What does "No abilities" strictly mean?
Asked by bennybubbles 8 years ago
Hey all,
I was wondering if Muraganda Petroglyphs is in play and I have a card like Temur Ascendancy on the field, am I correct in assuming that Grizzly Bears does not get the boost from Muraganda Petroglyphs? I checked the gatherer ruling but I just wanted to confirm as I don't really understand what some of it means.
Thanks
dragonstryke58 says... #2
Long story short, what TheRedMage is trying to say:
No, Grizzly Bears does not gain the boost from Muraganda Petroglyphs due to Temur Ascendancy giving Grizzly Bears a keyword ability -- haste.
When a card says "no abilities," it is referring to "keyword abilities" such as vigilance, haste, deathtouch, first strike, etc. A full listing can be found in the comprehensive rules under section 702. (Note that section 702 also lists keyword actions which are not keyword abilities but keyword actions which are related to other cards and not creatures)
October 24, 2015 11:30 a.m.
TheRedMage says... #3
@ dragonstryke58 That is incorrect. When a card says "no abilities" it literally means "no abilities". If you enchant Grizzly Bears with Power of Fire it will gain an ability, even if it's not a keyword ability, and won't get the Muraganda Petroglyphs boost anymore. If you control Titan of Eternal Fire and Glory Seeker, the titan will grant Glory Seeker an ability, even if it's not a keyword ability, and Glory Seeker will not get the Muraganda Petroglyphs boost.
October 24, 2015 11:37 a.m.
dragonstryke58 says... #4
True. So what I had was partially incorrect in that it was incomplete.
October 24, 2015 12:01 p.m.
dragonstryke58 says... #5
(Sorry for the double post but Tapped Out has been having problems) I wonder why I forgot about activated abilities and triggered abilities too. It must be too early in the morning for me...
In summation: No abilities = no keyword, activated, or triggered abilities. (Anything I'm missing? It's still damn early and I can't sleep...)
Thanks for the save TheRedMage!
October 24, 2015 12:11 p.m.
TheRedMage says... #6
Well - it can't have static abilities either. Muscle Sliver has no keyword, activated or triggered ability but it still won't get the bonus.
October 24, 2015 12:20 p.m.
dragonstryke58 says... #7
@bennybubbles So...no abilities = no activated, triggered, static, or keyword abilities.
On a side note, that does not mean that the text box only has flavor text. I believe cards like Myr Superion and Imperiosaur qualify as having text other than flavor text in the text box that do not qualify as being abilities. If I'm wrong someone please correct me.
October 24, 2015 12:43 p.m.
dragonstryke58 says... #8
It is too early for I just realized Myr Superion and Imperiosaur's cast restrictions are actually static abilities...Damn you Tapped Out. Why won't you let me edit!
October 24, 2015 12:48 p.m.
TheRedMage says... Accepted answer #9
Yeah, they are. It doesn't matter if the ability does nothing on the battlefield, like, say, cycling. If the card has text (except reminder text or flavor text) it won't get a boost.
October 24, 2015 1:25 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
All abilities are either static, activated, or triggered (spell abilities are technically a fourth kind of ability, but they're irrelevant for this scenario). Keyword abilities are not a separate type of ability. A keyword ability is either static, triggered, or activated.
"No abilities" means, exactly and literally, "no abilities."
October 24, 2015 2:24 p.m.
bennybubbles says... #11
Okay, I think I understand now.
Thanks everyone for the help
TheRedMage says... #1
Muraganda Petroglyphs is a card that hides a lot of rules intricacy behind a deceptively simple line of text. To make things worse, they change the interaction of this card with other cards all the time (for example, a few months ago your vanilla creatures would get the bonus if you had Goblin War Drums, but now that the Drums grant Menace, instead just of stating that they can be blocked except by two or more creatures, they don't anymore.
Sorry about the rant. I really dislike cards like Muraganda Petroglyphs - cards that look simple, have complicated non-intuitive interactions with anything, and do so for basically no reason since they are not even close to being playable in almost any format (with the possible exception of commander I guess).
Ranting aside, this works the way you would expect in which your creatures are going to gain an ability (haste) and as such they would not get the Muraganda Petroglyphs boost. The same is going to be true for any card that says that one or multiple creatures "have" or "gain" something (unless that something is a power/toughness boost I guess).
October 24, 2015 10:45 a.m.