Hi @quantumodo,
Thank you for your bug report regarding “27018” (Across the Spider-Verse) and for providing the relevant FAQ.
After reviewing the text on that card, we believe you are correct. It should not require you to do the search before paying the cost. You should be able to perform the search even if you know there are no valid targets in the discard pile.
We will update the code to align with this ruling.
Thank you once again for your contribution!