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, 6 March 2008
"Legacy
A keyword on certain Holdings. A player can search his or her Dynasty deck for a Legacy holding and put it into play without Gold cost:
* At the start of the game, if the player is not going first (see Sequence of Play, Start of Game). * After the Dynasty phase, if the player has not brought any Holdings into play (see Sequence of Play, Dynasty Phase).
Reaction: After your Dynasty Phase ends, if you have brought no Holdings into play this turn, bow your Stronghold: Search your deck, then your Provinces, for a Legacy Holding. Put it into play without Gold cost."
May I search for a Legacy Holding, knowing I do not have one in my deck, simply to shuffle my deck?
For instance, if I use Hidden Dragon Temple to place my dead Champion on the base of my dynasty deck, may I then bow my stronghold in reaction to bringing no holdings in during my dynasty phase, to reshuffle my dynasty deck (thus possibly placing my champion closer to re-entering my provinces) even though I know I have no Legacy holding to bring out.
It does seem a bit shady, but I'm not sure how it could be regulated if the answer is no... (beyond players simply being honest - as they should).
For the above example...
Hidden Dragon Temple: Limited: Bow this card: Put a target dead Personality on the bottom of his owner's Dynasty deck.
Thank you.
-taka
EDIT: In addition, once I don't find my non-existent Legacy in my deck, I will be able to check my provinces, which don't get reshuffled like my deck does (correct?), so would this also be a means to check what I have face down in my provinces...?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 6 March 2008
May I search for a Legacy Holding, knowing I do not have one in my deck, simply to shuffle my deck?
No.
To do so would violate the spirit of the Good Faith Rule (http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_acti ... the_action).
A player, 7 March 2008
Regarding this : viewtopic.php?f=59&t=66236
Zen, following your link to the Good Faith rule, I would like to point this line :
Good Faith Rule (extract from the CR): A player is not assumed to have complete knowledge of the face-down contents of his or her decks, for purposes of the Good Faith Rule. [ADDED February 5 2008]
According to this I am not supposed to know if I have any legacy holding left in my deck, so I can perfectly, under the Good Faith Rule, try to search for a Legacy holding and fail to find one, then shuffle my deck.
But, if I may add (for the OP question, it is relevant and may prevent a further question) you fall under this part of the CR (the "Search" seaction, extract):
If a player searches for a particular description of card and does not select any, he or she can not search for that description of card for the rest of the game, even if a card matching that description re-enters the deck or other searched area.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 March 2008
Regarding this : viewtopic.php?f=59&t=66236
Zen, following your link to the Good Faith rule, I would like to point this line :
Good Faith Rule (extract from the CR): A player is not assumed to have complete knowledge of the face-down contents of his or her decks, for purposes of the Good Faith Rule. [ADDED February 5 2008]
According to this I am not supposed to know if I have any legacy holding left in my deck, so I can perfectly, under the Good Faith Rule, try to search for a Legacy holding and fail to find one, then shuffle my deck.
But, if I may add (for the OP question, it is relevant and may prevent a further question) you fall under this part of the CR (the "Search" seaction, extract):
If a player searches for a particular description of card and does not select any, he or she can not search for that description of card for the rest of the game, even if a card matching that description re-enters the deck or other searched area.
There was a reason I said "spirit" of the rule.
The original question was basically, "Can I use the Legacy holding ability when I know I don't have a holding?"
Obviously, people can claim they didn't know, they can do legally take the action once, and so on.
But intent matters. I'm not just concerned with the letter of the rules, I'm also concerned with players doing the honorable thing. If you know you don't have a holding, and you're invoking the ability just want to shuffle the deck, then I say to those people: "You, sir, know the spirit of the rule. You, sir, are willfully bending the rule to your own ends. Then you, sir, are being a dipstick. And nobody likes to play with a dipstick."
Additional: To be clear, searching for a Legacy holding when you know you don't have one is legal. But taking useless actions is rude, dude.