Would a Yasharn, Implacable Earth on my board stop me from sacficing a Misty Rainforest to fetch a land?
Asked by vic 1 year ago
I'm just not sure if that falls under "activating an ability". I think the Tap symbol makes it so, but I'm not sure.
plainsrunner It's tricky wording because of the two "or"s.
I read it as:
Players can't [pay life or sacrifice non-land permanents] to [cast spells or activate abilities].
So that would mean that I can't do either of the first two in order to achieve either of the second two, therefore I can't pay life to active abilities, meaning Misty Rainforest is out if that's considered an activated ability (which we can now agree that it is).
I think it now becomes a grammar question. What are your thoughts of that?
February 4, 2023 11:03 p.m.
plainsrunner says... #3
Ooh, that's a good point, I totally skimmed over the "pay life" bit. I think you're actually right, yasharn would turn that off.
February 5, 2023 12:32 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #4
It is activating an ability, the paying life clause prevents it from being activated.
February 5, 2023 2:07 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #5
To be clear: An activated ability is always written in the form "[cost] : [effect]". Misty Rainforest's ability is an activated ability with a cost of ", Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Misty Rainforest". Since part of the cost to activate the ability is paying life, you won't be able to do it while Yasharn, Implacable Earth is on the battlefield.
plainsrunner says... #1
Sacrificing Misty Rainforest is activating an ability, but Yasharn won't stop it, because Yasharn only stops players from sacrificing nonland permanents to cast spells and activate abilities. Since the rainforest is a land, it gets around this. Also, to tell if something is an activated ability, they're always worded as [cost]:[effect]. In this case the cost is "tap, pay 1 life, sacrifice misty rainforest" and the effect is "Search your library for a Forest or Island card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle."
February 4, 2023 7:43 p.m.