The First Shout

Legend of the Five Rings card from Forbidden Knowledge

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Shout

Card Text

You may include up to 10 copies of this card in your deck.
You may focus this card from your hand face-up; if you did, the other player must focus at their next opportunity, if possible, and their focus is selected randomly from their hand.
Battle: Give a target Personality +1F, who must be unbowed if they are yours.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial)

Deck

Fate

Notes

This Oracle wording should be considered to overrule contemporary rulings regarding its interaction with Garrote and Iaijutsu Art which were counterintuitive and contradictory respectively, and that the random focus must be chosen from only legal options within the player's hand, as that is impractical to enforce.

Printings

Rulings

• Will still force the opponent to focus again when played as a striking focus with a Garrote. [DW] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 17
• Takes priority over Iaijutsu Art. [DW, 1/29/98] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 17
• The random focus is picked only from those cards that can be legally focused. [FAQ 3.2] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 17
• Does not fulfill the requirements for subsequent Shouts if used in some way besides its printed effects (e.g., discarded for Tactician). [ZF, 12 June 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 17
• Q: If someone focusses with the First Shout against me in a duel, I have to focus again. What if I can't? A: The answer is on the First Shout card! You only have to focus if you can. If you can't focus, you must strike. Sometimes, you can only focus with some of the cards in your hand. When this happens, you pick randomly from just those. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.6.2, May 1998, p. 10
• Q: If I've only played one First Shout, does that let me play as many Second Shouts as I want? A: Yes. Ditto with the Second and Third. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.6.2, May 1998, p. 10
• Q: Do the focus values of The First Shout and Moving the Shadow get added like normal? A: Yes (we ran out of space to be clear about this). Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, Version 3.4 & errata, June 1997, p. 8
• Q: Do I have to play all my Shouts on one Personality as either focuses or Battle Actions, or can I play some one way and some the other? A: You can mix them. The Imperial Herald, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Issue 6), p. 8
• Q: What if I play a First Shout against someone who is only able to focus against me with some of the cards in his hand? A: You pick his focus randomly from the cards he can legally use. The Imperial Herald, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 9

Rules Q&A

• Q: 6. The First Shout (You may play this card face up as a Focus in a duel; your opponent must Focus again if able and his Focus card is randomly selected from his Fate hand) - Same here. Since it is only a focus 1 card (if cards even add their focus values when played for an 'effect') - won't the only result of this be that your opponent will quickly win the duel since he's focusing and you're not? Or did I miss something fundamental here?
  A: First, you're forcing your opponent to discard a card at random. That in and of itself can be useful.
  Second, there are ways of getting rid of your opponent's focuses before the duel ends. You might be focusing garbage, but it's better than nothing.
  Third, The First Shout is the first in a series of three cards that have progressively stronger effects but require that the previous card in the sequence be played or focused earlier in that battle or duel. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 April 2002 pt. 2", 8 Apr 2002