Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules

triggered abilities which are written with the trigger condition in the middle of the ability, rather than at the beginning.

Example: An ability that reads “Reveal the first card you draw each turn. Whenever you reveal a basic land card this way, draw a card” is a static ability linked to a triggered ability.

Example: An ability that reads “The controller of enchanted creature sacrifices it at the end of his or her turn” is a triggered ability.

405. Static Abilities

405.1. A static ability does something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. The ability isn’t played-it just “exists.” Such abilities apply only while the ability is on a permanent in play, unless the ability is covered by rule 402.8.

405.2. Some objects have intrinsic static abilities which state that the object “has” one or more characteristic values; “is” one or more particular types, supertypes, subtypes, or colors; or that one or more of its characteristics “is” or “are” a particular value. These abilities are characteristic-setting abilities. Abilities of an object that affect the characteristics of another object are not characteristic-setting abilities; neither are abilities that an object grants to itself. See rule 201, “Characteristics,” and rule 418.5a.

405.2a A characteristic-setting ability that states that an object is one or more particular types, supertypes, subtypes, or colors applies no matter which zone the object it’s on is in. This rule doesn’t apply to other characteristic-setting abilities.

406. Mana Abilities

406.1. A mana ability is either (a) an activated ability that could put mana into a player’s mana pool when it resolves or (b) a triggered ability that triggers from a mana ability and could produce additional mana. A mana ability can generate other effects at the same time it produces mana.

406.2. Spells that put mana into a player’s mana pool aren’t mana abilities. They’re played and resolved exactly like any other spells. Triggered abilities that put mana into a player’s mana pool aren’t mana abilities if they trigger from events other than activating mana abilities. They go on the stack and resolve like any other triggered abilities.

406.3. A mana ability remains a mana ability even if the game state doesn’t allow it to produce mana.

Example: A permanent has an ability that reads “{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool for each creature you control.” This is still a mana ability even if you control no creatures or if the permanent is already tapped.

406.4. A mana ability can be activated or triggered. Mana abilities are played and resolved like other abilities, but they don’t go on the stack, so they can’t be countered or responded to. See rule 411, “Playing Mana Abilities,” and rule 408.2, “Actions That Don’t Use the Stack.”

406.5. Abilities (other than mana abilities) that trigger on playing mana abilities do use the stack.

406.6. If a mana ability would produce one or more mana of an undefined type, it produces no mana instead.

Example: If you control no lands, an ability that reads “{T}: Add to your mana pool one mana of any type that a land you control could produce” will not produce any mana.

407. Adding and Removing Abilities

407.1. Effects can add or remove abilities of objects. An effect that adds an ability will state that the object “gains” or “has” that ability. An effect that removes an ability will state that the object “loses” that ability. If two or more effects add and remove the same ability, in general the most recent one prevails. (See rule 418.5, “Interaction of Continuous Effects.”)

407.2. An effect that sets an object’s characteristic, or simply states a quality of that object, is different from an ability granted by an effect. When an object “gains” or “has” an ability, that ability can be removed by another effect. If an effect defines a characteristic of the object (“[permanent] is [characteristic value]”), it’s not granting an ability. (See rule 405.2.)

Example: An effect reads, “Enchanted creature has ‘This creature is an artifact creature.’” This effect grants an ability to the creature that can be removed by other effects. Another effect reads, “Enchanted creature is an artifact creature.” This effect simply defines a characteristic of the creature. It doesn’t grant an ability, so effects that would cause the creature to lose its abilities wouldn’t cause the enchanted creature to stop being an artifact.

407.3. Effects that remove an ability remove all instances of it.

Example: If a creature with flying is enchanted with Flight, it has two instances of the flying ability. A single effect that reads “Target creature loses flying” will remove both.

408. Timing of Spells and Abilities

408.1. Timing, Priority, and the Stack

408.1a Spells and activated abilities can be played only at certain times and follow a set of rules for doing so.

408.1b Spells and activated abilities are played by players (if they choose) using a system of priority, while other types of abilities and effects are automatically generated by the game rules. Each time a player would get