What happens if you activate shackles, hold priority, untap it via some method, then activate it again targeting another creature.
The ruling only states that you don't gain control of the creature if Vedalken Shackles is untapped before the ability resolves. Now, at first I thought that answered my question but under what circumstance does an ability on the stack have any idea that the shackles is tapped or untapped until it attempts to actually resolve? So I take this to assume that they are trying to say, "You cannot activate shackles then untap it so that the ability never has a chance to trigger losing the creature on untap" -- much the same way that you can bounce an Oblivion Ring with it's first ability on the stack so that it's second ability triggers first, thus exiling a nonland permanent forever.
In my head, given that both activations of Shackles upon resolution see a tapped shackles wouldn't you be controlling both creatures? If this isn't the case, I'm a little confused as to what would cause that happen. Are there any other circumstances where after an ability activates, but prior to it's resolution, conditions are checked that would fizzle the ability--despite the fact that the condition for it resolving is true at resolution?
Relevant
I asked almost the same question 5+years ago.
611. Continuous Effects
611.2b Some continuous effects generated by the resolution of a spell or ability have durations worded "for as long as . . . ." If the "for as long as" duration never starts, or it ends before the moment the effect would first be applied, the effect does nothing. It doesn’t start and immediately stop again, and it doesn’t last forever.
Example: Master Thief has the ability "When Master Thief enters the battlefield, gain control of target artifact for as long as you control Master Thief." If you lose control of Master Thief before the ability resolves, it does nothing, because its duration -- as long as you control Master Thief -- was over before the effect began.
Good memory.
That might have been the year of the Worlds that I got correct the HJ on how Shackles worked. Fun times.
“It's possible. But it involves... {checks archives} Nature's Revolt, Opalescence, two Unstable Shapeshifters (one of which started as a Doppelganger), a Tide, an animated land, a creature with Fading, a Silver Wyvern, some way to get a creature into play in response to stuff, some way to get a land into play in response to stuff (a different land from the animated land), and one heck of a Rube Goldberg timing diagram.”
-David DeLaney
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