Rules for 21 July 2004

Your Rules for Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - and a very good day it was. For on that day, 24 years ago, your Deputy Rules Monkey was born under the Chinese Zodiac of the Monkey. Perhaps now would be a good time to send him checks for large sums of money in the mail, hm? ;)

Daidoji Rekai Exp2

With talk about Moto Latomu, I was wondering if Rekai's Battle action is affected by the ruling for Latomu since its range attacks involves movement?

No impact that I can see. The cards are very distinct in function. Rekai has a single ability with both movement and Ranged Attack effects in it. Latomu only has a Ranged Attack. His ability does not generate any movement, but rather Reacts to it.

woodlands

If you play woodlands with a army where noone has a ranged attack, and then play a archer squad formaetion, does your whole army now gain the +2F as they now have a ranged attack - or do they have to have it when the terrain is played

Just like Kamoko's Charge, the Immediate Terrain Woodlands constantly checks to see if cards at the battle are eligible to be affected by it. If you gain a Ranged Attack ability when you previously had none, you'll have +2F from Woodlands.

You are playing ratling, your opponent plays direct assault. The opponent bows a unit with a follower. I have been told that Ikk'rt ability to cancel a followers action could then be used cancel the direct assault action but the unit still bows?

Ik'krt says, "Bow Ik'krt to cancel an action performed by an opposing Follower."

Page 71 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook says, "Actions which involve one or more Personalities or Followers in their cost, such as requiring them to bow or become dishonored, or which require targeting your own Personalities or Follower who meet certain conditions, such as being a Shugenja or a Tactician or having a Chi above 2, are performed by this cards."

Direct Assault's Ability says, "Battle: Bow one of your units in this battle to destroy an opposing unit or a Holding controlled by an opposing player."

Based on that information, Ik'krt can certainly cancel an attempt at using Direct Assault's ability so long as the player using the ability is paying the cost by bowing a unit containing followers.

As for the unit still bowing, remember that no costs are refunded when an Action is canceled. (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 72)

Does the direct assault come from the person or the unit as it's the unit you bow- and if you cancel one component of a unit what happenes to the action?

Direct Assault is performed by the Personal and all his attached Followers in the unit, as per the criteria above from page 71.

Fear effects and "The Face of Fear"?

If a card creates simutaneous, multiple fear effects in a battle, which for example reads something like: "Make fear x against all opposing units" could I use "The face of fear" to let my opponent bow all personalities with force of x or less?

I'm going to forward this to Jeff to get some clarification on it.

Yoritomo Utemaro

If I Show of Good Faith Yoritomo Utemaro. Then ambush with a different personality, can I still use his ability to add a follower to the defending personality while I am in the battle?

Show of Good Faith prevents you from declaring an attack, even if you play Ambush.

But it doesn't say I cannot use abilities that create tokens or any other ability on that personality while I have control of her/him.

As for that part of Show of Good Faith, Utemaro's ability to create Follower Tokens does not, "move cards or tokens to or from that Personality"

Temple of Hoshi & Prayers and Blessings

Does Temple of Hoshi allow me to target any Dragon Clan Personality instead of a Monk in order to use Prayers and Blessings?

No, it allows you to play Prayers and Blessings (and any other Kiho) with any of your Dragon Clan Personalities as the caster - as if - they were a Monk, just like it says.

Singular-Unique trait clarification

What's the difference between copying a card in play and taking control of a card in play for the purpose of the Singular/Unique trait ?

Well, it is only relevant for the Singular Trait, not the Unique trait. As for Singular, the definition of the term on page 104 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook (in the Glossary) says, "Limited to one in play by each player." Judging by the existing precedent of Show of Good Faith / Otomo Ambassadors in the Archive under "Joining and changing controllers" this means that players simply may not gain control of a Singular card if they already control another copy of that Singular card.

It should probably be spelled out better in the Lotus rulebook in the first part that addresses the Unique and Singular traits.

What's the difference between copying a card in play and taking control of a card in play for the purpose of the Singular/Unique trait ?

Only one involves you gaining control of a card while it has the Singular trait and has the same title as another card that has the Singular trait that you control. Consequently, that one (gain control of something that has Singular when you already control another copy) can't happen and the other one (gain control of a card and then turn it into a copy of a Singular card) can happen.

That should be everything for Wednesday, July 21, 2004. If I missed your question about something other than a question about preview cards, please repost it with the flag [RULES] in a clear, distinct subject line and I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.