Keyword counter

Keyword counter

 

List of cards

 

Keyword counter
Counter
Use	Keyword ability gain
Placed on	Creatures
Introduced	Mystery Booster
Last used	Modern Horizons 3
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oracle:"Keyword counter"

A Keyword counter is a counter that gives a permanent they're on a keyword ability. The game mechanic was featured in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

Description

A permanent with a keyword counter on it gains that keyword. Use the counter's timestamp to determine how this interacts with continuous effects. The timestamp of a counter is the most recent time that any counter was put onto that permanent.

For this group of counters, having more than one of the same counter provides no additional benefit. Note that if these counters end up on a noncreature permanent, it won't necessarily apply immediately, but it will if the permanent becomes a creature. (The exceptions here are exalted, hexproof, indestructible, deathtouch, and lifelink, which work even if they end up on a noncreature permanent. Deathtouch and lifelink only matter if that noncreature permanent can deal damage somehow.)

During its introduction in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, several spells rewarded creatures with particular keywords (keyword "lords"), as well as multiple creatures and spells that granted the choice of several keywords.

History

The Chimeras from Visions were the first cards to (kind of) use keyword counters. If R&D remade them today, they would use keyword counters.

Keyword counters were introduced on a test card in the Mystery Booster set (Recycla-bird with flying counters).

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and Commander 2020 widely expanded on this with ten more keyword counters. Double strike and indestructible counters only appear on cards in the Ikoria Commander set, and not in the main set.

With the Kaldheim cards Ascendant Spirit and Ascent of the Worthy, which both featured Flying Counters as a mechanic, and Tyrite Sanctum which featured an Indestructible Counter as a mechanic, Keyword Counters slowly moved to deciduous status. By the time of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, deciduous status was achieved.

Initially, keyword counters only used the evergreen keyword lists. The Lux Foundation Library introduced shadow counters followed quickly by Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress in the The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth holiday release. Modern Horizons 3 brought the Exalted counter on Emissary of Soulfire.

Due to the limited functionality of a haste counter, it took until Indominus Rex, Alpha to print it, as giving it a haste counter would draw an extra card.

Types of keyword counters

Keyword counter punch cards

Beadle & Grimms metal counters for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

• Deathtouch counter
• Double strike counter
• First strike counter
• Flying counter
• Haste counter
• Hexproof counter
• Indestructible counter
• Lifelink counter
• Menace counter
• Reach counter
• Shadow counter
• Trample counter
• Vigilance counter

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Keyword Counter

A marker placed on an object that modifies its characteristics by granting it a keyword. See rule 122, “Counters.”

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 122.1b A keyword counter on a permanent or on a card in a zone other than the battlefield causes that object to gain that keyword. The keywords that a keyword counter can be are flying, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, exalted, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, shadow, trample, and vigilance, as well as any variants of those keywords. See rule 613.1f.

Rulings

• A permanent with a keyword counter on it has that keyword.
• For determining the interaction of continuous effects, the timestamp of a keyword counter on an object is the most recent time that any counter was put on that object. Removing a keyword counter doesn't change the timestamp of any remaining counters.
• Among the keywords that a keyword counter can grant, multiple instances of any one of these keywords are redundant.
• Some Ikoria packs include a punch-out card with counters that appear in the set. These aren't required for play. As with other counters, players may use any mutually agreeable method to represent the counters.

Trivia

• In Magic Online, keyword counters are colored purple rather than the green used for counters with positive effects.