post for 14 February 2003

Strange Game Mechanics

As I was building up a maho dishonor/enlightenment Pheonix deck, a rather strange thought occured to me. Now, if any of this isn't legal, please point this out, because it all seems so very wrong... Now, lets say I get into a match up and ironically I am put against the Shadowlands. Having based much of my deck on killing the opponet through honor loss and my opponet isn't about to agree to take me up on an Iajutsu Challange and I haven't pulled up my personality to can challange Shadowlands characters to duels, I know I'm screwed unless I get force. Sure, my Playing with Madness and Blood Rite can get me some force. But, this bowing for Kihos is going to kill me. So, lets say I have Bayushi Goshiu, 2 Hitakas, Agashi Misao, and Kuni Utagu in play, I had played a 'Oath of Fealty' recently so all were aligned to my clan and had the extra +1/+1, I'd played 'Playing with Madness' on one of my Hitakas as well, thus turning the Secrets on the Wind and Wind's Truth into mahos so my Chuda Retainers can go out of play to get them back.

Okay. Both Hitakas are 3/3 printed. One is currently 4/4, the other 6/6.

I also managed to get all of my fortress of the dragonfly out as well a couple honor-producing holds and the Anvil of Despair, I've also gotten the Ring of Earth out, but only after losing my first province.

Check. One Hitaka 4/7, the other 6/9.

So during this turn I pull up 'Using the Wish'. Since Hitaka has the highest force, and as much as I love him I do have two in play and my Shadowlands opponet isn't going to play any Jade cards. I play the card on the version of him I did not play my Playing with Madness on. This brings him up to being a 7/10 personality. But, he'll be dead next turn.

Check.

So I use the Anvil of Despair to take him out of play and

attach him as a weapon to my other Hitaka, just because I like Hitaka and his costume sure makes him look like he belongs to the Snake Clan already, This makes the remaining Hitaka a 6/9 personality with a 7/10 weapon on him. This makes him a total of 13/19.

Wrong. The Anvil does not create a weapon with the sacrificed Personality's current stats. It increases the stats of a weapon you are playing via some other means by the sacrificed Personality's PRINTED stats.

Now, despite the fact that he was Shadowlands to begin with. Even though he became a bloodspeaker. Even though he just attached a weapon made of the slain blood of his other self, I simply bow Misao once... and he's given a completely clean slate.

He isn't Shadowlands now, if that's what you mean.

Seeing that I now have a lot more force on the table than I had last turn, and able to spend the turn gaining force himself, my opponet chooses not to attack. Next turn I pull up 'Test of the Jade Champion'. Bowing one of two of my Chuda Retainers to pay for the cost due to Hitaka being in play, I use this card. Lets face it, I need the honor and the ability not to bow to produce kihos.

You don't need to do that. Hitaka does not raise the gold cost of Test of the Jade Champion. Raising a stat of a card that does not normally have that stat does nothing. [GE p. 32]

So the challange is initiated.... And, since he would lose nothing here, my opponet challanges with his boosted up Shahai, who is central to his strategy because along with the Hungry Ghost, she is the one draining my people's chi and then using the ghost to turn her -1/-1 counters into +1/+1 for her own people. So, now we have (Chuda?) Hitaka and Shahai, the dark daughter of Fu Leng fighting to see who will become the Jade Champion? Yes, a rather frightening thought... Even more so, if I win I gain 3 honor while using a Bloodspeaker who if one could gain the shadowlands trait multiple times would have it no less than thrice. If I lose, then am I right in assuming I could then just bow Hitaka and kill her immediately? Would 'the jade champion' count as a 'jade card'?

Yes.

And as entertaining as that was, in the future, I'd really appreciate it if you asked the question you actually needed answered closer to the beginning of your post. Your entire post boils down to, "Is the winner of Test of the Jade Champion considered a jade card?"

Deadly Ground

but lets face it guys, Jeff and Zen have spoken, isn't it a dead issue?

No. Diamond is not set in stone, and, as Zen said, he's not a designer.

Rarities and Distribution

I agree, if rarities have to be maintained (they are a marketing and not really a game design aspect after all. I am sure we would all like, from a play point of view, to have a playset of every card on offer, even if from a collecting/trading aspect we like the rarities)

If cards are made plentiful enough for everyone to be able to willingly get them, enough people will stop wanting them that sales will drop to unsustainably low levels.

That's what I thought until I worked at Wizards.

Interesting response ... what changed when you worked at Wizards?

I told Luke Peterschmidt, L5R's Brand Manager at the time, that I thought "Power Rarez" were what made TCGs profitable. He told me I was wrong. It's repeat customers.

in Diamond Edition

Actually ... to mention someone no one else has, I'd like to see card borders come back as expansion/set indicators.

That won't happen unless we go back to our old method of cutting the card sheets, which we aren't planning on doing any time soon because it's more expensive. The sets with colored borders were gutter cut, which stamps cards out one at a time. Sets these days are bust cut, which slices the giant sheets a full column or row at a time. Gutter cutting allows a gap around each card where the break in the background pattern can occur. Bust cutting does not, so each card will have tiny slivers of a neighboring card's border pattern along one of its edges in each direction.

Armor of Sun Tao

- Can I still play terrains from under the Armor if the Personality it is attached to has been kept in the battle with Test of Courage?

Yes. The Armor's ability neither targets the Personality nor requires bowing him.

- If my army is destroyed in the resolution segment due to a lower force total, does my opponent gain 2 honor for each terrain under the Armor?

No. Those cards are not in play.

Rules Questions jeff

i have a problem with the interaction between Ninja Mystic exp and Lord Moon's Blood.

Lord Moon's blood reads:Any Focus cards played by this Personality in a duel have their Focus values raised to equal the lowest Focus value played by the opposing Personality, if they are lower.

Ninja Mystic exp reads: all focuses cards in this duel have their values reduced to 0 unless the card is a spell or kiho.

Okay, I'm going to issue the same ruling for Lord Moon's Blood that I did for Lord Moon's Bones (and it makes even more sense here): Lord Moon's Blood does not modify focus values until the "reveal focuses" step of the duel.

The typical rule is that effects that alter focus values apply, if possible, as soon as the card is focussed. This can't feasibly be done with Lord Moon's Blood, so we wait until they're revealed and it can be.

That should answer all your questions, since there are no longer any timing conflicts.