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General

Q: What's the rarity distribution like for AOD & BP?

A: Anvil of Despair has 50 common, 50 uncommon, and 50 rare cards. Also, Clan Decks include deck-specific cards as in Shadowlands, although this time they're Personalities that already exist in the basic set rather than brand-new Items. Beiden Pass contains two fixed, pre-built 80-card decks for the Crab and Dragon Clans. It includes two cards previously available only as promos: the inexperienced Dairya and the Monstrous War Machine of Fu Leng.

Q: How many cards are in each AOD? Anvil of Despair: 152 cards (2 from Emerald), two strongholds.

Rulings

Q: What if one card gives me a bonus to my Province strength, then the base strength of all my Provinces gets changed? Do I lose the bonus?

A: No. If something grants you a permanent bonus or penalty to the strength of one or more of your Provinces, that change will stick around for the rest of the game, even if your base strength changes or the original source of the change is destroyed or altered.

Q: Does Ikoma Tsanuri prevent terrains from being played in the battle she was originally assigned to, or the one she's currently at?

A: The one she's at. If she moves away or dies, her opponents can start playing terrains again. She won't destroy an existing terrain if she's moved into a battle, either.

Q: I've got a card that says it "can only be attached to a ninja." Does this mean it counts as a "ninja card"? After all, the word "ninja" is in the card's text.

A: No. Single words such as "Ninja" and "Cavalry" must appear in bold type at the top of the text area for a card to have that trait. Appearing in the middle of a sentence doesn't count.

Q: Junzo's Army can't have allies. Does that mean he can still be an ally to someone else?

A: No. Junzo can't have allies in any way, and no one can ever take an action which would make him an ally, like playing Tides of Battle. He also can't make use of the Alliance event.

Q: If Junzo's Army can't lose honor, how can he use all those Shadowlands cards that cost honor to use? And what about the Dark Oracles? Their honor losses can't be changed.

A: Honor loss is never a cost for playing a card. It's more like a side effect. And Junzo's Army doesn't change honor losses, it outright ignores them. The Dark Oracles work just fine for him.

Q: I'm not sure how to figure out what cards Junzo can't use, or why he's allowed to use the ones listed in the rulebook.

A: For one, he can't do anything Political. Besides actions which say "Political" right on them, the Glossary tells us that anything that alters an honor loss or gain is Political, as are both lobbying for the Favor and giving it up to play an action or a cartl. Note that actions which "cause" an honor ioss or gain aren't necessarily Political, nor are reactions which involve the Favor.

He also can't perform any actions which immediately and consistently cause an honor loss to another player. He's allowed to use effects which aren't actions (Dragon Sword is Broken) which don't cause an immediate loss (letter Defeat), or that don't always cause a loss (Iaijutsu Challenge).

Q: What happens if I spend full price for Toturi in a Toturi's Army deck?

A: You waste 2 gold. Since Toturi enters play dishonored, his effective Personal Honor is 0. You gain no honor, and he remains dishonored with his lower Force and Chi.

Q: Can Toturi's Army play Alliance and pick Dragon Clan, and get dual-Clan Personalities for 4g less or 2g less plus honor?

A: Yup.

Q: Do I get honor for overlaying a Personality with her Experienced version? I'm paying the full price, which is zero.

A: No. You're not hiring someone new.

Q: The rules say I can overlay a normal card with the experienced one "if I have an earlier version...already in play when the Experienced Personality appears" does this mean "just if" or "if AND ONLY if"?

A: Just "if" Any time you have the original version of a personality in play and the Experienced version face-up during your Dynasty Phase, you can overlay it, even if the Experienced one appeared first

Q: How can a Naga deck use Dashmar to win a game through honor? Their Stronghold says they're not allowed to do that.

A: Using Dashmar isn't an Honor Victory, it's a specic victory generated by a card. The Naga can win this way, as can other clans which manage to steal him, or copy him:

Q: Now that Follower tokens also count as cards, I can give my token Naga Followers force bonuses, right?

A: Naga Follower tokens can't get force bonuses because the Stronghold says so. It has nothing tdo do with being or not being cards.

Q: My opponent is at -18 honor. I have one Province left, and no one to defend it. He attacks an destroys it. Can I play Plea of the Peasants so he loses 5 honor and the game ends in a tie?

A: The answer lies in carefully reading the Reaction to see whether it gets played before or after the event it's reacting to. In this case, Plea of the Peasants played "when another player has destroyed" one of your Provinces. "Has destroyed" is past-tense - this Reaction gets played after the event. Unfortunately, you were eliminated from the game the moment you lost your last Province, and you can't play anything after being eliminated. Looks like your opponent is victorious. The moral is this: read your Reactions closely!

Q: What about Kusatte Iru? I can use it even if my last province gets destroyed. This will tie the game if my opponent has only one Province too.

A: Actually, it won't. Remember, Reactions don't retrocactively counter anything unless they say so. Because of Iru's wording, you destroyed your opponent's last Phavince after he destroyed yours. He was the first player in the game, thereby achieving Military Victory. Iru doesn't change that.

Q: Speaking of Kolats, can I put the Night Medallion on the Experienced Lion Sensei? What happens if I do?

A: The Experienced Sensei has the kolat trait, so he can wear the Medallion. If you've played him over an original Sensei, the Medallion modifies all his abilities and lets him place +3/+3 sensei tokens, up to 4 on each Personality. Existing sensei tokens don't change to +3/+3, though, and any noraml Sensei can still only place up to 2 tokens on one card.

Q: Since the Medallion adds +2 to the real mathematical value of numbers, if I put it on a card whose ability makes me "lose 1 honor" would I actually start gaining 1 honor? After all, "lose 1 honor" means I adjust my honor by -1, and -1 + 2 = +1?

A: You're reading too much into that ruling. The number printed on the card is "1" and 1 + 2 = 3. You would "lose 3 honor"

Q: I want to do something to a particular card, but I'm not allowed but are not allowed to target it, can I aim my effect at some other card, then use something like the Ring of Air to redirect it to the card I really want to hit.

A: No. You can only redirect actions to thing you could have been aimed at in teh first place.

Q: I have a ninja shapeshifter, initially 2F/2C with a +2/+2 weapon token, and I want him to copy an Ogre Bushi's Force of 6. That means the Ninja becomes a total 8F/4C creature, right? Six for the Ogre, plus two from thc weapon?

A: If your NSS has any kind of a weapon, you'll almost always end up in a situation where the Whole is not equal to the Sum of the Parts if you copy someone else's Force or Chi. In our example above, the +2F from his own sword apparently "disappears" The sword doesn't actually change from a +2/+2 weapon to something else, nor does the NSS's base Force of 2 change. What does happen when the NSS copies a stat is that you stop using basic math to figure his total and just use the copied value on faith (plus or minus any further changes that happen after the shapeshift, of course). That's ninja trickery for you.

Q: Is it true that I can't copy the Crab Oni's ability to gain +1/+1 per Crab Personality I control?

A: That isn't an "ability'; it's a "trait" The NSS can't copy it.

Q: Is there anything else I should know about the 'shifter'?

A: The first is that using another card's ability is a two-step process, since you have to take one action to copy the abibilty first, then another to actually use it. You can't just duplicate an effect cold turkey - it takes planning and forethought in some situations to use it right.

The other thing is that the NSS's ability is a targeted action since you have to pick which card to copy. This means your opponents can use Mamoru or Investigation to counter an attempt to copy their cards, and it means you can't copy anything from your own bowed Personalities.

Q: When is Hoseki, the Ninja Mystic, treated as a ninja, and when is she treated as a shugenja?

A: When she "casts" her spell, she performs a ninja action instead, but the spell is always a spelL and anything it does to "this shugenja" will affect her. Doom of the Phoenix destroys the spell, Black Scrolls corrupt her, spells that destroy their caster destroy her, and so on.

Anvil of Despair

Shashakar: This card counts as the Naga Shugenja for purposes of being Experienced, not Unique.

Mikaru: This card does not count as a Naga.

Elemental Vortex, Kusatte Iru: These cards are Nonhuman.

Arrival of the Emerald Champion: This card's destruction at the conclusion of the battle is unpreventable, and happens even if there is no resolution segment.

Changes

Q: Let's say that two of my Provinces, A and B, were attacked. My defense at Province A was successful. The attacker is now resolving the battle at Province B. Can I use my unit-moving card to move a used defender from Province A into B?

A: Yes. Although all attacking and allied units bow and return to their controller's Fiefs as soon as the battle they were assigned to is over, the defender's units do not bow at all, and do not leave their assigned Province until the entire Attack Phase is over.

Q: Okay, we've finally resolved the battles at both Provinces A and B. My opponent wants to resolve a battle at Province C now, but none of us have any Units there. Is he allowed?

A: Yes. Each time you're attacked, there will be a battle at each Province, even ones with no Units at all. The attacker must resolve them all, although he can do them in any order he chooses.

Q: Is it really legal to use the Dark Orade of Water to do something like sending a single card-heavy Unit on a suicide attack against yourself, so that you gain lots of honor by killing it?

A: Okay. This question strikes a common chord with a lot of other questions, and that chord is this: when, exactly, does card text really override the game's generai rules? The answer is, 'not as often as you might think."

Let's read that Dark Oracle: Bow the Oracle after Cavalry have been assigned in the battle phase. You may now assign any of your unassigned units to attack or defend any of the Defender's Provinces." At first glance this card lets you commit your own Units into any battle, even on both sides, and regardless of whether you've been invited by either side as an ally. But nothing on the card specifically overrides these rules. So, all it lets you do is assign the troops that you could have assigned normally, just after everyone else's. Any rules the card doesn't clearly allow you to break must still be obeyed, and it's against the rules to attack yourself, help both sides, or commit uninvited troops.

Here are some other examples: "The Imperial Edition Wyrm Riders didn't say that they needed to bow to make their Ranged Attack. But unlike Togashi Rinjin, the Riders didn't explicitly say they could make it without bowing, either. Since the Rulebook says that Ranged Attacks bow the shooting card, the Riders still needed to bow.

"Kalu Suman allows you to attach a new Fortification to any of your Provinces. However, you cannot use Suman to attach the Moat that just appeared in Province A to Province B, which already has a Moat from earlier. Suman only overrides the rule governing where Fortifications may be placed - he doesn't override the rule that Provinces can't have duplicate Fortifications.

"The Kaiu Pass Region allows you to attach one weapon or armor to Personalities that enter play from its Province, for 4g less. But this doesn't let you attach an item to someone who can't have one, like a Dragon.

"Many cards allow you to challenge "any Personality" or "any Shadowlands Personality", or whatever. But the Glossary defines a "challenge" as always happening between one Personality which you control and another which you do not, so none of these cards allow you to challenge your own Personalities, despite the word "any".

Notes

Dairya: this card now has the Unique trait.

Monstrous War Machine of Fu Leng: this card now has the Shadowlands trait and a Minimum Honor of "-".

Also, the Mountain Goblin always has a Personal Honor of 1.

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