When can activated abilities be used?
Asked by kram130 14 years ago
Can my Tangle Angler force an opponents creature to block during or after he is declaring blockers. i.e - once the Tangle Angler is already declared as an attacker and thus is tapped.. since he'd be tapped i'm not sure if the activated ability can be acivated...
MiracleAttack says... #2
You're just paying mana to assign a blocker to it, it doesn't need to be untapped or tapped to use that ability.
October 10, 2010 12:45 p.m.
Tangle archer's ability doesn't have a tap symbol in the cost. All you need to use the ability is the ability to pay 1 green mana.
After all, tangle archer's ability would be pretty useless if it needed to tap.
Because, if it tapped to use the ability, then it wouldn't be untapped in order to attack, and if it were tapped to attack, then it wouldn't be able to tap to use the ability.
October 10, 2010 2:27 p.m.
cheers ApocryphaEffect had a feeling that was how it was supposed to be but i overheard someone at the scars pre-release say differently, got the cogs in motion!
October 10, 2010 3 p.m.
Just to be clear that combat has a specific order. The combat phase is broken up into steps as follows:
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Combat Phase
-Beginning of Combat Step
Any abilities that trigger "at the beginning of combat" trigger here and players can respond to them with instants. Additionally in a multi-player game you would declare which opponent(s) you are attacking before any triggered abilities go on the stack.
-Declare Attackers Step
Here you choose which creatures will attack and which player(s) or planeswalkers they are attacking and you tap them. Players can play spells/abilities in response at this point as well (ie after attackers have been declared).
-Declare Blockers Step
Here your opponent(s) choose which creature(s) are blocking and which attacker(s) they are blocking. Once blockers (if any) are declared players can play spells/abilities in response.
-Combat Damage Step
First, the attacking player declares how each attacking creature is assigning its combat damage then the defending player announces how each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. Second, all that damage is simultaneously dealt (unless first strike or double strike is in effect in which case first strike/double strike damage is dealt, and then all surviving creatures deal normal damage unless they have first strike (and not double strike) in which case they've already done their damage). Third any triggered abilities from damage go on the stack and then players can play spells/abilities in response.
-End of Combat Step
All "at end of combat" abilities trigger and go on the stack. Then players can play spells/abilities in response
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So during the declare blockers step if you activate the Tangle Angler it can only be after blockers have been declared already. In that case your ability will activate and resolve but since it is too late to block the target is considered "unable" as per the Anglers ability and thus it has no effect.
So if you want to force a creature to block you need to activate it before you move into the declare blockers step.
ApocryphaEffect says... Accepted answer #1
As long as you don't need to tap the creature to activate it's ability, you can use it at any time. Including when that creature is tapped.
I think.
October 10, 2010 11:37 a.m.