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.
(01/06/2005)
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.
(01/06/2005)
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.
(01/06/2005)
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.
(01/10/2012)
Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form "cost: effect." Triggered abilities and static abilities of the named card work normally.
(01/10/2009)
Once Pithing Needle has left the battlefield, activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can be activated again.
