Lord of the Undead interactions with Moan of the Unhallowed
Asked by GlissasTraitor 9 years ago
If I use the mana ability of Lord of the Undead , would that allow me to target Moan of the Unhallowed as it creates zombie tokens?
Epochalyptik says... #2
Just to further clarify, mana abilities are not abilities that cost mana. A mana ability is any ability that (1) does not target, (2) isn't a loyalty ability, and (3) would add mana to a player's mana pool when it resolves. Triggered mana abilities can only trigger off of other mana abilities.
Mana abilities don't use the stack. They resolve immediately, and players can't respond to them.
September 8, 2014 9:38 a.m.
GlissasTraitor says... #3
Ok, so I can make sure of this... so a mana ability is only a ability that produces mana such as Llanowar Elves ect. Activated abilities are ones that use mana to trigger a said response, such as AEtherling .
September 8, 2014 9:41 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
No.
An activated ability is any ability that is of the form "[cost]: [effect]." Activation costs don't necessarily need to require mana. For example, Llanowar Elves
's ability's activation cost is 
. (Note that mana abilities are either triggered abilities or activated abilities.)
Also, note that the word "trigger" is used in Magic only to denote a very specific set of things. Triggered abilities trigger when a certain event or game state is reached. Nothing else can be triggered. Activated abilities are activated. They do not trigger anything.
Boza says... Accepted answer #1
First, the Lord of the Undead has an activated ability, not a mana ability. Activated are distinguished by the cost : effect format of their wording.
Second, llthough Moan of the Unhallowed is makes zombie tokens, it is not a zombie card. Zombie cards are those that have the Zombie type in the typeline (Lord's typeline is "Creature - Zombie", for example).
Notable exceptions are shapeshifter type cards like Nameless Inversion - they are always, in all game zones, all possible creature types including Zombies. Also, there are Tribal cards like Fodder Launch , which is a sorcery AND a Goblin card, though there is no such card for Zombie.
September 8, 2014 8:14 a.m.