The Professor from the famed Tolarian College is famous for his “Read the card explains the card” line. And for good reason! Magic is not an easy game to learn but everything (okay, nearly everything about how cards work) you need is explained on the cards themselves. I was painfully reminded of this once more when I started playing with Questing Druid on MTG Arena.

Imagine my surprise when I would play the Adventure and then would watch the two exiled cards disappear. I would look to my opponent’s cards to see why my exiled cards did not appear to the right of my hand. There never was anything there to explain this odd behaviour. A bug, I wondered, but nothing online about such an issue. So, what was going on? I’d reread the adventure text. Nope, nothing there to explain this either. And then I read, I mean really really read the card.

It says “Exile the top two cards of your library. Until your next end step, you may play those cards.” That emphasis is mine and explains why the cards kept vanishing. Because I would often play it on my turn. And what happens at the end of your turn? Yes, there is a little something called an end step. And the cards disappear. But if you play the card after your end step, say, on your opponent’s turn or just before yours starts, guess what happens? Yep, exactly what it says on the card.

Lesson learned (for now) but I expect I will make it again if not on this card (okay, maybe not for this one) but definitely for another one.

The Prof is right: Reading the card explains the card.