rules for 9 Feb. 2004

Stupid Questions Ahoy: Round 2

Tsurichi Hiro(Experienced)

"Text Mantis Clan Master Bowman . Samurai . Experienced . Unique . Soul of Tsuruchi Experienced Followers attached to Hiro that can produce ranged attacks have +2 ranged attack strength. Battle: Twice per turn, make a Ranged 2 Attack without bowing. Battle: Bow Hiro for a Ranged 5 Attack. "

Can I take the 2 ranged attacks without bowing, then bow him for a ranged 5 attack?

Yes, as explained earlier.

Castle of the Wasp

"Text Once per battle, you may target the current Province with a Ranged Attack from exactly one of your attacking cards to lower its Strength by the Attack's strength. Once per turn, one of your Mantis Clan Personalities need not bow to produce a single or combined Ranged Attack that targets opposing cards."

Can I take a "ranged attack... to lower [a province's] Strength" and not bow him with my second stronghold ability?

No.

The effect of shooting without bowing can only be done when you target an opposing card with the ranged attack. Provinces are not cards.

I've seen a number of posts claiming Mantis can easily take a Province on turn 2 using several possible Mantis Clan Personalities and combining both Stronghold effects. They can't. We caught this during playtest before the Castle first came out.

Tattoos

Howcome there are so few Diamond legal tattoos? Are they overpowered or what..?

They are too focused on one Faction. Even compared to Cavalry, Tactician, and Yu, the Tattooed trait is hard to give to Personalities or find outside its primary Faction.

Reign of Blood Legality

Can anyone tell me when Reign of Blood cards will become Diamond Legal?

January 7th, 2004. ("Will" is a little out of place here.)

Help a stupid newbie Scorpion player!

Your Turn: Unbow all your Maru's.

Hmmm, I'm confused here, can a player have more than one personality out with the same name, providing they are not singular or unique? I was under the impression you couldn't.

If a card is Unique, only one copy of it may be in play, total.

If a card is Singular, only one copy of it may be in play per player.

Everything else is unlimited.

Question about a ruling concerning Agasha Chieh andIsawa House Guard

What is the logic in it? A card says can cast spells as if it was in the battle and the other says: "When a Shugenja IN your army...." how can they interact?

Bowing is part of casting a Spell. Chieh can cast a Spell as if she were in an army.

So, by that standard, if I am attacking and Chieh exp has Kuro's Fire attached and sitting at home, I can play break the line and target her?

You can't play it for its Battle action and target either her or her Spell. She is not in the middle of casting a Spell just then, so her trait doesn't apply.

You can play it for its Reaction when she casts that Spell on cards in your army, but that has nothing to do with Chieh's trait.

rules question - oracle of thunder

If you play a explosives on a oracle of thunder exp or the gold holding that may pay for its use, can the oracle be used to cancel it - does the destruction before of after the chance to cancel as the card text does not clearly say

The Oracle of Thunder is used when Explosives is played. [card text] That's before it does anything. Explosives is canceled and the Oracle does not die.

rules for 6 Feb. 2004

My concern was always the ability to attach cards to your opponents personalities that didn't explicitly say they had that ability. If you can attach the CARDS created from Utemaro to other players personalities, then why not attach stuff like Goblin Sneaks from your discard pile to opponent's personalities?

Apparently, as of the Gold wording, you can. Weird, no?

Clairification on Strategic crossroads and ambush

Can a player use the battle action given to them even if they can't legally bring a unit into battle?

During an Ambush, a player who has a unit in the battle may use its action. It will do nothing. A player with no units there may not use it because it is known that it will not meet the Rule of Presence.

rules for 5 Feb. 2004

If a player has her first action targeting a personality "protected" by the trait of Razor's Edge Dojo cancelled, must she discard again to perform another action targeting the RED player?s personalities?

Yes. She must discard the first time each phase she targets the Crab player's Personalities with an action, and since her action was canceled, she hasn't taken an action yet.

?!?!

I thought all that 'canceled actions never happened' was a thing of the past. In the diamond rulebook it states the actions stops being resolved, no effect is undone, and it does count as your chance to play an action. Am I missing something? Beacuse for me it's very clear you have already targeted the personality 'protected' by RED (otherwise no discarding should have happened) even if the action did not fully resolve, so you have not to discard again.

If there was no action -- and there wasn't, since it was canceled -- then you couldn't have targeted someone with an action. I don't know what you mean by "canceled actions never happened".

shrine of fu leng

Can I use the shrine to bring out an oni that I dumped in my discard pile directly from my province...or by "look throught the discard pile for a DESTROYED oni personality" does it mean it had to actually be an oni that was played and killed? I'm guessing it's the second interpretation, but I couldnt find a "destroyed" ruling in the diamond rulebook...maybe i just missed it. Thanks :)

Destroyed means just that -- destroyed. The oni has to be in the discard pile because it was destroyed, not simply discarded.

Couple of "Open" rules Q's

If I fetch a Gifts and Favors from my deck with my stronghold, does it count as having "entered play for 0 gold" for purposes of being destroyed by Plague of Locusts?

According to the Archive, no. Plague of Locusts works based on the card's Gold cost when it entered play, and Gifts & Favors cost 2.

For the event "Rampant Plague", let's say it resolves when I have no personalities out. Is my opponent forced to give a token to a second personality of his own? If he only has one personality, is he exempt from that because of the "other" clause?

Yes and yes.

I have no personality to give a token to, but can I give one to one of my opponent's personalities anyways?

Yes.

And finally, what order do players choose which personalities get tokens?

Active player's choice.

Question about a ruling concerning Agasha Chieh and Isawa House Guard

Agasha Chieh can cast spells into the battle from the outside and I've heard a ruling that you can unbow her with Isawa House Guard because she is ,sort of, into the battle while casting it.

Correct.

Does the same hold for any other Shugenja when Shiba Yoma (exp) is in the current battle?

Yes.

Also, since I'm on Yoma... if a Spell/Kiho is announced during a battle he is in, but is then cancelled, Yoma gets the +1F/+1C before the cancellation, right? If so, does he lose the bonus when the spell/kiho is cancelled?

He does not get a bonus on canceled Spells regardless of when it's canceled.

Barley farm

May I use onlu the reaction from barley farm? (e.g. for paying a simple huts) Or I have to combine it with another gold production?

You may use the Reaction alone to pay 1 Gold for something that costs 1 Gold.

You may use Reactions to paying for something at any time there is a cost you need to meet. You do not have to generate Gold from some non-Reaction source first.

Rules question : Kuro's Fire & Test of Magic

Test of Magic Kiho Reaction : Bow one of your shugenja when another shugenja casts a spell or kiho to challenge that shugenja to an unrefusable duel. If your shugenja wins, cancel the spell or kiho.

Kuro's Fire Elemental Battle : Bow this shugenja to make a consecutive ranged attacks up to the shugenja's chi. The ranged attacks total strength cannot exceed the shugenja force plus chi.

So, when agasha seruma casts kuro's fire, and then i test of magic that personality, a duel is created. What if the duel ended as a tie and both shugenja dies, does the previously cast kuro's fire still go off?

Yes. [DE p. 72] The number and total strength of the attacks will be based on the Shugenja's stats now that he's in the discard pile with nothing attached.

Kansen Haunting

Is there any way around this card?

There are the typical anti-Event cards, Avoid Fate, Dharma Technique, and Shrine of the Sun.

Spells and Kiho that do not cause you to Bow, do you still have to bow? Or Takao's Jingasa?

Yes and yes. Anyone who casts a Spell or Kiho bows afterwards. [card text] This is an effect of the Event, not a cost of casting the Spell. It cannot be removed by things like Takao's Jingasa. Also, Reactions that straighten a caster after bowing will not work because the Event prevents straightening.

Kuro's Fire & Ring of Water/Actions during battle.

Two quick questions here that came up during games today..

1. Do the ranged attacks produced by Kuro's fire count as separate battle actions.

No. There is one action: casting it.

2. Can someone give a quick run down over the rules concerning personality presence and playing battle and open actions during a battle.

There are three rules -- actually, two rules and a reminder -- you need to know.

The Rule of Presence: You have to control a unit in the battle already or use an action that will unconditionally give you one there. Applies to Open and Battle actions only. Reactions ignore this.

The Rule of Relevance: The action has to come from, target, or affect something in the battle, or attached to that Province, or the Province or the battle itself. Applies to Open and Battle actions only. Reactions ignore this too.

The reminder: Check the action's text to see if the card itself needs to be in the battle to be used. May phrases will imply this, including "this battle" or "this Province". Applies to all actions.

I know someone using a open action that says "opposing personality or opposing province" has to be in one of the armies.

Once a battle starts, Open and Battle actions follow the same rules.

But what about battle actions? For example if I am attacking and I have a Tamori Shaitung in play who is not in the attacking army..can I still use her ability which is a battle action to effect that battle?

No. She says "this Province".

Question about a ruling concerning Agasha ChiehandIsawaHouse Guard

So just like Seppuku happens before Kaagi's Reaction or several other rulings made about the difference WHEN and AFTER. Isawa House Guard say AFTER and if she's only a part of an army WHILE casting a spell, it's not legal to use ISG, because by the time it's legal to use IHG, she's no longer in the army.

"After" what, though? That's where you're going astray.

The Isawa House Guard is used after the Shugenja bows. NOT after the entire Spell is finished -- just after she bows. But that is still in the middle of casting the Spell, so she is still treated as being in the current army.

Obsidian and Jade Query

Limited: Bow your Stronghold to permanently give one of your Personalities the Shadowlands trait and a permanent Force bonus equal to the number of Shadowlands Personalities you control when Obsidian and Jade was played. For the rest of the game, that Personality cannot assign or move to a battle with other Personalities, and other Personalities may not assign or move to a battle with that Personality.

If I assign a personality that was targetted with C&J to battle, can the defender assign blockers in that province?

Yes. Obsidian and Jade's restriction only applies to that Personality's own army.

Just a thought about Kharmic strike

I just had a thought, would Asahina Nizomi prevent the destruction of one or both of the combatants in a duel when Kharmic Strike is used?

Both.

Danjuro

Can danjuro react to the bowing of the helm of thunder?

No. He is not a legal target for the Helm's action.

Rules question

I was curious (since I couldn't find it in the accumulated rulings) when exactly a pearsonality was performing an action.

DE rulebook, p. 71.

Brief summary of the relevant parts: the Personality is performing one of his players action's if something about the Personality has to change to pay the action's cost, if the Personality has to meet some requirement, or if one of the action's effects is a challenge.

The Egg of P'an Ku

if i copy a personality with a weapon atached , the copy will have the stat of the personality plus the weapon bonus?

No. Those are not permanent changes.

Blade of penance question

is your personality involved with the honor gain from blade of penance. Will winning a steel on steel while dishonored simply rehonor you?

Yes and yes.