professor oak bill's maintenance

[laritung]

if I have zero cards in my hand when I use Professor Oak or Bill's Maintenance do I shuffle? since I am not putting anything in my deck. I think not.

 

[PokePop]

First off, you can't play Bill's Maintainance unless you have a card in your hand.
If you can't do the first part, you don't get to do the second part.

Second, I think you mean Prof Oak's Research, not Prof Oak.
With POR, you would shuffle your hand of zero cards into your deck.
You always have a hand, even if there are no cards in it at the moment.

 

[Cyrus]

Technically, by shuffling 0 cards into your deck, you would not, in reality, shuffle your deck. However, the option in front of your opponent to cut, shuffle, or tap is still there, so there's no way to find a loophole in this. Your deck will be shuffled, whether you like it or not ;P. Lol

 

[dld4a]

The ruling on this one has been that you must shuffle your deck even if you have 0 cards in your hand. I know it sounds wierd but you can shuffle 0 cards into your deck. It basicly becomes a simple shuffle, offer your opponet to cut, and draw.

 

[MrMeches]

First off, you can't play Bill's Maintainance unless you have a card in your hand.
If you can't do the first part, you don't get to do the second part.

Now correct me if I am wrong, which I could be, but it is not a requirement to have a card in your hand to play Bill's Maintenance. The text clearly reads "If you have any cards in your hand, shuffle 1 of them into your deck, then draw 3 cards."

Ok the emphasis to me is on the word If . it doesn't say You MUST . So in interpretation, If you don't have any cards in your hand or you do, doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to play BM. It is just more of a penalty if you do have cards in your hand.

If there is a ruling on this, please provide a link so that I can be refreshed as recommend an errata on it since the text doesn't state You MUST .

Thanks.. not trying to kick a fire ant mound or anything, just making sure my ducks are in a row.

 

[PokePop]

The way Trainer cards have always worked is that you folow instructions until you can't perform them any more, then you stop. You don't get to do the rest unless you do all the steps. Unless it specifies otherwise ("even if you don't do this, still do that").

In this case, you have an If/then conjunction. If you do this, then you get to do that.
You didn't do this, so you don't get to do that.
No errata is required.

Now, you are correct that you can play the card with no other cards in your hand. All you'll do is discard the Trainer, though. You won't get to draw.