Horrific Countenance untaps a tapped blocking minion

I recently played my "Etrius 95" deck that has copies of Horrific Countenance. I was on my lunge round, and my prey used On the Qui Vive to attempt to block Etrius. I used Horrific Countenance to make the action unblockable (at the cost of 2 blood because of The Ankara Citadel, Turkey, of course). According to the card text, the blocker got to untap even though he wasn't untapped when he tried to block.

I couldn't find any ruling to the contrary. It's not something I had considered before. Is that what is meant to happen? Thoughts?

Edit: Here's the card text as reference:

Horrific Countenance
Action Modifier
Protean
4
Only usable when this vampire is blocked.
[pro] Untap the blocking minion. This action is not blocked, and it is now unblockable.

It is meant to happen. Don't overread the card : if the card say untap, untap. If the card say 'Do not tap' like Obedience, then do not tap.

Ohlmann wrote:

It is meant to happen. Don't overread the card : if the card say untap, untap. If the card say 'Do not tap' like Obedience, then do not tap.

Correct.

It may be an unintended consequence of the wording. Dark Sovereigns had a lot of card text migrations (largely due to pool costs however.)

Without citing a ruling, and with no reference to the card designers intentions it does indeed untap the minion.

The original "Change of Target" stated "Untap the blocking minion" but has since been changed to "do not tap the blocking minion."

Logically, you would expect the same change to be made to "Horrific Countenance." But, the card was reprinted in the Anarch set without such a change.

It is more logical that the state of the blocking vampire should remain the same. It is arguable that making an action unblockable is strong enough that untapping the blocking minion is an acceptable consequence, but I do not agree with that line of thought.

Horrific Countenance should be changed to be brought in line with "Change of Target" for wording, OR the cost should be reduced or some other restriction should be put on the card.

Under the circumstances that a player plays a card that allows a vampire to "act as if untapped" and then attempts to block they are given a further advantage my untapping that vampire when Horrific Countenance is played. At a cost of four blood, the card should in no way give advantage to another player.

Ankha wrote:

direwolf wrote:

Horrific Countenance should be changed to be brought in line with "Change of Target" for wording, OR the cost should be reduced or some other restriction should be put on the card.

It's not a "should".

Forgive me for not saying "in my opinion." It should be understood that everything I say (type) is my opinion, and I try to avoid the phrase "in my opinion" because it is redundant.