Null Rod
2
Artifact
Oracle text: Players can’t play artifacts’ activated abilities.
411. Playing Mana Abilities
411.1. To play a mana ability, the player announces that he or she is playing it and pays the activation cost, following the steps in rules 409.1b–i. It resolves immediately after it is played and doesn’t go on the stack. (See rule 408.2e.)
411.2. A player may play an activated mana ability whenever he or she has priority, or whenever he or she is playing a spell or activated ability that requires a mana payment. A player may also play one whenever a rule or effect asks for a mana payment, even in the middle of playing or resolving a spell or ability.
411.3. Triggered mana abilities trigger when an activated mana ability is played. These abilities resolve immediately after the mana ability that triggered them, without waiting for priority. If an activated or triggered ability produces both mana and another effect, both the mana and the other effect resolve immediately.
Example: An enchantment reads, “Whenever a player taps a land for mana, that player adds one mana of that type to his or her mana pool.” If a player taps lands for mana while playing a spell, the additional mana is added to the player’s mana pool immediately and can be used to pay for the spell.
411.3a If a triggered mana ability adds mana “of the same type” or “of the same color” to a player’s mana pool and the mana ability that triggered it produced more than one type or color of mana, the player to whose mana pool the mana is being added chooses which type or color of mana the triggered ability adds.
Null Rod (and some other artifact that costs 2ish that stops creature activated abilities) shuts down moxen.
This, and Force of Will (and maybe Chalice, Shop, Drain) defines Vintage. Yes, Dark Rit: I'm snubbing you.
Why does Null Rod shut down moxes when it is fairly well estabilished that Mana Abilities happen, and dont use the stack, etc?
Is it really a case of "RTFC" with Null Rod?
For full disclosure, I hate Null Rod. It is the bane of my existance. But current templating of new cards, and out of the blue NUKING of old cards (Time Vault) leads me to beliieve that Null Rod may be used incorrectly: Mox Hoser)
Like TheAtogLord's Mind'sDesire/Island thread (which baffled me initially) brought up a serious rules issue that serirous Vintage/MTG players need to know about.
TheAtogLord's initial arguement was weird, wacky and so forth, but it finally brought forth enlightenedness to us rules junkies.
Why does Null Rod affect Moxes?
p.s.
I faced a player who was a former student of mine (I am a Math Teacher) and he was shocked when I busted out with UBAStax versus his Gifts.noob deck. He was unaware of Null Rod vs Moxen. He has been playing Vintage since 2004 (he was my student in 2001ish)
The Null Rod thing has always bothered me.
Is it Null Rod and Grim Something that hoses Creature abilities that circumvent the Mana Ability thing?
Thanks for responses!
411.1. To play a mana ability, the player announces that he or she is playing it and pays the activation cost, following the steps in rules 409.1b–i. It resolves immediately after it is played and doesn’t go on the stack. (See rule 408.2e.)
How is this different for Island than Seat of the Synod?
