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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Now, first off, abilities come in three types:
- Stactic
- Triggered
- Activated
Stactic abilities are those that are always active, like Elvish Champion’s ability to grant other elves +1/+1. In this case, merely playing the Elf woud be enough, as soon as he came into play, every other elf WOULD get +1/+1 and forestwalk.
Triggered abilities are those that, well, trigger when a certain action occur. An example would be Herd Gnarr’s ability to gain +2/+2 whenever another creature come into play under your control. In these cases, whenever the trigger occur, the action takes place, so if you play a Herd Gnarr, and then a Mire Boa, even though the Gnarr won’t be able to attack, it’ll still be a 4/4 until the end of the turn.
Activated abilities are all the abilities with an activation cost, meaning they can be activated any time, provided you can pay the cost. Abilities of permanents, in general, can be of 2 "subtypes", those that require tapping, and those that don’t. So, for instance, you can use Honor Guard’s ability as many times as you can, provided you can pay the cost. That’s not true for, say, Prodigal Pyromancer’s ping ability or Icy Manipulator’s tap ability, since they require that, as part of the cost, you tap the permanent, thus, they can be activated only once per turn. Now, notice that Icy Manipulator is an artifact, so as soon as he hits play, you can use his ability. However, Prodigal Pyromancer, much like, say, Llanowar Elves, is a creature, so they can’t attack OR BE TAPPED until they start a turn under your control. Of course, they can still be tapped as part of OTHER effect, like, say, Glare of Subdual, etc. But THEIR ability can’t be used until they start the turn under your control.
Now, back to Glimmering Angel. His ability is an activated ability, that can be activated as long as you can pay the cost, since it doesn’t require tapping, so yes, this ability, unlike Loxodon’s Mystic, for example, CAN be played the turn he comes into play. |
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