Do negative counters trigger Protean Hydra? Damage to Protean Hydra is prevented by removing +1/+1 counters from it. The card states:

  Whenever a +1/+1 counter is removed from Protean Hydra, put two +1/+1 counters on it at the beginning of the next end step.

So if a -1/-1 counter is placed on it, it cancels out one +1/+1 counter. Is the counter still considered to be 'removed' or does it just disappear?

Main Question: If Protean Hydra has a -1/-1 counter placed on it (say for example by Contagion Clasp), will it receive 2 +1/+1 counters?

Yes, it is removed and you get the EOT trigger. Per Gatherer:

  If a -1/-1 counter is put on Protean Hydra while it has +1/+1 counters on it, that -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter will be removed from it as a state-based action. This will cause Protean Hydra's last ability to trigger.


Can I respond to my infinite loop by casting a creature spell? Can I respond to my own triggered infinite loop with Sporemound and Life and Limb by casting Acidic Slime to destroy Life and Limb or by paying to activate Gobbling Ooze ability to destroy Sporemound?

You may cast an instant spell to end the loop as you describe.

You may activate an ability to end the loop as you describe.

But you may not cast a creature spell (unless it has Flash).

The following is the loop in detail:

[You play a Forest or something]

Sporemound's ability triggers.

You place Sporemound's ability on the stack.
Player's get priority.
Sporemound's ability resolves.

You create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token that enters as a 1/1 green Forest Saproling land creature token.

Sporemound's ability triggers.

Goto 2.

In step 3, you get to cast a spell or activate an ability in response to Sporemound's triggered ability. These will resolve before step 4 (because the last thing added to the stack resolves first). Step 4 will still happen (since the ability was added to the stack in step 2), but step 5 won't happen if Sporemound's ability doesn't trigger (e.g. because it's not there, or because the created Saproling didn't enter as a land), thus breaking the loop.

Note that the stack isn't empty in step 3, so the only spells you can cast are instant spells and spells with Flash, so casting Acidic Slime is out. Activated abilities of creatures are fine, though, so activating Gobbling Ooze is possible.


Creature fights target creature So I've read a few cards that say this and only just now notices while reading Hunt the Weak

It says specifically "Each deals damage equal to its power to the other"

So does a +1/+1 counter add to its power?
Basically my question is do you use the power printed on the card, or the power that creature has in normal combat?
And does trample have any effect to the player whose creature Im targeting if their creature can't take all the damage? Or is that only when a creature is blocking my creature

You are overthinking it. Two creatures fighting each other as result of a spell or ability means exactly what it says, and nothing more. Power and Toughness of a creature are always one certain value, namely the printed base value plus all applicable modifiers. Two creatures fighting each other is NOT combat, and combat-related abilities don't matter. The damage they deal to each other is NOT combat damage, but simply damage with the respective creature as the source.


Does the Jol-Nar promissory note allow the recipient to research faction technology unit upgrades? The promissory note for the Jol-Nar in twilight-imperium (4th ed) reads as:

After the Jol-Nar player researches a technology that is not a faction technology:
Gain that technology.
Then, return this card to the Jol-Nar player.

Many races have faction technologies that happen to be unit upgrades, e.g. Sol's carriers/infantry, Saar's space docks etc.
Let's say that one of these factions has Jol-Nar's promissory note. The Jol-Nar research a unit upgrade. Can the holder of the promissory note gain their faction version of that upgrade?

Note, the game that inspired this had Muaat swap their promissory note with Jol-Nar's. The Muaat note says:

Action: Remove 1 token from the Muaat player's fleet pool and return it to his reinforcements. Then, gain your war sun unit upgrade technology card. Then, return this card to the Muaat player.

The idea being that Jol-Nar gains War Suns the easy way, and Muaat gains Prototype War Sun II too.

No. The card says "Gain that technology". It does not allow gaining your faction specific variant of that technology. Effectively, this means that you cannot use the card in that situation (or if you did, it would not get you any benefit).

I don't have an official ruling to back this up, but a literal reading of the card text seems pretty clear. This thread on BGG agrees.


What happens when the Paranormal Investigator looks at a Doppelganger or Copy Cat who is now bad? When a Doppelganger (or Copy Cat from the Vampires expansion) look at a role, their card now takes on the role they looked at. So, if they are swapped by a troublemaker, for example, the person who ends up with the Doppelganger card is the role the Doppelganger looked at.

Further, the Paranormal Investigator becomes any non-Villager role they look at and must then stop looking at cards.

In neither case are cards swapped.

My question is, what happens when the Paranormal Investigator looks at a Doppelganger who has looked at a card on the Werewolf (or Vampire) team?

First, if the Doppelganger is the first card they look at, do they assume that the Doppelganger is a Villager role and then look at a second card? I assume so. That's the only thing that seems fair.

Second, does the Paranormal Investigator become the non Villager role that the Doppelganger looked at?

The Daybreak rules state the following for the P.I. (emphasis added):

If the P.I. sees the Doppelgänger that saw a Werewolf, he continues looking (he doesn't know what the Doppelgänger saw, and does not become what the Doppelgänger saw, even if the Doppelgänger saw a Werewolf or Tanner).
The Paranormal Investigator is on the village team, unless he finds a Werewolf, or if he finds a Tanner, in which case he becomes a Tanner and only wins if he dies.

So a P.I. who sees a Doppelgänger stays on the Village team, regardless of what happens to the Doppelgänger.


Can a red spell (Sorcery, Instant, etc) affect a green creature? I have a red/green deck. Can I use my red spells on my green creatures, and my green spells on my red creatures?

I am fairly new to MtG so I am sorry if this appears as a sort of nooby question.

Yes, you can. If a spell targets a creature, unless it says otherwise, it can target any creature of any colour. The spell's own colour is simply a non-issue.

Consider that if you did have to cast red spells on red creatures, or black spells on black creatures, Doom Blade would be completely useless, being a black spell which says:

  Destroy target nonblack creature.

There are a few exceptions:

That creature can't have Hexproof, unless it's your own creature. Hexproof means your opponents cannot target that creature with their spells or abilities, but you can do so just fine. Benthic Giant is an example of one such creature. If you control a Benthic Giant, you can target it with your own Auger Spree to make it temporarily an 8/1 creature, but your opponent can't cast their own Augur Spree on your Benthic Giant.
The creature can't have Shroud. An example: Algae Gharial. It's an old mechanic which says the creature simply can't be targeted by spells or abilities, full stop - not even your own. You won't run into Shroud in newer cards, because it's been replaced by Hexproof.
The creature can't have Protection from your spell's colour. A creature with protection from a colour cannot be targeted by spells of that colour. (Protection also does some other good things for you.) For example, Hand of Honor has protection from black, which means it can't be targeted by Doom Blade.

Protection can do more than simply pick a colour. Petrified Wood-Kin, for example, can't be targeted by instants, and Azorius First-Wing can't be enchanted.

The creature must otherwise not say it can't be targeted.

And naturally, the creature has to be a valid target for the spell.

The same principles apply to all spells. You can cast Fade into Antiquity on non-green enchantments, and so on.


Can I counter Thrun by flashing Lodestone Golem? Can I counter anything by flashing Lodestone Golem? My opponent has 4 untapped forests and taps all their land to cast Thrun.
I respond by using Quicksilver Amulet  to put Lodestone Golem into play. Since Thrun now costs an extra 1 that my opponent does not have, would it be countered? Would the result be any different if the spell being cast did not have Thrun's ability (perhaps it was a Cudgel Troll instead)?

For Thrun, it seems like this might be a case of "countered by game rules" but it doesn't say "can't be countered by spells or abilities" it just says "can't be countered."

Putting Lodestone Golem onto the battlefield in response to a creature spell has no effect on that creature spell whatsoever.

Lodestone Golem's ability adds an additional cost that is applied while casting spells. Once a player has finished casting a spell by paying the costs for that spell, any new cost modifications don't affect it.


If you find a rest spot and there are minions on the board what happens? Rest Spot (Fortune, from the search deck) reads:

  Play immediately. If there are no minions on the board, you may remove all wound markers from each mouse and place 1 cheese on the minion wheel.

If there are minions on the board, what happens?  Nothing?

Quick forum scan seems to indicate that you might be able to discard the card for cheese but also say that you might be able to keep the card in your hand for later, which is not how I read the card.  Any idea on more formal ruling/rules guidance?

The rules state: If that card is an item, weapon, armor, accessory, scroll or trick, the player may either:

put it into the searching mouse's pack for later use, or
immediately discard it for 1 cheese.

Since Rest Spot is not any of the types listed, I don't think you can discard it for cheese.  And "Play immediately" is pretty clear about not holding on to it for later.  So I think you just discard it and nothing happens.


How are you supposed to build space marines in 8th Ed? I've been playing Warhammer 40,000 since the last year of 7th Ed and I've had some extreme problems with Space Marines since the swap. While the army was still in 7th Ed, it worked great: 3+ or 4+ saves all around, lots of boots on the ground, could reach out and touch just about anything that i came up against (aside from Belial cheese lists) to the extent that i won about as many games as i lost. With the change to 8th Ed they lost about all of their advantages: AP reduces the armor saves instead of ignoring them on certain thresholds, the detachment and price updates reduce the number of units on the table and BOTH of these utterly kill the my ability to reach out and touch whoever-the-heck. I've tried just about everything with these guys; cram a captain, lieutenant, apothicary, ancient and a few command vets into a vehicle and give them multi-meltas while the rest of the army distracted the enemy (didn't work), built a screen of 6 scouts while 3 sniper squads and the rest of the army fired from behind them (didnt work), built an army with deepstriking terminators with Cyclone rockets and chainfists that killed the big stuff while snipers, thunderfire cannons and librarians took on the little stuff (didnt work either). Just about the only useful thing i learned while trying to make these guys work is that StormTalons are a 174 point unit that kills a maximum of 2 units before it's promptly crushed under the shear mass of fire from everything shooting at it.

I spent a good deal of money on my collection and there's simply too much on my person to even THINK about getting anything else, and i truly want to make this army work, so how are you supposed to field the run-of-the-mill Space Marines?

TLDR, Have around 7 units for every 1000pts and give each unit at least 3 things that make them threatening

I'm writing this because I'm sick of waiting for someone else to answer this and I recently found A way to play Space Marines, though it's highly possible that it's not THE way to play Space Marines. Whatever the case, if this answer gets around 10 votes before someone else writes something and is right, then this will be my accepted answer.

Back to what my findings were, I believe that for every 1000pts, there should be 7 units in the formation and each should have at least 3 qualities or weapons given to them that make the opponent take notice of them. For example, you can give a scout squad shotguns, camo cloaks and a Landspeeder Storm. Instead of "just a unit of scouts" this unit becomes "a Toughness 5/Wound 7 model that moves 18" base, has fly, shoots up to 13 Strength 5 shots plus d6 Srength 4 shots on most turns and spawns up to 5 Scout Marines with a 2+ Save in cover when it dies". Attaining enough units that either have extended descriptions like this, or produce immediate reactions like a Landraider, creates a psychological advantage to your army I like to call The Actuality Effect. The Actuality Effect hinges on how effective your army is despite taking losses, such as a 10 man unit of Devastators loosing 5 units but still having its maximum output of heavy weapon shots. As for the effect itself, it is a mounting stress that occurs when the opponent is loosing units and is dealing seemingly ineffective damage to you. It's crucial to steadily build this tension in your opponent because, like in most strategy games, stress is the great obstacle your opponent must overcome. Stress makes you forget things, makes you focus on some things over other things, pushes you to chase or flee certain situations. Having enough units on the board, ergo unique places that DEMAND your opponents attention, will be enough to tip the odds in your favor.

Since building my lists this way, I haven't lost my last 3 games (2 vs Blood Angels, 1 of which heavily used Primaris units, 1 vs Orks). I won't guarentee that this works 100% effectively, one of my wins left me with 8 models on the board, but it performs drastically better than any of my previous lists this edition. Weather or not this is the best way to play Space Marines in general will be decided in time.


What are the qualities of a successful beta testing session from the player's perspective? I'm a board game designer with the luxury of a large public playing area filled with board game enthusiasts. I would like to beta test a new board game and was wondering what YOU, as the player, would consider a successful session.

I've already seen the posts on how to run a session from a technical, or designer's perspective (I have an idea for a card game. How can I best start testing it?). I would like to focus on what makes for a fun session for the player. For example, are you looking for polished, illustrated gaming pieces? Pizza and soda? Do you prefer the game guru (me) answer questions as you go or sit back and let you figure them out on your own? How long should a typical session last? What would you want in return?

When you answer, please mention if you've done beta playtesting before and what your experience has been. I would also love to know if you have experience running these kinds of sessions. Thank you!

Designer and sometimes attendee at design group BOGA DAP here. I'll share my personal experiences and preferences.

As a tester, to feel good about the event:

In general, I prefer the game to be taught as if you were teaching an already-published game. If you are getting a blind playtest, or testing the ability of players to learn from a rulebook, then I expect the game to be 99% done and the instructions to be as clear as you can make them.
If you have specific questions about the game you want answered, in terms of balance or how a mechanism works or how it feels or whatever, let me know. In a playtest game, I am not averse to you changing the rules mid-game if you want to try something out or the rules aren't working.
I have no expectations at all in terms of graphic polish or illustration. An unpolished prototype is a sign that you are not emotionally invested in the game as it is and are open to feedback and changes. Even going so far as a deliberately sketched-in look-and-feel can be helpful.
I expect you to respect my time. I play games for fun all the time, so if the game is fun or at least interesting, I don't need a food bribe. I do want you to be willing to playtest my games as well, and I want you to make appropriate changes or pull the plug if it ends up not working or not being fun.
1-2 hours, with time on the end to ask for feedback, makes a good playtesting session for most games. An early playtest (where we expect to pull the plug quickly and go back and make changes) might end up being shorter, or a test for a very short game. I don't expect to play a medium-or-longer game more than once in a sitting. Unless the game was a smash hit, I expect you to take it back for at least a few changes before we play again.

As a designer, to get the most out of a playtest:

Try to observe the game, rather than playing it yourself, unless you are needed to fill up the player count. This lets you pay more attention to both the game and the players and how they're acting and feeling.
Tell the players what you changed since the last iteration of the prototype. If it's not obvious whether it worked or not, ask the players.
After the game, ask each player what they liked and didn't like. This is tricky. On one hand, never defend your game. If a player gives a criticism that you feel is invalid, ask yourself what you might be able to change to mitigate the perception of the problem - whether in the rules or the explanation. On the other hand, you will need to pass by many suggestions, since they will not lead your game in the direction you want it to go in. Not every game is meant for every player. Criticism might just be telling you who the best audience for your game is.


Find Spell cards self banish or cards banish spell in grave I'm using a "Gishki Hieratic Deck" and I find this deck has a big weakness which  is some cards like D.D. Crow can ruin my deck by banishing my Gishki Aquamirror in the GY.

Luckily, I have found Parallel Selection, but now the problem is it only usable in a few special situation, so now I want some cards that could banish other spell card in my GY to do something useful or some spell cards could Self banish.

One more thing is I only play with friends and we have a rule that we only accept cards before 2015, you guys can check when the card out here.

First I suggets you check this link on YGO Wikia, which mentions several cards that return banished cards to the GY.

Now, what you ask it a bit unclear (you want cards like Parallel Return or cards that banish spells?), but I assume it's the former, as Parallel Return is your only alternative so far.

Sorry to say this but there seems to be no other card that can return spells from the banished zone, and even less before 2015. I searched by several keywords in a couple good engines (one neat engine is YGO Pro's where you can search by card text), and only Parallel Return came out.

One card that came to mind is Spellbook of Eternity and does exactly that, but it only works for Spellbook cards.

To be honest most cards I've found can only return monsters to the GY, and not spells or traps, so Parallel Selection could be one of the few options you got. Now, cards that do this that may be useful for you still that I recall are:

Miracle Dig: «If 5 or more of your monsters are currently removed from play, return 3 of them to the Graveyard». Useful to return monsters to the GY (only monsters though). This is an old card so surely before 2015.
Burial from a Different Dimension: «Select up to 3 removed from play monsters, and return them to their owners' Graveyards.». Great card, is also quick-play. It is also before 2015, but again only useful for monsters.

Now, if D.D. Crow is giving you trouble try countering it with Debunk:

  Negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect that activates in the hand or in the Graveyard, and remove it from play.

Also, if you want to prevent cards from bein banished you can play Imperial Iron Wall; one widely used card on side decks.

Sorry that there is no card (apparently) that can help you here, but will add any other I recall that might be useful on this scenario.


How can I keep track of my sideboarded cards in a physical Magic deck? In Magic, if you swap in cards from your sideboard during a match, you need to reset to your original deck for the beginning of the next match. I find I have trouble remembering what I sideboarded and reseting it correctly, especially in limited, where I've just built the deck and don't know my decklist by heart.

Are there common strategies to keep track of which cards you've sideboarded and to make it easy to reset?

Write down your sideboard in a list and keep that with your deck. You might want to keep note of it on something durable in your deck box, for instance.

When you want to reset your deck and sideboard to their default:

Take a look at your currently sideboarded cards, and the sideboard list you wrote. Set aside the ones that belong in your default sideboard - put these together.
Find the remainders in your deck, and put those together with the cards you set aside in step 1, until you have your entire sideboard set aside in a pile.
Everything remaining that is not in that pile must necessarily be a part of your deck, so shuffle it back in.

You'll now have your default sideboard and, by exclusion, your default deck.


In Dominion Intrigue does Bridge Stack with Itself If I play the card "Bridge" twice, which says to reduce the cost of items by 1 (minimum of 0), does this reduce the cost of all items by 2?

Indeed it does.  From the rulebook:

The effect is cumulative; if you Throne Room a Bridge, all cards will cost 2 coins less this turn.

Obviously the effect will still be cumulative if you just play two Bridges in one turn!


Which expansions are safe to mix? Eldritch Horror has a plethora of expansions all with their own symbols at the bottom of the cards separated into many decks. It seems unfeasible to go through each deck and remove all the expansions except the one you're playing with. So my question is: which expansion cards are fine to mix into their respective decks and which do I absolutely need to remove?

For example: The Mountains of Madness expansion introduces a Hypothermia condition which doesn't really make sense for the main board. The same could be said for the  Sled Dog asset. Do I need to remove these?

While it seems Fantasy Flight Games has never explicitly said that Eldritch Horror expansions can be combined, the consensus of players is that it is perfectly fine to play Eldritch Horror with multiple expansions.
No expansion is incompatible with another expansion
Thus far, no expansion directly conflicts with another expansion. For instance, there is no expansion that introduces mechanic X, and another expansion that introduces mechanic Y such that mechanics X and Y cannot be played at the same time.
Most expansion cards can be shuffled in without issue
Because new cards are either Ancient One specific or shuffle naturally into existing decks (e.g. Common Item), there is no conflict between them. While there is some deck dilution, it doesn't seem to be a problem yet.
From BoardGameGeek:

Multiple expansion packs on the other hand mesh together very naturally and easily. There's no reason to separate base game and expansion components - just shuffle them together. The expansion-specific mechanisms, new spell types, tasks and unique assets and impairments, enter the game through cards in the common decks.

From Reddit:

Since you use a random subset of mythos cards, each enemy had their own set of special cards, and the map boards only come out with one enemy and one prelude card, the bloat isn't as bad.
However, each expansion does add more conditions, more spells, more enemy counters, more assets, and so on and those do suffer some bloat. As already said, this isn't excessive - but it could be problematic eventually

Investigators usually lack a reason to go to multiple sideboards
It does seem like having multiple sideboards tends to lead to a situation where nobody wants to go to them. From Reddit:

I own all the current expansions and always play with all of them. Sideboards rarely come out since they are tied to a specific Ancient One or Prelude card. If you do use a side board its usually one and VERY rarely two.

From BoardGameGeek:

The thing is that there's not really much reason to go to the side boards if you don't have a mission there. Sure, you can throw them down and make them available, but rarely will anybody take the detour because you don't have anything to do there (though the Antarctic might be handy as a shortcut?).
It's really the prelude cards and ancient ones that give you stuff to do on those side boards that make it make sense to have them in the first place.

Cards that are only relevant to a specific sideboard should never come up if you leave them in
You mentioned what to do about cards that are only relevant to a certain sideboard, such as the Hypothermia condition and the Sled Dog asset, which only work on the Mountains of Madness sideboard. Fortunately, a BoardGameGeek user described how this is a non-issue:

Cards with the same backs can be mixed together without issues.
Double sided cards like spells, conditions as well as unique assets will all have their own decks and can also be mixed together.
Don't worry about drawing a Dog Sled if you aren't playing with the Antarctica side board, as finding a unique asset you are usually directed to draw a certain type of card... which is never ally.
The Antarctic research cards are unique backed, thus they will create their own deck, and will only be needed when using the Antarctica sideboard.

Should you somehow wind up with gaining a useless card, another user described a pretty simple way to resolve it:

All of my games (quite a few now already) have been played with Base, FL, MoM, and SR, and yet this situation has yet to arise for me. However, my gaming group has discussed it, and we all agreed if it ever came up, we'd just discard it as irrelevant and draw again.


Use case for Plough Driver, Groom, & Manservant in Agricola Plough Driver: Once you have a stone house, you can pay 1 food at the start of each round to plough (at most) 1 field.
Groom: Once you have a stone house, you can build 1 stable at the beginning of each round at a cost of 1 wood. You do not need to place a family member on an action space to do this.
Manservant: When you build a stone house, place 3 food on each remaining round space. At the start of these rounds, you receive the food.

Pros: These cards become powerful once you have renovated to stone
Cons: Renovating to stone too early can limit the creation of additional rooms and thus family size.  This will severly constrain your ability to score points/win.
Typical rennovation to stone typically happens late-game, (round 11-14) meaning you only get the cards' use two or three times.
It seems the only realistic way to use these cards is if you happen to draw at least two of them
and you also have either:

Clay Starter: When you play this card, if you only have 2 rooms in your wooden hut, immediately pay 1 food to renovate it to clay for free.

or

Conservator: You can renovate your wooden hut to a stone house without first needing to renovate it to a clay hut.

Question: Are there any other viable (competitive) use-cases for these cards?

I think you are being a bit harsh on these cards. Let's say you renovate to stone in round 11 - definitely doable. Ignoring any combos, for the cost of one action and 1 or 2 food, you could get:

Plow driver -> 3 fields for 3 food. That is likely to get you at least 6 net points (with extra if you sow at some point). It's also similar payback to one of the plow minor improvements, with the bonus that the action space required (occupation) is one that is much less contested at that stage of the game than the plow field spots.
Groom -> 3 stables for 3 wood. Similar to using the rooms/stables action to build stables (a reasonably common move in the last couple of rounds, in my experience), but a little cheaper.
Manservant -> 9 food (so 7/8 net). Not stellar, but certainly better than you'd get from something like fishing.

I think any of these could form a reasonable move, depending on the state of the game and what other actions are available. They certainly don't look horrible. Then, there are a few situations that would boost them from average to good moves. As well as the two cards you mention, there are others that might help you renovate earlier, and a few that help with playing occupations such as the tutor, bookshelf and writing desk.

I wouldn't plan my whole game around using them, but would definitely give them a go under certain circumstances, and particularly if the stone spaces crop up early, making prompt renovation more practical.


Can a blocking creature tap for its ability while blocking? I've declared my attack, and my opponent declares their blocker. I then use an instant that boosts and gives first strike to my attacking creature, then in the middle of combat they tap the creature to activate its ability. Can they do this?

Sure.  As long as the creature is able to block at the beginning of the declare blockers step (typically this means untapped) it can be declared as a blocker.  What happens after that doesn't affect it's status as a blocker.  There are also no restrictions on whether it can tap to use an ability, pay a cost, etc.


How can I make Agricola vegetarian friendly? Agricola is a great game, with good theming, and I'd like to introduce it to a couple of friends who are vegetarian.

The problem is they might feel uncomfortable with the 'eating your animals' aspect of the game.

How can I change the game's narrative so that they're not eating their animals, but doing something else that converts the animals to food?

The game already supports this with improvements like Pottery, which converts clay to food. Clearly, the imagined implication isn't that suddenly your family has a fulfilling case of pica — it's that the clay is used to make some good which can be exchanged for food (and that's abstracted away).

Imagine something similar for animals in the game, and there you go. (Of course, you'll still have to part with the animals — let's happily imagine that they are unharmed in that parting.)

Of course, if your friends follow the strain of veganism which holds that all animal agriculture is bad, this won't do, and you'll have to reskin the whole game significantly.


What are good tips for playing the endgame in Scrabble? Toward the end of the game, you want to get rid of as many tiles as you can so that they don't count against you. Or do you?

Yesterday, with less than 20 tiles to go, I got a few points for extending "RE" (considered a word in our group) to "rein" by adding "IN." That seemed like a bad move, because this opened up two columns for my two opponents who each got a multiple of the points that I did. Given the chance to play this again, I would exchanged tiles, or even passed.

Does there come a point toward the endgame where you "play not to lose" rather than "play to win?" That is, should you refrain from making moves that help you if you suspect that they will help your opponents more? Should you sometimes "burn" tiles and turns and let your opponents make moves that help you?

I'm assuming that you can't immediately end the game in your favor by using up all your tiles, and thereby preventing your opponents from responding.

There's a huge amount of information out there about Scrabble end-games - far more than I can summarise here - but most of it concerns two-player games. In those situations, it becomes possible to plan out the last few moves with a great deal of accuracy, since once the tiles are gone from the bag you can work out exactly what is on your opponent's rack. The key becomes maximising the points differential between you: so a 5 point move where the best response is 10 points would be preferable to a 10 point move with a possible response worth 20 points. You also need to factor in the letters that might be left on your rack at the end, since these tiles are worth double to your opponent (once when they are subtracted from your score and again when they are added to theirs).

In a 3 or 4 player game, as you describe, it is much harder to control the flow of play and work out what the other players are going to do. Therefore, it's much more about just maximising your score on any given turn. Still, there are a couple of things you can do in the endgame to help your chances:

Get rid of any high-scoring tiles from your rack as a priority.
Go for longer words if possible so that you can be the first to empty your rack.
As @Becuzz suggests, try not to leave any blatant double- or triple- word opportunities for the player following you.
If the bag is empty and you can't see the Q, you know one of your opponents has it, so try to block any tempting spots they could play it out.

Depending on the situation, some of these may be mutually exclusive, so you need to make a judgement call on which is a priority. E.g. if you have six tiles and an opponent only has two left, they will probably be able to clear their rack next go, so your priority should be to get rid of any high-scoring tiles from your rack.


Spells placing effects on heroic I know this may really sound dumb for asking, but..
Say you have a card like Dragonrage and it applies onto say Favored Hoplite.

I know the Dragonrage's affect will trigger Heroic, but the "R: This creature gains +1/+0" wouldnt affect Heroic if used correct since it isn't technically a spell right?

I know the Dragonrage's affect will trigger Heroic...

Actually, it doesn't. The word "target" doesn't appear anywhere on Dragonrage, and it's not an aura, so it doesn't target, and so it doesn't trigger heroic.

As an alternative example, Dragon Mantle is an aura, so it does trigger heroic when you initially cast it.

  the "R: This creature gains +1/+0" wouldn't affect Heroic if used correct since it isn't technically a spell right?

Right. This is an activated ability, not a spell. Additionally, it doesn't target, so even if it was a spell, it wouldn't trigger heroic anyway.


Dealing with homophones when playing "Contact" (Conversation Game) During one of the games, we ran into an interesting problem with homophones. The Defender (clue giver) had secretly chosen the word "capital". The given letters at the time were "C-A-P-I-T". A guesser had given the clue "Where US Congress meets", the word this clue refers to is 'capitol'. These words are pronounced that same but possess different meaning and spelling: homophone.

Given this scenario, can the defender counter with "not capitol"?

Reference: Standard Contact Rules

Since they're pronounced the same, there's no way of knowing that the guesser and defender are referring to different words. The reasonable thing to do in that case is accept the correct guess and move on appropriately (a loss for the defender, in this case, if I'm reading the rules correctly).

In this particular case, the guesser may have spoken the word so as to emphasize the difference in spelling (drawing out the 'o' sound in capitol). In that case, it seems very reasonable for the defender to respond with "not capitol" (again, drawing out the 'o' sound at the end). This will likely point to "capital" as being the next guess (especially with the addition of the 'a' from the defender).

Unless, that is, somebody asks which spelling of the word you are referring to (maybe red vs read). The standard rules linked don't say anything about homophones, so it's probably best to decide beforehand what happens in that case. Given that this seems to be a kind of party game, accepting the homophone as a correct guess seems the most appropriate, as it creates less conflict and more fun, and keeps the game moving.


Why would you ever not assign your full crew on a job? Just got the firefly boardgame a few weeks ago and have a couple group games and two solo plays done.
One thing I can't figure out yet is why you wouldn't always assign your entire crew to a job.
No matter if they are assigned they are need to be payed and will get disgruntled if you do an immoral job and they are moral, so the only reason I can see is if you are ready doing a Niska job and don't want to risk them getting killed.

I am still playing the stock game, no expansions yet.  Really looking forward to snagging pirates and bounty hunters, the added player interaction seems to be the one glaring hole in the mechanics so far.

The question makes no sense; the game has no concept of assigning crew to a job.

That said, it is possible that some crew members are not available to Misbehave. For example, Shepherd Book stays on the ship for immoral jobs, River Tam may have returned to the ship due to an earlier roll, and a medic may have returned a crew to the ship to heal.


Can the ability, return target permeant to hand, be activated on the creature that uses the ability? Using a specific example, Ancestral Statue.

I have played many different card games and they all have different rules regarding this ability. If I had no other permanents would Ancestral Statue return itself?

Since Ancestral Statue doesn't say "Return another nonland permanent, it is possible it will return it self if it is the only permanent you control when it enters the battlefield under your control.

"Another" is an important word; Invasive Species won't return itself.


Good rules for combining the various expansions start tiles The river expansions, the wheel of fortune and other expansions all add their own sets of start tiles and blocks of tiles to the game.

Are there good rules for combining these starting tiles?

The details depend on which expansions you're playing with, as some have starting pieces that are mutually exclusive or have slightly different rules depending on the combination. For example, the following cover all expansions through the catapult:

Collect tiles:

Collect the following special tiles, in addition to those for the base game and any other expansions being played:

Any combination of river expansion tiles (from "The River", "The River II", or the "Mini Expansion") that includes exactly one spring, exactly one lake/end tile and, optionally a single branch and a second lake/end tile.

The count piece and all 12 Carcassonne City tiles.

Prepare tiles:

Discard the starting tile; place the assembled City in the middle of the table, with the count in the castle district of the City; place the spring next to the City with the river leading away from the City, set one lake/end tile (with a volcano, if in use) and the branch tile aside, face up, and shuffle the remaining river expansion tiles and place them face down; shuffle all other tiles in use and place them in a concealed supply (in a bag, tower dispenser, or face down piles or stacks).

Drawing tiles:

Draw tiles, beginning with the branch tile, then face down river expansion tiles, then the face up lake/end tile, then from tiles in the supply.

For a step-by-step setup and turn structure tailored to whatever specific expansions you have in mind, see http://www.sciencegames.com/carcassonne/.


How serious is forgetting my life gain triggered abilities? I recently started playing a Soul Sisters / Martyr Life deck, and sometimes have problems remembering triggered abilities every time they're triggered.

Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may gain 1 life. (1)
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life. (2)
Whenever you gain life, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ajani's Pridemate. (3)

How serious of a problem is it if I forget any of these, possibly repeatedly (depending on environment)?

From my reading of the Infraction Procedure Guide, Game Play Error — Missed Trigger, as trigger (2) is advantageous for me, it's not a warning (or even caution) if I forget them, even if repeatedly. My opponent has the choice of allowing the triggered ability to be put on (the bottom of) the stack when I remember them at some later point in time:

… the opponent chooses whether the triggered ability is added to the stack. If it is, it’s inserted at the appropriate place on the stack if possible or on the bottom of the stack. (IPG)

From the wording of triggers (1) and (3), I assume they are considered to have a default action (not taking the life gain/counter), and forgetting about them just means I don't get their effect (Comprehensive Rules 603.5):

If the triggered ability specifies a default action associated with a choice made by the controller (usually "If you don't ..." or "... unless"), resolve it choosing the default option. (IPG)

Is my understanding of the rules and how they're handled in a tournament correct?

Your understanding of the missed triggers is correct. Since the required triggered ability (number 2) is only beneficial to you, there is no penalty for missing it.

The other triggers do not work exactly how you think because they are covered by a slightly different part of the rule than you quoted. The first part of rule 603.5 says:

  Some triggered abilities' effects are optional (they contain "may," as in "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may draw a card"). These abilities go on the stack when they trigger, regardless of whether their controller intends to exercise the ability's option or not. The choice is made when the ability resolves.

Those abilities always go on the stack and they do not have a default choice, so you must make the choice when they resolve. If you do not, it is a missed trigger like any other.


How many times can you pillage the same province in Blood Rage? In Blood Rage, one of the Clan upgrade cards from the second age is Tyr's Challenge, which states, "As your action, you may pay 2 rage to "repillage" an already pillaged province."
In a recent game experience, a player repeatedly used that card in the center Yggdrasil province, which offers 3 stat increases on a success.  My question is, how many times can a player "repillage" a province?

As much as they have rage to do so.
From the official FAQ on CMON's site:

Q. Does Tyr’s Challenge (pay 2 rage to repillage) allow a player to gain the pillage token reward more than once in the same age?
A. Yes, with Tyr’s Challenge you can pillage an already pillaged province, as long as you pay 2 Rage every time.


Hierarchy of dying - Is this Venn Diagram accuarate/complete UPDATE

Latest version of diagram, based on feedback in Answers below.

Original Question

Considering a creature card that is currently on the battlefield, is the following diagram accurate?

"Accurate" in the sense of determining triggers etc.:

Indestructible doesn't prevent Sacrificing, or dying from reducing toughness, but does prevent death from damage.
"Destroy Target Creature" doesn't require dealing damage.
Everything mentioned so far does count for a "when dies" trigger.
etc. etc.

Are there anything missing that would fit nicely into the diagram?
Are there other ways to leave the Battlefield?

Suggested Text representation for use in answers:

> Left the Battlefield
>> Exiled
>> Entered the Graveyard
>>> Died
>>>> Sacrificed
>>>> Toughness-Damage <= 0
>>>>> Dealt Lethal Damage [#1]
>>>>> Toughness = 0
>>>> Destroyed [Includes #1]

The new rules changed for innistrad. Dies and Enters the Graveyard are now very similar (A creature “dies” if it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield; rule 700.4.). Dies now means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield.” So I'd start by putting "dies" and "is put into graveyard" together.

Toughness - Damage < = 0 makes little sense in that context (because it is completely arbitrary and has no in game analogue).

I'd just keep sacrificed, destroyed and 0 toughness as 3 entities inside "Died", with lethal damage inside destroyed, (and also add deathstrike inside destroyed).

Make the wording shorter too, it's obvious in context that lethal damage inside destroyed means it was destroyed by lethal damage. No need to say "dealt lethal damage".

Edited: Deathtouch as a subset of death touch. Legend Rule as another way to Die / put creature in graveyard.

  Left Battlefield

    Exiled

    Died / Put into Graveyard

      Sacrificed

      Legend Rule (like Diego noted)

      0 Toughness

      Destroyed

        Lethal Damage

          Deathtouch (as Hackworth noted, Death Strike causes lethal damage)


Can you choose the same option twice for Incendiary Command? This card came up as a discussion.  One person was insisting you could choose the same option for Incendiary Command twice and there is no ruling from MTG.  Similar cards say you can only chose an option once. Does anyone know which is right?

No. If you could choose the same mode more than once, the card would explicitly state that (e.g. Righteous Confluence).

  700.2d If a player is allowed to choose more than one mode for a modal spell
  or ability, that player normally can’t choose the same mode more than once.
  However, a few modal spells include the instruction “You may choose the same
  mode more than once.” If a particular mode is chosen multiple times, the spell
  is treated as if that mode appeared that many times in sequence. If that mode
  requires a target, the same player or object may be chosen as the target for
  each of those modes, or different targets may be chosen.

Source.


Casting creatures as spells - searching for the rules I need to find the ruling where it says, when I want to put a creature from my hand onto the battlefield, that I have to cast it and that it's a spell on the stack.

  302.1. A player who has priority may cast a creature card from theirhand during a main phase of theirturn when the stack is empty. Casting a creature as a spell uses the stack. (See rule 601, “Casting Spells.”)

So now I have to find the rule where it says how to cast a creature as a spell:

  601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. Casting a spell includes proposal of the spell (rules 601.2a–d) and determination and payment of costs (rules 601.2f–h). To cast a spell, a player follows the steps listed below, in order. A player must be legally allowed to cast thespell to begin this process(see rule 601.3).If, at any point during the casting of a spell, a player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the casting of the spell is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed(see rule 721, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

Problem here is that a guy just didn't want to accept that a creature is a spell before it enters the battlefield if cast from the hand, he meant that you don't have to cast the spell, just pay mana and there it goes onto the field.

Background: Forgotten Ancient triggers whenever a player casts a spell. He didn't accept that creatures trigger here.

Are there some more definite rules? Or a line where it says to play cards that you have to cast them, if nothing else stands on the card.

We have

  701.13b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is
  appropriate.

There is no room in this rule for a way to "play a creature" other than casting it as a spell. Only lands go directly from hand to battlefield. Unless he has a card with an effect along the lines of "put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield", as those creatures aren't spells.


Can Brago's ability keep Traft's angel token around? If I attack with Brago, King Eternal and Geist of Saint Traft, can I have Brago's ability flicker the Traft angel token so that it won't be removed at end of combat?

Related:
Can I flicker Traft and Brago as well so that they are untapped?

Related:
If I have a Pentarch Ward on Traft, can I flicker both the ward (to get another card) and Traft (to make him untapped) without losing the Pentarch Ward?

If a token would leave the battlefield to any other zone it will cease to exist.

  110.5g A token that has left the battlefield can’t move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.

You can flicker your traft and brago and yes since they are entering the battlefield they would be untapped and also have summoning sickness.

If you flicker a creature that's enchanted the enchantments would be removed and sent to the graveyard. Now if you flicker both the ward and the creature then I'm not sure but you might have to enchant another creature aside from the one re-entering since they enter at the same time and the enchantment wouldn't "see" the creature flickered along with it.


Warrior vs Antimatter The effects on the Anti-Matter race card seem somewhat unclear; the net effect seems to be that each side in an encounter wants to play a low attack card in order to win. This means that more ships still increases your chance to win (since they subtract rather than add to the attack card). However, the Warrior card says to 'add' to their final total depending on how many accrued tokens they have.

Does this mean that the Warrior race becomes more and more ineffective against the Anti-Matter over time, until it effectively cannot win?

Yes. (As Anti-Matter's opponent, anyway. As an ally, Warrior is just fine.)

Anti-Matter's power isn't so much unclear as kind of complicated:
 - Anti-Matter's tokens subtract.
 - Ally tokens subtract.
 - Opposing main player's tokens add.
 - Low total wins.

And if you think Warrior's bad against Anti-Matter, spare some sympathy for the poor Virus. (No? Not really surprising.)


Does discarding your commander to the command zone trigger discard effects? There is a rule in commander that lets you put your commander in the command zone instead of other zones:

If a Commander would be put into a library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the command zone instead.

There are additional clarifications:

This is a replacement effect. It applies last and may apply multiple times to an event.
The creature never goes to the original destination zone and will not trigger abilities that trigger based on going there (e.g. "dies" triggers).

So, if I have to discard my hand, and my commander is in it, and I choose to put him in the command zone, does that trigger Liliana's Caress or similar cards?

Yes, it does count as being discarded.

Discard is a Keyword Action that means:

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

The Commander replacement effect changes this to be:

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

Discard is a keyword action that tells you to move a card from one zone to another like destroy, sacrifice, or exile. The action doesn't care if parts of it were replaced with other actions, it still happened. Similarly if you have a Dragon Appeasement and sacrifice your commander you will get to draw a card.

Also since the actually being put into the graveyard is being replaced discarding your commander and putting it in the command zone will not trigger any "when this card enters the graveyard from anywhere" triggers like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, similar to how a sacrificed commander will not trigger any "dies" triggers.

Leyline of the Void sets up a similar type of replacement effect, it exiles cards instead of putting them in the graveyard, and it has this ruling:

  If your opponent discards a card while you control Leyline of the Void, abilities that function when that card is discarded (such as Liliana's Caress's ability, or a madness ability of the discarded card) still work, even though that card never reaches that player's graveyard. In addition, spells or abilities that check the characteristics of the discarded card (such as Chandra Ablaze's first ability) can find that card in exile.


If I buy more than one property when playing monopoly must my cards be where all players must see them? Must all property cards be where any player can see which one's I have?

Yes, the title deed cards must be visible. From the rules:

  BUYING PROPERTY… Whenever you land on an unowned property
  you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You
  receive the Title Deed card showing ownership; place it face up in
  front of you.


Annotating "brilliant moves" and "blunders" in chess games I have become familiar with chess algebraic notation, and have noticed that all of the software tools I've used to re-create the games so I can create videos of them lack one feature: they never append an exclamation mark ! after a "brilliant move" or a question mark ? after a blunder. Similarly, they don't note an "interesting move" !? or a "dubious move" ?!.

Is there an algorithm which can determine which moves are brilliant/blunders/etc? The only approach I have thus far is using a combination of C++ and MATLAB to calculate the "effective score" at each move in the game, detect peaks and troughs, and then annotate that particular move as a "turning point". The only problem with this approach, is that if a player deploys a clever, three-move tactic, my algorithm would likely just recognize a move towards the middle/end of the tactic/sequence rather than the "brilliant" move that started it.

No - there isn't a way to auto-annotate for all moves. Strong players often disagree on how to annotate moves using these symbols, particularly when the move is a non-forcing, non-tactical move.

I'm not a programmer by any means, but your approach of looking at changes in the effective score is how engines point out blunders, e.g. a significant drop is caused by a loss of time, material or the failure to parry a threat, e.g. mate. Additionally, you might want to look at the evaluation of the position in a few moves time, assuming the best moves are played.

For example, in Ubisoft's Chessmaster, the blunder alert function pops up and says that you've made a blunder because there is a 3 move checkmate coming. Maybe you could contact a chess software developer for ideas.


Less treasure cards in Dungeon! board game I was playing a game of Dungeon!. Sometimes when treasures are consumed by traps, there are no treasure cards but there are rooms with monsters(not yet revealed). How does that work? Does that mean there are some rooms where there are monsters but no treasure up for grabs?(That sounds a bit broken then :P )

For clarity, here are the texts from the traps:

Slide trap: Gain 1 Treasure and move to any chamber on Level 4

Cage trap: Gain 1 treasure and Roll a die. 1-3: Lose 1 turn, 4-6: Lose 2 turns

(This now goes further to my other question posted here.)

Is there a forum to post rules errata for the game?

The number of treasure cards is equal to the number of rooms that exist on each level.  You only get treasure when defeating a monster or triggering a trap in a room.  Therefore, it should never be possible to run out of treasure cards.  My guess is that you were mistakenly awarding treasure in chambers, which should not be the case.

From the rules:

"Monsters in Rooms have treasure; those in Chambers do not."


Do you know this card game (mafia themed)? I'd like to find this card game that I played a couple of years ago, the facts that I remember are the following:

The game was played with cards, the cards being placed in 3 rows, each row representing a specific city in the US (possibly Chicago & NYC being two of them)
Each card had a different mafia member, with 2 stats: strength and points (they might have also been divided by colour, but I can't remember)
When two similar cards were around another, I believe that took the middle one (or ones) out of the game

Has anyone played or heard of something that has this theme and plays similarly to my description?


What's the game with a 5x5 array of words, players who give clues, and players who guess the words? I played this game, with two teams, each with a clue-giver and one or more guessers. The clue-givers knew which 8 of the 25 words belonged to their team, and which 8 belonged to the other team. Each round the clue-giver gives a single-word clue to one or more of his team's words. Each round the guessers try to guess which word or words the guesser meant.

I thought the game was called "Codewords", but I don't see that on Amazon. It had a spy theme.

Please can you tell me the correct name of this game?


What adjustments do good bidders make for seven card fits? I don't mind playing in a seven card fit with say, AKxx opposite Qxx. There is a danger that I'll lose control because of the shortness of the suit, but having three top tricks and a chance at a long or ruffing trick for the fourth small trump represents compensation. On the other hand, I do mind playing with say, Qxxx opposite Jxx.

The other issue is that while 26 points is ordinarily enough to make a major suit game with eight trumps, it requires 28-29 with only seven.

So if there is likely to be a seven card suit, e.g. when an opener raises a major suit opposite a responding "one over one" bid or negative double with four cards, how do bidders deal with this issue? My understanding, for instance, is that openers will need Qxx or better to raise, not just xxx. Do the bidders make other adjustments to assure two or three top honors in suit between them? And what about the higher point requirement?

Or is one factor in the unpopularity of seven card fits due to the fact that there are "few" established bidding methods for them?

Good bidders prefer to rebid in NT with any balanced or semi-balanced (ie no singleton) hand when a 4-card raise is unavailable. This quickly refines both range and distribution of the opener's hand, enabling more precise bidding by both partners. Only weak players rush to either show 3-card support or to rebid 5-card suits.

One exception to this rule is in a competitive auction where 3-card support is combined with shortness in the opposition's suit. Having a doubleton or singleton in opponent's suit as well as 3-card support is information too valuable to either hide or delay showing in a competitive auction. Knowing that the ruffing value is well placed, and with opponent's fit known to increase the likelihood that partner has a 5-card suit, the risk of a Moysian is reduced.

Further, established partnerships generally play New Minor Forcing (or some other check-back convention) over opener's NT rebids to facilitate finding both 4-4 and 5-3 fits in Responder's suit(s).


Enchantment Legal only because of it's Effect. Remains on target? This happened this weekend, and we were unsure how to resolve it.

Opponent casts Progenitus.
On my turn, I cast Polymorphist Jest.
Then I cast, Darksteel Mutation targeting the Progenitus.

Normally, I could not target the Progenitus because it has Protection from Everything, but since it lost all abilities and became a frog, it was a valid target (We thought so anyway). It was at the end of this turn that we were unsure. Polymorphist's Jest effect ended, but the Darksteel Mutation was still enchanting the creature. This is what we thought:

Progentius has Protection from Everything and the Enchantment "falls off" as it is no longer a valid target.
The Insect has no abilities apart from Indestructible, and the Enchantment stays.
Something Else???

I'm really hoping this is #2 since this combo would allow for targeting of things with shroud and hexproof, etc. on the turn I cast Polymorphist's Jest.

Choice number 2 is the correct one: the Progenitus is an Insect with no abilities except Indestructible and the Aura stays attached to it. Rule 613.1 says

  The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers

The key point is that determining the values of an objects characteristics involves applying all applicable continuous effects. Also, since we start with "the actual object", any effect that causes Progenitus to lose the ability is applied after its own ability, it ends up without the ability no matter what the relative timestamps are. So, as long as the Aura is attached, whenever state-based actions are checked, the Progenitus doesn't have Protection, so the Aura stays on.


Blood Bowl: Would a Dwarf team of mostly blockers be feasible? I'm planning on building a team of blockers and one runner in Blood Bowl. This is my team:

10 blockers (Block, Tackle, Thick Skull) @70k each = 700k
1 runner (Sure Hands, Thick Skull) @80k = 80k
5 re-rolls @40k each = 200k

My reasoning is:

Dwarf blockers start with lots of great skills and form a cage well
I only need 1 runner, as passing is hard for dwarves
The troll slayers and deathroller are too unreliable due to frenzy/being sent off at the end of a drive respectively
Blitzers don't have tackle

My question is, is this a competitive build?

PS. I'm new to Blood Bowl. I've played half a dozen games using Living Rulebook 5

No, it's not a competitive build.

Longbeards are very slow. Only treemen and mummies are slower in the modern game. Their agility is also poor, requiring a 4+ to pick up, catch or dodge, even without any negative modifiers.

Frenzy is not a weakness on the Trollslayers - it's a strength. Dwarf cages can be relatively easy to stall as it's very difficult for them to break the pattern of pillars that are often used to slow a cage down, particularly near a sideline. With frenzy you threaten teams that pillar near a sideline, as to do so risks their players to being pushed into the crowd.

Taking only one player with enough agility to handle the ball reliably is also a risk. A thrown rock or a fortunate armour roll against av8 and you will be left without the ability to score, or move more than 4 spaces without GFIs. For this reason it's more typical to run with both blitzers and two runners (though not universal).

You likely won't need five rerolls as you get more used to risk management. And you should seek out a newer version of the rules, as the one you're using is out of date - try googling LRB6, CRP (Competition Rules Pack) or Icepelt.


Monopoly Cheat Edition “road blocks” In the monopoly board game cheat edition, there’s a chance card that says roadblock. This allows for a player to put that card on he/she’s chosen property and if someone reaches that property, they must stop and pay the rent.
My question is what happens if a player lands directly on that property? Would they pay just once or double the rent?

In this case the road block does nothing as the player in question is not moving past the property so it has no impact. I will walk through two different situations to help explain the rules. They would owe you rent a single time just as if there was no card forcing a plyer to stop there.
Situation 1 what you have here. Player rolls the dice and ends their movement on the property in question and owe rent for landing on it. This is treated as normal if they had landed on it without a roadblock.
Situation 2 when a player rolls but should stop a few squares later. Once they hit the road block card they are forced to stop and pay rent to the owner as if they had landed on that card for normal means. Once they stop their turn is over as normal unless they rolled doubles and can roll again.
what the road block card is doing is ensuring that players stop on that property and pay rent to the owner but it does not earn the owner more rent if they would have stopped at it normally.


Is this the correct way to play the "Spoon" card? Whenever we play the game with the "Spoon," we always follow these steps:

  First, all players choose a card from their own hands. Then, before
  the cards are revealed, call out "spoon!" and announce the name of any
  card you would like. Starting from the player to your left, he checks
  to see if he has this card in his current hand (which of course excludes the card he was about to reveal). If not, the second player checks her current
  hand, and so on until a player announces they have the card. Take this
  card, and give the SPOON to the player whose card you took, and all
  players then reveal their cards simultaneously.

I always thought this was the proper way to play the "Spoon" card, because it prevents you from knowing if a player will or will not play a certain card, such as the "Miso Soup," unless of course if the card that you were asking was already chosen by the player and was about to reveal prior to playing the "Spoon" card.

Spoon and chopsticks are bonus action cards. From the rule book’s description:

  To use a bonus action card, simply call out the name of the card as all players are revealing the cards during a turn. After all players have played their chosen cards as normal, the called out action then takes effect.


Goblin Razerunners counter and end step I have a couple of questions on Goblin Razerunners's  counter and end step abilities:

If I pay the mana cost ({1}{R}) and then sacrifice a land, which are all needed to put a +1/+1 counter on Goblin Razerunners (making it a 4/5), does the counter expire at the end of my turn, thus, returning Goblin Razerunners to a 3/4?
Assuming the answer my question above is, "No", during my subsequent turns can I pay the costs to increase my Goblin Razerunners' power and toughness again by +1/+1 again, which would make it a 5/6?

Now, concerning the end step:

Can I activate the end step ability during each one of my end steps, or only when I pay and sacrifice the lands necessary to increase the counters?

Thanks.

You have a few different misunderstandings about the basics of abilities.

Goblin Razerunners has 2 separate abilities on it. The first is an activated ability, and the second is a triggered abilitiy.

Activated abilities are worded {cost}: {effect}. Triggered abilities are worded starting with When/Whenever/At {condition}. They automatically happen when the condition happens.

An activated ability can be activated as many times as you would like, so long as you can afford to pay the activation cost. (Sometimes an ability will specifically limit this, by saying "activate this ability only once each turn", or other restrictions). So if you can afford to pay 2 mana and sacrifice a land multiple times, then you can activate Goblin Razerunners first ability multiple times. You can even do it repeatedly on the same turn. Each time you do, it will get another +1/+1 counter.

At the beginning of your end step (at the end of each of your turns), the Golbin's second ability will trigger. When that ability resolves, it will give you the option to deal damage based on the number of +1/+1 counters it has. It doesn't matter how it got these +1/+1 counters; whether it was from the first ability, or any other way (Inspiring Roar).

To answer your specific questions:

Counters never go away unless something specifically makes them go away. So Goblin Razerunners will keep the +1/+1 counter after this turn.
Unless stated otherwise, an ability can be activated any number of times, as long as you can afford it. So you can activate its ability as many times as you can afford and want to, giving it any number of +1/+1 counters. If you can get 10 mana and want to sacrifice 5 lands, you could give it 5 +1/+1 counters, all in the same turn, or across multiple turns.
Goblin Razerunners' second ability is a triggered ability that will automatically trigger at the beginning of each of your end steps. You don't choose to activate it, though when the triggered ability resolves, you can choose whether or not to have it deal damage, because it says "may".


Did I place the right minions? In the setup for Big Girl Bed opening page, you are told not to put any leader cards in your deck.  However, you are then told to place a crawly per stuffie, which in a 4 player game is 4.  There were 4 shapes, but one was the leader shape, so I put it out there but used the non-leader stats.  Was that right?  If not, what did I miss as far as placing them?

Since we are past it, I am mostly asking in case this happens again.  I am guessing the leaderless scenario will be rare, if it ever happens again.

You may be confusing Leader cards with Boss cards.
The rules do not say anything about leaving out Leaders; they only say that during the setup of the first scenario you won't have any Bosses (which is true; they show up as the game progresses).


Does Deflecting Palm cause Furnace of Rath to activate twice? My opponent is at 12 life. There is a Furnace of Rath in play. He casts Lightning Bolt to my face and I play Deflecting Palm in response, aiming it back at his face.

Does my opponent take 12 damage and lose?

Your opponent will lose, providing you choose the correct order of replacement and prevention effects.

Your opponent casts Lightning Bolt.
You respond with Deflecting Palm and let it resolve.
You now have 2 replacement / prevention effects attempting to modify Lightning Bolt.
By rule 616.1

  616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the
  affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or
  the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed
  below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same
  time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).

Since you are the affected player, you choose the order of replacement.

Option 1 - Apply Furnace's Effect First

This doubles the damage of Lightning Bolt from 3 to 6.
As per 616.1e, you now repeat the process with any applicable replacement effects

  616.1e Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated (taking into account only replacement or prevention effects
  that would now be applicable) until there are no more left to apply.

The only applicable effect left is Deflecting Palm.
Now your opponent is affected by Deflecting Palm dealing 6 damage to him / her, so they would make any applicable choices for replacement effects.
The only replacement effect here is Furnace of Rath again, which doubles the damage from 6 to 12.

Option 2 - Apply Deflecting Palm First

Lightning Bolt's 3 damage is prevented.  Deflecting Palm now deals 3 damage to your opponent.  Note that at this point, Furnace of Rath's replacement effect no longer is applicable to the Lightning Bolt event, so we don't worry about it anymore.
Like above, Furnace of Rath's effect applies to Deflecting Palm's damage, doubling it to 6.

So if you do it right, your opponent loses.


How to beat Ill-Gotten Gains? I find Ill-Gotten Gains in Dominion Hinterland to be such a clogger, with all the curses and coppers it generates. How can I beat a player who keep getting the Ill-Gotten Gains when there are no trashing cards available?

Not sure which Dominion expansions are you running, but there are several cards that can counter this.

If you have prosperity, you can add the Watchtower to the kingdom cards which blocks curses gained in this manner, priced at only 3$. With Masquerade from Intrigue, or Ambassador from Seaside you can give those curses back to your opponent. Dark Ages has several cards which work with trashing.

On the other hand, if you put a more valuable 5$ card you can rush that instead of going for IGG. Embargo from Seaside also works wonders.

As the other poster states, if there is no counter focus on going for duchies as well as any other victory cards placed in the kingdom set.

Source: http://dominionstrategy.com/2012/02/06/hinterlands-ill-gotten-gains/


Which MTG booster packs have the highest rate of return on investment? Most players will tell you that buying booster packs for values is a loosing investment, and for the most part this is true because the average expected value of cards in a set is lower than the retail cost of the booster.

So my question is this:

Which M:tG sets have the highest average expected value, and what is the break-even point for pricing against that set's EV?

I would assume that this set would be one with a high number of mid-priced ($2-5) uncommons, and other commons that help to keep the value of more valuable cards afloat.

My first guess would be Darksteel, as it has a number of commons/uncommons that are well priced for their rarity (Aether Vial, Echoing Truth, Darksteel Citadel, Skullclamp, Darksteel Ingot), is a small set, and has at least two big money cards in the Swords of X and Y.

Anything after you wait long enough.

Of course, this is assuming you don't actually open the packs, but seriously, take a look at these prices:

$10 for ONE Lorwyn booster pack

$25 for THREE Time Spiral boosters

Over $100 for a Zendikar or Worldwake fat pack

Almost $20 for a Zendikar fat pack box with no cards in it

Since Magic is such a highly collectible game, people will tend to pay more for rarer items. This includes the booster packs themselves. Even though the cards from each of those sets are pretty cheap, the packs themselves are virtually impossible to find, so the price goes skyward. Sure, you could buy some Darksteel boosters and pray you get awesome cards and make a profit, but considering those are around $8 apiece now that's virtually impossible.

The other problem is actually finding people to buy your singles (you could sell in bulk, but that's going to hurt your profits even more). Considering that there's massive websites now that are devoted to nothing but selling singles and aggregate the results from tons of different sellers, you're going to have some tough competition. Even if people learn that they can buy cards from you, you'll have to at least match the prices offered on these sites if you want to stay marketable. You also have to have a LOT of cards available for sale, so get ready to buy 10 booster boxes so you can boast having all the mythic rares in a set (just like every other major card seller will).

The owner of our local card shop does a great business selling fat packs of sets that went out of print over a year ago online, and easily gets more than $80 for them. He personally told me he took all of his money out of the stock market and put it into Magic because the rate of return is infinitely better. See those Avacyn Restored Fat Packs for $35? Imagine what they'll sell for in 2016 and you'll pity yourself for not buying an extra 5 now... (see Steven's informative comment on the block sets generally being a better investment than core sets as well).

I know this isn't exactly what you were asking for, but if you want to make money buying and selling Magic products, actually opening them is probably one of the worst ways to do so IMHO. There's always the risk that prices will go down if the economy worsens or the game goes out of style, but that risk is inherent is virtually any investment nowadays.


What editions of Acquire have durable pieces? I am interested in buying the board game Acquire.  It's available through Amazon, but the reviews state the edition they have for sale is cheap and clumsy compared to previous editions.  Evidently the game has been out for more than 50 years.

For anyone who might know, is there a version of this game that comes with more durable play pieces (wood, etc)?

I agree with @Cascabel's comment: apparently you read a review for the 2008 version (which is made completely from sturdy cardboard).
If you haven't done so already, check out all the different versions at boardgamegeek and see which versions you can get your hands on.
Here's a summary of the major versions I know and/or would consider:

2016: Haven't tried it, apparently has plastic pieces, could be the easiest way to get a durable version (tiles in the picture seem very similar to the 1999 version; which is the reason it made it to my list). Do note that the board is smaller in this version (10x10 instead of 9x12) and has 24 stock cards per corporation (instead of 25) so gameplay may be slightly different.
2008: Made of sturdy cardboard, I don't consider it to be "cheap" but I do find it inconvenient that tiles don't stay in place because the board is not slotted.
1999: The one I own and my all-around favorite. Tiles and board made of plastic. Board is larger than the 89/76 version but not clumsily so (unlike the 95 version).
1995: Owned it for some time, made of cardboard, I seem to recall that the board is considerably larger than other versions and folded in 4 parts. Wouldn't recommend it.
1989/1976: I've seen and played with these two versions but can't remember a significant difference between them. Tiles and board are made of plastic but they're a bit smaller than the 1999 version. I'd get this if I was trying to get a collectible item.


How should hands that are EXTREMELY strong in one suit (10+ cards) be bid? I'm a bit of a bridge noob, but I'm kind of puzzled about this. Say I have a hand that is ridiculously strong in one suit, say at least 10 cards with all 4 honors (I'll use spades for the example suit). how should I bid? This is so many cards that almost nobody will be leading spades but me, so if another suit is trump, I'm flush out of luck.

Obviously I would want to end up playing a spade contract with a good potential for a slam, but if I open too high, say 5 spades, won't my opponents catch on pretty quickly and bid in their own suits or No-trump, just so my spades will be next to useless? They will likely have favorable distributions for their own suits since nearly all the spades are gone, which only worsens the fact. Then again, if I bid to low, my partner may not rebid, and while taking 12 tricks at a contract of 3S is obviously good, knowing you will have that many overtricks from the start seems kind of a waste.

Even if I held 12 or 13 spades, if I bid 7S, won't my opponents just bid 7NT and I'll never get to lead? How should hands with this heavy a distribution be bid to make the most of them?

(I've already said I'm not a very experienced bridge player, so if I'm making any glaring oversights don't hesitate in the slightest to bring them up.)

NOTE: I know these hands are extremely rare, but in all reality, every single possible hand is rare enough that studying bridge hands is actually quite useless because you'll never see the same hand again in your life...but we do it anyway because that's how we learn. Couldn't you tell anyone asking about a specific hand not to worry about it because it'll never show up again? :D

If you have 10+ spades in your hand, you will never let a contract die out in 3S now, would you?

It really depends on the hand, but people play the following two conventions which might potentially be useful (of course, there might be others).

Namyats. This is to distinguish hands which are too strong for just preempting 4S. You show stronger hands by bidding 4D (taking spades as your suit), which you could potentially use here, though 10+ would probably be too strong. There are various followups which can be used to investigate slam.
4NT opening bid as Ace asking. Say you had AKQJxxxxxx, A,x,x. You could bid 4NT as asking for Aces, and bid the slam appropriately.

Anyway, hands with a 10+ suit are very rare and even experts have trouble with them (or rather, don't bother with them so much, because of the rarity).

As to your question about opponents taking out to their suit, why do you think that is likely to happen? It is quite risky for them to be bidding at the 5/6/7 level, without a running suit of their own. Your bidding at the 4/5/6/7 level would have taken out enough bidding space to make it unlikely they would be able to overcall easily (and find a fit). You seem to be also forgetting that you have a partner who could still hold some cards, and could easily double them and take them for a number. If they do bid, well, you can't help it, but I would say it is not as likely as you seem to think.

As to your edit.

Yes, any specific hand (down to the spots) is a low occurrence (in fact same chance for each hand!), but bidding systems are not geared towards finding the exact specific hand you have. Bidding systems are geared towards finding fits, distribution and strength with the ultimate goal of finding the right strain and level based on the scoring.

When talking about 'rarity', you should be thinking in terms of hand types rather than specific hands. So when someone says getting a 7 card spade suit is much more likely than getting a 10 card spade suit, they are not talking specific hands, but a set of hands. Take the set of all hands which have 7 card spade suit and the set of all hands which have a 10 card spade suit and compare the counts.

When people say 10+ card suits are rare, they are talking about the whole set.

You might never get the same hand dealt again, true, but the same hand type (say 15-17 balanced) might occur again frequently.

Bidding space is very limited, and trying to cater to rare hands can be inefficient use of that space.


What are the other games in this series? A few weeks back me and my friends were remembering our childhood games, and it turned out all four of us had at least one of these themed board game collection books. The link has pictures of the book with superheroes. I had a book themed with insects, and two other friends of mine remember having one with racing tracks and action movie heroes. I'd like to know what other games were in this series, and possibly find some pictures of them to share with my friends and be all nostalgic for a while.

I very much hope this type of questions is on topic here.

Apparently they were made by Tormont Publishing out of Canada in the early 90s, and they made them with all kinds of themes.

I have been able to find a reference to a disny version, 'game' version and others. Sadly there is no real documentation for any of it, not even a wiki. This is a partial list of books that Tormont published. You can see a bunch of the game books in there.

Board game geek has an entry for the 'game' book and a science fiction version which was apparently made in the late 90s.

Here is an add for a Disney-themed one on Amazon.

It seems they licensed all kinds of material but they must not have been that popular because they do not seem to have survived. There are very few pictures of them out there and copies, when available, range between $40 - $100.

I guess you will have to pick something else to wax nostalgic about.


Is Flesh Allergy combined with Grave Pact counterproductive? I need a little help again.

Imagine the following situation: I have Grave Pact, Bloodthrone Vampire and 9 other creatures on the battlefield. The opponent has only one creature on the battlefield but can prevent all combat damage - no chance to deal damage at the moment.

Then I draw Flesh Allergy. Great since the opponent has 11 life left over! I want to cast Flesh Allergy, sacrifice 10 creatures (using Bloodthrone Vampire for the remaining 9 creatures, one is sacked through Flesh Allergy itself) and deal 11 damage to my opponent (my 10 creatures including his 1 equals 11 damage).

~ Question 1: Does my Grave Pact make it impossible to "destroy target creature" (Flesh Allergy) since my opponent would have sacrificed his creatures?

~ Question 2: What if I first cast Flesh Allergy and after the spell has resolved I (as an interrupt so to speak) sacrifice 10 creatures to deal maximum damage? Then the second ability would resolve?

An educated answer would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

Question 1: Does my Grave Pact make it impossible to "destroy target creature" (Flesh Allergy) since my opponent would have sacrificed his creatures?

You can cast the Flesh Allergy targeting their creature, but the spell will fizzle when it goes to resolve since the creature will have already been sacrificed due to Grave Pact's trigger.

  Question 2: What if I first cast Flesh Allergy and after the spell has resolved I (as an interrupt so to speak) sacrifice 10 creatures to deal maximum damage? Then the second ability would resolve?

There is no opportunity to cast spells or activate abilities during a spell's resolution. Flesh Allergy checks to see how many creatures have died this turn when it goes to resolve, and creatures that die later in the turn will have no effect.


Strionic Resonator and triggered abilities I have two creatures in my goblin deck which I believe to be a great case for using Strionic Resonator, but I’m unsure how it gets played. Say I have Hamletback Goliath which has a triggered ability “Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Hamletback Goliath, where X is that creature's power.” Can this be copied? What happens if this is copied? Can I put a 1/1 on another creature?

Also what about Goblin Rabblemaster with “Whenever Goblin Rabblemaster attacks, it gets +1/+0 until end of turn for each other attacking Goblin.” Can this be copied? What happens if this is copied?

Does the triggered ability’s stay permanently or till end of turn?

You can copy any triggered ability, so yes you could copy Hamletback Goliath's and Goblin Rabblemaster's triggered abilities.

You can tell something is a triggered ability based on if it starts with a word indicating that it's stating the triggering condition.

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

So if an ability starts with "when" or "whenever" or "at", it is a triggered ability. This includes Annihilator, because as you can see from the reminder text on most cards with the ability, Annihilator is short for "whenever this creature attacks[...]"

An ability such as the double damage ability on Angrath's Marauders is not a triggered ability; it is a static ability that creates a replacement effect; so you cannot copy it with Strionic Resonator.

Triggered abilities are never on the battlefield. When they trigger, they go on the stack, and when they resolve, they cause some sort of effect to happen. If that effect is something like "target creature gets +1/+1", then often the ability will state how long it lasts, such as "until end of turn".

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it (such as “until end of turn”). If no duration is stated, it lasts until the end of the game.

This works exactly the same with a copy of a triggered ability created by Strionic Resonator; if the original ability us "until end of turn", then the copy will be as well.

To sum up, the triggered abilities are never on the battlefield and don't last a certain amount of time. However, the effects generated by triggered abilities may have a limit on how long they last; that limit will be stated in the ability itself.

For your specific examples:

If you copy Hamletback Goliath's triggered ability, then there will now be 2 triggered abilities on the stack, both which say “you may put X +1/+1 counters on Hamletback Goliath, where X is that creature's power.” So when each one resolves, you will add X counters, thus giving you a total of 2*X counters. There’s no difference between the counters created by the original ability and the counters created by the copy; nothing will go away at the end of the turn.

You cannot put a counter on a different creature with this, because it is not a targeted ability. It only puts counters on the Hamletback Goliath that has the ability. If it said “put X +1/+1 counters on target creature” instead, then you could choose a different target for the copy, thus adding counters to 2 different creatures.

Goblin Rabblemaster works just the same. You can copy its ability, and if you do, then the Rabblemaster will get more power twice, ending up with a total of +2/+0 for each other attacking goblin. All this power will go away at the end of the turn because the ability (both the original and the copy) says “until end of turn”.

You could copy the ability given by Thornbite Staff, but it would only untap the same creature twice. If a creature has "Whenever a creature dies, untap this creature.", then copying it would mean that the stack now has 2 instances of "untap this creature". So each would resolve, and each would untap that creature.  This would only help if you tapped that creature again after the first triggered ability resolved, but before the second did.

You can't untap a different creature because the ability says "this creature", not "target creature". If it said "untap target creature", then you would choose which creature you want to untap when you put the ability on the stack, and you could choose a different target with the copy.

Note that "target' has a specific meaning; it's not simply something that is affected by the ability. It's only a target if the ability uses the word "target"; (or if the ability is a keyword whose rules use the word "target").

For an example where the "You may choose new targets for the copy." part of Strionic Resonator helps, look at Weaver of Lightning's "Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Weaver of Lightning deals 1 damage to target creature an opponent controls." If you cast an instant while controlling Weaver of Lightning, then you could use Strionic Resonator to copy the triggered ability, and pick a new target for the copy so that you deal 1 damage each to 2 different creatures.


Possession and Masquerade - are these too powerful in 2 player games? Just encountered this yesterday.

Player A plays Possession
Then, it's player B turn (with player A deciding), and there's a Masquerade in the hand.
Player A decides to play the Masquerade,
Player A chooses the card to swap in both hands!
Swapping a province for a curse is so delightful.

But also it seems too much powerful. Am I doing something wrong?

Note that it does not work with 3 players or more, because of the rotation of the swapped cards between the 3 players.

Possession and Masquerade are just known to be wacky when used together.  That's just what happens when you have 100+ cards at this point.  Donald X. Vaccarino said "Possession is a case where Masquerade ends up being a weird exception", but it's basically not worth special rules or changing the card for this one interaction.

keithjgrant is also right that if Possession is out, you'd better not buy Masquerade. :)


How does Humility affect Bestowable creatures? Humility says each creature loses it's abilities.  So how does that work with bestowable creatures? Normally, for auras, as I understand it, it depends on the timestamp that the aura vs. the humility came into play. But bestowable creatures are creatures still I think.

As long as a creature card with Bestow is enchanting a creature, it is an Aura Enchantment and not a Creature. So, Humility will not affect it.

The rules for Bestow and type changing say

  702.102a Bestow represents two static abilities, one that functions while the card with bestow is on the stack and another that functions both while it’s on the stack and while it’s on the battlefield. “Bestow [cost]” means “You may cast this card by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost.” and “If you chose to pay this spell’s bestow cost, it becomes an Aura enchantment and gains enchant creature. These effects last until one of two things happens: this spell has an illegal target as it resolves or the permanent this spell becomes, becomes unattached.” Paying a card’s bestow cost follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e–g.
  205.1a Some effects set an object's card type. In such cases, the new card type(s) replaces any existing card types.

This means that the Bestow ability removes the Creature type from the object as long as it is in effect.

The rule for how continuous effects interact says:

  613.1. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:

  613.1a Layer 1: Copy effects are applied. See rule 706, "Copying objects."
  613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
  613.1c Layer 3: Text-changing effects are applied. See rule 612, "Text-Changing Effects."
  613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
  613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.
  613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding effects, ability-removing effects, and effects that say an object can't have an ability are applied.
  613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

So, the static ability that turns Bestow creatures into Auras is applied before Humility's ability, so Humility will not affect those permanents. Any other relevant effects of Bestow Auras, like granting abilities to the creature they enchant, interact with Humility just like normal Auras would.


In Puerto Rico, does it make sense to shift to a corn-based strategy mid-game? One of the disadvantages of corn is that it doesn't "trade" (sell) for as much money as other crops. This point became clear in this question:

On the other hand, corn is cheaper to produce than other crops, and you don't need to build a production facility for it. And corn can be shipped for as many victory points as other crops.

Does it make sense to go for higher yielding cash crops in the beginning, use the money to buy the buildings you need (or want), and then shift to producing corn (for the victory points) about mid-game?

It makes sense to take Corn at every point during the game.

As you point out, Corn requires fewer colonists to manufacture and is worth the same amount of VP tokens when shipped.

It actually doesn't make sense to go for the higher yielding cash crops in the beginning of the game, until you have one or two other crops to protect it. Imagine only having your cash crop, Coffee or Tabacco. If you choose Craftsman, many if not most of the other players are likely to choose Captain and force you to ship your cash crop, since you will benefit the most from a Trader phase. Taking an early Corn helps protect your cash crop from being shipped during the Captain phase, and usually it will require two other crops.

Mid-game, you should still be focused on setting up your economic engine. A Corn (or any other good) is helpful in emptying the Trading House so that you can still trade in your cash crop.

Late-Game, every Corn you can ship either before your opponents on a boat that will not empty (if you have Warehouse for storage), or on a boat that will fill before your opponents can place Corn is VPs gained on your opponents.


In Poker, what happens with the next players if paying the big blind puts a player all-in? In Texas hold'em poker, if a player doesn't have enough chips to pay the big blind, what happens if the next players want to call? Must they pay the entire big blind or not?

For example, a tournament starts and after some time, the SB/BB is 50/100 but the player who must pay the BB has only 60. Other players want to call only.

Player A (SB): mandatory bet 50 and is waiting.
Player B (BB): mandatory bet 60 chips and all-in.
Player C has more than 110 and wants to call, must they pay 100 or only 60?

Player B is considered all in and Player C must still match the full blind amount and there will just be two possible winning piles depending on who wins. If Player B wins they would win 60 chips per player that paid the big blind and the next high hand would win the rest.
pokerlistings.com

When a player's stack is less than the amount of the small blind, they are automatically considered all-in in the next hand they play, regardless of position.
If the player's stack is larger than the small blind but smaller than the big blind, they will be considered all-in in any position other than the small blind, assuming they fold for their option.
When all-in, the player can only win the amount of their stack, plus that same amount from all of the callers and blinds. If the person has less than the big blind, they can only win the portion of the blind equal to that of their stack.


If I reveal a land with Daxos of Meletis, can I play it? What happens if my Daxos of Meletis deals combat damage to a player, and the card revealed by that player is a land? Am I able to play that land or does nothing happen, because Daxos's ability is worded as "you may cast" that card and you don't cast lands.

The land is exiled and you gain 0 life. You may not play the land, because as you point out, the card says "cast" not "play":

  [...] Whenever Daxos of Meletis deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of that player's library. You gain life equal to that card's converted mana cost. Until end of turn, you may cast that card and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it.

  [CR601]. Casting Spells

  601.1. Previously, the action of casting a spell, or casting a card as a spell, was referred to on cards as "playing" that spell or that card. Cards that were printed with that text have received errata in the Oracle card reference so they now refer to "casting" that spell or that card.

  601.1a Some effects still refer to "playing" a card. "Playing a card" means playing that card as a land or casting that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

Djinn of Wishes and Intet, the Dreamer allow you to play exiled lands, Daxos does not.

The CR define what you can do in MtG, since no rule exists for Casting a Land, you cannot do it. Additionally, rules exist for cards that share the land type and an indication that lands are not spells (about the closest you will get that lands aren't spells).

  305.9. If an object is both a land and another card type, it can be played only as a land. It can’t be cast as a spell.

  505.5b During either main phase, the active player may play one land [...] Neither the land nor the action of playing the land is a spell or ability.