Surprise Attack

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Khan's Defiance

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Choose one or more of your performing Nonhuman Personalities at the current battlefield and target one of the enemy leader's Personalities there or at home: Create a battlefield (not associated with any province). Move all the performers and targets there.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: If I play a Surpirse Attack http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=7665 during an Ambush http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=344 / Chikushudo's Trickery http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=1323 what happens?
  As Ambush / Chikushudo's Trickery do not create an Attack Phase (nowadays), is the battlefield created by Surprise Attack resolved at all? If yes, is Attacker / Defender the same as in the Ambush / Chikushudo's trickery battle, or does it depend on who's turn it is?
  A: I have clarified the Final Steps of the battle sequence, to make it clear that another battlefield is always picked, if there are any, not just during an Attack Phase. Alex Jones, "Surpirse Attack + Ambush / Chikushudo's Trickery", 20 Sep 2013
• Q: If I target a enemy human personality and my Ugulu no Oni with Surprise Attack, will the human personality move to the created battlefield?
  A: Yes.
  The movement is simultaneous, so "Before [the] Human Personality moves to [the] battlefield", Ugulu is still at the current battlefield, not the new one, and his trait does not trigger.
  Please search before asking questions. Alex Jones, "Ugulu no Oni and Surprise Attack", 18 Jun 2012
• Q: The Snow Has Teeth Reaction: After engaging: The current battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength until the end of the battle. Negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities from its battlefield. After the next time this battle a Terrain enters play, destroy it.
  Surprise Attack Battle: Choose one or more of your performing Nonhuman Personalities at the current battlefield and target one of the enemy leader's Personalities there or at home: Create a battlefield (not associated with any province). Move all the performers and targets there
  I think I know, but, I'm talking myself out of it and maybe I'm just overthinking this.
  My opponent attacks, I defend with The Red Hunger I play The Snow Has Teeth as a reaction to engaging My first action is Surprise Attack, performed by TRH
  Based on the negation from The Snow Has Teeth, I'm origianally assumed that TRH stays in the current battle and the personality I targeted gets moved to the other battle (not at a province)
  I was a little hung up on the wording since it say negate the next effect and the effect moves both the performer and the target.
  The more I read it, I'm thinking that it would prevent both TRH and the targeted card from being moved........in otherwords not a cute combo.
  *edit* So it does work.....cool. Thanks!
  A: The movement of each Personality is a separate effect, even though these movements all come the same piece of text, so one may be negated without interference with the others.
  See Definition of Effects: Each individual change or creation of a card, a player, a game entity (such as Provinces), a game procedure is a separate effect. Alex Jones, "The Snow Has Teeth/Surprise Attack", 16 Jun 2012
• Q: This is kinda an extension of the thread here : http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=64362&p=824523&hilit=surprise+attack#p824125 which is really old, so pardon me. I see the samurai ruling is straight forward, but if you go further into 'legacy' cards and pull out plans within plans it starts being complicated and I just want to be sure I understand how it works. Don't want to screw up any 'create a battlefield' cards that might appear during the action phase.
  This depends heavily on 2 cards: Ambush:
  Surprise Attack:
  It touches briefly on Plans within Plans:
  So if somebody creates an attack (but not an attack phase) like say use of the card "Ambush" and as a result players are forced into attacker/defender roles. You then use Surprise attack to move to yet another created battlefield (still outside the attack phase) but the movement of one of the parties is negated.
  example: I'm playing with a bunch of nonhumans (we'll use Tokuro's bear as an example. nonhuman spirit)
  My enemy is running Wrathful Dead (nonhuman spirit). ---- I play Ambush and force him into a battle as the defender.
  I then play surprise attack, but the 'Wrathful Dead' is either cowed by wisdom (by me) or Height of Courage (by the scorpion controller), are they still considered the defender at the new battlefield? Even though they were never in the defending army? Its not during an attack phase, so I find it odd to imagine it just retains attacker/defender status through the entire open phase.
  ---- To further complicate things (and ultimately the reason I asked, I might be at a tournament in the near future where these 'legacy cards' all might be present.)
  If it DOES retain attacker/defender status, what if the scorpion 'Wrathful Dead' after the end of my created battle, uses "plans within plans" to ambush ME in the same phase targeting my En'you (not the bear, which last had 'attacker status') and the same thing happens (but in reverse where I negate my En'you's movement to the surprise attack's battlefield). Would I be able to move my Tokuro's bear into the attacking army at the enemy's surprise attack battlefield because I never had anybody in the defending army at the surprise attack? Or would it retain my last (player) attacker/defender status from his ambush? Or a 3rd scenario, where his ambush fails because I have attacker status this phase from MY ambush and cannot be assigned as defender (not sure if cardinal rule 'card overrides rulebook' applies)
  A: The flow here is a little hard to follow, but I'll try to answer where you've got question marks.
  1. If the Wrathful Dead does not move to the battlefield created by Surprise Attack, it is never the defender at that battlefield. It ceases to be a defender once the battlefield created by Ambush resolves, although another action could then move it into the battlefield created by Surprise Attack and it would become a defender once again.
  2. It seems the answer to question 1 makes the questions you ask in this paragraph irrelevant. I think you may have slightly misinterpreted Zen's original response. He was saying that Surprise Attack itself does not reset who the "attacker" and "defender" are for the Surprise Attack battlefield based on who played the Surprise Attack.
  If the Scorpion player plays Plans Within Plans, then Ambush, then Surprise Attack, the fact that you played Ambush and Surprise Attack earlier in the turn are not relevant to the definition of attacker and defender. He will be the attacker during his Ambush and any subsequent Surprise Attack battlefields created from it. Jon Palmer, "attacker/defender status + surprise attack (ambush)", 28 Dec 2011
• Q: If I use Surprise Attack to create a battlefield not associated with a province, is it considered adjacent to any province for effects requiring an adjacent province (such as Glorious Mission)?
  Example: I declare an attack with the Fire Dragon, and during the course of the battle play Surprise Attack to move him and an enemy unit to a created battlefield. As his first action, the enemy leader targets my Fire Dragon with an action. Can I then play Glorious Mission to move him to another battlefield?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_B#Battlefield:
  "...Battlefields not associated with a province are not adjacent to any other battlefield." Brook Cunningham, "Surprise Attack + Adjacency", 17 Nov 2008
• Q: I assign my Nonhuman personality to attack province X. Enemy personality assigns to defend province Y. I resolve the battle in province X. I play Surprise Attack and create another battlefield. I target my Nonhuman personality and enemy personality defending in province Y.
  A: Stop. That's illegal. Surprise Attack says, "Target one of the enemy leader's Personalities at this battlefield or his home." That is, the current battlefield. Zen Faulkes, "Surprise Attack on Enemy Personality", 17 Aug 2008
• Q: If not, can I resolve the battle in province Y first, we both pass, resolve the battle in province X next and then play Surprise attack to move both targets to another battlefield?
  A: No, because of card text above. Zen Faulkes, "Surprise Attack on Enemy Personality", 17 Aug 2008
• Q: Is the enemy personality considered to be defending a province and at home at the same time?
  A: No (Law of Conservation of Mass). Zen Faulkes, "Surprise Attack on Enemy Personality", 17 Aug 2008
• Q: Is this ruling a reversal of this one?
  A: Not Marty's, no, which is the same as the more recent one.
  The ruling I made was correct under the rules at the time, which prohibited announcement of actions moving units into another battle instead of effects failing -- as the post describes. That rule was changed about 6 weeks ago. When a general rule changes, it not practical to search out every obsolete ruling. Zen Faulkes, "Surprise Attack", 11 Mar 2008
• Q: My opponent attacks with a unit on province A. I defend my nonhuman units on province B. My opponent resolves the battle in province A and destroys the province. His unit goes home bowed. My opponent resolves the battle in province B. I play Surprise Attack and create another battle using my nonhuman units against my opponent's unit who already destroyed province A. Is this possible?
  A: Sort of.
  "Target one or more of your Nonhuman Personalities at the current battlefield" -- check.
  "Target one of the enemy leader's Personalities at this battlefield or his home" -- check.
  "Create a battlefield" -- check.
  "Move all targets there" -- wait. http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_M#Move: "A unit that was in the current attacking army at any point during a battle’s resolution can not move to another battlefield during the same Attack Phase.
  "Actions that would move a unit to a battlefield can be legally taken if that unit was in an attacking army during the Resolution Segment of another battle during an attack, but that movement fails. This does not count as Negating the effect. "
  Because effects are independent, everything happens but the movement of the attacking unit. Zen Faulkes, "Surprise Attack", 11 Mar 2008
• Q: I Ambush one of my opponent's personalities with a non human and he runs away with Flash of Steel. My next action is to play Surprise Attack. Is the Surprise Attack still considered the Ambush attack phase for purposes of other units moving in?
  A: There is no "Ambush attack phase" (http://rules.l5r.com/Battles: Battles... sometimes happen as separate card effects"), so I'm unclear of what the question is.
  Note, though, that Ambush says, "No other units may move there," meaning the specific battlefield it created. Zen Faulkes, "Ambush and Surprise Attack", 30 Sep 2007
• Q: (I)f it is considered part of the Ambush and they send home my nonhuman can I move back in(?)
  A: Yes, the one unit originally there can return. Zen Faulkes, "Ambush and Surprise Attack", 30 Sep 2007