Can Howling Mine be tapped at will?

Asked by Kisho 13 years ago

Hey, I'm looking at Howling Mine for a deck I'm putting together, and I'd heard somewhere that you can tap any card at any time, just most cards you don't get any benefit from doing that. This would of course be useful in stopping your opponents from gaining the benefit of the card.

However, I've since heard that that's not the case, that only cards that specifically have a tap ability can be tapped, which would force me to put other cards in that can tap it.

Which is it? Tap at will, or only when specified?

xeratheenigma says... Accepted answer #1

you can only tap when prompted to by a card/ability or the card has a tap ability

so sadly you cant just tap howling mine whenever you feel like stopping an opponent from drawing extra cards

December 12, 2010 3:40 p.m.

mistergreen527 says... #2

You'll have to use another card to tap it.

Your options are Amber Prison , Aphetto Grifter , Auriok Transfixer , Blinkmoth Well , Clock of Omens , Coral Trickster , card:Dream's Grip, Elder Druid , Enervate , Esper Sojourners , Fatestitcher , Fire/Ice , Frost Titan , Gigadrowse , Glare of Subdual , Icy Manipulator , Jolt , Kill Switch , Lodestone Myr , Lorthos, the Tidemaker , Lumengrid Sentinel , Malicious Advice , Merrow Reejerey , Metal Fatigue , Mind Games , Mind Over Matter , Noggle Hedge-Mage , Opposition , Pestermite , Phyrexian Gremlins , Psychic Overload , Psychic Puppetry , Reality Spasm , Relic Barrier , Rimewind Taskmage , Ring of Gix , Roaring Slagwurm , Rust Tick , Scepter of Dominance , Synod Artificer , Tangle Wire , Telekinetic Bonds , Telekinetic Sliver , Tempest Owl , Toils of Night and Day , Trickster Mage , Tumble Magnet , Turnabout , Twiddle , Twitch , and Vedalken Certarch .

December 12, 2010 5:22 p.m.

MagnorCriol says... #3

That's a nice exhaustive list there, mistergreen527. =p

Howling Mine is actually a pretty perfect example of why you can't just tap any card at any time. They made the card to play on that rule; it's a double-edged sword because it benefits you AND opponents, but if you can find a way to do so, there's a way to shut it off.

December 12, 2010 5:47 p.m.

sporkife says... #4

Clock of Omens being my favourite in that list for abusing Howling Mine , because you can tap the Howling Mine and the Clock itself to untap the Clock. Fun times.

December 13, 2010 1:48 p.m.