Does removing the timer make Space Hulk significantly easier?

Yes, removing the timer makes the game significantly easier, almost trivially so.

Why? Because the timer reduces the amount of information the board can yield.

For example, without the timer the marine player can count squares to determine whether it is useful to spend actions putting marines on overwatch/guard. Without the timer, actions are used much more efficiently to achieve the mission objectives and win. With the timer the marine player can be bottled up much easier.


The short: Yes any creature that suffers leathal damage 'dies' including those with Defender.

A wall as they were previously known, is a creature with defender.

If it takes 5 damage it is destroyed.(Dies)

Rule 119 all parts but this one in particular:

  119.5. Damage dealt to a creature or planeswalker doesn't destroy it. Likewise, the source of that damage doesn't destroy it. Rather,
  state-based actions may destroy a creature or planeswalker, or
  otherwise put it into its owner's graveyard, due to the results of the
  damage dealt to that permanent. See rule 704.

And the state based action is what sends the creature to the grave yard:

  704.5g If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and the total damage marked on it is greater than or equal to its toughness, that
  creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed. Regeneration
  can replace this event.

And Defender:

  702.3. Defender

  702.3a Defender is a static ability.

  702.3b A creature with defender can't attack.

  702.3c Multiple instances of defender on the same creature are redundant.

So a 'Defender' is simply a creature with an ability. Any creature that has damage marked on it that is greater than it's toughness, is destroyed as a state based action.


When do you reveal the top card of your library with Courser of Kruphix and scry lands?

You never get to choose to reveal the top card of your library. As soon as a card becomes the top card of your library (which happens when the previous top card, the land, was removed from your library to be put into play) it is revealed. It's not something you can respond to or choose to take other actions. It's a property of your library that must be maintained at all times.

I would venture to say that option 2 would get you in trouble at a sanctioned event.

There is a case that appears to break that rule. From the comp rules:

  If the top card of the player's library changes while a spell is being cast, the new top card won't be revealed and can't be looked at until the spell becomes cast.

So if you're casting a spell, and it says something like "As an additional cost to cast ~, exile the top three cards of your library face down." You may not reveal those three cards before exiling them. The top one would stop being revealed as it goes face down, and the two below it stay face down (to both you and your opponents). For a brief moment, the top card is still face down, because the spell is still in the act of being cast - once the spell is actually cast (i.e. placed on the stack) the top card of your deck is revealed.

However, do note that State-Based Actions (SBA) aren't checked/performed while the spell is being cast. SBA checks include "is the top card of my library revealed?" or "do any creatures have 0 toughness?"

Consider a creature with something like "Play with the top card of your library revealed. ~'s power and toughness are equal to the revealed card's mana cost". If you had no card revealed, the creature would die. By not performing state-based actions until the spell completes casting and the next top card revealed, you don't lose your (theoretical) creature even though its toughness temporarily drops to zero.


Largest Army in Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights

The Largest Army card is not used in Cities and Knights.
See the rulebook p2, under "What you need from your Settlers game"

Set aside  ...

The Largest Army card


There seem to be several different scoring systems for fields/cities in Carcassonne -- which is correct?

The third edition scoring is now what is shipped by both Rio Grande Games(US distributor) and Hans im Glück(Original, German publishers)

Rio Grande Games made the changes for the english version of the game (1st and 2nd edition scoring).

Here are a summary of the scoring rule changes by edition

1st Edition

Small City scoring (Completed 2 tile cities only score 2)
Farmer scoring:

Select a city
Count the farmers in fields touching that city
The player with the majority of farmers on all farms touching that city scores 4
Repeat for each city.

2nd Edition

Small City scoring (Completed 2 tile cities only score 2)
Farmer scoring:

Pick a farm
Count the farmers on that farm
The player with the most farmers scores 3 for each city touching that farm
Repeat for each city.  However, each city can only be scored once

3rd Edition

All city scoring is 2 points per tile, no small city exception
Farmer Scoring:

Pick a farm
Count the farmers on that farm
The player with the most farmers scores 3 for each city touching that farm
Repeat for each farm.  Each city can be scored multiple times.

Rio Grande Games only recently (2009) starting shipping the 3rd edition rules, while Hans im  Glück issued them in 2004.  The reason given is that RGG prefers not to issue rule changes when reprinting a game. This meant that they had to rewrite the rules of most expansions issued to ensure they were compatible.

I do not believe that Jay Tummelson (Head of Rio Grande Games) has stated why the switch was made in 2009.  I think there are two possible explanations.

The Abbey and Mayor expansion introduced the barn piece.  The barn piece is scored essentially like a farm (it scores and eliminates all farmers in the farm).  This is easily understood for those familiar with the 3rd edition rules, but confusing for those using 1st.
All electronic editions of the game use 3rd edition scoring.  This could have forced RGG's hand.  When everyone in the US was playing just the RGG version it was easy to maintain a consistent rule set.  Now, a lot of us play on our Xbox or Ipad as well as using the board game.  This makes the differences more noticeable.


Don't the Planeswalkers in Commander 2014 that say they can be your Commander contradict the fact the Commanders have to be legendary creatures?

The very first of Magic's Golden Rules:

  101.1. Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 104.3a).

So yes, they contradict, and it's fine. And this isn't really unusual; tons and tons of cards have text that effectively says "now the rules work a little differently, and here's how." For an extreme example, the rules say you lose the game when you're reduced to 0 or less life, but Platinum Angel says you can't lose the game, and it takes precedence.


What is the definitive source of rulings for the Pokemon TCG?

Official Pokémon ruling document regarding particular cards or their combinations is Pokémon TCG Rulings Compendium BW. It contains all rulings that were released by Pokémon Rules Team and approved by The Pokémon Company International.

If your card is not listed there, you can also look at similar mechanics, most of the time there is a card or a combination that fits your needs.

Your example of Decidueye-GX's Ability is covered by the TCG Rulebook though. It contains all the basic rules of the game.

  3 ATTACK AND END YOUR TURN
  On the first turn of the game, the starting player skips this step. (...)

  ABILITY: An Ability is an effect on a Pokémon that is not
  an attack. (...)

You can use an Ability on the first turn of the game if it doesn't say that you can't.


Your opponent will be dealt up to 5 damage

Damage doesn't wear off until end of turn, so it's irrelevant how much damage a creature is dealt in the First Strike or normal combat damage segment individually.

  119.6. Damage marked on a creature remains until the cleanup step (...)

Therefore, when dealing with a creature with Trample, you can simply add up the defense of all creatures blocking it, subtract that number from the trampling creature's total power (multiplied by 2, if it has Double Strike) and end up with the amount of damage dealt to the player. In this case, here's what the calculation looks like:

8 * 2 - (5 + 2 + 2 + 2)  =  16 - 11  =  5

Exceptions to this rule would be the creature with Double Strike dieing in the First Strike combat damage segment, for example when blocked by a Glissa, the Traitor. Since the blocking creatures in this case aren't capable of dealing lethal damage in the First Strike combat damage step, damage assignment order and combat damage segments are irrelevant to this specific example.

Note that you can assign more damage to a blocking creature than it has toughness, meaning you could assign all damage to the blocking creatures and none to the defending player. Because of that, the answer is phrased "up to 5 damage"


In Eldritch Horror, when a mythos card refers to a monster's toughness, does it mean its current or max toughness?

Toughness is the max health. That's the damage you should take.
To clarify,  a monster taking damage does not effect its toughness. Once a monster takes damage equal to Toughness,  it dies


Yes. Meren's ability targets the card it returns (by explicitly using the word "target"), meaning that it is chosen as the triggered ability is put on the stack. While it is on the stack, you are allowed to activate Scarab God's ability and target the same card. This will put the Scarab God's ability on top of Meren's ability on the stack.

Assuming no other interference, the Scarab God's ability will resolve first, exiling the creature card. Then, when Meren's ability resolves, it will be unable to find its target and the ability will therefore be removed from the stack without resolving (I have personally always used the word "fizzle" for this non-resolution, but I don't know how prevalent it is, and it's not part of the official rules).

Note that if Meren's ability hadn't said "target", all you would be able to do would be to blindly exile creature cards you think your opponent wants to revive in the hopes of ruining their immediate plans, but that wouldn't stop your opponent from reviving something. The only way you could stop that would be to exile all creature cards in your opponent's graveyard, provided you have the mana.


POKER - Is it best to sit out your blinds?

No.

You can't re-enter on the button (or the small blind)(at least in any game run by sensible and fair people). This would require moving it past the player who has just been in the hands where they paid their own blinds, denying them the position opportunity you are trying to aim for.

The earliest you re-enter is one before the button, defeating the purpose of sitting out.

If this was a viable strategy, everybody would repeatedly do it, paying both blinds on the button and never at any other time. Clearly this doesn't happen.


Athreos, God of Passage, and Martyr of Sands

Your opponent does still gain the life. Nothing in the ability says that the Martyr has to be in their graveyard to gain the life. The sacrifice cost was paid, and once the ability was on the stack, it existed independent of the creature card (CR 112.7a).


How does Unstable set's "The Grand Calcutron" work with cards that interact with a player's hand?

The program is your hand, and effects that affect or care about the contents of your hand affect or care about the program while The Grand Calcutron is on the battlefield.
Mark Rosewater answered this question specifically regarding discarding as follows:

What happens if an effect forces you to discard a card while The Grand Calcutron is in play? Do you discard from your program?
You discard a card from the program. With Grand Calcutron on the battlefield, your hands are the program so things that affect your hand affect the program.

Presumably, "things that affect your hand" includes the rule instructing you to discard to hand size in the cleanup step, so an effect that modifies your maximum hand size would affect the program the same way they would affect a regular hand.
Similarly, an effect that requires selecting a card from a hand would have you select from the program instead, and anything that wants to count the cards in the hand would count the cards in the program.


Looking for the name of an old board game featuring a wolf, I think he was called Willy

The Uncle Wiggily board game had colored pieces that moved on a track, and the "Fox Den" had an animal that looked like a wolf.  The game is filled with creatures, unfortunate events, and close calls that could frighten a small child.

It was first published in 1916, but has been republished as recently as 1989.


How many cubes can the containment specialist remove in Pandemic On The Brink

One cube from each disease with 2 or more cubes

The "On the Brink" rulebook states this on page 3:

  If there are multiple diseases with 2 or more cubes present, remove 1 cube from each such disease.


What's the deal with the new Wastes land and the diamond symbol on it?

Short answer

In a cost, the new diamond symbol {C} can only be paid with colorless, while {1} can be paid with any color or colorless.
In an effect that adds mana to a mana pool, {C} means the same thing as {1}. Cards that are printed with "Add {1} to your mana pool" have received errata to add {C} instead (e.g. Unknown Shores).

Likewise, cards that add {2}, {3}, etc have been updated to use the corresponding number of {C} symbols (e.g. Palladium Myr, Thran Dynamo)

Colorless mana doesn't work any differently (colorless is still not a color, and you can't pick "colorless" if asked to pick a color).
Wastes taps for 1 colorless mana. It's also Basic, so you can have more than 4 in a deck. It has no subtypes, so you can't pick "Wastes" if asked to choose a basic land type.

The official Oath of the Gatewatch mechanics guide includes a detailed description of this.

Long answer

The diamond symbol

The new diamond symbol is the new symbol for colorless mana, and it is written as {C} in text. Rule 107.4c says

  The colorless mana symbol {C} is used to represent one colorless mana, and also to represent a cost that can be paid only with one colorless mana.

In an ability that generates mana (i.e. "add {C}"), it adds colorless mana to your mana pool, exactly as the abilities on Reliquary Tower and Ancient Tomb currently do. In a cost, like on the new Kozilek, it represents a mana cost that can only be paid with colorless mana. Kozilek costs {8}{C}{C}, so its cost can be paid with 8 mana of any type, and 2 mana that must be colorless. This exactly mirrors how colored symbols work in costs: a cost of {8}{G}{G} can be paid with 8 mana of any type and 2 mana that must be green.

Rule 105 has the following subrules

  105.1. There are five colors in the Magic game: white, blue, black, red, and green.

  105.4. If a player is asked to choose a color, he or she must choose one of the five colors. “Multicolored” is not a color. Neither is “colorless.”

Colorless is specifically not a color, and you cannot choose it when making mana of any color. Mark Rosewater (the Head Designer for Wizards) has stated this repeatedly in the context of Oath of the Gatewatch.

The oracle text of every card that generates colorless mana has been updated to use {C} to represent colorless mana.

And rule 107.4b says

  Numerical symbols (such as {1}) and variable symbols (such as {X}) represent generic mana in costs. Generic mana in costs can be paid with any type of mana. For more information about {X}, see rule 107.3

So nothing about generic mana has changed. Costs with numeric and variable symbols can be paid with any type of mana, as it has always been.

This change has no effect on mana cost reduction effects. Rule 117.7a says

  Effects that reduce a cost by an amount of generic mana affect only the generic mana component of that cost. They can’t affect the colored or colorless mana components of that cost.

And every card that previously reduced a cost by a generic amount still has that effect. For example, Eye of Ugin still has the text

  Colorless Eldrazi spells you cast cost {2} less to cast.

Wastes

The complete text of the card Wastes is

  Wastes
  Basic Land

  {T}: Add {C} to your mana pool.

And rule 205.3i still says

  Lands have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called land types. The land types are Desert, Forest, Gate, Island, Lair, Locus, Mine, Mountain, Plains, Power-Plant, Swamp, Tower, and Urza’s.
  Of that list, Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, and Swamp are the basic land types. See rule 305.6.

So, Wastes has no land type, and there are no new basic land types. This means that cards like Coalition Victory don't work any differently than they did before.

An additional important difference between Wastes and other basic lands is that to put Wastes into you limited deck (Draft or Sealed) you need to open them. They appeared twice as often as other common cards in Oath of the Gatewatch to make this easier.

The fact that it did not add a new basic land type also means that you cannot choose "Wastes" as the basic land type for cards like Convincing Mirage or Crystal Spray.

Some cards, like Walker of the Wastes, care about Wastes, but they specifically care about lands with that name, instead of lands with a specific type.

I want to emphasize this point: the mana generated by Wastes is just colorless mana. It works exactly like any other mana source that generates colorless mana, so it does not count for Sunburst, or Converge, or anything else that counts colors. If you copy the mana with Doubling Cube, you get regular colorless mana. If you have a Wastes and a Reflecting Pool, they both just tap for regular colorless mana.


In Star Fluxx, have you needed to change how The Computer and The Unseen Force play?

I tend to think of Unseen Force as annoyance, whereas The Computer is probably the strongest card in the game.  There are various things you can do to try to dilute the power of an opponent's The Computer, raising the draw and play count rules and creating hand and keeper limits.  Plus you can always steal keepers or play Brain Transference.  That said, if someone pulls out The Computer at the start of the game then it is really hard to keep up with them.  There are other strong cards in the game like Holographic Projection and The Captain so it doesn't feel like the game is broken to me.

Is it possible that you are a much better player than your opponents are and it is this that grinds them down?


Does Goblin Test Pilot hit a Planeswalker?

Whenever you do damage to a player outside of combat, you can decide to redirect that to one of that player's planeswalkers instead. This is explained better than I can by Wizard's cust-help:

  If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent,
  you may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker that
  opponent controls instead. This is a redirection effect: you choose
  whether to redirect the damage as the redirection effect is applied,
  and it's subject to the normal rules for ordering replacement effects.
  The player affected by the damage chooses the order in which to apply
  such effects, but the controller of the source of the damage chooses
  whether the damage is redirected. Note that this redirection can't be
  applied to combat damage.

  For example, although you can't target a planeswalker with Shock, you can target your opponent with Shock, and then as Shock resolves,
  choose to have Shock deal its 2 damage to one of your opponent's
  planeswalkers. If you do, two loyalty counters are removed from that
  planeswalker.
  You can't choose to split the damage between a player and a planeswalker. In the Shock example above, you couldn't have Shock deal
  1 damage to the player and 1 damage to the planeswalker.
  If a source you control would deal damage to you, you can't have that source deal that damage to one of your planeswalkers instead.
  In a Two-Headed Giant game, damage that would be dealt to a player can't be redirected to a planeswalker his or her teammate controls.


You are playing the buy phase incorrectly.
In the buy phase, you always play all of your treasure cards, one at a time, before you buy any card. In fact, you are not allowed to play any more treasure cards after you buy a card.
You never play specific treasure cards to buy specific cards. Don't think of treasures as the currency you use to buy cards. Rather, treasure cards are just cards like action cards are, except that you play them in your buy phase rather than in your action phase. When you play a Silver, it produces $2, just like how playing a Festival produces $2. After you have played all of your treasures, you will have some total amount of money available, produced by all the actions and treasures that you have played. Then you proceed to spend that money on cards you want to buy.
So when you play Venture, you first get $1 added to your pool of money, and then you reveal cards until you reveal another treasure card and play that as well.
If you play 3 Idols, you play them one at a time and fully deal with each Idol when you play it. So the first one will give you a boon, the second one will give your opponents a curse, and the third one will give you another boon. Only after you are done playing all of your treasures and dealing with all of their effects do you buy cards. The treasure cards and the instructions on them never care if you actually buy anything. You can play a bunch of Idols just for the extra benefit and then never buy a card.
From the base-game rulebook (second edition):

First you can play any number of Treasure cards from your hand, in any order. Treasure cards say "Treasure" on the bottom and have a yellow banner. You play one by moving it to the "in play"
area; you probably will not announce your Treasures, though you can if you want. The Treasures have no text, just a big coin with a number on it. You get that many coins to spend this turn - one coin for a Copper, two for a Silver, three for a Gold, indicated as $1, $2, $3. The amount is also in the corners at the top of Treasures. You do not have to play every Treasure in your hand (but only get $ this turn for the Treasures you play).

Then, you can buy one card, costing as much as you have or less.

You cannot go back and play more Treasures after buying a card; first play Treasures, then buy.

The treasure cards in Prosperity follow the same rules as the treasure cards in the base game; it's just that in the base game; no treasure cards have effects other than producing some amount of money.


In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, what are some common opening moves?

that's basically it. The game is about being convincing. You have to pick an option and stick with it. Convincing everyone that you're telling the truth. There's not enough information to do much more than that.


Can I omit Advanced Missions in Star Fleet Battles?

I've just found out that I won't miss anything ruleswise, but I will have neither the (sometimes necessary) ship descriptions (but those can also be found in the Master Starship books for the specific races/factions) nor the scenarios.


Does anyone else use The Little Girl in Werewolf?

I have mostly played the game with this character, almost never without, so I can't really compare. That being said, from our experience as a group, and from my personal experience of having been The Little Girl myself quite often, this character actually isn't all that powerful, and certainly not "hugely overpowered". Whether I have seen the wolves or not, I still have just one vote, and I still have to defend it against others' views (with 10-15 people, our group is rather large).

Of course, I can always say "listen up, people, I am the Little Girl, so follow my advice", but a) people don't have to believe me, since b) I might actually be lying, and most importantly, c) the wolves will pay special attention to me from then on, and I'll probably get killed the very next night.

Of course, The Little Girl does become quite powerful when she's also the Village Chief, but then again, so does pretty much any character. Besides, from our experience, a Village Chief is even more likely to get killed quickly. I would say the game is pretty well-balanced, actually.


What happens when Mathas, Fiend Seeker's bounty counters go away and come back again?

The bounty will only trigger once.

For as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it..." is a continuous effect.

The effect itself being that it has the triggered ability, and the duration being "as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it".

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it.

The moment the first bounty counter leaves the creature, the continuous effect ends, and thus it loses the triggered ability. The fact that it later gets a new, second bounty counter is irrelevant to that first ability.

It's worth noting that if you give the same creature 2 counters, and then it loses just one of those counters (such as through Medicine Runner or something), then it will still have 2 instances of the triggered ability, because neither continuous effect will have ended.


Neither. Treat your planeswalker as if they are a separate player, one that you can use your creatures to block for. If there is trample damage when your block, that damage goes to your planeswalker, not you. If you don't block (or do block and there's trample) and that damage is more than enough to kill your planeswalker, then your planeswalker dies, and no damage is dealt to you. Damage never tramples over onto you from an attack at your planeswalker. From the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

  510.1b An unblocked creature assigns its combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking. If it isn't currently attacking anything (if, for example, it was attacking a planeswalker that has left the battlefield), it assigns no combat damage.


What are the Differences Between Formula Dé and Formula D?

Formula D is a more recent version with a few rules changes and some tweaks.

Car miniatures are different.  I think the old Formula Dé ones are higher quality; that said, both are perfectly functional.
Formula D comes with some nice new 'gear stick' control sheets which let you track your current gear by sliding a gearstick, alongside a pegboard for tracking car wear.
(I find these more convenient than the old versions; they seem slightly faster and easier.)
Formula D has updated the rules a little; in particular there are more categories of car wear.  In Dé wear is measured by using up a limited pool of points of tires, brakes and fuel.  In D fuel is not tracked, but wear is counted against: tires, brakes, gearbox, body, engine and suspension.
(In play this isn't nearly as complicated as it sounds; our group found it just as intuitive as the old system.)
Formula D is newer and maps are still being published. There are 8 maps for D to date (counting the two in the box) compared to around 30 for Dé.  This isn't important, as the map format has not changed significantly; maps for Formula Dé work fine with Formula D.
Formula D allows street racing as well as Formula 1; map sets so far all have a Formula 1 map on one side and a "city" map on the back.  These use the same system, but have added hazards.
There are also some rules changes (less worrying about weather tires, more use of nitrous oxide... street racing characters also have minor special abilities and different car wear stats.)


Maxxing out the trader track in Stone Age: Style is the Goal

There is actually a difference between the wording of the English and German rules, that I think is significant.  The English rules say:

  (Each time the player moves his marker forward  on the trader track,
  regardless of how far, he takes 2 decorations.)

In the German, by contrast:

  (Jedes Mal, wenn der Spieler auf der Händlerleiste vorrückt, unabhängig
  ob 1 oder 2 Felder, erhält er 2 Schmuck.)

To roughly translate that, and highlight the difference: "Each time that the player on the trader track advances, regardless of whether it is 1 or 2 spaces, he takes 2 decorations."

I think it's a lot clearer from that wording that getting the decorations is specifically linked to advancing along the track, and that "advancing 0 spaces" was not meant to count as advancing.  As such, I'd come to the opposite conclusion to user1873's answer, and assume that the designer only meant you to be able to get decorations while making real progress along the trader track, and not to be able to milk it for more decorations after having maxed it out.


How does Elemental Resonance convert a Mana Cost to a Mana Source?

Short Answer

As of Oath of the Gatewatch, rule 106.10 says

  106.10. If an effect would add mana represented by a generic mana symbol to a player’s mana pool, that much colorless mana is added to that player’s mana pool.

Old Answer

A couple of subrules of rule 106 concern adding converting mana cost to mana:

  106.8. If an effect would add mana represented by a hybrid mana symbol to a player’s mana pool, that player chooses one half of that symbol. If a colored half is chosen, one mana of that color is added to that player’s mana pool. If a colorless half is chosen, an amount of colorless mana represented by that half’s number is added to that player’s mana pool.
  106.9. If an effect would add mana represented by a Phyrexian mana symbol to a player’s mana pool, one mana of the color of that symbol is added to that player’s mana pool.

The last part of 106.8 is relevant, because it explicitly says that the generic part of a monocolored hybrid mana symbol (which it calls the "colorless half") is converted to colorless mana. Unfortunately, this only tangentially touches on the issue of how generic mana costs are converted. However, rule 107.4c arguably applies:

  Numeral symbols (such as {1}) and variable symbols (such as {X}) can also represent colorless mana if they appear in the effect of a spell or ability that reads “add [mana symbol] to your mana pool” or something similar. (See rule 107.3e.)

Combined with the subrules of 106 quoted above, we can interpret Elemental Resonance's ability to mean

  For each symbol in enchanted permanent's mana cost, add that to your mana pool.

If we look at it that way, then the conversion of generic mana cost to colorless mana is simply a consequence of moving the symbol from a mana cost context to a mana generation context. In other words, it adds colorless mana to your mana pool because that's what would have happened if we had inserted the mana cost symbolically into a mana generating ability.

The current rules don't indicate unambiguously how Elemental Resonance will interact with the new rules, but with the rulings we have and the information that Wizards has published so far, we can make some strong educated guesses.

First, in a Twitter Q&A session regarding the new colorless symbol, Wizards Community Manager Trick Jarrett tweeted

  There is no functional errata planned with this change.

This was in response to a question about cost reduction, but the wording seems to imply that there will be no functional errata to any cards because of the new symbol.

This implies that all of the current rulings will still be accurate. In particular, this means that when Elemental Resonance converts a cost with generic mana, it will add the corresponding amount of {C} to your mana pool.

We can also extrapolate from the existing rulings that if a cost contains {C}, then Elemental Resonance will add {C} to your mana pool for each corresponding symbol in the cost. In other words, Elemental Resonance attached to the new Kozilek, which costs {8}{C}{C}, will add ten colorless mana to your mana pool.


Does Zada, Hedron Grinder work with Soul's Fire and other similar instants?

No, it would not.

Zada:

  Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only Zada, Hedron Grinder, copy that spell for each other creature you control that the spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those creatures.

Fall of the Hammer:

  Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to another target creature.

Since there are two instances of the word "target" (and Zada can't be both), Zada is not the only target.

I suppose Soul's Fire could target Zada herself, so each creature you control would deal damage to itself


They are Topsun Pokemon cards from 1997 (There was also a 1995 set of Topsun cards, which is more common), they came from Bandai vending machines in a gum and card pack.

There is a video of someone opening a pack on youtube

There are also a number of listings on eBay


If a blocking creature leaves the battlefield, is the attacker still blocked, or will it damage the opponent?

No

The player takes no damage as the Dragon remains blocked. From the Comprehensive Rules for the Declare Blockers step:

  509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

An Exception is, when the attacking creature has trample. See the Comprehensive Rules for Keyword Abilities:

  702.19c If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned, all its damage
  is assigned to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.


If I extend a word, do I get points for all the words, or just the straight line word?

You are correct (you get points just for SADE and EN, not for the other words still on the board that were on the board before your turn). Here's the rule from the official rules (emphasis added):

  The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word(s) formed or modified on that turn

Perhaps an even easier way to resolve this doesn't even involve going back to the rules and finding the legal code that specifies it one way ot the other, but to consider what the ramifications of the other way of doing things would be.

Change your example a bit and the answer becomes clear:

If you add your E to

S
ABOUT
DENTISTRY
 N
 D

to make SADE and EN again:

S
ABOUT
DENTISTRY
EN
 D

would you attempt to score ABOUT and DENTISTRY? I think not.


Can a card effect make a creature block one that it otherwise could not?

Yes, the creatures will still be blocked by tokens. See the ruling on Nature Shields its Own:

  The Plant token blocks the attacking creature even if the block couldn't legally be declared (for example, if the attacking creature has flying).

This is because things like flying and protection only affect the declare blockers step. The prevent a creature from being declared as a blocker. But Nature Shields its Own kicks in at the end of the declare blockers step; it is not affected by evasion abilities.


Should I use all actions before buying anything?

From the rules:

  "The player must complete all of his Actions before
  he moves on to the Buy phase of his turn."


No, the vehicle stops being a creature at the end of your turn.

  702.121a Crew is an activated ability of Vehicle cards. “Crew N” means “Tap any number of untapped creatures you control with total power N
  or greater: This permanent becomes an artifact creature until end of
  turn.”

This is reflected in the reminder text most Vehicle cards have beside their Crew ability.

If you activate the Crew ability again on your opponent's turn, it will again become a creature and potentially be affected by the enchantment.

Source


As per the official FAQ here

  Q: Does Sea Zone 3 connect to the United Kingdom?
  A: Yes,

If my memory serves correctly, that is Scapa Flow.


Eclipse: some House rules to cut down on chance in die rolling?

Average Dice:
The easiest solution would to use an average die, i.e. a d6 with the faces:
0/1/1/2/2/3

0 is a automatic miss
3 is a automatic hit

A modified 3 is a normal hit, e.g. a rolled 1 with +2 from computers is a hit.

While the extreme swings (all dice show automatic hit/miss) are not mitigated, the impact of the modifiers (computers, shields) is twice as large, decreasing the overall randomness.

When an average die is rolled you must remember if it is yellow (1 hit = 1 damage), orange (1 hit = 2 damage) or red (1 hit = 4 damage). Potentially rolling the dice of different colors after each other to prevent confusion.

All other rules should be applicable. Outside of combat, still normal d6 are necessary (e.g. for hive hexes).

Average dice are available online (either physical or as an app) and are useful in numerous games to reduce the randomness of the dice.

No Automatic Hit/Miss
If you want to address the extreme swings, then remove the automatic hit/miss parts of the game, i.e. a 1 can hit with +5 modifier and a 6 misses against -1 shield. I wouldn't recommend this, as shield become too powerful (ships cannot be hit at all), but if this suits your taste, why not?

Lastly average dice and not automatic hits/misses can be combined for an drastic reduction of the luck in the game.


I believe that Living Card Games is a term used (and owned) by Fantasy Flight Games.

You can read about them on their website.  The basic theory is that they release a core set and potentially endless expansion packs.  However unlike Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, each set (core or otherwise) comes complete in each pack.

This should keep the cost much less for LCG's.


When a card instructs an opponent to do something, how does that work in a multi-player game?

You choose an opponent. That opponent chooses a land for you to sacrifice.

At the beginning of your upkeep, unless you pay BlackBlackBlack, tap Demonic Hordes and sacrifice a land of an opponent's choice.

(You may choose a different opponent each upkeep that you do not pay BlackBlackBlack.)
From a 1995 ruling:

Choose a different opponent each time the effect applies.

(That link has a long list of such rulings for the cards that were available at the time)
For a more recent rules compilation, see
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Multiplayer
According to the comments, theses are now in section 601.5a


I dont know that game, but a quick look into a search engine gave this link:

https://creatingmaryshome.com/help-your-neighbor-a-game/

the article includes the rules, not sure if they what you are searching for, feel free to update this answer to include the details yourself


No, trample only works when dealing combat damage. The damage dealt by creatures because of Moonlight Hunt is non-combat damage.

  702.19a Trample is a static ability that modifies the rules for assigning an attacking creature’s combat damage. The ability has no effect when a creature with trample is blocking or is dealing noncombat damage.


You cannot play anything unless it is your turn. The rules for the stock being exhausted don't allow any player to act outside of their regular turn. The only difference between an exhausted stock or a normal turn is that because there is nothing to draw from the stock, you must draw from the discard pile instead.

So the game can end before you have had a turn at all after the stock was exhausted... be sure to notice if the stock is running low and play what you can while you still can!

From these rules:

  If the last card of the stock is not a red three, play continues as long as each player in turn takes the discard, and he must do so if it matches a meld on his side and the pack is not frozen. (The only exception is that a one-card hand may not take a one-card discard pile). A player does not have to take the discard to form a new meld. The play ends when a player cannot take the discard or legally refuses to take it.


Are there times when a hand with a seven card suit is too strong for a three level pre-empt?

An opening bid of 3 spades shows a somewhat weak hand with 7 spades. A hand like AKJxxxx Ax xx Qx would certainly never open 3S. Partner's hand in first or second seat is worth a 1S opening in my book; it's certainly better than any balanced 12-count. In third seat I might open 3S, since game is unlikely (partner is a passed hand) and LHO might have a good hand and guess wrong about how to proceed.

Personally I would have risked a game bid with your hand, at least at some forms of scoring (eg vulnerable at IMPs). Game is a good bet if partner shows up with the hand you expected. You'll expect a loser in hearts and diamonds, with some chances of shaking a club loser or two on the red suits. You'll run into a bad time if partner had a spade suit headed by the KJ and nothing outside, so when your side has favorable vulnerability, the raise to game may be ill-advised.


Quarriors' Deathdealer and expert culling

The consensus on BGG is summed up in this post:

when scoring the death dealer, you would have two "when deathdealer scores" effects that would trigger. 1) cull for points. 2) trade dice.

If two "when x scores" effects happen at the same time, the active player has to choose which one resolves first. In most cases, this should not be a problem, but for deathdealer the choices are mutually exclusive. If you trade first, you no longer have a dice in your possession to cull. If you cull first, you no longer have a dice in your possession to trade. Thus, you either trade deathdealer or cull it for points.


Myram Lamm - how to apply magic abilities?

A member of Space Cowboys cleared this up in a Board Game Geek thread:

Maryam should actually be worded more precisely. This is a typo and
will be corrected in the next printing.
Mystic Bolt: 1 star or more:
Minor Healing: 1 star or more:
Divine Healing: 2 stars or more:


How to hook beginners on galaxy trucker by giving them an extra turbulent round one

Since your question says "often I just happen to get a mostly planets/open space draw" I'm going to assume that you're not doing the first time setup that the rules say to do:

  From the deck labeled “I”, take the eight cards marked with an asterisk in the lower left corner. Shuffle these eight cards and set them near the flight board.

You really should do that. It's basically one of every type of card, so that everyone sees how everything works. The goal is not to make it hard, it's to teach them how to play the game, so that they have some hope of building a ship that can do well in later rounds. The first round is deliberately short, and not terribly important in terms of your final score, so it's fine to use it as a teaching moment. There's plenty of opportunity for failure in later rounds, when people will have some idea of what they're doing.

I would definitely not recommend trying to make it more "turbulent". Sure, the point of the game is that things go wrong. But there's no need to take that to an extreme; if anything that's even worse for new players. Without any experience, they'll tend to have built ships that don't fare well, while you with your experience will tend to do better, so it's going to look like a really frustrating, punishing game, where they try to build a ship and the game destroys it and they end up with no points.

  After all, if no one's ship falls apart by the end of the first round, then what's the point?

If you really think this is important, make it your ship that falls apart. Build something under-connected, stick important things on the exterior, don't put a laser in the center, and so on. But don't deliberately make the game punish new players.

In general, I'd say you should give the game a chance to do what it's meant to do. If people don't like the game, don't play it with them. If new players have preconceptions, encourage them to have an open mind, be friendly about the game, and don't pressure them to have exactly the experience you think they should have, just give them the opportunity to enjoy it.


What is the name of this fantasy game with cards and little treasure counters?

I've been googling around and finally found it. The game is called "Dragon's Gold" and was released in 2001 and re-released as a second edition (with some rule changes) in 2011.

Additional photos can be found here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold

Here is the box art of the game I played (first edition):


Betrayal at House on the Hill If it's meant to be card

By a literal reading of the cards, yes he can use the 5 instead of rolling.

I'm assuming that you are talking about the Creepy Puppet event. The real question is actually about how the Creepy Puppet event works, moreso than how "It is meant to be" works.

  The player on your right rolls a might 4 attack for the creepy puppet. If you take any damage from this attack, the explorer with the spear gains 2 might (unless you have the spear).

I think what you are misunderstanding is how the Creepy Puppet (same with the Bite Omen) works. The attack is still rolled; it's not that he just automatically gets 4 attack power. He rolls 4 dice. If the card just said that he's attacking with 4 damage, then he couldn't use "It is meant to be", because that only applies when rolling. But here we have a card telling him to roll some dice, and another card that tells him that on a dice roll, he can choose to use the 5 instead of rolling dice.

Note that he has to make this choice BEFORE you roll your defense though. So he doesn't know if he'll get any benefit out of using his 5; so it's a risk for him.

Now, there is a good argument to be made for the opposite conclusion (something that unfortunately can happen in Betrayal). When it says "the player to your right rolls a might 4 attack against you", it's easy to read that as being that the player to your right is just being used as a means of having the game itself roll dice; it's not really "his roll". It's the Creepy Puppet's roll, the player is just the physical means by which the roll is made. By that logic, he couldn't use the It is meant to be; because that can only be used on his rolls.

So the question is whether you want to be completely literal, or give a more relaxed interpretation of Creepy Doll (and Bite).


Is a Pokémon energy card with no numbers normal?

In Japan, most Basic Energies ever printed don't have any set number, because they were unnumbered. This is in contrast to English cards, where all Basic Energies were numbered up to Call of Legends expansion. Since Black & White expansion, most Basic Energy cards are also unnumbered, with the exception of cards found in booster packs as they have a different illustration.

Bulbapedia has nice collection of Fire Energy cards, including some Japanese cards without set number (click to enlarge):


In spades, is a deuce of clubs considered a spade?

The deuce of club and hearts do not considered a spade in the standard game, however there are variants where they do.
From Pagat:

In some versions of Spades, some or all of the four twos are elevated to the top of the spade suit, are ranked in some specified order, and are considered to be spades. The rest of the cards rank as in normal.

For example, in the New York City rules the trump suit ranks is as follows: big joker, small joker, 2♦, 2♠, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3
In the Deuces high rules the trump suit is is as follows:2♠, 2♦, 2♣ 2♡, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3
Those variants are pretty common, and are implemented for example at AI-factory's Spades free app.


Is a monster considered "destroyed" if I tribute it?

According to the official rulebook of Yu-Gi-Oh!, "destroy" means

  A card is destroyed when it is sent to the Graveyard due to battle
  between monsters or by an effect that destroys a card. A card that is
  returned from the field to the hand or Deck, or, that is sent to the
  Graveyard as a cost or Tribute, is NOT considered “destroyed.”

This can be found in the rulebook in the glossary part.

Even though Duel Links is a simplified version of the original game, it should follow the basic rules.


Do supply limits apply if you capture ships at a port?

No, you are not allowed to keep them if you are over your supply limit. From page 25:

  Taking Control of Enemy Ports - If the land area connected to a Port is successfully attacked and taken control of by another player, that player may immediately replace any enemy Ship units in the Port with an equal number of his own available Ship units (or as many Ship units as he has available, he desires, or is allowed by supply limits). Excess enemy ships are simply removed from the board.


What is a good strategy for selecting commons and uncommons for trade folders?

There are really three distinct things you're looking for:

Playability in Standard
Playability in Vintage/Legacy
Playability in EDH/Commander and other popular variants

The first two are actually fairly easy to gauge; the more playable a card is, the higher its price is (typically).  Use something like Magic.TCGPlayer, http://magiccards.info/, or another pricing site to look up your cards and see if they're of value.  Alternatively, you could look up lists for the most playable (read: highest value) common/uncommon cards in those formats and look for those cards specifically.

The third option is a little more difficult; since EDH decks are built with 100 cards with no more than 1 of any given card (besides basic lands), lots of commons and uncommons are more popular and playable than in Vintage/Legacy.  I'd recommend looking up lists of common and uncommon EDH staples and seeing what cards you might have.

The key thing you're looking for really in any card is the effect-to-mana-cost ratio.  Cards like Swords to Plowshares, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, Terminate, Sensei's Divining Top - things that are cheap with powerful effects are really what see play.


it can keep on going until nobody can/wants to throw any more cards. As seen in the rules(example, p. 5):

   Example of Combat, With Numbers and Everything

  Aric is a 4th-Level Warrior with the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment
  (which gives him a +3 to his combat strength). He kicks open the door
  and finds the Net Troll, a Level 10 monster. Aric’s at a 7, the Net
  Troll is at a 10, so Aric is losing.

  Aric: I was hoping to save this
  card . . .

  He plays the Magic Missile, giving him +5 for this fight. Now his combat strength is 12, beating the Net Troll’s 10.

  Aric: Ha! Net Troll going down!

  Suzan: Not so fast. Now he’s Enraged.

  Suzan plays Enraged, adding 5 to the Net Troll’s combat strength. Now Aric
  is losing, 15 to 12.

  Aric: Curses!

  Suzan: Want some help? (Suzan is playing a Level 2 Elf with the Boots of Butt-Kicking, so her combat
  strength is 4. Combined with Aric’s 12, they would have 16, enough to
  defeat the Net Troll’s 15.)

  Aric: And give you a level? Not a chance! I’m Berserking.

  Aric uses his Warrior power and discards three cards:
  Thief and a Wandering Monster from his hand, and Yuppie Water (usable
  only to help an Elf) from his carried items. Each one gives him +1 to
  his combat strength.

  Suzan: Not the Yuppie Water! Noooo . . .

  Aric: That’s +3 to me, and now we’re tied, 15 to 15. Because I’m a Warrior,
  I win ties . . . so I’m killing the Net Troll unless someone else
  plans to mess with me. Anyone?

  No one says anything, so Aric goes up a
  level and claims the Net Troll’s treasures – three from the Net Troll
  card, and one extra because it was Enraged. And the game goes on . . .

As you see, you can cast any number of spells during combat.


You do not have to hit 20 points exactly, you just need at least 20. While the rulebook doesn't state this explicitly, this is how pretty much every game works unless it specifically states otherwise. Getting 21 points DOES mean that you've gotten 20 points; just like how I literally do have $20 even if I also have more money than that.

The heart dial goes to 12 because certain card effects can increase your health above 10.


Looking for Card Game With Streaks of Ashes on the Face

It looks like a game that is known in dutch as black peeter (zwarte pieten), but it has several names.

  In Greece the game is called "mu(n)tzuris" (μου(ν)τζούρης, "smudged, smutted"), because winners used to smudge the loser with soot.

The goal of the game was to remove matching pairs. Players moved one card to the player to the left, receiving one from the left. But there was one unmatched card. So the one left with this card lost and got ash or some other stuff that was black and hard to remove from their face.


Can one dragon's destruction bring back all of my Keepers of the Shrine?

CDClarke is correct in his answer; you cannot do that what you propose.

To enhance on the reason why it is once again important to note that specific part:

  You can only use this effect of "Keeper of the Shrine" once per turn.

One thing that this specifies is that only this effect has restrictions; you can use the "This card can be treated as 2 Tributes for..." part as many times as you want/can.

Another relevant thing to notice is that this quote references to the card in general. This means that the restriction applies to any Keeper of the Shrine you have.

You could do what you propose if the card text said instead "You can only use this effect of this card once per turn." Card texts that you see contain such phrasing or similar refer to that specific copy of your card, restricting it from being repeatedly used (however it does not restrict other copies).

It is important to note those two different situations to effectively tell apart from a restriction that applies to a copy from that that applies to the card in general.


How should we be keeping track of secret doors?

Assuming you are playing the new WotC version, the rules state

  You might wish to keep track of the doors you found on a piece of
  scrap paper

Now all you need is some way to easily reference a specific door.  You could try to describe the area it is in, like "Door to east-most level 4 room".

Of course, if you're playing the older "New Dungeon", it wouldn't really be a problem, because in that version you forgot about secret doors as soon as you moved away from them.


Spell targets player in multiplayer game, and that player leaves. Does it still resolve?

No, the spell will be countered by the game rules.

If all targets of a targeted spell or ability become illegal before resolution, the spell/ability will be countered and nothing that would happen on resolution will happen.

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets are illegal, the part of the spell or ability’s effect for which it is an illegal target can’t perform any actions on that target, make another object or player perform any actions on that target, or make that target perform any actions. If the spell or ability creates a continuous effect that affects game rules (see rule 613.10), that effect doesn’t apply to illegal targets. The effect may still determine information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.


How can I find out when a specific comprehensive rule was introduced?

Rule 706.4 was originally created as rule 503.4, and seems to have appeared between 1999 and 2001 - I haven't found any copies of rules between those two. (The renumbering happened in the July 11, 2009 rules update, which renumbered basically all the rules.)

If you have a really good idea when the rule you're looking for was introduced, Yawgatog's rules changes page (linked in murgatroid's answer) is great - for example, if you're looking for Bestow, just click on Theros and you'll see it among all the cleanly-presented diffs.

If you have a good keyword to search for, you can try this rules history forum thread, which summarizes past rule changes. For example, you can quickly find infect under Scars of Mirrodin. Unfortunately this page only goes up to 2012.

Failing those easy solutions, you can just binary search over past versions of the comprehensive rules, linked below.  Note that you can also do some smarter things - for example, you can download them all (and clean them up), and look for the pair where the diff matches what you're looking for. (I did this by making a git repository with a commit for each version of the rules, then using pickaxe search.)

Past comprehensive rules

While Wizards only links to the most recent version of the rules, all the old rules are still being served. I managed to find what looks like most of them since 1999.

These links currently all work, and given how old they are, it seems likely that they'll keep working - but should they ever break, archive.org should have crawled all of them.

These are all plaintext, except some in 2014, because Wizards only linked to docx and pdf versions then.

1999-04-23
2001-07-23 2001-09-24
2002-02-20 2002-10-07
2003-03-15 2003-07-01 2003-10-01  2003-12-01
2004-02-01 2004-06-01 2004-10-01
2005-02-01 2005-08-01 2005-10-01
2006-02-01 2006-05-01 2006-07-15 2006-10-01
2007-02-01 2007-05-01 2007-07-13 2007-09-07 2007-10-01
2008-02-01 2008-05-01 2008-07-15 2008-10-01
2009-02-01 2009-05-01 2009-07-11 2009-09-04 2009-10-01
2010-02-01 2010-04-23 2010-06-18 2010-07-16 2010-10-01
2011-02-04 2011-04-01 2011-05-01 2011-06-17 2011-07-15 2011-09-30
2012-02-01 2012-05-01 2012-06-01 2012-07-01 2012-10-01
2013-02-01 2013-05-01 2013-07-13 2013-09-27 2013-11-01
2014-02-01 2014-05-01 (pdf docx) 2014-06-01 (pdf docx) 2014-07-18 (pdf docx) 2014-09-26
2015-01-23 2015-03-27 2015-07-17 2015-09-26
2016-01-16 2016-04-08

For rules older than this, I couldn't find anything in a similar format. It looks like 1999 was the first time Wizards actually published clean plaintext rules like this.

However, archive.org has a copy of the rules page as of April 1999. There are several links there, including the base Fifth Edition rules, in a frame-based view (kind of tough to use, but it works), as well as the updates for Mirage, Tempest, Urza's Saga, and Sixth Edition. With all of those taken together, you'd end up with the same rules as in the text-format rules from April 1999 linked above, but since they're split, you can see what was added in each step.


As of right now, there are two situations in which E3 feedback implants are useful.

The first is that it isn't always 1 cred to break a subroutine. Aurora, Peacock, Battering Ram, and Wyrm all cost more than 1 cred to break a subroutine. Two of these (Aurora & Peacock) are the same faction as E3 feedback implants. So it's feasible that you'd save a little bit of money over time.

The second use is against bioroid ice. Bioroid ice subroutines can be broken by spending a click. So with E3 feedback implants any bioroid ice can be bypassed by paying 1 click + 1 cred/remaining subroutine. Which makes things like Janus only cost 1 click + 3 creds.

If there are things added in the future that allow breaking subroutines via non-icebreaker methods, E3 implants would also be useful in those situations.

EDIT:
There was discussion about whether or not E3 feedback implants could be used as the triggering condition for itself, so here's a link to a thread on BoardGameGeek where this got answered. (It does trigger itself)
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/910289/e3-feedback-implant-official-answer


During scoring, can an Inuksuk be a double?

The rules of Nanuk(you should specify the game you mean somewhere) says Inukshuk cards may be used to "fill any pair or set"(singular) and that only double cards may be used twice. It does not say the inukshuk can BECOME a copy of another card.

I'd say no, they cannot be used in this way.


Captain Sisay and flip legendarys from Kamigawa?

No, Captain Sisay can't find cards that are only legendary when flipped
From the Comprehensive rules:

709.2. In every zone other than the battlefield, and also on the battlefield before the permanent flips, a flip card has only the normal characteristics of the card. Once a permanent is flipped, its normal name, text box, type line, power, and toughness don’t apply and the alternative versions of those characteristics apply instead.
Example: Akki Lavarunner is a nonlegendary creature that flips into a legendary creature named Tok-Tok, Volcano Born. An effect that says “Search your library for a legendary card” can’t find this flip card. An effect that says “Legendary creatures get +2/+2” doesn’t affect Akki Lavarunner, but it does affect Tok-Tok.


If I no longer control a permanent when it would be sacrificed, is it still sacrificed?

The rules say:

  701.16a To sacrifice a permanent, its controller moves it from the battlefield directly to its owner’s graveyard. A player can’t sacrifice something that isn’t a permanent, or something that’s a permanent they don’t control. Sacrificing a permanent doesn’t destroy it, so regeneration or other effects that replace destruction can’t affect this action.

(emphasis mine)

So in that case, your opponent will control Planar Chaos and it won't be sacrificed.


Evolution: Symbiosis Cards and Carnivorous/High Body Weight

According to the official FAQ (in Russian),

  Симбиоз

  Может ли животное (птица) со свойством хищник, находящееся под защитой симбионта (крокодила) атаковать его?

  Да, если симбионт (крокодил) уже накормлен.

In English, that would sound like,

  Symbiosis

  Can a carnivorous animal (a bird) that is protected by a symbiont (a crocodile) attack the symbiont?

  Yes, if the symbiont (a crocodile) has already been fed.

In my understanding, that means the protected animal cannot attack other creatures too, until the symbiont is fed.

P.S. See also A Living FAQ for Evolution: The Origin of Species in English


Any good way to add a handicap in Dominion?

As an informal handicap, when I'm playing in a game like this I usually try to make myself take my 2nd strategy - instead of doing the most obvious thing on the board, I come up with something more oddball and see if I can make that work.

Another thing that's not a huge handicap but can help is letting the less experienced players choose the 10 Kingdom cards, so they can pick things that fit into their own comfortable strategies.

I use both these techniques when playing with my wife (she plays every few months while I play 3 times a week at lunch) and thought I still win a lot, she has more fun this way.


Are token creatures considerd as a creature spell?

No.

A creature token IS a creature, but that has nothing to do with your combo in this case. Tapping Drana's Chosen is activating an ability, it is not casting a spell. These are two completely different things.

If Zendikar Resurgent triggered on "whenever a creature enters the battlefield" instead, then a creature token entering would count.

The title of your question shows that you have mixed up two very different concepts: a creature spell (or, creature card on the stack) and a creature are not the same thing. A spell exists only on the stack, while a creature is a permanent that exists only on the battlefield. So a token, which can be a creature, can't be a spell. A spell could create tokens, but that doesn't mean that a spell can be a token or a creature.


What happens if I pocket both my own coin and my opponent's while covering the Queen?

Under normal circumstances, you count as having covered the Queen, but your opponent has a coin pocketed for free and your turn ends.

If the Striker was pocketed with it, you would pay the penalty for pocketing the Striker and then try to cover it again. However, since you pocketed the opponent's coin, you can't take another turn, so the Queen is put back on the board.

If it was one player's last coin, that player wins.

If it was both players' last coin, you win. If the Striker was pocketed with it, you lose.


If a player loses, do any emblems they create for other players disappear?

No, they do not disappear.

CR 800.4a reads (in part):

  When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 109) owned by that player leave the game.

And according to CR 113.2 (emphasis mine):

  An effect that creates an emblem is written “[Player] gets an emblem with [ability]...” The emblem is both owned and controlled by that player.

Therefore, the emblems do not disappear, because their owner(s) are still in the game.

The Gatherer rulings for Chandra state this interaction explicitly:

  Each player who gets Chandra’s emblem is the owner of that emblem. In multiplayer games, that emblem will remain in the game as long as its owner does, even if Chandra’s owner leaves the game.


What can the Fire Prevention Specialist do in Flash Point: Fire Rescue?

The rules for this Kickstarter-exclusive role were provided via this update.

This is a tribute to the unsung heroes– the men and women in the administrative branch of the fire service. They evaluate fires, propose regulations and see to it that they are observed. They work with files and records instead of hoses and axes, and their work saves many lives.
The Fire Prevention Specialist - 4AP
This specialist has done his work years ago; he talked to the builders and home owners and convinced them to adopt a fire security plan. On his advice smoke detectors and smoke exhausts have been installed, and emergency exits have been planned and marked clearly. Now these measures prove their worth: People are warned and can move out via marked escape routes, and smoke clears itself from the building.
Prevent/De-Smoke: Move a smoke token anywhere on the board for 1 AP per space. Movement must be on the shortest route towards nearest exterior door, playerʼs choice if alternative routes exist; Smoke passes closed interior doors at no extra cost. Smoke vanishes when outside the building. Moved smoke ignites immediately if adjacent to fire; if it moves on top of other smoke, it becomes fire.
Prevent/Escape: Move a POI token (only if "?" side up) anywhere on the board for 2 AP per space. Movement must be on the shortest route towards nearest exterior door, playerʼs choice if alternative routes exist. POIs can open doors on their way for 2 AP; they will not use breached walls, ladders etc. (they use the escape route "as marked"). POIs moved outside of the building (=coordinate area) are revealed. POIs will not move into fire.
Note: If playing with multi-floor game boards, "shortest route to exterior door" may be via a stair way.
Note: In the subway station, exits are all spaces with an ambulance symbol.
Note: De-Smoke and Escape are always determined by the nearest exterior doors – not opened windows, nor destroyed walls

The flavour text of the Fire Prevention Specialist suggest they are not found at the scene of a fire (in an active role).
I would certainly encourage players to restrict themselves to the two actions described above, but there's no rules to suggest they should be limited to those two actions.
If you wish to participate in the field, you could say that the fire department is short-handed, so their FPS also serves as a regular fireman.


From the wording of the card, it suggests you can use it at any point during the defence i.e. after the dice results have been seen.

It seems a bit risky/useless to insist it happens before the dice roll. It would certainly be more fun to see the results first.


Would Guttersnipe plus a cyphered card result in an infinite loop of damage?

No, that doesn't amount to an infinite loop, because of this term in cipher's definition:

  Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player [...]

(That's an extract from the reminder text, but the actual rules definition is virtually identical.)

Combat damage is just the damage dealt during the combat damage step. In other words, it's the damage Guttersnipe would deal if you tapped it to attack, and it wasn't blocked and ended up attacking the player. The damage dealt by Guttersnipe's triggered ability does not count as combat damage, so it doesn't trigger cipher.

Your combo would work if cipher just triggered off any damage at all, in which case it'd say this:

  Whenever that creature deals damage to a player [...]


When exactly do you get the coin from the map in Civilization?

Haven't played this in many years but checking rules link here it seems my memory is right.  You dont 'gain' coins in the same way you get trade or production.  Your coin dial is just showing how many coins you have in total.  If you read the bit after what you quoted it should be clearer.

  Coins gained from squares on the map – whether from a natural
  gold deposit in the mountains or from a building placed in a
  square – are only kept as long as the player retains control of the
  square (i.e., the square is contained in the outskirts of one of the
  player’s cities or one of the player’s scouts remains in the square
  to gather from it). If an enemy figure blockades the square
  containing the coin, it is lost while the enemy figure remains
  there (see page 27). Similarly, if a building granting a coin to a
  player is destroyed, the coin is lost.

So if I move a scout on on to a space giving me a coin I move my dial up straight away.  if I lose that space then I lower my coin dial.   Its not a resource thats gained every turn and goes up each time.  if it was a player with 3 coins on tech and city outskirts would win in just a a few turns.


How can I find a FNM-competitive affordable deck?

In the current standard, a few decks I would look for are UW control, Mono-blue Brains and BW control. UW control utilizes white sweepers and blue counter magic.  Mono-blue brains is a control deck that tries to play sorceries at instant speed. BW control relies on spot removal to keep the board clear.

Another site you might want to check out is StrictlyBetterMtg's youtube channel. He does a lot of deck techs, with a fair number of them being budget.

Reddit also has good resources, with a particular subreddit for budgets: budgetdecks

For format information check out another question: Magic The Gathering: Where To Begin


What is the recommended range for the number of players in Liar Dice?

There's no clear consensus on recommended player count

As you're not playing an official version of liar's dice, giving you a hard and fast rule for your own game, would be guesswork. What follows deals with the 'official' version of the game - a perspective which you said might also be useful.

On the website boardgamegeek, on each game listing, users are able to vote on the player counts at which they would recommend playing a particular game. For each possible 'player count' users are able to select either 'Not recommended', 'Recommended' or 'Best'.
The community's recommendations for Perudo (an alternative name for Liar's Dice), based on 166 respondants, are as follows:

More than 50% of users think Perudo is 'Best' with 5 / 6 players
57% of users would at least 'Recommend' playing Perudo with more than 6 players (42% would not recommend it)

I'm not sure you need to worry, based on your criteria
You stated that one of your concerns about high player counts was: 'the dice would never reach the 8th player because the escalating hands would be too hard to beat'.
In most common variants of liar's dice this isn't an issue becuase play is circular rather than linear. Whenever one hand is finished the next hand resumes from that point in the circle, rather than starting back with the original first player. So, if a 'hand' resolves before some players have participated, those same players will be among the first players to participate in the next 'hand'.
However, adding extra players will make the game longer

The total play time will be longer

Liar's dice is commonly a player elimination game - the more players there are to eliminate the longer it will take to reach its conclusion. As you intend this to be a light filler that's probably not desirable.
This is less of an issue if you're not concerned with playing the game to completion.

Time between a player's turns will increase

If this is a filler to keep people engaged between other games, then a longer time between player's turns is not ideal. that said, in my experience of Liar's Dice, players's do tend to remain fairly invested in paying attention to other player's turns, in comparison to some other games.

Time spent while eliminated will increase

As mentioned above, Liar's Dice is most commonly a game that involves player elimination (on BGG 'Player Elimination' is listed with 'Dice Rolling' and 'Betting/Wagering' as one of the game's key mechanisms). In an eight player game the first player to get eliminated could conceivably spend significantly longer not playing the game, than they ever did playing it. Once again this probably isn't that desirable for a filler.
How much weight should be put on any of these factors is up to you. You know your context, you know your players and most importantly, you know the exact rules of the specific Liar's Dice variant your playing.
If on reflection you do decide that player count is a concern, then one way that these issues could be avoided / mitigated is by splitting larger groups into separate games.


Are Wargames Research Group rules still available?

They are still available, though free versions may be hard to track down. The best place to start would be WRG's own website, though copies are for sale on Amazon and elsewhere.


Rishkar's Expertise and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

As soon as Rishkar's Expertise has finished resolving, you would lose for trying to draw from an empty library.
Resolving a spell or ability requires every player, in turn-order, to pass priority. Whenever a spell or ability finishes resolving, the active player gets priority. Whenever a player would get priority, state-based actions are checked first. The conditions for losing the game are some of these state-based actions to be checked, so you would lose before Jace has a chance to resolve. With the cards in your scenario, if you can't get Jace out before RE resolves, there is no way of preventing that loss, except not casting RE of course.
Note: Even if Jace was put directly on the battlefield with RE instead of being allowed to cast it, you would still lose. Jace's passive doesn't replace the losing event itself. It replaces the draw from an empty library that would cause the losing event and which would have already happened earlier during RE's resolution.

608.1. Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves. (See rule 609, “Effects.”)
117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 117, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.
704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, that player loses the game.


Is there a damage phase in the final round of Steampunk Rally?

Yes. There's nothing that indicates it should be skipped on the last round. Effectively, you can't just walk across the finish line; you need to have a machine to win.


Can I play lands from the graveyard more than once in a turn with Crucible of Worlds?

If you look at the Gatherer page for the Crucible, it tells you that

  Crucible of Worlds doesn’t change the times when you can play those land cards. You can still play only one land per turn, and only during your main phase when you have priority and the stack is empty.

(Emphasis mine.) So the lands played from the graveyard do not get a separate land-playing quota.


When must an Instant be played that prevents damage?

Yep, in order to prevent a creature from dying in combat, the spell needs to be cast before combat damage is dealt. And the last opportunity to cast spells before combat damage is dealt is during the declare blockers step, just after blockers are actually declared.

There is one exception: if any creatures with first strike or double strike are involved in combat, there will be a combat damage step to handle their damage, prior to the time when other non-first strike combat damage is dealt. As part of that combat damage step, you get a chance to play spells and abilities, which could include the Harm's Way. So you could get away with playing it later than the declare blockers step if there is a first striking or double striking creature in combat, as long as it's not the one you want to prevent the damage from.

To make everything explicit, here's an outline of the combat phase:

Beginning of combat step

Play spells and abilities

Declare attackers step

Actually declare which creatures are attacking
Play spells and abilities

Declare blockers step

Actually declare which creatures are blocking and how
Play spells and abilities

First strike combat damage step, only if creatures with first (or double) strike are involved in combat

First strike combat damage is assigned and dealt
Play spells and abilities

Combat damage step

Non-first strike combat damage is assigned and deal
Play spells and abilities


It looks like "wheel" and "dial" (or "game dial") are other names for this.

I found a couple BGG threads with some suggestions:

How do you make a game dial?
Plastic grommets for cardboard wheels (ala BSG)

The main things you could search for are:

(paper) binding screws/screw posts/chicago screws (there's a site called Chicago Screws that sells them, but it's also a generic name)
paper rivets
brads/brass fasteners

I know you said it you couldn't find small enough rivets, but I searched a bit and it looks like paper rivets are made down to a few mm across,


How do I tune my magic arena (MTGA) deck for 3 lands in my opening hand, under the new mulligan rule and selection algorithm?


Why are the pips on dice organized the way they are?

This is a really interesting question and just spent last hour googling around for various thoughts.

The first thing is why pips and not numbers. This is because the invention of dice predates the invention of numbers. source

According to the wikipedia article on pips its notes that the pip designs are 'easily countable'  Why the particular patterns for the numbers I don't know the fact is if you roll a 5 you recognize the pattern straight away.  Its worth noting the the pip design on a six sided dice is the same pip pattern on standard playing cards for values Ace-6.  Someone may be able to explain the origin but I imagine its a similar answer to why is are Letters shaped they way they are?  I's assumes the pip pattern is just something that's evolved over time that we then recognise.   if a dice (or a playing card for that matter) just displayed pips in a long row then counting them each time would be very tricky so the fact they evolved into a pattern that we regonise without counting the pips is probably where it came from.

Finally, why do numbers on opposite sides add up to the same number?  According to to this article Dice were not always like that, apparently some Roman dice were arrange with opposite sides adding up to prime numbers.  ie 1 opposite 2, 3 opposite 4 and 5 opposite 6.  This article states that if a dice is random it really doesn't matter what sides the numbers are on,   However the article suggests the rise in opposite sides adding up to 7 appears to be that was because it is perceived to be more fair, even though its still random what number comes up.  From the article:-

  “We think users of dice also adopted new ideas about fairness, and chance or probability in games,” said Eerkens in a statement. The numbering style changed from the prime number configuration (1-2; 3-4; 5-6), one heavily influenced by popular ancient Egyptian numerical arrangements, back to the style “where opposite sides add up to seven (6-1; 5-2; 3-4).” Eerkens suggests that while the direct cause for this shift is unclear, it could possibly be related to an gradual effort to make fair and balanced dice.

Also I should say that someone else with more historical or archaeological knowledge than I might be able to give a different answer.  I'm really intrigued by the idea that opposite numbers on a dice adding to same number is perceived to to be more fair that any other arrangement despite it not making any difference.


Your friend is correct.  You may only play treasure cards during your buy phase, at which point you are no longer able to play action cards.


Can I sacrifice the same creature twice with Blood Host?

Yes you can, in this case 'another creature' means a creature other than Blood Host, not a creature that you haven't sacrificed before.

Even if that weren't the case once it move from the battlefield to the graveyard the first time the game no longer sees it as the same creature.

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule: ...

So you are free to keep sacrificing the skeletons and reassembling them as long as you have the mana to do it.


Shuffle destination cards in Ticket to Ride

I would stick with the original rules. The actual effect your house rule has on game balance is probably negligible. Most of the time you won't end up drawing anyone's discard anyway, and even when you do it's only slightly better on average than a random card (unless you were the one who discarded it, in which case it's a lot worse). Thus even if balance is fractionally improved (and I'm not convinced it is), I'd focus instead on a few other effects:

Shuffling a lot is annoying and makes the game take longer. (thanks @Othya for pointing this out in the comments)
For me at least, drawing my own discard would feel like the game giving me the middle finger - sure there are other useless cards I could have drawn, but I'd feel particularly screwed over by getting the same worthless card twice.

As a side note, I don't quite use the original rules myself - I make a separate discard pile and then shuffle it when the deck runs out.


Will a Theros God with low devotion enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild?

No, the God will not enter as a copy of Essence of the Wild for the first case, but it will for the second.

According to the Gatherer rulings:

  9/15/2013: If a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color (including the mana symbols in the mana cost of the God itself) will determine if a creature entered the battlefield or not, for abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield.

As @murgatroid99 aptly noted, this ruling refers specifically to triggered abilities. However, it's supported by CR614.12 (specifically, the emphasized snippet):

  614.12. Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. (See rules 614.1c–d.) Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To
  determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.

Since Thassa has only one devotion at the time it enters the battlefield (which is its own 1 blue mana symbol), it's not a creature, and therefore it won't be affected by Essence of the Wild's continuous effect. The same is true for Nylea.

Likewise, as Pharika enters the battlefield with 2 Essences of the Wild, it will already be a creature, and it will be affected as any other creature would by Essence of the Wild.


What's the etymology of the term "rez" in the Netrunner games?

It is short for "resolve", and derez is short for "deresolve". I have seen the terms several times in cyberpunk fiction; the earliest use I can find is Tron (1982).

Here are some quotes from IMDB. Note that the MCP uses the term "deresolution" when being formal, and the anthropomorphic programs use "de-rezzed" to mean the same thing.


How am I supposed to position my link monster?

What am I missing?

Perhaps you are missing that the Game Field recently changed, with the creation of Link Monsters.

Now, monsters from the Extra Deck are to be placed on the Extra Monster Zone.  These are two new zones "shared" by both players.

The rules now say that you may only play an Extra Deck Monster (Synchro, Link, XYZ, Fusion) on such new zones, or well on a regular Monster Zone if any Link monster's arrows point to that Monster Zone. In other words, placing Link Monsters enable you to place more Extra Deck monsters on the Zones they point to.

Be aware that if the arrow happens to point to an opponent's Monster Zone, then they are able to place Extra Deck monsters there also. As in the case of your Decode Talker, we can see it has 3 arrows, and one points straight, towards one of your opponent's Zones. This enables your opponent to place Extra Deck monsters there as well as in the other ExtraDeck Zone.

This in some way "balances" the power of Decode Talker; given it is a card that gives you great advantages, enabling your opponent to do this sort of evens things out. Furthermore, almost all Link Monsters that have some powerful effect point to your opponent's Zones, as to balance the power of their effects (contrary to the less powerful Links, as they don't usually have arrows towards your opponent).

This is the reason why your Decode Talker has such arrows: it enables you 2 new zones to play Extra Deck Monsters, as well as one for your opponent. It is important to stress that where you place your monsters in this new field is an important part of any game strategy. Before this changes little mattered where you placed your monsters, as long as you had space to play them there were virtually no advantages of placing a monster on a specific Zone.1

1One exception that comes to mind is Alien Infiltrator. This interesting monster takes advantage of its position (and can even move!), as it reads:

  Once per turn, this card can move to an adjacent (horizontal) unoccupied Monster Card Zone. If no Spell, Trap or Monster Card on your opponent's side of the field is in the same column as this card, it can attack your opponent directly

As you can see this was an unusual card back then, but now placement of monsters is more relevant to any strategy as compared to before.


How does the die rolling work in Betrayal at House on the Hill?

The number of dice you roll is equal to your stat for the roll you need. So if it tells you to make a might roll, and your might is 3, then you roll 3 dice.


What is the colored part of a mana cost called?

The rules don't directly define a term for this part of the cost, but they do use a relevant term in one of the rules describing cost reductions, 117.7a:

  Effects that reduce a cost by an amount of generic mana affect only the generic mana component of that cost. They can’t affect the colored or colorless mana components of that cost.

So, "colored mana component of the cost" is a reasonable term to use for the colored part of the mana cost.

You could also get a functionally equivalent effect by borrowing the wording of the Emerge ability:

  {T}, Reveal a creature card from your hand and pay its mana cost reduced by its converted mana cost: ...


What happens with two Sword of the Meek?

Yes, you get to attach both Swords of the Meek.

When the state of the game changes (in this case, because a 1/1 comes enters the battlefield), all objects check if their triggers are 'tripped'. In this case, both the Swords notice the 1/1 entering play, and both will give you the choice to attach them.

The rules for this are in section 603. Handling Triggered Abilities. Specifically:

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

You control 2 sources that have this.

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

The 1/1 satisfies both the Sword's trigger condition.

There are no limitations on how many triggers a state-change can activate.


When you cast a spell with X in its cost, you decide how much X will be and then add that amount to the rest of the spell's cost when you pay it. When the spell resolves, you treat any "X" in the text box of the card as the chosen number.

In the specific case of Strength of the Tajuru, you choose a number for X, then (assuming you don't kick it) you pay the chosen number mana of any color, plus 2 green mana. When the spell resolves, you add the chosen number of counters to the target creature.

The basic rulebook has a description of X costs in the glossary:

  X, {X}—Some spells and abilities have effects
  that change depending on how much mana
  you use to pay for them. For example, Heat Ray
  is an instant spell that costs {X}{R} and deals X
  damage. If you paid {3}{R} to cast it, it would deal
  3 damage. If you paid {6}{R} to cast it, it would
  deal 6 damage.

Rule 601.2b more specifically covers paying for spells with X costs:

  If the spell is modal the player announces the mode choice (see rule 700.2). If the player wishes to splice any cards onto the spell (see rule 702.46), he or she reveals those cards in his or her hand. If the spell has alternative or additional costs that will be paid as it's being cast such as buyback or kicker costs (see rules 117.8 and 117.9), the player announces his or her intentions to pay any or all of those costs (see rule 601.2e). A player can't apply two alternative methods of casting or two alternative costs to a single spell. If the spell has a variable cost that will be paid as it's being cast (such as an {X} in its mana cost; see rule 107.3), the player announces the value of that variable. If a cost that will be paid as the spell is being cast includes hybrid mana symbols, the player announces the nonhybrid equivalent cost he or she intends to pay. If a cost that will be paid as the spell is being cast includes Phyrexian mana symbols, the player announces whether he or she intends to pay 2 life or the corresponding colored mana cost for each of those symbols. Previously made choices (such as choosing to cast a spell with flashback from a graveyard or choosing to cast a creature with morph face down) may restrict the player's options when making these choices.

When a card with {X} in its cost is in any zone other than the stack, the X is considered to be 0 for the purpose of any calculations. This is specified in rule 202.3b:

  When calculating the converted mana cost of an object with an Manax.gif in its mana cost, X is treated as 0 while the object is not on the stack, and X is treated as the number chosen for it while the object is on the stack

The one exception is permanents' abilities that need to know about their own mana costs, as rule 400.7c says:

  If an ability of a permanent requires information about choices made as that permanent was cast as a spell, including what mana was spent to cast that spell, it uses information about the spell that became that permanent as it resolved.


How many IPCs does the USA receive in Axis & Allies Global?

I believe that in the 1940 version of this game the USA starts with around 27 IPC's on the Pacific map and 35 on the Europe side, so a total of roughly 62(?, perhaps my numbers are wrong) as a STARTING income. Then they will have the 30 IPC's per turn added on once at war, which is their only national objective, so when they are at war, they will have an economy of exactly thirty IPC's more than what they gain from territories(convoy losses and extraneous circumstances aside), no more, no less from NO's. I do not own this version, so this is only my take on it.


How does the Ticket To Ride:1910 expansion change the original game?

I'll let someone else explain the expansion options, I just want to list the most important change.

Normal Size Cards


In Arkham Horror, does the first player look at the drawn monster before deciding how to place it?

No, you can't look at them - just draw and place.

From the Arkham Horror FAQ, in the Open Gate and Spawn Monster section (on page 2-3), in its discussion of monster surges:

  When placing monsters, they must be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates, with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate where the monster surge occurred this turn. If there are more monsters to be placed than allowed by the monster limit, the players should decide where monsters will be placed. The players must make this decision before monsters have been drawn from the cup. If the players cannot agree where the monsters are to be placed, the first player decides the placement.

That doesn't explicitly cover the scenario you asked about, but the same principle should apply: you figure out where to put all the monsters you're about to draw, then you draw them.


Does Harvester of Souls trigger its own death trigger when it dies

No, Harvester of Souls does not trigger its own death trigger

Read the card carefully, it says

  Whenever another nontoken creature dies, you may draw a card.

It specifically doesn't count itself. For other creatures, it depends on the exact wording of that card and cannot be stated generally.


Do improvement token bonuses count as skill bonuses when determining the highest bonus to apply to a test?

Improvement tokens are neither a "skill bonus", nor "additional dice", they provide dice in a separate step.

  When an investigator resolves a test, he performs the following steps:

  Determine Dice Pool: The investigator determines the number of
  dice he will roll. This number is his DICE POOL.

  •  He starts with a number equal to the skill being tested.
  •  He adds or subtracts the test modifier (the number that follows
  the skill icon on the effect).
  •  If he has an Improvement token for the skill being tested, he
  adds the Improvement token’s modifier.
  •  He may use one effect that provides a bonus (for example “Gain
  +3 Will”). If multiple effects provide a bonus, he uses only the
  highest bonus.
  •  He adds any “additional dice” he gains from effects that apply.
  Additional dice are cumulative and are in addition to other
  effects

Source: Reference Guide, "Tests" (page 11)

Everything, except "skill bonuses" stacks.
Only the effects worded as "gain +X [some skill]" are skill bonuses.
All other effects are not skill bonuses, and stack.


Do Marchesa the Black Rose and Nightmare Shepherd work together?

Marchesa's ability will try to bring the creature back but if you chose to use Nightmare Shepherd's ability it won't find it. As written in the gatherer ruling for Marchesa:

  If the creature card leaves the graveyard before the delayed triggered ability resolves, that card won’t return to the battlefield, even if it’s back in the graveyard when the delayed triggered ability resolves.


When can you start using the Pirate in Catan Cities and Knights / Seafarers?

From the rules to Sefarers, page 6:

  If you roll a "7" during your turn, you may elect to move the pirate
  INSTEAD of the robber.

From the Cities and Knights rules, page 5:

  The robber cannot be moved until after the barbarians reach the island
  of Catan for the first time.

Since the robber can't be moved until the barbarians attack, neither can the pirate, as there is no robber movement to replace.


What's different in San Juan's second edition?

Artwork and the following.

The Prefecture now costs 4 instead of 3.
With the Goldmine, you now get to keep the cheapest card instead of any card.
With the Guildhall, you get 1 point per production building and 1 point for each different production building.
New building Hut: "In the trader phase, the owner of a hut draws one card from the supply if no good was sold by any player during this phase."
The Bank now costs 3 instead of 4.

And yes this is a copy paste from BGG, if you don't want that please explain how BGG didn't fully explain this.

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1330934/differences-between-1ed-and-2ed


When should you take a scholar early in "In The Year of the Dragon"?

The quick answer is: only if nobody else is doing it.

Scholars + research can be worth a lot of points. You'll start with a scholar and take another one early, then choose research as much as you can afford to. The other big advantage is that if it's not being fought over, you'll save money by choosing the research tile, and you can let your person points slide. If you have to pay to choose the research tile, this advantage goes away.

The disadvantage, of course, is that it doesn't help you gain any resources, so you need to look at the events. If plague is going to kill your scholars, or you're going to run out of building space, you need to handle those crises rather than wasting time on doomed scholars.


How many counters for each turn for Abzan?

The deck Abzan Siege has several different ways of putting +1/+1 counters on creatures and how often you can do it depends on exactly which card is doing it.

For any of the cards with Outlast like Abzan Battle Priest you can normally only activate the ability once each turn since tapping the creature is part of the cost of the ability in addition to the mana you need to pay. If you can find a way to untap the creature on your turn you can activate it again, but since you can only activate Outlast as a sorcery your Ivorytusk Fortress will not help you get additional activations out of it.

For ones with a triggered ability like Armament Corps you get to distribute the counters only once when the creature enters the battlefield.

For ones with an activated ability that doesn't require tapping like High Sentinels of Arashin you can activate the ability as many times as you want as long as you have the mana to pay for it.