Fetch vs draw - what is the difference?

Tremayne

Can anyone direct me to the support page where the terms draw and fetch are defined?

If that definition does not exists, is the following interpretation correct (at this time).
Draw (card) - Take the first card in your deck and put it into your hand. Will only work if there are less than 6 cards in hand.
Fetch (card, [of “card type”]) - look through your deck and take the first card (matching) and put it into your hand (if no other destination specified). Will only work if there is room in hand (or at specified destination).

By these two definitions (axiom), the following rule applies - if a card prevents a player from drawing cards [of card type], said card does not prevent a player from fetching cards [of differing type].

Have I gotten it right?

The reason I ask is the following situation. Bolas2 3rd ability (reversed) prevents opponents from drawing cards, but does not prevent players from fetching cards, correct?

Unknown

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Tremayne

@starfall - well you kind of answered my thread by posting, but since I can relate to your disappointment, I will not hold that against you.

Laeuftbeidir

You've gotten the intended behavior right.. It's mostly consistent as well, but not always (alhammarets archive bug for example).

It should be worth mentioning that fetching to the hand doesn't trigger draw effects. Which makes sense. Also, if the destination is the battlefield, you can replace a creature if the board is full. If it's a support and you can't put it on the board (quite normal when using a support token or energy strategy) it'll resolve but fail.

Business as usual.. Crowdsearching for answers because officials can't or won't give answers in a way that makes sense.

Tilwin90

The difference is noticeable in paper magic and it's there for multiple reasons:

DRAWING
1) Drawing is usually an indiscriminate effect that cannot condition the card it puts in hand. You cannot "draw the first creature card in your library" or "draw the first two planeswalker cards in your library".
2) You can prevent draws (effect which CAN be conditioned such as "players can't draw more than one card per turn")
3) Drawing can trigger effects (whenever a player draws a card, ~ deals 1 damage to each opponent)
4) Drawing can have a number of cards associated with it (draw a card, draw three cards etc.). This number can be both multiplied ("Whenever you would draw a card, draw two cards instead") or increased by a fixed number ("Whenever you would draw one or more cards, draw that many cards plus one instead")

FETCHING does not exist in paper MTG, but it can be translated as the act of taking a card from the library and putting it into your hand, but that is not a DRAW effect.
1) There are effects that allow a player to choose one or more cards from the first X cards of the library and put that card into the hand. (e.g.: Ponder, Serum Visions etc.). We have that in MTGPQ as well - see Talent of the Telepath for instance.
 - This effect can also be conditioned, such as allowing only to choose a specific type of card (a creature, a land, an instant or sorcery, a Goblin creature etc.), reveal it (always! in place to prevent cheating), then put it into your hand
2) Similar to effect number 1, but used for tutoring (searching the entire library instead of only the top X cards), hence much more powerful. Tutoring always involves shuffling so it's generally also a more timely operation (not relevant in MTGPQ). We also sort of have this in MTGPQ in the form of Vivien's Invocation, Chord of Calling and other specific fetch effects.
3) "Continuous" fetching effects can be used to replace drawing (for example see Underrealm Lich)
4) Fetching can be prevented, either by inhibiting the fetch operation itself (prevent putting cards from your library into your hand unless you draw them) or searching the library (Mindlock Orb, Leonin Arbiter, Shadow of Doubt, Aven Mindcensor etc.)

Funny enough, the classical FETCHlands (Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand etc.) actually put the "fetched" land  directly onto the battlefield.

Brigby

Hi Everyone. Thanks for helping out! It seems like the definitions for Draw and Fetch weren't included in the Abilities FAQ page, so I've gone ahead and added a brief description of them to the list: MtGPQ Abilities Gallery

Tremayne

@Brigby - happy to help. Your definitions are almost identical to mine, which is nice to see. 🙂

Isn’t the hand limit of 6 cards an important limitation, that should be listed somewhere?

Brigby

Tremayne said:

Brigby - happy to help. Your definitions are almost identical to mine, which is nice to see. 🙂

Isn’t the hand limit of 6 cards an important limitation, that should be listed somewhere?

I believe hand limit is included in the New Player Guide (which if it isn't, I'll certainly update it to include that info) but it certainly couldn't hurt to include that information in the Drawing Cards section as well.

Tremayne

@Brigby - you are correct that the hand limit is in the “New player guide”. I agree, it is a good idea to add the hand limit in the abilities Gallery,