Summoning sickness
From MTG Salvation Wiki
Summoning sickness is an informal term for the rule that a creature cannot attack or use activated abilities either with the tap (
) or untap (
) symbol if it has not been continuously controlled by a player since the beginning of that player's most recent turn. The logic behind the term is that a creature is so disoriented by the experience of being summoned that it has to rest before it can do anything more than defend itself or use simple abilities.
| From the Comprehensive Rules
Summoning Sickness (Informal) |
The term actually appeared on cards from Mirage through to Urza's Legacy, where it was used in the phrase "{cardname} is unaffected by summoning sickness.", meaning that a creature had haste (for example, see Viashino Sandscout). Summoning sickness stopped appearing on cards in 6th Edition when the Haste keyword was introduced. However, as the term summoning sickness is highly flavorful, had been widely popularised through appearing on cards, and because the rules no longer gave a proper term for the effect, summoning sickness still remains in use as a colloquial expression.
In recent times, the term "summoning sickness" is seen on the Future Sight card Dryad Arbor, which is a land creature.
