Fungus counter

Fungus counter
Counter
Use	Freeze creature; Saproling created on creature death
Placed on	Creatures
Introduced	Mirage
Last used	Urza's Saga
Statistics
2 counter creation cards 100%
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oracle:"Fungus counter"

Fungus counters are a type of counter introduced in Mirage. They are a counter for creatures and have had two different effects with one use freezing the affected creature while another spawned saprolings on their death.

Description

Fungus counters first appeared on Mindbender Spores in Mirage. It is a Wall which creates four Spore counters on creatures it blocks against. It freezes the creature preventing it from untapping while it has any counters on it but one counter being removed each upkeep step. This represents the fungus spreading on the creature from the wall.

They returned in Urza's Saga with Sporogenesis which was an enchantment that had a different effect for them. In this case it added a fungus counter to a creature each upkeep and when any of those creature's died, a 1/1 green Saproling token would be created. These counters remained only until the enchantment left the battlefield. This effect represents the fungus role in the decomposition of the dead.

Trivia

• In Magic Online, the counter is colored green as its considered a positive effect and shares its icon with Growth, Matrix, Petal, Polyp, Pupa, Rust, Spore and Vitality counters.