Mirumoto Zenko

Legend of the Five Rings card from Dark Allies

Card Type

Personality

Force

3

Chi

3

Honor Requirement

4

Gold Cost

7

Personal Honor

2

Clan

Dragon

Keywords

Dragon Clan, Samurai

Card Text

Zenko may attach two Weapons.
Reduce the Focus Values of all cards Focused against Zenko in duels by the number of Weapons he has (to a minimum of 0).

Legality

Four Winds (Gold)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: 2. If I have in play
  Mirumoto Zenko
  with two weapons, one of wich is:
  Shinsei's Staff
  And my opponent plays a Focus 5 in a duel against him. How much does his Focus aport to his Chi? one?
  One.
  Jeff,
  I thought you had originally ruled that it was dependant upon whose turn it was as to which effect happens first since both take effect at the same time.
  A: I also generally rule that when multiple modifiers stack, any minimums or maximums only matter if all the modifiers share them. In other words, if one effect reduces a value by three and another, applied at the same time, reduces it by three to a minimum of 1, that the minimum of 1 just doesn't matter and the value always goes down by the full 6. I'll see what the Rules Team says, though. Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 December 2002", 4 Dec 2002
• Q: 2. If I have in play
  Mirumoto Zenko Dragon Clan Samurai. Zenko may attach two Weapons. Reduce the Focus values of all cards Focused against Zenko in duels by the number of Weapons he has (to a minimum of 0).
  with two weapons, one of wich is:
  Shinsei's Staff Costs 2 less gold when attaching to a monk. Reaction: Bow Shinsei's staff after this personality enters a duel. For the rest of the duel, reduce your opponent's focus value to 3 if they are above three.
  And my opponent plays a Focus 5 in a duel against him. How much does his Focus aport to his Chi? one?
  A: One. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 December 2002", 3 Dec 2002
• Q: And my opponent plays a Focus 5 in a duel against [Mirumoto Zenko + Shinsei's Staff + other weapon]. How much does his Focus aport to his Chi?
  A: Not such what "aport" means, but... There is not a single correct answer. This one falls under the third cardinal rules: when two effects create conflicting effects simultaneously, the current player picks the order. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 29 November 2002", 30 Nov 2002
• Q: not). And what happenes if Mirumoto Zenko with 2 weapons attached, enters a duel? Are the opponents focus values still lovered by 2?
  A: Yes. Zenko is affecting the focus values, and Zenko is not an Item. Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 October 2002", 22 Oct 2002
• Q: 9.) Mirumoto Zenko has two Shinsei's Staffs. The Staffs reduce all focus values to no more than three - Zenko's ability reduces all Focus values by two. Which goes off first? Does it mean that all focus values are reduced by 2 (and if they're higher than 3, promptly reduced to 3)? Or does it mean that they're reduced to 3, then reduced by 2 to 1?
  A: Both reductions attempt to occur at the same time (when the card is focused), so the active player chooses which happens first.
  The fact that one reduction is due to a trait and the other is due to a Reaction (which has an effect for the duration of the duel) does not matter here because the Reaction itself is not racing with the trait. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 April 2002", 9 Apr 2002
• Q: The short version: Would Mirumoto Zenko be considered a Kensai personality based on his trait?
  A: Short answer: No. Brook Cunningham, "Mirumoto Zenko and Kensai (Legacy Question)", 10 Mar 2011
• Q: The long version would be that Zenko was printed before the Kensai keyword was conceived of. Now that the Kensai keyword was defined, and is now used to replace the trait "may attach two Weapons" on newer cards, does this mean that this keyword would also get applied to older personalities with the trait in them?
  My feeling is that the answer would be no, as I cannot find an example in L5R where a keyword definition was retroactively applied to older printings with traits that defined a keyword. However, I am kinda hoping that I am in error. Thanks for your time.
  A: Long answer: You're not in error. While I would some day like to make a database that updates all cards to current templates and wordings, I would do my best to keep them as close to their printed version as possible. Also as such, cards with "Will only join X Clan" would still have that trait, and not gain "Loyal". So, sorry.
  But I'm always glad to hear of those players who still dabble in Legacy. You may find the upcoming War of Honor product helpful to your continued enjoyment of older cards, as its goal is to balance multiplayer, and multiplayer seems to be a much more friendly way of playing with Legacy cards versus one-on-one. Brook Cunningham, "Mirumoto Zenko and Kensai (Legacy Question)", 10 Mar 2011