Last updated on February 24, 2025
Filigree Vector | Illustration by Lorenzo Mastroianni
Edge of Eternities, the upcoming sci-fi themed MTG set expected for August this year, will bring back one of Magic's most successful mechanics: Proliferate.
Among the barrage of MTG news with which Wizards of the Coast (WotC) bombarded players last week – from unveiling the four Final Fantasy face commanders and the five Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander precons, to revealing Avatar: The Last Airbender as the last Universes Beyond MTG set for 2025 – we also got Edge of Eternities‘ full product lineup.
And to much rejoice from Magic counter-slingers, one of EOE's EDH precons is confirmed to be centered around putting counters on top of your counters: Counter Intelligence‘s tag line is “Boost Artifacts – Proliferate Counters.”
The Proliferate Buffet
Suntouched Myr | Illustration by Greg Hildebrandt
Proliferate is an MTG mechanic that lets you put extra counters, of any type, on permanents or players that already have those counters. Proliferate was a massive success when it debuted back in 2010, to the point that Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater even named it one of his top 10 favorite mechanics of all time in 2013.
Ten years later, he confirmed that each appearance has been a success. “Proliferate has been popular in every set it's ever appeared in,” he wrote in 2023, in one of his official columns where he answered questions about every set of that year. But he also noted back then that, although a beloved mechanic, it's a challenge for Magic's designer.
“It's hard to design around,” he wrote on his personal blog, “so I do think it will return one day, but not often.”
Fast-forward to today, and it looks like ‘often' is just around the corner… and, in fact, even sooner than Edge of Eternities!
Among last week's deluge of news, WotC revealed the four Commander precons from the Final Fantasy x MTG crossover, and Tidus, Yuna's Guardian as one of the face commanders, a Bant commander with proliferate and a penchant for slinging counters around.
Counter Blitz, Tidus' deck, is all about adding counters and moving them around (and, just like Counter Intelligence, it's clearly named as “Counters”… you know, in case somebody doesn't get what the deck's all about!).
These two precons' color identities are a bit of a head-scratcher, though. Green and blue are fairly common among the 11 commanders with “proliferate” in their rules text, but more than half fall into Sultai. Only four of them lean into white, with Tidus, Yuna's Guardian being the lone Banter. And there's just a single proliferate commander who taps into red: Cayth, Famed Mechanist, making them the lone Jeskai commander in this club.
So why go Jeskai for a proliferate deck?
One possible answer is the other focus of Counter Intelligence: artifacts.
Leading the Charge
As of this writing there's nothing we know for certain about Counter Intelligence other than the visuals of its box – but savvy redditors are suggesting (and hoping) for a boost to a specific niche archetype.
“Jeskai looks like the long-awaited charge counter deck,” notes u/torrtara in one of the most-upvoted comments, “which is awesome!”
Unlike +1/+1 counters, which have a built-in effect (buff your creatures), charge counters don't do anything by themselves, but help “fuel” a variety of non-creature permanents like lands, enchantments, and artifacts.
Both types of counters share a niche mechanic, sunburst, which places one or the other depending on if the permanent is a creature or an artifact. Although a lot less popular than their buffy counterparts, charge counters are nevertheless somewhat common – Mark Rosewater even considers them deciduous.
Several permanents with charge counters are red, blue and/or white…
… and the vast majority are actually colorless, making a Jeskai charge counters deck not that far-fetched a possibility.
Last but not least, charge counters in general, and artifacts in particular look like one of the easiest MTG mechanics to blend into a Space Opera storyline.
(Without, you know, being as cringe as going, “Yeah, it's a murder mystery, so everybody gets a detective hat! And then they all go to the Far West, so everybody gets a cowboy hat!”).
Telling Fact from (Science) Fiction
Karn's Bastion | Illustration by Adam Paquette
To wrap up, there's little known right now about what Counter Intelligence will contain – a Jeskai EDH deck that focuses on proliferate and artifacts is a very safe bet because that's what it says on the tin. But we'll need further reveals to be certain about the specifics.
And a mechanic coming back in Commander precons does not mean the mechanic will hit Standard. We've just seen that with Aetherdrift: Living Energy does play around with energy counters, but it actually didn't bring back energy to Standard.
Having said that, if you like counters, get ready to put counters on top of your counters!
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