In 4-player Unspeakable Words, what is the likelihood of more than one player not going insane?

This question's been unanswered for a while, so I thought I'd take a crack at it.  First up, I should say that I haven't looked at the four player case, just the two player game. The main reason for this is that it makes presenting the data a lot easier. I've put some graphs later, and you can see that they're already hard enough to understand for the two player case!  The methods I've used here could be applied to the four player game, the program would just take longer to finish as there are many more game states.

Assumptions

I've assumed a two player game, where players can choose to score between 1 and 20 points on their go. I've ignored the letter distribution, and whether it might be hard to score a large number of points in one turn.  I've assumed both players start from 0 points and 5 sanity, and have to get to 100 points without losing all their sanity.  I've accidentally alternated between the use of "sanity" and "lives", because this game is rather like a computer game where you start with five lives.

The script

I wrote a program to search through all possible game states for two players, and for each determined the best move.  This isn't as hard as it sounds, the positions near the end of the game are easy to find the best move, and then the positions earlier in the game quickly reduce to a position we've already considered.  The source code is here.

The output of the program is a lot of lines like:

2 3 3 13 [3, 0.16920657742104506]

This line means that if it's player 1's turn, and they have 2 sanity left and 3 points, and their opponent has 3 sanity and 13 points, then the best move is to make a word of length 3, which will give them a 17% chance of winning.

The results

The output of the program is 250000 lines long, which is not very accessible. I've converted this into a couple of graphs.  The first looks like this:

The graph is divided into 25 squares, representing the number of sanity tokens the two players have left. Each square is 100x100 pixels, representing possible pairs of scores. Each pixel represents a possible game state, and the colour shows the length of word player 1 should make to maximise their probability of winning.  Red represents states player 1 should score one point, green represents states player 1 should make 10 points, and blue represents states player 1 should make 20 points.  Colours in between represent values in between, e.g. the states where player 1 should make 3 points is shown by a reddish brown. The black areas are regions where player 2 can force a win, and so it makes no difference what player 1 does.

Another thing I looked at was the probability of player 1 winning in each state.  This second graph shows that:

In this graph white represents a forced win for player 1, and black represents a forced win for player 2.  The graph is not symmetric, as it's player 1's turn.

Conclusions

Some interesting features of the results above.

Steps

Within many of the inner squares there is a step-like pattern. This is clearest in the bottom right square. This is caused by a player being able to force a win. A player can force a win when they have more sanity left than the number of turns it will take them to get to 100.  The bottom right square is where the players have the most lives, and so a forced win is more common.

Rainbow Stripes

In the first graph, at the bottom of many of the inner squares, there are 'rainbow stripes'. These represent points at which player 1 can force a win in one turn. If they are on 99 points then they can force a win with a score of 1 (red), if they are on 80 points then they need a score of 20 (blue).

Dotty Red/Blue Regions

Towards the left of the first graph are some dotty red/blue regions, e.g.:

I'm not completely sure about why these exist. It could be a bug in the program, although I did check it through.  It might be related to the fact that when the probability of winning with different moves is the same, my program picks the largest score. The other thing I noticed was that the best moves, as shown by the link in the question, are the extreme scores.

First Player Advantage

My program gives the first player probability of winning for the starting position as 53.9%. It advises that the best move is to risk a 20 point score (if you don't lose a sanity then you have a forced win by continuing to make 20 point scores).


The USSR might have a card in hand which is a US associated event which automatically lowers defcon, e.g., Duck and Cover.

This answer was for the question as originally stated, which did not specify that the poster was playing as the USSR.


Could player discard nearest cards to place the part of `War Machine` in proper order?

No. You may only discard other cards if there are not enough open spaces. From the Fantasy Flight Chaos Marauders - Card Reference (page 14), regarding taking War Machine parts:

  ... He must then place the cards in his own battle lines - If there are not enough open spaces, he must discard cards to make room.


Bridge: Opening lead from AK - why K instead of A

The reason that K is traditionally lead from AK is because there are two important circumstances where a different signal is requested from partner (rather than attitude). The Ace lead is reserved for these particular circumstances because it is very important that there be no ambiguity in these circumstances:

Notrump:
The Ace lead against notrump signals a nearly running suit headed by at least AK, such as AKJT53, and requests partner to unblock an honour if he has one, else to give count.

Suit:
The Ace lead indicates a desire to ruff, either in own hand or partner's, and requests a partner with length to show attitude and a partner with shortness to show count. This lead might be made from singleton A or doubleton Ace small, or from A empty fifth or sixth.

In the former case it should only be made by a defender without entries, because it is partner who must get in to generate the ruffing leads. In the latter case it must be made only by a partner with entries who can get in to eliminate declarer's tricks in the suit.

As partner of K opening lead in a suit contract:
 When partner leads the King against a suit contract, the guideline is to show attitude unless you have two or more touching honours, in which case you play the highest of the touching honours. For example:

Play your highest card from a small doubleton;
Play your lowest card without an honour in hand;
Play low with precisely Qx;
Play low with Jx, or Tx - unless dummy has come down with precisely Queen third and you desire an immediate ruff;
Play the Q from QJ doubleton or longer;
Play the J holding JT9 doubleton or longer;
Play the T holding T98 or longer;
Play your second highest card from Qxx or longer.

Thus the play of an honour from third hand in this situation always denies the next higher honour, and shows either shortness or the next lower card (and possibly another).

Partner will almost always be able to read your card in order to play sensibly at the second trick.

As partner of A opening lead in a suit contract:
Only encourage holding length with either the K or a quick trump winner with which to provide partner with his ruff. Otherwise discourage so that partner will switch to another suit before declarer's tricks get established.

There are other Signalling agreements besides these standard ones, but if these suffice for repeat World Champion Bob Hamman they are certainly sufficient for casual partnerships and beginning players.


Is solo play meant to use just 3 heroes?

You are supposed to play as a single player, i.e. with 3 Heroes one your side and drawing a single card from the encounter deck each turn.

The pre-constructed decks in the game are unfortunately not the best and at the same time, the game is quite hard (even the beginner scenarios). Both combined can lead to your frustrating experience.

Here is a link to a guide for solo players who are new to the game:
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/16397/guide-new-lotrlcg-solo-players
This should help you in getting started and get over the steep learning curve, which this game definitely has.


How does flicker relate to a card like Ulamog's dispoiler

You can't cast or resolve anything whilst the target of Flicker is in exile, as it is returned to the battlefield as part of the spell.
You could do it to the target of Otherworldly Journey, as that returns the card at the next end step. If you did, it would stay in the graveyard, the object in the exile zone that Journey is looking for is no more.


Is card counting/watching a key skill for an expert Catan player?

Yes, card counting is a key skill for expert Catan players. First, most expert Catan players will be counting your cards and your opponents' as they pick them, with the only random variable being any possible development cards that you draw from the deck, or cards which you steal from another player when you role a seven. But as they will be counting your cards, this would immediately put you at a disadvantage if you are not counting theirs.
Once you can reconstruct an opponent's hand, you will know who you can trade with, what people need, and whether people are a threat to steal your spots for settlements and roads.
Although there are probably a very few world class players who are not that great at tracking cards, the vast majority of those who play competitively or in sanctioned tournaments are. And if they are not great in tracking cards, then they would have to be exceptional in another aspect of the game, like strategy, or be extremely lucky.


I have only played one game of Ascension, and I got the same idea.

Here is the ruling directly from the download-able FAQ:

  Q:  When does a card in the center row get replaced?  If I defeat Mephit, do I banish a card
  in the center row before or after a new card replaces the Mephit?

  A:  Whenever a card leaves the center row, the first thing that happens is that it is replaced from the center deck.  There should be six cards in the center row at all times.  In this instance, if you
  defeat Mephit, you replace the Mephit from the center deck and then make your decision about
  what card to banish.

FAQ Link


How to deal with B/G/W Abzan Warriors with many +1/+1 Counters?

I wouldn't metagame too much against his deck, because doing so essentially makes your deck worse in a vacuum (i.e. worse against any other deck besides his).  You should want to improve your deck overall while simultaneously improving your match-up against him; or at least hold the quality of your deck constant while improving your match-up against him.  Doing so also manages to avoid the appearance of excessively targeting his deck (doing this in a casual setting can lead to hurt feelings or be interpreted as poor sportsmanship, plus you probably want your deck to be good against other opponents too).  Also, attempt to keep your vampire count and your creature count up so that your own proactive strategy doesn't get watered down (although not all of my advice follows this rule, because you are forced to make trade-offs between fulfilling your vampire requirements and meeting other needs, and there won't always be a perfect vampire card for any given need).

So, here are some options that can help counter his strategy to a degree.

Efficient creature removal, to destroy his largely buffed creatures.  Some financially inexpensive examples include Go For The Throat, Journey To Nowhere, Swords to Plowshares, Gatekeeper of Malakir.  These are good options because killing an Ajani Pridemate can be very disruptive to his game plan, and at the same time, a modest amount of creature removal is broadly useful against most decks.  These cards are reasonably efficient, since they only cost 1-2 mana, or give you bonus value in the case of Gatekeeper of Malakir.  Shriekmaw can kill a creature for 2 mana, with the upside that you can pay more to get a 3/2 Fear.  Consuming Vapors can kill 2 of his creatures while also feeding your life gain synergy.
Efficient enchantment removal, to get Retribution off the board.  War Priest of Thune can destroy enchantments for cheap while adding value.  This has merit because enchantment removal is usually dead against many decks, but War Priest of Thune is not a totally dead card when the opponent isn't playing enchantments.  Collective Effort is another enchantment destruction spell that has ways of being live even when the opponent doesn't control enchantments, and it has ways of delivering added value on top of the enchantment destruction.
Disruptive hand destruction.  Hymn to Tourach can potentially derail a strategy if it nabs key cards; and at the same time, it is very efficient.  There are other financially cheap, efficient discard spells, like Gerrard's Verdict and Duress.  But Hymn To Torach is best in that it can hit either half of the combo, doesn't give the opponent a choice in what to discard, can win games by causing mana screw, and it's broadly effective against any opponent.
A small number of flexible removal spells, Oblivion Rings (or Mortify).  This can address whichever is currently more pressing between enchantment and creature.  But it is less cost-efficient, so you should not play a lot of them.  Again, it's a big play if you're able to destroy an Ajani Pridemate or a Retribution of the Ancients.  But since these cards allow a broad range of targets, they are rarely dead cards against any other deck.  Or you could play Vindicate, which is the better and pricier version.
Efficient deathtouch vampires like Gifted Aetherborn or Vampire Nighthawk.  Gifted Aetherborn seems almost automatic.  Vampire Nighthawk feeds into your vampire synergy, and as a 2/3 with 3 abilities for 3 mana, it is reasonably efficient.  But the fact that it has deathtouch makes it capable of trading with a 15/15 Ajani Pridemate.  Basilisk Collar is another high quality card you can use to confer deathtouch to various creatures on your team so that several of your small creatures can trade with several of his large creatures.  If Basilisk Collar doesn't fit your budget, then Gorgon's Head is a lower quality card that serves the same purpose for financially cheaper.  However, be careful not to lower your creature count too far, and of course, playing equipment with a low creature count is not a good combo.
A powerful proactive strategy.  In other words, winning via a powerful offense, rather than a reactive defense.  This is good especially because it helps you beat any opponent, not just a particular deck.  I would have to see the match-up to surmise the most efficient path to ending the game.  However, assuming you can assemble a board full of small attackers, you might be able to represent a powerful attack using an offensive force multiplier like Sorin, Lord of Inistrad, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Sword of Light and Shadow, or Hero of Bladehold.  The Sorins and the Hero are all good at boosting the power of your whole team, making them more effective attackers.  The Sword of Light and Shadow (and other powerful equipment) is good at boosting one creature at a time, and then when that creature dies, boosting another one, therefore leading to many favorable trades.  Some other generally powerful vampires might include Vampire Nocturnus, Khalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Gas.  Gas, of course, being a term meaning a steady stream of playable cards in hand and other sorts of fuel.  Since Retribution of the Ancients stands the risk of killing all of your creatures, you need ways of drawing more cards, creating many creatures (and creature tokens), recurring creatures from the graveyard, and so on.  Bloodghast is a very good, recursive vampire (although it's no good for blocking, so it really just helps keep pressure on).  Bloodline Keeper is good vampire for creating many token creatures.  Skeletal Vampire is kind of a clunky card, but it's another vampire that generates tokens.  Lingering Souls is another good B/W token producer.  Phyrexian Arena is a decent card for providing a constant stream of card drawing.  Grave Titan is a non-vampire, but it is a prolific token generator.
Repeatable creature destruction like Royal Assassin, Intrepid Hero, Deathbringer Liege, Avatar of Woe, Gideon Jura, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Visara the Dreadful, Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, Spear of Heliod, or a Shriekmaw + Grim Harvest combo.  The virtue of repeatable creature destruction is that it can yield significant card advantage, disrupt a lot of the things his deck wants to do, and put you in a position to inevitably win the game.  A lot of these are unfortunately rather vulnerable to being destroyed by Retribution's ability (especially the 1/1's), and the card quality of most of these options is only medium.


Betrayal at the house on the hill arsenal room and puzzlebox

I think that none of the three interpretations you present are likely to be the intended one.

"The text on the room tile applies only to the item you have to draw when you discover the room": This seems contradicted by the general "an" in "When you draw an item card on this room..."; if it referred to only the item from discovery it would probably say something more specific like "...the item card...".
"When you open the puzzle box you get 4 cards and gets to keep N of them": This is stretching the "choose 1 to keep. Discard the other" rather far - that language really only makes sense if the choice is between two cards.

Instead, the interpretation I'd favor is:

"Draw 2 cards" from the puzzle box means draw a card and then draw a second card, so each of those draws would get replaced by the arsenal effect and you'd end up drawing 2 and keeping 1, then drawing 2 again and keeping 1 again.

There are also two other interpretations I think are somewhat supported by the text:

"Draw 2 cards" means draw a card and at the same time draw a second card, so with the Arsenal effect that becomes drawing two pairs of cards at the same time and keeping one card from each. (This is almost like your draw 4 keep 2 option, except you have slightly less freedom in which cards to keep.)
Just draw two (with no bonus from Arsenal Room) because Arsenal Room only helps when you draw "an" item card and instead you drew two item cards. (This is the same result as your first interpretation, but for a different reason.)

The way I chose my top interpretation of these 3: Whenever rules are ambiguous, as they are all too often in Betrayal, I try to fall back on the most similar rule from MtG since they've thought of pretty much everything. In this case, rule 120.2 says

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


The rules (here) actually state that for two fish you may:

  Move the robber back to the desert (do not steal any cards)

It isn't removed from the board, but is placed on the desert (where it has no effect). A knight may still then move it as normal.


Are there any Xanathar Strategies for Skullport

As a general rule, you should be looking to take more actions that give you corruption than the other players. For all players, these actions give more resources than other actions in exchange for an end-game penalty. For The Xanathar, this end-game penalty is less than it is for other players. If you end the game with no corruption tokens with The Xanathar, then you haven't taken any advantage of his strategy, and you have just played the way you would have with any other Lord.

If you end the game with 10 corruption tokens, and no one else has any, then you will get -40 from the penalty, and 40 from The Xanathar's bonus. It is NOT accurate in this case to say that you got no bonus from The Xanathar. Rather, you got a 40 point bonus. The -40 that you got is theoretically offset by the extra-powerful actions and quests that you had throughout the game.

While other players will be taking those extra powerful actions and quests sometimes, they will also be spending other actions to get rid of corruption. Either way, this means that the player who ends with the most corruption should have gotten more out of their actions throughout the game than other players.

This doesn't mean that you should go crazy with taking corruption. If you have 19 corruption tiles, for -7 each, then the bonus isn't going to be enough to save you from that.

Finally, keep in mind that The Xanathar is more difficult to play than the other Lords, and it very well may be weaker in general.

Here are a few threads where this is discussed in depth:

How to win with the Xanathar

Xanathar, Halaster, Sangalor: New lord cards broken?

The Xanathar


If a flip summon (via attack) is negated, can I change attack target?

I attack a face down monster (1900 att to 2500 def) and when the defence monster is flipped face-up I activate Forced Back (a counter trap which negates the summon and returns it to the hand) does that mean I still take 600 damage, or do I get to attack again, directly this time

What you did there was not a legal move.

The monster was flipped face up by your attack... It was not flip summoned. Those are different things (the flip summon is an action done by the monster owner, flipping face up is a result of your attack and is not a summon).

From the wiki we have this, which clarifies the difference:

  A face-down monster flipped into face-up Attack Position by a card effect such as "Book of Taiyou" or "Ancient Forest" is not considered a Flip Summon.

So, technically you couldn't have activated that trap card, and should have taken the damage.

You are correct that when the number of monsters changes during an attack there is a replay, but this was not the case.


The Nessian Game Warden is countered. It does not resolve, and its ability does not go on the stack or resolve. It goes immediately to the graveyard.

"Creature spell" in Essence Scatter's text refers to the creature card itself, and not the ability on it.

Basically, if you cast Nessian Game Warden and it isn't countered, gameplay proceeds like this:

You cast Nessian Game Warden. The Nessian Game Warden card goes on the stack, and players have a chance to resolve.
Nobody responds and Nessian Game Warden resolves. Nessian Game Warden enters the battlefield.
Nessian Game Warden's triggered ability triggers and goes on the stack.
Nessian Game Warden's triggered ability resolves, and you do what it says.

In the situation you describe, here's what happens instead:

You cast Nessian Game Warden. The Nessian Game Warden card goes on the stack, and players have a chance to resolve.
Your opponent responds by casting Essence Scatter, and that goes on the stack on top of Nessian Game Warden.
The Essence Scatter resolves, countering Nessian Game Warden. Nessian Game Warden goes to the graveyard.


How are M:TG cards printed in regards to the rarity of each card?

Note that Wizards tends to be fairly secretive about the specifics of how their print runs work, and exactly what a print sheet looks like. We occasionally get articles like the one that Zags linked to showing an entire print sheet, but most of the information we 'know' about the print runs has to be inferred from answers Wizards employees give or mathematical analysis of print runs.

Currently for a regular large expansion a set has 269 cards broken down as follows

101 Commons
80 Uncommons
53 Rares
15 Mythic Rares
20 Basic Lands (5 Different Lands with 4 arts each)

A sheet of cards is 11x11 (121 cards total) as far as we have been able to tell so far the sheets are split up as follows (Source)

2 of each Rare + 1 of each Mythic
2 each of 60 Commons + 1 extra Common
3 each of 40 Commons + 1 extra Common (the same Common as on the previous sheet)
3 each of 40 Uncommons + 1 Blank
3 each of 40 Uncommons + 1 Blank
6 of each Basic Land + 1 Blank

For the 2 Common sheets they are printed in a 3:2 ratio so that every common has the same rarity. The one exception is the 1 extra Common which has a rarity of 5:6, so it is very slightly rarer that the other hundred commons. This 101st Common is generally an artifact or land depending on the set.

These sheets are then printed so that the rarities are preserved both within and between each rarity, so each of the Uncommon sheets will be printed the same number of times so each Uncommon has the same likelihood of getting opened in a pack, and each of those sheets will be printed 3 times for every Rare/Mythic sheet that is printed.

This ends up with a booster pack that has 1 Basic Land, 1 Rare or Mythic Rare (7/8 chance of Rare, 1/8 chance of Mythic Rare), 3 Uncommons, and 10 Commons (one of the Commons has a chance of being Foil, about 1/6 (Source))

Note that all this information is about current large expansions. Small expansions have ratios that work out similarly. Special releases like the Commander decks, and other preconstructed decks have their own print runs (as Zags shows in their answer) and these cards are in addition to any cards in a normal print run, so for example any Rares in the Magic 2015 Intro Packs are more common than normal Rares that aren't in Intro Packs. Also as Zags also noted older sets had different print sheets where one card might appear on it 4 times, another card 5 times, and a third card 11 times (these numbers are based on Arabian Nights) Wizards has not done sheets for normal expansions like this for a while though.


How would Solemnity and Dark Depths interact?

Dark Depths would enter the battlefield without counters and its ability would immediately trigger. Barring instant-speed removal for the land, that would result in a 20/20 token for that player.

A permanent entering the battlefield with counters on it counts as those counters having been placed on that permanent:

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

When a permanent enters the battlefield "with N counters on it", that's a replacement effect that modifies how a permanent (Dark Depths in this case) enters the battlefield.

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

However, Solemnity prevents that particular replacement effect from doing anything, so Dark Depths will simply enter the battlefield without counters.

  614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn trigger abilities. Note that the modified event may contain instructions that can’t be carried out, in which case the impossible instruction is simply ignored.

Finally, its game state-based triggered ability triggers the next time a player would gain priority.

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

Note that for Dark Depths to create the 20/20 token, it has to be sacrificed as its triggered ability resolves. If it has left the battlefield before that time, for example because it has been destroyed, then it can't be sacrificed and no token will be created.


Could someone stay in market points more than one turn?

Yes.

The rules of the game state:

  You don’t have to sell anything in a market, and you can even sit still and sell something on the following turn if you so desire. For example, you expect that the 4 you’re now sitting in will be connected to Oilpetrol on the next turn, so you wait there in hopes of selling your Oilpetrol next turn.

The requirement for moving is stated in the rules as:

  On each turn, you may move your pawn.

So you never have to move if you don't want to, and the rules specifically say you can wait on a market space for a good's price to reach a high value.


Munchkin Dungeon of Comprehensive Curses Technical Difficulties

Pretend that the curse is copied for each player and played on them.  So in your example, every player would need to be generous.  You should probably do it simultaneously so you don't have cards getting passed in a giant circle.


When should a bridge defender return the second, rather than fourth highest card in suit?

The most common reason you'd lead back your second highest card from four would be to smother a relatively high card in dummy. With KJxx and 10x in dummy, leading the J seems right. This way you pick up the suit if declarer started with eg Q8x, and doesn't hurt on other holdings. But if dummy started with eg 6x (ie something that can't force your partner's high honor if declarer ducks) and your high spot is low enough that you won't block the suit when partner holds 5, it's important to convey the count to your partner by leading low.


Game of Thrones: When exactly to use the Valyrian Steel Blade when playing with Tides of Battle?

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

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

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

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

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


In Midway, how do I manage the "inferior" Japanese fleet on day 1?

The other answer got me to look up the game again, and here's what I found.

If the Japanese player is worried about the balance of power on Day 1, he should stay out of the range of planes based on Midway (about half of those of an American carrier, although Midway has a greater CAPACITY than any carrier). This means the normal 7-square "round trip" range, and even the 14-square "suicide bomber" range (the rules provide that if some of an attacker's planes are making suicide attacks, and he suffers combat losses, he can count those losses against the "suicide" planes first).

For the Japanese players, that means staying in columns "A" and "B" near the western edge of the board on Day 1, close to Day 2 reinforcements. If the Americans want to attack beyond the range of Midway based planes, they will do so at a disadvantage. This is particularly true in the advanced game, where Midway would have to send additional fighters to bring the American carrier groups to parity with the Japanese, meaning that the carriers would have room for fewer dive bombers.

On the other hand, the Japanese player may want to seek aerial combat on almost even terms on Day 1, in order clear the way for later waves. With their (future) edge in ships, "attrition," provided that it is balanced, favors them. On Day 1, they enjoy "draw odds," that is if they "draw" on the first day, their reinforcements make them likely to win.

On Day 2, the focus of the game changes with the arrival of the Atago, a cruiser whose importance is as the flagship of the transport fleet bound for the invasion of Midway. (The way to attack the transports is to attack the Atago.) The Americans can try to prevent the invasion of Midway by sinking the Atago. or follow the historically-based strategy of sinking the Japanese carriers, but they might not be able to do both.

One way for the Japanese to win is to "take out" enough American air power on the first day so the Americans can't prevent the invasion from the Atago. The other, safer way, is to concentrate forces on Day 2 in order to maximize the chances of a successful retaliation against a "first strike."


Defending player will still have to sacrifice 6 permenants, and Emrakul and the rest of the graveyard will still be shuffled into the controller's graveyard.

Anailator still happens, not exactly because the attack is earlier in the stack like you say ("the attack" doesn't go on the stack). But as soon as Emrakul is declared as an attacker, the "when attacks" ability triggers and goes in the stack. After that, it doesn't matter what happens to Emrakul. Best to kill it in the beginning of combat step.

It still gets shuffled back in because that trigger happens "when it is put into the graveyard". And by that time, it's back to normal, sitting in the graveyard with its abilities. Note that if it said "when Emrakul dies..." instead, then it would NOT be shuffled back in, because when it dies triggers care about the state of the object as it was on battlefield, and the ability didn't exist in the battlefield.


Yes. All continuous effects are applied at all times they are active. If a continuous effect grants +2/+0, it means it raises the creature's power by two. So if two continuous effects grant +2/+0 to a creature, the creature's power will be raised by 4.


When does the Gypsies racial ability come into play?

The Gypsies ability states:

"Place 1 bonus Victory coin (taken from the Victory stash) in each Region you abandon. You cannot conquer these Regions again this turn, but you receive the coins they hold as a bonus at turns end".

At the start of your turn, you place coins in each Region your Gypsies occupy. At the end of the Gypsies turn, collect all coins in those Regions that you don't occupy and return the remaining coins if any to the Victory stash.
The rules state a turn ends after troop redeployment and Victory coin scoring.

Picks a Race and Special Power combo

Conquers some Regions

Scores some Victory coins

Gypsies essentially allows you to score a Region for one additional turn after abandoning it, because Gypsies are always on the move.

Abandoning a Region
"Only those Race tokens that were taken back in hand may be used to conquer new Regions. If a player wishes to free up some more Race tokens, he may opt to entirely empty up some - or all - Regions, leaving no Tokens there; but in this case, these now abandoned Regions will no longer be considered his, nor bring him any Victory coins."--Small World rule book pg. 6


What kind of paper should one use to print custom cards?

at least 110# card, probably not above 200# card. 110# is thicker than my playing cards, as an FYI. I've used it for quite shuffleable cards for playtest games.

Once you get past 200# stock, you're into stuff too stiff for comfortable shuffling.

A high rag content is good, as well, as it's more resilient than pure wood-pulp stocks. High clay content is bad, for the same reason, and because it results in longer drying times, higher chance of backs being marked, and in my experience, higher chance of laser printing wearing off.

Note that if you're doing print and play for long term use, it's better to use some form of ink printing rather than laser/photocopier, due to face wear. (Remembering that inks soak in, while laser toner is actually a surface deposit, and thus wears off.)

Remember: for small runs, odds are that the copy shop will simply photocopy (usually using a laser copier) the material. If you can afford offset for the run, it's probably the most durable.

For playable home use, 110# white cotton bond no-clay card is fine, especially if using an inkjet.


Found it!
Each character has a list of their own components, on the back of their leaflet.
As the game is made up solely of character components, and a rulebook, that basically works.


Does Wild Onslaught put counters on Hallar, the Firefletcher before or after it's ability triggers

Hallar's ability will resolve first, dealing 1 damage.
Triggers that react to a spell being cast trigger at the end of the spell-casting process. By the time Hallar's ability triggers and goes on the stack, Wild Onslaught is already on the stack and will resolve second.

Casting Spells

601.2a To propose the casting of a spell, a player first moves that card (or that copy of a card) from where it is to the stack. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has all the characteristics of the card (or the copy of a card) associated with it, and that player becomes its controller. The spell remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
601.2i Once the steps described in 601.2a–h are completed, effects that modify the characteristics of the spell as it’s cast are applied, then the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.


You do not lose Class, Race, Level, or Curses when you die. The other characters get to loot your body when you die, each getting one card from your revealed hand or the cards you had in play, starting with the highest level character. The remaining cards (non-Class/Race/Curse) are discarded.
The rules have a section labeled Death that clearly explains the consequences (page 3).

Death - If you die, you lose all your stuff. You keep your Class(es), Race(s), and Level (and any Curses that were affecting you when you died) – your new character will look just like your old one. If you have Half-Breed or Super Munchkin, keep those as well.
Looting The Body: Lay out your hand beside the cards you had in play. Starting with the one with the highest Level, each other player chooses one card . . . in case of ties in level, roll a die. If your corpse runs out of cards, tough. After everyone gets one card, the rest are discarded.
Dead characters cannot receive cards for any reason, not even Charity, and cannot level up. Your new character appears when the next player begins his turn, and can help others in combat . . . but you have no cards. On your next turn, start by drawing four cards from each deck, face-down, and playing any legal Race, Class, or Item cards you want to, just as when you started the game. Then take your turn normally.

The FAQ reiterates much of the same information.

Q. Exactly when do you die, and how long do you stay dead?
A. You die when you get Bad Stuff that says you're dead. (A very few other cards can cause Death as well.) If you were fleeing from other monsters, you are excused from their Bad Stuff, because you're dead. While you are dead, you cannot receive cards for any reason, and you cannot level up. You STAY dead only until the next person's turn starts. Your new character appears at that point and may join normally in the combat, though you will get no new cards until someone gives you charity, you get cards as payment for helping in a combat, or your next turn starts. Fortunately, death is temporary . . .
Q. What happens when you die? Do Curses that persist go away?
A. There are a number of Curses that persist, like Tiny Hands, Big Feet, Sex Change, Chicken On Your Head, and so on. Most of these Curses can only be gotten rid of with a Wishing Ring or perhaps some luck. If a Curse persists, its effects transcend death. Remember, your new character looks like the last one. So, if your sex was changed, you are still your new sex (but you very likely died because of combat, so that pesky -5 is gone), you still have Big Feet or Tiny Hands, and if you didn't have Headgear on when you died, that stinking Chicken is going to roost on the head of your new character. Sucks to be cursed, but, well, you knew that . . .


Desertion does work against commanders. Commanders no longer go to the command zone instead of the graveyard or exile as a replacement effect. Instead, rule 903.9a now says

If a commander is in a graveyard or in exile and that object was put into that zone since the last time state-based actions were checked, its owner may put it into the command zone. This is a state-based action. See rule 704.

As a result, when a commander is countered by Desertion, the only applicable replacement effect is Desertion's self-replacement effect, so Desertion's controller takes control of the commander.

Under the previous Commander rules, the answer would be as follows:
Desertion does work against commanders. The replacement effect on Desertion is a self-replacement effect, as defined in rule 614.15:

Some replacement effects are not continuous effects. Rather, they are an effect of a resolving spell or ability that replace part or all of that spell or ability’s own effect(s). Such effects are called self-replacement effects. The text creating a self-replacement effect is usually part of the ability whose effect is being replaced, but the text can be a separate ability, particularly when preceded by an ability word. When applying replacement effects to an event, self-replacement effects are applied before other replacement effects.

So, when Desertion resolves and counters a commander, there are two replacement effects that can apply. One is the commander replacement effect quoted in the question, that in this case would allow its owner to move the commander card to the command zone instead of the graveyard. The other is Desertion's self-replacement effect that would move the card to the battlefield under Desertion's controller's control instead of the graveyard. As the quoted rule says, we have to apply self-replacement effects first, so the commander card enters the battlefield under Desertion's controller's control. Once we apply that replacement effect, the commander replacement effect cannot be applied because the commander is moving to the battlefield. So, the end result is that it goes to the battlefield.


What happens if someone reneges on a loner hand in euchre?

I have always interpreted the renege penalty as being generally 2 points because that's the maximum the opponents could have gained from the hand. In a loner hand, the maximum the makers can get is 4 points, so I would penalize a renege on with 4 points. Some sources:

On the Ohio Euchre page the renege rule says:

  RENEGE: - There are no exceptions to the ruling for a Renege: The hand is over, the offending team loses their bid and the non-offending team scores two points. In the case of a renege during a Loner attempt, the non-offending team scores 4 points.

On the wikipedia page for euchre, it says almost the same, though leaves open the possibility that other variants might not do this:

  In some variants reneging when a player or his opponent is going alone may result in a penalty of four points in order to equalize the potential values of a hand. The four point penalty for reneging should apply equally for the maker of trump and the opposing team.

A third source, Euchre Links says the same, though only specifically about the team that is attempting the loner:

  If the guilty team is defending against a lone-attempt during the infraction, 4 points are awarded to the team that was attempting the loner.

So, the sources seem to be in agreement that the maker would get 4 points when one defender reneges, and two of the three using language that indicates ANY renege in a loner hand (maker or defender) awards 4 points to the non-offending team.


Deep Space cannons: how many times can they shoot?

I'm not claiming an authoritative answer, but when playing recently the rule we followed is the activation rule -- the adjacent PDS may fire into a system that has been activated. So, in your scenario, the PDS would fire only one time.

From the TI3 Rule book (page 29):

  When a player activates a system in range of an
  enemy PDS unit, the owners of any enemy PDS units
  in range may, after the movement step of the
  Activation Sequence, fire once per PDS at any units
  in the system owned by the activating player. Note
  that when firing your PDS units during another player's
  activation, you may only fire at the units controlled
  by the activating player. It is thus not possible
  to draw third party PDS fire at an enemy fleet by simply
  activating its system from afar.

Although I haven't sussed this out with my gaming group, I imagine a transfer action would invoke two opportunities for an adjacent PDS if the system holding the PDS is adjacent to both transfer-action-activated systems.


As a rule, not important. Far better to have a strategy that you follow than to buy the most expensive card you can afford.

The value of a card will vary depending on your deck, and knowing when to buy a less expensive card that your deck needs (or nothing at all) is, I think, part of the transition from a beginner to intermediate player. If there's a Chapel, it's almost always worth spending $3 on it in your first turns, as getting it early is more important than waiting for an unlucky draw with only $2. For certain kingdom sets you might not want any $5's at all, so buying one just because you have $5 would be deplorable.

Similarly, as @thesunneversets points out, Silver is often what your deck needs instead of a  $3, $4 or even $5 action if you're not hitting $6 enough for gold. Buy the card your deck most needs that you can afford!


Odin's Smite card and Thor's Primacy card and Heimdall's Watch

The wording on Thor's Primacy makes it clear that it happens first, because it cancels the other cards' text before their text takes effect.

Heimdall's Watch clearly has to happen before any "normal" cards, otherwise it would be pointless. "normal" here meaning any card which doesn't specifically affect other cards.

I can see that it's not crystal clear which would take priority out of the two of these cards, but the use of the word "Primacy" meaning first or most important, and the fact that it specifically says "before" other cards, means that it takes precedence.

So it would make sense if the order of priority was:

Thor's Primacy
Heimdall's Watch
Any other card

This is backed up by this link and this link from boardgamegeek, where Thiago Aranha, apparently one of the game's producers, gives them the same priority.


Does Mewtwo-EX's Damage Change exchange or move damage counters?

The wording says "Switch all damage counters on this Pokémon with those on your opponent's Active Pokémon". The word "switch" indicates it's exchange. So your interpretation is correct.

Example: Mewtwo has taken 50 points of damage, while opponent has taken 20 points. After using Damage Change, Mewtwo has taken 20 points of damage, while opponent has taken 50 points.


The description of play sounds like Top Trumps, but I'd never seen a cars version.
Wikipedia confirms the existance of car-based packs:

Top Trumps was a card game popular with adults and children in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s, especially amongst boys, for whom it was a popular playground pastime. The topics tended to reflect this, and included military hardware, modes of transport and racing cars. The packs tended to be priced so that children could collect new packs by saving pocket money for a few weeks.
The original Top Trumps were launched in 1977, with eleven different packs published by a company named Dubreq. Dubreq was also known for the Stylophone. Dubreq was taken over by Waddingtons in 1982, and they continued manufacturing packs until the early 1990s. The packs from this period are now collectible.[2]

The game having been relaunched in 1999 with new packs by a new company, the same mode of play is available.


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

Read on if your Long Neck card reads:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Result:

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

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

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

Result:

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

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


The smaller amount of information in Spades means it is hard to purposefully start a finesse, but you can still easily continue one if it is started by accident. For example, your partner happens to lead small and first opponent plays small, and you are holding the AQ. You can now play the Q and hope that the K is not in the remaining opponent's hand. In Bridge in the simplest model, this has a half chance of working because you don't know which opponent has your missing K. Here in the simplest model it's very similar: there's a 1/3 chance your choice doesn't matter at all (because your partner has the K), but when deciding your move you should assume that your choice does matter (such an assumption will never hurt you), and so there's effectively still a half-half chance of success.


Is it possible to generate mana at instant speed when tapped out

You asked two different questions. For both, we are assuming that the opponent is tapped out with no relevant mana abilities on the field.

It possible for my opponent to generate mana at instant speed?

Yes, players can generate mana at "instant speed" (mana abilities technically don't use the stack and can't be responded to like an Instant spell). As an example, see Simian Spirit Guide.

Am I guaranteed that I can play unhindered?

Even without cards that can generate mana, like Simian Spirit Guide, the answer is no. Cards like Force of Will can disrupt you for an alternative cost. Cards like Pact of Negation or Slaughter Pact allow your opponent to pay later.
Three of the four cards I mentioned are legal in both Modern and Legacy. Standard rarely has effects like this, but it happens every now and then.


Great Orcs - how to tally terrain superiority?

The rule wording could be better.

It means that each individual Great Orc counts the terrain as favored when they are in the attack. Other individual units have to check their terrain ability. Great Orcs in defense have no favored terrain.


This question indicates a common misunderstanding of the way resources work in 7 Wonders. Resources are not collected and spent; you can build any card (building or Wonder stage) that requires resources as long as you have your own access to those resources, or pay a neighbor for the temporary use of theirs. If you do not have the required resources, and cannot acquire them from your neighbors, you can't build the card or Wonder stage.

Coins work differently as a building cost; when they are required, such as for the brown split-resource cards, they are paid to the bank.


Your Active race and your In Decline race(s) are scored independently of each other. A race's Special Power only applies to that race. From the rulebook (section II, p8):

  Each Special Power badge gives a unique benefit to the race it is
  associated with.

(emphasis added)


In a 4p game, you should be more eager to take an early Province than in 3p or 2p. There are two reasons for this. First, in 4p each Province is a larger share of the available points, and you have on average a smaller number of turns. Second, in 4p you are more likely to see the game end on three piles before all the Provinces are gone. As a rule of thumb, I would grab the early province in 4p, but not in 3p or 2p.

That said, what are some of the Kingdom cards that would indicate that you should hurry or not hurry?

Tournament, as swbarnes2's answer indicates, is a very powerful card, and its presence means that Provinces in your deck are very important. In Tournament games, never pass up the opportunity to get a Province.

Explorer is another card that keys off of Province, but it's a fairly weak card, and you can't be sure of connecting it with a Province when you need to. I don't consider its presence a reason to hurry.

Cards that give you something else very strong to do with your money should make you think twice. Overbuy cards like a Masterpiece or Stonemason (with a good target) give you more than the usual opportunity to improve your deck quickly, and are likely a better choice than Province on turn 5. Goons, King's Court, and to a lesser extent Expand are other important cards can be very attractive for an early turn. Depending on what the other players are doing, other powerful $5 cards like Wharf, Cultist, or Rebuild might need to take priority.

By contrast, what would suggest that you need the Province right away? First and foremost, look for piles that might empty out. For instance, if Ironworks is available with attractive targets like Great Hall, Fishing Village, Ironmonger, Gardens, etc., those piles are likely to deplete very rapidly in a 4p game, and you should grab the points while you can!

By contrast again, look for cards that will slow the game down--an absence of buys, and delaying attacks like Militia or Ghost Ship. If those attacks are flying, you're going to have a lot of trouble buying a second Province without a good deck, so you're likely to want Gold. (Sometimes in a 4p game you don't need to bother with attacks yourself if everyone else is playing them for you!)


Are the (player) cards in your hand supposed to be face up or not?

Both ways are correct and dependent on who is playing the game and what their skill and preferences are:

When players are getting used to the game they are encouraged to play with their hands face-up to simplify the communication and memory aspect of the game.

To increase the importance of accurate communication and memory and to give everyone something to contribute to the group plan, the players can play with their hands face-down.

From the official rules, p.7

  PLAYER CARDS

  When playing the Introductory game (4 Epidemic cards), place your
  cards face up in front of you, for all players to see.

  Only Player cards count towards your hand limit. Your Role and your Reference cards are not part of your hand.

  When playing the Standard (5 Epidemics) or Heroic (6 Epidemics) games,
  keep your cards private, so everyone has information to contribute to
  play discussions.

  Experienced groups may decide to play with open hands, if desired, in these games.

  Players may freely examine either discard pile at any time


The Witches: A Discworld Board Game - Removing crisis counters

The crisis counter is returned to general stock (initial pool) and reused later on.

Rules under Success! (p.7):

  If there is a Crisis counter on the Problem tile then it is returned to the general stock.


I'm unsure what the judge was talking about, and how this "trick" explained works.

The well-known "trick" takes advantage of the fact that the Fiend Hunter has two triggered abilities. One that triggers when it enters the battlefield, and one that triggers when it leaves the battlefield.

If you trigger the second ability before the first resolves, the first will still resolve but the exiled card will no longer be linked to the Fiend Hunter because it has left the battlefield (if you used an unsummon effect) or because the original Fiend Hunter permanent no longer exists (if you used a flicker effect, when Fiend Hunter returns to play it is a new object and has no relation to the previous Fiend Hunter which triggered the first ability.)

However, if the Fiend Hunter has been on the battlefield linked to an exiled creature since the start of turn, the second ability's trigger will be placed on the stack when it leaves play. At that point nothing short of a Stifle or similar ability will stop the exiled creature from returning to play.

As Pow-lan mentions in a comment, a possible scenario the judge was referring to is that you use two Cloudshift spells (or other flicker effects), where you "reset" the Fiend Hunter with the first, thus allowing the first ability to trigger again when it returns to play, and then remove it from play with the second before the first ability resolves… but that seems pretty obvious.


What to do when you "return a Pokemon to your hand"

The mechanics for this kind of attack on Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PTCGO, Official Pokemon TCG) is that whenever a Pokemon uses a 'Return this Pokemon...' attack, the damage is inflicted to the defending Pokemon and then the attacking Pokemon (along with attached cards, this also means, if it's a Stage 2 Pokemon, also take the stage 1 and Basic Pokemon) goes back to the owner's hand. The owner must then choose a benched Pokemon to be their new active Pokemon. In the case that there is no benched Pokemon, you cannot use this attack as this will leave you with no active Pokemon and will cause you to lose the game.


In a number of places in your question, it's not clear whether you are referring to the name of a card object or to the Oracle content for a card of a given name. These are very different things.

  When does showing a card in hand become free information?

The name of a card in your hand is private information, save for two exceptions:

If you are instructed to reveal a card (or all cards) in your hand, you must clearly communicate the names of the affected cards. Their names cease to be free information before anything else happens.
If you are instructed to play with a card (or all cards) of your hand revealed, the names of the affected cards is free information. Their names cease to be free information the moment the effect ends.

  As I reveal the spell, an opponent points out that it's an enchantment and I pull it back into my hand.

While the card was on the stack, it was in a public zone, and thus its name was free information. The moment the error was corrected, the card reverted to being in a hidden zone, and thus its name reverted to being private information.

  Now, if this was two-headed giant and one opponent player saw that it was an enchantment while the other read its name, it would be free information for them to check the effect of the card based on its name.

No. The Oracle content for a card of a given name is derived information (not free information) at all times. At Regular REL, though, derived information is considered free information.

  If, however, I pull the card back straight away and they know nothing about it (other than I want to cast it), am I obliged to reveal the card/provide details about it?

No, though the precise answer depends on what they asked.

If they ask "What card was that?", you need not answer since it's private information (as answered above). You may even be allowed to lie about it!

If they ask "What's a Giant Growth?", you need not answer since it's derived information. If you do answer, you must answer truthfully. They may request this information from a judge.

  Additionally, is this different if I accidentally reveal a card from my own hand, which the opponents glimpse, without any intention of casting?

No.


Does the investigator have to evade after combat?

Yes, you must Evade a monster to take any other action than Attack, it doesn't matter if you succeeded in your attack. From the rules (page 9, 14, and 15).

Attacking a monster is the only action that an investigator can perform while a monster is in his space (unless he evades the monster, see “Evade Tests” on page 14).
An investigator must make an evade test against every monster in his space before moving or performing non-attack actions. [...] Regardless of whether he passes or fails, the investigator may then move or perform the intended action. After having attempted to evade a monster, the investigator may freely move and take actions without having to try to evade the same monster that turn. [...] Attacking a monster does not require making an evade test. This attack may be unarmed, with a weapon, or with an “attack” Spell card. This attack does not need to target a monster in the investigator’s space.

Stunned monsters do not need to be evaded.

Q: Do stunned monsters cause evade checks? What about horror checks? Can they take samples?
A: Investigators can freely evade stunned monsters (because they cannot attack). Stunned monsters still cause Horror checks and can still take samples (although they are not moved after taking the sample).


How to bid a slam when partnership cannot find the best suit?

Playing 2-over-1 with a few conventions (including the serious 3nt), my auction would be something like

1d
1s
2c (this is a bit conservative but I think the right call)
2h (artificial game force)
2s (showing three cards in spades)
3s (setting trumps, showing a hand that is not bad for slam. A hand with poor controls would bid 4s, ending the auction)
3 nt (conventional. Serious 3 nt shows a strong slam try. This hand is a maximum for the actions taken so far and has good controls)
4h (showing first or second round control in hearts, denying the same in clubs or diamonds)
4 nt (asking for key cards)
5d (3 or 0 - ak in spades and a in h)
5 nt (confirms all 5 key cards and sq, asks for kings)
6s (no side king. With 7 spades, I would have bid 7 spades, as I have two tricks partner didn't know about, which must be enough to make grand reasonable)

Now north has a couple of options. They can count 6 tricks outside of spades, with a possibility of two more in diamonds. This makes me think that we should be in spades, not no trump. That virtually guarantees a fourth diamond. To make grand, we'll need six trump tricks. It doesn't seem too difficult to get there, so an aggressive north can bid 7s.


Who gets magic if the Fallen Kingdom Ghoul destroys itself?

The owner gets it, since it was their ability that destroyed the card.


I think Perudo (Liar's Dice) would work great in a bar. You need 5 dice and a cup per person, the rules are easy but the game is hard, there's a lot of interaction, and playing dice and drinking traditionally go together very well.

The related game Skull can be played with bar coasters and a pen, and is one of the better games for drunk people.


Lathliss, Dragon Queen + Where Ancients Tread interaction

The table is correct.  Lathliss will not buff Dragons that enter the battlefield after the ability has resolved.
Lathliss' ability produces a continuous effect that buffs your Dragons until the end of the turn.  Part of generating this effect involves determining the set of objects that it will affect.  From the Comprehensive Rules (emphasis mine):

611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that  continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change.

Since Lathliss' ability has already resolved before you play Scourge of Valkas, Scourge won't be affected by that ability.

The situation with Honor of the Pure plays out differently, because its effect is produced by a static ability.  Again from the Comprehensive Rules:

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.

So Honor of the Pure will buff any white creature that enters the battlefield, as well as any creature that becomes white, or any white permanent that becomes a creature.  Conversely, if a creature somehow stops being white, it immediately loses the Honor bonus.


"If a creature would enter the battlefield and it wasn't cast..."

It means exactly what it says, if a creature would enter the battlefield and it wasn't cast it will get exiled instead. It doesn't matter how it was cast, or where it was cast from, as long as it was cast instead of just being put onto the battlefield.

Some examples of things that will cause a creature to be exiled due to those abilities are Rise from the Grave and Æther Vial. These cards put creatures directly onto the battlefield without casting them, thus they will get exiled.

Some examples of things that will not cause a creature to be exiled due to those abilities are casting your commander from the command zone, casting Gravecrawler from your graveyard using its ability, and casting cards with Suspend that had their last time counter removed.

Note that Containment Priest specifies nontoken creatures, and Hallowed Moonlight does not. This means that the Priest will never exile token creatures and Hallowed Moonlight always will, since while you can cast a spell that produces tokens like Lingering Souls the tokens themselves were not cast.


The Basic Rulebook answers this question.

  permanent—Lands, creatures, artifacts,
  enchantments, and planeswalkers are
  permanents. They enter the battlefield after you
  cast them. Token creatures are also permanents.
  Instants and sorceries are not permanents. They
  go to the graveyard after they resolve.


The second warblade only grants you the reroll, it doesn't add additional attacks. Similarly a Prime w/ 2 warblades would get 3 attacks with rerolls, not 6 or 5 or 4.


Can I cast an instant or activate an ability between "whenever a creature dies" triggers, if the creatures die at the same time?

No, you cannot.

Creatures die as a state-based action, which means they all die at the same time. This means the triggers from Dark Prophecy go on the stack at the same time. Since these all occur as part of the state-based actions, you can't "interrupt" the placing of the triggers on the stack and either you will get 2 triggers of Dark Prophecy or 0, depending on when you cast Naturalize.


Liege of the Tangle with awakening counter - how does it work?

A counter in Magic: The Gathering is permanent. This means it will stay in the game as long as it doesn't get removed by a spell or ability or the card to which it is attached leaves the battlefield (i.e. by dying, by getting exiled, etc.) This means that every land on which you put an awakening counter will stay a 8/8 green Elemental creature until it leaves the battlefield or something removes the counter.

Nobody can remove the counter without an appropriate spell or other mechanic as mentioned above.

You should be careful how many lands you want to transform. If your opponent has a mass creature destroyer in his hand like Day of Judgment, and he gets to play it, you could lose a lot of lands because they are creatures now as well. I played Liege of the Tangle myself a while ago and I adjusted the amount of lands I transformed based on the deck of my opponent.


Citadels: Can two Circus Tents be built in the same city?

I would say technically yes, but that it wouldn't be as much of an advantage as it initially seems. Going from a purely literal interpretation of the rules you are right that the Circus Tent is an action and doesn't count as a building until the end of the game. That would lead me to say that during play having more than one is allowable. However, having two (or 3 as there are 3 in the deck) of your city elements leading to ending the game being worth no points and not counting toward any of your bonuses (except perhaps the 4 points for being the first to complete 8 buildings) seems to limit the usefulness of such a tactic. Especially since they would have been worth one point in your hand at the end of the game anyway.

With all that said, it is enough of a rules interpretation required issue that disallowing it would not be any sort of stretch either as it may very well have not been intended to be used that way regardless of how it was worded. Also, I think once this tactic is used in a game or two I believe it would be revealed rather quickly whether allowing this is unbalanced or not.


Does copying a clue count as investigating?

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

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

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


We don't use contracts with the group of friends I play Catan with.  While it's an interesting idea, trading resources for nothing in return during the trade is explicitly against the rules of the game.  Also, the player who's turn it is has to be involved in all trades being made during that turn.  So, a player giving resources to a player they promised them to previously would break two rules in the game.

I could have some of same problems as allows players to bribe off the robber if players start trying to extort resources from each other..  It would be easy to abuse, and adds complexity in the game since you would have to track contracts.  Players would have to be to surrender the resources promised when they generated them in order for this to work.  I personally don't think the added complexity would make the game better.  It would certainly deepen the trading aspect of the game though.

For those not familiar with the topic of bribing off the robber, we discussed this previously in, Is bribing off the robber a good addition to Settlers of Catan?


Income boosting Special cards in Illuminati: Y2K

The cards are a one-time effect.  Whenever you play it, collect income twice for each aligned group.

From the rules:

  Collect Income. For each Group that has an
  Income, draw that income from the bank. Put the
  money directly on that card


Mutate and replacement effects (Example, Darigaaz Reincarnated) and triggered abilities (ex: Sigil of the New Dawn)

You would get to exile and put an egg counter on all merged creatures, but only return Darigaaz eventually. While you control Sigil of the New Dawn and a mutated creature dies, the Sigil triggers once and you may return all the cards that made up the mutated creature by paying 1W.
Mutating causes permanents to merge, and to combine all the abilities of those permanents into the resulting creature:

702.139c As a mutating creature spell resolves, if its target is legal, it doesn’t enter the battlefield. Rather, it merges with the target creature and becomes one object represented by more than one card or token (see rule 721, “Merging with Permanents”). [..]
702.139e A mutated permanent has all abilities of each card and token that represents it. [..]

When a merged permanent leaves the battlefield, it leaves as exactly one object, no matter how many permanents are merged into one:

721.3. If a merged permanent leaves the battlefield, one permanent leaves the battlefield and each of the individual components are put into the appropriate zone.

Because of Darigaaz' ability, the appropriate zone is the exile plus egg counters, and all components of the merged creature are exiled that way. The egg-removing and return-to-battlefield effect only apply to Darigaaz, since it's a separate ability that only applies to the Darigaaz card, no longer to the previously merged cards.
As for Sigil of the New Dawn, the Sigil can track all of the components as they die:

721.3c If an effect can find the new object that a merged permanent becomes as it leaves the battlefield, it finds all of those objects. (See rule 400.7.) If that effect causes actions to be taken upon those objects, the same actions are taken upon each of them.
400.7d Abilities that trigger when an object moves from one zone to another (for example, “When Rancor is put into a graveyard from the battlefield”) can find the new object that it became in the zone it moved to when the ability triggered, if that zone is a public zone.

The Sigil triggers once, because only one creature died (721.3). If you pay the 1W of that triggered ability, you return all the creature cards that made up the mutated creature.


My god, they've taken the ... that I've got to get to!

The card text says

  Play this card at the start of a Zombie Turn on any Hero and roll a
  Random Building.

  That Hero may not search. Discard this card when the Hero moves into a
  space of that building. If the Hero is already in the building or
  cannot enter it, Re-roll.

Your scenario renders the hero unable to enter the building, so a re-roll is required.

This is confirmed on a BGG thread by an answer from the game designer:

  If the building is made unavailable to the Hero, then you must re-roll to determine a new building for the Hero to get to.


Either I understand it wrong, or your puzzle is flawed...

   White to move: 1. Qxg6+ Kh8 (forced) 2. Rh5+, and now either
 2... Nxh5 3. Qg8# or
 2... Bh6 3. Rxh6#
 There is no checkmate for black in these variations.


How does the medic work in Pandemic - In the lab once a disease is cured?

Yes, your interpretation is correct.

From the rules for Pandemic In the lab:

  A cube removed from the board by Events, the Containment Specialist’s
  ability, the Medic’s ability to automatically remove cured disease
  cubes, etc. may not be placed in a sample dish.

From the rules for Pandemic:

  The Medic removes all cubes, not 1, of the same color when doing the
  Treat Disease action. If a disease has been cured , he automatically
  removes all cubes of that color from a city, simply by entering it or
  being there. This does not take an action

I could find nowhere in the rules that said the medic's ability was optional.


You've mostly answered the question yourself, including the ruling quotations. Yes, paying Awaken cost will add a new target (a land), so if you make a first target illegal, it won't counter the spell to the full extent. And vise versa, as even mentioned in the linked article:

  Also, if a spell with awaken normally doesn't require a target, and you choose to cast it for its awaken cost, you will add a target to the spell by doing so. If that target land becomes illegal before the spell tries to resolve, the spell will be countered. You won't get any of its effects, including the first effect that didn't require a target. This won't come up a lot, but it's definitely something to be aware of.


A bunker adds 1 to the highest defender's die as long as it is less than 6. For example, a defender's roll of 4+3 becomes 5+3; 5+5 becomes 6+5, 6+1 stays 6+1, and 2 becomes 3 (the case where you're only rolling one die).

Note that this roughly flips the normal attacker's advantage - ordinarily, as long as both sides are rolling max dice, the attacker loses 0.9 units and the defender loses 1.1 on average, but with a bunker it's 1.1 and 0.9 the other way.


Does Wizards of the Coast still package World Championship Decks?

Unfortunately they were discontinued (at around the time you state) for not being widely popular.  The cards could obviously not be played in tournaments and weren't even very good for casual play because of the nonstandard card backs.

A shame because I quite liked the feeling of playing a finely-tuned Pro deck too... but Wizards are just too cagey about printing anything resembling proxies of top-tier tournament cards.


In multiplayer, can a player concede abusively?

The rules say you can concede whenever you want to:

  104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. A player who concedes leaves the game immediately. He or she loses the game.

This is kind of unavoidable, because people have to be able to pick up their cards and leave. And it's certainly possible to use this spitefully, whether via your scenario or another. (It doesn't even have to be something fancy - just dropping out a turn before your inevitable death can swing things.)

Many people adopt house rules in order to curtail that sort of behavior. It's hard to define clearly what is and isn't acceptable, especially since you can be plenty spiteful even without ever conceding, but if you play with people you get along well enough with, you may be able to get away with "don't be a jerk". More broadly, if you do things that make you miserable to play with, you might quickly find yourself not having anyone to play with.

As for tournaments, well, there aren't really serious multiplayer tournaments, and so the Magic Tournament Rules don't have anything explicit about multiplayer. There is potentially commander at Friday Night Magic, and if they're abiding by the rules, they'll have to allow you to concede at any time. But while I don't think the store could actually kick someone out for making a spiteful concession, the same about being pleasant to play with probably applies there: it's a local store, with many of the same people coming repeatedly.


what is a storage counter on a land card and how do you use it?

Most counters in MTG don't do anything by themselves. Their function is defined by the text of various cards which use them or place them. The names of the counters are a bit like creature types — they don't have any stand-alone rules significance but cards interact with them.

The exceptions are:

"+X/+Y" counters (normally +1/+1 and -1/-1, but some really old cards have other kinds), which modify a creature's power and toughness.
Poison counters: a player who has ten or more poison counters loses the game.

In the case of Calciform Pools, the  "storage counters" are there to be used for its second and third ability.

  {1}, Tap: Put a storage counter on Calciform Pools.

This lets you slowly "charge up" the land. If you have untapped mana on your opponents end step, you can spend some of it to put a storage counter on the Pools.

  {1}, Remove X storage counters from Calciform Pools: Add X mana in any combination of {w} and/or {B} to your mana pool.

This lets you "release" all of the mana you've stored up. The extra cost of 1 colorless is there to encourage you to take out a bunch of mana all at once. Note that you don't have to tap pools to activate this ability, so you can use Pools' first mana ability to pay the 1 colorless if you want to. You can also activate this ability multiple times per turn if you have 1 mana floating around to pay for it.


In modern-day Magic rules, every player's turn has a phase called the "end phase".

The last step of the end phase is to remove all "until end of turn" effects and all damage simultaneously. So your Shade will heal up and shrink down at the same time, allowing it to stay alive.

Here's the definition from the comp rules (with a summary below):

  512. Ending Phase

  512.1. The ending phase consists of two steps: end and cleanup.

  513. End Step

  513.1. First, all abilities that trigger “at the beginning of the end step” or “at the beginning of the next
         end step” go on the stack. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)

  513.1a Previously, abilities that trigger at the beginning of the end step were printed with the trigger
             condition “at end of turn.” Cards that were printed with that text have received errata in the
             Oracle card reference to say “at the beginning of the end step” or “at the beginning of the next
             end step.”

  513.2. Second, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

  513.3. If a permanent with an ability that triggers “at the beginning of the end step” enters the
         battlefield during this step, that ability won’t trigger until the next turn’s end step. Likewise, if a
         delayed triggered ability that triggers “at the beginning of the next end step” is created during this
         step, that ability won’t trigger until the next turn’s end step. In other words, the step doesn’t “back
         up” so those abilities can go on the stack. This rule applies only to triggered abilities; it doesn’t
         apply to continuous effects whose durations say “until end of turn” or “this turn.” (See rule 514,
         “Cleanup Step.”)

  514. Cleanup Step

  514.1. First, if the active player’s hand contains more cards than his or her maximum hand size    (normally seven), he or she discards
  enough cards to reduce his or her hand size to that number.    This
  turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.

  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.

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

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

So, when neither you or your opponent(s) have any more actions to take during your post-combat main phase, the game goes to the end phase. First you deal with any "at the beginning of the end step" triggers, and players get a last chance to cast Instants and activate abilities -- so this gives your opponent one last chance to, say, Lightning Bolt the Shade, although if you have mana open you will be able to pump it up or Giant Growth it in response, as usual.

Then, you go to cleanup, which is like the real end of your turn. First, if it's your turn that's ending, you discard any cards above your maximum hand size (normally 7); note that you'll never need to discard at the end of someone else's turn. Then all damage is erased and all "until end of turn" effects expire simultaneously. In your example, this means the Shade would go from being a pumped-up 4/4 creature with 2 damage marked on it to its normal 2/2 self with 0 damage marked on it. There is never a time when your creature's "until end of turn" effects will expire with damage still on the creature.

(If you played a special card that says "end the turn", like Sundial of the Infinite, then "at the beginning of the end step" triggers won't take effect at all this turn, but you still do the cleanup stuff like discarding down to 7 and removing damage and "until end of turn" effects.)


Why does a Thunder hammer have Concussive?

It's not a hiccup, p48 of the main rulebook covers this. In short, it means that both combatants have their Initiative reduced to 1, which in turn means that they are striking simultaneously.

And to clarify, Concussive reduces the opponents Initiative to 1 for the next assault phase. So if a Thunder Hammer + Storm Shield terminator were attacking a model with Initiative 4, combat would go something like:

  Round 1:
  Initiative Step 4: Opponent Attacks, no wounds
  Initiative Step 1: Terminator Attacks and wounds (Initiative 1 due to Unwieldy)

  Round 2: Initiative Step 1: Opponent (Initiative 1 due to Concussive) and Terminator (Initiative 1 due to Unwieldy) attack simultaneously (which means that if the opponent rolled first and killed the terminator, the terminator would still have the opportunity to roll and attack before being removed).

Edit: From the BRB, Concussive:

  ...a model that suffers one or more wounds...is reduced to Initiative 1 until the end of the following Assault Phase...


How easy is it to start Magic from scratch?

Magic the Gathering is actually one of the easiest TCG to get in.

It has entry products aimed at beginners or people trying to get in mainly :

Construction Kits
Give a lot of lands (you need them for basically anything) and
quite a lot of cards of each color and some of each dual color. The
power level isn't especially high, but it also contain boosters. All
in all, a very fine way to start a collection. There's a leaflet in
the kit with advice on "How to build a balanced deck ?" which will help you to
tinker with the deck on your own.
Planeswalker decks
Give you access to every card
types (or so) there is in magic, you've got some unique cards and
staple commons/uncommons. The decks' plans are usually quite
straightforward and made with playability in mind, they aren't
competitive, but they surely can be played as in.

N.B. Premade decks in previous times were either stupidly powerful or
contained especially potent cards (e.g. Rats deck of Kamigawa, Elf deck
of Lorwyn etc) or gimmicky at best (all the other Kamigawa decks
etc). The cards in it weren't especially useful outside of the deck's
theme, so it was kinda hard to learn Magic with them. Nowadays you've
got planeswalker decks.
Challenger decks
Tournement ready decks. These products usually are quite competitive and allow one to see the meta and explain how the deck works, usually they are quite    instructive.
Game Night
Contain 5 decks made on a theme based on the color (graveyard is actually
useful + zombies for black etc). These decks aren't
especially powerful but are made for beginners to "feel" what each
color is about, as well as get a taste for multiplayer. I found it quite instructive.

The main difference between Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh is the resource management, you can play as many monsters as you want every turn, but you need to pay the cost. Which depends on the land cards. All in all, the Magic rules are quite simple,
 but card interaction isn't. You'll understand quite all of it very quickly by playing.

MTGArena (the latest video game version of Magic) is also a very good way to learn the rules, and get a feel for how phases work and how the game plays out. The theme decks that are given in the beginning are not very strong though, and some of them are barely playable as is. MTG Arena is a Free-to-play version of Magic so it is the easiest version to try things out in.


No.

From the rulebook:

  Use only one hand

While it doesn't specifically give an answer to your exact question; you are only allowed to do things that the rulebook allows you to do; and the rulebook does not mention anything about being allowed to use anything other than "only one hand".


It´s to avoid trimming essential text and images of the card when it's cut out after printing. Also, using black or solid colors can make the white card stock paper visible during the cutting process. Those infos you can find here.

However, some patterns, like this one, goes beyond the safe margin. So, the gap in the edge of the cards is just a best practice.


Why is Modern Affinity called "Affinity"?

The answer is #3.  i.e. There was a deck long ago, that exploited affinity.  That deck has slowly changed over the years as the card pool has changed.  As those changes have occurred, the original reliance on affinity as a mechanic has reduced, but the name has stuck.

References:

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/aggro-tempo/219590-affinity

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/deck-of-the-day-true-affinity-modern/

https://blog.cardkingdom.com/deck-week-modern-affinity/


Don't use them to randomize.  Use one of the online card pickers:

What is the Best Random Card Setup Tool?

Use them as the last card in their respective stacks.  They are used to indicate that the stack has run out so that it is easier to know how close the game is to ending.  @krisa suggests that if you use sleeves to use a different colored sleeve for the randomizer cards.  This will make it much easier to keep them separate.

Pg. 5 of the rules says:

  Players may also use the Randomizer cards
  as Placeholders to mark the card piles so
  empty piles are easily seen.


Has 40k lost a lot of its customization and character options?

Yes and no. In Matched play your options are much more limited, but in Open, and to a lesser extent Narrative play whatever your opponent agrees to is fine!

  Are the expected codices supposed to give more options/customization?

We hope so, but there isn't any definitive word on this.

  Can I take a unique item or character and modify it for my own use?

Absolutely. When and where you can play with that character will depend on how closely you hew to the Index/Codex and how strict events you go to are. If it's not an organized event, talk to your opponent first, and for anything custom strive for underpowered!

  If so, and WYSIWYG still applies, how would I compute costs fairly?

Something outside the rules probably won't fly in a Matched Play organized event. If you're playing with power, it shouldn't matter too much, but you might want to add a Power point or two to the cost of the unit to compensate.

  Would it be fair to just double the cost of the normal version?

Maybe, maybe not. This is way to situational to answer.

  Is this something that I should not be as worried about in actual gameplay and just give them what I can from what exists?

Probably. If you have a regular gaming group talk to them. If you are planning on going to tournaments stick to the rules


My opponent tried to back out of his play by declaring that he had not yet paid the costs for Devour Flesh.

The rules don't allow him to back out in the scenario you described.

The following are the steps to casting a spell:

(601.2a) Place the card on the stack.
(601.2b-d) Make some choices including targets.
(601.2e) Determine the total cost to cast the spell.
(601.2f) Activate mana abilities if desired if the cost has a mana component.
(601.2g) Pay the total cost to cast the spell.

Not only did he announce what he is casting (part of step 601.2a), he announced targets (part of 601.2c). There's no question that he started casting the spell. There's is only one condition under which the casting of the spell can be undone: The player becomes unable to comply with the instructions[CR 601.2]. For example, the casting of the spell can be undone if the caster becomes unable to pay the spell's costs.

Let's pretend for a moment that his mana pool was empty. He cannot be forced to tap lands to produce the mana required to pay the spell[CR 117.3c]. If he chose not to tap any lands in step 601.2f, he won't be able to pay the cost when it comes time to do so in step 601.2g, which undoes the casting of the spell[CR 601.2][1].

However, his mana pool isn't empty. He can comply with the instruction to pay the cost, so he must[2]. At no point is he unable to comply with any of the steps required to cast a spell, so nothing allows him to undo the casting of the spell.

  601.2. [...] If, at any point during the casting of a spell, a player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the casting of the spell is illegal; the game returns to the moment before that spell started to be cast [...]

  117.3c Activating mana abilities is not mandatory, even if paying a cost is[3].

  601.2f If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, “Mana Abilities”). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

  601.2g The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.

I don't know how tolerant judges are of this practice, but that's a separate issue.
If the game instructs you to do something, you must do it if you can.
In fact, you are never compelled to create a situation where you could pay a cost. 117.3c is just a specific case of a general rule, though the general rule appears to be unwritten. For example, see the last sentence of the first ruling on Avatar of Slaughter.


I was just considering this a few days ago:

No, there are simply not enough hero types to go around.

Because the game operates on 4 basic hero types, it is limited to 4 players for fairness. (ie each player can concentrate on one hero type in a 4 player game: A goes Thieves, B goes Clerics, C goes Fighters, D goes Mages).

If you add more players ( E & F ), then the players come into conflict over resource types ( E tries to go for Fighters. Suddenly, (depending on luck of the draw) either E or C is getting all the Fighter heroes and the other player gets nothing.

The problem magnifies more for each player as you add players beyond 4 in our thought experiment. Get to 8 players and 4 are unable to score any points.

Not very fun.

Edit/Update: Official Brotherwise opinion on the matter (from their website):

  Boss Monster 2 is balanced and recommended for 2-4 players. However, if you also own the core set, it is possible to play with 5-6 players. Here are some unofficial guidelines for larger games:

  Play using the Unlimited Lives variant described on page 17 of the rulebook. (Players are not eliminated upon reaching five Wounds. The game ends when a turn ends with no cards left in the Hero decks. The winner of the game is the player with the highest total Souls minus Wounds.)

  For a 5-player game, start with all the Heroes and Epic Heroes from one set. Then add an extra 4-Health Cleric, Fighter, Mage and Thief. Add an extra 11-Health Cleric, Fighter, Mage, and Thief.
  For a 6-player game, also add an extra 6-Health Cleric, Fighter, Mage and Thief.

  We are currently developing a set designed to facilitate larger multiplayer games. If you would like to share feedback on multiplayer over 4 players, please e-mail us at bossmonster@brotherwisegames.com!


Following directions on pairs in exploding kittens?

As per the VERY first paragraph in the "Special combos (for advanced play)" section on the rules:

  When you play combos, ignore the instructions on the cards and do the following instead:

Therefore, in the situation you presented, you would still be required to draw a card to end your turn as you played a Three of a Kind, not a skip card. If you had the remaining skip card, you could play it separately to end your turn without drawing a card.


Ghost stories white moon - cemetery tile Qi

I can't find an authoritative answer, but I believe that no one gets any Qi.

Using the Cemetery in the base game allows you to revive a taoist, which is represented by them having some amount of Qi. For play reasons, this amount is set at two.

Using the Cemetery with White Moon allows you to revive a villager instead; but villagers don't have Qi, they are just either alive or dead.

Looking at the flavour of the action, when you bring back a taoist you are giving them life back (at a cost), but you don't benefit; so when you bring back a villager, why should you be gaining life?


For the most part, you can use any Bohnanza guide to win at Al Cabohne. All you have to take into consideration are the fundamental differences between this game and regular Bohnanza. I'll focus on those:

The most important difference created with Al Cabohne is in the way the discard pile affects the proceedings of the game. You can get some good value out of the discard pile if you can manage to remember which cards are on there.

Also something to look out for, if one of the mafia bosses ends up with a bean that you already have, you might not want to harvest them immediately. If your harvest goes onto the discard pile, that's basically the same as giving it to the mafia. If you think you can manage until the mafia harvests their field you can try to get all those cards from the discard pile back onto your field. So unless you really need the space, try to keep these beans on the table.


From Laws of Contract Bridge 2014:

Law 42 – Dummy’s Rights   Dummy is entitled to give information as to fact or Law but may not initiate the discussion, and provided he
has not forfeited his rights (see Law 43), he may also
(a) ask declarer (but not a defender), when he has failed to follow suit,
whether he has a card of the suit led.
(b) try to prevent any
irregularity **by declarer.
(c) draw attention to any irregularity, but only after play is concluded.
** Note: He may, for example, warn declarer against leading from the wrong hand.
Law 43 – Dummy’s Limitations
Dummy may not participate in the play (except to play the cards of dummy’s hand as directed by
declarer) or make any comment on the bidding, play or score of the
current deal. If he does so, Law 16 may apply. During play, dummy may
not call attention to an irregularity once it has occurred.
Dummy forfeits the rights provided in (a), (b) and (c) of Law 42 if he
exchanges hands with declarer, leaves his seat to watch declarer play
or, on his own initiative, looks at the face of a card in either
defender’s hand. If, thereafter,
(a) he is the first to draw
attention to a defender’s irregularity, declarer may not enforce any
penalty for the offense.
(b) he warns declarer not to lead from the
wrong hand, (penalty) either defender may choose the hand from which
declarer shall lead.
(c) he is the first to ask declarer if a play
from declarer’s hand constitutes a revoke, declarer must substitute a
correct card if his play was a revoke, and (penalty) unless Law 64(d)
applies, one trick is transferred to the defending side.

Contrary to the belief of many, rules are intended to keep friendly games friendly, by providing a common understanding of the game. The above are the rules for non-Tournament bridge in regards to Dummy's rights and limitations.
It sounds like Gramma is a wise old woman, who has encountered cheats in her life and wishes that her grandchildren and other relatives are never accused of such or believed to be sharp at cards. Follow her advice, and give her more credit for wisdom possibly beyond even her years.


Can Joe Diamond attempt to solve a puzzle twice with his magnifying glass?

One puzzle attempt per turn per investigator is the rule.

From the rules, bottom of the first column on page 18 -

  Each investigator can only attempt the same puzzle once per turn
  (but multiple investigators may attempt the same puzzle on the
  same turn).