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Pithing Needle

Magic: The GatheringInnistrad: Double Feature#257

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Magic: The Gathering

Mana cost

Innistrad: Double FeatureDBL · #257
Card type
Artifact
Rarity
Rare
Indicative price
0.72 € · ★ 3.71 € · 0.85 $ · ★ 4.89 $
Mana value
1
Colour

Card text

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.

Format legality

  • BrawlBanned
  • CommanderLegal
  • CompetitivebrawlLegal
  • DuelLegal
  • GladiatorLegal
  • HistoricLegal
  • LegacyLegal
  • ModernLegal
  • OathbreakerLegal
  • PennyLegal
  • PioneerLegal
  • PredhLegal
  • TimelessLegal
  • VintageLegal

Legalities follow the imported catalogue; check format rules before a tournament.
Data imported on 2026-10-06 (UTC).

Indicative Scryfall prices, updated daily. ★: foil; ★ E: etched foil. EUR and USD represent different markets.

Printing information

Illustrator
Ovidio Cartagena
Card language
English
Release date
2022-01-28

Flavour text

Occasionally a skaab remembers too much of its former life. Luckily, there's an easy cure.

Rulings

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.

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.

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.

Once Pithing Needle has left the battlefield, activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can be activated again.

Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form "[cost]: [effect]." Triggered abilities and static abilities of the named card work normally.

Other printings of this card

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