Rules for 7 October 2004

Your Rules for Thursday, October 7, 2004

Chasing Outside a Battle and Hachi

1. Yasuki Hachi issues his unrefusable challenge; the Dragon player casts Flee the Darkness. Since Hachi's duel is once per turn, does Hachi get the chance to challenge again at the next opportunity? Page 72 of the DE Rulebook, Cancelling Actions, seems to imply so.

Indeed it does, and indeed he can. Cancelation isn't so hot against Actions on cards in play that don't involve any sort of cost.

2. Togashi Satsu is attacking province A; Egg of Satsu is attacking province B. We resolve province A first:

2a. Egg of Satsu casts Sharing Strength on Satsu at province A. 2b. Satsu then casts Chasing Osano-Wo back to the Egg at province B. 2c. Egg of Satsu then casts Chasing Osano-Wo back to Satsu at province A.

Was 2b a legal play? It seems to satisfy Presence and Relevance, though Satsu at province A just happens to not bow when he casts the kiho.

Kiho target their casters, and that's enough to satisfy Relevance if the caster is at the Current Battle, accord to page 81 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook.

Values isn't specified or is missing

Then, if I play in Open format the card Souls of the Betrayed, what happens?

A) The Events have 2 Gold cost, due to Souls of the Betrayed effects.

B) The Events have 0 Gold cost. The first sentence of this card do nothing, because "a value that isn't specified ... such as ... the Gold cost of an Event ... consider that value to be 0. Effects that try to change a value that a card does not normally possess fail - the value is always 0."

The option B is the answer I am expecting, but it sounds strange.

Souls of the Betrayed Limited: Until the end of the game, all Events have a Gold cost of 2. If the cost of an Event is not paid, the Event is discarded without effect.

The answer is "A." Souls of the Betrayed does not say that it increases the card's Gold Cost by 2, or gives it a +2 Gold Bonus or any such thing. It specifies a value of 2 Gold Cost and Assigns it to the Event Cards. While Souls of the Betrayed is in effect, Events have a - Specified - Gold Cost, as per its text.

Brutal Confrontation

The Shadowlands player drops Brutal Confrontation. He then attempts to bow Voitagi to have Iuchiban issue an unrefusable challenge. The Unicorn player says that the bowing Personality is the one doing the challenge. The disagreement gets a judge to come over and it was ruled that the bowing Personality issues the challenge by implication. The Shadowlands player is asking for clarification:

The ability in question, granted by Brutal Confrontation reads, "Battle: Bow one of your Personalities to challenge an opposing Personality to an unrefusable duel of Force or Chi."

Only one Personality is specified under the ability. The ability does not reference any of your other Personalities, so that Personality has to be the one doing the challenging and the cost payment.

His claim is that the challenger is ambiguous as it does not say "that Personality challenges an opposing Personality..." and feels any Personality can become the challenger.

Brutal confrontation does not have any instructions that permit you to choose more than 1 of your Personalities and 1 opposing "victim."

Rules Question

So I heard that this was a ruling that Jeff made, is this correct?

If the only thing being affected in the current battle is something paying a cost, you do not satisfy relevance.

That's a little oversimplified.

If part of Action X's own cost involves the current battle, it is relevant. What doesn't count is using a separate action to help pay part of Action X's cost.

So this means that if I am resolving battle A and I want to use a political Adjunct to bow someone in battle B with Gozoku sensei, I can't do this.

Right. You can't do this.

Rules Question

So then if I have a monk at battle A, and a person at battle B, I can't resolve battle A and cast chasing or sharing strength or somesuch? Because bowing someone in the current battle isn't relevant?

You can. Bowing someone to cast a Kiho can make that Kiho relevant.

To determine whether an action is Relevant, consider only that action's own costs and effects. Do not consider the costs or effects of other actions reacting to it in any way.

Here is the key point: Bowing the Monk in your example is a cost of casting Chasing Osano Wo. Bowing a Political Adjunct is NOT a cost of using Gozoku Sensei. It is a separate action, so you ignore it as far as checking the Sensei action's legality. (As a separate matter, the Adjunct's action itself is also checked, but since it's a Reaction it's automatically okay.)

That should cover everything from Thursday, October 7, 2004. If I missed your question unrelated to Dawn of the Empire, please repost it with the flag [RULES] as part of your Clear and Distinct subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.