Secret Alliances

Legend of the Five Rings card from Thunderous Acclaim

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Invest : Before you draw cards at the end of the turn, put this card into your hand from the discard pile.
Political Open: Permanently give your target Courtier Expendable and the trait, "After another player's action targets this card, gain 1 Honor."

Focus Value

2

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

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: Bayushi Aggushi & Bayushi Janqu Keywords Courtier • Samurai This counts as two cards when destroyed during battle resolution. Tireless Open: If you have targeted Aggushi & Janqu with a Political action this turn, straighten them. Battle, w: Melee 3 Attack.
  And
  Secret Alliances Text Invest : Before you draw cards at the end of the turn, put this card into your hand from the discard pile. Political Open: Permanently give your target Courtier Expendable and the trait, "After another player's action targets this card, gain 1 Honor."
  If you target Bayushi Aggushi & Bayushi Janqu with Secret Alliances giving them expendable, Would you draw 1 card or 2 cards for them being destroyed at battle resolution? as the count as two cards when destroyed during resolution?
  Thanks
  A: Expendable is defined thus: After a card with the Expendable keyword is destroyed, the player who controlled it draws a card. “Expendable” status is checked just before being destroyed.
  When destroyed during battle resolution, Bayushi Aggushi & Bayushi Janqu counts as two cards. Since "both" cards have Expendable, two cards are drawn. Alex Jones, "Bayushi Aggushi & Bayushi Janqu - and expendable", 5 Aug 2015
• Q: What happens when I play Secret Alliances with the invest cost paid on my opponent's turn? Do I get it back at the end of their turn or at the end of my next turn?
  Relevant Text:
  A: The trigger for Secret Alliances returning to your hand is drawing cards at the end of the turn.
  This will happen on your turn, but will only happen on your opponent's turn if an effect allows you to draw (such as attaching Ashigaru Archers). Normally the Invest effect will not occur on your opponent's turn. Jon Palmer, "Investing Secret Alliances on your opponent's turn", 7 Jul 2015
• Q: Asking for clarification: When I pay the invest cost on Secret Alliances, it returns to my hand on my Fate draw, not on the next Fate draw, correct? Assuming as such since it's worded as "Before you draw cards" (bold added for emphasis)
  (and yes, I'm already aware that returning to my hand "resets" the memory on the card, meaning the permanent portion of the Invest cost increase is nullified)
  A: Right, just you. Additionally, it's just referring to your normal, end of the turn draw. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 6 Feb 2024