Ward of Air

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Shadow's Embrace, Ivory Edition

Card Type

Spell

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Air

Card Text

Before this Shugenja, or any Personality if this Shugenja is Air, is destroyed by a Battle action, you may destroy this Spell to negate it.
Air Battle: Move this Shugenja home.

Focus Value

4

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Age of Conquest (Emperor)

MRP

Reaction is now a trait.

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Hi,
  If i played a Wedge, can i negate my personality's destruction with Ward of Air?
  Same question, Ward of Air vs Way of the Crab.
  Ward of Air: http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=9893,#hashid=af78c21ad80cdb5eb492503eb9fdbff7,#cardcount=0
  Wedge: http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=9281,#hashid=11d66ede12a1ca69336a3a3109a2c5bb,#cardcount=0
  Way of the Crab: http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=11856,#hashid=13f1140cfb16fb39f5509e7b1ce76840,#cardcount=0
  Thanks!
  A: With both Wedge and Way of the Crab, the Personality is being destroyed by a Battle action, so Ward of Air can be triggered. Alex Jones, "Ward of Air and Wedge or Way of the Crab", 21 Jul 2015
• Q: If I have an Air shugenja with both Ward of Air and Fierce blood of the Earth, can I attempt to destroy a personality to get Fierce Blood's force bonus, and then negate the destruction with War of Air?
  The previous precedent ruling with Thoughtless Sacrifice would leave me to think no, but then again costs have changed to gold and bowing, if I'm not mistaken.
  A: Fierce Blood of the Earth uses "to" wording, which means effect A (the bowing or destruction, which is not a cost) has to happen in order for effect B (the Force bonus) to happen. If the bowing/destruction is negated, you will not gain the Force bonus. Sorry! Jon Palmer, "Ward of Air and Fierce Blood of the Earth", 14 Jul 2015
• Q: If I defend my province with Longji and I use COaaT to duel my opponent's personality, can the other player interrupt with Ward of Air to stop death from the duel?
  I think: Longji's challenges are unstoppable, but only if he is targeted by them. Since COaaT creates an ability on Longji, he does not target himself when he uses it, therefore his repeatable challenge ability is not unstoppable.
  A: You are correct that Come One at a Time's duel does not target Longji, so it is not given Unstoppable. Also, note that Ward of Air's destruction negation is not an Interrupt, and therefore is not affected by an action being Unstoppable either. Jon Palmer, "Longji + COaaT", 27 Mar 2015
• Q: If I destroy a Ward of Air attached to my shugenja to prevent his destruction from another player's Battle action, can I use Diligent Care to return Ward of Air to my hand?
  Thank you!
  Ward of Air Before this Shugenja, or any Personality if this Shugenja is Air, is destroyed by a Battle action, you may destroy this Spell to negate it.
  Diligent Care Interrupt, w: If the action is another player's, attachments return to your hand instead of being destroyed for its effects (including when a Personality is destroyed).
  A: No, because in this case Ward of Air is being destroyed by Ward of Air's effects, not by the Interrupted action's effects. Jon Palmer, "Ward of Air + Diligent Care", 23 Mar 2015
• Q: If the Ring of fire is used to target a shugenja without attachments, and there is a ward of air sitting on another air shugenja in play, if I win the battle does the ward of air protect against the fire destruction?
  If so, is the ward of air discarded when the ring is targets to negate the destruction, or would it wait until the resolution of battle to determine if the ring's trigger goes off?
  A: The trigger for Ward of Air's effect is the actual destruction of the Personality. So when Ring of Fire's delayed effect gets around to destroying him, he may be protected by Ward of Air. You don't have to make the decision until the destruction occurs. Jon Palmer, "Ring of Fire and Ward of Air", 13 Mar 2015
• Q: I do not understand why this is. The comprehensive rules say that interupts modify the initial action (page 26
  ), in addition okura's says that the fear destroys the cards not okura itself. Clearly there must be something i am missing
  Post referenced: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=110813
  A: The sentence that you quote from the Comprehensive Rules says, in full: An Interrupt may modify the effects of the action it interrupts – including preventing some or all of these effects – and it may also have effects of its own.
  Okura is Released is in the second category. It creates its own effect, triggered by an effect of the original action, rather than modifying that action: After ... the action bows a card, destroy it.
  The destruction is a new effect, directly created by Okura is Released.
  Compare with Show of Power, which falls into the first category, because it changes the effects of the original action: The action's Fear effects ... destroy attachments after bowing them.
  Here, the destruction is an additional effect created by modifying the original action. Alex Jones, "Okura is Released and Ward of Air", 12 Nov 2014
• Q: If I play a fear action on a personality and interrupt with Okura is Released, can Ward of Air prevent the destruction?
  A: No, because the destruction is from Okura is Released's Interrupt, which is not a Battle action. Alex Jones, "Okura is Released and Ward of Air", 10 Nov 2014
• Q: First, the spell Ward of Air days "... Destroy this spell to negate it." What does it refer to? The destruction, or the battle action?
  In slightly related news, does Ninube Shiho's ability destroy him?
  If the answer to #1 is the former, and the answer to #2 is yes, does Ward of Air prevent Shiho from going to the top of my deck but the rest of the ability still happen?
  A: "It" refers to the Battle action. Shiho's ability does not destroy him. Jon Palmer, "Ward of air with a little Ninube Shiho love", 24 Sep 2014
• Q: In light of the rule reversal interaction between Thoughtless Sacrifice and Ward of Air where the triggering of negation is now applied to the action's remaining effects, how does the spell now work with the strategy War? Would the "and" imply that the destruction of the the personality and the province are simultaneous or sequential (eg. Ward of Air negates the destruction of the province and the personality or just the personality?)?
  A: "And" does not imply simultaneous.
  According to the order written, the Province would first be destroyed, then your Personality. The latter could be saved by Ward of Air, but it would be at a time when it's too late for the negation to prevent the Province destruction. Brook Cunningham, "Ward of Air and War", 21 Sep 2014
• Q: As a follow-up to the reversal in the Thoughtless Sacrifice and Ward of Air interaction (here), does the same thing happen with Fueling the Flames?
  To be clear, if i use Fueling the flames Battle to produce a Ranged 6 and react with Ward of Air to negate my shugenja's destruction, the Ranged happen?
  Relevant text
  Fueling the Flames Fire Battle: Bow this Shugenja to make a Ranged 6 Attack. Destroy this Shugenja
  Ward of Air Before this Shugenja, or any Personality if this Shugenja is Air, is destroyed by a Battle action, you may destroy this Spell to negate it.
  A: Correct. Negation does not undo instant effects, like Ranged Attack destruction, that has already happened. Brook Cunningham, "Ward of Air and Fueling the Flames", 2 Sep 2014
• Q: The current ruling is that Ward of Air would negate the destruction of the Thoughtless Sacrifice player's personality, but allow the destruction of the opponent's unit.
  I think this should be re-evaluated.
  Ward of Air says
  It doesn't say "negate the destruction", it says "negate it". There is no previous mention of destruction, only "a Battle action". The only thing that "it" could be is "a Battle action". So if a player uses Ward of Air in response to Thoughtless Sacrifice, the only card that is destroyed should be Ward of Air.
  A: Your concern is noted, and this is a topic of discussion amongst the Rules Team. Ben Higgins, "Ward of Air and Thoughtless Sacrifice Redux", 24 Aug 2014
• Q: I have a 2 chi non-samurai shugenja with an attached ward of air. He is targeted by wounded in battle. Can I negate wounded in battle using ward of air?
  A: Ward of Air will not negate destruction from having 0 Chi, as it is a Rulebook effect doing the destruction, not an effect of Wounded in Battle.
  Note, this was not the case back in Emperor Edition, but in Ivory Edition, Chi Death is now only from the Rulebook, and nto from the effect that last gave a penalty to a Personality's Chi. Ben Higgins, "Ward of Air vs Wounded in Battle", 30 Jun 2014
• Q: The IvE MRP of Ward of Air has the original reaction: ability changing to the trait Before this Shugenja, or any Personality if this Shugenja is Air, is destroyed by a Battle action, you may destroy this Spell to negate it.
  Does this mean that if i have it attached to an Air Shugenja who is currently sitting at home during a battle and my opponent kills one of my men in battle with an action would ward of air trigger? And because it is a trait will it automatically trigger regardless of the owner's intention? say i want to get rid of the ward of air by killing a useless spud in battle would it automatically kill off the ward of air instead if on an air shugenja?
  regards
  A: 1. Yes
  2. Sooort of... if attached to an Air shugenja, the trait will trigger before every Personality's destruction, but you may have missed the part of its text where it says "you may". Its controller has the option to choose when to destroy it to negate the destruction.
  3. No; see above Brook Cunningham, "Ward of Air. Ivory MRP question", 28 Jan 2014