Hideaway
Hideaway is a keyword ability created by Aaron Forsythe that gives special access to a card from the library when linked with a second ability. It was featured in Lorwyn, but only on a rare cycle of cards. After a single card revisit during Modern Horizons, it got a full revisit in Streets of New Capenna.
When a permanent enters the battlefield, at that time, you may look at the top N cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.[2] Usually, a second ability on each card interacts with the exiled card when certain conditions are met, often allowing it to be cast without paying its cost, or putting it into the owner’s hand.
From the Comprehensive Rules (November 8, 2024—Edge of Eternities)
- 702.75. Hideaway
- 702.75a Hideaway is a triggered ability. “Hideaway N” means “When this permanent enters, look at the top N cards of your library. Exile one of them face down and put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. The exiled card gains ‘The player who controls the permanent that exiled this card may look at this card in the exile zone.’”
- 702.75b Previously, the rules for the hideaway ability caused the permanent to enter the battlefield tapped, and the number of cards the player looked at was fixed at four. Cards printed before this rules change had the printed text “Hideaway” with no numeral after the word. Those older cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to have “Hideaway 4” and the additional ability “[This permanent] enters tapped.”
History
In Lorwyn, Hideaway only appeared on a horizontal cycle of rare lands[3] During design, Hideaway had been a simpler mechanic named “Treasure“, and stretched all the way down to common.[3][4][5][6]
Modern Horizons featured the first return of the keyword, this time on a creature.[7] Hideaway, entering tapped text included, was keyworded because the rules text wouldn’t have fit on the card if it wasn’t – each of the four abilities needed to be on different paragraphs, which was one line too much.[8] Hence, Watcher for Tomorrow plays into this space, with the vestigial text of “this permanent enters the battlefield tapped” reading as an unusual downside for a creature.
In February 2022, the hideaway lands of Lorwyn were reprinted in Secret Lair: Pictures of the Floating World. These cards had an updated rules text and no reminder text. They specified “Hideaway N” and had “this land enters the battlefield tapped” on a separate line, suggesting that “Hideaway” no longer automatically means that the card enters the battlefield tapped and looks at the top 4 cards. Because of this rules change, it was speculated that Hideaway would soon appear in an upcoming release, which turned out to be Streets of New Capenna.[9]
Hideaway used to inherently mean four cards, but now it can be any number. Additionally, Hideaway used to mean that the permanent entered the battlefield tapped, but it no longer does so. All previous cards with this mechanic have received errata so that the “enters the battlefield tapped” text is now a separate ability. To illustrate this, the New Capenna Commander decks include reprints of three of the Hideaway lands with the revised rules text, full reminder text, and with slightly smaller font size.
Evercoat Ursine from Bloomburrow Commander was the first card to feature hideaway 3 (the previous record for lowest hideaway value was 4) and the first card to feature multiple instances of hideaway.
Hideaway in practice
Hideaway depends on the top cards of your library you could exile something useful with your current board state or let it wait out a few turns until the time is right, or use it as an attrition bluff to your opponents and let thim think there is a threat sitting away.
