Ring of Earth

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Pre-Imperial Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Battle of Beiden Pass, Obsidian Edition, Celestial Edition, Battle of Kyuden Tonbo, Jade Edition, Diamond Edition, Gold Edition, Lotus Edition, Pearl Edition, Samurai Edition, Promotional–Samurai, Training Grounds, Training Grounds 2, War of Honor, Promotional–Diamond, Ivory Edition, Emperor Edition Demo Decks, Promotional–Emperor, Twenty Festivals, Onyx Edition, Shattered Empire, Crimson and Jade, Three Dynasties, Honor Bound, Fire & Shadow, Soul of the Empire, The Fall of Otosan Uchi, Path of Hope, Drums of War, Promotional–Ivory, Promotional–Twenty Festivals

Card Type

Ring

Keywords

Unique, Earth

Card Text

Play after a battle resolves at your Province, if it was not destroyed and any enemy units were ever at its battlefield. You may discard this Ring from your hand to use its ability without cost.
Earth Repeatable Interrupt, w: The Battle action cannot move Personalities.

Focus Value

4

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Age of Conquest (Emperor), Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Clan Wars (Imperial), Destroyer War (Celestial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Race for the Throne (Samurai), Rain of Blood (Diamond), Shattered Empire, Three Dynasties, War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Ring of Earth 0G 4FV You may play this card as a Reaction after your army destroys a Province or opposing army as the Attacker or Defender. Elemental Open: Bow this card or discard it from your hand: Target a Province. Raise its strength by 4. If you bowed this card, you may lower its strength by 3 instead." [MRP, Khan's Defiance, 22 January 2007] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 61
• Can be played even if a sufficiently-large army is initially assigned to a Province but some units are moved away by actions before that Province's battle is even started. [DW, email, 4/23/97] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 50
• Clarified: may be played if the attacking army's Force exceeded your Province strength at any point during the battle. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 10
• Erratum: Reads, "Ring of Earth 4FV Earth • Unique After you destroy one or more provinces or enemy units by winning a battle at a province: You may put this card into play from your hand. Battle/Open: Bow this card or discard it from your hand: Raise a target province's strength by 4; you may instead lower its strength by 3 if this card is in play." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 150
• Erratum: Reads, "Ring of Earth 4FV Earth After you destroy one or more provinces or enemy units by winning a battle at a province: You may put this card in play from your hand. Battle/Open: Bow this card or discard it from your hand: Raise a target province’s strength by 4; you may instead lower its strength by 3 if this card is in play." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 152

Rules Q&A

• Q: Two questions involving the Ring of Earth:
  Scenario A:
  I use the Ring of Earth ability on one of my Samurai. I proceed to attack with that Samurai and a Monk in the same army. My opponent plays Block Supply Lines on the Monk. I use Turn of Fortune to redirect the BSL to the Samurai, which then doesn't get sent home because of the Ring of Earth. Is this valid?
  A: Sure thing. The Samurai was a legal target for Block Supply Lines, even if the effect of Block Supply Lines would be negated by "other players cannot move that Personality into or out of battles." Martin Lund, "Rules for 18 November 2004", 22 Nov 2004
• Q: Scenario B:
  I use the Ring of Earth ability on a Samurai as before, use Someisa Sensei (and a Monk) to unbow the Ring, use it again on another Samurai. I attack with both. My opponent blocks with one unit, and sacks it to play Overwhelmed. Can I choose to send two units home? If I choose that, must they go home or does the Ring prevent that?
  A: You can not choose that option in the decision. You know the attempts to send them home will fail, so you can not choose to make such an attempt if another option of the choice could be completed without failing.
  "If a card effect forces you to make a decision, you may not choose an option that is known in advance will fail. You may, however, immediately respond with a voluntary effect that negates or cancels the action or effect you chose. [Summary of other rulings]" (Accumulated Rulings, "Decisions") Martin Lund, "Rules for 18 November 2004", 22 Nov 2004
• Q: 2. Ring of Earth vs. Encircled Terrain When my opponent plays Encircled Terrain, we each choose one personality to stay, but who sends everyone home?
  A: Encircled Terrain sends everyone but those target personalities home. That's its card effect, and it is a blanket effect. You said it was played by your opponent, so Ring of Earth will keep your Personality in place.
  Overwhelmed is different because it charges the other player with enacting their choice of effects. Whichever effect happens is from Overwhelmed (and thusly "another player's card effect"), but count as the "victim" of Overwhelmed doing the targeting and the sending-home or destroying (and thus does not count as "another player" doing the destroying or send-home).
  "Prevents effects requiring other players to target and move your Personality. Does not prevent effects generated by other player's cards that require you to target and move your own card (e.g., Overwhelmed). [JA, 18 November 2003]" (Accumulate Rulings, "Ring of Earth") Martin Lund, "Rules for 5 April 2004", 7 Apr 2004
• Q: 3. Ring of Earth vs. Send Home Is a personality who has been Ring of Earthed a legal target for send-home actions?
  A: Legal target for an Action that generates a send-home effect? Sure. It won't do anything to him, though. Waste of a perfectly good Block Supply Lines if you ask me.
  Legal choice if an effect instructs your opponent to choose and send home people? No. Martin Lund, "Rules for 5 April 2004", 7 Apr 2004
• Q: you said the that an army of two units, one with the Armour of Earth and one under the effects of the Ring of Earth that had Overhelmed played on it would have no option but to destroy the highest force unit. This doesn't seem to be consistent with the Flee the Darkness ruling.
  A: The rulings are different because the cards are different. Flee the Darkness responds to targeting. The Ring of Earth does not.
  Zen Fauleks! * Crab Clan Scholar * Unaligned Rules Deputy Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 18 November 2003", 18 Nov 2003
• Q: One player uses the Ring of Earth on one of his units to prevent him from being sent home, and attacks. The other player defends, and plays Stand or Die.
  A: Seeing as how there's *no such card* as "Stand or Die," I'm going to take a really wild stab in the dark and guess that you're really talking about Stand or Run. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 16 November 2003", 16 Nov 2003
• Q: If I attack a player, eliminate his army before resolution, and take the province - can I play Ring of Earth?
  A: Diamond Edition rulebook, pg. 84: No. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 1 November 2003, Part 2", 1 Nov 2003
• Q: Ring of Earth. Does it cancel, negate or prevent the personality from being target by movement actions?
  A: Negate. See Rules Archive, General rules, Canceling and Negation.
  Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar * Unaligned Deputy Rules Guy Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 28 October 2003", 29 Oct 2003
• Q: I have 5 province strength. My opponent declares an attack and assigns 6 force in personalities to attack a province. He resolves a different province first, and as his first action, moves a unit from the other army to attack this province. Can I play Ring of Earth, and if so, when?
  A: Yes. Treat "after an attack" as "after the Resolution Segment of a battle." Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 30 June 2003, Part 2", 1 Jul 2003
• Q: With Armor of Osano-Wo, it doesn't say that you have to destroy a province, just declare an attack against one, right? Or do you have to actually win a battle as an attacker, and instead of destroying put the Ring of Earth into play? I'm getting confused....
  A: MRP text: "Elemental Reaction: If you are the Attacker, instead of destroying the Province that this Personality is attacking, put the Ring of Earth into play." If you are the Attacker and about to destroy the Province that the Armor's unit is attacking (typically through battle resolution), you may use the Armor to negate the destruction and play the Ring of Earth. Jeff Alexander, "post for 26 May 2003", 29 May 2003
• Q: One of the local players asked this question about the various "will of..." kiho. For instance:
  Will of Earth
  Kiho Elemental limited: Bow one of your Shugenja or Monks, Remove this card from the game, and reveal the Ring of Earth from your hand if you don't have it in play. Target up to two personalities per opponent. Those perosnalities may not assign or move to attack you before the beginning of your next turn.
  His question is this: If you do not have the Ring of Earth either in play or in your hand, can you play this card? Is this a cost? does it target the ring?
  A: The costs of this card are "bow one of your Shugenja or Monks," "remove this card from the game," and "reveal the Ring of Earth from your hand if you don't have it in play." If you do not already have the Ring of Earth in play, you must reveal it in your hand to play Will of Earth. If you cannot do that, you cannot play Will of Earth. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 April 2003", 9 Apr 2003
• Q: I also managed to get all of my fortress of the dragonfly out as well a couple honor-producing holds and the Anvil of Despair, I've also gotten the Ring of Earth out, but only after losing my first province.
  A: Check. One Hitaka 4/7, the other 6/9. Jeff Alexander, "post for 14 February 2003", 18 Feb 2003
• Q: Ring of Water: How does it interact with the following two cards: Armor of Osano-Wo: since the Ring says "_after_ a battle in which you... destroyed an opposing army or province..." and the armor says "Instead of destroying the Province that this Personality is attacking, you may put the Ring of Earth into play.", I assume you cannot play both Rings after the same battle.
  A: You could. You could respond to the Province destruction with Armor of Osano-Wo, and to the army's destruction with the Ring of Water (that the Ring of Water can be triggered when you smack an army is a fact you quoted yourself!). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 29 November 2002", 30 Nov 2002
• Q: If I attack a Province and my opponent defends and I win the battle and have enough force to destroy the Province but instead use the reaction from the Armor of Osano-Wo to put the Ring of Earth into play could I then play Pointless Sacrifice pay the eight gold and destroy the Province?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 November 2002", 9 Nov 2002
• Q: Or the opposite, if I win the battle and do not have enough Force to destroy the Province could I play Pointless Sacrifice to desrtoy the Province and then use the Armor of Osano-Wo to not destroy the Province and play the Ring of Earth
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 November 2002", 9 Nov 2002
• Q: Hmm, palm strikes are cool, but I only play 4 or 5 monks. Besides, deep in meditation is way cool too! It gives ya a little extra against those honor runners, namely you can play your duels, or you can just catch the honor!
  Well, let's not overlook the fact that Deep in Meditation is really designed to "force" your opponent to attack you so you can put Ring of Earth into play. He either gives you the Ring or gives you the honor. Too bad it's a rare. Or maybe not, seeing as how it's a pretty specialized card. As an uncommon it'd just be another coaster most of the time.
  A: So if it were a rare instead of an uncommon, it would be more powerful? Jeff Alexander, "post for 30 October 2002", 31 Oct 2002
• Q: Also, something I should already know, but can the Ring of Earth be played if there are no attacking units left in the battle after resolution?
  A: Sure. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 July 2002", 30 Jul 2002
• Q: In a message dated Thu, 6 Jun 2002 11:40:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes:
  It is not playable. The only time the Ring of Earth can be played is immediately after a battle ends, and it regards only the attacking army Force and Province strength at that battle from the beginning of the attack to that point.
  WC: I am not to sure about this. Can you clarify some things.
  What is the difference between the attack phase and the battle phase?
  A: There is no such thing as a "battle phase". There are Battle Action Segments (which are irrelevant to the Ring), and there are "battles". Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 June 2002", 8 Jun 2002
• Q: MRPed Ring of Earth currently says: Play this card after an attack against one of your Provinces, in which the attacking army's Force exceeded the Province Strength at any time during the Attack Phase and the Province was not destroyed. Elemental Benefit: Each of your Provinces gains +3 Strength. (Trivia question how many times has the Ring of Earth been MRPed?)
  When does the attack end?
  A: There's the crux of the ambiguity: what does "an attack against one...Province" mean? It can be read as referring to just one battle or to the whole Attack Phase. I've clarified that it means one battle. Pointing out that it can be read either way will only encourage me to say, "I know. That's why I told you which way to read it." Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 June 2002", 8 Jun 2002
• Q: Here is another question for Ring of Earth Play. This has been deemed legal before by some TO's. But the Ring of Earth could be played immediately, but that was when the card was a reaction and not a trait.
  A: Nothing has changed regarding the timing of its play. Losing the "Reaction" word only means that playing it isn't an action anymore. That's all. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 June 2002", 8 Jun 2002
• Q: Hi Jeff,
  One final clarification on this and I should be completely clear (at least regarding this card). Situation: Player B has 5 province strength. Player A assigns a 6 force unit to attack player B's province 1. Player A resolves province 2 and moves his unit into the battle with Superior tactics. Province 2 is destroyed. Question: If province 1 is not destroyed, could player B play the Ring of Earth after the resolution of the battle at province 1.
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 June 2002", 8 Jun 2002
• Q: Sorry, my last question regarding the Ring of Earth wasn't phrased quite right let me give a better example. Player B has province strength 6. Player A assigns a 6 force unit to attack player B's province 1. Player B defends with Togashi Hoshi. Player A resolves provinces 2, 3, and 4 (both players pass, no provinces destroyed). Player A resolves province 1, player B passes. Player A uses superior tactics to move his unit to province 2. Player B has Hoshi cast Chasing Osano-Wo which gives player A's unit a 7 force bonus. Because province 2 has already been resolved player A's unit returns home bowed at the end of the attack phase. Is the Ring of Earth playable as a result and, if so, when?
  A: It is not playable. The only time the Ring of Earth can be played is immediately after a battle ends, and it regards only the attacking army Force and Province strength at that battle from the beginning of the attack to that point. Jeff Alexander, "post for 6 June 2002", 7 Jun 2002
• Q: Ring of Earth. Relevent text on the ring: Play this card after an attack against one of your Provinces, in which the attacking army's Force exceeded the Province Strength at any time during the Attack Phase and the Province was not destroyed. I've got two questions regarding the Ring. First, when is it played? By the current wording "Play this card after an attack" I would say it would be played after the Resolution segment of the last battle at the last province since "the attack" isn't over until all battles at all provinces have been resolved (unless you rule that the words "attack" and "battle" are synonymous).
  A: The Ring is played immediately after that Province's battle ends, whether it be through normal resolution or prematurely. Do not wait until the entire Attack Phase ends. I'll flag the card for editing the next time it's printed. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 June 2002", 6 Jun 2002
• Q: My second question is easier to understand if I use an example: Player B's provinces have a province strength of 5. Player A assigns an 8 force unit to attack Player B's province 1. Player B defends with a 6 force unit. Player A resolves provinces 2, 3, and 4 first and both players pass (no provinces destroyed). Player A then resolves province 1. Player B plays Outflank, increasing his defending unit's force to 9. Player A plays Superior Tactics to move his 8 force unit to province 2. Both Players pass and the attack phase ends. Can player B now play the Ring of Earth? I would say yes given that the ring specifies that the attacking army needs to exceed the province strength at "any time during the Attack Phase" but does not specify that a battle needs to resolve there.
  A: The Ring is playable. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 June 2002", 6 Jun 2002
• Q: I'm not completely sure about the conditions required to put this ring into play... You must keep your province after the opponent attacked it and had at any time a force greater than the resistance of the province, ok...
  But what does "at any time" means in this case ? Does it mean at least once during the battle, or during the whole battle ?
  A: Any single moment in time during the entire Attack Phase, including right after assignment but before any battles have even begun to resolve. Jeff Alexander, "post for 11 March 2002", 12 Mar 2002
• Q: Does the bonus of a Mountain Pass or a Ring of Earth add to a Ruined Fortress' province strength when the player has below -19 honor?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 2-7 August 2001", 9 Aug 2001
• Q: Ninube Ogoku If Equipped with the Armor of Osono-wo and in my opponents Army attacking me, can I play the Ring of Earth instead of letting him destroy my province?
  A: No. The Attacking player is the only one destroying a Province, and hence the only one who's meeting the Armor's reaction trigger. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 18 March 2001", 24 Mar 2001
• Q: I'm in a multi-opponent game. I have Isawa Bob in play with the Hammer of Earth attached. The defender invites me to ally. The attacker assigns with force greater than the province strength. I assign Isawa Bob to defend.
  Who plays the Ring of Earth (Hammer's reaction)? Me or the defender?
  A: Barring text otherwise, only a card's controller can use its actions. That would be you in this case. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 18 March 2001", 24 Mar 2001
• Q: If, at any time from battle declaration to the end of the attack phase, the army attacking a given Province has more Force than that Province's Strength,
  Hmm. If I am reading this correctly, if my opponent assigns an army of sufficient strenght in the infantry phase, and then at the end of the assignment phase moves a unit out with Tactical Manuvers, I am still able to play the ROE after the battle resolves. Correct?
  A: Correct. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 7 February 2001", 9 Feb 2001
• Q: Can i put my ring of earth in play after i use entrapping terrain to send home the opposing army as long as it had higher strength than my province?
  A: At the risk of sounding redundant: yes. At some point between assigning units and the end of the battle, the attacking army's Force total was greater than the Province's strength. Jeff Alexander, "Rules for 6 February 2001", 9 Feb 2001
• Q: Let's say I am playing Dragon- Iron Mountain (go figure) and I play wide terrain, making my PS 12. The original amount of the force attacking at each province was 5. The new attacking force is 10 and for arguments sake, let's say he had no force pumpers and goes home. Can I play the Ring of Earth?
  A: No. He never had an amount of force greater than your province strength. If, for whatever reason, he had 7 at one province and 3 at the other, then it would be legal to play RoE after Wide Terrain. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for December 18th", 18 Dec 2000
• Q: RE: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=114671&p=1483124&hilit=ring+of+earth#p1483124
  It's been almost a full month since it was "under discussion". We're now in Kotei season and this has a massive impact on a bunch of regularly played cards, not an obscure combo or interaction. Can we get an update on this?
  A: Brazen Disregard has been errata'd, so that it only negates movement from the action it Interrupts, not any other movement from the same Strategy, whether from a trait, an action using another ability, or an action using the same ability as the original action. If you use Brazen Disregard to Interrupt an action taken using the ability granted by Accessible Terrain, the action is from a Strategy, so the movement will be negated, but only for that one action: further actions from the same Accessible Terrain are not affected.
  Similarly, Ring of Earth only negates movement from the action it Interrupts. It has no effect on any other actions from the same ability. Alex Jones, "Accessible Terrain + Brazen Disregard/Ring of Earth", 31 Aug 2015
• Q: If my opponent plays Way of the Crane, I refuse the duel, but do not want to go home and play a Ring of Earth, do I successfully refuse the duel and stay in the battle?
  I've had players claiming it works when they do it and others claiming it doesn't when I do it.
  A: You have the sequence slightly wrong; you would choose to Interrupt with the Ring of Earth after the opponent targeted your Personality, but before the action's effects would take place (including your option to refuse). Interrupts are only take at the point where the colon appears in an action.
  However, you don't want to do that, because if the movement is negated, the refusal does not happen. The word "to" before some effects mean that the effects that precede the "to" must happen in order for the other effects to happen. Brook Cunningham, "Way of the Crane Vs Ring of Earth", 19 Aug 2015
• Q: Progressive's effect is to discard any number of cards to move home a target enemy unit with total Force less than or equal to the total Focus Values of the discarded cards. With the new timing rules, do I have to discard the cards necessary to move a target before Interrupts are played (such as Ring of Earth) or do I do that afterward?
  A: Both the discarding of cards and the movement of the unit are effects of Progressive, which occur after Interrupts are played. However, Ring of Earth only negates the movement, so you must still discard cards with sufficient total focus value to make the unit you chose - before Interrupts were played - a valid target.
  This is the action sequence A. Announce: that you're taking the Battle action from Progressive. B. Pay costs: you bow Progressive. C. Choose targets: you select a unit with less force than the focus values of cards in your hand. D. Interrupts: your opponent uses Ring of Earth. E. Resolution: you discard cards to make the unit a legal target; its movement is then negated. F. End. Alex Jones, "New Action Sequence and Progressive", 22 May 2015
• Q: So, there's an ongoing argument in several threads on FB about the interaction of Ring of Earth with Journey's End Keep or the Shadow's Lair.
  Will the Ring of Earth stop movement from JEK or TSL?
  (My personal belief - after looking over the comprehensive rules - is that it will stop the movement. My rationale:
  From the CR: Can not, cannot: These words mean that an effect is prevented (see p. 38). [<---should this be 58?]
  From the CR: Negate: A word used to indicate a prevention effect (p. 58). “Negate an action” means to prevent all the action’s effects and targeting, from the time the negation is applied.
  From the CR: Prevention: A prevention effect is one that uses language such as “negate,” “cannot,” “does not,” or “will not”. While a prevention effect lasts, it makes another effect or type of effect fail to happen whenever it would occur. When an ongoing type of effect is prevented (for example, “Negate all Force bonuses on him”), this only suppresses existing effects for as long as the prevention lasts; it does not prevent new ones from applying. When an instant type of effect is prevented (for example, “Negate his destruction”) this prevents new effects of that type for as long as the negation effect lasts.
  JEK and TSL specifically say that the actions effects won't be NEGATED. Negation is a type of prevention, but according to the CR, not all prevention effects are negation [some of them are indicated by cannot/does not/will not instead]. RoE prevents the effects without negating them.
  I could be wrong, but I want to make sure.)
  A: Per the CR entry on Prevention, all forms of Prevention are interchangeable. Therefore Journey's End Keep's "will not be negated" stops Ring of Earth's "cannot". Jon Palmer, "Ring of Earth and Old SH", 5 Jan 2015
• Q: If I have Ring of Earth in play and want to use Cavalry Escort to recruit Jikoji, Fist of Stone, how much gold do I pay?
  A: You ignore his gold cost, which per Cavalry Escort is his normal cost plus five. So zero gold. Jon Palmer, "Cavalry Escort and "ignoring Gold Cost"", 19 Jul 2014
• Q: May i use ring of earth as an interrupt to any action (even during the action phase?) I ask this because my opponent who is using the shadowed estate named the ring of earth during the action phase. Having means to straighten the ring, i wish to use it during the action phase so that the next time i use it during battle, its effect wont get negated.
  A: Yes. Ring of Earth's ability does not begin with If, so you are not limited on when you can take it. Jon Palmer, "Ring of Earth", 3 Jul 2014
• Q: If I have no units at a battlefield and meet the criteria to put the Ring of Earth into play may I or do I require a unit at the location to do that?
  A: The Ring is not played via an action, so action-based constraints on playing it do not apply. You may play it without Presence. Jon Palmer, "Putting Ring of Earth Into Play", 7 Apr 2014
• Q: Ring of Earth stops movement from a Battle action. Golden Plains' ability is a Battle/Engage. If GPotU is used as an Engage, can I use RoA to stop the movement?
  A: No - there's ample precedent on this, if an action has two possible types, when the action is being taken it only counts as the type it's being used at at that time.
  So if The Golden Plains of the Unicorn's ability is used as an Engage, you cannot stop it via Ring of Earth. Jon Palmer, "Ring of Earth vs. Golden Plains of the Unicorn", 2 Mar 2014
• Q: From http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=106478
  Why does it matter that a 0F army doesn't win a battle against no opposition for putting the Ring of Earth into play?
  That doesn't mention winning or losing the battle (in Ivory rules practice games I've been putting the Ring of Earth into play after losing a battle but saving my province). Or is it the case that if an army has 0F against no opposition, then the battle doesn't actually resolve at all?
  A: No, the battle does resolve, you just skip the second step where you resolve the Win/Loss/Tie outcomes, because none of those happen.
  That said, you're absolutely right in your first point! 1F or 0F, winning or nothing, won't matter either way for the Ivory Ring of Earth. I got tripped up by an imperfect memory and the Oracle still having the EE text on the right, when I was trying to pull all my answers from the card image on the left.
  Fixing the above answer! Brook Cunningham, "Ivory Edition Ring of Earth - Question on putting into play", 16 Jan 2014
• Q: In a battle with a 0F personality vs. an empty army, is my 0F personality - in fact - both dead and alive until the resolution of the battle?
  A: There is no Schrödinger's Stalking Tiger. Ben Higgins, "Followup on Ring of Earth/0F armies", 14 Jan 2014
• Q: Scenario:
  Attacker has declared and attack with Cavalry Unit 1 (CU1) attacking Province A and Calvary Unit 2 Attacking Province B. Defender chooses to defend with Defending Unit 1 (DU1) at Province B.
  Attacker chooses to resolve Province A first and Cav Engages CU2 to Province A - leaving the Defending Unit defending against no attackers.
  Question: When province B's battle resolves and the defender wins unopposed (assuming no other actions to move an attacking unit in) can the defender play Ring of Earth? I think the answer is yes, because there was an attacking unit during assignment, but wanted to make sure the RoE text did not somehow imply that there had to be an attacking unit during the battle resolution segment.
  Thanks!
  A: Yes you could play the Ivory Ring of Earth in the scenario you describe.
  EDIT: Deleted extraneous info that actually didn't matter, and was wrong. Brook Cunningham, "Ivory Edition Ring of Earth - Question on putting into play", 14 Jan 2014
• Q: If I'm the attacker, and I have allies that destroy a province that I had no units at, but had an enemy unit there, can I still play Earth and Fire?
  A: If you are the Attacker or the Defender, you are the leader of the army, even if you have no units in it.
  And before anyone asks, only the leader wins the battle or destroys the enemy army or province, and so only the leader can play Fire or Earth. Alex Jones, "Ring of Earth/Fire", 16 Oct 2012
• Q: In the context of any multi-player game... can an ally be said to have "won" a battle and hence drop a Ring of Earth after meeting it's criteria? The ring itself does not specify it has to be the attacker or the defender that won the battle.
  Text:
  After the resolution of a <b>battle that you won</b>, if there were ever any enemy units at that battlefield and none of your Personalities were destroyed during the battle: You may put this card into play from your hand.
  A: Only the Attacker or Defender - not Allies - can win a battle.
  See Battles, Resolution Segment. Alex Jones, "Ring of Earth and "Winning a Battle"", 30 Sep 2012
• Q: If I am able to play both the Ring of Fire and the Ring of Earth, but only have Earth in my hand and a Yung in play: Can I use Yungs reaction to playing the Ring of Earth, get the Ring of Fire, and then play Ring of Fire to the same battle resolution?
  A: Yes, you will fully resolve Yung's ability to go and get the Ring of Fire, and the reaction window to the end of the resolution of the battle will still be open, so you may play the Ring of Fire. Jon Palmer, "Yung and timing for rings", 4 Jun 2012
• Q: Here is my question.
  Are Rings strategy cards.
  Strategy cards are cards you play from your hand and then discard. A strategy usually has one or more abilities.
  Rings by the last sentence says. You can also discard them from your hand for a one-shot effect.
  For example. Can i play Ring of Earth, then Ring of Air, Void and then String of Victories. Pick up Void and play Void by its own text? All Rings played from hand. One-shot effects.
  Thanks
  Togashi O-Fu
  A: The Elemental Rings are not Strategy cards. They are Ring cards.
  In your example, you have only played one Strategy (String of Victories) towards putting Ring of the Void in to play by its own text. Ben Higgins, "Strategy and Rings", 20 May 2012
• Q: Ancient Feud - Terrain - "This battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength."
  Ebisu's Honesty (Your provinces have +2 strength.) is in play.
  Ancient Feud is played, making the maximum province strength of the battlefield 6 (since that is its base strength).
  Then I play Ring of Earth to lower the province strength by 3.
  What is the current province strength? Is it 3 or is it 5 (due to the Ebisu province buff)?
  A: It's 5.
  See Calculating Stats: To get a stat's current value at any given time, do steps A through C, below: A: Apply all current bonuses and penalties. B: If the total is below 0, treat it as 0, unless the stat is Family Honor, Honor Requirement, or a modifier with a + or – sign such as an Item’s Force and Chi stats. C: If the total is less than the highest minimum value in effect for that stat, or more than the lowest maximum value in effect, it becomes that minimum or maximum. See above under “Maximums and minimums” for what happens when a stat is less than a minimum and greater than a maximum at the same time.
  So... A: 6 (base) + 2 (Ebisu) - 3 (Ring of Earth) = 5. B: 5 >= 0 so still 5. C: No minimum. Maximum value is 6 which is greater than 5, so still 5.
  Whenever a new bonus or penalty is applied to a stat, recalculate the stat from scratch applying all current bonuses and penalties. Alex Jones, "Ancient Feud", 26 Apr 2012
• Q: Here's the scenario: I declare an attack.
  I have two personalities and assign one of them at one battlefield. My opponent has one personality also assigned at that battlefield to defend.
  As the attacker, I choose a battlefield where neither my opponent nor I have a personality first. I use Intimidation on the berserker I left at home, to move in to the battle, targeting the personality my opponent chose to defend against the personality I have at a different province. Something happens at this battle, the important thing is: the other battlefield had an enemy unit at it. When the battle occurs at the battlefield where I have the personality whom I assigned, my opponent and I both pass. I win the battle.
  Question 1: Do I win the battle in such a way that Ring of Earth is legally able to be put into play by its own text, being that there was once an enemy unit at that battlefield?
  Question 2: Do I have to destroy the province in order to put Ring of Earth into play? (I.E. if I do this as the defender, do I win the battle where I have a personality who has positive force contributing to my army and where my opponent does not have any personalities located at during battle resolution?
  A: There has indeed been an enemy unit at the battlefield, which is all that matters for the Ring of Earth (well, together with winning the battle and having no Personalities destroyed!), so you may play it in this scenario. Alex Jones, "Intimidation & Ring of Earth: Opposed", 24 Jan 2012
• Q: So my friend built a pretty nice Enlightenment deck and a question came up during a group game. When can the Ring of Earth be played during an allied attack? This was the situation. Player A is declares an attack against Player C, and Play B allies with Player A. Player A only has enough Personalities to engage at one battlefied. Player B sends his troops to each of the other battlefields. Can Player A play the Ring of Earth as a result of Player B destroying a Province? Can Player B ever play the Ring of Earth while being allied? This caused quite a discussion during the game as it was a game winning issue. I had thought that player A would have to take a Province or atleast destroy some personalities to Paly the Ring. However, someone else argued that since Player A was the actual attacker and Player B was only the allied, which ever army won the battle was under the command of Player A and that Player A fulfilled the requirements. Can anyone make a call on this?
  A: The "someone else" was correct. Player A may play the Ring of Earth because he declared the attack, and Player B never can play it for just allying.
  Whoever declares the attack is the Attacker and whoever's provinces are being attacked is the Defender.
  Only the Attacker or Defender ever "win" the battle, even if the army they "won" with only contained allying units. Brook Cunningham, "Ring of Earth and Group games", 16 Nov 2009
• Q: If I have Ring of Earth in my hand and my battle is tied, say I used Immobile stance on a personality, will I still get to play the Ring, since I destroyed units? Or do I have to 'Win' not Tie, to put the ring of earth into play?
  A: Ring of Earth text (bold is emphasis mine): After you destroy one or more provinces or enemy units by winning a battle at a province: You may put this card into play from your hand.
  You do not win a battle by tying it. You may not put the Ring of Earth into play if you tie a battle.
  Victory or Death! Dan Jacobson, "Ring of earth Tied battle", 15 Nov 2008
• Q: (D)oes ring of earth just ignore the rule of location completely?
  A: It follows the Rule of Location precisely. But let's look at the actual rule.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Battles#Rule_of_Location: "1. Any cards in units must be at the current battlefield to be legally targeted by a Battle action." Ring of Earth does not target a card in a unit, so the rule does not apply to it.
  "2. If a Battle action is on a card in a unit (a Personality or attachment in play), the unit must be at the current battlefield in order to take that action." The action on Ring of Earth is not on a card in a unit, so the rule does not apply to it. Zen Faulkes, "Ring of Earth vs. Misdirection", 27 Apr 2008
• Q: I am the attacking/ defending leader but I have no units/ significantly less units in the battle, can I still play the ring of Earth from my hand using its wording?
  A: Yes. http://rules.l5r.com/Battles#Resolution_Segment: "The winning army’s leader (the Attacker or Defender) is the winner of the battle." Zen Faulkes, "Ring of Earth and Multiplayer", 26 Dec 2007
• Q: May I play the Ring of Earth by its text if I am an allying player whose unit was in the army that triggered Ring Of Earth's reaction?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Battles#Resolution_Segment: "The winning army’s leader (the Attacker or Defender) is the winner of the battle." No. Zen Faulkes, "Ring of Earth and Multiplayer", 14 Dec 2007
• Q: Hoshi Noritada uses The Elements' Path to copy the ability from Ring of Earth. I would like to use the copied ability to target an opponent's province, and use Noritada's reaction to gain two honor. Can I?
  A: Provinces are not cards. No. Zen Faulkes, "Hoshi Noritada, Ring of Earth, and Element's Path", 13 Oct 2007
• Q: If a personality is protected by the ring of earth and refuses a Stand or Run, is it bowed and sent home since it was the players choice to refuse or does it just bow but stay in the army?
  A: The Personality stays where it is, unbowed. The player issuing the challenge is the one doing the sending (Stand or Run card text). Sent home bowed" is one effect (Web of Lies rulesheet). Zen Faulkes, "Ring of Earth", 11 Apr 2005
• Q: [EE] An attack is declared, attacker assigns two personalities, defender assigns one personality to province A - one of the players uses a forced movement effect to move one of the attacker personalities and the defending personality to province B - regardless of the outcome of province B if nothing else happens at province A and the attacker wins, that qualifies for Ring of Earth, correct?
  A: Yep. Can't see a reason why not. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 19 Sep 2025
• Q: [ShE] If i use ring of Earth to negate the movement, does the invest still happens? meaning, my oponent still "lose" the gold?
  A: Yes, those are added costs, which are not effects and are already paid well ahead of you Interrupting with Earth. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 8 Jul 2025
• Q: [ShE] Does the action from Ring of Earth is considered an action with elemental keyword or does it have to had the wording in bold ? (ex: Fire battle)
  A: Technically "Element" keyword not "Elemental", but yes. As of ShE, the Rules indicate that keywords on cards are shared equally between their subtitles, lefthand-frame symbols, keyword lines, and actions. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 26 Jun 2025
• Q: [ShE] If i use overwhelmed, my oponent has 2 personalities and try to move them, but i negate 1 of the movement with ring of earth, would the second part of overwhelmed trigger since he wasnt able to move 2 personalities?
  A: Your example is slightly incorrect, but the end result is yes, your opponent would have to destroy someone.
  Where you erred slightly is the timing and scope of Ring of Earth:
  First you announce Overwhelmed, then you pay its costs (none), then you choose you highest Force target for the first effect. After these steps comes the Interrupt step, where players can Interrupt the action; when it's your turn to Interrupt, you play Ring of Earth, which will negate all movement caused by Overwhelmed. After both players pass the chance to Interrupt, Overwhelmed's effects resolve. It blows up your target highest Personality, then your opponent must choose to target and send home two people. Whether they do or don't target anyone, the movement will be negated, so the destruction effect happens. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 24 Jun 2025
• Q: never said they were auto-includes. However, if I was building an enlightenment deck, there was always a back up win condition. like, hugely. most likely military or honor like, you aren't going to build a crab deck with anything other than a ring of earth. to do anything else is a waste
  A: The odds of winning by Enlightenment are less than for other victory conditions because it is essentially pulling off several small but not insurmountable combos during the game.
  Thinking about Enlightenment as a "thing of chance" ignores the deckbuilding finesse which goes into them: card tutoring, Ring recursion, and redundant effects which maximize the odds of being able to play a Ring at a specific time.
  It's never so much "I happened to draw this Ring at exactly the right moment" as "I have the tools in place to be able to play the Ring, now I just need to engineer its conditions".
  Ring of Air for its straighten effects, Ring of Water for its move-in, Ring of the Void for card draw. (modern arcs) this condition is not hard to create
  it also doesn't draw you five cards, so... Jeff Williamson, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 26 Oct 2024
• Q: No worries. I should have clarified. This was a confusing interaction since Ring of Earth is an interrupt so I thought the opponent wouldn’t have a window to use an interrupt after I use RoE.
  A: Yeah. While you cannot Interrupt an Interrupt ITSELF, there is a full back and forth of taking potentially multiple Interrupts to the same non-Interrupt/Response action. Thus, Announce Overwhelmed, Pay (nothing to pay), Choose initial target, Interrupt round: Ring of Earth, Yaheiko, Pass, Pass, Resolve Overwhelmed... Brook Cunningham, "Onyx Lives #rules-questions", 13 Aug 2024
• Q: If an opponent uses Overwhelm and ring of earth, can you prevent the destruction of your berserker personality using Yaheiko Sensei?
  A: Yes.
  (Replying to a player: "The opponent will still have to destroy their highest personality right?") Do you mean the person who played Overwhelmed?
  (Replying to a player: "Yes") Yes, they would. Brook Cunningham, "Onyx Lives #rules-questions", 12 Aug 2024
• Q: If I challenge someone with Way of the Crane and the opponent refuses ("Dishonor and move him home to refuse"), can the opponent then use Ring of Earth to stop that movement?
  A: No, on a couple of levels. 1. The Interrupt would have to be played before any of the action's effects resolve, which includes the choice to refuse or not. 2. If the movement is negated, the challenge cannot be refused. Within the same sentence, effects which precede the word "to" must occur or else effects following the word "to" will not occur. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 13 Jun 2024
• Q: Ring of Earth requires me to be opposed by one of their personalities and not have that province be destroyed, correct?
  A: may want to clarify that you're asking about Onyx cards since people play every format under the sun on here Jeff Williamson, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 28 Sep 2023
• Q: Hey, need clarification regarding interrupt and card memory
  scenario: player A: used the Repeatable Absent Battle action of Dark Path of Shadow player B: uses the Interrupt action of the Ring of Earth (MRP) negating movement from the action
  does the modification done by the interrupt persist throughout the turn (while card memory remains)?
  Thanks in advance!
  A: The Interrupt only affects the action it interrupts. It has no effect on the ability which created the action. (And I realise that the term "ability" wasn't used when DPoS was printed - confusingly "action" could mean either the text on the card or the game procedure generated from it - but the principle that these things were different existed then.) Alex Jones, "Oracle of the Void #rules", 30 Aug 2022