The Lion's Strength

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Choose your performing opposed Lion Clan Personality and target a Personality not at the current battlefield: Move him to the current battlefield. Straighten him if you do not control him.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "The Lion’s Strength 0G 3FV Battle: Target one of your opposed Lion Clan Personalities: Target a Personality not at the current battlefield. Move him to the current battlefield. Straighten him if you do not control him." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 162
• May target a opposed Lion Clan Personality in a battle other than the one currently resolving. [ZF, 29 September 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 162

Rules Q&A

• Q: how will having Yakamo's End in play interact with the playing of The Lion's Strength? That is to say, would I be able to bring one of my opponent's Units into the battle without straightening it?
  Similarly, Would the dark virtue Control keep a "harpooned" unit from being straightened?
  Yakamo's End: Terrain Battle: While this card is in play, negate the straightening of any cards at its battlefield.
  The Lion's Strength: Battle: Target one of your opposed Lion Clan Personalities: Target a Personality not at the current battlefield. Move him to the current battlefield. Straighten him if you do not control him.
  Control: Dark Virtue Open: Target one of your unbowed Samurai: Target a Personality. He can not straighten while your Samurai remains unbowed and in play.
  A: This is a variation on a frequently asked question, namely, if one effect is negated, will the others still happen?
  Which is covered in the Rules FAQ: http://rules.l5r.com/FAQ#If_one_effect_ ... _happen.3F
  To quote from it, "All effects are independent. Negating one does nothing to the resolution of all the others." Zen Faulkes, "The Lion's Strength and Yakamo's End", 1 Dec 2008
• Q: Lion clan personality assigns to attack province A. Defending player assigns one of his units to defend the same province. Lion clan player resolves the battle in province B. No units are assigned to attack or defend there. Defending player passes. Lion clan player uses The Lion's Strength targeting his opposed Lion clan personality in province A as a cost then moves him to province B.
  Is this action legal?
  Code: Select all The Lion's Strength
  Battle: Target one of your opposed Lion Clan Personalities: Target a Personality not at the current battlefield. Move him to the current battlefield. Straighten him if you do not control him.
  A: Yes, see here. Alex Jones, "The Lion's Strength", 3 Jul 2008
• Q: Say I have more than 1 opposed lion personality at a battlefield: And I use The Lion's Strength to move one of them to the current battlefield. Can my opponent legally play misdirection to move a different lion personality I control other than the one I used to perform Lion's Strength? Will this different target still fulfill the rule of location?
  A: Your opponent's choice of targets for your The Lion's Strength must obey the same rules of Presence and Location that you would have to obey: if the performing target isn't at the current battlefield, he must be the one targeted to move. Alex Jones, "The Lion's Strength vs Misdirection", 2 May 2008
• Q: My understanding of the Rule of Location would say that either Ikoma John must be picked as both targets, or Akodo Bob would need to be opposed for the Lion's Strength to be able to move Mirumoto Shawn into battlefield Bravo.
  A: And when Zen said, Roger Giner-Sorolla, "Re: Alternative Use of Lion's Strength", 9 Oct 2007
• Q: The Lion's Strength: there are two targets with this action:
  the first one is an opposed Lion Clan Personality. the second is a "Personality not at the current battlefield".
  A: Please direct me to where in the Comprehensive Rules that it says that targeting as a cost and required targeting as an effect cannot be met by the same card.
  If this was one sentence that said, "Target an opposed Lion and a Personality not at the current battlefield," that would require two cards (http://rules.l5r.com/Special_wording_rules#Conjunctions). But The Lion's Strength isn't written that way. Zen Faulkes, "Re - Alternative use of Lion's Strength", 6 Oct 2007