Can we take "Death Company Tycho" in an army without a Death Company?

Yes.
He is an individual model. He does not come attached to the Death Company nor can he join it, because he is not an Independent Character (the 'normal' version is an Independent Character). This is how the rules are written and was confirmed in the Blood Angels FAQ published on the Games Workshop website, last updated February 2013:

Q: Are the Sanguinor, Mephiston and Death Company Tycho Independent
Characters, or single model units in their own right? (p.41, 47, 51)
A: Single model units in their own right.


Are there any other spells in bant colors that will cause Enduring Scalelord to go infinite?

Yes. Cackling Counterpart and Battlegrowth are in Bant colors and combo with Enduring Scalelord.

Can you teach me how to search for cards myself?

Introducing the Gatherer's advanced search feature. We know that Enduring Scalelord goes infinite with itself. Let's try to find a clone in Bant colors. Here is what I started with:

Color:

Does NOT contain Black
Does NOT contain Red

Rules Text:

Does contain "copy"
Does contain "target creature"

Tons of results. Let's try narrowing it down. Instants are nice if they are cheap, so let's see if we can find one.

Card Type:

Does contain Instant"

Still a lot of false positives. I notice a lot of "copy target spell" cards. We don't want those.

Rules Text:

Does not contain "spell"

Here is the final result. The top four cards are all three mana instant speed spells that can copy your Enduring Scalelord. Nice.

I repeated this process to find Battlegrowth, but I'll leave the exact search as an exercise for you. Learning how to mine the Gatherer is far more valuable being handed a list of cards.


What are the changes in the Revised Edition of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh?

I don't have my two sets in front of me to give a direct card-by-card comparison (I can do that later if desired), but here's roughly the differences between the two sets.

The original edition of CotDP has 'Barred from X' cards, where X is a neighborhood. An Investigator gets one of those, they can't go into the relevant neighborhood until the terror level increases and the Barred card goes away. The revised edition replaced them with 'Patrol' markers. When a patrol marker is in a neighborhood, all investigators that pass through a patrolled street must sneak through or be arrested. Similarly, Patrol markers go away when the terror level increases.

A new mechanic to the expansion is the 'Whispering Exhibit' encounters. There's a marker on the board in a street area. If an investigator is in that street area during encounters, they have a Whispering Exhibit encounter. This usually gives the Investigator an opportunity to get an Exhibit Item by passing some sort of check. Then, pass or fail, the encounter specifies a street area to move the Whispering Exhibit marker to. If no one has a Whispering Exhibit encounter during a turn, the marker moves as a moon monster.

There are also a significant number of card changes. Most, if not all, of the benefit/detriment cards have been re-written to provide different effects. Some Mythos and encounter cards have been rewritten in a effort to be clearer. A good portion of the Exhibit Items effects have been changed, especially the Masks. Most of the Allies have been reworked as well, they no longer provide +2 to 2 different combat states. The Messenger now gives a -1 to everything! Some spells have been changed as well. Plague of Locusts now returns a single monster to the cup rather than weaken everything in the neighborhood.

The cards in the Miskatonic expansion that are meant for the revised edition are additional Whispering Exhibit encounter cards.

As to whether or not the expansion is worth purchasing, I think the revised edition is better than the original. One of my (and many other people's) biggest complaints about the AH expansions is that certain mechanics get severely diluted once you mix in more than one expansion. With the Original edition, as you added in more expansions, the odds you would see an encounter that would mention an exhibit item (let alone actually getting one out of it) would plummet. The Whispering Exhibit mechanic rounds that out nicely; They're always available. Personally, I also thought that the allies in the Original edition of the game were too strong and was glad to see them toned down. The Barred from neighborhood cards were also rarely important. It was rare that one would show up, and it only affected a single investigator. Patrol markers still have to be triggered by encounters, sure, but they only create a minor obstacle for the entire team rather than completely preventing someone being useful in a given neighborhood.


Here is a quote from book Play Hive Like a Champion: Strategy, Tactics and Commentary by Randy Ingersoll with foreword by John Yianni, Designer of Hive.

According to section 2.2, page 6:

  Note that the ability to climb on
  the hive can be thought of as a circumvention of the Freedom
  to Move rule, but while moving on the same level the Beetle
  is subject to the Freedom to Move rule.

It is pretty clear, that contrary to Steve's answer, the yellow route is not a legal move.

There is also a good discussion of beetle move rules here

See similar question answered here


In the official rules of Monopoly, can you offer immunity to other players in deals?

The official rules are here. I can see nothing in the rules that would explicitly prevent one player offering immunity to another player. You only have to pay rent if the owner of the property asks you for it:

  The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before the second player following throws the dice.

However, you could argue that offering immunity violates the spirit of the no lending rule:

  No player may borrow from or lend money to another player.


Are heavy bolters and storm bolters a viable anti-Imperial Guard option?

List tailoring is a bit of a Faux Pas in miniature gaming.  You, shouldn't build a list specifically to beat a single opponent.  Massing heavy bolters would be a step down on that path.  Heavy bolters are also a fairly limited weapon, since they are nearly useless against most armor.  A better weapon choice would be autocannons or asssault cannons.  They strike a balance that makes them good for anti-infantry and light anti-armor work.

I would say that your current list does lack in long range anti-infantry fire power. This would make you easy pickings for a foot heavy guard list.  Here are a few units that you could add to your army to try to address that:

Predator with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter sponsons.  This is a cheap option at 85 points each.  They bring front armor 13 and 2 ST 7 shots and 6 ST 5 ones.  Taking 3 is a good use of your heavy support slots.
Dreadnought with two twin-linked Autocannons.  For 125 points, you get 4 ST 7 shots with re-rolls.  This is a great fire support unit as it will also give your guard opponent trouble if he decides to mount his army up in Chimeras. It's fairly common to see 2 or 3 in a Marine army.
Speeder with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer.  Not specifically long range, but they are fast and can deep strike.  You can drop them right on your opponent's infantry squads and use that Flamer template to kill plenty of guardsmen outright.

For your tactical squads, Missile Launchers or Multi-meltas should be your choice 90% of the time.  You'l get the most use out of them.  You should give your sergeants either power fists or a combi-weapon.  You already have plenty of ST 4 firepower in a tac-squad; you need your sergeants to cover your weaknesses.

Another completely different approach is to load up on flame template weapons, mount up in drop pods, and land in his face.  He won't ever want to run foot guard again after that.


When is three of a kind a valid set in Indian Rummy?

That set is acceptable only in Indian Rummy's three deck variant. (I'll call Indian Rummy by its name Paplu here for some better clarity.)
Two-deck Paplu and regular Rummy only has sets (same card value, different suites) and runs (same suit, sequential card values) and that move isn't legal in this format.
Three-deck Paplu allows the set type you describe, called a tanala:

When three decks are used it is customary also to allow an additional type of combination consisting of three identical cards - such as ♣10-♣10-♣10. This is known as a tanala, and is treated as equivalent to a straight run.
— Pagat's definition of Indian Rummy

The joker is a wild card that can stand in for any other card at all, which means it's legitimate for completing the tanala.


When a general goes to the graveyard in EDH, does his casting counter reset in the command zone?

You were correct in the assumption that the tracking of casting cost is not a counter, but a separate attribute of the game.

The official EDH rules state:

  While a Commander is in the command zone, it may be cast. As an additional cost to cast a Commander from the command zone, its owner must pay {2} for each time it was previously cast from the command zone. (ie: it costs 6WW to cast for the third time.)

The Magic comprehensive rules state:

  903.10. A player may cast a commander he or she owns from the command zone. Doing so costs that player an additional {2} for each previous time he or she cast that commander from the command zone that game.

Neither of these refer to "counters" at all - it's a static "every time you play this again, it costs {2} more."


Four Player Card Game Where Players are Kings

I believe you are referring to Barbu:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbu_(card_game)


What is the memory-style game that has pawn-like tokens covering pictures?

OK, after asking a few people, I've found the game: Hūsker Dū?:


When is a Spell considered to be "Cast"?

Neither. A spell is cast after its costs are payed, before anyone has a chance to respond to it, before it resolves. From the rules:

  601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.

So yes, if you cast Silence, it will be too late to stop any spells that are already on the stack. This is also important for effects that say "whenever you cast a spell", for example.


What is the timing of building and paying debt?

According to the cities rulebook, p. 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...

Therefore, for all your examples, you do have enough money to pay the debt. Monetary losses is the last effect to resolve itself, even following the "take a card from the discard pile" ability of Halikarnassós.


Are activated abilities only abilities with mana costs?

Archon of Redemption's ability is a triggered ability and will not be effected by Arrest. Arrest affects activated abilities, described by rule 602.1.

  602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation
  instructions (if any).]”

Examples: Ancient Silverback, Elvish Mystic, Heritage Druid, Fume Spitter

Triggered abilities, like the Archon's, are described by rule 603.1.

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[Trigger condition], [effect],” and begin with the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” They can also be as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect].”

In either case, whether or not mana is involved has no bearing on the classification of the ability (except in the specific case where mana is produced, but we'll ignore that for this conversation).

Activated abilities can have a mana cost (R: Shivan Dragon gets +1/+0 until end of turn) or not (T: Prodigal Sorcerer deals 1 damage to target creature or player).

Also, triggered abilities can have optional costs (Apothecary Initiate's Whenever a player casts a white spell, you may pay {1}. If you do, you gain 1 life). The Archon's triggered ability is an example of one that does not.


Does a player with a recurring action need to remind other players each time it would take affect?

The word to look for is may.  For example, the rules text for Bred for the Hunt says:

  Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it deals
  combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.

If a triggered ability says "may", It's up to the owner of the ability to draw a card. If he forgets, that's too bad for him.

The rules text for  Sulfuric Vortex says:

  At the beginning of each player's upkeep, Sulfuric Vortex deals 2
  damage to that player.

It says "deals damage" instead of "you may have Sulfiric Vortex deal 2 damage".  Without the "may", it's not optional. The Infraction Procedure Guide says:

  You aren't allowed to miss your own triggered abilities, and your
  opponent isn't required to remind you about them.

So not announcing the trigger is a rules infraction.  If you do forget a trigger in a casual game (regular rule enforcement):

  If a triggered ability is forgotten (or any other game error is made)
  and the error is discovered later, players should alert the judge. The
  judge will try and fix the error if possible and, if not, the game
  will just continue.

The responsibility for announcing the trigger lies with the player who owns the ability.  While other players are not required to announce the trigger, it's a good idea to do so.  If the owner notices two rounds later, it will be applied retroactively.

Official tournaments are different (competitive and professional rule enforcement):

  What the judge will do when you miss your triggers:
  your opponent gets to decide whether he or she wants the trigger to
  happen or not.

That makes for more competitive but less enjoyable games.


In Canasta, if the pile is frozen, must you take the whole pile or can you take just the top one?

You always take the entire discard pile, whether it is frozen or not does not affect this. There is no way in the game to only take the top card without taking the rest.

From the rules:

  Under certain conditions, instead of drawing from the stock, you are permitted to take the whole of the discard pile. In order to do this, you must be able to meld the top discard, without needing any of the other cards in the discard pile to make your meld valid.

Also a point on strategy, the phrase "you must take the entire pile" implies that you wouldn't want to. While it's certainly possible to think of a situation in which you wish you could take just the top card; in practice you will almost always be happy to take the entire discard pile; as it will generally contain lots of cards that you can use to meld and score points.


From the Scrabble rules (emphasis mine):

  Premium Word Squares: The score for an entire word is doubled when
  one of its letters is placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one
  of its letters is placed on a red square. Include premiums for
  double or triple letter values, if any, before doubling or tripling
  the word score. If a word is formed that covers two premium word
  squares, the score is doubled and then re-doubled (4 times the letter
  count), or tripled and then re-tripled (9 times the letter count).
  NOTE: the center square is a pink square, which doubles the score for
  the first word.

Double and triple word spaces only count for words which have one of their letters on that space.  In your example, TOE doesn't have any letters on the new double word square so it doesn't count.

 Side note: if it was meant to double all the points in a turn, I would have expected it to be labeled as "Double Turn Score" or some such thing.


In the first scenario,
Your opponent's creatures deal damage to you in the form of poison counters.[CR 702.89b] This damage does not reduce your life total, so it's not affected by Angel's Grace. Even if you now have ten or more poison counters, you do not lose at this time because of Angel's Grace.
Eventually, your turn ends and the continuous effect Angel's Grace's created to keep you alive ends. Specifically, this happens in the Cleanup Step[CR 514.2]. At this point, state-based actions are checked and you lose if you have ten or more poison counters.[CR 514.3, 704.5c]

702.89b Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters.

In the second scenario,
Everyone's life totals are checked whenever someone is about to get priority (when someone gets to cast a spell or activate an ability except when instructed by an effect)[CR 116.5].
If your health is below zero, and you don't have Phyrexian Unlife to keep you alive, then you've already lost. As soon as Ad Nauseam finished resolving, before anyone could have done anything else and before the attackers could deal their damage, state-based actions were performed[CR 601.2h] and you lost the game for having having non-positive life.[CR 704.5a]

601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.
116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event [...]

Do note that Angel's Grace cannot raise your life total. As stated in a ruling, "If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1."


When controlling an opponent's turn after casting "Emrakul, the Promised End", who is "target opponent"?

You are only controlling that players actions, nothing changes about which player controls various objects or who the various players' opponents are. So when they activate that ability (it doesn't matter if you control them or not) you are the one that will have to sacrifices creatures when the triggered ability resolves.

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

  102.2. In a two-player game, a player’s opponent is the other player.

  109.5. The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller, its would-be controller (if a player is attempting to play, cast, or activate it), or its owner (if it has no controller). For a static ability, this is the current controller of the object it’s on. For an activated ability, this is the player who activated the ability. For a triggered ability, this is the controller of the object when the ability triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability. To determine the controller of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.


If I sacrifice a creature for a spell and it creates a token, can I sacrifice that token for the spell too?

Your reasoning is only partly correct: you can't use that extra token to help pay for the spell, because it won't exist yet. You have to sacrifice two creatures that you already have at casting time. If you want extra creatures and tokens to sacrifice, they have to be there first.

That's because of the spell casting process. During that process, nothing else happens — no abilities get to happen or be used, with the exception of mana abilities, not even triggered abilities get to happen yet — and we follow steps that go like this for a Flashback spell:

Announce you're casting the spell and put it on the stack: I'm playing Dread Return using Flashback.
Make the choices you must make: It will target this creature card.
Determine the cost: I need to sacrifice three creatures.
You can use mana abilities, like those your lands possess, if you need to. That isn't relevant to this spell though.
Pay that cost. I sacrifice this one, this one and this one.

It's only after this entire process — by which time you need to have paid for the spell in full — that triggered abilities go on the stack. Someone gets priority, so we check for each triggered ability that could've just now happened, and put those on the stack after the spell.

So, now, after you've paid for the spell, the stack will look like this:

Top: A triggered ability that will create a token.
Bottom: Dread Return.

At this point, the token ability hasn't resolved yet, and it'll resolve before Dread Return does. But Dread Return's already there, cast, and has been paid for in full, and paying for it is ancient history. The token wasn't there, and still isn't even there yet, and couldn't possibly have been involved in paying the cost for Dread Return.

Then if nobody does anything else (such as Voidslime the token ability, or Cancel Dread Return), you'll get your token, and then Dread Return will resolve.


Is there a white or green card that turns an artifact into a creature?

The closest equivalent to March of the Machines in white or green is Titania's Song.

It has equal converted mana cost. The most signficant difference to March is that the animated artifacts lose their abilities.

I found that card through this Gatherer search, so you might find something else to your liking, or you could refine the search to include other cards. For example, Karn, Silver Golem is an artifact creature that also animates artifacts, except one by one and only until end of turn.


What is the purpose of "underruffing" in bridge?

Here are some situations where underruffing might be required.

1) Execute a Throw In

Consider the following situation, where spades are trump and south is the declarer. The lead is with West and he leads a diamond.

    -
    xxx
    -
    -

-         KQT
-         -
AKQ       -
-         -
    AJ9
    -
    -
    -

South holding the AJ9 of trumps needs two of the last three tricks.

West is on lead and leads a diamond and east holding the KQT of trumps ruffs with the Q.

Now South must underruff with the 9, forcing East to lead from the KT into the AJ.

If South overruffs with the A, then South has to lead from the J9 into KT, losing two tricks.

2) To avoid a Squeeze

On defense sometimes the defender is forced to underruff (discard a trump) to avoid being squeezed. This might well apply to declarer (but is probably unlikely).

For an example for defense, consider the following example:

          Txx
          KJxx
          xx
          KJxx

x                  xxxx
T9x                Qxx
KQJTxx             xx
T9x                Qxxx

          AKQJx
          Axx
          Axx
          Ax

You are East. South is declarer in small slam in spades after West preempts in diamonds (and showing 0-7 points in your system, just for the sake of this problem).

West leads the DK which declarer ducks and west continues with the diamond J which declarer wins the A. At this point declarer has 11 tricks, and knows you hold both the HQ and CQ.

Now declarer plays AK of trump, and then ruffs a diamond in dummy with the T.

At this point, you must now underruff! If you throw a heart, declarer can draw trumps throwing 2 clubs and 1 heart from from dummy, play A, K of hearts and drop your HQ, setting up the HJ.

If you throw a club, declarer can play AK of clubs, and ruff a club, dropping your Q, with the HK as entry to the good CJ.

So you underruff with a trump. Now declarer can draw trumps, but since you discard after dummy, you can just follow his discards and avoid being squeezed.

3) Executing a Trump coup

Then there might be trump coup situations where declarer/defender is trying to shorten the trump holding (to avoid being on lead at the wrong time) and might choose to underruff.

For an example on defense:

           xxx
           Qxx
           xxxx
           Kxx
Txxxx              -
xxx                Jxxx
Txx                QJx
xx                 QJxxxx

          AKQJ9
          AKx
          AKx
          Ax

You are west. South is declarer in a small slam in spades. You lead a heart which declarer wins in hand. He plays the trump ace, and gets the bad news.

It looks like declarer now has two unavoidable losers, a trump and a diamond, but declarer tries his best.

He plays one more round of trumps, cashes his hearts, and plays the A and K of clubs to reach this position.

           x
           -
           xxxx
           x
Txx
-                   Immaterial
Txx
-

          QJ9
          -
          AKx
          -

Declare now plays a club and ruffs it with the Q.

At this point, you must underruff!

If you throw a diamond, declarer can play diamond A,K and low diamond. You are left with nothing but trumps and are forced to ruff that (basically ruffing your partners trick), and then lead from the Tx into declarers J9, allowing declarer to make the small slam!

But, if you underruff, now when declarer plays diamond A, K and low, your partner can win it, and then your T becomes the setting trick.

So underruffing is not unheard of, and is sometimes required. There are probably more situations than described above, but I believe they(including 2 and 3 above) tend to appear rarely.


How important is memorizing chess openings in casual play?

Its far better to thoroughly understand a small number of openings than it is to mindlessly memorize a large number of openings.  Frequently, if you know why a set of moves is considered optimal, then you're in a better position to adapt once the board gets "off the opening".  However, if you have a wide set of openings memorized, you may find that while you are moving down your 'optimal opening', ready to transition to a strong midgame, your opponent may have other plans, and make a move that takes him off your chosen opening.

Now frequently, there's a good reason why that move is not covered by your opening chart;  that move may be terrible.  But if you don't understand why that move is terrible, then you may not be able to take advantage of it, and if the other player improvises better/faster than you, you may find yourself at a disadvantage despite your 'superior' play to this point in time.

Don't let that happen to you.


In short, yes; it's called "reneging".

Here's a snippet from the PDF of Uno's rules from Mattel's service website.


If spirit monster's effect is negated for 1 turn, does it return to hand by end phase?

No, It Does Not Return To Hand

The effect written on Spirit monsters is an activated effect, which activates during the End Phase. When a monster's effect is negated "until the end of this turn," this applies throughout the End Phase; i.e, the effect(s) will be negated until the beginning of the next player's turn.

Case 1:

Forbidden Chalice negates the effects of Dark Dust Spirit until the end of the turn. During the End Phase, the effect of Dark Dust Spirit will activate, but be negated by Chalice - Dark Dusk Spirit remains on the field.

Case 2:

The effect of Dark Dust Spirit activates during the End Phase. Because Dark Dust Spirit is a face-up monster on the field, that effect will be negated by Skill Drain - Dark Dust Spirit remains on the field.

It Will Remain On The Field Each Turn

The effect's activation timing is "During the End Phase of the turn this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up:". After that initial turn of its summon has passed, the effect will not activate again on any subsequent turn - unless, of course, it incidentally happens to be flipped face-down and back up again.


Does Cremate counter Flashback, Scavenge, and their ilk?

Whenever one has a question involving keyword abilities, one should start by finding out what abilities they represent.

  702.33a Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two static abilities: one that functions while the card is in a player’s graveyard and another that functions while the card is on the stack. “Flashback [cost]” means “You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost” and “If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.” Casting a spell using its flashback ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e–g.

One can't cast Cremate in response to Flashback since Flashback doesn't go on the stack. It's a static ability that allows you to cast the card from somewhere it couldn't normally be cast.

If one casts Cremate in response to someone casting a card from a graveyard, Cremate won't be able to target the card just cast. By the time the card in the graveyard is cast, it's no longer in the graveyard; it's on the stack, where it's not a valid target for Cremate.

  702.96a Scavenge is an activated ability that functions only while the card with scavenge is in a graveyard. “Scavenge [cost]” means “[Cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the power of the card you exiled on target creature. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

If one casts Cremate in response to someone activating Scavenge, Cremate won't be able to target the card with Scavenge. Part of the cost of activating Scavenge involves exiling the card. By the time the ability is activated, the card is no longer in the graveyard; it's in exile where it's not a valid target for Cremate.

  But if you can't use it to counter flashback and such, it seems to detract from its usefulness at instant speed.

Yes, but keep in mind that Scavenge and Sorceries with Flashback (as opposed to Instants with Flashback) can only be used "any time you could cast a sorcery” (in your main phase when the stack is empty). If you initiate the Cremate, if it's outside of his turn, or if it's outside of his main phases, he can't Scavenge or cast the Sorcery. Scavange and Flashback is often quite expensive, so cost could also affect when one can take advantage of it. End of Combat Damage step would be a good time to cast it.

Yes, it could take a bit of planning to use Cremate, but that's not too much to ask from a one mana cantrip.


The effect of Arcbond stacks. If you cast Arcbond on the same creature twice, it will deal twice the amount of damage that it takes to each other creature and each player.

The damage for each Arcbond will be dealt separately. If you were trying to force a draw by dealing 20 damage to both players, but you accidentally kill yourself after the first 10, that is too bad for you.

Here's an example of how multiple Arcbond triggers behave:

Cast Arcbond twice on a creature.
The creature takes 10 damage.
Both Arcbonds trigger.
The first Arcbond trigger resolves. The creature deals 10 damage to stuff.
The second Arcbond trigger resolves. The creature deals another 10 damage to stuff.

Make sure you cast Arcbond before the creature takes damage (not after, and not at the same time). Here are a few more examples:

  Opponent: "Attack with my 10/10."
  You: "Block with my dude."
  Opponent:"Okay. Damage?"
  You: "Before damage, I'll cast Arcbond twice on my dude."

Another example:

  Opponent: I'll Lightning Bolt your dude.
  You: "In response, I'll cast Arcbond twice on my dude."


Can a Bristling Hydra activate Hexproof when an instant is cast?

Bristling Hydra is a bit tricky, because it has a triggered ability for when it enters the battlefield, that gives you energy. Making it hexproof also costs energy. If you had no energy before summoning it, your opponent could kill it in response to the "Enters the battlefield" trigger, and you wouldn't have the energy to activate its ability and make it hexproof in response.

However, if you had gotten energy from a different source earlier, you could activate its ability to make it hexproof in response.

(Also, if your opponent waited for the ETB trigger to resolve and give you energy, THEN cast a spell to kill it, you'd be able to pay energy to make it hexproof in response, although it seems unlikely that they would do that, seeing as it's a pretty bad play).


Does Evolution Sage proliferate Blast Zone when played?

Yes, it does. Blast Zone's ability modifies how it comes into play, so it's a replacement effect, and not a trigger ability like Evolution Sage's. It doesn't use the stack, and when Evolution Sage's ability resolves, it will have a counter you can proliferate.

If Blast Zone's ability would have read

  When Blast Zone enters the battlefield, put a charge counter on it.

you would have to choose which ability triggered first, because you control both abilities; if you'd then choose Blast Zone's ability, Evolution Sage's ability would resolve before Blast Zone's and it would not receive an extra charge counter. But again, that is not the case.


You need to be planning a way to build up to routes of various lengths, up to 5 or 6 long, from the very beginning of the game.  Look at the resources on the board and route them mentally to places that are far away, then fill in where you need to place tracks.  Realize that resources near other cities of the same color are probably going to go away before you complete the longer routes.

You might eventually need Urbanization to help you build the routes you want.

A lot of new players will "land grab" the routes that give immediate gratification but then realize they don't really have a good growth strategy thereafter.  Don't worry if your start is slightly slower than such players, although you definitely need to get some goods delivered early.


What is the strategy called which forces opponents to discard cards?

First, I want to note that "mill" as a deck strategy name is just named after "mill", which is the common unofficial (now official) name for the action of putting cards into the graveyard from the library. Following that pattern, the name of a discard strategy would just be "discard"
Discard alone generally isn't a strategy because it doesn't actually win you the game. Once your opponent's hand is empty, they can usually play the card they draw each turn before you have a chance to make them discard it.
Decks built around effects like Davriel's triggered ability can be called "rack decks", after the original card with that kind of effect, The Rack, though that fits better with decks that actually play that card. For example, 8-Rack is a commonly recognized name of a deck archetype that plays 8 cards with that kind of effect.


Can flute of the outer gods be used against epic monsters?

No, they can't.

  An Epic Monster cannot be defeated by any effect except losing
  Health equal to or greater than its toughness.

Source: Reference Guide, "Epic Monster" (page 6)


The rules state (p. 12):

  If a player is unable to meet the conditions of an option on a crossroads card, she must choose the other option.

So no, you have to pick the other option.


Space Hulk: Death Angel - playing a 'multi-player' game solo

I find it harder with more players. Mostly because people tend to coordinate less... and so suboptimal decisions are more common.

There also is the issue of more genestealers per event card, but more troops means more shots made.

Worst blowouts I've seen have been 6p games.

I've run the game with a 3p setup for 2p, with one of the two controlling two groups, and it works fine that way. (P3 dropped out after turn 1.)


To play one of the Catan expansion extensions do I need the extended version of the base game?

I'm not sure about the American editions (by Mayfair IIRC?), but for the German editions by Kosmos the answer is yes. The base game as well as the expansions had the material for 3 and 4 players, and all expansions and the base game each had an individual extension for 5th and 6th player.
The expansions and their 5/6-extensions only contain the additional material, you are supposed to use the roads, settlements and cities from base game, so you need the base game's 5/6-extension, too.


How does Arcbond interact with Saving Grace?

The result of this combo will be three damage events: the original shock, plus the two Arcbond triggers. The first deals 2 damage to the 3/3, the second deals 2 damage to your opponent and each creature you don't control and 10 damage to the 3/3, and the third deals 10 damage to each creature and player. After that point the 3/3 will be dead, so there will be no more Arcbond triggers.

The reason it works that way is because Arcbond's effect is a triggered ability, which means that each time it triggers, there is time in between for other events to occur, and Saving Grace's effect creates a replacement effect, which modifies the damage events in place.

The exact sequence of events is as follows:

Your opponent casts Shock targeting your 2/2 creature.
In response, you cast Arcbond targeting that creature. Arcbond resolves, and creates a delayed triggered ability that will apply for the rest of the turn.
Still in response to shock, you also cast Saving Grace. Saving Grace resolves, and its triggered ability triggers. The creature is now a 3/6. That triggered ability also resolves, and creates a replacement effect that will redirect damage for the rest of the turn.
Shock resolves and would deal 2 damage to the 2/2, but Saving Grace's replacement effect modifies it. Instead it deals 2 damage to the 3/6. Arcbond's delayed triggered ability triggers.
Arcbond's triggered ability resolves. This would deal 2 damage to each other creature and each player, but Saving Grace's replacement effect modifies it. Instead, it deals 2 damage to your opponent and each creature you don't control, and 10 damage to the original creature. Arcbond's delayed triggered ability triggers again.
At this point, the creature has taken 12 damage and it has only 6 toughness, so it dies as a state-based action. The Saving Grace is also put into your graveyard as a state-based action.
Arcbond's ability resolves again, and deals 10 damage to each creature and each player.


How do zombies win in Last Night on Earth: Timber Peak?

I don't actually own Timber Peak so I can't help you from experience but I did find the following comment from this post on BGG relevant.

  I found that zombie tactics in TP are different from LNOE. Without going into detail, I'd say the zombies require a bit more subtlety than in the earlier game.

So to answer your question: If your gaming group is really use to vanilla LNoE they may need to adapt a different play style for Timber Peak.

The rest of the thread on the above link might also help answer your question.


Are tile bonuses counted twice if 2 new words are formed?

Yes, you score it twice as long as the double/triple letter/word tile was covered up by your current play.

From the rules:

  When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word. (See Turns 3, 4 and 5 in the Scoring Examples


Not quite what you are after, but maybe one of these may help:
Adobe InDesign
InDesign is (as far as I know) the industry standard for card design, and while it is not specifically made for this purpose, it can most certainly do it, and is the only solution I know of that can directly import a PSD file.
The actual card data can be kept in a separate file (spreadsheet, or possibly other formats) and combined with the card template via the data merge feature, including the image source.
The only real downside for InDesign is price.
For a bit more information on what InDesign can and can't do, see this answer to my own question on the Software Recommendations SE.
Magic Set Editor
Magic Set Editor was originally built for one specific game (Magic the Gathering), but now has support for a large number of games through plugins. I've never actually created an original card type with it, but I have used a few mods and looked into their source as well as used it extensively for creating power cards for 4th ed D&D.
The library of cards is handled internally within each file (each file is a "set" of cards, however you choose to separate sets for your own work) and content can't be merged from an external file, but it does still provide the separation of template and content you would need to allow updating the template without updating every single card.
It hasn't had a release since 2011, but I have never found any bugs with it in the 4-5 years I've used it, and best of all it is free (actually open source).
Strange Eons
Initially built for creating custom cards for Arkham Horror, Strange Eons has excellent support for plugins to handle other games and card styles, and while I've never created a plugin for a different game, I did do a bit of development on Arkham Horror-specific plugins a few years ago, and since then its plugin support has only grown better.
Once you have a plugin created for your card type each card you make is saved to a separate file, but cards can then be arranged into decks within the program for printing/organisation.
The documentation also seems to be fairly thorough and helpful, and it is free as well, but is listed here last since it is probably the furthest from what you are actually asking.


Since it doesn't say "sacrifice another," like Blazing Hellhound, you are permitted to sacrifice Quagmire Druid to pay for its effect.


The card has an action dice symbol in the upper right.  This means that it takes one dice to activate the card and it is only in effect while it has a dice.  I'm not sure why you say "Cards played later are not affected".  For example, the Turris does not require a dice to be active, so it adds 1 to the defense of all the player's face-up cards for as long as it is in play, whether they were played before or after the Turris.


What are good standard tactics for Dominion?

Remove Your Bad Cards

This involves slimming your deck down as small as possible by trashing or otherwise removing your starting Estates and Coppers (as well as any Curses you have ended up with).

Common cards that can enable this strategy (with set in parantheses):

Multiple Card Trash:

Chapel (B) - 4 cards
Forge (P) - Any number of cards from your hand
Steward (I) - 2 cards

Single Card Trash:

Apprentice (A)
Bishop (P)
Expand (P)
Loan (P)
Lookout (S)
Masquerade (I)
Moneylender (B)
Mine (B)
Remodel (B)
Salvager (S)
Trade Route (P)
Trading Post (I)
Transmute (A)
Upgrade (I)

Remove Cards From Play:

Island (S)
Native Village (S)

Removing your starting Copper and Estates will let you draw your more powerful cards that you've bought more often.


Does shooting the second ship in the alert queue still cause an alert to take its place?

What is happening here is that when you shoot a ship that is in the first slot of the queue you are delaying it appearing for one turn. However if you shot a ship in the second slot of the queue you are preventing it form appearing at all. The difference is if you are going to delay it or prevent it from coming at all.


Do heroes recover health and fatigue at the end of each quest?

Heroes do not recover health at the end of each encounter, only fatigue. Heroes do recover full health and fatigue at the end of each Quest (two encounters).
The rule book regarding Quests (page 18):

Heroes keep all damage suffered during Encounter 1.

Heroes recover all fatigue suffered during Encounter 1.

and (page 20) The Campaign Phase

2). Cleanup: All heroes recover all damage and all fatigue....


Where should I place tokens via Builder resolved from another server?

If you use Wormhole's subroutine to resolve a subroutine on Builder, you place the advancement counter on a piece of ICE protecting the server Builder is on. Builder is resolving it's own subroutine, not Wormhole.


Does killing a creature mana source that's being tapped for mana to pay for a spell counter that spell?

Once your opponent is casting a spell, that's the only thing that's going on. (There are plenty of steps to the process, including activating mana abilities and paying costs, but it's all things that are part of casting the spell.) You have no chance to interrupt with a spell of your own. And if you cast Lightning Bolt on their Avacyn's Pilgrim at some point when you get priority before they're doing anything, they can always tap it in response for mana. So you can't stop them from getting mana, and it doesn't matter what they intend to do with that mana.

The only way you can reasonably do something like this to stop them from casting a spell is to kill the Pilgrim before they are actually able to cast that spell. For example, if you think they might want to cast a non-instant spell, you could kill the Pilgrim before they reach their main phase, perhaps on your own turn or during their upkeep, when they can't cast it. But this doesn't counter a spell, it just hopefully keeps your opponent from having an opportunity to cast it.

As Dragon has pointed out, mana abilities resolve immediately, without using the stack, so even if your opponent for some reason wanted to give priority to you after activating the ability, rather than just using the mana, they'd still have the mana floating in their mana pool.

Now, while Avacyn's Pilgrim's ability is a mana ability and thus can't be stopped from resolving, there are ways to produce mana besides mana abilities, and those can potentially be stopped. For an ability to be a mana ability, it has to meet a few criteria:

it does not have a target
it could produce mana
it's not a loyalty ability.

So for example, Xenagos, the Reveler's +1 loyalty ability is not a mana ability: it can produce mana, but it's a loyalty ability. It uses the stack, and you'll get a chance to respond. You could kill one of your opponent's creatures in order to reduce the amount of mana it produces. However, killing Xenagos wouldn't do anything about it; the ability exists independently and will still resolve and produce mana.

Similarly, Deathrite Shaman's first ability is not a mana ability: it can produce mana, but it has a target (a land card in a graveyard). If in response you exile that land card, the ability no longer has a legal target and it will be countered by the rules of the game, leaving your opponent without the mana. However, like with Xenagos, killing the Shaman won't stop the ability.

But of course, most things that produce mana are mana abilities, so there's no way to stop them.


Remove card from game go in trash in Dead of winter?

No, every card that you would put in the waste pule says for it to be placed in the waste pile.

A good example of this is resolving a crisis as you don't add those cards to the waste pile when you are done. Here is the online rules

  Resolve Crisis: Shuffle the cards that were added face-down
  to the crisis during the player turns phase. Reveal them
  one at a time. Each item card added that has a symbol
  matching a symbol in the prevent section of the crisis
  is worth 1 point. Each card that doesn’t have a symbol
  matching a symbol in the prevent section of the crisis
  subtracts 1 point. After revealing all of the cards, if
  the combined point total is lower than the number
  of players then immediately resolve the crisis. If the
  point total equals or exceeds the number of players
  the crisis is prevented. Additionally, if the point total
  exceeds the number of players by 2 or more the colony
  gains 1 morale. After resolving the crisis, remove all
  cards added to the crisis from the game. See Example:
  Resolving a Crisis to lef


What's the name of the move where the player swaps King and Rook/Castle in Chess? Why is this move important?

It's called castling. It's important because it gets your king out of danger (the centre is not safe), while simultaneously moving your 'tower' (also called a Castle, or a Rook) into the centre, where it is much more useful.

See this related question: Is castling still done in the openings in modern chess?


Can you revive the creature you sacrificed with Hell's Caretaker?

No

The steps to casting a spell or activating an ability are:

601.2a) Place card or ability on stack.
601.2b-d) Make choices, including targets.
601.2e) Determine total cost.
601.2f) Activate mana abilities.
601.2g) Pay the previously determined cost.

The sacrificed creature is only moved to the graveyard in step 5, but you need to pick a card in the graveyard in step 2.


Is giving resources away for free allowed?

Contrary to what mafu has stated in their answer, there is an official rule against this practice:

  You may trade with another player between your turns, but only if it
  is his turn and he elects to trade with you. You cannot trade with the
  bank during another player’s turn. You may not give away cards.

(from the Almanac section of the rulebook, near the top of p14)

I understand that you can "effectively" give away cards by cunning sequences of "legitimate" trades, but it seems clear that this isn't really in the spirit of the game, and players should feel free to frown upon such sharp practice!


Can I sacrifice a creature that I lost control of after activating its ability?

This doesn't work as described because by the time your opponent has priority to activate the Rootwater Hunter the Tar Pitcher is already in the graveyard. This is because in order to put an ability on the stack you need to pay all of the costs associated with it before your opponent gets priority, in this case that involves sacrificing the Tar Pitcher.
The rules for activating abilities share the same rules as casting spells, excerpts of the relevant rules are

601.2e The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs.
601.2g The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can't be paid.
601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast.

Just substitute ability for spell and you can see that you pay all of the costs before the ability is actually counted as played by the game.


What happens when two global enchantments affect the same type of permanent (e.g.lands)

Non-basic lands will be only mountains. Basic lands are their original type and also swamps.
Lands are basic if and only if they have the "Basic" type. All other lands are non-basic. Therefore, Blanket of Night does not turn lands into non-basic lands, because it only adds the "swamp" subtype and the "T: Add B" mana ability to lands.

205.4c Any land with the supertype “basic” is a basic land. Any land that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonbasic land, even if it has a basic land type.

If a land was basic before, it still is - for example a Forest with types "Basic Land - Forest" is now a "Basic Land - Forest Swamp", with the ability to produce 1 green or 1 black mana.
If a land was a non-basic land, it still is. Blanket again adds the swamp type. For example Gemstone Mine will be a "Land - Swamp", and it will gain the "T: Add B" ability in addition to its printed abilities.
Blood Moon then replaces all of that land's types with "Mountain" and all its abilities with "T: Add R", including the swamp gained by Blanket, so the resulting lands will have the types "Land - Mountain" and the only ability "T: Add R".
Note that for non-basic lands, the order in which you play the Blanket and Blood Moon matters, because of the layer system.

Interaction of Continuous Effects

613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
613.2. 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).

Timestamp order is, generally, the order in which an object or effect entered the game.
If you cast the enchantments in the order you described, Blanket first then Blood Moon, the result will be as described above.
In the reverse order, Blood Moon first turns all non-basic lands into non-basic mountains, then Blanket adds the swamp type and ability to those lands. These lands will then have the types "Land - Mountain Swamp" with respective mana abilities instead of just "Land - Mountain".


You've partially answered your own question here: there is a single ability, which checks something on resolution. But it in fact checks the condition before triggering and on resolution! The fancy thing going on here is often called an "intervening if clause". Here's the detailed sequence of events:

Valakut sees a Mountain enter the battlefield, and says "maybe I need to trigger!" The game checks to see if you have at least five other mountains, and if you do, the ability triggers and is placed on the stack. You choose the target here.
Maybe other things happen in response?
The ability resolves.

The ability checks again to see if you control at least five other mountains. (Maybe one got destroyed in the meantime?)
Assuming you do, it deals three damage to the chosen target.

Here's the relevant comp rule:

  603.4. A triggered ability may read "When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect]." When the trigger event occurs, the ability checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only if it is; otherwise it does nothing. If the ability triggers, it checks the stated condition again as it resolves. If the condition isn't true at that time, the ability is removed from the stack and does nothing. Note that this mirrors the check for legal targets. This rule is referred to as the "intervening 'if' clause" rule. (The word "if" has only its normal English meaning anywhere else in the text of a card; this rule only applies to an "if" that immediately follows a trigger condition.)

A side note: Evolve is a prominent recent example of a triggered ability with an intervening if clause. It doesn't target, but in some cases it can be very relevant that the ability checks again on resolution.

So for your specific questions:

No, there's no second ability, just the triggered ability which happens to check for a condition twice. But the ability is a triggered ability, and you can copy the whole thing with Strionic Resonator. The original and the copy will still check the "if" clause when they resolve.

If you don't have enough Mountains, you don't put the ability on the stack, so you don't choose a target, so no, you can't kill a Phantasmal Image with it.


Dominion: How exactly do cards "enter play"

Quotes from the Q in italics and marked with >>, other quotes are from the rules.

>> as you play actions, the go from being "on your hand" to being "in play"

Yes. Second edition rules, p. 4:

Playing an Action card has three steps: announcing it; moving it to the "in
play" area - the table space in front of you; and following the instructions on it

Same for Treasures, see below.

>>  at any time before your buying phase, you can lay down money cards, therefore also moving them from "on the hand" to "in play",

Playing Treasures happens during the Buy phase (but has to be done before actually buying something). You can't do it in the middle of the Action phase, so definitely not "at any time". This matters very much for the Actions that say "discard your hand". p. 5:

Buy Phase: First you can play any number of Treasure cards from your hand, in any order. [...] You play one by moving it to the "in play" area;

There's nothing in the rules about playing Treasures during the Action phase.

>>  Also, it is my understanding that any action card that refers to "cards in play" only takes into account those cards you already moved from "your hand" to "in play"

Yes, "in play" is explicitly stated as a distinct "area" for the cards to exist. It also matters if you have to reshuffle mid-turn: discarded cards get reshuffled, cards "in play" do not.
Note that the Action or Night card you just played is also "in-play" when it is processed. This follows from the sequence described above, and is reinforced by the FAQ for e.g. Magic Lamp and Raider (also at the back of the Nocturne rules).

>>  meaning that it matters whether you place your money before or after playing an action card and that there is no fixed time when you play your money (i.e. before or after playing an action). Is that also correct?

No, see above.

>> Furthermore, as the night cards are played after the buying phase, all actions that were played during your turn and any money played before your buying phase is considered to be "in play". Is that also correct?

Yes, except that the money is played during your buy phase. The Night step happens before Clean-up, which is where the "in play" cards are put to the discard pile. Nocturne rules:

Nocturne adds Night cards and the Night phase. In games using Night cards, the Night phase happens after the Buy phase - it goes, Action, Buy, Night, Clean-up.

>>  After the night phase, any card "in play" goes to the discard pile (except for duration cards that will be kept for the next turn).
>>  Any card not having been played, remains "on the hand" and goes directly to the discard pile, without ever entering play.

Yes. The rules don't say anything about the cards going "in-play" in between. (And why would they, they were never played.) Second ed. rules, p. 5:

Clean-up Phase: Take all of the cards you have in play (both Actions and Treasures), and any remaining cards in
your hand, and put them all into your discard pile.

Nocturne, p. 4:

Nocturne has Duration cards, [...] Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.

>> However, the main point of contention/confusion is if there is any way of bringing "point and/or curse cards" into play, or do they always stay "on your hand" and go straight to the discard pile?

Unless there's a rule or a card that allows playing them, then no, you can't play them. The easiest way to get a Victory card "in-play" is probably the dual Victory/Action and Victory/Treasure cards from Intrigue (e.g. Harem), but that of course only works
because they're also Actions or Treasure. (I can't think of any ways to play them purely through being Victory cards, but that doesn't prove there isn't one.)


Soul-Scar Mage and Nin, the Pain Artist with lifelink

Your assumptions/guesses are all correct.
A replacement event completely replaces the thing it replaces with something different.
In this case, Soul-Scar Mage replaces the damage produced by Nin with -1/-1 counters.  Because Nin is no longer damaging something, lifelink from the Basilisk Collar doesn't happen.
The opponent still draws X cards, because the X is tied to the mana spent to activate the ability, not to the amount of damage dealt to the creature.


Do Combat Celebrant and Helm of the Host give me infinite combat phases?

Yes, you will have as many combat phases as you want.

When Combat Celebrant's ability resolves, you get an additional combat phase.

Rule 506.1 defines what steps the combat phase contains:

  506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat. [...]

As you can see, I've emphasized that the combat phase begins with a "beginning of combat" step, during which cards such as Helm of the Host will trigger. Since you'll be getting another Combat Celebrant from the trigger, which will in turn be exerted to give you another combat phase, you'll get an arbitrary number of combat phases as long as nothing disrupts the sequence "Helm trigger resolves > Combat Celebrant is exerted > new combat phase".


Immunities/Resistance, Red Sign of Shudde M'ell and Equipment Timing

While generally it doesn't matter, all the dice in a skill checks should be rolled at the same time. So it doesn't matter which order you use various spells and items. (The only corner case I can think of at the moment is the Lucky Cigarette case, which lets you reroll all the dice that you had in the check normally in addition to any that were added to the check due to clue token expenditure, but that's not quite the same situation). It looks like your confusion is arising from your second scenario, in which you roll dice for the skill check as you select additional items to use. You should be looking at everything that's getting used in the battle (weapons, allies, environment, injuries, combat penalty, etc.), figure out the aggregate bonus/penalty, apply that to the base state (Fight, Lore, etc.), and then roll that many dice. So the order in which items are 'applied' is irrelevant.

So the correct scenario is this:

3) If you succeeded at casting Red Sign, the Witch no longer has Magical Resistance, so the Enchanted Knife gives it's full combat bonus of +3 (The +4 is the Enchanted Blade, not the Knife). Adding in your Fight score of (as an example) 3, the Witch's Combat modifier of -3, and (for further example) Tom 'Mountain' Murphy's bonus of +2, you end with a bonus of five, so you roll five dice. Everything gets summed up and everything gets rolled all at once.


Are "ties" considering "successful" checks in Firefly Adventures?

Yes, you will need to reroll.

On page 4 of the rulebook:

  To make a Skill Test, roll the number of dice pictured and add all your available Skill Points of the appropriate type to your dice’s total. If your dice roll plus your Skill is equal to or higher than the Skill Test’s Target, it’s a Success. If it’s lower, it’s a Failure.

The rulebook clearly defines rolls as having a binary outcome, success or failure, and groups ties as a success for the player. In the case of a tie with the Martial Artist (i.e.: a success), you would need to reroll.


Do abilities interrupt transform effects?

Yes, your opponent will be able to kill your Ulrich.

Whenever a spell is cast, or an ability is activated, it goes on the top of the stack. When both players pass priority, the top of the stack resolves. In this case, your opponent will be able to respond to your Waxing Moon spell by activating Scorpion God, and the -1/-1 counters will be placed on Ulrich, killing him before Waxing Moon ever resolves.

The stack will look like this at each step:

Step 1; opponent activates Scorpion God's ability 4 times, targeting Ulrich:

Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter

Step 2; you respond with Waxing Moon:

Waxing Moon
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter

Step 3; your opponent responds by activating Scorpion God's ability 4 times:

Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Waxing Moon
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter
Ulrich gets a -1/-1 counter

Then, if neither of you do anything else, the stack will resolve from top to bottom. 4 steps down, Ulrich will go to the graveyard for having 0 toughness. Then Waxing Moon will be countered because it has no legal target (Ulrich is in the graveyard now). Then each of the 4 original activated abilities will be countered because they have no legal target.


Would Rakdos, Lord of Riots allow a free Endless One cast?

Yes, if you choose a value for X that is less than or equal to the amount of life your opponents have lost this turn, you can cast Endless One for free.

While casting a spell, one of the first steps involves making choices, including the value of X. Then, later, the cost is calculated, including cost increases and cost reductions. So, in this situation, you first choose the number you want for X, then you calculate the cost after Rakdos reduces it. Then you pay that much mana (note that it can't go below {0}).


Does completing "Establish a Temple to Ibrundul" count as taking Piety quests?

I haven't been able to find an official answer for you but I would say that yes, you're interpreting it correctly. The wording in Lords of Waterdeep is usually quite clear and the keyword is the same on both cards. Due to the first card you get a cube each time you take a Piety quest and the second card instructs you to take a number of quest cards. This means that you will get a cube per Piety quest taken.


How many counters does Kalonian Hydra get with two Corpsejack Menaces on the battlefield?

Both Corpsejack Menaces will double the counters, so if you would get 4 counters, you will now get 16 instead. (First doubled to 8, then doubled to 16). So in this case, the Hydra will enter with 16 counters, then when you attack, 16 more would get placed on it, which is doubled twice, so 64 more get placed on it, meaning that it is 80/80 when it attacks.

Both questions are addressed in the rulings on Corpsejack Menace:

  If a creature you control would enter the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it, it enters with twice that many instead.

  If you control two Corpsejack Menaces, the number of +1/+1 counters placed is four times the original number. Three Corpsejack Menaces multiplies the original number by eight, and so on.

The reason this works is described in rule 615:

  Interaction of Replacement and/or Prevention Effects

  615.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).

  615.1a If any of the replacement and/or prevention effects are self-replacement effects (see rule 613.14), one of them must be chosen. If not, proceed to rule 615.1b.

  615.1b If any of the replacement and/or prevention effects would modify under whose control an object would enter the battlefield, one of them must be chosen. If not, proceed to rule 615.1c.

  615.1c Any of the applicable replacement and/or prevention effects may be chosen.

  615.1d Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated (taking into account only replacement or prevention effects that would now be applicable) until there are no more left to apply.
  Example: Two permanents are on the battlefield. One is an enchantment that reads “If a card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it,” and the other is a creature that reads “If [this creature] would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, instead shuffle it into its owner’s library.” The controller of the creature that would be destroyed decides which replacement to apply first; the other does nothing.

Note that entering the battlefield with counters is itself a replacement effect:

  614.12. Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield.


What happens when Boldwyr Intimidator makes a creature with Changeling a Coward?

The creature will be only a Coward (or Warrior), and not get any bonuses for being a Sliver.

This is true for the same reason that using Intimidator on a vampire will cause it to no longer be a vampire; it's type has been set, which overrides any other types it previously had.

  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. Similarly, when an effect sets one or more of an object’s subtypes, the new subtype(s) replaces any existing subtypes from the appropriate set (creature types, land types, artifact types, enchantment types, planeswalker types, or spell types). If an object’s card type is removed, the subtypes correlated with that card type will remain if they are also the subtypes of a card type the object currently has; otherwise, they are also removed for the entire time the object’s card type is removed. Removing an object’s subtype doesn’t affect its card types at all.

Changling is a characteristic-defining ability, as as such the layer system applies it before the type-defining ability of Intimidator.

  604.3. Some static abilities are characteristic-defining abilities. A characteristic-defining ability conveys information about an object’s characteristics that would normally be found elsewhere on that object (such as in its mana cost, type line, or power/toughness box) or overrides information found elsewhere on that object. Characteristic-defining abilities function in all zones. They also function outside the game.

    604.3a A static ability is a characteristic-defining ability if it meets the following criteria: (1) It defines an object’s colors, subtypes, power, or toughness; (2) it is printed on the card it affects, it was granted to the token it affects by the effect that created the token, or it was acquired by the object it affects as the result of a copy effect or text-changing effect; (3) it does not directly affect the characteristics of any other objects; (4) it is not an ability that an object grants to itself; and (5) it does not set the values of such characteristics only if certain conditions are met.

When determining what a card ends up as, different effects are applied in a specific order, starting with the characteristics of the card itself:

    613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.

Both the Changeling ability and Intimidator's ability apply in layer 4. When multiple things get applied in the same layer, characteristic-defining abilities happen first:

  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).

It is worth noting that even though the creature will not have any types other than Coward / Warrior, it will still have the changeling ability; because nothing removed its abilities.


As long as you control a creature, you fully control it, no matter how you got control of it. For all gameplay purposes except ownership, it's "your" creature. When a creature's controller changes, the controller of equipments and enchantments attached to that creature does NOT change.

As you correctly pointed out, "You" in an object's card text always refers to the current controller of that object. Your questions of devotion is answered with this:

  109.5. The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller, [..]

An enchantment retains its controller even if the enchanted creature's controller changes:

  303.4e An Aura’s controller is separate from the enchanted object’s controller or the enchanted player; the two need not be the same. If an Aura enchants an object, changing control of the object doesn’t change control of the Aura, and vice versa. [..]

An equipment retains its controller even if the equipped creature's controller changes, and only the equipment's controller can use its activated abilities, such as the "Equip" ability:

  301.5d An Equipment’s controller is separate from the equipped creature’s controller; the two need not be the same. Changing control of the creature doesn’t change control of the Equipment, and vice versa. Only the Equipment’s controller can activate its abilities. [..]

Equipments and enchantments do not become unattached if the creature changes controllers, unless that would make the creature an illegal target (e.g. Bloodfire Infusion, which "falls off" if you stop controlling the enchanted creature). They continue to function normally as long as they are attached. The equipment's controller may choose to equip to a different creature when he is allowed to by the normal rules. If player A equips some other equipment to Zurgo, the same rules apply, the equipment will stay attached and function, no matter who controls Zurgo.


Are there any chess sets with more than 32 pieces?

The thing I know exists is a set with an extra queen each, so 34 pieces:

https://www.chessbazaar.com/tournament-series-staunton-chess-pieces-with-german-knight-in-sheesham-box-wood-3-7-king.html

This should cover like 99.9% of all games.

If you want more (actually an extra Knight/Rook/Bishop might be needed in very rare situations), you can look for single replacement pieces. Those can be easily found on google for popular chess designs:

https://www.chesshouse.com/collections/wooden-chess-pieces/products/single-standard-wood-chess-pieces


buster blader the dragon destroyer swoardsman effect not working

Buster bladers effect states:

Dragon type monsters in your opponents possession cannot activate their effects

Normally this would prevent Destiny hero - Plasma from activating it's absorb effect.
However, Plasma has a second effect:

Negate the effects of face-up monsters while your opponent controls them.

This is a continous effect, so it doesn't activate and so isn't blocked by Buster blader. This means that Buster bladers effect is negated and so can't stop Plasma from absorbing him.

For completions sake, in the case we have two monsters (e.g. 2 Plasma, or jinzo vs skill drain) that would negate eachothers effect. the one first on the field will win out and negate the other one.


Why is queen placement on the first turn disallowed?

From Wikipedia on Openings,

Bee - Spider - Spider (in a V formation with the bee at the point): This is an aggressive quick-strike opening that allows the player the fastest possible opportunity to move (on the third turn if necessary); the Spiders can thus quickly block the opponent's opening pieces. In addition, if the opponent answers with the same or a similar opening, it provides the best opportunity to force a draw if necessary as the Bees are adjacent. For this last reason, tournament rules forbid the placing of the Bee on the first move, as this opening leads to a preponderance of draws. Bee-Spider-Ant is a common variation very similar in its mechanics.

Emphasis mine.
Bee - Spider - Spider
Bee - Spider - Ant


How is the cost of landing on a property with x houses determined?

There is no formula that the game uses, different properties go up at different rates, and not always a consistent rate. You'll need to hard code the per property rent values into your system unfortunately.


Winning Race for the Galaxy Without 6-cost Developments?

I don't want to make this sound too much like an argument from authority, but I've won the WBC RftG tournament 3 years in a row.  I also mantain the Race for the Galaxy Statistics page, which has some interesting play data on cards from 160,000 games played.

(1) 6 devs are usually important for winning, but not required for doing so.  I build at least one 6 dev in more than 80% of the games that I play.

On the other hand, calling explore +5 early game isn't really a good move unless your whole hand is bad.  It's better to establish card flow so that you can keep most of the (somewhat fewer) cards that you see, instead of repeatedly exploring, which will leave you poor.  Repeatedly calling explore +5s leaves you too far on the quality over quantity spectrum.  It's not very useful to have great cards that you can't afford to build.  6 devs, especially multiple 6 devs, aren't great to have very early in the game, because they soak up valuable hand space that you need to get your card engine going.

(2) Produce/consume is indeed the most viable way to win the game without building a 6 dev.

First, basic strategy.  Early game you want to get card flow.  The best way to do this is to settle a windfall world and trade off it.  The second best way is to settle a production world, produce on it, and then trade.  Windfall settle/trade is better than Production world settle/produce/trade because it is a turn faster.  This is pretty general opening advice for any strategy.

(3) The key to a produce/consume strategy is to build production worlds early.  So ideally you want to settle/trade a windfall, and then call some mix of settle, trade, and produce.  You want to avoid calling develop, which mostly fills up your tableau without increasing your production capacity, until you have at least 2 production worlds and a windfall.  After this, you might want to dev once to put down an efficient consumer card.   Mining Conglomerate, Diversified Economy and Consumer Markets are the best non-6 cost devs for consumption in the base game.  Free Trade Association and Mining League are good 6-cost consumers.  But you can likely use an opponent's develop, or settle worlds with consumption powers instead.  Galactic Trendsetters, Tourist World, and Old Earth are the best worlds for consumption in the base game.  You want to call trade rather than consume 2xVP until you can get at least 6 VP per consume 2xVP.  Also important with a consume/produce engine is the ability to draw cards so that your engine doesn't stall as you are produce/consuming.  It's especially good to have cards that draw on produce.  This makes cards like Lost Species Ark World, Mining World, Comet Zone, and Gem World particularly good production worlds in the base game, as you can see at the graph on the base game rftgstats page.

Addendum: How does this change for expansions?

Produce/consume itself becomes marginally weaker in the expansions.  With the card stats by game version animated graph, you can can see Galactic Trendsetters hastily moving left (less often played) and down (less winning when played), which is a bread and butter produce/consume world.  This is due to two factors.

The addition of goals, which give an extra point source that is mostly rewarded for building.  P/C itself sometimes misses early builds to set up production capability.
The second is the introduction of the card Improved Logistics, which lets players settle twice in a single settle phase.  This card lets opponents quickly end the game, before a produce/consume player can get many cycles in.

However, the card Alien Toy Shop by itself is a 4 VP/cycle engine, which helps P/C a bit.

Still, the fundamentals for produce/consume are the same, but the fraction of times you want to produce/consume should decrease with the introduction of the first expansion.

The expansions also introduce another viable way to win without building a 6 dev, the tableau rush.  Since you can now get a substantial amount of points from goals, especially with the aid of improved logistics, you can grab a couple of goals and end the game really quickly with a middling score in the 30s.  But remember, the game is not about scoring big, it's about scoring more than your opponents.


Do permanents reenter the battlefield tapped with Brago, King Eternal?

Permanents changing zones have no memory of their previous state (meaning tapped or untapped):

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. [...]

Due to Brago's ability not invoking any additional state changes to the blinked cards, they will enter the battlefield as they normally would. This means that a Sol Ring will enter the battlefield untapped, while a Worn Powerstone would enter the battlefield tapped.

Note that other cards, such as Eldrazi Displacer, do set the state of the card re-entering the battlefield, so those cards will always enter the battlefield tapped.


Having not played this game, or played in the group you're playing, I can't give specifics, but I can talk a bit about my experiences with subterfuge in other contexts.  (poker is a classic for this)

The first, most important thing is that you need to have a story in mind that you want the other person to believe.  Simply saying no when you would normally say yes is an easy discontinuity to ferret out, especially when some of your other in-game behaviour doesn't match.  Check out some poker commentary; every now and then, they can tell almost exactly what the player is trying to represent, even though the cards are different.  If poker is too boring, check out stabby's team fortress 2 videos.  He also mentions what he meant for his targets to believe.

Try to keep track of what your recent visible actions have been.  If the story you'd like your targets to believe doesn't make any sense together with your history, it won't work.  Try to account for the other player's perspective.  Any knowledge helps.  In poker, if you're trying to represent an ace, you need to make sure your opponent doesn't have one already.

If your target has incentive to believe your story, it makes it easier.  Give them an angle for possibly double-crossing you.  Make them believe you are too far behind everyone and feel like being king-maker.  Give them a clear benefit in the deal with a small, obvious way that you 'plan' to take advantage, so they can think they're ready to defend.

One important thing, as has already been mentioned, is to not lie most of the time.  If the culture that you a playing in is about always being cut-throat, then you need to shake that up.  Give a few games away, act on impulse or emotion for a little while, but most importantly do this in such a way that it looks&sounds like your lies.  As a kid playing memory tile games, I'd often point out the correct tiles for the others and they'd think I was lying and go for something else.  You might have to be careful with this.  If you mess with the social contract too much, the game becomes frustrating for other players to the point they may decide they don't like playing with you.

Lastly, pay attention to the pace of the game.  If you make most of your decisions quickly or even flippantly, you need to match that speed with your lies.  The bonus with that is that the faster things are going, the smaller the misdirection has to be.  If the game is usually a slow, thoughtful process, you'll have to think through all of the details of your story before putting it out there for others.  In any case you need to be a lot quicker with your thought process when lying than during normal game-play, so it can often be helpful to slow down the game, think through a story, then discard the story and give the truth.

I hope that's helpful.


What datacards should a chaos space marines player use in a maelstrom of war game?

You have two options - there is a basic set of objective cards that is not army specific - any army can use these.  Additionally, the book "Traitor's Hate" details a new, Chaos Space Marine specific set of objectives that can be used.

It does not appear that you can buy these as a set of cards on their own, but it would not surprise me if this changed eventually.

Additionally, the only difference between any army's specific objectives and the generic objectives are in objectives 11,12,13,14,15,16.  You could use the basic cards, and replace those when they appear with the ones in the book (though, this requires you to pay more attention when drawing).


This game has been produced over the years in a number of very slightly different versions, originally stemming from a sociological study done in the 1960s; so while I haven't been able to find the rules for this version explicitly, an almost identical version was sold under the name "Poo-Ka-Boo", which helpfully has the rules printed on the back of the box.

For a slightly different version, 5ive Straight (aka The Game of 99!) is still produced.


Can Conjurer's Closet be used to keep a stolen Commander?

You got it wrong, but this interaction is tricky. Sliver Overlord can be put in the command zone, but the ability of Conjurer's Closet will return it to the battlefield anyway.

We follow the instructions in the triggered ability:

1) "exile target creature you control": instead of putting it in the exile zone, we put it in the command zone. We don't first exile it, then put it in the command zone. The commander is directly put in the command zone.

2) "return that card to the battlefield under your control": notice how this doesn't say "the exiled card". It says "that card". So we return the card from the command zone to the battlefield under player B control (because "your control" refers to player b, as he is the one who controls the triggered ability).

The rule that allows this to happen is the same one that allows to return the card from exile in the first place:

  400.7g A resolving spell or activated ability can perform actions on an object that moved from one zone to another while that spell was
  being cast or that ability was being activated, if that object moved
  to a public zone.

Here is a link to a similar ruling in Wizard's forum, about a commander and Cloudshift. Post 12 in that thread is from an official Net Rep, therefore that ruling is official.


Unpreventable damage to Gideon, the Oathsworn

Essentially, all cards that mention that "damage can't be prevented", though the sorceries will require additional cards to be cast during Gideon's owner's turn.

Those cards do what they say on the tin; damage can't be prevented, neither by activated abilities like Circle of Protection nor by static abilities like Gideon's.


Combat damage assignment with multiple blockers

Nope, nothing weird happens with blockers - they always assign damage equal to their power, no matter what order you've put them in. The order is just about dividing up your attacking creature's damage.

The rule you were probably looking at is:

  510.1c  A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. ... However, it can't assign combat damage to a creature that's blocking it unless, when combat damage assignments are complete, each creature that precedes that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage. ...

It sounds like the thing you missed is that this is only talking about the blocked creature (the attacking creature) assigning its combat damage to the creatures that are blocking it - it's an explanation of how that damage can get divided up among multiple blockers. The friendly/oversimplified version is "put them in order, then kill as many as you can starting with the first one" - pretty intuitive.

But the blockers? They always assign damage equal to their power:

  510.1a Each attacking creature and each blocking creature assigns combat damage equal to its power. ...

  510.1d A blocking creature assigns combat damage to the creatures it's blocking.  ...

There's no weird confusing rules here. The blockers always get to hit the creature they're blocking. (With the usual sorts of exceptions, e.g. they get killed before they get a chance to.) So your examples are pretty easy to deal with:

1) The 1/5 and the 1/1 both hit your 4/2, so it dies. If you put the 1/1 first, it'll take 1 damage (killing it) and the 1/5 will take 3; if you put the 1/5 first it'll take 4 damage and the 1/1 won't take any.

2) The six 1/1s all deal damage to your 4/6, so it dies. The 4/6 presumably assigns 1 damage each to the first four 1/1s you put in order, killing them. (Though you're actually allowed to deal more than lethal, e.g. 2 each to the first two, if you want to leave some of them alive for some reason.)

3) First strike doesn't change the result here; the 1/1 hits the 4/2 first, but then normal damage happens, and the 4/2 still gets to deal all 4 of its damage as you see fit. First strike would matter if instead you had a 2/1 with first strike; it'd kill the 4/2 before it had a chance to deal any damage.

If you want to make sure you understand the comprehensive rules (though it's probably overkill) read through that section again being careful to distinguish between "blocked creature" (an attacking creature which is blocked) and "blocking creature" (a creature which is blocking an attacking creature).


Does Mogg Sentry gain +2/+2 for each spell?

Mogg Sentry becomes a 5/5 until end of turn. Mogg Sentry's ability triggers once for each occurrence of "opponent casts a spell."

  603.2c An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences. See also rule 509.4.


The End of Anubis vs Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon

No, the effect will not be negated.

The critical phrase in The End of Anubis' effect here is (emphasis mine):

  that target a card(s) in the Graveyard

The only cards in the game which are defined by the game rules to inherently target are Equip Spell cards. All other cards/effects are not considered to target another card unless explicitly stated as such.

Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon does not require a target for its effect; the monster is chosen at resolution without being targeted. Therefore, the effect of Necro Dragon will not be negated.


Is there a card that turns +X/+X into X +1/+1 counters?

This sounds like a very powerful effect. I wouldn't expect it to be easy to muster.

I could find only two cards that come close:  Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter and
 Ooze Garden. Of course, these cards are the ones that get bigger permanently, not the attackers. The Ooze Garden is a bit problematic because it requires the creature to survive combat.

You might find an easier way to abuse the Exalted mechanic is to use something like a  Blood-Chin Fanatic. But really, you're overthinking it. The way to make an exalted attacker nearly unstoppable is to ensure it has hexproof and evasion. Hi  Invisible Stalker!


I understand the confusion because the rules don't explicitly say it but logically:

You should also keep all action cards that are in the play area because they effect the points at the end of the game. If you discard them each end of day, then they are worthless in the first two days of the game. And that ruins a large part of the game.

I suppose you could play in a way where the action cards that effect points only affect the day they were played, so that you add up your points each day before discarding them. That could be an interesting variation but that is obviously not the original game because the rules do state that action card points are added at the end of the game:

  When the third day is over, each player counts up the points on his or her noble cards...and any action cards that might add to or subtract from the point total.

Since it never says to add up the action card points before that, then we must assume they are held on to until the end of game.


How does Golos work with cards that increase mana costs?

Yes, you have to pay 1 mana in this case. Golos' ability introduces a so-called 'alternative cost':

  118.9. Some spells have alternative costs. An alternative cost is a cost listed in a spell’s text, or applied to it from another effect, that its controller may pay rather than paying the spell’s mana cost. Alternative costs are usually phrased, “You may [action] rather than pay [this object’s] mana cost,” or “You may cast [this object] without paying its mana cost.” ...

The exiled card's original mana cost is waived, but not the additional costs like the one from Sphere of Resistance:

  601.2f The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions. ...


No, that's not how that ruling is supposed to be read. Though I admit they worded it poorly.

The card can be sacrificed like any other, what the ruling means is you cannot sacrifice because of the second ability, just because you want it back in hand, but you can sacrifice it to anything that would allow you to sacrifice an artefact. Doing so will cause the second ability to trigger.

The second ability doesn't allow you to sacrifice it, it doesn't give you a way to do that by itself, but it doesn't prevent you from sacrificing it either.


Casual playing of Magic the Gathering MTG

This may be closed as opinion-based, but there isn't a "right way" to play MTG casually or to build decks. However, I find that you are approaching it from the wrong point of view, and are missing out on what is (in my opinion) the most fun part about playing Magic, which is the deck-building.
Sure you can find a deck list online that uses some of your cards and just build a deck that someone else has thought of. But then you are only getting half of what Magic has to offer... you are getting the play-the-game part, but you are missing out on the build-the-deck part.
My recommendation would be to avoid looking at any deck lists, and instead just look through the cards you have. Get some ideas based on the cards you have and then build the best deck you can with only the cards you have. Of course it won't be as strong of a deck as it would if you were buying whatever specific cards you need to make a great deck, but it should be balanced against the deck that your girlfriend made since it came from the same pool of cards.
It sounds from the question wording like you are thinking of a Magic deck as one of a bunch of different possibilities that you can find and use. But really a Magic deck is any set of at least 60 cards that doesn't contain more than 4 of the same card (except basic lands). So there's no "right" or "wrong" decks to make, there are just ones which will win more often or be more fun to play. But challenging yourself to build a deck without the ability to just use any card you can think of can be a lot of fun.
The one thing you may need to get outside of the cards you already have is basic lands, depending on what basic lands your collection came with. You can get a lot of these very cheap, but you will need several of them to build almost any deck.


What happens in Go if you "take back" a ko before making a ko threat?

In all official rules that I know this means instant forfeit of the game. Of course, in casual play, mistakes like this can be allowed to take back at the will of the players.

In tournaments I would strongly advise against making such a mistake as well as trying to ask for a take back. If the other player does not seem to allow a take back by his own active will, just resign and promise yourself to not make the same mistake again. Mental strength is part of the game, too, after all (just like time management, i.e. losing on time).

The reason players sometime forget to make a threat is often that after player A took the ko, player B takes some time to contemplate the threats, the board, counts the score, and finally simply recaptures the ko - the need to play a threat slipped out of their mind in the meantime.


Yes, Nicol Bolas will be exiled and return transformed. The Unearth effect does not apply to that event.

Sedris, the Traitor King has the following ruling:

  If a creature returned to the battlefield with unearth would leave the battlefield for any reason, it’s exiled instead — unless the spell or ability that’s causing the creature to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it! In that case, it succeeds at exiling it. If it later returns the creature card to the battlefield (as Oblivion Ring or Flickerwisp might, for example), the creature card will return to the battlefield as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effect will no longer apply to it.

The exact definition of Unearth is in rule 702.83a:

  Unearth is an activated ability that functions while the card with unearth is in a graveyard. “Unearth [cost]” means “[Cost]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

It is not going "anywhere else", so the Unearth replacement effect does not apply.


Why Valki returns stolen card even after the transformation?

Whenever a card references itself by name, it means "this object".

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

This means that Valki's first ability refers to the card presently represented by Valki, God of Lies, not one named that. It'll still be the same object even if it changes its name or characteristics somehow, such as with its activated ability.


Mishra's Factory - Rarity and Peasant/Pauper Legality

C1 means it is an Uncommon even though it was printed on the Common sheet.

Back when Antiquities was printed they only had 2 printing sheets, an Uncommon sheet and a Common sheet, then on each sheet there was a variable number of each card printed to create its rarity. This designation of rarity is written like U1 or C4, denoting one copy on the Uncommon sheet and 4 copies on the Common sheet respectively. U1 cards are considered Rares, U3 and C1 cards have the same rarity and are considered Uncommons, C4 cards are Commons, U2 and C2 cards are a little weird and seem to get classified as Uncommons even though they are actually more rare/common respectively. (Source)

When in doubt you can always check Gatherer. As you can see it considers 3 of the arts to be Rare (since they were printed at U1) and one of them to be Uncommon (because it was printed at C1)


Can I tap a card after I assign it to block?

During the combat phase, after I assign a blocker, can I then tap that blocker for its activated ability?

Yes.  Blockers only need to be untapped when they're actually declared as blockers; after that, tapping & untapping have no effect on blocking or any other parts of combat.

  506.4b Tapping or untapping a creature that’s already been declared as an attacker or blocker doesn’t remove it from combat and doesn’t prevent its combat damage.

  What would happen?

The activated ability would go on the stack, like normal.

  For example, say that a 1/1 Saproling token equipped with Healer's Headress is assigned to block an attacking 3/1 Blade of the Sixth Pride, but after it's assigned, the Saproling is tapped to prevent one damage to it. Is that legal?

Yes.

  Would anything change if the attacking creature had first strike, like Ambush Party?

No.


Takenoko growing bamboo when gardner lands on non-irrigated plot

If you look at the faq on board game geek is specifies that the gardener will grow bamboo on adjacent plots if they are irrigated regardless of the plot he landed being irrigated. What is important here is that the plot that is getting the bamboo growth is irrigated.
https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Takenoko_FAQ

If the plot the gardener is on is not irrigated, the bamboo will still grow on the adjacent plots of the same color if they are irrigated.