The Towers of the Yogo

Legend of the Five Rings card from Diamond Edition, Honor Bound, Gold Edition, Soul of the Empire, Promotional–Diamond, L5R Experience, Promotional–Jade, Honor and Treachery

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

7

Gold Production

4

Starting Family Honor

1

Clan

Scorpion

Card Text

Each of your Scorpion Clan Personalities has the ability, "Battle, w: Bow a target enemy Follower or Personality without Followers."

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: "The Towers of the Yogo 7F 4GP 2FH All of your Scorpion Clan Samurai have the ability: 'Battle: Bow this Samurai to bow an opposing Follower or an opposing Personality without Followers.'" [MRP, Diamond Edition, 27 October 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 153
• If a non-Yogo Towers player copies (e.g., Egg of P'an Ku) or takes control of (e.g., Kolat Master) your Scorpion personality, the personality lacks, or loses, the ability. [ZF, March 2000] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154
• Focus on... Action Traits: There's been a slight change in how to determine what traits an action carries. As of now, traits are normally determined solely by the card that the action's text is on. If an action is not actually on a card, it does not acquire any traits from any cards involved in performing it. Actions added to a card via copying or by an effect such as The Yogo Towers count as being "on the card". This is a partial REVERSAL of the ruling in the last Imperial Herald. Some examples of actions which no longer take traits from the performing cards are discarding for a Tactician force bonus, attaching a card from your hand, and lobbying for the Favor (though this is still Political by the rulebook). The Imperial Herald, Issue 13, p. 35

Rules Q&A

• Q: If my opponents stronghold is The Towers of the Yogo, if I used the Egg of P'an Ku on one of his Samurai, would the Egg get the ability granted by the Stronghold? (I would assume it would, since the ability is considered to be on the samurai).
  A: No. Egg of P'an Ku specifically states, "this card becomes a copy of that Personality's printed card plus all permanent changes in effect on it."
  The printed card doesn't haev the ability and the ability granted by Yogo Towers is not a permanent card change. The Personality only has the ability as long as he is a Scorpion Clan Samurai under that player's control, as per the card text. Martin Lund, "Rules for 16 November 2004", 19 Nov 2004
• Q: Does this spell remove the ability of the Yogo Towers when it is played?
  No. That ability is not on the Stronghold.
  Beg to differ. If the Endless Deluge removes the writing on the Towers of the Yogo,
  A: It doesn't. It prevents abilities on the Stronghold from being used. But there are no abilities on the Yogo Towers... only a TRAIT which gives an ability to your Scorpion Clan Personalities.
  The Iron Citadel, on the other hand, does "remove the writing". It completely replaces your Stronghold with something brand new, and this new Stronghold has no abilities or traits whatsoever. A Yogo Towers player would lose his powerful bowing action if he cast this spell. Jeff Alexander, "post for 5 March 2002", 6 Mar 2002
• Q: By Gold rules, no, you may not use the Wind abilities on personalities if you are playing with Yodin Sensei (sorry, Tsudao).
  You may target them with the Iron Fortress of the Daidoji, since Strongholds are not cards and hence the duel on the Iron Fortress is not a 'card effect'.
  The Towers of the Yogo gives an ability to your Scorpion Clan Personalities, and since Personalities are cards, the ability granted by the Towers of the Yogo is a card effect, and therefore you cannot use it on other players' personalities.
  A: No need for me to do any heavy lifting here. Scott is completely right here. Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 October 2001", 11 Oct 2001
• Q: I have a personality with one follower attached, and my opponent (playing the Towers of the Yogo) has two Scorpion personalities in play. He bows one of his personalities and bows my follower. Can he now bow his second Scorpion personality to bow my personality?
  A: No; that's not a Personality without Followers. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 2-7 August 2001", 9 Aug 2001