#1286: Proliferate
Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast
Wizards of the Coast
4.7 • 801 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This podcast talks about the history of the proliferate mechanic.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm pulling out my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for their drive to work. |
| 0:06.0 | Okay, so today it's all about the polyphorate mechanic. One of the all-time favorite mechanics that I've ever been involved in making. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm a huge fan of proliferate. So we're going to talk about proliferate. We're going to talk about where it came from and its evolution. |
| 0:22.4 | It's been in a bunch of sets. |
| 0:24.2 | And today's Poliferate story. |
| 0:27.2 | Okay, first and foremost, what is Polyphorate for those that might not know the mechanic? |
| 0:32.0 | So it's a keyword action, sort of a verb that does something. And what it says is, for every player and |
| 0:42.4 | permanent on the battlefield that has a counter on it, you may choose to put another copy of that |
| 0:51.1 | counter. So for example, if a player has a counter, say a poison counter, |
| 0:57.0 | you may choose to give them another poison counter. If a permanent has a plus one plus one |
| 1:01.6 | counter or an oil counter or a minus one minus one counter, you may choose to give an additional |
| 1:07.4 | counter. If a permanent or player has more than one type of counter, you may |
| 1:13.3 | choose to give them each of one of those types of counters. So if a creature has a plus one, plus |
| 1:19.0 | one and a oil counter on it, you can give it an additional plus one plus one and additional oil |
| 1:23.5 | counter, for example. You are not obligated to give anybody a counter. If you have a poison counter and you wish not to have another poison counter, for example. You are not obligated to give anybody a counter. If you have a poison |
| 1:29.3 | counter and you wish not to have another poison counter, you can avoid giving yourself another |
| 1:33.6 | poison counter. And you can pick and choose which permanence you want to give a counter and which |
| 1:38.3 | permanence you do not want to give a counter. You are not obligated to do that. And as far as players go or permanents go, you can choose any player, any permanent. |
| 1:49.4 | The only rule is it must have a counter on it. |
| 1:52.1 | You cannot, in order to proliferate, you are making additional counters for a counter |
| 1:56.2 | that exists. |
| 1:57.0 | You can't make a counter that doesn't exist. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wizards of the Coast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wizards of the Coast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.