Tsuruchi Tomaru

Legend of the Five Rings card from Embers of War

Card Type

Personality

Force

4

Chi

4

Honor Requirement

-

Gold Cost

9

Personal Honor

2

Clan

Mantis

Keywords

Naval, Unique, Experienced, Mantis Clan, Samurai, Scout

Card Text

Battle: Twice per turn: Ranged 4 Attack.

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I was playing my EE Mantis starter deck, and I came upon a combo almost immediately that made me pause.
  Tsuruchi Tomaru says "Battle: Twice per turn: Ranged 3 Attack."
  Koshin Keep says "Recon Reaction: After engaging: You have Reconnaissance at the current battlefield. Until this battle ends, your Ranged Attacks that do not destroy their target have the additional effects, "reduce the target's Force by the Ranged Attack's strength and you may take an additional Ranged Attack Battle action that may only target the same card".
  I was defending with Tomaru against two attacking Spider personalities. One was 6F and one was 4F. As the defender, I led with Tomaru's ranged attack, after engaging the Stronghold's Reaction, of course. I targeted the 6F personality, didnt kill him but dropped his Force by 3. The Reaction kicked in and I got a second (free) attack at Strength 3, finishing the 6F off.
  I then took my second Ranged attack, per Tomaru's Battle action. This Strength 3 attack also didnt kill the 4F guy, but dropped him down to 1F, so that the subsequent free attack also killed him.
  Is this right? My little guy killed 2 personalities that were larger than he was with nearly instant ranged death? It seemed a little too fantastic. I explained how I thought it would work to my opponent, declared that I was NOT going to do it (because it was his first game and not mine), and ended up losing the battle...but I sure need clarification on this one!
  Thanks in advance.
  A: Koshin Keep does not give you a "free" ranged attack, it gives you an additional action to use a Ranged Attack ability.
  So, after engaging you use Koshin Keep's Reaction, then as your first action you use Tomaru's ability for the first time to do a Ranged 3 against the 6F Personality. This doesn't kill him, so the ongoing effect of Koshin Keep's Reaction reduces his force by three and you may take an additional action. For this, you use Tomaru's ability for the second time to do a Ranged 3 against the original target, who now dies. Your opponent now gets his first opportunity to take a Battle action (or pass).
  Note also, that Tomaru doesn't give you two Ranged Attacks from one action. You may use the ability twice, but each use is a separate action. So, if you were facing a 3F Personality and a 4F Personality, you could kill the 3F Personality with your first action, but your opponent would then get his opportunity to take a Battle action. If Tomaru is still around, you could then use his ability for your second action and reduce the 4F Personality to 1F.
  See Abilities and Actions for more information. Alex Jones, "Tsuruchi Tomaru and Mantis' Koshin Keep combo", 1 May 2012