Counter types
Game terms · beginner
A counter's type is just its name. A handful of names have rules behind them. Most have none at all: the card that places them says what they do, and the counter is only a way of remembering.
A counter is a marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics or interacts with a rule, ability or effect. Counters are not objects and have no characteristics of their own. A counter is not a token, and counters with the same name are interchangeable. [122.1]
Counters the rules define
+1/+1 and -1/-1
A +X/+Y counter adds X to power and Y to toughness; a -X/-Y counter subtracts. This works on a creature on the battlefield and on a creature card in any other zone. [122.1a] A permanent holding both +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters has them cancel in pairs as a state-based action. [122.3]
Keyword counters
A keyword counter makes the object gain that keyword. The keywords it can be are flying, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, decayed, exalted, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, shadow, trample and vigilance, plus variants of those. [122.1b]
Shield
Shield counters make a single replacement effect and a single prevention effect: if the permanent would be destroyed by an effect, remove a shield counter instead, and if damage would be dealt to it, prevent that damage and remove a shield counter. [122.1c]
Stun
Stun counters make one replacement effect: if a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove a stun counter instead. [122.1d]
Loyalty
The number of loyalty counters on a planeswalker is its loyalty. A planeswalker at 0 loyalty goes to its owner's graveyard as a state-based action. [122.1e]
Poison
A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game as a state-based action. A player with one or more is "poisoned." [122.1f]
Defense
The number of defense counters on a battle is its defense, and a battle at 0 defense goes to its owner's graveyard. [122.1g]
Finality
Finality counters make one replacement effect: if the permanent would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, exile it instead. [122.1h]
Rad
Rad counters on a player cause a triggered ability at the beginning of that player's precombat main phase. [122.1i]
Hone
A hone counter on an Equipment gives +1/+0 to whatever creature that Equipment is attached to. [122.1j]
Lore
Sagas use lore counters to track their progress, and each chapter ability triggers when the counters reach its chapter number. [714.3]
Counters a keyword defines
These have no entry in the counters rule; their meaning comes from the keyword that uses them.
| Counter | Defined by |
|---|---|
| Time | Suspend, vanishing and time travel all count down with time counters. |
| Fade | Fading removes a fade counter each upkeep and sacrifices the permanent when it can't. |
| Age | Cumulative upkeep adds an age counter each upkeep and charges per counter. |
| Level | Level up puts level counters on older leveler creatures. These are not Class levels, and the two never interact. [716.4] |
| Charge | Charge counters store something the card itself defines, most often mana or a countdown. They are the most common counter in Magic and have no rules of their own. |
| Experience | Experience counters sit on a player. Nothing happens because of them; cards read how many you have. |
| Energy | The energy symbol {E} represents one energy counter. Paying {E} removes one from yourself. [107.14] |
Counters that only track something
Every other named counter is a bookkeeping marker. A bounty counter, for instance, means nothing by itself. Chevill, Bane of Monsters puts one on a creature or planeswalker an opponent controls, and a second ability of Chevill's gives you 3 life and a card when a permanent with a bounty counter dies. The counter is the memory; the card supplies the rule.
That is the answer for the great majority of the list. If a card places a counter you have not seen before, read the card: the counter does what that card says and nothing else.
Named counters that appear on real cards:
arrow, awakening, blaze, blood, bloodline, bounty, bribery, brick, cage, carrion, coin, component, corpse, corruption, credit, crystal, death, delay, depletion, despair, devotion, divinity, doom, dream, duty, echo, egg, elixir, ember, eyeball, fate, feather, filibuster, flood, fungus, fury, gem, glyph, gold, growth, harmony, hatchling, healing, hit, hoofprint, hope, hourglass, hunger, ice, incarnation, incubation, infection, intervention, isolation, javelin, judgment, ki, knowledge, landmark, loot, luck, magnet, manifestation, mannequin, matrix, memory, mine, mining, mire, muster, nest, net, night, oil, omen, ore, page, pain, petal, petrification, phylactery, plague, plot, point, polyp, pressure, prey, pupa, quest, rejection, reprieve, rope, rust, scream, shell, shred, silver, sleep, sleight, slime, slumber, soot, soul, spite, spore, stash, storage, strife, study, suspect, task, theft, tide, tower, training, trap, treasure, valor, velocity, verse, vitality, void, vortex, vow, voyage, wage, winch, wind, wish.
Rules notes that apply to every type
- Counters do not follow an object between zones. They are not removed; they stop existing. [122.2]
- "Move a counter" means remove it from one object and put it on another. If either half is impossible, nothing moves at all. [122.5]
- "Counters put on" an object covers both putting counters on it while it is on the battlefield and giving it counters as it enters. [122.6]
- "When the Nth [kind] counter is put on" triggers when the object goes from fewer than N to N or more in one go, so a jump of several counters can cross and fire the threshold once. [122.7]
Rule reference
[122.1] [122.1a] [122.1b] [122.1c] [122.1d] [122.1e] [122.1f] [122.1g] [122.1h] [122.1i] [122.1j] [122.2] [122.3] [122.5] [122.6] [122.7] [107.14] [714.3] [716.4]