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, 1 April 2012
Hi Rules Team, just a clarification on a sticky situation that came up during a weekend tourney in our gameshop... I searched the boards and found a few similar posts but they were posted 4 years ago and may no longer be relevant... (namely posts about Razor's Edge Dojo)
My question is can Spirit of the Berserker's reaction delay Chi death?
In our case Asako Rikate had used his ability to give -2C to Hida Nikaru with a Spirit of the Berserker... I discussed it with both players and I believe it cannot delay the death because spirit of the berserker states that it delays the destruction of the personality from the card's effects... however Chi death is not a card effect but a rulebook effect... Halls of the forgotten can delay Rikate's ability as it delays all effects, meaning the zerker does not get the -2 chi until the end of turn, however, spirit of the Berserker delays the destruction specifically, and yet asako rikate does not by himself destroy anyone... the destruction is a consequence of having zero chi, which then triggers the rulebook effect of death from having zero chi...
So am I correct in that Spirit of the berserker cannot negate Chi death?
I hope you can enlighten me with clarification... Thank you...
Alex Jones (rules official), 2 April 2012
Hi Rules Team, just a clarification on a sticky situation that came up during a weekend tourney in our gameshop... I searched the boards and found a few similar posts but they were posted 4 years ago and may no longer be relevant... (namely posts about Razor's Edge Dojo)
My question is can Spirit of the Berserker's reaction delay Chi death?
In our case Asako Rikate had used his ability to give -2C to Hida Nikaru with a Spirit of the Berserker... I discussed it with both players and I believe it cannot delay the death because spirit of the berserker states that it delays the destruction of the personality from the card's effects... however Chi death is not a card effect but a rulebook effect... Halls of the forgotten can delay Rikate's ability as it delays all effects, meaning the zerker does not get the -2 chi until the end of turn, however, spirit of the Berserker delays the destruction specifically, and yet asako rikate does not by himself destroy anyone... the destruction is a consequence of having zero chi, which then triggers the rulebook effect of death from having zero chi...
So am I correct in that Spirit of the berserker cannot negate Chi death?
I hope you can enlighten me with clarification... Thank you...
Under discussion.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 13 June 2012
Discussion ended!
Yes, Spirit of the Berserker CAN delay destruction due to having 0 Chi, because the special rule regarding Chi destruction (see here) only states that it may not be negated or prevented, but "delaying" is neither of these things. Do note, however, that even if the Personality's Chi later returns to above 0, his delayed destruction will still occur later at the end of the turn.