Black Silk Castle

Legend of the Five Rings card from Words and Deeds, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

8

Gold Production

4

Starting Family Honor

0

Clan

Spider

Card Text

You do not lose Honor from Fate and Spider Clan cards you own; this is not negation.
Tireless Battle: Target your performing unbowed Personality, target an enemy player's dead Personality, and target an enemy Personality with Gold Cost less than or equal to the second target. Remove the second target from the game. Destroy the third target.

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Per the Black Silk Castle VS Hall of Ancestors ruling, where the word "removed" was revealed to still count people that couldn't be removed, but tried to be, does Tempered Ressurection provide a Cost Reduction when used in Hall of Ancestors, when you *attempt* to remove one of your honorably dead personalities, but fail due to the trait?
  Tempered Ressurection Relevant Text: Fire Open: Bow this Shugenja unless he has the Fire keyword: You may remove an honorably dead Personality you own from the game. Target a face-up Personality in one of your provinces. Reduce his Gold Cost by the Gold Cost of any Personality you removed. Bring the target into play (paying all costs).
  Hall of Ancestors Relevant Text: "Dead Personalities you own can not be removed from the game."
  A: Still under discussion.
  However, the rationale for current ruling is that Tempered Resurrection is worded such that the cost reduction is dependent on the removal, since you can always choose not to remove a dead Personality from the game anyway; Black Silk Castle is perhaps poorly worded, but uses removed purely to reference a card selected earlier in the text (without using incomprehensible "party of the first part" style language) for some effect, without regards to whether that effect actually occurred. Alex Jones, "Hall of Ancestors + Tempered Ressurection", 14 May 2009
• Q: Per the Black Silk Castle VS Hall of Ancestors ruling, where the word "removed" was revealed to still count people that couldn't be removed, but tried to be, does Tempered Ressurection provide a Cost Reduction when used in Hall of Ancestors, when you *attempt* to remove one of your honorably dead personalities, but fail due to the trait?
  Tempered Ressurection Relevant Text: Fire Open: Bow this Shugenja unless he has the Fire keyword: You may remove an honorably dead Personality you own from the game. Target a face-up Personality in one of your provinces. Reduce his Gold Cost by the Gold Cost of any Personality you removed. Bring the target into play (paying all costs).
  Hall of Ancestors Relevant Text: "Dead Personalities you own can not be removed from the game."
  A: No. In the case of Tempered Resurrection, the cost reduction is dependent on the removal. Alex Jones, "Hall of Ancestors + Tempered Ressurection", 20 Apr 2009
• Q: In response to this ruling: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=74522
  I don't see how this makes sense in interaction between Black silk and the Hall.
  Black Silk Castle Battle: Even if this card is bowed, target one of your unbowed Personalities: Remove from the game an enemy player's target dead Personality. Destroy a target enemy Personality with Gold Cost equal to or less than the removed Personality's Gold Cost.
  Highlighted the concerned part. I understand that Black Silk removing of a dead Personality isn't a cost but it says it has a restriction to only killing personalities with good cost less than the removed. I would understand if it killed a personality with gold cost less than the one targeted but how can it kill one with less gold cost than the one removed if no card was removed?
  A: All of the targeting for Black Silk Castle is done before any of the effects occur: in particular it's done before the Personality is removed. That is, although Black Silk Castle requires you to target based on the cost of "removed Personality", that Personality is still in the discard pile when you do the targeting. Moreover, because of "Blind Cards", Black Silk Castle cannot "see" that the Personality won't be removed from the game because of The Hall of Ancestors' trait, and because the removal is an effect not a cost, the enemy Personality is still destroyed. Alex Jones, "Hall Of The Ancestors VS Temple Of Death&Black Silk Castle", 15 Mar 2009
• Q: This question was asked before a kotei and several people weren't quite sure what would happen...
  What happens if someone tries to use the action on Black Silk Castle on my dead Lion Clan Personalities? Is the action unusable because of the restrictions on Black Silk Castle?
  The two actions on Temple of Death seem to be worded slightly differently. Are both actions unusable on my dead Lion Clan personalities?
  A: The removal of a dead personality on Black Silk Castle is an effect, not a cost.
  As such, he won't be removed from the game against a Hall of Ancestors player, but Black Silk Castle's destruction effect will still occur.
  Enjoy your costless killing! Note that you still have to target a dead personality for Black Silk Castle's action.
  Finally, The Removal effect on Temple of Death's actions are costs, not effects, so you may not use dead Lion Clan personalities of a Hall of Ancestor player for Temple of Death's actions. Dan Jacobson, "Hall Of The Ancestors VS Temple Of Death&Black Silk Castle", 9 Mar 2009
• Q: Black Silk Castle (F) (Spider) 8PS / 4G / 0SH. You do not lose Honor from Fate and Spider Clan cards you own. Battle: Even if this card is bowed, target one of your unbowed Personalities: Remove from the game an enemy player’s target dead Personality. Destroy a target enemy Personality with Gold Cost equal to or less than the removed Personality’s Gold Cost.
  Black Silk Castle's destruction effect references to the gold cost of a "removed" Personality. Does this target dead Personality have to be effectively removed so that the effect happens? Or does it fail if the target dead Personality wasn't removed?
  I guess the answer is "the effect would happen regardless" but an official clarification would help me understand and explain better the wording of references.
  A: See Using abilities.
  None of the targeting for this action is optional or delayed: it's all done during the "Required Targeting" step. The enemy personality is targeted while the dead personality is still in the discard pile: he's not removed from the game until the "Action Resolves" step. Even if the dead personality fails to be removed from the game, the enemy personality was successfully targeted during the "Required Targeting" step (unless some other effect interfered with that targeting), so the enemy personality is destroyed. Alex Jones, "Clarification on Black Silk Castle", 22 May 2008