When can I discard the Death Creeper Card?

I disagree with the other answer.

The card text says:

  If you have this at the start of your turn, discard something else you have in play (a Keeper or a Creeper). You may discard this anytime it stands alone.

This card has two effects:

The first effect, discarding something in play, must take place at the start of your turn (as accurately explained in the other answer).
The second effect, being able to discard Death itself, can be done at "any time".

I believe the second is the effect you are asking about. That means that if, at any point during anyone's turn, that is the only card you have in play, you may discard it. To answer your specific scenario. If you draw it (and automatically play it) and it is the only card in front of you, you can discard it immediately.


Can another instant be used to buff an attacking creature, after another instant was cast that would kill the creature?

The creature survives.

Some time ago Magic followed a system where instants that did damage resolved last. That's since been changed to a simpler LIFO (last in first out) system. So what happens is:

The defending player casts Shock.
With Shock "on the stack" (i.e. before it resolves), the attacking player casts a pump spell (say, Giant Growth).
Neither player does anything else.
Giant Growth is the "last in" spell (the most recent one cast), so it resolves first. The 3/2 becomes a 6/5.
And then Shock does damage. The 6/5 becomes a 6/5 with 2 damage marked on it, and lives.

For this scenario to happen, the attacking player needs to do nothing ("pass priority") until the defending player casts Shock. In other words, he needs to be willing to do only three damage that combat step. The attacking player also needs to cast Giant Growth in response to the defending player casting Shock. If the attacking player lets Shock resolve, then he wouldn't be able to cast Giant Growth at all (since the creature is dead and Giant Growth needs a target). With this order, the Giant Growth never fizzles.

An alternative way things could happen is:

The attacking player casts Giant Growth before damage (presumably to do 3 more damage to opponent).
Defending player casts Shock in response.
Now, per the same LIFO system, Shock resolves first. The 3/2 dies, and Giant Growth fizzles.

For this scenario to happen, the defending player needs to do nothing ("pass priority") until the attacking player casts Giant Growth (which the attacking player must do prior to damage assignment if he wants to use the pump spell).


If the Axis capture a factory in Axis and Allies, would the game tilt in their favor?

Speaking from general principles, as one who as never played the game but as played a multitude of board games over the past 45 years:

Barring extreme good fortune allowing a very early capture of said factory, I believe the concentration of effort required to achieve such a capture would provide compensating benefit to the Allies that would essentially neutralize the capture.

In any WWII game one of the disadvantages that the Allies face early on is where to defend, as they cannot defend everything. Even just seeing the Axis concentrate forces to take said factory might help the Allies by relieving other strategic areas from stress. I see building such a factory as a gambit by the Allies:

  "Sure, you can take this factory, but is it worth while to do so?"


Does an exiled Aetherling come back into play untapped?

Yes, when Aetherling returns to the battlefield, it's considered a new permanent, so it enters the battlefield without remembering that it was tapped.

  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.
  There are seven exceptions to this rule:

(none of the exceptions apply here).


Looking for rules for board game called "Music Game"

There is a boardgame geek entry, as diego already mentioned. But that lacks any link to the rules. But luckily Amazon has a page for it. On the page there are several pictures, including (part of) the rules.
And according to them, it is a rare vintage game. So I hope you are able to play it now.


GamesByMail

Scott Michtell just introduced me to GamesByMail to play Axis & Allies, and I noticed that it has chess as well.

All you need is an e-mail address to create a small profile, same thing for your opponent, and you're ready to play.  You should get e-mail reminders when it is your turn.

I haven't tried chess there yet, but if it's anything like A&A was, you should be in good shape.


Giving an Exploding Kitten to another player's hand through Barking Kitten

The Barking Kitten FAQ states:

must give you half their cards (rounding up). Combine them with your hand, then choose and return the same number of cards back

Whereas Streaking Kitten says:

If another player steals or receives an Exploding Kitten from your hand, they explode. They must defuse it or lose the game.

I'd interpret this as the Exploding Kitten being received from your hand, which is anyway illegal without holding a Streaking Kitten. Therefore I'd say the receiving player must Defuse the Exploding Kitten before completing the "combine them with your hand" part and moving on as usual.


Does Baral, Chief of Compliance reduce alternative costs?

Yes

As long as the cost involves mana, Baral will get the job done.

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


Comprehensive rules:

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


In what order are triggered abilities executed?

Form Rules Reference, p.17

Priority of Simultaneous Resolution

If an effect affects multiple players simultaneously, but the players
must individually make choices to resolve the effect, these choices
are made in player order. Once all necessary choices have been
made, the effect resolves simultaneously upon all affected entities.

If two or more forced abilities (including delayed effects)
would resolve at the same time, the lead investigator
determines the order in which the abilities resolve.
If two or more constant abilities and/or lasting effects
cannot be applied simultaneously, the lead investigator
determines the order in which they are applied.


Instructions for Pegs and Jokers by Fundex

Shelly Christopher at Fundex sent me rules which are a copy of the rules found here


If it doesn't say somewhere you can, then you can't.

Unless either the card itself or something else in play says "...you can cast this/that multiple times..." then you can't.

Either you're misinterpreting what happened in that game, or that game is not made to play with the same rules as Magic.

Seriously - best rule to go by - Unless it says you can, you can't.


They will conflict because of the legend rule.  Spy Kit gives a creature the names of all non-legendary creature cards that exist in Magic.  This can be found in the card ruling:

  The set of names the equipped creature has includes the names of all nonlegendary creature cards in the Oracle card reference, including the back faces of double-faced cards.

Spy Kit is adding names based on the printed properties of those creatures, not the current properties of permanents with those names.  Storm Crow the card is not legendary, so Grizzly Bears is also named Storm Crow regardless of whether or not there is a Leyline of Singularity, and will have a legend conflict with a second Storm Crow if there is a Leyline of Singularity.


In Risk, what if territory cards earned by invading finish?

This is not explicit in the rules. But common sense kicks in.

When:

The rules mention a trade in, no discard or remove from game.
The rules mention that each set has a higher unit value and there is no end mentioned of the set.

So reusing is more logical than the set ending. So you can safely assume that you can reuse the traded in cards.


Does the order that cards are played have any effect? (Specifically poison)

The Smash Up Rules and FAQ don't seem to address this directly, but I would say the power is still zero for a simple reason - it keeps the power consistent regardless of which effect hit the table first. 3-4+1 = 3+1-4, after all. (Which is why most games do the math that way, IMO).


Axis and Allies Europe edition: Neutral Territories?

For years a group of us in Michigan have played a set of house rules that includes a diplomacy system where you can pay for diplomatic overtures to neutrals to try to sway them to lean toward you ( adding their economy to yours 1$ for sumbness like Rio de Oro, 4$ for Switzerland) and letting you move through their territory or base there.  If you get a spectacular result (11+ on 2 d 6) or two partial results they join you activating their armed forces in your color (rangeing from 1 inf for Rio de Oro to 3 inf a tank and a fighter for Spain).  I agree that attacking one European neutral should not sway the opinion of Asian and American neutrals.


In One Night Werewolf: Monster, does the master play?

All play. You don't need a master: the players can all call the time/sequence (with their heads down and eyes closed) as needed. If you have a spare "player" who wants to moderate, that's fine, too, of course.


Magic The Gathering: probability of casting a 3 drop on turn 3

There is a legit mathematical answer to this question, but it's a bit outside my ability. What I can offer you, however, is an example of how Magic players of various levels of mathematical knowledge have attempted to tackle the question.
This article by Frank Karsten is a good start. Doing it mathematically, you get stuff like this:

Eventually, Karsten just gives up and decides to simulate it. A sample of his conclusions for 60-card decks:

To have a good (90%) chance of casting a one-drop (e.g. Duress) on turn 1: 14 sources of its color.
To have a good chance of casting a three-drop with one colored mana symbol (e.g. Thirst for Knowledge) on turn 3: 12 sources.
To have a good chance of casting a three-drop with two of the same colored mana symbol (e.g. Liliana of the Veil) on turn 3: 19 sources.

Unfortunately, this particular analysis doesn't focus too much on multi-color non-land cards (more on multi-color lands, which are invaluable for building competitively powerful decks).
He also recommends looking at preexisting competitive decks as a guide, since players tend to build for consistency.
A 2012-season Delver deck is probably a good guidepost, since it's a deck that played Geist on-curve and as one of its most color-demanding cards.
How many white sources is it packing?
lands – 22:

9 Island
2 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Moorland Haunt
4 Seachrome Coast

card-filtering — 9 cards (plus the Snapcasters):

2 Thought Scour
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

So that's 10 white mana sources, plus 4 card-filtering cards that dig deep (the Ponders). Pretty close to the 12 that Karsten said you want to get a 90% chance of casting a single-color three-drop on turn 3.


Can a squad use a leader or unit from another squad?

The Short answer is "yes, but throw in some other guys to make sure"

The only restriction that Warhammer 40k has for building armies is that the chosen models need to share a Faction Keyword, though specific factions within that keyword need to be grouped together. As it turns out, since Blood Angels and Dark Angels share two Faction Keywords, Imperium and Adeptus Astartes, that is fully acceptable. However, because they don't share all the same Keywords, they can't be played in the same group or Detachment. Though a unit may be played by itself at a penalty, it'd be polite to also gift a Troop choice, such as a tactical squad or scout squad, for each HQ Character you are gifting, like Sammael. Units like Apothecaries, Ancients and Champions are Elite Characters, not HQ Characters.

As it stands, having a chunk of the army that doesn't maybe hurt itself for loosing too many models, or takes moral checks, is a very good thing. Also, Dark Angels in particular tend to have particularly strong abilities to take advantage of. As of the current edition of 40k, 30k models that are listed in either the book that an army is tied to, or Codex, or approved through the Forgeworld website for the game may be used in Warhammer 40K armies. Such models include Tartaros Terminators and Contemptor Dreadnoughts


How does your opponent verify you have not more than 4 of a particular card in your deck?

In general, your opponent cannot conclusively verify that your deck is legal. As you mention, you can always concede to prevent them from seeing certain cards.

However, this statement that you made in your question is incorrect:

  since one can never prove that I'm cheating, one can't call a judge either

Players can call a judge for any number of reasons, including suspicion that their opponent is cheating. And the fact is that conceding in response to a Thoughtsieze or Surgical Extraction is very suspicious, especially if you are otherwise winning the game.

If a judge wants to investigate a deck construction problem, they have the right to perform a deck check, and look through your whole deck and sideboard to verify that it matches your registered deck. If they do that, you can't avoid getting caught.

In addition, in higher-level tournaments decks are randomly checked, so even if you avoid drawing suspicion you would still have to get lucky to avoid disqualification.

More generally, it's pretty clear that this method of cheating has significant downsides. You have cards in your deck that are completely dead if you draw them, because you can't let your opponent see them. You have to concede if you opponent would see them in some other way, tanking your win rate. And you risk disqualification because if a judge decides to look into it, they can easily prove that you are cheating. You may not even experience a net benefit from this strategy, even without accounting for the fact that cheating is wrong.


How does the "Bean Protection Rule" affect Bohnanza?

You lose tension without this rule, since players can effectively just "burn" undesirable beans - both those in hand and those that are flipped in the second phase of each turn.

My suspicion is that players would trade less and plant more - though without necessarily scoring more points - without the rule.

The 3rd bean field could be more valuable without the rule, since you are effectively doubling your useful fields (in the case where most players, most of the time, are using their second field for trash).

The impact on the game length - at least, in terms of how many turns there are - is tied to points scored. More points scored [earlier] --> fewer cards in the deck for each shuffle --> shorter game.


Do great Scrabble players ever turn in their tiles?

Yes, most definitely.  A good write up on exchange strategy can be found in Joe Edley's book Everything Scrabble, pg. 89 and following.  Tournament players do exchange significantly less than they did when Everything Scrabble was first written, since the recent (well, not that recent any more, 2006) addition of QI and ZA to the official Scrabble lexicon have made moves like exchanging only Q less favorable statistically.  However, good players will also know when it is right to "fish," that is, make a nearly worthless play to get rid of certain tiles in order to greatly increase their probability of bingoing on the next turn.

A great way to get some idea of the frequency with which championship players exchange is to look at some of the games from board 1 of the most recent National Scrabble Championships; all of the games are online in turn by turn form here.  Many of the words in these games will be unfamiliar, but if you want an idea of what great Scrabble players do, that would be the best place to start.

Also, you should note that the best frequency with which players should exchange is going to depend on how large Scrabble word knowledge is (which is almost completely unrelated to your vocabulary).  In other words, based on the words that you know, how soon will you be able to turn your rack into a bingo rack?  If you can't see yourself doing that in the next two or three turns assuming average draws, then you should probably exchange.

The other time to exchange is if any legal play would make your rack worse.  For instance, if your opening rack is AEINQST, your best play by far is exch Q.  Doing so will give you a 95.7% chance of having a bingo on your rack the next turn, and probably even greater than that of bingoing, depending on what your opponent plays.


Do cards that supply bonuses trigger on actions modified by other cards?

I really recommend downloading yourself a copy of the Unofficial Agricola Companion, which has many amazingly useful and comprehensive rulings from the game designers themselves.  From the entry for Stone Carrier, for example:

Is activated when you use an action space on which stone is placed each round. You cannot use such an action space just to use this card if the action space contains no stone (e.g. when you have the Bureaucrat.)
Is activated by the action space "Take 1 Building Resource" in 3-player games if you take stone.
Is also activated by the action space "1 Reed, Stone, and Wood" in 5-player games and the action space "1 Reed, Stone, and Food" in 4-player games, if you pay 1 food.
You also pay 1 food to use this card if you receive other building resources at the same time from occupations and minor improvements.
Is not activated when you receive stone because of a minor improvement or occupation.
Other building resources are wood, clay, and reed.

I've highlighted the part that answers your question: you only get the additional Stone if you take Stone from one of the specified action spaces.  (Yes, this is generally true in Agricola, though be sure to read the card wordings carefully, and check the rulings if you are in any doubt whatsoever, as it is a game with lots of exceptions to any given rule!)


How does combat damage work when one creature blocks multiple attackers?

Yes, the combination of cards you described allows you to block both creatures.

Since Brave the Sands allows you to declare your creature as a blocker for 2 separate attackers, both will be considered blocked, your Swiftwing will die, and you will receive no damage. Declaring blockers does not require that your creature be able to survive combat with any of the attackers, and both declarations and damage happen simultaneously, so there's no point where your creature will be destroyed "before" it can block the other attacker.

A couple things worth noting:

When a creature blocks multiple attackers, the defending player chooses the order in which the blocking creature's damage is dealt. In your example it doesn't make much difference since your creature couldn't kill either attacker, but if you were blocking instead with a 4/4 creature, you could either deal 4 damage to the 5/4 and destroy it, or you could deal 4 damage to the 6/6 in hopes of damaging it later that turn.

If either attacker has trample, any damage beyond your creature's toughness can be assigned to you.


Power Grid - Korea : How are resources purchased?

Case 2, as confirmed by the publisher.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2029922/korea-does-everyone-choose-their-market-anyone-buy


Not quite.

You're wrong about Keldon Marauders leaving the battlefield after each players' life is set to 1. Worldfire's instructions are done in order [CR 608.2c], and "exile all permanents" comes before "each player's life total becomes 1".

You're right that you will win the game, but it's because the triggered ability is only placed on the stack after each players' life is set to 1. Specifically, triggered abilities are only placed on the stack the next time a player would get priority [CR 603.3], not when they are triggered [CR 603.2]. Noone gets priority until after Worldfire has finished resolving.

The following is a breakdown of what happens:

You cast Worldfire.
Worldfire resolves:

Exile all permanents. Keldon Marauders's ability triggers. [CR 603.2]
Exile all cards from all hands and graveyards.
Each player's life total becomes 1.

Keldon Marauders's ability is placed on the stack targeting your opponent. [CR 603.3]
Keldon Marauders's ability resolves: Keldon Marauders deals one damage to your opponent.
SBAs are performed: Your opponent loses the game for having non-positive life.

The relevant rules are:

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

  603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. [...]


Can you still fizzle in response to a spell that can't be countered?

You can bounce your Fleeting Image.

The key you're looking for is that Urza's Rage is countered by the game, not a spell or ability. It's just like if you gave Fleeting Image hexproof.  Since hexproof makes it an illegal target, Rage is countered by the game.

  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. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. Illegal targets, if any, won’t be affected by parts of a resolving spell’s effect for which they’re illegal. Other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them. If the spell or ability creates any continuous effects that affect game rules (see rule 613.10), those effects don’t apply to illegal targets. If part of the effect requires information about an illegal target, it fails to determine any such information. Any part of the effect that requires that information won’t happen.


Do the rules of multiple copies of a card stack?

You are correct in your interpretation. Each static ability is separately applied from each other, so they stack.

It's not directly talking about abilities stacking, but:

  112.2c An object may have multiple abilities. If the object is represented by a card, then aside from certain defined abilities that may be strung together on a single line (see rule 702, “Keyword Abilities”), each paragraph break in a card’s text marks a separate ability. If the object is not represented by a card, the effect that created it may have given it multiple abilities. An object may also be granted additional abilities by a spell or ability. If an object has multiple instances of the same ability, each instance functions independently. This may or may not produce more effects than a single instance; refer to the specific ability for more information. #


Can Rebel Alliance Snowspeeder Launch Bay affect vehicles outside combat?

So far all my searching of forums has yielded only one result. Apparently someone asked the same question on boardgamegeek and received the following answer:

  "Yes, the vehicle doesn't need to be in the engagement for the Speeder Bay's ability to take effect."

Meaning, that yes, my speeder should have been able to damage the TIE Attack Squadron.

See post on boardgamegeek.


Will Neglected Heirloom ever transform back again?

Neglected Heirloom transforms once, into Ashmouth Blade, and stays that way. (Until something exceptional happens, like another effect or removal, like you said.)

The transformation rule on the Neglected Heirloom front face doesn't matter once it's transformed. The currently face-up side is all that matters, which is Ashmouth Blade. It doesn't have an ability that transforms it, so that's that. Neglected Heirloom's transform ability doesn't exist anymore.

There's several other cards that transform only one way, so this isn't entirely unusual, and for all of those the other face no longer matters. Ormendahl, Profane Prince doesn't have the mana-generating abilities of Westvale Abbey either, for example, and doesn't have anything available to transform it back into a building.

(Also, because of the "no flippy-floppy" rules change introduced with Shadows over Innistrad, that original ability on its front face can't transform it back and forth if the equipped creature happens to transform multiple times at once.)


What happens with two Pledges of Loyalty attached to the same creature?

For completeness' sake:

  303.4f. If an Aura is entering the battlefield under a player’s control by any means other than by resolving as an Aura spell, and the effect putting it onto the battlefield doesn’t specify the object or player the Aura will enchant, that player chooses what it will enchant as the Aura enters the battlefield. The player must choose a legal object or player according to the Aura’s enchant ability and any other applicable effects.

All cards returned by Second Sunrise are returned at the same time, so you can choose the Bears as the creature to attach them to for both Auras.
Right after it resolves, you will have a Grizzly Bears enchanted with both Pledges, two instances of Protection from White (and Green) that each don't remove the Aura that grants it.

Now, State-Based Actions are checked - simultaneously for each card, as per the following rule:

  704.3. (...) 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. (...)

Since both Auras are illegal at this time, they will both be put in your graveyard as a State-Based Action, even though a single one of them could remain on the creature (which SBAs don't check for).

  704.5n. If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player (...), that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.


Why did deathtouch not work against a double strike or first strike creature?

Fencing Ace has double strike. Tajic can be given first strike. That means they deal combat damage first, before your Orzhov Enforcer can, so the Enforcer's deathtouch did not matter.
Normally, when combat happens there is a single damage step after attackers and blockers have been declared. In a damage step, all combat damage is dealt simultaneously.
However, if one or more creatures have double strike and/or first strike, there is another damage step in which only creatures with first strike and/or double strike deal damage:

506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat. The declare blockers and combat damage steps are skipped if no creatures are declared as attackers or put onto the battlefield attacking (see rule 508.8). There are two combat damage steps if any attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4).

If a creature dies in that step, it won't be around for the next damage step to deal damage:

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

Also note that Tajic only prevents noncombat damage, i.e. only damage that was not dealt during a combat damage step, though it didn't matter either way for your question.


Who should I try to kill? Chandra or opponent?

Depends on what's in the rest of your decks, really.

Just generally speaking, a five-turn clock is too slow to justify sacrificing board position.

I thought about ways to explain this in terms of drawing "outs", "control vs. beatdown" theory, &c., but I think it's actually simpler than that... Look at Chandra's -6 ability. 6 damage! If you race and both draw blanks, he will still win. With Chandra on the board, he actually has a faster clock than yours.

Consider also why he played her. What did your opponent do last turn? Looks like he played Blackcleave Cliffs tapped, tapped all his basics for Chandra, then +1ed her up to 4 loyalty counters. He did all that stuff based on the same board state as you're seeing now: two creatures and two Intangible Virtues. He had two other cards in hand; these represent alternative options. So, why'd he choose to make this play? Presumably he played Chandra because the best line of play available to him includes Chandra; therefore, you should kill her to cut it off.

It might be a fake-out to buy time, but...

He's clearly not stalling for mana. He's already got six mana available to him: if he had something big hiding in his hand, he could've just played it already. It's safe to assume Chandra is part of his strongest line of play.
It's possible that -- and this is highly unlikely with a red deck -- both cards in his hand are dead and he's stalling to try to draw some kind of "out" (a card that'll turn the board state in his favor or win the game outright so he doesn't have to care about board state anymore). However, having access to Chandra's copy effect makes many more of his potential topdecks into legitimate outs (e.g. the exact way he burned you out next turn). In this unlikely scenario, your best line of play is still to cripple his board and grind out a win.

Since I did just end up mentioning "outs" anyway, I might as well throw in "control vs. beatdown" theory. Assuming you're playing Township Tokens and his deck isn't heavy with big stuff like Inferno Titan, you've got a stronger endgame. In this situation, you've also got the ability to claim a stronger board position, by killing Chandra. So, be the control deck! Don't let him keep a planeswalker around just because ignoring her makes your super-slow clock a little bit faster.


Should a judge assume that any triggers not mentioned have been missed when providing a ruling?

Jason should feel free to ask questions that may reveal that a trigger was missed, or even to ask directly whether an ability triggered.
One kind of "free information" as defined in in section 4.1 of the tournament rules is

Details of current game actions and past game actions that still affect the game state.

This includes abilities that created continuous effects that still affect the game state, like the Prowess ability in the example would have if it triggered. That section of the rules then makes the following statements about judges and free information:

Players must answer all questions asked of them by a judge completely and honestly, regardless of the type of information requested. Players may request to do so away from the match.

Judges are encouraged to help players in determining free information

If anything, the last sentence seems to encourage Jason to ask whether a triggered ability triggered, if it affects his ruling.
Of course, if Jason's questions do remind the player of a triggered ability that they had in fact forgotten, Jason may have to make another ruling about whether the trigger actually counts as missed. But neither the possibility of giving that reminder nor the possibility of having to make that ruling should deter Jason from asking any questions that are relevant to the ruling.


What set of attributes can be used to describe, compare and contrast various board games?

Attributes that I use to evaluate games:

Replay value (Over time how much do you enjoy it)
Randomness (how much it's out of your hand)
Learning curve
What kind of skill does it require (strategy, resource management, deductions, spatial orientation, etc)
Time required to set it up
Expected time to have a game
Time-ness (is it per turn? all at the same time? you bid for who to be first?)
Degree of interaction (it's similar to what you say but it includes more things. Games like Bingo are outside of your scale)
Handicap-aware (How does it react to players with different levels. Is it easy for a newbie to give by accident the game to another player?)


Ok, so the creature is attacking Liliana. Even with trample, the controller can choose to assign all 4 damage to Liliana. So, the controller gains 4 life.

Also, even if you decided to trample the damage over, it would still go to hit Liliana (she wouldn't be dead yet), since all damage is dealt simultaneously.

What's interesting about the scenario is that Liliana is marked for damage as a creature AND loyalty is also removed for each point of damage.


The manifested card remains as a 2/2 creature without abilities.
The manifest event is independent of Cloudform being attached to it.

701.33. Manifest
701.33a To manifest a card, turn it face down. It becomes a 2/2 face-down creature card with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield face down. That permanent is a manifested permanent as long as it remains face down. The effect defining its characteristics works while the card is face down and ends when it's turned face up.

Cloudform simply gives the manifested card flying and hexproof, and destroying the aura simply makes the creature lose those abilities. It will remain a 2/2 creature, however.
Turning the manifested card face up is also independent of Cloudform:

701.33b Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested permanent you control face up. This is a special action that doesn't use the stack (see rule 115.2b). To do this, show all players that the card representing that permanent is a creature card and what that card's mana cost is, pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up. The effect defining its characteristics while it was face down ends, and it regains its normal characteristics. (If the card representing that permanent isn't a creature card or it doesn't have a mana cost, it can't be turned face up this way.)


What should Mono-B put in sideboard against GW-Tokens?

Black Sun's Zenith and Ratchet Bomb can help gain some time and clear the way for his creatures to hit.

If the planeswalkers and the Shrine are still a problem, Hex Parasite should really help fix that!

You can also look at Pro Tour Honolulu deck lists for inspiration. I'd recommend you to watch Jasper Johnson-Epstein's mono-black deck tech — deck list can be found here (search for his name).


Misreading your hand when knocking in Gin

You are not forced to "correctly" play the 6c, actually sometimes (rarely) it is an expert move to discard a card that is part of a meld.

For example, assume you knock while holding the run {3c,4c,5c,6c} and you know that your opponent is holding the 7c and 8c.  by discarding the 6c you deny your opponent a layoff of 15 points.

From RummyTalk, which is one of the best online Gin-Rummy strategy guides:

  sometimes it is wise to discard from a run when you are knocking. This can prevent lay-offs that could cost you dearly. There may be times when your opponent has nine melded cards and is holding up the one card that can be layed-off with your hand. In that case,
  breaking up the run will cause him to have to hold onto that card eliminating the underknock.


In Commander, if a player causes all of my cards to become a color other than the colors of my commander, do I lose the game?

The color identity rule in Commander is a deck construction rule. This means that it limits the set of cards that can be used to create the deck. Once a deck is created, it is either legal or illegal based on deck construction rules, and that does not change after a game begins.
In addition, the color identity rules specifically say the following:

903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).

903.4a Color identity is established before the game begins.

There are currently no cards that can change the listed attributes that determine color identity, not even Painter's Servant. And even if they could, color identity does not change during the game.


Curse type is defined by nothing more and nothing less than having the word “Curse” on the card in the type line.

This is true of other types as well, such as “Attack”. Attack does not mean that the card hurts your opponent, it only means that it has the word “Attack” on the bottom. Mechanically and thematically though, it is better to only have Attack type on cards that hurt your opponent.

Certain types in Dominion, such as “Action”, do have special rules that come with them. But many other types have no rules. Curse has no special rules, the type doesn’t mean anything at all.

That being said, making another card with the type “Curse” is not good for a fan expansion. This is because “Curse” is both the name of a card and a type of card, and the only card with that type is the card named “Curse”. If another card with that type existed, then cards that said “gain a Curse” would be confusing and ambiguous... does “Gain a Curse” mean gain a card named Curse, or does it mean gain a card with the type Curse? There is no correct answer. That ambiguity is only ok because there is no other card with that type.

So, if you want a different card that will hurt players, whether by having negative VP or by clogging their deck, just leave off that type. You can see how Dark Ages did that thing by introducing Ruins.


Do you still pay 10x the dice when getting the chance card that takes you to the nearest utility if the property is mortgaged?

Yes, you have to pay.  Consider what the card says:

  Advance token to nearest Utility. If unowned, you may buy it from the Bank. If owned, throw dice and pay owner a total ten times the amount thrown.

This has nothing to do with paying rent.

As you mentioned, there is another Chance card that sends you to a railroad:

  Advance token to the nearest Railroad and pay owner twice the rental to which he/she is otherwise entitled. If Railroad is unowned, you may buy it from the Bank.

This card refers to the amount to which the owner is otherwise entitled, namely rent.  If the property is mortgaged, that amount is zero.  The card you're asking about makes no such reference.


What is a good way to get used to counting points?

The advice I have heard most is to count in pairs.  The human mind can easily count groups of around four objects, and so it may be beneficial to eventually move to counts of fours, but pairs tend to be easier in my experience.  Count a dead stone as one pair, and if you see a lone empty spot, just mark that in your mind and continue, removing the mark and adding a pair once you see another lone empty spot.

Once you have your count for one colour, either subtract that number from 50 (or 100, if there's a lot of empty room), or start counting down.  Otherwise, you are very likely to forget the score you counted, making you start all over again.

Another useful trick is to simply balance large pieces of territory against each other, and then count what's left;  this is less accurate, but in the mid-game speed may be more important and you may be unable to give good estimates, anyway.  Make sure to multiply the value of an area by the probability of the player keeping it;  a good way to do this automatically is to count in threes or fours when looking at large areas that are very likely to be invaded.

A fairly obvious trick is to count in your opponent's time; however, be careful that you still count the effect of your move before you play it (if possible), and not afterwards.  Especially in the yose, if you have time, try to count how many points a move will cost.  In many cases, you may find that taking sente may be worth more than responding to the opponent's move.

Finally, if you happen to have trouble keeping track of the score, consider learning binary;  it'll let you count to 1023 on your fingers, which should be enough for most games. :)


They might be just weak cards designed as a filler for an expansion, but most of the time those cards can further evolve into much stronger Pokémon.

Speaking about Cosmog and Cosmoem, those cards mimic their console game counterparts where they are small and mostly useless. But Cosmoem is able to evolve into either Solgaleo or Lunala which are both strong lengendary Pokémon. In TCG, you can evolve in either of them without any limitation.

Here are all the cards Cosmoem can evolve into as of April 2019, you can see that they are nowhere near being useless:


How is the die for Cat Tower configured?

A comment from the publisher on their Kickstarter page answers your question perfectly:

This is their answer, but I'm also seeing complaints about unevenly shaped dice. If this is the case for your game, you should try to get your dice replaced.

If you can't get your dice replaced, make sure you don't put duplicates on opposing faces. You want dissimilar vales to oppose each other (eg 2 and 5 on a 1d6) to negate the effect of having a flattened dice.


Which characters do Threads of Fate plot rule apply to?

Based on rulings from Simon Lundström (who translated the rules), as stated here:

  The subplot says (or should say) "characters who had at least one goodwill at the end of the previous loop".

So only the characters (including corpses) who had a Goodwill counter on them at the end of the loop get 2 Paranoia on them at the start of the next.


In a multiplayer game, if a player is controlling another player's turn, may they reveal that player's hand?

The controlling player cannot reveal the controlled player's hand. Rule 714.5b says

  The controller of another player can’t make choices or decisions for that player that aren’t called for by the rules or by any objects. The controller also can’t make any choices or decisions for the player that would be called for by the tournament rules.

Revealing your own hand in accordance with tournament rule 3.12 is a decision that would be called for by the tournament rules, so the controlling player is not allowed to make that decision. By that same logic, the controlled player would be allowed to make that decision.

I don't have a solid ruling for this part, but my interpretation is that the controlling player can verbally name the cards in the controlled player's hand. Revealing your hand is a game action that involves game objects, so it is covered by the game rules. However, there are very few rules about players' verbal communication, and there are none that govern statements that players make about hidden information. In other words, there is no rule against naming those cards, and there is no rule against lying about them.


While covering the Queen, if a player pockets the last C/m of his own together with the striker

The game will continue, returning the pocketed C/m along with a penalty. If the stroke was proper, your turn continues with you trying to cover the Queen. From the ICF rules:

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

  b) While covering the Queen, if a player pockets his Striker along with his C/m by an improper stroke, the C/m so pocketed plus two C/m as due and penalty shall be taken out for placing by the opponent and the player shall lose his turn. The Queen shall be taken out for placing by the Umpire.


Yes, you can add Collected Company to your hand.

It works like this:

Collected Company resolves choosing Eternal Witness
Eternal Witness is put onto the battlefield and triggers (but is not put on the stack yet)
Collected Company finishes resolving and is put into the graveyard as the last action of casting a spell
State based actions are checked and see that Eternal Witness has triggered and it's ability is put onto the stack and targets are chosen

By the time Eternal Witness' ability is on the stack and it's time to choose targets, Collected Company is in the graveyard and can be chosen to be returned to hand


How does Emissary of Grudges work exactly?

Can I use Emissary of Grudges's ability as an instant?

Yes, otherwise it wouldn't make sense. A spell or ability is something on the stack.

  can I "cancel" Clone's ability, and use it myself on anyone?

Nope. Clone's ability doesn't target; the word 'target' has a very specific meaning in Magic and is almost always printed on the card, in the rules text or the reminder text. A similar card which does target is Rite of Replication, which does not target you but it might target a permanent you control. If it does, you can choose another target for that spell, but it must be a creature (for example, a Grizzly Bears; it doesn't matter who owns it) and the controller of the spell doesn't change. The cloned Bears will still be controlled by player 2.

  if Emissary of Grudges leaves the battlefield, do I keep this ability? Or do I just throw out the chosen player's name?

You don't need to reveal it, you can just throw the paper you wrote it on away. If it enters the battlefield again, you can choose a new player.


Is giving away items as bribes to other players restricted to table cards?

It clearly says that you can't trade non-items or items in your hands, and there's nothing contradicting that.

Being able to reveal your hand does not imply you can trade cards in your hand. You might show your hand to reveal that you are able to affect a combat as a threat or to show you can meet a promise.

Being able to trade carried items does not mean you can trade items in your hand. Carried items are not in your hand. Quite the opposite, the items you carry are on the table. ("[Cards in play] are the cards on the table in front of you, showing your Race and Class (if any) and the Items you are carrying.") Not all of the items are you are carrying are in use because some are single use items, some aren't usable by your race or class, some items would occupy an item slot that's already occupied, etc.


You are correct. From the complete rules:

107.1b Most of the time, the Magic game uses only positive numbers and zero. You can’t choose a negative number, deal negative damage, gain negative life, and so on. However, it’s possible for a game value, such as a creature’s power, to be less than zero. If a calculation or comparison needs to use a negative value, it does so. If a calculation that would determine the result of an effect yields a negative number, zero is used instead, unless that effect doubles or sets to a specific value a player’s life total or a creature’s power and/or toughness.
Example: If a 3/4 creature gets -5/-0, it’s a -2/4 creature. It doesn’t assign damage in combat. Its total power and toughness is 2. Giving it +3/+0 would raise its power to 1.

So a negative power value is NOT treated as zero unless it's going to have a direct effect on the game like dealing damage. All other times (including your example), normal math is used, so 1 (initial power) minus 2 (so tiny) plus 4 ones (triggers) is 3.


How to deal with a player who showed his hands to influence the robber?

First off, yes, what he did was cheating. However, there's more details we need to know. Most importantly, did he know about this rule; and thus was cheating on purpose? Or did he not know, and it was an accident?

If it was on purpose, then the question I linked in comments probably covers it: How can I play games with closed information with players who cheat?

If it was an accident, then simply telling him about the rule so that he doesn't do it again is probably sufficient; at least for a non-tournament friendly game. The advantage that he gained was very small. Without cheating, he could have told Adam that he had nothing but sheep, and provided pretty good evidence of that fact by reminding him of what resources were given out over the past few turns. It seems more likely than not that the outcome would have been the same either way.

Ultimately, it's going to be a question of how you and your group generally handle mistakes during game play; not something that's specific to this scenario. For example, my group is very lenient about allowing players to take back / change their move if no one else has done something based on what they did yet. Some groups, however, may prefer strict rules enforcement over being casual.


How likely are you to lose because Fool's Landing sinks into the abyss?

A friendly warning: This is a looong answer.

  I've calculated the chances of Fools' Landing being lost immediately after the first turn with all players playing to prevent it and a random tile setup.

A few variables:

n = number of players
w = water level after rising once (2 for Novice, 3 for everything else)

Special abilities/actions

First, of all, there are a couple of special abilities and cards that make it impossible to fail:

If the first character is the Pilot (1/6), they start at FL and can always shore it up, or
If anyone starts with a Helicopter Lift (there are 3) or a Sandbag (2) in their hand (1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))), they can shore up or move the first player to shore up (it's OK to ignore WR cards in the initial deal)

1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))

i.e. (1 - (1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n)))) chance that the following permutations can end the game.

Floods, Waters Rise and More Floods

What the characters do on their turns is tricky, so we'll deal with all the card probabilities together first:

6 areas are flooded to start. To immediately fail, FL must be one of them (6/24)
At the end of the first player's turn, regardless of what they did, a fail requires a WR card be drawn from the remaining deck. They draw two cards. The first has a 3/(28-2n) chance of being WR. If it's not ((25-2n)/(28-2n)), the second card has a 3/(27-2n) chance of being WR. After some balancing, that becomes (156-12n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) chance that a WR card is drawn on the first turn
If it is, the (6-card) discard pile is shuffled into the deck and there is a w/24 chance that FL comes out again.

So, the odds that the cards are against you and only a perfect first turn can prevent a fail is:

6/24 * w/24 * (156-12n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) = (w(156-12n))/(96(28-2n)(27-2n))

The First Turn: Explorer Edition

This is where it starts to get very hairy, so bear with me. If the first player is the Explorer, they can move diagonally, so that makes everything a bit more reachable. There is a 1/5 chance that the first player is the Explorer (because we've already taken into account that they're not the Pilot). To fail as the Explorer, you have to be more than three spaces away from FL including diagonally.

From the outside 8 spaces (hereafter, "outside"), there are six you cannot reach. The odds of placing FL in one of the 6 unreachable spaces is 6/23. Therefore, there is a 8/24 * 6/23 = 48/552 chance you fail for this starting position
If you start in a corner of the inner square ("corner"), there are four spaces you cannot reach as an Explorer (the opposite outsides). That's a 4/24 * 4/23 = 16/552 chance of failing
If you start in a space that is not in the centre four, "outside" or in a "corner" (which I'll refer to as "inside" for clarity), there are two unreachable spaces. That provides 8/24 * 2/23 = 16/552
Finally, your first option could be one of the central spaces (the centre four). If it is, congratulations! You can reach any space!

So, the odds of being the Explorer and being unable to shore FL on your first turn, based on all tiles being placed randomly is:

(48+16+16)/552 * 1/5 = 16/552

The First Turn II: Everyone Else Edition

But what if you're not the Explorer?! Let's look at all the potential starting spaces again (groan...) given you're one of the other non-Pilot characters (4/5):

There's a 80/552 chance that FL is unreachable from outside
There's a 40/552 chance that FL is unreachable from a corner
There's a 72/552 chance that FL is unreachable from inside
There's a 12/552 chance that FL is unreachable from the centre.

So, the odds of being a non-Explorer, non-Pilot and being unable to shore FL on your first turn is:

(80+40+72+12)/552 * 4/5 = 816/2760

Therefore, the odds of being unable to shore up FL (given that you're not the Pilot) is:

16/552 + 816/2760 = 896/2760

Phew!

The Grand Conclusion, Or TL;DR

So, we now take all three sections' results and multiply them together:

The odds that you're not the Pilot and no one has cards that can help you = (1 - (1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))))
The odds that you all the flooding will go against you, and you'll draw at least one WR = (w(156-12n))/(96(28-2n)(27-2n))
The odds that you won't be able to reach and shore up FL under normal circumstances = 896/2760

Given that w=3 (which it is for most setups), the odds of failing on the first turn by number of players is:

2 players: approximately 0.0768%
3 players: approximately 0.0483%
4 players: approximately 0.0288%


May you choose *not* to use the free construction chain?

As correctly stated by @unor, you may opt not to use the chain building, but normally pay for resources (English Rules, p. 4):

  If the player has built the structure named there during a previous Age, that player can build the structure for free, meaning without having to fulfill the resource cost.

Both French and German rules confirm the above. The German rules are even more elaborate, as they state (German Rules, p. 4):

  Wenn der Spieler, der das Gebäude errichten möchte, auch das auf der Karte erwähnte andere Gebäude aus dem vorangegangenen Zeitalter in seiner Stadt besitzt, muss er die Kosten nicht bezahlen, sondern kann das Gebäude kostenfrei bauen.

  (English) When the player, who wants to construct a building, has also other buildings from a previous Age mentioned on the card that already exist in his city, he does not have to pay the cost, since he may construct the building free of charge.

If it was obligatory, the German rules would state darf er die Kosten nicht bezahlen, i.e., must not pay the cost.

It should be noted, however, that when you're playing the "Free City" 2-player variant, the Free City has to use chain building, if the chosen card benefits from one (English Rules, p. 7).

  If the card chosen for the Free city can benefit from a free construction (chain), this free construction MUST be performed.

The existence of this rule in the 2-player variant merely confirms that during the normal game (3-8 players) you may either choose the chain or build normally.

Also note that, if you're playing a Team game, you are not allowed to purchase resources from your teammate, if you can build a structure through chain (English "City" Rules, p. 10).

  It is forbidden for the teammates to :

  share coins,
  trade cards,
  not pay for commerce between them,
  buy resources from each other while they can build a structure through a chain.

Note that you are not able to buy resources that you can already produce, but only the resources you're missing (English Rules, p. 4).

  Often, a player will want to build a structure requiring resources he or
  she does not produce. If these resources are produced by a neighboring city – players sitting directly to the left or right of that player – the player will be able to purchase the missing resource(s) through commerce.

This is also confirmed by the "City" expansion rules (English "City" Rules, p. 10).

  A player must use their own resource before buying one from their neighbors.


It is actual still one spell so "both spells" is not the correct term. So yes, both halves would be countered.

Here the full rules of Fuse:

  702.101 a Fuse is a static ability found on some split cards (see rule 708, “Split Cards”) that applies while the card with fuse is in a player’s hand. If a player casts a split card with fuse from his or her hand, the player may choose to cast both halves of that split card. This choice is made before putting the split card with fuse onto the stack. The resulting spell is a fused split spell.

  702.101b A fused split spell has two sets of characteristics and one converted mana cost. The converted mana cost of the spell is a number equal to the total amount of mana in its two mana costs, regardless of color.

  702.101c The total cost of a fused split spell includes the mana cost of each half. (See rule 601.2e.)

  702.101d As a fused split spell resolves, the controller of the spell follows the instructions of the left half and then follows the
  instructions of the right half.


Do you need to complete both routes indicated on a destination card?

You only have to make the required connection (Glasgow to France) once for 19 points. Like all destination tickets; a single ticket cannot be scored multiple times, even if you connect the locations via multiple routes.

The reason that the ticket shows multiple routes is because France is a country, as opposed to a city. In the base Ticket to Ride game, destination tickets are only between two cities. But in this expansion, some of them include a country instead of a city. The country behaves differently because there are multiple spaces within that country. So instead of having to connect a specific place to another specific place; you just have to connect a specific place to one of those 2 places within France.

This is mentioned somewhat in the Ticket to Ride: Marklin rules:

  Some Destination Ticket include the name of a city and a country name. Each route leading to a country
  is a dead end and cannot be used to link two cities.


When will playing Rubber Bridge vs. Duplicate Bridge affect your decisions?

I wholly agree with thesun's answer, particularly "you must squeeze every ounce of potential out of your cards".  But since you've posed particular queries at the end of your question:

Part-scores are the most obvious difference.  If you have strong Hearts, but not strong enough for slam, a Rubber player looks at the scoresheet; with 60 points below the line, there is no point going above 2H unless forced (overtricks score the same as bid tricks, and there is no risk of failure).  A Duplicate player knows there is no line: bid to 4H if you can make it.  Similarly with honours: a marginal hand with KQJT, worth bidding at Rubber because of the cushion 100 honours will give, is not worth bidding at Duplicate.

Strategy: again, Rubber bridge is about making the best of your situation, while Duplicate is about making the best of your cards, Take sacrifices: a Duplicate player knows that if he goes one down doubled but stops opponents making a game, he has done well out of that hand.  At Rubber bridge, you have saved the rubber for now, but if the opponents win a few hands later, all your sacrifice achieved was to cost you a few hundred points.  More generally, if by strategy you mean scoring as many points as possible (as I think you should), any change in the scoring method will affect your strategy.

Usually, you can't tell under which system a particular hand was played; obviously, if one side started with 30 below the line it was at Rubber, and if two declarers took different routes it was Duplicate.

And if you are really a good Rubber bridge player, you will be (or are) a good Duplicate player.  'Good', of course, is compared to 20 or 30 others, rather than 3, and you may find that your system is too ill-defined to be acceptable without work: but it's the same game, and just as enjoyable if not more so.


Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, 6th Edition (2001) lists:

  Cold contract: Bridge slang for an easily makeable contract.

Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 8th Edition (c 1980) lists as sense 5 b:

  Cold: certain, sure viz The actors knew their lines cold a week before opening.

OED Compact Edition (1928) does not list any comparable sense for the word cold.


Bridge affects the costs.
From the Dominion Intrigue rules, page 8

Saboteur
...
Costs of cards are affected by Bridge


Bridge: Matchpoints vs IMPs: Different game?

Barry Crane was throughout his lifetime regarded as the quintessential matchpoint player - yet due to his busy work schedule competed almost solely in weekend regional events dominated by a Saturday Open Pairs and a Sunday Swiss Team. His great success over several decades in both events speaks to the relatively minor differences in strategy between the two types of scoring.

One must know which game one is playing but only in extended team play, with matches longer than 16 boards, are 4-card majors or even fast-in-and-fast-out bidding systems like Crane's starting to have a noticeable disadvantage.


Bridge: Which transfer do you use with both majors - one 5 carder and another 4 carder

The most common answer to this problem is called Smolen, which applies when you have game-forcing values. In Smolen, you start with Stayman. If partner shows a 4-card major, proceed as normal with that suit as trumps. If partner denies a major, you bid your 4-card major at the three level. Opener now chooses a strain.

With less than game-forcing values, your choices really depend on what other bids mean in your system, but the following is usually workable:

With 5 spades, 4 hearts, and invitational values, bid Stayman and rebid 2S after opener's 2D.
With 5 hearts, 4 spades, and invitational values, transfer to hearts and rebid 2S after partner accepts the transfer.
With 5-4 and less than invitational values, consider using "Crawling Stayman." This is a rebid of 2H after 1NT-2C-2D, and it shows a weak hand with the majors. Opener passes or corrects.


In 2-3 player Citadels, can your second character build a 9th district?

Page 8 of the rulebook says (regarding 2-3 player games):

  The game is played normally, except that each player will have two
  turns during each round (one turn for each character). Players do not
  have to separate their gold or their districts between their
  characters, as they still only have one city.

Page 7 of the rulebook says (regarding Game End):

  When a player builds his eighth district, the game ends after the
  current round is completed. At the end of the game, each player
  receives points for all of the following...

The rules do not say that you cannot build a 9th district with your 2nd character. It simply states that once the 8th district is built, the current round will be the last round. So each player gets two turns during each round, and you have to finish all of the turns for the final round. Yes, you may build an additional district.


Either choice is legal. Here's a reference:

Q: Can I play low number first when bearing off?
Yes, you may play your numbers in either order, as long as each number is played legally.


What will happen is Player A will pass his hand to Player B (should be 2 cards since Player A would have had 0 cards to start the turn, drew 3 and played 1) and since no other player can have cards due to the hand limit Player A gets no cards in return. Once the cards reach Player B's hand the hand limit will kick into action and force him to discard both cards and  return to 0 cards in his hand. At this point the trade action will be fully completed and  Player B will be able to start his turn by drawing 3 cards and playing one of the 3 cards now in hand.

There is also a rule that lets you take a free action of taking the top card of the deck and playing it. This action does not have to happen before you take your last action and is allowed to happen after you have taken your last action and before the next players turn ends. This should make it more clear that the player in this case has to discard the 2 cards.


How many cards do you trash when you play a Chapel after having bought a Sewers?

According to this Dominion Wiki you may

  trash an additional card for each card trashed.

It specifically gives example with Chapel.


Advice for an experienced gamer who'd like to play nomic games?

For having played so many Nomic, I must recommend you to play with friends around a table in a place where there are a few games.

The reasons for that are hard to explain, but playing Nomic online implies one of the two followings:

The game is abstract and requires every player to keep his own trace of the current situation, like two chess players that only send each other the coordinates of their moves.
Many players are programmers that can change the website you're playing on, to add new kinds of elements. Let's say you play with "points" and suddenly you decide to add "coins" and "blue turtles", and there is an hexagonal board, ... You can't just add a comment in a blog to edit the players status and adding fields to the database.

But if you play around a table, you can add "Carcassonne pawns" and "Catane cards" in your game quite simply.

Also, you start with very basic rules. Forget about mutable/immutable rules, for example.

Here is an example of starting rules:

1) No rules can be added or changed if it is in contradiction with an already valid rule.

2) The players play their turn clockwise, each finishing his or her turn before the next player begins. The players decide who plays first in the way they prefer.

3) At a player's turn he or she can propose a new rule, a change in a rule or a removal of a rule, by writing it on a piece of paper in the exact form it is supposed to be added or changed. Such an action is called a motion.

4) When a motion is made, all the players vote by raising hands if they accept or reject the motion, each one having one voice.

5) If more than half the voices accept a motion, it is put in the ruleset, at the end with a new number if it is a new rule; at the same place with the same number if the rule is changed; and crossed out if it is removed.

6) The winner is the one who sells the princess.

(Of course, to achieve such a goal, you must either change the rule 6) or introduce a princess and a way to sell her.)


The answer will depend on who has the most chips.  Let's assume that there are 3 players, A, B and C.

A has 100 chips, B has 50 chips, and C has 10 chips.  All three go all-in.  There will be two pots.

The first pot, called the "Main Pot", will have 30 chips in it, 10 chips each from A, B, and C (the value of C's all-in). A, B, and C are eligible to win this pot.

The second pot, call the "Side Pot", will have 80 chips in it, 40 from B and 40 from A, the value of B's all-in.  Only A and B are eligible to win this pot.

A still has 50 chips on the table that is not in a pot.

If C loses:
- A and B split all of the chips in both pots evenly.
- C is eliminated. A has 105 chips. B has 55 chips.

If B loses:
- A wins the 80 chip pot, A and C split the 30 chip pot.
- B is eliminated. A has 145 chips. C has 15 chips.

If A loses:
- B wins the 80 chip pot, B and C split the 30 chip pot.
- A has 50 chips.  B has 95 chips.  C has 15 chips.


When can spells, quick-spells, and traps be activated during the battle phase?

From the beginning of the battle phase to the end, when can each player cast spells or quick-spells, and activate traps?

Short Answer: If the card is Speed 2 or higher basically anytime, unless otherwise restricted by specific conditions or requirements.

Longer Answer: Basically anytime, although this also depends on the specific restrictions of each card, and the conditions that have to be met in order to be able to activate them.

As explained in previous questions, only Spell Speed 2+ cards can be activated during the Battle Phase(that is, normal trap, counter trap, continuous trap, quick-play spell, or any Speed 2 monster eff). Also remember that if you set one of these cards you can only activate it on the next turn, so be careful when doing so.

If your card is one of these you can activate it, unless otherwise restricted. For example, a card like Mirror Force can only be activated "when an opponent's monster declares an attack", and not in other situations:

  When an opponent''s monster attacks, negate the attack and destroy all opponent''s monsters in Attack position.

In this case only when an attack is declared (during attack declaration) is that you can activate this card. If Attack Declaration passes, and then you enter the Damage Step, you cannot activate it anymore, as you would have lost timing.

Let's analyze another case, Rush Recklessly:

  Target one face-up monster on the field; it gains 700 atk until the end of the turn.

This one has more freedom of when to activate. This card you can activate anytime during the Battle phase, even during Damage Step (as any card that modifies Atk or Def stats can be activated in that step, as indicated in some rulebooks).

Be aware that this is not the same as Damage Calculation, where only some cards can be activated (like Blackwing - Kalut, the Moon Shadow) You could even activated it at the start of the BP... but you would achieve greater tactical advantage if done on Damage Step (as your opponent will have attacked already thinking his Atk was higher).


If you're too Tough to die, do you still burn?

Whenever you are reduced to zero hit points, you are disabled.  Before you get boxed and removed from the table you have to resolve any effects triggered by being disabled(I.e. Tough).

So during your maintenance phase you roll to see if the fire goes out.  If it doesn't you take the POW 12 damage roll.  If this reduces you to zero hit points, then you are disabled.  Tough is triggered.  If you pass the tough test you are healed back to 1 hit point.  Since your model never left the table, Fire remains In effect.


It only counts as a draw if the effect or rule specifically says "draw." Otherwise, it's just an action that resembles drawing a card. Specifically, Maralen of the Mornsong will not prevent you from putting cards in your hand with Narset.

This is specified by rule 120.5:

  If an effect moves cards from a player's library to that player's hand without using the word "draw," the player has not drawn those cards. This makes a difference for abilities that trigger on drawing cards and effects that replace card draws, as well as if the player's library is empty.


Does Steel Hellkite destroy cards in my opponent's library and hand?

The key word here is "permanent", which in the game of Magic essentially means "a card or token that's on the battlefield".  Cards in someone's library are never counted as being "permanents".

MTG Comprehensive Rules, 110.1:

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

Also note that "converted mana cost" has nothing to do with being a 2/2 creature.  There are quite a number of things that cost 2 mana that are also 2/2 creatures, but not all 2/2 creatures "have a converted mana cost of 2", by any means!


How does Proliferate interact with Exalted and other temporary +1/+1 buffs?

The word 'counter' has a very specific meaning in Magic:

A marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics or interacts with a rule or ability. See rule 122, “Counters.”

so only spells and abilities explicitly mentioning counters interact with proliferate. The 'exalted' ability doesn't mention it:

702.82a Exalted is a triggered ability. “Exalted” means “Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.”

and neither does Hand of the Praetors. So they don't profit from proliferate.


That's completely valid. One player scoring a run doesn't stop those cards being used in a following run.


If I own both Utilities but mortgage one, do I get 10x or 4x the die roll in rent from the unmortgaged one?

It says right on the card (emphasis mine):

if BOTH Utilities are owned, rent is 10x the amount shown on the dice

Also, from the Monopoly rules:

No rent can be collected on mortgaged properties or utilities, but rent can be collected on unmortgaged properties in the same group.
The player who mortgages property retains possession of it ...


Why is real-money-betting necessary for poker to be fun?

When you fall behind in a "for fun" game, the best strategy becomes to make high risk yet high reward choices. Essentially, if you are sitting in last place, you've got nothing to lose so you might as well risk it all for a shot at the top.

In real life poker, you are always in a situation where you have something to lose: your money. Every dollar counts, so players will not change their strategy.


Was a larger version of Chitin I: The Harvest Wars ever released?

From my own research, it appears that a larger game based on the Hymenoptera universe was planned. There were a range of Chitin 25mm miniatures in the prototyping stage when Martian Metals was destroyed in a fire, pushing the release back. As Metagaming itself unfortunately went out of business a few years later, the larger game was never released.

Source: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=99895


Do I draw a new hand if I start my turn without any card?

No, you do not draw a new hand when yours runs out. Your friends are playing with a house rule. It might be an optional rule in some expansion's handbook, but I'm not aware of such an optional rule.

The only time you draw a new hand is when you start a new character: at the beginning of the game, or after you die.

You are not expected to always have cards in your hand in Munchkin. In fact, it's highly likely that you won't have any cards in your hand a while into the game, and that's fine!


Does a player win Catan if they forget to count their points?

The True Winner is player A.  The first player to obtain 10 points on his or her turn is the winner.

From the online FAQ about this situation at catan.com

  The game ends as soon as a player has reached the required number of victory points on his turn. If he’s unaware of it, you should tell him, because you can’t take an already gained victory away from him.

This means my earlier comments to the contrary are WRONG, please ignore them as the rantings of a madman. :)


What is the logic behind the bean cards to be removed from the deck in Bohnanza?

It seems clear that the very valuable, very scarce beans will work best when there are neither too many nor too few players at the table.  With too many players, these beans are too hard to make work: if you take a risk and plant one, at a competitive table you may never be allowed to plant another!  Conversely, with too few players, these beans are too easy to make work: you stand a good chance of just randomly drawing into them on your turn and making a killing.

I suspect the Coffee Beans exist to make up the numbers in games where the Cocoa and/or Garden beans have been removed.  They are a pretty generic bean, plentiful and of low value, unlikely to rock any boats.  I don't think the Coffee beans would be unbalanced in a 3/6/7 player game in and of themselves; but they need to be removed just because, if you'll allow me to mix my metaphors, too many beans spoil the broth.  The more types of bean you have in the mix at any one time, the more random the draws become, and the less easy it is to discern a hopefully optimal strategy.  (Equally, of course, too few beans makes it too easy to see the "best" plays.)

Keeping the number of beans in play down to 9 or 10 at any one time keeps it easy, but not too easy, to wrap your head around the numbers of what's going on.  If you just want a fun, random, noisy bean-collecting game where you don't really care about the finer points of game balance or cutthroat competitive strategy, I'd suggest that it's probably not worth your while removing and adding different types of beans between every game.  Depends entirely on your motivations for playing Bohnanza!


can i have multiple copies of a single pokemon?

Yes.  Eevee GX, Eevee V, and Eevee are different Pokémon, and you can have four of each in your deck. (Also, if they existed, Eevee EX, Eevee Vmax, Eevee prism star (1 copy), etc.). Most but not all of the ‘suffixes’ count as separate Pokémon.
That’s true for any Pokémon, so yes, Sylveon and Sylveon GX count separately. However, if the names are the same then they count as the same even if they’re different types or otherwise very different - Quagsire for example you can only have four total, even if they are fighting and water types individually.
Note that evolution also works that way - so something that evolves from Eevee cannot evolve from Eevee GX, unless it has an ability that says it can (as I think the GX does?).

Rules notes:  From the Compendium:

Q. Can you have 4 Electabuzz and 4 Electabuzz-EX in the same deck?

A. Yes, you can play 4 Electabuzz and 4 Electabuzz EX in the same deck, as they are considered different cards (similar to the ruling for Trainer Pokémon). (Sep 11, 2003 PUI Rules Team)

but

Q. Can you have 4 Electivire and 4 Electivire Lv.X in the same deck?

A. No, Lv.X Pokemon are considered the same as other pokemon with the same name. You may only have a maximum of 4 combined in your deck (i.e. 3 Electivire, 1 Electivire Lv.X). (Sep 25, 2008 PUI Rules Team)

GX and V and VMAX and Mega are all considered different, by the same rule as EX is.  Lv.X is not, for whatever reason that I can't entirely explain (I guess it's just the 'level' of the Pokémon?).


Betrayal at the House on the Hill uses 8 dice like that one.

Betrayal at Baldur's Gate uses 8 dice like that one.

There are surely other games that use these, though Betrayal Legacy is not one of them.


Get a crafty friend to cut a set of interlocking tiles for you.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6681

Or print a set of border pieces.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6436


Fury of dracula: skipping your turn as the hunters

While passing a Hunter turn has the potential to deny Dracula a card, it will surely make the Hunter turn non-productive. I would consider this to be a wash, generally speaking.

Only one situation forces the player to pass:

  If a hunter is in a sea zone during the night, he must pass.

The benefits/detriments of passing will be situation specific. Perhaps during the late game as the Hunters close in on Dracula it would be beneficial for one Hunter to pass in order to get to the next Hunter. There are many potential scenarios to consider.

That said, passing is generally unlikely. It is in the rules as a realistic option that may occasionally be useful as well as legitimizing the forced pass by making passing an action that can be taken deliberately.


Does Tribal Forcemage benefit from its own morph ability?

Yes, it does.
The ability is a triggered ability, which means it must go on the stack and then resolve before anything happens. By the time it does something, Tribal Forcemage has already been turned face up and is just like any other normal Elf Wizard creature.
In this particular case, Tribal Forcemage is already a normal Elf Wizard even by the time the ability triggers, because it only triggers after it has been turned face up. But even if it weren't, the triggered ability still must be placed on the stack the next time a player would receive priority, and then resolve when players pass priority, all before it matters. Theoretically during that time, before it resolves, Tribal Forcemage could change types, or be Cloudshifted away and back, etc. But it would still count as long as it is on the battlefield and is the matching type when the triggered ability resolves.
If Tribal Forcemage or any other Elf (assuming you chose Elf) entered the battlefield after the triggered ability resolved, it would not get the benefit from it:

611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change.


When do you collect income in Patchwork?

The English rules aren't very specific here so I looked at the German rules by the same publisher. They use the word 'überqweren', which means 'to cross' (as one would with borders).

I don't know why it says 'onto' in the English rules, it's not possible to land on buttons or special squares.
According to the link that Znorg provided, this is because in an early prototype version of the game the markings were on specific spaces. This was later changed, but overlooked when the rules got their review.

The correct reading is this:

  There are markings between some spaces of the time board. Whenever you move past one of these markings, resolve the corresponding event.


Help Identify: 2-player Kingdom building Board Game with role selection

After doing some searching on BGG, I think it's Greedy Kingdoms by Japon Brand. AEG mentioned in 2013 that they plan to release it, but I don't believe there's been further news of a Western release. The game was restyled and included in the Princess Wonder game collection. The English rules can be found here.

As you say, the game is won by building two "Royal Palace" upgrades. There are four resource types: gold, food, honor and land.

Each turn, the current player is the attacker. They may build an upgrade (from the four face-up which replenish, or the pile of three Royal Palaces) or buy a special worker, which replaces and upgrades a basic worker from their hand of eight.

They then battle, secretly selecting three of their eight characters while the defender does the same. The attacker must pay the costs of any matched cards but gains none of their benefits. They then play their unmatched cards, paying the costs and gaining the income.


How does Spellheart Chimera count Fuse or Split cards?

If "Far // Away" was the only card in your graveyard, Spellheart Chimera would be 1/3

Split cards always count as a single card:

  708.4. Although split cards have two castable halves, each split card is only one card. For example, a player who has drawn or discarded a split card has drawn or discarded one card, not two.

Note that the Chimera asks for instant or sorcery cards, an important difference to just instant/sorcery. The latter only exists on the stack.

It would also count as a single card if the two halves had different types, for example if one half was instant and the other a sorcery.


Nightveil Specter - Do I have to play the cards in order they were exiled?

See the rulings for this card on Gatherer: Gatherer: Nightveil Specter

  The card is exiled face up. All players may look at it.
  Playing a card exiled with Nightveil Specter follows all the normal rules for playing that card. You must pay its costs, and you must
  follow all timing restrictions, for example.
  Nightveil Specter’s last ability applies to cards exiled with that specific Nightveil Specter, not any other creature named Nightveil Specter. You should keep cards exiled by different Nightveil Specters separate.

The cards are effectively put to one side, to be used as you see fit. It's as if they are added to your hand. You can play them when you choose, but you have to follow the usual rules for playing those cards, including costs and timings. So you're still restricted to playing one land per turn.

The order of exile isn't relevant here, only the copy of the Specter that exiled the card. So if it was exiled last turn it’s still available to you. This is because exile is effectively a place, the card has been removed from the game, and it stays that way until something changes its state… like you choosing to play it.


Arkham horror expansion compatability diagram

I know of this one from boardgamegeek which was tallied up from a community vote:


The ACBL alert chart explicitly calls out several of these bids as non-alertable. The others (1M rebid promising unbalanced) is covered by the "natural bids not otherwise mentioned" section. So in the US, at least, none of these bids requires an alert.


Do Troll's Lairs remain in a region when Hordes of Trolls go In Decline if the only remaing race token is a Horde?

Yes, the Lair is lost, for the reason you say.
It has none of your race counters, so it has been abandoned.
See also: removing declined Lairs when another race goes into decline. (Same reason: the lair gets abandoned)


What is the value of the Iron Throne track?

Control of the Iron Throne grants you the decision in all (non-battle) ties, not just ties involving you.  This can be useful to try and balance other players in respect to your own position (weaken closer players, for example, or the ones with a stronger board position).

The ability to resolve ties can be quite important when bidding, which can happen in two primary places.  First, once the bid for the Iron Throne has resolved and the order is determined, the new holder of the Iron Throne now resolves ties in the bids for the Fiefdom (sword) and King's Court (raven) tracks.  This allows the holder of the Iron Throne to bid less than otherwise and still have a reasonable assurance of a decent placement.  The positioning of other houses can also be important at this point.  Second, the bidding to defeat wilding attacks: the holder of the Iron Throne determines who gets the benefits or penalties in case there is a tie for the high or low bidder.

Finally, although it is often beneficial to let others go first in order of play, it can also be beneficial to go before your opponents.  For example, your Raid order could remove another Raid order before it has the chance to remove your Support order.

All that said, while there are advantages, I usually bid harder for the King's Court track than any other, myself. I love the starred orders too much.


This depends on which edition you are playing.

There are different editions published by different people, and the R & R Games rulebook answers this clearly:

  Important: The player must clearly point to the cards which he is giving information about. (Thus saying "You have zero of something" is not allowed as you cannot point to anything.)

However, this rule did not exist in the original publishing, and the designer of the game actually specifically said it was allowed.

  As per the heading really - when giving info can you tell someone they have zero of a colour or value?

    The official answer by Antoine is "yes" and we also included this in our rules.

It seems that one of the reasons to disallow this is that with that clue as an option, it is possible to come up with a fool-proof convention where each different clue you can give has a known meaning... basically you can encode information into the clues.


Can you use the Annihilation card on a Giant Skunk that someone else is fighting?

If the Giant Skunk has just been played (via Kicking Down The Door or Looking For Trouble), then you may play Annihilation to cancel the Giant Skunk. At the time it's being played, it doesn't have all of its defensive text; Annihilation means it never existed.

Once it's in play, Annihilation won't help, because that isn't a monster enhancer or wandering monster.

So if you're going to Annihilate a Giant Skunk, be quick about it.

Source: Steve Jackson Games Forum


What is the mass (or density) of the average Jenga block?

Well, it looks like that per Hasbro, an official Jenga set is made of Alder, which apparently has a density of 0.38 g/cc, which when combined with the dimensions of a standard Jenga block from this answer of 1.5cm x 2.5cm x 7.5cm, gives us an average of 10.6875g per block for a 28.125cm³ block.

The margin of error on both the density (one site I found had a range from 0.4–0.7 ×10³ kg/m³, or 0.4–0.7g/cm³) and the dimensions of the block due to manufacturing tolerances are enough to be considered significant, so I'd add a nice fudge factor to that before running further calculations.


Yes, multiple alteration spells may be attached to the same unit.
From the top of page 3 in the Plaid Hat Games FAQ about Ashes:

Q: Can a unit have multiple alteration spells attached to it? Can they be the same spell?
A: Yes to both. You may have multiple alteration spells attached to a unit, and you may have multiple copies of a single alteration spell attached to a unit.


Shortening Harry Potter the Battle for Hogwarts while keeping the difficulty

In this BoardGameGeek thread here another player had the same questions. The only problem is that they are playing the full game, and there are things that do not apply to you (moreover there will be spoilers that maybe you want to avoid).

So I'll try to sum up his rules that apply to Game 4:

To make the game shorter, I would say start on location 2, and reduce the number of villains. He recommends from experience to divide the Villains in three categories, from easy to hard. I report his list, with only the villains you discovered:

Easy Villains:

Crabble
Quirrel
Death Eater

Medium Villains:

Draco Malfoy
Basilisk
Dementor
Tom Riddle

Hard Villains:

Lucius Malfoy
Peter Pettigrew

I personally disagree with the dementor being a medium villain.
But regardless:

Remove one villain from each category and you'll have shorter game.
Also start from location 2 to make it a little harder.

As for player hands, I would start with 4 cards added from the store each. There are different ways you can do this:

Pull out 8 cards from the store and choose who gets which (try to still do 4 each)
Assign yourelf 20 influence points and choose the cards (I would ban Petrificus Totalus though, as it's quite strong (Maybe not in 2 players though))
You could also stratify the cards (like 1 card expensive 5+, 1 card 3-4, and 1 card 2 for each players) but that takes a longer setup so maybe you won't like it

To conclude:

-3 Villains
-1 Location
+6 Random cards

There are other different tweaks that the post gives, but I haven't included them as they could be spoilers.

EDIT: Also, when you reach further games let me know so I can update this summary with the new information.
Credit goes to BGG User ranissi for these rules.


Can you "steal" if the last piece lands in the hole it came from?

You are able to steal if the last piece lands in the hole it came from.

From wikipedia:

  If the last sown seed lands in an empty house owned by the player, and
  the opposite house contains seeds, both the last seed and the opposite
  seeds are captured and placed into the player's store.

In this case, your last stone is landing in an empty hole on your side of the board, and the opponent's hole has stones.  Therefore, you steal those stones.


Where can I practice MTG draft online and actually play against my opponents for free?

You can draft at CCGdecks.com, tappedout.net, or drafts.in, and the free client Cockatrice is excellent for playing.


What happens in Android: Netrunner when your deck runs out and you need to draw a card?

If the Corporation player attempts to draw from his empty R&D deck, he loses the game. From the rules PDF, page 3:

  ...the Runner wins if the Corporation must draw a card from his empty draw deck

The Runner simply loses the ability to draw more cards if his Stack is empty, but it's not a game-ender. You don't reshuffle.


Can a creature's sacrifice benefit be taken when it is sacrificed to Eldrazi Monument?

No.

Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules:

  117.10. Each payment of a cost applies to only one spell, ability, or effect. For example, a player can't sacrifice just one creature to activate the activated abilities of two permanents that each require sacrificing a creature as a cost. Also, the resolution of a spell or ability doesn't pay another spell or ability's cost, even if part of its effect is doing the same thing the other cost asks for.


Is it possible to copy a land with Mimic Vat that is turned into creature by an enchantment?

When a non-creature card such as a land is put into a graveyard from play and it is a creature when it dies, you can use Mimic Vat to exile it, and create tokens later.

When you do this, you will create tokens of the card that was exiled, Mountain, not the creature that it was when it died.

One of the rulings on the Gatherer page says:

  You may exile a noncreature card with Mimic Vat's first ability. For example, if a nontoken artifact that's become a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, Mimic Vat's first ability triggers and you may exile that card.

With regards to whether the triggered ability will still trigger, even though Awaken the Ancient stops enchanting the Mountain when it dies, rule 603.6d says

  Leaves-the-battlefield abilities... will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward.

This means that since the Mountain was still a creature before it left the battlefield (and caused the Aura to become unattached), it does trigger Mimic Vat.


It's stuck in exile.

You can't suspend it.

You can only suspend a card when in it's your hand.

  702.61a Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the card with suspend is in a player’s hand. The second and third are triggered abilities that function in the exile zone. “Suspend N—[cost]” means “If you could begin to cast this card by putting it onto the stack from your hand, you may pay [cost] and exile it with N time counters on it. This action doesn’t use the stack,” and “At the beginning of your upkeep, if this card is suspended, remove a time counter from it,” and “When the last time counter is removed from this card, if it’s exiled, play it without paying its mana cost if able. If you can’t, it remains exiled. If you cast a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of the spell or the permanent it becomes.”

You can't cast it.

Unless some alternative cost applies, casting Wheel of Fate is illegal because it would require paying an unpayable cost.

  117.6. Some mana costs contain no mana symbols. This represents an unpayable cost. An ability can also have an unpayable cost if its cost is based on the mana cost of an object with no mana cost. Attempting to cast a spell or activate an ability that has an unpayable cost is a legal action. However, attempting to pay an unpayable cost is an illegal action.

The ability that triggers when the last time counter is removed from a suspended card provides an alternative cost ("without paying its mana cost"), but Outpost Siege doesn't provide an alternative cost.


Do chest traps happen before loot is distributed?

The trap effect resolves before the contents of the chest are distributed. From the FAQ (page 4)

  Q: When a chest contains curses, can the overlord use the threat generated by the curses to play a trap on that chest? Does the trap go off before or after the rest of the chest
  contents are distributed?

  A: Curses are always the first thing distributed from a chest, and threat from curses may be used to play a trap card in response to opening the chest. The rest of the chest
  contents are only distributed after the trap card (if any) resolves. In the case of a Mimic or similar card, this could be several turns later!


Do mines pay out at the end of the last phase in Castles of Burgundy?

Your reading is right - you do get 1 Silverling (effectively 1 point) per mine at the end of phase E. If you want evidence beyond the rules you quoted, check out the reminder icon on the board that says "A-E":


Can I steal an opponent's aura by changing the target while it is on the stack?

Yes.

  114.1b Aura spells are always targeted. These are the only permanent spells with targets. An Aura’s target is specified by its enchant
  keyword ability (see rule 702.5, “Enchant”). The target(s) are chosen
  as the spell is cast; see rule 601.2c. An Aura permanent doesn’t
  target anything; only the spell is targeted. (An activated or
  triggered ability of an Aura permanent can also be targeted.)

  608.3a If the object that’s resolving is an Aura spell, its resolution involves two steps. First, it checks whether the target specified by
  its enchant ability is still legal, as described in rule 608.2b. (See
  rule 702.5, “Enchant.”) If so, the spell card becomes a permanent and
  is put onto the battlefield under the control of the spell’s
  controller attached to the object it was targeting.

As long as you have a creature to change the target of the aura to, you can have it attach to your creature instead of the one your opponent intended, since changing the target of the aura spell changes what it enters the battlefield attached to.  However, there is a catch. The aura will be attached to your creature but you will not be its controller. Your opponent still controls the spell so they will still control the aura permanent, as mentioned above in 608.3a and reaffirmed by the following:

  303.4e An Aura’s controller is separate from the enchanted object’s controller or the enchanted player; the two need not be the same.

This doesn't make a difference for Eldrazi Conscription, since Eldrazi Conscription modifies the creature directly.  But in the case of  Armadillo Cloak, you opponent would still control the triggered life gain ability and consequently would be the one to gain life for the damage dealt by your creature.


Can I run Loyal Cathar in my green-white Commander deck?

Alas, you may not. This is because, per the rules posted on mtgcommander.net,

  The back face of a double-faced card is included when determining a card's colour identity.

So, while Loyal Cathar is a white card, a white spell on the stack, and a white creature on the battlefield (or a black creature when it's flipped), its Commander-specific color identity is actually white+black.