The Snow Has Teeth

Legend of the Five Rings card from Embers of War

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Winter

Card Text

Reaction: After engaging: The current battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength until the end of the battle. Negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities from its battlefield. After the next time this battle a Terrain enters play, destroy it.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: The Snow Has Teeth Winter Reaction: After engaging: The current battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength until the end of the battle. Negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities from its battlefield. After the next time this battle a Terrain enters play, destroy it.
  The Power of a Word Political Reaction: After another player's Battle action targets your Courtier: The player may choose to lose 3 Honor. If he did not choose this, negate the action's effects. Battle: Target one to three enemy dishonorable Personalities: The shadow of their shame shall fall upon their shoulders. Move them home.
  Regarding the Battle action on The Power of a Word, would The Snow Has Teeth be able to save only one of your Personalities from being moved home or since the wording says "negate the next effect", would it be able save all targets? Or would it not be able to save anyone at all since it specifies "negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities" and The Power of a Word would move more than one home?
  A: Something that moves more than one of your Personalities also moves one of your Personalities (otherwise it'd say "exactly one"). In this case, since the effects moving the Personalities are happening simultaneously, the active player would choose which happens "first" and is therefore negated by The Snow Has Teeth. Jon Palmer, "The Snow Has Teeth and The Power of a Word", 26 Jun 2012
• Q: The Snow Has Teeth Reaction: After engaging: The current battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength until the end of the battle. Negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities from its battlefield. After the next time this battle a Terrain enters play, destroy it.
  Surprise Attack Battle: Choose one or more of your performing Nonhuman Personalities at the current battlefield and target one of the enemy leader's Personalities there or at home: Create a battlefield (not associated with any province). Move all the performers and targets there
  I think I know, but, I'm talking myself out of it and maybe I'm just overthinking this.
  My opponent attacks, I defend with The Red Hunger I play The Snow Has Teeth as a reaction to engaging My first action is Surprise Attack, performed by TRH
  Based on the negation from The Snow Has Teeth, I'm origianally assumed that TRH stays in the current battle and the personality I targeted gets moved to the other battle (not at a province)
  I was a little hung up on the wording since it say negate the next effect and the effect moves both the performer and the target.
  The more I read it, I'm thinking that it would prevent both TRH and the targeted card from being moved........in otherwords not a cute combo.
  *edit* So it does work.....cool. Thanks!
  A: The movement of each Personality is a separate effect, even though these movements all come the same piece of text, so one may be negated without interference with the others.
  See Definition of Effects: Each individual change or creation of a card, a player, a game entity (such as Provinces), a game procedure is a separate effect. Alex Jones, "The Snow Has Teeth/Surprise Attack", 16 Jun 2012
• Q: Hi,
  Please help, is there any posibilyty to negate the Snow... reaction of making the maximum province strength it base strength? Is there any posibility to add some strength of the province after The Snow...?
  Best regards Tom
  A: This seems to be more of a strategy question than a rules question - the rules question was answered here. If you're looking for solutions to the problem you've laid out you'd be better off asking them in the general forum; however, offhand I cannot think of any effect that would allow you to raise a province's strength above its base strength at a battlefield where The Snow Has Teeth has successfully resolved. Jon Palmer, "The Snow Has Teeth and the province strength", 9 Jun 2012
• Q: Hi,
  I need some claryfikation
  If my enemy play The Snow Has Teeth: Reaction: After engaging: The current battlefield's province has a maximum strength equal to its base strength until the end of the battle. Negate the next effect that would move one of your Personalities from its battlefield. After the next time this battle a Terrain enters play, destroy it.
  Is there any posibility to negate the efect of base maximum strength? Can I add some from ex. Indomitable Home? Or play any reaction like Inexorable? What if I had earlier an efekt of welling spirits? Does it target my base strength or Base strength + willing spirits? And if base strength when I play in this situation Inexorable will the willing spirits efekt will be safe?
  Thx for reply
  A: The Snow Has Teeth sets a maximum on the province's strength equal to its base strength. This will override all other province strength-increasing effects, such as Willing Spirits and Indomitable Home. If your base province strength is 6 (say, Temple of Purity), nothing is getting it above that 6 number.
  Province strength-increasing effects will still allow you to raise the province back to its base if it has been lowered - for instance, the attacker players The Snow Has Teeth, then uses Qalyar's reaction to lower the province strength by 2. You may increase it back to its base strength; however, if you use an Ring of Earth to give it +3, only 2 of that will be counted. Jon Palmer, "The Snow Has Teeth and the province strength", 9 Jun 2012
• Q: Does a Terrain get destroyed by Snow Has Teeth before it resolves? Or does the fact that putting a Terrain into play via its own text, as the last effect of the action, mean it resolves before the destruction can happen.
  Basically, will the Lion player draw a card from his stronghold's trait?
  A: The card draw from The Marshalling Fields is purely dependent on the Terrain entering play; it does not matter if the Terrain is destroyed immediately after it enters play, such as by The Snow Has Teeth's delayed effect.
  However, in the case of Thick Marsh vs The Snow Has Teeth, the trait on Thick Marsh will not trigger if it is out of play; the active player decides whether The Snow Has Teeth's delayed effect or Thick Marsh's triggered trait will trigger first. Alex Jones, "The Snow Has Teeth & The Marshalling Fields", 29 May 2012
• Q: Hi there!
  My opponent announces the Snow has Teeth after engaging, and I react with Inexorable. I can now send people home again without the Snow Has Teeth negating it. But, can I now also raise my province strength (beyond the maximum)? I think not, but in the past stuff that disallowed other stuff was functionally regarded the same as 'negated', so I need to make sure...
  Thank you!
  A: Giving a stat a maximum value is new effect, not a negation effect. Alex Jones, "The Snow Has Teeth and Inexorable", 24 May 2012
• Q: Question: there are a number of strategies out there with the Winter keyword (e.g. The Snow Has Teeth). Once such a strategy is played and it exists in your discard pile (ie. it's not removed from the game), does it count as a winter card under your control for the purposes of Winter Sled?
  A: Per the rules on card control, the card must be in play to be controlled. Therefore for the most part a strategy will not count as being controlled, unless it is currently in play (Deep Snows being the only currently legal example of such a card). Jon Palmer, "Winter Sled + Control and Winter Strategies", 13 May 2012