How would a card with Ninjutsu work if it's entering tapped?

Asked by TacoMan14 6 years ago

Lets say I have a Kinjalli's Sunwing out on the board so all my opponents creatures enter the battlefield tapped, and my opponent attacks with a creature and I choose not to block, so they ninjutsu in a ninja like Throat Slitter for example. The ability for ninjutsu reads "pay_ mana to return an unblocked attacker you control to your hand; put this card onto the battlefield tapped and attacking". So since the ninja is already entering tapped does it stay attacking, or does the sunwing keep the attack from happening?

Blo says... Accepted answer #1

It will keep attacking. If your creatures would somehow have vigilance, a ninjitsu'd creature would still enter tapped and attacking even though it wouldn't normally tap.
Both abilities influence how the creature enters the game (which is different from normal), they do not influence eachother though.

December 24, 2017 6:59 a.m.

Yeah, creatures that are entering the battlefield via Ninjutsu are already entering the battlefield tapped, Sunwing won't do anything to change that.

The thing is, a creature has to be untapped in order to be declared as an attacker, but it does not have to be untapped to be attacking. (Same for blocking), any sort of effect that causes a creature to be attacking or blocking will not care if the creature is tapped or not. Another example would be say, you have a Sunwing out, you attack, and your opponent casts Flash Foliage. Their saproling would enter the battlefield tapped, but it would still be blocking, because they didn't actually declare it as a blocker, an effect caused it to be blocking.

December 24, 2017 3:31 p.m.

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