Rules for 19 July 2004

Your Rules for Monday, July 19, 2004

First, thanks to Zen for covering for me while I went down to Jersey and made like a scrub. I think I may need to take a warrior's pilgrimage or something to get my focus back. I'm asleep at the switch lately.

Anyway, a couple of things now that I'm back

First, I'm going back to the Zen Policy - no official rulings about cards that haven't been released yet. Anything official will come through Jeff. I'll answer unofficial questions off-digest or questions of a more general nature about existing rules and cards - but not direct "how does this preview card X work?" inquiries.

Secondly, Jeff clarified Chagatai nonexp. for me as being intended to have a trait that was exclusively a timing clause - no dependencies or anything. I probably should've paid attention to Moto Soro's wording to get a better idea of intent. Anyway, Chagatai never dies at any time from having 0 chi except for the time immediately after "until the end of the turn" effects would normally expire during Chagatai's controller's turn. This happens regardless of whether any such effects are in play or any such effects end prematurely.

And so, on with the grind.

Another Sozen Question [Jeff] [Marty]

What will happen if during resolution

Sozen with an attached Iron Legion opposed with an 8 force personality with a 2 force follower attached, then I Yu'ed his follower.

Will Sozen die?

No, Sozen won't die. First you compare force totals to see which side wins. Then Yu triggers and resolves. Then you destroy the cards in the losing army. At this point, there is only an 8F unit opposing Sozen's 8F unit. Since Sozen's unit is not out-forced, the effect of destroying Sozen is Negated. He will live while his Iron Legion dies.

Blade of Truths vs. Shosuro Technique

If one of my personalities Iaijutsu Challenges someone, and I have the Blade of Truths attached, can my opponent Shosuro Technique before I can make it illegal with the Blade?

Shosuro Technique says, "Reaction: When one of your Personalities enters a duel against a Personality with higher Chi,"

Blade of Truths says, "Reaction: After this Personality enters a duel, name a Focus value.

"When" reactions always come before "After" reactions to the same trigger. Shosuro Technique will consequently beat-out Blade of Truths.

(Though obviously neither enchanted steel nor shadowy technique will prevail you against the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies.)

Water Dragon/Naka Tokei and more.

My opponent is playing shadowlands and controls the experienced 2 version of Naka Tokei. Tokei therefore has the shadowlands trait. I control Water Dragon, if I use Water Dragon to copy Naka Tokeis innate ability, would Water Dragon gain the ability to straighten a unit since WD does not technically have the Shadowlands trait. Or would he gain the ability Bow a unit since Tokei has the Shadowlands trait?

Naka Tokei says, "Elemental Limited: Once per turn, straighten a card if Tokei does not have the Shadowlands trait, or bow a card if he does."

Remember that self-reference by name is considered to simply be "this card." If any other card copies Naka Tokei's ability to itself, that card would say, "Elemental Limited: Once per turn, straighten a card if [this card] does not have the Shadowlands trait, or bow a card if he does."

That means the ability copied to the Water Dragon bows or straightens based on whether or not the Water Dragon has the Shadowlands trait, not Naka Tokei.

My opponent uses Show Of Good Faith on one of my guys and takes control of him and uses a effect that would kill him, then uses Feign Death to return him to play. He then states that he now permanently gains control of the personality. He says it is because when the personality died the effects of SOGF ended. And Feign Death returned him to play under his owners control..who at the moment was him....is this correct?

Technically the "gain control of target Personality until the end of the turn" effect doesn't wear off until the end of the turn. The other effects all wore off when the Personality died - he no longer controlled the Personality once he goes to the Discard Pile.

At any rate, the "gain control" effect is no longer important once Feign Death resolves, since the "default" controller of the Personality is the last player to bring that Personality into play under his control. In this case, the last player to bring the Personality into play was your opponent - via Feign Death.

Ancestral Kabuto Question / Ancestral Kabuto Question

This is excacly the kind of problems the current, apply "common sense" causes..

-typo

Does Ancestral Kabuto gains token while is in your deck? "Tokens cannot be sent to your Fate hand, deck, or discard pile. [ZF, 4 October 2003; JA, October 2003]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Tokens")

That looks like everything for Monday, July 19, 2004. If I missed your non-Wrath of the Emperor question, please repost it with the flag [RULES] in a clear and distinct subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.