Horseshoe Crab and Burn at the Stake

Asked by 11epicnoob 3 years ago

Could you tap Horseshoe Crab multiple times to increase the creature count for Burn at the Stake?

Boza says... #1

No, you cannot activate abilities (except mana abilities) when paying costs. The untapping of the Crab is not a mana ability.

June 22, 2020 10:57 a.m.

Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #2

You can not tap Horseshoe Crab multiple times for the cost of Burn at the Stake.

The only abilities that you can activate with casting a spell or activating an ability are mana abilities. The ability of the Crab is not a mana ability, so it can't untap while you're casting Burn at the Stake.

There are some mana abilities that untap your creature, Pili-Pala for example. Even then, you can not tap that creature multiple times. There are several steps to casting a spell. The third and second to last are activating mana abilities and paying costs, respectively. Once you start paying costs, you can't activate anything. So, once you've tapped a creature for the additional cost of Burn at the Stake, you can't activate any mana abilities that would untap it since you've already started paying costs.

Hope this helps!!

June 22, 2020 11:04 a.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #3

11epicnoob: Answers to your question have been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked one of them as the "Accepted answer" so that this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. Please remember to take care of this yourself in the future.

To be clear: Costs for a spell or ability are paid in a single, uninterrupted step. You aren't able to pay part of the cost, pause to play other spells/abilities, and then pay the rest of the cost. You have to do it all at once. In your example this means you can tap Horseshoe Crab once for the additional cost of Burn at the Stake. You can't stop to activate the ability and tap it again to pay more of the cost.

June 29, 2020 8:40 a.m.

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