post for 29 May 2002

Rules Question (JEFF)

Why would the secon dcard have to come from your hand?

Look at Ryokan's Sword. It says "when this personality focuses". The secodn card is still a focus so shouldn't he be allowed to take either (or both) from the top of his deck?

The only potential problem I see with Zen's ruling is that Ryoken's Sword refers to "THE Focus card" (emphasis mine), which is arguably grounds for the point of view that the Sword's trait can't be used if more than one card is focused. Still, as worded, the Sword does not allow multiple replacements per focus, and Uso IS only focusing once when he puts those two cards down, so I'm going to side with Zen on this one.

Agasha Haminari question.

This was something that came up in a game, I had Isawa Norikazu AKA Agasha Haminari I played Night Battle: no player without a shugenja or shadowlands personality in this battle can take actions for this battle except an action that destroys this terrain.

He tries to destroy the terrain using Sup Tacs I bow Norikazu to cancel the sup tacs, was my move legal or did he have to use deversionary tactics. Or can I do that at all?

To someone with no shugenja or Shadowlands Personalities in the battle, Night Battle is identical to Deadly Ground. Diversionary and Superior Tactics are both legal if played to destroy it.

To someone with a shugenja or a Shadowlands Personality, Night Battle is a piece of cardboard that says "Immediate Terrain".

One Life, One Action

1.) Following Agasha Hamanari's ability: Reaction: When a player plays an Action card from his or her hand that targets you, your cards, or your tokens, bow Hamanari to cancel the action . . . If my opponent challenges Hamanari to a duel (IE Iaijutsu Art), may I bow him to cancel the action, then use One Life, One Action on the card, or is considered to not have resolved?

No. A canceled action does not count as either taken or played.

2.) How about with regards to the Ancient Halls of the Lion after a terrain has had its effects negated? Can One Life, One Action be used then?

Yes. An action which has all its effects negated is still taken and still resolves.

3.) With regards to the "memory" of cards. Recently it was posted that, in a duel, if a personality with 2 chi was targeted with Uncertainty then challenged with a duel, the remaining -1 chi deduction would carry over to his/her first focus, meaning that if the personality was 1 chi upon entering the duel, focused a 4, the acutal chi + focus value for the personality would be 3. If that is true, would the same apply to personalites at a battle at a Shadowland's Marsh?

Absolutely.

Meaning, say if Akodo Tadenori attacked a province with the Shadowlands Marsh on it, he would orginially be 0F, as usual. The attack chooses (after the defender passes) to tactician a 4. Would Tadenori's force be 4, or would it be 2, as the card "remembers" the deduction?

It's not a memory so much as it is basic math. 0 minus 2 plus 4 equals 2. Remember, you only set values to a lower limit of 0 after all your math is done.

Whistling Bulb Arrow Rules Question

This question has recently arisen on deathseeker. Can Mukami/Nobumoto use a Whistling Bulb Arrow effectivley or, since he is home, he can't make the 2nd ranged attack?

The Bulb's attack comes immediately after the Personality's own, so it would happen before Nobumoto goes home.

Stacking

It's pretty simple, really. If there is any similarity between how your deck was organized before you shuffled and how it's arranged afterward, you haven't shuffled well enough. A thorough shuffle will give you equally random results on a deck regardless of whether it was all Personalities on top of all Holdings at the outset or whether it was P/H/P/H clear through.

Since an UN-thorough shuffle is easier to detect when applied to an all-P/all-H deck, and since so many people have incorrect ideas of what a genuinely random arrangement looks like, and since a truly random arrangement is less workable than a uniform one, it's easy to see why P/H/P/H stacking is so tempting. Technically, however, stacking followed by incomplete shuffling is cheating.

Or, as Scott Schultz says:

Bottom line is that if pre-stacking isn't benefiting you because you're doing sufficient shuffling then there's no reason to do it at all. If it IS benefiting you then you're not doing sufficient shuffling and you're influencing the order of your deck.

post for 14 May 2002

What is the timing with a Shiba Halls player with only one copy of TWT, who is facing an opponent with a TWT? Can he bounce it in time to redirect again?

Yes.

;;;;;

Hi there, this just poped to mind. Can I use the same action on the same personality over and over during a single turn?

You cannot use the same printed copy of a Reaction more than once per trigger. Other than that, there is no limit to the number of times you can use an action other than what's built into it.

Is it just me, or do the two above answers contradict each other?

The Shiba cannot use the same TWT card to bounce the same Honor loss more than once, right?

Wow. This one calls for a razor's edge distinction between the loss itself and the "act" of suffering it. I have to say it's a brand new loss situation: you were about to lose honor, then you weren't, now you are again. That makes it a different trigger, and the second use of the same Wind's Truth is legal.

Rules questions!

1) Suppose the target of an Ambush is killed before resolution. Is the battle ended immediately or does it continue?

It most certainly continues.

2) Does the attack on Shiro Matsu count as "declaring an attack"? In other words, can I use Ginawa's ability to draw a card and then use the stronghold to "start an attack"?

Yes and no. You can use the Stronghold and then Ginawa, though.

RL people with IC personae as CCG cards...

Their are a group of people who were promised cards for their wins in a series of Regional Storyline Tourneys back before the move to AEG occurred. It appeared that these promises wouldn't be kept, but I have personally overheard Ray Lau address this matter and he has said that they will eventually get done.

I also said so much right on this very list. :(

Mulligan v poor deck building

Here's where you're wrong. It has been seen to be a problem at least 3 times that I can think of. This is a discussion that has flared up and died down at least 3 times. It's been seen to be a problem for a long time. It's just the people at the top tier (who seem to have louder voices in the community) don't want to give up their top spots, so they scream and shout about how stupid an idea it is

I'd like to remind everyone that personal attacks are not allowed on this mailing list. You're all mature here. You can keep this discussion civil.

Mulligan v poor deck building

Let's see, we've added sideboards, cash prizes, next mulligans - tournaments are starting to have rounds decided by three matches......anybody else see a trend here?

The sideboard rules were added because we believed there was a desire by some players to implement them and we wanted them to be consistent across all events.

The best-of-three matches are our first attempt at addressing an issue many players apparently feel is a shortcoming of the existing pairing format.

Sup. Tac and Night Battle

Ok here's my question, if you have no shugenja in the battle and you opponent plays night battle can you sup tactic the terrain or does night battle screw you?

You are allowed to destroy it. It's actions that don't destroy it that you're not allowed to take.

Quality of Boxables was: The "Mulligan"

Comments Below

<SNIP> This is as it should be. The Lion and Unicorn are the most aggressive of the factions. If you give them high quality boxables and/or give them consistent first turn gold, you speed up the environment drastically;

I'll point this out as a false-hood. The game has ALREADY been sped-up because of the high-quality boxables of Crane, Dragon, Scorpion, and Phoenix.

Are they really all that great?

Phoenix got Shiba Itami, a 1/3/3PH for 5g who is neither Samurai nor Shugenja. Admitedly speeds their Honor decks, but their hot archetype right now is Asako Towers military, where Itami won't be found because of her aforementioned lack of traits. High quality but doesn't work in every deck.

Dragon has gotten Tamori Chieko, a 1/3/2PH Tattooed Shugenja for 5, and Hoshi Takeji, 1/2/1PH Monk for 5. And a new and powerful Stronghold. And a bunch of other things. Right now I see Dragon seriously competing for the first time since Imperial Edition, but not so far that I see everyone else rushing to play catch-up. Dragon has been brought up to the speed of the rest of the game, not vice-versa.

Scorpion? They've gotten the worst of the lot: Shosuro Koneko, 1/3/1PH Shugenja for 6. Only 1PH, but Scorpion doesn't run for honor anyway, so moot point there. As for military, how can adding a 1F for 6g Personality speed a clan that gets 3-4F for 7g from so many other sources? She adds Yogo bowability, yes, but that's midgame strength, not early speed. And she doesn't work with those speedy corrupt Holdings.

You've got me with Crane. Doji Okakura, 2/3/2PH Samurai for 6. Rock-solid, no two ways about it. (Of course, if you're playing any Crane box but the Iron Fortress, this is the first rock-solid boxable Personality you've had since Gold released, unless your definition of "solid" includes 0F/1C pseudo-courtiers.)

I'd also hesitate to call this speedup "drastic". Most Clans got NOTHING boxable for two sets, and only one after three. And under carefully-watched circumstances. And with a promise that it won't happen again for a significantly lengthy amount of time.

Blessings of the Moon

#1 Phoenix (Eric Swanson)

Given the speed of Towers of the Asako Military, not to mention Corrupt Scorpion Military, I have to wonder why AEG staff commented after the -sole- Lion Kotei victory that LSD was back.

Perhaps it was a jest? The Lion Kotei victory I witnessed happened quickly, but that was due to combos like Counterattacking after a failed Ambush, not off-the-box 3F Lion Clan people and handsfull of Charges. The Lion player was even using Doomsayers for their focus value. 4g for 2F isn't speed in my book, especially in a 3g Stronghold deck.

More weird targetting questions

Waiiiiit Arent winds like strongholds in that they dont count as cards (dont count towards deck size and cant be acted on)and are thuys immune to the wish?????

By errata and MRP to the rulebook, Winds are, in fact, cards. (The Gold Edition rulebook actually disagreed with itself on this point.)

Jade Works

In a message dated 5/8/02 2:19:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes:

Kuni Utagu

Hmmm does he count? I know his card includes the word jade, but doesn't it have to be in the title???

Kuni Utagu, Jade Champion, is a "jade" card.