Contested Holding

Legend of the Five Rings card from Lotus Edition, The Dark Journey Home, Diamond Edition

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

5

Card Text

Limited, : Bow your target performing Personality to target a Holding controlled by another player who controls a Personality. Your Personality issues a challenge that may be accepted by any Personality that player controls. If the challenge is not accepted, or if the other player's Personality loses, bow the Holding and take control of it. If your Personality loses the duel, destroy him.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Contested Holding 5G 2FV Limited: Target and bow a Personality you control: Target a Holding controlled by another player who controls a Personality. Your Personality issues a challenge that may be accepted by any Personality that player controls. If the player does not accept, or if he accepts and loses, bow the Holding and gain control of it. Do not destroy the other player’s Personality if he loses." [MRP, Lotus Edition, 31 October 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 10
• If the duel is tied, the challenger is still the only Personality who dies. [Card text; DW, email, 5/4/99] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 10
• If played for a fortification, it remains attached to its province, but you now control any abilities it may have. [Extension from Blackmail.] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 10

Rules Q&A

• Q: Just to confirm, if I play Contested Holding and take control of a Daigotsu Dojo while playing House of Tao, does this count as "bringing a Shadowlands card into play"? My guess: NO, the Daigotsu Dojo is already in play.
  A: Good guess. It is already in play, so they didn't bring it into play. Martin Lund, "Rules for 24 and 25 October 2004", 27 Oct 2004
• Q: A player has the four "Walls of Otosan Uchi" attached to a province; his opponent uses Contested Holding to gain control of one of the four "Walls"; Will the player be able to win when The 38th Hantei Falls resolves?
  A: If you don't control the card, you typically don't "have it in play," even if it is attached to your province. Contested holding removes the card from your control, so you won't be able to make the 4-Walls victory. Martin Lund, "Rules for 10 July 2004", 11 Jul 2004
• Q: - If I play a Constested with a personality with kenshizen attached, must the opposing player accept the duel with some guy or not?
  A: Contested Holding says that your Personality issues a challenge to a player, and then outlines what that player may do to accept. Kenshinzen says that challenges from your Personality can not be refused.
  If the controller of the targeted holding has any eligible Personalities, he must choose one to accept. Martin Lund, "Rules for 13 April 2004", 14 Apr 2004
• Q: if the effects listed on the action ARE the results of the duel, would the effect, "...but the opposing Personality does not die," be negated [by Concede Defeat] and the Personality dies?
  A: No. If you negate "do not destroy the opposing Personality", then you're back to death being an effect of losing -- which Concede Defeat negates. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 11 December 2003, Part 3", 12 Dec 2003
• Q: I play Contested Holding. My opponent accepts, strikes, and plays Concede Defeat. I don't Die (I won the duel), but do I get the holding?
  A: No (card text).
  Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar * Unaligned Deputy Rules Guy Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 11 December 2003", 11 Dec 2003
• Q: Is Contested Holding considered a Holding for cards like Trading Grounds and Kakita Hirotada?
  A: No. Card types are reserved game terms. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 10 November 2003, Part 2", 11 Nov 2003
• Q: If I play Contested Holding and it ends in a tie, do I still get the holding?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 5 November 2003, Part 2", 6 Nov 2003
• Q: Concerning my question here.
  Why was it not answered?
  Contested Holding is not a new card.
  It's really a grammatical question and should be "answerable" without regards to EoME.
  A: You referred to something in Enemy of My Enemy - "Contests."
  The only things that refer to "contests" are in Enemy of My Enemy.
  If Enemy of My Enemy has any special rules relating to Contests (makes them a specially reserved term, or whatnot) then an answer we give on the matter might be misleading.
  Ergo, Zen's not answering the question.
  That said, look at the first two rulings under "traits" in the Accumulated Rulings for similar examples under the current rules - "Corrupt" vs. "Corrupted" and "Tattoo" vs. "Tattooed" aren't equivalent (they aren't singular, plural, or posessive forms, per the Keyword Rule.) Martin Lund, "Contested Holding again", 14 Mar 2005
• Q: Since "contested" is a form of "contest", would Contested Holding qualify as a "contest card" according to the keyword rule?
  A: Here. Zen Faulkes, "Contested Holding", 10 Mar 2005
• Q: So, by card text, shrine of compassion doesn't do a thing against Iaijustu Challenge, Tamura's challenge, Saori's challenge... (but do force the player to bow his stronghold when issuing a challenge such as Contested Holding)
  A: I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. I suspect this is a slight miswording of Shrine of Compassion, with the idea being to make it very broadly applicable. I'm going to tentatively say that Shrine of Compassion applies to challenges performed by Personalities, in fact. Zen Faulkes, "Shrine of Compassion / Gozoku Pawn", 5 Feb 2005