How to calculate the probability to get all cards of Exodia, the Forbidden One by drawing them from my Deck during the Draw phase?

The above picture reflects the probability of drawing the full set of Exodia, dependent on the number of cards drawn overall. For example, there is a 0.000152% chance the player will draw Exodia in their opening hand, and a 87.5% chance they will draw it after seeing 39 cards out of their 40 card deck. If all 40 cards are drawn, there is a 100% chance the 5 Exodia cards will be drawn.

The Statistical Theory presented in the Question is best reflected as a Hypergeometric Distribution. Applied to this problem, the variables in questions are:

Variables

N = number of items in the population = number of cards in the deck = 40
k: The number of items in the population that are classified as successes. = number of Exodia Cards in the deck = 5
n: The number of items in the  sample = Variable through experimentation
x: The number of items in the sample that are classified as successes. = Number of Exodia Cards that must be drawn = 5

Narrative

There are 5 Exodia cards (k) in a deck of 40 cards (N). If the player draws all 5 Cards (x), the player wins the game. The interest of the Question is the probability of drawing all 5 cards via only the Draw Phase. The player will see five cards in the initial hand, and an additional card per turn from the draw phase, negating any external effects. From that, over the course of the game, the player will see 5 + number of turns cards in the game (x).

Equation

h(x; N, n, k) = [ kCx ] [ N-kCn-x ] / [ NCn ]
where [aCb] = a(a - 1)(a - 2) ... (a - b + 1)/b! = a! / b!(a - b)!

By applying the Known Variables above, the player can learn the probability they will draw the complete Exodia Set, dependent on how many cards they draw overall. In this, n ranges from 5 to 40.

Since doing a tedious calculation 36 times is tiresome, computational power is a treat. The Combination formula, [aCb], is available in Microsoft Excel. Setting up a worksheet, using the equations as in this chart:

Will support the evaluation of each step in the card drawing process, providing the resultant probability:


Do "flat" hands devalue a 4-4 trump fit?

Two separate questions:

Should N have bid 3NT straight off the bat? In my opinion, yes, at any form of scoring, for the reasons you mentioned, and also to conceal information about N and S's shape from West (think about how much easier the lead is after a Stayman auction than after 1NT - 3NT).
Given that N initiated a Stayman sequence, should S have developed a sufficient picture of N's hand to figure out that 3NT was the best spot anyway? No. From the auction, as far as S knows, N could have any number of spades between 0 and 3. (Experienced partnerships will probably have a way to show spade shortness here, by way of showing long minors, but doing this on middling hands that are likely to wind up in 3NT anyway is again a mistake, giving too much information to West.) Even if S could know that N has 3 spades, he still knows that N chose to initiate a Stayman sequence and should respect N's opinion that N's hand has ruffing values. (S has no information about shape that N doesn't have.)


What does it mean to "control target player"?

If you control another player, you essentially are that player for purposes of gameplay. You make all gameplay decisions for that player and can see all in-game cards that the controlled player could see. Basically, imagine playing against yourself with your opponent's deck for the duration of the control change.

Because of effects that allow a player to control another player, the game rules make a distinction between the physical person playing the game and its invisible, in-game avatar called "player".

The distinction is that the in-game player can only make decisions called for by the game rules or game objects. Conceding the game, actions called for or forbidden by the Tournament Rules, and anything unrelated to the game concern only the physical player, and are therefore out of the scope of "controlling a player" effects.

While you control an opponent, there are still 2 players in the game, and each player individually has to adhere to the game rules. For example, that means every player has to pay costs for their own spells and abilities with their own resources; if player A controls e.g. Ashnod's Altar, A can't sacrifice player B's creatures for its ability just because A currently controls B; creatures controlled by B still can't attack B, and so on.

The correct answer to this question must quote the rather lengthy section 715 of the Comprehensive Rules in its entirety:

  Controlling Another Player

  715.1. Some cards allow a player to control another player during that player’s next turn. This effect applies to the next turn that the affected player actually takes. The affected player is controlled during the entire turn; the effect doesn’t end until the beginning of the next turn.

  715.1a Multiple player-controlling effects that affect the same player overwrite each other. The last one to be created is the one that works.

  715.1b If a turn is skipped, any pending player-controlling effects wait until the player who would be affected actually takes a turn.

  715.2. One card (Word of Command) allows a player to control another player for a limited duration.

  715.3. Only control of the player changes. All objects are controlled by their normal controllers. A player who’s being controlled during their turn is still the active player.

  715.4. If information about an object in the game would be visible to the player being controlled, it’s visible to both that player and the controller of the player. If information about cards outside the game would be visible to the player being controlled, it’s visible only to that player, not the controller of the player.
  Example: The controller of a player can see that player’s hand and the face of any face-down creatures they control.

  715.5. While controlling another player, a player makes all choices and decisions the controlled player is allowed to make or is told to make by the rules or by any objects. This includes choices and decisions about what to play, and choices and decisions called for by spells and abilities.
  Example: The controller of another player decides which spells that player casts and what those spells target, and makes any required decisions when those spells resolve.
  Example: The controller of another player decides which of that player’s creatures attack, which player or planeswalker each one attacks, what the damage assignment order of the creatures that block them is (if any of the attacking creatures are blocked by multiple creatures), and how those attacking creatures assign their combat damage.

  715.5a The controller of another player can use only that player’s resources (cards, mana, and so on) to pay costs for that player.
  Example: If the controller of a player decides that the controlled player will cast a spell with an additional cost of discarding cards, the cards are discarded from the controlled player’s hand.

  715.5b The controller of another player can’t make choices or decisions for that player that aren’t called for by the rules or by any objects. The controller also can’t make any choices or decisions for the player that would be called for by the tournament rules.
  Example: The player who’s being controlled still decides if they will leave to visit the restroom, trade a card to someone else, agree to an intentional draw, or call a judge about an error or infraction.

  715.6. The controller of another player can’t make that player concede. A player may concede the game at any time, even if they are controlled by another player. See rule 104.3a.

  715.7. The effect that gives control of a player to another player may restrict the actions the controlled player is allowed to take or specify actions that the controlled player must take.

  715.8. A player who controls another player also continues to make their own choices and decisions.

  715.9. A player may gain control of themselves. That player will make their own decisions and choices as normal.


Would Brink of Disaster destroy an already tapped permanent?

It's all in the rulings:

  3/1/2010  Brink of Disaster may target and may enchant a permanent
  that's already tapped. It won't do anything until the enchanted
  permanent changes from being untapped to being tapped.

  3/1/2010  When the enchanted permanent becomes tapped, Brink of
  Disaster's ability triggers. That permanent will be destroyed when the
  ability resolves, even if Brink of Disaster has left the battlefield
  or is somehow enchanting a different permanent by then.

  3/1/2010  If the enchanted permanent is tapped as a cost to activate a
  mana ability, the mana ability resolves immediately, then Brink of
  Disaster's ability goes on the stack.

  3/1/2010  If the enchanted permanent is tapped as a cost to activate
  an ability that's not a mana ability, Brink of Disaster's ability will
  go on the stack on top of that activated ability. Brink of Disaster's
  ability resolves first (destroying that permanent), then the
  permanent's activated ability resolves.

These rulings are all clarifications that follow from the card's own rules text:

"When X, do Y" is a triggered ability, meaning that the action will go on the stack after the triggering event occurs. If you tapped something to use its non-mana activated ability (like Steel Overseer's), then the effect is still on the stack when Brink's trigger goes on the stack -- on top of it.
The trigger text is "becomes tapped". It doesn't care about the current state of the permanent, only when a specific action occurs.


When does my new family member occupy a new room?

According to the rulebook (pg 9):

  After Family Growth, also 1 Minor Improvement (Stage 2): A player may only use this Family growth space if he has more empty
  rooms than Family members. It is irrelevant how the family has grown
  before and whether the Family members are on the game board or in the
  farmyard.

Since you had four family members and four rooms, you couldn't have done your second Family Growth action, even though the new family member had not returned home yet to "claim the room".


What happens if you give Defiant Bloodlord Lifelink? Infinite Health/Damage?

This does not work as an infinite combo because "damage" is not the same as "loss of life". Lifelink only happens when damage is dealt, and Defiant Bloodlord doesn't damage an opponent when you gain life.

See the question here for a very similar combo that does work like you're thinking:

Is Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood a potential game ender?

Because Exquisite Blood triggers whenever an opponent loses life, as opposed to Lifelink which has to do with damage dealt, it will cause a loop of triggers until your opponent loses the game. (Defiant Bloodlord could be used instead of Sanguine Bond in that combo).

The official rules on Lifelink:

  702.15b Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes).

So Lifelink just changes the results of damage; it does not trigger on life being lost.


They do stack, but only if you get the right cards on top of your library.

Into the Wilds has a triggered ability. At the beginning of your upkeep, four triggered abilities (one for each copy of Into the Wilds) are put on the stack, and we resolve then one at at time.

So if the first trigger resolving reveals a land card and you put it into play, then the next trigger will reveal a new card. But if it doesn't reveals a land card, then next ones will just reveal the same card again.

So they stack only so far as they keep revealing lands. As soon as one reveal a non land card, the remaining ones are just redundant (unless of course you somehow change the top card or your library before the next trigger resolves. There are a lot of cards that would allow you to do that).


What is a good way to store multiple expansions of Dominion?

I got a 3,000 card box from the local gaming store and then printed off a cardstock set of tab dividers from Board Game Geek (I use the Sumpfork tabs). All cards go alphabetically instead of by set, except for the cards common to all games. Prizes are stored with Tournament, because that's the only scenario in which you would need them.

To simplify setup of Victory/Curse cards, I change the direction of the cards. For Victory cards, the first 8 face forward and the second 4 face backwards so I can easily separate out the cards not needed for a 2 player game. I do the same with Curses: 10 forward, next 10 backwards, final 10 forwards. Estates get complicated; I do 8 forward, 4 back, then 4 sets of 3 alternating forward and back (for starting hands). I could do alternating sets of 7 Coppers as well, but I haven't gotten around to it.


I lost my boomdagger enhanced by "…of doom". If I get it back, is it still enhanced?

I don't have a rules citation for you, but I've always played - in this game and every similar case I can think of - that cards that enter a pile (like the discard pile) are no longer attached or otherwise related to each other. I think this is standard if for no other reason than it would be annoying to keep track of relationships between cards in a pile. So if you have a way of retrieving your dagger from the discard pile, prior attachments would not come back with it.


Arsonist vs Hedge Tavern in Rivals for Catan

I think they key phrases to consider here are:

  Choose 1 of your opponent's buildings adjacent to a settlement/city. He must place it under a draw stack of his choice

--From the instructions on the Arsonist action card.

and

  In each Theme Set, there are expansion cards that must be accessible to both players. Separate these cards and place them as a face-up expansion card stack next to the draw stacks. These cards are never part of your hand.

--From page 14 of the rule booklet.

Two of these could point to an exception - the arsonist sends a building to a draw stack - and the face up expansion card stack is next to the draw stacks - implying that this stack is perhaps not defined as a draw stack itself; also most cards explicitly state that a destroyed or discarded card is placed under a matching draw stack, where the Arsonist simply says one of his choice.

If we look at the rules explaining how the Fraternal Feud event card is resolved, we see:

  ... you either place them both at the bottom of the same stack or at the bottom of 2 different stacks. All your opponent knows is under which draw stack(s) you placed the cards.

--From page 20 of the rule booklet.

There can be a tactical advantage to deciding which draw stack a discarded card goes under, even in the basic version of the game where there are no expansion card or theme set draw stacks to choose: a small stack may allow a player to get that card again soon (or if there's an empty stack, the player who's turn it is may be able to return the card to their hand at the end of their turn) and a large stack will guarantee that the discarded card remains out of play for a longer period of time.

The Arsonist gives the choice of the stack to the victim. This limits the power of the card by not allowing the active player to effectively "steal" a card from her opponent's principality and add it to their hand. Or at least, not without some cooperation, or exceptionally few cards remaining in the stacks.

Of course, the Hedge Tavern is one of the face-up expansion cards, and as such it "must be accessible to both players." This is further ensured by limiting principalities to only having one at a time - so the other would be accessible to the other player.

Also, whenever there are possible implicit inconsistencies in a rule set, the best practice is to rule in favour of the mandated rule, rather than the implied one. Of the phrases highlighted above, only "never part of your hand" is mandated by its wording. If the Hedge Tavern were placed under one of the theme set draw stacks, this would enable it to appear in a player's hand later in the game.

It seems clear that:

The game designers did not intend the Hedge Tavern to end up in a player's hand.
The game designers intended the Hedge Tavern to always be available to both players when playing it's Theme Set - never permanently destroyed as an option, nor held hostage by the other player.

Ergo: There's not a lot of room on that bottom line on the card. Most likely they left out the word "matching" as it wouldn't fit and seemed somewhat redundant by the time you're playing the second theme. If the Arsonist is played, and the Hedge Tavern is destroyed, it returns to the face-up Expansion Card stack.


In 1980, I had a job at a toy store in Columbia, MD that sold boardgames and RPGs, among many toys.  This store, Patowmack Toys, had a branch in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor Mall.  The name, I believe was "The Play is the Thing".  Neither store offered in-store play.

I don't recall any stores in Baltimore at that time offering in-store play.  Baltimore was a bit off my normal roaming ground, but I think I would have made an effort had I heard about such a store.


Why are Elo ratings for go higher than for chess?

There is no ELO rating in go. And even no official international rating at all. A common question in go forums is "how does my rating in [whatever country or online server] compare with [other country or online server]".

The European Go Federation is maintaining an international rating system where Ke Jie is rated 2956.

goratings.org is an individual initiative by Remi Coulom. It has become popular because it gave journalists a way to assign a World ranking to Fan Hui, but this is not an official rating system.

Bottom line is your answer 3, there is some arbitrary difference in the way the approach is applied to go and chess.


Proper use of stations, only as connecters/extenders or in place of built track?

The rules on stations are a bit complex. But there is nothing in the rules that either:

prohibit the use of two or more stations in a single route.
force the route to have at least one section without a station.

But since each unused station gives 4 points to the end score. And short routes don't give that much points. It is probably only wise to do, if the sections with stations are used with other routes.

  Building a train station
  A Train Station allows its owner to use one,
  and only one, of the routes belonging to  another  player,  into  (or
  out  of)  that  city  to  help  him  connect  the  cities  on  his
  Destination Tickets.

So you can use stations to borrow a route from another player. Each station borrows only a single route.

  Stations may be built on any unoccupied city,
  even if it currently has no claimed routes into it.

This is a bit vague, but later on, it implies, you can build a station on an unoccupied city and in the end chose one of the routes (taken by another player) to claim.

  Two players may never build a Station in the same city. Each player may build a maximum of one Station per turn, and three Stations through- out the
  course of the game.

(Skipped part on using cards to pay for stations)

  If a player uses the same Station to help connect cities
  on several different Tickets, he must use the same route into the city
  with the Station for all of those Tickets. The Train Station owner
  does not need to decide which route he will use until the end of the
  game.

So it can be an advantage to claim a city using a station to avoid a later clogged bottleneck. Which also implies only one station can be build on a single route. (It does not solve the situation in which two players each claim a different city on the same route...).

  A player is never required to build any Stations. For each
  Station a player has not used, four points are added to his score at
  the end of the game.


Why do creatures go back to a previous controller instead of their owner?

A change-of-control effect is a continuous effect (like a buf), not a one-shot effect (like a damage-dealing effect or moving a object)[CR 611.1, 610.1]. This allows the change of control to be temporary (e.g. Act of Treason).
Creating a continuous effect that changes the control of an object doesn't cause a similar existing effect to cease to exist. The effect of the existing effect is merely suppressed[CR 613.1, 613.1b, 613.2]. The older effect will reassert itself if-and-when the newer effect expires[1].
Effects that change text, set power and/or toughness, change types, change color and/or modify abilities work the same way. (For example, the continuous effect created by Turn to Frog does most of those.)

There are three ways a continuous effect can expire:

A continuous effect created by the resolution of a spell or ability expires when the specified duration has lapsed, if such a duration (e.g. "until end of turn") was specified[CR 611.2a].

A continuous effect created by the resolution of a spell or ability expires when the specified condition is no longer true, if such a condition was specified using "for as long as ..."[CR 611.2b].

A continuous effect created by the static ability of an object expires when the object ceases to exist (i.e. changes zone)[CR 611.3b].

610.1. A one-shot effect does something just once and doesn’t have a duration. Examples include dealing damage, destroying a permanent, creating a token, and moving an object from one zone to another.
611.1. A continuous effect modifies characteristics of objects, modifies control of objects, or affects players or the rules of the game, for a fixed or indefinite period.
611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it (such as “until end of turn”). If no duration is stated, it lasts until the end of the game.
611.2b Some continuous effects generated by the resolution of a spell or ability have durations worded “for as long as . . . .” [...]
611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.
613.1. The values of an object’s characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:
613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
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.)


Can boars go inside the cave in Caverna?

The rules state explicitly that Wild Boars are Farm animals on page 6:

  Each animal is worth 1 Gold point. There are Dogs, and the Farm animals Sheep, Donkeys, Wild boars, and Cattle.

As you can see, Dogs are not included in the set of Farm animals. There is no inconsistency.

Wild Boars are indeed differentiated several times from other Farm animals within the rules, but this is just because they have special rules that apply to them as opposed to Sheep, Donkeys, and Cattle. They are still Farm animals.


It sounds as though you have misunderstood how playing train cards to claim routes works.
On your turn, you can either draw train cards, draw destination tickets, or "claim a route". A "route" is the spaces between any 2 adjacent cities; routes are from 1 to 6 trains long. You can claim any route that is still available if you have the correct train cards to pay for it; you don't have to have a matching destination ticket or anything like that.
Importantly, you can only claim 1 route at a time, so for example you would not be able to claim Los Angeles to New York on a single turn, even if you have that destination ticket and enough train cards in your hand to play all of those trains. Instead, a single turn would be for example playing 2 green cards to claim New York to Pittsburgh, and then scoring 2 points because that's what a 2-length route is worth.
So in your example, someone with 8 train cars will always have a route they can claim. Even if they can't finish their destination ticket with only 8 trains, they can still play those trains on the board for points, 1 route at a time.
From the rules:

The object of the game is to score the highest number of total points. Points can be scored by:

Claiming a Route between two adjacent cities on the map;

A player may claim any open route on the board. He is never required to connect to any of his previously played routes. A player may only claim a maximum of one route, hence connect two adjacent cities, never more, on his turn.


Are possessive apostrophes legal in Codenames? For example, "women's 3" for "health"

If it's one English word and it's a clue about the meaning(s) of the word(s) on the table (and it isn't a form of any words on the table, etc.), then it's a valid clue, yes. Apostrophes are not prohibited.
(Not rule to cite; it is difficult to prove a negative).
For the question of "women's" vs. "woman's", etc., you are free to spell it out so as to disambiguate the clue (and should if asked) .

You are allowed to spell out your clue.

You should spell out your clue if someone asks.


The Cities rules say about "Debts" (on page 4):

  Important: monetary losses are always resolved at the end of a turn, after players have played their cards, possibly having paid for trade and/or obtained money...

So Alice takes 4 coins (3 + 1), and then she decides whether she wants to

pay 3 coins,
pay 2 coins and take 1 Debt token,
pay 1 coin and take 2 Debt tokens, or
take 3 Debt tokens.


Do I need to buy data packs to be competitive?

In theory, all Android: Netrunner cards are fairly well balanced, and the core set provides a good broad base for building decks, but in practice I think buying data packs is necessary to remain competitive.

You will probably find that you will struggle against a player of similar ability even in a casual environment if they have all data packs and you have none. Competitive tournament players will have two (or commonly three) core sets and every data pack.

Having said that, you don't need to buy every data pack. A little research into what kind of deck you'd like to build (possibly using proxies) will allow you to pinpoint data packs containing cards that will help your deck in particular.

One final comment worthy of note: how you play with your deck is often more important than how you build your deck. A good player with a bad deck will often overcome a bad player with a good deck.


Using Roberts Rules an ante is defined as

  A prescribed amount posted before the start of a hand by all players.

So the ante has no effect on the amount paid by blinds.  Each player posts there ante before the hand starts.  These chips are then moved to the pot and its in effect 'dead money'  it has no bearing on how much players play in blinds.

I'm not aware of a hard and fast formula for calculating an ante in live tournaments its roughly the size of the big blind divided by number of players max at a table.

so in live games I've played is Big blind in 200 the ante is usually 25.  This will probably vary from game to game and casino to casino.

In recent games I've played the rules have changed to the Big Blind or button posting the ante for all players.

So if the rules are "button antes" and the blinds are 100-200 the button also posts 200 before the hand begins.  The advantage of doing this is speeding up the time takes to take the antes in rather than every player all posting the same amount each time, invariably one player always having to be reminded and change sorted if needed.


Can creatures with Undying or Persist escape from Grave Betrayal?

Yes. According to Gatherer, Grave Betrayal creates a delayed trigger that looks for the original corpse:

  Each creature you don’t control that dies causes a delayed triggered
  ability to trigger at the beginning of the next end step. If there are
  multiple such abilities, you can put them on the stack in any order.
  The creatures will return to the battlefield one at a time as each
  ability resolves. The last ability you put on the stack will be the
  first one to resolve.

  If the creature card leaves the graveyard before the delayed triggered
  ability resolves, it won’t return to the battlefield. This is also
  true if the card leaves the graveyard and returns to the graveyard
  before that ability resolves.


Do I have to reveal all allies found by Munda, Ambush Leader?

You choose which ally cards you reveal. The text on the card says "Reveal any number of Ally cards from among them". "Any number" means you can choose to reveal 0, 1, 2, 3 etc Ally cards. And all the revealed cards are put on top of your library in any order.

Note that MTG never has instructions long the lines of "Reveal all Ally cards in your hand", because if you had 4 Ally cards but only revealed 3, your opponent couldn't have any way of knowing that you didn't reveal them all. MTG never requires "trust" in that way.


Is there any way to rehabilitate the "junk rare" Lost In The Woods?

It's a rather awful card with one very limited application that only really works in draft.

Here's a deck that can win a game or two (likely only games, not matches) in Dark Ascension draft and sealed:

  1x Lost in the Woods
  45x Forest

Transform into it for game 2 after you're sure they don't have enchantment removal or enough mill or burn to bypass it.
Mulligan until you get Lost in the Woods in your opening hand.
Play a Forest a turn (you're guaranteed to draw one) until you can cast Lost in the Woods.
Win the game by running your opponent out of cards, TurboFog-style.

This trick is rather fragile, but it was apparently good enough to win a few games on the Pro Tour! (As discussed here and here.)

Importantly, it's a trick that costs almost nothing in draft: you can draft a normal deck in any colors and randomly twelth-pick this single junk rare to give yourself an entire alternate strategy to swap into. That's the very lowest possible investment for a transformational strategy, well worth the potential to "steal" a game or two out of nowhere.

Beyond that... no, not really.

As a defensive card, it doesn't really compare to staples like Propaganda and Spike Weaver.

Benefits:

It's a permanent, of a pretty durable kind.
Protects your planeswalkers, too. A lot of older defensive enchantments don't.
It's not a damage-prevention effect.
Multiples stack nicely.
You control how the triggers are stacked. If you know what's in first few cards of your library, you can use Lost in the Woods to stop the biggest threat.
The creatures it removes from combat don't become untapped as a result.

Drawbacks:

Only works on forests, not any land. This is quite prohibitive.
Cmc 5. If this were much lower, Lost in the Woods might still be worth it as a card that a ramp could drop to slow down an aggro opponent.

Basically the problem is that it's too slow for 60-card Magic but a singleton copy doesn't do very much for you in Commander. The card can be improved by synergy with stuff like Sensei's Divining Top, but that's like saying Siege Mastodon is more playable with Black Lotus.

Beyond the fog effect, this card does do something else, though: it lets you go through a bunch of your deck. With something like Future Sight on the field, you can take advantage of the individual resolution of the triggers to cycle through a chunk of your library looking for stuff to cast. The major downside is that making effectively use of this requires not only a Future Sight effect, but also the ability to play most of your stuff at instant speed. It's much easier to set up the same combo with Top.


Can I use an altered art card in tournament?

The image of the cards you sent are a perfect example of acceptable altering for tournament play. As far as commander games go, you can sometimes get away with not even having a legal copy of your commander and instead playing with an oversized version of the card. Commander is very lenient and you can usually get away with altering cards so that they don't have any rules text. So long as there is some way to identify that the card is what it is, people will be accepting of it.

Altered art mostly just falls in the category of DBAD. Don't draw porn on your cards, don't draw children being decapitated, don't try to alter your Misdirection to look like a Force of Will.


How to score for claiming routes in Ticket to Ride: Europe

It seems you have some misunderstandings regarding how to play Ticket To Ride: Europe. You cannot ever claim more than one route in your turn.

You can do one, and only one, of these actions in your turn From the Rulebook, page 3:

  On his turn, a player must perform one
  (and only one) of the following four actions:

  Draw Train Car Cards: The player may draw two Train cards (or just
  one, if the card he selects is a face-up Locomotive. See Locomotives
  for special rules);
  Claim a Route: The player claims a route on the
  board by playing a set of Train cards from his hand that match the
  color and quantity of the spaces that make up the route. He places
  one of his colored trains on each space, and scores the number of
  points indicated on the Route Scoring Table for that route’s length;
  Draw Destination Tickets: The player draws three Destination Tickets
  from the top of the Tickets deck, and must keep at least one of them;
  Build a Train Station: – The player may build a Station in any city
  that does not yet have one. To build his first Train Station, the
  player plays one Train card of any color and places one of his Train
  Stations on that city. To build his second station, a player must
  play a set of two cards of the same color, and to build his third
  station a set of three cards of the same color

There is actually a route of 8 spaces, it's the tunnel between Stockholm and Petrograd.

On defining a route, page 4:

  A route is a set of continuous colored spaces (in some instances, gray
  spaces) between two adjacent cities on the map. To claim a route, a player
  must play a set of Train cards whose color and quantity match the color
  and number of spaces of the chosen route.

There are no 5 train routes in TTR: Europe, so that's why there's no scoring for that number. So both 1) and 2) on your question aren't possible.

On scoring, page 7:

  When a player claims a route, he immediately scores the number of points indicated
  on the Route Scoring Table for the length of the route he just claimed.

You score immediately for the size of the route you claimed, and since you can only claim one route, you can score only within the table.


In Shadows Over Camelot, when does a knight die if his life points drop to zero on another player's turn?

in fact, this is a translation error in the English rules of the game.

The "at the end of your turn" part should be removed from this sentence. When you fall down to 0 Life points, you're dead immediately unless you drink from the Grail...

Here is a forum thread where Bruno Cathala brings light on the issue:
https://www.daysofwonder.com/en/msg/?th=4531

As you say, this game is unforgiving and whenever in doubt, you're pretty safe to choose the worst option ;-)


Smallworld: Can I conquer regions occupied by my own In Decline token?

From the rules, p4:

  Note: A player may choose to conquer a Region occupied by
  his own In Decline token, if he wishes to.


"Ticket to Ride: Europe": how to accommodate differences in players' strength?

Increasing the number of cards flipped on tunnel routes should be considered.

Likewise, one can readily balance things with a requirement for more cards per track segment. For the most experienced, increase the card requirement by 2 per chunk, but do not increase the score. 1 additional for the more experienced. It's brutal, but changes play very little, just the length of time it takes to be able to claim a route.


Are there vector graphics available of the mana symbols of magic?


Multiple players considered last on Charity board in Medieval Academy

As you say, the rules (quoted below) cleary state that in case of a tie on the "0" spot of the track, all tied players are supposed to get the whole penalty. I would use substitute (unused coat of arms for a value of -10 for instance) to track that...

  If your disc has never moved on a track, you are automatically
  considered last on that track. As such, you can not get
  anything positive from that game board (no positive Chivalry
  Points, no bonus from the Gallantry game board), or if it is
  a game board that gives negative points, you and every other
  player on square 0 of that track will be considered last and
  will get the corresponding coat of arms. If 2 or more player
  get last place this way, no negative points will be given to the
  players ranked second to last.


Too few resource cards to distribute, but only one player receiving that resource type. Do they get the cards?

Yes, the lone player gets the cards.
The Official FAQ at catan.com answers this directly.

Resource Cards - In case not enough Resource Cards of a certain type are available, does a player get nothing even if he is the only one to receive this resource?
No. In this case, he receives all available Resource Cards of this type.


Does the "unnatural" blackjack after splitting push with the dealer?

It depends on the house rules, which may be either determined by law (or subordinate regulation) or by the casino by publication.
The dealer will often make the rule explicit by stating that splits aces don't become blackjacks. In this case they cannot push on the dealer's blackjack, because they only have a 21 at best.


What's a good source of generic pieces/components?

You have several options if you want to collect a large set of generic components so that you can throw your own prototype together.

Thrift Store games you buy just for the components

If you frequent thrift stores regularly, you can pick up cheap games ($2-$4 usually) specifially just to harvest the components from them. Some good examples from the list above are (with linked pictures of the components):

Scrabble : 100 Wooden Tiles. The backs are blank, or you could have the letters have some meaning within your game, or cover up the letters with stickers.
Risk : Colored Wooden Cubes/Plastic Stars. Old and Classic Editions come with wooden cubes.
Yahtzee Jr. : 1" indented Cubes. Useful if you want to make custom dice.
Advance to Boardwalk : 4 Colors of 20 stackable squares. Upwwords comes with stackable letters.
Trumpet : Cards numbered 1-11 in 6 different suits, when you want to design 5-6 player games and a standard deck won't do.
Bottletops : Hundreds of Wooden disks, most white, some red.
Bingo/Sequence : The $1 Store version of these usually come with red plastic "tiddlywinks", or numbered cardboard chits (useful for wargaming).
Pente : Colored glass beads in two colors.
Monopoly/Global Pursuit - Paper money.
Dicecapades : More dice than you will know what do do with.
Sorry/Pachisi : 4 Colored pawns in 4 colors.

Buy a Piecepack or similar game system

Piecepack is a game system that comes with some predefined generic playing pieces. It is an open board game development platform. Anyone can design and release their own games using Piecepack components, and there will already be an installed player base with the components to play it. The components are offered by different vendors, this one is $30, the components in a standard Piecepack are listed here.

There are other game systems like IceHouse (I am not certain of the openness of this game system. Looney Labs owns a patent on it, but it may have expired), and Orion. For more information, see this page.

Buy generic components from websites.

Print-N-Play productions offers a wide selection of colored wooden bits, meeples, dice, and other game accessories.

Educational Supply stores offer colored wooden/plastic cubes, colored tiles, and other tools that could be used to prototype a board game. I have purchased a tub of 1000 plastic 1 cm. cubes from a local educational supply store for about $22, although prices will vary by the size of the supplier.


If using an anagram solver is possible/permitted in Scrabble, what additional strategies should you use?

Take advantage of the board
If both players play the same number of tiles, then they will on average play the same number of points.  By playing your tiles on the multipliers of the board, you can increase the number of points you get to greater heights than your opponent, while denying your opponent the ability to use those same multipliers
Prevent your opponent from taking advantage of the board.
It is only possible to play on squares that are accessible to the existing tiles on the board.  Your opponent will play immediately after you - they have an opportunity to use any multipliers that you've uncovered before you get a chance.  Deny them this opportunity whenever possible!
Use as many tiles as possible
The number of tiles you draw each round is dependent on the number of tiles you play.  So if you play exclusively 6 tile words while your opponent plays only 3 tile words, then you will end up drawing twice as many tiles than your opponent, which means you will have access to twice as many points.  This is in addition to the massive point bonus achieved for using all 7 tiles, which should be taken advantage of whenever possible.
Maximize the use of your high value tiles
A multiplier space is only as good as the tile you place on it.  A 3x letter multiplier is only worth 2 extra points if you play an 'S' on it.  But if you play a 'Z' on it, it's worth 20 extra points.
Maximize the use of the existing tiles on the board.
The points you get are more than just the tiles in your hand - it's also the tiles already on the board that are part of your word.  That means you should look for ways to use the high value letters already on the board in order to add their points to your own, and to prevent your opponent from using them.

Very frequently, these strategies will be in conflict with each other.  It is up to you to weigh them and figure out which one is to your maximum benefit at any given point in the game.


House Rule for Minor Improvement/Occupation distribution?

The back page of my set of rules has several systems to try to sort this out.  Appendix 6 of the rules (from here) says:

3:1 Exchange

At any time, a player may discard any 3 cards from his hand and draw the face-down card at the top of either the Minor Improvements or the Occupations deck. This card is placed in the player’s hand.

10-3

Each player draws 10 Occupation and 10 Minor Improvement cards and discards 3 of each.

Mulligan

At the start of the game (and only at the start), a player may discard all 7 Occupations and/or Minor Improvements and draw 6 new cards of that type. (If the player is still unhappy, he can keep trying this, always drawing 1 card fewer than he discards).

Draft

Before the game starts, each player receives a hand of 7 Occupation cards as usual, then chooses one and passes the rest to her left-hand neighbor. Each player chooses one of the 6 new cards and passes on the remaining 5. This continues until each player has 7 cards. Repeat this process with the Minor Improvement cards. This variant allows players to create better combinations of cards than with a purely random distribution. We recommend that each player should have played Agricola at least 4-5 times before trying this variant.


How does Humility affect Bestowable creatures?

As long as a creature card with Bestow is enchanting a creature, it is an Aura Enchantment and not a Creature. So, Humility will not affect it.

The rules for Bestow and type changing say

  702.102a Bestow represents two static abilities, one that functions while the card with bestow is on the stack and another that functions both while it’s on the stack and while it’s on the battlefield. “Bestow [cost]” means “You may cast this card by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost.” and “If you chose to pay this spell’s bestow cost, it becomes an Aura enchantment and gains enchant creature. These effects last until one of two things happens: this spell has an illegal target as it resolves or the permanent this spell becomes, becomes unattached.” Paying a card’s bestow cost follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e–g.
  205.1a Some effects set an object's card type. In such cases, the new card type(s) replaces any existing card types.

This means that the Bestow ability removes the Creature type from the object as long as it is in effect.

The rule for how continuous effects interact says:

  613.1. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:

  613.1a Layer 1: Copy effects are applied. See rule 706, "Copying objects."
  613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
  613.1c Layer 3: Text-changing effects are applied. See rule 612, "Text-Changing Effects."
  613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
  613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.
  613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding effects, ability-removing effects, and effects that say an object can't have an ability are applied.
  613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

So, the static ability that turns Bestow creatures into Auras is applied before Humility's ability, so Humility will not affect those permanents. Any other relevant effects of Bestow Auras, like granting abilities to the creature they enchant, interact with Humility just like normal Auras would.


Yes, this would be similar to Clone effects. Let's say you Clone a Nekrataal:

You cast Clone
Clone resolves
As Clone comes into play, you choose Nekrataal
Clone's triggered ability triggers and you choose a target for it

None of the logic changes when it's your opponent making the decision.


What is the priority sequence during a turn?

You seem to have things basically correct, but some of your wording is confusing; especially as it relates to the main phase.

You say that the active player gets priority "during entire turn" and that non-active player gets it after active passes, "at the end of the turn". Priority in the main phase works exactly the same as it does in the other phases and steps... active player gets priority first, and when active player passes priority, non-active player gets priority.

You are correct about which steps don't give players priority: untap step and cleanup step are the only ones; during all other steps the active player gets priority, and then non-active player gets priority when active player passes it.

Note that in many steps; something else happens before players receive priority, such as drawing a card in the draw step; declaring attackers in the declare attackers step, etc.


Bonus traps from Essen Spielmesse 2019, what are the rules for them?

Someone asked the same question on boardgamegeek, and someone found the rules on the publisher's website, they are:

Music hall (Music note):

Affects step 2 and 4
The wizards can only communicate by singing, the Grimoire is not affected by this token

Raving mad (Cards with the arrows around the outside and question mark on them):

Affects step 2
Take the loyalty card from each wizard and mix them facedown. Deal them to each Wizard. This token is then removed from the game and cannot be pulled again

Aphonia (Speech bubble with the X in it):

Affects step 2 and 4
The wizards can only communicate through gestures and mimes, they may not talk, sing, nor make any verbal noise of any kind. The Grimoire is not affected by this token.


One issue is staring at this blank canvas of a rule book and not knowing where to start.

To find out where to start, first realize exactly what you're trying to accomplish:

Tell someone how to play.

I might suggest you show the game to a few friends, preferably the most interactive ones. If they ask questions, then when you explain it to another friend, you have the insight of what they may be thinking and the ability to answer just what's on their mind.

You will learn exactly what to write by sheer redundancy of explaining the rules over and over, and subconsciously you'll build a structure of your explanation that you could use while writing your rule book.

Hope this helps you getting started.


What are good games to play during a one-hour lunch break?

Dominion is a great game for lunch. It's  the only strategy game I can think of with a playtime under a half hour. We can often get through two rounds during lunch at my office.


Can a “flung” creature that is destroyed still deal damage?

The situation described in your question can't happen. Your opponent cannot use Fatal Push on your Longtusk Cub. Sacrificing the creature is part of the cost of casting Fling, not part of the effect. This means that the parts of casting a spell, which cannot be interrupted (announcing, entering the stack, choosing targets, determining and paying costs) all occur before they get priority and can cast Fatal Push, leaving no creature for your opponent to target and destroy. This also means though if Fling is countered, you have lost your creature, since it is part of the cost, not the effect.

In simpler terms by the time your opponent knows and is able to react to the fact you are going to Fling Longtusk Cub, it's already gone and too late to respond with anything intended to target the creature.

Note that the reverse is not true, you can respond to Fatal Push by using Fling on your Longtusk Cub, since the destruction from Fatal Push is part of the effect, not the cost. This would cause Fatal Push to fizzle.


In Monopoly, Can I mortgage the property I land on in order raise sufficient funds for its purchase?

From the rules you posted link to.

  The player who mortgages property
  retains possession of it and no other player may secure it
  by lifting the mortgage from the Bank.

If a player retains possession, they must have possession of it in first place.  So it can't be mortgaged before purchase.


Tactic cards in combat in Warhammer: Invasion

The rules don't state anywhere that you can roll back to a previous phase, and the core rules and FAQ don't explicitly cover this scenario.

I would say that while you can play a card that gives him extra strength, there will be no net effect since damage has already been applied, and once damage is applied, that's it.


Can you remove a 'Personal Workshop' 'Power Counter' during an encounter with ICE?

Yes, Personal Workshop allows you to install programs/hardware during a run. You have already paid the click to host them though, so all its really doing is allowing you to defer payment until they are needed.

This does allow you to install a Femme Fatale after the corp rezzes and Ice, targeting that Ice for the special bypass, and then bypass the Ice as you encounter it that turn. Or to install a parasite on an Ice after its rezzed, and then immediately lower its Strength to 0 so it gets trashed using Wyrm/Datasuckers when you encounter it.


Why does the dealer in blackjack receive only one face-up card, not two like the players?

In Black Jack, you play against the dealer, not the other players, and one of the main mechanics is deciding whether to hit or not. This decision becomes trivial and meaningless if you could know exactly what the dealer has. You hit if you have less than them; stand if you have more than them (if they have 17 or more so that they won’t hit). Hiding one dealer card is necessary to make it so that there’s a non-trivial choice to make.


How can I teach kids how to play Battleship?

Teach them two things:

Don't let your ships touch each other.
Don't let your ships touch the sides.

By doing that, no matter where a ship is hit, there are at least two adjacent places to target that will be misses.

Children less familiar with spatial concepts might take longer to place their ships, but there's also a lot of flexibility given those rules, so one niece could put all her ships facing the same direction while another one could have them alternating back and forth across the board.

It may be useful to remember that there is a difference between teaching the game itself and teaching the game as you or someone else might play it. There will be time to teach them more specific strategies later if they become interested in the game and also show interest in strategic thinking; with this in mind, pay attention to how they respond to what you teach. If one niece doesn't seem interested in planning, let her put her ships where she likes. If another one questions you right away as you explain how to set up your ships – "But if I do that, you'll know what I'm doing!" – then you could probably go straight into more advanced techniques with her.


Can I prevent a "You lose the game" event by countering the ability that creates it?

Chance for Glory's "At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game" ability is a delayed trigger, so anything that counters triggered abilities will stop it. Hence yes, all four of the cards you mentioned will stop the game loss.


According to the official rules found via a google search 'uno rules' (emphasis mine):

  Wild Card - When you play this card, you may change the color being played to any color (including the current color).

This means that when you play a Wild Card you can name the current color.


Is" third seat, favorable vulnerabilty" the only appropriate time to pre-empt with "any seven" of a suit?

To answer your specific question: Other than third-seat favourable vulnerability, only when you are specifically interested in a small short-term bump in your results against weak club competition, and are willing to sacrifice your overall partnership rapport and skill level in order to do so.

Your argument is extremely faulty. If one is allowed to open 3 in a suit with a hand like such as

x-xxxxxxx-xx-xxx

then one is effectively removing the capability to open 3 in a suit with a constructive hand such as

x-KJTxxxx-xx-KTx

because it is too dangerous for partner to respond on the possibility of the second hand and risk going down 1700 or 2000 if you only have the first.

Further, you  are neglecting the value of the distributional information that you are giving to the opponents, and that you are depriving both yourself and partner of (from hearing an informative opponent auction) in making an informed opening lead and sound defence. Destructive agreements like this are discouraged by all authorities because they both prey on weak players, who do not have the experience and agreements to deal with them, and convert expert contests into extreme games of chance from ones of skill.

Yes, in a club game you will undoubtedly do well with such an agreement against weak players; but you will at best break even in the same games using it against experienced partnerships; turn friends into enemies; and see your tournament results plummet as you develop a reliance on such gimmicks for good results at the expense of sound bidding and play.

as I noted in a comment above:

  Yes, bridge clubs around the world have numerous fools who would bid thus - .... Bidding on the assumption that LHO received a defective bidding box, without any red cards, is lunatic bridge. LHO's bidding box is just fine, and [if an experienced player] he knows exactly how to pull that red card, whether it be for penalty or takeout.

Update:

It is also important to note that a very weak hand is much less likely than a merely weak hand. Thus that holding a hand similar to x-KJTxxxx-xx-KTx is much more likely than holding one similar to x-xxxxxxx-xx-xxx. Are you really sure you wish to handicap all the hands where you hold the former, just so that you can bid on the very rare occurrence of the latter?

Similarly one moderate feature outside the suit is much more likely than no moderate feature outside the suit, compounding the unfavourable statistics.

Update An example of how a system that encourages light openings enables opposing declarers to make contracts unlikely to be made otherwise.


Corner variation which is not in Josekipedia

This question may look simple at first, but refuting the deviation is pretty difficult - there are no original sources on this to my knowledge.

Not answering the hane directly

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . a 0 4 8 . |
$$ . . . . b 1 5 6 . |
$$ . . . . . . 9 7 . |
$$ . . . . . . 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . 3 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

First off, let's try a different answer to white 6. Black could consider playing 7 at a or b, but I believe the result would be bad. It can be considered, though, if the board is right.

Hane at a could lead to a complicated fight, probably involving an exchange, but I could not tell if it is better for either player.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 3 O O . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . a . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

The idea of b is to either magari-turn at 3 if white connect on the right, switching to the top instead of the right side all of sudden. This would be very unusual after blocking at 5 initially, and locally white gets a superior result. I presume that (apart from extending on the top) black would like to add a stone at a later to enclose white and get a reasonable outside shape. Either way black is not thick.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . a 2 O O . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . . 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

If white instead opts to push from behind on the third line once more (at a) before returning to play 7, it is better than joseki for black. If white attempts to resist by jumping to a, black will not hane at 3 next, but push through at 2 and cut, involving a ladder.

In conclusion of this section, while an option to consider, I would not regard a different answer to the hane a refutation at all.

Reverting to joseki

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . 2 . O O O . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

After the deviation is played out, black could nobi at 1, with white jumping at 2. Seemingly, this is even because we returned to joseki.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . O O 1 . |
$$ . . . . a X X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

However, instead of the usual move at a, black might consider playing at 1 instead. This leads to a different joseki, with emphasis on territory on the right edge. Losing this option is a loss for black. This in effect means that white's early hane is superior to joseki, which is impossible by definition. Accordingly, returning to joseki is not sufficient as a refutation of the deviation.

$$Wcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . a O . . |
$$ . . . . . X X 1 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

As a side note, the hane is sometimes played by white in a similar shape precisely when white is afraid of a black hane there instead of the usual nobi at a. This is an (uncommon) joseki.

So sum this up, we still have not found a viable refutation.

Hane

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . b 1 O O O . |
$$ . . . . a X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Another option is to hane at 1. In this shape, white has the options of cutting at a or clamp at b. Hane underneath is impossible since black would be most glad to just nobi-extend.

$$Wcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . 4 2 . . . . |
$$ . . . 1 X O O O . |
$$ . . . . 3 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O a . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

After the clamp, descending at 2 is very dangerous. The sequence to 4 is the basic pattern likely to follow, but the fight is easier for white since black has no good response to a.

$$Wcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . X O O O . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

If white cuts, a fight involving a ladder will follow, possible leading to an exchange, as explained in a different answer. This can get pretty messy if both sides keep playing the strongest moves.

Leaping ahead

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . a 2 . . . . . |
$$ . . c 1 b O O O . |
$$ . . . . . X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Black is not forced to hane, he can consider a keima, too. Usually, white would attach at 2, leaving black with the options of a, b, c or tenuki. Since white was lowered to the second line, I consider this a superior for black.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . c . . . . . |
$$ . . . 1 2 O O O . |
$$ . . . b a X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

In case white plays 2 instead, bumping against the black single stone, black should consider either covering at a or the strong nobi at b.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . b . . . . . |
$$ . . a X O O O O . |
$$ . . . c 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

In case black covers at 1, it is difficult to clamp at a, because white lacks an as effective attack on the 5 (instead of 4) black stones.

Crawling on the second line at b once or maybe twice is an option, in both cases probably leading to white gaining sente. Locally, the result is very bad compared to joseki, but white finished in sente twice, which is very valuable, too.

There is also the option to cut at c. This fight should be acceptable for both.

$$Bcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . 4 . . . . |
$$ . . 3 2 . . . . . |
$$ . 5 . X O O O O . |
$$ . . . 1 6 X X O . |
$$ . . . 8 7 . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

In case black plays strongly, white will aim to exploit the increased cut aji, likely starting with the hane at 2. This way, white gets life while getting enclosed by a thin black group.

However, black can consider different moves (e.g. 5 at 6, or even 3 at 6).

$$Wcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X a O O O . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

As per the comments, there is a very strong variation with white cutting immediately. If black cuts at a, it will return to the situation that requires a black ladder.

$$Wcm1
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X 3 O O O . |
$$ . . . 4 1 X X O . |
$$ . . . 5 2 . X X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Without said ladder, black will have to hane from the outside at 2. The sequence to 5 will follow, leading to a fight. Black's shape seems relatively poor so this should be carefully examined before playing the keima.

Conclusion

If black specifically wants to avoid a fight, he can always chose to play the simple nobi (6 in the previous diagram) to revert to the usual joseki.

On the other hand, despite the vast number of possibilities that arise from the keima, I believe this to be the best option in case black wants to resist and does not mind a fight.

So we could say that black has gained far more options than he lost by white's deviation, thus refuting white's move.

However, likely the early hane is a only tiny mistake.


This sounds like a variant of circular chess. There is a 1993 board game under the name of Noble Celts that comes close to your description. (There are 8 concentric circles instead of 6.) Here's the board:


How difficult is Puerto Rico to learn for first time players?

Puerto Rico is one of those games that if you play a 'sample' round or two, the game mechanics and the different role cards can be quickly learnt. It is also such a great game that first time board gamers get hooked on board games because of it. The mechanics of the game are actually pretty simple, but has a good depth of skill required to be a good player.

We often use Puerto Rico as the first game to play with new players. Our second choice is Power Grid.


How is the rarity of cards in official preconstructed Commander decks determined?

You mention that each deck is a singleton deck, so each card is printed exactly as much as each other card within that product. This is true when considering just one deck, but if you look at multiple decks that are part of the same product (e.g. all of the C16 decks), cards at lower rarities are printed in more decks than cards at higher rarities. Common cards can be printed in 4 or 5 of the decks, while mythic rare cards are printed in only one of them.

Rarity also has some meaning other than the print run frequency in sealed products. In particular, the Magic Online format Pauper allows only cards that have been printed at common. Similarly, the unofficial format Peasant is similar, but has slightly less restrictive deckbuilding rules and allows some uncommons. So, we can assume that power level plays a role in determining the rarity at which a card should be printed.

In addition, Wizards' "New World Order" design philosophy, which has been in effect for several years, dictates that more complex cards should be printed at higher rarity levels. This is a less important consideration in decks of singletons, but it's likely that they continue to follow the same principles for consistency.


Yes, you're right - there is no secret information shared by your partner but not with opponents, beyond the difference in ability of the two partnerships at deciphering the information.  When I say "One Heart", everyone at the table knows that I have 12-21 points and 5 or more hearts.
Bridge isn't Poker, or any other similar game, where hiding your hand from your opponents is the skill portion of the game.  In bridge, the skill is in deciding the best contract for your partnership, and then playing it correctly.
That's not to say you tell your opponents everything that is in your hand, though; in fact, this is one of the skills - knowing whether you should announce something that gives information away or not.  Your opponents could be bidding for a contract, and you have one opportunity to make a call other than Pass, say; you could make that call, which both tells your partner something (say, what suit to lead), but also warns opponents of that same information - or you might not make that call, just "pass" instead, and conceal the information from all parties.


Summary

You needed to finish the game, after which, assuming optimal play, White would have won by a very large margin (if it was their turn next) or a large margin (if it was Black’s turn).

The rules of go do vary a little, but it very rarely makes any difference to who wins, and certainly not in this case.

Contents

  Summary (above)
  Contents
  Your final position (diagram)
  Finishing the game
  If Black plays first
  Notes

Your final position

You can enter diagrams on this site (though a photo is sometimes easier); I have made one of your position.

$$Bcm1 Your final position
$$ +-------------+
$$ |XOXXXXXO.OOOO|
$$ |X..XXO.OOO...|
$$ |X.XOOOO.OOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOO,O.O|
$$ |.X.XO..O.OO.O|
$$ |OOXX.O.OOOOO.|
$$ |..OXOOO.O...O|
$$ |OOOXXXO.O.OOO|
$$ |.OOOOXOO.OXXX|
$$ |..O,X.XXOX.XO|
$$ |..OO.XOOX.X.O|
$$ |.....OO.XXX.X|
$$ |X....O.......|
$$ +-------------+

Finishing the game

You pass at the end of the game when you do not think you can increase your score (explained below), and stop when both of you pass one after the other.
Your set should include enough stones for you to be able to get this far, but you may occasionally have to swap prisoners.
The winner is then the player with the higher score.

Since you did not finish the game, I have added the marked stones.
To keep things simple1 I assume White plays first at F45, which forces Black to capture at B12!2 After that I assume moderately good play from both players:

$$Wcm1 Final moves 1-10
$$ +-------------+
$$ |XOXXXXXO.OOOO|
$$ |X2.XXO.OOO...|
$$ |X.XOOOO.OOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOO.O.O|
$$ |0X8XO..O.OO.O|
$$ |OOXX9O.OOOOO.|
$$ |..OXOOO.O...O|
$$ |OOOXXXO.O.OOO|
$$ |.OOOOXOO.OXXX|
$$ |..O.X1XXOX.XO|
$$ |..OO3XOOX.X.O|
$$ |.....OO4XXX.X|
$$ |X....O756....|
$$ +-------------+

and then (I fear this site only supports 10 moves/diagram):

$$Wcm11 Final moves 11-13
$$ +-------------+
$$ |X.XXXXXO.OOOO|
$$ |XX.XXO1OOO...|
$$ |X.XOOOO.OOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOO.O.O|
$$ |XXXXO..O.OO.O|
$$ |OOXXOO.OOOOO.|
$$ |..OXOOO.O...O|
$$ |OOOXXXO.O.OOO|
$$ |.OOOOXOO.OXXX|
$$ |..O3XO..OX.XO|
$$ |..OOO.OOX.X2O|
$$ |.....OOXXXX.X|
$$ |X....OOOX....|
$$ +-------------+

These result in this final position:

$$Bcm1 After reasonable endgame
$$ +-------------+
$$ |XCXXXXXOwOOOO|
$$ |XBbXXOWOOOwww|
$$ |XbXOOOOwOOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOOwOwO|
$$ |BXBXOwwOwOOwO|
$$ |OOXXWOwOOOOOw|
$$ |wwOXOOOwOwwwO|
$$ |OOOXXXOwOwOOO|
$$ |wOOOOXOOwOXXX|
$$ |wwOWMWMMOXbXC|
$$ |wwOOWMOOXbXBC|
$$ |wwwwwOOBXXXbX|
$$ |ZwwwwOWWBbbbb|
$$ +-------------+

Black territory (surrounded points) is marked b or a red O for a captured white stone, white territory as w or a red X for a captured black stone3.

Counting the score

There are two (nearly) equivalent ways to score the game:

The simplest rule is that you score a point for every point on the board you control, i.e. occupy or surround4.
It is usually easier to just count up the area you surround and subtract one for every one of your stones your opponent has captured. If you have played the same number of stones, this gives the same difference in scores and hence the same winner.

I counted 39 black stones and 72 white stones in your original picture, a difference of 33. For simplicity I assume White has captured 33 stones and Black none.

For White, I count 41 points of territory and 5 extra captives (at A13 and around F4). With the 33 previous captives that makes a score of 41 + 33 + 5 = 79.
For Black, I count 12 points of territory and 3 captives (B13, N4, N3). That makes a score of 12 + 3 = 15.
That means White has won by 79 - 15 = 64 points, quite a large margin.

To avoid subtraction and make counting easier, people usually put their captives into their opponent’s territory and rearrange the stones to make the territory into rectangles. Neither of these changes the score (difference), if done right. In your game, however, this would have completely filled Black’s territory, another way of seeing that White had won heavily.

If Black plays first

If Black plays first after your final position, we have, as noted in footnote 1, a somewhat more complicated sequence:

$$Bcm1 Black first 1-10: 4 retakes ko (J4), 6 connects (at ❶)
$$ +-------------+
$$ |XOXXXXXO.OOOO|
$$ |X3.XXO2OOO...|
$$ |X.XOOOO.OOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOO.O.O|
$$ |.X.XO..O.OO.O|
$$ |OOXX.O.OOOOO.|
$$ |..OXOOO.O...O|
$$ |OOOXXXO.O.OOO|
$$ |.OOOOXOO1OXXX|
$$ |..O.X5XX4X.XO|
$$ |..OO7XOOX.X.O|
$$ |...08OO9XXX.X|
$$ |X....O.......|
$$ +-------------+

and then:

$$Bcm11 Black first 11-17
$$ |X.XXXXXO.OOOO|
$$ |XX.XXOOOOO...|
$$ |X.XOOOO.OOOOO|
$$ |XXXOOOOOO.O.O|
$$ |6X3XO..O.OO.O|
$$ |OOXX5O.OOOOO.|
$$ |..OXOOO.O...O|
$$ |OOOXXXO.O.OOO|
$$ |.OOOOXOOOOXXX|
$$ |..O4XXXXOX.XO|
$$ |..OOXXOOX.X7O|
$$ |...OOOOXXXX.X|
$$ |X....O21.....|
$$ +-------------+

In this case I count:

For White, 34 points of territory and 2 extra captives (at A13 and J5). With the 33 previous captives that makes a score of 34 + 33 + 2 = 69.
For Black, I count 12 points of territory and 4 captives (B13, J4, N4, N3). That makes a score of 12 + 4 = 16.
That means White has won by 69 - 16 = 53 points, still a large margin.

In fact I now believe that White would have done 1 point better by making their threat at E3 instead of G12, but I am afraid I do not have the time to redo the diagrams. In any case, Black is 10 or 11 points better off than when it was White’s turn first.

Notes

1 If Black plays first, they can capture at ⬤ J5, creating a ko, which makes the game a lot more complicated. White is not allowed to recapture at ◯ J4 because that would recreate the situation after their previous move, so they first have to make a threat, such as ◯ G12, after which ◯ C12 would capture 7 black stones.

2 This is probably not clear to you, but if White gets to play at ◯ B12, Black will be unable to get to separate eyes, and will be captured in the long run.

3 Although ⬤ A1 has not been fully captured, White could do so. This would not make any difference to the areas White and Black control. If Black tried and failed to defend it, territory scoring would give the same answer, because they would give White (almost) as many extra captives as White made extra moves. If Black just passed, some versions of the rules would require Black to give White an extra prisoner every time, to make territory scoring give the same answer.

4 Surround in the sense that (it is unoccupied and) there is not way from that point to one of your opponent’s stones (except perhaps one that they agree is lost, such as ⬤ A1 – see also3).

5 Actually, ◯ has a better but trickier play at B12, which (as per note2 forces ⬤ J4 to try to connect his stones, then ◯ E3 threatens to disconnect, but if ⬤ answers, ◯ retakes, ⬤ has no threat, so loses the ko and all his stones except those in the bottom right 5×5. So ⬤ cannot save his stones on the left, and should not answer the threat but rather finish the ko by capturing with ⬤ K6, then ◯ F4 captures – ⬤ is all but wiped out! In fact the score is roughly ⬤ 25 : 144 ◯ (i.e. 5×5 : 13×13 - 5×5).


Replace exploration by skill, and then exploring in Pathfinder

Note that the power is worded "instead of your first exploration". This is referring to the first FREE exploration you get on every turn. So you may either explore or use the cure power. Once that is done, then discarding BofG grants you an additional exploration. If you have a multiple blessings in your hand, you may explore many times in a turn.


Can you play your numbers in Backgammon in a way to block one of them?

A basic rule of backgammon is that you must play in a way that maximises the use of your pips.

If you have a board that can use both 3 and 6, you must choose such move over any move that only uses 3 or only uses 6.

If you have a board that allows the use of 3 or 6 but not both, you must choose a move that uses only 6 over any move that uses only 3.


In Arkham Horror, does a third separate instruction after a pair of pass/fail clauses imply that it occurs in both cases?

I think the rest of this cards text is relevant:

  Pass a Luck (-1) check or the book is a prison. If you fail, roll a
  die. On a failure, a monster appears from the book. On a success, you
  are drawn into the book for a time. Stay here next turn.

So, you basically only deal with the consequences if you fail the luck check (due to the book being a prison). The consequences of failing are either bad or worse.

If you pass the first roll, good for you! If not, roll and then if you fail again, you have to face a monster, otherwise, you just get delayed for one turn.

I don't think you can extract some hard and fast rule regarding the sentence structures without looking at them in context.


Name of card game similar to crazy-8s or Uno

This sounds like it might be a form of Minnesota Whist.

Even if it is not, I'd suggst starting with a cassification resource like: Pagat and seeing if anything else jogs your memory.


Is there a strongly solved game with infinite possible board arrangements?

Yes, with Nim being the best-known example
You ask for a strongly solved game (presumably referring to the term in combinatorial game theory). According to Wikipedia, games that are strongly solved

Provide an algorithm that can produce perfect moves from any position, even if mistakes have already been made on one or both sides.

It goes on to note that in many cases, this is determined by brute force:

By contrast, "strong" proofs often proceed by brute force—using a computer to exhaustively search a game tree to figure out what would happen if perfect play were realized. The resulting proof gives an optimal strategy for every possible position on the board.

For instance, we can strongly solve 3x3 tic-tac-toe because we can brute force every possible combination and determine perfect moves. Of course, brute force is impossible for an infinite board size, and some games are only strongly solved up to a certain board size. For instance, Hex is only strongly solved up to a 6x6 board. Still, the hope is that this brute force on games like these will lead to an algorithm for perfect play that works for an infinite size (e.g. an NxN board).
The best studied strongly solved game is Nim, where an algorithm has been found that produces perfect play from any position of any size heaps and objects. This game can be played on a board (or just by drawing on a piece of paper), so it counts as a board game.
Most other combinatorial games are played on a fixed board and are not typically studied at NxN sizes. In some cases, an algorithm for those sizes may not be possible. As described above Hex has been strongly solved for a 6x6 board. However, an algorithm that works for NxN boards is unlikely to be found because the problem is PSPACE-complete, meaning that the number of possibles moves increases polynomially in relation to the size of the board, and it would take a polynomial amount of time to solve the game for a given size. It is suspected that this type of game is unsolvable because calculating for an infinite size would take a polynomially infinite amount of time.
Note that games like Chess, Checkers, and Go are EXPTIME-complete, which means that the number of possible moves increases exponentially in relation to the size of the board. Since an infinite board takes exponentially infinite time to solve, EXPTIME-complete problems like this one are also suspected to be unsolvable. Since exponential time takes longer than polynomial time, and PSPACE-complete problems are suspected to be unsolvable, EXPTIME-complete problems are generally considered to be completely unsolvable.
For reference, it took 18 years to strongly solve 8×8 checkers by brute force. It would take exponentially more work to solve a 9x9 board.
(It's been a long time since I've studied this stuff, but I vaguely recall some research considering what impact quantum computers might have on this type of problem. As I recall, it might be possible to reduce a PSPACE problem to a P problem, which can be efficiently solved in polynomial time regardless of the size of the input. That said, I'm not an expert in this field, so take it worth a grain of salt.)
Caveat: I'm not an expert in this field and it's been years since I've studied it. If I've made any incorrect statements about PSPACE-Complete etc. in this answer, please point it out in the comments or correct it.


Can you sell a house to cover cost of "street repairs"?

You can sell houses and hotels at any time, for any reason.
From the rules:

Houses and hotels may be sold back to the Bank at any time for one-half the price
paid for them.

The amount of money you have to pay is based on the houses/hotels you had at the time you drew the card. Selling houses/hotels at this point would not reduce the amount you have to pay.
While this is not addressed directly in the rulebook, multiple sources confirm this in a FAQ.
http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/faq.htm

When assessed for street repairs, pay for all houses and hotels you own on the entire board at that time.


Bonus troops from controlling continents and trading cards for troops in Risk

Per the rules

You gain bonus troops for each of your turns you start while in control of the continent

  In  addition,  at  the  beginning  of  your  turn  you  will  receive
  armies  for  each  continent  you  control.

Yes, you get the base count, plus any continent bonus, plus the value of the cards you trade in, plus 2 bonus troops for trading in a territory card you occupy.

  At the
  beginning of each turn, calculate how many new armies you’ll add to your territories based on ...

  The  number  of  territories  you  occupy;
  The  value  of  the  continents  you  control;
  The value of the matched sets of RISK cards you trade in;
  The  specific  territory  pictured  on  a  traded-in  card.


Does a dedicated transport for a troops unit retain objective secured after the troops disembark?

It does, and you can. You don't even have to start the Strike team in the devilfish, so you could begin the game holding two objectives. A transport bought separately (generally most other transports are Fast Attack) will not have Objective Secured unless it is "Troops" or the mission says it's type has ObSec.

It's worth noting that if you have Pathfinders in a Devilfish and Firewarriors in a second, only one of them will have Objective Secured. The only really confusing situation is if both units disembark and then switch vehicles... Units in a transport do not confer (or revoke) ObSec status to the vehicle.


What happens at the end of a players turn to a buffed creature that took more than its unbuffed base health?

Your Blood Bairn will survive.

This is because "Until end of turn" buffs and Damage are removed at the same time during the Cleanup-step.

  514.2. Second, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage marked on permanents (including phased-out permanents) is removed and all “until end of turn” and “this turn” effects end. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.


Is morphing a creature effectively a cost?

Turning a creature face up by paying its Morph cost is a Special Action, like playing a land.

Taking a special action is similar to paying a cost to cast a spell or activate an ability, in that both take effect immediately without waiting for anything on the stack to resolve, but there are also differences. Players can explicitly take special actions whenever they have priority, but costs can only be paid as part of taking some other action. So, any attempt to represent it as a cost would make it part of another action that does nothing except provide an opportunity to pay that cost, which is essentially backwards.

If Morph was represented as a cost to activate a nothing ability as described in the question, that action could not be taken while you cannot activate non-mana abilites because of cards like Overwhelming Splendor or abilities like Split second.


All armies and fleets destroyed - Still in Game?

The quote below is part of a rule.
So yes, I would play it like you suggest, because your situation matches this rule in the strictest sense (one center versus zero units).

  If he/she has more centers than units, he/she may build units by placing them, one in each unoccupied supply center, in his/her home country only (provided that such supply centers are still under his control).


Yes.
This is answered in the online Fluxx FAQ:

Q: Suppose the rule is Play 2 and for my second play I change the rules to Play 3. Do I play one more card or am I done because I played 2?
A: All rules take effect immediately, so you would need to play 1 more card because the rules at that point had become Play 3.


In 7 Wonders, when using a Leader to build Babylon (B)'s second stage before Age 3

No, you are not allowed to play a Leader.

From the base game rules, page 9:

  The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  · the second stage gives the player the option of playing their seventh
  Age card instead of discarding it.

From the Leader rules, page 3:

  Leader Cards
  The Leaders (white cards) are a new card category. They are not added to the Age cards and have a different back to set them apart.

See the bold parts: Babylon (B) allows you to play an Age card, but Leaders are not part of the Age card set.


Most important buildings in 3 player version

This is an interesting question in part because I think it will depend on what your opponents have. Blue buildings trigger on every roll, but don't tend to generate as much income as the green buildings. If your opponents have a lot of red buildings, I'd guess it would be more helpful to have green buildings so that you can earn a lot in one go (and red buildings trigger first). Blue buildings can have income trickle in more regularly, but the income will trickle out for your rolls that trigger red buildings and for their rolls that trigger purple buildings.

Red buildings will probably still be useful, though not as useful as in 4 player games.

I have not played a lot of three player games of Machi Koro, but I would guess that it provides the best balance between the power of the differently colored buildings.


Can a "crippled" aircraft carrier launch airplanes in Midway?

I don't think this idea is a valid simulation. The two most critical tasks of an aircraft carrier, in order, are staying afloat and launching/retrieving it's planes. Provided the crew is not fully dedicated to staying afloat (ie there remains one or more hit points), the crew will continue to launch and retrieve plans.

Remember the reaching of zero hit points may not be a simulation of actually having sunk - but rather of having become unoperational as a carrier.

Of course these classic TAHGC games simulate in very broad brush strokes - it is common now to improve the simulation with more complex rules. I have not played Midway specifically, but at the cost of additional complexity I would consider slowing a carrier's launching and retrieval of planes once it had only one or two hit points left. This would simulate the difficulties of continuing operations a damage built up. However a carrier that cannot launch and retrieve at all is a sitting duck. Somehow, someway, some planes will be launched until the crew is forced to abandon ship.

Additionally, as a simulation of the different national characters and cultures of Japan and America, I would constrain damaged American carriers to only launch planes that could reasonably be expected to be retrievable - but make this optional for the Japanese captains.  An early kami kaze option if you will.


How does Pithing Needle work with abilities on the stack?

Pithing Needle only prevents future activations of the chosen permanent's abilities once it's on the battlefield. It has no effect on the chosen permanent for previous activations of its abilities, even if an ability of that permanent is currently on the stack.
Pithing Needle's static ability creates a continuous effect. It is in effect as soon as and as long as the Needle is on the battlefield, but not before.

611.3. A continuous effect may be generated by the static ability of an object.
611.3b The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone.

Pithing Needle prevents the activation of a permanent's ability. The act of activating an ability is a process that, once finished, can't be prevented retroactively. Activated abilities can be countered by certain cards, just like spells, but Pithing Needle does not counter abilities.

Activating Activated Abilities

602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. [..]

This is the rule specifically describing the Needle's effect. However, by the time your opponent has activated the ability, the ability was not prohibited from being activated.

602.5. A player can’t begin to activate an ability that’s prohibited from being activated.


What Is the Preferred Strategy For the US in Axis and Allies? Why?

What Is the Preferred Strategy For the US in Axis and Allies?

You answered your own question - the simple "shuck-shuck" strategy devised by Don Rae. The reason it works is because infantry are cheap and defend at 2, but only attack at 1. Therefore you can build an impenetrable infantry force that can withstand a large German offensive push and keep Germany hemmed into mainland Europe, freeing Russia and the UK to focus on pushing back Japan and tipping (or keeping) the IPC balance in favor of the Allies.

  Do our strategists know something that America's "real life" military didn't know?

There were many reasons why "shuck-shuck" was not implemented in real life. Among them include:

Geopolitical reasons - remember, the Allies only grudgingly allied with Russia. They were viewed as the lesser of two evils and a necessary ally to help end the war. Also, in real life Finland was attacked by Russia in 1939 in the Winter War. Then, from 1941-1944, Finland allied with Germany and declared war on Russia and aided Germany in attacking Leningrad. Given that they were at war with Russia, I doubt Finland would have permitted the US and UK to march troops through their country to assist in the defense of Russia.
Logistical reasons - moving troops from Norway to Karelia takes "one turn" in the game, but would be more labor and time intensive to accomplish in reality given the topology and climate of that region. Also, I presume the infrastructure to move millions of troops, equipment, and foodstuff was not in place and would need to be built.
Sociological/psychological reasons - how positively would the American public respond to a war strategy that boiled down to, "We send millions of our own boys into the arctic and down into Russia to have a staring contest with the Germans. We'll liberate France when we get around to it. Also don't forget that this was not long after World War I, which was notorious for brutal trench warfare that resulted in pointless, high casualty offensive actions and long standing stalemates. It would be hard to sell the public on a repeat of a "dig in and wait"-type strategy.
Economic reasons - the US has the economic means and raw materials to produce modern weaponry at a scale that couldn't be matched by the Axis powers. The US had not been engaged in warfare for years, suffered bombing runs on their mainland factories, and so forth. It wouldn't make much sense to have the US focus on building a large defensive troop position when they could focus on building battleships, bombers, planes, tanks, and so on. Also, in real life the value of a human being is worth more than 3 IPC. :-)


What can I do with the Joker if I remove every tile from its meld? (Can I even do that?)

Wow, they've really been messing with the rules of the game.
In every version of Rummikub that I've ever played (and I'm one for reading the rules before we start playing), this kind of thing is explicitly disallowed like this:

  A combination which contains a joker can have further tiles added to it, but nothing can be taken from it, nor can it be rearranged in
  any way while there is a joker in it.

Here's a link if you're interested:  http://www.pagat.com/rummy/rummikub.html

Obviously there are different publications of the game with different rule sets, but I far prefer this "joker melds cannot be split!" version.


I just did a measurement of my fairly well played dominion cards.

When allowed to float up, a stack of 50 cards is 23/32 of an inch tall. I tried different combinations to account for imperfections and came to this number multiple times in various trials.

When compressed with a gentle hand to maximum compression, they compress to 21/32 of an inch for 50 cards.

Thus if you were to have a box holding 500 cards I would expect them to be at absolute minimum 210/32 of an inch, or 6 9/16 inches. If we allow for comfortable float compression that would take us to 7 3/16 of an inch. Since you'll want at least some wiggle room, I would suggest making your 500 card box of dominion 7 inches long. Keeping in mind that 500 cards is 50 types, you may want to calculate extra room for things like placeholders, extra cards, separators, etc.


Do gods keep their +1/+1 counters if they stop being creatures?

They absolutely stay. According to the comprehensive rules, emphasis mine:

  205.1a Some effects set an object's card type. In such cases, the new card type(s) replaces any existing card types. Counters, effects, and damage marked on the object remain with it, even if they are meaningless to the new card type.


It triggers whenever you cast a spell from your hand, no matter what kind of spell. This includes an instant or sorcery you might play to try to destroy it, as well as creatures. (Playing lands is not casting a spell - it's a special action you can do.)

So yes, it's difficult to destroy. Keeping it from ever reaching the battlefield by countering it is of course the easiest way. If you happen to have something on the battlefield with an ability that can destroy it, like a Keening Apparition that'll work too. Similarly, if you're lucky enough to have a spell with Flashback already in your graveyard like Ray of Revelation, you could use that - it's not cast from your hand, so it's not affected.

But otherwise, yes, you'll have to rely on luck - cast your spells, and hope you hit something good. Do note that you don't necessarily have to destroy it; you could well cast a vanilla 1/1 creature and luck into something enormous, and your opponent is just as dead if you kill them without being able to control what you cast!


How many kings is it possible to have on the board at once?

For American checkers on an 8x8 board, it is possible to get 24 kings on the board from the initial position. Here is a Java applet with a proof game of 211 moves.

For International draughts on a 10x10 board, it is possible to get 40 kings on the board from the initial position. Here is a Java applet with a proof game of 389 moves.


What happens when you copy an Epic spell?

Copies made of the original spell by Echo Mage have the epic keyword, and so you do get multiple dominions/turn after.
Copies made by the epic trigger do not have the epic keyword.  So, the answer to your second question is that Echo Mage copies of those copies are "non-Epic."

Here's the salient rule that addresses why answer 2 is different from answer 1.

  702.49a Epic represents two spell abilities, one of which creates a delayed triggered ability. “Epic” means “For the rest of the game, you can’t cast spells,” and “At the beginning of each of your upkeeps for the rest of the game, copy this spell except for its epic ability. If the spell has any targets, you may choose new targets for the copy.” See rule 706.10.


Software to search for MTG decks based on a list of cards

Inspired by this post I've managed to implement the requested feature in my program Mtgdb.Gui, it's free and opensource.

The screenshot below shows the list of decks filtered by a condition that you own 90% or more from the Main deck.

So to search the decks based on cards you have collected, you need to

Step 0. Import the decks to Mtgdb.Gui. It can be be done as easy as drag-n-dropping a bunch of files or folders into it. See Wiki for details.  I used Forge to quickly download ~5000 decks.

Step 1. Import your collection to Mtgdb.Gui. E.g. you can import from a plain-text file where each row is more or less like this:

2 Accomplished Automaton

You can also import your Magic The Gathering Online collection.

Step 2a. Sort the list of decks by percent of cards from Main deck you own in descending order, by clicking the corresponding field.

Step 2b. Alterternatively as in the screenshot above, you can filter the list of decks by using search input.

P.S. Let me stress it, I am the author of Mtgdb.Gui. It has to be perfectly clear, because the rules of this forum, as well as common human honesty, I believe, require people to be explicit when promoting their own product.


Controlling an Artifact Creature - Aura with Equip, can the permanent equip itself?

Yes, Rule 301.5c stops you from equipping Mairsil after Crew resolves:

An Equipment that’s also a creature can’t equip a creature. An Equipment that loses the subtype “Equipment” can’t equip a creature. An Equipment can’t equip itself. An Equipment that equips an illegal or nonexistent permanent becomes unattached from that permanent but remains on the battlefield. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.) An Equipment can’t equip more than one creature. If a spell or ability would cause an Equipment to equip more than one creature, the Equipment’s controller chooses which creature it equips.

Also, Rule 303.4d covers the Aura case separately:

An Aura can’t enchant itself. If this occurs somehow, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. An Aura that’s also a creature can’t enchant anything. If this occurs somehow, the Aura becomes unattached, then is put into its owner’s graveyard. (These are state-based actions. See rule 704.) An Aura can’t enchant more than one object or player. If a spell or ability would cause an Aura to become attached to more than one object or player, the Aura’s controller chooses which object or player it becomes attached to.

So, after Crew resolves, becoming a creature will unattach Marisil from whichever creature it was previously attached to, and then Marisil will go to the graveyard.