Iuchiban

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

Card Type

Personality

Force

6

Chi

6

Honor Requirement

-

Gold Cost

14

Personal Honor

0

Clan

Unaligned

Keywords

Double Chi, Unique, Bloodspeaker, Champion, Goblin, Ogre, Oni, Shadowlands, Shugenja, Tsuno

Card Text

Will not join a non-Shadowlands Horde player.
May not be targeted by other players' Spell or Kiho actions.
After Iuchiban wins a duel, permanently give him +1F/+1C.
Maho Battle: Iuchiban challenges a target enemy Personality. Destroy the loser.

Legality

Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Q: Is Iuchiban a Clan Champion? A: No. He is just a Champion. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, April 26, 2004, p. 11

Rules Q&A

• Q: and if it is why there is a clarification in both Rubies of Iuchiban concerning which ruby can bow who and in what condition.
  A: Ruby of Iuchiban Nonexperienced can target anyone, bowed or unbowed. It does not specify that its target need be bowed or unbowed.
  Ruby of Iuchiban Experienced says, "You must target a bowed Personality,"
  That's pretty explicit. Martin Lund, "Rules for 3 January 2004", 7 Jan 2005
• Q: The Shadowlands player drops Brutal Confrontation. He then attempts to bow Voitagi to have Iuchiban issue an unrefusable challenge. The Unicorn player says that the bowing Personality is the one doing the challenge. The disagreement gets a judge to come over and it was ruled that the bowing Personality issues the challenge by implication. The Shadowlands player is asking for clarification:
  A: The ability in question, granted by Brutal Confrontation reads, "Battle: Bow one of your Personalities to challenge an opposing Personality to an unrefusable duel of Force or Chi."
  Only one Personality is specified under the ability. The ability does not reference any of your other Personalities, so that Personality has to be the one doing the challenging and the cost payment. Martin Lund, "Rules for 7 October 2004", 11 Oct 2004
• Q: Can Iuchiban be the target of other player's Spell effects while he is in a player's Discard pile?
  A: No. It says right on his card that it can't be the raget of other player's Spell effects. Martin Lund, "Rules for 16 September 2004", 23 Sep 2004
• Q: (EG, can I dig up my opponent's Iuchiban with my Seppun Jin? This came up last night. I had Uncertainty/Kolated him first..)
  A: Seppun Jin's ability does not produce a Spell Effect. It is neither a Spell nor Kiho Action. Under the Diamond Edition Rules, only these two kinds of Actions produce Spell Effects. Martin Lund, "Rules for 16 September 2004", 23 Sep 2004
• Q: 1) in the accumulated rulings, under the entering play part, there's this sentence : "Any single card or action that brings a card into play and gives it the Shadowlands trait is considered to be "bringing a Shadowlands card into play" regardless of the exact relative timing of the two effects".
  Can it be applied to the bloodspeaker trait with Temple of Snakes ? If yes, does it give the cost reduction with Iuchiban sensei ?
  A: That ruling was specifically made for the Shadowlands Trait and cards that interact with it. I can't extend it to any other traits. Jeff could, but he hasn't. Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 September 2004", 6 Sep 2004
• Q: Can shadowlands use Iuchiban sensei since a sense modifies your stronghold the -2 honor would be a modification not a gain or a loss so the stronghold wont stop it the loss and would loss as soon as the game begin.
  A: Yes, they can use it. No, it wouldn't put them below -19. They cheat that way. Martin Lund, "Rules for 18-21 August 2004", 29 Aug 2004
• Q: How so? I announce Suiteru-chan's action and choose Shukumei as the sacrifice. I choose Shukumei, Iuchiban, Naka Tokei and Suiteru as the locations of the follower tokens.
  All announcements have been made and decisions have been made (since you have to do all of your targeting before the action begins to resolve).
  A: [MARTY] To be more clear, this is what has happened:
  You've declared / announced your Action.
  You've chosen all your Targets.
  Now you're moving on to "Pay Costs." Martin Lund, "Rules for 25 June 2004", 28 Jun 2004
• Q: Quick Clarification: Purity of the Seven Thunders will destroy Iuchiban because it is a blanket effect and does not target him. Correct?
  A: Purity of the Seven Thunders does not target the Shadowlands Cards it destroys. There is no choice involved in what gets nuked. You've either got the trait or you don't. Martin Lund, "Rules for 21 June 2004", 25 Jun 2004
• Q: 3 - I bow a personality with the ruby of Iuchiban, then I kill her and my opponent plays Feign Death to bring her back. Is she still affected by the Ruby ?
  A: Yes she is. Moving in and out of play doesn't change the duration of the Ruby's effect in any way. Martin Lund, "Rules for 8 June 2004", 10 Jun 2004
• Q: ...but what about buying a personality. I have Iuchiban in one province and a Corrupt Silver Mine in another province. I declare that I'm going to buy Iuchiban in my dynasty phase.
  A: The Purchasing of Personalities during the Dynasty Phase is not an Action. It has its own set of Rules. Martin Lund, "Rules for 24 May 2004", 27 May 2004
• Q: Hi all
  Player A is playing The Spawning Grounds and has a Iuchiban in play. Iuchiban is 7/7 due to the Spawning Ground effect Player B is playing The Spawning Grounds and plays Egg of P'an Ku on his opponent's Iuchiban.
  IS the new Iuchiban: a-7/7 cause the +1/+1 bonus from The Spawning Grounds is a permanent one b-6/6 cause the +1/+1 bonus from The Spawning Grounds is not a permanent one c-7/7 because of b and because player B is playing The Spawning Grounds as his Stronghold d-8/8 because of a and because player B is playing The Spawning Grounds as his Stronghold
  A: c.
  The Spawning Grounds bonus is not permanent. Its duration is, effectively, "while the card is owned by you and has the Oni, Ogre, or Troll trait". Jeff Alexander, "rules for 26 March 2004", 29 Mar 2004
• Q: If i cancel iuchibans (once per turn) duel, can he do it again that turn?
  A: Yes. Canceled actions don't count against the number of times they can be used. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 19 March 2004", 20 Mar 2004
• Q: Jeff Alexander made a ruling that when Iuchiban was targeted by Vigilant Witch Hunter for the second time the person was given the option to give away Iuchiban or kill him. Iuchiban has the Will Only Join Shadowlands trait. Jeff ruled that you could just choose the option you knew would fail (the giving away) and that it would be legal.
  A: I did? When? I distinctly recall some very angry responses about how vulnerable Iuchiban was to this card, which makes no sense if it were powerless against him like this.
  The other player must do one of those two things, and if he can't give you Iuchiban, he must destroy him. It's the standard way cards like Vigilant Witch-Hunter work. Do you still have the post where I said otherwise? Jeff Alexander, "rules for 16 Feb. 204", 18 Feb 2004
• Q: Do the smart card options only work on cards with choices? Or can I now choose to give Iuchiban to my opponent when they target him with vilgilant witch hunter?
  A: Those are two entirely unrelated issues.
  The "Smart Cards" ruling says this:
  "Whether an action is legal to try takes into account the known state of the game (i.e., ongoing effects, bowed status, placement of units in battle), not just the action's own effects."
  As an example...
  I have an imaginary Action card that says "Limited: Gain 2 Honor and draw a card."
  Let's say an Event happened this turn that says, "For the rest of the turn, negate all Honor gains."
  Can I play my imaginary Action card just to draw another one? Yes.
  Now let's say a different Event happened instead. This one says, "For the rest of the turn, negate all Honor gains and card draws."
  Can I still play my imaginary Action card, just to shrink my hand? Yes. It's legal even though it won't produce any effects -- there is no rule against that.
  Okay, third example. Now the Event says, "For the rest of the turn, cards that create Honor gains cannot be played."
  Can I play my imaginary Action card under this Event? No! It creates an Honor gain.
  But...
  If this latest Event happens, AND the first one ("negate all Honor gains") also happens, now I CAN play this Action card. Why? Because it's not going to count as "a card that creates an Honor gain" due to the effects of that other Event.
  That's the Smart Cards rule.
  The ruling that a card that forces another player to do one of several things requires him to pick one he can actually do has been formalized much more recently, but I imagine was followed as an unwritten rule by players for longer. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 10 Feb. 2004", 11 Feb 2004
• Q: Iuchiban has the "Champion" trait, but he is not valid for effects that trigger of off whether or not your Clan Champion is in play, right? (Dragon's Strength, For the Clan, etc)
  A: Correct. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 1 December 2003", 1 Dec 2003
• Q: Since it would appear that questions are being answered about RoB again, could we get a clarification on Iuchiban and Vigilant Witch-Hunters?
  A: Not from me. Not yet. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 27 November 2003", 27 Nov 2003
• Q: Does Iuchiban get +1F/+1C or +2F/+2C when being played out of Spawning Grounds?
  A: +1F/+1C. It's "Each Ogre, Oni, and Troll Personality..." not "each Personality with the Ogre, Oni, and Troll trait." Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 10 November 2003", 10 Nov 2003
• Q: I'm playing shadowlands. I use Iuchiban to play a Guerrilla Tactics (target, dishonor, and permanently give the Shadowlands trait...) - my friend states that since Iuchiban is already Shadowlands it is illegal for me to use this card. Is it?
  A: Correct. If the card already has the Shadowlands trait, you are not able to pay the cost of giving him the Shadowlands trait. Chris Fuchs, "can Shadowlands cards gain the Shadowlands trait?", 23 May 2007