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Sorry for necropost, but to update this ruling/leave a paper trail for anyone searching the same question, I had it ruled at the T2 Only that the search is just not allowed to happen if Isaiah is already in play.
Quote from: Bobbert on April 04, 2019, 10:30:04 AMSorry for necropost, but to update this ruling/leave a paper trail for anyone searching the same question, I had it ruled at the T2 Only that the search is just not allowed to happen if Isaiah is already in play.That doesn't seem right, I'd be interested to hear the logic behind that. Do As Much As You Can should let you search and just not be able to put him in play.
Search Last Updated: 5/10/2017 (v4.1.0) Released: 7/26/2011 How to Play ● A search effect allows a player to view a deck, discard pile, Reserve, banish pile, or Artifact pile to perform an action with a specific card or set of cards. ● When a deck is searched, shuffle the deck after the search. ● If a search effect states what to search for but does not specify what to do with that card, then the card is taken into the player’s hand. ● A search effect targets the set of cards that are to be searched, and the cards that are searched for to be removed from that set of cards. ● All search effects are instant. Special Conditions ● If a search effect targets a specific type of card to be removed from the searched set of cards, reveal the targeted card before performing any other action with it. ● Regardless of whether a search is mandatory or optional, a player has the choice to fail any search they control, and is not required to select a valid target, even if one exists. However, if a search of deck is mandatory, or an optional search of deck is performed, the player is considered to have “used” a search effect and the deck must still be shuffled.Clarifications ● An ability that targets a card in a deck, discard pile, Reserve, banish pile or Artifact pile that is not in a specific location in that pile, includes a search effect of the pile for the target.
"Do as much as you can" does not allow you to do something that is not specified in the ability, and adding him to hand would be a take.
If Isaiah's Call said "Take Isaiah from deck or discard pile and put him in play", would you be able to search your deck for Isaiah and keep him in hand?
The "and put it in play" is not a separate ability, but part of the search overriding the default of the card going to hand.
Players are restricted from performing optional game rules that would result in a player controlling multiple copies of the same unique card. A card is protected from any ability that would cause that card to become a second copy of a unique card controlled by a single player. If a player does end up controlling multiple copies of a unique card, all copies of that card except the original copy are discarded regardless of protection or immunity.
My ruling at the T2 only was based on this passage in the REG that disallows a player from choosing to create duplicates.Quote from: REG>Duplicate CardPlayers are restricted from performing optional game rules that would result in a player controlling multiple copies of the same unique card. A card is protected from any ability that would cause that card to become a second copy of a unique card controlled by a single player. If a player does end up controlling multiple copies of a unique card, all copies of that card except the original copy are discarded regardless of protection or immunity.
The thing is, "Search deck for Isaiah" and "Put Isaiah from your hand in play" are separate abilities. Any sentence in an ability that can be written as 2 or more abilities is actually two separate abilities.
I guess my problem is, since we don't use Search in abilities anymore, why are we assuming Isaiah's Call needs to be worded as "Play Isaiah from deck or discard pile" as opposed to "Take Isaiah from deck or discard pile and put him in play"? I mean, which one of these sounds more like Isaiah's Call's actual ability?
Isaiah's Call isn't optional (or a game rule), so the first sentence shouldn't impact the ruling. The second sentence protects the Isaiahs in the searched pile from the search, but not the rest of the pile, so the search should still happen.
