Searching the deck/trash rule

Curious if there were any rules for searching your deck or trash?

So, lets say I played Instrumental Conjuration from Argent Adept's deck.

Search your deck or trash for an instrument card and put it into play.

Can I look through my deck and decide I don't want any of the instruments in there and then take one from the trash (or vice versa) instead?  Or is there a rule that says that if I start to look through my deck I must take a card from the deck instead of the trash?

I personally would say you could search both, it's not like everyone knows every card, thus won't know what the want until they search.

Spiff has some nifty search cards that tell you all the card you can pick out of deck/trash, so you can decide beforehand which you want. They help a lot.

The only potential issue is if your deck is stacked; if not, there's no harm in flicking through your deck and then shuffling it without taking an instrument, but if it is stacked it's a bit problematic. Of course, you can always just take out the cards that need to be on top/bottom, shuffle, and then restack, so it still works well enough, it's just fiddly. (This is, of course, if you assume that 'deck or trash' means that if you're taking from the trash you can't officially have searched your deck, and thus can't officially shuffle it.)

The "or" is pretty big there.

You don't get to search both, you would pick one and search it.

Of course if you want to let someone do both after they messed up and make choose the wrong one for the card they want that is up to you, I would allow it for newer players (or new to that character).

But searching both isn't what the card intends at all.  I probably wouldn't let an experienced player search both, and I don't do it myself when I mess up.  

I would suggest searching your trash first. If you search your deck, but the instrument you want isn't there, than you either have to shuffle it, or have an unfair advantage by knowing what cards are next.

Trash is public information. You can just look at your trash before declaring what you're searching.

In case anyone is interested (because Silverleaf is - as usual - right, these are very useful), the search cards are available from the "Print and Play" page on Spiff's SotM site.

Now, looking through your neighbors trash might draw some looks.

Agreed, but it's not illegal, right?

Just tell the you're from CSI.