Would an Antimagic Field set off a Sphere of Annihilation?

Question

I'm curious if a Sphere of Annihilation would survive an Antimagic Field, because at first you would assume that, based on the spell's entry,

A 10-foot-radius invisible sphere of antimagic surrounds you. This area is divorced from the magical energy that suffuses the multiverse.

Magic items: The properties and powers of magic items are suppressed in the sphere... the magic of the item ceases to be suppressed as soon as it exits. (PHB, 213-214)

then moving the Sphere into the Field would make it wink out of existence, and then once the field was moved or ended, the sphere would pop back into existence.

However, the wording in the sphere's description makes me wonder if it would still function. Specifically, it says

This 2-foot-diameter black sphere is a hole in the multiverse, hovering in space and stabilized by a magical field surrounding it. (DMG, 201)

Since the item is a magically stabilized hole in the multiverse, it would be reasonable to say that the hole itself is not affected by the "magical energy that suffuses the multiverse", as it is a hole in said multiverse.

Thus, the only "magic" in the item is the sphere of magic that stabilizes the hole. This would also be supported by the later section

If the sphere comes into contact with a planar portal... or an extradimensional space..." (DMG 201)

Then one of the three following things happens

The sphere is destroyed.

The sphere moves through the portal or into the extradimensional space.

A spatial rift sends each creature and object with in 180 feet of the sphere, including the sphere, to a random plane of existence. (DMG, 201)

To me, this would be explained by the inter-dimensional/planar travel possibly messing up the stabilizing field, either causing it to stop and the hole seals itself up, or destabilizing the hole just long enough to cause a spatial rift to tear open.

Going off of this, would an Antimagic Field hitting a Sphere of Annhilitation's magical field cause one of those two things to happen?

Answer 1

No.

The simplest way to approach this is to take the rules literally. The interplanar effects only happen when the sphere touches a planar portal or an extradimensional space. An antimagic field is none of these, so it will not "go off".

Given that there's no specific interaction between an antimagic field and a sphere of annihilation, we then fall back on your first interpretation, which is that the sphere winks out of existence only while the antimagic field is active, in the same way that any other magic item is deactivated.

Answer 2

No. It's worse than that.

An alternate literal reading of the rules is that your first DMG 201 quote says, "This 2-foot-diameter black sphere is a hole in the multiverse, hovering in space and stabilized by a magical field surrounding it." (emphasis added)

The magic field doesn't create the hole in the multiverse, it only stabilizes it. Suppress the magic field and the hole still exists, but is no longer stabilized.

As far as I'm aware, the D&D 5e rules don't tell us the effects of an unstable hole in the fabric of reality, but I think it would be fair to summarize them as "Very Bad Things happen".

Answer 3

I had this exact scenario last night running Tomb of Horrors. Someone with an Anti-Magic Shell touched a Sphere of Annihilation trap.

I had a similar interpretation as in Dave Sherohman's answer. The description of the Sphere specifically states that the magic of the sphere is the field that stabilizes it. Without the field, the hole still exists, but is unstable. I had a little more forgiving interpretation though: Anti-Magic Shell is an 8th-level spell. It's powerful. It should be able to give some protection. And the description for the sphere already has damage attached to it. So I ruled that the sphere imploded and the wizard took 4d10 damage.