The Crab's Strength

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Glory of the Empire

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Choose your performing opposed Crab Clan Personality: Give him +4F. Until the battle ends, actions taken by enemy players that target him have the additional cost, "Discard a card."

Focus Value

3

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "The Crab’s Strength 0G 3FV Battle: Target one of your opposed Crab Clan Personalities: Give him +4F. Until the battle ends, actions taken by enemy players that target him have the additional cost, “Discard a card.”" [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 161

Rules Q&A

• Q: Flanking Action Battle: If your current army has more units than the current enemy army, bow one of your target Samurai there: The enemy leader targets and destroys a Personality in his army.
  The Crab's Strength Battle: Target one of your opposed Crab Clan Personalities: Give him +4F. Until the battle ends, actions taken by enemy players that target him have the additional cost, "Discard a card."
  If my opponent has used the Crab's Strength on his personality, then I use Flanking Action, if he chooses his personality that has been targeted by Crab's Strength, do I have to discard?
  Thanks,
  A: No, you do not.
  Required Targeting occurs before costs are paid, but the targeting of the enemy's Personality is not Required because you're not the one doing it:
  http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#B._Required_Targeting (emphasis mine): "An action’s required targets consist of anything that is targeted by the player taking the action in the action's constraints or effects..."
  So, that targeting happens as part of the Flanking Action's effects (Step D in "Using an ability"). Your opponent choosing his Crab Strength'd Personality will add the cost of "Discard a card" to your action. But, adding a cost during the effects won't force you to pay it because you've already passed the payment step (Step C), and it won't stop the effects from happening, because it was already checked whether you paid costs directly before any of your action's effects started resolving:
  http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#D._Action_resolves: "If mandatory costs and required targeting have been met, activate the action’s effects in order." Brook Cunningham, "Flanking Action + Crab's Strength", 2 Aug 2008