Phoenix all ring denial

By Yakamo no Oni, in L5R LCG: Rules Discussion

This popped up in facebook a couple of hours ago and I thought I'd share it with this community in case not everybody uses FB (I know I didn't for years!)

  1. Declare a conflict with the Earth Ring.
  2. Declare Kaede and Seeker of Knowledge as attackers.
  3. The Earth Ring now is also Void and Air.
  4. With your first action play Way of the Phoenix and target the Earth Ring.
  5. Since the Earth Ring now has three elements, your opponent cannot declare conflicts with either of these three elements.
  6. Win the conflict and claim the Earth Ring
  7. Play Breakthrough and immediatle declare your second conflict.
  8. Use the Fire Ring for the second conflict.
  9. Win the conflict and claim the Fire Ring.
  10. Play Know the World and switch out your Earth Ring with the Water Ring.
  11. There are three unclaimed rings: Air, Earth, and Void.
  12. Since all those rings are banned thanks to Way of the Phoenix, your opponent cannot declare any conflicts for this round.

Just want to hear your opinions on whether or not this is really possible. WotP only says "element" - no plural - so I'm not quite sure it would really prevent my opponent from declaring all three. I'm well aware this may not be a really good play. You're obviously sacrificing a lot of ressources to pull this of and if this doesn't give a really big advantage for the next round, you're probably losing the game.

I think there was a ruling from Nate French saying that this is achievable via the method you just described.

The sequence of play is completely legal.
Somewhat unlikely, but legal.

To declare a conflict, a player need to declare ready attacker, type and eleent, and province.

From the Rules Reference:

Quote

If any of the above cannot be completed, the conflict cannot be initiated.

Is it legal? Yes. Is it likely? About as likely as the scenarios involving Lion using the Imperial Cycle cards to honor win on Turn 1.

I disagree with this since kaede and seeker of knowledge both say while against the ring gains the element as soon as they are no longer attacking the ring won't have those extra elements so way of the pheonix on the earth ring doesnt do anything

Thing is to play WotP while in the conflict. And while in the conflict, the earth ring would have those elements.

So yes after the conflict earth is just earth again, but at the time you played WotP, it was earth, void and air.

But WotP says also ring of that element, singular.

So I also find such combo dubious, but theoretically it may work.

Need to find a ruling.

Does seem like a lot of ambiguous cards need a faq and soon

On 11/12/2017 at 9:29 AM, Nitenman said:

Thing is to play WotP while in the conflict. And while in the conflict, the earth ring would have those elements.

So yes after the conflict earth is just earth again, but at the time you played WotP, it was earth, void and air.

But WotP says also ring of that element, singular.

So I also find such combo dubious, but theoretically it may work.

Need to find a ruling.

There was a ruling already. it was asked when Kaede got revealed:

https://fiveringsdb.com/cards/search?q=Way of the Phoenix

Great. I thought so.

Weird no one complained that it would lead to NPE ,?.

It will be hard to pull off, but imagine how frustrating to be on the receiving end of the combo.

3 hours ago, Nitenman said:

Great. I thought so.

Weird no one complained that it would lead to NPE ,?.

It will be hard to pull off, but imagine how frustrating to be on the receiving end of the combo.

I think the difficulty in execution as well as requiring sub-optimal cards (WotP really), is what makes it too annoying to pull off.

Plus going through all of that preamble just for them to play a nope card that's a huge waste of fate

And since it requires them to win the first conflict, you're presumably using most of your guys on defense anyways, so it's not really a waste of resources. For them to pull this off, they have to have a large board and you probably needed to just defend regardless. Here's an easier trick to keep your opponent from attacking you: Force them to respect both your attacks by having a lot of guys in play. Works for any clan!