Rules for July 25th

A Tested personality cannot be targeted by its controller with any actions, even actions controlled by your opponents.

To be sure, then: KK Journal, the results of A Test of Courage, and Isawa's Helm will now all definately protect (in their own ways) against Stand Against the Waves?

Yes, but the only one of those that's new in Gold is Test of Courage. Also note that all this stuff about protection from Stand due to targeting goes out the window if he has more personalities with followers than you do personalities in your army. In that case, Stand is *not* targeted, and all of your guys (even those with targeting protection) without followers are bowed.

I thought the MRP in Gold on In Time of War said that all honor gains a player makes are, at the end of the turn, retroactively reduced to 5 for that total turn. Thus, if I begin my turn with four honor, while my foe has twenty, I can gain thirty honor and sieze the favor (with that honor gain) but end my turn with only nine honor.

Umm...no. The text on In Time of War is:

For the rest of the game, no player's Family Honor may rise over 5 points from what it was when the turn began.

Any gains that would raise your honor above 5 points from what it was when the turn began are capped at the point of creation. You can, however, gain some, lose some, and then gain some more. The old In Time of War capped gains at exactly 5 points per turn. Now, it doesn't really limit how *much* honor you can gain, it limits how far you can go with that honor.

One more time... Just because of the weirdness of a reaction targeting. The whole reactions targeting thing doesn't jive with my logic, but I'm just going to run with it. I don't think the answer is quite the same, at least with my attempts at understanding this weirdness. It may or may not make a difference down the road, so best to have an understanding of it now...

It (Shosuro Technique) targets both personalities in the duel, your personality and the card creating the duel, or both personalities and the card creating the duel?

Just the personalities. Shosuro Tech doesn't affect the card that created the duel in any way. Its timing window is related to a duel, but that's not enough to make it targeted.

Example situation: Personality A, controlled by me, is I. Challenged by personality B. I play Shosuro tech... Does it target A, B, and/or I. Challenge. I think it targets personality A and I. Challenge, but does not target personality B.

It targets both personalities. This new targeting stuff is going to take a *long* time to iron out.

I just thought of a situation in which this matters... The good old Towers of the Asako can make a nasty dueling deck by taking poisoned weapon, judgment of toshiken, and shosuro tech out of the mix as desired.

Poisoned Weapon doesn't target, by card text. Shosuro Technique does. Judgement of Toshiken, though...I'm not sure. Right now, I'd have to say that JoT doesn't target, because it affects a set of personalities (all personalities in the duel). Shosuro Tech only affects on personality, and that's why it targets. Judgement, though, isn't targeted.

Have a headache yet? ;)

Bleh.

I was wondering on the timing between Fortress of the Dragonfly and Energy Transference.

Let's say I wack my opponents 0F/4C shuenja with Energy Transference. He currently has two Fortress of the Dragonfly in play.

Which of the following happens:

<snip>

4.) 6F/0C personality dies as per (1). The mighty fall hard.

When stats are switched, any modifiers in place before the switch are not reapplied afterwards.

I don't THINK I've seen this anywhere . . .

Can a player whose personality has a Scout and Armor of Sun Tao attached play a Deadly Ground out from under before his opponent's first action?

No. You can't take an action that would play a Terrain using the Scout, you have to just play the Terrain.

Isn't this a reversal?

Unintentional. I swear, I specifically looked in the Archive for an answer to this question! Hmph. The Archive is correct on this one. That ruling *is* a little old, though, and I'm not sure how well it jibes with the current rules set. It might be time to pull out the old Hypothetical Card box to try and break that ruling...

I don't THINK I've seen this anywhere . . .

Can a player whose personality has a Scout and Armor of Sun Tao attached play a Deadly Ground out from under before his opponent's first action?

No. You can't take an action that would play a Terrain using the Scout, you have to just play the Terrain.

Scout text: An Attacker with a Scout in his army may play a terrain card before the Defender performs his first battle action.

AoST: Limited: You may store as many Terrain cards as you like face down under the armour of Sun-Tao. Battle: Play a Terrain from the Armor of Sun-Tao and destroy any Terrain for this battle (if any). The new Terrain may not be destroyed.

Scout says you can play a terrain card before the Defender. AoST says, as a Battle action, to play a terrain from under the armor, etc. Scout does not say where it has to come from or how it must be played. Theoretically, Superior Strategist will also work here. Why does Scout want cards from the hand?

To be honest, Superior Strategist was the card that made me change my mind about the ruling. Extending Scout's trait to cover non-normal play of cards opens a causality can of worms, and those are always yucky. If you can use the Armor, and you can use Osuno, and you can use the Oracle of Earth, then why not SupStrat? The literal text of that ruling allows you to use SupStrat to play a terrain, yet that just seems somehow...wrong. Any rules argument that starts to extend into causality is bad.

On another note, has the definition of "your army" changed dramatically? I thought it used to mean the cards controlled by you in an attacking or defending army, but the GE text of Iaijutsu Duel (..."You need not control either Personality...") seems to imply otherwise. How can it be in your army, but you not control it? I understand allies might play a part, but isn't that their army, and the Personalities contained therin?

Nope. In any battle, there are only two armies. There's the attacking army, and the defending army. All allies are in one or the other, and if you are the attacker or defender, all units in the appropriate army (regardless of control) are in your army. That's nothing new with Gold, though.

I hope I have not offended the mighty Crane Clan Strategist, and I hereby tender my immediate offer of seppukku for my impudence. (Wouldn't do that for Zen... dirty Crabs! ;) )

Seppuku is not necessary, but as it would be a grave insult to your house to refuse your offer, have fun, and say hi to your grandfather for me.

Does a DPoS player lose honor for refusing an I.Challenge? A friend states that, as refusing is a decision of a player, the honor loss doesn't come from the card but from the player's decision, so the Ninja player should lose 7 honor.

Decisions aren't really a recognized source for honor losses. The effect that causes the loss is on the Iaijutsu Challenge card, and doesn't exist anywhere else. It's a card effect, if you're the one being challenged it's your opponents card effect, and DPoS players can ignore losses resulting from those. This debate is as old as Shadowlands, but somehow keeps refusing to be eliminated!

He also states that Ninja player are only prevented from unconditional loses as Shame, Breach...

No, they're protected from all honor losses coming from their opponents card effects. All losses. If it's not on one of their cards, they can just ignore it.

Please Zen / Jeff / Vaughn... just tell me what do I have to say that will make him see how wrong he is...

Try showing him the Archive and the FAQ. If he doesn't believe those, have him sign onto the list and ask me the question personally.

The rules archive states:

a.. Attaching an Item or Follower that gives "+X" to a stat is not an action giving a force bonus. The force bonus comes directly from the attached card, not the action. [REVERSAL, JA, 5 July 2001]

So Overconfidence should not bow a personality for attaching an item or follower, as is stated on the Overconfidence added rules. Am I right?

The Archive currently says that Overcon *cannot* be used against a personality attaching a '+X' Item or Follower. That's the correct ruling. You probably had a cached copy of the older Archive that still said otherwise, I'm guessing.

Have you actually read the Iaijutsu challange card lately? Limited: Choose your unbowed challenger and a Personality to be challenged. The winner gains 5 Honor. The challenged Personality may decline the duel at the loss of 7 Honor to his family and dishonoring himself. (Clarification: Target Personality must not be controlled by you.)

The person may decline the challange by taking a 7 honor hit. It is part of the cost to decline. If he refuses to take the 7 honor hit, he can not decline the challange.

Not true. From the GE rulebook, pg. 39:

For sets starting with the Fire and Shadow set, only something described as a cost or something followed by "to" or "for" is a cost.

Iai Challenge uses neither of those terms in its description of the penalty for refusal, so neither effect is a cost.

Of course, I would love to hear the rules lawyers on this one.

You know, being an investigative, justice seeking lawyer doesn't mean that you aren't a lawyer...

1.) Strike of Flowing water is played face down as a focus for the doubling effect, and face up for the discarding effect right?

Yup. Any Reactions played instead of focusing or as a focus have to be played face up. Cards that aren't Reactions, just played as a focus, get to be played face down.

2.) Strike of Flowing water will double a reaction played as a focus (Ie. Bend like a Reed).

Sure.

3.) Using One Life, One Action on a Burning Your Essence has no effect (other than spending one or more gold to pay for the 1L1A.)

I don't think it's possible to play OLOA against ByE. You play One Life after another player resolves an action card from his or her hand. Burning your Essence, much like Focus, never actually resolves. There's no moment of resolution for OLOA to trigger off of. But, you're right. If, in some way, you did find a way to play a One Life on ByE, it would have no effect.

Greetings,

I recently read the rulebook for gold edition but didn't see anything about this, so I thought I'd ask here. It does mention senseis but it doesn't really say whether or not they're legal in strict gold or not. I know the sensei cards don't have gold bugs on them and they aren't on the Gold card list, but just to have a definitive answer, could someone tell me whether or not senseis are legal in strict gold format? Thanks in advance.

The card type still exists, and has to be covered in the rulebook, but there are currently no Gold-legal Sensei cards. In theory, they might wind up making an appearance at some point later in the arc, but they might not. Right now, though, the card type itself is *legal*, there just are no legal members of the card type in Gold. Make sense?

Relevant text: Kakita Atoshi: Atoshi can remain bowed. Political Limited: Bow while you have the Imperial Favor. Select a bowed Personality. The target Personality may not straighten until after one of the following occurs: Atoshi straightens or is destroyed, or you lose the Imperial Favor.

The Emperor's Left Hand: Political Reaction: Cancel any one political action being taken by the player with the highest family honor.

Let's say Atoshi has kept Matsu Nimuro bowed for the last three turns. Lion pulls the E's LH. Can he pay the 1G on Crane's turn to cancel the action & unbow Nimuro on the following turn?

No. The action is only 'used' when Atoshi bows to create the effect. After that, it's just an effect with a non-time duration. If, however, Atoshi straightened (or you lost the Favor) and then you tried to use it again, the Left Hand would be legal for play. It can't be used to end the action in the middle of its duration, though.