When and how do you use suit preference signals in bridge?

There are LOTS of suit preference (abbrev: SP) situations, as well as many agreements as to when SP applies. I'll see if I can cover at least a few of them.

The classic one is as you have described. On opening lead, you lead an obvious stiff in a side suit against a trump contract. (Of course, there is little reason to do this if you have a void in trumps.) Partner, who happens to win the trick, returns a card, expecting you to ruff.

When you do ruff that card, which suit do you return? Look at it like this, if you ruffed, you don't have any more of that suit, and trumps seem like a bad idea. After all, you are hoping to get partner in for a second ruff! So essentially there are other two suits of potential interest as an entry. Ranking them in the standard order from low(clubs) to high(spades), partner can indicate their re-entry suit.

The idea is, partner will give you a low card to ruff with an entry in the low side suit, and a high card for you to ruff with a high side suit entry. If partner has NO entry at all, then they should (if possible) return an intermediate card, suggesting no preference.

By the way, suit preference applies for you too! In fact, both sides of the partnership will often be giving suit preference signals. Let us see how this would all work on an example hand.

Your opponents are in a 4S contract, played by that hapless fellow in the South seat.

Perhaps the bidding went: 1♦ - 1♠ - 2♠ - 4♠, with you never having an opportunity to show your diamond length.

     Declarer
     AKT9
     A73
     T6
     QJ53

You        Partner
73         Q52
KJ8        642
A98432     J
A7         T98642

     Declarer
      J864
      QT95
      KQ75
      K

You have few good good looking leads here, so with a prayer in mind, you pick the diamond ace for your lead, partner playing the jack. (Yes, I know that aces are terrible leads, but that is not the point of this hand, and your other leads are equally bad). Anyway, if declarer has diamond length from the bidding, the chances are very good that your partner is short in that suit.

If partner had a stiff diamond jack, she will be able to ruff the next trick, so what return are you looking for? A club is your quick entry, so at trick two, you lead the deuce of diamonds.

Partner ruffs of course. Your diamond deuce is a clear signal, asking for a club return. At the same time, partner is looking for a third diamond lead. That card gives partner a second ruff, promoting the queen of trumps back into a winner. See that partner had a natural trump trick, but the ruff would allow declarer to draw trumps with the ace and king. So a third round of diamonds will be a trump promotion for partner.

How does partner indicate a suggestion for you to lead a third diamond? When partner returns the indicated club card, she will lead the DEUCE. The low return tells partner to lead the LOW suit when they are in at trick 3, so diamonds!

You have taken the first 3 tricks in a flurry now. At trick 4, when you lead a card for partner to ruff, what diamond do you play? You don't want to see a club return. Instead you would prefer a heart, hoping to set up a heart trick. The way to ask for hearts is to play the 9 of diamonds on that third round of diamonds. The high card asks for the high suit. While declarer gets two pitches on the club winners, there is still a heart to lose, so you set 4S two tricks. This is a top score at match-points of course.

Note that there were several SP plays in the defense of this one hand, made by both opponents.

The classic SP situation discussed so far is not the only case where they can apply. Visualize a hand where we have bid and raised a suit, but the opponents end up as the declarer. As the opening leader, imagine that your hand is

J
K85
Q9762
AQT8

As dealer (West), you open the bidding 1♦, only to see the bidding go:

1♦ - Dbl - 2♦ - 4♠
All pass

So partner has raised your diamonds, but the opponents still found game. It looks like South has bid game on shape, since there are simply not enough points to go around for South to have bid it on power. Your hope is to beat this contract, but when they bid game on shape, all bets may be off.

You lead your 4th best diamond, partner winning the king. Dummy comes down with a decent hand, as it has top tricks, but still a basic minimum for a takeout double.

     Dummy
     AKT9
     AT73
     43
     J52
You
J
K85
Q9762
AQT8

Partner then cashes the diamond ace as declarer followed suit with the 8 and 10. You don't expect to see much more in partner's hand, but you really want a club switch through the probable king in declarer's hand. After all, if partner had the AK in diamonds, plus the club king, they might have found a different bid than simply 2♦. So on the second diamond, what card do you play to ask partner to continue with a club? Your choices were {Q,9,7,2}. You and partner both know that a diamond continuation is not right. Partner sees you play the deuce, so your 4th best lead indicates that declarer had only a doubleton.

There are two side suits here, hearts and clubs. If you play a clearly low diamond (the deuce), then this must be SP for clubs. You get your 4 tricks to defeat the contract. It turns out that the hands were like this:

     Dummy
     AKT9
     AT73
     43
     J52

You        Partner
J          5
K85        9642
Q9762      AKJ5
AQT8       9643

     Declarer
     Q876432
     QJ
     T8
     K7

If you don't get a club switch at trick 3, Declarer can draw trumps, then take the heart finesse to make game.

But, now suppose the hands were slightly different?

     Declarer
     AKT9
     AT73
     432
     J5

You        Partner
J43        52
KJ8        9642
Q9762      AKJ
A7         9643

     Declarer
     Q876
     Q5
     T8
     KQT82

With South still in a 4♠ contract, after East wins the first two tricks, what should he return? A club, diamond or spade return gives declarer the contract, by allowing her to set up clubs for three heart pitches. Only the heart switch through declarer sets up a heart trick in time to set the contract.

Can West ask for a heart switch? Of course. On the second diamond, play the QUEEN. This is a stand up and shout suit preference play, asking for a switch to the higher side suit.

Finally, I might change the hands yet again. (I tried to get the spot cards right on all of these hands.) Again, assume that South is declaring 4♠, although the bidding is surely not the same as it was before.

     Declarer
     AK94
     AT63
     432
     J5

You        Partner
QJT        32
K87        9542
Q976       AK5
T87        K643

     Declarer
     8765
     QJ
     JT8
     AQ92

On a 4th best diamond lead, East wins the king, then the ace of diamonds. Clearly, they must cash the third diamond trick, at which point West will have a natural trump trick. But from East's point of view, should he switch to a club, a heart, or continue diamonds? On the last two hands, with very similar looking hands for East, he had to switch to one of the other suits, and NOT continue diamonds to defeat the contract! Declarer has played the same cards each time, the 8 and ten spot.

On this hand, you led the 4th best 6. By continuing with the 7 at trick 2, partner will expect that you had a 4 card suit, so will hopefully continue diamonds. Any other continuation will allow declarer to take the heart finesse for a diamond pitch, so this was necessary.

Those were the classic suit preference situations, but there are others. One agreement I have with several partners is that when you lead a card and it is absolutely clear that you don't want to continue that suit, then partner will signal with suit preference. For example, in a trump contract you lead a winner, and dummy has a stiff in the suit. Continuing the suit seems not to be useful, so what side suit do you switch to? Partner should signal with suit preference. Or, perhaps, your lead of a stiff ace discloses a solid unbid side suit in dummy that you have just set up. Again, partner should indicate suit preference for your next lead.

There are several suit preference discarding agreements that many pairs use. The most common are Lavinthal discards, and odd/even discards. While I've never been a fan or either agreement, they are commonly employed.

Lavinthal: On your FIRST discard in the hand (and only on your first opportunity to discard) you throw a card in a suit that you are NOT interested in. A high card indicates interest in the higher of the other suits, and a low spot indicates interest in the lower suit.

Odd/even: Again, at your first opportunity to discard, you pick a side suit to play. An odd card indicates that you like the suit. An even card is suit preference, with a low even card suggesting a preference for the lower of the other suits. A high even card is a preference for the higher suit.

A serious problem with both of the above discarding agreements, is that sometimes you have no spot cards that you can safely throw away that show your true holding. Then what happens is a defender tanks, agonizing about which card they should play, which lie to make. Partner can read what is happening of course, so they will discount your signal, since a card played in tempo will not carry any inference. Of course, it is COMPLETELY illegal to use tempo information from your partner, but there has been many a director called, many a committee formed over just such an occurrence.

And finally, there are trump suit preference signals, where the order that you play your spot cards in trumps tells partner about your side suit holdings.

Of course, these are dangerous territories to enter into, as a good declarer can also read your signals, often to disastrous effect. Don't make a signal if it will tell partner nothing useful, but give the hand away to declarer. And don't agree to any such agreements if you cannot play your cards in tempo, as that is simply asking for problems.


On your turn you can play any number of cards from your hand, including zero cards. So you only need to play the Skip card if you think it is worth it.
If you did decide to play the Skip card, your turn ends immediately without drawing a card.
If you choose to not play the Skip card, you would just draw a card.
From the rules (page 1 under Taking Your Turn):

1 Look at the cards in your hand. Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile, and following the instructions on the card.
2 After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you’d like.
Or, play no cards at all; that’s cool too.

And on page 2:

Skip
Immediately end your turn without drawing a card.

Note that the linked rules are for the Party Pack Edition, but the base game rules say essentially the same thing in a slightly different way.


How does Companion work after sideboarding?

Your interpretation seems valid.

The Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths mechanics rule snippet you quote addresses this directly.

  Your companion's deckbuilding rule applies only to your starting deck, which is the deck you begin play with each game.

The comprehensive rules currently don't directly address any issue of a "starting deck". However, the "deck" referred to in rule 103.1 is a pretty solid candidate. 103.1. At the start of a game, each player shuffles their deck so that the cards are in a random order.
Each player may then shuffle or cut their opponents’ decks.
The players’ decks become their libraries.

The wording is probably intended to prevent confusion due to card interactions from the other part of your quote.

  It won't consider any cards in your sideboard, so those cards don't have to follow the deck-building rule.

You choose your companion before starting the game, as per the same article.

  Just before the game begins, reveal your chosen companion to all players. Once during the game, you may cast your chosen companion from your sideboard.

So if your starting deck contains only cards of CMC 3 or greater, you can choose Keruga, the Macrosage as your companion. After the game begins and your deck becomes your library, if you cast the Research half of Research//Developement (legally over CMC 3 as per rule 202.3d) and shuffle some 1 or 2 CMC cards from your sideboard into your library, it shouldn't affect the legality of your chosen companion. Similarly, some companions could make your library not match the criteria even if your deck did. A copy of Lutri, the Spellchaser in a deck and one in your sideboard with all other cards of different names would be perfectly legal.

However, newer players may not realize "deck" does not equal "library" and the additional wording "starting deck" may be intended to mitigate confusion.


Can a creature with deathtouch be killed by a creature that it is killing?

Both creatures receive lethal damage and as a result die.

In the Comprehensive Rules it says the following regarding deathtouch:

  702.2b A creature with toughness greater than 0 that’s been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based
  actions were checked is destroyed as a state-based action. See rule
  704.

So according to this rule any creature that get deathtouch damage gets destroyed.

But who gets to deal damage first? Is the the deathtouch creature? Is it because he only has to do one damage to do lethal damage? Let's find out in the next paragraph!

  510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No
  player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the
  time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt

So the 2 damage from Gifted Atherborn and the 3 damage from a 3/3 creature is dealt simultaneously resulting in them both perishing.

If you want to destroy the enemy creature with combat damage before it kills your creature you should take a look at first strike and double strike.

  510.4. If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat
  damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in
  that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that
  step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets
  a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat
  damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had
  neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step
  began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently
  have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of
  combat step.


Does the newly implemented Scry Rule change the way we play Magic: the Gathering?

In general, the mulligan strategy is unchanged: you should mulligan when the expected outcome for a mulligan is better than the expected outcome otherwise. The effect of the new rule is in giving a boost to the expected outcome for a mulligan.

As the rules currently stand (the new scry after mulligan rule will not be implemented until the Battle for Zendikar prerelease), one should mulligan a 7-card hand when the probability of winning is lower than that the expected probability of winning with a random 6-card hand.

Having the option to scry can only improve the probability of winning with a random 6-card hand, because you have the option of leaving the top card on top (yielding the same sequence of draws as if you didn't scry) or putting the top card on the bottom of library (presumably because it is worse than the average card in the deck). Since the expected probability of winning with a random 6-card hand under the new mulligan rule cannot be lower than under the old rule, one would expect more mulligans to take place, because the "cost" of a mulligan is decreased. That is, the threshold for a "bad" 7-card hand is higher than it was before.

Exactly how much better a random 6-card hand gets would depend on the particulars of the deck being played. I would guess that very redundant decks (e.g., burn) would benefit little from the new rule because card advantage is more important, whereas decks the rely on strong synergies (e.g., combo) would benefit more from the improved card selection.


Perplexing Chimera and control changing enchantments

No, this is not how it works.  This is perhaps unintuitive since Perplexing Chimera's ability appears to be a "one-shot" effect, but by rule all control-changing effects are continuous effects, and these effects use a timestamp system to determine the final outcome (with the most recent effect winning out).  The control-changing effect from the aura can be overridden by Perplexing Chimera's own ability that also changes control.

See also Djinn of Infinite Deceits interacting with other control-changing effects which describes some other other unintuitive corner cases with control-changing effects.

Relevant rules (emphasis mine):

  611.1. A continuous effect modifies characteristics of objects, modifies control of objects, or affects players or the rules of the game, for a fixed or indefinite period.

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

  613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.

  613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

  613.8. One continuous effect can override another. Sometimes the results of one effect determine whether another effect applies or what another effect does.

  Example: Two effects are affecting the same creature: one from an Aura that says
  “Enchanted creature has flying” and one from an Aura that says “Enchanted creature loses
  flying.” Neither of these depends on the other, since nothing changes what they affect or
  what they’re doing to it. Applying them in timestamp order means the one that was
  generated last “wins.” The same process would be followed, and the same result reached, if either of the effects had a duration (such as “Target creature loses flying until end of turn”) or came from a non-Aura source (such as “All creatures lose flying”).

As an aside, using an aura (like Hypnotic Siren's Bestow) to regain control of perplexing chimera you gave away is probably a bad idea.  You'd likely regain control of the chimera, but only because your opponent would steal your aura spell along with another of your permanents.  And pre-enchanting a chimera you already control is a waste since of resources since the timestamp system will override the aura.


No, it is too late to declare another attacker; the triggered ability won't even trigger until it's too late, and after it triggers it must go on the stack and resolve.

From the rules:

  Declare Attackers Step

    508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 723, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

      508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that they control, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.

      [...]

      508.1m Any abilities that trigger on attackers being declared trigger.

    508.2. Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)

      508.2a Abilities that trigger on a creature attacking trigger only at the point the creature is declared as an attacker. They will not trigger if a creature attacks and then that creature’s characteristics change to match the ability’s trigger condition.

      508.2b Any abilities that triggered on attackers being declared or that triggered during the process described in rules 508.1 are put onto the stack before the active player gets priority; the order in which they triggered doesn’t matter. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)

This does mean that you can target another creature that attacked along with Taranika, to untap that creature and also buff it.


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 the initial Rummikub meld build on other player's tiles?

From the rules (emphasis added):

  After players have made their initial plays, they can also build on other sets on the table...

I think this implies that while you are making your initial meld, you cannot use the existing melds.


According to the Ion Token reference card, the TIE Fighter would be able to return fire, as you are in the Combat Phase.


Would this potential Saint Petersburg house rule work?

I don't see any reason why this would fail to work, but it would change the strategy.  I'll give it a go next time I play, if I can persuade the other players to try it.


Here are 3 reasons why I sometimes play solved games:

For the benefit of the other player. I play connect 4 with my 4 year old nephew. The point of the game for me is the bonding part. For him, its bonding, thinking ahead, playing to win and the tactile feedback of playing with the pieces
To find the solution independently. I was introduced to Nim in a mathematics lecture, where the problem was to solve the game and prove the solution works. The point of the 'game' in this context is not to play it at all, but to have a concrete subject matter to apply abstract reasoning to
To add more complexity later. Tic-Tac-Toe on a 3x3 grid is solved, but I'll introduce the 3x3 grid to new players before going to larger grids


Assuming bloodstone is an item or omen, the traitor used this incorrectly. Items are explicitly listed as being usable “once during your turn”. Some confusion may arise from the fact that later in that same section (Rulebook, page 11), it lists the five potential things that you can do with an item (use, trade, drop, steal, pick up), only one of which you can do a turn. While this does not explicitly state your turn, it can be inferred from the section.  Also, on page 6, “Use item and omen cards” is listed under a heading of “ON YOUR TURN...”.

I could not find the rules for the Widow's Walk expansion online, but I don't recall them changing this aspect of item use.


Is chest loot in "real gold" or "gold tokens"?

user30903 is correct that the rules are consistent in referring to the tokens as "money tokens", so it seems safe to assume that the gold amount for looting a chest is fixed, and does not get multiplied based on the difficulty level of the scenario.


Removing persist from a creature -- will it still trigger?

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

Key here is "triggered ability", which happen as the event occurs.

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers.

At the time the event happens, the permanent doesn't have Persist, so nothing triggers. It's only after the event concludes that Persist returns to the card.


What happens to a destroyed creature with two totem armors on it?

Per the Gatherer ruling (for Bear Umbra, not that it matters really):

  If a permanent you control is enchanted with multiple Auras that have
  totem armor, and the enchanted permanent would be destroyed, one of
  those Auras is destroyed instead -- but only one of them. You choose
  which one because you control the enchanted permanent.


How can I use Scavenging Ooze's abilities to save it from a Lightning Bolt?

The way to save your Ooze is to activate the ability one time. Two things can happen:

your opponent casts the Lightning Bolt. You respond to that by activating the ability two times; they'll resolve before the Lightning Bolt resolves, and your now 4/4 Ooze isn't killed by it. Then, the first activation will resolve and you have a 5/5 Ooze (with 3 damage marked on it).
your opponent does nothing, and the ability resolves. You have a 3/3 Ooze, and activate the ability one time. The opponent could cast Lightning Bolt while the ability is on the stack, but again you activate the ability one more time, that resolves before the Lightning Bolt does, and just like the first case, you'll end up with a 5/5 Ooze with 3 damage marked on it.

(If they don't cast Lightning Bolt at all, which is probably the best decision for them, you can activate the ability a final time.)


Note - it's Oberon rather than Morgana who does not open his eyes during the reveal phase at the start of the game.

The rules say:

  Without revealing any Character cards, the Evil players discuss and the player with the Assassin character card will name one Good player as Merlin

So no character cards should be revealed, however the player who is Oberon can join in the discussion.

It's not really explicit whether or not a Good player could claim to be Oberon at the end of the game to try and confuse the Assassin.


Can I begin a turn when there is only 1 card remaining in the player deck?

The game ends when you have to draw cards and there are not enough.

If, as you are about to draw, there are fewer than 2 cards left in the
Player Deck, the game ends and your team has lost! (Do not reshuffle
the discards to form a new deck.)

But you perform your actions first:

Each player turn is divided into 3 parts:

Do 4 actions.

Draw 2 Player cards.

Infect cities.

Reference to the rules.
So even if the deck is empty, if you win the game before the draw phase, you win.


Flesh to Dust says "target creature", so the target must be a creature. Period. Whether it's tapped or not is of no consequence. Same goes for Akroan Mastiff's ability; it simply won't do anything on resolution if the creature is still tapped then.

Hexproof, Shroud, Protection and other abilities can impose additional limits. Don't forget that creatures can be granted abilities (e.g. Lightning Greaves), and that creatures can be the subject of continuous effects created by abilities of other permanents.


During the untap step, can I copy a vehicle with Felhide Spiritbinder's Inspired trigger?

No, this does not work because you choose targets for an ability when it is put on the stack, and when the Spiritbinder's ability is put on the stack the Charger is not a creature.
Also, the Spiritbinder triggers during the untap step, but the trigger isn't put on the stack until the beginning of the upkeep step since nobody gets priority during the untap step.

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
603.3d The remainder of the process for putting a triggered ability on the stack is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2c–d. If a choice is required when the triggered ability goes on the stack but no legal choices can be made for it, or if a rule or a continuous effect otherwise makes the ability illegal, the ability is simply removed from the stack.
601.2c The player announces his or her choice of an appropriate player, object, or zone for each target the spell requires. [...]


Does "any" mean "all" or "one" for cards like Cheetah?

According to this BGG thread (which cites a play-tester), it means you can take any one card. At the end of the thread, game designer Matt Hyra (one of the co-designers for the game) corroborated this and added the following:

Just as an FYI for future card reading: If a card gains "all" of something, it would be written like:
Gain all cards with cost 4 or less from the Line-Up.

This is pretty common in card game terminology (citation needed I suppose?) where being able to take all cards would say "all" or similar.


Has the value of a five-card suit in no trump contracts been demonstrated?

I will start by saying that a 26-27 hcp requirement for games is old-fashioned in the extreme. I most often see a recommendation of 25 hcp for 3NT or 4M games, and occasionally see that shaded to 24 hcp. Along those lines, I raise a 15-17 1NT to game with nearly any 9-count.

Probably more useful than upgrading 5332 hands is downgrading 4333 hands. Many players subtract 1 high-card point for 4333 shape. 4432 hands play much better than 4333 hands, and so don't deserve the same treatment.

With all that being said, high card points are a fairly crude tool for hand evaluation. Losing trick count can supplement HCP as an aid to hand evaluation, though it is much more useful when a good trump fit has been found than when responding to 1NT. However, I mention it as it helps validate your intuition that a fifth card in a suit is worth more than a third card in a suit, all else being equal.


What does the "Ice" word means in terms of Netrunner's Lore?

According to the original Netrunner rulebook (and as recorded in the Wiki ):
The corps in Netrunner view it as an acronym for Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics.
The runners view it as an acronym for Insidious Cortical Electrocution.
The original rulebook included it in the corp (runner) glossary thus:

Ice: A program that protects our data forts from intrusion. An acronym for "intrusion countermeasures electronics." (An acronym for "insidious cortical electrocution.")


Which books to buy to start playing Warhammer 40K 8th edition?

Strictly speaking the barest minimum needed to play would be Index: Imperium 1 and Index: Chaos. If you already have the CSM Codex you can do w/out Index: Chaos. You do not actually need the Codex: SM for Blood Angels. They will eventually get their own codex, but in the meantime you could either use the Index or the Codex until the chapter specific book is released.

You do not need to purchase the rule book, but you'll probably want to. The core rules (about a dozen pages) are available for free. However the main rulebook does have a lot more options for play, more missions, and advanced rules, plus fluff and more.


Occult Research for azathoth on Eldritch Horror

Yes, resolving the encounter doesn't mean you have to resolve it successfully. Your clue gained during the encounter still entitles you to place it, as the Mystery states.
A few references to illustrate that the term resolve doesn't imply success or passing a test:
On page 9 of the rulebook, when describing Phase 2, the Encounter Phase:

During this phase, each investigator resolves one encounter.... is phase starts with the Lead Investigator. He resolves an encounter, then the investigator to his left resolves an encounter, and so on, until each investigator has resolved one encounter.

Under Token Encounters on the same page:

Clue tokens allow investigators to draw and resolve Research Encounter cards.
Gate tokens allow investigators to draw and resolve Other World Encounter cards.
Active Expedition token allows investigators to draw and resolve Expedition Encounter cards.

On Page 12 under Complex Encounters:

Expedition Encounters, Other World Encounters, and Special Encounters are rewarding but dangerous adventures called complex encounters. Each of these cards has three effects. To resolve these encounters, an investigator first resolves the initial effect (the top box of the card). Depending upon the result of this effect, he immediately resolves one of the other two effects.

These examples illustrate that resolving doesn't imply success, as the last case even talks of resolving and then branching based on the result of the effect (implying that 'resolve' could be a success or failure).


In my experience, the hardest part of sideboarding is to know what cards to take out. There are some obvious cases like removing creature removal against a deck without creatures and such, but they're not the most common case. Sometimes you change one card for another with the same function (swapping Terror for Diabolic edict against a black deck), that's easy too. But what do you take out when you need grave hate against a deck with no obvious bad cards in your own?

Focus on what cards will make you win the game?

It really helps to know you deck well when you're going to sideboard. What cards are the core of your game plan. How many creatures/disruption cards/mana sources/sacrifice outlets/whatevers do you optimally want? And how many can your deck still manage to play well with. How is your mana curve? Can you manage that 4-cost spell that's better or do you need the cheap one. Make sure not to focus too much on hampering you opponents game plan so that you ruin your own!

No matter what cards you decide on, don't forget to playtest! That's what really shows you how the deck plays after you've sideboarded.

Tip: A common test strategy when you don't know which of 2/3 cards you want to bring in is to play them as split-cards when you playtest. You get to chose which one you play during the game and after a few games you have a good idea of what you want.


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


Are the boats you build in Stone Age visible to other players?

You're playing it right. From the rules (page 6):

  Each player places their [Civilization] cards face-down on the corresponding space of their player board.

In other words, no one can see which cards you have. The only exceptions to this rule are the one-use tool cards. They are kept open until they are used.

One-use tool cards


Can I use Mentor of the Meek on small guys with buffed stats?

No.
Both abilities of Vanquisher's Banner and The Immortal Sun that gives creatures you control +1/+1 are static abilities.

611.3. A continuous effect may be generated by the static ability of an object.
611.3a A continuous effect generated by a static ability isn’t “locked in”; it applies at any given moment to whatever its text indicates.
611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the
appropriate zone.
Example: A permanent with the static ability “All
white creatures get +1/+1” generates an effect that continuously gives
+1/+1 to each white creature on the battlefield. If a creature becomes white, it gets this bonus; a creature that stops being white loses it.

But what comes first when the 1/1 creature enters the battlefield zone. The trigger from Mentor of the Meek or the static abilities?

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.

The 1/1 creature enters the battlefield as a 3/3, given that it's the type needed for Vanquisher's Banner. So Mentor of the Meek won't trigger.


Can you attack in stages before blockers are declared?

No. Basically, all attackers need to be declared at once:

Declare Attackers Step

508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 723, “Handling Illegal Actions”).
508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that they control, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.

and the final step is the triggering of abilities:

508.1m Any abilities that trigger on attackers being declared trigger.
508.2. Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)

When they resolve, and Answered Prayers triggers and resolves in turn, it's too late to declare additional attackers.
Note that if you somehow get a second combat phase in that turn (such as with Relentless Assault), your Answered Prayers might be eligible to attack during that combat phase since it already became a creature during the first one. The exception is if you cast Answered Prayers this same turn, in which case it can't attack because it has "summoning sickness"; it isn't under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn.


How does one evaluate a "locomotive" (rainbow card) in "Ticket to Ride?"

Here are three sources of pain you try to avoid:

Drawing only one resource card instead of two
Drawing resource cards that you will never be able to spend
Losing a race to build a link you want (an opponent gets there first, or the game ends first)

The single rainbow option is the only way to get stuck drawing one card instead of two, but rainbows are always spendable and awesome for winning races. I like to keep one or two on hand in case I find myself in a surprise race with an opponent, so after the first few turns I'll take one whenever I don't have one. I usually try not to spend them on very long links unless I think I'm in a race for those links - instead I'll just take known cards of that color when possible, and unless an opponent tips their hand by also taking known cards of that color, it's unlikely they can collect the requisite number before I do. (In contrast, for a short link it is likely they've randomly picked up one or two cards of that color.) I'll also start taking single rainbows more often at the end of the game since they're guaranteed to be usable.

Early game, I usually draw random cards - the main thing I'm risking is losing a race with an opponent, but on a wide open board it's often both unlikely that an opponent takes exactly the link I want and not too terrible even if they do since I can reroute around them. Draw randoms enough and you'll even end up with a rainbow or two to fall back on in hard times, and there are enough links of every color (and gray links) that you'll probably eventually find a use for whatever you draw. However, random cards get less and less attractive as the game progresses - with fewer links left there's more of a chance that an opponent wants the same one as you, or that you'll draw cards that you never find a use for.

When the known cards include colors you need, taking them is always an attractive option. An obvious downside is that you lose the ~1/9 chance of landing a random rainbow; a less obvious but potentially larger downside is that you give your opponents a hint about what you're planning to build. If you don't think your opponents will effectively use that against you - they can't figure out what you're doing, they don't have the resources to stop you or it's not sufficiently in their advantage to use them, they're not that kind of competitive, etc. - then taking known useful cards is usually the best choice. But occasionally you take that red card and then an opponent jumps on the opportunity to build the red link you wanted; not only is your link now gone but the red card is now probably less useful than a random one.


Selling to external market in Brass, is benefit salary or cash?

The extra amount is in additional income, in squares. According to the publisher's website:

  if you sell to the Distant Market then the additional income shown on the Cotton Demand track is added to your income level, it is not taken as cash.

And further on, clarifying that you go up by squares, not bands:

  When you gain income you go up a number spaces equal to the income increase, e.g. if you gained £5 then you would go up five spaces. Note that this does not translate into an increase of £5 in actual income, as that depends on the income band you are in.

The bands are only used when reducing your income due to taking loans.


How can I use Sliver Overlord to find non-Slivers?

There are 2 cards that allow you to search for non-sliver cards as if they were slivers: Arcane Adaptation and Conspiracy.

The first can add the sliver type to creature cards you own (and control), and the second sets the creature type of creature cards you own (and control).


The game designer, Frederic Moyersoen, discusses the answer to that question on BGG (emphasis mine).

If there is a path with a blue door, the blue gold-diggers win (and not the green). If there are no blue gold-diggers, no profiteur and no boss, nobody wins.


What are legal ways to use the Dispatcher's special ability in Pandemic?

From the Pandemic Rules:

  The Dispatcher may move other player’s pawns on his turn (using any of the available Basic actions) as if they were his own pawn. He may also spend an action to move a pawn to any city that contains another pawn. He may only move other players’ pawns if they permit him to do so.
  Note: For the Charter Flight action, the Dispatcher must play the card corresponding to the current location of the pawn he wishes to move.

The questions:

  If the Dispatcher wants to move ie. Medic's pawn, does he need approval of the owner or can he do it against Medic's will?

No, he can only move pawns if they permit him.

  When making a flight with another pawn, does Dispatcher use his cards or the player who's pawn is flying?

Uses his cards.

  Can the Dispatcher move his pawn to the city with another pawn or does this only apply to moving other pawns?

He may move any pawn to any city that contains another pawn, so he can move himself to where another pawn is.


When a creature turns into a frog, does damage stay on it?

Damage stays on the creature.

This rule outlines all the situations in which damage would be removed from a creature, without a card explicitly saying so:

  119.6. Damage marked on a creature remains until the cleanup step, even if that permanent stops being a creature. If the total damage marked on a creature is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed as a state-based action (see rule 704). All damage marked on a permanent is removed when it regenerates (see rule 701.13, "Regenerate") and during the cleanup step (see rule 514.2).

(emphasis added) Note that this rule says nothing about the creature turning into a different creature or changing its power/toughness or other characteristics. Since there is no rule that specifies that damage should be removed when those things happen, the damage stays.


Which monster does the summon focus on? Long way around, avoiding traps, or get stuck behind a player?

Focus: Living Bones 6
Target Hex: The hex next to Living Bones 6 and Living Corpse 6.
Path: Path 3
Move To: First hex of Path 3.

1. Determine the focus.

I'm assuming the summon doesn't fly, and that the summon has a melee attack.

The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Bones 6 (without setting off the trap) is 5.
The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Bones 9 is 5.
Even if given infinite movement, the summon can't attack Living Corpse 3.
The minimum amount of movement required to attack Living Corpse 6 (without setting off the trap) is 5.

This rules out Living Corpse 3, and leaves us with a three-way tie. Proximity is the first tie breaker.

Living Bones 6 is 3 hexes away.
Living Bones 9 is 3 hexes away.
Living Corpse 6 is 4 hexes away.

This rules out Living Corpse 6, and leaves us with a two-way tie. Turn order is the second tie breaker. Living Bones 6 acts before Living Bones 9, so the summon will focus on Living Bones 6.

2. Determine the target hex.

I'm assuming the summon doesn't fly, that the summon has a melee attack, and that the attack targets a single opponent.

There is only one hexes from which the summon can attack Living Bones 6, so the summon will move towards that hex.

3. Determine the path taken.

Giving an infinite movement, Path 3 is the only shortest that doesn't set off the trap.

4. Move as much as possible along the path.

The summon will end its movement in the first hex of Path 3.

If you have access to the Forgotten Circles expansion, check out the back cover of its scenario book. It does a good job explaining the monster/summon AI. Also, you should take both of these quizzes: Basic Quiz (PDF), Advanced Quiz (Geeklist).

  Both Living Bones 6 and 9 are 2 hexes away, so by default I would assume that it tries to focus on Living Bones 6

This is not correct. They are 3 hexes away, and proximity is not the primary criteria for choosing a focus. The primary criteria for choosing a focus is the minimum amount of movement needed to get into range to attack the candidate.

  If it tries to take Path 1, it gets stuck behind the player and cannot attack.

Even given an infinite movement, that path won't ever be fruitful. That rules out that path.

  Path 4 is 4 hexes, but it goes through an obstacle, so for determining focus I believe we're supposed to treat obstacles as barriers unless there is absolutely no other possible path. (Is that right?)

Correct.

  Path 3 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 6. Path 2 is 5 hexes to get to Bones 9. Since both of those paths are 5 hexes long, I assume the initiative order is the tie-breaker and so it would focus on Bones 6.

You first need to rule out Living Corpse 6 (also 5 hexes). See above.

  The summon has 2 movement.

This isn't relevant any point in the decision process. Always assume an infinite movement of the current type (flying or not).

  On a subsequent turn, assuming it's still focusing on Bones 6, would it continue to be stuck

There's no point in guessing what it will try to do next turn as that's also irrelevant.

  The trap in Path 4 does enough damage to the kill the summon.

Not relevant.

If the only path to its focus would bring it to the trap (which isn't the case here), it will go through the trap even if it kills it.

  Or, as a wildcard option, would the summon choose to focus on Bones 6 but take Path 5 because it's the only path that it could ACTUALLY fully complete?

There's no point in guessing what it will try to do next turn as that's also irrelevant.


Do all the haunts in Betrayal at House on the Hill follow a pattern?

This is a little tough to answer without spoilers, but to put it simply, there are a lot of haunts with hero win conditions that are similar to the ones you mentioned, but subtly different, or where the lose condition varies, and some where it doesn't fit your options.
The nature of Betrayal is that each haunt does change the rules of the game in a unique manner, and so after basic functionality the program would have to be deal with haunts on a per-case basis.

Answer by proxy for Samthere's comment. Comment if he posts his own answer and I will delete.


Should I mill myself if I have graveyard synergies in my deck, but haven't drawn them yet?

Let's assume the game will end within 13 turns. In those 13 turns, you will draw 13 cards, and since you have no information where the Survivors' Bonds are, the milling has no effect on how fast you draw one or how likely you are to draw one. If you don't mill at all, you will draw the top 13 cards; if you mill every turn, you'll draw the cards at positions divisible by three. (Well, if you're unlucky enough to mill all of them, you can stop milling of course.)

Milling does however increase the value of a Survivors' Bond; without creatures, it's a dead card, and the more options you have, the better.

So bottom line: always activate Skull Prophet.


Exert Ability Workings with Untap Abilities

Yes, you can Exert a permanent multiple times in the same turn like this. The rules on Exert very helpfully clarify this:

701.37. Exert

701.37a To exert a permanent, you choose to have it not untap during your next untap step.
701.37b A permanent can be exerted even if it’s not tapped or has already been exerted in a turn. If you exert a permanent more than once before your next untap step, each effect causing it not to untap expires during the same untap step.
(and a couple of other lines)

Very conveniently for us, all the Exerts only apply to the very next untap step. We won't have any Exerts "lagging behind", they all wear off simultaneously.


Do Haunt 21 Zombies Have Stats Reduced With Damage?

No you do not reduce their stats - the zombies are killed by a single successful Might attack against them.

The special zombie attack rules listed in the traitor's tome state:

  Defeating a Zombie with a weapon that requires a Might attack kills it. Dynamite can also kill zombies. Any other attack stuns a Zombie as normal.

Normally monsters cannot be killed in combat but are only stunned when they would take damage, so there are no standard rules for monsters taking damage.

However when a haunt specifically overrides the standard rules, only then can a monster take damage. This is the case for the Zombie Lord, but there is no specific rule listed for the individual zombies.


Can I steal a permanent indefinitely with Frenzied Fugue?

The "until end of turn" effect lasts until the end of the turn, regardless of whether or not Frenzied Fugue remains on the battlefield.

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

If the effect read "[...] until end of turn or until Frenzied Fugue leaves the battlefield.", then you would lose control as soon as Frenzied Fugue left the battlefield.


Can I copy Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's ability twice with Strionic Resonator and Rings of Brighthearth?

Yes, this will work as described. You can use those abilities together to exile a total of 60 cards in one combat.

The exact sequence of steps plays out like this:

You declare Ulamog as an attacker, and its ability triggers.
While that ability is still on the stack, you activate Strionic Resonator's ability targeting Ulamog's ability.
Activating Strionic Resonator's ability triggers Rings of Brighthearth's ability.
Rings of Brighthearth's ability resolves. You choose to pay the cost to copy Strionic Resonator's ability, and you don't change the target.
The copy of Strionic Resonator's ability resolves, creating a copy of Ulamog's ability.
The first copy of Ulamog's ability resolves, and the defending player exiles 20 cards from the top of their library.
The original Strionic Resonator ability resolves, creating another copy of Ulamog's ability.
The second copy of Ulamog's ability resolves, and the defending player exiles another 20 cards from the top of their library.
The original Ulamog's ability resolves, and the defending player exiles  another 20 cards from the top of their library.


Zombicide: Black Plague! Strategy suggestions for Clovis and Samson

Tips for if any survivor is lagging behind

Have them score objectives
Have them score a lot of kills with dragon bile attacks
Restrain the highest experience player from widening the gap. The tips gained for Clovis and Samson below have been gained from not using the wizard Baldric, who tends to dominate

Clovis

Role within the team: close combat expert dealing with damage 1 zombies (walkers, runners, necromancers etc.)
Secondary role within the team: close combat expert dealing with fatties, if he has a hammer (or 2!)
Optimal equipment: double daggers, shield on body
Best skills: +1 free melee action, +1 free combat action. This is not meant to be subtle - just throw more dice!
Additional notes: only give the hammer from the starting equipment to Ann or Nelly, as these are the 2 fastest survivors, so they become a rapid reaction force to early fatties

Samson

Role within the team: door breaking tank. Best used for breaking open buildings and taking damage with his iron hide
Secondary role within the team: abomination hunter (if able to get +1 Damage: melee in the red danger level, though this is less important in the base game with just one abomination)
Optimal equipment: axe (for breaking down doors), hammer, plate armour on body
Best skills: +1 die: Combat (more flexible than +1 dice to roll: melee), Barbarian in the vanilla game ("When resolving a Melee Action, the Survivor may substitute the Dice number of the Melee weapon(s) he uses with the number of Zombies standing in the targeted Zone . Skills affecting the dice value, like +1 die: Melee, still apply." - all those dice!) or +1 Damage if Abominations are a problem


Can I spend Stimhack credits after accessing cards?

According to the run sequence on the back page manual, a run includes "Access Cards", so obviously, one can use the credits from stimhack to trash any accessed cards.

Now, for the Clone Chip part of the question: this is a Paid Ability, so you need a paid abilities window (the green arrow on the path charts) to use the chip.  If you look at the Revised Run structure in the FAQ (last page, here), you will notice that the last Paid Abilities window is 4.3,  which is after passing the last piece of ICE but before any cards are accessed.  So, in your situation, you would not be able to install Crypsis and the 5 credits would be lost.


Does a saga's ability resolve in time to save the saga?

You will get to return the Saga to your hand.

  714.4. If the number of lore counters on a Saga permanent is greater than or equal to its final chapter number, and it isn’t the source of a chapter ability that has triggered but not yet left the stack, that Saga’s controller sacrifices it. This state-based action doesn’t use the stack.

The bold part makes it so that as long as the "return to your hand" ability is on the stack; the state-based action that would make you sacrifice it doesn't do anything yet.


In Gin-Rummy, when both players Pass, can the active player make a Pickup?

Pagat says the first player cannot go back and take the face up card but must draw from the stock:

  If both players refuse the turned-up card, the non-dealer draws the top card from the stock pile.

It seems to be the common rule.
Wiki, Spruce Crafts, WikiHow all agree


It's just "if".

The Creeper doesn't give you an extra ability to discard a Keeper. It just says what to do "if" you discard a Keeper.

Contrast this alternate wording:

  During your turn, you can discard a Keeper you have in play to move
  this to another player.

which is similar to Gold-Pressed Latinum's

  You can discard this to steal any Keeper...


In chess, if a player ran out of time, how to determine if his/her opponent has the 'possibility of checkmating'?

If in doubt of being able to by player B, player A now plays both sides towards a checkmate of his choice.

In your example, player A would be able to prove it if he comes to the said checkmate somehow.

I think checkmating against King-Queen with King-Knight is impossible. The shown position (with the rook being switched to a queen) is no checkmate because the queen can just capture the knight.


How compatible are the two versions of Netrunner?

The powerlevel of cards has changed, quite a lot of cards from the original netrunner have been increased in cost or decreased in effect.

The main difference is that the new netrunner has factions and identities. When building a deck you are allowed as many neutral and your faction cards as you like, but you can only include up to 15 (normally) of other faction cards. Each identity has a influence allotment, minimum deck size and some ability. You are also only allowed 3 of a given card in your deck at most, in contrast to the original netrunner which had no limits.

Some key words have changed, Wall is now barrier. Black Ice is now Illicit, and gives a BadPublicity when rezzed. Icebreakers have types Fracter instead of Worm/Noisy and Decoder instead of nothing for Code-gate breakers. Icebreakers which can break any ice is now called AI, and a new Icetype of Trap exists, which currently no breakers can break, other than AI and special icebreakers matching Destroyer or AP keywords on the trap. These Trap ice self-destruct as part of their effect.

Base link cards have been removed from the game, now each runner identity has a base link on it (either 0 or 1). Traces are now open bid, with the corp bidding first. Trace(n) now means the trace starts from level n, and the corp can pay xC to boost this value by x. Then the runner takes their link (from base link + any from cards in play) and bids yC. If the values are equal the trace has failed, if the corp's values is higher than the runner's then the trace was successful.

Bad publicity is no longer a win condition, instead the runner gains 1C for each bad publicity the corp has at the start of each run. If these credits are not spent during the run, they are lost.

Virus counters are now placed on the virus, instead of being given to the corp. This means destroying the program will also remove the effects. Virus purging now requires 3 clicks to be spent, rather than forfeited. This means you cannot purge viruses easily without it taking your whole turn.

Agendas are now forfeited as a whole, rather than forfeiting agenda points.

Stealth has changed, there are no Noisy icebreakers any more. Instead stealth icebreakers get special benefits from spending credits from stealth cards.

Regions no longer have to be rezzed immediately when installed, but you are still not allowed more than 1 region per server at any time, rezzed or unrezed.

Because of these changes the cards aren't really that compatible balance-wise, but a lot of cards are the same so you could check to see what changes have been made and adjust accordingly. You could play a game with them easily enough, but it might not be very balanced!

Example of changes, increased cost, change in virus mechanics:

The icebreakers are generally less powerful at breaking big ice in Android Netrunner, so the very useful Pile Driver has no real equivalent in Android Netrunner.
 compared to  and


Yes, the online Diplomacy playing site Backstabbr has a "sandbox" feature that does that.

It is perfect to go through attack scenarios and see how they end up.

For practicing submitting orders, you enter orders by clicking on the map, and see how they would be written by hand. You don't submit textual orders. I guess you could write them down by hand first, and see whether the generated order is the same.


How does Charmed Pendant interact with Reaper King?

You have to add WUBRG to your mana pool.

From the Comprehensive Rules:

  107.4e Hybrid mana symbols are also colored mana symbols. Each one represents a cost that can be paid in one of two ways, as represented by the two halves of the symbol. A hybrid symbol such as {W/U} can be paid with either white or blue mana, and a monocolored hybrid symbol such as {2/B} can be paid with either one black mana or two mana of any type. A hybrid mana symbol is all of its component colors.

Colorless is not a color, so you cannot add colorless mana to your pool in this case.

  105.4. If a player is asked to choose a color, he or she must choose one of the five colors. “Multicolored” is not a color. Neither is “colorless.”

Also note the rules clarification on the card's Gatherer page:

  If you flip over a hybrid card, you get one of either color mana, not both, for each mana symbol.

This is just in cases where you flip other, "proper" hybrid cards with 2-colored hybrid mana symbols. In this case, you don't even have a choice as you can't pick colorless for a color.


Yes, the "first strike" ability will be canceled "forever". The creature which had the ability "until end of turn" will lose this ability exactly at the end the current turn, and not at the beginning of the next turn.

To answer your question more clearly, a few things must be laid out first as a basic understanding of the game's structure:

A turn is composed of several phases (and their respective steps). The step that is relevant to your question is quoted here. All quoted text is taken from the Comprehensive Rules of Magic: the Gathering.
I strongly suggest your do your own reading about phases and steps, as it will greatly improve your understanding of the game.

Here, we'll be looking at the ruling on effects that happen "until end of turn". That's CR514, which deals with the last step of a turn, the Cleanup Step:

  Cleanup Step

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

As you can see, nothing about this rule states that these kinds of effects ever come back into action. This means that, once your turn reaches the cleanup step, all effects that happen "until end of turn" cease to happen.

Note that at the beginning of this answer, I quoted the word "forever". I did that because, naturally, if at any other point in the game you once again give your creature any ability "until end of turn", it will once again have that ability until the next cleanup step is reached.


Can I counter Thrun by flashing Lodestone Golem? Can I counter anything by flashing Lodestone Golem?

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

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


How to find people to play Magic the gathering with?

It's illegal, but you can always play for free on cockatrice or mws (never tried mws). Look the link in mtgsalvation.com forum (im typing from mobile).

You can also play on mtgo, which is legal, but i think doesn't worth it.

You can also ask your friends to play it too.

Good luck


Is there anything stopping the crownholder taking the King card every turn?

Getting the crown is usually a small reward in comparison to, say, the architect or the thief abilities. The only way this can be a good strategy is focusing on golden districts. At that point, is it easy to target the king with either the thief or the assasin and break the advantage of having the crown AND a useful ability.

In short, there is no way of stopping some player keeping the king forever, but there is also not a good reason to do so.


Do multiple return to battlefield effects "stack"?

Both Athreos and Broodmoth's abilities create a triggered effect ("Whenever ...") when the creature dies. As the controller of the effects, you choose the order in which they go on the stack.

Whichever effect resolves first (the second one you put on the stack) finds the card it's looking for and returns it to the battlefield, with a flying counter if it was Broodmoth's effect.

The second effect to resolve looks for the card, can't find it in the zone it expects it to be in (because it's already been returned to the battlefield) and fizzles.

Or in other words: you get one creature back, with your choice as to whether it has a flying counter on it or not. As an aside at this point, you're never going to get a copy of something unless an effect explicitly says "create a copy" or similar.


Axis and Allies - Is there a best country?

Answering the question with AAMC bid statistics

Others have explained why the Axis have a significant disadvantage in the 2nd Edition rules. I'll attempt to provide hard evidence and quantify this advantage. The popular play-by-email (PBEM) site Axis and Allies Members Club (which I have no affiliation with and which I hadn't logged onto in years until I did some research for this post) keeps statistics on the games played by its members.

There's such a strong belief that the game is unbalanced in favor of the allies that the club has introduced a concept known as bidding to even out the game. Before the game starts, each player bids for how many extra IPCs they would need to be given to play the Axis. Then are then allowed to use this money to purchase and place additional units on the board prior to the start of the game.

Bidding can either be hidden (both bids placed in secret and low bid plays the Axis) or open, where players bid each other down over multiple rounds until someone calls uncle (like the old game show Name that Tune).

I haven't played in years and looked up my old game logs. I had about a 0.500 win percentage with an average bid of about 12. There is a (fairly vapid) thread on the AAMC message boards asking what bids are running now, the consensus seems to be the low 20s. Lastly, I logged on and checked the game logs for the club's top ranked player. The average bid over his last 20 games was something like 22. The difference in the bids is explained because I always played no first turn Russian attack, which is evidently worth about 10 IPCs to the Axis (because they can save the units in Finland, or at least the fighter).

So, among the very seasoned 2nd edition players over at AAMC, the consensus is that it's not fair to take the Axis unless the Allies spot them the equivalent of more than 7 infantry on the first turn to be placed anywhere on the game board.

That's a fairly insane unbalance in the game. I believe the only reason it didn't tank the game completely is because although the Allied advantage is large it is also hard to capitalize on if you're inexperienced: the Allies require more finesse to play (flawless execution of strategies like shuck-shuck), often much more than the novice A&A player has.


The total power of a set of minions is the sum of their powers.

If your minion has a power of 6, you could destroy a minion of power 4 and a minion of power 2, but you could not destroy a minion of power 4 and a minion of power 3.

To get the other meaning, it would be phrased the same except for the removal of the word "total".


What Happens If The Sorcerers Run Out of Tokens?

The rules address that specific case in the section on picking a race (page 3)

  If, on the other hand, a Special Power (or Race power) lets you take
  additional Race tokens from the storage tray during the course of the
  game, you are still limited by the total number of tokens physically
  available. So a player with 18 Sorcerer tokens on the board won't be
  able to use his Sorcerer power again until some of his tokens become
  available.


Does "advance the active mystery" apply to an AO's final mystery?

Further digging turned up this thread where official rule clarifications from the maker of the game have been gathered.

Turns out it this has been addressed.

  How do the effects "advance/solve the active Mystery" interact with the Final Mystery?

  Quote :

    The Final Mystery is not the active Mystery. As such, “advance the active Mystery” and “solve the active Mystery” effects will not affect the Final Mystery.

So, it seems I was correct in how I played it.


According to Wikipedia:

  Puppet Stayman, initially developed by Neil Silverman and refined by Kit Woolsey and Steve Robinson in 1977-78

If you can locate copies of the April 1977 and April 1978 editions of The Bridge World magazine that might have more details on the history of the system.

As to why it's called puppet stayman, this page has an answer from the editor of The Bridge World:

  In The Bridge World's terminology, a puppet is a transfer that systemically requires partner to make the cheapest bid. Puppet Stayman is so-called because in the original version a 2♣ response to 1NT required opener to bid 2♦ (as in Gladiator before it).


The full card text is:

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

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


Do you waste your attack if you try to attack a monster that can't be attacked?

You have to tell them, but only when they're about to try.

They don't waste an attack by making a speed attack, because they can't make a speed attack. As soon as the hero announces that they're going to make a speed attack, the traitor must tell them that they can't, and they carry on with their turn. However, they may have already wasted some time getting into a position to find this out.

Unfortunately due to how Betrayal is made, there's no rules reference to clarify this specifically. While it's not identical, there's a similarity in the "Make an Attack" rules (page 13):

  You can’t use a trait to attack an opponent who doesn’t have that trait. For instance, if a monster doesn’t have Sanity, you can’t make a Sanity attack against it.

It's not that the attack just fails; you can't even try it. You might not know that the monster doesn't have Sanity until you tried to attack with it, and the traitor says "you can't, it doesn't have Sanity." In that case, you haven't made an attack yet.

This is distinct from monsters that are immune to, or can't be damaged/stunned by a particular type of attack, as they can still be attacked in that way.


Between prevention and replacement effects, which takes precedence?

Both prevention effects and replacement effects apply in the same way and at the same time, and the player who is affected or controls the object that is affected is the one who chooses the order in which to apply them. This is detailed in the rules section interaction of replacement and/or prevention effects:

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

[...]

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

So, in both of your examples, the player that would be dealt damage decides which replacement effect to apply first.
In the Fog vs Undead Alchemist example, if a zombie controlled by Undead Alchemist's controller would deal combat damage to a player, that player chooses whether to apply the Fog effect and prevent the damage, or apply the Undead Alchemist effect first and mill cards. In either case, once one effect is applied the other one is no longer applicable.
In the Abuna's Chant vs Soul-Scar Mage example, once damage would be dealt by a source controlled by Soul-Scar Mage's controller to the creature that is the target of Abuna's Chant, the controller of that creature chooses which effect to apply first. If they choose to apply Soul-Scar Mage's ability first, the damage is replaced with -1/-1 counters, so the effect of Abuna's Chant is no longer applicable. If they choose to apply Abuna's Chant's effect first, then any remaining damage above the 5 it prevents is then replaced with -1/-1 counters.


Is Harvey Walters immune to the Man in Black?

Yes, that's correct. Harvey Walter's ability applies to all losses (but not costs), as the FAQ explicitly states:

  Q: Does the Strong Mind ability (reduce all Sanity loss by 1) of the
  professor, Harvey Walters, apply to the casting of spells?

  A: No. The professor’s ability works on losses, not costs. The same
  distinction applies to the gangster, Michael McGlen, and his ability
  to reduce Stamina losses.

So Horror checks, Elder signs, Mythos cards, Tomes... are all covered. While it's a cool combo if you happen to draw that Mythos card, it's not a game-breaker, IMHO. You still have to hang around French Hill Streets, and the reward, while good, isn't exceptional.

I'll note that an alternative way to play this would be to add up all the sanity losses from the Man in Black, and then subtract one from the total. In fact, this is the way I normally play this interaction, since getting the clue and spell for free feels kind of lame. As far as I know, there is no official ruling one way or the other on that though. Whichever way you play it, I don't think it is going to substantively affect your games - there are many more, much more decisive random elements in a typical game of Arkham!


What are all the promo cards available for Dominion?

According to "Hans im Glück", which is the publisher of Dominion in Germany, there are only those five promo cards available. At the moment they sell the german version of the stash (Geldversteck) and the Governor (Gouverneur) in their online store http://www.cundco.de.

They also say that as soon as they are out of stock, they wont sell any new cards.

There is a german Dominion big box available at amazon.de which contains all promo cards. The description of the Dominion big box at amazon.com, however, says

  Additionally it contains promo card sets which may vary

So this box will most propably not contain all of the promo cards.


Any panels you close on a turn will, by rule, always have the same sum, so a given roll will always reduce your score by the same amount.

So all you can do is leave open as many possibilities as possible for future rolls. You do this by closing as few numbers as possible on each roll.  Closing 5 is better than closing 2 and 3 because if you roll a 2 or a 3, the 5 won't help you, but the 2 and 3 together can serve any purpose the 5 could serve.

A table is available that shows which numbers are best to close given the currently closed numbers and the current dice roll.


What happens if an attacking creature is blocked by a creature with equal power and toughness?

It will depend on their actual power and toughness. If their power is higher than or equal to their toughness (two 2/1 creatures or two 1/1 creatures blocking each other) they'll both die; if the toughness is higher (two 1/2 creatures) they'll both survive.

That's the story for vanilla creatures (i.e. without abilities); some abilities, like First strike and Deathtouch, might influence the outcome.


Should reckoning effects be executed as if done simultaneously?

You get to determine the order of the effects, but they do not happen simultaneously. Thus you should resolve curse effect first and blessings last.

Do note that if a reckoning effect causes you to gain a card (e.g. a condition) that has its own reckoning effect you do not have to resolve the reckoning effect on the new card until the next reckoning. Basically, once the reckoning phase begins, the list of things that need to be resolved is fixed for that round.

And, yes, if your investigator is defeated by a reckoning effect you do not continue to resolve reckoning effects on his/her remaining items. Defeats are immediate and you discard all conditions and tokens (except clues) and set the investigator aside along with his possessions. This can also cause you to loose beneficial effects that the investigator was providing to others on his/her space. So, again, the order you resolve the effects does matter, even between investigators where you are supposed to follow the usual turn order (lead first, then clockwise).

The case in the question you cite is a little less clear. Lost in time and space usually allows an investigator to skip resolving reckoning effects. But you could argue that all the items' reckoning effects are triggered already (just unresolved) and since you take the items with you you have to continue to resolve them all.


Can you bring cards with altered art to FNM?

The tournament rules have the following to say about alters:

3.3. Authorized Cards
(...)
Artistic modifications are acceptable in sanctioned tournaments, provided that the modifications do not make the card art unrecognizable, contain substantial strategic advice, or contain offensive images. Artistic modifications also may not obstruct or change the mana cost or name of the card.
The Head Judge is the final authority on acceptable cards for a tournament.

The last line would be the key element - I suggest you always ask the Judge prior to the tournament whether you're allowed to play a certain card, and be prepared for a no as an answer just in case (which means bring unaltered copies of the card).
Not all events labelled "FNM" by stores are sanctioned events, however, and as far as unsanctioned events go, you can bring whatever cards the other players accept.


Winning avalanche with all pebbles on avalanche mode?

According to this article, you can capture all 48 turn 1 in avalanche mode if an avalanche triggers on both sides.  If you can only place on your side of the board, you can still capture 42 stones on turn 1, which guarantees a victory but not a sweep.


Cost for the CAFS Firefighter to extinguish fires

The Action Point (AP) cost is unchanged. From page 4 of the rule book

A player  gets 4 Action Points (AP) to spend on their turn. Each Action has a corresponding AP cost to perform. A player may select from any of the available Actions in any order and spend the appropriate AP to perform it. An action may be performed more than once per turn, so long as the AP cost is spent each time that Action is performed.
Players may pass. Unspent AP are saved from turn to turn. [...]
Extinguish – Use your gear to fight the fire in the Firefighter’s space or an Adjacent space:

Remove a Smoke marker from the Board: 1 AP • Flip a Fire marker to Smoke: 1 AP
Remove a Fire marker from the Board: 2 AP

It is usually best to completely Extinguish Fire (2 AP); Smoke is liable to reignite.

So, the CAFS Firefighter has to spend the normal 2 AP to fully extinguish fire, but they can use their free Extinguish AP that cannot be saved between turns.

CAFS Firefighter - 3 AP plus 3 free Extinguish AP per turn. Free Extinguish AP cannot be saved.


Is there a real shift in balance if Blueprints players violate their blueprint?

Well, obviously if you can place your die on any of the 6 spaces of the card, even the filled-in ones, then of course you can always place your die. No re-roll needed.

However, a blueprints card usually has 3 or 4 spaces where you can place your die. I played this game many times and it never happened that we had to re-roll a new die. The only way this could happen is if you have high numbers on your card and ALL the remaining dice have smaller numbers. This is unlikely. But of course, if all players agree to purposely go for the highest numbers first, this might happen. But I don't see why you would do this. Even if glass dice with high numbers are available, the numbers are usually not so important for the other colors.

Thematic point of view

I know this game might be considered an abstract game, but do not forget there is a theme. You are an architect. You cannot build wherever you want. The filled-in spaces represent roads, other buildings and so on. You are restricted by the surroundings. You should respect that, otherwise nobody will hire you as an architect.

Technical point of view

I think the differences are very small. One thing I can think of is:
- it is slightly easier to have more connections for the orange dice (which gives point according to adjacent neighbours). With the official rule, you might have an orange die on the first layer next to a filled-in space and therefore you cannot use this space to have an orange neighbour and score more points. You will have to manage it by putting a die over the first one.

On some rare occasions you will be able to play a die that you would not if you follow the official rules. So, I think this makes the game slightly easier, but not by much.

But it also makes the game less interesting: what is the point of the blueprints if you can put your die where you want?

My experience with this game is: usually you tend to respect your blueprint (6 points is always nice to have), the only time when you don't is when you really cannot or when you go for "the tower" (all dice stacked together).


The queen is protected by the bishop on c5, i.e. the one on the dark square. Therefore you can't capture it. As the king has nowhere else to go, and no other piece can capture the queen or interpose, it's checkmate.


What is the benefit of being solid with Amnon Duul (Travel Hub)?

As well as being useful in cases where fugitives or passengers die and you have a job which requires a specific amount of them, there is another case where being solid with Amnon Duul can be handy.
If you start a job like Patience' Ranch Hand Recruitment which states

Pick-Up
Load Passengers, no limit.
Drop-Off
Deliver Passengers. Get paid $300 per Passenger.

but you have some of your cargo hold filled with other stuff (requirements for another job, parts, fuel or randomly acquired cargo) which you are able to offload on the way, then you can top up your cargo hold with more passengers so that you can earn more on completion of the job.


Are the German tanks in Axis & Allies Panthers?

The 1942 2nd edition does indeed list the German tank miniature as a Panther. This is the most recent printing. You can make out the text in the top picture.

You can check the rule books from the official wizards site, unless you are talking about the older Avalon Hill versions, to discover if the units were changed from any of the different versions. If they are attempting to be historically accurate, you can compare the miniature to the Panzer I-IV, Panther, and Tiger I/II.

The game page on Wikipedia agrees with the other sites, but notes under Units that:

  Changes in the figurines used may be due to evolving game mechanics (such as the introduction of player-specific antiaircraft gun pieces in 1942 Second Edition necessitating the replacement of artillery units that were previously represented by antiaircraft guns), increased realism (For example, prior to Anniversary, many British and Soviet units were recolored versions of American pieces; in later games they were replaced with pieces representing units from their own armies. Similarly, most ANZAC and Italian pieces, including infantry, were replaced in Pacific 1940 Second Edition and Europe 1940 Second Edition, respectively).


Does successfully opening the vault end your movement due to drawing the item cards?

Yes, drawing a card for any reason ends your movement.

As you pointed out, the rules (page 5) make it clear that drawing a room tile with a card symbol does this:

  The first time you discover a room with a card symbol, you must end your move in that room and draw the appropriate card.

The rules for movement (page 4) clarify this further:

  Whenever a game effect makes you draw a card, you must STOP moving for the rest of your turn.

So any game effect which makes you draw cards (and if you're not cheating you should only be drawing cards based on 'game effects'!) ends your movement. This includes things such as successfully opening the puzzle box item, so try that at the end of your turn unless you really need the item!


If the person to my right plays a Skip card, can I still pick the top card off the discard pile?

No you cannot.

From the rules:

  Skip Card – This card enables you to force someone to skip or lose a turn for that particular rotation/round. Once you discard or play it down, you can choose anyone to lose their turn. The Skip card may not be picked up from the Discard Pile, only from the Draw Pile. If it’s the first card to be turned up at the start of the game, the first player to start will lose a turn.


No.

While the core rules don't answer this, it is explicitly covered in the expansions. From the most recent expansion, Pretty Pretty Smash Up, page 12:

  The power of a minion not in play is only the number printed on it, but
  once in play its power includes all modifications. Its power may never go below zero.


Platinum Emperion and Smash to Smithereens

The owner of Platinum Emperion will lose because Smash to Smithereens is a multi-step spell.  The Emperion is destroyed before the damage is dealt:

608.2c The controller of the spell or ability follows its instructions in the order written.

The Emperion ability stops functioning as soon as it leaves the battlefield:

611.3. A continuous effect may be generated by the static ability of an object.
611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.

And, importantly, "destroy" causes the Emperion to leave the battlefield immediately (as opposed dealing it lethal damage, which would not cause it to die until after the spell had finished resolving because that is when state-based actions are next checked):

701.7a To destroy a permanent, move it from the battlefield to its owner's graveyard.


Given the game limitations caused by Barry's variant, and the vast number of resources that can be found contradicting her, I would think that the common rule is to place Kings at the bottom of columns.

You could do an exhaustive internet search for Baker's Dozen rules and never see the variant that Barry describes in her book. Other books, such as Hoyles, also follow the rule that Kings go to the bottom of a column. It seems that Barry is alone in her variation, and I think that's because it makes a more difficult game.

For the common rules of Baker's Dozen, "once all cards are taken out of a column, the column can never be filled." The reason you move all Kings to the bottom of columns is to ensure that the game is potentially solvable. If you don't move Kings to the bottom, they'll likely sit on top of differently suited cards and you'll have to clear the entire suit of that King before being able to start on the suit or suits it's covering.

For example, if you deal a tableau and it has a column (bottom to top) {2D} {7H} {9C} {KC}, under the common rules you'd rearrange to {KC} {2D} {7H} {9C}. In this case, you'll have a fairly easy time building up your columns and foundation piles. But in Barry's variant, you'd rearrange to {2D} {7H} {KC} {9C}. Before you can even move the two of diamonds and seven of hearts, you have to clear the entire club suit to the foundation piles. This gives you far less maneuverability over the course of the game.

It's possible you can get into a similar situation using the common rules, although the implications aren't as severe; you could have a pile that looks like {2S} {6D} {JC} {QS}, so you need to move the Queen and Jack in order to get to the lower cards. But with the common rules, there will be a King somewhere to move those cards to. If Kings aren't at the bottom of columns, and there is never anywhere to move them because columns can't be reused once depleted, then cards can get stuck beneath them until that King's suit is cleared.

I haven't found a copy of Barry's book, but there is the possibility that she allows cards to be moved into empty tableau spaces, like in Spanish Patience. If that's the case, then her description would seem to fall somewhere between the two games. It would also negate the difficulties caused by allowing Kings to sit above other cards.


When, if at all, does initiative pass between players?

It does not ever change hands. Initiative stays with whichever player had it at the start of the game. It's not really mentioned in the "starting to play" book, but the Rules Reference is pretty explicit:

  Initiative

  Initiative determines which player acts first during the
  Ship Phase and Squadron Phase. It is assigned to a player
  during the “Determine Initiative” step of setup. That
  player is the first player and takes the initiative token. His
  opponent is the second player.

  •   The first player retains initiative for the entire game.


What happens to the current color when you successfully challenge a Wild Draw 4?

If the Wild Draw 4 is challenged the person who played the card must show their hand to the challenger. If there is a card in their hand that they could have played then the player must draw 6 cards. If the person who played the the draw 4 has no cards that they could have played then the challenger must draw 6 cards. Regardless the outcome of the challenge the Wild Draw 4 stays in play and the game is played normally. All of this info can be found in the rulebook that came with the cards.


Why would someone want to use Pot of Desires, other than to draw 2 cards?

Why would someone do this? Is gaining 2 cards worth it?

Exactly.

Banishing 10 cards face down is the trade-off for drawing 2 cards; it's up to you (or the deck builder) to determine if this trade-off is worth it.

Having a card that just lets you draw 2 cards would be too broken. Such effect should have a trade-off to make it more balanced, and that is why this card requires banishing 10 cards.

In theory, no one wants to banish 10 cards facedown, because as they are facedown you can't recover them by any means (at least as far as I  know, as you don't know what card it is).

However, in practice, drawing 2 cards may be worth it, and even decisive for the game result.


Does Sylvok Lifestaff work with Bronze Bombshell?

You don't have enough time (since equipping is done 'at sorcery speed'), but it doesn't really matter; you can only equip a creature you control:

  02.6a Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. "Equip [cost]" means "[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."


Bang! - Eliminating an outlaw with backfire

It seems that the Backfire card is part of the Valley of Shadows expansion...?

If that is correct, then this product description geeklist from boardgamegeek, states that the outlaw is now the target of a Bang! and thus eliminated by a Bang!

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/205880/item/4492671#item4492671

(And this question seems to have a duplicate : Bang! Elimination Award For Henry Block and Backfire
They seems to have been created almost simultaneously )


How do I organise my cards in the Dominion big box insert?

There is a standard way to store those cards in the big box. Your big box should've come with a couple of large bookmark-shaped cards. One side has a bunch of card names upon decorative scrolls, like this:

photo from Board Game Barker

What you're supposed to do with this organiser card is to lay it down in the center of the box, between all the card slots. In the big box, that will look like this:

photo from the Board Game Geek page

If you put it down the right way, each card's name will sit directly beside a card slot. This organiser card will tell you which slot to put each card in. The thicker slots (e.g. the money slots) will have more corresponding spacing on the organiser card, so make sure those line up.

This organiser card also means I can check very easily where cards are: I can just look at the organiser, search for the name I'm after, and pull the cards out of the corresponding slot, which beats having to pull various piles out one by one trying to hunt for the right one. In the first photo, I can tell the Adventurer was put in that top left slot, the Bureaucrat beneath it, Cellar beneath that, etc.

The reverse side of the organiser card, with a bunch of blank scrolls, is for you to fill out if you ever come up with an alternative organisation scheme you'd like to use instead. (E.g. maybe you'd like to group all the attack cards together in the box, or something.)


That should be simple - don't play at 14 in your final diagram. Instead, try this:

$$Bm7
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . B . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 7 X 5 . |
$$ . . X . 8 . O 3 O 1 . |
$$ . . . . . . . 6 4 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------

Note how white is alive, while black has an empty triangle, a bad shape in this case. It is not easy for black to attack the white stone on the right side. For instance:

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

If B1, white can split at 2. If B1 at 2, white can move fluently to the right side by playing at 1 herself. In the meantime, black has no eyes yet.

In the original diagram, B13 might be a bad move. I don't know this joseki, but I'd guess black should try something else instead, possibly before 13.


Game of Thrones 2nd Ed vs 1st + Expansions

Having played both, the second edition is definitely more streamlined than the first edition.  The mechanics and "feel" of the game are pretty much the same (although the new "Wildling" and optional "Tides of Battle" cards do make wildling attacks and battles more interesting), a few balancing tweaks, but the biggest changes are mostly aesthetic.

To me, just being able to play without messing around with the overlays from Clash of Kings is a significant selling point (second edition only contains one King's Court overlay to balance three/four-player games), but if you already have the first edition base game, I don't know that any of these benefits are really worth the jump.

Storm of Swords, for the record, contains a completely different game mode/map which is not included in the second edition (and which I have never actually played); it is, however, playable with second edition pieces despite being a first edition expansion.


Cribbage scoring for a run of 4 out of sequence

Sequence does not matter.  4 points for 3-6-4-5.


Cards don't "add land to your mana pool." They add mana to your mana pool. The little symbols in card text and casting costs represent mana, which you get from tapping your lands (or from other cards like Elvish Mystic, Darksteel Ingot, and Seething Song), not the lands themselves.

New Benalia's ability, "{T}: Add {W} to your mana pool," is actually the same as the ability of a basic Plains card.

From the Comprehensive Rules:

  305.6. The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the
  words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. A land with a basic land type has
  the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol] to your mana pool,” even if the text box doesn’t
  actually contain that text or the object has no text box. For Plains, [mana symbol] is {W}; for
  Islands, {U}; for Swamps, {B}; for Mountains, {R}; and for Forests, {G}.

If you have New Benalia and a Plains on the battlefield, you can tap both to make two white mana (like the casting cost for a Precinct Captain), just like if you had two Plains.

Cards that actually put more land into play say things like "Search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped" or "You may play an additional land this turn" (e.g. Evolving Wilds and Explore).


How can I mitigate the luck factor of drawing destination tickets in Ticket To Ride?

Find a new game.

Taking of tickets in Ticket to Ride is supposed to be a high risk/high reward action that has the potential to lose you a significant amount of points. Once you try to mitigate an aspect of a game, you're changing how the game plays in ways that weren't intended by the designer. At this point, it's better to find a new game that more closely aligns with your board gaming preferences. There are over 82,000 games in the Board Game Geek database, and one of them is sure to have the aspects of Ticket to Ride that you enjoy while eliminating the randomness of drawing cards.

My suggestion would be Hansa Teutonica. This is also a strategy game that focuses on taking routes, but instead of taking tickets for points, you are taking actions over the course of the game. One game session should take you about the same amount of time as Ticket to Ride. Hansa Teutonica also has the benefit of multiple paths to victory, so it will have a longer shelf life than Ticket to Ride.