Can Smoke Cover be used to negate the Battle action granted by Waylay the Messenger?
Smoke Cover and Waylay the Messenger
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.
Yes, if the Ranged 6 Attack of the ability granted by Waylay the Messenger targets your Ninja Personality, since this Battle action comes “from” a Strategy (see below), you can play Smoke Cover to have the Ranged Attack not happen; if you do, your opponent may put Waylay the Messenger into his hand before this turn ends.
Glossary, From: "Some things check to see if costs, effects, actions, targeting, or other game procedures come “from” a given source. The source is the card that the effect, action or targeting is printed on[.]"