Moto Chen

Legend of the Five Rings card from Lotus Edition, A Perfect Cut

Card Type

Personality

Force

4

Chi

3

Honor Requirement

0

Gold Cost

9

Personal Honor

3

Clan

Unicorn

Keywords

Cavalry, Tactician, Unique, Junghar, Unicorn Clan

Card Text

Chen may attach two Weapons.
Chen may not Lobby.
Being dishonorable does not give Chen 0 maximum Personal Honor.

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Four Winds (Gold)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Moto Chen 4F/3C 0HR 9G 3PH Unicorn Clan Junghar. Cavalry. Tactician. Unique. Chen cannot lobby. Chen can attach two Weapons. Being Dishonored does not affect Chen’s maximum Personal Honor." [MRP, Lotus Edition, 31 October 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 115
• His Personal Honor does not change when dishonored (i.e., it does not become the lowest nonzero value possible). [VRD, 8 January 2002] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 115

Rules Q&A

• Q: Patience Battle: Target one of your Tacticians in the current battle. Until the battle ends, that Personality gains +2F each time you Pass instead of taking a Battle or Open action. This is a use of the Tactician trait.
  I'm defending with Moto Chen. My first action is to play this card. He plays Deadly Ground. I pass. Does Deadly Ground prevent me from gaining +2F?
  A: No. Gaining +2F is not an action. Also, passing is not an action, so you are not prohibited from doing it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 28 April 2003", 29 Apr 2003
• Q: if I controlled Moto Chen, then my opponent Kolat Masters him, we get into a battle, and my opponent uses Chen's Tactician trait, and then I take Chen back via Loyalty Renewed in the middle of the battle. The part in the above paragraph that caught my eye was the "Their controller may"...does that mean that even after my opponent uses Chen's Tactician trait in a battle, once I gain control of him in the same battle, I can then use the trait myself?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 22 April 2003", 23 Apr 2003
• Q: Moto Chen still has 3 honor while dishonored, so if you have a yu pan (4 honor) and they play company you keep, Chen will enter play dishonored, but You'll still gain 3 honor (his personal honor) from bringing him into play, thus involving him in an honor gain and rehonoring him right?
  No, IIRC the rule book says that you gain the printed personal honor from honorable personalities you bring in to play.
  A: No, you don't gain printed. You gain current -- or, in this case, "current" based on just before adjustments that apply once the card enters play. (If you gained printed, it wouldn't matter whether the Personality was dishonored and the question would not be getting asked.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 6 February 2003", 7 Feb 2003
• Q: Moto Chen still has 3 honor while dishonored, so if you have a yu pan (4 honor) and they play company you keep, Chen will enter play dishonored, but You'll still gain 3 honor (his personal honor) from bringing him into play, thus involving him in an honor gain and rehonoring him right?
  A: Yes. Moto Chen is a special case. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 February 2003", 6 Feb 2003
• Q: --- In, Jeff Alexander 5) Moto Chen again, this time it is a daikyu and an shinjo horsebow, which ranged attacks could Chen make?
  He can combine the Daikyu with either of the Horsebow's ranged attacks, for a total strength attack of 5 or 7, depending on whether he bows the Horsebow or himself.
  Then I will need a clearer wording on the page 63 rulebook text in italics which reads:
  "You cannot combine a ranged attack on an Item with one on the Personality carrying it if the Personality has to bow to make the ranged attack."
  A: Easy. That rule does not apply in this case. Chen does not have a ranged attack ability "on him". They are all on his Items.
  (And to clear up the ambiguity in the rule: "the ranged attack" at the very end refers to the one on the Item.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 February 2003", 4 Feb 2003
• Q: 4) I have two Daikyus on Moto Chen, each of them can produce a ranged attack, can I combinine the two ranged attacks?
  A: Yes, since the sources are different cards. Jeff Alexander, "post for 30-31 January 2003", 1 Feb 2003
• Q: Hi,
  can we please just get a little clarification about this. Ref this topic: viewtopic.php?f=198&t=74863
  do we gain the honor for Moto Chen coming into play or not? Just so that i know next time i play him its right.
  A: This is the most current official ruling on the matter (found via the Search function):
  http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=60415&p=773873&hilit=+Chen+Honor#p773873
  Threads outside the Rules forum (such as the one in your link) do not contain official rulings. And even so, you'll note that Genji corrects his mistake in the post directly above yours, made half an hour earlier. Brook Cunningham, "Moto Chen xp2", 26 Mar 2009
• Q: (I)f I have Chen (Moto Chen - SE version) and my opponent's use Governor's Court political ability, may I target Chen and negate its whole effects?
  A: No.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_C#Cannot: "In card text, when referring to ... targeting... "cannot" is a restriction on the legality of that thing in the first place, not negation of its effects." Zen Faulkes, "Governor's Court and Moto Chen", 3 Mar 2009
• Q: "Your Naga Personalities in an army with both Akasha and Moto Chen have +4F". (D)oes Akasha also get +4F?
  A: No. No special rule here, just regular English. "Everyone with George had red hair" does not mean that George had red hair. Zen Faulkes, "Akasha (Experienced 2)", 7 Jul 2008