Summoning Sickness and Tap Abilities: A Comprehensive Guide

The short answer is no, you generally cannot use tap abilities on a creature suffering from summoning sickness. Summoning sickness restricts a creature’s ability to attack and use abilities that require tapping until the start of your next turn.

Let’s delve deeper into the intricacies of summoning sickness and tap abilities in Magic: The Gathering. This article clarifies the rules, nuances, and exceptions related to this core mechanic.

Understanding Summoning Sickness

Summoning sickness is a term used to describe a restriction placed on creatures that have just entered the battlefield under your control. Officially, it refers to the rule stating a creature that hasn’t been under your control continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn cannot attack or activate abilities with the tap ({T}) or untap ({Q}) symbol in their cost.

The concept is straightforward: a creature fresh onto the battlefield needs a moment to acclimate before engaging in combat or complex actions. It’s essentially a grace period.

The Limitations of Summoning Sickness

The restrictions imposed by summoning sickness are specific:

• Attacking: A creature with summoning sickness cannot be declared as an attacker.
• Tap/Untap Abilities: A creature with summoning sickness cannot use activated abilities that include the tap ({T}) or untap ({Q}) symbol in their cost.

What Summoning Sickness Doesn’t Affect

It’s crucial to understand what summoning sickness doesn’t restrict:

• Blocking: Creatures with summoning sickness can still block attacking creatures. They can defend, even if they can’t initially attack.
• Static Abilities: Static abilities, which provide continuous effects (like “Flying” or “Deathtouch”), function normally.
• Triggered Abilities: Triggered abilities (abilities that trigger when a specific event occurs) function normally.
• Activated Abilities Without Tap/Untap Symbols: Creatures can use activated abilities that don’t involve tapping or untapping as part of the cost (e.g., paying mana to activate an ability).
• Convoke: You can tap a creature with summoning sickness to pay the convoke cost of a spell, since the tap is an effect of the Convoke ability, not the creature’s own ability.
• Crew: You can tap a creature with summoning sickness to crew a vehicle.

Tap Abilities: A Closer Look

Tap abilities are activated abilities that require the permanent to be tapped as part of the cost. The tap symbol ({T}) signifies this requirement.

What Defines a Tap Ability?

A tap ability is defined by the presence of the tap symbol in the activation cost. For example, “{T}: Add one mana of any color.” is a tap ability.

When Can You Use Tap Abilities?

Generally, you can use tap abilities any time you have priority during your turn (or even your opponent’s turn, if the ability doesn’t specify otherwise). However, the crucial exception is summoning sickness. A creature with summoning sickness is barred from using tap abilities.

Lands and Tap Abilities

Lands, including dual lands with tap abilities, are not creatures and therefore are not affected by summoning sickness. You can always tap a land for mana, the turn it comes into play, unless the effect specifically states otherwise. However, if a land becomes a creature, it becomes subject to summoning sickness. So if you play a land on your turn, that turns into a creature, you cannot attack with that land, or activate any tap abilities that land has.

FAQs: Summoning Sickness and Tap Abilities

Here are 15 frequently asked questions to further clarify the rules and nuances.

1. Do lands with tap abilities have summoning sickness? No. Lands are not creatures unless an effect turns them into creatures. If a land becomes a creature, it is then subject to summoning sickness if it hasn’t been under your control since the beginning of your turn.

2. Can you use tap abilities at any time? Activated abilities, including tap abilities, can usually be activated any time you have priority, unless the ability specifies otherwise or it’s a mana ability (which doesn’t use the stack). However, summoning sickness will prevent you from using a creature’s tap abilities if that creature hasn’t been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn.

3. Can you tap creatures with summoning sickness to convoke? Yes. You can use untapped creatures that you control to convoke, even ones with summoning sickness. The creatures are being tapped as an effect of the Convoke ability, not as a cost of the creature’s own ability.

4. Can you tap creatures with summoning sickness to crew a vehicle? Yes. Similar to convoke, crewing a vehicle doesn’t use the tap symbol as part of the creature’s own ability cost.

5. Can you tap a creature on the turn it was summoned if it doesn’t have summoning sickness? Yes, if the creature has haste, its controller can activate its activated abilities whose cost includes the tap symbol or the untap symbol even if that creature hasn’t been controlled by that player continuously since their most recent turn began.

6. Do you tap creatures to crew? To activate the crew ability, tap any number of creatures you control with total power equal to or greater than the crew number.

7. When can you use tap abilities on creatures? A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol ({T}) or the untap symbol ({Q}) in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control since the start of their most recent turn.

8. Can I tap a creature in response to it being tapped? No. Tapping a creature is usually a cost, and you can’t respond to costs.

9. Can you tap a creature while attacking? You declare attackers and then tap creatures as part of the attack declaration.

10. Does summoning sickness affect non-tap abilities? No, summoning sickness only applies to attacking, tap abilities and untap abilities.

11. Can you use tap abilities when it’s not your turn? Yes, unless specified otherwise in the ability’s text, you can activate a tap ability at instant speed, meaning during any player’s turn, any phase of a turn.

12. Is a tap ability a mana ability? A mana ability is any ability that adds mana to your mana pool, is not a loyalty ability, and does not target.

13. Can you tap an already tapped creature in magic? No. Only untapped permanents can be tapped.

14. Can creatures with haste use tap abilities the turn they enter the battlefield? Yes. Creatures with haste are exempt from the tap ability restriction of summoning sickness.

15. Does crew ignore summoning sickness? Yes, a creature can crew a vehicle if it has summoning sickness because it’s not a tap ability of the creature. The vehicle will have summoning sickness if it becomes a creature that turn.

Beyond the Basics

Understanding summoning sickness and its interactions with tap abilities is essential for strategic play in Magic: The Gathering. By grasping the nuances and exceptions, players can make informed decisions and avoid common pitfalls.

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