Flawless Assassin

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Harbinger

Card Type

Follower

Force

2

Chi

0

Honor Requirement

0

Gold Cost

4

Personal Honor

-

Keywords

Ninja

Card Text

Ninja Limited: Give a target Personality without a Poison token a -1F Poison token.
Ninja Reaction: After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location, if this is a Ninja unit, move this unit to any location.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: If Yurishi has a Flawless Assassin attached, and my opponent targets him with a battle action, I can move him home. THEN, if I chose to use the Flawless reaction to return him back to the battleground he came from, would he still be a target for the action when he comes back? The second half of Yurishi's reaction state that the effects get negated, so if that happens before I move him back then he can return safely.
  A: Yes, he would still be the target after moving back, and no, the effects upon him would not be negated.
  Flawless Assassin reacts immediately after the movement, which occurs before the effect that checks if Yurishi is a legal target. So the Follower moves him back, and he's therefore a legal target when the check occurs, so the effects are not negated. Brook Cunningham, "Timing of Goju Yurishi(SC) vs Flawless Assassin", 14 Sep 2011
• Q: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=91233 Is this an official reversal of viewtopic.php?f=59&t=81401&p=1064876&hilit=flawless+assassin#p1064876 ? Alex appears to now be saying that Flawless Assassin can't react to its own unit's movement. Or am I just misreading his answer?
  A: Ah, good point. I was considering only reacting to the movement of Ninja Bob, which Flawless Assassin can't, rather than reacting to the movement of Ninja Charlie's unit, which it can. Alex Jones, "Spirit of Shadows + Flawless Assassin", 3 Jun 2011
• Q: Hi,
  My Ninja Bob has Spirit of the Shadows ability and stays home My Ninja Charlie has a Flawless Assassin attached and goes into battle
  If I use Spirit of Shadow ability to switch Bob and Charlie position, can I then use Flawless Assassin reaction to send Bob back in battle ?
  Since the movements are simultaneous, I'm not sure we meet the "After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location" requirement from the follower ?
  Thanks !
  EDIT Corrected question, and then the answer is obvious indeed. Thanks for the answers !
  A: No. CORRECTION: Yes - see below.
  Firstly, I think you want to assign the other way round, to move Charlie with the Flawless Assassin back to the battlefield. Flawless Assassin can only move the unit it is in.
  However, that doesn't work either, due to the rules for References: References involving a game state in the context of a past occurrence check the game state only at the time of the occurrence.
  Flawless Assassin's ability can trigger if a unit moved to its unit's location or from there. However, the location considered is different for each. When you check where the unit moved from, you check Flawless Assassin's unit's location before the movement; when you check where the unit moved to, you check Flawless Assassin's unit's location after the movement. At both times, the two units are in different locations. Alex Jones, "Spirit of Shadows + Flawless Assassin", 3 Jun 2011
• Q: concerning this:http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=87621
  after the ninja personality w/ flawless assassin moves, would rout still destroy the attachment (ie flawless assassin)?
  thanks
  A: Yes.
  Rout's second effect isn't conditional upon anything. Nothing in the scenario described would stop it from happening. Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin and Rout", 3 Dec 2010
• Q: Hi,
  In one game, I have a Ninja personality with a Flawless Assassin. The enemy leader plays "Rout" and chooses to destroy the flawless. The question is: can I react with the follower in order to move my personality to the battlefield again, before the follower´s destruction? I think that I can, but my opponent isn´t sure about it.
  Flawless Reaction: Reaction: After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location, if this unit has no non-Ninja Personalities or Followers: Move this unit to any location.
  Rout Battle: Battle: Move a target unit home. Destroy one of its attachments (if any).
  best regards :)
  A: Yes, you can.
  The point at which Flawless Assassin's Reaction is triggered is directly after Rout's movement effect, which would be before its destruction effect. Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin and Rout", 3 Dec 2010
• Q: I'm unclear about the reaction timing in the following situation. Could you please explain what happens and why?
  At a battlefield I have two ninjas, one of whom has an attached flawless assassin. The flawless assassin is bowed. I use Fall Back! to move the ninja without the flawless home, and straighten the unit remaining at the battlefield with the flawless. Can the flawless now react to the movement or is too late?
  Flawless Assassin: Ninja Limited: Give a target Personality without a Poison token a -1F Poison token. Reaction: After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location, if this unit has no non-Ninja Personalities or Followers: Move this unit to any location.
  Fall Back! Text Battle: Move your target Personality home. If he moved, straighten his unit, and you may straighten one of your other units.
  Thank you!
  A: After Fall Back straightens Flawless, it is too late to take its reaction to Fall Back's previous moving effect. Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin + Fall Back!", 18 Sep 2010
• Q: When you say Flawless Assassin moves to any other location does that mean I can: Have (say) Nitsu and Takuma both with FA attached. Nitsu attacks at province 1 alone, Takuma stays home. Strike from the shadows, to have Nitsu give out poison tokens and run home. Then have both FA (Takuma's and Nitsu's) react to the movement and move them both to province 3? Where nobody is defending or attacking and isn't the current battlefield?
  A: Yes, that sequence is correct.
  (Assuming you mean Shosuro Takuma; we prefer you use complete card titles at least somewhere in your post before reverting to abbreviations, and you were very good about it except in that one case.) Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin moves where", 16 Mar 2010
• Q: If so: unmitigated glee
  A: Enjoy! Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin moves where", 16 Mar 2010
• Q: When I attack with Bayushi Miyoto and in my home Takuma->with attached flawless assasin and Suboru ; can i move before this battle resulation takuma and suboru to current battlefield or suboru current battlefield and takuma another battlefield ? (miyoto is bowed but in current battlefield).
  and another question is attacked with nitsu. can i change location with takuma->with flawless assasin (takuma on my home)
  used nitsu action ? or sogetsu .etc
  reaction time is important for this ? active player or not. maybe ?
  -------------------------------------------------------------
  Flawless Assassin:
  Limited: Give a target Personality without a Poison token a -1F Poison token. Reaction: After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location, if this unit has no non-Ninja Personalities or Followers: Move this unit to any location
  Deployed Reinforcements:
  Terrain
  Battle: Before this battle's resolution, if you control any units at the current battlefield, you may target a unit in your home and move it to the current battlefield. Straighten it if it moved.
  A: Yes, Flawless Assassin works as you described. After any of the movements in your examples, Flawless Assassin's Reaction is triggered and may be used to move its unit to any location.
  Active player doesn't matter. Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assassin, Nitsu and Deployed Reinforcements ?", 5 Mar 2010
• Q: Key Text: Reaction: After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location, if this unit has no non-Ninja Personalities or Followers: Move this unit to any location.
  If a personality with Flawless Assassin is sent home, is this enough to trigger the reaction?
  A: Yes.
  After a Personality moves is when the Reaction might trigger, so after the movement is when you check.
  One of your Personalities moved? Yes. Is that Personality at (that is, moved to) this unit's location? Yes (because it's THAT Personality's unit; hee hee).
  If the unit has no non-Ninja Personalities or Followers, you are good to React! Brook Cunningham, "Flawless Assasin", 26 Jan 2010