Effortless Counterattack

Legend of the Five Rings card from Second City

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Reaction: Before the resolution of a Battle action that was taken as an additional action, negate its effects.
Battle: Target your performing unbowed Personality to move home a target Personality without attachments.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Skipping the Puddle: Water Battle: If any enemy units are at the current battlefield, choose your performing Water Shugenja: Move him there. You may take an additional Battle action which he must perform.
  Player Abilities: (Equip) Battle: Any number of times per turn, choose your performing unbowed opposed Shugenja and target a Spell in your hand: Attach it to him, paying all costs. You may take an additional action to use a Battle ability on that Spell.
  Effortless Counterattack: Reaction: Before the resolution of a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Negate its effects.
  Player A uses Skipping the Puddle to draw a Shug into battle, equips a spell as additional action. Player B reacts with Effortless CA.
  Plainly, the Spell does not get attached, of course, but:
  - does the Spell remain in Player A's hand? I am pretty sure it does... more tricky part, does Player B get to *see* the spell?
  - what happens wrt costs? As I read things, if the spell's cost is considered part of the Battle equip ability, it still needs to get paid, as the effects negation does not interfere with it? however, if it's paid as an effect of the Battle equip (or something along those lines), the effects negation would also prevent the spell's cost payment, and Player A could reasonably attach it in a subsequent Battle action.
  EDIT -> for clarity: Player B reacts to the *Battle equip*, NOT to the other additional action granted by it that would allow player A to use an ability on the spell.
  A: Asked previously (by my pre-Rules Team self, no less!) here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=95856&hilit=effortless+counterattack
  To answer your specific questions regarding costs:
  A) Since the Battle Equip player ability's only costs are targeting a Spell card in hand and choosing your performing unbowed opposed Shugenja, those are the only costs that would be required to be paid before Effortless Counterattack negates the Attaching effects, where you would then have to pay any gold cost associated with the Spell you targeted, if the Attaching effects hadn't have been negated.
  B) Yes, since the Spell card in hand is still in your hand, you may attempt to attach it again, as another use of the Battle Equip player ability later on in the battle. Ben Higgins, "Equip battle action's effects negated by Effortless CA", 27 Apr 2012
• Q: I feel like this answer, particularly the "Neither Shadow's Lair nor Unnatural Flood will be negated in this manner" part, is confusing.
  viewtopic.php?f=59&t=97552
  It was my understanding that playing Effortless Counterattack on Unnatural Flood (as performed by a water shugenja) would NOT negate the movement, but it WOULD negate the clause that negates further movement this turn (thus giving you a reason to play EC against UF, so that your guy can move back/elsewhere).
  Is that correct, or am I off?
  (edited to include link to original)
  A: Fair enough. I updated the other response; you were interpreting the situation correctly. Jon Palmer, "Negation", 23 Apr 2012
• Q: This is a follow up to Strategy Cards vs. Non-Strategy Cards and Negating
  Effortless Counterattack vs. A Brave New World If A Brave New World was used as an extra action which is canceled by Effortless Counterattack, Brave New World is discarded but the cost of Brave New World (discarding a card) still happens? I.e. I target a Paragon with an action, Iron Will is used to cancel the action. Then I take an additional action (from Iron Will) to play A Brave New World and I discard a card to pay for A Brave New World, which my opponent used Effortless Counterattack to cancel the additional action. Brave New World and the discarded card go to my Fate Discard pile (and I cry some. Crying is optional).
  A: Effortless Counterattack negates effects but, unlike Iron Will, does not ignore costs, so the discard required by Brave New World still happens. Alex Jones, "Strategy Cards vs. Non-Strategy Cards and Negating", 26 Jan 2012
• Q: I had a question regarding the targeting on the Battle action of Effortless Counterattack.
  Effortless Counterattack Reaction: Before the resolution of a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Negate its effects. Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Personality and target a Personality without attachments: Move him home.
  Is there a targeting constraint or rule that would prevent me from choosing my unbowed personality AND also have him be the target personality without attachments to send him home? Basically, if I have a lone unbowed personality at a province, can I use EC to send my own unit home?
  A: You may use Effortless Counterattack (or Shamate Keep) to send your lone unbowed Personality home.
  Choosing a performer is not targeting a card, so the Targeting rule, "When multiple targets are chosen simultaneously, the same target cannot be chosen twice," does not apply. Alex Jones, "Effortless Counterattack targetting", 21 Jan 2012
• Q: Concerning ruling: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=94665
  Effortless Counterattack counters the effect of the Battle action and not the action itself. Does than not mean that that the Duel is gonna take place and both players get the chance to focus or strike?
  If that the case then the question is valid: will Focus effects take effect when the duel is resolved and before the effect of the duel is negated?
  Or is the Duel an effect of the action and not the action itself?
  A: The creation and process of a duel is an effect of the action that creates the challenge or duel.
  Therefore, if the action's effects are negated or do not happen, the entire duel never happens. Brook Cunningham, "Effortless Counterattack and Focus Effects", 7 Nov 2011
• Q: If I play a duel as an additional action, and my opponent plays Effortless Counterattack as the action resolves, do the focus effects still resolve?
  A: I think action resolution may be getting confused with duel resolution. The two are not the same thing.
  Effortless Counterattack is not played "as" the action resolves - it's played before the action resolves. That is, after targets are picked and costs are paid, but before effects happen. There's not going to be an opportunity to play focus effects. Zen Faulkes, "Effortless Counterattack and Focus Effects", 31 Oct 2011