House of Contracts

Legend of the Five Rings card from Fire & Shadow

Open in Oracle of the Void

Card Type: Holding
Gold Cost: 3
Card Text: w: Produce 2 Gold.
w: When paying for an ability on a Strategy, produce 5 Gold which may only pay for that ability.
Legality: Hidden Emperor (Jade)
Deck: Dynasty

Printings

Fire & Shadow

Rarity: Common
Flavor Text: "Learn to let go, and you will find freedom within yourself." - from The True Tao
Artist: Eric Polak
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Rulings

Cannot "repay" Shady Dealings. [ZF, May 2000] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 82

Rules Q&A

Q: Personally I think it's a lot more broken that White Shore Plains was - grrrrr.......
Alex PS OK, so the 3 focus was a little too good, but 4 gold is just silly - 3 lets the Lion use it, sort of, 5 matches up OK-ish with a House of Contracts, but 4 restricts it to Crane, Dragon and Toturi's Army. Arg!
A: Are you playing a No Moving Parts Lion deck? I can't think of any other reason for you to be saying, "This card costs more than my Stronghold makes, so I can't ever play it." Jeff Alexander, "replies to 10-14 July 2001", 19 Jul 2001
Q: Following this: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=107948&p=1420520
I take it then that actions such as At Any Cost, or Will, also Recruit the personality?
And per the definition of Recruit and this other ruling, Kaeru Contractor would not work with them?
What about House of Contracts? Is it able to produce 5g "when paying for an ability on a strategy"? I.e., is the cost of the Recruiting effect in AAC or Will part of the ability's cost?
A: Pre-Ivory edition cards (all cards in actuality) should always be played using their current Oracle of the Void text.
As of right now, At Any Cost and Will do not use the Recruit rulebook procedure found in the Ivory Edition rules. Instead they directly bring the personality in to play, which using Legacy rules, means you have to pay their gold cost, plus any modifications the card describes for them at that time.
That gold cost is not from the Strategy, it is considered from rulebook, so Kaeru Contractor and House of Contacts would not be able to help you pay for them. Ben Higgins, "Kaeru Contractor | House of Contracts + @ Any Cost, Will,etc", 26 Jun 2014