Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Question

Asked by Ouroboros_47 5 years ago

Does the "doesn't untap during your untap step" part of Grimgrin, Corpse-Born always apply or just until you untap him for the first time? I'd assume it would always apply, but the "and" confuses me.

Boza says... Accepted answer #1

It always applies.

Let's use this opportunity for a teaching moment on status. This is a two-part ability - the first part that modifies Grimgrin, Corpse-Born's status:

_110.6. A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories. _

110.6b Permanents enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in unless a spell or ability says otherwise.

Additionally, the second part of the ability is related to the very first step of the turn - the untap step. Unless otherwise stated, all permanents that started the turn tapped become untapped during it. Grimgrin, Corpse-Born's first ability prevents that.

502 Untap Step

502.2. Second, the active player determines which permanents they control will untap. Then they untap them all simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. Normally, all of a player’s permanents untap, but effects can keep one or more of a player’s permanents from untapping.

TLDR; Imagine that Grimgrin, Corpse-Born enters the battlefield and immediately has Claustrophobia cast on it that you can never remove.

November 15, 2018 3:38 a.m. Edited.

Ouroboros_47 says... #2

Boza ok thank you

November 15, 2018 4:09 a.m.

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