Oracle of Fire

Legend of the Five Rings card from Gold Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Obsidian Edition, Jade Edition, Pearl Edition

Card Type

Holding

Gold Cost

6

Keywords

Unique, Fire, Oracle, Retainer

Card Text

Fire Repeatable Reaction, w, : Before a duel begins involving your Personality, if you may legally focus during this duel, put your Fate deck's top card in your focused cards area. This does not count against the four times you are normally allowed to focus.

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• The Oracles of Fire and Water were accidentally given each other's abilities in the Imperial Edition. This has since been corrected. Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 46
• Erratum: Changed: now has the effect of the Imperial Oracle of Water. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 12
• Erratum: Imperial Edition version should be treated as having the title "Oracle of Water" for play and deck construction purposes. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 13
• Clarified: may not be used on a Personality who cannot focus. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 13
• It seems as though the Oracles of Fire and Water were accidentally given each other's abilities. Accumulated Rulings, April 22, 1998, p. 26
• Erratum: Changed: now has the effect of the Imperial Oracle of Water. Errata: Imperial Edition version should be treated as having the title "Oracle of Water" for play and deck construction purposes. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.4 & errata, June 1997, p. 26

Rules Q&A

• Q: General questions about Oracle of Fire
  1. Can you look at the Card before you focus it, or is it like Ryokan's Sword where you just take it from the fate deck and place it as a focus? (Sorry.. the only one I have is the Imperial edition, where it says "Draw a card from your Fate Deck and use this as an additional focus". Don't know if it's been reworded)
  A: l5rsearch.com, baby!
  The Gold edition card reads as:
  Elemental Reaction: Before a duel begins, if your Personality can Focus, bow the Oracle of Fire and pay 1 gold to play your Fate deck's top card as an extra Focus card.
  So, no. When you use the Oracle, you have to Focus the card not knowing what it is. Vaughn Derderian, "Post for June 16, 2003", 16 Jun 2003
• Q: If the "Blade bearer" names 3 as the not-allowed value, and I use Oracle of Fire, and happen to pull a 3, does that 3 count?
  A: No. Blade of Truths says a player "may not play Focus cards," which is what Oracle of Fire does. (By rights, the Blade should prohibit the focusing in the first place.) Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 18 April 2003", 19 Apr 2003
• Q: Hi Jeff, I'm attending a Season of the Lion tournament on Saturday and I was wondering about a few things.
  Kakita Rensei and the Oracle of Fire. Relevent text on Rensei: The player of a Personality dueling Rensei cannot play Reactions The Oracle of Fire reads Elemental Reaction: Before a duel begins, if your personality can focus, bow the Oracle of Fire and pay 1 gold to play your fate deck's top card as an extra Focus card. Does the wording on the Oracle get around Rensei? I would say yes given that the personality isn't "dueling Rensei" when the Oracle triggers which is "before a duel begins".
  A: You are correct. Reactions taken before the Personalities enter the duel are not prohibited by Rensei. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 June 2002", 6 Jun 2002
• Q: Oracle of Fire says: Retainer Unique Elemental Reaction: Before a duel begins, if your Personality can focus, bow the Oracle of Fire and pay 1 Gold to play your Fate deck's top card as an extra Focus card.
  Iaijutsu Art says: Limited: One of your Personalities issues an unrefusable challenge to a Personality with equal or higher Chi. Each Personality focuses exactly once, if possible, and Reactions taken "instead of focusing" cannot be taken. The winner's controller gains 4 Honor. Dishonor the loser.
  How do they interact? Does the controler of Oracle of Firer gets his extra focus card or not?
  A: If he uses the Oracle of Fire, he then cannot focus during the duel because he has already focused once. Jeff Alexander, "post for 1 May 2002", 2 May 2002
• Q: The main debate was whether the Oracle targets Shosuro Higatsuku or not. All agreed that if it targets him it cant be used now that Reactions are actions and you cant target your own bowed personalities with actions.
  A: I was wrong. You were right. The Oracle of Fire targets your duelist, so it can't be used if he's bowed. This is a REVERSAL. Jeff Alexander, "post for 16 January 2002", 17 Jan 2002
• Q: And related Oracle of Fire questions. In an Iaijutsu Art duel I am assuming that if someone uses the Oracle it counts as that personalities one focus for the duel - can that player then use Kakita Technique to then strike?
  Yes. Ow. ps. Ithought both players had to focus in an Iaijutsu Art, or am I wrong?
  A: They must focus if possible, but the timing is that of a normal duel. If one player can legally strike before the other gets the chance to focus, the duel goes into resolution and the chance never comes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 16 January 2002", 17 Jan 2002
• Q: A simple question that some heated debate in a tournament over the weekend.
  Can the Oracle of Fire be used on Shosuro Higatsuku after he has bowed to start a duel with an opponent? And could the reasoning for the answer please be explained as I would like to be able to pacify both sides of the arguement around here.
  A: Higatsuku has no prohibitions against focussing. The Oracle of Fire does not care if your Personality is challenging or being challenged. There's nothing on either card that would even hint that the combo is illegal. Jeff Alexander, "post for 15 January 2002", 16 Jan 2002
• Q: And related Oracle of Fire questions. In an Iaijutsu Art duel I am assuming that if someone uses the Oracle it counts as that personalities one focus for the duel - can that player then use Kakita Technique to then strike?
  A: Yes. Ow. Jeff Alexander, "post for 15 January 2002", 16 Jan 2002
• Q: Situation:
  My personality is minding her own buisness at home, when she is challenged to a display of Iajitsu Arts.
  I pay off the Oracle of Fire to play the top card of my deck as a focus, before the duel starts.
  The question is now: since I've "focused" exactily once, must I now focus for real, or do I now have to strike?
  A: You have focused, due to your handy bribe of the Oracle. You cannot focus again, because you have already done so exactly once. What option have you but to strike? None! You must show your opponent the inspiration that the Oracle has given you in the purity of your Iaijutsu, that he may go home and meditate upon the nature of his dishonor. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for August 22nd, Part Two", 22 Aug 2001
• Q: Oracle of Fire is played before the duel begins so I guess it's possible to play it in a duel involving Yokuan. Am I right?
  A: No. Yokuan's trait also prohibits Reactions during the challenge, and there's no gap between challenge and duel. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 2-7 August 2001", 9 Aug 2001
• Q: In Card Vault, I have a note dated 2005-Nov-07 and sourced from the old "AEG Rulings and Errata" list that says:
  "The Imperial Edition Oracle of Water counts as the Oracle of Fire for deck-building and play purposes."
  I guess the titles on these two cards were mistakenly switched, because, just as the text for the Oracle of Water seems to be for the Oracle of Fire, the Oracle of Fire's text seems to be written for the Oracle of Water, yet, I see no similar note attached to the Oracle of Fire in CV. So, my question is: I know the text has been corrected in the Oracle of the Void database, but, for deck-building and play purposes, does the IE Oracle of Fire similarly count as the Oracle of Water?
  MacBeth2001 wrote: "No. In this case, Most Recent Printing Rules would take effect, and your IE copy of Oracle of Fire would be considered to have the text of the most recent printing of the card with that title/exp level, that being the GE version of Oracle of Fire (as updated by the Oracle of the Void database of course)."
  Yeah, I realized that after thinking about it some more. Sorry for wasting time with such a silly question. 8-P
  A: No. In this case, Most Recent Printing Rules would take effect, and your IE copy of Oracle of Fire would be considered to have the text of the most recent printing of the card with that title/exp level, that being the GE version of Oracle of Fire (as updated by the Oracle of the Void database of course). Brook Cunningham, "Imperial Edition Oracles of Water and Fire", 29 Oct 2013
• Q: [jade] Are retainers a type of holding? Meaning, can the card Blackmail target oracle of fire? Or only things like jade works and such?
  A: Holdings are a card type that may or may not have the "Retainer" keyword. Having it does not make them not still be Holdings, just like Personalities are a card type that may or may not have the "Samurai" (or any number of other) keyword(s). Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 20 Apr 2026