What are Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's abilities counted as?
It is neither. It is a triggered ability:


  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect].”


Ulamog has two triggered abilities &mdash; one for when he's cast, and one for when he attacks &mdash; and indestructible, a keyword ability.

Viper's Kiss has no effect on any of these abilities. It will give Ulamog -1/-1 making it a 9/9, but Ulamog will still exile cards.



Spells are only ever cards (or copies of cards) that are on the stack. Abilities never count as spells.

Activated abilities also have a specific formatting you can recognise them by:


  602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]”


An example of activated abilities is found on Elvish Mystic: note the presence of a cost (tap Elvish Mystic), colon :, and effect (add green mana). An activated ability has all three of these; an ability without these is not an activated ability.