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, 9 May 2013
So, I've made it my mission to engineer a situation that copies the Shadow Dragon's uncopyable ability. Do the following situations work?
Scenario 1 My opponent has Shadow Dragon XP2 in play. I target it with Contemplation of Destiny and choose to remove the trait "Shadow Dragon's abilities will not be copied." May I now freely copy the Shadow Dragon's abilities by any otherwise-legal method, such as the Egg of P'an Ku?
Scenario 2 There is a Shadow Dragon XP 2 in play. It either loses the duel created by Flame and Lightning or is affected by the ability of Kakita Funaki XP. Do effects which copy base abilities now legally copy the Shadow Dragon's base ability?
(I would make a challenge to engineer the most copies of that ability to have on the board at once, but there's not really a sane effective limit, assuming this sort of thing works. By stripping Unique with Dark Harmony (possibly and stripping Nonhuman with a second copy), you can use things like Ninube Tsukau and Sly Deceiver to make just about everyone a Shadow Dragon...)
A player, 9 May 2013
So, I've made it my mission to engineer a situation that copies the Shadow Dragon's uncopyable ability.
LOL. I guess there are worse hobbies...
Scenario 1 My opponent has Shadow Dragon XP2 in play. I target it with Contemplation of Destiny and choose to remove the trait "Shadow Dragon's abilities will not be copied." May I now freely copy the Shadow Dragon's abilities by any otherwise-legal method, such as the Egg of P'an Ku?
Yes, since the trait preventing it is gone. Note that you rely on your opponent controlling the Shadow Dragon XP2, though...
Scenario 2 There is a Shadow Dragon XP 2 in play. It either loses the duel created by Flame and Lightning or is affected by the ability of Kakita Funaki XP. Do effects which copy base abilities now legally copy the Shadow Dragon's base ability?
Same as above, unless you can orchestrate losing your Flame and Lightning duel with a chi 5 Dragon on purpose.
(I would make a challenge to engineer the most copies of that ability to have on the board at once, but there's not really a sane effective limit, assuming this sort of thing works. By stripping Unique with Dark Harmony (possibly and stripping Nonhuman with a second copy), you can use things like Ninube Tsukau and Sly Deceiver to make just about everyone a Shadow Dragon...)
That BigDeck tournament at GenCon just got more interesting, neh?