Can Stony Silence block players from equipping?
Asked by scholar 13 years ago
As the title states, since it costs mana to equip and the result is equipping, would that count as an activated ability? Also, what exactly are the advantage(s) (if any) for Stony Silence against "Swords"? Thanks in advance.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
I just want to add that the templating of the Equip ability doesn't make it immediately obvious that it's an activated ability, so it does cause confusion from time to time. If you find an equipment with reminder text, or go straight to Section 702.6 of the Comprehensive Rules (about the Equip keyword ability), you'll see that the full rules for Equip have it as an activated ability written as "[cost] : [effect]".
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Stony Silence prevents all activated abilities of artifacts from being activated. Equipping is an activated ability, so it prevents the native equip ability of any equipment from being used.
Activated abilities are always of the form "[cost]: [effect]." They don't have to involve a mana payment.
Since Stony Silence prevents equipping, it has the obvious benefit of shutting down swords.
October 29, 2011 2 p.m.