Walking the Way

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Pre-Imperial Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Obsidian Edition, Celestial Edition, Jade Edition, Diamond Edition, Gold Edition, Lotus Edition, Pearl Edition, Samurai Edition, Ivory Edition, Onyx Edition, Shattered Empire, Promotional–Ivory, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Spell

Gold Cost

4

Card Text

Limited: Bow this Shugenja and destroy this Spell to search your Fate deck for a card and put it in your hand.

Focus Value

3

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Age of Conquest (Emperor), Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Clan Wars (Imperial), Destroyer War (Celestial), Four Winds (Gold), Hidden Emperor (Jade), Race for the Throne (Samurai), Rain of Blood (Diamond), Shattered Empire, War of the Seals (Onyx Edition)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Walking the Way 4G 3FV Limited: Bow this Shugenja and destroy this card: Search your Fate deck for a card. Put it in your hand." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 163
• Erratum: Reads, "Walking the Way 4G 3FV Limited: Bow this Shugenja and destroy this Spell: Search your Fate deck for a card. Put it in your hand." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 168

Rules Q&A

• Q: I was wondering what constitutes searching for a fate card. I assume Aid of the Grandmaster and Walking the Way search, but does Shozo? He lets you look at a limited number of fate cards and choose one.
  A: I'd certainly hope that Aid of the Grand Master and Walking the way search, since they say specifically on them, "Search" in black ink letters.
  Shozo does not "search" because he does not use that special word. No, you can not take the card you want with Shozo and then shuffle the deck to get better cards next turn. He doesn't say "search" so you can't invoke Cardinal Rule #4.
  Oddly enough, however, the Accumulated Rulings has a section called "Search" with rulings that can apply to "look at X cards and play one" effects just as easily as "search you deck for a card and play it." That might be the subject of some confusion. Martin Lund, "Rules for 3 July 2004", 6 Jul 2004
• Q: If you satisfy the condition yet fail to play a Ring immediately as you do so, you can not play it later in the turn unless its trigger reoccurs (for example, you can't Walk the Way for Ring of Air and play it if Walking the Way is your 3rd spell on the turn, but if you later cast another spell/kiho, you can play the Ring then).
  A: You still have to play it as soon as it becomes legal, not later. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 9-10 March 2004", 11 Mar 2004
• Q: I only disagree in one term, the text in the ring says this: "Play Ring of Air after casting three or more Spells and/or Kiho in one turn. Elemental Reaction: After one of your Shugenja or Monks bows to cast a Spell or Kiho, bow Ring of Air to straighten that Shugenja or Monk."
  If I take the ring with Walking the Way I still would have played 3 spells or kihos in my turn so why can I don't puit him in play?
  A: Because you must play it immediately after casting the Spell. That means immediately after you've paid all its costs and everyone has had a chance to cancel it but refuses. This is still before it's done anything. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 2-3 March 2004", 4 Mar 2004
• Q: According to your ruling on the Ring of Air/Walking the Way combination, the player in question shouldn't even be able to play the ring of water before he HAS to lay down the Ring of Air since that last battle action would not have resolved yet before his window of opportunity to play the Ring of Air is gone.
  A: Even ignoring the Walking the Way ruling, this point doesn't matter. The Rings of Air and Water have the same timing relative to the action that triggers them. I don't see how you can argue that one has to be played before the other. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 26 Feb. 2004", 27 Feb 2004
• Q: I draw a Walking the Way at any point during the game. Now on my turn, I walk the way for a walking the way, then walk for the 3rd copy, then walk for the Ring of AIr. Can I now play Air b/c I have satisifed the criteria, 3 Spells?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 24 September 2003", 24 Sep 2003
• Q: Ring of Air "Play this card after the third Spell effect your cards create and/or innate ability your cards use in one turn. Elemental Benefit: Once per turn, whenever a card creates a Spell effect, you may redirect the effect to another target."
  Walking the Way "Limited: Bow this Shugenja and destroy this Spell to get a card from your Fate deck and add the card to your hand. Shuffle the deck."
  Can a Walking the Way be "taken away" with ring of Air.
  This is a Target question, "your deck" and "your hand" refers to the caster, can I use the Ring of Air to make it like I cast the spell????
  A: The answer is in the Gold Edition rulebook on page 47:
  ] You can redirect an action only to something else it could have ] targeted originally. Should you redirect an action, treat it ] as though it had been aimed at its new target all along. You ] cannot redirect untargeted actions or actions that give no ] choice for their target (such as a card that targets "your ] Stronghold").
  So: no. Jeff Alexander, "post for 20 January 2003", 21 Jan 2003
• Q: If I have the Ring of Air in play, and my opponent casts Walking the Way:
  A) I get to look at his entire Fate Deck, and redirect WtW to the card of my choosing.
  B) I pick a card from his Fate Deck for him to draw, but I don't get to see what it is.
  A: C) You don't get to redirect anything because searching your deck for a card is not an instance of targeting. Jeff Alexander, "post for 28 October 2002", 29 Oct 2002
• Q: e.g. Asako Yuya only has Walking the Way on her. She is casting it with her trait to bow the spell instead of herself as a cost of casting it. What happens?
  A: You would bow and destroy the Spell. All costs other than bowing the Shugenja must be paid normally. Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 April 2002", 4 Apr 2002
• Q: You cast the Kiho, then 'search' those four cards, and 'retrieve' the one you want; on the card it's worded 'take any one'. The Kiho was supposed to be a weaker copy of Walking the Way, which also does not use the 'search' word, but uses the 'look through and take' construction. The fact that the Kiho limits you to 'looking through and taking' only the top four shouldn't make a difference, IMO.
  A: I disagree. You only 'get' the cards once, when you pull them off the top with Banish. That's a multiple card draw, and it's legal under Uona Sensei. Someone else brought up Ring of the Void, another card that draws multiple cards off the top of your deck. If Banish can't 'draw' four cards due to Uona, then RoV isn't legal either, something that I feel is clearly not true. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for February 6th", 6 Feb 2001
• Q: Can I use a Delving into History that is attached to a non-void Shugenja to search for Walking the Way (which does not have an elemental keyword)?
  A: No. If the Shungenja is non-Void, the searched-for Spell must share an element keyword with him. Brook Cunningham, "Delving into History, non void Shugenja and Walking the Way", 29 Aug 2012
• Q: Here you say that you don't need to show the card that Walking the Way fetches but under the rules for searching it states "If an effect searches for a specific card (such as "Ring of Water") or card-type (such as "a Ring"), the player must show it if he chooses to retrieve it, to verify that he has retrieved the appropriate card or type, even if the search effect does not specify it is shown. [ADDED 6 April 2012] "
  So since Walking the Way doesn't specify a type of card you don't have to show it?
  A: Right. You do not have to show the card searched for by Walking the Way. Brook Cunningham, "searching for 'card type' follow up.", 8 Apr 2012
• Q: Does using the Underhand to search for a Political Action card and put it in your hand count as 'drawing a card' for such things as Kanashimi? What about Walking the Way? Does that count as 'drawing a card'? Togashi's Shrine?
  A: Archive, Drawing Zen Faulkes, "Drawing Cards vs. Searching", 31 Mar 2005
• Q: Can you search for the same oni that you destroyed to activate the Shrine of Fu Leng? Example: Destroy Chimamire no Oni and bow Shrine of Fu Leng, grab the same Chimamire no Oni and return him to play.
  Effects that let you to search for a particular card (e.g., Walking the Way) do not target the card. [JA, email, 19 January 2001; 23 July 2001; ML, JA, email, 19 October 2004]
  A: That should cover it. You don't target the Oni you bring back with the Shrine, only the one you destroy. You can restore the same oni you sacrificed. Martin Lund, "Shrine of Fu Leng", 27 Mar 2005
• Q: I came up with the question, when I was wondering, wether Isawa can cast the Walking the Way in my hand or not.
  A: He can't. One of Walking's costs is destroying itself, which is a way of leaving play. (Notice, by the way, that he wouldn't be able to cast it anyway, since you cannot pay the cost. You can't destroy a card in your hand.) Jeff Alexander, "Discarded from play and removed from play .. and so on", 7 Feb 2005
• Q: I came up with the question, when I was wondering, wether Isawa can cast the Walking the Way in my hand or not.
  A: He can't. One of Walking's costs is destroying itself, which is a way of leaving play. (Notice, by the way, that he wouldn't be able to cast it anyway, since you cannot pay the cost. You can't destroy a card in your hand.) Jeff Alexander, "Discarded from play and removed from play .. and so on", 7 Feb 2005