Togashi Korimi : No card or Free Card?

L5R CCG Rules board, 9 February 2014

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 February 2014

After checking the advanced rules, see section "In and out of play" (p. 45), you can't use abilities on cards outside of play unless it's an event in a province, a ring/strategy played from my hand. Anything else will clearly state that they can be used from a different area.

Neither Korimi or Jade Pearl Inn have anything stating that they can be used outside of play. So, in theory, both their abilities are unusables, in which case this question ends here.

If they are usable however, consider this :

According to http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=106405&p=1402712&hilit=korimi#p1402712, Korimi's interrupt must be declared before she enter play, and thus the cost (bowing Korimi) must also be paid before she enters play.

And this :

According to the basic rules : Personalities enter play unbowed. (see P. 33)

I've looked in the rules everywhere, but there's no mention anywhere that a card outside of play can actually be bowed, but I,m willing to let that one slide...

So, based on the rules, here are the possible scenarios when you recruit Korimi :

Scenario A :

1) Player Recruits Korimi 2) Before she enters play, his owner declares her interrupt. 3) Since cards can't be bowed outside of play, Korimi's interrupt fails (failure to pay cost), and no cards are drawn. 4) Korimi enters play unbowed as per rules, and failure to pay cost...

Scenario B :

1) Player Recruits korimi 2) Before she enters play, his owner declares her interrupt. 3) Korimi is bowed before she enters play, her controller draws a card. 4) Korimi enters play unbowed as per rules.

Either way, the cost of her interrupt (bowing her) must be paid before she enters play, and then as the rules state, she enter play unbowed.

I'm pretty sure this is not the design intent of the card, but given the recent rulings, and the way rules are worded, I don't see anything else.

A player, 9 February 2014

Well, the rulebook doesn't give all details. The CR go deeper in details and technicalities, and they do have to say about this: Similarly, if an Interrupt creates an effect that triggers after its card enters play, the Interrupt can be used for the action that brings it into play.

That applies to Jade Pearl Inn and Togashi Korimi, making them usable. We've already explained this in the ruling you quoted.

Additionally, Togashi Korimi's case will be further explained when the Ivory version of the CR goes live, but for now suffice to say that the bowing cost of the Interrupt action will be paid by Korimi entering play bowed instead of unbowed.