So 'dual wielding' isn't a term that's used in Warhammer Fantasy's rules. But models frequently have more than one weapon.  As a general rule however, this is more for the ability to choose the right tool for the right job, as opposed to using multiple weapons at the same time.

There are two times when a character will use two different weapons at once:
1) Brace of pistols: Some characters have the option of taking multiple pistols.  They're stat block will explain exactly how they work, since 'repeater pistols' work slightly differently than 'repeater handbows' which are again slightly different from someone who is just covered in flintlock pistols.

2) Models with extra hand weapons can use them in combat for an extra attack.  There are a whole bunch of times where this doesn't work, but basically as long as the model is on foot, and not using any special weapons, or magical weapons, then an extra hand weapon will grant 1 extra attack.

If a model has multiple different kinds of weapons, the general rule is that you choose which one he is using at the start of the round.


How does Goad interact with Archangel of Tithes?

They must attack the goading player.

With Goad there are 2 requirements, one for if they are able to attack, and one for who they attack. When determining if an attack is legal you need to make sure it fulfills as many requirements as possible (without violating any restrictions like the Angel's preventing attacks) First are they able to attack? Second can they attack a player other than the one that goaded them?

In this case the creatures are able to attack, but there are no  players other than the one that goaded them they can attack. Since they are able to fulfill one of the requirements (the must attack) they do so even if it means violating another one (not attacking the goading player if able). Not attacking would fulfill fewer requirements so it is not a legal attack, and attacking the player with the Angel would violate a restriction so it is also not legal.

From the Commander 2017 Release Notes:

  If the creature doesn't meet any of the above exceptions and can attack, it must attack a player other than the controller of the spell or ability that goaded it if able. It the creature can't attack any of those players but could otherwise attack, it must attack an opposing planeswalker (controlled by any opponent) or the player who goaded it.


169

While Chris is technically correct, as far as strategy is concerned, there is no difference between having an Ace & King of spades vs. Ace & King of hearts. There is however a difference between having a suited Ace & King vs. a non-suited Ace & King. Looking at it that way, there are 169 possible starting hands.


Does Redshirts Deluxe fix the stalemate issues of the original game?

The new version clarified a lot of the rules, and fixed a lot of problems with the game including removing "play anytime" from cards.

If you were unable to end the game because people were playing too many cards out of turn, then the removal of the "play anytime" rule from all the cards should reduce this type of stalemate. It is still possible to play cards in response to a mission attempt, but the sequence is more clearly defined, as is when cards can be played.

The new version of the rules can be found here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/84529/redshirts-deluxe-edition-rules


What happens if I double Meddling Mage's 'enter the battlefield' trigger?

Nothing happens; you can't double Meddling Mage's 'enter the battlefield' trigger since it doesn't have one.

But then... what is the thing that happens as the Mage enters the battlefield? Well, it's a replacement effect:

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

while triggered abilities are always worded differently (at least in Oracle, but Meddling Mage is modern enough):

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

The rulings below Panharmonicon also note this:

  Abilities that apply “as [this creature] enters the battlefield,” such as choosing a creature to copy with Clone, are unaffected.

In most Magic games, the difference between these kind of replacement effects and triggered abilities can be neglected, but not in this particular case. Another difference is that after Meddling Mage starts to resolve and it's on the battlefield 'banning' a specific card, nobody gets priority so you can't sneak in a final casting of the named card - you'd have to do so while the Mage is still on the stack.


What is "summoning sickness" and how does it affect my creatures?

Summoning Sickness
"Summoning Sickness" is simply the name for rule 302.6:

A creature's activated ability with the tap symbol [{T}] or the untap symbol [{Q}] in its activation cost can't be activated unless the creature has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can't attack unless it has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning sickness" rule.

It is not a status or effect on a creature. It is simply a rule that restricts how you can use a creature that just entered play.
In other words
Which creatures are affected?
Rule 302.6 only checks for two things:

The permanent is a creature
It doesn't matter how the creature entered the battlefield or whether it's represented by a card or a token. It also doesn't matter when it became a creature; it's still the same permanent when it changes types.

It was not under your control continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn.
This just means that if, at any time since the beginning of your most recent turn, you did not control the creature, then it has summoning sickness.

Example: During your turn, you cast a Grizzly Bears. Once it is on the battlefield, it is affected by summoning sickness until the beginning of your next turn
Example: You control a Quicksilver Amulet, an artifact with the ability "{4}, {T}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield." You activate it and put a Grizzly Bears onto the battlefield. That Grizzly Bears is affected by summoning sickness until the beginning of your next turn
Example: You cast Krenko's Command, which has the text "Create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens." Those goblin tokens are affected by summoning sickness until the beginning of your next turn
Example: You cast Entrancing Melody targeting an opponent's Grizzly Bears. After Entrancing Melody resolves and you control the Grizzly Bears, it is affected by summoning sickness until the beginning of your next turn
Example: You cast Sky Skiff, and later in the same turn, you activate its Crew ability. After the Crew ability resolves, the Sky Skiff is affected by summoning sickness
Example: You control a Sky Skiff at the beginning of your turn. During that turn you activate its Crew ability. After the crew ability resolves, the Sky Skiff is not affected by summoning sickness
How are those creatures affected?
Rule 302.6 only prevents the creatures it affects from doing 3 things:

Attacking
Specifically, the creature cannot be declared as an attacker during your combat phase. It can still block, fight, or be put onto the battlefield attacking.

Activating their own abilities with the tap symbol {T} in the cost

Activating their own abilities with the untap symbol {Q} in the cost

Summoning sickness does not prevent you from paying other costs, even if they involve tapping the creature. It also does not prevent you from activating abilities without {T} or {Q} in the cost. And it has no effect on other kinds of abilities, like static or triggered abilities.
Example: You control Loam Dryad, a creature with the ability "{T}, Tap an untapped creature you control: Add one mana of any color." You can only activate this ability if Loam Dryad is unaffected by summoning sickness, but you can tap any other creature you control to pay for the ability, even if the other creature is affected by summoning sickness
Example: You control Heritage Druid, an elf creature with the ability "Tap three untapped Elves you control: Add {G}{G}{G}". You can tap any three elves you control, including Heritage Druid itself, to activate the ability, whether or not any of them are affected by summoning sickness
Haste
There is a single exception to this rule: Haste. The rules for Haste say the following:

702.10a Haste is a static ability.
702.10b If a creature has haste, it can attack even if it hasn’t been controlled by its controller continuously since his or her most recent turn began. (See rule 302.6.)
702.10c If a creature has haste, its controller can activate its activated abilities whose cost includes the tap symbol or the untap symbol even if that creature hasn’t been controlled by that player continuously since his or her most recent turn began. (See rule 302.6.)
702.10d Multiple instances of haste on the same creature are redundant.

In short, if a creature has haste, it can ignore rule 302.6.
Note that Suspend, Unearth, Dash, Awaken, and Riot can grant Haste. At the time of this writing, no other keyword abilities do. In particular, Flash does not grant Haste.

Specific Cases
Does status matter?
For reference, the rule describing status is rule 110.6:

A permanent's status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.

A creature's status is independent of summoning sickness. In other words, if a creature enters the battlefield tapped or face down, it is still affected by summoning sickness like normal. And if the status changes, it's still the same creature, so you still just have to check whether you controlled the creature since your turn started to determine whether it's affected.
Conversely, summoning sickness does not affect a creature's status. Being summoning sick does not change whether a creature is tapped vs. untapped or face up vs. face down.
What if it's a creature with another card type?
Then it is affected by summoning sickness, just like any other creature. The summoning sickness rule only checks whether the permanent is a creature. It doesn't check that it is not any other type.
A special mention should be made for Dryad Arbor. Because it is a Forest, it has an intrinsic ability (see rule 305.6) that says

"{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool"

Since that ability has {T} in the cost, you cannot activate it as long as Dryad Arbor is affected by summoning sickness.
What if it's a double-faced card that just transformed?
Rule 711 describes how double-faced cards work, and 711.7 says

When a double-faced permanent transforms, it doesn't become a new object. Any effects that applied to that permanent will continue to apply to it after it transforms.

For the purposes of this question, that means that when a creature transforms, it is only affected by summoning sickness if it was affected before it transformed.
What if it's a copy of another creature?
If creature A enters the battlefield as a copy of creature B, then creature A is affected by summoning sickness, like any other creature that just entered the battlefield. (This is true even if it's a token.)
If creature A becomes a copy of creature B, then it is only affected by summoning sickness if it would have been affected before it became a copy. It doesn't matter whether creature B was affected by summoning sickness. This is analogous to the "transform" case: the creature's characteristics change, but it's still the same object that it was before it changed.
Rule 706.2 says, in part

The "copiable values" are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and "as . . . is turned face up" abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.

Importantly, summoning sickness is not mentioned here, and neither is anything that rule 302.6 checks for except type. If the copy isn't a creature, it is not affected by summoning sickness.


Yes, there is nothing special about the Adventure half of an Adventurer card while it is on the stack. Comprehensive rules 715.3b:

While on the stack as an Adventure, the spell has only its alternative characteristics.

Countering the Adventure half of an Adventurer card is often a very good play to make as the countered spell goes to its owner's graveyard, not into exile where the non-Adventure half of the card can be cast - e.g. if you counter Stomp, its owner does not get to cast Bonecrusher Giant from exile.
A small note on terminology: the spell does not have halves. An Adventurer card has alternative characteristics, and if cast with those alternative characteristics it is then a spell with solely those characteristics - e.g. what is on the stack is either the instant spell Stomp or the creature spell Bonecrusher Giant, not a split object with both sets of characteristics. This may seem pedantic but it can be important - for example, you cannot use Essence Scatter to counter Stomp, because it is not a creature spell.


It depends on the trigger condition.

Wurmcoil Engine triggers when it dies. Dies means something very specific in Magic: the Gathering:

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

If Wurmcoil Engine is countered, it goes straight from the stack to the graveyard, bypassing the battlefield entirely.

  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.

If the trigger condition were different, like "Whenever Wurmcoil Engine gets countered, [...]" or "Whenever Wurmcoil Engine is put into the graveyard, [...]" then it would trigger.

A commentor helped me find a creature that would still give you a token even if it were countered. Desolation Twin triggers when you cast the spell. Once triggered, the trigger exists independently of the actual spell. Even if Desolation Twin gets countered, the trigger will still resolve, and you will still get a token.


Did every booster of Unglued contain basic land?

Every pack of Unglued should contain a basic land, barring any collation issues.

After fourth edition all large sets used a separate sheet for basic lands, but small sets still had their lands printed on the common sheet (why use extra sheets when you have 110-121 slots to fill?).

While the sheet distribution for Unglued isn't known, at 94 cards it definitely falls into the small set category, and most likely only had two print sheets.


Should a judge fix a solution agreed to by players?

Players cannot make rulings, that should be obvious; only judges can.

From the Tournament Rules:

  Judges do not intervene in a game to prevent illegal actions, but do intervene as soon as a rule has been broken or to prevent a situation from escalating. More information on floor judge responsibilities can be found in the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide.

So if a rule has been broken but the game has continued, whether or not the players are aware that a rule has been broken, the judge will intervene as soon as he or she is aware of the situation.

Players can only make decisions regarding how to play the game, and if it comes to the attention of a judge that game rules have been broken, the judge will try to restore the game to a correct state as best as possible up to and including restarting the game, and/or will issue the necessary penalties according to the Judging at Regular REL rules or the Infraction Procedure Guide after evaluating all the evidence and assessing the situation.


Mana cost and color are two completely separate characteristics. Thran Lens only modifies the color, not the mana cost, and so Thran Lens has no effect on devotion.

Devotion

  700.5. A player’s devotion to [color] is equal to the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents that player controls.

Mana Cost

  202.1. A card’s mana cost is indicated by mana symbols near the top of the card.

Color

  202.2. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame.

  202.2f Effects may change an object’s color, give a color to a colorless object, or make a colored object become colorless


Who takes extra turns first when I copy someone else's "take an extra turn" card?

The player who cast the spell that creates extra turns will take their extra turn(s), and then the player who copied the spell will take their extra turn(s).

From the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

  500.7. Some effects can give a player extra turns. They do this by adding the turns directly after the current turn. If a player gets multiple extra turns or if multiple players get extra turns during a single turn, the extra turns are added one at a time. The most recently created turn will be taken first.

The order in which the spells resolve will determine the order of the extra turns. For example:

Player A casts Time Stretch targeting themself, adding it to the stack
Player B copies it using  Reiterate, adding a copy of Time Stretch targeting themself to the stack
Player B's Time Stretch will resolve, giving them two extra turns after the current turn
Player A's Time Stretch will resolve, giving them two extra turns after the current turn

Player A's extra turns are created after Player B's, so they will get the next two turns because are the most recent extra turns. The new turns will be taken in the order {A, A, B, B}. Then the game will return to normal turn order, which assuming it was Player A's turn when Time Stretch was cast, will belong to Player B. From the point of the Time Stretch, the next set of turns will look like {A, A, B, B, B, A, B, A...}. Note that nothing in this prevents the original caster from taking additional turns.


You are correct.

The card text :

  Destroy the lowest-power minion(you choose in case of a tie) on each
  base with higher-power minion.

So the Lowest minion (even yours) on each base with a higher minion (from anyone) die.


How do Rum and Lucky Duke/Horse Shoes interact?

Another possibility:
This doesn't follow the letter of the rules, but since it's a translation, I think it might be more appropriate to attempt to follow the spirit of the rules.
There's several characters (most, even) whose special abilities essentially are like having a "built-in" item. Willy the Kid has a built-in Volcanic, Paul Regret has a built-in Mustang. I think the intention for Lucky Duke is to have built-in Horse Shoes. Although the wording is different on Lucky Duke and Horse Shoes, for any standard single-card "Draw", the effect of either one is the same.
Continuing with this logic, the correct way for Lucky Duke to use Rum, would be to draw an extra card, for 5 total. And if he has Horse Shoes, then he gets one more for 6. This is much like Jourdonnais, who has a built-in barrel. (Okay, Jourdonnais' ability isn't exactly a barrel since it only applies to Bang! cards, but it's darn close.)
This isn't official, but in addition to the reasons above, I think it makes sense from a balance perspective. Lucky Duke definitely shouldn't have a disadvantage for a luck-based card like Rum, but drawing 8 cards is perhaps too good. See the probability discussion below, and you can decide for yourself how good Lucky Duke's ability should be.
Probability simulations:
From our comments, I got curious about how much of an advantaged each of these methods would allow. I coded it up and a million simulations of each. As I suspected, the drawing two-at-time method is nicest (but it's not as much of an improvement over drawing 5 and choosing 4 as I would have thought). The means (and standard deviations) are in the table below, and the graph below that shows the distribution of unique suits obtained under each rule. If anyone wants to see the code, leave a comment and I'll edit it into my answer.
Draw 4   Draw5   Draw 8
   2.7     3.1      3.3
  (0.63)  (0.64)   (0.56)

Under the draw 5 rule and the draw 8 rule you're the odds of gaining 3 life are about the same (58.8% and 59.9%, respectively), but you see an increased chance of only gaining 2 life in the Draw5 rule.
  Gain    Draw 4   Draw5   Draw 8
2 life    30%      15%      6%
3 life    58%      59%     60%
4 life    11%      26%     34%

I abbreviated the draw-2-at-a-time rule to "draw 8", but I modeled it appropriately as two-at-a-time, picking one of the first 2 randomly, then for each subsequent two cards picking randomly unless one suit was already selected and the other wasn't. Each set of draws was from a 52-card deck with 13 of each suit. I'm not sure exactly how many cards Bang uses, but it's probably close enough.


In MTG, can you counter a spell that requires cards to be revealed after they are revealed?

This was incorrect. When a player casts a spell, it goes on the stack, and then each player has a chance to respond to it by casting other things, such as Countersquall, before the spell resolves.

When both players pass, then the top spell of the stack resolves, which is when you follow the instructions on the card*. So by the time your opponent was searching for cards, you would have had to already passed and chosen not to respond to or counter Jarad's Orders.

*To add some details for full accuracy: There are some instructions on cards that come into play before a card resolves. Especially:

Additional or alternate costs - Some cards have additional costs for casting;  in the case of Draconic Roar, your opponent would reveal the card as part of casting the spell, before it resolves. This is because it's part of the cost.
Targets - You choose all targets for a spell as part of the casting process. So if your opponent casts a Lightning Bolt, you will know what he is trying to do damage to before you decide if you want to counter it or not. But note that the cards found with Jarad's Orders were not targets, because the card doesn't use the word "target".
Modes - For cards that have multiple options of how they can be used, this choice is made while casting the spell. See Healing Salve.


Custom Heroes - Charmy pile order reversal

Normal order and the reversal occurs after that play.

I'm not sure where the confusion lies because the description literally says the effect starts "after a Charmy is played". In fact, it mentions the reversal only happens after you play the card and activate the ability not once, but twice. Until you activate the ability by playing the card, you still need to play a card of equal of greater value.


How can I speed up the setup of Eclipse?

I've found through my plays of Eclipse that there are 4 things you can do to speed up setup:

1) Take the bags where you put the ships in for each player. Add 3 colony ships, the storage markers, the starbases, all cubes and disks. You'll have a bag for each player with all the stuff they need to setup their player board.

2) Buy a 'bead storage box'. Craft section of Michaels or Walmart. Put your sorted upgrades in here. Setting up the supply board is as simple as taking the lid off of this box and placing technology tiles.

3) Buy some Population Trays off the internet. These are specifically for eclipse. You can buy the ones with lids and that will let you store all the cubes for a given player in the tray. Setting up a player board is as simple as opening the lid and dumping the contents of their bag next to the board.

4) Have all other components pre-sorted and bagged seperately.

It takes < 5 minutes to go from putting the box on the table to making my first action with this setup.

Population Trays: http://www.beklaser.com/en/6-eclipse


Do blocking creatures heal back to full between phases?

It will be destroyed. All damage done to the creature in most cases stays until the very end of the turn (cleanup step).

  119.6. Damage marked on a creature remains until the cleanup step, even if that permanent stops being a creature. If the total damage marked on a creature is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed as a state-based action (see rule 704). All damage marked on a permanent is removed when it regenerates (see rule 701.12, “Regenerate”) and during the cleanup step (see rule 514.2).


You should pretty much always call a judge when something weird like that happens. Don't think of this as starting a confrontation with the judge or with your opponent - judges are simply the experts in how to fix weird things, and in doing so such that both players will usually think they were treated fairly. That said, if you called the judge over, they would probably just put the missed trigger on the stack at that point. Here's the guidelines from the Judging at Regular Rules Enforcement Level (REL) document (emphasis added):

  [Triggered] abilities are considered missed if the player did not acknowledge the ability in any way at the point
  that it required choices or had a visible in-game effect. If the ability includes the word “may,” assume the
  player chose not to perform it. Otherwise, put the ability on the stack unless you think it would be too
  disruptive - don’t add it to the stack if significant decisions have been made based on the effect not
  happening! Unlike other illegal actions (which must be pointed out), players may choose whether or not to
  point out their opponent's missed triggers.

Since the trigger was mandatory and since no significant decisions had happened since, the bold line says that the ability should go on the stack when noticed.

(At higher RELs, the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide has a lot more to say on how to handle missed triggers. You can read that yourself to see how your specific case would be handled in a Competitive setting, but ultimately calling over a judge and letting them handle it is the right move either way. By Tournament Rules, intentionally missing your mandatory trigger is Cheating at any REL.)


Can I play an instant when my opponent taps their lands to cast an instant?

To answer the titular question:
No, you can not play an instant when your opponent taps mana to cast an instant.

This when a player is allowed to preform a certain action is a fairly in depth topic, and if you want to learn more about it I would recommend the following sources:

In plain English, how does casting spells and using creature abilities work with the stack and priority?
Magic's Comprehensive Rules

However to summarize, you can not cast an instant "in response" to your opponent tapping their lands because of two reasons:

You do not receive priority (and therefore can not act) until after your opponent finishes casting a spell. This is outlined throughout 601.2 (Rules for casting a spell) with the relevant part here (Italicized text mine):

  601.2i: Once the steps described in 601.2a–h (Steps to casting a spell including, paying costs and choosing targets) are completed, effects that modify the characteristics of the spell as it’s cast are applied, then the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

Mana abilities (such as tapping lands) do not use the stack and can not be responded to. This is outlined here:

  605.3b: An activated mana ability doesn’t go on the stack, so it can’t be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)

To address the specific example in the body of your question, No you can not cast Duress to force your opponent to discard the counter spell before he finishes casting it. In addition to the reasons above, you can not cast Duress in response to anything as it is a sorcery. Sorceries may only be cast during one of your main phases when the stack is empty (Comprehensive Rules 307).


Will transforming Thing in the Ice with a token-summoning spell bounce my tokens?

You'll wind up with your Awoken Horror plus two zombies. Awoken Horror will not bounce your zombies, because the whole transformation/bouncing process will happen while Gisa's Bidding is still on the stack.

Here's the process, assuming players do nothing but keep passing priority after you cast Gisa's Bidding:

You cast Gisa's Bidding. It goes on the stack.
You have cast a sorcery spell. Thing in the Ice's triggered ability goes on top of the stack. (In case it's unclear, "when you cast" triggers happen right after you've cast the spell, before it resolves.)
Thing in the Ice's ability resolves: you remove an ice counter from it, and since it has none left, you transform it as instructed and turn it over to its back face.
Awoken Horror has transformed, and its triggered ability goes on top of the stack.
Awoken Horror's ability resolves, and bounces all non-Horrors.
Finally, Gisa's Bidding resolves and gives you two 2/2 zombies.


From the 2014 Laws of Rubber Bridge:

Law 76 - Responsibility for the Score
....  Honors may be claimed until the next hand has been dealt, or the
rubber has been completed and scored - whichever comes sooner.

and

Law 78 Correction of the Score
When it is acknowledged by a majority of the players that a scoring error was made in recording an
agreed upon result (e.g. failure to enter honors or incorrect
computation of score), the error must be corrected if discovered
before the net score for the rubber has been agreed to. However,
except with the consent of all four players, an erroneous agreement as
to the number of tricks won by each side may not be corrected after
all players have called on the next deal.
In case of disagreement
between two scores kept, the recollection of the majority of the
players as to the facts governs.


According to the ACC's tournament rule 7.3, on reneging:

  Any cards played after the renege occurs or the pegging of a "go" shall be retrieved by both players, and any points pegged (or scored) are retracted. The non-offending player receives two points for each card that singly could have been played (judges confirm number of cards). The nonoffending player decides if the reneged card(s) will be dead or played. Play continues, and all cards in both hands and crib are counted.

In your example, the play would be brought back to the point of the incorrect go call, the non-offending team would peg two points, and then decide whether or not the remaining six would get to be played.  The scoring of the hands would be unaffected.


How many points are won/lost during this exchange?

First of all, moves 2 and 4 absolutely cannot be swapped for the same result. If white plays at 4 first, black would connect at 2. And white has to spend another move protecting the cut. It's a whole world of difference.

Secondly, the name for white 2 is "throw-in". The corresponding Chinese name is "扑", which means "to leap".

Now, let's analyze the situation:

$$ six=two
$$ -.......
$$ -.......
$$ -...OOOO
$$ -4....XO
$$ -1OOOOOX
$$ -XOXXO.X
$$ -2X5.XX.
$$ -3......
$$ --------

versus

$$ Optimal exchange
$$ -.......
$$ -.......
$$ -...OOOO
$$ -c....XO
$$ -2OOOOOX
$$ -XOXXO.X
$$ -1Xa.XX.
$$ -b......
$$ --------

In the actual game, black presumably captures two stones (2 and 6) while white also captures two stones, so that part balances out. Compared to the optimal solution (lower figure), black put 2 more stones in his own territory (at a and b in the lower figure) while white only put one more (c). So that's a -1 point for black right there.

The true loss for black lies in the fact that black could have had sente (lower figure), instead of gote as happened in the actual game. The point value of that is dependent on the rest of the board, but is usually quite high.


To the best of my knowledge...

You can play a beer card on your turn, even if it has no effect.

You can only play a beer card off-turn if you've taken a lethal hit.


How can I become a better Connect Four player?

Connect 4 is a solved game.  Memorize the solution, and you should be able to win every single time.

Go to the following resource

http://www.connectfour.net/Files/connect4.pdf

I came to that link from The Wikipedia article, so in case the link ever breaks, you should be able to find another by searching for the "connect 4 solution"

That article has a lot of strategic analysis about connect 4, and Even if you can't memorize the solved strategy perfectly, you should be able to glean a lot of good strategic practices from section 3 which is titled Some Strategic Rules for Connect-Four


Nope card following a chain of Attack Cards

Player D nopes the attack card of player C. So it is still player C's turn and he/she has to resolve the double attack.

See this question for the resolution of the double attack.


After playing a Swap Your Hand card should the player draw in Saboteur 2?

Player A should not draw.  The player the card was played on is the one who draws.

Another way to think about it:

Before the swap turn, Player A has X cards and Player B has Y cards.  Player A plays a swap on Player B.  Assuming the deck has cards in it, afterward Player A should have Y cards and Player B should have X cards.

Another way to think about it:

If both players have a full complement of 6 cards, and a swap is played, both players should end up with 6 cards when the dust settles.  Assuming there are cards left in the deck, of course.


May I play only one Tenacious Z or all of them from discard pile in my turn?

One.

It says

  You may only use the ability of one Tenacious Z each turn.

It doesn't say

  You may only use the ability of a Tenacious Z once each turn.


If a judge disallows "Direct" spells, can they still be played?

Based off a cursory glance through the rules:
If a spell type is disallowed by a judge, it may not be used for its normal effect.
Using your example, given that Direct spells are disallowed, you would not be able to play Direct Spells while that Judge is active. So you wouldn't be able to get a fighter ejected by playing direct-type spells on them. Similarly, if you have a judge that disallows support spells, you can't Dimension Door them away as Dimension Door is a support spell and thus disallowed.
If a card is played that is disallowed by the current judge (excluding "Foul Play!" in round 3) or was played incorrectly, it is discarded and its effect ignored (see page 16, under Disallowed Use of Cards).
All spells played on a fighter contribute to their mana count.
Looking at page 13 shows an example where the only spells cast were Enchant spells (immediately before judgement, all face-down cards played on fighters are turned face-up). The judge is Lawty, mana limit 10 and intervention of Dispel. The Orc only has a Might enchantment applied, which places his mana at 4, well below the limit. The skeleton, though, has both Might and Giant Growth, which gives him 14 mana - over the limit. So the skeleton would be dispelled due to Lawty's intervention. If Lawty's intervention type were Eject instead, the skeleton would've been ejected.


Optimal Dominion strategy with only the Mine action card

Using the Dominiate Online Simulator I simulated a few Mine and money strategies in two player games against Big Money. The best strategy I could find was to play Big Money, but buy a Mine in preference to Silver if there is enough money. The simulator upgrades Silvers to Gold rather than Coppers to Silvers if there's a choice (the Dominion Strategy Guide agrees with this decision here).

I tested varying the number of Mines to aim for and simulated 1000 games against Big Money.  Here are the results:

1 Mine:  59.1% wins
2 Mines: 56.3% wins
3 Mines: 53.1% wins
4 Mines: 49.7% wins

After the first Mine, additional Mines hinder your deck, as you start to draw two terminal actions in some hands. This is backed up by Matt Sargent's investigation where he tried to find the optimal number of various different single cards in 'Single Action plus Big Money' decks.

If you want to try simulating this yourself, here's the strategy I was using:

{
    name: 'One Mine and Money'
    author: 'tttppp'
    requires: ['Mine']
    gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
        "Province" if my.getTotalMoney() > 18
        "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 4
        "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
        "Gold"
        "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 6
        "Mine" if my.countInDeck("Mine") < 1
        "Silver"
    ]
}


When you "sacrifice 3 creatures" as a cost, are they sacrificed one at a time?

When you “sacrifice 3 creatures” as a cost, are they sacrificed one at a time?

No. "Sacrifice 3 creatures" only has one keyword action. This differs from "Sacrifice a creature. Sacrifice a creature. Sacrifice a creature."

When a payment consists of more than one action, those action aren't performed simultaneously as per the rule you quoted ("in any order"). That is practically never relevant.

It means that if part of the cost requires that you sacrifice a permanent, and that part of the cost requires that you tap a permanent, you could tap a permanent then sacrifice that same permanent. If all parts of the payment was done simultaneously, I don't think that would be possible.

In this case, there's only one action ("sacrifice"), so asking about order makes no sense. All three creatures are sacrificed at once since there's only one instruction to sacrifice.

So yes, for each black and white creature you sacrifice at the same time as Teysa, Teysa's second ability will trigger. Because of 603.6d, all that's relevant is that the Teysa was on the battlefield immediately before the sacrifice, and that the sacrificed creatures were black[1]. This is supported by a ruling on Teysa:

  You may sacrifice Teysa itself to help pay for its first ability, but unlike other white and black creatures, it won't cause its second ability to trigger. Any other white and black creatures you sacrifice to pay for the first ability will cause the second ability to trigger.

It doesn't matter that Teysa left the battlefield during, that Teysa isn't on the battlefield afterwards, or that one of the creatures became a colorless artifact card when it got sacrificed.


Do morph cards suffer summoning sickness

Playing creatures face down and turning them face up (commonly called morphing/unmorphing) has no effect on them having summoning sickness. Unless they have haste, they have summoning sickness until they've been in play since the beginning of your most recent turn, whether they've been turned face up or not.

For example, if you play a creature face down then immediately turn it face up, it still has summoning sickness until your next turn. Similarly, if you play a creature face down, wait til it no longer has summoning sickness, and then turn it face up, it still doesn't have summoning sickness.

Morph does have a lot of interesting rules associated with it, but a morphed creature is still a creature. Morph means:

  You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost by paying {3} rather than paying its mana cost.

There's nothing in there about having haste, so like all creatures, it has summoning sickness. (It can't attack, and its activated abilities with a tap or untap symbol in their costs can't be activated unless it's been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn.)

Similarly, turning it face up has its share of rules, but all it really does is turn the creature face up:

  [pay the cost] ... turn the permanent face up. ... The morph effect on it ends, and it regains its normal characteristics.

It's still the same creature it was before, so if it already had summoning sickness, it still does, and if it didn't have summoning sickness, it still doesn't.


Does removing First Strike affect creatures with Double strike?

No.  First Strike and Double Strike are entirely separate abilities.

First Strike and Double Strike are different abilities with overlap in their effects.  Effects that care about First Strike ignore Double Strike, and vis versa.

From the rulings on Urborg (which has the ability "{T}: Target creature loses first strike or swampwalk until end of turn."):

  Urborg’s second ability affects only the first strike ability, not the part of the double strike ability that acts like first strike.


Is an artifact creature considered an artifact?

Yes, an object is all of its types, subtypes, and supertypes at the same time.
A condition on an effect only cares about the stated qualities of the object(s) being true. It does not care about any of its other qualities, they can be whatever they are. Enlightened Tutor lets you search for an artifact or enchantment card; it doesn't care if, as in your example, an artifact card is also a creature.

205.2. Card Types
205.2a The card types are artifact, conspiracy, creature, enchantment, instant, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, tribal, and vanguard. See section 3, “Card Types.”
205.2b Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any effect that applies to any of their card types.

Subtypes (such as land types, creature types, etc.) and supertypes (such as legendary, basic etc.) have equivalent rules.


How does the "Special Orders" special event card work?

It's the dispatcher ability minus bringing people together.  For example, you can use it to move the containment specialist or (with a cure) the medic through cities to remove cubes.  We've done this to get double duty out of the medic late in the game when we were racing the board.

You are using your own move actions (and any constraints or benefits they bring) to move the other player.  (You spend your own cards for flights, for example.)  The other player's abilities are relevant if they are effects of moving, but not if they involve actions.

To address your cases:

Generalist moving the medic through a cured disease: cubes are removed; gets to move five times.
Medic moving the generalist through a cured disease: no effect (the medic didn't enter the city), four moves.
Troubleshooter moving ops expert by direct flight: Troubleshooter reveals the correct card rather than discarding it (his ability); but doesn't get to use an arbitrary card if at a research station (the ops expert's ability).
Someone moving the dispatcher, attempting to move a third player: no, you don't get access yourself to the other player's special abilities.  (But you could just move that third player instead with this action.)

See this thread on Boardgame Geek, particularly the comments from Tom Lehmann, the co-designer of On the Brink.  (Thanks to @tremby for pointing this out in a comment.)


In Ticket to Ride, when completing a route do you replace the cards you used with new ones?

No. Drawing cards, both for destinations and trains, is a separate action. Finishing a route gets you points, but you need to replenish your hand manually.

The rule book says nothing about drawing cards in the section on claiming a route, if you were meant to draw cards, it would be here:

  Claim a Route – The player may claim a route on the board by playing a set of Train Car cards that match the color and length of the route and
  then placing one of his colored trains on each space of this route. He then records his score by moving his Scoring Marker the appropriate number
  of spaces (see Route Scoring Table) along the Scoring Track on the board.

Or a little later on in the section about claiming routes:

  Claiming Routes

  To claim a route, a player must play a set of cards equal to the number of spaces in the route. A set of cards must be of the same type. Most routes require a specific type of set. For example a Blue route must be claimed using blue-colored Passenger Car cards. Some routes – those that are Gray colored – can be claimed using a set of cards of any one color.

  When a route is claimed, the player places one of his plastic trains in each of the spaces of the route. All the cards in the set used to claim the route are then discarded.

  A player may claim any open route on the board. He is never required to
  connect to any of his previously played routes. A player may only claim
  a maximum of one route, hence connect two adjacent cities, never more,
  on his turn.

  Some cities are connected by Double-Routes. One player cannot claim
  both routes to the same cities.

The only way to draw cards is by taking the Draw Train Car Cards action for your turn instead of the Claim a Route action:

  Draw Train Car Cards – The player may draw 2 Train Car cards. He may take any one of the face-up cards or he may draw the top card from the
  deck (this is a blind draw). If he draws a face up card, he immediately turns a replacement card face-up from the deck. He then draws his second
  card, either from the face up cards or from the top of the deck. (See Train Car Cards for special rules for Locomotive cards).


If partner opens and I have 7 in a suit, do I go to game?

What do you mean 8 points?  If you have 8 high-card points and 7 diamonds, your hand is probably too strong for a preemptive jump, especially if most of your points are in your long suit.  With a fantastic hand like

     ♠ 3 2   ♥ 2   ♦ A K J 9 7 5 4   ♣ 4 3 2

you could easily have 3NT opposite a minimum opening such as

     ♠ A 5 4   ♥ Q 10 4 3   ♦ Q 2   ♣ A 7 6 5

With such a nice hand, your main concern should be whether your partner has major suit stoppers.

In a standard american (or 2/1 game forcing) system, you should start by bidding 1♦, and then letting the auction develop.  If your partner rebids 1NT (showing a balanced minimum with stoppers in both majors), you could conceivably raise to 2NT or even 3NT, depending on the type of scoring and your partnership style.

If you have 8 points including distribution, e.g.

     ♠ 3 2   ♥ 2   ♦ A J 9 7 6 5 3   ♣ 4 3 2

then a preemptive raise is more reasonable, depending on your partnership agreements.


How to force the opponent to take the x squares?

The permutations of the game makes it hard to come up with one specific strategy. Personally I like to "dance around" the X squares, trying to tease my opponent into placing his pieces there. But always remembering that it should cost him more than it should ever cost me.

As a general rule, your objective is to limit the number of liberties (that is, the number of moves) available to your opponent, while at the same time increasing yours. This is what is called the mobility strategy. When this objective is attained, one is said to have control of the game.

However, don't forget that you must force your opponent to make a bad move : it's not enough if he has even one non-disastrous choice at each move ; he must have no good moves at all.


Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Torrent of Souls

Determining how continuous effects interact is done using a system of layers (see also: How do Layers work?)

Copy
Control
Text
Type
Color
Add/Remove
Power

In this case, Torrent and Scion both create continuous effects that affect the P/T and abilities. Layers gives us the order in which to apply them, even if the effects were created in a different order.

Scion's copy ability applies in layer 1. So, there, it becomes a copy of Atarka.
Torrent's haste and +2/+0 are applied in layers 6 and 7. So, "Atarka" gains haste and +2/+0.

When "Atarka" attacks, it gains another ability in layer 6. It doesn't conflict with anything, so it's just added. So, you'd have an 8/4 Flying Haste Double-Strike after declare attackers.


Would spells played with Enchanted Evening in play trigger Mesa Enchantress?

No, because Enchanted Evening does not change the card type of spells on the stack.

The Enchantress' Oracle wording makes this clearer:

  Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.

"Casting" refers to the action of putting a spell on the stack.

Enchanted Evening only affects permanents. It will do so from the very moment they enter the battlefield, so they enter the battlefield as enchantments. But the spell that creates the permanent (which is the game object that's represented by the card on the stack) isn't an enchantment spell.


Under what circumstances is a declare allowed to "pause" upon seeing the dummy?

Always - it is a recommended action.

As Declarer I always pause for the 5 or so seconds you recommend when Dummy comes down; as East I will do so (by initially playing my card to the first trick face down) whenever Declarer has been so discourteous and undiscerning as to not do so. Occasionally I have to pause longer, for particularly complex hands, but I do so with the understanding that I have keyed this difficulty to the opponents, perhaps earlier than they otherwise would have.

Because of restrictions on Dummy during play of the hand, Declarer need not be concerned with the provision of Unauthorized Information to partner. However there is great benefit in not keying moderately difficult hands to the opponents. Develop the habit of always studying Dummy before playing to the first trick and your results will improve slightly.

It is always improper and potentially unethical for Dummy to play a card from Dummy before said card is specifically called by Declarer - even if that card is a singleton to be played to the opening lead. It is very possible for Dummy to provide Unauthorized Information to Declarer, and that is a reason for many of the restrictions on Dummy's actions during play of the hand.

from Laws of Duplicate Bridge - 2008

  Law 41 - COMMENCEMENT OF PLAY

  D. Dummy's Hand

  ... Declarer plays both his hand and that of dummy.

  Law 43 - DUMMY's LIMITATIONS

  Except as Law 42 allows:

  A. Limitation on Dummy

  (c) Dummy must not participate in the play, nor may he
  communicate anything about the play to declarer.

  B. If a Violation Occurs

  Dummy is liable to penalty under Law 90 for any
  violation of the limitations listed in A1 and A2
  above.

The above is very clear. If my partner ever suggests the play of a singleton from Dummy (which as noted above is all that Dummy can do, as only Declarer is able to make a play from Dummy by specifying the card.) I will call the Director myself to further reinforce the inappropriateness of the action.


How do "side effects" interact with a card that grants hexproof?

Hexproof only prevents targeting. Any effects that affect the player without targeting (e.g. "Deal 2 damage to each opponent") still work. Draconic Roar doesn't target your opponent, so his hexproof has no effect.


In bridge, is there a way to determine when and where to "transfer control" to defeat a squeeze?

Sufficiently advanced partnerships will have good enough signaling that you should be able to narrow down which stopper partner might have. For example:

Partner may give suit preference signals throughout the hand, as described in "A Switch In Time" by the Granovetters, so you should know whether partner has the missing Q.
Partner may give count throughout, so you should know whether partner has 3 clubs (and therefore may hold Jxx), if this is in doubt.
Partner may give attitude discards while declarer is playing down the squeeze suit; giving negative attitude for diamonds would eliminate the possibility they have the Q.


Summoning Beast King Barbaros with Majesty's Fiend on the field

Beast King's attack will be 1900 if you normal summon without tribute.

The effect that lets you normal summon him and decrease his attack is a continuous effect, not an activated effect, so Majesty's fiend will have no effect on it.


Is the quest leader required to be part of the team?

It is legal to create a team that does not have you on it.  It should be very rare though.  Here's why:

The argument that the previous teams succeeded is not logically strong enough to force the leader to leave himself off the team.  He could argue that the previous teams had a sleeper spy (which is not provable either way with the information public at the time) and replace one with himself.

Consider that a person can always make the argument that he trusts himself more than any other single person, and that argument is essentially irrefutable.

After all, if he is a resistance member, he knows with 100% certainty that he is a resistance member and should put himself on the team. Therefore, a resistance leader would need a very good explanation for why he would be excluding himself from the team he builds.

Since a spy should frequently act like a resistance member to be convincing, a spy leader also has a strong reason to put himself on the team and needs a good explanation to exclude himself.

In my opinion the third leader in your game played poorly in that situation.
That player should have replaced one of the earlier team members, had some discussion about it, and put it for a vote.


DO I just keep on shuffling untill the 45 minutes is up and the games end in a draw?

The fact that you asked this makes me suspect you might have the wrong idea about how Grindstone's milling ability works with Emrakul's reshuffling ability.

When you mill an Emrakul with Grindstone, you don't reshuffle immediately. Instead, you schedule the reshuffling trigger to be put on the stack after Grindstone's ability is done resolving - in particular, after your library is empty.
Then, when Emrakul's reshuffling trigger goes on the stack, both players have to have a chance to respond to it before it resolves.
After that happens - both players respond, or pass, and then the triggered ability resolves - only then do you actually shuffle your graveyard into your library.
And at this point, Grindstone's milling effect is over and done.
Nothing else gets milled until your opponent is able to activate Grindstone's ability again, most likely during their next turn.

The net effect of this is that, as long as you have Emrakul in your library, your opponent's Grindstone ability does very little (assuming, as I do throughout this answer, that no other relevant spells or abilities are used). Yes, they can mill your entire library once per turn cycle, but it gets reshuffled right afterwards, before you draw your card at the beginning of your draw step. So you wind up continuing the game pretty much as normal.

Of course, once you draw Emrakul, if it was the only one in your deck, then Grindstone can mill your entire library. So you should try to win before that happens.

To address the question you probably thought you were asking, if there is a mandatory loop of actions that keep coming back to the same game state, the game ends in a draw.

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

Obviously, you don't actually have to carry out the loop, as long as all players are satisfied that the loop exists and is, in fact, mandatory.
So if these cards somehow did create such a loop, you wouldn't keep shuffling for 45 minutes, you and your opponent(s) would just declare the game a draw and move on to the next one.

There is the question of whether it counts as the same game state if the ordering of your library is random.
If I remember correctly, there was once a deck (or at least the idea for a deck) where you would use an infinite combo to repeatedly shuffle your library until whatever card you wanted at the time happened to be on top.
While this is effectively just stacking the deck, because any ordering you want will eventually occur with probability 1, I believe the official word as announced by some high-level judges is that you can't just skip the shuffling and stack the relevant cards on top of your deck.
Similarly, it might be held that reshuffling changes the game state - perhaps depending on whether the positions of any cards were known beforehand.
But I'll have to leave that to other people to resolve.


The alchemist description found in the rules, page 18, strongly suggest that first the tax collector taxes the alchemist, then the alchemist gets money back from his construction. Then, if the alchemist has no money after building something, the tax collector gets nothing. See also a similar question on BGG.

Applying the same rationale, the diplomat swapping ability will be effective in the end of the turn, after he pays the tax collector. Note that the diplomat's collection of coins from red districts may happen before or after building something (if the player wants it, of course), as stated in the rulebook, page 12. The end of turn happens after that.


Dominion rule clarification: Repeater actions + choice actions

I read this as follows:

"Play it twice" applied to Pawn means:

Play Pawn and then
Play Pawn again

I.e. there are two subsequent plays of pawn, which implies

You can make different choices during each play
Benefits you gain during the first play are available during the second play


Does Lighting Shriekers ability activate if it dies or was exiled?

There's no conditional on that effect, except "At the beginning of the end step".

Roughly speaking, any effect is going to apply only when the card is in play, "on the battlefield", unless the effect specifies otherwise.

So the effect takes place when it says it does, roughly at the end of the current turn.  Not when it dies or is exiled.  Since the card has Haste, in effect, you get a 5/5 attacker with flying & trample for one turn only that then gets shuffled back into your deck.  Unless you have some other way to tinker with the mechanics, that effect will always take place at the end of any turn.

To clarify further, your tumblr information is correct; if it dies, and is in the graveyard at end of turn, the effect will not apply, and it will stay in the graveyard.

Something that can exile the card and then bring it back the next turn would, temporarily, circumvent the effect, if you want to keep it in play. (I thought there was a Blink card that would do this, but cannot find it now).


Where do the zombies move in this quest?

I think I found the solution. This is from the Zombicide Black Plague rulebook, page 24:

  In case there are no open paths to the noisiest Zone, Zombies move
  toward it as if all doors were open, though locked doors still stop
  them.

Which means the zombies from 5R will go stuck themselves in the dead-end of 8V until a character opens the door (which also allows another character to snipe them from the tower 10V in the meantime).


Could I play forever with this loop combination?

I assume your library is empty and your graveyard contains no other cards; otherwise you risk drawing something else (an Island?) and you'll have no Clear the Mind to cast anymore.

Even then, you cannot play forever; it's a "loop", but one with non-mandatory actions, and you'll have to use a shortcut to state how many times you want to perform the action.

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

This loop is only useful if you have some other effect, e.g. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind which turns your card draws into damage, or as you mention, Psychic Corrosion to mill your opponent.

(I don't know what happens in this situation in MTG Arena, I don't play it.)


What penalty should the Dummy receive for telegraphing to his partner after play has started?

According to the Laws of Duplicate Bridge (2008), the specific Rights and Limitations of Dummy are listed as Laws 42 and 43. Notable limitations in this context are:

  Law 43
  DUMMY'S LIMITATIONS
  Except as Law 42 allows:
  A. Limitations on Dummy     ...
     1. (c) Dummy may not participate in the play, nor may he communicate anything about the play to declarer.
  ...
   2. (c) Dummy may  not, on his own initiative, look at the face of a card in either defender's hand.

  B. If a Violation Occurs
  1. Dummy is liable to penalty under Law 90 for any violation of the limitation listed in A 1 and A2 above.
  ...
  LAW 90
  PROCEDURAL PENALTIES
  A. Director's Authority
  The Director, in addition to implementing the rectifications in these laws, may also assess procedural penalties for any offense that unduly delays or obstructs the game, inconveniences other contestants, violates correct procedure, or requires the award of an adjusted score at another table.

Additionally Law 45 F states:

  F. Dummy Indicates Card
  After dummy's hand is faced, dummy may not
  touch or indicate any card except for purposes of arrangement, without
  instruction from declarer. If he does so, the Director should be
  summoned forthwith and informed of the action. Play continues. At the
  end of play the Director shall award an adjusted score if he considers
  the dummy suggested a play to declarer and the defenders were damaged
  by the play suggested.

In a duplicate game, if a dummy at my table touched any ,in any manner other than to play a card indicated by declarer by name or to mark tricks in the prescribed fashion, I would immediately call Director for protection. I want the action to stop and to not be resumed, and the appropriate way to do that is to call Director.

As described by you, both instances of dummy's behaviour are in my opinion clearly in violation of Law 43 A 2 (c). As A Director, I would award an adjusted score (under Law 45 F) if there was the reasonable possibility that damage occurred by any play that might have been suggested by dummy's action. I would then give a stern warning to both members of the offending partnership, and (except for novices), assess an additional half board penalty (under Law 90 A) to the offending player. A repeat occurrence by either member of that partnership in that game would get the offending player an additional full board penalty (again under Law 90 A).


Progenitor Mimic destroyed in response of its triggered ability

Yes, it will still create a token that's a copy of itself.
Spells and abilities on the stack that are resolving use the "last known information" of an object that has left the required zone, if properties of that object are required for that spell or ability to resolve.

Abilities

112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source because the effect needs to be divided checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.

Alternatively:

Resolving Spells and Abilities

608.2g If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it’s in the public zone it was expected to be in; if it’s no longer in that zone, or if the effect has moved it from a public zone to a hidden zone, the effect uses the object’s last known information. See rule 112.7a. If an ability states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.


Running a MTG draft without actually having to buy new boosters for each player every single time?

There's a popular fan-made format called Cube where you create a set of cards and people pick them for their decks, either by assembling virtual "packs" by grabbing random sets of cards or (more rarely) picking them one-at-a-time from the whole set kinda like how teams draft rookie players in professional sports. Because you tailor the card pool to your group's needs, it's easy to create Cubes for unconventional formats like Commander (individual collection permitting).

If you're interested in having pack-based drafts that strongly resemble normal MTG Limited and Sealed, you can assemble your own packs from your personal collection, basically like Cube draft but with rarity. Here's a rough guide...

To my knowledge, the only thing that's truly fixed about boosters is rarity distribution (although you can get extra rares in a pack due to foils, or specialty stuff like double-faced cards or "hidden treasures"). There are some other correlations that arise due to how sheets are cut, but they're mostly at the box level rather than individual-pack level.

If you start with a fairly representative sample of a set and then construct cards with the same rarity distribution as regular MTG boosters, the laws of probability should ensure that you get a reasonable distribution of colors and card types in the vast majority of your packs (a few really skewed ones is acceptable or even desirable, just like you sometimes get really skewed "official" boosters). The easiest way to do this is just to create three big piles for commons, uncommons, and rares (/mythics) and make packs from them sight-unseen in the normal 1:3:10 ratio; you don't have to do anything special for the individual packs as long as your starting piles are at fair (e.g. if you collect certain colors much more heavily than others, make sure that bias doesn't filter into the big giant piles you've created). Ideally your big piles should be significantly bigger than the number of cards in any given draft; that way there's no guarantee that a particular card is bound to be in one of the packs.

The easiest way to create a coherent environment is to stay within a given block (set of 3-4 expansions). Playing a familiar block format will make it easier for players to evaluate cards. I don't think the extra effort that would be required to make sure your packs exactly match individual sets (like they do in "real" Limited) is really worthwhile -- if anything, I think you can have a more fun block draft if cards from the various expansions are mixed together across all three packs.

Of course, you can also vary (or just abolish) the rarity mix in order to create a very different play experience. I'm assuming other ways to alter the experience will come to you once you've tried this a few times. If you find yourselves wanting to fine-tune what goes into your card pool, look for articles on Cube drafting: the same principles folks apply to creating a Cube can be used to analyze what you're putting into the pool you draw packs from.


The simplest terms I can think to put it is:

Your deck requires 40 cards. Imagine you could have a 12 card deck - your 4 best cards, 3 copies each. You'd probably win every game against those 40-card deck losers, since you're always drawing your best cards and deploying them.

Every card you put in your deck makes you less likely to draw those game winning spells. So you replace them with some themed cards to bide your time until you DO draw into them. So it makes sense that a 15 card deck is weaker than a 12, and a 20 weaker than a 15. The important fact is that a 37 card deck is stronger than a 40.

Now imagine Pot of Greed just said "draw 1 card" instead of 2. What it would essentially do is let you get take your 40 card deck down to a 37, because every time you drew Pot of Greed, you would immediately exchange it for the next card.

So if it were draw 1 card, it would immediately be banned because it turns any deck from 40 into a 37 card deck. And if at draw 1 it's too powerful, then at draw 2 it must be even more powerful.

Another very simple way to put it is this: when it comes to making games fun, the key is to make interesting decisions. Pot of Greed has no interesting decision: you play it, you always benefit. It's not like a burn spell where you choose a monster to burn, or a monster that you choose "should I put this out now? Or wait for him to use up his monster kills..." Pot of Greed doesn't make games more fun. It makes them less fun.


No to both - each ability has an individual cost, which you'll need to fulfill before it is put on the stack.

Anytime you see Sacrifice [X]: Do [Y], that is expressing a cost that must be paid in order to activate the ability.  A single paid cost may not activate multiple abilities; see the following (from the comp. rules):

  117.10. Each payment of a cost applies to only one spell, ability, or effect. For example, a player can't sacrifice just one creature to activate the activated abilities of two permanents that each require sacrificing a creature as a cost. Also, the resolution of a spell or ability doesn't pay another spell or ability's cost, even if part of its effect is doing the same thing the other cost asks for.


Does Conspiracy remove non-creature subtypes from a creature?

You would retain the Gideon subtype.
Gideon is not a creature subtype, but rather a planeswalker subtype:

205.3j Planeswalkers have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called planeswalker types. The planeswalker types are Ajani, [...] Gideon, [..], and Yanling.

205.3m Creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types. The creature types are [long list that doesn't include "Gideon"]

Setting the creature type would not interact with the planewalker type:

205.3c If a card with multiple card types has one or more subtypes, each subtype is correlated to its appropriate card type.

If Gideon had become a creature through means that didn't make him retain the planeswalker card type, then he would also lose the gideon subtype:

205.1a Some effects set an object’s card type. In such cases, the new card type(s) replaces any existing card types. Counters, effects, and damage marked on the object remain with it, even if they are meaningless to the new card type. Similarly, when an effect sets one or more of an object’s subtypes, the new subtype(s) replaces any existing subtypes from the appropriate set (creature types, land types, artifact types, enchantment types, planeswalker types, or spell types). If an object’s card type is removed, the subtypes correlated with that card type will remain if they are also the subtypes of a card type the object currently has; otherwise, they are also removed for the entire time the object’s card type is removed. Removing an object’s subtype doesn’t affect its card types at all.


Bloody Stupid Johnson works like this:
You roll for a random city area. When you roll an area that contains a building, the owner of that building has to put the corresponding area card away. The card says "to one side" but the important thing here is that the area card is removed from play. The building is still there, it still counts as a building for all intents and purposes (win conditions, for instance), but the owner can no longer use the power on the area card.

According to Martin Wallace, the designer of the game, the card is back in the game if the bulding gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt (by the same player or another).


Can one use alternate evaluation methods, e.g. "K&R" to defend actions that appear to violate your convention card?

This issue was discussed on the Bridge Laws Mailing List a few months ago:

Do players have to describe what they play?

Cribbing from my own post there:

  Edgar Kaplan (the "K" in K & R) wrote to the effect that the
  convention card is an understanding with partner, not an undertaking
  to the opponents.

  HCP are an approximation of a hand's value. The laws do not mention
  them. Absent regulation to the contrary players must be allowed to
  evaluate their hands using their own judgement, promoting and demoting
  as they deem best. Some such regulations have been passed. While I
  consider them harmful to the spirit of the game they are lawful.

For what it's worth I use K&R evaluation at the table, as do some of my partners, but I don't do it on every deal. It is time consuming, so I use it only when I'm not confident how to evaluate the hand. I do not indicate this on my convention card, and I'm not sure how I would. It's a complex method that cannot be explained in a short paragraph.

=======

Update Jan 1, 2016

I think I let myself get sidetracked, missing the heart of the issue. The K&R evaluation method is merely an example. Tom does not use it at the table, nor I suspect is he likely to. More to the point, there is nothing magical about K&R. It was intended to reproduce the judgement of one particular expert, Edgar Kaplan. For instance he devalued a hand if it was 4333, as do most experts, so the algorithm does the same. Likewise for stray queens and a host of other factors.

The real point is that Tom, or any of us, can evaluate a hand as we please. If I list a range of "15-17" for 1NT on my convention card it does not mean that my partner, my opponents, or anyone can count on me to hold exactly that many points. Rather it's a shorthand for saying that I will open hands that I evaluate to be in that range. I might well hold an excellent 14 or an ugly 18. For me neither happen often enough that I would write "14+ to 18-" -- that would only be misleading. My partner plays me for 15-17 and he and my opponents are equally well informed.

Those who've read Victor Mollo will remember the Walrus, who blindly follows the point count no matter where it leads. Nothing in the rules or regulations of the game requires us to do likewise.


How do Dominion tournaments compensate for the luck that's always present in the game?

I don't think Dominion is alone in being a game with a significant amount of luck.  Magic the Gathering has a massive amount of variance, but the pros rise to the top time and again, because they are experts at keeping the role that luck plays in their game down to the very minimum.  Even with that being the case, I'd say that if you win 75% of your Magic matches at a pro level, your skill level is pretty godlike.  If you can consistently win even 60% of the time, you're doing more than fine.

As such, I don't think that it's a sensible question "how can we keep luck in Dominion to being a <2% factor".  There's always going to be games of Dominion where you repeatedly draw exactly what you don't need and your opponent draws exactly what he does.  But if you don't let those games faze you, and just concentrate on outplaying your opponents, your win percentage should creep up comfortably above 50% as you become an expert at the finer point of the game.  And that's all it takes to be a great Dominion player.  Not 100% win rates against "lesser opponents" and the total elimination of luck, just the ability to maximise your game, whatever the game throws at you, and even though sometimes it won't be enough.


In Robinson Crusoe, Can I do single-pawn actions multiple times on the same card?

From the official rulebook: (p.6)

Note!
Each Action can be taken multiple times in the same round,
except for the Threat Action, which is always a one time Action taken
on a specific card, after which the card is discarded.

Only restrictions regarding "Gathering resources" are (p.9)

This [Gathering] Action cannot be taken directly on the Island tile with the
players’ Camp since players get resources from that tile during the
Production phase.

and

You can gather only once per round from each source; i.e. if one
player assigns his pawn(s) to gather from one source, no other player
can gather from that same source this round.

Addtionally, from the FAQ 1.0 (made by Ignacy Trzewiczek himself) (p.10)

If I put one of my pawns on any Action, will the second pawn placed
there automatically support me? Or could we, for example, place 3
single pawns on the Weapons track, to build 3 Weapons (and roll the
dice three times)?
It's your choice if you want to treat each pawn
separately.


Is it possible to wait for some cards to leave the stack to use them for delve?

Yes, you can. After each spell resolves but before the next one on the stack, both players get priority. You can cast more instants or activate more abilities then. Become Immense is an instant, and you are able to pay the mana costs, so you can put it on the stack.

A simpler way to look at this particular example is, you can cast Giant Growth (resolves), then Giant Growth (resolves), then Giant Growth (resolves), then Giant Growth (resolves), and with the stack empty, cast Become Immense.


Can The Winged Dragon of Ra's second effect be used continously?

The text of The Winged Dragon of Ra reads (emphasis mine):

  Cannot be Special Summoned. Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can pay LP so that you only have 100 left; this card gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount of LP paid. You can pay 1000 LP, then target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target.

We can see that the effect of paying 1000 LP to target-destroy a monster does not have the "once per X" limitation", thus it can be used as many times as you want (that is, as many times you can spare 1000 LP) :)

Unrelated to your question (a nitpick, actually), it's not much technically correct to say "use his effect continuously", as this effect is not a continuous effect. A less ambiguous way of phrasing it could be "use his effect repeatedly"...


The Proper use of Stations in Ticket to Ride Europe

There's no concept of direction of travel in Ticket to Ride.

  If, by the end of the game, a player has created a continuous path of his color plastic trains between the two cities named on a Destination Ticket he holds, he scores the additional points indicated by the Point Value on the Ticket. If he has failed to complete a continuous path between those cities, he deducts the Point Value on the Ticket from his total score.

A path between cities must be created. Nothing about traveling from one of the cities to the other city.

As such, the Brest-Madrid path exists because it did use the same route into Paris as the Frankfurt-Madrid path, the Pamplona-Paris route.

Ticket to Ride is a simple game with straightforward rules. It's obvious to me that the purpose of the second rule you quoted is to prevent the station from being used to borrow two different routes. In fact, this is stated explicitly earlier in the rules (quoted below). It's a botched attempt to clarify this rule (which was already plenty clear).

  A Train Station allows its owner to use one, and only one, of the routes belonging to
  another player, into (or out of) that city to help him connect the cities on his
  Destination Tickets.

This means your group is clearly wrong when they believe that several routes going out of a city could be borrowed.

My proposed rewording of the second rule you quoted is the following:

  Only one route is ever chosen per station. This means that a player can't have a station grant him the use of two routes for two different tickets, but any number of tickets can use the chosen route. The Train Station owner does not need to decide which route he will use until the end of the game.


Do creatures created after first strike damage contribute to exalted?

No

702.82. Exalted
702.82a Exalted is a triggered ability. “Exalted” means “Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.”
702.82b A creature “attacks alone” if it’s the only creature declared as an attacker in a given combat phase. See rule 506.5.

Exalted triggers when you attack, and then after the trigger resolves (which it must before first strike damage can be dealt) it doesn't trigger again. You need the exalted creature to be on the battlefield when you declare attackers for it to contribute; creating more exalted creatures afterwards has no effect.
In the same way, killing a creature with exalted after exalted has resolved does not magically shrink the attacker (and neither does killing it before the trigger has resolved, usually).


Band of Misfits copying Feast and then Island

As of September 2019, Band of Misfits has received official errata that changes its behavior in regards to this question.

The new text for Band of Misfits is:

  Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply that costs less than this, leaving it there.

So Band of Misfits no longer "becomes" another card, instead each time you play it, it causes you to play another card from the supply without that card moving from the supply.

This means that when you use Band of Misfits to play a Feast, the Band of Misfits is no longer trashed. And neither is the Feast because the effect expects Feast to be in play but it isn't. And when you use it to play an Island, you will set aside a card from your hand onto the Island Mat, but neither the Band of Misfits nor the Island will get set aside.

So the new result of Throne Room + Band of Misfits choosing Feast and then Island is:

Play Throne Room

Play Band of Misfits

Play a Feast from the Supply

Gain a card costing up to $5

Play Band of Misfits (again)

Play an Island from the Supply

Choose a card from your hand to put on your Island Mat


Ben and Mabel (Mable) cardgame? What's the "real" name?

This sounds like a form of Contract Rummy.

There are dozens of variations of Contract Rummy which have different rules of how many and what size of sets and sequences are required in each successive round. In my brief overview of different variations on pagat.com, I didn't find an exact match to the clues you've given, I suggest you have a look there and try different contracts!


From BRB p97.

A character must move into a unit to join it.  There is no rule that allows the unit to move to the character.

A character cannot join a unit in close combat.

You can however, simply charge into combat alongside the character.  This is often to your advantage for that particular combat, other than not being able to use the character's leadership.  (Two chances to catch the enemy if they flee, if one or the other of yours flees, the other may hold and prevent them form being run down, etc.)


The two other expansions in the first arc (Brink of War and Rebel vs Imperium come with a few additional components that allow the Robot to use starting worlds from those expansions.

There is no official rules for the robot for playing with the Alien Artifacts expansion, however there are non-official rules available on Boardgamegeeks.


Are you required to buy items when you choose the Legendary Object options at the village?

According to the rules for Tokaido: Crossroads on the Fun Forge site (emphasis mine)

Now, when a Traveler stops at a Shop space, he must choose between:

Buying Souvenirs (basic game rules).

Acquiring a Legendary Object.

While the base game rules (Souvenirs Only) say

The player draws the first 3 Souvenir cards from the pile and places them face up in front of him. He can then purchase one or more of these cards by paying the price indicated on each card.
Note: A traveler must have at least 1 coin to stop in a Village, but
he is not required to purchase any souvenirs

In the base game it is clearly possible for the player to end up with only Souvenirs they cannot afford, in which case they can purchase nothing, as well as simply choosing to purchase nothing.
It seems fairly clear that the player must first decide which of the two purchase options they will pursue, and having made that decision the other option is no longer available. Having made that choice the same rules would seem to apply in both cases: if there is nothing they can purchase, they are out of luck; even if they can purchase something, they don't have to.
Further, unless you're playing with the 2-3 player variant for Crossroads, all players have perfect knowledge of what Legendary Objects are available to purchase. There are 6, 2 each costing 1, 2, or 3 coins, and any purchased objects are visible in front of the player(s) that purchased them. In the variant where 2 cards are discarded, they will have perfect knowledge after looking at the Legendary Objects once, and the goal of that variation seems to be to slightly increase the risk/reward given the large number of stop opportunities with so few players.


Playing Catan for the first time, what should I know?

The placement of your initial settlements is very important.

Your initial settlements (along with the first couple rounds of dice rolls) have a large impact on your game, affecting whether you get off to a quick start or lag behind. Some things to keep in mind when placing your initial settlements include:

Probability of numbers: All else equal, a space bordering more dots is better than a space bordering fewer dots.
Diversity of numbers: In general, starting with, e.g., 4-5-6-8-10-11 is going to give you an easier game than 4-4-6-6-10-11, since you will receive cards on more dice rolls, which then helps you build and/or trade more consistently, and helps you avoid having too many cards in your hand when a 7 is rolled.
Mix of resources: All else equal, it's better to have direct access to more resources.

Subpoint: In general, wheat is important at all stages of the game, sheep tend to be slightly worse than other resources (due to lower need and relative abundance). Note that the usefulness of resources changes as the game progresses.

Scarcity of resources: However, there will usually be one resource that is scarcer than other resources. Having access to this resource can give you an advantage in trading. A simple way of evaluating scarcity is to count the dots on each resource.
Don't ignore ports: Sometimes, ports (especially a 2:1 port) can increase the appeal of a spot. A wood-wood-__ spot next to a 2:1 wood port may be more appealing than one with three different resources. (Of course this depends on many other factors.)
Don't count on being able to expand to the good spots -- or the interior of the board: In general, it tends to be harder to expand into the center than towards the edges.

Make sure you consider the consequences of your trades

Sometimes a trade that in other situations would be relatively even will give one player a large advantage. Trading a card to a player so that he can build a settlement on a wood port before his neighbor can might be a fine move, even if it upsets his neighbor a bit. But if that player has settlements on 8-wood, 6-wood, and 4-wood, it might give him too much of an advantage.

Consider the robber placement

Placing the robber on a player with an unplayed development card might not be the best move, since it is relatively likely that the player has a soldier to move the robber away.

Don't neglect development cards

Soldiers (the most common card) provide you with a resource, deprive an opponent of a resource, free your number (if blocked by the robber), block an opponent's production, and can potentially provide 2 VP. Road Building, Year of Plenty, and Monopoly are nearly always useful, except perhaps for a late-game Road Building. Victory points are of course useful. But make sure to evaluate the potential drawback of using (in particular) ore and wheat for a development card instead of a city.

Longest road is nice -- when no one else wants it

In my experience, many beginners go for the 2 VP from the longest road. Roads are easy to build since they only require two resources, but also provide the fewest benefits. The best way to claim the longest road bonus, in my opinion, is (1) in the mid- or end-game, after establishing a good resource engine with multiple settlements (and therefore multiple resources / numbers), (2) when other opponents are not focused on attaining the longest road, and (3) when you have an excess of wood and brick and other players aren't willing to trade at a good rate for either. Otherwise, it's probably better to focus on building settlements, cities, and even buying development cards. In short, don't just build more and more roads because they're easy to build.

Other resources

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137013/tips-beginners-catan-dummies
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/7450280#7450280


When charging an entrance in Zoomaka do I give change?

No.

I presume from the title you've played the relevant Entrance card to charge the fee.

From the rules, page 10:

  When paying a debt no change is returned.

The player could choose to pay with assets from their zoo instead of using the full 5-cost banked card, though this might make more sense if the total cost were, for example, 7.


Can the Allies win this game, given that Russia is falling?

This is a tough one. But it appears to indicate that under certain circumstances, the U.S. and Britain together could have won, even if Russia is falling. Your game illustrates how.

1) Secure North Africa, and with it, the road to the Middle East and India.

2) Using India as a base, reclaim China, Indochina, and some of the Pacific Islands from Japan. This is something you accomplished in the game that the Allies failed to achieve in real life.

Doing a rough count: the U.S. starts with 36 IPCS, and Britain with 30. You've added 3 or so in Africa, and perhaps 11 in "greater China" for a total of about 80. The Axis have 29 for the original Germany minus North Africa, will soon get 24 for Russia, and have about 14 left for Japan, a total of 67. That's more than the 57 they started with, so they've "come up."

One advantage for you is that you've "sluffed" your weakest player and country (Russia), and "consolidated." Also, Japan is "half gone." The end game is an alliance between America, Britain, (Japan and China), the latter two controlled by the former two, versus Germany and Russia (the latter under German occupation). That will win most games of Allies and Axis. Probably the "real life" version as well.

One idea: Ship at least American infantry and tanks across the Pacific, where the Japanese navy is in its death throes, to China, rather than across the Atlantic (where there are eight German submarines. Have them conquer the remaining Japanese Pacific islands along the way to reduce Japan's income, before heading for China, and ultimately Siberian Russia (you want to reduce the Axis to 29 for Germany, 24 for Russia and 8 for Japan, or 61). Use British land forces for harassing the Germans in France, Norway, and the Middle East/Southern Russia.


What is the official name of this game? In India, it is called kaali teeri (3 of Spades)

Regarding the game rules and origin: It appears that this game is not widely know in English on the Internet. However, I found two families of card games played in other parts of Asia that appear to be related.

Regarding the name: "Kaali Teeri" or in English "Three of Spades" is of course a perfectly normal and logical name for a game of this nature. Based on how card game names typically evolve, it may have been coined when the 3 of spades first received its special role - or later in a cultural environment where this is an unusual feature. Some other features of the game may have changed since then, without causing changes to the name. It is quite possible that the game's Hindi name is just a translation from another language. In the same way, it's perfectly sensible and logical to call this game "Three of Spades" in English. Alternatively, one could call it "Kaali Teeri" in English.

The following are all the possible relatives that I could find. Let's start with the Rook family:

Rook is an American card game with special cards, invented in an American Christian community that disapproved of standard playing cards because of their association with gambling. The deck consists of 4 suits with 14 cards each (numbered 1 to 14) plus a joker-like extra card representing a rook bird. The game has many variants, some of which make it more similar to Kaali Teeri. For example, there are variants in which the player can call a partner instead of playing in fixed partnerships. Remaining major differences:

The game is only played with ranks 5 to 14, corresponding to the ranks 5 to King and Ace (high) when playing with ordinary cards, plus the Rook, corresponding to a Joker or perhaps the 3 of Spades.
Card values are 5: 5, 10: 10, Jack/Queen/King: 0 (not 10), Ace: 10, Rook: 20 (not 30).
Every player gets only 9 of the 41 cards. The remaining 5 cards form a 'nest', from which the highest bidder may improve his hand.

Shelem or Rok is an Iranian game that is obviously connected to Rook. Major differences to Kaali Teeri:

There is no equivalent to the Rook, Joker or 3 of Spades.
Card values are 5: 5, 10: 10, Jack/Queen/King: 0 (not 10), Ace: 10.
Every player gets only 12 of the 52 cards. The remaining 4 cards form what is normally called a widow in English, from which the highest bidder may improve his hand.

Another apparent Rook variant is Oochlee, played by the Christian minority in Syria.

Now we come to the picture-taking family:

Etori is an almost extinct Japanese game. A modern variant that is still played is called Kakeya Toranpu. Major differences to Kaali Teeri:

The partnerships are fixed.
The trump suit is not determined by bidding but in one of several much less interesting ways.
Regardless of trump suit, the highest card is always the Ace of Spades (not the 3 of Spades). Optionally a Joker may be added which is then the highest card. (It is not reported what other card if any is removed in this case.)
The object is for a partnership to win more than 8 of the 16 scoring 'picture cards' Ace, King, Queen, Jack of all four suits. (This is equivalent to making Ace, King, Queen, Jack score 10 and everything else 0.) For this reason, this kind of game is called a picture-taking game.

Japanese Napoleon has a lot of differences to Kaali Teeri, but it is obviously related to Etori and has some features that are actually closer to Kaali Teeri than Etori is:

10 is also a counting card, making the scoring system even more similar to Kaali Teeri.
Players bid for the game. The winner calls for a partner by calling for a card.
There is a variant in which a Joker is added as a 'trump hunter' and the 3 of Spades(!) has the role of a 'Joker hunter'.

The Korean game Mighty is very similar to the Japanese games described before.

Overall, I would bet that Kaali Teeri connects the American game Rook and its close relative in Iran with the Japanese picture-taking games. This even fits the geographic situation very well.


The ship in the back is a Dark Eldar Raider.  The big robot thing behind it is a Chaos Dreadnought.  The infantry also appear to be Chaos Space Marines.


Why doesn't Undying trigger if a creature with +1/+1 counters dies from -1/-1 counters?

Section 704 in the comp rules covers state-based actions. Both of these are on the big list of state-based actions:

704.5f If a creature has toughness 0 or less, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. Regeneration can't replace this event.
704.5r If a permanent has both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on it, N +1/+1 and N -1/-1 counters are removed from it, where N is the
smaller of the number of +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on it.

State-based actions are resolved different from triggered abilities, in that they're only checked during the cleanup step and when it's time for a player to receive priority. They also don't use the stack. More importantly, whenever state-based effects are checked, all applicable ones resolve simultaneously:

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, "Timing the Priority"), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for
state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions
simultaneously as a single event. ...

So, if an effect puts enough -1/-1 counters on a creature to reduce its toughness to zero or less, you would both put the creature in the graveyard and cancel out the +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters at the same time.
Note the wording of Undying as an ability:

Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it,
return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1
counter on it.)

When your creatures dies (and it's already in your graveyard), Undying triggers and looks at its last known state on the battlefield. Your creature died at the exact same time as it lost its +1/+1 counters, so it was never actually on the battlefield without a +1/+1 counter on it, which is why it doesn't come back.
The issue here is that the informal way many players resolve the counters rule -- removing the necessary number of +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters while resolving the "apply counters" part of an effect -- ever-so-minutely doesn't match the formal procedure on canceling counters (which only occurs as a state-based action afterward). There are occasionally similar issues with indestructible as well: players often forget that damage dealt to an indestructible creature still stays "marked" on it until end of turn, which will cause it to die if it somehow loses its indestructibility.

Note this counterexample, however, based on the fact that state-based actions can occur in multiple passes:

704.3. ... If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the
check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on
the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the
result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player
gets priority.

Imagine I have a Geralf's Messenger with a +1/+1 counter on it and a Cemetery Reaper (which gives the Messenger +1/+1) on the battlefield.
You cast Black Sun's Zenith for three.
In this case, state-based actions resolve in two passes, like this:

First, these two things happen simultaneously: Geralf's Messenger's counters cancel; Cemetery Reaper has a net toughness of -1, so it dies. Geralf's Messenger's toughness is 1 (base 2, +1 from the +1/+1 counter, +1 from the Reaper, -3 from the -1/-1 counters), so it doesn't die yet.
Then, once Cemetery Reaper has left the field, we check state again. The Messenger's toughness is now 0, so it dies.

So, now the Messenger's +1/+1 counters were cleaned up before it died, so Undying will trigger.