Re:Re:Re: Tsuruchi Gosho + Unholy Strike

L5R CCG Rules board, 4 March 2014 to 9 March 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, 4 March 2014

You are correct. You may play Unholy Strike to increase the Ranged or Melee attack generated by the Recruit action by 2.

However, since Recruiting Gosho does not generate a Ranged attack (his Interrupt does), the Unholy Strike will have no effect.

There are two ways this can work out.

Sequence A:

1. Recruit Gosho. 2. Interrupt the Recruit action with Unholy Strike. Unholy Strike fully resolves and does nothing, as there is no pending Ranged attack to increase. 3. Other player has the option to Interrupt the Recruit action. 4. Interrupt the recruit action with Gosho, produce Ranged 3. Fully resolve Ranged 3.

Sequence B:

1. Recruit Gosho. 2. Interrupt the Recruit action with Gosho. Produce Ranged 3. Fully resolve Ranged 3. 3. Other player has the option to Interrupt the Recruit action. 4. Interrupt the Recruit action with Unholy Strike. Unholy Strike fully resolves and does nothing, as there is no pending Ranged attack to increase.

Tsuruchi Gosho reads:

Thunder Absent Interrupt: After you Recruit Gosho at this battlefield, Ranged 3 Attack.

AFAICS That creates a delayed effect that resolves after the Recruit action resolves. So in Sequence B, there would be a ranged attack pending to increase. Or can Unholy Strike not increase pending ranged attacks?

A player, 9 March 2014

AFAICS That creates a delayed effect that resolves after the Recruit action resolves. So in Sequence B, there would be a ranged attack pending to increase. Or can Unholy Strike not increase pending ranged attacks?

Unholy Strike is an Interrupt. Interrupts are played before the resolution of non-Interrupt actions. They don't Interrupt "delayed effects", or "Ranged Attacks pending to increase". You need to play the Interrupt in response to a valid action, and the Ranged Attack you're trying to increase must come from that valid action.

You can Interrupt the Reserve ability but the Ranged Attack doesn't come from the Reserve ability. The Ranged Attack comes from Gosho's Interrupt, and you can't Interrupt it.

So, no, Gosho's Ranged Attack can't be increased by Unholy Strike (nor can it be prevented with Turtle's Shell, or have its target modified with Final Sacrifice, etc.)