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Why does Blood Moon remove abilities?

Board & Card Games Asked by Draconis on November 26, 2020

According to the rulings on Gatherer, Blood Moon removes all abilities from nonbasic lands: a Forsaken Sanctuary will enter untapped, and will not tap for white or black.

My question, though, is—why? The rules text says only that "nonbasic lands are Mountains", which seems like it sets subtypes, but doesn’t do anything about abilities.

I know that some abilities, like Forests tapping for green, are inherent to their subtype, so it makes sense that an Indatha Triome can no longer tap for green (the ability came from the Forest subtype, and it lost that). But I’m unclear on why changing a land’s type removes abilities printed on the card itself.

2 Answers

This appears to be rule 305.7, which I got from: Gamepedia.

305.7. If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any copy effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn’t remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Setting a land’s subtype doesn’t add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.

Note, the old wording, on the original card in The Dark expansion uses "basic mountain." My guess is that this rule was added after.

Correct answer by John on November 26, 2020

It makes the lands mountains. It does not provide the 'in addition to it's other types' suffix. So all the non-basics become what the rules says is a mountain which is...

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (August 7, 2020—Double Masters)

Mountain One of the five basic land types. Any land with this subtype has the ability “{T}: Add {R}.” See rule 305.6.

Interesting it does not turn it into a basic land, the lands are non-basic mountains and will still turn on Dryad Sophisticate ability for instance.

305.6. The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. An object with the land card type and a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol],” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box. For Plains, [mana symbol] is {W}; for Islands, {U}; for Swamps, {B}; for Mountains, {R}; and for Forests, {G}. See rule 107.4a. See also rule 605, “Mana Abilities.”

Answered by Neil Meyer on November 26, 2020

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