Nerve Strike

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Path of the Destroyer

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Kiho

Card Text

Battle: Bow your performing Monk and target an enemy Personality with equal or lower Chi: Reduce his Force and the Force of each of his Followers to 0. Cards in that unit may not perform actions until this battle ends.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Hello, I was wondering about the following combo:
  1) I play Grappling the Snake on my unbowed Monk 2) For my additional action, I play Nerve Strike against a target and bow my monk
  Can I use the ability of Grappling the Snake to negate the bowing of Nerve Strike?
  Nerve Strike - Battle: Bow your performing Monk and target an enemy Personality with equal or lower Chi: Reduce his Force and the Force of each of his Followers to 0. Cards in that unit may not perform actions until this battle ends.
  Grappling the Snake - Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Monk: After the next time (this turn) an action targets him, you may choose either to negate its effects on your Monk, or to bow the unit of one Personality that performed it after the action resolves. You may take an additional Battle action.
  Does the act of choosing my monk count as targeting or does only the actual opposed target of Nerve Strike count?
  A: Only the actual target of Nerve Strike is targeted. "Choose your performing" is not targeting.
  Additionally, Nerve Strike bows your monk as a cost, not an effect, so even if he were targeted it still wouldn't stop his bowing. Jon Palmer, "Grappling the Snake & Nerve Strike", 2 Apr 2013
• Q: We had a situation where Nerve Strike was used on a Moshi Rukia which had a Scouring Flood attached. That unit had not performed any actions yet that turn.
  I used a different copy of Rukia's battle action to return that opposed attachment to its owner's hand (mine).
  I then attached that copy of Scouring Flood to the second Rukia and used its battle action to send a defender home.
  So, is this a legal move? Can the Scouring Flood's action be used now that it is no longer a card in the Nerve Striked/Stricken/whatever unit? Or does the card retain its inability to use its action throughout the process of going back to my hand and attaching to a different personality?
  A: Per the Tracking Rule, once a card has gone face down and out of play (and entering a player's hand is face down and out of play), it forgets all ongoing effects upon itself. Therefore, if you reattach a card, it may perform its action again later this turn.
  Note that Nerve Strike only prevents the cards from performing actions, and Scouring Flood does not perform any action (the personality it's attached to performs Scouring Flood's action). However, this could be pertinent if it was a follower that was returned to your hand, as only followers and Personalities may perform actions. Jon Palmer, "Nerve Strike + attachments that have been returned to hand", 2 Dec 2012
• Q: Battle: Bow this card or discard it from your hand: Move your target unit home or to a battlefield with one or more enemy units. If the unit moved, straighten it.
  Nobody performs an action if it targets only as an effect (that is, isn't printed between two colons) or doesn't target.
  A: See how there is no targeting between the first two colons? This action isn't printed on a personality, nor on an item or spell attached to a personality, nor on a follower. Therefore, nobody performs this action. They may indeed run home via Ring of Water after being Nerve Strike'd. Dan Jacobson, "Nerve Strike + performing actions", 2 Feb 2010
• Q: I looked but I didn't see any posts that relate to this. Basically, can I use Justly Earned Victory to remove the Force penalty imposed by Nerve Strike?
  Justly Earned Victory
  Text Battle: Target your Personality: Move a target enemy Personality with lower Force or with fewer attachments home. Battle: Negate all current Force bonuses and penalties to cards at this battlefield from actions.
  Nerve Strike
  Text Kiho Battle: Bow your target Monk: Target an enemy Personality with equal or lower Chi. Reduce his Force and the Force of each of his Followers to 0. Cards in that unit may not perform actions until this battle ends.
  I think that it should negate the force penalty in that the second Battle action is a blanket effect that is not performed by any of my Personalities.
  Can I get confirmation on this, please? If I'm wrong, could I get a link to the applicable ruling? Thanks for your help guys!
  A: Cards aren't trying to trick you. You may indeed negate Nerve Strike's Force penalty with Justly Earned Victory. Dan Jacobson, "Justly Earned Victory vs. Nerve Strike", 30 Jan 2010
• Q: Does Nerve Strike cause Unpredictable Strategy to fail?
  A: Time to hit the FAQ again: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_FAQ#What_performs_an_action.3F
  "Personalities and Followers perform actions printed on them, and actions where they are targeted between the two colons of an action." Does not apply.
  "Actions on Items or Spells are performed by their Personality." Does not apply. Which leaves...
  "Nobody performs an action if it targets only as an effect (that is, isn't printed between two colons) or doesn't target."
  There you have it: Unpredictable Strategy not performed. Therefore, attempting to use an effect that prevents cards from performing do not do anything. Zen Faulkes, "Unpredictable Strategy vs. Nerve Strike", 3 Nov 2009
• Q: Does Shameful Injury negate the Force bonus from Nerve Strike?
  A: Well, firstly, Nerve Strike gives a Force penalty, never a bonus.
  Second, because Nerve Strike's action does give a penalty, Shameful Injury will indeed negate it.
  EDIT: RE, your EDIT:
  Shameful Injury is not performed at all, so that effect of Nerve Strike isn't relevant to it.
  For "What performs an action?", see here. Brook Cunningham, "Nerve Strike vs. Shameful Injury", 27 Oct 2009
• Q: Moto Xiao has trait that gives all followers +1F. I hit Moto Xiao's unit with Nerve Strike. Is the follower 0F or 1F?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Card_features#S ... to_a_value: "To set a stat to a value, give it the smallest possible appropriate bonus or penalty such that it reaches that value."
  Example: A 3F Follower has a +1F bonus. An effect reduces the Follower's Force to 0. The Follower's Force receives -4F to bring to the current Force value to 0. Because the bonus is already part of the Force stat, it is not reapplied. Zen Faulkes, "Force penalties from actions, force bonus from traits", 26 Sep 2009
• Q: Hey,
  Question: If my personality have reduce force to 0, is that mean also Item force bonus?
  If my samurai have katana +4 is that mean he have 4F now? Or 0F? My oponent used Nerve Strike on my personality and we had no idea how its works
  A: Reduce Force to 0 means current Force. So a 3F Personality with a +4F weapon (assuming no other bonuses or modifiers) would get a -7F penalty. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 30 Nov 2024