Activated Abilities and Summoning Sickness: Untangling the Rules of Magic: The Gathering
Can you use activated abilities with summoning sickness? The answer is both yes and no, but predominantly no. A creature suffering from summoning sickness cannot use activated abilities that include the tap symbol ( {T} ) or the untap symbol ( {Q} ) in their cost. This limitation stems from the fundamental rule that a creature that hasn’t been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn can’t attack or use such abilities. However, if an activated ability doesn’t require tapping or untapping, summoning sickness doesn’t prevent its use, provided all other costs are met. Understanding this nuance is critical for effective gameplay in Magic: The Gathering (MTG).
Understanding Summoning Sickness in Detail
Summoning sickness is a condition that affects creatures when they first enter the battlefield under your control. It’s a period where the creature is vulnerable, unable to immediately impact the game by attacking or using certain activated abilities. It exists to balance the game, preventing players from immediately exploiting newly summoned creatures.
Specifically, a creature is affected by summoning sickness if it hasn’t been under your continuous control since the beginning of your most recent turn. This means:
- If you cast a creature during your turn, it has summoning sickness for the rest of that turn.
- If you gain control of an opponent’s creature during your turn, it also has summoning sickness for the remainder of that turn.
- However, if a creature has been under your control since the beginning of your turn, it’s no longer affected by summoning sickness, even if it just entered the battlefield on a previous turn.
The main effects of summoning sickness are:
- The creature cannot attack.
- The creature cannot use activated abilities with the tap symbol {T} or untap symbol {Q} in their cost.
Activated Abilities: Beyond Tapping and Untapping
An activated ability is defined in the MTG rules as an ability written in the format “[Cost] : [Effect]”. The cost can be anything from paying mana, sacrificing a permanent, discarding a card, or even tapping a creature. The critical point is that if the cost includes tapping or untapping, summoning sickness throws a wrench in the works.
Many activated abilities bypass the tapping restriction. For example, an ability that costs mana and requires you to sacrifice the creature can still be used even if the creature has summoning sickness. This is because the ability doesn’t rely on the tap or untap mechanic.
Circumventing Summoning Sickness: Haste and Other Tricks
The most common way to bypass summoning sickness is by granting the creature haste. Haste is an ability that explicitly allows a creature to ignore summoning sickness and attack or use tap/untap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield.
Cards that grant haste, like “Lightning Greaves” or “Swiftfoot Boots”, are highly valued in strategies that rely on quickly deploying and utilizing creatures. Other less common methods exist, such as effects that put creatures onto the battlefield already attacking.
Summoning Sickness and Other Game Mechanics
Summoning sickness doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It interacts with other game mechanics in interesting ways. For example, creatures with summoning sickness can still block. This is a crucial distinction, as it allows you to use them defensively even if you can’t attack with them.
Also, summoning sickness doesn’t prevent you from using a creature as a resource for other abilities or spells. For instance, you can sacrifice a creature with summoning sickness to pay the cost of a spell or another ability.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Activated Abilities and Summoning Sickness
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about summoning sickness and activated abilities in Magic: The Gathering:
1. Can a creature with summoning sickness block?
Yes, a creature with summoning sickness can block. Summoning sickness only prevents attacking and using activated abilities that include the tap or untap symbols in their cost.
2. Can I tap a creature with summoning sickness for a mana ability?
Yes, you can tap a creature with summoning sickness for a mana ability if the ability doesn’t have the tap symbol in the cost but instead says “Add [mana] to your mana pool”. Mana abilities are a special case and are not affected by summoning sickness as long as the tap symbol is not specifically present as a cost.
3. Does haste remove summoning sickness?
Haste bypasses summoning sickness. It allows a creature to attack or use tap/untap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield, but it doesn’t fundamentally remove the condition of summoning sickness itself. If the creature loses haste later in the turn (e.g., due to an effect like Dress Down), it will then be affected by summoning sickness.
4. Can you crew a vehicle with a creature that has summoning sickness?
Yes, you can crew a vehicle using a creature with summoning sickness, provided the creature is untapped and its power meets the crew requirement. Crewing a vehicle involves tapping creatures, but it’s not an activated ability of the creature, it’s an activated ability of the vehicle. The summoning sick creature is just acting as a resource.
5. Can you sacrifice a creature with summoning sickness?
Yes, you can sacrifice a creature with summoning sickness. Sacrificing a creature is often a cost associated with another spell or ability, and summoning sickness doesn’t prevent you from paying that cost.
6. Can I activate abilities on my opponent’s turn using a creature with summoning sickness?
If the ability doesn’t involve tapping or untapping, yes, you can activate it on your opponent’s turn. Summoning sickness only restricts attacking and tap/untap abilities, not all activated abilities.
7. Does flickering a creature reset summoning sickness?
Yes, flickering (exiling and returning) a creature will cause it to be treated as a new creature entering the battlefield. Thus, it will have summoning sickness again unless it gains haste or has been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn after returning.
8. Can you use convoke with creatures that have summoning sickness?
Yes, you can tap untapped creatures with summoning sickness to help pay the cost of a spell with convoke. Convoke allows you to tap creatures instead of paying mana, but it doesn’t involve using the creatures’ activated abilities.
9. Do tokens have summoning sickness?
Yes, tokens are subject to summoning sickness just like any other creature. If a token creature enters the battlefield under your control, it cannot attack or use tap/untap abilities until it has been under your continuous control since the beginning of your most recent turn, or if it has haste.
10. Can a creature with summoning sickness be tapped for another creature’s ability?
Yes, as long as the summoning sick creature is not using an activated ability that includes the tap symbol as part of the cost, you can tap it for another creatures ability.
11. Can I untap a creature with summoning sickness?
Yes, you can untap a creature with summoning sickness, but doing so doesn’t remove the summoning sickness. Summoning sickness is based on when the creature entered the battlefield, not whether it’s tapped or untapped.
12. What if a creature gains summoning sickness mid-turn?
If a creature that didn’t have summoning sickness suddenly gains it mid-turn (perhaps due to an effect that makes all creatures entering the battlefield have summoning sickness), it immediately becomes unable to attack or use tap/untap abilities, even if it was able to do so earlier in the turn.
13. Does transforming an incubator token to a creature give it summoning sickness?
Yes, transforming an Incubator token into a Phyrexian creature will give it summoning sickness if the Incubator token entered the battlefield this turn, which will prevent it from attacking or using activated abilities with tap or untap symbols this turn.
14. If I play a land that becomes a creature, does it have summoning sickness?
Yes, if a land becomes a creature, it is subject to summoning sickness. For example, if you animate a land using a card like “Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi,” that land-creature will have summoning sickness unless it has haste or has been under your continuous control since the beginning of your most recent turn.
15. Can you use activated abilities with summoning sickness if the cost is sacrificing it?
Yes, you can use abilities that require sacrificing as part of the cost, even if the creature has summoning sickness, because the summoning sickness only inhibits the use of the tap and untap symbols.
Understanding the intricacies of summoning sickness and how it interacts with activated abilities is essential for playing Magic: The Gathering effectively. Mastering these rules will improve your strategic thinking and help you make more informed decisions during gameplay. Check out Games Learning Society at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/ for more information on the educational aspects of gaming.