Today’s Rules Tip written by Trevor Nunez
Courser of Kruphix and Fetchlands
All this week, we’ll be covering one specific card: Courser of Kruphix. It’s a commonly played card, and the semi-unique ability it has leads to lots of interesting rules interactions and questions. Every day this week, we’ll cover a different one! Today we’re covering how it works with fetchlands such as Windswept Heath, but this also applies to searching your library in general (for example, with a Demonic Tutor). When searching a library, players frequently change the order of cards- they may put potential choices face-down on the table, they may thumb potential choices to the forefront of the stack they’re holding. They may even move entire chunks of the deck around to try and find what they’re looking for. Throughout all of this, the game considers the deck to be in the same state it was when you STARTED the search. What that means is that whatever the top card was when you cracked your Fetch, that’s the top card during the entire resolution of the ability. Once you get to the instruction of “Shuffle your library”, that’s the moment when you get a new top card. You’ll flip the “old” top card back face-down (very important!), shuffle, and present to your opponent. After he/she shuffles, you’ll reveal the NEW top card of your library, put your Courser’s lifegain trigger onto the stack, and play on.