Control and summoning sickness If I cast Expropriate and my opponent chose money, if I were to target their Primordial Hydra, can I attack with it immediately?

No you can't attack with it immediately.

To be able to attack with a creature or pay {T} (tap) costs on its abilities, one of these two things must be true:

You must have controlled the creature since the start of your turn, or
It must have haste.

Since neither are true you can't attack with it straight away; you'll have to wait until your next turn.

Gaining control and haste is generally the domain of red theft cards such as Act of Treason: they take control of a permanent and give it haste so you can use it straight away. In exchange, those same effects usually aren't permanent, and the red player has to give it back at the end of their turn. Blue trades that "use immediately" upside for a "use forever" upside.


"A Brief History of the World" - what are the area values over the epochs? I got "A Brief History of the World" second hand, and I'm not entirely sure if the area value tokens are all there. The area values are not listed anywhere else in the rule book or on the internet as far as I could find. And not every area has a token for each epoch by design, absent tokens for that epoch indicate an area value of 0, so there is no way to check if a token is missing or supposed to not exist.

Can someone with a known-good 'A Brief History of the World' post a table with area values for the epochs?

I specifically only have two tokens for the second epoch, only for north and south Europe.

According to boardgamegeek these are the contents of the game:

Giant Map Board
180 plastic playing pieces
130 card counters
32 Area Values

5 x Epoch 1

2 x Epoch 2

6 x Epoch 3 (BGG has 3, but that is a typo).

4 x Epoch 4

4 x Epoch 5

11 x Epoch 6

30 City/Capitals
20 Monuments (4 types x 5)
20 Forts
18 Bonus tokens (1's, 2's 3's - 6 of each)
6 Gold Markers (1 in each player colour)
4 Fleets
42 Empire cards (6 epochs, 7 cards per epoch)
54 Event cards (6 epochs, 7 cards per epoch, plus 12 initial events)
6 Epoch maps
6 Six sided dice
4 Plastic Stands
1 Epoch chart
1 Array

There are 32 area value tokens, specified by epoch.


Can the overlord immediately place and activate a defeated monster? When a hero defeats a monster and it becomes the overlord's turn, if the overlord places that monster back on the board where it was defeated, is the monster activated and can the overlord use it during that round that it was placed?

I would vote for: Yes!

I think the real question is, can the Overloard place it directly on his turn, or does he have to wait until the next round? I think there is nothing in the rules that presses him to wait. I think the rules for reinforements are clear about when they occur, they are usually given in the scenario description.

If there is a monster on the board, the Overlord can activate it. There is no summoning sickness.


Yahtzee where to 6’s near end of game It’s near the end of the game but I still don’t have 6’s, my bonus or a Yahtzee.  I roll all 6’s for a Yahtzee.  I’m reluctant to put that in the Yahtzee slot because I need at least four 6’s to get the bonus.

When this happens, and it’s happened to me a few times, why not put the Yahtzee in the 6’s?  That way, I get 65 points as opposed to 50 (30 for the 6’s, 35 for the bonus).

Assuming that it is the second last round, you can expect about 1 point more by going with 6s.

In case you go for yahtzee you get 50 points now and expect about 16.3 points including a bonus for 4 sixes or more in the last round for a total of 66.3 points.
In case you go for 6s you get 65 points now and expect about 2.4 points for yahtzee in the last round.

If 3 sixes were enough to get the bonus you should go for yahtzee instead.


Classic Haunted Mansion Game I am trying to remember the name of a old haunted mansion game I played.  I remember you started in the Foyer and built the mansion as you explored out of mansion tiles.  The tiles were unique because they were elevated to have several different heights.  You were looking for chests/treasure with gold in them.  Once you found them you had to escape the mansion.

I thought it was just called Haunted Mansion but that doesn't seem to be it :)

Mystery Mansion?

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/586882/mystery-mansion

I remember playing this game. Interesting idea.


Can you stop all attacks with Pramikon and Helm of the host? If I have Pramikon, Sky Rampart out and attach a Helm of the Host to it, would it allow a new copy to enter, allowing me to choose the opposite direction from my original Pramikon? If so would that mean that no one can conduct any attacks in any direction?

If you look at the rulings on the gather page for Pramikon, Sky Rampart that is the case.

If two Pramikons on the battlefield disagree on which direction three or more players must attack, players can’t attack at all.


How likely is it to get a complete set of commons from a single booster box? I am looking at getting into MTG again. Thinking about just playing pauper and maybe some EDH. However it's kind of fun opening packs. My thoughts are I buy a box at the release of a set and just use it to build play sets of the commons.  Sell off everything else except perhaps a couple cards that may work with EDH or something. Not asking if this is the cheapest way, just whether or not it would be viable to get a full common play set from a single box or maybe two.

The exact value is difficult to calculate. This is due to the print runs of the cards - the 74 commons have "print runs" of 5 to make the printing easier. There are hundreds of these, but the fact that no pack contains the same cards does complicate the calculation.

I did throw together a pack simulator to test this and it ran in the background. Below is the output after 10 million trials. The highest was 200 packs and the lowest was 45. On a different run (of about 22 million trials) I was able to get a playset in only 44 trials. This run I've let go for 35 million trials and it was only able to get that 45, although eventually I got so unlucky I needed 215 packs on one of them. The last 17 million trials have not changed the min and max, though. I don't expect them to be changing any time soon.

Thus I think it's safe to say you are never going to get a playset from a single booster box.

I modified it to check the number of boxes and found a very consistent: 2 boxes were sufficient 39.2% of the time, three boxes 58.8% of the time, and four boxes sufficient 2.0% of the time. Five boxes were only necessary on 0.03% of runs but that was consistent far far into the tens of millions of trials.

If you want to play it safe, buy 3 boxes - you'll have them all 98% of the time.

new max: 72 on trial: 2
new max: 77 on trial: 3
new max: 81 on trial: 4
new low: 72 on trial: 6
new max: 87 on trial: 9
new max: 88 on trial: 10
new low: 65 on trial: 21
new max: 92 on trial: 25
new low: 64 on trial: 31
new max: 95 on trial: 42
new max: 108 on trial: 64
new low: 61 on trial: 78
new max: 115 on trial: 80
new max: 116 on trial: 110
new max: 119 on trial: 146
new low: 60 on trial: 153
new low: 59 on trial: 162
new low: 58 on trial: 222
new low: 56 on trial: 296
new low: 55 on trial: 607
new low: 53 on trial: 744
new max: 140 on trial: 2928
new low: 51 on trial: 6183
new max: 156 on trial: 9309
new low: 49 on trial: 49366
new max: 162 on trial: 60593
new max: 170 on trial: 112123
new low: 48 on trial: 117347
hit trial: 500000
new low: 47 on trial: 830525
hit trial: 1000000
new max: 186 on trial: 1307797
hit trial: 1500000
hit trial: 2000000
hit trial: 2500000
hit trial: 3000000
hit trial: 3500000
new max: 195 on trial: 3563925
hit trial: 4000000
hit trial: 4500000
hit trial: 5000000
hit trial: 5500000
hit trial: 6000000
new max: 198 on trial: 6005659
hit trial: 6500000
new low: 46 on trial: 6614767
hit trial: 7000000
hit trial: 7500000
hit trial: 8000000
new low: 45 on trial: 8015142
new max: 200 on trial: 8333263
hit trial: 8500000
hit trial: 9000000
hit trial: 9500000
hit trial: 10000000


How does the pool work in Glory to Rome? I am reading my Glory to Rome instruction booklet and I do not understand how the pool works.

Are players free to choose any card they wish from the pool, or are they just supposed to draw the top card?

The Spanish version of the game has really badly translated instructions. The English version (latest version downloadable here) is clearer (emphasis added):

  Place all the face up Order cards [which are revealed during setup] in the middle of the playing surface
  beside the pile of Jacks — they are the starting Pool.

Page 4 shows an image of the cards in the Pool face-up.


Is the 4-player variant unbalanced? Is there a fix? In Game of Thrones (second edition):

I have marveled at the balancing put into this game, specifically for 3-player games, where the whole south of the map is blocked, forcing the game to stay in the north, and thus creating a very good balance between the 3-players.

The 5-player variant is also very well balanced. Including all of the map in the game with no blocked territories, the only difference is that house Martell is gone which releases some tension on the board so the game is simply delayed a bit, but still very balanced (IMHO).

And the 6-player version (the recommended) is obviously balanced, as it is the main design of the game.

However, I feel that the 4-player version of the game is extremely unbalanced compared to the other variants.

First of all, there are no blocked territories, creating a huge empty space in the south, the only thing to hinder a rush are neutral troops which can be easily defeated after the first few turns.

But worse still is that house Tyrell's starting spot (Highgarden) is left completely unguarded, almost requiring house Lannister to move in.

House Baratheon is almost unhindered in its capture of all of the south unless Stark moves in aggressively or Baratheon moves inland or north, which barely happens when the south is so seductive.

House Lannister can also grab for the south, but much keep care of Greyjoy as they have easy access to the lands as well. As long as Lannister leaves the Riverlands and goes south, they are pretty safe from Greyjoy for the start of the game.

House Greyjoy, the extra house which makes the difference from 3 to 4 players, is stuck between Lannister and Stark, but with the empty south, and both Baratheon and Lannister moving down the board, Greyjoy is pretty free to take the Riverlands, unless Stark moves in, which would weaken both players and block their progress, and let Lannister or Baratheon get a big lead at the start.

House Stark has a great time of this board, being able to see what the other players are doing, and where they are focusing, and then adapting. Being able to go either direction on the board, and also into the Riverlands, they are in a great situation on the 4-player board and it is very difficult to do anything to them.

If Baratheon moves against Stark, Lannister or Greyjoy can easily grab the Riverlands, or the south, if Greyjoy moves to the Riverlands and north then Lannister can land-grab in the Riverlands or move south with ease.

The above are just a few examples of some of the things I feel are wrong in the balance of the 4-player game.

I would like to know if others have suggestions on how to improve the balance with house-rules, or if I am overlooking something, to please inform me as to how it actually is balanced.

The 4-player game is extremely unbalanced.
Greyjoys need to play fast and aggressive with building a navy to stay in the game to begin with, in a 4-player game that need is greatly expanded; if they don't get an army down south, they'll never be able to be a real competitor.
(My group is current on hiatus from playing this game as the last game we played I (as my first time as the Lannisters) took over Ironman's Bay, and stranded the Greyjoy player for the rest of the game, continually raiding his Consolidate Power so he couldn't bid on the Influence Tracks, and kept him unable to place a single starred order the entire game.)
5-player has similar Greyjoy issues, but the inclusion of Tyrell (starting in the completely undefended south) usually makes a huge advantage for the lucky 5th player.
Generally speaking, I never used to play when I don't have 3 or 6 players, however, one of my friends stumbled upon this:
Using this overlay, and the rules that come with it (no Martells, a strength 5 neutral token on Sunspear, take out Greyjoy and make Pyke unclaimable with only 4 players), we were able to have quite a few successful games.
Then... I found these:
Rumble in the South  puts everybody deep in awesome. From boardgamegeek:

4 Players: Rumble in the South
In this variant, Stark and Greyjoy are unplayable and their lands are
impassable. The impassable regions thus include: Bay of Ice, Flint's
Finger, Ironman's Bay, Seagard, The Mountains of the Moon and The
Narrow Sea. This variant is excellent at creating a true 4-way battle
with shifting alliances! However I tend to make the win condition only
6 castles instead of 7 to speed up the game.

After a full 6-player game, this is my favorite way to play. Boardgamegeek also has 3 other game variants:

4 Players: Struggle in the North
In this variant, Tyrell and Martell are both unplayable and their lands are impassable. The impassable lands start at: Highgarden, The Reach, The Boneway, Storms End and includes all lands south of there. Interestingly, this variant leaves the oceans around the southern end of the continent open, and I recommend The Arbor remain in the game as well.
5 Players: Race to King's Landing
In this variant, Baratheon is unplayable and Dragonstone is impassable. But all other areas on the board are fair game. I like this variant since everyone else, except Greyjoy really, has a shot at taking King's Landing first.
5 Players: King in the North
Despite its name, this variant has Stark as the unplayable house, with their lands and the Arryn's lands impassable. This includes: Bay of Ice, Moat Calin, The Twins, The Mountains of the Moon and The Narrow Sea. I don't like this variant as much since Greyjoy goes at Lannister, and Tyrell tends to go at Martell, leading to a relatively easy Baratheon victory unless Tyrell and Martell team up on Baratheon. But it's still better than the neutral armies in the rules!

None of the 5-player games are nearly that interesting, so what we do with 5-player games is simply add +1 to all Martell neutral tokens; it seems to be enough to slow the onslaught of destruction set on by the Tyrells. At least enough for the Lannisters to join into the fun.
Variant 4/5-player board:


In contract bridge, what are bonus points for? I am a beginner and could not find out the application or the use of those bonus points above the line in contract(rubber) bridge. If the winner in a contract bridge is the pair that first achieves 2 sets of 100 or more points below the line (thus winning a rubber), what is the use of those bonus points? In what situations are these bonus points being made use of?

Could someone please enlighten me. Thanks a lot in advance.

When one side has won two games, all points (both above and below the line) are totaled, and the side with more points wins, even if they didn't win the rubber. This is where the bonus points come into play: the points for undertricks, overtricks, slams, rubber, etc. all count toward the final score.

The American Contract Bridge League explains it the same way, which I think can be kind of confusing: they talk about "winning the rubber" and "winning" without making a clear distinction. It may help to think about it simply as playing for points. Getting the rubber bonus is very helpful, but total score is what you want.


Bloodlord of Vaasgoth plus Warstorm Surge, then casting a vampire creature spell I run vampire tribal and have a stack related question.
I have a Bloodlord of Vaasgoth and Warstorm Surge in play, my main phase I cast a Vampire Nighthawk from my hand, here is my issue, how does the order resolve.
In my knowledge I believe this is the proper scenario or I hope it is at least.

Cast Vampire Nighthawk.
Bloodlord triggers and gives it bloodthirst 3.
As Nighthawk enters Warstorm Surge puts its trigger onto the stack dealing 2 damage to a target I choose (an opponent).
Warstorm Surge resolves and my opponent takes 2 damage.
Vampire Nighthawk resolves entering the battlefield, bloodthirst 3 activates due my opponent taking damage and gives the Vampire Nighthawk 3 +1/+1 counters.

Again this is only my understanding and my hope of how it goes and just using sense of how things trigger and react to one another.

This is incorrect; the damage will be dealt too late for Bloodthirst.

You were right up to a point... but Warstorm Surge triggers on a creature entering the battlefield, meaning that it will not trigger until after Vampire Nighthawk is on the battlefield, completely done resolving.

Note that Bloodthirst creates a replacement effect, that changes how a creature enters the battlefield. It does not do anything once the creature is on the battlefield.

The actual order of events, assuming that both players pass priority when they can.

Cast Vampire Nighthawk.
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth's ability triggers.
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth's ability resolves, giving Nighthawk Bloodthirst.
Vampire Nighthawk resolves; entering the battlefield - its bloodthirst doesn't do anything because an opponent was not dealt damage.
Warstorm Surge triggers.
Warstorm Surge resolves, dealing 2 damage to your opponent (or any target).

Bloodthirst rules:

  702.53a Bloodthirst is a static ability. "Bloodthirst N" means "If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, this permanent enters the battlefield with N +1/+1 counters on it."

We know this is a replacement effect because of:

  614.1c Effects that read "[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ," "As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ," or "[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . " are replacement effects.

To do what you want, Bloodthirst would need to be a triggered ability instead of a replacement effect; and it would also have to be worded in such a way as to avoid having an intervening if clause so that the condition would only be checked when it resolves (rule 603.4).


What happens when an Animate Dead reanimates a dormant god? Under the Gatherer rulings for Animate Dead, one point reads (emphasis mine):

  If the creature put onto the battlefield has protection from black—or if the creature can’t legally be enchanted by Animate Dead for another reason—Animate Dead won’t be able to attach to it. It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based action, causing its delayed triggered ability to trigger. When the trigger resolves, if the creature’s still on the battlefield, its controller will sacrifice it.

If I use an Animate Dead to reanimate a Karametra, God of Harvests and don't have the appropriate devotion to make it a creature, what happens? The Gatherer ruling seems to imply that it would be sacrificed because the Animate Dead can't be attached to it, but it's also specific in that you sacrifice the creature, which Karametra wouldn't be.

Yes, you do still sacrifice Karametra. Magic cards frequently use words like "the creature" to refer to a previously defined object, but it doesn't actually have to meet the criteria of those words. CR 608.2i spells this out explicitly:

  If an ability’s effect refers to a specific untargeted object that has been previously referred to by that ability’s cost or trigger condition, it still affects that object even if the object has changed characteristics.
  Example: Wall of Tears says “Whenever Wall of Tears blocks a creature, return that creature to its owner’s hand at end of combat.” If Wall of Tears blocks a creature, then that creature ceases to be a creature before the triggered ability resolves, the permanent will still be returned to its owner’s hand.


If you have multiple planeswalkers, how many of their loyalty abilities can you use in a single turn? Let’s say I played Ajani, Caller of the Pride and then played Ajani, Wise  Counselor. Would I be able to use Caller of the Pride's -8 ability to give me, say, 20 creatures and then use Wise Counselor's +2 ability in order to gain life for each creature on the field? Would I be able to do that in the same turn or would I have to use one wait a turn then play the other?

306.5d Each planeswalker has a number of loyalty abilities, which are activated abilities with loyalty symbols in their costs. Loyalty abilities follow special rules: A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent they control any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of their turn, but only if none of that permanent’s loyalty abilities have been activated that turn. See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”

The rules only say something about not activating a single planeswalker's loyalty abilities twice in a turn, not about a hard limit of one loyalty ability activation per player. Therefore, you can use one Ajani's ability first and then the other's ability in the same turn.


Do areas with depleted resources count for Jim Raynor's victory condition? I was playing Star Craft: The Board Game recently as Jim Raynor, and a question arose:

Do planet areas with (fully) depleted resources count for Raynor's special victory objective? We ruled it as "no" on the spot, but later I couldn't find anything related in the rules.

Yes, depleted areas do count. From the FAQ:

  Q: If an area has been fully depleted of resources, does it still
  count towards players’ special victory conditions?

  A: Yes. For
  example, Jim Raynor needs to control six areas containing gas and/or
  minerals; this includes any area that has a printed gas or mineral
  icon on it.


Is it allowed to use Keruga as a Companion when using a split card with CMC >= 3? The situation: I am playing MTGO and I have a deck with Keruga, the Macrosage in my sideboard and Response // Resurgence in my main deck.

Keruga, the Macrosage states the following, emphases mine:

  Companion — Your starting deck contains only cards with converted mana
  cost 3 or greater and land cards. (If this card is your chosen
  companion, you may cast it once from outside the game.)

  When Keruga, the Macrosage enters the battlefield, draw a card for
  each other permanent you control with converted mana cost 3 or
  greater.

The problem: MTGO shows that Keruga, the Macrosage is not a valid Companion once Response // Resurgence is included in my deck, a card with a CMC of 7.

Referencing both rules of split cards:

  708.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from
  previous rules.

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

So it should be allowed to cast Keruga, the Macrosage as a companion in this case, correct?

You are entirely right, there is no reason that Response // Resurgence should stop you from having Keruga as a companion. Seems like a bug in MTGO to me.


Snow-Covered Lands and Blood Moon interaction How do Blood Moon and e.g. a Snow-Covered Plains interact?
When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect. I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

Blood Moon does nothing to Snow-Covered Plains, because Snow-Covered Plains is a basic land.
Blood Moon says:

Nonbasic lands are Mountains.

“Nonbasic” here means “not basic”, the same way “noncreature” (Negate) means “not a creature”.
Snow-Covered Plains is basic; we can see this on the type line:

Basic Snow Land — Plains

So Blood Moon will leave it alone.

When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect.

They have different names, which is what Field of the Dead cares about, so yes, they'll matter for Field of the Dead too. And whether they have distinct names has nothing to do with whether they're basic.

I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

That's effectively true for most formats, so that's a good enough summary most of the time. But the basic snow lands are basic—they say so right on the type line—and are recognised in the rules as such. In formats that include them, like Modern or Commander, they are just as much Basic Lands as the usual five.
Note that Wastes is also a basic land. (It doesn't have an associated basic land type though.)


Living Weapon and Hammer of Nazahn If I have Hammer of Nazahn out (which allows me to attach any equipment to a creature as it enters the battlefield), will it work with a living weapon such as Batterskull? Would Batterskull's "living weapon" ability force it to equip to a Germ creature or could I still use Hammer of Nazahn's ability to attach it to any creature I wish?

Both abilities trigger at the same time, so you can place them on the stack in the order of your choice. If you place Hammer of Nazahn's ability on the stack first, then it will resolve last. This means you will first attach the equipment to the Germ creature when the triggered ability from Living Weapon resolves, then you may attach it to a different creature when Hammer of Nazahn's ability resolves.


Can Strionic Resonator target Ink-Treader Nephilim's ability? What is the ruling on Strionic Resonator targeting Ink-Treader Nephilim's ability? It would copy all of the spells again, correct?

Yes, you can do this if you control the Ink-Treader Nephilim.

Strionic Resonator's ability says this

  {2}, {T}: Copy target triggered ability you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.

The target condition is "target triggered ability you control", so you can copy any triggered ability you control. If you control the Ink-Treader Nephilim you also control any of its triggered abilities, so you can target and then copy them with Strionic Resonator's abilities.

When you copy something on the stack, you copy all of the parameters and references, including the reference in this case to the spell that would get copied. So, when the copy of the Ink-Treader's ability resolves, it copies the same spell that the original ability would copy.


Afrikan Tähti improvements/variants A Finnish friend gave me a copy of Afrikan Tähti. We played it a couple of times, and while it was kind of fun, it really seems like a children's game, and I won't bring it out again in a hurry. Luck overshadows strategy, and when you start you don't know if it will take 45 seconds or 45 minutes.

Are there any variants or house rules, or even different games that can be played with the same map and peices, that could be more strategic?

Don't know how much of an improvement this is but I found this:

http://www.witchmastercreations.com/board-game-mod-afrikan-zombeja-or-in-almost-english-afrikan-zombies/


What happens if I pocket both my own coin and my opponent's while covering the Queen? I pocketed the Queen, and then in the covering strike I pocketed a coin of each player. What happens?

Under normal circumstances, you count as having covered the Queen, but your opponent has a coin pocketed for free and your turn ends.

If the Striker was pocketed with it, you would pay the penalty for pocketing the Striker and then try to cover it again. However, since you pocketed the opponent's coin, you can't take another turn, so the Queen is put back on the board.

If it was one player's last coin, that player wins.

If it was both players' last coin, you win. If the Striker was pocketed with it, you lose.


Can regeneration save my creatures from Turn // Burn? I have a creature with regeneration. My opponent responds to me activating regeneration with the Turn side of Turn // Burn.

Can I then activate regeneration again to make it a 0/1 weird with regeneration?

Yes, you can activate an activated ability as often as you can pay its activation cost.

But you don't need to. The ability will still resolve even if the creature no longer has the ability when it resolves.

For example, say the creature in question is a Dutiful Thrull.

Your opponent casts Shock targeting your Dutiful Thrull.
In response, you activate its ability.
In response, he casts Turn.
Turn resolves: The Dutiful Thrull is now a 0/1 red Weird with no abilities.
Dutiful Thrull's ability resolves: A regeneration shield is placed on Dutiful Thrull.
Shock resolves: It deals two damage to the 0/1 Dutiful Thrull.
SBAs are performed: The creature would be destroyed, but the regen shield kicks in. Dutiful Thrull is tapped, removed from combat and all marked damage is removed.

You could activate Dutiful Thrull's ability a second time between steps 3 and 4, which will give it a second shield for later on in the turn.

  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. [...]


Are cards that are both Land and Creature affected by summoning sickness? Are cards that are both Land and Creature affected by summoning sickness with regard to:

Possibility to attack
Activating special abilities with the TAP symbol?

Yes they are affected. No they cannot use any ability that requires {T} or {Q} as part of the cost (unless the land creature also has haste).

Dryad Arbor satisfies the criteria for being a creature. (or Charmille dryade in French)

205.2b Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any effect that applies to any of their card types.

Creatures cannot activate abilities that require {T} or {Q}.

107.5. The tap symbol is {T}. The tap symbol in an activation cost means “Tap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already tapped can’t be tapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.
107.6. The untap symbol is {Q}. The untap symbol in an activation cost means “Untap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already untapped can’t be untapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.

Creatures cannot attack if you haven't controlled them since the start of their most recent turn.

302.6. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the “summoning sickness” rule.

Unless they have Haste, a Creature cannot attack or activate abilities that require {T} or {Q} in their cost.

702.10b If a creature has haste, it can attack even if it hasn’t been controlled by its controller continuously since his or her most recent turn began. (See rule 302.6.)
702.10c If a creature has haste, its controller can activate its activated abilities whose cost includes the tap symbol or the untap symbol even if that creature hasn’t been controlled by that player continuously since his or her most recent turn began. (See rule 302.6.)


What is scored for bidding and making 3 Clubs Doubled? Bidder bids 3 Clubs.
Opponent doubles.

No other bids.

Bidder makes 3 Clubs.

What is the Score the Bidder gets?

The score varies by game variant:

Playing Rubber Bridge:

Above the line - Insult: 50
Below the line - Trick Score of: 120 as 3 * 40

The trick score for the deal equals or exceeds 100, so a game has been bid and made. If this game is the second by the same partnership of the rubber, an additional Rubber Bonus of either 500 or 700 would be scored above the line.

Presumably the disagreement inciting the question is to do with how to score the points earned as doubled - i.e. the trick score above points as 120 - 60. The Rules of Rubber Bridge state clearly:

  Law 72 - Points Earned

  The result of each deal played is recorded in points,
  which fall into two classes:

  A. Trick Points: Only declarer’s side can earn trick
  points and only by fulfilling the contract. Only the
  value of tricks named in the contract may be scored
  as trick points (see Law 81). ....

  Law 81 - Scoring Table

  TRICK SCORE

  Scored below the line by declarer’s side, if contract
  is fulfilled:

  For each Trick over six, bid and made ... Doubled [in Clubs]: 40

  ....

  PREMIUM SCORE

  Scored above the line by declarer’s side

  For winning the rubber, if opponents have won no game 700

  For winning the rubber, if opponents have won one game 500

  ...

  For making any doubled contract: 50

  ...

Further down it makes clear that the slam bonuses are scored only for contracts where 12 tricks (small slam) or 13 tricks (grand slam) have been both bid and made.

There are no further premium points scored as there were no overtricks made.

Playing Duplicate or Chicago

(The latter sometimes also termed Four Deal or Party Bridge scoring.)

Not Vulnerable: 470 as 300 (game bonus) + 120 (trick score as above) + 50 (insult as above)
Vulnerable:  670 as 500 (game bonus) + 120 (trick score as above) + 50 (insult as above)

There is a variant of Chicago scoring that makes use of above- and below-line scoring, but that is of no consequence on a hand where game is bid and made (ie trick score >= 100), as here.


Can players buy other players properties by proxy? In the game monopoly, can two players create an agreement to proxy buy properties on a players behalf.

For example: player one gives player two $100, in exchange if player two lands on boardwalk, player one will give player two the $400 dollars, player two purchases boardwalk, and gives it to player one. Effectively allowing player one to purchase boardwalk by having player two land on it for a fee.

While this doesn't break any of the wrote rules in the game as far as I know, is this prohibited in any way?

Three related posts that all have decent notations of official rules:

Regarding when trading and such can occur
Regarding the order of actions in a turn
Regarding the giving or loaning of money to another player

I focused on the following sections from each post.

From Link 1

  Selling Property: This may only be done at any time other than after a player rolls the dice, but before they have paid ([Rent [and/or] Tax]) to ([another player [and/or] the Bank.])

From Link 2

  The only action which is doable outside one's turn (according to the instructions I've got off-line, in my deluxe box) are buying auctioned properties, buying or trading properties with other players, and using cards that say "use at any time."

From Link 3

  Another way to give money to another player is to sell them an unimproved property for $0, then buy it back for the amount you wish to give them.

See the links for more complete details, but the three posts combine give me the understanding that yes you can. You would complete the steps as follows.

Player 1 give Player 2 a gift of $100
Player 2 rolls
Player 2 lands on Boardwalk
Player 1 gives Player 2 a gift of $400
Player 2 buys Boardwalk
Player 2 sells Boardwalk to Player 1 for $0

However, there is nothing to force them to finish the transactions. Player 1 may give Player 2 $500 and Player 2 may decide to just keep it and never trade it back. It would be a tactical move that destroyed the possibility of an alliance, but it's within the rules since the money was a "gift."

Best of luck and may your friendships outlast the board.


You have to discard, but have no cards in your hand If I play a spell that makes an opponent discard a card, but they have no cards in their hand, would they have to discard those cards from their library, or would nothing happen?

Nothing happens.

He is instructed to discard a card.

  701.7a To discard a card, move it from its owner’s hand to that player’s graveyard.

It's impossible for him to discard a card, so he does as much as possible.

  609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

It does not affect him.


Question about The Shallow Grave (Spell Card) Here is the chain of events: I activate The Shallow Grave to special summon a needle worm from my graveyard (and my opponent chooses their monster), and then my opponent uses D.D. Crow to remove the needle worm from play.

Does my opponent still get the monster he has chosen to special summon?

Based on this ruling on Disappear:

  When a card that selects a card in the Graveyard as a target, such as "Monster Reborn", "Mask of Darkness", "Magician of Faith", "Spear Cretin", or "The Shallow Grave", is activated, you may chain "Disappear" to remove the targeted card from play, and the "Monster Reborn", etc., will resolve without effect. This is because these cards select their target at activation, not resolution.

(Source)

Your opponent wouldn't get the monster.

D.D. Crow appears to work exactly like Disappear when discarded.  So the same ruling should apply.


Sending to GY a monster that can't be targeted So, if my opponent activates this effect: Your opponent selects one monster they control and SENDS it to the GY.

However, I only own 1 monster and it has this effect: Your opponent cannot target or destroy this card with monster effects.

Will the effect resolve and send my monster to the GY or not?

Will the effect resolve and send my monster to the GY or not?

It will really help if you mentioned the specific card.

However in general terms, as you describe it, the effect will resolve, and send the card to your GY.

This is because, based on your description, such card does not target (you select it) nor does it destroy (it sends). Again, it will help to know the exact card to be 100% sure.


Euchre partner leads with trump - why? This happened during a play online. Why does my partner lead with a trump when I call name suit? I rely on my partner to take a trick but he leads with a trump, drawing mine, and leaves me short.

Your partner should ALWAYS lead trump to your call in third chair. The failure of so many online players to do this reflects a lack of understanding of the game.

If you called it with the Right, then their low trump effectively gives the maker the lead and control of the hand.

If you called without the Right, then your partner is helping flush the top trump cards out of your opponents' hands.

If your partner leads high trump then he's helpfully showing you where it is so you know your cards are boss.

*IF YOU CALL TRUMP IN THIRD CHAIR THEN YOU SHOULD BE LEADING IT, and you should probably be leading it in every other chair too. So many hands are misplayed for failure to do this, so many times you get euchred when you could have dropped both of your opponents' bauers on trick one with a small Trump lead.

For more, read this column by the respected Natty Bumppo.


Tarfire vs the tarmogoyf Can a Tarfire kill a Tarmogoyf when both players' graveyards are empty?

No. State based actions are checked after a spell is completely resolved. By that time, Tarfire is already in the graveyard. Tarfire counts as both a Tribal and an Instant, and so Tarmagoyf is a 2/3.


Can The Winged Dragon of Ra's second effect be used continously? The The Winged Dragon of Ra's card says that when you pay 1000 life points you can destroy a monster, but it never says anything about it being once per turn.

So can I use his effect continuously in a single turn?

The text of The Winged Dragon of Ra reads (emphasis mine):

  Cannot be Special Summoned. Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can pay LP so that you only have 100 left; this card gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount of LP paid. You can pay 1000 LP, then target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target.

We can see that the effect of paying 1000 LP to target-destroy a monster does not have the "once per X" limitation", thus it can be used as many times as you want (that is, as many times you can spare 1000 LP) :)

Unrelated to your question (a nitpick, actually), it's not much technically correct to say "use his effect continuously", as this effect is not a continuous effect. A less ambiguous way of phrasing it could be "use his effect repeatedly"...


How can I win against Phyrexian Unlife? I've played my friend and he used his new mono white deck. After some turns, he plays Phyrexian Unlife. This is the first time I've seen it. It says even if his life is 0 he never loses. I'm using black deck at that time and I don't have any sorcery or instants to kill that enchantment. So I just conceded the game. Now I'm still skeptical about that card.

My question is how can you kill your opponent if he has that on the battlefield? I know that there's some other ways to defeat your opponents, but my black deck was built to be aggro/discard deck. So how can a player defeat an opponent without anything to destroy an enchantment?

The full card text is:

You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life.
As long as you have 0 or less life, all damage is dealt to you as though its source had infect. (Damage is dealt to you in the form of poison counters.)

If you have ten poison counters, you lose the game. You just need to get your opponent to zero, then deal ten more damage to him. He'll take it in the form of poison counters, and lose. It will buy him time - maybe he was almost dead and suddenly you need to get him to 0 then deal ten more damage - but he's not invincible.


Online resources for learning/practicing bridge Are there any good online resources to learn the game. By learn, I mean learn attain the knowledge that one would by buying/reading a good book.

For example, are there any "puzzles" that are well explained that either explain different bidding systems or strategies for playing with the dummy etc.

Here are some:

Richard Pavlicek's site on bridge which has puzzles, articles explaining concepts, bidding systems, calculators etc. A very good free resource.
The now discontinued deal of the week by Fred Gitelman which is an over the shoulder type of software. Free.
Bridge Master and software by other world class players: http://bbi.bridgebase.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi (not free, but highly recommended).


Who goes first in Pandemic? I've recently bought Pandemic and I'm going to play it for the first time tomorrow. Having read the rules I wasn't quite sure how to interpret:

  The player who was most recently sick goes first.

Does this mean the person who most recently vomited? Or just generally ill? What about long-term / chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes?

Given that it's a co-operative game, does it actually matter who starts?

They mean (infected) since the game is about infectious diseases (viruses probably, but possibly also bacteria), not physically ill such to induce vomitting. Long term conditions such as diabetes, heart conditions, or alcoholism are not what they are referring to.

It doesn't actually matter who goes first (because of the games co-operative nature), unless the cards that each person has in hand is open information to other players.


Can I trade exhibit items from the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion with other investigators? Do exhibit items from the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion count as tradable items?

Yes, Exhibit items can be traded like other items.

From the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh rules:

  The Exhibit Item cards represent the ancient Egyptian artifacts
  brought to Arkham as part of the "Legacy of the
  Pharaohs" museum exhibit. They are similar to Unique Items,
  but have no monetary value and can only be gained through
  Arkham, Other World, and Exhibit encounters.

This states that they function the same as Unique Items, but does not disclude them being traded.

Also from the Complete Arkham Horror FAQ (page 4/5):

  Q: Exactly where, when, and what can investigators
  trade?

  A:
  They may trade Common Items, Unique Items, Spells,
  the Patrol Wagon, the Deputy’s Revolver, Exhibit Items
  [CotDP], Rail Passes [DH], and Money.


Do strong Go players play simuls, like in chess? Do they ever play blindfolded? Strong chess players will often play a "simul," walking from board to board and making a move on each, taking virtually no time to select their moves, and forcing themselves to keep track of many games at once,  while giving their opponents plenty of time while the strong player is moving on other boards. Strong players will also sometimes play "blindfold" games in which they are told where their opponent has moved but cannot look at a board to see where all the pieces are should they forget. Blindfold simuls are not unheard of.

Do analogous exhibitions ever happen in Go?

As Gregor explained, simultaneous games (sometimes abbreviated "simuls") are quite common at Go tournaments or exhibitions at which pros (or very strong amateurs) are present (example). The teacher is often booked specifically for lessons and simuls, with prices typically ranging (very roughly) in the lower 3 digits (this is often one of the main cash sources for strong players living in the West).

The rules specific to simuls are, as far as I know, very similar to chess: Pro walks from board to board, players have to move when (or possibly before) he arrives.

Blind Go in the sense of "no board in use" is virtually never practiced. It is tough in chess, and almost impossible in Go: Even the strongest players cannot precisely remember the large (19x19) board, a notable exception being the Asian 6 dan amateur Bao Yun, who is said to compete almost as well in blind Go as with full vision.

There are many variations of "blind", though, for instance "Go for the visually impaired", which has eyes closed, but players are allowed to touch the board and feel the stones (special boards and stones are used for this purpose, black and white have a different surface). This is at times used in exhibitions (for instance I've seen it between a Japanese pro and a visually impaired Western amateur during the EGC 2011 in France, of which I sadly could not find the video), but very rare and not in conjunction with simuls.

More well known, however, is one color Go, in which both players use only stones of one color to play; they have to remember which stone belongs to which player. This is incomparably easier than fully blind Go, most dan players should be able to do it at least on small boards. If you're used to it, it's not difficult even in full-length 19x19 (I, as a low dan amateur, often play this for fun). Still, in simultaneous games, even one color Go is practically unheard of.


Does the "Smoke" id counts as stealth card? There are several (mostly shaper's) cards with text like "... only by spending credits from stealth cards". For example: Dai V. Does the Ele "Smoke" Scovak id itself count as a stealth card for such effects?

Smoke has the subtype "stealth".  As a result, she is a stealth card, and her credit can be used to pay for abilities (like Dai V) that say "Use this ability only by spending credits from stealth cards."
Smoke's ability is effectively a copy of Cloak.


House rules to make the cloister less of a game winning tile in Carcassonne? In my experience, cloister tiles in Carcassonne are often "too lucky". If you draw a cloister tile in the beginning of the game, it will typically still require an investment of quite a bit of "meeple" time to obtain the full 9 points, which makes it a fair trade-off. However, after about half of the game, it's relatively likely that you can "parachute" a cloister tile in some spot and get 8 or 9 points immediately. This adds a lot of randomness to the game.

What house rules work well to diminish this effect?

There are a couple of expansions that reduce the usefulness of cloisters. You don't get the points until all the surrounding squares are filled, which is a safe bet in 'vanilla' Carcassonne, but not such a sure thing with expansions. The Tower expansion makes it less attractive to leave meeple on the board for any length of time, because they are sitting ducks for capture by a tower. The Catapult expansion makes it possible to remove Meeple from the board, or replace them with your own. The Princess and the Dragon expansion also encourages Monk removal as dragon-food.

You could ban the 'instant cloister' case, disallowing the dropping of a cloister into a hole for an immediate 9 points. I personally don't find this a huge problem though. You have equivalent 'instant city' and 'instant road' cases. Ultimately, there is quite a lot of luck involved in Carcassonne, by design, I think.


Is there a limit to the number of special lands I can put in my deck, like the Temples? I'm constructing a Deck and I want to make all the mana Temple Cards. More Specifically I want them to be Temple of Silence, Temple of Plenty, and Temple of Malady. Are these mana cards limited to only four per deck like regular cards or can you put an unlimited amount of them in your deck?

All cards are limited to 4 per deck except Basic lands, and cards that say they bypass this limit (currently Relentless Rats, Shadowborn Apostle, Rat Colony, and Persistent Petitioners). In the case of Basic lands, this means that the type line, which is the text between the image and the text box, has to start with the word "Basic". The rule that covers this is 100.2a. This limitation does not apply to limited play.

The cards you mention are not Basic lands, so you can only have 4 of each in your deck. The only basic lands are:

Plains
Island
Swamp
Mountain
Forest
Snow-Covered Plains
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Swamp
Snow-Covered Mountain
Snow-Covered Forest
Wastes


Rules of "Constellations" (1984) I played a Halley's Comet themed game in 1984 that was called Constellations. I've only been able to find it on Ebay so far: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Vintage-Game-Circa-1984-Constellations-Darryl-Hemsley-Adelaide-Basket-Range-/382983024814. I can't find it on Board Game Geek.

You had to collect three pieces of a comet, the "head", the "body", and the "tail". Each piece was a square piece of cardboard, with a third of a comet on one side and various "constellations" (squares or lines of four stars) on the other side. There was much more to the game than that, but that's all I can remember.

How can I find the complete rules?

A librarian at the University of South Australia was able to help me get an image of the rules sheet. (Well, for the self-published 1982 edition, the one with the white box, not the Petra Press edition with the black box).
It is a version of 4x4 tic-tac-toe ("noughts and crosses" on the game description), but with the connection matrix of the board determined by magic square number sums (and these connections are indicated as "constellations" around the board, for easier figuring).
Players take turns playing to squares, trying to be the first to make a four-star constellation (having four squares that sum to 34). For this, they take the card matching the constellation made. Each card shows the number of points it is worth.
The game continues (resets), with the loser of the round starting the next round, until the a constellation made matches the top card of the deck (unseen; it is only checked when a constellation is made).
Most cards and highest points wins. (The rules sheet is vague on the what happens when one player has the most cards but the other player has the most points; I assume this was corrected in the Petra Press edition to just be "most points").


What game are these cards from? What game do the cards in the hands of the guy second from the right (Gin Ichimaru) come from, if they do come from from any game?

As far as I can tell they are standard Tarot cards. Shown are Judgement and The Tower.

While there are games that can be played with them, they are not from a specific game.


How do I tell if a game is counterfeit? There's one of those cheap random items/party supplies stores at the local mall that sells copies of Exploding Kittens for $10 each.

It's a bargain price - it's $15 on Amazon here in Australia, $40ish at most FLGS.

So that makes me suspect that it's a counterfeit copy - but how would I know?

Compare it to a legitimate copy

The easiest way would be to compare it to copy that's known to not be a counterfeit. To start with you might want to look at some pictures of the box on board game geek and see if there are any differences. As with other counterfeit things, looks for misaligned printing, coloring that is off, or other differences. Due note though, the picture I linked to is from the Kickstarter, and the retail boxes might be different (look at the amazon/etc listings and compare those pictures too!)

If it externally looks legit, it could still be a fake; to know for sure you'll need to open it up and actually look at the contents. Are the cards very flimsy? Misprinted? Miscolored? Is the packaging "weird"? My copy came with each deck in shrinkwrapped plastic, if the decks are held together with paper slips, or rubber bands, or not at all, that's a sign it might be counterfeit. For games aside from Exploding Kittens, check other components too... Are pawns made of plastic when they're supposed to be wood? Are they the wrong shape/size?

Ultimately though, it might not be possible to tell just by examination, you may need to find out where the store bought them, and follow the distribution chain to see if it actually leads back to "The Oatmeal" or not. It doesn't hurt to ask the store WHY the item is so cheap compared to MSRP.

For $10 I wouldn't be surprised if it was a) counterfeit and b) made with cheaper materials.

All of that said, do also keep in mind that often times Kickstarter versions of games (which you'll frequently see in pictures on BGG) have better quality components than those that are included in retail versions, so when comparing pictures make sure you are indeed comparing retail to retail (or KS version to KS version).


How to design a Ticket to Ride fan expansion? I want to design a unofficial map for ticket to ride. Is there a known formula how to create one, basic ground rules on what makes a playable board? How many cities is playable? What percentage of grey vs colored tracks? How many total possible train positions is too few, and too many?

Try analyzing your Ticket to Ride game that you already have and base your first expansion on that board. Measure the board, count how many of each color card there are in the deck, and count how many tracks there are of each color. I would model your first fan expansion after the base game without any add-ons, see if your expansion works, and then try making progressively more complicated fan expansions.


Do creatures who come into play tapped have summoning sickness? If I play Leviathan (and we know he comes into play tapped) and have a Puppeteer or something out to untap him, am I prevented from sacrificing the two islands and attacking the turn he came into play? In other words, if a creature comes into play tapped and you untap it, does it still have summoning sickness preventing it from attacking?

Yes, it has summoning sickness like every other creature. If you want to attack with your Leviathan the turn it enters the battlefield you'll also need to give it haste.


Death Angels - Is the Force Field Overpowered? We've been playing the new Space Hulk card game, "Death Angels" at our gaming sessions of late.  We've noticed that the Force Field card (the Librarian Support) seems to be a game-winner, to the extent that our strategies revolve around it 100% when it is available.  Since it can shut down a single swarm of an arbitrarily large size, and since swarms move collectively and merge when they arrive at the same square, our tactics tend to center around herding all the swarms onto a single square, then using "Force Field" infinitely to lock it down while we move through the Hulk at will and eventually reach the last room.

Upon reaching the last room, frequently the objective has nothing to do with killing all the 'stealers, so we auto-win.  On the few occasions where it does require killing all the stealers, the location card itself frequently provides an out, or we stack all of our support tokens on the librarian and have him 'chain-gun' the swarm down.

The card itself seems to have robbed the game of much of its challenge. Is this correct, or are we missing something about how the card works and how its mechanics interact with the game?

A player may not chose an Action card that he resolved during the previous game round (pg11 of the Rule Book)

Given that rule, how can you use Force Field indefinitely?


Android: Netrunner judge program Does Android: Netrunner have anything similar to Magic the Gathering's judge program?

Fantasy Flight Games doesn't currently have a judge program, the closest thing they have are the floor rules.

However at the start of 2015 they announced their intent to setup something like a judge program sometime this year, with a trial starting in the US initially.
It's possible they're delaying the program to see what happens with the Magic Judge system after the currently running lawsuits are settled.


Casting a spell after a spell resolves? My question has to do with Ravenous trap.  Say my opponent casts Thought Scour targeting themselves.  Once the spell resolves they have two cards + thought scour itself in the graveyard this turn.  I want to prevent them from casting a Tasigur, the Golden Fang/Gurmag Angler.  Could I cast Ravenous trap right after thought scour resolves before they get a chance to delve their graveyard?

In order to cast your Trap you must find a way to gain priority between the resolution of Thought Scour and the casting of Tasigur, as APNAP rules state your opponent gets priority (regardless of if the stack is empty or not).

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

However, Tasigur can only be cast at sorcery speed. So if you could get an ability to trigger off of Thought Scour, then your opponent would receive priority with an ability on the stack. When he passes priority to you, you can cast your instant speed Trap**. The easiest way I can think of to cause a trigger would be off of the cantrip. Something like Mind's Eye should do the trick, although I'm sure there are plenty of others.

If you're unable to trigger an ability on the stack off of Thought Scour, then your opponent will be able to delve his graveyard to cast Tasigur.

** - Yes, I passed up the opportunity to say "activate your trap card". Shame on me.


Question on ethics or rules I would very much like to know the correct ethical procedure for the following play. Hearts are trump.

West led a small club
North played a small club
East played a small spade
I as South played a Jack of clubs thinking I was taking the trick
Then, East said "Oh, I have some clubs" and played the Queen of clubs.

I had the King of clubs and would have taken the trick given the opportunity. It didn't seem fair for me not to get to play it after East's card was changed.

Do I get the chance to take the trick I would have taken or does this trick belong to East?

East reneged (played an out-of-suit card when they had a card of the correct suit), but fixed the error before the next trick; since they're the defender, two things happen:

East's small spade is left face up on the table in front of East. It's a "major penalty" card, and must be played by East as soon as it is legal to do so, on some future trick. (Furthermore, if that card is still face up when West leads, you get to pick whether West must lead spades for that trick, or must not lead spades until he loses the lead.)
You can change the card you played, so that you played the king of clubs and took the trick.

If the declarer made an error (you as South, or you playing the dummy North hand), then you get to fix the error, and everyone playing after the corrected player may also change their play. Declarers don't get penalty cards.

Short Answer: you get a chance to take the trick, and there are additional penalties for East playing incorrectly.

If it's an informal game, then maybe you don't worry about the penalty card (how friendly is your game?), but you definitely get to change your play.


Firefly "Reaver Cutter" nav card Situation: Player1 moves into a sector containing a ship of Player2 and draws "Reaver Cutter" nav card (which means moving Reavers into the same sector and applying Reaver Contact effects immediately). Do Reavers attack both ships or only the Player1? I.E. does Player2 have the contact immediately or only on the start of his turn? There is a difference because Reavers may leave the sector before the turn of the Player2 begins.

The Reaver Cutter is resolved upon the players turn start. The Alliance Cruiser is resolved immediately. This is to simulate the Reavers "not being hungry" and the Alliance Cruiser "getting awfully crowded in my sky..."


Is there an optimal swing die value for Changeling VS Iago? Button Men is played until one player wins 3 rounds. For the first round, Swing Dice selection is done in secret. On following rounds, only the player that lost the round is allowed to change it's value.

Changeling: dX, dX, dX, dX, dX

Iago: d20, d20, d20,dX

Swing Dice (dX): Values for X may be any number between 4 to 20 inclusive, including nonregular dice like 13 or 7 sided dice. If a character has multiple dX dice, the value of X must be the same for all dX dice.

Is there an optimal swing die value for Changeling, and if so what is it?

If you believe in basic Swing Die strategy, then '6' is the appropriate value for X for Changeling.

The formula for Swing Die selection is:

  (A-B)*2/3 = (Sides the Bigger Character must keep)

  Where 'A'/'B' are character's dice side totals.

The general theory is

1) If you can force your bigger opponent to have to keep two or more dice, then you will have a distinct advantage. You are more likely to go first as a smaller character (smaller characters usually have dice more dice with fewer sides, and are therefore more likely to have the lowest die).

2) Select the biggest die possible, that condition 1) will hold true.

Until Changeling has won has won 2 matches, a swing die value dX='6' requires that Iagomust keep 2 dice to not lose by points. If you read down column '6', Iago must keep between 22.7 and 33.3 sides to not lose, even if they take all Changelings dice. Iago cannot select a Swing Die value that allows them to only keep a single die and still win.

Once Changeling has won 2 rounds, then their best Swing Die value of dX should probably be '20' unless Iago has selected dX=4 or 5. With 2 wins for Changeling, the only way Iago could switch swing die values is by losing and giving you your 3rd round win for the match. If Changeling doesn't have 2 wins yet, dX='18' is your next best swing die value. It gives you the biggest die possible, without requiring that you keep more than a single die. The best that Iago can do is select dX='4' for their next swing die, which only requires you to keep 17.3 sides. Even if they do happen to win an Iago'4' vs Changeling'18' round, you can switch back to Changeling dX='6' with your swing Die and require Iago keeps 2 dice again.

Changeling|'4' |'5' |'6' |'7' |'8' |'9' |'10'|'11'|'12'|'13'|'14'|'15'| '16'| '17'| '18'| '19'| '20'|
    +--+  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
    |60|  | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 | 65 | 70 | 75 |  80 |  85 |  90 |  95 | 100 |
    +--+--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Iago| 4|64|29.3|26.0|22.7|19.3|16.0|12.7| 9.3| 6.0| 2.7|-0.7|-4.0|-7.3|-10.7|-14.0|-17.3|-20.7|-24.0|
Iago| 5|65|30.0|26.7|23.3|20.0|16.7|13.3|10.0| 6.7| 3.3| 0.0|-3.3|-6.7|-10.0|-13.3|-16.7|-20.0|-23.3|
Iago| 6|66|30.7|27.3|24.0|20.7|17.3|14.0|10.7| 7.3| 4.0| 0.7|-2.7|-6.0| -9.3|-12.7|-16.0|-19.3|-22.7|
Iago| 7|67|31.3|28.0|24.7|21.3|18.0|14.7|11.3| 8.0| 4.7| 1.3|-2.0|-5.3| -8.7|-12.0|-15.3|-18.7|-22.0|
Iago| 8|68|32.0|28.7|25.3|22.0|18.7|15.3|12.0| 8.7| 5.3| 2.0|-1.3|-4.7| -8.0|-11.3|-14.7|-18.0|-21.3|
Iago| 9|69|32.7|29.3|26.0|22.7|19.3|16.0|12.7| 9.3| 6.0| 2.7|-0.7|-4.0| -7.3|-10.7|-14.0|-17.3|-20.7|
Iago|10|70|33.3|30.0|26.7|23.3|20.0|16.7|13.3|10.0| 6.7| 3.3| 0.0|-3.3| -6.7|-10.0|-13.3|-16.7|-20.0|
Iago|11|71|34.0|30.7|27.3|24.0|20.7|17.3|14.0|10.7| 7.3| 4.0| 0.7|-2.7| -6.0| -9.3|-12.7|-16.0|-19.3|
Iago|12|72|34.7|31.3|28.0|24.7|21.3|18.0|14.7|11.3| 8.0| 4.7| 1.3|-2.0| -5.3| -8.7|-12.0|-15.3|-18.7|
Iago|13|73|35.3|32.0|28.7|25.3|22.0|18.7|15.3|12.0| 8.7| 5.3| 2.0|-1.3| -4.7| -8.0|-11.3|-14.7|-18.0|
Iago|14|74|36.0|32.7|29.3|26.0|22.7|19.3|16.0|12.7| 9.3| 6.0| 2.7|-0.7| -4.0| -7.3|-10.7|-14.0|-17.3|
Iago|15|75|36.7|33.3|30.0|26.7|23.3|20.0|16.7|13.3|10.0| 6.7| 3.3| 0.0| -3.3| -6.7|-10.0|-13.3|-16.7|
Iago|16|76|37.3|34.0|30.7|27.3|24.0|20.7|17.3|14.0|10.7| 7.3| 4.0| 0.7| -2.7| -6.0| -9.3|-12.7|-16.0|
Iago|17|77|38.0|34.7|31.3|28.0|24.7|21.3|18.0|14.7|11.3| 8.0| 4.7| 1.3| -2.0| -5.3| -8.7|-12.0|-15.3|
Iago|18|78|38.7|35.3|32.0|28.7|25.3|22.0|18.7|15.3|12.0| 8.7| 5.3| 2.0| -1.3| -4.7| -8.0|-11.3|-14.7|
Iago|19|79|39.3|36.0|32.7|29.3|26.0|22.7|19.3|16.0|12.7| 9.3| 6.0| 2.7| -0.7| -4.0| -7.3|-10.7|-14.0|
Iago|20|80|40.0|36.7|33.3|30.0|26.7|23.3|20.0|16.7|13.3|10.0| 6.7| 3.3|  0.0| -3.3| -6.7|-10.0|-13.3|


What happens to a detective in Scotland Yard who cannot move any further? A detective might be stuck in a position which he cannot leave since he doesn't have an appropriate transportation ticket. What happens to this detective?

Is he removed from the board?

OR

Does he stay in this position until the end of the game? This would imply then that no other player could go to this place (since Mister X would lose and since the detectives are also not allowed to occupy one place with more than one figure).

I could not find an answer in the rulebook so far but maybe there are some indicators in the rulebook or in the rulebook of related games, such as New York Chase.

From the rules here

What if a detective is unable to move any more?
the game goes on and the rest of the detectives try to catch Mister X.

The rules also say.

The game is over if the detectives are no longer able to move. This
situation is reached at the latest at the 22nd move, but can be
reached earlier if detective are left with ticket they cannot use (bus
or underground). They are immobilised at the last point moved to.

And from another source here

If a detective no longer has any tickets or can't move from his
current station with the tickets he has left, he has to sit out.

I've not found anything about removing the piece from the board so rules about not having a space occupied by more than one figure would still apply.  In general when playing a board games it's better to assume that if the rules don't says something happens its probably doesn't. If a piece was supposed to be removed from the board its likely this would be stated.
There is a previous boardgames SE question here "Can Mr. X move into or through a detective occupied field?" It is argued that they would lose automatically and is the accepted answer.
Contrary to that, there is this thread on BGG which has argument that as a player not enter an occupied space that this also applies to Mr X. and it would be impossible for them to do.


What happens if I exile an HOU God from the graveyard? The Gods from Hour of Devestation (The Scorpion God, The Locust God and The Scarab God) have the following clause: "When [God Name] dies, return it to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.

If I were to kill a God, then exile it from its owners graveyard (for example using The Scarab God's activated ability), does it still return to its owners hand at the beginning of the end step? The card did die, which fufils the clauses requirement, but I'm not sure if it still happens when the creature is exiled.

Those Gods have the following Gatherer ruling:

If this creature dies but leaves your graveyard before the next end step, it will remain in its new zone.

That means if you put one of those God cards into your library, or exile it, or return it to the battlefield or to your hand, the ability won't return it to your hand.
This is because of the way objects are handled when they move between zones:

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

400.7d Abilities that trigger when an object moves from one zone to another (for example, “When Rancor is put into a graveyard from the battlefield”) can find the new object that it became in the zone it moved to when the ability triggered, if that zone is a public zone.

Rule 400.7 means usually nothing can keep track of a card as it moves between zones. However, since this triggered ability is that exception, it's able to keep track of that God card as it moves into the graveyard, and it will be able to find it there at the end of the turn.
However, if that God moves anywhere else, this ability can no longer find that God because the ability has lost track of where that God is. It can't find it anywhere in the graveyard, and the God card now in exile (as far as it cares) is something completely different to the card it's looking for.
(If the God moves back your graveyard, such as via your opponent's Ulamog's Nullifier, it's once again a different object to the one the ability is looking for and it will still not be returned to your hand.)


What sources of damage are not caused by players? In the character list, it's states in El Gringo description that

Note that Dynamite damages are not caused by any player.

So my question is: there are other cards which damage is not caused by any player?
Gatling and Indians!
In BANG! FAQ it's stated that Gatling and Indians! are caused by the player who played them.

Q05. Who is considered to be responsible of the elimination of a player with cards like Indians! and Gatling?
A. Unlike the Dynamite, the player who played the Gatling or the Indians! is  considered to  be responsible of the elimination of a player. All special actions due to this elimination apply to him (for example, if he just killed an Outlaw this way, he draws the 3 cards reward).

Whenever a player plays a card  that instantly deals damage to one of more players, that damage is considered caused by a player. This includes all possible brown cards with a 'bang' symbol.

If the damage is delayed (as it is with dynamite), it is not caused by any player. This is probably partially because it is impractical to keep track of who played it (especially when there are multiple dynamites going around).

That being said, dynamite is the only card in the base game that has this property. Off the top of my head, the card 'Rattlesnake' in the Valley of Shadows expansion is the only other card I know of that has similar behavior.


How do I know what cards or sets are legal to play with? Can I mix older Magic the Gathering cards with cards from Magic 2015? If I have mainly Magic 2015 cards can I play my friends who mainly have older decks?

It depends on what format you want to play.

Casual

You can use whatever cards you want, as long as your friends are alright with it. This is informally known as "kitchen table magic", at least in my area. Some casual formats are are so popular that they have their own rules, such as Commander. See the link at the bottom for more information.

Standard

Prior to 2016, you could only use cards from the latest two expansion blocks and any core set(s) directly succeeding them. Starting in the Spring of 2016, you can only use cards from the latest three expansion blocks. For those unaware, a "block" is a set of expansions that are released sequentially and revolve around a single story or plane. More details on this format here.

Modern

You may use cards from any set since 8th Ed. Some cards are banned.

Legacy

You may use cards from any set. Some cards are banned.

Vintage

You may use cards from any set. Some cards are banned. Others are restricted to one copy per deck.

All Constructed Formats

The following rules apply Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage.

Deck must contain at least sixty cards
With the exception of basic lands, decks may not exceed four of any card
Cards with a silver or gold border only are illegal
Decks containing a mixture of Alpha and non-Alpha cards must be played with opaque sleeves
A card from an older set is legal if a card with the same name was printed in an otherwise legal set

You can learn more about these formats, as well as some that I did not cover (such as Commander), by visiting Wizards of the Coast's website.


Are the utilities worth buying? In Monopoly, there are two utilities. They cost 150, and rent is 4x the dice roll if one utility is owned, or 10x the dice value if both are owned.

Are the utilities something I want to purchase if possible? Or are they junk? How valuable are they compared to the other properties on the board?

The utilities are decent "fire and forget" properties, which pay for themselves quickly.  Think of them as equivalent to owning two railroads, but paying a bit better because you can't improve them further.  They don't have the same explosive-growth potential of railroads or properties, but they're cheaper.  You're not going to bankrupt anyone with them, but they can be decent money-makers over the course of the game.  They're better in the early game for fast and easy income, but later on they're more valuable simply as squares you can land safely on; everyone has become too rich to care much about such small rents.

A few comparisions:

Number of Utilities:

Cost $150, pays $28 (average roll of 7), pays for itself after ~6 rents.
Cost $300, pays $70 (average roll of 7), pays for itself after ~5 rents.

Number of Railroads:

Cost $200, pays $25, pays for itself after 8 rents.
Cost $400, pays $50, pays for itself after 8 rents.
Cost $600, pays $100, pays for itself after 6 rents.
Cost $800, pays $200, pays for itself after 4 rents.

Owning the light blue properties as a monopoly (much harder to get than just a utility or two!):

0 houses: Cost $320, pays ~13, pays for itself after ~24 rents.
1 house: Cost $470, pays ~$33, pays for itself after ~15 rents.
2 houses: Cost $620, pays ~$93, pays for itself after ~7 rents.
3 houses: Cost $770, pays ~$280, pays for itself after ~4 rents.

Edit: Someone has done a lot more math than I have: http://www.tkcs-collins.com/truman/monopoly/monopoly.shtml.


In Magic, when Magus of the Unseen returns an untapped artifact to its original controller, is there a delay before it becomes tapped? Suppose I have a Magus of the Unseen and some other creature or artifact, and my opponent has a Glare of Subdual and a tapped Yotian Soldier.

  Magus of the Unseen (1U)
  Creature — Human Wizard
  1/1

  1U, T: Untap target artifact an opponent controls and gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn. When you lose control of the artifact, tap it.

I use the Magus to untap and steal the Soldier during my turn. During my cleanup step, the effect wears off and my opponent gets the Soldier back. Is there time for him to activate the Glare by tapping the Soldier, before the Soldier becomes tapped and before his next untap step?

My interpretation is that there is, because the tap is triggered by the return of control. This means that players get priority before it resolves, during the cleanup step. Is this correct?

Your interpretation is correct. The Comprehensive Rules:

  514. Cleanup Step

  514.2. Second, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage marked on permanents (including phased-out permanents) is removed and all "until end of turn" and "this turn" effects end. This turn-based action doesn't use the stack.

During the Cleanup Step, you lose control of the artifact. This doesn't use the stack so can't be responded to.

  514.3. Normally, no player receives priority during the cleanup step, so no spells can be cast and no abilities can be activated. However, this rule is subject to the following exception:

Normally, the new controller of the artifact wouldn't be able to activate its ability. But, because there is a triggered ability waiting to be put on the stack (When you lose control of the artifact…)

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

So the "Tap it." is on the stack, and can be responded to. The change of control didn't use the stack and has already happened. Your opponent can use the glare when they have priority.

It's a bit odd that if this triggered ability wasn't there, your controller wouldn't be able to tap it during your turn, but that's the way it works. Note that because of the Summoning Sickness rule, your opponent wouldn't be able to use the tap effect of any artifact you gained control of unless it had haste. But the Glare cares not for Summoning Sickness.


When do trading deals become too unbalancing? I've played a few games of Settlers of Catan with friends and seen some deals emerge in the trading that don't seem quite right to me.  When do deals that extend beyond the current trade become unbalancing?

For example:  Player A is planning to build a road that will block either Player B or Player C from longest road.  So Player A sets up a bidding war between B and C to control this future behavior.  B and C offer deals like:

Any time I have two of (favored resource) I will give one to you
I will never attack you with the robber

At what point do deals like these cause the balance of the game to shift too far where it's not fun or as good to play?  Balance seems to be the key in all games, and I just want to make sure deals like these don't kill it for the rest of the players.

As ICodeForCoffee said in the "bribing off the Robber" question:

  According to the rules of Catan, players can't trade unless they're both exchanging resources.

This would seem to be the same issue with the agreement to give extra resources to other players.  They could form an alliance to trade the resources, but not just give the extras "in the future" for a favor.


Which Age of Steam map is best to use for an initiation to the game for 5 or 6 players? Why? I.e. with which expansion map is it easiest to initiate many newbies to the game of Age of Steam while playing a five or six-person game and why?

I have an answer, which I'll post in a few days (to give someone else a chance to post it first), but I'll "accept" the one that has the most votes after a week or so.

I have had multiple successes introducing the game with the Germany map in large groups and no failures (so far).

Failure, in this case, would be someone that doesn't understand the game enough to be able to identify why they lost or won. (Although, a friend of mine has a block on the game in general - she finds it too difficult and can't fathom ever winning.)

The greatest feature of the map that enables this success is the removal of one rule. Namely, the ability to construct unfinished links. I.e., all players must always connect both ends of the track they lay.

The effect of this rules tweak, in addition to various long-distance destinations (foreign terminals) being abstracted (tiles adjacent to them costing 6 to 12$), is that newbies cannot begin making a whole class of mistakes with far reaching negative consequences.

For example, they know connecting to Lyon will cost them, at least, 14$ - they don't have to start building it this turn, see that they don't have the money they need next turn and abandon the track they already laid to the next lucky player with a few dollars to spare.

This is not to say the map is boring for experienced players, there are still many possibilities to block (probably more, since the longest distance a link may have is three) and the board becomes quite crowded with more than four players so the newbies will still be developing the skills to cope with the game's challenges.

All being said, I don't know any other map that plays so well and simply with as many players. (The base Rust Belt map is still a good map to use, to teach the game, when playing with three or four, though.)


Controlling an Artifact Creature - Aura with Equip, can the permanent equip itself? For clarity's sake, I'll start by explaining the process in which you get such a permanent.
I control Mairsil, the Pretender with an Gliding Licid, Lightning Greaves (can be any Equipment), and Cultivator's Caravan (can be any card with Crew) in exile (all with cage counters on them).
I activate the ability Mairsil gained from Gliding Licid making her into an Aura, she will retain the Equip and Crew abilities (becaus of how Gliding Licid's ability is worded).
Mairsil is now an Aura with "Enchant creature", "Equip 0", and "Crew 3" (irrelevant abilities are excluded). Since the Equip ability states that you "Attach this permanent to target creature you control", and since the Mairsil Aura can be attached to creatures, I assume this means that I can re-equip Mairsil to other creatures I control.
I now crew my Mairsil Aura, Mairsil will now be an "Artifact Creature - Aura" (Crew retains subtypes right?).
Now we're finally here, is there anything stopping me from equipping Mairsil to herself?

Yes, Rule 301.5c stops you from equipping Mairsil after Crew resolves:

An Equipment that’s also a creature can’t equip a creature. An Equipment that loses the subtype “Equipment” can’t equip a creature. An Equipment can’t equip itself. An Equipment that equips an illegal or nonexistent permanent becomes unattached from that permanent but remains on the battlefield. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.) An Equipment can’t equip more than one creature. If a spell or ability would cause an Equipment to equip more than one creature, the Equipment’s controller chooses which creature it equips.

Also, Rule 303.4d covers the Aura case separately:

An Aura can’t enchant itself. If this occurs somehow, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. An Aura that’s also a creature can’t enchant anything. If this occurs somehow, the Aura becomes unattached, then is put into its owner’s graveyard. (These are state-based actions. See rule 704.) An Aura can’t enchant more than one object or player. If a spell or ability would cause an Aura to become attached to more than one object or player, the Aura’s controller chooses which object or player it becomes attached to.

So, after Crew resolves, becoming a creature will unattach Marisil from whichever creature it was previously attached to, and then Marisil will go to the graveyard.


Electrostatic Pummeler with Animation Module If you use Electrostatic Pummeler's ability to turn him into a 2/2 and then you use Animation Module to add an additional +1/+1 counter. Would both of those +1/+1 counters be removed at the end of turn or only one?

Electrostatic Pummeler has no ability that puts +1/+1 counters on it. Its second ability modifies its power and toughness until end of turn, and Animation Module's first ability does not trigger.


Do you lose the counters on Azor's Elocutors if it's returned to your hand? If Azor's Elocutors is returned to your hand do you lose your filibuster counters you had on it? I have tried to get this question answered before but no one is sure.

Yes, you lose the counters.

121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.
400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

So the Elocutors that’s in your hand has nothing to do with the one you previously had on the battlefield.
There is one card that overrides this rule: Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, but even that won’t keep counters in your hand. It really can’t, because the hand is a hidden zone. There would be no way of tracking which card it is that has the counters on it; keeping it separate from another card of the same name.


Trader vs Torturer, where does the Silver go? My opponent plays a Torturer. I have a Trader in hand. I choose to gain a Curse and then reveal the Trader and gain a Silver instead. Does the Silver go to my hand like the Curse would have?

The Silver Gained from Trader works exactly the same as any other Gain; as Trader's text doesn't specify anything to the contrary, the Gained card goes directly to your discard pile.  This situation is explicitly mentioned on page 11 of the Hinterlands instructions:

If the card you were going to gain was not going to your discard pile, the Silver still goes to your discard pile; if the card you were going to gain did not come from the Supply, the Silver still comes from the Supply.


What happens if I tap a creature in response to Tolarian Kraken's ability? Tolarian Kraken says:

Whenever you draw a card, you may pay {1}. When you do, you may tap or untap target creature.

Let's say I pay {1} and target my opponent's Merfolk Looter with this ability. Merfolk Looter has a tap ability, and my opponent uses it in response to my Tolarian Kraken trigger. Does my Tolarian Kraken wind up untapping the Merfolk Looter? That is, which interpretation of the ability is correct:

When you pay {1}, you have already chosen to switch the creature's state, so if it's tapped it becomes untapped and if it's untapped it becomes tapped.
You may pay {1}, and then when this ability resolves, you can choose if you want to switch the creature between tapped & untapped.

Somehow in a couple of games on Arena, my opponent's Kraken wound up untapping my creature even though it's to my benefit the creature is untapped. I'm not sure if it's because my opponent misplayed, or if #1 is the correct interpretation.

When you draw a card, the Kraken's ability triggers. When that ability resolves, you can choose to pay {1}. If you do, the second part triggers, and you have to choose a target if you can. What to do with that target is not decided until resolution, whether you want to tap it, untap it, or just leave it be (the ability says "may").


Citadels Bell Tower and end game conditions Can I put the bell tower card down if I don't have seven district's but another player does? I'm asking because I just played for the first time and I made this move and ended the game without wanting to be the winner by points.

If you can pay for the district card (and don't already have it in your city), yes, you can build it. You can do this whether or not you have seven districts and whether or not another player has 7 districts.

When you do, you MAY announce that the game will end at seven districts (but you don't have to).

Card text (from Dark City expansion version in 2008), emphasis added :

  Bell Tower
  Purple - Cost 5
  When you place the Bell Tower in your city,
  you may announce that the game will end after the round in which a
  player first places his seventh district. You may do this even if the
  Bell Tower is your seventh district. If the Bell Tower is later
  destroyed, the game end conditions return to normal.

If you do announce it, then yes, the Bell Tower in play and another player having 7 districts will end the game, yes.

If you don't intend to end the game at this time, though, you're free not to announce the change to 7.

EDIT: Regarding the "MAY" indicating that the effect is optional (see comments, where it was suggested that "not announcing would be so you could pull it out as a surprise, not that not announcing meant it didn't happen."):

Yes, not announcing it means not changing it. Otherwise it wouldn't be worded with "may announce" at all, but rather with something like: " The game will end after the round...seventh district. If the Bell Tower is destroyed, ... return to normal." (This would also run counter to every other district: there are no hidden effects. "play from the table, not from your chair" as the hustlers say.)

If you want to get really lawyery with the text, you could wrangle out that there's no change at all even if you do announce: the text allows you to announce but has no text saying that the rules actually change. (although it does have text that will "return to normal" from this non-change). No one but lawyers would believe that line of reasoning, of course, but it does help illustrate the effect of the text as written.

The only other place I could find that addressed the question (either in agreement with "optional" or not) is this post on BGG , which agrees:

  The fact that the text says "may" indicates that using the district's
  ability is optional; however the fact that it says "When you place
  ..." indicates (to me) that you can only do this whan the district is
  built - if you don't do it then you have passed on the card's ability
  forever (well, for the duration of that game).


Are there simplified rules for Race for the Galaxy? I'd like to teach my 10-year-old son to play Race for the Galaxy. I'd also like it to be easier to teach new players. Are there any simplified/beginner rules for Race for the Galaxy?

I'm not aware of any simplified rules. I suspect it'd be pretty difficult to remove significant things without throwing the game out of whack.
But the base game does have suggested starting hands for your first game, which is easy to forget. From the setup section:

[normal rules for dealing start worlds]
Your first game: instead, for two players, use start worlds 1 and 2; for three, use start worlds 1-3; and, for four, use start worlds 1-4.
[normal rules for dealing starting hands]
Your first game: instead, each player uses the four numbered game cards
matching his start world’s number as his initial (preset) hand. After finding these preset hand cards, shuffle all the remaining game cards, including any left over start worlds and preset hand cards, together.

This is sort of like simplified rules in that your first choices are pretty obvious, and that initial setup will guide the rest of your game.
The quick summaries in the margins of the rules also provide a nice way of explaining the important things to new players without getting bogged down too much in details. Most importantly, you really don't want to explain a lot of individual cards' powers before you start playing - that can wait until you're looking at them in a game.
If you're playing with experienced gamers, that's probably enough; they can figure it out as they go along, especially with you watching out for anything they might misunderstand on cards. If you want to make it a bit friendlier, playing the first game open hands takes off a lot of the pressure and makes sure everyone gets to see how it all works. It can also be extremely helpful to run through an example turn before you start; some people don't really grok the whole selecting phases deal until they see it.

For what it's worth, by far the hardest and most time-consuming thing for new players is having to read so many cards during their first game. You have to do it all the time - not just when picking a phase, but when picking what to keep from explore, when picking what to spend to develop/settle, and so on. If you still really want to simplify the rules, that's probably the thing you want to attack. I'm not sure exactly what to suggest, but perhaps something like keeping half the cards you draw face down, so that they're purely resources to spend, not options to consider? It'd make your options more limited and slow everyone down, of course, but if it's only for the first game it might be tolerable?


Sell and Buy houses from bank in the same round? Can I sell a house from a property that I own and buy it in the same round from the bank again ?

This question is an edge case of What happens when you need to tear-down a hotel but no houses are in the bank in Monopoly?

From the current rules at Hasbro, under the Selling Property section (emphasis mine):

  Houses and hotels may be sold back to the Bank at any time for one-half the price paid for them.

And then from the Houses section (emphasis mine again):

  When you own all the properties in a color-group you may buy houses from the Bank and erect them on those properties.  If you buy one house, you may put it on any one of those
  properties. The next house you buy must be erected on one of the unimproved properties of this or any other complete color-group you may own.

  The price you must pay the Bank for each house is shown on your Title Deed card for the property on which you erect the house. The owner still collects double rent from an opponent who lands on the unimproved properties of his/her complete color-group.

  Following the above rules, you may buy and erect at any time as
  many houses as your judgement and financial standing will allow.

So I see no reason why you couldn't sell a house and buy it back again in the same round.  Just remember that you have to sell houses evenly as well.


Does copying a clue count as investigating? Question regarding investigation. If I create a copy of a clue token (e.g. with Saheeli Rai), does that count as investigating for Erdwal Illuminator?

701.34a "Investigate" means "Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield. It has ‘2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.'"

So to turn it around: if I put a colorless clue artifact token on the battlefield have I not "investigated"?

No, you have not. Just because an effect might be the same as that of a keyword (or for investigate keyword action) that does not mean you have done that keyword (action).

One similar example I can think of is Darksteel Pendant. When it was printed Scry did not exist (it would come out in the next set), so its activated ability reads 'Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.'. Now this text is exactly the same as Scry 1, however since it did not actually have Scry it didn't trigger abilities like Flamespeaker Adept's that look for 'Whenever you scry'.

Note that since Magic Origins scry has become an evergreen keyword action and Darksteel Pendant has been updated to have Scry 1, so it does trigger Flamespeaker Adept's ability now. However at the time of the Adept's printing the Pendant did not trigger the Adept.


What progress has been made in computerized bridge play? Computer programs have been produced for games such as Chess, Go, Poker, StarCraft 2, Dota. The best ones, Deep Blue  and AlphaGo , AlphaZero, Pluribus,...  are now considered better than the best human players. More to the point, the computers' game results have been influencing human play.
Apparently, computers are not yet better than human players in Bridge. There can be computer simulations of various hands and hypothetical opposing hands. But what progress have computers made in playing human players in tournaments? Have any new theories of bidding or play evolved as a result of computer-human interaction in Bridge?

There's a fundamental problem that the rules of bridge are not well-defined for computers. Specifically, the rules require that partnerships communicate their agreements - including implicit agreements arising from experience playing with their partner - to their opponents.  No one has really figured out what it means for a computer to communicate its partnership agreements to other humans or to a different computer program.
(Note that it does happen in human bridge where one partnership explains their agreements to their opponents, there is misunderstanding, and a director or an appeals committee has to sort everything out, so these rules are not perfectly well-defined for humans either.)
This is less of a problem if the computer is playing a human designed bidding (and carding) system, but a machine-learning designed bidding system could quite possibly (in my opinion would very likely) be incomprehensible to humans.


Why do people refer to Blue color as "U" in Magic the Gathering? I often see people referring to Blue color mana as U. What is the reason for that?

I know that Black starts with B as well but this is somewhat confusing. My guess is that u is the first letter which is different if I start to read both black and blue from the start.

According to Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater's "Drive to Work" podcast on the subject, Wizards used "B" for Black and "L" for Land, leaving "U" as the next reasonable choice.

  Blue we represent with the letter U. Oh, real quickly. Why do we do that? I’ve talked about this in my column, but for those that haven’t heard me say it, when first Richard made the cards, the problem was that black and blue both start with B. So why not go to L then? Well, land...card colors are used to signify the border, the kind of card it’s on. And so land has its own border. So L is for land. Well, why not go to A for black? Well, A is artifact. And so U was the first we could get to in either of them, so we ended up going with U.


Can I ask for Wastes like basic lands in Limited? My question is about limited tournaments like draft or sealed. Can I ask for Wastes for my decks like basic lands?

No, you cannot.

From the MTG Tournament Rules:

  7.2 Card Use in Limited Tournaments

    Players may add an unlimited number of cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, or Forest to their
    deck and sideboard. They may not add additional snow basic land cards (e.g. Snow-Covered Forest, etc)
    or Wastes basic land cards, even in formats in which they are legal.