As with Elvish Archdruid, the effect only exists when Adaptive Automaton is on the battlefield.

Elvish Archdruid and Adaptive Automaton both have a static ability that creates a continuous effect that alter the power and toughness of some creatures, and static abilities only work as long as long as their source is on the battlefield.[1]

  604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 112.6.

The wording of Adaptive Automaton's ability and Elvish Archdruid's are both of the form "[Creatures that match some criteria] get +1/+1." If you explained why you think these practically identical abilities might work differently, we could better explain why they don't.

Some static abilities work in zones other than the battlefield, as explained by 112.6. This is not one of those cases. These static abilities can be summarized as follows:

Abilities of sorcery and instant objects (which usually work on the stack)
Characteristic-defining abilities (which work in all zones)
Abilities that only make sense if they work in other zones (which work in those zones)


How does Cheat Code interact with Monster's Ballroom?

What makes this room special is that its ability is not just a passive ability, but a characteristic-defining ability.

I can see both interpretations as valid. But in the absence of anything rules to the contrary, you are instructed to ignore the ability, so you should ignore the ability.

The room therefore deals an undefined amount of damage, and therefore no damage.


Why don't triggered abilities immediately go on the stack?

Magic is designed to avoid any interruptions to the resolution of a spell or ability

It might seem like placing triggers on the stack is a minor thing that would not cause any problems, but some triggers target and that means that now somebody is making decisions in the middle of the resolution of the spell.  Even worse, some abilities trigger when the permanent becomes a target of a spell or ability, meaning that this interstitial trigger can trigger other triggers!  (And one card, Scalelord Reckoner, targets when triggered by being targeted,  which could cause it to trigger a third trigger!).

The rules are almost certainly capable of handling such complication, but it's not really beneficial to the game to have to do so.

Having all the triggers placed all at once reinforces the general intuition about how Magic treats simultaneity - how if multiple creatures enter the battlefield all at once, they all see each other enter for their triggers.

It also means that you don't have to figure out where various objects are at the exact moment the trigger happens when choosing targets.  Everything waits until resolution is complete and everything is settled and stationary before target choice happens.

Additionally, if abilities entered the stack while a spell or ability was resolving, that would meant that you are now resolving an effect that is somewhere in the middle of the stack, which is philosophically not how the stack is meant to function.


There isn't a card nor an entry in the rules that mention multiples parties, therefore the number of parties you can form is irrelevant.
Also, rule 700.8a state s

The calculation of the number of creatures in a player’s party is performed automatically by the game and results in a number between zero and four. Players don’t declare which specific creatures they control are in their party.

The party mechanic doesn't care about the individual creatures but cares about the diversity in your whole pool of creatures.


1) One per room.

2) No.

Quoting rules summary:

  Opening the first door in a building (except the start area) generates Zombies in each zone. For each zone, draw a Zombie card and place them accordingly.


Does the "Disease Zones Expand" emergency event only apply to cities with cubes of more than one color?

In this thread on BGG, game designer Tom Lehmann addresses this concern. User joekeck posted this as a reword:

  "if any cities contain any cube(s) (other than purple) that do not match that city's color, then add an additional cube of that cube color"

and Tom responded:

  In spirit, yes. The problems with this wording (which is similar to the wording I originally submitted to Z-Man) are: A) "that cube color" could conceivably be read as a cube of the city's color ("that" isn't unambiguous here) and B) it's too long for the card text area.

So in your example, both Los Angeles and Mexico city receive an additional blue cube, but no yellow cubes are added.


In your case, you do have priority and you can cast the instant in question. However, an instant that says "When you take [some amount of] damage, [do something]" won't really do much because the damage has already been done, so to speak. However, if you had responded to the lightning bolt with your instant, then it would have worked as intended.

You ask specifically about the end of the turn and responding to damage, but you also seem to not completely understand the priority system in general. There are several points during a turn (upkeep, end of draw step, main phase, beginning of combat, attack step, block step, end of combat step, end step) when the active player (the player taking the turn) gains priority. Whenever a player has priority, they can either do something (play a spell, activate an ability) or they can pass priority. Spells and abilities don't resolve and steps don't end until every player has passed priority. Usually, people take the shortcut that if somebody doesn't say anything, they are assumed to be passing priority.

The important thing is that every player gets priority every step (as long as someone gets it) and before anything resolves (so you always get an opportunity to respond). You can read the comprehensive rules entry about timing and priority for more information.

In your specific case, when you say "I end my turn", it really means "I propose a shortcut that we skip to my end step" (there is also a comprehensive rules entry about Shortcuts and when your opponent cast the spell, they were implicitly accepting your shortcut, casting the spell during your end step, and then passing priority to you.


It definitely seems a flame token launched by Fire Mario, from McDonald's Happy Meal games.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhNh-Ircvg0


Where is the Wizards of the Coast Offical Commander (General) banned list?

The Commander format (née Elder Dragon Highlander) began with a bunch of judges entertaining themselves over the course of long, major tournaments, with cards that rarely saw play; Sheldon Menery in particular, who was at the time a level 5 judge although he has since retired from Magic judging.
As the format grew, the EDH Rules Committee formed, and they created "the" banlist -- while many groups customize the list to their own metas, and there is a different banlist designed for 1v1 play[1], the banlist maintained by the RC was the gold standard for EDH.
When Wizards wanted to get in on the action, they decided to let the RC maintain their autonomy, although they did need to brand the format, hence the name change to Commander instead of EDH. While commander is now a supported casual format, even to the point of being available for scheduling via the Wizards Event Reporter software, playable in Magic Online, and detailed in the Comprehensive Rules document, the rules of the format continue to be maintained by the RC.
The RC has synchronized their rules/banlist update schedule with that of Wizards, which helps to avoid confusion from mismatched information.
In short: The banlist posted on mtgcommander.net is the official banlist.

Notes

Duel Commander, occasionally called "French" EDH. The Duel Commander rules and banlist are maintained by a separate group from the Commander Rules committee, and Duel Commander is not supported by Wizards in the way normal Commander is.


You are able to activate it anytime you could cast an instant.

However once a creature has been declared an attacking or blocking creature the Vial's ability doesn't do anything, since it prevents a creature from being declared an attacker/blocker but doesn't undo that declaration.

From the Gatherer Rulings:

  Activating the last ability of Alchemist’s Vial targeting a creature that’s already attacking or blocking won’t cause that creature to stop attacking or blocking. It will prevent that creature from attacking or blocking in any additional combat phases the turn may have (although this is unusual).


As you can see from this image of the entire set of Influence cards, the Assassin's text is transparently brief. With my emphasis, that text is

  Pay three coins to assassinate another player

Thus, you cannot target yourself with your own Assassin, however interesting that choice might end up being!


My game of Rummikub came with a die. Why could that be?

There is a game called Dice Rummikub, which uses dice instead of tiles; while related, it is its own game and requires more than a single die.

Short of being mixed into the box accidentally, or tossed in as a convenient first-player randomizer (because "high tile goes first" is just so complicated :p), I can't think of any reason for its inclusion in the regular tile-based Rummikub set.


No. It is a strong statistical possibility that a foil rare can be found in a box, but it isn't assured. It is statistically possible to open a booster box and find zero premium cards, as well as zero mythic rares.

The probabilistic expectation, if you were to open an innumerable amount of booster boxes, is that there will be six premium cards per booster box, with one of those six premium cards being a rare. Further, it is expected that one foil mythic rare will be opened for every eight booster boxes.


What's the difference between Pandemic Legacy Red and Blue?

The contents of the two boxes are identical. The Red and Blue boxes are for people who want to run two campaigns at the same time - for example, with two different gaming groups - to help distinguish between the games.


I have found no rule that prevent you from using two jokers in a single set:

  The Joker: There are two jokers in the game. Each joker can be used as
  any tile in a set, and its number and color are that of the tile
  needed to complete the set. On future turns, a joker can be retrieved
  from a set on the table by a player who can replace it during his/her
  turn with any tiles that can keep the set legitimate. This tile can
  come from the table or from a player’s rack. In the case of a group of
  three tiles, the joker can be replaced by a tile of either of the
  missing colors. When a player retrieves a joker, the joker will once
  again have any value or color. However, a player who retrieves a joker
  must play the joker on his/her current turn to make a new set, and
  must also use at least one tile from his/her rack on that turn (just
  as on any other turn). A player cannot retrieve a joker before s/he
  has played his/her initial meld.


How can I play Dominion by myself (like solitaire)?

Probably the best way to make a bot to play against is to not make it have a deck at all, just every other turn make it take a duchy and on the other turns make it randomly take an attack card and do it's effect (only bother with the effect that effects you for the bot doesn't have a deck)
You should check out the game Ascension, it is a deck building game like dominion, but with a viable built in solitaire variant.


What do I do if mandatory actions will inherently take a very long time to resolve? (Splinter Twin + Tyrant of Discord example)

If such situation as described by you really applies, only the judge can help in this situation.

I have various examples how a judge handled alike situation, but most of them had one thing in common: It ended in a draw.

The examples that didn't, had in common that the player determined a way to shorten the "choose randomly" process. Here it becomes quite tricky.

In the end the judge with the right authority does have the last word on this and it cannot be generally determined for all tournaments. This is an example of a gap in between the rules that propably needs some fixing for a fair ruling.


Is prompting players with alternate moves poor etiquette?

This isn't really an ethics question, it's more that you and Player 2 haven't agreed on which game you're playing.

You want to play a game that involves loose alliances and table talk.
Player 2 wants to play a game with strict solo play and no talk.

There's not much you can do here apart from agree, in advance, which version of the game you're playing.  If you want to play the game differently, you'll need to play with different people or put up with agreeing to something you don't like.  Careful phrasing of this can get you away from this being a right/wrong thing.

What you can do is bring games where open alliances are part of the game.  That could well loosen up player 2 to come round to your way of thinking.  Diplomacy, Cosmic Encounter or Avalon would be a good start.

All this is separate from the issue of people outside the game giving advice.  Personally I find that to be bad form.


This PDF from maydaygames.com contains the sizes of cards for just about every modern game.  It looks like the largest one on there is for Planechase at 89mm x 127mm (3.5" x 5").


One important reason to check a king is to prevent him from castling later by forcing him to move. The reason is that a king that has already moved (and remains in the center) cannot later "castle" his way into relative safety on the side. Nor can a king castle while in check, so this prevents him from castling for at least that move.

There are two other ways to defend a king in check without moving him. One is to capture the checking piece, and the other is to "interpose" another piece between the checking piece and the king. If the king can then be prevented from moving, he can castle later. But these remedies expose the defending side to other risks, which are probably included in the reasons to check the king.


Is it possible to move the Terran base on a defend order too?

Seems like it is legal!
had a response here by a user named: Jozan

If you look at The Mobilize Order (SC rules, page 23) it does only say
transport/move units as well, but we're moving bases anyways. I think
the key points are that:

Terrans can move bases as if they were units,

and

The Defend order is treated as a Mobilize order


Sleeving the dollar cards in Ca$h 'n Guns where the exact sleeve size doesn't exist

Putting the comments in an answer so we can "close" the case.

Honestly, I would just buy a second copy of the game. You're talking about a potential cost of $15-20 (for double sleeves) to protect the components that are handled the least (besides the diamond, of course). Furthermore, damaged cards would have almost no impact on the game, unless you're playing with card counters... but then just shoot the card counter!

The cards are certainly essential - they just aren't handled that much. Each card is shuffled at the beginning, dealt out and chosen during one round, and kept in a player's "stash" until the end of the game.


What's the name of the board game about sailing between islands?

Tongiaki, perhaps?  Description and image à la BoardGameGeek:

  This game uses a unique tile design never seen in any other game (hexes with wavy edges), and is easy to explain and easy to enjoy. Players all begin on the island of Tonga, and immediate overcrowding forces players to search out other islands to populate. For each expedition that leaves, a new tile is placed, revealing either an island, or a "water path" that may or may not have a number from 2-4, indicating that many different players (not number of boats) must make up that expedition for it to survive the voyage (draw and place an additional tile). In this way, the game encourages both cooperative and competitive play at the same time.


Does activating Sensei's Divining Top make me miss my counterbalance trigger?

There have been some changes to the MtG Tournament rules.

Regular Rules Enforcement, there are really only two "rules." You aren't allowed to miss your own triggered abilities, and your opponent isn't required to remind you about them. The second one is a change that was put in at higher RELs a few months ago. Please note that this part applies only to triggered abilities. [...]
The new rules require the controller of a triggered ability to "demonstrate awareness" of a trigger before certain times for different types of triggered abilities. If a player fails to do this, the triggered ability is considered missed. What counts as demonstrating awareness? Let's look at the four cases:

Since you need to make a choice to reveal the top card of your library or not, this trigger is not considered missed at this time. Your opponent would likely need to ask, "Resolve?" with respect to their spell, and you would have to choose to pass, which would cause the trigger to become "missed".

A triggered ability that causes a change in the visible game state (including life totals) or requires a choice upon resolution.
The controller needs to acknowledge the change or choice before taking an action that he or she couldn't take before the ability would resolve. We want to make sure that the triggered ability is actually missed, so we allow for the possibility that you may cast instants or activate abilities in response. For example, if you attack with Geist of Saint Traft and then cast an instant before putting an Angel token onto the battlefield, the rules will assume that Geist's triggered ability is still on the stack. Only after you do something that necessarily has to be after the ability resolved, like attempting to assign combat damage, is the triggered ability considered missed.


How should damage counters be put on a Pokémon?

Primeape from Plasma Freeze has this ability, Karate Chop, however the ability doesn't care if you consolidate counters into something else like higher value counters or dice, counters as referred to by this are the standard 10 damage counter. Changing to some other method to show the 50 damage on the primeape does not change the effect of the ability, effectively the ability does 80-[the total damage Primape has taken].

Generally though I would suggest using Dice to mark damage, it's a lot simpler to have 2d6 on the card than it is to cover it with 8 counters (as the 9th would knock it out) This is however an opinion there, and temper it with how things are enforced where you play and by your opponents.


I've never heard of that method.  I don't think it's very common, nor do I think it's sensible.  A more common and better variant is to not count both distribution and high card points for a suit unless the honor is an A (for a singleton or doubleton) or a K (for a doubleton).  Thus, QJ doubleton would be worth 3 points but not 4.

The rationale for the rule that was suggested is no doubt that your honors are unprotected -- if the opponents play AK, your honors drop.  The reason this is wrong is that if you partner has at least one of the A, the K, or the 10 (which happens more than 2/3 of the time), your QJ doubleton becomes valuable again.  Even if partner is missing all those cards, you still have a decent chance of winning a trick with one of your honors provided you don't end up dummy, because the opponents will have to guess how to play the suit.  Another way to see that it is wrong to value the holding at 1 point is that QJ doubleton is clearly much better than xx doubleton, which would also be worth 1 point.

The more advanced answer is that the value of this holding depends strongly on what partner has and to a lesser extent on the contract.  Therefore, you should re-evaluate your hand during the bidding as you get more information about your partner's hand and the opponent's hands.  For instance, if partner seems to be reasonably strong in this suit, your QJ doubleton is probably valuable -- it could be worth 2 or even more tricks.  On the other hand, if your LHO seems to have all the cards in the suit, your QJ doubleton may only be valuable for the fact that it is a doubleton.


What is the most damaging thing a cylon can do in BattleStar Galactica on a turn he is revealing himself?

Most of the absolute best reveals I have seen typically involve either getting an executive order, or playing a critical situation, whilst abusing things like arrest orders.  Most recently, we had Laura Roslin, who had moved to the Admiral's Quarters with the intention of visiting the Ally there, receive an Executive Order from another player.  Roslin immediately played an arrest order with her first action, brigging that player, and then with her second action, activated the location, targetting another human, and then playing the new 6-strength yellow skill card that auto-passes locational checks in order to force him to the brig as well with no check.  That ended the turn of the unfortunate human; next up was... Laura Roslin, who played another arrest order, brigging the last human player, and then revealed as a Cylon (the shock!) damaging Galactica.  That particular game ended in a hurry as the two revealed cylons were now opposed by three inmates, and the damage mounted up fast and furious.

The lesson:

NEVER XO the player whose turn is next, unless all cylons are accounted for.

The contrapositive lesson for the cylon:

Get an XO when your turn is soon or next for maximum carnage.

Other tips:

Use communications to move civilians out of their defended areas straight into raider fleets.
Make sure you use up any Once-Per-Game effects you have;  you lose them when you are revealed to be a Cylon.  That means re-roll successful FTL checks(Gaeta), force humans to decide badly on skill cards (Helo), force humans to lose on Legendary Discovery (Boomer), shoot the President/Admiral (Cally), etc.
Brigging the admiral is more effective than brigging the president;  it throws the title in the air, and you may wind up with it.  If you do, squander the nukes :)
If you are playing with the New Caprica expansion, the most lethal thing you can do is jump Galactica away before any civilians are launched.  Watch for timely opportunities to either be the Admiral (very difficult, lots of groups will execute the Admiral on principle to try to find the Cylon) or be someone who can become Admiral by power (Ellen Tigh) or by succession (be next in line, execute the Admiral).  As soon as Galactica returns, jump out, which causes EVERY CIVILIAN SHIP IN PLAY TO BE DESTROYED. I've never seen a group survive that.
If you are playing with the Ionian Nebula, visit lots of allies.  You can set up negative consequences on powerful allies, and then recommend to the other humans that they be visited :P.
If you are playing with the Ionian Nebula, you can try to eliminate a key human player during the trial by dumping trauma tokens on them with certain trial-crisis cards.  Also, in the leadup to that point, the more turns you can force humans to spend in sickbay/brig, the more likely they are to lose their trial or be flat-out executed.
If you are Lee Adama, you can use your once per game to remove viper cover from civilian ships at a key moment.  Don't forget that every viper launch is a mini-XO for you;  if the player before you launches a Viper, you can use that to launch yourself, trigger your once-per game, wreck the humans viper coverage, and then on YOUR turn, carry out the rest of your nefarious plot.

Overall, the key to a successful reveal is to either cripple mankind directly with big stat hits, or to gain an advantage by wrecking their hands/freedom of movement through execution or brigging.  Bear in mind that in the Ionian Nebula, the longer any given person is in the brig (or sickbay) the more likely they are to get executed or eliminated in the trial.


Does the starting world dictate your strategy in Race for the Galaxy?

The short answer is that the start world is able to give you a jumpstart toward one or more specific strategies (the military world is probably the best example), but you can still play a very successful strategy that does not revolve around (get it?) that world.

I often make the decision about whether to commit to the start world pretty early on. A very common strategy, I'm sure you've noticed, is to play Explore on the first round. Between my starting four cards and my first explore draw, I will try to find a strategy that will get me ~50% of the way through my tableau (not necessarily from the cards in hand, but from the powers and phase plays I expect to focus on). If there's one that the start world helps, that's usually weighted pretty heavily.

If a strategy coalesces in my hand that the start world does little to help, I'll usually still go for it.


Learning to build multi-color decks in Magic

The other answers have explained pretty well what the advantages of a multicolor deck are, but I think I can add something on this point:

  What goes into the process of deciding which colors and cards to combine? Do people decide to build a red-green deck and then find the best cards to use, or do they decide on the kind of cards they want and later figure that red-green would probably give the best results?

It depends on what level you play at. A beginner might very well decide to make a deck of a specific color combination, and then perhaps be guided toward a particular strategy by that choice of colors - for example, choosing to play red-green kind of pushes you toward playing a deck with strong creatures and burn spells, or blue-white would push you toward a control deck with counterspells, white removal, and a few flying creatures.

But at higher levels, people don't think that much about colors when building a deck, at least not right at the beginning - for one thing, even once you choose a color or colors, there are still many thousands of cards to pick from in those colors. Pro deck designers usually build around a specific card, or more often, a specific combination of two or three cards, which typically sets the color scheme for the deck. For example, the Exarch-Twin deck that's currently popular relies on Deceiver Exarch (blue) and Splinter Twin (red), which requires that the deck is going to be blue-red. Or Valakut decks need Primeval Titan, so they pretty much have to be green-red (unless you have access to Prismatic Omen, but that's a different story). The Tempered Steel deck from Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed is an example of a deck whose color (white) was set by a single card - of course, that was only possible because the cards that Tempered Steel works well with happen to be colorless.

In some other cases (actually this is pretty common), you might start out with one or two cards and begin building a deck around those cards' color(s), but then you discover that the deck doesn't work very well without a certain kind of effect that you can only get in a different color. A good example of this is Pyromancer Ascension. You could, in principle, build a mono-red deck around that card, but in order to get the enchantment active, you typically need to find and cast two copies of two different cards - for example, two Lightning Bolts and two Shocks. That's not likely to happen before your opponent kills you, unless you have a way to filter through your deck looking for multiple copies of spells - and that's where blue spells like Preordain come in. This is why Ascension decks are blue-red, and in fact why a lot of different decks (like the Puresteel Paladin/equipment combo deck) like to add blue, even when you might not think it's necessary.


Can a Suppression Bonds cancel out another Suppression Bonds?

You can enchant one copy of Suppression Bonds with another, but it won't do anything.

The text of Suppression Bonds states "Enchant nonland permanent. Enchanted permanent can't attack or block, and its activated abilities can't be activated."

So Suppression Bonds is a nonland permanent, meaning it's a legal target for another Suppression Bonds. However, it prevents its target from three things:

Attacking
Blocking
Using activated abilities, which are abilities where you pay a cost to cause an effect, and are written in the form "Cost: Effect".

Since Suppression Bonds isn't a creature, it won't be attacking or blocking (unless there's another effect that changes that), so nothing will happen on that front. And its ability is not an activated ability, but a continuous effect, so it is not affected by Suppression Bonds being cast on it.


Resolving an ambiguous game state caused by mixing restricted mana

We will start with the relevant rule:

  106.4a If a player passes priority (see rule 116) while there is mana in his or her mana pool, that player announces what mana is there. If any mana remains in a player’s mana pool after he or she spends mana to pay a cost, that player announces what mana is still there.

Anthony would get a Warning for Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation for failing to follow the above rule.  (I can't think of a card that having the {1} would be advantageous over the {G}, but board state is irrelevant for this kind of infraction.)

The fix for this type of violation is to attempt to fix the problem by performing the required action if possible, if that isn't back up the game if possible, and if that isn't possible leaving the game state alone. In this case if caught soon enough the problem can be fixed by Anthony deciding what kind of mana he has, otherwise just leave the game where it is.

If Anthony's opponent did not catch the error soon after it was committed they would receive a Warning for Game Play Error - Failure to Maintain Game State.

At a Regular REL both of the Warning should be downgraded to Cautions, since the point at Regular REL is to educate and not punish for most infractions.


Are Starter Deck Yugi Reloaded and Starter Deck Kaiba Reloaded balanced against each other?

The starter decks are well, starter decks.  I have both of the decks mentioned.  They play OK, and are fairly balanced against each other.  However, they brick often and have a hard time getting started.  They are starter decks, and are a good introduction to the game.  They do not play like a good competitive deck.  If you want to check out the game, it is a good investment.  However, you will find the game is more enjoyable by collecting additional cards.

Also, please note, there is at least one tournament forbidden card, and several restricted cards in those sets.


Pocketing the striker while covering the Queen

Two of your pocketed pieces are removed and placed on the board. You continue playing, trying to cover the queen.

I'm referring to the ICF Laws of Carrom:

  101) a) While covering the Queen by a proper stroke, if a player pockets the striker along with his C/m, the C/m so pocketed plus one C/m as Due shall be taken out for placing by the opponent. The player shall however, continue his turn. If in that subsequent stroke no C/m of the player is pocketed, the Queen shall not be considered to have been covered and it shall be taken out for placing.


Are there any ways to summon Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman from the graveyard?

No, there are not.

The card text explicitly forbids it, by stating it can only be Fusion Summoned. From the card text, emphasis mine:

  Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card cannot attack directly. This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Dragon-Type monster your opponent controls or is in their Graveyard. Change all Dragon-Type monsters your opponent controls to Defense Position, also Dragon-Type monsters in your opponent's possession cannot activate their effects. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.


Since you weren't sure which version you played, I'll post my answers for both editions, although i'm significantly more familiar with 1E rules than 2E.

From the First Edition Descent Rules:
The overlords turn consists of:

Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards
Step 2: Spawn Monsters
Step 3: Activate Monsters

You spawn monsters before you activate them, where activating them is considered moving and attacking.  Again, this is for 1st edition, and I haven't played second edition so I'm not familiar with the 2E rules and the PDF doesn't want to load for me right now.

The Second Edition Descent Rules seem to imply that you place and activate the monsters at the same time, in their respective groups(p. 8 & 16).  The FAQ doesn't have a specific clarification on the issue.

I would honestly be surprised if the overlord wasn't able to place and activate monsters in the same turn.  In 1E, you only expect monsters to last a round or two when thrown into direct combat with the players so I would expect the same from 2E.


What are bidding sequences in which the responder is likely to be the "captain" of the partnership?

In addition to Opener's notrump openings, whenever Opener rebids notrump to show one of the gap-ranges in the opening notrump structure (typically after opening one of a suit or 1C/2C strong) Responder becomes Captain by virtue of a better grasp of combined partnership holdings.

Likewise if Opener makes a splinter raise of Responder's response then Responder becomes Captain.

Either Opener or Responder also becomes Captain by making a Blackwood or Gerber Ace-asking call, an area where beginners and intermediates often err by having the wrong hand makes this call.

Also Responder becomes Captain, at least temporarily, by making a Fourth-Suit Forcing (FSF) call at the second round. Consequently you will see this call made by experts on a three card suit from time-to-time as a prepared rebid, often revealing on the third round a hand too strong for an immediate splinter raise, which would have given Captaincy to Opener without properly revealing Responder's strength).

It's important to note that Captaincy can change during the auction, and these situations should be well discussed by any ongoing partnership as they are rife with possibilities for gross over- and under-bidding. Even in world-class play it is not unheard of to see slam played in part-score, which is a sure sign that a Captaincy change error occurred. It is especially important to discuss how and when these occur in competitive auctions.


Does the Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers tile with 3 fish, 2 rivers and 2 forests have a menhir?

Simple answer: If the tile doesn't have a picture of a menhir, it doesn't contain a menhir.
I suspect the point of confusion here is differentiating between "tiles with a menhir on them" and "menhir tiles". The menhir tiles are a special stack of tiles that you play from after you complete a forest with a menhir in it; these ones all have a special back and should not be shuffled in with the regular tiles:

(note: other editions of the rulebook refer to the menhir tiles as "bonus tiles", which is boring but also less ambiguous.)
Those menhir tiles are the ones listed in the instructions you quoted, to showcase their added value. This does not mean, nor is meant to mean, that the menhir tiles also contain a menhir.


Statistically when to stop rolling in Greed

Greed (a.k.a. Farkle) has an extensive amount of statistical analysis done on the game.

Now that you have updated your question, here is my updated answer.

If you want to maximize your score, what you need to figure out is what is your expected score if you risk rolling, compared to your score if you choose not to roll. So, the first thing you need to know, is what is your expected number of points you will earn for rolling 6-dice. Below is a chart of the different possible Patterns (6-of-a-Kind, 5-of-a-Kind, etc.), the possible ways of ORD 'ering those particular patterns (which are all the same combination), the number of DIF 'erent patterns that can be made with other numbers from 1-6, and the Total permutations (which should add up to 6^6=46656).

+-----------+----+---+-----+
|Pattern    |ORD |DIF|Total|
+-----------+----+---+-----+
|a,a,a,a,a,a|   1|  6|    6| 6-Kind
|a,a,a,a,a,b|   6| 30|  180| 5-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,a,b,b|  15| 30|  450| 4-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,a,b,c|  30| 60| 1800| 4-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,b,b,b|  20| 15|  300| 2 * 3-Kind
|a,a,a,b,b,c|  60|120| 7200| 3-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,a,b,c,d| 120| 60| 7200| 3-Kind (possible '1' or '5' score singles)
|a,a,b,b,c,c|  90| 20| 1800| 3 Pair
|a,a,b,b,c,d| 180| 90|16200| (possible farkle, possible '1' or '5' score)
|a,a,b,c,d,e| 360| 30|10800| (possible '1' or '5' score)
|a,b,c,d,e,f| 720|  1|  720| straight
+-----------+----+---+-----+
|      Total|1602|462|46656|
+-----------+----+---+-----+

I didn't separate these individual patterns by how much they actually score, because it would be way to big of a table. The table would have to differentiate from each different kind of 3-of-a-Kind, and possible '1' and '5' single die scores. I did separate them when running a calculation of the average (total points/permutations). The only important information from that computer analysis is:

1080/46656 : The odds that when you roll 6 dice, you cannot score anything. (Farkle)
388.033 : The average number of points that you make on your first roll of 6 dice, if you score.

You can use the above information, you can examine all possible outcomes of rolling a single die, and look at the risk (how many points you will lose if you fail to score) versus the amount of points that you will gain. You can think of this as you would any sort of gambling question.

Question: Imagine a game where you pay $X, and you roll a die. If you roll a '1' you win $100 plus your original bet ($X), if you roll a '5' you win $50+$X, if you roll anything else you lose your bet ($X). How much would you pay to play this game?
Answer: Anything up to $37.50. Until that point, you expect to win more money than you lose. The sum of your losses multiplied by their probability of happening (-37.5 * (4/6) = 25 = ((100*(1/6)+(50*(1/6)) is equal to the sum of your winnings multiplied by their probability of happening.

1) +$100

2) -$37.5

3) -$37.5

4) -$37.5

5) +$50

6) -$37.5

Now, lets add up all the possibilities for Greed assuming you have X points already, and you intend to roll six dice if you win the single die roll.

|Outcome              |Odds the Outcome Occurs | Points *Odds |
+---------------------+------------------------+--------------+
|Lose rolling one die |4/6                     | -4/6*(X)     |
|Win  50 +Avg six dice|(1/6)*(46656-1080)/46656|(AVG+50)*Odds |
|Win 100 +Avg six dice|(1/6)*(46656-1080)/46656|(AVG+100)*Odds|
|Lose rolling six dice|(2/6)*(1080/46656)      | -(5/648)*(X) |
+---------------------+------------------------+--------------+
                Total | 1.0                    |              |

Time for Some Algebra

Solve for the sum of all the above outcomes equals zero.

(add each line above together)

0 = -(4/6) * X - (5/648) * X + (2*AVG+50+100)*(1/6) * (46656-1080)/46656)

(multiply the first X term by 108 to get the same denominator for both X terms)

0 = -(432/648) * X - (5/648) * X + 150.771547

(Add X term to both sides, simplify two added terms)

(437/648) * X = 150.771547

(Solve for X)

X = (648/437) * (150.771547) = 223.6 (approximately)

Since scores are always a multiple of 50, you should stop rolling when you hit 250 points. I leave the the 2 dice question as an exercise for the OP. You should have all the tools necessary to calculate it (I will check your work if you attempt to answer it. If you do attempt to answer it, post the question in a new thread linking back to this thread, and explain your work).

Optimal Strategy for Multiplayer

Another more difficult question to answer is what is the optimal strategy to win. The calculations for this are more complicated, because you have to take into account how likely the opponent is to win before you (their likely score before your next turn, etc.) I have no doubt that a nearly optimal Greed computer program can be created for (two players). As you increase the number of players though, the problem gets exponentially more difficult. You might want to check the links in this post that talks about how optimal Yathzee for one player was created, and how the two player version is pretty close to optimal.


Sounds like "Connect 4x4".
Is this it:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42685/connect-4x4


These rules appear to be from 2001, and these rules appear to be from 2003. Both sets of rules do not indicate any restrictions on the choice of colour after either wild.

The points from both rules about Wild Draw 4 are:

  You play it and choose the colour to continue.
  The next player draws 4 and misses their turn.
  You can only play this if you don't have a card of the matching colour.
  You can break the above rule.
  The person drawing 4 may challenge you. If they win, the you draw 4 instead. If they lose, they draw an additional 2. (Note that they still miss their next turn)

Neither set of rules have any limitation on the colour choice.

For further reference, there's this question regarding the history of UNO rules. The 1983 rules found there follow the same draw 4 rules as the more recent rules printings.


Double Strike with Lifelink that destroys its blocker in the first strike phase

As Ikegami mentioned in a comment, the answer is no. Double strike (as well as first strike) adds an additional combat damage step where creatures with double (or first) strike deal their damage. Creatures that die as a result of this damage will be removed from combat before the second combat damage step happens. So the order of things is:

Declare attacker: 5/5 double strike lifelink creature.
Declare blocker: 1/1
'First strike' combat damage step: attacker deals 5 damage to blocker, blocker dies and is moved to its controller's graveyard. Attacker's controller gains 5 life in this step.
'Regular' combat damage step: the attacker has no blocker (it died the previous step) so it doesn't deal combat damage. Any other attacking and blocking creatures deal combat damage as usual. This includes any creatures that survived the first strike damage step but did not deal damage in it.

If the 5/5 double strike is blocked by any creature with toughness 6 or greater, both these creatures will deal combat damage in the regular combat damage step.

The relevant rules are the following:

  702.4. Double Strike

  702.4a Double strike is a static ability that modifies the rules for the combat damage step. (See rule 510, “Combat Damage Step.”)

  702.4b If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of combat step.

  702.4c Removing double strike from a creature during the first combat damage step will stop it from assigning combat damage in the second combat damage step.

  702.4d Giving double strike to a creature with first strike after it has already dealt combat damage in the first combat damage step will allow the creature to assign combat damage in the second combat damage step.

  702.4e Multiple instances of double strike on the same creature are redundant.

and:

  Blocked Creature: An attacking creature that another creature blocks or that an effect causes to become blocked. It remains a blocked creature until it's removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. See rule 509, "Declare Blockers Step."

  510.1c. A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage.


Why is there no position 108 on the Ravensburger multilangual edition

108 is just south of 105, Southwark Cathedral.  Looking at the BGG post you referenced, it appears that some versions of the map are missing it or call it out as a different number.

Looking at Wikipedia, it states:

  There are two mainboard editions, one typically associated with Milton Bradley, and another typically associated with Ravensburger. The primary difference between these is in the numbering of the stations: five stations are numbered differently, with 108 missing from the Milton Bradley boards, and 200 missing from the Ravensburger boards. There are also minor differences in the routes, such as a bus line between stations 198 and 199 that is changed to a taxi line in later editions, and the removal of a taxi line between stations 13 and 14 sometime after the renumbering.

You likely have the Milton Bradley version.  The version I just pulled out and took a picture of is the Ravensburger version.


Bridge game individual movement split between "Pro"s and "Am"s

Rainbow movements have individuals remaining a single direction, but only work for a number of tables that is a prime number. If you had 'Pros' sitting North and East, and 'Ams' sitting South and West, then you can also switch partners once each round. My copy of Duplicate Bridge Direction by Alex Groner (1977)  describes these in Chapter 7 and lists detailed movements for several possible table numbers in Appendix F

The Bridge Guys provide sample table cards for numerous movements, including  a 5 table Rainbow Individual Movement .


It's really simple, actually:

The rules say

  Randomly shuffle the the Faction Mats and Player Mats

Do they say "shuffle a number of mats equal to the number of players, starting with the lowest ranked mat"? No, they don't. If they wanted you to do it so, it would have been written there.

You bought the game. It's your property.

Think it would be better using the lowest ranked mats? Do it, it's your game, you can do whatever you want. Or you can go for a bidding, even. Or you can directly allow people to chose their faction mat -like we always do, so to try different factions every time. Or you can stop someone on the street to chose one for every player. Or maybe give all the players the same faction.

Luckily there is no law preventing you to experiment with a game that you own, and luckily the game will not self destruct after the first play. Do whatever you want, and if you don't like the outcome do it differently the next time you play. Simple, right?


What does the Yoke card mean when it says "Plow"?

The Yoke is talking about the other minor improvements with "Plow" in the name: the Swing Plow, Stump-Jump Plow, Riding Plow, etc. So, for each one that's been built (and is still in play) at the time you build the Yoke, you can immediately plow one field.

If nobody has played any of the Plows/Ploughs/Harrow, then it's not useful. It's cheap to build (as long as you have cattle), but it's also not very powerful.


Providing the spymaster with cues for clues in Codenames

It does not address this directly in the rules but based on my reading it is illegal and against the spirit of the game. The game is wanting you to convey information from the spymaster to the operatives with a single word. While it may be acceptable to take the deliberations that the operatives have after a clue is given into account having them give directions on what to say is different.

If you look at the Keeping A Straight Face section of the rules it goes into the intent behind how clues are given.

  The spymaster is expected to keep a straight
  face. Do not reach for any card while your
  teammates are considering the words. When
  a teammate touches a word, consult the key
  card and cover the word with the card of
  the corresponding color. When a teammate
  chooses a word of the correct color, you
  should act as though it was exactly the word
  you meant, even if it wasn't.

  If you are a field operative, you should focus
  on the table when you are making your
  guesses. Do not make eye contact with the
  spymaster while you are guessing. This will
  help you avoid nonverbal cues.

  When your information is strictly limited to
  what can be conveyed with one word and one
  number, you are playing in the spirit of the game.


MTG instant "Expedite" - can I resolve second spell ability if I cannot resolve the first?

If there are no creatures on the battlefield, you cannot cast the spell at all. You need to choose all of the specified targets to cast a spell. If the only creatures on the battlefield are under other players' control, you can cast the spell targeting one of those creatures. If you do, that creature will gain haste until end of turn and you will draw a card. The downside of doing that can be mitigated by casting the spell after combat or targeting a creature that would not benefit from haste.

If you cast the spell and the targeted creature no longer exists when the spell begins to resolve, the spell will go directly to the graveyard and you will not resolve any of its abilities. This is not because of resolving the spell's abilities in order, but rather a rule about spells with targets.


Normally the rule of play is no, you cannot turn your chariot away from the forward path of the track. You can plot to ram in the figure 8 and are encouraged to damage the other chariots to the point of destruction.

Additionally, the ruling class watching would scream for a laser show to cut you and your beasts down if you tried a turnabout, well before your collision could occur...  Give the boys in the corner seats their cheers by smashing into the wall, leaping into the other player's chariot and kicking them into the oncoming frenzy.


Betrayal at House on the Hill - Scenario 50 - Do the Clue Tokens drop when a character dies?

Page 12 of the rule book says:

  Many haunts put one or more item tokens in the house, which have special rules for their use. Unless the haunt says otherwise, item tokens can be traded, dropped, or stolen just like item and omen cards.

I'm not sure why they felt it necessary to mention that they can be stolen or traded in the haunt, since that would already be the case according the above rule. However, it does not say they cannot be dropped, therefore they can. If they can be dropped, then I would assume they are also dropped when a character dies.


Is it practical for the visually-impaired to play in casinos?

If you play table games like blackjack, I don't think you'd have any trouble (although since only a card counter would want to know other people's cards, don't expect any help there. ;)).

In Hold-'em poker, some seats are definitely better than others; the cards generally go right in front of the dealer, so if you can get the seat directly in front of the dealer you'd probably be fine, and you might be able to make do with the seats on either side of the dealer depending on how small the tables are. I suspect that in the worst case you could tell the floor that you can only play in the center seat, and see how well they can accommodate you. If the room's even halfway decent they'll try to take care of you.


Do I need to get a noble in order to win Splendor?

No. From the rulebook, hosted on the creator's website, no mention of nobles as part of the win condition:

  END OF THE GAME

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


Mother of Dragons, Walder Frey, and Vassals

A bit late, but still :)
There are three words that adresses people in different ways in this game.
House, Player, Opponent. (in this specific scenario, the difference between opponent and player is crucial)
1:
Judging from the Bronn Vassal House Card. "After you reveal house cards, your opponent may choose to discard 2 of their available tokens to reduce this card's combat strength to 0"
This is of course to address the person you are playing against, and not the house (ie possible vassal) as the vassal cannot have power tokens.
Even more clear would be the example if two vassals are in combat. The vassal playing against Bronn doesn't have power tokens (ie, the person commanding the vassal needs to pay, meaning the opponent is 1 player with 2 or more houses)
2:
The rulebook states that you as a commander of a vassal resolve the combat on behalf of the vassal. - meaning that you do everything, get the rewards and the punishments. That makes the vassal a non-player imo.
Finally, I think the text on Walder Frey nullifies any confusion as it has both player and opponent in it.
"Any player (other than your opponent) who grants support to your opponent must grant that support to you instead."
So the card would not reverse the support of your opponent's own vassal. In fact, it is the only counter to the situational, but sometimes powerful, card of Walder Frey. :)


What's the etymology of the name Eldraine?

I think the name comes from two words, Old and Land.

Eld is part of the word "elder". Other answers think that it relates to "Eldritch" but "Eldritch" also just means old.

Raine is like in "Ukraine" which literately translates to Borderland
From Wiktionary

  1651 Ukrain, 1671 Ukraine, 1688 Ucrania, Ukrania, 1762 Ocraine.
  Adaptation of Polish Ukraina, Russian Украи́на (Ukraína), or Ukrainian
  Украї́на (Ukrajína), from the specific use, originally meaning
  “borderland”

Now clearly Wizards took liberty with this. I am not sure the R in the world was taken correctly, but in our minds "-ania" is a place, and many fantasy writers use this.

So the game Land of Old fits perfectly for a place full of Arthurian knights and fairy tales


Can I stack ongoing action cards on the same base in Smash Up?

Yes, unless an earlier played action card or minion on the base prohibits that.

In the rules there is a section that states that the rules are not perfect. There will be clashes. And there are some tie-breakers.

If rule A prohibits X and rule B grants X, rule A wins.
If all else fails, the player whose turn it is decides.


What does skipping a draw phase mean for an opponent in Gloom?

According to this answer on BoardGameGeek from one of the game's designers:

  Correct: most likely you will start your next turn with no cards and
  be unable to do anything, effectively missing a turn.

  In first edition, the effect was simply "Skip your next turn." By the
  current rules, you can still end up being able to play if some other
  card effect ends up giving you cards - for example, someone cheers up
  your shunned character. Also, if you are playing with Stories (from
  Unquiet Dead), you could use an action on your turn to claim a story.

  A key point here is that you skip your draw phase "THIS" turn - the
  turn on which the card is played. If you use the card on yourself, you
  don't get to draw back up at the end of the turn. If someone else
  plays it on you on THEIR turn, you wouldn't draw back up anyway, so
  this effect does nothing. You don't skip your NEXT draw phase.


Are there ways to handicap bridge as there are in chess and go?

Certainly, you can.  Whether it's at all useful is another question, as others have been saying.

The ACBL has formulas for handicapping pairs and teams (based on Masterpoint total; there is another method available for handicap based on previous results, which works well in an insular environment like a club).  The grotty details are exactly that, but the TL;DR is "you get a handicap, and it's not enough".

I have never run a handicapped by masterpoint pair game; I have seen the records used to run a handicapped by results pair game, but the game they were keeping the records for stopped being handicapped at least 5 years ago.

Many ACBL Districts have a policy that if there is only one Bracket in a bracketed KO, that it will be handicapped.  I've played in these a few times, and needed the handicap exactly once (given +11.5, lost by 11, 12-board match).  I've had +29.5 on a 24-board match against the then World Women's Bronze Medal team (lost by 80, but have some cool stories), and I've seen higher two or three times.  My experience running the games is that "the handicap mattered maybe as often as one match in each event."

I also know that this is so well-loved by all teams (the ones getting as well as the ones giving handicaps) that we are replacing them with Day 1 RR qualifying 4 teams for Day 2 KO across the board.

So, yes.  And it happens.  And "something to be nice to the weaker pairs, but not so much that the stronger teams don't win" is basically what ends up happening.


Do spells targeting creatures work on token creatures?

Token creatures are creatures, so they can be targeted and affected by anything that refers to "creature(s)". If a token is returned to a player's hand, it disappears, so it doesn't matter that they wouldn't be able to cast it. This is stated in rule 111.7:

  A token that’s in a zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist. This is a state-based action; see rule 704. (Note that if a token changes zones, applicable triggered abilities will trigger before the token ceases to exist.)


Dominion Herald's card is not an action, then what?

The card is put back on top.

From the original rule book:

  “Reveal” – when a player reveals a card, he shows a card to all players and
  then returns it to wherever it came from (unless instructed specifically to
  put it elsewhere). If the player is required to reveal cards from the top of
  his Deck, and he does not have enough cards, he shuffles in order to
  reveal the required number of cards.


Yes, you get a Black Mutavault with a +1/+1 counter on it. It will not be a Zombie because non-creatures cannot have creature subtypes.

Detailed Explanation
First, you need to know why Grave Betrayal triggers.

603.6c Leaves-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent moves from the battlefield to another zone [...]
603.6d [...] Leaves-the-battlefield abilities will trigger based on [an object's] existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward.

Mutavault was a creature prior to death, and so Grave Betrayal will trigger. The trigger doesn't care what Mutavault becomes after death. Second, you need to know how Grave Betrayal can still find the Mutavault in the graveyard even though it is a new object.

603.6 Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called "zone-change triggers." Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to.

Third, you need to know why lands cannot have creature subtypes.

205.3d An object can't gain a subtype that doesn't correspond to one of that object's types.

Lastly, here is how the events actually unfold:

An opposing Mutavault creature dies.
Grave Betrayal triggers.
Grave Betrayal's trigger resolves. It looks for Mutavault in the graveyard and finds it there.
Mutavault returns to the battlefield under your control. It gains the color Black and a +1/+1 counter. It won't be a Zombie because Zombie is a creature subtype and Mutavault is not a creature at the moment.


Are Awoken lands actually instantly-dead 0/0's?

The Awoken land is 0/0 but the +1/+1 counters will give it a toughness greater than 0 so it won't die.

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

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

However these cards are worded in such a way that even if 704.4 wasn't true the land creature would still survive because the counters are added to the card before it becomes a creature.


What is the purpose of castling in chess?

Castling is always an option - it is never forced upon a player. It is however a very commonly taken option as it:

places the king in an easily defended position
moves the rook towards the centre of the board where it is easily developed
and does all that in one move, improving the player's tempo


A duel is a special attack that must be responded to by discarding a bang. If the person the duel is played on is unable to discard a bang they take a hit. If they are able to it goes back to the person who played the duel. If they can't discard a bang they take a hit however if they can the process repeats by going back and forth between the players until one of them is no longer able to discard a bang and that player takes a hit.

Duel

  With this card you can challenge any other
  player (staring him in the eyes!), regardless
  of the distance. The challenged player may discard a BANG!
  card (even though it is not his turn!). If he does, you may
  discard a BANG! card, and so on: the first player failing to
  discard a BANG! card loses one life point, and the duel is
  over. You cannot play Missed! or use the Barrel during a
  duel. The Duel is not a BANG! card. BANG! cards discarded
  during a Duel are not accounted towards the “one BANG!
  card” limitation.


How do dash costs work with commander tax?

Yes, the additional casting cost still applies.
The dash cost of Zurgo is an alternative cost, while the "commander tax" is an additional cost. You simply add them together for the total cost of casting your commander.

903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game.
702.108a Dash represents three abilities: two static abilities that function while the card with dash is on the stack, one of which may create a delayed triggered ability, and a static ability that functions while the object with dash is on the battlefield. “Dash [cost]” means “You may cast this card by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost,” “If this spell’s dash cost was paid, return the permanent this spell becomes to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step,” and “As long as this permanent’s dash cost was paid, it has haste.” Paying a card’s dash cost follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h.
601.2f The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions.[..]


Computer Go algorithms applied to other games?

Has the Monte Carlo method already been applied to other games? (Are there concrete implementations available?

Yes. This Grad paper might be of interest to you. It covers Backgammon, Bridge, Go, Scrabble, and Clobber.

Backgammon, implementation TD-gammon.
Bridge, implementation Bridge Barron. Probably outclassed these days by other computer implementations.
Scrabble, implementation MAVEN.

For which kind of games, among those that have clearly stated rules and won't rely on complex communication between players, this method can be expected to fail?

Actually, Monte Carlo methods don't do very well with end games in general. You will find that many computer implementations that use Monte Carlo methods employ different algorithms when playing the endgame.

MAVEN uses B* search algorithms during the endgame (no more tile to draw).
MoGo uses 3x3 patterns to help identify "interesting" moves, and Upper Confidence applied to Trees (UCT) to help prune less optimal random moves from consideration and speed up searching.

While Monte Carlo methods are a useful tool in playing board games, they aren't a perfect solution. Computer Go programs using MCTS, are still unable to beat the best players on 19x19 boards without significant handicaps. Computer Bridge programs are no match for expert players. Monte Carlo methods will only approach perfect game with infinite time/space.


MTG Multiplayer—Card Control and Losing the Game

When you leave a multiplayer game, all cards and permanents you own, including the ones that other players control, leave the game. Specifically, this means that the enchantment you Donated will leave the game. The relevant rule is 800.4a:

  When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 109) owned by that player leave the game and any effects which give that player control of any objects or players end. Then, if that player controlled any objects on the stack not represented by cards, those objects cease to exist. Then, if there are any objects still controlled by that player, those objects are exiled.


Which country spends the most on board & card games?

So looking online I found this from 2015.

It says

  More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth

Magic the Gathering is big, with something like 20 million players worldwide, however that will pale in comparison to board game sales so I'd be likely to ignore card games as they won't add a huge amount overall compared to board games.

So in conclusion, Germany looks like the best bet


Counting a surrounded non-alive carpenter's square

During the game

$$
$$ -------------
$$ | a b O X O .
$$ | X O O X O .
$$ | . X , X O .
$$ | X X X X O .
$$ | O O O O O .
$$ | . . . . . .

The corner is not settled yet, as both players can choose to:

either start a ten thousand year ko, white by playing at a and black by playing at b
or settle for a seki, if black plays at a or white plays at b.

At scoring time

If no move has been added in the corner, I would expect this to be considered a seki under Japanese rules (see example 12).

Under Chinese rules, both players would have to agree on the seki, or keep playing (in which case a or b will eventually be played).


The game is a bit abstract, when it comes to the theme connection with mechanics, but I don't think it's quite that confusing.
Quoting from Premium Edition Rules (emphasis added)

In the wake of the arrest of Queen Marianna for high treason, none was more heartbroken than her daughter, Princess Annette. Suitors throughout the City-State of Tempest sought to ease Annette’s sorrow by courting her, seeking to bring some joy into her life.
You are one of these suitors, trying to get your love letter to the Princess. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, so you must rely on intermediaries to carry your message.
During the game, you hold one secret card in your hand. This is who currently carries your message of love for the Princess. Make sure that the person closest to the Princess holds your love letter at the end of the day, so it reaches her first!

The card you hold out of your turn would represent who's currently holding your love letter. At the end of the round, the closer that closest person to the princess is the one to deliver that suitors letter first. Apparently its first come, first served, but lets not dwell on that.
On your turn you have a chance to have one character exert their influence over the other suitors or at least the people happening to hold their letters, while the other gets your letter passed to them.
How exactly are you getting all these people, all the way to the king, to help you out with this? We don't really know, maybe you're just so sweet with your words.
As for the princess, you have somehow managed to get the letter directly at her hands. However, she doesn't read it immediately but instead...

[...] Obviously, you want the princess to carry your letter. However, she is self-conscious about matters of the heart, and if confronted, will toss your letter in the fire and deny looking at any correspondence.
If you discard the Princess — no matter how or why — she has tossed your letter into the fire. [...]


What happens if you pass backwards over a red line?

Yes, you increase income and reputation when passing backwards over it, and decrease them when passing forwards.

The rules are pretty simple:

  When a player's Population crosses a Red Line, then that player's Income and Reputation are both reduced by 1 (moved to the left one space) for every Red Line the player moves past. If a player's Population dips below a Red Line (this can happen if he has a negative reputation) he moves both his Income Cylinder and his Reputation Cube forward (moved to the right one space).


Making 6H (declarer: 54, AKQJTx, -, 98765)

I believe the following works:

Ruff (or trump) the diamond lead.

Now lead out the Trump Ace. If both opponents follow, then this is easy. You can take out opponents trumps and play the clubs. You can even try to finesse the CJ or T and try for an overtrick, when West has the Club Qxx. You have two trumps in hand, so you have an entry to hand after you unblock the clubs.

The problems happens when one of the opponents shows out on the Trump Ace.

Now draw three more rounds of trump. On the fourth trump, discard a diamond. Throwing the diamond is the key play: North hand is void in diamonds now. Now play AKJ of clubs. Opponents have to win this and if they return a diamond, you ruff in South hand, throwing the blocking club T from the dummy!


107.1a You can’t choose a fractional number, deal fractional damage, gain fractional life, and so on. If a spell or ability could generate a fractional number, the spell or ability will tell you whether to round up or down.

Normally, you must pick an integer number of damage. So in a normal game, a 6/8 Hundred Handed One with First Strike and Deathtouch only kills 6 of the blockers. The remaining four 3/3 survive to deal 12 damage to Hundred Handed One, killing it.

In an Unhinged/Unglued game, 107.1a is modified.

  For right now (and I reserve the right to change this with future Un sets), whenever you choose a number, if that number is written as p/q in lowest terms, q must be 1 or 2. If you stopped taking math in high school, for any fraction the greatest legal denominator is 2. And if you've mentally repressed all math-related knowledge, the only fraction you can choose is {1/2} (and yes, 1{1/2}, 2{1/2}, etc. is fair game).

  Does this mean that while playing silver-bordered cards I can break up Pyrotechnics to deal {1/2} damage to eight creatures (trust me, I can come up with a reason)?

  Yes. Yes, you can.

Hundred Handed One can now deal 1/2 damage to 12 creatures. In a Unhinged/Unglued game, and only in such a game, HHO will survive the scenario unscathed. It would take 15 3/3 attackers to kill HHO.


What are the name and rules of this hand signing spell game?

Sounds a lot like Waving Hands, or Spellcaster. Here's an online copy of the rules.

According to BoardGameGeek, you can even play it online, here.


How does Phasing work with aura enchantments?

No, all auras on that creature phase out simultaneously with the creature itself:

  702.25f When a permanent phases out, any Auras, Equipment, or Fortifications attached to that permanent phase out at the same time. This alternate way of phasing out is known as phasing out “indirectly.” An Aura, Equipment, or Fortification that phased out indirectly won’t phase in by itself, but instead phases in along with the permanent it’s attached to.

and are therefore not targetable either.


What's the point of having ports as a territory?

As you deduced, the huge advantage is that it gives you a safe harbour to muster ships into, which is invaluable when all adjacent sea areas are occupied. Relatedly, they also give your ships a safe place to retreat to when your sea areas are attacked, so you don't risk losing routed ships that you would presumably prefer to keep in order to take them back.

I'm assuming you're playing AGoT 2nd Edition here, because in the 1st Edition (unexpansioned), there were no ports, and that became a very real problem in a number of the games that I played, and a huge strategic concern in the rest: Losing control of your sea territories could be devastating, especially for island nations such as Pyke or Dragonstone. Even for cities on the continent, the power of ships — from support to ship-transport (and obviously preventing your opponents from the same) — was a major consideration, and if you were by bad luck or worse strategy driven out of the sea entirely and then blocked, you were in very real trouble that could be very difficult if not impossible to recover from.

The introduction of ports with the Clash of Kings expansion (and its default inclusion in the second edition) was, in my opinion, the most important single upgrade to the base game.

As for what else you can and cannot do in a port, your list is somewhat misleading (see page 25 of the rules): Ships in port can support and raid, but only on the adjacent sea area. Even consolidating isn't off the table entirely, it's merely contingent on the adjacent sea area not being under enemy control. Not to mention that your ships can do all this from a territory that's safe from direct attack.

So even if they're not quite as useful as a ship that's actually, y'know, out to sea, they're not really all that useless either.


In the West, Go is almost exclusively played for fun. The exception here would top players who strive for tournament price money. This is actually a pretty important, there have been intense discussions between the organizers of the major Go tournaments/congresses and top players about the sum and distribution of money.

In Asia, Go is more often than not played without money on stake, however, betting on your own games is well known, too, especially for older folks. In Japan, there is a basic differentiation how money is distributed according to the result:

In ban-go the winner simply takes it all.
In me-go money is exchanged according to the territory at the end, so winning with a large difference is advantageous.

In Korea, betting games are called Bang Neki, typically with a fixed sum for winning and extra money for each bang (score difference of 10 points).


What are the chances of going out on the first hand in Rummy?

I cannot imagine why you ask this. But anyways, with the rules you just put it's easy to calculate. (Though I have not played with the last card discarded rule.)

You can win from the start with either Three+Straight or 7 Straight or Three+Poker. Now we just add the probabilities. Assuming you play with 4 jokers

Using the Hypergeometric distribution you get.

There are 1,420'494,075 hands... in combinatoric that's C(56, 8). You can take 8 from 56 cards no matter in what order you take them.

One Set (three of a kind) and a Poker requires (C(4, 3) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^12)/C(56, 7). However we have to consider jokers. In the case of 1 in the set, 2, 3, the full set is wildcards, 1 in the poker, 2, 3, the full poker is wild card, plus combinations, 1 and 1, 1, and 2, 2 and 1, 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 1 and 3. We add all of these scenarios. We should avoid counting twice any scenario...

Simple (or 0 jokers in set, 0 in poker): (C(4, 3) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^12) / C(56, 8)
1, 0: (C(4, 2) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^11 * C(4, 1)) / C(56, 8)
2, 0: (C(4, 1) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^11 * C(4, 2)) / C(56, 8) --Ignorable
3, 0: (C(4, 3) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^12) / C(56, 8) --Ignorable
3, 1: (C(4, 3) * C(4, 3) * C(4, 0)^11 * C(4, 1)) / C(56, 8)
3, 2: Not possible, only 4 jokers
2, 2: (C(4, 1) * C(4, 2) * C(4, 0)^11 * C(4, 4)) / C(56, 8) --Ignorable
1, 3: (C(4, 2) * C(4, 1) * C(4, 0)^11 * C(4, 4)) / C(56, 8) --Ignorable
0, 4: (C(4, 3) * C(4, 4) * C(4, 0)^12) / C(56, 8) --Ignorable

Notice that #4 & #9 are the same as #1. So we can ignore them and count #1 thrice.

#2, #3, #7, #8 are the same in different order; let's ignore but #2 and count it 4 times.

C(N, 0) is equal to 1. There's only one way to not take things from N available, right? Same with C(N, N)

3 * C(4, 3) / C(56, 8)
4 * (C(4, 2) * C(4, 1)) / C(56, 8)
(C(4, 3)^2 * C(4, 1)) / C(56, 8)

C(4,3) = C(4, 1) = 4. Taking one or not taking one out of 4 has 4 variants.
That's 3*4 + 4*6*4 + 4^3 = 4*(3+24+16) = 4*(3+40) = 172.

There you have it to win with a Set and a Poker you 172 hands out of C(56,8)... 1.2108463036003863655679098837494271139427315105133402... × 10^-7

For a 7 Straight flush the calculation is the following.

The first card is unimportant. However the second one, there's only one that works. And so on. That's (D equals the number of cards in the deck and N the number of cards in the straight):

1 * 1/(D-1) * 1/(D-2) * ... * 1/(D-[N-1])

However that is only true if the straight had to show up exactly in the order. So we have to multiply times all the ways those N cards could be ordered. That's N!

N! * 1 * 1/(D-1) * 1/(D-2) * ... * 1/(D-[N-1])

If you play a bit with the factors you can get this:

D * N/D * (N-1)/(D-1) * (N-2)/(D-2) * ... * 1/(D-[N-1])

Or

D * 1/D * 2/(D-1) * 3/(D-2) * ... * N/(D-[N-1])

Anyway that's, ignoring the jokers for now:

52 * 1/52 * 2/51 * 3/50 * 4/49 * 5/48 * 6/47 * 7/46
1/2572780
3.8868461353088876623729973025287820956319623131398720... × 10^-7

I have yet to figure a good model for straight flushes with wildcards. But I'm guessing the final answer will be about 1 in a million.

I will edit this as soon as I get more info...


What happens when multiple "when this creature dies" triggers happen at the same time?

Both capacities will trigger in the same time. You choose the one to apply first. (you put them on the stack in the order that you want)

  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.

APNAP order is Active player/non active player order. This means that effects from the active player, the one who's turn it is, get put on the stack first, in the order they choose, then the next player in turn order and so on. The last thing put on the stack is the first to resolve, so the person who's turn is farthest away will have their triggers resolve first.


Axis and Allies 1941 :Can a submarine sneak attack a battle ship when there is an enemy sub in the same battle?

A&A 1941:
If you have a sub and the enemy has a sub and a battleship, you can make a Surprise Strike, but the defender can take the hit with whichever unit he wants (and if it's the sub, it would still get return fire if your opponent also chose to do a Surprise Strike).  Having a Destroyer prevents your opponent from making a Surprise Strike, not yourself.

Rules:  http://www.axisandallies.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Axis-Allies-1941.pdf

Excerpt:
Step 2. Submarine Surprise Strike or Submerge (Sea Battles Only)
This step is specific to attacking and defending submarines.

Before the general sea battle takes place (steps 3–5), both attacking and defending submarines choose to either make a
Surprise Strike die roll or submerge. However, if your opponent has a destroyer in the battle, your attacking or defending
submarines cannot submerge or make a Surprise Strike. Combat proceeds normally, and your submarines fire along with your
other units in step 3 or 4.

Submerge: Attacking or defending submarines that choose to submerge are immediately removed from the battle strip and
returned to the game board in the contested sea zone, removing them from the rest of that sea battle.

Players on both sides have to decide whether attacking and defending submarines will fire or submerge before rolling any dice. The attacking player decides first.

Surprise Strike: Each attacking submarine conducting a Surprise Strike rolls one die, scoring a hit on a roll of “2” or less.
After the attacker has rolled for all attacking submarines, the defender chooses one sea unit for each hit scored and moves it
behind the casualty strip. (Submarines cannot hit air units.) Then each defending submarine conducting a Surprise Strike rolls
one die, scoring a hit on a roll of “1.” After the defender has rolled for all defending submarines, the attacker chooses one sea
unit for each hit scored and removes it from play.

Once all Surprise Strike rolls have been made, remove the defender’s casualties. This step is over for this round of
combat. Repeat this step during each round of combat as long as there are attacking and/or defending submarines and no
opposing destroyers. Any hits made during this step that do not destroy units (such as battleships) remain in effect until the
end of the combat.

Note: In both cases, attacking or defending, transports can be chosen as casualties only if there are no other eligible units.
You cannot choose submerged submarines as casualties since they have been removed from the battle.


You include the card you just gained when re-shuffling.  There is only one discard pile.

Cards that are set aside or revealed do not get re-shuffled until they are placed in the the discard pile as specified by the specific card.

Quotes from the rulebook:

  "Gain” – when a player gains a card, he takes the gained card (usually from
  the Supply) and puts it onto his Discard pile (unless the card says to put
  it elsewhere). The player does not get to use the card when he gains it.

  A player places cards he Buys or otherwise acquires during the
  game on his Discard pile unless he is specifically directed to place
  them elsewhere.


Which programs can break subroutines on a trap?

Traps generally do not have one of the 3 usual subtypes (Barrier, Code Gate, or Sentry). So they cannot be broken by breakers for those types of ice. In general you need an AI breaker like Crypsis, Overmind, Knight, or any of the other AI breakers. However traps can still be bypassed with Femme, just like any other ice.

Note that some traps DO have a breakable subtypes. Such as data mine. Because this trap is AP it can be broken with Deus Ex.


There's some information available in German. The game's called "Mühle" (= mill) in German,
and there exists at least one book on this subject.
The book can be found online here: http://www.hubbie.de/
Click on "Mühle", the book can be viewed in html or as an applet.
It's a beginner's book, but contains even some advanced strategies.

It should be possible to understand a lot of the strategies even without knowledge
of German, but with "Google translate", or dict.leo.org you should be able to make
sense of most of the text.

There's even an organization which organizes (European) championchips, see
http://www.muehlespiel.eu/
It might be possible to get information from there, too.


What's a good handicap for a less experienced player in an MTG Draft?

To be contrarian: in my experience, if you're adding a sufficient number of new people (which it sounds like is the case here), I'd encourage not handicapping them at all.  My recommendation would actually be to start not with drafting but with some form of sealed-deck play (maybe a simple three-round league or the like), so that the new players have fewer decisions to make and can learn what the core elements of a limited deck are.  Once they understand the essentials of limited then just let them loose on a draft - the experienced players may well run the table, but the newer players should still be able to have interesting games with the experienced drafters and excellent games among each other (this is why you need a sufficient number of new people), and IMHO the (slightly) 'deep-end' approach (along with some measure of coaching, post-draft analysis, etc) is the best way to get truly interested players motivated to get better.

One plausible alternative, though, that might be worth looking at is some form of team draft/sealed, where each of the new players is paired with a more experienced player that they can directly watch, talk with, and learn from; 2HG is a tough format to draft (as opposed to playing sealed with), but it's a great and underutilized choice for this sort of thing.


Agricola question about minor improvement and occupation cards

You pay the cost a single time when you play the card. That is, you take an action that allows you to play an occupation or minor improvement, pay the cost, take the card from your (secret) hand and put it face up on the table.

Note that in your question, you seem to have conflated "play the card" and "use the card". In the rules, "play" is used as I have used it: playing the card from your hand. If you later use the card (i.e. take advantage of it) you're not playing it. You might have less confusion if you think of subsequent use of the card as using it, not playing it.

In any case, once you've paid and played the card, you're done paying. The card likely has some kind of ongoing benefit, and you don't have to pay again to get that benefit. For example, once you've played Field Watchman, which lets you plow a field when you take a grain, you get that field plowed for free whenever you take a grain.

To make this feel really obvious, just look at the major improvements. You definitely don't have to spend clay every time you want to use your fireplace!


How do I find out a fair price for my Magic the Gathering cards?

If you want to know what you can actually sell individual cards for, I think you can't do better than ebay. If you look at price indices like Scrye used to have, you run into the problem that what a shop can sell a card for is typically much higher than what you, a private individual, can achieve.

Bear in mind as well that prices for individual cards are much higher than buying in bulk. In other words, you might work out that your collection is worth thousands of dollars, if you were to sell each rare individually. But if you tried to sell the same thing to a shop, or in a single lot on ebay, it would sell for only a small fraction of this.

The only other caveat is if you have many extremely rare old cards from the first days of Magic. In this case, the wear and tear of the card has a very large impact on the potential price. Again, ebay will give you an excellent guide to how much these can vary (try doing a search for "Black Lotus" for example).


Can you play a new player game of Carcassonne w/o farms?

You could do, the game would work perfectly well without farmers.  I would argue against it because this still leaves the new players in a position where they don't see farms being used and don't see how they can score highly if placed well despite the long-term sacrifice of a piece.

In my experience with teaching Carcassonne, players tend to go very quickly from not understanding how they work, to playing too many farmers too early, then getting a good grasp within a few games.  Just be patient.


Why are "Egyptian God" cards so significant?

They were represented in the anime as being incredibly powerful, and you never saw them defeated by traditional means. In the card game they act as normal cards and have no special "you can't destroy me or target me" abilities I'm aware of (I'll admit it's been a while since I played Yu-Gi-Oh as I moved over to Magic, but I played quite a bit)

Your friend sounds like he's putting a more flavourful edge to things as it makes sense when you look at the anime, but it's not how the game actually works.

Also, if your friend continues to make up rules and cheat, I'd look to find a way to "punish" him in order to correct his behaviour. Stop playing games with him when he does it for example. If he really wants to play the game he'll learn to play correctly if you just show him that cheating doesn't pay off.


(Caveat: I am not at all an experienced YGO player.)

Don't think of it as a single card. Think of what the card does as part of an entire deck with a clear gameplan.

A bit of research shows that the original 2004 banning was because of a combo that would strip both players' hand and field, then break symmetry by allowing you to search up Yata-Garasu. At which point you've got a hard lock they can't break out of, since you're denying them the draw every turn.

Okay, whatever, that's just one deck, right?

But, more generally, what happens when you play Yata-Garasu? It means your opponent needs an answer for it right now or they will never be able to answer it (since it'll just keep eating their draw phase). The card's tiny stats just put some conditions on the lock, but "kill your opponent's stuff" isn't exactly a big deviation from what a good deck wants to do anyway.

It's not a card that will steal the game single-handedly, but it's very, very good at closing the door on an opponent's chance for a comeback. That makes it a ban-list contender, especially as part of a dominant deck. A secondary concern that may have also influenced the decision is the "feel-bad factor:" the rational response to a hard lock is to scoop rather than play out being pecked to death, but it feels much more like surrender than losing the game normally does.


How does Rite of the Raging Storm work in Two-Headed Giant?

You played that partially correctly. Each player does get their own trigger to get a Lightning Rager token. However, your opponents' Lightning Ragers can attack your teammate.
Rule 810.7 says

The Two-Headed Giant variant uses the combat rules for the shared team turns option (see rule 805.10). This is a change from previous rules.

Then rule 805.10b says

As the declare attackers step begins, the active team declares attackers. For each attacking creature, the attacking team announces which defending player or planeswalker that creature is attacking. The active team has one combined attack, and that set of attacking creatures must be legal as a whole. See rule 508.1.

So, the Rite of the Raging Storm only prevents those Lightning Ragers from attacking you, but it doesn't apply if your opponents declare that they are attacking your teammate.
The change mentioned in rule 810.7 happened in the Dominaria Comprehensive Rules change, and that article has this to say about the change:

Here's the big Two-Headed Giant change—we're no longer dealing with "attack the team, use some mental gymnastics to figure out the defending player." Now you simply attack players or planeswalkers, not the team.
This results in a handful of changes: Propaganda effects are worse, but prevention effects can be used sensibly. Plainswalkers and planeswalkers both behave pretty much the same, except you can't attack one player and call the other your defending player. Saboteur triggers ("when this deals combat damage . . . can be anticipated more meaningfully.

Note: Regarding the upkeep triggers: the rules for Two-Headed Giant do not directly address "at the beginning of..." triggers, but a ruling on Ghirapur Orrery confirms that "at the beginning of each player's upkeep" triggers for each player, not each team:

In a Two-Headed Giant game, Ghirapur Orrery’s second ability triggers for each player on a team separately. If one player has cards in hand, it can still trigger for the other player.

This is notably different from a trigger condition that says "at the beginning of each upkeep"; Sun Droplet, for example, has this ruling:

In Two-Headed Giant, triggers only once per upkeep, not once for each player.


Number Wheel/0-9 Decagon gear for board game?

You're looking for something like this? MTG Cammander's Arsenal 100hp Spindown

These are very expensive, not sure how you'd get them cheaper. I've done a little Googling and come up with nothing. Perhaps you could get them 3D printed by Shapeways

In any case, I'd be concerned about how expensive these are, if you want to implement them across a game you want to sell it will become very prohibitive, and even if you managed to fund the release the game would have to be so expensive it would be hard to sell.

I'd recomened considering other systems, such as counters or even pen and paper. With counters you could provide counters that have various numerical values (in Magic I use little gems I got from China as +1/+1 counters, white = 1, green = 5 and red = 10) and with pen and paper you could provide wipe clean cards.

EDIT

I'm concerned that even if you can make these work the board will be very chunky, making for bigger boxes and further logistical issues. Here's another idea I just had: 3 disks of varying sizes, made of cardboard, with numbers printed on them, that can be pinned flat to the tile:

This would take up less space and allow other things to be placed on the tile, as well as being vastly cheaper. The player would just turn the wheels to align with the arrow (perhaps better to have the arrow on the left hand side)


If I summon a world breaker can I exile a card my opponent owns?

Worldbreaker's cast trigger says:

  When you cast World Breaker, exile target artifact, enchantment, or land.

So, when you cast World Breaker, you pick a target.  It doesn't have to be one of your artifacts, enchantments or lands.

However, for the return ability:

  {2}{C}, Sacrifice a land: Return World Breaker from your graveyard to your hand.

Using that ability would require you to sacrifice one of your own lands (which means putting that land into the graveyard; it won't get exiled).  You can't sacrifice something you don't control (although if you somehow came to control an opponent's land, you could sacrifice it even though you don't own it).


Pokemon TCG: is there a way to remove energy from your own pokemon?

OK, I can answer my own question after all. After some more searching I came across the Energy Reset and Energy Pouch cards. Since there are cards like that, that means you can't do it on a whim, but it is possible, if you have the right card.


Changing control of an attacking or blocking creature mid-combat

No, that is not correct. Rule 506.4 says

  A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, if it phases out, if an effect specifically removes it from combat, if it's a planeswalker that's being attacked and stops being a planeswalker, or if it's an attacking or blocking creature that regenerates (see rule 701.12) or stops being a creature. A creature that's removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. A planeswalker that's removed from combat stops being attacked


Card that deals damage and adds a +1/+1 counter

No, there isn't such a card.

Gatherer is the official source for Magic card wordings, and has a powerful search engine behind it.

The text of the card you're looking for would certainly contain the wording "(deal/deals) 1 damage to (target creature/any target)", and also the term "put a +1/+1 counter".
So we can search for any card that at the same time contains the terms "1 damage to", "put", and "+1/+1", resulting in this search

As you can see, none of the currently 10 results fitting that pattern match your exact requirements.

Also note that  under most circumstances, dealing 1 damage and putting a +1/+1 counter on the same creature in the same effect would cancel each other out, as far as survivability of that creature is concerned. It's unlikely that such a card will ever be made, because the +1/+1 counter is supposed to be the reward for surviving the initial damage, which has to come in a separate effect.

That "+1/+1 counter for surviving damage" mechanic isn't all that rare. You might be looking for cards such as in this search. Those are the cards that put +1/+1 counters on themselves or other creatures whenever those creatures are dealt damage. Then all you need is a source of ping damage, which is plentiful on permanents, at least for {t} cost. A repeatable ping damage ability, i.e. one with a mana cost instead of tap or other cost, will usually cost at least {2} per damage, because {1} per damage would be too strong.

In any case, you will probably never find both ping damage and putting a +1/+1 counter effects in the same ability of any card.


When I acquire assets, can I receive the item into my possession one at a time?

I've been unable to find any references for this question.

If you think of the Acquire Assets action as a shopping trip it helps resolve the more common mistakes (replacing items as they are purchased instead of at the end and not being able to purchase more than one item. Shops don't restock immediately after you purchase an item, it takes time to do so; and your successes are each worth one currency, you can divide your total currency as you want)

I believe looking at it this way also resolves your question.

When you're shopping you're not buying items at random, you're selecting the items you want, deciding between multiple items and preferring certain items over other ones.

With that in mind:

You've purchased all your items at the same time. You own them all simultaneously. You can then choose the order to resolve any effects that occur as a result, and if that includes effects that allow exchange of items between players then the new cards are included.

Alternatively, you've purchased the items in individual transactions from multiple shops in the same shopping trip. The items you've purchased already have been paid for and are in your possession. Effects from items you've purchased later will still apply to these items (but not future purchases).

As I said, there are no official answers to this question that I can find, but hopefully this answer gives you some guidance.


Do I need to reveal a face-down card if it is put on top of my library?

Yes, you must reveal all face-down cards as they move zones or when you leave the game.

  707.9. If a face-down permanent moves from the battlefield to any other zone, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. If a face-down spell moves from the stack to any zone other than the battlefield, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. If a player leaves the game, all face-down permanents and spells owned by that player must be revealed to all players. At the end of each game, all face-down permanents and spells must be revealed to all players.

The other players must be able to check that you were able to cast those cards face-down. Making an exception for manifested cards (which are not required to have the morph ability or any other property) would needlessly complicate the rule, and if you have both manifested and morphed creatures on the battlefield, it might be obscured which was which, again making room for error or even cheating.