Magic card has clear deformity, options?

Your best option is going to be to buy sleeves for your deck, just make sure that they are completely opaque since with some sleeves you can still see a little bit of the background of the card. Sleeves will not only prevent your card from being considered marked, it will also help protect your deck from getting damaged as much. Some of the most popular brands are Ultra-Pro, KMC, and Dragon Shield.

For your other ideas you can try talking to your local game shop and see if they are willing to exchange it, or Wizards of the Coast customer service, but I wouldn't expect either of them to do anything. For misprint collectors I do not believe this sort of error is the kind they look for, Starcity Games has an article about valuable misprints. As for filling it in yourself, unless you are an amazing artist there is no way you would be able to fill it in without it still being noticable so I wouldn't both trying that.

From the Magic Tournament Rules

  3.11 Marked Cards
  Players are responsible for ensuring that their cards and/or card sleeves are not marked during the course of the
  tournament. A card or sleeve is considered marked if it bears something that makes it possible to identify the card
  without seeing its face, including (but not limited to) scratches, discoloration, and bends.

  If a player’s cards are sleeved, the cards must be examined while in the sleeves to determine if they are marked.


In Killer Bunnies do you replace a very special card when played?

The rules state that you can play a Very Special card from your hand at any time, even when it's not your go.

The rules also state (order of operations) that at the end of your go you should have 5 cards in your hand and 2 in the run. So you should take a card when you play a Very Special card, although it's not completely clear whether you should do so immediately or wait until the end of your go to do so. Unless you happen to pick up another Very Special card or a Play Immediately card I don't think the timing actually makes any difference.

Anyway, I've always played that you take a replacement card immediately when you play a Very Special card from your hand, it seems the most sensible approach.


Can I activate mana abilities before the Legend Rule kicks in?

No, you have no opportunity to take any actions, including activating mana abilities, after the Teysa Karlov spell resolves and before one of the Teysas dies due to the legend rule state-based action.

State-based action happen immediately after the spell resolves, before any player gains priority.

Mana abilities can be activated when you have priority, like other activated abilites. There are also rules that allow you to activate mana abilities at specific times. In the steps for casting a spell or activating an ability, rule 601.2g says

  If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, "Mana Abilities"). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

And in the steps for resolving a spell or ability, rule 608.2f says

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

In the scenario you describe, events happen in the following order:

The Teysa Karlov spell resolves. This just involves Teysa Karlov entering the battlefield.
State-based actions are checked. At this time, you choose one of the Teysa Karlov creatures and put it into your graveyard.
You put the Vindictive Vampire triggered abilities on the stack.
You gain priority.

There is nothing at all in between the Teysa entering and one of them dying, and there are definitely none of the situations that allow you to activate mana abilites.


Any number of players can play any number of riders on a single agenda, provided each is a different rider.  If multiple players want to play the same rider, the player first in speaker-clockwise order has priority.
The relevant points from the rules reference:

Multiple action cards with the same name cannot be played during a single timing window to affect the same units or game effect. Canceled cards do not count as being played.
During the strategy and agenda phases, if there are multiple abilities
that players wish to resolve at the same time, each player takes a
turn resolving an ability starting with the speaker and proceeding
clockwise.  This process continues until each player has resolved all
the abilities that he wishes to resolve during that timing window.

There is nothing in the rules reference that prohibits a player from playing multiple riders specifically.  There is also nothing besides the above rule preventing several action cards being played in response to a single trigger.


What happens when a military token is placed on a conquered location during a Competitive game?

The Conquest Marker remains
You couldn't find any rules about unconquering the location, because you do not do so. This is supported by several rules in the rulebook. Page 16, under Resistance Counters

Occasionally a card will call for one or more Resistance Counters to be placed onto the board. [...]
Moving Into a Space with Resistance Counters
If you move Aliens onto a Space with one or more Resistance Counters, you will need to Fight those Resistance Counters during your Battle Phase in addition to the normal Resistance drawn for that Location. If the Location has already been conquered (and has a Conquest Marker on it), you must still fight the Resistance Counters.

So, nothing happens to your Conquest Marker, but if you or an opponent enter the Location they will have to fight the Resistance Token. This is further supported by the rules for stealing Terror Points from an opponent, replacing their Conquest Marker with your own, on page 17 under:

Stealing Conquests
If a player ever has one or more Aliens in a Location with an opponent’s Conquest Marker during their own Battle Phase (and there are no enemies present), that player may simply replace the opponent’s Conquest Marker with their own, stealing the glory and the Terror Points for themselves. Note that this swap of markers only happens during your Battle Phase and only if there are no enemies currently at that Location (Alien or Resistance). Also note that this only happens in the Battle Phase, so simply moving through a Location with another player’s Conquest Marker during your Action Phase will NOT swap it for your own.


Yes, cards like the scope allow you to see everyone as if they where 1 distance closer. This lets you use any card with restricted range to hit someone 1 distance further away then normal. This is great with panic or to let you shoot someone who was just out of range before.

On the other hand cards like mustang increase the distance that other players see you by 1. So if you have a scope and the person next to you has a mustang the two effects would cancel each other out.


Can anyone provide a citation for the existence of pre-alpha MTG rules about an initiative stat in combat?

Mark Rosewater, Magic's lead designer, says it's not true that such a mechanic existed. He began working with Wizards of the Coast in 1995 (the game launched in late 1993) and has been the game's lead designer since 2003. From his blog, Blogatog (on February 22, 2016):

gatvin asked: Back when MTG magazines were a thing, I used to get Inquest Gamer. In one of their articles, they showed some early magic cards and they had three stats. Power, toughness, and initiative. Initiative determined damage order in combat and later turned into First Strike for simplification. Now, as with many things written by people, they were sometimes wrong. Do you know if that was true? It was weird to not hear anything about it at all in your story about the design of Alpha.
Mark: To the best of my knowledge, that is not true. The Star Wars TCG we made did have an extra stat for Speed. And yes, in our game Han was faster than Greedo. : )


What effects can modify mana abilities and be affected by Mana Relfection and Nyxbloom Ancient?

Mana Reflection and Nyxbloom Ancient are the only cards that increase the amount of mana produced by other mana abilities. Some cards decrease the amount of mana produced.

In order for one card to modify the result of an ability on another card, it would need to use a replacement effect, which would contain the word "instead". So, we can look for cards with this effect by searching for cards with the words "mana", "produce", and "instead". Of the cards we find there, only Mana Reflection and Nyxbloom Ancient increase the amount of mana produced, and Contamination and Damping Sphere decrease the amount of mana produced, and change its type.


Do I get to declare HQ Mole before watching the first cards I'd access anyway?

There is no official rulings, because an official (Wizards of the Coast) hasn't yet ruled.
The last official rules errata was v1.7 from March, 2000.

March 11, 2000 - Netrunner Rulings, v1.70 - Author: Top Runners' Conference   List of official rulings used by the Top Runners' Conference. It is compiled primarily from rulings made on the Netrunner mailing list by representatives of Wizards of the Coast. Covers Limited, Proteus and Classic.

The next official rules errata v1.8 has been stalled, you can read the discussion thread here. There is errata concerning the Moles cards, but I do not believe that WotC has provided an official ruling regarding the matter within their mailing list.

D. all topics concerning errata and clarifications discussed on netrunneronline, but maybe not completely validated.
D10a. HQ Mole - ... Clarification: HQ Mole triggers during the “access cards” phase, and can be used anytime during this phase access. When Runner has HQ Mole installed, he or she may first access the card(s) normally accessed without using HQ Mole, processing any immediate effect that would occur due to this access (like the 2 Net damage of Setup!). After that, he or she may still trigger HQ Mole to access the additional cards.
Similarly, when Runner has multiple HQ Moles installed, he or she may use them one by one (and processing for each Mole any immediate effect). In other words, Runner is not required to declare at once how many HQ Moles will be used, but can decide after each HQ Mole used, if he or she will trigger another one.

It is possible that WotC hasn't ruled on the matter, but netrunner online (not official), may have come to a decision. This can be observed on their rules page.

67 HQ Mole - When Runner has HQ Mole installed, he may first look at the card(s) that he would access without using HQ Mole, and after that, he may still trigger HQ Mole to access the additional cards. In the same sense, when Runner has multiple HQ Moles installed, he may use them one by one; i.e. he is not required to declare how many HQ Moles he will use already when his run is successful. When Runner has finally decided how many HQ Moles he uses and after looking at all the cards stored in HQ that he will access, he decides in which order he accesses the cards. As always, he may intermingle with upgrades accessed from HQ.(–Netrunner Online)


Use exactly 36 combinations instead of two dice

There is an app called Catan Smart Dice which does exacly what I need.

With the possibility to have the dice be a fair dice: there are 36 possible rolls (1-1, 1-2, 1-3...) And such a fair dice rolls all the possible permutations once before repeating a permutation again

Also an app, where you can also adjust the number of dice and adjust the "fairness": Fair Dice


Playing Nope on a Double Slap after it has been played

Nope. You can't do that.

The rules (under the section on Nope) specifically state that:

  You can play a Nope Card at any time before an action has begun, even if it’s not your turn.

As soon as you begin your first turn as a result of the Double Slap then you are accepting that the Double Slap card is in effect.

The only way the Double Slap could be negated is if you, or another player, played a Nope card directly on it before you start your first turn that results from the Double Slap.


How do you determine which Dominion sets to play with?

There is no general way to pick the sets besides picking ones that you like.

I generally restrict myself to 2-4 sets of cards because I like to play with at least 2-3 cards from each set I am playing with (this is especially true if playing with alchemy).

In my opinion, the only 2 sets that I have found to clash, and its not even that bad when they do, are dark ages and hinterlands.

You might also consider reading this question: Does mixing Dominion expansions lessen the power of card combinations in random kingdom setups?


Note: The answers given here were correct at the time they were written, rules changes have since made parts of them incorrect.
They work as if they only had one of the sides attributes while on the Stack, and as if they had both sides' qualities in every other zone.
If an effect is asking for a particular characteristic, it gets two answers. For example, Infernal Genesis asks you to reveal the top card of your library and add a number of 1/1 tokens to the battlefield based on the converted mana cost of the revealed card, if you revealed Hit//Run you would get 8 tokens, because the converted mana cost of the card would have two answers 3 and 5.
If an effect is performing a comparison, it only gets one answer. If either side would return a Yes answer when performing the comparison, then you would get a single Yes. For example, if you used Sunforger to search your library for a card that was red or white and had a converted mana cost of 4 or less, you could search out Wax/Wane (because for one of the sides, you would get a yes - Wane is white, and has a CMC of 4 or less) and still cast the Green side (Wax) of the card (only the search is restricted by color and CMC).
When casting a split card, you choose a side and proceed to do the normal process for casting a spell. Announce the spell, choose targets, pay costs, etc.
The Split Card type was added to MtG first in Invasion Block.

708.2. In every zone except the stack, split cards have two sets of characteristics and two converted mana costs. As long as a split card is a spell on the stack, only the characteristics of the half being cast exist. The other half’s characteristics are treated as though they didn’t exist.
708.2a If a player casts a split card, that player chooses which half of that split card he or she is casting before putting it onto the stack. Only the half that is being cast is considered to be put onto the stack.

As of Amonkhet, these cards no longer give separate answers for characteristics - they give one answer that combines the characteristics of both halves. Some of this makes no difference, as explained here Infernal Genesis will still give 8 tokens for Hit//Run because it now gets one answer, 8, instead of two answers 3 and 5. Other times the difference matters, Isochron Scepter can no longer imprint Bound // Determined because the card no longer returns 5 and 2 for CMC, it returns just 7.


It's just one of many forms of a class of games called Contract Rummy. (The various rounds' goals are called contracts).

The major variation here seems to be:

The discard (or rather lack of discard): I guess by your description (since one cannot make three sets with only seven cards) that players just draw a card each turn and are not required (or permitted) to discard, but rather can only play melds and lay off on other melds.

See more common versions at, for example, http://www.rummy-games.com/rules/contract-rummy.html


Do obstacle abilities work until the moment they are defeated?

From the way I read the rules you will be able to use colorless as in the apply damage step it lists defeating an enemy and it does not state you have to apply all damage before this. Also it should be noted that some defeat effects also will provide bonus damage which would also lead me to believe that you can do more damage after defeating an obstacle.

  Defeating an Obstacle
  When you clear the last (far-right) level of an obstacle’s damage
  track, you defeat it. If the obstacle has a defeated ability,
  apply that effect.


Do I lose resources when buying 4th plant in Power Grid?

You may keep the resources, as long as the new plant can store them. According to the rulebook:

  When a player buys a fourth plant, he must discard one of his other power plants. The player may move resources from the discarded power plant to his remaining three power plants, if they match the resources used by one or more of the retained power plants.


Is it possible to set up a board state where neither player can ever win or lose except by conceding?

Arcanist Lupis already provided a fine answer, which works in most circumstances, but you said that you wanted "maximum troll", so I'll provide an alternative solution, which doesn't require Platinum Angel or Abyssal Persecutor (Please note that this solution requires an arbitrary amount of mana):

Cast Temple Bell, Omen Machine, Auratog, and Hive Mind.
Cast Deadeye Navigator and Dualcaster Mage, and soulbond them.
Cast Oblivion Ring, and exile your Omen Machine.
Cast Enter the Infinite (which each player has to copy), then tap your Temple Bell. Each player now has every card in their library in their hand.
Sacrifice Hive Mind to Auratog (This prevents our opponents from messing up our combo in step 7).
Cast Worldfire.
With Worldfire on the stack, cast Pull from Eternity on any permanents in exile that have the potential to impact the board state after the Worldfire resolves, such as suspended cards or a creature exiled with Flickerform. Use the Deadeye Navigator to flicker the Dualcaster Mage, and copy the Pull from Eternity as needed. Note that in the case of Flickerform, you will always receive priority after its ability resolves, so you can still target cards that were exiled while Worldfire was on the stack.
Laugh maniacally (This step is very important!)

When Worldfire resolves, your Oblivion Ring will be exiled, returning Omen Machine to the battlefield. The result? No players will have any cards in their hands, libraries, or graveyards. The only permanent in play will be Omen Machine, preventing players from losing the game via decking themselves. Assuming no phasing shenanigans, no player will be able to do anything, effectively locking everybody out of winning or losing the game.


Citadels - Can a warlord destroy a district for free?

Yes.

This is explicitly stated in the rules.

  8) Warlord

  You receive one gold for each military (red)
  district in your city. At the end of your turn, you
  may destroy one district of your choice by paying
  a number of gold equal to one less than the cost
  of the district. Thus, you may destroy a cost one
  district for free, a cost two district for one gold,
  or a cost six district for five gold, etc. You may
  destroy one of your own districts. You may not,
  however, destroy a district in a city that is already
  completed by having eight districts (or seven
  districts when the Bell Tower is in play).

[Emphasis added]


So I'v been googling like crazy last hour or so, and here is what I found. A person on BGG recommended pagat.com for comprehensive coverage of old public domain card games. Indeed there is an article there covering cribbage.

I'll cite the relevant part:

  The Show

  Players now retrieve the cards that they put down during the play and score for combinations of cards held in hand. First the non-dealer's hand is exposed, and scored. The start card also counts as part of the hand when scoring combinations. All valid scores from the following list are counted.

  15:
  Any combination of cards adding up to 15 pips scores 2 points. For example king, jack, five, five would score 10 points altogether: 8 points for four fifteens, since the king and the jack can each be paired with either of the fives, plus 2 more points for the pair of fives. You would say "Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteen six, fifteen eight and a pair makes ten".

  Pair:
  A pair of cards of the same rank score 2 points. Three cards of the same rank contain 3 different pairs and thus score a total of 6 points for pair royal. Four of a kind contain 6 pairs and so score 12 points.

  Run:
  Three cards of consecutive rank (irrespective of suit), such as ace-2-3, score 3 points for a run. A hand such as 6-7-7-8 contains two runs of 3 (as well as two fifteens and a pair) and so would score 12 altogether. A run of four cards, such as 9-10-J-Q scores 4 points (this is slightly illogical - you might expect it to score 6 because it contains two runs of 3, but it doesn't. The runs of 3 within it don't count - you just get 4), and a run of five cards scores 5.

  Flush:
  If all four cards of the hand are the same suit, 4 points are scored for flush. If the start card is the same suit as well, the flush is worth 5 points. There is no score for having 3 hand cards and the start all the same suit. Note also that there is no score for flush during the play - it only counts in the show.

  One For His Nob:
  If the hand contains the jack of the same suit as the start card, you peg One for his nob (sometimes known, especially in North America, as "one for his nobs" or "one for his nibs")..

While not entirely scientific, this is the most unambiguous description that I've come across so far, and it also acknowledges a feeling that I was getting that this particular rule is slightly illogical. Italic above is mine.


What is the name of this patience style 2 deck card game

Sounds like the game you are thinking of could be Spider Solitaire or a variant of it.

The game:

is a solo style Patience/Solitaire game
is played with two decks
consists of 10 columns
cards are stacked with like suited cards from K to Ace in order to remove them
Only Kings may be placed on empty spaces

You can find the how-to-play rules here:
Bicycle Cards: How to play Spider Solitaire

A common game may look like this at the start (Source Wikipedia):

Sidenote: If you want to give spider Solitaire a go, try searching for it from your start menu. Some versions of Windows have the game installed by default.


Does a discarded then cast card with madness count as discarded?

Yes, that still counts as discarding a card. The Madness ability is defined in 702.34a:

  Madness is a keyword that represents two abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the card with madness is in a player’s hand. The second is a triggered ability that functions when the first ability is applied. “Madness [cost]” means “If a player would discard this card, that player discards it, but exiles it instead of putting it into their graveyard” and “When this card is exiled this way, its owner may cast it by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost. If that player doesn’t, they put this card into their graveyard.”

The card is still discarded, and the Madness ability changes where it goes.


Does qGo + GNU Go save or load handicap games incorrectly and how can one work around it

Summary

The specification shows that the file is wrongly saved and can be corrected by adding the AB property. The game seems to be saved by qGo.

Details

How to do it correctly

We can find the specification from Sensei’s Library SGF, which refers us to [SGF on Red Bean]http://www.red-bean.com/sgf/; there the specific properties for Go link to https://www.red-bean.com/sgf/go.html. There we see:

Property:   HA
Propvalue:  number
Propertytype:   game-info
Function:   Defines the number of handicap stones (>=2).
        If there is a handicap, the position should be set up with
        AB within the same node.
        HA itself doesn't add any stones to the board, nor does
        it imply any particular way of placing the handicap stones.
Related:    KM, RE, RU

So we conclude that the standard does specify how to set up handicap stones and that qGo (or GNU Go) does it wrong. Moreover, adding the AB property by hand is correct, as it yields the file as it should have been saved.

For n conventionally placed handicap stones, copy the line above n up to and including the “]” above the n from:

AB[dp][pd][dd][pp][jj]
         2   3   4   5
AB[dp][pd][dd][pp][dj][pj][jj]
                         6   7
AB[dp][pd][dd][pp][dj][pj][jd][jp][jj]
                                 8   9

Which code is in error

We can start GNU Go with a command-line interface with gnugo -level 20 (for example, and see in the help text that save file saves the game. Testing this, I see that the saved game (with two moves) includes the AB property:

(;GM[1]FF[4]
SZ[19]
GN[GNU Go 3.9.1 Random Seed 1519478141 level 20]
DT[2018-02-24]
KM[0.0]HA[2]RU[Japanese]AP[GNU Go:3.9.1]AB[pd][dp]
;W[pp];B[dd])

I conclude that qGo implements its own save function and does it wrong; perhaps it implements this in order to include the player names (PW & PB), territory (TW & TB) and something called style (ST[1]) which is described at https://www.red-bean.com/sgf/properties.html#ST:

Property:   ST
Propvalue:  number (range: 0-3)
Propertytype:   root
Function:   Defines how variations should be shown (this is needed to
        synchronize the comments with the variations). If ST is omitted
        viewers should offer the possibility to change the mode online.
        Basically most programs show variations in two ways:
        as markup on the board (if the variation contains a move)
        and/or as a list (in a separate window).
        The style number consists two options.
        1) show variations of successor node (children) (value: 0)
           show variations of current node   (siblings) (value: 1)
           affects markup & list
        2) do board markup         (value: 0)
           no (auto-) board markup (value: 2)
           affects markup only.
           Using no board markup could be used in problem collections
           or if variations are marked by subsequent properties.
           Viewers should take care, that the automatic variation
           board markup DOESN'T overwrite any markup of other
           properties.
        The  final number is calculated by adding the values of each
        option. Example: 3 = no board markup/variations of current node
                 1 = board markup/variations of current node
        Default value: 0
Related:    C, FF, GM, SZ, AP, CA


Where/how does the Magic: the Gathering Quick Start Guide booklet actually get distributed in the physical world?

I can confirm that these kind of booklets were available up to at least 8th Edition as physical copies: I bought some kind of introduction pack which contained two 40 card theme decks and a quick start guide (see archive.wizards.com, it's the rulebook that's available as a PDF).

So far it doesn't look like they're still available as physical copies. My first guess was to look at the Magic 2015 Core Set 'Deck Builder's Toolkit' because according to the Wizards website it contains:

  The support you need to build your own Magic: The Gathering decks. Includes 125 semi-randomized cards suitable for building several different decks, four 15-card booster packs from a variety of recent Magic sets, 100 basic land cards, a deck builder’s guide, a Magic learn-to-play guide, and a card box. (Emphasis mine.)

However, a youtube video (I will link in the first comment, since I don't have enough reputation for more than two links) shows that it's the same 'Rules Reference Booklet' as mentioned in the question, as well as a 'Deck Builder's Toolkit' fold out which I think contains deck building tips. Clash Packs seem to contain similar kind of fold outs (see second video linked in comments). Together with Jefromi's answer it seems unlikely that this rule book is physically available anywhere else.


What is this kind of card shuffling called?

This is called random pile shuffling. Wikipedia defines pile shuffling as:

  Cards are simply dealt out into a number of piles, then the piles are stacked on top of each other.

Here is a YouTube video demonstrating pile shuffling.

Trivia

At a Magic: the Gathering tournament, pile shuffling by itself is not a sufficient means of randomization.

Two others popular types of shuffling are (warning, these are video links) mash shuffling and riffle shuffling.


When gaining control of an opponent's target creature, who do effects of that card that apply to?

In general, "you" always refers to an objects controller, or if it doesn't have one, its owner. This is specified with some more detail in rule 109.5. For example, if a card is on the battlefield, "you" refers to its controller, and if a card is in a graveyard, "you" refers to its owner.
In the specific example of taking control of Yavimaya Elder and sacrificing it, you (the controller) would search your library for the lands and put them into your hand. This is because Yavimaya Elder's ability is a "leaves-the-battlefield ability", which means that the following parts of the triggered ability rules apply:

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

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

This means that when Yavimaya Elder dies, its triggered ability considers how it existed when it was last on the battlefield. This includes the fact that you controlled it, so you also control the ability and the "you"s in the ability refer to you.


Can I build off a branch blocked by a troll?

This is not covered in those rules but it is covered in the rules of the original game.

https://www.ultraboardgames.com/saboteur/game-rules.php

  Important: Newly placed path cards must always have an uninterrupted connection to the start card!

Since you are digging tunnels you will have to have a path to where you are digging the new one. Also it would greatly reduce the power of a card that blocks a path if you could continue building until you get a card to fix the blockage.


Why can't I activate Rank-Up-Magic Admiration Of Thousands on duelingnexus.com?

However Rank-Up-Magic Admiration Of Thousands isn't working. Is there a reason why I have missed?

If you can't activate your RUM it may be because of it's requirements. From it's text, emphasis mine:

  Target 1 or more Xyz Monsters in each Graveyard, all of the same Rank; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Number C" or "CXyz" monster that is 1 Rank higher than those monsters, and attach those monsters to it as Xyz Materials. You cannot Special Summon other monsters during the turn you activate this card. You can only activate 1 "Rank-Up-Magic Admiration of the Thousands" per turn.

This restricts you because:

You have to select at least 1 monster from each graveyard. If your opponent does not have one you can't play that RUM.
All the selected monsters have to be of the same rank. If neither graveyard contains valid targets you can't activate the RUM.
If you special summoned something else previously, you can't activate the RUM.

All these are possible reasons (besides a bug, naturally) for you not to be able to play the Rank-Up-Magic card.


What is the standard cost for the illustration on a Yu-Gi-Oh! card?

It looks like the company that makes Yugioh is very tight lipped about their contracts with their artists.

More is known about Magic the Gathering artists, they reportedly get paid roughly $400-$600 / card, with "known" artists making more, possibly 2-3 X.

My guess would be that Yugioh artists make less than Magic the Gathering artists.


How do I score rounds 2 and 3 when I am the only player with a kind of building?

You only get the points for first place. There simply is no second place person to receive those points. If a game wanted to let you get the second place points also in that case, it would need to be spelled out as a special rule.


Yes: Xenograft is an enchantment that adds a creature type of your choice to all your creatures. There are also many cards that add all creature types to one or more creatures, including the creature cards Amoeboid Changeling and Mirror Entity, and the instants Blades of Velis Vel and Shields of Velis Vel.


Does the Ticket to Ride Africa version use tunneling?

No, it does not.

You can find the complete rules here. It does not make any mention of tunneling as part of claiming routes.

Here is a picture of the map; you can see that no routes look like the tunnels from Europe.


Can someone counter a creature ability with a counter target creature?

No, you can't counter an ability with an effect that says counter target spell. You can only counter a spell

One of the reasons why people play  aether vial, because you can't counter creatures put into play with aether vial

You need to pay attention to the wording of the ability.  Because if the ability says that you can "cast" the creature such as  Garruk's Horde, than it does take the form of spell, and can therefore be countered.

But if the ability says to put it onto the battlefield than it's not a spell, and can't be countered


Is untapping my permanents during the untap step optional?

You do not get to choose whether or not to keep a permanent tapped during the Untap Step of the Beginning Phase unless a specific card's ability provides that choice. For example, Rubinia Soulsinger lets you choose not to untap her during your untap step. Notice that the clause "your untap step." is important, Rubinia Soulsinger must still be untapped if an opponent plays a Pestermite you must untap Rubinia Soulsinger and relinquish control of whatever creature you stole.

The word "determine" in this context does not mean choose, it means to evaluate whether or not there are any abilities preventing a permanent from untapping, and evaluating the decision to untap should an ability provide that choice. As the rule states:

  Normally, all of a player's permanents untap.


What exactly is affected by the new rule 614.16?

Rule Change
Doubling Season has the following abilities:

If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.

The cards Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives also both have that first ability.
Under the previous rules, those abilities just care about whether the original event is an "effect", which is defined in rule 609.1:

An effect is something that happens in the game as a result of a spell or ability. When a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability resolves, it may create one or more one-shot or continuous effects. Static abilities may create one or more continuous effects. Text itself is never an effect.

In particular, costs and special actions are not effects and do not create effects, so Doubling Season would not apply to counters and tokens created by those events. In addition, if those counters or tokens were created by replacement effects that applied to those events, Doubling Season would still not apply, because the original event was not an effect. This part is changing; the new rule 614.16 has this text:

Some replacement effects apply "if an effect would create one or more tokens" or "if an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent." These replacement effects apply if the effect of a resolving spell or ability creates a token or puts a counter on a permanent, and they also apply if another replacement or prevention effect does so, even if the original event being modified wasn't itself an effect.

Interactions
As the rule says, this rule change affects replacement effects that create tokens and replacement effects that put counters on permanents. In particular, it affects those replacement effects that can replace events that are not themselves effects.
Counters
Lands
The largest category of cards this rule change affects is lands that enter the battlefield with counters. Playing a land for the turn is a special action, so it is not an effect. And the ability that causes it to enter the battlefield with a counter is a replacement effect, as defined in rule 614.1c. So, under the old rule, if you play one of these lands for your turn, the counters would not be doubled by Doubling Season, but if you put the land onto the battlefield due to some other effect, Doubling Season would apply. Under the new rule, Doubling Season's ability always applies.
The lands affected by this are

Dark Depths
Gemstone Mine
Depletion Lands: Hickory Woodlot, Peat Bog, Remote Farm, Sandstone Needle, and Saprazzan Skerry
Llanowar Reborn
Tendo Ice Bridge
Vivid Lands: Vivid Crag, Vivid Creek, Vivid Grove, Vivid Marsh, Vivid Meadow

Similarly, Dryad Arbor has the same interaction with cards that cause creatures you control to enter the battlefield with counters, such as Bloodspore Thrinax and Master Biomancer.
Combat Damage
Some other cards are affected because they can replace damage with adding counters. Combat damage is not an effect, so under the old rules, Doubling Season would not apply to combat damage, but it would apply to damage from other effects. Now, Doubling Season always applies to these replacement effects:

Force Bubble
Lichenthrope
Phytohydra
Soul-Scar Mage
Szadek, Lord of Secrets

Replacing Counters with Counters
Finally, there is a single card that replaces adding counters to permanents with adding more of the same counters: Winding Constrictor. Under the old rules, Doubling Season would have only applied if the original counters were added by an effect. Under the new rule, Doubling Season always applies to the counters added by that replacement effect. This will most commonly come up in the case of combat damage dealt to creatures by creatures with wither or infect. The -1/-1 counters are the result of damage, not a replacement of the damage, so Doubling Season wouldn't normally apply, but it does apply to the counter Winding Constrictor adds. On top of that, you can use a card like Mycosynth Lattice or Liquimetal Coating to make planeswalkers into artifacts. Then Winding Constrictor's ability applies to counters added to pay the costs of those planeswalkers' "plus" abilities, and once Winding Constrictor's replacement effect is applied to those counters, Doubling Season will apply to the counter that Winding Constrictor added.
Tokens
There are only two cards that create tokens as a replacement for an event that does not create tokens: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Words of Wilding.
In the case of Kalitas, under the old rules Doubling Season's ability would apply or not depending on why the original creature died. In particular, if the creature died directly from a spell's effect, Doubling Season would have applied; some examples are Murder's "Destroy target creature" or Innocent Blood "Each player sacrifices a creature". However, Doubling Season would not have applied if a creature died while paying a cost (such as Ashnod's Altar's "Sacrifice a Creature: Add {C}{C} to your mana pool) or died of a state-based action such as having 0 toughness or taking lethal damage. Under the new rules, Doubling Season always applies to tokens created by Kalitas.
Similarly, with Words of Wilding, under the old rules, Doubling Season would have applied if the card would be drawn due to an effect (like Divination), but not if the card would be drawn due to the turn-based action of drawing a card during your draw step. Under the new rules, Doubling Season always applies to tokens created by Words of Wilding.


Does anyone know a good way to play Forbidden Island with one player

In Forbidden Island, the players have no secrets from each other. There is also no real-time component to the game or other physical limitation that benefit from multiple real players. As such, you can simply play alone by playing with more than one character. Each character has its own hand and plays in turn as if they were played by different people.


MTG Layer System - Does adding a basic land type to a land grant the mana ability at layer 4 or layer 6?

When a card has one of the five basic land types it simply intrinsically has a corresponding mana ability:

  305.6 The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. A land with a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol],” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box. For Plains, [mana symbol] is {W}; for Islands, {U}; for Swamps, {B}; for Mountains, {R}; and for Forests, {G}.

This isn't granted by the layer system because the layer system is about interaction of continuous effects (and in fact exists inside the rule section named the same). The intrinsic ability isn't granted by a continuous effect; it's just granted by the rules as a matter of fact based on the card type. A card granted a basic land type simply has that ability as soon as it gains the type (at layer 4).

A basic land can lose all abilities though, in which case it would lose these abilities in layer 6.


How do damage increases and redirects interact?

Isothermic Transducer is not a redirect

Isothermic Tranducer is a triggered effect that deals damage.  Like any other instance of damage, it will be boosted +2 by the two Obsidian Fields.

The amount of damage that Absolute Zero (AZ) deals is calculated from the amount of damage AZ takes - that is, the amount of life he lost.  The initial number stated by the ability dealing damage before increases and decreases doesn't matter, only the final number.

So if AZ tries to deal himself 1 Fire damage, it will be boosted +2 and he will take 3 Fire damage.  Then Isothermic Transducer will react and he will deal 3 damage +2 and deal 5 cold damage to the target of his choice.

(If he choose to deal that damage to himself and he has his Null-point Calibration Unit in play, he will heal 5 hp)

There are true redirects in the game, such as Visionary's Decoy Projection, Baron Blade's Elemental Redistributor, and Legacy's Lead from the Front.  For a redirection effect, once you have determined who the damage is finally pointing at, recalculate the damage increases and decreases from scratch between the source and the final target.

For example, Obsidian Field is in play, Legacy had Fortitude (-1 damage taken) and Lead from the Front, and Tempest has Localized Hurricane (+1 damage taken) in play.  Baron Blade tries to deal Tempest 1 damage.  That would be 3 damage (+1 from the Hurricane, +1 from Obsidian Field), but Legacy redirects that damage to himself.  So we recalculate from scratch as 1 (base damage) + 1 (Nemesis with Baron Blade) - 1 (Fortitude) + 1 (Obsidian Field) = 2 damage taken.  The fact that Tempest would have taken 3 damage is irrelevant.*

Well, mostly irrelevant.  There are a few redirects that only trigger for certain amounts of damage.  But once the redirect has been triggered, it doesn't matter if the final calculated damage is different from the amount that triggered the redirection.


Can anyone identify board game with 2 rows 2 holes wide each and 2 upright metal pins?

This is a basic cribbage board.

The pegs are moved alternatively to track score for each of two players. There are sixty holes so that each player completes a number of "laps of the board" to reach a winning score of 61 or 121.


If I block my opponent's Ornery Goblin with my Ornery Goblin, whose Goblin dies?

Both should die. This sounds like an Arena bug.

Once an ability goes on the stack, removing the permanent that put it there doesn't stop it from resolving. The ability is now an entirely separate object that has no reliance on its source.

This means both Ornery Goblins' abilities resolve, killing each other. Your assessment is otherwise entirely accurate including ability ordering—it just doesn't matter here that one kills the other first because they'll both die anyway.

The only other thing I can imagine is they had a Mentor put a +1/+1 counter on their Ornery Goblin or something, boosting it to a 3/2 which could survive the ping damage from your goblin.


4432, 5332, and 4333 shapes are all balanced, and should be bid as such. It is my sense that these days, it is common to open 1NT even with a 5-card major, although it is not universal. Pairs with weak 1NT openers are less likely to open a 5-card major with 1NT because they have a different set of methods than pairs with strong NT openers.

In America these days, a "strong no trump" implies a 15-17 HCP range for 1NT openers, so you'd open a 4432 like so:

With 12-14 HCP, open a minor and plan to rebid 1NT.
With 15-17 HCP, open 1NT.
With 18-19 HCP, open a minor and plan to jump to 2NT.
With 20-21 HCP, open 2NT.

4441 is the hardest shape to bid, since systems are mostly not built with them in mind. My preference is to open the lowest 4-card suit. With 16+ (not counting any singleton honor), you can splinter if partner bids one of your suits. If your short suit is spades or clubs, you can rebid 2H (slightly lying about your shape) when partner bids your singleton. If your short suit is diamonds or hearts, with 17-19 you'll have to rebid 2NT, and with 20-22 you'll have to jump to 2S when partner bids your singleton.


Looking at the rules nothing happens:

  0 ATK monsters

  Monsters with 0 ATK cannot destroy anything by battle. If two Attack Position monsters with 0 ATK battle each other, neither monster is destroyed.

End of page 46 (or PDF page 50) here: https://img.yugioh-card.com/uk/rulebook/Rulebook_v9_en.pdf


Brushfire Side Mission - Counting Distance through walls

Yes, you should take into account walls when calculating distance to Fenn.

In the rulebook under movement on page 8 (emphasis mine):

  Walls: Indicated by a black line that most often appears on the edge of map tiles.  Two spaces separated by a wall are not adjacent. Figures cannot move through or trace line of sight through walls.

There are two pieces of information in this section that show walls impact distance. First, characters can't move through walls, and any line of sight (LOS) actions can't be taken through a wall. This is pretty important because it indicates how actions can be taken in regard to walls. I would consider the special rule for this mission ("If the hero is Fenn or is within 3 spaces of Fenn, the figure disarms and retrieves the explosive instead") to be a LOS ability.

Second, two spaces separated by a wall are not adjacent. You cannot travel between the two with one movement point. The "distance" between these spaces is more than one because of the wall. This means that if a wall is between two squares that are three spaces apart on the map, you cannot use three movement points to move between them; you need more movement to get around the wall. This would indicate that the "distance" between the two squares is greater than three.


Is it legal to trade 1 wood for 1 wood + 1 hay?

I would argue the rules say this is not legal.  Quoting from rules found on Catan Website

  However, you cannot give away cards, or trade matching resources (“trade” 3 ore for 1 ore, for example).

Your example in effect breaks both those rules.  You are trading wood for wood which is illegal.  The exact amounts don't matter, the example is 3 and 1 ore but if there is a matching resource in both sets then it is not a trade.

If you take out wood cards from your trade then you are in effect giving away a Wheat card for free which is also against the rules.


Can you buy with a copper after buying Grand Market?

No. Technically, you play all treasure cards you want to use at the beginning of your buy phase, after which point you cannot play more cards. If you have played any copper, you cannot buy Grand Market, and if you have already bought Grand Market you are into your buy phase already and cannot play any coppers.

There are a few exceptions:

Cards that give you an extra Buy phase, (e.g., Black Market, Villa). You can play all the Coppers you want in one Buy phase and buy Grand Market in another.
Cards that remove treasure cards in play during your Buy phase (e.g., Mint, Bonfire, Counterfeit, Mandarin). If you are able to remove Coppers after playing them (trashing them, or something else like Mandarin), they are no longer in play and you can buy a Grand Market.

Of course, additional exceptions may be created...


Is there a way to tell if a Cards Against Humanity card exists already?

You can use these URLs to see the current version of the cards directly from CAH:

http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/wcards.txt (White Cards)
http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/bcards.txt (Black Cards)

These text files are updated frequently, whenever the base CAH set is updated.

For some expansions, .txt files also exist:

http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/bcards1.txt (Expansion 1, Black Cards)
http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/bcards2.txt (Expansion 2, Black Cards)

I wasn't able to turn up the white cards or other expansions through URL hacking.

There are also a couple of 3rd party sites and Github repos which have collected lists of the cards, both the main set and various expansions:

http://mdsc.info/dropbox/cah/
https://github.com/nodanaonlyzuul/against-humanity/blob/master/source/cards.json
https://github.com/samurailink3/hangouts-against-humanity/wiki/Cards


In Keyforge, does an attacked, exhausted creature deal damage to the attacking creature?

Yes, they deal damage back (but they are probably not exhausted in the first place).

The rules you quote do not say anything about the exhausted status of a creature affecting how it fights. Therefore there is no effect.

That said, cards unexhaust at the end of your turn, not the start. Unless you have cards that allow you to exhaust your opponent's creatures, the creatures you are attacking will be unexhausted.


A roundhouse normally doesn't have any special scoring involved; it is simply a nickname for a set of other things that score, that happen to add up to 24. In your case:

Double Royal Marriage: 8
Queens around: 6
Kings around: 8
3 Marriages: 6

This adds up to 28 (which is 24 for the roundhouse, plus 4 for the extra royal marriage).

Thus, by default rules, you should have scored 28.

There are variants that some people play where a roundhouse does score higher than 24. However, you and your playgroup would have to discuss and agree to such a thing before the game; as it isn't part of the standard rules.

  Roundhouse

    This consists of a king and a queen of each suit. It normally scores 24: royal marriage + 3 marriages + kings around + queens around. However some players give a roundhouse a higher score of 32. Some score a roundhouse with a run as 39 (24 + 15, allowing the royal marriage to contribute to the roundhouse as well as being part of the run). Some score a double roundhouse as 240 (it should normally be 160 = 8 + 3*4 + 80 + 60).


How does roll and move affect games like Talisman?

Roll and move is obviously there to create randomness.  Talisman is all about randomness, you never know where you're going to go or what you're going to draw.  Having more control over that introduces a lot of balance issues, because there are spaces that are not meant to be visited over and over again.  Of course, there are a number of Talisman cards that do give you more control over where you are moving, but they are all "temporary" in the sense that they can be stolen, destroyed, etc.

The biggest issue I would see with one move at a time in Talisman is the impact on PvP.  Some classes are designed for fighting other characters, while others are designed to avoid such fights.  With one move at a time, there would not be a way to escape other characters, so you'd need to introduce other ways for characters to get away from someone else.  Even with that, there would still be the potential to "grief" people by "camping" at a location that you know they need to get to.


Is my black-bordered foil from 8th edition a counterfeit? Where can I find more copies?

According to MTG Salvation:

  All foil cards are black-bordered, even those from the last white-bordered core sets, except those from Unhinged which are silver-bordered.

A black-bordered foil Thorn Elemental is valid anywhere any other Thorn Elemental is. You can find it, for example, here. Some sites just don't show separate images for foil versions of cards.


What's the difference between a tactic and a strategy?

Tactics in a board game usually refer to short-term optimizations to get a better local position in the game. Strategy refers to your long-term plans, for combining the results of many shorter term interactions into a winning game.

Some games have only tactical considerations, or an emphasis on them, while some games are more amenable to long-range planning.

In the game of Go, for instance, you may study tactical issues such as life and death (whether you can save or kill a particular enclosed group) and tesuji (clever tactics for killing and splitting your opponents stones, or saving or connecting your own), while also important are strategic issue like positional judgement (figuring out in the middle game who is ahead, and where they are ahead), direction of play, and balancing between territory and influence. Effective strategic play must of course be built on solid tactical play, but it can determine who winds up having the advantage in most tactical battles, and who winds up with the most territory even if they lose small battles here and there.

The concept can apply to other games as well. Tactics will usually influence how you play best for one or a few turns in a row, while strategy guides what you are doing for the whole game; how you will win. Strategy is about what you are trying to do, and tactics how you are trying to do it.

In Settlers of Catan, some strategic options may be going for roads and settlements, to try and get the longest road and a lot of settlements (with just enough cities to allow you to build more), or your strategy may be going with cities and development cards, with just enough settlements to allow you to build the cities you need; or you might have a ports based strategy, in which you try and obtain favorable ports and can thus buy any resources you need. The tactics used to support these strategies may be somewhat different, but they will involve tricks for getting the best trade, blocking your opponent quickly so you can get to the space you need, proper placement of the robber to slow down someone else competing with you.


How to play teaching game and give a useful review

It depends.

As a teacher, the most important is to reach your student and provide him the information he wants and requires in a way he can understand. You have to see how he likes to work and adjust to him accordingly.

However, I can give you general advice as well.

Time settings and at what point to explain

The teaching process should start prior to the game. Talk to your student before playing even a single move. Is there anything he wants to focus on? Or is he unsure what his weaknesses are? Keep the information gained here in mind.

It is possible, though pretty rare, to teach during the game: This is a matter of style, but I like to pause the game after important mistakes or turning points and explain them. Alternatively and more common, wait until the end before you start explaining. Then again, how do you actually define "end"? There is no need to play until resignation or scoring, you are also free to hold the game at any point and start the review (I never had a student who minded this practice).

If you're giving the student enough time and explain during the game, chances are you're forced to cut the game off at some point because it would take too long. Actually, I finish only a tiny fraction of my teaching games. Most of them are stopped in middle game or even earlier, but thanks to my teaching style explained later in this answer the student will still get told enough to make his head spin.

So, if possible, give him a lot of time. Blitz games are unsuitable for teaching. I like to play without time or with 5x60 byoyomi. If he lacks thinking time, you could not expect him to play his best moves and show his full strength. Teaching is not about stupid blunders, it is about subtle mistakes. On the other hand, if you only want to offer him a chance at playing a stronger player and possibly encounter and learn new shapes, a blitz game is fine, just tell him to review the game himself later.

How to explain

So, now that for whatever reason you're in explanation mode:

First, let's talk about situations that came up in the actual game. During the game you should have noticed what exactly the student did wrong in this situation. Did he misread? That's easy, show him the right way, possibly showing the the tesuji he missed. Did he play bad shape? Show him the right shape and how it is superior. Did he play a slow move, or a too wide extension? Explain the reasons and show him the right move.

Next, there are theory questions the student may be curious about, either because they relate to the game or because he's just interested. What is the idea of the Chinese opening? What is its intention in comparison to sanrensei? Show him examples, tell him about the basic characteristics. What's the joseki move in this corner shape? Or earlier, what is the right joseki to chose on this board? Show him the right moves, show him a few common mistakes and explain why they are bad.

The theoretical knowledge required is probably present when you're used to giving and receiving teaching games. However, I met high dan players that had basically no clue about fuseki (they compensated by insanely strong shape sense and reading ability). In case that applies to you, grabbing a good book on the subject will certainly help very efficiently (and make you a even stronger, too).

Go for the root

One particular thing I love to do, but which requires the student to cooperate, is asking him questions. "Look at your move. Is it a good move?". Don't just show them, make them show you! Many teachers disregard this point and simply show the correct moves, but I believe it is rather crucial to remove the roots of the wrong moves.

Make him think about the move, make him critically question his motives and intentions. If he comes up with the right answer, splendid. If not, even better, you just found a flaw in his reasoning. Those mistakes are the most important, and correcting them is the best thing a teacher can possibly achieve.

Note that you can do this for both wrong and correct moves. Is he sure that his correct move is correct? Or was he unsure? You're basically trying to make him be confident about any move he plays. He should be able to tell you his reasons for any move, no matter wrong or right. "I don't know why", "I played there because it's joseki", "I was vaguely afraid so I added a move just to be sure" are typical examples of answers you should focus on and make him understand the situation better.

You should let him know in advance that you'll ask trap questions to avoid confusion. "Do you really think your move here is correct?" - "Yes I am!" - "Excellent, you're right!" will occur often in the review.

This style of review takes a lot of time, but I strongly believe it is the right way to teach in the West since players won't be able to study for themselves as much as they can in the East with tons of strong players and knowledge around.

Note though that you need to take care not to demand too much of your students. If you notice that they reached their limits of understanding, e.g. because they simply cannot read a tsumego well enough, it would be counter-productive to force them to try. In their mind, the situation is simply too complicated, and rightfully so. You should simply move on, maybe a few moves later the situation became easier to grasp, and they can evaluate it more accurately.

I mentioned that I like to play without time. This fits perfectly in this scheme: If he's been thinking for more than a minute, ask him: What are you contemplating? What moves are you considering? What are your intentions (life, get sente, get a vital point, find largest point on board, whatever)? Do you understand the situation (you're dead if you don't play the right move - are you thinking about this or mistakenly about something else)?

Make sure to apply this to the white moves as well. Especially ask him about your mistakes in case you noticed them. Give him confidence to try and find weaknesses in your moves, make him build up kiai.

Know stuff

If you're unsure at any point, say so. Never try to convince him of anything without understanding the situation yourself (understand it at least enough to be able to convincingly explain it to someone of your strength).

It is very useful to have some example (pro) games in mind that highlight the situation you're focusing on. If you have trouble memorizing pro fuseki (like I do), instead try to come up with reasonable similar situations. This helps a lot to understand why certain joseki suck on certain boards and are great on a slightly different board, especially with weaker students that lack the visualization ability yet.

And obviously, knowing the standard content of teaching games is most useful in any situation. Tell your student about the table shape, tell him about the L+2 shape in the corner, tell him about monkey jumps and the wall+1 rule. This stuff can be extracted from books or learned from good teachers.

When I was a kyu player and even now, I got regular lessons by a great teacher who, interestingly, isn't "strong" in the classic sense (low-mid dan). In practice that never mattered and thanks to his particular style I learned very quickly and always found his lessons most interesting and understandable. The teaching style described in this answer is a continuation of his ideas.


How do SBAs interact with the sacrifice of a creature enchanted with Gift of Immortality?

Yes, SBAs will result in GoI going to the graveyard. Yes, there are simple ways to prevent both from returning.

State-Based Actions

If you sacrifice the boar before your opponent targets it (or the Aura enchanting it), then Gift of Immortality is attached to an object that no longer exists. Before any play receives priority, Gift of Immortality is placed in its owner's graveyard. Your opponent can no longer target Gift of Immortality on the battlefield, because it is no longer there.

If you sacrifice the boar in response to your opponent targeting it (or the Aura enchanting it), then Gift of Immortality will still be placed in the graveyard, because the object it was enchanting no longer exists. The spell that originally targeted it (or the boar) will be countered on resolution, because the boar and the aura will be new objects when they return to the battlefield.

  116.2d State-based actions happen automatically when certain conditions are met. See rule 704. They’re dealt with before a player would receive priority. See rule 116.5.

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

Playing Around Gift of Immortality

There are at least a few other ways besides graveyard removal and Stifle effects:

Use two removal spells: Gift of Immortality returns the Brindle boar to the battlefield after it is sent to the graveyard, but GoI doesn't return to the battlefield until the beginning of the next end step. You can use the first removal to force the sacrifice, and before the GoI returns, you can use the second removal to send it to the graveyard permanently.

  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: [...] 400.7e Abilities of Auras that trigger when the enchanted permanent leaves the battlefield can find the new object that Aura became in its owner’s graveyard if it was put into that graveyard at the same time the enchanted permanent left the battlefield. It can also find the new object that Aura became in its owner’s graveyard as a result of being put there as a state-based action for not being attached to a permanent. (See rule 704.5n.)

Sudden Shock/Krosan Grip: Split Second prevents your opponent from activating Brindle Boar's activated ability while it is on the stack.
End the Turn: Sundial of the Infinite or Time Stop prevent the "at the beginning of the end step" from returning either.


Should You Take "Your Opponent's" Sheep In A 2-Player Game?

I've been allowed to cook 4 sheep in a 2er before and still lost the game.  Badly.  I do think in general, your opponents are over-valuing "scattering the woolies" (as one BGGer puts it) if they're just making a knee-jerk response to your First Fireplace.  Assuming you keep one, it's theoretically a 2-point move, but only if you don't cook it later and never take Sheep the rest of the game.  Otherwise you're spending an action (that you would've done anyway later) just to block.  Blocking is necessary in 2ers, but you need to do it in a way that's a net positive in score for you (e.g., if your opponent gets begging card(s) because of it).

I think if you're that worried about your opponent getting 8 food, you're probably already behind.  There are enough ways to get food in a 2er that "stealing" some sheep isn't likely to make up the difference.


Can I play Marrow Shards in my second main phase in MTG?

You are correct: the spell doesn't target and has no restriction about when you can cast it, so you can cast it outside of combat to do "nothing" (i.e. just to trigger the Rage Extractor).

Casting it on your second main phase won't damage any creatures, since creatures are only "attacking" for the duration of the combat phase. Once the opponent has made a valid selection during the "declare attackers" step,

  508.1j Each chosen creature still controlled by the active player becomes an attacking creature. It    remains an attacking creature
  until it’s removed from combat or the combat phase ends,    whichever
  comes first. See rule 506.4.

Note that there are still opportunity to cast Marrow Shards after damage is dealt but before combat ends:

During the combat damage step, after damage is dealt.
During the end of combat step.


No - land units can never hit a naval unit in any event. Plus, the only purpose of a battleship during an amphibious assault is to conduct a shore bombardment. Once completed, the battleship is removed from the battle-board and is no longer part of the combat.


Can I have two planeswalkers with the same planeswalker type out on the field?

Yes, you can have multiple Huatli planeswalkers on the battlefield at a time.
This is a recent change when it comes to magic, but planeswalkers are now Legendary permanents so planeswalker type is no longer considered for determining if it gets to stay on the field.

306.4.: Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a “planeswalker uniqueness rule” that stopped a player from controlling two planeswalkers of the same planeswalker type. This rule has been removed and planeswalker cards printed before this change have received errata in the Oracle card reference to have the legendary supertype. Like other legendary permanents, they are subject to the “legend rule” (see rule 704.5j).
704.5j: If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

So as long as the two planeswalkers don't have the same card name, you can have them both on the battlefield simultaneously.


Can Axis and Allies be played with two players, and does it require all countries to be picked?

Axis and Allies only works well if all five countries are in play, on their correct teams.  If you have five players, this is easy to do.  If you have fewer than five, here are the recommended sets:

4 Players

Soviet Union, United States (Allied)
United Kingdom (Allied)
Germany (Axis)
Japan (Axis)

3 Players

Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States (Allied)
Germany (Axis)
Japan (Axis)

2 Players

Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States (Allied)
Germany, Japan (Axis)

If you insist on playing without one of the countries in the game, you'll be in for quite an unbalanced game.  Assuming that unplayed countries cannot be entered, here's some of what you're in for:

Soviet Union

With the Russians out, most of Germany's industry is freed up to:

attack Britain itself,
maraud the Atlantic,
and take out all of Britain's colonies in Africa, India, and further east

This would be a devastating game for the British player in particular and the Allies in general.

United States

Without the industrial might of the Americans, Britain would face Japan alone, leaving them no resources to throw against the Germans.  (This one I've actually tried -- it's a mess.)  The war tends to break into two separate wars: Britain vs. Japan in the east, Germany vs. Russia in the west.  Both of those wars are imbalanced in favor of the Axis Powers.

United Kingdom

This might be the closest to a balanced game with one power removed.  Taking Britain out of the game would remove the entire rim of the Indian Ocean: Africa, India, Australia, and all the various places in between.  The US would miss having a staging point in Great Britain, but they can use Morocco or Norway instead without too much difficulty.  Japan wouldn't have the British harassing their southern flank, but they also wouldn't have as many production points to gain in the south, either.

Germany & Japan

Removing either Axis Power completely unbalances the game.  Without Germany, Russia has nowhere to go but east into Japan's holdings.  Without Japan, Britain has no threat to their eastern territories and can easily focus all their firepower on Germany.


Can you take a mortgage on a property if the other properties of the same color have a house?

You must sell the house(s) before you can mortgage the property. From the rules, page 4 (emphasis mine):

  MORTGAGES… Unimproved properties can be mortgaged through
  the Bank at any time. Before an improved property can be mortgaged,
  all the buildings on all the properties of its color-group must be sold
  back to the Bank at half price.


Infectious Curse vs. Tree of Perdition and Triskaidekaphobia

Sounds like you already know how to figure out the answer. APNAP means active player, then non-active player. The active player's triggers go on the stack first, so they resolve last.

I'm guessing your opponent is the one with the Triskaidekaphobia, since they're playing Tree of Perdition. If that's the case, and your opponent is playing well, then:

Triskaidekaphobia's triggered ability (controlled by the active player) goes on the stack.
Infectious Curse's ability (controlled by you, the non-active player) goes on the stack.
Infectious Curse's ability resolves, you gain 1 life, and your opponent loses 1 life.
Your opponent activates Tree of Perdition's ability.
Tree of Perdition's ability resolves, and your life total is now 13.
Triskaidekaphobia's ability resolves, and you lose.

If you control the Triskaidekaphobia, both triggers are yours, and you get to choose what order they go on the stack. But still, however you stack it, your opponent can wait until Triskaidekaphobia's triggered ability is on the top of the stack, activate Tree of Perdition, and you'll lose.

The only way you can save yourself from that is if you have an activated ability that you can choose when to activate. Infectious Curse doesn't help here, because it's a triggered ability.

If your opponent is playing badly, sure, they might activate Tree of Perdition before Infectious Curse's ability resolves, and end up with you at 14 instead of 13 when Triskaidekaphobia's ability resolves. But that's not really something you can count on!


What are the blue-backed cards in Dominion for?

The blue backed cards are the randomizer cards.

They are listed among the contents (on page 2) and the main use is detailed on pg 5 of the rules.

  For example, the players can shuffle the
  Randomizer cards for all Kingdom cards and
  draw 10 to select the cards for the game.

  Or,
  players can take turns selecting cards.
  Players may also use the Randomizer cards
  as Placeholders to mark the card piles so
  empty piles are easily seen.

A lot of folks use a random deck generator, we have a list here at B&CG.  If you use sleeves, it may be helpful to use a different color sleeve for the randomizer cards so that they catch your eye easier.

Do not add them into the piles unless you want to change the balance of the game.  There are supposed to be 10 of each card, not 11. Some game strategies revolve around depleting piles fast or unexpectedly and you would impede those by having 11 cards in each stack.  Also, since they have a different back, they will be noticeable unless you are using opaque sleeves.


Sending to GY a monster that can't be targeted

Will the effect resolve and send my monster to the GY or not?

It will really help if you mentioned the specific card.

However in general terms, as you describe it, the effect will resolve, and send the card to your GY.

This is because, based on your description, such card does not target (you select it) nor does it destroy (it sends). Again, it will help to know the exact card to be 100% sure.


In Uno, if I play a Wild Card and pick a color, can I also play a card in that color?

No, you can only play one card per turn.

Let’s Play

  On your turn...
  Example: If the card on the Discard pile is a red 7, the player must put down a red card OR any color 7. Alternatively, the player can put down a Wild Card...

Functions of Action Cards

  Wild Card – When you play this card, you get to choose the color that continues
  play (any color including the color in play before the Wild card was laid down)...

Here's a great place to read the rules for yourself:
From mattel.com: UNO Rules 2018


Scoring clarification for end of campaign/day of rest

The rules don't make the distinction between doubloons won and doubloons in your possession. Whoever wrote the rules probably didn't consider that someone might take this phrase extra literally.

Logically it makes sense to not subtract the 10 starting doubloons because:

1) Like you mentioned, it doesn't matter either way and
       subtracting doubloons each time is a completely unnecessary hassle.

2) You could end up with less doubloons than you started with. In this case you won't be able to subtract ten doubloons. Because it's possible to lose doubloons, it could be argued that any doubloons that you kept have been won.


Look at how much each has been printed. Noble Hierarch was printed in Conflux and Modern Masters. Birds of Paradise was printed in Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Revised, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th edition, Magic 2010, 2011, 2012, and Ravnica. There are just way, way more copies out there.

And by the way, Exalted can be quite relevant. The most obvious example is Infect (quite popular and can win tournaments), which is likely to play only Noble Hierarch and not Birds of Paradise. It doesn't need the other colors of mana, flying isn't that important, but an extra poison counter here or there is a huge deal. But this is true even for decks that aren't as all-in on single creatures. For example, this Zoo list plays Noble Hierarch and not Birds of Paradise. It has plenty of other ways to get the red mana, and even if sometimes it attacks with multiple creatures (missing out on exalted), the extra damage on the turns when it only has one creature to attack with can make a huge difference.


What is the optimal strategy to solve Hanoi Solitaire?

The biggest piece of strategy is knowing how to move a pile of cards from one stack to the next.

The basic algorithm is a recursive algorithm.

To move n cards from stack a to stack b, you need to:

  move the n-1 cards from stack a to stack c
  move the nth card to stack b
  move the n-1 cards from stack c to stack b.

To move a stack of three from a to b you need to move the two cards from a to c.   To move the two cards from a to c you need to move the one card from a to b.  Move the second card from a to c.  Move the first card from b to c.  Move the third card from a to b.  To move the two cards from c to b, we need to move the first card from c to a.  Move the second card from c to b.  Move the first card from a to b.

The key strategy is to keep one ordered stack.  When a new card is unearthed, put it in to the stack in the order that it belongs by moving your stack that belongs on top of the new card to it and then moving it to the top of your ordered stack.

This strategy will not likely lead you always to the shortest solution but will lead you to a correct solution.

There are more basic strategies for the Towers of Hanoi peg and disc game on the Wikipedia article http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi but I'm not sure how explicitly applicable they are to this game.


Why would I want to use the activated ability of "Scalding Tarn"?

First of all, as the other answers have indicated, Scalding Tarn does not produce any mana, it just lets you search for another land that can. The colors on this card have absolutely nothing to do with its ability. The blue and red are just there as a visual reminder that the ability lets you search for an Island or a Mountain. The card could be orange, or pink, but the ability would still be the same.

So, down to the real question: why is its activated ability useful, especially since you have to pay a life?

Here are a few benefits/uses:

1) Flexibility

That Scalding Tarn in your hand could turn into, for example, Volcanic Island, Plateau, Underground Sea, or just a basic Mountain or Island. You have the flexibility to search for whatever land you may need to cast stuff.

Let's say in your opening hand you have a Scalding Tarn, a Lightning Bolt, and a Spell Snare. Play the Scalding Tarn, then you can wait to "crack" the fetchland until the last second. If your opponent plays a creature, grab a Mountain to cast Lightning Bolt; if they play a 2cmc spell, grab an Island to cast Spell Snare instead. Flexibility!

2) Synergy

Shuffling: Let's say you play a Brainstorm, and don't really like the cards you put back on top (maybe they're all lands that you don't need). Crack Scalding Tarn to shuffle your library! Better to shuffle hoping that you'll get something worth drawing than to sit there for a few turns knowing you'll draw crap that doesn't help you win.

Landfall: Let's say you have a Steppe Lynx in play. Then play your Scalding Tarn, immediately crack it, and grab some land you need. Two lands entered play, so now Steppe Lynx is a 4/5 monster (for this turn) that only cost you 1 mana and 1 life. Totally worth it. Landfall + Fetchlands can give you some bonkers plays.

Graveyard: By cracking the fetch, you put a card in the graveyard, which can benefit things like Grim Lavamancer/Tarmogoyf/Deathrite Shaman

3) Filtering/Thinning

Every time you search your library for a land, you reduce the chance of drawing a land the next time you draw. This is nice later in the game, when lands are typically dead draws.

Statistically, the "thinning" effect of a single fetchland doesn't make a big difference, but multiple copies can. If you play fetchlands and your opponent doesn't, you'll have a slight edge in terms of drawing potential threats (instead of lands), but at the cost of some of your life.

Remember, cards like Necropotence taught us long ago that life is just another resource; using your resources wisely will win you games. That being said, sometimes the life loss associated with fetchlands may not be wise. Some tournament-worthy decks run 6-8 fetchlands, others run 1-2, some run none at all. It depends entirely upon your deck versus the metagame you've chosen to play in.

IMHO, fetchlands are a much better choice when used for flexibility and/or synergy than for just deck thinning alone, but that's just me. You get the deck thinning automatically, but the flexibility/synergy comes with intelligent deck construction.

Anyway, if you don't want those Scalding Tarns, I'll take them. Aside from being good cards for all of the reasons I've just described, those suckers are worth something like $70 each right now!


X will be zero

  When Goblin Dark-Dwellers enters the battlefield, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.

You are casting it from your graveyard, but you don't pay its mana cost. In that case, zero must be chosen for X.

from Goblin Dark-Dwellers on Gatherer

  1/22/2016: If the instant or sorcery card has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as its value.


What are the rules for the card game "High Nines"?

Not official, but at least a start:

  High 9

  Deck of 52 plus 2 Jokers (mark them "Big" and "Little")
  4 players - draw for partners (2 high cards and 2 low cards)
  High card deals
  Deal 9 cards to each player & keep the rest to pass out to the player who gets the highest bid.
  The player to the dealer's left starts the bid anywhere from 9 to 25. Must at least start at 9. Any player can "Shoot the Moon" at the first bid when it comes to their turn. Only the dealer can shoot over. No one else can. The bidder must get all 25 points & you will win the game. If you lose 1 point, then you will lost the game. If you are in the whole or a negative when you "Shoot the Moon", then you will only come to a zero.
  When the bidding starts, each player can bid or pass. When you pass, you are out of the bidding. Highest bidder gets to name trumps.
  Each player throws away all their cards that are not the trump except for the Off-Jack, Big & Little Joker, and off-nine.
  The dealer deals the remaining cards up to 6 per player, then gives the rest to the highest bidder.
  The highest bidder keeps all trumps, including the Off-Jack, Big & Little Joker, and Off-Nine and throws the rest away.
  If the bidder has more than 6 trumps, he/she can pass all over 6 to his partner. Game starts with the bidder. Bidder may start with a trump card or any off card. You must follow suit. If you do not have suit, you can play any card.
  Total of 25 points per hand. Total per game is 52.
  Point cards are: Ace=1, Jack=1, off-Jack=1, Big Joker=1, Little Joker=1, Ten=1, Nine=9, off-Nine=9, Two=1
  Cards catch in this order: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Off-Jack, Big Joker, Little Joker, Ten, Nine, Off-Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two

  From a printed rules with slight modification for formatting & grammar correction


If I am going to build a small ship, which direction should I build toward?

I find it's more important to get a solid, sizeable piece in early than it is to worry about exactly what that piece is. Since you're building in real time against opponents, part of the strategy is not letting them have the chance to take all the good pieces. Solid choices are most 4-ways, or cargo, or a gun/engine at the ship bottom. Avoid powered pieces if you can, until you know that you're going to want to build for/with them.

Avoid crew for the first piece if you can, due to epidemic. Shields and batteries become more useful with the expansion, where you can perfectly protect a ship with boosted shields. That said, if there's incoming laser fire that you see and you're going to have to deal with it,

As you mentioned, 7 is the single most likely result. Having guns covering each 7 row/column is a good safety measure.

A couple of side/backwards guns are great for protection from meteors.

As with all ships, more important than the exact piece in the middle is that the middle is connective, and that the ship is built without open connectors.


How does Ashiok, Dream Render interact with the Vigor/Hostility and Profane Memento cards?

Vigor and Hostility will be exiled and not shuffled back. The controller of Profane Memento will gain life.

The part about players not being able to take actions during the resolution of Ashiok's loyalty ability means that no player may cast spells, activate abilities, or take special actions such as playing a land. For all of these, priority, the right to do these things, is necessary. Players do not get priority during the resolution of spells and abilities.

However, there are more kinds of abilities than just activated abilities. Vigor/Hostility and Profane Memento have triggered abilities that trigger automatically whenever their trigger condition is met. They can trigger anytime, even during the resolution of spells and abilities, and do not require anyone to have priority, so they will all trigger as soon as Ashiok's ability puts them into the graveyard.

However, they only enter the stack (and can later resolve) after the current spell or ability has finished resolving. By that time, Vigor/Hostility have already been exiled, and their triggered abilities resolve without doing anything, because the creatures they are referring to, respectively, are no longer in the zone they were expected to be. Profane Memento's ability, on the other hand, does not care where the creature card that triggered it is right now, so when those Profane Memento's triggered abilities resolve, its controller will gain life.


Can sheriff replenish his extra life point?

Beer can replenish the extra bullet that the Sheriff gets. From the Bang! rulebook:

  The Sheriff plays the game with one additional bullet: if his character card shows three bullets, he is considered for all effects to have four; if he has four bullets, then the Sheriff plays with five.

"All effects" includes Beer.


Is it possible to convert a settler ship into a settlement without moving and then build or is it considered a move?

Converting a settler to a settlement is done as part of the movement phase, and can't be done during the build and trade phase.

This restriction to the movement phase can be missed in the English version of the rules because the sectioning is somewhat unclear;
luckily we can clarify things a little using the title in the German version of the rules: bewegungsphase: siedlung mit siedlerschiff gründen or Movement phase: Establish a settlement with a settler ship.

as a general rule:

In the build and trade phase you do things for which you need
resources.
In the movement phase you do everything for which no
resources are needed (exception: buying additional movement points for wool)


How much collaboration is reasonable for a Two-Headed-Giant draft?

I recommend just straight-up reading the MTG Tournament Rules. You certainly don't need to do all of this stuff for a "casual" draft, but it'll give you some good ideas about how to run things.
As Two-Headed Giant draft is actually an officially supported format, the MTR includes specific guidelines on how to run it. DCI recommends drafting as a team, then building decks from one shared pool:

9.6      Two-Headed Giant Limited Rules
All the rules for Limited Tournaments (Section 7) apply, except as described below. The DCI
recommends that each team receive eight boosters per team for
Two-Headed Giant Sealed Deck tournaments and six boosters per team for
Two-Headed Giant Booster Draft tournaments. For the recommended
product mix for the current block, refer to Appendix E. Cards not used
in a team’s starting decks are considered a shared sideboard by the
two players that both players can access.
9.7      Two-Headed Giant Booster Draft Tournaments
Teams (not players) assemble into random drafting circles (called pods) of
roughly equal size at the direction of the Head Judge. Teammates sit
next to each other. Tournament officials then distribute identical
booster packs to each team in the pod. After opening and counting the
cards in their first pack, the team chooses two cards from the booster
pack then passes the remaining cards face down to the team on its
left. Selected cards may be placed into one or two piles. The cards
chosen are not assigned to a particular player; they become part of a
pool out of which both players will build their decks. The open packs
are passed around the drafting pod—with each team taking two cards
from each before passing—until all cards are drafted. For the second
pack, the direction of drafting is reversed as usual. Thus, the
overall draft direction is left–right– left–right–left–right.

Generally, there are no prohibitions on communication between teammates; tournaments instead use time limits to discourage analysis paralysis:

4.4     Team/Two-Headed Giant Communication
Members of the same team may, at all times, communicate between one another verbally. This
includes during play, during drafting, and during deck construction of
Limited tournaments. However, team members that have an opportunity to
acquire hidden information (e.g. by speaking to spectators following
their own match while a teammate is still playing), are restricted
from communicating with teammates for the duration of that match.
Prohibitions against written notes of any kind during drafts apply to
team drafts as well.

If you're playing without judges, I encourage working out some kind of procedure for handling slow play within your group.


Can fire cross walls into another room after an explosion?

Squares are not adjacent if there is a wall or closed door between them.  From Page 2 of the rules

  Any reference in the game to Adjacent spaces means those spaces that
  are up, down, left, or right from a space. Diagonal spaces are not
  Adjacent. Closed Doors and Walls prevent spaces from being Adjacent –
  unless the Wall segment is Destroyed. A Wall segment with two Damage
  Markers is Destroyed. A Wall segment with one damage marker is
  Damaged.

An open door or a destroyed wall (one with two damage counters) does not prevent adjacency.  So in each direction you will either find an adjacent space without fire (which you will add fire to) or run into a wall/door (doors are destroyed, walls are damaged) or reach outside (add fire but remove it at the end of the turn).


Does Babylon's wonder count for scientific structure victory points?

Babylon's A second stage (or B's third stage) allows you to get one scientific symbol of your choice at the end of the game, if you have built it. If you do, it counts for the scientific points. It works exactly like the Scientific purple card "Scientists' Guild".

Example: you have 4 "Gear" green cards and build Babylon's 2nd stage. You can convert it to a 5th "Gear" at the end of the game and earn a total of 25 points for 5 same green cards.


Axis and Allies 1940 Multinational Defense, AAA and Radar

It depends on the exact wording of the rule that "radar increases the hit score". If there is nothing beyond those words, then it would logically apply to the unit; in your example the Allies have one British AAA that can take up to three radar-assisted shots, leaving the American unit to take the other two without the bonus. (It would be logically possible to decide to take two radar-assisted shots and three 'manual', but this is unlikely in a real game.)


According to this post on boardgamegeek.com:

  SwanPanasia 'Standard USA' 57x90mm sleeves are reported to fit these cards perfectly. They are, however, larger than similarly-sized sleeves from other makers, so those other makers 'Standard USA' sleeves may or may not fit these cards.

Those card sleeves can be found for sale on SwanPanasia's site. Standard or Premium.


Thawing Glaciers return to hand interaction

Thespian's Stage will return to your hand.

It doesn't matter that it became a copy of a different land. The effect "Return Thawing Glaciers to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next cleanup step." is still around. The "Thawing Glaciers" wording in that text only means "this permanent", it doesn't matter that it isn't actually named Thawing Glaciers.

  706.11. If an effect refers to a permanent by name, the effect still tracks that permanent even if it changes names or becomes a copy of something else.

and

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


With only a few exceptions, spells only have an effect once they resolve.
Just like you can cast Blossoming Defense in response to their Fiery Temper to save your creature before it would be killed, your opponent can respond to your Blossoming Defense by casting Murder to kill your creature before it's being protected.
Your 2/2 Kitesail Scout will be destroyed by Murder. Blossoming Defense and Fiery Temper will be countered by the game rules for not having any legal targets when they would resolve

608. Resolving Spells and Abilities
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. (...) The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. (...)
608.2c. The controller of the spell or ability follows its instructions in the order written. (...)

If instead your opponent allowed Blossoming Defense to resolve and didn't cast Murder in response to it, the Kitesail Scout would indeed be an illegal target for the spell and therefore couldn't be cast.

601. Casting Spells
601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. Casting a spell includes proposal of the spell (rules 601.2a–d) and (...). To cast a spell, a player follows the steps listed below, in order. (...) If, at any point during the casting of a spell, a player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the casting of the spell is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed (see rule 720, “Handling Illegal Actions”).
601.2c. The player announces his or her choice of an appropriate player, object, or zone for each target the spell requires. (...) The chosen players, objects, and/or zones each become a target of that spell. (...)


Is it possible to get a stalemate in Checkers?

If you do not force capture then it's very possible, trivial even, to have a stalemate.

Even without though:

From wikipedia:

English draughts (American 8×8 checkers) has been the arena for several notable advances in game artificial intelligence. In the 1950s, Arthur Samuel created one of the first board game-playing programs of any kind. More recently, in 2007 scientists at the University of Alberta[13] evolved their "Chinook" program up to the point where it is unbeatable. A brute force approach that took hundreds of computers working nearly 2 decades was used to solve the game,[14] showing that a game of draughts will always end in a stalemate if neither player makes a mistake.[15][16] The solution is for the draughts variation called go-as-you-please (GAYP) checkers and not for the variation called three-move restriction checkers. As of December 2007, this makes English draughts the most complex game ever solved.


The FAQ on Fantasy Flights website covers this question.

Q: Characters in Other Worlds receive no movement points. But if a character in an Other World has an item that gives them movement points, such as the Motorcycle or Ruby of R' lyeh, can the character use an item that requires the character to spend movement points, such as the Necronomicon?
A: No. You can not receive movement points or use any item requiring movement points while in an Other World.


What happens when I play a Swindler and no cards with the same cost as the trashed card are in the kingdom set?

As always in Dominion, you do as much as you can of what the card instructs. Since there is no card to gain that has the same cost, your opponent gains nothing. You still trash the card that was turned over because you can do that part of the card's instructions.


Would a Cloudshift targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder also target tokens?

Yes, if you cast Cloudshift targeting your Zada, Hedron Grinder, Zada will make a copy of Cloudshift targeting each other creature you control, including tokens. Cloudshift says

  Exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control.

So, any creature you control is a valid target.

Note that when the copies resolve, any creature tokens you control will be exiled and they will not return, because of rule 110.5g:

  A token that has left the battlefield can’t move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.


As was indicated by @JaysonSmith, a king can always be jumped by another king. This holds for any variant of draughts/checkers.

The privileges that a king obtains differ by variant, however.

backward movement: in all variants, kings can move backward, but men cannot.
backward capture: in all variants, kings can jump backward, but men cannot for American/English checkers/draughts, Italian, Spanish, Czech and Thai draughts.
long range movement and capture: a king can move and capture long ranged (like a bishop in chess) for International, Frisian, Russian, Spanish, Czech and Thai draughts, as well as for Pool checkers, whereas men are short ranged in all variants.
invulnerable being captured by men: a king cannot be jumped by men in Italian draughts.