Untapping a tapped creature

Asked by shift 11 years ago

In such effects as Eater of the Dead where the effect says untap, do you have to have the creature tapped first or as resolution he just remains untapped as he started.

megawurmple says... #1

Eater of the Dead is a bad example as his oracle text has reworded his ability to "0: If Eater of the Dead is tapped, exile target creature card from a graveyard and untap Eater of the Dead." Therefore, he has to be tapped to use his ability. However, take Hidden Strings as a different example. You can target two untapped creatures you control with Hidden Strings and choose to untap them. So long as untapping creatures is part of the spell's resolution, not the cost, then you can choose to untap creatures that are already untapped, but the ability won't actually do anything.

April 8, 2014 8:57 p.m.

Named_Tawyny says... Accepted answer #2

That's not true. You can activate Eater of the Dead 's ability regardless of if he's tapped or not. See the ruling from 07/09/16 on Gatherer.

Unless the untap symbol is before the colon, or the rules text specifically says 'must be tapped' you can generally activate an ability regardless.

April 9, 2014 4:39 a.m.

megawurmple says... #3

Ok, you can technically activate the ability, but it won't do anything at all.

April 9, 2014 4:48 a.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #4

Unless you have another card which does something when you activate an ability. It still has combo potential, even if it doesn't do what is printed.

April 9, 2014 4:53 a.m.

shift says... #5

its partial Phenax, God of Deception edh combo and half if it could just eat other players combo pieces from their graveyards

April 13, 2014 11:36 a.m.

shift says... #6

so is it worded now so the creature in gy is not exiled unless eater of the dead was tapped before resolution of the ability?

April 13, 2014 11:40 a.m.

This discussion has been closed