Kolat Assassin

Legend of the Five Rings card from Diamond Edition, Pre-Imperial Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Battle of Beiden Pass, Obsidian Edition, Jade Edition, Gold Edition, Pearl Edition, Siege of Sleeping Mountain, L5R Experience, Celestial Edition 15th Anniversary, Honor Bound, Ambition's Debt, Web of Lies, Code of Bushido

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

10

Keywords

Assassin, Kolat

Card Text

Limited: Target a Personality with 4 or less Chi: Destroy him. Lose 4 Honor.
Limited: Target a Retainer: Destroy it. Lose 4 Honor.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Kolat Assassin 10G 3FV Limited: Destroy a Personality with under 5 Chi. Lose 4 Honor. Limited: Destroy a Retainer. Lose 4 Honor." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 23
• Erratum: Changed: now targets a Personality with Chi less than 5, not 4. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 4

Rules Q&A

• Q: Kolat Assassin: my opponent try's to target one of my guys, I surge, does my opponent now get a chance to target someone else?
  A: No. Same as the entry above. Martin Lund, "Rules for 31 January 2005", 4 Feb 2005
• Q: I have a question about redirection and Kolat Assassin.
  A: I already answered this exact same question yesterday. Only Personalities with chi less than 5 are legal targets of that ability of Kolat Assassin, just as only Personalities with 3 or more Personal Honor are legal targets for Strength of Purity. If something means to say, "Target a personality. It that Personality is X, do Y," then the card will clearly say so. Martin Lund, "Rules for 23 January 2005", 25 Jan 2005
• Q: I have a question about redirection and Kolat Assassin.
  My opponent has a 3C personality and a 6C personality. I target the 3C personality with a Kolat Assassin, my opponent plays an action (e.g. Turn of Fate) to redirect the action to the 6C personality.
  Is this
  (a) Legal, because Kolat Assassin should be treated as if it read "Target a personality : If that personality has less than 5C destroy them"
  (b) Illegal, because Kolat Assassin should be treated as if it read "Target a personality with less than 5C : Destroy that personality"
  A: It is illegal. Neither wording provided her abides the current templating properly. You do not separate Targeting from the rest of the Action by means of ":" Under modern templating, the clearest wording for Kolat Assassin and similar cards would be: "Limited: Target a personality with less than 5 Chi. Destroy him." Martin Lund, "Rules for 21 January 2005", 24 Jan 2005
• Q: 1. I have a Personality with a Follower attached. My opponent plays a Kolat Assassin. Could I React with Suitengu's Surge?
  A: Yes. Martin Lund, "Rules for 17 December 2004", 23 Dec 2004
• Q: 2. I have a Personality with no cards attached. My opponent plays a Kolat Assassin. Could I React with Suitengu's Surge?
  A: Yes. Martin Lund, "Rules for 17 December 2004", 23 Dec 2004
• Q: 1. I have a Personality with a Follower attached. My opponent plays a Kolat Assassin. Could I React with Suitengu's Surge?
  A: Yes. Martin Lund, "Rules for 14 December 2004", 20 Dec 2004
• Q: 2. I have a Personality with no cards attached. My opponent plays a Kolat Assassin. Could I React with Suitengu's Surge?
  A: Yes. Martin Lund, "Rules for 14 December 2004", 20 Dec 2004
• Q: Can someone please help me out in fiding those sections?
  Normally, if an action card is canceled by another player's card effect, the action card does not go back into your hand. For instance, if I play a Kolat Assassin on your bowed Koto and you drop a Balance in Nothingness, I don't get the Kolat Assassin back to play again later.
  A: [MARTY] Yes. That's covered on page 72 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook under Canceling Actions and Negating Effects. Martin Lund, "Rules for 10 December 2004", 13 Dec 2004
• Q: One of the players in our group has a question on how Kolat Assassin interacts with Shieh-Tieh Yen Wang Temple.
  A: This question seems to come up every two weeks or something. Martin Lund, "Rules for 19 November 2004", 23 Nov 2004
• Q: He tries to Kolat one of my personalities with 4 Chi. I invoke the STYW Temple, raising Chi to 5
  Queries: 1) Since the target is now illegal, does he have to pay the cost of the Kolat Assassin?
  A: "Although targeting occurs before costs are paid, if an action is canceled at the targeting step (e.g., Balance in Nothingness), all costs must still be paid, using any (and, if necessary, all) available sources that do not require actions or abilities to generate. Variable costs may be chosen based on the knowledge that the action has been canceled. [JA, 15 May 2003, 18 December 2003; ML, 21 September 2004]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Canceling and negation") Martin Lund, "Rules for 19 November 2004", 23 Nov 2004
• Q: I am a Mantis Player with Shosuku Sensei. I have 10 Family Honor. I have played a Kolat Assassin.
  After it I will have:
  a) 4 Family Honor, due to 4 loss from Kolat plus 2 from Shosuku Sensei b) 6 Family Honor, due to 4 loss from Kolat. The Sensei make Honor losses when "you lose Honor from one of your other cards", and the Kolat is never in play and then isn't "one of YOUR other cards"
  A: The answer is B. Kolat Assassin does not enter play, so you can not control it, thusly it can not be "your card." Martin Lund, "Rules for 5 October 2004", 9 Oct 2004
• Q: Hello,
  I have posted a question 1 Sep 2004 and I miss a answer for it. The question was forwarded from Marty to Jeff Alexander. Jeff have done some explanation these days about triggers, reactions, before, after,... but no a direct answer to my question.
  Then, I have to re-ask it:
  I have two scenarios involving Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple’s Reaction
  A) I have a Personality with 4C, no Retainers in play. My opponent has no Personalities. He want to play a Kolat Assassin. I use the Reaction of Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple and becames an ilegal target. What happens?
  A.1. Because is an ilegal action the Kolat Assassin remains in hand, no costs are produced neither paid. A.2. The Kolat Assassin is discarded, and 10G cost must be paid. A.3. The Kolat Assassin is discarded, but no Gold is involved. A.4. Other. Please, explain.
  A: 4. Kolat Assassin is played and must be paid for, but has no effect on the target that is now 5C. [DE p. 75] Martin Lund, "Rules for 9 September 2004", 13 Sep 2004
• Q: B) I have a Personality with 4C and a Retainer in play. My opponent has no Personalities. He wants to play a Kolat Assassin.
  B.1. I may play the Reaction on Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple. My opponent must choose the Retainer as target. B.2. I may play the Reaction on Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple. Because the possible target was my Personality, the opponent must do the answer of the example A. B.3. I couldn’t play the Reaction on Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple, because I don’t know in advance if the Personality is the real future target of Kolat Assassin, or will be the Retainer. My opponent could target my Personality or the Retainer without problems. B.4. Other. Please, explain.
  A: 4. Kolat Assassin is played and must be paid for, but has no effect on the target that is now 5C. [DE p. 75] Martin Lund, "Rules for 9 September 2004", 13 Sep 2004
• Q: A) I have a Personality with 4C, no Retainers in play. My opponent has no Personalities. He want to play a Kolat Assassin. I use the Reaction of Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple and becames an ilegal target. What happens?
  A: Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple as a weird wording. It tells you to do it - before - they get targeted. Normally, affects trigger When or After such a thing happens.
  I'm not quite sure how that meshes with the rest of the rules. It is a new card, and thusly I shall use this as an excuse to toss more work on Jeff's desk.
  Forwarded. Martin Lund, "Rules for 1 September 2004", 3 Sep 2004
• Q: 2. With my newly acquired mantra (Declare, Target, Pay, Resolve), what does this do to, say, Kolat Assassin and Slaughter the Scout? Examples:
  I move a unit into a battle; my opponent declares s/he will Slaughter the Scout (Declare). My opponent targets the unit moving in (Target). I declare a Turn of Fortune (Declare). I target my unit being Slaughtered and a personality sitting at home (Target).
  A: You can't do it. You're bound by page 74 as noted above. Slaughter the Scout can only legally target or be redirected to a unit that just moved in. There are no other legal targets, so it can't be redirected at all. Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 July 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: The same question with Kolat Assassin only abbreviated: After redirecting the Assassin to Satsu with Turn of Fortune, my opponent can then choose not to pay the 10G and allow the Assassin to just be cancelled, correct?
  A: No. You still have to pay the cost of an Action, even if that Action gets Canceled before paying costs. Further, you can't redirect Kolat Assassin to Satsu if his Chi is greater than 4 (which it likely is). Personalities with over 4 chi are not legal targets for Kolat Assassin. Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 July 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: Part 2: From the DE rulebook, page 74 "You can redirect an action or effect only to something else it could have targeted originally." When is originally determined? At announcement, targeting, start of effects? Does it consider the game state when I announced the action, or the game state now? For example, if I play Kolat Assassin, and my opponent uses plays "Reaction: Lose 2 Chi to redirect a Limited Action." on a 6 Chi peep. When I played KA, he had 6 Chi (not a legal target), but now he has 4 Chi (legal). Is he a legal target for the KA? Maybe just a clean up for aisle Lotus.
  A: [MARTY] That is pretty ambiguous, isn't it?
  I clarified with Jeff. It isn't meant to refer to the prior game state, but to the fact that you must abide the original targeting restrictions of the card as it was played - so if you redirect an opponent's Action, you are restricted to redirecting to stuff that same opponent can target, not just stuff - you - can target. Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 June 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: Am I able to use Turn of Fortune to redirect an action to an illegal target? For instance, can I redirect something like Kolat Assassin to one of my personalities with more that 4 Chi?
  A: No. It says specifically on page 74 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook:
  "You can redirect an action or effect only to something it else it could have targeted originally." Martin Lund, "Rules for 11 May 2004", 15 May 2004
• Q: I have a Kurohito Exp.2 in play., and a Kolat Assassin and Rethoric in my hand. My opponent is -16, and no other Personalities or Retainers are in play.
  Could I play Kolat Assassin on Kurohito Exp.2?
  A: Kolat Assassin targets "a Retainer" or "a Personality with under 5 Chi". [card text] Kurohito Exp.2 is neither. You can't play it on him. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 24 March 2004", 26 Mar 2004
• Q: I'm either dumb or confused. can someone explain to me how this works?
  How can a personality seppuku to reduce honor loss from a Kolat Assassin?
  A: Because seppuku is done as soon as the Personality gets targeted by Kolat Assassin, not when the honor loss actually occurs. [DE p. 88] This is before any effects of Kolat Assassin have occured, so the Personality is still alive.
  The first Nagori commits seppuku, then Kolat Assassin tries to kill him and fails, then Kolat Assassin causes a 4 point loss which gets changed to 1, to which the other Nagori reacts with Rhetoric. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 24 Feb. 2004", 26 Feb 2004
• Q: I have a couple rules questions.
  1) Let's say I'm playing a dishonor deck. My opponent is at -19 honor and I have one turn to beat him. If I have two Doji Nagoris out, a Kolat Assassin in hand, and a Rhetoric in hand, can I Kolat Assassin one of the Nagoris, seppuku, lose 1 honor, then redirect it through the Rhetoric?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 23 Feb. 2004", 24 Feb 2004
• Q: If you have Bayushi Kaukatsu in play with 3 Diplomatic Apprentices attached and play a Kolat Assassin (which causes you to lose 4 honor when played), can you have Diplomatic Apprentice and the 3 DA all react to the honor loss & cause you and your opponent to lose 16 honor?
  A: No (Diamond rules, pg. 75). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 30 November 2003", 1 Dec 2003
• Q: 3. I target one of my opponents bowed Personalities with Kolat Assassin and they cancel it with Balance in Nothingness. Since Balance in Nothingness reads cancel an action targeting, it would be canceled as soon as I targeted but before I could pay the cost of 10 gold and the cost of losing honor?
  A: Sorry, costs are not refunded when an action is canceled. Yes, I see what you are saying, but it doesn't work that way. There is no action TO cancel if you haven't paid for it yet. (You would not lose 4 honor -- that is an effect, not a cost.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 14 May 2003", 15 May 2003
• Q: Continuing with my obvious questions, but I want to be clear.
  Just to check: Can I target a 5 chi personality with Kolat Assassin? "Destroy a Personality with under 5 Chi." No. Five is not under five.
  OK. Would the same be legal with a ranged attack? Didn't find anything on the rulings, and the (online) rulebook says that if the RA is lower than the force nothing happenes.
  A: Ranged attacks can be aimed at any card regardless of Force; they only destroy it if their strength meets or exceeds that Force. [GE p. 63] This is true because that's how the rules on ranged attacks are worded, not because L5R defines a number to be always "less than" itself. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 May 2003", 9 May 2003
• Q: Just to check: Can I target a 5 chi personality with Kolat Assassin?
  A: "Destroy a Personality with under 5 Chi." No. Five is not under five. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 May 2003", 8 May 2003
• Q: 2. Hamanari + Spirit Guide... If I have a SG attached to AH and I use AH's reaction to cancel an action card, then straighten him with SG, can I use his reaction again during the same turn? (each printed instance can only be used once per turn?)
  Each printed Reaction can be used once per TRIGGER, not per turn. Hamanari can be used again on a different Action card.
  I never noticed this. So this means if someone plays a Kolat Assassin and I cancel it with Hamanari, the next time its played Hamanari can't cancel it?
  A: He can, even if it's the same card. It's a different playing, thus a different trigger.
  This rule impacts Hamanari only if he has a way of using his ability without bowing and needs to use it twice on the exact same playing of the card. Jeff Alexander, "post for 25 March 2003", 26 Mar 2003
• Q: Sender: L5r-ccg-admin@alderac.com
  One more (and hopefully last) question concerning the proper effect of Vengeful Dead that was raised in my playgroup today. According to the Accumulated Rulings, the "for all players" clause only means it resolves regardless of who owns it. Assuming both Player A and Player B have already killed one of the other's Personalities with a Kolat Assassin prior to Vengeful Dead hitting the table for the first time, is the proper interpretation:
  A) When it turns up for Player A, he resolves it and gets to kill a Personality. When it turns up for Player B, he also gets to resolve it and gets to kill a Personality.
  - or -
  B) When it turns up for either Player A or Player B, *both* players get to kill a Personality at the same time.
  A: A). Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 March 2003", 11 Mar 2003
• Q: Cards Ivolved: Kolat Assassin, Imperial Messenger, Wind's Truth
  Let's say I play Kolat Assassin, I wanted to increase the honor loss with my Imperial Messenger, but as my opponent gets the first reaction he steals the honor loss first.
  My question: can I still use my reaction, possibly rendering the Wind's Truth unusable?
  A: First, let's make sure your opponent REALLY gets to react first. Gold Edition rulebook, page 48:
  ] If more than one player wishes to take Reactions at the same ] time, first consider the exact wording of the Reactions. A ] Reaction taken "before" its trigger, for example, is always ] playable before one taken "after" its trigger. If the Reactions ] have the same wording for when they're taken, the chance to ] take the first Reaction goes to the player to the left of the ] one who caused the trigger. For things like the beginning of a ] phase, treat the active player -- the one whose turn it is -- ] as the one who caused the trigger.
  The Wind's Truth is cast "when any player gains or loses honor", but Imperial Messenger has to be bowed "before a player plays a card that will cause that player an Honor loss." In this case it's clear: Imperial Messenger is ALWAYS used before The Wind's Truth is. Your opponent cannot steal your loss before you double it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 27 February 2003", 28 Feb 2003
• Q: I have one IA unbowed and in play and my opponent plays a Kolat Assassin I bow the IA and he takes an 8 pt. honor loss and the K. Assassin kills the target. Now if I have 2 IA's in play and I use them both he loses 12 honor correct, not 16 honor?
  A: Correct. Imperial Messenger increases the loss by the PRINTED amount. [card text] Each one used will increase the loss by 4. Jeff Alexander, "post for 14 January 2003", 15 Jan 2003
• Q: If someone targets one of my peeps with a Kolat Assassin or Master, can I redirect it to him with Shinjo Technique? Can it redirect [Iaijutsu] Challenges and [Iaijutsu] Lesson's?
  A: Yes, no, no, and no, in that order, for those cards. Ask, "Could your opponent have played the card on his or her own Personality?" Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 14 July 2002", 14 Jul 2002
• Q: Well, I guess I could keep arguing, but I recall you're one of the rules gurus who decides these things...so wasted breath, no? That said, then, I would assume that Kolat Assassin is in the same league; it can't legally target someone with chi of 5 or more?
  If the chi is now a targeting requirement, and not part of the action in that it is only a targeting restriction.,
  A: You lost me. "Now a targeting requirement, not just a targeting restriction"? What's the difference? Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 October 2001", 30 Oct 2001
• Q: Anyone could tell me if a Shadowlands player may play a Kolat Assassin? He can't loss the 4 points of honor!
  A: Honor loss in that case is an effect, not a cost. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 1 August 2001", 2 Aug 2001
• Q: I am finding myself beset by these Underroos wearing, faceless,...sorry about that it was about to get unfriendly. So I decided to have a little fun at there expense. The difficulty is my card affects can not cause the Ninja to lose honor. I can redirect though. Since this is the case, I need to find out what is causing the loss of honor when/if I play Martyr, the personality/duel/Kolat action or the Martyr card. Right now I see it as the action taken that killed my peep that caused the honor loss. If this is the case, the next time one of my peeps is killed by Kolat Assassin I am going to have a little treat instore for the perpetrator. ;)
  A: Sorry to have to tell you this, but Martyr is considered to be the card causing the honor loss, not the action/effect/act of god that triggered Martyr in the first place. As far as I can tell, there are very few ways to cause a Ninja player an honor loss (none, so far as I can tell). Best that you can do is Court Jester one of the losses that he creates for himself. How's that? Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for January 26th", 27 Jan 2001
• Q: Example (pretty close to actual gameplay): I have used Secrets on the Wind on Akodo Quehao. I pull out Kolat Assassin, targeting him. Quehao is being destroyed while dishonored, and is due to cause his controller 3 points of honor loss.
  QUESTION 1: Can his controller announce that Quehao will commit seppuku in response to the Assassin, reducing the honor loss to 1?
  A: Nope. His death is not a valid trigger for seppuku. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for", 12 Jan 2001
• Q: So, in order of explicity, which of the following situations would trigger Toshiken's reaction?
  a. Kolat Assassin
  A: Yup. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for November 27th", 27 Nov 2000
• Q: A dishonoured personality with 3ph is targeted and killed by a card effect (ie Kolat Assassin). Since the result is a loss of 3 honour for the controlling player(rulebook effect: death of dishonoued personalities), can he react to the destruction of his personality by committing seppuku to reduce the loss to one?
  A: No. You can't react to dying by dying. Zen Faulkes, "Seppuku Timing", 11 May 2005
• Q: If really Saori can do it with the actual errata text, Jeff are breaking one Accumulated Ruling, posted in the original question by Marty:
  RULING
  If one or more of an action's targets become illegal between when they are chosen and when the action begins to resolve, that action will not affect those targets. This remains true even if they become illegal, then return to being legal. [JA, 15 June 2004; 22 June 2004]
  This Ruling helps to solve some problems:
  1.- Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Temple and 4C Personality vs. Kolat Assassin
  Kolat Assassin targets 4C Personality
  If you give +1F/+1C with Temple --> 5C
  He is no legal target before Kolat Assassin's effects
  Kolat Assassin do nothing.
  Q1: What happens now?
  If the Ruling doesn't apply to Saori I must think it will never apply more to this example. Kolat Assassin kill 5C Personality. I am wrong?
  A: Actually, you're wrong. The same thing will happen that happened before:
  Personality does not die. The Kolat Assassin's player still loses 4 Honor, though, because this part of the action doesn't affect the Personality.
  There is still the rule on page 75 that when an action's target becomes illegal because of a Reaction, the action won't affect it. That rule is not going to change.
  At stake is the ruling that expands this existing rule to cover all situations where a target becomes illegal, not just those where a Reaction caused it. It looks elementary and basically sound on the surface, and some of its results are intuitive, but others aren't. I'd like it to make intuitive results every time, if that's possible without making things more confusing. If we can't, we'll change Saori's rewording. Jeff Alexander, "Re: Saori, breaking the rules and make a ruling", 5 Mar 2005
• Q: [Imperial]
  Can I have Kolat Assassin in my discard pile and still use Lies, Lies, Lies… since the oracle text includes the discard pile, but not in the card
  A: In Imperial, yes, you can. Oracle text is based on the Samurai Edition MRP. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 14 Feb 2026
• Q: [Imperial] [Jade] {Hidden Emperor]
  My opponent is the Ninja clan, and they use Kolat Assassin. Can I use Court Jester to double their honor loss?
  A: Yes. The Jester does not cause a loss and no loss comes from it; it only modifies a loss the player caused themself. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 30 Sep 2025
• Q: Does O-Ushi sensei protect against Kolat Assassin/Master? Say, if my opponent target someone like Hiruma Nikaru who is 7F. @Brook Cunningham @kempy_nezumi
  A: I would say "no". I can't find any contemporary Rulings, if you're asking for specific interactions in Jade simulation. However, the way O-Ushi is worded, and the way Assassin and Master are worded (both Oracle wording and as-printed), O-Ushi's text allows for a different stat than Chi to be checked for a Personality that was already legally targeted and then the effects check its Chi. But Master and Assassin's Chi stipulations are conditions for targeting at all, so she couldn't "stop" or "redirect" those, because they would happen before she allows for "substitution". If you follow my logic? Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 19 Jul 2024
• Q: No sorry I meant instigator for 4 gold is really efficent and poisoned weapon can auto kill a 3 chi or less. My buddy used to use it all the time Haha Oh Haha I was confusing geisha assassin with kolat assassin! That's potentially very gold efficient as well
  A: Of course, neither the Instigator nor either Assassin action can target the guy with the Journal. Duplicate is a nice choice to counter it, apart from 1. it's an Event, so unreliable, 2. the fact the Journal might come back any time, and 3. boosting the heck out of the other guy's economy, especially having to hit a Naga Warlord out of Heart of the Shinomen; suddenly up to 6 Personalities in the deck are free (4 non-Uniques and the 2 Exp versions). Brook Cunningham, "Oracle of the Void #rules", 7 Mar 2021