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, 22 May 2008
Black Silk Castle (F) (Spider) 8PS / 4G / 0SH. You do not lose Honor from Fate and Spider Clan cards you own. Battle: Even if this card is bowed, target one of your unbowed Personalities: Remove from the game an enemy player’s target dead Personality. Destroy a target enemy Personality with Gold Cost equal to or less than the removed Personality’s Gold Cost.
Black Silk Castle's destruction effect references to the gold cost of a "removed" Personality. Does this target dead Personality have to be effectively removed so that the effect happens? Or does it fail if the target dead Personality wasn't removed?
I guess the answer is "the effect would happen regardless" but an official clarification would help me understand and explain better the wording of references.
Alex Jones (rules official), 22 May 2008
Black Silk Castle (F) (Spider) 8PS / 4G / 0SH. You do not lose Honor from Fate and Spider Clan cards you own. Battle: Even if this card is bowed, target one of your unbowed Personalities: Remove from the game an enemy player’s target dead Personality. Destroy a target enemy Personality with Gold Cost equal to or less than the removed Personality’s Gold Cost.
Black Silk Castle's destruction effect references to the gold cost of a "removed" Personality. Does this target dead Personality have to be effectively removed so that the effect happens? Or does it fail if the target dead Personality wasn't removed?
I guess the answer is "the effect would happen regardless" but an official clarification would help me understand and explain better the wording of references.
See Using abilities.
None of the targeting for this action is optional or delayed: it's all done during the "Required Targeting" step. The enemy personality is targeted while the dead personality is still in the discard pile: he's not removed from the game until the "Action Resolves" step. Even if the dead personality fails to be removed from the game, the enemy personality was successfully targeted during the "Required Targeting" step (unless some other effect interfered with that targeting), so the enemy personality is destroyed.