text:
Martyrdom: how many instances of damage?
Martyrdom was errata’d, and its current oracle text seems to have significant functional differences compared to its printed text: it now redirects damage 1 by 1, instead of all at once.
I have an enrage creature in play, let’s say Polyraptor. An opponent attacks with a 10/10 and a 20/20. I declare no blocks, cast Martyrdom targeting my raptor, then activate the Martyrdom ability 30 times, targeting myself. How many damage triggers would this cause? 1, 2, 5, 30?

This will cause one damage trigger.
The activated ability created by Martyrdom creates a replacement effect upon resolution. This is indicated by the word "instead", as indicated in rule 614.1a. Specifically, it is a damage redirection effect, as described in rule 614.9. Rule 614.4 says

Replacement effects must exist before the appropriate event occurs—they can’t “go back in time” and change something that’s already happened. Spells or abilities that generate these effects are often cast or activated in response to whatever would produce the event and thus resolve before that event would occur.

So, the way a player uses Martyrdom is by activating the ability any number of times before a damage event occurs. The resulting replacement effects will be applied to the damage event, redirecting damage up to the number of times the ability was activated.
For the trigger itself, Polyraptor has a ruling on Gatherer that is very relevant here:

If multiple sources deal damage to a creature with an enrage ability at the same time, most likely because multiple creatures blocked that creature, the enrage ability triggers only once.

More generally, all combat damage within a single combat damage step is dealt simultaneously, as stated in rule 510.2. Damage redirection effects such as on Martyrdom change which object or player the damage is dealt to, but the resulting damage is still dealt simultaneously.

Here's how it plays out in detail:

The active player (AP) attacks with the 10/10 and the 20/20.
The non-active player (NAP) declares no blocks.
During the declare blocks phase, NAP casts Martyrdom targeting their Polyraptor.
NAP activates the ability created by Martyrdom 10 times targeting the first attacking creature and 20 times targeting the second attacking creature, creating a total of 30 damage redirection effects.
The game moves to the combat damage step, and both attacking creatures assign damage equal to their power to NAP.
The damage is dealt:

The initial damage event is "the two attacking creatures deal 10 and 20 damage respectively to NAP".
Replacement effects are applied, in the process described in rule 616.1:

NAP chooses one of the available replacement effects and applies it, redirecting one point of damage from one of the two attacking creatures to Polyraptor instead of NAP.
This process repeats until there are no more applicable replacement effects.

The resulting damage event is "the two attacking creatures deal 10 and 20 damage respectively to Polyraptor".
Polyraptor takes 30 damage. Polyraptor's ability triggers once.

State-based actions are checked. Polyraptor has taken lethal damage, and dies.
Polyraptor's trigger is put on the stack.
Polyraptor's trigger resolves, creating one copy of Polyraptor (using last-known copyable information).

That doesn't make sense to me because of the rulings on Martyrdom indicate to me that damage happens a single point at a time

I don't know which ruling you are referring to and I don't know why that would be an issue for my answer.

The ruling I am referring to is how you transfer damage a single point at a time and the one that says the damage is not transferred if the target is no longer there. I don't see how you can transfer lethal damage from multiple targets and still have the creature take all of that damage. My understanding of the rules is that once the target takes lethal damage it will be removed from the game and the rest of the damage will not have a target to transfer to.

You don't transfer a single point of damage at a time. You create one pending damage redirection effect at a time before the damage is dealt. So you can activate it however many times you want.

Then why did they change the wording to "The next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature, planeswalker, or player this turn is dealt to this creature instead" It seems to me that the card is transferring damage a point at a time.

They changed the wording because it's just not clear how the previous one functions within the rules. By creating an activated ability, the new wording has a specific effect happen at a specific time. But It does create a replacement effect, as the word "instead" indicates, and the player has to activate it before damage is dealt to make use of that replacement effect.

With a redirect effect, you aren't changing or transferring damage a point at a time, you're just changing the target of the damage. So it used to be 30 damage face. First activation changes that to 29 face, 1 creature. Second 28 face, 2 creature. Repeat until it's 0 face, 30 creature.


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Can Ghired, Conclave Exile and Helm of the Host go infinite?
So in a Commander match a buddy threw down Helm of the Host and Ghired, Conclave Exile. He attached the equipment to his Commander and swung out. Given the cards' rules texts, what goes onto/off of the stack and does this interaction would result in an infinite combo?

Please start by explaining what you think happens in this situation - it's much easier to help you if we're not starting with a completely empty canvas, or we'll just need to quote the entire comprehensive rules.

@PhilipKendall it seems clear to me that the question is whether "enters the battlefield tapped and attacking" triggers "when this creature attacks" triggers.

@ArcanistLupus That's the only subtlety I can see here, but it would still be easier to answer if we didn't have to guess;  Actually, there's actually also whether copies of Helm of the Host created tokens are legendary or not - while that's covered in the rulings on Helm, we get plenty of questions here where people haven't read the Gatherer rulings on a card.

@ArcanistLupus I agree that's pretty clear the only way there could be a possible infinite combo, but the asker should be explicit about that, not require the readers to infer the actual question from reading the cards.

And after all that, it was on the rulings on Ghired ;-) (good spot @Andrew)

@PhilipKendall - The tokens wouldn't be legendary thanks to the copy being the exact same without the legendary keyword, so that isn't a problem. And I tried to stay vague intentionally so that I could get better answers. The 'Magic Pros' would know what was happening between those two cards and I figured that would be a better, unbiased, more informed answer.

This is not an infinite combo
Here are the relevant steps, in order:

You enter combat, and Helm of the Host creates a token copy of Ghired.  The token is not legendary, and has haste.
The token entering the battlefield creates a 4/4 Rhino.  (The Rhino does not have haste.)
You declare attackers, attacking with both Ghireds
Both Ghired populate triggers go on the stack
The first trigger resolves, creating a copy of the Ghired1 token.  The token is not legendary, but does not have haste2, and enters the battlefield tapped and attacking.  The token enters the battlefield in the state of "having already attacked", and therefore the game does not 'see' the moment that it did attack (which would have been during the declare attackers step, which has already passed), and it does not trigger the populate effect.
The game does, however, see it enter the battlefield, so you do get another Rhino token.
Repeat steps 5 & 6 with the second populate trigger.
You now have 4 Ghireds.  One is the original card, one is the Helm token, and two are the populate tokens.  All four are attacking.  You also have 3 new rhino tokens (plus probably one from when the first Ghired entered the battlefield).  These tokens are not attacking.
Opponent declares blockers.

1 You could in theory populate the Rhino, but why would you want to?
2 This is due to how copy effects work. Copy effects only copy the "copiable values" of the permanent, which is generally the original text of the card as modified by copy effects themselves.  All other affects (e.g. "target creature gains flying", "target creature gets +1/+1") are ignored.  On Helm of the Host, the removal of the Legendary supertype is part of the copy effect, while Haste is granted afterwards.  Therefore the lack of Legendary is copiable, but the Haste is not. This isn't particularly relevant, because haste only affects whether the token can be declared as an attacker, and entering the battlefield tapped and attacking skips this step (which is the same reason you don't get more tokens).
Incidentally, Magic tries to avoid permanently granting abilities through static effects, as this creates memory issues.  But they sometimes make exceptions for haste on wordy cards, with the theory being that haste is only relevant for one turn anyways.  But it's worth paying attention to if you're facing down a Gingerbrute or dealing with Control Magic.

Perfect, thank you. I tried to explain all this to him during the match, but I'm not great at explaining sometimes. I wanted a better explanation from the internet for him to read that hopefully makes more sense than my gibberish. Thank you!

No. Ghired does not go infinite with Helm of the Host. Whenever ~ attacks abilities trigger when those creatures are declared as attackers - You will be able to attack with the original Ghired and the token created by Helm of the Host, both of which will trigger populate, but the tokens that those populate abilities create will not have their abilities trigger.
Each turn you can more than double the number of Ghired creatures you have, and gain 4/4s from his enters the battlefield, but the populate abilities on those new tokens will not trigger. This is covered by rule 508.2a and 508.3a of the comprehensive rules (emphasis mine):

508.2a Abilities that trigger on a creature attacking trigger only at the point the creature is declared as an attacker. They will not trigger if a creature attacks and then that creature’s characteristics change to match the ability’s trigger condition.

508.3a An ability that reads “Whenever [a creature] attacks, . . .” triggers if that creature is declared as an attacker. Similarly, “Whenever [a creature] attacks [a player or planeswalker], . . .” triggers if that creature is declared as an attacker attacking that player or planeswalker. Such abilities won’t trigger if a creature is put onto the battlefield attacking.

It is also in the rulings for Ghired on gatherer (emphasis mine):

Although the token is an attacking creature, it was never declared as an attacking creature. This means that abilities that trigger whenever a creature attacks won’t trigger when it enters the battlefield attacking.

Since the tokens were not declared as an attacker, but forced in attacking, the populate does not trigger.

Thank you for the rules details, but I am trying to explain to my buddy how everything goes onto and off of the stack so he understands why it doesn't go infinite. I read him the rules, but he thought they didn't apply/interact that way for whatever reason. I needed the stack step by step to hopefully help him see the err of his ways!

@Odin1806 Either the ruling off gatherer or rule 508.3A which it is based on will be your best bet - they specifically say if something is put in attacking "when ~ attacks" abilities don't happen

I tried to explain attacking and attackers, but I didn't do a great job in the moment... Your answer worked for me and will be great for explaining why it happens how it happens. Still useful and I wish I could give you a check mark as well...

No, there is no infinite combo here.
Helm of the Host creates a non-legendary copy of Ghired just before you attack. Both Ghireds could create additional non-legendary Ghired tokens that are tapped and attacking, so on the first time you attack, you can get up to 3 non-legendary Ghired tokens plus the original.
However, these populate tokens do not trigger their own attack abilities, only the Helm token does. A creature that enters the battlefield already attacking has never actually been declared as an attacker because it has been created after the declare attackers step. Therefore it doesn't trigger any abilities that trigger on attack, which is necessary for the populate to happen.
The 5 steps of combat are:

Beginning of combat. This is where Helm triggers and resolves, and where you get 1 Ghired token

Declare attackers. This is where you can declare all existing Ghireds to attack and get that many populate triggers. The populate tokens enter the battlefield but are not declared as attackers because they're already attacking, so you don't get additional populate triggers

Declare blockers

Combat damage (1 or 2)

End of combat

Effectively, you can create x+3 Ghired tokens per attack, where x is the number of Ghired tokens you already controlled before the Helm trigger. That will of course grow quickly, but not arbitrarily quickly.

2x+3 doesn't seem right. You can create 2(x+1) - x new tokens, where x is the number of Ghireds you had at the start of the turn (original included), giving you 2(x+1) total.

You go from 1+0 to 1+3 to 1+9 to 1+21 and so on. That means you create 2x+3 tokens per attack, where x is the number of tokens before the Helm trigger. I didn't give the total since the question was about how many you create per attack.

That's not right. If you start with x tokens, the Helm trigger creates 1 more token, then when you attack, each of the x+1 tokens plus the 1 non-token creates another token, for a total of 1+(x+2) = x+3 new tokens.

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What is the tiebreaker in Wingspan if players have equal points?
I've been playing the Android wingspan app and my previous game ended in a tie.
One of the other players was awarded the win, but I didn't see any indication of the metric used to break the tie.
What is the tie-breaker in the base game of Wingspan?

from the rules here

The player who has the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the
player with the most unused food tokens wins. If players are still
tied, they share the victory.

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Sheng Ji (升级) rules for throwing cards (甩牌)
In the game Sheng Ji (升级), it is possible to lead a combination of cards when you believe they are unbeatable in their respective suits. This is called throwing cards (甩牌).
In my experience, the throwing-cards mechanism is subtle enough that new players of Sheng Ji (including myself) rarely or never use it, and there are sometimes arguments when it is used. I'm curious if there's a good description of this mechanism out there that specifically addresses irregularities like incorrect leads. House rules are also fine if they work in practice. From what I can gather, this game is not standardized, so in a certain sense all rules are house rules.
I have three questions about this combination:

Under what circumstances can a lead of thrown cards be beaten?
What happens if a lead of thrown cards does not actually consist of the highest possible cards.
Does a thrown card lead need to consist exclusively of cards of the same suit?

For 1, the question is pretty straightforward.
It seems obvious that a trick can only be beaten if someone can beat every card led. However it's still not clear what this means because Sheng Ji is a multi-trick game and it's not clear what the internal structure is of a thrown-card lead.
For example, if threes and clubs are trump (主牌) and I lead KS, QS, QS, can that be beaten with 3S, 3H, 3D?
I suspect that the answer is no and that cards within a thrown-cards play maintain their internal structure, i.e. a lead of KS, QS, QS is really a lead of KS, {QS, QS}.
For question 2, I am even more confused.
If we take Wikipedia at face value, then the penalty for an incorrect lead of thrown cards seems extremely mild.

If any card(s) in the combination may be bested by another player in the suit lead, they will be asked, by that player, to take back the cards that are the largest in the suit, and play any of the single/double/tractor cards that may be bested as penalty.

I read this as saying that any player holding a card which demonstrates that a lead is invalid may play it and force the leader to play a specific combination out of what they already played as a penalty.
This seems bad for three reasons:

It is logistically inconvenient if other players have played since the incorrect lead.
The incorrect lead still communicates information to the leader's partner.
If the partner has the card that invalidates the lead, they may simply choose not to invoke the penalty.

For example, it seems to be against the spirit of the rules but not the letter to lead an entire suit as thrown cards. In which case one of the opponents can force you to retract all but one combination of the lead. This penalty is so mild that it might be worth it to a player to communicate information about their hand to their partner, especially if they were going to lose the trick anyway.
For another point, if threes and clubs are trump, is AH, KH, KH a valid lead if hearts have not been played before? The KH-pair is unbeatable because the AH is part of the lead, but is that good enough for the purposes of determining lead validity?
For question 3, all of the examples I have seen are of thrown cards that are all the same suit. I am just wondering whether this restriction technically exists or not.


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How do Mystic Reflection and Cursed Mirror interact?
I cast a Cursed Mirror. In Response, my opponent casts Mystic Reflection. I wanted for my mirror to enter as a Copy of creature A, my opponent chooses creature B for Mystic Reflection. As what does my Mirror enter the battlefield?

The Cursed Mirror enters the battlefield as a copy of the creature targeted by Mystic Reflection.
First, Mystic Reflection resolves before Cursed Mirror, so Mystic Reflection's replacement effect is active as Cursed Mirror resolves. Once Cursed Mirror starts to resolve, applicable replacement effects are applied. At first, Cursed Mirror is an artifact, so its own replacement effect applies but Mystic Reflection's replacement effect does not. So you apply Cursed Mirror's replacement effect, making it a copy of a creature of your choice. Then it is entering the battlefield as a creature, so Mystic Reflection's replacement effect applies, making the Cursed Mirror a copy of Mystic Reflection's target.

The outcome is the same even if the permanent entering the battlefield started out as a creature, such as Clone, as stated in one of the rulings on Mystic Reflection:

If a creature such as Clone is entering the battlefield under your control, there will be two copy effects to apply: the creature's own and Mystic Reflection's. No matter which order these effects are applied in, the creature will be a copy of the target creature when it enters the battlefield.


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Which words count for a double word score?
In Scrabble, if you make a new word and one of your letters adds onto another word making a whole new word, but this letter falls onto a double word score and you want to count it for the higher word score (the word you added the letter to) can you do this?
My dad is trying to say you can only count the double word score for every new word you make but by adding this one letter to a previous word, I think I am making a new word so that should count as well.

Related: Variation: use double word squares twice?.

You can do what you want here (score the modified word and the entirely new word).
All that matters is whether you play a tile on a premium square. If you do, you'll get the bonus, for that tile or the word(s) containing it, as appropriate.
For example, if someone plays CLOUD, with a double-word score square just after the end of it, and you play SWORD off of that, forming CLOUDS as well, you'll get double score for both CLOUDS and SWORD. You could also just add the S and score for CLOUDS, but hopefully you can do better!
You'll only get the bonus once, on the turn when a tile is played on the special square. Once it's covered, it's used and it might as well not be there. But it applies to everything relevant on the turn when you do play on that square.
From the rules (in the scoring section):

The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word(s) formed or modified on that turn, plus the additional points obtained from placing letters on Premium Squares.
Letter and word premiums count only on the turn in which they are played. On later turns, letters already played on premium squares count at face value.

I agree with the explanation but what does "You can do what you want here." mean? You can't do whatever you want. If the is S in a double-score square, all new words that were created in this turn and have that S added, count with double score. You can't choose which one to count as double.

@ypercubeᵀᴹ It means that the OP can do what they asked about being able to do in the question (score off both the modified and the entirely new word).

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Parallax mechanics
I would play a Brago, King Eternal EDH deck but it is not clear in my mind how does the parallax cards work. I thought that I could remove only a fade counter each turn but googling I read different things: seems that people remove more than one land/creature each turn without using extra cards like Strionic Resonator. So they are able to exile up to 4 card each turn. How does parallax mechanics work? Can someone explain it to me?

I am honestly not sure how they would work with Brago either, since Brago's flicker ability is sorcery speed, and any flicker that would reset them would have to be done in response to the triggers from removing the counters. Remove 4 counters - 4 exile abilities on stack, 1 counter left, flicker Parallax, parallax tries to return all cards exiled (none) then comes back with 5 new counters, 4 exile triggers resolve. Also worth noting you'd only gt 4 cards the first turn you play it, turns after you'd get 3, since one of the fade counters would have been faded off.

The "parallax cards" you are almost certainly Parallax Tide and Parallax Wave. These cards have Fading, but these cards also have the additional mechanic that allows you to remove an additional fade counter whenever you want to get a certain effect. In normal play, this creates a tradeoff, where you can activate the ability more times, but that results in the lands or creatures you exile returning sooner.
However, with certain other cards, you can abuse effect timing and stacking to either exile lands or creatures permanently, or flicker creatures whenever you want. To exile things permanently, you can activate the ability targeting what you want to get rid of, then with all of those abilities on the stack, cast a card like Flicker. This will cause the parallax card's last ability to trigger before anything gets exiled, so when those cards do get exiled they will never return. In addition, if you allow any of those abilities to resolve before casting Flicker, those exiled cards will return, so you can also effectively use it to flicker multiple lands or creatures.
In addition, if you have Parallax Wave with Opalescence, Parallax Wave will be a creature, so you can use its own ability to exile itself, then the last ability will trigger and it will return itself. This will allow you to effectively use its own ability as a makeshift Flicker, and do the previously described process repeatedly.

How does this work when considering the speed of the abilities, you'd have to activate the flicker ability while the exile abilities from parallax cards are on the stack, but Brago is a triggered flicker which goes on stack due to damage, which no longer uses the stack, therefore is effectively sorcery speed (empty stack)

You're right that the specific interaction to permanently exile stuff doesn't work with Brago. But I mentioned allowing the abilities to resolve before the Flicker effect to flicker stuff, which does work with Brago. It can be kind of redundant with Brago, but you can use it with Parallax Tide to flicker lands.

Then Parallax wave is redundant here. Are there any ways to actually do a permanent exile with this, just did a quick gatherer search for instants that flicker, but none flicker enchantments, almost all creatures, and a few artifact and land?

I linked to the card Flicker in my answer, which does exactly that.

Except Flicker is a sorcery, so you can't use it in response to the Parallax abilities. It has similar timing issues to Brago.

Ghostly Flicker or Momentary Blink would do the trick. (I don't know how to post links apparently lol)

@RubixRechvin Ghostly Flicker cannot target Enchantments, Momentary Blink can only target creatures. Parallax Tide and Parallax Wave are both enchantments. Like I was saying there does not seem to be an instant source of flicker for enchantments, without giving your spells flash (IE Layline of Anticipation)

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Does Weathered Runestone make Emergent Ultimatum ineffective?
Does Weathered Runestone make Emergent Ultimatum ineffective? In other words, does having Weathered Runestone on the battlefield prevent cards fetched with the ultimatum being cast?

No, Weathered Runestone does not interact with Emergent Ultimatum. The Ultimatum allows its controller to cast the searched cards from exile, not from a library or graveyard.
As Weathered Runestone says, it prevents casting spells from graveyards or libraries. This applies to e.g. Skyclave Shade and Vivien, Monsters' Advocate. Its first ability also applies to, for example, Genesis Ultimatum and Eerie Ultimatum.

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

However, Emergent Ultimatum puts the searched cards into exile first, which is a different zone.

400.1. A zone is a place where objects can be during a game. There are normally seven zones: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, stack, exile, and command.

The controller of Emergent Ultimatum then casts those cards from exile, which Weathered Runestone does not prevent.

While Hackworth has already answered this question, the rulings on gatherer also address this situation:

If an effect exiles a card from a graveyard or library and allows a
player to cast it, the player may do so. The spell is cast from exile.


text:
Does tapping already tapped creature counts as "committing a crime"?
The Sterling Keykeeper is on the table and a player activates its ability (2, Tap: Tap target non-Mount creature), targeting opponent's tapped non-Mount creature. Does "commit a crime" triggers in this case?
My instinct says that the answer is "Yes", but I can't find the proof in the comp. rules.

Yes, you committed a crime.
For a crime to have occurred, all that matters is that you targeted something.

700.13. Some cards refer to committing a crime. A player commits a crime as that player casts a spell, activates an ability, or puts a triggered ability on the stack and that spell or ability targets at least one opponent; at least one permanent, spell, or ability an opponent controls; and/or at least one card in an opponent’s graveyard.

If you target a tapped creature with Sterling Keykeeper, the effect resolves but doesn't do anything, because you can't tap an already tapped creature.
The rules for "crime", however, don't require that the spell or ability has to actually do anything, or even resolve. Successfully targeting something is all that is required.


text:
interaction between Fiery Emancipation and trample
I had Fiery Emancipation (which triples damage) on the battlefield, and attacked my opponent with a 4/1 creature with trample. My opponent had 6 life and blocked with a 5/6 creature.
I believed that Fiery Emancipation would triple the damage to 12 thus allow me to win the game due to the 6 excess damage being applied to my opponent, thanks to trample. However, my opponent took no damage. What am I not understanding?

Given that the Gatherer entry for Fiery Emancipation contains a ruling on the exact scenario with trample, this question now looks rather lacking in research. (It's not the only on the site like that, though.)

@ilkkachu This question (and most others that could have been answered by their gatherer rulings) had no gatherer link originally. We link all involved cards to gatherer by default with the [mtg:cardname] tag.

Damage was probably calculated correctly, combat damage assignment does not take into account effects like Fiery Emancipation.
When you assign combat damage, effects that modify how much damage is actually dealt (such as Fiery Emancipation) are not taken into account. Assuming the defending creature had no damage assigned to it already, you have to assign all 4 of your damage to it, and none to the defending player. After all damage has been assigned, damage is actually dealt, and only now is it modified by Fiery Emancipation. The defending creature will take 12 damage, while your opponent takes none.

510.1c [..] When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. [..]

Basically, you assign damage as though Fiery Emancipation was not on the battlefield at all. Dealing and modifying the damage happens after damage assignment, not before.

In combat, you assign damage based on the power the creature actually has, not the amount of damage it would deal once it hits. So you don't account for Fiery Emancipation when assigning combat damage, just when evaluating how much damage is actually dealt.
For a concrete example, say you have your Fiery Emancipation and the 4/1 creature with trample as mentioned, and your opponent has a creature with 3 toughness to block with. After you attack and blockers are declared, you can assign 3 damage to the creature and 1 damage to the defending player (because of trample). Then combat damage is dealt, and after applying Fiery Emancipation's effect, the attacking creature deals 9 damage to the blocking creature and 3 damage to the defending player.


text:
What is the mana value of Smelt//Herd//Saw?
The card Smelt//Herd//Saw from Magic: the Gathering has the cost of R/5G/1B.
What is its mana value? Possibilities I see include:

1: the mana value on the face of the card
6: the highest mana value of any of its split parts
7: the sum of the mana value of the first two split parts
9: the sum of the mana value of all 3 split parts?

The Comprehensive Rules do not have a ruling for multiple split cards.

The mana value of Smelt//Herd//Saw would be 9.
Smelt//Herd//Saw is a test card that is not legal or intended for serious play:

Playtest cards aren't legal for play in any tournament format other than Mystery Booster Limited formats. On the other hand, we expect they will spice up a wide variety of casual games. Cube may never be the same.

The comprehensive rules don't have explicit rules for split cards with more than two faces because there are no such tournament-legal cards. However, modifying the existing rules for split cards is straightforward:

For many playtest cards, you'll need to make a generous assumption that basic game rules will be updated to allow them to work.

709.4b The mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves. A split card’s colors and mana value are determined from its combined mana cost. An effect that refers specifically to the symbols in a split card’s mana cost sees the separate symbols rather than the whole mana cost.

The logical modification would be to combine not "its two halves", but "all of its faces" or similar, making you add the mana values of all its faces together for an MV of 9 outside the stack.

As stated, the mana value of the card is 9. However, when it's on the stack, it's a spell, and that spell has a mana value of 1/2/6, depending on the option chosen when casting.
This is to add to Hackworth's excellent reply, I know that you asked for the mana value of the card, and Hackworth answered that perfectly, but some players unfamiliar with split cards and mana values don't realise that spells and cards are different items for the game to recognise. This is particularly important given that a huge amount of cards that care about mana value want the spell's mana value; others want the card's!
(I would have added this to Hackworth's answer, but I don't have 50 reputation to do so, I'm afraid. )

Thank you Sylvia. This is a good explanation. I was curious about the card's MV in this particular case.


text:
Can Strefan and the creature entered with its trigger attack different players?
Strefan, Maurer Progenitor has the following ability:

Whenever Strefan attacks, you may sacrifice two Blood tokens. If you do, you may put a Vampire card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It gains indestructible until end of turn.

Does the Vampire put onto the battlefield this way has to attack the same player or planeswalker?
Geist of Saint Traft has a specific rule about it:

You choose which player or planeswalker the Angel token is attacking. It doesn’t have to be attacking the same player or planeswalker that Geist of Saint Traft is attacking.

Rulings on gatherer are simply ways of explaining specific rules - the rules apply to everything worded in the same way - in this case unless the card specifies who a token is attacking when it's put into play, the controller gets to choose.

Comprehensive Rule 508.4:

If a creature is put onto the battlefield attacking, its controller chooses which defending player or
which planeswalker a defending player controls it’s attacking as it enters the battlefield (unless the
effect that put it onto the battlefield specifies what it’s attacking)

The Gatherer ruling on Geist of Saint Traft is simply a clarification of how the Comprehensive Rules apply; the fact that the ruling isn't on Strefan, Maurer Progenitor just means the editors at Wizards didn't put it on, rather than that the card has a different effect.

My local juge says the opponent has to be a defending player (another creature has to attack them) before the Vampire enters the battlefield...

Your question (at least in the body of the text) was whether they have to attack the same player or planeswalker; the answer to that is a definite "no". The question as to which opponents become defending players is a different question and format dependent - please edit your question (don't comment) to include the formats you are interested in - see rules 802 and 803.

I don't understand why the rule would apply differently according to thé format

@sinsedrix Because some multiplayer formats use rule 802 ("Attack Multiple Players Option") and some use 803 ("Attack Left and Attack Right Options"); which players are defending players depends on which of those options is in use. For casual formats including Commander, the players can choose, although Commander defaults to using 802 (see rule 903.2).

Although honestly, your local judge is probably just wrong here, certainly if the Attack Multiple Players Option is in use. 802.2 is very clear on this.

Ok, If all opponents are considered as defending players in multiformat, it's now clear.


text:
How does Exquisite Archangel work with different ways of losing?
The card Exquisite Archangel from Aether Revolt has the following ability:

If you would lose the game, instead exile Equisite Archangel and your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.

The way this works with losing due to life loss seems relatively simple, but what happens if you lose to something else, such as poison counters, mill, or an effect that says that your opponent wins the game? Does this ability have any other common edge cases?

You're right. Lich's Mirror has a very similar effect to Exquisite Archangel. But it's old enough, and unusual enough, that I think most people will be unfamiliar with both the card and the nuances of its interactions when they try to understand Exquisite Archangel.

There is actually a variety of possible outcomes of the Exquisite Archangel's ability, depending on how you would lose the game.

Life Loss: In this case, the ability works as you would expect: instead of losing the game due to having 0 or less life, you gain life so that your life total becomes equal to your starting life total (20 in a normal game) [CR 118.5].

Exception: If an effect says that you can't gain life, such as on Erebos, God of the Dead, then the Archangel's ability will not cause you to gain life, so you will remain a 0 or less life and lose immediately after exiling the Archangel.

Poison Counters: If you get 10 or more poison counters, the Archangel will not save you. You will exile it and change your life total the first time State-based actions are checked, but once that is done, State-based actions will be rechecked immediately, and this time the Archangel won't be there to help, so you will still lose.

Commander Damage: In a Commander game, you normally lose if you take 21 damage from a single commander. Similar to the case with poison counters, the Archangel's effect will apply once, but the damage will still be marked, so you will still lose immediately.

Mill: If you try to draw a card from an empty library, the Archangel will save you once, but you will still have an empty library and you will lose the next time you have to draw a card. You don't lose immediately because of how that specific state-based action is worded:

704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, he or she loses the game.

"You lose": If an effect directly says that you lose the game, from a card such as an opponent's Door to Nothingness or your own Demonic Pact, the Archangel will replace that effect, and you won't lose the game.

Exception: If you lose due to the effect of the card Transcendence, the Archangel won't be much help. The replacement effect will reset your life total to your starting life total, which will usually be at least 20, and then Transcendence's triggered ability will trigger again, and you will lose.

"You Win": If your opponent has an effect that says "you win the game", the outcome varies depending on whether the game is a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option:

Games without limited range of influence: In a standard two-player game, or any multiplayer game without the limited range of influence option, winning the game immediately ends the game, without requiring the opposing player to lose the game. In this case, the Exquisite Archangel's ability will simply never apply.

Games with limited range of influence: In these games, rule 104.3h applies:

In a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option (see rule 801), an effect that states that a player wins the game instead causes all of that player’s opponents within the player’s range of influence to lose the game. This may not cause the game to end.

So if a player has an effect that says "you win the game", instead each of their opponents in their range of influence loses the game, but the Archangel's replacement effect will apply and save you if you are one of those players.

Exception: If that player wins due to the effect of a state-based triggered ability such as Darksteel Reactor, then the replacement effect will save you once, and then the triggered ability will trigger again, and you will lose.

Re: interaction with Erebos, is the triggered ability of  Exquisite Archangel really a life gain event?  The trigger doesn't say "gain life" it says "becomes".

EDIT: posted the 2HG rule, sorry.
118.5. If an effect sets a player's life total to a specific number, the player gains or loses the necessary amount of life to end up with the new total.

@eggo That's what the CR 118.5 link explains. That rule says "If an effect sets a player’s life total to a specific number, the player gains or loses the necessary amount of life to end up with the new total."

For reasons unknown to me, the link to darksteel reactor does not work for me, the search returns 0 results.

@PlasmaHH Some people have in the past had problems with our card links because their default language is set to something other than English in Gatherer.

@murgatroid99: what a weird thing to do..

I never knew #6; I thought "you win" always caused your opponent to lose.

What if you lose due to running out of time in a single-elimination game in a tournament?

I'm not sure your assessment of milling is complete. There's also rule 104.3c: "If a player is required to draw more cards than are left in their library, they draw the remaining cards and then lose the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)" Per the effects of the Archangel on the other state-based losses you list, the Archangel saves you briefly but then you lose. In other words, you lose if you are milled from 1 or more cards, but you can hang on for a bit if milled with 0 cards.

That rules quote doesn't contradict anything I said. The key phrase is "the next time a player would receive priority", which is functionally the same as the bolded part in the quote in the answer. The event that makes you lose only happens once, during the next evaluation of state-based actions after you try to draw a card. Once the Archangel saves you from that, it won't happen again until the next time you try to draw a card.

Rule 104.3h has been updated to "In a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option (see rule 801), an effect that states that a player wins the game instead causes all of that player’s opponents within the player’s range of influence to lose the game." That means an ordinary multiplayer game is the same as a 2-player game.

I have updated the answer to address that.


text:
Does Wandering Archaic trigger if the spell is countered?
If Wandering Archaic is in play, a spell is played and countered while the Wandering Archaic's ability is still on the stack, what happens when the Wandering Arachic trigger resolves? Does it fizzle or does it create a copy despite the original spell being countered?

This question is a duplicate of Ulalek copying countered spell. Normally I would vote to close the newer question as a duplicate of the older one, but in this case the newer question has answers with rules quotes (which I prefer). The answer on this one is more succinct though. I don't know which is better.

@Rainbolt What do you think about creating a more generic question dealing with triggers that reference spells that are then countered? We can self-answer or even Community Wiki that question and make both this question and the Ulalek question duplicates of that one.

@ryanyuyu You can if you want. I would rather improve an existing question before creating yet another duplicate. I posted about this on meta. The reason I didn't edit the title of these two questions (yet) is because it would be suspicious for me to vote to close two questions with identical names as duplicates right after I edited their names to be identical.

Since the triggered ability does not target, it will resolve and use last known information about the copied spell. See for example the ruling on Mirari.


text:
Does Silence stop working in the Cleanup step, allowing more spells to cast in the same turn when discard triggers effects?
In a recent CEDH game of Playing With Power MTG, one player played Silence during the turn of a The Gitrog Monster player. The Gitrog player then uses the Dredgmooor combo in his endstep and afterwards plays spells with the understanding that the effect of the Silence ended in the cleanup state and they can play more spells that turn.
Is this a valid play?

Yes, the play was legal.
Normally, during the cleanup step, no player gets priority to cast spells or activate abilities. However, since the player affected by Silence controlled The Gitrog Monster and had to discard cards during cleanup, one of which was a land, players got rounds of priority. By that time, Silence had already ended and that player was allowed to cast spells.

Cleanup Step

514.1. First, if the active player’s hand contains more cards than their maximum hand size (normally seven), they discard enough cards to reduce their hand size to that number. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.

The Gitrog player discarded 3 cards here. One of them was a land (Mana Confluence), so the Gitrog Monster ability triggered and was waiting to enter the stack.

514.2. Second, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage marked on permanents (including phased-out permanents) is removed and all “until end of turn” and “this turn” effects end. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.

Silence ended here.

514.3. Normally, no player receives priority during the cleanup step, so no spells can be cast and no abilities can be activated. However, this rule is subject to the following exception:

514.3a At this point, the game checks to see if any state-based actions would be performed and/or any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack (including those that trigger “at the beginning of the next cleanup step”). If so, those state-based actions are performed, then those triggered abilities are put on the stack, then the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass in succession, another cleanup step begins.

The Gitrog Monster's ability entered the stack here and players get rounds of priority, allowing everyone to cast spells.

Yes (surprisingly).
Three things happen in the Cleanup Step in order:

The active player discards to hand size.
Damage is removed and "this turn" effects end.
If any state-based actions would be performed and/or triggered abilities are waiting to happen, they happen.

Because the triggers happen after point 2, "this turn" effects have ended and so Silence's effect no longer applies.
Comprehensive Rules 514:

Cleanup Step

514.1. First, if the active player’s hand contains more cards than their maximum hand size (normally seven), they discard enough cards to reduce their hand size to that number. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.
514.2. Second, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage marked on permanents (including phased-out permanents) is removed and all “until end of turn” and “this turn” effects end. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.
514.3. Normally, no player receives priority during the cleanup step, so no spells can be cast and no abilities can be activated. However, this rule is subject to the following exception:
514.3a At this point, the game checks to see if any state-based actions would be performed and/or any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack (including those that trigger “at the beginning of the next cleanup step”). If so, those state-based actions are performed, then those triggered abilities are put on the stack, then the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass in succession, another cleanup step begins.


text:
What happens if the card to be copied and bounced by Sublime Epiphany is the same?
If I play Sublime Epiphany and both bounce my Frilled Mystic and copy it, what happens. Given that the bouncing is listed first on the card, does the copying ability still see the Frilled Mystic in a way that allows it to create the copy?

From the Rulings in the Gatherer

If you choose the third and fourth modes and target the same creature you control both times, you’ll return it and then create a token that’s a copy of it, using its copiable values as it last appeared on the battlefield. This is because the legality of targets is checked only as the spell begins to resolve, before any actions are performed.


text:
Can Runed Halo be used against the zombie tokens created by Field of the Dead?
Is it possible to protect oneselves with Runed Halo against Field of the Dead's tokens? If so, what card name has to be named?

No, you cannot do that, sorry.
Runed Halo requires you choose a card name. This means your choice is limited to names that exist on actual cards printed for the game.(1) You cannot make an arbitrary choice: for example “Lightning Bolt” is a valid choice, but “Arnold Schwarzenegger” is not because no such card exists (alas).
Field of the Dead creates Zombie tokens, which are simply called “Zombie”.(2) There is no card by that name, so you cannot choose the name “Zombie” for Runed Halo. (Tokens aren't cards, so they don't count towards the pool of card names.)
Choosing the name “Field of the Dead” won't grant you protection from the Zombies it creates. It'll mean you can't be targeted or damaged by Field of the Dead, but it wasn't going to do that anyway.
There is a loophole for tokens that share a name with a card. For example, Goblin Wizardry creates tokens that will be named “Goblin Wizard”. There is also a card by that name: Goblin Wizard. This means it's a name you can choose for Runed Halo, which will then also grant you protection from those tokens because they have that name. You cannot however use this loophole for “Zombie”.

Citation 1:

201.3. If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name, the player must choose the name of a card in the Oracle card reference. (See rule 108.1.) A player may not choose the name of a token unless it’s also the name of a card.

Citation 2:

111.4 A spell or ability that creates a token sets both its name and its subtype(s). If the spell or ability doesn’t specify the name of the token, its name is the same as its subtype(s). A “Goblin Scout creature token,” for example, is named “Goblin Scout” and has the creature subtypes Goblin and Scout. [...]

I've always thought it's very interesting how "name a card" means something different in MTG vs Dominion; in Dominion you can name anything you want and it's allowed. Each have their own rules advantages and disadvantages.

Your Gatherer search doesn't actually turn up the card Goblin Wizard (at least, it just shows me an error page); here it is on Scryfall. Anyway, while that's an interesting coincidence of naming, I'd think a clearer example is the planeswalker Ajani, Strength of the Pride which creates explicitly named Ajani's Pridemate tokens (that are even functionally equivalent to the card!).

There exist the corner case of the set of uncommons from futuresight that made tokens with card names. Llanowar mentor was the green one.

@KarlKnechtel Gatherer periodically breaks - the link works now

@ArcanistLupus I changed the link. It's not a periodic break. It broke because our autocard lookup is broken. We've requested an update. Specifically, the lookup for Goblin Wizard broke because Goblin Wizardry exists—any card that has a name that's the subset of another card's name breaks in lookup. The workaround is to directly link to the Gatherer page or Scryfall page; I opted to link to the Scryfall page.


text:
Monopoly Golden Token Bonus release date?
In 2013, Hasbro dropped the Iron piece from Monopoly and added a new Cat. Alongside this announcement, they were going to release a "Monopoly Golden Token Bonus" board that would have all the old pieces and the 5 new pieces that were up for voting, and that this would be released as a Target exclusive in mid-February 2013. As of that date, it doesn't seem to be available in stores or online.
What was the official release date for the board?

From the 'reviews section' on the linked target website:

I spoke with customer service at Hasbro on 2-8-13 and was told the
  release date is March 1st, 2013. It is a Target promotion and will not
  be available anywhere else.

http://www.target.com/p/monopoly-golden-token-bonus/-/A-14428620
However, the same website says that the release date was:

Release Date: February 5, 2013

So, they are possibly sold out.
An Ebay search reveals a number of people selling this version of the game along with the special edition tokens, so it furthers the theory that the game was released and is sold out.
--edit--
It looks like the target has gotten more in stock. Not sure how long it will last though.

I'm 95% sure it was released and sold out. I just can't find the actually article. Every eBay auction mentions that it was a Target online exclusive and is sold out. Plus there are a few stories about shipping, most notably on the Target website product page for the Monopoly Golden Token Edition.

@SocioMatt do you think that Target will even get more in?

I doubt it, although there's no empirical evidence to back that claim up. I'd guess they were taking a loss on each one. Having said that, Target has normal Monopoly listed at $11.99, and other -opolies fall around $25, so who knows what the profit margin is. My guess is it isn't big enough to continue to produce more. Unfortunately (and stupidly, because what kind of jerk buys a board game to resell it on eBay for 6 times the original cost?), your best option may be to try and get it online through eBay or Amazon. It might be worth calling Hasbro again to see if more are being shipped.

@RobAveryIV Contacting either/both Hasbro or Target seems like the best solution here.

Target has them in stock - just keep checking their website as it alternates between available and not available.


text:
How many triggers occur if I damage multiple players with Midnight Pathlighter in play?
Midnight Pathlighter says:
"Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, venture into the dungeon"
If I attack with two creatures at two different players and they both deal combat damage to those players, do I get two venture triggers?

Yes, you get one trigger per player hit.
As Midnight Pathlighter itself demonstrates, there is a distinction in wording between "a (something)" and "one or more (something)". If the wording is just "a (something)", it counts every single instance of the thing, rather than grouping them together. So you will indeed get multiple triggers of Midnight Pathlighter if you hit multiple opponents.

To demonstrate the "a" vs "one or more" distinction with this card, if you attack 2 players with a total of 4 creatures, you still only get 2 triggers.


text:
Would equipping Skullclamp cause Polyraptor to trigger?
Would adding a +1/-1 token to Polyraptor with Skullclamp count as “damage” and trigger Polyraptor? I am guessing the answer is “no”. That this is just an adjustment to toughness, not damage.

By the way, there's no such thing as a "+1/-1 token" in Magic. You might be thinking of things like +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters, but counters are different from tokens, and if something puts those counters on a creature, it will literally use the words "+1/+1 counter" or "-1/-1 counter" (or it will reference an ability, like explore, whose definition literally uses those words). Skullclamp doesn't say anything about counters, so it just gives the creature +1/-1 which is not represented by a token or counter or anything.


text:
Does the Favor of the Pope begin in play in Condottiere?
In Condottiere, does the Favor of the Pope (white token) begin in play or does it not come into play until the first Bishop card is played?

It begins off of the board. The initial setup is illustrated on p. 4 of the rulebook. It is also worth mentioning that when a player plays a Bishop card, that player can choose to remove the Favor of the Pope token from the board (or leave it off) rather than place it in any region.


text:
What does it mean to add power to a Mastermind?
In the instructions for Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building game, a way of increasing difficulty is to "Add +1-5 Power to the Mastermind."
What does that mean? My guess is that it increases its Attack (i.e. the number you need to hit the Mastermind with to defeat them), and I could be blind here but I don't see this clarified anywhere in the rules that come with the game.

Unfortunately there isn't an officially maintained FAQ or Errata for Legendary, but from a few pieces of evidence we can confirm your guess is correct; Power is Attack.
Firstly, the only number that could be added to on all masterminds is the Attack.
Secondly, when the designer Devin Low posts on boardgamegeek he uses [POWER] to reference attack modifiers.
and Finally, if you pull apart the official rules PDF this symbol  is referenced by /Power, leaving the potential for the mixed terminology ultimately being a careless typesetting error

Good-enough detective work in my book. Well done, and thanks for the answer.


text:
Did my partner and I get to 3NT in a reasonable way?
At matchpoints, with only them vulnerable, after three passes, I opened 1 diamond with the following 17 high card point hand:
♠ K97 ♡AK ♢AQJ982 ♣ 76.
I did not open 1NT because of my two doubletons, one of them weak.
Partner raised to 2 diamonds. At this point, I rebid 2NT figuring that our diamonds, at least, were solid (they were), and that a 3NT contract was "on" if we could stop all three suits. This left the decision of whether or not to go to 3NT to a partner I trusted. She did so with the following hand:
♠ T42 ♡Q52 ♢KT54 ♣ KJ5.
Was this a good way to get to 3NT or was there a better sequence? Put another way, was it worthwhile to gamble that my partner had clubs stopped, and would have left us in 2NT if shee didn't have adequate stoppers.

I don't open your hand 1N, but not because it doesn't have stoppers.  (No one decent has worried about stoppers in non-competitive bidding for the last 40 years, because the imprecision in bidding system caused by allowing other openings to contain balanced hands in your 1N range causes trouble on more hands than opponents managing to run an unstopped suit.)  I think it's worth considerably more than 17 hcp.
Every non-beginner tournament player these days plays some form of inverted minors, where a raise to 3 in a minor shows a weaker hand, while a raise to 2 in a minor shows an invitational or better hand and is forcing for one round.  (Different players play somewhat different ranges, sometimes separating out 2-6 from 7-9 or separating out 10-12 from 13+ by using the jump shifts are artificial bids showing support and a particular range.)
Even without inverted minors, with such a balanced hand, your partner should respond 1N.  Yes, sometimes 1N will be a disaster because opponents will run a suit, but, at matchpoints, the times you score +120 instead of +110 will outnumber the times you score -x00 instead of +90 (and opener can always correct 1N to 2 of a minor anyway).
Over 1N, you have a 3N bid.  (Give your partner xxx xxx Kx QTxxx and you're odds on to make 3N.)
Over a weak D - your partner is quite likely to have clubs stopped - they don't have a 4 card major and can't have more than 3 points in diamonds.  Even if they don't your opponents don't know to lead them.  (Or your partner can have Axx xxx Kxx xxxx and the opponents cash the first 4 club tricks and get nothing else.)  The number of good games you miss by bidding 2N when partner is too weak to accept your invitation is going to be bigger than the number of bad games you are in by bidding 3N when partner doesn't have the right stoppers.

I believe that you have a point about my hand being stronger than "17." Make one of my small clubs a Q or perhaps a J, and I would be tempted to open the hand 2NT even though it would be nominally 19 or 18.


text:
Does anyone know how to add or write a new rule for Hand and Foot card game into boardgamesarena.com?
Does anyone know how to add or write a new rule for Hand and Foot card game into Board Game Arena, so we can play online with distant friends the same rules we would play if in person?

I’m voting to close this question because we are not support for boardgamesarena.com and you will need to contact them about the new rule that you want added.

I voted to close, because boardgamesarena.com is not a real site.

@John Fixed that. Not saying it's a good question though.

This question is better suited at https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/ . A new rule would count as mod to an existing game and therefore ontopic. Though usually it is about making that mod yourself. Games are written in PHP according to the dev tab. But as far as I know, the dev that made the game is as well responsible for adding content, bugfixes or changes.

Unless you are offered an option to add/enable your rules in the game/table creation page, you cannot. This is something that needs to be addresses by the authors of the game module on boardgamearena.
Every game on Boardgamearena has a forum for bug reporting and suggestions.
You could make suggestions for Hand and Foot here.  Check that no one has made the suggestion already, in which case upvote their suggestion.
Eventually the developers will consider if they feel it's a change worth making.  Remember that they are mostly volunteers developing games so may take some time before responding to requests.


text:
Why do these Warhammer 40,000 stratagems use slightly different wording?
In 10th edition Warhammer 40,000, the counter offensive stratagem can we used "when an enemy unit has fought" while the Adeptus Mechanicum venegful fallout strategem can be used when "an enemy unit has resolved its attacks".
What is the functional difference between these two wordings, if any?

The timing "when an enemy unit has fought" is after the three steps a unit takes when it activates in the fight phase: pile-in, make melee attacks, consolidate. The timing "when an enemy unit has resolved its attacks" would be before they consolidate, if it appeared on a stratagem usable in the fight phase.


text:
What is this betting game where players place bets on any of 4 cards?
all I remember is that there's 4 cards on the table and you can place bets on either of the 4 cards on the table and everyone places their chips on top of either of the 4 cards on the table. I forget the rest on how to play, does anybody at least have some recollection of the name or the rules on how to play? anything would be a big help.

Do you have more information?  What were the cards, Standard playing cards or something else?
If you are betting on a card what determines if a card has won?
Do you recall if there was a theme at all?   The more information the better.

This sounds like Newmarket. There are A♠, K♥, Q♣, J♦ on the table known as the "horses" (the suits may vary, but there is one of each suit and they alternate colour). Players must place bets on the horses plus a separate pot.
A deck of cards is then dealt to all players plus one dummy hand - some players may receive one more card than the others. The player to the left of the dealer plays their lowest card (Aces are low) and whoever has the next sequentially higher card plays is until the sequence is eventually broken by either reaching a king, a card already played, or a card in the dummy hand. The last player to play a card then starts a new sequence with the lowest card they hold of the opposite colour. If they hold no such card, play passes to the next player clockwise.
If you play a horse card, you collect the bets placed on it, and the hand ceases when either one player plays their last card (in which case they take the chips in the pot) or, rarely, the hand is deadlocked by no-one having a card of the required colour. If bets on a horse or the pot are not claimed in one hand, they roll over to the next hand. To end the game, horses are retired from the game following a hand in which bets on them were claimed, which can lead to large sums going on the remaining ones.
Note: House rules seem to abound and what I've described is what I learnt as a child - I don't think there is a standard set of rules. I think there was the option for the dealer to pay chips into the pot for the right to look at the dummy hand and exchange his hand with it if he chose to.


text:
Will suspend foil a "Cheesy" victory?
If I play The Cheese Stands Alone (or Barren Glory) and destroy my other permanents somehow, will I win the game if I currently have a card suspended? Do that count as a card in play?

Yes, you will win.

702.61b A card is "suspended" if it's in the exile zone, has suspend, and has a time counter on it.

And a ruling on exile:

Exile is a gamezone outside the field of play. It was known as
  "Removed from the game" before it was renamed in the wake of the Magic
  2010 rules update.

It may be helpful to reference Barren Glory, which is the same card but has rulings and errata applied to it, since it's not an Unglued card.

@AlexP I knew there was a card like this, but didn't know its name. Thanks!

406.1 defines a Exile as being a zone. Much more reliable and a ruling saying the same.

@Alex P, not quite the same card. BG checks for tokens on the battlefield, and TCSA doesn't.

@John, Tokens are NOT cards. 108.2 "[...] Tokens aren’t considered cards—even a card that represents a token isn’t considered a card for rules purposes." TCSA, as it stands, only checks for cards, not tokens (just like Bifurcate and Rishadan Pawnshop). If it weren't an Un card, it would very likely have been changed to check for tokens, but there has been no such change.

@John Yes, but note what you said yourself: Beasts of Bogardan had to be explicitly errata'd to say 'controls a white permanent' simply because 'permanent' and 'card' reference different things.  A card that hasn't had any errata applied to it (and TCSA is such a card) will play as printed, and the printed version of TCSA specifically talks about cards.  Whether that meant something different at the time or not is moot, because that is still the current wording of the card.

@StevenStadnicki, Unglued/Unhinged cards do not receive errata, because there's little reason to do so (they're not tournament-playable). Specific rules questions on silver-bordered cards go to Mark Rosewater's tumblr blog for official rulings.

@John, The difference with your example and the one in question is that changing "remove it from the game" to "exile it" does not change the effect, but changing "card on the battlefield" to "permanent" does. You can assume wording changes, but not functional changes.

@John, Care to back that up? I gave two examples (Bifurcate and Rishadan Pawnshop) that suggest otherwise.

@John, And no, you didn't say that three times. You actually said card is the old word for permanent, which is blatantly false. (e.g. "discard a card" has been in the game since alpha)

@John, No, that's not proof. Maybe if all instances were changed, but that's not the case. (And that's the third time I've mentioned that...) So again, can you back that up?

@John, I gave you two: Bifurcate and Rishadan Pawnshop. (Fourth time...)

@John, No, "card in play" became "nontoken permanent", and "creature card in play" became "nontoken creature". In neither case did "card in play" become "permanent". Read again

@John, Are you saying that creature tokens weren't creatures? Before, I was skeptical, but I distrust you. This is the second time you've shown a lack of basic rules knowledge. Are you going to back up your claim or are you going to keep deflecting?

@John, Re "Thus, they received different errata.", Duh. And according to you, the different errata should be "creature". It's not.

@John, Re "You have yet to provide a single example of an instance where the simple phrase 'card in play' was erratad to anything other than permanent." Rishadan Pawnshop (Fifth time...), and there's also Bifurcate which contradicts your actual claim rather than this strawman.

@John, Re "Proving that I am correct would actually require me to link to 20-30 cards at LEAST, which is really not feasible. " Uh, why would you link to cards? The rules aren't printed on cards. You seem to be arguing that widespread changes can't be functional changes. That's strike three. You've lost credibility. Your word concerning MTG is pure rumor to me unless backed.

will I win the game if I currently have a card suspended?

Yes.

Do that count as a card in play?

No, "In play" is the old wording of "on the battlefield"[1]. Suspended cards aren't on the battlefield. They are found in the exile zone, so they do not prevent the ability from triggering or resolving.

702.61b A card is "suspended" if it's in the exile zone, has suspend, and has a time counter on it.

The ability checks the following two zones: The battlefield and your hand. Cards in libraries, in graveyards, on the stack, in the ante zone, in the command zone or in other players' hand do not prevent the ability from triggering or resolving.

Bonus:
You can even win with BG on the turn a suspended card "unsuspends". Simply place the suspended card's triggered ability on the stack first and BG's triggered ability on the stack second. BG's triggered ability will resolve before you have a chance to cast the suspended card.

Reference (See 2A) Battlefield.)


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How to kill the red army (Moloch) in Neuroshima-Hex
It seems to me that the red army in Neuroshima is the most powerful one, it has more tough and shield tiles than any other. On the other hand, it is very limited in movements.
When playing one-to-one game against Moloch, what strategy should one choose to win?
As far as I can say, the best way is to move often and to destroy it as early as possible before it gets to use the nuke.

I don't think you have enough reputation to respond, but I think I have the right game the other possibility neuroshima-hex

I meant Neuroshima-Hex, yes.

Please take a look at following topics on bgg:

Strategies to defeat Moloch?

Occupy hexes where Moloch would want to place his shooters. You don't even need useful fighter there: sacrificing your module to
  occupy that nice spot behind Moloch HQ is perfectly reasonable. This
  will not only save you at least 2 hp, but also make Moloch place his
  good units in bad positions. Always keep best places shut from the
  enemy (this applies to fighting every other army as well, they just
  favor other positions).
Continuing previous tip, place some fast (3-initiative at least) guys nearby, but not adjacent to Moloch HQ, and target Moloch shooter
  spots. Moloch will have to waste turns neutralizing your units before
  he can safely attack you.
If Moloch HQ is in the center, place a shooter directly behind HQ, but in the corner. It will kill shooters and, if there are none,
  damage HQ.
Use meat shields. Put your units between your HQ and Moloch shooters. Sometimes deflecting 2 damage is best use for a unit.
Move. It isn't easy for Moloch to adjust it's aim since it doesn't have many Move tiles. If Moloch HQ is in the corner, you'll probably
  have plenty blind spots where HQ-enhanced shooters won't reach you.
Play Battle carefully. After each battle you will lose your shielding units, and your HQ and important guys will be unprotected.
  On the other hand, each time you don't play Battle, you risk losing
  your perfect setup to bomb.

Strategy principles - pay attention especially to weaknesses of Moloch. Get advantage of them. And yes, you are correct, speed is the greatest one of them.

Units to watch for: Bomb, Net Fighter, Push, Cyborg, Hunter Killer
  Storm Trooper

For example, try to make Moloch player initiate a battle (or generally, to play offensively):

Never, never, never initiate a battle as Moloch. Never. You will only
  get the pieces around your HQ killed on your turn, and your opponent
  can then fill them. Let them battle, and then refill them yourself.

Can Neojungle beat a competent Moloch player?

Against Moloch its best to place the NeoJungle HQ in the middle, you
  can use the HQ's ability without the need of building long supply
  chains. Put as many units as you can adjacent to Moloch's HQ to
  prevent its bunkering, also to make the most use of your castling, and
  as long as the airstrike is in the deck, scatter your units, mix it
  with Moloch's. You have three netters; place them on the borders to
  make the airstrike equally bad for your opponent. Use the two
  Nightshades against the HQ, don't waste it on units. If nothing else,
  there are plenty of Slicers, buffed up they can do plenty of damage.

Handling Air Strike:

FlameBird: I still don't think you can do much against the Air Strike; simply targeting your HQ will always get some good stuff destroyed.
Midaga: I think you have to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. There's
  only one nuke in there, you can anticipate it, it's bad for Moloch
  too, it creates room on the board for you, you should wish for it.
  Also, you have the Small Bomb, which is much more useful, as its
  precision strike lets you do relatively more damage.

Best Counter-Armies - one of the users suggest playing Outpost against Moloch. Here you can read some advice for playing Outpost army.

Versus Moloch, Outpost's HQ can dance to dodge Moloch's augmented
  ranged shots, while Moloch sits still for Outpost's repeated ranged
  shots. As long as Moloch's nuke remains unplayed, Outpost can use move
  and battle tiles liberally, to keep unit density low; that's Outpost's
  normal game plan anyway.

And this one on Neuroshima Hex! Strategy Blog:

Moloch: Defeating

If you have ranged units, try using them to attack Moloch’s base from
  a different direction then your base. Doing this will ensure that
  Moloch cannot both address this unit and attack your base at the same
  time. Also, if the Moloch use a soldier to attack this unit, odds are
  they will never get a move to turn that soldier onto your base.
  Remember that moving away from Moloch units will likely make that unit
  kind of worthless. Also remember that pushing Moloch units can
  accomplish the same thing. Avoid clustering your units if possible.
  They have a freakin’ airstrike. Never just leave the Gauss gun pointed
  on your base. Address it.


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Merlin always gets stabbed
I've been playing The Resistance: Avalon with a group and we're finding that the games usually end with the Good Guys passing 3 missions, but then the Forces of Evil win by assassinating Merlin. This has happened 4 times out of the last 5 games.
We usually play with 7 or 8 people, although we've played with 5 or 6 people on occasion. For extra roles we usually add in Percival and Morgana. With 7 or more we also use the Lady of the Lake.
So 3 questions:
1) Can we change which roles we use to make Merlin's death less likely?
2) If I'm Merlin, how do I steer things in the right direction without outing myself to the Forces of Evil?
3) If I'm Percival (or even just a normal Good Guy), what can I do to protect Merlin?

It sounds like you guys know each other too well or else are just bad liars.  What you're saying is "We figure out who the forces of evil are every time and they figure out who Merlin is every time."  Have you tried playing a game without a Merlin?

Merlin's Death is generally not due to the cards, but to play style.  However, in general Evil needs to keep track of things, so the more 'confused' evil can be the better.  The best configuration for this (which I would try in your group, first) is Merlin, Percival, and Oberon.  This gives good maximum information and evil the least.  If this configuration affects the Merlin kill, then great, but I doubt it will much.
The bigger problem seems to be that "Good generally wins".  This shouldn't be the case.  Merlin is there to balance the information on both sides, since Evil knows Evil.  In general, games should end 50/50.   Merlin giving out too much information should be the only reason these scales tip away from 50-50.
As for question #2, how do you steer things?  The short answer is you don't!  The biggest reason for Merlin kills is not based on how Merlin behaved, but how all of the other good players behaved.  My guess is all the rest of your loyal knights are acting timid and confused, while Merlin is acting confident, bored, or aggressively.   You need to be aggressive, talkative, and opinionated in order to get the information out there to the other good players, ergo, the other good players also need to be aggressive, talkative, confident, opinionated, etc.  If they're not doing that, there's very little that can be done by Merlin.  I call this "giving Merlin cover".
Note, this isn't just Percival's job.  It's everyone's.  Percival is there mostly for late game use when you need a perfect team on quest 5.  Think "I'm Percival, this is the team you need".  He knows this because he's been carefully watching Merlin all game and Merlin has communicated to him who the bad players are (in some way).
As a normal loyal servant of Arthur, your job is pretend you have all the information and any 'mistakes' you make are a ruse to throw people off the fact that you're Merlin.  This usually means a wild guess.  However, these guesses often pay off.  With 2-3 loyal knights guessing maybe one of them is accurate and this gives Merlin the cover he needs (as Merlin too will look like a random guesser).
Finally, don't discount the power of voting.  The game relies on people voting in their best interests, as such, voting is a VERY reliable indicator of someone's knowledge and preferences.  If you're being fingered as Merlin too often and this is because you're speaking, try switching up the strategy.   Instead of speaking, try being totally silent, but just consistently voting for all good teams and down voting all bad teams.  If the other players are paying attention to votes you can give full information about team evil without saying a word.  Of course, at some point they might catch on to this, so you might need to change-up the strategy.
When I'm Merlin, I play exactly the same way as when I'm not.  For me, this is trying to do a logical tally and deduction of votes and to point out table behavior and it's consequences.  Usually, even without being Merlin, I can fully figure out Team Evil by the end of the game with this method, so when I do it as Merlin I need to carefully act the same.  Still, in the absence of any cover, I will still lose.
Things you generally shouldn't do as Merlin (though deception always allow for exceptions):

Vote for losing teams.  This 'fools evil' far less than it screws good.
Approve team with 2 Evils early.  While this is a sound strategy, it can confuse good players who are trying to find you, and can convince them an evil player is good.
Claim to be Merlin at the end of the game.  This ploy generally doesn't work.

Things that are perfectly okay to do as Merlin:

Claim to be Merlin near the beginning of the game.  I've used this strategy effectively several times, even pointing out the exact bad guys.  It's often so bold that it fools the opponents, but, of course, it can only be used sparingly, and it too needs cover (e.g. by players randomly doing this in some games)
Speak your concerns.  It's okay to think that a bad guy is bad and say so.  Often a Merlin 'tell' is being afraid to 'give away' anything, as that fear will come across and garner suspicion.
'wink' to Percival.  While perhaps not a literal wink, Percival is going to be looking right at you, so dammit look at him and acknowledge each other!  This is especially important in games with Morganna.

Overall this is a game about information and mis-information.  At the start Evil has an information advantage, so that needs to be made up with by good player speak.  Likewise the thing evil doesn't know (Merlin) needs to be covered up by a lot of misinformation from Good.  The more stuff you put out there, the more Evil needs to consider and the more cover Merlin will have.
Enjoy!

I would say it has a lot to do with player skill as well, and it is surprising how easy it can be to determine who Merlin is before the game even starts based on information you can gain during the start/reveal phases of the game. Another key is for the good voters who are not Merlin to do as much as they can to appear to be Merlin based on the play style of others and for the player who is Merlin to make their lay style not appear different when they are Merlin. As was said the good team should not win as often as evil and I would give evil a higher winning percentage before assassination.

Remember that Good can win without Merlin at all. It's a struggle and I think the odds are against them, but this is the way the vanilla Resistance game works.
As such, I think it benefits Merlin to be subtle. When players start speculating about each other, encourage the speculation that is true and cast doubt on the speculation that is false. As an example: One common way a game begins is for a 2-person mission to succeed, and then a 3-person mission consisting of those first two, plus one more person, to fail. Obviously a lot of suspicion naturally falls on the third person, but plenty of Evil players will happily sandbag the first mission to cast that shroud of doubt on a loyal knight in the second. As Merlin, if the third player is evil, play up the natural suspicion; if the third player is loyal, play up the possibility of a sandbag. If an evil player can be caught in a lie or drops a significant "tell," be sure to point that out!
This is probably a playgroup difference, but unlike Neal, I don't mind voting "wrong" as Merlin. We have players who, either as Good or Evil, will nominate doomed-to-rejection parties just to see who votes for them--and will vote against their own nominations!
If Good is losing too much, Percival, Oberon, and removing Morgana will give them a boost, but eventually with that setup I believe you will find Evil to be oppressed.
As Percival, see if you can pick up on what Merlin's doing, and cast suspicion or innocence where Merlin is trying to place it. Ideally Evil will try to assassinate you rather than the real Merlin! As any Good character, but Percival especially, make sure to offer lots of theories and share your suspicions. Percival should keep a careful ear out to see which ones Merlin encourages and discourages.

One strategy I've used is to have Merlin come out as Percival. This can be tricky if the evil team knows about this ploy, Percival isn't on the same page as Merlin, or if someone evil contests the claim (Then there is usually A LOT of yelling in my experience). But otherwise it gives the loyal servants a guaranteed good person to put on all their teams, gives Percival a signal to act as suspicious as possible with cues from Merlin on who to accuse. And if Merlin plays it right usually they are considered to be Percival and are out of the running for consideration as Merlin.
This can backfire if someone else claims to be Percival, and especially when playing with Morgana because then Percival doesn't know who to back up.


text:
Does the leader get to look at the Plot cards before distribution?
When playing The Resistance with the Plot Thickens expansion, the leader gets to distribute the Plot cards to other players of her choosing.  Is this a blind draw, or does the leader get to look at the cards before giving them to other players?

I believe the leader not only looks at the plot cards, he also chooses what card to give which player.
I couldn't find a copy of the original rules online, but here is a summary of the rules. Also note the plot cards are public information once dealt to a player.

Yes the leader gets to look at the card and then decide who gets it which is good for the leader if they are a spy.

It's good for the leader if the leader is resistance, too. In fact distributing the cards blind would favor spies.

Not only does the leader get to look at the plot cards, but everyone does, and they can see who he distributes them to.


text:
Can resources in Alexandria's side A second wonder be bought by other players?
On the Alexandria board side A, are players allowed to buy the resources given in the second wonder? Or are they 'special resources' like the ones give by yellow cards... aka not transferable to other players.
edit:
Sorry the rules state that "Clarification: these resources cannot be bought by neighboring cities."

Why don’t you remove the edit from the question and answer your own question instead? :)

wow, I'm surprised by the answer.

@ikegami It makes sense that others can't buy it because otherwise would be a possible detriment to you winning by building the wonder. Players that trade with Alexandria would be almost guaranteed a resource that they wouldn't have to waste building themselves.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is easily answered by rules reference or Google search.

@Tynam Many rules questions can be answered by finding the right place in the rules, but that doesn't mean that they should be closed.  "General Reference" is a close reason that is used very rarely, as it should be.

While I agree with you, @bwarner, this one felt like the rare exception to me: the rule is in the first place you'd look, and it's a short sentence that needs no further clarification.

As the asker points out, the rules specifically clarify that the resources are like those provided by yellow cards and cannot be bought by neighboring cities.


text:
How do I combine regular Munchkin with Munchkin Zombies?
I have Munchkin 1 & 2 and recently I was given Munchkin Zombies. At the instructions of the latter, it is said that I combine these three (any kind of Munchkin to be honest), but it doesn't say how.
How can I combine Munchkin 1 & 2 with Munchkin Zombies 1?

Isn't it just a case of shuffling all the cards together?

Not really. How do you turn into a zombie?

I never played Zombies, but I would guess you all start as Zombies. Some help may be found here: http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/faq/#m7b. It aswers the questions and provides a link to rules to a set that is used when combining sets :D

Shuffle them all together.
That is why this is a great gateway game but unfortunately it is also a little silly since so many cards have different backings when they are added to the core set. (Sorry, personal opinion)
You are a zombie - that is how you start, you have no powers when there is no mojo - you can discard a mojo to become a plain zombie.
Shuffle, deal.

I'd like to add that Munchkin Blender (http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/blender/) is specifically designed to shuffle in with your other decks and alleviate some common problems with combining decks. That said, any two (or more) munchkin sets can be mixed, and some of my best experiences with the game come from combining 4 or more base sets, even without blender.


text:
What happens if you reach the gold with both (blue and green) doors?
If you construct a path from a ladder to an end card with a blue or green door in the path, the end card is flipped. If the card is the gold, all dwarves on that colored team (blue or green) win, as does the boss and profiteer.
What happens if you construct a path from a ladder to an end card while both doors are in the path?

Since the scoring depends on the player combination, I will discuss on four different cases. The scoring rules are summarized at the bottom of this post.
Situation:

Route to gold is blocked with both, green and blue door. This immediately implies that no blue or green team can win. Players in blue or green team will get no points.
A player (Any player: Blue, Green, Boss, Geologist, Profiteur or Saboteur) makes a connection to the gold, and flips the card.

CASE 1

Players in the round are two Green diggers, Blue digger, Boss,
Saboteur and Geologist.

--> Only Boss will win. (Green and Blue are blocked by doors. Saboteur wins only if gold is not found. Geologist is never a loser or a winner). Since there is only one winner, it will mean 5 points. Since the winner is the boss, he gets one point less, and receives 4 points.

CASE 2

Players in the round are two Green diggers, Blue digger, Boss, Saboteur, Geologist and Profiteur.

--> Boss and Profiteur will win. (Green and Blue are blocked by doors. Saboteur wins only if gold is not found. Geologist is never a loser or a winner). Since there are two winners, it will mean 4 points for each. Boss will get one point less, and receives 3 points. Profiteur gets always two points less, and receives 2 points.

CASE 3

Players in the round are two Green diggers, Blue digger,  Saboteur, Geologist and Profiteur.

--> Only Profiteur will win. (Green and Blue are blocked by doors. Saboteur wins only if gold is not found. Geologist is never a loser or a winner). Since there is only one winner, it will mean 5 points. Since the winner is the profiteur, he gets two points less, and receives 3 points.

CASE 4

Players in the round are two Green diggers, two Saboteurs, and two Geologist.

--> Nobody wins. Only geologists will collect points this round. If three gems are visible, both geologists will get one point.

The rules for the points are: (All rules without links are taken from the rulebook. Other rules are confirmed by Frederic Moyersoen behind the respective link.).

Green, Blue: Wins, if hes/hers team member makes a connection to the gold. (And there are doors blocking the way).
Boss: Wins, if there is a connection to the gold. Gets always one point less.
Profiteer: Wins always. Gets two points less.
Saboteur: Wins, if the gold card is never flipped.
Geologist: Never loses or wins. Only collects as many points as there are gems visible (connected to the tunnel or not.). If "Trapped!", does not collect points.

Note that a "Trapped!" player is not counted as a winner.

The game designer, Frederic Moyersoen, discusses the answer to that question on BGG. Essentially, only the Boss wins

If there is a path with a blue and green door, the boss is the only player who can win through this path (4 points). This can be a winning strategy for the boss.

Of course, I guess the Profiteer also wins.

You say that the geologist never wins or looses. But the rule says:
.Both teams win (along with all other “non-Saboteurs”) if The Boss, The Geologist or The Profiteer creates the connection to the gold and the way there isn‘t blocked by a door of the other color.
"Win (along with all other non-saboteurs)" makes me understand that geologist is also counted as a winner.

That refers just to Blue/Green minders and The Geologist/Boss/Profiteer are not on a team. It should also be remembered that it is possible for the  The Geologist/Boss/Profiteer to get no gold based on the number of winners and condition of the board.


text:
Is it possible to change or destroy goods that a scout is sending?
In the rulebook of Civilization (p.26) it says that

The player declares which of their cities the scout is "sending" the
  square to during the Start of Turn Phase, and all the icons in that
  square (including trade, production, culture, coins and resources) are
  then considered to in that city's outskirts for the rest of the turn.

Is it possible to disturb the acquisition of the "icons"? (or to change the icons?)

I'll give you some examples, when you might get into thinking of this question
1) The scout is moved
The scout might be moved by a culture card, such as Disoriented, Lost or Out of Position (Played in the City Management Phase). Will the scout still send the "original" icons, or are the icons changed?
2) The square is changed
a) .. by a culture event card:
Drought (Played at the Start of Turn Phase) would make the square a desert square (One trade icon on it). Would the scout send the original icons, or would you get the trade at the trade phase?
Deforestration (Played at the Start of Turn Phase) can be used to make a square a grassland square.
Flooding (Played at the Start of Turn Phase) can be used to make a square a water square.
Sabotage, Catastrophe or Disaster (Player at the Start of Turn Phase) can be used to destroy a building. If the scout was on a building, would it be sending the icons on the building, or on the square below the building?
b).. or by a technology
Gunpowder (City Management Phase) can be used to destroy a building or ancient wonder.
c) .. or by a player action
If the scout is in outskirts of another player, and that player builds a building/wonder/great person on it. Will the player with the scout receive the original or the new icons?
Also, the scout might be in the outskirts of a city A, and a player might want to have more hammers in his another city (city B). Now, if he builds a building/great person with hammers below the scout, will the scout send these new hammer icons to the city B (or the icons below the new tile, assuming that the scout is paired with the city B)?

From the FAQ 2.0, page 2, we have the following:

Q: Can a scout gather icons and/or resources from a square  in another
  city’s outskirts? What if the square contains a  building or a wonder?
A: A scout can gather resources from a square in another city’s
  outskirts, even if that square contains a building or wonder. If  the
  scout sends those icons and resources to a different city,  the
  original city cannot also use those icons and resources.

Q: When a scout moves into or out of a square with a coin  icon, is
  the coin total updated immediately?
A: Yes. This can result in an economic victory.

Given this, it appears that two things are true.  First, when a scout moves, the tile it is sending to the city also updates (as evidenced by the coin example).  Second, if a scout is on a tile of one city, the resources from that tile can be routed to a different city or not, but cannot be double counted.
It would appear from this that the behavior of the scout is to have the tile it is on considered part of a city of your choice.  If the scout moves, the resources it is sending are changed to the scout's new location.  If the tile the scout is on is modified, the resources the scout is sending also update (exactly the same as if that tile were in the city radius of the city the scout is sending resources to).