Gold and Steel

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Shattered Empire

Card Type: Strategy
Gold Cost: 0
Card Text: Battle/Open: Target one to three attachments with a Gold Cost of 0: Destroy them.
Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Personality and target an enemy Personality with an equal or lower Gold Cost: Bow him. You may move him home.
Focus Value: 2
Legality: Age of Conquest (Emperor), Shattered Empire
Deck: Fate

Printings

Rarity: Uncommon
Flavor Text: "Honorable samurai cannot be bought, but you would be surprised at how many can be rented for a short time." - Yoritomo Hama
Artist: David Horne
Card Number: 302
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group

Q: Can i use Gold and Steel to destroy Mastering Elements after it copies another spell in play[?]
A: Yes. Brook Cunningham, "Gold and Steel and Mastering the Elements", 4 Feb 2012
Q: is a card's gold cost a trait?
A: No, it is a stat unto itself, wholly separate from keywords, traits, and abilities. Brook Cunningham, "Gold and Steel and Mastering the Elements", 4 Feb 2012
Q: Torch's Flame Flickers states "Negate the next card effect that bows one or more of your Personalities who is there (at the time)."
If a card effect does something else along with the bowing (like Gold and Steel which also can move the target home), will it also negate the send home? I was unsure since it says to negate the next card effect and not the next bowing.
Also, does it only protect the personalities that were at the battlefield at the time that Torch's Flame was used or if something moves to the battlefield later will it protect it from being bowed if a bow effect is used after the new personality show up?
A: It will only negate the bowing. The bowing and send home from Gold and Steel (in your example) are separate effects and only the bow effect is negated.
"at the time" refers to the time of the bowing, so it does not matter if the Personality was there when Torch's Flame Flickers was played. Jon Palmer, "Torch's Flame Flickers", 3 Feb 2012