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 January 2008
This happened during a casual game, and I was wondering about the legality of it in case it pops up in a stricter setting.
During a battle, my opponent has a shugenja with Kami's Embrace, and a samurai with Lion Mempo. With a battle action, I destroy her shugenja. She used Lion Mempo to take the action "Fire Battle: Ranged 6 Attack" from Kami's Embrace. At the time, we let it fly, but I have an issue with the trait on Kami's Embrace. It grants each ability on it a cost and a restriction, the cost being "bow this spell" and the restriction that an action can only be taken by a shugenja that shares its element trait. My argument was that (1) the samurai witn Lion Mempo cannot pay the additional cost of "bow this spell," and (2) it's not a fire shugenja.
Was this legal? Or should she not have been able to take that action with Lion Mempo?
Arigatougozaimasu.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 6 January 2008
This happened during a casual game, and I was wondering about the legality of it in case it pops up in a stricter setting.
During a battle, my opponent has a shugenja with Kami's Embrace, and a samurai with Lion Mempo. With a battle action, I destroy her shugenja. She used Lion Mempo to take the action "Fire Battle: Ranged 6 Attack" from Kami's Embrace. At the time, we let it fly, but I have an issue with the trait on Kami's Embrace. It grants each ability on it a cost and a restriction, the cost being "bow this spell" and the restriction that an action can only be taken by a shugenja that shares its element trait. My argument was that (1) the samurai witn Lion Mempo cannot pay the additional cost of "bow this spell," and (2) it's not a fire shugenja.
Was this legal? Or should she not have been able to take that action with Lion Mempo?
Arigatougozaimasu.
Lion Mempo copies only the action, not any other text on the card.
A player, 6 January 2008
Lion Mempo: Reaction: After a Personality in this battle is destroyed: This Personality copies a Battle action on the destroyed card (until the turn ends) and may take an additional battle action to perform it.
This topic seems to indicate that Lion Mempo can copy a spell that was attached to a destroyed personality. Is this correct? I was under the impression that "the destroyed card" must refer to the card referenced by "a Personality in this battle is destroyed" earlier in the Action text. Is that not the case, or are actions on spells considered to be actions "on" (granted to) the Shugenja they are attached to, or something else?
Thanx.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 January 2008
Lion Mempo: Reaction: After a Personality in this battle is destroyed: This Personality copies a Battle action on the destroyed card (until the turn ends) and may take an additional battle action to perform it.
This topic seems to indicate that Lion Mempo can copy a spell that was attached to a destroyed personality. Is this correct? I was under the impression that "the destroyed card" must refer to the card referenced by "a Personality in this battle is destroyed" earlier in the Action text. Is that not the case, or are actions on spells considered to be actions "on" (granted to) the Shugenja they are attached to, or something else?
Thanx.
Pronoun trouble, plus a little GIGO. I was concentrating on the "action" part and overlooked that Lion Mempo can only copy something from a Personality.
The general principle, though, is correct: when you copy an action, you don't copy any other text on the card referring to that action.