Rules for November 23rd

Happy Thanksgiving, all you Americans!

From private mail...

Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal [...] Cards in this unit may not be targeted with actions. [...]

Lessons of Honor [...] Limited: Target a player. Bow one of your Samurai, who can remain bowed. Until the Samurai straightens, leaves play or refuses a challenge, any of the players Personalities may issue an unrefuseable challenge to the Samurai as a limited action, [...]

If I have a personality with the Journal and an opponent has a personality who has performed Lessons of Honor, can the Journal personality challenge the Lessons personality?

<snip>

Or consider another similar case:

Den of Spies [...] As a Limited action, any player may bow one or more of his or her Personalities with over 10 total Chi to destroy the Den of Spies. [...]

Could the Journal-bearer help blow up the Den? I say no, for the same reason.

I agree. 'Floating' actions, like those on the Den, Lessons of Honor, and Soul of Thunder have to target the personality who takes them.

Hi there! Another quick question for you guys: I was told that seppun mashita could use his reaction even when bowed, which strikes me as rather strange, as I thought that you could not use actions on bowed people except when told otherwise... So, is it true? If it is, is it specific to mashita, or am I assuming somthing wrong? What about tsuo (which would combo nicely with lessons of honor then...)

You were misled. Neither Tsuo nor Mashita can use their Reactions while bowed.

Taking control of Hantei the 16th

Does the 'cannot join Toturi's Army' still apply for purposes of control

Yes. Joining restrictions still apply whenever you try to take control of someone else's personality. This includes Kolat Master, Face of the Nameless, Hitomi's duel, and Hantei 16's built in control switch.

I may have been playing this card wrong all along and cheating myself of honor. Can someone with an "official" stance (pointing me to a rulebook page, paragraph works too) clarify how this card works?

Scenario: 8 Gold cost Clan Samurai face up in province. I produce 4 Gold off the Stronghold. And I have a Hiruma Dojo, and a Large Farm in play.

Actions: 1) I announce I am bringing samurai personality into play 2) Reaction: Reduce the cost of the samurai by 4 ( bowing Hiruma Dojo) 3) Bow Stronghold to pay 4 Gold (full costs??)

Did I get the honor gain for paying a FULL cost (after reduction from reaction on dojo)??? Or if I was not going for the honor, could I of payed 2 Gold from the Large Farm to get him in low??

Yes to both questions. Once you've used the Dojo's Reaction, his 'full cost' is considered to be 4 less than it was before. So, paying 4g for him brings him in at 'full cost', and 2g will bring him in without honor.

Basically, I've been told you can only get the "better" of two reductions.. (Dual clanned personality, you play Alliance event chosing the second clan, you still get just 2 gold off not 4 gold off). Does this hold true for the Dojo and the reduced cost of clan personalities to waive honor gain.

There's no such rule about getting the better of multiple discounts. There are some specific instances where you cannot apply multiple discounts after applying one (dual-aligned Crab/Naga out of New Akasha), but in general, you can apply as many cost reductions as you've got, and they'll all stack.

BTW - a dual aligned personality will cost 4g less for you after an Alliance. That's one of the oldest TA tricks in the book.

If my opponent has Palace of the Emerald Champion in play, and my Return of Fu-Leng comes into play, does he automatically lose the province?

Yes. Although, if his rightmost province happens to be the one with the Palace on it, he just has to discard the top ten cards of his deck.

My Nightmare continues

The question is based on the english.

'personalities and followers who are immune to fear' can be parsed either as '(personalities) and (followers who are immune to fear)' or as '(personalities and followers) who are immune to fear'.

The first interpretation results in Nightmares being a more playable card, and the second seems to be the interpretation you are assuming is correct. (And would, imo, leave it as another coaster.) This should realy be solved by designer intent, as either reading is valid in english.

It's the second reading. Yes, this makes it something of a coaster, but to read it the other way would make it clearly superior to Face of Fear. Jeff's said that it doesn't affect personalities. The English *could* go either way, but there's been pretty clear designer intent that this card should not be that good.

Nightmare does not allow Fear to affect personalities in general.

Hello everyone. I wanted to ask a few question about this event. Here is the card text:

“While this card is in play, you may choose not to draw a fate card during your end phase. Each turn in which you do not draw a fate card you gain 2 honor. If you draw a fate card for any reason, this card is discarded from play.”

Questions: 1. It says that while this card is in play. Where is it in play at? Is it still in the province slot it came up in or is it in my fief?

It hangs out in your fief. Some people like to put it on top of their Fate deck to remind themselves not to draw. It really doesn't matter where you put it.

2. If Imperial Gift comes up, is this considered drawing a card?

No. Retrieving cards from somewhere is not drawing them. Drawing is taking the top card of your deck and putting it into your hand. Note that draw-and-discard effects will still count as drawing, though.

3. The Shrine that lets you put tokens on it whenever an event resolves, does it get a token every time this even resolves at the end phase?

No. Events resolve once, during the Events phase where they get turned face up. An Event that has a continuing effect isn't 'resolving' every time it does something, it's just creating further effects.

Crushing Attack Battle: You may only play Crushing Attack if your army currently has more than twice as much total Force as the opposing army. The battle action phase ends (resolve any terrain, if applicable), and this battle is now resolved.

Dead Eyes This card costs 0 Gold when targeting a Crab Personality. Limited: Target one of your Personalities. Lower the Personality's Personal Honor to 0. The personality permanently gains the Berserk trait and the ability "Battle: Once per turn, this Personality gains +3F. Destroy this Personality immediately after this battle unless his or her army has at least twice the opposing army's Force at the battle's resolution."

From the Archives: Crushing Attack May not be played if there are no opposing units. [REVERSAL]

Since Crushing Attack and Dead Eyes have the same exact wording ("army currently has more than twice as much total Force as the opposing army."), I would expect them to work the same way. That means that either:

A) A personality using the Dead Eyes ability will die if there are no opposing units (because there is no opposing army to have twice the force of) or

II) Crushing Attack can be played when there are no opposing units at all because you have more force than two times zero.

Which is it?

It looks like it should be A. However, this looks like it's definitely against designer intent, so...

OK, here's the situation. I tried to find the closest related bit in the rulings archive, but I'm still a bit uncertain.

So, I'm using Akodo Sensei on the new Akodo SH. I have a bunch of ticked off Lion samurai trying to go to town on some little Cranes. Matsu Agetoki (tactician for a day thanks to Akodo Sensei) uses Luring Tactics for his one use of tactician for that battle to take a Shizue off to another battle. So, let's skip to that battle. Agetoki is alone there with Shizue, and now needs a very small bonus to take the Crane "army" and the province. Can I now give Agetoki a "real" tactician trait (from the SH) so he can actually use the trait for a normal force bonus? It seems like the relevant entry from the rulings [below] says you CAN'T do this - but it's important to know whether I can chose where one of my cards is getting a trait from, since there are actually two versions of the tactician trait at work here. (If you can't do this, it seems pretty dumb...it's like penalizing Lions who hail from the Noble Halls of the Akodo for being so foolish as to have learned from Akodo himself...)

From the rulings archive: "A card either has a trait or it doesn't. A card cannot have the same trait multiple times. An effect that would give an existing trait to a card is legal; just ignore the extra instance. [summary of other rulings]"

That section of the Archive isn't quite relevant. In this specific case, the extra instance of the trait *does* matter, because it's one of the conditions for turning off the first instance of the trait. A personality who is currently being affected by Akodo Sensei will lose the sucky version of the Tactician trait if he gets a 'real' version of it.

Is Saigorei Exp. ability subject to the normal ranged attack targetting rules? Or do the words on the card supercede that?

Battle: Once per turn, Saigorei makes a ranged attack with strength equal to his force that targets an opposing Cavalry card. This does not bow Saigorei

Basically, my question is, can Saigorei target a Cavalry personality that does have followers attatched?

Yes.

By a strict reading of the Spirit Wars glossary, Emperor's Under-Hand is not political, because discarding the Favor is not a cost of the action, just a cost of one of the effect. However, I'm inclined to believe that the whole action is always political. Am I correct in this assumption?

Yes. An action that is sometimes Political is always Political.

Furthermore, Confusion at Court will definitely stop the card-discarding ability, but not the whole action.

Definitely.

So what happens if two people BOTH play Take the Initiative? Which one gets precedence?

The person who Takes last goes first. Usually, the person who *isn't* going first will play the first one, giving the guy who was going first before the Take was played the opportunity to play his to re-Take the Initiative.

A related question-is it legal to play multiple copies of take the initiative to get them out of your hand? Say, for example, that my starting hand contains two "Take the Initiative"- can I react to the beginning of play before anyone's turn with one, wait to see if anyone else reacts to the beginning of play, and then react again?

Sure.

Hey all, I needed an official ruling and explanation on which traits and abilities still work on bowed strongholds. It was to my understanding that if it was an ability, you could not use it if the stronghold was bowed (things such as Reaction: or Limited:). However, if it was a trait, it could be used, like the undead receiving a follower token unless it bestowed an ability, such as Kitsu Tombs. If this is true, then can someone confirm my understandings by answering the following questions and/or responding to the following assumptions:

1.) Yogo Towers ability remains even if the stronghold is bowed.

True. The Yogo Towers gives the ability to all Scorpion personalities you control. That's a trait on the SH that gives the personalities the ability. It ignore the SH's bowed/unbowed status.

2.) Otaku Palaces CANNOT straighten a personality if the stronghold is bowed.

False. The Utaku Palaces specifically says that its Reaction can be used while the SH is bowed.

3.) Otomo Sensei CANNOT be used if the stronghold is bowed.

True. This goes for *any* Sensei actions, btw - even if they don't normally bow the SH.

4.) The Eternal Halls of the Shiba CANNOT be used to retain a Kiho if the stronghold is bowed.

True.

5.) The Sepulcher can be used to place a follower if bowed.

True.

6.) The ability of the Shadow stronghold CANNOT be used if bowed.

Shadow Stronghold of the Scorpion - True.

Dark Path of Shadow - False. Card text overrides general case.

I didn't know which Shadow Stronghold you were asking about, so I gave answers for both.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have a question regarding Gold edition.

Now that we have, or will soon have, 'Gold-bugged' holding, such as Iron Mines, Copper Mines, Silver Mines, etc, does this makes my GoldSmiths godlike?

In your little world, yes. ;)

I'm thinking that this won't work because you can't break up traits, but, I figured I'd ask.

It doesn't work because Gold-bugged cards don't actually have a 'Gold-bugged' trait, as Jade-bugged cards don't have a 'Jade-bugged' trait. Those bugs in the corners have no real effects or significance during game play. They're completely out-of-game things.

More Akodo Sensei

now, i cannot discard a card using it's focus value for a Force bonus, but does this "cannot use [the Tactician trait] to gain Force bonuses" apply to White Shore Plains? While I cannot use the trait to gain a direct Force bonus, would the terrain still take affect?

White Shore Plain doesn't 'use' the Tactician trait when it gives its Force bonus. Using it with Akodo Sensei'd people is perfectly fine.

If I use Kitsu to attach Shiryo no Kakita to Mirumoto Uso(exp) how many cards to I get to focus.

When Uso focuses two cards, you can use Shiryo no Kakita's trait on one of those focuses. You get three cards out of that. The rest of the time, you can only focus two cards.