Stay Your Blade

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Lotus Edition, Winds of Change, Training Grounds 2, Celestial Edition 15th Anniversary, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Bow and move home your performing opposed Samurai Personality: Draw three cards.

Focus Value

3

Legality

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

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Stay Your Blade 0G 3FV Battle: Bow and move home one of your target opposed Samurai Personalities: Draw three cards." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 158
• If the movement is negated (e.g., Bayushi Tsimaru Experienced), you cannot attempt to pay costs by moving the same Personality again or moving a different Personality, because the Samurai used to pay the cost has already been targeted. As with other cases of cost interference, no effects resolve and the card is discarded. [ZF, 13 August 2007, ZF, 13 August 2007]. Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 158

Rules Q&A

• Q: Stay Your Blade:
  "Battle: Bow and send home one of your opposed Samurai Personalities in the current battle to draw three cards"
  If the personality that is the target of this card is already bowed, can this card be played on him?
  A: No. Bowing him and sending him home are both costs, as they must be done "to" draw three cards. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 2-3 March 2004", 4 Mar 2004
• Q: [I]s bowing a cost of playing [Stay Your Blade]?
  A: Yes [card text]. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 15 August 2003", 16 Aug 2003
• Q: "Political Gozoku Reaction: Before another player would choose targets for one of his actions’ effects during a battle, target one of your Courtier or Gozoku Personalities: You choose the targets instead."
  http://rules.l5r.com/Card_features#Abilities "Constraints block: An ability may contain a second colon, at some point after the designator’s colon, which separates the constraints block from the effects block. If it does not have this second colon, there is only an effects block. The constraints block contains one or more of the following elements.
  A. Reaction trigger. Like triggered traits, Reactions have a trigger that describes a point in time when they can be taken. Example: “After the start of a turn:” “Before a Personality is destroyed:” “When producing Gold:” "
  http://rules.l5r.com/Rulings_M#Misdirection "Misdirection can be played even if there is no targeting in the constraints block or no targeting in the effects block"
  Isn't the reaction trigger "Before another player would choose targets for one of his actions' effects during a battle"? If there are no targets to choose, wouldn't that mean Misdirection has no trigger to react to?
  A: The trigger for Misdirection is open to interpretation when viewed with all the potential card intereactions, which is why there's an entry in the Rules wiki. So the ruling is in the archive stays as is.
  I am not going to go into detailed explanations, but will say that there are many, many Rules Junta posts discussing Misdirection behind the scenes. They are kept there for the same reason the nuclear reactions are kept behind thick concrete walls and deadly microbes are kept in hermetically sealed buildings.
  Maybe some of the other rules team members will venture more detailed explanations. Zen Faulkes, "Misdirection and Stay Your Blade", 17 Nov 2008
• Q: I was curious about whether you're able to play Misdirection targetting an action which does not have any targetting in it's effects.
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Rulings_M#Misdirection: "Misdirection can be played even if there is no targeting in the constraints block or no targeting in the effects block. " Zen Faulkes, "Misdirection and Stay Your Blade", 16 Nov 2008
• Q: Is it legal for the opposing player to look at the 3 cards of my fate deck, then target his bowed samurai (only has bowed samurai in the battle) with my Stay Your Blade, knowing he cannot pay the cost then discard the Stay Your Blade into my Discard pile?
  My contention is that it is a violation of the Good Faith Rule to do the above.
  Insight - Dark Virtue Battle: Target one of your Samurai: Look at the top 3 cards of any Fate deck. If any are Action cards or Rings, you may play one of them for an additional Battle Action on it. You may rearrange the order of the remaining cards you looked at.
  Stay Your Blade - Battle: Bow and move home one of your target opposed Samurai Personalities: Draw three cards.
  Good Faith Rule: When an action is announced, the player must be able to target all required targets, meet all conditions of the action, and pay all mandatory costs, to the best of his or her knowledge.
  Comments below the actual rule that are relevant.
  If any required targets do not exist or any costs cannot be paid at this point, or if a required condition is not met, the announcement of the action is a play mistake. In that case, if the action’s ability was on an Action card, return that card to the area it came from (usually, the player's hand). The timing point after the action is announced is not reached. The action does not count against the player’s chance to take an action, nor is its ability considered used.
  A: Your contention is correct.
  Insight allows an opponent to play your cards, but nothing in its text waives any other requirements or restictions, including Good Faith. He could find your Stay Your Blade, Insight's text would allow him to play it despite it being yours, but he could not announce it, knowingly unable to pay its costs, due to Good Faith. Brook Cunningham, "Good Faith Rule and Insight", 12 Apr 2008
• Q: In response to this:
  viewtopic.php?f=59&t=62328
  Stay Your Blade Battle: Bow and move home one of your target opposed Samurai Personalities: Draw three cards.
  Since moving your Personality home is one of the costs of Stay Your Blade (and bowing is listed first), does the Personality still have to bow if their movement is negated?
  Would it be different if it were worded "Move home and bow" instead?
  A: Bother. I missed that one was a cost, not an effect. Fixing.
  If the cost isn't paid, the action doesn't happen. Zen Faulkes, "RE: Movement negation and Stay Your Blade", 6 Oct 2007
• Q: In this post, it was asked if you could bow and send home a different personality for Stay Your Blade if Tsimaru xp negates the first movement.
  My question is this. Paying of costs (bowing and moving home in the case of Stay Your Blade) happens after targets are chosen for the action. Does this mean that if costs are prevented that you can change what targets are chosen for an action, since Stay Your Blade requires targeting a samurai?
  Stay Your Blade: Battle: Bow and move home one of your target opposed Samurai Personalities: Draw three cards.
  Bayushi Tsimaru Experienced: Reaction: Twice per turn, before a unit moves: Negate the movement.
  A: Ah, good point. Fixing. Zen Faulkes, "Stay your blade and Tsimaru xp again3", 15 Aug 2007
• Q: concerning this http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#C._Pay_costs: If paying an action’s mandatory costs is interfered with between announcing it and this step, no effects of the action resolve; the ability is considered to have been used; and the action is considered to have been taken, but not resolved.
  Political Interference reads: "Political Reaction: Before a player pays an action’s gold cost, bow one of your target Courtiers: The player may choose to raise that Gold cost by 2. If he does not choose this, he loses 2 Honor."
  If you go according to the cost payment section listed above:
  Suppose I declare that I am playing a Stay Your Blade in a battle. I target one of my samurai that I intend to send home. I wish to proceed to cost payment section of the action. My opponent declares that he plays Political Interference before I pay costs. I choose to raise that gold cost by 2. The Stay Your Blade now has a cost of 2 gold, as well as bowing and sending home a samurai. As per Cost Payment section above, the mandatory zero gold cost was interfered with between announcing it and cost payment. As per Cost Payment section above, no effects of the action resolve. Even if I have 2 gold that I wish to spend on the action, no effects of the action resolve because the opponent interfered in any way at all with cost payment. The same situation should arise if the opponent targets any Crab Clan personality you control while you also have Kuni Daigo in play. The same This does not seem right.
  Could the cost payment section be reworded in such a way that Political Interference does not automaticly cancel any effect if you choose not to lose 2 honor? The word "interfered" should probably be reworded to "prevented". If this is not the case, please explain why?
  A: This looks like it belongs in the Troubleshooting thread in CCG strategy main forum.
  See also http://rules.l5r.com/Costs_and_restrictions for more detail. Zen Faulkes, "Cost Payment vs Additional Costs", 14 Aug 2007
• Q: Original Thread
  If Bayushi Tsimaru Exp negates the paying of the move home cost of Stay Your Blade, can you attempt to move him home again just like in Lotus Edition and pretty much every edition before that?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Costs_and_restrict ... tory_costs: "If, due to interference from other effects, a mandatory cost cannot be paid at the point when it must be paid:
  "No remaining costs need be paid, but costs already paid are not refunded.
  "No effects of the action or trait resolve, and the ability or trait is considered to have been 'used.' Zen Faulkes, "Bayushi Tsimaru Exp vs paying costs of moving home", 13 Aug 2007
• Q: What happens if I play Stay Your Blade and my opponent negates the movement?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#C._Pay_costs: "If paying an action’s mandatory costs is interfered with between announcing it and this step, no effects of the action resolve; the ability is considered to have been used; and the action is considered to have been taken, but not resolved." Zen Faulkes, "Stay Your Blade and Bayushi Tsimaru", 12 Aug 2007