Building a shipyard during canal phase In brass, there are only a small number of shipyards available, but it seems in the canal phase this is reduced further. There is a specific rule that says a shipyard cannot be built at the places connected via a rail link, but i don't understand why.

If i have a city card, meaning i can build within that city, what is stopping me build a level 1 shipyard? It has no materials needed to be shipped, so why is this place any different to any other city on the map? Am i missing a specific rule somewhere?

This has been a rule that initially confused out group, until we played online and realised the correct usage (which the rules do backup).

My confusion is that the specific rule says something like

  Hence the shipyard in the canal phase
  cannot be built at this location

And i don't understand the rational.

[a level 1 shipyard] has no materials needed to be shipped

I believe you've got that part wrong: A shipyard does require coal (look at the brown square at the bottom-right corner of the tile), so a city must be connected to a source of coal through canals or rails before you can build a shipyard there.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/307212/brass

Barrow-in-Furness and Birkenhead may only have rail links (notice that there's no blue line) to the rest of the map, from where coal may come.

Therefore during the canal phase, the only possible shipyard location is Liverpool as you can build a canal link to Wiggan or other potential coal sources; but there is no such potential canal link out of Barrow-in-Furness or Birkenhead.


Can Body Double copy the back face of a card in the graveyard? Just wondering, if the Ludevic's Test Subject is in the grave, can Body Double enter play copying the Abomination side?

No, it cannot. Rule 711.4a says

  While a double-faced card is outside the game, in a zone other than the battlefield, or on the battlefield with its front face up, it has only the characteristics of its front face.


Can I change the order of cards stacked in each room? The first few times I played the game I've placed the cards in the rooms in the order that the Seed Cards reference tells me to, but I find that some cards at the bottom of each pile are supposed to be there to "unlock" access to the rest of the stacked cards within that room. Can I change the order each stack is placed on the board so it makes sense or do I need to follow the reference sheet which I find is wrong?

No, you cannot change the order of the Seed cards.  However, do make sure that you are using the latest errata.

If you have any specific concerns, please ask.  We can try to address this question without specifics.


Is the Mystery that is active when the portal opens in Strange Remnants still useful for progressing the investigators? When starting the Final Mystery in Strange Remnants, players are instructed to place a clue on the card for each solved active mystery.  Does this active mystery still remain relevant to the game, i.e.

Do things that "advance the active mystery" still advance that active (not the final) mystery
Does solving these mysteries place an additional clue on the card, or is it pointless once the card has been flipped?

A response from Nikki from FFG that strongly implies the active mystery is all but pointless once the Ancient One card flips and the Final Mystery begins (meaning that if one were to solve it, it would not add an extra clue):

  Syzygy is unique from other Ancient Ones in that it is designed to always flip. The cosmic alignment will occur whether the investigators are prepared for it or not. For Syzygy, just completing the Final Mystery is enough to win, but solving Mysteries before the sheet flips will give the investigators an advantage.


Where to go to self publish a game? I found this question but I am interested in a commercial or bulk printing company to print my game. The GameCrafter seems like the only solution but its rather costly per game to print which means I wouldn't see any profit.

I need a location where I can print the entirety of my game and have it assembled already when shipped. The only other places I can find that print cards are business card printing places or playing card printing places and neither of these will work since they only allow 1 design per order and I don't want to make 30 different orders since my game won't have the same amount of every card in them...

I'm interested in US based companies, but location in the US doesn't matter.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

We're in touch with Cartemundi at the moment, their core business is card games but they do board games too. For us they'll be doing cards, rules, box, sourcing and packing counters and completing the boxes (wrapping and all) ready to ship.

They do a minimum order size of 500 and they're prices get substantially better the more you print. John is extremely helpful, and has helped ensure that our game is as cheap as possible to print, while retaining maximum quality.

http://www.cartamundi.com/en

In the US there's the company that print Fluxx (for the life of me I can't find their name)

Or these chaps: http://360manufacturingservices.com/

And as always, Google is your friend


Looking for name of a double ended connector I'm building a board game that connects pieces together, like  a puzzle, but they can be flipped over, so I have found a picture of what I think would be a good connector piece, but I'm not sure what it would be called.

A piece like this would help me connect my double sided pieces together in any configuration. What is this connector piece called?

This question would probably receive a better answer on Woodworking SE.

According to Wikipedia, as well as Canadian Woodworking, this is called a Dovetail key, Dutchman joint, or Butterfly joint. Another common name for it is a Bowtie joint/key. Below is the picture shown on Wikipedia:

Dovetail keys are used to hold together two boards or one board that has begun to split (to prevent further splitting). In this Youtube video, a woodworker further elaborates on its uses and also demonstrates how to make one.


Red Sign of Shudde M'ell hands use and timing against Nightmarish X in Arkham Horror In Arkham Horror, players may use the spell Red Sign of Shudde M'ell to lower a monster's toughness by 1 (to a minimum of 1) and ignore a monster's special ability until the end of this combat.  Can it be used to cancel the monster ability Nightmarish X?  If yes, can the investigator reclaim the hand used for it at the start of the combat round?

There is a problem with the Arkham Horror rules about the specific timing of when an investigator can switch equipment at the cost of his/her hands.  The rules state:

  You can choose to switch weapons/spells in later combat rounds, but as soon as you “release” a spell or weapon, it stops working for you.

Emphasis on "later combat rounds" is mine.

It appears that the assumption is that spells are only cast during the combat rounds, which comprise the combat check and all optional spell checks.  However, there is no rule that says Red Sign cannot be cast during the preceding horror check, which takes place before the combat round.  Successfully casting this spell against a monster with the ability Nightmarish N, where N is greater than 1, can prevent the reduction of N - 1 sanity after a successful horror check.

The only other cost to the Red Sign is its use of one hand.  However, that resource is immediately gained back, since the combat round that follows is, in fact, one of the "later" combat rounds mentioned.  At the start of the subsequent combat round, all devoted hands can be now be switched, and whatever hand that was used for the spell can now be switched for the use of combat items, such as guns or even another copy of the Red Sign.

I tried searching everywhere but the FFG forums and I haven't encountered any other people who are interested in deciphering this metagame puzzle.

To recap:

Can Red Sign be used to cancel Nightmarish X before the horror check?
If yes, will the investigator be able to use two hands worth of equipment for the following combat check(s)?

Red Sign can be cast during any phase (so combat during any phase isn't an issue).
'Combat' begins as soon as you stop at/leave an location/street with a monster or during the encounter phase when 'A monster appears!', etc. This is to say that you're already in combat when you're figuring out how many dice to roll for your horror check. As Red Sign makes no specific mention of casting while making a combat check, rather it only refers to 'combat' in the general sense, Red Sign can be cast before making a horror check to remove Nightmarish from a monster.
You pose an interesting situation with your second question, but this has nothing to do with your primary question and is covered by the other question you posed here:
Stateful equipment use for Red Sign of Shudde M'ell in Arkham Horror
Additionally, from the Kevin Wilson thread of the FFG forums:

Can Enchant Weapon, Shrivelling, Wither, Dread Curse of Azathoth, and Red Sign of Shudde M'ell be cast at any time after an investigator engages a monster, so as to, for example, use the Red Sign to cancel Nightmarish before the Horror Check, or allow one to see if a "weapon" type spell succeeds before making the decision to fight or flee?
Yes. Yes you can.


Can the Powder Tower be used while its owner is bewitched? I played as Witch and bewitched Thief. The Thief has previously built the Powder Tower and would like to use it at the turn he's bewitched.

Can the Thief or the Witch use the Powder Tower this turn?

No one can use the Powder Tower this turn.

The Thief can't use the Powder Tower, because he's bewitched he loses his turn after taking his action (choose 2 gold or 1 card).

As the Witch, when you bewitch another character you still play with your own city. Since the Powder Tower is not in your city, you can't use it.

A quote from the rules that best describes this:

  When the bewitched character is called upon, its player must show his character card, take an action, and then immediately end his turn. [...] You now resume this player’s turn as if you were playing the bewitched character,
  using all the character’s powers in your city. You still build districts from your hand of cards and pay with your gold (including taxes).


In Diplomacy, is it possible for an army to be convoyed by two countries if both write the appropriate orders? There are numerous possibilities, but this one comes to mind. Italy and Austria are allies in a "Lepanto" opening (against Turkey). In the spring of 1901, Italy moves a fleet, Naples to the Ionian Sea, and Austria moves its fleet, Trieste to Adriatic Sea.
In the fall of 1901, Italy wants to move an army, which "held" in Venice in the spring, to Tunis. Austria agrees to convoy it through the Adriatic Sea to the Italian fleet in the Ionian Sea, from thence to Tunis.
So Italy writes: "Army Venice to Tunis, via convoys in Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea. Fleet Ionian Sea convoys Army from Austrian fleet in Adriatic Sea to Tunis."
Austria writes, "Fleet Adriatic Sea convoys Italian army in Venice to Italian fleet in Ionian Sea."
Is this a valid set of orders, and will it achieve the desired result?

It is possible for an army to be convoyed my multiple countries (although you should write the orders differently than you did in your example).
First, the relevant rules:

Convoying an Army Across Several Water Provinces
If Fleets occupy adjacent water provinces, an Army can be convoyed
through all these water provinces on one turn, landing in a coastal
province adjacent to the final Fleet in the chain.
In Diagram 20, the English Army from London goes to Tunis on a
single move with help from the French player.

Italy would need to write the orders:

A Ven to Tun
F Ion convoys A Ven to Tun

And Austria would write the order:

F Adr convoys A Ven to Tun

From the rules:

Writing Convoy Orders
Just as “S” indicates support, the letter “C” is used to indicate convoy.
Following is an example of a convoy order:
A Ank–Sev; F Bla C A Ank–Sev

The reason for this is that you can potentially issue multiple convoy orders:

An Army convoyed using alternate convoy orders reaches its
destination as long as at least one convoy route remains open.
Orders can be written to permit more than one route for convoying
an Army from its origin to its destination. The Army isn’t prevented
from moving unless all routes in the order are disrupted.


In Monopoly, Is it OK for a third party to make a trade with a player who is about to lose? I play with some serious board gamers, but we have neglected Monopoly for a number of years, so our knowledge is mostly based on high school & house rules.

We played last week and enjoyed it, but there was a piece of contention. There are times where we decide that we don't like one of our friends for some reason and don't want them to win (i.e. we landed on their property a bunch, or they refused to make a deal, etc.).

So when player 1 has some property and player 2 lands on it and cannot pay the rent their assets (houses/hotels get liquidated), their property gets transferred to the other player.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong.) In this case, though, player 3 "traded" the amount of money owing for a piece of property (way overpaid). In this case they did it so that player 1 would not get the properties. Player 2 had no chance of winning the game (all properties mortgaged, no cash to speak of and many of the other properties with 3+ houses/hotels on them).

To summarize:
Is it OK for a third player to purchase/trade property or cash to/from a player who is about to lose?

The usual ruling is that if you are threatened with bankruptcy (you've landed on a property and don't have enough cash), you can only make trades with other players if they will allow you to avoid bankruptcy.  If you can't avoid it, the bankrupting player gets everything you owned (cash and property) at the instant you landed on them, after selling houses/hotels to the bank.

A strict reading of the rules would indicate that if you land on a property and don't have enough cash to pay the rent, you're bankrupt immediately and have no opportunity to sell/trade (or even mortgage) stuff to raise money.  Most people consider that silly, and allow trades to raise enough cash to avoid the bankruptcy.

Another common house rule related to bankruptcy -- a player may accept LESS than the amount they are owed if they wish.  A common use: You land on my hotel on New York and owe me $1000.  I offer to let you off for a $1 if you sell me Boardwalk for $1.  Otherwise you might sell it to the player that owns Park Place for $1000 to pay your rent.  I can't just buy it from you for $1000 as I don't have that much cash on hand.


Is there a strategy for consistent winning in the base dominion game with the base setup? I've just started playing dominion a little while ago, so I'm pretty new. I get the basic tactics (big money, deck thinning, don't buy copper, etc.) and I do ok when the kingdom cards vary. However, when playing the "basic" game [moat, cellar, village, workshop, woodsmith, militia, etc.] I can't ever seem to win and I don't understand why. No one is playing militias (I've tried them to disrupt others strategies...to no avail)

We play "tournament style" where you can pick your first 2 cards to purchase.

Maybe my initial buys are not so good?

I usually start out with smithy+silver, and then pick up a mine when I get my first $5. From then on I usually do: $2=cellar, $3=silver, $4=silver, maybe one more smithy, $5=market, maybe silver, $6-7=gold, $8=province.

Basically I'm trying to do some variant of "smithy big money" but it isn't working out so well.

Does any one have a consistent strategy for the base game that works?

My favorite Dominion article, Building the "First Game" Engine, looks at this problem. The article works out some very good strategies, comparing them to a baseline of Big Money + Smithy. They run simulations to "prove" which one is best. A Village/Smithy/Province (V/S/P) strategy beats Big Money + Smithy a little more than half the time, and eventually the find a strategy that beats V/S/P a whoppping 89% of the time. Best of all, the article showcases the depth that a single set of 10 kingdom cards can have.

Their best answer is complicated (surprising to some, given the common overestimation of Big Money + 1 or 2 other card strategies). It uses a Workshop to pick up early Villages and a Remodel, a Mine, several Smithies and eventually a Militia, with Markets and Cellars "sprinkled in".

Of course it's not a definitive "best solution", but it's several clear steps ahead of an already very competitive baseline.


Using Skinshifter's ability when Skinshifter Attacks I was wondering what happens when I attack with  Skinshifter. Imagine the following situation.

I attack with Skinshifter and in the assign blockers phase my opponent blocks Skinshifter with Runeclaw Bear. Can I say that I use Skinshifter's ability to turn him into a Rhino?

Another situation. My opponent attacks with Runeclaw Bear. I block it with my Skinshifter. Can I turn him into a Plant when I assign my blockers?

I assume that Skinshifter haven't used his ability in that turn.

Yes, both those situations would work.  Skinshifter's ability can be used at any time you receive priority(i.e any time you could cast an instant).  After both the Declare Attackers step and the Declare Blockers step, players receive priority.


Mana Ramp for White and Blue? What are some ramp cards for White or Blue decks (excluding High Tide in Blue)?

Formats: All excluding Vintage.

White and Blue don't have much in the way of mana ramp. However, since you're looking at everything but Vintage, you do have some options:

White cards dealing with land tend towards restoring balance, and as such there are several card which can only get you land if an opponent has more already.

Knight of the White Orchid
Kor Cartographer
Oath of Lieges
Planar Birth (if you can dump lands into your graveyard)

Blue can, of course, steal land. It also has several card which cheat permanents into play, and happen to include land as an option.

Annex (in addition to many other cards which can steal any kind of permanent)
Arbiter of the Ideal
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Dreamscape Artist (this is Harrow, both color shifted and turned into a spellshaper at the same time; Planar Chaos be wacky)
Eternal Dominion (of course, you don't need mana for casting spells afterwards, but you could still use mana for activating abilities)
Show and Tell

In addition to adding more land to the battlefield, you can get more mileage out of your lands. "Twiddle" effects are fairly common in blue, and Urza block had a slew of creatures and spells which would untap the same number of lands as their own mana cost, making the spell very nearly free, or if you had lands that tap for more than one mana, you could get more mana than you otherwise would have had.

Cloud of Faeries
Frantic Search
Great Whale
Palinchron
Peregrine Drake
Reset
Rewind
Snap
Time Spiral
Treachery
Turnabout

You can also reduce your costs; you don't actually have more mana, but you can do more with the mana you have. (Affinity for Artifacts in particular is on many Blue cards.)

Arcane Melee
Ballyrush Banneret
Council of the Absolute
Daru Warchief
Etherium Sculptor
Grand Arbiter Agustin IV
Herald of War
Hero of Iroas
Mistform Warchief
Stonybrook Banneret
Stormscape Familiar
Sunscape Familiar
Warden of Evos Isle

Finally, artifacts can do all of the above, from putting land onto the battlefield (Burnished Hart, Explorers Scope), to tapping for mana (Sol Ring, Darksteel Ingot), to making your lands tap for more mana (Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun), to reducing costs (Cloud Key, Helm of Awakening), and even Twiddle effects (Candelabra of Tawnos, Sword of Feast and Famine).

It ought to be obvious, but this answer is by no means an exhaustive listing of your options. You're not going to vomit a deck full of lands onto the table playing a White/Blue deck, but there are still ways for you to get ahead in the game.


Will Recoil still have creatures controller discard card? I play recoil on a creature of my opponent. He responds by playing  a vapor snag on this target.
Will recoil still have him discard a card or will it fizzle completely?

Regarding resolving spells (or abilities) with targets, the rules say (emphasis mine):

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

So the Recoil doesn't resolve at all, and no discard happens. This complete failure of the spell to resolve due to missing targets is what "fizzle" means. "Fizzle completely" is superfluous. Once the time has come to resolve a spell, it either fizzles or it resolves.


What can I do to avoid being stuck being able to do nothing in Settlers of Catan? My friends and I play a fair amount of Settlers of Catan (normally with 3-4 players).  Sometimes I do well and sometimes I do badly; however, the most infuriating games are those where I'm unable to do anything for pretty much the entire game.

For example, in the last game with 4 players, I managed to (in total) build 3 roads and buy 2 development cards (a knight and a victory point).  As the starting player, I placed my first settlement in a strong central position in the map with good access to both wood and brick. However, by the time everyone else placed their cities, I was forced to place my last city on the coast to get access to any ore, and I was left completely cut off from wheat (and my other settlement).

My problems became fairly evident in the early stages of the game - without access to wheat, I struggled to gather the resources to build new settlements, and to make matters worse, my initial settlement placement was very hemmed in by other players, meaning I didn't have many options on where to expand to.  By the time I managed to scrape together the resources to build a settlement, other players had already built settlements too close, meaning I needed to use up my resources to build more roads.  Trading with other players didn't really help me out, as they were all racing for the same settlement positions that I was.

These sorts of games seem to come around reasonably frequently, which leads me to believe that it's something that I'm doing rather than just being something that happens every now and then.

I've read both How to start in Catan games? and In Settlers of Catan, how do you overcome bad initial settlement placement? and now always try to make sure I start with an initial placement that at least involves a good supply of brick and wood. However, I've found it difficult to get a mixture of all resources. For example, in the last game before this, I found myself cut off completely from ore, which seriously hampered my ability to buy cities and development cards.

What can I do to avoid getting stuck in these sorts of situations?

There are many ways to win at Settlers. The only type of starting position which limits your options is the one you described - good access to wood and brick but not much else, and then getting hemmed in. This situation doesn't happen too often in our group because the more experienced players usually dissuade newer or poorer players from placing an initial settlement that has a strong likelihood of leading to a disastrous outcome - which reduces the chance of a tedious game for all.

However, I've seen many poor starts in Settlers that ended in victory. I have two sections worth of thoughts for you describing the advantages of starting out behind, and the various ways I've seen players come back after a poor start.

The advantages of starting from behind:

other players more willing to trade with you
you can drive a harder bargain in trades (i.e. you must give me 2 cards to get the 1 you need, or you must give me 3 cards to get the 2 you need)
the robber gets put on you less often
when the robber does get put on you, the card is drawn from a different player's hand if hex is shared
people don't pay as much attention to what you're doing, so you can be secretly planning for your dramatic surge to victory without everyone pointing out what you're planning (good players tend to carefully monitor and point out who is close to winning and why but often neglect this analysis for those who trail by a lot)

Various ways to win with seemingly poor initial starting positions

monopolize a scarce resource and obtain advantaged trades (something the player going first is sometimes best positioned to do)
go for a 2:1 port strategy if circumstances allow
if placing first, consider carefully where the good settlement sites are for initial placement. You might purposely shift to a slightly worse settlement site because it is obvious nobody else will place near it (or maybe one side will obviously be open for expansion). You will often need to very carefully place the second settlement to preserve a swath of territory for yourself to pull off this strategy. I have often started slow because I purposely chose slightly worse resources for this reason, but had far more expansion territory than the other players who end up crowding each other while I slowly catch up and eventually surpass them.
Ultra-cooperate your way to a chance at victory. I had a game recently where I got off to an extremely unlucky start getting cut off from my two best expansion possibilities (which literally had only a 1/6 chance of happening). Another player also started poorly and we both still had 2 settlements while the other two players already each had 4-5 VPs worth of cities and settlements each. So we started doing hugely helpful trades to each other - so he would give me an ore for my whole hand on one turn so he could build his first settlement. Then I gave him a brick for his entire hand to build my first city . . . and so forth. We broke off cooperation when we were both in the lead and he won but you get the idea.
Get other players fighting against each other. Point out who is winning and why, and convince everyone to gang up on that person until someone else gets the lead then do the same thing to that person. That can give you a lot of time to catch up.
Most important: Make sure you have some way to access wheat and ore, even if it's just a way you can expand to get them or someone who you're pretty sure will be willing to trade with you (See Which of the 5 resources in Settlers of Catan (base version) is most important? Why?). You have many more options with these resources, whereas brick/wood strategies require either a port (preferably 2:1) or lots of expansion territory to work. I literally once won a game without any brick or wood, and without building a single road, when I was cut off early (see picture below: white, with 15 development cards)


Does a card moving from Exile to Exile count as being moved? I know the Commander replacement effect allows you to move your Commander to the Command Zone if it would be exiled or put into its owner's hand, graveyard or library from anywhere.

My question is if you flicker (exile and return) your commander with the likes of Venser, the Sojourner (without sending it to the command zone then so it returns at the end step) and your opponent casts a spell to Exile anything that would enter (e.g. Hallowed Moonlight), does that count as your Commander moving from Exile to Exile, thus allowing you to apply the replacement effect, or would your Commander be stuck in exile?

Edit: Figured it out and answered below.

Hallowed Moonlight instructs you to exile. This is what the replacement effect in question replaces.

  903.11. If a commander would be exiled from anywhere or put into its owner’s hand, graveyard, or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead. This replacement effect may apply more than once to the same event. This is an exception to rule 614.5.

As such, you may indeed return the Commander to the Command zone, even if the instruction would otherwise have done nothing at all.

As confirmation, 406.7 does presume than an exiled object can be exiled.

  406.7. If an object in the exile zone becomes exiled, it doesn’t change zones, but it becomes a new object that has just been exiled.


Is "Sequencing Breakthrough" applied only to a single player The Sequencing Breakthrough event indicates to place the card face up in front of "this player". The text, however, indicates the effect is applied on the "next cure".

All of the other long-term events (e.g. Commercial Travel Ban) are somehow tied to the player during whose turn the event was played. Is Sequencing Breakthrough similar - does it apply only to the player it was played by?

I've been playing it as a bonus on whichever cure is discovered next, regardless of who discovers it.

You have been playing correctly. The effect applies to the next 'Discover A Cure' action, regardless of which player performs it.

The card is placed in front of the player for two reasons:

it remains in effect (the obvious and helpful indicator so that players can easily check whether it applies)
it is kept out of the discard pile (to prevent other abilities and card effects from being used to create a "stack" of Sequencing Breakthroughs)


When does Dreadhorde Arcanist check it's power when resolving the trigger in this situation? Dreadhorde Arcanist lets you recast a instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard for free when it attacks.

Now I had this situation come up:
I had two Arcanists on the field. In the main phase I buffed one of them with Collision // Colossus (+4/+2) which costs 2 mana. When I attacked I got two trigger for both the abilities. I used the trigger of the now 5/5 Arcanist to cast Collision // Colossus again and wanted to buff the 1/3 Arcanist with it, while it's trigger was still on the stack.
Sadly, the enemy conceded, so I didn't see how Arena would have handled it.

In this situation, would my second Arcanist trigger resolve with 5 power, or with 1?

Thank you.

You would only be able to cast a spell with a converted mana cost of 1.

This is confirmed by the rulings on Dreadhorde Arcanist:

  The instant or sorcery card you target must have converted mana cost less than or equal to Dreadhorde Arcanist’s power immediately after Dreadhorde Arcanist has attacked. Any other abilities that trigger when creatures you control attack won’t have resolved yet.

This is because you must choose targets when you put the ability on the stack, before it resolves, and at the time you are choosing targets, Dreadhorde Arcanist still has a power of 1. You will be placing both triggered abilities on the stack before either one of them resolves.

  603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that's not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

Note that targets are checked for legality again when a spell or ability resolves, so Dreadhorde Arcanist must still have a high enough power to cast the chosen spell when its ability resolves. If the Arcanist's power were lowered after its ability was put on the stack, this could cause its ability to fizzle (not resolve).

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. [...] If all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn't resolve. It's removed from the stack and, if it's a spell, put into its owner's graveyard.


Do Dunwich monsters get removed from gate closings? When a gate is closed, do matching monsters in Dunwich get removed? I'm aware the monsters in Dunwich do not count toward the monster limit  as the vortices handle that dynamic. I would think the gate closing does affect all monsters across both boards.

Yes, monsters on the Dunwich board would also be removed.
From the Arkham Horror Rules (page 18):

Monsters and Closing Gates
When a gate is closed, all monsters in Arkham, the Sky,
and the Outskirts that have the same dimension symbol
(see “Monster Movement,” page 10) as the closed or
sealed gate are removed from the board and returned to
the cup.

and from the Dunwich Horror Rules (page 5):

The Phrase “in Arkham” on Cards
Cards that refer to “Arkham” also apply to locations and
areas in Dunwich.

Thus all monsters on the Dunwich board are also considered to be "in Arkham", and would be removed.


In Small World, how does the Spirits' ability apply to already declined races? I have a small question regarding the "Spirit special power" (quote from the rules: You may thus end up with two different races in decline on map at the same time and score for them both.)
If I have a race in decline and I want to put my second race in decline ex. "Trolls with spirit", will I keep my old race in decline with my new race in decline (because of my spirit special power) or will that rule only take effect for the next race put in decline?

The official rules (PDF) say (emphasis mine):

  When the Race tokens associated with your
  Spirit Special Power go into Decline, they
  never count toward the limit stated in
  Entering In Decline (p. 6) regarding having a
  single In Decline race on the map at any
  given time. You may thus end up with two different races In
  Decline on the map at the same time and score for them both.

This means that when your active Spirits go into decline, they do not push out an existing declined race. If in the future you decline another race, the old race will then be removed, and so on.


Cauldron of Souls and Hydra Interaction To keep it short I'm making a Hydra Tribal edh deck and was thinking about including Cauldron of Souls. I am not sure how it interacts with hydra creatures where you have to pay X for them. If I have a Hydra with base 0/0 and 5 +1/+1 counters on it that dies and is brought back with Cauldron of Souls, is it now a 4/4 or does it instantly die as it is brought back as a 0/0?

Cauldron of Souls is not really a good card in a Hydra deck.

  107.3f If a card in any zone other than the stack has an {X} in its mana cost, the value of {X} is treated as 0, even if the value of X is defined somewhere within its text.

That means that if the Hydra enters the battlefield in another way (e.g. from the graveyard through an animate effect, Flicker, or persist), it has no knowledge about the X you spend when you originally cast it (which may be turns ago, or have not even happened at all). Instead, X=0, the Hydra re-enters the battlefield with 0 +1/+1 counters and it instantly dies (unless it has a base toughness higher than 1 - it needs to survive the -1/-1 persist counter as well).

Otherwise, it would be a little overpowered, since +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel each other out, and you would be able to repeatedly bring it back. (Though for 5 mana + the cost of the Hydra, you might expect such a powerful effect.)


In MTG, Can Rhox redirect its damage when it blocks? My opponent blocks my creature with a Rhox, and instead of dealing damage to the attacker, would prefer to deal that damage to me. Does Rhox's ability work that way?

The same ability can also be seen on cards such as Thorn Elemental.

Unfortunately the answer is "no".  The text on these cards, and others like them, is

  "this creature may assign its combat damage as though it weren't
  blocked"

It's obvious what this means when the creature is attacking - if it weren't blocked it would deal damage directly to the player.

When blocking, it's academic whether "the creature may assign its combat damage as though it weren't blocked".  The only permissible place to assign a blocker's combat damage, ever, is to the creature it's blocking.  As such, Rhox and Thorn Elemental's special abilities have no effect while they're on defensive duty.


Do you get treasure if you don't kill the Dungeon! Monster? I've been reading the Dungeon! WOTC rules, and have a peculiar question: the rules state

  If you encountered the Monster in a room, you draw 1 Treasure card from the face-down pile of cards corresponding to the Level the Monster was on. You also collect any other Treasures that were dropped there by Heroes.

  If you encountered the Monster in a chamber, you do not draw a random Treasure card, but you do collect any Treasures that were dropped there by Heroes.

However, the definition of "encounter" seems to simply be "there is a monster":

  After your Hero has finished moving, he or she encounters that space. If your Hero is in a corridor space, a cleared room (with 1 Cleared token) or a cleared chamber (with 3 Cleared tokens), no Monsters are there. Your turn is over. Otherwise, follow the steps below.

Finally, not killing Monsters has the following outcomes:

  Killed! Drop all your Treasure cards. Choose a new Hero (or the same one if no other Hero is available) and place it on the Great Hall.
  Seriously Wounded: Randomly drop half your 11 Treasure cards (round up) and place your Hero on
  the Great Hall.
  Wounded: Drop 1 random Treasure card and move your Hero back 1 space in the direction he or she came. Take 1 Lose a Turn token.
  Stunned: Drop 1 random Treasure card.
  Miss! No effect.

From my reading, despite the potential negative effects, it seems like each of these is still an encounter, meaning that a Hero gains treasure as long as the Monster was in a room, full-stop.

Is my logical conclusion correct? Does a Hero draw a Treasure card if there is a Monster in a room, no matter what happens in combat?

As a GM for D&D, and a board-game enthusiast, this seems... wrong? The game would move far too quickly if you got treasure just from seeing monsters, and makes no fictional sense either.

I did find this answer which suggests that you only get treasure if you defeat the Monster.

Are the rules just missing a statement at the end of each result of not killing a Monster to the effect of "Your turn is now over. Skip the Looting phase." ? Alternatively, could it mean "If you defeated the Monster in a room, you draw 1 Treasure card [...]" ?

The rules booklet that comes with the box-game is clearer (and, clearly, updated from the PDF linked by WOTC): it states quite clearly the results of not killing a Monster, and clarifies that you only win treasure by defeating Monsters.


Does pocketing the Queen at the start of the game end the game immediately? What happens if the Queen is pocketed at the break? Is that the end of the game, or otherwise how does play continue?

No.

For full rules look here.

Firstly, the Queen being pocketed doesn't end the game under normal circumstances anyway. It would only end the game if you pocketed the Queen and your last piece at the same time.

You can only pocket (and then cover) the Queen once you have at least one piece pocketed. If you pocket the Queen without this, it's returned to the board and your turn ends.

If you pocket your first piece at the same time as the Queen, you then play to cover the Queen normally.

If you already have pieces pocketed and you pocket a piece at the same time as the Queen, the Queen is covered.

If you pocket your first piece plus one more piece at the same time as the Queen, the Queen is covered.


Which board game is this token from with a number on the front and "SW" on the back? Please can anyone identify this game? These tokens have fallen out of some box but I can’t remember which one - it’s not any of the ones I’ve checked so far.

The token is from Small World. You can see it in the pictures there.

Here's a photo taken of the Small World instruction manual laid on top of the box lid. Note the illustrations of the coins in the lower right, along with another two 10 point coins from the game laid on top showing front and back.


Returning an enchantment to your hand Krasis Incubation has the following ability:

  {1}{G}{U}, Return Krasis Incubation to its owner's hand: Put two +1/+1 counters on enchanted creature.

When Krasis Incubation is being targeted by Cancel, can I put it back to my hand to save it?

No.

Krasis Incubation's ability only functions on the battlefield[1], but Cancel can only target spells, and spells only exist on the stack[2]. Therefore, you won't be able to use KI's ability to protect the KI from being countered.

On the other hand, the ability could possibly be used to prevent KI from being destroyed (as opposed to being countered). For example, if your opponent casts Abolish targeting KI, you would normally be able to activate KI's ability in response, and this would return KI to your hand before Abolish resolves.

Generally speaking, if it makes sense for an ability to work when the object on which it resides is on the battlefield, the ability can only be used when the object on which it resides is on the battlefield.[CR 112.6]
A spell is a card on the stack, a copy of a card on the stack, or a copy of a spell.[CR 111.1]


Is "meaningful decisions per hour" a good measure for how fun a game might be? People quickly grow out of games like Candy Land and Tic-Tac-Toe. They don't have any meaningful decisions to make. Then there are games like Monopoly, that have a few meaningful decisions to make, but those decisions are spread out over a game that will take a long time to end. Even popular gateway games like Settlers of Catan can have very long game lengths (2-3 hours), with most of the important decisions made at the start of the game, and only a few later (who to steal from, or what/who to trade with). On the other hand, Dominion has very short game times, with very compact meaningful decisions.

If you examine the top ranked games, would you find that the majority of them have a high meaningful decisions per hour density?

Does too great a density decrease the fun of a game because of analysis paralysis?

Meaningful decisions per hour is one of several contributory factors, not the only one.

Other important components of "fun", at least for me, include:

high ratio of meaningful decisions to total decisions
Interesting choices to make in those decisions
Interesting setting/backstory
visual appeal
link of setting/backstory/theme to mechanics.
interactivity of players.

It's important that meaningful decisions also be interesting - I find poker rather boring unless played for money (rather than just points), as the decisions are meaningful but boring.

Note also, burying meaningful decisions amidst many minimally meaningful decisions renders the senses numb to the meaningful ones.

Likewise, I'd rather play a good game with pretty pieces than a great game with ugly ones. I could easily make a Tsuro set, for example, but it wouldn't look nor feel as nice as the "real thing," and hence would get played less.

The setting and theme, if presented well and with mechanics that tie to it, makes a game more enjoyable.

Interactivity of players also matters. If the game is all meaningful decisions, but my turn is neither affected by nor affects the other players, then the game is less fun than if the do to a correct degree. (Some games can be too interactive, however. An example of this, for many, is Tongiaki. In Tongiaki, each player's action can cascade to totally change the situation, so ability to plan ahead is limited.)


What happens to armor a marine has gained during a campaign when he dies? Preface

This question is about Doom: The Boardgame. I have translated the rules and items etc. from my native tongue to english to the best of my knowledge, so please be gentle.

The Question

Suppose you are playing a campaign. A marine has found a piece of armor in scenario I and did not die in that one afterwards. So he starts with armor +1 in scenario II. Now the question is: What happens, if the marine dies (kill) in scenario II. Does he respawn with armor +0 or +1 ? Does it make a difference when he has bought the armor using killpoints instead of finding it in one scenario ?

My interpretation

The combination of

A killed marine respawns with the initial amount of armor and health. (rulebook)

and

A marine starts a scenario with the armor and health of the previous scenario (campaign book)

has lead me to the conclusion, that if e.g. Martin the marine starts scenario II with armor 2+1 and health 4 (of maximum 9) and he dies within the scenario, the he respawns with armor 2+1 and health 4 (while maximum remains 9 of course).

However, this interpretation is both counterintuitive (regarding health) and (maybe) a balance issue (regarding found armor).

I'm not a player of the Doom board game, but I'm a player of many other board games and the Doom computer game and therefore think I can make a fair interpretation as to what the rulebook and campaign book rules might mean together.

I think rule 1 (A killed marine...) means that at any time the marine is killed during a scenario he will respawn with the default (as in without any items and bonuses) armour and health.

The second rule (A marine starts a scenario...) in my opinion is not contrary to that because it refers to the beginning of a scenario.

If a marine is killed during the scenario then rule 1 applies and rule 2 does not, if it is the beginning of the scenario rule 2 applies. This seems to match with the Doom computer game, if you finish a level you can take the armour and life to the next level, however if you are killed during a level you respawn with the default armour (0 I believe) and the default health (100 I believe) at the beginning of the level.


Does "return" from graveyard to Zone X require a card to have been in Zone X? When an ability says, return X from Zone A to Zone B, can the ability only be used if X was in Zone B previously?

In particular, consider the Reassembling Skeleton's ability text:

  {1}{B}: Return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield
  tapped.

If I was forced to discard a Reassembling Skeleton from my hand or library, am I prohibited from "returning" it to the battlefield?

If not, can the "return" ability be used at any time? Or only during the turn in which the card entered the graveyard?

When an ability says to "return" a card from one zone to another, the card does not need to have ever been in the zone it is "returning" to. "Return" is just the word they use on Magic cards to describe moving between certain zones (graveyard to battlefield or hand, battlefield to hand). Rule 400.7 says

  An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

The card in the graveyard doesn't count as the same object as the card in your hand or the permanent on the battlefield, and it doesn't know what zone it used to be in.

The ability itself is just an activated ability that can be activated if the card is in your graveyard. Like any other activated ability, you can activate it any time you have priority.


A state with no more possible moves We ran into a state in a game of Checkers, where there were no more possible moves. Is this situation even possible according to the correct rules (I'm not an experienced player)? And if so, is it a draw? And if not, who wins (I'd assume white, because he jumped a piece)?

If the situation is possible, is it common? What about professional setting?

According to this set of the rules:

  A player wins the game when the opponent cannot make a move. In most cases, this is because all of the opponent's pieces have been captured, but it could also be because all of his pieces are blocked in.

So you win if your opponent can't move.

I have had this situation several times with draughts which is similar to checkers.


In Dominion, when it says reveal a card, who must I reveal it to? The text of Bureaucrat reads:

  Gain a Silver card, put it on top of your deck. Each other player reveals a Victory card and puts it on top of his deck. (or reveals a hand with no Victory cards).

When I play the card and a player does not have any victory cards in their hand, it instructs you to reveal a hand with none. Should they only reveal their hand to me or are they required to reveal their hand to the entire group of players?

Reveal means to show their hand to the table.

From the rules, page 7.

  Reveal – when a player reveals a card, he shows a card to all players and
  then returns it to wherever it came from (unless instructed specifically to
  put it elsewhere). If the player is required to reveal cards from the top of
  his Deck, and he does not have enough cards, he shuffles in order to
  reveal the required number of cards.


What is this card game called and it's rules Does anyone recognize this layout? It's a home made board with arranged cards. I know it was played by 6 players, and pennies were placed by each player on the "kitty" that's shellacked on the board. Sorry, that's about all I remember. My parents and their friends played it on a regular basis circa 1970's.
Thanks for any input.

This looks like a board that could be played similarly to the commercialized version of Rummoli (Canada).

Essentially, a number of hands are distributed to all players + a spare kitty hand (usually called widow in this game, but kitty, crib, or dead hand also can be heard).

4 phases to the game:

Ante: Everyone drops a penny (or whatever) into each of the nine pots. Your board seems to have 12.
Swap: The dealer can choose to keep his hand or swap it for the kitty. Otherwise, it can be auctioned off: whoever is willing to pay most among nondealers pays the amount to a central pot (although in this context could go right on the cat).
Poker pot (doesn't seem to be a thing on your board): One of the 9 pots is awarded to whoever can show the best poker hand among 5 of his best cards beating any other person's best cards.
Playing out: Whoever wins the poker pot phase (again, difference with your board) draws out the lowest card in hand, e.g. 4 of clubs. Any player can/should play the 5 of clubs. Then the next card in sequence and suit draws out cards until no one plays the next card. Last person to play the card in the previous sequence then must play his lowest card from an oppositely coloured suit (from clubs: either hearts or diamonds but not spades) or pass. This goes on until a person clears his hand down to zero cards. This person would win the central pot, and get paid out for opponent's dead cards. Having said all that, there's a few things to remember, which is where the other pots come in:
The other pots. When playing out, if you manage to play any of the cards on the board, you can claim from the pots. It's that simple. Commercial Rummoli pays out to: 10 of spades, jack of diamonds, queen of clubs, king of hearts, ace of spades, as well as any person able to play both the king+ace of diamonds or 789 together in any suit. These comprise the 7 card pots in Rummoli. Any card not played (by virtue of being in the kitty, not played due to being outmaneuvered, split between multiple players, or locked in hand due to a deadlock) leaves the pots intact, and grow on the next hand, and so on.
When a deadlock occurs, people must pay the central pot the number of cards' worth in coins, making the next pot bigger. This usually occurs if there is an inordinate number of one colour of dead cards in the kitty.

Differences between the commercial version and the table I see here:

The deuces: it makes sense to probably incentivize the reward of playing the twos of each suit as it makes you less likely to have the tail end of the sequence.
Sequence pot: 89T of diamonds.
Double diamond: QK instead of KA.
Tenner: Ten of hearts instead of spades.
No poker pot.

Otherwise, the resemblances are too similar for it to be something else.

Essentially, it's not the most neurostimulating game, but it does teach some basic decision-making (keep a hand with 1 pot to claim, or swap for a chance at better/more?) and failed probability (if you have the ace of spades and someone finishes with their king, you get nothing!). Great game to stimulate 6-14 year olds as well as some social gaming among adults or a family mix of sorts. The game is usually played with 50 "tokens", but could easily be 50 cents or 50 dimes. There's a possibility of some house rules applying as well as if someone forgets to claim their pot, how to deal with it locally (it's usually dead within a certain period x of playing the card (either as you play it, or before the cards are discarded for the next sequence of cards).

Hope this helps you with what you need to know!


Magic: The Gathering - Does Captivating Crew's ability resolve if I bounce it in response? My opponent has Captivating Crew in play.

They activate the ability to take control of one of my creatures.

In response I play Perilous Voyage and bounce the Captivating Crew back to their hand.

Do they still gain control of my creature?

Yes, they still gain control of your creature.

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won't affect the ability.

This is the same for any sort of ability; removing the source does nothing to the ability itself.


How do I play a card if it has two colors within the one mana symbol in its cost? I have just bought a deck and it has cards that have two colors within one mana symbol, like . Do I have to pay both colors or can I choose between the two?

Mana symbols such as  are called a hybrid mana cost. You can pay that cost with either of the 2 colors shown. Here is a brief summary of hybrid mana rules:

  Hybrid mana symbols represent a cost that can be paid with either of two colors. For example, a cost represented by the  symbol can be paid with one white mana or one blue mana. It’s both a white and a blue mana symbol, and a card with  in its mana cost is both white and blue.


Can you use Throne Room to Mine a Copper to a Gold? One of the most frequent barely-civil discussions in my group is what is possible when you use Throne Room (repeat an action card), in conjunction with Mine (trash a treasure to gain a treasure with cost of three greater).

In my experience, one of two things happen:

The person trashes two copper to gain two silver - completely valid
The person trashes one copper to gain a gold - under debate

Is it legal to gain a gold from a copper with a Throne Room-ed Mine?

Yes, you can trash Copper -> Silver -> Gold, since Mine requires you trash cards from your hand, and then gain them back into your hand, setting you up for another play.

Copper -> Platinum with a King's Courted Mine is also possible (and incredibly devious!)

For clarity, Mine reads:

  Trash a Treasure card from your hand. Gain a Treasure card costing up to 3 Coins more; put it into your hand.

And Throne Room reads:

  Choose an Action card in your hand. Play it twice.

So the order is (with a hand like Throne Room, Mine, Copper, X, X):

Play Throne Room
Choose Mine
Trash Copper from hand; Gain Silver into your hand
Use Mine again
Trash Silver from hand; Gain Gold into hand
Profit


Probability of i event_A and j event_B on n dice I am trying to figure out probability for a game using 6-sided dice. The basic idea is that the player rolls n dice and gets a success for each 6 rolled. So far, so simple; I'm using Python's scipy.binom.pmf function which gives the probability of rolling i successes on n dice with a given chance of success, 1/6 in this case.
But the game offers a "bonus". With the bonus, in addition to 6s being successful, one 5 in the roll is also a success. (So a roll of 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6 would be two successes normally, but three with the bonus.)
How can I compute the probability of i successes on n dice with this bonus condition?

P(i successes) = ((# of ways to get i 6s and no 5s) + (# of ways to get i-1 6s and some 5s)) / 6^n
(# of ways to get i 6s and no 5s) = (n choose i) * 1^i * 4^(n-i) [pick which dice must be 6s, 1 way for each of those to be a 6, 4 ways for each of the others to be neither 6 nor 5]
(# of ways to get i-1 6s and some 5s) = (n choose i-i) * 1^(i-1) * (5^(n-(i-1)) -
4^(n-(i-1))) [pick which dice must be 6s, 1 way for each of those to be a 6, 5 ways for each of the others to be non-6 except then we're overcounting by the 4^(n-(i-1)) ways that they are ALL neither 6 nor 5]
Dropping the unnecessary powers of 1, overall your probability can be computed exactly as:

[Note: I am using the convention that (n choose -1)=0, unlike Python's math.comb which does not allow negative inputs.]


40K: strategies to help my Ork Trukks/Battlewagons survive long enough to deliver their passengers into assault range? I have an armored infantry style 40K Ork army: Nobz/Boyz/Burnaboyz in Trukks and Battlewagons. Against an army with any sort of shooty capability, I rarely can get the troops into assault range. Their transports get blown up, and then it's a long walk whilst getting shot up.

If this army style just can't work, that's fine. I am wondering what sort of strategy, if any, would assist my transports getting the troops into assault range?

The best way to get Battlewagons across the board, that I've see used, is to attach a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field to the squad inside.

This will make the Battlewagon(and I think every other vehicle within 6 inches of the Battlewagon) obscured.  A 4+ cover save should help you get across the board a little more consistently.


Is kingmaking in multiplayer games a problem that can be fixed? The original Kingmaker was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. He was instrumental during the Wars of the Roses in the deposition of two kings. The term kingmaker has come to mean, "a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession, without being a viable candidate." The term in game theory has come to mean:

  Kingmaking: in a game of three or more players (on three or more opposing sides), during and endgame situation when a player who is unable to win is able to determine which player among others is the winner.

Kingmaking to me basically comes down to purposefully taking actions in a game so that someone other than yourself wins. It is slightly unusual that only the actions of the last player are considered kingmaking, when it is the total contribution of all players over the entire course of the game that determines a winner (i.e. If some else prevent you from getting 4 VP from shipping on boats in Puerto Rico on turn 5, but I prevent you from getting 4 VP on turn 19 and you lose by four points...why am I the kingmaker?)

Any game with more than two opposing sides is susceptible to kingmaking. In the world of competitive gaming, kingmaking can even occur in games with only two sides (due to rankings of multiple players). In Sumo Wrestling, for example yaochō or "match fixing" is where one wrestler who has already achieved a high paying rank throws a match on purpose to allow the opposing wrestler to secure a higher paycheck. In Magic: the Gathering tournaments, where a player may have no chance of making the top 8, they might concede a match to help a friend have a better win-loss ratio, while trying their hardest against any other opponents.

In a multiplayer MtG game, players may openly collude to help destroy the player with the best board position. In other groups, tabletalk and open collusion banned, but it is still expected that most players will gang up on the player with the best board position. The rules for MtG can also be exploited in multiplayer. A kingmaker player on the verge of elimination might cast an instant to hurt an unfavored player in hopes that they don't win or to make the game end earlier so they can play another game. A kingmaker might concede before damage is dealt so an unfavored player doesn't gain life from lifelinked creatures.

There are other examples from games like Ticket to Ride - purely blocking moves, and Settlers of Catan monopoly card ethics and future trades (these aren't the exact links I was looking for. I thought that one of these talked about the ethics of performing multiple trades circumvent the no zero card trade rule) , Monopoly trade before losing. Looking over the highest scored answers, it appears that there is still some question about whether kingmaking is a problem or the normal part of any game. In Risk Legacy, the line is blurred even further since the game is played over multiple rounds. A player without the chance of winning might purposefully lose to a particular player to improve their odds in future games.

Is kingmaking a problem that needs to be fixed? (Are only certain kinds of kingmaking an issue? Collusion, playing to lose/disrupt the game, etc.)

What steps/rules are helpful in mitigating kingmaking in games? (general concepts, but real world examples preferred)

Kingmaking can be a desired feature in its own right

Particularly in games with a political or simulational bent, kingmaking can be a desired feature.  The kingmaker gets to feel like he accomplished something even if he didn't win, and the tension and turnabout can contribute to a more exciting play experience.

Thesunneversets' answer addresses this much better than I can.

Threats of kingmaking are a strategic tool

"If you take me out, I'm going to make it so that you can't win afterward."

In most games, this isn't really a problem. It's just allowing players to use a "rattlesnake" defense when their more conventional defenses have faltered. Mutually assured destruction is basically a higher-stakes version of the normal tit-for-tat trading that goes on in strategy games.

When every game session turns into a complex web of MAD checks-and-balances leading to a spectacular flameout, though -- well, at that point you've gotta either call it a feature or redesign the game.

To reduce rattlesnake behavior, players need a way to trump the rattlesnake's threat, e.g. by more slowly setting up a victory that can't be disrupted. Is one player keeping the whole table at bay with an overgrown Shrine of Burning Rage, for instance? It's important for the game to have cards like Krosan Grip, Trickbind, and Shining Shoal to stop him.

Undesirable kingmaking is a motivation issue

In the previous case, the kingmaker is still looking to win; he's just holding the threat of you losing over your head to keep you from taking an action against him. Full-on kingmaking behavior is a motivation problem, resulting from players abandoning the goal of actually winning the game. Two possibilities exist here:

Winning is no longer a reasonable goal.

If a game puts a player in a situation where she can no longer win, then that player is functionally aimless. Such players may turn to kingmaking because it's the only way they can still interact with the main goal of the game, indirectly.

If you want some overly reductive advice, either eliminate losing players quickly or provide some "come from behind" / "alternate victory" mechanisms so they can still engage with the game's goals.

Alternatively, a less winner-take-all model can keep players "playing to win" even when they're not in a position to actually seize first place. This is probably easiest in games with results that roll forward, such as tournaments where even finishing 3rd vs. 4th has an impact on overall scoring, or wargaming campaigns where the disposition of your surviving units has as much of an effect on future battles as the win/loss outcome of the skirmish itself.
Winning is a reasonable goal, but a player has decided to dismiss it.

I think this is really a social issue. The player has broken with the goals of the game and created his own. Part of good game design is avoiding this by keeping players engaged with what they're supposed to do, but as a layman I honestly can't speak to how good games do this.

One thing you can definitely do as a game designer is to clearly signpost your "come from behind" features so that players don't feel a game is hopeless when it's not.

Beyond that, though, the players themselves need to address disruptive kingmaking as a sportsmanship problem: fundamentally what's happening is that a player is following the rules but not the spirit of the game. Sometimes it's because the kingmaker has lost interest, sometimes it's because social goals have trumped gameplay.


Can I build a strong knight with Deserter if the victim removes a mighty knight? I already have all of my basic and mighty knights on the board. I played the Deserter Politics Progress Card to one of my opponents, and they chose to remove a mighty knight.

It only says in the Almanac,

  If he chooses a knight that you do not have available (for example, if he removes a “strong” knight and both of your “strong” knights are already on the board), you may place a basic knight instead.

But I figured since the strong knights have a lower rank than the mighty ones (which is the type of knight my opponent removed), I can place it on the board.

Am I allowed to build the strong knight instead of a basic knight, because it is a lower rank than the knight removed?

Should I have promoted my basic knights first to have at least one on my supply, prior to using the Deserter card?

No. The rules say you may build a mighty knight, a basic knight if you have no mighty knights available, or nothing at all if you have neither mighty knights nor basic knights.


Can split second be used to block damage prevention effects? My friend plays a stupid amount of prevent all damage instants. If I attack, and use something with split second, can he still use his prevent all damage? Or with split second ending the stack, is he unable to do anything except block?

No.

Note the text of split second:

  Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.)

Split second only prevents casting spells and activating abilities while the split-second spell itself is on the stack. This means no player may take an action in between casting the spells and resolution. After that spell resolves, however, you'll still pass priority around normally (meaning your friend now gets to play other spells or abilities) before going on to the next part of the turn.

If you want to prevent your opponent from casting spells, you'll need countermagic or a Silence effect. Try Grand Abolisher if you want to keep your opponent from messing with your attack phase.

Alternatively, you can play cards that cancel out the effects of his spells — e.g. Skull Crack or Leyline of Punishment against damage-prevention effects.


What do I need to replace Cranium: Turbo Edition's electronic timer? I picked up Cranium: Turbo Edition at a yard sale for a couple dollars, and everything is in great condition except that the electronic timer centerpiece is missing. I figured I could replace the color selection and timer functionality with the die and hourglass from my copy of the original game, but is there any other functionality that I'm missing out on? Is the length of the electronic timer the same as the old hourglass? Are the color probabilities the same as an old die roll?

From the Turbo rules, the electronic timer lasts 60 seconds. This is the same as the egg timer in the base game.

I can't speak to the colour probabilities or guarantee that there isn't a mechanism to (for example) ensure that a mix of colours comes up, but I think uniformly randomly choosing a colour is a fair and fine way of doing it.


Do auras and equipment stay on cards if they stop being creatures? Ojutai Monument can be turned into a creature card until end of turn. If I attached enchantments or equipment to it, would they stay attached even when the card turns back into a non-creature artifact?

Reasoning for yes

The card is not leaving the battlefield, so the cards attached wouldn't either.

Reasoning for no

How would a simple artifact gain the effects only a creature could have?

Equipment will fall off, and Auras most likely will as well.

Equipment can only be attached to creatures. If it finds itself attached to a non-creature permanent, like when the Ojutai Monument turns back into a plain old non-creature artifact, that's illegal, and it'll be detached.

  301.5. Some artifacts have the subtype “Equipment.” An Equipment can be attached to a creature. It can’t legally be attached to an object that isn’t a creature.

  704.5p If an Equipment or Fortification is attached to an illegal permanent, it becomes unattached from that permanent. It remains on the battlefield.

If an Aura says "Enchant Creature" on it, that means it can only be attached to creatures. So if it finds itself attached to a non-creature artifact instead, that's illegal, and it's put into its owner's graveyard. If on the other hand the enchantment said "Enchant permanent" (e.g. Take Possession) it'd be able to stay attached.

  702.5a Enchant is a static ability, written “Enchant [object or player].” The enchant ability restricts what an Aura spell can target and what an Aura can enchant.

  704.5n If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.


Does Nyxathid trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing if my opponent has cards in hand? Say you have Sarkhan's Unsealing, and you play Nyxathid. Let's say your opponent has 4 cards in hand. Does any of Sarkhan's Unsealing's abilities resolve?

Nyxathid enters the battlefield as a 3/3, but is a 7/7 everywhere else.
Nyxathid's two abilities are a replacement effect and a static ability that generates a continuous effect.

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

Replacement effects that affect how a permanent enters the battlefield apply before the permanent enters the battlefield.

614.12a If a replacement effect that modifies how a permanent enters the battlefield requires a choice, that choice is made before the permanent enters the battlefield.

This means that Nyxathid's continuous effect can affect it as soon as it enters play.

611.3c Continuous effects that modify characteristics of permanents do so simultaneously with the permanent entering the battlefield. They don’t wait until the permanent is on the battlefield and then change it. Because such effects apply as the permanent enters the battlefield, they are applied before determining whether the permanent will cause an ability to trigger when it enters the battlefield.
Example: A permanent with the static ability “All white creatures get +1/+1” is on the battlefield. A creature spell that would normally create a 1/1 white creature instead creates a 2/2 white creature. The creature doesn’t enter the battlefield as 1/1 and then change to 2/2.

So Nyxathid enters the battlefield as a 3/3.
However, it is a 7/7 when you cast it.

604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they’re simply true.
604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 112.6.
604.3. Some static abilities are characteristic-defining abilities. A characteristic-defining ability conveys information about an object’s characteristics that would normally be found elsewhere on that object (such as in its mana cost, type line, or power/toughness box) or overrides information found elsewhere on that object. Characteristic-defining abilities function in all zones. They also function outside the game.
604.3a A static ability is a characteristic-defining ability if it meets the following criteria: (1) It defines an object’s colors, subtypes, power, or toughness; (2) it is printed on the card it affects, it was granted to the token it affects by the effect that created the token, or it was acquired by the object it affects as the result of a copy effect or text-changing effect; (3) it does not directly affect the characteristics of any other objects; (4) it is not an ability that an object grants to itself; and (5) it does not set the values of such characteristics only if certain conditions are met.

While Nyxathid's static ability does affect its power and toughness, it does not define them, and thus it is not a characteristic-defining ability.  Those are the only static abilities that apply off the battlefield unless explicitly stated in the ability itself.
So when you cast Nyxathid it is cast as a 7/7, which will cause Sarkan's Unsealing to trigger.  But if you had Where Ancients Tread in play, it would not be triggered by Nyxathid.
Magic defines the P/T (power and toughness) of creatures with variable P/T in several ways
Maro has a characteristic-defining ability (mentioned above in rule 604.3).  Maro always has a power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand no matter where it is.  If you have 7 cards in hand when you play Maro, it will trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing.  (Note that Maro can't be one of those 7, because by the time Maro's power is checked Maro has left your hand and entered the stack).  Generally speaking, if the P/T box reads */* (or */1+* then the creature has a characteristic-defining ability.
Shanna, Sisay's Legacy has a P/T of 0/0 and an ability which gives her +1/+1 for each creature in play.  She works the same way Nyxathid does, albeit in the opposite direction.  Unless she is on the battlefield, she is a 0/0. (I suspect that this template will be replacing characteristic-defining abilities on most (or all) newer variable P/T cards, but I don't know for sure.)  Shanna will not trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing
Hungering Hydra has a replacement effect that puts +1/+1 counters on it as it enters the battlefield, based on the value of X chosen when the Hydra was cast.  Even though X was defined when the spell was cast the counters don't appear until the spell resolves - while the Hydra is on the stack it is a 0/0 just like it is everywhere else that isn't the battlefield.  Hungering Hydra will not trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing
Slime Molding creates an X/X Ooze creature token where X was chosen as the spell was cast.  Slime Molding isn't a creature spell.  It will not trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing.
Finally, it's worth noting that variable tokens can be created in any of thses ways.  Voice of Resurgence creates Elemental creature tokens with characteristic-defining abilities based off of the number of creatures you control.  If the number of creatures you control changes later, so will the Elemental's power.  Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter creates X/X Construct (artifact) creature tokens where X is the number of creatures you control when the ability is used.  In this case X is fixed at creation - later changes to the number of creatures you control will not change the Construct's P/T.
Neither creature will trigger Sarkhan's Unsealing.


How to recognize the 2nd edition of Railways Of The World? The 2nd edition includes cards for the Mexico map, which as far as I understand are rather indispensable for the 2 and 3 player variant of the game. My question is: is it possible to differ between the first and second edition on the box's outsite?

Besides for the Mexico variation, the reprint have slightly grayer art and a photo of the game in use on its backside..

Here is the two games for comparison :


Zeus Role on Odysseus Besides the Zeus' power of deciding to end the turn prematurely, he also fills the vacated space when the ship moves.

Does he choose the "adventure disc" to be placed, or merely selects one at random?

Per the rules:

  Zeus now chooses a new adventure disk
  from the reserve and places it on the
  empty space where Odysseus' ship
  started the round.

I think the word "choose" is a clear indicator that it doesn't have to be a random disk.  Especially as it's specified to be a "face-up reserve"!


In Bridge, what are "proper" responses to a "strong" 2 club bid? Bidding Standard American, and opening a "strong" two clubs (typically 22 HCPs and a six card suit), I like to hear responses of 2 diamonds (0-8 points, no more than game interest), or 2NT (9+ plus points, possible slam interest).

I don't want to hear other responses (2 hearts, 2 spades, 3 clubs, 3 diamonds) unless the responder has at least six of them headed by something like KQJ (or better). The reasons are because 1) I've "advertised" such a good 6 card suit myself, and 2) with 22 points, I don't want partner bidding "my" suit and exposing my hand as dummy. (It's unlikely that we'll both have the same 6 card suit, which is why I allow this exception.)

Am I wrong to ask my partners to limit their responses to 2 diamonds and 2NT? Or are there other viable responses to my 2 Club opening?

If that's the system you've agreed with partner - that the only valid responses to 2C are 2D or 2NT - then it's fair enough to raise an eyebrow if they start improvising.

Personally, and bear in mind that I don't play Standard American myself, but a pretty loose take on Acol: I don't understand why you would want to restrict responses so strictly.  Fair enough, you need to have a negative 2D bid, and to understand between you what that implies.  Beyond that, the more expressive you can make your system, the better.  What's the point of a 2NT "generic positive" bid if it just forces opener to ask more questions, at the next level of bidding, to determine the actual best contract to be in?

If my partner has enough points not to have to make a 2D bid, I'm delighted to hear about hearts or spades being his longest suit at the 2 level, even if that suit is only 5 cards or whatever.  Naturally, if partner wants to talk about a minor suit, at the 3 level, they'd better have more than a 5 card suit, to be on the safe side...


Third Hole in Cribbage Board What is the third hole at the start of the cribbage for?

It's shown behind the 2 pegs in the image below:

That is for the Game Peg (also known as a spilikin). At the bottom of the board, you see the three straight stripes - those are for keeping track of the number of games you have won. Until you have actually won a game, your spilikin for tracking wins is stored in that third hole.

Consider the following picture: it appears blue has just won the game, and is awarded two game wins for skunking the red player. The red player has yet to win a game, so his spilikin is still in the starting position.


How does shuffling work when your library is empty? Say there are no cards in someone's library. Can they shuffle their graveyard and hand into their library with an effect that instructs them to do so, if there is technically no library to shuffle into?

Yes, you can still shuffle your library like normal even if it is empty. This includes both effects that shuffle your library normally, such as Entomb, and effects that shuffle your graveyard or hand into your library, such as Clear the Mind.

  701.19e If an effect causes a player to shuffle a library containing zero or one cards, abilities that trigger when a library is shuffled will still trigger.

So there is no difference between shuffling an empty library or a non-empty library as far as game rules are concerned.


Can I tap Rupture Spire to pay for its own ability with an Amulet of Vigor in play? Assuming I stack the abilities correctly can I get the Rupture Spire untapped in time to pay for its own ability with an Amulet of Vigor?

Yes, you can.

When Rupture Spire enters the battlefield, 2 different abilities trigger. The next time someone (usually you) you would gain priority, you put both of those abilities on the stack, in an order you choose.

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose.

Choose to put Rupture Spire's ability on the stack first, with Amulet of Vigor's on top. Amulet of Vigor's ability will resolve first, untapping Rupture Spire.

Then Rupture Spire's ability will resolve, at which point you are free to tap Rupture Spire for the 1 mana you need to pay.

A key point here is that Rupture Spire's ability doesn't do anything until it resolves; it does not require mana payment ahead of time.

You also have priority between Amulet of Vigor's ability resolving and Rupture Spire's ability resolving. You could just tap Rupture Spire at this time and float the 1 mana until Rupture Spire's ability resolves. Either of these would result in the same net effect. It's just like the difference between tapping a Mountain and then casting Lightning Bolt; or beginning to cast Lightning Bolt and tapping a mountain to pay for it when you get to the pay costs part of casting.


Can you play a wild card on an existing Canasta to go out? Canasta. Can you play a wild card on an existing Canasta to go out?

Yes.

You can add to existing melds in general; whether going out or not. This includes adding a wild to an existing Canasta.

  A player may add additional cards to a meld by his side, provided that the melds remain valid (having no more than three wild cards).

Note that if you add a wild to a natural Canasta, it will become a mixed Canasta.

  Additional cards may be added to a canasta to score their point values, but these do not affect the bonus - except that a wild card added to a natural canasta reduces it to a mixed canasta (and a black card replaces the red card that was previously on top).


When does Vertigo's villain action happen? I recently got Legendary: Dark City and it seems like there's a misprint on the Vertigo card from the Marauder villains.

Her card says: Each player discards their hand then draws as many cards as they discarded.

Unfortunately it lacks a designation of either Fight, Escape, or Ambush, so we had no idea when the effect was supposed to take place. Has any official word come out on which trigger her power works off of?

According to a developer from Upper Deck on this BoardGameGeek post Vertigo's power should be a Fight effect.


How does Humility interact with graft creatures? Would Humility actually make my Aquastrand Spider bigger (assuming the spider was already in play when the humility was cast)?
Would the same spider entering the battlefield after a humility has been cast be a 1/1 without any counters?
Would the spider die if the humility left the battlefield then?

Yes it would, because it would become a base 1/1 creature instead of a 0/0 and still have the 2 +1/+1 counters on it. It would then be a 3/3.
Yes, Humility removes the Graft ability that causes the spider to have counters as it enters. This prevents the ability from placing those counters on it as it enters the battlefield. It will enter as a base 1/1 spider mutant with no abilities and no counters.
Yes, if humility left the battlefield, the spider from question 2 would now be a 0/0 creature and die due to having 0 or less toughness. The spider from 1 would be back to being a 2/2 due to the counters.


Paying with property wild cards, can they be placed anywhere? In Monopoly Deal, when paying rent with a property wild card, can the opponent receiving the card place it anywhere in their property collection?

Yes. Property cards - including wild cards - can be arranged however the receiving player sees fit, at any point during their turn. For two-colour wildcards, there is no restriction that these have to remain in the orientation that they were originally played.
Note that ten-colour wildcards have zero monetary value so should not be used to pay rent -see Property FAQ points 3 and 4 on monopolydealrules.com.


Order of building landmarks in Machi Koro The objective of the game (base game) is to be the first to build all four land marks. For fear of being stolen from or falling behind, I tend to buy them by order of increasing cost. If at one point I can afford more than one at the same time, I will buy the most expensive one. This works alright, but I've never really considered changing my strategy before

Are there situations where this is not a feasible strategy?

I feel there are often times where considering a more detailed approach can help squeeze more optimal play. The base game has 4 cards:

Train Station (4) : Roll 1 or 2 dice
Shopping Mall (10) : Each Cafe/Bakery type earns +1
Amusement Park (16) : Doubles grant an extra turn
Radio Tower (22) : You may re-roll each turn

These are all characteristically different. The train station opens up the opportunity to access 7-12 roll values which may be something you want or something you very much don't want if others have cards with these values. Definitely do not buy this cheap card on a whim because you may be wasting 4 good coins that could be used elsewhere.  Notice that even if you do not have cards with 7-12, you may want this one just to keep opponents with many 1-3 valued cards from getting any hits at all.

The Shopping Mall is clearly very dependent on your holdings of cafe bakery types. For what could be as little as 1 full round around the table more you, you could potentially afford the Amusement Park, and then further the Radio Tower, so again do not buy the Mall simply because it's affordable unless you feel it strongly increases many cards in your holding.

I would in general gloss over the Amusement Park and go straight for the Radio Tower typically, as for 6 coins more, having the power to retry your roll every turn is far more powerful than occasionally getting doubles which happens 1 in 6 rolls. With the ability to re-roll, consider how much more attractive that looks.


Underrealm Lich and Divination Underrealm Lich's static ability reads:

  If you would draw a card, instead look at the top three cards of your library, then put one into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

Divination reads:

  Draw two cards.

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) Do I look at the top three cards of my library, then put one into my hand and the rest into my graveyard, and do the same again?
B) Or do I look at the top six cards of my library, then put two into my hand and the rest into my graveyard?

I guess option A is true, but where is this clarified in the rules?

It's option A). From the Comprehensive Rules:

  120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that player performs that many individual card draws.

Each individual card draw gets replaced by "instead look at the top three cards of your library, then put one into your hand and the rest into your graveyard."

In fact, this very situation is mentioned in the Rulings below the card on Gatherer:

  If an effect instructs you to draw multiple cards, each draw is performed—and replaced by Underrealm Lich’s ability—one at a time. This means that if you’re drawing two cards, you’ll look at the top three cards of your library, put one into your hand, put the other two into your graveyard, and then repeat the process with the next three cards in your library.


Does the rule for auras remaining in their zone apply when an aura token is created? Rule 303.4g deals with an aura that enters the battlefield without a legal choice for what to enchant:

303.4g If an Aura is entering the battlefield and there is no legal object or player for it to enchant, the Aura remains in its current zone, unless that zone is the stack. In that case, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard instead of entering the battlefield.

Say you only control 1 creature, which is enchanted Benevolent Blessing, with White as the choice for protection. You cast Replication Technique, targeting Benevolent Blessing. What happens?
The first Benevolent Blessing prevents the creature from being a valid choice for the new one. It sounds at first like 303.4g should apply, but it says that the new aura would remain in its zone... but it wasn’t in any zone ever, it’s a newly created token.  So does the token get created at all? I don’t know of a rule other than 303.4g that would stop it from being created.
The other option I can see is that it gets created, and goes to the battlefield not attached to anything. But then it goes away the next time state based actions are checked, as per 704.5m.
This different could matter if you had something that triggered when it enters the battlefield.
I’m using Benevolent Blessing as an example, as it’s the only thing I could think of that would make it possible to have an aura already on the battlefield, while not having a legal choice for another aura that’s a copy of that aura.

The token is not created.
While a token is not in any zone before it was created, the spirit of 303.4g is that an aura can't enter the battlefield if it has no legal targets to enchant and, if it's currently in any zone, remains in its current zone (except the stack). If such an aura would be a token, rule 111.5 takes effect:

111.5. If a spell or ability would create a token, but a rule or effect states that a permanent with one or more of that token’s characteristics can’t enter the battlefield, the token is not created.

Also note this rule:

303.4i If an effect attempts to put an Aura onto the battlefield attached to an object or player it can’t legally enchant, the Aura remains in its current zone, unless that zone is the stack. In that case, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard instead of entering the battlefield. If the Aura is a token, it isn’t created.

The only difference to 303.4g is that it deals with effects that put an aura on the battlefield with a pre-determined attachment target. Arguably, 303.4g missing the last sentence of 303.4i is an oversight.


Am I right in understanding that if my supply drops due to losing territory, this won't affect my armies until the supply card is drawn? I'm getting prepared to play GoT for the first time, I just wanted to clarify this rule.

Let's say I have 2 supply, this allows me to have one 3 army, and two 2 armies.

I muster up until I'm at my supply limit.

Now the territory providing the supply gets taken from me.

Am I right in understanding that I don't need to disband units until the next Supply card comes out in the Westeros phase?

That is correct: The army limit is based on your position on the Supply track, but the Supply track is not automatically adjusted during any of the game phases.  You would only adjust the Supply track (and thus your armies) when the a game effect explicitly commands it (i.e. a Supply card is drawn).

From page 8 of the official rules (second edition, but it plays the same as first edition in this case):

  Though a player may gain or lose Supply icons on the game
  board throughout one or more Action Phases, his armies
  are reconciled only when the Supply track is adjusted (via a
  “Supply” Westeros card, or other game effects).

(Note: The rules also calls out "other game effects" but off-hand I have no clue what those are, or if they're second-edition-exclusive.  From first edition, I don't recall ever needing to adjust the Supply track except from a card explicitly commanding me to.)

The "Supply Example" on that same page also calls this out more clearly (emphasis mine):

  Lannister has recently lost control of Riverrun and
  Seagard to Greyjoy (each of which contains a single Supply
  icon). During a later Westeros Phase, a “Supply” card is
  revealed. Due to the loss of these areas, Lannister must now
  adjust his actual Supply from 5 to 3.

  Before the “Supply” card is drawn, Lannister has four armies
  of 4, 3, 2, and 2 units.

Of note, the bolded text mentions that Lannister still had four armies before the Supply card is drawn (despite the territories being lost before then, given that the Supply card was drawn during "a later Westeros Phase").


Martial Law vs Zacama, Primal Calamity It's my turn I have priority I control a Martial Law ... I detain my opponents Zacama, Primal Calamity ... My spell goes into the stack then I pass priority to my opponent. He uses Zacama's ability to destroy target enchantment in this case my Martial Law. His spell goes into the stack over mine he then passes priority back to me I have nothing else to do and the spells resolves. If both spell resolves this means my enchantments gets destroyed and his Zacama is detained? Or my enchantment survives because he can't active his activated abilities? Sorry still trying to understand the stack! I know his spell resolves first does that means he destroys my enchantment and is not detained?

Your enchantment will be destroyed, then their creature will be detained.

That happens because, as you guessed, their creature only becomes detained after Martial Law's trigger resolves. Since it's been placed on the stack, and your opponent had priority before it resolved, they can use Zacama's abilities normally. That goes into the stack, and resolves before your triggered ability. Your enchantment will be destroyed, and then its trigger will resolve normally and detain their creature until your next turn.


Can I play countered sorcery speed spells with Guile? During an opponent's turn, I had Guile and used Rethink to counter a permanent spell (in my case, it was a Deathbringer Thoctar).

Guile's second ability states "if a spell or ability you control would counter a spell, instead exile that spell and you may play that card without paying its mana cost" which makes no mention of timing.

There's no ruling posted on The Gatherer, but some forum posts around the web suggest I can play it out of turn. Can anyone provide rule snippets or examples from sanctioned tournaments to provide a definitive answer?

There actually is a Gatherer ruling related to the timing. I bolded the relevant sentences.

  Guile's second ability replaces "counter [a certain spell]" with "exile [a certain spell] and you may cast it without paying its mana cost." You have the option to cast it immediately upon its exile. If you choose not to, it remains exiled and you don't get another chance to cast it. If the spell or ability that tried to counter the spell has additional effects, it then continues to resolve.

This means you cast the spell during the resolution of whatever counter spell you cast. Since normally you can't cast spells during the resolution of a spell this means you have to ignore normal timing restrictions (like only being able to cast it during your main phase when the stack is empty), it how ever doesn't ignore restrictions like Savage Beating's

  Cast Savage Beating only during your turn and only during combat.

In order to cast it at some other time the ability would need to explicitly give you that ability, like Outpost Siege which gives you the ability to play it until the end of turn, or Kheru Spellsnatcher which gives you the ability to play the card as long as it is exiled (and the Spellsnatcher is on the battlefield)


Can multiple copies of Fraying Sanity activate at once? In theory, let's say I have several copies of Fraying Sanity on several different players. Would multiple copies of Fraying Sanity activate at once or does one copy activate first, then another?

Regardless of the number, Fraying Sanitys will resolve sequentially.

In Magic, no two things can resolve at the same time, they must be put on to the stack and then resolve in last in first out order.

When multiple activities trigger at the same time, the active player gets to choose the order in which effects they control go onto the stack. This is covered in the Comprehensive rules here:

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

So, when you have multiple copies of Fraying Sanity that you control (as in the example in your question), you get to choose the order in which they resolve each end step. One thing to note is that if you have multiple Fraying Sanitys on the same player, the ones resolving afterwards will take into account how many cards have entered the graveyard by previous Fraying Sanity effects. This is covered in the special rulings on the gatherer page:

  The value of X is determined only as Fraying Sanity’s triggered ability resolves. For example, if three Fraying Sanity Auras are attached to one player who had four cards put into his or her graveyard this turn, X will be four for the first ability to resolve, eight for the second, and sixteen for the third.


In Yu-Gi-Oh, when you banish cards from the field, can you banish spell and trap cards in addition to monster cards? I have a Eater of Millions:

  Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 5 or more cards from your hand, field and/or Extra Deck, face-down, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each face-down banished card. This face-up card on the field cannot be Tributed, nor used as Material for a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon. Once per turn, at the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles an opponent's monster: You can banish that opponent's monster, face-down.

Am I allowed to banish spells and traps from the field too?

There are three types of cards: Monster, Spell, and Trap. If one of these types are not specified, then it is assumed to be any of those types of cards. In this specific case, that means that Eater of Millions can indeed banish any type of card.

If you were only allowed to banish certain card types, it would be like Bazoo the Soul-Eater, which says that you banish "monsters" instead of "cards":

  Once per turn: You can banish up to 3 monsters from your Graveyard; this card gains 300 ATK for each, until the end of your opponent's turn.

This card would not be permitted to banish spell or trap cards.