Pithing Needle (PMID)
Artifact
As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield, choose a card name.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.
Occasionally a skaab remembers too much of its former life. Luckily, there's an easy cure.
Ovidio Cartagena257p/168
uuid: 845f1bdc-4580-579d-ae66-2d2253040ecf
Legalities
- brawl: banned
- commander: legal
- legacy: legal
- modern: legal
- pauper: legal
- vintage: legal
- pioneer: legal
- standard: legal
Rulings
- 2005-06-01:
Pithing Needle affects cards regardless of what zone they're in. This includes cards in hand, cards in the graveyard, and exiled cards. For example, a player can't cycle Eternal Dragon or return an Eternal Dragon from their graveyard to hand if Pithing Needle naming Eternal Dragon is on the battlefield.
- 2005-06-01:
You can name any card, even if that card doesn't normally have an activated ability. You can't name a token unless that token has the same name as a card.
- 2005-06-01:
If you name a card that has both a mana ability and another activated ability, the mana ability can be activated but the other ability can't be activated.
- 2009-10-01:
Once Pithing Needle has left the battlefield, activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can be activated again.
- 2012-10-01:
Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form “[cost]: [effect].” Triggered abilities and static abilities of the named card work normally.