Conjunctions & Shiba Tsukimi (L5R rules board)

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, 1 April 2008

The conjunctions rule states: "Modifiers attached to a phrase in the form of "a [modifier] X or Y" or "a [modifier] X and Y" modify both things in that phrase. Example: "A Shadowlands Shugenja or Monk" means "a Shadowlands Shugenja or a Shadowlands Monk."

My question is how does this rule apply to Shiba Tsukimi XP2's trait: Your Phoenix Clan cards and Yojimbo Followers have +1F.

Looking through the rules, there doesn't appear to be a rule that deals with the format "[modifier] X and [modifier] Y" but breaking it down a bit yielded the following:

The first modifier ("Phoenix Clan") carries forward through the "and" conjunction. This is consistent with the example of a "A Shadowlands Shugenja or Monk" meaning "a Shadowlands Shugenja or a Shadowlands Monk".

The second modifier ("Yojimbo") does NOT carry backwards. This is MOSTLY consistent with the example of "a Monk or a Shadowlands Shugenja" meaning what it says although I recognize that the presence of the "a" before "Shadowlands Shugenja" means that the example actually falls under the "a [modifier] X or a Y" heading. For what it's worth I believe that the example should read "'a Monk or Shadowlands Shugenja' means the same as 'a Monk or a Shadowlands Shugenja'" to fully clarify that modifiers don't carry backwards.

All of that being said, the game effect of Tsukimi would be:

Your Phoenix Clan cards have +1F. Your Phoenix Clan Yojimbo Followers have +1F.

I'm of the OPINION that this isn't what design wanted but, unless there's a ruling update, that's what they appear to have printed. I have thus far been unable to find any Samurai-legal Phoenix Clan Yojimbo Followers.

For clarity, my questions are - 'What does Shiba Tsukimi XP2 give force bonuses to?' and 'If she gives force bonuses to non-Phoenix Clan Yojimbo Followers, why does she do so?'

Thanks.

PS: The April Fools added filters for Samurai & Shugenja are amusing

Brook Cunningham (rules official), 1 April 2008

For clarity, my questions are - 'What does Shiba Tsukimi XP2 give force bonuses to?' and 'If she gives force bonuses to non-Phoenix Clan Yojimbo Followers, why does she do so?'
Thanks.

She gives bonuses to your Phoenix Clan cards, and she gives bonuses to your Yojimbo Followers.

As to why...

On: Shiba Tsukimi

The conjunctions rule states: "Modifiers attached to a phrase in the form of "a [modifier] X or Y" or "a [modifier] X and Y" modify both things in that phrase.
<snip>
Looking through the rules, there doesn't appear to be a rule that deals with the format "[modifier] X and [modifier] Y"...

Just as you said, the format "[modifier] X and [modifier] Y" is different than the one governed by the conjunctions rule, therefore the rule doesn't apply to this particular case. However, you will note that if we look at the bigger picture, [modifier] X and [modifier] Y are both preceeded by [modifier = "your"], which DOES fit the format governed by this rule. Meaning, in that case, the "your" carries through to both X (Phoenix Clan cards) and Y (Yojimbo Followers). Yay for grammar algebra.

(Clarified)

On: Shiba Tsukimi