The Badgers Live

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Harbinger

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, all Crane Clan players gain 2 Honor and before the next time this game a non-Shadowlands Unaligned Human Personality is destroyed, negate his destruction.

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Dynasty

Story

2009 Kotei Winner - Andrey Tretyakov

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Player A has The Badgers Live Out. Player B is attacking and player A has an non-shadowlands human personality at the battlefield defending. Player A uses the Ring of Fire to try and destroy player B's attacking personality, using the non-shadowlands human personality. Assuming player A's personality had high enough chi to fulfill the chi requirement to use the ring of fires effects, could player A use the ring of fire while the The Badgers Live was in effect?
  A: I'm going to go to the second question, because it also deals with this one. Zen Faulkes, "Negating Costs", 23 Dec 2011
• Q: Hi again,
  I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I can't seem the find the answer. I recently played against a Palace of Breaking Dawns deck that used The Badgers Live to negate a destruction of one of his people. The way I read the card, only Crane players gain the 2 honor AND the negation?
  Thanks for clearing this up for me!
  A: Regardless of your clan, when you resolve The Badgers live, all Crane players gain two honour, and you create a delayed effect that negates the next destruction of a non-Shadowlands Unaligned Human Personality - you negate the destruction of the personality regardless of his controller. Alex Jones, "The Badgers Live", 20 Apr 2011
• Q: In relation to this ruling: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=83090
  If an opponent has forgotten or not paid attention to the effect, and announces Power Corrupting with intent on killing a ronin PErsonality to the cost. Which of the following is correct?
  a) Announcing the action is illegal, and is put back into hand. b) Announcing the action is a legal play, and must now target someone who CAN be destroyed to pay costs. c) Announcing the action is a legal play, as is targetting a ronin for destruction due to Blind Cards, and the card is discarded without effect. d) Announcing the action is a legal play, as is targetting a ronin for destruction due to Blind Cards, 4 gold is paid, and the card is discarded without any further effect. e) Other
  A: From a strictly CCG Rules standpoint wherein we assume in examples that all plays are made intentionally with full knowledge of all factors and we just evaluate their correctness, "c" and "d" are never true due to their second part (that announcing the action AND targeting the ronin are legal) due to ruling you linked.
  However, beyond that, the CCG Rules provide no definite "right" answer from your other choices. At what point your opponent's "mistake" is forced upon him or not is between the two of you in a casual game, or a matter for a judge in a tournament, so this question probably would be better answered here. Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 27 Apr 2010
• Q: And does any of this change if the Ronin is the ONLY legal target compared to if there are non-ronin targets.
  A: That one is easier, because as in your link, paying the cost would then be known to be impossible and announcing the action would definitely be illegal. Again, if your opponent does announce it by "mistake" in this case, that's between you, him, and possibly a tournament judge. Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 27 Apr 2010
• Q: Also covering any other similar cards played from HAND, such as Greater Sacrifice.
  A: I don't understand the distinction you're making, why you would be wondering about other such cards separately? Do the above answers not already cover similar scenarios? And if not, don't I need further information in order to give another anwser? Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 27 Apr 2010
• Q: (NB. By ronin I'm just referring to non-shadowlands unaligned human personality. It's faster to type.)
  A: Noted. Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 27 Apr 2010
• Q: Followup to http://alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=83090: does the attacker still have to destroy the rest of his army?
  A: He would not have to destroy his army, and the Celestial would remain in play.
  The destruction of all Personalities occurs simulataneously, but due to Timing, the negation of the unaligned Personality is applied first. At which point, this set of Rules kicks in:
  http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Abilities_and_actions#C._Pay_costs: "From the point when the action is announced legally to the point where the individual cost is required, if payment of any of an action’s mandatory costs is interfered with, the player taking the action may choose to pay the costs another way, or choose not to pay the cost.
  If he or she cannot pay the costs another way, or chooses not to, then any remaining costs do not need to be paid, but costs already paid are not refunded, and the action’s effects do not happen. The action is still considered taken and ended, but not resolved, and the ability that created it is considered used. If the action was on a Strategy card, the card is discarded normally."
  Discarding the Guidance comes after the Personalties' destructions, so the Crab player could refrain from paying that too, per the above.
  And in case you're wondering, there's no "other way" to pay the cost. Once the unaligned Personality's destruction is negated, you can't "re-destroy" him as an "alternative payment". He has to go, and since he doesn't, the payment is interfered with and will fail. Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 22 Apr 2010
• Q: Here's the scenario: The Badgers Live has resolved, and no non-Shadowlands Unaligned Human Personalities have been destroyed since. A Crab player, who has Hida's Guidance in play, attacks a defender with at least two provinces. At one battlefield, the Crab has an army (with more force than the province strength of the province at that battlefield) containing at least one non-Shadowlands Unaligned Human Personality. While the battle at that battlefield is being resolved, the Crab player takes the Battle action on Hida's Guidance. As they attempt to destroy their army to pay the cost, The Badgers Live prevents destruction of the non-Shadowlands Unaligned Human Personality. What happens?
  A: If the costs are not fully paid, the action's effects fail. Brook Cunningham, "Hida's Guidance and The Badgers Live", 21 Apr 2010
• Q: Is the Emerald Champion created by his Arrival a viable target for effects targeting Unaligned personalities such as Tamago's trait or The Badgers Live?
  A: Well, I want to say first that neither The Badgers Live's nor Tamago's effects upon unaligned Personalities actually "target".
  But, besides that, the Personality created by Arrival of the Emerald Champion does indeed have no Clan alignment, so he is unaligned and would be affected by those two cards. Brook Cunningham, "Arrival of the Emerald Champion vs Tamago", 3 Apr 2010