The simple answer is "no, planeswalkers are always legendary and the legend rule applies". However, that leads to the obvious question of what did happen in your case - given that this was on Arena and therefore Standard (or maybe Historic), by far the most likely explanation is that your opponent played Spark Double:

  You may have Spark Double enter the battlefield as a copy of a creature or planeswalker you control [...] it isn't legendary if that permanent is legendary.

(my emphasis). The explicitly stops the legend rule applying, so it is possible to have one actual Gideon Blackblade (which is still legendary) and any number of Spark Double copies (which aren't legendary) on the battlefield at once.


You can shuffle around euqipment all you want with the Puresteel Paladin, as long as you have at least three artifacts in play.
The only restriction there is to activating the Equip ability, is that you can do it only any time you can play a sorcery (ie on your turn, in a main phase, when the stack is empty).
The rules on Equipment (specifically, the Equip ability) state nothing about how often you can activate it:

702.6. Equip
702.6a Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”
702.6b For more information about Equipment, see rule 301, “Artifacts.”
702.6c If a permanent has multiple instances of equip, any of its equip abilities may be activated.


How to Mitigate Snowball Effect of Events

There are a couple of things you can do to make it less likely you'll get crippled:

Pick a character with balanced starting stats - Brandon Jaspers, Peter Akimoto, Jenny LeClerc and Madam Zostra all start with three of their stats on 4 and the 4th on 3.
When a room that boosts your stats (Chapel, Gymnasium, Larder, Library) appears, make your way there immediately if the haunt hasn't started yet (if the haunt has already started you may have more important things to do).

While I love the game it is pretty random and you have to accept that sometimes you get screwed. It's worth pointing out that you can't die until the haunt starts, in case you missed that rule.


Can multiple people build at the same time in Monopoly?

I always thought the same thing, but the rule book actually states:

  Following the above rules, you may buy and erect at any time as
  many houses as your judgement and financial standing will allow

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf

So, yes, the quoted scenario could happen


How do indestructible creatures actually work?

No, indestructible is different from regeneration. An indestructible permanent simply ignores lethal damage and destruction effects and stays in combat.

  702.12b A permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed. Such permanents aren’t destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g).

A creature is removed from combat when it is regenerated, among others. Regeneration is superficially similar to indestructible, but still different. For example, regeneration removes all damage marked on a regenerated creature, while an indestructible creature retains all damage marked on it until it gets removed during the next cleanup step.

Note that an indestructible creature still dies when its toughness goes to zero (such as through -X/-X effects like Grasp of Darkness), or when it is sacrificed. If someone cast Lava Coil on an indestructible creature and it would die later that turn, it would indeed be exiled, even if Lava Coil itself couldn't kill that creature.


How prohibitive is Glory to Rome's complexity to new players?

Disclaimer: Glory to Rome is one of my all time favorite games, I may be biased in encouraging others to try it :)

I would say the chief source of complexity and challenge to people new to this type of game is multiple roles for the same card.  Players who are able to reconcile in Race for the Galaxy that the same physical piece of cardboard can be a planet or development, a good, or a payment for a cost, should not be too challenged by this.  The same physical piece of cardboard filling different purposes in different contexts is fundamental to Glory To Rome.

The overall complexity of the game rules is mitigated by the fact that for each turn a player leads a role and everyone else must follow.  So in any given turn everyone has basically the same reduced set of options available to them, and you all learn together.

My opinion, anyone who's not intimidated by the insane information density of Race for the Galaxy cards, and has wrapped their head around the context-sensitivity, will have no issues with Glory to Rome.  (and can master its functionality, if not strategy, in one playthrough.)

My only negative comment might be it may become more luck based with only two players who have mastered the fundamentals, similar to Race with 2 players where it is close to being two solitaire games.  (That is speculative based on the observation that in larger games players can get boosted back in by people who needed the same lead they did, or held back by conspiring social forces.)


What is the French  card game Paquet Voleur called in English?


Stream of Thought/Creeping Chill Interaction?

Creeping Chill's ability triggers and goes on the stack if Stream of Thought puts it into the graveyard. If you then shuffle it into your library, the ability will still resolve (it won't "fizzle") but it won't do anything because you can't exile the Creeping Chill. The Handling Triggered Abilities rules section has these rules:

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.
603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

Then rule 118.12 says

Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, “[Do something]. If [a player] [does, doesn’t, or can’t], [effect].” or “[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does, doesn’t, or can’t], [effect].” The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The “If [a player] [does, doesn’t, or can’t]” clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

The bolded part matches the wording on Creeping Chill:

When Creeping Chill is put into your graveyard from your library, you may exile it. If you do, Creeping Chill deals 3 damage to each opponent and you gain 3 life.

This is a choice you make while the ability is resolving, so the ability will start to resolve whether or not Creeping Chill is still in the graveyard, but if it's not in the graveyard to be exiled, you can't pay that cost and the rest of the effect won't happen.


Games Workshop is incredibly protective about their IP, so it can be hard to find stuff like this.

That said, I found a thread here that tries to collate the list of star players.

Here's the list they've compiled:

Star Players

Axebreaker Jones
Asperon Thorn
Barik Farblast
Dieter Hammerlash
Dirty Dan
Duke Luthor Von Hawkfire
Eldril Sidewinder
Ernald Spirtburner
Frank N. Stein
Garbage Throttlesnot
Granite Rivalblade
Greaser Geargrinder
Griff Oberwald
Grimwold Grimbreath
Hak Demoncutter
Harg Vainkill
Hawthorn Tullaris
Highelm Lyrpadre
Hoshi Komi
Hubris Rakarth
Ibrahim Golddawn
Jacob Von Altdorf
Krug Painspear
Moravis Curfew
Morg'th N'hthrog
Odium Khan
'Pick' Seamsunder
Pierrot Rainforest
Puggy Baconbreath
Ramtut III
Rasta Tailspike
Rip Sorepain
Ritter Von Baum
Slarga Fourstrike
Soaren Hightower
Split Tendoncutter
Stuka Schmidtt
'Surehanded' Gregor Meissen
Tuern Redvenom
Urfrik Skillhack
Valen Swift
Varag Ghoul-chewer
Warmglow Vindaloo
Wilhelm Chaney
Withergrasp Doubledrool
Wormhowl Greyscar
Ziggi Abschuss
Zug

Companion

Bardin Ironglove
Bellow Thunderslam
'Big' Gunn Schonn
Bilerot Vomitflesh
Borg'th N'hthrog
Dolfar Longstride
Dorjak Sureclaw
Eoarn Harkon
Flint Churnblade
Galmen Goreblade
Gorflem Rot-breath
Grak'ng'grak Gorthag
Grograt Crunchskull
Jordell Freshbreeze
Kolath Head-ripper
Lewdgrip Whiparm
Luarn Proudbow
M'gorg'gn'throg
Petro D'Arvill
Siggi 'The Boot' Schuster
Spiky Norman
Ugroth 'Ripper' Bolgrot

They sure printed a lot -- hope that helps.


How do I Detect/Defend Against an throw in In Bridge?

Unfortunately, the literature seems to be lacking regarding this (unlike squeezes!).

The key to any good defense is counting, trying to figure out what is going on and what is likely to happen.

There might be some indications that declarer might be going for an endplay. As you noted, one of them is when declarer is ruffing out side suits. This is actually one of the most common ways for an endplay in suit contracts (and even has its own name, I believe: Strip and EndPlay).

Sometimes your own hand will make you alert to the possibility of an endplay, for instance, you hold AQ of a side suit over declarer and declarer probably holds the K etc.

A count of declarer's/defense's tricks, and an idea of how he might try and obtain them might give you another clue as to whether an endplay etc might be coming.

The best way would be to get familiar with the hands which might have an endplay, and that can be done by playing (with good players) and reading.

For reading, I would recommend Killing Defense at Bridge I,II by Kelsey.

Not sure if it helped answer your question.


Why did black avoid the straightforward capture here?

The extension is meant to attack the upper white group.

Looking at the whole board, the only solid territory black has is the upper right corner (the left side is open at the top and has an overlong extension at the bottom for territory-making purposes. The position is strong, which means it's good for fighting but not so good at making territory). The white, on the other hand, has a small but solid territory and influences on two sides. If black captures, white gets to attach at M18 and settle the weak group, in which case the strong black formation on the left side would be devalued by the lack of anything to attack. In that case, my intuition tells me, black would be behind (over-concentrated top-left, top left corner wall against a living group, the extension on the left closer to the stronger group versus the perfectly reasonable spread for white). The white group on the right would be slightly vulnerable, but not to peeping at 1 (see diagram below. Heavy ko with white capturing first).

$$Bcm1 Counter-attack
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X X X O . . O . X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . O X , . X . . . , . . . X . X X . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . O . X . O X 4 O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . O 3 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

However, after black extension at 33, a white attachment at M18 can be ignored by black indefinitely. J16 in particular looks like a counter attack. If white J17, black H16; white is dead (I might be wrong on this):

$$Wcm1 Counter-attack
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X X X O . 3 O . X . X X . . . . |
$$ | . O X , . X . 4 2 , . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . X . O X . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Had black captured instead of extended, white gets the hane at N17, which significantly increases white's eyespace:

$$Wcm1 With capture, white has eyespace
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X X X O . 3 O . X 5 . X . . . . |
$$ | . O X , . X . 4 2 , . . . X . X X . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . X . O X . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

In summary, aji is extremely important when you are attacking.


Does Ajani's Chosen allow adding creatures from Enchantments played before this card?

No, it can't do anything about enchantments played before the card comes into play. Triggered abilities don't activate retroactively as if the permanent was there all along — it missed out, the opportunity has passed, and nothing happens.

Ajani's Chosen was not there to see previous events, so it can't do anything about them. You will not get creature tokens for enchantments that have already entered the battlefield, nor be able to attach them to tokens you create.


Scrabble computer version that uses the new dictionary? (OSPD4/OTCWL2)

Facebook Scrabble uses the new dictionary.

This can also be played via your iPhone (connects to the same same servers, so players on different platforms may play).  The iPhone version has single-player.

Quadplex is another site that hosts Scrabble.


If a creature has both hexproof and shroud, is it functionally the same as just having Shroud?

Having Shroud and Hexproof is currently the equivalent of having just shroud.
This is because Shroud is a more restrictive form of Hexproof:

702.11a Hexproof is a static ability.
702.11b “Hexproof” on a permanent means “This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.”

702.18a Shroud is a static ability. “Shroud” means “This permanent or player can’t be the target of spells or abilities.”

"Spells and abilities your opponents control" (the restriction of Hexproof) are also "spells and abilities" (the restriction of Shroud).  Thus, there are only two cases to consider:

A spell or ability controlled by your opponent: blocked by both shroud and hexproof.

A spell or ability controlled by a player that is not your opponent (such as yourself or your teammate): blocked by shroud.

In both of these cases, Hexproof only does things Shroud is already doing.  It is the equivalent of adding Fear ("can't be blocked except by black or artifact creatures") to Covert Operative ("can't be blocked").  Covert Operative already can't be blocked at baseline; adding additional reasons it can't be blocked does nothing extra.
The exception would be if an ability existed that interacted with Shroud (or permanents with Shroud) but not Hexproof (or permanents with Hexproof).  If Arcane Lighthouse only removed Shroud, there would be a difference.  To my knowledge, there are not currently any such abilities.  There currently exist abilities that interact with just Hexproof and not Shroud, such as Glaring Spotlight, but these don't matter for this discussion because Hexproof is the less restrictive of the two abilities.
While not strictly necessary to answer this question, one of the philosophically relevant core rules of Magic is that "can't" abilities take precedence:

101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.

In this case, the effect directing something something to happen is the spell or ability that would have you chose targets, and the effect preventing it from happening is Shroud and/or Hexproof (rule 101.2 is necessary for Shroud and Hexproof to work as abilities without causing endless rules headache).  Given Shroud has a more general "can't" than Hexproof, Hexproof is essentially redundant.


Can I make wine from the fields I harvest with the Laborer?

Yes I believe you can.

The rules for visitor cards state

  Many visitors have two separate clauses delineated by the all-caps
  word "OR".  These are two completely independent clauses.

, so in a normal situation you can do just one. However the Labourer is giving you the option to do both so there is no reason why you couldn't do both and thematically losing a point for the labourer to work extra hard makes sense.

When you harvest you add grapes to crush pad.  When making wine you move from crush pad.  There is no rule that says they have to be there a set time limit before they can be made into wine.  There is nothing on the labourer card that says if you choose to do both they happen simultaneously.  You would choose the order they happen in to your advantage.


In Magic, when can I tap my opponent's creatures to prevent them from attacking?

This is not so much about the stack, as the order of the turn:

Beginning Phase
Main Phase
Combat Phase

Beginning of Combat step
Declare Attackers step
Declare Blockers step
Damage step
End of Combat step

Main Phase
End Phase

After the first main phase, there's a step where you can play abilities like tapping, but before they can attack you: Beginning of Combat step. Every turn goes in this order (with minor exceptions) But when we play, we usually don't bother talking about every phase and step, often because nothing happened in them! But they're still part of every turn, if we need to do something then.

So there's nothing wrong with your opponent playing a spell, then moving right on to "I attack you with this guy." All you have to say is "wait, I want to do stuff at the Beginning of Combat" and back up to that point. Then you tap whoever you want to tap. Just remember, after the tapping your opponent gets to decide how they want to attack, knowing their creature is tapped!

And after they know you can tap things, in future turns they should stop and ask you before they declare attackers. (You can ask them nicely to do this.) That way they don't give away the info of who they want to attack with!


"Put into graveyard" versus "exile graveyard"

Kind of.

When Emrakul hits the graveyard, his ability

  When Emrakul is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles
  his or her graveyard into his or her library.

goes onto the stack. Then priority will first go to the active player and then to the other. After receiving priority, Tormod's Crypt can be activated.

  Exile all cards from target player's graveyard.

All cards go into the exile zone.

After that, Emrakul's trigger resolves, and its controller will shuffle his or her empty graveyard into his or her library.


Dragons can't eat tower pieces or barns (only followers). Dragons can eat followers on the tops of towers. This is discussed in the huge annotated rules clarification on Board Game Geek, which has the following to say.
Page 45:

If a follower is deployed to the top of a tower, the construction of the tower is finished
and it may not be built any further. The follower remains on top of the tower until the
end of the game and is not removed or returned to the player unless eaten by the
dragon or captured by another tower. This action may be useful when a player
wishes to protect a more valuable follower from capture.

Page 54:

A barn cannot be removed by the dragon (from The Princess and the Dragon), nor taken prisoner by a tower (from The Tower).

Some relevant related rulings (footnotes in the document):

(105) Q: If there are 2 followers on 1
tile (tower and city) does the dragon
eat them both?
A: [It eats them ] all.
(116) Q: If the dragon can eat a
follower on a tower, can the follower
also be seduced by a princess?
A: The tower is not a part of the city: they are two separate areas.
(133) Q: If you place a dragon tile and add a piece to a tower, what happens
first: follower capture by the tower, or dragon movement?
A: Prisoners are taken first; placing a tower piece is an
alternative to deploying a follower, so occurs before dragon movement.

Dragon food clarifications can be found on p.68-70. To summarise:

Dragon food: Follower, Big Follower,
Mayor, Wagon, Builder Pig, [Follower on] Tower
Block
Not dragon food: Barn, Count,
Fairy


Identify a card game where you discard playing cards based on die rolls

I played the game like this in the mid 1970's

Equipment:

2 Dice (d6)
1 Pile of pennies for each player, or tokens of your choice
1 Cup or bowl
1 Deck of playing cards for every 4 players

Example:

1-4 players = 1 deck
5-8 players = 2 decks
etc...

Setup:

Remove Jokers, Aces, Sevens and Kings and put them aside as they are not used.
Remove any extra cards starting with the Queens to ensure everyone gets an even number of cards.

Examples:

3 players = 1 deck. ( 40/3 = 13 ), remove 1 Queen
6 players = 2 decks. (80/6 = 13), remove 2 Queens
etc...

Place cup/bowl in center of the table.
Shuffle the cards.

Game Play:

To start the game, each player picks a card, the player with the highest card deals and starts.  If 2 or more pick the same high card, all others are out and the tied players pick again until only one gets to start.  If more than one game is played, the winner of the last game deals and starts the next game.
Game play is to the left.
Roll the dice.
If you roll a 7, you throw a penny in the pot and pass the dice to the left.
If you have the number thrown (for example you throw 3+5 = 8 and you have the 8 of hearts), you toss that card on the pile and pass the dice to the left.
If you don't have the number thrown, you throw a penny in the pot and pass the dice to the left.
If the person before you did not have the number matching the dice, and you have more than two cards remaining, you may throw a matching card yourself and then roll the dice as stated above.
You must roll the last two cards yourself. So you can't throw one of those if your neighbor fails to play a card.
The game ends when a player has no more cards.
They are winner and collect the pot.


Each bang is coming in as a separate event so you will draw a card each time you take damage.  Just like if you had a barrel and you would flip for each one.  Also if you are playing the character with the same ability as boots you would draw for each one.


Let's set a lower bound on the likelihood of winning with doubles, by simply ignoring all cases where it is impossible to win without doubles.

Assumption: All board positions considered are equally likely. This is probably not true, but will approach truth in longer games.

Consider the case of two men only left on the board, both in the home court, and not both on the 6-point (so that it is possible to win without doubles). There are 20 possible board positions for the two men, of weight 2 when on separate points and of weight 1 when on the same point. Likewise there are 30 possible non-double dice rolls and 6 possible double rolls. Averaged over all (the assumed equally likely) board positions under consideration, a simple counting exercise gives a probability of winning without doubles of 550 out of 1050, and a likelihood of winning with doubles of 168 / 210. (Note that the total possibilities = 1050 + 210 = 1260 = 35 * 36 as required.)

These are probabilities of 53.9% and 80% respectively, with a ratio of double-win to total wins of 23.4%.

This ignores the relatively small case-set of single blot board positions and the significantly larger case-set of board positions with 3 or 4 pieces or one or more pieces out of the home board. The net affect of these will clearly increase the likelihood of winning with a double roll.

This analysis can be extended over the additional case-sets, but it is clear that the likelihood of winning with a double roll far exceeds the 16.7% chance of rolling doubles.

                   **Wins**       **Wght * Wins**
Wght  Position  Single  Double   Single    Double
 1      1 - 1      30      6       30         6
 2      1 - 2      30      6       60        12
 2      1 - 3      28      6       56        12
 2      1 - 4      26      5       52        10
 2      1 - 5      24      5       48        10

 2      1 - 6      22      5       44        10
 1      2 - 2      20      5       20         5
 2      2 - 3      20      5       40        10
 2      2 - 4      18      5       36        10
 2      2 - 5      16      5       32        10

 2      2 - 6      14      5       28        10
 1      3 - 3      12      5       12         5
 2      3 - 4      12      5       24        10
 2      3 - 5      10      5       20         8
 2      3 - 6       8      4       16         8

 1      4 - 4       6      4        6         4
 2      4 - 5       6      4       12         8
 2      4 - 6       4      4        8         8
 1      5 - 5       2      4        2         4
 2      5 - 6       2      4        4         8
----------------------------------------------------------------
35                                550/1050   168/210


2000s Tabletop war game, hex terrain pieces, mix of science fiction and fantasy

I had a sudden inspiration and looked at an archived copy of a USB stick I carried back then and found the rules PDF. It was Heroscape.

  Heroscape (stylized as "heroScape" or "HeroScape") is an expandable turn-based miniature wargaming system originally manufactured by Milton Bradley Company, and later by Wizards of the Coast, both subsidiaries of Hasbro, Inc., and discontinued by Hasbro in November 2010. The game is played using pre-painted miniature figures on a board made from interlocking hexagonal tiles that allow for construction of a large variety of 3D playing boards. The game is often noted and lauded by fans for the relatively high production quality of the game materials, in particular the pre-painted miniature figures as well as its interchangeable and variable landscape system.


Can I flicker Aurelia to get more than two attack phases?

Yes.

There are two completely separate Aurelia, the Warleader in the scenario.

The first attacked in the first Combat Phase before being removed from the battlefield using Acrobatic Maneuver.

The second was placed on the battlefield by the blinking ability and went on to attack in the second Combat Phase.

It's of no relevance that the same physical card represents both Angels.

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

When a card refers to itself by name, it means "this object".

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

As such, the post-blinking Angel first attacks in the second Combat Phase, triggering the creation of a third.


Can I kill Lurrus directly after it enters the battlefield, before it's controller gets priority to cast a permanent from their graveyard?

Not normally. When ever a spell resolves, per the rules of magic, the active player gets priority.

117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

This means that your opponent who cast Lurrus will almost always have the opportunity to cast a spell before you get priority to try and remove Lurrus, in the same way players pretty much always have the ability to use a planeswalker ability before their opponents can kill the planeswalker.
There are three edge cases I can think of that would make this untrue:

Lurrus entering the battlefield caused some ability to trigger, say Soul Warden. This means that something goes on the stack before Lurrus' caster has priority, and since the spells Lurrus allows to be cast are generally not instant speed, the caster will need to pass and try to resolve that effect first. You can respond to that triggered ability when you get priority with an instant meant to kill or exile Lurrus.
Lurrus was cast with flash and someone other than the caster is the active player. In this case Lurrus' caster still needs to wait for their turn to cast anything using Lurrus' ability and he can be dealt with. This might work  if it was cast with flash on a non-empty stack during the caster's turn, but not likely as the permanents meant to make use of Lurrus would probably also be under the same effect.
Lurrus' caster is prevented from casting additional spells - there are about a half dozen spells that would prevent additional spells being cast with Lurrus, Rule of Law is the most recent one, Curse of Exhaustion would only affect one player, and Ethersworn Canonist would prevent casting anything other than an artifact after Lurrus, etc.


When is a battalion trigger considered "missed" at Competitive REL?

The DCI Infraction Procedure Guide, describes very specifically how the judge should rule various infractions, and section 2.1 covers missed triggers. It describes both when a trigger is considered to be missed and what the penalty should be. In your case, Legion Loyalist's Battalion ability changes the game state in non-visible ways by giving abilities to creatures. Therefore, according to that document, its controller has to mention it the first time it would affect visible state or it is forgotten. In this particular case, that means that the trigger is considered forgotten if the player doesn't mention it by the time Legion Loyalist would deal first strike damage.

When this happens, the judge is instructed to issue a warning only if the triggered ability's effect would be detrimental to its controller. Otherwise, they are not supposed to intervene unless they think the player is intentionally missing the triggers. This is one of those non-intervention casees.

If a judge does intervene, the Additional Remedy subsection at the end of the missed triggers section describes how the game state may be corrected. In this case, the ability does not "specify a default action associated with a choice made by the controller" and is not "a delayed triggered ability that changes the zone of an object". The triggered ability creates an effect (granting abilities) so if that effect's "duration has already expired" (at the end of that player's turn), then play continues and the ability is ignored. Otherwise, the judge follows the final paragraph of that subsection and

  the opponent chooses whether the triggered ability is added to the stack. If it is, it’s inserted at the appropriate place on the stack if possible or on the bottom of the stack.

The overall effect of this is that if a judge is called over in regards to this missed trigger, then if it is still the same turn, then the ability's controller's opponent (you) chooses whether the ability goes on the stack. Otherwise, you ignore it and move on.


Alternatives to Mulligans in Magic: The Gathering

Your proposed mulligan rule would be better for the quality of a hand compared to a single mulligan under current rules, but much worse for larger/more mulligans. I would expect the number of viable decks to decrease, especially decks and archetypes that rely on few key cards would suffer.

Generally, mulligans are a system to exchange card advantage for card quality. Card advantage in this context is obvious, it's simply the number of cards in your starting hand compared to in your opponent's hand. Since your new system makes sure to keep the ultimate number of hand cards the same after the same number of mulligans (shifted by 1), we can focus on the resulting card quality. Card quality is hard to define because it depends on the deck's strategy, but generally, holding at least one of a certain card is a good, generally applicable definition of card quality of your starting hand. That's why I will evaluate your scheme on that criterion.

You have designed the system such that the number of cards in hand after drawing an extra n+1 cards is equivalent to taking n mulligans under current rules. Threfore, it would be always optimal to draw 8 cards and shuffle 1 back to 7 rather than just keeping the 7. That means that the chance to draw at least 1 of a certain card in your starting hand of 7 goes from 39.9% to 44.5%, without downside. That means that if you already have a playable hand, you get a chance to further improve that hand for free.

However, if you have an unplayable hand, e.g. too much or too little or the wrong color of mana, and you would like to get rid of the whole hand, then you could only do so at large card disadvantage. Also, the chance to find a certain card increases much more slowly with your scheme than under the current one.

Under the current rules, the cumulative chance to get a certain card in your starting hand after n mulligans are roughly:

0 mulligans: 40% (7 hand cards remaining)
1: 61%
2: 73%
3: 80%
4: 83%
5: 85%
6: 87% (1 hand card remaining)

By contrast, if you draw an extra n+1 cards under your rules, the probabilities for at least 1 of a certain card in your hand are:

1 card drawn: 44.5% (7 hand cards remaining)
2: 48.7%
3: 52.7%
4: 56.5%
5: 60.1%
6: 63.4% (1 hand card remaining)

I have used the hypergeometric calculator with values (top to bottom) 60, 4, 7 (hand size, adjust for actual card draw), 1. The first list of probabilities is obtained by multiplying the probabilities for "x < 1" (i.e. the wanted card is not in hand) for hand sizes 7 through 1. The second list is simply the probability for "x => 1" for hand sizes 8 through 13, which results in the same final starting hand size as the respective current mulligan.

As an effect, I would expect the meta to adapt around such a drastic change of the maths behind mulligans. It would become much harder to get a certain key card on your starting hand. Deck construction would have to take that into acount, by not including disproportionately important cards into the deck's strategy. That would be counter the core idea of "build-around cards", which are usually found in the rare or mythic rare slots of a set. Arguably, that mulligan rule would reward homogenous decks, decks where cards can more or less stand in for each other, and therefore decrease the number of viable archetypes.


New Player and Returning Player New Card Recommendations

If you want a ready to play deck, than Wizards sells these so called "Planeswalker Decks". These are not competitive, you won't win a tournament with them, but they are quite cheap, include cards from newest expansion and will play well against each other.

You might still find older products called "Duel Decks". These contain two decks, which are designed to be played against each other. Again, these are not competitive decks but are well suited for "kitchen table" Magic. Goblins vs Merfolk is one of the latest product in these category.

If you want something more powerful and expensive, then you might still be able to find "Challenger decks". These are build around archetypes found in current Magic tournaments, but since they are designed for the "Standard" format, many cards in them will not be tournament legal since October. Here you can find more information about them.

If you want to try a format designed for casual Magic, then preconstructed Commander decks might suit you. These contain 100 cards and may contain only a single copy of each card except for basic lands. The decks are designed for multiplayer magic, so you might want to try them with friends. Wizards releases them yearly with Commander 2018 being the latest.


What happens when an Undying creature goes to the graveyard from the deck or hand?

No, sorry.

The fine print on the cards tell us what we need to know:

  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.)

"Dies" refers to "goes to the graveyard from the battlefield." Thus, a creature card that is placed into the graveyard from any other zone doesn't trigger undying.

Since Undying doesn't say anything specific about "summoning sickness" or haste, the regular rules apply. Namely:

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

It doesn't matter where the creature came from: if it didn't start the turn no the field under your control, it still has "summoning sickness".


Are potions and ingredients discarded when crafting spells?

This looks like someones custom game they are planning to release at some point and reading the rules it's not clear.   If you know they people making this game there are quite a few things in the rules that are not totally clear and could be worded better.  I think I understood what they meant based on playing games but this set of rules would benefit from pictorial examples of actions being taken.
The rules say

Use ingredients to craft potions. Discard the two matching ingredients
listed on the potion

and later

Use a combination of potions and/or ingredients to craft spells.

Based on other unclear things in the rules I think that the fact both those actions have the word "Use" in them suggests. you are meant to discard card for spells.
Another reason to think this is because potion cards are arranged in stacks of 4 and that each player may only have one of each type.   If this was a 2 player game and potions were not discarded when making a spell there there would be no need for a stack of 4 as only 2 of each type could ever be taken.
Also in end game scoring there are points for 'unused potions'. If they are not discarded how would a player know that is not used.
This is however a best guess as the rules could be improved.


Oregon Trail Card Game: What happens when you run out of supply cards?

After reaching out to Pressman Toy regarding the ruling I received the following:

  In the Oregon Trail narrative, players throw supplies overboard to help cross the river. But, even though the wagon may become empty and technically it would be easier to float, they are stuck. Players must continue to follow the instructions until someone finally does roll an even number!

So unless you are dealing with a river where players die when rolling a one, nothing bad happens, but you do have to spend a little time rolling.


The first Rift Bolt costs {0} to cast, and the second costs {1}.

The total cost to cast a spell
= mana cost or alternative cost
+ additional costs and cost increases
- cost reductions

Suspend allows spells to be cast for the alternative cost of "free". Cost increases, such as the one from Damping Sphere, still apply.[1]

If you can't cast it (because you can't or choose not to produce the mana for it), it will remain exiled indefinitely.

Only Trinisphere modifies the total cost.


What happens if a creature's ETB would bounce Thalia, Heretic Cathar?

Yes, this is correct. Thalia's ability is a so-called replacement effect

614.1. Some continuous effects are replacement effects. Like prevention effects (see rule 615), replacement effects apply continuously as events happen-they aren't locked in ahead of time. Such effects watch for a particular event that would happen and completely or partially replace that event with a different event. They act like "shields" around whatever they're affecting.
614.1d Continuous effects that read "[This permanent] enters the battlefield . . ." or "[Objects] enter the battlefield . . ." are replacement effects.

which doesn't go on the stack. Only when the new creature actually enters the battlefield (tapped), its enter the battlefield ability will trigger.


Is responders suit change after 1NT rebid by opener forcing? (System: simplified SAYC)

This link outlines the system behind SAYC in fairly simple terms. The bottom of page 7 notes that on the auction of interest, responder must reverse or jump shift to create a game force. However, a simple new suit bid should be treated as a one-round force, 10+, game invitational.

Most established partnerships now play some form of either Check Back Stayman (CBS) or New Minor Forcing (NMF). Both of these are predicated on the requirement that Opener's 1NT rebid categorically denied 4-card support for Responder's major suit response.

If partner rebid 1NT over your 1H response with 4-card Heart support, rightly take that as a gross insult to your card-play. Find a new partner promptly , before this one ruins your bidding.


I am not sure what you mean by a standard connect game (it is also odd that you tagged it with trick-taking-game. There are variations of dominos that are trick taking, but you don't make connections in those games). Nearly all variations of Dominos have you count the number of pips on dominos left in a losing player's hand. Since the double blank has zero pips, it is worth zero points.

Draw Dominos

  Scoring - When a hand ends, the player with the lightest hand (i.e. the fewest number of dots on their dominoes) wins the number of sum total of points in all of his opponents hands (minus the points in his own hand, if any).


Can I attack both the player and a planeswalker the same turn?

Yes, after you choose which creatures are attacking, you may choose whether they are attacking the defending player or a planeswalker that player controls.

From the comprehensive rules:

  508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn't use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player
  follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the
  declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with
  any of the steps listed below, the declaration is illegal; the game
  returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 717, "Handling
  Illegal Actions").

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

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


What's The Strongest Base Strategy in Thurn & Taxis?

In my experience, this is exactly the fun of the game and all its expansions (and a few others like it): there is not one strategy that is guaranteed to do well, but you have to constantly adapt your strategy to what cards are available, what the other players do, etc. I would consider this a virtue of the game, and would typically consider a game that has one winning strategy to be broken.

It often happens to me that I play a game that's new to me, lose to someone more experienced who did better in one particular area, and decide that improving that area is going to be my strategy because I now see that it is 'obviously' better than concentrating on other areas. Then in the rematch, the positions are reversed and the other player creams me with my 'original' strategy. The lesson is that the difficulty of the game is not in implementing a strategy - anyone can do that - but in recognizing which of the many available strategies is called for in a given situation.


The most buttons I've ended with has been about 25. However, it would be entirely possible to end up with more if you stopped purchasing more tiles halfway through the game, and used the "Advance and receive buttons" action until the end.
I would not recommend this strategy, as you will likely be left with many holes in your board, which count as -2 buttons each.


Does the controller go back to the supply after use?

Answer from this thread on BGG:
It only gets returned to the supply in solo. When not playing solo, the controller doesn't go back into the supply.
Pre-production Rulebook:

Whenever any player (including the player with the Controller) visits a destination with Scout on it, the player with the Controller may choose to gain a Sun Crystal or a Fast Travel token from the supply.

Solo Mode: Playing Against Scout
If you visit the same destination as Scout, you must spend a Sun Crystal or return the Controller to the supply.

Tabletopia Rulebook:

When any player visits a
destination with Scout on it, the player with the Controller may choose
to gain a Sun Crystal or Fast Travel pass from the supply.

Solo Mode
[...] if you wish to visit a destination with
Scout, you must spend a Sun Crystal or return the Controller
to the supply.


Can more lands be tapped for mana than needed?

You can always tap any lands at any time that you have priority (any time you could do pretty much anything in the game); it doesn't matter if you have anything to spend that mana on. Note that you can either tap lands for mana as part of the process of casting a spell (or activating an ability), or you can do it as a separate action. But in either case, there is nothing to stop you from tapping for more mana than you need / intend to use.


It sounds as though you understand the rules correctly; in order to go out, a player needs to hit on an already played meld/phase (their own or an opponent's). It shouldn’t require an unreasonable number of turns to accomplish this though. After laying down your phase one, you have only 4 cards remaining in hand. There are every time you draw a card, you have about a 4 in 12 chance of it being a card you can use to hit, or a 33% chance... it’s a little less because 3 of each number you need has already been played, but then there are also the wild cards to help you out. But still, you should be able to hit with the card you drew for a turn about one out of every 3-4 turns on average. This would take about 16 turns to get rid of all 4 cards. Worst case scenario, most of the required numbers are near the bottom of the deck, but they would still get drawn.
Now if you and your opponent had happened to both lay down the same numbers as each other for your phase, it would be more difficult.. there would only be 2 different numbers to hit on, and 6 of the 24 cards number you need would already be used up. But even so, the right numbers would still get drawn eventually. Turns would be very fast at this point, so you aren’t wasting a lot of time playing this out.
However, if you feel like this part of the game is someone pointless; you would be generally right... the main reason to try and go out is to end the hand before your opponent can lay down their phase. Once all players have laid down their phase, it matters a lot less who goes out first. The only reason to care at all is to address the situation where there is a tie at the end where multiple players got phase 10 in the same round. If that doesn’t happen, then going out first makes no difference at all.
So if you are playing a 2 player game, and you have both laid down your phase already, you could always just flip a coin or roll a die to determine the points for hand. After all, if you both have 4 cards in hand, then it’s just 50/50 which of you will get 0 points this hand (with a slight edge to the person who gets to draw/play first). And the person who doesn't get 0 is very likely to only get 5, or maybe 10 points against them.


Sleeving cards helps keep them flat. Additionally, there are "perfect" or "pro" fit sleeves, which fit cards tightly and can be inserted inside other sleeves. The stiffness of double-sleeving will help a card maintain its shape, as well as protecting expensive cards from rough shuffling or when they are migrating between sleeves.

This, in combination with a deckbox that compresses the cards a little (most of the ultra pro plastic boxes will fit 75 double-sleeved cards, just about) will keep your foils from bending too much. In general, the best advice is to keep them in a deck and keep that deck packed tightly.


Can I use strive to target the same object more than once?

You can only target a creature once with a Strive spell. Taken from the Journey Into Nyx Release Notes, emphasis mine:

  You can't choose
  the same target more than once for a single strive spell.

Those who want a more detailed explanation should continue reading. From rule 114.3.

  114.3 The same target can't be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word "target" on a spell or ability.

Twinflame has the following text.

  Strive — Twinflame costs 2R more to cast for each target beyond the
  first.

  Choose any number of target creatures you control. For each of them, put a token that's a copy of that creature onto the battlefield. Those tokens have haste.

The first occurrence of the word "target" is only there to define how much the spell costs. Per rules 114.1a-e, we only care about the phrase target [something].

The second part, "Choose any number of target creatures", has one instance of the word target, and so you may not target the same creature twice.


In Phase 10, can you play out your hand before all players has played a turn?

Yes, of course it is.
There's no rule limiting when you can go out.  Play your phase, empty your hand, round over.
Nice hand, BTW.


Where can I find strategy discussion about Dots?

Since the main rule of breathing is different, the players need to achieve completely different goals: In go a group can breath within another group, and the chips may get removed by being killed, while in dots a dot stays forever in game. Both games have the main goal to have the highest possible area, in where some strategies may be similar, but mostly your main goal in dots is to surround enemies dots/area and avoid having your own surrounded. Some of strategies that can be used, are:
Strategy #1: Keeping one dot free space
If the opponent is being surrounded and prefers to build walls, you will be able to catch him by building the perimeter with one dot empty space between every new dot, this helps surrounding faster and is more effective then just trying to catch at the same speed. However you still need to fill every dot you avoid at first to continue surrounding. (x and o are different colors)
x x x x x ...   -> x x x x x
ooooooooooo ... -> ooooooooox (Redirection of o’s)

Strategy #2: Know when you need o give up area
When your enemy has succeeded by occupying one of your zones, you need to know if you can fight for it, or can’t. There are not real parameters you can search for, as it’s very position-depended, but you can look at:

Size of your area
Shape
How much is occupied. (and how is it occupied? Keeping free dots? Any way to break through?)

Strategy #3: Building areas on top of areas
If you have a large area, you can build more small areas onto your large area as in example of green below

Green simply have an area and build all other areas using some of the dots of the main area.


No.  Probe is not a multicolored spell, regardless of whether it was kicked.
The color of a card is based solely on the mana cost defined in the top-right corner.  Using a Kicker ability (or anything else that modifies the cost of the card) does not change the color of the card.

Relevant entries from the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

105.2. An object can be one or more of the five colors, or it can be no color at all. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame. An object’s color or colors may also be defined by a color indicator or a characteristic-defining ability. See rule 202.2.
202.1. A card’s mana cost is indicated by mana symbols near the top of the card. (See rule 107.4.) On most cards, these symbols are printed in the upper right corner. Some cards from the Future Sight set have alternate frames in which the mana symbols appear to the left of the illustration.
202.4. Any additional cost listed in an object’s rules text or imposed by an effect isn’t part of the mana cost.


Does the Battlestar Galactica game spoil the TV series?

Absolutely

(Very) broadly speaking, the base game spoils Season 1, Pegasus spoils Season 2 (and the start of Season 3) and Exodus spoils Seasons 3 and 4.

At least one exception to this that I can remember is that one Pegasus character's card spoils an event in Season 4. (Spoiler follows)

   Dualla's disadvantage

Having said that, I've played with multiple people who were watching the series at the same time. As long as you're roughly half-way through the first season, you should be (mostly) fine for the base set (as long as you don't read too much flavour text!). I'd hold off on the expansions until you've seen a lot more though.


You chose the orders your triggers go on the stack.  If you want to give you Kronch Wrangler 2 counters, you would put the proliferate trigger on the stack first, thus putting it on the bottom of the stack, thus causing it to resolve after Kronch Wrangler's trigger.

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose.


Does a multicolored green/blue spell count for abilities triggering on casting a blue spell?

Yes, it will trigger.

105.2. An object can be one or more of the five colors, or it can be no color at all. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame.
202.2c An object with two or more different colored mana symbols in its mana cost is each of the colors of those mana symbols. Most multicolored cards are printed with a gold frame, but this is not a requirement for a card to be multicolored.

So a green/blue spell is both a "blue spell" and a "green spell".


What does Will of the Council do with 2 Players?

The card itself states what to do in the case of a tie. In the example of Council's Judgement, it says "or tied for the most votes". This means that if 2 different permanents gets 1 vote each, then both of them will be exiled because they both are tied for the most votes.

This is not only an issue in 2 players, but could occur with any number of players.


Can I activate Nim Deathmantle's creature saving ability more than once in a turn?

Yes.

It's a triggered ability, so it'll trigger every time a creature dies. If multiple creatures die simultaneously, you choose how to stack the triggers, then get to resolve them one by one.

From the card's Oracle rulings:

  1/1/2011  If multiple nontoken creatures are put into your graveyard
  from the battlefield at the same time, Nim Deathmantle's second
  ability triggers that many times. You put the triggered abilities on
  the stack in any order, so you'll determine in which order they
  resolve. If you pay {4} more than once, each card you paid {4} for
  will end up on the battlefield under your control, and Nim Deathmantle
  will end up attached to the last card that returned to the battlefield
  this way that it could equip.


It is important to note that your partnership agreements of which the opponents must be made aware specifically includes all inferences from repeated occurrences. So yes, if you make the same unusual action twice in a short span of time the burden of proof is on you to establish that the action is not a partnership agreement.
From Laws of Duplicate Bridge - 2008 Revised Authorized Edition

Law 40
Partnership Agreements
A. Player's Systemic Agreements
1 (a): Partnership understandings as to the methods adopted by the partnership may be reached explicitly in discussion or implicitly through
mutual experience or awareness of the players.


Why are there generic ship class cards in Star Trek Attack Wing?

See that yellow starburst to the left of "U.S.S. Enterprise-D"? See also that there's no yellow starburst to the left of "Federation Starship"?

That starburst is the "Unique Icon" which denotes that the card is unique, which means you can only have one copy of it in play at any given time.

Being a Unique ship, you just can't have multiple U.S.S. Enterprise-Ds running around at once, no matter how awesome (and canonical) you might think that'd be. The Federation Starship, on the other hand, is not Unique: This means you can make a whole fleet of Galaxy-class starships if you wanted to (within your squadron point limit, of course), regardless of whether or not the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is already there.

Other than that, I guess maybe you might want to save two points and bring in the cheaper 26-cost Federation Starship instead splurging on the better 28-cost one.


Mirage mirror what happens when copying a creature

Mirage Mirror stays tapped until your next untap step.
Mirage Mirror's ability creates a copy effect that copies characteristics, and being tapped/untapped is part of a permanent's status, not characteristics. Copy effects do not include the status of a permanent, so when the copy effect ends, it also doesn't revert the status.

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.
110.6a Status is not a characteristic, though it may affect a permanent’s characteristics.
706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). 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.


Does a Wizard gain treasures from a charmed monster AND flee a second monster during the same combat?

No. From the FAQ:

...if you use an ability to make one monster disappear, you cannot claim
levels and/or Treasures for beating it (depending on the method used)
unless you can then kill or defeat all the remaining monsters. You
cannot, for instance, use your Wizard to charm one monster and take
its Treasures before fighting the rest. Combat isn't over until the
WHOLE combat is over.


Are there additional (custom ?) tracks for Formula One?

I’m a huge french fan of this extraordinary game.

You can find several interesting tracks on the Lucidphoenix site:
http://lucidphoenix.com/sc/tracks/

The owner of the site is Douglas Schultz, who remastered "Speed Circuit" in "CFR".


Can Dark Magician the Dragon Knight stop Trap Eater?

No, it won't stop Trap Eater

Why? Because Trap Eater does not traget, nor does it destroy.

It sends to the graveyard instead. Also, this is not targeting because: 1) it doesn't indicate so explicitly, and 2) the sending is actually a cost rather than an effect.


No. The rules are pretty clear about this:

Set the “Longest Road” card aside if—after a longest road is
broken—several players tie for the new longest road or no one has a 5+
segment road. The “Longest Road” card comes into play again when only
1 player has the longest road (of at least 5 road pieces)

Your example exactly meets the criteria, "after a longest road is broken" and "several players tie for the new longest road".


How to identify when to try a "Merriamac Coup" in bridge?

It really depends. If you think declarer hasn't got enough tricks after your sacrifice of the K, and would absolutely need to establish dummy's suit, then yes, you could try it.

It is theoretically possible to execute the Merrimac on the opening lead, but the situation would probably be very rare. I haven't seen any, but I suppose given some time, we can cook up an example.

Yes, Merrimac can also be done on the closed hand, if you have a good enough read of the hand (which you should strive to, in any case).

And yes, using the Q to knock out the K can also be termed as a Merrimac Coup.

Not sure if I answered your question.


When is the winning condition checked in Fluxx?

You won.
From the Fluxx rules:

Winning the Game
The game continues until one player meets the conditions of the current Goal. That player wins immediately, regardless of whose turn it is.

The word 'immediately' doesn't match with what your opponent was trying to tell you.


Can you win with two creepers when the goal only has one creeper?

No. The Goal will specify which Creepers are allowed for that Goal to succeed. Any surplus Creepers do not have their "unless a card says otherwise" triggered, so you cannot win.


Commerce in Seven Wonders: possible to buy the same resource more than once in the same turn?

You may only construct structures/wonder stages if you can produce the required resources in their cost, or your adjacent opponents have the missing resources you require (and you have the coins necessary to purchase those goods).
The rules are probably not as specific as they should be, but you can glean the correct answer by looking at the examples given. Unless a structure is free, you must have the resouces to build it and/or the coins necessary to buy the resources from your neighbors.

Some cards have a resource cost. To construct them, the player must produce the corresponding resources AND/OR buy them from one of his or her two neighboring cities.

The rules then give an example of the Giza board, its current production, and the fact that it cannot build the Aquaduct.

The resources of a city are produced by its Wonder board, its brown cards, its gray cards, and some yellow cards. To build a structure, a player’s city must produce the resources indicated on its card. Example : Giza produces 2 Stones, 1 Clay, 1 Ore, 1 Papyrus and 1 Textile :

its player cannot build the Aqueduct (cost : 3 Stones) as his city only produces two of the three stones required by that structure.

It is clear that since Giza requires 3 Stone to build the Aquaduct and cannot build it, but it would be quite odd if its neighbor's could buy 3 stone from Giza and build it themselves. This is further driven home buy the split '/' resource icon explanation on the last page of the Quick Rules or the regular rules tells you that only one of the pictured resources is available to you and your neighboring cities, not both. As well as the double resource icon providing two of the pictured resource.

the card produces one of the two pictured raw resources each turn.
Clarification : the player can use one OR the other resource to build a structure (or a wonder phase) but NOT both in a given turn. Neighboring players may purchase either, regardless of what the owner chooses to produce.

And finally, the last 2 Stone example from the rules, showing that both neighboring cities can buy her 2 stones and she can also use the same 2 stones in the same turn. This indicates that the resources a city has a available is the maximum that they can produce, and that both neighbors can buy 0, 1, or 2 stone the same turn the that the city owner uses 0, 1, or 2 stone.

Example B: during a game turn, both neighboring cities buy from her 2 Stones for a total of 8 coins (2 per resource). In the same turn, she can build a Library (cost : 2 Stones + 1 Textile) thanks to her resources, even though she has sold them to her neighboring cities.


It's the base size of the model. In Kaelyssa's case, and all other small base models, it's 30mm.

Here's a reference from PPS_Jackson on Reddit where he answers this very question:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warmachine/comments/6afm9k/comment/dhfgmxg

  That indicates the models base size which is a new addition given how dragoons are now shown as two separate cards.


In general, king making is contentious.

In my mind, it's best reserved for when it will allow ending a game "Now-ish" in order to either facilitate a different, more generally enjoyable game, or to allow players to leave.

There are a few other conditions where I find it less than unacceptable. These basically boil down to "not letting A have a runaway victory by aiding B."

In some cases, it's a matter of allying with B (publicly or not) so that A has some competition because A is in a clear runaway. I've seen this a lot in a variety of public scoring track games.

In others, it's quietly avoiding helping A because of A being in the lead, which results in B having a chance. This is most frequent in my plays of Settlers of Catan - no one trades with the leader... In this case, it generally lengthens the game needlessly, as the leader often is able to stay the leader.

The other condition is when the game allows for alliance victories, or as with Dune, one or more players has a kingmaking victory condition. In Dune, the Bene Gesserit win by correctly predicting the turn of victory and the victor - the BG player works very hard to king-make.


Both abilities trigger at the same time, so you can place them on the stack in the order of your choice. If you place Hammer of Nazahn's ability on the stack first, then it will resolve last. This means you will first attach the equipment to the Germ creature when the triggered ability from Living Weapon resolves, then you may attach it to a different creature when Hammer of Nazahn's ability resolves.


Does this combo for my Rakdos EDH deck work?

Yes, When you sacrifice a creature to Razaketh, it's ability goes on the stack, after that the dying trigger of Kozilek goes on the stack and since the last thing on the stack resolves first, your graveyard will shuffle in your deck and then you can find your deck for a card.


Are there bridge behaviors that are technically within the rules that could be considered unethical?

First: I'm speaking sanctioned duplicate bridge.  What happens in the rubber clubs is out of my experience; the Laws are different, and obviously when money is on the line, different things are ethical or unethical.

To answer your title: yes.  Because the ethics of the game are fully defined by the Proprieties (which were moved from "guidelines" to actual Laws decades ago), and "considered unethical" is frequently in the eye of the beholder, there are many things that are entirely Proper that society, even bridge society, would side-eye you for.  I remember explaining to a newer player that misbids were legal, and in fact, deliberately misdescribing your hand was legal under certain conditions (for instance, as you say, that it truly is a misdescription to all three opponents, and not something partner "expects').  She said that lying is totally unethical.

The other common ones I get complaints about are Law 72B2: no obligation to draw attention to an infraction committed by one's own side [except mistaken explanation], and frustrations when people have got a good score via Law 10C4: [excepting use of UI] it is appropriate for the offenders to make any call or play advantageous to their side, even though they thereby appear to profit...

There are other behaviours that are definitely "borderline unethical" that don't cross the actual letter of the Proprieties.  Many of them are made illegal by regulation of the Bridge Organization running the game (for instance: ACBL's Zero Tolerance for Bad Behaviour policy, or the EBU's Better Bridge Program).  And it is unethical to deliberately violate a Lawfully created regulation of your NBO (Law 72A, Law 80B2f).

To answer your question specifically, the Law 40C1 says, in part: Repeated deviations lead to implicit understandings which then form part of the partnership’s methods and must be disclosed in accordance with the regulations governing disclosure of system.

As others have answered, tendencies of your partner (as opposed to tendencies of players in general, even flight A players who psych more than 0%) become implied agreements very quickly.  It doesn't take more than one or two times partner opening 1NT on KQTxxx of clubs and out (and passing Stayman) for you to be aware partner might be doing this.  Now that it is an implied agreement, it may be an illegal agreement in your bridge organization ("Comic 1NT", 15-17 or a 2-level preempt, is illegal in the ACBL for instance). If it is not illegal, if you do not explain your actual agreement (which includes "but partner has been known to have ... instead"), you are misinforming the opponents, which is also an infraction.

Also, many bridge organizations have provided regulations or guidelines on psyching.  The ACBL has this to say about psychic bids.

In particular it points out three things that would be concerning, and should be investigated:

Excessive Psychic Bidding — When three or more psychic initial actions by members of a partnership have been reported in any one session and are called to the attention of the Director, the Director should investigate the possibility that excessive psyching is taking place. [The onus is on the player to prove that it is not, in this case]

[Note what is considered excessive, though - two or three in 26 boards.  Most players who do psych make it to two or three in a year]

Frivolous Psychic Bidding — Any psychic action inspired by a spirit of malicious mischief or lack of will to win may be interpreted as frivolous.
Unsportsmanlike Psychic Bidding — Action apparently designed to give the opponents an abnormal opportunity to get a good score, psychs against pairs or teams in contention, psychs against inexperienced players and psychs used merely to create action at the table are examples of unsportsmanlike psychic bidding.

It also has the category, totally banned, of risk-free psychics; those that are protected by system in any way.  A classic example is, after an opening 10-12 NT, agreeing that partner's 2 of a suit (to play) MAY NOT BE raised by opener, even with AKQT.  If that is because you would ever bid 2 hearts with xx to pick off their suit, your agreement is illegal.


Can you use trading to build a wonder in 7 Wonders Duel?

Turns out this same questions has been asked on BGG.  Thankfully the designer Bruno Cathala has responded to this question clear "just to confirm: yes you can !".

I can see from the question that a stretch it could be interpreted that Wonders are not buildings by wording of rules but the designer has clarified that trading is allowed for wonder construction.

BGG rules forum link.


How do continuous effects interact with "enters the battlefield" triggers?

If I play a 2/2 creature while Honor of the Pure is in play does the Mentor's ability trigger?

No.

  Similarly if I play a 2/2 human creature while Mayor of Avabruck is in play (face up) does the Mentor's ability trigger?

No.

  603.6b Continuous effects that modify characteristics of a permanent do so the moment the permanent is on the battlefield (and not before then). The permanent is never on the battlefield with its unmodified characteristics. Continuous effects don’t apply before the permanent is on the battlefield, however (see rule 603.6d).

Note the ramifications if there is a continuous effect that reduced the power of creatures. You could draw a card if you played a 3/3 creature and Night of Souls' Betrayal was in play.


Does Slithering Behind You cause the encounter deck's discard pile to be shuffled into it?

No, it does not. Slithering Behind You interacts with Hunting Horror. If that is not in play yet, it makes sure that that happens - by searching in the available cards, in the discarded cards and in the void.

After searching the Encounter deck, you have seen the order of cards. So that needs to be randomised again. This does nothing with the discard pile.


What does Masquerade do when you have no cards in hand, library or discard?

Out of interest, how did you reach the position of having zero cards in hand, library and discard?

Anyway, the answer is fairly simple, I think.  Consider the following section of the rules, qualifying the action of "draw 5 cards from your deck":

  If there still aren't enough cards to draw/reveal, he just
  draws/reveals what he can.

It seems clear that Dominion follows the same rules philosophy as, for instance, Magic the Gathering: if you cannot fully carry out an action, carry out as much of it as you can.

First, you try to draw 2 cards.  You can't, so instead you draw 0 cards.

Next, you try to pass a card left.  You can't, so you don't, though you probably do receive a card from your right.

Next, assuming that you were passed a card, you have the option to trash it.

Simple enough!


What is the name of this trick-taking card game?

It seems to me that Simon Klaver's comment referring to the wikipedia article on Oh Hell and its variations is the answer here. Although there's nothing on a version called "table."


Effect dependencies and ability adding/removing effects

Never mind, I shouldn't be reading comprehensive rules late at night...

613.7c After each effect is applied, the order of remaining effects is reevaluated and may change if an effect that has not yet been applied becomes dependent on or independent of one or more other effects that have not yet been applied.


Will Path of Mettle flip if I fullfill the conditions after declaring attackers?

No, because "whenever you attack" looks at the exact moment you're declaring attackers (not after).

Path of Mettle will not transform in this situation. For it to transform, your attacking creatures must already have those qualities whilst being declared as attackers. It does not work to grant them those abilities just afterwards such as by Duelist's Heritage.

This is because of the way triggered abilities work, especially "when (something) attacks" triggers. Basically:

You declare attackers.
Then, we check to see what abilities trigger.

Duelist's Heritage saw a creature attack. It triggers.
Path of Mettle did not see two creatures with those qualities attack. It does not trigger.

Then people get priority, and eventually Duelist's Heritage gives something double strike.

But Path of Mettle doesn't care after the check in step 2; its opportunity to have its ability triggered has already passed. It can't/won't trigger again if something later gains those characteristics, since it already made its check.

For some comprehensive rules backing, we can see in the Declare Attackers step:

  508.2a Abilities that trigger on a creature attacking trigger only at the point the creature is declared as an attacker. They will not trigger if a creature attacks and then that creature’s characteristics change to match the ability’s trigger condition.

This one is pretty clear that Path of Mettle is looking for creatures that have those qualities whilst being declared as an attacker, not later.


Does Weathered Runestone make Emergent Ultimatum ineffective?

No, Weathered Runestone does not interact with Emergent Ultimatum. The Ultimatum allows its controller to cast the searched cards from exile, not from a library or graveyard.
As Weathered Runestone says, it prevents casting spells from graveyards or libraries. This applies to e.g. Skyclave Shade and Vivien, Monsters' Advocate. Its first ability also applies to, for example, Genesis Ultimatum and Eerie Ultimatum.

601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. [..]

However, Emergent Ultimatum puts the searched cards into exile first, which is a different zone.

400.1. A zone is a place where objects can be during a game. There are normally seven zones: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, stack, exile, and command.

The controller of Emergent Ultimatum then casts those cards from exile, which Weathered Runestone does not prevent.


Can a powered-down robot be repaired at a workshop?

Yes, robots can still receive damage tokens while powered down. From Page 5 of the rulebook under Power Down:

  Other robots can push a powered-down robot, and the robot can still be damaged (such as by laser fire), Because of that, a robot that’s powered down may receive new Damage tokens during the turn

Yes, you still repair damage and collect option cards. (Page 5)

  The robot doesn’t receive or execute Program cards and doesn’t move while powered down, but board elements still affect it.

And page 8:

  Repairs & Upgrades - Robots on a single-wrench space discard 1 Damage token. Robots on a crossed wrench/hammer space discard 1 Damage token AND draw one Option card.

Note: My answer is based upon the most recent rules available from Wizards of the Coast. There seems to be some differences between older printings of this game. This thread claims to link to a text version of the 1994 rules that indicate:

  A powered-down robot is completely shut down--it can't fire weapons, tag checkpoints, or update its archive location, nor can it acquire or use option cards. Powered-down robots don't move under their own power (they receive no program cards), but they may be moved by pushers, gears, and conveyor belts. They may also be pushed by other robots and shot at by lasers


Split Second has uses other than making a spell uncounterable.

As a simple example, say you cast Sudden Shock; targeting a creature with only 2 toughness. If not for Split Second, your opponent could save the creature by casting a spell any spell that does any of the following:

Increases the creature’s toughness
Gives the creature Hexproof
Gives the creature protection from your spell
Regenerates the creature
Prevents the damage

Several ways he could save his creature. But due to Split Second, he can’t respond at all; and the creature will almost certainly die.

Similarly if you cast Sudden Shock targeting your opponent who has 2 life. He can’t cast anything that will increase his own life.

There are all sorts of ways other than countering a spell that you might want to respond to a spell. Split Second prevents all of them.

While Split Second is generally more powerful than “cannot be countered” due to the reasons stated; in some cases “cannot be countered” will work better, such as if there’s a triggered ability that counters spells, such as the emblem from Jace, Unraveler of Secrets.


Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Leyline of the Void

Even with Leyline of the Void in play, Scion of the Ur-Dragon's ability still works.

The relevant part of the ability is

  Search your library for a Dragon permanent card and put it into your graveyard. If you do...

This is actually a cost, as defined in rule 117.12:

  Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, “[Do something]. If [a player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” or “[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The “If [a player] [does or doesn’t]” clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

As you can see, the last part of the rule says that the effect happens as long as you choose to pay the cost, even if the outcome is different. In this case, as long as you find a Dragon permanent card and choose to put it in your graveyard, even if it doesn't actually end up in the graveyard, Scion of the Ur-Dragon still becomes a copy of it.


"Stay Away" how to handle case with 4 Infected cards

My suggestion/workaround is to show everybody that you drew 3 'infected' cards, discard them and draw 3 more cards instead whether you're infected or not. If it's infected cards - do it again.
And yes we actually encountered this situation and it kind of messed the game.


King of Tokyo (2016 version): Psychic Probe

According to Richard Garfield the game's designer, the timing of Psychic Probe interacting with cards such as Plot Twist, Stretchy, or Herd Culler is reactive - one player must commit to the use of their card, then the other must decide to use their card - there is no specific order in which these cards will always resolve and if neither player opts to use their card then the existing roll stands.

The clarification for this can be found here in the comments on one of Richards podcasts.

Obviously based on the date and content of the podcast, this was intended as a clarification for first edition, but unless the rules have changed significantly on any of the cards (which as far as I can see, they haven't) it would still apply for second edition.


Does the "housing shortage" rule suggest that you should often refrain from buying hotels in monopoly?

From the Official Rules of Monopoly (my emphasis):

  The bank has a fixed supply of 32 houses and 12 hotels. If more players decide to build more houses at the same time than there are houses in the bank, the houses are auctioned off one at a time to the highest bidder. This rule favors the owners of expensive properties, for which the houses cost more in the first place, because the auction price of a house is not tied to the value of the property on which it will be placed. It is not possible to buy more houses than there is available in the bank. This could stop people buying hotels in the future!

and here:

  When the Bank has no houses to sell, players wishing to build must wait for some player to return or sell their houses to the Bank before building. If there are a limited number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at auction to the highest bidder.

Update: - Interpretation and application

I see the purchase of hotels in Monopoly as an endgame tactic, not a mid-game tactic. Similar to a running-game double in backgammon by the leader, which is meant not to increase the stakes but to eliminate the opportunity for the opponent to get lucky and squeak out a win. The purchase of hotels is properly done when one is already firmly in the lead, and thus that the housing shortage period of the game (a possible definition of the mid-game period actually) is already past.

One then buys hotels because opponents do not actually have enough money to purchase the released assets. By further increasing one's rents one can increase the pain of each landing on your property, and reduce the opponents' opportunity to rebuild a cash stock.


Short Answer
You can only get 1 Zombie token. One Jace and 2 Lilianas die simultaneously. And the Clever Impersonator can't copy anything, so it dies immediately.
The Details
I'll go through those in reverse order: First, Clever Impersonator has a ruling that says

If Clever Impersonator enters the battlefield at the same time as another permanent, it can’t become a copy of that permanent. You may only choose a nonland permanent that’s already on the battlefield.

So, 3 Lilianas, 2 Jaces, and 1 0/0 Clever Impersonator enter the battlefield. Then state-based actions are checked. The specific relevant rules are

704.5f If a creature has toughness 0 or less, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. Regeneration can’t replace this event.

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

So, when you apply those, the result is that the Clever Impersonator dies from the first rule, and 2 of the Lilianas and 1 of the Jaces die. Then, the living Liliana's ability triggers 4 times (twice for the other Lilianas, once for the Jace, and once for the Clever Impersonator), and each of the others' trigger 3 times.
Then, you have a total of 10 copies of that ability on the stack. However, we can ignore the ones from the dead Liliana. That's because she is no longer on the battlefield, so you can't choose to exile her, which means that you don't get a zombie. So we are left with the 4 abilities from the one that survived.
First, one of the abilities resolves. You exile her and return her to the battlefield, and you get one Zombie token. Then the next one resolves. But the Liliana, Heretical Healer creature is no longer on the battlefield, so you can't exile her. So none of the rest of the abilities give you a Zombie. Liliana has a ruling that backs this up:

If multiple nontoken creatures you control die, then Liliana, Heretical Healer’s ability will trigger that many times. However, since Liliana can be exiled and returned to the battlefield only once, only the first ability to resolve will create a Zombie token. The other abilities will resolve but won’t do anything.

Liliana's Ability
To see exactly why Liliana's ability works the way it does, we can break it down into parts. First, it is a Triggered Ability, with trigger condition

Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies

and effect

exile Liliana, Heretical Healer, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control. If you do, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

Now, the effect part can be further split up. Rule 117.12 says

Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, “[Do something]. If [a player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” or “[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The “If [a player] [does or doesn’t]” clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

This means that the ability's effect can be split into the cost:

exile Liliana, Heretical Healer, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control

and the (sub) effect:

put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

This is important because rule 117.3 says

A player can’t pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary resources to pay it fully. [...]

Now, you might ask "What about the Lilianas in the graveyard? Why can't I exile them to get more Zombies?" The answer to that depends on a few different rules. Rule 112.6 says

Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows

(None of the exceptions apply). And the rules regarding zone-change triggers say

603.6c Leaves-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent moves from the battlefield to another zone, or when a phased-in permanent leaves the game because its owner leaves the game. These are written as, but aren’t limited to, “When [this object] leaves the battlefield, . . .” or “Whenever [something] is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, . . . .” An ability that attempts to do something to the card that left the battlefield checks for it only in the first zone that it went to. An ability that triggers when a card is put into a certain zone “from anywhere” is never treated as a leaves-the-battlefield ability, even if an object is put into that zone from the battlefield.

603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, abilities that trigger when a permanent phases out, abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library, abilities that trigger specifically when an object becomes unattached, abilities that trigger when a player loses control of an object, and abilities that trigger when a player planeswalks away from a plane will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to “look back in time” to determine if these abilities trigger.

From these rules, we can see that Liliana's ability only functions while she is on the battlefield, and it triggered based on her existence before she died.
Then, rule 201.4 says

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

The use of the word "object" here is important, because rule 400.7 says

An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule

This means that the "Liliana, Heretical Healer" in the ability's text refers to the Liliana that was on the battlefield while the ability is on the stack, and that reference does not transfer to the object she becomes when she moves to the graveyard.
Therefore, you can only choose to exile Liliana to get a Zombie if she is still on the battlefield, as a creature, when the ability resolves.


In the new Tyranid Codex (6th Edition) is the Close Combat Weapons bonus included in Unit profiles?

It used to be that this was reflected by the use of parentheses, e.g. 3(4)

This forum post talks about this(although not in relation to the models you mentioned). The consensus seems to be that if it is not explicitly stated that it is factored into the profile, then it's in addition to the profile.


Axis & Allies - Opening strategies for the U.K.

I think there are three basic strategies for the UK:

Focus on India - with this approach, the UK cedes Africa to Germany. On the first turn, the UK builds a factory in India and uses its transport to move its two troops in Egypt to India, as well as the Egyptian tank and Syrian infantry into Persia (to move into India next turn). The fighters that start in the UK are moved to Karelia and then to India. For this tactic to work, UK must build troops and tanks in India each turn and continually harass Japan in Burma.
Focus on Africa - here, UK cedes India to Japan and focuses on holding Africa. UK starts by moving her troops and fighter from India into Egypt. Sometimes people will build a factory in South Africa when going with this approach.
Ignore Africa and India in the Early Game - with this approach UK does not build any factories. Some players build a bomber the first turn to have two bombers to take out the German fleet in the Mediterranean. Others build nothing the first turn, saving it for a carrier and transports for turn two. The general strategy here is to bide your time, prepare for a joint invasion of Africa and/or France with the US, and then make your move. In this approach, Germany will usually take Africa early on (although they won't hold it presuming their navy has been sunk) and Japan will take India early (and will hold all of Asia for most of the game).

The Focus on India approach is designed to slow Japan down, to make her focus on building up forces and taking India rather than moving west toward Moscow. Against weaker players you may be able to force Japan off Asia from this factory (with reinforcement fighters from UK via Karelia), but against stronger players the factory is doomed.

The Focus on Africa approach is aimed at bottling Germany up in Europe. This works best if you still have your Med sub after turn one and if you were fortunate enough to take out a number of German fighters when they attacked the UK sea zone. With this approach you need to kill off the German Med navy ASAP and then reclaim Africa from within. This almost always works against weaker players, and usually works if Germany has poor rolls at the beginning. If Germany had decent rolls and the player is good, you're going to lose your South African factory sooner than later.

Personally, I prefer and usually play the Ignore Africa and India in the Early Game, especially if I'm going against someone who is a strong player. With this approach you don't spend any additional money or time on India or Africa in the early game. Instead, you build transports, a carrier, and coordinate with the US to take Africa back later (after the German Med navy is destroyed) via landing at Algeria from Spain Sea Zone. With this tactic you are letting Japan have Asia without much effort, so you'll need to make sure Russia heavily fortifies her capital and ensure that the US/UK can get their troop pipeline into Karelia going sooner than later.

If you haven't yet read Don's Axis and Allies Strategic Essays, I heartily recommend them. They give a good overview of the Axis and Allies primary goals and tactics, and then delve into suggested opening moves and game-long plans for each power. (Don is a proponent of the Focus on India strategy for the UK.)


In axis and allies 1941 do fighters have to take off to participate in an attack?

The basic principle is that an air unit ends its turn when it "lands" on a space or a carrier. So if a fighter flies two spaces, fights, and lands on a carrier with its third space, its turn ends, and it cannot fly to an adjacent fourth space if the carrier is attacked. (The air unit is refueling while this happens.)

However, an air unit on a carrier can defend its carrier, which is to say that a player can choose to take fighters as casualties before, or instead of the carrier. (If the carrier is UK, and a fighter is US, the UK player needs the consent of the US player.) But most players will sacrifice a fighter to allow the carrier to be taken as a casualty last, because if it is sunk, the fighters are lost anyway.


Does transforming a card trigger an enters the battlefield effect?

Transforming a card doesn't cause enter the battlefield effects to trigger.

Transforming a card is explained in the comprehensive rules under rule 701.26. More specifically:

  701.26a To transform a permanent, turn it over so that its other face is up. Only permanents represented by double-faced cards can transform. (See rule 711, “Double-Faced Cards.”)

When transforming a double faced card (Rule 711) it never leaves the battlefield in the first place.

The exception to this standard way of transforming are the 5 Planeswalkers from magic Orgins. In order to function properly they have additional rules text on each card that modifies how they transform, for instance Chandra has (emphasis mine):

  If Chandra has dealt 3 or more damage this turn, exile her, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control.

The Magic Origins Planeswalkers need to leave and Enter the Battlefield in order to get their Loyalty counters, as all Planeswlakers are treated as if they have "This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number." in their rules text (306.5b). If they transformed normally they would never receive their loyalty counters and would then die.

In your specific example since Chandra the Roaring Flame is being exiled and then returning to the Battlefield transformed, Oath of Chandra's ability will trigger.


If a "The Phantom Knights" trap monster's effects are negated, is it turned back into a trap or no?

Depend on the exact Text but most Phantom Knight Monster has the condition: "(This card is NOT treated as a Trap Card.)"

If the trap has this text, it will not return to be trap if the effect is negate, since it is not an effect but a condition. It is also uneffect by every card that is applied to Trap Cards (MST, Royal Decree, etc) and keeps being a Monster if it change to face-down position.

Without the condition, the answer from simples_mathematics appeal

For Ruling look at the wikia:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Rulings:The_Phantom_Knights_of_Shadow_Veil

Also note, that OCG-Ruling don't official apply in tcg tournaments, where the judge has the last word, but still should be used as navigation points


What extra roles have you used with Werewolves?

I've played with several of the roles invented by The Graduate Mafia Brotherhood of Princeton University, but the most memorable was the Kingmaker:

A despotic regime has siezed power, usurping democracy. Each turn, there will be a King or Queen who has the sole power to decide who will be lynched. Open debate is allowed, but the day ends as soon as the King/Queen makes his/her choice.
The Kingmaker is a civilian, who, each night, names a King/Queen for the following round. The Kingmaker cannot choose himself, and he cannot choose the same person for two consecutive rounds. The Kingmaker must choose someone.

One game in particular, the Kingmaker's pleas of "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" went entirely unheeded.  We played the rest of that game democratically.
I also noticed that with too many roles in use, moderation can get ridiculously hard.