Rules for 24 April 2004

Rules for Saturday, April 24, 2004.

First on the agenda is addressing Mastermind. I talked to Jeff about how the card is intended to be played.

Basically, you can play Mastermind with a Courtier you control, so long as no other player controls an individual courtier with an equal or greater total Chi + Personal Honor than the Courtier you bow to play Mastermind.

Secondly, regarding Shrine to Benten and Dishonor ...

Jeff says that bowing a Dishonored Personality to pay the cost of another card paying the gold cost of yet something else which causes an Honor Gain isn't direct enough of a relationship to consistute being "involved in an honor gain."

Morning glory castle

If you run out of your dynasty deck can you still recycle personalities or does their have to be a physical card to replace?

Morning Glory Castle says, "Discard a card from that Province and fill it with the targeted Personality, face-up."

Discarding the card from the Province is not a cost, it is an effect. If that effect is negated due to there being no card to discard, this has no impact on the effect "fill it with the targeted Personality, face-up."

Now, if there is an effect that explicitly prohibits the Province from holding any cards - like Togashi's Shrine - then both effects would be negated.

Some rules questions for the rules guys.

Can reactions that trigger off the destruction of a personality be played on a personality being destroyed from wedge? Example: Feign Death.

Only if they don't target the Personality in question.

Feign Death targets a Personality who has been destroyed to put that card back into play. You can't target a Personality you played Wedge on, so that's no good.

Bayushi Kwanchai xp. keys off the destruction effect just negates that effect. It does nothing to the personality (in fact, it makes sure another effect leaves the Personality alone) and does not target it, so Wedge won't cause any problems.

Can reactions that trigger off a attack being declared be played off of a ambush targeting one of your cards? Example: Call to Arms

Yes. The first effect of Ambush is "Declare an additional Attack Phase."

Also, once a ambush targets one your bowed personalities can you destroy ashigaru fort during the battle action segment of the ambush? Since it is still during your opponents action phase.

No. You don't consider it to be during the Action Phase anymore. Rules related to the Action Phase don't apply, rulebook or otherwise. You can't played Limited Actions or take standard attachment actions during Ambush. Consider it an Attack Phase and ONLY the Attack Phase until Ambush finishes resolving. Consider the Action Phase "on hold" as it were.

Is the force bonus that comes from bowing Razor's Edge Dojo increased by one for Kaiu Hisayuki? It seems to me that it would, but I have heard before that your stronghold isn't technically considered a "card"

Strongholds are not cards. They can't ever be part of decks or affected by effects that address cards.

This is partly to keep Strongholds untouchable by otherwise universal effects that could apply to all cards.

This is also partly a legacy of the time when strongholds were not printed on card stock, but rather the back of smaller deck-boxes with only one stronghold each.

City of gold reads "when a bowing a gold producing holding" can you use this effect when bowing your stronghold for gold.

No. Strongholds aren't holdings, thus they can't be Gold Producing Holdings. I think it is safe to assume this was specifically kept in mind when City of Gold was produced back in Gold Edition. The using it on the first turn would've broken the game. Think about attacking with Hida Tenshu on Turn 2 in a format where lots of Strongholds had 5 Province Strength and Take the Initiate was legal.

Yuck.

When a card effect prevents a unit from being assigned to a battle (e.x underhand of the emperor) can you use a card like tireless assult to "move" that unit into a a battle?

Yes. Moving is not the same as assigning. Watch out for effects that prohibit both, though. There are a few.

Question about chuda agents

I just wanted something clarified for a friend. If I give a personality -2C permanent from chuda agent and he dies the person would die every time he came back into play straight away, the penalty does not disappear as its permanent, even though the personality is dead. Correct?

Being dead doesn't automatically erase every effect on a card.

If an effect lasts while the personality is in play, sending them to the Discard Pile will obviously put an end to that.

If the effect lasts until the end of the turn, it still applies even if the Personality moves into your deck or discard pile until the duration expires.

Same thing applies with permanent effects. They have an "until end of game" duration. That effect doesn't go away just because the card gets moved out of play, changes controllers, or what have you.

So if a 2/2 Personality loses 2 chi permanently, she'll be a 2/0 until the end of the game, assuming no other effects change her stats. If you put her into your Province with Morning Glory Castle and then brought her into play, she'd die immediately, barring any other effects like say Ki-Rin's Shrine Experienced (giving her +1/+1 to a 3/1).

Control the Field [Rules]

If I use control the fields to destroy a terrain and put into play Battlefield of Shallow Graves you can't outmaneuvered by force the terrain because putting it into play isn't a separate action Correct?

Just to be sure, I'm going to forward this to Jeff. My instincts say that you played the card, but you didn't take the political action to do so, rather you played it via another card's effect. Still, best to let the man who writes the rulebook decide on that.

If during battle Matsu Masakado loses one chi what happens?

Nothing significant happens. He's got the +1/+1 before he loses 1 chi, and that doesn't drop him below 3 Chi so the duration of Kenson Gakka's effect doesn't expire.

Now, if he were sent home he'd no longer be in an army. The Tactician Trait and +1/+1 effects would both expire. If he Tireless Assaulted back into the battle, he'd be there with 2 chi and wouldn't get the Tactician trait anew.

Yet another newbie question

Can I "ressurrect" someone with the Morning Glory Castle onto a empty province, for example a province with a Shinsei's Shrine?

Shinsei's Shrine says that the Province can't hold cards, so no, you can't put cards in that Province.

If the province is just empty because there are no cards available to put there, you've got nothing stopping you from putting a card in there.

OK, that looks like everything that wasn't handled in-thread. As always, if I didn't see your question, please repost it with the flag [RULES] in the subject line and I'll get to it at the first opportunity.

Thanks,