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.
A player, 20 March 2013
Greetings! From here http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=102454
It was stated that
A player cannot announce an action on the basis of a legal card to play, but then choose an illegal attachment or other card for the actual play choice.
Say that i have only 2 gold available, and i know that my deck contains a travelling peddler (or any 2-2 random holding). I know all the the other holdings in my deck are 6GC. I use peace to get my peddler, but as it turned out, it was not in my dynasty deck (It was actually face down in one of my provinces). Can i then get a 6gc holding and discard it in hopes of using my govern the land for a later turn? Same question with sacrifice of pawns. I know i have a legal personality in my deck i can pay for, but it ended up face down on my provinces. May i get a any personality then to put in my discard pile?
Thanks.
Alex Jones (rules official), 21 March 2013
Greetings! From here http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=102454
It was stated that
Say that i have only 2 gold available, and i know that my deck contains a travelling peddler (or any 2-2 random holding). I know all the the other holdings in my deck are 6GC. I use peace to get my peddler, but as it turned out, it was not in my dynasty deck (It was actually face down in one of my provinces). Can i then get a 6gc holding and discard it in hopes of using my govern the land for a later turn? Same question with sacrifice of pawns. I know i have a legal personality in my deck i can pay for, but it ended up face down on my provinces. May i get a any personality then to put in my discard pile?
Thanks.
According to the Good Faith Rule, A player is not assumed to know the face-down contents of his or her decks, for purposes of the Good Faith Rule.
Thus, you may announce an action that directs you to search your deck for a card meeting that condition even if you know that no such card is in your deck.
However, the Good Faith Rule also states: A player cannot announce an action on the basis of a legal card to play, but then choose an illegal attachment or other card for the actual play choice.
Thus, even though you may announce Peace regardless of whether you have any Holdings in your deck that you can afford to buy, you may only choose a Holding you can afford. Similarly for Sacrifice of Pawns: you may not use it to eg, put a Loyal Personality of another Clan in your discard pile for Fukuzo to wear.