When using Master of the Forge's ability, if at least one of the top five cards on my deck is an attachment, do I have to choose one and add it to my hand, or can I reshuffle it with the other four cards?

(Reason for wanting to do this: say I need to try to dig a copy of Vilya out of the deck, I have MotF in play but no Imladris Stargazer to peek at those top five cards. On searching the top 5 cards the only attachment is one I can only play using Vilya, so I don't want to add it to my hand.)

1 hour ago, steve83 said:

When using Master of the Forge's ability, if at least one of the top five cards on my deck is an attachment, do I have to choose one and add it to my hand, or can I reshuffle it with the other four cards?

(Reason for wanting to do this: say I need to try to dig a copy of Vilya out of the deck, I have MotF in play but no Imladris Stargazer to peek at those top five cards. On searching the top 5 cards the only attachment is one I can only play using Vilya, so I don't want to add it to my hand.)

I believe it's mandatory you'd have to pick at least one attachment because the word "may" is not used in MotF's ability. Page 2 of the online rules reference...

"The initiation of any keyword which uses the word “may” in its keyword description is optional. The application of all other keywords is mandatory."

So for your example you'd need to incorporate some discard effects then reshuffle your discard pile into your deck.

Thanks. I thought that was probably the case.

I have also always played that it is mandatory. But it bears mentioning that RR Search has language that might allow an out here [emphasis added]:

Quote

When a player is instructed to search for a card, the player is permitted to look at each of the cards in the searched area.

If the player finds a card that meets the eligibility requirements being searched for, the player may add that card to the game area indicated by the instructions on the search effect.

Thanks. That's interesting, and seems plausible, unless I'm not understanding some of the legalese.

Those two sections of the RR taken together seem to say that choosing a card during any kind of search is by default optional (unless it is specified otherwise on the card, as per Golden Rule).

Every time the encounter deck tells me to search for a Hill Troll I will choose not to find it then

I just looked again at the quest card that tells you to search for the Hill Troll, and it definitely doesn't explicitly say you "must" add it to the staging area (though obviously you must).

So, that suggests that the first rule quoted above applies to the text on the card, and the text on the card overrides the second rule quoted above, making the "may" in that redundant.

(And hence, when using MotF card selection is mandatory if possible.)