Black Heart of the Empire

Legend of the Five Rings card from Lotus Edition, Diamond Edition, Training Grounds, Tomorrow, Heaven & Earth, Winds of Change, Reign of Blood

Card Type

Wind

Card Text

For you, the Lobby ability is not Political, and it bows your target Shadowlands Personality instead (even if his Personal Honor is 0).
For the purposes of any player Lobbying, your Family Honor is considered, before bonuses or penalties, to equal the total printed Force of all Personalities you control if it is higher than each other player's.
Favor Repeatable Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor to target a Personality. Reduce the Force of each card in his unit to 0. Permanently give him Shadowlands.

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Four Winds (Gold), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Black Heart of the Empire Lobbying is not Political for you. You lobby by bowing a Shadowlands Personality regardless of Personal Honor. For purposes of any player lobbying, your Family Honor is considered the total printed Force of all Personalities you control if that total is higher than each other player’s. Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor: Target a unit. Reduce the Force of each card in it to 0. Permanently give its Personality the Shadowlands trait." [MRP, Tomorrow, 12 March 2007] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154
• Erratum: Renamed from "Daigotsu." [MRP, Reign of Blood, 8 December 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154
• To lobby when your family honor is lower than other players', you need to have more Force than each opponent has Force and more Force than each has Honor. [JA, 3 March 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154
• You can render your opponent incapable of lobbying even if you don't lobby. [JA, 3 March 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154
• Only lobbying defined by the rules is not Political, not all actions that count as a lobby attempt. [JA, 16 June 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 154

Rules Q&A

• Q: Hi Jeff/Zen,
  I played shadowlands for a long time since emerald edition. before, shadowlands are the most feared deck due to its large size peeps and "do not lose honor" trait, plus fast cash. now, in diamond edition the shadowlands seems to be the slowest and "bonus stage deck" on tourneys. the DE shadowland cards are pretty competitive, i agree. but then the downside is that, if you are up against a LION or a WATER DRAGONS, it a sure thing that you'll end up 3 or 2 provinces with just a 4th or 5th turn run. against crane or phoenix, you'll end up chasing those 40 honor runners. I already have 2 sets of deck for DE-SHADOWLANDS, Fear Deck Military-The Spawning G. and PK-DishonorKill-T9k due to faction loyalty. My suggestion is, is it possible that you revise the Black Heart of the Empire making it "Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor to reduce the Force of one opposing card to 0. You can play this action during a battle in which you have no units."
  A: We don't like errata. We do it as infrequently as possible. We've done it to weaken some of the more powerful elements in the Diamond environment because of how much harder it is to make something weaker by printing more cards than it is to make something stronger. Since making cards stronger does not suffer this handicap, we don't have any current plans to reprint any existing cards in a stronger form. Jeff Alexander, "rules for 26 Feb. 2004", 27 Feb 2004
• Q: When you bring a Doji Tanitsu experienced into play, can you choose to bring in the Black Heart of the Empire as a result of his trait?
  A: Yes (card text). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 8 December 2003", 8 Dec 2003
• Q: If you can bring in the Black Heart of the Empire in this way, do the lobbying conditions stated on the Black Heart now "overwrite" your standard lobbying conditions?
  A: Yes (card text). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 8 December 2003", 8 Dec 2003
• Q: If Doji Kurohito (exp2) is overlayed (by Doji Kurohito exp3 for example), does his controller remove the Winds he brought into play? Or does the ruling below on Tsuruchi Estui (exp and exp2) also apply to this situation? viewtopic.php?f=59&t=75222
  Doji Kurohito Crane Clan Champion. Samurai. Courtier. Double Chi. Experienced 2. Unique. Will only join a Crane Clan player. Bring all Winds you do not have, except the Black Heart of the Empire, into play from outside the game while you control Kurohito. Political Battle: Once per battle, issue an unrefusable challenge to a duel of Personal Honor to an opposing Personality.
  A: The Winds are removed from play.
  Unlike Etsui exp's trait which creates an ongoing effect, Kurohito exp 2's trait generates a continuous effect which is only applied while it exists. When Kurohito exp 2 is overlaid, the trait is lost, and the continuous effect ends. Alex Jones, "Doji Kurohito (exp2) and overlay", 7 Apr 2010
• Q: Hey guys, got curious why Black Heart of the Empire is considered an MRP of Daigotsu (wind). They have different titles and their effects (although very similar) have their difference - with the former being able to grant the Shadowlands trait.
  A: Because Daigotsu Wind was first printed in H&E with a dual Diamond/Gold bug, BHotE had to be considered a MRP in order to fully replace/supercede it in Diamond legality, unlike the other, Gold-only bugged named Winds. Brook Cunningham, "Oracle of the Void #rules", 4 Nov 2024