Heart of the Shinomen Forest

Legend of the Five Rings card from Hidden Emperor 1, Promotional–Jade

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

5

Gold Production

3

Starting Family Honor

3

Clan

Naga

Keywords

Forest

Card Text

Forests enter play for you for 3 less Gold.
Negate all Fear effects upon your Naga cards.
If you control no Shadowlands cards, you may ignore Honor Requirements when bringing Naga cards into play.
Your deck may include four copies of any non-Unique Naga card.

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Pre-Game

Notes

There were two versions of the Hidden Emperor 1 printing of this card. One had a Dynasty back and was a Fixed card in the starter deck, one had a Fate back and was a Rare in the booster packs.

Printings

Rulings

• Naga Followers also ignore personal honor requirements. [Stronghold text] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 146
• You may not include four copies of a card that you can normally only have one of (e.g., Events). [FAQ] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 146
• Naga Followers as well as Personalities ignore honor requirements. [text] Does not count as a forest. The Foo Rule only applies to cards and Strongholds are not cards. [FAQ] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 67

Rules Q&A

• Q: In the long long ago, there was a ruling that a player running Heart of the Shinomen Forest with At'tok'tuk Sensei could not include 4 copies of non-Unique Ratling (=Naga) cards. My understanding is that this ruling was made because, at the time, Sensei were chosen after Strongholds were revealed. A deck running 4 copies of a Ratling card would thus be illegal after Strongholds were revealed but before the Sensei was, making it illegal to construct such a deck.
  However, Sensei are no longer chosen from the deck, and are revealed at the same time as Strongholds; that window of illegality no longer exists. Does the Pearl-era ruling still hold for some other reason, or may these decks be legally constructed?
  A: The previous ruling on At'tok'tuk Sensei is still correct: the trait on At'tok'tuk Sensei only applies while it is in play, and not during deck construction. Alex Jones, "Heart of the Shinomen + At'tok'tuk Sensei", 31 Aug 2015
• Q: I'm sure this is a relatively simplistic question, but I just wanted to be sure and clear: Will Heart of Shinomen Forest's Fear negation effect work on all actions with the Fear keyword - for example, Daigotsu Hotako?
  Card text from the oracle:
  Heart of the Shinomen Forest Forest Forests enter play for you paying 3 less Gold. Negate all Fear effects upon your Naga cards. If you control no Shadowlands cards, you may ignore Honor Requirements when bringing Naga cards into play. Your deck may include four copies of any non-Unique Naga card.
  Daigotsu Hotako Spider Clan • Shadowlands • Samurai • Naval • Paragon • Experienced 3 • Unique • Obsidian Champion Enters play paying 2 less Gold if you are a Lion Clan player. After Hotako enters play: Lose 2 Honor. Fear Open: Target a Personality: He may not perform actions this turn.
  Relevant Rules Text: Fear Some older cards have an abilities that read: "Fear Battle: Fear X". These abilities should generally be read as "Fear Battle: You may target a unit in the current enemy army. Bow all non-Undead Followers in it with Force less than or equal to X." Cards that refer to Fear "strength" only refer to Fear abilities written in this shorthand, not just any number in a Fear ability.
  A: Yes, Heart of the Shinomen Forest will stop any action with the Fear keyword that affects your Naga cards, not just the old rulebook Fear effect. Jon Palmer, "Heart of the Shinomen Forest vs Fear", 8 Mar 2013
• Q: Will Forests of Shinomen affect the gold production of the stronghold Heart of the Shinomen Forest(?)
  A: No, because, as previously stated, cards don't effect strongholds unless the effect says "Stronghold."
  Additional: Discussion is ensuing in the Rules Junta's skull-shaped island. Zen Faulkes, "Stronghold gold production", 24 May 2011
• Q: Haha, oh well! The heart of the shinomen forest is still pretty solid soo can't complain too much
  A: If you like Naga, and can find a Siege: Heart of Darkness set, it's pretty fun to go X-coop players v. 1 uber-player. The second and last Siege set recreated the united Clans fighting Fu Leng on the 2nd Day of Thunder. It was Siege: Clan War, and it came with a Shadowlands deck versus Monks, Toturi's Army, and Yoritomo's Alliance. 🙂 You had to take successive "Territory" cards from the uber-player before a special Clock deck ran out on you. Give or take; I forget the specifics, sadly. Brook Cunningham, "Oracle of the Void #rules", 4 Mar 2021