Merchant Caravan

Legend of the Five Rings card from Forbidden Knowledge, Battle of Beiden Pass, Celestial Edition 15th Anniversary, Anvil of Despair, Crimson and Jade

Card Type

Holding

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Merchant

Card Text

w: You may discard a card; produce 0 Gold plus an additional amount equal to the Focus Value of the discard (if any).

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Effects that raise gold production (e.g., Golden Sun Plain) allow it to produce gold without a discard. [ZF, 2 August 2000] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 83

Rules Q&A

• Q: I have only a bowed stronghold, a Pillar of Flesh and a merchant caravan in play. I'm holding a 0F, 2F and a 4F card in hand. I know I have to bow the Pillar of Flesh. Do I have to bow the Merchant Caravan? Do I have to discard a card to the MC
  A: You have to bow it if you have any cards in your hand, because it can produce gold for the cost. You can, however, bow it without discarding to produce 0 gold, as per the card text. Nothing forces you to optimize the gold produced from your sources. Martin Lund, "Rules for 15 September 2004", 21 Sep 2004
• Q: I have an unbowed Temple of the 9th Kami, a Merchant Caravan and a Pillar of Flesh. Do I have to bow my stronghold to make gold even though it makes only 0 gold? (i.e. do I have to try to make all the gold I possibly can even if it's not going to generate any gold in the process)?
  A: If bowing your Stronghold - can't - produce any gold towards the payment, you don't have to use the resource, as per Vaughn's ruling back in the days of Oni no Ogon. Martin Lund, "Rules for 15 September 2004", 21 Sep 2004
• Q: As such, cards are "resolved" when focused but not for tactician or any other use such as Trade Hub and Merchant Caravan?
  A: Cards focused are not resolved, unless they have text that particularly relates to focusing.
  Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar * Unaligned Deputy Rules Guy Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 13 October 2003", 13 Oct 2003
• Q: Is any time you "Use a card in your hand for it's focus value", considered discarding (Duel, Merchant Caravan, Moto Wardogs, Bayushi Ambushers, etc)?
  A: I don't think I can safely generally rule that its a discard "any time". I can confirm that it is for duels and for the Merchant Caravan. Jeff Alexander, "post for 4 December 2001", 5 Dec 2001
• Q: The Crane got Asahina Handen in this release. He is really nasty comboed with small or large farms, but would be positively evil with Merchant Caravan, or some of the corrupt holdings. BTW, would you still lose honor for using his ability and bowing a corrupt holding?
  A: No. You're using Handen, not the Holding. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 24 September 2001", 25 Sep 2001
• Q: Half yes, half no. PART of the story is driven by player input, but never has design be a part of player input. This isn't Pendragon. The Designer make their choices according to what they, as professionals, think is best for the game. The designers never have asked player input for MRPs or something. Be it Osugi, Shiba Halls, Hida Yakamo, Matsu Turi, or anything, a design decision has always been taken by the DESIGNER. That's his job.
  Actually, Dave did call for a vote on whether or not Merchant Caravan should be changed to cost 1G. But that was the only mechanics issue, I believe.
  A: There's an epilogue to this story. There was some indignation when Bandit Attack and Plague of Locusts were printed following this vote. Some players interpreted the "Should we change Merchant Caravan's cost?" vote as a "Should we ever do anything bad to Merchant Caravans at all?" vote. One in particular was quite peeved at the "sham" of being offered a vote when Dave knew all along that he was going to do *something* to try to counter MC's effectiveness. He told me personally he'd much rather have had Dave do what he wanted in the first place instead of leading players on and letting them think they had a say in the matter.
  I think there's a moral there. Jeff Alexander, "replies to the 7 June digest", 10 Jun 2001