Should Tutors Have Additional Effects?
General forum
Posted on July 11, 2020, 11:07 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
WotC has stated that they are not printing "tutors" as frequently as they once did, but they thankfully have not abandoned them, entirely, as made clear by the recent reprints of Idyllic Tutor in Theros: Beyond Death and Grim Tutor in Core Set 2021, as well as their promise to reprint the fetchlands, at some point, this year, for which I am very glad, as such cards are very powerful and useful.
However, I rarely use tutors in my own decks, because I have realized that all that a tutor does is to exchange one card in a player's hand for another card (or, in the case of the fetchlands, exchange one card on the battlefield for another card), granting no actual card advantage.
In my mind, tutors are most useful if they can be used repeatedly (which is why I have Ring of Three Wishes in every one of my EDH decks), if they can search for multiple cards (such as Diabolic Revelation) or provide an additional benefit, such as Rune-Scarred Demon, so that a player is not merely exchanging one card for another.
What does everyone else say about this? Should tutors provide additional benefits?
Gidgetimer says... #3
Absolutely not. If they put additional effects on tutors they become unplayably expensive in my opinion. I would much rather find the card I need to win the game for 1-3 mana than have any additional effect and make it cost 6+ mana.
July 11, 2020 11:21 p.m.
SynergyBuild says... #4
I mean, Recruiter of the Guard, Spellseeker, etc. all work well!
July 11, 2020 11:23 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #5
Yes, making the tutors more narrow to give them an additional effect is fine. Making them more expensive as all the examples in the OP is not. I would still rather have broad, cheap tutors than narrow, cheap tutors stapled to a 1/1 though.
July 11, 2020 11:29 p.m.
I don't think they should have additional effects. Mostly, they're utilized in EDH for setting up infinite combos. As such, they're powerful enough as it is, since most infinite combos are 2-card combos in a 99 card deck. And while the idea of an EDH deck with a 2-card combo and a slew of tutors seems incredibly boring and uncreative to me, and thus I don't use them, I know that the top competitive decks do, and giving those decks an additional benefit from the tutors is incredibly unfair to those of us who play for fun.
I have Demonic Tutor in my casual, semi-modern cascade deck, only because there are so many one-ofs in that deck. And Fetch Lands are a staple in my EDH decks, because I like to be able to thin out the lands during the course of the game, lessening the chances of drawing lands late-game. And I have both Goblin Matron and Goblin Recruiter in my Fling Squee deck. And spells like Entomb and Buried Alive are staples for reanimator, but don't do much good in any other build. And even then, the idea that I could gain an added bonus from a card that gets me exactly what I need earlier than I may have drawn it, sounds needlessly overpowered.
Card advantage is powerful enough. Raising the percentages is even more powerful. That Shhhh don't need to be more than it is.
July 12, 2020 1:06 a.m.
jethstriker says... #7
"all that a tutor does is to exchange one card in a player's hand for another card... granting no actual card advantage."
"tutors are most useful if they can be used repeatedly"
I think you are severely underestimating the power of a tutor. Yes it exchanges for a card, but if that card is all you need to win, you would gladly make the exchange. It's not about card advantage, tutors provide card quality. Do you really need to ask for more if tutors coul provide you the exact card you need? There is a reason most tutors are banned and restricted in eternal formats and mostly frowned upon in casual formats.
July 12, 2020 4:49 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #8
Everyone here has provided great responses, so I feel that I now have a better understanding of their utility; thank you very much.
July 12, 2020 8:51 a.m.
I don't think that tutors of any kind should have extra benefits. The best example of this would be Attune with Aether. This simple card let you tutor up a basic land, the most fundamental part of Magic, and it still got banned because it had the extra benefit of 2 energy. If you give players extra stuff on a card, they will abuse it. It makes them too powerful.
July 12, 2020 10:33 p.m.
Colonel_Kink says... #10
i say sure, if balanced properly.
i mean demonic petition does that, why not this "4 mana search library for a card and put it in your hand.
kicker, sacrifice a creature= if you search for a creature with CMC equal to or less than the sacrificed creature, put it into play."
July 13, 2020 12:25 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #11
Tutors are almost always going to grab one or two specific cards -- they're not supposed to be card draw, they're supposed to be extra copies of your most important spells with the downside of costing some extra mana and having two chances to counter it.
There's a reason Summoner's Pact is good in modern. And to build on that, there's a reason Tolaria West is good in modern. It's because Tolaria gets Pact gets Primeval Titan. So you have 12 copies of primetime, 4 of which are lands which primetime can go get.
July 13, 2020 10:17 a.m.
being able to get any card you want is fine.... also if it snot t he visions tutors... who cares?
LordBlackblade says... #2
In my opinion, card selection that powerful is reward enough. Adding much more would be really pushing it.
July 11, 2020 11:12 p.m.