Rules for January 2nd

Happy New Year, everyone! Short post today...

I am playing the Spawning grounds. As the Stronghold says i cannot lose or gain honor, so in order to get Hantei the 16th, can i actually snatch him away from my opponent since i do not lose 20 honor. But however, the text on Hantei the 16th said that this reducing by 20 honor is not an honor loss. What should i do?

You can use the action on Hantei XVI's card, even if you cannot normally lose honor. However, because the lowering of your honor isn't an honor loss, it still happens, and a Shadowlands player would instantly drop to -39, losing the game.

My friend is playing a Crane deck, Kosaten Shiro. It said that gold and honor producing holdings cost 1 less gold for me, to a minimum of 0, but cannot have their costs changed in any other way. If i use fantastic gardens, which originally cost 7 gold but 5 gold for crane players, how much do i really get it out? 6 or 4 gold?

6. Use Poorly Placed Garden and Entrench instead.

Set up: I'm playing Unicorn, my opponent is playing Crab. He is playing with Tetsuya Sensei. I declare an attack, assign units and declare a battle. He discards his Sensei and sends my units home.

Question: Has that battle resolved? Or may I Shinjo's Breath a unit back into that battle? The card says nothing about resolving, but everyone seemed to think that discarding it ended the battle. I disagree. Who was right?

You were. Tetsuya Sensei (and the Dark Path of Shadow, btw) don't specifically end the battle without resolution, they just send away all units currently at the battle. Shinjo's Breath is a perfectly legit way to get around the Sensei.

I'm awfully late on reading the list, but...

Vaughn Derderian writes:

Also can I get a quick confirmation... Moto Ride to the Shadowlands will make House of Tao players discard their ring right (assuming it's their event)? (and unplayable by Kaiu Crab too...)

No. Moto Ride says nothing about entering/staying in play, so it just resolves, like any other Event. It doesn't count as bringing a Shadowlands card into play for either of the two Strongholds mentioned above.

Hmm... I was pretty sure even Events entered play to take their effect. Enters play, takes effect, gets dicarded.

There's two conflicting rulings coming into play here. One ruling (from Martyr) says that Actions and Events are 'in play' while they're resolving long enough to be targeted by Martyr. Another ruling (from Yokuni Sensei) says that only Events which specifically say that they enter or remain in play actually enter play.

Right now, I'm sticking with the idea that Events and Actions do not normally enter play. For one, there's just a lot of complications with that that I'd really rather not contemplate, and I think that a few of them run against the grain of the game. For instance, if a Kaiu Crab player is playing with Moto Ride, and it flips face up in his province, what happens? Does it just sit there, unresolved? That's a fairly new situation, and I don't want to give that area of rulings a foundation to grow from. Personally, I think that Martyr is the card that's screwing this all up. If it only said that it could target things in the discard pile...

There's a recent Event that prevents Imperial cards from entering play for some time, I believe, but I don't have spoilers with me. Would it prevent Imperial Gift/Quest/Funeral?

I'm going to say no, but I'm going to ask Jeff about this whole issue and see what he thinks.

What about Shadowlands Sickness? (I was certain Actions enter play as well) Would it kill a Tao player's rings, and be prevented for Kaiu and Lion 4?

Same as above.