What happens when you can’t search with Doomsday?
Asked by Slurpeee 5 years ago
What happens if I cast a Shadow of Doubt responding to a Doomsday ? What happens if he has an empty graveyard? What would happen if I cast a Aven Mindcensor responding to a Doomsday ? Would they only get 4 cards?
Question 1 - Shadow of Doubt and Doomsday :
Your opponent will only be able to search their graveyard for five cards. Their library and their graveyard will both be exiled as a result of Doomsday , and whatever cards they chose from their graveyard will be put on top of the library. They will also lose half their life.
Question 2 - Shadow of Doubt and Doomsday , with an empty graveyard.
Same as the above, but they would not have a graveyard to search/exile. As such, they will end up exiling their entire library without having found any cards to put on top.
Question 3 - Aven Mindcensor and Doomsday
Same as the above situations, except they would also get to search the top 4 cards of their library.
Question 4 - Would they only get 4 cards?
Per Doomsday 's Gatherer ruling, if less than 5 cards are implicated by the search function, all the cards searched for will go on top of the library.
So, if there is an Aven Mindcensor and no cards in graveyard, your opponent will only search through four cards, and all four will end up on top of library, with the remaining cards being exiled.
February 1, 2019 4:02 p.m.
Pieguy396 - It is not the case that your opponent can "choose to put any, all, or none of the top four cards of their library back on top of their library"
Doomsday 's search for five cards is a hard requirement--it does not read "up to five cards." As such, in the Aven Mindcensor situation with no graveyard, your opponent must put all four of those cards on top of their library.
While the exact situation is not in the Gatherer rulings, the very similar situation of having fewer than 5 combined cards to search through is addressed.
February 1, 2019 4:07 p.m.
Pieguy396 - you cannot choose to fail to find with Doomsday because Doomsday requires you to find "five cards" with no other qualifiers (such as "nonland cards")
Rule 701.18d If a player is searching a hidden zone simply for a quantity of cards, such as "a card" or "three cards," that player must find that many cards (or as many as possible, if the zone doesn't contain enough cards).
Compare to the rule which allows you to "fail to find" objects with a "stated quality":
Rule 701.18b If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain card type or color, that player isn't required to find some or all of those cards even if they're present in that zone.
February 1, 2019 4:33 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #7
Pieguy396 A little more background, just so you know: The concept of "fail to find" comes from the fact that when you're searching a hidden zone for cards with specific qualities it's possible that either you don't see something or there's no such card to find, but if you don't get anything there's no way for other players to verify whether or not there was actually anything to get.
However, when you're just told to search a hidden zone for some number of cards with no particular qualities then it's easy for other players to verify how many cards are there. We're looking right at them. =P
February 1, 2019 5:40 p.m.
Rhadamanthus yeah, it makes complete sense that you can't, I just always assumed you could :P
Pieguy396 says... #1
If you cast Shadow of Doubt in response, your opponent only gets the opportunity to search their graveyard. If their graveyard is empty, they exile their entire library (and lose half their life). If you cast Aven Mindcensor in response, they can only search the top four cards of their library (and all of their graveyard). If their graveyard is empty in the Mindcensor scenario, they may choose to put any, all, or none of the top four cards of their library back on top of their library. The rest are exiled.
February 1, 2019 4:01 p.m.