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, 14 October 2010
Hi, I'm just looking for a little clarification here. When I use the ability on the follower Bitter Lies Student must I take a non-unique weapon from my discard pile if there is one there? More specifically is there is a Blade of Perfection in my discard pile and a Rising Sun Blade in my deck can I opt to not select the Blade of Perfection then search my deck for the Rising Sun.
Bitter Lies Student: Battle/Open: Remove this card from the game: Search your discard pile, then Fate deck, for a non-Unique Weapon. You may attach it to your target personality.
from Comprehensive rules: Searching multiple areas
If an effect instructs a player to search two different game areas:
* If the first area consists of face-up cards (such as a discard pile), and the player finds and selects what he or she was searching for in that area, the second area is not searched. Once the second area starts to be searched, cards in the face-up area may not be selected any more.
Thank you!
A player, 14 October 2010
When I use the ability on the follower Bitter Lies Student must I take a non-unique weapon from my discard pile if there is one there?
No, you can choose to search your Fate deck for a non-Unique Weapon. However if you do so, and you find no non-Unique Weapon there, then per the glossary you can no longer choose your discarded Blade of Perfection, moreover for the rest of the game, any of your further attempts to search for a non-Unique Weapon will fail.
A player, 19 October 2010
I read this thread: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=86892
saw this phrase and got very alarmed: No, you can choose to search your Fate deck for a non-Unique Weapon. However if you do so, and you find no non-Unique Weapon there, then per the glossary you can no longer choose your discarded Blade of Perfection, moreover for the rest of the game, any of your further attempts to search for a non-Unique Weapon will fail.
So let me get this straight. If I have a card effect (let's say Bitter Lies Student) that lets me search the discard and then the fate for a specific card. I look through my discards, nothing there. I look through my fate deck and find something.
Next turn, I use another search effect (perhaps another Bitter Lies student, perhaps a different card). Does this phrasing mean that once I go through the discard pile and choose to pick from fate that any further "discard, then fate" choices are automatically made for me? That I can never ever pull from the discard pile unless it's "discard pile only", even if it's a completely different card looking for something else entirely?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 19 October 2010
If I have a card effect (let's say Bitter Lies Student) that lets me search the discard and then the fate for a specific card. I look through my discards, nothing there. I look through my fate deck and find something. Next turn, I use another search effect(.) Does this phrasing mean that once I go through the discard pile and choose to pick from fate that any further "discard, then fate" choices are automatically made for me?
No, that isn't what it means.
The glossary entry for search (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Glossary_S#Search) says nothing about being prevented from searching because you failed to find a card in one area. It says what happens when you select nothing at all (which was the situation described in the previous answer: "if you do so, and you find no non-Unique Weapon there...").
That I can never ever pull from the discard pile unless it's "discard pile only", even if it's a completely different card looking for something else entirely?
No, that isn't what it means.
The glossary entry for search that was linked to says: "If a player searches for a particular description of card and does not select any, the search effect fails, with special consequences. For the rest of the game, any of his or her further attempts to search for that description of card will fail, even if a card matching that description re-enters the deck or other searched area" (emphasis added).