Ancestral Protection
Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, The War of Spirits
Open in Oracle of the Void
- Card Type
- Strategy
- Gold Cost
- 0
- Card Text
- Reaction: After an action targets your Personality, destroy your target performing Ancestor to negate the action's effects.
- Focus Value
- 4
- Legality
- Age of Conquest (Emperor), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade)
- MRP
- The ancestor no longer needs to be attached to the personality
- Deck
- Fate
Printings
Emperor Edition
- Rarity
- Rare
- Flavor Text
- "Grandfather! Thank you for answering my prayers. I am glad I have the strengths of Akodo Jin by my side."
- Artist
- Matthew Starbuck
- Card Number
- 269
- Publisher
- Alderac Entertainment Group
The War of Spirits
- Rarity
- Rare
- Flavor Text
- Turi rose wearily, but the blood that stained his armor was not his own. "Remember," whispered the spirit as it died, "that not all of those who have escaped Jigoku's fires have forgotten the meaning of duty. "
- Artist
- Bob Hobbs
- Publisher
- Wizards of the Coast
Rules Q&A
- Q: If someone is using Touch of Death on my Personality with an Ancestor and I use Ancestral Protection to cancel the Touch of Death, does the Ancestral Protection target their Touch of Death, thus allowing Agasha Hamanari to prevent it?
A: No. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 May 2002", 9 May 2002 - Q: Reads:
Reaction: Play this card when an action targets one of your Personalities with an Ancestor attached. Destroy the Ancestor to cancel the action.
Can you use this to cancel Events?
A: No. Jeff Alexander, "post for 1 April 2002", 2 Apr 2002 - Q: This is a seemingly improbable set of events, but given the prevalence of all the cards, I can see it coming up a lot. The example I list is specific, but the consequences apply to dozens, if not hundreds of card combinations.
The breakdown is this. Personality_A targets Personality_B with a simple bow action. Player_B reacts with Ancestral Protection, negating the effects. Player_A reacts with Inexorable, making the effects non-negatable. Player_B NOW reacts with Ryoshun's Guidance, wanting to change the target of the now-non-negatable action.
The question: Does the timing of "When another player's action would," take place before the "after an action targets?"
or
Do both of those steps trigger at the same time, allowing the negation chain followed by redirection?
I apologize if there is already a ruling on this, but there are so many combinations of cards that share these wordings that I couldn't find any in my search.
Ancestral Protection: Reaction: After an action targets your Personality, destroy your performing Ancestor: Negate the action's effects.
Inexorable: Reaction: After another player announces a Reaction during the Combat Segment: Its effects will not negate other effects.
Ryoshun's Guidance Reaction: When another player's action would target one of your cards, discard this card: Choose another of your non-Stronghold cards at the same location. The action targets it instead, if legal.
A: "Would target" does in fact take place prior to "after an action targets". Therefore, the redirection window has passed after Inexorable is played. Jon Palmer, "Inexorable followed by Redirection", 26 Jun 2012 - Q: I announce Sacrifice of Pawns, target my opponent's personality, and then my own courtier who will be destroyed. If my opponent chooses to destroy his personality, then plays Ancestral Protection to negate its destruction, do I have still have to pay the cost of destroying my courtier? I get that announce>target>costs, but I'm unclear as to how to apply that to this situation.
Sacrifice of Pawns: Limited: Destroy your performing unbowed Courtier and target another player's Personality: His controller may destroy the target. If he did not choose this, search your Dynasty deck for a Personality and bring him into play, paying all costs but paying two more Gold. (Discard him if you are unable to play him).
Ancestral Protection: Reaction: After an action targets your Personality, destroy your performing Ancestor: Negate the action's effects.
Many thanks in advance.
A: The correct sequence for Sacrifice of Pawns is: A. Announce that you wish to use the ability on Sacrifice of Pawns B. Choose your performer C. Target the other Personality - Ancestral Protection is played here D. Destroy the performer as a cost E. The other player makes his choice, and either his Personality is destroyed or the Dynasty deck is searched - these are the effects that are negated by Ancestral Protection F. End
Costs can only be chosen not to be paid if the cost is dependent on a target, and the target is changed from what was originally chosen. This does not happen in this case, so you may not choose not to destroy the performer. Alex Jones, "Sacrifice of Pawns vs Ancestral Protection", 8 Mar 2012