I have encountered a tricky rules question, and when searching for an answer in the CR the rules text are deadright terrifying. With further ado, here is the rules text i reacted on:

405.4. Each spell has all the characteristics of the card associated with it. Each activated or triggered
ability that’s on the stack has the text of the ability that created it and no other characteristics. The
controller of a spell is the person who cast it. The controller of an activated ability is the player who
activated it. The controller of a triggered ability is the player who controlled the ability’s source when it
triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability. To determine the controller of a delayed triggered
ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the
next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the
topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It
remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an
effect moves it elsewhere.


This just cannot be correct. An ability chares the caracteristics of its source, especially color. But according to the rules text above, it does not as the text of abilitys do not contain color.


Here is the situation.

Player A has Sphinx of the Steel Wind and a Goblin Welder in play, as well as an artifact land. Player B wants to bounce it using a Jace the Mind Sculptor. In responce, player A welds his artifact land into a Painter's Servant and chooses “red”. The question is, will JAce's ability reflect back upon resolution and see if it is red (and use last known information if Jace has left the battelfield) or will just be a blue spell.


When searching for answers I found the rules above which raises a new question, which in my opinion was the “easy case” but now I am not so sure. What if instead of the corner case of Painter's Servant we have a much more common schenario of Mother of Runes? Player B is allowed to activate Jace, since the target is legal at that point. But if the rules text above is correct the ability iteself is not blue (or any color) which means that mother of runes cannot protect against activated or triggered abilitys.

Which is of course bogus. Nontheless, this is what the rules imply.

Question 1:
Is there other rules that I missed that dictates that the ability on the stack do have its origins color?

Question 2:
Is it correct that Mother of Runes can protect agains activated/triggered abilitys? (I assume “yes of course” but rules referece is required here)

Question 3:
Will Painter's Servant repaint the color charecteristic of the ability on the stack?

The rules you cited are accurate: abilities on the stack do not have any characteristics other than their text, which means they do not have a color. Painter's Servant doesn't give them one, either–it affects “cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents”, and abilities on the stack are none of those things.

But that's okay–Mother of Runes can protect against activated and triggered abilities, and other things still work the way they should, because nothing in the game looks for the color (nor any other characteristic) of an ability on the stack. If you check the rules for protection, you'll see this:

702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.

Protection doesn't care at all what color the ability is (because abilities themselves have no color). What protection cares about is the color of the source of the ability.

So, to address your Jace, the Mind Sculptor/Sphinx of the Steel Wind question, the answer depends on what color the source of the ability (Jace) is at the time the ability starts resolving–or, if he's no longer on the battlefield at all, what color he was when he was last on the battlefield. If both Jace and a Painter's Servant choosing “red” are on the battlefield, Jace is red, so the game sees the ability is from a red source and counters it for having no legal targets. If, however, Jace left the battlefield before the Painter's Servant entered the battlefield (say, because using the -1 ability brought him to 0 loyalty), the game will check Jace's last known information and see that he was not red, and the ability will resolve just fine.