Making its proud return to standard is Springleaf Drum. While most known for enabling the popular Robots deck in Modern, it was reprinted as a way to help trigger your inspired abilities. And if you’ve seen the popular Modern deck known as “Robots” being played, you’ll notice that the player will tap a just-cast creature to activate their Drum. But why does that work? Doesn’t “summoning sickness” prevent that?

“Summoning sickness” does a very specific set of things: it prevents the creature from attacking, and it prevents the creature from activating abilities with the tap or untap symbol until the creature has started your turn under your control. As long as the ability does not use the tap or untap symbol, the ability can be used right away. And, of course, only creatures are affected by “summoning sickness,” so the Drum can activate its ability immediately.

While the Drum’s ability does use the tap symbol, that’s referring only to the Drum itself, not to the creature that it taps as well. So you can tap a freshly cast creature to activate the Drum’s ability. This probably explains the power of the card in Modern, and why it’s a strong consideration for a place in an inspired deck as a quick way to “turn on” your inspired creatures.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long