Rules for 16 April 2004

It is April 16th. Do you know where your auditors are?

Well, at least we all know where the Rules for Thursday, April 15, 2004 are.

Shrine of Fu-Leng

Sorry I missed this one earlier. I must've forgotten that Shrine of Fu Leng was in Reign of Blood rather than Hidden City.

"Limited: Bow Shrine of Fu Leng and destroy one of your Personalities to search your Dynasty discard pile for a destroyed Oni Personality and put it into play without Gold cost."

Can you return to play the personality you just destroyed (given said personality is an Oni)?

Jeff answered a related question in "[L5R-CCG] backlogged Reign of Blood answers":

Hey, can I sacrifice someone to the shrine of Fu Leng even if I don't have a destroyed oni personality in my discard pile.

Yes.

Obviously, if Shrine of Fu Leng required you to target an Oni Personality in your discard pile, this play would be illegal. Jeff has ruled that it is indeed legal, and I believe it is an exention of this ruling:

"Effects that let you to search a deck for a particular card (e.g., Walking the Way) do not target the card. [JA, email, 19 January 2001; 23 July 2001]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Targeting")

I'm going to go out on a limb here and judge that the same thing applies to circumstances you are instructed to search your Discard Piles or Provinces for a particular card - the Effect does not target the card then either.

With that in mind, the answer to your question is, "Yes."

You can target, and then destroy an Oni Personality you control to play the Action on Shrine of Fu Leng. The Oni will land in your Discard Pile in time to be found by the searching effect of Shrine of Fu Leng's Action.

Assuming someone doesn't remove it from the game first with Hakai. ;-)

Political Interference

I can play this card in a personality card?

You may play "Political Interference":

"When another player is paying for a card," (card text)

Personality cards are indeed cards. If another player pays for that Personality, you can React with Political Interference to raise the gold cost of that Personality.

Just keep in mind, there is a distinction between the following:

1.) "paying for a card"

Like paying the 5 Gold Cost for Matsu Aoiko's card, or 1 Gold Cost for Tsuruchi Technique.

2.) "paying for an Action on a card"

Like paying the 2 Gold Cost for Farmlands ability to create 1F Follower Token.

Political Interference will only work on circumstance #1.

Question RE: water dragon

can the water dragon copy an ability that is on a wind in the events phase?

No. Daigotsu has no innate abilities because he is not a Shugenja card. The Water Dragon only copies innate abilities.

'Innate Ability: An ability on a Shugenja card. Abilities on other cards are not "innate."' (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 101, "Glossary")

"Elemental Reaction: Once per turn, during the Events Phase, the Water Dragon copies one innate ability from another card in play." (Card Text, "Water Dragon")

Left Hand

Sorry again for the one off question, BUT

If I play the left hand does my samurai have to die during resolution to use the secondary ability?

The card says as a result of im looking for a clearer definition.

"As a result of" does not normally mean the same thing as "during."

Left hand only looks for death caused BY battle resolution and BY a duel.

If other effects cause death during a battle or a duel (Poisoned Weapon in a Duel or Overwhelmed in a Battle) Left Hand's Reaction can not be used.

Snazzy questions...

1) Does the Taut Bowstrings reaction allow you to combine ranged attacks from cards in different units or must all the ranged attacks come from the same unit?

Neither Reaction on Taut Bowstrings contradicts the standard restriction in the rulebook that only cards in the same unit may combine Ranged Attacks.

2) Does the ranged attack created from the reaction of Taut Bowstrings count as battle action or is it all part of the reaction?

It is all part of the Reaction. You'll pick the target card for the Ranged Attack as part of playing Taut Bowstrings.

3) Do participating shugenja bow for a ritual under Celestial Alignment?

"The primary Shugenja is the only Shugenja considered to be casting the spell." (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 90, "Casting Spells")

Ergo, the only Shugenja that need not bow is the primary Shugenja (typically the Shugenja holding the Spell).

4) Does the clause about only being able to cast a spell once refer to the specific spell card or the name of the card (in other words, if I have two copies of a spell attached can they cast both)?

Specific to each card, not the name

Two actions on separate cards are separate actions, even if they do the same exact thing - even if they originate from the same source (like Yogo Towers).

5) If the answer to #3 is No and the answer to #4 is "A shugenja can cast multiple copies of the same spell", does three copies of Essence of Gaki-Do when Celestial Alignment goes off really wreck your opponent's day?

One copy of Essence of Gaki-do is usually enough to get the job done. Just keep the other copies on hand for when your opponent drops a pair of Kolat Assassins followed by a pair of Naval Ambushes and clears out all your copies of Shiba Danjuro AND the Shugenja holding the spell in a single Action Phase. :)

Tribute to your house

But what if my opponent has under 6 and plays a Tribute?

Well, then you have two Effects from two separate Tributes on you with two different durations. When your Tribute expires, your opponent's Tribute will still be in effect on you, so your honor will stay put until the beginning of his turn when the last Tribute expires.

Ruling Question on No Mercy: 1-Death of a Dishonored Personality, 2-Seppuku

Patrick Thatcher said killing a Dishonored Personality wouldn't do it as, "Honor loss caused by the destruction of a dishonored Personality is a rulebook effect. [Summary of other rulings]" Well, darn. But maybe someone wants to REVERSE that? :-) If not, why's it considered a rulebook effect and not an effect of that Personality?

No, I don't want to reverse that.

It is considered a Rulebook Effect because the Rulebook says that you lose the honor, not any of the Cards or Strongholds.

Seppuku: I am thinking that without the Personality (the card) there's no honor loss possible or being generated. That may or may not be interpretable as "suffered an Honor loss from one of his or her own cards".

Seppuku does not create an honor loss. Seppuku just reduces an existing Honor Loss. A Personality can seppuku to reduce an honor loss that was not from that Personality card - your opponent's Iaijutsu Challenge, for instance, causes you an Honor Loss if you refuse, but you can seppuku to reduce that loss. That loss is not an honor loss from one of your cards.

That looks like everything that wasn't addressed in-thread or related to Hidden City. If I overlooked your question, please repost it with the flag [RULES] in the subject line and I'll get back to it at the first opportunity.

Also, I'm off to the Kotei tomorrow, in Feeding Hills Massachusetts. I'd like to get enough sleep to stay awake driving there and win the tournament, so don't expect to see the Rules for April 16 until Sunday.

Have a great weekend!