Hidden Moon Dojo

Legend of the Five Rings card from Celestial Edition, Promotional–Celestial

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

7

Gold Production

4

Starting Family Honor

1

Clan

Scorpion

Card Text

Open: Look at all face-down cards in a target player's Provinces. If you destroy a Province this turn, its owner will not refill Provinces during his next Action Phase.

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Hidden Moon Dojo 7PS 4G 1FH Open: Look at all face-down cards in a target player's provinces. If you destroy a province this turn, its owner will not refill provinces during his next Action Phase." [Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 137

Rules Q&A

• Q: Ninjas versus monsters. I watched this in an anime!
  Hidden Moon Dojo Open: Look at all face-down cards in a target player's provinces. If you destroy a province this turn, its owner will not refill provinces during his next Action Phase.
  The Forgotten Temple Limited: Target your discarded Nonhuman Personality and discard a card in one of your provinces: Refill the province face-up with the Personality.
  Never Stand Alone Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary.
  Let's assume that the Scorpion player has done everything necessary to trigger the "will not refill" clause of his stronghold's ability. The way the Hidden Moon Dojo effect works has been fairly well discussed. However, it has also been established that not all effects that cause a new card to appear in a province constitute refilling for the purposes of the effect. This ruling regarding Hidden Moon Dojo's interactions with Never Stand Alone, for example: "putting a card into a province from the discard pile" is not "refilling". On the other hand, although Forgotten Temple's action is very like Never Stand Alone, they are worded differently, with the nonhuman stronghold explicitly using the verb "refill" for a card relocation process otherwise visually identical to the earlier "putting."
  If a Forgotten Temple player uses his stronghold action while under the effects of the Hidden Moon Dojo action, what happens? Does the discarded nonhuman go in the province (as it would via Never Stand Alone), ignoring the Hidden Moon Dojo effect? Or does the Scorpion stronghold prevent that; if so, after the Action phase, when Hidden Moon Dojo is no longer in effect, what card does refill that province? Is it the one that Forgotten Temple targeted? And, if it is, does it refill face-up?
  A: As you said, Forgotten Temple explicitly uses the word "refill". While its effects are similar to Never Stand Alone, because of this very distinction, Hidden Moon Dojo's effects WILL prevent The Forgotten Temple's ability from refilling the province face-up with the Personality you targeted. It will refill normally, face-down with the top card of your Dynasty deck, after the Action Phase ends. Brook Cunningham, "Hidden Moon Dojo/The Forgotten Temple", 12 Jul 2011
• Q: Hidden Moon Dojo Open: Look at all face-down cards in a target player's provinces. If you destroy a province this turn, its owner will not refill provinces during his next Action Phase.
  Never stand alone (just the limited action) Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary.
  The Scorpion player used his box and crushed a province in the same turn. Can his opponent use never stand alone for the limited action on his next turn? Is putting a card in a province a refill-effect?
  Thanks.
  A: "Refill" refers to filling empty an province with the top card of the Dynasty deck. The effect of Hidden Moon Dojo's action does not prevent Never Stand Alone putting a card into a province from the discard pile. Alex Jones, "Hidden Moon Dojo versus Never stand alone", 30 Aug 2009
• Q: (I)t's instantaneous prevention, why does the triggered rulebook effect of refilling reassert again?
  A: Because there is no rule that you only check if a Province is empty once. Zen Faulkes, "Hidden Moon Dojo and discarding effects", 25 Jul 2009
• Q: (W)hy does it reassert at the end of the action phase and not immediately after discarding?
  A: Because the effect preventing refilling has a duration given by card text. Zen Faulkes, "Hidden Moon Dojo and discarding effects", 25 Jul 2009
• Q: Does that mean that refilling provinces is not just "putting the top card of your dinasty deck in a province, face-down" but also an "element of the sequence of play"(?)
  A: Possibly. The examples given there are examples, not an exhaustive list of things of possible procedural effects. Zen Faulkes, "Hidden Moon Dojo and discarding effects", 25 Jul 2009
• Q: A province has the region Holy Site attached, therefore it doesn't hold dynasty cards, and the region reacts to negate the destruction of the province.
  When will the province be refilled? The logical answer would be immediately after the region's destruction, but the rules only cover refilling provinces after a card leaves the province; there's no word about refilling in response to any other situation. (A similar paradox might also occur with Hidden Moon Dojo and discarding effects during the owner's action phase)
  [url=http://rules.l5r.com/Areas_of_the_game#The_provinces_.28out_of_play.29] SE CR:[/url] When a card leaves a province and the province then holds fewer than its maximum number of cards, effects triggered by the card leaving the Province or entering play resolve first (including effects of Events that resolved from that Province). Then, if the Province still holds fewer than its maximum number of cards, it is refilled with a face-down Dynasty card from the top of the Province’s owner’s deck, unless something else has refilled it.
  (Note: The CE CR have the same text)
  A: Refill immediately unless some effect prevents it. Zen Faulkes, "Holy Site and refilling", 25 Jul 2009