How do cards like Brainstorm affect the probability of drawing an out?

The final answer will be obtained using

P(winner) = P(winner on brain storm) + ( P(cantrip but no winners on brainstorm) * P(winner on cantrip) )

There 23 wins to be found in 50, so there are 50-23 = 27 non-win to be found in 50.

P(no winners on brain storm) = (27/50)(26/49)(25/48) = 15%

P(winner on brain storm) = 1 - P(no winners on brain storm) = 1 - 15% = 85%

Sometimes, we'll draw both a win and cantrip using brainstorm.

There are 23 wins and 10 cantrips = 33 wins and cantrips to be found in 50, so there are 50-33 = 17 that are neither to be found in 50.

P(neither winners nor cantrips on brainstorm) = (17/50)(16/49)(15/48) = 3.5%

P(winner and/or cantrip on brainstorm) = 1 - P(neither winners nor cantrips on brainstorm) = 1 - 3.5% = 96.5%

P(cantrip but no winners on brainstorm) = P(winner and/or cantrip on brainstorm) - P(winner on brainstorm) = 96.5% - 85% = 11.5%

We cast the cantrip when none of the 23 winners were in the first 3. That means we're looking at the first of 47 cards. There are 23 wins to be found in 47.

[Note: I forgot to factor in the the possibility to shuffle with Ponder.]

P(winner on cantrip) = 23/47 = 49%

P(winner)
= P(winner on brain storm) + ( P(cantrip but no winners on brainstorm) * P(winner on cantrip) )
= 85% + ( 11.5% * 49% )
= 91%
(90.68%, to be more precise)

[Experimentation shows that factoring in the the possibility to shuffle with Ponder raises the odds to around 93%.]

Let's verify by experiment.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use List::Util qw( shuffle );

my @deck = ( ('W') x 23, ('C') x 10, ('O') x (50-23-10) );

my $trials = 10_000;
my $wins = 0;

for (1..$trials) {
   @deck = shuffle(@deck);

   ++$wins
      if $deck[0] eq 'W'
      || $deck[1] eq 'W'
      || $deck[2] eq 'W'
      || $deck[3] eq 'W' && ($deck[0] eq 'C' || $deck[1] eq 'C' || $deck[2] eq 'C');
}

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

$ for i in 1 2 3 ; do p ; done
91%
91%
90%


I don't have an exact answer for you here. Like any game in development you should test and iterate through different ideas in the search for the best one.

I'd come up with a solution you think is suitable, then go and play that game a few times. Does anything feel overpowered or wrong, then change it. You repeat this process until you get an ideal solution to the sitation.

Also well done for coming up with a really unique take on chess. For a game over 1000 years old it hasn't changed much since its origins, so it's impressive to see an honestly interesting take on a game that has such a well set up structure.


What are good placement strategies for Stratego?

I find that the key to Stratego lies in-

Cover your flag with bombs
Kill all enemy miners.
DO NOT MOVE a new piece when moving an old one will suffice.

Of those, I find that #3 is the most crucial.  Most players have a very hard time attacking pieces about which they have no information;  every time you touch a piece, or even visibly consider moving it, you inform your opponent that that piece is NOT a bomb.


Does a melded creature remain melded when it leaves the battlefield?

From the Eldritch Moon release notes:

  While a meld card is anywhere other than the battlefield ... it has only the characteristics of its front face.

So once a melded creature is in the graveyard, the two parts have their front-face identities only and do not "remember" that they had been melded. Anything trying to move the cards back to hand or battlefield will have to interact with them separately.

However, a creature that is rescued from death with regeneration never actually leaves the battlefield at all, so regeneration works just fine on a melded creature. Regeneration does not mean to return the creature from the graveyard to the battlefield - rather it (roughly) means "the next time this creature would die, instead it doesn't."

Here's part of the Comprehensive Rules on regenerate:

  701.12a If the effect of a resolving spell or ability regenerates a permanent, it creates a replacement
  effect that protects the permanent the next time it would be destroyed this turn. In this case,
  “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn,
  instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature,
  remove it from combat.”

While the melded creature is on the battlefield it counts as just one creature, so a single regeneration effect can save it (you don't have to regenerate both halves).


How to implement numerous resources in a clean efficient way

In the game "This War of Mine" they used plastic pieces (middle right compartment) for basic resources such as Wood, Water, Components and used cardboard printed tokens for advanced resources (other compartments).

The "recipes" are described on cards.


No, abilities cannot target themselves. This is specified by rule 114.4:

  A spell or ability on the stack is an illegal target for itself.


Which "end of round" effect resolves first: dealing in a dead player, or game end due to low honor?

The game ends, the player with zero honor doesn't get a new ninja until just before a new round starts, and only if the round hasn't ended. In the rule book under Phase 8: Check Honor, besides the checks to see if the game has ended because a single player has 5 more honor than every other player, or the franchise honor is so high or low that the manager's position becomes open, it says this:

  If no one has won, a new round can start. Before the round starts, though, any ninjas whose Honor has gone to zero or less must make amends ...


Timing of Roma (B)/Catan (B) and Courtesan's Guild?

On boardgamegeek.com, Jacek Deimer says he has asked Antoine Bauza (the game author):

  If Courtesan Guild is built in the same turn that ROMA/CATAN recruits extra leader, can it copy leader recruited during the same turn?

Antoine answered:

  No

So Alice has to choose a leader card to copy (guild card effect) before Bob recruits his leader (wonder effect).


Yes. The only thing that flashback modifies is where the spell is being cast from when paying it's Flashback cost before being put on the stack, and where it goes when it leaves the stack if its Flashback cost was paid.

  702.31a Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two static abilities: one that functions while the card is in a player’s graveyard and the other that functions while the card is on the stack. “Flashback [cost]” means “You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost” and “If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.” Casting a spell using its flashback ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e–g.


If British and American spellings of a word differ, which one should I prefer when playing Scrabble?

In my experience, the choice depends entirely on which spelling produces the largest score.  I do occasionally play with people for whom the score is less important than the strife that can be stirred up, but even there, unexpected alternative spellings are rarely an important consideration.  Blocking a desirable word is far more satisfying to the player for whom the annoyance of his fellows is the reason to play the game.
So, which spelling should you prefer?  I will go on record as saying that, if you play against me, the spelling you should use is that which gives me the best chance of a high-scoring riposte.  Presumably that would also apply if you are playing against your relationship partner or someone you find desirable and who is very competitive.  Otherwise, you should play as your conscience and your sense of self-respect dictate, and to the devil with the preferences or traditions of those whom you would trample into the dust of the board.


A Command Tower can produce any color of mana in its controller's commander's color identity. So, if your opponent controls one, your Exotic Orchard can produce any color of mana in that player's commander's color identity (assuming there are no other lands).

The relevant rule here is 106.7:

  Some abilities produce mana based on the type of mana another permanent or permanents “could produce.” The type of mana a permanent could produce at any time includes any type of mana that an ability of that permanent would produce if the ability were to resolve at that time, taking into account any applicable replacement effects in any possible order. Ignore whether any costs of the ability could or could not be paid. If that permanent wouldn’t produce any mana under these conditions, or no type of mana can be defined this way, there’s no type of mana it could produce.


In Munchkin, can a thief steal at level 1?

The Official Munchkin FAQ says Yes.

  Q. What happens to a Level 1 Thief who fails an attempt to steal? Does
  he die?

  A. Nothing happens to him. You can't go below Level 1. (Beware
  the Level 1 Thief – he literally has nothing to lose!)


What are the differences between first and second edition Yomi?

General Changes
The following rules were added to the game (source):

Hand limit: 12 cards. At the end of the turn (after the powerup phase), discard down to 12 cards if you have more. There's no limit to hand size during the rest of the turn.
Normal draw rule: If your normal attack is blocked or wins combat, draw a card. (this helps to encourage some early attacking)
Double knockdown: if you're both knocked down, cancel the knockdown effect next combat.
Time Out: when a player draws the last card from deck, time is over. The winner is the player with the highest hit points. (If tied, it's a draw.)
Life Total: Cannot go above starting values.

Character Changes
Some characters were tweaked for balance and to work with new characters. The changed items are mentioned here. New stats can be found here. I looked at my physical copy for the old stats.
Argagarg

10: The "counter" ability now puts the cancelled card on the bottom of the opponent's deck (if it was played from hand) instead of discarding it.

DeGrey

DeGrey's character ability now applies to supers (aces) as well as specials (face cards).

Geiger

Geiger's character ability prevents the opponent from activating innate character abilities from blocking if they took block damage from a Time Spiral.

Grave

Grave's character ability now only searches for the queen if you win the combat with the revealed card. If you lose, you draw a card instead.
10: The "counter" ability now also requires you to discard a face card.

Jaina

Jaina's character ability now costs 3 damage for each card, but can't return queens or aces. While on 35 life or less Jaina can return queens and aces for 4 damage each.
2-6 attack: normal attacks in red suits only now deal X-1 block damage (where X is the card rank) instead of 3 block damage.
7: Unstable Power no longer rotates a card at the cost of 10 damage. It is now played after drawing, causing knocked down opponents to stand and preventing you from playing aces, but allowing you to rotate your combat card. If you hit this combat, you search for 2 aces, otherwise you take 7 damage.
10: If the opponent dodges and this is in your discard pile, the opponent still takes 2 damage but you no longer return the 10 to your hand. You can't power up with 10s.
J: Charged Shot is now a 4.6 speed starter, not an 8.6 speed can't combo. Flame Arrow is unchanged.

Lum

Lum's Roll the Dice, 2-3: You gain 4 hit points -OR- draw the bottom card of your deck.
Lum's Roll the Dice, A: Draw 3 cards then peek at the bottom card of your deck.
10, throw: extra cards discarded to the throw add 4 damage each, rather than 3.
Q: Listed as being changed but I don't see the difference!
A, Blackjack: Now you can't choose to put the cards into hand (unless you hit exactly 21).
A, Great Pandamonium: Requires 2 aces for 21 damage, instead of 1 ace for 10.

Midori

Midori's dragon attacks can't be blocked by normal dodges only (previously could not be dodged at all).
When you block an attack or joker while in dragon form, you may return a non-joker from your discard instead of drawing a card.
K: Talon Swoop is now 1.8 speed, not 2.2.

Rook

Gained the additional character ability "Defense Mastery" (opponents don't draw when you block their normal attacks).
3 block: instead of getting to discard a card for 8 damage, this card now knocks down the opponent, deals 5 damage, and makes your attacks/throws 3 speed faster in the next turn. Neither version of this block draw you a card or return to your hand.
K: this throw now beats normal attacks with speed 5 or faster, but you still take the damage from it.

Setsuki

10: Can no longer counter character abilities.

Valerie

10: "Burst of Speed" pushes moves to a minimum of 1 speed, not 0.
K: Can now only be blocked by a block of the same colour suit (red/black).

Style Changes
Characters now have ability cards which summarise their different abilities and stats, and which abilities they have on their normals.
The template for abilities on cards has been cleaned up slightly, making it clearer which phase to use them in by using a heading separate to the ability text.


What's the probability to start a game of Vintage Dredge with Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand?

I approached this question numerically and drew one billion (1,000,000,000) sample hands.
My assumptions: The deck contains 60 cards, 4 of which are Bazaar of Baghdad and 4 are Serum Powder. No further assumptions regarding the deck building are required.

Then I draw the opening seven cards. If it contains at least 1 Bazaar, the hand is considered a hit. If I draw a Serum Powder, the hand is removed from the game and I draw the exact same number again. If I miss on both, Bazaar and Powder, than I take a mulligan (e.q. reshuffling the deck and drawing one card less).

This continues until I reach the point where I reshuffle a one-card-hand, since it was considered a miss and start the game with a zero-card-hand. In this situation I consider the somewhat new mulligan scry rule, which let's you scry one after mulligan. So even if I start with zero cards in hand, there is a chance that a Bazaar is in the top 2 cards of my library and (thanks to the scry) can be found within one draw step. That probability is also included in my end results.

My findings:

Probability of starting with a 7 card hand: 54.2 %
Probability of starting with a 6 card hand: 22.12 %
Probability of starting with a 5 card hand: 9.91 %
Probability of starting with a 4 card hand: 4.79 %
Probability of starting with a 3 card hand: 2.43 %
Probability of starting with a 2 card hand: 1.23 %
Probability of starting with a 1 card hand: 0.52 %
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand: 4.8 % (this means no Bazaar of Baghdad was found)
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand and Bazar on top (including scry 1): 0.9 %
Probability of complete failure: 3.9 %
Probability to hit: 95.2015011 %
Probability to hit with scry: 96.1029072 %

For the curious people, here is a plot how those probabilities converged:


In Magic: the Gathering, what is being gathered?

The question is partially answered in the article 25 Random Things About Magic:

Magic was almost not called Magic. In fact, when the first solicitation for the game was sent out the game was called Mana Clash. The reason for this is as follows. Richard (Garfield, of course) called the game Magic when he originally designed it. All through the original playtests the game was called Magic. Then when they went to officially name it, they got a lawyer involved who informed them that Magic was too broad of a word to ever be able to copyright. So they started looking for alternatives. Mana Clash was the name they liked best from that search and thus they used it on the solicitation. But everyone playing the game (Richard, the playtesters and the people at Wizards) still called the game Magic. The name just seemed too perfect. They went back to the lawyer and asked what they could do to call it Magic. The lawyer told them they needed to add something else unique and "ownable" onto it that allowing them to copyright the name as a whole. That is how "The Gathering" was added.

The reason for the specific choice the Gathering is described in this interview with Richard Garfield:

Why is it called Magic : The Gathering?
“Well… there’s a few answers to that. When it first came out, we said ‘the gathering’ was a gathering of friends, a gathering of people, and a gathering of cards. It seemed like a good descriptor for our first set. We were expecting our second set to be ‘Magic : Ice Age’, and to have chapters in this book going along, but that was before we sort of ran them all together. So all the cards are now part of Magic : The Gathering – which originally going to be like the first chapter.
“My name for it was ‘Magic’, and the reason we didn’t use that is simply because ‘magic’ is a hard thing to own, and there were all sorts of really terrible names that were floating around that we could own – but Magic : The Gathering was a good final resting spot because we could own ‘Magic : The Gathering’ and people could still call it ‘Magic’.

An alternative interpretation is that it refers to the gathering of magic/mana, to gather power/force from the world around to cast spells, although I don't have a reference for that.


When the creature returns to the battlefield it has no memory of anything that happened earlier in the game. This means that it is no longer attacking, and thus is no longer being blocked by the defending player's creatures. This also means that it will neither deal nor receive combat damage, so neither it nor the defender's creatures will die.

  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 nine exceptions to this rule: [none of the exceptions apply to this case]


pandemic - can a city outbreak more than once per infect city turn?

Yes, the second card will cause a chain reaction.

In a case like this you would have three total outbreaks happen. First one from the first card drawn, Baghdad. Then two more from the second card drawn, Tehran.

  INFECTION:
  Infections
  Flip over as many Infection cards from the top of the Infection Deck as the
  current infection rate. This number is below the space of the Infection Rate
  Track that has the infection rate marker. Flip these cards over one at a time,
  infecting the city named on each card.

  To infect a city, place 1 disease cube matching its color onto the city, unless
  this disease has been eradicated. If the city already has 3 cubes of this color,
  do not place a 4th cube. Instead, an outbreak of this disease occurs in the city
  (see Outbreaks below). Discard this card to the Infection Discard Pile.

  OUTBREAKS:
  When a disease outbreak occurs, move the outbreaks marker forward
  1 space on the Outbreaks Track. Then, place 1 cube of the disease color
  on every city connected to the city. If any of them already has 3 cubes of
  the disease color, do not place a 4th cube in those cities. Instead, in each of
  them, a chain reaction outbreak occurs after the current outbreak is done.

  When a chain reaction outbreak occurs, first move the outbreaks marker
  forward 1 space. Then, place cubes as above, except do not add a cube to
  cities that have already had an outbreak (or a chain reaction outbreak) as
  part of resolving the current Infection card.

  As a result of outbreaks, a city may have disease cubes of multiple colors on
  it; up to 3 cubes of each color. This does not affect infections.

If you read the outbreaks section closely it only talks about not adding cubes to cities that have already had an outbreak for the current infection card only. So for the situation that you are dealing with there will be an outbreak for each infection card.


Is resistance Coup worth getting if I already have resistance avalon?

I'd like to post an additional, though not entirely different answer to Joey's.

Coup is a completely different game.

Key distinguishing elements are:

Coup has no co-operative element like The Resistance does, it's entirely out for yourself and trying to outlive all the other players.
Coup is a very short game - games can be over in 30 seconds (for two people) to 10 minutes for a long game.
Coup can be played by 2-6 people.

In my opinion Coup is a very good addition to your board game collection. For its price and size, it's an easy game to add.

Basically - Coup is a very good warm up game.  While everybody is getting settled, or you are waiting for people to arrive, you can play a few games of coup.  The rules are nice and simple, most people understand them after one short game. Because the games are so short, it doesn't matter if someone arrives half way through, because they can just join the next game.


If you have infinite life, can your life total be set to a specific number?

There is a ruling on this already in gatherer. You said it was rule 119.5 but it is also a ruling on this card. So in this situation your life becomes 5 at the end of each turn regardless of being set to infinity because of life link.

If an effect sets your life total to a specific number, it will be that number, even if you previously had infinite life.

The other gather ruling even makes reference to the ruling that is right below it which I have listed above.

If you give Infinity Elemental lifelink and it deals damage, you will gain infinite life. You might think infinite life sounds like a lot, and you’d be right. Once at infinite life, your life total mostly can’t change (see below). At infinite life and gain 2 life? You’re at infinite life. At infinite life and lose 29 life? You’re at infinite life. You can pay any amount of life and still be at infinite life. In fact, if you’re at infinite life and get with an opposing Infinity Elemental, you’d still be at infinite life.


The resolution of both abilities will result in the creature coming into the battlefield under control of the non-active player, and that player will still control it when both abilities have resolved.

Both of those enchantments have triggered abilities. When the creature dies, multiple triggered abilities controlled by different players trigger. Then we just follow rule 603.3b:

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

APNAP here is an acronym for "Active Player, Non-Active Player". So, first the active player's trigger gets put on the stack, then the non-active player's trigger. This means that the non-active player's ability resolves first, so they get control of the creature. Then when the active player's ability tries to resolve, we have to look at rule 603.6:

  Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called "zone-change triggers." Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to. If the object is unable to be found in the zone it went to, the part of the ability attempting to do something to the object will fail to do anything.

The triggered ability that is trying to resolve ("When enchanted creature dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control.") is actually shorthand for

  When enchanted creature is moved from the battlefield to the graveyard, put that card onto the battlefield under your control.

Since the creature that died is no longer in the graveyard, the active player's ability does nothing as it resolves, and the non-active player retains control of the creature.


Do I have to use Link monsters on my Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck?

Using Link Monsters is optional.

It's the same case if you decided to, say, build a deck without any Trap cards.

If your deck or strategy doesn't require them, you can play without having to have one.

However, if you plan to play in tournaments, or play competitively, I'd suggest you include or at least considering using Link Monsters, as your options could improve (and because the meta game is tending towards using Links).


Does "number of heroes when the haunt was revealed" include the traitor? (Haunt 17)

When the haunt was revealed, one player becomes a traitor (or in some scenarios, is removed entirely), and the rest become heroes.

  Do the following at the start of the haunt:

  The traitor takes the Traitor’s Tome and leaves the room. The traitor reads only the haunt that is starting now.
  The rest of the players become heroes. They look up the haunt with the same number in Secrets of Survival and read it together. (The heroes should also
  talk briefly about their plan for survival.)

  [...]

So if the game started with three players, two of them become heroes. There weren't any heroes before that.

"The number of heroes when the haunt was revealed" is used instead of "the number of heroes" to avoid having the goal become easier as heroes are eliminated.


If you are acting as a guardian, you can simplify a bit the part about the monsters movement  as you will do it and focus more on the parts of the turn their players can actually do an action.

Giving them a quick reference card before you explain the things can help them follow better your explanation.

Also with many new people I'd maybe do a pre prepared sample turn with just 2 or 3 characters and monsters to show them the mechanics of the game.


Randomly but Evenly Distributing Tokens on a Board

The more dice you use to generate a single random value, the closer each random value will be to a certain average. You can see this happening in Catan: rolling two dice results in a lot more sevens than twos.

If you do this with 4 dice, almost everything will be centered around the 14th coordinate. If you don't mind some normalization, you could use 2d12 instead of 4d6.

You could give the players some say in where the pieces are placed. There are many ways in which you could do this, either before or after the dice are rolled.

If you want 'complete' randomness with dice, you'll need a 1d10 and a 1d20, or two decks of numbered cards.


Do areas with depleted resources count for Jim Raynor's victory condition?

Yes, depleted areas do count. From the FAQ:

  Q: If an area has been fully depleted of resources, does it still
  count towards players’ special victory conditions?

  A: Yes. For
  example, Jim Raynor needs to control six areas containing gas and/or
  minerals; this includes any area that has a printed gas or mineral
  icon on it.


Does token creation count as successfully casting a summon spell?

No, creating a token is not the same thing as casting a spell.

First, be sure to always go off of the Oracle wording, which for older cards will often be different than what is printed on the card. Soul Barrier actually says:

  Whenever an opponent casts a creature spell, Soul Barrier deals 2 damage to that player unless they pay {2}.

The idea of "summoning" a creature has no rules meaning in MTG; the only question is if he cast a creature spell or not.

  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.

A creature spell is simply a spell with the creature type.

So if you cast Siege-Gang Commander, then you have cast a creature spell, and the triggered ability of Soul Barrier will trigger.

When Siege-Gang Commander enters the battlefield, and its triggered ability creates 3 Goblin tokens, that has nothing to do with casting a spell. That is a triggered ability that creates tokens when it resolves; it will not trigger Soul Barrier's ability again.


What is the art depicted on the Magic 6th Edition paper playmats?

The video that you linked is contained as part of the Starter 1999 gift box that was released back in 1999 and contains:

2 40 card decks in cardboard deckboxes
A poster of Angel of Light
Two guides that provide step by step instruction similar to those in the video
The video that you linked
two playmats with score keeping beads

It doesn't appear like the featured images are from any cards and are probably just displayed on the box art and playmat as marketing images.

You can see in the image below that they are reflected and colour modified version of each other and featured on the deckboxes as well.

If you want to see what else is contained in the starter kit you can check out this Unboxing video, along with this visual list of each card included in the set.


How can I spend the mana from Lion's Eye Diamond?

Lion's Eye Diamond was not errataed to make it harder to use, it was errataed to maintain its original functionality

Lion's Eye Diamond is old.  It was printed in Mirage, which was released in 1996, only three years after Magic was first printed.  As such, it predates the Sixth Edition Rules, the largest rules revamp Magic has ever seen.  The Sixth Editions Rules restructured how a turn works, implemented the stack (replacing a previous concept of spell resolution called "batching"), and notably for our purposes, changed when you were allowed to get mana.

Before the Sixth Edition Rules, you had to have your mana available before you started to cast a spell.  But the Sixth Edition Rules created mana abilities which did not use the stack, and could be used during casting when you are asked to pay for mana (Mana Sources, like Lion's Eye Diamond's ability were not what mana abilities are now.  They acted more like instants that produce mana).

The intention of Lion's Eye Diamond was to force you to discard your hand before getting the mana, so that you couldn't use the mana to cast spells.  The Sixth Edition Rules made it possible to use LED while a spell was already in the process of being cast, circumventing that intention.  So LED was given errata that required it to be cast at instant speed, returning it to its original functionality.


Can Alolan Muk use Tri Hazard GX attack even if opponent has no benched Pokémon?

There's an official ruling for this attack in The Rulings Compendium Black and White (the official ruling source):

  Tri Hazard GX (Alolan Muk-GX - Burning Shadows)

    Q. If my opponent has no Benched Pokemon, can I still use Alolan Muk-GX's "Tri Hazard-GX" attack?
    A. You can use it, but it won't have any effect, and it will count as having used your GX attack for the game. (Burning Shadows FAQ; Aug 3, 2017 TPCi Rules Team)

You can use the attack, but it won't have any effect except it counts as you've used your GX attack for that game. Switching 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon with their Active one is a required step to do the effect.


What are the rules when two or more people go out when they are on the bubble for payout

When multiple players are eliminated in the same hand, the player with the least amount of chips at the start of the hand will receive the worst of the available placements, followed by the player that had started with the next least, as so on.

Mechanically, this is because main and side pots are technically resolved one at a time, and elimination can happen after any single pot resolution.   To extend your example:

Suppose there are 7 players.  At the start of the hand:
A has 500 chips
B has 400 chips
C has 300 chips
D has 150 chips

chip counts for E, F, G don't matter for this example.  For sake of simplicity, assume none of them bet any chips during this hand.

By the end of the hand, players A, B, C, and D have all gone all-in.

Main pot contains 600 chips (D's 150 plus a matching amount from each of the other three players).  All players are eligible to win this pot.

Side pot 1 contains 450 chips (C's remaining 150 plus a matching amount from each of A and B).  A, B, and C are eligible to win this pot.

Side pot 2 contains 200 chips (B's remaining 100 plus a matching amount from A).  A and B are eligible to win this pot.

Side pot 3 contains 100 chips from A and is immediately returned to A.

Assume A or B wins the hand for this example.
The main pot is resolved first.  D did not win and therefore is eliminated, receiving 7th place and no prize.

Side pot 1 is resolved next.  C did not win and therefore is eliminated, receiving 6th place and the associated prize.

(While rare, it is possible for multiple players to be eliminated in the same resolution step.  I assume in this case that the players would share the ranking and the associated winnings.  I don't know what would happen if it was a non-fungible prize, such as top 2 winners advance to next tournament while 2nd and 3rd place tie.)


Sundial of the Infinite and "Sacrifice at the end of turn"

Why is the card text different from the rules text on the Gatherer?
The Gatherer text (typically referred to as Oracle text) has precedence over the card text. For all intents and purposes, you can ignore the text on Incandescent Soulstroke, and pretend that it actually says:

[...] Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.

You might think, "Well if I can't trust what the card says, how can I play the game without looking up every single card?". Over time you will develop a feel for what common errata are. For example, "remove from the game" typically means "exile". At sanctioned tournaments, you are allowed to ask the judges for Oracle text. They will provide it to you.
Does the creature have to be sacrificed even though I ended the turn?
Incandescent Soulstroke sets up a delayed triggered ability. Delayed triggered abilities are basically abilities that will trigger at a later point, when their condition is met. For Soulstroke, that condition is "at the beginning of the next end step".
Sundial of the Infinite ends the turn. When you end the turn, the rules say that you skip straight to the Cleanup step.

715.1d The current phase and/or step ends. The game skips straight to the cleanup step; skip any phases or steps between this phase or step and the cleanup step. If an effect ends the turn during the cleanup step, a new cleanup step begins.

Pulling this all together, if you skipped the end step by ending the turn, then the creature won't be sacrificed (yet). However, it will still be sacrificed during the next end step, whenever that comes. As a couple of commenters pointed out, a clever solution to this problem is to activate Sundial while Soulstroke's triggered ability is on the stack. The trigger will be removed from the stack as part of ending the turn, and it will never trigger again.


In addition to getting more cards for the deck, have more people go at the same time.

This concept works for games of 8, 9, 10, and 12 players. Games of 7 and 11 present a prime problem.

Plan. Have two or three players kick open the door at the same time. Each takes a card off the top of the Door pile, but keeps it face down in front of them. Then, they kick it open simultaneously, and commence the fighting.

The active players should be equally separated around the table. In their seating positions, 1 through X, the bolded seats are active. As an example, consider 8 and 9:
8: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 divisible by 2
9: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  divisible by 3

A game of 10 players would be similar to one by 8, while 12 could follow either.

An additional level of complexity could be added by limiting the range a player has. For a game with 2 active players, an active player and those sitting right next to him can't hamper or aid the other active player. In a game with 3 active players, the non-active players can only target the active player immediately to their left and right, but not the far player.


You won. The rules state that in order to win, you must discover the cure to all 4 diseases. The moment you discover the 4th cure, the game ends and you win.

From the rules:

  The players win as soon as cures to all 4 diseases are discovered.

And:

  The players do not have to eradicate all 4 diseases to win;
  just cure them. Once all diseases are cured, the game ends and players
  win immediately, no matter how many cubes are on the board.

(Emphasis mine)


Rock Paper Scissor Lizard Spock applied to units features

Simple Answer: Enforce Type Interactions

Pokemon video games (and the card games) tackles this idea with type. Water beats Fire, Fire beats Grass, Grass beats Water. The simplest answer is to modify the damage based on the characteristic of the receiving type, rather than adjusting the attack itself. Applying types to your units is fairly trivial, and leaves room for creative development.

However, based on your examples, it appears your looking for types to have overall strategies that are good against each other. That is to say, rather than A being being good against B 'because I said so' (Water being good against Fire makes logical sense, but ultimately is because the developers said so), it sounds like you're looking for a strategy that arises from the qualities that game objects have.

Complicated Answer: You need more than 3 mechanics

The difficulty with answering this question is that having a compelling metagame where different types of gameplay match up well against each other is kind of what game designers continuously do. Any answer is going to require you try lots of combinations and record win rates for certain strategies, tweaking the power of each strategy until you get something desirable.

Actually, having a 'perfect' situation where A beats B beats C beats A is undesirable. Imagine I sit down with by deck of B units, and my opponent starts playing A. If A always beats B, I might as well forfeit. That's obviously not a design that's fun for the losing side, and probably not even fun for the winner. So the question is, what can we do so that A usually beats B, but B can earn an underdog win with good gameplay (and perhaps some luck)?

B player needs some mechanics that are good against A that it can include (perhaps by including these mechanics, it is worse against C players and other B players.) As it stands, there are only about 3 mechanics spread out among 3 types, and that's not enough for just those three types. I would imagine you may need 2-3 gameplay mechanics per type for just 3 types. For 5, that may expand out to 5-6.

Suggestion

The good news is that you can do this without increasing the complexity of each card. Trying to squeeze a dozen gameplay mechanics on one unit is probably impossible, but not all units have to have each mechanic. I would strongly recommend looking at Magic: The Gathering for an example of a game that does this well.

For instance: some Colors (Colors in Magic are roughly akin to your unit types.) have flying: they tend to be weaker, but can only be blocked by other flying creatures or creatures with a specific flying-blocking ability. This gives 'B' a strategy against 'A':  B may have enough to hold off A's creatures for a time because of its high defense. A mechanic like flying would allow B to put out a flying creature, and then hide behind its big walls until the flying creature eventually deals with A. It's not ideal (and shouldn't be: A is supposed to be strong against B) but it gives B a fighting chance.

Also consider First Strike: In Magic, creatures deal damage to each other at the same time. An ability call First Strike changes that and causes the creature to deal damage first. This can tweak even creatures with small defense to be really strong, as they may be able to kill a powerful thing with low defense before it has the chance to strike back.

These keywords (First Strike and Flying) can be tacked on to a creature: a creature without them doesn't have to be overwhelming.

Consider Knight of the Keep. (Ignore the text on the card in italics.) That creature has no abilities and is fairly simple, clean, and easy to read. A beginner who knows the basic rules knows how that works.

Consider Enforcer Griffin. It has flying, but it still is fairly simple in how it looks. Once players learn how flying works, the card doesn't seem too complicated.

Consider an extreme example, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn. It has a whopping 5 keywords, and would be pretty confusing for new players. However, it didn't make Knight of the Keep any more complicated, because Knight of the Keep didn't have to worry about things like 'trample' or 'double strike'.

In this way or through some similar mechanics, you can add complexity to certain units to give them a more flexible role, without increasing the complexity of all of your units.

Ultimately though, for 5 types I believe you will need more than 3 gameplay mechanics. Proper balance between them will require a lot of testing and tweaking. That's what separates good from bad games. Mechanics that are fun, not overwhelming to players, and create ways for players to express their skill are what make or break the game. We can give you examples we like/dislike, but original ones will have to come from the developer.


Is there a way to block MTG sorcery spells that view my hand?

You can interact with Thoughtseize just like any other card. In particular:

Yes, you can counter it. Use Negate, Dissolve, et cetera.

Note that this doesn't really help that much against the first-turn Thoughtseize unless you've got access to a counterspell that doesn't cost any mana, like Mental Misstep or Force of Will. The closest thing you've got in Born of the Gods Standard is Swan Song when you're on the play.

In my experience, the best answer to a first-turn Thoughtseize is to choose initial hands that won't be crippled by it. And, yeah, that's a rather big imposition. That's what makes the card so powerful.
You can invalidate its target.

Thoughtseize says "Target player reveals his or her hand." If it can't target you, it can't be cast on you. The gold standard for effects like this is Leyline of Sanctity, which is actually faster than Thoughtseize if you get it in your opening hand.

There are no such cards currently in Born of the Gods Standard. :(
You can take your best cards out of your hand.

This happens quite a lot in Legacy:

  "Thoughtseize you."
  "In response, Brainstorm."

Then you put the cards you need most on top of your library, so they're hidden from Thoughtseize but you can draw them next turn.

There are no such cards currently in Born of the Gods Standard. :(

Thoughtseize is a powerful card (basically the best of its kind) and it's seldom easy to deal with. For higher-level strategy tips, I recommend starting with Reid Duke's excellent Thoughtseize guide — this'll help you understand what your opponent's going to be trying to do.


In this Go position, can black capture the entire length of the white arm?

Yes.  That white chain has only two liberties - A and the space next to A.  If black fills both of them the chain will be captured. None of the surrounding black stones are vulnerable to capture because of their eyes, so white has no defense against this play.

The space next to A will have no liberties when black plays in it, but that is okay because capturing the white pieces will open up the liberties as black plays their piece.

White could technically capture the stone at A by playing next to it, but doing so would be pointless because it would use up the other liberty and black would still be able to capture.


Manland and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch

Yes, you can get around the Sentinel this way with a manland. I'll assume you have the Sentinel, and your opponent has an untapped Mutavault.

At the the Beginning of Combat step in the Combat phase, all abilities that trigger at that point go on the stack. As part of putting the abilities on the stack, you have to choose a target, and that target must be a creature at that point per the ability text. So, by the time that ability's on the stack, the target is set, and can't be changed — and it isn't the manland.

Then, the active player, and the non-active player, will each get priority at least once. Your opponent can activate their Mutavault's abilty while the triggered ability is still on the stack, or they can let that triggered ability resolve and then activate their Mutavault. (The latter is probably safer, in case you have something like Redirect, such as the standard-legal Insidious Will.)

Then we move on to Declare Attackers, and their Mutavault is a Creature at this point, not tapped, and able to attack.


Arkham Horror: dominant personality issue?

I've successfully played Arkham Horror several times with non-gamers (and myself being the kind who tends to push others around). My tips:

Think of yourself as the GM.  You'll be the one who keeps the game moving, and your primary job is making sure everyone is having fun.  As much as possible, give your character the supporting jobs and let them play the game.
Simplify the game for them by focusing on the concepts, not the rules.  My super-simple explanation of the game to get someone started:

  We win the game by sealing gates.  You need 5 clue tokens to seal a gate, but sealing a gate is dangerous so make sure you're ready.  You'll need 4+ stamina/sanity, and a weapon or two.  You can get weapons in a bunch of ways, but the easiest way is to go get some cash.

Yes, this is a gross over-simplification, but it gives them a roadmap for their character and a sense of progression, instead of random wandering around.
Let them play selfishly, even if it's not an optimal strategy.  Nothing ruins a new player's fun like having to give up a Tommy Gun because someone else could use it more effectively.  Each turn, they should have something to do to try and make their character more awesome: get an item, get a monster or gate trophy so they can trade it in, etc.
Give options, not orders: "You could go to the Newspaper and try to get some money, or you could go kill this monster, or go over here and help someone else" etc.  If they make what seems like a bad choice, oh well, the game can still be fun even if you lose.
Don't be afraid to bend the rules in the first game.  An early monster or rumor draw can really make a game impossible.  I'll often quietly redraw in those cases if I'm playing with inexperienced players to give them a chance.

Overall, Arkham has been a great cooperative game for everyone I've played it with.


He still has to assign at least lethal damage to  Phytohydra before any remaining trample damage can be assigned to the defending player.  The fact that the damage will be replaced later on when it is dealt and not actually be "lethal" does not change anything about how it is assigned.  Toughness - Damage Marked (minimum, no deathtouch) goes on the creature, then the rest can hit you.

  702.19b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking
  creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned
  as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the
  player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for
  assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the
  creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during
  the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that
  might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The
  attacking creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all
  those blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to
  the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

Bold added by me


Can players buy other players properties by proxy?

Three related posts that all have decent notations of official rules:

Regarding when trading and such can occur
Regarding the order of actions in a turn
Regarding the giving or loaning of money to another player

I focused on the following sections from each post.

From Link 1

  Selling Property: This may only be done at any time other than after a player rolls the dice, but before they have paid ([Rent [and/or] Tax]) to ([another player [and/or] the Bank.])

From Link 2

  The only action which is doable outside one's turn (according to the instructions I've got off-line, in my deluxe box) are buying auctioned properties, buying or trading properties with other players, and using cards that say "use at any time."

From Link 3

  Another way to give money to another player is to sell them an unimproved property for $0, then buy it back for the amount you wish to give them.

See the links for more complete details, but the three posts combine give me the understanding that yes you can. You would complete the steps as follows.

Player 1 give Player 2 a gift of $100
Player 2 rolls
Player 2 lands on Boardwalk
Player 1 gives Player 2 a gift of $400
Player 2 buys Boardwalk
Player 2 sells Boardwalk to Player 1 for $0

However, there is nothing to force them to finish the transactions. Player 1 may give Player 2 $500 and Player 2 may decide to just keep it and never trade it back. It would be a tactical move that destroyed the possibility of an alliance, but it's within the rules since the money was a "gift."

Best of luck and may your friendships outlast the board.


Can I gain a random Ally card from the reserve if the deck and discard do not have one?

I can't find anything specifically about this in the rules or in any official rule clarifications. Given that I'd go with a strict reading of the rules and only allow a random ally to be drawn from the deck or (if none in the deck) the discard pile as per the section you quote.

When in doubt, applying the rules literally is usually the correct option. Especially, if it makes things harder for your Investigators.


Word association or category snap card game?

Might it have been Anomia? In Anomia, cards have categories and symbols on them, and when two cards with the same symbol are visible the people with those cards have to name something that belongs to the category on the other player's card. Whoever does that first then takes the other player's card, which may then reveal another card which matches someone else's, and so on.


In multiplayer, does Dictate of Erebos still take effect if the combat that kills its owner's creature defeats the owner?

The player loses as soon as state-based actions are checked after dealing combat damage (essentially, "immediately" after damage is dealt) and leaves the game at the same time.  By rule 116.5, state-based actions are applied before triggered abilities are put on the stack, and rule 800.4d prevents triggered abilities controlled by players who have left the game from going on the stack, and so the ability will never even get a chance to resolve and no one will have to sacrifice a creature.  (Even if the triggered ability did go on the stack first, it would then cease to exist due to its controller leaving the game, as specified in 800.4a.)

104.3b If a player’s life total is 0 or less, he or she loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)
104.5. If a player loses the game, he or she leaves the game. If the game is a draw for a player, he or she leaves the game. The multiplayer rules handle what happens when a player leaves the game; see rule 800.4.
116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, "State-Based Actions"), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities"). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.
800.4a When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 109) owned by that player leave the game and any effects which give that player control of any objects or players end. Then, if that player controlled any objects on the stack not represented by cards, those objects cease to exist. Then, if there are any objects still controlled by that player, those objects are exiled. This is not a state-based action. It happens as soon as the player leaves the game. If the player who left the game had priority at the time he or she left, priority passes to the next player in turn order who’s still in the game.
800.4d If an object that would be owned by a player who has left the game would be created in any zone, it isn’t created. If a triggered ability that would be controlled by a player who has left the game would be put onto the stack, it isn’t put on the stack.


I would say both.

There is some room for interpretation here, due to ambiguities in the English language, but I would certainly interpret "any Race or Class cards in play" as equivalent to "all Race and Class cards in play."  (Note that you can have several of each, using cards like Half-Breed or Super Munchkin.)  This also matches the first part of the text, which says that you "become a normal boring Human"; if you didn't discard your Race cards, you would not become Human, and, at least arguably, if you did not discard your Classes, you would not become normal and boring.

If you were supposed to choose, it would most likely say something like "at least one Race or Class card of your choice," or maybe "either all Race or all Class cards in play."  But neither of those would really match the "become a normal boring Human" part.


Which alternative methods of choosing a starting player actually WORK?

We use Start Player every time.  That gives us the fun and twisted subjective criteria that is such a blast to work out, but also injects the truly random so that no one player continuously gets picked as the starting player for any particular game.  Plus, the cards are hilarious!

It is the best of both worlds.


If Realmwright is removed from the battlefield, do the changed lands remain dual colored?

The short answer is no, they'll lose whatever type they're given when Realmwright leaves the battlefield. The reason is that Realmwright has a static ability that creates a continuous effect that dictates that the lands are of the given type:

  112.3d Static abilities are written as statements. They're simply true. Static abilities create continuous effects which are active
  while the permanent with the ability is on the battlefield and has the
  ability, or while the object with the ability is in the appropriate
  zone. See rule 604, "Handling Static Abilities."

Since Realmwright's ability is the source of the continuous effect giving the lands the specified type, the effect will end as soon as Realmwright leaves the battlefield.


Guiding Ariadne's counter trap effect issue

Guiding Ariadne requires you to reveal 3 cards when activating the effect for you opponent to choose from.
If this is impossible because you do not have the required amount, you can not activate the effect.

This is why when Ariadne was a popular deck choice during PePe format, people often played 4 or 5 counter traps, to be sure they could resolve this effect even if a countertrap was already drawn.

Now it is possible you make a mistake and try to activate the effect and then notice you do not have 3 cards left.
What happens then is up to the discretion of the judge, but usually if no deck stacking due to an effect has occurred, you will be allowed to shuffle your deck and continue play.


I've read a couple of articles discussing the impact of AI on professional Go, the second one being a reply to the first one:

Impact of Go AI on the professional Go world
Impact of Go AI on the professional Go world, Response

Some quotes from the first article:

The second important change I see is the professional players’ race to
learn from AI. (...) it’s a unanimous belief that you need to play like an AI to
win, and every serious player has an AI set up at home. Now, there are
both up and down sides to this. The upside is that we sometimes see a
player who was somewhat past his prime suddenly climb back to the top,
having trained with AI more intensely. There are a growing number of
young and new pros who demonstrate surprising strength.

(...) however, pro players have lost the passion or motivation to develop
their own styles. Before AI, most strong players had distinctive
flavors of play and oftentimes this style was the reason why some Go
fans rooted for one player over the other. Today, everyone is trying
to imitate the AI style, and the pros judge each other only by who is
better at playing like the AI.

The second article refutes the gloomy side of these observations:

While I agree that ai-inspired moves are now increasingly common among
top players, I predict that the situation is a bit more like if
Ancient Greek mathematicians were given a graphing calculator: of
course they will first lose themselves in playing around with the new
toy, but eventually they will get used to the new possibilities and
life returns to a slightly more normal state. For top professionals,
it is valuable to be aware of the newest developments (or ‘meta’) so
that one can on the one hand avoid larger mistakes, and on the other
save valuable time during tournament games. Besides top games, I
suspect the ai has actually made more styles of playing possible.

PS: Bold added for emphasis


Is it an official rule that interference in Monopoly requires paying $50 to free parking?

That is a house rule as there is nothing in the base rules about communicating with other players and there is also no such thing as paying free parking. Honestly it is a rule that hurts less experienced or younger players as it discourages others from helping them play when other players may try and take advantage of their inexperience/age.

While the rules do say that you can't collect rent if you don't notice before the next two players throw the dice it does not say that other players can't remind you to collect the rent you are owed.

Rules

PAYING RENT…

  When you land on property owned by another
  player, the owner collects rent from you in accordance with the list
  printed on its Title Deed card.
  If the property is mortgaged, no rent can be collected. When a
  property is mortgaged, its Title Deed card is placed face down in front
  of the owner.
  It is an advantage to hold all the Title Deed cards in a color-group
  (e.g., Boardwalk and Park Place; or Connecticut, Vermont and Oriental
  Avenues) because the owner may then charge double rent for
  unimproved properties in that color-group. This rule applies to
  unmortgaged properties even if another property in that color-group
  is mortgaged.
  It is even more advantageous to have houses or hotels on properties
  because rents are much higher than for unimproved properties.
  The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before
  the second player following throws the dice

Free parking is just a safe space on the board and you don't gain anything from it.

“FREE PARKING”…

  A player landing on this place does not receive
  any money, property or reward of any kind. This is just a “free”
  resting place.


Can Sorcerers convert two units from the same Tribe in one turn?

Looks like this is clarified by Antoine from Days of Wonder in this thread.  You may only use it once against a given opponent in a turn.


Can a takeout doubler pass a redoubled contract?

1D redoubled making 4 is 830 non-vul and 1430 vul according to this (excellent) calculator: http://www.rpbridge.net/xsc1.htm.

Redoubled overtricks count!

Partner should bid 1S. 1S double going down 4 with a probable 4-3 or better fit (LHO or RHO both didn't mention spades) and two Kings seems quite unlikely, and that is against opponents for whom double of 1S will be for penalties. It is probably more useful to play 1S double (by LHO) in this situation for something else (LHO cannot have a trump stack), in which case, you have even more reason to bid 1S.

In this case I would say the problem is with making the takeout double in the first place. (Of course it depends on partnership style and form of scoring, but the below can probably found in most textbooks).

There is a rule of thumb regarding takeout doubles: With a 12-14 hand balanced hand, you should avoid making a takeout double.

In this case you have a really flat hand, 4-3-3-3, with three cards in the takeout suit. Your hand is defensively oriented with likely 3 defensive tricks in your own hand.

If you make a takeout double and partner jumps to the three level in your 3 card suit you will likely go down.

Another reason to pass with 12-14 defensive oriented flat hands is that if you have a game, LHO will likely pass and partner will get a chance to reopen.

And to answer the question in the title, sure, a redoubled contract by the takeout doubler can be passed, but it is probably a bad bid.


In Jenga, how do we define the "highest completed layer"?

The rules as of 2018 don't refer to the "highest completed layer", but older versions and variants (like Jenga Quake) do refer to it.

The highest completed layer is the highest layer that has had all three blocks placed on it. Recall that when you remove a block, you must place it on the top level until it has three blocks. After three blocks are placed, the next block is placed on the next level.

The current iteration of the rules corroborate this by referring to "the one below an incomplete top level" where older rules would say "the highest completed layer" (emphasis mine).

  Moving in the game Jenga consists of:

  1) taking one block on a turn from any level of the tower (except the one below an incomplete top level), and

  2) placing it on the topmost level in order to complete it.


What is the largest number of Settlers expansions that can be combined in one game?

There are 4 official expansions; which can legally all be used at the same time.

Seaside, Cities and Knights, and Traders and Barbarians can all be combined with any number of them being used or not used.

"Explorers and Pirates" does not combine as well, because it changes things more than the others in ways that conflict with the other expansions.

Cities and Knights comes with its own mechanic to replace development cards, so you simply do not use the development cards from the base game. The official FAQ has clarifications on how to handle things that only come up when combining expansions.

Note that both "Explorers and Pirates" and "Traders and Barbarians" are modular expansions, each with several different scenarios that use different mechanics. Some scenarios combine better with the other expansions than others. Catan.com lists each of the scenarios and how they work with the other expansions:

Traders and Barbarians combinations

Explorers and Pirates combinations


When there are more than two players/teams.

103.7a In a two-player game, the player who plays first skips the draw step (see rule 504, “Draw Step”) of his or her first turn.
103.7b In a Two-Headed Giant game, the team who plays first skips the draw step of their first turn.
103.7c In all other multiplayer games, no player skips the draw step of his or her first turn.


Notice that the text of the Parasite say that "...you may use this power to ally..." (emphasis mine). It does not say "... you may use this power by allying...".

The point is that the use of the power and the actual process of allying are not one-and-the-same; using the power triggers and allows for allying when not invited.

So as long as you have three home planets (or two in a four-planet game), you may use your power. Your power gets you to ally.

During the Alliance phase of the next encounter, you'll either have three home planets or you won't.


Is there a bid that is "forcing to four?"

Yes - many pairs play that "forcing to game" actually means forcing to 3N.

As always, this is up to partnership agreement.


Can you move backwards 4 spaces right outside of the safety zone?

Yes. From the rules, under "Moving Backwards":

  If you have successfully moved a pawn backwards at least two spaces beyond your own START space, you may, on a subsequent turn, move into your own SAFETY ZONE without moving all the way around the board.


What does 'play' mean in the context of Courser of Kruphix?

Courser of Kruphix uses the word "play" in two different ways. When it says

  Play with the top card of your library revealed.

It means that you play the game with the top card of your library revealed. That ability is a static ability, so it is in effect for as long as the Courser of Kruphix is on the battlefield.

On the other hand, when it says

  You may play the top card of your library if it's a land card.

That simply means that you can play lands on top of your library like your are normally able to do from your hand.


Organizing a game night with non-gamers?

Depending on the size of the group and the time allotted:

Get games where people do not loose, though people can win. E.g. everybody keeps playing until the end and the player with the highest score wins.Not a game where people get killed and then have to watch the rest play for another 4 hours. (Titan, I am looking at you).
Do not get uber long games. E.g. no Titan, no Doom, the board game, no eclipse (the game can be short, but NOT on the first time you play it).
Start with relative easy on-complex games to start with. E.g. Alhambra. Of if you play Catan make sure it is the basic version and not the game and the Cities and knights extension.
Get a few short games to fill time gaps. E.g. bohnanza or Der Schattendieb.
If you have 7 or 8 players consider running to games simultaneously. E.g. thurn-and-taxis (up to 4 players), basic catan for those who never played it before starting on a more complex game, powergrid etc etc.
Last but not least, consider a few non board games for variation. Machiavelli can be played with a large group.

On games nights I also like to pre-arrange food. Usually with some short games while people arrive and the cook (mostly me) cooks, then dinner, a clean table and some games. Add some non-greasy snacks.


Can you cast Squee, the Immortal when it is exiled with a bomat courier?

No, you cannot cast a Squee the Immortal while it is exiled with Bomat Courier. Cards that are exiled face down have no characteristics, so the card does not have Squee's ability that allows you to cast it (see rule 406.3).


Thaumatic Compass / Spires of Orazca VS creatures with vigilance

Yes, since the description of the target is only "target attacking creature an opponent controls", with no mention of it being tapped.

Then when the ability resolves it simply does not untap the creature if it is not tapped, as specified in the rules for effects:

  609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.


As of the Dominaria rules update, no. The planeswalker redirection rule you cite has been removed, and so dealing damage to "each opponent" means literally that, just player(s), no planeswalkers involved.

It now reads:

  306.7. Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a redirection effect that allowed a player to have noncombat damage that would be dealt to an opponent be dealt to a planeswalker under that opponent’s control instead. This rule has been removed and certain cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to deal damage directly to planeswalkers.

In that spirit, many cards which said "target player" have been changed to read "target player or planeswalker", many which said "target opponent" now say "target opponent or planeswalker", and many which said "target creature or player" now say "any target".

Cards like Guttersnipe that wouldn't be so trivial to update have generally been left alone.

For posterity, the original pre-Dominaria answer follows.

Yes, you can redirect Guttersnipe's damage to a planeswalker, due to the rule you cited. (That's an actual rule, not a ruling or someone's interpretation.) Guttersnipe is dealing noncombat damage to a player, you are that player's opponent, you control the Guttersnipe, and you may therefore redirect the damage.

But saying "planeswalkers are classed as 'players'" is only going to get you into trouble. They are not players. They're, well, planeswalkers. There are a few things you can do that make them feel like players: you can redirect damage like this, and you can choose to attack them or your opponents with your creatures. But they aren't players. If a card actually says "player", it means a player, not a planeswalker.

Some examples:

A burn spell like Lightning Strike ("...deals 3 damage to target creature or player") can only target a player. You may end up redirecting the damage, effectively using it on their planeswalker, but you still have to target your opponent. If they have a Witchbane Orb ("You have hexproof"), you can't target them, so you can't cast the spell in the first place.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel ("...each opponent loses X life...") doesn't do anything to your opponents' planeswalkers - you can't redirect loss of life. Similarly, you can't somehow use life gain on a planeswalker.
Dreadbore ("Destroy target creature or planeswalker.") doesn't do anything to players.

Most of the time things are pretty obvious anyway - for example you're not too likely to think a planeswalker can draw cards and try to use Opportunity on it. But you can avoid the chance of confusion by just remembering what you can do (attack and redirect damage) rather than thinking of planeswalkers as players.


Please recommend a good shuffling machine

I own this 6-deck shuffling machine. I can highly recommend it for the specific circumstances we purchased it for: shuffling lots (4 decks) of expendable (i.e. cheap to replace) cards. We just run the decks through, cut a few times, and repeat. Say 3 or 4 times. It fed evenly from each side for us, but I could see an identical model not not working as well; it's not like its precision machinery.

We like it because the only real way to shuffle that many cards by hand is to split the deck up into multiple piles to be shuffled by humans and then combined, re-parsed out, and reshuffled. This way is much faster.

Reasons I would not recommend this machine for your purposes:

it's not worth the trouble to load it for a single deck (although for Munchkin with expansions perhaps it would work)
it also has a tray, although we didn't have problems with it
it's murder on cards (they're technically riffled, but get slammed together so hard the edges start to break down) we replaced the decks fairly frequently
you still have to strip, since this machine only riffles

It looks like there are professional models that riffle and strip, but they're expensive, like $500 instead of the $15 we paid.


Is there any difference between double strike and oubleday ikestray?

Nop, it's the same.
Keep in mind, Atinlay Igpay is a card from the unhinged set. Meaning you can't normally play it except for casual play (and then usually you have to agree on it specifically).
The card is actually called Latin Pig in Pig-latin rules:

Juvenile "code" language created by the rearrangement of sounds in a
word such that the first sound is moved to the end and "ay" is added.
In the case of a vowel as the first sound, "ay" is simply added, with
an hyphen if necessary.

This is also how Double Strike turns into Oubleday Ikestray.


Can Russia and Japan Follow A Mutual "Hands Off" Policy In Axis and Allies?

Would you try to conclude such an agreement with the other party if you were playing Japan? Russia?

If I was playing Japan, no, I'd not want such an agreement. If I was Russia, then yes.

Russia's sole aim in the early game is to build up a wall of infantry in Karelia to stop Germany from expanding her borders and to buy time until her allies can start sending in wave after wave of troops support. (By the midgame the US should be depositing 10-12 infantry into Finland each and every turn.)

Having a "hands off" policy with Japan allows Russia two distinct advantages:

It inflates their economic base. The Soviet Far East and Yakut are two territories that usually fall under Japanese control relatively early in the game. That's 4 IPC per turn Russia gets to keep until later with this agreement.
It let's them focus on reinforcing Karelia without having to worry about staffing troops in Russia.

I can see how such a deal might sound ideal to Japan at first blush - namely, Japan gets to focus 100% on China, Sinkiang, and India, but I don't think it's worth it in the long run.


In Phase 10, can Wild Cards be discarded?

Assuming you mean as your normal discard on your turn, yes.

From the rules:

  End your turn by discarding any one of your cards onto the top of the discard pile.

For clarity, if you by "about to go out" you mean that it is your turn, then no, your opponent cannot discard anything when it is not their turn.


Can special cards with "discard" label in King of Tokyo be saved until later?

The rules explicitly state that Discard cards are immediately used and discarded.

It's in a text box right above "3. Buying cards".


Sake & Samurai / Beer & Vikings: Burning up spirits while being tormented

The creators of the game responded to my inquiry:

  Yes, this is possible, but if the target burns every token, he/she loses any chance of winning! So tormenting has to be played "not too aggressively" by Spirits, in order for the target to agree to a little loss - that's usually how we see it played!


Nothing/Warning for both you and your opponent at a Competitive REL or Regular REL event.

The rules at Regular Rules Enforcement Level (REL) events (such as Friday Night Magic, Game Days, and Prereleases) has a more relaxed/friendly atmosphere, and does not use the Infraction Procedure Guide. The Infraction Procedure Guide has no Game Play Errors that match your situation and the closest matching Common Issue from the Regular REL is:

  A player makes an in-game error not mentioned above - This will cover the bulk of player errors, and we will usually leave the game as it is. Fix anything that is currently illegal (e.g. an Aura enchanting an illegal permanent) and continue the game. If the error was caught quickly and rewinding is relatively easy, you may choose to undo all the actions back to the point that the illegal action happened. This can include returning random cards from the hand to the library to undo card draws (though don't shuffle the library if you do this) and reversing various other actions (such as untapping permanents and declaring attackers or blockers). Don't go crazy with this!

In general, they just leave the game as it is. It is probably fairly common that people just skip upkeep when nothing triggers during the upkeep. In the relaxed environment, judges are there to be friendly and educate, not to hand out violations. At the Competitive level though, if any violation occurred, it would have to be the generic ones Game Play Error/Failure to Maintain Game State, and both you and your opponent are guilty of each one respectively.

  Now, within "game errors" there are four specific categories of warnings that the offending player can get. However, because bothplayers are now responsible for maintaining a legal game state, if one player gets a warning for one a game error, the opponent will receive a warning from the special fifth group, which is "Failure to maintain game state." [...]

  4) Game Play Error - This is the "everything else" category, so any game errors that don't fall under the first three categories land here. So this is where we're talking about things like accidentally playing a card for the wrong mana cost, forgetting to attack with a creature that must attack each turn, etc.

  5) Failure to maintain game state - This is the special fifth group, which is the warning a player gets for not noticing that the opponent made a game error.

The MtG Tournment Rules note the following regarding shortcuts:

  Tournament Shortcuts

  A tournament shortcut is an action taken by players to skip parts of the technical play sequence without explicitly announcing them. Tournament shortcuts are essential for the smooth play of a game, as they allow players to play in a clear fashion without getting bogged down in the minutia of the rules. Most tournament shortcuts involve skipping one or more priority passes to the mutual understanding of all players; if a player wishes to demonstrate or use a new tournament shortcut entailing any number of priority passes, he or she must be clear where the game state will end up as part of the request. [...]

  A player is not allowed to use a previously undeclared tournament shortcut, or to modify an in-use tournament shortcut without announcing the modification, in order to create ambiguity in the game.

You opponent used a Tournament Shortcut that was previously undeclared. They should have informed you that they wished to proceed to the Draw Step, possibly by saying, "Draw step? I wish to skip the Upkeep Step and proceed to the Draw Step." You failed to maintain the game state, by not being quick enough to interrupt your opponents draw in the time your opponent untapped and waited an additional 2-3 seconds.

  A player may not request priority and take no action with it. If a player decides he or she does not wish to do anything, the request is nullified and priority is returned to the player that originally had it.

You should not request priority during your opponents Upkeep unless you plan to take an action.

  Certain conventional tournament shortcuts used in Magic are detailed below.

  The statement "Go" (and equivalents such as "Your turn" and "Done") offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the end step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.

A judge could issue you both a Warning. Your opponent needs to explain that they want to proceed to the Draw Step. You need to maintain the game state so your opponents errors are caught early before they can give you/him an advantage. Additional remedies are also a possibility.

  Additional Remedies

  If the error was discovered within a time frame in which a player could reasonably be expected to notice the error and the situation is simple enough to safely back up without too much disruption to the course of the game, the judge may get permission from the Head Judge to back up the game to the point of the error. Each action taken is undone until the game reaches the point immediately prior to the error. Cards incorrectly placed in hand are returned to the location in the zone from which they were moved (if the identity of the incorrectly drawn card is not known to all players, a random card is returned instead). Once the game is backed up, it continues from that point.

In the future, you might want to take a little longer before you announce, "Your Turn," until you have decided whether you want to play Mana Short next turn during your opponent's Upkeep. This way you can interrupt them when they reach for their deck, and not give them any advantage (if they have a Split Second card) nor you an advantage if a judge decides to return a random card to the top of their library (possibly a Counterspell). Repeatedly receiving warnings for the same violation (skipping an upkeep, or failing to maintain the game state by not interrupting a draw) can result in an upgraded penalty.


Summary

The best sixteen dice to pick in order to produce the lowest Kullback-Leibler divergence from the (new) standard Boggle distribution are:

AAEEEE, ADENNN, AEEGMU, AFIRSY, BJKQuXZ, CEILPT, CEIPST, DHHLOR, DHLNOR, DHLNOR, EIIITT, EMOTTT, ENSSSU, FIPRSY, GORRVW, NOOTUW

The divergence for this set of dice is 0.0226, and it provides at least one of every letter.  This dice set provides about 10% more words than official Boggle, and about 13% more points (from an average grid).

Background

There are two different standards for 16 dice Boggle, and one for 25 dice.*

There are multiple ways to measure the 'closeness' of two sets of Boggle dice. A comment on the question suggests Kullback-Leibler divergence. Another simpler metric would be a count of the number of incorrect letters which I've referred to as the Manhattan distance.

The most interesting quality of a Boggle dice set is probably how easy it is to make words during a game, so I decided it was also worth investigating the average number of words in a grid, and the average score (if a player found them all).

* The BGG thread mentions another Big Boggle distribution that contains a AEMNNS die, but the set was incomplete, so I didn't include it here.

Method

I wrote a Python script to search through all combinations of sixteen dice from the twenty five provided in Big Boggle. For each set of dice I measured the Manhattan distance and the Kullback-Leibler divergence from both the new and old standard Boggle dice.

Once I had the optimum set of dice for each metric, I used a Boggle solver to simulate 10,000 games of Boggle with them, and counted the number of words and the total score available in each grid.

Results

Metric | Old/New | Best selection of dice                                                                                | Distance (using metric)
KL     | New     | 'AAEEEE', 'ADENNN', 'AEEGMU', 'AFIRSY', 'BJKQuXZ', 'CEILPT', 'CEIPST', 'DHHLOR', 'DHLNOR', 'DHLNOR', 'EIIITT', 'EMOTTT', 'ENSSSU', 'FIPRSY', 'GORRVW', 'NOOTUW' | 0.0226049400407
KL     | Old     | 'AAAFRS', 'AEEEEM', 'AEEGMU', 'AEGMNN', 'AFIRSY', 'BJKQuXZ', 'CEIILT', 'CEILPT', 'CEIPST', 'DDHNOT', 'DHHLOR', 'DHLNOR', 'ENSSSU', 'FIPRSY', 'GORRVW', 'NOOTUW' | 0.0403229165488
Manh.  | New     | 'AAAFRS', 'AAEEEE', 'AEEGMU', 'AFIRSY', 'BJKQuXZ', 'CEILPT', 'CEIPST', 'DDHNOT', 'DHHLOR', 'DHLNOR', 'DHLNOR', 'EIIITT', 'EMOTTT', 'ENSSSU', 'GORRVW', 'NOOTUW' | 12
Manh.  | Old     | 'AAAFRS', 'AAFIRS', 'AEEEEM', 'AEEGMU', 'AEGMNN', 'AFIRSY', 'BJKQuXZ', 'CEIILT', 'CEILPT', 'CEIPST', 'DDHNOT', 'DHHLOR', 'DHLNOR', 'FIPRSY', 'GORRVW', 'NOOTUW' | 16

It turned out that the optimum dice sets all contained every letter of the alphabet, which seems like it should be a requirement for a game of Boggle.

Simulating 10,000 games with each set, and using a Boggle solver, I found the following results.

Dice set      | Average number of words in grid | Average maximum score in grid
Original New  | 87                              | 113
Original Old  | 83                              | 105
KL New        | 96                              | 128
KL Old        | 92                              | 122
Manhattan New | 99                              | 132
Manhattan Old | 92                              | 121

Conclusions

We used four different methods to pick 'the best' sixteen dice from Big Boggle, and it seems that any of the sets of dice are reasonably suitable for playing a game of standard Boggle with. The old standard Boggle dice are slightly harder to play with than the new dice, and it follows that it is also harder to play with the Big Boggle selections which were optimised towards the old Boggle standard.

All of the Big Boggle dice sets produced more words and higher scores than the original Boggle dice sets, and this may be due to the presence of dice like AAEEEE, AEEEEM and EIIITT in Big Boggle, which help to avoid consonant-only grids.

As a side note, Boggle is a pretty popular game, and is not too hard to pick up a second hand copy from a charity shop. If you really want to play standard Boggle then getting a copy might be easier than separating out the right set of dice each game, and you'll also get a four-by-four box to shake the dice in!


Are the cards in Zendikar vs Eldrazi standard yet, before Battle for Zendikar comes out?

No, those cards are not all in Standard. Some already are, some aren't yet, some won't be.

Some already are Standard: Read the Bones and others have been printed in Standard sets. You can use those.
The cards we know will be in Battle for Zendikar aren't standard yet. They will be after that set actually comes out and enters Standard rotation. Dominator Drone and others aren't available in Standard yet.
Some are old cards that might not become Standard at all. Like other duel decks, Zendikar vs Eldrazi contains many cards from past sets no longer in Standard. Butcher of Malakir and Corpsehatch have not been seen in Standard since the original Zendikar block several years ago. There's no guarantee these cards will become Standard at all.

If you're expecting to buy exclusively cards usable in Standard, Duel Decks are not the product for you. Buy those to actually duel with, or if you play a more open format like Modern or Commander.


Why is Sword of Body and Mind regarded as the weakest of the Swords?

It's just not very good. Sword of Body and Mind's abilities aren't as powerful individually, and they have very poor synergy with each other.

Sword of Fire and Ice is great for a tempo deck beating down on another tempo deck:

Draw a card: +1 card advantage.
2 damage to target creature: often +1 card advantage. Lots of creatures worth killing have 1 or 2 toughness (e.g. Dark Confidant, Mother of Runes). At worst, it speeds up the clock a little.
Protection from red: negates red-base removal, which is plentiful because Lightning Bolt is SOOOO good.
Protection from blue: very marginal, but means your opponent can't win tempo by bouncing your creature.

Sword of Light and Shadow is a great card for creature-based midrange:

Return a card to your hand: consistently +1 card advantage in a deck with a reasonable number of creatures (16+).
Protection from white and protection from black together in one card: negate almost all of the non-damage-based creature removal in the game. +2 toughness also helps make your creature resistant to red removal.
Gain some life: marginal, but it can help one midrange creature deck beat another in a damage race.

Sword of Feast and Famine is superb in midrange control decks like Cawblade:

Opponent discards: often +1 card advantage. You don't get this if your opponent's already running on empty, but if that's the case you've likely already got them on the ropes.
Untap your lands: this is a massive strategic advantage. Very easy to keep up mana for counterspells or removal while still developing your board.
Protection from black: negates a lot of removal.
Protection from green: a lot of the biggest creatures are green, so it's nice to be able to slip past them. Thanks to the Sword's untap ability, you can easily attack with one dude and then move the Sword to another one so you'll have a pro-green creature to block your opponent's Tarmogoyf. The real value is that it's stapled to protection from black, though: you're giving your creature bonus toughness (to get it out of burn range) and making it immune to black's targeted removal and making it immune to damage from giant green creatures — sure to give Jund fits.

Sword of War and Peace is a massive clock swinger, useful to any reasonably fast deck:

Damage your opponent a whole bunch if they're hoarding cards: basically makes your creature a very fast clock against control.
Damage your opponent and gain life: creates significant life swings in an aggro/tempo damage race.
Protection from red and protection from white: negates a lot of removal, including cheap removal all-stars like Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile. Pro white also lets you bypass token swarm defenses like Lingering Souls.

Sword of Body and Mind is, in contrast, a mishmash of abilities that aren't so great by themselves and don't really fit together:

Make a token: technically +1 card advantage, but a Grizzly Bear is kind of a bad card. In most cases this is flat-out inferior to drawing a card, getting a creature back from your yard, or being able to blast something with a bit of damage (since you can remove weenie creatures with actual abilities).
Protection from blue and from green: these are the two colors in the game with the least removal.
Mill: meh. Mill's not always terrible, but here you only mill them when you are inflicting damage. In most cases, that's strictly inferior to any kind of effect that just lets you inflict more damage.


Where can I find good tile layouts for Settlers of Catan?

We use Better Settlers.

  The Better Settlers Board Generator is for use with the offline board
  game Settlers of Catan. Not only does it allow for faster game setup,
  it generates a fair and engaging game.

  We love playing Settlers. We've noticed that sometimes the game seems
  to be over in the first fifteen minutes--and no matter how fairly we
  try to distribute resources and probabilities during setup, natural
  bias creeps in. So we developed the Better Settlers Board Generator.

  The algorithm for the generator is designed to create fair play. The
  result is more riveting and engaging play.

  You'll have a better game of Settlers.

I have no idea what the algorithm that they use is, but in all of our games so far its worked fairly well.  There is also an android app.


How to effectively handicap a good player?

I usually give new players an Investment Bank (draw a card during the develop phase) in addition to their start world. It passively gives them extra cards throughout the game, without really changing strategic considerations (there is one less Investment Bank for anyone going for the Galactic Federation development superbuild).


How does "Exile and return to battlefield" work with a Manifest

Your first two questions are a duplicate of this question. (Yes revealed.  Yes flipped)
For your third question, it won't return from exile:

304.4. Instants can’t enter the battlefield. If an instant would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.
307.4. Sorceries can’t enter the battlefield. If a sorcery would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.


Most important elements of easy-to-learn hard-to-master?

Make sure that single actions can have multiple different outcomes depending on how and when they are used

Strategic complexity is created when a player has multiple mutually exclusive actions* they can take which could all theoretically lead to victory, and the player has to figure out which one is the best.  The more plausible options they have, the more complex the game.

The flip side is that learning complexity the number of different types of actions a player has to remember, and how many effects each action has.

The solution is to give the player fewer different actions, but to make those actions contextual.  In chess, the only thing you can do with a pawn is move it forward (okay, or forward at a diagonal).  But that action can be used to threaten your opponent's pieces, or defend your own, or block off movement avenues, depending on where the other pieces are on the board.

In Go, there is precisely one action a player can take.  Every turn you will place one of your pieces.  But there's over a hundred different places you can play your piece, and each location will affect the game differently.

Not every action has to be contextual (in particular, drawing cards is a vital part of most card games, and most of the time it's pretty much the same no matter how or when you do it.)  But the majority of your actions should be capable of affecting the game in multiple ways.

Reward strategic planning, but don't penalize its lack

Nothing is worse for a new player than to get halfway through the game and realizing that none of the actions they've taken so far actually bring them closer to victory, because they failed to take some specific action earlier in the game which they didn't realize at the time was necessary to make their strategy successful.

In Settlers of Catan (possibly the most iconic gateway game), there are only four different things you can spend your resources on.  Each one brings you closer to victory.  Now, some are better at it then others, but even if you've spent your entire game building roads, you can get a few victory points out of it.

Obviously, you can't idiot-proof your game, and you shouldn't try.  But the skill level of "I am not trying to plan at all, and instead just picking actions that look good" should lead to forward movement towards the goal.

*Sometimes the mutual exclusivity is only in the timing - you can do one and then the other, but not both that the same time.  That still counts, if the timing matters.


Does going below 0 life with Ad Nauseam kill you before Phyrexian Unlife can save you?

In this scenario, you would lose as soon as Ad Nauseam finishes resolving. It doesn't matter if you're about to cast Phyrexian Unlife or if Phyrexian Unlife is on the stack waiting to resolve. However, you can easily avoid this problem by simply letting Phyrexian Unlife resolve before you cast Ad Nauseam.

Losing due to having zero life is an example of what are called State-based actions. These are checked at any time that any player would receive priority and they cannot be responded to.

The rules for which player gains priority at what time are defined in rule 116.3:

  116.3. Which player has priority is determined by the following rules:

  116.3a The active player receives priority at the beginning of most steps and phases, after any turn-based actions (such as drawing a card during the draw step; see rule 703) have been dealt with and abilities that trigger at the beginning of that phase or step have been put on the stack. No player receives priority during the untap step. Players usually don’t get priority during the cleanup step (see rule 514.3).
  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
  116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.
  116.3d If a player has priority and chooses not to take any actions, that player passes. If any mana is in that player’s mana pool, he or she announces what mana is there. Then the next player in turn order receives priority.

As you can see, a player will gain priority as soon as Ad Nauseum resolves, and at that time state-based actions will be checked and you will lose the game.


Yes. When a card refers to any creature's power or toughness, it always means the creature's current power or toughness, not what is printed on the card. This includes any +1/+1, -1/-1 or other counters that modify power and toughness; any equipment or enchantments attached to the creature that modify power and/or toughness, and any effects from cards such as Giant Growth, Glorious Anthem, or Bile Blight.

Note that damage on a creature does not change its toughness.


How do traits work in Betrayal At House On The Hill?

Mechanically, "Gain 1 Sanity" means move up 1 position on your Sanity track; this may increase your actual Sanity statistic (how many dice you roll) by 0, 1, or 2 depending on your character and previous position. This allows for greater variety in the characters than would be possible if all the tracks increased 1 point per position. It gives the players varying incentives and can also be used to flesh out the thematic/roleplaying part of the game - for example, one character feels a nervous breakdown coming on (next Sanity decrease -2) and is hiding from the scary ghosts at all costs; another is about to make a para-scientific breakthrough (next Knowledge increase +2) and really wants to confirm a few last facts in the Library. It can also encourage more cooperative interaction between the players, since an item that offers e.g. +2 Sanity will increase players' actual dice rolled by different amounts so may be worth trading to whoever gets the most actual benefit from it.


In Gin Rummy, what happens when one knocks but the opposing player has a lower deadwood?

Your opponent Undercut you and scores usually 25 points plus the difference between your score and theirs (+2 in your case). Actually, unless you knockout on gin (zero points), if your opponent ties your score you are undercut. From pagat.com:

  If the knocker did not go gin, and the counts are equal, or the knocker's count is greater than that of the opponent, the knocker has been undercut. In this case the knocker's opponent scores the difference between the counts plus a 10 point bonus.


Your King is in check from your opponent's Queen.


Will state triggers cause a draw if their condition is always true?

In general, a state-triggered will trigger repeatedly and draw the game if its trigger condition continues to be true, but the situation you describe does not meet that prerequisite, so the game will not be a draw.

Once the three relevant permanents are on the battlefield, the next time Hidden Predators triggers, it will stop being an enchantment again, and the game will just go on as usual.

Lets say we have the state where Hidden Predators is already a creature, your opponent controls a creature with power 4, and you cast Enchanted Evening. The game plays out like this:

Immediately after Enchanted Evening resolves, two relevant continuous effects apply from Hidden Predators and Enchanted Evening respectively:

Hidden Predators is a 4/4 Beast Creature.
[Hidden Predators] is an enchantment in addition to its other types.

They are applied in timestamp order, so the result is that Hidden Predators is a 4/4 Beast Enchantment Creature.
Now, all of the conditions are met, so Hidden Predators' triggered ability triggers again.
Hidden Predators' triggered ability resolves, and we get an additional relevant continuous effect:

Hidden Predators is a 4/4 Beast Creature.
[Hidden Predators] is an enchantment in addition to its other types.
Hidden Predators is a 4/4 Beast Creature.

Again, these effects are applied in timestamp order, so Hidden Predators is once again just a 4/4 Beast Creature.

After that, Hidden Predators is once again not an Enchantment, so the ability does not trigger.

The rule that governs this interaction is 613.6:

  613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

  613.6a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.
  613.6b A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it’s created.

In a different situation, with different state-triggered abilities, those abilities can cause a draw. For example, as diego mentions, if you control a Darksteel Reactor and your opponent controls a Platinum Angel, then the ability just triggers forever in a loop that can't be stopped unless a player can remove one of those permanents at instant speed.