post for 14 June 2002

I now drop back to the correct week to issue an important message...

Superior Strategist

The Rules Team has come to a consensus. The extra card played by Superior Strategist is an additional, separate action. It must be announced, targeted, and paid for separately, and will acquire additional costs from things like Hunting Tiger. This is a REVERSAL.

Garrison and Encircled Terrain

If you have only a garrison at a province, can you play encircled terrain?

Yes. It's legal to play a Terrain even when you know some of its effects won't resolve.

Rules Question on Kolat Master

If I Kolat Master one of my opponent's personalities, and it gets killed, can I get the Personality with Shrine of the Evening Star?

If it is a member of your Clan, yes. (Otherwise you can't use the Shrine.) Destroyed cards go to their current controller's discard pile. [rulebook p. 60]

Moshi Mineko's legality

Clearly she's not going to be legal for Origins, but could she be legal for Gencon? I mean, the card will have been available for two months, which is more than enough time to establish availability and keep from disrupting play.

Being available for two months has nothing to do with it. Moshi Mineko, Not Another Step, and the Dark Oracle of Fire are all going to be legal for one reason alone: Broken Blades is going to be legal.

Rules on Ninja Thief [JEFF]

Does Ninja Thief target the personality that currently has the item?

No.

Pearl divers

Retainer, Bow Perl Divers to produce 1 Gold plus 1 old for each Port in play.

Does this card counts Kobune Port too?

Yes. It counts every card with the word "Port" in its title or traits area. [rulebook p. 33]

Clan-Favoured Traits (was about tattoos and such)

I'm all in favour of the clans having something distinctive. However, it's not right if some are better than others.

But you're only looking at single-word traits. Clan balance involves a heck of a lot more than "Is my boldface keyword better than your boldface keyword?"

Imperial Standard and Using the Favor question

Greetings to all

This question regards the Imperial Standard. Here's the key text: "You must use and discard the Imperial Favor to bring the Imperial Standard into play."

I always assumed this meant that you discard the favor, it counts as a use (i.e. can be cancelled by Confusion at the Court), you spend some gold, and you get the standard.

That is the correct interpretation.

Rules on Ninja Thief [JEFF]

"Effects that target a token on a card also target the card (e.g., Sympathetic Energies)"

- [JA, e-mail, 16 December 2001]

This one weirds me out because if you use Ninja Thief to steal an item token, you'd wind up targeting the personality, but not if you stole a non-item token.

That's a relic of the "every card targets every thing mentioned anywhere on it" guideline that was found to have too many problems to be correct.

Zen, could you please remove this entry from the archive? It is not accurate.

ratling starter deck

Is there a gold edition ratling starter deck and if so what set was it in?

There has never been a full Ratling Faction Clan Deck. There is, however, a Ratling Stronghold card, an it is legal to play in Strict Gold format games. It first appeared in the premium Heroes of Rokugan set and has since been reprinted as an Imperial Herald promo.

Follow the Path

hi , i have some question about this spell : Type Spell Title Follow the Path Rarity/Edition U An Oni's Fury Text Battle: Bow this Shugenja to move a Follower from one Personality to another controlled by the same player. Gold 3 Focus 3 Artist Christina Wald

1.- i have a shugenja with this spell in my fief and one of my personality in battle opposing by two personality (one bowed and one unbowed with a follower ) and my opponent have one personality in him fief , Can i move the follower from unbowed personality to bowed personality?

Let's see.

Do you satisfy the Rule of Presence? Yes -- you have a unit in the current battle.

Do you satisfy the Rule of Relevance? Yes -- you are targeting at least one card in the battle (the Follower).

Does Follow the Path say anything about requiring the shugenja to be in the battle? No.

It's legal!

2.-Can move the follower from unbowed personality to the personality in the opponent fief?

That's also legal.

RULES question

I apologize if this already appeared... I've been having problems with my email and tried sending this once, but never saw any results of sending it.

My question is about the card Surrender. The relevant text is: "Play this card during the Resolution Segment of a battle you have lost." This is probably a very obvious answer, but since the card deals with your cards being destroyed as the result of a battle, can you use it if the battle results in a tie?

I realize that with DUELS, a tie is considered a loss for both duelists, but the Gold Edition rulebook is not clear on the matter when it comes to battles. That, plus the fact that the card says your opponent loses 1 Honor instead of gaining 2, leads me to rule that you cannot play it if you tied.

(and I apologize if this is in HTML or MIME or any other annoying format... still figuring out this new program)

I didn't see any. Thanks for taking the effort.

RULES question

On a side note, if this card is played when your army contains people with the Yu trait, may you resolve the Surrender card first, then decide who you will destroy with the Yu abilities?

The decision to spare or not spare Personalities in the losing army from destruction does not affect the Yu trait in any way. For the Yu trait to destroy opposing cards, all that's necessary is that your army lose the battle, which Surrender does not change.