Pretty much everyone knows what Summoning Sickness is, even though it’s not a technical game term. It’s a common phrase used to abbreviate a much more wordy rule: “A creature cannot attack or use activated abilities with the Tap or Untap symbol in the cost unless that object has been under the its controller’s control continuously since the beginning of that player’s most recent turn.” Yeah… I can see why ‘Summoning Sickness’ is the preferred terminology!

So, the most important thing to note about the Summoning Sickness rule is that it only applies to creatures. Newer players are often surprised to find that an artifact can indeed tap to activate an ability as soon as it enters, as long as it’s not a creature.

One peculiar scenario involves Phyrexian Metamorph, which is a creature card and counts as a creature spell on the stack, but can choose to copy a noncreature artifact as it resolves. If it does, it becomes a completely noncreature copy of that artifact, and doesn’t suffer from Summoning Sickness at all. I can copy my Pristine Talisman and activate it right away!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Josh Stansfield, Level 2 judge from Orange, CA