Proliferate and Players with multiple counters

Asked by Metroid_Hybrid 3 years ago

When deckbuilding recently, I noticed that the reminder text for Proliferate had slightly changed when it was reintroduced in War of the Spark..

For reference:

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice vs Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

The solitary change here is that the end of the reminder text was changed from

  • "...give each another counter of (a) kind already there"

to

  • "...give each another counter of (each) kind already there".

It's only a single word, but we all know how everything can hinge on a single word on a card..

I suspect the change is because at the time of the Scars of Mirrodin block, there was no other (numerically meaningful) Counters that Players could get outside of Poison Counters. But since then we got two more, positive Counters (Experience & Energy), which made things more complicated..

So here's the question: Let's say a Player has some number (1 or more) of Poison Counters, Experience Counters, AND Energy Counters. What happens when this Player is "chosen" for Proliferation?

According to the old reminder text, they would get a Counter of the controller's choice (1 of 3). However, the new reminder text suggests that all three Counters will be Proliferated indiscriminately (3 of 3). And just just for the sake of compleatness, I assume it was never legit to choose to Proliferate two Counters (2 of 3), right?

Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #1

It isn't just the reminder text that was changed. the actual rule reads as follows now.

701.27a To proliferate means to choose any number of permanents and/or players that have a counter, then give each one additional counter of each kind that permanent or player already has.

So yes, at this point all 3 types would get proliferated, in the past one type of counter was chosen to add an additional one.

October 21, 2020 10:12 p.m.

Please login to comment