MaRo Is Going to Present His Picks for the Worst Mechanics: Will Proliferate Be One?

Last updated on December 27, 2024

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice – Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

CORRECTION: This article was originally discussing MaRo's thoughts on Proliferate. It had misunderstood what was a question MaRo was quoting with MaRo's own words. The relevant quotes and information has been retracted.

Magic's head designer Mark Rosewater mentioned that he'll be doing a roundup of the top 20 worst mechanics of all time at MagicCon Las Vegas this year, and I think Proliferate should make that list.

Magic has seen plenty of bad mechanics in its day. Ante, banding, tribute, specialize. You probably haven't even heard any of those, and for good reason. But I think proliferate is one of the worst mechanics to include in a set and balance around.

Proliferate started off as a cool way to implement Phyrexian themes as a mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin, as head designer Mark Rosewater explains in his Looking Back article.

“We liked the idea that the Phyrexians had a disease motif, so we looked for ways to have their play pattern match that of a disease,” Rosewater said.

“To make it more backwards compatible, we applied the effect to all tokens and ended up making a mechanic unlike anything we had made before, something hard to do when you're many years in. Proliferate has not only proven to be a fan favorite, but it is a mechanic that can adapt with the set it's in.”

Proliferate went from being a “destructive” mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin – caring about harming others with -1/-1 counters and poison counters – to being about bolstering your side in War of the Spark, where proliferate focused on +1/+1 counters and your planeswalkers's loyalty counters. It shifted focus again in its third appearance, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, caring for both poison counters and the new oil counters.

Mark Rosewater went on to explain the different ways proliferate has been used over the years.

“Proliferate was an important shift in how we thought of backwards compatibility, and was a big part of the push toward using counters to differentiate sets,” Rosewater said.

So how can such a beloved, influential mechanic be one of Magic's biggest mistakes?

How It Started…

Island (Phyrexia: All Will Be One) – Illustration by David Alvarez

Proliferate debuted in 2010, as one of the Phyrexians' mechanics in their war against the Mirrans.

It was a massive success, to the point that three years later Mark Rosewater named it, along with infect, one of his top 10 favorite mechanics of all time. It was a popular mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin and one that players most wanted to see brought back.

But by 2018, and after a few attempts to please Magic players, the designers were noting that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

“You might think proliferate is pretty versatile, as most sets use counters these days,” Rosewater wrote in his Storm Scale article about the Mirrodin mechanics from 2018. “The problem is that it being in the set has a huge impact on how and where you can use counters. The fact that counters get used a lot these days makes that a pretty big deal.”

As it turns out, the open-endedness that deck-builders love is a bit of a headache for developers.

… And How's It Going

Much like we players love to complain about Magic, the designers do work hard to bring back mechanics we love.

Although War of the Spark was not focused on Phyrexians (the set's big bad was Nicol Bolas), it had tons of +1/+1 and loyalty counters, making proliferate a good fit. The team went as far as to create the amass mechanic as a way to have proliferate in the set without it being problematic. It also gave the mechanic a different feel from its previous iteration: now proliferate was more about building up than tearing down.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One introduced oil counters, bringing proliferate back for a third time.

“Proliferate has been popular in every set it's ever appeared in,” Mark Rosewater wrote near the end of 2023.

While noting its popularity, he also discussed how it shows that backward compatibility can be very restrictive when looking ahead.

“Proliferate is a beloved mechanic,” he wrote on his blog around the same time, “but it’s hard to design around, so I do think it will return one day, but not often.”

The Problem with Proliferate

Elesh Norn – Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

According to Mark Rosewater's post two days ago, proliferate is too restrictive in how much it limits design space.

“A ton of digital-exclusive cards are literally just ‘this thing uses counters but we didn’t want them to be proliferated.'”

The cards released thus far in 2024 – always keeping in mind these are designed a couple of years in advance – support Rosewater's assertion that proliferate is on the downswing: Fallout has a few new proliferate cards, the same as Modern Horizons 3, but no new proliferate card has made it to a Standard set this year.

Proliferate commanders will always be extremely popular, and it's hard to imagine we'll ever get an MTG set without counters.

But one of Magic's most popular, best mechanics may have been too good for its own good. Popular acclaim pushed Magic designers to return to it twice – but it seems unlikely they will bring proliferate back anytime soon.

Looking to dive into the rest of Magic's terrible mechanics? Check out our list of the worst 16 mechanics in Magic to see what else might make MaRo's bottom 20.