Thoughtless Sacrifice

Legend of the Five Rings card from Aftermath

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Target your unbowed Personality. Target an enemy unit with Force equal to or lower than your Personality's Force, or Force plus Personal Honor if he is defending. Destroy both targets.

Focus Value

1

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: If I have an Air shugenja with both Ward of Air and Fierce blood of the Earth, can I attempt to destroy a personality to get Fierce Blood's force bonus, and then negate the destruction with War of Air?
  The previous precedent ruling with Thoughtless Sacrifice would leave me to think no, but then again costs have changed to gold and bowing, if I'm not mistaken.
  A: Fierce Blood of the Earth uses "to" wording, which means effect A (the bowing or destruction, which is not a cost) has to happen in order for effect B (the Force bonus) to happen. If the bowing/destruction is negated, you will not gain the Force bonus. Sorry! Jon Palmer, "Ward of Air and Fierce Blood of the Earth", 14 Jul 2015
• Q: In light of the rule reversal interaction between Thoughtless Sacrifice and Ward of Air where the triggering of negation is now applied to the action's remaining effects, how does the spell now work with the strategy War? Would the "and" imply that the destruction of the the personality and the province are simultaneous or sequential (eg. Ward of Air negates the destruction of the province and the personality or just the personality?)?
  A: "And" does not imply simultaneous.
  According to the order written, the Province would first be destroyed, then your Personality. The latter could be saved by Ward of Air, but it would be at a time when it's too late for the negation to prevent the Province destruction. Brook Cunningham, "Ward of Air and War", 21 Sep 2014
• Q: As a follow-up to the reversal in the Thoughtless Sacrifice and Ward of Air interaction (here), does the same thing happen with Fueling the Flames?
  To be clear, if i use Fueling the flames Battle to produce a Ranged 6 and react with Ward of Air to negate my shugenja's destruction, the Ranged happen?
  Relevant text
  Fueling the Flames Fire Battle: Bow this Shugenja to make a Ranged 6 Attack. Destroy this Shugenja
  Ward of Air Before this Shugenja, or any Personality if this Shugenja is Air, is destroyed by a Battle action, you may destroy this Spell to negate it.
  A: Correct. Negation does not undo instant effects, like Ranged Attack destruction, that has already happened. Brook Cunningham, "Ward of Air and Fueling the Flames", 2 Sep 2014
• Q: The current ruling is that Ward of Air would negate the destruction of the Thoughtless Sacrifice player's personality, but allow the destruction of the opponent's unit.
  I think this should be re-evaluated.
  Ward of Air says
  It doesn't say "negate the destruction", it says "negate it". There is no previous mention of destruction, only "a Battle action". The only thing that "it" could be is "a Battle action". So if a player uses Ward of Air in response to Thoughtless Sacrifice, the only card that is destroyed should be Ward of Air.
  A: Your concern is noted, and this is a topic of discussion amongst the Rules Team. Ben Higgins, "Ward of Air and Thoughtless Sacrifice Redux", 24 Aug 2014