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, 25 June 2012
I searched and came up only with THIS post regarding this question. I am not certain that thread is still relevant with the changes in the rules from CE to EE, specifically the slight rewording of the rulebook effect of naval.
If I have a single unit which is naval attacking and my opponent defends with a single non-naval personality, can I choose a dead naval samurai to perform At Any Cost as my naval action?
Battle: If you control any units at the current battlefield, choose your performing dead Samurai: Bring him into play at the current battlefield, paying all costs.
Reaction: After engaging, once per battle, if you are the Attacker and your current army has more Naval cards than the side opposing it, choose your performing Naval Personality: You have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which he must perform.
It would seem the previous ruling was it was not possible to play Will as a naval action due to the wording of naval requiring that you target the performing naval personality and not being allowed to target dead personalities. With naval being changed to no longer require targeting and with At Any Cost also requiring to choose a performer rather than targeting a personality, is it legal under the current rule set to play At Any Cost as a naval action?
Alex Jones (rules official), 26 June 2012
I searched and came up only with THIS post regarding this question. I am not certain that thread is still relevant with the changes in the rules from CE to EE, specifically the slight rewording of the rulebook effect of naval.
If I have a single unit which is naval attacking and my opponent defends with a single non-naval personality, can I choose a dead naval samurai to perform At Any Cost as my naval action?
It would seem the previous ruling was it was not possible to play Will as a naval action due to the wording of naval requiring that you target the performing naval personality and not being allowed to target dead personalities. With naval being changed to no longer require targeting and with At Any Cost also requiring to choose a performer rather than targeting a personality, is it legal under the current rule set to play At Any Cost as a naval action?
Is it legal under the current rule set to play At Any Cost as a naval action?
No, because you cannot choose a dead Personality to perform the Naval Invasion Reaction.
Physically marked card states, In play and out of play, Implications of in and out of play: Cards that are not in play or in a resolution, entering-play or focusing area have the following limitations: They may not be targeted or perform actions.
A player, 26 June 2012
don't we follow the 1st Cardinal Rule http://rules.l5r.com/EE_Cardinal_rules with At Any Cost?
Alex Jones (rules official), 27 June 2012
don't we follow the 1st Cardinal Rule http://rules.l5r.com/EE_Cardinal_rules with At Any Cost?
We do - but that's not relevant.
At Any Cost requires you to choose a performer who's not in play, since it states that the performer must be dead, the line below the paragraph I quoted above comes into play: The above limitations are overridden by a reference to cards in an out-of-play area.
So, 1st Cardinal Rule not needed there.
The problem with using At Any Cost as your Naval action isn't really At Any Cost, it's the Naval Invasion ability: Reaction: After engaging, once per battle, if you are the Attacker and your current army has more Naval cards than the side opposing it, choose your performing Naval Personality: You have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which he must perform.
You must choose a legal performer for this Reaction, and a dead Personality - while a legal performer of At Any Cost - isn't a legal perfomer of the Naval Invasion Reaction. And the 1st Cardinal Rule doesn't help you here, either.
However, if you take the Naval Invasion Reaction, choosing your Naval Personality at the current battlefield, who then gets destroyed by some other effect (eg via Open Emotion) between then and the first opportunity to take a Battle action, you could, in this scenario, play At Any Cost as that first Battle Action - At Any Cost is one of the few actions you could take!