Never Stand Alone

Legend of the Five Rings card from Celestial Edition, Samurai Edition, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Open: Target a Personality in a discard pile: Remove him from the game.
Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own: Put him face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Never Stand Alone 0G 3FV Open: Remove a target Personality in a discard pile from the game. Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 147
• Erratum: Reads, "0G 3FV Open: Remove a target Personality in a discard pile from the game. Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 149

Rules Q&A

• Q: Ninjas versus monsters. I watched this in an anime!
  Hidden Moon Dojo Open: Look at all face-down cards in a target player's provinces. If you destroy a province this turn, its owner will not refill provinces during his next Action Phase.
  The Forgotten Temple Limited: Target your discarded Nonhuman Personality and discard a card in one of your provinces: Refill the province face-up with the Personality.
  Never Stand Alone Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary.
  Let's assume that the Scorpion player has done everything necessary to trigger the "will not refill" clause of his stronghold's ability. The way the Hidden Moon Dojo effect works has been fairly well discussed. However, it has also been established that not all effects that cause a new card to appear in a province constitute refilling for the purposes of the effect. This ruling regarding Hidden Moon Dojo's interactions with Never Stand Alone, for example: "putting a card into a province from the discard pile" is not "refilling". On the other hand, although Forgotten Temple's action is very like Never Stand Alone, they are worded differently, with the nonhuman stronghold explicitly using the verb "refill" for a card relocation process otherwise visually identical to the earlier "putting."
  If a Forgotten Temple player uses his stronghold action while under the effects of the Hidden Moon Dojo action, what happens? Does the discarded nonhuman go in the province (as it would via Never Stand Alone), ignoring the Hidden Moon Dojo effect? Or does the Scorpion stronghold prevent that; if so, after the Action phase, when Hidden Moon Dojo is no longer in effect, what card does refill that province? Is it the one that Forgotten Temple targeted? And, if it is, does it refill face-up?
  A: As you said, Forgotten Temple explicitly uses the word "refill". While its effects are similar to Never Stand Alone, because of this very distinction, Hidden Moon Dojo's effects WILL prevent The Forgotten Temple's ability from refilling the province face-up with the Personality you targeted. It will refill normally, face-down with the top card of your Dynasty deck, after the Action Phase ends. Brook Cunningham, "Hidden Moon Dojo/The Forgotten Temple", 12 Jul 2011
• Q: Akuma no Oni xp2 has as text:
  Text Shadowlands • Nonhuman • Oni • Overlord • Experienced 2 Oni no Akuma • Unique After Akuma enters play: Lose 15 Honor and destroy your rightmost province. During the Action Phase, Akuma does not bow and may not be targeted. Once per game, after a battle's resolution in which an attacking army containing Akuma destroyed a province: Destroy another of the Defender’s Provinces.
  Never stand alone has two abilities, each of which target during the Action phase: Text Open: Remove a target Personality in a discard pile from the game. Limited: Target a discarded (not dead) Personality you own. Put the Personality face-up in one of your provinces, discarding a card from it if necessary.
  BUT, Akuma isn't "in play," but he IS face up, so is using either ability legal?
  A: Akuma no Oni exp2 may not be targeted by either ability on Never Stand Alone, since its trait is active in the discard pile.
  See Implications of in and out of play: Cards that are not in play or in a resolution, entering-play or focusing area have the following limitations: * Their continuous traits do not produce effects. EXCEPTION: Continuous effects on cards out of play affect only the card itself. Alex Jones, "Akuma no Oni vs. Never Stand Alone", 25 Mar 2010