Kuro Sensei

Legend of the Five Rings card from Ambition's Debt

Card Type

Sensei

Province Strength

+0

Gold Production

+0

Starting Family Honor

+0

Keywords

Brotherhood of Shinsei, Lion Clan, Mantis Clan, Phoenix Clan, Toturi's Army

Card Text

Before your Personality enters a duel that he has no option to refuse, he may refuse it.
Your Personalities will not be the challenger in a duel.
After your Personality refuses a duel with no consequences for refusal, you lose 3 Honor and the Personality is dishonored.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rulings

• A cost for refusals is not a "penalty." If you refuse a challenge with a cost for refusal, you must lose honor and dishonor your Personality even if you successfully paid the cost. [JA, 1 November 2002] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 142

Rules Q&A

• Q: When you refuse a duel with no refusal penality, what causes the honor loss? the personality? The duel? The stronghold? The sensei?
  A: The loss is written on the Sensei. It comes from the Sensei. (The rulebook says Sensei abilities are copied onto the Stronghold, but this is not an ability.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 February 2003", 6 Feb 2003
• Q: I've saw Jeff telling to another guy that Kuro Sensei doesn't allow someone to refuse a Yokuan's challenge without bowing. But, if the target personality was already bowed ... could it still be refused?
  A: Yes, because then it is an unrefusable challenge. (It is known that the cost of refusing cannot be paid.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 November 2001", 22 Nov 2001
• Q: I have a question: If my Bayushi Yokuan issue a challenge to a opposing bowed personality wich controller have in play a Kuro Sensei, could he refuse it?
  A: By extension of the Moto Gaheris/Winter Warfare/Block Supply Lines ruling: yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 9 October 2001", 9 Oct 2001
• Q: If my opponent, who controls Kuro Sensei, has a dishonored personality and Kakita Kaisei issues and unrefusable challenge to one of his personalities and I use Kaisei's reaction targeting the dishonored personality, can the challenge be refused (by Kuro Sensei's text) or does Kaisei's ability make my opponent unable to pay the additional cost of refusing thus making my opponent's personality unable to refuse the challenge?
  A: In general, Kuro Sensei will not waive a cost of refusal. Which means, in your specific example, an already dishonorable Personality will not be able to pay the cost of refusing Kaisei's challenge.
  "Normally unrefusable" challenges (per Kuro Sensei's text) are ones that are either explicitly unrefusable in the case of pre-SE-legal duels, or ones that do not explicitly say they may be refused in the case of SE-legal and later duels. Kuro Sensei will not analyze the situation at hand to see if you can refuse or not, and then allow you to do so regardless. Brook Cunningham, "Kuro Sensei, Kakita Kaisei", 5 Mar 2009
• Q: 1. When exactly does Otomo Sensei force my opponent to discard? Does the searched card ever go to my opponent's hand, before it is discarded?
  A: After he selected the card from the deck, before anything else happens. It never gets to his or her hand. It also isn't Discarded. "Discarded from play," on some old cards like this one really means, "removed from the game," in modern wordings and rules. Martin Lund, "Otomo Sensei, Kuro Sensei", 11 Feb 2008
• Q: 2. How would subsequent effects be affected if a searched card is discarded from play. For example, would Defensive Duty still increase my province strength even if the personality searched is discarded by Otomo Sensei?
  A: You could still get the Province Strength boost. Use the last known value of the card before it was removed from the game. You will not, however, ever put it in your Province or need to discard a card in that Province. You obviously will not need to discard the Personality either. Martin Lund, "Otomo Sensei, Kuro Sensei", 11 Feb 2008
• Q: 3. How does Kuro Sensei affect refusable challenges when costs to refuse cannot be paid (i.e. a dishonored personality challenged with The Steel Gardens of the Kenshinzen's battle action)?
  A: If there is a listed option to refuse the challenge, Kuro Sensei has no effect on the challenge - even if you can't pay the cost of refusal. Martin Lund, "Otomo Sensei, Kuro Sensei", 11 Feb 2008