morphing jar in a chaos dragon-like deck. yes or no? I've been using morphing jar a couple times and it's helped out sometimes. Sometimes it hasn't.
Wondering if someone with a little more experience would run it.
Of course, engine consists of most Chaos Dragon deck cards (cause I don't have all of them aha)

This is entirely dependant on the metagame you're playing in. And also on the current format (that is, Forbidden and Limited List).

For instance,

if your metagame highly favors decks that destroy many monsters by effects, even face-down ones, Morphing Jar is not a good idea because it will often be destroyed before even getting the chance to flip for its effect.
If your metagame favors fast swarming decks that can do insane amounts of damage in a single turn, Morphing Jar is a bad idea because it will often take the spot of a card that might have saved you, while he only lay there and stopped one attack, which wasn't enough to save you from losing.
If you metagame favors many Set Cards or decks that play out their hands almost every turn, Morphing Jar is a double-edged Card because on the one hand, it can really help you in getting a new hand after playing everything down, but on the other hand, it can help your opponent even more if they just played out their entire hand and get a fresh 5 Cards essentially for free.
If your metagame favors slow setup decks that collect combos or do little for several turns, Morphing Jar is generally a good idea because it will have disruptive power and might just survive into your turn so you can play down your entire hand and Flip Summon it to get the most out of its effect.
If your metagame is full of Dark World decks, Morphing Jar is a terrible idea. Read any Dark World Monster and you will know why.

Bottom line, Morphing Jar is one of those general Cards that are only as good as the metagame they're in and depend much more on those circumstances than on the deck you're playing.
Watch what decks others are playing and how typical turns play out, then think about the impact a Set Morphing Jar would have. If you do that for many different (but common) situations, you will get a very good feeling of how well Morphing Jar fits into your metagame.


UNO Stacking a Draw 4 Card instead of picking up 4 cards? Need clarification on the Draw 4 rule.
- Player 1 lays down a Draw 4 Card and says the color is Red.
- Player 2 does not have a Red card but has a Draw 4 Card.
Can Player 2 lay down his Draw 4 Card and have Player 3 draw 8 cards?

Not under the standard rules - there is no ability to respond to a Wild +4 (or a +2 for that matter). If the previous player to you played one of those cards, you take the cards and the turn pass.

"Stacking" + cards is a common house rule, but we obviously can't tell you what your house rules are.


Identify this dominos game I played a game with a friend a few years ago and I can't remember what we called it.

The game used a pack of dominos however you placed them around a central card. I believe it was a hexagon and required a double to start (although this may be incorrect).

As you placed your dominoes the game grew out in a star shape. As normal the game ended when a player managed to place all their dominoes.

Mexican train Dominos.

It also goes as train dominos as well.


Tool to search for cards with similar functionality I'm looking for a tool/website that would aid in deck building, specifically by providing alternatives to a specific card, say Fog. It should respond with traditional data plus suggestions of similar cards like Haze of Pollen or Commencement of Festivities.

I've looked on Google's Play Store, and also tried many of the leading websites (TappedOut, ChannelFireball, etc.) While TCGPlayer and Amazon will recommend cards based on other buyers purchases, those suggestions may not be similar in nature to the first card.

Gatherer does have comments on many cards, but it's too time consuming to scroll page after page.

MythicSpoiler provides something they call "Thesaurus" (usually used for finding word synonyms).

Although not the site's primary functionality, you can search for specific cards and it will yield you similar cards in nature and functionality, and excluding any other factors, which has its own pitfalls - for example, it wouldn't give you just any other green card, but it might give you a non-green alternative with the same function. The range is limited to three cards at a time, though.
Searching for Fog, for example, you will get suggestions for Druid's Deliverance, Moment's Peace, and Moonmist.

This is an exclusively manual process, as stated by its creator. You can choose to partake in this process by submitting your own card suggestions.

There are attempts to solve this issue procedurally as well, such as this attempt to solve it via NLP (Natural Language Processing). They link to a GitHub repository, but unfortunately there seems to be no existing implementation to try it out yourself quickly.

That said, for the multitude of cards available as alternatives to Fog, you're better off doing a specific Gatherer search (or search the database tool of your choice in a similar manner), for example for all green spells with the phrase "Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn". This is the only process I can think of that will guarantee that you're not missing the card you're looking for, as long as you choose your search parameters sensibly - for example, the above search won't yield Terrifying Presence as a result.


Kids clubhouse game? Do you remember the game we played growing up where you would try to find a red ball, roller skates, ball glove, and teddy bear? There was a clubhouse I think as well. It’s definitely a children’s game. Maybe it had dice as It was a board game.Everyone plays as kids and if you find everything you first you win.

I believe you are thinking of Clue Jr.: The Case of the Hidden Toys, published in 1996 by Hasbro and Parker Brothers.

Here's a link to it on Board Game Geek. You can look through the pictures and see if it looks familiar, but I'm pretty sure this is it.


Tapping opponents creatures If your opponent uses the ability where you can't untap until next turn can he use another card like that and have it stack for multiple turns?

It depends on the exact wording of the card in question (it's always helpful to give specific examples in these types of questions). If you mean a card like sleep, then no, it will not stack. Sleep makes the creatures not untap during the opponent's next untap step; even if you cast 2 of them on the same turn, they would both affect the same untap step.

But if you mean something like yosei, the morning star, then 2 instances of his triggered ability would stack. Each one would cause your opponent to skip his next untap step; so there are 2 replacement effects trying to replace the untap step. One if them would replace the next untap step with skipping that step; the other would would then still be around, waiting to skip the untap step that would happen after that.


Tidehollow Sculler and Ruin Processor If I play Tidehollow Sculler and remove a card from the game then I play a Ruin Processor to put that card to the graveyard, would my opponent return the card from graveyard to hand when Tidehollow Sculler dies?

No, it would not return to your opponent's hand that way.

The reason for that is that the previously exiled card is no longer in exile. It explicitly says that it moves the card from exile to opponent's hand, but the card is no longer in exile by that time, so it's trying to do something impossible.

Also, the object represented by that card stops existing when it changes zones, and a new object is created, represented by the same card. There are some exceptions that allow objects to be tracked across zones, but none of them apply here.

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule:


Can creatures with Undying or Persist escape from Grave Betrayal? Can creatures with Undying or Persist escape from Grave Betrayal?

  702.78a Persist is a triggered ability. "Persist" means "When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no
  -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it."

  702.92a Undying is a triggered ability. "Undying" means "When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no
  +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it."

Yes. According to Gatherer, Grave Betrayal creates a delayed trigger that looks for the original corpse:

  Each creature you don’t control that dies causes a delayed triggered
  ability to trigger at the beginning of the next end step. If there are
  multiple such abilities, you can put them on the stack in any order.
  The creatures will return to the battlefield one at a time as each
  ability resolves. The last ability you put on the stack will be the
  first one to resolve.

  If the creature card leaves the graveyard before the delayed triggered
  ability resolves, it won’t return to the battlefield. This is also
  true if the card leaves the graveyard and returns to the graveyard
  before that ability resolves.


Can an opponent destroy an Iron Maiden during their upkeep to avoid taking damage from it? I'll lay out the situation.  I have an Iron Maiden in play.  My opponent begins his turn with 10 cards in his hand (including a Disenchant), and 1 life.  Iron Maiden's ability triggers at the beginning of his upkeep.

Can he Disenchant it in response to avoid taking the damage?  Is there some other time after untap phase that he can Disenchant it, or was he doomed to lose from the moment his turn began?

No.  The  iron maiden's ability goes onto the stack before any player gets priority, and it will resolve regardless of whether it's source is still on the battlefield when it does.

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source
  after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities
  cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer
  deals 1 damage to target creature or player”) rather than the ability
  doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered
  ability that references information about the source because the
  effect needs to be divided checks that information when the ability is
  put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it
  resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone
  it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is
  used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer
  exists.

.

  503  Upkeep Step

  503.1. First, any abilities that trigger at the beginning of the upkeep step and any abilities that triggered during the turn’s untap
  step go on the stack. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)

  503.2. Second, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

  503.3. If a spell states that it may be cast only “after [a player’s] upkeep step,” and the turn has multiple upkeep steps, that spell may
  be cast any time after the first upkeep step ends.


Should I read the instructions to Betrayal Legacy before the Prologue? I'm starting a game of Betrayal Legacy next week.

Everyone playing has played Betrayal at House on the Hill and/or Baldur's Gate, though it's been some time (months - years). I've played a lot, but the last time was about a year ago.

I think it would be exciting to open the box together, but this should be second to having the game go smoothly.

Are the rules similar enough to the other Betrayal games, or short enough, that I don't have to read them ahead of time, or should I familiarize myself with them before we meet for the Prologue (and possibly Chapter 1, depending on time).

The gameplay is just different enough from the original game (example in spoilers below) to make reading the instructions necessary, but I think this can be done during unboxing with the other players. If you would prefer to read the instructions ahead of time but still open the box together, they're posted online at Avalon Hill's website: https://media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/rules/BLY-Rulebook.pdf

As noted by @bwarner "The beginning of the rules also contains a "here's what is different from other Betrayal games" page. If you learn those things, and you've played Betrayal before, you will likely be good."  This is page 3 of the rulebook linked above.

For the most part the Legacy deck will guide you through what's special about each chapter. Please note though that the rulebook itself will change during the course of the game, and should be reviewed during each session to re-familiarize yourselves with what's changed.

Gameplay spoilers (not anything plot related):

   Events / Item cards, similar to tiles, can now only be drawn in certain zones. e.g. There are "upstairs" items and "ground floor" items. This was hard to remember in our first game.

Rulebook comment (contains plot spoiler):

  During the prologue you may encounter a rule in-game related to something in the rulebook that doesn't have a reference icon. Note: the item referenced already exists in the house tiles. If it's unclear, try to look up what the icon should be.


What do I need to get (re)started in Warmachine? I got into Warmachine a while ago, then fell out of it. I'm looking to get back into it, but I'm not sure what books I would now need. I have a couple of the original books, but I don't have the Mk2 book. It seems that I could just start over with that.

Any suggestions?

You neet Warmachine MKII rulebook and the MKII cards for your models.
Depending on how many models you already have you can buy the single cards from the PP online Sore or your faction card Deck.


What are Riggers and Contraptions in MTG and how do I assmble them? (Steamflogger boss question) I just saw this card called Steamflogger Boss today, but I've never heard of a Rigger, a Contraption, or an ability called 'assemble' in Magic. Am I missing something? Does this card refer to a very rare card type like locus of which there are only a few examples? It seems like the card would make perfect sense if I could only find something that could assemble a darn contraption...

Update: It is now the future. We now know what this mechanic is thanks to Unstable!

Contraptions aren't put into your main deck. To play with them, you must build a separate Contraption deck
In Constructed formats, such as Standard-but-with-silver-borders, Commander-but-with-silver-borders, and all-Un-set-Constructed-but-with-Steamflogger-Boss-I-guess, your Contraption deck contains at least fifteen unique Contraptions. The Contraption deck is "singleton," meaning you're limited to only one of each Contraption.
In a Limited format, such as Booster Draft or Sealed Deck, your Contraption deck can contain any or all the Contraptions in your card pool. The fifteen-card minimum and the one-of rule don't apply. You can play whatever Contraptions you draft or open.
Several cards in the set will instruct you or a creature you control to assemble a Contraption. To do this, turn the top card of your Contraption deck face up. Then, put it onto the battlefield under one of your Contraption deck's three sprockets, helpfully labeled Sprocket 1, Sprocket 2, and Sprocket 3.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control at least one Contraption, you move the CRANK! counter forward one sprocket (so, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, or from 3 to 1). Then you can crank any of the Contraptions under that sprocket. This causes their abilities to trigger. You can put these abilities on the stack in any order. Also, you don't have to crank a Contraption if you don't want to.
How you assemble your Contraptions determines what kind of infernal machine you're building. Load up one sprocket to produce a devastating turn every three turns, or spread them out to make sure you get something every turn?

Taken as a copy paste of the major points for the article detailing them here.

To all you still back in 2012, I hope this was helpful, you just have to wait 5 years or so to play with them.


What is the use of Swift Silence? So I have a red blue Guttersnipe deck that I personally love to use, but my friend and I keep running into this situation. In my hand for the purpose of explaining this say I have all Lightning Bolts and a Guttersnipe on the field. All he has available is a Swift Silence. Now since I know that he runs Swift Silence I will only play 1 lightning bolt in the ending phase before passing off priority. My friend will then also pass priority because he wants to stop the full combo with the Swift Silence.

So what happens?

Since he passed priority, Guttersnipe's ability which is on top of the
stack will resolve but the Lightning Bolt won't. So when I play another Lightning Bolt on the stack he can than use Swift Silence to counter both Lightning Bolts and Guttersnipe's ability?
Guttersnipe's ability resolves, I pass, then he passes again so the Lightning Bolt would resolve. I can than play another Lightning Bolt on top of the empty stack and start the loop over?
When we let both Guttersnipe's ability and Lightning Bolt resolve since it is a empty stack would my turn then be over since I was doing this on my end step?

However if I can just keep playing stuff using this loop what would Swift Silence ever be useful for other than say a Grapeshot?

Assuming you play your Bolts right your opponent can counter at most 1 of them.
This is what happens:

You have priority, you cast Bolt, Guttersnipe triggers, you have priority again
You pass priority, your opponent gains priority and can cast their counter if they want to, eventually they also pass priority
Guttersnipes ability resolves, you gain priority, you pass priority
Your opponent gains priority, again they can choose to cast their counter, eventually they pass priority back to you
As long as it wasn't countered your Bolt resolves. You gain priority after it resolves and can cast another Bolt if you want to.

If at anytime your opponent casts their counter the following is added to the previous steps:

They have priority, they cast their counter spell, they still have priority and pass
You gain priority, at this point you can choose to cast more spells if you want to, eventually you will pass priority
The counter spell will resolve, your Bolt will be countered, you gain priority and can cast more Bolts if you want to

A step or phase doesn't end until both you and your opponent have passed priority and the stack is empty.
As you point out Swift Silence is best against Storm decks, and other decks that have multiple spells on the stack at the same time (like Hive Mind)

116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.
116.3d If a player has priority and chooses not to take any actions, that player passes. If any mana is in that player’s mana pool, he or she announces what mana is there. Then the next player in turn order receives priority.
116.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.


Reverse the Sands and Sanguine Bond If I have Sanguine Bond on the battlefield, and I play Reverse the Sands, will the redistribution of life trigger Sanguine Bond if I choose to distribute less life to my opponent than he originally had?

ex. I have 10 life left, my opponent has 14 life left. I play RtS and distribute life totals so I end up with 23 life and my opponent with 1 life, would that be considered a "loss of life/life gain" situation?

Yes, Sanguine will trigger, but you can't set his life total to 1.

Changing life totals is treated as gaining life or losing life to reach the specified life total[CR 118.5]. So that will trigger the bond in this case. (It wouldn't if you started at 14 and he started at 10.)

However, you've misunderstood what Reverse the Sands does. The specific gatherer ruling on this for the card is "You can't split up a life total when you redistribute it". You can only make your opponent's total 10 and yours 14 , or make no changes.

So you end up with the same life totals on different players, and then resolve any following effects. In this case he loses 4 and you gain 4, and then Sanguine triggers off your lifegain and he loses another 4. If you choose not to redistribute, Sanguine won't trigger.


Return a creature with an adventure to hand, can i cast the instant/sorcery again? Will returning Brazen Borrower from the battlefield to my hand using the -3 ability of Teferi, Time Raveler enable me to cast Petty Theft again?

The rulings say nothing against it but I have the feeling that this would be kind of broken. But on the other hand you don't remember something like a "card state" I guess.

Yes, you would be able to use the adventure again.

If an object changes zones (like battlefield, hand, library, graveyard and exile) it is a completely new object and knows nothing about anything that happened to "it" (the card that represents it) before. So you can send everything off on an adventure again. But you are right, for that you have to have played the creature part of the adventure and then return it to hand. Before that the card is in exile (and thus hard to interact with).


How many players do you need for M:TG drafting? How many players do you need for M:TG drafting? If you try drafting with too few players, what problems do you get? If you try drafting with too many players, what problems does that cause?

In order to be a sanctioned and rated Magic tournament you need at least 8 players, with no upper limit (though multiples of 8 are generally best). Players are then split into 'pods' based on the number of players attempting to get as close to 8 as possible, while having all pods be roughly equal size. (MTR 7.6 and 10.1) In my experience pods of 6-10 work best.

For just casual drafting you can have as few as 2 players. However the fewer players you have the smaller the pool of cards your pod will have to draft with. This will mean you will have fewer cards for any given archetype so you are more likely to be fighting with your neighbors for the cards you need.

However even though there are fewer cards you will end up seeing a larger proportion of the cards available (for example with a 4 player pod you will see 42/48 [87.5%] cards whereas with 8 players you would see 84/112 [75%]). This would make it so that you have a better idea of what everyone else is playing and make signaling easier.

With pods larger than 8 the problems are almost the opposite of pods smaller than 8. While you are less likely to be fighting with your neighbors for cards since there are more of them, you are also less able to plan ahead. With 8 players in a pod with your first pack you will get 6 of those cards back, an knowing which cards were taken can give you an idea of what other people are playing. If you had more than that you might only be getting 2 cards back, which tells you a lot less because almost all of the cards were gong to be picked anyway.

While a standard draft may not work with a small number of players there are several draft variants that work well (and are even designed for) as few as 2 players.


Chance card in monopoly My piece was on Mayfair [Boardwalk in US version].  After moving, I passed GO and landed on the Chance along Kingcross station [Reading Railroad in US version].

The Chance card reads "go to Pall Mall [St. Charles Place in US version] and if you pass GO collect £200 [$200 in US version]".

Can I collect £200 [$200 in US version] since I did pass go before landing on the chance space? What location is the Chance card concerned with?  My original space (Mayfair) or the current Chance space?

The idea is, that you move clockwise (the normal direction) on the board until you reach your destination. If you passed Go, you collect the $200. If you did not pass Go, you did not collect $200.

In your case:

You are on Mayfair, rolled 8 and land on Chance. You passed Go, so you collect $200. Next the card sends you to Pall Mall. In this case, you did not pass Go, so you did not collect (another) $200.

And of course, you need to stop when you reach the destination for the first time (you can not go around the board several times to collect several times $200 ;-) ).


Can I use my Tafl game to play Thud? I recently purchased a new game: Hnefatafl
Now as far as I'm aware, this is the game that Thud is based on, which is the real game I want to play. For reference, here is my set:

And here are my pieces:

I have twelve defenders, and 24 attackers. It looks like those aren't enough (based on the number in the wiki link), so how can I make up the numbers? Or can I play n a smaller board?
Also, what is the best way to reproduce that original board? Do I need to consider anything balance-wise if I do shrink the board/number of pieces? What else should I consider?
edit:
This is actually hnefatafl according to this wikipdia page I found

To play Thud, whether regular rules or Koom Valley rules, you need a 15x15 board, made round by lopping off the corners such that the straight edges are 5 long, and the diagonals are 6 long. You then need 32 "dwarf" pieces, 8 "troll" pieces and one central "Rock" piece.

The board dimensions are critical, as is the number of pieces. Any other board size, any other number of pieces, will result in a giant advantage for one side or the other. The balance is all about the timing it takes for trolls to reach the dwarves and start splatting: it has to be exactly the same amount of time as it takes a skilled dwarf player to have the start of a block built, so they can start hitting trolls in return. And that means you need five squares clear between trolls and dwarfs at the start. Four squares, and it's a clear win for trolls. Six squares, and dwarfs wipe the board. Remove the rock in the middle, and it's a clear win for trolls. And so on. It's not like go where the board size can be changed within reason without affecting the core gameplay: any change to the board changes the balance.

It might be easier to just get cardboard and draw the board out, or to get a decent sized go board. It's certainly not immoral to play the game with stuff you made yourself, nor stuff you bought elsewhere and co-opted. Though I just checked and it looks like Bernard "the cunning artificer" Pearson's Discworld Emporium of Wincanton (the only town in the world officially Twinned with Ankh Morpork) does still sell boards and pieces of great beauty.


In Pandemic can I immediately cure disease to return to the 7 card limit? I have 7 cards in my hand 4 red, 3 yellow (both uncured diseases). I take a red card from another player in my city, can I immediately cure disease (there is a research center in my city) to enable me to return below the 7 card limit?

You can't do this, since you discard immediately if at any time you have more than 7 cards. From the rules:

  If you ever have more than 7 cards in hand (after first resolving any Epidemic cards you may have drawn), discard cards or play Event cards until you have 7 cards in hand (...).

Drawing epidemics is the only exception; those don't stay in your hand long enough to cause you to discard.

This is also mentioned under "commonly overlooked rules":

  Your hand limit applies immediately after getting a card from another player.

Note that the reminder text in the corner of the board might lead you astray here, saying:

  Take 4 actions
  Draw 2 cards

  Resolve epidemics
  Discard to 7 cards

  Draw Infection cards

You should read that as a reminder that you may need to discard then, not as an indication that you don't need to discard at other times.


what happens with commanders and o ring effects? I know that when a commander is exiled, the owner has the option of putting it in
exile or back in the command zone, but what about effects that only remove it as
long as a permanent is in play, like o ring, or angel of serenity. does the
commander leave play until the mentioned permanents leave play or can the opp bypass them and just put the commander in the command zone.

Yes, as rule 903.9 describes, the commander's owner may put it in the command zone:

  If a commander would be exiled from anywhere or put into its owner’s hand, graveyard, or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead


What are the differences between Chinese and Japanese rules in Go? What are the differences? And do these differences influence strategy?

From Wikipedia:

Although there are some minor differences between rule sets used in different countries, most notably in Chinese and Japanese scoring rules, these differences do not seriously affect the tactics and strategy of the game.
There are two basic scoring systems used to determine the winner at the end of a game; they almost always give the same result. Territory scoring counts the number of empty points your stones surround, together with the number of stones you captured. While it originated in China, today it is commonly associated with Japan and Korea. Area scoring counts the number of points your stones occupy and surround. It is associated with contemporary Chinese play and was probably established there during the Ming Dynasty in the 15th or 16th century.

Read the full article here.


Do "interaction" effects cause people to buy buildings in tandem in Puerto Rico? I am asking this question because I have rarely seen this striking phenomenon addressed in other questions.

By "interaction "effects, I'm referring to the fact that if you buy a production building such as a small sugar mill, you get one victory point (VP) and if you buy the guild hall, you get 4 VPs, and 1+4=5 VP. But if you buy them both in tandem, you get the aforementioned 5 VPs, plus a bonus VP (the interaction effect), for a total of 6 VP. Likewise, if you buy a "violet" (non-production) building plus the city hall, you get (1-4) VPs "standalone" for each violet building, four for city hall, and one bonus VP for each violet building (the interaction term).

Do such synergies cause people to think, "I'm going to "max out" on production or violet buildings and buy the guild hall or city hall, respectively?" Or the reverse, I'm going to buy the guild hall/city hall ASAP and "max out on production/violet buildings afterwards? And would a production-oriented person who has bought a guild hall think, "My main opponent has a lot of violet VPs, so I'd better buy city hall before he does to deprive him/her of those "interaction" VP's even though city hall is worth only 4 VPs to me?"

Or are there better uses for your resources than the ones I've described above?

I don't think you can just sit down with a strategy as precise as knowing your end buildings and stay competitive against a more flexible player.  The game does not have a lot of randomness but the distribution of plantations does play a huge role on the rest of the game.

It's well balanced in the sense that if you are too out of control in one dimension then you are not giving the other dimensions enough attention and the other players should be able to exploit that.  Once you have a competitive advantage then by all means exploit it, but like most Euro games you should probably spend the first half building an engine and the second half running after VPs.

All that said, your engine will probably be built around selling, shipping, or building and each of them has big buildings which work best with them.  The wharf and/or harbor can be more powerful than one of those big buildings if used well.

In terms of defensive buying you have to decide if the person you are targeting is ahead of you and if you are in second by a wide margin.  The VP cost of the defensive purchase is the marginal difference in VPs between your ideal purchase and the one you are considering.


Dungeon Lords Questions - Really Hard! Dungeon Lords (amazing game!) has a free-to-download "Minions Bearing Gifts" expansion at its website.  However, the expansion is only recommended for expert players of the game, and to give an indication of just how expert, the designers have included a quiz that you are advised to score well on before you even think about downloading the expansion.

The quiz is really, really, hard.  Having played maybe half a dozen games of Dungeon Lords, I wasn't expecting to ace it... but I got 1/7.

I thought it might be fun for us to try our hand at working out the answers to the questions together.  After all, there's no reason we can't collaborate in our efforts to become experts at the game!  Without further ado, the quiz:

There are 7 pretty tricky questions. Think well, as there might be a catch. The correct answers might include situations that are theoretically allowed by the rules but probably never happen (as they require improbable yet possible card configurations and player behavior).

If you have to gain more evil than evilometer allows you, you are not gaining any. Can this theoretically happen in the second round of the game?

a. No.
b. Yes.
c. Yes, but only if you hire at least one Vampire.
d. Yes, but only if you hire two Vampires.
What is the theoretical maximum number of imps a player can accumulate during a 4 player game?
What is the highest possible damage one trap can deal?
Can it happen that an illusionary hero created by Second Year’s Illusion spell survives a combat round?

a. He usually does.
b. He never does.
c. He can survive only a round in which was party not conquering.
d. Theoretically, it can survive even a round in which was party conquering.
What is the theoretical maximum number of actually healed damage in a single round of combat if there is no paladin involved?
What is the lowest possible score you can achieve in the game.
It is start of the last round of a 2 player game (fall of Second Year) and opponent has no production room. If scored now, you would win all 7 exclusive titles. May it happen you score no title (exclusive nor shared) at the end of the game?

a. No, you will keep at least one shared title.
b. Yes, but your opponent has to use all three minion actions well this round.
c. Yes, even if your opponent does not perform one of his minion actions.
d. Yes, even if your opponent does not perform two of his minion actions.

I worked through the seven questions myself when I first bought them game, but as I don't remember the answers right off the top of my head, I'll preface this answer with the statement that I've gotten the following answers off of a thread BoardGameGeek.

Question 1: If you have to gain more evil than evilometer allows you, you are not gaining any. Can this theoretically happen in the second round of the game?

On round 1 and 2 you play food, getting on the third space (in round one two people do it before your first placement). Thats 4 evil.

On round 2 title envy event occurs. You collect 1 evil per title, for the following:
Most evil (from your 4 evil from food)
Most room (1 vs 0/0/0)
Most tunnels (You dug 2, no one else dug, 4/3/3/3 after the room)
Most monsters (1 vs 0/0/0)
Most imps (4 vs 0/0/0)
Most resources (you gained off the food, they spent some if needed).

Note that you cannot collect 'fewest conquered tiles'.

Thats 10 evil, maxing you out, but we still need one more, so your Monster that you recruited is a Witch for one evil. (Vampire not needed. Ghost doesnt count as a monster for monsterlord).

Your three actions each round combine to these 6 actions:
Food, Food, Tunnel, Imps, Monster, Room.

We go above the top of the evilometer on Title Envy when the final title is awarded. (Note: that Witch recruit was before the title payout, so yes it works).

Question 2: What is the theoretical maximum number of imps a player can accumulate during a 4 player game?

30
3 from the beginning of the game, 12 from magic room (4 x 1 in first year, 4 x 2 in second year), 15 from actions (the player have to take imps as first action each round except last round, so he will be at least once first and so obtain only one imp 7 x 2 + 1 x 1).

Question 3: What is the highest possible damage one trap can deal?

Nine. Poisonous food used onto eight life adventurer with one extra life because of magic food.

Question 4: Can it happen that an illusionary hero created by Second Year’s Illusion spell survives a combat round?

Theoretically, it can survive even a round in which was party conquering.
1st round – illusion is created. Party doesn’t conquer.
2nd round – illusion is boosted by magic food. Party doesn’t conquer.
3rd round – illusion survives one fatigue from conquering.

Question 5 What is the theoretical maximum number of actually healed damage in a single round of combat if there is no paladin involved?

Ten. Party composed from two priests with three hearts each and one wizard (three casting symbols). Initially an illusionary hero with two wounds is created (analogical to previous answer) in first two rounds. Also some damage is dealt among the adventures. In the third round slime hits the party, the wizard casts healing spell and one wound is healed to each member of the party including the illusionary hero. Two priests heal the rest six wounds.

Question 6 What is the lowest possible score you can achieve in the game?

-72. You can have sixteen tunnels which results in 8 x -3 points each year for unpaid taxes. Nine tunnels were destroyed by adventures 9 x -2 (once double conquering because of the spell) and the visiting minister of Dungeons was hungry (2 x -3).
Summary: -48 (unpaid taxes) -18 (destroyed tunnels) – 6 (visiting minister) = -72

Question 7 It is start of the last round of a 2 player game (fall of Second Year) and opponent has no production room. If scored now, you would win all 7 exclusive titles. May it happen you score no title (exclusive nor shared) at the end of the game?

Yes, even if your opponent does not perform one of his minion actions.

First player has all titles, second has none.
Second player dig four tunnels as his first action and hire monster as second action. First player’s actions are chosen so that they do not interfere with loosing titles.
Special event is an Earthquake. First player looses two rooms, second player looses two tunnels (Other option is the Extra tax special event).
The Lord of Dark Deeds – lost in the combat (because of destroyed tiles)
The Lord of Halls – lost because of an Earthquake
The Tunnellord – lost by the only minion action of the second player
The Monsterlord – lost in the combat (because of Dimensional gate)
The Lord of Imps – lost in the combat (two or three Kamikadze Ims)
The Lord of Riches – lost in the combat (two or more traps used)
The Battlelord – lost in the combat (because of destroyed tiles)
Second player doesn’t loose any tile or monster in the combat and he uses no traps (For example party of a paladin and three rogues (the case the first player has taken action Improve Reputation so the second player is the most evil from the beginning of the combat), first round a daemon and a dragon in the Anti-magic Room, second round a goblin finishes the three wounded rogues in Training Room).


Can I still use Profane Memento if I have out Silent Gravestone? Can I use abilities of Profane Memento if I have out Silent Gravestone ?

Silent Gravestone has no interaction with Profane Memento. Silent Gravestone's static ability says

  Cards in graveyards can't be the targets of spells or abilities.

Profane Memento's ability does not try to target anything in graveyards or otherwise. It simply reacts to cards moving into the graveyard. So, the ability keeps working even if you have Silent Gravestone on the battlefield.


Balancing Creature battles in a new card game First off, I don't know if this is the ideal site for this question. I am thinking of creating a card game and am currently trying to remove balancing issues concerning  creature battle system (looks like MTG's). After some intial failed draft ideas I started to employ a few mathematical functions to make sure everything is balanced. That is why I am unsure if this question is supposed to go here, since it looks rather much like a mathematical problem now. I will leave most of that away, but I could explain.

So what do I currently have and what is wrong:
In the game, there are 7 types of creatures. Creatures have an Attack, Defense and Health stat. When health hits 0 a creature dies. Every type describe a sort of base stats for every creature of that type. So type 1 could describe 4/4/4 and type 2 6/2/4 (with attack/defense/health notation that I will be using from now on). So every type has sort of unique creature stats.
 When creatures attack the attacked player can decide to block with one of his/her creature (again, like MTG. Both creatures deal damage to each other). To check if the system is balanced I make a table that has all seven type base stats horizontally as 'attackers' and all seven type base stats vertically as 'defenders'. Then I check every outcome and look if a certain type has more wins (wins being that the attacker survived and the defender died) than the others.

However all things I tried until now did not turn out to be balanced, or really boring. The first system of attacking worked as follows:
damage to health = attack - defense.
When I could not

Then it occured that I needed another system so I came up with this:
damage to health = highest_of_these_numbers(attack modulo defense, attack / defense)
This produced really weird results because of the modulo.

After that I came up with some other unpromising systems, which I have yet to test some of these of.
The testing takes quite a while and I thought that someone here might have a very good idea to make it balanced. Or maybe, some people tried it and found out it is impossible.

So the question is, what would make a balanced system of type base stats, seven of them and a good health damage calculation?

Forget fixed stat blocks decided by the type. They're too deterministic! Nobody wants to remember all those different number triplets! What should you do instead?

Use non-transitive dice

Each creature has a colour for attack and one for defence. When a creature is attacking, it rolls a die of the same colour as its attack marker, and similarly for its defence. The higher result succeeds, whether to hit or to block. A five-year-old could learn this game in five minutes.

How do types fit into this?

You could set each type to a unique colour, and each colour to a unique type. Then you have guaranteed a balanced competition in which every type has advantages and disadvantages in the same measure, and in a way that is determined by simple rules, but provides some chance of winning despite the disadvantage or losing despite the advantage.

I'm sure finding or creating a seven-member set of non-transitive dice is easy with Google available. You're definitely not the first person to investigate these amazing quirks of probability. Problem solved!

Or you could make this game interesting...

Who says Type X has to use red dice for boh attack and defence? Why can't they roll a red attack and a green defence, or a yellow attack and red defence?

By mixing and matching different colour combinations, you can simultaneously make your game simpler in mechanic by reducing the number of colours (from seven to say, four) but deeper in strategy (because there are now sixteen possible combinations, and they will all interact differently with the others).

Now creatures may be perilously weak against some enemies, but immensely strong against others. They might be their own worst enemy or their own easiest target.

But wait, there's more. Include colours that are always weaker or always stronger (like a white one rolling five 2 and a single 7, or a black one rolling a single 1 and 10 otherwise). Now you can build the type that fails spectacularly but carries useful benefits, or the type that will always win after striking first but always lose if forced to wait, or the type that is expensive but virtually unbeatable once it gets involved.

So how do I count damage done, when both need to inflict it?

You roll both creatures making an attack, and both creatures making a block. Successful attacks knock off a health point, or even just knock off the opponent.

You should not be aiming to guarantee damage for or to either side - again, deterministic and boring. The result otherwise is a MTG-style arms race where only the players who spend hundreds on cards and the encyclopaedic knowledge to tailor decks specifically to an opponent can win effectively at a high level, or knowing the only rules technicality that the opponent has failed to protect against.

This game has a simple mechanic, that everybody knows. The rest is all down to what you can do with what you have, and that's the same for everybody. The best player isn't rich or connected or a lawyer-in-training; they're a thinker who can take efficient risks for effective rewards no matter what situation they find themselves in.

This mechanic can be easily modified for expansion or depth. Bonus dice for surviving a certain number of turns?  Mirror effects that mean always using the same colour as the opponent? Rainbow marks that allow choosing the colour when you play it? Allowing weak creatures to band together and combine results?


Will Sigarda, Host of Herons and Armor of Thorns cause infinite cleanup steps? If my opponent has a Sigarda, Host of Herons in play, and I play Armor of Thorns as though it had flash and then Donate it to my opponent, will the game lock up at end of turn due to an infinite loop of cleanup steps?

Relevant abilities:

  Sigarda, Host of Herons
  Spells and abilities your opponents control can't cause you to sacrifice permanents.

  Armor of Thorns
  You may cast Armor of Thorns as though it had flash. If you cast it any time a sorcery couldn't have been cast, the controller of the permanent it becomes sacrifices it at the beginning of the next cleanup step.

Relevant rules:

  514.3a At this point, the game checks to see if any state-based actions would be performed and/or any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack (including those that trigger “at the beginning of the next cleanup step”). If so, those state-based actions are performed, then those triggered abilities are put on the stack, then the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass in succession, another cleanup step begins.

I think that this question rests on who controls the ability that causes Armor of Thorns to be sacrificed.  Is it my ability because I cast Armor of Thorns, or is it my opponent's ability because they control Armor of Thorns?

The sacrifice does not happen; but this does not cause more than one extra cleanup step.

  603.7b A delayed triggered ability will trigger only once—the next time its trigger event occurs—unless it has a stated duration, such as “this turn.” If its trigger event occurs more than once simultaneously and the ability doesn’t have a stated duration, the controller of the delayed triggered ability chooses which event causes the ability to trigger.

This shows that once the delayed trigger happens at the beginning of the next cleanup; it will not trigger again after that. Preventing the sacrifice from happening doesn't change the fact that the trigger still happened.

Sigarda, Host of Herons does prevent the player from having to sacrifice Armor of Thorns, because the controller of the delayed triggered ability is the player who originally cast Armor of Thorns:

  603.7d If a spell creates a delayed triggered ability, the source of that delayed triggered ability is that spell. The controller of that delayed triggered ability is the player who controlled that spell as it resolved.

So there will be a second cleanup step because something triggered during the cleanup step, but there is no trigger that occurs at the beginning of the second cleanup step.


Power Grid China/Korea strategy - is it any different from the base game? I just got Power Grid China/Korea and was wondering if there was anything (besides for the two markets on the Korea side of the board) I should look for strategy-wise that is different from the base game.

At a high level the strategy is the same.  Obviously the difference in connection costs between cities and the different resource refresh rates will create strategic differences, but this is fairly complex and nuanced and so beyond the scope of an answer.

As far as the rules differences, the changes to what you want to do are more tactical (what you do this move) than strategic (how you plan the game).  The more strategic changes are as follows:

For Korea, you don't want to combine coal and nuclear as the North has no nukes (ironic) but has the cheaper coal.  Garbage plants are also more competitive on Korea, so take that into account when planning your power plant build.

For China, since the power plants come out in order, there aren't going to be windfall opportunities (a plant that powers 5 cities won't be available until you get to that part of the deck).  Here, you pretty much want to upgrade your plants only when you need to get more capacity rather than opportunistically (when there is a plant that looks good), as there is always going to be a better plant coming up next.


'Creature Types' vs 'Creature Names' in Oracle Text For example: Hand of Emrakul references Eldrazi Spawn. Are these specifically creatures named "Eldrazi Spawn" or the combination of creature types? I would assume it is the first one, as Broodwarden specifically uses the terminology "Eldrazi Spawn creatures."

However, other cards like Festering Newt use different phrasing to specify card name.

I would appreciate any clarification since it is ambiguous with how Creature Tokens are named.

The referenced abilities of both Hand of Emrakul and Broodwarden are referring to creatures with the creature types Eldrazi and Spawn. Cards only refer to the names of objects using a format like on Festering Newt, explicitly saying "named [some name]". This is covered by rule 109.2:

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

in the case of both Hand of Emrakul and Broodwarden, the descriptions "Eldrazi Spawn" and "Eldrazi Spawn creature" consist of types and subtypes, so they mean permanents of those types and subtypes on the battlefield.

When a card like Awakening Zone creates an Eldrazi Spawn token, it is creating a token with the creature types Eldrazi and Spawn, and the name "Eldrazi Spawn". This is because of rule 111.4:

  A spell or ability that creates a token sets both its name and its subtype(s). If the spell or ability doesn’t specify the name of the token, its name is the same as its subtype(s). A “Goblin Scout creature token,” for example, is named “Goblin Scout” and has the creature subtypes Goblin and Scout. Once a token is on the battlefield, changing its name doesn’t change its subtype, and vice versa.


Phytohydra vs Trample My friend and I were playing an epic game a few days ago (in the end, he smacked me for 117 damage, only 16 of it was trample, but I only had my Phytohydra out).  I'm kind of the rules guy in my circle, so, the way the Phytohydra's worded, I let the trample damage from his Liege of the Tangle through it the turn before. Now, I know there was no way for me to win after that point, but was I supposed to let the damage through like I did? or should it have completely massacred that LotT?

He still has to assign at least lethal damage to  Phytohydra before any remaining trample damage can be assigned to the defending player.  The fact that the damage will be replaced later on when it is dealt and not actually be "lethal" does not change anything about how it is assigned.  Toughness - Damage Marked (minimum, no deathtouch) goes on the creature, then the rest can hit you.

  702.19b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking
  creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned
  as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the
  player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for
  assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the
  creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during
  the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that
  might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The
  attacking creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all
  those blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to
  the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

Bold added by me


What are some strategies to beat Rise of the Dark Realms? How can Rise of the Dark Realms be beaten/avoided?
Is it possible to deflect this card so that you end up consuming it?

So, first off, it's important to understand why Rise of the Dark Realms isn't a very powerful card in competitive one-on-one Magic: you're paying nine mana for an effect of highly variable power (since you don't always have perfect control of what's in the graveyard, especially an opponent's). It's a very slow spell that lacks most of the characteristics of a good "finisher."

That said, not every game of Magic is the same as one-on-one Constructed. So, what happens if you run into this in Commander, multiplayer, or even a "casual" duel?

Graveyards are fragile. Since the graveyard is a great zone for both cheating on costs and card selection, there are a lot of cards printed that specifically counteract graveyard strategies. Look at how cheaply you can get graveyard hate in the form of Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage, for example. It's pretty easy to sneak graveyard hate into most decks, since many effective cards replace themselves (e.g. Relic of Progenitus) or do more than just attack graveyards (e.g. Rakdos Charm, Scavenging Ooze).
Nearly every strategy relying on a single powerful spell is weak to countermagic. Your opponents like to play big, powerful spells? Counter them! There are tons and tons of counterspells that can meet your needs, ranging from super-fast counters (Force of Will, Spell Pierce) to big value-generating counters (e.g. Cryptic Command, Draining Whelk) to just plain old Negate.
There are lots of spells that just kill ALL of the creatures. Magic has a lot of "sweeper" effects that can clear the whole board with one spell. A simple Wrath of God (or Damnation, or Terminus, or Rout, or Supreme Verdict, ...) will reset the board for a very minor cost.
Someone stealing your stuff? Steal it back. Someone cast Rise of the Dark Realms? Let them pass the turn and then cast that Insurrection you've been holding! Or just tap your Homeward Path and laugh.


Do undying creatures get counters if I sacrifice them with Plaguemaw Beast? I'm building a deck with undying creatures.

Suppose I have a card named Plaguemaw Beast, which has the ability

  {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Proliferate.

What happens If I sacrifice a creature with undying?

A. The creature returns and gets the 2 counters because of proliferate or

B. The creature returns but with only 1 counter.

You can choose to give the Undying creature a second counter.
The order of events is as follows, omitting irrelevant/obvious steps:

You announce that you want to use the creature's ability and put it on the stack.
You pay all costs; in this case, sacrifice an Undying creature.
Sacrificing the creature triggers its Undying ability, which is put on the stack on top of the Beast's ability.
The Undying ability resolves and the creature returns to the battlefield.
The Proliferate ability resolves and you may choose the returned creature to give it another +1/+1 counter. Since the Beast's ability is not targeted, you don't choose the permanents as targets, i.e. when you announce the ability, but only when it resolves.

Rules reference:

602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. [...] Activating an ability follows the steps listed below, in order. [...]
602.2a The player announces that he or she is activating the ability. [...] It becomes the topmost object on the stack.
[...]
601.2g The player pays the total cost in any order. [...]


Here Come The Warm Jets One of the swingier cards in the Agricola X-Deck is "Mind the Jets!".  Players lucky enough to have renovated to a Clay house get their dwelling hardened to Stone by the jets of the alien spacecraft... but players whose houses are still made of Wood watch them burn down to the ground.

It didn't seem problematic to us having two families without a roof over their heads - obviously there wasn't going to be much Family Growth in our game's future!  However, our issue lay in interpreting the text on the card which states that homeless players may "renovate" back to a 2-room Wooden hut for 2 Wood and 1 Reed.

Does this action require a family member to visit the Renovate space to get their house back?  The card's use of inverted commas implied to us that this was not a normal Renovation, so we ruled that getting a 2-room Wooden house back was a free action, to anyone with the required Goods in their supply.

And then, another issue arose, which was that I had an Occupation in play, the Wood Carver, that allowed me to pay 1 less Wood once per turn for a room, improvement, fence or stable.  I ended up paying 1 Wood and 1 Reed to get my house back, but now I'm feeling a bit nervous that I can't have it both ways.  Either the post-Mind-the-Jets action is a real renovation or it isn't.  Can something like the Wood Carver really provide a discount for rebuilding an incinerated wooden house if we have ruled that to be a special, unique and exceptional free action?

(Bonus question: is it possible that I'm taking Agricola: The Goodies a little bit too seriously?  Surely not!)

From the rules posted here:

  If your home is destroyed, its spaces count as “unused” and your family sleeps under the stars until it is rebuilt. You must take a Renovate action to renovate to a new Wooden hut.)

I'd say that it's not a free action. I don't have an official ruling on Wood Carver, but I'd say that it would apply.


Can I resolve all special effects or just 1 at a time in turn with other players before and after bases score The rules say that special effects are resolved starting with the current player and in turn clockwise. Can I resolve all of my multiple special effects when it is my turn, or do I only resolve 1, then give the next player a chance to, etc. Also, if I know a player after me has 2 effects, can I wait until he does both and then resolve mine (essentially passing then choosing to resolve)?

Edit: here are snippets of the rules:

  When a base has been chosen to score, each player first gets to use any Special abilities that happen “before” the base scores.

I've come to notice the distinction between "special abilities" such as certain actions and minions that can come into play as a base passes its breaking point (but isn't considered having been "scored"). The rules below apply to these cards:

  If more than one player wants to use a Special ability, start with the current player and go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence (if you pass and another player uses a Special, you can then still choose to use a Special of your own). If your Special allows you to play extra cards, you must play those immediately or not at all.

There are then effects having to do with cards already in play that occur "after" the base scores, as described shortly after:

  After scoring, players can use Special abilities that happen “after” a base scores.

After noting this, I'd like to clarify my question to specifically refer to these separate sets of phases, "before" and "after", and ask what people feel is the ruling on whether, starting with the player whose turn it is, they can play more than one card (or in the case of "after the base scores", resolve more than one card's "after the base scores" effect), or whether they must pick one at a time and wait until everyone else has had a chance to do so or pass before taking the second opportunity.

I lean toward one at a time if for no other reason than it seems like an interesting tactical consideration in itself.

Can I resolve all of my multiple special effects when it is my turn, or do I only resolve 1, then give the next player a chance to, etc.

It depends on whether

  start with the current player and go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence

means

  Start with the current player. They may either play a card with a Special ability or pass. Go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence.

or

  Start with the current player. They may either play cards with a Special ability or pass. Go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence.

There's no telling for sure without an official answer (which I can't find), but it seems more natural to me if the players only got to play one at a time.

You are definitely able to play more than one, but I believe you must give everyone else the chance to play one in between.

  Also, if I know a player after me has 2 effects, can I wait until he does both and then resolve mine (essentially passing then choosing to resolve)?

You can, but it's a gamble. If you pass, and someone else plays a Special, then you get another change to play a Special. This is explicitly mentioned in the rules. However, if you pass and he decides to pass instead of playing his second special, you won't get to play anything else.


How well do sleeves protect against spilled drinks? People really like to have food around during long gaming sessions, to avoid the discomfort of hunger and dehydration.

Sleeves are pretty useful for keeping crumbs and dirt off your gaming cards. Sometimes, however, a player will knock a drink over onto the table, risking water damage to your hobby materials.

How well do typical card sleeves protect game cards from spilled drinks?

How effective is double-sleeving in this situation?

My own experience is that, barring using a bag sealer on the sleeves, sleeving is not going to protect against direct spills nor large spills on a hard surface. On a surface that wicks moisture, an indirect spill will not get in. A direct spill (can knocked over onto cards, for example) will penetrate.

I've seldom double sleeved, and will note that it's a major pain to get done, requires two sizes of sleeves, and makes the cards really feel wrong.

And I've seen a card ruined by a direct spill despite double sleeving - a hockey card, to be specific, which was better material than most game cards.


Where does Hexpion go being under the Backup Copy? I've got a Hexpion with a Backup Copy "installed" on it. The Hexpion gets destroyed. Where does it go? To archives or on the top of the deck?

The active player decides which order the destroyed abilities resolve in.
Because the creature has two separate destroyed abilities, they both trigger at the same time.
If Backup Copy resolves first, you'll (probably) have Hexpion in archive:

Backup Copy moves Hexpion to the top of the deck.
Hexpion's ability can't track it anymore (see the rule from page 13 below), so you just do the second part of it (archive the top card of the deck). As long as nothing weird has happened, that card just so happens to be Hexpion!

If Hexpion resolves first, Backup Copy does nothing:

Hexpion puts itself and the top card of the deck into the archive.
Backup Copy resolves, but can't interact with Hexpion because it's been moved to a hidden zone.

From the rules, page 9:

ACTIVE PLAYER
The active player is the player taking the current turn. The active player makes all necessary decisions for all card abilities or timing conflicts that need to resolve during their turn.

Page 13:

When a card moves from an in–play zone to an out-of-play zone in which the identities of cards are hidden from the opponent (such as a player’s hand, deck, or archives), any pending effects that are currently or about to interact with that card no longer do so, unless a card effect explicitly states that it interacts with that zone.


Losing Control of Bestowed Enchantment Creatures I've been playing Magic for about six months and thought I had a decent handle on how things work until I ran into the following problem:

Set-up:
I was playing mono black devotion against blue-green control. I bestowed Herald of Torment onto Pharika Chosen. At the end of my turn, my opponent (in control of Prophet of Kruphix) flashed in a Siren of the Fanged Coast. I chose not to pay the tribute, so my opponent took my Pharika Chosen with Herald of Torment attached.

Question:
If I kill Pharika Chosen while my opponent controls it, when Herald of Torment becomes a creature again do I regain control of Herald of Torment, or does my opponent retain possession of it?

Your opponent never had control of Herald of Torment. When he took your creature, he only took the creature; he did not take control of any auras (or equipment) attached to it. So in this case, he would have control of a creature that has an aura that you control on it. This means that the creature would have +3/+3 and flying like usual; and YOU would lose 1 life per turn, not him.

So when the Bestow falls off and becomes a creature, it will be a creature under your control. It always was under your control.


Weight and dimensions of Hive game pieces? What are the exact dimensions and weight of the bug pieces used in the game Hive?

What are they made of?

It varies by edition. There are at least 4 versions of the game.

Version 1 was stickered wooden pieces; I do not know the size, but I suspect them to be rather close to the Bakelite. At least two different sticker sets were used by Gen42 games.

Version 2 was bakelite pieces, hexagons 37mm face to face, and 12mm thick.

Version 3, "Hive Pocket" is also bakelite pieces, hexagons 24mm face to face, and 9.5mm thick.

Version 4, "Hive Carbon" is the same size pieces as the second version, but is black and white markings and tiles.

I lack a scale accurate enough to measure the mass.

Boardgamegeek.com has, on the hive entry, a table:

Item                         Hive    Hive Pocket
Tile Width Flat to Flat      38 mm   25 mm
Tile Height                  12 mm   10 mm
Weight of 26 tiles           600 g   200 g

On one of the images, it shows 38x12mm and 25x10mm for the bakelite


Do all Reaction cards completely block all Attack cards? I'm about to start a Dominion-day and need a question answered.

Do ALL reaction cards completely block all attack cards? i.e. does Tunnel block Witch?

Reaction Cards:

No. It's not an inherent property of Reaction cards that they protect you from attacks. What makes a card a Reaction is that it's used outside of the normal game sequence when something happens; they don't have to interact with attacks at all.

Moat protects you from attacks because it says it does. Tunnel gives you Gold when discarded, whether or not that is from an attack. Secret Chamber is revealed when an attack is played, but doesn't protect you from it; it just lets you manipulate your deck to attempt to lessen the blow.


Replacing weapons in Ork mob Ork codex says that Ork Boyz has the following option:

  For every ten Orks in the mob, one Ork may exchange his slugga or shoota for:

  big shoota (+5 points per model)
  rokkit launcha (+10 points per model)

Lets say I have a 30-Ork mob. Does that mean that I can have 3 big shootas AND 3 rokkit launchas in it or I can only have 3 of either big shoota or rokkit launcha?

You are allowed 1 heavy weapon per 10 Orks, but you can choose which one it is - a Big Shoota (BS) or Rokkit Launcha (RL). They don't all have to be the same type. In other words, with 30 Orks, the maximum heavy weapons you are allowed to have are either:

3RL
1BS + 2RL
2BS + 1RL
3BS


Why isn't "Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small" called "Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small"? It's always been rather jarring to me that the excellent game "Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small" has that name, rather than the usual expression, "All Creatures Great and Small".

(Most people know the expression "All Creatures Great and Small" from the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" or the film and TV series of that title based on James Herriot's books.)

So, my question is: why wasn't the game's title the more familiar expression? Was it some kind of trademark issue relating to the works based on James Herriot's books? Or was the name chosen by someone who wasn't very familiar with the reference and got it a bit wrong, for example? It'd be really interesting if someone knows this story!

Update: someone's asked essentially the same question on Board Game Geek, but with no definitive answer there. It does add the interesting detail, though, that the German name for the game, "Agricola: Die Bauern und das liebe Vieh" is very similar to the German name for the James Herriot TV show, "Der Doktor und das liebe Vieh" so presumably the reference is deliberate. It's still very strange that the English name should have this discordance, though.

I am almost certain this is a UK / US difference. Specifically, I believe it was named this way because of a marketing decision by the US publisher.

Research:

Although Agricola's creator is Uwe Rosenberg: "a German game designer", the main publisher is Mayfair Games:
"an American publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games"

As you mentioned "All Creatures Great and Small" is a well known UK book/tv series.
This page, shows release titles in different countries. Each language's word for "Great" (Spanish: grandes, Italian: grandi, Dutch: groot, Polish: duze, Russian: большие) all translate to "big" or "large". Even though that is one of the definitions of great, they don't immediately translate to "great". "Big" is a simpler translation that cuts straight to it's meaning.

Why is that simple direct translation relevant? Because that's one common difference between UK and US English. Americans tend to simplify English (some might prefer to say "dumb-down" haha). Check out this page for US/UK spelling comparison, where in every example the US version is just simpler.

I would bet that if the TV series, "All Creatures Great and Small", were remade in the US, that they would change "great" to "big", just like they did with this movie, "All Creatures Big and Small".

If we take a look at that movie's release titles in other countries, the title chosen for UK is "Two by Two". Perhaps they knew the phrase wouldn't sound right in the British ear, and "All Creatures Great and Small" was an already well-known title there.

Moving on, let's find the phrase in a dictionary.
The only one I could find that accepted the phrase is OxfordDictionaries.com. Both phrases using "great" or "big" bring up only the phrase "All Creatures Great and Small." So I would call that the proper or truer phrase. Found on this page.

Did Americans change other phrases using the word "great"? Dictionary Time!
Not only other phrases but if we look at some of the example sentences given for the definitions in this Oxford UK dictionary, a few don't sit right in my American ear.

UK Dictionary: "I was a great fan of Hank's" --- US preference: "I was a big fan of Hank's"

UK Dictionary: "You great oaf!" -- US preference: "You big oaf!"

UK Dictionary: "My father was a great one for buying gadgets" meaning an enthusiast (In US, this sounds like he was skilled at buying gadgets at good prices)
-- US preference: "My father was a big one for buying gadgets" (communicates more of a liking and enthusiasm for it, in the US)

UK Dictionary: "to a great extent" -- US preference: "to a large extent"

(Note that the "US preference" is my personal American ear's preference, so I'm curious if other Americans disagree with any of those.)

Wish I could find more definitive proof, but hopefully this is enough evidence to at least satisfy your curiosity, in case we don't hear back from the game's creator, Uwe Rosenberg.


What is the exact size of all the Warhammer 40k bases? I'm looking for a list of the dimensions of all the bases in Warhammer 40k.

I know there is a 60mm base, for large models, and there is one that is 120mm x 55mm for really large models.

I don't know the sizes for the smaller models, or for the flying models.

I feel like a list of all the sizes would be very handy, but I can't find all of them in one place.  A list of all the square bases from Warhammer Fantasy would be useful too.  I don't own many of those models, so I have nothing to measure.

These are the supported base sizes in 40K

Standard Infantry - 25mm round
Large Infantry - 40mm round
Monsters - 60mm round
Flyer - 90x120mm oval
Bike Bases - 25x70mm oval
Clear flight stands small - 30mm round
Clear flight stands large - 60mm round

For Fantasy:

Standard Infantry - 20mm square
Large Infantry - 25mm square
Monsters - 40mm square
Cavalry - 25x50mm rectangle


Backgammon move notation - Is there an official, rigorous specification? I have recently become completely obsessed with Backgammon and I would like to learn more about the "Magriel notation" (link) used to formally describe a game of BG.

So is there a definitive, formal specification document for the Magriel notation?

Failing that, is there some online archive of real-world games that have been stored (correctly) in this notation that one could download and examine?

Paul Magriel's notation system originally appeared in his 1976 book Backgammon, and is mostly just a codification of notations systems that existed at the time.
This could be considered the "official" specification for the notation, but really it's usage is just customary.

His followup An Introduction to Backgammon also includes the notation, but has an easier to follow explanation as it is targeted at beginners.


If you already have a condition or there are none left in the deck, can you gain an effect--that normally induces a condition--for free? I believe if all the cards of a certain kind are gone from the deck and you are told to take that condition, you simply gain the benefit of not having to take the condition.  What if you are offered the option to take a condition in exchange for some side effect and either you already have the condition or it is not present in the deck?

I would think you would not be able to gain the side effect because the wording "you may gain a _ condition to _" does not get fulfilled as you didn't gain the condition.

I believe you are correct - you cannot.  A similar but more common situation that can occur in the game is when you are given the option to become delayed in order to gain a benefit.  "Delayed" does not have a card to represent it, so one cannot run out of them, and in these cases, the benefit only occurs if you do in fact become delayed - you cannot prevent it (such as with the Pocketwatch) and still gain the benefit.  It would stand to reason that other effects that use the phrasing of "you may x to y" follow the same rules.


Why doesn't Relentless Assault work if it is not cast during a main phase? Inspired by this question; the gatherer rulings for Relentless Assault say that if it is not a main phase when it resolves, then there will not be additional attack and main phases. Is there a rule that explains this interaction?

I think I can understand why it works this way thinking about it logically, (it refers to "this main phase", and since it is not the main phase, "this main phase" simply isn't a thing that exists, therefore there is nothing after "this main phase"). But usually MTG comprehensive rules are more specific.

The only rule I found dealing with this in general is 500.8:

  500.8. Some effects can add phases to a turn. They do this by adding the phases directly after the specified phase. If multiple extra phases are created after the same phase, the most recently created phase will occur first.

This doesn't mention what to do if the specified phase doesn't exist.

To clarify, I'm well aware that you cannot normally cast Relentless Assault unless it is your main phase, because it is a sorcery. But there are plenty of effects that would allow you to cast it during combat.

Reconsider rule 500.8, specifically

  They do this by adding the phases directly after the specified phase.

Relentless Assault adds an additional combat phase after this main phase.

As the spell resolves, it will untap creatures that have attacked during this turn. Then it will attempt to add an additional combat phase, followed by another main phase, after this main phase. If the game isn't in a main phase, it is impossible to complete the additions.


Are "ties" considering "successful" checks in Firefly Adventures? So, for example in combat, ties mean that both targets take damage.

However, the Martial Artist says

  Reroll successful Brawling against Martial Artist.

Does this mean, that since both targets, including the Martial Artist, takes a wound, is that a success, and therefore must be re-rolled?

Yes, you will need to reroll.

On page 4 of the rulebook:

  To make a Skill Test, roll the number of dice pictured and add all your available Skill Points of the appropriate type to your dice’s total. If your dice roll plus your Skill is equal to or higher than the Skill Test’s Target, it’s a Success. If it’s lower, it’s a Failure.

The rulebook clearly defines rolls as having a binary outcome, success or failure, and groups ties as a success for the player. In the case of a tie with the Martial Artist (i.e.: a success), you would need to reroll.


Is there an online platform for collaborative development of a board game? I`m interested in developing a few variants of a DIY board game in open source fashion.
For a start, I need to choose an online platform for that.

What could be a solution for public elaboration and publicizing? Is there something like SourceForge (a hosting, bug tracking and community site for open source software), but for board games?

I don't think that there's any single thing designed for this; it's quite a small niche. However, you might be able to piece something together.

To me, a wiki sounds like a very natural fit for hosting and editing the rules for your game. But the general idea seems solid: you can have a page or many, organized how you need, for the rules, include pictures when necessary. You can easily create offshoot discussion pages, linked to as appropriate, group them into categories/listings, put boilerplate at the top to indicate status of the discussions, and so on. An alternative with a steeper learning curve and and startup effort for contributors would be to simply keep your rules in text format in a hosted version control repository and then use other features of the hosting (particularly issue tracker) to do the other things.

You'll probably want to do a lot of iteration and playtesting. I've been pretty impressed with what I've seen people pull off with Vassal modules. Vassal is a generic game engine, which lets you create boards, pieces, cards, tiles, and so on. You can play the games with others online. There's a designers guide as well as a FAQ page on creating modules. This would give you the platform you need to test things out. You'd probably want to store the module in some sort of version control; unfortunately it's an all-in-one file, edited within vassal, so you won't be able to much in the way of branching and merging, if there are many collaborators. Depending on the scale of your project, it might be sufficient to simply have file hosting, and store numbered versions, or you might want more.

Note that SourceForge might actually be a great candidate for all of this! It supports project wikis, file hosting (for your vassal modules), and revision control repositories (perhaps for your rules, if you don't want them on a wiki). You just have to decide how you're going to use it. Just think: a board game isn't that different from a computer game. It's just written in a "programming" language that humans, not computers, understand!

(I know this isn't a terribly complete or specific answer; perhaps others can contribute more.)


Can Russia and Japan Follow A Mutual "Hands Off" Policy In Axis and Allies? During World War II, the Soviet Union and Japan had a five year mutual non-aggression pact that was kept until the very end. Could a similar thing happen in Allies and Axis?

In some versions of the game, this policy is "enforced" by the fact that it costs 5 or even 10 IPCs for one side to attack the other's territories. Would you play such a game variation?

In other games, there are understandings between the two countries, derived during table talk. This may include not reinforcing territories that the other is likely to attack. For instance, Russia can reinforce British forces that have captured Norway, but not British forces in India.

Would you try to conclude such an agreement with the other party if you were playing Japan? Russia?

Would you try to conclude such an agreement with the other party if you were playing Japan? Russia?

If I was playing Japan, no, I'd not want such an agreement. If I was Russia, then yes.

Russia's sole aim in the early game is to build up a wall of infantry in Karelia to stop Germany from expanding her borders and to buy time until her allies can start sending in wave after wave of troops support. (By the midgame the US should be depositing 10-12 infantry into Finland each and every turn.)

Having a "hands off" policy with Japan allows Russia two distinct advantages:

It inflates their economic base. The Soviet Far East and Yakut are two territories that usually fall under Japanese control relatively early in the game. That's 4 IPC per turn Russia gets to keep until later with this agreement.
It let's them focus on reinforcing Karelia without having to worry about staffing troops in Russia.

I can see how such a deal might sound ideal to Japan at first blush - namely, Japan gets to focus 100% on China, Sinkiang, and India, but I don't think it's worth it in the long run.


Small go board history Does anyone know origin of smaller go boards (9*9,13*13)? When (and where) was first introduced? I looked on Sensei library but didn't find anything about history of go boards.

A Japanese pro 9-dan, Tomoyasu MIMURA (born 1969) writes in his blog entry (3 Feb 2014), ''I had never seen, or heard of 9x9 board in my childhood'' and ''In 1987 started the TV show 'Mini-Go One Game Match (ミニ碁一番勝負)'.... Professionals had begun to pay attention to the unexpected depth of 9x9 board game some time before''.
Therefore, around 1985 would be a good guess.


Live statistics chess960 from chess.com? Both lichess and chess.com have the feature to play the variant chess960 live. However, only lichess has a graph showing how your live chess960 rating has changed over time. Lichess also shows other statistics like highest, lowest, best wins, worst losses, average opponent rating, etc. (chess.com does have this for correspondence chess960 though.)
I could create my own graph and statistics in Excel/Google Sheets by manually recording each game's date and my rating afterwards indicated beside my username, but...
Question: Is there a way to obtain, or what in general is the way to go about obtaining, ratings after each chess960 game using some kind of script that sees a player's public profile and then extracts the data?
I have a feeling this kind of script has been done before even if this was not specifically done for chess.com's live chess960. The script doesn't have to graph (pretty easy to do once you have to the data: just use excel/google sheets). I just need the script to collect all the dates and rating numbers for each line of the user's games.

Update 2: Fixed now. see the 'json' vs the 'preformed'. WOW.
Update 1: It appears Mike Steelson has an answer here, where the code is given as
=arrayformula( regexextract(split( substitute(substitute(substitute(getDataJSON(A1;"/games";"/pgn");"[";"");"]";"");"""";"") ;char(10));"\s.*") )

with an example given here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MX1o5qdy0K3gTMzbimUV3SmFf-0XPCSJ8Vz4IjI-8Ak/copy
It appears there's a problem when it gets to the case of chess960 only. Consider for example this player: Replacing 'gmwso' with the player's username will yield a weird output. i imagine the output will be messier for mixed chess960 and chess.


How important is base size in Warhammer 40K? I have a Tau sniper I want to put on a rocky out-cliff, that would require using a non-standard base (a larger one). Is that allowed in the rules? Would it fly in a casual game?

It's a grey area, but it's preferred that models be played with the bases provided with them with some exceptions for scenic bases.  Generally as long as you haven't modeled for a clear advantage(such as using a base that's 9" tall) most players will be OK with it.  To be on the safe side, you should have a standard based guy to swap in for the scenic base model it it ever appears your custom base would have an effect on the game.

There was an issue a few years back at a GW sponsored GT where a Demon player who won the tournament used smaller than standard bases for his Bloodcrushers.  It was felt that this gave his particular army an unfair advantage due to some of that codex's unique rules. As a result, most tournaments will have a policy like this one from the Nova Open:

  Basing Policy

  Models must be played on the bases provided with them.
  Models may    be played on scenic bases of identical size to the bases provided    with them.  If  you have a question, ask ahead of
  time.

  If your    scenic bases are smaller than they should be, be aware that you may    be asked not to  use the models at all (if the
  organizers believe you    brought them on such bases to gain an
  advantage), or to count them    as the appropriate base size.
  If your scenic bases are larger than    they should be, the above (in re: smaller bases) applies as  well.     Additionally, keep in
  mind that if an opponent is able to reach one    of your larger bases
  with a shooting attack or charge, you may not    use the excuse of
  base size to prevent it.  The  corollary does NOT    apply – you may
  not gain extra range or charges due to larger bases.     In  short,
  you gain no advantages for unusual base size, but may gain
  additional handicaps.

  Skimmers must be mounted (but not necessarily    glued) on the bases provided with them, save  for situations where    the rules allow for
  / require otherwise.

  We recognize that some    skimmer bases are largely impractical for mounting your units on;  if    you have a different basing route
  you've gone with, simply give us a    heads up ahead of  time – we’ll
  work to help ensure the comfortable    play ability and stability of
  your models

Most players I know will try to conform to the big tournament guidelines. Of course, I play with a fairly competitive group that hits a few big GT's every year.


Is there a good casual online place to practice/learn bridge? I know that Pogo.com (which powers Yahoo Games) has a long running online bridge game and that there are a handful of places for serious tournament/MasterPoint level bridge players online (though most seem based on software written a decade or more ago) but are there any places to play, practice and learn bridge in a more casual manner? Ideally via a well designed modern piece of software?

If you are looking for free online site, I would strongly recommend BridgeBase Online, or BBO for short.

You can create an account by just specifying a username and password and either login using the web browser or using their downloadable windows version of the software.

BBO has a lot of features, like partnership bidding rooms, GIB robots (which you have to pay a minimal fee, if you want to use them), tons of free tournaments. They also have two 'clubs', the Main Bridge Club and Relaxed Bridge Club, where you can play casual games (the Relaxed Club being more casual). Anytime I have logged on, there were at least 3000 players online!

There is also the added bonus that a lot of great players play there (look for some of the 'stars') and they have an excellent broadcast line up of high level bridge tournaments, with commentators giving insights, etc.

They also have a supporting forum where a lot of good players visit and you can discuss bridge/the BBO software/ or even Global Warming!


How can I document that I Moated an enchantress? Say someone plays Enchantress and I react with Moat. For the sake of the question, it is a 5-6 player game and it would be easy to forget that I reacted. How can I easily make it clear and easy to remember that I reacted with a moat?

The moat says :-

  When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from your hand, to be unaffected by it.

So you are not 'playing' the moat.  To defend against an attack you merely show it from you hand.

Now if the moat is in your hand it's likely you have defended against an attack card so would just remember.   If however you need a reminder you revealed a moat to defend you could do many things such as

place it face up in front of you and pick it up at start of turn
if you want to hold your hand look at cards you could could turn it back to front so moat is 'revealed' to other players
you could just put your hand down and leave moat face up on top to show you defended.

The game its self doesn't have any markers to remind you you defended. But when it gets to your turn and the duration effect is in effect it shouldn't be to hard to recall you defended (unless you've got some player who tries to dispute it!).  Ultimately I would always assume you've defended unless you want the attack to affect you.

Don't forget that even if you defended against on attack you can choose to let another affect you.  ie you might find being attacked by Minion useful to cycle hand.


Flashback + Kess, Dissident Mage Is it possible to cast a card twice, first with Flashback AND then with Kess, Dissident Mage "play from graveyard" ability or vice versa?

Flashback says - You may play this card from your graveyard for the Flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.

Kess say - you may cast instance or sorcery card from your graveyard. If it would go into the graveyard, exile it instead.

No, for the same reason that you can't cast a card from your hand twice. As part of casting a spell, you place the card being cast on the stack. The card would no longer be in the graveyard to be cast.

601.2. [...] To cast a spell, a player follows the steps listed below, in order. [...]
601.2a [...] a player first moves that card (or that copy of a card) from where it is to the stack. [...]


What games are suitable for a large number of people with only a pack of playing cards? What card games work well with a large number of players (say 6+ players) and only require a standard pack of playing cards?  I'm particularly interested in games where the rules can be explained fairly quickly, but there is still a reasonable level of tactics.  Also it would be preferable if the game can be played in a single room.

One game per answer please.

The best large-group card game that I know of is Up and Down the River, which Wikipedia knows as Oh, Hell. I find the rules given by Wikipedia to be confusing, though, and found a better set here at eHow. (Note that both of these rulesets differ slightly from the version I'm familiar with, as there are endless variants of most of these games.)


In Ticket to Ride, how do you overcome bad initial tickets? I've played fewer than a dozen games but have noticed that I can now guess with about 75% accuracy whether I'll win or not just based on my initial 3 tickets drawn. If I have a long transcontinental route and a shorter one which partially overlaps it, I'll probably win (discard the 3rd card). Same if I have two medium routes that together make a long transcontinental route. On the other hand, if I have 3 very short routes, I'll probably lose. It's even worse if the 3 short routes don't come close to overlapping or stringing together.

What strategy can be used to overcome initial bad tickets? Any rule alteration suggestions for reducing this effect?

I have won games with a bad initial draw by simply forgoing tickets. This really works best when you have two tickets that are only worth 4 - 5 points.

Keep the lowest value tickets, return the highest.
Ignore the tickets completely
Immediately aim for as many five and six train routes as possible.
If you can hit the stretch of three six train routes across the top of the US or a the bottom, that might lead to the longest route bonus.
Be willing to 'waste' a turn, perhaps two, per player breaking/blocking them using one,  two if you must, train routes. Watch the San Francisco, Portland and Seattle section for easy opportunities to block; Houston works well as well here.


Should I forfeit an agenda when rezzing Archer via Priority Requisition? I've got an unrezzed Archer. I score a Priority Requisition and use it to rez Archer. Do I have to forfeit an agenda?

No, you do not need to forfeit an agenda in this case. "forfeit an Agenda" is "an additional cost" to rez Archer, and Priority Requisition instructs the player to "ignor[e] all costs".


Can Dark Magician the Dragon Knight stop Trap Eater? My friend's favorite deck is his Dark Magician. His Eternal Soul trap is the biggest thorn in my side (besides Dark Magical Circle and Navigation). So I bought a monster known as Trap Eater, which says:

  Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be special summoned by sending one face up trap card your opponent controls to the Graveyard.

Now one of his best monsters is Dark Magician the Dragon Knight. It prevents me from targeting or destroying his spell or trap cards. But with Trap Eater, it may not be a target effect or destroy to special summon it, but would Dark Magician the Dragon Knight's special ability still prevent me from summoning Trap Eater?

No, it won't stop Trap Eater

Why? Because Trap Eater does not traget, nor does it destroy.

It sends to the graveyard instead. Also, this is not targeting because: 1) it doesn't indicate so explicitly, and 2) the sending is actually a cost rather than an effect.


What happens if both players have the ability to pump their creature an unlimited number of times? Say that both players each had 2 Leaden Myr, 2 Myr Galvanizer, and a Nantuko Shade. (Or any other way to get unlimited mana, and a Nantuko Shade).

Player 1 attacks with his Nantuko Shade, and player 2 blocks with his Nantuko Shade. Before damage is assigned, each has chances to pump up their Nantuko Shade as much as they want. They can't just declare them to be "infinite," but each can always one-up the other player. What happens?

It seems there would be a loop of events, but would one player eventually be forced to break the loop as per rule 714.3? Is it considered the same game state after each player pumps their creature a bunch as it was before?

This was discussed at length on the Draw3Cards Magic Q&A site (which is no longer available), but no conclusion was reached. Some felt that the game would simply be a draw, others felt that the active player would be forced to make a different decision to break the loop. Others felt that you would just have to call a judge and see what he decides.

This is a fragmented loop.  The active player (whose turn it is) would be forced to make a decision that stops the loop.

719.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.
Example: In a two-player game, the active player controls a creature with the ability “{0}: [This creature] gains flying,” the nonactive player controls a permanent with the ability “{0}: Target creature loses flying,” and nothing in the game cares how many times an ability has been activated. Say the active player activates his creature’s ability, it resolves, then the nonactive player activates her permanent’s ability targeting that creature, and it resolves. This returns the game to a game state it was at before. The active player must make a different game choice (in other words, anything other than activating that creature’s ability again). The creature doesn’t have flying. Note that the nonactive player could have prevented the fragmented loop simply by not activating her permanent’s ability, in which case the creature would have had flying. The nonactive player always has the final choice and is therefore able to determine whether the creature has flying.

In essence - the attacking player is screwed.


Pocketing queen and striker Whilst playing, an opponent pocketed the queen but the striker followed the queen into the pocket.
Does the player put the queen back in the middle plus one of his pieces or just the queen?

The Queen and one or two additional C/M are returned to the board.

The Laws of Carrom 99 states

  If the Queen and the Striker are pocketed together by a proper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out for placing by the Umpire. An additional C/M shall be taken out for placing and the player shall continue his turn. If the Queen and the Strkier are pocketed together by an improper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out by the Umpire for placing. Two additional C/M shall be taken out for placing by the opponent and the player shall lose his turn.