Distractions in Court

Legend of the Five Rings card from Empire at War, Three Dynasties

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Favor, Political

Card Text

Political Reaction: After another player's action is announced, bow your performing Courtier or Magistrate to reduce all Honor losses by 5 until the action ends.
Favor Political Open: Discard the Imperial Favor to bow a target Personality.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial), Three Dynasties

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: My opponent plays Shameful and Cowardly, and I assess that he is probably going to follow this up with Wind Never Stops twice to perform 2 ranged attacks against the now dishonored targets. Does playing Distractions in Court when S&C is announced stop 5 total honor loss, or do I have to react to WNS to prevent just one honor loss?
  For reference:
  E. Action ends An action ends at the last of these points in time: after its last effect is applied, if that effect is not a delayed effect; after any Reactions to that last effect have themselves ended; after any non-delayed effects triggered by that last effect have been applied.
  The trigger “after action resolution” is the same point in time as “after the action ends.”
  The Wind Never Stops Reaction: After the resolution of a Battle action you took that gave a Force penalty to an enemy Follower or Personality without Followers, choose your performing Battle Maiden at the current battlefield: Ranged Attack with strength equal to her Personal Honor which must target the enemy card.
  Shameful and Cowardly Battle: Dishonor one or two target enemy Personalities. Give each target -3F.
  Distractions in Court Reaction: After another player’s action is announced, bow your performing Courtier or Magistrate: Reduce all Honor losses by 5 until the action ends.
  Edit: Forgot Distractions in Court
  A: Reacting to Shameful and Cowardly's announcement with Distractions in Court will negate nothing.
  The Wind Never Stops reacts to "After the resolution" which, as your quoted text notes, is synonymous with "after the action ends".
  You must react to TWNS's announcement with DiC in order to negate the Honor loss from it destroying a dishonorable Personality. If you anticipate two, you must react with a separate DiC to each TWNS announcement. Brook Cunningham, "Shameful and Cowardly/Distractions in Court", 8 Aug 2011
• Q: If I use Distractions in Court to bow my only personality, I shouldn't be able to pay the cost for My Father's Shrine (bow a personality), correct? Thus Only Actions Speak does not stop honor gains, so I can continue to gain honor on my action phase.
  A: Ah, I see. Correct. Zen Faulkes, "Only actions speak Vs hamstrung overpay", 18 Feb 2011
• Q: If I use Distractions in Court to bow my personality, but I have another unbowed personality, will My Father's Shrine require that I bow this other unbowed Personality? Or since my originally intended personality is now bowed, does My Father's Shrine fail to gain me honor?
  A: Since this was triggered at the announcement phase, there's no way to know what was "intended." Since cost payment was not negated, delayed, or made impossible (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Costs_and_restr ... d_payments), you can and must pay. Zen Faulkes, "Only actions speak Vs hamstrung overpay", 18 Feb 2011
• Q: Scenario 1: I have one courtier personality in play, unbowed. Scenario 2: I have two courtiers in play. Both unbowed.
  If I announce I'm using My Father's Shrine to gain one honor, my opponent reacts with Only Actions Speak, I then react with Distractions in Court to their Only Actions Speak. I bow a courtier for the cost of Distractions in Court.
  I'm assuming that for me to pay the cost of My Father's Shrine, I have to bow a personality, and if I have no personalities unbowed, I can't pay the cost. As long as I have one personality unbowed, I could still pay the cost since the targetting hasn't happened yet from My Father's Shrine (since Only Action's Speak and Distractions in Court occurred during announcement).
  Can I still gain honor during my action phase? In scenario 1? In scenario 2?
  A: While legal, reacting with Distractions in Court (reduced Honor losses) does nothing to Only Actions Speak (negates Honor gains, not create losses). So you won't be gaining honor in either case.
  The rest of the reasoning with the cost payments all seems right, though. Zen Faulkes, "Only actions speak Vs hamstrung overpay", 17 Feb 2011
• Q: (I)f I play Restoring Order against a dishonored personality, and if he dies, (would) playing shame never dies would have its honor loss lowered (by Distractions in Court) as well(?)
  A: Yes. Shame Never Dies is played after action resolution, which is still before the action ending. Zen Faulkes, "Distractions in Court vs. Rulebook Effect", 12 Feb 2011
• Q: If I play a honor loss action that targets a personality and Distractions in Court is played in response, can that personality commit seppukku?
  A: Using the player ability? No, if no honor was lost because it was reduced (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Glossary_R#Reduce.2Fincrease). "Reduction" does not mean "you take the honor loss, then get an honor gain to arrive at the final tally". Reduction changes the amount of the loss. Zen Faulkes, "Distractions in Court vs. Rulebook Effect", 12 Feb 2011
• Q: Hi there,
  As a follow up from my question here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=87080
  I understand if multiple Jutsushis target you before an Ambush, and you seppukku one, then the rest of the honour losses from other Jutsushis still apply.
  If I Distractions in Court in reaction to the Ambush, even though all my Jutsushi losses are reduced to zero, am I able to seppukku off of any of them?
  I'd personally have said "no", because there's not an honour loss to react to, but I wanted to get an official ruling on this
  Thanks
  A: See Timing Sequence.
  Distractions in Court creates an ongoing effect which will negate any honour loss of 5 or less at step A. The Seppuku player ability Reaction would go at step C, but cannot be used because the honour loss doesn't exist after step A. Alex Jones, "Distractions in Court (again)", 1 Nov 2010
• Q: Rough sequence of events:
  Opponent targets my personality with Bayushi Jutsushi.
  Opponent plays Ambush, targetting my Jutsushi'd guy.
  It forces me to assign, dishonour, and lose 2 honour.
  During the battle, my opponent destroys my dishonourable personality, causing me to lose honour equal to his personal honour.
  Opponent goes home bowed, and loses 5 honour.
  If I play Distractions in Court in Reaction to the Ambush being announced, how many of these honour losses are reduced by 5?
  A: Only the loss from Jutsushi would be reduced. It triggers from assigning, and the assigning happens during the action's resolution, but the battle itself happens after the resolution (card text). The action ends when its resolution ends; those timing points are synonymous. Brook Cunningham, "Distractions in Court + Ambush", 26 Oct 2010
• Q: Can "Distractions in Court" apply to the rulebook effect of losing Honor from a dishonored Personality being destroyed, or is the destruction of a dishonored Personality the effect of the action and the Honor loss applied AFTER the action ends?
  A: In the case of Restoring Order, honor loss occurs after the action ends. Other cards, however, will be different - it depends on where in the action a Personality is destroyed, because an action end after the last effect is applied (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Abilities_and_a ... ction_ends). For Restoring Order, it's over when that Personality is destroyed, and honor loss is after that (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Physically_mark ... shonorable). Zen Faulkes, "Distractions in Court vs. Rulebook Effect", 13 Oct 2010
• Q: if my opponent is running Isawa Fosuta and uses his action and i react with Distractions in court, does this reduce all honour losses by 5 until Fosuta straghtens?
  A: No.
  http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Abilities_and_a ... ction_ends: "An action ends after its last effect is applied, if that effect is not a delayed effect. If an action's last effect is delayed, then the action ends instead after that effect is activated."
  I suppose the first part could be clarified to say, "...after its last effect is first applied." The key point is that actions don't end when the very last effect they generate is over; they end before that. Zen Faulkes, "Distractions in Court and Isawa Fosuta", 5 Oct 2010