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, 20 September 2008
If I have Mirumoto Yozo in a duel against Kakita Bob and I focus Unauthorised Duel (or any 1 or 2 focus card) and my opponent focuses Hamstrung. Before focus effects resolve I react with Mirumoto Yozo's action and reduce Hamstrung's focus value to 1 (Unautorised Duel's focus value).
When focus effects then resolve can my opponent still choose to reduce Hamstrung's focus value by 4?
If so, what effects would that cause? Does the card count as having -3 focus value? Does it count as 0 and no other negative effect?
Thanks
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 20 September 2008
If I have Mirumoto Yozo in a duel against Kakita Bob and I focus Unauthorised Duel (or any 1 or 2 focus card) and my opponent focuses Hamstrung. Before focus effects resolve I react with Mirumoto Yozo's action and reduce Hamstrung's focus value to 1 (Unautorised Duel's focus value).
When focus effects then resolve can my opponent still choose to reduce Hamstrung's focus value by 4?
If so, what effects would that cause? Does the card count as having -3 focus value? Does it count as 0 and no other negative effect?
Thanks
Your opponent can try to lower Hamstrung's Focus Value by 4, giving it a -4 penalty as the card's Focus Effect allows, but the stat itself would be considered 0 (as per step B below):
http://rules.l5r.com/Card_features#General_rules_about_stats: "To get a stat's current value at any given time, do steps A through C, below:
A: Apply all current bonuses and penalties. B: If the total is below 0, treat it as 0. (Does not apply to Family Honor, Honor Requirements, and stats with a + or – sign such as an Item’s Force and Chi stats.) C: If the total is less than a minimum or more than a maximum, treat it as the minimum or maximum."
When the second part of the effect checks to see how much it was lowered by, it sees that it was 1 (thanks to your Yozo) and is now 0, so your opponent would gain 1 Honor.