Shadow Boxing and Untap after/during combat

Serazahr wrote:

What happens when my Vampire has the Monster archetype and "unreadys" the enemy vampire during combat resulting from a block. He burns a blood to untap and then plays superior Shadow Boxing. Does he tap again to continue the action or does he stay untapped? (Does the order of Monster and Shadow Boxing matter?)

Does anything change in that regard when using Majesty + Psyche to untap.

So, I think that you're intuiting that certain things might cause you to tap, such as:

- continuing an action
- entering or restarting combat

There are four things in the game that tap you:

1) Starting an action. And it's just that, starting an action. You can untap during an action just fine, there's no problem with that. For example, if you play Domain Challenge, you might want your acting vampire to be untapped, so you lose fewer pool. So you use your copy of Alexandra to untap your acting copy of Anson. Fine.


2) Successfully blocking an action. Note that this isn't caused by going into combat from the successful block, because it can happen even when there isn't a block combat - for example, when you block someone taking a "leave torpor" action, you can't go into combat with them, but you will still tap on a successful block.

Note that more than a few players will indicate that a particular minion is attempting to block by nudging the vampire out of the "untapped" position. For example, I might declare Isabel de Leon is attempting to block and twist her towards the tapped position. When my block fails, I put her back to the untapped position. Although this is a relatively common sight, it isn't what happens by the rules - you tap at the successful block.


3) Using the 'slave' rule to enter combat.

Rulebook, wrote:

Slave: Some minions are identified as slaves to a specified clan. A slave cannot take a directed action if his controller doesn't control a ready member of the specified clan. Also, if a member of the specified clan controlled by the same Methuselah is blocked, the controller can tap the slave to cancel the combat and to untap the acting vampire and have the slave enter combat with the blocking minion instead.

4) Explicit card text. Plenty of cards tell you to tap a minion/vampire/ally/whatever - say, Scalpel Tongue, Misdirection, Disarming Presence, Consanguineous Condemnation, Praxis Seizure: Istanbul, Jar the Soul, Faceless Night.

Some cards require you to "tap to..." as a cost, also covered in section 11 of the rules.

Rulebook, wrote:

“Tap X to do Y”: Some cards use this wording, for instance: superior Bauble, Isanwayen. Such effects can’t be used by tapped minions, even by those “able to play cards as though untapped”. These effects require an untapped minion to be used. Conversely, “Tap X. Do Y” effects (for instance: Redirection) are usable by tapped minions “able to play cards as though untapped”.

Amongst other things, the following don't tap you:

a) entering combat. If I rush your untapped vampire and you don't block, your vampire stays untapped. Nor does your tapped status have any bearing on what you can do in combat - a tapped vampire with a .44 Magnum can maneuver you and shoot you just as well as an untapped vampire.

b) continuing an action, such as with Form of Mist. If you're currently tapped, stay tapped. If you're currently untapped, stay untapped.

c) casting votes. Nor do you have to be untapped to cast votes.

d) playing action modifiers. Your untapped Enkidu has untapped during the action somehow and continued the action with Form of Mist. Now he's facing another blocking and chooses to play Earth Control. Earth Control doesn't tap him. You need even more stealth, so your Morrow the Sage plays Cloak the Gathering at superior. Morrow does not need to be untapped (action modifiers don't, in general, need to be played by an untapped vampire), and if he is untapped, he does not tap.

e) playing reactions. If you successfully block, you'll tap - but it's not the use of reactions that taps you. In general, you will need to be untapped to play them, though, or benefiting from a 'wake' effect, like On the Qui Vive, Wake with Evening's Freshness etc. But if you're untapped and play Telepathic Counter, you don't tap. Some card text can tap you, as normal - for example, playing Redirection or Deflection (inferior).

Correct answers from Ankha and jamesatzephyr: You can use Monster to untap, and then play Shadow Boxing.
[EDIT] Or the other way around, for the same result.

You would then be an untapped vampire performing an action.
This situation can happen sometimes (especially if you're calling Domain Challenge with Shalmath / Nakhthorheb / ...), and there's nothing incorrect with it.