Mitsu

Legend of the Five Rings card from Pearl Edition, Crimson and Jade, Jade Edition

Card Type

Personality

Force

2

Chi

3

Honor Requirement

5

Gold Cost

9

Personal Honor

1

Clan

Brotherhood of Shinsei, Toturi's Army

Keywords

Experienced Togashi Mitsu, Unique, Monk, Tattooed, Toturi's Army

Card Text

Repeatable Battle/Open: If Mitsu has four or fewer Fire tokens, give him zero to five Fire tokens such that the total number of Fire tokens on him does not exceed five.
Repeatable Battle, w: Destroy one or more Fire tokens on Mitsu to make a Ranged Attack with strength equal to the number of Fire tokens destroyed. Mitsu will not gain more Fire tokens this turn.

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Mitsu 2F/3C 5HR 9G 1PH Unaligned Monk. Tattooed Man. Unique. Experienced Togashi Mitsu. Toturi's Army. Open: Gain up to five Fire tokens on Mitsu. Mitsu cannot have more than five Fire tokens. Battle: Bow Mitsu and destroy one or more Fire tokens on Mitsu. Produce a ranged attack equal to the number of Fire tokens destroyed. Mitsu cannot add more Fire tokens this turn." [MRP, Pearl Edition] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 114
• If overlaid on the non-Experienced Togashi Mitsu, the prohibition against straightening when he has a Fire token only comes into effect if the non-Experienced ability is used. [Reversal, JA, 2 May 2002] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 114
• Erratum: Renamed: was Togashi Mitsu. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 17
• Erratum: Changed: is now Unaligned and Monk, not Dragon Clan. Removed: is no longer a samurai. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 18
• Q: Can I use Sympathetic Energies or Dance of the Elements to move Togashi Mitsu's +1F/+1C fire tokens onto any other Personality, or only onto another Mitsu? The spell says the new recipient has to be legal, and only Mitsu creates fire tokens. A: Here's the deal. Unless there is specific text to the contrary somewhere, any token may be placed on any Personality. Even if the token's original source couldn't generate the token on the card you're trying to move it to, if nothing forbids the possession of such a token, it's legal to move it. Example: Shosuro Hametsu can "give a Personality a Poison token if they do not have one". But nothing prohibits having more than one poison token, so you can place poison tokens on several different people and then move them all onto one. On the other hand, Akodo Kage says "No Personality may have more than 2 Sensei Tokens", so you can't do this trick with him. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.6.2, May 1998, p. 19
• Q: Can I use Sympathetic Energies to move Togashi Mitsu's +1F/+1C fire tokens onto any other Personality, or only onto another Mitsu? The spell says the new recipient has to be legal, and only Mitsu creates fire tokens. A: Here's the deal. Unless there is specific text to the contrary somewhere, any token may be placed on any Personality. This means that tokens which are always created on one particular card, such as Togashi Mitsu's and Shuten Doji's, can generally be moved to anyone, while tokens that give you a choice of where to put them, such as the Revered Sensei's and the Naga Stronghold's, can only be moved onto someone who could have been given them in the first place. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.4 & errata, June 1997, p. 16

Rules Q&A

• Q: If a Jusai with Fire tokens on him is bowed and Desperate Wager is played by the opposing player,
  A: It straightens him, as per Desperate Wager's card text which says, "including those that cannot straighten." Martin Lund, "Rules for 6 June 2004", 8 Jun 2004
• Q: Since Jusai is the Soul of Mitsu, I would think Spearhead would prevent him from bowing.
  A: Spearhead doesn't work like Rallying Cry: it doesn't prevent. Jusai's stuck. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 4 November 2003, Part 2", 5 Nov 2003
• Q: Does this mean that Sympathetic Energies can be used to move fire tokens from a bowed Mitsu (or other Dragon Tattooed guy) to an unbowed personality
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 17 June 2002", 18 Jun 2002
• Q: I know this has probailly been asked many a times before, ive even pondered way back when i used to use Mitsu but now i wanna get it straight
  Does a person using a dragon become bowed after a battle if a rallying cry is played?
  A: No. Rallying Cry does not straighten cards. It prevents them from bowing. Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 June 2002", 11 Jun 2002
• Q: Which would mean that the [Dragon Tatoo] ruling SHOULD apply to Mitsu as well, so it is applied evenly in all situations.
  A: Ideally, yes, but Mitsu has the complication of Experienced versions to consider first, so I'm taking extra time to consider that. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 April 2002 pt. 2", 8 Apr 2002
• Q: On a side note, which restriction applies to Mitsu for the number of Fire Tokens he can have -- his own wording, or the Dragon Tattoo's wording? Or, which I don't think would be the case, but I'll ask anyway, are they treated as separate restrictions, in which case Mitsu could have 8-10 Fire Tokens, depending on what version is in play?
  A: They're separate restrictions, but they don't stack. They'd all be in effect at once and the one with the smallest limit would be the only one that mattered. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 April 2002 pt. 2", 8 Apr 2002
• Q: Mitsu "bows after every battle he is in." And then cannot "restraighten" from a Rally. If Rally said, "Your units do not bow during resolution of this Battle," then it would work, because it specifically tells Mitsu that he does not bow. Or I dunno. Maybe a Rules Guy can jump in.
  A: Jump!
  Rallying Cry isn't quite properly worded. Never has been. A few years back, I worked up this whole complicated example involving a Mitsu, a few Rallying Cries, and a few Counterattacks, the end result of which being a battle wherein Mitsu was bowed, and could not be straightened by any means, yet immediately after which he would straighten as if nothing had ever happened. That's the power of Rallying Cry. It straightens your guys as if nothing had ever happened to them. In practice, it's a retroactive effect. It's just not spelled out that way on the card.
  Long story short - Rallying Cry will stop Mitsu from bowing. It will also not give Corruption tokens to attackers with Black Scrolls attached, and will otherwise straighten your units as if their bowing had never happened. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 18th", 18 Jul 2001
• Q: So with the precedent that you bow from combat and then Rallying cry straightens you. These two cards should not work together anymore.
  A: They do. See Rules Archive. A card affected by Rallying Cry is considered not to have bowed.
  Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar http://www.planet.net.au/~zfaulkes/o-ushi.html Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 15 July 2001", 15 Jul 2001
• Q: 1/ I assume that Rallying Cry does not affect units that have been sent home during the course of the battle - correct?
  Yes. It only affects units that were bowed by the resolution of the battle.
  Hrmm...this raises a somewhat interesting timing question in my mind. In the discussion of Rallying cry recently, it was mentioned that due to the timing of it, it technically unbows your units after bowing. I can live with this. Now...my question is... A Hummingbird Tattoo does something very similar-it allows you to straighten the personality who has it after they bow at the end of resolution. My question is-since Rallying cry, which is played later temporally speaking, will prevent Dragon Tattoo'ed people and Mitsu from bowing, will the Hummingbird Tattoo do likewise? My instincts say no, since despite the timing, one card says "prevent from bowing" and the other says "straighten immediately after he or she bows." Is that the case? Or would a Hummingbird Tattoo function like a Rallying Cry in this regard?
  A: Rallying Cry works retroactively to prevent them from bowing, but Hummingbird Tattoo is specifically worded like it is so that Mitsu/Dragon Tattooed people still bow. Hummingbird Tat is not retroactive, and anyone affected by it will still bow (albeit temporarily), and then straighten. Rallying Cry is...specal. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for November 15th", 15 Nov 2000
• Q: Can Soul of the Clan straighten Mitsu/Jusai if they have any fire tokens on them?
  A: Yes. "Even if they cannot straighten," Soul of the Clan card text. Zen Faulkes, "Jusai and Soul of the Clan", 30 Mar 2005
• Q: Does Mitsu/Jusai still gain 6f from Temples of the New Tao?
  A: No. Zen Faulkes, "More Mitsu Goodness", 30 Mar 2005
• Q: The Poison and Chi penalties were the things I was thinking when I said ‘explicit’; Mtg had that problem early on too, where token names were based on the flavor than the function. I think anything that generates a +1 GP Wealth token calls that out in CoM and later, or I didn’t see the example otherwise, so it’s just going to have to be a wonky interaction. It happens. :p I don’t think Sennin would go weird; he doesn’t have a GP value since the field doesn’t exist on a Personality, right? So they’d be ‘dormant’ Wealth tokens that his card specifically says what to do with them. Or Fire tokens. Didn’t they go weird on Mitsu?
  A: Somewhat. Brook Cunningham, "Oracle of the Void #rules", 24 Apr 2023