rules for 8 March 2004
A rules digest from the L5R CCG rules team, copied from the mailing list archive for Oracle of the Void. The askers' names are left out. Rulings are as they stood on this date; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Eye of the Needle / Ratling Villages
Paying for a Ratling Follower token off the Ratling Villages is producing a follower token (card) with either the Ratling trait, making it a Creature, or the Ratling alignment, which also makes it a Creature.
It has nothing to do with what traits the token has. When you use the Ratling Villages, or Utaku Meadows, or Farmlands, you are not paying the Gold cost of a Follower. Effects that change the Gold costs of Followers don't change what it costs to use these actions.
Moshi Eihime + Tengoku's Gates + Shinden Horiuchi
A friend of mine has made this combo, and I think that Moshi Eihime is worth some errata. If I am correct, I can put a free spell on Eihime, get a free 0F follower, and get the spell back, thus creating infinite 0F tokens. This is quite powerful with Kamoko's Charge, Tsuruchi Hiro... etc. Am I wrong?
If the combo is correct I suggest changing Eihime's ability to once per turn and lowering the cost in one gold.
Eihime already has errata that she can only use her effect once per turn.
Escape from shadow Question
Does the card that is replaced with escape from shadow resolve if it is a region or event?
No.
Nobumoto VS Ashura
Tsuruchi Nobumoto with a Tsuruchi tech, kills Ashura. Which Of the two effects comes first ?? The going back home, or the destruction by Ashura ?
Nobumoto's ranged attack destroys Ashura, then Ashura's effect happens, then the rest of Nobumoto's effects happen.
Morning Glory Castle
Can the ability on Morning Glory Castle be used multiple times a turn (like bowing two shugenjas to get two samurai and then the box for one shugenja)?
Yes.
A Couple of Rules/trait questions
Firstly: Does the "Dragon" trait confer nonhuman.
Not automatically, no.
If not, could the logic be explained behind this?
Because every Dragon card has explicitly been Nonhuman. Such a rule is unnecessary.
Secondly: Can Flee the Darkness be played in response to one's own volcanic fields?
It's an action. If another player targets one of your Personalities because of it, Flee can cancel it. [card text]
Thirdly: Due to the new wording on Sneak Attack, it is possible to Fall on Your Knees it, correct?
It has always been possible. I don't believe Sneak Attack has ever been worded in such a way that it got played clearly before the battle started.
rules for 2-3 March 2004 / Xushen/Kuro's Fire Question
This question came up at a tournament this past weekend, and I'd like to verify that the ruling that was made was correct:
If Shinjo Xushen xp is in a battle, and has assigned as infantry (lowering the strength of all ranged attacks by 2), does this have any effect on the total strength allowed to the caster of a Kuro's Fire?
No. Kuro's Fire applies to the total adjusted strength, as it does not say anything about using base values.
That is, if a 4/4 shugenja has Kuro's Fire attached and targets Xushen with the first ranged attack, does that attack use 6 or 4 of the total force that the shugenja can cast for?
If he hits Xushen with a final strength 4 ranged attack, it uses up 4.
Additionally, if the shugenja were a 2/3, could they target Xushen at all?
Sure, he can target Xushen. He can always target Xushen.
Now, if you're asking if he can produce a ranged attack large enough to kill Xushen, the answer is still "yes".
This is a bit confusing to me. Kuro's Fire basically allows you to totally ignore Xushen's ranged attack reduction totally? I can understand how you are reading the card, but I don't think that's the only interpretation that could be drawn by reading the text on both cards.
It's not the only interpretation. Unfortunately the other is only consistent overall if Kuro's Fire is played as though it said it counted its total BASE ranged attack strengths, before other cards modified them.
To kill Xushen, the shugenja must produce a ranged 6 attack, which is higher than his total of 5... but that is then reduced to 4, so it's legal. Does Kuro's Fire use the smart card clause to somehow realize that its illegally-large initial ranged attack will be reduced to a legal level once it feels the effects of the Xushen reduction?
Yes.
rules for 5 March 2004 / Follow up question to Xushen/Kuro's Fire
The obvious follow up question is how does Kuro's Fire interact with Tsuruchi Technique? Do the extra 3 points count towards Kuro's "total attack strength"? If so, can you use Tsuruchi to boost the last of your attacks above what Kuro's could normally produce on its own?
Yes and yes.
Ok, now this makes less sense. In the case with Xushen, Kuro's Fire is smart enough to say it can over-produce because its total strength will be lowered by Xushen. In this case, Kuro's Fire has lost its smart-card ability and suddenly is able to produce a higher total ranged attack than its shugenja's force+chi because of Tsuruchi technique.
Yoee'trr makes a Ranged 3 Attack. By your argument, Tsuruchi Technique can't be used to increase it to 6, because Yoee'trr clearly says he makes a Ranged *3* Attack and Tsuruchi Tech. would make it illegally high.
Same thing here. Tsuruchi Tech. is boosting the final strength above what Kuro's Fire is normally capable of producing because that's what ranged attack modifiers DO. But you don't get that boost without it counting against how much strength you've produced so far.
Morning Glory Castle vs. Shinden Horiuchi
First, I cannot use Yasuki Trader to get Spells from my discard pile while SH is my stronghold, because "your" is defined as "Controlled by you. (Cards not in play have no controller.)" on pg. 105 of the DE rulebook, therefore the spells are not "your spells", and not an item.
So how does MGC ever get a personality back from the discard pile, as no card in a discard pile has a controller, and therefore cannot be one of "your" cards?
Because Morning Glory Castle says "one of your Honorably Dead Phoenix Clan Personality". There is only one place those can be: in your discard pile. Explicit card text overrides general rules.
Rule:Unit destruction vs personality destruction...
This came up in a game this weekend, I thought it had been ruled on already but couldn't find it, at least not under the cards being played.
The cards in question are:
Reserve commander: Reaction: When another player's card or action destroys one of your personalities in the current battle, bow and destroy Reserve Commander to prevent that unit's Followers from being destroyed and create a 0f/1c Personality with 1 Personal Honor leading that unit.
To Do What We Must Battle: Destroy one of your units in this battle to destroy an opposing unit with total Force less than or equal to your unit's Force, plus your Personality's Personal Honor, plus 2 if your personality is Crane Clan.
If you are in a battle, and use TDWWM to destroy the UNIT, can your opponent use Reserve Commander to save the followers?
No. The Followers are being destroyed twice: once by the explicit effect of TDWWM and once as an implicit result of their Personality being destroyed. Reserve Commander only prevents the second.
rules for 5 March 2004 / Question for Jeff
I had a player last night tell me that if I used Eye of the Needle to pay for a follower of Ratling Village that I couldn't gain the honor. Is this true?
It is true. You did not pay the Gold cost of a non-Shadowlands Creature card. You paid the Gold cost of an action on a Region. [DE p. 71]
Another kick in the teeth for the weakest faction. Oh well.
Faction standings don't determine rulings. (Besides, I'm not convinced Ratling is the weakest faction right now.)
More Chieh
The only real problem I see with this new rulling is can an follower bow to combine a ranged attack while shes casting an ranged attack spell I assume that this is not the intention of the design team...
Ranged attacks can only be combined if they could be used individually and separately at the same time and against the same target. Other cards attached to Chieh may not combine their attacks with hers if the only reason she can make one is her trait.
Then how is it that the personality that targets Chi is allowed to combine with followers that don't?
Because ranged attacks don't target Chi. They target a card. The fact that Chieh's is compared against the Chi of the target card is a special trait of her attack, and combined ranged attacks acquire all the traits of every other action in the attack.
Shosuro Haru
Shosuro Haru
Scorpion Clan Ninja € Bloodspeaker. Maho Reaction: After entering a duel or assigning or moving to a battle, give a 1F/1C Poison token to a opposing Personality.
When he enters a duel, I assume the -1F/-1C can only go to the personality opposing him in the duel.
Is this correct?
Yes.
Kuros Fire Vs. Xushen XP
I cant see how the Kuro's player should/would be allowed to over-declare the RA just b/c they know in advance Xushen will reduce it. You still produced a range 5, it just got modified by Xushen.
If it got modified to strength 4 or 3, then it was a ranged 4 or 3 attack and not a 5. And you know what the reduction will be before you cast the Spell.
rules for 5 March 2004
My follow-on question is on what keeps a theoretically infinite RA from being declared as the last RA from Kuro's. Because we now know that the upper bound of KF is violatable, what keeps Agasha Seruma with Kuro's Fire from killing Hida Kuon by declaring a RA10, letting it resolve, then end the KF effect by having gone over the limit?
If nothing known is going to reduce it into a legal range, you can't declare it that big to begin with.
rules questions.
Unexpected Strike:
May I choose to end all ongoing effects of an event that doesn't have any?
Yes.
Regions of Rokugan:
May I choose to get a region, a copy of which is already in play on my side, and fail to put that region in play?
Yes.
What if the only regions in my deck are a copy of the one already in play?
The search is optional. You "may" do it. [card text] However, if you go searching, you must retrieve a Region from your deck if there are any, then discard it if you can't play it. You cannot look through your deck and then decide not to take a Region.
Hiring personalities:
What is the definition of "hire a personality"? Is it "Pay gold and other costs during the Dynasty phase to bring the personality from one of your provinces into play"?
"Hire" is not a game term in L5R. I don't see it in any Gold- or Diamond-legal card or anywhere in the current rulebook. What is the context?
Any card that says 'Search your deck':
May I voluntarily fail to find something that I am instructed to search for?
No. But generally, you may voluntarily find something you cannot play.