When during your upkeep can you cast upkeep spells?

Here's a thread on BoardGameGeek where people discussed this very question:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/530872/upkeep-adjusting-skill-sliders-and-casting-spells

The thing everybody agrees on is that spells are cast after the 'Refresh Exhausted Cards' step. Whether or not you're allowed to cast spells after moving skills sliders is debateable. An interesting point that is brought up is that Upkeep spells (at least until the reprint of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh) said

  Upkeep: You may cast and exhaust...

compared to other spells which said

  Any Phase: Cast and exhaust to....

Which makes me believe that these cards have the following rule from the rule book apply (bolded words are my emphasis)

  Perform Upkeep Actions

  After refreshing his exhausted cards, each player must
  review his investigator’s cards to see if any of them
  have an Upkeep action. Each player must perform all
  Upkeep actions listed on his investigator’s cards every
  turn. Upkeep actions may be taken in any order the player wishes. Bless, Curse, Bank Loan, and Retainer cards
  do not require an upkeep roll during the first Upkeep
  Phase after an investigator acquires them.Each player must perform all
  Upkeep actions listed on his investigator’s cards every
  turn.

Since the spells have Upkeep: on them, they count as upkeep actions (much like Blessings, Curses, Retainers, and Bank Loans) and have to be used during the Perform Upkeep Actions step, but they have the may qualifier on them they don't have to cast. Fantasy Flight just got lax with the Upkeep spell verbiage in later expansions I guess.

But really, as long as you aren't casting/refreshing/recasting spells during upkeeping you're good.

EDIT:

I should clarify that I'm not really a strong proponent of the specific logic in the argument above, I was just summarizing the thread I linked to. It seems like a nice idea but causes too many issues when you find Upkeep spells that lack the word 'may'.

A similar argument is that you have to use the evade bonus from a dark cloak when making evade checks because there's nothing that says you have the option of not using items. (Example situation: If you wanted to take combat damage and get sent to the hospital without having to make a horror check). I find forcing Investigators to use items in any situation where they could be applicable to be a bit extreme. This would fall under that same category for me. Personally, when Fantasy Flight said

  must perform Upkeep actions listed on his investigator's cards

I read it as

  may perform any Upkeep actions listed on his investigator's item cards and must perform any Upkeep actions listed on his investigator's non-item cards

since I don't think manditory item use is reasonable. If you believe that item bonuses are non-optional, then casting spells during upkeep would be non-optional as well.

EDIT 2:

As far as the the timing of the actions go (since that was actually what the question was about) the rules say this about the Refresh step (emphasis mine):

  At the start of the Upkeep Phase, each player
  refreshes...

and this about the Adjust step (as you've noted) (again, emphasis mine):

  Finally, each player may adjust...

This would suggest that, within the Upkeep Phase, nothing can come before the refresh step and nothing can follow the adjust skills step. Thus, spells would have to fall someplace in the middle, regardless of them being mandatory or not. You could however interpret "finally" as simply denoting the last item in a list rather than meaning "At the end of upkeep phase", but I think it's pretty clear that the Refresh step is the very first thing that happens.


Does a buff remain in combat when the buffing creature dies to first strike damage?

No, you're right.

  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 damage has been dealt, the active player gets priority (510.3) and state-based actions are checked; the Legion Lieutenant dies and its effect will stop (this is different from effects which say something like 'target creature will get +1/+1 until end of turn'). The Forerunner of the Legion is a 2/2 again.

Only then, a second combat damage step will be started, and damage done by the Forerunner of the Legion is calculated, which will only be 2 damage.


In the Final Battle, do all spells have to be recast each round of combat?

From page 16 of the rulebook

  A spell or weapon that gives you a
  bonus (even one that says it lasts
  until the end of combat) only
  continues to give you the bonus while
  you devote the required number of
  hands to it. You can choose to switch
  weapons/spells in later combat rounds,
  but as soon as you “release” a spell
  or weapon, it stops working for you.
  Similarly, spells that are refreshed
  (such as at the beginning of each
  combat round in the final battle)
  cease to work and must be re-cast.

And from page 6

  Some cards exhaust themselves when used, which
  means that they are turned face down for the remainder
  of the turn. At the start of the Upkeep Phase, each player
  refreshes those cards by turning them face up. Simply
  remember that you can use face-up cards and that you
  cannot use face-down cards until you turn them face up
  again during the next Upkeep Phase.

So, exhausted spells are refreshed every round during the final battle and thus need to be recast. It's much simpler to think of the final battle as a combination of multiple combats through which damage carries over.


Munchkin: card attributes in the event of helping another player

I haven't been able to find a specific rule in either the rule book or FAQ but the following post from the Steve Jackson Games forum. According to them, the card must explicitly state that the effect stacks. So in your case, the maximum would be +5 to the monsters level.

  In my examples, x will always be 5, y will always be 2. A will be
  Dwarf and B will be Elf. The Dwarf/Anything or Elf/Anything means
  Anything except human. The reason behind this is because of the
  Half-breed card that allows you to ignore disadvantages of the single
  race you have, as long as you have Half-breed too.

  1: +x against A & B = +x if A and/or B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf & Elf

  It means that the monster gets a +5 if you're a Dwarf, Dwarf/Anything,
  Dwarf/Elf, Elf/Anything, Elf.

  2: +x against A & B and it stacks = +x if only A or only B, +2x if A & B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf & Elf, and card specifies that it
  stacks.

  It means that the monster gets a +5 if you're a Dwarf OR an Elf. If
  you're a Dwarf AND an Elf, the monster get +10 in this case.
  Dwarf/Anything minus Elf and Elf/Anything minus Dwarf only get +5.

  Important note; a Monster getting a bonus against multiple races
  usually only get the bonus once. Same for multiple classes, or other
  such things, since they're the same source; Bonus vs Race, or vs
  Class, or vs whatever. HOWEVER, a combination of those, a Bonus vs
  Race AND a Bonus vs Class will always stack, since it's a different
  source. Only the monster cards that SPECIFY that their bonus stack for
  2 different Races, Classes or Whatever, will have it stack. An example
  of such cards would be #3.

  3 +x against A, +y against B = +x if only A, +y if only B, +(x+y) if A & B.

  Monster Card says: +5 against Dwarf, +2 against Elf. +7 if both.

  This one is fairly simple. It means that if you're a Dwarf or
  Dwarf/Anything, minus Elf, the monster gets a bonus of +5. If you're
  an Elf or Elf/Anything, minus Dwarf, the monster gets a bonus of +2.
  If you're Dwarf/Elf, the +5 and +2 stack, and create a +7 bonus for
  the monster, hence the "if both".

  Negatives can appear instead of those positive Bonuses. Some might
  even have both, in which case one would be added and the other would
  be substracted. In my examples, it would be something like +5 against
  Dwarf, -2 Against Elf. In this case, it doesn't have to specify "if
  both" because, while they're from the same source (Race), one's a
  Disadvantage (the +5 against Dwarf) and the other's an Advantage (the
  -2 against Elf).

The rules (in bold) themselves supposedly come from Steve Jackson (although I can't confirm that), the further explanations are from a forum member.


Does "lose 1 Sanity" count as "taking mental damage"?

"Lose one sanity" instructs you to reduce one specific stat, which is quite different from taking one point of mental damage, and so are the situations were both occur. While taking damage results in stat loss, I don't think stat loss is damage. The existence of a difference between the two is supported by the game using both "lose 1 from a mental trait" and "take 1 point of mental damage" in different circumstances.


Mafia-type game which a secret message is communicated

Not a perfect fit, but it sounds a bit like Speakeasy, a party game in which you use a secret password to identify your teammates and try to deduce as much as you can about the other side, including their passwords and roles etc.

There are two sides (Feds and Mob) which are equally balanced and the game includes roles and "powers" which mix things up a lot.


This is a fake card.

Pokémon maintain a high quality of their manufacture process. Even though it is possible that misprints are produced, they are usually either well known or they are just printer errors, not problems with card design itself.

Your card uses different fonts and text is not aligned and spaced properly. These problems indicate that the card can't be a misprint.


It's a rule, from Wikipedia:

The relevant rule in the FIDE laws of chess is 9.2, which reads:

  The game is drawn, upon a correct claim by the player having the move, when the same position, for at least the third time (not necessarily by sequential repetition of moves)

    a. is about to appear, if he first writes his move on his scoresheet and declares to the arbiter his intention to make this move, or

    b. has just appeared, and the player claiming the draw has the move.

  Positions as in (a) and (b) are considered the same, if the same player has the move, pieces of the same kind and colour occupy the same squares, and the possible moves of all the pieces of both players are the same.

  Positions are not [considered to be] the same if a pawn that could have been captured en passant can no longer be captured or if the right to castle has been changed. (FIDE 2005, Article 9.2)

While the rule does not require that the position occur thrice on nearly consecutive moves, it happens this way very often in practice, typically with one of the kings being put into perpetual check. The intermediate positions and moves do not matter – they can be the same or different. The rule applies to positions, not moves.

Also note that the draw has to be claimed, it's not automatic.


In Uno, can you quickly finish a two player game by skipping your opponent's final turn and without saying Uno?

Player 1 hasn't won yet at all. They broke the rules.

Uno says when it's your turn, you play a card. Then it's the next player's turn. That player might have to do something with their turn (like draw cards) but if they have a draw 2 in their hand, they have an opportunity to respond instead.

  Player 1 says [...] they are not obligated to give you time to A) draw 2 cards or B) call them out for not saying Uno.

Actually, that's exactly what player 2 has time to do now. Player 1 played their card. Now it's player 2's turn, and they can choose whether to respond with a draw 2 in hand or not. Players are obviously obliged to give their opponents time to take their turns, and player 1 is given no allowance to just unilaterally decide to skip player 2's turn.

Let's address that bit I skipped over with the “[...]” though:

  Player 1 says it doesn’t matter because they are out of cards and the game is over

Imagine this: at the start of the game immediately after we're given our hand of cards, I just put all mine down face-up in the discard pile and say I've won. You object and say I can't do that. I say it doesn't matter because I'm already out of cards and the game's over and I won.

That doesn't work, does it? I broke the rules, and I definitely haven't won at all. Winning has to occur within the bounds of the game—if I broke the rules, I'm essentially not playing the game, and at that point me winning or losing is neither here nor there.

At the point you reached, you've got some options:

Back up to player 2 having their turn. Player 1 probably draws, on account of being rightly called out for not saying Uno.
End the game (nobody won), shuffle up and play another properly.


Can units support a battle if they came from the same march order that started it in Game of Thrones?

Option two would happen here, two supporting footmen from A + knight from B = 4.

From the rulebook:

  Before resolving combat, all other non-combat movement from the area assign the March Order must be completed.
  - Rulebook pg 15

This means that the footman unit that is moving has to have completed it's march before combat is initiated. Then:

  Supporting Combat Strength means the combined Combat Strength of all units in the supporting area.
  - Rulebook pg 17

From this, you cannot count certain units strength to add to combat, it must be all the units in the supporting area.

The order of marching/combat/supporting makes your second option the case.


Orléans: endgame - beneficial deeds and development track

The player would just receive the one remaining citizen tile that isn't on the game boards.

The game comes with 14 Citizen Tiles. In the rulebook under setup, section 8 (labeled page 12):

  Place 13 Citizen Tiles on the marked spaces on the game board and the “Beneficial Deeds” board. Put the remaining tile on the table.

The part we are concerned with is the last sentence, where there is one Citizen that doesn't go onto any board space. On page 19, under final scoring:

  ..the player who built the most Trading Stations receives the remaining Citizen Tile.

So the player who built the most Trading Stations gets the Citizen that was left off the board during setup.

In relation to the rule regarding the person highest on the Development Track getting any Citizens tiles from the Beneficial Deeds board, it doesn't exist. Those Citizen Tiles stay on the Beneficial Deeds board and do not get scored at the end of the game.


Does Valakut do damage if Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is in play, but dies before the trigger resolves?

Refering to rule 603.4.

A triggered ability may read “When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect].” When the trigger event occurs, the ability
checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only
if it is; otherwise it does nothing. If the ability triggers, it
checks the stated condition again as it resolves. If the condition
isn’t true at that time, the ability is removed from the stack and
does nothing. Note that this mirrors the check for legal targets. This
rule is referred to as the “intervening ‘if’ clause” rule. (The word
“if” has only its normal English meaning anywhere else in the text of
a card; this rule only applies to an “if” that immediately follows a
trigger condition.)

Note how only the condition is checked again as it resolves.
Let's break these rules down to the text of Valakut.

Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control
[trigger event], if you control at least five other Mountains [condition], you may have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deal 3 damage to any target.[effect] (Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle)

Therefore you playing the plains (which is also a mountain) causes the trigger event and the condition to be met. With valakut's ability on the stack, your Dryad is destroyed in response. This resolves with valakut's ability being on top of the stack as result.
Now look at the rulings from the gatherer.

If a Mountain you control leaves the battlefield between the time
Valakut’s second ability triggers and the time it resolves, be aware
if that was the Mountain that caused Valakut’s ability to trigger or
not. If it was, Valakut’s count isn’t affected; if it wasn’t,
Valakut’s count goes down by one.

According to this ruling, the condition on Valakut is met and the damage is dealt.


There are a few good books about handicap go.

Handicap Go is a really good one, but it's out of print.

Get Strong at Handicap Go has a lot of examples of good play by both White and Black.

Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go discusses handicap games played between two professional players of nearly the same rank. It also includes reviews of games with professionals giving stones to amateurs.

In a high-handicap game, avoid strengthening Black's stones. If Black plays correctly you won't be able to avoid this, but then you need to lower the handicap.  You need to keep your groups light, and think about sacrificing often.  Many times you can convince Black to capture a few unimportant stones in gote.  As long as you keep from making Black too solid, you should be able to exploit shape problems later in the game, and in the endgame you should be able to pick up 20 points or so.  Also, never resign.  You never know when Black will give you a gift :)


You are allowed to help your teammates, the tournament is based on the skill of the team and decisions made therein. If you watch the worlds coverage you will see plenty of coaching there.

All 3 players play their matches at the same time. They can coach each other at any point, including mulligans.

Bear in mind though that you still have to play in a timely manner.


In Smash Up, is the Zeppelin action ongoing?

Talents are not ongoing; they're available for use once per turn.

With that said, the moved minion doesn't move back once the turn is over.


What usually happens in the situations you describe is:

I have (say) a Walking Ballista with 3 counters on it.
I use Walking Ballista's ability to remove one counter and do one damage. While this ability is on the stack, my Ballista has two +1/+1 counters on it.
In response to the first activation, I activate a second time. Now there are two triggers on the stack and my Ballista only has one +1/+1 counter.
In response to the second activation, I can still activate a third time (or fourth, if there were a fourth +1/+1 counter on it).

And then when everything on the stack resolves, the target takes damage. If my Ballista now has a toughness of 0, it's dead, but since removing the source of an ability does not stop the ability from resolving, the target still takes damage.

Of course I could also sequence things differently. Instead of doing #3 above in response to the first activation, I could let the activation resolve, target takes 1 damage, and then activate Ballista again. Usually this won't matter, but if it does for whatever reason I can do this.


In 2-3 player Citadels, can your second character buy a destroyed building using Graveyard?

No. Machiavelli, a.k.a. Citadels, has a purple building called Cemetary/Graveyard. The Warlord or (Condotaire) is not allowed to buy the destroyed building. You don't really have an alter ego, you have two turns during each round. You can only destroy a building during your Warlord turn, and during that turn you are the Warlord and will not be able to use the Graveyard/Cemetary ability.

Graveyard - When the Warlord destroys a district, you may pay one gold to take the destroyed district into your hand. You may not do this if you are the Warlord.
In a two- or three-player game, all players play with two characters each. The game is played normally, except that each player has two turns each round (one turn for each character). Players do not have to separate their gold or their districts between their characters, as the players still only have one city.
Each character has a special ability, also called its power. You may use your character’s
power once during your turn.


Choosing new targets for a spell with a variable number of targets

You cannot choose a different number of targets. The rules make it clear that when you copy a spell, you copy the targets of the spell. Reverberate allows you to change the targets, because it specifically says so, but the normal rules for copying a spell just copy the targets as they were. Any unchanged targets remain targeting their original objects.

  706.10. To copy a spell or activated ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn’t cast and a copy of an activated ability isn’t activated. A copy of a spell or ability copies both the characteristics of the spell or ability and all decisions made for it, including modes, targets, the value of X, and additional or alternative costs. ...

  706.10c Some effects copy a spell or ability and state that its controller may choose new targets for the copy. The player may leave any number of the targets unchanged, even if those targets would be illegal. If the player chooses to change some or all of the targets, the new targets must be legal. Once the player has decided what the copy’s targets will be, the copy is put onto the stack with those targets.

Reverberate errata:

  8/15/2010 The copy will have the same targets as the spell it's copying unless you choose new ones. You may change any number of the targets, including all of them or none of them. If, for one of the targets, you can't choose a new legal target, then it remains unchanged (even if the current target is illegal).


Can someone be "one trick" better at bridge against "club level" competition?

Absolutely. And the best in the world are that much better again, or more, than those players.

The year before his premature death I had the pleasure of kibitzing Mark Molson in a late KO round of the Toronto Easter Regional. I arrived at the break, and Molson's team was down a couple of IMPS. Receiving permission to kibitz, I parked myself behind him. Across the table was the client.

Not knowing me from a hole in the wall, Molson wouldn't even let me see his cards for the first hour. Gradually, as I demonstrated good behaviour, he loosened up and I was able to settle in to enjoy the game. After 15 boards no more than a couple of likely 1-IMP swings each way had occurred. On the final board Molson picked up a balanced 12 count and drove to a 3NT game opposite his partner's balanced 9. Two 4432 hands with a combined 21 HCP - but the opponents didn't know Mark was light, opening a deceptive opportunity that allowed him to steal a tempo. Mark also had all four 10's and three of the 9's amongst the combined holdings.

I saw a couple of opportunities for the seventh trick, but had no idea where to even begin for an eighth or ninth. After a couple of minutes (only) thought on the opening lead, Molson saw that if one finesse was on (for trick 8) he had a chance of combining two possibilities, either a squeeze on one hand or a throw-in to the other, for trick nine. The gods were smiling and he chalked up 9 tricks, a 10 IMP swing, and the match.

In the absence of a Deep Finesse analysis, or the pleasure of watching Mark play it, I'd have played this hand for +120 and likely have never even realized that I had missed a 30% Vulnerable game opportunity.

The best players in the world, the Bob Hamman's, Jeff Mechstroth's and Eric Rodwell's, are nearly as far above Mark Molson in ability as Mark was above me.

You have phrased the question with a hidden assumption that all tricks are equal. The scoring, especially in IMP play, makes that far from the case. A full game swing (made at one table, set at the other) scores the same as 7 or 9 overtricks depending on vulnerability. In a 64 board IMP match with well dealt cards a double slam swing for 20 or so IMPs is not impossible. Hands are won or lost in the bidding as often as in the play and defence, and a double part-score swing is the same 7 IMPs as a non-vulnerable full game swing.

What does "a trick better" really mean in the context of Contract Bridge?

An (undoubled) overtrick is worth either 20 or 30 points depending on denomination. An (undoubled) undertrick is worth either 50 or 100 points depending on vulnerability. Any calculation of the worth of a trick needs to weight these; but assuming contracts are made twice as often as set and denominations equally likely, as a ballpark estimate, one gets an estimate
of about:

V = ( 2 * (30 + 30 + 30 + 20 + 20) + 5 * (50 + 100) / 2 ) / 15
  = ( 2 * 130 + 5 * 75 ) / 15
  = ( 260 + 375 ) / 15  = 635 / 15 ~ 42

This is right on the cusp of the 1 to 2 IMP transition of the IMP scale, so let's say that our one trick better standard is also about 1.5 IMPs.

Here is the complete Round Robin record of France in the 2017 Bermuda Bowl:

Over the 336 Boards (16 * 21 rds.) of the Round Robin France accumulated a total net IMP score of +283, or 0.84 IMPs / board; against national champions that have placed well in Zonal championships to earn the right to compete at this level. By our estimate above that represents about 0.6 trick better than opponents who, on average, might well be 2-3 tricks better than typical club players. And France finished second to USA2 in the 144-board final by a score of 278-276.


If you have an "active" location, you place progress on it before you place them on the current quest.  But a location only becomes active when you travel to it.  If you just revealed the location, it is still in the staging area and not active, so you would put the progress on the quest.  You may then choose to travel to the location during the travel phase.


Bid out of turn and next player passes or overcalls

ruds, of course, is right (my standard spiel here is "one of the next players' options is to accept the call.  By bidding, she has taken that option.  Please continue.")  I want to go through the rest of the story.
The One Rule (in my mind, said with capitals) is Law 9B1a: "The Director should be summoned at once when attention is drawn to an irregularity"*.  So:

if nobody noticed until after you called, then there was no attention drawn, everything's fine.  Now that attention has been drawn, call the TD, who will rule as L29A.  Note that L11A starts "The right to rectification of an irregularity may be forfeited if either member of the non-offending side takes any action before summoning the Director."
if someone did notice and mentioned it and you called anyway, then you have also become an offending player (L9B2: "No player shall take any action until the Director has explained all matters in regard to rectification.")  Which isn't a problem here, as the opponents aren't damaged by taking one of the valid options without them being explained to the table (as opposed to, for instance, attempting to enforce the leading restrictions of a penalty card where with knowledge of the Law, the opponents could have played differently to avoid the situation), but don't do it anyway.  The Director is there for a reason.
if they did notice, and called the TD before you called, you would be given the options in Law 29:

(L29A) accept the call and call over it; or
(L29B) cancel the call, let dealer open the bidding, and then:

if the cancelled call was pass, then the special case of L30A applies: "When a pass out of rotation is made at offender’s RHO’s turn to call, the offender must pass at the next turn to call..."
if the cancelled call was a bid, then (L31A) if dealer passes, they must repeat that bid.  If dealer bids, then L23 "Comparable Call" comes into play, and that is definitely something to leave to the Director.

Note that things are different, and more complicated, if it was dealer's partner or RHO that called out of turn (and that call is not accepted), or if it is not an opening call out of turn.  Never Make Your Own Rulings is the mantra, but especially do not with calls out of turn.  It's been three years, and I still read these out of the Law Book every time.

Note that in no case (accepted or not) does dealer get an option; all the options are with the offender's LHO (in your example, you).  This is something that frequently comes as a surprise at the table.  The person with the options must even make that decision without advice from partner (L10C2) - so in your case, dealer can't even ask you to reject the call.
* All quotes from the WBF Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017, Gender Neutral Edition.


How do multiple Underrealm Liches interact?

It would be the same as if you only had one.

Underrealm Lich does not "trigger". It has a static ability that generates a replacement effect; it does not have a triggered ability.

  614.1a Effects that use the word “instead” are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word “instead” to indicate what events will be replaced with other events.

So when you would draw a card, you have two different replacement effects that are trying to replace that card draw. You get to choose which one you apply:

  616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below.

Once you have replaced the draw using one Lich or the other; the other Lich now has nothing to do:

  616.1e Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated (taking into account only replacement or prevention effects that would now be applicable) until there are no more left to apply.


How do you handle fast players in a casual setting that skip priority?

By the rules, you allow opponents to backup and counter the first spell.

MTG is not a real-time game, it's a turn-based game. In other words, it's not a game of chicken.

MTG would be extremely tedious if you had to explicitly pass priority every time. That why people use shortcuts. If you say "I cast Foo and Bar", you are actually proposing the following a shortcut:

I cast Foo
I pass
You pass
I cast Bar
I pass
You pass

The other player(s) may accept the shortcut entirely, or they may accept the shortcut only until a point of their choosing. Accepting part of the shortcut could be done, for example, by saying "In response to Foo, I cast Baz."

If the shortcut is accepted, the person who proposed it must abide by it. (He must cast Foo and Bar.)

If the shortcut is accepted to a point, the person who proposed it must abide by it up to that point. (He must cast Foo.) He can deviate as he wishes past that point. (He need not cast Bar, though he obviously can if he wants to do so.)

So the answer, by the rules, is the last option you presented: You allow opponents to backup and counter the first spell.

If you want to be sure Foo isn't going to be countered before announcing you're casting Bar, you have to make sure noone wants to do anything in response to Foo.


Can you replace a Joker with a bonus joker?

I don't think this is possible.
In the rules is the line "Special jokers cannot replace a Regular Joker or any other type of special joker.". This implies you can not replace the joker directly.
But I think you should be able to rearange sets.

Special Jokers
Special jokers cannot replace a Regular Joker or any other type of special joker.
Reminder: Any set that is laid on the table must consist of at least 3 tiles. In any case (even when you have a Double Joker), you are not allowed to leave sets with two tiles on the table.
In scoring the initial meld, the special joker represents the number, or numbers, it replaces. Note: The Mirror Joker’s value is zero.
Special jokers can be cleared in the same way that the Regular Jokers are cleared, including that they must be played on the same turn and that the player must play at least one tile from his/her rack on that turn.
Double Joker
This special joker fills in two numbers. In a group it represents two of the same number; in a run it represents two consecutive numbers. The Double Joker can only be used inone of these two ways.
For Example:
Run: 2 - Double Joker - 5. The Double Joker represents the numbers 3 and 4.In the initial meld, this tile is worth the value of both numbers it represents(in this example, the value is 7).
Group: Blue 3 –> Red 3 – Double Joker. The Double Joker represents Yellow 3 and Black 3. In the initial meld, this tile is worth the value of both numbers(in this example, the value is 6).
A Double Joker can be replaced with both tiles that it represents in a set or bymanipulating a set to clear it.
The Double Joker tile can be used in any place in a series; as the first, last or middle tile.
The Double Joker cannot be used before the number 2 or after the number 12(only 1 can come before 2 and only 13 can come after 12).


No. Once the first paid ability is triggered, it resolves completely before another paid ability can be triggered. The exceptions are "prevent" and "avoid" abilities. So, in your example either ability will result in the Cortez Chip being in the Heap and no longer installed before you could possibly trigger the other ability. The specific text from the rulebook that applies:

  Once an ability is triggered, its effect is resolved immediately and
  can only be stopped by prevent or avoid effects.


Ticket to Ride United Kingdom, should the technology cards be in a stack or do we get to choose?

As further evidence all cards are on display,  This image is taken from the official app where for U.K. map the tech cards are all displayed and the player can select any they can pay for.


It's not obvious, but the answer to this question is the same as that in How should I determine how many lands of each different color to put in my deck? The point is that you need 1) enough colored sources to cast your spells reliably and 2) few enough lands in your deck to prevent mana flood. You need to balance that, and dual lands helps by being two colored sources in one land.

This is abstract, so we'll use an example. Suppose you want to build a deck that includes both Rekindling Phoenix and Nullhide Ferox. The former is a 2RR card, and the latter is 2GG. You can see from Frank Karsten's seminal article (linked in my answer above) that to cast these two spells on curve, you need 16 red sources and 16 green sources. In other words, if you have only basic lands, you'll need to run 32 lands to cast both these spells on time.

Now you can see from the second question linked above that 32 lands is way too many. In fact most decks won't run more than 27 lands, and the average is about 24. This means You cannot run both Rekindling Phoenix and Nullhide Ferox with only basic lands. You will either flood, or you will not be able to cast either spell on time.

Dual lands help because they are both red and green sources. Let's say in addition to basic lands you also have all of Taiga, Stomping Ground, Rootbound Crag, Fire-Lit Thicket and Copperline Gorge. Now, by running four copies of all five of these lands, you suddenly have 20 red sources and 20 green sources in only 20 lands! That means you can even afford to fill your remaining land slots with utility lands (such as Sea Gate Wreckage) and you won't color screw.

To your specific questions:

If you add four duals, do you get to take out 8 lands? If not, which do you take out?

There's no answer to this question without knowing the rest of your deck. You analyze this question the same way you analyze the above. Which spells in your deck are the hardest to cast? Let's say you're playing Rekindling Phoenix, in which case as per above you need 16 red sources. How many does your deck currently have? How many will it have after you add the four dual lands? If you currently have 23 red sources, then you can remove 4 of those red sources for the four duals and you'll be fine. If you only have 15 red sources even after adding the four duals, then you can't cut red sources - you need to remove something else. Remember to analyze how many lands in total your deck wants after you've sorted out the colored sources as well.

As you can see, figuring out mana bases is not trivial. As you gain experience you'll be able to recognize some rules of the thumb (e.g. it's often possible for experienced players to guess how many total lands they need without playing any games), but actual fine-tuning will still involve doing the calculations.

Finally: total land count isn't something you can usually tweak with dual lands. You still need to draw those duals to have mana, and the odds of drawing lands depends on how many lands you have.

Which dual lands to run?

There's again no answer to this because it's going to depend heavily on what you're doing and you're going to play against. Most duals have a drawback such as coming into play tapped, can your deck afford them? Here're some more things to think about:

If you have access to no-drawback duals such as Taiga then you're pretty much in the clear to run all the duals you want, but since Taiga is only legal in Legacy & Vintage, that means you'll have to play against decks with Wasteland. Wasteland destroys nonbasics but not basic lands. That's why it's common for many Legacy & Vintage decks to run a few basic lands (so they can fetch - using fetchlands such as Scalding Tarn - for them against decks running Wasteland.)
In Modern, you might want some basic lands again, this time to deal with Blood Moon, Field of Ruin, or to have a search target if opponent plays Assassin's Trophy or Path to Exile.
In Standard, if you're playing the Scapeshift/Field of the Dead combo deck, then you need many different lands (i.e. duals) to trigger Field of the Dead's condition.

Absent considerations such as these then you're free to run all the duals you want. In Standard right now, it's perfectly acceptable to run 24 dual lands plus a few more basics if needed. You'll need to check how good these dual lands are. For example if you're playing B/W vampires, which is an aggressive deck with 1-drops, then lands that come into play tapped all the time might be too big a cost, while if you're playing something like Esper control (which doesn't usually play 1-mana cards) then they're great especially if they also have upside (e.g. Temple of Silence offers a Scry 1).


Which cards count as having been banned or restricted for Spike, Tournament Grinder's tutor ability?

First of all, keep in mind that all Un-set questions are always up to interpretation, and may be played different by different playgroups. Although I try to be as precise as possible, due to the lack of official rulings, no definitive answer can be given.
Currently Banned/Restricted Cards
A list of currently banned cards can be found at the official Wizards pages. This is the most readable of all the online sources I'm aware of, and should also be the one that's kept up to date most reliably.
Previously Banned/Restricted Cards in Common Formats
I'm not aware of any official list specifically composed for this purpose, but there are other sources that more or less specific for this purpose will help with the search:

Scryfall (a third-party card search engine) added a custom search tag for Spike-tutorable cards.
The Timeline of Banned/Restricted Cards on the GamePedia MtG Wiki.
A Reddit thread, trying to gather all cards by community effort (Malco's answer provides a copy of that list)

Basically, you would be able to tutor for any card from these lists, provided that the list is accurate.
Previously Banned Cards in Commander and Other Formats
As the previously linked pages don't cover the Commander format, you may resort to the official changelog, which keeps track of bans, but doesn't provide any info prior to September 2009. Whichever logic you apply, going by that list will likely be the most sensible thing to do, simply because of its official origin. That said, there should be other threads you'll find, pointing you towards history further back in time, such as this one that has been suggested in the comments.
Furthermore, there are many more widely played formats (such as Tiny Leaders) I could provide a link to, but the reality is that if you include all those formats in your definition of previously banned, some person will eventually just invent a format that bans every card but basic lands, and therefore will be able to tutor all cards.
A Note on Ante Cards
Ante cards are tutorable, but due to the way they function, they won't reap you any benefits, as confirmed by Mark Rosewater:

Q: Can Spike, Tournament Grinder get ante cards?
A: Ante no longer exists, so they aren’t usable.

In other words, while you can tutor banned or restricted cards, you won't necessarily be able to use them due to the magnitude of changes to the rules over time. Then again, this would also be subject to different interpretations of Un-sets, as stated in the beginning, so your mileage may vary.


Is there a good method for choosing which cards to use in Deluxe Illuminati?

Sometimes I use a very targeted set of cards, for example, having lots of power zero cards, in a game where the player who loves playing Cthulu gets on everybody's nerves.

You can build sets of cards geared for more income, remove all the non-group cards, and anything that comes to mind.

But I cannot be bothered. Sometimes I'll remove some cards that just seem to water down the deck, but other than that, I really do use a mechanical shuffler like LittleBobbyTables says, and then I just take the top 50-100 cards off the top, and we use those. The games end up being random enough.


Using Commander Abilities from the Command Zone

No, abilities of permanents usually only work when they're on the battlefield. Exceptions exist, but are generally explicit on the card.

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

Most permanents' abilities, including all activated abilities such as on Horde of Notions, will explicitely say so in their text if they work in any zone other than the battlefield. Horde of Notions' ability does not say that it works in any zone other than the battlefield, so it doesn't.


Rules for a "short to medium length" game?

I have no idea if any of these are "universally accepted", as I haven't consulted with the rest of the universe, but I have seen a few variations on ending the game.

A large number of people I've played with don't like getting back to the center for the final question, because you're basically holding out for a lucky roll to get back to the middle.  Instead, once you have your sixth pie wedge, you immediately are asked the final question; if you don't answer correctly, on successive turns you get another final question, no moving required.
If we want a shorter game, we've altered the number of pieces required to win, anywhere from 4-6.  It's been pretty satisfactory for us.

If you want to make things a little more interesting to prevent people from avoiding their least-favorite category, we'll sometimes randomly select one of the six color wedges from a pile -- you must have this piece in your collection to win.

I'm not a fan of a time limit, because slower players can make the game end prematurely by (intentionally or not) dragging out the clock.


Is It Possible To Win 2-Player Agricola Without Taking Wood?

Normally I wouldn't like to answer my own question, but I have played a lot of online Agricola since posting this one, with the specific goal of taking as little wood as possible, so I hopefully have some interesting new information to provide by now...

Wood is a really hard commodity to ignore in Agricola, just because it's so versatile.  You need wood for all the below things:

to have space to grow your family quickly
to grow your house to a good size so you can get big points from removation at the end of the game
to build early stables and/or fences to pursue the animal breeding strategy
to build a giant pasture in the late game to avoid losing big points from unused spaces
many, many good Minor Improvements require wood, as does the Well

When it comes down to it, wood just does more than anything else in this game, so much so that I think it's a bit of an insult that the Joinery also exists: wood does all of this AND you can get bonus points from having a surplus of it too?  (Not that anyone ever buys the Joinery, because in practice there's always something else useful you can do with your wood.)

In the light of all this, how can you do well in Agricola without wood?  Well, here's the big things you can do without it:

get a lot of food

None of the efficient food-getting strategies in Agricola requires a single piece of wood.  And while food-gathering is not an end in itself, it does mean that if your opponent is hogging the wood space, you have every opportunity to cut them off from a good food engine, specifically by taking all the clay for the first half of the game.  When your opponent has no good way of feeding his family (Fishing and Day Labourer don't count), then it's academic that he can grow his family - fear of Begging cards may mean he just can't afford to.  Lack of a steady supply of food also limits the number of Occupation cards he can realistically play - after the first they do start inhibiting the ability of a food-poor player to feed his family!

So would I recommend a food-denial strategy as a counter to a player who remorselessly goes after the wood?  Yes and no.  In the first half of the game you can definitely hold your own against the wood-mad player by trying to starve them.  Unfortunately, you have to be an actually terrible player to stumble blindly into a situation where you can't avoid getting Begging cards; so generally I'd say the food-denial strategy can only contain, not crush, an opponent.  It's not hard, though, to engineer a situation where you have a Fireplace, some grain fields and maybe an Oven too and your opponent has nothing but a lot of wood and a heavy reliance on Fishing and Day Labourer.

The problem is that I don't think this position is sustainable all the way to the end of the game.  You can't cut an opponent off from all avenues indefinitely.  I had a great game where opponent dogmatically took all the wood and I dogmatically took all the reed, every time.  Sadly he finished a few points ahead of me: the sad fact is that, even once I buy the Basketmaker's Workshop, a gigantic pile of reed is only worth 5 points and some food, while a gigantic pile of wood enables, at the very least, the building of a giant pasture that uses up all the empty space in your farmyard and ends up being worth 10+ victory points.  Plus, to add insult to injury, they probably go on to buy the stupid Joinery and totally crush you!

As such, my ultimate conclusion is that, no, it's not possible to win Agricola without ever taking wood.  Not without some ridiculous combination of Occupations and Minor Improvements, at any rate.  There are good ways to attack the players who take wood aggressively at the start of the game, but once you've done this you'll want to make a strategic U-turn and compete for it aggressively yourself starting from about round 7 or 8.

Wood is just too useful for too many things, and if you've played a very miserly, explosive-growth-impeding game, you still need 12 wood at the end to build a 3x3 pasture and save yourself from losing double figures of points at the end.  What's the alternative - ploughing 9 fields?  I don't think so.


Calculating the probability of NOT drawing a traitor card in Dead of Winter

Deal out the four cards in a line.  How likely is it that the one on the far right is the traitor card?  1 in 4 right?  Now have the players pick up everything except the far right card.  What are the chances that they didn't pick up the traitor card?  It's the same question.  So your answer is still 1 in 4.


What is different between regular Catan and Simply Catan?

It looks like the biggest differences are tile sets (multiple hexes attached together) to decrease set up time, and only 7VP needed to win for shorter games.
From the Catan website:

Differences Between Simply Catan and the Base Game
For a quick setup, Simply Catan comes with 5 rows of tiles, printed on both sides (1x5, 2x4, 2x3). This design reduces overall setup time of the game while still providing enough variation to make for a different game each time you play.
For beginners, the rules provide recommended starting positions. This allows new players to dive immediately into the fun of the game mechanics, without spending a lot of time worrying about getting started.
Playing to 7 Victory Points speeds up the time to play. With Simply Catan, 30-40 minutes is all your family needs to get your "Catan fix".


Clarification of a Pandemic rule involving the Medic

I hadn't thought about it before, but the English rules could probably have been written a bit more precisely as well. However, your final interpretation is correct, i.e. cubes are only removed from the city the Medic is in.

From page 5 of the rules:

  if the Medic at any time ﬁnds herself in a city that contains cubes of a disease that has been cured, she may immediately remove all of those cubes.

"Those cubes" would refer only to the cubes in the city she is in.


In MTG, can I use Stave Off to save my creature from Oblivion Ring?

Sure you can.  Oblivion Ring comes into targets "another nonland permanent" - your creature.  With this triggered effect on the stack, cast Stave Off in response targeting your creature, giving it Protection from White.  The Oblivion Ring's ability will now be countered by game rules, due to having an illegal target.

What you can't do with Stave Off is bring back a creature that has already been exiled by Oblivion Ring.  The creature is far from the battlefield and can't be targeted; even if it could, it is too late for Protection from White to help it!  You'll need something capable of getting rid of an enchantment to rescue your creature from oblivion in this case.


Am I permitted to see my own combat cards?

You may always look at the power cards in your own hand and see their content and values. The content is only kept secret from other players. Other players only know how many combat cards you have in your hand.

From the rules page 7, up in the top right:

  COMBAT CARDS: Draw the indicated number of combat cards. The number of combat cards you have is public information, but the content of those cards is kept secret from opponents.

Kept secret from opponents — not from you. You can see the content of those cards.

This means during combat you choose your power cards with full knowledge of what values they have. Your opponents won't know what you've played until the Reveal in combat (page 23).


Is it legal to take advantage of my opponent's priority mistakes?

Your opponent attempting to cast Lightning Bolt when they don't have priority is a legal shortcut as outlined in the comprehensive rules:

  716.1. When playing a game, players typically make use of mutually understood shortcuts rather than explicitly identifying each game
  choice (either taking an action or passing priority) a player makes.

and also:

  716.1a The rules for taking shortcuts are largely unformalized. As long as each player in the game understands the intent of each other
  player, any shortcut system they use is acceptable.

Clearly your opponent's intent was to cast Lightning Bolt assuming you just planned to pass priority. Therefore, after your opponent has tried to cast Lightning Bolt, you have the option of either:

Telling your opponent that he doesn't have priority and forcing him to undo the casting of Lightning Bolt
Allow the shortcut to happen at which point you can still cast Giant Growth as you should now have priority

Yes, it is legal for you to cast Giant Growth in response to your opponent ignoring your priority.

Edit

Some people claim that only the player with priority can propose a shortcut. While the rules do state this, they also state that any shortcut method that is understood and unambiguous is acceptable. Since players in every magic game I have ever seen (including MTG pro tour and similar high level play) ignore their opponent's priority when moving from their upkeep to their draw phase it seems to me that this behavior should be acceptable during other phases as well. Players may also go into the declare attackers phase by just tapping some of their creatures effectively skipping their opponent's priority. This is fairly common and took me no more than about one minute to find this example and this example. Skipping your opponent's priority in this manner is exactly the same as skipping it after they declared attackers so you can cast Lightning Bolt.

What is not okay is saying you are going to do something and then not actually doing it after your opponent decides to not respond to it. (I'm not really sure how this situation came up as it isn't in the original question, but some answers have addressed it)


"Wrath of God" -VS- "Chord of Calling" + "Selfless Spirit" sacrificed in response

You are correct, you can save your creatures with that play.

The stack works according to the "last in, first out" principle. Whatever spell or ability goes on the stack becomes the top-most object on it, and when the stack starts resolving, the top-most object on the stack will resolve first.

Whenever something resolves, players have the chance to play more spells and abilities. So the line of play goes like this:

Your opponent plays Wrath of God
You play Chord of Calling in response
Both of you pass on playing things, and the top-most object, Chord of Calling, resolves. You get the Selfless Spirit on the battlefield.
You sacrifice Selfless Spirit. Its ability becomes the top-most object on the stack. Wrath of God is still on the stack, at the bottom of the stack.
Selfless Spirit's ability resolves, making all of your creatures indestructible.
Wrath of God resolves, and will not kill any of your creatures.


Zombicide Black Plague Spawning Question

Yes, because the spawned zombies represent the unknown ones being revealed, e.g. the ones hiding under the bed!

  Opening a closed building for the first time reveals all the
  Zombies inside all rooms of the building

Source: Page 20 of the rulebook. Emphasis is mine.


A Japanese pro 9-dan, Tomoyasu MIMURA (born 1969) writes in his blog entry (3 Feb 2014), ''I had never seen, or heard of 9x9 board in my childhood'' and ''In 1987 started the TV show 'Mini-Go One Game Match (ミニ碁一番勝負)'.... Professionals had begun to pay attention to the unexpected depth of 9x9 board game some time before''.
Therefore, around 1985 would be a good guess.


What happens when I redirect multiple large sources of damage through the en-Kor ability to Mogg Maniac?

Mogg will deal 18 damage, but it will deal it after dying.

The en-Kor's redirection only works if you activate it before they take damage. When you activate their redirection ability, it creates a shield that will redirect the next point of damage it would take.

The redirection shield is a replacement effect. It causes Inferno to deal damage to Mogg instead of the en-Kor. Inferno still deals all of its damage simultaneously.

This is how the game progresses:

You cast Inferno (and retain priority).
Six times,

You activate Shaman en-Kor's first ability targeting Mogg.
Shaman en-Kor's first ability resolves, creating a shield that will redirect damage later.

Six times,

You activate Nomads en-Kor's ability targeting Mogg.
Nomads en-Kor's ability resolves, creating a shield that will redirect damage later.

Inferno resolves.

It will simultaneously deal 18 damage to Mogg and 6 damage to each player. Simultaneously, life is subtracted from players' totals, damage is marked on Mogg and Mogg's ability triggers.

State-based actions are performed simultaneously.

Any player with non-positive life lose the game. (I'm going to assume noone loses here.)
Mogg is destroyed for having marked damage exceeding its toughness.

Mogg is put in the graveyard from the battlefield.

Mogg's triggered ability is placed on the stack targeting your opponent.
Mogg's triggered ability resolves.

It deals 18 damage to the targeted opponent.

Note that Mogg only takes damage once in this scenario (even though some of it was originally intended for the en-Kor), so its ability only triggers once for the entire 18 damage.


From these rules:

  A joker that has been replaced must be used in the player's same turn with 2 or more tiles from his rack to make a new set.

So if you have retrieved a joker from another set, you must place it with tiles from your rack (this can also be a joker). Which could be interpreted as place the retrieved joker in a set using only tiles from your hand.

I know it does not explicitly says you can not use tiles from the table, but the "with 2 or more tiles from his rack to make a new set" is clear enough for me.

Of course, you can always add house rules. Or the rummikub set/edition you have may have different rules.


Can you sell your properties for cheap to another player in Monopoly?

Yes, you can sell your properties cheap.

No, you can't do this when you are resolving payment for the space you landed on.

From Can you force property onto players in Monopoly

  The only time a sale cannot take place is if a player will be cheated.
  For example, Player A lands on Boardwalk with hotels and owes $2,000
  to Player B. Player A cannot raise enough cash or make a trade with
  Player B, so he is effectively bankrupt and should turn over all
  assets. Player A would not be able to make a deal with Player C to
  sell some properties for less than their value (say the red properties
  for $1) since that would cheat Player B. He could sell them for more
  than their purchase value, however.


The objective card says

  Build 3 new supply centers

So we have been playing where the upgrades have not counted towards our objective


Is pawn promotion to rook or bishop something that is seen in play?

Under-promotion to bishop/rook happens from time-to-time.  I've only seen it in three cases:

The pawn will be captured regardless of what it's promoted to, and the promoting player wants to be cocky
It's checkmate with just a bishop or just a rook, and the promoting player wants to be cocky (in those cases, a queen would mate also)
Promoting to a queen is stalemate

Of those, the only one that's interesting is #3.  It's extremely rare, but has happened in tournament games.  For example, in the game Ruben - Sultan Khan, 1930:

Playing 1. f8=Q leaves Black in stalemate, but 1. f8=R does not (though 1. Kf6! would have been better :) )

Here is another example (Vasiukov - Tukmakov, 1976)

White, in a last-ditch effort, played 1. Rg1+ -  1.. hxg1=Q would be stalemate!  Black responded 1.. hxg1=R! 0-1

Under-promotion to knight is more common (though still very rare) than to rook/bishop because, unlike rooks/bishops, the knight has the possibility to attack squares the queen cannot, which can sometimes be necessary to win material or force checkmate.


Magic the Gathering: Hero's Blade vs Lightning Bolt

Yes, you can. Hero's Blade's ability triggers "Whenever a legendary creature enters the battlefield under your control," which means that the order of events goes like this:

Your opponent casts Yisan
Yisan finishes resolving and enters the battlefield. This causes the Hero's Blade's ability to go on the stack. At this point, Yisan is on the battlefield
You respond to the triggered ability with your Lightning Bolt.
The Lightning Bolt resolves, and kills Yisan.
The triggered ability resolves, and does nothing.

As a side note, the Equip ability can only be activated "whenever you could cast a sorcery," so your opponent would not be able to Equip the Hero's Blade in response to your Lightning Bolt.


If Koth of the Hammer's plus one ability ends at end of turn, doesn't it make it useless?

I think you've misunderstood the ruling:

  If Koth's first ability animates a Mountain that came under your control that turn, it will have "summoning sickness" and be unable to attack. It will also be unable to be tapped to activate an ability with the {T} symbol in its cost, such as the Mountain's mana ability or the ability granted to it by Koth's emblem.

If the mountain has been under your control since before the beginning of this turn, it does not have "summoning sickness". It's only unable to tap and attack if it's a mountain that you played this turn.


Djinn of Infinite Deceits interacting with other control-changing effects

In both cases, the result is the same: the new control effect overrides the old one. This is because Magic uses a timestamp system: whenever there are effects that modify the same thing (like control, or type, or color), the one that was created last and hasn't ended determines the final result.
This is part of rule 613: Interaction of Continuous Effects:

613.1. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:

613.1b. Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.

613.2. Within layers 1-6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6).
613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

613.6a. A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

613.6b. A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it's created.

Please note that these rules do not describe a sequence of actions to take, but rather a process to determine the current characteristics of an object. Also, timestamps don't really have a "value." The only important thing is what order they are in.
All of the effects discussed here are continuous effects. That is because rule 611.1 says

A continuous effect modifies characteristics of objects, modifies control of objects, or affects players or the rules of the game, for a fixed or indefinite period.

So, here's how we determine the controller in each of your situations:
Case 1
Your Control Magic has a static ability that says "You control enchanted creature." This creates a continuous effect that causes you to control the creature with a timestamp corresponding to when the Control Magic entered the battlefield (613.6a). Then you activate your Djinn's ability. When the ability resolves, it creates a continuous effect that says that your opponent controls that creature (and one that says that you control one of your opponent's creatures, but that's not relevant), with a timestamp corresponding to when the ability resolves (613.6b).
Then, when we want to determine who controls the creatures, we see that there are two control changing effects. We apply them in timestamp order, so we first apply the Control Magic effect, which says that you control it. Then we apply the Djinn's ability's effect, which says that your opponent controls it. The end result is that your opponent controls it.
If the Control Magic ever goes away, the Djinn's ability's effect will be the only control changing effect. It says that your opponent controls the creature, so they control it.
Case 2
First, your Rubinia Soulsinger's ability creates an effect that says that you control the creature, with a timestamp corresponding to when the ability resolved. Then your Djinn's ability creates an effect that says that your opponent controls the creatures, with a timestamp corresponding to when that ability resolved.
Then, when we want to determine who controls the creatures, we again see that there are two control changing effects. As in case 1, we apply the effects in timestamp order. This means that we first apply Rubinia's ability's effect, then your Djinn's ability's effect. And, as in case 1, the result is that your opponent controls the creature.
If you then decide to untap Rubinia, there will then be just one control changing effect: the one that says that your opponent controls the creature. So, they control it.


What happens to counters on a creature when the equipment that put them there is exiled?

A new counter is added on every one of the upkeep steps of the player who controls the equipment. After five of these upkeeps, the creature will have five +1/+1 counters.
The counters (plural) stay there.

You seem to be confusing a counter-placing effect with something like what Bladed Bracers says:

  Equipped creature gets +1/+1.

Whereas Ring of Kalonia says:

  At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature if it's green.

Ring of Kalonia's ability is a triggered ability which adds a new +1/+1 counter to the creature every time it resolves, and it triggers at the beginning of every upkeep of the equipment's controller. This adds up. These counters are independent of the equipment, and stay there when it goes away - whether it gets unequipped, exiled, or anything else.

Bladed Bracers' ability on the other hand is a static ability, which says the creature "gets +1/+1". This doesn't apply counters, it just modifies the equipped creature. It doesn't increase, and there's no delay - it just starts applying instantly. When the Bracers go away, so does the +1/+1.

The ability on the Bracers I've quoted is the same kind of thing as Ring of Kalonia's "Equipped creature has trample", which is also a static ability, and as you're aware, goes away when the equipment does.


The description on that image says "Optional counters (see files)", and if you go to the Files section of the game on BGG there are a number of PDF files that call themselves "Optional countersheet for Khan" that look just like that image.
At a guess, they're designed to replace the counters that come with the game to either be more readable, or look nicer, or something.


What are the differences between combat damage, direct damage, and loss of life?

This is cleared up in rule 118.2:

  Damage dealt to a player normally causes that player to lose that much life. See rule 119.3.

So you actually have it backwards. Damage to a player is loss of life, not the other way around. When a player is "dealt damage," they lose that much life. (See below for more on "normally.") This is emphasized in rule 119.1a:

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

Spells that specifically say "lose life" cannot be reduced by spells that redirect damage. Damage is caused as "a result of combat" (119.2a) or "as an effect of a spell or ability" (119.2b). Spells that cause loss of life do not cause damage. Instead, they go around damage and just cause the loss of life. There are two ways to cause damage (quoted above as combat damage and damage from spells), and when these objects would inflict damage on a player, that player loses that much life.

If a player takes damage, they lose that much life; if a player loses life, they lose that much life. Additionally, if a creature takes damage, it takes that much damage; creatures do not lose life. Think of life as the currency of players, which damage can impact in a negative way.

This distinction between damage and loss of life is important. They are intentionally kept separate for cards like Griselbrand. The designers wouldn't want you to be able to prevent the loss of life caused by his ability by casting a simple damage reduction spell, like Reflect Damage, so loss of life is kept as a separate concept.

If a triggered ability says "whenever a player is dealt damage," it would not trigger when that player is affected by a spell that causes loss of life.

In regards to the Blinding Angel example, you are correct. Blinding Angel did not deal combat damage so its ability would not trigger.

The word "normally" in rule 118.2 refers to one way in which damage is modified, laid out specifically in 119.3b. This rules lays out an important exception to loss of life:

  Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect causes that player to get that many poison counters.

This is an exception; players lose life when they are dealt damage 99.9% of the time.


Opening strategies in Chess 960 (Fisher Random Chess)

I am not an expert at 960 Chess, but the same basic rules apply: develop your pieces, take control of the center, and bring your king to safety as quickly as possible.


In Mancala, are you allowed to pick up and count your opponent's stones?

In "serious play" you are not allowed to touch or count any piles. If you touch one of your own piles you have committed to picking up and playing that pile. Touching your opponent's piles, or either players' score piles is forbidden.


How does "Concealment" transfer to Dedicated Transports?

The 10th Company's special rule Concealed Positions gives Stealth to each unit in the formation that deploys using the Infiltration rule.  We also know that the Dedicated Transport is a separate unit from the unit that disembarked.

  Dedicated Transports do not use up any slots on a Force Organisation
  Chart, but otherwise function as separate units.

Therefore, if the transport moves, only the Dedicated Transport will lose Stealth. Each unit--independently--will have special rule Stealth until it performs an action that cancels it.


Identifying a word-guessing game based on the players' role

I don't know if the game and the rules you played has a certain name, but the basis of this game looks like from Word Wolf, a Werewolf game with words. The rules you played might be a variation/house rules of this game.

Preparation: Players get their own words (or "role")

At least 4 participants, consisting of 1 GM and 3+ players
The GM thinks of 2 different-but-related words (e.g. "Tennis" and "Table tennis") and decides which one is the "villagers" (the majority) and the "werewolves" (the minority; usually 1, but can be more if there are enough players)
The GM writes these words on pieces of paper the same amount as the "villagers" and "werewolves", then fold and shuffle them (or anything to prevent the words easily guessed by the players and the GM)
Each player then picks a paper and sees the words without telling anyone. They don't know if they are "villagers" or "werewolves"!

Playing: Players trying to guess if they are "villagers" or "werewolves" by discussing the words without revealing them. The "villagers" trying to hunt the "werewolves", and the "werewolves" trying to mix-in with or deceive the "villagers". This phase seems to have many variations, but usually free-talk with time-limit (just like the original Werewolf)

The GM decides how long the round will be (e.g. 5 minutes), then starts the game
Each player is free to say/ask something to gather information based on the other players' response, while at the same time trying their best to hide their identity from anyone
When the round ends, the players simultaneously vote on who is the "werewolves" (a.k.a "lynching")
If the majority votes are on a "werewolves", then the "villagers" win. Otherwise, the "werewolves" win. (It seems there's no default tie-breaking system, though usually it's done by re-voting on the players with the tied vote only)

That's the basis of the game, though it is easily extended with variations/house rules, such as (the naming is arbitrary; it's my own idea):

Reversal: if the majority votes are on the "werewolves", then they are given a chance once to guess the majority word. If it's correct, then the "werewolves" win
Turn-based: instead of the time-limit, the GM decides how many turns in a round, then each player has 1 chance to say/ask something in each round
Sequential: instead of free-talk, each player in sequential says/asks something
Long game: just like the original Werewolf, instead of a single independent round, it is played until all "werewolves" got hunted (the "villagers" win), or the amount of "werewolves" equals the "villagers" (the "werewolves" win). Each round, the "lynched" player is eliminated from the game
Outsider: The 3rd word is added, and is deemed as "villager"
and possibly many more...


Is there a penalty for constantly calling a revoke to disrupt the play?

Absolutely! This type of disruptive behaviour is in no way acceptable by any player.

The Laws of Duplicate Bridge (2017) provide mechanisms under which the Director can act in such a circumstance of disruptive play.

  LAW 90 - PROCEDURAL PENALTIES

  A. Director’s Authority

  The Director, in addition to implementing the rectifications in these Laws, may also assess procedural penalties for any offense that unduly delays or obstructs the game, inconveniences other contestants, violates correct procedure, or requires the award of an adjusted score.

  ...

  Law 91 - PENALIZE OR SUSPEND

  A. Director’s Powers

  In performing his duty to maintain order and discipline, the Director is empowered to assess disciplinary penalties in points or to suspend a player or contestant for the current session or any part thereof. The Director’s decision under this clause is final (see Law 93B3).

  B. Right to Disqualify

  The Director is empowered to disqualify a player or contestant for cause, subject to approval by the Tournament Organizer.

Where I have seen this procedure used (Matchpoints only), the escalation sequence was as follows:

First offense
A specific warning on the conduct, specifying the penalty (see below) to be applied on a subsequent offense.
Second Offense (of the same kind)
A penalty of 1/4 of a board assessed to the player (not the partnership). A warning as above given that a third offense will result in suspension from the event.
Third Offense (of the same kind)
Player suspended from the event for cause. The Director also files an Ethics Report with the ACBL in regards this player.

However, I suspect that the player involved is also not adhering to the proper procedure for Inquiring About (Law 61), Correcting (Law 62), Establishing (Law 63), and Making Adjustment For (Law 64) a failure to follow suit. More details on the precise circumstances, and timing and sequence of events, would allow a more precise determination of correct and appropriate action.

Note that under Law 61, any inquiries concerning a revoke are limited as follows:

  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.
  69
  (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 one another (at the risk of creating unauthorized information).

Any violation of Law 61 A will result in an immediate penalty as outlined in that law and all referenced laws concerning Unauthorized Information. Any such behaviour, when repeated, also remains subject to Procedural Penalties under Laws 90 and 91.

Note that if a Defender explicitly points out an Established Revoke prior to the conclusion of play, whether by his Partner, Declarer, or Dummy, and whether correct or not, this almost certainly constitutes Unauthorized Information to his Partner. The appropriate time and means to point out an Established Revoke is at the conclusion of Play, by calling the Director before the score is agreed or the hands shuffled and returned to the Board.

Also, competed tricks can only be inspected as described by Law 66C:

  LAW 66 - INSPECTION OF TRICKS

  A. Current Trick

  So long as his side has not led or played to the next trick, declarer or either defender may, until he has turned his own card face down on the table, require that all cards just played to the trick be faced.

  B. Own Last Card

  Until his side has led or played to the next trick, declarer or either defender may inspect, but not expose, his own last card played.

  C. Quitted Tricks

  Thereafter, until play ceases, the cards of quitted tricks may not be inspected (except at the Director’s specific instruction; for example, if necessary to verify a claim of a revoke).

  D. After the Conclusion of Play

  After play ceases, the played and unplayed cards may be inspected to settle a claim of a revoke, or of the number of tricks won or lost; but no player should handle cards other than his own. If the Director can no longer ascertain the facts after such a claim has been made, and only one side has mixed its cards, the Director shall rule in favor of the other side.

Thus there is no value to claiming a revoke prior to conclusion of play, as quitted tricks cannot be inspected until after play completes.


How does Babylons's second stage wonder work for building/discarding your last two cards?

The designer, Antoine Bauza, has responded to this question on BGG, it is as if the Babylon player had two turns. You get to produce resources twice, buy twice from your neighbor, and even receive production from your newly built/discarded 6th card.

Q: When playing both cards in round 6 to build two buildings: Can you use one resource twice for each of the buildings?
A: Yes, it's two different cards, like two different turns... The first could help you to play the second (discard the 6th for money and use the money to play the 7th for example...)

This can also be somewhat surmised from the rules, since you need to have that stage of the wonder built to "use it." (page 9)

Clarification: - during the sixth turn, the player can therefore play both cards they have in hand. If the second stage of the Wonder is not built, the Babylon player can then build it on their sixth turn and then play the seventh card instead of discarding it.


Go - How does one count territory in these two scenarios? (9x9)

You've misunderstood the scoring principle. White is, as you explained, diving the board. But that has no impact on scoring by itself. We often say, misleadingly, "divide the board in areas", but we should really say "stake out territory by surrounding it with walls". Only then can you count the score.

It is a bit tricky at first, but once you grasp it, it's very easy and natural.

$$W Scenario1
$$ --------------------
$$ | b b b X . . . . . |
$$ | b b b X . . . . . |
$$ | X X X X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O O O O O |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | O O O O O . X X X |
$$ | . . . . . . X b b |
$$ | . . . . . . X b b |
$$ --------------------

In your first picture, player 2 has surrounded the corners (I've denoted that with 'b'). However, the other area is not yet finished, because it is not completely inside one player's walls. It is wrong to ask which side belongs to white, because nothing belongs to white yet - she did not surround any territory at all yet!

This means that this area is neutral and does not add score for any player. Instead, the players should continue playing and trying to stake out a wall around this area, naturally as large as possible. Let us try that.

$$W Possible result
$$ --------------------
$$ | b b b X b b X O w |
$$ | b b b X b X X O w |
$$ | X X X X X X O w w |
$$ | b b X . O O O O O |
$$ | X X O O O X X X O |
$$ | . O w w O X b X . |
$$ | O O O O O . X X X |
$$ | w w O X X X X b b |
$$ | w w O X b b X b b |
$$ --------------------

This could be a result. You can see that the previously neutral area has been divided, and both players got a certain share. You can see that now, white also has some area for herself (she had nothing before).

You'll also notice that after resolving, there are still some points on the board which are not controlled be either player. Because these points are too small to surround them, it is not needed to include them. Any player could play a stone there to remove them, but he would not gain any points, because he is not surrounding new territory. (I assume you're using Japanese rules, it's a bit different in Chinese rules.)

In your second picture black has 3 solid areas (2 of them are split into eyes). White, similarly as above, has no definite territory at all yet.


Is it possible for an opponent to have zero deadwood when I gin?

Possible, but unlikely.  It means that your opponent chose to discard when he had Gin.  There is no good reason to do this.
Other explanations:

If both players are dealt a gin hand (very rare).
A misclick.
An opponent that do not know the rules.
A bad AI agent.
In games where the Undercut bonus is larger than the Gin bonus then in some rare cases it might be better to try undercutting instead of making a Gin.
The opponent run out of time, thus an auto-move was played.


Here are a couple EdX options. The first is about game design (both board and computer games). The second focuses on games meant for education.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-game-design-mitx-11-126x
https://www.edx.org/course/design-development-games-learning-mitx-11-127x


What are good tips and suggestions for first-time Junta players?

I guess the best thing you could do is to make sure there is at least one person really familiar with the rules, ideally someone who have played this game not so long ago. It's great to hear you are making effort to make the game more enjoyable for other players, I would like play a game with such game host. So, with your attitude I would say you're half way there.

As I said, I think the best thing you can do is to learn the rules really well, try going over them in your head (prepare yourself for explaining the rules). If possible, try to play the game yourself a few times before the event. I tried to find you a place to play Junta online, but all i got is PBEM version.

This seems to me as a good rules refresher for Junta.


Is rolling to escape a monster required?

No you can't choose to take the Bad Stuff, you must always attempt to Run Away first.

From the Munchkin rules (page 3 under Combat):

  If the monster’s combat strength is equal to yours,
  or greater, you lose the combat and must Run Away

Also from page 5 under Running Away:

  If nobody will help you . . . or if somebody tries to help, and your fellow
  party members interfere so the two of you still cannot win . . . you must Run
  Away.

Note that in both cases they use the word must - you do not have the choice to run away (or not) - you must make the Run Away check, and must include all bonuses from active Races/Classes etc.

However you could still play one shot cards against yourself to change the possible outcome eg. a loaded die to change the die result to a 1, or a lose your class card to remove a class that gives you a bonus to running away.


How to protect a large piece of side territory

The answer is: Don't, unless you really have to.

The situation shown in your question is already solid territory. In this case, adding any inside stone to "protect" your territory further will reduce your score.

You should try to decide if there is anything that can be exploited in your area. Let's see how it is in your case:

$$ Initial position
$$ .............
$$ .....OOOOOOO.
$$ ..XXXOOXOX.XO
$$ OOX..XX.X.X.O
$$ OX.....X...X.
$$ XX.........X.
$$ X..........X.
$$ -------------

As a simple rule of thumb: Imagine your opponent playing all inside forcing moves in sente, then try to find the vital point. Is there a way to live?

$$Wcm1 Is there a way to live? Even if black plays very simple, white cannot do anything after B10.
$$ .............
$$ .....OOOOOOO.
$$ ..XXXOOXOX.XO
$$ OOX.0XX6X4X8O
$$ OX219..X537X.
$$ XX.........X.
$$ X..........X.
$$ -------------

If not — as in this example — do not add stones. If you are unsure, it is good practice to still play away (this is vaguely related to the concept of kiai). As sole exception, if you're far ahead and it's an important game, well, I suppose you may add an inside move to make 110% sure.

Of course, sometimes you do have to defend without question. Usually, you should try to defend actively, by moving out or attacking a weakness of your opponent's stones to make your own stones more secure. If that is impossible, simply add a move at the vital point.

Where is the vital point? Shape sense will tell you. Around 10 kyu you should see spots that defend most or all weaknesses. Until then, there is no recipe, so just keep playing until you've built up enough experience.

Again, as a rule of thumb, try to fix potential cuts, make sure every part of your group has enough eyespace or is solidly connected. If the inside area is very large, play somewhere in the center to make divide the potential invasion space in two fractions, each too small to do anything.


Is this a correct way to count territory in Go (by Chinese rules)?

Those points should count.  There must be a bug in the program.


Is Simic Ascendancy triggered by Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi?

The two actions (adding counters and the permanent type change) are two different steps of the same spell. That means they're executed separately:

  608.2c The controller of the spell or ability follows its instructions in the order written.

There's no rule prohibiting +1/+1 counters on a non-creature permanent. For example, the land Llanowar Reborn enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.

So unfortunately Simic Ascendancy wouldn't trigger, as the counters are put on the land while it's not a creature yet.

Simic Ascendancy would trigger if the land was already also a creature prior to the spell resolving: for example, casting Awakening a second time on the same animated land, or casting it on a land that was animated by Nissa, Who Shakes the World.


Yes. The restriction "with power 2 or less" is something that restricts the valid targets of the ability. As long as the creature has power 2 or less when you activate the ability, and also when the ability resolves, then the ability happens, and the creature cannot be blocked this turn. It doesn't matter what happens to the creature's power after that.

To have the sort of restriction you are thinking of, the ability would need to be something along the lines of "target creature cannot be blocked this turn as long as its power is 2 or less".

Here is the Gatherer ruling on Pathmaker Initiate:

  If the creature’s power is greater than 2 as the activated ability tries to resolve, the ability will be countered and none of its effects will happen. However, if instead the creature’s power is raised above 2 after the ability resolves, it still can’t be blocked that turn.


Your method of adding [Spade-Length] - 3.5 seems reasonable, except I would halve that whenever partner has already made a bid of 4 or higher. Any bid in excess of 3 is very likely to include Spade length, and it is desirable to avoid double-counting that asset.

Even when partner's bid above 3 is solely based on high card strength, that reduces the value of extra Spades in your own hand as you will be attempting to not ruff those assets.

Also, I believe a refinement of the Spades' tricks estimate should consider the presence or absence of a void/singleton in one's hand. Balanced holdings around the table reduce the likelihood of ruffing tricks, while unbalanced holdings increase their likelihood. I'm not yet sure how I would do that.

Here is a table of all the hand pattern probabilities, with the top few (covering nearly 85% of possibilities) excerpted below.

Note that the 4333 pattern is only the fifth most common hand pattern, and the most common is 4432 at over 21%. If we take the 4432 pattern as standard, then we can rank the most common patterns as being either stronger or weaker than the standard (in ascending order of estimated strength:

Distinctly Weaker: Estimates from Contract Bridge analysis suggest at east 0.25 trick weaker

4333 HPS = 2(4-5) + (3-3) = -2

Standard:

4432 HPS = 2(4-5) + (4-2) =  0
5332 HPS = 2(5-5) + (3-2) =  1

Stronger: Estimates from Bridge analysis suggests at least 0.25 tricks stronger than average

5422 HPS = 2(5-5) + (4-2) =  2
6322 HPS = 2(6-5) + (3-2) =  3
5431 HPS = 2(5-5) + (4-1) =  3

Distinctly Stronger: Estimates from Bridge analysis suggest at least 0.5 tricks stronger than average.

6331 HPS = 2(6-5) + (3-1) =  4
6421 HPS = 2(6-5) + (4-1) =  5

In this context stronger should be interpreted as more capable of implementing the desired strategy.  A 6421 hand with short Spades and all its high cards, even if Aces, in the two long suits might be very capable of successfully bidding Nil. Obviously the placement of a hand's high cards is of import as well, as an additional refinement.

Also, these estimates are a priori - before trumps have been established. Clearly a long trump holding (Spades playing Spades) is even more valuable than shown here for winning tricks - but is less able to lose tricks.

One numerical estimate of Hand Pattern Strength would be to take double the excess of the length of the longest suit over 5, plus the excess of the second longest suit over the shortest suit. I have marked this value as HPS for the hand patterns above.

My first attempt at a comprehensive hand evaluation for Spades would be the sum of:

Culbertson Honour Tricks;

HPS (as above) / 4; and
(Spades length - 4) / 2.

That could be further refined, with experience, by adjusting the denominators for the second and third components for HPS and Spades length. When contemplating a Nil bid, consider subtracting the HPS term instead of adding it to the sum.


In Eldritch Horror, do epic monsters have to be encountered before non epic monsters?

I think this is taken from the rules of the Forsaken Lore expansion pack. Those rules say:

Additional Rules
The Forsaken Lore expansion adds new rules as described below.

Combat Encounters
During the Encounter Phase, an investigator must encounter each non-Epic Monster on his space before encountering each Epic Monster on his space.

Do note however, that this is the opposite of this question title. Epic Monsters should be encountered last, not first, according to the expansion rule set.


You're in check.
The black bishop on B7 is currently putting you in check, which means that you must stop that attack on your King.
Your only two legal moves at this time are

Qf3 - blocking the bishop
Kg1 - moving the king away from check


Where I can buy good resources to build games?

Here's a list from BoardGameGeek:

Industry Sources

It should get you started on the path to finding everything you need.


I don't know of any official rulings on the game, but I would not interpret that as a win for Charles.

The sticking point is:

  At the time you kill another character, the total number of dead characters is 3 or more.

So what was the total number of dead characters when you killed the Hunter? Your interpretation is that it was 3, because a Shadow was dead, the Hunter was dead, and Charles was dead.

However, I don't think this works - at the time you killed the Hunter, Charles must have been alive; dead characters can't attack, after all. Thus, Charles would have died after killing the Hunter, which means that at the time you killed the Hunter the total number of dead characters was 2.

Fundamentally, the reason why this situation is confusing is because Charles should not have been able to attack at all. I'm not sure if it's an official rule (I'll check later), but a lot of other game mechanics assume that if you reach maximum damage at any point during your turn, your turn ends and your character is dead - for instance, if you have two health remaining and draw the Spider card, you're dead and your turn ends, you don't get to attack.

Since Charles' ability deals two damage to him first, and then allows him to attack, by triggering your ability you should have simply died without doing anything.

As for the last part of your question, I think there is no way for Charles to be the sole winner in a five player game. As soon as three people who aren't him are dead, the game is over; thus, he either wins a joint victory alongside the Shadows or the Hunters (by taking the last kill), or he doesn't win.


What is the point of Legendary Magician of Dark's effect?

The key difference here is that a duel consists of a single game and also a match consists of a best-of-three duels game. Official Tournaments consist of rounds of matches.

So, with this card if you manage to reduce your opponent's LP to 0 and fulfill the other conditions you win the best-of-three games immediately.

Be aware that Legendary Magician of Dark is one of the Tournament Prize Cards that are awarded to World Tournament Champions. All these have the common trait of making you win the match.

Unfortunately, this cards cannot be used in a oficial tournament; you can only use them on friendly and traditional games, that is, if you have won one of course :)


How fair is an almost perfect riffle shuffle?


Are there different "imperatives" for the four players when choosing starting settlements in Catan?

Catan's initial setup follows a snake draft structure, so the strategies available to the players in different positions are fairly different. As a general rule, the players at the beginning of the settlement placement should focus on the raw production numbers of their settlements while the players towards the end should focus on specific resource combinations.
In the first or second seat, your first settlement will likely have good production numbers and/or good resource combinations. On almost every setup, there will one or two hexes of a fairly rare resource (like brick or ore) with decent production numbers (5, 6, 8, 9). Only one or two of those locations will have good neighboring hexes (a 5, 8, 10 location is much better than a 8, 10, 11). This means that the first few players will likely get the "best" single settlement locations. However, the second settlements will likely be a bunch of leftovers. It's hard to plan for what will be left for the second settlement, so focusing on the best first settlement is the main strategy.
In the fourth seat, the most abundant locations will likely already be taken. However, you get to play your settlements back-to-back. This means that you can choose the best synergy between your two settlements. While your raw resource production will likely be not as good as those with the "best" locations, you'll probably have an easier time getting resource diversity. Strategies like trying to get a 2:1 trader and placing your other settlement on an excellent production location are possible.
Third seat can be awkward to play, but it drafts more like fourth seat than the first two. You just don't get the back-to-back placement, so it can be hard to set up more specialized strategies.


What is the name of this snakes-and-ladders-like race game?

There is a classic game in Spain called "El juego de la Oca", which in english is known as the "Game of The Goose". There are thousands of variants for the board (including bridges, ladders etc.), so maybe you saw a Chinese version