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, 30 September 2014
Shouldn't the condition in Essence of Air's text read "and" instead of "or"? I'm under the impression that now, the face-up refills are always active, and that their number is only limited if the Shugenja straightens...
Also, does the trait of Agasha Tamori boost the number of face-up refills if they cast Essence of Air ?
Essence of Air Limited: Bow this Shugenja: Turn all cards in your provinces face-up. While this Shugenja remains bowed or until your provinces refill a number of times in one turn equal to his Chi, you may negate his straightening and your provinces refill face-up; cards refilled face-up by this effect will not have their costs reduced.
Agasha Tamori After you announce an action on one of Tamori's Spells, if bowing him is a condition upon any of its other effects, give him +3C until it ends, and you will not ignore or substitute his bowing.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 30 September 2014
Shouldn't the condition in Essence of Air's text read "and" instead of "or"? I'm under the impression that now, the face-up refills are always active, and that their number is only limited if the Shugenja straightens...
Also, does the trait of Agasha Tamori boost the number of face-up refills if they cast Essence of Air ?
Essence of Air Limited: Bow this Shugenja: Turn all cards in your provinces face-up. While this Shugenja remains bowed or until your provinces refill a number of times in one turn equal to his Chi, you may negate his straightening and your provinces refill face-up; cards refilled face-up by this effect will not have their costs reduced.
Agasha Tamori After you announce an action on one of Tamori's Spells, if bowing him is a condition upon any of its other effects, give him +3C until it ends, and you will not ignore or substitute his bowing.
In this context, the "or" means either situation will satisfy the condition of ending the effect; if it said "and", they BOTH would have to be satisfied in order to end it.
As for Essence of Air + Agasha Tamori, the number of allowed refills is set when the delayed effect is activated, so the +3C WILL be included in the total, even though it goes away before the effect ends.
A player, 1 October 2014
Following this: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110252
Your explanation would be perfect if the condition was written "Until X or Y", but it isn't the case here.
I think that the "end condition" is just inside the "until" but not outside of it. "While X or until Y" seems to describe the condition of activity, not end, of the effect. If you reverse the sub-conditions' order ("Until Y or while X") it becomes even clearer: while X remains true, the effect remains even if Y happens.
Jon Palmer (rules official), 27 October 2014
Following this: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110252
Your explanation would be perfect if the condition was written "Until X or Y", but it isn't the case here.
I think that the "end condition" is just inside the "until" but not outside of it. "While X or until Y" seems to describe the condition of activity, not end, of the effect. If you reverse the sub-conditions' order ("Until Y or while X") it becomes even clearer: while X remains true, the effect remains even if Y happens.
Your reading of the card here is incorrect, even when reversed. The first clause (While X or until Y) describes when the effect ends. It's an "or" because it has two triggers for ending. If either trigger is met, the effect ends.
This is how the card has always functioned (Kyuden Kitsune/Plains of Fast Troubles is one of my favorite L5R decks ever) and how it will continue.
A player, 29 October 2014
Following this: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110284
Let me clarify two things.
1) I am not trying to reverse how the card functioned, and I am well aware of its past. But you know, for a long time the Essence/Plains deck no longer worked well, because bringing a guy in play was no longer an exception to the rule of Presence... so it seems that "it worked that way several years ago thus it still works that way" is not a solid argument. I am trying to make the Oracle text clearer, nothing else.
2) "Until Y" does describe a condition of end, but "While X" describes a condition of activity*. So there is a conflict in how the current text should be interpreted, and I am not convinced by your arguments (sorry). I think the text should be rewritten as "Until X or until Y" (or "While X and while Y") to avoid confusion.
* If I say "until it stops raining, I'm staying inside", it implies that I will get out when the rain stops. But if I say "while it's raining, I'm staying inside", it implies only that I won't go out under the rain, and nothing for when the rain stops.