What is an activated ability?
Asked by Hundredand80 8 years ago
pleas explain what an activated ability is.
An activated ability is an ability (such as one a creature or artifact has) which has a cost to use, with a colon separating the cost and the effect. For example, Kor Sky Climber has an activated ability with a cost of 
and an effect of "Kor Sky Climber gains flying until end of turn."
Activating an activated ability works pretty much the same way as casting a spell. You pay the ability's cost to activate it (and choose any targets for it), and then players can respond by casting other spells or abilities before your ability resolves and its effect takes place.
If an ability is not in written as a cost and an effect with a colon separating them, it is not an activated ability. Seed Guardian for instance has a static ability ("reach") and a triggered ability (which you can identify by its use of "when", "whenever", or "at" to set up a condition). Note that some triggered abilities, such as the final ability of Gravity Negator, require that a cost be paid, but that does not make them activated abilties. Note that there is no colon in the Negator's ability.
March 14, 2016 10:39 p.m.
An activated ability is any ability you choose to activate and put on the stack. They always take this form when printed on cards:
Cost: Effect
If there are multiple parts to the cost of the ability , they are separated by commas:
Cost 1, Cost 2, Cost..., Cost X: Effect
(There's usually no more than 2 costs for an average ability)
These costs can include mana payments (Eldrazi Displacer), tapping or untapping (Imperious Perfect, Pili-Pala), or taking an action, such as sacrificing a creature or discarding a card (Evolutionary Leap, Elusive Tormentor).
You pay these costs to activate the ability in the exact same way you would pay the costs of a spell in your hand in order to cast it.
After you activate an ability, it becomes it's own object on the stack (you just imagine it), so removing the object that created the ability will have no effect on the ability. After the ability resolves, you get the effect that was printed on the card after the colon.
Example: I attack someone with Steel Hellkite. Then, after combat damage is dealt, I activate Steel Hellkite's last ability for X = 3. In response, my opponent casts Path to Exile and exiles my Steel Hellkite. However, since Steel Hellkite's ability exists independently of it (and since my opponent is a newb), the ability resolves and all of their permanents with CMC 3 are destroyed anyway.
Unless the ability says otherwise, you may activate abilities any time you get priority (AKA: any time you could cast an instant). An example of an ability that says otherwise is Birthing Pod, which you can only activate during one of the main phases of your turn.
Loyalty abilities (abilities of planeswalkers) are also activated abilities. In their case the cost to activate the ability is adding or removing the appropriate number of loyalty counters from your planeswalker. For referrence: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Loyalty abilities can only be activated during one of the main phases of your turn.
Some activated abilities are mana abilities. An activated ability is a mana ability if all of the following is true:
It could add mana to your mana pool (Llanowar Elves, Sol Ring, Serra's Sanctum counts even if you don't have any enchantments (key word, could))
It's not a loyalty ability. (Sorry Xenagos, the Reveler)
It doesn't target anything (Sorry Deathrite Shaman)
Mana abilities are unusual because the resolve immediately as soon as they are activated and placed on the stack, so other players don't get a chance to respond to them. You are also allowed to activate them at weird times when you couldn't usually activate an ability, such as: in the middle of casting a spell or activating an ability, or when a special action demands a mana payment (paying for your opponent's Mana Leak, or your Relentless Dead's death trigger).
All basic lands inherently have mana abilities that produce mana of their color (or colorless for Wastes).
March 14, 2016 11:07 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #4
Little tidbit:
Mana abilities are not restricted to only activated ones. Triggered abilities can be mana abilities as well. They are mana abilities when they are triggered off the production of mana, and produce mana themselves.
Crypt Ghast, Caged Sun, Dictate of Karametra to name a few.
Denial048 says... #1
An activated ability is any ability that is written in the form of COST:EFFECT
An example would be the ability on Voyaging Satyr. The cost is tapping the Satyr, the effect is to untap target land.
The ability on Llanowar Elves, while following the same format, is actually a mana ability. A mana ability is any activated ability that doesn't have a target, could put mana into a players mana pool as it resolves, and isn't a loyalty ability.
Hope this helps
March 14, 2016 10:36 p.m.