Notion thief confusions
Asked by Reallifenotbotatall 12 years ago
Hello I have a question regarding the card Notion Thief . if my opponent has a Blood Scrivener in play with no cards in hand. when he draws a card, will I get the extra card from Blood Scrivener and he lose one life, or will that extra card count as his drawn card as well?
Thank you
RussischerZar says... #2
In this scenario the opponent draws one card and loses 1 life, and you draw one card.
April 26, 2013 9:35 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #3
Like the ability says, Notion Thief only skips over the very first card. Your opponent will get that one (and lose one life), but you'll get the other one.
April 26, 2013 10:46 a.m.
This of course assumes that the two cards he would be drawing are during his draw step and not due to some other effect like Think Twice .
April 26, 2013 1:02 p.m.
@Kogarashi, Notion Thief doesn't only affect cards drawn during your opponents draw step, it affects every draw your opponent would make, with the one exception being the first card they would draw during their draw step. So if they had three Staff of Nin on the battlefield, you would replace each of those draws by drawing yourself.
April 26, 2013 4:14 p.m.
@Denial048, My comment was regarding the fact that the other answers mentioned Notion Thief skipping the first card, which only applies if the described situation is occurring during the draw step. Every other time, Notion Thief should "steal" both draws.
Example: Blood Scrivener 's controller has an empty hand and casts Think Twice , which would have him draw a card. Blood Scrivener replaces that with two card draws, and causes him to lose a life. Notion Thief then prevents him from drawing and instead allows its controller to draw both cards (because this wasn't done during the draw step).
April 26, 2013 4:25 p.m.
But the use of 'each' and 'draw stepS' is making me wonder, The rulings only cover if both players have a notion thief out. So can someone explain what that means. It reads as if their are multiple draw steps, so would a sphinx at the end of the turn, be considered a draw step, and everything after one card there is intercepted?
April 26, 2013 4:43 p.m.
"Draw step" refers to the last step in the beginning phase (the part that goes untap, upkeep, draw). Other draws during a turn aren't draw steps.
Judging from other cards that mention "draw step" in their oracle text, I believe the plural is meant to clarify that it isn't just one of that opponent's draw steps (just one turn), but all of them (every turn).
And who knows. In the future Wizards might print a card similar to Paradox Haze but for the draw step instead of upkeep.
April 26, 2013 5:40 p.m.
@Kogarashi, ah, I see what you mean now, sorry for the confusion.
gufymike says... #1
"If an opponent would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in each of his or her draw steps, instead that player skips that draw and you draw a card."
I would say you get the card because of the wording 'except the first on he or she draws in each of his or her draw steps'... In short your opponent gets only one card per draw.
April 26, 2013 9:22 a.m.