The Battlefield

Grim Monolith

$398.68

Power Artifact

0.74 TIX

AI DraftFeb 26, 2026

Grim Monolith + Power Artifact

Overview

Power Artifact reduces the generic mana portion of an enchanted artifact’s activated abilities’ activation costs by {2}

, but it can’t reduce that mana portion below one mana [Ruling 2004-10-04]. Grim Monolith’s {T}

: Add

is a mana ability because it has a colon, has no target, and can put mana into a player’s mana pool (see and ). Grim Monolith’s {4}

: Untap this artifact is an activated ability that is not a mana ability (it doesn’t produce mana), so Power Artifact can only affect the generic mana part of that untap cost—reducing {4}

in this case—subject to the card’s “not less than one mana” clause [Ruling 2004-10-04].

Step 1

Confirm Power Artifact is enchanting Grim Monolith (Power Artifact’s static effect applies to that artifact) [Ruling 2004-10-04].

Step 2

Look at Grim Monolith’s two activated abilities: {T}

: Add

and

: Untap this artifact. The {T}

ability is a mana ability because it has a colon, no target, and can add mana to your mana pool .

Step 3

Power Artifact’s text reduces the generic mana portion of activation costs by {2}

; per the ruling it only affects generic mana in activation costs, not tap symbols or colored mana symbols [Ruling 2004-10-04].

Step 4

The

ability has no mana portion (only a tap cost), so Power Artifact does not change that ability’s cost; it remains {T}

: Add

and is still a mana ability that resolves immediately when activated .

Step 5

The

: Untap this artifact ability’s activation cost does have a generic mana portion ( {4}

). Power Artifact reduces that generic mana portion by {2}

, changing it to {2}

(cannot be reduced below one mana by the enchantment’s own clause) [Ruling 2004-10-04].

Step 6

To use the loop: pay {2}

to activate the reduced untap ability (a normal activated ability that goes on the stack) and have it resolve to untap Grim Monolith, then activate {T}

: Add

(a mana ability that resolves immediately) to get 3 colorless mana, netting +1 colorless each cycle after you paid the first {2}

Resolution

With Power Artifact enchanting Grim Monolith, the untap ability’s activation cost becomes {2}

: Untap this artifact (Power Artifact reduces the generic mana portion by {2}

, and the reduction cannot make the mana portion less than one) [Ruling 2004-10-04]. The tap ability remains {T}

: Add

and is a mana ability that resolves immediately when activated . Because you can pay {2}

to untap, then tap to add {C}

, each full cycle nets you one colorless mana, allowing you to repeat the sequence to generate arbitrarily large amounts of colorless mana (provided you can pay the initial {2}

)—subject to normal timing and stack rules for activated abilities (the untap ability is a non‑mana activated ability and goes on the stack) .

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