Traditionalist

Legend of the Five Rings card from A Line in the Sand

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Courage, Allegiance

Card Text

You may not play other Allegiance cards. Your Favor actions may target your Personalities as well as other players'.
Political Open: Put this Strategy into play.
Political Interrupt, w: If the action is Favor and is targeting your Personality, its player must choose a different target, if legal.

Focus Value

4

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals)

Erratum

Errata effective 19th May 2015

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: In this ruling: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=114881&p=1486194&hilit=traditionalist&sid=a42731923fbbf8086ff9aa93443fe60e#p1486194 , Gilador says that "It [Traditionalist ] has no effect on actions for which only your Personalities are legal targets"
  But here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=109365&p=1441343&hilit=traditionalist&sid=a42731923fbbf8086ff9aa93443fe60e#p1441343 Palmer says that Traditionalist allows you to bow other players' courtiers (with Shibata Sensei) to meet the requirement of playing Imperial Summons.
  Which is correct?
  A: The earlier ruling has been reversed. Alex Jones, "Traditionalist clarification?", 31 Aug 2015
• Q: Hi,
  Can you use the Right Hand of the Emperor's ability to move an opponents personality to the current battlefield if you have a Traditionalist in play? Do you need to have an opposed personality to target an opponents personality with this? Can you use this if you are attacking and unopposed to harpoon an opponent's personality at home?
  Right Hand of the Emperor's ability reads: Favor Political Repeatable Battle: If you control an opposed Personality at the current battlefield, discard the Imperial Favor to move your target Personality at any location there.
  Traditionalist's trait reads: You may not play other Allegiance cards. Your Favor actions may target your Personalities as well as other players'.
  Thanks
  A: Traditionalist expands the range of legal targets of your Favor action that can only target other players' Personalities, such that the action can also target your Personalities.
  It has no effect on actions for which only your Personalities are legal targets: "as well as" does not mean "and". Alex Jones, "(Legacy) Right Hand of The Emperor + Traditionalist", 26 Aug 2015
• Q: I was just curious how the new targeting rules apply to interrupts such as Traditionalist and Lookout. These interrupts seem to need to happen before targeting but the new rules say that targeting happens before interrupts. Does this mean that when the action finally resolves, the player can select a new appropriate target?
  Lookout Interrupt: A single Ranged Attack from the action may target an otherwise legal card in the Defender's home.
  Tradtionalist Political Interrupt, w: Choose a Personality. The action may not target him if it is a Favor action and there is another legal target.
  A: Errata has been issued to Traditionalist.
  For Lookout, you may choose an illegal target in step C of the Action Sequence, as long as you can demonstrate that you can make that target legal, eg through use of Interrupts or by activating traits, by step E, Action Resolution. If you do so choose an illegal target, you must then use those Interrupts or traits, as described here.
  This also applies for cards like Show of Power, and Moto Alani. Alex Jones, "New targeting rules interaction with some interrupts", 19 May 2015
• Q: Nothing in the 20F rules appears to allow the targeting to change after Step C without explicitly stating it. Unlike Final Sacrifice, which explicitly chooses a new target, Traditionalist just makes a target illegal.
  A: The new targeting rules make Traditionalist change function because under the old rules, all targets were chosen after Interrupts, so an Interrupt could get ahead of this choice and force a new one.
  However, in Action Sequence it explicitly says in step E, "Targeting as chosen in step C is now actually carried out when called for by the card text, possibly altered by Interrupts or other effects."
  So, Final Sacrifice still works as intended.
  Hope that helps, Roger Roger Giner-Sorolla, "Final Sacrifice", 14 May 2015
• Q: Nothing in the 20F rules appears to allow the targeting to change after Step C without explicitly stating it. Unlike Final Sacrifice, which explcitly chooses a new target, Traditionalist just makes a target illegal.
  If a Personality is targeted by a Favour action in Step C and then by Traditionalist in Step D, there is nothing that allows the Favor action to retarget and its original target is illegal- would this constitute "the player cannot find a legal target, the effects stop immediately, and no further effects or targeting happen."
  A: You are correct. As long as there is another legal target, Traditionalist makes the current targeting illegal, but does not allow retargeting. This may be amended in the future but at present it will negate the favor's effects. Jon Palmer, "Traditionalist and 20F Rules", 1 May 2015
• Q: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=113178&p=1463302&hilit=traditionalist#p1463302
  A month on since Jon posted and no official answer. Kotei season is happening, can we have some kind of rule that explains how exactly Traditionalist works under new rules please?
  A: Answered. This was delayed as we were waiting to see if Traditionalist might change, but at present it should be played as negation. Jon Palmer, "Traditionalist and 20F rules", 1 May 2015
• Q: Hi, I have a question: I am attacking with unit A and the Abbot, my opponent has no unbowed gold. I have Traditionalist in play. My opponent trying to use Imperial Favor on unit A, which I am interrupting with the Traditionalist. What happened next, the Abbot could not be targeted with Imperial Favour due the lack of gold. The question is: what happens with Imp Favor?
  A: In order for the Abbot to be a legal target, you must have paid 2G during the Pay Cost steps. If you didn't, you're constrained not to choose him as a target, so you can't retarget to the Abbot.
  So since the Abbot isn't a legal target there is no legal target, Traditionalist's interrupt won't have any effect. Jon Palmer, "Traditionalist Vs Imperial Fav Vs The Abbot", 17 Mar 2015
• Q: Does Hida Kozan work the same way as the crane SH which has them considered to be +5 honor at all times when either player is lobbying, or does his PH bonus only apply when he lobbies. Can i stop a player with strictly higher family honor from lobbying for the favor if mine is greater when taking into account his lobby bonus?
  Kozan's trait : Kozan enters play for 1 less Gold if your Allegiance is Traditionalist. Kozan need not bow to Lobby. After you Recruit Kozan, take the Imperial Favor. You have a Lobby Bonus of three times Kozan's Personal Honor.
  A: Kozan's trait is active when any player is lobbying, using any Personality. Jon Palmer, "lobby bonus vs lobby checking family honor", 27 Oct 2014
• Q: I'm not following the reasoning here. Traditionalist prevents a Personality from being targeted if there is another legal target, but Shibata Sensei lets you replace discarding the Imperial Favor with bowing one of "your target Courtiers". How can Traditionalist force your opponent's Courtiers to bow as an effect of Shibata Sensei? If you have no other unbowed Courtiers, no Imperial Favor, and in the case of Imperial Summons, no unbowed Stronghold, doesn't the Favor action just fail from Good Faith?
  A: You're looking at the wrong part of Traditionalist. The key is "Your Favor actions may target your Personalities as well as other players'".
  At its most straightforward, this allows you to use the Rulebook Favor Battle action to send home your own guys. However, it also means that in a situation where you're REQUIRED to target your own Personality with a Favor action, you can instead target your opponent's Personality.
  Shibata Sensei, absent Traditionalist, means that a card like Imperial Summons effectively reads "Favor Political Open: Bow your Stronghold or discard the Imperial Favor or bow your target unbowed Courtier to bow a target Personality." Traditionalist then allows you to modify "your target unbowed Courtier" to "any player's unbowed Courtier" due to its trait.
  As for the Good Faith Rule, it says "Favor actions require that their player control the Imperial Favor, or have an alternate effect, substitute, or waiver (“need not”) for discarding the Favor." If your combination of effects allows you to bow another player's Courtier, that satisfies Good Faith. Jon Palmer, "Shibata Sensei + Traditionalist", 26 Sep 2014
• Q: Traditionalist You may not play other Allegiance cards. Your Favor actions may target your Personalities as well as other players'.
  Political Open: Put this Strategy into play.
  Political Interrupt, w: Choose a Personality. The action may not target him if it is a Favor action and there is another legal target
  Shibata Sensei
  Recruiting Personalities has a minimum Gold Cost of 5 for you. You may bow your target unbowed Courtier instead of discarding the Imperial Favor for Favor actions.
  A question being is that can i use the text of shibata sensei to use cards like my lords favor and imperial summons to bow my opponents courtiers as apart of the effect?
  Favor Political Open: Bow your Stronghold or discard the Imperial Favor to bow a target Personality.
  Could i bow my opponents courtier to replace my discarding the favor as a cost? because progressive allows me to target my opponents cards with my political actions?
  Thjis is quite frustrating to hear and try to understand as this probably wasn't intended to be worded or understood like that.
  A: This combo does work as you've described it. If you have both Shibata Sensei and Traditionalist, and use Shibata Sensei's Interrupt when playing a Favor action, you may bow another player's Courtier to cover the discard of the favor. Jon Palmer, "Shibata Sensei + Traditionalist", 25 Sep 2014