<p>You are never required to actually find a specific card when you search your deck, so if you don’t find it when you look, you have simply missed your chance.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>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.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So there is no difference between simply choosing not to find any Forest, or being unable to. </p>

<p>Note that this works differently if a card has you search for cards in general, such as <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bDemonic%20Tutor%5d">Demonic Tutor</a>. In that case you actually must choose a card.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-12T13:32:26.170Z
To be honest though, if you're casting a DT, you probably _want_ to find something (that Lotus, perhaps?) in your library, eh?
J. Sallé
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-12T14:54:59.403Z
What happens then if I cast Demonic Tutor with an empty library? Do I lose the game?
Federico Poloni
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-12T14:57:54.007Z
@FedericoPoloni No, you lose the game for trying to *draw* from an empty library. Demonic tutor doesn't make you draw the card, it just puts it in your hand. Or not, if your library is empty, in which case nothing happens.
Hackworth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-12T03:16:20.187Z
2018-06-12T03:21:48.093Z
2018-06-12T03:21:48.093Z
GendoIkari
<p>If an effect would have you search your library for a specific card, say <a href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=442740" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Elvish Aberration</a>'s forestcycle has you search for a forest, and you can't find it in your library, but it turns out later that there was a forest in your library that you just did not look hard enough, how do you resolve this issue?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-12T16:21:52.437Z
The link that you gave has this at the bottom "You can choose to find any card with the Forest land type, including nonbasic lands. You can also choose not to find a card, even if there is a Forest card in your library."
Acccumulation
<magic-the-gathering>
Searching a library for something, failing to find it, the later discovering it was there
Penninsula
# Searching a library for something, failing to find it, the later discovering it was there

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-12)

If an effect would have you search your library for a specific card, say [Elvish Aberration](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=442740)'s forestcycle has you search for a forest, and you can't find it in your library, but it turns out later that there was a forest in your library that you just did not look hard enough, how do you resolve this issue?

**Tags:** magic-the-gathering

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The link that you gave has this at the bottom "You can choose to find any card with the Forest land type, including nonbasic lands. You can also choose not to find a card, even if there is a Forest card in your library."  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-06-12. Score: 14

You are never required to actually find a specific card when you search your deck, so if you don’t find it when you look, you have simply missed your chance.

> 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.

So there is no difference between simply choosing not to find any Forest, or being unable to.

Note that this works differently if a card has you search for cards in general, such as [Demonic Tutor](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bDemonic%20Tutor%5d). In that case you actually must choose a card.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: To be honest though, if you're casting a DT, you probably _want_ to find something (that Lotus, perhaps?) in your library, eh?  
> **username_4**: What happens then if I cast Demonic Tutor with an empty library? Do I lose the game?  
> **username_5**: @username_4 No, you lose the game for trying to *draw* from an empty library. Demonic tutor doesn't make you draw the card, it just puts it in your hand. Or not, if your library is empty, in which case nothing happens.  

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