Can you proliferate someone's commander tax?
For example, after you send your opponent's commander to his/her zone you proliferate the commander tax and make sure it cant be cast again by making it too expensive to cast it.
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1I suspect the confusion here comes from the fact that often are used to keep track of commander tax in the same way as they would keep track of counters. On the table they look the same but are different from a rules perspective. – Fr33dan May 6 '19 at 21:40
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No.
Proliferate only deals with counters.
701.26a To proliferate means to choose any number of permanents and/or players that have a counter, then give each one additional counter of each kind that permanent or player already has.
The commander tax has nothing to do with a counter. A counter is a physical object that is used when an effect tells you to use one.
121.1. A counter is a marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics and/or interacts with a rule, ability, or effect. Counters are not objects and have no characteristics. Notably, a counter is not a token, and a token is not a counter. Counters with the same name or description are interchangeable.
The commander tax does not use counters at all.
903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the "commander tax."
answered Apr 29 '19 at 17:08
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Counters are often used to mark things that are not technically counters for the sake of convenience (e.g. you may use a dice to count prowess triggers in a complicated stack for example), and I certainly do this for Commander Tax. However I'm constantly telling certain players in my playgroup to not use counters to represent the damage boost from e.g. Stromkirk Captain, because it introduces confusion with actual +1/+1 counters. – Soulus101 May 8 '19 at 14:39
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1@Soulus101 It's tricky because the word "counter" can mean "any object you use to keep track of stuff", but when used in the rulebook, it has a more specific meaning. Similar to how a "token card" is a "card" in terms of general English usage, but it is not a "card" in Magic rules. – GendoIkari May 8 '19 at 15:36
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4Yup, hence my insistence that people not use convenience-counters in the same location as rulebook-counters. It's a balance between doing the maths right and keeping track of board state vs. rules violations. – Soulus101 May 10 '19 at 15:54
No; proliferate duplicates counters and only counters:
701.26a To proliferate means to choose any number of permanents and/or players that have a counter, then give each exactly one additional counter of a kind that permanent or player already has.
and the commander tax rule does not mention counters (even though you might use the same dice/counters to keep track of the number of times):
903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the "commander tax."
The number of times a player has cast their commander from the command zone is part of the game state itself. It doesn't actually use counters as far as the game rules are concerned, even though players may use physical "counters" such as dice or coins to keep track. The commander tax is defined in the rules (CR 903.8), and is equivalent to each commander having the following rules text:
You may cast this card from the command zone if you pay an additional {2} for each time you've previously cast it from the command zone this game.
The commander tax is an additional cost based on the number of times you've previously cast your commander from the command zone. Because proliferate only affects counters (as defined by the game rules), it doesn't impact the commander tax.
