Rules for August 22 (Part One)

Ack thblpt! Due to a flood of questions in the past two days, I've let this pile up a little bit more than I usually do. To be kind to everyone's patience and eyes, I'm going to split today's post into two seperate messages, one covering Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and one covering Monday and Tuesday. Everyone got that? Good.

Go!

And yes, I have encountered all 3 situations (always test your decks thouroughly) and I continue to get worked over by them.

Try In Search of the Future. I hear Domotai hates that card.

But wouldn't ISOTF fail against Domotai as he would recalculate immediately?

Ooh - a recurring favorite to start off with! No. The whole recalculation thing is very often misunderstood. If I ever get a hand in the FAQ construction, this one will be first on the list.

In order for a bonus to defeat In Search and reassert itself, you have to find a way to make the bonus completely stop existing. As long as it still exists, but is reduced to zero, it will not recalculate. In Domotai's case, you would have to move him to a different battle (squashing from existence his friendship bonus), and then move him back into the current battle (making Domotai feel not quite so lonely anymore, and get all excited about having new friends). Clear?

Follower Battle Maidens.

When it says "...and you can not target this unit with actions that would send it home."

Does that mean the unit's controller, or any player?

Just the unit's controller. You in the singular refers to the controller of the card.

Yes. The Spawning ground force bonus doesn't happen until you control the card. You only control cards in play, and the Forgotten Tomb specifically implies that the cards under it are not in play yet ("You may bring cards under the Forgotten Tomb into play..."). A 0f Oni (for example) could be placed under the Tomb, and then get brought into play immediately at 1f.

Actually, looking at the current wording of the Spawning Ground, it says it refers to Oni/goblins/etc that you own, not control. Own is different from Control in L5R, isn't it?

Ah, you are correct! I had taken the wording from the Archive, which is apparently off by one key word. It's usually easier to steal wording from the Archive, because none of the online databases have adjusted for Gold wording changes, and I don't have a set of GE (and I hate grabbing my cards to chack wording anyways - too much walking).

Anyways, you're right. Given that the GE Spawning Ground does indeed say own and not control, the force bonus *is* given to Oni, Goblins, and Trolls that are not yet in play.

If a dishonored Dark Path of Shadow Ninja dies from a duel, does the DPOS player suffer an honor loss from Gold Edition rulebook...

"When a Dishonored Personality is destroyed, his or her controller suffers and Honor loss equal to the Personality's printed Personal Honor"

although the DPOS Stronghold text contains...

"You do not lose Honor from other players' card effects or from your Ninja cards."

When a Dishonored personality dies, the honor loss is coming from a rulebook law, not from any specific card effect. A dying Ninja personality out of the Dark Path will still cause it's controller an honor loss.

Quick Question: in the rules archive it says under Otaku Tetsuko

Gains her bonus for Provinces destroyed in battle before she entered play. [FAQ]

Does she gain a bonus for those destroyed while she is in play? Thanks.

Absolutely. The ruling is only clarifying that Tetsuko counts all of your destroyed-due-to-battle provinces when calculating her bonus, not just the ones that she personally saw get destroyed.

I had a couple of questions concerning Hitomi Kokujin's ability. If a Toturi's army player brings out Hitomi Kokujin and beats Hantei the XVI in a duel involving chi then uses his ability is that a legal move? I looked for info on the FAQ but found nothing. If he could legally do that would it also work for the Unicorn against Agetoki? If so, many other clans who normally wouldn't be able to control a player could use him maliciously. Couldn't find anything on it and would greatly appreciate a ruling.

Personalities who will not join a certain Clan may not be taken control of in any way by a player of that Clan. Only effects which specifically override Clan restrictions will get past that, The Dark Sanctuary being the only one that I can think of. When someone's bringing you back from the dead, I guess you don't get to be too particular.

Here is a few Questions..

If I have Touch of Death (any spell) and target a shugenja. The guy has Shiba rejgean (redirect guy) he uses it. Can I the Use ring of Air to redirect it back to Original Target?

Two things: one, Shiba Raigen isn't a legal redirect target for a Touch of Death. He can't possibly be both unbowed (so he can use his ability) and bowed (so he's a legal target) at the same time, so he can't save your Shugenja from Touch of Death.

Second, you can use any number of redirection effects in order, so long as each one redirects to another target that could have been originally legal. For example, in a multiplayer game, you target one of Player B's Shugenja with The Wasting Disease. Player B uses a Shiba Raigen to redirect the action over to him, at which point you use your Ring of Air to move the effect back to Player B's Shugenja. At this point, Player C steps in with *his* Ring of Air, and moves it back to the original Shugenja (or one of your Shugenja, if Player C feels evil). This can keep going as long as there are redirection effects to be used and legal targets for the action.

I use Water Boy (blow up Phoenix boy) to make a range attack targeting every personnality in the opposing army (range 1) there are X targets. One of the reactions is a Flee the Darkness. What happens. Also All the shugenja are in the battle and have 1 Force or less (I know there is something in the rule book about cancelling and negating? same different ????) a) is my guy destroyed and all range attacks negated?

Your Hosigeru is destroyed (because self-destruction is a cost for his action), and his action is cancelled. Flee the Darkness has been MRP'd (thank goodness) to say that it only cancels an action. It used to contain a phrase about negating effects as well, but that became irrelevant due to rules changes.

I'm in a battle. I have Celestial Sword Attached to my person. In search gets played. I move the person to a different battle. What happens. a) Does the force penalty go away at the end of battle? b) since it doesn't say when the penalty ends it is treated like bonus where it ends at the end of turn?

The second. There is no listed duration for the effect, so it lasts until the end of the turn.

I have a question about one card. It's Yogo Asami. I know that she can use her ability out of a battle in a special case. But ... wich case is this? If all of target player's personalities are in the battle or if all of target player's UNBOWED personalities are in the battle? Did you understand my question?

If all of the possible legal targets for her action are at the battle currently being resolved, you can use her regardless of her location. If there are some personalities outside of the current battle, she has to be at the battle to use her action.

More to come in Part Two, Attack of the Cloned Rulings!