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[c]Faith's Fetters[/c] ⇒ Faith's Fetters

Creating a Rules Thread

Fetters stops all activated abilities of the enchanted permanent, that aren't mana abilities.

Activated abilities always have the form [cost]:[effect]. Look for the colon, either in the card's text or the rules for the keyword ability.

Mana abilities are abilities that produce mana, don't target anything and aren't loyalty abilities.

hmmmm, no card has a activated ability whose activation cost is ", ", though some come close.

Jan 29, 2013 -- 4:15PM, ikegami wrote:

Keep in mind that the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers are activated abilities even though you won't see that pattern looking at the card. (You would if you looked in Gatherer, though, and that's the only thing that counts.)

I disagree, the pattern is there on the card. For example:

There's a colon. The special symbol at its left represents the cost; the text after it is the effect. You need to understand what that "+1" symbol means, right, but the same is true for symbols like     

First off, ability can mean two different things in Magic.

1) it can be the text (or pseudo-text) found in the rules text box
2) it can be a non-spell object on the stack

Abilities of the first meaning come in 4 types:

activated (which Faith's Fetters affect) - these generally take the form [COST] : [EFFECT] though occasionally they can be hidden in the rules (like Equip)

triggered - these generally take the form [When/Whenever/At] [CONDITION], [EFFECT] though they can also be hidden in the rules (like Exalted)

static - this pretty much refers to most abilities not of the prior two types eg. Shroud, Hexproof, Flying, Protection, Creatures you control get +1/+1, Flash, Haste, etc.

spell - these are the instructions written on sorceries and instants eg. Destroy target creature, Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

Abilities of the second meaning are created on the stack by activated or triggered abilities. 

Additionally, some abilities are mana abilities (Faith's Fetters doesn't affect these). Typically, these are abilities (triggered or activated) that produce mana (though not all abilities that produce mana are mana abilities, there are a few exceptions).