Seek the Path

Legend of the Five Rings card from Winds of Change

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Kiho

Card Text

Reaction: Before a player searches his Fate deck for a card, choose your performing unbowed Monk or Shugenja: That player draws the top card of his Fate deck instead. Draw a card.

Focus Value

3

Legality

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

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: For the purposes of Seek the Path, does the City of Blood's effect count as searching your deck?
  Seek the Path: Kiho Reaction: Target one of your unbowed shugenja or monks before a player searches his or her deck fate for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her fate deck instead. Draw a card.
  City of Blood: Maho Limited: Bow a Bloodspeaker personality you control: Once per turn, look at the top 4 cards of your fate deck. You may show one spell or maho card, then put it in your hand. You may shuffle the deck.
  A: City of Blood does not search your deck. Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 January 2005", 4 Feb 2005
• Q: After I play Aid of the Grand Master, can I react with 2x Seek the Path? How many cards will I draw then? I'm assuming that I will draw 4 cards, but I need an official answer to this.
  A: No. You can not play 2x Seek the Path unless something very odd happens.
  Seek the Path says, "Kiho Reaction: Target one of your unbowed Shugenja or Monks before a player searches his or her Fate deck for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her Fate deck instead. Draw a card."
  The key here is the word, "Instead."
  You play Aid of the Grand Master. You React before the deck search effect with Seek the Path. Seek the Path resolves. Seek the path Negates the deck-searching effect and makes you draw a card instead. That's what "instead" means, the effect you were going to do is Negated and you do something else. Once the opportunity to play Reactions comes up again, there is no deck searching effect to play further Reactions to (such as an additional Seek the Path). Martin Lund, "Rules for 4 August 2004", 9 Aug 2004
• Q: 6 - How does Seek the Path work with cards like Superior Strategist, Refuge of the Three Sisters... ?
  A: Jeff answered a question about this a while back. I'm surprised Seek the Path doesn't have an entry in the Accumulated Rulings because of it.
  Anyway, here was what Jeff has to say:
  '"Target one of your unbowed Shugenja or Monks before a player searches his or her Fate deck for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her Fate deck instead."
  He draws his top card instead of searching his entire deck and taking a card of his choice. Only the search-and-take effect is altered -- if whatever is making him search also does other things, those still happen. Martin Lund, "Rules for 8 June 2004", 10 Jun 2004
• Q: As a specific example, if my opponent bows Grove of the Five Masters to get a kiho, and I play Seek the Path, does he simply get the top card and do nothing more, or does the rest of the Grove effect continue? (i.e. does he have to show it to me, discard a card to keep it if its a kiho, and discard it otherwise?)
  A: He must still show it to you, put it in his hand, and then discard a card. He gets to keep it even if it's not a Kiho. Martin Lund, "Rules for 8 June 2004", 10 Jun 2004
• Q: Regarding Seek the Path, there has been some contention on dragonstrategy as to what "instead" means. If I force someone to draw their top card instead of searching their deck for a card, does that scratch the rest of their action, or just the searching?
  A: "Target one of your unbowed Shugenja or Monks before a player searches his or her Fate deck for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her Fate deck instead."
  He draws his top card instead of searching his entire deck and taking a card of his choice. Only the search-and-take effect is altered -- if whatever is making him search also does other things, those still happen. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 6 Feb. 2004", 7 Feb 2004
• Q: As a specific example, if my opponent bows Grove of the Five Masters to get a kiho, and I play Seek the Path, does he simply get the top card and do nothing more, or does the rest of the Grove effect continue? (i.e. does he have to show it to me, discard a card to keep it if its a kiho, and discard it otherwise?)
  A: He must still show it to you, put it in his hand, and then discard a card. He gets to keep it even if it's not a Kiho. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 6 Feb. 2004", 7 Feb 2004
• Q: If the player is casting Aid of the Grand Master, does [Seek the Path] force them [or you, if you are casting it], to just draw a card?
  A: No; the rest of Aid of the Grand Master resolves. Draw from top, reshuffle, place on top or bottom. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 13 October 2003", 13 Oct 2003
• Q: How exactly does Seek the Path interact with Superior Strategist?
  Relevant text:
  Seek The Path:
  Kiho Reaction: Target one of your unbowed Shugenja or Monks before a player searches his or her Fate deck for a card to force that player to draw the top card of his or her Fate deck instead. Draw a card
  Superior Strategist:
  Tactical Battle:
  Search your Fate deck for an Action card with a Battle or Open action. If you find a card, gain an additional action after this one and play that card for a Battle or Open action.
  My interpretation would be Seek the Path's text would force the player to draw their top card, instead of searching.
  If the card they draw happens to have a Battle or Open action on it, they may immediately play it, if they desire, per Superior Strategist's text. If it doesn't have a Battle or Open, or has one they don't want to use it goes into their hand and their action ends.
  Am I close?
  Thanks.
  A: Since you prevented them from Searching, they can't find anything. Since they can't find anything, they don't gain an additional action to play the card for a Battle or Open action. (card text) Martin Lund, "Seek the Path and Superior Strategist", 11 Apr 2005
• Q: If The Last Prophecy resolves for my opponent and he wants to search out a card and I play Seek the Path on him to make him draw his top card, does he then discard a number of cards equal to that cards focus value, as per the remaining effect of The Last Prophecy?
  A: No. All the subsequent effects (show it, add it to your hand, etc.) key off of the card you searched for. If you don't search for a card, then they can't happen. Martin Lund, "The Last Prophecy and Seek the Path", 11 Apr 2005