Matsu Benika

Legend of the Five Rings card from Path of the Destroyer, Battle of Kyuden Tonbo

Card Type

Personality

Force

5

Chi

4

Honor Requirement

7

Gold Cost

8

Personal Honor

4

Clan

Lion

Keywords

Experienced 2, Unique, Beastmaster, Commander, Hero, Jade, Lion Clan, Samurai

Card Text

Your Nonhuman cards have +1F.
Battle/Limited: Create a 1F Nonhuman • Cat Follower and attach it to your target Commander.

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Dynasty

Story

2008 North American Champion - Case Kiyonaga

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I have a bowed samurai with an unbowed Hand Of The Jade Dragon attached. Isawa Reido Blows up this samurai to destroy an opposing personality. Can I react with Hand Of The Jade Dragon to negate the samurai's death and still destroy the opposing personality? I ask because Reido's text doesn't state that the person has to have been destroyed for the effect to go off, only that the person was targeted. Relevant text Below...
  Isawa Reido Phoenix Clan • Fire • Shugenja • Unique Battle: Destroy your target Personality or Follower: Destroy a target Personality or Follower without attachments and with equal or lower Force than your targeted Personality or Follower.
  Hand Of The Jade Dragon Jade • Unique Attaches to Matsu Benika paying 2 less Gold. This Personality has Hero. Reaction: Before an action's resolution: Negate this Personality's destruction from the action's effects.
  A: No, for several reasons.
  Firstly, Hand of the Jade Dragon's ability only negates the destruction of its Personality from an action's effects, whereas Isawa Reido destroys the Personality as a cost. See Mandatory costs: The mandatory cost of an action is found in the constraints block and Definition of effects: An effect is anything, other than a cost, that changes the stats, traits, abilities, restrictions, or capabilities of a card, a player, a game entity (such as Provinces), or the game state.
  Secondly, Hand of the Jade Dragon's ability reacts "Before an action's resolution", which is after costs are paid. See Using abilities: A. Announce the action B. Required targeting C. Pay costs D. Action resolution E. Action ends
  Thirdly, because the Personality is destroyed as a cost of the action - that is, the destruction is listed between the two colons - if the Personality is not destroyed, the action's costs cannot be paid and the action fails. See Interference with mandatory costs. Alex Jones, "Isawa Reido&Hand Of The Jade Dragon", 8 Mar 2010
• Q: In a recent game with a friend, a point of contention arose regarding the effects of Shameful Injury. During my Action phase, I'd attached a weapon (a Gumbai-Uchiwa) to my personality (Matsu Benika Exp 2), then declared an attack. In the battle, my opponent played Shameful Injury on Benika. He claimed that Shameful Injury would negate the Force bonus to Benika from the item because it had been attached that turn. I contended that the Force bonus was not due to an action (i.e., Limited, Open, Battle, or Reaction), but an item, and thus would not be affected by Shameful Injury.
  Gumbai Uchiwa Tessen * Weapon 3G +2F +0C After this card leaves play: Remove it from the game. Battle: If this card is in your discard pile: Attach it to your target Personality.
  Shameful Injury Strategy 0G Battle: Even if you control no units at the current battlefield: Negate all current Force bonuses and penalties a target Personality has received from actions. Until the turn ends, negate all new Force bonuses or penalties to him from actions.
  A: Bonuses from items are not from actions, and not affected by Shameful Injury.
  http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Source_of_effects: "Targeting, costs, effects and actions come 'from,' or are done by, the card where the thing in question is originally physically printed." Zen Faulkes, "Shameful Injury and Gumbai-Uchiwa", 4 Dec 2009