4

Say I've attacked with Bomat Courier three times, and they're the only cards I have that are exiled face down. Therefore when I search my library, I am in principle able to deduce which cards are under Bomat Courier. This could matter a lot if, e.g., two of those cards are a Force of Will and a blue card to pitch to it (the Force of Will is even immune to targeted discard).

However, to figure out what's under Bomat Courier from searching my library is time-consuming. Therefore, can I just peek at the cards under Bomat Courier whenever I search my library?

2
  • 1
    Note that there are situations where it is impossible to deduce the cards by searching your library. For example, if you are hit by [mtg:Gonti, Lord of Luxury], you won't know which of the missing cards was stolen by Gonti and which cards are under Bromat Courier.
    – Antimony
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 7:13
  • @Antimony yeah, that's why I qualified with "and they're the only cards I have that are exiled face down".
    – user22925
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 7:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
11

You can't look at the cards under Bomat Courier. The card's reminder text even says so explicitly. The fact that you could deduce that information doesn't change it.

This is covered by rule 406.3:

Exiled cards are, by default, kept face up and may be examined by any player at any time. Cards “exiled face down” can’t be examined by any player except when instructions allow it. [...]

8
  • Does that mean I get to do things the time-consuming way and run down the clock?
    – user22925
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 6:42
  • 5
    If you are specifically referring to taking a long time to search your library so that you can deduce what hidden cards you have, that is called "slow play", which is a violation of the tournament rules.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 6:45
  • That would be easily solved by letting me peek at the cards under Bomat Courier, but I'm not allowed to do that ...
    – user22925
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 6:46
  • 10
    That's true. But what you're really saying is that if you could violate one rule, you could get this information without violating another rule. But that doesn't give you the right to do either. If you can't get that information without violating a rule, you simply won't have that information.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 6:53
  • 1
    @Allure You can practice, though. Take out, say, 15-20 cards to simulate what would've been drawn at that point in the game, look at them closely (these you will have more time to memorise during a real game as well), then remove a reasonable number of cards from your library face down, then look through your library. Try to see how much you can keep track of in your head as you just look through the library. You may get a bit better at it, but at the very least you will get a feel for how much you can reasonably do.
    – Arthur
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 11:27

You must log in to answer this question.