Mana is how the vast majority of spells are paid for and played. Mana abilities are those activated abilities that add mana to your mana pool. These abilities do not use the stack. Simple huh?

As with so many other things in Magic, there are a few things to add to the above statements. Triggered abilities that trigger when a mana ability is activated and Add mana to your mana pool are also mana abilities. For example, Caged Sun‘s last ability is a triggered ability that triggers when a land’s mana ability is used. Because of this, Caged Sun’s ability is a mana ability and it does not use the stack.

There are some triggered abilities that add mana to a players mana pool that do not trigger on another mana ability being played. These abilities are not mana abilities and they will use the stack just like other triggered abilities. Examples of this would include the abilities of Blinkmoth Urn and Sakura-Tribe Springcaller.