text:
What does Masquerade do when you have no cards in hand, library or discard?
If you play the card Masquerade, and you have zero cards in hand, library and discard, what happens? I assume the person to your left will still have to pass a card along. Do you have to pass a card from play (potentially the Masquerade itself), or does the player to your left receive nothing, essentially reducing his or her deck by one card?

Out of interest, how did you reach the position of having zero cards in hand, library and discard?
Anyway, the answer is fairly simple, I think.  Consider the following section of the rules, qualifying the action of "draw 5 cards from your deck":

If there still aren't enough cards to draw/reveal, he just
  draws/reveals what he can.

It seems clear that Dominion follows the same rules philosophy as, for instance, Magic the Gathering: if you cannot fully carry out an action, carry out as much of it as you can.
First, you try to draw 2 cards.  You can't, so instead you draw 0 cards.
Next, you try to pass a card left.  You can't, so you don't, though you probably do receive a card from your right.
Next, assuming that you were passed a card, you have the option to trash it.
Simple enough!

I got down to zero cards by having King's Court and Masquerade going to get down to 5 cards in deck, and the other 3 were all actions that had +1 action, so I could play them first.

Laboratory+Forge would also be a really easy way to get rid of everything...

Cool! I didn't doubt that it was possible, I'm always just amused by the funny scenarios that Dominion is capable of creating.  Mark of a good game really!

@thesunneversets is correct. The fact that you can get a card from Masquerade even if you don't have a card to send over is the root of the infamous KC-Goons-Masquerade pin, whereby your opponent's deck is slowly whittled down to nothing and they have zero cards in hand every turn once the pin has begun. There have been lots of discussions about the pin on both BoardGameGeek and DominionStrategy.com's forums.

@user2692 How would King's Court and Masquerade get you down to 5 cards?  You draw 2 cards with a Masquerade, then immediately pass 1.  Then you draw 2 cards again and immediately pass 1.  Then you draw 2 cards again and immediately pass 1.  Once this is done, if you have any actions left (neither Masquerade or King's Court give you additional actions) then you can play other +action cards.  Both Throne Room and King's Court make you play the same action card three times in a row with no other action cards intervening with the possible exception of if you use them on a Golem.

You're forgetting the important last line of Masquerade: "Then you may trash a card from your hand". So Kings Court + Masquerade = trash 3 cards.

@user2692 (Forgot about this topic) Yes, except as long as other players have cards in their hand, you're getting 1 card passed to you.  1 card passed and 1 card trashed is a 0 net card gain/loss.  In other words, you need to get rid of their hand first for KC/Masq to make your own deck smaller or use a different card, such as Chapel.

As thesunneversets said, if you have no cards in hand and in your deck when you play dominion, you do not pass a card, but your opponent still has to. This is the key to the dreaded king's court / masquerade lock.
to quote dominionstrategy.com:

The key lies in trimming your deck down to where you have a four-card hand of King’s Court, King’s Court, Goons, and Masquerade. Playing King’s Court – King’s Court – Goons reduces your opponent to 3 cards; here, playing a (Kinged) Masquerade forces him to pass you a card.  But since you have no more cards in hand, you aren’t obliged to pass him anything, and thus you can basically trash cards out of his hand.  Played consistently, you can force your opponent into a 0-card hand every turn while you empty some non-terminal piles for VPs.  Eventually, all the cards in their deck will be trashed, hopefully before the piles are run out.

The basic ingredients are 2 king's court, goons/militia/ghost ship/outpost, and masquerade.
If these cards are in the kingdom in a 2-player game, the first to get the right combination usually wins the game, no matter how many provinces the other already has.
Setting it up is easier than you may think, if you aggressively use masquerade to trash cards, or have another trasher like chapel to help.
Even if your opponent buys 7 provinces while you set up this combo, once you have it running, your opponent will lose all their victory cards, start every turn with 0 cards and will only be able to buy copper or curses.
Once he has zero cards, you can deplete piles, and get some victory points on the last turn.
Only chance the other player has is getting a huge lead in vp chips before the lock hits, since vp chips cannot be taken away, and your own possibilities to gain vp while executing the combo are strictly limited.
Donald X, the creator of dominion has this to say about the combo:

I did not see the King's Court / Masquerade combo in playtesting. I'm sure the cards must have come up, I mean I played those sets together, but I never noticed the combo or saw it done. It is on the subtle side. [...]
  If you see a crazy thing once in a blue moon, I think that's great. If King's Court / Masquerade is a three-card combo, i.e. if you have to specifically have X Y or Z to make it work (okay a 2.8-card combo or whatever), then I think it's just a cool thing. It won't come up often; when it does you can be the person who spotted it and made out. We have a crazy game and then move on to the next one.

Masquerade has received errata in the Second Edition of Dominion: Intrigue. The new text is:

+2 Cards
Each player with any cards in hand passes one to the next such player to their left, at once. Then you may trash a card from your hand.

Because of this wording, if you have no cards in hand when Masquerade is played, you will not receive any cards either. Because of this change, the given answer is no longer correct; and the infamous King's Court / Masquerade pin no longer works.
Dominion Online also uses all Second Edition cards and rules.


text:
Can nonbasic dual lands such as "Azorius Chancery" be destroyed by the card text "destroy target land"?
My cousin and I play MtG together sometimes. He has many years of experience, and I just started playing recently and we have had an argument when I tried to destroy his nonbasic dual lands such as Azorius Chancery, and Boros Garrison, with cards like Poison the Well, and Wrecking Ball, that have the card text "Destroy target land," and "Destroy target creature or land." He says that dual lands with the type/subtype "Land" and card text like...

Azorius Chancery enters the battlefield tapped.
When Azorius Chancery enters the battlefield, return a land you control to its owner's hand.
Tap: Add {W}{U} to your mana pool.

are nonbasic lands and can't be destroyed by cards with the text "destroy target land". So contrary to the card type/subtype being "Land" he says I can't destroy it. Is he right or wrong?
The way I see it, if I can destroy, for example, a mountain with a type/subtype "Basic Land" using an instant/sorcery that has the text "destroy target land" (which he allowed me to do) then why can't I destroy a nonbasic land that has the type/subtype "Land".
I would appreciate if you show some hard evidence or state your MtG experience, such as been to tournaments and have seen that it is or isn't legal to make your answers more credible when I show my cousin the responses if I'm right.

Azorius Chancery doesn't add “Plains” or “Island” to your mana pool; it adds white mana and blue mana to your mana pool. The distinction is important. “Plains” is a card name and a land type; “white mana” is a type of mana.

The answers are of course completely right. I'd just add that his argument... doesn't seem to be an argument. He's just flat-out asserting that nonbasic lands cannot be targeted by something that says "target land", i.e. that they are not lands.

Next question - can you destroy Goblin Creatures with a card that says "destroy target creature"?  Answer: of course you can.

@thesunneversets, I wonder what other rules they are ignoring? Playing more than 1 Azorius Chancery per turn (because it isn't a land), [mtg:Blight] can't enchant nonbasics, Mountainwalking on lands that produce {R} but aren't Mountains, ... (this list is how to do things WRONG)

"Destroy target land" can definitely destroy nonbasic lands.  Otherwise, the second part of Molten Rain's ability would make no sense.  (Molten Rain says "Destroy target land. If that land was nonbasic, Molten Rain deals 2 damage to the land’s controller.")

You are correct, you can destroy any permanent with the type "Land" using a card that says "Destroy target land."
The ultimate authority in these matters is the Comprehensive Rules (CR). They are updated regularly, and are free to download.
The simplest rule from the CR that clarifies that nonbasic lands are lands:

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

So, all lands that don't have the Basic supertype are lands that are nonbasic, even if they have a basic land type. There are several lands with a basic land type that aren't basic lands, like the original dual land cycle (Badlands et. al., Pain Lands Sulfurous Springs, etc.), while there are only 5 basic land cards. The basic lands have card names Mountain, Swamp, Island, Plains, and Forest.
Then the rule below shows that a card like Boros Garrison is a legal target for Poison the Well, because it is referencing an object with "Land" in the card's Type Line.

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

If the card were specifically referencing only nonbasic lands, the rules text would have specifically said so. (Examples: Ruination, Blood Moon, Dust Bowl). Similarly, if a card is referring only to basic lands or lands with a basic land type, it would say so. (Examples: Fiery Fall, Global Ruin, Null Chamber, Flashfires).

And then there are a few cards like Earthcraft which say "target basic land", which they wouldn't bother to say if "land" meant "basic land".

Stuart Cook and user1873, thanks for the info. Molten Rain is another card in the deck I was using and he said that it was the only card out of the destroy land cards I described above that could destroy his nonbasic lands. Thank you user1873 for reminding me that was in the deck. But anyway, thanks for refering me to the Comprehensive Rules, that will come in handy in the future. I knew that land is a type, not a subtype. I just said type/subtype so people would get the jist of what I was saying, but yea pretty thorough observation, lol. Thanks again for your swift intelligent responses.

From the Comprehensive Rules:

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

“Land” without any other modifiers means “a permanent on the battlefield with the Land type”. Therefore a spell or effect that says “Destroy target land” will in fact destroy whatever land it targets, regardless of whether that land is basic or not.
There are effects in the game that only affect basic lands, or only affect nonbasic lands, but in those cases the extra restriction is stated explicitly. For example, Earthcraft can't be used to untap a non-basic land, and Wasteland can't be used to destroy a basic land. However, effects that just say “land” don't care whether the land is basic or nonbasic.

Continuing my effort to answer MtG questions using just the Basic Rulebook.
Azorius Chancery is a Land, because it has "Land" in its Type Line. This is the area between the card art, and the rules text. (See page 4, Parts of a Card).

Card type - Every card has at least one card type: artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, or sorcery. A card’s type is printed under its illustration. Some cards, like artifact creatures, have more than one type. Some cards also have subtypes, such as “Goblin” and “Warrior” in “Creature — Goblin Warrior,” or supertypes, such as “basic” in “Basic Land — Forest.”

Nonbasic land - Any land that doesn’t have the supertype “basic” on its type line—in other words, any land not named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, or Forest. You can’t put more than four copies of any one nonbasic land card into a deck.

Wrecking Ball can target Azorius Chancery, because it is a permanent with the proper characteristic "Land" in the Type Line, and it is a permanent on the battlefield. (See Target page 9)

Target - When you see the word “target” on a spell or ability, you have to choose one or more things for the spell or ability to affect. You’ll be able to choose only certain kinds of things, such as “target red permanent” or “target creature or player.” ...

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text:
If you pass GO, do you collect 200 at the end of the turn or as you pass GO?
This is to settle a current dispute with our game. Here's the scenario: Someone rolled the dice and landed on Community Chest, passing GO in the process. They picked up the card and it read 'Pay 10 pound or Take a Chance'. They took a Chance, and the Chance card said 'Go back 3 spaces.' They landed on Mayfair, passing back over the GO square to get there. They argued that they should still receive 200 pound because they already passed GO, and you receive the money when passing it NOT at the end of your turn.
I believe that this is correct and you should get the money as you pass GO rather than at the end of your turn (therefore removing the money you got by passing if you went backwards and landed on a square before GO). I've looked in the rules and I think you get the money as you pass, rather than after the consequences of your turn.
What's the official stance on this?

If I were that player I'd be arguing that I passed GO twice, once going forwards and once going backwards, and that I should have collected $200 each time. (Not to mention the $200 I'm bound to get on my next turn.)

Is this question from an official version of monopoly or one of the 3 party variants? I do not recall such a card that is 'pay x or take a chance'

@ColinD There is a list of all Community Chest and Chance cards available on Wikipedia. It might not be the best surce of knowledge, but there is information that the Pay a $10 fine or take a Chance card was omitted in U.S. editions since 1936.

@Gregor But since you are passing go backwards, maybe you should lose $200... ;-)

Original answer
You collect $200 each time you pass over or land on the GO. See the official Monopoly rules.

Each time a player's token lands on or passes over GO, whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays that player a $200 salary.
"The $200 is paid only once each time around the board. However, if a player passing GO on the throw of the dice lands 2 spaces beyond it on Community Chest, or 7 spaces beyond it on Chance, and draws the "Advance to GO" card, they collect $200 for passing GO the first time, and another $200 for Advancing to it the second time by the instructions on the card."

Your question is quite interesting and has been asked before.
What I think is that the player should collect $200 only if passing GO in the clockwise direction or landing on it (also by advancing to or over the GO using card). The rules state that it is possible to collect $200 more than once in a turn, however in this case I think that the player in question should:

Collect $200 for passing GO.
Take the chance card, go back 3 spaces to Mayfair. Do not collect $200 for passing GO this time.
Collect $200 for passing  GO in the next turn.

I might be wrong though.

Edit
There were some good comments posted that made me think more about this particular situation. I'm making this edit to answer all of them comprehensively, hopefully. Sorry about the long post.
Pay a $10 fine or take a Chance
Comment from @ColinD made me look for more information about the card. I've found information on Wikipedia  that this card was omitted in U.S. editions since 1936. I'm assuming it wasn't omitted just in U.S. editions, since I've never actually seen this card in real life and I live in Europe.
This might be what makes things complicated here. As @ColinD suggested later, the situation described in the OP's question might be the only way to achieve passing GO in the counter-clockwise fashion. Since the card allowing this to happen was omitted, there was no need to address this issue in the official rules - that's why they might not be crystal clear about this. I'm also afraid that looking at the rules from 1936 wouldn't solve this issue.
If you would like to learn more about the history of the Monopoly game, take a look on The True History of the Monopoly Game and The History of the Landlord's Game & Monopoly.
Authorities
I wasn't completely sure my answer was correct and there were some good points made by other users. So I decided to contact authorities for consultation. This is what I was told.
Hasbro Customer Service
After contacting them by online form and describing the situation (without mentioning my thoughts on how this should be resolved) I received the following response:

Thank you for contacting Hasbro Customer Service regarding the rules
for Monopoly. I'm delighted to help!

The player collects $200 for passing GO. They can choose to ask for it as soon as they pass the space or at the end of their turn.
Either way, no matter when they ask for it, it's owed to them for
passing GO.

Players do not collect $200 for passing GO counter-clockwise.

Yes, the player should collect $200 again as they passed GO.

I hope this helps! Happy gaming!

Ok, so this answer doesn't provide much reasoning behind this, but the results of their rule interpretation seem to be the same as mine.
Main Judge of the Polish Monopoly Championships
I've contacted Mr. Michael Stajszczak, who was the main judge in all editions of the Polish Monopoly Championships. He judged many other games in tournaments and made a fair amount of rules translation for different board games. Again, I didn't suggest any particular interpretation of the rules in this situation. This is what he replied:

If described situation was to happen in the tournament, the decision would be like this:
The player should immediately collect $200 for passing GO, before drawing the Community Chest card. He doesn't collect money for passing over GO in backward direction. However in the next move,
when he will be passing GO again, he should collect another $200.

This is the way I understood the rules. However, @Johno made a good point that maybe the player shouldn't collect another $200 when passing GO on the following turn due to the The $200 is paid only once each time around the board clarification, because he's already had the return for completing that circuit. I've also asked Mr. Stajszczak about this interpretation of the rules:

Indeed, this sentence could be interpreted in more than one way.
However, I think it addresses a different issue. This was to resolve the
situation where the player finishes his move on the GO - so that he
won't get the money twice (first time for landing on GO and second
time for leaving it).
By the way, the quoted sentence isn't present in the Polish set of the
rules. That's why this wasn't an issue in any of the Polish
tournaments. Unfortunately we can't ask the game designer about this
since he passed away.
Just in case of doubt, there was always information in the
Championship rules that the game rules are as main judge interprets them.

I believe this is probably the best answer you could get for this situation. That's the way the issue would most likely be resolved in an official tournament.

I assume "passing Go" only applies if you pass it in a clockwise direction (based on my own hazy recollections of playing the game when younger).  Though that's not necessarily an intuitive definition of "passing".  Are the rules specific on this point?

In newer version of monopoly (US versions atleast), I do not think there is any way to 'pass' go except in a clockwise fashion.

I dispute number 3. I agree that you do get the money for passing GO (forwards), then that you don't get more for passing backwards. But I think you don't get more money when you pass GO on the following turn due to the "The $200 is paid only once each time around the board" clarification. You've already had the return for completing that circuit.

if you've rolled doubles and you get the go back three spaces bit, it's still your turn, you can pass go again; you could hit it a third time on the same turn if that roll took you to the "Advance to Go" card. Possible ... but improbable ;)

Brilliant in-depth answer, thank you. You'll be happy to know that we continued the game with the correct and now verified passing GO rules!

@JoelKennedy Happy to hear that :)

My parents own the 1947 edition of the UK version of the game which does feature the "Pay a £10 fine or take a Chance" Community Chest card.

Since this ruling contradicts either the "only once each time around the board" principle or the "Go back 3 spaces" card mechanic (if it's interpreted as "forward the entire board minus 3", you should demand $200 if you use it elsewhere), I can only conclude that they would rather err in player's favor and pay up $200 in this rare occurrence than risk frustrated customers, negative PR and profits loss. The game's popularity is not what it once was, so they could use every bit of positive reinforcement they can get.

This case only happens in UK edition since the card "Pay a ₤10 fine or take a Chance" only exists in UK edition. And the UK edition rules book say:
"Every time you either land on or pass "GO" while moving in the
direction of the arrow, you are paid £200 by the Bank."
So, you don't collect ₤200 when you pass GO backward.

You get $200 for passing GO only in a FORWARD direction.
If you "pass" GO by "going BACK three spaces" to Mayfair, you do not earn $200.
And you get $200 for landing on, or passing go, but not both.

But his question is "immediately or at end of turn?"

@shujaa - the rules indicate it is as soon as you do so

To summarize:

When the player first passes GO, they're paid immediately.
When they go backwards through GO by a card's command, then back forward on the next turn, they aren't paid again.

The rulebook says:

“GO”… Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO,
whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays
him/her a $200 salary.
The $200 is paid only once each time around the board. However, if
a player passing GO on the throw of the dice lands 2 spaces beyond it
on Community Chest, or 7 spaces beyond it on Chance, and draws the
“Advance to GO” card, he/she collects $200 for passing GO the first
time and another $200 for reaching it the second time by instructions
on the card.

The phrase is "Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO..., the Banker pays..., nothing about the end of the turn. Neither are there any general principles elsewhere in the rulebook mandating anything to happen at the end of a turn. So the payment is effective the moment they reach GO.

Then the rule states the general principle: "The $200 is paid only once each time around the board.".

There are no (zero, zilch, nada) exceptions to this principle anywhere in the rules. In particular:

All that the note after it effectively says is clarify the meaning of the “Advance to GO” card: it means advance clockwise, however far that is. I.e. it's fully in agreement with the principle and doesn't say or imply anything about any other cards.
The only way to not receive the salary when you normally would is to be sent to jail. Again, this rule does not break the principle by explicitly stating that you move in such a way that you don't pass GO en route:

When you are sent to Jail you cannot collect your $200 salary in that
move since, regardless of where your token is on the board, you must
move it directly into Jail.

If a player goes backwards through GO, and then back forward through it on the next turn, they haven't yet completed another full circle around the board, so there's no reason to pay an additional $200.

Note that the card says "go back 3 spaces", not "go forward a full circle minus 3 spaces". You wouldn't request another $200 if you moved back 3 spaces elsewhere on the board, would you? And that would be exactly the thing to do if "move back" actually meant "move forward almost a full circle".

The rule is in conflict with its explanatory text. "Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO" clearly says you get paid twice (or is it three times because backwards is also passing?) and "The ¤200 is paid only once each time around the board" clearly says you get paid once. The intent is to pay ¤200 for a full circuit of the board, which has been simplified to "when you pass GO", which does the same thing in almost all cases. So, you have to decide, do you follow the rule as written, or the explanatory text?

If you normally made a full circuit except for three spaces, you would pass GO every time (except in this case) and get paid ¤200.

@CJDennis the phrases "Each time..." and "...only once..." complement each other. The latter sets the minimal period between payouts, the former specifies the exact moment of time in a turn when it happens. No conflict here. In other words, the latter phrase is not "explanatory text", it's also normative.

@CJDennis Frankly, I'm quite shocked that anyone would casually dismiss a major part of a rulebook as "explanatory text", just like that. In a rulebook, everything is normative by default. You only have the right to declare something "explanatory" if you have evidence to back it up - like a clear distinct formatting/separation, or phrases like "For example...", or the fact that it reiterates the same as other statements, only in more words. You don't dismiss parts of laws' provisions as "explanatory", now do you?

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text:
Marking white borders with black marker
Is it legal in competitive play to fill in the border of white-bordered MtG cards with black marker?
Which marker would be best to use, and why?

Why would you do this? As far as I know, white bordered cards are still tournament legal. I would be worried about "bleed" to the edge of the card so that it's considered marked when viewed from the back/side.

cause City of brass has to match with all the bordered cards in my deck

Tried to clean up the question. What features are you looking for in a marker, blackness, non-bleed, etc.?

non-bleed hopefully

Opaque-backed sleeves should prevent card-marking allegations.

Yes, but only if the head judge agrees. The Mtg Tournament rules require that the card has white or black borders (no UN cards or World Champion cards), and the alteration cannot make the card marked. As ghoppe points out, you might have to worry about bleed unless you use Opaque card sleeves. If you choose to do this, a judge will likely still be called to verify that the cards aren't marked for randomization purposes if sleeves aren't used, and the cards are legal white\black bordered cards and not World Champion cards in either case.

Not going into detail with the tournament rules, I can say that I have done this myself, for aesthetics only. (my eyes got annoyed by the white borders + OCD)
After testing some, I found that these four markers were the way to go since they dried fast and didn't smudge easily :


text:
If more than one user is on a twist phase do they each draw their own phase?
In Phase 10 Twist there are only 10 twist phases.  If everybody drew their own twist phase then we'd run out really quickly.
So, if more than one person is on a twist phase at a time, do they all play the same twist phase or do they each draw their own phase and we just recycle the cards when we run out?

@ire_and_curses Thanks for the retag. Wish there was a more elegant way of requesting that at low rep levels.

No problem. One option is to flag if you don't want to make the request so prominent.

After re-reading the rules we decided that it was best to have each player on a twist phase draw their own card and we'd just recycle them when we ran out.
The reason for this being, players aren't obligated to show other players their twist phase.  If all players drew the same twist phase then this sort of secretive strategy part of the game would be lost.
We also doubled the number of twist cards we have since somebody spilled beer on our first board and we had to get a new one.  The cards weren't ruined though so now we just double them up and have to recycle them less often.


text:
Do wings allow me to leave Tokyo?
When in Tokyo if I use Wings (Pay 2 energy to avoid damage until the end of the monster turn) to avoid damage can I still leave Tokyo and have the player that rolled the claw take my place?
Or do I need to actually take damage to be able to leave Tokyo?

possible duplicate of Can you leave Tokyo voluntarily?

Yes, per the "can I leave Tokyo voluntarily?" Question, you must actually take damage.

Not a duplicate since it has the opposite answer.

The rules state (under "Becoming King of Tokyo"):

If you are attacked while in Tokyo and you don't want to be there anymore ... you can yield to the Monster that attacked.

There's no mention of actually taking damage. You merely need to be attacked. According to the rules, if you are attacked, may cede Tokyo even if you avoid the damage using the Wings.

This is made a lot less clear by the text "If an attack somehow ends up doing no damage (due to camouflage for example), then it is no longer considered an attack for the purposes of cards like Poison Spit or Herbivore." A strict reading would say that only applies to card effects, but this exemption buried in the glossary does sow confusion as to whether a 0 damage attack counts as an attack in any circumstances.

@Weeble, What do those cards do? Poison Spit sounds like a damage augmenter, so it would make sense that it doesn't augment an attack that missed. On the other hand, it would make sense so use the wings to flee completely out of Tokyo. So you're right that it adds confusion, but it doesn't rule out my answer either. I guess the game maker would have to answer this one.

I agree, your answer makes sense thematically and I think it agrees with a strict reading of the rules. I just wanted to address a potential source of confusion.


text:
Can the overlord immediately place and activate a defeated monster?
When a hero defeats a monster and it becomes the overlord's turn, if the overlord places that monster back on the board where it was defeated, is the monster activated and can the overlord use it during that round that it was placed?

I would vote for: Yes!
I think the real question is, can the Overloard place it directly on his turn, or does he have to wait until the next round? I think there is nothing in the rules that presses him to wait. I think the rules for reinforements are clear about when they occur, they are usually given in the scenario description.
If there is a monster on the board, the Overlord can activate it. There is no summoning sickness.

If the Monster is killed in current Hero turn, the Overlord can spawn it again in his turn. He just need to watch the groupsize and the numbers of Monsters he's allowed to spawn and the Moment.
(And yes it can be an Advantage for the Overlord, if you kill an single big Monster and he's allowed to spawn it in the beginnig next to you. Its like an free heal. But thats descent and an tactical component. (Our Overlord Killed his Monster with a trap, to get a new on with full hp.))


text:
What are a blackjack dealer's options?
Everywhere I read manuals it focuses my options as a player. I can't figure out if the dealer knows his hidden card or not? Of course, when dealer has 10 or Ace showing, he checks if he's got a blackjack, right?
What are the dealer's options?

It's my understanding that all the players finish first (bust or decide not to hit anymore), and then the dealer reveals his hole card and decides to hit or not.  Your question seems to ask if the dealer knows his hole card while the players are playing, which doesn't matter at all.

Blackjack dealers have no options for the in-game decisions of whether to hit or stay; they follow a strict algorithm that will depend on the casino. The dealer waits until the players have exercised all their options, then the dealer reveals their hidden card and hits until they have at least 17 (most common).
The only variation I'm familiar with is a rule where the dealer will hit a soft 17 (any 17 with an Ace taking the value 11--denoted "H17" for Hit 17, as opposed to "S17" for Stand 17), but this is not the dealer's choice, it will be determined by the casino. According to Wikipedia, this rule will generally be printed on the table if it is being used, and it hurts players. Wikipedia phrases it the other direction: going from H17 to S17. 'Substituting an "H17" rule with an "S17" rule in a game benefits the player, decreasing the house edge by about 0.2%'
See @NiceVerAz's answer below for a nice explanation of "meta-game" options that the dealer does control.

The dealer has several options when exercising his duties.
His employer wants him to generate as much revenue as possible, which means:

Dealing as many hands as possible
Giving the players a fun experience, along with some tiny hope that they could get an edge naturally
Detecting advantage players (card counters) and using counter measures to thwart them, without making mistakes such as taking a lucky high roller for an advantage player
Reporting suspicious activities to the pit boss, or not

Which gives several options:

The dealer can assist the players by adding the total for them. Sometimes it can be confusing since aces have potentially two values, or forcing them to take a quick decision, even taking it for them if they are too slow. Sometimes dealers will interpret conflicting signals to the house advantage, for instance hitting a 15 against a 5. The dealer can reversely act somewhat rudely and give slow players a bad experience so they can either speed up or leave the table for a new and potentially faster player to sit.
A dealer can assist in giving advice, usually telling the hesitant player "The book says..." and even offer a free basic strategy card. This cards are often flawed and, even if not flawed and played perfectly, the house still has about a .6% edge with a 6-deck boot and hit on soft 17 rule. Giving that pleasant experience means the player could win that one time and come back to lose OR go through as many hands as possible in one hour. Pleasant experience to a player who wins = player happy = tip. Reversely, a dealer who spends too much time fraternizing could get into trouble for not dealing fast enough.
This one is tricky because not all card counters are easy to detect. Some use camouflage, like acting like a newbie at first or a tourist or dressing like a high roller, expensive brand clothing, $10K watch, pretty girl in tow. In this last case, chances are your player is a high roller. If you are suspicious of anything, you can signal the pit boss and the eye in the sky that your player COULD BE a counter. But in the case he is not, you could be backing off a high roller who enjoys losing tons of money at the table.
Suspicious activity could mean bizarre decisions, like double down on 12 (usually always reported), splitting 10s (which makes sense when you know the rest of the boot is loaded with 10s and aces), doubling down on 8, etc... Bizarre betting ramps, like starting with $10 bets and finishing with $500 bets. Again, your player could be a newbie, a high roller who loves living dangerously, or a card counter.

All in all, the dealer has many options:

Slowing down or going faster
Assisting in totaling cards or not
Being pushy and somewhat rude towards slow players or helping them out and being charming, as tips is how they are really paid (casinos often pay minimum salary + benefits after several months, if you are lucky)
Reporting suspicious activity or not
Reporting a player as a potential counter or not
Moving the cut card towards the center of the boot, meaning that card counters will be less likely to have an edge but the result will be less games dealt per hour. Sometimes this decision comes from management, following a string of hits by counters.

If dealers had no options, they'd have been replaced by robots a long time ago.

I don't think OP was asking for this, but is a nice summary!!!!

I was responding to the "Blackjack dealers have no options" and have to follow an algorithm comment.

Nice answer - I should definitely amend the scope of my answer to clarify that dealers have no options when it comes to decisions on whether or not hit or stay.

The dealer knows what both of his cards are.
In casino play, the dealer has no options. He always has to hit values below 16/17 (the exact number varies by casino), and has to stay when his cards are higher.
In non-casino play, often the dealer is just another player and has the same options as you. This is not really blackjack and will not use the same strategies as casino blackjack.

Playing with a dealer that has the same options as players would seem to be to be so different from normal blackjack that you couldn't even compare the two.  The majority of blackjack strategy is based on decisions based on being able to see 1 (and only 1) of the dealer's cards, and the rules they have to follow.

@bwarner, I agree, but it does not stop people from calling it blackjack. I have seen it enough in informal settings to where I think it is relevant to include. Hopefully I have edited my answer enough to clarify this.


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What are the odds of getting a double run in four-handed pinochle?
My partner and I played four-handed pinochle. I passed four cards and she got a double run in trump.
What are the odds of getting a double run in four-handed pinochle?

Maybe if you explained what that is, those of us who don't know the game could still calculate the odds.

Depending on the probability being asked for, this is somewhere between one in a million, and one in six hundred hands.
Pinochle has a deck with 48 cards, consisting of two each of six ranks (A, T, K, Q, J, 9) in four suits. The deck is dealt exhaustively between the four players, so each is dealt a hand of twelve cards. A double run consists of ten specific cards: two lots of the ace, ten, king, queen and jack of trumps.
So we can now calculate the chance of being dealt a double run. There are 48C12 possible hands (where nCr is the notation for the choose function). Ten of the cards are fixed as part of the double run, but the other two can be any of the remaining 38 cards. So there are (10C10)*(38C2) possible hands that contain a double run (in trumps), which makes the probability of being dealt a double run:
(10C10)*(38C2) / (48C12)
= 1*703 / 69,668,534,468
~ 1 / 100,000,000

In some versions of pinochle, passing cards from the partner to the winning bidder is allowed. In the question four cards are passed, so we can look at the chance of getting 10 specific cards in a 16 card hand:
(10C10)*(38C6) / (48C16)
= 1*2760681 / 2,254,848,913,647
~ 1 / 1,000,000

This doesn't give a true reflection of the odds though, as it's fairly normal for players to pass their best cards to their bid-winning partner, as it will help melding points. Let's assume that if the partner has up to four trumps then they'll pass them all across. The chance of getting a double run is now the sum of the chances of a 6-4 split, a 7-3 split, an 8-2 split, a 9-1 split and a 10-0 split. That is, the sum over the number of passed cards p, of the probabilities of the player getting (10-p) of the 10 cards and the partner getting the remaining p:
Sum( (10C(10-p))*(38C(12-(10-p)))/(48C12) * (pCp)*((38-(12-(10-p)))C(12-p))/((48-12)C12) ) over p in {0,1,2,3,4}
= Sum( (10C(10-p))*(38C(2+p))/(48C12) * ((36-p)C(12-p))/(36C12) ) over p in {0,1,2,3,4}
~ 1/10,000

So far I've assumed that the trump suit is random, but since the player won the contract, they actually got to choose the trump suit. Most of the time a player will choose the suit they have most of as trumps (especially if they have 6 of them), so roughly speaking the chance of a double run now becomes 1/2500.
All this is for a particular player, but it might be fair to say that if any player in the round got a double run then the same question would have been asked on this site. Since there are four players we can roughly multiply the probability by four to get 1/600. (We've actually done a bit of 'double counting' here, but it doesn't affect the result very much. E.g. We've considered the rare case where each player receives all of a single suit four times).
So the probability being asked for could be as low as 1/1,000,000 or as high as 1/600, depending on how the question is interpreted.

Here's a website with the odds you are looking for:
  http://amecy.nfshost.com/pinochle/
This man wrote a C program to generate the odds for dealt melds and he generously made it open source for anyone to use.
As you can see, he places the odds of a double run at 0.0000040% which is approximately 1 in 24 million. Is he correct? I have no idea.
Pinochle is an awesome game, though I only know the double-deck variety. And with a hand of 20 cards, double runs are far more common. :) I would love to see this program modified to output the odds of double deck, but I lack the ability.


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Are There Any Good Tools For Developing CCG Or Other Card Games?
I've been brainstorming a new card game idea for a while, something that could be described as "Cards Against Humanity" meets "Munchkin" but while I mostly have the rules and everything together I have been at a loss to find something to rapidly prototype, print, change, and make the cards?
I would like something that could read from a database, Excel spreadsheet, or something similar and then be able to produce Word document files or PDFs that I could then easily print to be able to beta-test the game with friends.  Ideally you would be able to define the basic components/formats of each card and then just fill in the fields for each.
Anyone know of tools to assist in rapid prototyping and printing of CCG style cards?

Not sure yet whether I would call this a duplicate or not, but a strongly related question: http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/12174/1749

That does help, I looked at some SVG stuff before but wasn't fully satisfied for what I wanted.

Not sure why there was an off-topic close vote added to this question, but per the [help/on-topic] page, questions about design are on-topic.

@SocioMatt This question isn't about game design, but is looking for recommendations for tools. It looks just like our game recommendation questions, and those are off-topic.

NanDeck will do this: http://www.nand.it/nandeck/
Lets you script out card sets, fairly simple to change card sizes, etc.
The website Oil And Rope has a very slick prototyping tool called Paperize: http://paperize.io/beta which lets you upload graphics, use spreadsheet linking, etc. - super cool. Still in beta, but tons of folks love it.

I was going to suggest Strange Eons http://cgjennings.ca/eons/
Whilst not specifically for card games,  it can come in handy.
The  question linked by @shujaa above also has some good links

That does look promising, well endeavor to test that out and leave some feedback here about it.

While it sounds game-specific, Magic Set Editor is a good tool for this.
http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/
If you don't like any of the magic card frames (or Yugi-Oh or the couple of others it has) you can create your own - it just takes a little digging around to find out how to do so. I often just use one of the magic card frames, though.
It has a big community of users so there should be plenty of help on how to use it if you need it.

I recently found https://dulst.com which bills itself as a platform to create card games.

I made a free extension for Inkscape to create counters or cards from spreadsheets (CSV files) combined with templates drawn in Inkscape (or imported from other applications). Recent versions have built-in PDF export.
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/299033/inkscape-extensions-boardgame-development
https://github.com/lifelike/countersheetsextension


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What deck should be used for a beginner in Netrunner
The Netrunner rules suggest playing with Jinteki as a first hand, but I have heard that is a bad starting deck. Which should be used for a starting deck for introducing someone to the game? And which should be used for someone who has only played as the runner but not the corporation?

Jinteki is a bad choice for first time corp player because, with only the starter set, the deck does not have enough ways to generate credits. Having no money means you cannot do much and usually leads to the new player not having fun. If you are trying to teach someone, fun is the whole idea, so this is obviously counter productive.
With core set only decks, I would do Weyland vs Shaper. Both play styles are easy and both run pretty rich.
If you are up to building decks specifically for teaching there are some better options.
Here is a board game geek thread that has a lot of beginner deck suggestions, though some decks here use more than just the core set. Here is a reddit thread that has beginner decks using only the core set.
FFG has actually released decks that it thinks are the best for teaching. These decks leave out a lot of the more complicated mechanics such as Trace. They focus on both players setting up their side of the board quickly so there is almost always an "end game".
Note that the Demo decks clearly don't follow normal deck building rules. They are purely for teaching. In addition they only require 6 points to win by agenda points.
  Jinteki - Personal Evolution
  Agendas:
  3x Priority Requisition
  3x Nisei mk2
  1x Unorthodox Predictions
  Operations:
  3x Hedge Fund
  1x Restructure
  2x Trick of Light
  2x Neural Emp
  Assets:
  2x Melange Mining Corp.
  2x Private Contracts
  2x Snare!
  2x Project Junebug
  ICE:
  3x Wall of Thorns
  2x Bastion
  2x Wall of Static
  3x Enigma
  3x Chum
  3x Neural Katana

  Shaper - Kate "Mac" McCaffrey
  Events:
  3x Sure Gamble
  2x Modded
  2x Freelance Coding Contract
  2x The Maker's Eye
  2x Infiltration
  Resources:
  1x Professional Contacts
  1x Aesop's Pawnshop
  1x Ice analyzer
  2x Armitage Codebusting
  2x Public Sympathy
  Hardware:
  3x Akamatsu Mem Chip
  Programs:
  2x Magnum Opus
  1x Net Shield
  Icebreakers:
  2x Battering Ram
  2x Gordian Blade
  2x Pipeline

@Gregor I appreciate your edits and agree with the cleanup for the most part. However when I said Jinteki runs poor I meant it literally. Not that the deck is weak (though it is) but rather that it is always wanting for more money.

Ah, that makes sense! I was really confused because Jinteki is a corp, and I thought the "runs" was referring to how a runner runs, or maybe saying that the deck "runs poorly" like an engine "runs poorly", just without the "ly". Apologies. (It reads very clearly now, of course.)


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Mechanic, playstyle, or even particular deck, to counter multiplayer wipe/control deck
In my playgroup, there is this guy who specialased in multiplayer matches. In fact, all of his decks are super-strong, but only in multiplayer.
He has wrath effects in every single one of his decks, and  counterspells/unsommon/disenchant too. He wins almost all the time by controlling the board by wiping it almost every game. I tried some of my one-shot combo decks on him but he always has a counterspell or destroy-creature spell to put me back to the ground.
It is becoming really annoying and I simply don't know how to handle it. I need tricks and maybe some deck ideas to avoid being controlled over and over, and having a win-condition that can stand a chance.
I'm not restricted to a budget as long as it is reasonable for casual. By this I mean no $1000 fetchland/dual-land manabase.
EDIT: I was asked which wrath effects. Mostly -2/-2 to -4/-4 to all creatures,  destroy all creatures, damnation and the disk (which shutdown my try on a enchantment deck...). He plays mostly green, blue and black.

Which wrath effects? The counter-tactics that work best against Supreme Verdict might do poorly against Merciless Eviction, and vice-versa.

Have you tried telling your other opponents this? You could all probably gang up on him early on and ruin his day.

A few general ideas:
The weakness of counterspell-heavy decks is dealing with all the important threats efficiently, and not tapping out prematurely. This is particularly tricky to pull off in multi-player, since controlling more than one player is much more work. On the receiving end, it might feel to you like he has a counterspell for everything, but that simply can't be the case. If the player to your left plays a couple of spells and gets countered, that makes it much more likely that you will be able to drop something safely into play.
One big limitation of creature removal is that it generally only works on creatures. An extreme way to screw with a powerful creature-controlling deck is to not field any creatures! Try direct damage, artifacts or enchantments instead. All of those kill spells become ineffective against your deck, and the resulting hand of dead cards can be crippling for your opponent.
An intermediate approach is to pick creatures that are exceptionally hard to kill. Your choices are many, and depend on the kind of spells your opponent uses most. Against powerful sorceries like Wrath of God, you could consider creatures that revert to some other type at end of turn (e.g. Mishra's Factory, Genju of the Realm), or ways to generate endless hordes of cheap tokens (Assemble the Legion, Kjeldoran Outpost), or just bounce with unbelievable annoyance (Blinking Spirit). Against direct removal, protection or regeneration can be extremely annoying. Or just pick creatures that either like going to the graveyard (Demigod of Revenge), or can easily come back (e.g. Ashen Ghoul, Pyre Zombie, any of the Phoenixes).
Another approach is to accept that your stuff is going to end up in the graveyard, and use that to your advantage. Returning creatures from the graveyard can be very efficient, or you can use a large graveyard to power effects like Threshold, or to give you access to spells that can be cast from the graveyard (e.g. anything with Flashback).  Or make filling the graveyard your win condition (Mortal Combat, Nefarious Lich).
A more aggresive idea is land destruction/mana control. You probably won't win your multi-player game, but you could easily make it impossible for this particular opponent to win. In a similar vein, you could go for counterspell/control yourself, and shutdown his nastiest spells to let the other players do their thing.
A final tactic is to make yourself an unappealing target. Don't be a threat, sit there and protect yourself, while building towards some late game win condition (Door to Nothingness, Test of Endurance).
Above all, stay positive, and be creative! You have many, many pleasant options for ruining your opponent's game.

In terms of specific options, there are numerous. Some examples include Thrun, the last troll, with enchantments, and equipment. Sword of Feast and Famine would potentially be your best choice here (since he is playing blue for counterspells he probably is also relying on card advantage). Notion thief will potentially blow him out if used at the right time (does he ever cast brainstorm?, giving yourself 3 extra cards and making him put 2 back should limit his ability to wrath the board AND counter things)
Similarly, Ulamog, the infinite gyre would be a good choice. You can cheat him in through show and tell or possibly an elvish piper, either of which can be made uncounterable with Boseiju, who shelters all or cavern of souls respectively. Gaea's Revenge is a hasty uncounterable creature that can put him in a bad way before he gets a chance to wrath the board.
Alternatively, another option is Sneak attack, which will give you big hasty creatures that can't be dealt with by sorcery speed removal since they have already done their damage.
There are a lot of ways to punish or defeat counterspells, examples include Xantid swarm, defense grid. Since most counterspells are also in blue, cards like choke or Tsunami will also help punish this player. As has been mentioned already, Counterspells are only powerful when trading a few mana for a lot of mana, if he is countering all these cheap threats to his game plan, his resources are far more likely to be exhausted when you come to cast your larger more expensive threats.
Both the overall strategy for dealing with this kind of deck, and specific cards to consider to apply that strategy, should give you the starting point you need to make choices to defeat this opponent.

If your opponent is repeatedly dumping your board in your graveyard, treat your graveyard like a second hand. Reanimate the dead creatures (either with spells such as Reanimate or with abilities of the creatures themselves such as Bloodghast). Recur other noncreature permanents with spells like Open the Vaults, Replenish, Eternal Witness, Regrowth, Sun Titan, etc. When your graveyard is your hand, a board wipe isn't anywhere near as painful. (Barring Merciless Eviction/Final Judgement.)
If he uses one-sided sweepers, Martyr's Bond, Grave Pact, and Butcher of Malakir could also work.
If the enchantment removal isn't too high, Vicious Shadows will punish him for killing off creatures. (You can even build a deck to sacrifice things to trigger VS proactively.) Stalking Vengeance works similarly.
Another option might be to make a "spellslinger" deck. Focus on instants/sorceries rather than permanents. Counterspells can still be a problem, but at a multiplayer FFA table repeatedly trading counters 1-for-1 is a losing propsition. (Not to mention there are very few ways to countspell a win off of a Storm spell -- Counterflux, Mindbreak Trap, Flusterstorm, Time Stop, Stifle, Trickbind, and Voidslime, plus Sundial of the Infinite if the Storm goes off on his turn.)
Taxing the hell out of his spells may also work; simply Trinisphere+Nether Void means you're going to pay a minimum of 6 mana for every spell. (You can get around NV with uncounterable spells; try Boseiju/Cavern of Souls, as recommended in another answer.) That would be a nightmare for a deck like his, especially if you back it up with some light land destruction, keeping his mana count low.
Gaddock Teeg stops a vast majority of sweepers on his own, too, as well as the best multiplayer counterspells.

I doubt Karmic justice will do anything useful against Wrath of God since Justice says "Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls destroys a noncreature permanent [...]"

Derp, that's what I get for trying to go off memory on cards I rarely see. Fixing now.


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Tapping a creature on the turn it enters play
Let's say, for example, I summon a Gemhide Sliver this turn. Am I allowed to tap the Gemhide sliver for it's ability the moment it enters into the field, or is it affected by summoning sickness?

You could tap it for Glare of Subdual, however. That does not use the {T} symbol.

I'd say that it's more you can activate Glare's ability by tapping the Sliver, because that's not the Sliver's ability. (The fact it doesn't use the {T} is more relevant if you turn Glare into a creature and use its ability while it still has summoning sickness.)

Wow, I don't think I've seen something so basic asked as a question here. Even if you only START to read the rules of the game, this is covered, and has been in every edition of the rulebook since Revised at the very least.

@CharlesBoyung No need to respond like that. The rules for MTG aren't as straightforward at the beginning. My friends and I took a few weeks before we were confident with what could and could not be used right after a creature was summoned. The fact some things could be used and some couldn't was confusing for a while.

It will have summoning sickness; you cannot active its ability this turn.
From the comprehensive rules:

302.6. A creature's activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can't be activated unless the creature has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can't attack unless it has been under its controller's control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning sickness" rule. Ignore this rule for creatures with haste

A creature that has the Haste ability can tap immediately, so unless you have a Reflex Sliver on the 'field, you will not be able to tap a Gemhide Sliver for mana on the turn it comes out.

There is a comprehensive rule citation, but basic questions should also have basic references.
Basic Rulebook, page 6:

Unlike other types of permanents, creatures enter the battlefield with “summoning sickness”: a creature can’t attack, or use an ability that has {T} in its cost, until it has started your turn on the battlefield under your control. You can block with a creature or activate its other abilities no matter how long it’s been on the battlefield.


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Is Pandemic harder with fewer players?
I've played a couple of Pandemic games with 2, 3 and 4 players.
From my point of view, the game should be harder with only 2 players since it will be more difficult to get a medic and both players will have to stay virtually close to each other most of the time in order to share knowledge, therefore cover less ground.
On the other hand, with more players, obviously the deck will run out faster.
From my experience our group WIN/LOSE ratio is very similar and does not depend that much on the player count.
Is it really harder with fewer players?

Actually, I've found that it's easier with fewer players.  My husband and I play two-player games with six epidemics and win about half our games, but when we play with two other (competent) players five epidemics gives us that win rate and six is hard.
While, with fewer players, you have fewer roles in the game, that's offset by not having so many other actions between your turns (that can completely change the board and thus your plans).  Some roles work better the more turns that role gets, e.g. dumpster-diving abilities and once-per-turn special actions.  You'll run through the deck at the same rate no matter how many players there are.
The medic is not necessary, and sometimes having that role in a two-player game is counter-productive.  Remember tha the goal is curing diseases; it's easy for the medic to get so pre-occupied with the board that he doesn't contribute enough to cures.  Medic as one of four roles is great; medic as one of two requires restraint.
In our games we deal two roles to each player and let the player choose one (consultation is allowed).  That hasn't hurt our two-player games even though the medic will only be an option about a third of the time.

+1 I agree with all your points and I strongly agree with you paragraph about the medic. The crux of the game is the logistics of card swapping, not cube clearing.

You run through the deck at the same rate (meaning there are the same total number of turns), but each player gets fewer turns when there are more players in the game.

@mmathis yes, that's what I was trying to say with the part about more turns per role.  How can I make that clearer?

One of the biggest factors that makes it easier with fewer players is that you can organise the cards you need to get together much more quickly - the 5 cards you need for a cure will be distributed between 2 hands rather than 3 or 4, and if you have the right combination of roles/event cards you can transfer those cards in 1 or 2 player-turns (and hence only having to worry about the infector and epidemics twice) instead of needing to co-ordinate across 3, 4 or more turns.

+1 THIS. The logistics of card management, i.e. to get to 5 cards of a color considering 7-card hand limit, is the primary reason while 2-player gameplay is significantly easier IMHO.

The main thing you lose with fewer players is maximum hand size, so you cannot hold as many cards at once. This can make it harder to get the cures if the right colours don't come up. However, it is generally easier to avoid outbreaks, since you only have 2 people you will tend to have the right person's turn faster after an epidemic. With 2 people you will need to choose your roles manually I think, since some roles, EG Dispatcher, are pretty worthless with only 2 people and some EG Medic are practically mandatory.
You get the same number of player turns regardless of the number of players, since the starting cards is 2 for 4 players and 4 for 2 players. Trading cards seems about the same difficulty with 2 people as you have less turns to wait at the trading location, but less options for meeting up. Research stations make meeting up pretty easy as long as you can both build them near where you are. Or a Charter flight out of a city you hold will let you meet up anywhere to swap that second card.

So far my wife and I have only played two player games.  Both times we eradicated the yellow disease and it gave us the breathing room to focus on finding the rest of the cures.  The trick is to make liberal use of your special ability and don't forget about research station to research station travel.  That ends up being the most effective way to get around the board without having to discard crucial cards.

This answer doesn't seem to address the question; gameplay difficulty based on number of players

I do agree 2 players is a lot easy to handle and get round to doubling up moves (special abilite) quicker. The medic and dispatcher is actually a very fast combination and once one virus is eradicated the game  becomes much easier and at a very fast pace as the epidemic (stage 3) is not as effective by just shuffling the discard infection card back on top. But the issue with 2 players is having to discard cards that you may need early before finding cure (7 card limit).

I played it exactly once. There were four of us and I had the role that lets other people take an extra move. By me basically coordinating the entire group we won easily. Once this strategy was obvious, no one wanted to play such an easily beat game any more...
So while my answer is that it's easier with more people, the real answer is that it's easier with more coordination.

If you've played exactly once, you really don't have any comparison point.

I didn't mean my answer to have been based on my one time. I meant it to be based on the other players many times of never beating it previously and then finding it too easy after seeing the strategy I used.

No role lets other players take extra moves. The Dispatcher can use one of their actions to move another player, but that is not an "extra move". So this is all based on playing the game incorrectly :)


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Can a 5 year old kid play Legends of Andor?
My daughter loves stories and games. She plays games like The Magic Labyrinth and Viva Topo! fairly well.
I am thinking about buying Legends of Andor to play with her since it seems to have a nice story line and beautiful components.
Since she does not know how to read yet, I would be doing all the reading, but I don't want to play the game by myself. I'd like her to make her own decisions. Obviously I also want us to be able to beat the game after some effort.
Is she too young for that?

Not familiar with that game, but you might want to also consider Mice and Mystics http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124708/mice-and-mystics which sounds similar

My experience with Legends of Andor is that it is primarily a "puzzle".  Time is very limited, and you need to be very strategic about what actions you take in order to succeed.  I don't think most 5 year olds will have this level of analytic thinking yet.  So while your daughter can probably learn the available decisions and be able to choose ones she thinks are reasonable, you'll probably need to tweak the difficulty somewhat in order for her to feel comfortable making her own decisions and not constantly having them lead to failure.

Thx for your answer. I think I will hold my purchase for some time then.


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Do all Reaction cards completely block all Attack cards?
I'm about to start a Dominion-day and need a question answered.
Do ALL reaction cards completely block all attack cards? i.e. does Tunnel block Witch?

This should really been asked as 2 separate questions. The king's court question has also already been answered here: http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/936/when-you-kings-court-a-kings-court-when-must-you-pick-the-three-target-cards?rq=1

@ColinD edited accordingly.

Reaction Cards:
No. It's not an inherent property of Reaction cards that they protect you from attacks. What makes a card a Reaction is that it's used outside of the normal game sequence when something happens; they don't have to interact with attacks at all.
Moat protects you from attacks because it says it does. Tunnel gives you Gold when discarded, whether or not that is from an attack. Secret Chamber is revealed when an attack is played, but doesn't protect you from it; it just lets you manipulate your deck to attempt to lessen the blow.

Moat is the only Reaction card that blocks attacks.  The only other card in the game that blocks attacks completely is Lighthouse, an Action - Duration card from the Seaside set which blocks attacks as long as it's in play (i.e. until the end of the turn after you play it).
Having said that, every Reaction card in the game except Fools Gold can be used in response to specific kinds of attacks:
Any Attack:

Moat (Base).  Completely blocks the attack.
Secret Chamber (Intrigue).  Before the attack, draw two cards then put two cards back on top of your deck.
Horse Trader (Cornucopia). Before the attack, set Horse Traders aside.  At the beginning of your turn, put Horse Traders back in your hand and draw a card.  Since this card is no longer in your hand, it changes the number of cards affected by Militia, Ghost Ship, Goons, and Followers... and may cause the attack option of Minion to not affect you.
Beggar (Dark Ages).  Before the attack, reveal and discard Beggar to gain two Silvers, putting one of them on top of your deck.

Gain a card (meaning you can do it for each card from Montebank):

Watchtower (Prosperity).  You can choose to trash the card you're gaining.
Trader (Hinterlands). You can choose to gain a Silver instead of the card you'd normally gain.

Discard cards:

Tunnel (Hinterlands). If you discard this card to an attack, you gain a Gold.

Trash cards:

Market Square (Dark Ages). Reveal and discard Market Square to gain a Gold.

Most defense reaction cards are returned to hand after each use as a reaction, and so possession prevents the attack card from affecting you.
Not all reaction cards do this, however. A few have other effects that result in either discarding or trashing the reaction card, which means they can only protect you from the first attack.
Further, not all reaction cards are defenses. One simply gives you a gold card when triggered.


text:
Can you activate an activated ability more than once per turn?
I am using the card Blood Bairn, which has the following activated ability:

Sacrifice another creature: Blood Bairn gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

I use my Blood Bairn in conjunction with Festering Newts, which allow me to give a target creature -1/-1 when it dies. The sacrifice allows it to die and lets me hurt a creature. If I have, say, 2 Festering Newts on the field, can I activate Blood Bairn's ability with both Festering Newts, allowing me to not only give -1/-1 to 2 target creatures but also giving Blood Bairn +4/+4?

+1 for phrasing the title in a nice, general way instead of just asking for a specific ability on a specific card!

Two notes: 1) Abilities with {T} in their cost are no exception. You can use them more than once per turn if you can pay the cost. This would require you having some means of untapping the permanent since you can't tap something already tapped. 2) For any given Planeswalker, only one of its loyalty abilities can be used per turn, and only once.

Yes, there is no restriction in the rules that prevents a player from paying the costs of an activated ability twice, to get the effect twice.
An Activated Ability is the only ability that can be activated. You may activate it whenever, and as many times as you like, as long as you have priority by paying the cost.

602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as "[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]"
602.1a The activation cost is everything before the colon (:). An ability's activation cost must be paid by the player who is activating it.

Unless the ability itself restricts its usage.

602.5b If an activated ability has a restriction on its use (for example, "Activate this ability only once each turn"), the restriction continues to apply to that object even if its controller changes.

Excellent--That just adds to my strategy more. Thanks! :)

Generally speaking, abilities are not restricted to once per turn. However, there are some cases where you can use an ability only once per turn:

The ability specifically says it can be used only once per turn (although this can get fuzzy in some situations, such as Nardu being flickered, as it's arguably a new instance of the ability)

The ability has a cost that can be paid only once per turn. For instance, if the cost includes tapping the creature, then unless you can untap the creature somehow.

It's an ability such as a Planeswalker loyalty ability that has special rules giving a once per turn restriction.


text:
What are the rules with attached creepers in Cthulhu Fluxx?
If I have a creeper attached to an investigator, does that still prevent me from winning?  I understand that having a lone creeper in front of you prevents you from winning---unless the goal says otherwise---but what if it’s attached to an investigator that is needed to win?
I know that if you attach a creeper to a keeper that removes the keepers special powers, but does it also strip the keeper of being a playable card?  I find that the Cthulhu Fluxx deck is stacked with creepers but not nearly enough cards and abilities to discard those creepers.  Thanks for the clarification!

You cannot win with a creeper out, even if it is attached to an investigator, unless that creeper is a condition of the victory (such as the Insane Nightmares goal)
See this image taken from https://i.sstatic.net/gvoXt.jpg for the card text:

Thanks for the clarification.  I guess I got confused with the “unless conditions say otherwise” which I’m assuming refers to goals that contain creepers in order to win.  It would be nice if there was more cards to help fight off those pesky creepers.

Creepers are a real bane in Cthulhu Fluxx, but there are tons of goals that include creepers. I guess it's thematic at least. But there are some awesome cards in there too, like the Elder Sign.


text:
Sacrifice blocking creature before damage is dealt no longer working (MtG Arena)?
So the following happened to me just now in MtG Arena. I declared a Dauntless Bodyguard as blocker for a creature and then sacrificed it before damage was dealt. As I'm used to in tabletop magic, this would result in the attacking creature not dealing any damage right? However in Arena, the attacking creature for some reason just switched target to my life points directly (which actually did cost me the game).
Was there any change in rules or did I just always play it wrong on paper?

It's crucial that you describe the whole situation. At the very least, which attacking creature did you block, and, if possible, what other cards were on the battlefield or have been played that could influence those creatures.

This is correct; the creature is blocked and won't deal combat damage to you (unless it had trample). The timing is important though; you need to sacrifice it when you have priority during the Declare Blockers step (which happens after declaring blockers).

509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.
510.1c A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage.
702.19c If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned, all its damage is assigned to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

The most likely thing here is the creature that you blocked had trample either due to it's own printed abilities or some other effect granting trample and you missed that ability. The rules on blocking and sacrificing have not changed. While I don't play MTGA as much as I do paper magic, I haven't personally seen this happen before as a bug, but I have missed abilities that were on the card or granted by another permanent due to not seeing the text on MTGA unless you zoom in on cards.

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


text:
Demonic Strategies for Claustrophobia
I have recently begun playing Claustrophobia BGG and have found myself playing the human side almost every time. The problem I encounter is - I'm winning. This is not usually a problem for me. But something about Claustrophobia has clicked for me, and I'm winning. A lot. It's making people not want to play with me.
We have discovered the handicaps, and my family has agreed to have the demon side start with 7 Threat Points instead of the usual 4, but I think that the game is more inherently balanced than our results would indicate.
So: What strategies do successful demon players pursue?

Do you spend the first n turns building up Threat?
Which powers do you consistently activate?
Event Cards - worth it or not?
Which humans are your first targets? (Redeemer, right?)

Please help my opponents! (And me, should I ever get to play the demon side...)

I have to admit I don't know the game, and this is not exactly an answer to your question, so feel free to mod me into oblivion if it doesn't make sense. But here's my contribution: you could consider having the participants bid on being allowed to be human - have players say, "I'm willing to be human if the demons start with 6 threat points", "I'll raise it to 8", "Alright, you get it". If the players have somewhat similar level, this should balance out the sides.

That's an interesting idea - not an answer to this question, but an interesting answer to another question!

@Erik P - also, I think the "advanced" game may in fact be a "name that tune" style auction mechanic, where you bid lower and lower numbers of points with which you then buy demons / teammates, advantages / events, etc.. I'll have to check my rulebook at home.

The advanced game has a mechanic exactly like that.  You actually bid on how many points you'll use to build the human team.

My experience from playing both sides is that the Demons win more often than not.
For the demon player:

Try to always have two troglodyte packs on the board, ideally from two sides, two packs of 3 troglodytes is very hard on the humans.  Keep them replenished, only power them up (ravenous, etc.) for sure hits or to position in front or behind.
Attack the human with the lowest armor, if equal then attack human with most wounds, if equal then attack redeemer
Event cards are very much worth it, grab them whenever you can
The big demon usually isn't needed to win.  Troglodyte swarms are great on their own.

For me I find that the demon generally wins and unlike you I hardly ever play the Human Player. It really depends on the scenario you're playing, see if you're playing the Survivors(scenario one) I would highly recommend using troglodytes to wound as many people as deeply as you can and then bring your demon out and use his special power (when the target is wounded get extra combat) to just finish each of them off in one swipe. See - you just gotta find the tactic!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
What are useful guidelines for deciding when to power down in RoboRally?
I'm having trouble putting my finger on clear guidelines for choosing when to announce a power down, and would love to hear some analyses.

There are several things to take into account:
Your position in the race. If I 'm comfortably ahead, I will be somewhat more inclined to power down (willing to accept a known handicap rather than possibly risk an unknown turn of events if I take much damage quickly). If I 'm trying to catch up, I will only power down if it seems my progress is getting way too slow due to locked registers.
Terrain. Contrary to other answers, I will be more inclined to power down on conveyor belts that take me closer to where I want to be. I might even power down when I normally would not consider doing so, because it's unlikely that I would be able to effectively utilize all 5 registers while at the same time staying on the belt. From that perspective, it costs less to power down in this situation. Of course all of this assumes that I will stay on the belt, which brings us to...
Proximity to other robots. Obviously powering down when near other robots is risky, even more so if there is deadly terrain nearby. In this situation I would consider powering down only if in imminent danger of being destroyed, and even then I might risk it if my last archive was close by.

A key question is whether you'll do as much missing the first of the next, say, three turns after powering down as you would have done with all three turns.
I have found that it's clearly wrong to announce when I am expecting to have only 2 damage, and probably wrong when I'm expecting to have 3 damage.  I don't have any probability analysis to back this up, though.
If I'm landing on a conveyor belt that will take me closer to where I'm going, I am only slightly more likely to power down.  I recommend against overemphasizing this (conveyor belts concentrate robots, and people might push me off or shoot me while on the same conveyor belt).
If I'm expecting to be in the "thick of things" at the end of my turn, I may end up with nearly as much damage as I started with, so I would almost not power down at all unless I am expecting locked registers.  The loss of control for a whole turn can be very damaging.
If I'm going to be in an area difficult to leave (such as being in between conveyor belts that point at me, and needing move 2 or move 3 to make progress) I am more likely to choose a power down.

I don't think about powering down until the first register is locked. If the number of robots in the field is low, I might continue one or two turns, but if the number of robots is more than four, I will power down.
When I announce my power down, I will try to move away from the clutter of robots to avoid a possible death. And I will definitely not power down on a conveyor belt, but that's just due previous experiences.


text:
In Arkham Horror, how many gates wakes the Ancient One?
If the max number of gates allowed on the board is, for example, 6, does the Ancient One wake up on the 6th or 7th gate?
I'm pretty sure that the answer to that should be that the Ancient One wakes up on the 7th gate, but I'm not too sure.
Additionally and as a clarification, all gates count regardless of if they are on the expansion boards, right? It's the monsters that don't count if they're outside Arkham itself.

See page 20 of the rulebook.  It has a table with the number of players vs. the number of open gates with the note:

The number of open gates that will immediately awaken the
  Ancient One depends on the number of players.

For 5 players, the number is 6.  When the sixth gate is opened, the Ancient One will awaken immediately.
Gates count towards the total wherever they are.  Do remember that when playing with more than one large expansion board you should count the total number of players as one less than actual for most purposes including the number of open gates needed to awaken the ancient one.

Additionally, if you purchase the Miskatonic Horror expansion, it comes with reference cards that list the various limits when there are 1-8 investigators with any number of expansion boards.


text:
How does Switcheroo affect equipment and Unsummon?
So I had a Creature equipped with Bladed Bracers and my opponent pulled out Switcheroo against my equipped creature.
My Questions are:
1. Does he also get the Bladed Bracers with my creature since the creature was equipped with it?
2. If the answer to the above is yes, does my opponent keep the Bladed Bracers if I played Unsummon?

The bladed bracers remain attached to the creature and will continue to confer the bonus as long as they remain attached, but you are still their controller.  Next time you have an opportunity you could use the equip ability to move them to another creature you control.  (Note there is no "unequip."  You need to have another creature under your control to move them on to in order to activate the ability.  In this case it's likely you do since you got one from Switcheroo!)

Thank you for that answer! It makes sense, I just wish I knew that before I lost lol. He gave me a non-flying defender with the switcheroo :(

1. Does he also get the Bladed Bracers with my creature since the creature was equipped with it?

No, He does not gain control of the Bladed Bracers. Since you still control the Bracers, you could use their Equip ability to attach them to a creature you control. (Of course, you'll have to wait until you have the mana, and for the stack to be empty in a main phase of one of your turns.)
However, until you reattach the Bracers to another creature, they do remain attached to the stolen creature, and the stolen creature will continue to get the benefits of the Bracers (+1/+1 and possibly vigilance).

2. If the answer to the above is yes, does my opponent keep the Bladed Bracers if I played Unsummon?

Not applicable. They never left your control.


text:
Can somebody continue a road after it has been cut off/separated from its nearest city?

I have - - - - - o (a settlement at the end of my road).
Now an opponent builds -- x ---o (a settlement along my road).
Can I do o - - x - - - - o (build a second settlement at the other end), or do I lose my road once it is cut off from my original settlement?

Shouldn't that be - - - - -o and - -x- - -o and o- -x- - -o? :-)

To build a settlement, you just need to obey the relevant rules for building a settlement, which are:

You may only build a settlement at an intersection if all 3 of the
  adjacent intersections are vacant (i.e., none are occupied by any
  settlements or cities—even yours).
Each of your settlements must connect to at least 1 of your own roads.

Assuming that the site you want to build at isn't adjacent to another settlement or city, then all you need to worry about is that you have a connecting road.  And in this instance you do: there's no reason to suppose a road ceases to be yours just because someone has interrupted its length.

Yes.
The roads remain yours, and you can continue to expand them and settle on them.
There are two weird related rules, though:

An opponent's settlement at the end of your road prevents you from expanding through that settlement.
o - - -x [cannot place more roads here]

o - - -x- [can place more roads/settlements here]

This is illustrated on the official website.
Even though you can keep building, your road is considered to be cut in half for the purposes of Longest Road.
Longest Road length = 6
o - - - - - -

Longest Road length = 4
o - - - -x- -

Are you sure that you cannot place roads past another players settlement?  Do you have a source for this rule?  I can't see it in the rule book for the base game.

@Justin Page 4 of the rulebook says "A new road must always connect to 1 of your existing roads, settlements or cities." Clearly if could play a road at X in this example, you are not connecting it to your road, you are connecting it to an opponent's city. This is not allowed. If you were to play a road at your O, it would be connecting to your city, but your own cities do not interrupt the length of your road for the purposes of the "Longest Road" card.

The website also says (in the FAQ) "You can add individual road pieces as long as you have a settlement or city to connect them to." (http://www.catan.com/faq/4606-longest-road-may-i-add-individual-road-pieces-interrupted-longest-road) It would seem that in this case, the road is no longer connected to a settlement or city.

Later, it says you may "build a settlement adjacent to an interrupted continuous road...as long as you have an own road adjacent to which you can build." (http://www.catan.com/faq/4631-settlements-and-cities-may-i-build-settlement-adjacent-interrupted-continuous-road) So it appears that you cannot continue the road without first building a settlement--assuming that building a settlement is possible.

Yes -- the only requirement to build a settlement or road is that it be connected to an existing single road.  That road doesn't need to be connected to anything else.


text:
Mana fixing in a Cube
I am building a cube and was wondering how much mana fixing is necessary to build a fun cube?
Is it necessary to have all the fetch lands and revised duals or shock lands to make sure that the players have the right manabase or is ok to forgo those cards for something simple (and less expensive) like evolving wilds and M10 lands + Innistrad lands?

A good mana base is required to have a good deck. The question is, how do you want people to achieve this? Either they play spells that're easy to cast or they have good fixing. Duals are fixing without an extra slot or tempo loss. Worse fixers either cost cards or tempo. Like the lands earlier suggested (Evolving Wilds, Taplands, Shimmering Grotto (ugh)) or with spells (Rampant Growth, Artifacts, etc). This will make your meta slower/less powerful and will probably give you less variation and options of what to do with the options given to you.
This is a really subjective answer, as this is a matter of taste.
What I want in a cube is the best cards possible.  I want to allow people to be creative and make powerful decks without having to worry too much about the mana. An aggro deck with Savannah Lions, Kird Ape,  Wild Mongrel and Hero of Bladehold. Sure splash in your Land Tax and Balance in your Pox-deck. A lot of popular cards like Brainstorm, Steppe Lynx, Counterbalance, Tarmogoyf lose a lot of their power without fetch lands. And fetches are also good fixers, especially with a few duals, so those are my top priority.
That said, if I had to buy all the cards to my cube from scratch, I wouldn't start spending it all on lands. I'd put in the good ones I had and start getting some fetches when I felt we had at pretty solid core of actual play cards.
A tip to ease the load on your wallet is to have a collaborative cube with some friends. You'll be surprised when you go through those old cards to see how many playables people are sitting on.

Btw, I love the manlands from Worldwake. They aren't that $-expensive, provides manafixing, something to do with you mana late game for only a small tempo loss.

Not at all.
A quick Gatherer Search revealed at least 25 non-Green, fairly inexpensive basic land searchers (most $0.10 commons). Key cards of note:

The Panoramas: Example Bant Panorama, Naya Panorama

Terminal Moraine, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Ghost Quarter, Oath of Lieges

Artifact Searchers - Armillary Sphere et. Al.

Basic Landcyclers

This is without even listing all the dual lands that are available. There is a thread on the Multiplayer Wizards forum that displays alternatives to the original duals for people on a budget. The top post of the thread breaks the dual/tri lands into categories, first by cost, then by cycle.
Finally, there are also artifacts that tap for any color, or three color(Obelisk of Esper, Obelisk of Naya), or cheap Signet cycle (Boros Signet, Azorius Signet, et. al.).

I think it depends on what type of cards you've included in your cube.
I remember that the Invasion block had lots of mana fixing because they wanted to encourage multi-colour deckbuilding due to the Domain mechanic.
On the other hand, Mirrodin block didn't require much (except for colourless splashable Myr) due to the artifact-heavy nature of the block.
I think a balance of a couple or three common lands/artifacts/fetch spells and a cycle of more colour specific uncommons/rares is a pretty standard way to go.

I would advise against getting dual lands or shock lands. First of all, they are only good in decks where players are running those colors. If we assume everybody runs a 2-color deck of randomly chosen colors, there's a 10% chance that this card would be at all useful to them. Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds, Shimmering Grotto, and Manalith on the other hand will be at least partially useful in any deck that runs 2 colors, and even more so in a deck that runs 3-colors. I'm not a drafting expert, but whenever I see a dual land in a pack it usually gets picked close to last, while the 3 cards I mentioned go more quickly because they are more widely useful.
Second of all, dual lands are pretty weak cards in draft. If you are given the choice between a dual land you want and a good spell, its almost always a better idea to take the spell. Dual lands are a mainstay in constructed because they are slightly better than basic lands, but in draft you need to get as much as possible of every pick, and you can't usually afford to spend one just to upgrade a single basic land.
Third, dual/shock lands just aren't very interesting IMHO. They don't add any new archetypes to the cube like a few Liliana's Caress or Spider Spawning potentially could, they don't really strengthen very many other archetypes, and most importantly, when you pick them, you don't get the amazing Hehehe, lets see if my opponents can deal with this! feeling that you get from picking an awesome card.
I would definitely suggest Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds and Shimmering Grotto because they are good mana-fixing cards in almost any deck. Manalith, Alloy Myr, Darksteel Ingot, and other any-color 'mana-rocks' could also be a nice touch. These will allow players to build flexible mana-bases without having to wait to get a land in the colors they need and should take up less space than a bunch of color-specific lands.
If you have a cube with a multicolor focus you may want to try the Shards of Alara tri-lands because they will be viable in more decks or even the signets. Neither of them are great, but they are both useful in more contexts than the dual lands.
user1873's list of Artifact Searchers should also be helpful. :D

First of all. Assuming everyone runs 2 color is doesn't work out in cube drafts, 3 colors or 2 with a splash is quite common with most cubes. Second, if I'm alone in my color combination, I have a higher chance of getting the right lands, and that's a good thing, right?
Picking lands too low is a mistake, like all misplays it will go down with the players gaining experience.

Everything is possible, YOU decide what is fun and how you want to build your Cube. Here is a detailed article on the basic of cube building.
Basically, it depends on :

Budget. Fetch lands and original dual lands are expensive
Power Level. They allow to build more reliable decks than any other duals (that's a reason why Legacy and Vintage are more powerful than Standard or Modern)
Colored requirement in your spells. The more you want to play with gold cards, the more mana fixing you need. Same with spells with several colored mana requirement (white knight versus squire). Note that this also impacts power lever since usually stronger color requirements allow MtG designers to build stronger cards such as Pernicious Deed or Phyrexian Obliterator.

In the end you can go anywhere from a high-power cube (my take, I like to play with the full P9 in the Cube so it's like building Vintage decks) to very low level with all commons or the curve learning cube described in this article.


text:
Confused by Magic the Gathering Arena trigger damage order (Revenge of Ravens)
I was playing MTG Arena and I had a funny situation where my opponent had Revenge of Ravens (ROR). I attacked with a bunch of monsters and soon after died.
Something similar happens in this video at 0:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdqIZbeDss
and I was puzzled at the order in which damage was assigned. Here's what the text says:

Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, that creature's controller loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

So I would have thought that the damage due to the attacks would be assigned before the effects of ROR.
But instead the opposite happened and as a result I died before my opponent like in the video. It felt very counter-intuitive to me given the text... because I died before any of my attacks ever even "happened".
My question is are all enchantments related to combat triggered like this (ie the effects of the trigger are assigned before the combat damage is assigned). Or are there some enchantments whose effects are assigned after combat damage? Thanks.

Revenge of Ravens works correctly. It deals damage as soon as creatures attack, before they deal combat damage.
The combat phase is a multi-step process, it doesn't simply happen all at once. In the most simple terms, first the attacker declares the creatures which attack, then the defender declares the blocking creatures, then creatures deal combat damage.
Between each of these steps, players can cast spells, and abilities like ROR can trigger and resolve. ROR triggers on that first step, when creatures attack, so it can absolutely kill the attacking player before any of their creatures can deal combat damage.

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

The priority system determines which player, if any, can cast spells and activate abilities. The priority system also determines when spells and abilities on the stack resolve.

117.3a The active player receives priority at the beginning of most steps and phases,

Probably worth noting that you can turn on the display of combat phases from the Gear / Gameplay menu in Arena, when some of this becomes more obvious.

The terminology here is a bit misleading. When the phrase  "when X attacks" appears in MtG, it means "When X is declared as an attacker". It doesn't refer to the event of a creature doing damage in combat. Declaring attackers happens in a phase that is separate from, and earlier than, the phase in which combat damage is assigned. "when X attacks" can trigger even if the creature is removed from combat before combat concludes, and it's possible for a creature to assign damage as an attacker without "when X attacks" triggering (there are cards that say to put a creature onto the battlefield attacking, and doing so isn't considering declaring them an attacker).

Thanks. Yes, I see what you mean. I can see why they'd write 'attacks' instead of 'is declared as an attacker' as the latter is a mouthful. It is a bit misleading, but it's fine as long as they are consistent. It's one of those things where once you know how to interpret the terminology, it's no longer a problem. I expect there will be other things like this as I keep learning about mtg.

@AmeetSharma Consistency of rules terminology is something you can very much depend on in MtG, complete with official explicit definitions in the Comprehensive Rules document (which gets updated every time a new set is released, btw). For example, hexproof prevents targeting, and with the single exception of Aura enchantments (which have the word in the Aura subtype's rules text), determining whether it prevents something is as simple as looking for the actual exact word "target" on the card.

@AmeetSharma You are correct, there will be many such things as you learn more about MtG :) the system is completely consistent, but far from trivial. And (rules) words mean things in this game - but what exactly they mean isn't always obvious just from parsing the English sentences on the cards.