Hidden Defenses

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: If you control no Personalities (in play), target one or two Personalities at any location: Bow them. Negate their straightening.
Reaction: After engaging, if any enemy units are at the current battlefield, choose your performing Personality: Move him there. Straighten him if he moved.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: The Plain of Glass You do not lose Honor from Spider Clan and Fate cards you own. You may use the rulebook Conquest ability twice per turn during the same battle.
  Player Abilities (from the Comprehensive Rules) (Conquest) Reaction: After a battle resolution ends, choose your performing attacking Conqueror Personality at that battlefield: Straighten his unit. It will not bow from the battle’s resolution.
  This all worked fine and dandy until earlier today, when the Once Per Trigger rule was restored. The Plain of Glass allows a second use of the Conquest ability per battle, waiving its usual once per turn restrictions. However, it does not explicitly waive the (now extant) Once Per Trigger restriction (thus, you could Conquest two people if and only if a given battle somehow had a second battle resolution, which is not possible at least under the EE card set, if at all).
  Should The Plain of Glass receive corrective technical errata to accommodate the new rule, or should this be read as an instance of the "there is always a way to use the card" quasi-rule that exempts Hidden Defenses from needing an explicit waiver of the Rule of Presence?
  A: The text "during the same battle" allows the Conquest ability to react twice to the same trigger, since there is only one trigger for the Conquest ability in any one battle.
  Note: If the "Once per trigger" rule had been in effect while we were wording this card, it would have had different text, but it still works as is so we're not changing it. Alex Jones, "The Plain of Glass and Once Per Trigger", 1 Feb 2013
• Q: Question: I have two personalities in play, Matsu Tactitian & Matsu Spud. I play Consideration, with Matsu Spud as the target I then declare an attack and assign Matsu Tactitian & Matsu Spud to the same battlefield My opponent plays Hidden Defences, targeting Matsu Tactitian & Matsu Spud
  What Happens: A Neither Matsu Tactitian or Matsu Spud bow as the Consideration negates all the card effects after targeting. B Matsu Tactitian bows. Matsu Spud does not bow as the Consideration negates only the card effects targeting the "Considerationed" person.
  Does the ruling change if the two personalities are assigned to two different battlefields (Hidden Defences can still target "at any location")
  May thanks!
  Relevant card text:
  Consideration Open: Choose your performing unbowed Tactician and target another of your Personalities: Give the Personality +3F. After the next time this turn another player's action targets him, negate its effects.
  Hidden Defenses Battle: If you control no Personalities (in play), target one or two Personalities at any location: Bow them. Negate their straightening.
  A: What happens is scenario "A".
  "Negate its effects" means all of them; otherwise it would say, "negate its effects [upon the target]" or such. Brook Cunningham, "Consideration vs MultiTarget card eg Hidden Defences", 9 Sep 2012
• Q: Hidden Defenses Battle: If you control no Personalities (in play), target one or two Personalities at any location: Bow them. Negate their straightening.
  If you meet the condition to play this card for this effect, and you choose to target two Personalities, need they be in the same location? The "location" construction is singular and could be read to imply that.
  Not strictly related, but the EE Comprehensive Rules cuts out a little early in the entry on "Location". See
  A: The two Personalities may be at different locations. Alex Jones, "Hidden Defenses and location(s)", 12 Jul 2012