Finding the Harmony

Legend of the Five Rings card from Gold Edition, Ambition's Debt

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Kiho

Card Text

Kiho Limited: Bow your target performing Monk or Shugenja and put a target Ring you control into your hand to put a different Ring into play from your hand, which will not trigger any effects triggered by a Ring entering play. While it remains in play, it does not count towards an Enlightenment Victory.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Finding the Harmony 0G 4FV Kiho Limited: Bow one of your Monks or Shugenja to permanently switch an Elemental Ring in your hand with one you have in play. This is not considered playing a Ring. The new Ring does not count toward an Enlightenment Victory." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 56
• "The new Ring does not count toward an Enlightenment Victory" is a permanent effect. The same physical copy of the Ring will not count for an Enlightenment victory if it is taken out of play and re-played. [ZF, 14 July 2001; JA, 18 July 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 56
• Rings put into play via this kiho count towards an Enlightenment Victory. [FAQ 3.10] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 26
• Focus on... the Elemental Rings: You must have all five Rings in play together to achieve an Elemental Victory. Merely playing all five at some time during the game is insufficient. (The rulebook presents several slightly conflicting accounts of this rule.) How a Ring got into play is immaterial. Effects which put a Ring into play without technically "playing" it, such as the Finding the Harmony kiho and House of Tao stronghold, are perfectly valid. The Rings are no longer Action Cards, as per p. 11 of the Ambition's Debt rulebook. They are their own card type. Furthermore, as official Errata, playing and using them are also no longer Reactions (although they are no different timing-wise). The Imperial Herald, Issue 13, p. 35

Rules Q&A

• Q: - if you put RoA (or any ring actually) in play with Sezaru (the Wind), then swap it with Finding the Harmony, which ring gets shuffled on your next turn?
  A: [MARTY] The one you played with Voice of the Emperor. Finding the Harmony says nothing about changing which ring pre-existing plays refer to.
  - Marty Lund Deputy Rules Monkey Martin Lund, "Rules for 12 January 2004", 14 Jan 2005
• Q: if i use Finding the Harmony on a ring if have in play because of the Voice, it will stay in play ad infinitum, and the ring that subsequently went back into my hand gets reshuffled, correct?
  A: Finding the Harmony puts the Ring into play until something else removes it from play - ad infinitum if nothing else happens - sure.
  Why would you reshuffle the returned Ring, though? Unless I'm misreading something, the Voice of the Emperor's action only makes you do the "discard or reshuffle" effect while the Ring is in play. Once the Ring leaves play (via Finding the Harmony in this case), the effect's duration has expired. Martin Lund, "Rules for 4 November 2004", 8 Nov 2004
• Q: If I have all 5 rings in play (some of them out due to FtH) does the resolution of Solar Eclipse trigger an Enlightenment victory ?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 20 May 2003", 21 May 2003
• Q: Say I wanted to get all ten Rings in play. I bring out one of the dark rings. Then I use finding the harmony to bring out the corresponding regular ring. Does the dark ring go away?
  A: No, due to the special wording of Finding the Harmony ("This is not considered playing a Ring.") Jeff Alexander, "post for 20 November 2002", 21 Nov 2002
• Q: What about Finding the Harmony?
  A: Yes. Kihos produce Spell effects. [GE p. 30] I'm not going to split hairs between "Spell effects" and "effects of Spells". Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 Oct 2002", 9 Oct 2002
• Q: I like consistency. I'd like to see this phrase "This Ring does not count for an Enlightenment Victory" have one meaning regardless of what current or future card it appears on.
  A: What you are more likely to see is the exact duration spelled out on the card. Jeff Alexander, "post for 12 June 2002", 13 Jun 2002
• Q: I understand fixing abusive and environment altering abilities, but I have yet to see the fire token combo get out of hand and warrant an MRP. The Under-Hand, yes, that needed fixing. Finding the Harmony, yep, that too. Dragon Tattoo, .... Why?
  A: Because it was functioning extremely counter to how it was originally intended. Dragon Tattoo, the various Experience levels of Togashi Mitsu... since the beginning of time they've never worked quite right when things got even the slightest bit tricky, and Gaijutsu no Shiryo was only magnifying the problem. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 March 2002", 30 Mar 2002
• Q: Does puttiong a ring into play with Finding the Harmony count as a valid action for master of five?. For example, switching the ring of air for a ring of earth with finding the Harmony counts as an earth action?
  A: No, for two reasons:
  1) Actions acquire only the traits of the one card, if any, they're written on. Casting Finding the Harmony only uses the traits of Finding the Harmony.
  2) Master of Five, by ruling, requires an earth, air, fire, water, and void action, and Rings are not actions. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 October 2001", 6 Oct 2001
• Q: If you have never reprinted Taeruko and Finding the Harmony, would they have been banned, because they were not reprinted in gold?
  A: They would not have been banned in the sense of removing them from the environment after allowing them in for a short time. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 15-16 September 2001", 17 Sep 2001
• Q: question with Finding the Harmony under jade-extended rules. When it says it does not count as playing the ring, I guess it means it does not counts for enlightenment right?
  A: Oh, no; Finding the Harmony was indeed a way to "cheese" Enlightenment and "FETA" cheese decks (Finding Enlightenment Through playing Air 4 times and 1 other) was popular. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 11 Mar 2025
• Q: hey, I have a question. This has probably been answered a thousand times... but I figure I should verify how this interaction works. I'm doing this for my JadeEx box I'm running for KublaCon, and feel like I should know pretty well how it interacts.
  So, if I have the ring of air in play, and I play two actions on kihos, shugenjas, or spells, and Then play Finding the Harmony to swap the Ring of Air for a different Ring, can I then immediately play the Ring of Air as I have now satisfied the conditions for playing it? furthermore, if I do this a second time, are the conditions still met? If I miss the trigger to play it after a kiho, can I play it later in the same turn?
  A: Yes, FETA was a "cheese" deck in Jade (pun intended) which stood for "Finding Enlightenment Through Air". You could do all of that except the last thing. You have to React with Air right after taking the 3rd (or later) Spell/Kiho action; you can't wait and do it anytime later in the turn. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 4 May 2024