A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from the Wayback Machine (its copy), so posts 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.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 December 2005
It's time for the latest face-off between intuition and consistency!
It's clear from several posts that that my attempt to make a consistent ruling regarding Wayward Attack have not produced an intuitive ruling. So, for the moment, Wayward Attack is legal in a battle in which you have an Orochi.
I'll work with the rest of the Rules Junta to try to work out just how much you can check in determining if a given action is legal to play. It may be that we'll go back to Wayward Attack not being legal during battle. Lotus Edition changed the way several things work, and this could be one of them.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 December 2005
Here's the result of some Rules Junta discussion on this matter.
For non-targeted cards being played during battle, you can check whether a particular type of card or token is in the battle to determine if the action is legal. Isawa Sezaru, Wayward Attack, Ratling Conjurer, and Shogun's Command are Relevant if there are any cards in the current battlefield that their effects mention: Shugenja you control, Orochi, Ratlings, Followers. (The number of cards at issue here is actually pretty small, luckily.)
One very minor outcome of this is a slight partial reversal on In Search of the Future. Because it looks for "cards in the current battle," it is not legal if there are no cards at all in the current battle.
By way of comparision, using Shosuro Maru's ability when she is not in battle never meets Relevance, because her ability targets, and it targets a player, not anything in battle. (Edit: Clarified according to Marty's post below.)
If this looks like it will cause any more problems, let us know.
Martin Lund (rules official), 7 December 2005
Zen Faulkes wrote:By way of comparision, Shosuro Maru never meets Relevance, because her ability targets, and it targets a player, not anything in battle.
Before anyone quotes this one out of context, Maru still meets Relevance with her ability if she is a card in the battle. Her ability simply doesn't fall under the "targets or affects a card or token at the battle," clause, thus can't be used when she is not herself at the Battlefield.
- Marty Lund
Deputy Rules Monkey