Isawa's Last Wish

Legend of the Five Rings card from Promotional–Gold

Card Type

Item

Force

+0

Chi

+0

Gold Cost

10

Keywords

Unique

Card Text

Battle: Any number of times per turn, target an enemy card: Destroy it. The target's controller then targets and destroys any one of your non-Stronghold cards anywhere in play.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Four Winds (Gold)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Your opponent's destruction of one of your cards: Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 52
• Is a case of targeting with an action, which can be negated (if all other conditions required for the negation apply). [JA, 13 December 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 52
• Q: Another Asako Towers question: can it cancel Isawa's Last Wish's action after the Towers player has destroyed one of my cards but before I destroy one of his in return? A: Yes. They key point is that the two destructions caused by the Wish happen one at a time instead of together. The rulebook says that when an action is canceled after it has already produced some effects, those effects don't get undone, and the Towers of the Asako can't cancel an action until it targets one of their own Personalities. When the Towers player uses the Wish, the "payback" effect doesn't get targeted until the first card he used the Wish on is already dead. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, May 21, 2003, p. 7

Rules Q&A

• Q: Can I destroy an opposing card and then Faith In My Clan the return stroke [of Isawa's Last Wish]?
  A: No. Faith in My Clan says, "Cancel an action." It must be played at the first opportunity, not when the action is halfway through resolving. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 17 July 2004", 18 Jul 2004
• Q: Actions can be canceled after they have begun to resolve, though and actions that are canceled are considered to not have been taken, although no costs are refunded and no effects that have already taken place are undone.
  Happy Fun Ball was a big example of this in Gold.
  Isawa's Last Wish Unique Battle: Destroy an opposing card. The target's controller then destroys any one of your cards.
  A: [MARTY] You forgot the flavor text:
  "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball." Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 June 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: 0) I take three battle actions in one battle 1) Isawa's Last Wish is my fourth Battle action in this battle and I'm holding the Ring of Water. 2) I announce that I'm going to use Isawa's Last Wish to blow up Moto Bob. 3) I choose targets (Moto Bob) 4) I wait for reactions. 5) I pay costs (none). 6) I wait for reactions. My opponent does not react.
  A: [MARTY] Neither do you. Now the Action is considered "taken" and you can play Reactions to that fact, but never again to Cost Payment. That's a hard break in Reaction timing to keep the proverbial Chocolate out of the metaphorical Peanut Butter. Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 June 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: Isawa's Last Wish has now *NOT* been used and the action was never taken. The Ring of Water is already in play and Moto Bob is already dead, so those effects are not reversed.
  I have now taken only three battle actions (not four), but I managed to play the Ring of Water in spite of the fact that I have taken only three battle actions this turn.
  Is this correct? If so, that bothers me.
  A: [MARTY] That is correct. Yeah, it bothers me a bit too. I believe it is a hold-over from the Jade Era when they were first drawing concrete distinctions between Negating and Cancellation. Cancellation wasn't allowed to "use up" once-per-turn abilities.
  The fallout is that you get situations where you can play something triggered on the Nth time something happens, and then erase that Nth time from history with Cancellation.
  I understand and respect your concern there. Perhaps Jeff and company may have something up there sleaves regarding this issue when it comes to establishing the Lotus format. Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 June 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: 1) If there is an action that makes my opponent choose targets at the same time as me, does my opponent have to choose targets now also? 2) What about for actions like Isawa's Last Wish where it's do A, then B? Does my opponent choose the target before I pay costs for an action like that (this would be a change from Gold)
  A: No. Normally the other players are not required to participate in any part of another player's Action until that Action manages to successfully get to the "resolve effects" step and resolves an effect that forces them to do so.
  Their choices don't normally affect whether a play is legal or illegal. Your choices do, so they have to happen before you resolve effects. Martin Lund, "Rules for 25 June 2004", 28 Jun 2004
• Q: So if a player using Daigotsu uses Isawa's Last Wish on me and I take out his wind (Daigotsu) would the traits of the card still have an effect?
  A: No. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 March 2003", 6 Mar 2003
• Q: It has been ruled already that a wind card is a card, and can thus be targetted by things like Isawa's Last Wish.
  My question is, when you discard the favor to pay the cost of an action on a wind, is that considered a card effect?
  A: Winds are cards. [FOU rulesheet] Actions on Winds are therefore card actions, and their effects are card effects. Discarding the Favor to use them, however, is not a card effect because it is not an effect -- it is a cost. Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 March 2003", 4 Mar 2003
• Q: -Can the second part of the action on Isawa's Last Wish be prevented by Shiryo no Shinjo without it affecting the first part?
  A: Yes.
  Isawa's Last Wish is an action, and it says, paraphrased, "I pick and kill one of your guys, then you pick and kill one of mine." That "then" is crucial.
  Shiryo no Shinjo says, "No one else can pick my Personality for purposes of targeting any action."
  So after I've killed one of your Personalities with my Wish, you cannot pick my Personality with Shinjo for the second destruction. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 January 2003", 30 Jan 2003
• Q: -Can the second part of the action on Isawa's Last Wish be prevented by Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal without it affecting the first part?
  A: Yes. Same reason. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 January 2003", 30 Jan 2003
• Q: -Can the second part of the action on Isawa's Last Wish be prevented by Towers of the Asako without it affecting the first part?
  A: Not "prevented." "Canceled." But, yes. This ruling is already in the archive, because the rulebook says when an action is canceled part-way through, anything it might have already done is not undone. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 January 2003", 30 Jan 2003
• Q: This is the situtation: A personality attaches the Isawa's Last Wish on a personality. Then he attaches Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal on him. Then he declares an attack with only this unit. My question is: Can the personality use Isawa's Last Wish while the Journal is on the personality?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 October 2002", 22 Oct 2002
• Q: When you use Isawa's Last Wish, can your opponent destroy the Last Wish or its personality?
  A: Your opponent can destroy any one card you control. That includes your Wind. He, unlike you, is not limited to destroying only cards in the battle. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 9 September 2002", 10 Sep 2002
• Q: Ok, I've gotten two different answers on this from multiple sources I'd consider reliable.
  Opponent is playing an Asako Tower deck. Five shugenja on the table, one samurai with Heavy Infantry, Sword, and Isawa's Last Wish. He attacks I play In Search Of, he uses ILW to target a personality. I target his samurai. He cancels it with a shugenja.
  Now I've heard this is completely legal from one group of people, but I've also heard that using Asako's power to cancel the targeting, would cancel all of it, meaning my targeting. At least I think.
  What's the deal?
  A: DA rulebook p. 45: "If a card or action is canceled after it has produced some effects, do not undo those effects." The card your opponent destroyed with the Wish does not come back to life if the Wish's action is canceled by the Asako Towers when you pick the second target. Jeff Alexander, "post for 23 August 2002", 26 Aug 2002
• Q: Just to clarify here, I'll jump in.
  No, I'm not Jeff. I'm not even the next best thing. But I try. Still, grain of salt and all that ...
  "You must choose all targets when you announce an action, before you begin paying any costs."
  The problem with Isawa's Last Wish is that YOU (the player of the Action) do not choose the target of the "retribution" part of the Action. There isn't really a definitively written rule in the rulebook or archive for when another player is forced to choose targets as part of another player's action.
  I think the best thing to do in that case is to work with precident: Choose the target when instructed to do something that requires targeting by the card. This is how you work out the targeted parts of re-attaching followers after Street to Street, after all.
  With that in mind, Isawa's Last Wish will never instruct the controler of the "Victim" to choose which card to "retaliate" against until the first effect (the controler of ILW destroying something) has resolved, because it explicitly says, "Do X. THEN player B does Y."
  Hence, the action of Isawa's Last Wish won't qualify for the trigger "When an action targets a shugenja you control" of Asako Towers until it has already produced and resolved its first effect. By that time, it is too late for Towers of Asako to stop the destruction of the first card due to canceling the Isawa's Last Wish action.
  A: That's precisely right. Thanks for the accurate in-depth explaination. Jeff Alexander, "post for 13 August 2002", 14 Aug 2002
• Q: Suppose I am using the Asako Towers stronghold. I have a shugenga in the battle with an Isawa's Last Wish attached. If I activate the Wish, and destroy an opposing personality, and the opponent chooses to target my shugenga to destroy, is it currently legal to cancel the action with the stronghold, thus destroying the opposing personality, but not losing my shugenga.
  From what I understand, it is legal, but I don't think it should be. On page 45 of the Dark Allies rulebook, it says the following: "If a card is destroyed after all costs (if any) of its effects have been paid but before all its effects resolve, all remaining effects still occur." Based on the wording of this, it looks like you can,
  A: This has nothing to do with the Isawa's Last Wish/Towers of the Asako ruling. Nothing is being destroyed before all its effects resolve. I'm afraid I don't understand your point. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 August 2002", 6 Aug 2002
• Q: Question. I'm playing Phoenix with Towers of the Asako. Can I use [Isawa's Last Wish] to destroy one of their cards and then use my SHs ability to cancel the destruction of one of my Samurais or Shugenjas.
  A: Yes, because they don't target one of your cards until after their card is destroyed. Jeff Alexander, "post for 23 April 2002", 24 Apr 2002
• Q: Isawa's Last Wish Unique Item +0 +0 Battle: Destroy an opposing card. The target's controller then destorys any one of your cards.
  The question is if you Destroy a personality does it destroy the followers as well since they don't have a personality anymore?
  A: Whenever a card leaves play in any way, all cards attached to it leave play in the same manner. [rulebook p. 60] Destroying a Personality will destroy (not just discard) all her Followers too. This situation is really no different from killing someone with an Iaijutsu Duel. Jeff Alexander, "post for 19-22 April 2002", 23 Apr 2002
• Q: Is stronghold cosidered a card?
  A: No. [AOF rulebook p. 6] Jeff Alexander, "post for 31 January 2002", 1 Feb 2002
• Q: If I use Isawa's Last Wish, can I destroy a terrain card, region or fortification? I checked the archive but coun't find anything.
  A: You can only destroy an "opposing card" if the Wish is yours, so you're limited to destroying Personalities in the opposing army or cards attached to them. Check out the Glossary, particularly the entries for "opposing", "unit", and "army". Jeff Alexander, "post for 30 January 2002", 31 Jan 2002