Snow-Covered Lands and Blood Moon interaction

Blood Moon does nothing to Snow-Covered Plains, because Snow-Covered Plains is a basic land.
Blood Moon says:

Nonbasic lands are Mountains.

“Nonbasic” here means “not basic”, the same way “noncreature” (Negate) means “not a creature”.
Snow-Covered Plains is basic; we can see this on the type line:

Basic Snow Land — Plains

So Blood Moon will leave it alone.

When I think of Field of the Dead it already seems quite counterintuitive to me that snow-covered lands increase the "distinct land count". According to this logic I thought they should also be affected by blood-moons effect.

They have different names, which is what Field of the Dead cares about, so yes, they'll matter for Field of the Dead too. And whether they have distinct names has nothing to do with whether they're basic.

I come to this conclusion since basic lands to me were solely the cards named "Forest", "Mountain", "Island", "Plains", "Swamp".

That's effectively true for most formats, so that's a good enough summary most of the time. But the basic snow lands are basic—they say so right on the type line—and are recognised in the rules as such. In formats that include them, like Modern or Commander, they are just as much Basic Lands as the usual five.
Note that Wastes is also a basic land. (It doesn't have an associated basic land type though.)


In vanilla Twilight Imperium 3rd ed., should you always take Imperial if it's available?

For straight Twilight Imperium, unless you are at a guaranteed win, your first two choices are Imperial, followed by Initiative. If you don't take either of those, then you'll essentiall get skipped over the circle and be two points behind.


Can you collect resources from a roll if you move the robber after rolling?

By the time you roll, it's too late. You can play the card before rolling, in order to move the robber and hope for the best. But when you roll the die, you immediately dole out the appropriate resources, so if the robber is still there, you don't get anything.


How many lands do I need for a Commander deck?

Because of the slower pace of play in EDH/Commander, it isn't as drastically important to hit 5-6 land drops in 5-6 turns.  In addition, the number of "mana rocks" (mana-generating artifacts) and dual lands/mana filtering/land fetch cards are usually higher.

Considering that, the 40% lands rule is still fairly close to normal (lightened obviously for the reasons above).  I've run 34-36 land decks successfully, but usually you see 37-40 with some of the previously mentioned accelerators.

Abnormal decks (with huge numbers of accelerators) will run as few as 32 lands (the equivalent of running about 13 in a 40-card limited deck), but I'd recommend starting around 40 and cutting around one land per three accelerators (if you're trying to cut land, and not running very high-cost spells).

Do also remember that running fewer lands with more mana rocks leaves you open to blowouts when someone wipes artifacts with Austere Command, Merciless Eviction, Shatterstorm/Creeping Corrosion, etc. - you don't want to be stuck on four lands when your couple of Signets and Thran Dynamo get wiped.

As an example, the Devour for Power Commander deck shipped with 40 lands and four mana-generating artifacts, but it is fairly heavy on costs.


Generic player position names for five player matches

I don't know of an "usual" way of calling players in that case, but wouldn't a clock analogy do the trick, here?

You could have:

12 o'clock
2 o'clock
5 o'clock
7 o'clock
10 o'clock


Group of three tiles containing 2 Jokers

I'd have to look up the official rulebook, but if I'm not mistaken, Player A should not only declare it's a group of eights, but also specify the exact colors (e.g. 'red 8' and 'green 8').

This is further supported by e.g. this page:

  However, a player who has in hand the tile which is represented by a joker on the table, the player can substitute the real tile for the joker and then re-use the joker in some combination on the table.

(emphasis mine); there's only one tile it represents.

Since you've tagged it house-rules, there is room for some variation on the rules. Some of them are discussed in the linked page; when I was a kid, we played it in a more liberal way than you describe; during your turn, you could use the joker for whatever tile you want (i.e. you don't need to substitute it), as long as the final configuration consisted of valid sets only. That meant e.g. that if you had a blue run of 1, 2, 3, joker, 5, 6, 7, you could basically take out the joker and do whatever you want with it.


Where do allies go when they don't have any colonies?

Hmm, good question. Putting your very last token(s) into battle is a risky thing. I think they should go to the warp. You give up a base when you remove your last token from it -- that shouldn't change if they're your very last. And having all your tokens in the warp doesn't remove you from the game or prevent you from capturing a new base on your next turn.


The rules for Cities and Knights (pdf) address combining it with Seafarers (page 13). They warn that only certain scenarios work well, and provide rules for things like how to treat ships as roads and how a knight can chase away the pirate. There is also a FAQ on combining the two expansions, which addresses a few points that the published rules don't cover.

One crucial point which they don't cover, in either the rules or FAQ, as discussed in an earlier question, is how many victory points to play to. It seems that the consensus is that when combining Seafarers and Cities and Knights that you should add 2 victory points to the victory conditions listed in the Seafarers scenario. See the other linked question for more detail.


Can I use Lucky Cigarette Case on another player

No, unless an item specifically says it can be used on other investigators (e.g., "Choose an investigator"), it can only be used on/by the person holding the item.


Can the doctor still save someone else if killed?

There are many variants of this game, and I can't find any place where rules state it (oficially) but there's no order when character's skills are played at night.
Doctor will save its target even if he's targetet by the werewolves/vigilante.

You don't need to look for a logical way of how does it happens, as it's not logical either a doctor healing someone from a werewolf attack (how is he supposed to heal someone ripped off?).

The only way of negating effects is with skills which state they negate the effect (some variations of the game include the escort, who stops someone from using his action that night).

Edit: in the scenario you proposed doctor would die but save the victim of the werewolf. Vigilante would die of guilt next day.


The rules don't actually address how multiple player control effects interact, so strictly speaking, it's ambiguous how this works. Logically, the player control effect created by Word of Command 1 encompasses the entire resolution of Word of Command 2, including the effect that has your opponent make decisions for you while playing the card for WoC2, so you will make those decisions. However, once you have played that card, no more player control effects from WoC1 apply, so if that last card is a spell, your opponent will control you while it resolves.

As for Lightning Storm, Word of Command specifically says that you control your opponent while casting the spell and while it is resolving. In between those two times, no player control effect is active, so either player can make their own choices to activate Lightning Storm's ability.

To sum up, with the ambiguous part in bold:

You cast Word of Command 1. No player control effects apply, and you make your own decisions.
Word of Command 1 resolves. You choose for your opponent to cast Word of Command 2. While casting it, you control your opponent and choose what mana abilities they activate.
Word of Command 2 resolves. You control your opponent while this spell resolves. You choose the Lightning Storm to cast. While casting it, your opponent controls you but your control effect is broader, so you have overall control. You choose what mana abilities to activate and what the spell's initial target should be.
While Lightning Storm is on the stack, no player control effects apply, and each player can choose to activate Lightning Storm's ability.
Lightning Storm resolves. Your opponent controls you while this spell resolves. There are no meaningful choices to make while the spell resolves.


Does drawing the tentacle chaos token imply a failure with test result 0?

Yes, the tentacles token is an "automatic failure" for the skill test, which is defined on page 5 of the RRG:

  If a skill test automatically fails, the investigator’s total skill
  value for that test is considered 0.

So in your example with a Willpower(3) test, revealing the tentacles would deal 3 horror.


That feels like a nicely simplified Werewolf-like game that can work with fewer people.
However, I can think of a pretty major drawback, and that is the start of the game.

In a regular game of Werewolf it starts with a night, giving the werewolf players time to know which other werewolves are in play and giving a narrative justification for the lynching that is about to start happening on a daily basis.

In your example you start out by having the players randomly vote to expose one of the other players, without any chance of having information at this point. This could lead to some very cheap-feeling losses if the player that is accused just so happens to be the maffia player.

I feel like it would make more sense to start with a night phase, resolve the passing along and shuffling of roles once and then start exposing people. This way two of the players already have secret information to work with.

I imagine that this will still be a quite hectic game of accusing and bluffing, especially since at the end of the night players get to check their current role again if I understood your description correctly (step 9 instructs to go back to step 3, which includes checking the role).

As for flavour, the only way to win the game is for another player to be caught with the bad thing (in the mockup the maffia card / role), so it's something that a player would want found but not found on them...

Hmm, I can imagine a classroom setting where one of the students 'accidentally' put the class hamster in his or her bag. Everybody wants to see the hamster returned, but nobody wants to be the one getting the blame.
The role cards can be different backpacks, with one of them clearly containing the hamster.
The juggler can be re-imagined as a student with a hall pass, or homework that he or she forgot to turn in so they have to rush back and accidentally rearrange some bags on the way.


What ways are there for a Standard Werewolf deck to handle Ratchet Bomb?

On color

Green:

The obvious choice in your situation is Full Moon's Rise.  It buffs all your werewolves while it's in play and you can sacrifice it to save all of them from a Ratchet Bomb.
Another direction is Withstand Death, but this only provides the means to save creatures on an individual basis and is a sideboard card at best.
Asceticism gives you the option of regenerating creatures and hexproof on top of that.  However, regenerating a large number of werewolves could get expensive.

Artifacts:

Phyrexian Revoker is another great way to ruin Ratchet Bomb's day, but it has its own limitations and weaknesses as a creature.
Sundial of the Infinite would work as long as they are trying activating the Ratchet Bomb on your turn.

Off color

For others who might have the same concerns in a different mana base.

Blue:  Obviously any counter is going to prevent Ratchet Bomb from ever entering the battlefield.

Steel Sabotage would be a good one specifically for countering Ratchet Bomb.

Black:

Memoricide can remove any Ratchet Bombs that are not in play thus preventing them from ever being used.
Surgical Extraction could be used for a similar effect, but unfortunately can only be used if a Ratchet Bomb is already in the Graveyard.

White:

Stony Silence can prevent the activation of a Ratchet Bomb.
Nevermore can be used to ensure that Ratchet Bomb is never cast.


How to prevent being overrun in the early game?

If she's in blue/green, then she has several options:

On the blue side, lean on counterspells and bounce. 4x Mana Leak will probably go into any blue deck. It's cheap (only 1U), and in the early game it's very unlikely that your opponent will have the extra 3 mana to pay to power through it. You can also run Vapor Snag to return cards to your opponent's hand (and do 1 damage!) for only U. A few of these can slow down your opponent's tempo enough to get you to your finishers.

You're also looking at cheap early creatures that can choke up the board enough to hold off your opponent's attacks for a few more turns, and hopefully provide a decent side-benefit. Here's a list of all Standard-legal green, blue, and colorless creatures with a CMC of 2 or less. Especially promising creatures for early defense include:

Oculus (chump early and get a free card)

Phantasmal Bear (a 2/2 for U)

Phantasmal Image (copy anything else on the board)

Ambush Viper (flash, deathtouch)

Viridian Emissary (trades up nicely + free land when it dies)

Memnite (free 1/1)

Necropede (great potential for a 2-for-1)

(Note that I've left several great cards like Snapcaster Mage out of this list; not because they're not good, but because their primary role is something other than early defense/control.)

The exact cards you play depend on your overall strategy, but you can certainly find something useful in this list.


A quick search on the Current Official Banlist we can see that he is not on the list at all.

This means that it is Unrestricted, and you can use up to 3 copies of it in your deck builds.

However, also according to that Official page, seems that next Ban List is soon to come (this month), so there could be a chance the status of Summoner Monk changes.

On another note, I have always liked Summoner Monk, and the fact that it is at 3 copies may strengthen some strategies out there. It is particularly useful to decks that have a high Spell Card ratio on their builds or that focus on Lvl 4 Xyz summoning (Harpies, Spellbook, Rescue Rabbit, Noble Knight, Gladiator Beast, and many, many others.).

In the case of my Harpies, this is a great addition to the deck, as it enables you to pull any Harpie (specially Harpie Channeler) from the deck. The best possible scenario is to pull a Summoner Monk and activate its effect by discarding Hysteric Sign.

This means you get to summon a Harpie from the deck (opens many plays with Channeler) and at the end of the turn you get to search for up to 3 Harpie cards by effect of the Sign, refilling your hand for further combos next turn.


What are the differences between Vinci and Small World?

There is an excellent comparison of the two here.  Some highlights:

Vinci has one big set of powers and you draw two for each race.  Small World splits them into Race Powers and Abilities, preventing some combinations from occurring.
Vinci charges you two points for each race you skip over, Small World only 1.  This modifies the dynamics of which races you might choose.
The end game conditions in Vinci are reaching a certain number of points, making the length variable.  Small World has a fixed number of turns based on number of players.
Small World has different maps for different numbers of players, and you always get the same number of tokens for a race/power combo.  Vinci only had one map, but varied the number of tokens a power combo started with based on the number of players.
Small World adds a reinforcement dice which gives you a random chance to take over a single province that you wouldn't be able to conquer normally at the end of your turn.


Under the conditions of contest for ACBL/WBF sponsored World Computer Bridge Championships Section VI. Method of Play the use of a Table Manager is mandated, of which two examples are mentioned by name:

  Table Manager

  One copy of each robot will be played on a computer.  Exception can be made to allow two copies of each program (a pair) to be played on one computer.

  Matches will be controlled by a Table Manager program.  One that may be used Bridge Monitor, developed by Gerard Joyez, or a Table Manager developed by Ian Trackman of Blue Chip Bridge Ltd.  The latter program is the property of Blue Chip Bridge Ltd which has full copyright and other intellectual property rights to it.  If it is used it will be supplied to acceptable potential contestants solely for the purpose of preparing for the Montreal competition.  To receive a copy an entrant must agree to the above restrictions, abide by the copyright, agree not distribute the program, and sign a release statement provided by Blue Chip Bridge, Ltd.

  Transmission of information as to deals, bids and play of cards and otherwise, will be consistent with the protocol defined on http://www.bluechipbridge.co.uk/protocol.htm.

  Programs must not communicate with their “partner” program or any other program nor search for any information.  Any attempt to do so will be deemed to be a violation of the rules.  The penalty is disqualification.  The ACBL reserves the right to implement whatever network monitoring and/or other measures that it thinks fit without disclosure to the participants.

Under these conditions of contest, the protocol defined at http://www.bluechipbridge.co.uk/protocol.htm has been a de facto standard since 2005:

  Introductory

  2. The basic concept is that there are five programs, ideally running on five separate computers.  One program plays for each hand. The fifth program acts as the "Table Manager". The Table Manager’s function is to deal the cards, transmit and receive all communications among the playing programs, keep the score and (to a limited extent) enforce the rules of the game.

  3. All communications are in plain-text ASCII format (characters #10, #13 and #32 to #127 only), using TCP/IP. It has been suggested that all 8-bit ASCII characters should be allowed for e.g. accented characters, but this might cause display problems for receiving computers (opinions please).

  ....

  10. Most messages are in plain English, so that the transmissions will be intelligible to operators and observers without decoding.

  Connecting

  1. To connect with the Table Manager, a player opens a client socket to the Table Manager’s computer.  The player sends "Connecting ["team name"] as [Hand] using protocol version [x]".  The team-name should be enclosed in double-quotation marks (ASCII #34) to avoid any conflict with reserved words used in this protocol.  So that the team-name can be used as part of a file-name for hand records etc., it should consist only of characters which would be valid as part of a file-name. ....


Do the vast majority of Rat-a-tat Cat rounds end very quickly?

Yes, you should call for and end or knock-out as it is commonly called.

Your reasoning is sound. With 54 cards in the deck, 9 of which are special non-point cards, and four cards each of 0-8 plus nine 9s, the average hand is 20 points. There in no way of knowing what your opponents hands are worth, except in the rare case that you draw 1 of 3 peek cards and then you draw 1 of 3 swap cards. (In the children's variant, all players two outermost cards cards are revealed).

Since you cannot know what your opponents have, it is best to call for the end of the round when you know that the sum of 2 of your cards is less than 7, or 3 of your cards are less than 12. (Edit: My initial calculations didn't take into account that your opponents get to look at one more card, and reduce there score as well.)

The only thing that might change this strategy slightly (and I am not certain if it does change the optimal strategy), is as the number of players increases the chances that one or more of your opponents draws a Swap card during the knockout round also increases. If your opponents know that you are using this strategy of only knocking out when you have < 7, or < 12 when you replace a hidden card with a drawn card, they will be sure to Swap cards with you (most likely they will swap with the card that you drew to replace your other card). They will know that they have a better chance of getting a '4' or less from you, then from drawing from the deck.

As for conclusion that each player would take less than six turns on average, I am not certain. I haven't worked out the math for it, but the number of turns on average would differ depending upon the number of players. If there are more players playing with the < 10 points sum total of known cards, then the chances that at least one of those players has a low hand increases.

This analysis was only performed for the first turn. I suppose you could calculate the AVG number of points that you would reduce your score per turn, and use that to figure out when to go out on later rounds. For the first round, with only looking at 3 cards, you will reduce your points on average by 2.63 points. This result was arrived at by looking at a million random 3 cards from the deck (with wilds removed, so the odds might be slightly different), and choosing the lowest 2 cards to keep for a single player. I did not examine what happens as the number of players increase, but my guess would be that as the number of players increase, the chances that at least one other player is able to reduce their score by more than the average increases (i.e. with two players, it is probable that one player reduces their score by more than 2.63 and the other by less than 2.63. For three players or more, the odds that someone is able to drop a '9' or other high number for a '3' or other low number increases, and that lucky person will have on average less than your total.


Dominion: Can travellers (Peasant, Page) be Upgraded or Trade Routed?

Yes. The cards in the traveler lines have costs so that they can be considered for cards such as Upgrade - in all such cases, you just ignore the "*" in their cost (just as you do for Peddler). So it is perfectly legitimate to trash a Disciple with Upgrade in order to gain a Gold.

The main thing that you can't do with those cards is interact with their piles outside of the exchange mechanism - you can't return them with Ambassador, and you can't gain them with something like Workshop.


Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack?

Card counting isn't considered illegal. Casinos have the right to deny service to anyone, and of makes sense to deny players from playing a game in which they have an advantage versus the house. This isn't  cheating in any sense of the word. 994 P.2d 1151 (2000) CHEN v. NEVADA STATE GAMING CONTROL BOARD and Monte Carlo Resort & Casino:

  This case presents a conflict between two inconsistent public policies that have developed over the years with regard to the gaming industry. On one hand, gaming establishments have the unquestioned right to protect themselves against so-called "card counters" who have developed expertise in the game of "blackjack" ("twenty-one"). On the other hand, neither card counting nor the use of a legal subterfuge such as a disguise to gain access to this table game is illegal under Nevada law.

cheat transitive verb

1 : to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud
2 : to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice
3 : to elude or thwart by or as if by outwitting  intransitive verb
1 a : to practice fraud or trickery b : to violate rules dishonestly   [...]


Who wins if the game ends with one player having 6 colonies and 1 or more players with 5 colonies?

I received the following e-mailed answer from Jonathan Bove of FFG:

  Since all of the players fulfilled the victory condition at the same
  time, it is a joint victory. However, this shouldn't stop the player
  with 6 colonies from bragging about his or her intergalactic skills!

Since this is direct from FFG, I will take this to be the official answer.


Yes, there are all sorts of decks that can win on turn 1, including ones that are tournament legal.  Trying to list them all would not be a good use of the site.  This question has an example of a turn 1 win by milling your opponent.


Where can you post new Dominion card rule suggestions?

If you have read the post that you link to, then you are familiar with forum.dominionstrategy.com. They have a subforum just for this sort of thing here.  If you post your cards there, people will likely comment on them, give advice, and even try them out and playtest them if they are interesting enough. It's a friendly community with lots of people who are experts at Dominion.

Donald X posts on that forum as well, and you can "contact" him there by asking questions in posts, but he has said that he does not read fan cards, largely because he wants to make sure that any ideas he uses are his own.


Does it make sense for a defender to occasionally adopt a slightly inferior line in order to "mix up" the play?

Poker is not a team game; Bridge is. For this reason it is essential that  your plays be reliable at all times when partner has any decisions to be made, potentially or actually. The loss in partnership confidence from not adhering to this maxim is far more devastating than any small gain from mixing up your signals like this.

All too often on Defence the Defenders' knowledge is shared asymmetrically through most of the play. In these cases each Defender needs to trust that, if the situation remains unclear, at a minimum Partner's carding can be trusted to be an accurate guide to decision making. Your suggested strategy confounds this fundamental tenet of partnership confidence.

Further, there are complicating ethical questions about the mechanics of playing such a strategy ethically, Partner and opponents are not only both entitled to knowledge of the carding agreement in place, but Partner must be capable of fully explaining it's nuances, frequency, and constraints to the opponents at the table. Any failure to meet these ethical obligations is an ethics violation subject to the most sever penalties.

If you want to know how top players really bluff you could do worse than to look up a few stories by Randy (Racoon) Bennett


Once you have learned some basic strategy, the best way to learn is to play.  If you don't have a friend or neighbor to play with, then I highly recommend the American Go Association.  They have a great resources page, links to clubs, books and teaching software.

The AGA maintains a list of Internet Go Servers for on-line play, including some turn-based servers.  Turn-based servers are good for beginners because there is no pressure to move quickly — you play via email.  The Dragon Go Server is dedicated to Go.

The great thing about Go is that it is easy to handicap.  You and a much more accomplished player can both enjoy a game together, you just have to handicap the expert player.


If an opponent unsummons my Goblin, does it spoil my Goblin Grenade?

It is impossible for your opponent to unsummon your Goblin after you have chosen it to be the grenade victim.

When you cast a spell, announcing the spell, choosing its targets and modes, and finally paying its costs (and yes some other more fiddly things), is all a single action that you take at once.  Other players do not get priority to interrupt you in the middle.

Because sacrificing the goblin is part of the cost of the spell, it is part of that one big action and other people can't jump in the middle to do something.  By the time your opponent gets priority again after you have chosen the goblin, it is already in the graveyard.


The Queen and one or two additional C/M are returned to the board.

The Laws of Carrom 99 states

  If the Queen and the Striker are pocketed together by a proper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out for placing by the Umpire. An additional C/M shall be taken out for placing and the player shall continue his turn. If the Queen and the Strkier are pocketed together by an improper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out by the Umpire for placing. Two additional C/M shall be taken out for placing by the opponent and the player shall lose his turn.


Possible to spend clue tokens to re-roll attempts at sealing gates?

You can spend clue tokens to roll extra dice for any skill check, including closing gates.  You can spend them one at a time, and stop after you have a success.

After you've successfully closed the gate you can then spend five clue tokens to seal it (assuming you still have that many).

Rerolls are different, generally given by skills and items.  With a reroll you reroll all dice in the pool, including any added by clue tokens that you have spent.


Does something which affects "defending player" target that player?

No, it doesn't target. You are not immune.
If the word "target" isn't used, it doesn't target. Keep in mind that some keywords (e.g. "Equip") use the word "target" in the abilities they represent, and the rules for casting an Aura use the word "target".
You're asking about Annihilator, so let's look up what abilities it represents:

702.85a Annihilator is a triggered ability. “Annihilator N” means “Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices N permanents.”

As you can see, it doesn't use the word "target". As such, it does not target.

In case you're interested, the following is the exhaustive list of what targets:

114.1a An instant or sorcery spell is targeted if its spell ability identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” [...]
114.1b Aura spells are always targeted. [...]
114.1c An activated ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” [...]
114.1d A triggered ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” [...]
114.1e Some keyword abilities, such as equip and provoke, represent targeted activated or triggered abilities. In those cases, the phrase “target [something]” appears in the rule for that keyword ability rather than in the ability itself. (The keyword’s reminder text will often contain the word “target.”) See rule 702, “Keyword Abilities.”


How to interrupt a loop with multiple players?

The described situation is perfectly legal. These loops are governed by rule 720, concerning the taking of shortcuts.
CR720.2a, b and c explain how shortcuts are to be taken:

720.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.
720.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or shorten it by naming a place where they will make a game choice that’s different than what’s been proposed. (The player doesn’t need to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence.
720.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that player.

Notice the emphasized sentence: that player, in your situation, is Chris. Since Chris was the one who suggested the fewest number of iterations for Alice's loop, when he receives priority, he must take an action that is different from the action originally proposed by Alice for the shortcut.
As you can see, as long as it is a different action from the one originally proposed, it doesn't matter what action that is. Once that action (in your case, crewing the Aethersphere Harverster) has been taken, play continues normally in turn order. Alice can then propose a new shortcut to continue her loop if she wishes to do so, but that action is not required.


How does casting a card for its miracle cost interact with cost modifying abilities?

Yes, the cost is still increased or decreased. For your example, X would be 6, because Entreat the Angels for x=6 only costs you 6.

  117.9. Some spells have alternative costs. An alternative cost is a cost listed in a spell’s text, or applied to it from another effect, that its controller may pay rather than paying the spell’s mana cost. Alternative costs are usually phrased, “You may [action] rather than pay [this object’s] mana cost,” or “You may cast [this object] without paying its mana cost.” Note that some alternative costs are listed in keywords; see rule 702.

    117.9a Only one alternative cost can be applied to any one spell as it’s being cast. The controller of the spell announces his or her intentions to pay that cost as described in rule 601.2b.

    117.9b Alternative costs are always optional.

    117.9c An alternative cost doesn’t change a spell’s mana cost, only what its controller has to pay to cast it. Spells and abilities that ask for that spell’s mana cost still see the original value.

    117.9d If an alternative cost is being paid to cast a spell, any additional costs, cost increases, and cost reductions that affect that spell are applied to that alternative cost. (See rule 601.2e.)

Note that you don't pay whatever mana you want, and then calculate what X is, though.. it's the other way around. You choose an X, and then pay that cost. In your example, you can choose X=6, which would normally cost you 8, but it is reduced to 6.

  107.3a If a spell or activated ability has a mana cost, alternative cost, additional cost, and/or activation cost with an , [-X], or X in it, and the value of X isn't defined by the text of that spell or ability, the controller of that spell or ability chooses and announces the value of X as part of casting the spell or activating the ability. (See rule 601, "Casting Spells.") While a spell is on the stack, any X in its mana cost equals the announced value. While an activated ability is on the stack, any X in its activation cost equals the announced value.


Can opponent trash a copper on my Governor if there is no one value card in play?

Yes, they can.

You always follow all instructions in order, only skipping things that are impossible. If you choose this option, your opponent has 2 instructions to follow:

They may trash a card from their hand
They gain a card costing exactly $1 more

They follow the first instruction, and then the second one is impossible, so it is ignored.

Note that this is common to use as a benefit for yourself, with cards like Remake or Upgrade; where you can trash Coppers away.

Yes, this does mean that this option will help your opponent.. however, it would help in general anyway; that's the whole concept behind Governor. While they do have the ability to trash a Copper and gain nothing in return, they would still be better off trashing an Estate and gaining a $3 cost card. Or later in the game, trashing a $4 and getting a Duchy.

If they happen to have nothing in their hand that is worth trashing, then you lucked out and they don't get a benefit. But in general, any of the three options on Governor are designed to help your opponents a little, and help yourself even more.


If the room is dark, can I still move to a closet or explore?

Darkness has only 2 effects per the rules:

If you want to explore, it costs you an action plus a movement step
-2 to all attribute tests during combat


Triggered ability of another card when two legendary creatures with the same name enter to the battlefield at the same time

From See the Unwritten, two creatures with a power greater than or equal to 4 have entered the battlefield. Each is sufficient to trigger the conditional statement of Temur Ascendancy's triggered ability, creating two effects that can be placed on the stack. You get the option, twice, to draw a card.

You're wrong about Dragonlord Atarka: in order for it to trigger the Legendary rule, the second creature must enter the battlefield. Since it has entered the battlefield, the triggered effect occurs to be put on the stack. Reference:

You've simultaneously created 4 effects, two draw effects and two damage effects. As the controller, you decided the order in which they enter the stack.


No. You don't play PVP Defense cards, you use abilities on those cards. Twisp doesn't mention copying PvP Defense abilities. This is supported by the fact that play is only used in reference to a player's own turn. From the correct Rulebook.

PVP ATTACKS AND DEFENSES - Some cards allow you to make a PvP Attack against the other players in the game. When you play a card with a PvP Attack ability, each other player has an opportunity to block the attack with a card that has a PvP Defense ability. A player using a PvP Defense card’s ability negates the attack only for that defending player.
Twisp: Catsby’s special card Twisp simply copies all abilities of any other card played in a turn, including Tokens, Power, card drawing, and PvP Attacks. If the card would be deleted, then Twisp is deleted.
Baby Ninja - {2}, +1 Power, PVP Defense: Discard this card to block a PVP Attack. If you do, draw a card.
Jim Darkmagic: Jim’s special hero power must be used before you take any actions or play any cards for your turn.


What is a creature's power when it has some equipment equipped?

Yes - spells like Rite of Consumption check the last known information on the most recent public zone (in this case, the battlefield, where the equipment will be attached when that power is checked).

From the comprehensive rules:

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


I play Scrabble with kids all the time, I think the same concepts would work nicely with an ESL opponent. To me handicapping by points (opponent starts with 150 or 200 points or whatever) does nothing to make the game more fun for either player. What does work is allowing my young opponent all the time they need for each turn - I get timed. They get all of the good cheat sheets - I don't (that one is fair even even if I'm playing an adult native English speaker with less Scrabble experience). And if the gap is really big - especially if Scrabble is being used as an educational tool - allowing my opponent timed use of the dictionary or OSPD while figuring their play. For the last one, consider limiting the time the opponent gets to use the dictionary more and more as the gap narrows.

BTW, using timing the stronger player as a handicap only works if that player draws tiles at the beginning of their turn instead of the end of their last one.


What happens if a blocking creature is killed with Double Strike before all the damage is dealt?

No, once a creature is blocked, it remains so even if the defending creature dies. From the Comprehensive rules

  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.

A creature with Double Strike and Trample (Stampeding Rhino that has gained DS) could deal damage to the defending player, but this is because Trample modifies the normal assigning of combat damage rules.


Search for card and put it into play. What if the card is already in hand?

When instructed to search your library, you can only search your library. If the card you're looking for isn't in your library, you can't find it. You can't search zones other than your library for the card.

Rule 701.17a says

  To search for a card in a zone, look at all cards in that zone (even if it’s a hidden zone) and find a card that matches the given description.

The relevant part of Behemoth's Herald's ability says

  Search your library for a card named Godsire and put it onto the battlefield.

"Your library" is the zone that you are instructed to search, so you can look at cards in your library. And "card named Godsire" is the description of the card you are trying to find, so you can only find cards named "Godsire" in your library.


How do you score an all wild card Canasta?

In Classic Canasta, a Canasta of only wilds is not a legal/valid meld.
From the rules:

Every meld, whether a Canasta or not, must contain at least 2 natural cards, and it cannot contain more than 3 total wild cards.
Every meld must contain at least two natural cards. The smallest meld, as usual, consists of three cards, which could be three natural cards (such as 8-8-8) or two natural cards and a wild card (such as Q-Q-2).
Melds can grow as large as you wish. A meld of seven or more cards counts as a canasta. No meld can contain more than three wild cards - so a six card meld must include at least three natural cards, and a canasta must contain at least four natural cards. There is no limit on the number of natural cards that can be added to a complete canasta. A wild card added to a pure canasta of course makes it mixed. Once a canasta contains three wild cards, no further wild cards can be added.
Note that in this version of Canasta, melds consisting entirely of wild cards are not allowed.

American/Modern Canasta does allow a meld or Canasta of all Wilds; but that is a less common variant than Classic Canasta. In American Canasta, a wild Canasta that contains jokers and 2s, without containing all 4 jokers, is worth 2000 points (in addition to the value of the 2s and jokers in the meld).
Source:

a complete twos canasta scores 3000 points (this is a wild canasta made entirely of twos)
a complete joker canasta scores 2500 points (this must contain all four jokers, together with three twos)
any other complete wild canasta (containing one, two or three jokers) scores 2000 points


Do creatures summoned by a Planeswalker have summoning sickness?

Yes, they'll have summoning sickness. Every creature experiences summoning sickness, without exception, unless something says it doesn't, such as having Haste. Elspeth herself doesn't experience Summoning Sickness because she isn't a creature - she's a  planeswalker.

For an example of a Planeswalker that places creatures which do have Haste, see Xenagos, the Reveler.

Summoning sickness comes from rule 302.6:

  302.6. A creatures activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost cant be activated unless the creature has been under its controllers control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature cant attack unless it has been under its controllers control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning sickness" rule.

In short: Summoning Sickness means a creature can't attack, or activate abilities with a tap or untap symbol in their cost, until they've been under your control since your untap step.

If a permanent on the battlefield is turned into a creature — e.g. you transform your Mutavault — it will suddenly start being affected by summoning sickness, if you haven't controlled that permanent since the beginning of your turn. For this reason, an alternate way to describe it is that everything has summoning sickness, but it only affects things if they're creatures.

Creatures affected by summoning sickness can still be tapped by other things, though. You can cast Devout Invocation, for instance, and tap a creature that you only just summoned.


The prohibition on "slow play" is more than just a community norm, it is a tournament rule described in section 5.5 of the tournament rulebook, and it says this:

  Players must take their turns in a timely fashion regardless of the complexity of the play situation and adhere to time limits specified for the tournament. Players must maintain a pace to allow the match to be finished in the announced time limit. Stalling is not acceptable. Players may ask a judge to watch their game for slow play; such a request will be granted if feasible.

In other words, it is considered "slow play" if a player takes an unreasonable amount of time to take individual game actions or make individual game decisions. In most cases, the rule is only enforced if a player exhibits a pattern of playing like that. Stalling is the extreme limit of this, when a player clearly does not intend to do anything, but also does not allow their opponent to act, simply to run down the match clock.

Why is the "reasonable pace" so fast?

In Magic, most decisions should not require much time. You are working with a relatively limited set of information, and most of that information does not change much from turn to turn. In addition, any attempt to plan more than a turn or so ahead would be limited by the unknown information about the cards in your opponent's hand and both libraries.

Why is slow play a problem in tournaments?

In Magic tournament play, the match as a whole has a limited amount of time. This means that players using match time is essentially a zero-sum game: the more time one player uses to think while not acting and also not allowing the opponent to act, the less time the other player has to act when they get the opportunity. This means that a player gains an advantage by thinking through their moves during their own turn, instead of while their opponent is acting.

An unscrupulous player could abuse this fact by winning the first game, and then slowing down their pace of play in the second game enough to prevent their opponent from having an opportunity to make a comeback.

Why not play fewer games for longer?

The standard best-of-three structure is very important to Magic tournaments because it allows for "sideboarding", which is the ability to swap out cards with a pre-chosen sideboard in games after the first in order to counter your opponent's deck. Sideboarding is commonly considered to be integral to the depth of tournament-level Magic strategy, because it requires a deep understanding of the current metagame.

Why not play fewer matches for longer?

Generally, the goal of a Magic tournament is to find a winner among a large number of people, and to more generally rank the players by their performance in the tournament. In order to correctly determine a single winner based on match win rate alone, a tournament needs to contain at least log2(number of players) matches. Most tournaments do run approximately that many matches.

Why not make the whole tournament longer?

Magic exists in a larger context, and people have other things to do. If I go to play Magic at a Friday Night Magic event, I will likely not have the energy or inclination to stay for several hours and leave well after midnight.

Why does chess not have this problem?

The most important difference between chess and Magic that makes this problem virtually nonexistent in chess is the game clock. In chess, each player is timed separately, and a player loses if they spend too long on their own moves. In Magic tournaments, a game clock would be entirely infeasible, because control over the flow of the game switches between players much more frequently, and often in ways that are informal and shortcut in order to play at a reasonable pace.

In contrast, Magic: the Gathering Online does play with a real game clock, where each player's clock runs as long as they have priority or a decision to make, and in that game slow play is generally not considered a problem, entirely because in that case the player who plays slowly is the one who is disadvantaged by doing so.


When does Tiana, Ship's Caretaker check card type?

The ability will still trigger; what matters is what the object was when it was on the battlefield.

  603.10. Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities are exceptions to this rule; the game “looks back in time” to determine if those abilities trigger, using the existence of those abilities and the appearance of objects immediately prior to the event. The list of exceptions is as follows:

    603.10a Some zone-change triggers look back in time. These are leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, and abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library.

Tiana’s ability is a leaves the battlefield ability; even though it talks about entering the graveyard:

  603.6c Leaves-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent moves from the battlefield to another zone, or when a phased-in permanent leaves the game because its owner leaves the game. These are written as, but aren’t limited to, “When [this object] leaves the battlefield, . . .” or “Whenever [something] is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, . . . .” (See also rule 603.10.) [...]


After I finish my match in a draft, is it okay to observe other matches?

It is perfectly acceptable to observe other matches.

If you are not currently playing, and you are not a judge, then you are a spectator by definition. There are a few rules governing spectators mentioned in the Tournament Rules.

Players may request (via a judge) that you not observe their matches. You may not make notes while drafting. You may not place bets on any portion of the game. You may not provide assistance to players in a match.

You are allowed to collect and share information in order to gain an advantage. This is called scouting. Some people dislike this behavior, but it is legal nonetheless.

Finally, I want to note that at Regular REL (which includes Friday Night Magic) the "continuous construction" option is allowed unless the tournament organizer explicitly says otherwise. This means that you can sideboard between matches. This rewards scouting. However, it also makes the game more fun for newbies who may want to improve their deck as the evening goes on. Talk to your tournament organizer and explain the upsides and downsides. Help them make an informed decision.


Can the "Sacrifice (this card):" activated ability be placed back on the stack?

No, your second example is not possible using the game rules.
Player A cannot target SoF with Naturalize, because it is currently in the graveyard. If they wanted to target the SoF, they need to do so when they had priority. Player A cannot prevent the SoF from being sacrificed for its ability anyway, since the ability exists independently of the source that created it. Seal of Fire says, "Sacrifice Seal of Fire: Seal of Fire deals 2 damage to target creature or player." It is an activate ability whose [Cost] is "Sacrifice Seal of Fire." If Player B paid the cost to activate SoF, it would no longer be on the battlefield by the time the Active Player received priority.

112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]” A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, “Activating Activated Abilities.”
116.1. Unless a spell or ability is instructing a player to take an action, which player can take actions at any given time is determined by a system of priority. The player with priority may cast spells, activate abilities, and take special actions.
112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability.

It is not possible to sacrifice a permanent twice. After you sacrifice a permanent, it is placed into its owner's graveyard.

701.14a To sacrifice a permanent, its controller moves it from the battlefield directly to its owner’s graveyard. A player can’t sacrifice something that isn’t a permanent, or something that’s a permanent he or she doesn’t control. Sacrificing a permanent doesn’t destroy it, so regeneration or other effects that replace destruction can’t affect this action.


Lord of the Ring LCG: Silvan Refugee forced effect

Yes, no matter where it goes from play, to discard, to deck or to hand as your case asks for, the card is no longer in play, so the forced of Refugee will trigger.

If however you use The Tree People to return Silvan Refugee to your hand, it will no longer be in play to trigger, letting you replay the relatively cheap Refugee again later.


Quick engaging card games that can be learned quickly by a new group

Fluxx springs immediately to mind: almost zero teaching time ("The rules are on the table!  Draw a card then play a card!"), can easily be over inside of ten minutes, inconsequential enough that no one will really mind if the bell goes and you have to quit before anyone has won the game.

Lunch Money could probably work inside the given timeframe, but a disturbing game about children beating the crap out of each other in the playground might get you some strange looks, or even disciplinary action, in an academic environment :D

I thought of a couple more good options, so I'm editing them in:

Parade has really taken off in our group lately - it's simple but brilliant.  There are 6 suits of (Alice in Wonderland-themed) cards, valued from 0 to 11.  Beginning with a "parade" of 6 random cards, each player adds a card to the end of the parade.  You must then add to your collection all cards that are equal-or-higher-valued or same-suited as the card you just played - except for the n cards immediately in front of your card, where n is your card's value.  (i.e. if you play the 10, you pick up nothing unless the parade is now 12 cards long.)  At the end of the game, you score negative face value of card, UNLESS you have the most cards in a suit, in which case they're only -1 each.  Trust me, it's really good.

Coloretto is a simple card game which happens to be the engine behind popular boardgames like Zooloretto and Aquaretto.  Players either draw a card and add it to a pile or take a pile.  Most of the cards have a colour: at the end of the game, you score positive points for cards in 3 of those colours, and negative points for cards in other colours.  Pick up piles too early and you may end up short of cards; wait too long and the other players will screw you by leaving you with a pile of cards of multiple different unwanted colours.  Simple but a lot of fun!


In Dominion, how do Duration cards interact with King's Court / Throne Room?

You get $3 now, and next turn as well.

The Seaside rules contain this blurb on page 4 that clarifies most such situations:

  If you play or modify a Duration card with another card, that other card also stays in your play area until it is no longer doing
  anything. For example if you play Throne Room on Merchant
  Ship, both cards stay in play until the Clean-up phase of your next
  turn. The Throne Room stays in play to remind you that you are
  getting the effect of Merchant Ship twice on that next turn.

There are some individual exceptions for some of the more unusual effects. Throne Room can't overcome Outpost's This can’t cause you to take more
than two consecutive turns clause, and you can't Throne Room a Tactician:

  Because you must discard at
  least one card in order to gain the bonuses from Tactician, it is
  not possible to Throne Room a Tactician to get + 10 cards, +2
  Buys, and + 2 Actions.

So, bottom line, most Duration effects are simply doubled, but any time a combination with Throne Room starts getting confusing, it's best to check the rulebook - these situations are usually explicitly addressed.


Cities and Knights: Lose to a barbarian attack, but no settlements.

You turn your city marker, and treat it as if it were a settlement. From the Catan FAQ:

  FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions Barbarians III: Players are Defeated
  - What happens if I have to downgrade a city to a settlement but don’t have another settlement in stock?

  Answer Turn one of your cities on its side and treat it as a
  settlement until you have upgraded it to a city again.


When you change the skill used, do any modifiers for the original skill still count?

Modifiers related to the old skill are discarded and don't count, unless they are Mission bonuses/penalties. rules

  Skill Substitution: Some special abilities and cards allow the ninja to substitute one skill for another. In this case, the roll is against the new skill. If the Mission card specified bonuses or penalties to the roll, they still apply to the new skill. However, cards relating to the old skill can no longer be used (and if they had already been used, they are discarded without effect). For instance, “Little Kids Watching” affects Disguise skill. If you sub- stitute another skill for Disguise, then “Little Kids Watching” can no longer affect that roll.

In your first example, the new skill is Climbing not combat, so your opponents -3 Combat modifier doesn't apply and is discarded. In your second example, the mission is specifying a -2 Combat modifier, its -2 Mission penalty continues to apply to the new skill.


Can big miniatures share their square in Arcadia Quest?

In the rulesbook on page 15 (Full or blocked spaces) it's said:

  Each Space can contain a maximum of two Characters at a time. A Space with up to one character in it is still considered to be free, since other characters, enemy or allied, can still enter it and shoot through it normally.

There's no mention of monster size here. Moreover in the same chapter, the example pictures a space with a lone troll (which is a big miniature) in it as free.


Exiling Creatures: When is the card face up and when face down?

If the ability says to exile the card face down, you exile it face down. Otherwise, you exile it face up. Banisher Priest doesn't say to exile the creature face down, so you exile it face up. Rule 406.3 says

  Exiled cards are, by default, kept face up and may be examined by any player at any time. Cards "exiled face down" can't be examined by any player except when instructions allow it. However, once a player is allowed to look at a card exiled face down, that player may continue to look at that card as long as it remains exiled, even if the instruction allowing the player to do so no longer applies. A card exiled face down has no characteristics, but the spell or ability that exiled it may allow it to be played from exile. Unless that card is being cast face down (see rule 707.4), the card is turned face up just before the player announces that he or she is playing the card (see rule 601.2).

One thing to keep in mind is that the point of exiling a card face down is to keep players from knowing what it is. It wouldn't make sense to exile a card face down if everyone already knows what it is. The only abilities that say to exile face down are abilities that exile from hidden zones: the hand and the library.


Based on what you describe, the card that comes to mind that better fits your needs is Safe Zone:

  Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up Attack Position monster on the field; that face-up monster cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. It cannot attack your opponent directly. When this card leaves the field, destroy that monster. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this card.

emphasis mine

Of course, every card has it's trade-offs, and this one's are that you can't attack directly. Also, if Safe Zone is removed that monster is also removed (however, if you are talking about Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, he can save himself from this destruction with his own effect).

Now, it seems that you have to protect your Safe Zone from being destroyed. One card that can do that is Imperial Custom:

  Face-up Continuous Trap Cards cannot be destroyed, except "Imperial Custom". You can control only 1 "Imperial Custom".

Another way you can make a monster card impervious to any other card is with the effect of Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora:

  Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; that target is unaffected by card effects, except for its own effects, until the end of this turn.

This will prevent basically any target, effect destruction, change of control, or other effects that do not target. Of course, if your opponent summons more muscle than your card's it can still go down by battle. I suppose that combining Safe Zone with Number 81's effect would really make it hard to touch.

Other, option you got similar to Number 81 is Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, which does basically the same plus negating that monster's effect (which could come handy in other scenarios):

  Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; this turn, its effects are negated, but it is unaffected by other card effects.


What is your average VP score rolling 2 versus 4 dice after an initial 3322xx roll?

Your overall expected value is what you might expect: 3.1121.
In other words, you should almost always get your 3-set of 3s, or a 4-set of 2s.
I threw together a simulator to help with this. Now, because I am a lamer, I used Java. It requires Java 7 because it uses <> notation. If you're using an older version, be warned. Here's the simulator, first off. Please feel free to pick it apart for functionality, but as far as style goes I know there's a million improvements to be made. This is a throw-away script if there ever one. There may be copy/paste typos and what not, but the code is actually fairly readable. I will add comments and edit as necessary, although I will group edits together to delay community-wikization.
import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
class Tokyo {
    // shortcut for iterating over the faces of a die roll
    static final int[] face = {0,0,0,1,2,3};

    public static void main(String...args) {
        // the initial roll - there's no control over this
        final Roll init = new Roll(3,3,2,2,0,0);

        // strat1: reroll all non 3s
        // this gets all possible results and their counts from
        // using strat 1 as our guide. see rollStrat1 on the Roll class
        Map<Roll,Integer> strat1roll1 = init.rollStrat1();
        report(strat1roll1);
        // now, for each of those rolls, we need to simulate using the same
        // strategy - the addTo makes sure we give proper credit to rolls that
        // come up more often
        Map<Roll,Integer> strat1roll2 = new HashMap<>();
        for(Roll roll : strat1roll1.keySet()) { // for each roll from roll 1
            Map<Roll,Integer> curr = roll.rollStrat1(); // reroll according to the strat
            addTo(strat1roll2, curr); // and store them all in the master map
        }
        // now count the results
        report(strat1roll2);

        // strat2: reroll all non doubles - comments ommited because it's the same as above
        Map<Roll,Integer> strat2roll1 = init.rollStrat2();
        report(strat2roll1);

        Map<Roll,Integer> strat2roll2 = new HashMap<>();
        for(Roll roll : strat2roll1.keySet()) {
            Map<Roll,Integer> curr = roll.rollStrat2();
            addTo(strat2roll2, curr);
        }

        report(strat2roll2);

        // strat3: mix the two
        Map<Roll,Integer> strat3roll2 = new HashMap<>();
        for(Roll roll : strat2roll1.keySet()) {
            Map<Roll,Integer> curr = roll.rollStrat3();
            addTo(strat3roll2, curr);
        }
        report(strat3roll2);

    }

    static DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("###.00000");
    static void report(Map<Roll,Integer> map) {
        int sum = 0;
        int count = 0;
        for(Roll roll : map.keySet()) {
            sum += roll.score() * map.get(roll);
            count += map.get(roll);
        }
        double exval = ((double)sum) / (double)count;
        System.out.println("total: " + sum);
        System.out.println("count: " + count);
        System.out.println("exval: " + df.format(exval));
    }

    // just merge the slave map into the master map
    static void addTo(Map<Roll,Integer> master, Map<Roll,Integer> slave) {
        for(Roll roll : slave.keySet()) {
            Integer count = master.get(roll);
            if(count == null) count = 0;
            master.put(roll, count + slave.get(roll));
        }
    }

    // reroll anything that isn't a 0 in the mask
    // if it is a non-0, that is the number that will show up in the roll
    // so if you want to re-roll a 2, in your strat method, turn that 2 into a
    // 0 so it gets re-rolled
    static Map<Roll,Integer> roll(Roll mask) {
        Map<Roll, Integer> rolls = new HashMap<>();
        // iterate over every possibly die roll
        for(int a = 0; a < 6; a++) {
        for(int b = 0; b < 6; b++) {
        for(int c = 0; c < 6; c++) {
        for(int d = 0; d < 6; d++) {
        for(int e = 0; e < 6; e++) {
        for(int f = 0; f < 6; f++) {

            int ra = mask.a == 0 ? face[a] : mask.a;
            int rb = mask.b == 0 ? face[b] : mask.b;
            int rc = mask.c == 0 ? face[c] : mask.c;
            int rd = mask.d == 0 ? face[d] : mask.d;
            int re = mask.e == 0 ? face[e] : mask.e;
            int rf = mask.f == 0 ? face[f] : mask.f;

            Roll roll = new Roll(ra, rb, rc, rd, re, rf);
            roll = roll.sort();
            if(rolls.containsKey(roll)) {
                rolls.put(roll, rolls.get(roll) + 1);
            } else {
                rolls.put(roll, 1);
            }
        }}}}}} // my code-review spidy sense is very pissed at me for this
        return rolls;
    }

    // unused, YAGNI I know... but this does illustrate all possible rolls
    static Map<Roll,Integer> possibleRolls() {
        return roll(new Roll(0,0,0,0,0,0));
    }

    // this represnts a roll, but it also represents a mask - lame, I know
    static class Roll {
        final int a,b,c,d,e,f; // the dice you have
        Roll(int a, int b, int c, int d, int e, int f) {
            this.a=a; this.b=b; this.c=c;
            this.d=d; this.e=e; this.f=f;
        }
        // welcome to Java - assumes they are properly sorted - a bad practice that
        // should be fixed if this grew beyond its current scope
        public boolean equals(Object o) {
            Roll ros = (Roll)o;
            Roll sor = this;
            return ros.a == sor.a && ros.b == sor.b && ros.c == sor.c
                && ros.d == sor.d && ros.e == sor.e && ros.f == sor.f;
        }
        // order doesn't matter for the result, but this is a perfect hash, that's cool
        public int hashCode() {
            return (a+1) * (b+1) * (c+1) * (d+1) * (e+1) * (f+1);
        }

        Roll sort() { // delegate sorting to Arrays =)
            int[] p = {a,b,c,d,e,f};
            Arrays.sort(p);
            return new Roll(p[0],p[1],p[2],p[3],p[4],p[5]);
        }

        int[] counts() { // convenience method
            int[] counts = new int[4];
            counts[a]++; counts[b]++; counts[c]++;
            counts[d]++; counts[e]++; counts[f]++;
            return counts;
        }

        int score() {
            int[] counts = counts();

            // trust the math =), or don't and work it out for yourself =)
            return (counts[1] > 2 ? counts[1] - 2 : 0)
                 + (counts[2] > 2 ? counts[2] - 1 : 0)
                 + (counts[3] > 2 ? counts[3] : 0);
        }

        Map<Roll,Integer> rollStrat1() {
            return keepAll(3);
        }

        Map<Roll,Integer> keepAll(int k) {
        // reroll all non ks
            int ra = a == k ? k : 0; // the mask will have ks or 0s
            int rb = b == k ? k : 0;
            int rc = c == k ? k : 0;
            int rd = d == k ? k : 0;
            int re = e == k ? k : 0;
            int rf = f == k ? k : 0;
            return roll(new Roll(ra,rb,rc,rd,re,rf));
        }

        Map<Roll,Integer> rollStrat2() {
            // reroll anything that doesn't have 2x of something, except 0 - of course reroll 0s
            int[] counts = counts();
            int ra = counts[a] > 1 && a > 0 ? a : 0;
            int rb = counts[b] > 1 && b > 0 ? b : 0;
            int rc = counts[c] > 1 && c > 0 ? c : 0;
            int rd = counts[d] > 1 && d > 0 ? d : 0;
            int re = counts[e] > 1 && e > 0 ? e : 0;
            int rf = counts[f] > 1 && f > 0 ? f : 0;
            return roll(new Roll(ra,rb,rc,rd,re,rf));
        }

        Map<Roll,Integer> rollStrat3() {
            int[] counts = counts();
            if(counts[3] > 2 && counts[2] > 2) {
                Map<Roll,Integer> map = new HashMap<>();
                map.put(this,score());
                return map;
            }
            if(counts[3] > 2) {
                return keepAll(3);
            }
            if(counts[2] > 2) {
                return keepAll(2);
            }
            return rollStrat1();
        }
    }

}

What the results are when it is run is (these values have changed - see edit history).
c:\files\j>java Tokyo
total: 81756
count: 46656
exval: 1.75231
total: 5081940
count: 1632960
exval: 3.11210
total: 73872
count: 46656
exval: 1.58333
total: 1283040
count: 466560
exval: 2.75000
total: 1165885
count: 419909
exval: 2.77652

What does this tell us? Well, first it validates the system by coming up with values nearly identical to those calculated by other methods for the first roll. That's excellent news.
Now, let's look at the actual results. The number of different values explodes for strategy 1, mostly because it is rerolling 4 different dice on the first pass, and probably an average of 3.5 or so for the second pass. The count seems so much higher because of the uniqueness, but I adjusted for this 'problem' in the code.
The second strategy starts off less, and does stand for improvement. For example, if you don't get your 2s the second time, would it be better to dump all the 2s and go for 3s? This is where I implement strat 3.
Rather than start off with the results from strat 1, which are only focusing on the 3s, I instead use the first roll of strat 2 to focus on acquiring doubles. Then, I shift focus: if I have both sets, haha, we're done here... thanks... If I have a set of 3s or a set of 2s, I keep it and ditch the other set: after all, it's silly to try to aim for that 1/6 chance to pick up the other set - much better odds in ditching those dice and put them into something that's already bearing fruit. Lastly, if I don't have a set, I default to just rolling all non 3s, which is the same as the original 'strat 1' and is shown to have a higher single-roll result than strat 2. And that yields an excellent result but still not better.
Note the 5 reports:
strat 1 roll 1
strat 1 roll 2

strat 2 roll 1
strat 2 roll 2

strat 3 roll 2 (its roll 1 is strat 2's roll 1)

So the end result is that in this scenario, thus far the strategies indicate you should simply keep your 3s and go for it.


What is an example of a perfectly played checkers game?

Checkers was weakly solved in 2007: it was proven that the Chinook algorithm could never lose a game. So to get a perfectly played game you could have Chinook play against itself, but I can't find the final version of Chinook online or a record of its later games. You can check out its earlier games against humans here - most of those are draws, though there's no guarantee they're "perfect" since it's a human and an earlier version of Chinook playing.


Why didn't my Deathtouch creature kill my opponent's Protean Hydra?

Protean Hydra has two abilities that say

If damage would be dealt to Protean Hydra, prevent that damage and remove that many +1/+1 counters from it.
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is removed from Protean Hydra, put two +1/+1 counters on it at the beginning of the next end step.

And the rule for how Deathtouch damage works is 702.2b:

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

So, here's the sequence of events in your scenario:

We get to the combat damage step, and the Spider is assigned to deal 2 damage to the Hydra.

The Hydra's ability prevents that damage, and instead 2 +1/+1 counters are removed, making it a 10/10. Since the damage was prevented, the Hydra wasn't dealt damage by a source with Deathtouch, so it doesn't die.

At the beginning of the end step, because of the Hydra's other ability, 2 +1/+1 counters are put on it for each one removed earlier, making it a 14/14.

You said that the Hydra ended up as a 13/13 instead. That could happen if the Protean Hydra was actually a 11/11 originally, or if the Spider actually only had 1 power, or it could simply be a bug in the game.


Do counters go away when the creature that gave them dies

No, the counters stay where they are. Counters are a separate entity once they are placed on a permanent. If a creature says "other creatures get +1+1" and then leaves the battlefield, the bonus is lost. And if a creature with +1+1 counters on it leaves the battlefield, the counters go away. But in the scenario you described, the counters stay.


What are great gamer games that are still great for uncompetitive groups.

I'd assert that Settlers of Catan works just fine, even if you're not being very competitive.  There's lots of trading, which can actually work better if both traders are genuinely interested in "playing nice."  Similarly, there's nothing in the building of cities and roads that mandates competition.  The nature of the board does encourage confrontation, in that you're likely to eventually conflict for space to expand, but that's not necessarily a deal-breaker in this regard.


What is the difference between the board game "Clue" and the card game "Clue"?

The card game preserves all the same important features present in the board game. All the deductive elements are still present, and the core gameplay is still the same - each player has cards which they reveal as you make accusations.

There are small thematic differences. Instead of the murder in the house, you are on the trail of the murderer. Room, weapon and person are replaced with destination, vehicle and person.

Instead of a board, players each have a destination marker, representing their location. You can move between destinations in order to ask particular questions.

What you are able to do on your turn is dictated by the action card you draw, so there is a little more randomness than in the board game, but also more variety.

Overall, I'd say the card game reworks the mechanics without losing any of the deductive interest of the original.

If you want (a lot) more detail, one good comparison/review is this one on BGG.


What's the timing on Warrior en-Kor's damage redirection?

You cannot redirect damage after it has been dealt. The only card that ever did this was Simulacrum which now lets you gain the life lost from damage dealt to you back and then simulacrum deals damage to a target instead.

Redirection creates a replacement effect, all of the en-Kor creatures had this effect. It's been reworded to no longer talk about redirection, which is considered obsolete, the new en-Kor ability is written this way:

  The next 1 damage that would be dealt to ~ this turn is dealt to target creature you control instead.

The new wording makes it much more clear that you have to activate the ability before the damage is dealt, since it refers to the "next" damage. So timing is the last time you have priority when the spell that would do the damage is on the top of the stack (other than Sudden Shock and Molten Disaster, which you would need the redirection active before it is cast due to split second) or when you have priority after blockers are declared but before damage is assigned (no priority to activate between assigning and dealing damage).


Choosing between Shanty Town and Village when both are in the Kingdom set?

First, you have a mistake in your question: Shanty can give +2 cards, but sometimes it will only give zero (not the 1 that say in your second sentence).

1) In a standard village+draw engine, the vanilla Village is more useful because you will expect to have other actions in your hand, and so Shanty Town's bonus won't trigger.

2) If there are lots of non-terminals or an easy way to spam +Actions, then Shanty Town becomes more powerful because you have the ability to play the remaining actions in your hand and then use Shanty to trigger the draw.

3) Shanty is useful in early turns for increasing cycling. Shanty Town + Potion is a great opening for Apothecary or University games (less so for Scrying Pool because you'll eventually have lots of actions and not necessarily +Action cards).

4) Finally, Shanty is solid in plain Big Money games. If you have only one or two Shanty Towns in your deck, it is almost guaranteed to be a Lab (which is a $5 card).


Sakashima the Impostor copies a creature except its name; Spark Double copies a creature or planeswalker except it loses legendary.
The rule that is responsible for preventing the existence of multiple identical legendaries is the so called "legend rule". It is a state-based action:

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

There is also Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, but it only copies creatures that go to your opponent's graveyard, so the creature you want to copy has to go to your opponent's graveyard somehow, which requires either elaborate setup, or that your opponent also happens to play Geist.
Both creatures restrict you to one additional Geist each, because the legend rule still applies to Lazav and Sakashima, respectively.
Helm of the Host creates non-legendary token copies of the equipped creature. It costs 4 mana to cast and 5 mana to equip, but it lets you get any number of copies with only 1 reusable card invested.
If your group allows Un-sets, there is also Rules Lawyer, which makes state-based actions not apply to you and your creatures, which disables the legend rule check.
Any creature with Mutate and a second copy of the legendary creature will allow you to avoid the Legend rule.  Mutate your first legendary creature, and be sure to put the mutation on the top.  Then, case your second legendary creature.  This is a "thing" with Gemrazer and Toski, Bearer of Secrets in standard as of March 2021.


Creating small flat bottom holes in plastic models for magnets

I can't answer the specific question on drill bit types.  I've don plenty of magnatizing, but haven't analyzed the tools I've used in that great of depth.

I've used Dremel's precision drill bit set in my 7.2 Volt rotary tool.  I've never had too big a problem with the convex bottom of the hole they create.  If you match the drill bit size close enough to the magnet diameter, the sides of the hole should provide enough surface area to hold the magnet in place with a little super glue.

A little super glue, epoxy glue, or an epoxy resin like Green Stuff or Milliput could be used to fill in the hole to an even surface.


Know any games designed for old game systems like Orion or Sly

Since nobody else seems to have made any new games for Sly, I did it myself. Well, I guess some credit should go to Eric Solomon.


What do I need to replace Cranium: Turbo Edition's electronic timer?

From the Turbo rules, the electronic timer lasts 60 seconds. This is the same as the egg timer in the base game.

I can't speak to the colour probabilities or guarantee that there isn't a mechanism to (for example) ensure that a mix of colours comes up, but I think uniformly randomly choosing a colour is a fair and fine way of doing it.


If Maiden with Eyes of Blue is targeted for an attack and is face down, can it still activate?

Unfortunately, you can't activate a monster's effect unless they are face up.

It is true that at some point you will have to flip Maiden to perform battle calculation, but her effect activates only when she is targeted for an attack as the card text reads.

To use the summoning effect the Maiden has to be face up when targeted for an attack.


Nahiri, the Lithomancer + Skullclamp + Cathar's Crusade

You will lose your token because the equipment is attached when instructed, but triggered abilities use the stack. On the plus side, you will be able to draw cards.

You activate Nahiri's +2. It goes on the stack.
[Players get priority]
Nahiri's +2 resolves:

Put a 1/1 white Kor Soldier creature token onto the battlefield. Cathars' Crusade's ability triggers.
You may attach an Equipment to the Kor Soldier at this point. Say you attach Skullclamp to it.

The Kor Soldier with Skullclamp equipped dies here. Skullclamp's triggered ability triggers.
Cathars' Crusade's ability and Skullclamp's triggered ability are placed on the stack in the order of your choice. The order doesn't matter here, so say you place Skullclamp's triggered ability on the stack first.
[Players get priority]
Cathars' Crusade's ability resolves:

Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

[Players get priority]
Skullclamp's ability resolves:

Draw two cards.

Glorious Anthem would have saved your token since the token would be affected by Glorious Anthem's continuous effect at all times both are on the battlefield.


Multiple delayed triggers from Massacre Girl interaction

Whenever a creature dies after the second Massacre Girl's ability resolved, the second MG will get -1/-1, while all other creatures get -2/-2.
As you noted, the two Massacre Girls are different objects even though they were represented by the same card.

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

The triggered ability of MG creates two one-shot effects. The first of those effects gives every other creature -1/-1 until EOT. The second creates a delayed triggered ability that exists independently of the MG that created it and triggers whenever a creature, including the MG, dies.

603.7. An effect may create a delayed triggered ability that can do something at a later time. A delayed triggered ability will contain “when,” “whenever,” or “at,” although that word won’t usually begin the ability.

The DTA created by both MGs only refer to the MG that created them, respectively.

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

When the second MG returns from exile through Conjurer's Closet, it creates another DTA that is identical to the first except it refers to the second MG. Both DTAs are active because the turn hasn't ended yet. So when a creature dies after the creation of the second DTA, both DTAs will trigger and do what they say, namely give -1/-1 to every other creature. The first MG is no longer exists so it can't get -1/-1, but the second MG exists and will get -1/-1 from the first DTA. All other creatures get two instances of -1/-1 until EOT.


What happens if you manifest a Zoetic Cavern?

Yes, you can use the morph cost of the Cavern.

In the rules for manifest rule 701.33c says:

  If a card with morph is manifested, its controller may turn that card face up using either the procedure described in rule 702.36e to turn a face-down permanent with morph face up or the procedure described above to turn a manifested permanent face up.

So if you are turning a card face up using the morph procedure, the manifest procedure and its restrictions become irrelevant.

Manifest is a separate, though similar, mechanic from morph and it is incorrect to call the cost of turning a card face up using the manifest procedure a morph cost.


Can I challenge a character with a '-' ability to a duel?

As per the rules reference, page 5, under "Dash (-)", the following bullet point is relevant (emphasis mine):

  A character with a dash skill value cannot be a challenger or challengee in a duel of that skill type. (see D.2 on page 23)

So, no, the character you describe cannot participate in a military duel, either as the challengee or the challenger.

The bullet point immediately above it covers the case where such a character's skill value is needed by an effect and that value is a dash (which can happen), in which case the skill value will always be 0 at the time it is checked by the effect and cannot be modified.


Do I have to make a suggestion or can I just end turn?

From the rules here

As soon as you enter a room, make a suggestion.

It's very common in games rules to use the word 'may' when something is optional.  The rules use the word 'may' in other places.  This would mean that making a suggestion is compulsory on entering a room.
However you may not remain in a room on your next turn. (and thus make another suggestion)

You may make only one Suggestion after entering a particular room.  To
make your next Suggestion, you must either enter a different Room or,
sometime after your next turn remain in a particular Room.

Thats not how I was taught the game as a child and we just stayed in the same room making suggestions!  So I've learnt something new today.


Who gets enters-the-battlefield abilities with Bribery?

When your opponent puts your creature into play with Bribery, it acts just as if they played it themselves (or, perhaps, put it into play from their own library). It's their creature, and the fact that you happen to own the physical card itself doesn't matter, except for some effects that explicitly use the word "own" or "owner". Terastodon does not have any of those effects. So it's your opponent who gets to choose what permanents to target and whether to destroy them.

If Terastodon dies, though, it will come back to your graveyard, not your opponent's. Once a card leaves the battlefield, then it does matter who owns the actual card.


Does anyone know the Campaign Badges for the Second Purging of Lastrati or the 3rd War for Armageddon?

Campaign Badges are often conflict, and chapter, specific, and finding any definitive one is proving quite difficult.

From what I can remember of playing the actual 3rd War for Armageddon campaign (showing my age now!), there wasn't an overall Campaign Badge for Imperial Forces, but there were a number of area/region specific badges that were used.

Generally, they are reasonably simple geometric design (i.e. quartered diamonds, triangles etc).

I did find this image showing a Salamanders Librarian with an Armageddon Campaign marking, but whether it's 2nd or 3rd War I don't know, and I know that there's been a bit of discussion about it on Warseer/Dakka.

I will see if I can dig up some more though


What is the most life you can have at the end of your first turn with only three cards?

With just 2 cards, you can be at arbitrarily many life points.
The 2-card combo is Black Lotus and Game of Chaos. As long as both you and your opponent keep playing, the stakes increase indefinitely, and you can end the game whenever you win a flip.
Assuming both you and your opponent keep playing exactly until someone gets to zero life or below during Game of Chaos' resolution, you can go to 103 life with the 2 card combo, or 109 with 3 cards.
If you win (+1), lose (-2), lose (-4), win (+8), lose (-16), win (+32), win (+64), then you (and your opponent) will be at

21 (19),
19 (21),
15 (25),
23 (17),
7 (33),
39 (1),
103 (-63) life.

At the start of the game, reveal Providence for another 6 life - this doesn't change the sequence of coinflips because your opponent would still fall to 1 life at the same point of the sequence.


Tournament rules for RftG, how to ensure fair play?

You could discard cards face down in-front of yourself, splayed out so that a count can easily be made, before discarding the cards to the common discard pile. Alternately, until the next reshuffle, you could place those cards face down under the development/planet (splayed slightly) that they are paying. This would give players a much longer time to verify that they didn't cheat.

I am not exactly sure how someone would keep extra cards from an explore. During the explore phase, don't you keep either 2 cards of 3 (normally, without any development/planet bonuses) or if you explore deep you keep 1 of 7 cards. How exactly is someone keeping extra cards from this? Are they merging their hand and their Explore, or keeping them in different hands?


BSG Exodus: What happens with a damaged base star on launch raiders?

Nothing happens. The Exodus rule regarding raiders launching states:

  Launch Raiders or Activate Cylon Basestars: When either of these icons
  is resolved, if there are no basestars on the main game board, place 1
  basestar on the Cylon Fleet game board, according to the placement
  rules below, and advance the Cylon pursuit marker one space on the
  Pursuit track

Adding to the Cylon Fleet game board has an explicit condition which is not met in your example: no basestars on the main game board.


How does Fist of Suns work with my Commander?

Fist of Suns only replaces the mana cost. The mana cost is the cost written in the top-right corner of the card [CR 202.1]. You seem to think it's the total cost or the portion of the total cost payable using mana, but that's not the case.

Fist of Suns doesn't replace any additional costs or cost increases, so you still have to pay the Commander tax.

In game terms,

Fist of Suns provides an alternative cost [CR 117.9].
The Commander tax is an additional cost [CR 903.10].

total cost to cast the second time
= mana cost or alternative cost + additional cost and cost increases - cost reductions [CR 601.2e]
= alternative cost ({W}{U}{B}{R}{G}) + additional costs ({2})
= {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}{2}


As the question notes, Poker Chips in place of money is quite viable. I don't remove the money, just leave it bagged in the box.

Gaming stones or poker chips can be used to track victory points as well.

On some sports games, counters or standups are replaced with meeples or minis readily. I've found that meeples fit beautifully on the Crash Tackle board, for example.

Any game using a pawn or meeple can usually be replaced with nice minis.

Any game using cardboard stand-ups is readily able to use minis in place of the stand-ups.

Condensing Components

The issue of condensing depends a lot on how you play.

Putting all one's Ticket To Ride games in one box simply means not being able to sell them off separately; the component overlap is quite high.

Putting all one's 18xx games in one box, however, may result in a jumbled mess.

Putting all one's Dominion cards in one box is rapidly approaching impossible, but since the core boxes are equipped with decent organizer trays... it really isn't a superior approach, aside from issues of volume.

Many card-only games can be readily condensed down to just a zipper-bagged set of cards and the rules.

The typical condensation level apparently is a game and its own expansions.

My Carcassonne box can't hold anything more, but has in it: Carc., River I & II, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, Tower, Count, Princess & Dragon, King, and one other small one. The Tower literally is filled with all the tiles.


Why does this player not have a straight?

The problem is that a straight cannot be made with an Ace in the middle of the straight. Ace can be considered either the lowest card (forming a straight with A, 2, 3, 4, 5); or the highest card (forming a straight with 10, J, Q, K, A). It cannot be both low and high at the same time; so J, Q, K, A, 2 is not a straight.

In the case of this hand, player 1's best hand is A,K,Q,J,6; which doesn't form any combination; it is simply an Ace-high hand.

https://wiki.c2.com/?PokerGame

  The ace is the highest-ranking card in the deck, followed by the king, the queen, the jack, and the numbered cards in order. The 2 is the lowest-ranking card. In some hands, however (such as the straight and straight flush), an ace can be used as a "1" card - Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a valid straight, as is 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace. The ace cannot be in the middle; one cannot form a straight with Queen-King-Ace-2-3.

Another source, since there is no one difinitive rulebook for Poker to cite:

  The best possible straight in poker is the Ace-high straight (TJQKA) often referred to as “broadway”. The Ace can also be used to formulate the lowest possible straight A2345, often referred to as “the wheel”. Note however that it is not possible for the Ace to appear in the middle of a made straight. I.e. QKA23 is actually just Ace-high, not a straight.

Note that you never get to choose "how many" hole cards you play. You always play a total of 5 cards; whichever 5 of the 7 options give you the best hand. IF player 1 had been holding a 10 instead of a 2, then player 1 would automatically play 10, J, Q, K, A; and would win the hand because of the straight, playing 1 hole card as you suggest.


My interpretation is based on the following premises:

The combination of Free Information and official game information that a judge will provide upon request (Gatherer, Comprehensive Rules, etc.) is sufficient to determine Derived Information.
The combination of Free and Derived Information is sufficient to determine whether any single action is allowed, and what would deterministically happen when that action is taken.

All of the other free information is clearly and strictly defined, so we can fill in the blanks to determine what current and previous game actions need to be free information for those things to be true. For example:

Any actions that created continuous effects that modify characteristics of existing objects affect derived information, so that information must be free.
The number of lands you have played this turn determines whether you can legally play a land, so that information must be free.
The number of spells players have cast this turn determines what happens when you cast a spell with Storm, so that information must be free.
The names of spells that have been cast this turn determines what can possibly happen if Twinning Glass is activated, so that information must be free.
The number of permanents that have entered the graveyard this turn determines what happens if Bitter Ordeal is cast, so that information must be free.

For obvious reasons, it is hard to give an exhaustive list, but I believe this process can be used to determine whether any particular information is free. Also note that there is no mention of actions in the derived information section, so any action information that is not free is private.

In the case of the Troll example in the question, there are no cards or rules that care at all about zone changes to non-public zones from more than a turn ago, so the information is private.


The difference is that wizards printed a whole lot of chronicles, and they sold it cheaper than normal packs.

The result was a massive market flood of cards, some of which actually were somewhat valuable. compare the prices of  Nicol Bolas to other obscure legends that weren't printed in chronicles like Angus Mackenzie, to see how chronicles affected it.

The value of people's collections dropped drastically, and people don't like it when that happens.

Modern masters was different because wizards charged more for them and they purposefully printed a very limited run of it.

if you wanted to get modern masters for MSRP, you had to already know that it was coming.  Stores that sold them at MSRP sold out in less than a day.


What is legal?

Cards go on the stack when you cast them. They remain there until they resolve or are otherwise removed from the stack.

According the the Tournament Rules, the current zone of any object is free information. The stack is a zone. Therefore, the presence of an object on the stack is free information.

It does not matter where the card physically goes, so long as it is clear that it is on the stack. You are not allowed to obscure or otherwise misrepresent the presence of an object in a zone, because it is free information.

What is considered good etiquette?

There is no official etiquette about where in the table you should play your spells and how exactly a complex stack should be built.

I play in a lot of tournaments, and most players put the card somewhere on the table where everyone can see it. Some players (incorrectly) put the card straight into their graveyards. Some players like to play the card behind their lands, perhaps to gain some kind of advantage by making it slightly more difficult for me to read.

When we build a complex stack, very rarely do we build an actual physical stack. To do that requires the cooperation of both players, and it also requires that all of the spells be tangible cards (i.e., not a trigger or an activated ability). Perhaps the most common situation in which I see a stack built with cards is during a counterspell war, such as the example you gave in the question.