What is the optimal mix of infantry, artillery, and armor in Axis and Allies Revised?

I have to go in the opposite direction of the other answers and say that artillery isn't very useful. If you run sims to try and flesh out what is the optimal mix, you will probably find that using artillery is better. However I found that when actually playing the game, tanks have at least 3 significant advantages over artillery.

Retaining their offensive power

When attacking a territory that is well defended, you can count on losing a lot of infantry. Since the third point for offensive power of artillery is dependent on having an accompanying infantry piece, your forces will lose significant offensive power when you start losing those pieces. Since tanks aren't dependent on the infantry, you will retain your offensive power longer.

While this is covered in the simulations, it is important to realize that the simulations favor artillery if you limit the size of the forces by IPCs. If you limit your forces by number of units, tanks fare significantly better than artillery because they retain their power.

Gauging power by IPCs makes sense if you are talking about land battles in Europe, Asia and Africa. However if you are doing amphibious assaults(or your supply of troops comes from the sea) you are going to be limited by the number of transports and therefore the number of ground troops. When you have a navy offshore worth 100 IPCs and another 50 IPCs of aircraft supporting the invasion, I don't think it makes much sense to decrease your ground power just to save 2 or 3 IPCs(especially if you are losing planes to keep the last ground troop alive).

Increased defense

In my experience the main challenge isn't taking a territory but actually holding on to it. While artillery give a boost to offensive power, that extra IPC doesn't do anything for you when defending. Since tanks defend on 3, they also give an added boost for defense.

Moving 2 Spaces/Blitzing

This is the most important advantage. While it is not very important in some theaters, it is critical in the Germany/Russia land war. Artillery will take 1-2 turns longer to get where they need to be than tanks. While the math may show artillery is optimal in these battles, they won't have any value if they're not at the battle.

When I'm playing that theater, I will often purchase a couple turns of infantry, then tanks then fighters and bombers. I try to time it so that when the main battle is fought, all the units from previous turns will be able to participate. If you are running with an optimized infantry/artillery mix, the player on defense is going to have several more turns worth of units in the battle.

While you may purchase a 15 IPC industrial complex in one of the 3 IPC territories to counteract this, it will still take 5 turns of purchasing artillery before you break even and those artillery will still have the above disadvantages.

Summary

I get the impression that you are looking more for a math oriented answer to what the optimal ground forces are. My general point is that there is no optimal mixture because everything is too dependent on the situation.

A math based solution isn't capable of taking into account:

the possibility(and costs) of the opponent's counterattack
how long it takes to move your forces into position
the added value of the territory you are conquering(and the loss of it from your opponent)
the time component(since territories generate IPCs, they are more valuable if conquered sooner than later)
and probably a bunch of others I haven't thought of


Do I win or lose if I play "Trade Hands" while tied for "10 Cards in Hand"?

I had to pull out my deck to check this one, but I believe you win in this case!
The reason is the wording at the top of every action card (emphasis mine):

"To play this card, do whatever it says, then place it on the discard pile."

So, technically, action cards are still in your hand until you've performed the action they tell you to do.  So when you play "Trade Hands" in the situation you describe, what actually happens is:

You and your opponent exchange hands.  Both of you still have 10 cards in hand, including "Trade Hands".

You take "Trade Hands" from what is now your opponent's hand and place it on the discard pile.  Your opponent now has 9 cards in hand, while you still have 10.  You win.

Yeah, that does feel kind of weird, and of course in practice what you'd actually do when playing is set "Trade Hands" aside before passing your hand to your opponent.  But technically, according to the rules, it still counts as part of your hand (which becomes your opponent's hand) until the exchange is over.

By the way, if the explicit statement on each action card that I quoted above isn't convincing enough for you, some additional support might be offered by the "Discard & Draw" action card, whose instructions read:

"Discard your entire hand, then draw as many cards as you discarded.
Do not count this card when determining how many replacement cards to draw."

Clearly, if action cards were removed from your hand before they were played, there would be no need (except, admittedly, avoidance of doubt) to include the second sentence on the card at all.
I went through all the other action cards in my basic Fluxx deck, and as far as I can tell, these are the only two actions where this rule could make any direct difference.  However, note that following the rule as written does have one non-trivial indirect effect: whenever other cards are discarded as the result of an action, the action card ends up on top of them in the discard pile.  I don't think the order of the discard pile actually matters much (if at all) in basic Fluxx, but there are cards in other Fluxx editions for which it does matter, such as, off the top of my head, "Composting" in Eco Fluxx.  In any case, the "Let's Do That Again!" action explicitly tells you not to change the order of the discard pile, so clearly it's supposed to be at least potentially significant.


Returning agents to pool in in Waterdeep Harbor phase

Yes, you can reassign the returned agents; you do so immediately before continuing with the Waterdeep Harbour phase. But no, you cannot place them in the Harbour. From the FAQ:

Q: If I complete the "Recruit Lieutenant" quest as a result of reassigning an agent from "Waterdeep Harbor", do I get to assign that agent immediately?

A: Yes. If any effect puts a new agent into your pool during reassignment from "Waterdeep Harbor", you assign that agent immediately. However, you can't assign him to "Waterdeep Harbor" (he follows the same rule as the "Research Chronomancy" quest, a returned/new agent can't be assigned to "Waterdeep Harbor" during the reassignment phase of the round).


Can I still crown a king if I run out of pieces?

(Warning: Clicking on the rulebook link below will download a Word document.)

From the American Checkers Federation's official rulebook (emphasis mine):

  1.16  When a man reaches the farthest row forward (known as the “king-row” or “crown-head”) it becomes a king, and this completes the turn of play. The man can be crowned by either player ( ) by placing a man of the same colour on top of it before the next move is made. (It may be necessary to borrow from another set if no captured man is available for the purpose).

Like the rules say, if you run out of pieces, you can just borrow from another set. You are not limited by the number of pieces in your set.

If you are playing casually with friends, you can crown a king using coins, dice, torn pieces of paper, etc. As long as the board state is clear to you and your friends, it doesn't really matter how you crown your kings.


Do destination cards have to be completed in a particular direction?

All you need is an unbroken chain between the two cities. It doesn't matter which way you started it, how many cities are in between, or whether it is the most direct route.

From the rules:

  Each Destination Ticket includes the name of two cities on the map and
  a Point Value. If a player successfully completes a series of routes
  that connect the two cities, they will add the amount of points
  indicated on the Destination Ticket to their point totals at the end
  of the game. If they do not successfully connect the two cities, they
  deduct the amount of points indicated.

The rules for Ticket to Ride: Europe are similar.

  If, by the end of the game, a player has created a continuous path of his color plastic trains between the two cities named on a Destination Ticket he holds, he scores the additional points indicated by the Point Value on the Ticket. If he has failed to complete a continuous path between those cities, he deducts the Point Value on the Ticket from his total score.


Does an enchantment ability that gives -1/-1 to opponent creatures resolve before other abilities can be used on a 1/1 entering the battlefield

Your opponent cannot sacrifice them before they die. The -1/-1 ability is a static ability. It is always in effect, does not use the stack, and will kill off all */1 creatures before anyone can interact with them.

A static ability such as "Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1." is always in effect:

  604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they’re simply true.

That means creatures this applies to enter the battlefield with the -1/-1 effect. The game never sees a 1/1 creature, it enters as a 0/0. As soon as the spell or effect that put that creature on the battlefield has resolved, the game checks for state-based actions (A set of rules that is checked almost all the time), because the active player would gain priority (the right to take actions).

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

  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”),[..]

  704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:

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


Our copy of Mansion of Madness, second edition doesn't contain the original 8 investigators cards, is this correct?

It seems to be correct. From the second-edition rulebook, page 4, "First Game" sidebar:

  Before choosing a scenario, if you own the first edition Mansions of Madness base game and/or any of its expansions, you can integrate the components of those products as described by the Conversion Kit rules insert.

  Players can play any investigators from the integrated first edition products, and the app can use any of the monsters or map tiles from those products during the game.

I think it's reasonable to infer that the original investigators (and monsters and map tiles) are intentionally separate from the second edition.

I don't own the game, so I can't physically confirm this.


I think in this case, that the phrasing "decapitate" is more a metaphor than an actual skill. I haven't found a unit that has a skill named that, so I don't think that is the case.

Additional, i dont fully agree with the claim. Yes, you could to some heavy start nuking with some combos, but then it's a question of counterplaying it in your own lineup.

A lineup poised on striking fast and hard often have little room if they dont succeed in that first strike.

Having said that, some characters and units in Diskwars ARE a bit out of balance, but that's just my opinion.


Does a sacrificed creature count as a creature that died?

Yes. Assuming the sacrificed creature is a Zombie, Diregraf Captain's ability will cause target opponent to lose 1 life. This is because "dies" simply means "goes to the graveyard from the battlefield".

  700.6. The term dies means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield." It is used only when referring to creatures.

A card that talks about something that "dies" does not care if the creature is going to the graveyard because of combat damage, a destruction spell such as Doom Blade, because it was sacrificed, or because its toughness was reduced to 0.


Are the Germans' winning chances in Afrika Korps concentrated in 1941?

To quote from John Lockwood's excellent article Afrika Korps Theory (Avalon Hill GENERAL, Sep/Oct 1980, Vol. 17 #3):

  Once November [1941] rolls around, most British players breathe a big
  sigh of relief, thinking that the game is won. Although the British
  receive a big boost in their force position and may even outnumber the
  Germans on the board, the advantage is not entirely in he British
  favor. For one thing the supply table from December 1941 until the end
  of the game is highly favourable to the Germans. As illustrated earlier
  they will be enabled to maintain a constant attack for as many as 75%
  of the remaining turns. Coupled with their ten factors of replacements
  this bodes ill for the British if they are backed up too close to their
  home base. ....

The middle game in Afrika Korps can be regarded as beginning once Tobruk has been invested by the Germans; the end game once Alexandria has likewise been invested, or nearly so. However just as in Go, the endgame can be quite lengthy. It is an endgame because the strategic positional phase portion of the game has completed, and only tactically significant positional considerations remain. In a game between two strong players this slugging match at Alexandria and then Tobruk (usually) will decide the match, according to the small advantages each has managed to accumulate in getting there. This rarely starts before November 1941 for two strong players.


Exchange two footmen for knight anytime? Game of Thrones

Absolutely not! Nowhere in the rules is this permitted (also it doesn't make any thematic sense :))

As per page 9 of the rule book, you may upgrade a footman to a knight for the cost of 1 muster point, but otherwise no. Note there is also no mechanism by which a player may willingly remove troops from the board (obviously you are forced to remove troops if you exceed your supply limits)


Choosing a starter set:
Buy the starter set that most appeals to you. If you love Marvel, then look for something in that line. The latest starters will be the most up-to-date rules wise, but that shouldn't be the main thing driving your decision.

Personally, I love the Fantastic Four starter set: two great teams that form a perfect collection on their own.

Finding A Community:
Boardgamegeek.com is a great place to start. Check out the forums. I also recommend Google Plus, starting with a search for Heroclix. Lastly, search for Heroclix bloggers and ask them where they play. People who are active on the web have always been the most helpful to me.

There are ways to play HeroClix online. Look at hco.heroclix.com (although they might not be accepting new players) and www.vassalengine.org.

Getting Figures:
First focus on a starter set and a play group, then on getting figures. Players may have extra figures that they'll be happy to pass on if you're serious about getting started, and they can recommend good places to buy figures. Most of my collection has come from online contacts.

Learning the Rules:
YouTube. Again, people who are blogging or vlogging are a very helpful resource. Also, download the rules from the WizKids website.


Your guess is correct.

  At the end of a player’s Movement step, if his character is in the same location as an ally token, he must encounter that token’s corresponding Ally Card before proceeding to his Action phase.

In the brig, you cannot leave during your movement step voluntarily. Leaving will normally occur as a result of using the action on the brig space. You still have a Movement step, so you're going to encounter the ally before you take an action from a card or on the brig space.

  Players may move out of “Sickbay” without difficulty, but
  not the “Brig.” They may only move out of the “Brig” by
  passing the skill check listed on the location.

In Sickbay, you wait until your turn and would have to decide to remain there during your Movement step. It says "may move out", so you're clearly allowed to stay. This means, however, that you may be starting your next turn there as well.


In bridge, do people go through cycles of under- and -over bidding?

There is a famous anecdote of Hans Kreijns (playing with Bob Slavenburg) overcalling Benito Garozzo's 4 Spades pre-empt with a 4 Spades overcall, on 4 to two top Honours, sometime in the 1960's. That's an overbid.

Seriously, when I learned to play bridge in the early 1970's, overbidding was everywhere. Precision had just become famous, and everyone was opening ratty 10 and 11 counts because C.C.Wei's Precision team did it.

Since then overbidding has declined in the bridge company I keep, and so has underbidding. Of course, it is not the same company: the quality has increased substantially, and the bidding has generally become more accurate. Less overbidding, and less underbidding, because the bidding is simply better.


Do multiple Eternal Thirst give a creature multiple copies of the same triggered ability?

You'll get two counters. Each copy of Eternal Thirst grants the creature an independent triggered ability. The two abilities happen to be the same, but there are still two of them. They'll both trigger, both go on the stack (separately!), and each will add one counter as it resolves.


Every position has both positional ("theory") aspects and tactical aspects.

Positional aspects would include the various imbalances in the position:  pawn structure, space, center control, knights-vs-bishops, and pretty much anything else that would generally fall under the category "theory".

Tactical aspects are just what they sound like:  tactics.  I move here, he moves here, and in 4 moves I win his bishop.

A positional game is one that is primarily dominated by positional aspects.  Of course, every game has aspects of both, but in positional games the theory is much more pronounced.  I hear the term "positional game" especially often in conjunction with a closed center - a game in which pawns occupy the center, so attacks have to be mounted on the flanks (sides of the board), usually with pawns rather than pieces.  These games tend to be slower and less intense; it is not uncommon for a player to spend half-a-dozen moves or more moving his knight to its optimal position before pushing a pawn one square.  Because of this, many players consider positional/closed-center games boring.

"Positional game" may also refer to a game where an early endgame was reached, causing most of the game to be dominated by endgame theory.

Tactical games, on the other hand, are dominated by tactics.  For example, see the Fried Liver Attack or the Danish Gambit, which always lead to very tactical games.


Why does Wizards of the Coast print terrible MTG cards?

I already posted a link to Maro's article, but here's his summary:

By definition, some bad cards have to exist. (The most important reason.)
Some cards are “bad” because they aren’t meant for you.
Some cards are “bad” because they’re designed for a less advanced player.
Some cards are “bad” because the right deck for them doesn’t exist yet.
“Bad” cards reward the more skilled player.
Some players enjoy discovering good “bad” cards.
Some “bad” cards are simply R&D goofing up.

I agree with his "most important reason" very strongly.  If all cards were created equal or almost-equal, then skill-intensive deckbuilding formats such as draft would come down to the luck of the draw, rather than card-analysis skills, a lot more often than they should.


Please help identifying board game similar to Mouse Trap

I found here on board game geek a reference to Flying Finnegan.

It was a circus game like mouse trap.


Does Harvey Walters' ability to reduce Sanity loss by 1 break the game?

Page 4 on Arkham Horror FAQ from the Fantasy Flight website:

  Q: Does the Strong Mind ability (reduce all Sanity loss
  by 1) of the professor, Harvey Walters, apply to the casting of spells?

  A: No. The professor’s ability works on losses, not costs.
  The same distinction applies to the gangster, Michael
  McGlen, and his ability to reduce Stamina losses.


What is the fastest MTG Mill deck that can be made?

Opening hand:

Leyline of the Void
Helm of Obedience
2 Dark Rituals
1 Swamp

Turn 1:
Start with Leyline of the Void on the battlefield. Play a Swamp, then a Dark Ritual. Use one black mana to play another Dark Ritual. You will now have BBBBB in your pool. Play the Helm of Obedience and activate it for 1 mana. Your opponent's entire deck will be milled out because none of the cards ever goes to the graveyard.

Had someone use this against me in MTGO once and it took me a minute to work out how it had happened. Takes some serious luck to get this going on Turn 1, but if you can pull it off, it's definitely fun.


How does Underrealm Lich interact with Sidisi when drawing multiple cards?

You get 3 Zombie tokens.

Each card draw is processed separately from the others:

  120.6b If an effect replaces a draw within a sequence of card draws, the replacement effect is completed before resuming the sequence.

As you already noted, you can only draw one card at a time:

  120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that player performs that many individual card draws.

The draw replacement effect ultimately causes you to move cards from your library to your graveyard ("move" for brevity). Since you can only draw one card at a time, and the replacement effects works on each draw individually in sequence, you also move 2 cards at a time, and Sidisi triggers on each of those moves.

Since the card draw is the event that, together with Lich's replacement effect, ultimately triggers Sidisi's ability, consider an analogous situation: Underworld Dreams triggers on each card draw. If you were to draw 3 cards, you would get 3 separate damage events, as the ruling on that card's gatherer page confirms. Therefore, any ability that is triggered by a replacement effect that replaced a card draw would react the same way.


Take away a single unstarred order token from your set. Which one depends on how much handicap you think is needed. A huge handicap would be to remove a march token. A big handicap is to remove a support token or a defense token. A significant handicap would be to remove a consolidate power or raid token.

If you find those handicaps too hard on you, you can also try playing without an order token for a few turns (say, 3-5 turns) and then getting them back. Or, maybe, play the first 3 turns without a march token, then 1 turn without each one of the remaining tokens, then with all of them. This will make the game much harder to you, but then you'll not need to feel bad about doing your best against your opponents.

Something I do when I'm teaching the game is, for the first 3 rounds, play my orders facing up and explain the strategy. This shows players some possibilities they did not understand they could do and open their minds to new tactics. You can't do that for too long though, specially in games with more than 4 players.


Can I use Lucky Cigarette Case to avoid activating Dark Pact?

No.

Its effect only applies to tests (where you test one of your Investigator's five skills).

It does not apply to checks like the Dark Pact condition has (or any other check where you roll a dice without reference to a specific skill).


My friend put wild color card. It was my turn after her. Can I put another wild color card?

According to this website, the rules for Wild cards state (emphasis mine):

  This card represents all four colors, and can be placed on any card. The player has to state which color it will represent for the next player. It can be played regardless of whether another card is available.

So yes, a player may place a Wild on the pile in response to a Wild.  However, if the card is a Wild +4, that player must have no cards of the color declared by the previous player, and may be challenged.


What kind of action is selling cargo and contraband to a solid contact?

Turns out we ruled correctly.

  Deal Actions

  If your Firefly is in a Contact’s Sector,
  you may Deal with that Contact. You
  may look at 3 and accept up to 2 Jobs
  from their Contact Deck.

  If you are Solid with that Contact, you
  may also sell Cargo and Contraband
  to them as part of your Deal Action.
  (see rules for Reputation on pg 15 for
  details on getting Solid with Contacts).


Status of non-top mutated creature cards

The cards are considered only 1 creature; 1 permanent. The cards on the bottom do not exist in any meaningful sense as their own thing. They are not objects in the game; so nothing could target them. A bottom card has no types, no name, no mana cost, nothing; so it would not interact in any way with the legend rule.

From the Ikoria mechanics article:

  As a mutating creature spell resolves, instead of entering the battlefield, it merges with its target into one creature.

Emphasis mine. The new spell with mutate, if cast for its mutate cost, never actually enters the battlefield.

  You'll end up with a pile of cards (or tokens—we'll get to that in a second) that all represents a single creature. That creature will have all the characteristics of the top card, and it will also have the abilities of every card underneath.

So there is only a single creature. The only text on the non-top card that has any meaning is the abilities that it grants to this single creature.


Promised future trades as part of legal trades? (Solution described, alternatives/comments requested)

While I used to play with futures trading, I now explicitly prohibit it for the following reasons:

Problematic/ambiguous mechanics
Consider this case: I trade you a brick and a future wood for your wheat.

Later, you attempt to cash in the future trade, but I claim to have no wood.  Unless it's obvious that I'm lying, there's no great way to determine whether that's true or not.  Good sportsmanship will solve this problem, but it's easier if the rules avoid situations that breed mistrust.

Alternately, I have no wood, but do have four sheep that I could trade in.  Can you force me to trade those in for wood to settle the debt I owe you?  (Exacerbated by situations such as, I have ten sheep and a sheep port.)  If I trade the sheep for wood in the process of building something, do you have to be ready to jump in and call in the trade mid-building?

Can I trade away debts, a sort've negative commodity, as I would any other amount of resources?

Are you allowed to try and call in the debt after every card I steal from someone with the robber?  I might have the desired resource, but this can also give you an otherwise unavailable insight into what card I stole.
Onerous bookkeeping
Tracking outstanding debts can be an unpleasant process with no natural mechanism outside of keeping a ledger.  This problem is doubled because for every debt both parties will want to track it to have an accurate assessment of their resources.
Damage to gameplay
The most serious problem with future trades in my experience is that it makes trading too open-ended.  In regular Settlers, there are times when you simply don't have the resources to build everything you want, no matter how much you want to.  You accept it, and continue playing.  With future trades, suddenly there's no limit to what you can offer.  Players go on and on proposing ever more intricate trades so that they can get that great coup this turn.

Veteran players are less susceptible to this than novices, but even they will occasionally fall into gameplay-halting spirals of ever-higher futures offers.


Would Bonds of Mortality overrule a creature equipped with Darksteel Plate?

This is covered by the section of the rules titled "Interaction of Continuous Effects".[CR 613]
In short, whenever the game needs information about an object, determine it's current state by starting with the initial characteristics of the object and applying the continuous effects in order of layer. Effects in the same layer (effects that do similar things) are applied in timestamp order (from oldest to newest).
The two effects in question are both applied in the same layer.

613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding effects, ability-removing effects, and effects that say an object can't have an ability are applied.

As such, they are applied in timestamp order.

613.2. Within layers 1-6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer. (See rule 613.7.)

The effect created by Darksteel Plate was created first, so it's applied first, then the effect created by Bonds of Mortality is applied second. This means that the creature is "destructible" until the effect from Bonds of Mortality expires at end of turn.
If the creature were to become equipped with Darksteel Plate after Bonds of Mortality resolves, the effect created by Darksteel Plate would have the later timestamp, and it would have Indestructible.

613.6b A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it's created.
613.6d An Aura, Equipment, or Fortification receives a new timestamp at the time it becomes attached to an object or player.


1) As stated by the rules, the "re-roll" ability may be only applied to the player using it. http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1043001/players-reroll-abilities

2) When you re-roll the dice you completely ignore any previous beneficial results from the re-rolled die. But you may use these 2 tokens received from the "success" die to re-roll the "wound" or "card" die. http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1098036/do-you-get-keep-determination-tokens-if-you-reroll


Can Rhonas the Indomitable attack if I pump Voltaic Brawler?

You can't get Rhonas attacking that way, unfortunately. This is because of how we handle declaring attackers:

We enter the Declare Attackers step.
You choose attackers. They're declared attackers simultaneously. (At this point, Voltaic Brawler can attack, but Rhonas cannot.)
The active player receives priority, and in the process of them receiving it, triggered abilities go on the stack, including Voltaic Brawler's.
You get the opportunity to choose to pump Voltaic Brawler with +1/+1.

At this point, declaring attackers is done. You can't declare new ones. It's too late.

This would be different if you used Rhonas's activated ability before combat to get a 5/2 Voltaic Brawler before declaring attackers. (That's exactly what it's there for: to benefit your strategy and help Rhonas attack. Every Amonkhet god has an activated ability that moves you closer to them being able to attack and block.)


This game isn't finished.  Black's group shouldn't be able to die, so Black will have some territory, but the area between the white and black walls hasn't been decided yet, so the players need to keep playing.  Also, a black invasion in the lower right is likely to succeed, so that area isn't white territory either.


Where can I find a list of cooperative "beat the game" games?

BoardGameGeek's advanced search can be used to find a large list of co-op games. You can then sort or filter this list in several helpful ways. This form is a little bit daunting, but powerful. From the "Board Game Mechanic" list, select "Co-operative play". You will probably also want to check the "Filter Expansions" box and, if you are interested in widely available games, a minimum rating and minimum number of user ratings such as 200. (Here is a direct link which will perform that query for you.) You might want to sort the results by Geek Rating, which penalizes games that have fewer ratings, or by Average Rating, which does not.


Can Aminatou, the Fateshifter target herself with her -1 ability?

Aminatou, the Fateshifter cannot target herself with her -1 ability, because her ability says "another target permanent", which means she can target any permanent you own except for herself.

  −1: Exile another target permanent you own, then return it to the battlefield under your control.


Yes, you can pay the kicker costs for the each copy if you want the extra tokens.

Some cards copy spells on the stack directly. You cannot choose to pay kicker for those spells, the choice and additional costs are copied from the original.

In this case, however, the whole card is copied, and you may cast it as a new spell without paying its mana cost. In that case, you are free to decide whether or not to pay the kicker costs, which are additional costs and have nothing to do with the spell's mana costs:

  702.32a Kicker is a static ability that functions while the spell with kicker is on the stack. “Kicker [cost]” means “You may pay an additional [cost] as you cast this spell.” Paying a spell’s kicker cost(s) follows the rules for paying additional costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h.

Note that you may also pay the kicker costs for the original Rite, but that would be a waste of mana, because the original is exiled and does not resolve. Neither paying nor not paying the kicker on the original Rite has any effect on the copies.


In Matchpoints, is it worth risking a ruff to try for an overtrick in the following situation?

Was this hand posted on July 5, the thirtieth anniversary of Barry Crane's death. Fifth of his eleven commandments is

  Sevens are singletons.

I lead low to the Club Ace at trick three and repeat the Spade finesse at trick four. Assuming it wins I then cash the Spade Ace at trick 5 and if all have followed to the second round of Spades claim making 5, conceding two diamonds only.

The heart trick is a red herring, as even if the play wins it doesn't provide any additional tricks or any additional entries.

Many partnerships will be playing Jacoby transfers to make North declarer, so we may be facing an unusual defence. I must protect that by playing to take the eleventh trick. No-one will be missing game, so making is at best average.


In Elder Sign how does removing a monster via a card effect work?

Coincidentally ti me asking, Elder Sign Omens just came out, and i was able to find out how some of these rules function in the digital version of the game.

As a disclaimer Omen rules are not identical in some ways to the paper board game. This particularly applies to when spell cards are used.

  Can either item/spell be used mid-adventure?

Yes they can be used at any roll

  When the monster is removed, does it reveal the task underneath that
  now must be completed?

The task below a defeated monster does not have to be completed

  When using the flute, does defeating the monster count as a success
  and allow a re-roll without assigning any dice nor losing a die
  (normal success)?

No the monster is removed outside of die rolling.  You must still place dice on one of the tasks, or resolve a failure.


Is it valid to exploit infinite loopholes in Magic: The Gathering?

I am not aware such a rule ever existed - infinity combos have been around from the very beginning of MTG.

What you are probably referring to is this: if there is a (potential) infinite loop that does not change the game state, then this loop may only be performed once, if the involved players have a choice about it. Since your opponent clearly changed the game state (after each loop, he has more life than before), he may perform the loop as often as he wants. See the rule and an example below.

Under the current rules, all this is covered in this section:

  Taking Shortcuts

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

  721.1a The rules for taking shortcuts are largely informal. As long as each player in the game understands the intent of each other player, any shortcut system they use is acceptable.

  721.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a “loop”). In that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them, and how the loop is broken.

  721.1c Tournaments use a modified version of the rules governing shortcuts and loops. These rules are covered in the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules (found at WPN.Wizards.com/en/resources/rules-documents). Whenever the Tournament Rules contradict these rules during a tournament, the Tournament Rules take precedence.

  721.2. Taking a shortcut follows the following procedure.

  721.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.

  721.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or shorten it by naming a place where they will make a game choice that’s different than what’s been proposed. (The player doesn’t need to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence.

  721.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that player.

  721.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.
  721.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw. (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)

  721.5. No player can be forced to perform an action that would end a loop other than actions called for by objects involved in the loop.
  Example: A player controls Seal of Cleansing, an enchantment that reads, “Sacrifice Seal of Cleansing: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.” A mandatory loop that involves an artifact begins. The player is not forced to sacrifice Seal of Cleansing to destroy the artifact and end the loop.

  721.6. If a loop contains an effect that says “[A] unless [B],” where [A] and [B] are each actions, no player can be forced to perform [B] to break the loop. If no player chooses to perform [B], the loop will continue as though [A] were mandatory.

As a general answer to your "loopholes" remark:

I would take a radical stance and say "There are no loopholes in M:TG". Players are not required to guess the intention of the game designers, they are only required to follow the rules of the game. If the rules allow something like the "white Ball Lightning", something which was clearly not the intention in the design of Waylay, then there's nothing a judge could do about it. If the game designers consider something a loop hole, then the only things they can do is to give the card an erratum, restrict its tournament legality, or change the rules. Until either happens, players have free reign, and it's purely a question of sportsmanship and/or house rules.


Brigette Supporter: Does Pokemon GX considered EX?

In Pokémon, new game mechanics are introduced from time to time, but this does not mean that they need to interact or be somehow backward-compatible. For most of the time, they are separate.

Pokémon-GX is a different card to Pokémon-EX cards and thus you can find up to 3 Basic Pokémon including Pokémon-GX cards with Brigette.


In short, yes.

A trap like BTH is of speed 2, and a counter-trap like Solemn Strike is of speed 3. Both of these can be chained to the summoning of a monster. Quick play spells only reach a speed of 2, so regardless of the spell/monster effect used to achieve these Fusion/Ritual summons, both regular, continuous, and counter trap cards can be legally used in response.

As for your question on resolution, it wouldn't matter. Solemn strike negates the summon, so essentially, the card used to summon resolves, and then Solemn Strike prevents the monster from ever actually hitting the field. This is an attractive effect to a lot of players against certain decks because this prevents effects that happen when monsters are summoned, since the spell spell resolves, but the summoning does not.


If you want to find an archive of a lost web page, the first place you should always check is the Wayback Machine. Simply copy the URL you are looking for into the search bar, and you can see all of the copies they have by date. Here is their most recent snapshot of that page.


Multiple Lathliss, Dragon Queen - multiple Dragon tokens?

You'll get two Dragon tokens.

Lathliss, Dragon Queen's ability is a triggered ability; each card's ability goes on the stack separately and will resolve separately. It doesn't really matter that they're identical cards; they're different permanents.


When should you avoid a third bean field in Bohnanza?

I would never, ever buy the third bean field in Bohnanza except as a last resort (and yes, I win at least my fair share of games and consider myself a good player).  Look at the final scoring margins of your games: is the winner usually ahead by half a dozen points or more?  In my experience, this is not the case, it's usually much closer than that, and as such, those 3 coins you spent on a third bean field could be the difference between first place and a much less auspicious final position.

Of course, the question really is, does a third field usually pay for itself, or not?  Obviously it can pay for itself.  But shrewd bargaining, good timing, and paying attention to what cards have been cashed in for gold do too, and I think working hard at improving those skills is way more important than getting a third field at the earliest opportunity.  The third field makes the game feel a lot easier - once you have one, you will very rarely be at risk of losing a crop before you have a chance to make some gold out of it.  In my experience that leads to complacency and complacency leads to less profitable bean farming!

In short, either you regularly find yourself with not enough fields to make money with, or you don't.  If you don't, you don't need a third bean field.  If you do, I feel like you could probably benefit from tightening up your game a little - the bean field is an easy but expensive way out of your problems.  In one of Uwe Rosenberg's other fine games, At The Gates of Loyang, there's the option to increase the size of your storage barn for a small cost, at which point you can keep 4 vegetables from one turn to the next instead of 1.  And I feel that it's a trap in that game too: if you are regularly producing more vegetables than you can use, you're doing something wrong.  Unless you've exhausted all the other possibilities for fixing your supply/demand imbalance, you want to be VERY wary of spending your valuable coins!


Infinite loop where where both players choose to continue the loop

First, let's make it clear that the game doesn't force a draw.

  104.4b [...] Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw.

Let's also make it clear that the two players are individually doing something acceptable:

  716.5. No player can be forced to perform an action that would end a loop other than actions called for by objects involved in the loop.

It's their combined actions that create a weird scenario, and boy it's a weird one. The closest rules for resolving this are:

  716.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.

And from the Infraction Procedure Guide (used in tournaments with a REL above regular),

  It is also slow play if a player continues to execute a loop without being able to provide an exact number of iterations and the expected resulting game state.

In a casual setting, you should mutually accept a draw.

In a competitive setting, I think you'd be at the mercy of a judge. Neither of those is a rules is a perfect match, so a judge should probably do nothing at all, but they're close enough that he might decide to meddle (invoking either or both of those rules).

The latter rule was applied to a deck with Emrakul that self-milled. This of course, is a different situation, since both players are involved in extending the game.

The first rule is close enough that it might be enforced. The game state after the second graveyard shuffle is not 100% identical to the game state after the first graveyard shuffle because Chronatog's opponent has a different hand, but a judge might rule that it is close enough to enact 716.3, forcing you to stop Chronatog's opponent from discarding Emrakul. I doubt it, though.

Wizard's Rules Q&A forum has many judges, including one capable of giving official answers (Natedogg).


Is there a card that cancels the Legendary Rule?

The card you are looking for is Mirror Gallery, which is an artifact with the text

  The "legend rule" doesn't apply.

In addition, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and Sakashima the Impostor become copies of other creatures, but they keep their own names, so they can copy other legendary creatures without dying due to the legend rule.


How long does it take to play Elder Sign?

Boardgamesgeek suggests it takes 120 minutes.

I don't know where your "one hour figure" comes from, whether it's written on the box or not, but I'd definitely tend to take the word of the diehard gamers at BGG over the word of the manufacturers, every time!


After some play-testing with friends, the complexity was intimidating, and so we settled on these rules:

  The last card is dealt face up, and it is the point suit.

  There is no trump suit.

  You cannot lead with a point suit until a point suited card has been discarded.

  When a point suit is led, any other card can trump it.

The results were interesting: Once players caught on to the game, they would discard points often rather than hording them, hoping their partners can pick them back up.  Teamwork seemed more vital in this variation than any trick taking game I've played.

It turned out that having a both trump suit AND an anti-trump suit was an unnecessary complication. The goal was to acquire point-cards which could be trumped by any card, and so having a trump suit felt superfluous.

Alternatively, we played the following variation:

  The trump suit is the last card dealt, the point suit is the other
  suit of the same color as the trump suit.

  The point suit cannot be led until a point suited card has been
  discarded.

  The point suit is a normal suit, and is not trumped by  any suit
  except the Trump suit.

This variation worked well, and it satisfied my requirement that the game make use of the fact that there are four suits but only two colors.

However the first variation in this answer seemed more fun.  I'm not sure why.


Can a player redirect his attack if the defending player concedes?

No, they cannot change who they are attacking. Once a creature has been declared as an attacker you cannot change who (or what) it is attacking.

Say instead of attacking Player B directly you attack their Planeswalker, but before damage gets dealt they Boomerang the Planeswalker back to their hand. You would not be able to redirect your creatures attack to that player, they would just end up ineffectually attacking the air. It is the same thing when a player concedes, your attackers are still going attacking the one player even if they leave the game before the creatures deal damage.

There is also this rule that implies you can still have creatures attacking a player that is no longer in the game.

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


Do pre constructed decks refresh standard rotation?

Theros (Theros, Born of the Gods, and Journey into Nyx) is the previous block; the current block is Khans of Tarkir block (Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and the as-yet-unreleased Dragons of Tarkir).  Both blocks are currently in Standard.  Under the current rules (which are changing next year), Standard always contains two blocks, and the older one leaves Standard when the next block is released.  Thus, unless they are reprinted in a newer expansion or Magic 2016, all Theros block cards will leave Standard when the next block starts in late September (or possible early October) of 2015.


How do cards that generate restricted mana work with Kruphix and Omnath?

It's still the same mana —it simply changes/loses/gains color— so the restrictions remain.

From Kruphix's Gather rulings:

  4/26/2014 If unused mana in your mana pool has any restrictions or riders associated with it (for example, if it was produced by Cavern of Souls), those restrictions or riders will remain associated with that mana when it becomes colorless.

From Omnath's rulings:

  3/1/2010  If a green mana you add to your mana pool has certain restrictions or riders associated with it (for example, if it was produced by Ancient Ziggurat), they’ll apply to that mana no matter when you spend it.


Looking for uber-accessible game formats for Android: Netrunner

I was waiting to see if anyone would add anything more substantial, but - realistically - the answer to this is either: a) embrace the complexity and stop worrying about pleasing everyone, or b) choose a different game.  One of Netrunner's primary strengths is in the synergy between the cards and in the personal choices taken during deck building, which you are amputating in the name of simplicity.

What I would recommend:

1) For the first few sessions, only allow decks built upon the core set.

2) As soon as your group is familiar with the rules, they will know if they are invested in the game - or not.  If they are, then you've already got them hooked.  At this point, I would open the card pool to all available cards.  The nice thing about the LCG format is that there are no real "win more" cards, but just different strategies to win.  Some of the most powerful cards in the game are core.

It isn't a game where having all the cards == winning.  In fact, the last tournament I went to, a friend of mine - playing with just core cards and A Study in Static - ended up doing better than I did with access to all the available cards!

What opening the card pool also allows is for people to start seeing new cards that might resonate with them.  Before my first tournament, I didn't get why Jackson Howard was a big deal.  After my first tournament, it was very obvious. When encountering such a card, a new player can then pick that specific pack to add to their collection.  There is no real need to buy everything.  Plus, if the less dedicated people want to start participating in tournaments, removing the card restriction handicap will make your sessions substantially more realistic in terms of what to expect.

But again, I stress: core decks may be less efficient than a custom build based upon all available cards, but they can still be winnable.  As long as everyone is having fun, I would not worry too much about trying to balance everything perfectly.

In order to promote creativity, I would recommend incorporating a Netrunner Achievements thing (maybe with a prize).  See this link: Netrunner Achievements

The other option is, after you have done the core set matches, try drafting?  That is a bit more expensive but would make for some interesting games.


The rarity of some sets cannot be determined only using the cards themselves. Early in Magic's history, it was intended to be part of the "experience" to let the market determine what was rare, and to let rares be surprises.

Over time, it became clear that players wanted more feedback, and the rarity was added to the card.

Your only hope now is to use an external resource. The canonical resource for all cards is the gatherer at http://gatherer.wizards.com which you can use to filter by individual cards, sets, rarity levels, and so forth. Keep in mind that searching for a card at a given rarity might yield strange results if that card was later released at a different rarity.


Under the Floating variant, if you are floating and you draw a Skip, you must use it and the round is not over.

Source:

  If no-one else can lay down a hittable Phase in that turn, only another player playing a Skip or the floater drawing a Skip will keep the hand going.

If you are not using the Floating variant then no matter how you empty your hand, you Go Out and the round ends.


Can you combine the Ring and the Revolver to attack?

No. You can use the Ring or the Revolver, but not both.

The Ring reads:

  If you attack an opponent that has a Sanity trait, you can attack with Sanity instead of Might.

The Revolver reads:

  You can use the Revolver to attack with Speed instead of Might. [...]

If you use the Ring, you are attacking with Sanity (not Might), so you can't use the Revolver.

If you use the Revolver, you are attacking with Speed (not Might), so you can't use the Ring.

In practical terms, one can attack an opponent's mind using the Ring, or one can shoot an opponent's brains out using the Revolver, but one can't attack someone's mind with a bullet, and one can't blow someone's brains out without something physical.

  They [...] claimed that they could use the Ring to roll for Sanity instead of Speed while still using the +1 bonus from the Revolver

That's outright incorrect. The Revolver's bonus dice applies specifically to Speed attacks.

  Roll 1 additional die on your Speed attack roll


When drawing Destination Tickets, can you discard any Destination Tickets or only those you just drew?

The cards you discard/return must be from the three you drew this turn.

Here's how the rules phrase it:

  The player draws 3 Destination Tickets from the top of the deck. He must keep at least one of them, but he may
  keep two or all three if he chooses. Any returned cards are placed on the bottom of the deck.

It's not so much that you "discard" destination tickets, but rather that you draw 3 and keep from 1 to 3 new destinations.  This means that any destinations you were already holding are totally unaffected - you're stuck with 'em.


No, it can't destroy Warbot, but that's because it can't destroy minions in general. It can only destroy actions attached to a minion, and Warbot doesn't prevent that.

Poison affects Warbot as any other minion because Warbot's ability has no effect on Poison's ability.

Poison doesn't destroy minions.
Warbot's ability doesn't prevent actions from being played.
Warbot's ability doesn't prevent actions attached to the Warbot from being destroyed.
Warbot's ability doesn't prevent the Warbot's power from being reduced.


Casting Emry, Lurker of the Loch with Gilded Goose & food tokens

Yes, you can cast Emry this way.
As you are casting a spell, you have an opportunity after you calculate the final cost but before you pay the cost to activate mana abilities. If you activate the Gilded Goose's last ability at that time, then the Food token gets factored in to the calculation of Emry's cost and you get the mana from sacrificing it to spend on the cost to cast Emry.
In the rules section about casting spells, the final few steps of casting a spell are as follows:

601.2f The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions. If multiple cost reductions apply, the player may apply them in any order. If the mana component of the total cost is reduced to nothing by cost reduction effects, it is considered to be {0}. It can’t be reduced to less than {0}. Once the total cost is determined, any effects that directly affect the total cost are applied. Then the resulting total cost becomes “locked in.” If effects would change the total cost after this time, they have no effect.

601.2g If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, “Mana Abilities”). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.
Example: You cast Altar’s Reap, which costs {1}{B} and has an additional cost of sacrificing a creature. You sacrifice Thunderscape Familiar, whose effect makes your black spells cost {1} less to cast. Because a spell’s total cost is “locked in” before payments are actually made, you pay {B}, not {1}{B}, even though you’re sacrificing the Familiar.


Ways to handicap in Magic the Gathering?

My friend and I have used the following and we think they work pretty well.

Start with a lower life total.  Start yourself off at 10 or 15.  As the kids get better, slowly increase it until you are back at 20.
Remind the kids about all their triggers or abilities they should be using.  Especially when learning, having someone remind you to activate a useful ability at the end of an opponent's turn or that a trigger with a "may" in it has happened is quite helpful in learning how to keep track of a lot of things at once.
Use simpler decks.  When teaching someone, introduce only a few concepts / interactions at once.  Starting with green fatty vs. white weenie lets someone learn the basics of a turn and how combat works without (usually) too many tricks via instants, etc.  Once they have a pretty good grasp on that, introduce something else.  Work your way up to the more complex things so as not to overwhelm them.
Stack their deck a little.  We will occasionally "fix" a child's deck when they aren't getting lands or creatures or something.  We don't mind because we aren't looking to win, we are looking to teach and practice.
Don't play as aggressively as you normally do.  When I play against my friend, it is no holds barred, all out play.  Against his kids, I might "forget" to use an ability or play a spell that would save a creature.  Not always, because they do need to learn how to deal with those things, just not every time.
Give the child a stronger deck.  Fighting an uphill battle gives you a little bit of a challenge.  You need to use your experience to overcome the power difference.


what does "you control enchanted creature" mean

It creates a continuous effect that changes the controller of the enchanted creature to you. As long as the continuous effect exists (i.e. as long as the creature is enchanted by Corrupted Conscience), and only as long as the continuous effect exists, you will be the creature's controller. As its controller, you can activate its abilities, you can sacrifice it, you can attack with it, you can block with it, and any reference to "you" or "your" in its abilities refers to you.

Note that changing a permanent's controller doesn't cause it to change zone, so it doesn't trigger abilities that would trigger on it leaving or entering the battlefield, it doesn't lose attached permanents (be they Auras, Equipment, or Fortifications), it doesn't lose counters, etc. However, it does regain "summoning sickness" (since it stopped being "under its controller's control continuously since their most recent turn began").

Note that Humble Defector's ability also creates a change of control effect. The most recently created change of control effect that still exists wins out, so using a stolen Humble Defector's ability will cause you to lose control of it. See this for details.


What happens if you use a Clone Effect on a Double Faced Card that's Transformed?

If an effect tries to copy a double-faced permanent, it sees whichever side is face-up.
There's actually an example in the comprehensive rules that covers this sort of scenario:

711.3. Except for determining whether or not a permanent can transform, a spell, ability, effect, or rule that needs information about a double-faced permanent sees only the information given by the face that's currently up.
Example: A Clone enters the battlefield as a copy of Wildblood Pack (the back face of a double-faced card). The Clone will be a copy of the Wildblood Pack. Because the Clone is itself not a double-faced card, it can't transform.

Whenever a clone-style effect tries to copy a permanent, it copies the copiable values of that permanent. In the case of a double-faced permanent (that isn't already a copy of something else), those values are whatever is printed on the face that is currently showing.
Note, however, that if a permanent can only transform if it's actually represented by a double-faced card. If you create a copy of Ludevic's Test Subject before it transforms, you can add as many counters as you want, but it will never become Ludevic's Abomination.

701.25a Only permanents represented by double-faced cards can transform. (See rule 711, “Double-Faced Cards.”) If a spell or ability instructs a player to transform any permanent that isn‘t represented by a double-faced card, nothing happens.


Rui Naiwei has won the Guksu (the 43rd open Guksu title in South Korea, 1999) and the Maxim Cup (2004).
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rui_Naiwei
As for comparitive rankings, this article from 2016 may be of interest to you.

AlphaGo’s win makes it the only non-male player in the top 75 world rankings. Yu, the first woman, is number 79, as of Friday.

It also includes this insight:

Most matches are divided by gender, so women at the top of the game don’t get to play at a level that seriously stretches their abilities.


Can anyone identify this labrynth/marble maze?

It looks like an older variant of the game "Labarynth".  The modern ones, made by Brio, look like this: https://www.brio.us/products/by-age/6-years-and-up/labyrinth.

The goal is to get a marble from the start (on your board, one of the corners) to the end (on your board, the crown in the middle) without it falling in any of the holes, purely by manipulating the knobs on the sides.  The knobs tilt the board on the horizontal and vertical axes, causing the marble to roll in the direction of the tilt.  If the marble falls into a hole, there should be a spot on the side of the board where it will come out so that you can start over.

Brio did at some point make a round variant, whose pattern is closer to what you have:


Will Exquisite Blood trigger even if the life loss eliminates the player

Player #3 will gain 100 life.

The fact that #8 is no longer in the game has no effect on Exquisite Blood's triggered ability. All of its effect was put on the stack when #8 lost 100 life. It does not require #8 to be in play when it resolves, because it does not check for any current information about that player. Even if it did, rule 800.4g would take effect:

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

Only effects that require a target are affected if that target is no longer legal or does not exist anymore; they would be countered in that case.


If a card with a pull has an effect that boots the character, do they boot only if successful?

I believe you are correct that the character is only booted if the pull is successful.

Per the rulebook page 29, under 'Spells':

  If the skill check equals or exceeds the spell's difficulty, the spell succeeds and you use that ability. Otherwise, the spell fails and nothing happens.


War of The Ring (SPI, 1977) In a three player game, can two players actually win at the same time?

Subsection W.2 of the rules gives the procedure for Saruman to gain control of Nazgul.  Halfway through the first paragraph it says:

... If Saruman loses the Ring, the Nazgul that he controls remain with him. ...

Saruman's victory condition requires that he control all surviving Nazgul.  If he does that and subsequently loses the ring, then he would retain control of the Nazgul he had captured.  Therefore, if he also held Isengard, Helm's Deep, and Edoras he would fulfil his victory condition, even if the Fellowship player managed to destroy the ring.  Note that in this unlikely scenario, Saruman himself would be dead, since section M.1 provides (emphasis original):

A Ringbearer may never voluntarily surrender the Ring.  The only way a different Character can become the Ringbearer is if the first Ringbearer is killed.

This restriction is reaffirmed for the three-player game in subsection X.2.
Note, however, that if all of the Nazgul were destroyed, then Saruman could fulfil this part of the victory condition without ever having possessed the Ring, and could therefore be alive for a shared victory.  That is, it appears to be possible for Saruman to ally with the Fellowship player and play explicitly for a joint victory.
The only remaining question is whether it's possible to have these events happen simultaneously without the game ending first.  Section U gives the victory conditions for the Campaign Game, but it is vague about when those military victory conditions are checked (for ring victory conditions, Section U references the Character Game victory conditions in section O, which state that the Fellowship ring victory condition is checked at the beginning of the Ring Phase). Section O does state in its preamble (outside of any subsection) that in the Character Game, the game ends immediately when a victory condition is met, but since section U references subsections O.1 and O.2, but not section O in its entirety, it's unclear whether that provision applies in the Campaign Game (the three-player option is only available in the Campaign Game).  Section Z, which gives the modified victory conditions for the three-player game, does not clarify this matter.
In summary, a joint Fellowship-Saruman victory appears to be possible, provided that satisfying military victory conditions does not end the game immediately.  The fact that the rule writers explicitly called out the possibility of a joint victory suggests, albeit indirectly, that this is the intended interpretation.


YES
You must draw right away.
Page 6 of the Rulebook:

Common terms used on the Action cards:
"+X Card(s)" – the player immediately draws X number of cards from his
Deck. If there are not enough cards in his Deck, he draws as many as he
can, shuffles the Discard pile to form a new Deck, and then draws the
rest. If he still does not have enough cards left after forming a new Deck,
he just draws as many as he can.

You must immediately draw the cards. You cannot wait to draw the cards after you have performed the other phases of your turn, or perform other actions on the card after the "+X Cards" line before drawing the cards.
Also note your specific example is clarified in the rules on page 7 (emphasis mine):

Spy – Spy causes all players, including the one who played it, to
reveal the top card of their Deck. Note that you draw your card
for playing Spy before any cards are revealed. Anyone who does
not have any cards left in their Deck shuffles in order to have
something to reveal. Anyone who still has no cards to reveal
doesn't reveal one. If players care about the order in which
things happen for this, you do yourself first, then each other
player in turn order. Revealed cards that aren't discarded are
returned to the top of their players' Decks.


Is it not popular to play with old standard decks?

Card Kingdom has a YouTube series called Gauntlet of Greatness - Historical Standard where they pit the all-time great standard decks against each other. It's not exactly what you're talking about since they are copies from actual decks at the time, which are catered towards their own standard meta-game, not the meta-game of the historical standard format. But even so, the power-level and cost of some of these decks are pretty comparable to those in Modern. The problems with the concept as an actual format are many:

Rock-paper-scissors. A standard format is designed so that if something is intended to be powerful there are answers built into the format. If they let X be powerful, then it's okay because Y exists. Well, if you get to play with X deck in historical, other decks will simply not have access to Y. Compare this to other eternal formats where including X also includes Y into the format. There will be many lopsided matchups because certain standard periods simply don't have the tools to beat decks from other standard periods.
Clarifying legality. Standard rotates multiple times per year and each standard-banning essentially splits a format as well, giving potentially hundreds of legal time periods to choose from. Then the format itself will likely need a banned and restricted list as well, but which periods do they apply to? All periods containing that card? Only periods where that card is problematic in the greater format? You're basically creating a list of hundreds of card pools to choose from, as opposed to just one like every other format, and that will be an absolute pain to deal with. I can't see this being done in paper.
Card availability. Cards from older sets will be incredibly hard to come by. Some are powerhouses in eternal formats and are very expensive. Some of them might even be on the reserved list. Others might have been ignored when they were current or after their rotation, but suddenly become sought-after due to this format and are impossible to get a hold of.


How do Light Foot attack and defend in Chainmail?

Looking at the Combat Tables (p.40 of the 3rd edition) I would say:

A. They cannot attack. Light Foot already have only a 1/6 chance to kill any enemy troop type; anything worse would be below the resolution of the system. A generous referee might allow them to kill other Light Foot on a 6.

B. Add 1/6 to the "to be killed" chance. So Heavy Foot attacking Light Foot normally kill on a 5-6; attacking Fatigued Light Foot they'd kill them a 4-6.


What´s the reasoning for carry and equip items in Munchkin?

You equip items so you can get their benefits.

But there are restrictions to what you can equip. You can't equip items for which you don't have the required free body slots (e.g. hand). You can't equip items for which you don't meet race and class requirements. You can't equip "use only once" items.

You keep items you can't equip in your hand to protect them from traps and thieves, and to hide what they are from other players.

But there are limits to one's hand size.

You carry items you can't equip and won't fit in your hand to avoid having to discard them, or worse, having to give them to another player through the charity rule.

Note that you might hold back from equipping an item in your hand if you think you might lose it (e.g. to a thief, especially one at level 1), but there's virtually no reason not to equip something you can equip if you're currently carrying it.


What are the differences between the various versions of Stratego?

I can't speak definitively for all versions, but I can give you some information.

"Classic" Stratego is played with 40 pieces per side on a 10x10 board. There was a misprint in an early version that claimed Scouts could not move more than one space and attack in the same turn, so this is sometimes incorrectly cited as a difference between editions. There are also some differences in numbering among different versions; sometimes the highest rank is 1, in other cases it is 10.

As of early 2012, Spin Master Games has 3 different versions available. The 50th Anniversary Collectors' Edition has the original rules, theme (Napoleonic) and piece distribution, with some variant pieces available optionally. They also released a 50th Anniversary version that's a Toys R Us exclusive, which has the classic rules and theme, but no variant pieces. The third version is simply titled Stratego, and has a Sci-Fi theme, 30 pieces per side on a 10x8 board, and one of the pieces has a special ability to destroy an adjacent piece of any rank if it can correctly guess its rank.

Some retailers have some special edition exclusives, like Barnes & Noble's Onyx Edition and Target's wooden box and bookcase editions. These are generally the classic version.

Several other sets have had pieces with special abilities over the years, including (but not limited to) Stratego revised (sometimes called Fire & Ice), Civil War Stratego, Stratego Legends (which also supports up to 8 players) and Lord of the Rings Stratego. Most of these give most of the pieces powers, not just one as with the current version. (There's also Ultimate Stratego, which adds 4 player options, but I do not believe this version adds special powers to any pieces.) My understanding is that most of the rethemed versions have changed gameplay at least somewhat.

Of the variant rulesets, I have only played the LOTR version, and I will say that special powers do change the game significantly. In LOTR, the piece powers are asymmetrical, and I found them to be unbalanced. It also minimized the role bluffing plays and made the game more about getting the pieces with useful powers into the right positions - which could be a good or a bad thing. (I personally didn't like this change; it's also my main objection with some of the Stratego-inspired games I've played like Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation.) The piece distribution and board size was the same as classic in that version, so I can't say how the change in numbers impacts gameplay, though the consensus on BoardGameGeek seems to be that the smaller board doesn't change the feel of the game. The two rows that are lost are horizontal relative to the players, which means it shouldn't impact the way the armies interact. (If this is true, any of the special power sets should be acceptable, since you can always apply the classic ruleset to them.)


What is scored for bidding and making 3 Clubs Doubled?

The score varies by game variant:

Playing Rubber Bridge:

Above the line - Insult: 50
Below the line - Trick Score of: 120 as 3 * 40

The trick score for the deal equals or exceeds 100, so a game has been bid and made. If this game is the second by the same partnership of the rubber, an additional Rubber Bonus of either 500 or 700 would be scored above the line.

Presumably the disagreement inciting the question is to do with how to score the points earned as doubled - i.e. the trick score above points as 120 - 60. The Rules of Rubber Bridge state clearly:

  Law 72 - Points Earned

  The result of each deal played is recorded in points,
  which fall into two classes:

  A. Trick Points: Only declarer’s side can earn trick
  points and only by fulfilling the contract. Only the
  value of tricks named in the contract may be scored
  as trick points (see Law 81). ....

  Law 81 - Scoring Table

  TRICK SCORE

  Scored below the line by declarer’s side, if contract
  is fulfilled:

  For each Trick over six, bid and made ... Doubled [in Clubs]: 40

  ....

  PREMIUM SCORE

  Scored above the line by declarer’s side

  For winning the rubber, if opponents have won no game 700

  For winning the rubber, if opponents have won one game 500

  ...

  For making any doubled contract: 50

  ...

Further down it makes clear that the slam bonuses are scored only for contracts where 12 tricks (small slam) or 13 tricks (grand slam) have been both bid and made.

There are no further premium points scored as there were no overtricks made.

Playing Duplicate or Chicago

(The latter sometimes also termed Four Deal or Party Bridge scoring.)

Not Vulnerable: 470 as 300 (game bonus) + 120 (trick score as above) + 50 (insult as above)
Vulnerable:  670 as 500 (game bonus) + 120 (trick score as above) + 50 (insult as above)

There is a variant of Chicago scoring that makes use of above- and below-line scoring, but that is of no consequence on a hand where game is bid and made (ie trick score >= 100), as here.


Should I trash Copper or Silver with Mine?

I'm going to have to disagree with Pat; I hate having Copper in my deck, and rather have a consistent deck of Silvers.  Yes, it's nice if you get Gold - Copper - Copper in your hand, but Silver - Silver - Copper will buy the same amount.  Once you start running out of Coppers (or if you only have a Silver in your hand along with the mine), then you can start upgrading to Golds.

It's kind of hard to answer this question in vacuum, because there are so many different possibilities that could make one answer better than the other; for example:

If you're running an early Moneylender, upgrade the Silver to Gold, and use Moneylender on the Coppers to really ramp up.
If someone is playing multiple Thiefs, I may not even bother with the Mine.  Or if I do get a mine, I'll upgrade Copper to Silver since losing a Silver isn't as bad as losing a Gold.


Can Band of Misfits be played as a reaction card?

No, you can't play it as a reaction card. Only cards labeled "Reaction" on the bottom can be played as reactions. Band of Misfits just says Action, so it may only be played during your turn.

When you do play it during your turn, if Moat is in the supply, you can certainly play it as a Moat, to get +2 Cards. But it doesn't copy another card until you actually play it, and you can't play it except as an action during your own turn, so you can't use it to get the protection from attack that Moat offers. When someone else plays an attack card, you have no opportunity to play an action card, so you can't play Band of Misfits then.


Can the Planeswalker type be removed from permanents?

306.4. If a player controls two or more planeswalkers that share a planeswalker type, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "planeswalker uniqueness rule."

If you somehow remove or alter the planeswalker type of a planeswalker (Jace, Nissa etc are the types), you can play another Planeswalker with the same name yes.

In your example, the use of Song of the Dryads makes one of your Planeswalkers a Forest (it loses its types Planeswalker and [Name], and it gets the types Land and Forest). However, it also loses its abilities. I can't think of cards right know that just remove a type of a Planeswalker.

If it were to keep its loyalty abilities, it could use them just fine. The only restrictions for activating a loyalty abilities over the standard restrictions for activating abilities (costs, targets) is that only one of an object's loyalty abilities can be activated each turn.


How many trucks can line up in one dock outside a speakeasy?

Well, I'm going to risk making the obvious answer.  There is nothing in the rules which limits the number of trucks allowed in each dock... probably because there is no limit to the number of trucks allowed in each dock.

Looking at this example paragraph in the rulebook (p11):

  b. If the demand has not been fulfilled, the Speakeasy must continue
  buying Crates from the Truck(s) at the Minority Dock, again paying the
  Wholesale Purchase Price to the Crate supplier.  The Trucks are lined
  up in Muscle card order, so Mobsters with higher Muscle cards are more
  likely to sell their Crates.  Any Crates in excess of demand go unsold
  and are lost.

Truck(s) clearly implies that there can be multiple trucks at the Minority
Dock.  All the stuff about lining trucks up in Muscle card order suggests to
me, albeit more vaguely, that there can be quite a few trucks there.  If there were only 2 trucks allowed at the Minority Dock, you'd expect some kind of phrasing such as "the Mobster with more Muscle cards", rather than "Mobsters with higher Muscle cards", wouldn't you?


What card game is popular today, fun for kids, and is a worthy investment at a reasonable cost to my wallet?

Collectible Card Games (CCG) wax and wane in popularity....

For example, both Pokemon an Yu-Gi-Oh! cards were extremely popular over a decade ago. There are still sales of these cards and older cards sell well, but both games have shrunk considerably.

The exception:
Magic: The Gathering which has had pretty solid sales, organized play, and card values over the course of the last 2 decades. If there are game shops within your area, chances are very high that they sell both new cards (decks and booster packs) as well as buying and reselling cards. There will also likely be organized tournaments and play events at these shops as well.

The Catch

Magic (and CCGs in general) can be described as money pits and aptly so. The pre-built decks you can buy work, but not nearly so well as building a deck using rares and uncommons found in booster packs to fight a specific strategy (or to counter one). They have yearly or quarterly expansions which drive players to continually buy new cards as well. Magic card values also have the usual collectable game catch-22 where they are only worth something if you never play with or even physically touch them which makes collecting for value something of an adult hobby vs. for your son.

The Solution

In recent years there has been a huge trend in Living Card Games (LCG). LCGs work on the same basic principle of deck vs. battles as CCGs except they completely do away with boosters and have a growth and expense rate of expansions for a boardgame. Two very popular and very well reviewed LCGs are The Lord of The Rings LCG and Android: Netrunner LCG.

Android: Netrunner LCG is a 2 player game Cyberpunk dueling deck game with 1 player taking the role of the Corporation (there are different ones, as different decks) trying to complete agendas and make money who is taken on by the other player playing the Hacker (again, different faction decks to choose from) who is seeking to hack into the corporation and expose agendas for money or for fame.

The Lord of the Rings LCG is a cooperative game where players take the role of different heroes from the Fellowship as the travel through Middle-Earth. Players work together to deal with enemies and dangers as they are dealt out. Everyone wins and loses together.


Upgrade is quite strong by itself for two reasons:

You can use it to trash 0-cost cards that you no longer want in your deck (coppers and curses). Trashing curses is obvious, but regarding copper: do not underestimate the power of having a really small deck!
You can use it to turn your Estates into Silver (always a good choice) or, even better, into a highly contested 3-cost card in a 3 or 4 player game (think Village in a pool where it is the only action-gaining card).

These reasons are enough for Upgrade to be something you want to have in your deck, and not only in one copy. There are also, in my experience, two factors stemming from the kingdom card pool that "modify" Upgrade's usefulness:

If the pool is very strongly combo-oriented (lots of cards with +actions and +cards plus cards with +gold and/or +buy), Upgrade may be too slow. For example, in a pool with Festival/Smithy/Village/Nobles/Throne Room I don't think you 'd have the time to do enough with Upgrade before combos start exploding left and right.
If the pool has no +buy actions, Upgrade is stronger. It's the only way you will have to gain a second card in your turn. In this case, lots of Upgrades (3-4) can serve to turn your initial turn buys (2-4 cost) to 5-6 cost cards.

And finally, don't forget that if you have too many Upgrades you can always use one to turn another into a Gold.


When rolling Mr Monopoly do I move to Auction to a property

The latter (you move to the next property which has cheaper rent.). It's not the next "place" in the rule, it's the next property .

From The Rules

  If you roll a Mr. Monopoly after all of the properties are
  owned, make a normal move according to the white
  dice, then move ahead to the first property on which you
  need to pay rent

(emphasis added)


Do you acquire Evolution cards simultaneously when Attacking, and when can you use them?

In the absence of any published clarifications from the publisher or game designer, I think the rules for any game should be taken as literally as possible, unless doing so "breaks" the game and there is a more reasonable way to interpret them.

Naturally, should all players agree to a modification of the rules prior to the start of the game and it isn't some sort of "tournament" play, then the agreed on house rules will supersede the normal rules.  It is your gaming groups luxury to play how you wish.

So let's take a look at the turn order from King of Tokyo rules:

Rolling and rerolling the dice
Resolving the dice
Buying cards (optional)
End of your turn.

From the King of Tokyo Power Up! rules (emphasis added):

  If a monster ends his rolls with at least 3{Heart}, he draws the top Evolution of his
  deck

So this all hinges on when the rolls end. For me, rolls are clearly performed in stage 1, and the rolls would end before stage 2 starts.  As such, this is where the rules indicate you should draw the evolution card.

The following question was raised in the comments:

  "2. Resolving the Dice - The symbols you get at the end of your rolling step are the actions for this turn." You don't get the benefit of any die faces until you resolve the dice in the 2nd step, why would evolutions be different.

This is fallacious reasoning.  Nowhere in the rules does it say that "you don't get the benefit of any die faces until you resolve the dice in the 2nd step." It simply says that the symbols are your actions and the actions are resolved in stage 2.  A player doesn't take the rolls into the resolution stage, they take the symbols (and the actions they indicate) into the resolution stage.

Drawing the evolution card is not an "action" as defined by the rules nor is it coupled to performing actions. Evidence that the drawing of the evolution card is decoupled from actions can be found directly in the Power Up! rules:

  The hearts do not need to to be used to regain life, and a player can even use the hearts
  to draw an Evolution when in Tokyo. The card does not replace healing, the card is in addition to any healing that would normally occur.

What I take from the above rule:

You can draw the card whether or not you can make use of the healing action.  Said another way, even when in Tokyo where the {Heart} symbols would otherwise provide no action.
You can draw the card whether or not you choose to make use of the healing action.
The drawing of the card does not replace the healing action.

In summary, drawing the evolution card has nothing at all to do with the healing action itself.

Moving on to if you can play the evolution card on the same turn, this is what the rules say:

  Monsters keep their evolutions secret until they want to play them – which can be at any time.

There is no mention of not being able to play the card the turn you draw it, so when they say anytime, you should be able to play it immediately if you choose.

Based on this reasoning, in respect to your specific questions, here is how they should be interpreted:

King of Tokyo: you can play anytime (for instance before you resolve the dice roll).  But to get the effect, you would need to play it before your opponent yields, but not after he/she does.  Once they yield Tokyo, you now control it so playing the card afterward won't provide the effect this turn.
Alpha Male: if you play it and attack this turn, it will provide the effect this turn.
Chest Thumping: yes, you can use it to force your opponent to yield Tokyo.  You would need to use this when you attack (there is no point if your opponent has already yielded).
Jungle Tokyo: you could play it this turn if you did attack and didn't take control of Tokyo.

Edit: Addressing the point made by user1873 regarding Gigazaur's Gamma Breath/Saurian Adaptability.

Prior to this, I was representing (at the very least in my own head) the evolution draw as somewhat of an added stage in the turn (say 1.5).  I haven't sat down with the rules and all the cards to try to figure out every nuance, but it would have been more clear and accurate to say the draw take place in stage 1, following the rolls but before stage 1 ends.

The ability to modify the results of the final roll indicates the game creators have already allowed for game play to take place in stage 1 after the final roll but before stage 1 ends.  So I would take this as stage 1 doesn't end until stage 2 starts (i.e. the player moves on to start resolving his actions).

This allows for Gamma Breath to function (ignoring whether it is on the same turn played or in future turns).  If stage 1 were to end with the final physical dice roll, there we be no way to use this mutation within the rules as pointed out by user1873.

This also then allows for the evolution card draw as well as being able to play evolution cards at this time.


Can I use Westvale Abbey in a Commander deck that does not use black?

No, you cannot. Westvale Abbey's color identity is Black.

903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).
903.4c The back face of a double-faced card (see rule 711) is included when determining a card’s color identity. This is an exception to rule 711.4a.

And the definition of color indicator:

204.1. The color indicator is printed to the left of the type line directly below the illustration. It consists of a circular symbol filled in with one or more colors. A color indicator is usually found on nonland cards without a mana cost.
204.2. An object with a color indicator is each color denoted by that color indicator.


Can you add a wild card to a completed book?

According to Pagat.com:

  A meld cannot contain more than seven cards, and a partnership is not allowed to have two incomplete melds of the same rank, but if you complete a pile, you can then start another meld of the same rank.

So not only can you not add a wild card, you cannot add any card. You'll need to attach it to another meld in progress, or make a new one.


There's always a card on the discard pile. Even when you reshuffle, you have to leave the top card of the former DISCARD pile as the start of the new DISCARD pile. (That is: you always have a card there showing what needs to be matched.)

Even if all the other cards are in players' hands, that card is still there. At this point, players can pass, but they draw nothing for doing so. Eventually someone will play.

If no one wants to play for whatever reason, then call it a draw: there's no point to playing when no one playing wants to play.


My friends and I have taught a bunch of different people how to play bridge, and we've developed a system over the years. It basically boils down to: go slowly. Don't overwhelm them with information.

The first time that I play with them, I tell them nothing more than the rules. No conventions, no HCPs, no nothing. Just the literal rules as required.

We play a few hands, perhaps even a full evening of cards like this, as you see fit, and based on how well they take it. Basically, just ask them to pay attention. Did they do well? What worked? What didn't?

Next time, or perhaps later that session, we introduce HCPs. Nothing more than that, and noting that there are 40 HCPs in a deck, so if they think that they and their partner have more than half, then they probably have the stronger hand and should be bidding a bit more.

I can't remember what we would add next (I think 5 car majors? open with 12--14pts? 8 cards is a fit? Conventions like that. Basic ones.)

As I said, start basic. Let them get a feel for the game before even thinking of overwhelming them.

To respond to one of your ideas, I think staged hands would be weird, personally. However, we never tried it, so I don't know how it would work. Still, it seems like staging a hand forces them to be aware of too many things all at once. Let them figure out finesses after they have been playing a while, not the first time you sit down with them.


Is the combat move and the conduct combat phase always necessary to execute?

You can opt not to move units in the combat move phase. However, you have to declare all your combat movement and carry it to resolution before doing non-combat stuff. So you can't, say, non-combat-move reinforcements out of Moscow into Karelia and then declare an attack using eastern troops against something Japanese.

It's tempting to want to deal with the stuff you find "most important" first to get it out of the way, but your combat stuff is the most important stuff.  :) So look at all your troops and determine all your attacks first. THEN, if you don't have any combat moves you want to make, move to the next phase of the turn.


If the Double Spawn card is drawn for the last Spawn Zone
  or building Zone, use it for an extra double Spawn on the first
  Spawn Zone or first building Zone (even if you previously
  spawned Zombies in it!).

"Extra" means "added to an existing or usual amount or number", so two more cards.


Is Heritage Druid's ability limited by summoning sickness?

According to gatherer it is not impacted by summoning sickness since it doesn't have the tap symbol.

  Since Heritage Druid’s activated ability doesn’t have a tap symbol in its cost, you can tap creatures that haven’t been under your control since your most recent turn began (including Heritage Druid itself) to pay the cost.


Does drawing multiple cards count individually?

120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that player performs that many individual card draws.

So Brainstorm causes three card draws, and three triggers of Teferi's emblem, so you get to exile three permanents. Neat!


Settlers Of Catan - discarding cards when rolling 7

The best way to do is simultaneous. While discarding, all the players keep all the cards aside face down. When everyone is done with this then the cards go to bank and are revealed to other players. I have seen this in action on the online version of Settlers of Catan on www.playcatan.com hence I think this is how it should be done.


Does depressurising The Nest kill the eggs?

You cannot target the Nest with the Airlock Control Room
(I don't have the rules on me so I can't give an exact reference, will add one shortly)
Depressuring with the Airlock Control can only target Yellow Rooms.
The Nest is not a yellow room (it doesn't have a color, as it can't be searched for any color of item)
Therefore, you cannot target the Nest with the Airlock Control Room

Edit:
Nemesis Rulebook, pg 25:

Rules Text (Emphasis mine):

Start Emergency Airlock procedure:
Choose any 1 other Yellow Room. The Corridors connected to
the Room you choose must not contain any Destroyed Doors ... Yellow Room means a Room with a yellow background on the Action part


What to do in long games with players who are way behind?

When playing games that are supposed to eliminate some of the players and then speed up, you can always play as teams.

In my group games with that kind of mechanic do not work, we are simply either too competitive or too strategic to come to an entertaining experience for everyone.

This lead us to play in teams so that if one 'player' loses there are always two people that can start playing something else to be entertained while the rest sort out what happens next.

You can play in teams in two ways.

The first way is a strict team. Two people per avatar army or whatever else represents a player in a game. In games that take a long time to play because of strategy or because of a dominance mechanic, this works out because it lessens the amount of players and it gives you a chance to collaborate and play in a style that you may not normally play.

In our group we have players that are volatile and risky and players that are very reserved. Usually when we make teams we put one reserved and one volatile together. It leads to very interesting game play.

The second way to play teams is to play a cooperative version of a game. That is to say each 'player' on a team gets his own avatar/army whatever represents a player in a game, and for all intents and purposes, they must win together.

This leads to very interesting play also because you must choose sometimes to forget about your own ambitions and do something to help your struggling teammate to get to a better place in the game.

We frequently play that this alliance is only skin deep however. When there is only one 'team' left (2 players), it becomes a rather quick game of 'back stab your brother' to see who ultimately wins.

This is my favorite kind of 'team' play because you are going to help your 'teammate' but only enough that once you two have eliminated the competition you can still compete with one another. It gives you a reason to play with another player but only enough motivation to keep them from losing, not outright ensure they prosper.

With this mechanic added to a game you need to add some simple rules:

As long as you and your team mate are not the only players in the game, you may not take actions against one another. That is to say you can't fight each other or otherwise do things that would detriment the other player unless the only action you can take is to do so.
If a single member of an opposing team is eliminated, the other member of the team is eliminated also.

I do admit that this leads to a fair amount of people who cede once they are on the remaining team, but that is OK because there is still a clear winner and everyone got to play together.

Your mileage may very but we have had lots of fun playing this way.