What activated abilities does Ice Cage and Arrest affect and does ice cage and arrest affect triggered abilities as well?
Asked by Dudedduu 14 years ago
Ice Cage and Arrest have the text "Enchanted creature can't attack and its activated abilities can't be activated." With activated abilities, is it ment as something the player has to activate himself, or is it all the abilities the creature has? For instance an ally that gets counters when another ally enters, or Butcher of Malakirs effect... Would those be triggered if they are under the effect of an Ice Cage or Arrest?
Unfortunately that isn't quite right supernick.
Activated abilities are those that have an activation clause. Activation clauses are everything that comes before the colon (see Llanowar Elves , Cunning Sparkmage , etc..
Soul Warden and card:Soul's Attendant are both triggered abilities.
Really the primary difference is that a triggered ability has a triggering event while an activated ability is played at the option of the player (ie the player has to activate it). Even in the case where a triggered ability such as that of card:Soul's Attendant has a "may" this does not change the fact that it is a triggered ability.
Rules Text:
112.3. There are four general categories of abilities:
112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as [Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).] A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until its countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, Activating Activated Abilities.
112.3c Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as [Trigger condition], [effect], and begin with the word when, whenever, or at. Whenever the trigger event occurs, the ability is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority and stays there until its countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 603, Handling Triggered Abilities.
Hope this helps =)
November 11, 2010 4 p.m.
Also to further clarify a bit for supernick, static abilities are those such as Honor of the Pure , they key for a static ability is they don't use the stack they just have a constant continuous effect.
112.3d Static abilities are written as statements. Theyre simply true. Static abilities create continuous effects which are active while the permanent with the ability is on the battlefield and has the ability, or while the object with the ability is in the appropriate zone. See rule 604, Handling Static Abilities.
So in your Soul Warden example above we can tell it is not static because it's ability's effect is clearly not continuous as it only occurs when a triggering event (namely a creature enters the battlefield) occurs.
Hopefully that helps =)
PS - Since I posted 112.3 which mentions the four categories of abilities here is the only one I haven't quoted, just for completeness:
112.3a Spell abilities are abilities that are followed as instructions while an instant or sorcery spell is resolving. Any text on an instant or sorcery spell is a spell ability unless its an activated ability, a triggered ability, or a static ability that fits the criteria described in rule 112.6.
supernick says... #1
if it says "you may" then it is triggered or activated. Soul Warden and card:Soul's Attendant. difference is one is may and the other is always active. the warden is a static ability and always active from when it hits the field. attendant is trigger, cuz u may choose.
November 11, 2010 3:47 p.m.