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At Competitive REL, do players have to follow requests from spectators?
According to Magic the Gathering Tournament Rules

If spectators believe they have observed a rules or policy violation, they are encouraged to alert a judge as soon as possible. At Regular
or Competitive Rules Enforcement Level, spectators are permitted to
ask the players to pause the match while they alert a judge.

Player A attacks with Pyreheart Wolf into Player B's creatureless battlefield, and does not acknowledge its triggered ability.  Player B casts Psionic Snoop and connives during the Declare Attackers Step, and then declares it as a blocker.  At this point, Spectator C steps in and asks the players to pause the match while they alert a judge.
Just to make sure we're all on the same page, there is nothing wrong with the game state thus far.  Player A will have missed Pyreheart Wolf's triggered ability only if they do not stop Player B from blocking with Psionic Snoop, and Player B is perfectly within their rights to proceed with this line of play until Player A does so.  Indeed, a judge would be unlikely to intervene in this situation even if play proceeded and they observed the triggered ability being missed.  However, Spectator C believes that Player B has done something illegal by blocking with a single creature, and takes action accordingly.
Player B immediately recognizes what is going on, and asks whether Player A has any further plays during the Declare Blockers Step.  Player A asks if they should wait for a judge to arrive, but Player B points out that Spectator C is not a tournament official, that therefore the players are under no obligation to follow their request to pause the match, and that they should continue play unless and until a tournament official pauses the match because time in the match is running down and a time extension would only reflect the duration of an actual judge interaction.  The real reason Player B wishes to move forward is that even an unwarranted judge intervention at this point would likely result in Player A noticing Pyreheart Wolf's triggered ability before policy considers it missed.  The players continue, and Player A does not stop Player B from blocking with Psionic Snoop.  Several game actions later, a judge arrives and pauses the match.
Obviously the judge should issue a Game Player Error - Missed Trigger infraction with no penalty to Player A for missing Pyreheart Wolf's triggered ability, unless it somehow turns into an Unsporting Conduct - Cheating infraction.  Should the judge issue any further infractions/penalties/additional remedies?  Was Player B's assertion that players are under no obligation to follow the request of a spectator to pause the match correct, so long as the players do not believe that a policy violation really is occurring (or to cover Player B's case, a policy violation which that player is obligated to acknowledge, opponent's missed triggers wouldn't count), or is a spectator request of this sort as binding to the players as the request of a tournament official?

I'll be honest, every time I see one of these questions about the edge cases and specific wording in the tournament rules, my first thought is that someone is trying to angle shoot. The purpose of the comprehensive rules is to rigorously define the procedure for playing the game. The purpose of the tournament rules, on the other hand, is to address the realities of humans implementing that procedure imperfectly or dishonestly while introducing minimal unfairness. It's not going to be rigorous or exact because human interaction isn't rigorous or exact.

My personal opinion: when player B blocks with full knowledge that the triggered ability should prevent them from doing so, they are already angle shooting. And when they resist waiting for a judge, providing a justification that conceals their true motivation in order to trick their opponent into continuing to miss their trigger, they are straight-up cheating. More generally, any attempt to resist calling a judge should be viewed with suspicion, and taking advantage of a less-experienced player's ignorance of this fact to successfully avoid judge intervention is angle shooting.

@murgatroid99 I guess the more normative accusations of angle shooting deserve their own discussion, so I'll withhold comment on those claims to keep this question focused on policy enforcement.  If the judge asks, we can assume Player B simply says that they are angle shooting (I can also imagine a Player B whose stated behaviors are of a more defensive nature, but that probably won't hold if you already categorize plays that may or may not be legal depending on whether an opponent’s uncommunicated trigger has been remembered as angle shooting).

The possibility you've raised that this counts as Player B tricking Player A into prematurely advancing the game certainly is relevant to a judge call, and could well lead to a Cheating investigation, the word "prematurely" presumably being the point of contention.  It seems fairly clear that if this scenario happened at Professional REL, then Player B would not have committed an infraction, because it would not have been legal for Spectator C to issue their request, and it could thus be ignored.

What's less clear to me is whether a good faith yet erroneously grounded spectator request at Competitive REL must be acknowledged and followed by the players until a judge arrives.  If so, then I can see how this could count as causing a player to miss a trigger.

If spectator requests to pause the game didn't have any effect, why would the rules mention them at all?

"Just to make sure we're all on the same page, there is nothing wrong with the game state thus far." I don't understand that. Player B has performed an illegal act. I'm not familiar with the rules on missed triggers, but it seems to me that once Pyreheart Wolf attacks, it has menace. Does Player A have to explicitly say that it has menace for blocking it to be illegal?

@Acccumulation Yes, Player A has to, in some way, acknowledge the triggered ability in order for it to apply, but the opportunity is not considered missed until they allow Player B to block without comment.  The excerpt from the IPG is, "A player who makes a play that may or may not be legal depending on whether an opponent’s uncommunicated trigger has been remembered has not committed an infraction; their play either succeeds, confirming that the trigger has been missed, or is rewound."  The Annotated IPG goes on to explain this quote using the very example I used in this question...

"It isn’t up to the opponent to confirm whether or not a player has missed their trigger before making a play that may be illegal. For example, if Alex is attacking with Pyreheart Wolf, it is not illegal for Nat to block the wolf with one creature. When that block is proposed, it is up to Alex to indicate the illegality of the block or not, and this will determine if the play needs to be rewound."

Seems like this spectator ability could be abused pretty easily.  For example, I'm watching my friend play and I force a game pause every time I see him forgetting something to allow him time to think.

@James I considered raising this point as well, but didn't want to look like I was defending one conclusion too hard :P  My intuition for these things comes from early-mid era Yugioh, which operated as Profession REL in which a spectator cannot pause a match, so spectator requests are kind of bizarre to me and their interpretation a bit unclear.

It is fairly obvious to me that in this instance the match should have been paused. The way the rule on spectators requesting pauses is written means the players must listen to the spectator and pause the match to wait for the judge. The players cannot ignore the request from the spectator - that request is allowed according to the rules.
If I was the judge in this instance, I would rewind and fix the illegal blocker, and I would seriously consider giving a warning to player B for the unsportsmanlike conduct/cheating. Performing an illegal play is one thing, but then rushing through it and ignoring a legal request to pause the match to wait for a judge is too much. Anybody can make a mistake - it's the coverup that gets you.

I will add that while the question leads us to believe that Player B acted in their own interest, knowingly ignoring a tournament rule (likely for the point of illustration in this case), it is perfectly possible that players simply want to play at a reasonable pace and aren't aware of this rule. Of course that doesn't mean that the described behavior would be alright - but it should also not be the default assumption that someone who acted against the tournament rules did so knowingly, intentionally, and maliciously.

You're right that they could be simply ignorant about the rule allowing spectators to call for a judge - it's more so the "Player B immediately recognizes what is going on, and asks whether Player A has any further plays during the Declare Blockers Step." piece that I take issue with. Recognizing you are making an illegal play and trying to play through it to your opponent's detriment is unsportsmanlike.

Of course, if you're somehow able to determine that that's the case (for example because the player admits to it), then I completely agree with your point. Until then, I think innocent until proven guilty is the go-to way to handle these things, because otherwise, worst case, you have a whole lot of judges chasing ghosts.


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In modern Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG PSCT, how are effects ordered?
Yu-Gi-Oh! cards often have several effects (and other sentences) in their card texts.  For example, Amazoness Onslaught and Toy Magician each have three effects...

Once per turn, during the Battle Phase: You can Special Summon 1 "Amazoness" monster from your hand, and if you do, it gains 500 ATK until the end of this turn (even if this card leaves the field). After damage calculation, if your "Amazoness" monster battled an opponent's monster while this card is already face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone: You can banish that opponent's monster. If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the GY: You can target 1 "Amazoness" monster in your GY; Special Summon it.

You can Set this card from your hand to your Spell & Trap Zone as a Spell. During the End Phase, if this Set card in your Spell & Trap Zone was destroyed by an opponent's card effect and sent to the GY this turn: Special Summon this card. If this card is Flip Summoned: Destroy Spells and Traps on the field, equal to the number of "Toy Magicians" on the field.

I am curious as to how such effects are sequenced.  Some clear patterns do emerge, i.e., restrictions on Summoning a monster go as near the beginning of that monster's card text as is practical, and "When this card is Summoned" Trigger Effects tend to be listed before "When this card is sent to the GY" Trigger Effects.  However, there is at least some apparent inconsistency, i.e., "You can only control 1 [card name]" can appear near the beginning or end of a card's text, even considering only the last five years of PSCT.
Is there a list of what principles do exist for creating card text which is sequenced as closely to official PSCT as possible?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What is the maximum number of columns and rows of cards a 2-player physical TCG layout could reasonably have?
Some TCGs have layouts of pre-defined slots in which cards are placed during gameplay.  Others do not (but may or may not have limits on the number of cards which may be in play simultaneously).  This question is mainly focused on TCGs of the former classification.  I want to know how many columns and rows of cards a TCG layout could reasonably have before running into space bottlenecks.  Yu-Gi-Oh! is currently 7 x 5 (this playmat is for both players)...

...and has been 7 x 6 in the past (this playmat is for a single player)...

The first consideration is how much table-space length and width are reasonable to assume available per pair of players at most hobby shops, hotels, conversion centers, etc., in which tournaments could be organized.  Do stores typically purchase large quantities of tables after they decide to organize TCG tournaments specifically for that purpose, or already have them on hand?  Even if the former, consideration of how much physical space is available in the aisles of most stores, or in the stores themselves, may have some bearing on the answer to the question (although the latter would mainly just trade off with the store's capacity).
The other consideration is how small each card may reasonably be made.  This obviously depends on the amount of information which needs to be stored on them.  Yu-Gi-Oh! uses smaller cards than most TCGs, and standardization issues related to things like card sleeves iron themselves out, but at some size, I'm sure cards become hard to shuffle, or otherwise create new problems.  Have there been successful TCGs which use smaller cards than Yu-Gi-Oh! without problems?  Have any tried but run into serious problems due to the small card size?
What other considerations are there, if any, when choosing the size of cards and layout of a playmat for a TCG?

Hi and welcome to this SE. Usually questions that ask for lists of things (or otherwise don't have "a correct answer" or "are primarily opinion-based, or that are likely to generate discussion rather than answers") are not suitable here. See https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/tour

@L.ScottJohnson It is not clear to me that the question crosses any lines moreso than is generally accepted on this site, and the information at the link is too generic to explain it.  For example, questions about complex game strategy are positively received, even though well-reasoned heuristics must often substitute for a unique, mathematically-provable answer.  I don't see this question as asking for a list; there certainly are multiple question marks in it, but they all tie together into a single overarching question.  I want to know the capacity for card slots in a 2-player physical TCG.

Oh, for sure. Many older questions definitely push the guidelines. And this may fit as well. That why I didn't actually mark it for closure. That said, "What other considerations are there?" is clearly list-oriented (as well as being one of several questions).

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


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The Game of Life action cards that require a house but you don’t own one
We just bought the Game of Life 2021 version. I never landed on a house space to be able to buy one but my action cards I drew required me to pay for repairs. No where in the instructions for set up does it say you have to buy one. Also when you land on a house space it gives you the option to buy or do nothing. I tried taking pictures but was unable to upload.

What you do you mean about not being required to buy a house, all the rules I have seen state that it is required. "When you reach this space, stop -- even if you have moves left. Draw 1 House Deed at random from the deck. Pay the bank the price on the
deed (not the insurance amount; that ’s a separate transaction). If you ’re short on cash, you must borrow from the bank. Then spin and move again." https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/life.pdf

@JoeW why don't you turn that into an answer? You have all the information needed right there.

@Jungkook Because I don't fully understand what is being asked and I am looking for more details.

@JoeW Look at the copyright date on those instructions; I don't think it's the same in the 2021 version.

@DM That doesn't mean the rules are different.

@JoeW Unless they changed the rules a few times and then changed them back again, the rules are different.

@DM Unless we have a link to the rules for the version in question or the OP provides a picture of the rules that they have it can't be ruled out that they just got misread. As this question was asked over a year ago and the OP never responded to my question we can't really judge what the situation on the rules is.

@JoeW it was most likely the OP was playing the 2017 version of the rules, available here: https://instructions.hasbro.com/api/download/E4304_en-ca_the-game-of-life-game.pdf
There have been no less than 5 rules changes around buying houses, not including the various themed version changes, and Hasbro seem to have left at least a few broken cards in each time they move to optional purchases

@KMR It sounds like you should post an answer on that, I had asked a question for clarification and it seems the op has abandoned the question.


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Can anyone identify this die with an 'a', a cheese wedge, a movie camera, a G-clef, a coffee cup and a moustache?

We have a random die, probably from a trivia game but we're not sure. Does anyone recognize it?

My first thought was Rory's Story Cubes but all images of that seem to be white dice.   There be other versions or clones.   I'd guess it some sort of story cube game but sadly can't find anything definitive.

This dice is from Hipster Dice.

BGG:Hipster Dice


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Cramorant damage multiplier question
I am new to Pokemon TCG. My kid and I are falling in love with it, but I get confused about some things.
Cramorant has an attack that says:
Continious Gulp Missile 60×, you can discard Arrokuda from your bench and it does 60 damage for each Arrokuda discarded this way.
My question is, what if I have no Arrokuda on my bench, does it do 60 damage or 0 damage?
Thanks!

This card for reference (VIV040).
When a card has an ‘x’, then it means times the number - which includes zero (so 60x0=0).  There is also ‘+’ which works like addition - Palkia VStar does 60+20x(number of Pokémon on both benches), so 60+0=60 if both benches are empty.
Also note that a Pokémon that does zero damage cannot have damage added to it by other modifiers (choice belt for example). The attack must do some damage before external modifiers come in.

So, Unless I have Arrokuda on my bemce it does zero damage?

Correct, zero damage. There are a lot of Pokémon attacks that work that way - multiplying by some thing you have to discard or count.


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In Cribbage match play, who deals first after the first game?
As far as I can remember, I've always played with the rule that first deal (and thus first crib) alternates between players. However, I recently played on a site that employed the rule that the loser of the previous game gets first deal.
I then looked for "official" rules, and the only vaguely official reference I could find was the American Cribbage Congress's rulebook. I did Ctrl+F for "match" and couldn't find a definitive answer there, with it only specifying rules for first deal of the match in rule 4.1(a):

The dealer of the first game of a match (see definition in rule 1.6) shall be determined
by cutting the pack (see rules 3.1 and 3.2).

This sort of implies by omission that the dealer of subsequent games is determined differently, though rule 3.1 contains "When cutting for the first deal of a game," which seems to imply otherwise.
I assume when people play tournaments that this is at least known in advance, but is there a standard way of dealing with first deal after the first game? (sorry, couldn't resist the pun)
I'm most interested in the standard 2-player game.

It's found in Rule 1.5 - Outline of Playing Sequence of your rules link:

(a) If the qualifying round has a cut-for-deal format, the pack is cut to determine which player deals first in the game; the low card wins. If the qualifying round has alternate-deal format, there is no cut to determine the first dealer. In an alternate-deal situation, the tournament director must announce the procedure to be followed in determining the first dealer and how subsequent first deals are to be determined.

So it varies by tournament based on a decision by the Tournament Director. The inference I draw is that serious competitors do not regard the choice has having a significant effect on match results.

Interesting, thanks! The quoted rule differentiates between cut-for-deal and alternate-deal formats (which it didn't seem to define). However, that lead me to search the site more carefully for tournament-specific stuff and I found a tournament director's guide. On pg. 10 it clarifies somewhat that cut-for-deal means each game's deal is cut for, and in alternate-deal the last game is cut for. These are both non-intuitive approaches to me, and the latter seems to contradict 4.1, but there it is.


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Why, when we play Exploding Kittens, does it always comes down to the last card in the deck or so?
When I've played exploding-kittens almost always, through normal play, the kitten card ends up getting "pushed" down such that it ends up just being the last card, and if its not the last card its one of the bottom 5 or so.
I've seen other questions here about 'running out of cards' but that is not the situation I'm talking about.  We get to the end\last card ... its just that that card is almost always the kitten card.
I've only played exploding-kittens about 10 times, and usually its just 2 players, but something similar happened I believe when I played with 3 or 4 players.  The game is still fun but ends up being a bit predictable so ...
Is this normal? Am I potentially missing a rule or something?

With 52 cards and 4 players, there are about 17 cards per Exploding Kitten, so the probability of the last one being in the last 5 cards is about 5/17, or about 1/3, so it certainly should happen frequently, and confirmation bias may make it seem to happen more frequently.
However, the other factor is that avoiding Exploding Kittens is the whole point of the game, and a significant part of that is moving an Exploding Kitten down into the deck if you would have drawn it.  After an entire game of Exploding Kittens being moved down the deck, they are disproportionately represented at the bottom of the deck.

Good point re "avoiding Exploding Kittens is the whole point of the game"


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Capturing checking piece (chess)
Was playing some chess.com and found this position where the recommended best move is black Kb7. When I tried to play manually and play black pawn captures d8, it won't let me. Can you not promote a pawn by capturing?

Based on the row numbers shown, this board is from white's perspective; the black pawn is still in its starting position. Pawns cannot move or capture backwards, in order to promote a black pawn you must move it all the way to row 1, not row 8.

Algebraic notation is always from white's perspective isn't it? i.e. white starts on ranks 1 and 2, black on ranks 7 and 8.

@PhilipKendall The rank numbers are always such that Black promotes on Rank 1. However, the board is often shown such that the player promotes on the top of the board (so if you're playing Black, Rank 1 is on the top of the board). While this board does have the ranks numbered, they aren't as obvious as the board orientation.


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Does dice roll from Chance card applies for "another turn on doubles" and "go to jail on three doubles in a row" rules?
There is a Chance card saying

Advance token to the nearest Utility. If unowned, you may buy it from the Bank. If owned, throw dice and pay owner a total ten times the amount thrown.

If the Utility property is owned and I throw doubles, will I get one more turn after paying?
If I rolled two doubles in a row, then landed to Chance and got this card, will I get to the jail if I roll doubles again? If yes, then do I still need to pay?

You do not get extra movement for rolling doubles while executing an event or community card, and you do not go to jail when rolling doubles while doing so.
Both interactions you describe apply to rolling doubles when rolling the dice to determine how far to move. While this isn't mentioned directly, it can be inferred from the Basic Gameplay paragraph (source) in the rules:

Basic Gameplay
A player's turn consists of that player rolling the dice and moving their token clockwise that many spaces around the board. Then, the player undertakes an action corresponding to the type of space they landed on. Then, their turn ends and play passes to the next player clockwise from them.
If a player rolls doubles (the same value on both dice), then after they have resolved the action for the space they landed on they are allowed to roll the dice again and take an additional turn. If they roll doubles a second consecutive time, they are allowed to take a second additional turn. However, if the player rolls doubles a third consecutive time they are "caught speeding" – they must move their token directly to the "In Jail" section of the Jail space, and their turn is over.

The entire paragraph is about movement, and the rules further mention "being caught speeding" for the third toss, which reinforces the design idea behind the rule.
Then, there's a paragraph about executing a card's instructions, which allows for the interpretation that the instructions on a card are self-contained, and the game continues as normal once they're completed:

If the player lands on a Chance or Community Chest space, they must draw the top card from the appropriate deck. Then they follow the card's instructions, which will either involve paying or losing money or moving to a specific space. Once the instructions have been carried out, the card is returned to the bottom of the appropriate deck.

To specifically answer your two questions:

You do not get to move an additional time by rolling doubles while executing the card. If you did, you would have to either re-use the result you just rolled to determine how much to pay, or re-roll the dice, both of which being highly unintuitive.
You will not go to jail for rolling doubles, as you aren't "going too fast", since with the roll itself, you aren't going anywhere. Since you are never going to jail, there's no question whether you need to pay for the card's effect.

The rolling doubles rules are rather obviously installed to prevent any single player from moving an infinite amount of turns in a row while still allowing for players to land on a different amount of tiles in the same turn.


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What if the first card after an attack card is a kitten, does one need to draw a second card?
Which of the following two rules takes precedent?

After an attack card the next player draws 2 cards.

If an exploding kitten is drawn and the player can defuse it, the kitten goes back into the pile and the turn ends.

If an attack card is played, the next player draws a card, it's a kitten, player defuses it, kitten goes back into the pile, and now the attacked player needs to draw a second card or his/her turn ends?

The effect of the Attack card is as follows:

End your turn without drawing a card. Force the next player to take two turns.

Therefore the next player has to draw again even if the first card is a kitten. Their turn ends by defusing it but then their second turn starts.


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Does Valakut do damage if Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is in play, but dies before the trigger resolves? Take 2 (I did not understand the explanation)
Stumbled upon an old question regarding Valakut and Dryad of Ilysian Grove, Link is below:
Does Valakut do damage if Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is in play, but dies before the trigger resolves?
I am not quite following the ruling (Not a judge, just a lowly L0). In this case the effect is checked as it is being placed on the stack and also as it resolves.
In ruling 613.5 it states - The application of continuous effects as described by the layer system is continually and automatically performed by the game. All resulting changes to an object’s characteristics are instantaneous.
I would have thought that because the plains stops being a mountain due to dryad being destroyed, Valakut's trigger would not resolve. I understand the ruling with the mountain leaving the battlefield etc, but not quite this. I also understand another thread where Dryad loses all abilities but because losing ability is applied at layer 6 and type changing ability is applied at layer 4, even though dryad loses all abilities the lands are still every type. Thread as below:
Why does Dryad of the Ilysian Grove grant all basic land types even if it loses all abilities?
Do explain why if Dryad dies as lands enter, when Valakut trigger resolves the it still does damage?
Thank you

I would suggest re-reading the existing answer more closely, especially the part where Valakut's ability is broken down into trigger event, "intervening 'if' clause" (condition), and effect. Only the 'if' clause is rechecked at resolution, not any part of the trigger event itself.

So what you are saying is that the whenever clause is not checked but the if clause is checked?
Valakut reads:

Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control (not checked)

if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deal 3 damage to target creature or player. (Checked)

But I am unsure as to why point 1 is not checked but point 2 is.

The condition is checked again simply because rule 603.4 says so. But there is no meaningful sense in which you can check a trigger event again. It is a thing that happened at a specific point in time. Even if the land stops being a Mountain or leaves the battlefield, it is still a fact that a Mountain entered the battlefield at that time.

Ok got it, so in essence

when the plains mountain enters the battlefield, it checks the condition of 5 existing actual mountain and if it is true, it triggers

when the ability resolves, it checks the condition again, for 5 existing actual mountain, but not checking whether the plains entering the battlefield is actually a mountain since it already started the trigger. Got it, thanks!

Yes, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle will still do damage, but only if there are still 5 other mountains in play without Dryad of the Ilysian Grove's ability.
I'll lay out three examples:

Player has Valakut with 5 Mountains, 1 Forest and Dryad and plays a Forest. The land enters as all land types and Valakut triggers, putting the ability on stack. Someone destroys Dryad before the trigger resolves, the trigger sees 5 mountains still in play, and so it deals 3 damage.

Player has Valakut with 4 Mountains, 1 Forest and Dryad and plays a Mountain. The land enters and is naturally a mountain so Valakut triggers, putting the ability on stack. Someone destroys Dryad before the trigger resolves. When the trigger resolves, it sees 5 mountains, but only 4 of them are 'other' than the one that caused the trigger, so no damage is dealt.

Player has Valakut with 3 Mountains, 2 Forests and Dryad and plays a Mountain. The land enters and is naturally a mountain so Valakut triggers, putting the ability on stack. Someone destroys Dryad before the trigger resolves, so the trigger does not see 5 mountains in play when it resolves, so no damage is dealt.

The trigger conditions on a triggered ability are only ever evaluated when they happen, a land entered the battlefield and when it entered it was a mountain. The second condition is called an intervening if clause, it forms part of the trigger condition but also is checked on resolution. This is laid out in rule 603.4 of the comprehensive rules.

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

Okay, as a only occasional Magic player, I think I see the confusion the questioner has that seems to be "obvious from the rules" to responders.

Plains is played ("enters the battlefield").  Valakut sees a Mountain enter the battlefield (because of Dryad, the card is a "Plains Island Swamp Mountain Forest") and 5 other Mountains on the player's side of the battlefield and triggers.  The trigger goes on the stack.
Dryad is destroyed in response to the trigger.
Trigger resolves, hits the "intervening if", and checks to see "if you control at least 5 other Mountains".  Note that the intervening if, and therefore whether the triggered effect resolves, says nothing about the land that entered the battlefield triggering the effect (which, yes, is now only a Plains).  It simply is no longer relevant.
Certainly, as Andrew says here and others said in the other question, if some of the "other lands on the battlefield" are no longer Mountains, "you" may no longer "control at least 5 other Mountains" and the effect would not happen.  But again, that says nothing about the land played - it is not relevant to the condition.

The way you're reading it would be if the card said:
"Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, if it is a Mountain, you may have ..."
Or, more formally, per 603.4 quoted by Andrew and in the previous question's answers, the trigger event is "When a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control", but the condition is "if you control at least 5 other Mountains".  Only the condition is "check[ed] again as it resolves", not the trigger event.


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Warhammer Munchkin Boggleeye uses all your one shots on itself?
The Boggleeye says that it uses all your one shots with a combat bonus to help itself. Does that include one shots that would normally only give a combat bonus to a munchkin? It would seem to me that it does, but there has been some contention at the table over it.


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If an enchanted creature is untargetable, is the enchantment on the creature directly targetable?
I had recently played a game with someone I hadn't played before, and they threw down a dark depths/thespian's stage combo. I in turn enchanted it to be an indestructible 0/1 that couldn't be the target of spells or abilities. He said that the enchantment though can be still targeted by "Destroy target enchantment" abilities which didn't make sense with how I have understood the game. Who's right in this situation? Can the enchantment be targeted or is it untargetable because it's on an untargetable creature?

Exactly what effect did you use on the Marit Lage token?

The enchantment can be targeted. The enchantment is a completely separate object from the creature that it’s enchanting. Enchantments can have shroud; and then they would be untargetable. See Greater Auramancy.


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How do I calculate the odds of any one of several card combinations?
Note: I know what a multivariate hypergeometric calculator is.
Game: Yugioh
The deck size/ population is 44 cards. The hand size is 5. For both of these, I'd like to also calculate the odds for different numbers.
The deck has the following variables:
A x 3
B x 3
C x 2
D x 1
E x 3
F x 2
G x 3
H x 3
I x 3
J x 3
K x 3
L x 3
M x 2

Success combinations are as follows:
((A + B)), ((A + C)), ((E + F)), ((G + L)), ((F + E + D)), ((F + B)), ((A + J)), ((E + J)), ((K + J)), ((F + J)), ((B + J)), ((C + J)), ((K + H + A)), ((K + I + A)), ((K + H + F)), ((K + I + F)), ((K + H + E)), ((K + I + E)), ((K + H + B)), ((K + I + B)), ((K + H + C)), ((L + I + C))
Each of these are only successes if I do not draw both M samples

My issue is that a hand can have multiple combo's with an overlapping card; i.e. a hand can have both ((A + B)) and ((A + C)), with either 1 A shared between them, or 2 or 3 A's, for example.
I believe I know exactly what I find out, but I'm unable to articulate it enough to search for it effectively it seems. This should be enough to answer, but if it's easier to know exactly what I'm playing, it's a Dino deck; Animadorned Archosaur x3, Babycerasaurus x3, Petiteranodon x2, Giant Rex x1, Miscellaneousaurus x3, Souleating Oviraptor x2, Scrap Raptor x3, Scrap Chimera x1, Maxx C x3, Ashe Blossom x3, Fossil Dig x3, Terraforming + Lost World x3 (total), and Small World x3. The card I can't draw exactly 2 of Double Evolution Pill, and along with other cards it's 44 total.

What does it mean to have both ((E + F)) and ((F + E + D)) listed in your success combinations?

I'm not entirely sure if it is a meaningful difference to be honest

@ChristopherMcCauley: However, it most certainly will be a meaningful difference in the calculation if the specification is not precise and unambiguous.

If you are fine with an approximated chance, a simulation that draws your starting hand a few million times and compares against success combinations might work as well

"The deck size/ population is 44 cards." No, it's not. It adds up to 34.

@Zibelas The total number of hands is 44 choose 5 = 1 million, so drawing a few million random hands actually takes longer than enumerating all hands ;-)

Hi. Can you confirm whether the number of cards is 44 or 34?

I wrote a small python script to enumerate all hands and count how many hands were successes. Here are the results:
DECK:  AAABBBCCDEEEFFGGGHHHIIIJJJKKKLLLMM
SUCCESSES:  AB AC EF GL FED FB AJ EJ KJ FJ BJ CJ KHA KIA KHF KIF KHE KIE KHB KIB KHC LIC
N CARDS IN DECK:   34
N CARDS IN HAND:   5
HANDS SUCCESSFUL:  218223
TOTAL HANDS:       278256
PROBA OF SUCCESS:  0.7842526306710368

Importantly, note that there are 34 cards in the deck, not 44 as you claim.
Putting aside the part of the script I used to parse your question to build the deck and the reference list of successful combinations, here is the part of the code that makes the computations:
from itertools import combinations
from collections import Counter
from math import comb

def is_success(hand, successes_ref):
    return (hand['M'] < 2) and any(s <= hand for s in successes_ref)

def count_successes(deck, n_cards_in_hand, successes_ref):
    return sum(
        is_success(Counter(hand_tuple), successes_ref)
        for hand_tuple in combinations(deck, n_cards_in_hand)
    )

def total_hands(deck, n_cards_in_hand):
    return comb(len(deck), n_cards_in_hand)


text:
Does a player have the right to play two instants back-to-back uninterrupted?
Suppose it is my main phase, the stack is empty, I have 2 playable instant cards in my hand and my opponent has one. I cast my first instant card and it goes on the stack.
According to this flowchart I found online, I would retain priority and have the right to cast my second instant. However, from my experience playing on Magic the Gathering Arena, whenever I cast a spell, my opponent is instead the one who has the right to cast their next instant -- I'm unable to cast two instants in a row without the possibility of being interrupted.
Which of the two behaviours is correct? After casting an instant, who has the right to cast the next instant?

For Arena specifically, you need to be in full control mode (press Ctrl or Shift+Ctrl to lock full control) to retain priority.

The player with priority retains it until they pass it - they can add as many spells or abilities to the stack as they wish. After casting one instant, a player may retain priority and cast their second instant before any other player can put a spell on the stack.
From the rules:

117.3c If a player has priority when they cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action, that player receives priority
afterward.

As pointed out in the comments, it is typically assumed that a player is passing priority after casting a spell unless they explicitly state otherwise, so you would need to take a positive action to retain priority in a tournament, even though you'd technically keep it by default. This is an often-used tournament shortcut, where casting a spell is usually treated as casting and passing priority, so you'd need to explicity state that you don't want to take the shortcut of passing priority and instead want to keep it, and do so at the time of casting.
Most computer versions of Magic mimic this, as it's not too common for a player to retain priority, and it would add extra time to the game as each player would explicitly have to pass priority after casting every spell. I believe some versions have a setting where this can be changed to retain priority by default, but the default is usually to pass priority after casting a spell.

You might want to clarify "a player may retain priority" - by default (as per the rule you quoted), a player retains priority after acting, however in a tournament scenario, players are assumed to be passing priority unless they specify that they want to retain it. I'm not familiar with any MtG program, but this might very well be the reason for such implementation, which in turn may not be false (of course, in this case, there would have to be a reason for the player to indicate that they wish to retain priority).

"I believe some versions have a setting where this can be changed to retain priority by default" This is in fact the case. You hold down the Ctrl key. https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/8v9m9t/how_do_i_hold_priority/


text:
Haste creature under The Akroan War chapter 2 ability
My opponent plays The Akroan War, then on his next turn the chapter 2 ability triggers.

If I play a creature with haste, does the effect created by the chapter 2 ability apply to that creature? i.e. does that creature have to attack?

Good reason to wait until your second main phase to play that creature with haste.

@BradC The scenario for my question was I was facing a Gruul deck with my Izzet Phoenix deck in Pioneer, and my Arclight Phoenix would be resurrected at beginning of combat, so sadly I couldn't do that :(

Unless you can tap him for somethin before attackers are declared yes.

Yes
The other answers are good, but to provide the comprehensive rules that explain it:

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

This particular continuous effect does not modify characteristics or change controllers of objects, so it falls into the second category, and it will effect objects that weren't around at the time it was created. Notably, "must attack if able" is not a characteristic:

109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, defense, hand modifier, and life modifier

Yes
Here is the relevant ruling on gatherer:

If a creature can't attack for any reason (such as being tapped or having come under that player's control that turn), then it doesn't attack. If there's a cost associated with having it attack, the player isn't forced to pay that cost, so it doesn't have to attack in that case either.

So this effect applies at the declare attackers step, not when the second lore counter is removed.  This is the same way that Fumiko, Kardur, and angler turtle work.

Yes,
The Akroan War's second chapter ability is worded the same as Kardur, Doomscourge's ETB ability:

When Kardur, Doomscourge enters the battlefield, until your next turn, creatures your opponents control attack each combat if able and attack a player other than you if able.

He has this ruling:

Kardur’s first ability affects all creatures your opponents control, including any that enter the battlefield after the ability resolves.


text:
Phase 10 skip card 2 player
When playing phase 10 with 2 players.  Player one goes out and discards the skip, does player two get to play the run in their hands for the phase they’re on or do they have to take the points for not laying down their hand their last turn before they were skipped?

The question isn’t clear… why would player 2 have the needed run in their hand; why wouldn’t they have played it when they drew it?

You seem to have a few things mixed up about the rules. The answer to the question is “no”, but it has nothing to do with the skip card. The round ends when a player goes out, either by discarding their last card or by hitting on an existing phase to get rid of their last card. When player 1 went out, the round was over, and player 2 does not get a turn. It is irrelevant if the last card discarded was a Skip card or not.
In addition to that, player 2 should not have been holding cards they could have played. If they had what they needed for their phase in their hand, then they would have played it on their previous turn. If they don’t have the required cards for their phase, then they wouldn’t be allowed to lay down any cards even if they did get another turn. You have to complete your phase before you can lay down any other cards.

In addition to that, player 2 should not have been holding cards they could have played. -  While this is generally good advice, it isn't always true. It sometimes makes sense to keep a phase in hand until you can get rid of all cards in one go.

@Aaganrmu Can you explain? I know such a thing is true in other sort-of similar games like Canasta, but what reason would there ever be for not completing a phase as soon as you can? It's a big risk and is there any potential reward?

If I am am only missing a 2 and 9 to complete a 10-card run, but have a Wild card - there are two cards I can pull that will allow me to go out and my opponent(s) probably don't know that. If I complete the phase, I have to choose where to put the Wild card and no longer have two options, my opponents know what I need AND I become a target for skip cards. It will then take longer for me to go out and finish the round, giving the others more time to complete their phase.

@Aaganrmu Ah ok, thanks. While that does generally make sense, I'd still think it would be too big a risk most of the time, considering the main object of the game is to simply complete phases. But if my opponent were on phase 10 and I wasn't yet, then I would do that, because the most important thing is now to stop my opponent from making his phase. But pretty much any other time I'd prioritize just making my phase.


text:
What is classified as a "spell"?
I'm curious to understand the specifics behind cards like Clarion Spirit where it states:

Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.

Does playing that card count as the first spell? I know playing non-lands from the hand are spells, but what about things like Activated Abilities?
For example, what is the outcome of playing the Clarion Spirit, then upgrading my Paladin Class from Level 1 to Level 2; is that enough to trigger the creation of a Spirit Token?
This seems to indicate that a spell is something that uses the stack:

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.

And activated abilities use the stack:

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

Which is then backed up by:

602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i.

But at the same time they're in their own section of the rules.
So what is a spell? Is an activated ability a spell?

related (not a duplicate): https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/24327/is-an-artifact-paid-ability-considered-a-spell

"602.2b...activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell..." indicates that an ability is different to a spell, only that they share some of their activating/casting process.

No, an ability is not a spell or vice versa. The fact that both use the stack is incidental.
The defining feature of a spell is not that it's on the stack, but that it's a card on the stack.

112.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, “Casting Spells”), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner’s hand. (See rule 405, “Stack.”) [..]

Some effects let you copy a card and cast it. Those also result in a spell even though it has no card associated with the spell itself. However, these effects are rare and have specific wording that you can't confuse with a simple activated ability. Most of these cards let you copy and cast cards.

112.1b Some effects allow a player to cast a copy of a card; if the player does, that copy is a spell as well. See rule 707.12.

An ability (activated or otherwise) is also on the stack, but it's never a card, only an object without a card representing it. You also never cast an activated ability: there is always another object involved which has the activatable  ability on it.

113.1c An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. (See section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”)

I found the specific words: 602.2a "...That ability is created on the stack as an object that’s not a card." Thank you!

With Magic, you have to be very careful about your terminology.  Not only what Hackworth says in his (very correct) answer, but also what "play a" means.  For instance, what you actually said in your second paragraph:

Does playing that card count as the first spell?

is true (okay, if being completely correct, you "cast" spells, you "play" lands, so "Does casting that card count as the first spell?").  If you cast Clarion Spirit as your first spell of a turn (and it resolves), and then cast another spell, Clarion Spirit's ability will trigger.
Note (as the Gatherer ruling states) if you cast a spell, and then cast Clarion Spirit (and it resolves), the trigger will not happen, because the creature was not on the battlefield at cast time, when the trigger would happen.
But as Hackworth says, triggered abilities are not spells.  Activating activated abilities is not casting a spell.

Re "if being completely correct, you "cast" spells,", To play something is to cast it as a spell or to play it as a land. It's 100% correct to say "play a spell". For example, Prophetic Flamespeaker has "Whenever Prophetic Flamespeaker deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn."

That said, it's clearer to say "cast a spell" if you know it's a spell, and current templating requires this on cards. For example, Bog-Strider Ash was rewritten to "Whenever a player casts a Goblin spell, you may pay {G}. If you do, you gain 2 life."


text:
Perplexing Chimera leaves battlefield
How works Perplexing Chimera when its ability is on the stack but, before it's resolved, Chimera leaves battlefield?
For example.
Perplexing Chimera is already in control of my opponent. Then I cast something like Drown in Shapelessness and target it. Then Chimera's ability would activate and put on the stack, exchanging control of this instant and Chimera. Before it is resolved, I could use another Drown in Shapelessness on it. It would not be wise for my opponent to not activate the ability again to return another creature of mine to my library, then I would gain control of Chimera and my opponent would return another creature of mine to my library.
But I can't think of a properly example and I ask: if my opponent doesn't activate the ability on the second instant, then Chimera would return to my library (because I am its owner). What would happen then to the ability of Chimera that is next on the stack?

If Perplexing Chimera is not on the battlefield as its ability resolves, the ability does nothing.
Rule 701.10a says

701.10a A spell or ability may instruct players to exchange something (for example, life totals or control of two permanents) as part of its resolution. When such a spell or ability resolves, if the entire exchange can’t be completed, no part of the exchange occurs.

Example: If a spell attempts to exchange control of two target creatures but one of those creatures is destroyed before the spell resolves, the spell does nothing to the other creature.

Official rulings for cards can be found on gatherer.wizards.com.  Your question is answered in the rulings for the card, found here.

If Perplexing Chimera leaves the battlefield or the spell leaves the stack before the triggered ability resolves, you can't make the exchange.

So if Chimera leaves, it's ability won't work and the first spell will go through.


text:
How does keeper of the shrine work?
I play keeper of the shrine. It states that it counts as two tributes for a dragon type monster. Would it then be able to special summon a red eyes b dragon from my hand?

Tribute summons are not Special summons, and nothing on the card suggests it could do anything different except count 2-for-1 for a Dragon-type.

The first effect on Keeper of the Shrine allows you to summon a level 7 or higher dragon type monster by using only Keeper of the Shrine as a tribute.
Except in the case of Victory Dragon which requires Keeper of the Shrine and one more tribute.
The second allows you to special summon Keeper of the Shrine from either your hand or graveyard if a different Dragon type monster is sent to the Graveyard.
If the monster sent to the Graveyard is also a Normal type monster you can then additionally return 1 Dragon / Normal type monster from the Graveyard to your hand.
Generally special summoning doesn't require tributes, and Keeper of the Shrine will only allow you to special summon Keeper of the Shrine.

I'm deleting the comments here. Thanks for fixing the formatting; this is in line with Stack Exchange standards. Whether we can/should have exceptions here on Boardgames.SE can be discussed on our own [meta] if necessary.


text:
Can I go down to half a life point in Yu-Gi-Oh?
My son plays Yu-Gi-Oh regularly he wants to know can he go down to half a life point?If he has 1 life point,plays solemn judgement, so pays half his life points to negate the spell it would take him down to half a life point.Can he do this?He's asked a few people at his local Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments but nobody was that sure. Thank you for your help

Hello Amanda, Welcome to Board and Card Games. I see that the question I linked above answers your question. Basically it's halved, and then rounded up so... it will be 1LP --> 0.5 LP --> round up --> 1LP ... lol... according to those rulings

I think this is neither a duplicate (it is, rather, a specific case of a general question asked, which is common on this site).  And this particular case has several extra wrinkles that are not in general applicable (and therefore are specifically not answered in the "marked duplicate") - are you even allowed to do this? - Is there a reason to; are there situations where you don't immediately lose to 0 LP?  My full reasons for considering reopen are https://boardgames.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2097/recent-yu-gi-oh-questions-reaction-seems-overcritical .

I don't see how this question is not answered by the one it was marked a duplicate of. In this case the player never goes down to 0 life and they will stay at 1 life because it is rounded up after losing half.

I suppose the follow up question would be: when paying a half-life point, does the payment get rounded up?


text:
Pegging Quadruple (Four of a Kind) After Go
Does a quadruple pegged after a "go" count for 12 points?  My neighbor and I had this unusual situation and we're not sure if we scored it correctly.
Player A led with a 10.
Player B played a 5 and pegged two points for the 15 combo.
Player A played a 5 and pegged two points for the pair (20 cumulative pts.).
Player B played another 5 and pegged six points for the three of a kind (25 cumulative pts.).
So far so good.  The next part is where we're confused.
Player A then called "go."
Player B played the fourth 5 and pegged 12 points for the quadruple, plus a point for the "go."
Is that correct?  Does player B get six points for the three of a kind then an additional 12 for the quadruple?  Is that a kind of double counting?
Thanks,
David

Yes: the "go" isn't a go until neither player can play another card to the current running count.

As I understand it (and as I've seen it scored in two different online Cribbage game sites) whatever score is due from cards played after "Go" is scored in addition to anything scored with the card that prompted the "Go".
Got a 4-run totaling 27, and a "Go"?  If you can play the fifth card in the run, you get the 5, plus either one for last card or two for 31 (as appropriate).  Same for 3 and 4 of a kind.


text:
I want to meld and pick the pack .. there is a seven on top of pack I have two sevens and a outside triple .. can I pick pack for seven?
Can I pick pack for 7 ? I have 125 points and clean triple . This is my initial held . Or must I have 3 7? This is canasta

You only need 2 natural cards matching the top of the discard pile to pick up the pile; not 3. As long as your meld is enough points to meet the minimum, you can do this.
The 3 sevens are only 15 points, so your other triple would have to be aces in order for the total to reach the minimum 50 points. (if it is 8-K then that’s only 45 points).

When the discard pile is topped by a wild card or a black three, at least one natural card must be discarded on top of the pile before the pile may be taken. Then, a player may take that card (and the pile) only with a natural pair of the same rank from their hand. Before touching the discard pile, the player should show the pair (together with any additional cards if needed to meet the minimum count of an initial meld).

https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/canasta/


text:
Illegal Knight vs Number 59 Crooked Cook
I just want to know this because I don't think it works.
The effect of Illegal Knight has you target up to 2 cards your opponent controls and summon it to their field and if you did bounce it back to their hand, so if I have Number 59 Crooked Cook on the field would the effect of Illegal Knight to summon on my field and then bounce it back work. I know it will still summon to my field but will it stil bounce my card?

The ability of Number 59 Crooked Cook has the requirement that it's controller has no other cards on the field, which means that Illegal Knight transferring control deactivates it's protection from other cards' effects.
When resolving effects with multiple steps you re-evaluate the board at each point which means Illegal Knight will return Number 59 Crooked Cook to your hand.
Unfortunately because this happens in the middle of resolving Illegal Knight's ability you cannot activate Number 59 Crooked Cook's (Quick Effect) to destroy Illegal Knight.


text:
Bloodstone and other omen cards usage
We were playing Widow’s walk last night and happened to start haunt 59 which is the Fleshchild one. Since we had no monster, but one of us became a traitor, he kept his omen/item cards and started hunting us. We had a case where in a combat, the traitor attacked one of the players and after both rolled, they attempted to use the bloodstone card. Nowhere in the rules is explained, can they be used after both players in the combat rolled their dices? When is the combat declared finished? Its just stated “once per turn”, but can such cards be used after the opponent attempted a roll or it should be after the card holder roll?

The Bloodstone Omen Card says:

Once per turn, you may lose 1 from any trait to add 2 dice (maximum of 8 dice) to your trait roll.

An Attack (or Defense) roll is not considered a Trait Roll. The traitor would not be able to use this card to buff their attack. Trait Rolls are explained in more detail on page 13 of the 2nd Edition Rulebook.

Trait Rolls: Sometimes a card, room tile, or haunt tells you to attempt a roll based on one of the explorer's traits (Might, Speed, Knowledge, or Sanity). When that happens, roll dice equal to the number your explorer currently has in that trait... An attack roll isn't a trait roll, even though it involves Might or some other trait.

A Trait Roll would be if a room card tells you to make a Might/Speed/Sanity/Knowledge roll, the haunt tells you to make a sanity roll to do XYZ (besides attacking), or if a room tile has some sort of trait specific text (such as the Collapsed Room tile where it asks you to make a Speed Roll).
In short, if you are attacking another player, or defending against an attack of some kind where another player is rolling dice against you, this is not considered a Trait Roll.

Thanks for the clarification! However, if we presume that he was not a traitor, can he use the Bloodstone after the opponent rolled their dice for defense/attack?

No, regardless if the person holding The Bloodstone is the Traitor or not - an Attack or Defense roll is not considered a Trait Roll which is what the Bloodstone would need to trigger its ability.

It is worth emphasizing that if it happens to be that a traitor happens to make a trait roll (for example, if the traitor needs to make a knowledge check for some haunt related action) they may indeed use the bloodstone's effect.  Most trait rolls however would have occurred as a part of an event or tile effect and per the rules the traitor may choose to completely ignore such effects.


text:
What does proper/improper stroke mean in the ICF rules?
The International Carrom Federation (ICF) rules make a lot of references to these, for example:

If a player pockets the C/M of his opponent by an improper stroke, the C/M so pocketed shall be deemed to have been pocketed. The Due shall be taken out for placing by the opponent and the player shall lose his turn.

Or

If a player pockets the Striker with the C/m of his opponent by a proper stroke, the C/m so pocketed shall be
deemed to have been pocketed.

In the Interpretations section, the Laws state:

“Proper” shall mean in accordance with the Laws, while “Improper” shall mean contrary to the Laws.

However, this is pretty vague in itself. Can someone exactly define what it means to have a proper/improper stroke?

Proper and improper in this case just mean the stroke was following all the other rules (proper) or breaks one of the other rules (improper)
For example

The Striker shall be struck and not pushed.

Assuming all other rules were also followed, proper would mean this rule has been followed and the striker was struck, improper would mean that the striker was pushed.


text:
Looking for the name of a little known solitaire card game
My aunt taught me this form of solitaire game, she was from the west coast state of Washington and taught it to me some 40 yrs ago. Here are the rules:
Single player,
Single deck,
No jokers,
Shuffle deck.
If matching card is not side by side you have to have 2 spaces between to match.
The object of the game is to get all the cards back into a pile going from right to left (in this case the k❤ would be the bottom card in the deck).
Lay out 4 cards side by side and look for a match either in number or suit. Going in a backwards direction match the last card with the next available match. So say you put down k❤,10♦,6♣,6♠. You can match and put the 6♠ on top of the 6♣. You can't go on so now starting with one card at a time put the next card at the end say it's a Q❤ for example. You can take that Q❤ and put it on the k❤ because there are 2 spaces. For example if it was a Q♦ you would have to leave it as the last card in line because there is only one space btwn Q♦ and 10♦. Put down next card say it's a 2♦ now you have choice to either put it on the 10♦ because has 2 places OR put it on top of the Q♦, but per the object of the game it's best to put it on top of the 10♦. Your row of cards would look like this, k❤,2♦,6♠, Q♦, now put next card down..... And so on. Keep going till the end of the deck in your hand. It's not easy to win I've only done it maybe 3 or 4 times.
Hope that made all made sense

I'd really like to know the name to see if I could play it in an app online, if it even exists that is. Thank you to everyone who's viewed my post so far

This is Accordion patience.  There are a few variants around, such as whether you are obliged to make a move if one is available or whether a move can be deferred until a later time or, to give another rule variant, in the case that a move is available to both an adjacent pile or the separated pile whether one of the moves is forced.

Oh! Thank you so much for the name, I love playing this form of solitaire! I've played it for close to 40 yrs never knowing it's name, LOL. Now to go search the play store to see if it's out there in an app thanks again!


text:
In Pokemon, what is a V card?
So for my birthday, my father got me a new Pokemon card set that you can get at Walmart. The card set he got me was a Venisaur V, but I don't necessarily know what the V means. Is it a better version of GX and EX?

Yes, Pokémon V are the current (Sword and Shield block) two prizer mechanic, which are cards that are very powerful and as a result give the opponent two prizes instead of one when they are knocked out.  Pokémon VMAX are even bigger, giving 3 prizes and having more hit points, and evolve from Pokémon V.  Pokémon VStar also evolve from Pokémon V, give two prizes, and have a special power (ability or attack) that you can use one total per game (similar to GX attacks).  Pokémon V-Union are special Pokémon that require four cards to make, and can be created once per game, and have multiple abilities and attacks typically.
Note, the term "Pokémon V" in most cases refers to Pokémon V, Pokémon VMAX, Pokémon V-Union, and Pokémon VStar, unless it is talking about a specific Pokémon (so "Rayquaza V" is only the V, not the VMax).
When the first full set next year comes out, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, that will begin a new block with a new mechanic - which is actually an old mechanic;  Pokémon ex (not the same as Pokémon EX) - but along the same basic lines.  It is a repeat of an older mechanic, and may or may not share the same characteristics.

Is the letter V an acronym for the pokemon cards?

The "V" doesn't really mean anything... it's just a letter that sounds important and big.  There's no specific meaning for it.

Oh, well, okay. V of all letters? Their choice. Thanks.


text:
Phase 10 skip cards
Four people are playing Phase 10. Player 1 skips player 3. Player 2 takes their turn. Player 3 skips turn. Can player 4 pick up discard card played by player 2?

Yes, player 4 can draw from the discard pile.
While the Skip card itself is not able to be drawn from the discard pile, there is no rule preventing a player from drawing the top discard card if discarded by players other than the previous in turn order.


text:
When copying a creature with Prototype, does it retain the prototyped stat line?
For example, if you have a Phyrexian Fleshgorger prototyped on the battlefield, would casting Cackling Counterpart, targeting the fleshgorger, create a 3/3 or a 7/5?

In this case, you would create a 3/3.
Per the Brother's War Comprehensive Rules Changes article,

When you copy a prototyped spell or permanent, the copy is also prototyped.

Rule 719 (which handles prototype cards) says the same:

719.3d If a permanent that was a prototyped spell is copied, the copy has the alternative power, toughness, and mana cost characteristics of the permanent and not the normal power and toughness characteristics of the card that represents that permanent.


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How to learn a deck's strategy and tricks?
The very short version: How do I learn how different decks are supposed to be put to best use?
The longer version...
I am new to Magic. I know the rules and play via MTG Arena. (I don't know anyone who I can play with in person, and I'm not interested in travelling for that - that's fine.) Now I'd like to learn different techniques by playing different decks - but it's not obvious how.
For example, Arena presents me with various starter decks, but it's not at all obvious how I should best put each one to use. To make things more difficult (as a more specific example) Arena has given me a mono-blue Aerial Domination in "My Decks" and an Aerial Domination in "Starter Decks" - but each one has different cards, including quite different mana curves. And then when I watch Hello Good Game's video of Aerial Domination he's playing with yet another combination of cards. Presumably they all have a slightly different strategy and different tricks. I'd like to learn those.
I've learned a lot from Tolarian Tutor, including general approaches such as aggro and control. That's great, but it's quite general.
Presumably when someone assembles a specific deck with specific cards (and certainly when Wizards assembles a deck and puts it in Arena) they have a strategy - an idea about how to best use it - and they include and reject certain cards accordingly. I can see plenty of decks online, but they never have a specific explanation of how it should be best used. Ideally I'd see reference to specific cards, timing, attack strategies, etc. If they did then I'd learn a lot more.
Any help with learning techniques from particular decks would be very welcome.

Obligatory link at this point: Level One by Reid Duke. Yes, it's 7 years old. No, it doesn't really matter.

Thank you for the reminder. I have started reading that, and should continue, but forgot to mention it. Thanks for including the link.

In general, the way to learn how to win with a specific deck is to learn general, deck-agnostic Magic strategy, and then figure out how the specific deck fits into that framework.
The most important question you can ask about a deck is "What is the deck's plan to win the game?" The answer can be fairly simple: for aggro, it is generally "attack with creatures early to reduce the opponent's life total to 0", for control it is generally "disrupt the opponent's game plan until you can land a big threat unopposed", and for combo it is generally "assemble the combo and execute it".
When evaluating a specific deck, you can look at what cards it has to determine what plans it has the ability to execute, and then use that to determine what high-level strategies to employ. Then you can refine that understanding by actually playing with that deck and seeing how the strategies work in practice.
Consider for example the Aerial Domination Starter Deck Upgrade decklist linked from the video linked in the question. One of the primary focuses of the deck is card advantage: 18 of the deck's 36 nonland cards have card draw effects, and 2 of the 24 lands have seek effects. Shore Up, Slip out the Back, and Fading Hope can be used to blank removal, and Fading Hope can also be used to bounce opposing creatures for tempo. All three of those also synergize with Stormchaser Drake's card draw effect, along with Combat Research and Essence Capture. Faerie Vandal synergizes very well with all of the card draw effects, and with the density of card draw in the deck it can easily get that value even if played later in the game. The creatures in the deck are quite low to the ground, with 4 1-drops and 8 2-drops, and no creature with more than 3 power. Overall, the deck seems fairly aggressive, with most of the strategy focusing on attacking with small creatures and using card advantage to find them consistently.

Thanks, that's helpful. It's not the answer I was hoping for, but I guess it may actually be the correct one! (The answer I was hoping for was something like "here's a place which shows people's decks and their plan to win the game. But maybe that doesn't happen.)


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Why Ninjutsu doesn't trigger targeted ability
I added a Stormchaser Drake to my ninjutsu deck hoping to get some free card draw. This did not work.
I'm assuming it is either the ninjutsu resolves before the creature gets to do the triggered card draw or the cost of returning an unblocked creature does not actually target the returning creature with the ninjutsu creature spell.
What is the relevant rule for why it did not work?

https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/43995/which-spells-or-abilities-are-affected-by-things-that-care-about-targeting

Stormchaser Drake only triggers on being targeted by a spell. Ninjutsu is neither a spell, nor does it target anything.
First, Stormchaser Drake only triggers when it is targeted by a spell. Being targeted has a defined meaning in Magic. If a spell or ability does not have the word "target" in its text somewhere, it does not target anything (except aura spells, which always target something) and can't trigger Stormchaser Drake.

115.1a An instant or sorcery spell is targeted if its spell ability identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.

Ninjutsu does not have the word "target" in its text, so it doesn't target the creature it returns.

702.49a [..] “Ninjutsu [cost]” means “[Cost], Reveal this card from your hand, Return an unblocked attacking creature you control to its owner’s hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.”

Second, Stormchaser Drake only triggers when it is targeted by a spell, but Ninjutsu is an ability. You activate it from your hand superficially similar to a spell, but that doesn't make it a spell.

112.1. A spell is a card on the stack. [..]

702.49a Ninjutsu is an activated ability that functions only while the card with ninjutsu is in a player’s hand. [..]

That makes sense, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I've seen people use the Colossal Skyturtle's bounce to bypass similar effects.

It might be worth emphasizing that not only is the creature on the battlefield not the target of the Ninjutsu ability, but that returning it is actually part of the cost of activating the ability.

@murgatroid99 true, targetting is never part of paying a cost. Though that's only relevant for this particular creature. If the creature was e.g. Alpine Guide, it would trigger when ninjutsu'd.

@Warcupine Colossal Skyturtle is targeted, ninjutsu is not - the important part about determining if a spell or ability is targeted is if the text (or rules) for that ability include the word target. Also the bouncing is part of the cost of ninjutsu not the effect, it's on the left side of the colon.

@Hackworth Auras are one of the rare examples where the word target is there but not printed on the card because it exists in the rules definition for a keyword (in this case "Enchant" defined in rule 702.5)

@Andrew which is why I mentioned it in the answer.


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I opened 1 Heart & my partner promptly responded 2 NT. How many points does my partner have & what is the shape of his hand?
I opened 1 Heart & my partner promptly responded 2 NT.  How many points does my partner have & what is the shape of his hand?

As with any bidding question, this depends on your partnership agreements. Without discussion, in the US I'd assume this is Jacoby 2NT (see for example the Standard American Yellow Card booklet). Partner shows four hearts and game-forcing values.
With a good five-card side suit, bid it at the 4 level. Otherwise, with a short suit (singleton or void), bid it at the 3 level. Otherwise, with a minimum bid 4H, with some extras (15-17) bid 3NT, or with significant extras (18+) bid 3H.

Just to outline various alternatives: most experts play other variants of Jacoby 2N with a more complicated set of responses and or a lower minimum strength (but usually still 4+ hearts) for responder.  Some players, mostly novices who haven't learned Jacoby 2N but also some experts who prefer alternatives to Jacoby 2N, play 2N as showing a balanced hand, either agreed to be invitational (about 10-12) or agreed to be game forcing (12+ or so) or agreed to be stronger (15+ or so - this is sometimes called Baron).  There are yet other more exotic alternative agreements.

ruds did'nt answer but Alexander Woo answered my question.  I have since found the answer online.  The partners MUST agree beforehand what responses are to be & their point range, but there are 2 possibilities:  either partner has 8-9 points & a flat hand OR partner has 6 clubs & expects the No Trump (NT) partner to rebid 6 Clubs depending of whether NT partner has the low end or high end of the range of previously agreed to points to open 1 NT.  Either way, if NT opener has 15 points, he/she passes.  If points at high end, NT opener bids 3 NT.  That is what I have read recently online.

@MISTERG2u what you've just described would be true if you'd opened 1NT. But your question specified that you opened 1H. 1NT has completely different responses than 1H does.

You're right ruds.  Sorry.  I have no idea where I misread my own question.  People where I play bridge are using a jump from their partner's bid of 1 of a suit, thereby jumping to 2 NT.  I think it means they have 10-11 pts, maybe 12 pts but I guess I should ask them next time.  Seems like it is always my left hand opponent doing the jump to 2 NT so I am not allowed to ask the opponent on my left (or right) & my partner does not ask so I can not.

After an opening of 1C or 1D, a jump to 2NT tends to be balanced and invitational without a 4-card major. After 1H or 1S, a jump to 2NT is usually game forcing with 4-card or better support. As far as I know, these agreements are common in most places in the world, but they are certainly the standard agreements in the United States.
Note: When it is your turn to bid or play, you may always ask an opponent about their agreements, and in particular you may ask an opponent what their partner's bid meant. You are not restricted to asking immediately after the bid.

The partners MUST agree beforehand what responses are to be & their point range, but there are 2 possibilities:  either partner has 8-9 pts & a flat hand OR partner has 6 clubs & expects the No Trump (NT) partner to rebid 3 Clubs depending of whether NT partner has the low end or high end of the range of previously agreed to pts to open 1 NT.    If responder has 10-13 pts, responder goes to 3NT Either way, if NT opener has 15 points, he/she passes.  If pts at high end, NT opener bids 3 NT. I have read this  online recently.

This is for a 1N opening, not a 1H opening.  (And - in my partnership that plays a 10-12 1N opening, 2N shows either clubs or an invitational hand with a 6 card suit other than clubs - in my partnership that plays a 12-14 1N opening, it shows an invitational hand (meaning very good 11 up to an average 12) - in partnerships that play a 15-17 NT opening (and I have no such partnerships right now), I prefer 2N to show diamonds or both minors.)


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Blackjack: do casinos have to use full decks?
In blackjack, with the assumption of a six-deck shoe, does the casino have to use six true decks of cards (i.e all the cards have equal probability at the start, there are only (52x6)! possible shuffles) or can they just use 52x6 cards drawn randomly from a much larger pool (whereby they are picking an assortment with the same number of cards as six decks, but for example can have 10 Ace of clubs cards instead of 6)

Casinos where? Countries are very different.

The phrase "only (52x6)!" is hilarious due to the word "only".

If I understand the game correctly (I might not), while the suits don't matter, the values do. If you just randomly select 52x6=312 cards from a larger batch, you are not going to necessarily get the right mix of values. So if I am a customer and I see the dealer deal out 25 Aces in a row, I am going to get mighty suspicious...

I think this is primarily a legal question, and almost certainly dependent on jurisdiction. I think you would get better answers on Law.SE (though you would also need more information i.e. where this casino is located). It's possible that there's some kind of international organization that defines "standard" Blackjack, but whether casinos are forced to follow that standard depends on law (and enforcement).

"have to use" as in do they have a legal obligation? If that's the meaning it probably more suited to Law SE, otherwise it needs to be clarified what the question means. Moral/ethical obligation? Equipment availability? What do you mean?

If they use a continuous shuffling machine the number cards may be pretty irrelevant.

I don't think there is a legal question here, I would expect this is just house rules of the casino. So you can ask a particular casino and they should explain to you the rules of the game they offer. This may include an exact list of the cards used for blackjack but it may also just say the casino uses whatever cards they feel like. Your choice to play with these rules or not.

From the math side of things, the value of the first card drawn as compared to the value of the second card drawn, these will be dependent events in the case of a 1-deck shoe or a 6-deck shoe or any other finite number of cards in the card pool.  The more decks used in the shoe, the closer to independent events these become, however with an infinite-shoe they will truly be independent events.  Does it matter in the end?  Not much, but yes it does.  Just because the same list of outcomes are possible does not make the outcomes equally likely in each scenario.

As per manassehkatz's comment, you can see the dependence of these events by noting that with a six-deck shoe if we had seen 24 aces pulled in a row we should be able to reasonably conclude that the 25'th card can not possibly be an ace.  With an infinite shoe, after seeing 24 aces in a row, the chance the next card is an ace again will still be 1/13 just as always.


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Yu-Gi-Oh! cards errata's release dates
Is there a way to know exactly when a card has received an erratum?
There are some websites like yugipedia or yugioh wiki that collect card errata showing the first edition reprinted after a certain error, but the release date of those reprints isn't necessarily the date since the erratum is valid.
Cards like Firewall Dragon were reprinted some time after the last error and others like Darkness Approaches have never been reprinted since the last erratum.

"but the release date of those reprints isn't necessarily the date since the erratum is valid." - why not? why so sure got an example on why those sites may not be correct?... I was about to suggest the erratum at the bottom of yugioh wiki but seems that such place is not sufficient for you

https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Errata lists all errata... which ones you think are missing? I see https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Card_Errata:Firewall_Dragon missing...

@DarkCygnus I never stated those sites were incorrect. They are a great source of information and they have almost everything I want to know for a personal little project.
One of the very few missing things is the application date of a certain errata. They show an image of the first reprint after the errata but sometimes the release date of that reprint and the date of the errata application just doesn't match.
So here I am asking for some other source I could've missed

@DarkCygnus Errata usually apply immediately when it is created, as soon as the issue with cards is noticed, in most cases it takes a while between an erratum being applied to a card and new copies being planned and printed into new sets. The erratum is almost always in place well before the release date of a reprint. Most of the time the dates aren't really tracked, since it rarely matters when (some people have played games with specific time point rules and cards, so the question may be about if they should play with the pre erratum text)

Is there a way to know exactly when a card has received an erratum?

You mentioned sites and wikis, and the one I find useful many many times is yugioh.fandom.com (https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Errata). Although I see that such page does not list Firewall Dragon for example (it's a wiki updated by nice folks giving free time anyways :).
I fear that it seems that such sites and wikis are the best option, as I browsed Konami's page and it read "last updated 2016"... so even though they are the "canonical" source it seems they don't have the time (or don't care) about a complete list of errata...
May I suggest that if you see a card missing on those sites you could suggest and edit or include it perhaps? That way the site keeps updated and being useful.

Yeah I think waht you describe is the situation here in the TCG.
By doing a looot of research I finally found the official OCG website that collect all the errata with the application dates.
Are the errata application dates the same to OCG and TCG?

@SteDeus Almost certain not, as most errata in the TCG have been issued to correct unsuitable translations.

@user10478 I see, thank you for the information! ^^

@SteDeus yep, TCG and OCG are two different games each with its own banlist, names, etc.. there are translation considerations between Japanese and English


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Alternate spellings in Scrabble
A question about alternate spellings of accepted Scrabble words: For example, "aby" (to endure or abide) can also be spelled "abye." Supposing I place the tiles for "aby" on 1 turn and then add an "e" on a subsequent turn. Do I get full credit on both turns?

Welcome to Board & Card Games Stack Exchange!  This is a nicely answerable first question, but do be sure to take our [tour] and read through the [FAQ] to better understand how Stack Exchange sites work.

Presuming both spellings appear in the agreed authority (in case of a challenge), your example would be scored the same way as adding "s" to make a plural or present tense from a previously played word: you score full points including bonuses (doubles and triples) for all tiles played in the current turn, plus full tile value for previously played tiles you've reused (but without any doubles or triples, aside from "word" bonuses for the space the shared tile occupies, which apply to both horizontal and vertical words formed with that tile).

Both words do appear in (United States and Canada) Hasbro's Is Your Word An Official Scrabble One?

@WeatherVane Okay, I was giving the full case -- obviously, if you do this and the alternate spelling you create doesn't appear in the agreed authority (say, Oxford English Dictionary, some specified edition -- or a particular edition of an official Scrabble dictionary, even), a challenge will result in loss of the turn.  But I have no idea whether obscure words like those are in any particular authority.

I was the upper, because you answered the question about scoring. Neither word appears in the online Cambridge Dictionary and nor do they mean anything to me. In my family, we agree to refer to the old-fashioned dictionary book that we like, to arbitrate.

@WeatherVane My Grandma, who taught me to play the game, always had a fairly thick Merriam-Webster on hand during her games with her best friend.  Doesn't much matter what book you like to use, as long as you agree which before the game.

@ZeissIkon: One caveat - do not under any circumstances use the 1928 (or subsequent) O.E.D. Virtually everything pronounceable is in it, so nearly all challenges automatically fail. It's use makes for a silly game.

@ForgetIwaseverhere I'll try to keep that in mind...  Not that I know many folks who'll willingly lift it...


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Scrabble question about adding prefix and suffix in single play
"Invest" is on the Scrabble board with spaces before and after. I have "d,e,e, and r" sitting in my tray. Is it legal to add "re" before and "ed" after in a single play, or is that double movement?

Imagine the first play of a game was the word "cookie". The second play used the first o in cookie and played the letters m,n,s,t,e,r to score "monster"
That's basically the same thing you're asking.
That the letters in your question are prefixes and suffixes is irrelevant.
That you are adding to both sides of the word is irrelevant as evidenced by my first example.
I'll come back later with pictures.
It's a legal play.

While I don't disagree with this answer, it is worth noting that the offical Scrabble rules regard "adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board" and "placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board" as separate ways to form new words so I don't think it should be taken as a given that you can do this play because you can do the play in your example.

Full disclosure: I had little doubt as to the validity of my example. However, we occasionally play with a couple who seem to have a tenuous grasp of the rules.  For example, they insist that premium squares count for more than one play. I can picture them challenging my "reinvested" play. Therefore, I wanted some third-party backup in case the situation ever arises. As for the premium squares, my wife tells me: "Play along with them to avoid an argument. You and I will play a game the right way tomorrow night. "

@DouglasKellar Your wife is very wise.

Yes, indeed. Hard to think of a diplomatic way to tell longtime friends that they've been playing the game wrong for many years. Not with us. We've only played with them a couple of times.


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Largest cumulative poker equity swing
I don't know the best way to phrase this question, so I'll apologize in advance if it seems a little confusing. I also don't know if it's more appropriate for poker.se or stats.se (or some other forum- please point me in the right direction if anyone knows a better place). I'm posing it here because the problem doesn't seem computationally viable and the intuition of a board/card gamer might be appropriate.
Assume we have two players, P1 and P2 holding some hole cards and playing Texas Hold-Em. These two pairs have some certain pre-flop equity against each other (representing the probability that each hand will win come showdown.) Without loss of generality, assume we will keep track of P1's equity in our experiment.
After the flop comes, there is some new equity for P1. Similarly after the turn, and after the river. Every combination of cards and runouts has a "total equity swing" which I'll define as
I'm wondering what the largest possible equity swing is across all pairs of hole cards and runouts is.
It's most likely that some one-outer will have to be hit on the river, and something close to a one-outer on the turn (if that even makes sense).

I think there is a typo in the second term of the equation, should be: |flop - turn|

Strategically, let's aim for the worst relative starting position, then flip it completely at every opportunity. This matches the intuition of a one-outer following something close to it.
The best and worst hands respectively are pocket aces against seven-deuce offsuit. All percentages are given for the players in the same order, Player 1 (AA) versus Player 2 (7-2x).
Using the calculator at CardPlayer.com, the initial equity is 87.24% versus 12.40%.
With a flop of both deuces matching the aces and any offsuit three, we are now at 10.51% versus 89.49%.
Turn an ace to make a true rainbow, and it's back to 97.73% versus 2.27%.
Last deuce on the river and you get 0% versus 100% just to rub in the swing of this hand.
That gives equity swings of

76.73% and 77.09% from preflop to flop (Player 2 picks up the preflop tie chance of 0.36%)

87.22% both from flop to turn

97.73% both from turn to river

261.68% and 262.04% in total through the hand, or 523.72% equity swing on this hand.

This was the initial answer I had come to as well, but I'd additionally like to see something more resembling a proof (regardless of if by technical argument or by exhaustion). I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.

I'm sure the choice of suits could be tested for eking out another 0.1%.


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Phase 10- Wild Card use
Are you able to drop wildcard in the discard pile?
A player used this technique to not absorb as many points, as different player was about the phase on their next turn.
It did not seem fair... Valid move or not valid?
&
If a player drops a wildcard in the discard pile, can the next player pick up the wild card so they can win?

Yes, this is allowed. From the rules:

discard any card that you want onto the Discard Pile

A wild on top of the discard pile is the same as any other card, it can be picked up by thr current player:

If turned up at the beginning (to form the Discard pile), the first player to start can pick it up.

Although that rule is about the beginning of a hand, the normal rules about drawing from the discard pile don’t give any indication that the wild is special or different.


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Can roads be built with fish before my turn?
The instruction card for using fish states, “You may immediately build 1 road for free.”  Does this mean I can build the road immediately, or do I need to wait for my turn as stated in the game instructions?

You can only spend fish on your turn. From the rulebook

During your turn, you can discard fish tokens to take certain actions.

The “immediately” on the reminder card doesn’t change this. It just means that you build the road immediately upon spending the fish tokens. It’s an unnecessary clarification, as all the actions you spend fish to do happen “immediately” upon spending the fish.


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Does seazone 12 touch Gibraltar in Axies and Allies
Does Gibraltar touch seazone 12 in Axis and Allies spring 1942?

The red line is the separation line between sea zone 12 and 13.
Krieghund, the developer and Q&A author at axisandallies.org, clarified Gibraltar connects to sea zone 13.

Q: Is Gibraltar connencted to SZ12 or SZ13?
A: 13

They also answered a similar question on boardgamegeek.

Q: Does a ship or plane have to enter the Med before landing on the Rock?
A: Sea zone 12 doesn't connect to Gibraltar


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Can monsters attack multiple players on the monsters turn?
I am playing betrayal house on the hill 3rd edition and a bit confused on how attacking works on the monsters turn.
On Pg 19 it says

Monsters move differently than explorers, At the beginning of the monster turn, roll dice equal to the monster Speed. The result of that roll is the maximum number of tiles that monster can move that turn.

From my understanding, if the speed roll is 4 and there is up to 3 monsters on the board, each of the 3 monsters can move up to 4 tiles. So potentially you may be moving across 12 tiles in that same turn.
However it also says:

Monsters may attack using normal attack rules; see page 15

Normal attack rules state:

You may only attack once per turn.

But in the case of the monsters turn, does that apply to each individual monster or the turn as a whole.
e.g.
OPTION 1: Applies to the turn as a whole
Is it the case that only 1 of the 3 monsters on the board can attack a person.
Option 2: Applies to each individual monster
Is it the case all 3 monsters can attack a person.
If so can multiple monsters attack the same person? I feel like you can kill people rather too quickly like this.

Each monster moves and attacks separately. On page 18, under the How Monsters Work section, it says:

Each monster moves and takes all its actions before the next one[monster] goes.

This means that if a monster is capable, the traitor can attack a single survivor with each monster, possibly killing them. The survivor tome and traitor tome rules could have alternative rules that change what monsters do when they attack, so it does not always mean death. In my experience, if a traitor has multiple monsters running around, they are usually low attack and have a reasonable possibility of being defended against (or taking minimal damage).

The above comes from the 2nd Edition Rulebook, but since it's not noted under the 3rd edition "Important Changes" section, it's assumed to work the same.

Thanks, but the 3rd edition handbook doesn't mention this.

Are you using a different edition

The above is from the 2nd edition. There's no indication that these rules have changed, as there's no mention in the "Important Changes" section at the beginning of the 3rd edition rulebook on Page 5.

That makes sense. Thanks


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Simultaneous sequencing
I was completing two separate sequences, one vertical and one diagonal. I reached the point where one card enabled me to place a marker at the convergence of the two sequences, i.e.: one move gave me the two required sequences to win the game. Does this fall within the rules?

I have constructed your scenario in the following image. You hold the card for the 2❤, represented by a darker blue chip.

If the green player has been unable to block this board state from being formed, you may place a chip on the 2❤ and complete two sequences sharing only one space to win.
This involves a couple of rules:

You may use any one of the spaces from your first SEQUENCE as part of your second.
You cannot remove a marker chip that is already part of a completed SEQUENCE.

There is no rule specifying a single placement may not simultaneously be counted as both your first and second placement.

Thank you James - good of you to reconstruct the play. I appreciate you having taken the time to do so.

@PaddyThomas If you accept this answer, please do check the green check mark by it to indicate so.  It helps keep the site a little cleaner (as well as grants some extra rep to poster and answered).