Rulings

• 2007-05-01
  Some Auras and Equipment grant abilities to creatures, meaning the affected creature would no longer get the +2/+2 bonus. For example, Flight grants flying to the enchanted creature. Other Auras and Equipment do not, meaning the affected creature would continue to get the +2/+2 bonus. For example, Dehydration states something now true about the enchanted creature, but doesn’t give it any abilities. Auras and Equipment that grant abilities will use the words “gains” or “has,” and they’ll list a keyword ability or an ability in quotation marks.
• 2007-05-01
  Animated basic lands have mana abilities, so they won’t get the bonus.
• 2013-07-01
  Cipher grants an ability to creatures, meaning the affected creatures would no longer get the +2/+2 bonus.
• 2007-05-01
  Muraganda Petroglyphs gives a bonus only to creatures that have no rules text at all. This includes true vanilla creatures (such as Grizzly Bears), face-down creatures, many tokens, and creatures that have lost their abilities (due to Ovinize, for example). Any ability of any kind, whether or not the ability functions in the on the battlefield zone, including things like “Cycling ” means the creature doesn’t get the bonus.
• 2021-03-19
  Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to a creature with no abilities may become lethal if that creature gains an ability or Muraganda Petroglyphs leaves the battlefield during that turn.
• 2021-03-19
  If an effect says that an affected creature “has” or “gains” an ability, Muraganda Petroglyphs won’t apply to that creature because it has gained an ability. If an effect simply says that something is true of an affected creature (such as “target creature can’t be blocked this turn”) then that effect isn’t causing the creature to gain an ability.
• 2021-03-19
  If a land with a basic land type becomes a creature, the intrinsic mana ability it has stops Muraganda Petroglyphs from applying to it.
• 2021-03-19
  Any text on a creature is an ability, even if that text isn’t currently applicable (such as a cycling ability of a creature).