Here's a great place to read the rules yourself:
From mattel.com: https://service.mattel.com/instruction_sheets/42001pr.pdf

Now to your questions which has been answered by L_Church, even though not completely correct
(you are not allowed to "chain" a draw card - instead of drawing the cards from the pile yourself):

Yes it's invalid, it's not allowed by the next player (opponent) to play +4 card on top of a +4 card.

If you have played your last card you have won, no matter what happens next.

But even if that wasn't true, it's not valid to play a +4 card on top of a +4 card,
instead it's MANDATORY to DRAW 4 cards from the pile and then it's the next player's turn who then can play another +4 card if wanted.

Anything else is just house rules...

  Wild Draw 4 Card - This card allows you to call the next color played and REQUIRES the next player to pick 4 cards from the DRAW pile and FORFEIT his/her turn.

Yes, in a 2 player game, but not in a game with 3 or more players.

If you play a Wild Draw 4 / Draw 2 / Reverse / Skip Card or and you are only 2 players, then it's okej to play another card immediately after you played the first card - since it's your turn again.

If you are more than 2 players, then you are not allowed to play another card - since it's not your turn.

  Rules for Two Players - The following special rules apply to two-player UNO.

  Playing a Reverse card works like playing a Skip card. By playing the Reverse card, you may immediately play another card.
  By playing a Skip card, you may immediately play another card.
  After playing a Draw 2 card or a Wild Draw 4 card, your opponent draws the number of cards indicated, and play is back to you.

No, you are not allowed to play 2 card in the same turn.


Can Legion's Initiative save permanents from Bearer of Heavens's destruction ability?

The first ability of Bearer of the Heavens creates a delayed trigger:

  When Bearer of the Heavens dies, destroy all permanents at the beginning of the next end step.

So if, for example, the Bearer dies during combat, it simply goes to the graveyard and nothing happens yet. During the second main phase, your opponent can activate Legion's Initiative and exile his creatures. When your end step begins, the delayed trigger from Bearer of the Heavens goes on the stack and resolves, destroying all permanents that are in in play, which doesn't include the creature cards your opponent has exiled.

Alternatively, he could wait until the Bearer's trigger goes on the stack, then activate the ability of Legion's Initiative in response. Either way, the your opponent's creatures are exiled before the Bearer's ability resolves, and his creatures are saved.


Does your Death's Shadow become bigger if you are at negative life?

No.

From the Gatherer rulings:

  If your life total is negative, X is considered to be 0. (This is a change from previous rulings.)

The actual comprehensive rule that supports this is:

  107.1b Most of the time, the Magic game uses only positive numbers and zero. You can’t choose a negative number, deal negative damage, gain negative life, and so on. However, it’s possible for a game value, such as a creature’s power, to be less than zero. If a calculation or comparison needs to use a negative value, it does so. If a calculation that would determine the result of an effect yields a negative number, zero is used instead, unless that effect sets a player’s life total to a specific value, doubles a player’s life total, or sets a creature’s power or toughness to a specific value.

So in other words, you can actually have negative life, and your life is treated as being negative, but not for the purposes of calculating an effect such as Death's Shadow.


Yes, you can.

The Companion keyword only functions outside of the game. This means that if a card with Companion is in your deck, whether as a Commander or just any regular card, then the Companion part of the card doesn't do anything; it's just a normal creature. In the case of a Commander deck, it would just be a normal Legendary Creature which is therefore valid as your Commander.

  702.138. Companion

    702.138a Companion is a keyword ability that functions outside the game. It’s written as “Companion—[Condition].” Before the game begins, you may reveal one card you own from outside the game with a companion ability whose condition is fulfilled by your starting deck. (See rule 103.1b.) If you do, once during that game, you may play that card from outside the game.

  Commander

    903.3. Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the object represented by the card; rather, it is an attribute of the card itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.

Jegantha, the Wellspring is a legendary creature, therefore it can be your Commander.


Do two monsters only emerge from the gate from the first mythos card in the Dunwich Horror setup?

This was already in the base rules (top of page 10, Mythos phase, part C3):

  Exception: If there are five or more investigators playing, then draw and place two monsters instead of one.

The Dunwich rules are just saying explicitly that you also do this on the first mythos card of the game. That was already true in the base rules, since they said to do it as described above:

  Finally, the first player draws the top card of the mythos deck and resolves it as described in the Mythos Phase section of the rules.

It's just more explicit in Dunwich, in the same spirit as all the FAQ provided at the end of the rules.


Name of a board game with a world map and an airplane traveling to different cities

Your memory of the game's name is pretty much correct,
The game in question is called "Holiday!"
(note the !, as there is another game called "Holiday" that is quite different to what you remember).

The rules to "Holiday!" are almost exactly as you remember, with the addition that the destination cards also hold a day of the week, which awards a player additional points for reaching the destination on that day.


How can I find all cards with flavor text from a certain set and colour?

A gatherer search for the vowels in flavour text with the block and colors you want selected in the gatherer advanced search feature will find you what you're looking for, since all english words must contain a,e,i,o,u or y. Here are all 146 red and/or black cards with flavour text from Khans block.

Note that the colors are added as OR, meaning it has to be at least red or at least black, if they were added as AND it would only find colors that are both. The no other colors is added using the exclude unselected terms more color option. (so it won't find cards that are black and blue for instance)

UPDATE - gatherer does have an issue in it's matching on empty spaces and block vs set matching. updated image and link for better


Am I at legal risk if I use a mechanism from another game in my own design?

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer

This answer* on startups.SE suggests (though doesn't completely confirm) that the mechanisms of a board game cannot be patented (which I suppose explains why we have so many deck-builders, for instance), but you may be at risk of copyright infringement if you go so far as to copy graphics, trademarked characters or names and copy used in the rulebook.

It goes without saying that since you refer to a "popular fantasy universe", you may have more to worry about from them than from Steve Jackson if you intend to use existing characters etc.

Given that, I think that using a mechanism from another game is acceptable.

*The linked question is about an electronic adaptation of a board game, but I believe the answer still applies


does gaining control of an aura gaining control of a permanent give me the permanent?

Yes, if you take control of your opponent's Control Magic, you also take control of the creature it enchants.
The "you" on objects always refers to the controller of that object. If you take control of that object, you become the new "you". In the case of Control Magic, that also means that you take control of the enchanted creature.

109.5. The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller, its would-be controller (if a player is attempting to play, cast, or activate it), or its owner (if it has no controller). For a static ability, this is the current controller of the object it’s on. For an activated ability, this is the player who activated the ability. For a triggered ability, this is the controller of the object when the ability triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability. To determine the controller of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

If you cast your own Control Magic after the opponent played his, you would also take control of the creature. However, it's not due to timing, which governs who can take action and when, but because of the more recent timestamp of your Control Magic vs. your opponent's Control Magic timestamp, meaning the latest timestamp "wins":

Interaction of Continuous Effects

613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.2. Within layers 1–6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer. (See rule 613.7.)
613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.


Combo question: urborg tomb of yawgmoth, torpor orb, kormus bell, dark depths = free Marit Lage?

It won't work.  Dark Depths' "Dark Depths enters the battlefield with ten ice counters on it." ability is not a triggered ability; you can tell because it doesn't use the words "when," "whenever," or "at," which are part of the definition of "triggered ability" in the Comprehensive Rules:

  112.3c Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and include (and usually begin with) the word "when," "whenever," or "at." Whenever the trigger event occurs, the ability is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority and stays there until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities."

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect]."

Instead, the ability is just a plain old static ability (specifically, a replacement ability, but that doesn't matter here).  Thus, Torpor Orb won't stop the ice counters from being placed on your Legendary Snow Creature Land — Swamp, and your combo won't work.

Stick with Vampire Hexmage.


When can you change a monster's position?

Is that correct?

Yes, it is correct.

Unless otherwise specified or restricted, you can do that what you describe.

You can't, however do so on the turn you Summon a monster, as once you place it on certain position then it has to remain that way until you can legally change it again (either by card effect or rulebook effect). Think of it as the "summoning sickness" that MTG creatures have, just that it applies to position instead of attack permission.

Also, some cards may prevent you from doing so. Examples are Level Limit - Area B, or well any Cloudian Archetype monsters, which can't be placed on defense position or they are destroyed.


Dan levels: difference between amateur and professional?

For amateurs, each level is one stone difference. So an amateur seven dan is six stones stronger than an amateur shodan. "Seven dan" is about as strong as a "pure" amateur is likely to get, although there are some amateurs that have had professionalized training, and are believe to be "eight dan" in strength, on the amateur scale.

"Pro" starts about where amateurs leave off. That is a pro one dan is about an amateur seven dan. Pro dan levels go from one to nine, but the difference in each level is about one third of a stone, rather than a whole stone. So a pro nine dan might be a "ten" dan on the amateur scale.


In the game there is no karma loss for losing only a karma reduction for aborting the mission or a reduction if you have to much karma of for the mission you are going on. Due to the random nature of the game it can be very harsh if you can actually lose karma for failing a mission as depending on the luck it can be very easy for a team to either easily crush a game or easily be crushed by the game depending on the obstacles, crossfire cards and black market cards that are drawn during the game. In this game karma is not like reputation but it is experience points which are gained for succeeding in missions and that is something that is not normally lost easily in most games.

Another thing to remember is that if you do lose karma for failing a mission that would put a lot more pressure on any new players who may be
playing with experienced players as a failure would risk the more experienced player losing valuable upgrades.

Below I have listed the karma rules for the basic mission

  Karma Awards: If the team wins, each runner gets 3 Karma.
  If the team aborts, and has a successful abort run round, each
  runner gets 1 Karma. The team can also choose the following
  bonus challenge options:

  › Bring It On!: Flip up one additional obstacle at the start
  of each Scene: +1 Karma for each runner

  › Danger Zone: Start the game with one card in the
  Crossfire discard: +2 Karma for each runner (In the same
  game, the team can choose this option up to once for
  each runner.)

  Karma Scaling: Each runner gains the following Karma award
  or penalty based on how much Karma they have.

  CROSSFIRE KARMA SCALING KARMA IN UPGRADES AWARD OR PENALTY
  0-10 FULL KARMA AWARD
  11-30 -1 KARMA PENALTY
  31-50 -2 KARMA PENALTY
  51-75 -3 KARMA PENALTY
  EACH ADDITIONAL +25 ADDITIONAL -1 KARMA PENALTY


MTG Commander Clarification on Triggered Abilities

Yes, you get to create a Cat token.
Note that the ability is a triggered ability, not an activated ability. This is an important distinction.

Handling Triggered Abilities

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

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

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

So with a triggered ability; any time the condition is met; the ability will trigger. It doesn't matter how long ago you cast Jolrael, or how many times it has triggered before. It only matters that Jolrael is on the battlefield under your control at the time that you are drawing your second card on a turn.
The trigger condition refers to "each turn", which means that it can be on any turn, not only on your own turn. If players 2, 3, and 4 each cast a Burning Inquiry on their turn; then you would end up creating 3 Cat tokens, one on each of their turns.


Can stations be used to traverse empty routes in Ticket to Ride Europe?

I don't actually see any ambiguity here. You've quoted the rule saying a Station allows you to use someone else's route. I don't see how that could imply that a Station can complete a route that hasn't yet been filled in by anyone.

The reason you are allowed to place Stations on any city, including currently unlinked cities, is to allow you to place a Station strategically, before anyone else. This is important, because only one player can control a Station in any given city. If you suspect that in the late game you will need a Station in a city, or you would like to block other players from placing a Station, then this could be a smart move.

The purpose of Stations is to give you the possibility of still completing routes, albeit at some cost (since you don't get your four points at the end for the unused Station). As you point out, if you could use them to effectively 'jump' the last leg of a route, then that would change the entire dynamic, and would indeed make Stations much more powerful.

So based on the rules, and the intended use of Stations, I'm quite confident that completing empty routes using Stations is not intended, or legal. Someone that's played the online version of the game could confirm this, though.


(Quoting from the English rules, from the linked PDFs.)

Cities, page 5, about Diplomacy:

  A player who puts into play a card with the [Diplomacy] symbol takes a Diplomacy token from the bank and places it on their board.

Cities, page 8, about Aspasia:

  When Aspasia enters play, the player takes a
  Diplomacy token.

Wonder Pack, page 1, about Abu Simbel’s stage 3:

  The player can no longer benefit from the chosen Leader’s effect.

I’d say the Diplomacy token stays on your board. After bringing Aspasia into play, the Diplomacy effect gets exectued instantaneously, leaving Aspasia with

a now useless Diplomacy effect, and
2 VP at game end effect

both of which stop being active by burying it. But this doesn’t affect any benefits this Leader gave you before burying it, and it doesn’t require to rollback anything made possible by this Leader.

Think of the other Leaders: Many of them also have instant effects, like Caligula, which allows to build one black card per Age for free. If you’d use its effect and bury it afterwards, you wouldn’t have to get rid of the black card in retrospect.


Can Operations be attacked in Pixel Tactics?

You cannot attack Operations. They are not part of your unit and only reside in one of 3 reserve slots which hold only Traps or Operations. Neither can be directly attacked as they have no attack or health.

On the other hand, some cards can increase or decrease the amount of timers on various Operations. In this way, you can lengthen or reduce the time an Operation is in play even though it cannot be removed directly.


Do copied spells use the original's casting location?

The new copy of Increasing Vengeance will only make one copy of the Shock - it was never cast, much less cast from your graveyard.

This isn't particularly simple - most of the time, when a spell or ability is copied, most of its characteristics are copied along with it (costs paid, choices made, etc.) - however, in this instance, since the evaluation of whether or not an extra copy is provided on resolution of Increasing Vengeance, that information is not actually copied. If it was phrased different it might actually work - something like "if the flashback cost was paid, copy twice." But phrased the way it is, you get only a single copy.

Relevant rule:

  706.10. To copy a spell or activated ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn't cast and a copy of an activated ability isn't activated. A copy of a spell or ability copies both the characteristics of the spell or ability and all decisions made for it, including modes, targets, the value of X, and additional or alternative costs. (See rule 601, "Casting Spells.") Choices that are normally made on resolution are not copied. If an effect of the copy refers to objects used to pay its costs, it uses the objects used to pay the costs of the original spell or ability. A copy of a spell is owned by the player under whose control it was put on the stack. A copy of a spell or ability is controlled by the player under whose control it was put on the stack. A copy of a spell is itself a spell, even though it has no spell card associated with it. A copy of an ability is itself an ability.


Are some pieces better than others in Blokus?

For scoring purposes alone placing the pentominoes first is the optimal approach.

What you place first depends on your strategy.  Sometimes I like to go straight after another player to attempt to block them in.  Y, I, and L are good opening pieces for that.  For a more balanced to the middle approach, I like to open with F or W.  They give lots of corners to build off of and are not immediately threatening to the other players.

I, P, T and X can be difficult to place later in the game, so I like to get them out as soon as possible.  F, U, L, W and Z are all great for cutting other players off, so I like to save them for when I get close to another color.

Usually only 2 of the 4's give me trouble; the straight piece, and the perfect square. I tend to prioritizing placing them over all the smaller pieces and even some of the 5's.

In most games what you place becomes highly dependent on what the other players are doing.  Especially in later turns.  You need to give yourself room to grow while simultaneously denying space to your opponents.


How should hands that are EXTREMELY strong in one suit (10+ cards) be bid?

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

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

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

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

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

As to your edit.

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

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

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

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

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


2R1B is designed to work well with larger groups, so it's difficult to make it work well in the 6-8 player space. I assume you're already following the rules that for 10 or fewer players you only have 3 rounds and cannot colour share.

Beyond that, the main considerations are to make card sharing risky while still being necessary, and encouraging deals, so I would suggest that with 6 players you might want to have President, Bomber and 4 Grey roles. As to which Greys, potentially something like Ahab+Moby, or Sniper+Target+Decoy, where it's highly beneficial to know who the other Greys are without giving away your own role, which might involve trying to find the President or Bomber and making a deal with them. Romeo+Juliet is also good, although they're actively trying to find each other so they're probably more open to publically revealing.

Burying a card can also make things interesting, although with only 6 players if you're burying a card then you either need to ensure that President and Bomber aren't buried, or you play with President's Daughter and Martyr plus 3 Grey cards, and try to make sure that those three don't cause issues with burying (either by only burying one of the four Red/Blue cards, or picking Greys that don't depend on each other). There's still an issue there, though, that you'll wind up with one team who has 2 players against one who may have only 1, which gets a bit unfair. You could make one of the Greys the Amnesiac/Drunk instead, who gains the role of the buried card in the last round, but that just means that you're really playing with the normal 6 cards but someone doesn't know how to play until round 3 (unless they can somehow divine their card earlier), which may wind up being even less fun.

The print-and-play rules include a number of suggested sets that go down to 6 players - the first group are more tutorial ones, but from page 21 (of the v4.0 rules) onwards there are several that are more designed to make for interesting decisions around card sharing and hostage trading. For example:

2 Rooms, 1 Boom and a Gunshot

President/Bomber
Sniper/Target/Decoy
Hot Potato

This one has a lot of potential for crazy shenanigans - the Hot Potato always loses, but anyone who card shares with it trades roles, so even if the President has worked out who the Bomber is, or the Sniper their Target, things can still go awry if they don't keep an eye on them.

6 Player Instant Death

President/Bomber
Doctor/Engineer
Tuesday Knight/Dr Boom

In this one, the President and the Bomber both know they need to card share with the Doctor and Engineer respectively, or risk their team losing. At the same time, if they share with Dr Boom or Tuesday Knight, it's an instant loss for them and a win for their opponents. So Dr Boom and Tuesday Knight will probably be claiming to be the Doctor and the Engineer. But then if that role is in the same room, they can counter-claim. Or maybe knowing that that's expected they'll try an even trickier tactic. Maybe the Engineer can claim Bomber to lure out Tuesday Knight - or claim President to try to find a teammate in Dr Boom (or find the Doctor).


In most rules given for the game it is stated that one player is chosen to be the dealer (source 1, source 2, source 3.)
There is no mention of the dealer role going to another player in those.

Wikipedia says:
One player is chosen to be the dealer (alternately, the deal can rotate to the left after each hand).(source)
This seems to indicate that having the deal rotate is an alternate rule or houserule rather than an official rule.


Can I sacrifice the same creature twice?

The question is a bit unclear. If you're trying to sacrifice the Vampire Hexmage to pay for its own activated ability, and to satisfy the Plaguemaw Beast, then no.

For each Plaguemaw Beast and Vampire Hexmage, the act of sacrificing a creature is a part of the cost of activating the ability. If you fail to be able to pay the cost, the ability will fail to resolve.


Creatures with "Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~"

One option is to use Scryfall, which uses "~" in card text search to mean the name of the card that the text is on. So, for example, you can search

  o:"Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~"

This gives exactly one result: Nettle Drone.

In addition, Scryfall has a regular expression search that supports the same meaning of "~". So if you do the following card text search, you end up at Nettle Drone:

  re:"Whenever you cast a colorless spell, untap ~"

For a slightly broader set of results, you can search for

  re:"Whenever * (cast|casts) (a|an)* spell,* untap ~"

This finds every ability of the form "Whenever [a player] cast(s) a(n) [characteristic] spell, untap [this permanent]". It finds a total of 9 cards, two of which untap when you cast any colorless spell: Dwarven Patrol and Nettle Drone.

You can also use this less-accurate regex:

  re:"Whenever * (cast|casts) (a|an)* spell,* untap"

This captures more cards outside our intentions but with a similar effect (e.g. Paradox Engine, Jeskai Ascendancy). More importantly, it includes cards like Blistercoil Weird which say "untap it" (in reference to themselves) following some other effect that's also occurring.


betrayal at house on the hill attacking and lucky stone

The rulebook is not clear on if combat is simultaneous, or if the attacker rolls before the defender. The only thing is says is:

  When you make an attack, roll a number of dice equal to your Might. Your opponent does the same.

Normally, it makes no difference, but with the Lucky Stone; you must decide if you want combat to be simultaneous or not. There are many little rules like this in Betrayal where your group needs to decide which way to play it. Either way, the Lucky Stone can be used, but your knowledge would be different in each case.

The Lucky Stone is used "after you attempt a roll of any kind". It is reasonable to assume this means "immediately after", or before anything else has happened. Therefore, there are 2 options:

If you play with simultaneous attacks, then the player with the Lucky Stone can choose if they want to use the Lucky Stone after the players have rolled their dice. The player will know how the defender rolled before making that choice.

If you play where the attacker rolls first, and then the defender rolls, then the attack should have to decide to use the Lucky Stone after rolling, before they can know what the defender will roll.

In the second case, the Lucky Stone is still useful, but using it might be a risk as the defender could end up rolling really poorly so that they didn't end up needing to have used it.


Do you need a program to make a run in Netrunner?

You are correct!  No icebreaker is required to make a run.  So yes, the mantra: run early, run often!  On the first turn, it is usually good to put some pressure on a central server that isn't well defended (either HQ or R&D).

However: some decks will punish you for this (especially Jinteki), as they have cards that can hurt you when accessed from R&D or HQ (Snare, Shock, et cetera).  Also, you can run naked (no ICEBREAKERS) even against servers that have ICE... and you might be successful if the corp doesn't rez them or if they don't have any "end the run" subroutines.  Again, that can be pretty dangerous though (watch out for Neural Katanas).

Most corp players will expect this though - if you are Criminal, they will generally defend HQ on turn 1 (to stop Account Siphons); if you are Shaper, they will typically put some ICE on R&D (to try and prevent Maker's Eye runs).


What game is this with colored tokens, a dice, and what looks like a spoon?

This might be a variant of a Japanese game known as Ohajiki. My understanding is that it was traditionally played with flatten marbles and is similar to tiddlywinks. The spoon and die suggest is might be some variation on the game.


Can infinite scry 1 be shortcut by searching through your deck?

An Official Ruling (requires a Judge Apps account to view) by high-level tournament judges explicitly says that you can take those shortcuts:

  A player with the ability to scry 1 ‘infinitely’ may shortcut this action by examining the library without reordering it and cutting it to a specific location. A player with the ability to scry 2 or more infinitely may shortcut this action by rearranging her library in any way she likes, but she must do so quickly. Players are not required to know the mathematics or technical steps behind this.

Technically, by the definition in the Comprehensive Rules, each of those situations would actually involve two shortcuts. The rule that's relevant here is 716.2a:

  At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.

The highlighted part is what makes this tricky. Technically, you can't say "I scry until I see a particular card", but we can work around that.

Scry 1

In the case where you can only Scry 1 a number of times, and you want to search your deck for a particular card and cut to have that card on top, you would use two shortcuts to technically make this work:

Scry 1 N times, where N is the number of cards in your library, and choose to put the card on the bottom each time. This is functionally equivalent to looking at your entire library without changing its order.
Choose a card with K cards on top of it, then Scry K and choose to put the card on bottom each time. This is equivalent to cutting the deck just above the card you are looking for.

Scry 2+

This case is a little more complicated. When you want to stack your deck, you're not just scrying a certain number of cards to the bottom; you're taking a large number of steps of reordering two cards at a time to eventually end up at the desired order. But it still can be done according to the rules using these shortcuts:

Scry 2 N/2 times (rounded up), where N is the number of cards in your library (or enough to see your whole library), and choose to put the cards on the bottom each time. As in the first case, you have to know the current order of your library to deterministically make the next shortcut.
Technically, to be fully compliant with the rules, here you would lay out exactly the sequence of scrys you would do to get the order you want (like "Put the top card on bottom, then put the second from top card on bottom, then put the top card on bottom, etc."). Unfortunately, working out that sequence and reciting it would probably take as long as just doing it manually, which would probably count as slow play. However, it's likely that your opponent would accept "Now that I know the order of my library, I could give a sequence of scrys to arbitrarily reorder my deck, so I would like to skip that and just stack my deck".


All of the top hits on Google refer to MLD as "mass land destruction", i.e. cards like Armageddon.

Or, to quote one of the moderators on MTGSalvation:

  MLD is mass land destruction, so generally speaking, any card that destroys multiple lands at once. This is usually indiscriminate, so Ruination is considered MLD while Sylvan Primordial is not. Back to Basics, and things that prevent you from using lands are not MLD, simply resource denial. At least, that's my take. I don't think the term has made its way into Webster's yet.

So you're right, it's not an official Magic: The Gathering term.


What happens if I blink a transformed double-faced planeswalker?

When you blink Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, it will return as Garruk Relentless as if you had just cast it.
When a permanent such as a planeswalker leaves the battlefield, it becomes a new object with no relation to its former existence. When it returns, it will enter the battlefield as if you had cast it from your hand, non-transformed and with full loyalty.

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.
121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.
209.1. Each planeswalker card has a loyalty number printed in its lower right corner. This indicates its loyalty while it’s not on the battlefield, and it also indicates that the planeswalker enters the battlefield with that many loyalty counters on it.
711.8. A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. [..]


I have two 8-player games in my collection that I've brought along to my weekly cafe boardgames group.  (Well, they have variants or expansions that allow 8 players, anyway...)

Citadels

A good, solid gamery game.  I expect the 8-player version would be too intimidating for people who hadn't played before, but it's definitely the sort of game that people can become obsessed over, and want to play again and again.  Individual turns are really quick, and there's a lot of tension in the fact that everyone's role for the turn is secret until it comes around, so there's definitely plenty to hold people's interest while they're waiting for 7 other players to take their go!

Bang!

Kind of a polar opposite to Citadels, in that I would have no qualms about letting a beginner sit down to the game, but I don't think there's quite as much to hold the long-term interest of dedicated strategy-heads.  Bang! is a lot of fun, as players form alliances (or, more often, get embroiled in vendettas) in a Wild West shootout, where no one is quite sure who is on the Sheriff's side and who wants him dead (Werewolf style).  The one issue with it as an 8-player game is the same one that Werewolf has: it's possible to be knocked out of the game pretty quick, and if that happens it's tough to be just a spectator for the next half hour or more.

ETA: Here's a list of LOTS of 8-player boardgames for anyone interested in really exploring the possibilities: http://boardgamegeek.com/tag/8-player.  Hopefully we have already covered the major contenders between us!


Can a creature be tapped to prevent its activated ability?

No, this is not possible, for one of two reasons depending on the game state:

If you have priority, then you may choose to activate your creature's ability. If you do so, then everything involved in the activation of the ability (including the tapping of your creature to pay the ability's cost) happens immediately. Your opponent does not have any opportunity to interrupt this. Only after you are done activating your creature's ability does your opponent has a chance to play his tapping ability, but by that point your creature is already tapped, and tapping it won't have any effect.
If you do not have priority, then your opponent may choose to activate his tapping ability to tap your creature. However, in this case, the tapping is part of the effect of the ability, not the cost, so your creature does not become tapped right away. Your opponent's ability gets activated, goes on the stack, and then sits there for a while. You may choose to play abilities of your own in the meantime ("in response"), so for example you could use your own creature's ability before your opponent's ability resolves.

The process of activating an ability is described in rule 602.2, and the timing rules are described in rule 116. You may want to review those (although they're too long to quote here).


Magic The Gathering, Blinking the source of a transformation

If you blink Archangel Avacyn while its transform trigger is on the stack, the new Archangel object will not transform.

You are correct in that the transform trigger will still resolve, even though its source object no longer exists. However, the Archangel that put the transform trigger on the stack was also the object to be flipped. When you blinked the original Archangel, the transform trigger lost track of that object. The transform ability will resolve, but it will not do anything.

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


What happens in the event of a standoff in Magic?

There are several variants of this situation that are quite different in the rules reasoning and outcome.  In all cases, the situation is a loop.

720.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a "loop"). In that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them, and how the loop is broken.

Case 1: players cannot win or lose the game because of mandatory abilities
The game is a draw.
Example 1: both players have empty libraries and control Dragon Appeasement on an otherwise empty board.
Example 2: one player controls Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor and neither player has a way to remove either from the battlefield.
In this case, the game is a draw.  The game will eventually reduce to each player being able to do nothing but pass the turn.  This is a loop of mandatory actions.

720.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw.

Case 2: players cannot win or lose the game because of optional abilities
The game is a draw.
Example 1: both players have empty libraries and control some lands and Words of Worship on an otherwise empty board.
Example 2: both players have some lands and a copy of Beacon of Immortality, but no other way to win.
In this case, the game will eventually reduce to a loop of both players activating the ability that keeps them alive and then passing the turn.  This is a loop of optional actions that spans multiple turns.  The comprehensive rules do not cover the subject, so we need to go to the tournament rules*.  The tournament rules allow for multi-turn optional loops to be continued indefinitely and this causes the game to be a draw.  From the Tournament Rules section 4.4:

Loops may span multiple turns if a game state is not meaningfully changing. Note that drawing cards other than the ones being used to sustain the loop is a meaningful change. If two or more players are involved in maintaining a loop across turns, each player chooses a number of iterations to perform, or announces their intent to continue indefinitely. If all players choose to continue indefinitely, the game is a draw.

Case 3: only one player has an optional ability and is using it to forestall inevitably losing
The player with the optional ability loses.
Example 1: one player has Dragon Appeasement and the other has Words of Worship
Example 2: only one player has an empty library and that player is using Nexus of Fate to prevent themselves from being milled.
This is different from case 2 because only one player is involved in maintaining the loop.  From the Tournament Rules section 4.4:

If one player is involved in maintaining the loop, they choose a number of iterations. The other players, in turn order, agree to that number or announce a lower number after which they intend to intervene. The game advances through the lowest number of iterations chosen and the player who chose that number receives priority.
...
A player may not 'opt-out' of shortcutting a loop, nor may they make irrelevant changes between iterations in an attempt to make it appear as though there is no loop. Once a loop has been shortcut, it may not be restarted until the game has changed in a relevant way. Proposing loops as an effort to use up time on the clock is Stalling.

* The Tournament Rules specify: "Information in this document may contradict (or have information not contained in) the Comprehensive Rules. In such cases, this document takes precedence."


Do negative counters trigger Protean Hydra?

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

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


How would Progenitus affect the game as a commander?

His protection from anything works the same as it always does. His second ability can be avoided, because anytime that he would be going to your graveyard, you have the option to send him to your command zone instead. You could choose not to do so and then his second ability would take effect, shuffling him into your deck. That would generally be less helpful than having him available in your command zone, but there might be exceptions. One advantage would be that if you were able to draw him from your deck, you could play him again without having to pay the extra cost associated with playing him from your command zone for the second (or more) time.


What happens if Genesis Wave puts Fists of Ironwood onto a battlefield with no creatures?

GW + FoI + no other creatures

Let's say you cast Genesis Wave and reveal Fists of Ironwood, with no creatures in play and no creatures revealed by GW. Genesis Wave talks about putting cards in play, not casting them as spells, so this situation is covered by rule 303.4g:

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

To see how this interacts with Genesis Wave, note that the resolution of Genesis Wave contains three actions:

Reveal the top X cards from your library. This doesn't say to put the cards anywhere else, so the revealed cards are still considered to be in your library while they are revealed.
Put any number of revealed permanent cards on to the battlefield. If the only permanent you reveal is an Aura but it has nothing to enchant, rule 303.4g specifies that it remains in your library.
Put all revealed cards that weren't put on the battlefield into your graveyard. This includes the Aura that wasn't put on the battlefield since there was nothing for it to enchant.

So Fists of Ironwood would wind up in the graveyard.

Bear in mind that (in general) it is not possible for Fists of Ironwood to come into play enchanting one of the tokens it creates. Those tokens are created by a triggered ability that only triggers (and goes on the stack) when Fists of Ironwood enters the battlefield. But the enchantment needs something to enchant right from the moment it enters the battlefield; it can't wait for the triggered ability to resolve to create a creature for it to be attached to. But the tokens don't come into existence until the triggered ability resolves, which occurs later, after both players have had a chance to respond.

GW + FoI + another creature revealed

If Genesis Wave does reveal a creature that would be a legal target for Fists of Ironwood, this post on the Wizards community forums states that you still can't put the Aura into play enchanting the creature. The reason is basically what I guessed before. Placing a permanent on the battlefield consists of two "substeps:"

Make any choices required prior to placing the permanent in play. For an Aura, this includes determining whether it can legally enchant something, and if there are multiple options, choosing which one it will enchant.
Actually put the permanent on the battlefield subject to the choices (if any) made in the previous substep.

(I don't think this is specifically detailed in the rules, but it should make sense that you have to choose what an Aura will enchant before putting the Aura into play enchanting that thing.) When multiple permanents are revealed with Genesis Wave, substep 2 occurs simultaneously for all of them (rules 101.4, 608.2e), so substep 1 necessarily happens prior to putting any of the permanents in play. And you can't choose something that's not on the battlefield for an Aura to be attached to.

This also covers the case with Bramble Elemental: Fists of Ironwood can't be put on the battlefield enchanting Bramble Elemental if both are revealed with Genesis Wave.


What happens when the Paranormal Investigator looks at a Doppelganger or Copy Cat who is now bad?

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

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

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


Can I activate Vehicle abilities without Crewing them first?

Yes, that works perfectly fine.

What the Crew ability of a Vehicle does is turning the artifact into an artifact creature.

  Crew N: Tap any number of untapped creatures you control with total power N or
  greater: This permanent becomes an artifact creature until end of
  turn.

As you see, it doesn't say anything about the abilities of the artifact. Cultivator's Caravan is an artifact with 2 abilities.

"{T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool"
"Crew 3"

And you can use each of those abilities like you could use the ability of a normal artifact.

Do note however, that if you use the Crew ability to turn Cultivator's Caravan into a creature during the same turn during which you played it, then after the Crew ability resolves, the Vehicle is now affected by summoning sickness and cannot attack or activate its "{T}:"-abilities, including its "{T}: Add one mana to your mana pool". After the Vehicle ceases to be a creature at end of turn, you may use the ability again even if the Vehicle hasn't been under your control since your last upkeep.

  302.6 A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. ...


What is the quickest way to setup Dune: Imperium from DireWolf playing single, double or more players?

As with all my current "big' games, I would have set up the entire game once, including every player's starting components, then bagged them as individual sets before packing away the game.
The exceptions are general resources that have larger pools, which are kept together in their own bags, and  cards like the Leaders, which are ordered (you could choose alphabetically and/or complexity, especially if you expect to have new players for the foreseeable future).
All other decks are bagged separately, with the bags labelled to make repacking eaiser, so that they can be pulled out and shuffled and placed immediately. If you must bag decks together,

two decks: face to face, backs out, making separation easier

three or more: facing the same way, stacked in the order they would be placed by the board

The remaining tokens (Mentat, Factions) are bagged together.
When setting up to play, first put the board, decks and resources in the correct place according to the instructions (for solo/pair play, there is a separate sheet, or you might use the app to reduce effort on physical setup). Then, players choose their leader and a bag of individual components, and do their own setup.
This way, you only unpack the components you will definitely need, and they are not spread throughout the box. Following the rulebook requires slight adjustment as you complete the collective and individual setups separately. For example, the F1 step is left until individual setup, when each player picks up their own water in their own time.
There are benefits of this process for new players. They can help by unbagging and shuffling during collective setup, then mimic your individual setup afterward.


What color are Nissa, Worldwaker's lands?

Normally lands are colorless (there is currently only one exception). Nissa does not assign a color to the lands she turns into elementals, so they would remain colorless.

Also worth noting, there are no tokens created. I am not exactly sure what you mean by this. What happens when you use Nissa's ability is that a land becomes a 4/4 Elemental creature, while also retaining its previous properties as a land (tapping for mana, having the "Land" type, etc).


Difficulty Ranking of the Ancient Ones in Elder Sign?

TL;DR

Easy: Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth and Hastur
Medium: Yig and Nyarlathotep
Hard: Shub-Niggurath, Ithaqua and Cthulhu

In Detail

Regardless of the Old One, once they've awakened they're very difficult to beat. Winning that way will always be tough! For that reason, I consider Azathoth to be one of the easiest to defeat. Sure, when he awakens, Azathoth destroys the world (which kind of sucks), but that's his only ability and with a huge 12 Doom required, the investigators have plenty of time to get their affairs in order and start going after Elder Signs.

Yog-Sothoth is also not too tough. Despite having a [do X] or be devoured attack, his ability (which is an alternative awakening trigger) is related to the Other World cards. The Other World cards typically have good rewards, but you can definitely win the game without them, so it's not such an issue to just ignore them.

Next is Hastur, who also has an Other World-related ability; his adds Doom. The obvious strategy there is: stay away from Other World cards. He has a brutal attack which could lose 2 Sanity with each attack once he's awakened. Without clue tokens to defend with, most players won't last more than two rounds. What's more, his task can be very difficult since it gets tougher when there are more monsters on the board (and he generates five himself). If he awakens, he's very tough to defeat, but, like Azathoth, he has a long Doom track making him not such a threat.

Yig and Nyarlathotep are more intermediate. Both have short Doom tracks (8 and 9 respectively) so you don't really have much prep. time before you have to start going after the Elder Signs. Also, they both have strong monster-synthesis. Yig pulls out five monsters. With only 8 Doom, that means they come out fast. Nyarlathotep's ability adds the incredibly tough Mask Monsters to the pool. They keep coming back and don't give out trophies and when they land in the wrong place can cause a real headache. When these two awaken, they're not too tough to reduce Doom for, but Yig devours any player that doesn't lose a Common item, a Unique item AND a Spell (a high price if they can even afford it!) when he awakens and Nyarlathotep's attack can devour players.

Shub-Niggurath is the toughest monster-related Old One. He pulls out seven monsters AND adds to the tasks for all of them. This can make some of them incredibly tough to defeat without items. Once he's awakened, his attacks can devour too, unless the players have trophies. Fortunately, with the number of monsters around, there should be plenty of trophies available by the time he comes out!

Ithaqua is very tough. His ability punishes any player who uses a Unique item or a Spell. It's almost impossible to play the game ignoring those two, so this will definitely sting you at some point. Over the course of the game, this can sap you quite a lot, and make players need to spend turns to heal up rather than completing tasks. When he awakens, there's a 50% chance that each item will be lost, and when he attacks he reduces two Stamina at a time. This focus on just one of the two health stats makes him especially tough for the low-Stamina characters.

And, appropriately enough, I consider Cthulhu to be one of the toughest. It's a toss-up whether he's tougher than Ithaqua and/or Shub-Niggurath, but I'll list him last because he's earned the prestige (:P). Straight out of the gate, he reduces everyone's maximum Stamina and Sanity by one. He's incredibly tough to defeat if he awakens, since he heals during every attack and slowly does unhealable (and unpreventable) damage to all the players. Fortunately, he has a long Doom track (11) and does damage very slowly when awoken, but the reduced maximum to the two health stats is such a significant, unignorable disadvantage that it makes him much tougher than others with long Doom tracks like Azathoth and Hastur.


Monopoly Deal - Can you switch your cards after charging rent on them?

The original rules state that

  [y]ou can move a wild card around between sets on any turn. This does NOT count as one of the 3 cards you can play per turn (as it's already on the table).

and

  [i]f you replace a wild card with a property card of the right colour and can't use it as part of another set leave it in your property area - you might need it later!

The rules appear to presume that all properties of the same colour are always placed together.

The first rule allows you to move the wild card (double or rainbow) between two sets, presumably only if in legal positions.

The second implies that if you can put a wild card into a set, you must put it into a set.

While you can move a wild card out of a complete set to an incomplete set, you cannot move the wild card from any set to be alone.


Does the mayor count as multiple knights during taxes?

The mayor counts as only one follower for all purposes other than the final scoring of a city.

The answer seems to hinge on the definition of scoring, so I went and looked that up. The whole section is about scoring roads, cities and monasteries. All very specific about traditional scoring, so not very relevant to your case. Then, it ends with this:

  After scoring a road, a city or a monastery – and only then – the followers used in the scoring are returned to their
  player's supply.

I don't think both of you thought to do this. It's in clear contrast with what you're supposed to do when the wheel of fortune hits taxes. If taxes would count as scoring, both players would have to remove all of their knights after taxes.

Therefore I don't think taxes count as scoring, and so the mayor does not count as a multiple of knights during taxes.

Whether or not the mayor should count as a follower at all, is hard to ascertain by the regular rules. Fortunately, this question has been asked often enough that it's included in the annotated rules FAQ (Footnote 118 on page 42):

  Question: What is the status of the mayor, the barn and the wagon? Are they followers or 'special figures' like the builder and
  the pig?
  Answer: Ah… that old chestnut! The mayor is a follower, subject to the usual rules of deployment and affects the majority.
  The barn is a special figure, although it can also be counted as a follower. As far as the wagon is concerned, I'm a little uncertain,
  but I'd nevertheless count it as a follower.


The lands continue to be Swamps because of the layer system. The layer system, described in section 613 of the comprehensive rules, is one of the most complex parts of the rules to understand and remember correctly. But basically, what it says is that when multiple continuous effects are being applied, (Such as Urborg's effect and Humility's effect), there is an order in which the different types of effects are applied.

Urborg's effect, as a Type-Changing Effect, is applied in layer 4. After it has been applied, (and all lands are now swamps in addition to their other types), layer 6 is applied, which is Ability Adding or Removing Effects, including the effect from Humility that removes the ability from animated Urborg.

Every time the game-state changes, these layers are re-applied to get the new current state of things. But whenever they are re-applied, Urborg's effect is applied before Humility's effect.

And yes, if Urborg left play, then the layers would be re-applied, and now there is nothing to change the lands into Swamps, so they would lose their Swamp type.

There is a good explanation of the layer system here.

I think an important key to understanding this is realizing that it's not so much that the other lands "lose their Swamp type" when Urborg leaves play (or when Urborg loses it's ability). Rather, it's that whenever the game-state changes, everything is re-evaluated, starting from what's printed on the card and adding the layers one at a time. So as opposed to the lands "losing" the Swamp type, they simply no longer have it added again.


Online resources for learning/practicing bridge

Here are some:

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


Will destroying an enchantment attached to a permanent also destroy that permanent?

An effect does what it instructs you to do unless there's a rule that has you do something, and there isn't one here. If you destroy an enchantment, the enchantment is destroyed and your mountain is no longer a creature. Nothing states that the mountain would be destroyed as well.


From the games instructions found here:

  When completing College, you do not draw an Experience Card; instead
  you score an automatic salary increase of $20,000, and select a degree
  as you leave. If you are the first player to pass through College,
  select any degree from the specialized degrees offered, and check it
  in the "Education" column of your score sheet. However, each degree
  may be awarded only once. Thus, if you are the second player to
  graduate from College, and the first graduate selected the Science
  Degree, your choice is limited to the remaining three, and so on for
  the first four players. If you are the fifth or sixth player to pass
  through College, you may not score any of the specialized degrees, but
  do score the regular College Degree and the normal salary increase of
  $20,000. Any College Degree, specialized or regular, may be used for
  entering Big Business. A player selecting the degree in medicine
  becomes the Doctor. He or she receives payments for players in the
  Hospital; the Doctor does not have to pay upon landing in the Hospital
  and may move out of this space on his or her next turn. (Note: If the
  Doctor is instructed to go to the Hospital he or she must go
  immediately even though they do not follow the instructions printed on
  the square when they get there.) No player may go to College more than
  once.

I'm not an expert at the game by any means, but I would infer from the sentences I've highlighted above that, in fact, there can only be one Doctor in any one game of Careers.


Is Basalt Monolith a 1-card infinite combo with no payoff?

Yes, you can tap and untap Basalt Monolith arbitrarily many times, alone, with no other benefit.

The current text of Basalt Monolith's activated abilities is as follows:

  {T}: Add {C}{C}{C}.
  {3}: Untap Basalt Monolith.

The first ability adds three mana, and the second ability costs three mana of any type, so you can use the mana produced by the first ability to activate the second ability. Activating both abilities in order results in the game returning to the same exact state it was in before either ability was activated, so you can immediately do the same thing again.

The relevant rule for voluntary infinite loops, rule 721.2a says this:

  At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.

Like with any infinite loop, you can announce that you are activating Basalt Monolith's first ability and then using the mana to activate the second ability any specific number of times.

A 2006 article on the Wizards website describes some previous power-level errata to Basalt Monolith that prevented this loop from working:

  This card had textbook power-level errata previously; it basically said “you can't use Basalt Monolith to untap itself.” I'm not sure if this clause was invented to stop combos with Power Artifact or the old wording of Relic Bind, but either way it was bad news. It is removed, and Power Artifact fans across the globe can rejoice!


If you already have a condition or there are none left in the deck, can you gain an effect--that normally induces a condition--for free?

I believe you are correct - you cannot.  A similar but more common situation that can occur in the game is when you are given the option to become delayed in order to gain a benefit.  "Delayed" does not have a card to represent it, so one cannot run out of them, and in these cases, the benefit only occurs if you do in fact become delayed - you cannot prevent it (such as with the Pocketwatch) and still gain the benefit.  It would stand to reason that other effects that use the phrasing of "you may x to y" follow the same rules.


Small World: Do Orcs Get Race Bonus When Conquering Abandoned Territories?

You have it backwards.  Orcs do not gain a bonus for conquering unoccupied territories.  From the Rule Book, emphasis mine:

Orcs
Each not empty Region your Orcs conquered this turn is worth 1 bonus Victory coin, at the end of your turn.

Vacating a territory would mean that it was unoccupied when conquered, and therefore the orcs would not get a bonus.


Can you play Summoner Wars with only the Second Summoner packs?

You can use cards from just the Second Summoner deck without mixing them in with the original faction decks. In fact, this is how my wife and I play; we keep each deck in its original form rather than deckbuilding. If you look at the descriptions for the packs on Plaid Hat Games website (emphasis mine):

  This Second Summoner deck is a full faction deck with its own Summoner, set-up card, Champions, Commons, Walls and Event Cards. It requires a Summoner Wars Master Set or Starter Set to play.

The part in bold is what you care about; it's a fully functional deck on its own. The part in italics might be your concern. The reason you need a starter or master set is to get the player boards/mats and the tokens. However, you can buy the board on its own, and you can use anything from pennies to Skittles for wound tokens, so even a base set is sort of optional.


Can all players change roles with "New Assigment"?

Only one player can change their role. The game's designer Tom Lehmann answered this in a thread on BGG:

  Matt's and my intent is that any one player may change their role.


Help Determining a Card Game w/ 4 Stacks and Hidden Card Bidding

I belive the game is 6 Nimmt! Each card has a big picture of a bullhead on it and it seems to fit the description.

Here are the rules from http://www.gamecabinet.com/sumoRulesBank/Take6.html

  6 Nimmt! (Take 6)
  Translated by Michael Schloth.

  Goal
  Take no cards. If you must take cards, take as few Cattle Heads as you can. Each Cattle Head is worth (- 1) point. The winner is the player who at the end of the game has taken the least number of Cattle Heads.

  Preparation
  You'll need paper and a pencil.

  Shuffle the deck and deal each player ten cards. The players keep their cards secret and they should arrange them numerically. Four cards are taken from the deck and placed face up on the table. Each of the four cards is the first card in a row. Each row may never contain more than 5 cards. The illustration (Abb.1) on page 2 shows the 4 rows at the start of a game.

  The Course of the Game
  Part I: Playing Cards
  All players choose one of the cards from their hand and place it face down before themselves. They are revealed at the same time. Whoever played the lowest card goes first. That player places his card into one of the four rows, then the player who played the next higher card places his card into one of the four rows etc. until all players have placed their chosen cards. The cards are always placed in a row side by side. This process is repeated until all players have played their 10 cards.

  How are cards played?

  There are two rules:

  Rule 1. : Ascending Numerical Order
  The card to be placed in a row must be greater than the last card already placed in the row.

  Rule 2. : Lowest Difference
  The value of a row is the numerical value of the last card in the row. If a card may be placed in more than one row (by Rule 1.), then compare its numerical value to the value of each eligible row. The row with the closest value gets the card.

  Example: (page 3)
  The last cards in the four rows are 12, 37, 43, and 58. Four players play the following cards: 14, 15, 44, and 61. The "14" card is lowest and so is placed first. By Rule 1, it can only be placed in the first row next to the "12". For the same reason, the "15" must be placed next to the "14". The "44", by Rule 1, may be placed at the end of rows 1, 2, or 3. However, because of Rule 2 it must be placed in the third row next to the "43". The "61" is then placed in the fourth row for the same reason.

  Abb. 2: Shows the 4 rows after the first round.

  Part II: Taking Cards
  Each of the four rows may hold only 5 cards maximum. What happens when a row must receive a sixth card? What happens when a card needs to be placed but it is lower than the last card of all four rows? In both cases the player will have to take cards because of the last two rules.

  Rule 3.: Full Row
  A row has 5 cards and a player, whether by Rule 1 or by Rule 2, must place the sixth card in the row. That player must take all five cards from the row and his sixth card now becomes the new first card for that row.

  Example: (page 4.)
  The same four players now choose the following cards to play: 21, 26, 30, and 36. The "21" and the "26" are placed in the first row after the previously placed "15". The first row now has 5 cards. The next card to be placed is the "30". By rule 1, it too must be placed in the first row after the "26". Because this will give the first row six cards, the player takes cards "12", "14", "15", "21", and "26". He places his "30" as the first card in the first row.

  The "36" is then placed in the first row after the "30".

  Rule 4.: Lowest Card
  Whoever plays a card that is too low to be placed at the end of any of the rows must take cards. That player selects any one of the rows and takes all of the cards from that row. His card now becomes the first card in the row.

  Example (page 5.):
  The same players now choose the following cards: 3, 9, 68, and 83. The "3" is the lowest so it must be played first. It is too low to be placed at the end of any of the rows. To make it fit, the player of the "3" must take one of the rows. He decides to take the second row as it contains only one card. The "3" is now the new start card for the second row. Next the "9" must be placed. This player is lucky as now it can be safely placed next to the "3". The "68" and the "83" are both placed in the fourth row.

  Remember: When a player must take a row because his card was too low to fit any of the rows, that player decides which row to take. As you do not want to take Cattle Heads if you can help it, you will usually take the row that has the least number of Cattle Heads.

  HORNS = NEGATIVE POINTS.

  Each card has a certain number of Cattle Heads (from 1 to 7).

>All Cards have at least 1 Cattle Head.
Cards with values that end in "5" have 2 Cattle Heads.
Cards with values that end in "0" have 3 Cattle Heads.
Cards with values that are multiples of 11 have 5 Cattle heads.
Card value "55" is both a multiple of 11 and ends in "5". It has 7 Cattle Heads.

  Each player keeps the cards they had to take because of Rules 3 and 4 separate from the cards they are trying to place into the four rows. These "Take" cards make up your "Horn Pile". (I guess because you are being gored by them?).

  When all players have played their 10 cards, the round is over. Each player counts the number of Cattle Heads in their "Horn Pile" and the scorekeeper records the amount. All of the cards are gathered and reshuffled. Each player is dealt 10 cards and another round is played.

  The game is over when one or more players reach 66 Cattle Heads. The player with the least number of Cattle heads wins.

  Game Tips
  Example 1
  This example emphasizes the point of Rule 2. You MUST place your card using the Least Difference rule. Here the player needs to place "45" and would love to place it at the end of the third row but Rule 2 forces him to place it in the fourth row as the sixth card. He must take up the fourth row into his "Horn Pile".
  Example 2
  This example emphasizes the point that you should not take anything for granted. Player 1 chose "62" to place thinking that it would be an easy placement in the first row. Unfortunately for him, Player 2 chose "29" to place. As "29" is lower than any of the last cards in any of the rows, player 2 must take one of the rows. He selects the first row. Now Player 1 has lost his safe play. "29" is the last card in the first row so by Rule 2 player 2 must place his "62" in the already full fourth row and take that row into his "Horn Pile".

  Variant
  All previous rules hold. There are two new ones:

  All players will know exactly what cards will be in the round. The rule is: Cards in the Round = ((# of players) x 10) + 4.

  example:

  3 Players
      Use Cards 1 through 34.
  4 players
      use cards 1 through 44.

  Each player takes his own 10 cards himself. The cards are turned face up and spread on the table. In turn, each player takes one card. When everyone has 10 cards, there will be 4 cards left. These 4 cards are the start cards for the 4 rows.

If you're still not sure if this is it or the rules seem confusing you can play it online here:
http://www.onlinebrettspiele.de/6nimmt/Default.asp?l=en


How can I store all of the cards for my MtG Cube?

Probably, the best way to store a cube is in a properly sized corrugated trading card box. These boxes are fairly cheap, and with your local friendly game store's 100% markup, they shouldn't run you more than a couple dollars.

I wouldn't use booster pack boxes or shoe boxes. Booster boxes are too flimsy, because the are designed for display purposes. You might spill your cards everywhere. Shoeboxes do not have trading card dimensions (Each MtG card is approximately 63 x 88 mm in size), so it will be more difficult to keep the cards in order as you will have several stacks.

I would sleeve all your cards, including the basic lands. You will eventually need to play with the basic lands after the cube draft, so you will save everyone some time by having all the basic lands sleeved identically to the cube draft cards. As far as sizing your corrugated trading card box, that just comes down to some simple math:

(Note: I am using 288 microns for MtG card thickness, from mtgsalvation thread. The Wikipedia page says 305 microns, but the information isn't cited either. The difference is only 0.5" for 740 cards)

|                |Thickness|      | Total | Total  | Total  |
|Card/Sleeve Type|(microns)|#Cards| (cm)  | (inch) |Sleeved |
+----------------+---------+------+-------+--------+--------+
|Magic Card      |     288 |  740 | 21.29 |  8.384 |  8.38" |
|Unnamed (thick) |     110 |  740 |  8.14 |  3.205 | 14.8"  |
|Unnamed (thick) |     110 |  540 |  5.94 |  2.339 |        |
|Dragon Shield   |     100 |  740 |  7.4  |  2.913 | 14.2"  |
|Dragon Shield   |     100 |  540 |  5.4  |  2.126 |        |
|Mayday Premium  |      90 |  740 |  6.66 |  2.622 | 13.6"  |
|Mayday Premium  |      90 |  540 |  4.86 |  1.913 |        |
|"Penny" (thin)  |      40 |  740 |  2.96 |  1.165 | 10.7"  |
|"Penny" (thin)  |      40 |  540 |  2.16 |  0.850 |        |
+----------------+---------+------+-------+--------+--------+

If you don't sleeve the cards at all, you will need a corrugated box with 8.38 inches interior space. Depending upon what thickness sleeves you are using, your cube will fit somewhere between 11"-15" (sleeve thickness doubled, since there are 2 sides). You can get a box that fits your cube snugly, or a slightly longer box so it is easier to remove cards. You can always use deckboxes to pad the extra space, or split the cube from the basic lands.

I did some testing with some penny sleeves I had, to verify some of the above numbers. 100 penny sleeves were about 1/2", so sleeving 740 should be about 3.75", which is quite a bit higher than the 2.33" estimate (after doubling thickness). The largest corrugated boxes sold have just over a 14" interior length, so you might have to store your basic lands in a different box than your cube.


No, you always have to resolve the card.

The rules say that when you play an intrigue card, you follow its instructions, and none of the intrigue cards have instructions that say "if you feel like it, do X".

  Play Intrigue Card: By assigning an Agent to one of the action
  spaces on Waterdeep Harbor, you play a single Intrigue card from
  your hand. If you have no Intrigue cards, you cannot assign an
  Agent to Waterdeep Harbor.

  When you play an Intrigue card, you follow its instructions
  immediately. Its effect takes place just once.

(emphasis mine)

However, as GendoIkari pointed out in the comments, if he actually can't follow some part of the instructions, he would do as much as possible. He'd still be resolving the card, it's just that some instructions are impossible to follow so they don't happen. I don't think there's anything in the rules about this, but if the rules wanted you to ignore the whole card just because you couldn't do part of it, they'd presumably say so.

Side note: your instinct is right; ignoring what cards say in games is pretty much always wrong. If a game has an object (a card, tile, board space, or anything) with instructions printed on it, and you play/use that object, you follow the instructions (insofar as you can). If the game doesn't want you to always follow the instructions, it'll say so in the rules.


Yes.

From the rulebook:

  Even though the Gatling shoots a BANG! to all the other players, it is not considered a BANG! card.

(Emphasis mine).

And the Wikipedia for Bang! says:

  BackFire – Counts as Missed!. Any player who targeted you with Bang! is now a target of Bang!.

When you play Gatling, you target every other player with a Bang!. So BackFire will respond to Gatling just like it would to a regular Bang! card.


Can making a creature unable to attack, after it has been assigned as an attacker, remove it from combat?

No, making a creature "unable to attack or block" after attackers have been declared does not remove it from combat.

An ability that says "Creatures can't Attack or Block" means that they can not be declared as blockers or attackers. If they are already attacking or blocking it is too late and they will not be removed from combat.

  506.4a: Once a creature has been declared as an attacking or blocking creature, spells or abilities that would have kept that creature from attacking or blocking don't remove the creature from combat.


I've never had it take more than an hour, even with 6 people. Odds are you guys are analyzing the trades too much.

There's a variant I always play with that I think improves the game immensely, and that's play with everyone's hand face-up in front of them. This makes it easy to see who has what, so you won't have to ask 'does anyone have a blue bean?' because you can just look around the table and see for yourself. If anything, this actually adds more strategy to the game as you can use what other players have more to your advantage: "Normally this wouldn't be a good trade, but since you're going to have to plant that next turn and prematurely harvest one of your valuable fields why don't you do it anyway?"

If you still find this doesn't speed things up, you can try one of these variants to adjust when the end of the game arrives:

Have everyone draw one more card per turn, 4 instead of 3 in a 3-5 player game and 5 instead of 4 in a 6-7 player game. This is probably the least intrusive as just gives you more trading options.
Only go through the deck 2 times instead of 3. This will make for a shorter game, but IMHO it's a little less interesting.
Put a timer on 45 minutes and stop at the end of the players turn when it goes off. This should only be an absolute last resort, but it will make people play a bit faster since they know that they only have a limited amount of time. Of course, you'll have to be careful people don't purposely waste time to deny their left-hand opponent that last turn he needs to plant his cocoa been before time runs out...


Does adding a subtype to a creature count as entering the battlefield?

No, attaching Call to Serve to a creature you control will not trigger Seraph Sanctuary's ability. A permanent triggers "enters the battlefield" abilities when it transitions from not being on the battlefield to being on the battlefield, whether it be from the resolution of a creature spell, from the creation of a creature token, or from some other instruction. However, Call to Serve just changes the type of a creature that is already on the battlefield.


If the Eyrie does not have enough spare warriors to recruit - does this cause turmoil?

Yes. Rule 7.5.2. If you cannot fully take an action, you immediately fall into turmoil (7.7).


It means that the variant only describes the rules that are different than usual.

Note that it also doesn't say to shuffle the old cards in their respective decks.

This variant doesn't prevent you from using other components from the same expansion, components from other expansions, or rules from other variants.


Is there a way to play Munchkin Quest with 5 people without the expansion?

There is a rulesheet for expansion here.
I took a glance on it, there are some special expansion-specific things, but I found nothing concerning gameplay changes, so I suppose you can buy (or make your own) munchkins and stands for the monsters of the appropriate colours and enjoy the game :-)
I can't recall any rule prohibiting it, and, as rules usually say, "Like we could stop you" ;-)


Will Karlov get multiple +1/+1 counters with Soul Warden when multiple tokens are created simultaneously?

Soul Warden's ability reads:

  Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.

When Lingering Souls resolves, there are two separate instances of "another creature" entering the battlefield, and so the ability triggers twice, and you gain 1 life twice in two separate events.  Thus, Karlov's ability will trigger twice, and he will gain four +1/+1 counters.  Likewise, using Conqueror's Pledge instead will net you 6 life and twelve counters.

Compare rule 603.2c and its example:

  603.2c An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences. See also rule 509.4.

  Example: A permanent has an ability whose trigger condition reads, “Whenever a land is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, . . . .” If someone casts a spell that destroys all lands, the ability will trigger once for each land put into the graveyard during the spell’s resolution.


Precedent for creature tokens to exist in the hand without ceasing to exist?

A token cannot exist in your hand (or anywhere else other than the battlefield) long enough for anyone to do anything with it. It will cease to exist as a state-based action before anyone gets priority:

State-Based Actions

704.5d If a token is in a zone other than the battlefield, it ceases to exist.

Mutate does not affect this in any way. Once the mutated creature leaves the battlefield; each individual card or token is placed in the appropriate place, so you will have a token in your hand that will cease to exist.

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.

It’s possible that there’s a bug in MTGA with not handling mutate properly; but I can’t say for sure why it looked like the token was in your opponent’s hand.


Killing planeswalker before taking out the player?

You are not required to attack planeswalkers before the player.
When you attack, you may attack either the player or any planeswalker they control. The rules on declaring attackers quite simply state you choose attackers, then you choose which player or planeswalker each one is attacking:

508.1 First, the active player declares attackers. [...]

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

508.1b If the defending player controls any planeswalkers, or the game allows the active player to attack multiple other players, the active player announces which player or planeswalker each of the chosen creatures is attacking.

So, totally up to you whether you want to attack the player, one of their planeswalkers, or a combination.
If I had to guess, you've heard people share strategy advice that you should attack planeswalkers before the player so as to prevent the player from activating that planeswalker's ultimate ability—ultimates often turn the tide of the game permanently for whoever activates them. Some of them might've even put it as strongly as "you must attack planeswalkers first!" — but that's advice, not a game rule. Attacking the player remains a valid option; after all, a player who's hit 0 life and lost the game can't activate an ultimate either. :)

If not, what happens to the planeswalker if I lose all my hp? I've heard a few different things about this as well.

If you hit 0 life you've lost the game. The game is over, or if it's multiplayer, all cards you own leave the game entirely. So what happens is your planeswalker card is out of the game at that point.
Assuming you have something like Platinum Angel out which prevents you from losing the game for having 0 life, then nothing happens. You've just hit 0 (or negative) life. You continue play because you haven't lost. You still have out whatever you had out before you hit 0 life, and none of it has changed, just the same as nothing would change from you dropping from 10 to 5 life.
Your life total and your planeswalkers' loyalty are wholly unrelated things and do not interact.


What resolves first? Creatures abilities or instants?

Yes

In this example, the Longtusk Cub's pump ability is placed on the stack, Shock is placed on the stack and the stack resolves in reverse order. Shock deals 2 damage to a 2/2 creature, killing it; the pump ability fizzles as its 'target' is no longer on the battlefield.

A couple of comments on the way you've worded your question:

  Does shock take effect, since its an instant, before Long Tusk becomes a 3/3?

The fact that Shock is an instant is irrelevant on when it will resolve, that's what the stack is for. The stack is what determines in what order effects are applied to the game. Shock being an instant allows you to place it on the stack at a good time - as a reaction to your opponent activating this pump-ability.

Also, in this case, it doesn't matter whether you declare blockers or not, or even if all of this is in the attack phase.


Failing an attempt to cast Mists of Releh

Yes you certainly can.

From the Arkham Horror FAQ:

  Q: If you fail to cast Mists of Releh, can you still make the
  Evade check normally?

  A: Yes.


From the full rules on Mayfair Games site:

  Note: If you sell an action card, you may not chose to draw that card when you refill your hand to 3 cards at the end of your turn.  You may chose any other card in the Chancery, or draw from the action deck.


If a creature enters as a copy, does it have summoning sickness?

Summoning sickness is not a copiable value. In fact it's not even a value at all, it's just an informal way to refer to the following rule:

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

So, “summoning sickness” is a game rule process. (We informally say summoning sickness is something a creature has, but that's informal.)

When any new non-Hasty creature enters the battlefield during your turn, since you haven't controlled it since the beginning of your turn, you can't attack with it or tap it for {T} costs. This applies for any creatures, including those that happen to be copying another.


What happens if Perplexing Chimera is used on a Storm spell?

The player who cast the Stormy spell.

There's two scenarios :

Bob is Chimera's controller, Alice casts a spell with Storm ability.

a. It's Bob's turn when Alice casts Brain Freeze. Active player's triggered abilities go on the stack first (thanks to the rule 101.4 known as "Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order"), then do his Alice's. So Storm is resolved first, Alice is still the spell's controller at that time so she gets the copies, and Chimera's ability resolves and Bob get the original Brain Freeze.

b. It's Alice's turn and she casts Grapeshot. Storm triggered ability is placed on the stack, Alice controls the ability while it's on the stack, and then Chimera's ability is placed on the stack. Chimera's ability resolves, Bob get the control of the original Grapheshot, but the Storm ability is already on the stack, and is still controlled by Alice, so she gets the copies.

TL;DR : you can't resolve Chimera's ability before Storm goes on the stack.


You will gain life by attacking a planeswalker with a creature that has lifelink. More generally, any damage source with lifelink will cause you to gain life if it deals damage to anything.

The definition of lifelink in rule 702.15b says this:

  Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes). See rule 119.3.


Confused by Magic the Gathering Arena trigger damage order (Revenge of Ravens)

Revenge of Ravens works correctly. It deals damage as soon as creatures attack, before they deal combat damage.
The combat phase is a multi-step process, it doesn't simply happen all at once. In the most simple terms, first the attacker declares the creatures which attack, then the defender declares the blocking creatures, then creatures deal combat damage.
Between each of these steps, players can cast spells, and abilities like ROR can trigger and resolve. ROR triggers on that first step, when creatures attack, so it can absolutely kill the attacking player before any of their creatures can deal combat damage.

506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat.

The priority system determines which player, if any, can cast spells and activate abilities. The priority system also determines when spells and abilities on the stack resolve.

117.3a The active player receives priority at the beginning of most steps and phases,


There is a pentagonal squeeze on this hand. One line of play:
Win the club lead in dummy, cross to hand with the spade ace, take the diamond finesse, and play on diamonds, pitching spades. Eventually, west has to unguard a round suit to keep the spade control, and now you have a double squeeze, with west controlling spades and one round suit, and east controlling both round suits. Cash your hand's winner in the round suit controlled only by east, then return to dummy with the heart king. Now we've gotten to a standard double squeeze position; cash the last diamond, forcing east to unblock one suit, pitching the suit that east keeps. West will be forced to let go the last guard to one of your suits, and your thirteenth trick has materialized.
I've put together one possible play sequence.
(Thanks to Forget I was ever here for pointing out an error in my initial answer, and Mycroft for pointing out places that I had confused hand and dummy).

Here is the 6 card end position after winning ♣ Ace; coming to hand with ♠ Ace; and running ♢ after a successful finesse of ♢ Q:
         ♠ J
         ♡ K 7
         ♢ 3 2
         ♣ 7

 ♠ K            ♠ T
 ♡ Q 9 5        ♡ J T 6
 ♢ -            ♢ -
 ♣ J T          ♣ 9 8
         ♠ 5
         ♡ A 8 2
         ♢ -
         ♣ K 6

On the ♢ 3 East and South discard their last ♠ and West must unguard a round suit; establishing the double squeeze. Best defense is for West to pitch a
♡, as if South has ♡ J it's either doubleton, or West was always going to be victim of a successful ♠-♡ simple squeeze. (If West was dealt ♢ J or T instead of ♢ Q he should pitch a ♣ instead. Since South cannot see, or likely read, any of these cards, this option selection should be opaque to Declarer.)
On play of ♢ 2 East now discards ♣ 8 and South must guess the situation. If West is believed to be guarding ♣ (best above) then South must discard ♡ 2 and cash ♡ A and ♡ K in order to squeeze West in both black suits.
If West is believed to be guarding ♡ then South must discard ♣ 6 and cash ♣ K and ♡ K in order to complete the major suit squeeze on West.
Declarer's best bet for reading the situation is that East, whose ♣ attitude to the opening lead is known to all once Dummy comes down, probably gave an honest count signal in ♣'s at trick one. If East is astute enough to have seen the double squeeze coming that early, tip your hat to him as the better man/woman on this day.


Is the ability of Sphinx of New Prahv cumulative?

No, just {2}; in this case, Sphinx of New Prahv refers only to itself. (Also, if the card's name somehow changes, it would still refer to itself.) The relevant rule is

  201.4. Text that refers to the object it's on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

It would be different ({4}) if the card would read

  Spells your opponents cast that target a card named Sphinx of New Prahv cost {2} more to cast.

but it doesn't.


Protecting the surface of your board games...

The usual recommendation is to get a sheet of plexiglass (known as Perspex® in the UK) and lay that across the board when you're playing.  It's an especially good solution for "board" games that don't actually have a board.

Well-made board-backed games don't really need any help, but many small-press games have the board printed on stiff card or even paper.  Paper gaming surfaces go back at least to SPI's foundation in 1969, and so do plexiglass coverings to prevent them getting ruined.


Is there a program/game i can build a deck and play against AI's without a net connection?

Try YGOPRO it actually works and does everything you need. It even has an offline AI.


Replacing modifier cards where the new card has a prerequisite for it to be played

The card in question has the text "This card can only be played on a Character with the (Romance) icon." This is a condition of the card being played. The situation you describe would not be a legal move. They would need to choose a different Modifier card from their hand.


Is there a viable corn-only strategy for Puerto Rico?

With most games of this type, the key to winning is balance.

My Puerto Rico strategy is to think of the game in 3 equal strategic phases

Phase 1 - get money
Phase 2 - get money/VPs
Phase 3 - get VPs

You can make a corn only strategy work, but only if you are playing against below-par players. But to get money in phase 1, corn doesn't really help you. To be able to make victory points in phase 2 and 3, a corn only strategy really stops you from preventing your opponents from shipping. Whilst a Wharf will help you, it will not be enough to win in most cases.

If you are playing against solid players, balance is the only option. I try to have 3 to 4 different goods being brought in, which gives great options for shipping and selling.


How to make sure a player will not draw their own character card as target?

A game with a similar mechanic is Lifeboat. In that game normally you get points if your target dies, but if your target is yourself then instead you are a "psychopath" and get points for anyone who dies (but fewer points in other ways).

One solution for your setup could be to put both player ID and target on a single card: "You are player 1; kill player 2", "You are player 2; kill player 3", through "You are player n; kill player 1".