Spirit of the Shadows

Legend of the Five Rings card from Before the Dawn

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Limited: Choose your performing unbowed Personality: If he is a Ninja, permanently give him the ability, "Ninja Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations: Switch their locations." Otherwise, permanently give him Ninja.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Notes

The Before the Dawn version of this card was misprinted with the wrong card number.

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Can a ninja with the granted ability from Spirit of the shadows target two people who are both not at the current battlefield? I believe so, but I may be wrong.
  Spirit of the Shadows text: Limited: Choose your performing unbowed Personality: If he is a Ninja, permanently give him the ability, "Ninja Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations: Switch their locations." Otherwise, permanently give him Ninja.
  A: Sorry, you are indeed wrong.
  Nothing in its text exempts the ability granted by Spirit of the Shadows from the Rule of Location, so one of the targets must be at the current battlefield. And then, since its effects would then move the other TO the battlefield by switching their locations, the targeting of the other Personality at a different location would also be legal, via the Rulebook exception to the Rule of Location. Brook Cunningham, "Spirit of the shadows vs. different locations", 26 Mar 2012
• Q: Spirit of the Shadows: Limited: Choose your performing unbowed Personality: If he is a Ninja, permanently give him the ability, "Ninja Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations: Switch their locations."...<snip>
  Example Negation Card: The Loyalty of the Scorpion: Reaction: After an action targets your Scorpion Clan Personality, destroy your performing Scorpion Clan Personality: Negate either the bowing, movement, or destruction of the target from the action's effects.
  Now, if the ability lent to your ninja personality by Spirit of the Shadows is cancelled by an action like The Loyalty of the Scorpion, what happens? Does only one personality's movement get cancelled, or do both 'switched' personality's movement become negated? My supposition is the type of movement in this case is a 'switch' and so both would be cancelled, but it's not entirely clear.
  A: Switch:
  "To swap the game area two or more cards are in. This may involve movement if units are switched between two locations.
  If the area change of any one card is negated or fails, all other area changes from that switching also fail. This is an exception to the rule that effects are independent."
  If one movement of a "switch" is negated, they both will be. Brook Cunningham, "Spirit of the Shadows vs. 'Negation'", 9 Jan 2012
• Q: Hi,
  My Ninja Bob has Spirit of the Shadows ability and stays home My Ninja Charlie has a Flawless Assassin attached and goes into battle
  If I use Spirit of Shadow ability to switch Bob and Charlie position, can I then use Flawless Assassin reaction to send Bob back in battle ?
  Since the movements are simultaneous, I'm not sure we meet the "After one of your Personalities moves to or from this unit's location" requirement from the follower ?
  Thanks !
  EDIT Corrected question, and then the answer is obvious indeed. Thanks for the answers !
  A: No. CORRECTION: Yes - see below.
  Firstly, I think you want to assign the other way round, to move Charlie with the Flawless Assassin back to the battlefield. Flawless Assassin can only move the unit it is in.
  However, that doesn't work either, due to the rules for References: References involving a game state in the context of a past occurrence check the game state only at the time of the occurrence.
  Flawless Assassin's ability can trigger if a unit moved to its unit's location or from there. However, the location considered is different for each. When you check where the unit moved from, you check Flawless Assassin's unit's location before the movement; when you check where the unit moved to, you check Flawless Assassin's unit's location after the movement. At both times, the two units are in different locations. Alex Jones, "Spirit of Shadows + Flawless Assassin", 3 Jun 2011