What can be done in a Mindslaver turn

[Metman]

Let's say I just activated a Mindslaver and proceed to take the oppenents turn under my control.  Do I get to look at that players sideboard?  If no, does it matter if that player has Burning/Death/Cunning Wish in their hand?  If I play their Wish do I then get to then look at their sideboard?  If I do, do I only get to see available targets or the whole thing?  Thanks, in advance.

Travis

[Harlequin]

You can do anything they get to do, and see anything they get to see.  So under normal tournement rules players cannot just look at thier sideboard just because they want to.  So you cannot see thier sideboard under normal circumstances.  however as you said, if they have a wish in hand you can cast it and take a look when it resolves. 

Mindslaver does not change your opponents ability to concede the game.  So if you cast the wish, your opponent can decide to concede the game to prevent you from getting a look at thier board.

At a tournment I was running an oath deck with Research and muddle the mixture.  Durring a slaver turn in game 1 My opponent muddled and decided to take Research.  He reached for my board and I joking said "WAIT!  I need to think about if that resolves or not ..."

[Metman]

Thanks for the quick reply...so I can't look first then Wish?  I have to cast the Wish before I look?  Also, on a side note, is a player allowed to look at their own sideboard whenever they want to during the game, even if they don't have a Wish or the likes in hand?

[Scoops666]

According to the Magic Floor Rules, players may not look at there sideboards during a game unless a card specifically allows it.

So, no, you cannot ust look at your sideboard whenever you want to.

[Harlequin]

Under normal DCI rules no, you cannot just look at your sideboard durring a match.  You may only when a spell or ability instructs you to do so.   So yes if they have burning wish and cunning wish in hand, and only enough mana for 1... you have to pick "blindly" to play either burning or cunning and THEN you get to look at thier board and get to choose a card.  

Incidentally with all non-death wishes you can "fail" to find a card - even if they have 10 instants in thier board you can desided to not find an instant.  Death wish says a "card" so you cannot fail to find "a card" if they have cards to choose from.  (research can be "failed" because it reads "up to 4" so you could choose 0 as your number of cards).

the DCI rules are what 95% of all tournements use, but of course thier may be special house rules wherever you play.

[Komatteru]

With Burning Wish and Cunning Wish, if there is a card of the appropriate type in a non-hidden zone (i.e., the RFG pile in this case), you must at least take that card.  If Mindslaver your opponent, and he had already removed a Brainstorm to FoW, and you cast his Cunning Wish, you must at least choose the Brainstorm.  You will not be able to fail to find in this case.

Death wish says a "card" so you cannot fail to find "a card" if they have cards to choose from

Also, it is not allowed to not look at the sideboard.  You can't say "Well, if I don't look for a card, then I can't very well find one, can I?"  In other words, it is not  possible to deny the existance of cards outside the game when casting Death Wish.  Basically, if you cast his Death Wish, you cannot say "Well, you don't have a sideboard."  If he has a sideboard, you will have to look in there
.
This would be similar to not looking at an opponent's hand when casting Duress.

Technically, you cannot fail to look for something either.  You cast an opponent's CWish, and then decide not to look at the sideboard.  Can't do that.  However, when cards allow fail to find--say someone cracks a fetchland but knows there is no land in the deck to get--you still have to look, but you don't have to find something.  In that case, you have to pick up the deck and shuffle it at the very least, but I don't think you have to flip though cards.  You might want to do that to save time, for instance.

[jro]

With Burning Wish and Cunning Wish, if there is a card of the appropriate type in a non-hidden zone (i.e., the RFG pile in this case), you must at least take that card.

Here's a related question: You have Field of Dreams in play (top card of all libraries is face up) and you have an Island on top of your deck.  Can you use a Polluted Delta and fail to find a card to put into play?  That is, is the Island on top of the deck considered to be revealed while the Delta ability is resolving?

If you’re required to search a zone not revealed to all players for cards of a given quality, such as type or color, you aren’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present; however, if you do choose to find cards, you must reveal those cards to all players. Even if you don’t find any cards, you are still considered to have searched the zone.

I'd guess that you aren't required to find the Island, because the library zone as a whole is not revealed, just the top card.

[parallax]

Searching effects only care if the zone being searched is hidden or not. Even if the other player knows you have an Island (such as a previous Cranial Extraction), you are not required to find it.

[Apollyon]

With Burning Wish and Cunning Wish, if there is a card of the appropriate type in a non-hidden zone (i.e., the RFG pile in this case), you must at least take that card.

Here's a related question: You have Field of Dreams in play (top card of all libraries is face up) and you have an Island on top of your deck.  Can you use a Polluted Delta and fail to find a card to put into play?  That is, is the Island on top of the deck considered to be revealed while the Delta ability is resolving?

If you’re required to search a zone not revealed to all players for cards of a given quality, such as type or color, you aren’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present; however, if you do choose to find cards, you must reveal those cards to all players. Even if you don’t find any cards, you are still considered to have searched the zone.

I'd guess that you aren't required to find the Island, because the library zone as a whole is not revealed, just the top card.

That is correct. You can fail to find the Island.

Searching effects only care if the zone being searched is hidden or not. Even if the other player knows you have an Island (such as a previous Cranial Extraction), you are not required to find it.

Almost there. It also cares about whether or not you are matching a characteristic. Demonic Tutor only fails to find a card when you have no library, for example. You also can't Intuition for one card, unless you have one card in your library.

[jro]

I've created a new topic to deal with the Field of Dreams / revealed Island / Polluted Delta question.

[Harlequin]

Almost there. It also cares about whether or not you are matching a characteristic. Demonic Tutor only fails to find a card when you have no library, for example. You also can't Intuition for one card, unless you have one card in your library.

Incidentally that is why Intuition and Gifts ungiven have different choices.  Intuition has the opponent choose the card that goes into your hand (and the un-chosen cards go to the yard).  Gifts ungiven has your opponent choose the cards that go to the graveyard.  The reason is, becuase gifts ungiven has a requirement on the cards chosen (that they all have different names) you can technically choose to fail the search.  So you can gifts for 2 cards, and fail to find the other 2 cards.  If your opponent chose the cards to go to hand the gifts would be an instant blue double DT... kinda nasty.

[Anusien]

Incidentally with all non-death wishes you can "fail" to find a card - even if they have 10 instants in thier board you can desided to not find an instant.  Death wish says a "card" so you cannot fail to find "a card" if they have cards to choose from.  (research can be "failed" because it reads "up to 4" so you could choose 0 as your number of cards).

This is actually not true.  The Wishes do not say to search, they say to Choose, ditto on Research.
Death Wish: Since the number of cards in the sideboard is public information, you have to get a card.
Restricted Wishes (Burning-Golden): Again, this says "Choose" so if there is a card there to get, you have to.  If you can't get a card (IE: Burning Wish with no Sorceries), I believe the last time this happened, you had to call a judge to verify.
Research: It's like Death Wish.  It is public knowledge how many cards are in your sideboard.  However, since it says up to 4, you can get 0, but you can also get 4.

[Harlequin]

are you sure about that?  I thought the entire reasoning behind allowing players to Volentarily fail searches was to avoid un-nessiary judge calls every time some fool didn't count thier lands before cracking a delta.  It seems like the "face down" removed cards would fall under this sort of enforcement.

[Anusien]

are you sure about that?  I thought the entire reasoning behind allowing players to Volentarily fail searches was to avoid un-nessiary judge calls every time some fool didn't count thier lands before cracking a delta.  It seems like the "face down" removed cards would fall under this sort of enforcement.

Burning Wish chooses.  Polluted Delta searches.  You can fail a search with characteristics, but you cannot fail a choose.  If you cast Burning Wish and have nothing to choose, you have to get a judge to verify.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Just out of curiosity, why can't I make my opponent concede during a mindslaver turn?  I realize that this would make the card overpowered because it would basically be a door to nothingness on steroids, but why doesn't making all decisions for that player not include concession with the current wording?

[Godder]

Just out of curiosity, why can't I make my opponent concede during a mindslaver turn?  I realize that this would make the card overpowered because it would basically be a door to nothingness on steroids, but why doesn't making all decisions for that player not include concession with the current wording?

507.3b The controller of another player's turn can't make that player concede. A player may concede the game at any time, even if his or her turn is controlled by another player. See rule 102.3a.

[Komatteru]

are you sure about that?  I thought the entire reasoning behind allowing players to Volentarily fail searches was to avoid un-nessiary judge calls every time some fool didn't count thier lands before cracking a delta.  It seems like the "face down" removed cards would fall under this sort of enforcement.

Burning Wish chooses.  Polluted Delta searches.  You can fail a search with characteristics, but you cannot fail a choose.  If you cast Burning Wish and have nothing to choose, you have to get a judge to verify.

Half Incorrect.  Basically, you don't have to reveal that there are sorceries in your sideboard, since it is a hidden zone.  You don't reveal your entire sideboard when you play the Wish, so your opponent doesn't know if you have one to choose in there.  You are allowed to "lie" and say that there isn't one in there, even if there is.  Having a judge come over and verify that there are none in there would amount to partially revealing the contents of your sideboard ("Well, I know he can't board in Pyroclasm against me, since there are 0 sorceries in his sideboard").  The opposing player would have definite and correct confirmation of the nature of sideboard cards, while in the other case, he is stuck with the other guy's word (who knows if it's good).  Thus, this is not something that the rules enforce.

It is correct, however, (as I already said), that if there are sorceries in a public zone (in this case, the RFG pile), then you must choose one of them.  This is where the "cannot fail a choose" kicks in.  It does not apply to the hidden sideboard zone.

I think part of the reasons the Wishes are worded "Choose" is that there are at least two zones you could take a card from (in casual play, there are more--the floor, the pile of cards on the side of the table, the pocket, the briefcase, etc.), and searching for cards in two places at once seems weird.  Plus, with one of the zones being in plain sight, searching seems ridiculous.  It would be like wording Disenchant as "Search for an artifact or enchantment to destroy."

[Toad]

The same happens during the resolution of Cranial Extraction. If you name a card and the opponent has copies of that card in his hand or in his graveyard, then you have to find them and remove them from the game, because during the resolution of Extraction, hand and graveyard are public zones. Nevertheless, you can decide to find no cards in his library (or as many as you want, like 1 out of 3 only), since the library is not public information at that time.

If you Ostracize an opponent and find that his only creature in hand is a Dodecapod, you cannot ignore it and decide to find nothing, since the hand is public. Its the same as the Burning Wish case with a Sorcery in the RFG zone.

[Roxas]

Are you sure about that, Toad?  From SCG's Q & A:

Q: After naming a card with Cranial Extraction, you are allowed within the rules to intentionally not find the named card in private places (i.e. library, hand) but you have to remove cards from public places (i.e. graveyard). What is a card on the top of your library considered if it is being shown to all players, via Future Sight? Can you still choose not to find it?

A: You can still choose to not find this card, even if it is in plain sight. This is because even though it is revealed it is still in a hidden zone.

Are they wrong, then?

EDIT:
[13:12] <LeeSharpe> it has to explicitly "reveal" (using that word) the zone, if it's a zone that's normally hidden
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> to seperate the cases
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> if it was multiplayer
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> nobody but those two players
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> (the cranial player and the playre being cranialed)
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> could see the zones
[13:13] <LeeSharpe> so it isn't technically "revealed"

[parallax]

You can fail to find cards in a player's hand or library from Cranial Extraction, because those are hidden zones. You must find all cards in a player's graveyard.

I'm pretty sure you must find a sorcery with Burning Wish if you have one, as it says choose. And yes, your opponent can call a judge to check that you have no sorceries in your sideboard. The judge is not revealing any new information to the your opponent, because you already said you don't have any sorceries in your sideboard.

[Anusien]

Re: Wishes.
Since you have to get one if there is one, if there isn't one, you have to get a judge to verify.  #mtgjudge confirms.

[forests failed you]

a better question would be;

during a mindslaver turn:  what can't you do!