Shosuro Seibei

Legend of the Five Rings card from Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Personality

Force

2

Chi

3

Honor Requirement

0

Gold Cost

6

Personal Honor

2

Clan

Scorpion

Keywords

Unique, Samurai, Scorpion Clan, Yojimbo

Card Text

When another player would target a Courtier at Seibei's location with an action: It targets Seibei instead, if legal.

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I have an army containing Shosuro Seibei and 3 courtiers. My opponent has Shiba Aikune Exp. 2 and a several other personalities opposing me. If he tries to use Aikune's ability, what happens? Aikune must target two personalities, but anything targetting the courtiers is redirected to Seibei.
  Is Aikune's action legal? Does only Seibei die? Does Seibei's trait consider her to not be a legal target, and therefore fail when redirecting from one of the courtiers?
  Does the answer change at all if the action in question can have any number of targets, such as Shuten Dojo's Fury? Can my opponent use his 4 Personal Honor personality to target all 4 of my personalities (including Seibei)? If so, what happens?
  Thanks
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_T#Target "When multiple targets are chosen simultaneously, the same target cannot be chosen twice. This also means that when one target out of multiple, already-chosen targets is being changed, another one of those already-chosen targets cannot legally become the new target."
  This means that in either case (Aikune's multiple required targeting or Shuten Doji's Fury's multiple variable targeting), once Seibei is one of the targets, his trait won't cause him to become a target AGAIN; that would be illegal, so his trait would fail.
  Now, how he becomes a target is mostly up to you. If you choose all your Courtier targets and not Seibei, the active player decides which Courtier's targeting Seibei's trait triggers for (Here, "If the order of simultaneous triggers to an occurrence needs to be determined, the active player determines their order.").
  The better option, whether or not you're the active player but especially if you're not, (and I'm editorializing here) is always to choose Seibei WITH the group of Courtiers. Before all the simultaneous targeting actually occurs, his trait will trigger for each Courtier (in an order chosen by the active player) and fail each time because he's already one of the chosen targets.
  As a caveat, these sequences could be further complicated by the addition of Reactions such as Turn of Fortune or Shosuro Aroru. Just let the link above be your guide, as far as resolving conflicts of timing.
  (Edited twice for absolute correctness; essential point and ruling remained constant, however.) Brook Cunningham, "Shosuro Seibei + Actions that require multiple targets", 4 May 2009
• Q: Just wanted to question the ruling here: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=70573
  As I understand it, Shosuro Seibei triggers when another player would target a Courtier. Doesn't this mean that if I play Misdirection(in response to an opponent's action and before they choose targets) and choose to target a Courtier, Seibei will not trigger as I am the player doing the targetting, not my opponent? If not, can you please explain why?
  A: No.
  Misdirection doesn't change which player is considered to be doing the targeting; it only changes who chooses the targets. Choosing the targets and the targeting itself are separate facets of targeting. Alex Jones, "Shosuro Seibei and Targeting", 8 Sep 2008
• Q: 1) Another player attempts to target one of my courtiers, Seibei trait triggers. Am I able to use Misdirection to redirect the action to one of my courtiers?
  A: No. It's too late for Misdirection at this point; as per its text, you must play it before your opponent chooses his target.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Timing: "Timing "when" a trigger occurs comes later than "before" but prior to "after" the trigger."
  However, even if you do play Misdirection at the appropriate time and try to choose one of your Courtiers as a target, Seibei's trait would still trigger and cause him to be targeted instead, because the action's original player is still considered to be the player "targeting" that Courtier (Citation). (RE-UN-FIXED) Brook Cunningham, "Shosuro Seibei and Targeting", 7 Sep 2008
• Q: 2) A player attempts to target one of my courtiers with an action, reacting with a Determination. Would the action still redirect to Seibei. Now I am familiar with the ruling that Misdirection cannot redirect an action played with a determination, but Seibei is worded differently, specifically: "would target a Courtier at Seibei's location". This leads me to believe that the courtier was never targeted in the first place, thus no redirection needs to take place, and despite the Determination the action will still target Seibei instead of the courtier. Is this correct?
  A: Sorry, no. (Same citation link as above): "A phrase such as "before X would happen" is equivalent to "before X happens." The conditional mood indicated by "would" is irrelevant to the function of the "before" timing point." (This also applies to "when".) Brook Cunningham, "Shosuro Seibei and Targeting", 7 Sep 2008