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, 5 March 2009
Does this ruling mean that if you resolved the Mountains of Phoenix and it destroyed personality and only then the third personality death happens, the Mountains of the Phoenix action is still not counted for the Ring of Phoenix?
Example: One Phoenix personality was already killed with an appropriate action. Mountains of the Phoenix are played. Before the battle resolution another personality is destroyed by its action. Reaction from Assigning Blame targets the third Phoenix personality and he commits seppuku in reaction. That is the third action that killed personality to the time when the ring of Phoenix could be played. Does killing action from the Mountains counts for the Ring in this case?
Texts on the cards:
Ring of the Phoenix: After the third or later time in one turn you resolve an action that destroyed any of your Phoenix Clan Personalities during a battle: You may put this card into play from your hand.
Mountains of the Phoenix: Mountain Terrain Battle: Before this battle’s resolution, the Attacker and the Defender each choose a unit in their own army; the active player decides who chooses first. Then, destroy the chosen units.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 5 March 2009
Example: One Phoenix personality was already killed with an appropriate action. Mountains of the Phoenix are played. Before the battle resolution another personality is destroyed by its action. Reaction from Assigning Blame targets the third Phoenix personality and he commits seppuku in reaction. That is the third action that killed personality to the time when the ring of Phoenix could be played. Does killing action from the Mountains counts for the Ring in this case?
In this case, yes it does.
A player, 6 March 2009
Which of answers is right? The question about Ring of the Phoenix. viewtopic.php?f=59&t=63977&hilit=Ring+of+the+Phoenix OR viewtopic.php?f=59&t=74442
[Mod edit: Thread title. Please make them descriptive. -ZF]
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 6 March 2009
Which of answers is right? The question about Ring of the Phoenix. viewtopic.php?f=59&t=63977&hilit=Ring+of+the+Phoenix OR viewtopic.php?f=59&t=74442
[Mod edit: Thread title. Please make them descriptive. -ZF]
EDIT: No longer under discussion, and...
Surprise! Both answers you linked are correct.
In the case of the first link, it may not be clear due to the vaguery of the question that the answer is from the point of view that Mountains of the Phoenix is intended to be the triggering action for Ring of the Phoenix. In such an instance, it does not count because after it resolves (when RotP would trigger), it has not yet destroyed anyone. So, it's not that Mountains of the Phoenix can never count for Ring of the Phoenix (it CAN be one of the previous two resolved actions, as seen in the second link), but its resolving can never be the trigger for the Ring.