Can You Exert a Creature with Vigilance? Unleashing the Full Potential
Absolutely! You can exert a creature with vigilance. Vigilance and exert are two distinct mechanics in Magic: The Gathering, and they interact quite nicely. Vigilance allows a creature to attack without tapping, while exert provides powerful, but temporary, benefits at the cost of not untapping during your next untap step. Since vigilance bypasses the tapping requirement for attacking, you’re free to exert that creature to gain its enhanced effect without hindering its ability to block on the next turn, if it survives combat. This makes vigilance a highly desirable ability on creatures with exert, as it negates the primary drawback of the exert mechanic, giving you the offensive bonus without the defensive vulnerability.
Understanding the Synergies
The key to understanding this interaction lies in recognizing that vigilance and exert address different phases of the combat step. Vigilance is about whether a creature needs to tap to attack, while exert is about granting a one-time bonus with a future consequence. Think of it like this: vigilance provides the opportunity to attack and then block, and exert gives you a powerful reason to attack right now.
Why Vigilance Excels with Exert
- No Tapping Required: Creatures with vigilance attack without needing to tap. This is crucial because the exert mechanic’s drawback is that the exerted creature doesn’t untap during your next untap step.
- Defensive Flexibility: A creature with vigilance that exerts can still block on the opponent’s next turn (assuming it survives combat). This removes the defensive liability that often comes with using the exert ability.
- Aggressive Advantage: This combination allows for a more aggressive playstyle, as you can push for damage without leaving yourself completely vulnerable.
Situational Awareness is Key
While vigilance synergizes very well with exert, keep in mind that timing and situation matter. Exerting a creature might make it unavailable for blocking if your opponent has a surprise attacker or if you need to chump block. Understanding the board state and your opponent’s likely plays are crucial to maximizing the advantage of this combination. Consider cards like Always Watching, which give vigilance to all your creatures, if you want to make a deck that takes advantage of exert.
FAQs: Mastering Vigilance and Exert
1. Does Exert Work if a Creature is Already Tapped?
Yes, exert works regardless of whether the creature is tapped or untapped. Exert doesn’t tap the creature; it only affects whether it untaps during your next untap step.
2. If I Give a Creature Vigilance After I’ve Declared Attackers, Will it Untap?
No. Giving a creature vigilance after it has already been declared as an attacker and tapped won’t untap it. The check for vigilance happens during the declaration of attackers.
3. Can I Use a Tap Ability After Attacking with a Vigilant Creature?
Absolutely. Since vigilant creatures don’t tap to attack, you can attack with one and then use its tap ability (assuming it’s untapped and summoning sickness doesn’t prevent it). Cards like Satyr Nyx-Smith benefit from this.
4. Does Exert Trigger Abilities That Trigger on Attacking?
Yes, exert triggers abilities that trigger when a creature attacks. The creature is still considered to be attacking, even when exerted. However, the exert ability itself is not a triggered ability.
5. How Does Exert Interact with Extra Combat Phases?
If you have extra combat phases, an exerted creature will not untap during the untap step before your next normal turn, even if you have multiple combat steps in between.
6. Does Summoning Sickness Affect Exert?
Yes, summoning sickness prevents a creature from attacking or using activated abilities with the tap symbol in the cost unless you’ve controlled it continuously since the start of your most recent turn. This applies whether or not the creature has vigilance or exert.
7. Can I Exert a Creature Multiple Times if I Have a Way to Untap It?
Yes, if you can untap an exerted creature using another effect (like Minamo, School at Water’s Edge), you can potentially exert it again during the same turn, assuming you can meet the requirements of the exert ability.
8. Does Convoke Work With Exert?
Yes, convoke lets you tap creatures to help pay for a spell’s mana cost. You can tap an exerted creature for convoke, even though it won’t untap during your next untap step. You can find a lot of convoke cards on the Games Learning Society website (Games Learning Society), as it highlights learning and collaboration.
9. Can I Tap a Creature with Vigilance in Response to a Spell?
It depends on the situation. If the creature has an activated ability with a tap symbol in its cost, you can activate that ability in response to a spell, assuming you meet the timing restrictions and other conditions. You cannot simply tap a creature for no reason in response to a spell.
10. If I Exert a Creature and Then It Dies, Does the “Not Untapping” Still Apply?
No, if the exerted creature leaves the battlefield, the delayed triggered ability that prevents it from untapping is removed from the stack. The effect no longer exists because the creature that was supposed to be affected is no longer there.
11. Does Regenerate Help With Exert?
Regenerate doesn’t directly help with exert, but it can help keep your exerted creature alive. If your exerted creature would be destroyed, regeneration replaces that event by tapping the creature, removing all damage from it, and removing it from combat. This effectively keeps your creature on the battlefield, albeit tapped.
12. If I Control Multiple Creatures with Exert, Will They All Not Untap During My Next Untap Step?
Yes, if you exert multiple creatures, each of them will not untap during your next untap step. Each exert ability creates a separate delayed triggered ability.
13. How Does Exert Interact with Isshin, Two Heavens as One?
Isshin, Two Heavens as One doubles the triggered abilities that trigger when one or more creatures you control attack. Exert itself is not a triggered ability, so Isshin does not directly affect it. However, if the exert ability causes another triggered ability to trigger upon attacking (like on Combat Celebrant), Isshin will double that triggered ability. Isshin stands to benefit the most from the attack triggered abilities that samurai themselves have.
14. What Happens if a Creature Has Both Vigilance and Haste?
A creature with both vigilance and haste is a powerful combination. Haste allows you to attack or use tap abilities the turn you play it, and vigilance means it won’t tap when attacking, providing immediate offensive and defensive potential.
15. Can You Force Tap a Creature with Vigilance?
Yes, you can force tap a creature with vigilance using effects like Chill of the Grave. Even though vigilance prevents the creature from tapping to attack, it doesn’t make it immune to being tapped by other effects.
Final Thoughts
The synergy between vigilance and exert offers a powerful tactical advantage in Magic: The Gathering. By mitigating the drawback of exert, vigilance allows you to press your advantage aggressively while maintaining defensive presence. Mastering these mechanics will undoubtedly elevate your gameplay and strategy. Remember to explore resources like GamesLearningSociety.org for more in-depth knowledge and community discussions.