Shosuro Technique

Legend of the Five Rings card from Lotus Edition, Fire & Shadow, Diamond Edition, Gold Edition, Code of Bushido

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

2

Card Text

This card's ability costs 2 less Gold if the performer is Scorpion Clan or a Ninja.
Reaction: After your performing Personality enters a duel facing a Personality with higher Chi: Raise your Personality's Chi to equal the other's Chi.
Battle: Choose your performing Personality and target an enemy Personality with higher Force: Raise your Personality's Force to equal the target's Force.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Targets your Personality but not the opponent's Personality when used in a duel. [JA, 5 February 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 33

Rules Q&A

• Q: I win a duel. My opponent plays Calculate Strength and curses my duelist. Now, if I start another duel, and play Shosuro Technique, does my Chi get raised to my opponents normal Chi, or to Chi+3?
  A: Shosuro Technique gets played "when you enter a duel," and by that timing, you'd be opposing the Personality and have triggered the +3 bonus. The on-going trigger effect (+3 to a stat) would happen before you have to choose to pay your Reaction, so you can play Shosuro Technique to raise your Chi to the post-bonus (chi + 3) figure of the other Personality. Martin Lund, "Rules for 14 - 17 August 2004", 18 Aug 2004
• Q: If one of my personalities Iaijutsu Challenges someone, and I have the Blade of Truths attached, can my opponent Shosuro Technique before I can make it illegal with the Blade?
  A: Shosuro Technique says, "Reaction: When one of your Personalities enters a duel against a Personality with higher Chi,"
  Blade of Truths says, "Reaction: After this Personality enters a duel, name a Focus value.
  "When" reactions always come before "After" reactions to the same trigger. Shosuro Technique will consequently beat-out Blade of Truths.
  (Though obviously neither enchanted steel nor shadowy technique will prevail you against the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies.) Martin Lund, "Rules for 19 July 2004", 20 Jul 2004
• Q: I question because it directly changes the personalities force. Does it change the force, and then apply other bonuses?
  A: It changes the Personality's current force, after all penalties and bonuses already in effect are applied. It adds itself in at the end of the line of existing bonuses and effects as a Force Bonus equal to the different between the Current Force of your Personality and the Current Force of the opposing beasty.
  At that point, the Force Bonus is "locked in" and subsequent bonuses and penalties will factor in normally.
  So, if you have 3F currently and the the Maw has 7F, you get +4F from Shosuro Technique to make you 7F. If the Maw later Tacticians, the bonus doesn't change. If you later Tactician, the bonus still doesn't change. Only another effect (like In Search of the Future) will change that bonus. Martin Lund, "Rules for 16 May 2004", 19 May 2004
• Q: Concerning the Lion Bloodspeaker. Since a ranged attack that targets Ieshige must be one higher to kill him (since his trait increases his Force by one) will a personality using Shosuro Technique that targets Ieshige have Force equal to Ieshige's before the action or will Shosuro Technique also include his Force bonus in its calculations?
  A: Shosuro Technique doesn't care about any numbers until it starts generating effects. By the time it generates any effects, Ieshige already has his +1 Force, so the copy-cat will get that adjusted value. Martin Lund, "Rules for 9 April 2004", 11 Apr 2004
• Q: If I have shosuro Haru out:
  Maho Reaction: After entering a duel or assigning or moving to a battle, give a –1F/–1C Poison token to a opposing Personality.
  and he is challenged to a duel, can I Play shosuro technique:
  Reaction: When one of your Personalities enters a duel against a Personality with higher Chi, raise your Personality’s Chi to equal the other’s Chi.
  This would raise his chi to equal his opponents who is higher, could he then use his own ability making him one chi higher, and then strike and when the duel. If not why?
  thanks
  hibachab
  A: Shosuro Technique is played "when" you enter the duel. Haru's ability is played "after" you enter the duel. You always have to play Shosuro Technique before Maru does his Poison Token thing. Yes, that should let you immediately call strike against your challenger and defeat him, barring any other Reaction tricks.
  I'm also a fan of Shosuro Higatsuku, Shosuro Technique, and Kakita Dojo. If only I could recycle Shosuro Technique ... Martin Lund, "Rules for 2 April 2004", 4 Apr 2004
• Q: 5) Targeting
  In your rulings from May 22nd, you write:
  I don't understand then why Shosuro Technique would ever not target the person whose Force or Chi is being copied. Because of the general method used to determine what ANY targeted action targets: anything that is affected or that must be chosen. I'm trying to apply the rule consistently. Copying the Force as a Battle action requires selecting one Personality out of several. Copying the Chi of the one opponent in a duel does not.
  This sounds like the old, pre-gold targeting rule to me. I had the impression that, under gold rules, targeting is the default.
  A: It is. BUT, actions do not target every single thing that appears anywhere in the text. That was quickly found to be an unusable rule. Jeff Alexander, "post for 27-28 May 2003", 29 May 2003
• Q: 4) Sorry if I missed the initial discussion, but why does Shosuro Technique target the opponent when copying force, but not when copying Chi? I compare this to the ability of Hoshi Eisai experienced, which I have always ruled must target. Furthermore, the rules archive states:
  A card is targeted when some aspect of it is targeted (e.g., when copying a stat on another card). [Extension of Ninja Shapeshifter ruling, JA, 7 October 2002]
  I don't understand then why Shosuro Technique would ever not target the person whose Force or Chi is being copied.
  A: Because of the general method used to determine what ANY targeted action targets: anything that is affected or that must be chosen. I'm trying to apply the rule consistently. Copying the Force as a Battle action requires selecting one Personality out of several. Copying the Chi of the one opponent in a duel does not.
  You are also reading the NSS ruling wrong. It is not about targeting something else, but about BEING targeted. The ruling is that if something like a card's stat, trait, or action is targeted, then so is the whole card. But under the paragraph above, there is no Chi targeting. Jeff Alexander, "post for 22 May 2003", 23 May 2003
• Q: 3) Kanokitchek and Snak are in a battle together. Snak gets a Shosuro Technique to match a 6F personality in the opposing army. a) If Kanoktichek leaves the battle, is Snak a 6F or 5F?
  A: If someone is 6F and then loses a +1F bonus, he drops to 5F. Jeff Alexander, "post for 11 November 2002", 12 Nov 2002
• Q: Shosuro Technique
  A: Targeted by rule #4. Targets the things it affects: both Personalities. This is true for both its actions. Jeff Alexander, "post for 22 August 2002", 23 Aug 2002
• Q: 2) May I react with Overconfidence to a Shosuro Technique? This is considered a bonus? May I use In search of the Future to reduce it to 0?
  A: Setting a stat directly to another, higher number is considered giving it a bonus. Overconfidence may be played if the increase is large enough, and In Search of the Future will reduce the bonus to 0. Jeff Alexander, "post for 4 February 2002", 5 Feb 2002
• Q: Well, actually, I thought Tsukune was MRP'd to be back to a trait. In any event, let's use Bayushi Eiyo or someone who has a trait to get Chi bonuses to enter into a duel (I was already aware of the Reaction timing stuff). If Eiyo duels a Crane with much, much higher Chi, can Shosuro Technique be combined with his native Chi bonus to pop his Chi up above the Crane's? (Same question as above, but specifically referring to a a mix of traits and Reactions.)
  A: Traditionally, when traits and Reactions have the same trigger, the traits go into effect first. Eiyo is no more effective with Shosuro Technique than is any other Scorpion. Jeff Alexander, "post for 15 January 2002", 16 Jan 2002
• Q: And -- a separate question -- Shosuro Technique does target Angai, correct?
  A: Correct. Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 January 2002", 11 Jan 2002
• Q: Quick question about dueling reactions. I know that some target, they're easy.
  Poisoned Weapon, Doubt, Shosuro Technique all target (the first two target the opponent, the last targets both the opponent and yourself).
  A: Poisoned Weapon targets nothing due to its own text. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 November 2001", 9 Nov 2001
• Q: In the card Shosuro Technique
  Text: This card costs 2 less Gold if it targets a Scorpion Clan or Ninja Personality. Reaction: When one of your Personalities enters a duel, raise your Personality's Chi to equal the other Personality's Chi. Battle: Raise the Force of one of your Personalities in this battle to equal the Force of an opposing Personality.
  The first ability as far as I know does not target, since its a reaction when one of your personalities enters a duel. Then, ¿Does Shosuro technique cost two gold when I use it for the duel reaction with one of my scorpion personalities?
  A: Under Gold Edition targeting rules, it targets both Personalities in both cases. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 November 2001", 8 Nov 2001
• Q: 2) Can someone play Shosuro Technique (the reaction) when dueling Kakita Rensei? Is a reaction to entering a duel in a duel?
  A: I'm going to say "no" and "yes" to these, respectively. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 October 2001", 30 Oct 2001
• Q: 4) Judgement of Toshiken states that people can focus once if they have never focused yet in the duel. In what order does this occur? For instance, lets say I challenge someone to a duel, they accept, play Shosuro Technique and strike. I play Judgement of Toshiken. Who has to decide wether they are going to focus first?
  A: The challenged Personality, by Gold Edition card text. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 October 2001", 30 Oct 2001
• Q: One more time... Just because of the weirdness of a reaction targeting. The whole reactions targeting thing doesn't jive with my logic, but I'm just going to run with it. I don't think the answer is quite the same, at least with my attempts at understanding this weirdness. It may or may not make a difference down the road, so best to have an understanding of it now...
  It (Shosuro Technique) targets both personalities in the duel, your personality and the card creating the duel, or both personalities and the card creating the duel?
  A: Just the personalities. Shosuro Tech doesn't affect the card that created the duel in any way. Its timing window is related to a duel, but that's not enough to make it targeted. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 25th", 25 Jul 2001
• Q: I still need to know, for certain, if Shosuro Technique's Reaction can be used in Gold on a bowed Personality or a Personality that is bowing as it enters a duel.
  Doesn't appear so.
  Why can't you? Is Shosuro Technique now a targetted card, even though only one person is ever entering a duel for you at any point and time? So does this apply to Double Chi and Void Strike now too?
  *ERROR: DOES NOT COMPUTE*
  A: I would expect as much from such a faulty computation device... ;)
  The Gold rules on targeting are:
  1. If an effect says it targets, it targets. 2. An effect that applies only to its own card does not target. 3. An effect that applies to all of a particular group does not target. 4. All other effects target.
  Rule 4. All other effects target. As a general guideline (because this is *so* different from the way that Reactions were previously handled), if a Reaction affects a card in play, assume that it targets unless it specifically says otherwise (Poisoned Weapon, for ex). Something that reacts to a trigger event (Counterattack, The Wind's Truth, The Emperor's Left Hand) probably doesn't target. This rule is going to take a while to work out, but will probably be stabler in the long run. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 18th", 18 Jul 2001
• Q: To All,
  I had a few questions on different subjects. First of all with regards to In Search of the Future -
  1. How does In Search interact with cards like Shosuro Technique and Ninja Shapeshifter since they are "raising force"? Does "raising" and "copying" force equate "force bonus?"
  A: Raising a stat, or copying a value that's higher, both count as bonuses. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 15-16 April 2001", 19 Apr 2001