Rules for 24 June 2004

Sorry for the lag, folks. I've been a little behind with crisis calls at work, the wife at jury duty, belated spring cleaning, and tournament-testing the current mutation of Box Party. Yeah, I know, excuses-excuses. I'm a lamer.

Anyway, in the interests of catching up, here are your Rules for Thursday, June 24, 2004.

Heart of a Hero + Be prepared

If I sacrifice a unique personality for "Heart of a hero", and react with "Be prepared to dig 2 graves", do my personalities gain +5/+2?

You'll get hosed on the timing. Remember the Action Timeline:

1 - Announce Action 2 - Select Targets 3 - Pay Costs 4 - Resolve Effects

You get to Step 3 (Pay Costs) to play Heart of a Hero, and then you have to drop Be Prepared to Dig Two Graves in response to your Unique Personality dying. So you play through Be Prepared to Dig Two Graves and presumably pick an opposing Personality to give all your Personalities +2/+2. Then you go back to finishing Heart of a Hero (assuming no more Reactions). Then Heart of a Hero moves to Step 4 and creates its effect. Since you've already got the +2/+2 from Be Prepared To Dig Two Graves, Heart of a Hero won't increase it.

You need to get Heart of a Hero to resolve - before - you gain the bonus, so it does not combo smoothly with Be Prepared as a one-two play. You'd need to kill a second Personality with a different effect and THEN drop Be Prepared to get +5/+2 rather than +2/+2.

Targets becoming illegal (Rules from Jeff)

Then I have a question about all this I play Iai Art, The other perso has lower Chi after focusing, thus he is no longer legal target for the Iai Art. With Jeff's Ruling, I believe, he won't be affected by the "he loser of this duel is dishonored".

It seems quite strange, doesn't it ?

You only Negate Effects of Actions due to the target becoming illegal if the change from legal to illegal target happened after the time the target was initially selected during the Targeting Step and before the time the Action's effects begin to resolve.

If you are focusing in the Iaijutsu Art duel, you've definitely begun to resolve the Iaijutsu Art's effects.

Targets becoming illegal (Rules from Jeff)

However I am curious as to the impact of this on Nemisis + I Art.

Does Nemisis kick in before the effects or in response to targetting?

Nemesis says, "While your Personality faces the nemesis in battle or a duel, your Personality gains +2F/+3C"

You aren't facing anyone in any duel until the Iaijutsu Art has started to resolve, since its effects are the ones creating the duel.

No case of "Negated Effects Resulting From Bad Action Targets" here.

N.E.R.F.B.A.T. - I kind of like that acronym.

Just including an important post from Jeff here.

Targets becoming illegal (Rules from Jeff)

"If one or more of an action's targets become illegal between when they are chosen and when the action begins to resolve, that action will not affect those targets. This remains true even if they become illegal, then return to being legal. [JA, 15 June 2004; 22 June 2004]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Actions")

Does this superseed the last 2 lines on pg 75 in regards to reactions?

Yes.

Shinden Horiuchi and casting spells while bowed. (Ruling needed please

I have been informed (by a generally reliable source), that Jeff Alexander ruled Shinden Horiuchi allows a Shugenja to cast a spell while they are bowed, by bowing an item.

Have you guys been buy Jeff drinks after the Koteis this year and then asking him Rules Questions under the influence? Bad fanboys. Bad. ;-)

More seriously, I can't speak for everything Jeff may have said in his lifetime, but I can tell you - by everything he endorses as official on the books currently - that you can't do that. Bowed Shugenja can not cast Spells - period. (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 54)

From Jeff - Ashihei, Iweko, and Iaijutsu Challenge

Hey folks,

Just some confirmations form Jeff on a couple of issues.

Will Ashihei's trait cancel Iaijutsu Challenge at that point from beyond the grave?

Absolutely.

Also, the very last sentence of Iaijutsu Challenge says, "The winner's controller gains 5 Honor." That not an independent effect like, "If the challenge is refused, Iaijutsu Challenge dishonors the other player's Personality and causes the other player to lose 7 Honor," is it? I assume it is added to the default dueling mechanic, thusly part of the duel's effects?

It is not a separate effect of the card. It is an additional result of the duel.

Heck, I'll toss Zen in here because his point is ever-so important during the Kotei season:

Shinden Horiuchi and casting spells

Greetings,

Shinden Horiuchi and casting spells

whilebowed.(Ruling needed please

Personally, I feel if a ruling isn't in the Archives, and it isn't posted to the list from one of the Rules Team, I don't want it used in my tournaments.

Nevertheless, during a tournament, the judge is right. Always. Luckily, most tournament judges are sensible people who strive to make rulings that are in line with the rulebook and the archived rulings.

Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar

Reactions & Cancelling

Rule Question 1: Reactions

I bow a personality to perform range four attack against a personality with a current force of three. As a reaction, my opponent plays Outer Walls, to reduce the strength of the ranged attack (making the ranged attack have no real effect on the game since the ranged attack is now less than the personality's force). Outer Walls resolves, reducing the strength of the ranged attack. Can I now play Tsurichi Technique as a reaction to the original ranged attack to increase the strength of the ranged attack?

Sure you can. Both Outer Walls and Tsuruchi Technique have the same timing trigger, so you have to go around the table during that time, letting players take Reactions until all players pass in a row. That means a bunch of players could pile on various plays of Outer Walls and Tsuruchi Technique on one Ranged Attack before it finishes resolving. In addition, a single player could play multiple Outer Walls or Tsuruchi Techniques on this one Ranged Attack, but he must wait his turn for priority to do so.

Rule Question 2: Cancelling a "once per turn." Using Castle of the Wasp, I perform, once per turn, a ranged attack against an opposing personality without bowing. They use Flee The Darkness to cancel it. Can I use Castle of the Wasp again this turn to perform a ranged attack without bowing?

Yes, you can use it later, since you didn't successfuly complete the clause this time. The Action was canceled during the Targeting Step, thus you never produced a Ranged Attack, as required by the ability.

I have an interesting quibble about the way I see this get played at tournaments, however, and I'm going to bring it up to the Rules Team:

If the Action is Canceled during targeting, it is a known part of the game state that it will not produce a Ranged Attack. However, I'm still required to pay the cost of the Action even if it got canceled.

"Although targeting occurs before costs are paid, if an action is canceled at the targeting step (e.g., Balance in Nothingness), all costs must still be paid. Variable costs may be chosen based on the knowledge that the action has been canceled. [JA, 15 May 2003, 18 December 2003]" (Accumulated Rulings, Canceling and Negation)

With that in mind, when you get to paying costs for the Canceled Action, is it even legal to use the trait to waive the bowing cost when you know you aren't going to produce a Ranged Attack? I'm going to run this by the Rules Team to iron out the kinks. Until then, however, play by the standing ruling.

Questons for Martin or Jeff

Is honor gained from a battle 1 big gain or a bunch of 2 honor gains for each card destroyed? If i was defending my last province, my army was out forced and the province is going to be destroyed do i have time to react to the honor gain with Dirty Politics or Retorhic before im taken out of the game?

"Honor gained from battle is a single gain, regardless of the number of card destroyed." (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 84)

And no, you can't respond to the Honor gain before you are eliminated. Armies and Provinces are destroyed in one go. Anything that triggers or Reacts here happens, including you being eliminated from the game. Only after those have all resolved will the game move on to the stage where it produces an Honor gain for the victor.

In short, no, you can not suicide block, lose your last province and army, and then Dirty Politics / Kaukatsu / Egg of Kaukatsu to kill your opponent with Reactions before you lose.

Can you commit Seppuku if your targeted with Aramasues Ashes. " If it makes you lose honor.

My best bet is that once the focus value is revealed and you know the Honor Loss is going to happen, you then immediately seppuku. However, I need to ask Jeff to confirm that one.

Question come up in a top 16 match in tenn Kotei. During your Event Phase a Region is revealed and resolves. The player then uses Shogun's Barracks to flip the Dynasty card over that just refilled the provinice. Now an Event pops up in the same Provinice. Can this Event Resolve? I say No. I believe each provinice is checked only once for a region or event Correct?

The instruction for each card-slot in the province is to reveal, resolve event / attach / region, then refill, then move to the next province. Even if you refill face-up, there is no instruction to resolve / attach the new card.

Can a player use Strike at the Tail with no opposing units? How about Hida Koan exp2

Strike at the Tail appears to give you the option of choosing 0 units, as 0 is a number, and the total force would certainly fit the bill.

Hida Kuon xp2 does not have any abilities that refer to opposing. He straightens a unit in his army once per turn.

Hida Kuon xp3 causes an opposing player to discard cards. To qualify as an opposing player for Kuon's ability, that player would have to control a unit opposing Kuon XP3 in the current battle.

Deathseeker's Oath and Kiss of the Scorpion questions.

At a tournament recently someone tried to play Kiss of the Scorpion using one samurai and one samurai/ninja to meet the requirement and others there agreed this was possible. I thought it was explained when the card first came out that it could not be played with less than three personalities and that a personality with both the samurai and ninja traits could only count towards one or the other. Has this changed?

Not that I know of. Jeff's ruling from Rules for 17 Feb. 2004 still stands. You need 2 Samurai Personalities AND 1 Ninja Personality. That's a minimum of 3 Personalities.

Nest question. If a dishonored Personality can't be returned to Honorable status (e.g. has a Blade of Fury attached,) can Deathseeker's Oath still be played on him to receive the benefits of +1F and +3 Yu or does the action simply have no effect?

The Action need only target a Dishonored Samurai. If any of its effects are Negated for some reason, the rest resolve as normally. If the Samurai with Blade of Fury is Oathed, he'll still get the +1F, Yu +3, and Deathseeker trait.

Canceling attachments

I looked in the accumulated rulings for something concerning what happens if you cancel an action that attaches an item or follower to a personality.

"If the action of attaching a card is canceled, the same thing happens: the player returns the card being attached to where he played it from and does not receive any refund for costs paid for it." (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 72, "Canceling Actions and Negating Effects")

That looks like everything for Thursday. I'll get cracking on Friday now. If I missed your question, please repost it with a clear, distinct subject line including the flag [RULES] in the subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.