Test of the Emerald Champion

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Obsidian Edition, Jade Edition, Gold Edition, Lotus Edition, Pearl Edition, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Event

Keywords

Unique

Card Text

After you reveal cards in your Provinces at the start of your turn, if this Event is face-up in one of them, target your Personality. Beginning with the player to your left and proceeding once in turn order, the Personality challenges each other player, who may accept with any Personality he controls. Each duel's winner gains 3 Honor. Destroy each duel's loser. After the last duel ends (if any), if your Personality lost no duels created by this Event, remove him from the game and gain a Province to the left of your leftmost Province.

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Test of the Emerald Champion Target a Personality you control. Beginning with the player to your left and proceeding once in turn order, the Personality challenges each other player, who may accept with any Personality he controls. Each duel's winner gains 3 Honor. After the last challenge and duel (if any), if you challenged all other players and lost no resulting duels, remove your Personality from the game and gain a Province to the left of your leftmost Province." [MRP, Lotus Edition, 31 October 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 76
• Since the card doesn't specify otherwise, each challenge may be declined by the appropriate player. [rulebook] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 58
• Each refusal is "a challenge survived" for purposes of satisfying the Test, but no one gains 3 honor since there is no winner of a duel. Your challenger needs to "survive" all the challenges, not win all the duels, to gain the extra Province. Any method of achieving this will successfully complete the Test, including effects which cancel a duel without resolution, prevent the death of a Personality (NB: Feign Death does not do this), or allow one Personality to duel in another's place. [card text, and summary of other rulings] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 58
• The extra Province is added on the left. Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 58
• Clarified: the new Province is added on the left. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 11
• Erratum: Reads, “Test of the Emerald Champion Target one of your Personalities. Each other player, in turn order, may target one of his Personalities; your Personality challenges each of them immediately after they are targeted. Each duel’s winner gains 3 Honor; destroy the loser. If you lost none of these duels, or if there were no duels, remove your Personality from the game; if you removed him, gain a province to the left of your leftmost province.” [Technical erratum, 9 May 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 160
• This means that: If you have a Personality in play, and nobody else does, you remove him from the game and gain a province. [RGS, 15 May 2008] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 160

Rules Q&A

• Q: Say you are playing Kyuden Doji and Test of the Emerald Champion comes up. What happens?
  A: From the Archive (http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/rulings/#Event_cards): "Your challenger needs to "survive" all the challenges to gain the extra Province. Any method of achieving this will successfully complete the Test, including abandoning a duel without resolution, prevent the death of a Personality (Feign Death does not do this), or allow one Personality to duel in another's place." Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 7 July 2003", 8 Jul 2003
• Q: If my opponent's Test of the Emerald Champion resolves, is it legal for me to target one of my bowed personalities to accept (as per Test of the Emerald Champion) and then cancel the event with Balance in Nothingness?
  A: Yes. Balance in Nothingness does not care which player made the decision to target your bowed Personality. It can cancel an action or Event that you aimed. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 May 2003", 8 May 2003
• Q: b) If an opponent's Test of the Emerald Champion, or any other such "issue a challenge to a player" challenge is accepted by Shinjo Shono, must the opponent discard cards to continue the duel?
  A: No. The challenge was already issued. It's too late to add a cost to it...and besides, Shono himself was not challenged. Jeff Alexander, "post for 19 March 2002", 20 Mar 2002
• Q: Isawa Hochiu Phoenix Clan Shugenja. Experienced. If Hochiu is the challenger in a duel, he cannot die as a result of the duel unless he uses the following ability. Elemental Reaction: Hochiu focuses once upon entering a duel. This action may be used while Hochiu is bowed.
  Does Hochiu automatically win a Test of the Emerald Champion even if he loses in any number of duels since he never dies?
  A: Provided you never use his reaction, you automatically get the extra Province, yes. Keep in mind you won't gain any honor if you don't fight and win any of the duels. Jeff Alexander, "post for 26 November 2001", 27 Nov 2001
• Q: 6. If you name Shinjo Shono exp as your Soul of Thunder, does your opponent have to discard 2 cards to challenge him? If you play Defend Your Honor or Test of the Emerald Champion and your opponent chooses Shono to accept your challenge, do you have to discard two cards? What if you don't have two cards to discard, can you just null the challenge?
  A: For the first question, yes. Soul of Thunder is a direct challenge to Shono, and you would have to discard two cards to challenge him.
  For the second question, no. Challenges that go to someone other than Shono specifically, but that could be accepted by Shono (e.g., challenges that can be accepted by any personality a player controls) do not trigger his trait, even if you do wind up dueling him. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for November 27th", 27 Nov 2000
• Q: Regarding this post http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=67780
  What happens if there are no personalities in play on either side? Would a province be gained?
  I guess, to put it another way, is the targeting for the event Required Targeting? Neither the entry for events nor the rules for Required Targeting seem to indicate so.
  Test of the Emerald Champion "Target one of your Personalities. Each other player, in turn order, may target one of his Personalities; your Personality challenges each of them immediately after they are targeted. Each duel’s winner gains 3 Honor; destroy the loser. If you lost none of these duels, remove your Personality from the game and gain a province to the left of your leftmost province."
  A: Actually, don't take this as the final word. We are still debating whether this card warrants a special clarification. In particular, due to the implications of the phrase "if you lost none of these duels." Roger Giner-Sorolla, "Test of the Emerald Champion and no personalities", 8 May 2008
• Q: Test of the Emerald Champion Target one of your Personalities. Each other player, in turn order, may target one of his Personalities; your Personality challenges each of them immediately after they are targeted. Each duel’s winner gains 3 Honor; destroy the loser. If you lost none of these duels, remove your Personality from the game and gain a Province to the left of your leftmost Province.
  If I have no personalities in play and I resolve this event, do I gain the province?
  A: Mod reminder: Search before posting, please. Thanks!
  viewtopic.php?f=59&t=63605
  http://rules.l5r.com/Rulings_T#Test_of_ ... d_Champion: "'These duels' does not imply that duels must occur to gain the benefit." Zen Faulkes, "Test of the Emerald Champion", 3 May 2008
• Q: [Legacy] for Test of the Emerald Champion, are opponents forced to choose a challenger for the event’s duel? Like if they have one personality on the table, they had to choose that one?
  A: No. Accepting the challenge is optional. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 25 Mar 2026
• Q: Question with test of the emerald champion. If the owner of the event has a personality in play but the oponent doesn't have. The duel never happens. Can the owner gain the province if the no duel happened?
  A: (Replying to a player: "Modern ruleset: Can I refuse [Test of the Emerald champion]? i.e= Enemy resolves [Test] and targets his "champion", can the player being targeted (the challenged) simply not target a person to duel, to result in the 0/0 effect? card and oracle say "...you may..." / "...who may..."") @kempy_nezumi 's answer is correct, but that won't result in a "0/0" effect as you say. The "champion" Personality will still have "lost no duels created by this Event" because none occurred, so they will get RFGd and their player will gain a Province. To elaborate, the SE, unfortunately MRP, wording is at worst wrong and at best unclear, seemingly implying that the duels have to occur for the RFG and Province gain to take place, but this is not the case. So I Oracled it closest in wording to the MRP-1 from Lotus, with "if any" and "lost no duels", which admittedly is a bit murky itself and probably led to the poor SE "translation", but works as intended (and as it historically always has done; see the even-clearer earlier printings), per my ruling above. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 24 Nov 2024