Can a creature activate multiple abilities with in their costs simultaneously with a single tap?
Asked by wormhole65 9 years ago
My friend believes that if a creature happens to have multiple abilities, each with 
in their costs, that it is possible to activate every ability that the creature has simultaneously with a single tap, as long as he is able to pay the mana costs for each ability in that moment.
Take this example, my opponent has some creature, say a Charging Badger, and he enchants with something like Ephara's Radiance and Claim of Erebos. Can he activate both abilities at the same time by paying 2BW and tapping the creature once for the activation of both abilities, causing me to lose 2 life and him to gain 3, or does he have to activate each ability separately, requiring him to somehow untap the creature before activating the second ability?
Who is right in this case?
They are separate abilities. They have to be activated separately, and the costs have to be paid separately. Your friend is incorrect.
January 30, 2015 9:57 p.m.
wormhole65 says... #3
How can I explain this rule to him in the most comprehensive manner so that he fully understands and believes me? Is there a section of the Advanced Rules, or some combination of clauses from the rules that I can reference to very clearly explain to him how this works? The problem is that someone from a card shop told him that this is how the game worked and he believed him, and I can't find anything in the advanced rules that explicitly states that only one ability can be activated at a time.
January 30, 2015 9:59 p.m.
billpasdmf says... #4
Activated abilities are denoted with a cost and an effect separated by a colon.
cost: effect
Regardless of whether or not you could activate multiple abilities at the same time (which you can't), you still have to pay the cost of each ability. You can't use an instance of a paid cost to count towards multiple effects or spells. That would be like being able to tap one forest once to pay the two mana for Elvish Warrior.
January 30, 2015 10:27 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #5
This page details all of the rules regarding activated abilities.
The main things are that abilities are activated one at a time, just like spells are cast one at a time. You initiate the activation process for an ability, and you must complete it before any player can take another action. Because you have to tap the creature as part of the payment for the activation cost of the first ability, you need a way to untap the creature in order to activate another one of its tap abilities.
January 30, 2015 10:31 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #6
It's hard to find a rule about it since it is a bit like thinking you can tap a Plains for a single 
to cast Suntail Hawk and Swords to Plowshares. Tapping is a cost of the ability. It has to be done to pay for the ability.
AllAroundGeek says... #1
Your friend is wrong, each of those abilities require a tap, so you would need to tap to pay for it. since you are only tapping once,you can only activate one ability. Also, you can only activate one ability at a time
January 30, 2015 9:55 p.m.