Shiba Raigen

Legend of the Five Rings card from Honor Bound

Card Type

Personality

Force

2

Chi

3

Honor Requirement

2

Gold Cost

4

Personal Honor

1

Clan

Phoenix

Keywords

Phoenix Clan, Samurai, Yojimbo

Card Text

Reaction: When an action would target your Shugenja at Raigen's location, bow Raigen: The action targets him instead, if legal.

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Jeff just a quick question. "Shiba Danjuro Phoenix Clan Yojimbo * Samurai Soul of Shiba Raigen Reaction: When an action targets one of your Shugenja, bow Danjuro to redirect that action to Danjuro, if legal. If the Shugenja is in an army, Danjuro must be in the same army to take this action."
  the part that Danjuro said that he need be legal to redirect to himself are aplied when?
  A: When you want to use his ability. Martin Lund, "Rules for 29 June 2004", 2 Jul 2004
• Q: In my opinion Shiba Raigen is never a new legal target because in the rules says: You cannot announce a targeted action if a legal target does not exist. You must choose all targets when you announce an action, before you begin paying any costs.
  A: Raigen has to be a legal target for the original action, but his special ability overrides the normal targeting rules. You can't redirect one of your own actions to Raigen, but why would you want to? Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for August 14th", 14 Aug 2001
• Q: Zen,Vaughn,Jeff.
  card weording needed for this discussion:
  Shiba Raigen Phoenix Clan Yojimbo. Samurai. Reaction: Bow Raigen when an action targets one of your Shugenja. If Raigen is a legal target for the action, redirect the action to Raigen. If the Shugenja is in an army, Raigen must be in the same army to take this action.
  Force of honour Political Battle: Target two attacking units. If the attacker has more family honor and more provinces than the defender, send the units home bowed.
  I'm wondering if Shiba Raigen's 'jump in the way' ability is targetted.
  A: Currently, no, in the same way as Feign Death is not. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 21 June", 26 Jun 2001
• Q: From what I see there are 3 options:
  a) Shiba Raigen is targetted (with all it's implications) b) Shiba Raigen can chose targets in this situation without being targetted (more implications) c) Shiba Raigen cannot be used in this situation (my current favourite choice)
  A: It's currently b). It will be c) once Gold comes out. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 21 June", 26 Jun 2001
• Q: I'm wondering if Shiba Raigen's 'jump in the way' ability is targetted.
  A: No.
  Rules Archive, Redirection: "A redirecting action is only a case of targeting for the original action; the redirecting action itself does not target. [JA, 22 February 2001]"
  Rules Archive, Targeting: "Reactions that are triggered by a particular kind of action never target that action. [ZF, 28 November 2000]" Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 22 June 2001", 22 Jun 2001
• Q: Shiba Raigens text states: Reaction: Bow Raigen when an action targets one of your Shugenja. If Raigen is a legal target for the action, redirect the action to Raigen.
  If Raigen bows when one of my Shugenja is targeted, how can I redirect the action to my own bowed personality? Other than Touch of Death there shouldn't be many actions that can be redirected to Shiba Raigen, after, as the first sentence of his text states, he bows when someone targets one of my Shugenja.
  Once Raigen bows, as the first sentence of his text states, how can he now be a legal target for me to redirect the action to? After all players are unable to target their own bowed personalities aren't they?
  A: Point the first: "When you redirect an effect, you are only bound by the effect's original controller's targeting requirements. [27 June 1997]" So it doesn't matter that YOU couldn't have targeted your own bowed Raigen if you'd been the one casting the spell. Your opponent COULD have.
  Point the second: don't forget the Rule of Obvious Legality. If strictly adhering to every rule makes a card unusable in all practical situations, it's an exception to one of them. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 7 February 2001", 9 Feb 2001
• Q: [Jade] Bayushi Kachiko bows and puts a -1C counter on a target opposing shugenja. Next turn, she doesn’t straighten. Opponent has a Shiba Raigen on field. At this point, he cannot bow to redirect the subsequent -1C counters, right? You have to do it from the first one?
  A: Correct. Kachiko's action only targets the Shugenja when you initially use it, then creates an initial effect as well as ongoing effects that persist while she remains bowed. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 7 May 2026