Does "Going Infinite" necessarily end the game?

The comprehensive rules on taking shortcuts in Magic, as per your request. (Sorry, long...)

If you refuse to take a shortcut out of an infinite loop when you have the opportunity, you are committing deliberate timewasting as Andrey's answer suggests; a definite no-no in a tournament, and hopefully in a friendly group as well!

  Taking Shortcuts

  715.1. When playing a game, players typically make use of mutually
  understood shortcuts rather than explicitly identifying each game
  choice (either taking an action or passing priority) a player makes.

  715.1a The rules for taking shortcuts are largely unformalized. As
  long as each player in the game understands the intent of each other
  player, any shortcut system they use is acceptable.

  715.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of
  actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a "loop"). In
  that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times
  those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them,
  and how the loop is broken.

  715.2. Taking a shortcut follows the following procedure.

  715.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest
  a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players,
  that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the
  predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a
  non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified
  number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross
  multiple turns. It can't include conditional actions, where the
  outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The
  ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has
  priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.
  Example: A player controls a creature enchanted by Presence of Gond,
  which grants the creature the ability "{T}: Put a 1/1 green Elf
  Warrior creature token onto the battlefield," and another player
  controls Intruder Alarm, which reads, in part, "Whenever a creature
  enters the battlefield, untap all creatures." When the player has
  priority, he may suggest "I'll create a million tokens," indicating
  the sequence of activating the creature's ability, all players passing
  priority, letting the creature's ability resolve and put a token onto
  the battlefield (which causes Intruder Alarm's ability to trigger),
  Intruder Alarm's controller putting that triggered ability on the
  stack, all players passing priority, Intruder Alarm's triggered
  ability resolving, all players passing priority until the player
  proposing the shortcut has priority, and repeating that sequence
  999,999 more times, ending just after the last token-creating ability
  resolves.

  715.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who
  suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or
  shorten it by naming a place where he or she will make a game choice
  that's different than what's been proposed. (The player doesn't need
  to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place
  becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence. Example: The
  active player draws a card during her draw step, then says, "Go." The
  nonactive player is holding Into the Fray (an instant that says
  "Target creature attacks this turn if able") and says, "I'd like to
  cast a spell during your beginning of combat step." The current
  proposed shortcut is that all players pass priority at all
  opportunities during the turn until the nonactive player has priority
  during the beginning of combat step.

  715.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the
  shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the
  last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the
  shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened
  from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make
  a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that
  player.

  715.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player
  involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in
  the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the
  active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop,
  the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a
  different game choice so the loop does not continue. Example: In a
  two-player game, the active player controls a creature with the
  ability "{0}: [This creature] gains flying," the nonactive player
  controls a permanent with the ability "{0}: Target creature loses
  flying," and nothing in the game cares how many times an ability has
  been activated. Say the active player activates his creature's
  ability, it resolves, then the nonactive player activates her
  permanent's ability targeting that creature, and it resolves. This
  returns the game to a game state it was at before. The active player
  must make a different game choice (in other words, anything other than
  activating that creature's ability again). The creature doesn't have
  flying. Note that the nonactive player could have prevented the
  fragmented loop simply by not activating her permanent's ability, in
  which case the creature would have had flying. The nonactive player
  always has the final choice and is therefore able to determine whether
  the creature has flying.

  715.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw.
  (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)

  715.5. No player can be forced to perform an action that would end a
  loop other than actions called for by objects involved in the loop.
  Example: A player controls Seal of Cleansing, an enchantment that
  reads, "Sacrifice Seal of Cleansing: Destroy target artifact or
  enchantment." A mandatory loop that involves an artifact begins. The
  player is not forced to sacrifice Seal of Cleansing to destroy the
  artifact and end the loop.

  715.6. If a loop contains an effect that says "[A] unless [B]," where
  [A] and [B] are each actions, no player can be forced to perform [B]
  to break the loop. If no player chooses to perform [B], the loop will
  continue as though [A] were mandatory.


What is the best way to clean dirty cards

I've found that a slightly damp washcloth with a little bit of plain old bar soap on it works just fine -- don't use those goofy hand soaps with the beads or anything fancy in them.

Lightly rub the cloth on the card, dry it off with another washcloth, and let it sit for a few hours.  You definitely want to try this on one card first to make sure that nothing streaks on the card, and only do small batches at a time to make it manageable.

I wouldn't do this to any Magic cards that you find valuable; those should have been in card sleeves in the first place.  It might be safe, but I would hate to be responsible for damage to your Mox or Lotus.


When I search the discard pile, which direction do I search

An official answer from Nikki Valens (head designer of Eldritch Horror):

  The investigator will search the discard pile bottom to top. That is, starting with cards that were discarded earliest and ending with the cards discarded most recently.


When are good times to build early roads "inland" in Catan?

This is a pretty open-ended question, as it's very situational and depends on lots of things such as play style, board setup, other players placement, resource distribution, etc. With that in mind, take this answer with a grain of salt.

In most cases, it is a good idea to build early Catan settlements, close to, but not on the coast, and then build roads toward the coast

Assuming that the number tiles are somewhat fairly distributed, I'll usually try and take this strategy and place my second settlement (in the snake draft) such that I can build one road and my third settlement to be on a port.
Some of the exceptions to this might be:

Crowding. If the folks you are playing with are hogging the coasts and leaving the middle more bare, forward settle them. You'd have the advantage of potentially blocking them from moving in towards the island, which could keep tiles for yourself.
Attempting longest road. As you briefly mentioned, it may be in your best interest to start building wide and connect your empire. I'd say this is rare (going for longest road over preferable resource placement), but certainly not impossible. Especially if you're going 4th, you can potentially guarantee connecting your initial settlements early on. Personally, I've found it better to not ever go into the game planning longest road. If it comes around as an opportunity later in the game, great. If not, then there are plenty of other ways to get VP's.
The number tokens are not well balanced. If you do not place the number tokens in the recommended pattern (or place the desert in-between two outer edges which would offset the tokens), then there might be a particularly good spot (e.g. 6-8-4) that would probably supersede shooting for a coast.


Can you change your mind after discarding during Monolith Arena?

I don't know this game at all but will answer this in a broader etiquette sense.
In games people make mistakes or they start taking a move and realise that they want to do something different.  When I play games with people the rule is people can take back things provided it has no effect on anything else or a random event hasn't happened.
So if a player (in any game) is asked to discard a card and then decides they should have discarded another this is fine.  No other player has taken a turn and the only person is disadvantage is the player who exposed a card.
If a player decides to take an action such drawing a card or rolling a dice then this couldn't be taken back after.
When playing games it's about trying to have fun and being reasonable.  Telling a player they can't undo something that has no effect on anything else would be unreasonable.


How can I prevent players from cheating on their stats that carry between games?

Make it so that it doesn't matter if players have faked their profile.
Say having a high ranked profile means that you have access to better equipment (and therefore an incentive to produce a fake profile). You could reduce the impact of this by (say) introducing a handicap for high ranked players when playing against lower ranked players.
If there is a handicap system (or some similar mechanic) that balances the game, it doesn't matter for a casual game if one player has a faked profile, since neither player has an unfair advantage.
I'm also assuming casual games with unknown players would be the main problem, because:

If you repeatedly face the same opponent(s), you'll start to notice them doctoring their profile between games
If you're having a tournament, it probably makes sense for the tournament body to hold the profiles and check them between games.

As an aside, this also opens up your game to other demographics. For example,
on D&D, there are players that would prefer to start at a high level with a bunch of equipment already. Also, if it doesn't matter if the profiles have been built "correctly" or not, then players can fabricate profiles to see how a different set of choices would play out.


Why should a player reveal his victory points if someone else wins?

You should reveal everything when the game ends so that

You know who came second
You know all the bits end up back in the box
You know someone hasn't made a mistake and failed to claim victory.

The rules state.

  If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn the game ends and you are the winner.

Which can be interpreted to mean you don't have to 'say' you have won and people can keep rolling and building, but you are already the winner.

Though this is controversial. And Here, and here.


Recommendations for a wife who likes dominion

Some recommendations follow. First though, here's how I would think about this. What your wife will enjoy playing will depend on a variety of factors (theme, mechanics, play time, competitive intensity, etcetera). As you try different things, hopefully you'll get a feel for some of those factors. For example, my wife prefers historical, fantasy or modern settings of sci-fi, having kids skews us toward shorter play time, and she likes competition, but disengages when she's frequently way ahead or way behind. I like most strategy games (and hate most party games), but I've found I dislike Citadels because it is too easy for someone to fall far behind early, and it plays incredibly slowly as you add more players. You'll probably also notice that I link to boardgamegeek pretty frequently. It's a great resource for getting more info about a particular game before you buy it. Some games you can also try online to get a basic feel, for example on brettspielwelt or octgn

The first thing I would recommend is to try some Dominion expansions. The base game is actually fairly boring compared to Intrigue. There are some good questions in here about in which order to try the expansions, like this one. For a really close relative of Dominion, try Ascension. It is so similar I almost didn't mention it, but it has a few interesting differences, simpler here, more complicated there, and a very different theme.

I second the Android: Netrunner recommendation. There are some terminology hurdles, and I think my first 5 games with my bro-in-law we hadn't figured out the rules yet, but it bears a lot of similarity to Dominion in that it depends heavily on card text, and you can have a lot of diversity within the game framework because there are so many combinations to play with. I feel like in Dominion you play to build an awesome deck and then suddenly the game is over...in A:NR you build an awesome deck before the game starts, and then play with it. That setup bit is a bit heavy, though.

7 Wonders is a good option to try. It doesn't have quite the diversity of Dominion, and it plays much better with 3-7 people than with 2, but it's fast and fun. Not a lot of downtime per player. Also note: this is a tableau-building game, not a deck-building game.

Race for the Galaxy is another good one to try, and it plays very well with 2 people. This is another tableau-building game, but with a bit more variety (I think) going on than 7 Wonders, and it has a role-selection mechanic that adds a very cool layer of strategy. And it plays well (better than Dominion) with up to 6 people. If RFTG looks too sci-fi or too complicated, check out San Juan.

You should also check out Infiltration. It's by the same designer as Dominion, and similarly has a basic ruleset with components you randomly swap out between games. It has a little bit of Uncle Wiggily in it, but also some strategic elements. And 3 out of the 4 times I've played it the player who won did so with a last-minute hat trick strategy, which is quite exciting.

Cooperative games can be fun, but I think of them as risky business. Check this out. My wife and I have had good luck with Elder Sign, which gives individual players a good degree of autonomy.

The Ticket to Ride series (e.g.)is another good idea to check out.


Does Seeds of Strength trigger Heroic three times?

Only once. The actual trigger condition is "whenever you cast a spell...". And there was only 1 instance of "cast a spell" happening.

IF the ability said "whenever a spell targets Sage of Hours..." then it would happen 3 times.

See the Gatherer ruling on Sage of Hours:

  Heroic abilities will trigger only once per spell, even if that spell targets the creature with the heroic ability multiple times.


Play more aggressively -- beginners at Titan often underestimate the attackers advantage with a summoned Angel and don't attack when they should.  On your first split (not counting the initial pre-game split), you should be setting up one of the two split legions as an attacker, which strives to maximize immediate combat power rather than longer term recruiting.  Then use that guy to attack.

Even more aggressive -- use your Titan legion as the main attacker -- this is particularly effective if you roll a 6 for your first turn and get a Warlock.  The goal here is to build up your Titan legion by earning Angels rather than recruiting and win the game before anyone else can recruit anything more powerful than an Angel.

When attacking you should ALWAYS offer a deal to resolve the battle without playing it out, unless its Titan vs Titan.  The goal is primarily to speed up the game, but it can also be a useful way to cooperate against against a 3rd player who is winning.  Figuring out what is the proper offer requires some experience, but often it is worth taking more losses than would likely have occurred in the actual battle to avoid summoning an angel when you don't particularly want to or to get rid of weak characters in a legion.  When making (or evaluating) an offer for battle resolution, take note of the board situation around the battle.  Leaving an enemy legion weakened in a spot where another player will get the benefit (points) of crushing it is not to your advantage.

When defending, if you're outnumbered you should generally flee (to avoid giving the attacker full points) unless you have a decent chance of inflicting crippling losses on the attacking legion.  Just killing 3 or 4 weak creatures is not worth giving you opponent and angel and boost in Titan strength.


The Master combinations in Dr Who the Card Game

Based on the rulebook it stated there

  You can add Enemy cards to one of your attacks, as long as the card
  or cards you play can be legally played with the cards already in
  place

Based on my understanding, if The Master is already in play along with another enemy, the enemy card you are going to add should be legally played with the cards. (meaning all of the cards) including the other enemy cards with The Master.


Basically, if you pass through the same location as someone else, you can give up or receive items from them. As long as it's not combat, there are no timing requirements. This is described on page 23 of the rulebook. The rules for trading items are quite generous:

  Investigators have the ability to trade Common Items, Unique Items,
  Spells, and Money, as long as they are in the same street area,
  location, or Other World location. They can do this in any phase, and
  do not need to end their turn in the same area in order to do so.
  However they can not trade items during combat.

  Allies, clues, and trophies may not be traded.

Note especially that for gameplay reasons you can trade Spells, but not Allies or clues. From a thematic perspective this has always seemed a little counter-intuitive to me (You teach someone else the spell, and then... forget it? "But of course my friend can't go off with you!" "Yep, I have a clue, but I simply can't tell you about it.").


What does it mean to be "treated as a Blue Eyes card"?

This refers to the fact that, in Yu-Gi-Oh, monster "archetypes" are based in the card names. In the original Japanese cards, the name usually contains a certain phrase that identifies a monster as part of an archetype. However, in English and other languages, this sometimes gets lost in translation. The most common cause of this is that, at the time of translation, the name was not a planned archetype. To correct this, a wording convention was eventually created called an Archetype Condition, which states that any effect looking for an "'X' card" may also point to this card. Eventually, this also carried over back to the Japanese cards as well if the original card would not be named to match an intended archetype.

Examples of when this became an issue can be seen in the HERO archetype (where, as new HERO types were created, existing cards that were intended to work with all HERO archetypes had to be continuously reworded until it was decided to retroactively rename the English cards. See the history of Elemental HERO Stratos for examples of that) and the Daemon archetype (where, for many years, the TCG simply had to maintain a "List of Archfiend cards", as many older cards did not translate Daemon consistently until Archfiend became an archetype and the older cards needed to become Archfiends as well).

In the case of Dragon Spirit of White, the intention was for this to be considered a "Blue-Eyes" card like Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This allows it to be used as a Blue-Eyes card when an effect calls for Blue-Eyes cards generically. Specific examples include:

Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon - a Synchro monster whose materials are "1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "Blue-Eyes" monsters"
Deep-Eyes White Dragon - an Effect monster whose effect triggers "When a face-up "Blue-Eyes" monster(s) you control is destroyed".
Beacon of White - a Spell card whose activation condition requires a certain number of "Blue-Eyes" monsters in your graveyard.

However, this does not make this card a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Archetype conditions only make the card a generic instance of the archetype they refer to. They cannot be used to replace cases where full, explicit card names are necessary. As a result, Dragon Spirit of White cannot be used as a Fusion Material for Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon because it explicitly lists "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", not "1 "Blue-Eyes" Monster". For that, you would need a card that specifically says that the monster's name "becomes" another card's name.

An example of that can be found in Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, whose effect, in part, reads

  "This card's name becomes "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" while it is on the
  field or in the Graveyard."


There are very few specific board setups that detail early- mid- and late-games. It might be easiest to keep track of which stage you are in based on how many pieces and how many kings each player has and comparing to one another.

For instance, when very few pieces remain on either side, regardless of ratio of kings, this can be assumed to be the late game. Another example of late game is when one player is being dominated and has about one-third to one-half of the pieces that the other player has.

In the early-game, as another answer mentioned, some combinations are easy to memorize, especially if you play a lot. In the late game, some strong finishes are to be known in general, such as having all enemy pieces in a position where none of them can move (e.g. have your pieces block off your rear end) or sweeping the board with kings.

Mid-stage is more or less defined as the messy stage, where you're making up every move as you go and taking time to decide based on how you think the other player will react and how far ahead you can plan, aiming for the late stage. The two sides are approximately even and players are vying for the most profitable positions.


Are effects from attacks mandatory or optional?

They are mandatory. With a simple comparison:

You can see that Alolan Sandslash's attack is mandatory, because it uses imperative tense, whereas Hitmonchan's first attack is not, because it uses "You may ..." phrase.

If you'd like a more reliable source, there is a list of official rulings named Pokémon TCG Rulings Compendium BW that contains many explanations how rules work with particular attack, card, or their combination. Here, you can find that there is a ruling for Bounce that we can use here:

  Q. Can I use Emolga's "Bounce" attack if I have no bench?

  A. Yes, you do as much of the attack as you can. First you do the damage, then you perform the switch if Emolga is able to go to the Bench. (Next Destinies FAQ; Feb 9, 2012 TPCi Rules Team)

This official ruling must be followed by all Pokémon that has the same attack (regardless its name), including your Alolan Sandslash. That means that you do the damage and then, unless you have no Pokémon on your Bench, you must switch it with with 1 of them.


How do multiple copies of Merrow Commerce interact?

Well yes you can. These are triggered abilities

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

Multiple triggers are put on the stack, and after one resolves, you get priority as the active player.

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.


How does Double-Strike work, is it comparable to Windfury in Hearthstone?

Combat with double strike works like this:

Declare attackers (i.e. the active player says what creatures they are attacking with).
Assign blockers (i.e. the defending player says which attackers they are blocking, and for each attacker which creatures they are using to block).

At this point, all attackers that have legal blockers assigned to them are considered to be blocked.  (A blocked creature cannot damage a player, unless it has trample.)

Assign "first strike" damage, i.e. any creatures involved in combat that have either first strike or double strike deal their damage.
Assign main combat damage, i.e creatures without first strike deal their damage.

So creatures with double strike actually deal their damage in two bursts. If the creature was blocked, then (in the absence of other effects), it can only deal its damage to the creatures assigned to blocking it.  This is true even if the blocking creature has already died - the attacking creature is still blocked, and will deal no more damage (Unless it has trample or a similar ability). If the creature wasn't blocked, then it deals its damage directly to the player (or planeswalker) that was being attacked.


What are the qualities of a successful beta testing session from the player's perspective?

Designer and sometimes attendee at design group BOGA DAP here. I'll share my personal experiences and preferences.

As a tester, to feel good about the event:

In general, I prefer the game to be taught as if you were teaching an already-published game. If you are getting a blind playtest, or testing the ability of players to learn from a rulebook, then I expect the game to be 99% done and the instructions to be as clear as you can make them.
If you have specific questions about the game you want answered, in terms of balance or how a mechanism works or how it feels or whatever, let me know. In a playtest game, I am not averse to you changing the rules mid-game if you want to try something out or the rules aren't working.
I have no expectations at all in terms of graphic polish or illustration. An unpolished prototype is a sign that you are not emotionally invested in the game as it is and are open to feedback and changes. Even going so far as a deliberately sketched-in look-and-feel can be helpful.
I expect you to respect my time. I play games for fun all the time, so if the game is fun or at least interesting, I don't need a food bribe. I do want you to be willing to playtest my games as well, and I want you to make appropriate changes or pull the plug if it ends up not working or not being fun.
1-2 hours, with time on the end to ask for feedback, makes a good playtesting session for most games. An early playtest (where we expect to pull the plug quickly and go back and make changes) might end up being shorter, or a test for a very short game. I don't expect to play a medium-or-longer game more than once in a sitting. Unless the game was a smash hit, I expect you to take it back for at least a few changes before we play again.

As a designer, to get the most out of a playtest:

Try to observe the game, rather than playing it yourself, unless you are needed to fill up the player count. This lets you pay more attention to both the game and the players and how they're acting and feeling.
Tell the players what you changed since the last iteration of the prototype. If it's not obvious whether it worked or not, ask the players.
After the game, ask each player what they liked and didn't like. This is tricky. On one hand, never defend your game. If a player gives a criticism that you feel is invalid, ask yourself what you might be able to change to mitigate the perception of the problem - whether in the rules or the explanation. On the other hand, you will need to pass by many suggestions, since they will not lead your game in the direction you want it to go in. Not every game is meant for every player. Criticism might just be telling you who the best audience for your game is.


Core Set ways of dealing with Magnum Opus

When playing a Runner who can reliably and easily out econ you the best way to win is to have a game plan that can ignore their econ.

Flatlining

This is probably best done out of Weyland in core. Splash some yellow tagging cards and Snare! and wait to blow their house up.
You can also try to do this with a Jinteki deck, but it will be much harder as core Jinteki does not have the econ to support this play style.

Fast Advance

With just core this is a little harder to do, as you do not have enough 3/2 agendas. Probably best done out of HP using Biotic Labor with some San Sans splashed in.

Play Faster

This should be your go to strategy for most games with core only. The Runner has inevitability, you need to win before they get there. With just the core set the Runner will have a hard time finding the cards they need. Shaper has no in-faction tutor in core, so will have to either just draw a ton or spend influence on special order (and still draw a ton to find MO). Take advantage of this, win before she has set up. Try to take a few more risks early game, scoring behind a single piece of ice when she does not have the correct breaker to go through it.

Use Traps

This strategy can be hard to pull off. It involves knowing your opponent and being able to bluff. However, it can be devastating. Pretending a Junebug is an agenda can win you the game. Or landing an Aggressive Secretary can blow up their rig, buying you time to score out before they can reassemble it.

Play Sideways

This is harder to do in core, but worth a try if you are feeling adventurous. The general idea here is to play mostly economy assets and upgrades. Spam them out, making many remote servers. The runner will have to waste valuable time and money to check and trash each of your servers. Mix in a few traps and after hitting one she may be more hesitant to check your remotes in the future, allowing you to "sneak" an agenda out with no protection. With core only, this is probably best done out of HB with some traps and San Sans splashed in.

Use Defensive Upgrades/Buy Some Data Packs

You can use upgrades to protect your Agendas. In core you are limited to Red Herrings, which adds a nice tax but is not great if the runner has tons of money. If you want to play this way it may be best to invest a little more into the game and pick up some data packs. Specifically Double Time for Caprice Nisei and RP or What Lies Ahead for Ash.
These are defensive upgrades that help you ignore a rich runner. Caprice brings server access down to a weighted coin flip in your favor. Ash relies on  a trace to force the Runner to try again. It is not the perfect solution to your problem but can help you get agendas out early before the runner is fully set up. Replicating Perfection (RP) is a Jinteki identity that helps you tax the runners clicks as well as money.

I also highly recommend you switch sides a few times. Playing as the Runner will give you a huge insight into how they play the game. What they are worried about, what they are looking for, when they feel safe. It will help you learn to exploit those weakness when you play Corp.


Can I discard a spell not drawn by Magick Shoppe?

The text is unambiguous.
Have in mind it's not worded "Then discard 1 of these Spells and this card." while it could be.
There is no relevant ruling, as this is not a rules issue.


How can Munchkin Quest be played quicker?

I've had this problem in the past as well, and the best solution that me and my friends have come up with is to play the game less like the rules say, and more like Betrayal At the House on the Hill.

Which is to say, when moving, you only get to explore until you have an encounter.  This could be fighting a monster or a trap or some such, but once you've had to resolve anything that isn't just drawing a card, you stop and the next person's turn begins. The downside is that your dungeon doesn't grow as fast, but the upside is you don't end up with each person having to go through the combat scenario 3 times each turn, and you'd be amazed how much that speeds things up (because you don't have as many people trying to play modifier cards).


Can the first player choose where to put cards down?

They are placed left-to-right.
Although you are correct that the rulebook is not completely explicit on this point, the example given on page 8 provides the answer.

In a 4-player game, draw 4 Lesson cards and place them on the first row of the board as follows: the first and second cards face-up, the third card face-down, and the last card face-up.

The key is that the third card is the one that is placed face-down, as shown in the third space on the play mat. If you could choose the order, it wouldn’t always be the third card that went face-down.


Is it a valid strategy to accumulate cards then swap hand?

There is no penalty for calling out "Uno!" when you have more than 1 card. There is also no penalty for calling out another player for not saying "Uno!" if the other player isn't down to one card. The penalty is for when you fail to call "Uno!" while playing your second-to-last card. So you cannot intentionally increase your hand size that way; at best you could intentionally get the penalty once, each time you get down to one card.

You can choose to not play a card on your turn, even if you have a playable card, and draw a card instead. Though if the card you draw is playable, the rules seem to imply that you must play that one.

  If the player has no matches or they choose not to play any of their cards even though they might have a match, they must draw a card from the Draw pile. If that card can be played, play it.

Purposefully doing this isn't really an issue of following rules or not, as I can't even think of how you would write a rule to prevent this (allow a person to choose not to play, yet forbid it depending on the player's motivations behind doing so). Rather, this is a question of fun and sportsmanship. Uno is not a competitive game designed to be a serious strategy game. It's a lighthearted family game. Doing something like you describe, whether "allowed" by the rules or not, would lead to simply not wanting to play with you anymore. Or, it would lead to everyone choosing that exact strategy, and the entire game coming down to the luck of who draws a "swap hands" card.


It's a variation on the classic Battleship game, mostly played in the same way as normal.

There are possibly two versions as the patent for the game (US2058079) describes a different layout to the one that I've encountered.


Gaining control of a creature while an Aura targeting it is on the stack

First, if Boonweaver Giant's triggered ability is on the stack, then Boonweaver himself is not on the stack. He has already entered the battlefield. Second, Spectra Ward should never have been placed on the stack. Boonweaver Giant's triggered ability is what actually gets placed on the stack. Your opponent doesn't have to make a decision until it resolves.

With these corrections in mind, here is what your stack actually looks like:

Hypnotic Siren (TOP)
Boonweaver Giant's triggered ability (BOTTOM)

Hypnotic Siren resolves. You gain control of Boonweaver Giant. Next, Boonweaver Giant's ability resolves. Your opponent may search for an aura and attach it to Boonweaver Giant. He may choose not to. If he does, he will control the aura attached to Boonweaver, and you will control Boonweaver.


That is mostly correct. However, the player who picks up the pieces is not the current player, but the player who owns the 4+ pieces in a row.

E. Taking Pieces

As soon as 4 pieces of the same color are lined up next to each other, they must be taken from the board by the one playing with that color. Moreover, not only must these 4 pieces be removed, but also all of the pieces that form a direct extension of them. The pieces of one's own color are returned to the reserve, the pieces of the other color are captured, thus lost for the opponent.

As soon as 4 pieces of the same color are lined up, it is compulsory to remove them from the board (included the pieces extending the row), no matter who created the row. The color of the pieces in a row determines which player must take them. One's own pieces are returned to the reserve, the opponent's pieces are captured.

A copy of the rules can be found here.


What's the name of this oil trading board game?

Perhaps "Wildcatters" as shown on the website of CapStone Games.

This link is the game on BGG.

Oil tanker minis:

Spherical gas storage tank minis:


Pathfinder ACG: When do I use the Character Add-On cards?

The Character Add-On pack adds 4 more character classes and additional monsters, weapons, and equipment. It allows you to play with up to 6 people (as opposed to the 4-player limit without it). You don't need to reserve those character classes for games with more than 4; use them in any session you want.

The rest of the cards are indeed meant to be added to the main set, so go ahead and shuffle them in.


Who picks a card name first for Null Chamber?

The active player chooses first, followed by each other player in turn order

This is covered by the general rule of APNAP - active player, non-active player. The active player (the player whose turn it is) is the one to make choices first, followed by the other players in turn order. Another example of this rule coming into play would be any card that says "each player sacrifices a creature" - players choose sequentially in turn order, starting with whoever's turn it is, and then  after everyone has made their choice, all the chosen creatures get sacrificed simultaneously.

  101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes
  any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the
  player seated to the active player’s left) makes any choices required,
  followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the
  actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the
  “Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order” rule.


It will be a draw, both players lose at the same time.
MtG uses a system of state-based actions This is a sort of clean-up system that checks the game state almost continuously.

State-Based Actions

704.1. State-based actions are game actions that happen automatically whenever certain conditions (listed below) are met. State-based actions don’t use the stack.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.

Priority is the game's term for who has the right to take actions. Generally, whenever something happens such as a spell is cast or resolves, or steps/phases change, the active player (the player whose turn it is) gets priority. Only the player with priority may cast spells, activate abilities, etc. The player with priority may also pass priority, giving it to the next player in turn order. This continues until all players have passed priority in succession and the stack is empty, then the current step or phase ends. This is how the game progresses.
Before a player gets priority, however, state-based actions are checked.

116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

State-based actions are not checked while a spell resolves, only immediately after it has resolved:

704.4. Unlike triggered abilities, state-based actions pay no attention to what happens during the resolution of a spell or ability.

Therefore in your case it is not important which player had more cards in his library. Both players lose at the same time because they attempted to draw a card from an empty library:

704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:
704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, he or she loses the game.


Do I have to take mana from my deck or hand when tapping a dual land?

You are confusing Lands with Mana, a common beginners' mistake.

Mana is a resource that you use to cast spells; it is not represented by cards; you can not physically see it. When you tap a land, such as a Mountain, you add a red mana to your mana pool, which means you now have 1 red mana to spend.

When you tap a Stone Quarry, you choose to either add a red mana to your mana pool, or to add a white mana to your mana pool. Either way you end up with 1 mana in your mana pool. You do not get any land cards from your library or your hand.

Note that tapping a Stone Quarry is very similar to tapping a Mountain. When you tap a Mountain, you are activating an ability that says ""{T}:Add {R}." This ability is just not printed on the card for basic lands; it is instead within the rulebook for all basic lands.

An effect that has you put a land card from your hand or library onto the battlefield would specifically say so:

Arid Mesa's ability says:

  Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

and Terrain Generator's ability says

  You may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.

Note that Arid Mesa can't even produce mana, even though it is a land. Lands commonly produce mana, but not all of them do.


Do skill check re-rolls include dice gained from spending clue tokens?

Reroll all 4 dice.

It's important to do things in the right order though.  Using the cigarette case and then clues results in fewer total rolls.

This is clarified in the FAQ contained within the Dunwich Horror rules

  Q: How does a re-roll work? Can you re-roll only the
  skill dice that you have before spending Clue tokens, or
  can you re-roll all the dice you’ve rolled on a given
  check, including the extra dice gained from spending
  Clue tokens?

  A: You re-roll all the dice you’ve rolled for the skill
  check so far, so you can re-roll dice gained from spending
  Clue tokens as long as you spend your Clue tokens
  before using your re-roll.


Does Yig's awakened reckoning effect spawn a cultist on each space fulfilling the requirement, or just 1 on a space of your choice?

"Spawn 1 monster on a space" - you only spawn one cultist, and you, as a group, chose which space will that be if more than 1 option is available.


Can you play a Progress Card even when you get nothing from it?

It appears the FAQ addresses this kind of situation, and the answer is no.
See question number 3 on this page of official catan FAQ:

Progress Cards: General - May I play a Progress Card if playing it has no effect?
If you know beforehand that playing the card will have no effect (e.g., the Foundry card, provided that you are not settling adjacent to a mountains hex): no.
If you have no way of knowing it (e.g., Trade Monopoly): yes.


Can I use Stormland Mirror on my last turn?

Co-designer Bryan Reese says yes:

  "Stormland mirror does give you an extra turn, even on the final turn."

Source: Bryan Reese (https://boardgamegeek.com/article/28348033#28348033)


Good counter to Possession in Dominon: Alchemy

A good discussion with lots of tips to that exact same question is here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=10001.0.

In general, more often than not you can just ignore Possession. It's really expensive, and on many boards, you can just get enough points without it that your opponent who is going for it will be too far behind. Remember that if you have $6 and a potion, then if that Potion had been a silver instead, you'd have $8 for a Province.

Attack cards are another good counter. If your opponent wants to make the best out of the extra turn, he'll have to play cards that hurt his own deck. Be careful to not build a super strong deck that can buy many Provinces each turn; but if your opponent can't do more than buy one Province or Duchy on the extra turn, then he's not getting a lot of use out of the Possession.

If the Kingdom makes it possible to have a deck that can play many Possessions per turn, then the best thing may be to get Possessions yourself and play as many as you can.


When your active race has no tokens on the board, do they still have to go into decline before you choose a new race?

You still have to go into decline. This is clarified in the FAQ, where every answer has been made by a Days of Wonder spokesperson:

  All active units destroyed

  If all your active units are destroyed in
  one turn you may:

  1) Score points only with the in-decline race. or

  2)
  Go into decline and score 0 for that turn. You may not take a new
  combo this turn

This makes sense to me. If it were otherwise, you would be effectively penalised if you had just one unit left in play. Although having no units is unfortunate, it shouldn't be a strategy to prefer being wiped out in order to skip a decline.

With regard to the "fairness" objection, if you've waited until such a late moment that you could be wiped out, then you've already accrued the benefit of keeping the race active up to now, and this is the price. Small World is all about the trade-off in choosing when to decline. In this situation you've got what was coming to you!


How long are trading cards expected to last?

This depends very much on the what paper stock was used to print the cards.  There are paper documents far older than the US Constitution (papyrus written with carbon ink dating back to the Egyptian dynastic period?) still in pretty good shape, and paper books and periodicals printed a decade ago that are going to pieces.
Beyond that, the ink (the main point of deterioration in the Constitution and moreso the Declaration of Independence -- which was written with pokeberry juice for ink) can deteriorate as well.
Pokemon cards are/were printed on thoroughly modern paper card stock, but as far as I'm aware no special care was taken to use acid-free paper or archival inks, so while it's a guess, my guess is we might reasonably expect well-stored cards to last anywhere from thirty to a hundred years.  Some of the oldest ones are nearly twenty years old now; if you have a few of those first issues, you might be able to estimate better from their condition than I can from first principles.


Does a light fourth seat opening work on the same principle as fourth seat "balancing?"

It is critical when opening in Fourth Seat to make a plus on the hand - you have passed a simple opportunity to score zero, so should have a good reason to believe opponents cannot outbid you or set you. If holding less than full values you must have both length and strength in the Major suits.  This is an excellent (light) fourth-seat opening of 1S (even playing 5-card majors)

S: KJT3
H: QT6
D: A842
C: 52

and this is a very poor (light) fourth-seat opening of 1D:

S: 52
H: QT6
D: KJT3
C: A842

It is also important to be playing some agreement such as Drury raises that allows partner to show limit-or-better support at the two-level, in case you are light.

Update - Further to @ruds' mention of Casino Count, in order to open  in Fourth Seat one should have a reason to believe that one has the best hand at the table. Otherwise, someone else's hand is better than yours, and you are no longer favoured to get a plus from opening. Holding length in the Majors, and especially Spades, is often the slight edge one is looking for to achieve this belief.


Does ZU.13 Key Master confuse the MU rule?

The reason for the "even if it is not installed" language is to allow you to install ZU.13 Key Master even if you are already at your MU limit. You are of course correct that cards in your grip do not count against your MU limit.

To explain formally: p. 6 of the rulebook states:

  Cards in the grip are inactive

and from p. 4:

  An inactive card’s abilities do not affect the game

So without that phrase, ZU.13's ability to not cost MU would not work until it was already in play, and if you were at your MU limit, you would still have to trash some other installed program before you installed it. With that phrase, the card's intent is achieved, which is that it "costs" 0 MU as long as you have at least 2 link strength.


What is a good way to make Water Effects in Terrain?

Paint the base blue/green etc for the base, and then use a two part epoxy resin like  what is used for bar tops. If you want waves, let it dry for a little bit, and then tease up waves w/ a paintbrush w/ a little thinned white paint on it..


In Arkham Horror, what are the two symbols at the bottom of location spaces?

Yes, those are things that are more likely to come up in encounters there. It's no guarantee, though. This is described in detail in the rules in the section titled "Location Icons" on the last page of the rules, along with a lot of other helpful summary information. The key part is:

  Each location on the map also has several icons associated with
  it. These icons tell the players the most likely outcomes they can
  expect when they go to that location.

Note that they're just the most common. Other rewards are possible as well, as are all kinds of nasty stuff.

The inverted ones are things you can get by using the special encounter at the location. They're still more likely to come from encounters as well. For example, the Curiositie Shoppe has an inverted unique item icon, reminding you that you can purchase unique items there, and they're also possible to get from encounters.

  Some locations have special location icons that have their colors reversed, such as the Sanity icon on Arkham Asylum. These icons indicate that there is a guaranteed method of acquiring the described item at that location.


How To Trap Meeples In 2-Player Carcassonne?

The first question is straightforward.  Yes, there is a list of the tiles.

It is much easier to discuss places where no tile can be placed, rather than meeple traps, although they are obviously related.  The basic game has no tiles with the (unordered) edges {pasture, pasture, road, city} or {pasture, road, city, city}.  It also has no tile with the ordered edges (city, road, city, road).

I tend to use these facts to try to create unfinishable holes next to my opponent's features.

If you're on the ball you can also use the fact that some tiles have already gone.  I usually only use this for spotting whether farmland can easily become connected or not, by keeping track of the six monastery tiles (i.e. the pieces with the most 'pasture connectivity').  In theory you could use this to keep track of other types of tiles too.

One last thing - when my opponent has a large city on the go, then it's worth putting in effort to ensure it doesn't get completed.  This can mean adding tiles to open out their city. It is more usual to be trying to create unfillable spaces though, and this is best done by placing tiles to try to hit one of the three combinations above.

Note: This applies to the base Carcassonne set.  I played enough with Inns and Cathedrals to learn that set too, but as you add more sets learning the distibution has diminishing returns.  Here is a full list of the expansions and their tile distributions.

All the tile edge combinations exist in one set or another as there are only 24 (until you start including river tiles).  There are plenty more tiles designs than that (e.g. two city edges may or may not join on a tile), and they've probably all been done in one expansion or another by now!


Does Athreos work on countered or discarded creatures?

What you were told about Athreos triggering for countered creature spells is incorrect.

The official definition of "dies" in the comprehensive rules is:

  700.4. The term dies means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield."

Since a countered creature spell is never a creature on the battlefield, it didn't "die".

Similarly, a discarded creature card would not trigger Athreos either.

In fact, note the terminology here: "creatures" only exist on the battlefield; they are "creature spells" when on the stack, and merely "creature cards" or "creature tokens" elsewhere.


Can I use Sir William Brinton's ability immediately after discovering I have to lose Stamina?

You can use powers like that before drawing the encounter, or after resolving it (if you are not yet unconscious/insane), but you cannot use it during the resolution of an encounter.

From the Arkham Horror FAQ (page 14):

  Q: When can a character perform actions during a phase?
  For example, if a player with the ally Duke (“discard to
  immediately restore your Sanity to its maximum”) draws
  an encounter and has to roll a die and lose that much
  Sanity, when can he discard Duke to restore Sanity: not at
  all once the encounter card is drawn, before the roll, or
  after the roll?

  A: He may discard Duke after the roll, provided he
  has not been driven insane. Actions can be performed
  at any time during their listed phase as long as any given
  conditions are met. However, once an encounter is drawn,
  it must be resolved before any more actions can be performed.
  So, in the case of Duke, you can use him before
  or after drawing an encounter card, but if you draw the
  encounter card and it inflicts Sanity loss that reduces you
  to 0 Sanity, you go insane before you can use Duke. Flesh
  Ward is one exception to this rule because it prevents a
  Stamina loss and is intended to be used in response to such
  events. The Premonition Spell [CotDP] is another exception.


What happens if a unit recruited with "Bonds of Loyalty" dies due to paralyze?

You can use Bonds of Loyalty to recruit another unit with the bonus it offers.
There is a discussion about this question on BGG. The last poster quotes Paul Grogan, who is the maintainer of the Official FAQ for the game and appears to be at least partially responsible for the writing of the rule book. A unit recruited by Bonds of Loyalty cannot be disbanded, but Paralyze destroys the unit and removes it from the game. This is probably the "clever way" that Paul Grogan was talking about of replacing a Bond of Loyalty recruited unit.
From Paul Grogan's post regarding Bonds of Loyalty, emphasis mine.

The other skill is Bonds of Loyalty. ...
First of all, this skill gives you an extra command token. i.e The Skill itself counts as another command token, so you can recruit one more Unit. When you gain this Skill, you add 2 more regular Units to the Unit offer.
The Unit that you recruit into this slot costs you 5 less Influence to recruit. But it doesn't stop there. This unit is so loyal to you, it can be used even in situations when you couldn't normally use Units (i.e when down Dungeons or burning down a Monastery)
The only slight downside of this Skill is that you cant dismiss voluntarily the Unit that you recruit into this slot, so if you use it in the early game to recruit a low level Unit, you're going to have to find a clever way of getting rid of it if you want to replace it.

Paralysis definition from the Rulebook.

If a Unit is assigned damage by a Paralyzing enemy and would be given a Wound, it is immediately destroyed (remove it from the game)


Can I use multiple items and spells in one action?

In the action phase you can perform actions that are prefixed with the text Action: or Local action: on any of the cards that belong to your investigator. "Component" is just a very general term for all these cards. There are so many of them, it would be tedious to list them all. These are items, artifacts, your investigator card, and so on.

The rule you quoted at the top is the explanation of how to handle component actions in the framework that you can do only two things in a round and cannot do the same thing twice. For example if you have a reusable artifact with an action to damage a monster on your space, you could use it only once per round. After that you will have one more action left.

In your post I don't know what you meant by this bullet point list in the action phase:

Feed the Mind (ritual spell)
Blessing of Isis (ritual spell)
Dynamite (item - weapon)
Holy water (item magical)
Travel

You can do any 2, and only 2 of these things in the same round.

As per preventing, you can use bandages to prevent damage right at the moment when the damage would be dealt. If the card says you can use it only in combat encounters, then you cannot use it while resolving a clue or other effect, it applies only in combat.

As for using something to help other players, you can only do that if the card says it's a local action or explicitly mentions. If it's a local action then you can only use it on players on the same space as yours.


Do counters combine? Can three +1/+1 counters be considered one +3/+3 counter?

If three +1/+1 counters are placed on an object, that object then has three counters on it. Animation Module's second ability can only put one additional counter on it each time you activate it. The counters do not change type, so they are still +1/+1 counters, and that is the only type of counter you can give it another of.


Solemnity + chronozoa = Infinte Loop = Draw?

The exact rule for vanishing, very similar to what's in the reminder text, says:

  When the last time counter is removed from this permanent, sacrifice it.

If you have a Solemnity in play, no time counters are ever put on Chronozoa. You don't put some on then remove them, you just never put any on. So you never trigger that ability.

If you wanted to create an infinite loop here, you just need to add a way to repeatedly destroy/sacrifice the Chronozoas. If you wanted a voluntary loop that you could stop at any time, so that you can just make a zillion Chronozoas without forcing a draw, any free sacrifice outlet would work. If you for some reason want the game to be a draw, you'd need something forced, like a few copies of Curse of Death's Hold or Heartless Summoning so that your Chronozoas are 0/0 and die immediately.


Can a creature target itself with an effect that sacrifices itself?

Yes, you can

The rules for activating an ability are as follows (slightly abridged for clarity)

  602.2. ... Activating an ability follows the steps listed below, in order. ...

  602.2a The player announces that they are activating the ability. ...

  602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.
  ...

Well, that's not precisely helpful.  What are is the procedure for casting a spell?

  601.2b If the spell is modal, the player announces the mode choice (see rule 700.2)... [This section is pretty long, but basically states that any choices that are to be made such as modes, split cards, or variable costs are chosen here.  This does not include targets, however!  That comes next]

  601.2c The player announces their choice of an appropriate object or player for each target the spell requires... [This section is even longer than the last, and explains how targeting works.  But it isn't really relevant here]

  601.2d If the spell requires the player to divide or distribute an effect (such as damage or counters) among one or more targets, the player announces the division. Each of these targets must receive at least one of whatever is being divided.

  601.2e The game checks to see if the proposed spell can legally be cast. If the proposed spell is illegal, the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed (see rule 721, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

  601.2f The player determines the total cost of the spell. ...

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

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

  601.2i Once the steps described in 601.2a–h are completed, effects that modify the characteristics of the spell as it’s cast are applied, then the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, they get priority.

The key ideas here are that targets are chosen and spell (ability) legality are both checked before costs are paid.

That means that when you chose the target for Vampire Hexmage, you haven't sacrificed Vampire Hexmage yet.  And when you check to make sure that you can cast the ability, you still haven't sacrificed Vampire Hexmage.  Once you've paid the cost and sacrificed the Hexmage the ability will go on the stack, and it won't check for the presence of targets again until it resolves (at which point it will fizzle due to lack of target)

If you play Arena you can see this order of operations in action with the card Final Payment.  When you play Final Payment, you will first be asked which additional cost you wish to pay, then you will be asked to chose a target, and finally you will be asked which creature or enchantment you wish to sacrifice (assuming you chose that option).  This has tripped me up several times actually, as I tend to think about it in the opposite order, leading me to select my chosen sacrifice as the target, only to realize my mistake when I can't chose an opponent's creature as the sacrifice.  Fortunately, Arena lets you undo spells you are in the process of choosing options for.


Rummikub - Picking up a played tile before your turn is over

It seems to depend on your version of the rules, but if you take this version's Rules: (emphasis added)

  The Joker:
  ... A joker can be retrieved from a set on the table by a player who can replace it during his turn with a tile of the same numerical value and color it represents. The tile used to replace the Joker must come from a player's rack and not from the table. In the case of a group of 3, the joker can be replaced by the tile of either of the missing colors. A joker that has been replaced must be used in the player's same turn with 2 or more tiles from his rack to make a new set. Players cannot retrieve a joker before they have laid their initial set(s). A set containing a joker can have tiles added to it and can be split apart or have tiles removed from it. The joker has a penalty value of 30 points if it remains on a player's rack at the end of a game.

So a replaced Joker must be used in the same turn, but that only applies to Jokers that were already on the table.

In your case, the Joker was not already on the table and was added during the player's turn.

In this version the only rule for building sets during a turn is: (emphasis added)

  Building on Sets:
  A player may build onto a set in any of the following ways (or in any combination of these ways) as long as there are only legitimate sets on the table and there are no loose tiles left at the end of his turn.

So by placing the Joker down, but rearranging the sets so that the Joker (or any tile) is left without a set, then it triggers the Incomplete Runs rule:

  Incomplete Runs:
  A player who unsuccessfully builds on or manipulates other sets on the table must replace the tiles in their original positions, take back the tiles he played and draw three tiles from the pouch.

So, the player who tried to reclaim their Joker must either:
1) make sure the Joker is used to make proper sets without loose tiles or
2) reset the table, take back any tiles they played that turn to their rack and draw three more tiles from the pouch as penalty. Ouch!


When can an Ætherling use its blinking ability?

As long as it is on the battlefield, Ætherling can use any of his abilities at any time when you have priority, unless another effect prohibits it.

  116.1b A player may activate an activated ability any time he or she has priority

I suggest you read the relevant comprehensive rules, here, if you want to fully understand priority, but I'll provide two examples to make it easy.

Your opponent has priority. He casts Doom Blade on your Ætherling.
You get priority. You respond by using Ætherling's first ability.
Your opponent gets priority. He does nothing.
You get priority. You do nothing. Ætherling's ability resolves and he goes into exile.
Your opponent gets priority. He does nothing.
You get priority. You do nothing. Doom Blade goes to resolve and is countered by game rules for not having a legal target.

As you may have noticed, every time both you and your opponent "do nothing", the top of the stack resolves. Let's looks at another example, in which you actually lose your Ætherling.

There is a Pithing Needle in play with Ætherling as the named card.
Your opponent has priority. He casts Doom Blade on your Ætherling.
You get priority. You want to activate Ætherling's first ability, but you can't because of Pithing Needle, so you do nothing.
Your opponent get's priority. He does nothing. Doom Blade resolves, and Ætherling is destroyed.

In order to avoid games that take hours, players generally do not step through these phases. You are allowed to take shortcuts as long as your opponent agrees, but you are never obligated to do so. You may always ask your opponent to step through the official phases, and you should when it matters.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Ætherling that comes back to the field is not the same Ætherling that went into exile. It may be represented by the same card, but anytime an object changes zones, it becomes a new object. Ætherling will lose all memory of who it was in a previous visit to the battlefield.


According to the rules on wikipedia,

  Before the star of Africa has been found, horseshoes are useless and are discarded. After the famous diamond has been found, however, they become effective substitutes for it. Taking a horseshoe to Cairo or Tangiers when another player has the star of Africa wins the game.

This does seem to imply that if all horseshoes are found before the Star, they will all be discarded and so the person who finds the Star has a guaranteed win.

Note that, according to the same article, the expansion changes this dynamic:

  In 2014, an expansion for the game called Retkikunnat ("The expeditions") was published, making the game more complex... As a new feature, it is now also possible to steal the Star of Africa from the player who found it.

Thus in the expansion, even if all horseshoes have been discarded, the Star can still be stolen so finding it does not guarantee that you will win.


How does countering spells work in stack?

You can target any spell on the stack, there is no rule limiting it to only the top item on the stack. As you can see below the term counter doesn't have anything that effects how targets have to be chosen, and the spells don't say they have to target the top most object on the stack, so they are able to target any spell that is on the stack.

114.1. Some spells and abilities require their controller to choose one or more targets for them. The targets are object(s), player(s), and/or zone(s) the spell or ability will affect. These targets are declared as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack. The targets can’t be changed except by another spell or ability that explicitly says it can do so.
701.5. Counter
701.5a 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.
701.5b The player who cast a countered spell or activated a countered ability doesn’t get a “refund” of any costs that were paid.


Why can't Haphazard Bombardment randomly select a permanent with Indestructible?

I think this surprise comes about because of a slight misinterpretation of the ability.

I think it's being read like it says this instead:

  At the beginning of your end step, if two or more permanents you don't control have an aim counter on them, destroy one of those permanents at random. choose one of them at random. Destroy it.

This would mean we can choose a Darksteel Citadel, then fail to destroy it.

However, it doesn't say that. It's telling us to destroy one at random. That means we need to destroy something, and we do as much as possible there.

Comprehensive rule 608.2d comes into play here, or if not this rule, then the principle it's outlining:

  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. The player can’t choose an option that’s illegal or impossible, with the exception that having a library with no cards in it doesn’t make drawing a card an impossible action (see rule 120.3).

We need to randomly destroy something. Something has to be destroyed, because that's our instruction. We cannot destroy something that's impossible to destroy, so indestructible permanents are excluded from the pool of random options. Our random choice must be between only those things that can be destroyed.

This is what makes the Storm Crow guaranteed to be destroyed in your scenario.


Skilled Dark Magician's effect in response to attack

No you can't, because Skilled Dark Magician's effect is Spell Speed 1. In other words it is not a quick effect. This we can see from it's text:

  Each time a Spell Card is activated, place 1 Spell Counter on this card when that Spell resolves (max. 3). You can Tribute this card with 3 Spell Counters on it; Special Summon 1 "Dark Magician" from your hand, Deck, or GY.

We can see that it does not include "during either player's turn," or "(Quick Effect):", in it, which are the ways to know if some effect can be activated as a Quick Effect (Spell Speed 2+). For example, check the text of Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon to see an example of such wording.

This means that you can only activate it's effect during your turn (and only during your Main Phases), thus you can't do it during your opponent's Battle Phase.

If I may suggest, a card that could be really useful for you is Magical Dimension, which happens to be quick-play so you could indeed use it to "block" the attack by forcing a replay when the attack target leaves the field (and even destroy a card while at it):

  If you control a Spellcaster-Type monster: Target 1 monster you control; Tribute that target, then Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand, then you can destroy 1 monster on the field.


Why is Monstrosity not a keyword ability?

It is a lot easier to print a card like Nemesis of Mortals if Monstrosity is a keyword action rather than a keyword ability. For reference, its Monstrosity ability says this:

  {7}{G}{G}: Monstrosity 5. This ability costs {1} less to activate for each creature card in your graveyard.

Keyword abilities almost never have those kinds of riders that aren't built in to the definition of the ability.

In addition, Monstrosity as an ability would have two different parameters: the number of counters to add and the cost. That is very rare in keyword abilities and the complexity that would introduce probably factors strongly into this design choice.

Among other keyword abilities with two parameters, Awaken and Suspend are not effects that can be expressed as keyword actions, and Reinforce is specifically an action that involves discarding the card, which would be lost if it was a keyword action.


Adding more monsters than provided tokens

Once you run out of standees for a specific monster, you do not spawn any more.

From Page 19 of the rulebook:

  It is possible to run out of specific types of monster standees when
  revealing a room. If this happens, place only the standees that are
  available, starting with the monsters closest to the revealing
  character.


Duration cards in Dominion - Seaside - Are they your 1st action of your next turn?

Note that the cards say "at the start of your next turn". So you must obey the text literally; you do what it says "at the start", which means before you do anything else. If you played multiple Duration cards last turn, so that you have multiple "at the start of your next turn" things to do, you choose the order in which to do them, though there are not any Duration cards for which that order would matter. However, this could matter with the promo card Prince.

A couple other things to clarify:

You don't need to use up your 1 action per turn for the next-turn Duration benefit. You can still play your normal action after resolving the Duration.
The Duration card is NOT played on your next turn. It will not count towards the number of cards played that turn, which can matter for Conspirator (from Intrigue). It will, however, count towards the number of action cards in play, which can matter for Peddler (from Prosperity).


Are there any cards that turn creatures into land?

There are four cards that explicitly turn creatures into lands.

Life and Limb makes all Saprolings Forests.
Song of the Dryads turns any single permanent into a Forest
Imprisoned in the Moon turns any creature, land, or planeswalker into a land with no subtype that can only tap for {C}.
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild turns all creatures you control into forests.

In addition, there are 4 cards that can make arbitrary creatures copies of specific creature permanents: Cytoshape, Infinite Reflection, Echoing Equation, and Mirrorweave. If you make a land into a creature (with a card with Awaken, for example), and then cast one of those spells targeting that land, the other creature(s) will become copies of the land.
Finally, any creature that enters the battlefield as a copy of a creature permanent (i.e. Clone) or can become a copy of a creature permanent (i.e. Shapesharer), can become a copy of an animated land, which will result in it being just a land.


Can you sacrifice a creature after it has dealt damage to a creature?

Section 510 of the comprehensive rules details the combat damage step. First, 510.1 is about assigning damage, where all attacking and blocking creatures decide where they deal combat damage and how much they deal. Then we get the following (emphasis mine):

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

So no, once the game has passed to the point where you decide which creatures are eligible to deal combat damage at all, you cannot play anything until after damage has been dealt and creatures have died from it.

Historically (before the M10 core set), you would've been able to both let your token deal its damage and sacrifice it to the Omnivore, as "combat damage" was put as a single entity on the stack, and was something one could respond to just like spells and abilities.

However, even then, if you had let your token deal damage, the Omnivore would deal 3 damage. Neither in modern rules nor old would you have been able to both deal damage with the token and deal five damage with the Omnivore. In the other hand, with the old rules, you would've been able to deal damage with the token and at the same time allow the Omnivore to survive combat against a 3/3 or a 4/4. That is no longer possible.


Does Paelleall's Wrath of the Volcano ability affect Heroes on her tile and the Entrance Tile?

It looks like you cannot get any more definitive than the designer himself, Mr. Bistro:

Q: Is Paelleall's Wrath of the Volcano ability include hitting all other heroes on Paelleall's current tile, and any figures standing on the Entrance Tile as well? I would assume that it does, but it isn't clear to me.
A: Yes, that is the intent. Every tile in the path is hit.


Catan Universe with 2 human and 1 computer player

Yes, you can play with both players and AIs in Catan Universe, at least on the PC version.

Choose the game to play (The Game, Seafarers, Cities & Knights, etc) by click the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen.
Choose "Custom Game"
To add a player,

Click "+" next to "Add player".
Choose "Friendlist".
Enter the name of a friend.

To add an AI,

Click "+" next to "Add player".
Choose "Computer (AI)".
Select an AI name.

Repeat the last two steps as desired.

I can't answer for Catan Classic.


Which of two conflicting abilities takes precedence?

Summary
The player whose turn it is takes precedence. In resolving their ability, the current players makes it impossible for the other player to resolve their ability, so the other player can't trigger it.
In the Runner's turn the Runner chooses, and the Corp does nothing.
In the Corp's turn the Corp looks at the Runner's grip and chooses.

Details
I will be referring to these rules. From page 21:

Triggered Abilities
In order to use a triggered ability a prerequisite must be met. This prerequisite is either a trigger cost that must be paid (PAID ABILITY) or a trigger condition that must be met (CONDITIONAL ABILITY). Once an ability is triggered, its effect is resolved immediately and can only be stopped by PREVENT
or AVOID effects. Players must follow all restrictions on the cards when triggering abilities.

From page 22:

Simultaneous Effects
When one or more abilities have the same timing trigger or can be triggered at the same time, each player chooses the order his own abilities trigger. A player can trigger an optional conditional ability before a required conditional ability if they both have the same trigger condition.
If players ever want to perform simultaneous effects at the same
time, the player whose turn it is resolves all of his effects first.

Both of the cards in question have conditional triggered abilities. For Titanium Ribs, this is "you take damage". For "Chronos Protocol", this is "the first time this turn the Runner takes net damage" (note that this is an optional ability).
The first time the Runner takes net damage each turn, both of these conditional abilities can trigger. If they do (the Corp chooses to trigger the optional ability), we must follow the rule for simultaneous effects (the player whose turn it is resolves all of his effects first), while keeping in mind the rule on triggered abilities (once an ability is triggered, its effect is resolved immediately).
Additionally, from the rules FAQ, page 3:

A player cannot trigger an action/ability unless he is also able to resolve it.

If one player has resolved his triggered ability and trashed a card, the other player will not be able to resolve their own ability, and so cannot trigger it.
Resolution during the Runner's Turn

The Runner resolves all of his effects first:

Titanium Ribs:

The Runner chooses the card to trash.
The Runner trashes that card.

The Corp resolves all of his effects second:

Chronos Protocol:

In order to resolve Chronos Protocol, the Runner must trash a card due to damage.
The Runner has already trashed a card for this damage, so Chronos Protocol could not be resolved in this situation.
Because of this, the Corp cannot trigger Chronos Protocol.

Resolution during the Corp's Turn

The Corp resolves all of his effects first:

Chronos Protocol:

The Corp looks at the Runner's grip and selects a card to trash.
The Runner trashes that card.

The Runner resolves all of his effects second:

Titanium Ribs:

In order to resolve Titanium Ribs, the Runner must trash a card due to damage.
The Runner has already trashed a card for this damage, so Titanium Ribs could not be resolved in this situation.
Because of this, the Runner cannot trigger Titanium Ribs.


Is it valid to place Draw 4 on a Draw 4, while having the colour set by the first Draw 4?

You would win the challenge
The rule is, you may not play a Wild Draw 4 unless you do not have any card that matches the color of the top card on the stack.


In cribbage, during the play, what is the count for four 5s in a row?

Player 1 plays a 5 - Total = 5 - No Points
Player 2 plays a 5 - Total= 10 - Two Points to player 2 for a pair
Player 3 plays a 5 - Total = 15 - Player 3 get 8 points (2 for the 15 total, and six for the triple)
Player 4 plays a 5 - Total = 20 - Player 4 get 12 points for the four of a kind.

Nice if you can get it :)


What happens if the Starting Tile gets a 6?

For purposes of room explosions and consequences, each room is considered a separate "tile." If one room explodes, then that particular room on the starting tile is off limits, but the other 3 are accessible (until such time as they explode as well.) You can mark this by keeping the "6" on the tile, as the dice supply should be enough to have 1 die on each room in the game (should you be so lucky to have no explosions) You don't "flip over" the entire start tile, pirates on other rooms on the start tile aren't affected (pirates in the exploding room still suffer the normal consequences,) and the game doesn't end.

It seems that the OP is playing with the first edition copy of the game. The second edition does not have a "starting tile", instead it has 4 separate tiles for the starting rooms, allowing for each one to be individually flipped over, which clarified this rule. If you're playing the first edition, you can either keep the die on the room to indicate that it's impassable (or otherwise mark it) or you can visit this BGG file page, where the publisher has made a file of 4 "destroyed room" tiles you can use to cover them up.


Why are there five extra turns in tournament Magic?

The imbalance is intentional. It gives every player an incentive to have the time limit hit during their opponent's turn, and therefore to finish their own turn quickly. As a result, it helps each tournament round stay within the time limit and reduces the need for turn extensions.
From the Tournament rules (pdf)

2.5 End-of-Match Procedure
If the match time limit is reached before a winner is determined, the player whose turn it is finishes their turn and five additional turns are played in total. This usually means that one player takes three turns and the other two, but a player taking extra turns may affect this. If a player has already passed priority in their end step when the time limit is reached, that is considered to be in their opponent’s next turn.

When the time limit hits, the currently active player finishes their turn and, as you correctly note, is disadvantaged by getting only two extra turns vs. the opponent's three. That means you do NOT want to be the active player when the time limit hits. The best way to not be the active player is to finish your turn, so you have an incentive to finish your turn as quickly as possible and pass that "hot potato" to your opponent.
Additionally, with an odd number turn extension, the non-active player also gets the last turn. In a damage race situation with creatures on both sides, the player who has the last turn does not have to plan for the opponent's backswing, and can go all out with the last attack.
By providing each player an individual incentive to play quickly (in addition to regular slow play infraction penalties), the whole tournament benefits. If the turn extension was an even number, no player would have this particular incentive to play quickly, because it wouldn't matter who the active player is at the time limit. The active player would also get the last turn, so it would be an overall benefit to the currently active player and therefore an incentive to play slowly.


Number of possible hands in last two rounds of Texas hold-em

An explanation of how these numbers were derived is available in Johanson, Michael. (2013). Measuring the Size of Large No-Limit Poker Games.
Essentially those are the number of card combinations from one player’s point of view in a heads-up limit Texas hold’em game after merging strategically identical combinations.
How to count different card combinations with isomorphism? over on the Mathematics stack has more information on the combinatorics used to losslessly merge isomorphic card combinations.


After some research I can provide some insight. To have a One Turn Kill with Final Countdown, one needs to be able to recycle the effect of Pyro Clock of Destiny indefinitely. I found two ways to archive this, both of which are not possible with the current list of banned cards (and possibly will never be able to be playable again), but at least the second variant was playable for a time.

With Makyura the Destroyer

When Makyura is sent to the graveyard, trap cards can be activated from the hand. This video shows how powerful this effect can be exploited. Makyura was banned right when forbidden cards were first introduced, as he allows many other exploits. Basic idea here: Draw your entire deck (easy enough these days, e.g. take variation of Exodia/Dark World deck just like in the video), in the process discard Makyura, play Final Countdown and make some other preparations. Now:

Play Pyro Clock of Destiny from hand.
Play The Transmigration Prophecy from hand to add the clock and a Golden Bamboo Sword from your graveyard into your empty deck.
Use another bamboo sword to draw these two cards.
Use another transmigration prophecy to return the other prophecy and the bamboo sword to the empty deck, draw them with the other bamboo sword.
After repeating step 4 two extra times, your two Royal Magical Library on the field have caught up.
Use transmigration prophecy to return the other prophecy and the bamboo sword to the empty deck, draw them with the libraries.
Play the clock.
Use the other transmigration prophecy to add the clock and the prophecy to your empty deck.
Go to step 3.

With Return from the Different Dimension

Return from the Different Dimension lets you summon all of your removed from play monsters. This was always a card that could turn a duel completely around. In the distant past, you needed a working D.D. deck or a chaos deck to make good use of it but since nowadays basically any monster can go to any position on the game table, it is too easy to get a lot of powerful monsters in one turn. For the OTK, we again recycle the Pyro Clock of Destiny indefinitely, this time it is just much more sophisticated. The precise steps are described here, I will give a simplifying explanation. Again we draw our entire deck, get a Black Luster Soldier Envoy of the Beginning and a libraries on the field, as well as three Junk Collector with the use of a Monster Reborn (or whatever adequate replacement is available) in combination with Inferno Reckless Summon. The Junk Collector enables you to activate a normal trap card effect by removing him from the field and the card from your hand. Now the gist of things is this:

Use Junk Collector to activate the clock, The Transmigration Prophecy and Return from the Different Dimension as needed.
Use Primal Seed to return the trap cards to your hand.
Use Transmigration Prophecy and Magical Stone Excavation to get Primal Seed or drawer cards back to hand or them or Excavation back to deck to draw them with drawer cards (like upstart goblin) and the library.
Use Return to reset the Junk Collector monsters.

If carefully done, this can win the duel in one turn.

Alternatives

The power from Pyro Clock of destiny is very impressive. Alternatives I have seen work with Mask of Darkness and flipping a lot. In combination with slowing the duel via cards like Battle Fader and friends, using Pyro Clock of Destiny 5 times a duel seems reasonable. But drawing the entire deck doesn't work well with waiting for Final Countdown, so the easiest way to weaken a Final Countdown deck is to limit the key card. Through personally I don't see that it did that much damage unlimited.


Does the ability from Sorcerer's Wand deal combat damage?

Sorcerer's Wand does not allow the triggering of Virtus the Veil's ability

From the Comprehensive Rules Glossary:

  Combat Damage
  Damage dealt during the combat damage step by attacking creatures and blocking creatures as a consequence of combat. See rule 510, “Combat Damage Step.”

Damage from spells or abilities such as the ability granted by Sorcerer's Wand is not combat damage because it is not a consequence of combat.


In the base Eclipse game, there is no hard counter to Plasma Missiles. However, there are tactics that work well against Plasma Missile-focused ships.

Cutting off the retreat of missile fleets can be devastating, since they often work best by unleashing their missiles to deal crippling damage and then retreating to fire again the next round. A missile-only fleet with its retreat cut off will be annihilated by even a single surviving ship with a single cannon. (And sending another ship with beam weapons to reduce this threat also reduces the potency of the missile fleet, which is what you want.)
Speaking of surviving missile fleets, Improved Hulls are a good way to build a fleet to do so, combined with enough Shields to neutralize the opponent's Computers. Diplomacy will be important because this fleet will be vulnerable to a more traditional fleet.
Many missile fleets will be Interceptor-based, since those small ships allow you to deploy more raw missiles for cheaper. You can take advantage of this by using the large number of Move actions this fleet will require to outmaneuver the interceptor fleet. If the missiles are scary enough, nobody will mind if you slip a cruiser past and neutron bomb that faction's planets.

Should you have a chance to play with the Rise of the Ancients expansion, it contains two rare technologies that act as hard counters to Plasma Missiles: the Distortion Field, which grants a -2 to all missiles that attack your ships, and Point Defense, which gives your cannons a free attack to shoot down incoming missiles. Neither of these technologies requires a component--all your ships get them for free. Rise of the Ancients also features another soft counter in the form of Flux Missiles, which are 1-power missiles that also provide an initiative bonus. These are powerful against the traditional fragile Plasma Missile fleets.


Does Master of the Veil work on Megamorphs?

Master of the Veil is able to turn Stratus Dancer facedown.

Rule 702.36b defines Megamorph as a morph variant, and so Master of the Veil's oracle'd ability can target a face up Stratus Dancer.

Oracle text:

  When Master of the Veil is turned face up, you may turn target creature with a morph ability face down.

702.36. Morph:

  702.36a Morph is a static ability that functions in any zone from which you could play the card it’s on, and the morph effect works any time the card is face down. “Morph [cost]” means “You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost by paying {3} rather than paying its mana cost.” (See rule 707, “Face-Down Spells and Permanents.”)
  702.36b Megamorph is a variant of the morph ability. “Megamorph [cost]” means “You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost by paying {3} rather than paying its mana cost” and “As this permanent is turned face up, put a +1/+1 counter on it if its megamorph cost was paid to turn it face up.” A megamorph cost is a morph cost.


Legendary Card Game Kingpin card Pull the Strings

You would play that card and gain a new recruit to your hand right away.

I think it is worded this way to differentiate between gaining a new recruit through a purchase and gaining it as the result of another card either purchased or gained through fight.

Also think of it as a way to keep it clear that the first part of the card still applies to all other cards played this turn or if other things trigger from gaining a new recruit that may be added in the future.


What stategy should I use when playing as the engineers?

The risk of getting boxed in is always something you have to pay attention to. (Of course, the risk is greatest for this with the Chaos Magicians)

I only played the engineers once (and won with about 135 points), so I don't have much experience with them.  The stronghold ability is very strong but should be used situationally. What I mean by this is that you should not focus too hard on building bridges. I had my first point scoring bridge in round 2 (because for scoring points there have to be 2 buildings at either end of the bridge).

Very important (like always) is the position of the starting dwellings. I chose C11 (lots of possible bridges) and E7 (mainly for power leeching), but of course this depends from game to game.

I also built only 1 bridge with 2 workers, the other 2 bridges I built with the power bridge action. I think you should always do it like that if it's possible.


Are epic monsters treated differently than regular monsters with regard to taking damage or being discarded remotely?

Page 6 of the Reference Guide:

Epic Monsters are treated like Monsters for all effects except as described here:

An Epic Monster cannot be defeated by any effect except losing Health equal to or greater than it's toughness.

So, yes to the first part, no to the second.  You can't out-right kill an epic monster with a card ability.  You MUST do damage to it.  Though, if a card does damage, you can use it all day long.
Additionally, with the expansions, you are able to have things that 'Advance the current Mystery'.  If the Epic Monster is part of the current Mystery, you do three damage to the epic monster for 'Advancing the current Mystery'.


Casting creatures as spells - searching for the rules

We have

  701.13b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is
  appropriate.

There is no room in this rule for a way to "play a creature" other than casting it as a spell. Only lands go directly from hand to battlefield. Unless he has a card with an effect along the lines of "put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield", as those creatures aren't spells.


Lavinia, Azorius Renegade vs Kalia of the Vast and friends

Lavinia affects Golos's activated ability, but not Kaalia's ability or Mayael's.

Both Kaalia and Mayael put creatures onto the battlefield directly. They do not have you cast anything, so Lavinia's ability is never relevant.

Golos's activated ability, on the other hand, allows you to play cards without paying their mana costs. Rule 701.13b defines what exactly that means:

  To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

So, if you exile any nonland cards, you can cast them without paying their mana costs. This exactly what Lavinia is looking for, so her last ability will counter any spells cast this way.

Of course, if you exile lands with Golos, you can still play them as lands. In this case you are not casting anything so Lavinia's ability doesn't do anything.

Note that when casting spells without paying their mana costs, players can still pay any additional costs that may apply, and if they pay mana to do so Lavinia's ability will not counter the spell because some mana was spent on it.


What is the difference between Kunoros, Hound of Athreos' graveyard abilities?

The difference would be that not every card was a spell before it entered the battlefield.

  112.1. A spell is a card on the stack. [...]

Spells are objects you put on the stack after casting them - normally from your hand, but occasionally from your graveyard, such as with Abandoned Sarcophagus. The second ability of Kunoros prevents that from happening.

Other cards, such as Emeria, the Sky Ruin, will put creature cards in play without ever putting them on the stack, meaning they will never exist as spells. Kuronos's second ability does not apply to the Sky Ruin, but the first ability does and prevents even this ability from being useful.

Note also that Kuronos's first ability does not prevent the Sky Ruin from casting cards from the graveyard, because it only explicitly defines that cards can't change from the graveyard to the battlefield zone.


Basic strategies for each country in Diplomacy

The Gamers' Guide to Diplomacy has exactly the brief summaries you're looking for as well as much more. It's hard to get hold of so I put it online here. p7 of the 2nd pdf has the brief country by country summaries.


A game for two. Should I make it playable by more?

It depends, probably not at first.  Most truly enduring games (Chess, Go, Reversi, even Magic: The gathering, etc) were originally for two players.  But also most of them have variants that arose later that allow 4 players.

In short, if adapting for more than 2 players is non-obvious, then it is probably not worth the initial effort.  But if the game becomes popular and there is a demand for a multiplayer version, then it is likely worth doing at that point.  The changes could be fairly small, or they could be substantial (Magic required only small tweaks to produce multiple multiplayer variants, but most multiplayer versions of chess require a different board and rules tweaks.)


The Courtesan token stays on a Leader that gets entombed. This is based on Eddie the Cranky Gamer’s post on BoardGameGeek (to which @Jean-Sébastien links to in his answer, too), who says the he’s asked Repos:

  I put the question to Repos and the answer was that the Courtesan stays in play, with the same assumed power of the now-entombed leader.

Putting the Courtesan token on an already entombed Leader is not possible. At least that’s how I understand Ovidiu Cirlugea’s BoardGameGeek post, quoting the game author Antoine Bauza:

  You cannot copy it once its buried […]

Putting the Courtesan token on a Leader which is entombed on the same turn is possible, as detailed in that same BGG thread:

  Yes, you can copy a leader, even if your neighbor choose to bury it during the same turn. The copy remains, even if the original is buried after !