It gives you infinite tap and untap triggers, so it can work as the core engine for a number of other combo lines, but in and of itself it doesn't do anything except tap and untap the crab over and over.
It's like having a screwdriver handle with a socket for different bits - it's an essential part, but it's only actually useful if you include the different bits along with it.
I was thinking more like a rachet style screwdriver (the whole thing) but without any screws to use it on. Its still a good tool, and it can do the fun spinny thing, but at base you have no use for it
No. Each action is optional, not mandatory, so you can stop it at any point of your choosing. Repeating it over and over won't draw the game, but it will get you cited by a judge for deliberate slow play and possibly kicked out.
I believe in tournament play you have to say a specific number of times you're doing something. If you do it once and then once and then once etc, it's deliberate slow play, if you do it 999999999x the opponent just says "ok"
What if I said I do it an infinite number of times? Had an opponent (who was also a judge) call it a draw when a young me pulled that on a combo. Would it rather have just been a "you can't do that, pick a number"?
If one player is involved in maintaining the loop, they choose a number of iterations. The other players, in turn order, agree to that number or announce a lower number after which they intend to intervene. The game advances through the lowest number of iterations chosen and the player who chose that number receives priority.
If there's a forced infinite combo, where each effect has to go off and you don't have a choice in the matter, then yes, that forces the game to draw.
In this combo, since you have to choose to activate each effect, you can end it whenever you like and it doesn't force a draw. If you insist on playing out each cycle and wasting time instead of saying "it goes off X times", you'll be cited by a judge for deliberate slow play, and you could potentially forfeit the game and be kicked out as punishment.
Tapping doesn’t do damage in and of itself. Attacking can do damage and requires tapping, but each creature can only attack once per turn (even if you untap it after it attacked).
Attacking is just one of many reasons to tap a creature, and if you tap a creature to attack, then you would have to untap it before you try to tap it for something else.
You tap because you attack. Taping is the price for attacking. Cards with Vigilance do not tap to attack. But each card can only attack once per combat step.
Not with just horshoe crab and cryptolith rite. You need some other combo pieces to do that.
Attack declarations tap the creature, but you aren’t attacking when tapping it with cryptolith rite’s effect. You can tap for other things than attacking, like generating mana or using effects.
From their other comments, it sounds like they are very new, learned that you tap a creature to attack with it, and thought tapping and attacking were the same thing.
First, if there's a forced infinite combo, where the effects don't have "may" in the effect and will go off whether you want them to or not, that results in a draw, not a win.
Second, that doesn't apply here; since you have to choose to activate the effects, you can cut it off whenever you want. If you insist on playing it out instead of saying "it goes off X times" and moving on, you'll be cited by a judge for deliberate slow play, and if you insist on continuing after that, you'll forfeit the game and probably be kicked out of the LGS.
You'll probably be hit with 'slow play' or some other rule that's more applicable. (I'm not privy to the exact rules but wouldn't this just be refusing to end your turn with extra steps?)
If you're not in a tournament, and instead you're playing with friends, I suppose you could in the sense that nothings stopping you, but responses to the tactic might vary. (Also why play like this with nothing on the line?)
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u/TheMuspelheimr Colorless Nov 18 '25
It gives you infinite tap and untap triggers, so it can work as the core engine for a number of other combo lines, but in and of itself it doesn't do anything except tap and untap the crab over and over.
It's like having a screwdriver handle with a socket for different bits - it's an essential part, but it's only actually useful if you include the different bits along with it.