replies to July 3-5

Targeting and legal actions

Just a thought as I am looking and <attempting to> memorize the new gold edition rule book.

From the Gold Edition Rule Book pages 45-46: 1. If an effect says it targets, it targets. 2. An effect that paalies only to it's own card does not target. 3. An effect that applies to all of a particular group, such as "all Shadowlands cards" or "each Monk Personality in the attacking army," does not target. 4. All other effects target.

Now, the question I have deals with #3. And the card in question is:

In Search of the Future 0/3 You may play this card during a battle in which you have no units.

Battle: Lower all current Force bonuses for cards in this battle to 0, except bonuses to or from cards attached to them.

The question: is '...for cards in this battle...', is this considered an effect that applies to all of a particular group.

Yes.

replies to 28-30 June (Open environment)

So what does Open Format fall under, now that Jade and pre-Jade are 'historical'?

How about: archaic, moribund, unsupported, orphaned, and endangered?

Could you please wait until AEG stops allowing Open tournaments to be sanctioned to warn people not to get hit by pieces of falling sky?

Are you saying that AEG will print cards specifically intended for the Open environment?

Not huge numbers of them, but, yes, we will. It's been publically stated that Personalities will still occasionally be printed for factions that aren't in the Gold story arc. And we'll print cards specifically intended for the multiplayer environment. And we'll print cards specifically intended for the Sealed environment.

I'd also like to point out that some of the Gold MRPs were made primarily with Open in mind. We could've kept Taeruko from breaking Gold by simply not printing her, yes?

Are you saying that AEG will sanction storyline tournaments in the Open environment?

Storyline tournaments that they themselves organize? I don't know at this point, but I can't see any of the big events being Open, barring another special case like Oblivion's Gate. How, exactly, is the Story Team supposed to work with something like "Matsu Gohei supports the Wolf"?

But has anybody given any thought to a two track system similar to the one I proposed?

Can't tell ya. The whole points-tracking issue isn't something I'm in the loop on.

Corrupting the Winds?

Jeff has already stated that even if a majority of Shadowlands/corrupt decks started playing with a particular Wind, and even if they actually started winning some tournaments, nothing much would happen. Maybe he would make some minor mistakes, and give the Shadowlands some slight advantage.

That is NOT what I said. What I said was that the result of the Shadowlands successfully influencing the storyline by cohesively backing one particular Wind will not automatically be "that Wind becomes Tainted". Please don't read any more into it than that.

replies to 25 June

However, I'd be a lot more annoyed if that was the end of the shadow forever - it's survived since the beginning of time, practically and is destroyed 'just like that'.

Destroyed with the help of a god. Important technicality.

So Fu Leng's gone forever too, then? Another God, destroyed with the help of a God...

Not gods. Thunders. Mortals, of necessity. The only god to help was Yokuni, who was a child of Sun and Moon. Hitomi was the Moon herself.

if not, why not and if so, why does the shadowlands still exist,

It could have something to do with the fact that Fu Leng actively worked to corrupt and expand them for two thousand years, whereas the Shadow was far more subtle. Also, when Fu Leng was killed, that's all the Thunders did -- kill Fu Leng. Lady Moon went one step further and eliminated all the Shadow's minions, by naming the Nameless. (That's why she had to name them Akodo, by the way...the people with no name could only be fully eliminated by giving them a name with no people, otherwise whoever the name had been taken from would become the new Nameless, given time. It's a significant point that I don't think was ever adequately emphasized.)

Rules Questions (Iru and Infections)

Is it just me, or am I one of the few people asking questions about old-school cards? Hm.

1) If Kusatte Iru uses his Reaction as a Province is destroyed, destroying a Province, is it destroying a Province in battle -- as it, well, literally is?

Nope. According to my spoiler, its Reaction is used after the Resolution Segment. That makes it after the battle is over. Question 1a) is moot.

2) When one destroys Plague-infested Personalities in order to satisfy Rampant Plague's conditions for immunity, this makes one unable to be "targeted with plague tokens." Obviously, this means they can't get anymore tokens from the Plague event. However, also under these circumstances, what of the following applies?

2a) Can Sympathetic Energies transfer a Plague token to a Personality controlled by an "immune" player?

No.

2b) Can Plague-Infested Region give Plague tokens to a Personality controlled by an "immune" player?

Yes, because that is not a targeted effect. They will, however, not cause a Chi penalty.

replies to 28-30 June

I'm under the impression that you reply means, in effect, "this is unexpected, but it's a correct interpretation of the card's wording, so that's how it works". (I would have thought that the original poster was reading more in a wording change than was really there, and that Unscalable Walls would still work as before)

Can you clarify this?

Initially I agreed to the original poster, but I think that is reading too much into it. The trait is, after all, active "as if the Fortification was at the battle's Province."

Unscalable Walls works exactly like it did before.

More qns

I was going through the rulings when i chanced upon this. Qns 1: Battlefield of Shallow Graves

Battle: Terrain. Only playable by the Attacker or Defender. All Personalities in the opposing army have their forces halved (round up). From the time this card is put into play until the end of this battle's resolution, all of your opponent's honor gains are doubled (cumulative with other bonuses and multipliers), even if this card is destroyed.

Battlefield of Shallow Graves Is Political. It cannot be used by a Shadowlands player. [Rulebook]

I saw that in Zen rulings. How is that terrain political? Wat do u mean by political?

Actions that modify honor losses or gains are Political by old rulebook definition. "Political" is an extra trait the action has, like "Elemental" or "Maho" or "Terrain". There are no special rules in the rulebook itself that make Political actions work differently from ones that aren't, but there are Strongholds and cards that interact with that trait, and you happen to be playing one of them.