Obfuscation

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Imperial Gift 2

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Target your Personality and target your attachment in your hand or discard pile: Attach it to him, paying all costs. You may take an additional action to use one of the attachment's base Battle abilities.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: but CANNOT pay for Obfuscation
  A: It cannot. Zen Faulkes, "Aramasu's Vigilance Clarification", 26 Mar 2011
• Q: this came up in a tournament today and i thought that the TO made the wrong ruling so i wanted to check and see.
  my hida tobashi with a follower got direct approached. then i assign him to the battlefield. my opponent has no one there. i use Obfuscation and attach a follower to him. the TO said that while Obfuscation itself isn't performed, it creates an attachment action that is performed. i looked at the l5r rules page and found this. the equip action is performed here but as a limited. i decided to go with it. but still i don't think he made the right ruling.
  is he right or am i right?
  here are the card texts:
  The Direct Approach Open: Give a target Personality -1F for each of his keywords other than Clan alignments. If his Force is now 0, he may not perform actions.
  Obfuscation Battle: Attach a target attachment from your hand or discard pile to your target Personality. You may take an additional action to use one of the attachment's base Battle abilities.
  thank you.
  btw, it was the last province and that player had crossed 40 honor so this ruling was going to win or lose me the game.
  A: Obfuscation's action is not performed at all, and part of the effects of that action include attaching an attachment.
  The Equip action from the Rulebook is a separate action entirely and has nothing to do with Obfuscation, other than that they have a similar effect in common. Brook Cunningham, "Obfuscation vs the direct approach", 16 May 2010
• Q: Concerning the ruling here...
  Does this mean that if someone were to attach a Seppun Blade via Obfuscation that it would be negated by JEV or SI because the source is now coming from an action rather than the rulebook effect of attaching from the hand?
  Also, are tokens considered attachments? If not, what kind of classification do they even have?
  A: The force bonus from an item is from the item, not from the action that attached it. See Glossary, From.
  Tokens: Tokens are objects such as coins, glass beads, or pieces of paper that are used to track certain things in the game. Alex Jones, "Justly earned Victory and attachement bonuses", 2 Feb 2010
• Q: Is the strategy Obfuscation considered to be performed by the targeted personality?
  A: Time to hit the FAQ: 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: not performed. Zen Faulkes, "Obfuscation performed?", 31 Oct 2009
• Q: If I have Apprentice Shinobi in the discard pile, does it get force bonuses from Ninja Actions? (Assuming that I can return it to play via Obfuscation).
  References:
  Apprentice Shinobi Ninja After a Ninja action resolves: Give this card +1F.
  Thank you for you answers.
  A: No.
  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: * Abilities on them may not be used, and triggered traits on them are not triggered. Alex Jones, "Apprentice Shinobi", 22 Sep 2009