Tortoise Ambassador

Legend of the Five Rings card from Enemy of My Enemy

Card Type

Holding

Gold Cost

2

Keywords

Retainer

Card Text

w: Produce 2 Gold.
Political Reaction, w: After a turn begins, name "Dynasty" or "Action". When that phase ends this turn, reduce the active player's Family Honor to equal 5 plus its total when that phase began, if it is higher. This is not considered an Honor loss.

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Dynasty

Story

2004 The Minor Clans - Alec Nickalls

Printings

Rulings

• Tortoise Ambassador only knows what the player's Family Honor would be if it were not for the maximum that it imposed, and it will do nothing if the player's current Family Honor is at or below that maximum (which, under Tribute to Your House, will be always). [JA, email, 25 April 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 87

Rules Q&A

• Q: The rules wiki has been updated, and now setting family honor to a value is now considered a gain or loss. I understand it is more filling a vacuum than a clarification. However, I'd like to point out this is a rules decision that clashes with precedent such as Tortoise Ambassador, where setting family honor was explicitly not an honor loss (and therefore it couldn't be copied, modified or redirected).
  A: Tortoise Ambassador has explicit text stating that the reduction of honour is not treated as an honour loss: it sets no precedent for cards without such text.
  Proper Deference has no such text. The reduction of the player's honour is an honour loss. Alex Jones, "Proper Deference and The Thriving Light", 8 Jun 2010
• Q: There's some discussion on whether this combo would work.
  Would using Tortoise Ambassador after using Tribute make their max honour their starting honour + 5?
  Would their family honour then be set to starting + 5 permanently after the named phase ends?
  A: There are like, 2 other threads asking this same question already.
  The way I read it, Tribute + Tortoise Ambassador can completely cripple someone's Honor Total since Tortoise Ambassador specifically says "true Family Honor."
  If Jeff has something else in mind, I'd be happy to hear from him. Martin Lund, "Tortoise Ambassador and Tribute to Your House", 3 Apr 2005
• Q: Am I right in understanding that if I use "Tribute to Your House" during my action phase, setting their honour to [Family], and then use Tortoise Ambassador's reaction during their turn, and chose "action", that their maximum honour for that phase is [Family + 5], and then, when that phase ends, their true honour will be set to that "maximum" (no matter what it was before I "tributed")?
  A: That seems to be what the card says by my reading. Martin Lund, "Tortoise Ambassador + Tribute to Your House", 3 Apr 2005