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, 7 July 2008
My opponent has only one personality in a battle against two of mine. He tries to discard the Ring of Water from his hand to move his unit home. Can I react with Misdirection to make him target a different unit he has at his home, so that it will move in the battle?
Misdirection Political Gozoku Reaction: Before another player would choose targets for one of his action’s effects during a battle, target one of your Courtier or Gozoku Personalities: You choose the targets instead.
Ring of Water Battle: Bow this card or discard it from your hand: Move one of your target units home or to a battlefield with one or more enemy units. If the unit moved, straighten it.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 July 2008
My opponent has only one personality in a battle against two of mine. He tries to discard the Ring of Water from his hand to move his unit home. Can I react with Misdirection to make him target a different unit he has at his home, so that it will move in the battle?
Only the unit is targeted; where it goes is not targeted, and therefore not subject to Misdirection.
[Edited to remove erroneous link. Sorry for the misreading.]
A player, 7 July 2008
Regarding this thread: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=69248
I'm not asking if I can choose where the targeted unit will move. I'm asking if I can choose a target that's only legal for bringing into the battle, not taking it out of. I will rephrase my question, perhaps it will make more sense:
I have presence in a battle, it doesn't matter who exactly. My opponent has a unit there, let's call it unit A. He also controls another unit at his home, unit B. He tries to play Ring of Water, so that unit A will leave the battle and go to his home. I play Misdirection and make him target instead the unit B. Since the unit B is at his home, his only choice that would satisfy the Rule of Location would be for unit B to move into the battle. Is this correct and legal or not?
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 7 July 2008
Regarding this thread: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=69248
I'm not asking if I can choose where the targeted unit will move. I'm asking if I can choose a target that's only legal for bringing into the battle, not taking it out of. I will rephrase my question, perhaps it will make more sense:
I have presence in a battle, it doesn't matter who exactly. My opponent has a unit there, let's call it unit A. He also controls another unit at his home, unit B. He tries to play Ring of Water, so that unit A will leave the battle and go to his home. I play Misdirection and make him target instead the unit B. Since the unit B is at his home, his only choice that would satisfy the Rule of Location would be for unit B to move into the battle. Is this correct and legal or not?
Yes, you may use Misdirection to change the targeting for the Ring of Water... but the timing here is very tricky.
The exact scenario you desrcibe should never technically occur, but I know it often does in actual play. I imagine your opponent doing something like pulling the Ring of Water from his hand, tapping it onto his unit in battle, and saying, "I'm going to Ring this guy home..." Technically, however, you react with Misdirection (as per its text) BEFORE your opponent picks Ring of Water's target. At this point, he has announced the action, but you should have no way of knowing for certain that he would target the unit in the battle, if he also has legal targets at home (as you say he does).
All that said, if your opponent doesn't make the play mistake of running his announcement and targeting all together, and you feel sure that he's announcing Ring of Water in order to cut and run, you may Misdirect and cause him to target one of his units at home. He is then forced by the rules to choose the effect that moves it in, rather than choosing to move it home (which would fail), because "A Battle Action can target or be taken by a card in a unit at another location if its costs or effects say they can move the unit to the current battlefield. Choices within the action must then be taken, if possible, such that they do move the unit there" (Citation).
Hopefully for you, this will ruin his day. But, there remains the possibility that he might have wanted to bring that other unit in all along, and you chose the target he was going to anyway. Good luck.