Does "Going Infinite" necessarily end the game? I've seen a variety of combinations that will allow a player to "go infinite"* in life, power, toughness or simply create an endless loop**.

In the case of the endless loop, I understand why it necessarily forces a draw.  The game states can only proceed to states that feed the loop.

  104.4b If the game somehow enters a “loop” of mandatory actions, repeating a sequence of events with no way to stop, the game is a draw. Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw.

If a creature goes infinite in power or toughness, or a player goes infinite in life, does it necessarily signal a win/loss condition?

A particularly stubborn a player could require the now infinite player to only gain as much life/toughness/power as they are willing to physically perform the combo, but it would be poor sportsmanship, right?

* perform a combination where, at the end of the sequence, the combo may be performed again

** a particularly specific setup involving 3 oblivion rings

The comprehensive rules on taking shortcuts in Magic, as per your request. (Sorry, long...)

If you refuse to take a shortcut out of an infinite loop when you have the opportunity, you are committing deliberate timewasting as Andrey's answer suggests; a definite no-no in a tournament, and hopefully in a friendly group as well!

  Taking Shortcuts

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

  715.1a The rules for taking shortcuts are largely unformalized. As
  long as each player in the game understands the intent of each other
  player, any shortcut system they use is acceptable.

  715.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of
  actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a "loop"). In
  that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times
  those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them,
  and how the loop is broken.

  715.2. Taking a shortcut follows the following procedure.

  715.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest
  a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players,
  that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the
  predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a
  non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified
  number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross
  multiple turns. It can't include conditional actions, where the
  outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The
  ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has
  priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.
  Example: A player controls a creature enchanted by Presence of Gond,
  which grants the creature the ability "{T}: Put a 1/1 green Elf
  Warrior creature token onto the battlefield," and another player
  controls Intruder Alarm, which reads, in part, "Whenever a creature
  enters the battlefield, untap all creatures." When the player has
  priority, he may suggest "I'll create a million tokens," indicating
  the sequence of activating the creature's ability, all players passing
  priority, letting the creature's ability resolve and put a token onto
  the battlefield (which causes Intruder Alarm's ability to trigger),
  Intruder Alarm's controller putting that triggered ability on the
  stack, all players passing priority, Intruder Alarm's triggered
  ability resolving, all players passing priority until the player
  proposing the shortcut has priority, and repeating that sequence
  999,999 more times, ending just after the last token-creating ability
  resolves.

  715.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who
  suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or
  shorten it by naming a place where he or she will make a game choice
  that's different than what's been proposed. (The player doesn't need
  to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place
  becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence. Example: The
  active player draws a card during her draw step, then says, "Go." The
  nonactive player is holding Into the Fray (an instant that says
  "Target creature attacks this turn if able") and says, "I'd like to
  cast a spell during your beginning of combat step." The current
  proposed shortcut is that all players pass priority at all
  opportunities during the turn until the nonactive player has priority
  during the beginning of combat step.

  715.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the
  shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the
  last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the
  shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened
  from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make
  a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that
  player.

  715.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player
  involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in
  the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the
  active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop,
  the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a
  different game choice so the loop does not continue. Example: In a
  two-player game, the active player controls a creature with the
  ability "{0}: [This creature] gains flying," the nonactive player
  controls a permanent with the ability "{0}: Target creature loses
  flying," and nothing in the game cares how many times an ability has
  been activated. Say the active player activates his creature's
  ability, it resolves, then the nonactive player activates her
  permanent's ability targeting that creature, and it resolves. This
  returns the game to a game state it was at before. The active player
  must make a different game choice (in other words, anything other than
  activating that creature's ability again). The creature doesn't have
  flying. Note that the nonactive player could have prevented the
  fragmented loop simply by not activating her permanent's ability, in
  which case the creature would have had flying. The nonactive player
  always has the final choice and is therefore able to determine whether
  the creature has flying.

  715.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw.
  (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)

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

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

They did in fact change the rules recently where you used to have to name a finite number of times a particular combo goes. Now you can actually name infinity as the amount of times you do a combo as well. The co,bo will then happen “infinite” times. This does not end the game because of the shortcut rule. The game will only end because of an infinite loop if the infinite loop is required to be performed by the cards in the loop such as 3 oblivion rings with an empty battlefield. Otherwise infinite loops do not end the game. (Unless of course the infinite loop wins you the game)


Can Dimensional Barrier be used on Link monsters? Dimensional Barrier:

  Call one monster type (Ritual, Xyz, Synchro, Pendulum, Fusion) For the rest of this turn neither player can summon that kind of monster. And any monster of that type already on the field have their effects negated.

With the new link format of Yu-Gi-Oh, can this handy trap be used to stop the summoning of link monsters?

No you cannot use Dimensional Barrier on link monsters as this is the current text.

  Call one monster type (Ritual, Xyz, Synchro, Pendulum, Fusion) For the
  rest of this turn neither player can summon that kind of monster. And
  any monster of that type already on the field have their effects
  negated.

Because it explicitly mentions monster card types, only the mentioned ones can be used. If the card didn’t explicitly mention certain types then you could have used it on link monsters (so taking out the part in brackets). So currently you cannot use dimensional Barrier on link monsters, unless Konami give the card an errata (rewording the card text).

Please see this reddit page for more information.

Yes you can.

The key point is:

  Call one monster type...

Maybe the card wording has not been updated to include Link monsters as some of the options, but surely they will soon (imagine all other cards that have to be updated in such way)

However as Link monsters are indeed a valid Monster Type you can go ahead and use it on them.


Can I summon Blue Eyes Chaos MAX from my deck? What if I have Chaos Form in my hand, with the required materials but Chaos MAX is not in my hand. Can I summon it from the main deck?

No you can't.
This simply isn't how ritual summons work. Unless any card states otherwise (e.g. the nekroz ritual spells) you must tribute monsters from your hand or field to summon a ritual monster from your hand.

In general you cannot interact with cards in your main deck, unless another cards specifically states otherwise.

I mean it doesn't really say that you can't. So I guess it's up to players choice?

"thats simply not how ritual summons work" doesn't really apply. The game has evolved so much if it doesn't specifically say that you can't summon it from the deck then go for it.


What's the highest score that can be achieved by pegging? Nearly every cribbage player knows that 29 is the highest-scoring hand that one can achieve, and that 19 and some others are impossible to score.

However, I'm curious to know what is the highest score one can achieve during the play of the cards (also known as "pegging"?  What cards would need to be played, in what order, and what would your opponent's pegged score be?  This question is meant to exclude the final count of points in one's hand.

I'm sure the answer probably differs between 2, 3, and 4-player games because there are more cards available when there are more players.  My question is focused on the two player game.  If anyone happens to have answers for the others as well though, those would be interesting to know.

If you scroll down to "Pegging Maximal Score", they outline how the dealer can peg 30 points.
I found that page from an answer to the question that you linked above... not sure how you missed that!

Added:

Joe O'Brien showed, that dealer can score 30 points (not 26 points as we stated before with a dealer's hand 4,4,4,7, pone's hand 4,8,10,K, and the jack as a starter).
In Joe's example Dealer hand 7,7,4,4 ; Pone hand 7,7,4,4. Sequence of play is as follows:
Pone 7 7 4 4
Dealer 7 7 4 4
Dealer Points 2 13 2 13
Dealer Totals 2 15 17 30
This example of dealer maximal cribbage hands is in the article based on the letter of Joe O'Brien.
Update - Joe O'Brien showed that there is a hand that will give the
pone a total of 24 in pegging. The Pone holding 5 5 4 4, and the
Dealer holding 5 4 4 (na/). The Pone hits both the fifteen and the
thirty-one, picking up a triple at the 15 mark and a pair and four of
a kind on the way to the thirty-one mark. Kyle Graham showed, that
pone can score 22 points (in opposite to other articles, that states
max pone score is 18 points). Pone's hand: A, A, 3, 3; Dealer's hand
A, 3, 3, NA. The sequence of play is A, A, A, 3, 3, 3, 3, NA; Pone
gets 6+2+14 = 22 points. Later our player Kenneth Anderson showed,
that the maximum cribbage scoring for Pone pegging is 23. Pone's hand:
5 (or 6) 4 4 4; Dealer's hand: 5 (or 6) 4 9 9 (9 9 could be any cards
worth 9 or above). Total Pone points: 5+6+12 = 23 . More examples of
pone maximal cribbage hands are in the article based on the letters of
Joe O'Brien, Kyle Graham and Kenneth Anderson.

Answer is thirty two. Each player is dealt two sevens and two sixes. Any jack is turned over. First card played is a seven. You can figure it out from there.


Can the Madman cause you to die from sanity loss? If so, can the dog retrieve him? Two questions, both not directly addressed in the rule book.

1) During the Haunt, if I pick up the Madman card (gain 2 might, lose 1 sanity) and my sanity is already on the lowest value, do I die? Can Omen cards kill you?

2) If I did die and dropped the Madman, can a teammate send the Dog to pick up the Madman (assuming he is within 6 spaces)? Can the Dog retrieve (companion) Omen cards?

1) Yes you would die from the sanity loss. From the rule book (page 9):

  Once the haunt begins, if any of your traits (Speed, Might, Sanity, or Knowledge) moves down to the skull symbol, your explorer dies.

This does not differentiate in any way between taking direct damage and any other forms of stat loss, so gaining the Madman can kill you if your sanity is already at its lowest point.

2) No, the Dog cannot carry the Madman (or the Girl). According to the rule book (page 7):

  Some omens, like the Dog, aren’t items at all, so they can’t
  be dropped or traded. They’re companions that follow
  the explorer who has custody of them. (The Dog, Girl, and
  Madman all work this way.)

and according to the Dog card:

  Once during your turn, the Dog can move to any explored room up to 6 spaces away, using doors and stairs, and then return. It can pick up, carry, and/or drop 1 item before it returns.

The Dog explicitly states that it can only pick up items. The rules explicitly state that both the Madman and the Girl are not items, so therefore neither of them could be carried by the Dog.

I have played this game several times, and the way we played was as follows (regarding your questions):

1) You die from the loss of Sanity.

2) The dog can pick up the omen if he has enough mouvement to make it to the room (where the Madman is) and back.


What happens if you do not have any cards left in the Infection deck? (Minor spoilers) To keep things general and mostly spoiler free, some abilities and events let you destroy cards from the Infection deck. If you do this enough times, there won't be any cards left. What happens in that case?

As the game progresses more, slightly different but similar scenarios could occur.

Package 6 spoiler below:

   Coupled with the inoculation introduced in package 6, you don't even need to destroy them all. Some could be inoculated and in package 6, there they are effectively out of the game until an epidemic is drawn. What happens during the Infect step of a turn when the only Infection cards are in package 6?

Turning point 2 spoiler:

   Infection cards for Forsaken cities are ignored and moved to the game end area when drawn, effectively leading to the same situation. What happens if you have a deck full of Forsaken cities?

From page 14 of the rules

  In the rare case you get through the entire Infection deck, reshuffle
  it and move the Infection Rate marker forward 1 space on the Infection
  Rate track. If this causes the rate to change during the “Infect”
  step, use the old rate when determining how many cards to draw.

If there are no cards in the draw pile or the discard deck, you've lost. Like, REALLY lost. Even if you say that the Infection Rate just goes to max and then nothing happens when you have to draw an infection card and there is no deck, you can't win the game without adding cards to the infection deck (by connecting cities to the grid) and as soon as you do, you now draw that card repeatedly and will lose the game very quickly. Not to mention that at some point you had to have only a few cards in the infection deck, and you probably lost very quickly at that point too. Even better, you now lose every subsequent game during the setup phase. So, I'd recommend not doing that.

I have not played season 2 yet, however whenever I run into these situations in other games I think of what would be reasonable thematic-wise. If there is nowhere to spread the virus then it doesn't spread. Or perhaps you revive one of the infected cities because the virus was in fact dormant. Whatever sounds fair, fun and appropriate. It is a cooperative game after all, so you should be able to come up with some realistic outcome with your fellow players.


Is pocketing an opponent's coin considered a foul? While playing Carrom, if I accidentally pocket (clear from the board) one of my opponent's pieces (coins), is this considered a foul?

According to the Laws of Carrom 125

  When a player pockets the C/M of his opponent knowingly or unknowingly, the Umpire shall stop the player from playing further. If unnoticed by the Umpire or by the opponent, the C/M pocketed shall be considered to have been properly pocketed. The turn of the player shall be lost as and when noticed.

So, while the action is not itself a foul, you do lose the turn, and should the action be noticed immediately the pocketed C/M is returned to the board.

No, It is not a foul. However after pocketing the opponents coin you lose your turn to play.


does gaining control of an aura gaining control of a permanent give me the permanent? If my opponent steals a creature from me with Control Magic, I could steal it back by casting another Control Magic on it and (I think due to timing?) I would control the creature.

If instead I cast Steal Enchantment on the Control Magic, does the "You" become "me," and would I now control the creature?

Yes, if you take control of your opponent's Control Magic, you also take control of the creature it enchants.
The "you" on objects always refers to the controller of that object. If you take control of that object, you become the new "you". In the case of Control Magic, that also means that you take control of the enchanted creature.

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

If you cast your own Control Magic after the opponent played his, you would also take control of the creature. However, it's not due to timing, which governs who can take action and when, but because of the more recent timestamp of your Control Magic vs. your opponent's Control Magic timestamp, meaning the latest timestamp "wins":

Interaction of Continuous Effects

613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.2. Within layers 1–6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer. (See rule 613.7.)
613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

I'm afraid I believe both of the previous answers to be wrong - though I haven't evaluated a copy of the rules closer to their posting, so that might be a matter of timing. Both answers rely on the effect of the first control spell being reevaluated upon the second spell coming into effect.

Somewhat unintuitively, the "you" in the text on the card is not "you" in the text of the continuous effect. According to the comprehensive rules...

  611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. (Note that this works differently than a continuous effect from a static ability.) A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability that doesn’t modify the characteristics or change the controller of any objects modifies the rules of the game, so it can affect objects that weren’t affected when that continuous effect began. If a single continuous effect has parts that modify the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects and other parts that don’t, the set of objects each part applies to is determined independently.

Effectively, this rule causes "You" to be permentally evaluated as "Bob" in the effect - where Bob is the caster of the first control spell. Even when the control spell becomes controlled by "Sue" (where Sue is another unique player), the first control effect gives Bob control of Target [creature].

If it wasn't for this, then of course Hackworth's answer would be correct, because the You in the effect would apply.

With ikegami's answer, again, continuous effect Layers might be applicable in determining the order in which two control effects are evaluated (I don't think they do in this case, but it's irrelevant), however the effect created by the first control effect still applies to Bob.

Thanks!


Are Bishops more valuable than Knights? Bishops and Knights are both traditionally considered to have a similar value, worth roughly three pawns each. However, I have heard arguments that under certain circumstances they are not so closely comparable. Are there situations where Bishops are more valuable than Knights, or vice versa? What factors should I weigh when considering a trade-off, for example?

There's a lot that can be said on this topic, but here are some of the factors that enter into my decision making process:

I have a personal preference for Bishops over Knights. This has nothing to do with their inherent value, but is simply because I tend to utilize Bishops better. It's worth considering whether you have a penchant for one over the other, because your personal play style may determine which is more valuable for you.
In general, Knights are better early in the game and Bishops are better late in the game. This is because, in the early game pawns tend to obstruct Bishops, while Knights can move more freely.
There can also be a difference in value between Bishops (the so-called Good Bishop and Bad Bishop). If most of your pawns are on black squares, your "white" Bishop (the one on white squares) has greater freedom of movement (Good Bishop), while your "black" Bishop's movement will be hindered by your pawns (Bad Bishop). Your Good Bishop probably has a higher value than your Bad Bishop at that point. A common tactic is to trade your Bad Bishop for your opponent's Good Bishop. This can create a slight advantage. You might also trade your Bad Bishop for one of your opponent's Knights.
Two Bishops is generally better than two Knights or one of each. Engineering exchanges that result in you keeping two Bishops and leaving your opponent with two Knights or one of each, may result in a small advantage for you. It's debatable whether two Knights are better than a Knight and Bishop. I tend to think so, but it's very situational.

Obviously, these are generalizations that may not always apply. Chess is a complex game and the situation on the board dictates what makes the most sense, but they are reasonable rules-of-thumb and worth keeping in mind. The real answer depends on your strategy, your opponent's strategy, and the current state of the board. That is what really determines the relative value of the pieces at that moment.

Remember one thing though when you have just pawns left with bishops versus knight, you can put your pawns on opposite square as the bishop. But against the knight no pawn is safe.
I saw many endgames where a knight clobbered pawn the bishop. And vice versa. Every endgame is different it all depends on pawn formations king positions etc..

Bishop and knight are equal grandmasters know or even veterans know when one of them is better than the other. Sometimes a bishop is stronger and sometimes it is the knight.


Are there cards which turn life gain into damage instead? I was playing Hearthstone the other day and was intrigued by a card that causes healing spells to do damage instead.  I was curious if there was ever anything printed in MTG that would have a similar effect, i.e. every time you would gain X life you take X damage instead.

Yes, there's Rain of Gore.

  If a spell or ability would cause its controller to gain life, that player loses that much life instead

As well as False Cure.

  Until end of turn, whenever a player gains life, that player loses 2 life for each 1 life he or she gained.

There's also Sanguine Bond.

  Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life.

Look at False Cure and cards from the masques block. you can win without anything but a False Cure and several cards with the alternate casting cost of having your opponents gain life. Reverent Silence, Refreshing Rain, Skyshroud Cutter and Invigorate all have the alternate casting cost. you need a forest or overgrown tomb/bayou in play then cast false cure and win by having them gain/lose life. fun mechanic very meme-ish. not competative but if you pull it off it your friends will think it is.


How much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering? I've heard a lot (of good things) about this game and I'm interested in exploring it; however, I'm slightly worried about the initial cash investment involved.

  About how much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering?

There have been many answers to this question, as there are many different ways to handle getting started in magic. Really, the best thing to do is to explore carefully and decide how you are going to play that's the only way to get a feel for how much your initial investment will be.
First and foremost, as others have suggested. Regardless of how you want to play, as a new player, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a fabulous way to get a feel for how the game is played. It's available on many different systems, most consoles and PC, as well as some tablets. It gives you an excellent way to get an idea of what different colours do, how they interact, the beginnings of how to use your resources correctly and the best strategies to employ in given situations. If you want to know whether you will like the game at all, this is the best way to find out.
If you like the game enough to continue from that point to the next step. There are 2 options, Paper magic, and Magic Online (often referred to as MODO). both of these are open to casual and competitive players alike, and the decision comes down to whether you are going to want to play with friends in your local area, with a hard collection to show for your money, or be able to jump in to a game of magic any time of the day or night. Whichever you choose, you will be making a similar level of initial investment, so your choice here really counts!
If you choose to take the online route, then jump onto the internet and make yourself an account, there are plenty of resources out there to help players get started on MODO, and there are bots who will give new players a handful of free digital cards to help grow their collections initially, besides that, you can buy boosters and enter tournaments just like with paper magic. you can even cash out your digital cards from recent expansions into paper copies if you complete a full set. If you go down the route of MODO, your initial minimum investment will be in the region of $10 for an account, from there you can jump straight in to playing some games.
if you choose the paper Magic route, then you need to make a decision about what kind of Magic you are looking to play. This is a very subjective choice, and depends massively on the player, realistically, without doing a bit of experimenting, you will struggle to figure out exactly what you want to do with magic. I will expand on this below:
Casual Play
There are many players (in fact, the vast majority) who will happily buy a few boosters here or there, and then build whatever decks they fancy out of what cards they have, and battle with their friends. These players get a lot out of every single card they own, and generally open a few boosters here and there a few times a week. Players like this will be playing at home with their friends, round a kitchen or dining table, with whatever decks they put together for that evening, maybe building a deck in a different colour for each of their friends that come to battle.
If that is the kind of magic you are looking to play, then your initial investment will not be sky high, there are many good answers already covering this, so I wont paraphrase them. I will say that sealed product (boosters/starter decks etc) would be your best choice. You would be able to spend as much as you feel you want to to get a collection big enough to build what decks you need to have fun with your friends, this could be as little as $20 as others have suggested, or I would say up to $100 would give you a very good basis to work from for a larger pool of cards to play with.
Like Competitive Play described below some casual players choose to follow certain deck construction rules (called a format) when building their decks. One of the most popular formats is called Commander, which involves creating a deck around a specific Legendary Creature, called your Commander. These decks are 100 cards (99 + the Commander), you can only have one a given card in a deck (other than basic lands), and all cards in the deck must have a color identity that is included in the commanders color identity. There is a Commander special release every November with 5 new decks that are around $35 a piece and are usually fairly competitive (for a casual audience, they aren't Competitive in the sense they would do well in a tournament).
Competitive Play
If casual play at home with friends doesn't sound like your thing, (either because your friends aren't interested, or you are looking to meet loads of new people to play against, or you want to play to win) and you are looking to play in tournaments, then things go a lot differently, both in how to get started, and how much your initial investment will be.
There are many different types of tournaments, Limited formats, which require no prior investment whatsoever, are a good way of entering tournament play without having to spend any money prior to the tournament. You get the same chance everyone else gets, and it all comes down to learning how to play that format (be it draft or sealed) better than everyone else. Entry to these tournaments is often more expensive than traditional "build a deck beforehand" constructed tournaments, but you get to keep the cards you use in the tournament, so its a good way of picking up cards to expand your collection, whilst playing competitively. The cost of draft or sealed tournaments varies, so your local store is the best place to find out more information about this style of play.

If you want to know more about the types of tournaments, and advice about them, continue below, however, there is a LOT of information to process, and if you already feel like casual play is more for you, then this information is of little use to you. have fun YOUR way, and at YOUR pace!

Limited
As previously mentioned Limited formats require no prior cards, you play with the cards you are given by the Tournament Organizer. For limited events you have a 40 card minimum deck size rather than the 60 cards needed for all the constructed formats.
Booster Draft this is the most popular form of limited play. The way it works is you are seated at a table with several other people (8 players per table is considered ideal, however numbers can differ based on tournament attendance). Each person is then given 3 booster packs, they each open one of their packs and keeps a card from it passing the rest to the player on their left. They then take the pack passed to them from their right pick a card from it and repeat this process until there are no more cards to pass. This process is then repeated for the second and third packs, alternating direction with each pack. Each player then makes a deck from the cards they chose.
Sealed Deck is the other main form of limited play. In this format each player is given 6 booster packs and has to make their deck from the cards in those packs. This format generally has a lot more luck than Booster Draft since you only get to see 6 booster packs vs 24 boosters you get to see in draft so if you are unlucky and get bad cards there isn't really anything you can do to mitigate it.
Constructed
Constructed competitive play is a whole different ballgame. This is where things get different, as in terms of "bang for your buck", you are best off buying individual cards from a reseller, rather than opening boosters and hoping to get the cards for your deck.
First and foremost, Event Decks have been made especially for you. they are more expensive than starter decks, but with very good reason. They contain more rare and powerful cards, and are generally built so that you can have a hope to compete in a tournament with them right out of the box. They even have instructional inserts to explain how the deck is meant to be played, and giving you some tips on how to use the cards that are included to best effect! These decks serve as an excellent starting point to build on. Note: Event Decks were discontinued with the release of Battle for Zendikar.
Playing at this competitive level, especially as someone starting out, it is very important that you start by paying attention to what kind of decks are winning tournaments week after week. There are plenty of websites that will give you a list of the decks (and every card they played) that came in the top 8-16 or so of the tournament. This gives you a very good idea of what kind of decks can do well reliably, and hence what you should be looking to invest your money into building. You can of course disregard this and build whatever you want, but if we are talking about investing $200+ in something, it's probably best to go with a tried and true formula, at least until you have some experience.
You may want to pick one of the cheaper decks that performs well, so you don't have to spend quite so much so soon, and that's fine, cheaper does not mean worse, and you can build something quite playable with under $100 if you pick carefully. You can also replace some of the most expensive cards with something more affordable if you wish, but bear in mind those cards are expensive for a reason, they're good!
There is some key information to remember however with constructed play, and that is the concept of rotation. Standard is the most popular constructed format, by a very large margin. If someone is playing non-casual magic with their own pre-built decks, chances are they are playing standard. One of the key things about standard is that every six months, usually around late September and early April, several sets of cards are "rotated out" of the format, meaning they are no longer legal for play. this means if you choose badly how you invest, you may well find that in a few months you are no longer allowed to play your expensive cards and have to spend that money all over again. Cards stay in Standard for approximately 15-18 months. On the positive side, this keeps the format feeling new and fresh, however, conversely, it does mean you have to continue to invest in new cards to play.
This puts a lot of people off these formats. Fortunately, there are other constructed formats that do not rotate, however these come with a trade off, as the initial investment is much higher. Eternal formats also tend to have a smaller player base, which means local tournaments are harder to come by, if they happen in your area at all.
Non-rotating formats
Modern - this is the newest and cheapest non-rotating format. This obviously provides a massive advantage, in that cards you buy for this format will not ever rotate out of the format. This means that once you buy a deck - with some caveats - you wont have to make a big investment again. The exceptions to this are bannings, and newly printed cards. If the key elements of your deck are banned (such as Splinter Twin) then you may find you have to invest in an entirely new deck. Similarly, new cards may be printed which become key elements of your deck (such as the new Beck // Call which may well become a core element of modern Elves), however, overall this investment tends to be much more manageable than the continued investment in rotating formats.
Some players dislike modern, and a lot of the complaints raised against it centre around the fact that your investment into the format is not necessarily stable, as if key elements of your deck are banned, you need to reinvest into a new deck. Modern's banlist is relatively young, and as such is still undergoing more change than in other formats. Modern has seen cards banned or unbanned in many of the announcements since the format was officially released. This turbulence puts a lot of players off the format.
Legacy - This is a much more expensive, but also much more stable eternal format, which means that cards from all sets can be played unless they are explicitly banned. The highest value cards in this format are for the most part pretty safe from bannings, as they have been in the format for a long time, and would have been banned a long time ago if they were causing a problem. The main issue with Legacy is that the investment into a deck can easily reach into the region of $1000s. The main advantage is that your investment is unlikely to be invalidated by future card releases or bannings, and for the most part, wont require much (if any) continued investment as additional cards are released.
Legacy has its own problems however, and the prohibitively large cost of the key cards in the format takes its toll, While there are areas with a thriving legacy scene, and even some with higher legacy tournament attendance than any other format, in other areas, the player base is much smaller, and in some areas practically non-existent. Considering the cost of the format, it definitely requires some consideration of your local area to ensure you will be able to play.
Vintage - the most expensive and intense eternal format. This format has a very small ban list (banning only cards such as Contract from Below which reference the "Ante" mechanic which was removed from the game early on, "Dexterity" cards which require you to physically flip cards from a foot above the table such as Chaos Orb, cards with the Conspiracy type like Hymn of the Wilds, and Shahrazad) and a "Restricted" list, of cards which you may only include a single copy in your deck. Some of these cards cost hundreds or thousands of dollars each, and their power level makes them essentially required in your deck. As a result, Vintage tournaments are very hard to come by. I would not recommend going into vintage to someone just starting out.
So, having looked at all your options, here is an overview of what you can expect
Casual play - Comparitively cheap, you can happily play with an investment from anywhere between $20 and $100, depending on how many players you want to support. You can continue to invest to add variety, or play with what you have.
Limited - No initial "hump" of investment to be able to play other than tournament entry, but quite high continued investment.
Constructed
Standard (Rotating) - Reasonable initial investment (approx $50-$500), with similar investment to be made at least every 1-2 years.
Modern (Non-rotating) - Medium to high initial investment (approx $300-$2000), good chance of investment being stable, but good chance you may have to continually invest to keep current.
Legacy (Eternal) - High to very high investment (approx $500-$4000), quite stable investment, continual investment requirements small or non existent.
Vintage (Eternal) - Extremely high investment (approx $4000-$25000) very stable investment, continual investment requirements highly unlikely.

I don't get why many answers focus on the (pointless) booster buying, so I'm going to rectify that.

In MTG there are many formats, which mostly fall in one of those two categories:

Limited
Constructed

Playing in a Limited tournament costs 10-20€, depending on the format, and that cost is the cost of the boosters to play it, plus an extremely small fee. These should be the only boosters that you buy.

In Constructed you get to build your deck: to do that you should selectively buy just the cards you need, and once you have them you can keep using them as long as the format you're playing allows them (forever in Vintage or Legacy).

TL;DR: buying boosters is usually just plain stupid: you either get them anyway in the Limited tournaments, or you'd better buy specific cards for the Constructed.

That said:

you might want to buy boosters anyway "just for fun"
you might want to buy them as you would buy a lottery ticket (hint: don't)
the market could temporarily be "broken" so that the average amount of value of the cards in a booster might be greater than the cost of the booster itself (I guess it never happens, but it might; if it does, it will not last anyway, since the market would auto-adjust itself)


Can a werewolf kill himself? I was moderator in a game and one of the nights, one of the wolves chose himself to die.

I was a little disconcerted, but later he explained that it was because he trusted that the witch would save him and after that, the villagers would trust him.

It is a solid but risky strategy. But ... is it a valid strategy? Can a wolf (if the majority agrees) be one of the victims of the attack?

Werewolf is the name of a family of games, not a specific game. So the answer will vary depending on the rules of the specific game. I think the more common answer would be "No, because they have to pick a 'villager', and the werewolves aren't 'villagers'."

e.g.,:

https://www.playwerewolf.co/rules

But other rulesets vary in their phrasing, with some even explicitly allowing the selection of a werewolf.

Short answer: No, a player (whether he is wolf or villager) cannot kill himself

The rule clearly states that a player who is a lover must not cast a vote (even to mislead others) against his partner. This  rule can only make sense if we consider that a player cannot vote against himself either.

However, the other players have indeed the right to vote against one of their fellow-villager/wolf. This is allowed during the day, and I believe can also be done during the night for strategic reasons. For instance a group of wolves could attack another one that they suspect to be the white wolf (available in one extension).

So, the strategy you mentioned could work, but it requires at least 3 wolves in play (if we consider that all must place a vote, two wolves would lead to a draw when one decides to vote against his peer).

---- EDIT ----

I am basing this explanation on the game "Les loups-garous de Thiercelieux"  (English version is "The Werewolves of Millers Hollow"). This is as far as I know the original werewolves game using the older "Mafia" concept.

The rules in French version of this game do allow werewolves voting against each other, and this possibility is clearly stated in this official website: http://www.loups-garous.com


Debt condition abuse? The rules states that you cannot have two of the same conditions.  You can take a debt condition to gain two additional successes on your influence test to gain assets from the reserve. Thus if you already have a debt, does that mean that you automatically gain two additional successes for each gain asset actions?

If you have ANY condition (whether it be debt, or a dark pact, or hallucinations), you cannot gain it again while it is in play.  So, if you take a debt (getting 2 additional "bucks" or influence for that purchase), on any subsequent turn while you are still in debt you cannot do that again or get the bonus.  It only happens once.

If, on a later turn, you are able to rid yourself of your debt (e.g., through its reckoning event), you can take on another debt to get the 2 additional bucks for another purchase.  But this is only available if you can clear the previous debt condition, since you only get the 2 bucks when you gain the condition card.

EDIT: The official ruling is found in the Reference Guide on p. 4 under the "Conditions" header: "An investigator cannot have multiple copies of the same Condition. If he would gain a Condition that he already has a copy of, he does not gain another copy of that Condition." and "If a Condition’s effect does not list a limit, it may only be used once per instance of the triggered event."

It is probably discussed in the manual too, but I find it is easier to look things up in the Reference Guide, generally speaking.

The above should be understood in conjunction with the Bank Loan text on the board: "When performing an Acquire Assets action, you may gain a Debt Condition to immediately add 2 successes to your test result".  Again, you can only gain a condition you don't have so this only triggers once, when you gain the debt.

Whoa! You guys, you cannot take out a loan if you're in debt. That rule is there to mimic real life, where taking out a loan with bad credit is impossible. No the debt doesn't stack, but as long as you're in debt, you can't get the bank loan, because you can't gain the debt card, because you can't have more than one debt. From the reference guide under Bank Loans:

  If an investigator already has a Debt Condition, he cannot acquire a bank loan.

Boom. Done. Pay me.


What happens when Teysa Karlov is equipped with Helm of the Host? What happens when you equip Helm of the Host to Teysa Karlov? Do the Teysas trigger each other making infinite copies of the death trigger? My thinking is that it says: when a triggered ability is caused by death, copy it. Is that ability copied by the other Teysa or is the original ability just copied again? So instead of one Blood Artist trigger, would I get 3? Or would I just win the game doing infinite damage?

You get one more trigger for each Teysa Karlov you have. So if you have 2 Teysa Karlov, you get 3 triggers.

From the Rulings on the Gatherer page:

  1/25/2019 — If you somehow control two Teysas, a creature dying causes abilities to trigger three times, not four. A third Teysa causes abilities to trigger four times, a fourth causes abilities to trigger five times, and so on. This also means that if you control Teysa and cast a second one, an ability that triggers when it dies due to the “legend rule” triggers three times.

It works this way because Teysa Karlov's ability is a replacement effect, and replacement effects can only apply to an event once. When a death trigger occurs, one Teysa sees it and replaces it with two death triggers, then the other Teysa sees it and replaces it with three death triggers. Both Teysas have now applied their replacement effects to this one event and can't apply additional times, so they won't loop infinitely.

Teysa's ability isn't triggered by another creature dying, it's triggered by an ability that's triggered by a creature dying. For instance, suppose a creature has "When this creature dies, gain one life". When that creature dies, its ability is triggered, and "gain one life" is put on the stack. Teysa's ability is then triggered. It's triggered not by the creature dying, but by "gain one life" being put on the stack. Teysa will then put another "gain one life" on the stack, but since this was not triggered by a death, it will not trigger Teysa. Teysa is only triggered when a trigger is specifically from a death, not whenever a death is part of the causal chain that leads to the trigger. If you have an additional Teysa, it will see the original "gain one life" being put on the stack, and this will trigger it putting an additional "gain one life" on the stack. So:

Creature dies.
"Gain one life" put on stack.
One of the Teysas sees "Gain one life" being put on the stack as a result of a death, and so puts an additional "Gain one life" on the stack.
The other Teysa sees "Gain one life" being put on the stack as a result of a death, and so puts an additional "Gain one life" on the stack. The other "Gain one life", however, was not put on the stack from a death, and so does not trigger Teysa.


Is there a good tic tac toe strategy for the second player? The assumptions here are that your opponent will block whenever you could win on the next move, and also that given the opportunity to force a win (by creating two different directions with two in a row) your opponent will take it, but that otherwise, your opponent's moves are random.

In that setting, your best strategy if you go first appears to be (1st move) take the center, (2nd move) move opposite your opponent, (3rd move) create two directions of two in a row (which will always be possibly unless your opponents first two moves were corners, in which case the game will tie - this is even true if your 3rd move is actually blocking - blocking will create a forced win for you).

What is your best strategy if you go second instead? Is there an opening move your opponent can make which would allow you, as second player, to force a win, instead of just a tie?

As you know, tic tac toe is a solved game that end in a tie with optimal play.  And it's too short to really get any initiative as the second player, even for children.  Going second there is no way to force a win without 2 misplays from the first player.  So if you want a "strategy" for player 2, it really comes down to just not losing.

As for going first, I often liked taking a corner first because it offers more opportunities for my opponent to mess up (any square but the middle is a win for the first player with perfect play).

If you are second, you will tie or lose automatically, unless your opponent is severely distracted or lets you win. In the following examples of moves and your responses, X moves first and each column is a set of two turns.

Example 1.

x o - | x o - | x o -
- - - | - o - | - o -
- - - | - - x | o x x

Example 2.

x - o | x - o | x - o
- - - | - x - | o x x
- - - | - - o | - - o

Example 3.

x - - | x - - | x x o
- o - | - o - | - o -
- - - | - o x | - o x

Example 4.

- x - | - x o | - x o
- o - | - o - | - o -
- - - | - - x | x o x

Example 5.

- x o | - x o | - x o
- - - | - x - | x x o
- - - | - o - | - o -

Example 6.

- x - | x x o | x x o
- - - | - - - | - o -
- o - | - o - | x o -

Example 7.

- - o | x - o | x - o
- x - | - x - | o x x
- - - | - - o | - - o


Why are MUD decks called MUD? I have done numerous Google searches, and come up with nothing remotely definitive for the reason for the name MUD given to MUD decks.

The definition of MUD appears to be, an artifact deck, that uses Mishra Workshop, AND Metal Worker.  If the deck doesn't use Metal Worker the name to the deck is a "shop" deck.

Generally, quite a few older deck names aren't really meaningful — they're a weird in-joke or just a random word someone pulled out of nowhere — and that tradition has been carried forward to the modern day in Legacy/Vintage as well. This is how you get the likes of Fruity Pebbles, Cephalid Breakfast, Team America (which is BUG, not red-white-blue), and Tinfins.

Sometimes there's a story behind it, but that story amounts to "I liked this reference" or "We had waffles at this restaurant the day before." About the most interesting story you're going to get from these is Boat Brew (created for a cruise; achieved massive hype quickly; lots of people today joke that it was an awful pile of a deck).

I've seen various backronyms for MUD, but really what you need to know is:

MUD plays gobs of artifacts
MUD decks are usually defined by Metalworker
Artifacts (used to) have brown frames

The rest seems to be speculation and folk tales.

MUD could be Mishra-Urza Deck, named after the two most famous artificers MTG has ever known & for not having a colour.  From there, & over time as certain MUD decks became more prominent various names or iterations came about.  Prior to Urza block they were known as Artifact decks as colored decks used few if any artifacts.  With Urza block colored decks utilized artifacts heavily (esp. red, think Covetous Dragon, blue, think Tolarian Academy, Black w/ Memory Jar) thus MUD formed separately of Artifact decks which utilized colors along with the brown.  From there, as brown decks began ascending as tier 1 tournament decks they began to differ thus their name differed to MUD (Metalworkers) and Shops (Mishra's Workshop) to delineate how mana was formed.


Can you use the angel token in conjunction with the rabbits foot If I have both the angel feather and the rabbits foot in my hand can I make a roll, and then if I fail that roll use the rabbits foot to re-roll on die and use the angel feather to call an 8 on the re-roll?

I don't think you can but my friends say yes you can and I can't find any rule that states you can or can't either way.

I wouldn't expect the rules to say anything about this; the card text is intended to be the rules. There's also nothing in the FAQ about it.

Angel Feather reads:

  When you attempt a roll of any kind, you can call out a number from 0 to 8. Use that number instead of rolling the dice.

To me, that fairly clearly implies that you choose the number before you roll - you use the number instead of rolling. If you could use it after you roll, I'd expect it to say something more like "After you attempt a roll of any kind, you may choose a number from 0 to 8, and use that number instead of the number you rolled."

Rabbit's Foot says:

  Once during your turn, you may reroll one die. You must keep the second roll.

Once you've rolled, it's too late to use a number instead of the roll. Once you've gone pat that and rerolled a die, you're even more clearly past that point. It sounds like you're right - you can't use these things together.

Though the rules and the FAQ don't directly address this, I'm pretty sure it is allowed based on a literal reading of the cards. Angel Feather says to use it when making a roll of any kind, and re-rolling due to Rabbit's Foot's ability seems like a clear example of a roll of any kind. Angel Feather doesn't say only when making the first roll of an attempt, it just says a roll of any kind.


What are the drawbacks of an automatic card shuffler? I've seen people specifically mention they use automatic shufflers with easily replaceable cards, but what about if it matters if the cards get damaged?

What are the drawbacks to using automatic shufflers? Does machine shuffling cause any more damage than would occur through a normal riffle shuffle? I've also seen some mention that automatic shufflers don't truly randomize the deck. Is this true?

Mechanical shufflers come in several types. The simplest are the hand cranked gravity fed multi-wheel versions... and are the only ones I've much experience with, having owned two. (Both inherited.)

These particular ones both use a wheel to throw cards into the central bay from two elevated bays.

some cards end up face up - I've averaged 1 face-up per 3 shuffles or so.
cards can get scratched on the metal surfaces
can't handle anything that's not "standard height" - it'll do bridge and poker decks of the 3.5" tall variety, but it won't do larger cards, as they get stuck, nor smaller, as they don't stack up in the center bay.
crunches over-thick cards badly. In other words, 110# cardstock won't work well, as home cutting results in being too thick to work.
Kem and other solid plastic cards don't grip right - increased flipping, and more manual downpressure required
older machines' rubber wheels lose tackiness, and don't drag cards as effectively
not quiet.

All the automated ones I've seen have the same issues plus

not stopping if a jam occurs
needing a source of electricity
being even noisier.

I've not used it enough to determine edge wear effects, but Kem used to note that shuffling machines voided their warrantees.

For a deck of 52 cards, 8 Perfect Riffle shuffles to get back to where you started with the deck. Getting back to where you started is different based on how many cards you are dealing with. For 24 cards, it takes 11 perfect shuffles (like euchre).

For mechanical shufflers, it depends on the type you have. If you have split the deck in half, then the top of one will always be the top in the final deck. And the bottom in one of the halves, will always be on the bottom. Thus, a cut should always be done to further randomize the cards.

One or two shuffles (mechanical or manual) is not sufficient to randomize a deck of cards. At least four is required. Beyond 5 or 6 is a waste of time.

Unless properly done (several shuffles) you will not get the cards randomized.


What are the chances of shooting the moon in Hearts? In Hearts, we just want to avoid getting any heart card or the Queen of Spades. But if we can get all 14 cards, we shoot the moon and everybody else gets 26 points.

So, given a fair shuffle, what's the chance that we can actually get a shot to the moon?

There must be some probability, because if in a draw, we get 1 Ace of Clubs, and the hearts from 3 through Ace, we know there is no possible configuration where we'll ever NOT shoot the moon.

Whereas, if we get ALL the diamonds, we are doomed to "lose" every hand, because all our cards will always be different in suit from the first card. There is no possible configuration where we can shoot the moon.

If nobody can give me a number, what about a process of getting to this number? I imagine it has something to do with expected values, but I'm not very sure. But, it is an interesting question. I've managed to play a "perfect" game where I never took a single point, and some games where I've shot the moon once or twice, but never a game where I shot the moon 4 times in a row to win. Is this poor strategy, or a fault of bad luck?

It's certainly possible to calculate which hands can Shoot the Moon with 100% probability, but it's not going to be easy.

There are 635,013,559,600 different starting hands of 13 cards from a 52 card deck.

We know that if we are dealt all 13 cards of one suit, there's 4 hands out of  635,013,559,600 that will shoot the moon ;)

If we have 12 cards of one suit and one ace in another suit, there are 13 different ways to get 12 cards of one suit, times 3 different other ace cards in other suits, times 4 different suits so: 13*3*4 = 156 winning hands.

Of course if we have an ace and king of the other suit and the rest one suit, it's also a winning hand — wait it has to be an Ace-King in the long suit too because we can't risk an opponent having a king plus another card in our long suit.

Well, this is getting difficult soon. Thankfully, Bridge players have already figured this out for us. :) They have a concept called the Losing-Trick Count, a method of hand evaluation for counting the number of losing tricks held by a partnership. To "shoot the moon" we need a Losing-Trick Count of Zero.

According to this table I found on Wikipedia, there are 4,245,032 hands with a losing trick count of zero. As a check I summed up the number of hands in that table and it equals 635,013,559,600 exactly. Whew! Sounds right!

Therefore, your probability of Shooting the Moon with 100% accuracy is at a bare minimum .000668% percent.

HOWEVER… Trick points are scored differently in Hearts as compared to Bridge. You can lose tricks but still take all the hearts and the queen of spades. So Ace-King of Spades + AKQJT98 of Hearts plus 6 other losers is a winning hand. I expect about half of the 90,206,044 hands with a LTC of 1 are shoot the moon winners since if the losing trick is a club or diamond, at that point it doesn't matter. (Presuming the winning tricks have forced the Queen and hearts. Things get murky.)

So, I expect the number of perfect shoot the moon hands is significantly more than the .000668% percent of Bridge hands that are perfect. You can add at least .0071%, and then a bit more as you start chipping away at those losing tricks that no longer matter.

My brain is starting to hurt now.

I think I'll go lie down and hopefully this gives you an idea of how to start to get the answer. It's important to realize that the reason shooting the moon isn't as rare as you'd expect is because even a marginal hand has a decent chance of shooting the moon, for your opponents don't have perfect knowledge. If an opponent has a king-queen in one suit and a king-10 in the other, which king do they keep to stop your attempt?

And of course, at first most opponents don't expect players to go for the moon, and are trying to get rid of trick taking cards when they can. That's what makes Hearts so interesting in my view, the psychology of being wary of those greedy moon targetters. ;)

Some general thoughts:

1) You have to have the Ace of clubs, to win the first trick.

After this:

2) You can win every other trick with some combination of winners in the other suits, i.e. the top 12 diamonds, the top 4 cards in every other suit, etc

Notice with enough length, you don't need to have only top cards...If you have the A,K,Q,J,10,9,X of Spades, X can be anything, because the previous high cards will pull out everything in that suit.

3)If you have AKQ of spades, and A,K,Q,J,10,9,X of hearts, you can just win with the hearts and the queen of spades, and lose all the rest (sluffing the AK of spades, even), as you will have all the points.


In a two-player game, is it allowed to choose the flag symbol to bid 0 during war? When declaring war, one tactic might be for a player to choose the white flag on the war die to mean "0 war cost", and have no intention of forming an alliance. Normally, an alliance is formed when both players in a war choose the white flag symbol:

  If both players chose a white flag, a peaceful alliance is formed

However, the rules clearly state that

  Players cannot form an alliance in a 2 player game.

Is it still permitted to choose the white flag symbol to bid 0 during war, knowing full well that an alliance cannot be formed? If yes, what happens if both players choose the white flag? Does that mean that it is a tie of 0, and then standard tiebreaker rules apply?

Michael Coe, the designer of Tiny Epic Kingdoms, responded to this question and said that it was allowed:

  Yes, a flag is a zero in 2 player games. If both choose zero, it's a tie and regular rules apply (tie goes to defender).

As Benjamin Cosman pointed out in his answer, a player may be forced to choose the flag if they have no resources available, so it would be very problematic for the flag to be disallowed in a two-player game.

Choosing the flag IS forming the alliance. You can't pick the flag in a two player game because that's not just "Peace" that's "Form an alliance".


How do I organise my cards in the Dominion big box insert? I have a Dominion set that includes the base set plus Alchemy and Prosperity. The box contains a plastic insert with many slots of various sizes. I have stored the cards in alphabetical order mixing the three sets together, but this seems suboptimal. This probably has a really obvious answer, but is there a way to organize the cards so the plastic insert makes sense? Any recommendations?

There is a standard way to store those cards in the big box. Your big box should've come with a couple of large bookmark-shaped cards. One side has a bunch of card names upon decorative scrolls, like this:

photo from Board Game Barker

What you're supposed to do with this organiser card is to lay it down in the center of the box, between all the card slots. In the big box, that will look like this:

photo from the Board Game Geek page

If you put it down the right way, each card's name will sit directly beside a card slot. This organiser card will tell you which slot to put each card in. The thicker slots (e.g. the money slots) will have more corresponding spacing on the organiser card, so make sure those line up.

This organiser card also means I can check very easily where cards are: I can just look at the organiser, search for the name I'm after, and pull the cards out of the corresponding slot, which beats having to pull various piles out one by one trying to hunt for the right one. In the first photo, I can tell the Adventurer was put in that top left slot, the Bureaucrat beneath it, Cellar beneath that, etc.

The reverse side of the organiser card, with a bunch of blank scrolls, is for you to fill out if you ever come up with an alternative organisation scheme you'd like to use instead. (E.g. maybe you'd like to group all the attack cards together in the box, or something.)

I would assume that they would be alphabetical in each set, with the resource and victory cards obviously belonging in the biggest slots.


Solid openings for Blitz Chess Is there an accepted repertoire of openings that are solid in Blitz (3-5min per side) Chess? I guess the primary factors should be:

reasonably solid
simple structures
minimal number of tactical traps to fall into
maximal number of tactical traps for the opponent to fall into
quickly reach positions that make your opponent think

And possibly secondary factors:

surprise openings?
modifications based relative strength versus opponent
mouse movement!? (i.e., if the moves require less physical movement, they will a) be faster to execute, and b) be less prone to mouse errors - probably more a factor in Bullet games (1m per side)

Generally, the standard accepted openings in regular chess are the same that apply to blitz chess.

Gambit openings are more risky in blitz, as they generally involve long-term gain resulting from short-term disadvantages.  Unless you are very comfortable in a gambit opening that returns significant results fairly early, I would generally avoid them.

Some openings that have fallen into disfavor in standard chess may be more valid in blitz chess, as blitz is far more forgiving of slight flaws in strategy (at least at the casual level).

The most important factor for determining what openings to use in blitz, though, are how familiar you are with the opening.  The more you play the opening, the more familiar you will be with the good responses from your opponent, and the less time you will have to take to think about your response.  The best is if you play non-blitz for a while (quick chess with 10 minute clocks, for example) and really familiarize yourself with the opening lines you are interested in.  This will give you a depth of familiarity that will make your blitz game play a lot more solid, and will also result in you being able to play faster with fewer errors.

Surprise openings suffer from the same problem in blitz chess that they do in other forms of chess: if an opponent is decent enough to not be caught off guard by the opening, they are very likely to punish you by exploiting the weaknesses of the opening (i.e. most "fast mate" openings rely upon premature queen development, and hoping that the opponent doesn't notice the danger; good players will immediately become wary upon early queen development, and respond by putting heavy pressure on your queen, taking the initiative from you).

against 1. e4, i prefer 1. ...e5 and after the standard 2. Nf3, there is 2. ...f5. Respectively, a lower ranked player had beaten Capablanca with this.
The thing is that a player on the white side's reflex is to play for either 3. eXf5 and then bewildered by 3. ...e4, or 3. NXe5 fXe4 4. Qh5+ g6 5. NXg6 Nf6 and the shelf crumbles.
Unnecessarily speaking, this won't work against a strong player. At least, I bet gambits for blitz play.


What happens if both players have the ability to pump their creature an unlimited number of times? Say that both players each had 2 Leaden Myr, 2 Myr Galvanizer, and a Nantuko Shade. (Or any other way to get unlimited mana, and a Nantuko Shade).

Player 1 attacks with his Nantuko Shade, and player 2 blocks with his Nantuko Shade. Before damage is assigned, each has chances to pump up their Nantuko Shade as much as they want. They can't just declare them to be "infinite," but each can always one-up the other player. What happens?

It seems there would be a loop of events, but would one player eventually be forced to break the loop as per rule 714.3? Is it considered the same game state after each player pumps their creature a bunch as it was before?

This was discussed at length on the Draw3Cards Magic Q&A site (which is no longer available), but no conclusion was reached. Some felt that the game would simply be a draw, others felt that the active player would be forced to make a different decision to break the loop. Others felt that you would just have to call a judge and see what he decides.

This is a fragmented loop.  The active player (whose turn it is) would be forced to make a decision that stops the loop.

719.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.
Example: In a two-player game, the active player controls a creature with the ability “{0}: [This creature] gains flying,” the nonactive player controls a permanent with the ability “{0}: Target creature loses flying,” and nothing in the game cares how many times an ability has been activated. Say the active player activates his creature’s ability, it resolves, then the nonactive player activates her permanent’s ability targeting that creature, and it resolves. This returns the game to a game state it was at before. The active player must make a different game choice (in other words, anything other than activating that creature’s ability again). The creature doesn’t have flying. Note that the nonactive player could have prevented the fragmented loop simply by not activating her permanent’s ability, in which case the creature would have had flying. The nonactive player always has the final choice and is therefore able to determine whether the creature has flying.

In essence - the attacking player is screwed.

Short Answer: The active player proposes a number of times they go back and forth doing this, and the non-active player either accepts it or proposes a larger number. (This is a change from what I wrote previously; the "on-high" ruling on this has to be adjusted to the new shortcut rules.)

Either way, they're going to wind up balancing out 1-for-1, equal number of pumps unless one of them voluntarily does fewer than their opponent.

Current Comp Rules:

  719.1b Occasionally the game gets into a state in which a set of actions could be repeated indefinitely (thus creating a “loop”). In that case, the shortcut rules can be used to determine how many times those actions are repeated without having to actually perform them, and how the loop is broken.

  719.2. Taking a shortcut follows the following procedure.

  719.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non-repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.
  Example: A player controls a creature enchanted by Presence of Gond, which grants the creature the ability “{T}: Create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token,” and another player controls Intruder Alarm, which reads, in part, “Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, untap all creatures.” When the player has priority, he or she may suggest “I’ll create a million tokens,” indicating the sequence of activating the creature’s ability, all players passing priority, letting the creature’s ability resolve and create a token (which causes Intruder Alarm’s ability to trigger), Intruder Alarm’s controller putting that triggered ability on the stack, all players passing priority, Intruder Alarm’s triggered ability resolving, all players passing priority until the player proposing the shortcut has priority, and repeating that sequence 999,999 more times, ending just after the last token-creating ability resolves.

  719.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or shorten it by naming a place where he or she will make a game choice that’s different than what’s been proposed. (The player doesn’t need to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence.
  Example: The active player draws a card during her draw step, then says, “Go.” The nonactive player is holding Into the Fray (an instant that says “Target creature attacks this turn if able”) and says, “I’d like to cast a spell during your beginning of combat step.” The current proposed shortcut is that all players pass priority at all opportunities during the turn until the nonactive player has priority during the beginning of combat step.

  719.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that player.

  719.3. Sometimes a loop can be fragmented, meaning that each player involved in the loop performs an independent action that results in the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens, the active player (or, if the active player is not involved in the loop, the first player in turn order who is involved) must then make a different game choice so the loop does not continue.
  Example: In a two-player game, the active player controls a creature with the ability “{0}: [This creature] gains flying,” the nonactive player controls a permanent with the ability “{0}: Target creature loses flying,” and nothing in the game cares how many times an ability has been activated. Say the active player activates his creature’s ability, it resolves, then the nonactive player activates her permanent’s ability targeting that creature, and it resolves. This returns the game to a game state it was at before. The active player must make a different game choice (in other words, anything other than activating that creature’s ability again). The creature doesn’t have flying. Note that the nonactive player could have prevented the fragmented loop simply by not activating her permanent’s ability, in which case the creature would have had flying. The nonactive player always has the final choice and is therefore able to determine whether the creature has flying.

Full Explanation:

Case 1) Player A(ctive) is reasonable and suggests that they pump 1 for 1, and proposes a finite number N, responding to each other in turn and then stopping at that number. Player B is also reasonable and accepts. The game moves forward after each creature gets pumped that many times.

Case 2) Player A as above, Player B says a different number M, smaller (he changes the sequence at that point, but his only option to change it is to not pump his own creature). Result: A will pump +N, B will pump +M. Not optimal for B in most cases, so this will almost never happen.

Case 3) Player A as above, Player B says that after that shortcut, he wants to pump another P times. A will of course respond to those, forming a new suggested shortcut, the end result will be (eliding shortcut negotiation) P+N pumps to both creatures. (If A chooses not to respond in kind, A will have a smaller pump, again, rarely happens.)

Case 4) Player A suggests a shortcut that has only themselves pumping, but B will not accept the shortcut, because they will interrupt after the first by pumping, geting us back into Case 1.

Case 5) Neither player understands or accepts the simple shortcut of even pumping, and so they try to go back and forth forever. Slow play warning and explanation of why they are stuck with Case 1.

So, short answer: Player A names a number. Player B accepts or names a bigger number, and they both get pumped that many times. If player B wants to pump less, they can stop A's shortcut early, but this will only happen if B has a rare trick.


Making the Contingency Planner more useful The 2013 version of Pandemic added a new card, the Contingency Planner:

My gaming group has found this card very weak compared to the other roles for a couple of reasons:

It's ability to pull an event card from the discard pile only seems to happen a couple of times a game whereas the other roles are used almost every turn.
The role is more luck based than the other ones because the good cards don't always turn up, so although we try to pull a card whenever we can, sometimes it's just not really worth duplicating a less than ideal card.
Duplicating the cards tends to be unnecessary if you have certain roles. Building a research center for free is fine, but building it a second time is kind of pointless if we also have the Operations Expert.

We've gotten to the point where we're ready to remove the Contingency Planner from the deck. But before we do, I'd like to know if there is anything we can do to make the Contingency Planner more useful and equal to the other roles.

I assume that your gaming group typically plays with 4 players.  I have found the contingency planner to be much worse with 4 players than with 2.  I agree that the contingency planner is the worst role, but part of that is because of how variable his power is depending on how the event cards fall.  Throwing him out is a reasonable approach if you only have the base game, but the other option is to buy "On the Brink".  It includes a bunch of new event cards, so you switch to playing with 2 event cards in the deck per player (8 with 4 players instead of the usual 5), and I found that this really balanced out the Contingency Planner with the other roles.  With a higher number of event cards being drawn (and therefore being put in the discard pile), he has a much longer list of options on a given turn.

Adding "No hand limit" to the card makes it more useful.


What is the Monopoly M Symbol called? What is the post 2008 monopoly currency symbol called (M with two lines through it) and is there an alt-code for it? Below is an example of it from Monopoly Deal but it is also used in the regular monopoly game post-2008.

What is the M-symbol?

It is most likely just an imaginary symbol for Monopoly money.

For "everyday use", the closest symbol might be "₩" or "￦", just turned upside down. This is a symbol for Won, currency used in South and North Korea.

How to use it?: LaTeX

Since the Monopoly M is not a real symbol, it does not have an alt-code. It can be still used via LaTex. Dont worry, it's not very hard. Here's an little example.

For those who know Latex already:
Use this in your preamble

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

And this to make an alias

\newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}}

You may now use \M to insert the Monopoly M.

For those who are not used to Latex:

Copy-paste this into blank document in Overleaf.com, and edit it for your needs (You will need to sign up, but it is free). Then download your pdf or just use Print Screen, depending on your needs.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

\begin{document}
  \newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}} % make an alias '\M' for the upside-down Won.
  \Large
  \underline{\M { }stands for \M onopoly \M oney} \\[20px]

\large
\begin{tabular}{ll}
  Fish & \M 100 \\
  Chips &\M 50 \\
  Fish \& Chips \qquad \qquad & \M 120\\
\end{tabular}\\[20px]

\Large
 Normal: \M \qquad Bold: \textbf{\M}

\end{document}

Additional info: Unicode & HTML (Won sign)

As Wikipedia states, the first symbol (₩, WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point U+20A9, and has HTML code &#8361;. The second symbol  (￦, FULLWIDTH WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point  U+FFE6 and has HTML code &#65510;.

Well it seems to me that if it resembles the Chinese Won (except upside down of course) wouldn't calling it Mon be a reasonable solution? After all it is very easy to remember even for the younger players.


Axis and Allies 1942 SE First Turn Builds I used to play Axis and Allies the original classic version a long time ago. I read Don’s essays about strategy and the infantry push mechanic here: http://donsessays.freeservers.com

But the game has changed so much since then.   With 1942 SE, there are new units, the map is different and the unit attributes and abilities are different.

Assuming standard rules and fairly standard opening moves, what would be the best first turn builds for each power?

Triple A First Turn Builds

I loaded up the game Triple A and tried a game with the Hard AI.  This is what the AI built:

Russia (24 IPC): 2 Infantry and 2 Artillery in Caucasus.  1 Infantry and 2 Artillery in Russia.
Germany (40 IPC): 7 Infantry, 5 Artillery.  1 Inf and 1 Art placed in Italy and the rest in Germany.
UK (30 IPC): 1 Infantry, 2 Artillery in India.  Carrier and transport in SZ7, Ireland.
Japan (30 IPC): 1 Armor in Japan.  1 Carrier and 1 Fighter in SZ60, Japan's East Coast.
USA (42 IPC): 1 Carrier, 1 Destroyer, 2 Fighters in SZ11, the US East Coast.

Are these the best generic builds?  I don't know.  Probably not.  I think a lot depends on the dice rolling in the first few rounds.  I would have expected both Japan and the US to build at least one transport.

Another Idea

After playing a few more times, this is what I would do.

Russia: Infantry and one or 2 artillery.  Always use all of your income.
Germany: Perhaps a sub or a bomber.  Perhaps another ship in the Med.  But mostly infantry and some artillery.
UK: If your fleet got annihilated, you may just want to build 3 ground units in India and SAVE the remainder for a giant fleet build on your next turn.
Japan: You need to get ground units into Asia.  Transports and maybe a factory on a 3 production territory that is as close as possible to Moscow.  Don't forget to build ground units to fill each transport.  You don't need more naval pieces yet, since you have superiority in the Pacific.
USA: Build a fleet in the Atlantic on the first turn.  Once you have naval superiority in the Atlantic, pump out transports and ground units on subsequent turns.

From my experience playing Axis and Allies, I have found out that you can't always rely on certain army builds and situations because who knows how the dice will roll or what the enemy player will do? but here are the general builds that I use which usually win me a few games.

Russia: 8 infantry (4 in Russia, 2 in Caucasas, and 2 in Keralia)

Germany: 2-4 infantry, 2-4 artillery, 2-4 tanks, and usually a naval or air unit if you don't spend it all on land troops (all spread as evenly as possible between Italy and Germany).

Great Britain: 1-2 destroyers in the Atlantic navy and the Indian ocean navy, 1-2 infantry, 1-2 artillery, 2 tanks (almost all of the land units go into the India base)

Japan: industrial complex in French Indochina, 1-2 destroyers or 1 cruiser, and any IPC's left over is put into tanks.

United States of America: 1 infantry or tank in the West coast, everything else into another battleship (for the east coast) and destroyers, any IPC's left you use for transports.


Can I make a monster indestructible? Let's say I have a monster on the field. This is my best card, and I want to make it untouchable by anything.

An example would be a monster who's effect can't be negated, and is not affected by card effects, equipped with an equip card that means it cannot be destroyed by battle, and that card cannot be destroyed either.

Are there any scenarios that allow this possibility?

  Indestructible: Cannot be removed from the field by any means.

Based on what you describe, the card that comes to mind that better fits your needs is Safe Zone:

  Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up Attack Position monster on the field; that face-up monster cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. It cannot attack your opponent directly. When this card leaves the field, destroy that monster. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this card.

emphasis mine

Of course, every card has it's trade-offs, and this one's are that you can't attack directly. Also, if Safe Zone is removed that monster is also removed (however, if you are talking about Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, he can save himself from this destruction with his own effect).

Now, it seems that you have to protect your Safe Zone from being destroyed. One card that can do that is Imperial Custom:

  Face-up Continuous Trap Cards cannot be destroyed, except "Imperial Custom". You can control only 1 "Imperial Custom".

Another way you can make a monster card impervious to any other card is with the effect of Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora:

  Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; that target is unaffected by card effects, except for its own effects, until the end of this turn.

This will prevent basically any target, effect destruction, change of control, or other effects that do not target. Of course, if your opponent summons more muscle than your card's it can still go down by battle. I suppose that combining Safe Zone with Number 81's effect would really make it hard to touch.

Other, option you got similar to Number 81 is Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, which does basically the same plus negating that monster's effect (which could come handy in other scenarios):

  Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; this turn, its effects are negated, but it is unaffected by other card effects.

I know that this doesn't work for all scenarios but if you are running a dragon deck then it can be quite helpful.
The thing that I would try if the card in question is something like 5-headed dragon or cyber end dragon then you could equip it with a dragon shield which will prevent it from being destroyed by battle or card effect, but neither player takes battle damage when it is involved.
I mentioned cyber end dragon earlier and here is why: You can fusion summon Cyber End Dragon using power bond and then increasing its ATK with 1-3 copies of limiter removal or some equip spells, which will then give you a really high ATK monster which can prevent battle destruction and you could use Damage Vaccine Omega Max to prevent the damage from Power Bond. You could also use Safe Zone to prevent effect destruction but you won't be able to direct attack. If you then wanted to win in that turn you could just attack one of their monsters and you would usually win, but if they have monsters that were say... equipped with Dragon Shield, you could then Tribute those monsters to summon Lava Golem to their field and attack it for game.
I hope that I answered your question decently well and maybe have provided some ideas on how to take an indestructible monster a little bit farther.


Battlestar Galactica: How to balance core game I never saw the human team win and I would like making it a little bit easier for humans to finish the game without losing.

How can I balance that? Is there anywhere a new set of rules that balance the game? Will I be forced to buy an expansion, or can I add/remove easily stuff without ruining the game?

From page 28 of the rulebook:

  To make the game easier for the human players, start the game with 2 more of each resource (10 food, 10 fuel, 12 morale, and 14 population).

However, it's worth mentioning that the core game is very balanced, especially with 5 players. The expansions arguably make it more difficult.

It sounds like you're not playing very well, but it's difficult to offer suggestions without knowing more about your group and how they play. You should be analysing everyone's moves and motives and closely inspecting the results of all skill checks. The Cylons should feel pressured to help out at every opportunity, lest they be accused and possibly brigged.

In the base game, I would expect a human victory most of the time, so it's possible you're playing badly or wrongly.  Is there a standard way you lose?  Eg, if you commonly run out of morale, etc - start the wheels higher.


How quickly does a player have to say "Uno" to avoid drawing extra cards? I was playing with my fiancée and some friends, and she's adamant that if you can yell Uno before someone who has just played their second to last card, they are required to pick up the penalty amount of cards.

Is this kosher?

She's basically right, but timing matters here. Your correct play is to say "UNO" as you play the card, which can't be interrupted. The player about to go down to one card may not be caught until his second to last card hits the discard pile. After that though, he's fair game! From the rules:

  When you have one card left, you must yell "UNO" (meaning one).
  Failure to do this results in you having to pick two cards from the
  DRAW pile. That is, of course if you get caught by the other players...

  A player who forgets to say UNO before his card touches the discard
  pile, but "catches" himself before any other player catches him, is
  safe and is not subject to the penalty. You may not catch a player for
  failure to say UNO until his second to last card touches the DISCARD
  pile. Also, you may not catch a player for failure to say UNO after
  the next player begins his turn. "Beginning a turn is defines as
  either drawing a card from the DRAW pile or drawing a card from your
  hand to play.

Newer rules on Mattel's web site have a FOUR card penalty:

If a person said "Uno" before putting the card down, they need to withdraw three cards.


Are you required to search your deck when playing a search card? I had a miss click while playing arena and played a search card and it automatically showed me my deck.  In the paper magic could you play a search card and choose not to look at your deck if you had scry something to the top and you just want another affect of the card, I had Aetherflux Reservoir in play and mainly just wanted the life gain from playing a cheap spell.

Yes. (Unless the card says "You may search your library for ... If you do, shuffle it afterwards.)

608.2c The controller of the spell or ability follows its instructions in the order written.

If the spell tells you to search your library, you search your library. Most of these place restrictions on what cards you search for; in those cases, actually finding a card is not required:

701.19a To search for a card in a zone, look at all cards in that zone (even if it’s a hidden zone) and find a card that matches the given description.

701.19b If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain card type or color, that player isn’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present in that zone.

701.19d If a player is searching a hidden zone simply for a quantity of cards, such as “a card” or “three cards,” that player must find that many cards (or as many as possible, if the zone doesn’t contain enough cards).

You are allowed to fail to find if you are searching a hidden zone. Your deck specifically is a hidden zone.

701.18b If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain card type or color, that player
isn’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re
present in that zone.

You are required to shuffle your deck afterwards regardless if you failed to find or not.


Usage of Philanthropist Flare as Schizoid Suppose I'm playing as Schizoid. I have the power to alter reality, so I choose one of the six new cards to be the new win condition. That card is face down.

Then suppose I use Philanthropist Flare:

  Send one of your ships to the warp to lend your power to another player for the duration of the encounter. Until the end of the encounter, that player is considered to have your power instead of his or her own. You may not use your power while it is loaned out. The player may not refuse the loan of your power.

Would the player I use this on get to look at the win condition card?

I'll start by saying that there won't be an explicit answer to this question. Cosmic Encounter is about interactions, and given the number of aliens with different powers, sometimes you just have to make it up as you go and use some logic to come to the best conclusion. I think this is probably one of those situations.

My interpretation would be when you play the Philanthropist Flare as the Schizoid, the player you lend your power to can look at the win condition. The most logical reasoning for this is presented by dorakeen in a different answer: the player with the Schizoid power "is responsible to announce when any player(s) have fulfilled the winning conditions". When you use the Philanthropist Flare, you no longer have your power and as such cannot declare a win condition met. The person who is now the Schizoid, even temporarily, has that job.

Additionally, there's nothing on the Schizoid card that says you can't show the alternate win condition to other players. If something in the game would cause that card to be revealed to another player or players for some reason, nothing is there to stop that event. The lack of specification about whether other players could see that card leads me to believe that it could be shown.

Having said that, if you and your game group feel that the answer is actually no, there's nothing in the rules to contradict you. Remember the game is about interactions, so do what makes the most sense to you.

Yes, so I would suppose you wouldn't do it.


What are good strategies involving Remodel? A basic strategy of using Remodel to upgrade Estates to Remodels, Remodels to Gold, and using Gold to buy or upgrade to Provinces is a powerful but slow strategy, so I haven't been able to win with it.

Are there circumstances in which you would use a Remodel-heavy strategy?  Assume there are no Curses.  How would it work?

Be Ruthless!

This is basically an extension of the strategy of trashing all your lame cards presented here. Don't limit yourself to only remodeling Coppers and Remodels. Be ruthless about it: if you get a Remodel in your hand, play it, even if it means passing up other actions, and even if it means you won't get to buy anything. This will keep your deck small and powerful. And, as Powerlord pointed out, this applies to Expand as well, and I'd throw Upgrade into the same box. If Workshop happens to be around, it can speed up the process.

1) Remodel the Remodel Card for Gold (4+6)
2) Buy another Remodel during the buy phase to replace the trashed Remodel
3) precisely depending on the speed of the current game, shift your focus from Gold to Provinces, remodeling gold to provinces for the victory!


Organizing a game night with non-gamers? My wife and I want to organize a game night. Most of our friends like to play board games - they are familiar with games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. However we are more adventurous. Besides making new friends, what are some ideas for how to organize a game night with friends who like games but who are not board game aficionados?

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

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

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

Honestly, I think Catan is too long.  Ticket to Ride is fast, Dominion is fast, 7 Wonders is fast.