Rules for 4 August 2004

Your Rules for Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Question about Kakita Dojo

My question regards the Chi bonus received by Kakita Dojo. As a non native English speaker I have problems with the phrase "give your Personality in that duel +1C" on that card. Does "in that duell" only specify which personality gets the bonus or does it also specify how long the bonus lasts? Does the Chi bonus last until the end of the duell or until the end of the turn?

It is only a restriction on which Personality receives the bonus, not a statement of duration. If it were a duration, it would need to say something like, "for that duel," or "while in the duel."

I find the fact that this is my first question rather amusingly considering it is my first digest since returning from Montreal where I spent the whole weekend saying, "I'm sorry, I'm a tourist," to everyone who greeted me in French.

House of Tao and the Shadowlands Trait

why would he make a ruling that is the exact opposite of what the cards in question have printed on them?

Actually, I wasn't making a ruling at all. I was just drudging up what already stood in the Accumulated Rulings. Namely the passage: 'Any single card or action that brings a card into play and gives it the Shadowlands trait is considered to be "bringing a Shadowlands card into play" regardless of the exact relative timing of the two effects.' (Accumulated Rulings, "Entering Play")

Egg of P'an Ku, as written, certainly qualifies once you take into account the whole, "regardless of the exact relative timing of the two effects," part of that Archived Ruling.

However, that was not how the current wording of the Egg of P'an Ku was intended to work. As per Jeff Alexander, 'Using the Egg of P'an Ku on a Shadowlands Personality is not considered "bringing a Shadowlands Personality into play".'

So there you go.

As for Feign Death, the player who will control the Personality being returned to play is the Player who brings the Personality into play. He consequently suffers all entering-play effects of the Personality and other traits that key off of the Personality entering play (including House of the Tao making Rings explode).

It would also count for say, Yodin Sensei capping the number of Personalities that player can bring into play.

Pick your battles

One could argue that the "unit of your choice IN YOUR ARMY" is to keep people from destroying an opposing unit. In the situation we are talking about all units at the battle are being destroyed. As I stated in my first email I also thought this way until I reread the card. If it works the way you say why doesn't it say "all units in your army"

Why doesn't it say "Only one unit of your choice in your army is destroyed. All units in your army return to their controllers homes, bowed. " ? Because then it can be argued that "All units" includes the one that was destroyed and would move the dead unit back into play.

"One unit dies, then all of them move home" is simply poor grammar. "One unit dies, the rest move home" is better.

As for what "the rest" refers to, it's in the previous sentence. You had to pick "Only one unit of your choice in your army". "The rest" means the rest of the units in your army -- the ones you could have picked, but didn't. The card does not once mention all units in the battle or both armies taken together, so I don't see a way to force "the rest" to refer back to such a phrase. The fact it can be played before a tie doesn't change the card's grammar.

Uncertainty and end of turn effects.

I asked this a while back, and Marty was 'consulting' Jeff.

It's my opponents turn, he targets a 3 chi personality of mine with a Daigotsu Dojo. I play Uncertainty on my 3 chi personality. He plays Written in Blood on my 3 chi personality.

So his chi is -2 for the purposes of adding bonuses and 1 due to Uncertainty's effect.

At the end of the turn, can he choose the order in which the three effects end, (ie Uncertainty, Daigotsu Dojo, Written in Blood) so that my personality dies as a result?

No. Since there is no conflict involved in ending all the effects at the same time, they all end at the same time.

Uncertainty and end of turn effects.

As i see the situation, there is no conflict cos his Chi never dropped below 1 due to uncertainty effects, other cards are already in effect and when they end the personalitiy never is under 1 chi.

But jeff in the case of let's say sharing strenght and Mishime's first ability, is there conflict?

pump some other player 3 chi peep with a +3 chi sharing strength, for a total actual chi of 6, after this reduce the peep to his printed chi (3) with mishime. it's my turn, all effects last until end of turn, but if sharing strength ends first, the personality loses 3 chi and then drops to 0.

Ends everything at the same time, or as active player can i declare to end first sharing strenght chi boost to kill my opponents peep.

No. Since there is no conflict involved in ending all the effects at the same time, they all end at the same time.

The Cardinal Rule only applies if multiple effects cannot be simultaneous.

Aid of the Grand Master and Seek the Path

After I play Aid of the Grand Master, can I react with 2x Seek the Path? How many cards will I draw then? I'm assuming that I will draw 4 cards, but I need an official answer to this.

No. You can not play 2x Seek the Path unless something very odd happens.

Seek the Path says, "Kiho Reaction: Target one of your unbowed Shugenja or Monks before a player searches his or her Fate deck for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her Fate deck instead. Draw a card."

The key here is the word, "Instead."

You play Aid of the Grand Master. You React before the deck search effect with Seek the Path. Seek the Path resolves. Seek the path Negates the deck-searching effect and makes you draw a card instead. That's what "instead" means, the effect you were going to do is Negated and you do something else. Once the opportunity to play Reactions comes up again, there is no deck searching effect to play further Reactions to (such as an additional Seek the Path).

OK. That looks like everything not related to Wrath of the Emperor for Wednesday. If I missed your question, please repost it with the flag [RULES] as part of a clear and distinct subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.