Defend Your Honor

Legend of the Five Rings card from Gold Edition, Shadowlands, Jade Edition, Pearl Edition, Promotional–Gold, Twenty Festivals, Promotional–Twenty Festivals

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Political Interrupt: Target your unbowed Samurai. Before the other player's action causes you an Honor loss, negate it, and your Samurai may then issue a challenge. The player may either target his unbowed Personality to accept the challenge or refuse. If the player refuses or loses the duel, he loses Honor equal to the amount you negated. Destroy the loser.

Focus Value

2

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Defend Your Honor 0G 2FV Political Reaction: Play this card when another player's action makes you lose honor. Negate the Honor loss. One of your unbowed Samurai Personalities may then "challenge the player's honor." The player may either target one of his or her unbowed Personalities to accept the challenge, or refuse the challenge. If the player refuses the challenge or his or her Personality loses the duel, the player loses an amount of Honor equal to the amount you negated." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 13
• If an opponent has no personalities in play, they cannot accept the challenge and must lose the honor you were about to lose. [FAQ] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 13
• Works only against Action cards played and actions taken, not against other things, such as Events. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/19/96] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 23
• Q: Can I play Defend Your Honor against the loss from a refused Iaijutsu Challenge? I say the loss is my opponent's fault since he played the card, but she says it's my fault since I chose to refuse. A: The loss from a refused Iaijutsu Challenge is a result of the challenging player's card and action and the challenged player's decision. What you need to do is read Defend Your Honor and see what, exactly, it's looking for as the loss's source. Checking the latest printing of Defend Your Honor, we see it says, "Play this card when another player's action makes you lose Honor." Since it cares whose action caused the loss, it can be played against Iaijutsu Challenge after refusing the challenge. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, May 21, 2003, p. 10
• Q: Speaking of Defend Your Honor, what if I play it and step forward a samurai when my opponent has no Personalities? Is he forced to refuse the challenge, since he has no one to accept it? A: Yup. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.6.2, May 1998, p. 11

Rules Q&A

• Q: And can he play Defend Your Honor or We Will Have Revenge on said honor loss?
  A: No, and no. It's his action. Source does not change with redirection. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 22 April 2003", 23 Apr 2003
• Q: Sorry again, just a clarification:
  Can you use We Will Have Revenge after refusing an Ia Challenge? Yes.
  Do I understand it right that the penalty for refusing the challenge (lose 7 honor and dishonor personality) is NOT a part of a duel but a consequence of the refusal, thus making it possible to play WWHR, because when you lose honor, the duel has ended (in fact, there has never been a duel) ?
  Whether the loss is caused by a challenge, duel, or refusal is irrelevant. It's caused by the Iaijutsu Challenge CARD, and We Will Have Revenge cares about only that. (Defend Your Honor works the same way, and has for a long time.)
  WWHR Card Text: ***************************************************** Reaction: Play after losing honor due to another player's action. Target one of your units and one of that player's units. Negate the honor loss. Your unit begins an attack against the other. No units can be assigned or move to the battle, and the battle cannot destroy a Province. The units cannot move to provinces from the battle. You cannot take this action during an attack or duel. *****************************************************
  A: Okay, I can see I was slightly inaccurate in what I said -- it's not the card that matters, but the action. That doesn't change the answer I gave, though, since they both belong to the same player in this case. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 February 2003", 6 Feb 2003
• Q: The ruling has not changed. Defend Your Honor still cares about whose action caused the loss, and the action causing the loss here is Iaijutsu Challenge, which your opponent played.
  In this case would this also cancel your personality from becoming dishonored?
  A: No. Defend Your Honor negates the Honor loss. That's it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 11-12 September 2002", 13 Sep 2002
• Q: My opponent has Doji Nagori and Suspicions in play. Can I play Defend Your Honor when Nagori bows and causes me an additional one-point Honor loss?
  A: Nagori does not cause you a loss himself. He increases the loss that Suspicions causes you. You cannot play Defend Your Honor against his action. (You can't play it against Suspicions either, since that's not an action.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 18 March 2002", 19 Mar 2002
• Q: defend hour honor
  This card is insane. I've won a strict gold tourney, refusing duels left and right, with Defend Your Honor and Hantei Naseru.
  Defend your honor does not stop honor loss from refusing duels. You are causing the honor loss by refusing, not your opponent. As such you can not use the Defend your honor as your opponent is not causing the honor loss.
  A: As has been pointed out by several posters by this point: yes it does; no you're not; and yes you can, as he is.
  Clear? Jeff Alexander, "post for 11-12 February 2002", 12 Feb 2002
• Q: Can you play [Defend Your Honor]in response to refusing an I Challenge?
  A: Yes. Where's the honor loss written? The other player's card. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 11 July 2001", 12 Jul 2001
• Q: 6. If you name Shinjo Shono exp as your Soul of Thunder, does your opponent have to discard 2 cards to challenge him? If you play Defend Your Honor or Test of the Emerald Champion and your opponent chooses Shono to accept your challenge, do you have to discard two cards? What if you don't have two cards to discard, can you just null the challenge?
  A: For the first question, yes. Soul of Thunder is a direct challenge to Shono, and you would have to discard two cards to challenge him.
  For the second question, no. Challenges that go to someone other than Shono specifically, but that could be accepted by Shono (e.g., challenges that can be accepted by any personality a player controls) do not trigger his trait, even if you do wind up dueling him. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for November 27th", 27 Nov 2000