Tapping..I'm a lil confused...

[NarutoChamp]

If someone could help me out with tapping..

1. Say you're tapping a vault of whispers, can you tap it without a purpose? (purpose meaning like tapping it for a spell or artifact)

2. A question about Skeleton Shard, can you just tap it automatically to get back an artifact creature? Or do you have to use a card's effect to tap it?

3. About the Vault of Whispers, when it's tapped and you add one swamp to your mana pool, does the swamp have to be from your hand? Or from your deck? Or both?

Answers to these questions would be highly appreciated..

This is the wrong forum...sorry...

[ElectricalSoulEater]

You use Vault Of Whispers just like any other land. If you tap it for no reason, you'll lose life from Mana-burn.

[NarutoChamp]

You use Vault Of Whispers just like any other land. If you tap it for no reason, you'll lose life from Mana-burn.

I'm just looking for answers to these questions.

[ElectricalSoulEater]

If someone could help me out with tapping..

1. Say you're tapping a vault of whispers, can you tap it without a purpose? (purpose meaning like tapping it for a spell or artifact)

2. A question about Skeleton Shard, can you just tap it automatically to get back an artifact creature? Or do you have to use a card's effect to tap it?

3. About the Vault of Whispers, when it's tapped and you add one swamp to your mana pool, does the swamp have to be from your hand? Or from your deck? Or both?

Answers to these questions would be highly appreciated..

This is the wrong forum...sorry...

1. You could, but you'd be very stupid. Just use the mana for spell.

2. It is in my believe that you must tap three colorless and the shard or 1 black and the shard. You can do this when you have the priority.

3. You don't add a swamp, you add a black mana. Likw from a Leaden Myr. This is used EXACTLY like any other land. Basic or artifact.

Happy?

[NarutoChamp]

This doesn't make any sense. You answered two out of the three, but black mana? Swamp? Tell the difference.. Thanx.

[ElectricalSoulEater]

Okay... Swamps are what's used to produce black mana to add to your mana pool. When you tap a swamp, you add 1 black mana to your mana pool. You use Vault of Whispers the same way. With an artifact land like VoW, you wont be vulnerable to swampwalk, but it can be destroyed by anything that affects artifacts. You can only have 4 of it in your deck, since it's not a basic land.

[The Mad Regent]

A swamp is perhaps the most common source of black mana, but it is not mana itself.

Lands are sort of like power batteries. The old Magic instruction books (Not sure about the new ones.) had a wonderful way of explaining, in flavor, what mana was and how it worked(But, to avoid confusion, I'll not go into that for now.).

Basically, lands are the primary source of mana. Swamps produce black mana, Islands produce blue mana, Mountains produce red mana, Forests prodcue green mana, and Plains produce white mana.

The lands are the sources of mana, but not the mana itslef. You tap a land to add mana to your mana pool.

[NarutoChamp]

So when you tap a Vault of Whispers you get a black mana, not a swamp..i see, thanx you guys.

[AKA:Battousai]

the skeleton shard has an activated ability. you cannot just decide you want to tap it unless you pay to do so.

also same goes with any other permanent you just can't decide to tap something unless you use a spell or ability to do so or if you are paying a cost like the voice of the woods(summing sickness is ignored in this case)

I remember I was playing a kid with a forestwalking deck and he said the turn before I would've killed him that I want to sacrifice all my forests and I didn't know any better so I didn't bother to ask anyone. and when someone asked me later if I won that game I said no and they asked me how I lost so I told them and then they told me that just because you would like to do anything to something you control you just can't without manipulating it somehow using the game's rules.

he gave me the anology of chess just because your king's exit is blocked by one of your peices doesn't mean you can go and just forfiet that peice so he can escape.

and for the mana

lands are just colorless permanents, some let you tap them to add mana to your mana pool, others do other things etc...

your mana pool is just whatever mana you have that you haven't spent yet.

mana burn happens at the end of every phase meaning when you move to the next phase your mana pool is emptied automatically and you lose 1 life for each of the unused mana still in it.

[ElectricalSoulEater]

Since we're already on the mana pool, I have a question too;

If I have a Glissa Sunseeker out, who says something like: Tap, kill artifact with the same converted mana as mana in your mana pool. (don't remember exactly).
Would that mean the mana you've already used to cast a spell? 'Couse you can't really tap lands to kill the artifact. Anyone?

[AKA:Battousai]

its equal to the mana in your mana pool so it is anything in your pool you haven't spent yet. example: you can tap glissa to kill any artifact land and any 0 cc artifacts,

if they have a myr enforcer you want to kil you have to somehow get 7 mana in your pool then tap the glissa before you use the mana this doesn't take any of the mana away it just has to be equal to the cc or if you are casting like a troll ascetic which costs 1GG you can tap 2 lands tap the glissa kill the artifact they have on their side which has a cmc of 2 and then you can tap the third land and play the troll.

[ElectricalSoulEater]

Okay, thanks, but the mana that is unused in order to make Glissa perform her actions(:D), it can be used later right?

[ElectricalSoulEater]

I actually have another question...
If I tap some artifact lands in order to make Lodestone Myr stronger, do I then get to use the mana? Will I suffor from mana burn?

[Szat'sNightMare]

because you are tapping for an effect, no mana is generated

[The Mad Regent]

Think of your mana pool as an empty pool. When you tap a land for mana, or otherwise draw mana from a source, a drop of mana flows into the pool for each mana you have drawn. Normally, tapping a single land adds one mana of whatever color is appropriate to your pool.

If you still have mana in the pool when a phase ends or at the end of a turn (Whiever comes first.), you take damage equal to the amount of mana in the mana pool.

If you spend mana for casting a spell or other effect, the mana drains from the pool in a proportionate amount to what you spent.

[AKA:Battousai]

mana burn is a loss of life. it's not considered damage, meaning you cannot deal yourself mana burn to put counters on a sun droplet.

this is probably what you meant but I thought I'd clear that up before people started getting ideas.

[The Mad Regent]

this is probably what you meant but I thought I'd clear that up before people started getting ideas.

Yes, thank you. :)