Embassy of the Crane

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Dead of Winter

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

6

Gold Production

4

Starting Family Honor

8

Clan

Crane

Keywords

Imperial, Market

Card Text

Your Fate cards in and out of play have +1 Focus Value during the Action Phase.
Your Provinces have +1 strength while you control the Imperial Favor.

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I've heard sides saying each way and don't know which is correct and since GenCon is this week, wanted to clarify. (Note: I did do a search beforehand to check if this was already asked and couldn't find anything so if there was something, I apologize.)
  So, If I am running Embassy of the Crane and in battle control the favor and my opponent plays Determined Force... What happens?
  My thoughts are that the provience strength would go down to 6 and then "immediately" re-assert itself to 7 due to the Stronghold's trait always checking for the favor.
  Am I correct on this or would the Provience strength be set to 6 and stay that way?
  Thanks for your time!
  A: Like any stat, in order to set the province strength to a value, you apply an appropriate bonus or penalty.
  In your situation above, you would retain the Stronghold bonus, but Determined Force would give the province's strength a -1 penalty to bring it to its base strength of 6 total. "Reasserting" the bonus would not occur; that would, in effect, be applying it twice.
  And further, if you discard the Favor sometime during the battle, you would then ose the bonus from the Stronghold and your Province strength would be 5 due to the continuing penalty from Determined Force. Brook Cunningham, "Embassy of the Crane Vs Determined Force", 1 Aug 2011
• Q: I'm running out of Embassy of the Crane.
  My opponent uses Ambush to attack one of my Personalities.
  I declare Steel On Steel in the ensuing battle to duel the ambusher with my ambushed Personality.
  Do I gain the Focus Value bonus from Embassy of the Crane, as the Battle phase created by Ambush is technically within the Actions phase, or does the Battle created stop it being the Actions phase for the purposes of the bonus?
  Embassy of the Crane Your Fate cards in and out of play have +1 Focus Value during the Action Phase
  Ambush Limited: Target your unbowed Personality: Create a battlefield (not at any province). Assign your Personality's unit to attack there. Assign another player’s target unit to defend there, even if its Personality is bowed. Other units will not move there. Fight a battle there (after this action's resolution). After the battle ends, lose 5 Honor.
  A: Before anyone asks, no, this does not mean you can play Limited or Open actions during an Ambush.
  http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Battles#Battles: "When a battle is created in a phase other than the Attack Phase, rules for taking actions during Combat Segments override rules for taking actions in that phase, but it is still that phase (see Additional phase or segment).
  "Example: During a battle created by a card effect during the Action Phase, you may not take Limited actions, because they may not be played during the Combat Segment. You may, however, take Reactions during this battle that look for triggers 'during the Action Phase.'" Zen Faulkes, "Is the Ambush battle still in the Actions phase?", 5 Apr 2011
• Q: does Hakuseki Sensei remove the traits on Embassy of the Crane?
  A: Abilities =/= traits. Abilities are only things that start with a boldface action designator, such as Open, Battle, Response, etc. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 6 Nov 2023