Does Tapping a Creature with Vigilance Remove It From Combat?
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No, tapping a creature with vigilance does not remove it from combat. Think of it this way: the creature’s participation in combat is determined when attackers and blockers are declared. Once a creature is in combat, its tapped or untapped state is mostly irrelevant, unless a specific effect explicitly removes it from combat. Vigilance only prevents the creature from tapping when it attacks, not from being tapped by other means or from the effects of combat.
Understanding Vigilance and Combat
What is Vigilance?
Vigilance is a keyword ability in Magic: The Gathering that allows a creature to attack without tapping. Normally, attacking causes a creature to tap, preventing it from being used as a blocker until your next untap step. Vigilance negates this tapping effect, allowing you to both attack and keep your creature available to defend.
The Combat Phase: A Quick Overview
The combat phase in Magic involves several steps:
- Beginning of Combat Step: Spells and abilities can be played.
- Declare Attackers Step: You choose which creatures will attack.
- Declare Blockers Step: Your opponent chooses which creatures will block.
- Combat Damage Step: Creatures deal damage to each other and players.
- End of Combat Step: Spells and abilities can be played.
Crucially, the decision to attack or block is made before damage is dealt. Tapping or untapping a creature after it’s been declared as an attacker or blocker generally has no impact on its ability to deal or receive combat damage, unless a specific effect says otherwise.
Tapping Creatures During Combat
You can tap a creature with vigilance during combat. Cards or abilities that tap creatures don’t care whether the creature has vigilance or not; vigilance only affects tapping as a result of attacking. However, simply tapping an attacking creature with vigilance doesn’t inherently remove it from combat or prevent it from dealing damage.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Tapping, Vigilance, and Combat
1. Can you tap a creature with vigilance?
Yes, you can still tap a creature with vigilance. Vigilance only stops the creature from tapping as a result of attacking. Cards that tap creatures, like “Arrest” or abilities like “Icy Manipulator,” work perfectly well on creatures with vigilance.
2. Does tapping an attacking creature prevent damage?
Tapping an attacking creature after attackers have been declared generally does not prevent it from dealing damage. Once a creature is declared as an attacker, it will deal damage in the combat damage step regardless of whether it’s tapped or untapped, unless an effect explicitly removes it from combat.
3. Can a tapped creature attack?
No, a tapped creature cannot be declared as an attacker. A creature must be untapped at the beginning of the declare attackers step to be eligible to attack (unless a specific ability allows it).
4. Can I tap a creature with vigilance after it attacks?
Yes, you can tap a creature with vigilance after it attacks. Since vigilance only prevents tapping as a result of attacking, you can freely tap it for other reasons using spells or abilities.
5. What happens if a creature with vigilance becomes tapped during combat?
If a creature with vigilance becomes tapped during combat (e.g., by a spell or ability targeting it), it remains in combat. It will still deal and receive damage as normal unless an effect specifically removes it from combat. The tapped status itself doesn’t change its combat status.
6. Can you tap a blocking creature?
Yes, you can tap a blocking creature. Just like with attackers, tapping a blocker after it has been declared as such doesn’t remove it from combat and doesn’t prevent it from dealing combat damage unless an effect explicitly states otherwise.
7. Does vigilance overcome summoning sickness?
No, vigilance does not overcome summoning sickness. Summoning sickness prevents a creature from attacking or using activated abilities with the tap or untap symbol in their cost on the turn it enters the battlefield under your control (unless it has haste). Vigilance only affects whether a creature taps as a result of attacking.
8. Can you tap a creature without attacking?
Yes, you can tap a creature without attacking. Many cards and abilities require you to tap a creature as part of their activation cost or effect. For example, “Springleaf Drum” allows you to tap an untapped creature you control to add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
9. Can you exert a creature with vigilance?
Yes, you can exert a creature with vigilance. Exerting a creature gives it additional benefits when attacking but usually causes it to not untap during your next untap step. Vigilance is beneficial on exert creatures because they won’t tap to attack in the first place, making the “downside” of exert less impactful.
10. Does tapping a creature count as an activated ability?
No, simply tapping a creature isn’t automatically an activated ability. An activated ability is a specific type of ability on a permanent that you can activate by paying its activation cost. The activation cost may include tapping the creature, but the tap itself isn’t the ability.
11. If I tap an attacking creature, will it still deal combat damage?
Yes, if the creature is already an attacking creature, the attack will still happen.
12. What are some examples of cards that tap creatures?
Examples of cards that tap creatures include:
- Icy Manipulator: An artifact that can tap target creature.
- Arrest: An aura that enchants a creature and prevents it from untapping.
- Pacifism: An aura that enchants a creature and prevents it from attacking or blocking.
13. Does regenerating a creature remove it from combat?
Yes, regenerating a creature removes it from combat. Regeneration replaces the creature being destroyed with removing all damage from it, tapping it, and removing it from combat.
14. Can you force tap a tapped creature?
No, you cannot tap an already tapped permanent. Effects that attempt to tap a tapped permanent simply do nothing to it in that regard. The rest of the effect, if any, still applies.
15. Can you tap a permanent I just put into play?
No. All permanents are afflicted with Summoning Sickness unless they have the Haste keyword. As such, you cannot tap them because they have not been under your control long enough.
Conclusion
While vigilance is a powerful ability that allows creatures to attack without tapping, it doesn’t grant immunity from being tapped by other effects or change their combat state after they’ve been declared as attackers or blockers. Understanding these nuances can significantly improve your gameplay and strategic decision-making in Magic: The Gathering.
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