Weigh the Cost

Legend of the Five Rings card from Celestial Edition, Lotus Edition, Samurai Edition, Web of Lies, Training Grounds 2, Gathering Storms, Three Dynasties, Path of Hope, Glory of the Empire, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

As a Focus Effect: Add 1 to the Focus Values of this card and one other of your focused cards.
Battle: Move your performing Samurai Personality home: Bow him. Give the current battlefield's province +2 or -2 strength. You may target an enemy Personality and give him -3F.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Destroyer War (Celestial), Race for the Throne (Samurai), Rain of Blood (Diamond), Shattered Empire, Three Dynasties

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Weigh the Cost 0G 3FV Focus Effect: Add 1 to the Focus Values of this card and one other of your focused cards. Battle: Move your target Samurai Personality home: Bow him. Raise or lower the current battlefield’s province’s strength by 2. You may target an enemy Personality and give him –3F." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 164
• Erratum: Reads, "Weigh the Cost 0G 3FV Focus Effect: Add 1 to the Focus Values of this card and one other of your focused cards. Battle: Move one of your target Samurai Personalities home: Bow him. Raise or lower the current battlefield’s province’s strength by 2. You may target a Personality in the current enemy army and give him –3F." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 169

Rules Q&A

• Q: If it's the only card focussed, do I get to draw?
  A: Weigh the Cost says, "When this card is revealed as a focus in a duel, add 1 to its Focus value and to that of one other card you focused this duel, then draw a card."
  I you don't have 2 Focus cards, one of the effects of Weigh the Cost fails. All the other effects will resolve normally - it increases its own Focus Value and you draw a card. Martin Lund, "Rules for 11 January 2005", 14 Jan 2005
• Q: If I focus a World is Empty and name a 3 and reveal my opponent's last focus which was a weigh the cost. Would World is Empty discard it or not?
  A: The World is Empty says, "Your opponent reveals his most-recent focus card, if any, and discards it without effect if its Focus value is greater than this card's."
  And Weigh the Cost says, "When this card is revealed as a focus in a duel, add 1 to its Focus value and to that of one other card you focused this duel, then draw a card."
  So you'd reveal Weigh the Cost, triggering th increase in Focus Value and the draw of a card.
  Then you could discard Weigh the Cost due to the effect of The World is Empty. Martin Lund, "Rules for 11 December 2004", 13 Dec 2004
• Q: Hey,
  I've been milling on this for the past few days.
  As you all know, WoL saw some cards that have effects when revieled as focus cards eg: Weigh the Cost & Misdirection etc.
  My question is, I focus away the above cards, I attach the spell 'The Kami Watch Over Me' to a random Shug & cast it, are these cards shuffled back into my deck or do they remain in my discard pile?
  A: They are shuffled back. Only actions resolve, and cards focused in a duel are not "in play". Martin Lund, "Rules for 7 December 2004", 10 Dec 2004
• Q: Weigh the Cost If I focus weigh the cost with a double chi personality, do I double the cards value first and then add +1 or do I add 1 first and then apply double chi?
  A: Double Chi adds a bonus of double the Focus Value of a card you use to Focus, rather than the ordinary value. If you increase the Focus Value of a card by 1, the bonus added to a Double Chi Personality would increase by 2. Martin Lund, "Rules for 6 December 2004", 10 Dec 2004
• Q: While the active player does get to decide the order of Focus Effects, is it not true that these two cards have a very specific timing for their Focus Effects? Or would the active player get to decide that an opponents Low Stance resolves, and then they get to resolve their own Weigh the Cost, thus essentially having the Low Stance do nothing?
  A: Weigh the Cost has different text, which in turn gives it a different timing than the other cards in question. The effect of Low Stance will always be applied after Weigh the Cost.
  It is true that the relevant "active player chooses" section of the rules is the timing section of the wiki rather than the duels section, which I'd initially included. Zen Faulkes, "Traditions of Steel vs Low Stance", 27 Jul 2009
• Q: While I agree with Zen's primary ruling, I think his explanation is going to cause a lot of problems (no offense to Zen). While the active player does get to decide the order of Focus Effects, is it not true that these two cards have a very specific timing for their Focus Effects? Or would the active player get to decide that an opponents Low Stance resolves, and then they get to resolve their own Weigh the Cost, thus essentially having the Low Stance do nothing?
  Low Stance Focus Effect: Before this duel’s resolution, negate all bonuses to each focused card’s Focus Value.
  Traditions of Steel Focus Effect: Before this duel’s resolution, raise the Focus Value of each of your focused cards to 3.
  Weigh the Cost Focus Effect: Add 1 to the Focus Values of this card and one other of your focused cards.
  A: Weight the Cost's Focus Effect has a different timing than both Low Stance and Traditions of Steel.
  Weigh The Cost's Focus Effect will always occur before Low Stance and Traditions of Steel, as they are worded to act after all other Focus Effects occur (as the Focus Effect of Low Stance and Traditions of Steel happen "Before the Duel's Resolution" which is after all normal Focus Effects.
  The active player does get to decide the order in which all Low Stances and Traditions of Steel occur, however. Dan Jacobson, "Traditions of Steel vs Low Stance", 27 Jul 2009
• Q: I play Furious Assault on Shiba Aikune (this game he was on his own, and so couldn't be moved by my card effects). He plays Weigh the Cost to move home. Does Furious Assault kill him?
  A: Yes. "If it moved" (past tense) is referring only to the one action, not the entire combat segment. (Fixed.) Zen Faulkes, "Furious Assault", 14 Oct 2007
• Q: If focused on its own, what is the focus of Weigh the Cost? 3, 4, or 5?
  A: Here. Zen Faulkes, "Weigh the cost", 21 Mar 2005