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Zada, Hedron Grinder and Leyline of Resonance
I have Zada, Hedron Grinder on the battlefield and Leyline of Resonance. When I now cast a spell that targets only Zada, Hedron Grinder, Leyline of Resonance creates a copy of that spell and I can target a creature. If I now target the copy, does this copy also copies itself to each other creature on my battlefield? Or is it like just one copy more than other creatures on my battlefield.

"If I now target the copy" Target it with what? Do you mean "target Zada with the copy"?

Zada, Hedron Grinder and Leyline of Resonance have no interaction. Both Zada and the Leyline create copies of the original spell, but the copies cannot be copied by them because they are not cast.
Both Zada and the Leyline trigger on you casting a spell. However, when you copy a spell, the copies are not cast, and neither Zada nor Leyline will trigger:

707.10. To copy a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn’t cast and a copy of an activated ability isn’t activated. [..]

So in the end Zada will copy the spell once for each other creature, targeting them, and Leyline will copy the spell once with any new target.

Note that there are a number of cards (such as Wildfire Devils) that do let you cast copies of spells, but those cards all explicitly say so. It has to do with where the card being copied is - if you copy a spell on the stack the copy appears on the stack without being cast, but if you copy a card in exile the copy must be cast to move from exile to the stack

@ArcanistLupus - Indeed. For additional context: in those cases, you're creating a copy of a card and then casting it, at which point it becomes a spell. The rules are technically correct that "a copy of a spell isn't cast," because casting is the process by which a "card" (in hand, exile, the graveyard, or the command zone) becomes a "spell" (on the stack). Players often use "spell" and "nonland card that isn't currently on the battlefield as a permanent" interchangeably informally, but the rules distinguish the two.


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Annihilator attack target is switched
If a player redirects the attack of a creature with Annihilator (such as Ulamog's Crusher) to another player using Portal Manipulator or Windshaper Planetar does the original person being attacked sacrifice for annihilator or does the new attacked player sacrifice for annihilator?

When Annihilator resolves, the player that is (or was) actually being attacked by that creature has to sacrifice.
During multiplayer games, depending on the variant being played, one or all of the opposing players become the defending player.

802.1. Some multiplayer games allow the active player to attack multiple other players. If this option is used, a player can also choose to attack only one player during a particular combat.

802.2. As the combat phase starts, the attacking player doesn’t choose an opponent to become the defending player. Instead, all the attacking player’s opponents are defending players during the combat phase.

However, Annihilator and other effects that refer to a defending player only affect one player, the one that's actually being attacked by a creature.

802.2a Any rule, object, or effect that refers to a “defending player” refers to one specific defending player, not to all of the defending players. If an ability of an attacking creature refers to a defending player, or a spell or ability refers to both an attacking creature and a defending player, then unless otherwise specified, the defending player it’s referring to is the player that creature is attacking, the controller of the planeswalker that creature is attacking, or the protector of the battle that player is attacking. If that creature is no longer attacking, the defending player it’s referring to is the player that creature was attacking before it was removed from combat, the controller of the planeswalker that creature was attacking before it was removed from combat, or the protector of the battle that player was attacking before it was removed from combat. If a spell or ability could apply to multiple attacking creatures, the appropriate defending player is individually determined for each of those attacking creatures. If there are multiple defending players that could be chosen, the controller of the spell or ability chooses one.

In this example Ulamog hasn't left combat and is still attacking, so don't understand why you bolded the no longer attacking clause.

Because I also answered the case when the Crusher has left combat.

So just to clarify, if Ulamog attacks player A, during the declare attackers step player A redirects the attack to player B player A would still need to sacrifice for the annihilator effect.

@NakotoAmagi No. Ulamog attacks player A, Annihilator goes on the stack, someone redirects Ulamog to player B, Annihilator resolves, B has to sacrifice.

More generally, if you redirect the attack while the Annihilator trigger is on the stack, player B is the defending player as the trigger resolves, and they're the one who needs to sacrifice. If the annihilator trigger resolves first, then player A is the defending player at that time, and they sacrifice. Redirecting the attack after that doesn't go back in time and change what happened while resolving the annihilator trigger.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Does Pyxis of Pandemonium trigger Pact Boon?
Player A has a Pyxis of Pandemonium. Player B has Prosper, Tome-Bound as a commander. Would the second ability of Pyxis trigger Pact Boon on Prosper Tome Bound?

No, Pyxis of Pandemonium does not trigger Prosper, Tome-Bound because you don't play the cards through Pyxis.
"Playing a card" as required by Prosper has a specific meaning in Magic.

601.1a Some effects still refer to “playing” a card. “Playing a card” means playing that card as a land or casting that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

When you cast a permanent spell and it resolves (or play a land), it does enter the battlefield, but the reverse is not true: permanents can enter the battlefield in many ways other than playing them. When a permanent enters the battlefield through Pyxis, it entered because Pyxis' effect said so. It was not cast (or, in the case of lands, played) and so does not trigger Prosper's Pact Boon.

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

116.2a Playing a land is a special action. To play a land, a player puts that land onto the battlefield from the zone it was in (usually that player’s hand). [..]

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Do I have to reveal the order of cards when I reveal multiple cards simultaneously?
If instructed to reveal the top multiple cards from my library, do I have to reveal the order they occupied in the library as well?
If not, can I look at the cards in the order they occupied in the library, then mix up the order before showing them to my opponent?
As a concrete example, could I resolve Epiphany at the Drownyard by (sequentially)...

picking up the top X plus one cards of my library
deciding what the piles will be
mixing up the cards (to reduce the information about my thought process that can be inferred)
showing the cards to my opponent and declaring the piles?

The rules don't specifically address this, but logically, the library is an ordered zone, and the revealed cards continue to be in the library, so they continue to have that order, and the opponent should be able to see what that order is.
However, practically speaking, it doesn't really matter. The order doesn't actually matter once the effect completes, and the information that you give up by your choice of piles is going to dwarf any information you give up in the process of choosing those piles.

I agree that the order probably is revealed as well. When I knew something about the top cards of my library (e.g. scry) before casting this reveal-spell the order might give clues as to what I wanted to have on top (e.g. because I don't have this combo piece but do have the other one). Generally, it does not matter of course.

Honestly if you have done any top deck manipulation then knowing which card you put there could be information since it gives information of what you are looking for.


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MTG: Transform cards & Reanimator effects
I'm building a Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck, and I want to include Ecstatic Awakener in it. Would an Awoken Demon (the other side of Ecstatic Awakener) hit the graveyard as Ecstatic Awakener, causing it to reanimate from Shirei's ability?

No, if Awoken Demon dies, it will not trigger Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker.
Even though a double-faced card such as Ecstatic Awakener only counts as its front face in the graveyard...

711.4a While a double-faced card is outside the game or in a zone other than the battlefield or stack, it has only the characteristics of its front face.

...if its back face dies, it dies as the back face, and Shirei looks at the 4/4 back face to determine whether or not it triggers. Awoken Demon is no longer on the battlefield, but its last known information is used. Shirei sees a 4/4 die, not a 1/1, and does not trigger.

608.2h If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it’s in the public zone it was expected to be in; if it’s no longer in that zone, [..] the effect uses the object’s last known information. See rule 113.7a. If an ability states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.

Essentially, death triggers don't look at the card as it exists in the graveyard, but as it existed on the battlefield at the moment of death.


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Is it too late to save my creatures?
Using Magar of the Magic Strings my Wail of the Nim has become a creature. I attack with my Wail of the Nim and a few other creatures with no abilities. My opponent's creatures block my other creatures, and my other creatures would die, but my Wail of the Nim would deal combat damage to my opponent. Does casting Wail of the Nim to regenerate all of my creatures save my creatures that would've died this combat? Or is that regeneration effect essentially too late, damage having already been dealt? Or something else entirely?

You might want to use Faith's Reward instead

@Ivo (It's for an EDH deck, and my meta's house rule is that you can have a legendary Un- creature (or other Un- legendary that says that it can be your commander) so long as the rest of your deck except basic lands is made up only of cards that were printed at least once at common rarity. Thank you for the suggestion, though!)

It is too late. All combat damage is dealt simultaneously, and regenerate must be active before damage is dealt.

701.15a If the effect of a resolving spell or ability regenerates a permanent, it creates a replacement effect that protects the permanent the next time it would be destroyed this turn. In this case, “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn, instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature, remove it from combat.”

After damage is dealt, your creature will die the next time state-based actions are checked. This happens before you get to cast your instant, and definitely before the instant would resolve.
If your creature had first strike then this would work.

So these days you can preempt a regen with a mana dump? lame.

@Mazura I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but couldn't you always do that? (At least since the introduction of the stack back in 6th edition; I don't know enough about how things worked before then.)

"This ability must be used at the moment the creature would normally be removed from play." https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/original-magic-rulebook-2004-12-25 - perhaps you could always dump, but it didn't setup a standing regen for the rest of the turn.

@Mazura I'm a little lost now… and I don't want to be as I plan to use this combination. Does adding mana to one's mana pool somehow preempt or cause to fizzle the Wail of the Nim's regeneration "shield"? Or is this frustration about the concept of the regeneration shield in the first place? Or something else?

@HeyICanChan - I'm just complaining about regeneration, not having played the game in 20y...

This answer cannot be right. There's an old instant with the game text "regenerate target creature."

@Joshua Can you explain? A lot of regeneration spells/abilities say "regenerate target creature", that's the most common way a regeneration spell would work. This example is only different in that instead of targeting a specific creature, it regenerates "each creature" you control. Works the same either way.

@Joshua Yes, but that instant must be played before the creature dies, since after it does it's a creature card in the graveyard, not a "target creature". There have been some changes to how combat damage is handled, but it's always been simultaneously applied to all recipients - you'd never have Wail of Nim deal combat damage to the opponent before other creatures in combat received their combat damage. All combat damage is applied at once.

@NuclearHoagie: I'm expecting to regenerate the creature while it has lethal combat damage and not yet removed. I played in the era where this was how it worked, and yes we had a stack.

@Joshua There has never been an opportunity to cast a spell or activate an ability between when lethal damage is marked on a creature and when that creature gets put into the graveyard (at least since the stack has existed).  There was a time when combat damage went on the stack, so you could regenerate a creature between when combat damage went on the stack and when it was actually dealt to creatures, but that changed back in 2010.

Abilities that say “when” or “whenever” are triggered abilities. If the condition is fulfilled, the effect is put onto the stack. So when Wail of the Nim deals damage, the effect “you may create a copy of the card with the noted name. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost” goes onto the stack. Before that resolves, state based actions are checked, and the game sees the damage marked on your creatures, and so they go to the graveyard. Then once all the SBA resolve and everyone passes priority, the Magar of the Magic Strings effect resolves, at which point you cast the copy, so now you can put “Regenerate each creature you control” on the stack, and then that resolves, and then your creatures would get a regeneration shield, but by then they are dead.


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Myrkul, Lord of Bones and Afterlife - will I get an Enchantment AND a Spirit Token?
If a creature I control with Afterlife dies while Myrkul, Lord of Bones, is on my battlefield, will both the Afterlife as well as his second ability trigger, e.g. will I get a Spirit as well as an Enchantment Token?

Yes, you will get the spirit token from afterlife as well as the token copy of the creature.
Both abilities (afterlife and Myrkul's) are triggered abilities that trigger off the same event, namely the creature has died.

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

702.135a Afterlife is a triggered ability. “Afterlife N” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create N 1/1 white and black Spirit creature tokens with flying.”

Myrkul has to exile the creature card it is about to copy, otherwise you get no copy. If, hypothetically speaking, you managed to get 2 Myrkuls under your control at the same time and another creature died, both Myrkuls would trigger, but only one could actually create a copy. The other would would fail to create a copy because the card it has to exile would already be exiled at that point.
Afterlife, however, does not care about what happens to the card afterwards, only the death event is required. You will get the spirit token(s) from afterlife and can also choose to get an enchantment copy of the creature.

You do get both. When a card moves to another zone, it becomes a new object, and normally anything that refers to the original card will be unable to "find" it. However, Myrkul's ability is a triggered ability.

603.6. Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called “zone-change triggers.” Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to.

Since Myrkul's ability is a zone-change trigger, it's able to "find" the creature in the graveyard and exile, even after it dies. Even though Myrkul's ability doesn't trigger until after the creature has died, and therefore technically isn't a creature anymore, Myrkul is able to exile the creature card in the battlefield.
If Myrkul's ability were instead worded as "If a creature would die, instead exile it and creature an enchantment copy of it", then you wouldn't get both tokens: the ability would then be a replacement effect, and it would take place before the creature dies, and the creature wouldn't actually die, so Afterlife wouldn't apply. A single event can trigger multiple triggered abilities, but once a replacement effect applies to an event, the original event can't be replaced, or cause triggers.


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Why is Magic Online saying I have off color cards even though I don’t?
I’m trying to make a Commander deck using Rona, Sheoldred's Faithful as my Commander but Magic Online won’t let me use it because I have off color cards.
I’ve looked through the deck list 5 times and haven’t found a single card that isn’t blue or black. I even tried taking out my colorless land cards but it doesn’t change anything. I looked at the thing that tells you the number of different mana colors mentioned in the deck and there were only black and blue.
The deck list is as follows:

Acquisition Octopus
Alchemist's Retrieval
Assassin's Ink
Baneblade Scoundrel
Battlefield Butcher
Behold the Unspeakable
Braids's Frightful Return
Brokers Hideout
Combat Research
Component Collector
Corrupt
Corrupt Court Official
Covetous Castaway
Crawl From the Cellar
Crystal Grotto
Deal Gone Bad
Delver of Secrets
Desperate Farmer
Dig up the Body
Dockside Chef
Drownyard Amalgam
Faerie Vandal
Field of Ruin
Firmament Sage
Founding the Third Path
Gibbering Barricade
Gixian Infiltrator
Gluttonous Guest
Gnawing Vermin
Gruesome Realization
Heirloom Mirror
Illicit Shipment
Impulse
Incriminate
Keeper of the Cadence
Knight of Dusk's Shadow
Mindleech Ghoul
Moment of Defiance
Morbid Opportunist
Mysterious Tome
Negate
Obscura Storefront
Parasitic Grasp
Phyrexian Espionage
Phyrexian Vivisector
Ragged Recluse
Restless Bloodseeker
Riveteers Overlook
Rona's Vortex
Rooftop Nuisance
Scattered Thoughts
Security Bypass
Shore Up
Siege Zombie
Tamiyo's Compleation
Thran Vigil
Third Path Savant
Thraxodemon
Tolarian Terror
Tribute to Urborg
Unblinking Observer
Uncharted Haven
Urborg Repossession
Vengeful Strangler
Virus Beetle
Voda Sea Scavenger
Volshe Tideturner
Witness the Future

What reasons could there be for Magic Online rejecting my deck?

Thanks @Hackworth for the fixes, I just ran them through a script to format them :)

Urborg Repossession violates your deck's color identity.
When making a commander deck, you may not include any cards that violate your commander's color identity. Color identity looks not only for the colors of cards in your deck, but also at any mana symbols that appear anywhere on those cards.

903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).

In your particular case, Rona, Sheoldred’s Faithful has a blue and black color identity, so you may not include any cards whose colors include white, red, or green, or which have a white, red, or green mana symbol anywhere in it. Urborg Repossession has a black and green color identity, making it ineligible for your deck, because it contains the text:

Kicker {G} (You may pay an additional {G} as you cast this spell.)

Thanks for the help; for some reason Magic Online didn't tell me that there was a green mana in the deck.


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If an effect would return a dying creature, that’s mutated, to my hand, how many of those creature cards do I return?
If I have Koll, the Forgemaster on the battlefield who says

Whenever another non token creature you control dies, if it was enchanted or equipped, return it to its owner’s hand

and my creature that has 7 mutations on it dies while enchanted, do I get to return all the mutate creature cards to my hand or just the top? Or do I get to choose one?

You return to your hand all cards making up the mutated creature.
The Mutation mechanic causes creature cards to merge into one new creature. They make up that new object - which of those cards is the top-most only matters for some of its characteristics.
When a mutated creature dies, all creatures that have been merged also go to the graveyard. If the mutated creature triggers Koll, and Koll's ability can find one of those creature cards, the ability affects all of those cards and they are all returned to your hand.

724.1. One keyword causes an object to merge with a permanent. See rule 702.140, “Mutate.”

724.3. If a merged permanent leaves the battlefield, one permanent leaves the battlefield and each of the individual components are put into the appropriate zone.

724.3c If an effect can find the new object that a merged permanent becomes as it leaves the battlefield, it finds all of those objects. (See rule 400.7.) If that effect causes actions to be taken upon those objects, the same actions are taken upon each of them.

I'm not sure what source you're using for the rules, but it looks like "Merging with Permanents" is now section 724 of the comprehensive rules. Also, I suggest also quoting rule 724.3c to show why Koll's ability acts on all 8 cards in the graveyard.

Yeh thanks, I've used an outdated version, fixing it.


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If a creature would die from an equipment unattaching, does that creature die with the effects of the equipment?
Grafted Wargear states: Equipped creature gets +3/+2 and whenever Grafted Wargear becomes unattached from a creature, sacrifice that creature.
If I have Grafted Wargear attached to a 1/1 creature and attach it to another creature in order to get an easy die trigger, will that first creature die as a 4/3 or will it die with its base power and toughness?
Very important distinction for my Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck.

It would die without the equipment buff. In your case it would die as a 1/1 and trigger Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker.
As soon as you unattach the Wargear, the creature it had equipped loses the power/toughness bonus. The ability that forces you to sacrifice the creature is a triggered ability, where unattaching the equipment is the trigger for that ability in the first place. A triggered ability goes on the stack and can be responded to much like a spell, so by the time it does resolve and you have to actually perform the sacrifice, the P/T bonus is long gone.

113.3c Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[Trigger condition], [effect],” and include (and usually begin with) the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” Whenever the trigger event occurs, the ability is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority and stays there until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”

For the sake of the OP, this is different in the case of, oh let's say Skullclamp, correct?  The 1/1 creature dies as a result of having 0 toughness, dies as a 2/0, and does not trigger Shirei?

Correct, if the creature dies while the equipment is still attached, its last known information (the state in which it last existed on the battlefield) is used, and it would show a 2/0 died, not triggering Sihrei.

@DenisS With Skullclamp, the creature loses toughness from a continuous effect, and then dies from a state based action. None of that uses the stack. With Grafter Wargear, the sacrifice effect is triggered and does use the stack.

This answers OP's specific question in the body but not the general question posed in the title. What if the creature had taken non-lethal damage but unattaching the equipment caused the creatures toughness to be reduced, which makes the previously non-lethal damage, lethal damage? I believe it would have it's P/T without the equipment's bonus for any calculation but I'm not sure as the answer here focuses a bit on the Triggered Ability's impact on the process.

@DavidJacobsen The question body gives no hint that the title posed that more general question. OP made it clear that the question was specifically about the Shirei/Wargear combo, making a bunch of 1/1 creatures and using the Wargear as a repeatable sac outlet. And just to answer your question, yes, if the creature died to marked damage after unattaching the Wargear, it would still die as a 1/1, except as an SBA instead of to the Wargear ability.


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“Repeat this process” infinite loop rulings
I am theory crafting a deck for the new legendary planeswalkers/commander Grist, the Hunger Tide and I was wondering how his first ability works in an infinite loop. The scenario occurs when I force all creatures become insects using a card like Maskwood Nexus and then reducing my library to be just Vigor. I then activate Grist’s +1 ability and as far as I’m aware what would happen would be vigor gets milled and then when put into graveyard either the ability tried to mill again and then fails and once it resolve vigor is shuffled back in or vigor is automatically shuffled back in and it becomes an infinite loop. If it’s the first scenario then would I be correct in saying that if I had somehow created a working infinite loop that having a wincon such as Ayara, First of Locthwain or Impact Tremors on the field would not result in a victory and would instead end the game in a draw due to an infinite loop? Thanks :)

Note that Vigor wouldn't make a loop anyway. The loyalty ability is entirely done and finished, having failed its second mill, by the time you shuffle Vigor back. You need something like Blightsteel Colossus, where the shuffling-into-library happens before Grist mills you again.

No, you can't create an arbitrary number of tokens with Grist like that. Either the process stops after a finite number of steps, or the game is a draw.
The specific example you gave does not work because Vigor shuffles back as a triggered ability. As long as a spell or ability "repeats this process", it's still resolving, and while it's resolving, no player gets priority and no triggered abilities enter the stack or resolve; they wait until the current item has finished resolving. So if your library consists of only Vigor, Grist's +1 will create a token, mill the Vigor, repeat once to create another token, and then stop resolving because there were no more cards to mill on the second pass. Then Vigor's ability enters the stack and can resolve to shuffle it back.

117.2a Triggered abilities can trigger at any time, including while a spell is being cast, an ability is being activated, or a spell or ability is resolving. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”) However, nothing actually happens at the time an ability triggers. Each time a player would receive priority, each ability that has triggered but hasn’t yet been put on the stack is put on the stack. See rule 117.5.

117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

If you use a creature card that shuffles back as a replacement effect, such as Darksteel Colossus, you can indeed make Grist's +1 go infinite, because replacement effects don't use the stack and happen immediately. However, in that case, again, the triggers from your win condition won't enter the stack or resolve. More importantly, there is no way to stop Grist from repeating the process, and the game is a draw as per the shortcut rules.

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

I can't think of an example off the top which card(s) might do that, but even if you could make both the re-shuffle and the damage-dealing a replacement effect, it would still be a draw. That's because players die to damage only when state-based actions are checked, which again happens only whenever a player would get priority.

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 117, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. [..]

The only ways to guarantee the win with Grist's +1 would be either to stack enough creatures on top of your library and get enough damage triggers, or to find a win condition in a replacement effect, and the latter are quite rare. Most win conditions require state-based actions, or a spell/ability to resolve, neither of which can happen while you are going into an infinite loop, as discussed. The only ones I can think of that are even theoretically possible are Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Laboratory Maniac.


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If I turn a token creature into an enchantment aura, can I choose to attach it to something or does it just go to the graveyard?
I'm thinking of using Replication Technique to make a token copy of an aura in conjunction with something like Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer to create a bucket load of copies of of that same aura through the liberal abuse of token generation.
Since these auras aren't actually entering the battlefield would I be able to attach them to anything?

You can copy auras through Replication Technique, have them enchant something, and copy them through Brudiclad. However, the tokens turned into auras by Brudiclad will die immediately.
Replication Technique creates a token aura. An aura that enters the battlefield through any means other than resolving an aura spell enters the battlefield attached to a legal target of your choice:

303.4f If an Aura is entering the battlefield under a player’s control by any means other than by resolving as an Aura spell, and the effect putting it onto the battlefield doesn’t specify the object or player the Aura will enchant, that player chooses what it will enchant as the Aura enters the battlefield. The player must choose a legal object or player according to the Aura’s enchant ability and any other applicable effects.

However, if you change an existing permanent's subtype to aura through Brudiclad, that permanent did not enter the battlefield at that time. The aura will not attach to anything and go to their owner's graveyard as a state-based action:

303.4c If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player as defined by its enchant ability and other applicable effects, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was attached to has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

The state-based action referred to in 303.4c is:

704.5m If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.

I suspected this but getting confirmation is a good thing. I have a deck that I affectionately refer to as kinko's and auras have been the most difficult to copy reliably. I suppose it's just play Replication Technique and copy the spell an obscene amount of times.

Seems like 303.4c technically doesn’t cover the case of an aura that was never attached to anything... it only talks about being attached to something illegally, or if the thing it was attached to is gone. 704.5m is clear that the same thing goes for auras that are not attached.

303.4c refers to 704 though, and the only rules in 704 that talk about auras are 704.5m and 704.5p. Rule 704.5p doesn't apply, so 704.5m must be the one referred to in 303.4c.


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MTG Perilous Reasearch and Improbable alliance, resolution of spell and triggered ability timing?
Perilous Research has a comma and "then" in the text description. I am unclear whether this allows triggered abilities to be considered in the middle of the spell resolution. Specifically, if I control Improbable Alliance, when I cast Perilous Research and draw two cards, can I sacrifice the token that has just been created by the triggered ability of Improbable alliance??

No, whatever permanent you want to sacrifice to Perilous Research already has to be on the battlefield before it starts resolving.
Improbable Alliance does trigger in the middle of Perilous Research's resolution, as soon as you draw the two cards and before you sacrifice a permanent. However, triggered abilities only enter the stack, let alone resolve, the next time a player would get priority. That only happens after Perilous Research has finished resolving, so you can't sacrifice the token that would be created on that specific Improbable Alliance trigger.

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

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

Don't know if it's even worth mentioning, but the bold summary sentence is correct for this question but not true as a general rule/principle. If in theory you had a replacement effect such as "whenever you would draw a card, instead create a food token", or something along those lines, then you would be able to sacrifice your new food token that didn't exist when Perilous Research started to resolve.


text:
Elderfang Venom vs Board wipe
Elderfang Venom and 10 elves are on the board and all non-land permanents are destroyed. Does the Elderfang Venom still trigger for all the elves dying at the same time?

Yes, each permanent that dies sees each other permanent dying at the same time. Elderfang Venom will trigger 10 times.

603.10a Some zone-change triggers look back in time. These are leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, and abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library.

Example: Two creatures are on the battlefield along with an artifact that has the ability “Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life.” Someone casts a spell that destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. The artifact’s ability triggers twice, even though the artifact goes to its owner’s graveyard at the same time as the creatures.


text:
If I have 8+ coins and no Gold, should I buy a Gold or a Province?
When playing Dominion, I have developed the habit of buying a Gold the first time I can afford one, even if I could afford a Province instead. Is this a good rule of thumb?
My reasoning is that if I manage to hit 8+ coins without a Gold in my deck, I have probably managed to hit a lucky hand. Having at least one Gold makes it much easier to hit 6+ or 8+ coins in the future, whereas having a Province sitting around just makes it harder to buy that first Gold.
If buying the Gold is indeed better most of the time, under what circumstances would it be worse?

Generally you want to get a Gold before you buy a Province in order to sustain your Province buying.
Exceptions include:

Situations in which you are using action chains for money (e.g., Minion, possibly Conspirator) because the Gold does not contribute to your chain in a significant manner.
When your Treasure Maps hit. If you have 4 Golds from TM, you should have the coin density you need for the game.
If there is a trash-for-benefit card on the board that you can exploit (e.g., Salvager, Expand especially if there are Colonies in play, possibly Apprentice). This will be situational; you need to make sure that you're going to be able to stay ahead of your opponent if you trash the Province.
If the game is ending quickly (e.g., your opponent is rushing Gardens or Duke/Duchy and the game is going to end on piles before you work all the way through your next shuffle).
If you have cards that let you discard for substantial benefit (e.g., Horse Traders is probably enough; Cellar is definitely not), you might be able to avoid some of the penalty for greening your deck early. But, this is a higher variance strategy—sometimes shuffle luck will make you successful, and sometimes the shuffle gods will not be amused.

This graph of winningness by turn for Province and Gold buys is interesting and relevant.  On average, before turn 6, buying Golds is better than buying Provinces.  Note that the graph is going to overstate the case for buying Provinces (conditioned buying a Province, we know your deck can generate $8, which is not true for all players buying Golds, so on a whole, just because you can buy a province, you are in better shape).  And it's direct evidence that you should take Gold before Provinces before your second shuffle, which tends to happen on turn 5.

I've never seen a reason to buy gold when I can buy a province instead.
I can think of two reasons:1. too much copper in deck to do it again.2. have multiple buys and sufficient to buy 2 gold.
So, really I don't think your "Buy gold the first time I hit 8+" is of much value.
Me, I buy gold when I hit 6 or 7, and province at 8+.

If you don't have at least one (and often two) Gold in the deck already, buying an early Province will hurt you the vast majority of the time. The reason you need to have Gold in most situations is that your deck will fill with green cards and so you need the extra coin density to get to $8. This is especially true when you start learning how to buy Duchies; simulations show that you usually should start buying Duchies when there are 5 (!) Provinces left, yet most newer players don't start buying Duchies until far later. Those extra green cards make a difference in the quality of your hand.

True, but if you've got the density to buy a province, odds are it's aready got gold, or a lot of silver. The dukes/Duchies issue also needs to be remembered to be balanced out, or close to it, but that's totally tangential to "Buy Gold vs Buy Province."

I'm guessing that you missed the part of the OP's question where he asked about buying a Province without Gold already in the deck.

@philosophyguy: I'd be curious to see these simulations. (I am an applied statistician, and II must have done simulations of this kind and that kind for a few billions petaflops by now.)

@philosophyguy No, but plenty of silver also works, as does silver with any of the cards reducing costs. If I have a deck rich enough in silver to be getting a province, I'm NOT going to buy a gold; it's not worth it.

I would tend to agree with this answer.  If you "luck into" an early hand with $8 and buy a $6 card, you're not maximising the extent of your good fortune. Gold is very good, but Provinces cost more for a reason.

@StasK: you can run the simulations yourself. Geronimoo's simulator is available at http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=144.0. Buying Duchies when there are 5 or fewer Provinces left is known as Big Money Ultimate, the optimized version of the Big Money strategy.

@aramis: I won't say it's always wrong to use a Silver-heavy strategy, but usually Silver decks won't be able to sustain the pace once the deck starts to turn green. Exceptions might be if you can use Bureaucrats, Trusty Steed, or gaining cards like Workshop to continue to acquire Silvers and counterbalance the green in your deck, but those situations are exceptions rather than the rule. Silver-based decks are also far more vulnerable to attacks: a simple Militia leaves Silver unable to buy Provinces.

@thesunneversets: you're forgetting that the early Province is a hinderance for the rest of the game. You can try simulating the result yourself with the simulator I linked to above.

@thesunneversets: there's about a half percent edge to delaying the first Province until you have at least one Gold with the Big Money Ultimate strategy. Adding in Kingdom cards tends to increase that edge (e.g., a Silver/Baron opening has a 5% edge over the same strategy if it waits until after buying a Gold).

Sure a Province in your deck is a hindrance, and sure it's a close call.  I just don't believe, in this rather unlikely situation that you've filled your deck with lots of Silvers without ever having had $6 to buy a Gold, and then draw them all at once, that one Province amidst your growing number of cards is going to severely hamstring your game, sufficiently to outweigh the psychological advantage/fun of saying "ha ha, first blood to ME".

The mathematics may be on your side (pending several pages of equations and proofs) but you can't play Dominion based on endlessly running corner cases through a simulator. Why not just let the simulator play for you? It's meant to be fun. I do concede that you probably deserve to have your answer marked as the correct one though :D

Simulators usually fail to include the effect of psychology on decision making. The early province tends to add pressure to the other players. There's a reason it's often referred to as starting the race. Once people have provinces in deck, the way people play changes.

@philosophyguy: thanks, I will take a look. Of course setting up realistic strategies would require A LOT of custom coding :)

I think it will depend how late in the game you are and how soon the game will end.  If your playing a game where the end of the game looks like it's coming soon, buying the province is the best option.  If it's early in the game, buy the gold.  You'll be able to use it throughout the game for acquiring more gold and provinces later on.

If you are using the most basic strategy (just treasure and no actions) than your deck wants $19 worth of treasure before buying the first Province. This number isn't random, it's been found by WanderingWinder (a top 10 player on isotropic) by optimizing a simulation bot:
Simulate it yourself
(choose the Big Money Ultimate (Opt) strategy)
So the answer to your question is: if you have less than $19 total treasure in your deck, buy a Gold over your first Province. (If you include action cards (like Smithy), the answer will of course be different)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Small World: Strategies for using dwarves in a 2-player game
We started playing Small World in a 2-player setup and the race which we found very difficult to play was Dwarves. The con of dwarves is their low number of troops (3), which means that it is hard to exploit their special ability (doubled income from mines, even in decline) as they quickly become short in numbers.
One of interesting setups we tried was flying dwarves which made it easy to catch a few of mines, although on the small map it was also easy for the opponent to conquer the mines rendering the dwarf special power not so useful. After a few tries we ended up avoiding dwarves in 2-player games.
Are there any potentially successful dwarf strategies on the small map, or are dwarves a kind of niche play that is only reasonable in bigger games?

Note that at least one person suggests that they are not reasonable even in bigger games.

Dwarves just aren't a great race, you're never going to want to pick them highly.  However, once there is a little stack of Victory coins on top of them, who knows?  If you reckon you are in a position to conquer a couple of Mine regions (perhaps, as you say, by Flying) and then hold them over a fair number of turns, defended by your Active race, then they may be cost effective.
In general though, it's not advisable to look at Small World and say "all races and powers must be balanced - if this one seems excessively weak, I must be missing something".  The races and powers are not created equal: players must use their skill and judgment to decide how much they're willing to pay to grab a good combo, or willing to be paid to take a less-than-attractive one.  That's one of the major factors in being a great Small World player!

From what you write there's very little place for dwarfs in 2-person game as in this case you generally don't have big stakes on race cards because only two players contribute in building these stakes (I think 6-7 coins is maximum in the most favorable conditions).

That's one of the beauties of Small World - the self-balancing mechanism of skipping a combo. It makes overpowered combos more expensive on average (except if such a combo lands on top at the beginning of the game), and it makes underpowered combos more interesting because of additional victory points.

@Hackworth, completely agreed.  Though actually the scenario you cite, where an amazing combo is on top at the beginning of the game, is one of my big peeves about Small World.  It feels like there should be a mechanism for bidding for turn order, at the very least...

@thesunneversets Agreed on the turn order bidding, but that would require a major redesign of the game start - after all, there isn't much bidding to be done if everyone gets only a single VP in the beginning.

@Myself Maybe some kind of negative bidding - Everyone keeps upping the bid, the highest bid gets to draw first, and everyone else gets VPs according to the highest bid. Repeat for every place in the queue until all players have won a bid or declined to bid.

@Hackworth: this would be a great question and a great answer by themselves :)

@Hackworth: You stated that turn order bidding wouldn't work because everyone starts with only one victory point, but you actually start with five. This could work. I like the idea.

+1 Great answer! Particularly glad you point out that all races/powers are not equal - that's a large part of the game :-)

If you can capture the mountain mines, then it might be worth it to keep dwarves (along with victory points stacked on the race) - remember that the mines will give you bonus even in decline!

I only experienced one game scenario that worked for dwarves. I was first player and stout dwarves was the first option. I picked the dwarves and immediately went for the closest mines to the edge of the board. I only conquered three territories with 2 mines. I threw them into decline right away. It allowed me to watch what the other players did and I switched my strategy according to them next turn. It gave me an in decline race and another power race (commando orcs) right off. Still lost to a newbie with late game merchant ogres. We dismissed her too readily, three way fight on one side of the board, and she ran rampant for three turns (18-20-20) until we could to respond to her growth. She had already launched so far ahead in gold we lost. I ended up not far behind in gold though.
To make a long ramble short, dwarves are of very limited value. This was the only instance where they helped a little.

Do what we did...Upped the number to 5 dwarves and now they are playable.

Welcome to [boardgames.se]! Your answer has been flagged as low quality by the system; please [edit] it to include some more information about e.g. the consequences.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Playing spirit ghouls in decline
Consider a scenario:

Round 1: I play spirit ghouls and dispatch them somewhere on the map.
Round 2: I make ghouls in decline.
Round 3: I choose the other race (X) and play them according to the rules.
Round 4: I make the race X in decline.
Round 5: I choose another race (Y) and play them.

Considering that:

I can play ghouls actively while they are in decline
I can have two races in decline thanks to spirit property
My spirit race are ghouls making them undead, as I always kill the other race in decline
None of my races (either X or Y) are stout

Questions:

What happens during the round 2? Can I play my ghouls actively when I'm making them in decline? As the rules say that I can do either one or the other I expect the answer would be negative.
What happens if during the round 2 one of my opponent would successfully attack the group of 4 ghouls occupying one of regions, killing one of them and making 3 others coming back to my pool of active troops? Can I dispatch them during the round 3?
The most interesting one: considering my ghouls are spirit and they just won't die, can I play them actively during the round 4? The situation is a bit different than in a question 1 as the rules say that I should play my ghouls before playing the active race so technically I could play them even if during the round 4 I would be wiping them out of the map, while making the race X in decline. However, in this case I won't as because they are spirit they would prevail, which makes the case even more complex.

(1) You are correct - if you Decline your active race, that's all you do in that turn.  There's no window of opportunity for conquering at all.
(2) I believe Declined Ghouls operate as a special case: normally only one token of a Declined race stays in a region, so it's very obvious what happens when that region is conquered (the token is obliterated).  Declined Ghouls however have all the characteristics of an active race, so I'd say that, as long as you still have Ghoul-occupied territories on the map, you can redeploy them in just the same way as you would your active race.
(3) A Spirit race never leaves the map, even when in Decline; Ghouls can still carry out conquests even while in Decline.  I don't any real contradictions going on here: as long as your Spirit Ghouls stay on the map, and it may be a very long time, they can still conquer territories and generally behave much like an active race.  Note however that you can't do some Conquering with your Spirit Ghouls and also put another race into Decline in the same turn.  It's one or the other out of Conquering or Declining on any given turn, that really is the golden rule! (unless the active race you choose to put into decline has the "Stout" power - In this case you could use both the Spirit Ghouls as well as your active race to attack, and after scoring still be able to put the active "Stout" race into decline, therefore reaping the benefits of both special powers)

For what it's worth, this is the way the Small World game on the iPad is coded…

Regarding (2), you write: "as long as you still have Ghoul-occupied territories." Actually with the active race if it is wiped out of the map you can come back with troops you have in the pool starting from the edge of the map. I would expect that declined ghouls works the same. Meaning if I have 6 ghouls on a single territory and they're conquered I should still be able to use 5 of them to conquer one of edge regions on the map. Am I right?

@Pawel, that's a really good question actually!  I've up voted your original question because there's been a lot to think about here :D  My inclination is to say YES, you should be able to redeploy surplus Declined Ghouls at the edge of the map if they are conquered completely off the map.  The redeployment rules are quite clear on how you handle conquered pieces (one gets discarded, the rest redeployed) and there is nothing to suggest to me that Declined Ghouls would be an exception to those rules.

This thread on BGG has a lot of rules clarifications from the developers. It confirms your answers for (1) and (2) and (3), and @pawelbrodzinski's hunch above.


text:
What are the most popular formats for Magic The Gathering?
I have been playing Standard Constructed (Type 2) games so far but it seems that there are a lot of formats which are gaining popularity. I'm looking for the most popular ones which are recognized officially as well so I can attend competitive matches.

How you define popular?

How you define define?

I'm not sure if that was supposed to be sarcastic or not. What I mean is, what objective criteria do you plan to use to rank the various formats in order to make the decision? What does popular mean to you? I elaborated on this in the first paragraph of my answer.

The popularity of the different formats is a tricky subject. First, it's very difficult to define. You could go by total number of players (is there a strong community?), number of tournaments (is it competitive?), available prize pools (is it serious?), size of tournaments (there's a difference between 10 tournaments of 8 people and 1 tournament of 80 people!), or any number of other metrics.
Secondly (and most importantly) this is not a constant thing across the world. Different places (even as fine-grained as different neighborhoods in the same city) have different popularity levels of different formats. For example, I live in Calgary, Alberta. Down in the south, there is little interest in Draft, but a lot in casual formats like EDH. There is very little for competitive magic, even for just winning packs at FNM. But in the north, there are a couple places that draft regularly with multiple pods with fewer casual events.
If you asked someone in the south what the most popular format was, they will probably say Commander or Standard. In the north, they're more likely to say Draft/Sealed and if you force them to say a constructed format, they're more likely to say Modern than Standard.
The bottom line is, I think you're asking the wrong question. What I would advise you to do is to ask at your local game store what formats are popular in your area. Consider looking for a secondary store to play at that might have formats you're looking for, too. Knowing what's popular nationwide or worldwide is going to be less useful to you.

This is so true. My firends and I have been playing for well over a decade and we play mostly Legacy or Vintage. I was in a shop the other day though and was talking to a guy who asked what we play, when I said Vintage his eyes almost popped out of his head. He was easily 6-7 years younger than me but still.

WotC has a page with basic explanations of the different sanctioned tournaments formats. You can refer to this page to learn more about the various tournament formats.
Constructed formats
"In a Constructed format, you build your deck in advance, using the cards in your collection. A Constructed deck must have a minimum of 60 cards, with no more than four copies of any card (excluding basic lands)."
In order of popularity, they are:

Standard: Standard (formerly called Type 2, a long time ago) is by far the most popular constructed format. It's relatively easy to "buy into," since it only uses cards from the most recent sets, but players usually update their decks extensively to keep up with new set releases and rotation. The Standard metagame moves very fast because there's a major tournament every weekend, and numerous online events as well. Most Friday Night Magic events are Standard or Limited.
Legacy: Legacy is the most popular "eternal" format, meaning that it incorporates cards from all of Magic's history. Legacy has a fairly extensive banned list to balance the format (which is what differentiates it from Vintage). New cards still make a big impact in Legacy from time to time, but generally the metagame is more stable. Much of the contemporary Legacy tournament scene exists thanks to third-party support from major Magic vendors like Star City Games.
Modern: Modern is a fairly new tournament format. Like Legacy, cards never rotate out of Modern due to their age. Unlike Legacy, you can only play cards newer than Mirrodin block / Eight Edition (in most cases, an appropriate shorthand is "with the new card frame"). Modern is more accessible financially than Legacy. However, currently the tournaments tend to be a bit "seasonal" — many competitive players get excited about Modern when it's the format for PTQs or the Pro Tour itself, then ignore it for a few months afterward as they shift their attention to Standard or Legacy.
Vintage: Vintage is the closest to an "anything goes" sanctioned format. Vintage players enjoy playing the most powerful, game-breaking cards in Magic's history. Costs of entry are prohibitive, however, and Legacy has a much greater following. (Many US tournaments allow some proxies, which greatly reduces the price barrier.) As far as I know, the best way to play Vintage consistently is to live in an area with a strong local community, but there are occasional large events like the Bazaar of Moxen as well.
Block Constructed: Block Constructed has the smallest card pool of all Constructed formats, encompassing only the cards from the most recent block. Because cards are primarily designed for Limited and Standard, the Block Constructed metagame tends to be pretty stagnant and one-sided. With the exception of a small following on Magic Online, most people only really care about Block Constructed when it's the format for a Pro Tour.
(Extended is dead as a doornail.)

Note that support for Legacy, Modern, and Vintage outside the US varies greatly by region.
Limited formats
"Unlike Constructed formats where you play with an already built deck, Limited formats require you to build a deck from a defined pool of cards. This pool might be defined by the contents of a few booster packs that you open at the event, or it may be from cards that you select in a Booster Draft."
The two Limited formats are (once more, in order of popularity):

Draft: Booster draft using the most recent block or core set.
Sealed: Sealed-deck Limited using the most recent block or core set.

Every Pro Tour includes a Limited component, and many Grand Prix tournaments are Limited. Limited is also very popular at the FNM level, at about the same level as Standard.
Team tournaments
Rarely, a tournament will be a team event. These are essentially labels that modify one of the Constructed or Limited formats above.

Team __________: Tournaments that just say "Team Standard" or "Team Sealed" involve playing individual duels, but players combine their scores to determine the team's overall standing.
Two-Headed Giant: Two-Headed Giant is a specialized two-on-two multiplayer format.

(Most often, when players refer to a Magic "team," they just mean their practice buddies. Top players tend to prepare for tournaments with other top players, because it's the best way to hone your skills and try to predict the metagame.)
Non-sanctioned competitive formats
There are many Magic formats that are not officially approved for DCI-sanctioned tournaments. To my knowledge, the most popular non-sanctioned formats with serious competitive scenes are:

Peasant/Pauper: A commons-only format. "Pauper" is the name on Magic Online, where it is most popular. (Peasant and Pauper are different because of how cards are "printed" on MTGO — for example, Hymn to Tourach is a common in paper Magic but only exists as an uncommon in MTGO.)
Duel Commander: Also known as "French EDH," this is a modification of Commander for two-player duels. Most popular in Europe. It has its own official site.

It's also not uncommon to find multiplayer Commander tournaments at major gaming conventions, but these aren't really part of a large competitive circuit with a defined metagame.

Okay, but how can I find out what's popular in my area?
Wizards of the Coast has a Store & Event Locator feature on their website. Note that you can search by formats and event types; note also that it will mostly show game stores unless you filter out events like Friday Night Magic, Prerelease, and Game Day. When you click on a store, you'll see a schedule of their events, which will usually give you an idea of the formats they support. This list is only as good as the information that retailers feed back to Wizards' staff; the game stores do at least offer a reasonable starting point — you can visit a promising site in person and find out more information about what the local players are doing.
MTGMom is a calendar that lists major tournaments and qualifiers in the US and Canada in one handy page. Her list includes SGC and TCGPlayer events as well as WotC-sponsored ones.
For MTGO players, Magic Online has its own calendar page.

The Big 3 constructed formats are
Standard:  by far the most popular tournament format.
Modern:  also a somewhat popular format and is becoming more popular
Legacy:  still fairly popular, but it's stagnant.
There are also limited competitions, which are usually either Sealed(6 new packs) or draft

"Stagnant"? Legacy has a card-availability problem (which translates into a card-price problem in practice), but the metagame moves along just like Modern's.

@AlexP  I meant that the number of people who play legacy is stagnant, I wasn't talking about the meta itself per-se

What about EDH? I heard that there is a hype around it right now...it may be true only in my local context though.

I thought Vintage was among them btw.

You specified organised competitive matches.  Vintage is almost never played in a tournament format outside a few specific conventions.  Organised tournaments for EDH are also pretty rare, unless there happens to be a venue in your area that runs a league.

@AdamArold EDH is primaraly a casual format

I believe the limited tournament scene is as popular as any constructed format.

Legacy has a minor card-availability problem, but Vintage has an enormous card-availability problem. Black Lotus is in nearly every decklist (only exception is heavy anti-artifact decks) and costs $1,000 for a heavily played copy.


text:
Magic Sword: Peaceful Variation or is Punishment Possible?
In a game earlier today I encountered a deviation from the Magic Sword pattern that I haven't been able to find anywhere. Instead of cutting, White seemed to offer a peaceful trade of influence for territory (see the first diagram). I wonder if, as Black, I could have gotten a significantly better outcome.
$$W 7 deviates from the usual Magic Sword
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .....b7c...-
$$ ...3.a251..-
$$ .......64..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

I considered playing aggressively at b or c, but couldn't find an outcome I was very happy with. (White had the upper left corner, and I had star point stones in both of the bottom corners.)
Cutting at c, I found a way to get the corner, but it strengthened white on the top and also gave her a strong attack on the right. The double hane at b looked more promising, but I couldn't find a way to kill the corner, and the result just looked like a complicated fight.
In the game I didn't cut and this is how things played out:
$$B Actual game
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ....42O....-
$$ 6..O31XOO..-
$$ .......XX..-
$$ .....5.....-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ .......7...-

White 6 seemed slow to me, and I'm surprised she didn't take the opportunity to play somewhere on the right to negate the wall; I was very happy to play at 7. If White had played 6 on the wide-open right side, I would have felt behind after the corner exchange.

@shujaa ok let me try... btw, how to mark steps larger than 9?
The idea of hane is to exposure white's vulnerable parts:
$$W Separate black's corner and pincer
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .....87....-
$$ ...3..251..-
$$ .......64..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

Now white cannot cover the cut at A and capture black 1 at the same time:
$$B Black in good shape: thick.
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .....1Oa...-
$$ ...O.2XOO..-
$$ ......3XX..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

This is of course inferior:
$$W black gets a big corner
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ .....1.....-
$$ ....3XO24..-
$$ ...O.OXOO..-
$$ ......XXX..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

A possible sequence:
$$W White's pincer is already hurt
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ......1....-
$$ ....6XO....-
$$ ...O2OXOO..-
$$ ....43XXX..-
$$ .....5.....-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

... to continue:
$$W Black escaped at the side
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ......O.5a.-
$$ ....XXO..3.-
$$ ...OXOXOO2.-
$$ ....XOXXX4.-
$$ .....O.....-
$$ .......1...-
$$ ........6..-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

notice here white 5 is a must otherwise black attack at "a".
Now white still need sort out the center group. This result favors black.

Great! Unfortunately, we're limited to numbers less than 10, at least for now.

This could be an interesting feature: Sensei's Library / How diagram works / Starting move number

Actually it appears to already work here on boardgames.stackexchange: How do we enter go boards on this site?. Each diagram is limited to 10 moves, written as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0 in the code, but you can start the numbering at any number by specifying the number of the first move in the header.

Anyway, the 3-4 exchange is damezumari, and should be left unplayed, If w doesn't protect, b can later cut at 4, then at c...

but if B leaves out the 3-4 exchange and plays elsewhere wouldn't W cut immediately? I do like the idea of cutting at 4, then c.

@shujaa: If you're going to play black 5 anyway to protect the cut, why would you exchange 3 for 4 first? Certainly better to play 1-2-5 and let white fix at 3 in gote so black gets to play on the right side.

This is a really tough question, the situation is super complex.
I would certainly omit the 3:4 exchange, not only is it against proverb (hane at the head of 3 stones) but it appears to be a major aji keshi in combination with the cut in the corner.
$$B Aji
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ....32Oa...-
$$ ...O.1XOO..-
$$ .......XX..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

After 6, that cut seems to exist still, so maybe white should have played one space closer to the edge, or fixed in a different way e.g. like this:
$$W Fix the cut
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ....OOOc...-
$$ a..OXXXOO3.-
$$ .......XX1.-
$$ .....X...2.-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,...-
$$ ...........-

Regarding the suggested moves b and c your original diagram, I believe both of them are thinkable. Refuting any of them is probably impossible unless you are high dan. In an amateur game, I think you should be able to get a reasonable result with any of them.
By the way, my first idea was to play like this:
$$B Simple
$$ ------------
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .....2O....-
$$ ...O..XOO..-
$$ ......1XX..-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ ...........-
$$ .......,3..-
$$ ...........-

I think that way is okay-ish. Locally it appears to be good for white, but we have to consider that white had 1 more stone there to begin with. Also, we must compare this result with the usual joseki results - in this variation, white does not use her stone to attack black, but simply takes territory. Also, maybe the white pincer stone is in an uninteresting place and thus a bit of a waste.

If White plays 7 before 6, you'd probably counterpincer one or two spaces below. Then take 6.
In playing as she did, she was adopting a "live and let live" policy, instead of  heading for complications.
Of course, the wisdom of this policy depends on what you have below 7 and what White has left of 6.


text:
Where is this die from?
The die appeared in my old room, lying perfectly on a table, and nobody knows where it came from.
I would be thankful if you would help me identify this die.

This die is from the Star Wars: Galactic Battle Game.  This was a game that involved individual action figures being purchased which came with cards & dice for use in the game. Some models like Yoda or Amidala came with black & gold dice, and others like Captain Rex or Ahsoka came with blue & white dice.

(blue dice source)

(gold dice source)

I have tons of these :) Beat me to the answer!


text:
Can Heckling Fiends cause a creature to attack on an opponent’s turn?
Can Heckling Fiends' activated ability cause an opponent to attack on another player's turn?

{2}{R}: Target creature attacks this turn if able.

The way to look at it is this, if the controller wanted to attack with that creature, could they? If it's tapped, the answer is no, if it's summoning sick, no, if it's not their turn, the answer is no. If there's anything that prevents the creature from attacking, they are not able, the ability says 'if able'.

No, Heckling Fiend cannot cause a creature to attack unless that creature would be otherwise able to attack in the first place. The “if able” in the text makes this clear.
You cannot declare attackers if it is not your turn, so you would not be able to attack with he targeted creature if it is not your turn. Similarly, a tapped creature would not be able to attack; or a creature that is destroyed before he combat phase.

With the single exemption of Party Crasher. Though silver borders rarely count.

It's also worth noting that this doesn't prevent someone from using Heckling Fiends on a creature belonging to the non active player, the ability will resolve and the creature will get the condition. However when declare attacker checks the condition, it will determine that the creature is not able to attack and thus the condition will do nothing.

@Andrew (to continue your thought) this is relevant as certain effects care if a creature has been targeted (ie.[mtg:Crystalline Nautilus], [mtg:Daru Spiritualist] etc.). So just because it won't normally do anything doesn't mean that using the ability when the creature can't attack is always useless.

@Malco Exactly, usually you would do the nautilus/illusion targets with an ability like this, there are easier ways to do the beneficial targets for your own creatures Shuko for instance. Also mtg doesn't work for links in comments.


text:
Giving a 2/1 creature -2/-2
The card Disfigure reads:

Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.

If I used that on Highland Game, a 2/1 creature, would Highland Game still die?

Can you clarify what you mean by “still” die? Why would it die if you didn’t cast Disfigure?

@Gendolkari My powers of mind reading tell me that that's not what the "still" refers to. The actual issue is that the toughness is never exactly 0. My mind reading powers have been wrong before, though.

Yes. A creature that has 0 toughness or less will die the next time any would would get priority.

State-Based Actions

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


text:
Countering a "When Cast" Ability
If an opponent casts a spell that has an "when cast" ability, e.g. the cascade from Bloodbraid Elf, can I counter that ability - I think it'd be a "triggered" ability - using a card like Tale's End?

All abilities that begin with "when", "whenever", or "at" are triggered abilities:

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

In the case of abilities such as cascade, the reminder text on the card shows that it starts with "when", but note that reminder text is not the actual rules, it's just a summary. To show for certain that Cascade is a triggered ability, you have to look at the rules entry for Cascade itself:

702.85a Cascade is a triggered ability that functions only while the spell with cascade is on the stack.

Same for other abilities such as Ripple. But the reminder text isn't going to have "when" unless the real rules actually have "when".

Yes, you can. An abilities that triggers when casting a spell is a triggered ability. Thus it can be countered by anything that counters triggered abilities such as Tale's End.


text:
When Genju of the Fens dies, does the swamp go in the graveyard?
When I play Genju of the Fens, I enchant a swamp, and I pay the mana to transform the swamp to a 2/2 black spirit creature, but it’s still a land and it dies because of blocking or spells. Then the enchantment goes in the graveyard, because the creature died, but I thought, because of the spell that the swamp is still a land and a land can’t die.

Genju of the Fens has an ability that triggers "When enchanted Swamp is put into a graveyard". It wouldn't have that ability unless that was something that could happen.

a land can’t die

This is wrong. Once you activate Genju's ability, the permanent is simultaneously both a creature and a land and can be destroyed just as any other creature can. While it's difficult to prove that there's no special exception for creature-lands, I'd argue this would likely be in Comprehensive Rule (CR) 305 "Lands" or CR 704.5g:

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

This is a relatively common play pattern with Liquimetal Coating and Karn, the Great Creator - you first use Liquimetal Coating to make the an opponent's land an artifact, and then use Karn's +1 ability to make the artifact an artifact creature; it is then put into it's owner's graveyard (via CR 704.5f) for being a creature with zero toughness.
(Rules references to the 2024-04-10 Comprehensive Rules)


text:
Does Academy Manufactor's ability trigger on creatures that "are Food artifacts in addition to their other types"?
If Academy Manufactor and Ygra, Eater of All are both on the field and a creature is played, would that creature also trigger the ability of Academy Manufactor, since it is technically a food?
Or would it not, for a reason like the creature not having the additional typing until after it all resolves?
Academy Manufactor's ability being:

If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each.

and Ygra, Eater of All's being:

Ward—Sacrifice a Food.
Other creatures are Food artifacts in addition to their other types
and have “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this permanent: You gain 3 life.”
Whenever a Food is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put
two +1/+1 counters on Ygra, Eater of All.

Relevant: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/57620/how-does-academy-manufactor-apply-to-creature-tokens-of-its-listed-types

No, there is no interaction between Academy Manufactor and Ygra.
First, I want to note that Academy Manufactor specifically affects creating tokens, so it never affects playing a permanent card, even if that card inherently has one of the specified types, such as Candy Trail.
With that being said, Academy Manufactor also does not affect the creation of creature tokens while you control Ygra. Academy Manufactor's ability is a replacement effect, and replacement effects do not generally take into account what the board state will/would be like after the modified effect resolves.

As an exception to the previous statement, some replacement effects, called "enters the battlefield" replacement effects, do look ahead to continuous effects that will affect a permanent after the modified event resolves, and replacement effects like that would take Ygra's ability into account. These are described in rule 614.12:

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

The referenced rules 614.1c-d describe which wordings of replacement effects qualify as "enters the battlefield" replacement effects:

614.1c Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.
614.1d Continuous effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield . . .” or “[Objects] enter the battlefield . . .” are replacement effects.

As you can see, none of those match Academy Manufactor's ability, so that exception does not apply to Academy Manufactor.

Why does this work when creating a token copy of Gingerbrute but not a token copy of Grizzly Bears with Yrga in play?

Because Gingerbrute is printed with the type Food and Grizzly Bears is not. The effect of Ygra's ability that gives Grizzly Bears the Food type does not affect the Grizzly Bears' copyable attributes, so you only consider Grizzly Bears base characteristics when determining whether to apply the replacement effect.

"o determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent's own static abilities that would apply to it once it's on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent. "?

"Academy Manufactor" replacement effect explicitly pays attention to " continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent".  You create a Bear Token.  By Ygra, that bear token will (continuously) be a Food.  As a Food and a Token, instead of creating a Bear (Food) Token, you should instead create a Food, Clue and Treasure token.  The question is, does a Bear Token that is a Food count as a Food Token?

"Academy Manufactor replacement effect explicitly pays attention to continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent". I already addressed that in my answer: no it doesn't. It's not an "enters the battlefield" replacement effect. Rule 614.1c-d describes the templating of abilities that count as "enters the battlefield" replacement effects, and Academy Manufactor's ability does not match those.

I didn't believe you were correct, so I tested this in Arena using Yrga and Worldwalker Helm (since Academy Manufactor is not in Arena), and it worked (or rather, didn't work) exactly as you described.


text:
Can you use Flicker of Fate to prevent a creature's death?
I use Breathe Your Last on a creature, and my opponent uses Flicker of Fate to stop its death.  Does the death get prevented?
I assume one of 3 things happens:
1: The creature dies, and I gain 2 life because the spell resolves last.
2: The creature doesn't die, and I gain 2 life (doesn't make sense to me).
3: The creature doesn't die, and I don't get life.
I'm sure it's 1, but please help me.

Is there seriously not a duplicate for the general issue of flickering something while it's targeted by a spell on the stack?

It's #3.
Flicker of Fate will cause the creature to leave the battlefield and return.  FYI, this will trigger any ETB effects related to that creature entering.
When it returns, it will be a new instance of that creature.  The relevant rule here is 400.7, which reads:

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

The creature which had been targeted by Breathe Your Last no longer exists.  Since BYL no longer has a valid target, it does not resolve, or "fizzles".  The rule here is 608.2b:

608.2b  If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve

Example: Sorin’s Thirst is a black instant that reads, “Sorin’s Thirst deals 2 damage to target creature and you gain 2 life.” If the creature isn’t a legal target during the resolution of Sorin’s Thirst (say, if the creature has gained protection from black or left the battlefield), then Sorin’s Thirst doesn’t resolve. Its controller doesn’t gain any life.

Upvoted, but reading the question, I think the asker might additionally be confused about the order of operations. It might be good to add a quick explanation of the stack, to explain why Flicker of Fate resolves before Breathe Your Last when it was cast second.

Your Sorin's Thirst quote from 608.2b is out of date - spells with no targets are no longer countered, they simply do not resolve; this was changed in Dominaria (2018), I believe.

@PhilipKendall yep, you are correct.  My original answer had other references to the old rules, but I missed that one.

Here's the order of what happens:

You cast Breathe Your Last, targeting your opponent's creature.

In response, your opponent casts Flicker of Fate, targeting the same creature.

Flicker of Fate resolves, exiling the creature and returning it to the battlefield. At this point, it is considered a new creature, different to the one that was there before.

Breathe Your Last tries to resolve. However, because the creature it targeted no longer exists, it has no legal targets and thus fizzles.

Because Breathe Your Last wasn't successfully cast, no creature dies and you gain no life.


text:
Ulalek copying countered spell
If I cast Ulamog, the Defiler and copy it with Ulalek, Fused Atrocity, and then somebody counters the original Ulamog spell, does Ulalek still copy the Ulamog cast trigger on the stack?

This question is similar to: Does Wandering Archaic trigger if the spell is countered?. This question got answers with rules quotes (which I prefer), but the answer on this older question is more succinct. I don't know which is better.

Yes. After casting Ulamog with Ulalek in play, the stack will most likely1 look like this:

Ulalek Trigger
Ulamog Trigger
Ulamog

If an opponent casts some kind of counter at this point, it will go on the stack, pushing the rest down. Assuming it resolves the stack will now be:

Ulalek Trigger
Ulamog Trigger

Ulalek's ability reads:

Whenever you cast an Eldrazi spell, you may pay . If you do, copy all spells you control, then copy all other activated and triggered abilities you control. You may choose new targets for the copies.

While there are no more spells you control on the stack, there is still one other ability you control on the stack, the cast trigger from Ulamog, this will still be copied if  is paid when Ulalek's triggered ability resolves. The stack will then be:

Ulamog Trigger
Ulamog Trigger

The rule that covers this situation best is 113.7, emphasis mine:

113.7 The source of an ability is the object that generated it. The source of an activated ability on the stack is the object whose ability was activated. The source of a triggered ability (other than a delayed triggered ability) on the stack, or one that has triggered and is waiting to be put on the stack, is the object whose ability triggered. To determine the source of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

113.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to any target”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source for use while announcing an activated ability or putting a triggered ability on the stack checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.

Once Ulamog's trigger is on the stack, it's completely independent from the Ulamog spell, removing the spell from the stack has no effect on the cast trigger.

Since both Ulalek's trigger and Ulamog's trigger happen when Ulamog is cast, the player can order them on the stack in whatever order they choose. It's possible to put Ulamog's trigger on stack last, so it resolves before Ulalek, but putting Ulalek's trigger on last is usually the most beneficial way to handle these triggers.

Yes. When you cast Ulamog, Ulamog and Ulalek's triggers both go on the stack. Since you control both triggers, you can choose what order they go on. If you put Ulamog's on first, then when Ulalek's resolves, it copies Ulamog's. Once Ulamog's trigger is on the stack, removing its source does nothing.
Note however that if the original Ulamog spell is counter, then while Ulalek copies the Ulamog trigger, it doesn't copy the Ulamog spell. Also, if the Ulamog spell isn't countered and Ulalek counters it, then the copy of the Ulamog spell doesn't trigger the "on cast" ability, because the spell was copied, not cast.


text:
How does Perplexing Chimera work with Strionic Resonator?
I have a Perplexing Chimera and a Strionic Resonator on the battlefield. My opponent casts Shock. I choose to use my Strionic Resonator's activated ability to copy my Perplexing Chimera's triggered ability. What would happen?

possible duplicate of How does Perplexing Chimera work with multiple triggers on the stack?

I think that this is a substantially different case, since having multiple Perplexing Chimera triggers affect the same spell is an unusual case with a different outcome.

According to the rulings on the gatherer page you linked for Strionic Resonator,

The source of the copy is the same as the source of the original ability.

This means that you will have two triggered abilities on the stack, each of which has the effect

you may exchange control of Perplexing Chimera and that spell. If you do, you may choose new targets for the spell.

This means that, up to twice, you can exchange control of the Shock on the stack and your Perplexing Chimera, and you can choose new targets for the Shock each time. If you do it both times, then you will retain control of your Perplexing Chimera and you will have chosen the target for Shock, though your opponent will still control it.
For reference, the Comprehensive Rules section about copying objects specifically says in rule 706.10b

A copy of an ability has the same source as the original ability. If the ability refers to its source by name, the copy refers to that same object and not to any other object with the same name. The copy is considered to be the same ability by effects that count how many times that ability has resolved during the turn.

Does this mean that the Shock is under the opponents control when it resolves? Could this be used as a run-around on hexproof?

Yes, that is what it means. And I guess it could be used to kill something with hexproof.

So you could use this to change the target of shock to his illusion creature for a split second, causing him to sacrifice it, and then cause it to target his hexproof creature - brilliant!


text:
Can I still trade 4:1 with the bank if I own any 3:1 or 2:1 port(s) just to get rid of more cards?
Even if I have a more favourable trade with the bank, can I still do a 4:1 trade to get rid more excess resources (e.g. to avoid the robber)?

That's next level tech right there.

Based on my read of the rules, specifically the section in the Almanac on Maritime Trade, I don't see any reason why you couldn't trade at the 4:1 rate even when you have a better rate available. I even see this text:

Generic Harbor (3:1): Here you may exchange 3 identical resource cards for 1 other resource card during your trade phase.

The use of the word "may" makes me think it's optional. If they wanted you to only be able to trade 3:1 after getting a port, they probably would have used stronger language.

Seems like the important part would be the sentence that says (emphasis added) "During your turn, you can always trade at 4:1 ..."

I agree with Ben's assessment that you could, but I am pretty sure you don't want to.
Anecdotally, I've played a lot of Settlers and never even considered this move (20 years and something new!). Compress to avoid the robber, yes. Compress at a worse than optimal ratio to avoid the robber, no.
The probability of the robber happening before your next opportunity to spend your resources is:

1-(30/36)^3 = 42% (3 player)
1-(30/36)^4 = 52% (4 player)
1-(30/36)^5 = 60% (5 player)
1-(30/36)^6 = 67% (6 player)

But that's not the whole story.
You'll be drawing more resources depending on the dice rolls.
You'll be trading with other people, sometimes card for card but sometimes effectively compressing or expanding.
In 5 & 6 player games you have the intra-turn exact-spend opportunity which you might be able to take advantage of.
With all of that it's very murky whether compressing less than optimally (instead of compressing optimally) delivers more benefit (sometimes avoiding the robber) than cost (compressing away extra cards).
Edit: Intra, not inter. No english points for me today.

It may be optimal strategy for an edge case. Suppose I need to get rid of 3 cards to avoid the robber. Trading 4:1 and getting back one leaves me in a good spot. If I needed to get rid of 3 cards and trading 2:1 or 3:1 may require giving up a card I don't need. Though I suppose I could always trade 4 of one resource for 1 of the same resource. Hrmm...

It could also be helpful to the flow of the game. Making one trade at 4:1 versus two or three trades at a better ratio might just take less time and keep the game moving.

@Freiheit, If the odds are higher that you'll get resources instead of the robber on the next roll (and they usually are), you'd be better off not trading at all. Especially since you appear to be in a scenario where getting one kind of resource is easy for you.

I've used this tactic in a few trades myself. Let's say I have enough in my hand for a city upgrade, but I'm 1 or 2 cards over the top. I sneak into my trades one extra card (someone wants wood for brick? I'll give you a brick and 1 cattle for wood). The players would accept, thinking to themselves "I'd have taken just the brick" when in fact I'm just securing my next investment. I rather lose the extra card for the certainty I'll get to do the upgrade, instead of the chance of having to throw away half of my cards and lose the chance to do the upgrade.

The chance is always there. It's unavoidable. If you play under 7 cards, you are avoiding the chance altogether. It moves the game towards strategy and makes it less reliant on lucky/unlucky rolls, which IMO is invaluable.

You are not avoiding the chance altogether, and in general can't guarantee that. You've just "given away" a brick to get to 7 cards, avoiding the robber. You're in a 3 player game. next dice roll, you draw 2 resources. Next dice roll: robber. Now your brick giveaway hurts, because you don't have that extra card to be used as a discard.
I tend to compress to avoid the robber only in the scenario where I need something I don't draw and can get 2-3 cards under the limit.


text:
Which game is this six-sided die with two sets of runic-looking plus, minus and empty sides from?
I have just received this die as an extra gift in a pack of games I bought online, but I really cannot identify where is this from?
The other 3 sides are equal to the 3 visible, overall two have that cross, two that line and two have no symbol.

It might help people to know what is on the other side as well?  are all 6 sides different?

You are right, I didn't think about that, I'll edit the question now.

my first thought is the markings are a "plus" and "minus" symbol.  googling dice with plus and minus signs you find dice matching that pattern.

It could also be a 0, 1, 2 for the symbols but I think the +, -, 0 make more sense.

These are fudge or fate dice used for the fudge role playing game.

Fudge uses customized "Fudge dice" which have an equal number of plus, minus and blank sides. A number of these dice are rolled, usually four at a time ("4dF" in Fudge dice notation), and for every plus side that comes up the result of using the Trait is considered one step higher (e.g. from Fair to Good) and for every minus side that comes up the result is considered one step lower. The goal is to match or surpass the difficulty level, also on the adjective scale, of the test. Thus, a Good attribute is considered to be Great if the player were to roll two plus sides, one minus side, and one blank—the minus side cancels out one of the plus sides and the remaining plus side raises the result by one step. The same Good attribute would be considered Poor if you were to roll three minus sides and one blank. The same dice roll can be achieved with six-sided dice, treating a 1 or 2 as [−], a 3-4 as [ ] and a 5-6 as [+].

Note: the symbols in the corners are +, - and 0.

Those are called fate or fudge dice, and they have 2 blank sides, 2 sides with a + and two sides with a -. That particular die does not come from any specific game, it's instead the "Ancient Fate Dice" set made by Q Workshop, though I can't seem to find their fate/fudge dice on their website, I have found amazon.com offerings of the same design in different colors.
Many games use these dice, the one I am most familiar with is Tales of the Arabian Nights by Z-Man Games, though the most well known use for them is probably the RPG systems that share their names with the dice used in it Fudge and Fate.

A note of warning: while Q Workshop produces some gorgeous dice sets, at least in the past they have used ridiculously insecure user account practices (storing and sending one’s password in plaintext). The website seems to have gotten a redesign since I last shopped there, so hopefully that’s changed, but consider trying to avoid sending them any sensitive information that you can’t easily change.