"You may reveal fewer than four land cards if you like. If you reveal one or two cards, those cards are put into your graveyard. If you reveal three cards, an opponent will choose two of those cards and you'll put them into your graveyard; the remaining revealed card is put into your hand."
How is this ruling possible even though it is not stated in the effect of the card? I know that some cards can be confusing or ambiguous in their effect, but this card clearly states that the caster has to search for four different lands and reveal them.
Any time an effect tells you to search a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality (in this case, lands with different names), you can choose not to find them. It's built into the rules, so the card doesn't need to specify it. This is because otherwise you might run into problems - suppose you cast Realms Uncharted, but only had three different lands left in your deck? You would need to call a judge over to verify that you couldn't get a fourth land. No fun for anyone.
The 'if you like' part makes no sense, as the only valid exception to revealing 4 lands from a deck (that I know of, I could be wrong) is if there are only 3 or less lands remaining in your deck.
Search your library for up to four land cards with different names and reveal them. An opponent chooses two of those cards. Put the chosen cards into your graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
To answer your question, basically you can "fail to find." If your searching for a card with a certain quality in a hidden zone, you can always say "I dont have any with that quality." With something like Demonic Tutor, you're searching for a card, so you have to find a card.
More generally, the "fail to find" rule applies any time you're searching a hidden zone (such as a hand or a library) for cards with specific stated qualities (such as type, color, etc.).
The rule exists to prevent a situation where the zone doesn't actually contain that number of cards with the stated quality; without it, you'd have to have a way to demonstrate that it's impossible to find enough cards, and the only way to do that would be revealing everything in the hidden zone. Which is something we don't want, so the rules just let you declare "didn't find that many" and move on.
(note that anything which just tells you to search for "a card" or some number of cards with no further qualification does not get treated this way -- since any player can count the cards in any zone, there's no verification problem there)
"You may reveal fewer than four land cards if you like. If you reveal one or two cards, those cards are put into your graveyard. If you reveal three cards, an opponent will choose two of those cards and you'll put them into your graveyard; the remaining revealed card is put into your hand."
How is this ruling possible even though it is not stated in the effect of the card? I know that some cards can be confusing or ambiguous in their effect, but this card clearly states that the caster has to search for four different lands and reveal them.
To answer your question, basically you can "fail to find." If your searching for a card with a certain quality in a hidden zone, you can always say "I dont have any with that quality." With something like Demonic Tutor, you're searching for a card, so you have to find a card.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyThe rule exists to prevent a situation where the zone doesn't actually contain that number of cards with the stated quality; without it, you'd have to have a way to demonstrate that it's impossible to find enough cards, and the only way to do that would be revealing everything in the hidden zone. Which is something we don't want, so the rules just let you declare "didn't find that many" and move on.
(note that anything which just tells you to search for "a card" or some number of cards with no further qualification does not get treated this way -- since any player can count the cards in any zone, there's no verification problem there)
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Lightning Bolts don't kill creatures. State-based actions kill creatures.