post for 19 June 2002

ruling: casting spells

I am going to asume that the logic behind this is that since the shugenja is taking the action, he cannot take the action when bowed. If this is the logic behind the ruling then will it also be applied to other card types that can attach to personalities?

It will absolutely not apply to Followers. But here's the trouble: on a purely mechanical level, there's no reason for different attachment card types to follow different rules. Followers acting when the Personality is bowed has been expressly allowed since Day 1, and will continue to be. A good number (about a dozen?) of Items have slowly worked their way into the game that, either accidentally or, later, deliberately, act by bowing themselves, and these have also always been ruled to be usable when the Personality is bowed. With Spells, the issue has almost never arisen, but I suspect that, during most of the game's history, if I had to rule on it, I'd have given the latest ruling: bowed shugenja can't cast, period. Mechanically it's inconsistant, but it *feels* right. That's why my first ruling was the opposite of what it is now: I went with consistancy over rules. The rest of the Rules Team, however, had no problem with disallowing bowed casting on the grounds that the shugenja is performing the action and therefore needs to be unbowed.

So now we have an issue with Items: keep playing them the way we have for six years, or make them work like Spells because they're conceptually more similar than they are to Followers?

ruling: casting spells

Thanks for the ruling. This makes sense, because I would think that a person should not be able to target one of their bowed shugenja. Does this mean that all cards on bowed personalities can not be targeted as well?

This issue has nothing to do with targeting. The act of deciding which of your cards to activate is not, in general, a targeting decision.

Yuya Clarification.

In open, with the new ruling on Asako Yuya, Can you bow an Essence of Air attached to her, and keep IT bowed, or only the shugenja will work? Will the Spell stay bowed? Thanks!

Any spell with a duration of "while this shugenja remains bowed" or "until this shugenja straightens" will end immediately if the shugenja does not actually bow when casting it.

Why is this in Gold?

The free duel when played makes [Come One at at Time] a considerable nuisance. If that were removed, the card would be less problematic.

The option of MRPing Come One at a Time in Gold Edition to remove the immediate challenge WAS considered and presented to playtesters. They decided the card did not need the change.

clarification request

Hello, I would like to know a clarification to the following ruling:

"If a stat is replaced in a duel (e.g., Face Me!), Reactions still affect the original stat. [JA, 3 April 2002]. "

How does this work with Poisoned Weapon? For how I understand it, the Poisoned Weapon affects the original Chi not the replaced Chi which is personal honor and wouldn't really affect the Duel at all IF my personality would have more than 3 Chi and thus survive from the -3 Chi.

What I think Zen is trying to say in this ruling is that, if (for example) your Chi is replaced with your Personal Honor, that Poisoned Weapon will NOT give you -3 Personal Honor. It will still reduce your Chi. Which would be a correct thing to say.

I've checked the Yahoo archive for the exact post he extracted that ruling from and couldn't find it, so I don't know at what step the unclarity crept in.