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, 29 August 2008
This question came up in a discussion about the uses of Soul of Battle.
Setup: I am playing Phoenix, and have Isawa X (an Earth Shugenja) and Asako Y at the current battlefield, both bowed. At home I have Isawa Emori (Experienced), unbowed, and with Earthen Guardians attached.
My opponent just played Soul of Battle.
I declare Earthen Guardian's action. Thanks to Emori's trait, he need not bow to perfom the action on Earthen Guardians. However, thanks to Soul of Battle, I must bow a personality at the current battlefield as a cost of performing my next action.
Question: Can I choose my Isawa X to pay the cost of Bowing and, since according to this ruling the cost imposed by Soul of Battle is a Cost from Earthen Guardians, choose to not bow thanks to Emori's trait, even if he (Isawa X) is already bowed?
Cards text: Isawa Emori Experienced: Your Earth Shugenja need not bow as a cost of performing Earth actions.
Earthen Guardians: Earth Battle: Bow this Shugenja, even if he is not at the current battlefield: Create a Nonhuman Earth Personality in your current army with 3F/1C, or 5F/1C if your Shugenja has the Earth keyword,and the trait, "Can not be destroyed to pay costs." After this turn ends, remove this Personality from the game.
Soul of Battle: Battle: Destroy one of your opposed target Tacticians or Deathseekers in the current battlefield: Gain 3 Honor. The next action the enemy leader announces this battle has the additional cost "Bow one of your Personalities at the current battlefield."
A player, 29 August 2008
At home I have Isawa Emori (Experienced), unbowed, and with Earthen Guardians attached. My opponent just played Soul of Battle. I declare Earthen Guardian's action. Can I choose my Isawa X to pay the cost of Bowing?
Assuming you refer to the additional cost of bowing one of your Personalities at the current battlefield, added to Earthen Guardians' Battle action by Soul of Battle's effect, the answer is no because Isawa X is already bowed and Emori's trait provides no help since Isawa X is not performing this Earth action (see Glossary, Perform). Indeed the action comes neither from an ability on Isawa X, nor from an ability on a Spell in Isawa X's unit, and Isawa X was not targeted by targeting in the ability's constraints block. Soul of Battle adds the cost: "Bow one of your Personalities at the current battlefield" without targeting the chosen Personality.
Even if a card similar to Soul of Battle added the cost: "Bow one of your target Personalities at the current battlefield", it would not work because additional costs are ignored in order to check whether a card is performing an action. Glossary, Perform: "Costs or other restrictions that are added to an action, and involve targeting a Personality, do not mean that the Personality thus targeted is performing the action. The targeting must come from the base wording of the ability."