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, 12 June 2008
Subject: Straightening Ik'chda
Bayushi Loïc said "There http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57528 it is said that Horiuchi Rikako's straightening ability is conditional, "it may straighten the card or it may not", therefore it can't be used while Rikako is bowed since it won't unconditionnaly straighten her.
What about Ik'chda please ? Can he straigthen himself while he is bowed, using his own ability and targeting himself ? If yes, does the difference with Rikako's ability come from its initial targeting requirement ? If not, is this ability considered conditional because it could target any other Stained Paw Tribe card (such as a fellow Mak'irtch) and thus it would not straighten Ik'chda ?
Thanks."
I do hope this doesn't count as Forum Necromancy, but I'd really like to get an answer to this. I know the MRP of Yogo Rieko now says "even if bowed" but this poor Rat didn't get an MRP! Any word?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 12 June 2008
Subject: Straightening Ik'chda
Bayushi Loïc said "There http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57528 it is said that Horiuchi Rikako's straightening ability is conditional, "it may straighten the card or it may not", therefore it can't be used while Rikako is bowed since it won't unconditionnaly straighten her.
What about Ik'chda please ? Can he straigthen himself while he is bowed, using his own ability and targeting himself ? If yes, does the difference with Rikako's ability come from its initial targeting requirement ? If not, is this ability considered conditional because it could target any other Stained Paw Tribe card (such as a fellow Mak'irtch) and thus it would not straighten Ik'chda ?
Thanks."
I do hope this doesn't count as Forum Necromancy, but I'd really like to get an answer to this. I know the MRP of Yogo Rieko now says "even if bowed" but this poor Rat didn't get an MRP! Any word?
Under Samurai Edition rules, Ik'chda cannot use his ability while bowed.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 12 June 2008
However, Ninth, if you're playing with non-Samurai-legal cards, I hope you are using the Legacy Rules, which include the following:
For cards printed prior to KHAN'S DEFIANCE:
"Abilities on a bowed card can be used if their costs or effects say they can straighten that card or Stronghold, regardless of other effects. If this exception is claimed, the player must make choices within the action so that the card itself is included in the straightening."
This rule is slightly more forgiving than what you're referencing; the demand in Lotus that a card's ability unconditionally straighten itself (implied by use of the phrase "will straighten" in the exception to the "bowed-cards' abilities" rule on Lotus rulebook pg. 39). It appears to me that Ik'chda fits under this Legacy rule's umbrella nicely. By those rules, he can straighten himself if he's otherwise a legal target (ie, hasn't lost his Tribe keyword).