Frenzy

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Pre-Imperial Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Battle of Beiden Pass, Obsidian Edition, Jade Edition, Gold Edition, Lotus Edition, Pearl Edition, Honor Bound, Ambition's Debt, Path of Hope, Glory of the Empire

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Target your performing Personality. Dishonor him. Lose 2 Honor. Give him +2F, or +3F if he is Crab Clan. Before the turn ends, destroy all his Followers.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Frenzy 0G 1FV Battle: Target a Personality you control: Dishonor him. Lose 2 Honor. Give him +3F if he is Crab Clan, or +2F otherwise. When the turn ends, destroy all Followers attached to him." [MRP, Khan's Defiance, 22 January 2007] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 18
• May be played on any Personality, not just your own. You still suffer the 2 pt honor loss, though. [card text] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 28
• Clarified: dishonoring is immediate. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 3
• Clarified: playing player loses 2 honor. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 3
• Accumulated Rulings Accumulated Rulings, April 22, 1998, p. 16
• Clarified: dishonoring is immediate. Clarified: playing player loses 2 honor. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.4 & errata, June 1997, p. 22
• Erratum: Reads, "Frenzy 0G 1FV Battle: Target one of your Personalities: Dishonor him. Lose 2 Honor. Give him +2F, or +3F if he is Crab Clan. Before the turn ends, destroy all his attached Followers." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 136

Rules Q&A

• Q: Or basically, the question is. Can a personality recieve a force bonus/boost after they have been targetted with Berserker Rage. For instance, can I Rage tenshu to 12, and then double him to 24 with Citadel of the Hiruma, or Frenzy him to 15 and so on and so forth.
  A: Sure. Berserker Rage's text doesn't specifically say that it prohibit's further modifications to the Berserker's force, just that the increase in force only lasts until the end of the battle, not until the otherwise normal end of turn. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for June 12th", 12 Jun 2003
• Q: Or if I had Kakita Instructor on a Samurai could I play Frenzy?
  A: Yes. The dishonor is an effect of Frenzy, not a cost. Jeff Alexander, "post for 25 March 2003", 26 Mar 2003
• Q: 2. Hoshi Wayan exp2/ Frenzy
  If Hoshi Wayan exp2 has a tattoo token on him, and his controller plays Frenzy, can he gain the extra 2 force from his reaction before Frenzy Dishonors him?
  A: Yes. His Reaction is taken after he gains Force, but before the next effect of Frenzy happens. Jeff Alexander, "post for 18 November 2002", 19 Nov 2002
• Q: Quick question which came up in a game. Exactly which results of playing a Frenzy are costs and which are effects? The Gold wording is unclear, as the Force bonus, dishonouring, destruction of Followers, and honour loss are all separate sentances.
  A: The card is clear. None of those sentences say "Do X *to* do Y" or "Do X as a cost", so everything the card does is an effect. Jeff Alexander, "post for 11-12 September 2002", 13 Sep 2002
• Q: If I play Frenzy on an opposing unit, and the other player counters it by slapping down Superior Strategist, exactly what has he cancelled, and what are the costs that remain paid?
  A: You still lose the card and you still have to pay its 0 gold cost, but nothing else happens. Jeff Alexander, "post for 11-12 September 2002", 13 Sep 2002
• Q: Question regarding Togashi Genshuo & Frenzy: The MRP of Frenzy reads "Battle: Give a Crab Clan Personality +3F, or give a non-Crab Personality +2F. Either way, dishonor the Personality. When the turn ends, destroy the Personality's Followers. Lose 2 Honor." Togashi Genshuo reads "Genshuo cannot gain Force bonuses from actions." If Genshuo is targetted with Frenzy is he still dishonored?
  A: Yes. And his Followers are destroyed. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 May 2002", 3 May 2002
• Q: Depends on whether it is decided that Genshuo's trait cancels or negates the Force bonuses.
  If Genshuo's trait negates the Force bonus part of the action, it just wouldn't allow him to gain the Force bonus. So he would gain +2F, which his trait would negate, then he would be dishonored, the player of Frenzy would still lose 2 honor, and Genshuo would still have to destroy all attached followers at the end of the turn. So in short, negating one effect (Force bonus), does not negate the other effects of the action.
  On the cancellation side, the Rules Team could interpret this as an extension of Toritaka Kitao ruling, who cannot be dishonored, and therefore cancels all actions that would dishonor him including Frenzy and refused Iai Challenges.
  A: There is no special ruling on Toritaka Kitao regarding this. There is only his text, which specifically calls for cancelation of the entire action rather than just preventing his dishonoring. So there is no issue of "deciding that Genshuo's trait cancels or negates the Force bonuses" -- it negates them, which is the standard result. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 May 2002", 3 May 2002
• Q: Can I play Mushin with a Sneak Attack?
  ie: Sneak - Mushin - Frenzy - deadly ground
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 28 February 2002", 1 Mar 2002
• Q: Shame (dishonored), Frenzy (avoid dishonor/follower kill), Dark Secrets,
  A: And Last Gift. How could you get Dark Secrets but not Last Gift????? :) Jeff Alexander, "post for 19 February 2002", 20 Feb 2002
• Q: Ki-Rin (gold edition) "While the Ki-Rin is unbowed and Honorable, Personalities with 0,4, or 5 = Personal Honor cannot be in armies attacking your Provinces."
  My question: what happens if one of the attacker's Personalities has = Frenzy (or some other effect that would dishonor them or raise or lower = their PH to 0, 4, or 5) played on them? They are already present, so is = the action that would cause the conflict illegal? Is the Personality = sent home? Or do they stay in the current battle until resolution, = unable to move to a different battle, and are prevented from attacking = at a later time until the situation changes?
  A: Treat the Ki-Rin as saying "cannot assign or move into". Jeff Alexander, "replies to 7 September", 11 Sep 2001
• Q: dishonoring the guy and losing 2 honor for Frenzy
  A: Effects. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 16 March 2001", 22 Mar 2001
• Q: e. Your opponent playing Frenzy on Lady Kitsune
  A: No. Your opponent's card effect didn't destroy her, her own card text did. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for November 27th", 27 Nov 2000
• Q: If you target Shikibu no Oni with bestial rage to give a nonhuman personality 8 +1 Frenzy tokens. Can you use Shikibu's trait to kill some other personality in play with out killing Shikibu no Oni?
  Fu
  A: No, because in order to pay the cost of "destroy one of your Personalities", the Personality you choose must actually be destroyed. Alex Jones, "Shikibu no Oni and Bestial Rage", 27 Jan 2011
• Q: What happens when a card effect would dishonor a shadowlands personality? Specifically Frenzy.
  A: The rules for a Personality being dishonored and becoming dishonorable are the same regardless of whether the Personality has the Shadowlands keyword or not. Brook Cunningham, "Dishonoring Shadowlands.", 30 Apr 2008
• Q: Oh got it. What about Frenzy?
  A: Well, that's unfortunately difficult to say. Modern standards of what constitutes a Personality "taking" or "performing" an action weren't firmly established until Diamond, and I can't find any old Rulings from the Imperial era under either of those cards. I would say that it seems like Frenzy would/should be able to be affected by Code, but I'm really only basing that on more modern (again, closer to Diamond era) understandings of mechanics. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 19 Apr 2026