The 48 Best +1/+1 Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 3, 2026

Hardened Scales | Illustration by Mark Winters

If you’ve ever touched a Magic set, you’ve probably seen +1/+1 counters, as they’re almost always there. They might not be a meaningfully supported archetype in most sets, but you still find them, often as a boon for doing something simple like triggering heroic on Phalanx Leader, to juicing up a card like Ancient Animus, or just to make an aggressive deck more viable.

With such a rich card pool to draw from, there are some incredible cards that utilize +1/+1 counters inside and outside combat.

Let’s get into it and figure out what the best +1/+1 counter cards are!

What Are +1/+1 Counter Cards in MTG?

Heliod, Sun-Crowned | Illustration by Lius Lasahido

+1/+1 counters are game objects or markers that go onto creatures and increase their power and toughness for as long as though counters remain; these have been around since Legends, debuting with Infinite Authority. While Magic has many, many other kinds of counters, +1/+1 counters show up incredibly frequently.

This frequency means that there's tons of variety within cards that produce +1/+1 counters. We have cards that put counters on other permanents, permanents that add counters to themselves, and some mix therein. This list focuses on cards that can put counters on themselves and others, with a bias towards Commander and Cube, though all-stars in other formats can show up.

#48. Writhing Chrysalis

Pour one out for Modern Horizons 3 Limited, which warped around Writhing Chrysalis as an obscenely above-rate 4-drop that mucked up the field and ramped out other Eldrazi. It still lives in Pauper, giving decks a powerful threat alongside fodder for cards like Deadly Dispute and Eviscerator's Insight.

#47. Dionus, Elvish Archdruid

Elf decks go wide and small, requiring buffs to cross the finish line. Dionus, Elvish Archdruid gives them a significant buff with its counters, which stick around if your opponents answer Dionus, and you get a huge mana boost off untapping Elvish Archdruid and similar cards.

#46. Lonis, Genetics Expert

Lonis, Genetics Expert lends itself well to infinite combos with cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks and Extruder. You can still play it fairly by leveraging strong artifact payoffs like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Academy Manufactor, though you lose much of its potency.

#45. Celes, Rune Knight

Celes, Rune Knight shines most in combo decks. Putting +1/+1 counters on creatures as they leave the graveyard breaks persist in half, and that’s the most common use of this legend. If you want to combo, it’s an excellent choice.

#44. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave has a fascinating ability to go with its saboteur growth. It becomes a very resilient commander that benefits greatly from keyword counters in addition to +1/+1 counters.

#43. Revitalizing Repast / Old-Growth Grove

Revitalizing Repast might be the ideal MDFC; it fulfills a very necessary role, protection, while providing synergy through the counter, and it’s not even below rate for the effect! I’d run this in most EDH decks that support its color identity, even without counter synergies.

#42. Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Heliod, Sun-Crowned makes you work for your counters, but it’s one of the most reliable lifegain payoffs in the game. And we can’t overlook the combo with Walking Ballista.

#41. Rosie Cotton of South Lane

Rosie Cotton of South Lane boosts the power of any token deck as it effectively reads “each token you create enters with a +1/+1 counter”, but its true strength lies in its combo potential.

There are multiple creatures that make tokens when they get counters, making this a combo machine! A few notable cards it pairs with for 2-card infinite combos include:

• Basking Broodscale
• Scurry Oak
• Herd Baloth
• Lonis, Genetics Expert

#40. Virtue of Loyalty

Virtue of Loyalty makes up for its high mana cost with its adventure, Ardenvale Fealty. The combination of buffing your team and untapping them gives you a powerful offensive and defensive front in one card.

It also opens the door to niche synergies where you reuse creatures with activated abilities like Loran of the Third Path or squeeze more value from your mana dorks by casting spells at instant speed.

#39. Denry Klin, Editor in Chief

Counter decks are often concerned with getting the counters on their creatures, which makes Denry Klin, Editor in Chief a handy tool for distribution. My go-to combination is a +1/+1 counter and a first strike counter, with a heavy emphasis on obtaining shield counters from another source like Boon of Safety.

#38. Generous Pup

Generous Pup’s a gem from Jumpstart 2025 that nearly passed me by. It takes a little work to get this good boy going, but counters decks love cheap cards that makes spells like Luminarch Aspirant and proliferate spells much, much stronger.

#37. Galadriel, Light of Valinor

Spreading counters around might be the least of Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s boons, but it gives this value engine a way to close out the game once you’ve had your fun with the mana and card draw, saving you from spinning your wheels all game.

#36. Catti-brie of Mithral Hall

Catti-brie of Mithral Hall is an interesting equipment commander that begs to get equipped with a Basilisk Collar, Gorgon Flail, or even Dissection Tools for the deadly combination of first strike and deathtouch.

This commander offers an interesting deckbuilding challenge: You need some counter payoffs to support the commander, but you also need room for your equipment and cards like Puresteel Paladin. It seems fiddly, in the best way.

#35. Rishkar, Peema Renegade + Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter

Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter aren’t exactly the same card, but they fill a similar role as cheap plays that scatter around a few counters and, more importantly, turn your team into mana dorks. These cards provide the explosive power EDH decks need.

#34. Sarulf, Realm Eater

Commander players love their board wipes; with Sarulf, Realm Eater, you can put yours right in the command zone! This card benefits greatly from edicts like Tribute to the Wild and Mire in Misery that force each of your opponents to sacrifice something for three counters. You won’t be the most popular player, but you’ll have the biggest commander.

#33. Bulwark Ox

Bulwark Ox is the Wish Luminarch Aspirant, at least where counter distribution is concerned. Only adding counters after saddling weakens the card dramatically. But in a dedicated counter deck, the protection option is incredible; a Heroic Intervention that attacks and spreads counters excels in decks that reliably have counters on their creatures.

#32. Thickest in the Thicket

Atrocious name aside, Thickest in the Thicket has some real text. We’ve seen similar effects on cards like Triumph of Ferocity or Colossal Majesty, but getting two cards is a significant upgrade. Between the counter distribution on ETB and the general benefits of being in green, we should have no trouble maintaining the largest creature.

#31. Aragorn and Arwen, Wed

The combination of lifegain and counters on one card makes Aragorn and Arwen, Wed a powerful synergy piece. You’ll have no trouble leveraging it as a finisher, and you often get a large enough burst of lifegain to enable powerful payoffs like Case of the Uneaten Feast and Ratchet, Field Medic. It has about as much impact as you could want from a big 6-mana creature.

#30. Arwen, Weaver of Hope

Arwen, Weaver of Hope fulfills a crucial role in any +1/+1 counter deck; that of distribution. There are other 3-mana counter distributors—Good-Fortune Unicorn and Master Chef come to mind, and both are good—but this is the best of them because it benefits from our counters. We can play this early to get the train rolling, but if we already have something like Luminarch Aspirant, Arwen benefits from that and spreads the love around.

#29. Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon

For Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, +1/+1 counters are just a means to an end, with that end being an army of Gnomes to overwhelm your opponents. This might be the best deck ever for Cathars' Crusade and Impact Tremors because of how swiftly it takes over a board.

#28. Ms. Bumbleflower

Ms. Bumbleflower asks a simple question: What if the group hug deck had a knife?

This friendly bunny buffs your board while giving your opponents cards, which admittedly sounds like a bad deal, but you get so much more value! Casting two spells a turn is trivial in Bant () thanks to green ramp, so you draw as many cards as you give away while growing your team into threats other players are surprisingly willing to overlook so long as the cards keep flowing.

#27. Andúril, Narsil Reforged

Andúril, Narsil Reforged is a game-warping equipment. Players get the city’s blessing in Commander without trying, and this turns the meagerest of board presences into an army worthy of Gondor, which makes rebuilding from a wrath a breeze.

#26. Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener

Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener distributes tons of counters between its backup ability and the attack trigger. The backup ability makes this a strong card as it allows this to function as enabler and payoff, making it a great choice for a counters commander.

#25. Sovereign Okinec Ahau

Sovereign Okinec Ahau has claimed a spot as one of Selesnya’s () most popular counters commanders thanks to its incredible snowball potential; few cards distribute counter en masse as efficiently as this feline and ward gives it a decent shot at attacking at least once.

#24. Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Ezuri, Claw of Progress is a devastating commander because its counters are nearly impossible to interact with. Once you get that first experience counter, you can proliferate endlessly thanks to Simic’s () deep roots in the mechanic. Removing Ezuri only slows it down since you maintain the experience counters—you can kill it, but that doesn’t stop it from dumping 12 counters on a Walking Ballista the following turn.

#23. Forgotten Ancient

Forgotten Ancient is among the most played +1/+1 counter cards on EDHREC, for good reason. Not only does it become a massive threat in short order, but it makes anything else you need to be threatening into a killer monster worthy of attention. It’s an incredible Commander card because it plays off the multiplayer aspect of the format incredibly well.

#22. Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder

The best counter distribution is reliable, which Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder embodies. If your deck cares about +1/+1 counters, it plays creatures, so Rocksteady will trigger. It exists in a similar vein to Bristly Bill, Spine Sower in that it rewards you for playing the game with counters—though it’s weaker than Bill. Still, there’s room for this, especially if your deck dips into black to use partner with or you do flicker nonsense.

#21. Voja, Jaws of the Conclave

I’m rather amused that Voja without Tolsimir is stronger than with it; I suppose Voja, Jaws of the Conclave proves that the elf companion has been holding it back.

This card’s just immensely powerful as an elfball commander that gives your team a huge boost. Ward is quite relevant on this card; because elves make so much mana, Voja often hits the board on turn 3 or 4, with ward forcing your opponents to have Swords or Path or bust. Its abilities counting itself pushes this way over the top; it often attacks as an 8/8 or better that first combat step.

#20. The Swarmlord

The Swarmlord hits the battlefield incredibly hard as a massive threat that replaces itself—and any other creature with counters—when it dies, which poses a variety of problems for your opponents. While it’s a fine commander, it also plays well out of the 98 of decks with partner commanders to increase the number of times you’ve cast a commander spell.

#19. Incubation Druid

Incubation Druid becomes a powerful mana dork if you activate adapt—or slip a counter onto it from another source, which is probably more common. However you handle it, an on-rate mana dork that becomes an above-rate one with little to no work excels in just about any deck.

#18. Fathom Mage

One of EDH’s most prominent +1/+1 counter staples, Fathom Mage is a font of card advantage. You can generally squeeze a card out of evolve each turn, but this only gets better as you stack additional ways to get counters on your creatures.

#17. Champion of Lambholt

Champion of Lambholt grows incredibly quickly and is one of the most annoying threats you can have in any creature-based deck. At the very least, your opponents can’t chump with random tokens while this is in play; very often, they can’t block at all and watch your creatures run rampant over their planeswalkers and life totals.

#16. Ozolith, the Shattered Spire

Ozolith, the Shattered Spire sits in that special place as a payoff for playing counters, because it doubles them, and a distributor, with the activated ability. And they see each other, so you get two counters for 2 mana! The entire thing is just incredibly on-rate; these decks take every Hardened Scales variant they can find, and this is one of the best.

#15. Tale of Toph and Katara

Tale of Katara and Toph is an incredibly efficient counter distributor because its distribution is nearly free. Are you attacking? Using mana dorks? Then most of your creatures are tapping naturally. You can accelerate this or make it even more consistent with vehicles or cards with station, which allows you to tap creatures without endangering them. A 3-mana enchantment that doesn’t impact the board has its weaknesses, but the reliable counter distribution outweighs them.

#14. Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11

Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 is a fine support card. A Hardened Scales variant that comes with counter distribution in the form of a Mutagen token slots into practically any green +1/+1 counter deck. It’s an upgrade to Pir, Imaginative Rascal, assuming you aren’t running Toothy and strictly care about +1/+1 counters.

#13. Innkeeper’s Talent

Innkeeper's Talent made a name for itself in Standard alongside valiant cards like Heartfire Hero and, at one point, in a combo deck with Vraska, Betrayal's Sting. It’s also excellent in Commander because it compresses two vital parts of the +1/+1 counter strategy into a single card.

Looking Cube-ward, it’s an excellent addition to many mid-powered Cubes. The second ability gives very relevant protection, and it’s a wonder with mana dorks as it gives you an outlet for their mana and repays your Llanowar Elves by making it into a real creature.

#12. Luminarch Aspirant

Luminarch Aspirant tends to be one of the best white 2-drops in any Cube it finds itself in; it plays as a 2-mana 2/2 that makes subsequent creatures better or allows your 1-drops to hit even harder. It creates a steady stream of pressure that demands a quick answer or it runs away with the game.

#11. Court of Garenbrig

Court of Garenbrig is an exceptional Magic card because it gives you the monarch so early, as soon as turn 2 with a dork. Claiming the crown that quickly often gives you a turn or two before your opponents are prepared to challenge you, and the counters it provides makes you more likely to win said challenges.

#10. Biophagus

The lack of checks on Biophagus consistently staggers me. It’s a perfect mana fixer that rewards you for casting creatures, but it doesn’t require you to for some unholy reason. Any creature deck would be happy to run this, even without counter synergies.

#9. Gyre Sage

I’ve always considered Gyre Sage one of the biggest payoffs for playing a dedicated +1/+1 counters strategy because it pumps out so much mana. This gets weaker the further you stray from mono-green, but I can live with only spending 4 or 5 of the 6 mana my dork provided.

#8. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower + Scythecat Cub

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Scythecat Cub are exceptionally dangerous creatures that come down early and make themselves—or other creatures—into serious threats, especially when paired with fetch lands. Green decks have so many ways to make land drops and maximize these creatures, especially since their respective counter doubling abilities effectively remove any ceiling one might place on them.

#7. Ghave, Guru of Spores

Ghave, Guru of Spores is a classic commander and a major red flag because it goes infinite with any card that has more than three lines of text. Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but not by much! While you can technically play this fairly, nobody will believe you, and you probably have a combo in the deck you didn’t know about anyway.

#6. Marchesa, the Black Rose

Marchesa, the Black Rose is notable for being an incredibly powerful +1/+1 counter card in Grixis (), which rarely dabbles in counters; that’s typically reserved for Bant colors.

And it’s incredibly powerful, giving you tons and tons of synergy. Do you want to mess around with sacrifice cards? Why not recur your fodder? Trying to mess around with flicker cards? Marchesa gets you a free ETB. It also encourages you to, you know, attack your opponents and play the game, which many of the EDH pods I’ve played in could use.

#5. Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Elspeth, Storm Slayer is one of the strongest Magic cards printed in the past year. Its 0 ability just wins games, often out of nowhere since you can use it the turn you play it. That makes it a fantastic +1/+1 counters card and a very powerful planeswalker; most planeswalkers need time to win, but Elspeth is as fast as Overrun with the option to grind out your opponents with tokens and removal.

#4. Ouroboroid

Ouroboroid takes over games with very little effort. Since its combat trigger puts counters on itself, it scales just as quick as your board. Putting one counter on your entire team is strong, but beatable. But when two more counters are added next turn? Three the following?

It’s obscene before factoring in cards that increase the number of counters distributed or other ways to pump the snake. It puts a ticking clock on the table and earns the “kill on sight” moniker.

#3. Walking Ballista

Walking Ballista is obscene. You get incredible board control, a card that works both as a unique combo piece and a payoff for anything generating infinite mana, plus a fantastic mana sink in the hand or on the board. It does pretty much everything you could hope for.

#2. Psychic Frog

The only Cube I’ve played where Psychic Frog was included but not the best card is Vintage Cube, what with all the power and stuff running around. It’s already proved too strong for Legacy!

It just does everything. It’s highly resilient to removal, as burn spells can’t touch it. It draws cards, it ignores blockers, and it just goes over the top. It reminds me a lot of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer in that both cards seem to be the absolute peak of what you could expect for their respective mana costs.

#1. The Great Henge

Tears of joy were shed when The Great Henge rotated from Standard.

This card is simply the best creature support card you can play, or at least very close to the top. The combination of pressure, card draw, and mana production makes it a one-card value engine. It excels in Commander, which encourages you to play creatures large enough that this is mana neutral because somebody at Wizards thought that would be an okay ceiling and games go long enough to really milk the card advantage.

Best +1/+1 Counter Payoffs

The first level of payoffs for +1/+1 counter cards are counter doublers. These can be true doublers like Doubling Season and Branching Evolution or pseudo-doublers like Hardened Scales and Pir, Imaginative Rascal that technically only add an additional counter, but are close enough since counters are often distributed one at a time. The more expensive ones are restricted to casual play while more efficient ones work better in stronger decks.

Many cards enhance creatures carrying counters, typically with keywords. Abzan Falconer and Tuskguard Captain are classics here, but there are also cards like Armorcraft Judge and Inspiring Call that are more general rewards.

Some cards reward you for putting +1/+1 counters on themselves or other creatures, most notably Danny Pink, Basking Broodscale, and Scurry Oak. The latter options are particularly useful as combo pieces with cards like Blade of the Bloodchief and Rosie Cotton of South Lane.

Looking beyond cards that directly reference +1/+1 counters, these decks can and should make ample use of cards that care about modified creatures. Kodama of the West Tree is already a counter staple, but Araña, Heart of the Spider, Uncivil Unrest, and Kami of Celebration should all be on your radar.

Proliferate cards work extremely well with +1/+1 counters because they add lots of power to the board. Instant speed options like Ripples of Potential and Radstorm are fun since they work as combat tricks, but just increasing the power of your board each turn with Thrummingbird and Norn's Choirmaster poses serious issues for your opponents.

Wrap Up

Walking Ballista | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

Most creature decks can benefit from a card or two that handles +1/+1 counters. That might be Luminarch Aspirant or Innkeeper's Talent just spicing up your Cube deck with some extra power, or it could be a dedicated build-around seeking to exploit Winding Constrictor and Ezuri, Claw of Progress. However you do it, these buffs benefit you greatly!

What’s your favorite +1/+1 counter card? Do you build around the counters in Commander, or are they simply a little bonus? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and keep stacking those counters!