How many points are Jacks and Queens worth? When playing the game of Cambio I have played it where Jacks and Queens are both 10 points at the end of the game.
Is this correct or are Jacks worth 11 and Queens worth 12?

Either 10 each or 11 and 12, depending on which rules set you use.
Wiki says it's played with cards numbered 1 through 13, sometimes with a dedicated deck and sometimes with a standard deck, indicating that the J and Q are worth 11 and 12 respectively:

The game uses a dedicated deck of cards with each suit numbered from 1 to 13, ... Cabo can also be played with a standard playing card deck, and goes under names including Cambio,...

The reference it gives there for "standard deck Cabo" is this one, which says

Jack is worth 11
Queen is worth 12
King of diamonds (the one-eyed king) is worth 0 points
The other three kings are worth 13 points

This set of rules also gives the 11 and 12 values:

Points correspond almost directly with the face value of the card (Ace = 1, 2 = 2…. J = 11, Q = 12) with
the exception of the Kings. A black King is 13 points (bummer), and a red King is NEGATIVE 2 (this is the
best card, we like these).

While this one says 10:

Face cards: 10 points
Ace: 1
Red King: -1
Joker: 0

As does this set:

Red King: Gives you -1 points, meaning, the lowest possible score is -2 if you have both red kings and no other cards.
All card’s worths correspond with their value: J, Q, black Kings and 10s are worth 10 points, 5 is worth five points and so on, Aces are worth 1 point.

While the Android App rules are ambiguous (and I haven't installed it to see which way the app actually scores it):

Every card is worth its number except the K of hearts and the K of diamonds, which are worth -1


Sliver abilites and when they affect the Slivers Let's say I have two Muscle Slivers, so they're both 3/3 creatures. Now if they attack at the same time, and I kill one Muscle Sliver, would the remaining Muscle Sliver continue to stay at 3/3 for the attack phase, or would it instantly become a 2/2?

As soon as one of the Muscle Slivers leaves the battlefield, its ability disappears, leaving the other sliver smaller.

Static abilities on permanents create continuous effects, functioning as long as the permanent is on the battlefield, no longer and no shorter. They are not activated; they simply are. That's why they're written as statements of fact: "All Sliver creatures get +1/+1."

So for example, your opponent could block one of your 3/3 Muscle Slivers with a 3/3, and one with a 2/3. All the creatures deal damage to each other simultaneously. State-based actions are then checked, and the two 3/3s and the 2/3 have taken three damage and die. The first Muscle Sliver is now gone, so the remaining one is now a 2/2. State-based actions are checked again, and that sliver has two damage marked on it and now only has two toughness, so it dies as well.

Remember, this doesn't affect the amount of damage dealt, since all the damage was dealt at the same time, before anything died. So when you ask "does it stay at 3/3 for the attack phase?" the answer is... yes and no. It's still a 3/3 when it deals damage, yes. But it gets smaller immediately after.


Do basic land types affect a card's color identity? A card's color identity, as I understand it, is defined by all mana symbols in its cost and rules text. This means that the color identity of Temple of Silence is black and white, since it has "{T}: add {W} or {B}" in its rules text.

But what about Godless Shrine or Indatha Triome? These lands can also be tapped for various colors of mana, but those colors don't appear in the rules text: the ability comes from the card's subtypes, which don't contain any mana symbols. The mana symbols do appear on the card, but only in reminder text, which as far as I know has no effect on the rules.

So, what is the color identity of a land that taps for colored mana (because of its subtypes), but contains no mana symbols in its rules text? For a specific example, if my commander is Elenda, the Dusk Rose, can I include an Indatha Triome in my deck?

No, you may not include lands with basic land types that produce mana outside your commander's color identity.

Land with basic land types have innate mana abilities. While this makes them a special case among all cards, these abilities are not reminder text and do have an effect on gameplay.

  305.6. The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. An object with the land card type and a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol],” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box. For Plains, [mana symbol] is {W}; for Islands, {U}; for Swamps, {B}; for Mountains, {R}; and for Forests, {G}. See rule 107.4a. See also rule 605, “Mana Abilities.”

That seems to indicate that cards like the Triome (land with basic land types, no other abilities with colored mana symbols) have a colorless identity and thus could be included in any commander deck, because the innate ability is granted to objects, rather than cards.

However, for such cards, there is a special rule that looks at the color of mana they could produce.

  903.5d A card with a basic land type may be included in a Commander deck only if each color of mana it could produce is included in the commander’s color identity.

So no, you could not include Indatha Triome in your Elenda Dusk Rose commander deck, because it produces {G}.


Viable, alternative, first round role orders in 5-player Puerto Rico I'm a big fan of Puerto Rico.

But one thing that bugs me a little bit in my (5 player) games is how stable the first round is, with regards to role choices.

It (almost) always goes:

Settler
Builder
Mayor
Craftsman
Captain

The rationale is pretty straightforward:

A quarry will be manned by round 2*, since Mayor will almost certain be chosen
Guaranteed to have highest purchasing power, and all buildings are available
Guaranteed to have an unmanned building (with a chance of a first round indigo)
Practically guaranteed to have a manned corn, and no other player can produce 2 goods
No-one can ship for more than 2 victory points

Every now and then we'll get crazy and swap the order on Builder and Settler.

My question is, are there any significantly different first round role orders that are just as viable?

*Which is great efficiency for a quarry.

I doubt there's a significantly different first round order.  Certainly at the beginning there are very few options that are of use.  We often see a prospector in fourth and fifth, the rational being:

If the fourth player produces then the fifth player may take prospector (or trader in the unlikely event they managed to get a small market).
A player on corn wants to save up for a more profitable good.

So in short the five player first round sequences that we tend to see are:

[Settler/Builder], [Builder/Settler], Mayor, [Craftsman/Prospector], [Captain/Craftsman/Prospector/Trader].


Spend mana as though it were mana of any color and Sunburst/Converge There are some effects that allow players to spend mana as though it were mana of any color, e.g. Mycosynth Lattice.

  ... Players may spend mana as though it were mana of any color.

There are also cards that care about the colors of mana spent to cast them, notably Sunburst/Converge, and some others. e.g. Azorius Herald.

  When Azorius Herald enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless {U} was spent to cast it.

If I cast an Azorius Herald with {G}{G}{G}, can I spend it 'as though' it was {W}{U}{U} or similar, so that I don't have to sacrifice it?

No, that does not work. Mycosynth Lattice lets you spend mana as though it were mana of any color, but the spell cares about what types of mana you actually used to cast it.

Rule 609.4 says

  Some effects state that a player may do something “as though” some condition were true or a creature can do something “as though” some condition were true. This applies only to the stated effect. For purposes of that effect, treat the game exactly as if the stated condition were true. For all other purposes, treat the game normally.

In this situation, that means that you can treat the mana you're spending as any color while paying a cost, but that effect doesn't extend to when you're resolving a spell or ability, and you want to check the colors spent.

The card Celestial Dawn has a similar ability:

  You may spend white mana as though it were mana of any color. You may spend other mana only as though it were colorless mana.

And there is an official ruling about it that applies to the situation in question:

  You may use a different color mana than the color required for spells and abilities that require a specific color. If you do, and the spell or ability checks the actual color of the mana, it can tell the difference.

This conclusion is supported by a few rulings from the level 3 judge who runs the "Ask a Magic Judge" tumblr blog:

  How would Mycosynth Lattice work with converge spells - would "use mana as though it were mana of any color" satisfy "each color of mana spent"?

    Not very well.

    While you can spend colorless mana through the lattice as though it were any color, it’s still colorless mana as far as Converge is concerned.

  Mycosynth Lattice in EDH: spending colorless mana AS IF it were mana of any color doesnt break 903.9.... right?

    Correct.

    However, you’re still not spending mana of that color, so something like Sunburst or Firespout will know the difference.

  If I control Mycosynth Lattice, then cast Skyreach Manta spending WWWWW as though it were WUBRG, how many +1/+1 counters will the Manta enter the battlefield with?

    One.

    Sunburst always knows what you actually paid.


What happens to the dynamite when you die? In BANG!, if a player has the dynamite in front of them when they die, what happens to the dynamite?

Does that change when someone's special skill is to receive the cards of dead people?

The dynamite is discarded unless the dynamite didn't kill the dead player AND Vulture Sam is playing.
From the Bang! consolidated FAQ:

If the Dynamite explodes eliminating a player, does the character Vulture Sam draw the Dynamite along with all other cards of the player eliminated?
No. To complete the effect of the Dynamite you have to discard it after it explodes. So when Vulture Sam gets all the cards of the player killed, the Dynamite is already in the discard pile.

So,

If the Dynamite hasn't exploded, Vulture Sam picks it up as normal (since he takes all cards from the dead player). From the rulebook:

whenever a character is
eliminated from the game,
Sam takes all the cards
that player had in his
hand and in play, and adds them to
his hand.

If the Dynamite did explode (killing the player), Vulture Sam does not pick it up, since it has been discarded.

If Vulture Sam (or similar) isn't playing, then the dynamite is discarded along with all other cards of the dead player. Again, from the rulebook:

When you are
eliminated from the game, show your role card and discard all the cards you
have in hand and in play.


Parasite + Wyrm combo - is it an insta-killer? Wyrm has the following text:

  1[Credit]: Ice has -1 strength.

Parasite has the following text:

  Host ice has -1 strength for each virus counter on Parasite and is trashed if its strength is 0 or less.

If I understand this correctly, if I place a Parasite card on an ICe's, and use Wyrm's (somewhat expensive) ability to lower an ICe's strength, I can bring it down to 0 and then Parasite will kick in and kill it. Am I missing something?

Yes, this combo works.

Parasite will trash any ice as soon as it has zero (or lower) strength, regardless of how that strength was lowered (i.e. it doesn't only trigger from Parasite's counters).

Other cards that combo with Parasite include Datasucker:

  Whenever you make a successful run on a central server, place 1 virus counter on Datasucker.
  Hosted virus counter: Rezzed piece of ice currently being encountered has -1 strength until the end of the encounter.

or Ice Carver:

  All ice is encountered with its strength lowered by 1.


Phase 10 - Do I have to lay down as soon as I have the cards? MUST you lay down your phase as soon as you draw the cards to play the phase?  If you know someone picked up cards from the discard that will be able to play on your phase and go out do the rules allow you to hang onto the cards until you can lay down and potentially go out all in the same hand?  Of course the risk being that the ofher player goes out anyways and you are stuck with all of your cards and don’t move forward.

Judging by the context and language used in the rules there are many places that say a player MUST do something but in this instance it says a player “may” which leads me to believe holding onto the cards is allowable.

No you are not need to go down if you have your phase in your hand.

Taken from the rules:
MAKING A PHASE: If, during your turn, you are able to make a Phase with the cards in
your hand, lay the Phase down, face-up on the table before discarding. For example,
you are trying to make Phase 1. You have 3 “5s” and 2 “7s” and you draw another “7.”
You now have 2 sets of 3, and you may lay them down. In the next hand, you will be
working on Phase 2.

They say that you may lay them down so I would say you can wait as long as you want to laid down your phase.
Link to the rules: http://www.tactic.net/site/rules/FIN/03140.pdf


What happens to loyalty counters on a double faced Planeswalker? When a double faced planeswalker, like Garruk Relentless transforms into Garruk, the Veil Cursed there is no new loyalty symbol at the bottom of the card.

Does his current loyalty carry over or is there some new mechanic to deal with DFC Planeswalkers?

From the official Wizards site's article about Double-Faced Card Rules:

  After a double-faced card transforms, it's still the same card, so any
  Auras, counters, or other effects stay right where they are (unless
  the double-faced card's characteristics have changed such that an Aura
  can no longer legally enchant it).

This obviously includes a planeswalker's loyalty counters.  I think it's helpful to imagine the "transform" action as being a literal transform - the face of the card almost magically instantaneously changes from one aspect to another.  If you think of it over-literally as "flipping the card over" then it's logical to imagine everything falling off!  But this isn't what happens.


If Blightsteel Colossus loses its abilities through an effect like Lignify, can it be put into my graveyard? If I cast Lignify on my opponent's Blightsteel Colossus and then deal 5 damage to it with one of my creatures, does it go to the graveyard since it has no abilities? Or is this ability regained once it is removed from the field since Lignify is destroyed at the same time?

The Colossus would be put into the graveyard because it doesn't have its "shuffle into its owner's library" ability when replacement effects would be checked.
At the moment that your Lignified Colossus dies, it's still a 0/4 with no abilities.
From the comp rules for replacement effects:

614.4. Replacement effects must exist before the appropriate event occurs—they can’t “go back in    time” and change something that’s
already happened. Spells or abilities that generate these effects
are often cast or activated in response to whatever would produce the
event and thus resolve before    that event would occur.
Example: A player can activate an ability to regenerate a creature in response to a spell
that would destroy it. Once the spell resolves, though, it’s too late to regenerate the
creature.

It regains its shuffle ability once it hits your graveyard (since Lignify is gone). But the time for checking replacement effects has already passed. It stays in your graveyard.


Does First Strike apply when two creatures Fight each other? Does First Strike apply when two creatures fight, i.e when they have been targets of the Fight ability?

No. First strike only works in combat, and Fight is not a combat ability. See the Comprehensive Rules:

701.12. Fight
701.12a A spell or ability may instruct a creature to fight another creature or it may instruct two creatures to fight each other. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature.
701.12b If a creature instructed to fight is no longer on the battlefield or is no longer a creature, no damage is dealt. If a creature is an illegal target for a resolving spell or ability that instructs it to fight, no damage is dealt.
701.12c If a creature fights itself, it deals damage to itself equal to twice its power.
701.12d The damage dealt when a creature fights isn’t combat damage.

702.7. First Strike
702.7a First strike is a static ability that modifies the rules for the combat damage step. (See rule 510, “Combat Damage Step.”)


Can an opponent bolt a mana-generating creature to stop me from generating mana? What happens if I tap a Llanowar Elves for its ability and the creature is destroyed in response with an Ultimate Price? And why? (a brief explanation will suffice)

This may sound as a silly question but the opinion between my friends is divided. Some think that the green mana is generated and the others say that the mana is not generated.

Your opponent would be better off waiting until later in your turn to kill your dork.

Llanowar Elves has a mana ability. This doesn't go on the stack, and thus cannot be responded to.

  605.3b An activated mana ability doesn't go on the stack, so it can't be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)

So your opponent doesn't even get the chance to bolt your creature before you get your mana. He can only bolt once he has priority, which presumably you won't pass until you perform whatever action it was you were tapping for mana for.

But even if it were a card like Nettle Drone, the ability would go on the stack, and when it resolved the damage would still be dealt. The ability itself will never be countered solely on the actions of your opponent, short of a Stifle effect that specifically counters the ability. It would only get countered if it would have got countered anyway (lack of targets, illegal targets).

So your opponent would be best off waiting to bolt your dude. You might play a creature that he'd rather bolt instead, or you might do something else that he might want to use the mana for. Once it's tapped, it would have to be untapped (something that -can- be responded to) and then he could bolt. If nothing else, he can bolt on end step.


First Auction Power Plant in Power Grid? Ok, let's say we just started Power Grid game for 4 players: A, B, C and D. We will be focusing on Step 1st/Phase 2nd, which is the first Auction Power Plants phase in the game. We have (randomly) determined initial player order, which we can assume is now ABCD.

  Exception: In the first round of the game, each player must buy a power
  plant.

Ok, so let's assume that this is what happens in the first round's Auction Phase:

A selects Power Plant, D wins the first auction.
B selects Power Plant, B wins the auction.
C selects Power Plant, C wins the auction.

Now, this would be D's turn to select the Power Plant, except he has already bought one, so he cannot bid nor offer a plant at auction.

  Once a player has purchased a power plant in a round, he cannot bid in
  another auction in the same round, nor can he offer a plant at
  auction.

Does that mean we are back to A, and he selects Power Plant as the last player this round and therefore buys it at a starting price? Or was he obligated to choose plant again after D won the first auction?

Side note: I was quoting Official Rules found on RioGrandeGames.com.

After D won the first auction, Player A is obligated to choose a plant again. You may have missed this on page 3 of the rules:

  When the auctioning player wins the auction and gets the power plant, the next player in turn order takes his turn at offering a power plant for auction, if he has not already purchased a power plant this round. If he has, the next player in turn order may start an auction, and so on. When a player other than the player who started the auction wins the auction, the auctioning player may choose a new plant to auction from the actual market or pass.

Since the exception says everyone must buy a power plant first round, Player A may not pass.


Progressive euchre tourney question Progressive euchre tourney when individuals are trying to score as many overall points as possible, should you order the other team in the middle of the tournament simply to prevent giving up four points

I can't see anyway that this would, or even could, be a winning strategy.

The odds of going alone and taking all 5 tricks cannot be more than about 10%. If we estimate the chance of Dealer's side making all 5 tricks as about 15%, and of being euchred as say 15%, then Dealer's side's point expectation is:

4 * 0.10 = + 0.40
2 * 0.15 = + 0.30
-2 * 0.15 = - 0.30
1 * 0.60 = + 0.60
Total = 1.00

Even in Third Seat (Eldest Hand's partner) any decision on ordering up Dealer as a sacrifice risks losing a big plus score by Eldest Hand.

One could quibble over my estimates above, but no reasonable values will ever approach remotely near the near-guaranteed loss of a euchre from over-aggressive oordering up.

Yes, the success estimates above assume average play by some definition. I am well aware that skillful play, relative to one's group, will significantly increase one's own point expectations, and likewise decrease the expectations of one's opponents. That is all the more reason not to make bad sacrifices - just collect one's skill reward and be content. In Contract Bridge it's called: "Partner; please stop trying so hard for a bottom."

Exception

The one exception to the above that I can see is if, with full knowledge of the score, the situation is exactly one of:

Up by precisely three or four points over precisely one opponent whom one is currently at the table with, having exactly one hand left to play. Conceding two points eliminates the low probability of a Lone Hand overtaking.
Up by seven or eight points over precisely one opponent whom one is currently at the table with, having exactly two hands left to play. Conceding two points eliminates the very low probability of two successive Lone Hands overtaking.


What are the standard rules of etiquette for Rummy? Most card games have a fairly common etiquette.  One rule for Rummy I know of is that you should announce any intention to adjust the visible cards before touching them, to indicate you are not taking one.

What are the other common rules of etiquette for Rummy?

Most of the etiquette for Rummy is built into the rules. For example, it is etiquette to "call" a Joker as both a card and a suit the instant it is placed on the table within a combo. That said, tournament rules do add a bit of game play to them that you often find implemented in various groups to some extent. I've also been at a new table (mostly with relatives it seems) before and been surprised to see play accepted that is widely considered "coffee-housing."

My favorite on-line help page to point new players at is: Rummy Talk.


Are a group of abilities added to the stack all on the stack, or each resolves before the next one goes on the stack? MTR 4.2 states:

  Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, he or she is assumed to be passing priority unless he or she explicitly announces that he or she intends to retain it. If he or she adds a group of objects to the stack without explicitly retaining priority and a player wishes to take an action at a point in the middle, the actions should be reversed up to that point.

So, for a more recent example, if a player has Electrostatic Pummeler and 15 energy, and the opponent has Grasp of Darkness, can the opponent let the 5 activations of Pummeler go on the stack, then kill the Pummeler under it? Or do the activations trigger and resolve independently and the opponent has to say "wait, only 2 activations have succeeded, one's on the stack and I want to play Grasp"?

The accepted application of MTR 4.2 is that "I pump Pummeler 5 times" is a proposed shortcut to activate the ability and let it resolve 5 individual times.  So you would not be able to eliminate the creature with grasp of darkness (assuming the other player wants to pay more energy to keep it alive.)  Yes this is different from playing the game by a strict reading of the comprehensive rules without applying the MTR.

The reality is that 5 individual activations is the 'correct' line of play in almost every scenario that would come up in real games.  It's pedantic to make people sit there and say.

"I activate my pummeler once, do you respond?"

"I activate my pummeler once, do you respond?"

"I activate my pummeler once, do you respond?"

"I activate my pummeler once, do you respond?"

"I activate my pummeler once, do you respond?"

In order to perform the obvious line of play people intend in >99% of scenarios.  Around 2005 or so DCI started shifting judging policy away from meticulous enforcement of every comma and toward facilitating people playing the game naturally.  In the early days of tournament magic you were in fact expected to say it 5 times.

I didn't find a canonical reference for this from a wizards netrep, but here is confirmation from two high quality sources known to be written by people who are actually judges:

http://www.cranialinsertion.com/article/818

http://blogs.magicjudges.org/rulestips/2013/04/shortcuts-adding-multiple-objects-to-the-stack/


Is there a "Campaign Mode" set of rules available for Arkham Horror? Are there any rules (official or otherwise) that would govern trying to string together multiple games of Arkham Horror into some sort of a campaign structure?  The idea would be for the investigators to retain some of their capabilities from game to game, and the game itself would have to ramp up in difficulty in some manner to compensate.

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but check out the Scenarios FFG created for League play (here's a link to information about them on the Arkham Horror Wiki).  They do ramp up in difficulty, and the Spanish league scenarios have a continuing story.

I'm sure you could easily adapt things so that your characters grow and develop through the games, perhaps by adjusting some of the stats or giving bonuses based on how the investigators "performed" in the previous scenario?


Probabilities: Backgammon - final move So I was playing a lot of backgammon lately, and I noticed something. It seemed like I was "going out" on doubles more often than not. And my initial reaction was "Shouldn't that be, at best, a 1 in 6 chance of getting doubles on that final roll?"

But then my math/statistics side kicked in and I realized it's probably slightly more complicated than that.  So being out of practice, I figured I'd drop this hear to get a "proper" answer, and correct my math :) I also wasn't sure whether I should ask here, or over in : https://math.stackexchange.com/questions  But figured I'd start here. If it get's too "mathy" perhaps I'll re-ask over there :)

Here's my thoughts so far:

our end states are:

5+ checkers
4 checkers
3 checkers
2 checkers
1 checker

Now with 5+ checkers left, we cannot go out, so whether we roll doubles or not is irrelevant, it will leave us with 1, 2, 3 or 4 checkers, at which point we could go out if:

1) 4 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to or larger than the Runner (the checker farthest in)
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3, 4 and 5 point in your home, we need to roll double 5's or double 6's to go out)
2) 3 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to or larger than the Runner (the checker farthest in)
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3 and 4 point in your home, we need to roll double 4's, 5's or 6's to go out)
   b) roll doubles of a value equal to half or more of the Runner, and equal or larger than the other 2.
         (ie if we have a checker on each of 2, 3 and 4 point in your home, we can go out with double 3's: half of 4 is 2. next largest is 3. so double 3's puts us out)
3) 2 checkers:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to half or more of the runner.
         (ie if we have a checker on 2 and 4 point. We can go out with double 2's)
4) 1 checker:
   a) roll doubles of a value equal to a quarter or more of the runner.
         (ie if we have a checker on the 4 point, we can go out with double 1's)

I'm not sure these are all the cases .. but it's showing that there's a lot of variations .. and I'm not sure how to go about calculating all the variations accurately :)

So back to my question :

How to calculate the odds of going out by rolling doubles ?
(let's ignore the chance your opponent goes out first at any time ... or interferes in any way ... )

Let's set a lower bound on the likelihood of winning with doubles, by simply ignoring all cases where it is impossible to win without doubles.

Assumption: All board positions considered are equally likely. This is probably not true, but will approach truth in longer games.

Consider the case of two men only left on the board, both in the home court, and not both on the 6-point (so that it is possible to win without doubles). There are 20 possible board positions for the two men, of weight 2 when on separate points and of weight 1 when on the same point. Likewise there are 30 possible non-double dice rolls and 6 possible double rolls. Averaged over all (the assumed equally likely) board positions under consideration, a simple counting exercise gives a probability of winning without doubles of 550 out of 1050, and a likelihood of winning with doubles of 168 / 210. (Note that the total possibilities = 1050 + 210 = 1260 = 35 * 36 as required.)

These are probabilities of 53.9% and 80% respectively, with a ratio of double-win to total wins of 23.4%.

This ignores the relatively small case-set of single blot board positions and the significantly larger case-set of board positions with 3 or 4 pieces or one or more pieces out of the home board. The net affect of these will clearly increase the likelihood of winning with a double roll.

This analysis can be extended over the additional case-sets, but it is clear that the likelihood of winning with a double roll far exceeds the 16.7% chance of rolling doubles.

                   **Wins**       **Wght * Wins**
Wght  Position  Single  Double   Single    Double
 1      1 - 1      30      6       30         6
 2      1 - 2      30      6       60        12
 2      1 - 3      28      6       56        12
 2      1 - 4      26      5       52        10
 2      1 - 5      24      5       48        10

 2      1 - 6      22      5       44        10
 1      2 - 2      20      5       20         5
 2      2 - 3      20      5       40        10
 2      2 - 4      18      5       36        10
 2      2 - 5      16      5       32        10

 2      2 - 6      14      5       28        10
 1      3 - 3      12      5       12         5
 2      3 - 4      12      5       24        10
 2      3 - 5      10      5       20         8
 2      3 - 6       8      4       16         8

 1      4 - 4       6      4        6         4
 2      4 - 5       6      4       12         8
 2      4 - 6       4      4        8         8
 1      5 - 5       2      4        2         4
 2      5 - 6       2      4        4         8
----------------------------------------------------------------
35                                550/1050   168/210


Pump spell sequence in MTG If I attack with my Voltaic Brawler (3/2), then cast Built to Smash (+3/+3), Uncaged Fury (+1/+1 with double strike) and another Built to Smash (+3/+3) in that order, do I hit for 17 or 20?
Thanks in advance... basically a stack sequence question.

You will hit for 20. I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of double strike.

Double strike doesn't affect the actual power/toughness of the creature. It doesn't double the creature's power, it causes it to hit twice. You turn it into a 6/5 with the first Built to Smash, then a 7/6 with double strike with the Uncaged Fury, then a 10/9 with the second Built To Smash, then you pass priority and move to combat damage. It hits for 10, then you move to the second combat damage step because it has double strike, and it hits for 10 a second time.

It is possible to hit for 17, but you'd have to wait for the first combat damage step to occur before casting the second Built to Smash. In that case, it would only be a 7/6 the first time it hit, then you would make it into the 10/9 in time for second combat damage. Why would you do that? There's no obvious reason.


Does Double Strike mean you count as Attacking twice? Does Narset, Enlightened Master's ability trigger twice if she has double strike, since she has an ability that says "When (she) attacks"?

No.

The trigger, "Whenever ~ attacks" means "Whenever ~ is declared as an attacking creature". A creature with double strike will deal damage in the two combat damage steps, but will only be declared as an attacker once per turn. (Normally, unless some other effect is creating additional combat phases.)


How can I counter Plasma Missiles? Our group has recently started playing Eclipse (without any expansions), however we have been having trouble with Plasma Missiles. More specifically, simple "nothing but plasma missiles and possibly a computer" ship designs have been completely dominating combat, which is making the ship-building aspects of Eclipse somewhat uninteresting in the late game.

I believe that the main problem is just that we haven't found a suitable counter yet, and that if we found a way to counter these designs they would become less common (or we would at least have some more interesting battles), however at the moment our group is yet to come up with an effective way of fighting these ships other than "more plasma canons with higher initiative" (so your plasma canons fire first).

If another player starts building a lot of Plasma Canons, what should I research / build / upgrade in order to counter them?

In the base Eclipse game, there is no hard counter to Plasma Missiles. However, there are tactics that work well against Plasma Missile-focused ships.

Cutting off the retreat of missile fleets can be devastating, since they often work best by unleashing their missiles to deal crippling damage and then retreating to fire again the next round. A missile-only fleet with its retreat cut off will be annihilated by even a single surviving ship with a single cannon. (And sending another ship with beam weapons to reduce this threat also reduces the potency of the missile fleet, which is what you want.)
Speaking of surviving missile fleets, Improved Hulls are a good way to build a fleet to do so, combined with enough Shields to neutralize the opponent's Computers. Diplomacy will be important because this fleet will be vulnerable to a more traditional fleet.
Many missile fleets will be Interceptor-based, since those small ships allow you to deploy more raw missiles for cheaper. You can take advantage of this by using the large number of Move actions this fleet will require to outmaneuver the interceptor fleet. If the missiles are scary enough, nobody will mind if you slip a cruiser past and neutron bomb that faction's planets.

Should you have a chance to play with the Rise of the Ancients expansion, it contains two rare technologies that act as hard counters to Plasma Missiles: the Distortion Field, which grants a -2 to all missiles that attack your ships, and Point Defense, which gives your cannons a free attack to shoot down incoming missiles. Neither of these technologies requires a component--all your ships get them for free. Rise of the Ancients also features another soft counter in the form of Flux Missiles, which are 1-power missiles that also provide an initiative bonus. These are powerful against the traditional fragile Plasma Missile fleets.


Can I chose to bring a shockland untapped into play when I tutor it with an effect that brings a land tapped into play One of my Flagstones of Trokair is dying and I search for an Godless Shrine. Does the Godless Shrine enters play untapped when I pay the 2 life?

No.

If you read Godless Shrine's ability carefully, you'll notice that it doesn't say the card enters the battlefield untapped if you do pay; it says the card enters the battlefield tapped if you don't pay.

Godless Shrine only affects how the card comes into the battlefield when you don't pay; it doesn't affect how the card comes into the battlefield when you do pay.

Flagstones of Trokair causes Godless Shrine to come into play tapped, and Godless Shrine doesn't do anything about that (even if you do pay).


How do multiple land creature affects work? If I already have a card effect turning my lands into creatures, for example: Life and Limb, then I deal combat damage with Liege of the Tangle, and I make all of my lands 8/8's with its ability, which effect takes priority? Do I choose?

The power and toughness are set by the most recently created effect.

Permanent modification is covered by the layer system.  Inside a single layer effects are applied in timestamp order, and newer effects will overwrite old ones if they are mutually contradictory.

Thus, if Life and Limb is played after you trigger Liege's ability they will be 1/1s, but if Liege deals combat damage after Life and Limb is added then any land that you add a counter to will become an 8/8.

Oddly enough,  this means that you can put awakening counters on saprolings that have been landed by L&L, and they will become 8/8s, and stay that way even if L&L and Liege leave the battlefield.


MTG -- Search for a sorcery -- Green -- EDH I am building an EDH/Commander deck and my commander is mono green...

I want a card or a combo that allows me to search my library for a sorcery card (or something similar).

Do you guys know something about this? I searched on scryfall and didn't found anything relevant

Interacting with sorceries is very much outside of the Green part of the color pie, so this kind of effect is going to be rare at best.

As a basic first search, the following Scryfall search finds every card compatible with a Green commander that has you search your library: o:"search your library" ci:g. The o: search term specifies text in the card's text box to look for, and the ci specifies the color identity to look for. This returns 241 cards, which can be reasonably looked through. If a card matching your criteria doesn't show up in those search results, it doesn't exist.

There are a couple of common ways that cards could allow allow you to search for sorceries that suggest ways to refine that search. Some cards could allow you to search specifically for sorcery cards. A simple way to search for that would be to just add a search for the word "sorcery": o:"search your library" ci:g o:sorcery. This search returns two cards, both of which are false positives.

Other cards might allow you to search for any card. The phrasing for this is "Search your library for a card", so the following search would find cards like that: o:"search your library for a card" ci:g. This finds 14 cards; most find cards with a specific name, or names that match another name, but three cards match requested criteria: Planar Portal, Ring of Three Wishes, and Tamiyo's Journal.

Finally, some cards allow you to search for nonland cards, but the search for that (o:"search your library" ci:g o:nonland) finds no results.

Some specific Sorcery cards can be found by other search effects. The few green and colorless tribal sorceries can be found by any effect that instructs you to search for cards with that specific creature subtype (such as Wirewood Herald). And the creature cards with with Adventure instants and sorceries can be found by any effect that instructs you to search for a creature, which are plentiful in green.


Leading from the wrong (nondummy) hand in bridge While playing bridge you were supposed to lead from the dummy's hand, but you pulled a card from your hand by mistake. After putting it back in your hand, do you have to play the same suit when you play from the dummy hand?

From the Laws of Contract Bridge - 2014,

Law 55 - Declarer's Lead Out of Turn

  When declarer leads out of turn from his or dummy's hand:
  A either defender, without consultation, may accept that lead as provided in Law 53; or
  B. either defender, without consultation, may require declarer to retract that lead. Then,
   1. if it was a defender' turn to lead, declarer restores the card led in error to his or dummy's hand without penalty.
   2. if declarer has led from the wrong hand when it was his turn to lead from his or dummy's hand, he withdraws the card led in error and he must lead a card from the correct hand.

  If declarer adopts a line of play that could have been based on information obtained through his infraction, the offenders should adjust the score to redress the damage.

So, in direct answer to your question, and assuming no inappropriate information was obtained by declarer through the infraction, once a defender requires declarer to retract the card led in error declarer restores it without penalty and leads (any card of his choice) from the correct hand.

In a club (other than a Duplicate Club) a slightly more formal alternative law may apply using the services of a pre-appointed Arbiter, if such is available. I understand from your description that this is not the case fr your question.


Can I somehow block zone spells? Can I somehow block a spell that targets a zone and damages all creatures within it, like Firestorm?

Yes, Walls will block ranged spells. From the rules (page 17) regarding Spell Range:

Note: If there are any walls between your spell caster and the target, the walls may block your spell (see “Walls” on page 21).
You cannot cast a spell or make a ranged attack through a wall that blocks LoS. (The icon that indicates this is a picture of an eye with the red diagonal line through it)

An example is also listed on page 21 diagramming Line of Sight for a spell.

When you count range to your target, you must also check if you have clear line of sight (LoS). Draw an imaginary straight line from the center of your creature’s zone to the center of the target’s zone. LoS is blocked if the line crosses through a zone border that has a wall on it with the blocks LoS trait. Walls do not normally block LoS if the line crosses diagonally through the corner of a wall border, as long as at least one side of that corner does not block LoS.

Normally, there is the commonly used spell Block, that allows you to avoid a targeted attack. This doesn't work though, because Firestorm is a Zone Attack and as the Unavoidable attribute.

Block - When this creature is attacked, you must reveal Block during the Avoid Attack Step. Block counts as a Defense, and the attack is avoided. Then, destroy Block. If the Attack is Unavoidable, destroy Block without effect.
Zone Attack or Spell - This attack or spell affects all creatures and conjurations in the target zone, without actually targeting them individually. Does not affect walls on the zone’s border. Zone attacks have the Unavoidable trait and make a separate attack against each object in the zone. See “Zone Attacks” on page 27.

Page 27 of the rule book actually shows the Firestorm spell within its example sidebar, and indicates that:

... Zone Attacks always target a zone, never a creature or object. Therefore, abilities and traits that allow a target to react when it is the target of an attack do not apply against a Zone Attack. Zone attacks always have the Unavoidable trait, so Defenses have no effect against them. ...


Are there any restrictions on which houses can be combined in a deck in Keyforge? I keep finding myself speculating which house combos are cool and would be optimal to play with. But at the same time both my decks and my friends decks are extremely similar in house compositions (for example it appears that Mars combos are more common than Brobnar)

I know enough statistics to grasp that my sample pool is way too small to draw any conclusions but still I am wondering whether or not there are any restrictions on which house combos are generated by the deck generator.


Does Wildfire Eternal give Dread Wanderer graveyard flash? If Wildfire Eternal attacks, and isn't blocked, the player is allowed to cast a sorcery or instant from the hand without paying its mana cost.

If Dread Wanderer is in the graveyard, you can return it to the battlefield if you can cast a sorcery and you have one or fewer cards in your hand.

Assuming you already have one or fewer cards in your hand, and have attacked with Wildfire Eternal that hasn't been blocked, can the player now instant cast Dread Wanderer from the graveyard?

No, you can't do that.

When an activated ability says "activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery", that is placing additional restrictions on the normal rules governing when you can activate an ability (normally, when you have priority).

  307.5. If a spell, ability, or effect states that a player can do something only “any time he or she could cast a sorcery,” it means only that the player must have priority, it must be during the main phase of his or her turn, and the stack must be empty.


Do permanents controlled by a player with hexproof also have hexproof? If I have a Witchbane Orb, then I (the player) have hexproof.

Are permanents I control also hexproof? Or am I only hexproof from abilities that target me specifically?
Can a card like Wrath of God be used to destroy creatures with hexproof, because it is not targeting the creature(s)?

You are the only one protected from opponent's spells that target you with a witchbane orb. Saying a player is hex proof is not the same as saying all of their permanents are hex proof as well.

As for wrath of god and other 'All creatures' or 'all players' spells. Since there is no targeting hex proof does not protect a creature from Wrath of God. Indestructible would protect a creature from wrath of god, but not hex proof.

Looking at Comp rule 114.1a a definition for targeted is made. It says that the verbiage 'target [something]' is the indicator that a spell is targeted.

Looking at 702.11 the definition for hex proof says a permanent can't be the target of a spell. meaning it can't be targeted.

So a Wrath Of God that says 'Destroy All Creatures' is not considered a targeted spell and thus is not hampered by hex proof.

Furthermore looking at 114.9a it is clarified that just because a spell or ability can affect objects and players they don't target does not mean they have atrgeted that player or object.


What happens if you Forge nothing? If I play a Forge and for whatever reason choose "none" as the amount of cards trashed (say if I played it via Golem by accident), do I gain anything? I could see 2 possibilities:

Don't gain because nothing was trashed
Gain a cost 0

The Prosperity rules cover this exact situation:

  Forge - "Any number" includes zero. If you trash no cards, you have to gain
  a card costing 0 if you can.


Who wins if player who said 'cabo' has lowest points but another player also has the same? Game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabo_%28game%29

More reference link: https://www.wired.com/2011/01/pass-the-time-with-cabo-where-strategy-meets-quirky-fun/

We were playing this using playing cards, but logic remains same.

One action in the game play is,

Call “Cabo”, which states - If a player thinks that they have the lowest scoring hand, they can call “Cabo” to end the round. There is a penalty for performing this action if you do not actually have the lowest hand.

Now, we had a situation where 3 players (A, B, C) were in the game, and Player A called 'cabo'. Now at the end of the round, hands were as below

A: Ace (one)

B: Ace (one)

C: Queen (Twelve)

Now, C is clearly higher whereas A and B are tied. Now, does this qualify as lowest hand for player A who called the 'cabo' as he is technically having the lowest which happens to be tied with another player? Who wins that round? Does player A, gets the advantage of calling cabo?

Having looked around a bit I have not seen any rules for dealing with ties but there are two ways to handle it and personally I think the first is the best since there is some risk involved in calling cabo.

First: The player that called cabo wins as it can be risky to call it since the other players all get one more turn to play as stated in the wiki.

  When a player calls cabo, the other players each get one more turn and then everyone has to turn their hidden cards face-up, and lay down the cards from their hand. The player with the lowest score wins

Second: You declare it a tie and all players with the low score share the win.


Exiled Players/Betrayer Dead of Winter TLN If you have a player that is voted into exile, must that player immediately reveal to the rest of the group whether they are actually the betrayer?

Yes.
When the players vote in favor of exiling a player, the exiled player must immediately draw 1 exiled secret objective card. This text of that card follows the following template:

If you are not the betrayer: Reveal your secret objective to all players and remove it from the game. Your new secret objective is now the following: [...]

If you are the betrayer: The 1st goal on your secret objective has changed to the following: [...]

So you must implicitly reveal that you are the betrayer by keeping your original secret objective card.


Is Risk: Legacy playable two-player? I have Risk: Legacy, I have an 8 year-old son who loves Risk, and I have three other household members who don't like games. I'm tempted to try Risk: Legacy two-player, either head-to-head or with the Classic-style "neutral" faction. But since I don't actually know all the rules to Legacy I don't know if this will be fine, "just okay," or "crash-and-burn."

Given the audience "just okay" is playable result. But if it's going to crash and burn I'd rather not waste the investment and wait until we find/create a third.

Is Risk: Legacy playable two-person, or will game developments fundamentally fail two-person?

It is a three to five player game according to the rules because the negotiation dynamics are integral to the rules. With two players there can be really no good negotiation and the game loses an essential element. Tweaking the game would definitely be needed, especially in regards to some items found in secret passages.

So in the end, since you would play just as long as the game doesn't crash and burn, I would play with one of the 2 player variants that can be found online (basically both Players get 2 factions).


How long does it take to play Arkham Horror? BoardGameGeek says 4 hours, I've heard a lot of people say 5 hours, but some of my friends say they've played it several time in less than 2.

How does the game time vary with different numbers of people?
How does the game time vary with player experience? What's the difference in the length of time between a group's first game and their games as they gain more familiarity with the rules and strategy?
Should I not buy the game if I doubt my group will be able to have 4 hour straight sessions very often? Is it possible to shorten the game length if need be, or break it up into shorter sessions?

Right now the length of time required and the complexity level are the biggest factors affecting whether I buy this game, and I wanted to get some second opinions. :D

Well I can tell you my personal experience - I bought it because I knew lots of friends and acquaintances in my past were fairly obsessive about it, and organized an 8-player game one evening with a bunch of beginners.  Four or five hours later, we were maybe halfway through the game?  One or two of the group had gotten pretty into their characters and quests, but some of the others had completely given up, it was just too much.  Admittedly this was a very "casual" set of players, not dedicated boardgamers, but it's a cautionary tale.

I'd say you wouldn't want to break this out except amongst people who are pretty serious about boardgames, and preferably people who have done some roleplaying - Call of Cthulhu would be ideal, obviously, but in general terms I really would class this as a roleplayer's boardgame.  It definitely seems advisable to learn the rules with a smaller group than 8!  I expect that games will speed up as everyone becomes familiar with the mechanics and strategies, but I'd still expect to be talking 3+ hours.

I don't see the point of breaking it up into multiple sessions really - part of the fun of the Lovecraftian universe is slogging onwards to the end of your quest despite encroaching exhaustion and madness!  If you're looking for a light, fun game that you can whip out at short notice and then play for a couple of rounds before putting away again, Arkham Horror would seem to me like a really odd choice!


What is the point of Legendary Magician of Dark's effect? Legendary Magician of Dark says that if it attacks reduces the opponent's life points to 0 and some other conditions are met, you win the match. But wouldn't you win anyway just by having reduced their LP to zero? What's the point?

The key difference here is that a duel consists of a single game and also a match consists of a best-of-three duels game. Official Tournaments consist of rounds of matches.

So, with this card if you manage to reduce your opponent's LP to 0 and fulfill the other conditions you win the best-of-three games immediately.

Be aware that Legendary Magician of Dark is one of the Tournament Prize Cards that are awarded to World Tournament Champions. All these have the common trait of making you win the match.

Unfortunately, this cards cannot be used in a oficial tournament; you can only use them on friendly and traditional games, that is, if you have won one of course :)


South African and Mozambican board games? As I love both traveling and board games, I always try to buy a local made game with roots from, or great popularity, in that specific country/region.
E.g. I got Shogi when I was in Japan, and Dominoes from a trip to Cuba.

Now I'm going to South Africa and Mozambique and would like to get my hands on a local game.

Do you know of any board games that are native to South Africa or Mozambique, besides different types of Mancala?

I already have a Mancala-type game called Omweso from Zambia, but I guess I wouldn't turn down a more original type Mancala from Mozambique if that's the only alternative.

If you are looking for localised versions of games through Africa another option to the Mancala family are games of the Nine Men's Morris family, which potentially migrated down through Africa at the height of the Roman empire.

For South Africa there is Muravava or Umlabalaba, which is closer to Twelve Men's Morris in that there are more moves available.
In Mozambique you'll find Gulugufe, which is played on two intersecting triangles. There is also Ntchuva, which is the local variant of Mancala.


I died, what can I do until the world ends? The other day whilst playing betrayal at house on the hill, I died early on and didn't get back on the board as a monster in any way.

What can I do to contribute without 'over doing it'?

Following the haunt, the game tends to become semi-cooperative, with one antagonist. In those cases, while you're not controlling a character, you could certainly offer advice and contribute to group-thinking.

I certainly think that answer, in line with previous ones, is most appropriate, but if you're desperate to house-rule an alternative, how about this "ghost" variant:

Your character remains on the board and has all their stats returned to their starting values, but cannot interact with anyone or anything (they're a ghost) and loses all their items/omens. On your turn, you can move according to your speed as normal, and then nominate a character/creature in your room and an attribute. Reduce that attribute by one on your character coaster and declare that the target character has a +1 bonus or -1 penalty in that stat until your next turn. This represents you messing with monsters by floating candlesticks at them, or the heroes fighting on in your memory, or whatever. If it's that kind of group, you could elaborate by describing in an appropriately thematic way exactly how you're causing the change. You could target a team-mate who really needs to succeed at that Sanity check, or pick the Strength of a monster you're all wailing on. Once a stat of yours hits bottom, you can no longer use it.

I doubt this variant would be over-powering. It doesn't even counter-balance the loss of a full-fledged character if you ask me. Disclaimer: I haven't tried it, but you could give it a go and report back.

In scenarios where it's every man for himself (i.e. it becomes fully competitive with no one traitor), any further interaction you have with the game would just be king-making, so you should probably concede that you've been eliminated and resort to heckling etc.


Card game with jokers and set completion I was playing a game and no one knows the name, or origin of the game.

The game is played with normal playing cards. Anywhere from 3 to 13 players can play.

SETUP:

A single joker is used.
A single set of numbers per player is used. (4 cards, one of each
suit, all the same number)

All the cards are shuffled. Cards are dealt out until all are in players hands. One player will have 5 cards, the rest will have 4.

PLAY:

The player with 5 cards in their hand is the "playing" player.
That player now makes a series of offers to the next player (clockwise).

First, a single card is offered, if the card is accepted then the next player takes the card and becomes the current player and play continues.

If the first card is not accepted, another card is offered, it is added to the first card, and the next player may now choose either of the two offered cards.

If neither the first offer or the second offer is accepted, the current player simply chooses a third card and gives it to the next player.

A turn would look like this:

  Bob places a card face down on the table and offers it to Alice. Alice can accept the card, and then becomes the current player, who must then do a turn of her own with the next player, or can refuse it an ask Bob for another card. If she refuses it, Bob would then choose another card from his hand, and place it on the table next to the first one. Alice can now choose either of the two cards on the table. If she does, she will become the current player, and will have to play a turn with the next player after her. If she does not take either of the cards then Bob will choose a card from his hand and give it to Alice.

OBJECTIVE:

The game ends when any player who has 4 cards in his hand has a whole set of a single number, emphasis on 4 cards, he can not also have any other cards in addition to the 4, so if a player has 4 cards of the same number AND another card (meaning they are the current player) they must try to give their 5th card which is not in the set to the next player.

When any player completes the game like this, everyone wins except the player with the Joker - who loses.

In other words, players are trying to complete sets, and not be left with the Joker. So a player with the Joker will always try to get rid of it by giving it to other players.

Those are the rules, the way its played is that you play "cooperatively" by talking about your cards, and which cards you are giving the other player, of course, you are welcome to lie and trick people. And that is the game.

What is the name of this game? What is it's origin?

And, perhaps, maybe I remember the rules wrong, was told it wrong, or there are more rules?

The game your are playing is a strategic version of "Vatra" or "Fire".

https://www.pagat.com/passing/pig.html#vatra

This comes from the same family of games as spoons and pig.

The rules are pretty much exactly as you mentioned them.  The only difference being the offering of the second card.


What makes a cooperative game require multiple players? Many cooperative games (like Pandemic or Arkham Horror) could be played by a single player, even though they're intended to be played by a team of players striving against the board.

What makes a cooperative game require multiple players?

What aspects can a cooperative game have that make it actually impossible to play as a solo game?

I'm talking about a fully cooperative game here, where everyone wins or loses together.

Many cooperative games suffer when one player knows the game best, so they just tell everyone else what to do.  If the other players are new enough (or meek enough), the game turns into a one-player game with a bunch of confused spectators.

If the game can't be played by a single player, the knowledgable player's advice is still advice, but it's less compelling.

Note that I'm not asking what to do about overbearing players.  I'm asking what makes it impossible for a cooperative game to be played solo.

The biggest thing I can think of is limited knowledge. Hanabi is a cooperative game where each player has access to different information (no one can see the cards in his or her own hand, but can see everyone else's cards).

As soon as different players have access to different information, playing by yourself becomes impossible. The other examples I can think of are partnership card games: Bridge, Pinochle, Canasta, Tichu, etc. They all have strict rules against communication between partners, so you cannot let your partner know what cards are in your hand. Due to this rule, a person could not end up playing both sides of the partnership by himself.

This type of thing could easily be implemented in non-card games as well, as long as there is some information that some players have but other players don't.

The other way that one could make a co-op game actually require multiple people is to have rules against table talk. Even if all knowledge is open, you can make it illegal to discuss moves. For example, you could play a Pandemic variant where any discussion between players about what should be done is illegal. You are still allowed to ask what cards other players have (or just play open-handed; same thing really), but no other discussion allowed. Thus, each player needs to decide what he wants to do on his turn all by himself, and the challenge comes on picking up the slack where other players are lacking.

Damage Report took another approach. All players play simultaneously and asynchronously (not everyone is on the same turn), and there are enforced time limits to turns. This prevents the game from being played solo (though a dominant player can still influence others)

"Hidden roles" type games can also work this way. Battlestar Galactica, for example. You could consider this a co-op game, because most of the players are all working together. Though instead of fighting against the game itself, as with Pandemic, you are fighting against the 1 or 2 other players who are not on your team. But due to the fact that roles are hidden, each player only knows his own role. This makes it impossible to play by yourself. Of course most probably wouldn't consider this a co-op game, but the basic principle is still there.. most of the people playing the game are playing co-op with each other.


Easy way to see changes between core sets? Is there an easy way to see which cards were added and removed between core sets?

For example, by looking up the card Giant Growth I can see that it was in both M10 and M11, but was not included in M12.  Now on a single-card basis, it's not too hard, but I've got a lot of M11 that I want to go through and see which cards are still legal in standard, and searching Gatherer by card will get pretty tiring.

wiki.mtgsalvation.com is your friend.

http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Magic_2012/Changes, for instance, has complete lists of all the cards that were added to M12 and removed from M11.  You can find the same information for all previous core sets too.

In addition, there are useful sections on changes in rarity from previous printings, and also a running tally of cards that had (up to that date) been included in every Core Set.  Go go Giant Spider!


How should we setup Settlers of Catan for three players? Settlers of Catan for three players suffers slightly from too much space. I find the four player game much more enjoyable because of the tense competetion for places to settle.

It seems that this could be easily solved, though, by using fewer hexes. I can replace some resource hexes with ocean hexes from my Seafarers game. Of course, it could take some experimenting to figure out what works well, and I'm wondering if others have gone down this road:

How many hexes should be used?
What combination of resources is best?
Is it better to vary in a different way, say, starting with three settlements, and playing to a higher number of victory points?

There are some good suggestions all over the internet for making a three-player board more competetive in the early game. They all boil down to either removing hexes, or replacing them with desert pieces.

The amount of hexes you replace/remove depends on preference, but I'd recommend either removing three or five total hexes. When removing five, just remove one of each resource type. When removing three, remove one wood, grain and lumber (since brick and ore have one less hex to start with).

When removing three hexes, take one of each number token 3 and 11 and remove them from the game. Then take one of each number token 4 and 10, choose one at random and remove it from the game.
When removing five hexes, take one of each number token 3-4-10-11 and remove them from the game. Then take one of each number token 5 and 9, pick one at random and remove it from the game.

Substituting hexes with deserts means there's still plenty of room for long roads and it puts some distance between viable resources. Also, it allows you to maintain the regular board size. Removing hexes altogether can lead to challenging board shapes, but if you remove exactly five hexes you can still create a hexagonal board:

  X X
 X X X
X X X X
 X X X
  X X

The best way to get a hexagon with 3 hexes removed is if you make it asymmetrical across one diagonal:

  X X X
 X X X X
X X X X X
 X X X X

A third option found online is increasing the VP requirement. This doesn't match your criteria since you're looking to increase tension in the early game (instead you'll find yourself using more of the board late game) but it's still worth mentioning.


What is different between regular Catan and Simply Catan? I was recently made aware of Simply Catan, a re-implementation of Catan (formerly Settlers of Catan). I see that it is advertised as being faster, with only a 5 minute setup and 30 minute play-time. But what are the actual differences between these games?

It looks like the biggest differences are tile sets (multiple hexes attached together) to decrease set up time, and only 7VP needed to win for shorter games.
From the Catan website:

Differences Between Simply Catan and the Base Game
For a quick setup, Simply Catan comes with 5 rows of tiles, printed on both sides (1x5, 2x4, 2x3). This design reduces overall setup time of the game while still providing enough variation to make for a different game each time you play.
For beginners, the rules provide recommended starting positions. This allows new players to dive immediately into the fun of the game mechanics, without spending a lot of time worrying about getting started.
Playing to 7 Victory Points speeds up the time to play. With Simply Catan, 30-40 minutes is all your family needs to get your "Catan fix".


Does Misthollow Griffin's from-exile ability work if it's exiled face down? Player A exiles their Misthollow Griffin face down with their Bane Alley Broker.

Can player A cast that Misthollow Griffin from exile?

If no, then:

There are only 2 players, and player B subsequently takes control of player A.

Can player B have player A cast the Misthollow Griffin that

was exiled face down, since all (2) players can see it?

No, you cannot play a face-down Misthollow Griffin from exile. The reason is that "face down" is a status of an object in the game. Even if, in practice, you happen to turn the physical card face-up, the game still considers it a face-down object.

This is important because a face-down object has no characteristics, and in particular, no abilities - it's not really a "Misthollow Griffin" object, it's just a plain old "face-down featureless card" object. (CR 406.3)

  406.3. ...A card exiled face down has no characteristics, but the spell or ability that exiled it may allow it to be played from exile....

The fact that one or more players are allowed to look at the card doesn't change the fact that it's considered a face-down object.

That also addresses your second question: no matter who can look at the card, it's still considered a face-down card object with no characteristics, so it doesn't have the ability that allows it to be played from exile.


Does the 30-point rule apply to every non-manipulating move, or only to the initial move? In rummikub, how exactly does the 30-point rule work? Is it:

The very first move of each player must be independent of existing stones and with a value of at least 30. There is no 30-point rule in the remainder of the game

or is it

When a player plays without using any other stones, e.g. puts a run or a group composed completely of his own stones, this must be at least 30 points.

We weren't sure when playing. Which one is it? We played with the latter, but now it seems it's actually the former.

I am going to guess that you were most likely playing Sabra Rummikub. You almost got it right with the former. The pagat page indicates that:

  The first meld made by each player must consist of one or more combinations formed entirely from that player's hand, where the total numbers of the tiles used add up to 30 or more. If a joker is used, it counts as the number of the tile it represents.

So, for the first meld of each hand, you must meld 30 points, since the game is made up of multiple hands.


What is a safe and accurate technique for shuffling cards? Especially for games which involve frequent card shuffling by multiple players of decks of uneven sizes is there is a technique for shuffling which is quick and easy for everyone to learn yet also reliably random?

Ideally this would work with cards which were sleeved.

I'm asking in particular for games of Dominion but have run into this question around many other games involving multiple decks as well. Back in my days of serious Magic the Gathering playing deck shuffling was always a complex subject especially in tournament situations (and even in more casual play as keeping the cards undamaged was a priority)

When I shuffle I use a mixture of two techniques: riffle and stripping (as defined quite adequately in the Wikipedia article on shuffling). Riffle separates adjacent cards while stripping cycles cards from the top of the deck to the bottom.

I use both because riffle alone will very slowly push cards in the bottom half of each cut down, but tends to leave the top of the deck the same; stripping mitigates this drawback. Stripping alone takes too long to separate adjacent cards.

Early in the game when the deck is small (< 20 cards) it's very difficult--and unnecessary--to riffle so I only strip.

Wikipedia points out that riffling can be hard on cards; however, I've found that damage typically occurs because the person isn't good at shuffling and either excessively bends the cards or doesn't get good interspersion between the cuts. Being able to execute a bridge also reduces card wear as it evens out the bending and prevents the cards from acquiring a camber. In fact, I think proper riffle shuffling breaks in cards and makes them less stiff and prone to sticking to each other.

It seems that you're looking for something potentially easier to learn the riffling, but nothing is as fast (vital in Dominion) or as reliable at randomizing a deck. Honestly, anyone with reasonable motor skills should be able to learn to riffle with practice.

Wash shuffles are great for randomization but totally infeasible for Dominion since they take so long and take so much table space.

Weaves have the same end results at riffles, so if you weave you should strip as well. A weave is easier for many people to do, but will damage cards quickly as you have to slam or wiggle the edges of the deck together. Cards were made to return to their original shape when gently bent; they were not made to take stresses on their edges.


Mafia - Werewolf: Online play Is there an online version of mafia/werewolf game that I can play with my friends. I tried to find one but there doesn't seem to be a good one.

I'm the creator of https://werewolv.es which is an in-browser version of werewolf. The games are more like individual chat rooms or slack/irc channels than the usual forum/message board variants you find online. Most of the games on the site take place over several days, but plenty of 'speed games' are played where the rounds a few minutes.

I decided to embrace the online aspect of this version of the game and added features that would be difficult or impossible to simulate in face to face play. Each game is played with a distinct theme (usually taken from a film or tv series) and players are given a random avatar in addition to their role. This gives a degree of anonymity (at least at the start) to the game.

The anonymous avatars also allow for additional avenues of play. For example, the Puppetmaster has control of 2 extra identities in the game, and can freely talk as them, allowing the Puppetmaster to counter claim and cause confusion in chat.


Are expansion sets in magic designed for use with specific deck archetypes? I'm new to Magic so apologies in advance if this is an obvious question: Are expansion sets designed to accommodate any/all deck archetypes?

For example, my current play style gravitates towards red aggro and I'd like to continue building decks that align with that strategy.  I'm wondering if the latest set, Journey Into Nyx, is slanted towards other play styles. How can I tell?

Most sets of Magic feature a certain kind of game mechanics, and favor some archetypes more than other.

For instance the previous set (Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Maze I don't remember) favored multicolored decks, even 3 colored ones, featured lots of multicolored creatures, whereas the beginning of the current set (Theros, Born of the gods) favored mono colored decks. Some capacity are absent from different sets, and some sets really favor some kind of build (eg Theros set gave the opportunity to create really powerful blue aggro, Innistrad set allowed very efficient graveyard oriented decks...).

Nevertheless, some archetypes are always valids, and even if some blocks don't favor them, you will still find useful cards and maybe the next set will favor it again. Some archetypes are also more common and nearly always efficient, "red deck wins", a mono red archetype is among them.

If you don't care about having a deck in the current set, you shouldn't mind about this, if you seek competitive T2 game (last two blocks), you will change deck every block to have the more favored (and fun) archetype. An easy way to see toward what a set is slanted is to have a look at the top 10 tournament decks, you can also guess that by yourself after gaining some more experience by just looking at the cards featured.

To finish, if you play drafts (which I advise you, it's really funny), the favored archetypes will be different from built decks.


Good games for playing in a bar Sometimes, I'm sitting in a bar, hanging out with a friend or three, and we run out of things to talk about. I think "this would be a great time to play a game, but I don't have one on me." My local pub has a collection of games in the corner, but they consist of about half a chess set, half a scrabble set with a beat up board, and two thirds of a nice backgammon set.

What games are good for playing in a bar?

Some criteria that can help determine if a game will be appropriate:

Not too many fiddly little components to get lost; or easily replaceable components if they do
Somewhat resilient to spilled beer
Everything is easy to see, as bars can sometimes be a bit dark
Not too complex; after a couple of beers, remembering a lot of rules can be hard
Easily portable, and fits on a small table, or the space between two people at the bar itself

Also, please let me know if you actually have played this game in a bar, and how it went. Some games might seem good for the venue, but turn out not to be.

(note: despite the beer-and-pretzels tag, I'm not interested in solely beer and pretzels games, though those are welcome; games that are a bit deeper can be fine for bars too)

I think Perudo (Liar's Dice) would work great in a bar. You need 5 dice and a cup per person, the rules are easy but the game is hard, there's a lot of interaction, and playing dice and drinking traditionally go together very well.

The related game Skull can be played with bar coasters and a pen, and is one of the better games for drunk people.


Can I use cards like Gilded Lotus and Spectral Searchlight in a colorless EDH deck? With cards that let me add mana of any color, can they be used in a colorless commander deck? Some examples being Spectral Searchlight and Gilded Lotus in a Kozilek, the Great Distortion deck.

I am asking because I think I remember seeing something saying I can not, but I do not remember if I am remembering correctly.

Yes, you can do that.

When you activate the abilities of cards like Spectral Searchlight or Gilded Lotus, someone chooses a color on resolution. That color is not determined in the text itself by mana symbols, which, in addition to a card's mana cost, is the most common way of establishing a card's color identity. The other ways also don't apply:

  903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).

Therefore, you can use such colorless artifacts that produce a chosen color in any commander deck, including colorless ones.


Is castling still done in the openings in modern chess? I have read in a somewhat old book that castling was to be done as soon as possible, but some of my playing friends don't bother to do it in the opening. What's the modern usage?

It's normally a very good idea to castle early, but 'as soon as possible' is not really a correct rule. It depends on a number of factors, including your choice of opening, and your opponent's response.

Leaving your king in the middle of the board is a bad idea. Your pieces can be pinned, you're much more vulnerable, and your rooks can become isolated, trapped on the sidelines. One exception to this rule sometimes arises if you have exchanged queens. Once this happens it is considerably harder to mount a successful direct mid-game assault on the king, and it may sometimes be reasonable in this situation to treat the king as an additional fighting piece, rather than as a delicate thing to hide away on the sidelines and protect at all costs.

There are a couple of rare openings where not castling is a valid strategy, but they are unusual. Castling does not occur, or occurs very late, in some variations of the French Defense. See for example Kramnik-Anand, 2008. Similar things can happen in the Sicilian Taimanov and the Hedgehog Defense. Sometimes giving up castling is a valid line for white, as happens for example in some variations of the King's Gambit Accepted such as the King's Bishop's Gambit, where Black checks on h4, and white plays Kf1.


When you use Chancellor to discard your deck, do you gain a gold for each Tunnel discarded? When you play Chancellor and choose to move your discard pile into your deck, do you gain a Gold for each Tunnel moved into your discard pile?

From the wording of Chancellor, I would assume no because it doesn't mention that you're discarding those cards, but I don't have access to the rules at the moment to see if either base or Hinterlands rules cover this.

No
Per the Hinterland Rules, Chancellor does not trigger Tunnel

This ability does not function if cards are put into your discard pile without being discarded, .... when your deck is put into your discard pile, such as with Chancellor


Creatures with "Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~" Are there any other creatures that have an ability that's the same as Nettle Drone's second ability, "Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap [card name]"?

I'm not sure how exactly to search for it. Any insight?

The things I tried on Gatherer brought back a lot of false positives.

One option is to use Scryfall, which uses "~" in card text search to mean the name of the card that the text is on. So, for example, you can search

  o:"Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~"

This gives exactly one result: Nettle Drone.

In addition, Scryfall has a regular expression search that supports the same meaning of "~". So if you do the following card text search, you end up at Nettle Drone:

  re:"Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~"

For a slightly broader set of results, you can search for

  re:"Whenever * (cast|casts) (a|an)* spell,* untap ~"

This finds every ability of the form "Whenever [a player] cast(s) a(n) [characteristic] spell, untap [this permanent]". It finds a total of 9 cards, two of which untap when you cast any colorless spell: Dwarven Patrol and Nettle Drone.

You can also use this less-accurate regex:

  re:"Whenever * (cast|casts) (a|an)* spell,* untap"

This captures more cards outside our intentions but with a similar effect (e.g. Paradox Engine, Jeskai Ascendancy). More importantly, it includes cards like Blistercoil Weird which say "untap it" (in reference to themselves) following some other effect that's also occurring.


Can I use two different cards with the same name in Commander? I have two cards with the same name but different art and the card descriptions on the bottom. The card in question is Forsaken Sanctuary. It's a white/black land and I'm not sure if I can use both of them, it is the first time I've ran in to this.

No, card art or any other piece of information printed on a card doesn't matter. For card identity, the only factor is the English name being equal or not.
There are several reasons why cards with the same name can look different in print. They can be translated into another language. They can have alternate art in the same set (e.g. Hymn to Tourach). They can be reprinted in a different set, potentially with new art and/or general card style. Cards from different sets can have different printed characteristics, such as differently worded abilities, or different types (see THE GRAND CREATURE TYPE UPDATE
) due to changes in the rules or general wording conventions. Very early cards can even have misprints, such as Blue Hurricane.
However, ultimately the only factor in deciding whether or not two cards are identical is their English name; on a related note, the official characteristics of a card can be found on the Oracle website

108.1. Use the Oracle card reference when determining a card’s wording. A card’s Oracle text can be found using the Gatherer card database at Gatherer.Wizards.com.
201.2. A card’s name is always considered to be the English version of its name, regardless of printed language.
903.5b Other than basic lands, each card in a Commander deck must have a different English name.


Does the fact that my deck is aggro mean I should add or remove land? Say I have a deck where the only win condition I'm trying to win the first few turns. Would I want this deck to have a different number of lands than a control deck that is looking to win later in the game? An extra land or two could help me play my spells more quickly, but it would also mean that I would have fewer spells to play.

Can any general conclusions be made about the number of lands in an aggro deck vs. a control deck? Or is it so dependent on the deck and format that this is impossible?

Generally it's less about whether your deck is aggressive or not than what your deck's mana curve looks like - the two are very closely correlated, but they're not necessarily the same thing!  It's probably  fair to say that the 'average' deck through Magic's history has run about 24 lands, with aggressive decks a little lighter and control decks a little heavier - but with quite a bit of variance.

By and large, the rule is 'the lower your curve, the fewer lands you need' - for instance, the very mana-hungry Esper control decks in Standard (which generally want to be able to hit their first seven or eight mana drops so they can cast Sphinx's Revelation for a lot) will run 26 lands or even 27, whereas aggressive and low-curve red decks often drop down to about 22 lands.

For an example of a deck that's not specifically an agressive deck but still runs land-light, look at the so-called aggro-control decks whose goal is to try and get just one or two threats out there and then proactively protect them and which run very low land counts.  Some of the versions of Delver decks in the pre-Return to Ravnica standard environment are a perfect example of this; they were shaving down to 19 or 20 lands.

The Gitaxian Probe Delver decks (and similar tempo decks in formats like Legacy) also showcase another factor: the more cheap (and particularly 1-mana) card drawing spells a deck run, the more it can shave its land counts.  This is because by playing card draw spells it'll almost always be able to cast, the deck is effectively running one or two more 'virtual' lands - but note that this can be dangerous, because turns that would normally be spent playing threats often have to be spent searching for additional mana instead.  (And this explains why Probe in particular was so strong, since it didn't stunt development in this way.)

Another factor is whether a deck can make good use of 'land spells' or not.  A card like Nephalia Drownyard, for instance, isn't just a mana source to let a control player cast Supreme Verdict or Sphinx's Revelation 'on time', it's also a win condition for the deck, and so it encourages 'overloading' the land count since it doesn't diminish the threat density (which is the usual hazard of running too many lands).  Even more aggressive decks can take advantage of utility lands to boost their count while still keeping plenty of action; cards like Hellion Crucible, Kessig Wolf Run and Gavony Township are perfect examples of this kind of effect.


Strategy for Serenissima Serenissima is a game of trade during the renaissance. Players have ships to carry the cargo across the Mediterranean. They try to controll the harbor cities in order to set the price and collect the victory points.

Each ship has 5 positions that can be filled with either cargo or sailors. Ships move faster with more sailors and they have better defences but the goal of the game is to move the cargo across the map.

What are good strategies for this game, and are the strategies different with different starting areas?

In the game there are several harbors. Each harbor sells one of seven goods. And each harbor can buy 2, 4 or 6 goods (as long as there are no duplicates and they won't buy their own goods). The sold goods stay there until the end of the game. So goods can become rare quickly. And ironically, the easy goods are depleted first. So you need to focus on them first. Because you need them all to fill the 6 point harbors (not surprisingly the home harbors).

But that does not mean you can mostly ignore the rare goods. Because if your opponent has a monopoly in one good he can determine the price, and that can seriously cripple you.

I reccommend to:

send ships out with 2 or 3 goods to get the most common goods to fill your home harbor.
buy new ships as soon as possible (need some goods in a harbor so think ahead).
try to control at least 1 of the rare goods so you can negotiate prices with other owners.
in the end game, send some ships with 5 people around. To capture ships carrying the last goods and capture as many filled harbors (because they give you points in the end).


Does my Carbonite Cousin need feeding? For Christmas, I received Agricola - The Goodies. It's a fun expansion that provides new themed farm boards, shaped resources and animals, stickers for your people, and four interesting decks of cards. One of the decks is called the X-Deck, and adds random events that trigger when you take stone. Here's one of them:

Carbonite Cousin

  The family member taking this Action is frozen in Carbonite. He will be rescued during the Returning Home phase 3 rounds from now. At that time, place a Claim marker on any Action space of your choice. At the beginning of the following round, put the Family member on that Action space and carry out the action before the starting player takes his or her first action.

I have three questions.

Does my Carbonite Cousin need feeding each harvest that he's not in my house?
Does he still take up a space in the house (e.g. for family growth)?
If the game ends before he is rescued, what is his status? Does he still count towards my people score at the end?

1 Does my Carbonite Cousin need feeding each harvest that he's not in my house?

No.  He's frozen in carbonite.  As Threepio says "He should be quite well-protected -- if he survives the freezing process, that is."

  2 Does he still take up a space in the house (e.g. for family growth)?

No.  As Han Solo said, the point is: "To freeze a being solid, then hang him on a wall like some trophy?".  Wall art doesn't need a bedroom.

  3 If the game ends before he is rescued, what is his status? Does he still count towards my people score at the end?

No, as Leia says: "He's trapped in that thing forever unless somebody releases him."

See the Wookiepedia for more information.


Difōmā Raiton and going to zero Life Points I have a question about a Yu-Gi-Oh card that I have been thinking a bit about: Difōmā Raiton or in English Morphtronic Lantron.

In the anime, it appears in 5D's in the second season (episodes 142-143) as a Deus Ex Machina and reads the following effect:

  ● While in Attack Position: Any effect damage you would take from an opponent's card effect is inflicted to your opponent instead. ● While in Defense Position: When your Life Points become 0 while this card is face-up on the field, toss a coin and call it. If you call it right, gain 100 Life Points. Each player can only use the effect of "Morphtronic Lantron" once per Duel.

Its Defense Position effect was used in the anime.

This card was printed in the TCG in Extreme Victory, alongside a lot of late-second season cards. Its effect reads:

  ● While in Attack Position: Any effect damage you would take from an opponent's card effect is inflicted to your opponent instead.
  ● While in Defense Position: When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you take no Battle Damage this turn.

You can see that the Attack Position effect is the same, but not the Defense Position.

I am curious about why this effect was changed. Here were a few clues I had:

Card too overpowered alone
Maybe this would have been too overpowered alone. I don't think so compared to the meta at that time, in my opinion
Card is too strong in combo with another card
Maybe there is a combo with another card that is way too strong. I didn't manage to find a good combo for that
Rulings problem with the card
I believe this is the most likely case. I think there might be some shenanigans with the fact that you drop to zero Life Points; but I didn't find something clear enough in the Rulings.
Rulings problem in a combo
I didn't find a combo that fits this.

Could someone please provide an explanation?

It's hard to say why Konami chose the specific replacement that they did, but the reason why the effect changed is quite simple: The effect would be inconsistent with the rules of the game.

Your third assumption is correct. Quite plainly stated in the rules, if any player's LP becomes 0, that player loses the Duel (or, if both players simultaneously reach 0 life points, the Duel ends in a draw).

When LP reaches 0, that's that - the player loses. As a real-world example, consider the second effect of the card Salamangreat Sanctuary:

  You can pay 1000 LP, then target 1 Link Monster you control; make its
  ATK 0, and if you do, gain LP equal to its original ATK. You can only
  use each effect of "Salamangreat Sanctuary" once per turn.

It is legal to pay 1000LP when you have exactly 1000LP remaining. In this instance, you pay the 1000 LP, your LP drops to 0... and you do not gain LP from the effect of Sanctuary. You will immediately lose the Duel at this point.

Now, just on the side: that's not to say that it's impossible to make the effect work for the physical card game. It could easily have been something like, "When damage would be inflicted to you that would reduce your LP to 0: Toss a coin and call it. If you call it right, your LP becomes 100 instead." But that's neither here nor there.


How does the Stun mechanic work in this scenario in Maximum Apocalypse? In Maximum Apocalypse, what is the result of the following scenario?

As the Firefighter, I land on a tile and draw a monster, I used the Firefighter's short-range ability, 'Fire Extinguisher' to stun the monster, stunning it until the start of my next turn.

During the same turn, I then move to a new tile and draw a second monster.

Is the second monster stunned also?

For the duration of my turn, does the stun mechanic continue to stun all monsters that appear after I use it, or does the stun mechanic only affect monsters in play/range when I use it?

The second monster will not be stunned.

The fire extinguisher is an Instant Action, so you'll need to discard it upon use. When you discard it, you take the action that's printed on the card. In this case you stun all monsters on the same space as your character as per short range rules in the rulebook (BGG account may be needed):

  Short Range: These cards can target and affect the space that your character currently occupies.

You then move to a new tile, where the fire extinguisher was not used, and draw a monster. This monster (a) wasn't in range when you used the extinguisher and (b) you'd already used the effect in a previous action and discarded the card. The second monster will not be stunned.


Steam Park: Should danari count be secret from other players? In Steam Park, the danari values are only printed on one side, and the other sides are all the same. This suggests to me that a player's total should be kept hidden.
If it's intended to be an option, it's not documented.

It looks like you have it correct.
The designer demonstrates hiding his income when explaining the prototype of the game in 2012. (T=8:23 of this video)
He says explicitly in this video from Spiel 2013: "Money are kept secret." (T=9:48)
Later video reviews and/or game play explainer videos also concur:

Tom Vasel (T=7:40)
Dice Tower (T=10:02)


How can I learn about and keep track of major Magic tournaments in my local area? I've been interested in going to a large Magic tournament for a while now, though whether I can go and how far I could travel varies week by week.

I know how to look up the Grand Prix schedule and SGC tournaments. But I keep being surprised by other events — such as TCGPlayer tournaments, a different SGC formats, even PTQs, — only finding out about them when it's too late to make plans to go.

How can I make sure I'm aware of big tournaments near me with more lead time? Is there a resource that can show me tournament schedules from more than just one sponsor?

The official M:tG site offers a store and tournament locator. Just enter the name of the town you want to look up, and it will show you upcoming, official tournaments in that town and in an area around it.

Of course, this can only cover sanctioned tournaments that WotC knows about - for unofficial tournaments, your best bet is probably to get in touch with the local player base and store owners.


Canasta Red-3 Up-Card In the rules of Canasta, it says that if the up-card at the beginning of a round is a Red 3, then the discard pile is frozen.
But doesn't that go without saying? The discard pile is always frozen to everybody at the start of a round until someone goes down with the initial meld requirement.
What am I missing here?

It matters in the case that someone Melds without picking up the discard pile. In this case; that rule means that the discard pile is still frozen, even though it wouldn’t be if the up-card had not been a red 3.


Canasta and the rules on invalid melding Would like to know what happens when you come down with an invalid meld You have now exposed all your cards on the table. I was told you have to leave them down on the table and use them as discards. Until they are all gone. My question is is if you come down with a valid meld can your partner open and put her meld down? Or do you have to wait till all the cards that were exposed are discarded?

There are two different rules that pertain to this and it will differ based on the exact rules being played at the time. Some rules list for the first meld you would take it back but have a penalty for next attempt. Others say you would take back the invalid meld and pay a point penalty.

The main point of having to leave the cards face up on the table if you expose them is to prevent partners from sharing information for their benefit.

Rules

  If a player exposes any cards from his hand, but does not meld them, he must leave them face-up on the table, and discard them one at a time in subsequent turns. However, if these cards can be validly melded before they are discarded, he may do so, rather than discard them.

  If a player makes an invalid meld by adding more than three wild cards to a meld, he may either transfer the extra wild card(s) to another valid meld, discard them, or return them to his hand and take a 100-point penalty. (This penalty also applies to the initial meld.)

More Rules

  If you put down an initial meld that doesn’t meet the minimum point requirement, you can put down additional melds on that same turn to make up the required total without penalty. You can also take back your attempt, but the minimum total you have to meet the next time you try goes up by 10 points — quite a severe penalty.