Way of the Scorpion

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Coming Storm

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

If you are a Scorpion Clan player, this Strategy has Discipline .
Open, : Target a Personality whose Personal Honor is less than printed. His controller loses Honor equal to the difference. Look at two cards in his hand or Provinces.

Focus Value

4

Legality

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

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: So how does Secret Alliances honor gain trait work: "After another player's action targets this card, gain 1 Honor."
  Example 1: Does it work like this: Player B targets your Courtier with Slanderer, do you gain the 1 Honor then become Dishonored? And if so, if they follow up with Way of the Scorpion, following the above chain of thought, would you then gain the 1 Honor rehonoring your personality causing the rest of the action to fail and therefore not lose honor?
  or Example 2: Does it work like this Player B targets your Courtier with Slander so you become dishonored, and then gain the 1 Honor rehonoring your personality. Making it so that your personality can never become dishonored in the game because of other players card effects?
  A: Mostly Example 1, except the subsequent Way of the Scorpion wouldn't (completely) fail.
  The rehonoring would occur after the action targets the Personality in its effects (not after the targeting is chosen before the effects and Interrupts), so the action wouldn't completely fail; there would be no honor loss, because the "difference" would then be 0 (unless there were other PH modifiers in effect), but the WotS player would still get to look at two cards. Brook Cunningham, "Secret Alliances - Honor Gain Trait", 6 Sep 2015
• Q: My friend wanted to know if the spiders (or any personality with zero PH) can be affected with this, thus lossing 2 honor in the process. I told him that zero is the minimum value of the personal honor of a personality but he insisted so i ask it now tia
  A: Personal Honour has a minimum of zero.
  See Stats, Minimums and Maximums: Most stats have a basic minimum value of zero. Only Honor Requirement, Family Honor, and modifiers with a + or – sign can have negative values. Alex Jones, "House of the Disgrace + Way of the Scorpion", 3 Jun 2015
• Q: In any game, a reference that depends on showing a card also includes “look” effects.
  A: Therefore, Sachina Sensei is triggered by Way of the Scorpion. Thanks for asking! Roger Giner-Sorolla, "Way of the Scorpion and Sachina Sensei", 15 Feb 2015
• Q: I realise that Natsumi and Way of the Scorpion are under discussion, but I think for a reason other than this (if I am incorrect please just add this to the other thread).
  [You are; topics merged. -- MB2001]
  Way of the Scorpion has the effect "Look at two cards in his hand or Provinces". Natsumi's ability interacts with effects that show other cards, but unlike many other actions, Way of the Scorpion does not show cards. Do these two cards interact at all? If they do, is this because Natusmi looks for synonyms of 'show' in abilities (look, reveal etc): a 'plain English' approach?
  A: Per the newest CR,
  SHOW When an effect asks a player to show a card, he or she displays the face of a face–down card to all other players, then return it to its face–down state. In a two-player game, this is the same effect as looking at another player’s card, but from the other player’s perspective. However, this is not the same as revealing, which keeps the card face-up.
  In any game, a reference that depends on showing a card also includes “look” effects.
  So these cards do now work in conjunction. Jon Palmer, "natsumi + way of the scorpion?", 14 Feb 2015
• Q: I'm tuned... For full 3 month now... viewtopic.php?p=1439020#p1439020
  A: Shunsen, there is a standing ruling for this card. I realized you've asked Brook to explain his reasoning, and he will or will not do so in his time (I have prodded him). However, the cards are operational for tournament play per Brook's ruling.
  If you have additional questions other than "why?", please rephrase them, as I cannot find anything that needs answered from a Rules perspective at this time. Thanks! Jon Palmer, "Natsumi + Way of the Scorpion", 5 Jan 2015
• Q: Way of the Scorpion Open, 1GC: Target a Personality whose Personal Honor is less than printed. His controller loses Honor equal to the difference. Look at two cards in his hand or Provinces.
  When I play Way of the Scorpion to look at cards in my opponent's hand, do I choose which cards, does he show me two cards he's okay with showing me, or are they selected at random?
  A: Since the cards are facedown, you choose them, but without being able to look at them first. Jon Palmer, "Way of the Scorpion", 25 Jun 2014
• Q: Is the "Look at two cards..." effect on Way of the Scorpion dependent on targeting a personality with PH less than printed?
  Card Title: Way of the Scorpion Text:If you are a Scorpion Clan player, this Strategy has Discipline 2G. Open, 1G : Target a Personality whose Personal Honor is less than printed. His controller loses Honor equal to the difference. Look at two cards in his hand or Provinces.
  A: Yes, because you can't announce the action if you don't have a legal target for it. Jon Palmer, "Way of the Scorpion", 8 Jun 2014