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, 13 January 2012
So just read this where AkodoGilador states...
Similarly to Wrathful Ancestor's anti-negation clause, the "If this did not move him home" clause of The Law's Strength is not an effect, so it cannot be negated or delayed.
Would this not be a conditional effect of the action? Is destruction no longer an effect? I just don't get this ruling at all.
I would have thought that the Personality in question now has two effects delayed until after the battle ends: a move home, which at the time it is applied will fail, and a destruction effect which will succeed.
Jon Palmer (rules official), 13 January 2012
So just read this where AkodoGilador states...
Would this not be a conditional effect of the action? Is destruction no longer an effect? I just don't get this ruling at all.
I would have thought that the Personality in question now has two effects delayed until after the battle ends: a move home, which at the time it is applied will fail, and a destruction effect which will succeed.
Moving the Personality home is an effect.
Destroying the Personality is an effect.
Both of these can be delayed/negated.
However, "if this did not destroy him" check is not an effect, and therefore is not delayed.
When it comes to Wrathful Ancestor being delayed, first the send-home effect is delayed. At this point a non-effect check is performed to see if the Personality went home. When it finds he did not (due to the send-home effect being delayed), it triggers the destruction effect. The destruction effect is also delayed.
You are correct in that the Personality has two pending delayed effects - the send-home (which can succeed or fail; if the Personality is a defender, they will still go home when it resolves) and the destruction. What is not a delayed effect is the CHECK to see if they Personality was sent home when The Law's Strength was originally played - he was not, and this triggers the second effect (which will also be delayed).