post for 26 April 2002

Question on Court Intrigue

Hi. I have a question about the event Court Intrigue from Dark Allies. It reads:

If you control the Imperial Favor, discard it to give each of you Courtier Personalities the following ability until the beginning of your next turn: "Political Open: Bow to bow a non-Unique Personality with lower Personal Honor. This abilty may not be used during battle."

Ok. So, is it one shot? Does the only opportunity for this card to be of use happen on the turn it is flipped over and you must immediately discard it?

It is a one-time deal, and the discarding of the Favor is mandatory.

Rules Question

Quick question here. Let's say I play Uncertainty on another player's personality, reducing him to 0 force. Then I cast Energy Transference on said personailty. Which switches his force and chi. Does the personality die, or will Uncertainty protect him?

Uncertainty gives him a Chi minimum of 1, which applies after his Chi gets set to 0 [DA rulebook p. 31] and so saves him.

Bowed Holdings

Just a quick question; this issue arose yesterday when we were honing our decks for the upcoming local SotLion tourney.

When Holdings are bought from Provinces, they come into play bowed. Does this mean that the effects of certain Holding (like the Chi boost of the Fortress of the Dragonfly, and the Force/Chi/Honour boost of the Ki-Rin Shrine Exp) do not take effect until the Holding becomes unbowed at the start of the player's next turn?

"Bowing does not turn off continuous effects of a card, such as traits, Force and Chi bonuses, or effects that are not actions." [DA rulebook p. 24]

In other words, can I buy my Ki-Rin Shrine, and then immediately start reaping the extra Honour from the Dragon Personalities that I bring into play later during that same Dynasty phase?

Yes.

post for 24 April 2002

Just as a curiosity point, will Enlightenment and Armor of Osano-Wo be inserted into future expansion starter decks as fixed cards in Broken Blades or later?

It's highly unlikely, as 1) they are already in the environment, and 2) they make rather poor Sealed Deck cards.

post for 25 April 2002

Apologies if this has been asked before -

Bitter Vengeance reads: "Target an opponent and discard one to three fate cards. For each card discarded, that opponent must either discard a Fate card of his or her choice or lose 3 honor."

I play Bitter Vengeance. Is each of my discards a discrete "event"? That is, do I discard all of my cards at once or can I discard one, see my opponent's reaction (discard or honor loss), then discard another, etc... up to the maximum allowed or when I choose to stop?

You have to pick the amount up front. You can't do them one at a time.

River Region

If a face-down card is discarded from a River Region (e.g. Bayushi Aramoro or Emporer's Underhand), is it revealed before placing it at the bottom of the dynasty deck?

Ha! Interesting question. I'd say it's not revealed.

River Region [Jeff]

Overlooked the part about someone else discarding it. In that case I don't think you can even use the River Region, as it states "When you discard..." You're not doing the discarding, someone else is. This also sounds like you could discard someone elses dynasty card from a River Region and get to choose, effectively stealing the card out of the prov and into the bottom of your dynasty deck. I flagged this for Jeff to look at as I don't think that was the intent of the card.

Good question. The original wording didn't care who caused the discard, and there was no desire to intentionally change the mechanics, but I'd agree that the Gold Edition wording does, indeed, only allow activating the reaction if you are the one causing the discard.

Either way, it's impossible for someone else to steal your cards to her deck by forcing a discard, for three reasons: the Reaction is on your card, so other players can't activate it; the Reaction's trigger is when "you", the Region's controller, discard a card, ergo the trigger is not met; and she can't put the card "at the bottom of [her] Dynasty deck instead of in [her] discard pile" if it wasn't going into her discard pile in the first place.

Rules question

I have a quick question about the Region Shallow Graves from APC. The card reads

Shadowlands

Battle: Once per battle, attach a 2F Shadowlands Undead follower token to one of your units in this battle containing one or more Undead cards. All players may use this action.

Can you use this action at any battle, or only during battles at this province?

Only during battles at this Province. [DA rulebook pp. 54 and 58]

Kiho casting

Hey Jeff;

When is a kiho considered "successfully cast" ? After paying cost and before it resolves, or when it has finished resolving ?

After paying costs and waiting to see if anyone plays a Reaction that cancels it.

The question comes from a timing boggle with Eternal Halls of the Shiba and Facing your Devils. When exactly can the Phoenix player recycle his Kiho ? Before the challege ? Between the acceptance or refusal of the challenge and the start of the duel ? When the duel is over ?

Before the challenge.

rules Q on the company you keep

does the company you keep check personalities' personal honor before or after the personality enter's play?

The comparison would have to be made before the new Personality enters play to make him or her "enter play dishonored".

The Wind's Truth

Hey there,

The Wind's Truth targets, everybody will agree with that. I'm just having a hard time defining what exactly it does target :

A) The gain (I'm guessing yes, since it changes the gain) B) The player the gain or loss is redirected to (I'm guessing yes to, since you must choose him or her, and thus target him) C) The player who was gaining/losing honor originally (that's the point where I need help ^_^)

So, tu sum up, player A redirects an honor gain from player B to player C. Does TWT target player B ?

No, just the gain and player C.

Question about soul of Tsuruchi

I have the DA card soul of Tsuruchi and his name is: Tsuruchi Hiro then I saw my friends Imperial Herald and it had his name: Tsuruchi Ichiro

I would just like to know wich is his real name?

His real name is Tsuruchi Hiro. Due to scheduling, material sometimes needs to be submitted to the Herald that hasn't been nailed down to 100% final form.