The Path Not Taken

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, The Dark Journey Home

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Kiho

Card Text

Reaction: After another player discards a Strategy from his hand without having used any of its abilities, bow your performing Monk or Shugenja and shuffle this card into your deck: Until the game ends, all your copies of The Path Not Taken in and out of play lose Kiho and have no abilities except one copied from the discarded card, that does not itself copy abilities, with the additional text, "Bow your performing Monk or Shugenja" added to its constraints.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Copies only the text of one particular action, not the whole card. [Card text] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 58
• Restrictions, costs, and traits outside the copied action's description do not apply. Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 58
• When copying from a card with more than one action on it, one must be choosen when the original Path Not Taken is cast. [DW, email, 3/1/99] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 58
• May be used if you forced your opponent to discard, even if the discard is from a deck, not the Fate hand. [JA, 13 February 2002] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 58
• Restrictions, costs, and traits outside the copied action's description do not apply. Examples: With Superior Tactics, you would not need to target a Personality with 3+ Chi. With Night of a Thousand Fires, you would still need to bow a ninja as well as the kiho's caster. With Kolat Master, you would not need to spend 10g but you would lose 4 honor. With the Egg of P'an Ku, you may have more than one Egg in play provided no more than one has the Unique trait, whether by being the actual Egg of P'an Ku card or by being a copy of a Unique Personality. When copying from a card with more than one action on it, one must be choosen when the original Path Not Taken is cast. [DW, personal correspondence, 3/1/99] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 47
• May be used to copy the put-into-play reaction of an Elemental Ring, though this is largely pointless. The kiho itself would not count as the Ring, nor would it copy its Benefit Reaction. Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 47
• Erratum: Reads, "The Path Not Taken 0G 1FV Kiho Reaction: After another player discards an Action card from his hand without having used any of its abilities, bow one of your target Monks or Shugenja and Shuffle this card into your deck: Until the end of the game, all your The Path Not Taken cards out of play lose their abilities and gain one ability on the discarded card, with the additional cost, “Bow one of your target Monks or Shugenja.”" [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 162

Rules Q&A

• Q: Blessing of Isawa goes off and I attach the Path Not Taken to personality Bobby(after playing when a personality strikes). Later, Freddy is in a duel and my opponent strikes. I use Bobby's ability to "Play this card when a personality strikes...". Does Bobby disappear to my discard pile as he was just "played"? What if it was Bobby in the duel and he does disappear... who wins the duel???
  A: There is no difference between Action cards that needlessly remind you to "play" them when you play them and ones that don't. Bobby will not disappear. Jeff Alexander, "post for 31 March 2003", 1 Apr 2003