True Strength

Legend of the Five Rings card from Stronger Than Steel

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Bow your performing Personality and target an enemy Personality with lower Personal Honor and no attachments: Bow him. Gain Honor equal to his Personal Honor.
Reaction: After a Dark Virtue action resolves: The player who took it targets, dishonors, and destroys one of his Personalities.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Michio exp: Reaction: After an action resolves: Bow or straighten a target Personality who performed it.
  Determination: Dark Virtue Reaction : Before you announce an action, target one of your Samurai: The action can not have its effects negated or have its targeting changed. After the action destroys any Personality, remove him from the game.
  The situation is: I control a bowed samurai and an unbowed Michio XP, and I have a copy of Determination in my hand. I have no other cards with actions that could be legally announced.
  My evil plan is to announce a Determination and target my bowed samurai (hence he's performing it), then I announce Michio XP's reaction and straighten my target samurai who performed the Determination. Ie What I'm doing is reacting with Determination to Michio XP's reaction. But the trigger for Michio XP's reaction is the Determination itself. In Good Faith I know that after playing the Determination Michio XP will have a legal trigger and only other player's interference (such as True Strength) could prevent that from happening?
  Is this loop of mutual-triggering reactions legal (and therefore my samurai will straighten)? Or is there a way to prevent this paradox? So far I haven't found a rule preventing it but I bow to your wisdom.
  A: Not legal.
  You can't legally take an action right now (you'd need a Limited, Open, or Battle), so you can't play Determination. Zen Faulkes, "Determination + Michio XP", 14 Sep 2008
• Q: If someone uses Determination for a kill action, for example a Ranged Attack, if they only have the one Personality and they are forced to destroy it (due to True Strength), since it all happened before the Announcement of the action, would the Player that played Determination still be able to use the Action(?)
  A: First, whether Determination takes effect or not has no bearing on whether the action it was supposed to affect is legal. That is, if Determination is somehow prevented, it does not somehow prevent the action it was reacting to.
  Second, destroying a Personality with True Strength does nothing to Determination's effects. All Determination requires is that the Personality be targeted, which happened.
  In this case, the lack of any Personalities after True Strength resolves may cause problems for the planned action following Determination (e.g., that action required targeting a Personality), but that has nothing to do with the success or failure of Determination, which in turn does not somehow wipe out the intended action.
  I'm not 100% sure of the question asked here, so I hope that got it. Zen Faulkes, "Determination vs. True Strength", 18 Jun 2008
• Q: My one Samurai personality, let's say Utaku Koana, is defending alone and unbowed at a battlefield where she is opposing Moto Chagatai Experienced 4. I want to send him back home with Courtesy but I know his trait prevents my actions from moving him so, before announcing Courtesy, I play Determination in order to prevent Courtesy's targeting from being changed and its effects from being negated by Chagatai's trait. Unfortunately my opponent reacts to my Determination by playing True Strength's Reaction, thus destroying my lonely Samurai, leaving me with no Personality. How shall we deal with this situation please ?
  1) Determination is played before announcing Courtesy and Courtesy is no longer legal so I must choose another action to announce, which will be affected by Determination, if any one is legal (e.g. Refugees), or pass ; my opponent can call a judge to check I could legally play Determination before its True Strength and, if I pass, to check I can play no other legal action, but I am not compelled to tell him which action I was about to take.
  2) Determination is played before announcing Courtesy and Courtesy is no longer legal so I can choose another action to announce or pass, and I can pass even if I could take another legal action.
  3) I can't play Determination if I don't show which action I am about to take, so I still play Courtesy but I fail to find its first target so Courtesy doesn't resolve.
  4) I can't play Determination if I don't show which action I am about to take, so I still play Courtesy but I check the Good Faith Rule after announcing it (so after Determination has resolved), the Good Faith Rule says it is a play mistake to take an action if a mandatory target can't be chosen so the Courtesy card is revealed but it returns to my hand and I can take another action or pass.
  5) Something else happen. Please explain.
  Thanks a lot.
  A: Good question.
  I'm going to have to pass this up to the whole team, Roger included, as this requires an addition to the rules to cover the hedge case.
  In the mean-time, the best suggestion I have for getting through this situation if it comes up in a game between now and then is this:
  Once you play and resolve a "Before announcing," trigger, you've got to try to announce something to validate that trigger (even if it isn't what you originally intended to announce). If you've got no means to do so because of a Reaction or Trigger that made the originally intended play illegal, then and only then can you pass without taking the required Action. In a casual game you're on the honor system. In a tournament game, call over a judge and explain what took place and show him your board / hand so he can verify that you've got no legal play.
  The real priorities here are to avoid creating a retroactively illegal play and move play along as cleanly as possible without creating an exploit.
  Like I mentioned, the Rules Team will see exactly what rule needs to go into the Comprehensive Rules - but in the meantime this Ruling should see you through. Martin Lund, "Determination is no True Strength", 19 Nov 2007