"The Deathless"

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Fall of Otosan Uchi

Card Type

Item

Force

+0

Chi

+0

Gold Cost

3

Card Text

Each Follower in this unit has Naval.
If this Personality has Naval from a card other than this one (including his own), he has +2F; otherwise, he has Naval.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Four Winds (Gold), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: How will The Deathless work when it is attached to Tsuruchi Nobomuto experienced, and he uses his trait? There are several points of view on our local list, and they all seem to have merit.
  A: Every time The Deathless's Personality gains or loses the Naval trait from other effects, The Deathless re-evaluates whether it needs to provide the trait itself. Nobumoto Exp. would gain Cavalry and lose Naval, then The Deathless becomes +0F and gives him Naval. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 26 March 2004", 29 Mar 2004
• Q: More generally, does the ability of the Deathless continually check or is it a one-time check? For example, say I have a Naval personality with a non- Naval follower. The Deathless is attached and the personality is Naval, so the Deathless gets +2F and all the followers in the unit get Naval. After I attach the Deathless, I attach another non-Naval follower. Does it get the Naval trait too?
  A: Both effects of the Deathless' trait check and re-check continually. If a Personality with The Deathless attached loses the Naval trait, he loses the +2F, and the Deathless will give him the Naval trait. Likewise, a non-Naval Follower attached to a unit with the Deathless already attached will gain the Naval trait. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 22nd, 2003", 22 Jul 2003
• Q: Two rules questions that have been bugging me for a while:
  1. Is "The Deathless" a Naval card? It has Naval printed specifically in boldface in its traits area, thus it follows the "rulebook definition." (Page 33, An Oni's Fury Rulebook, "Abilities and Traits") However, a judge ruled against me at the Region 12 Kotei, stating that it could not be bowed for two actions via Kyuden Gotei as it "specifically handed out the Naval trait, but did not have it itself." (Memory's fuzzy, was a week or two ago.) Have since played other opponents that have argued for and against....possible to get a final ruling here?
  A: Well, anything's possible. The Deathless has a trait that has the word Naval in it, and it's even in boldface. However, the precedent is that a Keyword, even a boldface one, that is part of a sentence trait, doesn't count for giving that trait. This goes way back, to when The Nameless One came out and people wondered whether or not he had the Shadowlands trait.
  So, no. The Deathless is not Naval. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for June 11th - Part Two!", 12 Jun 2003
• Q: Sorry if this has been asked before, but how does Scout work with a naval invasion? (Assuming a legal naval invasion, so either City of Lightning or The Deathless was used)
  Do I)
  a.) Get to play the terrain, then take my first action for the naval invasion? b.) Get to play the terrain as my first action for the naval invasion? c.) Get hosed because the naval invasion rules supercede the Scout's ability?
  A: c. (And it's not an "ability" in game terms.) Jeff Alexander, "post for 26 May 2003", 29 May 2003