Scouting Far Afield

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Plague War, Battle of Kyuden Tonbo

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Bow or destroy your performing opposed Personality and target a Battle Strategy in your discard pile: Put it into your hand. If your performer's Force was 6 or higher when you chose him, you may take an additional Battle action.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Story

2009 Kotei Winner - Sebastien Bellanger

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: looking at http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Abilities_and_a ... esignators mostly.
  So we have Scouting Far Afield which lets me search for a "battle strategy"
  http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Card_types#Strategy_cards doesn't quite explain what a "battle strategy" is, it does however explain what strategy cards are very well
  There are 2 things that i'm looking at in the Designators link at the top. One is
  and the other under that is
  My question is fairly simple. I have used another strategy during my open phase that says Battle/Open with no other battle actions on it. For the purposes of this question I'll put up Bestial Rage (quoted below). Now during the opposed battle, I want to bow one of my personalities to get back Bestial Rage. So I get from the parts quoted above that the card itself is battle/open. Since I have used it for the open action and the game knows it was used as an open action, is the card in the discard pile considered to only be an open or does it still both a battle and open action? The main problem I'm seeing is just no real point in the rulebook (that i could find) which states what a "battle strategy" is while cards (at least scouting far afield) refers to this type of card. Since we seem to be assuming that a battle strategy is a strategy that has the Battle designator, could we not also assume that the game knowing the card was used as an open action no longer has the Battle designator, but only the Open designator?
  A: There is a fundamental difference between an action and an ability:
  Ability: Text on a card, or granted to a player, that allows an action to be taken. Abilities are used.
  Action: A sequence of targeting, costs, and effects that comes from an ability. ... Actions are taken.
  I've not quoted some less helpful text, which I'll get replaced. An ability can have multiple designators, typically "Battle/Open:", but an action will only be one of them. However, this doesn't change the ability in any way. If a Battle/Open ability on a card is used to take an Open action, the ability is still a Battle/Open ability, and the card, if a Strategy, is still a Battle Strategy. Alex Jones, "Action card designators, Scouting Far Afield and game memory", 30 Jun 2011
• Q: 1. Which edition/arc did the Open and Battle actions were separated?
  2. In light of the previous question, cards printed before carry only "Open" that were also playable during battle. As such- will cards that let me take "Battle" actions from my discard pile back into my hand like Scouting Far Afield let me take back an "Open" action that was printed before the answer of Question 1?
  Thanks
  A: Legacy rules has this "For cards printed prior to KHAN'S DEFIANCE:"
  http://rules.l5r.com/Older_Cards#Battles: "All "Open" actions may be taken at a normal opportunity to take Battle Actions during the Combat Segment. Such actions must follow the rules of Location and Presence like Battle actions, but are not considered Battle actions."
  Anything that refers to Battle actions does not also mean "Open" actions on old cards. Zen Faulkes, "Open/Battle Actions", 27 Jun 2011
• Q: this question is a follow up to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=84008&p=1106180&hilit=scouting+far#p1106180
  So i was playing vs a breeder deck. he had out 20 zombies and was coming to crush a province. I used turn the tide and bow all of them. I was happy because i thought i would gain 40 honor and win the game on the next turn. However he played scouting far afield, and destroyed one of his zombies. the card he grabbed from the discard was a previously used copy of scouting far afield. then the next action he used was used his recently re-obtained scouting far afield to destroy a zombie and get a card(the first scouting far afield). The process looks like this:
  1)have a scouting far afield in the discard 2)play scouting far afield, destroy a zombie, get scouting far afield from the discard. 3)repeat until all zombies are dead
  According to the first ruling, this isn't possible because a card can only be used 1 time per turn. According to the second this is perfectly legal because the card returns to the hand. My question is, Is this a legal way to jack me of all that honor gain?
  A: Zen's second ruling is correct. Because the card returns to your hand, game state "forgets" that you have used its ability so you may take an action using it again this turn. Alex Jones, "Scouting Far Afield Recursion", 14 Apr 2011
• Q: If a Strategy that was affected by Smoke Cover was returned to a player's hand with Scouting Far Afield and played again, will they still get it back at the end of the turn?
  A: No. The Tracking Rule prevents it (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Tracking_rule). Zen Faulkes, "Smoke Cover and Scouting Far Afield", 13 Oct 2010
• Q: In regards this ruling, since the retrieved card goes face-down when it enters your hand what's preventing it being reused?
  A: Nothing. Sorry, I forgot that it goes into the hand. Oops. Zen Faulkes, "Scouting Far Afield", 3 Jun 2010
• Q: After i play a battle strategy, can I then use Scouting Far Afield to get it back from discard pile, put into my hand and use it again in the same battle?
  A: No. Actions can only be used once per turn. This doesn't reset just because a card leaves play. Zen Faulkes, "Scouting Far Afield", 3 Jun 2010