Burgling + card draw / deck manipulation

By GrandSpleen, in Rules questions & answers

The new FAQ clarifies that actions can be played between steps 2 (reveal card from your deck) and step 3 (discard cards) during a burgle attempt. Do you see any rule preventing use of card draw or deck manipulating cards (i.e. Imladris Stargazer) to aid in a successful burgle?

Step 1 - find a burgle effect

Step 2 - shuffle your deck. Reveal top card.

Action window. You can use King Under the Mountain to take that revealed card, which tremendously boosts the likelihood of success for that burgle, since you just got a card into your hand that matches all aspects of the revealed card (since it IS the revealed card). You can combo Imladris Stargazer plus card draw effects to bolster your chances.

Step 3 - discard.

I guess the only real question here is this: if you take the revealed card into your hand via an Action, does that card still count as the "revealed card" for the burgle? What if I use Imladris Stargazer to bury it 5 cards deep? It WAS the revealed card.... does it remain "the revealed card?"

The Action on The Lonely Mountain lets you take the revealed card into your hand and reveal another -- per the example in the rule insert, the newly revealed card is now the card you have to match for the burgle. That doesn't give us any insight as to what happens if the revealed card goes away via other card effects, as I described above. So I assume the original card remains the match for the burgle, even if it enters your hand, gets discarded, or whatever. Thoughts?

I submitted this question, and got the following response:

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Good question. The first revealed card remains the "revealed card" unless you use the effect on The Lonely Mountain. In order to use the effect on The Lonely Mountain you must take the revealed card into your hand.
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Brief reply, leaves me with some questions. If we take it at its word though, it simply means that the revealed card is the revealed card, no matter what happens to it (excepting use of the Lonely Mountain action). Makes me wonder though! If I end up shuffling that card into the deck via The Eagles Are Coming!, or discarding it via Eowyn or whatever effect, it sounds like a legal play to use the Lonely Mountain to search your deck for that card and take it into your hand, or to move it from the discard pile into your hand. I asked those questions specifically when I submitted the rules question, and got the reply above... not directly addressed, so I'll take them as legal plays. Not game breaking by any means, just weird!

I don't think it is game breaking either, but that is really interesting. So the revealed card could be something useless. You trigger Imladris, rearrange your deck so it is the 5th card instead of the top and order the other 4 cards in a way that is advantageous for the search. Now, you can trigger the Lonely Mountain action and take the "useless" card into your hand (even though it is 5 cards deep) and reveal the new top card which you placed there with Imladris. Seems strong.

Although, would taking the card into your hand count as searching your deck which would require a reshuffle? It would be easy to find the card without looking at the rest of your deck in the case of Imladris, but in examples where you have to shuffle your entire deck, you could not know where the card went to...

Edited by cmabr002