Hida Sozen

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Test of Enlightenment

Card Type

Personality

Force

5

Chi

4

Honor Requirement

0

Gold Cost

9

Personal Honor

2

Clan

Crab

Keywords

Enlightened, Unique, Crab Clan, Experienced, Hero, Samurai

Card Text

Negate Sozen's destruction from other players' actions.

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Dynasty

Story

2006 Kotei Winner - Jon Oakes

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Hida Sozen 4F/3C 0HR 8G 2PH Crab Clan Samurai. Yu 3. While Sozen is in an army and no unit opposing him has greater total Force than his unit does, Sozen cannot be destroyed except as a cost or by your card and Stronghold effects. (This does not protect attached cards from effects that destroy his entire unit.)" [MRP, Lotus Edition, 31 October 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 99
• A Personality who is only considered to be in the battle for purposes of particular actions (e.g., Agasha Chieh) is considered to be opposing Sozen while that action is resolving, allowing Sozen to be destroyed if the force is high enough. [ML, 10 May 2004] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 99
• Erratum: Reads, “Hida Sozen 5F/4C 0HR 9G 2PH Crab Clan • Samurai • Hero • Enlightened • Experienced • Unique Other players’ actions cannot destroy Sozen.” [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 138
• Does not die if another player's action (including tokens generated by actions) causes his Chi to drop to 0. [ZF, 26 June 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 138

Rules Q&A

• Q: How does Hida Sozen (exp) interact with destruction effects from cards that have been removed from the game, and face down?
  A: If an effect was generated by an action, it remains generated by an action even if the card the action was printed on is removed from the game. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen (exp) and removed from game.", 25 Feb 2009
• Q: Hida Sozen, experienced "Other players' actions can not destroy Sozen." Will a ranged attack kill him?
  A: No. Sozen's trait will negate his destruction from another player's Ranged Attack action.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_R#Ranged_Attack: "In an effect, “Ranged X Attack” (where X is a number known as the strength of the ranged attack) is shorthand for “Target a Follower or a Personality without Followers in the current enemy army. If its Force is equal to or less than X, destroy it.”"
  http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_C#Cannot: "When found in card text, and when referring to a type of cost or effect (e.g., bowing, Force bonuses), “cannot” (or "can not") means that a certain type of effect or cost is negated whenever it occurs." Brook Cunningham, "destruction and ranged attacks", 31 Jan 2009
• Q: Due to a recent ruling on chi death in the case of heated discussion.
  Heated discussion and chi death
  More specifically the additional part added to chi death
  Card features, Specific stats, Chi (added May 30th): "Ongoing and instantaneous effects that negate destruction [...] will not negate destruction from zero Chi [...] This rule also applies to effects that substitute some other effect, such as dishonoring, for destruction. [...] If the substitution comes from an ongoing or instantaneous effect, then the substitution fails.
  Does this mean that hida sozen xp2 now dies due to having zero chi, because it was ruled that he did not die due to it being a ongoing negating his destruction. Which is contray to the new ruling stated above on chi death. old Hida sozen and chi death ruling
  A: Hida Sozen's negation is continuous, not ongoing (Citation).
  He can still stop his own death from 0 Chi brought about other players' actions. Brook Cunningham, "Hida Sozen and Chi Death", 30 May 2008
• Q: If Sozen is challenged to a duel via an action, which had Determination played on it (with it?), does his trait negate the death if he loses the duel, or does Determination allow the action created duel to kill him?
  A: The latter.
  viewtopic.php?f=59&t=67117 viewtopic.php?f=59&t=61715
  Nothing special about duels in that regard. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen, Determination, and duels from action cards", 5 May 2008
• Q: If I play an Ambush and target Hida Sozen XP as a defender, and his army loses the battle in resolution, is Sozen destroyed per rulebook effect of battle resolution, or by the action (Ambush) that created the battle (hence he's not destroyed)?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Battles#Resolution_Segment: "(D)estruction of cards from these procedures are effects of battle resolution." He dies. Zen Faulkes, "Ambushed Hida Sozen XP", 27 Nov 2007
• Q: Hida Sozen Exp: if I used chi reduction to get him to 2 or below, dueling him with Strength in Shadow Style would kill him, correct?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen EXP+Strength in Shadow Style", 26 Nov 2007
• Q: Hida Sozen (Experienced): Is he immune to rulebook death?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Effects#Source_of_effects: "A Personality’s destruction for having 0 Chi comes from the effect that last gave the Personality a Chi penalty, or from the rulebook if there was no such effect." (Emphasis added.)
  Ergo, any action that gives a Chi penalty that drops Hida Sozen (Experienced) to 0 Chi does not kill him. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen ruling?", 23 Oct 2007
• Q: Ok, so based on what Zen told me on this previous topic ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=62464 ) the tokens come from a card efect that's why they'll be denied on Hida Sozen Exp case.
  A: Minor correction: They must be from an action for Sozen to be immune to destruction.
  Tokens could trigger Hida Kozan's reaction. Tokens are card effects. Chi penalties from tokens are card effects. Destruction from a chi penalty from a token is a card effect. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Kozan and chi penalty", 11 Oct 2007
• Q: ---> viewtopic.php?f=59&t=58623
  Based on this topic Hida Sozen Exp. can't die if he receives a chi penalty from another player action right? But that applies even if that penalty comes from a token? He continually denies his destruction turn after turn since the token stays with him forever?
  To say yes to that is to say that he's been currently targeted by another player action that kills him over and over and he denies it every time isn't it?
  Maybe I'm just writing a lot of nonsense. But I had this doubt. Thanks in advance!
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Non-card_physical_game_elements: "Effects of tokens come from the card or other source that created them."
  Sozen cannot resist chi penalties of all tokens -- tokens generated by non-action effects would get him. But if from an action, he's safe. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen Exp and chi penalty", 11 Oct 2007
• Q: (C)an I destroy Sozen exp with, say, Hired Killer, assuming that I also played Determination?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_C#Cannot
  Hida Sozen (Experienced) negates. Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen exp and Determination", 15 Sep 2007
• Q: EXCEPTION 2: A Personality’s destruction for having 0 Chi comes from the effect that last gave the Personality a Chi penalty, or from the rulebook if there was no such effect.
  A: If you introduce a new Chi Penalty effect, that Chi Penalty is now considered to be the source of destruction due to 0 Chi - even if the Chi Penalty effect didn't actually cause the final value of the Chi stat to drop any further due to minimum of 0 rule.
  Minimums do not prevent effects from being applied, but rather cause you to treat the final value of the card in question as the minimum value when the value would otherwise be less than the minimum. Martin Lund, "Hida Sozen xp and chi loss", 27 Jul 2007
• Q: To get a stat's current value at any given time, do steps A through C, below:
  A: Apply all current bonuses and penalties.
  B: If the total is below 0, treat it as 0. (Does not apply to Family Honor, Honor Requirements, and stats with a + or – sign such as an Item’s Force and Chi stats.)
  C: If the total is less than a minimum or more than a maximum, treat it as the minimum or maximum.
  A: For more information about card stats, you can take a look at this section. Martin Lund, "Hida Sozen xp and chi loss", 27 Jul 2007
• Q: If I'm playing Halls of the Damned and bow a human personality I own to take control of Hida Sozen Exp. 1 and use Wedge on him, do him die at the end o battle?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Hida Sozen Exp. + Halls of the Damned + Wedge", 4 Jun 2007