When do cards untap

Last but not least, playing land does not use the stack. Land cards are not spells, so you just get to put them into play. To clarify, saying something "does not stack" simply means that there is no chance to respond to that action before it occurs.

Each turn is constructed of five phases, and each phase consists of discrete steps that happen regardless of whether or not you do something during them. Phases also signal the length of time you can float mana before you take mana burn. You can float mana from step to step through a phase, but if the phase ends and you still have mana in your pool, you burn for whatever amount of mana you have not used. Today we're primarily going to focus on phases 1, 2, 4, and 5 with the knowledge that we'll be hitting the Combat Phase in more detail in the next two articles.

Untap Step - During your untap step, you untap all your tapped permanents. You are not allowed to do anything else during this step. Upkeep Step - This happens directly after untap and is the first time players may take action during a turn.

Abilities that trigger at the beginning of upkeep go on the stack, and then players can play instants and abilities. Draw step: The first thing you do during your draw step is draw a card.

Once that is done, both players may play spells and abilities. There are no spiffy steps in this one, just one giant phase where lots of stuff usually happens.

Assuming it is your turn, you can play any type of spell or ability during this phase. By contrast, since it's your turn, opponents can only play instants or abilities at this time not creatures, sorceries, etc. Main phases are also the only time that you can play lands. During the early turns, you will normally want to play your lands during your first main phase so that you have more mana up to bluff or cast combat tricks.

While you will generally want to cast combat-oriented sorceries or enchantments during your first main phase like Blanchwood Armor , for the most part you will want to wait to cast other spells and creatures until after combat occurs. This leaves your opponent uncertain as to what you might play or do during and after combat and gives you more options and information with which to make your decisions.

So, as a general rule of thumb, you often won't cast any spells before you attack unless it would help you out in that attack. The combat phase is perhaps the trickiest of all of them. It is comprised of five steps and typically has more action than a Michael Bay movie with better dialogue to boot. Declare Attackers The player whose turn it is decides which creatures are attacking. Once all attackers are declared, both players get a chance to play instants and abilities.

Declare Blockers Step The player getting attacked decides which untapped creatures of his own will be declared as blockers. Unless it explicitly says so on a card like Valor Made Real , creatures may only block a single attacking creature at a time, but multiple creatures can be assigned to block the same attacking creature. Using multiple creatures to block an attacking creature is often referred to as "gang blocking".

Combat Damage Step This is when creatures deal damage in combat. This is also one of those times where you will use the stack. Combat damage goes on the stack, so you get a chance to play clever abilities before damage actually resolves. The most common kinds of "tricks" which is what we often call instant spells and abilities used during this step are instant damage effects like Anaba Shaman and Shock , or instant damage prevention effects like Master Healer and Mending Hands.

There's quite a bit more to the combat damage step, but we're going to spend a lot of time discussing this entire phase in more detail in the coming weeks, so we'll come back to it. Right now, consider rereading the "Combat Damage Step" section of the basic rulebook your homework.

End of Combat Step Players can play spells or abilities during this step, but there's usually no reason to do so. This is just like the first main phase, except post-combat.

You can play the exact same things here that you could play during the first main phase, including playing a land, provided you did not play a land during your first main phase. Remember, you only get to play one land a turn unless some card says otherwise.

Strategically, this is when you should probably cast most of your creatures, sorceries, and enchantments. It's the last chance you will have to do so before you have to pass the turn to your opponent. There are two things you will want to pay particular attention to regarding the wording of cards that reference "end of turn".

They both refer to things that happen during the End Phase, but one happens during the end step and the other occurs during cleanup. Cards that say " at end of turn" like the Viashino Sandstalker below have their trigger occur at the beginning of the end of turn step. So, if you play a Viashino Sandstalker during your first main phase and then attack with it during your combat phase, once you get to the beginning of your "end of turn step" the Sandstalker's return to hand effect will trigger.

But remember, "at end of turn" effects trigger at the beginning of the end of turn step. So, if you do something during your end of turn step after "at end of turn" has already happened, the "at end of turn" effect will have to wait around until next turn to trigger. That might sound tricky the first time you hear it but it will become second nature as you get used to it.

Let's use an example to show what we're talking about. Say you have an Elvish Piper in play and tap it during the end of turn step players will often just call this the "end step" for short to put a Viashino Sandstalker into play.

Because the beginning of the end step has already passed, the trigger to return the Sandstalker to your hand hasn't happened yet. So, the Sandstalker will stay in play until the next end of turn step, which would actually occur on your opponent's turn.

This means the Sandstalker would actually be around to block your opponent's creatures, something that would shock and appall the entire Viashino community. Like wearing white after Labor Day, blocking is something Sandstalkers normally just don't do. Permanents can also tap to add mana, which is called a mana ability. Like attacking and activating other abilities, mana production is a vital part of the game.

Mana abilities are most commonly found on lands. For instance, I can tap a Mountain to add a red mana. Some lands can tap for multiple colours of mana. Furycalm Snarl can tap for a red mana or a white mana. In contrast, Boros Garrison can tap for both a red and white mana in single activation. Other lands, like Den of the Bugbear , can tap for mana and have additional abilities too. For example, I can tap Dawnhart Rejuvenator to add one mana of any colour, except the turn that it entered the battlefield.

Certain spells or abilities can also tap permanents. However, my opponent could tap it in response to my spell precisely to activate its ability.

If it is going to be tapped regardless, they might as well. These permanents will untap regardless of whatever tapped them. This rule applies even if I tap all creatures simultaneously with cards such as Cryptic Command or Augusta, Dean of Order. During the untap step after the immediate next one, though, that permanent will untap. I can also untap permanents using spells and abilities. With spells or abilities, you can untap permanents outside of your untap step. Stasis is an infamously powerful enchantment that stops players from getting an untap step.

So, that once a permanent becomes tapped, it stays tapped. It has the opponent discard a card whenever the equipped creature deals combat damage to them, too.

If you tap a vampire you control to kick this sorcery, you then gain that much life. In formats like Commander, this can instantly swing a game in your favour. Not only is Goldspan Dragon a massive creature with flying and haste, but whenever it attacks or becomes the target of a spell, you create a treasure token. Goldspan Dragon then lets you tap and sacrifice treasure tokens for two mana each , doubling their value. You pay X mana, then put a creature into play with mana value X, directly from your deck.

What makes Chord of Calling so strong though, is that it has convoke, allowing you to tap creatures for extra mana. Doing so lets you get out gigantic creatures at incredible speed. That would be like opening a restaurant where the theme is to eat the food with a knife and fork. Tap and untap are too fundamental to focus a competitive deck around.

While untapping permanents to get additional value out of them can be powerful, you still need good permanents to do this in the first place. Instead, certain decks will run a tapping or untapping package inside them. White, for instance, excels at tapping other permanents, and red can tap lands. Untapping is primary in both blue and green. While untapping is an offensive strategy, tapping permanents is defensive. It stalls your opponents and denies them resources. Tapping can be used to react to their plays.

It consists of three steps , in order:. The untap step is the first step of the beginning phase. The following events happen during the untap step, in order:. No player receives priority during this step so spells or abilities cannot be played.

Any state-based effects or triggered abilities that happen during this step are delayed until the upkeep step. The upkeep step is the second step of the beginning phase. At the beginning of the upkeep step, any abilities that trigger either during the untap step or at the beginning of upkeep go on the stack. Then the active player gains priority the first time during their turn.

During this step, all upkeep costs are paid. The cost can be paid to gain something Farmstead or to prevent a sacrifice Force of Nature. The cost can also be cumulative. The draw step is the third step of the beginning phase.

The following events occur during this phase, in order:. MTG Wiki Explore. Main Page All Pages. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account?