What can tapping a permanent really do today? Old Icy Manipulator strategy seems less efficient.
Asked by Mythwind 6 years ago
So, I used to play MTG, in the old days late 90s. Back then (at least on my play group) an Icy Manipulator could do a lot of stuff that today seems not to work. When did this change?
For example, tapping artifacts to deactivate their abilities (as long as they are not mana sources) does not work now,... I was told that when tapping as cost of an activated ability is not something that can be disrrupted as it is not in the stack..., and that static artifact abilities (like Coat of Arms) are not affected by tapping...
Other tricks are to tap lands on opponent's upkeep to basically take the mana away from main phase...
Or during early combat on the attack you could tap a creatue so your attackers can go unblocked (or at least take the best blocker out) or on the early defense side tap a declared attacker so it can no longer attack.
Does tapping a planeswaker affect it in anyway?
What can tapping really do today?
6th edition rules. A lot of old artifacts had official wording changed to read as long as not tapped. So Winter Orb still works better with an icy.
You can still tap lands during the upkeep.
You can still tap creatures during combat to prevent them from being declared as attackers/blockers.
acbooster says... Accepted answer #1
You've certainly missed a lot in the years you've been out of the game. The rules change you're looking for is the Sixth Edition overhaul, which you can read here http://mtg.gamepedia.com/6th_Edition#Rules_changes
You can still tap lands during the upkeep to keep your opponents off of mana, and you can tap creatures during the Beginning of Combat Step to prevent your opponent from attacking or blocking with it. Note that for blocking you can also do this at the end of the Declare Attackers Step, after any abilities that trigger on attack resolve.
Tapping a planeswalker will really only do something if the walker can animate, like with Gideon Jura or Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. Otherwise, tapping a planeswalker doesn't do much of anything.
I hope this answers your questions, and welcome back to the world of Magic!
June 3, 2017 12:20 p.m.