Some old player in my play group once said a long time ago that since they are both not included in the deck it means I can use printed copies or proxies of Bamboo and Border Xp, seeing as I can play printed copies of their inxp versions, and since I can play with a printed stronghold. Is this true? Thanks
Regarding Bamboo And Border XP
A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Some old player in my play group once said a long time ago that since they are both not included in the deck it means I can use printed copies or proxies of Bamboo and Border Xp, seeing as I can play printed copies of their inxp versions, and since I can play with a printed stronghold. Is this true? Thanks
There's no rules basis for such a statement. Border, Bamboo and the stronghold are part of the deck, even if they start in play or aren't shuffled in any deck. In fact, choosing a stronghold or a version of Border Keep is a very key decision in building a deck. See here:
The “play deck” is the set of cards chosen by the player with which to play the game. It actually consists of two decks – one of black-backed Dynasty cards, one of green-backed Fate cards – a Stronghold, and versions of the starting Holdings Border Keep and Bamboo Harvesters
If you go to a tournament, you will need to bring the *real* cards, I mean, the Border XP, the Bamboo XP and the stronghold(s) that AEG prints and sells. In casual play, players may allow totally or partially the use of printed proxies for testing purposes or whatever, but in an official event all the cards you use have to be "real" cards or else you'll get disqualified. However, this is more an issue for the Floor Rules Thread here.