Spades - Nil to lead In the game of Spades, assume you bid Nil and you are the leader of the first trick.

What is your first lead as a Nil bidder?
What signals you pass to your partner by doing so?

Answer can be split into two:

What Suit to lead?
What card in the suit to lead?

Do you lead your shortest suit if have any?
Do you lead your safest suit?
Do you lead your lowest card? second lowest?

I found a good answer in the really good Spades book Master Spades by Steve Fleishman, his answer is the following:

Lead the second-lowest card in a safe suit.  This signals to partner that this suit is safe and that you have one lower card.

Why this is good: when opponents play a low card in this suit, because partner knows you have another low card he don't have to cover and can save his high card for next trick.

This convention also lets you inform your partner if you hold a low singlton, by playing the 2 (or the 3 when the 2 either held by partner or will be played) partners know that you don't have a lower card in that suit, hence you had a singlton.  Now partner will lead that suit on the first oppratonity, so you can discarde a high card in a diffrent suit.


Do you get to choose your hand, or is the highest hand chosen automatically? Say you were a beginner in poker and the showdown comes and you lay down your hand as KK proposing to go with pair of kings. The cards on the table are TJQA4. The suits are such that you could have a royal flush.

Assuming an opponent has a hand that is better than a pair of kings but worse than a royal flush, do you win because your hand can form a royal flush, or do you lose because you didn't notice the royal flush and tried to go with pair of kings?

In other words, do you choose how to play your hand in the end, or is the most valuable combination of cards automatically and involuntarily chosen?

In other words, do you choose how to play your hand in the end, or is the most valuable combination of cards automatically and involuntarily chosen?

What a player claims to have, is irrelevant. The one and only thing that matters in deciding a player's hand is what cards that player may use. The one and only claim of a hand that matters is putting the cards face-up on the table.

This is often known as cards speak (i.e. "the cards speak for themselves").

Allowing players to declare a hand which is suboptimal would open the game to all manner of collusion and nonsensicality.

  Assuming an opponent has a hand that is better than a pair of kings but worse than a royal flush, do you win because your hand can form a royal flush, or do you lose because you didn't notice the royal flush and tried to go with pair of kings?

The player with the royal flush has a royal flush. No other player can have an equal hand, and no other player can have a better hand. Therefore, the player with the royal flush (holding KK) wins the hand and any pots they are part of.


Why is this tsumego solution wrong? I'm trying to understand why my solution to this tsumego is incorrect. It's "Basic problem #26" from Tsumego Pro and looks like this:

$$ ----------------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . X . O X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . X O . O O O |
$$ . . . . . . . X . X O O X . |
$$ . . . . , . . . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

The built-in correct solution is this:

$$ ----------------
$$ . . X 3 O # 1 2 |
$$ . . X O . O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X . |
$$ . . . X X X X . |

(alternatively, after (2), with black playing at the marked position again and white taking once more by playing at (1), and only then black playing at (3)). I understand why this solution is correct, just not why mine isn't.

The following is my solution, which the program marks as incorrect.

$$ ----------------
$$ . . X 1 O X 2 . |
$$ . . X O . O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X . |
$$ . . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |

(white's response at (2) is built into the program, the rest of the white moves aren't).

$$ ----------------
$$ . . X X O . O . |
$$ . . X O a O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X b |
$$ . . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |

If black now takes the ko at (a), the only thing white can do (that I can see) is play at (b) in order to try escaping on the right side. It can't play anywhere on its inside because that would essentially be suicide, and because for black winning the ko means connecting its two groups, I don't see any possible white threat that black would have to respond to.

$$ ----------------
$$ . . X X O . O . |
$$ . . X O 3 O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X 4 |
$$ . . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |

$$ ----------------
$$ . . X X O . O . |
$$ . . X 5 X O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X O |
$$ . . . X X X X 6 |
$$ . . . . . . 7 8 |
$$ . . . . . . 9 0 |

This could now continue all the way to the bottom of the board (not shown), at which point the white group has no liberties left except for the eye-and-a-half at the top. If white decides to stop running away, I still don't see anything forcing it could play to stop black from closing (e.g. at (10)).

In the end black can take:

$$m37
$$ ----------------
$$ . . X X O 1 O 3 |
$$ . . X X X O O O |
$$ . X . X O O X O |
$$ . . . X X X X O |
$$ . . . . . . X O |
$$ . . . . . . X O |

with no useful response (38) for white.

What is it that I'm missing? Where could white have lived?

In tsumegos where you should kill a group, the best (and thus correct) answer is always the solution where you kill unconditionally (if possible). Only if there is no unconditional kill the ko would be the best (correct) solution.

The basic idea is that a tsumego is a local fighting position which you should solve without knowledge of the rest of the board. In your example, the rest of the board could either be that white has more ko threats or that black has more ko threats. Thus, your solution would depend on the unknown rest of the board, whereas the unconditional kill works always.

In general, if there is a position with equal outcome you should always prefer the way without ko. Even if you have more ko threats now, the position might change over time and therefore it is better to avoid the ko from the beginning.


How does Psychic Surgery work with Scheming Symmetry? If I have the card Psychic Surgery out and I cast Scheming Symmetry, when exactly do I get to exile? Does the Psychic Surgery trigger resolve before or after the card tutored with Scheming Symmetry (or similar tutors, such as Vampiric Tutor) gets put on top of the library?

The card found by Scheming Symmetry will be one of those looked at.
Spells and abilities in Magic the Gathering are atomic - once they start to resolve, they need to fully resolve before anything else happens. Psychic Surgery will see the shuffle, and the ability from it will trigger, but triggers do not get put on the stack as soon as they happen, they are put onto the stack the next time a player would get priority per rules 603.2 and 603.3 in the Comprehensive Rules (emphasis mine):

603.2 Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

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

This means this is how the events will happen:

Scheming Symmetry (SS) is cast, targeting two players.
All players pass priority, SS begins to resolve.
Both targeted players search their libraries for a card.
Both targeted players shuffle their libraries, except for the found card.
Psychic Surgery (PS) notes that it has been triggered at least once (twice if SS targeted two of your opponents in a multiplayer game). PS does nothing yet.
Both players place their found card on top of the newly shuffled library, SS finishes resolving.
Active player would receive priority again, because PS has triggered, the PS triggers are placed on the stack.
All players pass priority and the (first) PS trigger beings to resolve, allowing you to look at the found card and one other card from the top of the library.

With Psychic Surgery on the battlefield, a smart player will search for some middle ground card in their deck, anything too good will mean it gets exiled, anything too mediocre means that will be their next draw as the other card gets exiled.

Note, where I say "all players pass priority at steps 2 and 8, players can cast instants or use instant speed abilities. Unless one of those is a counter like Stifle, or an end the turn effect the Psychic Surgery will resolve eventually. A player could cast or use an ability that will make them draw the card they searched for before psychic surgery resolves, something like Brainstorm, but it will be more common that they can't do that in time.


Does the discard get shuffled into the deck when adding the heat up card? When adding the heat up card to the boss deck, do you shuffle in the discard pile as well, or just shuffle it into the remaining cards that haven't been revealed?

Yes, it specifies in the rule book that the shuffling of the boss deck means you have to relearn the Boss's pattern. If you only shuffled the deck (not discard) it would be trivial to wait until the entire deck was in the discard, then do the final damage to "heat up" maintaining exactly the same order for the rest of the deck, with the heat up card being next (and therefore last).


Is there fan-made version of gbc-version exclusive pokemon cards? Are somewhere on Internet available fan-made versions of cards which are exclusive to Pokemon Trading Card Game for GBC? I mean fake cards, which are looking as real-game cards. It doesn't have to be in printing quality, but should be readable on display (but I don't mind if the art is low-quality copy from GBC assets).

I'm searching them for hours, but cannot find any. (Except Imakuni which was AFAIK released as non-gbc card only in Japan, but English fan-made version is easily found.)

Edit: in English, of course.

The 3 legendary birds have been made by ILKCMP :

http://ilkcmp.deviantart.com/art/GB-Promo-3-Articuno-285045912

http://ilkcmp.deviantart.com/art/GB-Promo-10-Zapdos-280707984

http://ilkcmp.deviantart.com/art/GB-Promo-2-Moltres-285045429


All cards run out and all cards in play, still has card draws Mostly making sure we played this right but I ran into an odd situation recently. My wife had been forced to KO a lot of cards from her deck, while piling up lots of card draw power. She run into a situation where she was playing out her entire deck and still had extra card draws. Usually 3-7 extra draws. We decided that since you just shuffle your discard pile and no card in play enters the discard pile until the turn is over, then she loses those extra draws.

Did we play that right? I looked over the rules but I know I could have easily missed something.

As far as I know there is no official or semi-official ruling on a situation like this, but my group played it the same way you did.

The rules state that you reshuffle your discards as soon as you need to draw a new card. As you mention the rules also say that played cards are not cycled into your discards until the end of your turn. The only exception to this I can think of is cards that are discarded to trigger another card's power - these definitely are sent directly to your discard pile.

But if your discards are empty and you have a card that tells you to draw, you can't reshuffle to have a deck at that time, so you can't draw any more cards until after the end of your turn.


Do I retaliate against a missed attack? The rules for retaliation state:

When exactly does retaliate trigger?
Retaliate triggers after all effects of an attack have been applied. If the retaliating figure dies from the attack, the retaliate does not trigger because the figure is removed from the board beforehand. If the retaliating figure is pushed out of the range of its retaliate, it also does not trigger. However, if it is pulled into retaliate range, it would trigger.

But does a zero-damage attack (after modifiers) count as an attack?
For context, I had a Bandit Guard (attack 2) draw a -1 Attack action and a -2 Attack Modifier card, resulting in a final damage of 0 against my Brute who was using Eye for an Eye.  If I had been using a Shield enhancement, I would ignore the attack and not expend a Shield charge since it's a zero-damage attack.  But in this case, I have a Retaliate ability up which plays by different rules.
Is my Brute able to retaliate against his attacker, even though the attacker essentially missed?

I think you've made the same misinterpretation we did in calling that card a 'miss'.  This was (no pun intended) misleading.  The card that shows a 'null' symbol is not a 'miss'.  It means "no damage is done by the attack" (page 11 of rules). I get why thematically you would say "the attacker essentially missed",  but that is not the case.

The card in question in the 'attack modifier deck' just affects the damage done.  I don't think Gloomhaven has the concept of 'hit and miss' - just damage and effect.  So note that if the 'no damage done' card is pulled by a player or monster they will still get to apply other effects such as poison and wound.  The attack still happened and 'miss' isn't a thing. In fact, the word 'miss' never appears in the rules and 'hit' only ever refers to hit points.

Regarding Retaliate the FAQ it says the following for retaliate.

  A retaliate takes effect after the attack that ininiated it.

So even if the attack does no damage, and even if there are no other effects,  you will still retaliate as you were attacked.

If theme helps, imagine your Brute has time to hit someone back with retaliate,  the bandit tries to hit him and doesn't damage.  Do you think the Brute will go 'Oh that didn't hurt so I won't hit back'?


Can I get infinite turns with this combination? I have a Wormfang Manta on battlefield and a Worldgorger Dragon in graveyard. Would targeting the Worldgorger Dragon with Animate Dead create infinite turns, or would the two triggers cancel out?

The crux of the matter is that Wormfang Manta leaves the battlefield, giving you an extra turn, but is then returned to the battlefield, causing you to skip your next turn. Since your next turn is the extra one, it is skipped. Effectively, the two effects cancel one another.


If my Consul's Lieutenant dies while its second ability is on the stack, does the ability do anything? Consul's Lieutenant has Renown, and the ability

  Whenever Consul's Lieutenant attacks, if it's renowned, other attacking creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.

This is the scenario: it is my turn and I am attacking with a Renowned Consul's Lieutenant and a vanilla 1/1 creature. The Consul's Lieutenant's second ability goes on the stack because the condition is true. Then, in response to the ability, my opponent Murders the Consul's Lieutenant. When the ability resolves, does it make the surviving 1/1 into a 2/2 for the turn?

Yes, the ability will resolve and grant +1/+1 to the 1/1.

The condition on Consul's Lieutenant's second ability ("if it's renowned") is an "intervening if" clause.

  603.4 A triggered ability may read “When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect].” When the trigger event occurs, the ability checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only if it is; otherwise it does nothing. If the ability triggers, it checks the stated condition again as it resolves. If the condition isn’t true at that time, the ability is removed from the stack and does nothing. Note that this mirrors the check for legal targets. This rule is referred to as the “intervening ‘if’ clause” rule.

As the bolded part indicates, the Lieutenant's ability only triggers if the Lieutenant is renowned when it attacks, and the ability only resolves if the Lieutenant is still renowned when the ability resolves.

So when the ability is about the resolve, it asks "Is my source renowned?" But in our scenario, the Lieutenant doesn't exist at this time. So how is this question answered? It's answered using Last Known Information.

  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.

When it ceased to exist on the battlefield, the Lieutenant was renowned, so the ability will resolve.

Supported by a ruling on Polis Crusher.
Supported by a ruling on Quest for the Nihil Stone.
Supported by Wizard's Rules Q&A forum.
Supported by Ask a Magic Judge


Bridge: Strong balanced hand rebid? I open 1D with a balanced hand of 19HCP.  Partner bids 1NT. No interference from oponents. How do I show my strength in NT in rebid? Should I bid 2NT or 3 NT?

Assuming a relatively standard framework, then partner's response shows 6-9 points with no 4-card Major and an inability to make a weak raise in diamonds. It is generally desired to play in a 3NT game with two balanced hands when the partnership assets total 25 (or a good-matching and equally divided 24) points. Partner's announced 6 with your 19 make 25, so the book bid is a direct raise to 3NT, as stated by ruds.

However, there are strategic considerations. There may be difficulties with so few partnership assets hidden. The opponents may well be playing double dummy from trick 2 or 3 on if a good lead is found. I would tend to underbid by a point here, and raise just to 2NT with exactly 19, when not vulnerable. It is winning bridge to stretch slightly (to game, not slam) when vulnerable, and retract slightly (again wrt to game only - small-slam bidding is reversed) when not vulnerable. This reflects the unequal rewards and benefits of vulnerable and not vulnerable game (or rubber) bonuses.

The raise to just 2NT invites partner to continue on with 8-9 points, and to pass (or correct, if your agreements allow) with just 6-7.

Daily smile for those who know Latin: I saw the use of boni in place of bonuses last weekend in an answer on another site - clearly by someone who didn't know that boni means "good men", and Boni means specifically "the good men who conspired to assassinate Caesar". The meaning of the answer changed dramatically with that interpretation.


How does 'The Stack' work? If I cast Tormented Thoughts on my 3/1 creature and to counter my opponent uses Disperse to return it to my hand, is my Tormented Thoughts wasted?

The stack does not matter here. Sacrificing a creature is part of the cost of casting Tormented Thoughts (it says so on the card). By the time your opponent has a chance to cast a spell, the creature you sacrificed will be in your graveyard, and therefore not a legal target for Disperse.


Can I use one spell multiple times If I have a card like Lightning Strike (that costs 2 mana) and I have 6 mana, can I use the card 3 times?

In an online Magic game I played, I had this specific card also. When I casted it, it asked me how many times I wanted to use it. To be honest, it sounds like this would make the card too overpowered so I wanted to know for sure.

If the answer is yes, please explain me exactly how it works. E.g. which spells can do it and which can't? Can the effects be divided with each cast?

If it doesn't say somewhere you can, then you can't.

Unless either the card itself or something else in play says "...you can cast this/that multiple times..." then you can't.

Either you're misinterpreting what happened in that game, or that game is not made to play with the same rules as Magic.

Seriously - best rule to go by - Unless it says you can, you can't.


Game of Thrones: When exactly to use the Valyrian Steel Blade when playing with Tides of Battle? My question can litteraly be found in the errata/FAQ, but the given answer is still ambiguous.

Quoting the errata/FAQ:

  Q: When exactly is the decision made to use the Valyrian Steel Blade’s ability to either draw a replacement Tides of Battle card or receive +1 combat strength?

  A: If you are playing with Tides of Battle cards,
  there are two opportunities for a player to use his
  Valyrian Steel Blade:

  1) "Choose and Reveal House card" step: After each side draws a Tides of Battle card, but before they are revealed, he may decide to use the blade to draw a replacement Tides of Battle card.

  2) "Use Valyrian Steel Blade" step: If he has not used it yet this round, he may now decide to use the blade to add +1 to his combat strength.

The ambiguity is in the last sentence:

  [...] he may now decide to use the blade [...]

Well, when is now? I understand that first you will have to decide whether or not you want to use the Blade to draw a replacement Tides of Battle card. You will decide this after you look at your drawn card, before it is revealed. OK so far. Let's say I choose not to use it. OK so I still can use the sword to get +1 combat point. But when, exactly?? Before or after I see my opponent's Tides of Battle card?

"Now" means during the step being discussed by that explanation: the Valyrian Steel Blade step.

The Valyrian Steel Blade step is the fourth out of six parts in combat, as listed in the rules.

It occurs after the Choose and Reveal House Cards step, which is third out of six.

The rulebook and the FAQ/errata both imply that the Blade happens after the TOB cards. Either the TOB is "part of" the House Cards step, or the Blade follows the choice and revelation of TOB cards.

Nevertheless, you will have seen your opponent's Tide of Battle card (and thus know the pending result of combat) before you decide whether to use the Blade.


Does Germany ever start first? The first time I ever played Axis and Allies, the player teaching me said that, for the first turn, play skips the USSR and begins with Germany, as a way to simulate the end of blitzkrieg.

The more I've played, the more questionable this seems, so I'm curious:
In any variant of Axis and Allies, is there a rule stating that the first turn skips the USSR?

Axis and Allies 1940 has Germany always going before The Soviet Union

Rules

  Order of Play
  1. Germany
  2. Soviet Union
  3. United States
  4. United Kingdom
  5. Italy
  6. France (controlled by an Allied player)


How many Dominion sets are there? How many Dominion sets are there? List them all? Including base set, expansions, special, etc. Additionally, how many promo cards are there, and list those as well?

As of 2020, there are 14 sets and 11 promo cards1.

In release order:

Dominion (Base game)
Intrigue
Seaside
Alchemy
Prosperity
Cornucopia
Hinterlands
Dark Ages
Guilds
Adventures
Empires
Nocturne
Renaissance
Menagerie

And the list of Promo cards:

Envoy (November 2008)
Black Market (March 2009)
Stash (February 2010)
Walled Village (June 2011)
Governor (October 2011)
Prince (June 2014)
Summon (November 2015)
Sauna/Avanto (September 2016) 2
Dismantle (December 2017)
Church (2019)
Captain (2019)

Separately there is also the Dominion Base Cards product; which includes the treasures and victory cards you need to play any setup of Dominion; without including any Kingdom cards. This allows players to purchase just an expansion without needing the base game, and allows 5-6 player games.

Guilds and Cornucopia, each being half-sized expansions, are currently only sold as a combined Guilds&Cornucopia set.

Dominion Base Game and Intrigue each have both a first and second edition, with the second edition for each removing 6 cards and adding in a new 7 cards. Due to some cards being different; you could count first edition and second edition as separate sets. Seaside and later have received minor updates in later printings; but nothing as big as brand new cards. Upgrade packs including just the 7 new cards were released for each.

Note that all sets through Guilds were planned as part of the original design of Dominion; while Adventures and beyond were created later due to Dominion's popularity.

All information taken from http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com.

1 "Cards" is used here to refer to all promos including Summon, even though Summon is an Event, not a Card, within the rules of Dominion.

2 Sauna/Avanto is a split pile; counted here as 1 card even though it is technically 2 separate cards.


Tales of Arabian Nights -- Story versus Destiny and variants? In the ZMan version of Tales of Arabian Nights, you choose 20 points between Story and Destiny. I tend to do 10 of each or something similar. Is this the best strategy?

Also, the game is very random, which I'm OK with, but are there any variants where there is some strategy or planning involved? Especially with some of the quests, it's like it doesn't really matter where you go on the board, just that you go somewhere.

Been playing a fair bit of this over the weekend, so here's a few thoughts:

It seems that Story is a bit easier to get than Destiny (and there's a couple effects that convert Destiny to Story, plus some that remove Destiny), so I tend to skew a few points towards Story. I haven't seen a particular reason to skew too far away (the furthest I've gone is D7/S13) because there's no guarantee you'll get lots of story points.
The game is fairly random, but there does seem to be some (at least loose) correlation between your choice of reaction and the skills required. So you can work around bad luck to some extent by being a bit more cunning in your opening skill selection and picking reactions that hopefully you have good skills for. (This is admittedly still pretty darned random)

2a. One good way of beating down the randomness is to aim for master-level skills (which let you shortcut the destiny die, and are generally-but-not-always good results), and remember to use any effects that let you skew the game in your favor. (Blessed, Respected, Determined, to name three.)


What is the penalty and procedure at Duplicate Bridge when a player revokes twice What is the penalty and procedure when at duplicate Bridge a player revokes unnoticed then revokes again the next trick around, this time noticed by an opponent before a further card is played.  In each case his partner was leading winning trump cards which won the tricks which meant that the revoking player was left with trumps which would allow him to win the remaining tricks.

From the description you provide, under The Laws of Duplicate Bridge (2017): the first revoke is established while the second is not and must thus be corrected. (Law 63 details the establishment of a revoke.)

Law 62 - Correction of a Revoke
A. Revoke Must Be Corrected
A player must correct his revoke if attention
is drawn to the irregularity before it
becomes established.

Further details on how to make this correction are in Parts B and C of Rule 62, but in summary the substituted revoke card becomes a major penalty card while any other substituted card by a defending partner of the revoker becomes a normal penalty card. Play continues after the correction to the completion of the hand, when additional law applications apply.
Then Law 64(A)2 is applied as a penalty for the established (first) revoke:

Law 64 - Procedure after establishment of a Revoke
A. Automatic Trick Adjustment
When a revoke is established:

and the trick on which the revoke occurred was won by the offending player (A trick won in dummy is not won by declarer for the purposes of this Law.), at the end of the play the trick on which the revoke occurred is transferred to the non-offending side together with one of any subsequent tricks won by the offending side.

and the trick on which the revoke occurred was not won by the offending player (A trick won in dummy is not won by declarer for the purposes of this Law.) then, if the offending side won that or any subsequent trick, after play ends one trick is transferred to the non-offending side.

It appears to me that none of the exceptional circumstances covered in Law 64(B) apply in this case, except for the clarification of the above here:

B. No Automatic Trick Adjustment
There is no automatic trick adjustment following an established revoke (but see Law 64C) if:
....

it is a subsequent revoke in the same suit by the same player, the first revoke having been established.

...

However the Director has access to further redress in the interest of fairness.

C. Redress of Damage

When, after any established revoke, including those not subject to trick adjustment, the Director deems that the non-oending side is insufficiently compensated by this Law for the damage caused, he shall assign an adjusted score.

(a) After repeated revokes by the same player in the same suit (see B2 above), the Director adjusts the score if the nonoffending side would likely have made more tricks had one or more of the subsequent revokes not occurred.

It is clear to me that the Director ought to make an explicit  decision under Law 64(B)2(a) in this instance - one way or another. He should also make clear to the players of both sides that his decision under this clause, being one of judgement rather than law, may be appealed after conclusion of the game and that the board should be maintained after completion of play.

LAW 83 - NOTIFICATION OF THE RIGHT TO APPEAL
If the Director believes that a review of his decision on a point of fact or exercise of his discretionary power could well be in order, he shall advise a contestant of his right to appeal or may refer the matter to an appropriate committee.

Aside:
It is a sad fact that many clubs do not have an appeals process in place, and ignore Law 83. This has unfortunate side effects:

There is no check on the authority of the Director, and I have seen Club Directors play favourites in exercise of their discretionary powers far more often than could be explained by lack of directorial skill.

The Director is required to study the hand, at the time of the ruling. This both makes it impossible for a playing Director to play the hand fairly in a subsequent round, and slows the game down by delaying the decision.


Multiple followers, and moving onto shrines in the Count expansion After reading the rules for the Count of Carcassonne, I am still unclear on a couple of points.

First, in a game, can any quarter of Carcassonne have 2 or more followers from more than one color? by example: in the castle 2 black and one yellow, in the blacksmith 1 black, 1 yellow and 1 blue, etc...

Second, with the shrines and heretics expansion, can I move a follower from Cascassonne's cloister to the completed shrine? Does the rule work the same way as for monasteries?

1) Yes, you can certainly have multiple followers of different colours in each quarter. This is quite explicit in the rules:

  ...when a city, road, cloister or farm is scored, all players with followers in the appropriate quarter of Carcassonne... may move their followers from Carcassonne to the scoring feature before the majority is determined in the feature being scored, unless the Count is standing in that quarter of Carcassonne.

The ability for each player to store up multiple followers is an essential part of the strategy for the expansion.

2) Yes, shrines are treated as cloisters for the purposes of moving followers from Carcassonne. From the FAQ at Carcassonne Central:

  Can I move followers from the city of Carcassonne (from the cathedral?) into a shrine during scoring?

  Yes, shrines and cloisters are treated in the same way.


If a creature loses flying after blockers are declared, is the block still legal? My opponent declared attack with a flying creature, after that I declared a blocker with my own flying creature. He then cast Turn to Frog, targeting my blocker.

My creature was a 6/6 flying, my opponent had a 3/3.

The judge said that after he casts Turn to Frog my creature still blocks the flying but turned to 1/1.

Is it correct that my creature still blocks the flying creature but becomes a 1/1 before dealing and taking damage?

Yes, evasion abilities such as Flying only affect the declare blockers step. Once blockers are declared, flying no longer makes any difference.

  509.1b The defending player checks each creature he or she controls to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met). If any restrictions are being disobeyed, the declaration of blockers is illegal.::: A restriction may be created by an evasion ability (a static ability an attacking creature has that restricts what can block it). If an attacking creature gains or loses an evasion ability after a legal block has been declared, it doesn’t affect that block. Different evasion abilities are cumulative.

Your creature will be a 1/1 before doing or taking any damage, because Combat Damage step happens after declare blockers step. Your opponent was able to cast Turn to Frog during the declare blockers step, after blockers had been assigned; which is before the combat damage step.

Combat phase is divided as follows:

  Beginning of Combat Step - Players can cast spells and activate abilities.
  Declare Attackers Step - After attackers are declared, players can cast spells and activate abilities.
  Declare Blockers Step - After blockers are declared, players can cast spells and activate abilities. (This is when your opponent was able to cast Turn to Frog)
  Combat Damage Step
  End of Combat Step - Players can cast spells and activate abilities.


What cards can I cast from exile with Dream Pillager? Dream Pillager, after damaging an opponent, allows you to exile that many cards from the top of your library and cast any until end of turn that were exiled this way. Does this mean I may cast ANY card that has EVER been exiled this way since the beginning of the game?

No, you can't cast any card at all that's in exile that way. You can only cast cards that were exiled by Dream Pillager this turn, and only until the end of the turn.

Dream Pillager's original printed text says exiled this way, referring to the cards exiled by that ability. Its wording was updated with Core 2019 to the following, emphasis added:

  Whenever Dream Pillager deals combat damage to a player, exile that many cards from the top of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast nonland cards from among those exiled cards.

In making this change they were trying to make it extra clear you only get to cast that bunch of cards just exiled, only this turn.


Can Aesop's Pawnshop Remove Wyldside before the start-of-turn resolves? Aesop's Pawnshop
When your turn begins, you may trash another of your installed cards to gain 3 [credits].

Wyldside
When your turn begins, draw 2 cards and lose [click] .

Questions:

If I wish to use Aesop's Pawnshop to trash Wyldside, which one happens first?
Could you stop Wyldside from activating it's start of turn action by Aesop's Pawnshop -ping it?

You choose the order they resolve.

If Wyldside resolves first:

Draw two cards, lose a click
Sell Wyldside with Aesop's: trash it and gain three credits

Or, if Aesop's resolve first:

Sell Wyldside for three credits
Wyldside does nothing because it's been trashed (so you keep all four clicks)

This specific scenario is actually covered in the rulebook (PDF) on page 22, under "Simultaneous Effect Example":

  The Runner has Aesop’s Pawnshop and Wyldside installed and both have the same trigger condition of “When your turn begins.” The Runner begins his turn and can choose to trigger the optional conditional ability on Aesop’s Pawnshop first, gaining 3 [Credits] by trashing Wyldside. This stops Wyldside’s required conditional ability from triggering, keeping the Runner from losing [Click].


My friend put wild color card. It was my turn after her. Can I put another wild color card? My friend put wild color card. It was my turn to put. Is it possible to put another wild color card?

According to this website, the rules for Wild cards state (emphasis mine):

  This card represents all four colors, and can be placed on any card. The player has to state which color it will represent for the next player. It can be played regardless of whether another card is available.

So yes, a player may place a Wild on the pile in response to a Wild.  However, if the card is a Wild +4, that player must have no cards of the color declared by the previous player, and may be challenged.


Long Neck card in evolutuon Does the Long Neck card mean that you get 3 extra food every time before feeding?  Meaning you get 4 food each time?   Or... Does it mean each population gets just one food and any population over 3 still get 1 food.

Warning: This answer is about Evolution (with or without the Flight and Climate Change expansions) as you specified. It is possible you are actually asking about the related-but-different Evolution: The Beginning. See this answer for the answer about Evolution: The Beginning.

Read on if your Long Neck card reads:

  Long Neck: When the Food Cards are revealed, take 1 Plant Food from the Food Bank.

The species gets one extra food before anyone else. Population doesn't enter into this (except that you can't place more food on your species than its population).

Before anyone starts feeding, species with a Long Neck will be fed one food (from the Food Bank, not the Watering Hole).

This doesn't matter much if there's enough food to feed every species of every player[1]. But it helps if there's a food shortage.

For example, let's say there are four players, and each player only has a single species with a population of two and no traits. There are only 5 food in the Watering Hole.

Player 1 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 2 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 3 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 4 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 1 takes a food from the Watering Hole.

Result:

Player 1's species is satiated.
Player 2's species's population reduces to 1.
Player 3's species's population reduces to 1.
Player 4's species's population reduces to 1.

But what if Player 3's species had a Long Neck?

Player 3 takes a food from the Food Bank.
Player 1 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 2 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 3 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 4 takes a food from the Watering Hole.
Player 1 takes a food from the Watering Hole.

Result:

Player 1's species is satiated.
Player 2's species's population reduces to 1.
Player 3's species is satiated.
Player 4's species's population reduces to 1.

It could matter if the species is a burrowing species. It also gives the species a chance to eat before any carnivore can reduce its population.


Does killing a face-down morph trigger the death triggers printed on the card? Consider a card like Ashcloud Phoenix (or, for that matter, any card with a death triggers that's turned face down by an Ixidron).

  When Ashcloud Phoenix dies, return it to the battlefield face down.

If I play my Phoenix face down as a morph creature, and it gets killed (say, by a Lightning Bolt), what happens next? Do I get to return it to the battlefield face down, or will it just stay dead in my graveyard?

On the one hand, it was face down when it left the battlefield, and thus had no abilities.
On the other hand, it enters my graveyard "face up."

So, does its graveyard trigger apply?

Ashcloud Phoenix's ability does not trigger, and it stays in the graveyard.

Rule 603.6d says

  Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities... will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to "look back in time" to determine if these abilities trigger.

Since the phoenix did not have the ability before it was destroyed, the ability does not trigger.


MTG: How does Devour work with abilites like Dragon Tempest Suppose that I have Dragon Broodmother, two dragon tokens, and Dragon Tempest on the battlefield.  Dragon Broodmother puts a 1/1 Dragon Token with Devour 2 on the battlefield and Dragon Tempest deals damage based on the number of dragons on the battlefield whenever a dragon enters.

My question is, if the new token summoned by Dragon Broodmother devours both dragon tokens, does Dragon Tempest's ability count the devoured dragons in addition to Dragon Broodmother and the new token?  Are the devoured dragons still on the battlfield when the triggered ability resolves?

No, Dragon Tempest's ability does not see the devoured Dragons when the Dragon token enters the battlefield. As you can see in the reminder text on Dragon Broodmother, the Devour ability says

  As the token enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.

This means that Devour is a replacement effect (CR 614.1c), so it happens at the same time that the token enters the battlefield. By the time Dragon Tempest's ability triggers (and then resolves), the devoured dragons have already been sacrificed.


How do you use the boss monster spell respawn How are you supposed to use the respawn card. The rules are so vague and there's 2 different ways we tried to approach this. 1 it only affects the cards on top and 2 it affects all cards even the ones built on top of. I've read rules and tried to find a helpful thread somewhere to clarify and to no luck. How the heck does this card work?

Text on card: "Treat all of your rooms as if they were just built"

Based on Rules for 5th edition, page 5 (Rooms), this would only affect your visible cards.

http://www.brotherwisegames.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Boss-Monster-5th-Edition-Rulebook.pdf

  B. Ability: The rules text of the card is active as
  long as it is visible and in play.

The Respawn calls for all of your rooms, but technically the text of the rooms that are not visible is not active, so it wouldn't matter if they had just been spawned -- they are not available to trigger the room ability text.


Does Precursor Golem let me target all golems in the graveyard? Assuming I had Precursor Golem (and many other golems) in my graveyard, if I use Refurbish on Precursor Golem, would it return all my golems from the graveyard to the battlefield?

No, that wouldn't work.
Unless a permanent's ability specifically states otherwise (e.g. Carrionette), or the ability would only make sense when activated in another zone (e.g. Bloodsoaked Champion), abilities only work while that permanent is on the battlefield.

112.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:
112.6b An ability that states which zones it functions in functions only from those zones.

Also, when Precursor Golem says "Golem" without further qualifiers, as for example in "a single Golem", then the wording is shorthand for "Golem permanent", an object on the battlefield with the Golem subtype.

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.


What kind of power grid plant deck would be nice for newer players? Power grid has 2 plant decks; the basic deck, and the "new plants" deck. You can also mix and match: combine cards from two decks. The "new plants" conveniently have green backgrounds, so you can rule that greenback cards rank as higher than greybacks for the purpose of establishing the turn order and even have cards with the same value in the deck.

New players tend to buy weird plants on their first play. It's hard to evaluate how good a plant is when you only have played this zero or few times before. It doesn't help that there's "duds" in the deck, things you shouldn't want, or that an experienced player will memorize the deck to auction more strategically.

In order to prevent the above, I thought to add some extra randomness to the game, I've been making random selections of cards, basically shuffling the decks together (excluding any card above 50) and taking out however many cards are used in the game. This gets you interesting games, but I'm not too impressed with the results. I think a well-tuned designed deck can improve on this method.

What would you suggest is a good mix of cards to use for a first game?

If you're interested in the direct answer and not in the reasoning behind it, scroll to the bottom of the post!

A simple option is to just only use the new plants. Their internal balance is somewhat improved. That being said, it does change the game dynamic from the regular game. Early plants are more effective, so a game can be shorter. That can actually be detrimental; it's easier to exploit an early lead.

A second option is to play more of a 'teacher' role: just explain why you're interested in a plant openly and fairly, or answer a question like "Why do you think I should bid on plant X?". The problem is that it can take away agency and that you're not really playing to win. It's hard to do this well.

Rather, I would suggest this preferred (if somewhat complicated) solution instead. Take the old deck, and remove all the plants that are bought almost 100% of the time they are in the game, as well as the plants that are bought almost 0% of the time. Replace these with the new plants, shuffling a few plants around so we have as few double numbers as possible.

These things are 'harsh' about the game's regular plant deck:

1> Bad early plants. These "traps" are just something you learn to avoid. They're bad enough that they'll cripple you in 99% of games, only serving to 'block' the market. Instead, it would be better if the worst plants are at worst mediocre, allowing you to at least make a bit of money, instead of just costing you.

2> Really good plants new players won't immediately realize the value of. The experienced player can oftentimes get a steal for an amazing power plant like the 21, 25, 26, or 30. This problem is somewhat less of a concern if you take the time to explain that 5 or bigger plants are really good, because you don't have to replace them later on, even if they use up a lot of resources, i.e. go through a few example evaluations of the plant market.

3> Low capacity late-game plants. Again there's another trap here. If these are bought at the start of phase 3, you could simply get into a situation where you don't power enough stuff.

4> The '3' and '4' capacity plant trap: new players will often buy too many of these, leaving them strapped for cash in phase 3. Adding a few 7 and 8 capacity plants allow players to keep one 3- or 4-capacity plant and still get 17 total capacity (3-6-8 or 3-7-7 or 4-5-8 or 4-6-7).

What we do NOT want to do is alter the game's resource balance. The default deck is well tuned with respect to the resources available, so we want our new deck to have roughly the same number of 'resource symbols' total on the cards, as well as keep the amount of symbols in each phase of the game similar.

In order to make the deck somewhat more forgiving, I suggest the following:

Gentle Deck

Start out with the regular Power Grid deck.

1) Replace the [3] plant with the new [2*] plant. In our new configuration the old [3] would not be good enough. Here having it be 1 cheaper means it is comparable to the [4] in value.

2) Add the new [5*] plant, leaving the old [5] in as well. (The new [5] counts as higher). The new [5*] offers an interesting capacity option, much like the [8].

3) Replace the [6] plant. The new [6*] is a great efficiency plant, though it suffers in turn order. The old [6] is essentially bought only on non-standard maps with cheap starting trash, or to break a stall.

4) Replace the [7] plant. The new [7*] has good efficiency. The old [7] is a mediocre plant bought only very rarely, it tends to not make enough money.

The starting market ends up as 2* 4 5 5*, 6* 7* 8 9, 13.

Phase 1 and 2 plants:

5) Replace the [14] plant. The old [14] is quite literally a garbage plant, and is basically never bought.

6) Replace the [15] plant. This adds an extra windmill early on. The [15] is usually a mistake when bought, but is quite insidious: it seems good at first glance but turns out not to be great.

7) Remove the [17] plant. The worst plant in the game.

8) Replace the [19] plant. The [19] is mediocre at best at this point in the game.

9) Replace the [21] plant. This gives back another Trash option, and the default [21] is arguably a bit strong. The new [21*] is also a 3-resource plant, keeping the resource use the same for Trash.

10) Replace the [25] plant. The default [25] is the second-best plant in the game. The new [25*] is a worse version of the old [26], the best plant. Removing the [25] also removes a bit of mid-game coal, allowing plants like the [20] and the new [14] to be less risky.

11) Replace the [26] plant. This gives us a 3-power wind plant.

12) Replace the [27] plant. Trading the wind plant for another decent Trash plant.

The midgame deck is thus 10 11 12 14* 15* 16 18 19* 20 21* 22 23 24 25* 26* 27* 28 29 30 31 32 33

Endgame plants:

13) Remove the [37] plant. A wind plant with only 4 cities and this high of a number is a trap.

14) Replace the [44] plant. Again, only 5 cities is not really good enough. With 6 cities the new plant is generally a great pickup.

15) Add the new [46] plant. (It ranks above the old [46]). This adds a good high-capacity hybrid plant.

16) Replace the [50] plant. This 8-capacity plant makes 3- and 4-capacity plants less bad. We already replaced the [44] so the equivalent of the old [50] is still in the game.

The endgame deck becomes 34 35 36 38 39 40 42 44* 46 46* 50*

Then follow the standard game rules with this new deck.


Is it possible for a person to lose "Pirate Islands" Seafarers scenario before the game even starts? So here's where my question stems from: In the Pirate Islands scenario, each player starts with 3 settlements on the Eastern Island. A player only wins if:

a) he has captured the Pirate fortress of his color, AND
b) reaches 10 victory points

There are no special victory points in this scenario besides basic expansion (no Longest Road, no Largest Army, and no VP cards from the Development stack since they are used as Knight cards)

Based on the confined locations of the map, it would appear that if you never are able to expand beyond your initial three placement on the eastern island, it will be impossible for you to win.  Thus, the game could be over for someone before it even begins.

For example, in the attached image which simplifies the situation, let's say I'm White. I have been boxed in on the Eastern Island. I have built my maximum 4 Cities, as well as 1 settlement. These 5 locations are the only eligible spots for me to build. There is no way to get extra victory points, thus I will forever be stuck at 9 VP.

Our solution when we've played is that a player is allowed to build roads on the Pirate Fortress island to expand to an additional settlement (marked by the pink outlined question marks on the map)

According to the rules...

A player is only allowed to build ONE shipping route, directly between his initial coastal settlement, and the corresponding pirate fortress. Note that it only says the shipping route may not be extended beyond the Pirate Fortress, not trade route. It doesn't say anything about building roads on the Pirate Fortress island.

In the second screenshot, it could be interpreted that the rules about additional settlements are only referring to the midway pirate island (i.e. I can't build another settlement on the "8 ore" tile)

Am I missing something? Has anyone else encountered this issue?

If you are not allowed to build additional settlements beyond the Pirate Fortress, I would call this scenario flawed. Any scenario where a player can lose before the first roll of the dice needs to be fixed, in my opinion.

This is a problem with this scenario in its current form. Sebastian Rapp, Catan's Product Manager, suggests lowering the points required to 8 since the point of this scenario is more to build ships and defeat pirates that to develop the starting island.

Your idea of being able to build on the pirate islands is another fix, possibly with the stipulation that you can only build an additional settlement on the pirate islands if it is a position that doesn't produce any resources.


Magic The Gathering: probability of casting a 3 drop on turn 3 So, I have a probability related question.

In MTG, which is the probability of landing a 3-drop on turn 3, but using the correct combination. For example, I want to cast a Geist of Saint Traft on turn 3 (assuming I started), what is the probability (given the assumption that I drop 1 land per turn) of having, by turn 3, one island, one plain and one other land and having the card in my hand ready for casting.

I know that as this is drawing without replacement, so some form of Multivariate Hypergeometric Distribution is needed, but I am a little lost.

Let say I have a 60 cards deck: 10 islands, 10 plains, 4 other lands (none of them giving either blue or white mana), 4 Geist of Saint Traft and 32 other cards.

Now, by turn 3 I would have drawn (assuming 1 draw per turn) 9 cards out of the 60 and for dropping the Geist of Saint Traft I would need at least 1 island, at least 1 plain, at least 1 other land (of the other 22 lands) and at least 1 Geist, so in that case would it be the same to calculate the probability of having by turn 3 none of those and subtract that from one? However, I am not sure how to deal with the case of the third land card I should pick it from 22 (the number of lands less the 2 already picked) or from 24 (the total)?

There is a legit mathematical answer to this question, but it's a bit outside my ability. What I can offer you, however, is an example of how Magic players of various levels of mathematical knowledge have attempted to tackle the question.
This article by Frank Karsten is a good start. Doing it mathematically, you get stuff like this:

Eventually, Karsten just gives up and decides to simulate it. A sample of his conclusions for 60-card decks:

To have a good (90%) chance of casting a one-drop (e.g. Duress) on turn 1: 14 sources of its color.
To have a good chance of casting a three-drop with one colored mana symbol (e.g. Thirst for Knowledge) on turn 3: 12 sources.
To have a good chance of casting a three-drop with two of the same colored mana symbol (e.g. Liliana of the Veil) on turn 3: 19 sources.

Unfortunately, this particular analysis doesn't focus too much on multi-color non-land cards (more on multi-color lands, which are invaluable for building competitively powerful decks).
He also recommends looking at preexisting competitive decks as a guide, since players tend to build for consistency.
A 2012-season Delver deck is probably a good guidepost, since it's a deck that played Geist on-curve and as one of its most color-demanding cards.
How many white sources is it packing?
lands – 22:

9 Island
2 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Moorland Haunt
4 Seachrome Coast

card-filtering — 9 cards (plus the Snapcasters):

2 Thought Scour
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

So that's 10 white mana sources, plus 4 card-filtering cards that dig deep (the Ponders). Pretty close to the 12 that Karsten said you want to get a 90% chance of casting a single-color three-drop on turn 3.


What is the real name of Misha's Bidding Game? My friend went to a math camp and brought back a card game called Misha's Bidding Game that is super addicting. I can't find the real name of the game on google though, so I'm guessing it's obscure.

Everyone gets 5 cards, and all that matters is if they are red or
black.
Each player arranges them in a stack face down and they go in a
circle bidding how many red cards they can flip over from any deck
(bids must be strictly increasing).
Anyone can challenge a bid at any time, and the challenged player
must flip over from the tops of anybody's stack that number of red
cards (you can pick and choose the tops of anybody's deck, even
flipping multiple ones off the same deck).
If you successfully flip over the bidded number of red cards, the
challenger loses a card, otherwise you lose a card.
If you lose all 5 you're out.
After a challenge, the bidding is reset.

After you've had at least one card flipped or you lose a card, you get to reshuffle your stack

This is a variant of liar's dice, played with cards and using only the numbers ${0,1}$ instead of dice with ${1,2,3,4,5,6}$.
On Wikipedia, the article with that name gives more detail.


Am I permitted to see my own combat cards? While engaging in combat within Scythe, player can insert one combat card (yellow, small) per mech/character behind power dial, which serves as attack boost.

However, I fail to find in the rules book whether I am permitted to see values of my own combat cards and choose respectively. Both ways make sense (random choice and possibility to see), thus I am very uncertain.

You may always look at the power cards in your own hand and see their content and values. The content is only kept secret from other players. Other players only know how many combat cards you have in your hand.

From the rules page 7, up in the top right:

  COMBAT CARDS: Draw the indicated number of combat cards. The number of combat cards you have is public information, but the content of those cards is kept secret from opponents.

Kept secret from opponents — not from you. You can see the content of those cards.

This means during combat you choose your power cards with full knowledge of what values they have. Your opponents won't know what you've played until the Reveal in combat (page 23).


How does one evaluate the "strength" of a hand in Magic the Gathering? In MTG (or other games), if one player is dealt a strong hand, and the other a weak one, the first player is likely to win. Unless, of course, the first player plays much worse or is unlucky during the course of the game.

How does one evaluate the strength of a hand in MTG? This is NOT a question about when to take a mulligan (which applies only to the weaker hands), but is a general question about all hands, weak, average, strong, and even "come" hands. (An example of a "come" hand, from poker is four to a straight or a flush, that is weaker than one pair, but will be a very strong hand if it "fills.")

I'm using some examples from bridge, which I know better:

One has a disproportionate number of the most powerful cards (three or all four of the aces in the deck).
One has a large number of moderately powerful cards (e.g. face cards, not all aces).
One has a hand with only average "raw" strength, but that is highly co-ordinated (e.g. seven or eight cards of a single suit for trumps). This can be combined with having few low cards, and hence few weaknesses, in other suits.
One has "position", e.g. by playing after an opponent with a slightly weaker hand, so it is easy to "cancel" or "one-up" him.

What are similar, or analogous advantages in MTG? Are there "standard" evaluation methods, as there are in bridge (with its high card point count), or is it more of a situational thing?

A Good Hand is a Good Plan

Magic plays rather differently from a traditional card game:

Most cards in Magic require other cards as resources (e.g. land to generate mana). They can only be played once you've sufficiently developed your board. An effective deck has a mixture of early-, mid-, and late-game cards; what exactly that means varies greatly depending on your strategy.
Many cards are situationally useful — they're good because of synergy with other cards, or because they're reactive cards that answer an opponent's plays.
You get to tailor the deck to a particular strategy (outside of a few very special game modes like Momir Basic and Rainbow Stairwell).

So, most of the individual evaluative tricks don't work the same way at all. But that's fine.

Because, as you probably know, all of the evaluation tricks from bridge are cognitive shortcuts for figuring out the fundamental question: "How will this hand play out?" That's what you need to figure out in Magic as well.

Look at your hand and imagine what you're going to do in the next few turns. Imagine what your opponent is going to do, too, based on whatever information you have about them.

"I'm going to run my opponents out of trumps and then all these low cards will be tricks."
"I'm going to play some cheap creatures and use burn spells to clear the way while they apply repeated pressure."
"I'm going to use counterspells to survive long enough to cast my Wrath of God, then stick my planeswalker to control the board."

A good hand is, typically, one that presents some kind of coherent "story" or "gameplan" — ideally one that's powerful, fast, and resilient to disruption.

As a starting point:

What are you going to be doing on turn 1, turn 2, turn 3, et cetera?
Do you have enough lands to develop your board?
Do you have cards you can play early to help you stall or put pressure on your opponent? (Which do you actually need to do: stall or apply pressure? a.k.a. "Who's the beatdown?")
What's your opponent likely to do to disrupt you? What can you do to do to disrupt them?
What's missing? What cards do you need to draw to shore up your weaknesses or make your strongest play? (A bit of poker experience may help here. It also helps to understand "playing to your outs.")

Note that, beyond basics like "Make sure you will be able to actually cast something," what actually constitutes a good or bad hand is highly situational. Familiarity with your deck, with the metagame, and with general archetypes and strategies will all help immensely here.


Resources for learning about good shape? Shape is immensely important in Go, and you can read about the basics anywhere - don't make empty triangles, table and mouth shapes are good, etc.  Where can I find more advanced treatments of shape?

Charles Matthews wrote an excellent book on this topic, coincidentally called Shape Up!

It is available for free on the net, if you have a Gobase.org account simply grab it here, if not, Google should bring up something. To list a few of the ideas explained:

Part 1 of the book, "Principles of development", covers basic terminology (table shape etc.), wedge weakness, empty triangles, eye shape, tactical aspects of connections, one point jumps and compound shapes.

The second part "Principles of engagement" explains hane at the head of 2/3 stones, nose tesuji, bulges, the center of 3 stones, answers to attachments, open skirts and submarines.

Part 3 "Practical fighting" deals with all kinds of cuts, light play, keima, peeps, various pincers, caps and  sector lines.

In Part 4, "Vital points and shape in the opening", 2 and 3 point extensions and their invasions, 3rd and 4th line and enclosures are discussed.

The final part talks about "Theory", pretty advanced concepts like 3 instead of 1-2-3, miai, kikashi, probes and large distance jumps, haengma and sabaki.

Interestingly, this book can be understood by beginners (high DDK) and is still useful up to lower dan levels. All shapes explained are extremely common in actual play so studying this book is most rewarding. There are also several sets of tsumego to reflect on the chapters.

Sadly the amount of higher level books on advanced shape study is limited in the Western world. If you're capable of speaking Chinese, Japanese or Korean you'll find a vast amount of very high level books in Asian Go stores.

Apart from joseki study and Asian books, you're pretty much out of luck regards of lecture material. Of course there are still some high level (Western) books and lectures but they are rarely focused on the idea of shape itself, so you'll have to scrape together what you find.

As you grow beyond the point where the typical Western shape books are of much use, the study of joseki is the main way to learn. Joseki are carefully crafted by professionals over time, and the shapes they incorporate are often very advanced.

However, once study material has become difficult to get, you'll probably have connections to several sensei that will be able to help you out. Until then, let the basics become natural, and review your games to understand and learn from your shape mistakes.


When to make a continuation bet and how much in Texas Hold'em? I am aware of the idea of a continuation bet, where you bet again on the flop, after a pre-flop raise. However, I'm not that sure on when I should and shouldn't do it. I tend to do it if I get the idea (from other players checking, say), that other players have missed the flop, but it would be useful to have more specific things to look for.

Also, how big should continuation bets be? I've heard between half and the full pot as a guide, with the higher end for if the flop has high draw potential (lots of hearts, say).  Is that reasonable?

How much does it make a difference if I have hit the flop or not? Also, how much of a difference is there between cash games and tournaments?

I would say that you want to make a continuation bet a large percentage of the time if you have signalled you are in the lead and no opponent has signalled otherwise.  What this "large percentage" is probably depends on what you are comfortable with and how aggressive you are, but I would estimate it would vary from 50% to 100%.  Continuation betting on every single flop will make you predictable.  You should also factor in how tight the table is - placing the bet more at a tight table and less at a loose table or against loose opponents.

Don't vary your bet based on whether or not you hit the flop.  This gives a signal to your opponents which will eventually allow good opponents to tell whether you hit the flop. Vary your bet based only on the texture of the flop - as you mentioned, a flop with more draw possibilities rates a larger bet, although some flops may be so dangerous that you may not make a continuation bet at all (i.e. Jh, Qh, Kh) if you did not catch a piece of them.


Does undying triggers an addition of counter? When a creature with undying comes back on the battlefield, does it get a +1/+1 counter or is the counter already on it?

For example: I have a Strangleroot Geist, a Hardened Scales and an Animation Module. My Geist is destroyed and comes back "with" a +1/+1 counter on it, does the counter is "placed" so it triggers Hardened Scale or Animation Module?

EDIT

There is an ambiguity on counters that are placed and cards that come with the counter already on it... are they "placed" anyway?

Does Winding Constrictor behaves as a replacement effect like Hardened Scales and do they cumulate?

Does Walking Ballista +1/+1 initial counters behaves like on undying?

Yes.

Counters are always placed onto objects (they never exist without having been placed).

  121.6. Some spells and abilities refer to counters being “placed” on an object. This refers to putting counters on that object while it’s on the battlefield and also to an object that’s given counters as it enters the battlefield.

A ruling on Hardened Scales (similar cards such as Doubling Season and Winding Constrictor have similar rulings) clarifies this:

  “Placed on a creature you control” includes that creature entering the battlefield with +1/+1 counters on it.

When undying triggers and returns a creature to the battlefield, that creature is entering the battlefield 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.”

As a technical note, Hardened Scales does work (resulting in the additional counter) but doesn't trigger ("trigger" has a specific meaning in Magic) because it's a replacement effect, not a triggered ability. This means it modifies the way something happens as it happens. Triggered abilities are placed onto the stack as a reaction to something happening and then resolve separately.

Added information:

Winding Constrictor and Hardened Scales both provide replacement effects. When an event occurs that they would replace, you choose which one happens. Because the replaced event still places counters, the other one will still happen afterwards. Each replacement effect can only modify an event once, so you don't have an endless chain. You'll get one extra counter for each Winding Constrictor and each Hardened Scales.

For Walking Ballista, as detailed earlier in the question, counters on an object always get there by being "placed". Yes, Walking Ballista is given counters as it enters the battlefield, which is part of rule 121.6.


Will Kresh the Bloodbraided survive damage through his ability in a boardwide damage scenario? Kresh the Bloodbraided is on the battlefield with another creature, let's say a 1/1.

Kresh has the following ability:

  Whenever another creature dies, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Kresh the Bloodbraided, where X is that creature's power.

The opponent deals 5 damage to both of them, which should kill them both. Will Kresh's ability trigger to make him a 6/6 and save him from being killed by the 5 damage?

If Kresh is a 5/5 when the damage is dealt,  he will die when the damage resolves because he will have 5 damage marked on him the next time state-based actions are checked, causing him to go to the graveyard. The check will occur before the triggered ability resolves, so he'll never have the chance to add the +1/+1 counter.


Can making a creature unable to attack, after it has been assigned as an attacker, remove it from combat? Kulrath Knight has an effect that states 'Creatures your opponents control with counters on them can't attack or block.'   So a creature is assigned as an attacker and subsequently gets a counter placed on it prior to combat resolution, does that remove the creature from combat?

No, making a creature "unable to attack or block" after attackers have been declared does not remove it from combat.

An ability that says "Creatures can't Attack or Block" means that they can not be declared as blockers or attackers. If they are already attacking or blocking it is too late and they will not be removed from combat.

  506.4a: Once a creature has been declared as an attacking or blocking creature, spells or abilities that would have kept that creature from attacking or blocking don't remove the creature from combat.


Does doubling counters trigger Hardened Scales? I have a Hardened Scales and Setessan Oathsworn with no counters on the battlefield. I cast Solidarity of Heroes on the Oathsworn, it gets three counters from it's heroic trigger which happens while the Solidarity is still on the stack. When the Solidarity resolves will it have 6 counters total or 7? Does doubling counters translate to "add as many counters as it has" or is it some special rule that changes the count without "adding" (thus not triggering the Scales).

When the card says to "double the number of +1/+1 counters" on a creature, it means that you should place on to that creature as many +1/+1 counters as are currently on it. This means that Hardened Scales applies, so Setessan Oathsworn will end up with 7 +1/+1 counters on it.

Unfortunately, I can't find a rules reference to back this up, but the basic idea is that after Solidarity of Heroes resolves, there are more counters on the creature than before it resolved, and the only way that could have happened (from the point of view of the game rules) is if you put counters on it. There is no other applicable action that has that result.


When multiple monsters enter a Vortex during a turn do multiple Dunwich tokens get added? From the Dunwich Horror rule book:

  For each monster returned to the cup in this fashion, raise the terror
  level by one. In addition, if there are fewer than three Dunwich
  Horror tokens on the Dunwich Horror track, add one Dunwich Horror
  token to the track.

Does this mean if three monsters move onto a vortex in one monster movement phase that three Dunwich Horror tokens are added (if none are there) or just one?

The wording specifies that this action is in addition to raising the terror level.

The rules does not state that you add one Dunwich Horror token for each monster added. After increasing the terror level, if there a fewer than 3 tokens, add one token only


What happens if I cast Green Sun's Zenith while Grafdigger's Cage is on the battlefield? Grafdigger's Cage doesn't prevent me from casting Green Sun's Zenith from my hand, but what happens if I do?

Two important comp. rules here:

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can't happen, the "can't" effect takes precedence.
609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

So you'll search your library for a green creature cost with converted mana cost X or less, do absolutely nothing with it (since you cannot, due to Grafdigger's Cage) and leave it in your library, then shuffle your library, then shuffle Green Sun's Zenith into it's owner's library.
This allows you to shuffle Green Sun's Zenith into your library for G, which might be handy/relevant in some obscure case (possibly against mill decks?).


Gin Rummy, incorrect knocking What is the penalty for going down with a hand that has more than 10 points?

For example, a player may lay down a 4d,5d,6d but one of the cards is actually of the heart suit.

Here's one answer from http://ginrummytournaments.com/pdfs/Rules_2012.pdf. Tl;dr if you could have knocked then you can accept his knock and undercut; otherwise game continues, he plays an open hand, and he must knock at first opportunity.

  IMPROPER KNOCK: If a player makes an IMPROPER KNOCK, with his count being
  higher than the knock card, his hand must then be PLAYED OPEN, ALL TEN
  CARDS FACE UP. He MUST KNOCK when his point count is at the value of the
  knock or below. HE CANNOT BE FORCED TO KNOCK BY HIS OPPONENT. When a
  player makes an illegal knock with more than the knock card count, the opponent
  may accept the knock as proper, provided his point count is the same as the knock
  card or lower.(example; the knocking point is 8 and a player knocks with 10 points,
  the opponent with 8 points or less may accept the knock and get credit for the
  undercut). The opponent may also lay off points to get under the knock. When a
  player announces he is ginning or knocking, or calls a number and starts to lay his
  meld down, he must continue to do so. If his hand is not a gin or his knock is not
  legal he must play an open hand. The opponent may ask that the cards be spread
  for proper viewing, but may not touch the cards himself.

For casual play however I would tend to let my opponent pick up his cards and play normally - he's the only one who's been hurt by showing them to me.


Mimic Vat and Exiling If I used Mimic Vat on a Licid, created a copy of that Licid, and attached it to a creature, would I still have to exile it during my end step even though it's now an enchantment?

Yes.  The relevant part of Mimic Vat's text reads:

  Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of the exiled card. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

The text clearly tells you to exile the token that the Vat created regardless of whether it's a creature or not.  If a Licid token becomes an enchantment, it is still the same object and thus still the same token, and so the Vat's delayed triggered ability will still find it and exile it at the next end step.


Stacking Sensei's Divining Top Abilities I believe it is possible, but I am asking for confirmation:
Can you activate Sensei's Divining Top's first ability, and then, in response, activate the second ability, allowing you to draw a card, put SDT on top of your library, and then look at the top three cards on your library and put them back in any order?

Yes, you can do exactly what you describe. You can activate Top's first ability, then, while that ability is on the stack, activate its second ability. Then the second ability will resolve, and you will draw a card, then put Top on top of your library. Finally, the first ability will resolve, and you will look at and reorder the top three cards of your library, including the Top you just put there.


Can I equip Skullclamp on a creature I am sacrificing? I have a "self-sacrificing" creature, such as Diligent Farmhand or Dawntreader Elk, and Skullclamp on the field.  Can I pay to sacrifice the creature and then in response equip Skullclamp, Or vice versa? I know in some cases the card may be gone but the trigger is still on the stack.

It is possible to get the benefit of the creature's ability and the two-card draw from Skullclamp, but you have to do things in the right order and have a creature that can withstand a +1/-1.

There are a couple of rules concepts that are relevant here:

For the cards mentioned, sacrificing the creature is part of the cost.  You can tell because it appears before the colon (:)602.1a.  Paying a cost does not use the stack, so you can't "respond" to it.  As soon as you sacrifice the creature to pay the cost, it goes to the graveyard701.16a.
Creatures that have 0 toughness are put into the graveyard as a state-based action704.5f.  This condition is checked any time spell or ability resolves.

With this in mind, there are a couple of possible scenarios:

If you activate the creature's ability first, the creature is put in the graveyard as part of the cost.  This means you can't attempt to equip Skullclamp* while the creature's ability is on the stack - the creature is already gone.
If you Equip Skullclamp first, you have two options for timing your use of the creature's ability:

If you activate the creature's ability while Skullclamp's Equip is still on the stack, the creature is sacrificed before Skullclamp is equipped, so you won't get the two-card bonus.  (The Equip ability no longer has a valid target, so it fizzles.)
If you wait until after the Equip finishes, the result depends on how strong your creature is:

If the creature only has 1 toughness (like Diligent Farmhand), Skullclamp decreases its toughness to 0 and it will be put in the graveyard as a state-based action.  There is no opportunity to activate the creature's ability.
If the creature has more than 1 toughness, it will survive being Equipped with Skullclamp.  Its ability can then be activated, and you will get the two-card bonus when it is sacrificed.

So it is possible to pull off this combo with Dawntreader Elk, but not possible with Diligent Farmhand.**

*It's not generally possible to use the Equip ability like this anyway.  The Equip ability can only be used when you could cast a Sorcery.  There are ways around that, but they won't change this outcome.

**Unless you have some other way to boost its toughness or otherwise prevent Skullclamp from killing it.  There are always loopholes in Magic.


Are old Magic: the Gathering boosters worth more sealed, or should I open them? I won some magic the gathering 10th edition core set booster packs, are they worth anything?
Or should I open to get rare cards? Also have 2 core sets — Molimo's might and Exincar's tyranny — and a 2 player starter game that includes 2 booster packs from 10th edition.

Logically speaking, it would never make sense for the expected value of an opened pack to be higher than the value of an unopened pack.  If that was ever the case, people would just buy unopened packs, open them, and sell them for a net profit.  Unopened packs have the potential to have a high value, and that potential reward comes with an associated increase in cost.


Chandra, Pyromaster's ability and spells with x casting cost Chandra's ability allows you to cast spell without paying its casting cost:

  −7: Exile the top ten cards of your library. Choose an instant or
  sorcery card exiled this way and copy it three times. You may cast the
  copies without paying their mana costs.

(see http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383204).
What if I decide to cast a spell with an X casting cost, e.g. Fireball (see http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376334)? What kind of damage will be dealt?

X is always zero in this case according to this rule.

  107.3b If a player is casting a spell that has an {X} in its mana cost, the value of X isn’t defined by the text of that spell, and an effect lets that player cast that spell while paying neither its mana cost nor an alternative cost that includes X, then the only legal choice for X is 0.


MTG reactive play denied in MTG Arena I played MTG Arena today and I attacked with Zulaport Duelist on which my opponent reacted with Stomp adventure of Bonecrusher Giant and instead of letting me change my Duelist for Zareth it simply passed to damage and destroyed Duelist. I encountered a lot of bugs in Arena so far but I'm thinking this might be right but don't know why, since Zareth ability is instant speed.

Though not exactly the same, Zareth San's ability is very similar to Ninjutsu, and even referred to here.
702.48c states:

A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the
battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). [...]

And when we follow up on 509.1h, we see that

An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers
for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as
blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged
until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it
becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever
comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures
blocking it are removed from combat.

Since you added that your opponent cast Stomp during the declare attackers step, it wasn't determined yet whether your duelist is blocked or not. Therefore you weren't able use Zareth San's ability.


What are the differences with Khet 2.0? I believe I played the original Khet a few years ago, now I notice there is a "2.0 version". Could anyone point out the main differences?

From ThinkGeek:

  For those of you that loved the original Khet, you're gonna just flip
  for Khet 2.0, but we'll sum up game
  play for you who are new to the game.
  In Khet 2.0 Laser Game, there are four
  types of playing pieces, and two of
  them have mirrors. Game play is
  simple, and easy to learn, as there
  are only a few movement choices. The
  goal is to eliminate your opponent's
  Pharaoh. And, you eliminate the
  Pharaoh just like they did in olden
  times - by firing a red laser! And
  this is where Khet 2.0 kicks the game
  up a notch.

  In the original Khet, the lasers were
  part of the board. But in Khet 2.0,
  the lasers are built in to special
  Sphinx pieces that perch in the corner
  and can now rotate to change the angle
  of the beam (because of this change,
  the board is very slim and now built
  to travel)! Your laser is fired after
  your turn and bounces from mirrored
  piece to mirrored piece (always
  shooting off at a 90 degree angle). If
  the laser hits any piece on a
  non-reflective surface (with one
  exception we'll leave as a surprise),
  that piece is removed from play. If
  you eliminate your opponent's Pharaoh,
  you win. If you eliminate your own
  Pharaoh, you will be mocked for all
  time (because it is possible). Khet
  2.0 Laser Game is the next generation of the best laser game of all time.

So it seems that the form factor has changed, the lasers can be rotated, and there's a new piece added.


In the Final Battle, when you remove doom tokens for rolling successes against an Ancient One do you stop counting successes for that roll? In Arkham Horror you have to roll a cumulative number of successes equal to the number of players to knock off a doom token from the Elder God's health. If you reach the number of players worth of successes do you then stop counting for the player and move on or do you count the extra successes against the next doom token?

We played it so that you kept on adding them but it meant that we turned Nyalothotep into mince meat quite quickly (One Character was blessed had a fight of 6 a shotgun and Fight +1 skill card though)

I Just Read the FAQ:

Q: In combat with an Ancient One, how do cumulative
successes in the “Investigators Attack” step work?

A: To defeat the Ancient One, the players must do a total
number of successes equal to the number of players multiplied by the number of doom tokens on the Ancient One.

So, if 4 players are facing Yig (doom track of 10), they
need 40 successes to win. For every 4 successes they do,
they remove 1 doom token to track their progress. If the
investigators get 9 successes in the first round of combat,
they would remove 2 doom tokens, and 1 success would
carry over to the next round of combat.


How to play the intro of Legends of Andor with two players? I just got Legends of Andor and was trying to play the intro with two players. Having only two heroes, it seems the objectives cannot be reached in one day. Is Andor meant to be played with all heroes always, like e.g. In Mice and Mystics? I couldn't find any hints so far in the manual.

It is possible to reach all the objectives with just two players, and that is the way that it is designed.  Unlike Mice and Mystics, Legends of Andor has much more of a puzzle feel to it and you need to plan carefully in order to accomplish things within the time limits.  Keep in mind that you can move through the castle, that is one thing that often makes people think it takes longer than it really does.


Help Identify this game: place wooden barriers try to get across When I was younger I had a cool game, that I forget the name of, and would like to re-acquire.

It was a small wooden board, with a grid of squares on it. There were two players, and each turn, you could move your piece, or place a barrier in one of the slits. You couldn't completely block your opponent, but you had to try to get to the other side of the board before they did.

Does anybody know what this game was called?


Overplay in orthodox fuseki - Leela AI fails miserably? I'm not sure how much go is discussed on StackExchange, but currently I prefer trying it here than an actual go forum. This question concerns two topics:

Recently the free go AI Leela has been released, which is thought to be fairly strong (up to 9d KGS with proper hardware). I appear to have tricked it with a fairly simple position though, which puzzles me deeply. The starting position is:

This is a fairly common situation resulting from the orthodox fuseki. My concern is with black resisting this in a vulgar way: Black plays 1. bQ13 2. Q14 3. P13 4. O13 5. P12. The first question now is: How does white punish this overplay? I think there is a way to net black, which I've seen before somewhere but I can't remember nor find it. I was hoping the engine would do this for me but that was quite wrong:

The AI Leela (version 0.9.0 on fairly crappy hardware) gives this as a >60% winning percentage for white and suggests the continuation 6. R13 7. Q12 8. S12 wheruppon it suggests for black to let white connect under. However in case black plays 10. S11 its suggestion (with still some 60% white win) is to cut and "loose ladder", resulting in the following position ("1" in the second diagramm = move 6):

Black now pushes at P11 (= move 1 in diagramm 3) and white blocks. Leela says that white has a big advantage, but only considers black capturing T12. If black pushes out, the engine tries to "ladder" the group, each time suggesting black to take the S12 stone, and white's winning percentage dropping rapidly every time black (instead of taking S12) just keeps pushing out the futile "ladder" attempt by white. I conclude that the engine doesnt't consider the "pushing out" move by black and incorrectly asseses the entire variation (which is somewhat surprising).

What are your thoughts on this, especially as to correct play in the various positions? (In particular after diagramm 1 move 5)? I suspect O12 is a big mistake but can't be sure (my rank is 1k on KGS).

W1 should be N11, then black dies, I'd claim from memory.

W1 at R13 is probably not a complete disaster in itself, but O12 should then be O11, or maybe P10 should be O10. That would force black to capture and white would at least build some influence -- not thickness, as she can't protect all cuts.

Even before that, white should probably descend at T13 and later throw in to induce the infamous "hammer" shape, which would probably give white one or two additional sente moves.

That Leela is not seeing your sequence does seem like a clear case of a bug to me. Maybe Leela figured something like "black is losing the ladder, so black must capture. And because playing out ladders that do not work is bad, black will capture there immediately!" (pure speculation on my part).


Game of thrones house card rules A problem we ran into. Do the house cards stack or is what you play permanent. For instance, Baratheon play salladhor saan which makes all boats not your own 0 when supported. The opponent is greyjoys and play aeron. When they choose a new card they choose victarion. Would they still get the +2 to all there ships or would sans effect still make them 0?

This is answered in the FAQ:

  Q: If House Greyjoy plays his “Victarion Greyjoy” House card against
  House Baratheon’s “Sallador Saan” House card, are the participating
  Greyjoy Ships still reduced to 0 combat strength?

  A: Yes.


What happens if a creature is returned to owner's hand after blocking or being targetted? What will happen to a creature if it's been killed either after being targetted by spells or by blocking?

example 1:
Player A casts Chandra's Outrage targeting Angelic Wall; Player B uses Crystal Shard's ability (return target creature to its owner's hand) to return Angelic Wall to his hand.  Does Player A's spell still resolve and find new targets?  And if Player B has no other creatures and Player A has the only creatures in play, would it target one of Player A's creatures?

Also, if Player B waited for Chandra's Outrage to resolve and the Angelic Wall dies, when Player B uses the Crystal Shard ability on Angelic Wall before it goes into graveyard will it take effect?  Will Angelic Wall be returned to Player B's hand rather than going to the graveyard?

example 2:
Player A attacks with a 3/3 creature and Player B blocks with a creature that's only a 2/2 and then lets damage resolve.  When Player B uses Crystal Shard's ability, will his 2/2 creature be returned to his hand instead of going to his graveyard?  And if Player B declared that his 2/2 will block Player A's creature, then used the Crystal Shard ability before damage resolves, does Player B's creature still block Player A's creature, or would Player A's creature get through because damage hasn't resolved yet?

Example 1:

If a spell with targets would resolve, and if it has no targets left, than that spell will be countered.

This is known as fizzle-ing

*note if the spell still has at least 1 target, it will still resolve.  chandra's outrage only targets a creature, and therefore will be countered, but flames of the firebrand will not be, if it still has at least 1 target left.

Example 1':

no, player B would not be able to target the wall if it dies.  It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based effect before anyone gets priority to cast spells or activate abilities.

Example 2:

You can activate  crystal shard after blockers have been declared and before combat damage is dealt.  the 2/2 will return to your hand, and the 3/3 will still be considered blocked

Once combat damage is dealt it's too late.  the 2/2 will go to the graveyard as a state-based effect before anyone gets priority to cast spells or activate abilities.


Dominion: when playing the Big Money strategy, when should you switch from buying Gold to Duchy? When there are how many Provinces left (if that is the way the game will most likely end), should you switch from buying Gold to Duchy (when you don't have 8 money)? Does this amount change for 3, 4 player? Is there a good rule of thumb based upon the number of players/potential buys before your next turn?

For 2 player, the generally accepted tipping point is when there are 5 Provinces left, buy Duchies (and Estates when there are 2 Provinces left). This has been shown as optimal according to simulator testing for BM-based strategies (e.g., BM only or BM + any given card, e.g., Smithy). For race games (e.g., Gardens or IGG), the tipping point is much earlier, although it depends on the set in question. The answer will also change if you or your opponent is playing a mega-turn engine deck.

For multiplayer, the key is to remember that 3 player games have 4 Provinces/player, just like 2 player, but 4 player games only have 3 Provinces/player. So, the Duchy-buying should occur earlier in a 4-player game.


What can I do about uncounterable spells? I cast Fling, sacrificing my only creature to kill my opponent.  My opponent responds with Last Word, which will win the game the other way.  Last Word says "This spell can't be countered."  What else can I do about it besides countering it to prevent my plans from being foiled?  (I'd really like to have the last word here.)

Historic Note: before of the April 2018 rules change, uncounterable spells with targets used to actually have different wording (still visible on the printed cards) implying that they still could be countered.  For example, Last Word said:

  Last Word can't be countered by spells or abilities.

Meanwhile Akroma, Angel of Fury said:

  Akroma, Angel of Fury can't be countered.

There is now no way to "counter" an uncounterable spell, but you can achieve the same effect by preventing it from resolving.  The easiest way to do this is to cause all of its targets to be invalid:

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process.  If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve. It’s removed from the stack and, if it’s a spell, put into its owner’s graveyard.

There are 2 ways to do this:

Change the target of the uncounterable spell.  You can prevent Last Word from resolving by changing it's target, such as via Redirect.  By using Redirect to change Last Word to target Redirect, Last Word will not resolve, as described in this ruling:

  If you cast Redirect targeting a spell that targets a spell on the stack (like Cancel does, for example), you can’t change that spell’s target to itself. You can, however, change that spell’s target to Redirect. If you do, that spell won’t resolve when it tries to resolve because Redirect will have left the stack by then.

Make the targeted object a new object.  If the targeted object is a spell, you can use Ertai's Meddling will bring your spell back later when their spell is no longer on the stack.  If the targeted object is a permanent (such as a creature targeted by Inescapable Blaze), exiling it and returning it to the battlefield (such as with Momentary Blink) will cause it to become a new permanent and no longer targeted by the spell.

As far as uncounterable spells in general (like Thrun, the Last Troll), there are a few other ways you can deal with them while they are on the stack (none of which are technically countering):

You can exile the spell, such as with Time Stop, Mindbreak Trap, or Ertai's Meddling.
You can return the spell to their hand, such as with Venser, Shaper Savant.
You can tuck the spell with Commit.
You can steal the spell with Æthersnatch or Commandeer.
In multiplayer games, defeating a player removes all of that player's spells from the stack.  Door to Nothingness is the ultimate counterspell.

Finally, in the case described in the question about Last Word and Fling, you could Twincast the Fling, and have a copy that is not countered.  The copy of Fling uses the additional costs paid for the original spell.

Historic Note: before the April 2018 rules change, uncounterable spells like Last Word had wording like "Last Word can't be countered by spells or abilities."  Rule 608.2b used to have the spell be countered by game rules if all its targets were invalid on resolution.  The only functional difference is for cards that care about what has been countered, notably Multani's Presence

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. ... The spell or ability is countered if
  all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now
  illegal.


Do Mox Opal + Arcbound Ravager + Scrap Trawler make an infinite combo? Is it possible to do an infinite combo with those cards?

Using Arcbound Ravager I can send my Mox Opal to the graveyard. And with Scrap Trawler I can take the lesser converted mana cost from my graveyard to my hand.

The question is, can I take Mox Opal? Or does Mox Opal not have a converted mana cost?

What is the Rule I can find the solution?

Mox Opal has a listed CMC on the gatherer page of 0.  So, since 0 is not less than 0, you cannot take Mox Opal back from sacrificing it.