How does Golos, Tireless Pilgrim interact with double-faced cards?

You can't pick a double-faced card that is a land only on the back

Double-faced cards only count as their front face while not on the battlefield. From the rules on double-faced cards:

  711.4a While a double-faced card is outside the game, in a zone other than the battlefield, or on the battlefield with its front face up, it has only the characteristics of its front face.

You cannot choose Gold-Forge Garrison as your land, as its front face is not a land.

I think you're getting DFC rules mixed up with split cards, which do have the attributes of both halves while they're not being cast:

  708.4 In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

A double-faced card you chose would enter front face up

A double-faced card always enters with its front face up unless it enters “transformed”. If you choose a double-faced card that is a land on its front face, like Westvale Abbey, Golos would not put it onto the battlefield transformed, so you would get the front face.

  711.8 A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. If a spell or ability puts it onto the battlefield “transformed,” it enters the battlefield with its back face up.


Statistics on a booster pack (to make my own re-packs)

There is no hard guarantee that a booster will contain X creatures, or X sorceries, or X red cards.

However, the contents of a booster aren't completely random either. Instead, the commons in a booster are heavily influenced by the set's common print runs.

Print runs are easiest to explain by example, so let's look at the print runs for Born of the Gods, a small set. The commons in the set are divided into two lists, with each common showing up in only one list (but appearing twice in that list).

A normal Born of the Gods booster contains 10 commons, made up of 4–6 commons from list A and 4–6 commons from list B. This means that certain combinations of commons are likely to occur together, and other combinations of commons can never occur together.

Now, all of this is probably too much of a hassle to be worth simulating when building your own repacks. I would probably just add 10 random commons from your pool. But print runs are the basis of how real boosters work, both in paper and online.


Is there a 10 player expansion for Settlers of Catan? Where can I get it?

There is a video of a 10 player game.

I don't believe there is anything official, but as the video demonstrates, its just a matter of putting together a couple extra sets to get a playable 10 player game.

I'd imagine the trading rounds would be a bit chaotic though!


Do card abilities that grant mana stack?

The creature has two copies of the ability to tap for mana. However each one is separately activated, and you have to pay by tapping the creature for either of them. So you get a choice: Use the first copy of the ability to tap for one mana, or use the second. You can't use both.

So no, you only can get one mana per creature in this case.


I interpret that card as "Discard means discard. Place in the discard pile."

The action is something that players can do to leave equipment cached for each other.

The mythos card is an act of aggression carried out by the Keeper. It probably costs Threat. There is also zero support in the fiction for a weapon becoming reloaded by being dropped.

EDIT: OK. So, I played Mansions last night for the first time in a while, and came up with this card. It's clearly Discard on the Mythos card and Drop in the Investigator action list. There's no confusion here at all, no interpretation necessary.


Saboteur 1 does seem to be biased towards the "good dwarves" if you don't play it in really cutthroat fashion.  If the good dwarves just cooperate and go for the gold, they will win most of the time.

However, if the good dwarves break each OTHER in order to keep competitors from getting gold, it gives the Saboteurs a much better chance, obviously.

I think Saboteur was designed with an expectation that good dwarves would be more cutthroat and selfish than a lot of groups play them instinctually.

That said, I recommend you pick up Saboteur 2, which adds (and replaces) some cards and roles.  It's much more well-balanced and more consistently fun.


What is the availability of the complete sets Wizards of the Coast is apparently selling?

The picture, and eBay auction you link to is for a set that Wizards sends out as part of Magic Online set redemption. The way this works is if you have all of the cards in a specific set, and it is before the cutoff date for redeeming that set, you can have Wizards remove the set of cards from your MTGO account and mail you a set of physical cards. This video shows the boxes from a set redemption, and what the contents of that boxes look like. These sets are never sold by Wizards, though as this auction shows they can be resold by third parties.

Wizards of the Coast is not selling complete sets of cards. Third party vendors such as Star City Games and Channel Fireball however do. These third party vendors offer the complete sets by opening packs and putting the sets together themselves.

These vendors usually offer these products (the larger ones pretty much always do, smaller ones may or may not, it depends on if they think they can afford to or not), as for how long they offer it it depends entirely on how easy it is to keep in stock, and restock when they sell out. This means in general you can find newer sets for sale, but as you go farther back it is less likely that they will have a complete set in stock.


Can a Beer protect me from Dynamite overkill?

You would have to play 3 beers to wind up with 1 bullet if the dynamite blew up on you with 1 bullet left. Here's an example in the rule book for the beer card that explains it...

  Example. You have 2 life points left, and suffer 3 damages from a Dynamite. If you play 2 Beers you will stay alive with 1 life point left (2-3+2), while you would be eliminated playing only one Beer that would allow you to regain just 1 life point. You would still be at zero!


If I have no creatures in the graveyard, do I nevertheless have one Type of creature?

The effect should not apply. You do not have one Type of monster in your Graveyard; you have zero. This would be different if the card said, say "all monsters in your Graveyard are the same Type" - that statement is certainly vacuously true with an empty Graveyard.

Further, it doesn't even matter. The effect only affects monster of the same Type, and obviously none of your monsters have the same type as... the null set. So even if the condition were satisfied, the card would do nothing.

(Disclaimer: I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh; I'm just reading what the card says.)


"Counter target spell unless its controller pays X" spells

Miscast resolves normally, it just so happens that part of resolving normally in this case involves a thing that may or may not happen. It's similar to if you cast a spell that says "destroy all creatures" (Such as Day of Judgment) while there are no creatures on the battlefield. It would resolve, but its instructions have no effect on the game - although to be more accurate, it did have an effect; it cost your opponent mana.
When Miscast resolves, that's when your opponent gets the choice of whether to pay X or not. Whether they choose to or not, the spell has already resolved. Priority would go to the active player as it always does after a spell resolves. Whether you are the active player or not, you will still get a chance to cast another Miscast or any other instant before your opponent's original spell resolves.

608.2d If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect.

608.2f If an effect gives a player the option to pay mana, they may activate mana abilities before taking that action.

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

117.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.


Here's a pretty comprehensive list of official MTG tokens and similar cards. I can't find a 5/5 Beast on that list.

As a rule of thumb:

Putting tokens in packs only really started around Tenth Edition, and has been done consistently since. The cards from before that are special promos.
In the modern day, sets sold in booster packs have tokens and emblems as some of the inserts (typically mixed with ad and rules tip cards). Pre-built sets like Commander products and Duel Decks may or may not come with token cards.
Wizards of the Coast does not make "copy" tokens (how would you?), but they do print specific tokens with abilities listed on the cards, as well as tokens with variable P/T.

In this case, the cards that produce 5/5 Beasts are from Mirrodin and Commander 2013. Mirrodin came before Tenth Edition, while Commander 2013 is a non-randomized set that didn't include tokens.


Maelstrom Pulse, targeting a face-down creature. Does it destroy other face-down creatures?

A Gatherer ruling on Maelstrom Pulse addresses this:

  A face-down creature has no name, so it doesn’t have the same name as anything else.

So, if you target a face-down creature with Maelstrom Pulse, nothing else will be destroyed.


A battery-operated card shuffler can shuffle any deck of cards of width/height 1/2 the size of the bay all the way up to the full width/height of the bay. Slightly smaller cards shouldn't be an issue, but I've never seen one larger than a standard deck.


How to play Werewolf/Mafia with exactly 6 players?

I've found one option I overlooked until after I asked this question.

It appears that the "good" side has a 44.4% chance of winning if all votes are random, they have the option to not lynch someone on a particular day, and there is only 1 mafioso. A large portion of this, however, relies on the 16.7% chance they successfully guess the mafioso at their first vote. This would make it more of a "serial killer" game.  This is far better than I initially thought.

I suspect it might be most fun if players are told they only win if they survive, multiple rounds are played, and they can lynch as many players as they like on a particular day as long as each defendant received a quorum of the votes as required in the original mafia game.

This answer is only speculative and, therefore, not a good answer.


Can a dead player have life restored later to bring them back into the game?

A player at 0 life loses the game permanently. Everything they own (including e.g. permanents that are under someone else's control) vanishes from the game; neither the player nor their stuff is a legal target anymore.
From the Comprehensive Rules:

104.3b If a player’s life total is 0 or less, he or she loses the game the next time a player would receive priority.
104.5. If a player loses the game, he or she leaves the game.

If you want more specifics on what happens when a player leaves the game, see rule 800.4.


How likely am I to have a key card in my starting hand in Brawl?

The first mulligan is free in Brawl[CR 903.11g], so it's 3 mulligans leaves you with 5 cards. I shall reply accordingly.

After removing the Commander, 59 cards remain in the deck. 58 of those aren't the card.

The probability that the 1st card drawn isn't the card is 58/59.
The probability that the 2nd card drawn also isn't the card is 57/58.
The probability that the 3rd card drawn also isn't the card is 56/57.
etc.

So the probability that you don't have the card in your opening hand
= (58/59)*(57/58)*(56/57)*(55/56)*(54/55)*(53/54)*(52/53)
= (58*57*56*55*54*53*52)/(59*58*57*56*55*54*53)
= 52/59

Since you draw seven card from a freshly shuffled deck when taking a mulligan, the probably of not getting the card in a mulligan is the same as for the initial hand.

So the probability that you don't have the card after up to three mulligans
= (52/59)^4
= 60%

The probability that you do have the the card after up to three mulligans
= 1 - 60%
= 40%

Probabilities are easy to get wrong, so I like to verify through experimentation.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use List::Util qw( shuffle );

use constant NUM_TRIALS => 10_000;

my @deck = ( 1, (0)x58 );
my $successes = 0;
for (1..NUM_TRIALS) {
   for (7,7,6,5) {
      if ( grep { $_ } ( shuffle(@deck) )[0..6] ) {
         ++$successes;
         last;
      }
   }
}

printf("%.0f%%\n", $successes/NUM_TRIALS * 100);

Output:

$ ./a
40%

$ ./a
40%

$ ./a
39%

The current rules for mulligans:

  103.4. Each player draws a number of cards equal to their starting hand size, which is normally seven. (Some effects can modify a player’s starting hand size.) A player who is dissatisfied with their initial hand may take a mulligan. First, the starting player declares whether they will take a mulligan. Then each other player in turn order does the same. Once each player has made a declaration, all players who decided to take mulligans do so at the same time. To take a mulligan, a player shuffles the cards in their hand back into their library, draws a new hand of cards equal to their starting hand size, then puts a number of those cards equal to the number of times that player has taken a mulligan on the bottom of their library in any order. Once a player chooses not to take a mulligan, the remaining cards become that player’s opening hand, and that player may not take any further mulligans. This process is then repeated until no player takes a mulligan. A player can take mulligans until their opening hand would be zero cards, after which they may not take further mulligans.

  903.11g In any Brawl game, the first mulligan a player takes doesn’t count toward the number of cards that player will put on the bottom of their library or the number of mulligans that player may take. Subsequent mulligans are counted toward these numbers as normal.

(Emphasis mine.)


Can you identify this likely chess variant?

Michael Ireland, the person who posted their copy on chessvairants.com, remembered some details, and replied with some added information (original post here). I will quote it here:

Viking Chess Rules as best as they can be remembered – November 28, 2020
The goal of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king as in regular chess.
Board: The board is made up of "rings" linking "crosses" (the spaces).  There is a centre >space, the “star”, in the middle.
Pieces: There is a king, 2 rooks (flat tops), 2 bishops (spikes) and 4 pawns per side.
All pieces start off the board.
On their first turn (white goes first) each player places their king anywhere on the >board on any space except the centre space (I believe that no piece could start on the >centre star because it gives too much of an advantage to start there - but I am not 100% >certain of the rule).
In the second and subsequent turns, each player can either move an existing piece on the >board or bring another piece onto the board as per turn 1.
Different pieces move differently as follows:

Pawn moves one space in any direction
Rook moves up to 3 spaces up or down, or one space to the side
Bishop moves up to 3 spaces around one of the rings, or one space up or down.
King can move up to 3 spaces in any direction up or down

Once placed on the board a piece can enter the centre space or through it.
A player takes an opponent's piece by moving a piece into their opponent's piece's space.  >Once a piece is removed from the board it cannot return.  I do not believe there is a >rule to promote a pawn to a Bishop or Rook.
The King is the strongest piece on the board combining both the Rook's move (3 up or >down) and the Bishop's move (3 around a ring in either direction).
If the King is taken/mated the game is over.


Reaction cards in response to reaction cards

The key point is that you're not reacting to the reaction cards. Rather, you're reacting to what happens after those reactions resolve. Thus there is no "going back".

There actually isn't nesting in your examples. This is what should happen for your 2nd paragraph example. I've indented the reactions

Buy Ill-Gotten Gains.
Gain Ill-Gotten Gains.
Other players gain curse (triggered).
    Watchtower: trash Ill-Gotten Gains
Ill-Gotten Gains goes to trash.
    Market Square: discard to gain Gold
Discard Market Square.
Gold gained.
     Watchtower: put gold on top of deck.
Gold goes to top of deck.

There is no nesting; events are purely sequential. The cursing for buying Ill-Gotten Gains should happen as soon as you buy it (think of it like a "triggered event" in MtG if that helps). When you use the Watchtower, you're no longer gaining Ill-Gotten Gains, but your opponents have already taken their curses.

First paragraph example:

Buy a card (say, a Copper).
Would gain Copper*...
    Trader: gain Silver instead
Gain Silver.
    Watchtower: trash Silver
Silver goes to trash.
    Market Square: discard to gain Gold
Discard Market Square.
Gain Gold.
    Watchtower: top-deck card just gained.
Gold goes on top of deck.

Reaction cards are revealed sequentially, and their owner may choose whether to reveal them and in what order. (As the old Isotropic server demonstrated sometimes annoyingly, but very effectively, you can even reveal reaction cards multiple times. You can reveal moat 4 times for the same effect as revealing it once.

This is why, for cards like Horse Traders or Market Square which could have a compounding effect if revealed more than once, using the reaction requires you to remove it from your hand.

Hopefully things will stay sane and the upcoming Guilds expansion won't introduce a reaction card that can be revealed in response to someone else revealing a reaction card. On second thought maybe that would be fun...  Unless that happens though, there's no nesting, just a sequence of reactions.

(*Trader footnote) Note that Trader is special: it's wording is "When you would gain a card," and the Hinterlands rules state explicitly that if something would have happened due to gaining the other card, it does not happen. Thus Trader is like an MtG replacement effect for gaining a card. The original card is never gained. With Watchtower, you gain the original card, then send it to the trash.


When a card refers to it's own name in text, it isn't actually referring to cards with that name; it's referring to itself.

So Vector Asp's activated ability actually means: "{B}: This Card gains infect until end of turn". You can attack with both Vector Asps, and activate each ability separately, to give one, both or neither of them infect.

Some cards will refer to other cards with a certain name, but this is usually formatted as "... a card named ~" (eg. Accumulated Knowledge).


Do geologists ever count as "winners" in Saboteur 2?

No.  The geologist does not count as a winner.

As noted in the rules, they are indifferent as to who wins and loses, caring only about the crystals.


Citadels Bell Tower and end game conditions

If you can pay for the district card (and don't already have it in your city), yes, you can build it. You can do this whether or not you have seven districts and whether or not another player has 7 districts.

When you do, you MAY announce that the game will end at seven districts (but you don't have to).

Card text (from Dark City expansion version in 2008), emphasis added :

  Bell Tower
  Purple - Cost 5
  When you place the Bell Tower in your city,
  you may announce that the game will end after the round in which a
  player first places his seventh district. You may do this even if the
  Bell Tower is your seventh district. If the Bell Tower is later
  destroyed, the game end conditions return to normal.

If you do announce it, then yes, the Bell Tower in play and another player having 7 districts will end the game, yes.

If you don't intend to end the game at this time, though, you're free not to announce the change to 7.

EDIT: Regarding the "MAY" indicating that the effect is optional (see comments, where it was suggested that "not announcing would be so you could pull it out as a surprise, not that not announcing meant it didn't happen."):

Yes, not announcing it means not changing it. Otherwise it wouldn't be worded with "may announce" at all, but rather with something like: " The game will end after the round...seventh district. If the Bell Tower is destroyed, ... return to normal." (This would also run counter to every other district: there are no hidden effects. "play from the table, not from your chair" as the hustlers say.)

If you want to get really lawyery with the text, you could wrangle out that there's no change at all even if you do announce: the text allows you to announce but has no text saying that the rules actually change. (although it does have text that will "return to normal" from this non-change). No one but lawyers would believe that line of reasoning, of course, but it does help illustrate the effect of the text as written.

The only other place I could find that addressed the question (either in agreement with "optional" or not) is this post on BGG , which agrees:

  The fact that the text says "may" indicates that using the district's
  ability is optional; however the fact that it says "When you place
  ..." indicates (to me) that you can only do this whan the district is
  built - if you don't do it then you have passed on the card's ability
  forever (well, for the duration of that game).


Does Curator's Ward trigger when a creature it enchants and Curator's Ward get removed at (seemingly) the same time?

Does the creature and Curator's Ward get returned at the same time?

Yes. They are all returned to your hand simultaneously.

  ...meaning that Curator's Ward's card draw effect doesn't trigger?

Now this is where it gets interesting. For most triggers, the permanent watching for the trigger event must be on the battlefield just after the event occurs. But for some triggers, this doesn't work. Think about a creature with "When ~ dies, [do something]". If we went by the general rule for this ability, it would never trigger, since just after the event happened the creature is already in the graveyard.

For this reason, some kinds of triggers are given an exception. These triggers "look back in time" and determine if they trigger based on whether the ability existed just before the event happened. Leave-the-battlefield triggers such as the one on Curator's Ward are one kind of such triggers.

This is all to say that even though Ward is returned at the same time as the enchanted creature, its ability will trigger none the less.

Relevant CR:

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

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

      Example: Two creatures are on the battlefield along with an artifact that has the ability "Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life." Someone casts a spell that destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. The artifact's ability triggers twice, even though the artifact goes to its owner's graveyard at the same time as the creatures.


What are my odds of drawing the rest of my deck

50%

Symbolizing the cards that give you a draw a D, and the cards that do not as N, there are 6 possible permutations of draw vs no-draw.

In each permutation, the second N card represents the farthest you can get through your deck on this turn.  I have bolded it for easier visibility.

DDNN

DNDN

DNND

NDDN

NDND

NNDD


Magic: the Gathering, EDH/Commander - Official Rules List?

The rules for Commander can be found in the Comprehensive Rulebook section 903. The comprehensive rules are officially published by Wizards here. The banlist for Commander can be found in a section of the official Banned and Restricted list. Rule 903.1 indicates that MTGCommander.net is also an official source for information about Commander, and both the banlist and a summary of the rules can be found there.


How does the Commander 2018 Storm cycle work with Partner commanders?

It would count all 7 times.

  702.123e If an effect refers to your commander while you have two commanders, it refers to either one. If an effect causes you to perform an action on your commander and it could affect both, you choose which it refers to at the time the effect is applied.

"It refers to either one"... so in this case we can treat the ability as:

  When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you've cast [either one of your commanders] from the command zone this game.

In other words, it is how many times have you done the act of "casting your commander from the command zone".

This has been confirmed by Gavin Verhey, a Senior Magic: The Gathering Designer at Wizards of the Coast, on Twitter:

  I double checked with rules manager @EliShffrn and indeed: you get a copy for each time you have cast any of yout partners. So if you have cast Pir and Toothy each once, you will receive two copies. :)

Also, (thanks @Jorn), the "Designing Commander" article specifically backs this up:

  These "commander storm" cards have quite the history. Handed off from design, the effects changed quite a bit, but the key mechanic didn't: caring about how many times you cast your commander. (Also, yes, these do work really well with partner commanders like those found in Battlebond!) This mechanic was a lot of fun!


Pulling double after Weak 2 and competition

I would never pull a double on that auction, regardless of my hand. "The book of rebids by preempter is 1000 pages long, and they're all blank," as the saying goes. Responder is the captain on this auction, and the double is not cooperative. If I'm not willing to sit this double, I shouldn't have opened.
West's double is a bit aggressive, but not terribly so at matchpoints. The AQx in hearts is a great holding, and the three clubs are at least trumps not held by the opponents and a good opening lead. The diamonds are also likely worth a couple of tricks. You're counting on a favorable layout or perhaps a trick from partner, not an unreasonable hope at these colors. The diamond king in dummy would be very unwelcome.


Legend of Drizzt "Cavern Tile" triangle color

When you place a tile with a black triangle you are also supposed to draw an encounter card during the Villain phase, so tiles with black triangles definitely can be more dangerous than those with white triangles.

From page 6 of the rulebook (right column, top of page):

  Triangles: Each tile features a triangle. When you place a new
  tile, the triangle points toward the unexplored edge of the tile
  it is attached to. If the tile has a black triangle, you draw an
  Encounter card during the Villain Phase of your turn.

And from page 8, Villain Phase, point 1:

  If you didn’t place a Cavern tile in your Exploration Phase,
  or if you placed a Cavern tile with a black triangle, draw
  and play an Encounter card.


In Bridge, What's the Difference Between the Blackwood And Gerber Conventions?

Blackwood is used for suit contracts, while Gerber is used for Notrump contracts.  This was a necessary evil based on how Blackwood develops.

Say we have established that we should be in Notrump, and I want to try for slam.  If I bid 4NT Blackwood, and find out that we are missing 2 Aces, how can I sign off?  5NT would ask for Kings, and 6NT is obviously too high.  There's no way to bid a safe level of Notrump anymore.  By using the Gerber 4C bid, I can sign off in 4NT if we are missing two aces.


In Diplomacy, will I be "cornered" as Turkey if I don't use the "juggernaut" opening?

Well the answer to the question literally posed in the title is yes. You can be boxed in, but this will not necessarily happen. Hey, even if you do ally with Russia, Austria and Italy can put up an effective blockade keeping you in the corner.

It is certainly a viable strategy with significant growth opportunities to ally with either Austria or Italy. (Maybe you really should be asking Don Scheifler and not me, since he soloed as Turkey off the back of an Austrian-Turkish alliance at the recent World Championships).

The key, as always, is to try to keep your growth paths open while keeping your allies busy so that they can't afford to stab you. Of course the other six players are trying to do the same thing...

To look at the particular senario you bring up of an alliance with Austria. OK so you've got the Russian neutralised and say picked up SEV in the process (which is a great longterm gain), then barring western intervention (and this is the key), you and Austria are favourites to roll through Italy. Yes a stab is a risk, but this is the case in any alliance. Arguably an Austrian stab is less likely to be devastating than a Russian stab, since under normal circumstances Turkish home centres can't be taken without fleet power which Austria is unlikely to posess. Just keep your ally busy and then they won't have the units free to stab you (or you could be the stabber).


What can be played during an opponents turn?

When can I cast a spell?
Basically:

You can cast instants and flash spells — and activate abilities — whenever you have priority.

You can cast other spells during your main phase, when the stack is empty (i.e. there are no other spells or ability waiting to resolve) and you have priority (see the next section).

Some cards (e.g. Unexpected Results) will allow to cast spells at other times too.

From the Comprehensive Rules:

116.1a A player may cast an instant spell any time he or she has priority. A player may cast a noninstant spell during his or her main phase any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty.
702.8a Flash is a static ability that functions in any zone from which you could play the card it’s on.
“Flash” means “You may play this card any time you could cast an instant.”

There's no such thing as a Sorcery-based counter. It wouldn't work with the rules: you can only counter something when it's on the stack, and you normally can't cast a Sorcery spell when something else is on the stack.
Priority (the short version)
Priority is Magic's system for sequencing plays so that each player has time to think about their actions, when they need it. The most important things you need to know are:

Each player must give the other the opportunity to respond.
The active player always gets the first opportunity to cast something during the phases of his or her own turn.
Once we've begun to resolve a spell or ability, we must follow all the instructions in order before we can do anything else. (For example, if you cast Duress on me, we must do these three things in sequence: I reveal my hand, you pick a card, I discard it. I can't interrupt the game to cast the Lightning Bolt you just picked.)

See page 30 in the Basic Rulebook or section 116 in the Comprehensive Rules for a more detailed definition of priority.
How do I fight a deck full of counterspells?
Counterspells really aren't all-powerful. They're an important part of the game and central to some of the best decks, but, on their own, they really can't carry the day.

Counterspells are reactive. I can't kill you with a counterspell. All I do is disrupt your plays. I need to do something else to actually capitalize on that.

You can only counter something when it's on the stack. If I draw my Cancel a turn after you cast your Ember Swallower, there's nothing I can do; whereas if I draw a Doom Blade at any time, I can use just kill the creature.

In order to counter something you play on your turn, I have to have mana available. That means not casting much stuff on my own turn. I can work around that by building a deck that has a lot of cards I can play at instant speed (like Doom Blade, Sphinx's Revelation, Restoration Angel), but there is an opportunity cost there.

Counterspells are one-for-one. You play a card, I counter it. We're both down a card. That only keeps us at parity. I'll need something else to pull ahead.

So, why do people play counterspells instead of just Doom Blades, then? Counterspells have several things going for them:

Many counterspells can answer a broad variety of cards. Putting a few counters in my deck gives me the flexible cards that can interact with creatures, enchantments, sorceries, planeswalkers, &c.

Countermagic cancel out death triggers and "enters the battlefield" abilities, and can beat cards with protective abilities like hexproof. Casting Doom Blade on a Thragtusk feels a lot like losing; countering one is much nicer.

Most of the competitive decks that play counterspells play them as part of a general suite. They rely on countermagic for flexibility against a lot of deck types (such as decks that win without using creatures), but also use cards like Supreme Verdict, Doom Blade, and Wear // Tear because of the greater efficiency and timing flexibility that they offer.
"Proactive" decks that really want to curve out efficiently are generally better off using discard spells (Duress, Thoughtseize) rather than counterspells. These allows you to you mess with an opponent's strategy — particularly a combo deck — on your own timetable rather than having to wait for them to cast their most important cards.
This answer discusses some specific tactics you can use if you're having trouble against a deck with significant counterspells.
"But my counterspell says it's a Sorcery!"

There was an old Magic set called Portal. It was an attempt to create an easier-to-use introductory product for the game. This set didn't include Instants and really didn't talk about the stack. So instead they'd do stuff like print a Sorcery with special timing rules and bend over backwards to avoid using core game terminology like "counter," "target," and "spell."
I don't recommend using Portal to learn Magic. I very, very much don't recommend it. The terminology is all messed up, the cards are terribly wordy and unclear, and you really won't learn most of what you need to learn to play actual Magic. It's easiest to learn basic Magic using recent sets and the Basic Rulebook (PDF), or playing one of the Duels of the Planeswalkers video game.
Portal cards are playable in regular Magic, but you sort of have to read between the lines and figure out how the card is "really" supposed to be worded. (In general, when you see a card that's just like, "What the heck!?" you should look it up on Gatherer. Oftentimes you can find updated wording that's clearer than the original card text, as well as rulings that help explain common questions people have about the card.)


Will a developer fix a (small) broken mechanic, or should I fix it before the submission process begins?

You should fix it before submitting the game.

The developer will have plenty of work to do anyway, from working on issues you're not even aware of, to tweaking factors to bring the game closer into line with the publisher's target audience. The better your game is before you submit it, the more likely that first play will be fun enough to make the publisher take interest.


Fury of Dracula 3rd ed. - Defeated Hunter and Skipping Actions

Correct. When you are defeated you determine the closest hospital (the one that is the fewest roads away) and then the figure is removed from the board and placed at the hospital at the next dawn.

If the combat was at dusk, the hunter only skips the night action. If the hunter If the hunter is defeated at dawn they would end up losing both their next night and day action.


How Is the Magic Core Set 2015 "Deck Builder's Toolkit" Different From Other Core Set Offerings With Respect To Cards?

It depends on what cards you have and what you are interested in becoming.

If you are a beginning Magic player (i.e., you have no cards at all) then I would suggest getting the Deck Builder's Toolkit. This includes plenty of cards from all 5 colors, and you can easily craft a (fairly weak) deck from what you get out of it.

It should also come with 4 booster packs, which is nice, and the 100 lands, which you will really need. However, you will probably only get 4 rares out of the kit (the 4 rares from the booster pack).

If you at least have a collection of Magic cards, and want to get powerful rares, I would suggest getting a fat pack. They include 9 booster packs, so you are guaranteed at least 9 rares, though you have a good chance at getting foil rares or mythic rares (or both!). You will also get 80 lands, which is nice.

  Does the toolkit have inferior cards compared to the fat pack?

The toolkit will come with 5 rares in the fixed card pool, plus 4-5 rares from the booster packs — and you will get a good amount of decent uncommons and commons to work with. The fat pack will come with at least 9 rares with a high chance of pulling a mythic rare, and will also include 27 uncommons.

  If I were to compete with just cards from the deck builder's toolkit, would I be at a horrible disadvantage?

It all depends on who you are playing with. Just playing kitchen table Magic, you should be fine if you play with people who buy basic decks. However, at a tournament, you will get eaten alive by pretty much everyone. (Even some casual players with decent decks will destroy you.)

Also note, buying a fat pack is not really a good way to start, either, because although you will get those powerful cards you need in a deck, you won't get the "backbone" that your deck needs to survive. For example, you may get a powerful late game card from the fat pack, but if you don't have the cards to stay alive that long, that card is pretty much worthless in your deck. The Deck Builder's Toolkit has cards to help you in that circumstance.

In conclusion: it all depends on your circumstance. If you have no cards at the moment, buy a Deck Builder's Toolkit. If you have a good base of cards to work with, buy a Fat Pack. (If you have the money, I would suggest buying both!)


Do you lose the counters on Azor's Elocutors if it's returned to your hand?

Yes, you lose the counters.

121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.
400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

So the Elocutors that’s in your hand has nothing to do with the one you previously had on the battlefield.
There is one card that overrides this rule: Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, but even that won’t keep counters in your hand. It really can’t, because the hand is a hidden zone. There would be no way of tracking which card it is that has the counters on it; keeping it separate from another card of the same name.


They are old versions of the tap symbol.

As it is explained in this article posted on Daily MTG, the symbol with the T is the tap symbol from Revised through Fallen Empires and the one with the rectangle is the tap symbol from 4th Edition through Scourge.

The article includes an image with old versions of Royal Assassin making it pretty intuitive that they're tap symbols:


Does Curse of Exhaustion and Possibility Storm hard lock your opponent out of casting anything?

It's not a total lock, but it's a pretty strong lock. If they cast anything from their hand, then yes, Possibility Storm will exile it and give them a replacement that they can't cast. Note that Possibility Storm only applies to casting from their hand, though. There's plenty of mechanics that cast a card from other zones (e.g. flashback, suspend, madness) that can get around this combo.


Why would Kathril, Aspect Warper's ability grant multiple hexproof counters?

Kathril will create a separate counter for each variant of hexproof creatures in your graveyard have. In the same vein, Odric will give your creatures each variant of hexproof a creature you control have.
The reason Kathril, Odric and cards similar to them work the way they do is because of the following rule:

702.1c. An effect may state that "the same is true for" a list of keyword abilities or similar. If one of those keyword abilities has variants or variables and the effect grants that keyword or counters of that keyword to one or more objects and/or players, it grants each appropriate variant and variable of that keyword.

Add to that the rule saying

702.11d. "Hexproof from [quality]" is a variant of the hexproof ability [...]

and we see why Kathril gives "hexproof from" counters and Odric gives "hexproof from" to creatures. If we look at the definition of landwalk,

702.14a. Landwalk is a generic term that appears within an object's rules text as "[type]walk," where [type] is usually a subtype, but can be the card type land, any land type, any supertype, or any combination thereof.

I think you'll agree that plainswalk, islandwalk etc. are variants of landwalk, and thus Cairn Wanderer gains all that are present (with the same reasoning used for protection).


The problem with Cylon Leaders is that in general they're going to unbalance the game or have no effect, since a cylon wins in a six player game is impossible at times(especially with the CFB) The notion of each card having both a human and cylon win condition is interesting, but it could just leave you where you started by unbalancing the game if they have a choice in who wins. However creating custom agendas is not a bad idea and it is something that should be pursued. Also something to keep in mind is that you could create agendas where the CL is trying to do something and it does not matter if humans or cylons win.


This sounds a lot like Picture Gallery Solitaire, a game that was put out for Palm.

I believe you can find an implementation on SourceForge.


Does monetary loss to everyone not affect your partner?

If you are playing by the official Cities rules, it clearly states

  When a player puts in play a card which causes a monetary loss, the
  player’s  teammate must also pay that loss.

The thread you are referencing is talking about differences between the official rules and some unofficial team rules, stating that in their unofficial rules, the teammate does not have to pay the loss.


15mm isn't actually 1/100 scale.  It's closer to 1/107.  You would actually need to increase all ranges and movement by about 49% for the scaling to work out. You would also need to increase your play area from the standard 6' x 4' to about 9' x 7.5'.  Otherwise your units would cross the board too quickly and mess with the scenario balance.

Base sizes become:

Small 1.86" x 1.49"
Medium 2.98" X 1.86"
Large 3.72" X 2.98"

With that, everything should be proportional and work out to be the same mechanically.  If you have a bad back, that table size could be problematic.

I think you may run into cost issues collecting armies at that scale.  Plus you'll lose the ability for quick pickup games and tournament play.  There are a few new producers of 15mm miniatures such as Plastic Solider Company that have moved to digital sculpting and injection plastic.  The detail on these models is much crisper than the hand sculpted models you are used to.  You may want to check those out before committing to using 1/72 scale.

If you want to stay at the larger scale, I suggest looking to a game like Bolt Action witch is designed for larger models(in this case 25mm).


Head and foot is a game that uses multiple deck and has no required accessories or board.


Is there a Magic card that rearranges the stack?

No, there is no such card.

This search lists all cards interacting with the stack, excluding Split Second, ending the turn, and cards from Un-sets.


Does "creature with flying" count creatures that gained flying from an enchantment?

Yes. A "creature with flying" is any creature that currently has the ability "flying" for any reason - whether its own card text, an enchantment, or even a temporary source like Aerial Maneuver which grants flying until end of turn.


How does Ixalan's Binding work against God Eternals?

One of the Rulings below Ixalan's Binding says:

If there is no exiled card (perhaps because the exiled permanent was a token or was a commander that moved to the command zone in the Commander variant), Ixalan’s Binding won’t stop players from casting spells.

Both the effects of God-Eternals and Wasteland Strangler will stop the second effect of Ixalan's Binding. The relevant rule is:

Linked Abilities

607.1. An object may have two abilities printed on it such that one of them causes actions to be taken or objects or players to be affected and the other one directly refers to those actions, objects, or players. If so, these two abilities are linked: the second refers only to actions that were taken or objects or players that were affected by the first, and not by any other ability.
607.2a If an object has an activated or triggered ability printed on it that instructs a player to exile one or more cards and an ability printed on it that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards “exiled with [this object],” these abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to cards in the exile zone that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability.

(emphasis mine) – basically, as soon as the card leaves the exile zone one way or the other, Ixalan's Binding stops keeping track of it. Re-exiled cards don't activate the ability again, thanks to the last sentence "that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability."


What happens when I copy a legendary creature with Rite of Replication?

The token will enter the battlefield when the spell resolves and, the next time any player would receive priority, you'd have to choose one of the legendary permanents to stay on the battlefield. The copies would then be put into your graveyard.

This is governed by rule 704.5j:

  If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards.

This will happen the next time you would receive priority because it's a state-based action:

  704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 117, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.[...]

As a side note, like @Gendolkari mentioned, this interaction is no different than simply casting another copy of a legendary permanent you already have on the battlefield. In this case, the exact same rulings will apply.


Yes you can still reserve without being able to get a gold (some disadvantage: you get the card, but not the gold)
Yes you can still take gem tokens when there are fewer than three colors left (obviously you might get fewer than normal).

Combining these two leads to a useful money-starvation strategy (esp. in 3-player games) if there is some critical color needed for either the nobles or the middle/top row cards. Reserve up to three of the critical color-generating cards (from any rows) and leave the other player with junk in the first row and excessively expensive junk in the middle row. When you run of gold, the other players are then forced to either buy junk, pick up useless color coins, reserve without getting gold, or even gamble by reserving a random (face-down) card.

Even better if you time things so that when you do purchase the cards you've reserved and return useful coins to the supply, they are near their 10-coin limit so can't (net) pick up many coins in that turn, letting you try to get your useful money back before they can get it :) and continue the money-starvation for even more rounds (you can't do that with 4+ players, someone will pick up the useful money).

In a 3-player game, if two of you collude you can mess up the third player.

In one extreme case of a game I played, 10 of the 12 face-up cards ended up being black-producing, which was totally useless for nobles and top row.


It's not the Capo that breaks ties, etc. It's the player with the Capo ring. This is described in a couple sections of the rules, seen below.

Controlling the Capo
The player that controls the Capo immediately takes the Capo (First
player) Ring. If no one controls the Capo, the player who currently has
the Capo Ring retains it. The Capo Ring moves as soon as a new player
has the most Influence markers on the current Capo – even if it is in the
middle of a phase!

Also, later, in the Position Special Powers section:

Since the tie breaking power is tied to the Capo ring, not the position, it
cannot be canceled.

In your case, the player who previously controlled the Capo (previous to the whackening) will retain the Capo ring and, thus, retains the affiliated tie-breaking power, etc.


How can I quickly estimate my level in go by playing against a computer/tablet?

There are several rating systems, for most players their KGS rating and EGF rating will be different, and it can be different from national rating systems (e.g. it is often assumed that French and British ratings for the same player are 2 stones different). So, in a sense, your question cannot be answered unless you specify the rating system you want to be measured against.

The benchmark could be a KGS rating, because KGS is so widely used. The best way to know your rating is to play on KGS with the real players, and KGS will answer your question.

It might be more psychologically comfortable to play against robots, but, from a personal experience, I would not recommend it, they do not help you to improve at the rate that the games against humans will. Also, they have flaws that you might identify and this will allow you to win the games against these robots, but this won't translate in your improved ability to play against humans.


This is the answer from Loney Labs (Alison Looney)

  We would rule that you can use the power of a Keeper as soon as you
  play it.  There's no way it would depend upon keeper or hand limits,
  or play rules.  Your turn is not over until you have taken all
  optional extra actions, including those based on special Keeper powers
  and extra actions on Rules.  So, as soon as you play that Keeper (or
  that Rule) you can do what it says you can do, because your turn is
  not over until you have taken (or decided not to take) that optional
  extra action.

  It may happen that a Keeper power has no effect at a given time.
  Example: in Star Fluxx, you could steal a crew member with the Captain
  as soon as you play the Captain - but if no other players have crew
  members on the table to steal, then that's not going to be an option.
  Another example: In Zombie Fluxx you could kill a Zombie with your
  Shotgun as soon as you play the Shotgun, but if there are no Zombies
  to kill, obviously nothing's going to happen.


How do you set up ports when you don't use the new "frames"

In the 3-4 player game you start with placing a port on the hexside at the end of a long (5 piece) row.  You then place a port every other space around the map.  Each port is placed oriented towards the hexside of the longest row it is next to.

In the 5-6 player game it is more complicated.  Here is a snapshot of the rules so you can see how to place the ports correctly:


Why does negating Lady Assailant of Flames' effect still require banishing cards?

As the only time this card was released was back in 2003, it is using an older wording standard. This effect can be broken up into two pieces:

  Remove 3 cards from the top of your Deck from play

and

  inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points.

The key point of this effect is that it uses the word "to," which was the old way to indicate a cost. "[Do X] to [Do Y]" - X is the cost, and Y is the effect. Modern cards use a semi-colon instead of the word "to" to make a cost more explicit. If this card were re-released, its text would likely read like this:

  FLIP: Banish the top 3 cards of your Deck; inflict 800 damage to your opponent.

(These rewordings were done using a standard Konami called "Problem-Solving Card Text": an overhaul of effect wording to help clarify scenarios like this. Specifically, see bullet point 2 under "Action Structure" of this page for the guideline that relates to identifying costs)

When an effect is negated, paying its costs are not (see Activation Cost, paragraph 4), . Since this card does not use wording that implies using this effect is optional (such as "You may remove 3 cards...", see paragraph 3 of that previous link), the effect must be activated and its costs paid unless it is impossible to pay the cost (such as if you had less than 3 cards in your deck). Element Saurus then negates only the effect part.


Does Dryad Arbor remain a creature with Blood Sun in play?

Yes, it's still a creature, because Blood Sun causes it only to loose non-mana abilities. The Creature subtype is not an ability.


Dictionary for Scrabble that doesn't contain ridiculous words

Every dictionary has words that would be considered "ridiculous" in it. You can choose to have an arbitrary subset of ridiculous words, but that doesn't really improve the situation any. Most of these are in every reasonably-sized dictionary anyway (e.g. how do you feel about ZAX?).

There are a small enough number of 2-letter words that you can ban them on an individual basis (i.e. no QI, XU, XI, or ZA), or make a whitelist (these are the only 2-letter words we're allowing). If you do this and just use the regular Scrabble dictionary for everything else, you'll substantially lessen the edge of people who study the official word list, without suffering the problems of using a small dictionary that might exclude actual words.


What does "Return (card of the same name) from graveyard" mean?

That ability can only be activated when Haunted Dead is in your graveyard, and will only return the specific Haunted Dead whose ability was activated to the batttlefield.
When a card refers to itself by name what it really means is 'this card', and not any other cards that may have the same name. If it effected other cards with the same name it would specifically say 'cards named X'.
Normally an ability only works on the battlefield, however there are a few exceptions. The one that is relevant here starts that if an effect would move a card out of one zone and into another it can only be activated while the card is in the first zone.

201.4. Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.
112.6. 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:
112.6k An ability whose cost or effect specifies that it moves the object it’s on out of a particular zone functions only in that zone, unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone. The same is true if the effect of that ability creates a delayed triggered ability whose effect moves the object out of a particular zone.


Does Homing Sliver give other Slivers slivercycling even before it's been cast?

Homing Sliver only affects other Sliver cards when it is in play. The ability that says

  Each Sliver card in each player's hand has slivercycling {3}

is a static ability. Rule 604.2 says

  These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 112.6.

This ability does not match any of the exceptions mentioned in rule 112.6, so it is only active as long as the Homing Sliver is on the battlefield.

Note that as long as Homing Sliver is on the battlefield, every Sliver card in each player's hand has the activated ability slivercycling, which does work from the hand because it matches rule 112.6i:

  An object's activated ability that has a cost that can't be paid while the object is on the battlefield functions from any zone in which its cost can be paid.


The following cards in black and green will allow you to search your library for a sorcery, and possibly other cards:

Bringer of the Black Dawn
Cruel Tutor
Demonic Collusion
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Intent
Diabolic Revelation
Diabolic Tutor
Entomb (tutors to the graveyard)
Grim Tutor
Imperial Seal (tutors to the top of the library)
Increasing Ambition
Infernal Tutor
Insidious Dreams
Liliana Vess (tutors to the top of the library)
Rhystic Tutor
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Vampiric Tutor (tutors to the top of the library)

I've highlighted the cards with converted mana cost 3 or less.

There are also black cards with Transmute, which allows you to pay {1}{B}{B} and discard that card to search for a card with the same CMC:

Brainspoil
Dimir House Guard
Dimir Machinations
Netherborn Phalanx
Shred Memory

In addition, Demonic Consultation isn't exactly a tutor, but it does let you get a specific card out of your library into your hand, at the cost of exiling every card above it, and with a chance of exiling your whole library without finding it. Spoils of the Vault has a similar effect, except that you're guaranteed to find the card if it's in there, but you lose 1 life for each card exiled.


Do I have to break a full property set to pay if I owe money in monopoly deal?

TL;DR - Yes you will have to break a full set.

Looking at the rules here regarding payment of rent it says

  If you have no cards in front of you to pay with, you don't pay at
  all.

So, if you are able to pay the rent you must do.  As you have a full set in front of you, you have cards.  Therefore you must pay.

There is nothing in the rules that says once you have a set it is 'safe' somehow and can not be broken.


Yes, the creature would die as a State Based Action.

704.1. State-based actions are game actions that happen automatically whenever certain conditions (listed below) are met. State-based actions don't use the stack.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, "Timing and Priority"), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.

So, the state based effects would get checked after Dismember resolves.
Then, this SBA would happen

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

So, before the Giant Growth would get a chance to resolve, the Llanowar Elf would die.


The Rivals for Catan - Theme Game Draw Stacks

Does this mean, each user selects a
  stack, looks at all the cards in the
  stack and selects the 3 they want
  start with? And then returns the stack
  without reshuffling?

Yes, that's how I always play it.  I don't see any other way to interpret that rule.

  How do the Theme Set draw stacks work?
  There is nothing in the manual about
  how players draw from them. Do players
  have the option of drawing from them
  after their first turn?

The rules for drawing cards on p10 state, when drawing cards:

  ... randomly draw cards from the tops of the draw stacks.

Although it's not entirely clear from this rule, I think you can always choose which stack to draw from.
Also when exchanging cards:

  Draw the top card from a draw stack of your choice,

or

  Choose a draw stack and look at all of its cards.  Then take 1 card of your choice from that stack.

None of these is restricted to only the basic set stacks, so you can draw from or search theme set stacks too.  The only restriction is at the start of the game, when you choose your three starting cards from a basic set draw stack.


General advice for maximizing fun playing multiple games of Dominion

We've used a mixture of user-selected and randomly selected cards. One scheme that's worked: each player gets to pick one card they don't want in the next game (this is done first), and then two cards they do want in the deck. The remaining 2 cards are selected at random. (This was for a 4-player game; in a two-player game I'd experiment with 1 or 2 banned cards and 2 or 3 selected cards).

The purpose of this method is to give each player the ability to tailor the deck to include a couple of kingdom cards they think might be synergistic, enabling them to try out a new strategy. Also, as the latter players select their cards they're able to try out counters and other means of blocking what they think the other player's strategies might be.

Once you become experienced and comfortable with the cards and the potential interactions this method turns into a meta-game that may detract from the fun, but early on, while you're still learning the ins-and-outs of a new set of cards, it's an easy way to design decks to test out specific theories--and the random cards that are still in each game provide a mechanism for random learning and discovery.


Can an investigator ever have more than 1 of a kind of condition

Jefromi has pointed out that there is more than one Madness condition, such as Paranoia, Amnesia, and Hallucinations. Consequently, an investigator can have more than one madness condition, as long as they are not the same. I hadn't realized madness was a category of condition.


Does my opponent need to prove his creature has morph?

Rule 707.9 says this:

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

There is no way for a game to end without one of these things happening to each face down permanent, so every face down permanent must be revealed one way or another by the end of the game.


Does Dormant Sliver mean Slivers can no longer attack?

Yes (you aren't missing anything).  With Dormant Sliver in play, no slivers will be able to attack.

As per the comp. rules:

  702.3b A creature with defender can't attack.


What does a damage number of "<1" mean in Warhammer 40k?

I believe you are right, this is a typo. Elsewhere the D for such weapons is 1 (space marine codex etc). The other notations are typically a static number or a random value e.g. D6.

I think GW typically write out the full text: "a value greater than" rather than use > etc.


Can trap monsters and defense zone create a valid field lock?

Yes, this is valid, and your logic is correct. However, it is not invincible. They can always be returned to the hand, or they can be banished, unless of course you have monsters or spells/traps to prevent this.

The most important part of a Trap Monster that concerns this is the part that says: "This card is also treated as a Trap Card" This means that even though it is a Monster, it is also treated as a trap, hence being indestructible.

Anything that the rulebook doesn't state makes it valid.

Now... a card that stops it affects from being negated


What first turn kill in multiplayer FFA provides the best ratios?

False Cure deck - I used to have a Vintage version of this deck, using proxies for all the expensive cards in the deck.

Play Overgrown Tomb ($14)
Cast 1xDark Ritual ($1)
Cast 1xFalse Cure ($1.50)
Cast 4xSkyshroud Cutter ($0.10) for alternate casting cost.

First Skyshoud Cutter causes opponents gain 5 life (25 life), False Cures and opponents lose 10 life. Remaining 3 Skyshroud Cutter's do the same.

7 Cards (AVG 22.9 life/card). Cheating a little since we are giving opponents life
6 Mana (AVG 55.3 life/mana), or using CMC instead 8.42
40 * 4 life = 160 total
$14 + $1 + $1.50 + 4x$0.10 (approximate $16.90 total, AVG 9.47 life/$) (Prices by TCGPlayer.com, 5th lowest Near Mint price)


Can Dracula choose not to move and engage the a hunter on purpose?

Dracula has to play something during his movement step. Current location is on the trail and playing any other location card will move Dracula to that location, and we don't want that, so our options are limited to power cards. Let's look at them:

Wolf form requires you to place a location card, so that won't work.
Misdirect specifically forbids using it on Dracula's current location.
I didn't find anything that prevents the other 3 power cards (Feed, Dark Call, Hide) from being used when Dracula is revealed, so this is your answer.

Dracula can stay at the same revealed location to fight again by playing Feed, Dark Call or Hide power card.


If a creature is blocking and it has vigilance does it still tap?

Declaring a creature as blocker never taps it, whether it has vigilance or not. Only attacking creatures will be tapped:

  508.1f The active player taps the chosen creatures. Tapping a creature when it’s declared as an attacker isn’t a cost; attacking simply causes creatures to become tapped.

(of course, Vigilance prevents this:

  702.20b Attacking doesn’t cause creatures with vigilance to tap. (See rule 508, “Declare Attackers Step.”)

Such a rule is not present for blocking creatures; only that they must be untapped in order to block:

  509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that’s attacking that player or a planeswalker they control.

If a creature with vigilance becomes tapped because of another spell or effect, it won't be able to block.


Can an ability be used after my opponent uses an instant?

Yes, you can do that. In Magic: the Gathering, most creature abilities are used like instants.

You should read the Basic Rules (PDF), page 10, if you're not familiar with the Stack and how spell casting works.

The situation you describe would work like this:

Opponent casts Victim of the Night, choosing your creature for the target. It goes on the stack and doesn't resolve yet.
Opponent chooses to cast nothing else yet and passes priority to you.
You use Bubbling Cauldron's ability. That too goes on the stack and doesn't resolve yet. You pay the cost immediately, including sacrificing the creature targeted by Victim of the Night.
You choose to pass priority so your opponent can respond. They choose to do nothing.

Now the top object on the stack resolves.

Bubbling Cauldron's ability resolves first. You gain 4 life.
Again there is an opportunity for your opponent or you to respond in turn, if neither of you do, the top object of the stack resolves.
Victim of the Night resolves. Its target is gone, so it can't do anything. A new target can't be chosen. Victim of the Night goes to the graveyard.


In Phase 10, can a Skip card be played in the first round of a hand?

There is no such restriction. From the rules:

  The player ends the turn by discarding one card of choice onto the discard pile.

And

  SKIP CARDS: When discarded, a "Skip " card causes another player to lose their next turn. The player who discards the "Skip " card chooses the player who loses their turn. When a player draws a "Skip " card, the player may discard it immediately or save it for a later turn. A "Skip " card may never be used in making Phase 8, or any other Phase. A "Skip " card may never be picked up from the discard pile.


Is putting multiple counters onto a target an atomic action?

The rulings for Fathom Mage indicate that a single effect placing multiple counters on it, causes its ability to trigger multiple times.

  1/24/2013: If multiple +1/+1 counters are placed on Fathom Mage simultaneously, its last ability will trigger once for each of those counters.

As a result, Dragonscale Boon would cause the ability to happen twice, and you could draw up to two cards.

Hypothetically if Wizards wanted you to only draw one card when you cast Dragonscale Boon, they'd probably word Fathom Mage the way they did Hardened Scales.

  Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters is placed on Fathom Mage, you may draw a card.

In this case, the ability only triggers once for each discrete event. Dragonscale Boon would only cause the ability to happen a single time.

If we gave Fathom Mage an ability like "RRR: put a +1/+1 counter on Fathom Mage", then you would be able to draw a card once for each time you activate the ability, regardless of how the triggered ability was worded. If you're adding more than one counter, you're activating the ability more than once, and each ability generates a brand new event.


It's when you 'check' (choose not to bet anything) after all players before you have checked.  Often with a good hand you'll want to do this to give your opponent(s) an opportunity to improve and be willing to bet.  With a weak hand you might want to do this if you suspect your opponent is slow-playing a good hand for the same reason.


Can I resolve all special effects or just 1 at a time in turn with other players before and after bases score

Can I resolve all of my multiple special effects when it is my turn, or do I only resolve 1, then give the next player a chance to, etc.

It depends on whether

  start with the current player and go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence

means

  Start with the current player. They may either play a card with a Special ability or pass. Go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence.

or

  Start with the current player. They may either play cards with a Special ability or pass. Go around the table clockwise until all players pass in sequence.

There's no telling for sure without an official answer (which I can't find), but it seems more natural to me if the players only got to play one at a time.

You are definitely able to play more than one, but I believe you must give everyone else the chance to play one in between.

  Also, if I know a player after me has 2 effects, can I wait until he does both and then resolve mine (essentially passing then choosing to resolve)?

You can, but it's a gamble. If you pass, and someone else plays a Special, then you get another change to play a Special. This is explicitly mentioned in the rules. However, if you pass and he decides to pass instead of playing his second special, you won't get to play anything else.


In Magic free-for-all multiplayer, what happens when someone dies?

There's a whole procedure for this in the multiplayer section of the comp rules. The big take-away is this: as soon as you die, all your stuff leaves the game -- then, after that, if you would still control anything (e.g. a permanent you stole from someone else), that thing is exiled; any triggered abilities you would own don't occur.

  800.4. Unlike two-player games, multiplayer games can continue after one or more players have left the    game.

  800.4a. When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 109) owned by that player leave the
         game, any effects which give that player control of any objects or players end, and all spells and
         abilities controlled by that player on the stack cease to exist. Then, if there are any objects still
         controlled by that player, those objects are exiled. This is not a state-based action. It happens as
         soon as the player leaves the game. If the player who left the game had priority at the time he or
         she left, priority passes to the next player in turn order who’s still in the game.

  Example: Alex casts Control Magic, an Aura that reads, “You control enchanted
                  creature,” on Bianca’s Wall of Wood. If Alex leaves the game, so does Control Magic,
                  and Wall of Wood reverts to Bianca’s control. If, instead, Bianca leaves the game, so
                  does Wall of Wood, and Control Magic is put into Alex’s graveyard.

  Example: Alex casts Threaten, which reads, in part, “Untap target creature and gain
                  control of it until end of turn,” targeting Bianca’s Wall of Wood. If Alex leaves the
                  game, Threaten’s change-of-control effect ends and Wall of Wood reverts to Bianca’s
                  control.

  Example: Alex casts Bribery, which reads, “Search target opponent’s library for a
                  creature card and put that card onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player
                  shuffles his or her library,” targeting Bianca. Alex puts Wall of Wood onto the
                  battlefield from Bianca’s library. If Bianca leaves the game, Wall of Wood also leaves
                  the game. If, instead, Alex leaves the game, Wall of Wood is exiled.

  Example: Alex controls Genesis Chamber, which reads, “Whenever a nontoken creature
                  enters the battlefield, if Genesis Chamber is untapped, that creature’s controller puts a
                  1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield.” If Alex leaves the game,
                  all such Myr tokens that entered the battlefield under Alex’s control leave the game, and
                  all such Myr tokens that entered the battlefield under any other player’s control remain
                  in the game.

  800.4b. If an object would change to the control of a player who has left the game, it doesn’t. If a
         token would enter the battlefield under the control of a player who has left the game, no token is
         created. If a player would be controlled by a player who has left the game, he or she isn’t.

  800.4c If an object that would be owned by a player who has left the game would be created in any
         zone, it isn’t created. If a triggered ability that would be controlled by a player who has left the
         game would be put onto the stack, it isn’t put on the stack.

  Example: Astral Slide is an enchantment that reads, “Whenever a player cycles a card,
                  you may exile target creature. If you do, return that creature to the battlefield under its
                  owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.” During Alex’s turn, Bianca uses
                  Astral Slide’s ability to exile Alex’s Hypnotic Specter. Before the end of that turn,
                  Bianca leaves the game. At the beginning of the end step, the delayed triggered ability
              generated by Astral Slide that would return Hypnotic Specter to play triggers, but it isn’t
              put on the stack. Hypnotic Specter never returns to the battlefield.

  800.4d. If combat damage would be assigned to a player who has left the game, that damage simply    isn’t assigned.

  800.4e. If an object requires a player who has left the game to make a choice, the controller of the    object chooses another player to make
  that choice. If the original choice was to be made by an    opponent
  of the controller of the object, that player chooses another opponent
  if possible.

  800.4f. If an effect requires information about a specific player, the effect uses the current    information about that player if he or she
  is still in the game; otherwise, the effect uses the last    known
  information about that player before he or she left the game.

  800.4g. If a player leaves the game during his or her turn, that turn continues to its completion    without an active player. If the active
  player would receive priority, instead the next player in    turn
  order receives priority, or the top object on the stack resolves, or
  the phase or step ends,    whichever is appropriate.

  800.4h. When a player leaves the game, objects that player owns in the ante zone do not leave the    game. This is an exception to rule 800.4a. See rule 407, “Ante.”

  800.4i. In a Planechase game, if the player designated as the planar controller would leave the game,    instead the next player in turn
  order that wouldn’t leave the game becomes the planar controller, then the old planar controller leaves the game. See rule 309.5.

So, in your example, it's actually pretty straightforward:

Alex's Massacre Wurm is on the stack. Bianca flashes in her own Massacre Wurm (thanks to Vedalken Orrery or whatever). Alex has no further response, so we resolve Bianca's Massacre Wurm. It comes into play and kills Alex's creatures, putting him at below 0 life.

When Alex loses the game, his Massacre Wurm is still on the stack. It leaves the game directly from the stack, without ever resolving. Poof!

When Alex loses the game, his Pacifism also leaves the game. Its effect on the creature it was enchanting is gone, just like if it had been removed any other way.

Here's the tricky part about these rules... Let's say Alex also had an Oblivion Ring that he had previously used to exile Bianca's Liliana of the Veil. The O-Ring leaves the game, but does not trigger any effects when it does. Including its own. So Bianca's Liliana remains exiled forever.

Also, note that, assuming it was Alex's turn when he died, the other players play out the rest of the phases without an active player. If Bianca had some mana open and she wanted to cast another spell before her own turn, for instance, she could still do it on now-dead Alex's end step.


The dice are not resolved until after the third and final roll. So obviously you can reroll anything you don't want. Once the final roll is complete, the effects take place. If that includes an attack die, you must go to Tokyo. Likewise in mid-game play, if you have an attack die in your final roll, your opponent will be attacked and can yield Tokyo (their choice) but if this happens, the attacker has no choice and must occupy Tokyo.
At the beginning when no one is in Tokyo,  if you roll and keep multiple attack dice, the first one doesn't count, but the remainder do.


Any permanent(cards that stick around like creatures, enchantments, artifacts, lands) that you play are under your control unless it specifically says otherwise. You control the abilities of permanents that you control. Since you control Curse of Misfortunes, you control its ability, so when it says "you" or "your" on the card that refers to you since you are the controller of the card.

The card says enchant player which means as you are casting it, you choose a player as its target. When the enchantment resolves it enters the battlefield enchanting the player that had been targeted. That does not mean that player gains control of it just that it is in enchanting them.

Curse of Misfortunes works like you think it would. You curse your opponent with it, then you get to search out a curse at the beginning of your upkeep and attach it to that player.

You still control curses attached to your opponent so Sphere of Safety will count them towards the amount your opponent has to pay to attack you.


No, you cannot pay more life than you have.  From the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

  118.4. If a cost or effect allows a player to pay an amount of life greater than 0, the player may do so only if his or her life total is greater than or equal to the amount of the payment. If a player pays life, the payment is subtracted from his or her life total; in other words, the player loses that much life. (Players can always pay 0 life.)

You're not allowed to "split the cost" to pay part now and part later, either.  All costs must be payed in full before a spell or ability can be activated.CR 117.3

In order to use Aetherflux Reservoir's ability, you have to have 50 life to pay the cost up front.


Playing a draw 4 after another player has played a draw 4

No.
The first player's action caused the second player to draw four cards and skip their normal turn; there is nothing in the rules which can cause that to be "undone". The third player's turn then proceeds as normal.
It may be worth noting here that "stacking" Draw 2 or Draw 4 cards is not part of the official rules even if it is a common house rule.


Treasure from monsters killed by reactive damage such as Fire Shield

Since this has been open for too long, I'll throw in my interpretation of the rules.

I think the first step is to be clear about the turns. It seems you would be drawing a treasure on someone else's turn.

The rules talk about a Player Turn (sometimes Hero's turn) on page 6. It even singles out how each player's turn is defined by the Hero-Exploration-Villain phases (page 4, under "Taking turns").

This is important because the other player's turn is totally independent from your turn, so we don't have to take into account your previous actions.

On to the the ToA rulebook (emphasis mine):

  When your Hero defeats a Monster, draw a Treasure card (see
  page 13). You can only draw one Treasure card per turn, no
  matter how many Monsters you defeat during that turn.

First, I'd rule that your hero has indeed defeated a monster. So we're clear on the first sentence.

As for the second sentence, I'd rule that you haven't yet drawn a treasure on that other player's turn.

So... use that treasure wisely! ;)


Can we look at R&D cards that are trashed by virus install?

I'll start by saying that Fantasy Flight Games has never officially commented on this, but there are a few threads on both their forums and Board Game Geek that come to the same conclusion.

The top card of the R&D gets trashed face down. This thread on Board Game Geek comes to this conclusion based on a few sections of the rules:

Page 6 talks about cards going into the Archives face up or face down. Notice this also addresses whether the Corp can look at face-down cards in their Archives.

  Some cards enter Archives faceup, and some cards enter
  Archives facedown. Facedown cards in Archives should be
  oriented horizontally so that the Runner can easily see them.
  Both the Corporation and Runner may look through the
  faceup cards stored in Archives at any time, and do not need to
  maintain the order of its cards while doing so. The Corporation
  can also look at the facedown cards in Archives at any time; the
  Runner cannot.

On page 13:

  When installing a card in a server, the Corporation can first
  trash any cards already installed in that server. Trashed cards go
  to Archives faceup if they are rezzed, and facedown if they are
  unrezzed.

User Mat Nowak concludes

  [A]s you can see from all this, cards trashed by Noise's ability enter the Archives face down in a horizontally oriented pile. (This is because the card in question enters the Archives from an unrezzed state).

Other users in that BGG thread tend to agree with him. This is also discussed at the Fantasy Flight Games forum here, and users tend to agree that although there's no actual rule for this, it is the logical way to handle the Noise virus.

The way it looks like it should be handled in all situations based on the page 13 rule: If the runner knows what the card is when it goes to the Archives, it goes in face up; otherwise it is face down. Also remember that cards that are face down in the Archives are turned horizontal so the Runners knows if there are cards they haven't seen in there.


When you King's Court a King's Court, when must you pick the three target cards?

Short answer: You do the "one at a time" option as you described.

Long answer:

This case is precisely identical to the more common question of using Throne Room on a Throne Room, as the two cards are worded identically except for the number and a "you may".

The official Dominion rules PDF says:

  You completely resolve playing the Action the first time before playing it
  the second time. If you Throne Room a Throne Room, you play an Action,
  doing it twice, and then play another Action and do it twice; you do not
  resolve an Action four times.

In your case, this means "completely resolve playing King's Court the first time before [starting to] play it the second or third time". This means that yes, if your first Courted action was a Smithy, you're going to have lots of choices for the second and third King's Court.


How to find Enchantments or Artifacts that have multiple effects?

As a starting point, the following Gatherer search finds all of the cards with multiple triggered abilities that have the exact same trigger condition: text=m/(\b(When(ever)?|At)\b[^,]+),.+?\1,/. This uses Gatherer's regular expression search functionality to find cards with "When...", "Whenever..." or "At..." matching up to the first comma, and then the exact same text later on the card. This has a couple of false-positive matches of cards with commas in their name (like Brimaz, King of Oreskos). It also matches cards with multiple triggered abilities with the same trigger condition and different "intervening if" clauses (like Duergar Hedge-Mage).

It's a lot more complicated to find cards like Waste Not with trigger conditions that are similar but not identical, because it is unclear how that "similarity" would be rigorously defined in general.


Identify this card game with a 52-Card deck and two teams

The Resistance with Regular Playing Cards

and see

The Resistance (with Standard Playing Cards)


Was I right to bid something other than one club with the following hand?

It's not even particularly close - just open 1C.

In 4th seat the overriding consideration is the ability to make a plus score, and the use of Pierson Points to make that evaluation is widely regarded as the best (to date) means of assessing that prospect.

Here you have 12 HCP with 2.5 QT, well placed J and T, and another good spot card (albeit unsupported) in the Diamond suit. Additionally you have 4 Spades. The Pierson Count for your hand is therefore:

12 HCP
4 Spades

Total = 16.

Even with a deduction in terms of overall strength of 1 point for the 4333 distribution you clearly make the 15 PP cut-off and should open 1C. Unless you are playing 4-card Major system (such as Goren or ACOL) do not lie and open 1 Spade here. Your possession of 4 good Spades is a defensive as well as offensive value, and if partner holds 5 hearts you want to make it easy, not hard, for that suit to be introduced by partner - you cannot bid it over a Negative Double. If partner calls a Negative Double over a 2H overcall you will be delighted to rebid 2S and land in the 8-card Major fit.

If you want to "play games" on this hand: after a 1D overcall and a negative double by partner, just rebid 1H and pass partner's response.

;-)

But don't open 1S playing a 5-card major system.

The appropriate time to open this hand 1 Spade is in 3rd seat, not 4th. The goal of that call is to buy the contract in 2S or 3S and go down one (undoubled) for a smaller minus than opponents' part score. In 4th seat you are opening only if a plus looks to be in the cards, as a pass out is better still than a small minus.

I have always seen a description pf Pearson Points given as HCP + Spades - never as total points + Spades. In the absence of an analysis otherwise, take that at face value.


In Dominion, when it says reveal a card, who must I reveal it to?

Reveal means to show their hand to the table.

From the rules, page 7.

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


According to Board Games Geek cancelling a hit "simply means that one less casualty is inflicted". In the context of your question that would mean that you cannot prevent Black Breath from activation this way.


Where can I find the web app for designing Robot Turtles boards?

That web application exists at http://maze-builder.robotturtles.com/.


If I "play" a card, does it count as casting it?

In the case of Golos, "play them this turn" means that you can either cast them if they are spells, or play them as lands, whichever is appropriate (subject to normal rules of the game and other cards in play). For example, you can't use Golos to play an extra land that turn, and you can't use Golos to cast more than 2 spells if Fires of invention is in play.
So in your case your intuition is right.

Casting Spells

601.1. Previously, the action of casting a spell, or casting a card as a spell, was referred to on cards as “playing” that spell or that card. Cards that were printed with that text have received errata in the Oracle card reference so they now refer to “casting” that spell or that card.
601.1a Some effects still refer to “playing” a card. “Playing a card” means playing that card as a land or casting that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.


What Other Bidding Approaches Are There?

“legal” is a meaningless question without knowing where you are, and, in many regions, some methods are only legal at higher levels of play.

Some of the more common uncommon system types (systems may also fit into more than one category):

Canapé: opening the shorter of your two suits. (How they bid one-suited and balanced hands varies.) This was used a fair amount by the Italian Blue Team in their heyday, and Blue Team Club is an example.
Non-strong forcing openings: There’s a forcing opening that isn’t necessarily strong. Polish Club is a well-known example.
Forcing pass: pass promises strength (often opening values), and most or all initial bids therefore deny it. There’s usually one opening bid reserved for the truly awful hands, and the rest show some strength. These methods are banned in a lot of regions, and are (IIRC) fairly regulated even in international events.
Strong pass: Pass contains both the terrible hands and some stronger, but limited hands. Many opening bids are still limited to intermediate values, but the initial pass is itself passable, so the systems are less weird. (AFAIK, these methods are pretty uncommon.)
Relay methods: Don’t govern the opening bid as such, but in some auctions (generally strong ones) the players don’t mutually describe their hands. Instead, one player uses atrificial bids, often simply the next available bid, and their partner responds, providing succesively more information until their partner thinks they can place the contract.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some broad categories.

In addition, there are lots of individual systems whose designers decide that some particular attribute of the hand should be emphasized in some way, and build a system around that. So, you might have a system where 1C and 1D deny or promise a 4-card major; or a system where opening 1 major denies 5 cards, showing 4 or 6+; or a system that opens 4-card majors, but only on minimum opening hands.


When taking damage to an outfit, does damaging an arming space also apply a -1 to the outfit's die?

They stack.

Damage Markers can be placed on any Section of an Outfit

An outfit is made up of sections of two types; use spaces and empty spaces for storing cargo i.e. A use space is considered to be a section of an outfit. Therefore this rule

Damage Markers on an Outfit cause that Outfit to become less effective. Each (damage  marker) placed on an Outfit reduces rolls by 1

means that damage anywhere on an outfit will cause it to be less effective.


How to design a Ticket to Ride fan expansion?

Try analyzing your Ticket to Ride game that you already have and base your first expansion on that board. Measure the board, count how many of each color card there are in the deck, and count how many tracks there are of each color. I would model your first fan expansion after the base game without any add-ons, see if your expansion works, and then try making progressively more complicated fan expansions.


This sounds like Chrononauts.

From the official description:

  What would YOU do with a Time Machine? Would you stop the sinking of the Titanic? Prevent the assassination of JFK? Kill Hitler before WWII? These are just a few of the possibilities in Chrononauts, the award-winning card game of time travel. To win, you must change history at key points called Linchpins, so that history transforms into the Alternate Reality your character calls home. You can also win by collecting a specific set of Artifacts, such as a live dinosaur, the Mona Lisa, and an unpublished Shakespearean play. But be careful - if you create too many paradoxes, you could destroy the entire universe!


Is it possible to use mirage mirror when your turn starts before upkeep step?

No, that won't work.
The reason for that is that the first time a player gets priority, i.e. the right to cast a spell or activate an ability, is after the upkeep has started. By that time, Venser's Journal has already triggered, and copying it at that time is too late to get another trigger.

Beginning Phase

501.1. The beginning phase consists of three steps, in this order: untap, upkeep, and draw.

Untap Step

502.3. No player receives priority during the untap step, so no spells can be cast or resolve and no abilities can be activated or resolve. [..]

Upkeep Step

503.1a Any abilities that triggered during the untap step and any abilities that triggered at the beginning of the upkeep are put onto the stack before the active player gets priority; the order in which they triggered doesn’t matter. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)


It gets only one +1/+1 counter. The creature has three +1/+1 counters, but each of those fall into the same kind of counter - the +1/+1 counter kind.

There are other counters. For example, Haphazard Bombardment places "aim counters". You could proliferate those too, although in this particular case it wouldn't have any practical effect. Other examples of counters are planeswalker loyalty counters, age counters (from cumulative upkeep cards), and so on.

MTG Gamepedia has a full list of all counters.


Does Precursor Golem let me target all golems in the graveyard?

No, that wouldn't work.
Unless a permanent's ability specifically states otherwise (e.g. Carrionette), or the ability would only make sense when activated in another zone (e.g. Bloodsoaked Champion), abilities only work while that permanent is on the battlefield.

112.6. 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:
112.6b An ability that states which zones it functions in functions only from those zones.

Also, when Precursor Golem says "Golem" without further qualifiers, as for example in "a single Golem", then the wording is shorthand for "Golem permanent", an object on the battlefield with the Golem subtype.

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


Can I use "De Vermis Mysteriis" every round?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Note, you can only improve each stat a total of two times (thus there's only +1/+2 tokens).  You also cannot perform the same action in a round (so can only use the item once a round).  This is also balanced by the check, which you may not pass.

So yes you can spend 10 rounds maxing out your guys stats (if you roll well/pass the checks), but likely you'll need to rest as well, so you've basically spent 10-11 rounds doing nothing if you do that.  Since the difficulty of the game is dependant upon the # of players and things happen every round, taking this action especially repeatedly actually makes the game MORE difficult for your team (in my opinion, it'd be better to have no player playing doing this for 10 rounds and the game be easier than to have a player doing this).

In my limited experience with this game, if you have 10 rounds to sit around doing this, you probably need to find a harder game for yourself (or you're being carried);)  I have not had such a luxury in multiple play attempts.  I have had this item and recall using it when my health is down but my sanity is not and I'm going to rest anyway or when I have a skill I want to bump to try and forward the game.


Can you attack any creature of your opponents with flying if he can't block it

No, because you don't attack creatures in Magic; you attack players (or planeswalkers), and then the player being attacked can choose to block (or not block) your attacking creatures with their creatures if able.  If your opponent has nothing with flying or reach, they will be unable to block an attacking flyer, and so your flyer will deal damage directly to your opponent.


Indomitable Creativity + Sacrifice Outlet

Your assumption is correct.

You won't get the extra artifact from Indomitable Creativity because, when it resolves, it checks each of its targets to see if they're still legal. That is (part of) CR608.2b:

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. [...]

Since Commander's Sphere is no longer on the battlefield, it becomes an illegal target for Indomitable Creativity, and the spell will no longer target it, according to its Gatherer rules (thanks to @Gendolkari for pointing this out):

  If an artifact or creature is targeted but not destroyed (perhaps because it gained indestructible or became an illegal target), it doesn’t count as one of the artifacts or creatures destroyed this way. An artifact or creature that’s destroyed but put into a zone other than a graveyard (such as a player’s commander in the Commander variant) does count.

Also, as you said, even if that did work and Commander's Sphere was still a legal target after being sacrificed, the wording on Indomitable Creativity ("For each permanent destroyed this way...") would still prevent you from getting the artifact, since Commander's Sphere is already destroyed by the time Creativity resolves.