combats during travel between Locations use up Time Units? In Time Stories, do battles, contests and challenges that take place as encounters during travel between locations use up Time Units?

I don't think it's really covered in the base rules, but some of the expansion adventures add encounters when moving between locations, and I'm wondering if those use up time units the same way they do at locations?

And (in the absence of specific instructions, of course), if a scenario gives you the ability to retreat from Locked combat, can you retreat from an encounter combat, and if so, would that get the party to avoid that combat if every party member got away, and would it take a Time Unit to retreat, or not. (It takes one character Time Unit to retreat to another Space at a Location, but when traveling it might be thought not to add to the rolled travel time for moving between locations?)

As you said the rules don't seem to cover these exact scenarios, but the way I interpreted the rules I assume that any test or action that causes me to roll the dice costs a TU unless the text specifically says it doesn't cost any TU.  My main reason for thinking this is that the base rules do specify that all tests cost a TU, and some expansions do have cards with text specifying that a test can be performed without spending TU.


What happens to the cards revealed when building a tunnel? What happens to the 3 cards that are turned up when claiming a tunnel on the Switzerland map? Are they placed back on top of the draw pile or are they placed at the bottom of the draw pile or are they discarded?

There's no information in the rules about it.

They're discarded.

From the Switzerland rules, page 2:

  The three Train Car cards revealed for the Tunnel are discarded.

Note that train cards are never put on the bottom of the draw pile. Only when the draw pile is empty does the discard get shuffled to replace it.


Can I use Smite the Monstrous on creatures given increased power/toughness? Please clarify this situation.

My opponent has a 3/3 creature and in his turn plays an enchantment that adds +1/+1 to his creature.

I react to this with an instant, Smite The Monstrous, which states: "Destroy target creature with a power of 4 or greater."

He argues that his creature's core power is really 3, the +1 enchantment is not a permanent change - if the enchantment is exiled/countered, the creature would revert to the 3/3.

I disagree (of course), since at the time the instant was played, the creature in fact had 4 power.

Please break our disagreement and cite rules if you can. Thanks!

if the enchantment is exiled/countered, the creature would revert to the 3/3.

This sentence is ambiguous. If the Enchantment spell was countered, the creature was never 4/4 in the first place. If the Enchantment was destroyed while enchanting the creature, then the creature would revert to 3/3. Let's go through both situations:

When your opponent plays the enchantment card it goes to the stack.
At this time it's a spell, not an enchantment.
You then have a chance to respond to it.
In this case, you need a counterspell to counter the enchantment spell. (Something that says "target spell")
(You can't cast Smite the Monstrous because the creature is still 3/3 at this time.)
If you do, the spell is then countered.

The creature was never 4/4 because the enchantment spell was countered. It never became an Enchantment and never did its thing.

Alternatively, you can let the spell resolve. It then becomes an Enchantment and will make the creature 4/4.
At a later time, when you have priority to play spells, you can cast Smite the Monstrous. Since the creature is 4/4, it is destroyed.

It doesn't matter if a bonus to power/toughness is temporary; it's 4/4 at this time. The whole point of playing the Enchantment was to give the creature +1/+1. You can't just pick and choose when it benefits you. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
(If I had a dime for every time a player tried to do that...)


Why does Blood Moon remove abilities? According to the rulings on Gatherer, Blood Moon removes all abilities from nonbasic lands: a Forsaken Sanctuary will enter untapped, and will not tap for white or black.
My question, though, is—why? The rules text says only that "nonbasic lands are Mountains", which seems like it sets subtypes, but doesn't do anything about abilities.
I know that some abilities, like Forests tapping for green, are inherent to their subtype, so it makes sense that an Indatha Triome can no longer tap for green (the ability came from the Forest subtype, and it lost that). But I'm unclear on why changing a land's type removes abilities printed on the card itself.

This appears to be rule 305.7, which I got from: Gamepedia.

305.7. If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all
abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any
copy effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana
ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn’t remove
any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Setting
a land’s subtype doesn’t add or remove any card types (such as
creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land
may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its
own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land
types and mana abilities.

Note, the old wording, on the original card in The Dark expansion uses "basic mountain."  My guess is that this rule was added after.


Winning strategy for NxN Tic-Tac-Toe In a standard 3x3 Tic-Tac-Toe board, there is a strategy to win if the opponent makes a mistake. As far as I know, the strategy goes like:

Capture the centers
Capture the edges
Capture a square which can lead to multiple immediate wins
Be careful of immediate threats

I'm looking for a common strategy which works for all NxN board variants. Is there one?

EDIT:

The variant has the same rules as the standard one. All squares in a diagonal, row, or column occupied by a player is a win. And of course, if there isn't any moves to make, it's a tie.

Optimal play on NxN boards where you need N in a row leads to a draw for all N > 2.

Contemporary Combinatorics, by Bela Bollobas has a proof of it.  Below is a summary of this.  The images below are from this book.

All board sizes 5x5 and up can be proven to be a draw by the second player employing a pairing strategy, namely where the second player plays a piece in a location next to or near the location of the first players move that most limits the options the first player has to play further.

For example, in the 5x5 game, optimal play for player 2 involves playing in the space with the same number as that played by player 1.  If player 1 goes in the center, or if the matching space is already occupied, player 2 can go anywhere.

Similarly, for 6x6:

3x3 tic-tac-toe can be proven a draw by brute force method, and 4x4 can be proven a draw by creating 3 different pairing strategies based on each of the three possible opening moves by player 1 (ignoring symmetry and rotation).

So, under optimal play, there is no winning strategy.

However, if you want to write a good strategy, it seems the thing you want to do in general would be to play pieces that give you as many options to win as possible.  This would be central locations at the beginning and locations that are part of multiple lines of your pieces in the mid-game and late-game.  Early game, I'd go for spaces on the optimal move chart where the blocking move is the furthest away.  Late game, I'd go for moves that win the game or block winning moves, and otherwise ones that give the most options in conjunction with existing pieces.


In Pandemic, can the Coordinator's ability be used on another player's turn? In Pandemic, one of the role is "coordinator" aka "dispatcher".

The rules say:

Move your fellow players' pawns on your turn as if they were your own.
Move any pawn to another city containing a pawn for 1 action.

It is not clear if the coordinator can move the pawn at any time or only during their turn.

Only on your turn.

If you're asking about the first ability

All the first ability does is allow you to treat all pawns as your own when you take a move action.

You can only move your own pawns on your turn, so you can only move their pawns on your turn. The same action cost that would apply to moving your own pawns applies when moving their pawns.

If you're asking about the second ability

You may only take actions on your turn. You have no action points to spend outside of your turn.


How much of AlphaGo's success is due to novelty? One of the running themes in the commentary I've read on AlphaGo's games is that, from time to time, the AI would make a sound play that was nonetheless completely unfamiliar to its opponent (and to the spectators). Consequently, the opponent was unable to fully appreciate the move and counter it effectively. (or were even thrown off their game entirely for a few moves)

This leaves me to wonder; how important is this effect to AlphaGo's success? Or put differently, when humans have learned from the new sorts of plays they've seen AlphaGo play, will AlphaGo still enjoy anywhere near its current level of success?

I would argue that AlphaGo's advantage cannot be significantly attributed to the novelty of its moves.

The original public AlphaGo games were those against Lee Sedol, the second ranked player in the world, in March 2016. At that time, as mentioned, several of AlphaGo's moves were novel, and surprising to Lee Sedol and observers.

Then, after players had had nine months to study AlphaGo's play style, in December 2016 it played 59 unofficial online games under the names "Magister" and "Master", including against several of the top ranked players. It won every game. I haven't seen much commentary of those games, but my understanding is that some of the players used moves that had first been observed in the original AlphaGo games. So, at this point I think they were less novel, because they were becoming parts of human players' strategies.

Finally, in May 2017, AlphaGo played a variety of games in the Wuzhen Future of Go Summit, including a match against Ke Jie, the top ranked player in the world. The commentary of those games did not indicate that AlphaGo made a significant number of surprising or difficult-to-answer moves, but rather that its sizeable advantage came from its ability to accurately determine the values of moves, trades, and territory, and its ability to play across the whole board instead of concentrating too much on the currently active area.


In Seven Wonders can you use the "Play card from Discard Piles" ability to play an age III card? In Seven Wonders one of the the wonder abilities allows you to look through discarded cards and pick one to build for free. If you use this in your very last turn can you pick a card from Age III, i.e. can you pick one that has only just been discarded?

I guess similarly could you use it in the last turn of Age II to pick up an Age II card but that is not nearly as powerful.

When you take the last turn, each player first discards a card and then plays a card.  At this point when playing the wonder, you have access to the cards that were discarded for that reason.
You also have access to all cards previously discarded, as well as the cards discarded that round.


How long will an MTG draft take with varying number of players (approximately)? I'm planning to have a MTG draft with some of my friends, but I'm not exactly sure how much time I should block out. We'd be using 40 card decks with 3 boosters total.

About how long will the drafting itself take? Does this time vary much with number of players?
About how long will each individual game between 2 players take? Since we'll have to wait for people to finish occasionally, how long should I budget for each round?
About how long will the whole thing take? We will have enough rounds so that everyone can play each other once:

  4 players: 3 rounds

  5 players: 5 rounds (everyone sits out 1 round)

  6 players: 5 rounds

  7 players: 7 rounds (everyone sits out 1 round)

  8 players: 7 rounds

It depends on whether you use the official rules or house rules.

In appendix B of the MTG official tournament rules (not the same thing as the comprehensive rules) it gives recommended time limits for sanctioned tournaments:

Each pick has an associated time limit, which starts at 40 seconds and drops by 5 seconds roughly every two cards. The total time allocated to picks for a single pack is 285 seconds.
Between packs, there is a period for review of the cards you've picked, which is 30 seconds after the first pack, 45 after the second, and 60 after the third.
Deck construction gets 30 minutes
Each round gets 50 minutes

So based on these numbers alone, you would need a total of (285/60)*3+(30+45+60)/60+30+50*N = 46.5+50N minutes. In practice, people will need a few minutes between rounds to clear their head and change seats, but for only a few people, that won't be a long process. Still, as a decent estimate, you could set aside an hour per round plus one additional hour for drafting and deck construction.

My monthly(ish) drafting group has no time limits at all for draft picks. If your group is not full of competitive players and you're just doing it for fun, I highly recommend this. You can still get the drafting and deck construction done in about an hour, since you can always make fun of whoever is the slowest picker at the table ;-) (The draft time depends on the number of cards that are being picked, not the number of players)

Also keep in mind that Magic tournaments are mentally draining. After 3 or 4 rounds people can start to get tired of playing. In my experience a 3-round tournament works well, and it's possible to adapt it to different numbers of players by doing a Swiss structure with ranking-based pairings.


Monopoly: Do I Collect Rent If I Am In Jail? I am playing Monopoly and I land on the 'Go to jail' space.
The player next in line rolls, and lands on Park Place, which I own. He challenges me, and says that he doesn't have to pay rent, because I am in jail.
Is this true?

Being in jail only prevents you from moving, and does not prevent you from doing any other action, including collecting rent. The rules state:

  Even though you are in Jail, you may buy and sell property, buy
  and sell houses and hotels and collect rents.

This is a very popular strategy late in the game, as the less you move, the less likely you are to land on your opponent's properties.

In addition, the rules specify that the only times you do not pay rent is when the property is mortgaged or if the property owner does not ask for rent before the next player's turn.


What happens if you roll a 7 before the barbarians reach the island? Accordingly to these rules, when you roll a 7 before the first barbarians' arrival, you have to drop half of your deck, if you have more than 7 cards.

The rules in the Italian version of the game say that nothing happens when you roll a 7 before the barbarians arrival.

Which is the correct one?

The English rules are correct; you still must discard half your hand if you are holding too many cards. You can find the latest edition of the rulebook on catan.com here. It says;

  The robber cannot be moved until after the barbarians reach the island of Catan for the first time. Until the first barbarian attack, if you roll a "7", each player must check if he is holding too many cards as usual; however, you do not move the robber from the desert and you do not steal a card from another player.


Finales in Camp Grizzly - how do they work? When you reveal a finale, what happens to counselors who are not present in the finale cabin? Are the turns stopped? Does Otis continue to stalk us?

Do you just follow the rules on the card, ignoring everything else?

Any councelors not in the finale cabin wait for the finale to resolve. During the finale no normal turns happen (i.e. "follow the rules on the card, ignoring everything else"). If the finale is failed then they still have a chance to win.  From section 1.4 of the rules:

The players holding the objectives
must agree to start the finale during one of their
move phases (or wait for stragglers)

...and...

WIN - If the counselors complete the finale card
successfully, they win!
FAIL - If all counselors involved in a finale fail, that
finale card is discarded. Any survivors who remain in
the camp still have a chance to attempt a different
finale.

So if the finale is won then the game ends (and only the councelors who complete the finale win), but if no councelors survive the finale then any "stragglers" (players not involved) may carry on.


What game asks "who is most likely to..."? There is a board game popular amongst students at my university back in the mid 90's that I am trying to identify.

What I remember (or think I remember) about it is that there was a stack of cards asking questions about "who is most likely to" do a certain thing.  Everyone then voted who amongst the game players is "most likely" to do what was on the card.

Everyone has some sort of token they use to select someone else in the game.  Once everyone has voted they reveal their picks.  I think if you voted along with the majority you got to move your token forwards on the board.

This one sounds like "Point Out", which you can find here:

http://www.glopgame.com/who-is-the-most-likely-with-Truth-game.php

However, there isn't any mention of a board or tokens. So, its probably a modern variant on what you've described.


Is there a 10 player expansion for Settlers of Catan? Where can I get it? Somebody told me that he has an extension for Settlers of Catan that allows play with up to ten players. Who made it?

Is it still sold?

There is a video of a 10 player game.

I don't believe there is anything official, but as the video demonstrates, its just a matter of putting together a couple extra sets to get a playable 10 player game.

I'd imagine the trading rounds would be a bit chaotic though!


What happens after a draw In love letter there are some situations, when players have to compare their hands (after using the Baron card or at the end of the round).
What happens if there is a draw?
Situation 1:

A: House maiden (4), Baron(3), B: House maiden(4) , C: Priest(2)
A plays baron on B, both have House maiden.

What happens? Also what happens, if there is no player C?
Situation 2:

End of the round
A: House maiden (4), B: House maiden(4) , C: Priest(2)

Who wins this round? Both A and B? C? No one?
Edit
the answer in How can we determine the winner in Love Letter if the last two players tie and have the same value of cards discarded? answered only for the second situation. the first one is answered by Ken.

In situation 1 nothing will happen. This is explicitly covered in the rules under the expanded text for the Baron card (page 10 in the Premium edition rulebook).

Situation 2 is also covered in the rules. On page 6 of the Premium edition rules linked above:

  In case of a tie, players add the numbers on the cards in their discard pile. The highest total wins. If there is still a tie, then all tied
  players are considered to have won the round.


Does preventing damage prevent things like land destruction? For example, if a player plays Personal Sanctuary then plays Armageddon does the damage prevention mean they don't lose lands?

No, for two reasons.

If it doesn't say "deal(s) damage", it doesn't deal damage.

It's only damage if it's the result of the "deal damage" keyword action. That means those words must appear in the rule or effect. Currently the only damage caused by the rules is combat damage. So if it's not combat damage, and if the effect doesn't use the words "deal damage", it's not damage.

For example,

In the Combat Damage Step, attacking and defending creatures deal damage. If any of that damage is directed to you, it will be nullified. You won't lose life (or gain poison counters if the attacking creature has Poison or Infect) if you don't block an attacking creature because you are protected from the damage that would cause you to lose life (or gain poison counters).
A Lightning Bolt targeting you will have no effect.
Armageddon destroys lands. It does not deal damage, so it's not affected by Personal Sanctuary.
Sign in Blood causes lose of life. It does not deal damage, so it's not affected by Personal Sanctuary.

"You" refers specifically to the player.

Personal Sanctuary only protects you from damage. Your permanents are not protected.

For example,

A Lightning Bolt targeting you will have no effect.
A Lightning Bolt targeting one of your creatures will deal damage as normal.


If I activate the effect of Hand Destruction but I send Kidmodo Dragon to the graveyard, can I activate Kidmodo Dragon's effect? Lets say I have a hand consisting of: "Kidmodo Dragon", "Red-Eyes B. Dragon", and "Hand Destruction". If I activate Hand Destruction and discard Kidmodo Dragon, can I activate Kidmodo dragon's effect and summon Red-Eyes B. Dragon before discarding the Red-Eyes B. Dragon?

No you can't.
when you activate a card, you must resolve it's entire effect (or the entire chain if that is the case) before new effects can start activating. (In this case Kidmodo Dragon and Red-eyes will be sent to the grave simultaneously.
So here Kidmodo Dragon's effect will start a new chain after hand destruction has completely resolved.
If at that point you have drawn a new dragon type, you could summon that monster with its effect.


In Dungeon Run, is there ever a reason to assist another player if you have full health? In Dungeon Run, when another player is on your tile, you can assist them. If you do, you are allowed to rally which means to remove a single damage from your character.

Since any other player will eventually be an opponent, does it make any tactical or strategic sense to assist them if you don't get a benefit?

Sure.  There are several reasons you might want to do this.  Obviously if there's a monster that will threaten you, and you're worried about it, and your opponent can't kill him on his own, you may want to assist.

On a more strategic level, you may want to cooperate, especially if there are more than 2 players.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat for a game theory perspective on building trust.  If you and another player are cooperating, you both get a benefit relative to the other players (as the next time he'll assist you, even if he doesn't have damage).


Mechanically is there any difference between split and double faced cards? Are there any differences in the rules (implicitly or explicitly) between how double faced cards are treated (e.g. cast, targeted, etc) and how split cards are treated?
The only difference that I came across is that double faced cards can be a permanent on either side whereas split cards must always be instant/sourceries.

There are two different kinds of double-faced cards that work differently and are handled differently in the rules: modal double-faced cards, and transforming double-faced cards.
Modal double-faced cards
Modal double-faced cards, introduced in Zendikar Rising (the most recent set as of the time of writing this answer), are very similar to split cards. In both cases, a single physical card effectively represents two different "cards", and a player can play one or the other when they play the card. The only significant rules difference between split cards and modal double-faced cards is what characteristics the cards have in zones other than the battlefield and the stack.
Modal double-faced cards' characteristics are determined by rule 711.4:

711.4. Each face of a double-faced card has its own set of characteristics.

711.4a While a double-faced card is outside the game or in a zone other than the battlefield or stack, it has only the characteristics of its front face.
711.4d While a modal double-faced spell is on the stack or a modal double-faced permanent is on the battlefield, it has only the characteristics of the face that’s up.

while split cards' characteristics are determined by rules 708.3 and 708.4:

708.3. A player chooses which half of a split card they are casting before putting it onto the stack.

708.3b While on the stack, only the characteristics of the half being cast exist. The other half’s characteristics are treated as though they didn’t exist.

708.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined.

708.4b The mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves. A split card’s colors and converted mana cost are determined from its combined mana cost. An effect that refers specifically to the symbols in a split card’s mana cost sees the separate symbols rather than the whole mana cost.

(Rule 708.4 only mentions the stack and not the battlefield here because split cards are only instants and sorceries, so a split card is never on the battlefield.)
Transforming double-faced cards
However, there are also transforming double-faced cards, originally introduced in the Innistrad block, that work very differently from how split cards work. Transforming double-faced cards can only be cast as their front face, and they each have their own way to either transform by switching to the back face while on the battlefield, or to enter the battlefield transformed. There are a variety of other rules governing how these cards work and how transforming works in the rules sections about Double-faced cards and the Transform keyword ability.
Split card variants
There are also split card variants that do not exist for modal double-faced cards. Some split cards have the keyword ability Fuse, which gives you an additional option to cast both halves of a split card as a single spell by paying the combined mana cost. And some split cards have one half with the keyword ability Aftermath, which means that that half can be cast from the graveyard, and only from the graveyard, not the hand.


MTG Gatherer Regular Expressions whitespace How do I represent white space in a phrase on gatherer's advanced search? I read the help, and I've used regexes before, but I can't get this to work for me.

  AND
  lifelink

  NOT
  m/until\send\sof\turn/

  NOT
  creature

Should give

  AND
  lifelink

  NOT
  until end of turn

  NOT
  creature

I'm looking for cards that give lifelink as a persistent effect like enchantments or equipment.

What am i doing wrong with the regex? Why does it still show card with end of turn in the text body?

Edit: gatherer specifically instructs to use regex...

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Help.aspx#regex

It looks like the Gatherer search simply does not understand negated regular expressions. I tried, and it gives the exact same results with NOT <regular expression> as with AND <regular expression>.

Fortunately, your search does not require the use of regular expressions at all. You can find what you're looking for just by using NOT "until end of turn" instead.


Does a legendary creature "die" when put into the graveyard due to the Legendary rule? The Scarab God's text reads:

  When The Scarab God dies, return it to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.

If I have Mirage Mirror in place and my opponent attempts to exile The Scarab God, can I in response, make Mirage Mirror a copy of it, then select the original Scarab God to be put into the graveyard, and finally return it at the beginning of the next end step?

The Legendary rule reads:

  If a player controls two or more legendary permanents of the same name when state-based effects are checked, that player chooses one of those permanents and immediately put the others into their owners' graveyards, without any player having an opportunity to respond.

Is that "put the others into graveyard" considered "dying"?

Yes, it's considered as died.

  700.4. The term dies means “is put into a graveyard from the battlefield.”


What is name of this card game? I played this card game with my mom back in the 70's. Sometimes we played with more than 2 players.  Each player had their own deck of cards.  I can't remember exactly how we played, but I think we each had a pile of cards to play from in front of us face down (maybe 21 cards in stack/pile but not sure).  There were 4 slots/piles to play from/on on. 4 piles were either beside our playing stack or in front of each of us.  I also think there was a pile/base/stack of cards in the middle face down. I don't remember if we had cards in our hands or not.

The descriptions sound a little like a game I played at school and was know by us (possible as local dialect) as Slam.

Doing a google search I've found [double patience] which matched your description.1

28 cards are played out in 7 piles with 1-7 in each (if you recalled 21 then then would work as 6 piles 1-6 in each)

The object is to get rid of your cards onto central piles.

It's possible to play with multiple players if each player has their own deck.


What if every suit were trump, and partners hated each other? To anyone experienced in whist variations, are the following house rules playable? (that is, will this game be fun or frustrating to play)?

I'm developing a nutty variation of Spades for tonight, is there some gaping hole that I'm not seeing that'll ruin the game?

Here are the rules:

Suits – A Whist variant by RID
“where every suit is trump, and partners hate each other”

Dealing, Bidding, and Partnerships:

A standard deck of 52 cards is dealt face down such that each of 4 players around a table receives 13 cards. Beginning with the player to the dealer’s left, and proceeding clockwise, each player, having examined their cards privately, makes a bid.

The bid consists of two parts, a unique trump suit declaration, and the number of “tricks” that player expects to take. Each player bids once, choosing from the suits not previously chosen.

This bidding will also divide the players into the red and black partnerships, given the color of their chosen trump suit.  Unlike other Whist variants, your partner may not necessarily be seated across from you, and your partnership lasts only for that round.

The first trick is led by whichever player bid the highest.  If there is tie, then the lead will go to which of those players (involved in the tie) chose a higher-valued suit as their trump according to  standard Bridge order (also, alphabetically):
clubs (least), diamonds (second least), hearts (second greatest), spades (greatest).

Taking Tricks:

Each player must play a card (clockwise, in turn) by placing it face up in the center. If possible, each player must follow suit (play a card with the same suit as first of the four cards played).  If a player cannot follow suit, that player may either play a trump, or discard (play any other card).

Note to players: You may only play a card in your trump suit as a trump in lieu of a discard. Leading with your trump suit or following suit in your trump suit is still just “following suit”, and is not considered “playing a trump”.

Once the trick is over (the four cards are played), whoever played the highest-valued trump, (or if no trumps are played, whoever played the highest card of the suit led) “wins the trick” and sets those four cards next to them for later scoring.  That winner will then lead the next trick.

Note to players: If two (or three) trumps of apparently equal value are played, whichever trump has a higher-valued suit is considered greater.

Once all 13 tricks are played, scoring is accomplished for the round (see the next section on scoring), the cards shuffled and re-dealt by the person to the previous dealer’s left, and bidding for the next round begins.

Scoring/Winning:

A partnership adds together the number of tricks they’ve both taken, and compares it to their combined bid.  If they did not make the bid, they get 0 points.  Otherwise they are both awarded 10 points for each trick they bid together. But for every extra trick they’ve taken beyond this bid, they must each take an additional point. (When a player accumulates 10 such points, 110 points are deducted from that player’s score.)  The first player to reach 1,000 points is declared “winner”.

The play would be a lot less strategic than at Spades, because it won't be possible to draw trump, and it certainly won't be possible to draw trump and then run a side suit.  This is one major consideration of play that would be lost.

Indeed, you would never lead your trump suit unless forced to, because that burns your trump but not other players' trump.

I'm also afraid that the game would never end if no one wanted to lose.  If a player is close to winning, it's quite easy to make sure that they end up in a 13 contract - when the player is 3rd or 4th to bid, the first two players bid 1 in the same color; when the player is 1st or 2nd to bid, some sacrificial lamb bids 13 in the other suit of their color.


Can a card be un-cast, if the player realises it was a bad decision? Let's say a player casts a spell, completely allows it to resolve, and accepts its consequences - then realises that was a bad idea, or there was something better to do. That player realises there was a better card to play, or that the spell will do something they don't want to happen, such as deal enough damage to that player to kill them.

Does the caster have the opportunity to go back and fix that mistake (and to stay alive), even though they already accepted the consequences?

Depends on what you mean by "misused".

If the card was cast illegally, such as trying to Shock a creature with Hexproof, the game is rewound to the point immediately before the spell was cast. This does depend on how much time has passed- if so much time has passed that fixing it would be difficult, just correct anything currently illegal and continue the game.

If a player just did something silly, like trying to Shock a creature that actually had 3 toughness because of a Glorious Anthem, the answer is no in any tournament setting. Once you've taken an action, you can't suddenly change your mind. In casual play, it's up to the opponent. If the opponent decides it's sporting to allow take-backs, they can allow them.


When none of the opening bids are suitable - what do you bid? Let's say I have a 4-4-4-1 distribution. I have somewhere between 20 to 22 points.

What do I bid in this case? 2NT is not possible because of the singleton. 2C is not possible because what would be the rebid after the partner responds - any response promises a 5-carder.

What would be the right bid in this case?

I play Standard American 5 Card Major or 2/1.

Don't be afraid to downgrade the strength of a hand by 1 HCP when it is flawed for the call being made. Here, treat a (exactly) 20 HCP hand as just 19 and open 1D.

Remember that it is very rare for a distributional opening 1 bid to get passed out. Partner needs to have a hand with no excuse to respond; RHO needs a hand with no excuse to reopen; and LHO needs a hand with no decent 5-card suit. Just because you have a strong hand doesn't force you to open above the 1-level. With any doubt at all, just open 1D in tempo - Hands opening with a NT bid should be good examples of the type, not bad ones.

As I commented to steenbergh's answer:

  Modern treatment (and rules!) now allows the 2NT opening with a singleton K as well [as with a singleton A]. This is an expert call, however, so should only be engaged in if partner is not going to react inappropriately when revealed.


What happens when opponent draws Exodia and Deck Out in the same turn? I've dueled with an opponent that had an Exodia deck draw-based. It happens that he managed to draw Exodia, but in the same time that he decked out. Which win condition has priority? Exodia "effect" or deck out?

The deck out is irrelevant. The player drawing Exodia (and presumably completing the set in hand) has already won the duel.

Even if the player has not completed Exodia in hand, they do not lose until they are required to draw and are unable to draw. They may sit with an empty deck until next draw phase if there is nothing else to cause the duel to end.


Why/how was Ajani's Pridemate ability made mandatory? I just viewed this question where Ajani's Pridemate was mentioned. I noticed a small but significant difference; on all printings, including the recent Core 2019 set, its card text says

  Whenever you gain life, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ajani's Pridemate.

Yet its official Gatherer card text omits the "you may" part:

  Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ajani's Pridemate.

Why/how was this done? I can remember some rule changes happening soon after the card was released (e.g. Walking Atlas which became an artifact creature) but not on a card which was already in play for 8 years; Ajani's Pridemate made its first appearance in 2011.

The ability was originally optional, and it was made mandatory with the release of Ravnica Allegiance. The Ravnica Allegiance Oracle changes update bulletin explains the reasoning behind both the original choice and the errata. The short answer is that changes in tournament policy, increased popularity of digital Magic implementations, and renewed popularity of the card made the errata desirable and worthwhile. The full explanation is quoted below:

Ajani's Pridemate was originally printed under a tournament policy where missing any trigger, no matter how beneficial, always resulted in a Warning. Multiple Warnings would upgrade into a Game Loss. To avoid the problem, many cards with strictly beneficial triggers had those triggers made optional—it doesn't count as "missing" a trigger if it's a "may," you just chose not to do the thing.
Then trigger policy changed. Nowadays, missing beneficial triggers doesn't get you a penalty, you just don't get the benefit (there's some nuance to this, but I'm leaving it simple here). We've left the cards that received "may" under the old policy alone under the general Oracle policy of minimizing functional changes, so Ajani's Pridemate was printed in Core Set 2019 with its "may."
Ajani's Pridemate has since become heavily played in a popular Standard deck, and that deck's inclusion in the upcoming Challenger Deck series became the place to print the card with errata to remove the option, making the card look and read better on paper and improving the life of digital Magic players everywhere. There isn't an Oracle update scheduled for small supplementary products like Challenger Decks, and given the options of adding one or changing the card early, digital was the deciding factor and we're releasing the card's updated wording a little early.


In canasta, What is the top card of the discard pile? This is very similar to existing questions, but resulted in heated debate. Here's the situation: first player discards a seven. Second player discards a wild card. Question: Is the top card a seven or wild? Third player has already gone down, has two sevens in hand and wants to pickup the discard with the wild card visibily on top. Is that a legal play?

The top card of the discard pile is always the most recently discarded card; the card physically on top of the rest. The fact that it is a wild card in this case doesn't change anything. Discarding a wild, like discarding a black three, is a way to ensure that the discard pile cannot be taken no matter what this turn.

From the rules:

  Note that you can never take the discard pile if its top card is a wild card or a black three.

The rules do not really define "top" here, but it is using the common English language meaning, "the highest or uppermost point". If the newly discarded wild card were not considered the "top" card, then the quoted rule would make no sense, as there would never be a way to have a wild card be the top card of the discard pile.


Whose graveyard is "a graveyard"? Shadowfeed card has following text:

  Exile target card from a graveyard. You gain 3 life.

Does it mean my graveyard, or any graveyard, including my opponents'?

Any.

Your graveyard is a graveyard.
Your opponent's graveyard is a graveyard.
Cards in either graveyards are cards in a graveyard.

It would say "your graveyard" or "an opponent's graveyard" otherwise.


In 7 Wonders, when using a Leader to build Babylon (B)'s second stage before Age 3 With the addition of the Leaders expansion, you can use your leaders to build your wonder.

If you build Babylon (B)'s second stage (which allows you to play the card you would normally discard) with your third Age Leader, can you use this ability to play your fourth Leader or must it be used to play a third Age card?

As the fourth Leader would normally be discarded, the question was raised as we were playing tonight. I'm not sure how to answer it since, if you were using a Leader in any other Age, you would not be able to play another Leader as you would not be discarding a Leader at that time.

No, you are not allowed to play a Leader.

From the base game rules, page 9:

  The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  · the second stage gives the player the option of playing their seventh
  Age card instead of discarding it.

From the Leader rules, page 3:

  Leader Cards
  The Leaders (white cards) are a new card category. They are not added to the Age cards and have a different back to set them apart.

See the bold parts: Babylon (B) allows you to play an Age card, but Leaders are not part of the Age card set.


Rules of Instants. MTG If I were to attack with my creatures, 5 1/1's for say, and my opponent chooses not to block, could I then boost those creatures with an instant to make them more powerful?

Yes, you can do that.

The combat phase is divided into 5 separate steps:

1) Beginning of Combat
2) Declare Attackers
3) Declare Blockers
4) Damage Assignment
5) End of Combat

In the Declare Blockers step, after the defending player has decided how to block the attacking creatures, each player gets priority before moving on to Damage Assignment. When the attacking player has priority, they can cast an instant or activate an ability that would pump the attacking creatures.

From the Basic Rulebook:

  Combat Phase

    c. Declare blockers step

      Your opponent decides which, if any, of his or her
      untapped creatures will block your attacking creatures,
      then they do so. If multiple creatures block a single
      attacker, you order the blockers to show which is fi rst
      in line for damage, which is second, and so on. Players
      can then cast instants and activate abilities.


How to balance influence vs territorial plays on a 13x13 board? Most of the answers to "What is a good opening on a 13x13 board?" deal generally with the differences between large and medium boards. I'd like to ask more generally about how I should be thinking on a 13x13 board. I feel comfortable fighting on a 9x9 board, and generally on a 19x19 board I prefer to play for influence throughout the early game.

However, I get confused in the middle. With a medium-sized board the center is small, which suggests a more territorial style, yet due to that same smallness, a "moyo" including most of a side is easy to set up, which makes me want to do that. How should I think about these differences in the fuseki?

Territory is more important on a 13X13 board than on a 19x19 board, because it's smaller. Therefore, a given chunk of territory is more valuable. That is because the corner josekis give a "fixed" amount of territory, while the resulting outer walls are worth less (and overlap more) on the 13 x13 board. So you should play a "lower" (near the edge) more territorial game on the smaller board.

I don't like to play this kind of game because it "corrupts" my thinking for the larger, regular board. The one advantage I see for 13x13 is that you get to the endgame faster (and it is a disproportionately larger part of the game, thereby giving you more "practice" in this part of the game. Endgame and opening are more important with the smaller board, while the middle game shrinks.


What ways are there for a Standard Werewolf deck to handle Ratchet Bomb? What can a Standard (M12, Scars, Innistrad) Red-Green werewolf deck use, either in the main deck or the sideboard, to handle a deck with Ratchet Bomb?

Some back story: When a werewolf is in its transformed state, its CMC is 0.  So an opponent can cast Ratchet Bomb, then tap and sac it for 0 and destroy anything with a CMC of 0, which hits all transformed permanents (and all non-land 0 cost permanents).

On color

Green:

The obvious choice in your situation is Full Moon's Rise.  It buffs all your werewolves while it's in play and you can sacrifice it to save all of them from a Ratchet Bomb.
Another direction is Withstand Death, but this only provides the means to save creatures on an individual basis and is a sideboard card at best.
Asceticism gives you the option of regenerating creatures and hexproof on top of that.  However, regenerating a large number of werewolves could get expensive.

Artifacts:

Phyrexian Revoker is another great way to ruin Ratchet Bomb's day, but it has its own limitations and weaknesses as a creature.
Sundial of the Infinite would work as long as they are trying activating the Ratchet Bomb on your turn.

Off color

For others who might have the same concerns in a different mana base.

Blue:  Obviously any counter is going to prevent Ratchet Bomb from ever entering the battlefield.

Steel Sabotage would be a good one specifically for countering Ratchet Bomb.

Black:

Memoricide can remove any Ratchet Bombs that are not in play thus preventing them from ever being used.
Surgical Extraction could be used for a similar effect, but unfortunately can only be used if a Ratchet Bomb is already in the Graveyard.

White:

Stony Silence can prevent the activation of a Ratchet Bomb.
Nevermore can be used to ensure that Ratchet Bomb is never cast.


Demonic Strategies for Claustrophobia I have recently begun playing Claustrophobia BGG and have found myself playing the human side almost every time. The problem I encounter is - I'm winning. This is not usually a problem for me. But something about Claustrophobia has clicked for me, and I'm winning. A lot. It's making people not want to play with me.

We have discovered the handicaps, and my family has agreed to have the demon side start with 7 Threat Points instead of the usual 4, but I think that the game is more inherently balanced than our results would indicate.

So: What strategies do successful demon players pursue?

Do you spend the first n turns building up Threat?
Which powers do you consistently activate?
Event Cards - worth it or not?
Which humans are your first targets? (Redeemer, right?)

Please help my opponents! (And me, should I ever get to play the demon side...)

My experience from playing both sides is that the Demons win more often than not.

For the demon player:

Try to always have two troglodyte packs on the board, ideally from two sides, two packs of 3 troglodytes is very hard on the humans.  Keep them replenished, only power them up (ravenous, etc.) for sure hits or to position in front or behind.
Attack the human with the lowest armor, if equal then attack human with most wounds, if equal then attack redeemer
Event cards are very much worth it, grab them whenever you can
The big demon usually isn't needed to win.  Troglodyte swarms are great on their own.


Can a Djinn Illuminatus make me draw my whole deck with Ancestral Visions? If I have a Djinn Illuminatus in play and an Ancestral Vision comes off suspend can I draw three cards as many time as I like by paying 0 for the replicate cost?

Djinn Illuminatus

  Each instant and sorcery spell you cast has replicate. The replicate cost is equal to its mana cost. (When you cast it, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

Ancestral Vision

  Suspend 4—Blue (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay Blue and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
  Target player draws three cards.

No, this will not work. You cannot pay the replicate cost that Djinn Illuminatus adds to Ancestral Visions. Ancestral Visions has an unpayable mana cost, and Djinn Illuminatus says

  Each instant and sorcery spell you cast has replicate. The replicate cost is equal to its mana cost.

So, the replicate cost is also unpayable.


Why does Spell Queller prevent spells from resolving? Why when a spell get "Spell Quellered" the spell does not resolve, even though it's not written that it "counters" but instead "exiles" the spell? Is there a special ruling or am I missing something? (I'm still kinda new to Magic.) I've been told numerous time that a card effect still resolves (if not countered) even if it's removed from the stack, like for example if I play Stasis Snare on a creature that has a "enter the battlefield" effect that effect will still resolve unless it is "countered."

Spell Queller exiles the spell itself. The other situation you're talking about is removing the source of an ability on the stack, while leaving the ability there on the stack.

Spells and abilities can only resolve if they're on the stack. So when Spell Queller exiles a spell, it's just gone. There's nothing there to resolve anymore.

On the other hand, if your opponent casts a creature with an "enters the battlefield" ability, say Ulrich of the Krallenhorde, we're talking about two objects: Ulrich himself (a creature on the battlefield), and its ability (on the stack). The two are independent. If you actually removed the ability, say by casting Summary Dismissal, then it wouldn't resolve. But if you remove Ulrich, the ability is still there to resolve and give the targeted creature +4/+4.

Same goes for activated abilities, like Thermo-Alchemist's ability to deal one damage to each opponent. If you remove the Thermo-Alchemist, the ability is still there to deal you damage.


In Axis and Allies, Is There A Way to Measure the Benefits of Various Techs Against Each Other? And the Cost of Discovery? At one level, we can measure the cost of discovering tech using IPCs. Each die roll costs 5 IPCs, and one discovery will be made every six rolls, on average, yielding an average cost of 30 IPCs. Some discoveries may be worth that much or more during the course of a game, others probably not.

If we could measure the various techs in terms of IPCs, then we could compare them against each other. We could also weigh them against the 30 IPCs it takes to find them. (In the Classic Game, one needs to think in terms of 180 IPCs for a "package" of all techs; the first one might not be heavy bombers.)

Everyone "knows" that heavy bombers carry a disproportionate value. Can we now construct a tool to find out how disproportionate, and whether reducing the value of the tech from three to two die rolls is adequate? And the reverse question for some others: do they need to be upgraded to make them worth researching?

Your only hope is to give each tech a deterministic, crowd-sourced price
In practice, I think the game's tech mechanic is too complicated to yield a useful mathematical model. The average (i.e. expected) cost of successfully researching a technology--or of researching one in particular--is only part of the story. The more important metric is the variance of the cost; that is, the average may be 30 (or 180) IPCs, but how often is it going to cost 5 and how often 300?
It is this uncertainty that drives player's decisions as much as the mean because everyone's desperation and risk tolerance is different. I have a low risk tolerance and prefer to play a slow-and-steady game, believing that superior play will eventually win out and balance out all but the worst of rolls. Thus I never research tech, feeling that the times when I get it cheap will be outweighed by the certain defeat earned if I spend two or three turns researching to no avail. Some people love to take the risk knowing that if they get lucky they can almost assuredly win the game, and don't mind losing the majority of the times they don't get it.
Now to make it even more complicated, this risk calculus isn't static but is influenced by the changing game situation. For example, I've played several games where the other player succeeded in a desperation bid for heavy bombers. Although I was never willing to go for it before, as soon as that happens I know I have to match them or lose the game.
Any proposed tech model must have formulas for the expected cost and the variance (which could be done by folks better at probability math that I). The almost impossible part is that it must have a model for the value of the tech specific to each country and to the particular situation on the game board (even heavy bombers aren't that useful if the bombers aren't in range of suitable factories, and have delayed gratification if the player has very few bombers already in the arsenal).
I cannot think of a first principles method to calculate this tech value; I think the only hope would be to set the price empirically, like a bookie sets the odds on a horse race based on the bets they're receiving. Perhaps this could be done by modifying the rules to make the cost of each tech deterministic (i.e. a tech can be bought for X IPCs). Then have experienced players play a ton of games, adjusting the tech prices as necessary until whether or not a given technology is purchased has a statistically insignificant effect on the outcome of the game.
Once that data existed perhaps the model could be made more complicated by having the price be a function of the turn in which it is bought. Once those numbers were established, the mean and variance from the rolling-for-tech mechanic could be used to set the price per roll such that the median cost were equal to the market price.
Problem is you'd need a infeasible number of games as your data set.


What happens to other Auras on a Creature enchanted with bestowing, when the Creature dies? Case in point:

Ill-Tempered Cyclops has the Auras of (bestowed) Thassa's Emissary and Aqueous Form.

Then the Cyclops changes zone (returned to library, hand, gets exiled or moved to graveyard by any means necessary).

Would I be correct to presume that the Aqueous Form goes to graveyard (like Auras do) and Thassa's Emissary stays on the battlefield as a creature (like Enchantment Creatures do)?

(Questionable interpretation being that the Aqueous Form stays on the "new" creature of Thassa's Emissary)

Aqueous Form goes to the graveyard.

It doesn't attach to the newly-a-creature Thassa's Emissary, because it wasn't enchanting Thassa's Emissary - it was enchanting the Cyclops, which has left the battlefield.

Bestow comes with exceptions that let Thassa's Emissary simply become an Enchantment Creature once it's no longer attached, but there's nothing saying that it brings with it its formerly bestowed creature's auras.


Cloning a face-down creature What happens when you clone a face-down creature, for example with the cards Clone and Sagu Mauler? Does the clone become a 2/2 with no abilities?

Correct, a copy of a face-down 2/2 creature is also a 2/2 creature.

A copy effect can only ever copy what's visible to all players. Any characteristics of an object that are not visible to all players can have no effect on gameplay, unless they are revealed to everyone before or as they affect the gameplay.

  707.2a If a face-up permanent is turned face down by a spell or ability that doesn't list any characteristics for that object, it becomes a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. A permanent that enters the battlefield face down also has these characteristics unless otherwise specified by the effect that put it onto the battlefield face down or allowed it to be cast face down. These values are the copiable values of that object's characteristics.


Magic the gathering number of cards in a hand In the quick reference paper they say:

  Shuffle your deck, then draw a hand of seven cards. The player who takes the first turn won’t draw a card that turn.

That means, both players will draw 7 cards, first player will start with 7, second player will draw a card, that is 8.

In the rules, they say :

  402.2. Each player has a maximum hand size, which is normally seven cards. A player may have any number of cards in his or her hand, but as part of his or her cleanup step, the player must discard excess cards down to the maximum hand size.

So, if the first player plays one card, what is the number of cards in the hand, will he draw 1 card next turn to get to maximum hand size (7) or will he draw 2 cards, to get to maximum hand size (7) plus one?

Because second player began the game with maximum hand size cards (7) plus 1 (the card he drew on his first turn).

So, will the player who goes first always draw cards to have 7 cards in a hand, and the player who goes second will keep the advantage of having 8 cards in his draw step until the end of the game?

Or, will the maximum cards at the clean up step be 7 in the hand, but the number of cards in hand during the player's turn (except first turn for the player going first) is 8. That is to say both players have 7 cards at the start of their draw step and draw one card to have 8? It is little bit chaotic.

You always draw 1 card in your draw step (unless some effect says otherwise), regardless of the number of cards in your hand.

There are card games where you draw up to some number of cards in your hand, but Magic isn't one of them.

Rules:

  Draw Step

  504.1. First, the active player draws a card. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.

The player who plays first doesn't get a draw step in the first turn only (rule 103.7a), after that there is no difference between the player who started first and the other. The maximum hand size for both at the end of the turn is 7.


Scrabble Triple Word Score Question In Scrabble, If on the board there is:

PICKLE

If you start at the E tile, go down one tile, then right one tile there is a triple word score.

If you put SO vertically at the end of pickles (So the O would  be on the triple word score):

  PICKLES
        O

Does just SO get triple word score, or does PICKLES and SO both get their score tripled?

From the official rules on Hasbro's website:

  Premium Word Squares: The score for an entire word is doubled when one of its letters is placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one of its letters is placed on a red square.

The Triple Word square triples the value of any word played on it. So in your example, SO would score triple points, but PICKLES only scores normally. However, if the triple word square was directly to the right of PICKLE, then by placing the S on it you'd triple the score for both words.


What is a "Dual-Color OW Battle"? I've come across the incredible Arkham Horror Statistics spreadsheet that fans have contributed to. I have played a few expansions and I understand most of what is on there, but I'm confused with the "Dual-Color OW Battle" under the "Special Events" header of the Miscellaneous tab. What is this? I know that OW stands for Other World, but I'm not sure what it means otherwise.

I haven't found anything about it on the Arkham Horror wiki or a general Google search. The only thing I can think of that would be two colors is Gloria's ability letting you draw two cards in an Other World, which might or might not be different colors. But that doesn't really make any sense in the context of a battle.

So what exactly is a "Dual-Color OW Battle"?

"Dual-Color OW Battle" refers to three other world encounter cards from the Curse of the Dark Pharoah expansion (both the original and revised versions) that are actually two colors - they'll match either color. The "Battle" part, and the reason they're worth keeping statistics on, is that if you're in a certain location and draw the card, you'll have to fight an Ancient One. (If you're somewhere else, you get something much less scary.)

If you don't care about spoilers, here they are: one two three. They're linked from the Curse of the Dark Pharoah section here.


Pandemic Legacy Researcher relationship (Feb spoliers) I am not sure if this is asked before but I don't want to search too much as keep coming across spoilers.

My question is, if you have a coworker relationship with a researcher, I know the researcher can then pass any card at any time to her coworker, but can the coworker also pass any card to the researcher, or does it only work one way?

I'm not sure we've got the understanding of researchers and passing cards correct and don't want to carry on the game if we're doing it wrong.

This is one way only.

Reason:

Researcher ability works one way only (He can only GIVE card with his ability, NOT TAKE.)
Co-worker relationship make good combo with researcher, but don't extend his ability to the "taking" part. (Although, it is possible for other players, to take cards form researcher, in their turns. So also his co-worker can take advantage of this.)


Civilization Board Game - founding cities gives army extra move? Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game (2010)

Let's say I have just moved an army and a scout together on a tile. Then, in the Starting Phase of the next turn, I found a city with the scout, and the manual states that the army has to immediately move out of the city onto a valid tile where it can end its turn.

Manual, page 13:

  If there are any friendly figures in the square where a city
  is being built besides the scout being sacrificed, the player
  immediately moves them to an adjacent square that they can
  legally end their movement in.

But the Movement Phase has not yet begun!

So does this moving out of the tile cost the points that are used in
the Movement Phase? The Movement Phase description doesn't seem to
mention this possibility.
Otherwise, doesn't this add an extra movement point? That seems like
an exploit.
Or does this mean that that army ends its movement prematurely in
this turn, ahead of the movement phase?

Or how should this be handled? Haven't found anything on this in the Errata / FAQs, either.

Those units can still move their full Travel Speed during the Movement Phase.

In the first paragraph of the rules regarding movement on page 19, the rulebook has this to say (emphasis mine):

  During this phase, each player, in turn, may move all of their figures, one at a time.

The rulebook doesn't go on to restrict which units constitute "all" units. Given the verbiage here, you should be able to move any units that were displaced when a city was built. The rules are also pretty explicit in that a unit can't split its movement points to perform other actions:

  Once a figure has begun its move, it must complete its move before any other figure may move.

So you also wouldn't subtract movement points from those units during the Movement Phase.

The rule you quoted ends by saying that the units have to go where "they can legally end" their movement. This is meant to prevent units from being able to end a turn on an illegal space should the player decide not to move those units during the Movement Phase.


Will Journey to Eternity come back if the enchanted creature comes back as a land? I have a Golden Guardian on the battlefield and enchant it with a Journey to Eternity. I am also able to use the Guardian's activated ability to fight a 6/6 I control, killing the Guardian. When the Guardian dies, I want to return it flipped as a Gold-Forge Garrison. In this case, the creature that was enchanted isn't returning the battlefield as the first part of Journey to Eternity's triggered ability specifies. Does Journey to Eternity also return the battlefield and become Atzal, Cave of Eternity?

Yes, you can get both cards to return transformed:

Both Golden Guardian's and Journey to Eternity's abilities are triggered abilities. When the enchanted Guardian dies, both abilities trigger simultaneously, and the player who controls the abilities gets to choose which one will be put on the stack first.

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

Then, after choosing what will be on the the stack in what order, you start resolving those abilities. If the enchantment's ability resolves first, it'll return the Guardian, not transformed, to the battlefield, and the Guardian's ability will be removed from the stack since it can't return the object to the battlefield, as it's already there.

If you let the Guardian's ability resolve first, it will be returned transformed to the battlefield, and then the enchantment's ability will resolve. Since the enchantment's ability is not conditional to the enchanted creature being returned from the graveyard, it'll just not bring anything back, and the effect will keep resolving normally, and it will return to the battlefield transformed.

  603.6. Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called “zone-change triggers.” Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to. If the object is unable to be found in the zone it went to, the part of the ability attempting to do something to the object will fail to do anything.


Do you have to play the basic Risk Europe game with exactly four players? My son got Risk Europe for Christmas. Neither of us are familiar with any version of Risk.

The “Basic Game” section of the rule book says it’s for four players (implying exactly four, not two to four). There is a variation of the rules for two to three players where the spare armies are mercenary armies, but we played through a game of the basic rules with just the two of us and we didn’t seem to hit any hurdles. Can you play the basic game with just two players?

Playing with fewer than four players and without mercenaries is not intended by the rules and will upset game balance

The main problem is the victory condition which likely is achieved too easily. As the goal for each player is to capture seven Crowns (primarily by taking cities), fewer players means more Crowns per player without any territorial struggle which upsets the game balance. With each player being closer to victory by default, a single city changing hands might end the game, quickly and without much of a build-up to that point. Maybe with two players it can even be won without ever facing your enemy.

Another concern is resource distribution. The balance here might be upset by fewer players as well. I don't remember that part of the game well enough though.

The mercenaries are introduced to balance the lack of player-controlled powers. It is not marked as an optional variant, but is the intended way to play with fewer than four players.

If you really want to play with two players and without mercenaries, my first advice would be to adjust the number of Crowns required for victory and maybe remove some of the Crown Cards, as well. This will probably require some experimentation and a different target number for two and three players, respectively, but it will help with some of the issues. Keep track of how other elements of the game like income or cities' special abilities pan out as well, and if you feel like something is consistently off, try adjusting it accordingly.


Has the value of a five-card suit in no trump contracts been demonstrated? Going through old bridge books (by e.g., George Coffin), I was struck by the fact that some 3NT contracts made easily with "only" 24-25 and a good five card suit, while if both declarer and dummy had flat (4-4-3-2 or 4-3-3-3) distributions, a 3NT contract could be difficult even with 28-29. Intuitively, it seems logical that a fifth card in a good five card suit could be worth a king or even and ace, that is, the difference between 24-25 and 28-29. It almost seems like the "standard" 26-27 high card point (hcp) requirement is an averaging of these two polar cases.

Of course, there are five card suits of varying caliber. All other things being equal, a 5-3 fit is much better than a 5-2 fit (unless you have three or four of the top honors with the 5-2 fit). And a "5-3" fit of xxxxx opposite xxx isn't worth much, except as a stopper. But here, we're talking about a normal eight card suit situation with more than half the hcps between declarer and dummy. That is, six or seven hcps in the suit.

Has the advantage of a five card suit been demonstrated either empirically or by experts?

Empirically, are there databases of e.g. tournaments that show that more than 50 percent of 3NT contracts are made with, say, 24 hcps and good five card suits (or even random five card suits), while you need many more hcps to have a better than a 50-50 chance of succeeding if your longest suit is four cards in one hand?

For expert views, are there any experts who say, if you are responding to 1NT (15-17) with a hand that has nine hcps, and one five card suit of say, KQJxx feel free to jump to 3NT which partner is likely to make even with a minimum? Whereas you should hold back to 2NT even with ten hcp if your best suit is only KQJx? Alternatively, would such an expert advocating raising a response of 2NT to 3NT with say, 16 hcp and a suit like KQJxx, while passing 2NT with 17 hcp and KQJx as your best suit? (In these examples, your main suit has the same honors in each case, and differ only in length, by one "2.")

I will start by saying that a 26-27 hcp requirement for games is old-fashioned in the extreme. I most often see a recommendation of 25 hcp for 3NT or 4M games, and occasionally see that shaded to 24 hcp. Along those lines, I raise a 15-17 1NT to game with nearly any 9-count.

Probably more useful than upgrading 5332 hands is downgrading 4333 hands. Many players subtract 1 high-card point for 4333 shape. 4432 hands play much better than 4333 hands, and so don't deserve the same treatment.

With all that being said, high card points are a fairly crude tool for hand evaluation. Losing trick count can supplement HCP as an aid to hand evaluation, though it is much more useful when a good trump fit has been found than when responding to 1NT. However, I mention it as it helps validate your intuition that a fifth card in a suit is worth more than a third card in a suit, all else being equal.


When I take a mulligan, should I shuffle my library first? When I decide to throw away my hand and use a mulligan, should I simply draw a new hand from the library or shuffle my thrown hand into the library before redrawing? I'm mostly interested in magic-the-gathering mulligan rules, but I believe a "mulligan" isn't system-specific; I'd accept a well-sourced system-agnostic answer as well.

In Magic you always shuffle your hand into your library then draw a new hand.

  103.4. [...] To take a mulligan, a player shuffles his or her hand back into his or her library, then draws a new hand of one fewer cards than he or she had before. [...]


How to run strong Go (baduk) playing program locally? There are some strong bot-players on KGS (from 4d to 2K).

I saw pachi, ayamc and even gnugo having dan ranks on KGS. I wonder how to  run such a strong bots offline.

I tried gnugo and aya, both programs did not used even 5% of my CPU, made fast moves (about 1/2 sec per move) and played very weak (about 6K, I think). I did not found any options to make them use more CPU.

I tried also to run pachi (over GTP, using gogui). Pachi used 100% (6 cores) of my CPU, a lot of RAM but played on about 4K level. It plays a little bit stronger with gigantic fuseki dictionary, but it does not help much.

So, my question is: Is there way to run strong (2k+) bot locally?

I don't think you're going to get any better free versions. If you purchase a copy of Crazy Stone as mafu suggested it may be stronger. If you like the way those bots play and want an offline version it's probably worth trying it out, as that's the engine that several bots use. However, I say may be stronger because I am not sure that the commercial version is the same as the version run for KGS bots.

I have no experience with Crazy Stone as GnuGo can still regularly beat me.


Is the Native discarded when moving onto a Base Camp? In The Quest for El Dorado, do you discard the Native card --

  The Native knows the lay of the land and always lets you move one
  space when played. Ignore that space’s requirements and just place
  your piece on it. The Native can also tear down blockades, but you
  can’t use it to move to an occupied space or onto a mountain space.

-- when moving onto a Base Camp, or does the Native card also ignore the Base Camp requirement?

  Cards you play to move onto a base camp space aren’t discarded.
  Instead, they are completely removed from the game. They won’t be used
  again this game.

BGG Answers: (Majority View)

The native Card is NOT discarded. It ignores the Base Camp requirement like any other hex.

  If the native should not ignore base camps it should’ve been stated explicitely in the rules. It isn’t. Therefore the native may move onto base camps (without trashing/removing any card) like onto any other hex (except mountains and occupied ones).

-

    ... If the native should not ignore ...

  "Ignore that space’s requirements and just place your piece on it" overrides the need to have such rule. This is how rulebooks work, from my 10 years of gaming experience.

-

  The Native does indeed ignore any and all symbols or requirements.
  It lets you move onto an adjacent hex if that move is legal (i.e. no mountain and no occupied hex, unless you have the cave tile that specifically allows that).

  If it is a base camp you don't trash cards
  if it is rubble you don't discard cards
  if it is terrain you don't need the shown strength.


Custom boards for Eclipse I was thinking of creating a custom player board for Eclipse as a gift for a friend of mine.

Looking it up online I found an image of something quite similar to what I wanted:

I have three questions.

Where would I find original graphics to modify?
How can I produce good quality boards?
Is this legal?

Note: This is not the exact board I want to make.  I will not use a Star Trek theme; I am planning to use another theme that is not trademarked.

1. Where would I find original graphics to modify?

You could use a scanner. Many home and office printers can act as a scanner, so it should be pretty easy to get access to one. 300dpi is sufficient, but avoid anything lower.

In this particular case, you could derive from this.

  2. How can I produce good quality boards?

Depends on what material you want it printed. If you just want some thick paper, talk to your local print shop.

  3. Is this legal?

The original board does get some Copyright protections.

This doesn't mean what you're doing is illegal. Fair use allows the use of works protected by Copyright. In the US, judges consider the following four factors to determine if a copyrighted work is allowed under by fair use:

The purpose and character of your use,
The nature of the copyrighted work,
The amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
The effect of the use upon the potential market.

Your custom boards are not a replacement for the game, so the tests lean in your favour.

And if you're doing this for yourself and maybe a few friends, there's really no issue.

Using Picard's picture is more questionable. But even if it's technically infringing, it's not really a problem unless you start producing many and/or selling them.


When should a bridge defender return the second, rather than fourth highest card in suit? Against a bidding sequence of 1NT, 3NT, partner, West, opens with what looks like the fourth highest of a suit. Dummy goes down with two small cards in the suit. I have four to the king in the suit, two of them little ones, with this question revolving around my second highest card.

I take the king, which is allowed to hold. If my original holding was something like K642, I was taught to return the 2, my original fourth highest. On the other hand, if my holding were KJ42, with the second card being the J, one is supposed to return the Jack.

With KJ2, I would return the Jack to "unblock." Does a similar reasoning hold here with two small cards?

One thought is that partner (West) and declarer (South) probably have the ace and queen between them. If South has Axx, it doesn't matter what I lead, but if South has Qxx, leading the Jack will "trap" the queen. Is that the reason to lead the Jack?

More to the point, how high does my second card have to be, before I lead it in preference to the 2? That is, would I also do this with KTxx or K9xx?

The most common reason you'd lead back your second highest card from four would be to smother a relatively high card in dummy. With KJxx and 10x in dummy, leading the J seems right. This way you pick up the suit if declarer started with eg Q8x, and doesn't hurt on other holdings. But if dummy started with eg 6x (ie something that can't force your partner's high honor if declarer ducks) and your high spot is low enough that you won't block the suit when partner holds 5, it's important to convey the count to your partner by leading low.


Revolution! with Anarchy expansion: when does the game end? Normally, Revolution! ends when all influence squares are filled. The Anarchy expansion adds Garden, Asylum, and Jail --- do these also need to get filled for the game to end? If so, how do you avoid a mad frenzy over jail and asylum in the end?

I didn't find a copy of the rules, but the expansion seems to consist of a board that replaces certain districts like The Palace did. I don't see why the end-of-game would be any different than without the expansion.

As for end-of-game frenzy, there's always a lot of cube manipulations at the end of the game. The person in the lead tries to end the game, while the others are vying to move cubes instead of adding them (or they are trying to get the resources to win the roles that would allow them to do so). Nothing new here.


Which hands do not consist of sets and a pair? I know of only two hands that do not consist of 4 sets and a pair in riichi mahjong: Seven Pairs, and Thirteen Orphans. Are there more?

Based on this source I would say that those are the only ones.


Can you place landmarks in lake? In Tobago there are only few rules when placing huts, palms and statues and implicitly I never placed these landmarks on lake tiles.

Is there any rule or hint saying whether or not they can be placed on lake tiles?

No, there is not. The only stipulations for landmarks are the following, according to the game setup sheet:

  Each space may only contain one object.
  All similar objects must be placed at least four spaces apart.
  Statues may not be placed adjacent to the ocean.

If you're making the choice to not put trees or huts on lake tiles, while it is practical for "realism", there's no rule against it.


Can Robots push when moving sideways? With "Boink" and "Crab Legs" robots can move sideways. Can they push other robots then when not facing them?

As you can see from page 6 of the rules:

  Pushing Other Robots

  When robots collide, one will push the other. Robots can be pushed
  anywhere on the board (or off the side!), even into a pit or onto a
  conveyor belt. A robot can’t be pushed through a wall, though, so the
  movement of a pushing robot will simply stop if the pushed robot runs
  into a wall. Robots can run into walls all day long without taking any
  damage from it, so they don’t accumulate Damage tokens this way.

You always push robots, unless a wall prevents them from moving. So there is no mention of direction. As long as they collide they are moved.

This also works recursively. If robot A pushes robot B and robot B collides with robot C, then robot C is moved too (as long as there is no wall preventing movement of either robot.


Is it possible to download full tournament data including every card in each deck and wins losses? Does Wizards make this information available? This would open some some really cool machine learning problem such as:

to try and predict which decks do better against which decks
automatic deck classification into archetypes

For example, for Pro Tour Ravnica, I've found the full match lists at: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptgrn/tournament-results but I'd need to scrape it from the web.

The decks however, I can only see:

top 8 full lists e.g.: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptgrn/top-8-decklists-2018-11-10
archetype percentages, e.g. https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptgrn/3-0-drafts-day-1-2018-11-09

For Magic Online, it would be even more awesome if we could have full play by play data of tournaments: Is there a standard file format for Magic the Gathering games? to decide e.g. how much a turn one Black Lotus increases your win rate. Of course, this gets close to privacy problems, so likely not possible.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/wizards-data-insanity from 2017 mentions that Wizards has controlled this kind of data more and more so I'm not very hopeful.

I went and checked all the published data on wizards website and confirmed what you saw with your example and the following is all that is published.

top 8 full lists e.g.:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptgrn/top-8-decklists-2018-11-10
archetype percentages, e.g.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptgrn/3-0-drafts-day-1-2018-11-09

now this doesn't prevent you from ocring the frame by frame of the live matches to get all played cards [ with something like Googles vision api ] and then making your data set for which cards played in a match most often caused the deck to win. Unfortunately this is the only current way , I could find, to get win data for all decks in the tournament outside of the top 8
In response to your second question there is no established format by wizards for this information as they don't publish a public api for there data.


DIY magnetic game board What are the options for creating a game board (like Monopoly) where the pawns hold on to it?

You know the situation... one player pushes the board by mistake and all items fall over. I'd like to avoid this in my game.

I'm designing my own custom board game, of which I will produce just 1 item.

As a child I had a wooden travel chess, and the pawns had a magnet glued at the bottom. I don't know how the wood was made magnetic, there was nothing visible.

I plan to get my board printed on foldable carton by a specialized custom board game printing service. But if it's a better solution then I can also have just the design printed by a local print shop, and fabricate the carton myself.

The side on the pawns is clear, I'll glue magnets at the bottom (or magnetic stripes from tape). That's doable.

What I don't know yet is the counter part on or under the board.
The options I've figured out so far are:

magnetic paint, magnetic paint spray

It's actually paint with metallic particles, to attract the magnets.

The reviews I have read about these products are bad. The magnetic force is very weak. The products are expensive. And I don't plan to glue the board myself, so I can't apply the paint directly under the design but above the carton.

galvanized steel under the carton board

Would it work to glue something like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014X6WGZI?psc=1 under the carton, would that be attractive enough for the magnets through the carton?

Or should I use hinges to combine 2 plates (foldable), and use it as the base, and glue the design on top directly, no carton?

Any theoretical and practical (from-experience) answers much appreciated.

There is no need to magnetise both the board and the pieces. Remember that magnets stick to iron, nickel and cobalt (and alloys comprised of these, e.g. steel). If you magnetise both the board and the pieces, then you risk making a mistake and the board repelling the pieces.

As mentioned in your chessboard example, the mechanics are that the pieces are hollow with a small magnet, and they are attracted to a thin sheet of metal placed under the wood. Depending on your pieces, gluing thin magnet strips may be a better option if making hollow pieces is going to be difficult.

The hardest part is testing the thickness of the board and strength of magnets to make sure that they stick as required, but are easy to move too. In this case you just have to experiment, but there are plenty of companies that produce magnets for miniatures. This site discourages specific product suggestions, but Googling something like "miniature magnets" will give lots of options.


Could Armed/Dangerous target an opponent's creature, to force a block with all creatures in play? Could I target an opponent's creature, then use all creatures from both sides to block that creature, so that Bam! I get rid of something nasty? I think this because the wording on Dangerous says "ALL creatures..."

Could all creatures in both sides block one of my opponent creatures

No. Dangerous's effect doesn't allow a creature to block creatures it couldn't otherwise block, and one can't block one's own creatures. It merely affect the choice of whether a creature blocks or not, and the choice of what it blocks when it does.

  Could "Armed & Dangerous" could be targeted at a creature my opponent controls?

Yes, but it wouldn't be useful to do so unless it's something like Illusionary Servant.

The effect would be useless when your target an opponent's creature (except in very obscure situations). For starters, since Dangerous is a sorcery, the opponent wouldn't be able to attack with the creature before the effect ends.


What happens when I equip Helm of the Host on Gideon? Say I activate Gideon of the Trials' second ability, and have him become a creature. I then equip him with a Helm of the Host and enter combat. What do I get?

Do I get a 4/4 indestructible token, that's only a creature? One which reverts to being a planeswalker at the end of turn? Or do I get a new planeswalker immediately?

If the copy is a planeswalker, does it gain haste, even though it's not a creature? I assume it wouldn't change anything either way since I wouldn't be able to trigger the copy's second ability during combat, but I'm just curious, though if I manage to get a second combat phase it could be useful.

You will get a non-legendary, non-creature planeswalker. You cannot immediately attack with it, but you get to keep all of them.
If you copy an object, only certain values will be copied, among them its original characteristics and existing copy effects. Other effects, including type-changing effects as is the case here, will not be copied.

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

Your token planeswalker will have haste, but you only get the token at the beginning of combat, which is no longer your main phase and thus too late to make him a creature through his zero ability. You will have to wait until the next combat phase to attack with the newly created copy. If you somehow get another combat phase during the same turn, you can first activate the copy to make it a creature and, thanks to haste, attack with it.
Due to the recent removal of the planeswalker uniqueness rule, you will also not have to choose which of the planeswalkers to keep. Previously, you could only have 1 planeswalker of each planeswalker type at a time, whereas now planeswalkers are legendary and follow the regular legend rule. Since Helm of the Hosts creates non-legendary copies, the legend rule does not apply.

704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”
Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule (Obsolete)
Older versions of the rules stated that a player who controlled two or more planeswalkers with the same planeswalker type would put all but one of those planeswalkers into their owners’ graveyards. This rule was called the “planeswalker uniqueness rule” and no longer exists.

Finally, when Gideon stops being a creature at the end of turn, Helm of the Hosts will become unattached from him:

704.5n If an Equipment or Fortification is attached to an illegal permanent, it becomes unattached from that permanent. It remains on the battlefield.


Do you score for all smaller words within the long one in the same move in scrabble? If the word you play in scrabble contains several smaller words, do you score all of them, or just the longest? E.g. TRAIN as TRAIN+RAIN+IN, or just TRAIN? Cannot find it clarified in any rules...

You only score each tile in a word once, where a word is the full sequence of letters added or modified in each column or row by your tile placement.

If you check the scoring example in the official rules from Hasbro (click on the Scoring tab, then scroll to the bottom), it will show you how it works.

The first word in their example is HORN which gives a total score of 14. This is reached by adding 4 points for H, plus one point each for O, R, & N for a subtotal of 7. Because it is the first word played, it is given a double word score bonus for a total of 14.

Note that there is no additional score for the O and R making a subword of OR.

This can also be seen in the second word placed where FARM only scores a 9 - the subwords of FAR and ARM cannot be counted as part of the total score.

Note that a tile you place that creates or modifies words on 2 or more columns or rows can be counted multiple times (as in turn 4 of the linked example where adding O & B creates three words - MOB, NOT, & BE) but this is the only way that a tile can be scored multiple times on the same turn.