Shinjo's Courage

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Dawn of the Empire

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

2

Card Text

This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player.
Battle: Target your performing unbowed Personality and target an enemy Follower, or an enemy unbowed Personality without Followers: Give the target a Force penalty equal to the difference in Personal Honor between the targets' units' Personalities. If this reduced its Force from 1 or more to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality's Personal Honor.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• You gain honor even if no card is destroyed. [ML, 6 November 2004] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 32
• Erratum: Reads, "Shinjo’s Courage 2G 2FV This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player. Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or unbowed Personality without Followers, opposing him: Reduce the opposing target’s Force by the difference in Personal Honor between the targets’ units’ Personalities. If this reduced its Force to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality’s Personal Honor." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 155

Rules Q&A

• Q: Is it possible to gain 0 honor for '0 honor gain' ? For example, Shinjo's Courage gives you option to 'gain Honor equal to Personal Honor' - what if Personality is dishonored : is he rehonored by 0 honor gain ? Or maybe a honor gain HAS to be of at least 1 to 'exist' ? [ Of course amount of honor gained may diifer , depending on other effects and reactions palyed; I'm asking about the first, base honor ]
  A: Honor gains of 0 do exist. However, a gain of 0 will not restore a Personality to Honor. The gain must be at least 1 point to do that. [DE p. 87] Martin Lund, "Rules for 1 February 2005", 5 Feb 2005
• Q: Shinjo's Courage Battle: Target a personality you control and either a follower, or a personality without followers, opposing him. Reduce the opposing target's force by the difference in personal honor between the targets' units' Personalities. If the card's force is now 0, destroy it. Gain honor equal to your personality's personal honor.
  Does it matter which unit has the higher honor? ie. If my Moto Chagatai (honor 1) faces his Doji Masaru (force 2, honor 3), can I kill him?
  A: Yes.
  Having the higher honor is only relevant for the honor-gaining effect (in the sense that is is more beneficial if you have a higher PH), not the force reduction and card destruction part. Martin Lund, "Rules for 17 January 2005", 21 Jan 2005
• Q: Something came up in a tournament and wanted to make it clear for me
  I have a Taoist Archer attached to a personality, the opposing player destrys it with a Shinjos Courage, I react with Fortified Camp and reattach the follower.
  a) If the Taoist Archer has already used his Ranged ability, can he use it again since it left play and reentered?
  b) Does the force penalty from Shinjos Courage still affect the follower or it clears because he was destroyed and reentered play?
  Thanks a lot
  A: Being out of play is not enough for a card to lose "memory".
  http://rules.l5r.com/Effects#Tracking_rule: "'Memory' of the status of individual cards ends when the card... becomes both face-down and out of play(.)" Emphasis added. Zen Faulkes, "Follower Status and Fortified Camp", 6 Oct 2008
• Q: Question came up and couldn't find an answer searching the forums.
  I am defending with personality X with 2 force and 0 PH. My opponent plays Shinjo's Courage with his 4 PH personality, personality Y. I have an Assigning Blame in my hand.
  Which is the proper play:
  1) Assigning Blame reacts immediatly after my personality is destoryed, in the middle of Shinjo's courage before the honor would be gained, making my opponent gain 4 honor, instead rehonoring rehonoring personality Y.
  2) Assigning Blame reacts immediatly after my personality is destroyed, in the middle of Shinjo's courage, before the honor would be gained. Personality Y is dishonored, gaining his controller 0 honor, not rehonoring personality Y.
  3) Assigning Blame reacts immeditaly after Shinjo's Courage completely resolves, dishonorng the personality, and netting my opponent 1 honor.
  Mod edit: Corrected card title.
  A: #2 is the correct sequence. Brook Cunningham, "Assigning Blame timing", 11 Jun 2008
• Q: If I use shinjo Courage and don't Destroy a card I win honor??
  A: Shinjo's Courage: "Shinjo’s Courage 2G 2FV This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player. Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or unbowed Personality without Followers, opposing him: Reduce the opposing target’s Force by the difference in Personal Honor between the targets’ units’ Personalities. If this reduced its Force to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality’s Personal Honor."
  Both the destruction and the honour gain are dependent on reducing the force to 0. If the destruction is negated you still gain the honour - as long as you reduced the target's force to 0. Alex Jones, "Shinjo's Courage", 15 May 2008
• Q: First, I noticed some textual disagreement. On rules.l5r.com, Shinjo's Courage is listed as saying: "Reads, "Shinjo’s Courage 2G 2FV This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player. Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or Personality without Followers, opposing him: Reduce the opposing target’s Force by the difference in Personal Honor between the targets’ units’ Personalities. If this reduced its Force to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality’s Personal Honor." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007]
  Now, I have the Samurai Edition version in front of me and it reads (difference in bold) Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or unbowed Personality without Followers, etc. etc.
  Which is the correct printing? Second and finally (I know this has been answered before, but I apologize and want some clarification), am I given to understand that Shinjo's Courage cannot destroy a card that is already 0F b/c a card's force cannot go below zero, thus it receives no "reduction"?
  A: Whatever the text is on the most recent English printing of the card (this case Samurai Edition) is the correct text of the card. There is no Errata on Shinjo's Courage at this time.
  You are correct in that if you don't make the target's Force drop any lower you did not "reduce" it and you do not gain any Honor or Destroy the card. Martin Lund, "Shinjo's Courage again", 9 Nov 2007
• Q: Will targeting a personality/follower with 0 force before Shinjo's Courage resolves, result in the destruction of the personality/follower if it applies a reduction?
  A: No. "If this reduced its Force to 0" implies a value greater than zero before the action was played. Zen Faulkes, "Shinjo's Courage", 17 Sep 2007
• Q: Does an Honor gain of zero exist?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/The_Player#Family_Honor: "An Honor gain of 0 points is not considered a gain for things that check whether a gain happened; likewise an Honor loss of 0 points is not considered a loss for such things." Zen Faulkes, "Shinjo's Courage, Blade of Guile/Dishonored, and Dirty Polit", 15 Sep 2007
• Q: Shinjo's Courage: Do I need to reduce one of my opponent's cards to 0 force with Shinjo's Courage in order to gain honor equal to their personal honor?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Shinjo's Courage", 30 Jul 2007
• Q: Scenario...
  My opponent attacks. I assign a defender opposing an attacking unit.
  1.) My opponent plays a card targeting my defender that destroys it.
  2.) I react with Blood calls to Blood.
  3.) I react with Surge as soon as I target with Blood
  Which happens?
  a.) Blood calls to Blood resolves, Surge flops
  b.) Surge resolves, Blood flops
  c.) Blood resolves, Surge resolves, the province strength still increases.
  d.) Blood resolves, Surge resolves, province strength unchanged.
  I'm asking in light of the clarifications on Surge and due to the Shinjo's Courage question answered on this forum.
  A: E.) Surge Resolves, removing the unit from the game. Then Blood resolves, failing to remove the card from the game, but increasing the Province Strength. At the beginning of the next turn, Surge returns the unit to the game. Martin Lund, "Suitengus' Surge + Blood calls to Blood", 28 Mar 2005
• Q: (D)o I have to destroy the personality/follower to gain the honor?
  A: No. Zen Faulkes, "Shinjo's Courage Question", 26 Mar 2005