what are activated abilities mtg

Activated abilities are abilities that can be activated by paying their activation cost, which often includes mana or tapping but can have many other costs as well. They are abilities that you can control when you use them, and they are written in the form of "COST:EFFECT" with a colon separating the cost and the effect. Activated abilities can be manually set off by their controller by paying some kind of cost, and they can be identified by using a colon in the card text. Anything listed before that colon is the cost, while anything after it is the abilitys effect. Activated abilities can be activated any time you have priority, like an instant or a spell with Flash. They are different from triggered abilities, which happen automatically when something else happens in the game.