Counters (+1/+1 etc.)
Keywords · beginner
A counter is a marker placed on a permanent or player. There are dozens of named counter types: +1/+1, -1/-1, charge, loyalty, time, poison, age, and many one-off types.
Common counter types
| Counter | Where it goes | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| +1/+1 | Creatures | Adds power and toughness. The most common counter. |
| -1/-1 | Creatures | Subtracts power and toughness. Used by infect, wither, persist. |
| Loyalty | Planeswalkers | Tracks how many activations the planeswalker has left. |
| Charge | Artifacts | Used by many old artifacts (Coalition Relic, Astral Cornucopia) to track stored mana or progress. |
| Poison | Players | A player with 10 or more poison counters loses. Infect adds these. |
| Time | Suspended cards | Counts down each upkeep until the spell resolves. |
| Quest | Permanents | Stores progress for "quest" mechanics. |
State-based actions involving counters
- A creature with +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters has them cancel as a state-based action. A 1/1 with three +1/+1 and three -1/-1 counters becomes a 1/1 with no counters.
- A player with 10+ poison counters loses the game.
- Planeswalkers with 0 loyalty go to the graveyard.
Common interactions
- Doubling effects (Doubling Season, Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution) double counters placed on permanents you control.
- Counter removal (Solemnity, Vampire Hexmage) shuts down strategies that rely on accumulating counters.
- Proliferate adds an additional counter of each kind already present.
Rule reference
[122]