Political Mistake

Legend of the Five Rings card from Scorpion Clan Coup 1

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Political

Card Text

Reaction: After a Political action's effects fail, target a Personality who performed it: Dishonor him, and his controller loses 7 Honor.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I believe what happens is that all Political Mistake looks for is a Political action that was attempted but cancelled. While cancelling an action causes you to play as if that action never took place, the attempt at the action is still there. And that's what Political Mistake is looking for.
  I agree with this 100 percent. However, consider this with a ruling by Jeff Alexander:
  <snip> It would clarify things if there was a general rule that all of the following phrases were deemed equivalent:
  "One attempt per turn" "Once per turn" "Useable once per turn"
  So let them be deemed.
  Jeff A.
  So if a cancelled action still counts as attempted(and this would explain why the action slot was used - an attempt was made to use an ability), then the "one attempt per turn" has been used - even though it is not a cost.
  A: Okay, I'll admit it: I was hasty back there. This answer is dependent upon the final Rules Team decision is on what happens to canceled actions and may or may not change as a result. (That "attempt" does throw a spanner into the works.) Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 21 January 2001", 25 Jan 2001
• Q: [Imperial]
  If I use Fight For My Favor against a lobbying personality and I win the duel and I use Utter Defeat so it doesn't die, can I still react with Political Mistake, targeting the personality?
  A: This is a difficult question to answer from an Imperial-Rules perspective, and also highlights that my Oracle wording of "Fight For My Favor" may be incomplete, due to its original wording being somewhat loosey goosey and me not filling in all the gaps. 😛 Also, the Oracle text of none of the cards was written from a "Classic Lobbying" perspective, so it is hard to judge what may be considered a "success" or not from Politcal Mistake's perspective in an Imperial environment, and also because "success" itself is/was ill-defined in any contemporary Rulebook, only implicitly (but not explicitly) tied to outmoded concepts like "canceling" being somehow distinct and different than negation. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 16 Apr 2025