Cenote Scout
Creature — Merfolk ScoutPower and toughness1/1
Card text
When this creature enters, it explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)
"If you're afraid to dive into the unknown, how will you ever find anything new?"
Showing The Lost Caverns of Ixalan#178
Price
0.23 $
Foil 0.37 $
16 printings · up to 0.33 $
Daily estimate from Scryfall, not a shop quote.
Cenote Scout rulings
If an ability instructs a creature to explore, its controller reveals the top card of their library. If it's a land card, they'll put it into their hand. Otherwise, they'll put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then choose to either leave that card on top of their library or put it into their graveyard.
Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter.
If no card is revealed, most likely because that player's library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter.
If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature explores" trigger as appropriate.
Some spells or abilities might cause a creature to explore multiple times in a row. If you reveal a nonland card when a creature explores and leave it on top of your library, then the creature explores again immediately afterwards, you'll reveal the same card again.
In some unusual cases, noncreature permanents may explore. For example, if the creature card returned by Defossilize is somehow not a creature once it's on the battlefield, it can still explore. You'll take all the same actions, and you may end up putting a +1/+1 counter on the permanent. (Note that some effects target a creature, and those effects would still require a legal target to have it explore.)
Cenote Scout keyword rules
Explore Rule 701.40
Certain abilities instruct a permanent to explore. To do so, that permanent’s controller reveals the top card of their library. If a land card is revealed this way, that player puts that card into their hand. Otherwise, that player puts a +1/+1 counter on the exploring permanent and may put the revealed card into their graveyard.
A permanent “explores” after the process described in rule is complete, even if some or all of those actions were impossible.
If a permanent changes zones before an effect causes it to explore, its last known information is used to determine which object explored and who controlled it.
Cenote Scout format legality
Constructed
- StandardLegal
- PioneerLegal
- ModernLegal
- Future StandardLegal
Eternal
- LegacyLegal
- VintageLegal
- PauperNot legal
- PremodernNot legal
- Old SchoolNot legal
- Penny DreadfulNot legal
Commander
- CommanderLegal
- OathbreakerLegal
- Pauper CommanderNot legal
- Duel CommanderLegal
- PreDHNot legal
Arena & online
- HistoricLegal
- TimelessLegal
- AlchemyNot legal
- GladiatorLegal
- BrawlLegal
- Standard BrawlLegal
- Competitive BrawlLegal
Other
- TLRLegal
All printings of Cenote Scout 16
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