post for 3 June 2002

Bouncing arrows like a superball

Concealed Archers reads "Play immediately before you bow one or more cards in a unit capable of a Ranged Attack who are not at this battle. Resolve this Ranged Attack as if the unit were in the battle."

while

No Hiding Place reads "Play before producing a Ranged Attack from exactly one of your attacking cards in the current battleto target a card in the Defender's home with the Ranged Attack."

Could I then use those two cards together to make a ranged attack from one unit in my fief targeting one unit at my opponent's fief, ie none of the cards need to actually be at a battle?

Yes, but only if there is exactly one card producing a ranged attack. Otherwise, No Hiding Place's trigger is not met.

post for 31 May 2002

Here's the crucial distinction you're missing:

Strike of Flowing Water doubles the focus value of the next card focused as soon as it's focused, whereas Draw From Within doesn't change its own focus until a strike is called. There are no retroactive adjustments going on here.

IIRC, a question on Uso Exp and SoFW came up last year and Zen (I think) ruled that the second card during the first focus wasn't affected by SoFW as they are focused at the same time, and isn't the 'next card' focused.

Irrelevant. The MRP of Mirumoto Uso Exp. renders that ruling outdated by clearly stating that the focuses happen in order, not simultaneously.

Also, if it's played that way, wouldn't it double the total value of the 'second focus'?

It doubles whatever its focus is at the time it doubles its focus. If I have a card (any card) with a stat (any stat) of (for example) 4, and I double it, and I add three to it at a distinctly later time, I get 11, not 14. I don't go back and do the doubling again.

Could this be added to the rullings page? (was [L5R-CCG] post for 31 may 2002)

Right. You also don't permanently lose Province strength. But you still lose your Sensei and your Stronghold is still bowed, because those were costs.

Please could the above rulling be added to the archive, and the old references to A Test of Courage (IE, it does not work with dark path of shadow, it does only work if something targets your peep AND sends it home,...) be removed? I had a few rulling discusions about this already...

I've asked Zen to get rid of any old and now-incorrect rulings that resulted from the older wording. I'd personally prefer that this particular ruling not be added, since it's nothing more than a straightforward matter of reading the cards.

I know it's in the archives but...

For some reason there was still a minor question about it at a local tournament couple days ago. The errata of The Emperor's Underhand makes it so you no longer have to discard the Imperial Favor at all correct? Just lose the 1 honor and discard the Underhand to force them to discard the card?

Discarding the Under-Hand, not the Favor, is the new cost of forcing the Fate discard.

The 1 pt Honor loss is still an effect of using the Under-Hand in any way, whether or not you cause a discard.

Test of the Jade Champion

Perhaps this has already been addressed, but by the Gold Edition wording of Test of the Jade Champion, wouldn't an already-in-play Utagu exp. receive the benefit of being able to cast a kiho without bowing once per turn, regardless of whether he won (or even participated) in the Test itself? The final sentence, wherein the ability is granted, would seem to be a seperate effect from the Test results (which are in the sentence just before).

Yes, but it refers to "THE Jade Champion". Grammatically, it's still talking about the Personality who won the contest. It will not help other cards who say "Jade Champion".

l5r-ccg

To which tribe does Zin'tch, the rememberer, belong?

Shawn Carman, Story Team guy, sends me this answer:

] To the best of my ] knowledge, Zin'tch is a member of the Tattered Ear tribe. I can't find ] anything to indicate otherwise in any book or card, so we'll go with that ] answer for the time being.

targetting question

it's pretty established when an action targets, but not so much WHAT it targets.

Is this a flaw with the current targeting rules? Yes. But the old ones had this exact same flaw, too.

for the most part you can tell by looking at what the action messes with and the goals it sets itself [my totally unofficial guidelines]. if it moves a unit/personality home, it targets the unit/personality because it messes with the personality/unit. if it ups your personality's stat based on another's stat, it targets your personality by messing with him, and the other personality by setting it's goals based on the other personality's stat. there is some gray area however. the case raised with action reaction's reacting to actions targetting a personality is an example of this, and has been answered, but others are still out there. case in point, strike with no thought. what exactly does it target? A. the personality B. the duel C. the act of striking D. something i haven't thought of

my thought on this one would be both A and B, but the question was raised in a recent game and i couldn't say with certainty. i'm 100% sure that it does target something though.

A.

Question regarding Broken Blades

Is the current goal for Broken Blades to be legal by Gen-Con, or is it more likely to be simply out by Gen-Con?

The goal is legal by GenCon.

Question of Legality

Are the promos from Season of the Lion (Akodo's Shrine, Matsu Satomi, etc.) Gold Legal yet, and if not, will they be by June 22nd?

Season of the Lion promos are now legal. Season of the Lion was originally scheduled to start March 1st. There were various delays, but even so, it began before the April 8th release date of Dark Allies, so its promos became legal when Dark Allies did.

Kotei Gambling Advice

I know that they're winning like crazy, but I'm curious - what is the actual proportion of corrupt decks showing up in the Kotei?

It depends heavily on the region. L.A., in the Top 16, had one corrupt non-Shadowlands deck (Phoenix) and no tainted ones. Corrupt/Tainted data were not gathered beyond the Top 16.

cards and the story team

Does the story team have any effect on whether cards are reprinted?

Mechanics drive the rare reappearances of old cards far more than the Story Team does. The Story Team, however, does have a very large say in which cards reappear in a more-experienced form. (Basically, if they want it and Dave and I don't veto it, they get it.)

IA number questions

I just recived my first Imperial Herald in the mail yesterday and popped it open today.

Inside i found my magazine some promo cards and my clan letter but i didnt find anything about my IA number for tournys, there was a number on the address sticker that says "AEG Membership" is this my IA number?

Yes.

Also i still have a DCI number from L5R and magic a few years back, since WOTC is no longer involved with L5R how are DCI numbers being handled? Are they all being switched to IA numbers?

If we got your IA membership information correctly from WotC, we would have converted it long ago. Nowadays a DCI number gives us an only slightly-less awkward way of looking someone up in an old database than his or her name does.

Diplomatic Apprentice & The Wind's Truth

Just out of curiosity,

How would the following scenario work out...

Can a shugenja or monk bow an attached Diplomatic Apprentice instead of him or herself when performing The Wind's Truth?

It's a Political action. [card text] The Personality is bowing as a cost of playing it. [card text] Yes.

Shadow-Walker exp question

Shadow-Walker exp Unaligned Ninja Experienced Unique The Shadow-Walker's Followers must be Ninja. Battle: Move the Shadow-Walker into this battle. Battle: Once per turn, move one of your Ninja Personalities into the current battle.

With the recent ruling about "this battle", doesn't that mean that he is only able to move into the battle he is already at?

Yes, in which case you invoke the Rule of Obvious Legality. The Shadow-Walker's first ability should be read as though it said "the current battle" instead of "this battle" because otherwise there is no point to having it.

Hida Kosho

Bowing is an effect, not a cost, of refusing Kosho's challenge. If his challenge is refused, A Test of Courage may be played to cancel his challenge action and keep the challenged Personality in the battle. This is a REVERSAL.

Question

Do you have a procedure for following up on the things you forward to the rules team to ensure everyone else hears about them?

Yes. Once we arrive at an answer, I post it to the list.

rules question....

I don't usually play honor stealing decks, so I have a couple questions about them.

When playing against a shadowlands deck what happens in the following?

1) If the SLH player uses For the Empire and wins the duel, can I winds truth away the 3 honor gain?

Assuming they had the Samurai and they challenged a Shadowlands Personality (because otherwise there is no honor gain to begin with), no. The gain anyone else would get does not exist for them, not even for a moment.

2) Against the SLH with Suspicions in play and Dojo Nagori, can I increase the honor loss with Nagori and gain the 1 honor for doing so?

There is no loss for them, so there is nothing for Nagori to react to.

3) Can I Winds Truth the 4 honor loss from Poisoned Weapon to a SLH player?

Same answer.

I guess the base question here is concerning SLH and honor. I know SLH doesn't gain or loose honor, but how do these particular cards interact with SLH and why do they do whatever they do.

Except for the Sepulcher of Bone, honor losses and gains never exist for Shadowlands players. None are ever generated that apply to them, and if one is redirected to them, it disappears and so cannot be further modified.

post for 31 May 2002

Strike of Flowing Water doubles the focus value of the next card focused as soon as it's focused, whereas Draw From Within doesn't change its own focus until a strike is called. There are no retroactive adjustments going on here.

Jeff, I don't want to disagree with the ruling on a factual basis, but doesn't this make duels extremely confusing?

It's based on card text. I don't believe there's a better way to rule. With any card, there will always be a number of people who read it and get an instant but erroneous feel for what it does. It's the nature of the beast.

Rules Question

If I have an unbowed zero force personality at a battle during the resolution segment and my opponent only has bowed personalities, do I win or is it a tie?

Your army has a Force total of 0. The opposing army has a Force total of 0. 0 = 0. It's a tie.

Kotei Results, Misprinted cards, Broken blades

Also, I havethe following misprinted cards: 3x Rallying Cry (The G is left off GE on the bottom of the card) Proposal of peace (Jade era event) has fate back instead of dynasty Sezarus mask (blurred image and text) Nikushimi (blurred image and text) Friendly traveler village has a splotch of purple ink in the text box Tamori Shaitung has no set distinction at bottom of card

Does anyone know what can be done with these cards? Are they worth anything? are they worth koku? any ideas? Can I trade them in fro normal copies?

The misbacked Proposal of Peace is worth 3 koku. It's also legal to play if you use opaque sleeves.

The blurred and blemished images aren't worth anything unless the defects are truly severe.

The Rallying Cry and Shaitung are fixed cards from An Oni's Fury Clan decks. None of the fixed reprint cards in any of that set's decks have any set attributions. Apparently, according to your discovery, only the "G" from "GE" got deleted from the Rallying Cry, which is something I hadn't known until now. I've just checked my reference stacks, though, and it's like that on all of them. So, yes, you found a misprint, but it's not isolated; every Rallying Cry pre-sorted into all AOF decks is like that. And no, it's not worth koku.