As I understand it, once the Relinquished has targeted a card it can no longer be used by its original owner. And the equipped monster's original owner can't get his card back. Is that true? If it's true, the original owner won't be able to use the effects of his monster, right? What about the Relinquished's owner? Can he use the stolen monster's effect?

A: When the effect of "Relinquished" resolves, the monster targeted by it will be equipped and that monster will be placed in the Spell/Trap zone of the activator of the effect of that "Relinquished". In this case, the current controller of that card(which is now a Spell) is the activator of "Relinquished". Saying that the original owner of the monster can't get control of it again will depend. Obviously, without a card effect to do so, control will not switch over. As far as I know, there's no card effect which can 'steal' Spell cards, however, if "Relinquished" either leaves the field or gets flipped face-down, the Equipped card is destroyed and will be sent to the original owner's Graveyard. Furthermore, the original owner cannot use the effect of the Equip card, because the original owner does not control the card. In addition, all the monster effects that the equip monster has are not applicable while it is an equip card. This is why even if you equip "Gladiator Beast Laquari" with "Relinquished", "Relinquished's" attack will not be 2100, even if "Gladiator Beast Laquari" is treating its original ATK as 2100 through its monster effect. Also, as a general rule, you can only activate card effects if you control a card, unless a card effect says so, like "Extra Net". Being the original owner of a card is not relevant in the general case.

The reason why the card doesn't return to its original owner without a card effect is because "Relinquished" doesn't mention anything about only equipping for a specified time period, unlike "Junk Archer", which says that it banishes the monster until the End Phase.

  A monster equipped to the Relinquished is no longer a monster but considerated an equip Spell/Trap card. Therefore, it will be returned to the hand. But whose hand?

A: The original owner's hand. If a card says return 'x' to the hand, it is always the original owner's hand, unless there is an effect like "Exchange" which explicitly mentions the other player's hand as well.

  If the Relinquished is equipped by this card, will it be able to inflict piercing battle damage?

A: Yes, it gets piercing damage. This can be inferred from the text as well. It doesn't say that the equipped monster has to be equipped by "Rider of Storm Winds" in order to inflict piercing damage, nor to be able to apply the destruction substitution effect. Keep in mind that the piericing damage and destruction substitution effect are not treated as effects of "Relinquished", as any small difference might come up.

Some things to keep in mind:

The equipped 'monster' is treated as an Equip card forever. Whenever a card leaves the field(it is probably more accurate to say after), it is duplicated into a 'new' mechanical card. For anyone trying to understand rulings, this is the most important concept to grasp.

Examples:

When "Sangan" is sent from the field to the Graveyard, even as an Equip Spell card, the reason its monster effect is able to activate is because its trigger effect lays out a mechanism for detecting if it(the physical card you see) "Sangan", was sent from the field to the Graveyard(you can see this will be the case even if equipped by "Relinquished"). It is true that it was an Equip Spell card, but that effect of "Sangan" doesn't activate and doesn't trigger until it is actually sent to the Graveyard, at which point it becomes a monster again.

Before reading "2", please realize that "Reborn Tengu" used to not say explicitly 'face-up', and the rulings for "Reborn Tengu" were still the same; you couldn't activate its effect if removed from the field while face-down. You may think this explanation might be useless because of the card text, but that's fallacious, as if you do not understand "2", you will not understand the difference between "Archlord Kristya" and "Crystal Beast" rulings(i.e. no matter how much card text will not explain why rulings are true, they will just tell you what to do it and when, this is synonymous to math students being apple to apply complex formulas to problems but not understanding or being able to prove those formulas, unlike actual mathematicians who don't need problems in cookie-cutter format in order to be solved..

When "Reborn Tengu" leaves the field, even as an Equip Spell card, the reason its monster effect is able to activate is because its trigger effect lays out a mechanism for detecting if it(the physical card you see) "Reborn Tengu", left the field. Now this is where all the scoffers start saying that I would be taking this rulings matter very far, but "Reborn Tengu" rulings will prove them incorrect, as you are not able to activate "Reborn Tengu's" effect if it was sent from the field(in face-down / set position, even as an Equip Spell card) to the Graveyard. This is yet another reason why understanding what I said above is very important. When "Reborn Tengu" leaves the field in face-down defense position, for example), it is removed from the field face-down, which means that the trigger effect "If this face-up card leaves the field" will not trigger, because that trigger effect will trigger "in limbo"(unofficial term to describe the medium of transit between any two locations in the YGO card game), and since face-down cards have no properties, there's no mechanism for which it can trigger, which is why the effect will not activate. Now at this point you may be wondering why "Sangan" can activate if sent from the field to the Graveyard, even if it was face-down either as a monster or as an Equip Spell. Again, card text will not come to the rescue for you here; you need to understand the rules or you can at least make up models that make sense. It is because its trigger effect requires that it know whether or not it got sent from the field to the Graveyard, and since "Sangan" is public knowledge while in the Graveyard, its effect can activate.

Finally, to explain what happens when you have monsters which activate when removed from the field like "Reborn Tengu" vs effects that apply(do not activate) when removed from the field(like "Grandsoil the Elemental Lord"). Even though both "Reborn Tengu" and "Grandsoil the Elemental Lord" trigger their effects at the same time(immediately after leaving the field), "Reborn Tengu" cannot activate its effect until the next chain can be built, while "Grandsoil the Elemental Lord" applies its effect as soon as possible( i.e. immediately after it leaves the field, before it even goes to its final destination). Thus, if they were equipped on "Relinquished" and "Back to Square One" returned both to the top of the deck when removed from the field face-up, which effects can activate/apply?

A: "Reborn Tengu" will not activate, because it was returned to the deck, and "Reborn Tengu" does not have an innate trigger which detects what happens if it is returned to the deck, so even though its effect triggered, by the time it would've been able to activate, it cannot. "Grandsoil the Elemental Lord" will apply its effects and skip the next Battle Phase, because as I said it applies its effect immediately upon leaving the field, and because it left the field face-up, its effect will trigger, because it provides it a mechanism for detecting if it 'left the field'.

If "Skill Drain" is applying, and "Relinquished" has "Grandsoil, the Elemental Lord" or even "Archlord Kristya" eqipped, will their effects apply if they are destroyed by "Mysical Space Typhoon"?

A: Yes, because they are not monster cards until they reach their destination to which they would be sent to. And even if they were treated as monsters, they left the field anyway so they'd be outside the range of "Skill Drain's" negation.

If "Spell Canceller" is applying, and "Relinquished" has "Grandsoil, the Elemental Lord" or even "Archlord Kristya" equipped will their effects apply if they are destroyed?

A: No, their effects will be negated, because they are Spell Cards until they reach their final destination.

Please note that the "Archlord Kristya" v. "Skill Drain" ruling on the English wiki page is actually incorrect. If "Skill Drain" is applying and "Archlord Kristya" is destroyed in the monster zone, it still gets returned to the deck, because as I hinted many times that effect applies outside the negation range of "Skill Drain", unlike "Crystal Beasts" which apply their effects while still on the field(their effects would be negated). I am not sure how long it has been incorrect but on Jwiki, the ruling for "Archlord Kristya" and "Skill Drain" was last updated 2017 April 6th.

You can check all the updated rulings on Jwiki and the official card database, or on ygo organization database page, which has many rulings translated to their English counterparts. However, what I laid forth previously is just a model to explain why the rulings are true, anyone is free to adopt another model if it makes sense in your head. PM me if you still have trouble on Pojo, username: The Chief.


Are there any systems or experts that factor in "intermediate" cards in deciding when to bid?

The most accurate system I have seen for notrump bidding is a 5-4-3-2-1 count for the cards Ace through 10. This of course is a base 60 for the whole deck instead of 40, but can easily be normalized by doubling and dividing by three. (Round 2/3 up and 1/3 down.) With a little practice this is barely slower than the standard Work point count.

Not the assumption here of notrump - the Work 4-3-2-1 point count overvalues aces and kings for notrump play.

Although this system is no better for suit play than the standard Work point count, it is perhaps no worse. Aces and Kings are undervalued as a disadvantage, but counting 10's for something is an advantage. One possibility for restoring the true value of Aces and Kings (in suit play) might be to add (Quick Tricks - 1.5) to the count above in that circumstance. (The 1.5 comes from the Quick Trick strength of an Ace and a King in separate suits, which is an average holding.)


Does a card have a keyword if it has the same effect as said keyword?

so can I assume the card states "Surveil 5" instead? And if so, does it trigger abilities which state "Whenever you surveil ..."?

Nope, the Oracle text is leading. In general, cards from earlier editions don't retroactively get 'keyworded'; the only exceptions so far have been evergreen keywords like lifelink, vigilance, and shroud; block-specific keywords like surveil only apply to cards from that block.


When the city is completed, the player(s)[1] with the most knights in the city gets points for the city in the amount of two per tile plus two per banner[2]. No other player receives any points for that city.
For example, when completing a three-tile city without banners, the player with two knights will receive 6 points, and the player with one knight will receive none, just like if there was only one knight in the city.

In the event of a tie, each of the players tied for the most knights gets all of the points.
Half that for incomplete cities at the end of the game.

A city is complete when it is surrounded by walls and there are no gaps in the walls or the city. There can be any number of sections in a city. A player who owns a knight in a completed city scores 2 points per tile in the city (count the tiles and not the sections). Each banner in the scored city also gives the player 2 points.
What if there are more than one follower on a completed road or city? With some clever tile placements, it is possible to connect road and city sections, resulting in a road with more than one thief or a city with more than one knight. The player with the most thieves or knights scores the totality of the points. In case of a tie, the tied players each score the points.
During the final scoring, incomplete roads, cities or monasteries are scored. A player who has a follower on an incomplete road, city or monastery scores 1 point per tile. For cities, each banner is also worth only 1 point. In case of a tie, use the same rules as for completed features.

(Emphasis in original)


How can I quickly calculate the shanten number in Mahjong?

If you're eyeballing it, then you go with counting three things:

the standard count from 8. (worst case scenario: 147m147p147s1234z or 13-sided kokushi)
the terminal count from 13. (worst case scenario: all simples is 13-shanten)
the seven pairs count from 6. (worst case scenario: anything without a pair)

Standard count from 8 is to identify up to 5 groupings. Groups of 3 (subtracting 2) are always better than 2 groups of 2 (subtracting 1 each), as there is always an extra tile to pick up a spare from overlapping groups. If #groupings >= 5, then verify if one of the groups is a pair. Otherwise, you only have 4 "legitimate" groups. Protogroups of 2 are called taatsu (t), pairs are counted separately (p). Generally, shanten = 8 - 2*g - t - p. My code extracts pairs before protogroups when counting. With no complete groups, the best you can achieve with the standard count is 3-shanten.

Terminal count is easy. How many terminals, and how many different terminals. For live play, just look for a pair and ignore counting them all. shanten = 13 - diffTerminals() - if(numTerminals() > diffTerminals;1;0).

Pair count is also easy. shanten = 6 - p. Whichever of the 3 is smallest is your shanten count.

Now what the code does is that it can take a hand with size 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11,13 or 14 and just break it down. When feeding less than 13 tiles, g can be pre-loaded with the number of melds formed. AFAIK, it won't count for self-walled protogroups if you feed it 45p55777z with 2 melds, and they happen to be two kans of 3333p and 6666p, it won't register that the hand is 1-shanten instead of tenpai... and same with 4578p if the 3 melds are 3333p6666p9999p, then the hand is 2-shanten, not 1 or 0. This is the edgiest of edge cases though.

What it does do though, is if it ends up tenpai, it will test adding every tile to get a complete hand (-1). However, it cannot add a tile already there. So even if one of the intermediate checks says it's fine, when a full hand is present, it will not validate. A hand with 4 of the same and 3 unrelated groups is by definition, not tenpai, as the only way it could "complete" is with a 5th copy of the same tile, which is not possible.

As for what elements to take, it cycles through everything. Could a group like 34555p be better as 345 + 55 or 34 + 555, especially if you need a pair amoing the non-grouped items? Maybe, but it will still cycle through all possibilities. The line detecting three of a kind will just shift eveerything forward by two tiles as there's no point in detecting if in tiles ABCDEFGHIJKLM: DGH, EGH and FGH make runs if you know DEF are the same. Just do DEF at that point, jump, check FGH and move on.

When I run this formula on cycles of random tile distributions, I get in the area of 220 tenhou hands per 100M, which is in line with Tenhou's monthly running stat pages.

  // INPUT: hand is a sorted array of tile values from 0-135 without repeating
  // INPUT: g is the number of groups. The function works recursively by extracting a group and calling itself with stc(smallerHand, g+1)
function stc(hand, g) {
  // INIT
  var retVal = 8; var t = 0; var p = 0;
  // KOKUSHI
  if (hand.length >= 13) retVal = Math.min(retVal, 13 - diffTerminals(hand) - Math.max(Math.min(terminalPairs(hand), 1),0));
  // SUBHAND RECURSION: Sorted hands have relevant tiles spaced 4 apart or less. Order: O{4*4*(n-5)} instead of O{(n^3 / 6}
  if (hand.length > 3) {
      for (i=0; i<hand.length-2; i++) {
      for (j=i+1; j<hand.length-1 && (j-i<5); j++) {
      for (k=j+1; k<hand.length && (k-j<5); k++) {
          // Max subhands:: 14 tiles: 6635520; 13 tiles: 1351680.
          if (isGroup(hand[i], hand[j], hand[k])) {
              var subHand = [];
              for (var m in hand) {subHand[m] = hand[m];}
              subHand.splice(k,1); subHand.splice(j,1); subHand.splice(i,1);
              retVal = Math.min(retVal, this.stc(subHand, g+1));
          }
          if (isPair(hand[i],hand[j]) && isPair(hand[i],hand[k])) i++; j=999; k=999;
      }}}
  }
  // PROTOGROUP COUNT
  if (hand.length > 1) {
      // Priority: AB pair, AC pair, AB taatsu
      for (i = 0; i<hand.length-1; i++) {
          if(isPair(hand[i], hand[i+1])) {p++;i++;}
          else if(i<hand.length-2 && isPair(hand[i], hand[i+2])) {p++;i=i+2;}
          else if(isTaatsu(hand[i], hand[i+1])) {t++;i++;}
      }
  }
  // 5 to 7 pairs, immeditate return on 7
  if (p==7) return -1; if (p>4&&hand.length>=13) retVal = Math.min(retVal, 6-p);
  // Standard count: 8 - 2*g - max(4-g,p+t) - min(1,max(0,p+t-(4-g)))
  if(p+t>Math.floor(hand.length/3)) {
      if (p>0) retVal = Math.min(retVal, 8 - 2*g - Math.floor(hand.length/3) - 1);
      else retVal = Math.min(retVal, 8 - 2*g - Math.floor(hand.length/3) - 0);
  } else retVal = Math.min(retVal, 8 - 2*g - p - t, 6 - p);
  // Tenpai check for shanten == 0.
  if(retVal==0 && hand.length==13) {
      for(var i=0;i<136;i++){
        var checkHand = [];
        var checkRes = 0;
        for (var m in hand) {checkHand[m] = hand[m];}
        checkHand.push(i);
        for (var n = 0; n<13;n++) {
            if (checkHand[n] == i) {n=999;}
            if (n == 12) {
              checkHand = checkHand.sort(doCompare);
              checkRes = stc(checkHand,0);
            }
        }
        retVal = Math.min(retVal, checkRes + 1); // checkRes would be -1 if legit tenpai, 0 if not. **EDIT2016: I think the +1 should be out of the parentheses**
      }
  }
  return retVal;
}


In Village (2011) are the winning strategies really balanced?

Firstly, I would say that you can block the other players, particularly with the single cube on the market.

Is the other player building up a stock of things to sell on the market? Trigger the market day early. They will, at the very least, have to spend green cubes and time to sell their goods (and won't have stocked up on so much to sell); if they don't have green cubes (or can't afford the time) then all the better.

Secondly, I would suggest that a winning strategy does not necessarily need to be monomaniacally focused on a single area; politics can be used to grease the wheels of travel by providing you with the cubes etc.


What zone is a spell or ability in when it is resolving?

A spell or ability stays on the stack starting from when you started casting or activating it until it fails to resolve, it has finished resolving, or it instructs you to move it to a different zone.

Rule 601 covers the step for casting a spell, and the very first step (601.2a) says

  The player announces that he or she is casting the spell. That card (or that copy of a card) moves from where it is to the stack. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has all the characteristics of the card (or the copy of a card) associated with it, and that player becomes its controller. The spell remains on the stack until it's countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

There are similar steps for Activating an Activated Ability and Handling a Triggered Ability. The process of dealing with the stack continues with rule 608.1, which says

  Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves. (See rule 609, "Effects.")

Note that there is no instruction for the spell or ability to leave the stack when it starts resolving. Then the relevant parts of the instructions for resolving the ability say

  608.2. If the object that's resolving is an instant spell, a sorcery spell, or an ability, its resolution may involve several steps. The steps described in rules 608.2a and 608.2b are followed first. The steps described in rules 608.2c–j are then followed as appropriate, in no specific order. The step described in rule 608.2k is followed last.

  608.2a If a triggered ability has an intervening "if" clause, it checks whether the clause's condition is true. If it isn't, the ability is removed from the stack and does nothing. Otherwise, it continues to resolve. See rule 603.4.
  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. [...] The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally.
  608.2j If an instant spell, sorcery spell, or ability that can legally resolve leaves the stack once it starts to resolve, it will continue to resolve fully.
  608.2k As the final part of an instant or sorcery spell's resolution, the spell is put into its owner's graveyard. As the final part of an ability's resolution, the ability is removed from the stack and ceases to exist.

For reference regarding rule 608.2b quoted above, rule 701.5a describes what "counter" means, and says

  To counter a spell or ability means to cancel it, removing it from the stack. It doesn’t resolve and none of its effects occur. A countered spell is put into its owner’s graveyard.

As you can see, every instance of a rule instructing that a spell or ability be removed from the stack either comes when it is done resolving or is accompanied by an instruction that it does not resolve.

In all cases, abilities that are removed from the stack simply cease to exist, and spells that are removed from the stack go to the graveyard.


What's the longest possible forced repetition in Go?

Molasses ko: http://denisfeldmann.fr/bestiary3.htm#mol

"The semeai in figure 11 is probably the worst known case of repetition. Known as "molasses ko", ..."

Denis Feldmann's Go Bestiary is a compendium of various things (interresting semeai, life and death, edge cases, incredible problems, rules edge cases, weird sekis, etc).


Can both monsters in Tokyo yield at the same time after an attack?

Yes. From the rulebook:

  If the monster in Tokyo Bay is attacked it can choose to abandon Tokyo Bay. In this case the monster that attacked must move in unless it is moving into Tokyo City, in which case Tokyo Bay becomes temporarily unoccupied.

If both monsters yield, as this indicates, the attacker would move into Tokyo City and Tokyo Bay would become temporarily unoccupied.


What is the hit effect multiplier in Campaign 1 for a Me-210?

In the errata posted last year, this table has been fixed to apply for campaigns 1-6.


What size card sleeves should I buy for Penny Arcade - Gamers vs. Evil?

On the producer site (Fantasy Flight Games) you will see that you can use their 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" (63.5 x 88 MM) card sleeves.

On this link you can see that you can use 3 packs of their Standard Card Game Sleeves (grey color packs) and on this page you will see the card sleeves sold by them (the last product from the list).

Another card sleeves producer is Mayday Games. I think that their corresponding card sleeves are named "Card Game Sleeves" (2 1/2" x 3 1/2" (63.5 x 88 MM)) - green pack. I am pretty sure but you can visit their site. They have a pdf file where you can search for your game and see what kind of sleeves you need. IMPORTANT: Today I see that their site is consider by google as threat because they find malicious software, so I think is not a good idea to enter wright now on their page.

Also you can search for ultra pro sleeves but i don't know exactly what kind you should search for.


When the subroutine on Cell Portal fires, the Runner must encounter all ice (again), starting from the outermost.

Just be careful with terminology; the run doesn't "restart" (i.e. no "start of run" effects are fired again), the Runner is just teleported back to the first piece of ice and must continue from there.


3 cards, in addition to the walker(s) you want to be hitting the ultimate of:

Tezzeret the Seeker
The Chain Veil
Everflowing Chalice

Chalice needs at least 4 counters, to pay for the veil, tezzeret +1 untaps both chalice and veil allowing infinite uses of veil which resets both tezzeret and the other walker(s), letting you rebuild the + abilities on those walkers until they ultimate again and again.


Can I use the red 5 to move someone out of their safety zone?

Yes. According to the fifth page in the official rules for Sorry! The Disney Edition, you can move out of the Safety Zone with a backwards move card. The rules also state that you can use backward move cards on other players when the card says you can. Therefore, it is heavily implied, if not explicitly said, that a backwards move card can be used to move a player's piece from their Safety Zone back onto the board.

According to the fifth page of the rules:

  "Safety Zone: Only you may enter your SAFETY ZONE. You cannot enter the SAFETY ZONE by a backward move; however, you may move backward out of the SAFETY ZONE and, on later turns, move back in as cards allow."

A piece may not move out of its Home position for any reason, also according to the fifth page in the rules.


How to prepare for a Mansions of Madness session efficiently?

So far, I have found two ways to simplify the preparation:

Some exploration cards (and other elements) are only used in a single scenario. I separate all such scenario-specific components, and store each such scenario separated.
Storing the exploration card sorted alphabetically greatly decreases the search time.


Does a gold field draw a resource and commodity, when combining Seafarers and C&K?

Your are correct. I believe that the official Cities and Kights rules are clear enough for this:

  Commodities are produced only by cities, and only in forest, pasture, and mountains.

It might be different if Cities always produce commodities in C&K, but that's not that case. Cities on grain or brick don't produce commodities, and C&K rules specifically mention which lands produce commodities. Gold should be treated more like grain and brick; you get double resources.

Here is a link to an answer on the German FAQ: http://www.siedeln.de/faq/327_152_de.html

Roughly translated, it says no you cannot take commodities from the gold field; and it explains it by saying that every rule still counts unless it is specifically countered by a different rule; so the Seafarers rule about what you can get from a Gold Field still applies; because the C&K rules don't specify otherwise.


In Catan, should you try to exclude others players from one resource?

It's not a bad strategy, if (1) you still have access to all resources, and (2) you have a group willing to trade. But it's not generally a "good strategy."

I've seen a situation where one person had a lock on all the wood (random setup). The result? everyone else went for ports, and no one traded with them.

You can't really compel competent players to pay more than 3:1 for any resource, since a port allows 3:1, and they who get too greedy tend to lose out on everything else as no one will trade with them.

If, however, you have it on good numbers (5,6,8,9), and trade it to others at 2:1 and/or can get the 2:1 port for that resource, build your cities on it, and use it for just about everything, it's workable. A lot depends upon the group being played with.


How can I move the potion explosion ingredient dispenser?

Yes! Gluing the joints with common Elmer's Glue makes the dispenser sturdy enough to move about when filled with marbles.

Assembled without glue, the dispenser tends to come apart:

Empty the dispenser and turn it over.

Apply glue to everywhere the supports cross each other.  I didn't put glue anywhere it would be visible from the outside:

After drying overnight, it can be filled and moved about without any trouble.  It fits into the storage box that comes with the game.


Q1: Yes, Michion can be Normal Summoned from hand.

This is not an activated effect, but a condition on the card itself that grants a summoning procedure. Therefore, Majesty Fiend's effect does not prevent it.

Q2: No to all three.

Michion's effects which prevent his own destruction and prevent damage from battle are not activated effects, but continuous effects. Therefore, Majesty's Fiend does not prevent their application. The effect of halving the opponent's LP, however, is an activated effect (you can tell by the presence of the colon); it will not be activated at the end of the battle phase due to Majesty's Fiend.

Q3: No, Michion will remain on the field.

Michion's effect to shuffle itself back into the deck during the standby phase is an activated effect (again, note the colon), and therefore is prevented by Majesty's Fiend.


How much control does the first player have when placing multiple monsters?

Just for reference...
For normal gate openings, on Pages 9/10:

The first player draws a monster marker from the cup at random and
places it on the location. If this would bring the number of monsters
over the monster limit, the first player places the monster in the
Outskirts instead (see “Monster Limits and the Outskirts,” page 18)
Exception: If there are five or more investigators playing, then draw
and place two monsters instead of one.

For monster surges, on Page 9:

The first player draws monster markers from the cup at random and
places them on each location with an open gate. When placing monsters,
they should be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates,
with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate where the
monster surge occurred this turn. If there are more monsters to be
placed than allowed by the monster limit (see “Monster Limits and the
Outskirts,” page 18), the players should decide where monsters will be
placed. The players must make this decision before monsters have been
drawn from the cup. If the players cannot agree where the monsters are
to be placed, the first player decides the placement

You are right, the rules don't explicitly say anything like draw and place monsters one at a time, though most everyone I've seen discussing this on the Fantasy Flight AH forum and the BoardGameGeek AH forum agree that hand picking which monsters get to go where is against the spirit of the game.
What would that mean thematically anyway? That the investigators can somehow allow two Cultists passage into Arkham but force the Gugs into the outskirts? The Mythos Phase is virtually completely free from investigator influence (save for things like the Psychic and Arcane Insight) and allowing the players to choose which specific monsters end up where on the board gives them a large degree of control that it doesn't make sense to have.
For monster placement, I just draw and place one-by-one, so it's pretty unambiguous which monsters are the ones the go over the limit. For surges I just draw monsters from the cup one-by-one and place them around the board going clockwise-ish starting at the surging gate. Any monsters that would get places but are over the limit go to the outskirts and I don't worry about fine tuning the placement in that instance.
That said, there's absolutely nothing stopping you if you feel like manually choosing the end locations for the drawn monsters.


I have some very old magic cards with no symbols how can I find out what they are worth or if they are rare?

You can start by Googling their name and doing some research on their price and specs.

You can also check on pages that focus on TCG/CCG, like for example Troll & Toad (disclaimer: just an example, nothing related to them). There you can search for cards, see their prices and even sell or buy.

You can also go to your local store of where people gather to play Board and Card games, and ask around to see if there is anyone interested in acquiring your cards and willing to negotiate.


Damage dealt by creatures and the order of damage

All combat damage is dealt at the same time, so yes, it would have been a draw.

Deflecting Palm is a replacement effect (instead of your opponent, you take damage the moment combat damage is dealt). This happens at the same time for all combat damage. So, the Polukranos damage hits you the same time the Arbor Colossus damage would have hit your opponent.

/edit: last paragraph was incorrect


In Forbidden Island, can a Navigator move an Explorer diagonally?

Good question!  And fortunately for you, the answer is "yes", as per these clarifications
by Matt Leacock, the designer of the game:

  The Navigator can move the Diver up to 2 adjacent tiles. The first
  tile may be missing. The second tile may not be missing because the
  Diver must end her turn on a tile.

  When the Navigator moves the Explorer to adjacent spaces, he may move
  him diagonally.

  The Navigator moves the Pilot to adjacent spaces like any other
  adventurer. (The Pilot can't take advantage of his special ability
  when the Navigator moves him.)


Is there a "Campaign Mode" set of rules available for Arkham Horror?

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but check out the Scenarios FFG created for League play (here's a link to information about them on the Arkham Horror Wiki).  They do ramp up in difficulty, and the Spanish league scenarios have a continuing story.

I'm sure you could easily adapt things so that your characters grow and develop through the games, perhaps by adjusting some of the stats or giving bonuses based on how the investigators "performed" in the previous scenario?


When using Fenians' benefit, do they also add their bomb value?

No.

Page 6 of the English rulebook states under the sub-heading "A Short Interlude About Cards" that,

  In all circumstances a card can only ever be played for one type of symbol on it or
  the text effect described in the text box

When played for their ability, Fenians double all bomb points of cards you played to gain bomb points.  If you had two Fenians cards, you could play one for bombs and one as a doubler.

Hope this helps!


Does preventing damage prevent things like land destruction?

No, for two reasons.

If it doesn't say "deal(s) damage", it doesn't deal damage.

It's only damage if it's the result of the "deal damage" keyword action. That means those words must appear in the rule or effect. Currently the only damage caused by the rules is combat damage. So if it's not combat damage, and if the effect doesn't use the words "deal damage", it's not damage.

For example,

In the Combat Damage Step, attacking and defending creatures deal damage. If any of that damage is directed to you, it will be nullified. You won't lose life (or gain poison counters if the attacking creature has Poison or Infect) if you don't block an attacking creature because you are protected from the damage that would cause you to lose life (or gain poison counters).
A Lightning Bolt targeting you will have no effect.
Armageddon destroys lands. It does not deal damage, so it's not affected by Personal Sanctuary.
Sign in Blood causes lose of life. It does not deal damage, so it's not affected by Personal Sanctuary.

"You" refers specifically to the player.

Personal Sanctuary only protects you from damage. Your permanents are not protected.

For example,

A Lightning Bolt targeting you will have no effect.
A Lightning Bolt targeting one of your creatures will deal damage as normal.


Does Athreos with Deathrender let me keep the same creature?

Yes, you can do that (if you place the abilities on the stack in the correct order[CR 603.3b]) because Deathrender chooses a card on resolution[CR 608.2d].

You cast Victimize.
Victimize resolves:

Choose two target creature cards in your graveyard.
Sacrifice the creature equipped by Deathrender.

Athreos's triggered ability triggers.
Deathrender's triggered ability triggers.

Return the chosen cards to the battlefield tapped.

You place Deathrender's triggered ability on the stack.
You place Athreos's triggered ability on the stack.
Athreos's triggered ability resolves:

Return the sacrified creature to your hand.

Deathrender's triggered ability resolves:

Put the sacrified creature card onto the battlefield.
Attach Deathrender to it.

Nice.

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses.
608.2d If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect.


Can Dive Down protect a creature against Pacifism?

Dive Down resolves first (since it's the last spell on the stack) and will give your creature Hexproof.

Then, Pacifism (an Aura, which by rule 114.1b is a targeted spell) tries to resolve, but its target has become invalid, so it will not resolve and end up in your opponent's graveyard.

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

(source: Comprehensive Rules, emphasis mine)


Are the A-sides and B-sides of the wonder boards really balanced?

From what my friends and I can ascertain, the board sides are not designed to be strictly balanced per se, but are instead designed to work best with different play strategies, or at least different skill levels.

In my experience, the "A" sides provide fewer opportunities for specialization than their "B" side couterparts. For example, if a player is playing with Rhodes, but fails to take advantage of the early military points and never plays a military card, that player would have probably been better off with side "A", which provides a few extra victory points and more closely matches the costs and benefits of the other wonders.

That said, it doesn't take much more than a basic working knowledge of the game to make the "B" sides more than pay for themselves, especially with a wonder as unbalanced as Rhodes (other wonders' "B" sides aren't quite as obviously better). In our games, even novice gamers rarely select side "A" after their first couple run-throughs, and when they do, it is rarely a winning strategy.


In the Megaman TCG, what does a collector number that starts with "4" indicate?

These cards were misprinted. The set number is supposed to be 3, just like the other cards in the set.

I found this answer in a supplement to the Grave starter deck rulebook titled "MegaMan Trading Card Game - Current Rulings Document 2.0 - 4/1/2005".

The list of cards that were misprinted in this way are:

BambooLance (3U35)
BugCharge (3U38)
Geyser (3U40)
MagBolt3 (3U42)
Muramasa (3U44)
VoodooDoll (3U46)


How to determine points costs of Tau unit enhancements?

There still is a table for the Ranged Weapons and Support Systems on Page 74 of the 2015 edition of the book. The did clean up the locations of special rules/equipment in newer editions, but if you're used to the older editions this can be hard to find.

Generally Ranged weapons are 14 points and other support systems range from 5-25 points each. One nice thing about weapons all having the same points is you cna swap crisis suit builds very easily. None are free unless the rules explicitly state so, for exmaple: "X comes equipped with with a Burst-Cannon which you may upgrade to a Smart-Linked Missile system for 25 points" or something similar.


Can a single card use Dredge multiple times?

Yes, you may use Dredge as many times as you want.

Whenever a card changes zones, it becomes a new object.  It no longer remembers anything that it did, or was done to it in the previous zones.  So even if an ability said "You may only activate this ability once per game", then the process of moving the card to your hand, then to the battlefield, and then to the graveyard would make the card "forget" that it had ever activated the ability in the first place.

Secondly, Dredge does not have the text "You may only activate this ability once", and in the absence of specific rules limiting how often you can use an ability, you can use that ability as many times as you want.


Does Skyward Eye Prophets get an extra use of its ability because it has vigilance?

Your friend is either playing incorrectly or explaining things poorly. Something sounds seriously muddled up. I'm going to explain how things could legally happen here, then explain the mistakes that could be getting made.

Also, you're right: vigilance simply means "attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap." It doesn't do any untapping, it simply makes declaring an attacker not tap it in the first place.

The Combat Phase

As a quick reminder, let's go through how the combat phase works:

  Beginning of Combat Step. "At the beginning of combat" abilities trigger, then players have a chance to cast spells and activate abilities.
  Declare Attackers Step.

  The attacking player chooses any number of creatures they control that they wish to declare as attackers. Those creatures must be untapped at this point — you can't attack with a tapped creature. They choose which player or planeswalker those creatures are attacking, then tap all their declared attackers except the ones with vigilance.
  Any triggered abilities just triggered go on the stack (e.g. Territorial Hammerskull) then players can cast spells and activate abilities.

  Declare Blockers Step.

  The defending player(s) choose any number of untapped creatures to declare as blockers (including none), then assign them legally as blockers to specific attackers.
  Any triggered abilities just triggered go on the stack (e.g. Pride Guardian) then players can cast spells and activate abilities.

  Combat Damage Step. Players say how damage will be assigned, then all of it is assigned simultaneously. Then we do triggered abilities again (e.g. Daring Saboteur) and players can cast spells and activate abilities again.
  End of Combat Step. One last chance to cast spells and activate abilities before it stops being combat and creatures stop counting as attacking/blocking (e.g. Divine Verdict).

How this can legally happen

Let's call your friend Sam, and Skyward Eye Prophets just "SEP".

Sam has Derevi out on the battlefield already.
Declare attackers step: Sam attacks with SEP.
Declare blockers step: The defender cannot or does not block SEP.
During that step, Sam knows they're in the clear. Sam taps SEP for its ability and resolves it.
Combat damage step:

SEP deals combat damage.
Derevi's triggered ability lets Sam choose to untap SEP. Sam does so.
Sam uses SEP's ability again, tapping it.

You can see none of that involves "cheating out an extra use while attacking" exactly, and none of it has much to do with Vigilance (other than Vigilance didn't make Sam tap SEP as an attacker). Sam just entirely normally gets an extra use out of dealing combat damage if they choose to untap SEP.

In fact, Sam could get lots of uses out of SEP at that stage: for each creature of theirs that deals Combat Damage whilst Derevi is out, they can choose to untap SEP, and activate its ability each time. (Understanding how that works would require a good understanding of the stack & priority. If you're not familiar with those concepts, I recommend reading this answer, which helped me understand them when I was new.)

But none of those are "cheating out an extra use while attacking".

The mistakes that could be being made here

Your friend could be doing things 100% by the rules, just explaining things poorly.

Your friend could also be mistaken about how the rules work. If so, you and/or your friend could be thinking a combination of any/all of these.

✘ Incorrect: Vigilance causes a creature to untap.

✔ Correct: Vigilance just causes it to not tap as attackers are declared, as we covered earlier.

✘ Incorrect: Tapped creatures can be declared as attackers (which then untaps them if they have Vigilance).

✔ Correct: Only untapped creatures can be chosen as attackers during the Declare Attackers step.

✘ Incorrect: If you attack with a creature (and tap it), all of its abilities with a {T} (tap symbol) in the cost are also activated simultaneously.

✔ Correct: Doesn't happen. You usually have to choose between "tap for that ability" or "tap as an attacker" during your turn. Part of the beauty of a creature with Vigilance and a tap ability (such as SEP, or Vona, Butcher of Magan) is you can attack with it and then also use its {T} ability.
Some creatures (like Frenzied Goblin) have a triggered ability of the format: "When (this creature) attacks, you may pay (cost). If you do, (stuff happens)." These you can use as a part of attacking, because it's just a triggered ability (see step 2.2 above) and you can pay that cost to have the stuff happen.

✘ Incorrect: You can pay two costs with the same payment. If I'm tapping a creature to attack, I can also use that tapping to pay a cost of {T}! Also, I can activate the abilities of both Fathom Fleet Firebrand and Frontline Devastator with the same 2 mana: I am paying 2 mana, therefore I activate all abilities that involve paying 2 mana.

✔ Correct: You cannot pay two costs with the same payment. You choose one thing to do, then pay the cost for that one thing. Then you may choose other things to do, and pay those costs. But all the costs are paid separately to each thing. (Much like you cannot buy a $5 lunch from ten different shops with the same $5 bill.)

✘ Incorrect: Damage happens instantly as soon as I declare an attacker.

✔ Correct: There's a Combat Phase process to follow, and attackers don't deal their damage until near the end of that process.

In general, also bear in mind M:tG is a game with strict steps we move through one after the other: turn structure occurs in specific steps, so do the concepts of the stack and priority. We can't go wibbly-wobbly with the steps without breaking the rules, and those steps keep things pretty orderly.

When in doubt about something complex somebody's doing, ask them to explain about the sequence of events that allow them to do it, and make sure it makes sense to you at each step and that it isn't breaking any game rules. There's been several times someone's tried to do something that didn't seem right, and through asking for that explanation, I either learned how it worked, or we spotted that some part of the sequence meant they couldn't actually do that thing they were trying to do. (Not out of cheating, mind — this is a complex game sometimes, and when it does get complex we can all do with a hand keeping things working right.)


Fury of Dracula 3rd ed. - Escape as Bat clarification

No, encounters are placed during the encounter phase of Dracula's turn. Moving by escaping as a bat occurs during dawn or dusk, which is outside this phase so no encounter is placed.

The first space location (where the combat was taking place) is cleared, and then the new location card - without an encounter - replaces the cleared location on the first slot on the trail.


Can't beats can. So when something tells you to draw a card (say the beginning of your draw step), and Maralen telling you that you can't draw cards you do not get to draw a card. Since you are not drawing a card the Crypt's replacement effect doesn't have a chance to apply.

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.
614.7. If a replacement effect would replace an event, but that event never happens, the replacement effect simply doesn’t do anything.


Can Necron Deathmarks shoot in your opponents turn?

That video is rules lawyering at its best(as in worst).

You can't shoot Death Marks in your opponent's turn.  Something that against the normal mechanics would be spelled out explicitly.  Yes, units may fire the turn they come in from reserve as normal, but it's still the other players turn.  Normally a player can only fire their own units on their own turn.  The deep strike rules don't override that; they're written for the 99% of the time where units are coming in on their controlling player's turn.

You can't in good faith make the argument that you can shoot Death Marks in your opponents turn.  A seasoned 40k player would know the intent here.  Any time you are jumping between 3 or more disparate rules in this rules system your are stretching the credulity of your argument.  I know that that's not a perfect answer, but the 40k rules are not written to the same precision as some other miniature games.  If someone pulled this argument on me, I'd argue back that I should be able to chose the target, since it's my shooting phase.

And there are effective ways to use Death Marks without resorting to this.  Try combining a unit with a despair Cryptek in a Nightscythe.  The Death Marks allow the abyssal staff to wound on a 2+, and the Nightsythe give them the mobility to drop that template anywhere on the table.

Yeah, the Ethereal Interception rule is only situationally useful, but it's not the main draw of the unit anyway.


When drawing cards for each produced good, does it include goods produced on windfall worlds?

Yes, you draw a card regardless of what kind of world the good was produced on. The rulebook mentions, (page 7) under Produce, that players who choose Produce get to "produce" a good on one Windfall world. It also gives an example of a special power that produces goods on windfall worlds. Since Research Labs draws cards for each good of a specific kind produced, and the rules indicate that goods on windfall worlds can be "produced" either as a bonus based on a players chosen action or card effects, you draw a card regardless of whether that good was produced on a halo/solid world.

Players who chose Produce, as a bonus, produce a good (if possible) on one of their windfall worlds that does not already have a good.
Some cards, such as Genetic Labs, can also produce goods on windfall worlds (without goods).

What does "no power can interrupt another" mean?
What is meant here, is that you should resolve a power/effect completely before applying the results of another power/effect. Example: If you have an Alien world (yellow) that allows you to Discard a Card to produce an Alien good, but you have no cards in hand and no way to produce yellow goods. You could draw cards from Diversified Economy (for producing goods on other worlds), and then discard one of those cards to produce an Alien good. This would not entitle you to draw another card from Diversified Economy for producing another kind of good, because you already resolved it's effects. If you control a Research Labs as well though, you could draw a card from it's power by resolving it's effect after Diversified Economy and the "Discard to Produce Good" effect of the Alien world.


Does the result of the last game of Euchre determine who gets to deal first in the next game?

I would have to agree with you. A previous game definitely has nothing to do with the proceeding game. It is equivalent to playing a game then a few years later the winner is still able to be the dealer without the blackjack deal (well maybe not quite that far, but you get the point). But just clarifying we are talking about entirely new games, not rounds? If we are talking about games then yes redo the blackjack deal.


Drunk UNO Game: Who is "the player that gets reversed" in Uno?

When Player B plays a reverse it makes it Player A's turn which means that Player C would have gone next if the reverse hadn't been played. Following the same rules as the other action cards in UNO (skip, draw two etc.), the player who would play after Player B would be the player that would take the shots. in this circumstance it would be Player C.


There's an old game called Plank that might fit your description. When you play with three players, the player to the left of the winner receives a penalty of two points, and the third player receives a penalty of one point. When the players have played some multiple of three games, the player with the fewest points wins the match. This way, when a player has to choose between stopping one player or the other, he will always stop the player to his right.

I first ran across Plank in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games book. He added the rule for  scoring three-player games to solve the king maker problem. Plank was described in The Young Folks' Cyclopaedia of Games and Sports in 1890 (complete rules at the link). I've since seen a commercial version called Hack Attack. I really like the game as a light filler, and I made my own set out of Lego. For me it has a similar feel to Quarto.


Can an instant spell be used before an upkeep triggered ability resolves?

No, you can't do what you're trying to do, unfortunately!

Yes, however, in general you can cast instants before a "beginning of your upkeep" triggered ability resolves. You cannot, however, do it before that ability gets triggered and goes on the stack, which is what messes up your plan.

The upkeep step is the first step in your turn when you receive priority (and can thus cast an instant), and it involves two steps:

  503.1. First, any abilities that trigger at the beginning of the upkeep step and any abilities that triggered during the turn's untap step go on the stack.
  503.2. Second, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

What this means for the general case

The triggered abilities from 503.1 won't resolve before you have your chance to respond to them in 503.2, so in the general case, instants can be cast before "beginning of your upkeep" triggered abilities resolve.

What this means for your strategy

In your specific strategy, though, this isn't quite enough. You want Cryptoplasm to copy Archetype of Endurance. It can't do that, because things happen in this order:

503.1 happens. Cryptoplasm's triggered ability is placed on the stack. As part of this process, you choose your targets for that ability, which means choosing the creature Cryptoplasm will copy. At this point, Sudden Spoiling can't yet be cast, and Archetype of Endurance still has hexproof, so it cannot be legally chosen as a target.
503.2 happens. You receive priority and can cast instants. This is the earliest time you can cast Sudden Spoiling, but at this point it's too late to make Archetype of Endurance a legal target for your Cryptoplasm - a target's already been chosen.
Eventually, your Cryptoplasm's triggered ability resolves, and it becomes a copy of the creature you chose in step 1.

Clever thinking, but the order of events prevents this strategy from working.

Since you're playing black/blue, your options include using Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and destroying the Archetype, or using Willbender after Sudden Spoiling resolves so as to change the target you chose in step 1 to the Archetype.


Which resources are better at the start of a Catan game?

As a counterpoint to ICodeForCoffee's answer: I much prefer having access to brick and wood on initial settlements.

Initial brick and wood allow you to get to more positions on the map, to increase your ore and corn income. Initial corn and ore allow you to build cities, which get you... more corn and ore.

If you start on corn and ore, you can find yourself locked out of the other resources (brick and wood) much more easily than if you start on brick and wood.


Can Angel's Grace set your life total to 1 when you have Negative Life?

For a weird case like this, it's best to consult the Oracle rulings.

In this case, we're in luck, since this situation is covered directly:

  If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1.

So, according to the official rulings, damage from City of Brass can't "reduce" your life total to a higher number than its current value.

So, the remaining question is: does your life total stay -10 or become -11? My best guess (and it is a bit of a guess, to be honest) is that your life total becomes -11 because the "instead" just doesn't apply at all.


Can one block with a protection from color creature?

Declaring a creature as a blocker isn't targeting; the rules don't mention the word 'target'.

  509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that’s attacking that player or a planeswalker they control.

If you want to know what counts as being targeted (a lot of it does), you'll need to read rule 114.

In fact, declaring the creature with protection as a blocker is very often the right thing to do, as the creature won't receive any combat damage and thus is likely to survive.


Yes, your interpretation is correct. From the card rulings:

Conduit of Ruin’s last ability doesn’t change the mana cost or
converted mana cost of any spell. It changes only the total cost you
actually pay.
If you control more than one
Conduit of Ruin, the last ability of each of them applies only to the
first creature spell you cast each turn, not to different spells; if you control two Conduits of Ruin, the
first creature spell you cast each turn will cost {4} less.
If the first creature spell you cast in a turn has {X} in
its mana cost, you choose the value of X before calculating the
spell’s total cost. For example, if the first creature spell you cast
in a turn has a mana cost of {X}{G}, you could choose 2 as the value
of X and pay {G} to cast the spell.

So, the value that you pick for X is fixed, the only thing that changes is what you actually pay.


The official cribbage rules make this incredibly clear:

  Rule 1.6 - Definitions
  ...
  go: Called by a player who cannot play a card without exceeding the cumulative count of 31; the opponent scores one point, or two if reaching exactly 31.

In this, calling a 31 is just a special case of a go.


How much damage is dealt if a 1/1 creature blocks a 3/5 creature?

The player will get 3 tokens.
The amount of damage dealt is not limited by the affected creature's toughness (or planeswalker's loyalty, or player's life). There is no explicit rule stating this fact, but if you look at the definitions of the two kinds of damage (combat and spell/ability), there is also no rule making such a limitation:

120.2a Damage may be dealt as a result of combat. Each attacking and blocking creature deals combat damage equal to its power during the combat damage step.
120.2b Damage may be dealt as an effect of a spell or ability. The spell or ability will specify which object deals that damage.

Damage dealt beyond a creature's toughness is called excess damage, which a few cards make an explicit reference to, but other than that, the amount of damage dealt is what it says.

120.4a First, if an effect is causing damage to be dealt to a creature and that effect specifies that excess damage is dealt to another object or player instead, the damage event is modified to deal damage accordingly. Excess damage is damage greater than the creature’s toughness, taking into account damage marked on that creature and other damage being dealt to it at the same time as this damage. Any damage greater than 1 is excess damage if the source dealing that damage has deathtouch.

From this rule you can also see that a creature can sustain any amount of damage, not just how much toughness it has.
Note that if the 3/5 creature was attacking and also had trample, the attacking player could choose to deal some or all of the excess damage to the defending player. In that case, the defender would get a number of squirrels equal to the damage that was actually assigned and dealt to the 1/1.


Does paradox engine activate its own ability

It does not. Paradox Engine has already been cast and resolved. Its ability, like the majority of abilities1, only has effect while it is on the battlefield which means it cannot see itself being cast and trigger.

The ruling that you're referring to:

  Paradox Engine's triggered ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. The ability will resolve even if that spell is countered.

is just clarifying that its ability triggers on another spell being cast which means the stack will look like this immediately after a player has cast any spell:

Paradox Engine's trigger on top
The Spell being cast

which allows players to respond to either the spell or Engine before either of them resolves.

1:There are some abilities (such as Dredge, Cycling, or Bloodrush; or Bridge From Below to see a non-keyword graveyard Triggered ability) that require the card being in a specific zone to use, e.g. in your hand or in the grave.


Is this card worded correctly and balanced?

While the way you have the ability worded is 'proper', normally they give a creature this mechanic in the form of Vigilance. In this way, the card may be tapped by some external source and then made unable to block, but will not be unable to block because he attacked last turn (which is the most common reason he would become tapped). To have a creature that cannot be evaded by tapping him significantly increases his power level, but as noted in the comments greatly increases his complexity. I find it hard to justify the complexity increase for the increase gained when such an elegant alternative exists.

On a related note:

Being attack heavy is very much red's thing. It is part of red's color pie to force opponents to block (flavor wise, that's being so aggressive they simply must defend themselves), not very much in red's color pie to block themselves. Simply put, red is not a very block-happy color. Boros (the guild of this card) is very haste heavy,

I would compare your card to Truefire Paladin if you're looking for recent examples of similar creatures.

As far as tweaking it to make it red, I would do one of the following:

Make it cost RW and make it First strike, vigilance, ~ attacks each turn if able. ~ blocks each turn if able.
Make it First strike, vigilance, haste.

Bottom line: adding red does not encourage it to block. Adding red would make it much less likely to be able to block. If you want to keep the tap-blocking mechanic, I would make it cost 1WW.


Can I use a Planeswalker's ability when I took over its control this turn?

You may use one of the planeswalker's abilities during your turn.

In Bolas's Clutches does indeed allow you to control planeswalkers, and each player's turn counts separately. If your opponent ended their turn, your turn is separate from that, those two turns do not count as the same turn.

  606.3. A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent they control any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of their turn, but only if no player has previously activated a loyalty ability of that permanent that turn.

Please note that the game structure doesn't have a concept of "rounds". In order of decreasing scope, the structure of MtG is as follows:

Tournament (a series of matches)
Match (series of games)
Game (series of turns)
Turn (series of phases)
Phase (series of steps)
Step (some phases don't have steps)


In plain English, how does casting spells and using creature abilities work with the stack and priority?

I am going to reiterate that the Basic Rules are sufficient for and a better way to learn how to play MtG rather than the Comprehensive Rules
When can Instants be cast?
Instants can be cast on your own turn, during your opponents turn, and in response to other spells. This differs from Sorcery cards, which can only be cast during your own Main Phase. (MtG Basic Rules, Page 6)

Instant - An instant is just like a sorcery, except you can cast it just about any time you want, even during your opponent’s turn or in response to another spell. Like a sorcery, an instant has its effect, then you put it into your graveyard.

When can tap abilities be used?
Anytime you could cast an Instant. There is nothing inherently different between an activated ability with the tap symbol in its cost and other activated abilities and their costs. Tapping is a cost, and just like any other cost, it must be paid before activating an ability.

Activated Abilities - An activated ability is an ability that you can activate whenever you want, as long as you can pay the cost. [...] Each activated ability has a cost, then a colon (“:”), then an effect. [...] Some activated abilities contain the {T} symbol in their costs. This means that you must tap the permanent to activate the ability. You can’t activate the ability if the permanent is already tapped. (MtG Basic Rules, Page 12)
Creature - [...] Unlike other types of permanents, creatures enter the battlefield with “summoning sickness”: a creature can’t attack, or use an ability that has {T} in its cost, until it has started your turn on the battlefield under your control. You can block with a creature or activate its other abilities no matter how long it’s been on the battlefield.(MtG Basic Rules, Page 6)

What do Instants and abilities have to do with the Stack and Priority?
Instants, Activated Abilities both go on the stack. The stack gives players the opportunity to respond to spells/abilities before they resolve. The stack is a First In Last Out (FILO) zone, where spells and abilities exist until they resolve or are countered. (Instants/Sorcery) spells have their effect and then go to the Graveyard, (Creatures/Enchantments/Artifacts/Planeswalkers) resolve and become permanents on the Battlefield, (Triggered Abilities/Activated Abilities) are not represented by a physical card, so they resolve and disappear into the AEther.
Priority is just the way MtG is designed to handle whose turn it is to do something. Players can cast Instants or activate abilities on other players turns, so the game needs a way to determine who goes first.

The Stack - Spells and abilities exist on the stack. They wait there to resolve until both players choose not to cast any new spells or activate any new abilities. Then the last spell or ability that was put onto the stack resolves, and players get a chance to cast spells and activate abilities again. (You’ll learn more about casting spells and activating abilities in the next section.) This zone is shared by both players.(MtG Basic Rules, Page 8)
Priority - Since players can cast instants and activate abilities during each other’s turns, the game needs a system that makes sure only one player can do something at a time. Priority determines, at any given time, which player can cast a spell or activate an activated ability.
The active player (the player whose turn it is) gets priority at the beginning of each step and each main phase—except for the untap step and the cleanup step. When you get priority, you can cast a spell, activate an activated ability, or pass (choose to do nothing). If you do something, you keep priority, so you make the same choice again. If you pass, your opponent gets priority, so now he or she gets that choice. This goes back and forth until both players pass in a row.
When both players pass in a row, if there’s a spell or ability waiting on the stack, it resolves. Then the active player gets priority again, and the system repeats. When both players pass in a row, if there’s no spell or ability waiting on the stack, that part of the turn ends and the next one begins.(MtG Basic Rules, Page 30)


How to complete a district in Ticket to Ride London?

Your understanding is correct. Completing a district means that you would be able to get from any location in the district to any other location in the district by traveling along your trains. Essentially the same as completing Destination cards; but with more than 2 locations on them.


Can I cast cost-less cards like Living End with Dream Halls?

Yes.

Living End has a mana cost of "unpayable".

Dream Halls introduces an alternative cost of "discard a card that shares a color with the spell".

total cost
= (mana cost or alternative cost) + (additional costs and cost increases) - cost reductions
= discard a card that shares a color with the spell

  117.6. Some mana costs contain no mana symbols. This represents an unpayable cost. [...]

  117.6a [...] If an alternative cost is applied to an unpayable cost, including an effect that allows a player to cast a spell without paying its mana cost, the alternative cost may be paid.

Just in case there's any doubt, Living End is black.

  204.2. An object with a color indicator is each color denoted by that color indicator.

(It had a characteristic-defining ability when it was printed, but it now has a color indicator. Characteristic-defining abilities work in all zones, so the answer would have been the same before the change.)


Can allies interact with mission tokens?

I've never played the game, but it seems as though the rules consistently refer to either "figures" or "non-hero figures". So a hero is a special kind of figure.

Some quotes from the rules:

  During a figure’s activation, it may perform two actions. The available actions are Attack, Move, Interact, Rest, and Special.
  [...]
  A figure can perform the same action multiple times during the same activation except as follows:
  - A non-hero figure can use only one of its actions to perform an attack per activation.
  - A figure can perform each special action only once per activation.
  [...]
  Rebel allies are not heroes. During their activation, they cannot interact with crates or rest. Rebel allies can perform only one attack each activation, and follow all other rules for non-hero figures.
  [...]
  Some missions allow figures to retrieve specific tokens. A figure adjacent to or in the same space as the token can perform an interact to retrieve the token. Place the token on the figure’s base to mark that the figure is now carrying that token. The token now moves with the figure.
  [...]
  During a campaign, each Rebel player controls a hero. The word “Hero” is used to refer to hero figures, the player controlling the figure, and all of the associated components.

Since it says 'figures' in the piece about mission tokens, and does not exclude 'non-hero figures', I'd say a non-hero figure can collect mission tokens.


Do all players interact with the Mansions of Madness app, or does one player act as GM?

The app introduced with the second edition of Mansions of Madness is designed to replace the role of "Keeper", and as such it's best to think of the app as an automated GM.

This means the app is designed in a way that makes it possible for a player to assume that role, and be the sole player interacting with the app and updating the physical board appropriately.


What is the term for a stalemate or locked board in Magic?

Parity, in this context meaning equality (of game state, in some sense). In general, equality of game state doesn't necessarily mean a stalemate or locked board, but in Magic it's often the case that the player to make the first move is at a disadvantage.


Can the extra players extension work with Seafearers or Cities and Knights?

Seafarers and Cities & Knights have their own 5-6 Player expansions in addition to the base game 5-6 player expansion. Think of them as expansions to expansions. So to play a 6 player game of Seafarers you will need the following:

Base Catan Game + 5-6 Person Base Expansion + 4 player Seafarers Expansion + 5-6 Person Seafarers Expansion


When can an object have an owner and no controller?

Only objects on the battlefield or on the stack have controllers - everything else is only owned

  108.4. A card doesn’t have a controller unless that card represents a permanent or spell; in those cases, its controller is determined by the rules for permanents or spells. See rules 110.2 and 112.2.

But there are many cards that can affect cards in hand, library, graveyard, and exile - for those cards, choices are made by the owner because nobody controls them.


Can an instant spell deal damage to a creature after responding with hexproof?

No, the Shock will not deal damage if the target gains hexproof in response.

The reason is that target validity is checked both while you are casting the spell and as the spell starts to resolve. If the target becomes invalid, say by gaining hexproof, before the spell resolves, the spell will not do anything to that target, and if all of the targets are invalid, the spell will not do anything at all.


In Axis and Allies, Can Heavy Bombers Be "Tamed"?

Over at this question about A&A variants I suggesting changing heavy bombers such that each bomber is worth two dice, choose the higher value. For attacking this means the probability of successful attack increases 33 percent: from 0.67 (4/6) to 0.89 (1 - 2/6^2). For strategic bombing the expected value of IPCs would goes up by 28 percent.
So my rule makes bombers about 33 percent better than they were before, which using Tom's methodology is worth about 5 IPCs, since each bomber is costs 15. This is a 6-turn pay-back with 1 bomber, or two turns with 3--not accounting for the time-value of IPCs. This seems much more in line with the increases in the other techs. (Also see the footnote at the bottom explaining how this rule reduces the likelihood of bad rolls in addition to increasing the average. This is additional value not included in the 5 IPC figure.)

Derivation of the increase in expected strategic bombing value
For 1-die the value is 3.5. For rolling two dice and picking the higher one, the math is much more complicated. From this paper on dice probabilities, the probability that the highest number rolled with n dice is k is given by (sorry, no tex formatting on the board game site):

(k^n - (k - 1)^n) / 6^n

which for n = 2 reduces to

(k^2 - (k - 1)^2) / 36

Now we calculate the probability that our two rolls will give us each value from 1 - 6.
Value  Probability Equation
1       1/36       (1^2 - (1-1)^2)/36
2       3/36       (2^2 - (2-1)^2)/36
3       5/36       (3^2 - (3-1)^2)/36
4       7/36       (4^2 - (4-1)^2)/36
5       9/36       (5^2 - (5-1)^2)/36
6      11/36       (6^2 - (6-1)^2)/36
       36/36  <--- just checking the sum

Now to calculate the expected value we have to weight these probabilities by the likelihood (i.e. multiple the value and probability columns and sum), which results in 4.47--a 28 percent increase over 3.5.
This table also makes clear that rolls are now going to be biased on the high side. Where as before the chances of getting a 1 were 1/6 = 17 percent, now they are 3 percent. And the probability of getting a 6 has increased from 17 percent to 30 percent. So the average has moved up and moved up in a way that makes it very unlikely you will get a bad roll, removing some of the luck from strategic bombing, further increasing their value above the postulated value of 5 IPCs per bomber.


Can the Mask of Avacyn be targeted by spells after being equipped to a creature?

Yes. The Mask doesn't have hexproof, shroud or similar.

Even when attached, the equipment and the equipped creature are two separate permanents. Only the creature gets +1/+2 and hexproof. Nothing in the scenario you described gives the Mask any abilities (such as hexproof) when attached.


If Possession is played while executing another Possession, who takes the next turn?

If Bob plays Possession, even if he is currently being possessed by Alex, Bob will control Carl's next turn.

This basically means if you are possessing someone, you should not have them play Possession.  Especially in a 2 player game.

(Note that sometimess you can't avoid playing a Possession - for example if you play a Golem, you might end up being required to play Possession as well.)


Yes, you do as per the setup rules (page 5):

14. DRAW AND RESOLVE MYTHOS CARD
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.
...
After the mythos card has been completely resolved, the
first turn begins, starting with the first player.

If you are beginners, you may want to forgo #14 and only apply ongoing effects of the first mythos card, rather than the active effects (such as the one you encountered).


Warhammer 40k traitor legions-favored of tzeench special rule

Yes, if the Sorcerer/Exalted Sorcere was bought as part of that Formation
and the formation met the criteria of the rule (i.e. if the formation contains the maximum number of units).

The Sorcerer/Exalted also gains Fleet as per the Formation special rules.

Unless otherwise specified, all units/models in a formation are subject to the special rules of that formation.

Source: Wrath of Magnus, p 150 - Tzaangor Warherd.

Also, from the Main Rulebook, p 118 - Formations text box:

  Formations
  ...the Army List Entries that comprise a Formation are listed on it, along with any special rules that those units gain...


MTG - Unsettled Mariner: When is the targeting checked?

First of all, a little terminology: the casting cost is determined when casting a spell:

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

So under no circumstances will Unsettled Mariner increase the casting cost of a spell.
Now, when does a permanent/player 'become a target'? This happens while casting a spell:

601.2c The player announces their choice of an appropriate object or player for each target the spell requires.
...
The chosen objects and/or players each become a target of that spell.

Only after the player is finished casting the spell, you get priority and will be able to vial in the Unsettled Mariner. That's too late to trigger the Mariner's ability; it simply doesn't 'see' the targeting.
To elaborate on what @Becuzz is mentioning, if the Mariner is already in play and your opponent targets it with Combust, the Mariner's ability will trigger, and give your opponent the option to pay {1}. If they don't, the Mariner's ability will attempt to counter Combust, but fail to do so, because Combust can't be countered.


When does a player choose the creature benefiting from Amass?

Amass doesn't target, so the creature will be chosen upon resolution, by which time it is too late to destroy it with Jaya's Greeting; the creature will receive the +1/+1 tokens before you get priority to cast a spell.


In bridge, can you tell your partner that your two bid is a weak two?

No - presuming you mean during the hand after the call has been made.

OP makes no mention as to whether this is Rubber or Duplicate Bridge. However, there is great conformity between the two sets of Laws, so I will briefly outline the structure as defined in the Rubber Bridge Laws, and allow the Director of any relevant Duplicate Game to cover any extensions pertaining to that variety of the game.

The Proprieties listed in the Laws of Rubber Bridge () state:

  2. Communication Between Partners

  Communication between partners during the auction and play should be effected only by means of the calls and plays themselves, not through the manner in which they are made nor through extraneous remarks and gestures, nor through questions asked of the opponents and
  explanations given to them.

  ...

  When a player has available to him improper information from his partner’s remark, question, explanation, gesture, mannerism, special emphasis, inflection, haste or hesitation, he should carefully avoid taking any advantage that might accrue to his side.

No discussion of partnership agreements or holdings is allowed during the hand. Any such would be Unauthorized Information to either partner receiving said information, penalized as in Law 16:

  Law 16 – Unauthorized Information

  A player may be subject to penalty if information is conveyed from his partner other than by a legal call or play.

  A. Regarding information obtained from partner:

  If a player conveys information to his partner by means of a remark, question, unmistakable hesitation or unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement, mannerism or any other action that suggests a call, lead or plan of play, is unauthorized. When the offending side has profited by use of this unauthorized information, it should, in conformance with Proprieties 1, redress any damage done to the non-offending side.

  ...

  A player on the offending side must not base any subsequent calls or plays on such unauthorized information. If it is determined that this has been violated and the non-offending side has been damaged, the result should be adjusted to redress any damage done to the non-offending side.

As regards Alerts and Announcements, the ACBL Alert Procedure states:

  An announcement is one word or a short phrase which tells the opponents directly the meaning of partner's call. When bidding boxes are used, the "Alert" strip is tapped also. Announcements are required in the following instances: ...

Note:

That it is always the partner of the player making the call that performs the Announcement.
That only the specified calls that are to be Announced, and Weak Two Bids are NOT in this list (ACBL Alert Chart).


No, whatever you want to target with Kukemssa Pirates already has to be an artifact by the time the Pirates trigger.
Kukemssa Pirates' ability is a targeted, triggered ability. That means that its desired target must be legal by the time the ability enters the stack, and you do not get priority after the ability triggered and before it enters the stack. That means that once the Pirates have triggered, you can't activate any ability, like Ashnod's Transmogrant's, or cast any spell to make the desired target legal. That has to happen before the trigger.

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.

603.3d The remainder of the process for putting a triggered ability on the stack is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2c–d. If a choice is required when the triggered ability goes on the stack but no legal choices can be made for it, or if a rule or a continuous effect otherwise makes the ability illegal, the ability is simply removed from the stack.

601.2c The player announces their choice of an appropriate object or player for each target the spell requires. [..]

Note that if the Pirates' ability was not targeted, but let you choose the artifact only at resolution, you could react to the ability with the Transmogrant. For an example of such wording, see Boreas Charger - if your opponent has more lands than you when the Charger leaves the battlefield, you could react to the ability by sacrificing enough land to make your opponent a legal choice for the Charger.


Suitable drafting rules for multi-set repacks?

Drafting with multi packs or with packs from all different blocks works just fine you just need to aim for certain archtypes (control, aggro, ect) as opposed to specific strategies (such as human tribal) and you'll have more success. In my experience the only rule you really need to have outside of regular draft rules is to ban the unsets. Sealed also works well. Same advice (archtype over specific strategy) applies though you have a bit more leeway since you can see everything you have from the get go.


In Monster My Neighbor, how is the Rumor card resolved?

Based on this thread on BGG this card is resolved simultaneoously. I'd say you can resolve it in turn order if you want to, just set aside newly drawn cards.


There are lots of tutorials. Playing games making mistakes, and learning from them is the way to improve. However, when you're just starting, you make so many mistakes that it can be overwhelming. This is where having a human teacher or a book can help, because they can give you specific things to work on.
Keep your app, but playing just against a computer is not a good way to get strong at Go.
Books for beginners:
Janice Kim has a series of books for beginners that I found very helpful when starting out.
Find local players:
Advanced players are usually happy to play a teaching game or give a short lesson. You will, of course, find that some are better teachers than others. I'd recommend searching for " go baduk" (baduk is the Korean name for Go, and is a much more helpful term for search engines).
Play against people online:
KGS is a popular Go server, and in the Beginners Room and such you can find people willing to play teaching games. Sometimes the best teacher is someone who is only a little better than you, because they have a similar perspective as you do. (There's lots of other Go servers if you don't like KGS, see here.)
Online resources:
Sensei's Library is a popular Go wiki, and they have a nice set of pages for beginners.


Having spent some time trying to work out probabilities and carrying out some research, I have come up with a few conclusions.

Almost NEVER lead with a 5 or a 10.

There are 16 cards that value 10 in the pack (30%), so playing a 5 gives a very high probability that the other player will get 2points for 15.
Same theory for leading with a 10. Although far fewer 5s are in the pack, these are highly valuable cards and often not sent to the crib.

Keep back Aces for the end

They come in very useful for getting 31 for 2, and possible doubles or triples.

6s, 7s, 8s, 9s

These are strong cards in a hand, so are often quite easy to 15. Leading with a 9 or 6 allows the other player to get a 15 with little worry of a run occurring. 7s and 8s can trick the other player into going for a 15 to gain you a run, but can be followed by another card to make a further run from the other player. This would give the other player 7 points and you 3 points. Not a great return.

Deuces and Treys

2s and 3s are what is left. A 2 is probably useful to hold back for the same reason as the Aces, but 2s and 3s are the safest options for leading.

So, the answer to vary the leading card (i.e. instead of always playing a 4) is to use a 3, or even possibly a 2.


I don't have the Dwarf rule-book, but I thought that Giant Slayers(and Demon Slayers) were champions who could be attached to a unit of Troll Slayers. This means that as champions, they will have to follow the Rule of Pride and all have unique runic weapons.

I think the idea is you have a unit of troll slayers to soak arrows/give rank bonus and then add in 2-3 Giant slayers as champions to add more damage to the front rank.


How many mono-red damage doubling effects are there?

10 that apply to your commander. (11 if you're willing to do hijinx with Goldnight Castigator.)

Magic: the Gathering has highly standardised ways to word its effects, so when you see an effect you like and want to find more of it, you should search for the words you find in the effect that look like they're fairly unique to that effect. (Recognising which words those are can take some experience.)

You can search in either Gatherer (the official search engine), or a third party search engine like Scryfall or MagicCards.info. I find these second two are far easier to compose searches in. I'm going to be referencing Scryfall below since it's my personal favorite.

If you search only for o:"double that damage" (within a color identity of red, and within the Commander format) you'll find 17 damage doubling effects.

The following don't actually work for your commander:

Charging Tuskodon and Goblin Charbelcher only double their own damage.
Fire Servant won't interact with Kumano.
Blind Fury, Impulsive Maneuvers, and Inquisitor's Flail only interact with combat damage (which won't count Kumano's ability).

Goldnight Castigator doubles damage to you, but works if you you give it away with Harmless Offering or a similar spell.

We can eliminate the ones that definitely don't work from the search results by name for our perusal.

You may also be interested in damage increasers, of which Tok-Tok, Volcano Born and Embermaw Hellion apply. (You can & should apply these before any damage doublers.)


The set code is UST. It's already official, and you can see it printed on the bottom left of your card, in this case on Adorable Kitten:

The set code is always present there.

The hashtag may be #MTGUN3, but it's still UST for a set code.


What are good strategies involving Remodel?

Be Ruthless!

This is basically an extension of the strategy of trashing all your lame cards presented here. Don't limit yourself to only remodeling Coppers and Remodels. Be ruthless about it: if you get a Remodel in your hand, play it, even if it means passing up other actions, and even if it means you won't get to buy anything. This will keep your deck small and powerful. And, as Powerlord pointed out, this applies to Expand as well, and I'd throw Upgrade into the same box. If Workshop happens to be around, it can speed up the process.


Do Aftermath cards count as two or one card for Enigma Drake?

It becomes a 1/4.

Spring // Mind is both a sorcery card and an instant card, but it's still only one card, and Enigma Drake counts cards.

You're actually asking about split cards —the fact that they also have Aftermath is irrelevant— and the following ruling is found attached to Enigma Drake:

  A split card only counts once for Enigma Drake’s ability, even if it’s both an instant and a sorcery.


Help identify a ~1984-1986, D&D-ish, chit/card + dice, battle game

This sounds like King of the Tabletop to me, published in issue 77 of Dragon Magazine.  I played it many times as a teen.


What are you allowed to do if you only have 1 card in hand, and no Canastas yet?

If the player cannot pick up the discard pile because he cannot meld the card on top, or it is frozen, then he has to pick up the top card of the draw stack, and just discard 1. He has no other choice.

He cannot play a card from his hand, unless playing that card would turn a 6-card meld into a 7-card Canasta, because he is not allowed to go out without a Canasta.

There is no rule that would allow him to play a card, and then draw another card. You only draw once per turn.


Can special actions in the location card be attempted more than once during a scavenge?

As long as you have enough cards to return and the situation text does not tell you otherwise, you can perform these actions multiple times.

Check Script 600 under Exploration Cards.


Does discarding your commander to the command zone trigger discard effects?

Yes, it does count as being discarded.

Discard is a Keyword Action that means:

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

The Commander replacement effect changes this to be:

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

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

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

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

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