Blood of the Preserver Vs Delayed Effects

L5R CCG Rules board, 25 September 2012 to 26 September 2012

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 September 2012

Unique Text Battle: Remove this card from the game: Each player chooses zero to two Personalities at the current battlefield. Remove them from the game; cards and tokens stay attached to them. After the next turn begins, each unit enters play in its owner's home, ignoring costs, restrictions, and entering-play effects; then, give them each three +1F Blood tokens.

Reaction: After another player's Battle action targets your Berserker: Delay its effects on him until after this battle ends.

So this poor Berserker is targeted by a Battle action that tries to destroy him (for example, Ring of Fire) and the Crab player reacts with Halls of the Forgotten, delaying the destruction until after the battle ends. Later that battle, however, this Berserker is chosen for Blood of the Preserver's Battle action and removed from the game until the next turn begins.

Though being "out of play" wouldn't prevent the destruction by a delayed effect, "removed from the game" is a specific location governed by a different set of rules. Specifically, the CR state

"Cards outside the game will not enter other areas unless an effect specifically says it returns them from outside the game."

So, the Berserker is removed from the game and later the destruction effect, that was delayed, tries to be applied. Does it fail? When the next turn begins, does the Berserker enter play as indicated by Blood of the Preserver's text, or does he enter the discard pile instead? In general, does Blood of the Preserver override delayed effects that were activated before it was used?

Brook Cunningham (rules official), 26 September 2012

So this poor Berserker is targeted by a Battle action that tries to destroy him (for example, Ring of Fire) and the Crab player reacts with Halls of the Forgotten, delaying the destruction until after the battle ends. Later that battle, however, this Berserker is chosen for Blood of the Preserver's Battle action and removed from the game until the next turn begins.

Though being "out of play" wouldn't prevent the destruction by a delayed effect, "removed from the game" is a specific location governed by a different set of rules. Specifically, the CR state

So, the Berserker is removed from the game and later the destruction effect, that was delayed, tries to be applied. Does it fail? When the next turn begins, does the Berserker enter play as indicated by Blood of the Preserver's text, or does he enter the discard pile instead? In general, does Blood of the Preserver override delayed effects that were activated before it was used?

Under discussion.