Recruiting Drive

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Fall of Otosan Uchi, Promotional–Gold

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Limited: You may attach Followers from your discard pile as if they were in your hand.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Four Winds (Gold), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: 4F Scorpion Personality gets a Shosuro Infiltrator via Few Against Many. Recruiting Drive gets played. In battle I use Shosuro Infiltrator's battle action. Can I now really attach him again for zero gold and repeat this stuff like a trillion times?
  A: Yes. Make a trillion 3/1 Scorpion Clan Samurai Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 December 2004", 6 Dec 2004
• Q: Can shadowlands followers be placed under the forgotten tomb?
  A: ...you mean from the discard pile, I assume? No. Recruiting Drive lets you "bring Followers into play from your discard pile." Putting a card under the Forgotten Tomb is not bringing it into play -- bringing it FROM the Tomb is. [card text] Jeff Alexander, "post for 21 May 2003", 22 May 2003
• Q: Card Text: "Limited: For the rest of the turn, you may bring Followers into play from your discard pile. Treat the Followers as being played from your hand."
  Some local players have interpreted the "as being played from your hand" clause to mean that once this card is played, all followers sitting in the discard pile can be used for focusing in duels and for the Tactician trait during battle. Is this really the case?
  A: No. All you're allowed to do is bring them into play. [card text] Jeff Alexander, "post for 13 January 2003", 14 Jan 2003
• Q: I agree with you. That looks legal. I'll see what the Rules Team wants to do about it.
  This doesn't seem to follow what you said the paragraph before, Jeff. Doesn't the Veteran Samurai need to be targeted before you start paying Gold for it?
  Or is it just that Recruiting Drive declares the discard pile to be equivalent 'as being played from your hand': When it's finally time to take the action, the Samurai are still coming from a legal place?
  A: Playing a card doesn't target that card. You say "I play this Veteran Samurai on Personality X," pay its cost, and then play it on Personality X. It doesn't matter that it's not coming from where it was when you started playing it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 25 November 2002", 26 Nov 2002
• Q: Because if gold payment comes first, it looks like I can play Recruiting Drive, generate six gold for a Follower by bowing a Trade Hub and discarding a Veteran Samurai, and then use the gold to pay for the Veteran Samurai I just discarded.
  A: I agree with you. That looks legal. I'll see what the Rules Team wants to do about it. Jeff Alexander, "post for 22 November 2002", 23 Nov 2002
• Q: Otomo Sensei Sensei All cards that would go to your discard pile are instead permanently discarded from play. Reaction: When a player searches for and gets a card from his or her deck or discard pile, discard from play a card from your hand to discard the player's card from play.
  Recruiting Drive Strategy Limited: For the rest of the turn, you may bring Followers into play from your discard pile. Treat the Followers as being played from your hand.
  Can I use my Otomo Sensei's ability to discard the Follower my opponent is bringing into play from his discard pile? I believe the answer lies in the definition of the word "Search" which unfortunately is missing from Recruiting Drive.
  Search To inspect a deck, or all cards in another area, in order to select one or more cards from it.
  Thank you.
  A: Otomo Sensei was printed before a formal definition was attached to "Search". The intent of the current definition is to distinguish between effects that allow you to examine the top few cards of a deck and effects that let you examine and select from anywhere in the deck or discard pile. Recruiting Drive is clearly an example of the latter, and Otomo Sensei's Reaction can trigger off each such search. Alex Jones, "Legacy: Otomo Sensei vs. Recruiting Drive", 26 Aug 2010
• Q: When playing with (post-errata) Warrens of the One Tribe, do cards that would normally allow a player to play from their discard pile (eg - Recruiting Drive) count against the once-per-phase limit?
  A: No. Jeff Alexander, "Warrens of the One Tribe question", 9 Jun 2005
• Q: Example #1: If I play the Recruiting Drive from my hand, and play some followers from my discard pile, can I still play one other card from any discard pile this phase?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "Warrens of the One Tribe question", 9 Jun 2005
• Q: Example #2: If I play the Recruiting Drive from my discard pile, may I play followers from my discard pile this phase, as per the text of Recruiting Drive?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "Warrens of the One Tribe question", 9 Jun 2005