Rules for July 18th

Hi kids! Zen's busy contemplating the oneness of the universe (actually, he's traveling again), so I'm in for a few days.

If Ghedai is at Province #1 and Personality X is at Province #2, while the battle at Province #3 is currently being resolved, can Ghedai move Personality X into Province #3? Or can Ghedai only move himself into the Battle at Province #3?

Ghedai can legally move Personality X (what expansion is he from, by the way?) from Province 2 to Province 3, even if he himself is in Province 1 (or at home, even). An action satisfies Presence if it gives you a unit in the battle, and satisfies Relevance by moving a unit into the battle. Ghedai's action does both. S'okay.

I still need to know, for certain, if Shosuro Technique's Reaction can be used in Gold on a bowed Personality or a Personality that is bowing as it enters a duel.

Doesn't appear so.

Why can't you? Is Shosuro Technique now a targetted card, even though only one person is ever entering a duel for you at any point and time? So does this apply to Double Chi and Void Strike now too?

*ERROR: DOES NOT COMPUTE*

I would expect as much from such a faulty computation device... ;)

The Gold rules on targeting are:

1. If an effect says it targets, it targets. 2. An effect that applies only to its own card does not target. 3. An effect that applies to all of a particular group does not target. 4. All other effects target.

Rule 4. All other effects target. As a general guideline (because this is *so* different from the way that Reactions were previously handled), if a Reaction affects a card in play, assume that it targets unless it specifically says otherwise (Poisoned Weapon, for ex). Something that reacts to a trigger event (Counterattack, The Wind's Truth, The Emperor's Left Hand) probably doesn't target. This rule is going to take a while to work out, but will probably be stabler in the long run.

Mitsu "bows after every battle he is in." And then cannot "restraighten" from a Rally. If Rally said, "Your units do not bow during resolution of this Battle," then it would work, because it specifically tells Mitsu that he does not bow. Or I dunno. Maybe a Rules Guy can jump in.

Jump!

Rallying Cry isn't quite properly worded. Never has been. A few years back, I worked up this whole complicated example involving a Mitsu, a few Rallying Cries, and a few Counterattacks, the end result of which being a battle wherein Mitsu was bowed, and could not be straightened by any means, yet immediately after which he would straighten as if nothing had ever happened. That's the power of Rallying Cry. It straightens your guys as if nothing had ever happened to them. In practice, it's a retroactive effect. It's just not spelled out that way on the card.

Long story short - Rallying Cry will stop Mitsu from bowing. It will also not give Corruption tokens to attackers with Black Scrolls attached, and will otherwise straighten your units as if their bowing had never happened.

1) I have a tchick'chuck and two Mattcks. The three rats attack a province, and tchickchuck gives the two mattcks +1F each. My opponent plays in search ........ Do the tchick'chuck bonuses get reapplied after the IsotF has resolved (i.e Do the mattcks have their force reduced to 2, or do they instantly gain the bonus from tchickchuck again?)

The bonus that Tchick was giving the Mattucks hasn't gone away, so it can't be reapplied. It's still being given to them, only it's been reduced to zero.

2) Similarly, If i am playing the spawning grounds, and I have 2 oni no ugulu in a battle, does an ISotF cancel the bonus given by the stronghold, or does it get reapplied as soon as the ISotF has resolved?

Same answer. The bonus is still there, it's just there at a much smaller amount.

The basis for these questions is this piece from the accumulated rulings:

"Bonuses from traits that switch on and off (e.g., "while attacking") are reapplied every time the relevent condition is met, if there is any intervening point when the bonus switches off and is not longer given. E.g., during an Ambush, a defending Hida Tampako's defensive bonus is reduced to 0 by In Search of the Future; if he later defends during a normal Attack Phase on the same turn, he gains a new +2F defensive bonus"

This seems to me to say that the bonuses from tchickchuck/spawning grounds etc are negated until the end of the battle, but i'd to make sure of this.

Ah. Well, what that ruling is referring to is situations where a bonus is completely removed, and then reapplied. For your first example, if Tchickchuck left the battle with the two Mattucks (I hate rat names), and then came back into the battle, the bonus that he was giving them at first which had been reduced to zero vanished when he left the battle, so when he comes back in, a completely new 1f bonus would be given to all his rat buddies. Get it?

I believe this was ruled on before, but don't see it in the current archives.

Does, The Edge of Shinomen Forest, count as a "forest" for purposes of Yuki no Onna? I seem to remember an old ruling that stated it didn't but was curious since I can't find it anywhere, thanks.

No, it's a Forest. You might be remembering the short lived 'Foo of Bar' ruling, when Foo of Bar cards were not considered to be Bar cards (because the Bar was after the of). After realizing that this rule completely eliminated every Fu Leng card, the status quo was reestablished.

The ruling you made on July 10 on Toturi not being able to use his reaction in response to being rehonored by seppuku is a reversal from many long established rulings. I have personally asked and reasked the legality of this action many, many times. Is this a reversal due to new rules from Gold Edition?

The reason you gave in your ruling, that dead personalities may not take actions, does not take into account that samurai committing seppuku are first rehonored, and then after being rehonored then destroyed. Toturi's reaction ability is used the instant he is rehonored, before he is destroyed.

Here's what the Gold rulebook says about rulebook Seppuku: "Ritual suicide that absolves a person of any past misdeeds. A personality who commits seppuku always dies honorably and becomes honorable dead."

Dies honorably, and becomes honorable dead. Looking in the Spirit Wars rulebook, that version of the rules does have the personality being rehonored before he dies. In this version...it doesn't look that way.

On a slightly irrelevant tangent, if I remember correctly there is another ruling which states personalities going into the dead pile can use their reactions, even if they were orginially bowed, because personalities are first unbowed before they are destroyed.

Nay. You're thinking of the ruling that says that you can target your own dead personalities with actions, even if they were bowed when they died (because dead people are neither bowed nor unbowed, just dead). Dead personalities still can't use Reactions.

Anyway, if this is indeed a reversal please state it as such. When I use this maneuver in tournaments, I am often questioned about the legality of it by my opponent, and I tell my opponent that I have always consulted the list on this and the list has always said it was a legal maneuver and it is the most recent ruling. I do not want to have the reputation that I am a dishonorable player who cheats in lies in tournaments.

Looks like it used to be legal, but it's gone the way of the dodo. Hmph. I really liked that combo. Bummer.

If I have a shugenja who has the chime of Harmony attatched, and I have him or her cast The Fury of Osano-Wo in battle, will the Chime of Harmony add to the shugenja's chi for the purpose of this spell, thus making the ranged attack stronger?

Yup.

Am I correct in thinking that most reactions now target? Does A Test of Courage target the personality it is played upon? Does Enough Talk target the samurai making the challenge and the personality performing the political action?

See above. If it affects or involves a card in play in any way, it targets. Both of the above situations target (Test of Courage by explicit rules text, though).

So the correct wording with interpretation for Rallying Cry would be:

Reaction: Play after a battles resolution. Straighten any personalities that were bowed by the combat as if they had never bowed.

Something close to that, yes. You'd have to be a little bit more specific (as in "...bowed by the resolution of that battle"), but yeah.

Just a couple of quick questions about targeting and Kitsuki Kagi's Jounal now that the rules are different in gold:

If someone has the journal attached, can you play evil portents, which now targets under the gold edition rule book?

a) Evil Portents isn't targeted. Targeting rule 3. b) Even if it were, precedent says that an action with a spread of targets (say, Hosigeru) can still be used, even if one of the potential targets can't actually be targeted.

Can you play Flattery if someone in the opposing army has the journal attached?

Sure. Flattery has never targeted the opposing army (and still doesn't). Discarding cards equal to the attacking army's force is a cost, similiar to if a card forced you to pay gold equal to the number of Shadowlands cards in play. Checking the stats of something doesn't count as targeting it.

If someone with Kitsuki's Coin challenges the journal holder to a duel, can the controlling player play reactions, Strike of Flowing Water, Bend Like a Reed, Strike With No Thought,...etc?

Nope. The doubling part of Strike of Flowing Water is okay, but the rest of those are all Reactions involving a card in play, and so they target. Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal just got a lot less fun to play.

From the card we see that Akasha is human, but is she also considered a Naga card because of the trait "Legacy of the Naga"?

Not to comment on a card that hasn't been officialy released yet, but a hypothetical card printed with that hypothetical trait would indeed count as a Naga card, and be usable as such by Naga players. This ruling may change when it sees the bright light of reality.

Is his [Bayushi Kaukatsu's] Reaction a Political Reaction?

I don't have a copy of the card, but seeing as it's a post-Gold card, the answer should be right on the card. If his Reaction says "Political Reaction", then it's Political. If it doesn't, it's not. The definition of Political for cards printed in Gold and after has been vastly simplified.