What is the outcome if you {pithing needle }a {pithing needle} that was put on a planeswalker?
{Pithing Needle} has no activated abilities, so essentially nothing happens.
Quote from: Rontron on May 08, 2013, 12:16:42 AM
What is the outcome if you {pithing needle }a {pithing needle} that was put on a planeswalker?
Nothing. A {Pithing Needle} has no activated abilities, so using Pithing needles effect on Pithing needle will do nothing. The planeswalker will remain needled and unable to activate his/her loyalty abilities.
Edit: ahh, I was expecting Keyeto to beat me to it, not Dudecore! Sneaky bugger! :P
Then what constitutes an active ability?
{Pithing Needle} does nothing to another {Pithing Needle} because the prevention that the Needle causes is for Activated Abilities. The ability of the Needle is not an Activated Ability, it is Static. At least I believe so, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong anyone.
EDIT: Damn it. Lol
Quote from: Rontron on May 08, 2013, 12:19:37 AM
Then what constitutes an active ability?
An activated ability is an ability that has a cost : effect formatting.
There will always be some sort of cost.
There will be a colon (:) separating the cost and effect.
Quote from: Rontron on May 08, 2013, 12:19:37 AM
Then what constitutes an active ability?
An activated ability is an ability that can be activated by a player by paying a cost. The cost can be almost anything, such as sacrificing a permanent, paying mana, paying life, or tapping the permanent with the ability {T}. Activated abilities are usually found on permanents, but can sometimes be used on cards in other zones, such as the graveyard or a player's hand.
An Activated Ability is an ability that requires a cost to activate, whether it be a payment of mana, tapping of a permanent, a discarding of a card. These are just example, there are many different types of Activated Abilities. For instance, Equip on an Equipment card like {Sword of Feast and Famine}, is an Activated ability, it requires a cost to be "activated". Same as the tapping of a {Llanowar Elves}, the actual tapping and creation of {G} mana is an activated ability.
EDIT: I'll just stop now 😝
The Colon, as Gorzo has mentioned, is the best way to distinguish an activated ability from that of any other abilities. What comes before the colon is the cost that must be payed in order to activate and initiate what follows the colon.