Do cursed investigators in the herald variant repeatedly fall unconscious?

Since an investigator gets to roll to see if they lose a Cursed or Blessed status on the upkeep after losing their stamina, they won't get stuck in an infinite loop.  If a person is worried about not being able to do anything because of their curse, they can use their Encounter at St. Mary's to simply heal one.  Their health will go from 1 to 2, then back to 1 next round.  At least with that, the person can make one move and go somewhere to do SOMETHING, rather then being bed-ridden.  There are ways around it, but I guess the solution really would be "don't get cursed".


Option A, the player should draw an extra card. Here's why: The Poor Bonus happens at the start of a player's turn. Since the player already drew for Poor Bonus, and removed the Poor Bonus after the draw, that card is fully resolved. But the Draw X cards always say to draw extra cards during a turn, so the player would need to draw one more card to meet that rule change.


Go - How does one count territory in these scenarios?

For each intersection, ask yourself if it belongs to white or black.

The issue with your examples is that the games are not finished yet. You should keep playing until you can answer the question above. For now let me just try and address the top right corner.

In scenario 1, white is currently enclosing two intersections. But black will eventually capture the white stones, and all the points will go to black.

In scenario 2, white is enclosing 4 intersections (marked x below), and black cannot capture the white stones because they have two eyes. Eventually that will count as 4 points for white.

The intersections marked o will probably end as "dame" (neutral points), as neither white nor black can enclose them.

$$W Scenario 2
$$ --------------------
$$ | . . . . X o O x x |
$$ | . . . . X o O O O |
$$ | . . . . X o O x x |
$$ | . . . . X o O O O |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | O O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------


No.  Hostage Taker says mana may be spent as though it were any type.  Improvise does not generate mana, and therefore cannot be used to pay for any mana-type specific parts of the cost.  Improvise may still be used to pay for the generic mana portion of the cost (if any).


Is it legal to use a paper and a pen during Android: Netrunner play?

Taking notes is not permitted, no.
From the current Tournament Regulations (v3.2):

Taking Notes and Outside Material
Players cannot take notes or reference outside material or information during a tournament
round. However, players may reference official rule documents at any time or ask a judge for
clarification from official rule documents. Official rule documents include all rules documents
and inserts available on the Android: Netrunner page of our website, those found in an Android:
Netrunner product, or any portion thereof.

Edit: Under NISEI, this has been relaxed for Casual tier events.
From the current Organized Play Policies document (emphasis mine):

Taking or referencing notes referring to hidden information or strategy is not permitted at Competitive-level events. Players may reference official rules documents or card text at any time, or ask tournament staff for clarification. Players may take notes at Casual events.


What happens when opponent draws Exodia and Deck Out in the same turn?

The deck out is irrelevant. The player drawing Exodia (and presumably completing the set in hand) has already won the duel.

Even if the player has not completed Exodia in hand, they do not lose until they are required to draw and are unable to draw. They may sit with an empty deck until next draw phase if there is nothing else to cause the duel to end.


How do actions that trigger on a certain movement die result work when rolling two dice?

You have to roll a 6 for your movement in order to be able to regenerate instead of moving. If you have Riding horse then you roll 2 dice for movement. If one of the two is a 6 you can regenerate instead as long as you control the Troll.


Bang! Elimination Award For Henry Block and Backfire

The FAQ says:

  Q05.  Who  is  considered  to  be  responsible  of  the  elimination  of  a  player  with  cards  like Indians! and Gatling?

  A.  Unlike  the  Dynamite,  the  player  who  played  the  Gatling  or  the  Indians!  is  considered  to  be  responsible of the elimination of a player. All special actions due to this elimination apply to him (for example, if he just killed an Outlaw this way, he draws the 3 cards reward).

Based on this, it appears that any time a player's card or ability directly causes the elimination of another player, the player is responsible for the elimination (and draws the outlaw bounty if the eliminated player was an outlaw).  Thus, both Backfire and Henry Block's ability would allow a player to draw three cards if that player eliminates an outlaw using them.


Page 9 of the official rules states that players are allowed to check your nobles to see how many points have been scored.


When the match time is called, does the current turn end immediately?

The active player takes the rest of the turn as usual, then the five-turn count begins. This is based on my own experience, but it is likely that if they wanted to end the turn immediately they would have used a wording that matched the corresponding effect template and said "End the turn".

Overall, it would not really make sense to end that turn like that. It would effectively be introducing a somewhat complex effect into a running game from the outside with no respect for the stack, priority, or turn-based actions. It would create arguments about what the game state is and what spells/abilities/effects have already resolved. Plus it wouldn't do much for timeliness because it would effectively say "The active player immediately stops what they're doing and ends the turn, then both players return to playing at their own pace for another five turns". Finally, the active player already has the disadvantage of getting only two of the five turns; adding this further disadvantage to the same player could unreasonably swing the game.

As some comments have mentioned, the quoted section of the Magic Tournament Rules was added before the concept of "ending the turn" was ever created in the Comprehensive Rules. So, the intention at the time that the tournament rules were written could not have been to end the turn in that way.


The strategies used against Cultist and Marauder, the two offensive Ruins-giving cards, are similar to the strategies used against Curse-givers in other sets. Ruins are not quite as bad as Curses, since the cards have a little bit of utility and don't carry a VP penalty.

That said: Dark Ages has lots of light trashing to help you handle both unwanted Coppers and Shelters, and any Ruins that might come your way. Hermit is a dynamite Ruins-trasher, since you don't actually have to line it up in the same hand and it can give you Silver (or more Hermits) to overcome deck dilution. Junk Dealer cleans your deck up and provides a bit of buying power too. Forager doesn't usually give much buying power, but it's cheap.

A little more obliquely, Procession can give you a benefit and clear out the Ruins as well, although you'll want other targets for it. Death Cart inflicts Ruins on yourself--but $5 is an incredible chunk of change, and you won't lack for targets if your opponents are giving you Ruins as well. If you have lots of junk, Sage can help you wade through the bad stuff to find your Junk Dealers or Altars. Count can clear a lot of junk from your deck at once; put the only good card on top of your deck, then choose the "trash your hand" option. And Catacombs deals with junk by letting you discard it and draw something else.

You brought up Beggar and having two Silvers is pretty great. The gain-three-Coppers option, if you don't get attacked, depends a lot on the deck. It's great for Duchy and alternative-VP rushes (Gardens, of course...); less so if you have Provinces in mind for the endgame.

One last note: Rats looks like an attractive trasher, and it is powerful in that regard, but then you have to get rid of the Rats! I think Rats combines best with trash-for-benefit cards like Apprentice, Bishop, and Salvager, and not so well with most Dark Ages cards.


That depends on how the enchantment is worded.

If the enchantment actually says "Enchanted creature has hexproof", then the enchanted creature will be untargetable by you after the enchantment resolves, but will still be targetable by your opponent. (Note that the creature having hexproof will not cause the enchantment to fall off.) That's because a creature with hexproof cannot be targeted by spells or abilities controlled by anyone other than the creature's controller.

There don't seem to be any such enchantments, but the same applies to equipment such as Mask of Avacyn. (Since you can only equip to creatures you control, this would only be relevant if you had a creature equipped with Mask of Avacyn, and an opponent later took control of this creature.)

If, on the other hand, the enchantment says "Enchanted creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control," then things are a little different. This enchantment appears to do the same thing, except that in this case "your opponent" refers to the opponent of the enchantment's controller. So it actually has the opposite effect, and allows you to target the creature (since you control the enchantment), but not your opponent.

An example of this is Canopy Cover.


Can you play Big Two with multiple decks for more than 4 players?

Yes you can play big 2 with more than one deck.  I would recommend two decks for 6-8 players, three decks with 9+.  (5 player is tougher, two decks is too many, one is maybe not enough, but I would err on the side on playing one deck for five players, unless you want a particularly wild game).

Higher level hands such as 5 of a kind should be allowed.

Regarding tied cards, there are several different rules variants of how to play the game.  Some allow it, some disallow it, and some play that playing a duplicate card causes the next player in line to be 'skipped' and lose their opportunity to play.  Experiment and figure out which way your group prefers.


Do players make rolls with the dice simultaneously or just make a mad dash of individual rolls?

The very first paragraph of the rules answers your question. [Emphasis in original]

  Escape is a real-time board game. Instead of playing the game in rounds, each player rolls his five dice as quickly and as often as he can without waiting for his teammates!

You can see this in this game play video.

[I just picked the first video returned by Google. I haven't reviewed it for quality. I set the start time to a spot where the player on the right rolls dice twice in the time the player on the left rolls the dice once.]


Carcassonne interaction between "The Robbers" and "The Messages"

Official answer, taken from Carcassonne Central. The source is Georg Wild from HiG, via telephone call.

TL;DR; yes, it is possible that the robber might stand still until the end of the game. You haven't missed anything, this is how it's supposed to work.

  Robber and Messages:

  Robber stands near one particular counting figure and robs only its points. In this situation it is possible that robber will stand on the scoreboard till the end of the game, if the player will decide not to move this particular figure.

  Answer: Yes, it is possible that the robber would stand till the end of the game.

  Robber stands near any counting figure and robs any points that this player will receive regardless what figure player will move forward. In this situation robber stands near "virtual" counting figure and receive first available points (of course, according the rules).

  Answer: No, the robber can only rob the points from the counting figure which is on the same space as the robber.

And just to be clear, you can "rob" points from either figure (source):

  Q: When playing with The Messages and The Robber, can a player's
  Robber follow either Messenger?

  A: The Robber can rob points from both scoring figures - from the
  follower and from the Messenger (woman follower). If there are more
  than one scoring figure at the same space as the Robber and multiple
  scoring take place - the Robber can only rob from one scoring figure
  for one scoring.

  Telephone call with HiG - Georg Wild - 03 05 2013

Own thoughts: you might still be inclined to move your "locked" scoring meeple if you score 2-3 points, just to free it. Much of the strategy in the "Messengers" expansion is to keep your two scoring meeples from the dark spaces (multiples of 5) at different distances. I wouldn't mind giving over 1-2 extra points to my opponent for increased flexibility, especially if most of the robber tiles have already been drawn.


Do the draw abilities of Kor Spiritdancer and Mesa Enchantress stack?

You can draw 2 cards. When you cast an Aura spell, then 2 separate triggered abilities will trigger. You choose the order in which to put them on the stack (the order doesn't matter in this case), and then you will have 2 separate instances of "you may draw a card" on the stack, which will resolve one at a time.


When a permanent is being made to copy another, does it count as entering the battlefield?

No, it will not trigger the Goliath since nothing is entering the battlefield, a creature is just changing characteristics.

What you can do, however, is wait for a new creature to enter the battlefield and trigger the Goliath. With the trigger on the stack, you can then Polymorphous Rush the triggering creature, and the Goliath will get counters based on the new power. This is because the Goliath's ability doesn't check to see what the power of the creature is when it enters, it checks as the ability is resolving.


How can I make Agricola vegetarian friendly?

The game already supports this with improvements like Pottery, which converts clay to food. Clearly, the imagined implication isn't that suddenly your family has a fulfilling case of pica — it's that the clay is used to make some good which can be exchanged for food (and that's abstracted away).

Imagine something similar for animals in the game, and there you go. (Of course, you'll still have to part with the animals — let's happily imagine that they are unharmed in that parting.)

Of course, if your friends follow the strain of veganism which holds that all animal agriculture is bad, this won't do, and you'll have to reskin the whole game significantly.


In Arkham Horror, can you pay sanity costs to go insane on purpose?

Yes. Just as there's nothing stopping you from not using your weapons to purposefully fail a combat check against a Nightgaunt to go through a gate, or purposefully failing a sneak check to take combat damage and get sent to the hospital, there's nothing stopping you from casting a spell when there's no chance of you succeeding. The closest thing I can come up with for a reference to your suggested scenario is a question from the Kevin Wilson Answers thread on the Fantasy Flight Games forum:

If one goes insane or unconscious or is devoured as a result of casting a spell or using an item, is it generally the case that the
effect of the spell or item still occurs (in the same way an Elder
Sign's effect takes place even if one of the above happens as a result
of using it)?
Yes. It will often not matter, however, as in the case where you're
getting a combat bonus or something.

So it's definitely allowed that you could cast a spell that drives you insane in the process. So a useful last-sanity draining spell use could be Healing another investigator, or casting Bind Monster, or Greater Banishment, etc. Anything with an immediate effect after making the Casting Check. The only limitation on the spell casting I'd say is that you can't try to cast a spell outside of a situation it would be useful in. i.e. I wouldn't allow casting Shriveling outside of combat just so the Investigator could go insane.


How do you place your initial settlements in Settlers of Catan?

If I'm the first player, I always go for the most powerful settlement, since I have no idea what I'll get when it comes back around to me.

If I'm last, I grab spots that based on the numbers and the available ports will get me an advantage.  I also like to try to place the second settlement on a brick/wood combo so I can start with a road.

The other positions are variations in between the others.

In general, I try very hard for number diversity.  I love it when I can get both a 6 and an 8 placement.  Next in line is at least 3 of the following: 5, 6, 8, 9.

The final thing you have to look out for is that you have somewhere to go.


The closest I’ve found is Batsford.

Batsford uses 2 decks, and has 10 tableau stacks going from 1 to 10. You didn’t mention how many foundation piles; but given 2 deck I would assume 8 foundation piles.

The problem is that Batsford only has the top card facing up in the tableau stacks. Perhaps this is a Batsford variant that alternates the cards face up and face down in the tableau stacks...

Batsford is available online at https://www.classicsolitaire.com/batsford.html.


When turning in a mission, do you have to be on the mission hex to complete a mission, or is anywhere in the system acceptable?

Yes, you must go to the mission point (!) to complete a mission.

Source: http://www.faroffgames.com/images/games/xia-legends-of-a-drift-system/Xia_Rulebook.pdf

Look at the top left section of page 14


Two players would gain control of a creature after it dies — who does?

It depends on whose turn it is.

Both abilities trigger at the same time, and so will be put on the stack together. Abilities are put on the stack in APNAP (Active Player, Non-Active Player) order.* This means that the player whose turn it is puts their ability on the stack, then the other player does. That second player's ability will resolve first, returning the creature to the battlefield. When the other ability tries to resolve, it fails to find the creature in the graveyard and thus can't return it.

Thus whoever's the active player won't end up with the creature. For multiplayer games where there are multiple NAPs they are put on the stack in turn order starting from the AP, so the last player in turn order with such an effect would take precedence.

* From the rules on Triggered Abilities:

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. [...]

This works with any number of players, starting with the active player and passing around in turn order. In this case, the player furthest away from taking their turn (the last player to put their ability on the stack) would get the creature.


Can one draw their commander to the command zone, and would that be a draw?

Yes, you can replace drawing your commander by moving it to the command zone instead.

J. Sallé's answer already covers all the details about why drawing counts as putting the card into your hand from anywhere, which is what 903.9 lets you replace.

The answer hinges on the question of whether or not you can know that a card is your commander even when it is in a hidden zone. I found a post from the EDH Rules Committee saying that yes, it does:

  Been following this one with some interest to see what people thought. Here's my thinking in writing the rule, and the outcome of discussing it with some of the MTG rules gurus (who don't set the rules for EDH per se, but do realize what does/doesn't work within the rules).

  Generalness was explicitly made a property and not a characteristic because, among other things, characteristics can be copied and overwritten by effects and we don't want Generalness being either copied or overwritten.

  paperwarrior's point about properties not being defined in the CR is correct. Technically, the closest term to what we want is 'status'... which is things like tapped, flipped,or facedown. Most players however, especially casual players like much of the EDH playerbase, aren't familiar with the magic definition of status... so using that term wouldn't be productive. That's the model we use for Generalness... similar to statuses it's a feature of the cardboard itself. Status flags can only be changed/copied explicitly by effects (so a copy of a tapped creature doesn't become tapped as a result), and statuses can be preserved across zone changes if the rules say so (which they do in the case of Generalness).

  So, what are the outcomes of this model? For the most part they're what we want but the various rules gurus all agreed that the result in the "face down exile" case is unique. Long story short, the location of a General is known to all players at any time no matter which zone it's in, or whether it's face down/face up. That includes being in the library or face-down from something like Tuck+Grimoire Thief, and it means a player has the option to Command-zone their General instead of it being exiled face down.

  This behavior dovetails, as mentioned, with the common approach of putting a general in a unique sleeve. And while it's unique for a card's position to remain known across SBA checks, there are some related precedents in the CR where a card's location remains known in the library during the resolution of a spell (extremely arcane precedent)

  So what changes does this mandate for players? Not many... it only comes up in corner case scenarios. The only trick is shuffling. Shuffling is considered an atomic action in magic... it's indivisible and the player is not aware (technically) of any intermediate states. The deck goes from unshuffled, to shuffled, and the position of every card is randomized. So knowledge of the General's starting position shouldn't have any impact on the shuffling process. To implement that, a player shuffling his or her General into a deck in a different sleeve should take some steps to make sure he/she doesn't know where the General is going to end up. The easiest way to do so is usually a "blind cut" or two.

  (If the General is in an identical sleeve, there are other minor steps players can take to make sure it doesn't get "lost in exile")

  So, long story short:

  Generalness is more like a status than a characteristic, however we just call it a 'property' to match player intuition.
  The location and identity of a General is known to all players at all times, no matter what its status/effects/location.
  It's only relevant in corner cases, but this is the implementation which causes the least rules headaches.

This is a ruling outside of the Comprehensive Rules; but Commander was designed from the beginning to be a more casual format; where the rules were originally created outside of the Comprehensive Rules, and only added in there later.

I believe that this rule also can logically follow from CR 903.10a:

  903.10a A player that’s been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses the game. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

In order to know if you have been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander, you have to know if a given object is a commander or not. The rules don't mention anything about a player having to reveal a card to prove that it is a Commander, rather you simply lose the game when dealt 21 combat damage.

So if you do not allow for it to be always known which card is the Commander, you could have a situation where a player has lost the game, but no one knows that that player has lost the game. 707.5 allows me to look at my own facedown permanent, but it doesn't require me to, and it doesn't allow other players to do so.


Yes, and the limit may surprise you: it's 60 cards, which is exactly the minimum number of cards in a deck.

Why is this so? It's very simple: some cards are more powerful than others, but (with a few exceptions such as Relentless Rats) you can only include a limited number of copies of them in your deck. Generally speaking, you want to maximize the chance you draw your most powerful card(s), and apart from including as many copies as possible (four), the only other thing you can do about this is including as few other cards as possible. That means running 60 cards, and not a single one more.

Of course, this is a general rule, and there are some exceptions (e.g. if you build a deck around Battle of Wits you'll want somewhat more than 200 cards, but not too much more) but they are few and far between. In Limited tournaments (e.g. booster drafts) the minimum deck size is 40 cards, but again the ideal deck size is equal to the minimum size, 40.


Maecenas and Rome (B): are the extra Leaders also free?

The recruitment phase is specifically at the beginning of an age before players have received cards.  I would agree that Maecenas would only get the bonus during this phase and not if leader is put in play by any other means.


How are new conventions established in Contract Bridge?

Subject to certain constraints set by the governing authority (the A.C.B.L. in North America) mostly to restrict agreements intended primarily to interfere with opponents bidding, a bridge pair is allowed to make any agreement about the meaning of calls (including bids as well as passes, doubles and redoubles) and cards played as long as they present their system (in written form) to their opponents. During the bidding and play, whoever's turn it is can ask the one opponent what the other opponent meant with a bid or a card played. During the bidding, players must alert or announce certain of their partners calls if it has an (unusual) conventional meaning.

If a certain call is used between partners as having a certain meaning, the pair can be penalised if that call is not in their system description and/or not alerted / properly explained.

Note that all information exchanged between partners MUST be conveyed using the calls and the cards played (in the proper way). The cheats as recently discovered in top Bridge are usually using a different method: coughs, a certain positioning of the bidding cards, etc...

Here is an example of the form provided in North America by the A.C.B.L. for summarizing system agreements:

In extended team play the accompanying system notes for a long-established pair such as Eric Rodwell & Jeff Meckstroth can run to several hundred pages.


Anastasia "Dee" Dualla Once-Per-Game Ability Timing

The official sequence of events for resolving a Skill Check:

Read Card
Play Two Cards from Destiny Deck
Play Skills
Shuffle and Divide Cards
Total Strength
Determine Result

I've generally interpreted the "before making a skill check" phrase to mean the time between steps 1 and 3 (when the Destiny Deck cards come out usually isn't important). So things like Investigative Committee, Reckless and Dee's ability should ideally be used during this time. However, things sometimes happen a little fast and people start throwing in cards before someone has a chance to announce an action. We're usually pretty lenient and let people do things after step 3 starts if it doesn't seem like they're gaming.

I don't think there's any specific sequence between Investigative Committee, Reckless, Dee's ability, and the like. I think they could happen in any order. Generally we play it kind of loose and the first person to act goes first; normally it doesn't matter. Ideally, everyone that has something to do should indicate that they do. According to the rules, it's up to the currently player to decide the order.


You might want to contact Mayfair Games -- doing a Google search turned up quite a few people with warped hex tiles as well, and the consensus was to contact Mayfair.

If that's a dead end, you can try flattening them with a heavy object, or glue them to some thicker cardstock.


P1 controls A: 4/4 attacker
P2 controls B: 1/1 blocker

Since Test of Faith has been cast and has resolved (probably during the declare blockers step, after declaring your blocker), it is not on the stack. When it resolves it creates a prevention shield that floats around, waiting for damage to prevent or the end of the turn to expire.

The declare attackers and blockers steps finish and the combat damage step begins:

P1 announces how attacking creatures assign damage (in this case, the only option is 4 damage from A to B).
P2 announces how blocking creatures assign damage (in this case, the only option is 1 damage from B to A).
Combat damage is dealt simultaneously as originally assigned, so your creature will only ever deal 1 damage in this combat even if its power changes now.
Creature A takes 1 damage; creature B would take 4, but the Test of Faith shields change that: 3 damage is prevented, and 3 (permanent) +1/+1 counters are put on Creature B and it takes 1 damage.
Even if the 4th point of damage lands before the counters are put down, neither player gains priority and so state-based effects (such as a creature dying) are not checked before the counters are placed. For more on this point, see thesunneversets' answer below.
Both creatures are 4/4 and have taken 1 damage this turn.

The combat damage step ends and the end of combat step begins.

Result: neither creature dies; neither of you were correct!

See: http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Combat_Phase


The damage is still prevented.

The scenario you describe seems to be one in which your opponent controls Reaper of the Wilds and you control either Circle of Protection: Green or Rune of Protection: Green. The rule describing Hexproof, 702.11b, says

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

The key word here is "target". Hexproof only prevents spells and abilities from targeting the creature, not from affecting them in general. Targets are described in rule 114, and rule 114.1d says

  An activated ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an object, player, or zone. The target(s) are chosen as the ability is activated; see rule 602.2b.

Now, if we look at the damage prevention cards, we see that Circle of Protection: Green says

  {1}: The next time a green source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage.

and Rune of Protection: Green says

  {W}: The next time a green source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage.

Neither of those uses the word "target", so neither of them targets the source they are affecting. This means that Reaper of the Wilds' Hexproof does not stop them from preventing the damage.


Getting your own made, could work.

You would likely need a high quality image.

The other potential issue would be the legality of it, but if they/you already own the map it could be legal in the UK and the EU (I am not a lawyer, and cannot give advice on this issue and, besides, I don't know which country's laws are most relevant to you).


No, you don't lose them. Copying merely causes the object to acquire new characteristics, and changing an object's characteristics doesn't cause it to lose counters.

There are only three instances when counters are removed from objects by the rules, and none of them are relevant to the current situation.

Dealing damage to a Planeswalker removes loyalty counters.
State-based actions cancel out +1/+1 and -1/-1 counter pairs by removing them.
State-based actions remove extra counters when a permanent has a limit to how many of a given kind of counters it can have.

That's it. Counters are never removed from objects except in those circumstances, to pay for costs (e.g. for Planeswalkers loyalty abilities), or by abilities that instruct you to move or remove them[1].

Under normal circumstances, a counter are never removed from the object on which it is paced; it stays on the object until the object ceases to exist (at which point they cease to exist too).

  121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.

This includes three keyword abilities that remove counters:

Fading (fade counter)
Suspend (time counter)
Vanishing (time counter)


Can my opponent chain an on-summon trigger effect to my on-summon trigger effect?

You are allowed to activate cards like torrential tribute, as you mention in your own quote:

  During the Summon response window, due to Fast Effect Timing, first
  the turn player must activate any compulsory effects that they
  triggered, such as "Summoning Curse" and "Summoner Monk", then their
  opponent must do the same. Then, the turn player has the opportunity
  to activate optional effects like "Torrential Tribute" and "Armageddon
  Knight"; if the turn player passes, then the opponent also has the
  opportunity to activate these effects. If at any point either player
  starts a Chain, standard Chain rules are followed.

The reason is that, even if another card is activated in response to the summon, that whole chain is treated as reacting to that summon.

Torrential tribute can however miss the timing, as DarkCygnus mentioned. However, this has to do with how the summon happened, and not with the cards that were activated in reaction to the summon afterwards.
Ultimate offering is indeed a good example of this, here chain link 1 resolving would be the last thing to happen.

Another example as given by Konami:

  Starlight Road: If you Chain “Starlight Road” to “Heavy Storm” while
  you control 2 or more Spell or Trap Cards and Special Summon “Stardust
  Dragon” you cannot activate “Torrential Tribute” afterwards. Even
  though the effect of “Heavy Storm” is negated, the activation was not,
  so the card will still resolve without effect and you will miss the
  timing to activate “Torrential Tribute.”

An example of Torrential tribute being chained to another effect after a summon. (it is listed under the older rulings from the UDE era, but those remain valid until overridden):

  "Torrential Tribute" can be activated after a Flip Summon, but it does
  not negate the Flip Effect (it is chained to the Flip Effect).


What are the other games in this series?

Apparently they were made by Tormont Publishing out of Canada in the early 90s, and they made them with all kinds of themes.

I have been able to find a reference to a disny version, 'game' version and others. Sadly there is no real documentation for any of it, not even a wiki. This is a partial list of books that Tormont published. You can see a bunch of the game books in there.

Board game geek has an entry for the 'game' book and a science fiction version which was apparently made in the late 90s.

Here is an add for a Disney-themed one on Amazon.

It seems they licensed all kinds of material but they must not have been that popular because they do not seem to have survived. There are very few pictures of them out there and copies, when available, range between $40 - $100.

I guess you will have to pick something else to wax nostalgic about.


Does State Parlor give bonus for dwellings added after the fact?

In the revised English language appendix (page A5), it states (all bold and italics in the original)

  When building the State parlor, immediately (and only once) get 2 Food from the general supply for each Dwelling that is (horizontally or vertically) adjacent to the State parlor.

This unambiguously indicates that later dwellings do not provide a further 2 Food bonus. The same language is used for the milking and weaving parlors.


Anytime a PDS scores a hit, regardless if it's an upgraded or regular PDS, the active player decides which ships should be destroyed. The active player being the person moving their ships. This could be a fighter unit if they have them. All ship units are "units" in terms of space combat, cannon or ship to ship.

The rules for this game is pretty comprehensive. For more information regarding PDS please read over the Twilight Imperium 4 Wikipedia - Space Cannons. Additionally, you may view page 22 of the reference guide, subsection 66.2 labelled Space Cannon Offense.


Is there an order in which the leaders effect applies?

None of the rulebooks specify an order to scoring the cards at the end of the game (leaders or otherwise), so it looks like Alice can apply them in whatever order she chooses.


Do rules revert to 4 player rules midgame if someone gets eliminated?

No, nothing changes. The TI3 FAQ puts it fairly straightforwardly on the left hand side of page 2:

  Elimination

  A player who controls no planets and has no units on the board
  is eliminated from the game. He cannot play Action Cards or
  choose Strategy Cards. After a player has been eliminated, the
  other players continue the game normally, with no changes
  to the number of Strategy Cards taken, etc. When a player is
  eliminated, all his Action Cards are discarded and all of his
  race's Trade Agreements are removed from the game.

Once a player's eliminated, everyone plays by the same rules as they have been the whole game. You don't revert to rules for the current lower number of players.


Where can I find a list of all the cards in Elder Sign?

Someone over on boardgame geek added a list of all cards for all expansions since I originally asked the question and did my search.


Must you have an uncompleted destination card in Ticket to Ride?

Drawing Destination cards later in the game is optional - the only time you have to draw Destination cards is at the start of the game.

If you finish all of yours early enough then it may be worth drawing more, but if you finish them later in the game it would be unproductive to draw more, and your efforts are better spent trying to block other players.

Since Destination cards are always kept secret from other players until scoring, any rule that did say you had to have incomplete Destination cards would be based entirely on trust.


Definitions of verbalisations in card games, specifically UNO and DOS

It doesn't say in the rules and since both words ("UNO" & "DOS") are so short it really shouldn't be an issue...

http://www.mattelgames.com/sites/mattel_games/files/2018-03/FRM36-0970-G2_IS_web.pdf

But, I would say that it's quite clear that as soon as someone starts to say the word, no one else is allowed to also say it - but faster.

You could compare it to the first person to press a button or the first person to shout their name in a game show.
The first person to press the button gets to answer - Not the first person to press and also release the button...
The first person to start saying their name gets to answer - Otherwise the person with a short name would always be favoured over the one with a long name...


How To Mitigate The Random Factor In Agricola?

It sounds like it's not the randomness of the action spaces that bothers you, but the unknown factor. If you're playing in person and others share your opinion, I'd suggest revealing the cards after they're shuffled and just use something else to track what round you're on. You'd have to keep an eye on upkeep to make sure you're not letting things accumulate too early, but that seems like it would address all the concerns you brought up.

If you want to play with the rules as written, you really can't assume that something will come up in any particular spot. For the first Family Growth, what you're describing is exactly the dilemma; if you invest early actions in the hopes of growing your family in Round 5, you have no way of knowing if that will pay off or not, and that's not something that will change with experience. You just need to factor your decision to build early (or not) with the possibility that it will not work out for you. I don't think there's anything you can do about that. For the second family growth, if it's that important to your strategy to get that first, I would say plan on being the start player in both Round 12 and Round 13, probably holding back some Minor Improvements so that it's not a total "waste" of the first move in Round 12 if the Family Growth action isn't the one that comes up.

In general, I think your question is looking at Family Growth in a vacuum, which seems to run contrary to the idea of Agricola. The best path to victory (generally) is diversity, and I realize that Family Growth is instrumental to that since it gives you precious additional actions, but regardless of what you're trying to do, relying on a specific space to be there exactly when you need it is risky. Competent opponents will often block you if possible (since there are few actions that would be detrimental, only slightly less attractive in a vacuum that would be pushed over if it both benefits them and hurts you), and if you spend too much time trying to manipulate turn order, you won't do well. Agricola is also not Chess; the random bits mean that there's not really an "if X, do Y" truism that will be a silver bullet winning strategy.

The way the question is worded makes it sound almost like you consider Agricola to be a zero-sum game, but it's not - it's more along the lines of a Nash equilibrium, even when played two player. I guess my answer to your question would be to "always have a plan B", or maybe plans 1-n where n=the number of players. If you have multiple viable options at all times, you can't be blocked easily (I've never seen the entire table collectively decide to leader-bash in Agricola, and I play with a cutthroat group of people). Ways to do this will vary considerably with the cards you get, the cards your opponents get, and what their biases are (e.g., I've played games where the 3 Wood space was taken literally every Round because most of the table thought they needed to have a 5 room house and use all of their wooden bits - as you may imagine, that took a big strategy adjustment). If you're looking to master Agricola, I think the best thing to do would be to understand how ROI works with scoring in the different categories and watch what everyone else is likely to go for. This extremely long analysis might be a good place to start in terms of Agricola's in-game economy.


Why don’t you capture more territory in Go?

Suppose there is a black stone in the corner but it is impossible for black to survive, no matter how well played.
By convention, both sides recognize this and the black stone is counted as a prisoner.
If either side doesn't accept the convention, both sides will alternately play until the situation is resolved (in favour of white).
At that point, black and white will have played the same number of stones each.
White loses a point for each one it played (loss of territory), and white gains a point for each one that black played (taken as prisoner).
There is no net change in the score as compared with accepting the initial situation and neither side playing any more.

Note that the above is based on territory scoring rules, where points are given only for unoccupied territory (and prisoners).
Under area rules the non-prisoner stones on the board are also counted as part of the territory, so any stones played by white into its own territory would not cost white anything.


What knowledge do players get when Hangman is sent to another game using Side Quest?

This is silver-bordered land, so of course there is no "real" rule to cover this. As such, this is my interpretation of the interaction.
Hangman keeps all of the "state" of its mini-game, and Hangman's new Side Quest controller becomes the mini-game's gamemaster for the duration of the Side Quest. So Hangman would keep its originally-chosen word, Hangman would keep its +1/+1 counters, and all players in the Side Quest game would have access to which letters had already been guessed and what the "progress" of the mini-game is.
My justification for this answer is that I would expect a generic 1/1 creature with a +1/+1 counter on it to keep its counter when going on a Side Quest, and I would expect a creature that had gained e.g. First Strike to retain that ability when going on a Side Quest. In other words, I think that Side Quest keeps the creature in its current state.
From Mark Rosewater's tumblr:

magicwizardmageman asked: What happens if you augment a creature on a side quest?
It stays with the creature and returns to the original game. Same for an aura. If either of the games end, the Augment/aura goes to its owner’s graveyard.

This sounds like "official" justification that you try to keep the Side Quest creature as "current" as possible while moving it between games.


Choosing early round paintings to auction in Modern Art

There are no hard and fast rules about Modern Art, as so much depends on the mentality of the fellow players.  However, general rules of psychology, bidding games, and trading can help.

To start with consider these things:

1) The threat of being out-bid is more powerful than outbidding someone.  This means you always want to have more money than your fellow players.  Too often newer players will buy up paintings that will score early, then allow the remaining players to get the same artists at lower prices (since they're out of money).  Try playing with losing every auction first round, to see how it feels to be really rich.  With this strategy, you'll want to end round one as quickly as possible.

2) Don't overpay.  It sounds simple, but there's an opportunity cost (to buy something else) whenever you buy something.  Here's some math to estimate prices.  In an optimal game, every round consists of 3 artists only in proportions of 5/4/4 (=13) with an aggregate 'price' of 5*30 + 4*20 + 4*10 = 270 / 13 = ~20.  This means all things equal, don't pay more than 20 for a card, first round.

3) Keep track of # of remaining artist cards!  This is a game of psychology.  It's important to know what your opponents are likely to have in the their hand.  Likewise, keep track of your opponent's play styles over rounds or multiple games.

4) Tips on auctions:

In Free Auctions, psychology tells us that players tend to overbid.  This is due to 'loss aversion' and the mistaken belief that you're denying an opponent something he wants.  Try to bid up your opponent, if you have the guts, to make him outbid you and pay too much.
In one-round auctions, you have the advantage as the auctioneer if and only if you have a big pile of cash (see #1 above).  If the last player bids too high, let him have it, else take it for yourself.
In secret auctions, players are trying to read each other, and tend to overbid because they think that adding 'just a few extra' will win them the auction.  Try lowballing these auctions just in case someone gives up with nothing (bidding nothing is a terrible idea)
The fixed price auction is your best opportunity to play strategically.  Only play one of these when you know an opponent will overpay.  No one will let you buy it too low, so never offer these under-value (unless you have ALL the money).
The dual auctions are wonderful ways to grab art.  Try using it only late in the round with the one-round auction.  If you have a pile of cash no doubt this is an opportunity to get a lot cheap, or get a pile of money for next round.

To answer your specific bullet points:

As for which artist to play, you want to 'team-up' with a specific other player.  A win for you and one other player means a relative gain against two other players (assuming a 4 player game).  Concurrently, this means that you play cards already in play and hoard artists that haven't been seen yet (they will later).
The artist tie-break is game balance, but doesn't quite fully balance things.  The artists with the more cards are therefore slightly more valuable.
Play most auctions to well-below value, and play the one-rounds to win as auctioneer.
Doubles are more powerful later in the rounds, but only if you have a cash advantage.
4 rounds * 3 winners per round / 5 artists = 2.4   So, each artist, on average places 2-3 times a game.  That's quite significant.  Keep track of the artist and place: if the 12-card artist places first, forget about him scoring the rest of the game, but if the 16-card artist places 2nd or 3rd, that's a good bet to try to win in subsequent rounds.

Hope that helps!


I see no mention of any exception, and the wording doesn't specify the option such as by saying "you may move a survivor etc", so it sounds like the answer to your question is no, you may not opt to play it without moving.


Can Link monsters be switched to defense?

From the Official Ruling, page 15, first paragraph:

  Link Monsters have no DEF and cannot ever be in Defense Position.
  They can’t be changed to Defense Position by a card effect. They
  can’t even be flipped into face-down Defense Position.

We can see that Link monsters can't ever be in Defense position, not face-up or face-down. This also excludes changes from card effects like Book of Moon.

More info on this answer and question.


Is it possible to use a creature with a surge ability as my commander?

Yes

Surge does not care about where your card is when you cast it, so it also works in command zone.

You still need to apply commander tax to the cost afterwards

  a creature such as Tyrant of Valakut?

No

I believe your commander should be a legendary creature, which Tyrant of Valakut is not.


Yes. You draw the card, put it into your hand, and then discard any card from your hand (which may be the card you just drew).


Dropping from a sanctioned event mid-draft

Players who drop during limited events own the cards that they correctly have in their possession at that time. This includes any unopened or partially drafted boosters.

Like the rule says, if you drop, you keep any unopened or partially drafted boosters. Even if you pack two mythic rares.

If the rule is not convincing enough, here is a Level 2 judge's interpretation of it:

  At any time, you can take the pack in your hand, any cards you have drafted, and any unopened packs you have yet to open and drop from the draft. There will be no repercussions from Wizards for doing this. We don't try to replace any of those cards, the table will just continue drafting with one less player.

Another L2 judge by the name of Nathan Long wrote an in depth article on the subject. It agrees with everything stated above. On this Reddit thread, Toby Elliot chimes in on the subject. Toby is in charge of tournament policy, and he is also a L5 judge.

While it is totally within the rules to grab your pack and drop, the tournament organizer is not obligated to accept your money in the future. My local tournament organizer warns players that they may be banned from participating in future tournaments for dropping repeatedly. The threat is not empty; they actually follow through on some occasions. Talk to the tournament organizer before dropping.


Is having the Mask Omen Card stolen from you have the same effect as taking it off?

While it's true it doesn't cover the "stolen" scenario in the text on the card unlike other item omen cards like The Holy Symbol. And it's not in the Errata. There are others like me who believe that if it's removed for any reason (theft included) then it's the same as taking it off.


I see three kind of games:

1. Just for fun games

In these games, there is no point in winning, just having fun is enough. What comes in mind is Aye, Dark Overlord!, where the goal is to explain to your Overlord, as a minion, why you totally screw up the very important mission he just gave you. It's basically a speaking-only game and there is absolutely no harm in seeing her cards and telling her what she's got in hands. Plus, the players only have 3 cards in hand, which means she basically have 3 names to remember.

2. Non-hidden games Need a better name

In these games, everything is public, no one has anything to hide. It's most of the time only strategy. In these, it's easy to ask what color is a piece without revealing your strategy. She can play most of them as long as you are willing to sacrifice your game by marking the pieces (each color with a different material). I'd say Quarto! fits the description, simply mark the dark pieces with Play Doh, for example.

3. Co-op games

In those, a strategy can be discussed and the other players can tell her "your idea is good, but there is a detail you obviously can see". I recommand Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, in which the players read a kind of gamebook, each chapter being a bit of investigation. She can simply let someone else read when she's supposed to and still decide what is to do with the clues you've just collected.

NOTE

As a colorblind person myself, I do something with my games: each time there are colors that are hard to see for me, I ask someone to mark all the cards, pieces or tiles of one color with a marker. It doesn't bother the other players but helps me differenciate the colors. It can be possible to do the same with little holes (in braille?) or any other kind of marking. But this marking might be permanent.


Are professional ranks representative for how many stones of handicap players can give each other?

Historically, pro ranks were an indicator of playing strength. It was said that 3 (later: 4) ranks are about a stone difference. To my knowledge, there never was a time when 1 rank difference actually meant 1 stone.

In the 20th century, there was a sudden and increasing change in the strength of new pros. This is generally considered to be a consequence of intensified training in insei schools as well as the advent of the internet and the worldwide communication it enabled.

For instance, earlier, Go schools occasionally developed secret moves - new moves that would stump many opponents who were not familiar with it. Nowadays, such a move would be known by millions right after it is played, and days later, everyone would have studied it already. Modern insei schools make use of this and always present their students with the most up-to-date material and worldwide research, making sure their students are fully aware of the current moves in Go.

Also, there is incredibly fierce competition among the insei. Only a handful of new pros is selected each year, and even the slightest mistake will ruin your chance to become pro. Therefore, everyone is working extremely hard.

This leads to new pros being able to compete on par with previous pros. They already possess the same knowledge as their seniors, and thanks to their young age get less easily exhausted from long, intense games, they are sometimes even said to be stronger than older pros.

In fact, to be successful as a professional Go player, you have to become pro early (around the age 15) and win titles while you still have a slight edge over the competition. In just 10, or 15 max, years, you'll be overwhelmed by the next generation. Very few pros could stay at the top for an extended period of time, one of the most notable being Go Seigen, who dominated the Go world for 30 years. But apart from exceptions like him, modern pros, even huge talents like Lee Sedol, are falling behind very quickly.

This means that rank is basically meaningless. A new 1p may well as strong be as an older 9d. Or the other way around. I asked several pros about this and the reply was always the same: Rank is no longer a useful measurement of playing strength. Personally, I call it an 'experience indicator', but even that is not completely correct.

To compare pros, you need to look at their results in games over time. There are various lists that attempt precisely that, and those lists are a lot more useful than the rank given. Since young pros who do very well get promoted quickly they ensure that the top spots in those lists tend to be occupied by 9 dans, still.

Interestingly, high dan promotions in China and Korea are linked to great performance in title tournaments - both for amateurs and professionals. For instance, a Chinese 6 dan (amateur) is a 5 dan who won a regional tournament. A Chinese 8 dan (amateur) is the current champion of all China (meaning there is only one of them at any time), former champions are 7 dan (*). In a similar fashion, winning an international tournament yields an immediate promotion from 1p to 8p in Korea, while regularly, advancing the ranks is a lot slower. (I'm not 100% up-to-date on details of this topic though.)

Seen this way, ranks of new pros can be seen as a measurement for achievements. Being awarded 9p is indication of outstanding accomplishments. A rank of 1p should not be seen as failure, especially with young pros it simply means their accomplishments will be for later.

Edited to add in 2014:

At times there is a promotion for professionals that specifically promote Go in the West. This is meant to compensate for their lack of tournament experience that is implied by their increased teaching. Since pro rank is an important factor in payment (when teaching), this is an important help for pros working in the West. I am specifically aware of a Korean promotion of Korean professionals from 8p to 9p or from 1p-7p to 8p.

(*) This information about Chinese 6d-8d amateur players appears to be incorrect. I've received multiple explanations as to what the current state actually is, and they all differed, so I'm at a loss here.


No, putting counters on Armageddon Clock with Energy Chamber will not allow you to deal damage with Armageddon Clock.

Energy Chamber's ability places "Charge Counters" onto Artifacts, whereas Armageddon Clock's ability instructs you to deal damage equal to the number of "Doom Counters" on it. While you can combine counters with the same name, counters of different names are not interchangeable.

  121.1. A counter is a marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics and/or interacts with a rule, ability, or effect. Counters are not objects and have no characteristics. Notably, a counter is not a token, and a token is not a counter. Counters with the same name or description are interchangeable.


From the rulebook, page 21, emphasis mine:

  You may not draw more than five tiles. Choose one of the tiles and place it face down on your Reputation Track. Put the rest of the tiles back in the bag. If the track is full, you may return any of your Reputation Tiles (including the one you just drew or one from the track) in the bag. The tiles are drawn in the order the players entered the hex, so that the player who first entered the hex will draw all his tiles first.

So you can put the 1 back in the bag if your reputation track is full to free a space to place the 4.


My first published game has a map of seven hexagonal tiles, so I have some experience with this.

If you must have hex tiles (e.g. a case where the board layout is user-generated as in the 4x game E C L I P S E, not fixed as in Catan or as in my game), then I would buy a bunch of blank tiles from The Game Crafter or Amazon. Our earliest prototypes used something similar (though made of a thicker composite material).
With tiles in hand, just print square icons and tape them to the tiles. For that matter, you could just write freehand on the tiles.

If you can get away with a using a pre-determined grid layout, then that will be much less expensive. Just print an appropriate hex grid, and use square or circular tokens to randomly distribute the hexes on the board. We used this in later prototypes, and eventually in the published version of my game.

In any case, I would strongly advise against cutting out a lot of hexagons. It's unwieldy! Make some icons and send the files to The Game Crafter or to Print and Play Productions. They are much better at cutting :)


Roll dice to see who goes first in Monopoly

All the official rules say is " Starting with the Banker, each player in turn throws the dice.The player with the highest total starts the play: "

However I have never seen a system for determining who goes first where if the top place is a tie all players re-roll, only the players that actually tie re-roll.


Can I use the Shining Trapezohedron against Epic Monsters to attempt to move them?

The exact text on the card is:

  Action: Choose 1 Monster on any space and role 1 die. On a 5 or 6, discard that Monster. On a 1-4, move that Monster to your space.

From the reference guide (page 6):

  Epic Monsters are treated like Monsters for all effects except as described here:

  An Epic Monster cannot be defeated by any effect except losing Health equal to or greater than it's toughness.
  An Epic Monster cannot be discarded.
  An Epic Monster cannot be moved, except by an effect on its
  token or the component that spawned it.
  Epic Monsters are never placed in the Monster cup.
  When an Epic Monster is defeated, it is returned to the game box.
  “Monster” refers to a Monster and/or an Epic Monsters. “Non-Epic Monster” refers to a Monster but not an Epic Monster.

So no, the Shining Trapezohedron can not move the Epic Monster


What happens to Auras and/or Counters on a creature that is targeted by a Cloudshift?

If an object changes zones, counters and auras on it fall off.
A creature is a permanent, and a permanent is an object:

110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. [..]
109.1. An object is an ability on the stack, a card, a copy of a card, a token, a spell, a permanent, or an emblem.

When an object changes zones, it becomes a new object:

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.

Auras fall off the next time state-based actions are checked:

303.4c If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player as defined by its enchant ability and other applicable effects, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was attached to has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

Counters cease to exist:

121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.


What happens in Hive if you cannot lay a piece?

The rules say you can't move any pieces until you've played the queen. I don't know, it may still be possible to have no legal moves, but the scenario you gave isn't legal.


Does killing a face-down morph trigger the death triggers printed on the card?

Ashcloud Phoenix's ability does not trigger, and it stays in the graveyard.

Rule 603.6d says

  Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities... will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to "look back in time" to determine if these abilities trigger.

Since the phoenix did not have the ability before it was destroyed, the ability does not trigger.


How does the Prestige Leader mechanic work?

The instructions in the rules are pretty clear if you read them and follow them directly. If it helps, it pretty much boils down to:

if there's a single prestige leader, and they gained prestige last turn as they became prestige leader or afterwards, they get 1VP and 1 card
if there's a single prestige leader, but they only gained prestige on earlier turns, they get 1VP
if there's a tie for prestige leader, all tied players get 1VP

In practice, the condition for getting 1VP and 1 card (the first bullet point) is pretty much always equivalent to whether the sole prestige leader gained prestige on the previous turn. The only time it's not is if, say, they became prestige leader during Develop, they lost it/became tied during Settle, and they became sole leader again during Consume; that's of course quite rare.

In order to remind yourself of all this, you pass around the prestige leader token. Whenever there's a single leader, they get that token, and they put any prestige they gain on it as a reminder that next turn they'll get 1VP and 1 card. When they get that bonus, they take their prestige back as a reminder that next turn they'll just get the 1VP. When there's a tie, you flip it over to the tie side, and the former leader takes back their prestige, as a reminder that it'll just be the 1VP bonus next turn.

And... the point of this is to provide small ongoing rewards for prestige! In some cases, it's even enough to make prestige a good overall plan for your game.


How can I get the trait clips in Betrayal at House on the Hill to stay on?

This is a common complaint. The sliders are just too big. Solutions that have worked for others include:

Using an alternative print-out, with washers for tracking
Wrapping each side of the character card with sticky tape, for thickness
Laminating the cards
Applying some PVA glue inside the sliders, and letting it dry before use


Is there a card that makes an enemy play my spell?

Hive Mind is definitely the simplest. Apart from that, there are other ways but they're a lot more convoluted. Things like:

Put your One with Nothing on an Isochron Scepter. Donate the scepter, then Mindslaver your opponent and make them cast it.
Put One with Nothing on top of your library (perhaps with Brainstorm or Insidious Dreams), then cast Knowledge Pool. Then use Mindslaver and have them cast any spell, and choose to turn it into One with Nothing.

There are a couple of other ways that are just as complicated.


Fate Reforged Booster Pack contains a Khans of Tarkir Fetch Land

Yes, Fate Reforged packs may contain KTK Fetchlands.

More information at: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/fetching-look-fate-reforged-2014-12-24


Is there a site to play Go online against a computer, in 2018?

The accepted answer in your linked question is still valid: ELF (the Facebook go bot, account name "ELF") or variants of LeelaZero play on the Kiseido Go Server (usually bots have "LeelaZero" or "LZ" in their names). You can find a list of these bots in the room "Computer Go" (Menu "Rooms" > Room List > Social > Computer Go)


Can Dawnguard Scyir get 4 damage dice on a charge?

With the proviso that I'm not personally a player of Warmachine, I found this link to the Privateer Press forums where the truly knowledgeable people hang out:

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?19636-Dawnguard-Scyir

Quite close to the top of this thread, a chap who seems to know what he's doing says:

  Now the Scyir isn't a weapon master
  but has flank, so in order to get the
  three dice on damage (4 if you charge)
  you need to have a jack be in melee
  range. So the jack has to get in melee
  before the Scyir activates. But if the
  Jack activates before the Scyir it's
  drive is useless as it will not need
  to re-roll nothing.

I think that "three dice on damage (4 if you charge)" answers your question - a charging flank attack does indeed deal 4 dice damage!

As far as I can make out, multiple instances of flank don't stack, but there's no problem getting a bonus both from flanking and charging...


Carcassonne fairy - scoring with a fairy for multiple areas and at the end

As per the rules:

  When a feature (city, road, cloister, or farm) with the fairy is scored, the player whose follower stands on the tile with the fairy scores 3 points for standing there, and may score for the feature as normal. When scored, the follower returns to its owner, but the fairy remains.

Make special note of "When scored, the follower returns to its owner, but the fairy remains."
This means that you can only get the 3 bonus points by scoring something which will remove your follower from the tile. This can lead to multiple bonuses. The fairy is placed at the time you would place a follower, which comes before scoring (this should answer number 2).

As for the monastery, once again the rules state that you should return your meeple, and I don't see that happening with the monastery being finished (unless another feature is finished along the way).


Does "each creature" include all creatures on the battlefield?

Barring multiplayer range of influence rules (see comprehensive rule section 801), each creature means that each (therefore, every) creature on the battlefield will be dealt damage.

If you're interested in the nitty-gritty comprehensive rules which spell this out, this is a consequence of comprehensive rule:

  609.2. Effects apply only to permanents unless the instruction's text states otherwise or they clearly can apply only to objects in one or more other zones.
  Example: An effect that changes all lands into creatures won't alter land cards in players' graveyards. But an effect that says spells cost more to cast will apply only to spells on the stack, since a spell is always on the stack while a player is casting it.

Knowing:

  110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a permanent as it's moved to another zone by an effect or rule.

Also remember:

  119.1a Damage can't be dealt to an object that's neither a creature nor a planeswalker.

A particularly tricky opponent could Ghostly Flicker their Blinkmoth Nexus in response to your Pyroclasm and save it. When the 'Flicker resolves, the Nexus would return to the battlefield having no memory of being a creature a moment before.


Treefolk Mystic and destruction effect timing

So that if Treefolk Mystic were given trample, it couldn't be blocked by Living Terrain

Well, it would be blocked by the creature enchanted with Living Terrain, not Living Terrain itself.

How about if Treefolk Mystic entered combat with Grizzly Bears enchanted with Armor of Thorns (so it was 4/4 at start of combat)? Would they both die, or just one? Which one?

When I first saw "entered combat with", I though you meant "were both declared attackers", but after reading your question more, I presume you mean "blocks or was blocked". The official terminology doesn't refer to creatures blocking each other as being in combat "with" each other.

I'm pretty sure a buffed up creature (e.g. with Armor of Thorns) works differently from a creature enchanted with Venom, since the latter sets up a delayed trigger effect which takes effect even if Venom itself is destroyed. But how does this interaction work, anyway?

Yes, because the effect of Armor of Thorns is to change the power and toughness of a creature, and the effect of that is to change the amount of damage it deals, and damage is dealt after blockers is assigned. So it doesn't end up affecting the game until later, as opposed to Venom, which creates an effect on the stack immediately. If the rules were rewritten so as that when one creature blocks another, an effect of "Damage equal to the current power of each creature is dealt to the other creature" were put on the stack, then Armor of Thorns could cause Treefolk Mystic to die. (There may have been a point where something like this existed in the rules, I'm a little fuzzy on that point.)

I'd love to get a clear blow-by-blow layout of the sequence in which everything would happen in these examples.

For Treefolk Mystic blocking Grizzly Bears (Grizzly Bears blocking Treefolk Mystic plays out pretty much the same way):

The Declare Attackers step begins.

Grizzly Bears enchanted with Armor of Thorns is declared an attacker.

The Declare Blockers step begins.

Treefolk Mystic is declared as blocking Grizzly Bears.

Treefolk Mystic being declared as blocking Grizzly Bears triggers its ability. "Destroy Armor of Thorns" goes on the stack.

Once everyone passes priority, "Destroy Armor of Thorns" resolves.

The Assign Damage step of combat begins.

The game looks at the power of Grizzly Bears. It sees that it is 2, so 2 damage is assigned to Treefolk Mystic. Barring other events, Treefolk Mystic survives.

For Living Terrain:

Declare Attackers step begins.

Treefolk Mystic is declared as attacker.

Declare blockers step begins.

Land is declared as blocker.

"Destroy Living Terrain" is put on the stack.

Living Terrain is destroyed.

The land ceases to be a creature and is removed from combat. Treefolk Mystic remains blocked ("Attacking creatures that are blocked but have the blocking creature removed from combat before the Damage Assignment Step deal no combat damage. Attacking creatures with Trample may deal combat damage to the defending player in this case." https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Combat_damage_step)


What constitutes "wrongful" hesitation in bridge?

I believe that cases 1-3 are all ethical, but these are simple problems that should have been solved at the end of some earlier trick (In duplicate bridge, after all the cards to a trick have been faced, players should indicate that they are thinking about the hand by keeping their card face up. Play does not proceed until all players have turned their cards face down.).

None of 1-3 damage declarer, and in any case you may pause to think whenever you have an actual bridge problem. However, your hesitations may also transmit unauthorized information to your partner, and so your partner may be constrained in their future actions.

Jeff Goldsmith has a useful and interesting discussion about unauthorized information on his website, which covers this area, and discusses what you should do in case partner has accidentally given you unauthorized information.


Deviations from basic strategy due to the count in blackjack?

The short answer to your question is YES.  This is the whole reason for counting, to understand how to change your bets and strategy to account for the count and to take advantage of the change in the odds.

This is also how casino's know that you're counting.  Once they are deep into the deck, you start betting higher, which is a signal to them that you're counting, in which case, they'll escort you out the door.


What are the rules on revokes in bridge game

In duplicate bridge under ACBL rules, revokes that are established are not corrected until the end of play. As such, an accusation of a revoke that was in error would not lead to any benefit for the accusing side, and so no penalty would be assessed them unless they were acting in an unsportsmanlike manner in the eyes of the director (either the manner in which they made the accusation, or in excessively making baseless accusations, though the latter I've never seen be an issue).

Revokes that are not established are typically resolved simply by asking the player if they have another card of the suit they showed out of; if they assert they do not, then play would continue, and as before the revoke could be ascertained at the end of the match (in which case it is treated as an established revoke).

See ACBL law 61B:

  B. Right to Inquire about a Possible Revoke

    Declarer may ask a defender who has failed to follow suit whether he has a card of the suit led.
    (a) Dummy may ask declarer (but see Law 43B2(b)).

    (b) Dummy may not ask a defender and Law 16B may apply.
    Defenders may ask declarer and, unless prohibited by the Regulating Authority, may ask one another (at the risk of creating unauthorized
    information).

Note 3:; defenders may inquire to declarer or each other whether they are out of a suit (and I commonly do this;  "No spades, partner").  However, unless you are extremely consistent in how and when you do this (meaning, unless you do this every time your partner first shows out of a suit, and do so in the same tone every time), you may be creating unauthorized information.

In that case, a penalty may be assessed by the director if it is determined that UI existed and may have been acted upon.  This will depend on the situation, though, there is no explicitly prescribed penalty for UI other than attempting to rectify the situation.

Thus, if a defender believes a revoke has occurred and calls the attention of the table to it, and is incorrect, that UI may exist; that is where a penalty could come.  Declarer would not be penalized (unless he/she acted in an unsportsmanlike manner) as declarer can never benefit from UI.


Does Leyline of Singularity works on tokens?

It does count for tokens; you will not be able to have multiple tokens with the same name. The name of a token is defined by the spell that created it:

  110.5c A spell or ability that creates a creature token sets both its name and its creature type. If the spell or ability doesn’t specify the name of the creature token, its name is the same as its creature type(s). A “Goblin Scout creature token,” for example, is named “Goblin Scout” and has the creature subtypes Goblin and Scout. Once a token is on the battlefield, changing its name doesn’t change its creature type, and vice versa.

So in your example, if an effect creates a 2/2 Zombie token, then the name of that token will be "Zombie."

Furthermore, the legendary rule does apply to tokens:

  205.4d Any permanent with the supertype “legendary” is subject to the state-based action for legendary permanents, also called the “legend rule” (see rule 704.5k).

and

  110.5e A token is subject to anything that affects permanents in general or that affects the token’s card type or subtype. A token isn’t a card (even if represented by a card that has a Magic back or that came from a Magic booster pack).


How do V.I.R.s interact with the Barker?

Judging by the rules for the wild visitor type that the V.I.R belongs to and the stingy one from the same rules as the barker these types of visitors have their own color and qualify for all rides and can't be considered the wrong type of color.

When you draw a Stingy Visitor out of the bag, you can place
them on any Ride regardless of its color, and they will stay
there until the end of the game giving you money each turn
like a regular Visitor. But, during the Income Phase, each Stingy
Visitor only pays you 2 Danari (instead of the normal 3 Danari
per Visitor). Moreover, during the Dirt Phase, you don’t gain
any Dirt token for any Stingy Visitors you have in your park.

When you draw a Wild Visitor out of the bag, you can place them on any Ride, regardless of its
color, and they will stay there until the end of the game. There are also special rules for how
to attract them and How they behave (see next page).


Help Identify this game: place wooden barriers try to get across


Which member of the Icelandic national football team designed a board game?

I loath football but this seemed googleable.  I got the list of players from wikipedia and searched each one with 'board game' until it turned up  this BGG thread.

The player is Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson who designed a trivia game called. Beint í Mark.


The other Arcbound Worker and the Ozolith both get the counters.
Functionally, The Ozolith is not actually moving counters around or taking those counters away. It is simply saying: “whatever counters that thing had as it died, put those kinds of counters on the Ozolith.” These are brand new counters, unrelated to the other ones, they just happen to be the same types and quantities. This is clarified in a ruling on The Ozolith itself:

The Ozolith’s first ability doesn’t move counters off the creature that’s left the battlefield. Instead, it causes you to put a number of counters of each kind of counter that was on that creature onto The Ozolith. Notably, if you somehow control a second The Ozolith, each one will receive the same number and kinds of counters that were on the creature that left the battlefield. [...]

This is also covered by rule 122.8, which was added specifically for the Ozolith:

122.8. If a triggered ability instructs a player to "put those counters" or to "put [an object's] counters" on another object and that ability's trigger condition or effect checks that the object with those counters left the battlefield, that player puts a number of counters on the second object of each kind the first object had before it left the battlefield. The player doesn't move counters from one object to another.

Modular is similarly not moving the exact counters around or taking them away. In fact, the rules on Modular clarify that it comes with two abilities, one of which is this:

When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target artifact creature for each +1/+1 counter on this permanent.

Just like the Ozolith, this isn't actually moving the counters themselves around, it just happens to be creating new, unrelated counters that happen to be the same type and quantity.
So in this situation, we effectively have two abilities:

Modular's ability, which functionally in this situation says “When Arcbound Ravager dies, because it had one +1/+1 counter on it, you may put one +1/+1 counter on another target artifact creature.”
The Ozolith's ability, which functionally in this situation says: “When Arcbound Ravager dies, because it had one +1/+1 counter on it, put one +1/+1 counter on The Ozolith.”

Both trigger, and both resolve, both handing out brand new counters to the Ozolith and any one artifact creature.


Cloning a mutated creature copies all the existing mutations

This interaction has been put together by a modification of the first layer of continuous effect interactions and two new rules.

  613.1a Layer 1: Rules and effects that modify copiable values are applied.

Previously, this layer applied 'copy effects'.  Now it's been generalized to apply 'copiable values', of which includes the newly created category of "merged permanents"

  721.2a A merged permanent has only the characteristics of its topmost component, unless otherwise specified by the effect that caused them to merge. This is a copiable effect whose timestamp is the time the objects merged. (See rule 613.2.)

And mutate, the effect causing the permanents to merge, modifies the characteristics to include the rules text of the other objects.

  702.139e A mutated permanent has all abilities of each card and token that represents it. Its other characteristics are derived from the topmost card or token.


Does everyone get to see the color of a train card drawn from the pile?

No, when you draw a card from the deck it is hidden to the rest of the players. Other players only know what you get when you pick one of the face up cards.

One of the benefits of drawing from the deck is others don’t know what you get but you also don’t have a choice of what you get. Another possible benefit depending on the version is the ability to draw a wild card from the deck and get another draw afterwards.


Eldritch Horror test resolutions in other board games

Hello and welcome to the world of modern board games. The mechanism you are talking about is a common mechanism for a number of board games.

You are correct that Arkham Horror uses this exact mechanism.

Other games use a similar mechanism:

Summoner Wars - uses a 6 sided die for combat but here you typically hit on a 3+
Eclipse - uses a 6 sided die for combat but here you initially only hit on a 6

I'm quite positive there are dozens more that could be listed, but those were the first games that came to mind that I was familiar with.


Master level skills still count as one. The rules don't cover this directly. However, page 13 says:

  Certain paragraphs will instruct you to lose a particular skill. If you have that skill at the Talent level, put it back in the Skill Bank. If you have the skill at Master level, turn it back to its Talent side.

It seems fairly clear that a Master level skill still only counts as one skill. The rules have special cases throughout for how you handle gaining and losing skills at different levels, with the result being that you can only ever have one skill token for a particular skill you have.

In other words, for each skill, you either have it or you don't. This is true regardless of whether you have the skill at Master or Talent level.

As extra evidence, the game is designed so that you have only one skill token and flip it. If being a Master was equivalent to having the skill twice, you'd represent it by having the token twice instead of the token having two sides. As such, the game designer didn't consider this interpretation and so the rules don't cover it.


Can Flute of the Outer Gods be used for monsters "not on the board" like in The Terrible Experiment?

No,

While I'd be tempted to allow this as it would be a very cool thing to do and it is hard to find a good use for the Flute of the Outer Gods, this question is addressed directly in the FAQ, pg 10.

  Q: Do cards that affect monsters at Miskatonic University
  (such as the “Campus Security Increased” Mythos card or
  the “Flute of the Outer Gods” Unique Item) affect monsters
  spawned by “The Terrible Experiment”?

  A: No. Those monsters are not actually on the board; they
  can only be fought as if they were.


Can I stop a Counterspell of Goblin Grenade by sacrificing a Goblin Gardener?

You cannot prevent the Counterspell with a Goblin Gardener.
Here is what happens, step by step.

You declare you are casting Goblin Grenade and put it on the stack.
You choose the target for Goblin Grenade.
You pay the cost for Goblin Grenade. At this point, you may use any mana abilities you currently have to produce the red mana you need (or in fact, any mana at all), use any red mana you produced earlier, and you sacrifice Goblin Gardener.
Sacrificing Goblin Gardener triggers its ability, but nothing happens quite yet.
You finish casting Goblin Grenade.

Now the game checks to see if any abilities have triggered. It sees the Goblin Gardener trigger, and you put that ability onto the stack above the Goblin Grenade. You choose the target for the ability.
Now there is both a spell and an ability on the stack. Neither resolves quite yet.
Now you get priority, which means you can cast any instants or spells with flash, or activate any abilities that you want. If you do not wish to do so, you will pass priority to the your opponent, who could choose to do the same.
When your opponent gets priority, they can cast Counterspell, moving it onto the stack, choosing Goblin Grenade as the target, and tapping the targeted land to use its mana ability as part of paying the cost.
Even if they do not wish to cast Counterspell quite yet, they can also choose to activate the targeted land's mana ability, tapping it to gain the blue mana. The mana will not vanish until the phase or step ends, which will be after all spells and abilities on the stack have resolved and all players have passed priority.  If your opponent wanted to, they could tap the island, let the gardener ability resolve, and then cast Counterspell with the mana they gained. Or they could simply cast Counterspell while the Gardener ability is on the stack, and counter the Grenade before the land is destroyed.
Either way, they can easily Counterspell the grenade if they desire.


I you are at 1 life you can only activate Necropotence once, this is because paying the life is a cost and that happens when you activate the ability, before anyone gets priority again [601.2]. So by the time you have the ability to activate it a second time you are already at 0 life, and thus unable to pay more.

As for Death's Shadow it does indeed get +X/+X when you are at negative life totals. From the Gatherer rulings:

  If your life total is less than 0 and an effect (such as the one from an opponent's Abyssal Persecutor) is keeping you from losing the game, Death's Shadow's ability will actually increase its power and toughness. For example, if your life total is -2, Death's Shadow gets +2/+2.


How much would Spelltwine add to cards that track how many spells were cast?

Yes, Spelltwine instructs you to cast those spells, so you do cast them. This counts for things that check for spells being cast or count how many spells were cast, such as the cards linked in the question.


Why would you ever not assign your full crew on a job?

The question makes no sense; the game has no concept of assigning crew to a job.

That said, it is possible that some crew members are not available to Misbehave. For example, Shepherd Book stays on the ship for immoral jobs, River Tam may have returned to the ship due to an earlier roll, and a medic may have returned a crew to the ship to heal.


Does a Junta during the Cuban Missile Crisis end the game?

does that trigger the end of the game clause on the Cuban Missile
  Crisis?

Yes. From the rulebook:

  6.3.5 Cards that state a player may make a “free Coup roll” in a particular region may ignore the geographic restrictions of the current DEFCON level (see 8.1.5). However, a “free Coup roll” used against a Battleground country would still lower DEFCON as per 6.3.4.

A free coup attempt event only negates the geographic location, not DEFCON status. This would still cause DEFCON to reach 1 and the phasing player would still lose the game after attempting the coup.


Creature spells vs. ability to convert a permanent into a creature

No, you said it yourself: it's an ability, which is different from a spell. If you get a discount on creature spells, it won't affect abilities.

Spells

111.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, "Casting Spells"), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner's hand. (See rule 405, "Stack.")

Abilities

112.1a An ability can be a characteristic an object has that lets it affect the game. An object's abilities are defined by its rules text or by the effect that created it. Abilities can also be granted to objects by rules or effects. (Effects that grant abilities usually use the words "has," "have," "gains," or "gain.") Abilities generate effects. (See rule 609, "Effects.")
...
112.1c An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. (See section 6, "Spells, Abilities, and Effects.")

Activating Activated Abilities

602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as "[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]"


As long as Conversion is on the battlefield, any lands that would otherwise be Mountains are instead only Plains, and can tap for {W}, but not for {R} or for any other color that they would produce because of having another basic land type (for example, if one was originally an Island Mountain). In addition, those lands will lose any other abilities printed on them.

First, rule 205.1a says

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

So, Conversion's "All Mountains are Plains" effect removes any other land subtypes from the land. The land subtypes are listed in rule 205.3i:

  Lands have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called land types. The land types are Desert, Forest, Gate, Island, Lair, Locus, Mine, Mountain, Plains, Power-Plant, Swamp, Tower, and Urza’s. Of that list, Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, and Swamp are the basic land types. See rule 305.6.

Finally, rule 305.7 describes additional specific rules for setting a card's subtype to a basic land type:

  If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any copy effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn’t remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Setting a land’s subtype doesn’t add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.


'Creature Types' vs 'Creature Names' in Oracle Text

The referenced abilities of both Hand of Emrakul and Broodwarden are referring to creatures with the creature types Eldrazi and Spawn. Cards only refer to the names of objects using a format like on Festering Newt, explicitly saying "named [some name]". This is covered by rule 109.2:

  If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

in the case of both Hand of Emrakul and Broodwarden, the descriptions "Eldrazi Spawn" and "Eldrazi Spawn creature" consist of types and subtypes, so they mean permanents of those types and subtypes on the battlefield.

When a card like Awakening Zone creates an Eldrazi Spawn token, it is creating a token with the creature types Eldrazi and Spawn, and the name "Eldrazi Spawn". This is because of rule 111.4:

  A spell or ability that creates a token sets both its name and its subtype(s). If the spell or ability doesn’t specify the name of the token, its name is the same as its subtype(s). A “Goblin Scout creature token,” for example, is named “Goblin Scout” and has the creature subtypes Goblin and Scout. Once a token is on the battlefield, changing its name doesn’t change its subtype, and vice versa.


Is an Enchantment Creature also an Enchanted Creature?

In addition to the answer you've already gotten, I want to point out that Spiteful Returned doesn't say 'another enchanted creature'; it specifically uses the phrasing 'when enchanted creature attacks'.  This refers to the creature that Spiteful Returned is enchanting, and that creature only; if you have Spiteful Returned in play and, say, a Bloodcrazed Hoplite that has a Hopeful Eidolon bestowed onto it, then attacking with the Bloodcrazed Hoplite won't trigger Spiteful Returned's ability.


Can Uncommon Magic cards be sold individually for a profit?

Just some uncommon cards can sell individually, like Path to Exile, Skullclamp(before banned). You can check eBay or website like Card Kingdom, Magic Cards Info and so on to track the price.


Can different Aces have different values?

First off Ace value is either 1 or 11 (this is why face+ace is a blackjack)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackjack

Second you choose what it is worth, but most places will assume you want 11 unless it will bust you

So in your hand you can choose between 12,22,22,32


Is it possible for a board wipe to happen after first strike damage but before regular damage?

Yes, players get priority between first strike and regular damage steps; so they can cast spells, and state-based actions will be checked, and triggered abilities will resolve.

First strike and double strike create an additional combat damage step; pretty much just like the normal one. And players get priority after damage is done during the combat damage step. So in your example, you would be able to prevent any regular combat damage from being done by destroying creatures after first strike damage was done.

  Combat Damage Step

    […]

    510.4. Fourth, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

And

  510.4. If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step.


Can a single event trigger more than one triggered ability?

Yes, a single event can trigger more than one trigger, but you are misunderstanding how Heart-Piecer Manticore works.

Your second example is a good example of this. If you have 2 Soul Wardens on the battlefield, then each one will trigger when a creature enters the battlefield, and you will gain 2 life. Or if you control 2 Bloodbriars and find a way to sacrifice a permanent, both of them will trigger and they will each get the counter. Note that while both trigger at the same time, the 2 abilities are placed on the stack separately and resolve one  at a time.

However, your first example is a different thing. The "when you do" in Heart-Piercer Manticore's ability is not simply “when you sacrifice a creature”, but rather it is part of the “when Heart-Piercer Manticore” enters the battlefield.” ability. When that trigger resolves, you can choose to sacrifice another creature to create another trigger to deal damage; but you are only in the middle of resolving one "enters the battlefield" trigger.

You can only cast creatures one at a time, and you cannot sacrifice the same creature twice.

The sequence of events would be this:

Cast Heart-Piecer Manticore.
It resolves and enters the battlefield.
Its ability triggers and goes on the stack.
Its ability resolves, and you sacrifice a creature to trigger the when you do trigger. (Or chose not to, and the ability does nothing).
The when you do trigger resolves and you deal damage.
Cast another Heart-Piecer Manticore.
It resolves and enters the battlefield.
Its ability triggers and goes on the stack.
Its ability resolves, and you sacrifice a creature to trigger the when you do trigger. (Or chose not to, and the ability does nothing). The creature you sacrificed the first time is already dead, so you need to choose a different one this time. You could choose that first Manticore if you wanted.
The when you do trigger resolves and you deal damage.

So by the time you are casting a second Manticore, it is far too late to deal with the first one's triggered ability. That will have already finished, and you will have either sacrificed a creature for damage or not. If you want to do it again, you have to sacrifice another creature.

Note that even if you used some other ability to place both Manticores on the battlefield at the same time, that wouldn’t matter. Each one would trigger at the same time, and you would choose the order to put the triggers on the stack. They would still then resolve one at a time, and you would have to choose to sacrifice a creature for the ability one at a time.