Interaction between winter orb and tapping

Asked by Monomanamaniac 4 years ago

So this situation can have several ways of coming about but just to simplify I'm going to use a straightforward route. So i have Winter Orb and i have Urza, Lord High Artificer in play. At the beginning of my untap step i tap the winter orb with urza to turn it off. Does this work? Does it then untap? Or do i need to tap it on end step of the opponent who's turn is before mine?

sergiodelrio says... Accepted answer #1

I'm guessing no, Winter Orb has to be tapped already at the beginning of your untap step.

The additional rules at the bottom of the Gatherer link say:

• All permanents untap during a player’s untap step at once. If Winter Orb is tapped as your untap step begins, your lands will all untap.

My interpretation of this rule is, if Winter Orb is NOT tapped in that event, you don't get to untap all lands, because of the rule's specific wording.

Furthermore, no player gets 'priority' during the Untap step:

• 502.3. No player receives priority during the untap step, so no spells can be cast or resolve and no abilities can be activated or resolve. Any ability that triggers during this step will be held until the next time a player would receive priority, which is usually during the upkeep step.

So you can't time the tapping in your favor here and get both the extra and the full untap.

That means the interaction you're looking for with Urza needs to be executed at opponent's end of turn or prior.

March 25, 2021 6:02 a.m.

Monomanamaniac says... #2

sergiodelrio that's what i thought, but not the way it keeps being explained online. Ironically, tapping it at the beginning of my turn is completely unnecessary, and in most cases not beneficial tbh. Honestly activating the ability on the last opponents turn to cast a counterspell is the most beneficial use of the interaction, but just activating it at their end step is just fine. The important parts are that it starts the turn tapped, then untaps with my lands, then remains untapped for maximum unfairness

March 25, 2021 6:22 a.m.