Swift Counterattack

Legend of the Five Rings card from Celestial Edition, Honor's Veil, Battle of Kyuden Tonbo

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Open: Target a Personality: Give him and each of his Followers +1F.
Reaction: Before the resolution of a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Its effects do not happen.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Swift Counterattack 0G 2FV Open: Give a target Personality and each of his Followers +1F. Reaction: Before the resolution of a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Its effects do not happen." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 156

Rules Q&A

• Q: In response to: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=88277
  I just wanted know. For the Equip Action, the only Mandatory costs is to target your personality. I am wondering by your ruling how the payment in the resolution part get jumped to the paying gold cost step. Attaching is part of the resolution of a Equip action. You would have to play Swift Counterattack as a reaction to the Equip Action not the Attaching because I would think the timing has already past, because the resolution has started.
  Kind of confused.
  A: Whoops, you're right. Got my action and item costs tangled in there. Sorry. Zen Faulkes, "Swift Counterattack + Equip (attaching)", 11 Jan 2011
• Q: I take an additional battle action. 1.) Announce my target: Shugenja 2.) Payment step: pay 4 gold (for example). 3.) Resolution. Swift Counterattack negates the effects, which were to attach the spell.
  Am I out the 4 gold?
  A: You've paid. Yes. (See also here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=87587) (Correction: Gold cost hasn't been paid yet; see post below.) Zen Faulkes, "Swift Counterattack + Equip (attaching)", 10 Jan 2011
• Q: Where does the spell go? Discard pile or hand?
  A: Nowhere. Nothing happened to it. The reaction hops in between D and E here: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Card_types#Playing_attachments (Correction: it jumps in before A; see post below.) Zen Faulkes, "Swift Counterattack + Equip (attaching)", 10 Jan 2011
• Q: (W)ill the effects of the terrain still happen?
  A: No.
  At no point did I say anything like "and the terrain works normally." I thought I had a little more explicit wording about that in there, particularly in the second post. Sorry. Zen Faulkes, "Flood the Earth and Swift Counterattack", 3 Oct 2010
• Q: Flood the earth explicitly states that you take an additional action to play that terrain. Swift Counterattack responds to that additional action(...)
  A: Which is the action, "Battle: Non-Naval Personalities..." Zen Faulkes, "Flood the Earth and Swift Counterattack", 3 Oct 2010
• Q: whose effects do not happen(.)
  A: And its effects are bowing on non-Naval Personalities. The terrain entering play is not an effect of the action (which is all that Swift Counterattack stops), but a rulebook effect (which Swift Counterattack cannot stop). Zen Faulkes, "Flood the Earth and Swift Counterattack", 3 Oct 2010
• Q: If I play the battle action on flood the earth, can another player react to it with swift counterattack?
  A: Yes, though the terrain will still enter play, because that is a rulebook effect, not an effect of the Terrain. Zen Faulkes, "Flood the Earth and Swift Counterattack", 2 Oct 2010
• Q: Will Swift Counterattack stop the "additional" action that is granted by Whispers of the Dying Sun?
  A: No.
  Additional action is different from an additional use; they both have separate descriptions in the Glossary: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Glossary_A#Additional_action Zen Faulkes, "Swift Counterattack + Whispers of the Dying Sun", 15 May 2010
• Q: Battle: Target another Personality and choose one of his base abilities; he may use it a second time this turn. You may take another Battle action.
  A: However, please quote the printed text when asking a question about a card. Online spoilers are not always accurate.
  Senzo's ability's final line actually reads, "You may take an additional Battle action." Brook Cunningham, "Akozo Senzo and Swift Counterattack.", 28 Jan 2010
• Q: So, my opponent plays.... Hundred hand strike. For his Additional Battle action, he plays strike at the summit. If I react with Swift counterattack, does it cancel the whole strike chain? Or can he still react and search for Strike at the center as if the Strike at the summit had gone off normally?
  A: Shosuro Rat asks, "So, my opponent plays.... Hundred hand strike. For his Additional Battle action, he plays strike at the summit. If I react with Swift counterattack, does it cancel the whole strike chain? Or can he still react and search for Strike at the center as if the Strike at the summit had gone off normally?"
  And I answer:
  Swift Counterattack negates all the effects of the additional Battle action. The last effect of Strike the Summit is to search for Strike the Center, so that would also be negated along with all Strike the Summit's other effects.
  However, if you already had Strike the Center in your hand, you would still have a valid trigger for its Reaction because Strike the Summit has resolved even though all its effects were negated.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#D._Action_resolves: "An action resolves even if all its effects are negated or otherwise do not occur." Brook Cunningham, "Swift Counterattack vs Strike Chain", 10 Mar 2008