post for 22 May 2003

Gold Legality

I believe I know the answer to this already, but I'd like to officially confirm it before the Region 6 Kotei.

If an Experienced (or Experienced X) version of a personality is Gold-legal, do the personalities lesser-experienced versions gain Gold-legality, even if they were not reprinted in the current set?

From the FAQ at http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/ccg/faq.html (which has recently been updated with all sorts of new stuff, by the way):

"The Gold-legality of a Personality does not automatically make all other Experience levels of that Personality Gold-legal. That rule is from older storyline tournament formats. It does not apply to Strict Gold."

The Company You Keep

I play The Company You Keep. My opponent decides to bring in people dishonored anyway.

Can I play Code of Bushido to cancel the action that would dishonor the personality or is coming into play not a trigger for the Code?

"Play this card when a Samurai takes an action, or creates an optional effect, that would dishonor him or her or cause his or her controller to lose Honor."

The dishonoring is caused by The Company You Keep, which is an action but is not taken by the Samurai. There is no honor loss involved, so, no trigger there either. Code of Bushido isn't legal.

Also, can my opponent use Ide Tang to keep the person from becoming dishonored and thereby still gain the honor for bringing them into play, or does the dishonoring happen while they are still in the province keeping Tang from being able to target them (I think that's right, but I may be wrong; hell, if I knew, I wouldn't ask, neh?).

The latter. Tang cannot target a card not yet in play.

Sacrificial Altar

Does bowing Sacrificial Altar and destroying your personality count as an action targeting that personality? eg: Can I target a bowed personality with Sacrificial Altar?

An action has to start with "Limited", "Open", "Battle", or "Reaction". [GE rulebook] Sacrificial Altar does not have any of those words. Its gold production effect is not an action. You can sacrifice your bowed Personalities.

Goshiu no Shiryo - Now throw in Eiji... Jeff

Thanks for your explanations regarding Goshiu no Shiryo in your digest Jeff, would you mind clarifying what happens if I expand a little further on this situation?

Oh, and please forgive me if I am over-analytical, for I have a programmer's mindset. ;-)

Let me start by setting the scene:

Player X controls: * Personality A who has Goshiu & Dip. Apprentice attached. * Personality B who is Soshi Eiji.

Player Y controls: * Personality C who has an ability - Battle: Bow for a ranged 4 attack.

Player X now attempts the following: * Bow A for Goshiu's ability & target C. * Bow Dip. Apprentice for Goshiu's ability & target C. * Bow B (Eiji) for his ability & target C.

Does this now cause Y to lose:

a) 4 honour because: 1. Use of Personality C's battle action bows Personality C. 2. Personality C becoming bowed triggers the two instances of Goshiu's effect on C. 3. Each of Goshiu's effects on C causes that personality to cause its controller (Y) a 2 point honour loss.

Therefore using C's action causes its controller to lose 4 points of honour, allowing Eiji to replicate this honour loss.

b) 2 honour because: Although C bowing to use its action causes 4 points of honour loss, this actually consists of 2 separate 2 point honour losses and Eiji's ability can only target one of these losses.

c) 0 honour because: Although when C uses its ranged ability, it is going to cause honour losses thanks to being targeted by Goshiu, these losses are a side effect of becoming bowed and not an integral part of the action on C itself.

b)

Should a) or b) above be true, then what would be the effect if Personality C did NOT indeed have a Ranged 4 ability ITSELF, but did happen to have a Jade Bow attached. Would Eiji then be able to target the Jade bow?

Because: 1. Use of Jade Bow's action bows Personality C. 2. Personality C becoming bowed triggers the two instances of Goshiu's effect on C. 3. Each of Goshiu's effects on C causes that personality to cause its controller (Y) a 2 point honour loss.

Yes. Again, Eiji could only cause a 2-pt loss.

From [Lionclan] Re: Juri Update

and my guess is that Northern France will see people from other countries as well [even though it's more set in "Central France" than "Northern"].

California puts its northern cities in the center, too. It's nothing new.

[For the northern Americans on the list: keep in mind that, even though, say, Western Europe is much smaller than the USA, we have significant language barriers around here

Yep. Same here.

- and when we play each other, we don't even pronounce the names of cards the same way,

Ha! We don't MISpronounce the cards the same way! (Ask Zen. We can't even say "kotei".)

Questions

2) Regarding cutting to see who starts a game: the Gold Edition rulebook states that your opponent should cut your Fate deck, then you should both shuffle. The Code of Bushido states that you should cut your own Fate deck, then shuffle. Can we have an official stance on this one, or is it to be left to TOs?

Cutting for starting focus value is done by the deck's player. Cutting to insure randomization is done by the opponent.

3) Reading the updated FAQ on the official web page, I noticed that there's a question about Hida Kosho's ability to issue a challenge while not opposing the attacker. To do this, does the player controlling Kosho also need to have defenders in the battle, to satisfy the rule of presence?

Yes.

If so, I think this should be added to the FAQ, so as not to confuse people about presence/relevance.

Too late. They're already confused.

4) Sorry if I missed the initial discussion, but why does Shosuro Technique target the opponent when copying force, but not when copying Chi? I compare this to the ability of Hoshi Eisai experienced, which I have always ruled must target. Furthermore, the rules archive states:

A card is targeted when some aspect of it is targeted (e.g., when copying a stat on another card). [Extension of Ninja Shapeshifter ruling, JA, 7 October 2002]

I don't understand then why Shosuro Technique would ever not target the person whose Force or Chi is being copied.

Because of the general method used to determine what ANY targeted action targets: anything that is affected or that must be chosen. I'm trying to apply the rule consistently. Copying the Force as a Battle action requires selecting one Personality out of several. Copying the Chi of the one opponent in a duel does not.

You are also reading the NSS ruling wrong. It is not about targeting something else, but about BEING targeted. The ruling is that if something like a card's stat, trait, or action is targeted, then so is the whole card. But under the paragraph above, there is no Chi targeting.

5) What happens to a Battle Action duel (e.g. Iaijutsu Duel) if one of the participants moves out of the battle during the duel?

It proceeds as normal. There is no rule prohibiting duels between Personalities in different locations.

6) Does Kyuden Ikoma's reaction require presence?

Reactions require neither Presence nor Relevance. [H&E rulesheet] No.

For example, when playing Kyuden Ikoma, if an opponent tries to Tireless Assault a unit into a battle where I have no units, can I cancel it with my stronghold?

Yes.

Also, if I cancel a use of Fear, can the opponent use that same fear again, since it was cancelled, not negated?

Yes.

Iron Mempo vs. Scaring the Masses

Can you use the Iron Mempo to satisfy the cost of using scaring the Masses?

No. The Mempo has the Fear ability and uses it directly. Scaring the Masses only works when the Personality has the Fear.

Superior Strategist question

I tried searching for the answer, but got too many results back and I didn't find the answer to my question. This is probably a very basic question, but I need to know before I play it wrong.

Can you use SS to get a terrain and play it? Are terrains considered battle actions?

Sure. They say "Battle", don't they?

ring of air

Play this card after the third Spell effect YOUR CARDS CREATE AND/OR INNATE ABILITY YOUR CARDS USE in one turn. Elemental Benefit: Once per turn, whenever a card creates a Spell effect, you may redirect the effect to another target.

so is the Morning Glory Castle, the 9th Kami´s Temple or a fear effect from a personality or follower an innate ability, or is it just for shugenjas?

GE rulebook Glossary, p. 73:

] innate ability ] ] An ability on a Shugenja card. Abilities on other cards are not ] "innate."