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, 8 April 2009
Traditions of Steel reads: Focus Effect: Before this duel’s resolution, raise the Focus Value of each of your focused cards to 3.
The duel process is (abbreviated and highlighted for clarity): D: Duel resolution begins after a player strikes.
E: Both players reveal (turn face up) all cards in their focusing area. This is considered an effect of the duel (that is, from the duel).
After this point, any cards that enter focusing areas in the duel do so face-up, also as effects of the duel. [ADDED 24 Jul 07; EXPANDED 3 Sep 08]
F: Focus Effects resolve. All Focus Effect traits on focused cards resolve, one after the other, in an order chosen by the active player. Focus Effects only resolve if the card is in the focusing area at the time it is chosen to resolve. If a new card enters the focusing area during this process, its Focus Effect must resolve before proceeding. ... J: Duel resolution now ends.
My question is how is the trigger for this handled in a duel? As far as I can tell this Focus Effect will never have an impact as worded.
So the trigger for the boldface trait Focus Effect on Traditions of Steel is "before this duel's resolution". It seems that this would be triggered prior to step D in the duel, however at this point Focus Effects are still unresolved and in most cases Traditions of Steel is still facedown and out of play.
Should the Traditions of Steel be interpreted as "before this duel's resolution [ends]"? If not does this Focus Effect ever have any game effect and how/why?
EDIT - The same wording is also used in the Focus Effect of Low Stance. These seem to be the only two cards I can find that have this wording as Focus Effects.
Cheers UK Ronin
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 8 April 2009
Traditions of Steel reads: Focus Effect: Before this duel’s resolution, raise the Focus Value of each of your focused cards to 3.
The duel process is (abbreviated and highlighted for clarity): D: Duel resolution begins after a player strikes.
E: Both players reveal (turn face up) all cards in their focusing area. This is considered an effect of the duel (that is, from the duel).
After this point, any cards that enter focusing areas in the duel do so face-up, also as effects of the duel. [ADDED 24 Jul 07; EXPANDED 3 Sep 08]
F: Focus Effects resolve. All Focus Effect traits on focused cards resolve, one after the other, in an order chosen by the active player. Focus Effects only resolve if the card is in the focusing area at the time it is chosen to resolve. If a new card enters the focusing area during this process, its Focus Effect must resolve before proceeding. ... J: Duel resolution now ends.
My question is how is the trigger for this handled in a duel? As far as I can tell this Focus Effect will never have an impact as worded.
So the trigger for the boldface trait Focus Effect on Traditions of Steel is "before this duel's resolution". It seems that this would be triggered prior to step D in the duel, however at this point Focus Effects are still unresolved and in most cases Traditions of Steel is still facedown and out of play.
Should the Traditions of Steel be interpreted as "before this duel's resolution [ends]"? If not does this Focus Effect ever have any game effect and how/why?
EDIT - The same wording is also used in the Focus Effect of Low Stance. These seem to be the only two cards I can find that have this wording as Focus Effects.
Cheers UK Ronin
Under Discussion.
Roger Giner-Sorolla (rules official), 13 April 2009
The CR (cited here) was out of step with the sequence in the rulebook, which makes more sense. Therefore, I have amended the CR so that duel resolution comes after focus effects resolve. The cards should work properly now.