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, 12 November 2013
Setup: two Unicorn players face each other.
Player A is using At'tok'tuk Sensei, giving all of his Ratling Personalities the Unicorn Clan alignment. Player A puts into play a Ratling Personality with the Loyal keyword or equivalent trait, such as Achirin (Exp.).
Player B is not using At'tok'tuk Sensei. She plays a card which changes control of an opponent's Personality permanently, such as Kolat Master. Now, since Player A's copy of Achirin has a granted Unicorn Clan alignment, the Personality should at least attempt to change control.
Question One: Does Achirin change control? Theoretically, the answer is no. According to the definition of Loyal, "a Personality with the Loyal keyword will not become controlled by a player who does not share a Clan alignment with that Personality." (Emphasis added.) At the point that Achirin leaves Player A's control, the granted Unicorn Clan alignment on Achirin is no longer in effect -- instead, it is a Personality with only the Ratling faction alignment, which still has the Loyal keyword.
Now two hypotheticals:
Assuming that the answer to Question One is "yes" and Player B gains control of Achirin, Player A plays Loyalty Renewed on that Achirin.
Question Two: Does Achirin change control? Theoretically, again, the answer is no, since Achirin would be a Loyal Ratling, could not be controlled by Player A, and would never have the opportunity to regain the Unicorn Clan alignment.
Assuming that the answer to Question Two is "no" and Player B cannot gain control of Achirin:
Question Three: What happens to Achirin? Is there an attempted change of control, where it leaves Player A's control and loses the Unicorn Clan alignment, then will not become controlled by Player B? Does control revert to Player A since the attempted change cannot occur, or does the interaction force Achirin to be discarded, since it loses the granted faction alignment of Player A but cannot be controlled by Player B?
I went archive-diving to try to find an answer to this, since the interactions have existed for a while, but I couldn't find anything about it. I'm curious how these questions shake out with the Rules Team. Seeking Enlightenment!
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 12 November 2013
Setup: two Unicorn players face each other.
Player A is using At'tok'tuk Sensei, giving all of his Ratling Personalities the Unicorn Clan alignment. Player A puts into play a Ratling Personality with the Loyal keyword or equivalent trait, such as Achirin (Exp.).
Player B is not using At'tok'tuk Sensei. She plays a card which changes control of an opponent's Personality permanently, such as Kolat Master. Now, since Player A's copy of Achirin has a granted Unicorn Clan alignment, the Personality should at least attempt to change control.
Question One: Does Achirin change control? Theoretically, the answer is no. According to the definition of Loyal, "a Personality with the Loyal keyword will not become controlled by a player who does not share a Clan alignment with that Personality." (Emphasis added.) At the point that Achirin leaves Player A's control, the granted Unicorn Clan alignment on Achirin is no longer in effect -- instead, it is a Personality with only the Ratling faction alignment, which still has the Loyal keyword.
Now two hypotheticals:
Assuming that the answer to Question One is "yes" and Player B gains control of Achirin, Player A plays Loyalty Renewed on that Achirin.
Question Two: Does Achirin change control? Theoretically, again, the answer is no, since Achirin would be a Loyal Ratling, could not be controlled by Player A, and would never have the opportunity to regain the Unicorn Clan alignment.
Assuming that the answer to Question Two is "no" and Player B cannot gain control of Achirin:
Question Three: What happens to Achirin? Is there an attempted change of control, where it leaves Player A's control and loses the Unicorn Clan alignment, then will not become controlled by Player B? Does control revert to Player A since the attempted change cannot occur, or does the interaction force Achirin to be discarded, since it loses the granted faction alignment of Player A but cannot be controlled by Player B?
I went archive-diving to try to find an answer to this, since the interactions have existed for a while, but I couldn't find anything about it. I'm curious how these questions shake out with the Rules Team. Seeking Enlightenment!
1. Yes, Achirin changes control.
Assuming for a moment that you're Player A, Achirin doesn't stop being "yours" until he/she is under Player B's control. Therefore, he/she doesn't lose "Unicorn Clan" until then, which would logically be after the legality of the change would've been checked.
2. No, Achirin does not change control.
As you said, while under Player B's control, Achirin is just a Loyal Ratling, so he/she won't join you and the change of control will fail. He/She won't have "Unicorn Clan" until he/she becomes "yours" again, which will fail to happen from Loyalty Renewed.
3. #2 was "yes", so #3 has no basis.