Hoshi House Guard

Legend of the Five Rings card from Diamond Edition, Training Grounds 2, Promotional–Diamond

Card Type

Follower

Force

2

Chi

0

Honor Requirement

2

Gold Cost

6

Personal Honor

-

Keywords

Unique

Card Text

Will only attach to a Dragon Clan Personality.
This Personality has +1F/+2C for each Ring you control.
Reaction: After a Kiho action from a Strategy resolves that this Personality performed, if he is a Monk and this ability has not affected any Strategy with the same title this game: Return the Strategy to your hand.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: A similar question applies to Hoshi House Guard and Temple of Hoshi, but here the timing is potentially different since the House Guard has a reaction "after" the Kiho is cast.
  A: Hoshi House Guard says, "Reaction: Once per turn, after this Personality casts a Kiho, return the Kiho to your hand if this Personality is a Monk."
  Now, this Action isn't very clear about its timing. To do anything meaningful, it has to return the Kiho you just cast to your hand after it follows the normal play scheme of being put into the discard pile after the Action has resolved. Your Personality is no longer casting the Kiho when this happens (the action has already completely resolved), so he would no longer have the Monk trait if he only has it while casting.
  So, when you play this ability, and it checks to see "if this Personality is a Monk," it will not see a Monk.
  This is, however, due to the awkward phrasing vs. timing issue of the House Guard, not a general commentary on Reactions played "after casting," or "after playing," which would normally get played while you were still considered to be taking the Action. Martin Lund, "Rules for 21 December 2004", 27 Dec 2004
• Q: I'd like to know if I can recycle kihos using the Hoshi House Guard if it's attached to a non-Monk personality and I'm playing Temple of Hoshi.
  A: No.
  The card is not identical to the Ring of Air.
  Temple of Hoshi makes your Personality count as a Monk while (and only while) he's casting the Kiho.
  The Ring of Air cares if the Personality is a Monk when he bowed to cast the Kiho, so it's usable. Hoshi House Guard is used after the Kiho is cast and requires that the Personality be a Monk then. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 1 March 2004", 2 Mar 2004
• Q: I just hit what seems to be a contradiction that I'd like clarification.
  ruled: attachment that gives a stat bonus, the value of the bonus is considered to be the value of the stat. example: A follower with a chi bonus counts as having a chi stat. http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96971
  ok, granted... this isn't a rules junta quote, but its Bryan Reese... I feel like he kinda counts when it comes to rules. ("Lead Designer" on the 1st non-cover page of the rulebook says to me he wrote the rules and is the ultimate authority)
  ruled: raising sun blade can destroy a strength of the tsunami because a strength of the tsunami has no force in spite of its force bonus. (both have a force bonus of 6 and would count as a 6 force attachment by the above ruling) http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=93733&p=1244902&hilit=tsunami+force#p1244902
  Backed up by rules team, though not specifically comparing a 6 force weapon to a '6 force' spell. ruled: Spells do not have a force stat. (not 'except when they have a stat bonus') http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96800&p=1277897&hilit=spell+force#p1278006
  A: so, Hoshi house guard http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=3464 has a chi bonus when you have a ring. So a ranged attack against the house guard compares against this 2 chi bonus (when present) rather than the normal absent chi stat of 0? (I want to confirm that is in fact the 1st ruling. I know some older cards used to use a ' * ' to show variable stats, but by lotus edition's Hoshi House Guard this practice appears to have been done away with and the trait matches some of the older cards like it.)
  B: How "an attachment that gives a stat bonus" different from a spell with a force bonus? such as strength of Tsunami http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=7562. Or was Bryan Reese wrong?
  A: Strength of the Tsunami doesn't have +6 in the top left corner: as a spell it does not have a force bonus, nor a force stat.
  It does have a trait that grants a force bonus, but this is different from having a force bonus stat.
  Similarly, the Hoshi House Guard has a trait that grants a chi bonus, but its own chi bonus stat (and its chi stat) is 0. Alex Jones, "spells / attachment stat bonus", 22 Mar 2012
• Q: (Can I) react with Hoshi House Guard to take back the kiho?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Temple of Hoshi", 25 Mar 2005