What is Unaffected by Summoning Sickness in Magic: The Gathering

Straight up – artifacts, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers, and activated abilities that don‘t require tapping are completely unaffected by summoning sickness. But creatures still have some flexibility too. Let‘s dive deep into precisely what you can and can‘t do with a freshly summoned creature!

Official Rules Rundown

First, what exactly does the official MTG comprehensive rules say? According to the Magic judges blog, rule 302.6 states:

"A creature‘s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can‘t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller‘s control continuously since their most recent turn began. A creature can‘t attack unless it has been under its controller‘s control continuously since their most recent turn began."

So in plain English – no attacking or tapping abilities the turn a creature enters the battlefield. Abilities without tap symbols are fine though! Now let‘s explore specificinteractions…

Blocking, Damage, and Other Keywords

Blocking is probably the most common question with summoning sickness. And the answer is yes! BLOCK AWAY! Nothing stops a exhausted creature from intercepting an attacker.

Other combat keywords and damage abilities work as normal too. For example:

• Deathtouch – If a blocked deathtoucher deals damage, it will still destroy the other creature
• First Strike – First strike damage resolves perfectly fine, even if the first striker has sickness
• Trample – After lethal damage is assigned, leftover trample damage can still spill over to the opponent

Here‘s a quick data table summary:

So in battle, summoning sickness rarely makes your creature completely useless!

Non-Creature Permanents – Artifacts, Enchantments, Etc

Planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments and lands share one glorious advantage over creatures – no summoning sickness whatsoever!

These card types can activate abilities or tap the turn they enter the battlefield without any limitations. Here are some examples of non-creatures that function perfectly on the first turn out:

• Planeswalkers – Can use loyalty abilities right away
• Artifacts/Equipment – All tap abilities usable immediately
• Enchantments – Static abilities work, tap enchantments can tap
• Lands – Obviously taps for mana without issue

I think planeswalkers catch beginners off guard the most. But yes, you can use Gideon‘s +1 loyalty counter ability as soon as he hits the table!

A Comprehensive Summoning Sickness Guide

Hopefully this breakdown gives you a very thorough summary of all permanent types and abilities interact with summoning sickness (or lack thereof). Quick recap:

✅ Blocking, damage, keywords all work
✅ Non-tap abilities usable
✅ Non-creature permanents unaffected

⚠️ Can‘t attack or tap for abilities

But I don‘t want to just spew dry rules at you! As gamers ourselves, let‘s dive into the implications for interesting card interactions and deckbuilding strategy…

Creative Combos and Deckbuilding Considerations

Understanding these summoning sickness technicalities opens up some cool combo potential. Here are just a couple quick examples:

• Crew a vehicle with creatures despite sickness
• Tap unaffected mana artifacts/dorks for explosive plays
• Reliably trigger Panharmonicon style effects immediately

In deckbuilding, I often prioritize low-curve mana rocks and dorks to enable explosive starts despite summoning sickness on other cards.

Similarly for aggressive decks, haste enablers like Anger let me bash with fresh creatures before opponents can stabilize. Otherwise summoning sickness really dampens the blitz.

I could honestly rattle off implications and combos for 10 more paragraphs, but hopefully you get the idea! Properly navigating summoning sickness nuances leads to all sorts of creative openings.

Closing Thoughts

I absolutely love exploring the nooks and crannies of rules interactions like these. Finding a novel way to break commonly accepted limitations through obscure mechanics is such a rush.

As Magic continues evolving with new expansions, I‘m excited to see what other summoning sickness tricks might emerge. And of course to share my discoveries with all you wonderful planeswalkers out there!

Let me know which creatures or abilities you most frequently forget about summoning sickness with. Would love to keep the conversation going with y‘all in the comments below. Thanks for reading and may you always curve out the perfect play!