Post for June 23rd, 2003

If you are playing a duel deck, and you play Blue Skies [...Challenges may not be refused], then play Solitary Engagement [send a unit of both players home, then yours challenges the other to a refusable duel], can that duel be refused? The terrain says it cannot, but they are no longer at the battle when the challenge is made. Thank you.

The challenge would be unrefusable. Terrains can have effects that go beyond the battle that they are played in, it's just that most usually don't.

strike at the soul reads: Reaction: After a strike is declared in a duel involving one of your Personalities, bow one of that Personality's Weapons to reduce his or her opponent's Chi by the Weapon's printed Chi bonus to a minimum of 1.

When played you cannot reduce your opponent's chi below one, but the negative modifier fades at the end of turn, and the focus bonuses at the end of the duel. if a chi 3 personality, duels against someone with a +3 chi weapon, when strike at the soul is played, if he has focused any card, his chi will not drop below one, but when the focus bonus ends it will surely do. How far applies this restriction "minimun of 1"?

It only applies at the time that the Reaction is played. When the bonuses from focusing wear off, if the penalty from Strike at the Soul is greater than the personality's unmodified Chi, they'll die.

When I use Seductive Kansen's reaction, do I only have to destroy my Personality if they already have the Shadowlands trait or if I have to give them the Shadowlands trait and wish not to?

If they aleady have the trait, no matter whether they got it from the Kansen or from it being printed on their card, and you use the Reactionon Seductive Kansen, you must destroy the personality if you flip a card with a focus value greater than 3.

because you draw your fate hand before your stronhold is revield.

if you play house of tao is it possible to play introspection when you get the ring for your stronghold if it is in your hand?

You do not draw your hand before revealing Strongholds. Both the rulebook and the Code of Bushido clearly state that Strongholds are revealed before you draw your Fate hand *or* lay out your Provinces. So, the answer is no.

If I target a Personality with Daigotsu, reducing that cards Force to zero, do weapon and items attached give him/her bonuses? Example: Hida Kuon (Exp. 2) with a plus two Force Weapon and one Light Infantry, after being effected with the Wind is he zero Force with a two Force follower or does he still get the two Force from the weapon and the two Force from the follower?

Kuon's force would be zero, but the force of his Unit would be 2. When Daigotsu is used, the target's force is reduced to zero. This effectively removes all bonuses the Personality had received from previous effects. It does not, however, reduce the force of his Unit to zero, and since most followers add to the force of the Unit rather than directly to the Personality, Daigotsu won't affect their force contribution.

hi there,

just a couple of rules clarifications:

kuni yori exp 3. reads "... if Yori's Chi and the discard's focus are both more than or equal to the personality's Chi..."

i'm confused as to how to read this. it does not say that the focus is added to Yori's chi for the purposes of determining which personalities yori can bring back. so, it could be read as yori's chi and the focus value of the discared are independently compared to the target personality. any clarification please?

Sure. Yori's Chi and the Focus value of the discarded card are compared independently to the target's Chi.

second:

i have in play kitsuki kaagi. i play iaijitsu challenge against an opposing samurai who then declines and commits sepukku. can kaagi step in and challenge that samurai, preempting the sepukku? if kaagi wins the duel, what happens to the honor loss?

From the Archive:

Kitsuki Kaagi The challenge happens before any consequences of refusing the duel. E.g., if a Personality refuses an Iaijutsu Challenge, Kaagi's duel starts before he or she can commit seppuku. [February 1999]

If Kaagi wins the duel, your opponent is looking at 7 points of honor loss.

third,

in search of the future reduces force bonuses in the current battle. let's say i have matsu gohei who gets a strength of purity. opposing player plays in search and so strength goes away. gohei sup tacs to another battle. he still does not get the strength bonus right?

Correct.

can storms of war work with twisting ravine such that no actions can be played in the battle at all? storms makes it so that a player must bow a personality or follower as an additional cost of playing an action in a battle, while twisting ravine says cards cannot bow to perform actions unless that action is to destroy the terrain.

Effectively, yes, but not for your reasons. Storms of War doesn't set up an additional cost, so Twisting Ravine's first effect doesn't come into play. However, the second effect, which prevents cards from being bowed by actions, makes it so that players are unable to satisfy the conditions to avoid having their actions cancelled by Storms of War.

focus are added as soon as played not when they are revealed. It's on the accumulated rulings, that's the reason why a perosnality dueling

Ach, you're right. It's also in the rulebook. Won't it mean, that when someone uses Strike of the Flowing Water as a reaction, and discards all focused cards, they will still be added to personalities' chi? After all, they should be added when they were played.

The Gold version states that you negate all effects of the discarded cards, and that includes the normal bonus from Focusing.

Hi Vaugh/Jeff,

I need a short confirmation on Overwhelmed, specifically this entry in the archive:

If canceled when it destroys an opponent's Personality, your Personality stays dead, because that effect has already resolved. [JA, 8 January 2002]

If Overwhelmed is cancelled at the targetting stage (e.g. Asako Towers), then my personality is *not* destroyed, right?

You mean if you cancel your own Overwhelmed when you target your personality? Sure, you wouldn't have to destroy your personality. But you'd also get no additional effects from the action.

If I target one of my Personalities with To Do What We Must and an opposing Personality, I then cast Fires of the Phoenix on my Personality. So I have temporarily stopped the destruction of my Personality but he is still going to be destroyed at the end of the Attack Phase so I am still paying for To Do What We Must.

No, you're not. You cannot set up a loan, where you pay for an action now by promising that you'll kill the personality later. Either you kill the personality as a cost of the action, or you get no effect from the action.

What about if I played Overwhelmed in conjunction with Fires of the Phoenix?

That works, because the destruction of your personality to Overwhelmed is not a cost of the action.

How interact revealing the bastard ,unexpected strike and shirne of the sun with each other, or through repeated play with moon and sun?

I mean, if event A resolves with an ongoing or permanent effect on the game, then unexpected strike appears and negates its effects, but time after, the effects of unexpected are negated, with, let's say shrine of the sun,revealing the bastard or another unexpected strike? Do we get back to the initial state under event A effects or what?

No, in all cases. Unexpected Strike doesn't supress the ongoing effects of its target event, it changes their duration so that they are effectively over. Ending the effects of Unexpected Strike doesn't bring back the effects of the original Event.

Just a few Kyuden Ikoma questions that may come up...

If I use Last Wish, can Kyuden Ikoma cancel my opponents selection?

No, you can only cancel the action itself. Kyuden Ikoma can only cancel actions at the point at which they are played.

If I cancel a range attack that has been boosted my a Tsuruchi technique, do they get the technique back at the end of the turn?

No. It's worth noting, though, that both Tsuruchi Technique and Kyuden Ikoma have the same trigger, so for timing purposes, you'd have to pass on your chance to play a Reaction, they'd have to play Tsuruchi Tech, and then you'd use Kyuden Ikoma.

If I cancel the Favor, do they get IT back?

No, only Battle action cards that are canceled.

If I cancel a torrential rain, is the spell still destroyed?

Yes.

And lastly, if I have a quiet tombs in play, is the canceled action lost?

Yes.

As we all know, the original 4 winds had identical lobbying criteria; however, Daigotsu has different rules regarding when you can lobby. By playing Daigotsu, am I effectively changing the lobbying rules for the entire game? In other words, does my opponent suddenly have to meet the Daigotsu "force must be higher" criteria, even though he/she is using one of the "normal" winds?

No. You only get to deny the Favor from your opponent if you have more Force than he has honor, and more Force than he has Force. He can deny you the Favor by either having more Force than you *or* by having more honor than you have Force.

Let's say I have 20 force, and my opponent has 15 force and 25 honor. I don't think I can lobby, because my force is less than my opponent's honor, but my opponent has less force than I do, so can he/she lobby? It seems like *one* of us should be able to...

Your opponent can, because his honor is higher than your "honor" (the printed Force of your personalities in play).

If a player has a Forgotten Tomb with two Shadowlands cards under it (and no other Shadowlands cards in play), can a player use a single Master of the Bells to destroy the Forgotten Tomb?

Yes. The cards underneath the Tomb don't count as being in play for any purposes.

These came up in a game last night.

1) He has Battle Maidens attached to a Keyo. The card reads "While this unit is Cavalry and attacking, Battle Maidens gain +1 force and you cannot target this unit with actions that would send it home." He said (and the judges agreed) that the +1 bonus applied to Keyo as well, because she has the trait "battle maiden", and because the follower's trait does not say "THIS CARD gains +1 force, it says "battle maidens." Are they correct?

No. That's self-referential text, and isn't worded specifically enough to give all Battle Maidens +1 Force. It only applies to the Follower, Battle Maidens.

2) Can I use High Morale to straighten a follower if the personality is bowed, ie. untargetable?

No. Ironically, High Morale targets the Personality, but doesn't target any of the Followers.

Hello again everyone,

If I have no units in a battle, I'm obviously allowed to play a card like "Superior Tactics" to move another unit into this battle (because my action creates presence).

In the same situation, can I play "Mushin" and then do something like "Superior Tactics"? As long as my first action creates the presence necessary for my second action, can I do that? Or do I need presence/relevance to play "Mushin" in the first place?

You need Presence and Relevance to play Mushin in the first place. Very much like Superior Strategist/Superior Tactics/Deadly Ground, the second action cannot be used to make the first action legal.

Can I use Ratling Conjurer ability from outside the battle? Isn`t it a global effect? What happens with Evil Portents, Can I use in battle?

Yes (as long as you have at least one Ratling card in the current battle), yes, yes.

So I'm toying around with some open cards and happened upon an interesting combo.

I'm using the original brotherhood of shinsei stronghold:

reaction: bow when you have fulfilled the conditions of putting an elemental ring into play. Retreive that ring from your fate deck and put it directly into play immediately. Reshuffle your fate deck.

I also have Hoshi Tadao in play: limited: one per turn put an elemental ring into play from your fate hand. The ring does not count towards an enlightenment victory. At the beginning of your turn two turns after this one shuffle it back into your fate deck.

I use Tadao's ability, (which fulfills the condition of putting a ring into play). In response I bow the stronghold and go and get the ring from my deck and put it into play. Is this legal?

Sure.

If so, since the ring was actually put into play via the stronghold it shouldn't be affected by the restrictions on tadaos ability correct?

Sorry, no dice. If you use Tadao's ability, you have to take all of it, not just the good parts.