Few Against Many

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Web of Lies

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Limited: Target your Personality and a Follower in your hand: Attach it to him, paying less Gold equal to the Personality's base Force.
Reaction: Before another player's card's effect destroys one of your Personalities, bow one of his Followers: Negate the Personality's destruction.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• If an effect destroys multiple cards (e.g., the unit), only the Personality is saved, because the negation only refers to the destruction / penalty mentioned in the cost. [Reversal, JA, email, 7 July 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 17
• Erratum: Reads, "Few Against Many 0G 2FV Limited: Attach a target Follower in your hand to one of your target Personalities, reducing its Gold Cost by the Personality’s base Force until it attaches. Reaction: Before another player’s card’s effect destroys one of your Personalities, bow one of his Followers: Negate the Personality’s destruction." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 135

Rules Q&A

• Q: 4F Scorpion Personality gets a Shosuro Infiltrator via Few Against Many. Recruiting Drive gets played. In battle I use Shosuro Infiltrator's battle action. Can I now really attach him again for zero gold and repeat this stuff like a trillion times?
  A: Yes. Make a trillion 3/1 Scorpion Clan Samurai Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 December 2004", 6 Dec 2004
• Q: I couldn't find the answer to this question using the search function.
  Assuming the event Glory of the Shogun has resolved. A player plays Few Against Many for its Limited ability to attach a follower to reduce its Gold Cost until it attaches. If the follower's initial Gold Cost was greater than 5, then reduced to below 5 by Few Against Many, will the aforementioned player be able to draw a card as per Glory of the Shogun? When does the Follower's Gold Cost "revert" in this case?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Rulings_G#Glory_of_the_Shogun: "Looks for printed Gold Cost stat rather then amount of gold generated."
  It doesn't matter how the cost was futzed with during attachment. Zen Faulkes, "Glory of the Shogun + Few Against Many", 15 Dec 2008
• Q: regarding this viewtopic.php?f=59&t=67288
  can't you not few against many your own duty since the personality is being destroyed by your own card effect (the duty) and not by your opponent's action?
  A: It is true that you couldn't play Few Against Many to prevent B's destruction, for two reasons:
  1. Duty isn't "another player's card". 2. The destruction is a cost, not an effect.
  However, even if you used an action that didn't care about these things (eg, Ikoma Yasuko's Reaction), you would then be failing to pay the cost of Duty, so personality A would be destroyed. Alex Jones, "Hired Killer vs. Duty/Few Against Many", 18 Apr 2008
• Q: If I play Hired Killer against personality A (who has no followers), can my opponent play Duty, to kill personality B instead (who does have followers) and then react with Few Against Many to stop the destruction? Does personality B need to die for Duty to work (his destruction comes before the colen)? Can player B Few Against Many in this situation? Is it Duty killing personality B (his own card effect, making Few Against Many unuseable) or is it the Hired Killer killing personality B (making it usable)? Thank you.
  Hired Killer: Limited: Pay Gold equal to the target’s unit’s Gold Cost plus 2: Lose 3 Honor. Destroy a target Personality.
  Duty: Bushido Virtue Reaction: Before another player’s card’s effect destroys one of your Personalities, destroy one of your honorable Samurai Personalities at the same location: Negate the first Personality’s destruction.
  Few Against Many: Reaction: Before another player’s card’s effect destroys one of your Personalities, bow one of his Followers: Negate the Personality’s destruction.
  A: If you Few Against Many your Duty, the Duty's effects are negated as you never paid the cost of Duty.
  Hired Killer in this situation is irrelevant as it doesn't matter how your personality died. Doruk Özaydın, "Hired Killer vs. Duty/Few Against Many", 18 Apr 2008
• Q: A unit is made up of a Personality and all his attached cards.
  Effects on a unit are applied to the Personality and all cards in the unit at the same time.
  Targeting a unit is the same as targeting its Personality.
  A: Citation
  So read "destroy target unit" as "destroy target personality and all his attached cards."
  "Before [Personality X] is destroyed," is a timing trigger that occurs before ANY of the cards in his unit are destroyed by Hired Killer or Ruthless Advance. You bow one of the (still not destroyed yet) Followers to Negate the "destroy target personality" effect, but the "and all his attached cards" destructions are still going to resolve just fine.
  Negating the destruction of an individual card in the unit does not save any of the other cards from being destroyed by an effect that says, "destroy the unit." Martin Lund, "Few Against Many", 4 Mar 2008
• Q: I have a personality with three followers attached. The personality was targeted by:
  A) Hired Killer B) Ruthless Advance
  If I bow my follower for Few Against Many, will I be able to save my whole unit or just the personality?
  A: "Negate the Personality’s destruction." (Card text, emphasis added.) Zen Faulkes, "Few Against Many", 22 Jan 2008
• Q: The search engine refuses to accept "few against many" as keywords, so my apologies if this is old news...
  If I cast The Fires That Cleanse against a unit with an unbowed follower, can my opponent react with Few Against Many, or would the follower be destroyed by the spell before the reaction takes place? The SE version of Fires specifies that it destroys the target unit, not just the personality.
  A: Since Few Against Many is played before the destruction effect, it can be used by a Follower in a unit that is about to be destroyed to save that unit's Personality. Martin Lund, "Few Against Many vs. The Fires That Cleanse", 9 Oct 2007
• Q: This destruction from zero Chi is continuously applied. If a one-time triggered effect negates the personality's destruction from zero Chi, he is destroyed again immediately after the negation happens. Only a continuous negation effect (for example, "This Personality cannot be destroyed") can overcome the Personality's destruction.
  A: You can Negate destruction due to 0 Chi, but it won't remove the penalty and the victim will get whacked again, over and over, until he or she is dead. Martin Lund, "Few Against Many vs Death by Chi reduction", 11 Sep 2007
• Q: My aplogies if this has been asked recently; I could find no mention of it using the search function.
  Can the current version of Few Against Many prevent a personality's destruction when they lose a duel?
  FAM states it prevents destruction from an opponent's card effect, but dying from losing a duel is now the default result, and is a rulebook effect, isn't it?
  A: There are no longer default duel results, due to confusion of this type during previous arcs.
  Samurai Edition legal duels that destroys the loser will have that result as part of the card text so that it is clear that the destruction is the result of a card effect. Chris Fuchs, "Few Against Many vs. Duels", 29 Aug 2007
• Q: I have a random personality with 3 random followers, all cards are unbowed. The opponent plays Hired Killer (or any other PK that destroys units such as 7th tower's action or ruthless advance) on the unit, I respond with Few Against Many and bow a follower. The personality is saved but the followers are all destroyed right?
  A: Bad example. Hired Killer card text: "Destroy a target Personality." Not unit.
  Few Against Many: "Negate the Personality’s destruction" (card text). Nothing else. Zen Faulkes, "Few Against Many and unit destruction", 23 Aug 2007
• Q: If a unit is being destroyed, are all cards destroyed simultaneously? If so, how are reactions to the unit's destruction determined?
  For example, if an attacking player used Ruthless Advance to destroy an opposing Personality with Follower attached, would the defending player have the opportunity to play Few Against Many, or would the active player determine that the follower was destroyed first, followed by the personality?
  A: As simultaneous as possible. In the case of Few Against Many, it triggers before destruction, so will always be able to be played in response to a unit destruction. Chris Fuchs, "Unit Destruction and Reactions", 21 Aug 2007
• Q: If the reaction on Few Against Many is used during a battle, can Merciless Death be used?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Merciless Death vs. Few Against Many", 28 Jun 2007
• Q: Zee with one single ratling pack token follower attacks Crane province. Defenders assigns Hayaku. Plays To Do What We Must on rats unit.
  A: This one, because Hayaku's Ranged Attack is before his destruction: Zen Faulkes, "Doji Hayaku / To Do What We Must / Few Against Many", 25 Mar 2005
• Q: Does Kaiu Kazu's ability to lower the next Follower's cost similar to Few Against Many in that the cost reduction lasts until the end of turn?
  A: Diamond rules, pg. 70: yes. Zen Faulkes, "Kaiu Kazu and cost reduction", 23 Mar 2005
• Q: May i use FAM to negate the destruction of a Steel on Steel or any other duel that implicity destroy the target? Because the destruction is an effect of the card or a rulebook effect?
  A: See Archive, General, Death & Destruction. Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Few Against Many", 9 Mar 2005
• Q: SE (samurai):
  [Determination] doesn't stop "reducing range attacks"? Does that count as "negating the original range attack effect" ||(RA3 IS RA3 DAMMIT!)|| or "reduce /=/ negate"?
  (I.e.= [Outer walls] can still be played; [few against many] CANNOT be played, for example)
  A: Reducing strength is not negation. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 26 May 2026