How can I create that sharp, intense sound when placing a stone?

When the stone is held properly it rests on your index finger being held by your middle finger.

You place the stone on the board hitting it with your index finger and the stone. It has been suggested this first sound is the "bah" sound in the Korean name for the game (Baduk/Paduk).

At the same time, you push the stone with your middle finger so it slides off your index finger. This causes it to snap onto the board producing a distinctive click (the "dook" sound).


Redirecting damage to my own planeswalker

No.

As of the Dominaria rules update in 2018, the planeswalker redirection rule is completely gone, so Rakdos charm cannot deal damage to a planeswalker at all.

  306.7. Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a redirection effect that allowed a player to have noncombat damage that would be dealt to an opponent be dealt to a planeswalker under that opponent’s control instead. This rule has been removed and certain cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to deal damage directly to planeswalkers.

Keeping the original answer below for historical reference:

Damage can only be redirected if the source of the damage is controlled by your opponent, and even then it's the opponent that can choose to redirect it, not you.

  306.7. If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead. This is a redirection effect (see rule 614.9) and is subject to the normal rules for ordering replacement effects (see rule 616). The opponent chooses whether to redirect the damage as the redirection effect is applied.


While it seems Fantasy Flight Games has never explicitly said that Eldritch Horror expansions can be combined, the consensus of players is that it is perfectly fine to play Eldritch Horror with multiple expansions.
No expansion is incompatible with another expansion
Thus far, no expansion directly conflicts with another expansion. For instance, there is no expansion that introduces mechanic X, and another expansion that introduces mechanic Y such that mechanics X and Y cannot be played at the same time.
Most expansion cards can be shuffled in without issue
Because new cards are either Ancient One specific or shuffle naturally into existing decks (e.g. Common Item), there is no conflict between them. While there is some deck dilution, it doesn't seem to be a problem yet.
From BoardGameGeek:

Multiple expansion packs on the other hand mesh together very naturally and easily. There's no reason to separate base game and expansion components - just shuffle them together. The expansion-specific mechanisms, new spell types, tasks and unique assets and impairments, enter the game through cards in the common decks.

From Reddit:

Since you use a random subset of mythos cards, each enemy had their own set of special cards, and the map boards only come out with one enemy and one prelude card, the bloat isn't as bad.
However, each expansion does add more conditions, more spells, more enemy counters, more assets, and so on and those do suffer some bloat. As already said, this isn't excessive - but it could be problematic eventually

Investigators usually lack a reason to go to multiple sideboards
It does seem like having multiple sideboards tends to lead to a situation where nobody wants to go to them. From Reddit:

I own all the current expansions and always play with all of them. Sideboards rarely come out since they are tied to a specific Ancient One or Prelude card. If you do use a side board its usually one and VERY rarely two.

From BoardGameGeek:

The thing is that there's not really much reason to go to the side boards if you don't have a mission there. Sure, you can throw them down and make them available, but rarely will anybody take the detour because you don't have anything to do there (though the Antarctic might be handy as a shortcut?).
It's really the prelude cards and ancient ones that give you stuff to do on those side boards that make it make sense to have them in the first place.

Cards that are only relevant to a specific sideboard should never come up if you leave them in
You mentioned what to do about cards that are only relevant to a certain sideboard, such as the Hypothermia condition and the Sled Dog asset, which only work on the Mountains of Madness sideboard. Fortunately, a BoardGameGeek user described how this is a non-issue:

Cards with the same backs can be mixed together without issues.
Double sided cards like spells, conditions as well as unique assets will all have their own decks and can also be mixed together.
Don't worry about drawing a Dog Sled if you aren't playing with the Antarctica side board, as finding a unique asset you are usually directed to draw a certain type of card... which is never ally.
The Antarctic research cards are unique backed, thus they will create their own deck, and will only be needed when using the Antarctica sideboard.

Should you somehow wind up with gaining a useless card, another user described a pretty simple way to resolve it:

All of my games (quite a few now already) have been played with Base, FL, MoM, and SR, and yet this situation has yet to arise for me. However, my gaming group has discussed it, and we all agreed if it ever came up, we'd just discard it as irrelevant and draw again.


SE Disclaimer: The current question regarding what happens to a challenged and improper wild draw 4 is unclear. My answer assumes that the "wild" part of a wild draw four is still in play (including whatever color was called.)

The "jumping in" and "chaining" rules you refer to are house rules/variants. There is no official rule that allows you to take a turn out of rotation (that rotation may change due to skips, reverses, and other card effects, but there's no playing out of order.) There is no rule that allows you to escape the effects of a card by playing another copy of said card, and no rule that then doubles the effect of the card to the next player. The way to deal with this, then, would have to be house ruled as well, and I haven't seen a ruleset that actually does.

So then... what should it be changed to. I'm afraid that is quite difficult to say.

First, the reasoning behind the wild draw 4 (hereby named as the WD4.) The rule "prevents" the play of the WD4 in situations where another card could legally be played. It's the only card that has this restriction. This rule in particular showcases just how much thought went into designing this game. Without this rule, the WD4 is simply a "better and more flexible draw 2." Why would you ever want a draw 2 when there's cards that would be more painful and be playable in more circumstances? This rule adds that little kicker to the situation. A draw 2 can be played (assuming a legal pile to play it on) at any time, allowing for someone to "save" an uno from the next player. A WD4 is somewhat less likely. It provides a weakness to the greatest card in the game, albeit small. It even provides some interesting mindgames (you're on uno and the player before you plays a WD4. Now, if you draw the 4 it's a major setback. But if you challenge successfully, you're still in the game (though unless you got really lucky with the color call you would still be drawing 1.)But if you challenge unsuccessfully you're back to 7 cards and possibly out of the running. So, did I play in desperation or am I trying to trick you?) For a game that's usually a luck fest, that's a really interesting twist. (now if only they did that with the skip cards too...) There's also the other reason of reducing the take that effect, and giving players the out of "look, it's the only card I could play, I didn't mean to!"

So...with that in mind, how is the best way to play this? There's 2 ways.

1) Don't play with chaining and jumping in with WD4's, keeping everything else the same. This keeps the premise of the WD4: the nuclear bomb that you aren't allowed to control.

2) If you really want those +8 moments, then do this: any and all WD4's played can be challenged, with respect to the card played just before the WD4 chain. (Using your example, the player who jumped in or you could be challenged, and if so it's on the basis of "could you play on a yellow 4?") If a WD4 is challenged unsuccessfully, the offender would draw 6 cards (the WD4 that was challenged + the penalty 2) and that WD4 would be considered "dealt with." The current player can attempt to challenge other WD4's if they wanted to.

If a WD4 is successfully challenged, then all WD4s played after the offending WD4 are cancelled, and returned to hand. (reasoning: the "penalty" for an improper WD4 should be known when the card is played. Read on...) The offending player must then draw for the WD4 he played, and any others played before. This puts the onus on the jumping in player, as they "accepted" the raised stakes (where as the first player had no clue what was going to happen.) The offending player is allowed, however, to challenge any WD4 played before their play (i.e. the jumping in player, if caught, could challenge the first player, with the usual +2 card risk. If successful, their play is cancelled per the above rules.)

In any case: if any challenge is successful then, after the cards are drawn, the player who made the successful challenge then plays the next card (with whoever played the most recent not challenged call picking the color.) If no challenge was successful, that player's turn is skipped (per the normal rules) and the next player is up.

I would personally increase the penalty for an improper WD4 by 2 cards if the WD4 was chained, as part of the nature of the WD4 was the fact you can't aim it, and chaining would allow you some aim. But that's just me, and would probably require some testing first.


Why do some decks run only one of a card?

The lands that that deck only has one of are generally nice to have if you can get it, but not clearly better than the alternatives.

The deck is entirely white, so Cavern of Souls' second ability is only useful to generate white mana, and that mana can only be used to cast creature spells of a predetermined type (probably Human, given the makeup of the deck). It can be nice to be able to cast uncounterable creatures, but the drawbacks mean that you don't want to have too many, and you probably don't need to cast two uncounterable creatures on the same turn in most cases.

Similarly, the deck color makes Horizon Canopy's mana generating ability significantly worse. It can be very nice to have a difficult-to-counter instant speed draw for one mana, but you can only use it once per land, so it's not worth having too many of them.

In this deck Ancient Den is basically a Plains. However, if you side in Enlightened Tutor, you can tutor for it. It barely hurts the deck, and it's not worth using a slot in the sideboard for it, but non-basic lands are more susceptible to land destruction, so you don't want too many.

The other cards that the deck only has one of are the equipments, but that makes sense because Stoneforge Mystic can tutor for them and put them into play from your hand, so all you need is one somewhere in your deck.

It's also worth noting that this is a control deck; it's designed to slow down the game. Longer games make it more likely that you'll get any particular card eventually, and it's not as important to get some cards quickly.


Are there any restrictions on which houses can be combined in a deck in Keyforge?


Selling is selling.  Paying tax, is paying tax.  Different actions.  Halfling's ability doesn't help in paying taxes.


The Seal Away will return the creature under its owner's control: a permanent enters the battlefield under its owners control unless specified otherwise.

610 One-Shot Effects
610.1. A one-shot effect does something just once and doesn’t have a duration. Examples include dealing damage, destroying a permanent, creating a token, and moving an object from one zone to another.
...
610.3b An object returned to the battlefield this way returns under its owner’s control unless otherwise specified.


Can the last two player heal with beer when Ghost Town is in play?

The question revolved around the following limitation:

  Beer has no effect if there are only 2 players left in the game; in other words, if you play a Beer you do not gain any life point.

(Emphasis in original.)

As such, it comes down to the number of players left in the game. According to Ghost Town, and reinforced by this FAQ, each ghost is in play until the end of their turn, to the point that they can even be considered winners and can cause the Renegade to lose.

As such,

On the Sheriff's turn, there are two players left in the game. The Sheriff can't use a Beer.
On the "live" Outlaw's turn, there are two players left in the game. The Sheriff can't use a Beer.
On a ghost's turn, there are three players left in the game. The Sheriff can use a Beer on the ghost's turn (in reaction to a lethal hit).


What computer games based on Magic: The Gathering are there?

If you enjoyed Shandalar, then the spiritual successor is Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Download the demo. It hits all your points, just ignore the online play option.


How many iterations of the legend rule have there been?

There have been three versions of the Legend rule.

From Legends to Champions of Kamigawa (1994–2004)

We had the rule you described: only one of a given Legend card could be in play. If any newer copies entered, they were immediately removed. Here's what the rule said in 2002:

  420.5e If two or more Legends or legendary permanents with the same name are in play, all except the one that has been a Legend or legendary permanent with that name the longest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called “the Legend rule.” In the event of a tie, each Legend or legendary permanent with the same name is put into its owner’s graveyard.
   (If two permanents have the same name but only one is a Legend or is legendary, this rule doesn’t apply.)

During this period there was both a Legend creature type and a Legendary supertype: creatures were Legends (the creature type) and other card types were Legendary (the supertype).

Legends to Ice Age (1994–1995): Legends initially also Restricted

Initially all Legends were also on the Restricted list, a deckbuilding restriction which meant you could only have one of a given legendary card in your entire deck. WotC did this for flavour reasons and to keep things simple, since you could only play one of them anyway. This change was lifted pretty soon in Ice Age; Mark Rosewater says it created trouble for R&D.

From Champions of Kamigawa until Magic 2014 (2004–2013)

The second version of the Legend rule was introduced for Kamigawa block in September 2004:

  420.5e If two or more permanents with the same name have the supertype legendary, all are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule." If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesn't apply.

Note that unlike today, we don't reduce down to one copy — nobody gets a copy of the Legendary card. This change turned Phantasmal Image into an incredibly popular spell for removal: play it as a copy of any Legendary creature, and both head to the graveyard for just {1}{U}. This worked even if the target was indestructible because it wasn't destruction: it was just "put them into the graveyard."

With this change, the "Legend" creature type went away and just got absorbed into the "Legendary" supertype.

Magic 2014 onwards (2013–today)

The Magic 2014 Core Set Rules Preview article announced the new Legend rule we still have today:

  Let's dive in, shall we? The "legend rule," rule 704.5k for those of you following along at home, is changing. Under the current rules, any time two or more legendary permanents with the same name were on the battlefield, they would all be put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action. Under the new rules, any time two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by a player, that player chooses one of them and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action.

This segregated the players' boards such that each had their own set of unique Legendaries available to them, and one person playing a Legendary card wouldn't make all the other players' copies disappear.

The actual rules text at current is:

  704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

Related: Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule (2007–2017)

Until 2017, there was a separate rule for Planeswalker uniqueness: you couldn't have two or more planeswalkers that shared a Planeswalker type: no two Jace planeswalkers, regardless of their name. (This is the type found in their type line, e.g. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh's planeswalker type is Bolas.) Before 2013, this looked at the whole board (no two players could have a Jace out); the Magic 2014 update (enacted in 2013) also segregated the boards so that two players could have Jace out — but not two Jaces.

With the release of Ixalan's rules updates in 2017, the Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule went away, and planeswalkers became Legendary instead. You could have one of each Jace, but not two of the same Jace. (Except for Jace, Cunning Castaway due to the nature of his ultimate.)


First off, a creature cannot attack another creature. You can only attack players or planeswalkers, at which point your opponent can choose which creatures to block with. For the purpose of answering the question about deathtouch; I will assume that we are talking about a 1/5 attacking creature being blocked by a 2/2 creature with deathtouch.

From the MTG Quick Start Guide:

  deathtouch—A creature dealt damage by a
  creature with deathtouch is destroyed

The 1/5 will die because it was dealt damage by a creature with deathtouch. The 2/2 deathtouch creature will have 1 damage, and will not die unless it is dealt another damage by something else before the end of the turn.

Note that this works whether it is combat damage from attacking/blocking, or other damage such as cards with the Fight keyword or cards that have an ability that deals damage.

This death occurs almost immediately, at the same time death due to a creature taking more damage than it has toughness would occur. This is a state-based action, which happens automatically each time a player would receive priority. From the comprehensive rules:

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


Is there any way to turn a token into a nontoken?

Within the actual rules definition for "Token", such a thing really isn't possible.

Tokens

111.1. Some effects put tokens onto the battlefield. A token is a marker used to represent any permanent that isn't represented by a card.

With this definition, something becoming a nontoken really means that the thing becomes a card. And to become a card, you need a physical real-world card to have a card in general.
So as long as something is a permanent, and it isn't represented by a card, then it is a token. The closest thing you could do is replace a token with a different non-token that does the same thing... i.e. you could have an ability that says "sacrifice target Forest token. Choose a Forest card you own from outside the game and put it on the battlefield."
But if an ability said something like "target token becomes a non-token", it would just be confusing... Even though effects on cards can override any rules in the rulebook; an effect like this would basically be just redefining the word "token" as it is in the rules. Assuming that you aren't talking about it actually becoming a card; then it becomes an entirely new thing that is a concept never thought of in the rules... a permanent that is neither a token nor a card. You would need to alter a ton of other rules to make it work... what happens when this non-token, non-card enters a graveyard? You would likely need to replace the rules that make tokens in graveyards cease to exist with a rule that applies to all non-cards in graveyards instead.


In Descent, can heroes jump over arbitrary tiles or just pits?

I don't know about the general case, but the official FAQ does specify that you can NOT jump over water tiles. They give a pretty lame justification for it, but the real reason is that it would break a lot of the scenarios that count on that to act as a barrier. So a good rule of thumb is probably that you also can't jump over "trigger" type tiles that a scenario's challenge is built around. Unfortunately I can't find anything official to back that up, other than the rulebook only specifically mentioning pits in regards to jumping and the FAQ specifically saying you can't jump over water.

That said, in all our games, we always allowed jumping over damaging tiles such as lava, too. Spending the extra extra movement point to avoid a wound (which is pretty much why you'd jump over a pit, too) seemed balanced.


How can I tell if a card is likely to have "functional errata"?

There aren't many cards in magic that have actual so-called "power level" errata that fundamentally changes what they do, with the exception of the ones that were reprinted in physical form with new wording.  However, there are a few things that make you think "Hey I should check the oracle" because it may not be entirely clear how it was updated to work in modern rules.

1) Wording that would generate a really weird replacement effect, may now be a trigger:

e.g.,  Black Vise   There are obvious patterns to a lot of them, like with this one "if during upkeep" will generally become "at the beginning of upkeep" but then there are ridiculous things like Animate Dead that will you never ever "get right" trying to infer current functionality.  So the presence of what would be replacement effects if playing it literally as written is a good cue to check the Oracle.

2) Does it target?  Use of the word target is inconsistent on pre-6th edition cards.  If it just says "opponent" or "player" something you should check if it's "target" or "choose."

3) Creatures with only a "Class" and Artifact Creatures with no creature type.  e.g., if you see "Summon Warrior" it is likely now an "Elf Warrior" or "Goblin Warrior" or whatever as appropriate.  Artifact Creatures cards with no subtype will also have one in the Oracle (mostly "Construct.")


Eater of Days, Hushwing Gryff, and the stack

The opponent can use either spell to target Hushwing Gryff while Eater of Days is on the stack.  In this case,

The spell resolves first, removing Hushwing Gryff from the battlefield.
Eater of Days resolves, and as there is no Hushwing Gryff on the battlefield the caster of Eater of Days loses two turns.


Bidding: How to figure out if responder has 4 carder or 5 carder major?

In general no, there is no convention to convey this information because it is not (yet) important enough to warrant co-opting a call sequence. The subsequent auction will enable the partners to first determine if an 8-card fit exists, then whether either notrump is a suitable contract, or notrump is unsuitable but only 7-card fits are available.

Opener will show 4-card support eagerly (either by an immediate raise or a delayed jump raise) so that Responder will know there is an 8-card fit.

If forced by Responder to make a preference then Opener's minimum return to Responder's will be assumed to show only 2 card support. This will often be passed unless Responder has unrevealed strength to compensate for the lack of fit

If Opener returns freely to Responder's first suit then this delayed support shows three cards. At this point Responder holding 5 can indicate this by passing, inviting game, or jumping to game depending on his knowledge of the combined partnership assets. If Responder holds only 4 cards then a choice must be made to play in a Moysian fit of the major; in notrump; or in some other suit.

An essential point to note in these auctions is that the beginner's rush to rebid a 5-card suit is a terrible habit, and to be avoided whenever possible. Fast rebids of a suit should be reserved for showing 6-card holdings, so that partner can freely raise to show 2, revealing the 8-card fit.

AN exception to the above exists when Opener rebids 1 Notrump. Many partnerships will play some variation on Check-Back Stayman or New Minor Forcing to then explore major suit fits in more detail.

Update - as noted below in a comment:

by "fast rebid" is meant "at the next round of bidding." The tempo of the rebid itself, slow or fast, cannot legally (or ethically) be taken into account by partner!


Why is the 19x19 board so much more common than other sizes?

A 5x5 board is interesting because beginners very quickly encounter all the basic rules of go - living, dying, territory, corners, sides.

A 9x9 board is interesting because the size is just right to develop fighting tactics.

13x13 lets you get into the mindset of occupying corners and linking tactics together.

17x17 might have been the next logical step, until people realized things were still too linear.. And then they brought it up to 19x19 ?

A fun fact is that early 19x19 used to have two black stones and two white stones, on the corner star points, making diagonals (d4 + q16, d16 + q4), which is nowadays considered to be an opening for fighting games. It may have been a first step towards a fully empty 19x19 board, or a more spiritual yin/yang reason, who knows.

19x19 board, people usually say, is interesting because it is the largest board size on which there are more points on the sides (under the third line) than in the center (above the fourth line). A 21x21 board has many more points in the center, and therefore the focus of the game would shift to fighting and living in the center, instead of trying to make territory on the sides -- since that would, obviously, just not be as beneficial anymore.


Does "Income tax" count as a Curse or Bad Stuff that will remove "Chicken on your head"?

Yes.
The question boils down to: Does "that removes your Headgear" mean "that specifically instructs you to remove your Headgear", or does it mean "that causes you to remove your head gear".
Since no cards specifically instructs you to remove your headgear —they instruct you to lose it— I would favour the looser interpretation.
This is supported by a an official ruling (in reply to this).

Any Curse or Bad Stuff that removes your Headgear will take the chicken with it.
This means that any Curse or Bad Stuff that (a) specifically targets Headgear or (b) has the effect of removing the Headgear you are wearing, whether specifically targeting it or not, will remove the Chicken.

Since Income Tax is a Curse that has the effect of removing the Headgear you are wearing (even though it doesn't specifically targeting it), it will remove the Chicken.


Strategy for studying professional games?

A lot depends on your strength.  I find that memorizing them is useful for me.  I've also heard a lot of people suggest that you need to play them out on a real board.  It helps teach your fingers where the pro moves are :)

If you're not a dan-level player, you probably shouldn't focus too much on fighting sequences - you won't be able to understand all of the variations the players are considering.

It's a really good idea to look at each sequence or exchange in the game and try to tell what each player got out of it.  From an amateur perspective almost everything that happens in a pro game is an even trade, so you should look for sequences that don't seem even to you and try to figure out why they actually are.


Fallout Board Game: How to resolve card 16

I'm just guessing as I haven't played the game or read the rules.

It appears as though in order to place the shield you need to contact the Institute locations at that icon I can't quite make out.

Edit: Did some research, this link appears to say you should have added an additional institute location to the map in the previous quest?  https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1893927/quest-states-simply-place-icon-map


It appears that you can activate Grinning Ignus's ability:

117.11. The actions performed when paying a cost may be modified by effects. Even if they are, meaning the actions that are performed don’t match the actions that are called for, the cost has still been paid.
Example: A player controls Psychic Vortex, an enchantment with a cumulative upkeep cost of "Draw a card," and Obstinate Familiar, a creature that says "If you would draw a card, you may skip that draw instead." The player may decide to pay Psychic Vortex’s cumulative upkeep cost and then draw no cards instead of drawing the appropriate amount. The cumulative upkeep cost has still been paid.

I'm not clear on what situation you're describing with Ovinomancer; assuming Sedris isn't involved, you can always activate its ability and return it to your hand before its ETB ability resolves (assuming you give it haste), and when the ETB ability resolves, you have the choice of either doing nothing or unsummoning three basic lands.  This is not a replacement effect.


In Blackjack, does the dealer reveal his hole card if you bust?

I've never played in Atlantic City, but I have played in casinos in several other places, and I have never encountered a game where the dealer doesn't show the hole card every time, even if there are no player hands in play due to busts or blackjacks. I'm pretty sure gaming laws or regulations require this in most places.


No. From the core rule book:

  Install: This is the game term for playing a card onto the table.

This could be done as an action, during the Action Phase, but in the examples you're talking about it is triggered because of card text. A click cost is not inherent in an install, just as "click, $2" is not inherent in trashing a resource or removing a tag, and playing Diesel does not result in spending 4 clicks to draw 3 cards.

And aside from all of that, if the install off of Hayley did cost a click, that would make her ability MUCH less good, to the point of irrelevance.


Given these assumptions:

RHO's overcall is a weak jump overcall; and
You and partner are laying a fairly standard 5-card major system with no agreements other than negative doubles for this auction.

Then my recommendation is to make a Negative Double.

My expectation is that when both majors are unbid, as here, then such a double at this level promises 4-3 or better in the majors. Some partnerships require 4-4 but that seems excessive and over-cautious for today's competitive auctions.

Additionally, you are better than a minimum 1-over-1 response would have shown, with support for partner's clubs if that suit is real. You also have the possibility of suggesting notrump as a denomination, but have no interest in attempting to defend 2D doubled.

If for some reason you are not playing Negative Doubles as a partnership agreement, then my advice is to start doing so. As this hand illustrates, you are severely handicapped in competitive auctions without this convention in your arsenal.

Meanwhile, 2NT is probably the best call you can make: showing (in a competitive auction) 10-11 HCP balanced and one stopper in the overcalled suit. It hides the nice 4-card Spade suit, but that is the price for playing 5-card Majors without Negative Doubles.

Note that in general for competitive auctions, as here, many strong bids become invitational instead - the reason is that a cue bid of the opponents suit is available to show all strong hands lacking interest in a penalty double. This helps to alleviate the bidding room stolen by the opponents overcall.


Do commanders "die" if they go to the command zone instead?

Yes, commanders can trigger “dies” triggers as they head to the command zone
This new rules change was announced on June 7, 2020 and became active in the Commander rules circa the release date of Core Set 2021. I'll explain the rules basis later, but to summarise the new rules:

If your commander would be put into the graveyard or exile, you can opt to send it to the command zone. If you do, it will hit your graveyard or exile and then be put into the command zone the next time state-based actions happen. Abilities will see that it died or got exiled, so your commander dying can trigger death triggers (its own or those of other cards).
If your commander would be put into your hand or library, you can opt to send it to the command zone. If you do, it goes there instead of your hand or library. It will never actually be put into your hand or library and cards will not see it enter those zones.

This means:

If Elenda, the Dusk Rose is your commander and dies, you can send her to the command zone, and her death trigger will still go on the stack to give you Vampire tokens.
Dark Prophecy will see your commander die, even if you send your commander to the command zone.
Kresh the Bloodbraided will see peoples' commanders die and will get +1/+1 counters equal to the power of that commander as it last existed on the battlefield.
Azorius Aethermage will not see your commander return to your hand if you opt to send your commander to the command zone.
If your commander dies and you send it to the command zone, many “dies” triggers that expect to see it in the graveyard will lose track of it. For example, Dread Slaver can't return a commander to the battlefield it killed if the commander's owners sent it to the command zone. This is because the commander is no longer in the graveyard, and Dread Slaver can't return creatures that are no longer there.

Note that you're only given the option to move your commander out of the graveyard/exile to the command zone once—the very next time state-based actions are checked. In simple terms, this will be immediately after the spell/ability that put them there resolves, or if they died from combat damage, immediately after things die from combat. In both cases, you'll do this before any triggered abilities go on the stack and before anyone has any opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities.
If you don't move your commander to the command zone then, they'll be stuck where they are until you find another way to move them. You won't have indefinite permission to move them out from then onwards.
The rules didn't always work this way. Prior to this date, if you wanted to send a commander to the command zone instead of graveyard or exile, it would never reach graveyard or exile first and nothing would see it die or get exiled. The rules for putting a commander into its owner's hand/library haven't changed though.
What's the rules basis for it working this way?
A commander being sent to your graveyard or exile is now handled by a state-based action instead of a replacement effect.
The new state-based action is as follows:

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

This means if your commander dies, you put it into the graveyard as normal. The next time state-based actions are checked, you can move it to the command zone. This state-based action will take place before any triggers go on the stack as a result of your commander dying. But those triggered abilities have already been triggered, and will still go on the stack the next time they have a chance to do so.
Your commander heading to your hand or library is still handled as a replacement effect:

If a commander would be put into its owner’s hand or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead. This replacement effect may apply more than once to the same event.

If you cast Rescue on your commander and choose to send them to the command zone, then because this is a replacement effect, Rescue functionally reads “Put target permanent you control into the command zone” — the “return to your hand” event is replaced and never happens.

For those interested, you can view the Commander rules both before and after the change on the Wayback machine: its content before this change was archived on June 18, and its content with the change was archived on August 18.


Has computer go impacted the discussion about komi?

Something to note because many people are confused by this issue...  The skill of the players is irrelevant to komi. Komi is defined as the number of points given to white such that perfect play will yield a tie. (For example, komi on a 3x3 board is known to be 9 using Chinese rules because perfect play will wipe white completely from the board, and it's 9 regardless of the skill of the players.)

Traditionally, an extra half point is given to white to avoid a tie. Therefore, white should have a moderately greater chance of winning than black. (New Zealand's official rules don't do this.)

AlphaGo Teach, which assumes a 6.5 komi (Japanese) shows the percent chance of winning with black having the first move (https://alphagoteach.deepmind.com). Note, that black's best chance is 47.1%. Since white is expected to have a slightly greater chance of winning (because of the extra half point,) AlphaGo backs up the komi.

For Chinese rules komi is necessarily an odd number (because in order for there to be a tie, the sum of both player's scores must be even and there are an odd number of points available on the board.)

Whatever komi is, for Chinese rules there is widespread agreement that it's not 9 points and historically 5 points seems too low which means 7 points is the most likely value. However, without perfect play, we can't know for sure.

-- New information --

I've learned a couple of new pieces of info that relates to this question. Go on a 5x5 board was solved using a computer (not "deep learning" but a computer program none-the-less) and it turns out that komi is 25 points for that size board in Chinese rules. Also, 7x7 Go seems to have been "weekly" solved and it seems that the komi is 9 points for this. I'm not entirely sure about the info about the 7x7 board because the original paper is in Chinese and the derivative English info about it doesn't seem to be in agreement about what the paper actually says. So computers are telling us things about the proper value of komi.


I believe you are thinking of Clue Jr.: The Case of the Hidden Toys, published in 1996 by Hasbro and Parker Brothers.

Here's a link to it on Board Game Geek. You can look through the pictures and see if it looks familiar, but I'm pretty sure this is it.


When should I start collecting Victory Points in Dominion?

This question is really dependent on the Kingdom cards available and no overreaching general rule can be made without a lot of major caveats.

One good strategy would be

Always buy a province when you can afford it
(Unless you don't have a gold yet, and the game is still young)
Start buying Duchies once one pile is empty if you think the game will end by 3 piles disappearing
Start buying Duchies once half the provinces are gone if you think the game will end by province depletion.
Start buying Estates when you think you have at most one shuffle left in the game.

Again, this is general advice and specific cards can change things up drastically!


From Wikipedia:

  $2.50 chips are mostly used for blackjacktables, since a "natural" (a 21 on the first two cards dealt to a player) typically pays 3:2 and most wagers are in increments of $5. However, the Tropicana Casino and Borgatain Atlantic City, New Jersey, and others, have used $2.50 (pink) chips in $7.50 to $15 and $10 to $20 poker games.

They have $2.50 chips especially for the case you're describing.


There is nothing in the rules that prevent you from winning based on certain conditions and getting 15 points just triggers the end of the game. Once the final round is done the player with the most points will win regardless of how many reserve cards they may have.

Rules

Reserve a development card

  To reserve a card, a player simply needs to take a face-up
  development from the middle of the table or (if you’re feeling
  lucky) draw the first card from one of the three decks (level
  ; ; ) without showing it to the other players.
  The reserved cards are kept in hand and cannot be discarded.
  Players may not have more than three reserved cards in hand,
  and the only way to get rid of a card is to buy it (see below).
  Reserving a card is also the only way to get a gold token
  (joker). If there is no gold left, you can still reserve a card, but
  you won’t get any gold.

END OF THE GAME

  When a player reaches 15 prestige points, complete the
  current round so that each player has played the same number
  of turns.
  The player who then has the highest number of prestige points
  is declared the winner (don’t forget to count your nobles).
  In case of a tie, the player who has purchased the fewest
  development cards wins.

As a note this is how the ios app works


Please note: This answer is predicated on the use of the 1910 expansion pack. The analysis for which tickets are available for which route will not be valid for the "vanilla" Ticket To Ride: USA game, but the other elements of analysis (which routes are easier to build, get more points for building the routes themselves) will still be of value.

On a basic level, each of the four cross-country routes executes the same game plan: get across the country to connect as many high-value tickets as possible. There are of course other game plans, but if you wanted to use a cross country route, here is some advice.

Some ways to analyze our options are:

The number of turns it takes to build all of the lines (if it takes fewer turns to lay down the trains, then you can use more turns for picking trains, getting tickets, etc.)
The value of the trains for the lines (the actual value of building the trains themselves)
The number of trains it takes across the country (higher can be better because it helps get the longest train card, however lower can also be advantageous because you need to collect fewer train cards, and gives you more trains to do other building with)
The tickets that you can potentially complete using said route -- for example, if you can get Los Angeles to New York, you can get Los Angeles to Chicago relatively easily (but only if take the central route)

Depending on what you want to prioritize, the routes will be appealing to different amounts.

Before attempting to analyze the routes, here are the routes themselves:

Northern Route: Vancouver-Calgary-Winnipeg-Sault St. Marie-Montreal-New York (alternately, the so-called "more southernly northern route": Vancouver-Calgary-Winnipeg-Sault St. Marie-Toronto-Pittsburgh-New York)
Mid-Northern Route: Seattle-Helena-Duluth-Toronto-Pittsburgh-New York
Central Route: San Francisco-Salt Lake City-Denver-Kansas City-Saint Louis- Pittsburgh-New York
Southern Route: Los Angeles-El Paso-Houston-New Orleans-Miami

Number of turns

Northern route: 5 turns to build (vs. the "southernly northern route": 6 turns)
Mid-northern route: 5 turns to build
Central route: 6 turns to build (via Chicago: 7 turns)
Southern route: 4 turns to build

Value of trains

Northern route: 51 points (vs. the "southernly northern route": 43 points)
Mid-northern route: 49 points
Central route: 35 points (via Chicago: 31 points)
Southern route: 49 points

Number of trains it takes to cross the country

Northern route: 23 trains
Mid-northern route: 22 trains
Central route: 21 trains
Southern route: 20 trains

Tickets that can be completed

To assess this, we can see which tickets are completed within the route itself (i.e. you don't have to do any additional work - if you get the route, you can get the ticket) and those which are easily completed if you get the route (i.e. if you build a couple more times, you can get the ticket).

Also, the question of which tickets can be completed is predicated on which ones you actually get. So in a game with fewer players, of course you have a better chance of getting the specific tickets you want. You also have to be prepared to spend many turns taking tickets and hoping you get the right ones - which is why no strategy is foolproof. You can always just get the wrong tickets.

Northern Route

Tickets completed within the route itself:

Vancouver-Montreal (20 points)

Tickets easily completed from off of the route:

Seattle-New York (20 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Vancouver-Duluth (13 points, requires 1 extra route)
Vancouver-Denver (11 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Portland-Nashville (17 points, requires 4 extra routes -- yes, this one is a long shot -- unless you use the "more southern" option that goes through Toronto and Pittsburgh, in which case it only requires 2 extra routes)

Mid-northern route

Tickets completed within the route itself:

Seattle-New York (20 points)

Tickets easily completed from off of the route:

Portland-Pittsburgh (19 points, requires 1 extra route)
Vancouver-Duluth (13 points, requires 1 extra route)
Denver-Pittsburgh (11 points, requires 1 extra route)
Chicago-New York (5 points, requires 1 extra route)
Vancouver-Montreal (20 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Seattle-Oklahoma City (14 points, requiers 2 extra routes)
Vancouver-Denver (11 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Portland-Nashville (17 points, requires 3 extra route)

Central route

Tickets completed within the route itself:

Denver-Pittsburgh (11 points)
Salt Lake City-Kansas City (7 points)
Denver-Saint Louis (6 points)

Tickets easily completed from off of the route:

Salt Lake City-Chicago (11 points, requires 1 extra route, unless you reroute through Chicago)
Chicago-New York (5 points, requires 1 extra route, unless you reroute through Chicago)
San Francisco-Washington (21 points, requires 1 extra route)
Las Vegas-New York (19 points, requires 1 extra route)
8 Portland-Pittsburgh (11 points, requires 1 extra route)
Kansas City-Boston (7 points), requires 1 extra route)
Seattle-New York (20 points, requires 2 extra routes)
San Francisco-Atlanta (17 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Portland-Nashville (17 points, requires 2 extra routes)
San Francisco-Atlanta (17 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Chicago-Santa Fe (9 points, requires 2 extra routes, unless you rereoute through Chicago)
Chicago-Boston (7 points, requires 2 extra routes)
Los Angeles-Atlanta (15 points, requires 3 extra routes)
Seattle-Oklahoma City (14 points, requires 3 extra routes)

Southern route

Tickets completed within the route itself:

Los Angeles-Miami (19 points)

*Tickets easily completed from off of the route:*

Las Vegas-Miami (21 points, requires 1 extra route)
Los Angeles-Atlanta (15 points, requires 1 extra route)
Los Angeles-Oklahoma City (9 points, requires 1 extra route)
San Francisco-Atlanta (17 points, requires 2 extra routes)
St. Louis-Miami (8 points, requires 2 extra routes)

What does this tell us?

The Northern route via Montreal is perhaps the most out-of-the-way route: there are not a huge number of tickets to complete if you keep to the top of the board. However, if you compromise on using long trains only, and go Sault St. Marie-Toronto-Pittsburgh-New York instead of Sault St. Marie-Montreal-New-York, you have more potential tickets, because many tickets stop in Pittsburgh

The mid-northern route completes very few tickets in and of itself. However, off of this route there are a great many "high value" tickets which can be completed. This also means that there isn't as much competition for it, both because it consists of so many 6-train routes (and none of them are gray!), and because relatively few tickets go to Helena, Duluth, or Toronto.

The central route has the most versatility, due to the fact that it is in the middle of the board and so you can build off of it in both northern and southern directions.

The southern route is perhaps most difficult to complete, because the Houston-New Orleans route can be taken easily, and is highly valuable. If you choose this route, take that quickly; but it may give away your strategy.

The southern route clearly has the highest route points per turn necessary to build the route, and can be built quickly. So the southern route works best in conjunction with another strategy, such as building up the east coast (which gives access to many other tickets such as Los Angeles-New York, etc).

If you choose the central route, going through Chicago will get you more potential tickets, but you will lose a turn and 4 points by building two routes (St. Louis-Chicago and Chicago-Pittsburgh) rather than the single St. Louis-Pittsburgh route.

Though it is the most versatile (and can be completed even if there is competition over it, due to the double-routes), the central route has a number of downsides. It takes many turns to build, which reduces the number of chances to take tickets - a central element to the basic strategy of trying to complete as many tickets off of your main route. In addition, it is worth far fewer points in and of itself. Especially if you go through Chicago, in which case you both lose a turn building, and there can be a 20 points difference between the central route and the northern route! It is also the most visible of the routes -- since it has so many double routes -- and so people gravitate towards it and it is highly contested.

Plus there's the element of luck. You can't quite just pick a strategy and get the tickets you want. In many ways the appropriate strategy is based on the random tickets you get at the beginning if the game.

In the end, the routes are very balanced - as one would expect from a game which exhibits such high replay value.


Should I prefer Farmers or other followers?

It sounds like you are pretty new to Carcassonne.  It's pretty easy to start playing and have your group think that nearly everything should be finished and the board should look nearly square at the end without many blank holes in the grid.

If this sounds familiar, then yes, there are likely to be big farms and its a good idea to get in early on the farm.

You could change your style though.  I view every meeple played by my opponents as something to be attacked and stranded!

When an opponent plays a farmer, that meeple isn't moving ever again.  You need a good reason to extend that farm in any way.  Play around it.  The next road juncture you play should be positioned to cut off the farm.  Do not play city tiles on the farm.  Just leave it alone!


How do you count runs in cribbage during play

Seven. Scoring during pegging is performed after each card is played, based on the list of cards thus far. After playing the "2" you score three; after playing the ace you score an additional four. (Consider: if it were the other player that scored for the run of three, you wouldn't take those points away from them when you scored the ace!)


How does the Sorcerer flare card work with non-viable races in Cosmic Encounter?

The change is permanent. (Yes, it is powerful, but Wild flares are often powerful; frequently more powerful than the Super, which is usually just an enhancement to the base power.)

The fact that the change is permanent also helps to clarify your question. The defender isn't using the attacker's power; the defender is using their own power, which happens to be the power the attacker started the challenge with. Since it's their own power, its usage is controlled by the number of their home bases.


What is the name of this solitaire variant?

It looks like stalactites. ( Wikipedia, Double Deck Version )


Can I pause a game of Magic: The Gathering to read and understand a card?

You can't "pause" the game, as the game isn't progressing by itself. Instead, it progresses only when all players agree that the game should go on, which most of the time means to pass priority. The most relevant rule to this is:

  500.2. A phase or step in which players receive priority ends when the stack is empty and all players pass in succession. Simply having the stack become empty doesn't cause such a phase or step to end; all players have to pass in succession with the stack empty. Because of this, each player gets a chance to add new things to the stack before that phase or step ends.

Each time a player acts in a way that uses the stack, such as cast a spell, there's a round of priority, as defined by the rules, which (as stated above) all players have to pass in succession in order to progress.

So not only do you get to take the time to read and understand the card, but you get to think about in what way, if at all, you want to respond. You may even ask a Judge or another player for clarifications on cards or rules. This is true at all times, for example if you're simply in need of clarification of the game state.
Nothing that isn't clearly labelled as such or banned in tournament play is luck- or random-based, requires manual dexterity, or requires fast reflexes or high reaction.

In a tournament scenario, the only requirement is to do this in a timely manner ("playing at a reasonable pace") to avoid Slow Play, which means you're not allowed to stall the game by thinking about what you want to do for more than a sensible period of time in order to not slow down the tournament as a whole, or take an unfair amount of the shared round time for yourself. What that timespan is depends on the game situation, but you will always be given enough time to read a card that's reasonably unknown to you, and understand what it does.
It isn't expected of you at any tournament level that you know all Magic cards out there, however it's expected at any level that you keep track of the game state and don't re-evaluate the entire board before making a decision.

The reason you might be thinking there's a certain time limit to take action is that the Duels of the Planeswalkers games include an automatically progressing bar that gives you only so much time to react. This is supposedly done to prevent idling players from stalling the game, but has nothing to do with the paper version of the game.


The short answer is that no matter what your opponent does with their Trapper, they cannot prevent you from activating your Wellwisher and gaining the life.

The long answer involves explaining some of the key systems in the Magic rules.

Magic resolves spells and abilities using a system called "the stack". When you cast a spell or ability, it goes on top of the stack, and then any player and put an instant or ability on the stack. Then once nobody puts anything else on the stack, the spells and abilities resolve from the top down. This allows player to respond to spells or abilities with other spells or abilities, and the response resolves first. More information can be found on the relevant wiki page.

Magic also has a particular meaning for the word "priority", which is different from how you used it in the question. Basically, only one player gets priority at a time, and each player gets priority before any spell or ability resolves, to give each player the opportunity to respond. You gain priority very frequently, including at the end of almost every step of each player's turn, whenever a spell or ability is put on the stack, and whenever a spell or ability resolves from the stack.

Whatever the situation is, either you have priority, or your opponent does. In the first case, the sequence of events looks like this:

You activate your Wellwisher's ability. This consists of the following steps (often condensed into one action):

You announce that your are activating the ability.
You tap Wellwisher to pay for the cost of the ability.

The ability is now activated and on the stack. You pass priority. Your opponent now has the opportunity to respond.
Your opponent activates their Trapper's ability. This has a similar sequence of actions:

They announce that they are activating the ability.
They choose Wellwisher as the target of the ability.
They tap their Trapper to pay for the cost of the ability.

Now the Wellwisher's ability is on the stack, and the Trapper's ability is on top of it on the stack. Both players pass priority (this is often assumed to be the case when neither player announces any responses).
The Trapper's ability resolves, and it taps Wellwisher. Wellwisher is already tapped, so this doesn't do anything.
Both players pass priority again, and the Wellwisher's ability resolves. You gain a bunch of life.

In the second case, where your opponent has priority, the sequence of events looks very similar:

Your opponent activates his Trapper's ability, targeting Wellwisher and tapping the Trapper to pay the cost.
The Trapper's ability is now on the stack and activated. Your opponent passes priority.
You activate your Wellwisher's ability, tapping Wellwisher to pay the cost.
Now the Trapper's ability is on the stack, and the Wellwisher's ability is on top of it on the stack. Both players pass priority.
The Wellwisher's ability resolves, and you gain a bunch of life.
Both player's pass priority again, and the Trapper's ability resolves, tapping Wellwisher. Wellwisher is already tapped, so this doesn't do anything.

As you can see, it doesn't matter who activates their ability first. Either way, you can gain the life from Wellwisher.


Find Spell cards self banish or cards banish spell in grave

First I suggets you check this link on YGO Wikia, which mentions several cards that return banished cards to the GY.

Now, what you ask it a bit unclear (you want cards like Parallel Return or cards that banish spells?), but I assume it's the former, as Parallel Return is your only alternative so far.

Sorry to say this but there seems to be no other card that can return spells from the banished zone, and even less before 2015. I searched by several keywords in a couple good engines (one neat engine is YGO Pro's where you can search by card text), and only Parallel Return came out.

One card that came to mind is Spellbook of Eternity and does exactly that, but it only works for Spellbook cards.

To be honest most cards I've found can only return monsters to the GY, and not spells or traps, so Parallel Selection could be one of the few options you got. Now, cards that do this that may be useful for you still that I recall are:

Miracle Dig: «If 5 or more of your monsters are currently removed from play, return 3 of them to the Graveyard». Useful to return monsters to the GY (only monsters though). This is an old card so surely before 2015.
Burial from a Different Dimension: «Select up to 3 removed from play monsters, and return them to their owners' Graveyards.». Great card, is also quick-play. It is also before 2015, but again only useful for monsters.

Now, if D.D. Crow is giving you trouble try countering it with Debunk:

  Negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect that activates in the hand or in the Graveyard, and remove it from play.

Also, if you want to prevent cards from bein banished you can play Imperial Iron Wall; one widely used card on side decks.

Sorry that there is no card (apparently) that can help you here, but will add any other I recall that might be useful on this scenario.


According to Rulebook, page 15:

Asleep
Turn the Pokémon counterclockwise to show that it is Asleep.
If a Pokémon is Asleep, it cannot attack or retreat. Between turns, flip a coin. If you flip heads, the Pokémon wakes up (turn the card right-side up), but if you flip tails, it stays Asleep.

Flipping for sleep occurs between turns. On the same page, there is a brief description of what between turns means:

Before the game continues to the next player, take care of Special Conditions in this order:

POISONED     2. BURNED     3. ASLEEP     4. PARALYZED

Then, apply the effects of any Abilities (or anything else that a card states must happen between turns). After both players have done these things, check to see if any affected Pokémon were Knocked Out. Then, start the next player’s turn!

(emphasis mine)
It doesn't matter whose Pokémon is asleep, it doesn't matter whose turn is next.
In your example, yes, you get to flip before your round starts (that means 50% probability that you would be stuck with sleeping Pokémon) and after your turn ends, you get to flip again.


Will countering a spell that left the stack still trigger abilities?

Baral will trigger once. You cannot counter the same spell more than once.
As you already quoted the relevant rule 701.5a, countering a spell or ability means to remove it from the stack:

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.

Since spells can only exist on the stack, a countered spell will stop being a spell, and will no longer be a valid target for counter effects.

111.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, “Casting Spells”), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner’s hand. (See rule 405, “Stack.”) A spell remains on the stack as a spell until it resolves (see rule 608, “Resolving Spells and Abilities”), is countered (see rule 701.5), or otherwise leaves the stack. For more information, see section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”

If you choose the counter option of Mystic Confluence three times, Mystic Confluence effectively reads:

Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3.

When Mystic Confluence resolves and the first ability already counters the targeted spell, that spell will immediately be removed from the stack and Baral will trigger. The second and third part of Mystic Confluence lack a valid target, and will not do anything.


From the PrivateerPress forums:

  FOCUS (in all caps) refers to the warcaster's FOCUS stat, which will only change if affected by an ability (Eg pDenny's feat). Focus (lower case) refers to the number of focus tokens.

  In the case of a spell, your magic attack roll is FOCUS + 2D6, using your caster's FOCUS 6.


What is the best method to make new Settlers like tiles

If you have access to a die-cutting press, as many teachers might, one can buy a hexagon press die.

Google Sizzix/Westminster Bigz Dies  Hexagon and you find several sizes.

They make a block of 6x 3/4" and 1" hexes (suitable for counters), and one of 4x 2" hexes, and one which does 2.5" hexes.

Check your local craft stores and school supply stores.

The presses run from $50 to several hundred dollars, and the dies $20 to $50 apiece, so this is not an inexpensive solution. Nor is it efficient; you'll need to manually line up the graphic. It will, however, allow for leather, magnet, chipboard, and other non-paper samples to be easily made in a regular size.

Using them without a suitable press requires a firm hand, a smooth hard surface, and a rolling pin that can take your weight...


No, you cannot fake advance cards that do not specifically say they can be advanced.

Page 14 in the rule book:

  Cards other than agendas can only be advanced if their text box allows it.

Related: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/892149/can-you-advance-snare


What is the penalty for the dummy failing to follow suit?

The actual answer is in Law 64D

  there is no trick penalty for the established revoke ...3. if the revoke was made in failing to play any card
  faced  on,  or  belonging  to  a  hand  faced  on,  the
  table, including a card from dummy’s hand.

But a clearer view is given in In bridge, is there a penalty if dummy incorrectly lays down his hand? (not quite a duplicate but very close).


Does that translate to the opponent has 3 random monsters that I take to summon Blue Eyes Ultimate without any Blue Eyes?

No, you must use the correct fusion materials for the monster you wish to fusion summon.

If superpoly let you do that it would be too broken.

The advantage of it is that is quick-play, so you can fusion summon during your opponent's turn.

This card was mostly used in Hero decks, where many of the fusion monsters have as requirements "1 hero + some attribute-specific monster"... So you could use your hero and (say) your opponent's dark effect monster to summon Destiny HERO Dangerous.


In Texas Hold'Em you use the strongest five-card hand that can be made using your two in-hand cards and the 5 board cards.  The two cards that you do not use are ignored completely and have no effect on the hand rankings.  (This is similar to 7-card stud and other 7-card variants)

In the example you present, it sounds like each player has an identically-ranked straight as their best five cards.  The pair of sixes would be ignored, as would the high-card king.  This would be a tie and the two players would split the pot.


As you have shown in your question, it is a house rule. That said, it's not a particularly surprising house rule as generally the kind of concession this would arise in could easily be a jerkish move, though not necessarily.

104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. A player who concedes leaves the game immediately. He or she loses the game.
101.1. Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 104.3a).
712.6. The controller of another player can’t make that player concede. A player may concede the game at any time, even if he or she is controlled by another player. See rule 104.3a.
405.6. Some things that happen during the game don’t use the stack.
405.6g A player may concede the game at any time. That player leaves the game immediately. See rule 104.3a.

Conceding isn't covered by the rules governing timing and priority. It is not listed in the rules under special actions. Rules as written; it can be done at any time, even when not in control of your own turn.


Examples of board games with good/interesting rules for trading?

Settlers of Catan is a classic game with trading elements.  Each player needs to build roads and buildings with various resources (wheat, clay, ore, sheep, wood), but most players will have scarcity in one or more of the resources needed; thus, they must trade resources with other players to be able to complete purchases.

The key is that you need all of the resources, at some points, to win the game.  There is no strategy where you can get by on just three or four of the five, so you must trade often to win.

Often times you will see resources traded at uneven ratios.  A few groups add more advanced sorts of trading, such as futures, but those are not allowed in the basic rules.


Can Let's Kill Krampus still be purchased?

It is possible, but you need to contact the developers for information.

Based on the last social media post I can find from the company.

  Hi folks, sorry if you couldn't reach us by email, we closed our
  website and it was linked to our Gmail, so we're figuring out some
  kinks there. We are not planning new releases or production runs at
  this time, but we do have some stock of LKK still available; we'll
  post more details soon for anyone interested!

this post was made on facebook December 20, 2014, so they may have already sold out.

https://www.facebook.com/ThreeFatesGames/


Where can I get a short run of standard cards with custom backs?

Bicycle has a custom card page: http://www.bicyclecards.com/custom, but you must contact them for pricing. They have two tiers personalized which is 1-500 decks, or custom which is 2500+ decks.


After claiming Ambassador, the player should pause for a few seconds and confirm that there are no challenges before drawing new cards. The reason is so that, if successfully challenged, the player does not gain any improper information about the cards remaining in the deck. (For example, seeing two Dukes in the deck can be a powerful suggestion that the players claiming it are lying!)

(According to the rules, you always check for no challenge before proceeding with a claimed action. But for the Assassin and Captain, you're waiting for the victim to take the hit (or claim a blocker) anyway, and for the Duke, it's easy enough to just return the coins. Only for the Ambassador is it important to deliberately pause.

It is also worth mentioning that you seem to have a slight detail confused. A player using Ambassador always draws 2 and returns 2, even if they have only one influence remaining.


If creatures targeted by Living Inferno's ability all die, what happens?

The ability fizzles if and only if,  all of it's targets are gone, so long at least one of it's targets is still there, It will still resolve and deal damage to that target, but if they're all gone, the ability is countered(fizzles)
Creatures on the battle field can't perform actions(such as dealing damage) if they are illegal targets of the ability, and they're illegal targets of the ability if they've changed zones(such as from the battlefield to the graveyard).
If they died while  living Inferno's ability was on the stack, than those creates would not deal damage.

both of these points are covered by section 608.2b of the comp rules

  608.2b
  If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are
  still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it
  was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game
  state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its
  characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the
  text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it
  was in, its last known information is used during this process. The
  spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance
  of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not
  countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets
  are illegal, the part of the spell or ability’s effect for which it is
  an illegal target can’t perform any actions on that target, make
  another object or player perform any actions on that target, or make
  that target perform any actions. The effect may still determine
  information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the
  effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.

  Example:
  Sorin’s Thirst is a black instant that reads, “Sorin’s Thirst
  deals 2 damage to target creature and you gain 2 life.” If the
  creature isn’t a legal target during the resolution of Sorin’s Thirst
  (say, if the creature has gained protection from black or left the
  battlefield), then Sorin’s Thirst is countered. Its controller doesn’t
  gain any life.

  Example:
  Plague Spores reads, “Destroy target nonblack
  creature and target land. They can’t be regenerated.” Suppose the same
  animated land is chosen both as the nonblack creature and as the land,
  and the color of the creature land is changed to black before Plague
  Spores resolves. Plagues Spores isn’t countered because the black
  creature land is still a legal target for the “target land” part of
  the spell. The “destroy target nonblack creature” part of the spell
  won’t affect that permanent, but the “destroy target land” part of the
  spell will still destroy it. It can’t be regenerated.

This is also supported by the Gatherer ruling for pit fight

  1/24/2013     If either target of Pit Fight is an illegal target when the
  ability tries to resolve, neither creature will deal or be dealt
  damage.

take note that  pit fight does not fizzle in this case, because it still will have 1 target.

if  pit fight isn't good enough for you because it uses the fight mechanic, than the ruling for Flesh/Blood also applies

  4/15/2013     As Blood is resolving, if only one of the targets is legal,
  Blood will still resolve but will have no effect: If the first target
  is illegal, it can’t deal damage to anything. If the second target
  creature or player is illegal, it can’t be dealt damage.


Can I choose difference house card without discard two power tokens?

I think the correct way to read this would be:

Discard 2 power tokens immediately
Discard Aeron Damphair
If able, choose a different house card from your hand.

Please note that step 2 can't be completed without step 1. Similarly step 3 can't be executed without steps 1 and 2.

This would mean that your friend is wrong as you have to discard 2 power tokens to even make it to step 3.

You must play a new house card if you have one in your hand and you've discarded your 2 power tokens and Aeron Damphair. The only time you shouldn't play a new house card is if there isn't one in your hand.

The 2 power tokens that need to be discarded also seem non-negotiable to me. If they don't have 2 power tokens to discard, they can't activate this card (unless another card says otherwise, but that's a little off topic).


How does Paranoid Delusions work with Ingest

You choose which happens first.

After you cipher Paranoid Delusions on the Mist Intruder, there are two relevant triggered abilities: Mist Intruder's Ingest ability, which says

  Whenever Mist Intruder deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of his or her library.

and the cipher triggered ability, which says

  Whenever [Mist Intruder] deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of [Paranoid Delusions] without paying its mana cost.

Since those both trigger on dealing combat damage to a player, they both trigger at the same time. Specifically, rule 510.3 says that the third step of the Combat Damage Step is

  Third, any abilities that triggered on damage being assigned or dealt go on the stack. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)

And rule 603.3b says

  If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

So, since both of those triggered at the same time, you put them on the stack in any order you choose. Then they resolve in the reverse of that order (since the one you put on the stack last is on top).


When do I attack if complete my battle line with a card stolen by Venemous Creeps?

From the Venemous Creeps section of the Chaos Marauders card reference:

  If a player completes a battle line with a stolen card, he may still
  attack an opponent’s battle line as normal.

So the normal rules apply, that is to say: "As soon as a battle line has been completed, it can attack any opponent’s incomplete battle line" [assuming the completed battle line is strong enough].

Therefore, yes, you do attack on the current turn, not the next turn.


In short -- for tournaments, yes.

I never played with forced jumps as a kid, but my father-in-law always plays with forced jumps.  So I did a little digging around, and this is what I found:

The American Checker Federation seems to be the only sanctioned checkers organization I could find.  According to the American Checker Federation, rule #1.20 says

  1.20  All capturing moves are compulsory, whether offered actively or passively...


Can Zombify target a creature card that isn't in the graveyard?

I think that the reading of 115.2 you mentioned above is just too narrow.  Reposting it again:

  115.2. Only permanents are legal targets for spells and abilities, unless a spell or ability (a) specifies that it can target an object
  in another zone or a player, or (b) targets an object that can’t exist
  on the battlefield, such as a spell or ability. See also rule 115.4.

115.2 specifies that only permanents are legal targets for spells or abilities unless another zone is specified (or implied by the object type).  This implies one of two things is true:

It can only target creature cards that are currently permanents on the battlefield, and the card doesn't actually function at all.
"target [object] from [zone]" as a wording template does include a zone as part of the targeting requirements.

Because of how 115.2 is worded, there is not another option where it can target a creature card anywhere.  Either it can only target permanents, or its zone is specified (or implied by the type of object as in (b)).  Since the card does currently function, we have to assume that this is considered adequate language for specifying a zone as a part of targeting requirements.


How can I efficiently build a deck from a box of random cards?

If you're willing to spend a bit of time up front, you can probably "triage" the cards in a way that might make deck building easier.

Grab a large section of cards and sort out the colors you are interested in.
Sort the cards within the colors by the set symbol.  The idea here is that you're more likely to get interesting synergies from cards that are from the same set.
Choose the sets that have the most cards in them, and sort those into lands, creatures, and non-creatures.
If there are still too many cards, you might sort the creatures into ones that share a keyword or troop type.

Now you can start your deckbuilding.  Start with creatures and add ones that look interesting until you have about 25 creatures.  Then go to the non-creatures piles for the sets you used, and find 10-12 that go well with the set of creatures you chose, swapping as necessary.

This way you aren't having to read every card, and you're more likely to end up with a deck with at least some interesting interactions.  It isn't going to win a tournament, but it will let you get started, and then you can read more cards as you have time and continue tweaking your deck.


Can I use treasure to pay for a counterspell?

Yes, you can do this, for 2 different reasons.

First, as mentioned in Drunk Cynic's answer, treasure tokens' activated abilities are mana abilities, just like tapping a land for mana is.

  605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t have a target, it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves, and it’s not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”)

But also, you seem to be incorrectly thinking that once the stack begins to resolve, it finishes resolving all the way. This is not the case.

Each player gets priority after each thing on the stack resolves. This means that even if your only way of getting mana was from something other than a mana abiltiy (such as needing to activate an ability that would get you treasure tokens), you could still do that.

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

So you could activate a non-mana ability that gets you mana in some way, then when that resolve, you can then cast your counterspell, while the spell you are still trying to counter resolves.


Are there other sources of suggested sets?

One great resource is Dominion Deck Builder, a website that allows users to design and save kingdoms. They can be voted on, discussed, etc.

This is also a frequently-discussed topic at the Dominion Strategy Forum. Here are a few threads that each list several Kingdom setups that people have suggested, and in the latter 2 threads, voted on:

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=11251.0

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=6785.0 (Older, so does not contain Dark Ages or Guilds)

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=11100


Clarification about drawing and assigning plot cards

Plot cards are distributed by the first leader of a round only. Indeed, it is important to know who will be first leader of the next round, as they will be the ones distributing the cards.


Monopoly Development Card - before of after the dice?

Assuming you're referring to the "Monopoly" development card in Catan (aka The Settlers of Catan), then the official FAQ at Catan.com answers this:

Development Cards in General - May I play Development Cards before rolling the dice?
Yes. Note that you may play only 1 Development Card per turn: if you have played this card before rolling the dice, you are not allowed to play another one afterwards.

So you may play Monopoly before or after rolling the dice. Strategically, it usually makes sense to play it later, since most of the time rolling the dice gives people more cards for you to take, and playing Monopoly before making trades will probably mean people won't want to trade with you. (And, of course, there's the classic move of making a large number of trades for a resource, then playing the Monopoly to take all of those cards back from everyone. It's a move that generally only works once.)


Hive's freedom of movement rule - can you 'pass over' a gap that you can't go into?

Yes,

the ant can move to all spaces marked in yellow. The only restrictions to movement are that it must remain attached to the hive and you can't move into spaces you cannot slide into.

It can cross these "caves" because it continues to be touching the hive when it moves, and that continual touching to the hive (and the sliding rule) are the only requirements.

When moving any piece (but the hopper and when jumping the beetle up onto the hive), it must always remain in contact with at least one tile during the entire movement from beginning to end.


Am I technically allowed to look up cards during a Magic tournament match?

You can't lookup things on the Internet during a match per MTR 2.12:

  At Competitive and Professional Rules Enforcement Level during drafting, deck construction, and playing of matches, players may not use electronic devices capable of taking and storing notes, communicating with other people, or accessing the internet (with the exception of taking brief personal calls with the opponent’s permission).

As for the Torrential Gearhulk. I've asked a judge at a Standard PPTQ Tournament (Competetive REL) if it's enough to name a card by describing it as "Blue Gearhulk". His answer was that it's OK, because there is exactly one card that can be described as "Blue Gearhulk" in the sets permitted in the format we are playing. This is per MTR 3.6:

  A card is considered named in game when a player has provided a description (which may include the name or partial name) that could only apply to one card. Any player or judge realizing a description is still ambiguous must seek further clarification.

MTR 3.6 also clarifies that:

  Players have the right to request access to the official wording of a card the can describe. That request will be honored if logistically possible.

So yes, you can ask about the card.


What is the difference between Hexproof and a card like Canopy Cover?

The effects are different because of what you/your refers to: it refers to an object's controller.

Canopy Cover's effect is radically different from an effect that says "Enchanted creature has hexproof", but the difference only becomes important when you use it on a creature an opponent controls.

Let's suppose you're a Green player facing a Blue player.

Enchanting your opponent's creature with Hexproof means you can't target it

Doing so means the creature now has a static ability that says:

  This permanent can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.

The "your" here refers to that creature's controller - Blue player - so now Blue player's opponents can't target that creature with spells or abilities. That's you, Green player. You now cannot target that creature with spells or abilities.

Enchanting your opponent's creature with Canopy Cover means they can't target it

Doing so means the enchantment says:

  Enchanted creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.

Since you are the enchantment's controller, the "your" in this case refers to you, the Green player. So your opponents can't target that creature with spells or abilities - that's the Blue player.


What's the best way to determine which cards will be banned or not reprinted?

You have very little to worry about for standard in terms of banning cards. Standard is a very carefully designed format with a card pool small enough for wizards to have a very good grasp of the format in their internal testing phases. Every time they have banned a card they have learned from it, and the bans in standard are very few and far between.

The 2 specific cards you mentioned will not be banned in standard. This is because there is not another opportunity to ban them before they leave the format, which brings me to the more important part of my answer

Rotation

Players worried about the cost of cards in standard should worry far more about Rotation than banning, because rotation is a much more likely thing for standard staples (heavily played, format defining cards) than banning. Both Mutavault and Sphinx's Revelation are in sets which leave the format in the Autumn/Fall of this year (2014) and as such, particularly given how big an impact they have had on the format, are very likely to rotate, and not be reprinted back into standard.

Wizards tend to avoid having high power cards which people play with/against a lot over a rotation period reprinted. There have been times where they have regretted reprinting staples, such as the Titans cycle of magic 2011/magic 2012 (the poster boy of which was Primeval Titan).

The vast majority of the time, when it comes to rotation, you should assume that every card of value is rotating. This is because that is almost always the case. Each set or block has a specific theme with a different mix of mechanics, and while some cards (mostly in the core sets) are reprinted, most of the time there is no guarantee that a card from Return to Ravnica block or Magic 2014 will be around this time next year. The cards that DO get reprinted, tend to be very low value, as they have usually been reprinted many times before. Take Doom Blade as an example for this. Even cards like that take a few seasons off, as Doom Blade did in Magic 2013.

Standard is a format that Wizards try to fundamentally change once a year, and they do that by removing a lot of cards and replacing them with totally new ones which do very different things (or the same things in different ways). If you are interested in playing standard at any sort of competitive level, then you will need to make yourself quite aware of what cards are rotating when, and either:

Accept that those cards will be worth much less than you paid for them when they rotate
Try to mitigate your losses by selling/trading them before rotation.

Eternal formats

One thing to note which does have some impact on the above, is that while most staples will rotate out of standard, they will not become worthless. Older formats like Modern or Legacy often have a significant impact on the cost of cards.  Mutavault is an example of a reprint of a staple in older formats, which is part of why it's price was so high so early, it has a proven track record. Similarly, some cards will not lose much (if any) value on rotation. Deathrite Shaman is a perfect example for this, Deathrite has a significant presence in Modern (or did, until he was banned) and Legacy decks - where his abilities are much more easily leveraged - but sees very little play in standard. The majority of his price is based on these formats, and as such will change little on rotation. Similarly, many of the strongest cards in Standard will go on to see play in Modern and Legacy, and as such lose much less value on rotation, or rebound from the dip very quickly.

Overall, bans are much less frequent, particularly in standard, than rotations. Additionally, the wide reaching nature of rotations makes them much more important to consider than bans when looking at the investment you are willing to make.


The game is incomplete.

Literally nothing is "surrounded" here, and if the game ended in such a state nobody would get any points at all until you can mutually agree on which groups are "dead" and which ones are "alive", since right now, none of the groups are unconditionally alive.

Your first example presumes the inside black group is dead, the second example presumes the outside black group is dead. One could also make the case that both black groups are dead, meaning all the territory on the board is "surrounded" by white. Alternatively, one could argue that the white group is dead, meaning all the territory on the board is "surrounded" by black.

However, if everyone agrees that all the groups are alive (or, at least, can't agree that any of them are dead), then all territory is still disputed and nobody is actually surrounding anything.

If you can't tell which groups are alive and which ones are dead, keep playing until you can. Otherwise, any attempts at calculating the score would be guesswork at best.


Does Chimeric Mass stay a creature in the grave for the rest of the turn it dies?

Your Chimeric Mass would immediately return to being a non-creature artifact in the graveyard.
The effect that turns Chimeric Mass into a creature ends as soon as the permanent leaves the battlefield. That's because the effect turns "Chimeric Mass" into a creature, and that means exactly the object the ability is on. However, when an object leaves a zone, it becomes a new object, and the effect no longer works, even though the new object in the graveyard has the same name:

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. [..]
201.4. Text that refers to the object it's on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.


Does the Medic remove all cubes of cured diseases from the cities he travels through?

All of the cubes. This is not an action.

  The Medic may remove all the cubes of a single color (instead of 1)
  when performing the Treat Disease action. Also, if the Medic at any
  time finds herself in a city that contains cubes of a disease that
  has been cured, she may immediately remove all of those cubes.  This
  unique ability is in effect during all players’ turns and does not
  cost any actions to perform.

Emphasis mine.


Does an ability that increase the number of creatures affect the instant or sorcery that triggers it?

Short answer: the creature created by Talrand, Sky Summoner counts for Massive Raid.

Long answer:

The result would depend on the wording, There isn't a general rule.

Spell are cast and then, after players have had the chance to play spell or abilites in response, resolve.

When a spell is cast, it is put on the stack, its total cost is paid and targets are choosen (a few other things happen, I have just put the more important things that affect this situation).

When a instant or sorcery spell resolves, its instructions are followed in order (again, this is a simplification, but the more precise rules don't matter in this situation).

Talrand, Sky Summoner triggers when a spell is cast, not when a spell resolves. Triggered abilities are put on the stack when a player would get priority. Players get priority before Massive Raid resolves (priority is the system that allow players to play spells and abilities), so the triggered ability is put on the stack and resolves before Massive Raid resolves. Therefore, the drake created will count for Massive Raid.

If you want a detailed explanation of how the stack and priority work, you can read this answer: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/6019/2474


The hut owner only draws if none of the players sold a good.

So the rules say the following:

  [The hut owner draws] if no good was sold by any player during this phase.

The check uses the passive voice.[1] Let's change it to use the active voice so it's in terms of players, not goods.

Unfortunately, the use of "no" complicates things. So let's work with the opposite check.

  The hut owner draws unless any good was sold by any player during this phase.

This is easy to convert to the active voice

  The hut owner draws unless any player sold any good during this phase.

So if a player sold a good, the owner of the hut doesn't get to draw.

In case that's not clear let's negate the check again to remove the "unless".

  The hut owner draws if none of the players sold any good during this phase.

All of the above instructions are equivalent.

If they wanted to check to see if the hut owner had sold goods, they could have used the following:

  if no good was sold by this player during this phase.

  if this player sold no goods during this phase.

  if this player didn't sell any goods during this phase.

("Them" and "they" could be used in lieu of "this player.")

"X was verbed by Y" means the same thing as "Y verbed X".

The former phrasing is called "the passive voice".

The "the passive voice" is what people call the former phrasing.

Using the passive voice is usually weaker than using the passive voice. Notice how I was able to hide who calls that phrasing the passive voice in the former? With the active voice, I was force to say who did calls it the active voice, and this reveals the fact that was hiding the authority, hiding that it's English grammaticians that call this the passive voice.

You might have noticed this if you used grammar checker while composing a document. They will frequently suggest replacing the use of the passive voice with the active voice.

However, using the passive voice focuses on the thing on which the action was performed (by placing it first in the sentence) rather than focusing on what performed the action, and that can be an advantage.


Chess: Efficient training for recreational players

Chess.com has a tactical trainer which I've found very good. It's available through their iPhone app as well as their website, although with a free subscription you're limited to 3 puzzles per day.

http://www.chess.com/tactics/

Each puzzle and player has an Elo rating, and if you solve the puzzle then both the puzzle's and your own rating are adjusted, and you're given another puzzle of similar rating.

Aside from this, record your games and go back through and have your opponent point out errors. When you're playing a game casually and it's clear you're down in material and position position, just concede and start another game. At that point you're just playing to hope your opponent slips up, which isn't a very good strategy.


Betrayal at House on the Hill - "Voodoo" (Haunt 25) - Do you continue if the traitor dies?

You should continue.

The rules for winning and losing are defined by the specific scenarios, not the general game rules. The (heroes) rules for haunt #25 state what is required for the heroes to win:

  You Win When ...
  ... you destroy all of the dolls and at least half
  (rounding up) of the original heroes are still
  alive.

The main rulebook does NOT say that you must have a monster in order to continue with the traitor dead. What it says is:

  The first side (traitor or heroes) that completes its goals
  for the haunt wins the game.
  At least one hero must survive in order for the heroes to win.
  However, some haunts include goals that are written so that
  the traitor can still win the game after he or she dies. For
  instance, the monsters that player controls may be able to
  win the game without the traitor’s help.

(Emphasis mine). The idea of having monsters to help you win is just one example of how the traitor can win after he dies. It is clear that in order for the heroes to win, they need to meet the requirements in their rules. Killing the traitor has no effect on this (unless their rules state that specifically).


How important is base size in Warhammer 40K?

It's a grey area, but it's preferred that models be played with the bases provided with them with some exceptions for scenic bases.  Generally as long as you haven't modeled for a clear advantage(such as using a base that's 9" tall) most players will be OK with it.  To be on the safe side, you should have a standard based guy to swap in for the scenic base model it it ever appears your custom base would have an effect on the game.

There was an issue a few years back at a GW sponsored GT where a Demon player who won the tournament used smaller than standard bases for his Bloodcrushers.  It was felt that this gave his particular army an unfair advantage due to some of that codex's unique rules. As a result, most tournaments will have a policy like this one from the Nova Open:

  Basing Policy

  Models must be played on the bases provided with them.
  Models may    be played on scenic bases of identical size to the bases provided    with them.  If  you have a question, ask ahead of
  time.

  If your    scenic bases are smaller than they should be, be aware that you may    be asked not to  use the models at all (if the
  organizers believe you    brought them on such bases to gain an
  advantage), or to count them    as the appropriate base size.
  If your scenic bases are larger than    they should be, the above (in re: smaller bases) applies as  well.     Additionally, keep in
  mind that if an opponent is able to reach one    of your larger bases
  with a shooting attack or charge, you may not    use the excuse of
  base size to prevent it.  The  corollary does NOT    apply – you may
  not gain extra range or charges due to larger bases.     In  short,
  you gain no advantages for unusual base size, but may gain
  additional handicaps.

  Skimmers must be mounted (but not necessarily    glued) on the bases provided with them, save  for situations where    the rules allow for
  / require otherwise.

  We recognize that some    skimmer bases are largely impractical for mounting your units on;  if    you have a different basing route
  you've gone with, simply give us a    heads up ahead of  time – we’ll
  work to help ensure the comfortable    play ability and stability of
  your models

Most players I know will try to conform to the big tournament guidelines. Of course, I play with a fairly competitive group that hits a few big GT's every year.