Profitable Losses

Legend of the Five Rings card from Road to Ruin

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Discipline
Political Interrupt: Target your unbowed Courtier. Before the action destroys a Personality, if they are Expendable, you draw the card from that rulebook effect instead of their controller. After the action destroys them, gain 2 Honor.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Shattered Empire, War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Gotchu Another one that came up in our game:
  Destroyed: Give a player's target Personality Expendable. If it is the player's turn, he or she must declare an attack this turn. If the target is dishonorable, you, instead of the player, choose where he or she assigns the target to attack, after other assignments. If you are a Scorpion Clan player, you, instead of the player, draw a card from the Expendable effect.
  Profitable Losses: Political Response: After a Personality is destroyed, target your unbowed Courtier to gain 2 Honor. You, instead of the Personality's controller, draw a card from the Expendable effect.
  If I play Destroyed, win the ensuing battle and my opponent plays Profitable Losses - who would draw the Expendable card? We're confused because Destroyed specifies "you, instead of the player", while Profitable Losses says "you, instead of the controller".
  A: Well, first off, you seem to have the wrong text for Profitable Losses?
  It should say, "Political Interrupt: Target your unbowed Courtier. Before the action destroys a Personality, if they are Expendable, you draw the card from that rulebook effect instead of their controller. After the action destroys them, gain 2 Honor."
  Secondly, in the scenario you describe, you would draw the card. Assuming you've targeted another player's Personality with the first effect of "Destroyed", the final effect gives you, the Scorpion, all that player's draws from "Expendable" until the end of the turn. So, Profitable Losses cannot give them the Expendable draw "instead of their controller" because their controller isn't getting the draw in the first place; you are, because of Destroyed. So, PL won't give it "back" to them; the substitution effect just fails because there's nothing to substitute. If you follow? Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 9 Jun 2024