Pithing Needle
Artifact
As this artifact enters, choose a card name.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.
The fearful want the procedure before a blood festival. The guilty seek it afterward.
Commander bracket
Derived from card traits, not a ruling — bracket rules turn on how a deck intends to use a card. Bracket rules
EDHREC
Combos 2
Format legality
Rulings
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.