Tutor

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A Tutor is a spell which searches your library for another card.

Description

Tutoring is primary in black, but other colors can be better at searching for specific card types (and subtypes).

You do not have to find the card and put it in your library. If you do choose to find cards, you must reveal those cards to all players if it searches for a specific card type.

R&D has stopped creating tutoring keywords like transmute and transfigure.[1] They don't like to do too much tutoring, as it can lead to repetition of play, where games play out too similarly.[2][3] Lands are exempt from the repetition angle, but not the shuffling and logistics problem. However, the seek mechanic from Jumpstart: Historic Horizons is designed-for-digital and circumvents this.

A special kind of tutor are the wishes, which may search for cards outside of the game.

Search from top N cards of library

To cut down on shuffling, R&D has started to do more effects where you "tutor" just from a handful of cards from the top of your library, usually four or five. Anything else that colors can do is what they can do here.[4][5][6]

Types

Search for any card

Alpha had the card Demonic Tutor, which locked black in as the primary color to tutor for any type of card. Philosophically, blue is the better color to have this ability, but so far no changes have been made.[4]

Specific mana costs

See also: Transmute.

Color

  • Conflux (a white card, a blue card, a black card, a red card, and a green card)

Multicolored

Search for artifacts

Blue is the primary color to get any type of artifact. White tends to focus on certain subsets such as Equipment and Vehicles.[4]

Artifact creature

Equipment

Vehicle

Search for enchantments

White is the color that searches the library for enchantments.[4]

Aura

Curse

Rune

Saga

Shrine

Search for planeswalkers

White is the color that cares the most about planeswalkers, so it's the color that can tutor for them.[8]

Search for battles

Search for creatures

Green is the primary color to tutor for creatures.[4][9][10] Sometimes it will even put them directly onto the battlefield. All colors have access to tutoring for specific creature types that are in their color. Red, for example, can tutor for Dragons.

Green creature

Dinosaur

Dragon

Elf

Goblin

Mercenary

Merfolk

Rebel

Sliver

Miscellaneous

Creatures with specific abilities

Searching for lands

Green, being one of the colors most closely associated with land and mana, is the best at tutoring for land.[10] It occasionally will put them directly onto the battlefield. The other four colors are allowed to occasionally tutor for their own basic land type.[4] Lately, white is getting more tutoring for a plains as a catch-up feature when it's behind on land.[8]

See also fetch lands

Plains

Island

Swamp

Mountain

Forest

Land with basic land type

Snow land

Gate

Locus

Sphere

Basic land

Search for instants and sorceries

When tutoring, the two instants and sorceries are often put together. This is primary blue.[4] Occasionally red may search out red instants and sorceries (usually to get things like direct damage spells). As "spells matter" has become a common blue-red archetype, R&D has started letting red do this.[8]

Instant

Instant or card with flash

Card with flashback or Disturb

Sorcery

Trap

Arcane

Search for permanent types

Search for legendary cards

Search for a legendary creature

Search for named cards

See also: Partner with.

Herald cycle

From Planeswalker Decks

These cards are all from Planeswalker Decks and search in the library or in the graveyard for the related planeswalker.

Cards named like themselves

Search for a copy

These cards let you search for a card with the same name as another one.

These old cards have had errata removing the word "copy" since they're not copies in the usual sense.

Noted cards

Cards that were named and noted down during a Conspiracy Draft.

Search an opponent's library

See also: Lobotomy.

References

  1. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 26, 2016). "Are there any chances for transfigure making a comeback?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  2. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 27, 2017). "Could we please get more cards that search things, even very specific things?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  3. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 02, 2018). "With the downshift of full tutoring (particularly for lands) is the primary reason because it takes so much time to shuffle?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 20, 2017). "Is there a nickname anyone in R&D uses for the cards with mechanics like on Commune with the Gods or Vessel of Nascency?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  6. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 03, 2017). "You say cards that "look at the top N cards of the library rather than tutoring" are a trend.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  7. ↑ Gavin Verhey (June 30, 2016). "Pandora's Toolbox". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. ↑ a b c Mark Rosewater (October 18, 2021). "Mechanical Color Pie 2021 Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 17, 2017). "Is there a conscious effort in R&D to make green the best tutor color?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  10. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (May 19, 2017). "Isn't green also the best land tutoring color?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
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