Blade of Truths

Legend of the Five Rings card from Diamond Edition, Dark Allies

Card Type

Item

Force

+0

Chi

+3

Gold Cost

6

Keywords

Unique, Weapon

Card Text

Reaction: Once per duel, after this Personality enters a duel, name a number. The player controlling the other Personality in the duel may not focus cards from their hand, or announce Reactions from Strategies, with that Focus Value during the duel.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Four Winds (Gold), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Blade of Truths +0F/+3C 6G 3FV Weapon. Unique. Reaction: After this Personality enters a duel, name a Focus value. The opposing player cannot play Focus cards or Reaction Action cards with that Focus value during the duel." [MRP, Diamond Edition, 27 October 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 49

Rules Q&A

• Q: 4. Ring of Fire and Blade of Truth: Does Ring of Fire alter the Focus value of your cards while they are in your hand? or is it an only-when-focused bonus? I ask because of this ruling: "Anything that restricts your focusing choices in a duel based on Focus values (e.g., Blade of Truths) does so based on the cards' values before they're focused. [JA, 3 April 2002]"
  A: "Anything that restricts your focusing choices in a duel based on Focus values (e.g., Blade of Truths) does so based on the cards' values before they're focused. [JA, 3 April 2002]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Duels") Martin Lund, "Rules for 21 January 2005", 24 Jan 2005
• Q: 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?
  A: 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.) Martin Lund, "Rules for 19 July 2004", 20 Jul 2004
• Q: Blade of Truths.. Has no effect right?
  A: None. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 29 September 2003", 30 Sep 2003
• Q: Blade of Truths - If I name 0, can Let Your Spirit Guide You be played?
  A: No (Rules Archive, General Rules, Duels). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 18 September 2003", 18 Sep 2003
• Q: Can I use the Reaction on Blade of Truths to name a focus 3 to prevent the opposing duelist from playing kakita technique?
  A: No, due to card text. Kakita Technique is played "when" a Personality enters a duel; Blade of Truths is played "after." Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 17 April 2003, Part 2", 18 Apr 2003
• Q: For The Shadow's Claw, suppose that I play it and draw the top 5 cards of my deck, only to discover that I cannot focus with any of the top 5 cards of my deck (perhaps because of an Armor Of The Golden Samurai or a Blade Of Truths or somesuch). What happens?
  A: You do everything except focus. You'd take one card into your hand and shuffle the rest (four cards in this case) back into your deck. Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 December 2002", 4 Dec 2002
• Q: If I named 4 with the Blade of Truths and then on my first chance to focus played "No more games, Yasuki" would the random card be chosen from those that are not a 4 focus value, or from the entire hand? If he only had 4 focus cards would he then not be able to focus?
  A: "No More Games, Yasuki" says, "The focus is chosen randomly from the cards that player can legally focus." If that player cannot focus 4s, he chooses randomly from the rest. If he has nothing but 4s, "No More Games" does not force him to focus. So, he strikes. This is all straight from the cards. Jeff Alexander, "post for 26 November 2002", 27 Nov 2002
• Q: Blade of Truths
  A: Targeted by rule #4. Targets the thing it affects: the opposing player in the duel. Jeff Alexander, "post for 22 August 2002", 23 Aug 2002
• Q: When you mean "bring into play" say "bring into play" when you mean "play from hand" say "play from hand." Accept that Fall on Your Knees is properly worded for what it does, and Blade of Truths is simply badly worded and Errata it.
  The overhead for reserving "play" for cards rather than actions is too great, IMO.
  A: It's beginning to look that way. While I'd love a more precise wording, it looks like we'll have to accept that the exact meaning of "play" depends on context.
  The ruling on Blade of Truths will stand. Jeff Alexander, "post for 25 July 2002", 26 Jul 2002
• Q: Here's another question for you. How does this stronghold react with cards(like Blade of Truths) that look at focus values. For purposes of these cards, are those focus values equal to what is printed or what the stronghold says???
  A: Anything that refers to a card's stat and doesn't use a term like "base" or "printed" uses its current value. [DA p. 32] Jeff Alexander, "post for 24 July 2002", 25 Jul 2002
• Q: Jeff, Do to recent ruling on the Blade of Truths: #2: The Blade of Truths refers only to Reaction Action cards when it says "may not play Reactions". Yes, this could have been made clearer than just using the ambiguous word "play". Then the same rule would apply to Fall on Your Knees (card text below) and that it only works when someone Plays a Reaction Card?
  A: No, because Fall On Your Knees was printed before we started paying more attention to how we used the word "play". Jeff Alexander, "post for 24 July 2002", 25 Jul 2002
• Q: Blade of Truths Weapon Unique Reaction: After this Personality enters a duel, name a Focus value. The opposing player may not play Focus cards or Reactions with that Focus value during the duel.
  Bayushi Kwanchai Text Scorpion Clan Martyr * Soul of Bayushi Tangen Reaction: When any bowed or unbowed Scorpion Clan Personality enters a duel, Kwanchai bows to replace the Personality in the duel. Battle: Once per battle, if Kwanchai is home, send a bowed or unbowed Scorpion Clan Personality in your army home without bowing and move Kwanchai into your army.
  Rule Book: If something refers to a value that isn\222t specified or is missing, such as the Focus value of a Follower token or 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 failóthe value will always be 0.
  So if one of my Personalities who has the Blade of Truths attached enters a duel and I name 0 as the Focus value, my opponent can not use Bayushi Kwanchai\222s reaction because according to the Rule Book if there is no Focus value it is considered 0.
  A: Kwanchai can still be used.
  #1: Kwanchai's Reaction is used "when" a Personality enters a duel. The Blade's is used "after". Kwanchai's Reaction will always go first. Remember, the first tiebreaker when you have a timing problem is the exact wording of the cards.
  #2: The Blade of Truths refers only to Reaction Action cards when it says "may not play Reactions". Yes, this could have been made clearer than just using the ambiguous word "play". Jeff Alexander, "post for 23 July 2002", 24 Jul 2002
• Q: Can I use the reaction of Blade of Truths, naming focus value 1, to stop the use of Utter Defeat in a duel? Or will the Utter Defeat be played after the Blade's effect has ended?
  A: Utter Defeat is played before the Personality is killed, which happens during duel resolution. That's still during the duel. Blade of Truths will prevent it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 June 2002", 8 Jun 2002
• Q: When a personality dies in a duel during battle, when does he actually die, during the duel or after? I ask because I need to know whether or not Be Prepared to Dig Two Graves can be played against Kakita Rensai or Blade of Truths. Thanks for your help.
  A: He dies during duel resolution, which is part of the duel. But if he's in a current army, he's also dying during a battle, so the question is moot. Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 May 2002", 22 May 2002
• Q: Hmm, however the Blade of Truths does say "during the duel" and "when entering" is "during the duel". I think this problem stems from bad wording, since by the precise wording of Blade of Truths it is allowed to affectively 'look back in time', since it has a reaction which effects the duel before the reactions trigger comes up.
  A: You are reading too much into the card. Look at the original Lion Stronghold. It had an Open action that give a Lion Personality +2F while attacking. Has anyone ever thought that giving one that bonus would raise his Force retroactively back to the beginning of the battle? ("Hey, that was still 'while attacking'!")
  Blade of Truths doesn't look back in time. Jeff Alexander, "post for 17 May 2002", 17 May 2002
• Q: It's not that simple, since the card says you can also not play reactions with that focus value. Which means that it depends on which reaction is taken first. And reactions would start with the person being challenged, I believe... or is it the active player that gets first reaction?
  A: The first step in determining which Reaction goes first is to read both of them and see if they tell you. You only use the "player to the left of the one who caused the trigger" rule if the first step can't give you an answer.
  The active player doesn't get special treatment under Gold Edition rules. Jeff Alexander, "post for 17 May 2002", 17 May 2002
• Q: Look at it this way, if it helps - The stages of a duel go like this:
  1) Challenge - This can be a trigger for a reaction 2) Accept/Refuse - This can be a trigger for a reaction 3) "Entering" - This is where the combatants are walking to their starting places and readying themselves. This can be a trigger for a reaction. 4) Focus - Maneuvering, focusing of chi and application of dueling techniques. This can be a trigger for a reaction. 5) Strike - Someone sees an opening and, in gunslinger terms, "draws". This can be a trigger for a reaction. 6) Resolution - Someone lives, someone dies. This can be a trigger for a reaction.
  Only stage 4 is happening "during the duel".
  A: Cross out "Only" and add 3, 5, and 6. Jeff Alexander, "post for 17 May 2002", 17 May 2002
• Q: 7.) If I so choose, can I name "twelve" when using the Blade of Truths?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 April 2002", 9 Apr 2002
• Q: The Oracle text on Blade of Truths looks neat enough... until you think, what if I want to focus from the top of my deck against this?
  Also, I couldn't find specific mention in the EE Comprehensive rules that one can look at focused cards during the duel, but not before focusing them.
  Blade of Truths -> Reaction: Any number of times per turn, after this Personality enters a duel: Name a number. The player controlling the other Personality in the duel cannot focus cards, or announce Reactions from Strategies, with that Focus Value during the duel.
  Suggested Oracle text for Blade (simplified, keep intent but forsake a 100% match to the original functionality) -> Reaction: Any number of times per turn, after this Personality enters a duel: Name a number. The player controlling the other Personality in the duel cannot focus cards from his hand, or announce Reactions from Strategies, with that printed Focus Value during the duel.
  Suggested Oracle additional text for Blade (complicated, but to entirely match original functionality as much as possible) -> When focused cards are revealed, if that player focused any cards from the top of his deck, set aside any of those cards with the printed named Focus Value, and the player may focus an additional same amount of cards from the top of his deck. If he does, repeat this process until none of the focused cards not set aside has the printed named Focus Value, then reshuffle all cards set aside into the player's deck. Discard any cards set aside that have not been reshuffled.
  EDIT -> also, where in the EE rules is the restriction that you can only react once per trigger with the same printed reaction (or words to that effect) to prevent you from reacting 6x per duel with BoT and nerf all focus values 0 to 5?
  A: I appreciate your suggestions, but please don't trouble yourself beyond pointing out anomalous cards.
  The plan is that, when I get around to updating the Legacy Rules to mesh better with the cards' Oracle versions, I will be adding as a general Rule the text of Ryokan's Sword basic that dealt with this issue; if a card revealed as a focus turns out to be illegal, it's discarded and you're out of luck. Yay for precedence, eh?
  EDIT: And the Rule isn't there in EE anymore. So, you'll notice a lot of the old cards in the Oracle have "Any number of times per turn, but only once per X" or such. However, this is a tedious thing to have to remember to add, and sometimes (as with Blade of Truths), it was missed. Thanks again for the observation. Brook Cunningham, "Blade of Truths and new duels", 23 Mar 2012
• Q: Shosuro Naname - Text Scorpion Clan Samurai. Courtier. Sixth Legion Commander When bringing Naname into play, you may give him -2C permanently and reduce his Gold cost by 2. Battle: Once per turn, switch Naname's Force and Chi. Battle: Once per battle, switch an opposing Personality's Force and Chi.
  I have brought Naname into play a regular cost. He has 3 force and 5 chi. I add a Blade of Truths to Naname and send him into battle. When I switch his force and chi as my first battle action is his force 5 and his chi 6? Alternatly does the chi bonus from the weapon tag along with the switch making him 8 force and 3 chi?
  In the same fashion. If a personality with 0 personal honor and 3 chi with the same weapon (Blade of Truths) is altered by Force of Will (Open: Bow this Shugenja and destroy this Spell to switch the Personal Honor and Chi of a target Personality. If you control the target, you need not destroy this Spell.) Is the personality destroyed or do they still have the +3 chi from the Blade of truths?
  A: A Stat-bonus from an Item isn't anything special. It is applied in order just like any other bonus or penalty.
  Remember that "switching" stats really means giving one stat a bonus and one state a penalty so that their values are effectively exchanged.
  Example #1
  So start with a 3F/5C Naname.
  Give him +3 Chi with Blade of Truths.
  Now you have a 3F/8C Naname.
  Swap his Force and Chi, giving him +5F and -5C.
  Now you have an 8F/3C Naname.
  Example #2
  Force of Will works the same way.
  OPH / 3C Personality.
  Give him +3 Chi with Blade of Truths.
  Now you have a 0PH / 6C Personality
  Cast Force of Will on him, giving him +6PH and - 6C.
  Now you have a 6PH / 0C Personality who the rulebook says has to die due to having 0C. Martin Lund, "Chi Bonuses - switching force and chi", 26 Mar 2005