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If I summon a creature with the flash rule in my opponent's turn as a response to their attack is it able to block?

Or is it suffering from summoning sickness and can't do anything?

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  • Judge's Corner on Youtube has a wonderful video covering Summoning Sickness. I strongly recommend watching the entire series if you are new and want to understand the deeper mechanics of the game. youtube.com/watch?v=asYHxwoElIM
    – Rainbolt
    Feb 7, 2014 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

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If you flash the creature in during the Declare Attackers step or earlier, you can block with that creature. You can do it after attackers are declared, but it's too late once blockers have been declared.


"Summoning sickness" prevents three things:

  • Declaring the sick creature as an attacker.
  • Activating abilities of a sick creature with the tap symbol (aka {T}) in their cost.
  • Activating abilities of a sick creature with the untap symbol (aka {Q}) in their cost.

Blocking is permitted.

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    I never knew that summoning sickness prevented you from using abilities with the untap symbol in their cost. Though I've never personally played with any such cards.
    – GendoIkari
    Feb 7, 2014 at 14:41
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It would have summoning sickness but that doesn't prevent being able to block. Summonning sickness only deals with being able to use abilities with the (un)tap symbol and declaring as attackers. So yes, you can block with it.

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Summoning sickness means it can't be tapped. You can still use it to block an attacking creature. Just remember to flash it in at the end of the declare attackers step!

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    Summoning sickness does not prevent tapping. e.g. You can Twiddle a creature with summoning sickness. You can even tap a creature with summoning sickness to pay the cost of Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor's ability.
    – ikegami
    Feb 7, 2014 at 14:44
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    I think people internally think of "attack or activate an ability with the tap symbol in its cost" as "tap" (as in the creature taps itself, as opposed to "become tapped") because the former phrase is so long. It's unfortunate that the precise wording is impractically long in this case.
    – Cascabel
    Feb 7, 2014 at 17:34
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    @Jefromi, Makes sense, but you gotta be more precise when speaking as an authority (e.g. when answering a rules question).
    – ikegami
    Feb 8, 2014 at 16:08

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