Heart of Darkness

Legend of the Five Rings card from Forgotten Legacy

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Terrain

Card Text

Before this battle's resolution: Choose and bow zero to two cards at the current battlefield with 4 or greater Force.
Battle: If no Terrain is at the current battlefield: Put this card into play there.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Just to add to this topic: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=109598
  in Siege: Heart of Darkness The Akasha is obviously stylized as a Ring card but certainly is not one. So what is the name of that type of card? and to reiterate, how do you properly identify a ring?
  A: The Akasha is a Ring card. Please reference the Oracle. Jon Palmer, "RE: Ring cards", 24 Sep 2014
• Q: Hi Rules Team,
  If I have a personality with "Stalwart" and my opponent has Heart of Darkness in play, will that terrain bow my personality? I don't think it will, since stalwart blocks the first bowing from opponent's cards and the terrain would be an opponent's card. This is assuming that Heart of Darkness' effect is the first attempt at bowing my guy this turn.
  Thanks!
  Relevant Card Text:
  A: Stalwart can indeed negate the bowing from Heart of Darkness. Alex Jones, "Stalwart vs. Heart of Darkness", 8 Mar 2013
• Q: Does the effect from a card's trait count as an action?
  I am specifically wondering if Daigotsu Bofana's trait will trigger from my opponent bowing him through Heart of Darkness's trait. Will my opponent have to discard?
  A: Heart of Darkness is not an action targeting Bofana. Heart of Darkness doesn't target anything, and the bowing is not an effect from an action. Therefore, no discard necessary. Jon Palmer, "Daigotsu Bofana vs Heart of Darkness", 6 Mar 2012
• Q: Reckless Rush:
  If I have a terrain (lets say Heart of Darkness) in play, and my opponent plays Reckless Rush, can he target and bow my terrain? And if so, is it destroyed due to it having a 0 gold cost?
  It probably doesn't matter, but here's Heart of Darkness:
  A: Terrains and other cards outside of units are not enemy cards. Jon Palmer, "Reckless Rush vs Terrains", 16 Feb 2012
• Q: Hi Rules Guys,
  How would these cards interact if played by different players? Can a personality that performed Reckless Rush be bowed before battle resolution by Heart of Darkness?
  Heart of Darkness Before this battle's resolution: Choose and bow zero to two cards at the current battlefield with 4 or greater Force. Battle: If no Terrain is at the current battlefield: Put this card into play there.
  Reckless Rush Battle: Bow your performing Personality and target an enemy card without attachments: Bow it. Destroy it if it is an attachment or its base Gold Cost is 0. Before this battle's resolution, straighten your Personality.
  Thanks!
  Anthony
  A: The triggered trait from Heart of Darkness and the delayed effect from Reckless Rush have the same timing, "Before this battle's resolution," and both trigger in Step C of the Timing Sequence, so the active player decides. Alex Jones, "Heart of Darkness vs. Reckless Rush", 25 Jan 2012
• Q: My opponent plays Heart of darkness. I play reckless rush, bowing my 5F personality. Both the bowing from Heart and straighten from Reckless have the same trigger Before this battle's resolution What determines which effect happens first?
  Many thanks!
  Heart of Darkness ...Before this battle's resolution: Choose and bow zero to two cards at the current battlefield with 4 or greater Force.
  Reckless Rush Bow your performing Personality and target an enemy card without attachments: Bow it. Destroy it if it is an attachment or its base Gold Cost is 0. Before this battle's resolution, straighten your Personality.
  A: The active player decides, as described under the Timing Sequence, step B: Anything that is triggered at this point but is not a Reaction happens now. This includes triggered traits, delayed effects, indefinite conditional effects, triggered rulebook effects (such as losing Honor after a dishonourable Personality is destroyed). If more than one of these things conflict, the active player decides the order in which they happen.
  Heart of Darkness has a triggered trait, while Reckless Rush creates a delayed effect. Alex Jones, "Heart of Darkness vs Reckless Rush", 7 Nov 2011
• Q: Does Low Stance's battle action ("...After this Combat Segment ends, reduce his force to 0.") and Heart of Darkness' trait ("Before this battle's resolution:...") have the same timing window? Meaning, the active player gets to choose which happens first?
  A: No, they do not.
  "After" one phase/segment "ends" is a distinct point in time from "before" the next phase/segment "begins", and the former always comes before the latter. Brook Cunningham, "Low Stance / Heart of Darkness", 6 Oct 2011
• Q: I choose to negate the bowing of my personality from the action, regardless of the fact that the card is not actually bowing my personality now. In fact, with this wording, I could react to any action at all, regardless of whether one of that cards effects was a bow or movement effect (Steel on Steel, for example) with 'Hold! even though it would actually have no effect on that particular action (legal as it changes the game state in terms of cards played to drop Ring of Void).
  A: Just to clarify, you may indeed play Hold! as a Reaction to any action (as long as you can "target your unbowed Commander at the current battlefield"), regardless of whether that action can bow or move any Personalities - you could play it in response to Sneak Attack if you really wanted to. Alex Jones, "Hold! and Heart of Darkness", 4 Oct 2011
• Q: Hi,
  For some reason there is no 'reply' button available to me, but I had to ask the question, and so needed to start another thread:
  A: As to the reason for that, please see here. Brook Cunningham, "Hold! and Heart of Darkness", 4 Oct 2011
• Q: Can you explain to me why the logic below doesn't work?
  The wording on 'Hold! is as follows:
  'Reaction: Before another player's action's resolution, target your unbowed Commander at the current battlefield: Choose one of your Personalities there. Choose whether to negate his bowing or his movement from that action.'
  A: Note what I underlined in your quote above.
  The only "action" on Heart of Darkness is the one that puts it into play. The bowing comes from Heart of Darkness's TRAIT.
  This is a very new way to template Terrains, which is why it's different than Encircled Terrain. And you say you've been away from the game some time, so perhaps part of your confusion may come from thinking that everything on Heart of Darkness is an "action" because it is on what used to be called an "Action card", which for obvious clarity issues we now call "Strategy cards/Strategies".
  But an "action" is only text that is preceded by Battle, Open, Limited, or Reaction in bold. Heart of Darkness's bowing is from a trait, which triggers and affects cards because Heart of Darkness is in play. Brook Cunningham, "Hold! and Heart of Darkness", 4 Oct 2011
• Q: Hold!: Reaction: Before another player's action's resolution, target your unbowed Commander at the current battlefield: Choose one of your Personalities there. Choose whether to negate his bowing or his movement from that action.
  Heart of Darkness: Terrain Before this battle's resolution: Choose and bow zero to two cards at the current battlefield with 4 or greater Force. Battle: If no terrain is at the current battlefield: Put this card into play there.
  Sort of separately, for reference: It has been ruled that Height of Courage can stop Encircled Terrain if played at the correct timing here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=83475&p=1096460&hilit=Encircled#p1096460
  So based on that ruling, which logically carries over to say that Hold! can stop movement from Encircled too (if played at the correct timing), can I play Hold! to stop Heart of Darkness from bowing a certain personality? Or any other terrain under the new formatting?
  A: The difference between Encircled Terrain and Heart of Darkness is that the only "action" on Heart of Darkness is the one used to put it into play.
  The later bowing effect does not come from an action, and therefore Hold! will not prevent the bowing no matter when it is played. Jon Palmer, "Hold! and Heart of Darkness", 3 Oct 2011
• Q: Celestial edition rules: Active player plays Heart of Darkness, non-Active player plays Reckless Rush - at battle resolution, which resolves first?
  A: Same trigger and priority; active-player chooses. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 20 Dec 2024