Shuffling with no Hand

[FlipsAreCool]

I vaguely remember reading something about this awhile back but couldn't come up with anything in my search on the 'Gym or TC. If you have no cards in your hand and you Oak's Research or Elm, Etc... Do you have to shuffle your deck or not? My first instinct was that you have to because 0 is still a number. But I remember reading somewhere that Nintendo changed that rule. This comes up quite often when you play Blaziken because of the Oracles. If I oracled I wouldn't want to shuffle my deck because then I wouldn't draw the cards I put on top. Can anyone out there fill me in?

Thanks!
-FlipsAreCool

 

[Aggronblaster]

The cards say shuffle your hand in to your deck. But if you dont have one then I'd say no you don't have to shuffle your deck.

 

[yoshi1001]

You always have a hand, so you shuffle.


From The Compedium:

Q. Does Prof-Elming with 0 cards in your hand allow you to shuffle before drawing 7 cards?
A. Yes. [ED.NOTE: In fact, it *REQUIRES* it to be shuffled before drawing 7 cards, even with a hand of zero]. (Nov 14, 2002 WotC Chat, Q31)

 

[Aggronblaster]

how do you always have a hand? Theres been countless times I have had no hand and I you are counting the trainer as you hand then you would shuffle the trainer in and not discard it.

 

[yoshi1001]

Your hand is a container, not an object that either exists or doesn't. Even if empty, the container remains.

 

[BLiZzArD]

you can have a hand of 0 and that hand of 0 can and must be suffled into your deck
BLiZ

 

[Aggronblaster]

What ever.

 

[PokePop]

Well, as noted in the first post, it can matter in some cases.
The thing to key off of is whether the effect tells you to shuffle certain cards into your deck, or your hand into your deck.
As Yoshi noted, your hand always exists, so if it says hand, you always shuffle.