Okura is Released

Legend of the Five Rings card from Honor Bound, Ivory Edition, Onyx Edition, Shattered Empire, Three Dynasties, Promotional–Ivory

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Interrupt: After any Fear effect from the action bows a card, destroy it.

Focus Value

3

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Shattered Empire, Three Dynasties, War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Hi,
  The combo of Hound of the Lost + The Face of Fear + Okura is Released is causing some arguments at my Saturday night game. Please clarify the following for me.
  A: Why am I so forsaken? I - TRY - to be a good person. I paid my taxes on time. I'm not even running Corrupt. What could I possibly have done to deserve this? Martin Lund, "Rules for 14 April 2004", 15 Apr 2004
• Q: Do 'The Face of Fear' and 'Okura is Released' allow a personality with huge force to be targeted and destroyed by a smaller fear effect due to the effect from 'Hound of the Lost'?
  A: Hound of the Lost says, "Reaction: Bow Hound of the Lost before another card in this army produces Fear targeting exactly one unit. The Fear targets and bows a single Follower of your choice in that unit, regardless of Force, instead of producing its normal effect."
  Okura is Released says, "Reaction: Play this card when a fear effect is created. All cards bowing due to the fear effect are destroyed."
  Face of Fear says, "Reaction: Play when one of your cards creates Fear. The Fear affects Personalities as if they were Followers."
  Short answer is, "No."
  The long answer is as follows:
  They all respond to a card creating / producing a Fear Effect, but Hound of the Lost says "before" while the other two say, "when." Hound of the Lost gets played first and resolves first.
  Now you've got to pick a target for your Fear effect. The only legal targets as per Hound of the Lost at this stage are Followers. You target a Follower with your special Fear.
  Now you can play Okura is Released or Face of Fear.
  Okura is Released will cause the Fear Effect to cause destruction.
  Face of Fear will let your fear affect Personalities as if they were followers, but since it is only targeting a Follower, Face of Fear is pretty pointless. Martin Lund, "Rules for 14 April 2004", 15 Apr 2004
• Q: Okura is Released Interrupt: After any fear effect from the action bows a card, destroy it.
  Shinjo Hamura Battle: Fear 3 that may target a Dishonorable personality with followers. If this bowed a Dishonorable personality, you may rehonor him to gain 1 honor.
  Would the timing allow me to kill the personality while dishonorable, causing my opponent an honor loss, and then rehonor said personality in the discard pile to gain 1?
  A: You can kill him and cause the honor loss, but you cannot rehonor him once he's in the discard pile. The only things that can affect cards in Out of Play areas are effects that specifically affect cards in those areas, and delayed effects triggered while the card was in play. In this case, the rehonoring is an instantaneous effect resolved when you reach that part of the ability, and the Personality is already out of play. Jon Palmer, "Shinjo Hamura and Okura is Released", 17 Apr 2015
• Q: Does Okura is Released destruction effect REPLACE the bow effect normally caused by the Fear action?
  If you target someone dishonourable with a Fear and play Okura, will Hakuseki Sensei trigger once, twice, or not at all?
  A: Okura is Released creates an indefinite conditional effect, so that after each time a Fear effect from the original action bows a card, that card is destroyed. If the card didn't bow - eg because it was already bowed - no destruction effect is created.
  Hakuseki Sensei will give you 1 honour when your Fear effect bows a dishonourable Personality, and another 1 honour when the Personality is destroyed. Alex Jones, "Hakuseki Sensei + Okura is Released", 9 Mar 2015
• Q: I have read and understood this ruling about Shiho's attachments. It quotes this passage of the CR: If a Personality leaves play (for example, by being destroyed), all cards in the unit leave play in the same way.
  Victorious Wave Men says: After this Follower is destroyed by another player's action or by battle resolution, put it in your hand.
  Two questions about this card: 1) Is VWM's trait triggered if another player's action reduces its Personality's Chi to 0? The Chi-death rule says: If a Personality’s Chi is ever zero, destroy him immediately. I know the destruction is from the rulebook, but is it "by" the action? 2) Is VWM's trait triggered if another player's action destroys only its Personality? (for example a lethal duel, or Tested Blade + Okura Is Released, etc.) Same kind of uncertainty here: is the Follower destroyed "by" the action or the rulebook?
  A: In both cases, the follower is being destroyed by the Rulebook. There's no transitive property in the quoted CR passage that moves the cause of destruction to the follower. Jon Palmer, "Victorious Wave Men and personality (not unit) destruction", 5 Mar 2015
• Q: I do not understand why this is. The comprehensive rules say that interupts modify the initial action (page 26
  ), in addition okura's says that the fear destroys the cards not okura itself. Clearly there must be something i am missing
  Post referenced: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110813
  A: The sentence that you quote from the Comprehensive Rules says, in full: An Interrupt may modify the effects of the action it interrupts – including preventing some or all of these effects – and it may also have effects of its own.
  Okura is Released is in the second category. It creates its own effect, triggered by an effect of the original action, rather than modifying that action: After ... the action bows a card, destroy it.
  The destruction is a new effect, directly created by Okura is Released.
  Compare with Show of Power, which falls into the first category, because it changes the effects of the original action: The action's Fear effects ... destroy attachments after bowing them.
  Here, the destruction is an additional effect created by modifying the original action. Alex Jones, "Okura is Released and Ward of Air", 12 Nov 2014
• Q: If I play a fear action on a personality and interrupt with Okura is Released, can Ward of Air prevent the destruction?
  A: No, because the destruction is from Okura is Released's Interrupt, which is not a Battle action. Alex Jones, "Okura is Released and Ward of Air", 10 Nov 2014
• Q: Following this...
  viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110100#p1440523
  What about Okura is released and combine fears ? If i combine fears in a unit, can I, as an interrupt, play Okura is Released to destroy the card I just bowed ? Would that be considers interrupting an interrupt ? If not, why ?
  Okura is released http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=5688
  A: If the initial Fear comes from a Battle action, you can play as many Interrupts to it as you like, being Okura is Released and/or any other Fear abilities in the unit used to combine with it.
  The problem in the link you cite is that the INITIAL Fear is an Interrupt, so NO Interrupts can be taken to it.
  But most Fears are Battle actions, which can be freely Interrupted, with as many and as many different kinds as apply.
  I hope that clears things up. Brook Cunningham, "Interrupt interrupts", 21 Sep 2014
• Q: Interrupt: After any Fear effect from the action bows a card, destroy it.
  If your fear action targets a bowed card, is it correct that Okura is Released will not destroy the card as it checks that something bowed?
  My assumption is that the card is phrased so that you can't use a fear 2 and this to kill a 10F personality (as they did not bow from the action), but is seems to also stop killing bowed cards with fear effects that would normally bow them.
  A: That is correct. "Bows" is a term that references going from an unbowed state to a bowed state. If the card is bowed already, Okura is Released will not destroy it. Jon Palmer, "Okura Is Released", 1 May 2014
• Q: viewtopic.php?f=313&t=106590&p=1404436#p1404436
  Ment to post it here.
  Not quite understanding the interupts here but, i wanna use a fear effect to bow a dude and want to use okura is released to destroy it after its bows. Does my opponet have to react before i play okura is released to negate the fear? cause the way im reading it says "after it bows a thing" meaning the fear has resolved
  A: Both Okura is Released and A Stout Heart interrupt the action generating the Fear effect. A Stout Heart can be played to interrupt the original action either before or after Okura is Released interrupts it - in either case, the bowing will be negated and Okura is Released will therefore not destroy anything. Jon Palmer, "Okura is Released v Stout heart", 22 Jan 2014
• Q: If a card targeted by a Fear effect interrupted by Okura is Released is already bowed, will the target be destroyed?
  A: No.
  The delayed destruction effect set up by OiR is only triggered when the Fear itself bows the card. Brook Cunningham, "Okura is Released and bowed targets", 12 Jan 2014
• Q: I'd think the second option (Yoritomo Arin's question is only regarding Okura is Released so no other cards needed)
  OiR destroys after a Fear bows. If the target is bowed before the Fear is used, then the Fear doesn't bow the target, and is not a legal action for OiR to interrupt on
  A: It's perfectly legal to Interrupt with Okura is Released. It's just that it's pointless. Alex Jones, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 14 Nov 2023
• Q: would balance in nothingness stop okura is released?
  A: No. Alex Jones, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 14 Nov 2023