Equipment Timing

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

My question is. When can you equip a creature
and when can you unequip one. I was just in a
local tournament where they allowed you to un-
quip artifacts during your opponents turn. I know
there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
of your turn. Please enlighten me.

Drak

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Drakk <drak@hotmail.com> wrote:

> My question is. When can you equip a creature
> and when can you unequip one. I was just in a
> local tournament where they allowed you to un-
> quip artifacts during your opponents turn. I know
> there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
> like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
> like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
> of your turn. Please enlighten me.

Game state (whether a permanent is tapped or untapped, the zone a
particular card is in, a life total, whether a piece of equipment is
equiped or not, etc.) never changes without a good reason. Resolving an
effect is a good reason. Paying a cost is a good reason. A rule is a
very good reason. A player's personal preference (thinking that a
creature would look better untapped than tapped, thinking that a card
would look better in play than in the graveyard, thinking that a life
total would look better at 20 than at 1, thinking that an Equipment
would look better unattached than attached) is irrelevant. So the
question is:

What were they using to unequip Equipment?

Moving an Equipment to a new creature unattaches it from the old
creature. Any illegality that develops with the attachment (or most
removal of the Equipment from play) will result in the Equipment become
unattached. The effect of Carry Away's triggered ability or of the
Disarm spell unattaches Equipment. And, of course, the cost of the
ability granted by Heartseeker, Leonin Bola, or Surestrike Trident
unattaches Equipment.
--
Daniel W. Johnson
panoptes@iquest.net
http://members.iquest.net/~panoptes/
039 53 36 N / 086 11 55 W

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Drakk wrote:

> My question is. When can you equip a creature

Any time you could play a sorcery.

> and when can you unequip one.

You can't. If you equip equipment that is
already equipped, it comes off the old creature
when it goes on the new one, but you can't
just "unequip" (without an effect that tells
you to).

> I was just in a
> local tournament where they allowed you to un-
> quip artifacts during your opponents turn.

Guh? Come again? Are you sure you didn't
misunderstand what they were doing? A
fast effect that would cause equipment
to unequip can be played anytime you could
play an instant, so that would work...

> I know
> there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
> like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
> like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
> of your turn. Please enlighten me.

Yeah. You can only equip during your turn. You
can't unequip at all (except by equipping to
another creature).
>
> Drak

--
Christopher Mattern

"Which one you figure tracked us?"
"The ugly one, sir."
"...Could you be more specific?"

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Drakk, worshipped by llamas the world over, wrote...
> My question is. When can you equip a creature
> and when can you unequip one. I was just in a
> local tournament where they allowed you to un-
> quip artifacts during your opponents turn. I know
> there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
> like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
> like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
> of your turn. Please enlighten me.

You can equip them only when you could play a sorcery (as the reminder
text on most Equipment cards says, in fact); in other words, during
either of your main phases, and only when you have priority and the
stack is empty.

You can't unequip equipment at all, unless something specifically says
otherwise. Probably you were dealing with a case where something did;
for example, several equipment cards such as Leonin Bolas give the
equipped creature an activated ability that involves unequiping them,
and those work like any other activated ability, in other words they can
be played any time an instant could be played.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 21:10:05 GMT, Drakk <drak@hotmail.com> wrote:
>My question is. When can you equip a creature

Any time you could play a sorcery, only. Unless you have Leonin Shikari out,
who changes this to "any time you can play an instant".

In practice, this means "only during your Main phase; only when the stack is
empty; and only if you have priority".

>and when can you unequip one.

Never. Equipment doesn't have an "unequip" option in any way.

(You are allowed to move it to a -different- creature by Equipping it to that
new creature, which moves it off the old one. But you're not allowed to just
take it off the creature and leave it sitting there by itself and leave the
creature sitting there unequipped.)

>I was just in a local tournament where they allowed you to un-
>quip artifacts during your opponents turn.

That is a House Rule only, and whoever is using it probably needs to be
educated that that's not how Equip works. (They may be thinking of Yu-Gi-Oh
or some such other game.)

>I know there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
>like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
>like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
>of your turn. Please enlighten me.

You're correct on that, and there's no such thing as "unequipping" unless a
spell or ability says it can do this, either.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

On 5 Oct 2004 04:23:56 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney)
wrote:


>
>>I know there are cards that allow you to equip and unequip
>>like instants, but I thought equipment usage was
>>like a sorcery, only done during the main phazes
>>of your turn. Please enlighten me.
>
>You're correct on that, and there's no such thing as "unequipping" unless a
>spell or ability says it can do this, either.

And those cards that do that call it "Unattach", not "Unequip".