Why doesn’t doubling season work with planeswalkers?

Why Doesn’t Doubling Season Work with Planeswalkers?

Doubling Season is a powerful card in Magic: The Gathering that allows any permanent with counters to add twice the normal number of counters when a player chooses to put a counter on it. This card is often used to create powerful, counter-dominating creatures and abilities. However, there is one glaring exception to this rule: planeswalkers. Why is this the case?

Initial Loyalty

To understand why Doubling Season doesn’t work with planeswalkers, it’s essential to understand how planeswalkers work. Planeswalkers enter the battlefield with a set amount of loyalty, which is a form of counter. This loyalty is not a traditional counter, as it’s not added or removed through game effects, but rather serves as a tracking mechanism for the plane-walker’s power.

Doubling Season and Loyalty

When Doubling Season enters the battlefield, it modifies the counter rules to state that when a player would put one or more counters on a permanent, they instead put twice that number of counters on it. However, this modification does not affect planeswalkers, which enter the battlefield with their initial loyalty instead of a counter.

The Consequences

The result is that Doubling Season has no effect on planeswalkers. The loyalty of a planeswalker is not modified by Doubling Season, meaning that the loyalty remains unchanged. This is significant, as planeswalkers are often used as game-changing abilities that require a set amount of loyalty to function.

What About Shatterstorm?

Another question that often arises is what happens when a board wipe, such as Shatterstorm, is played. In this scenario, planeswalkers will lose all their loyalty, effectively setting them back to zero. This can be devastating, as it prevents planeswalkers from using their abilities for the remainder of the game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Doubling Season does not work with planeswalkers because it modifies the counter rules to apply to traditional counters, not loyalty. This distinction is crucial, as planeswalkers enter the battlefield with their initial loyalty, which is not modified by Doubling Season. While Doubling Season is a powerful card, its limitations should be understood and respected in order to fully appreciate its capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Doubling Season modifies the counter rules, but not the loyalty rules
• Planeswalkers enter the battlefield with their initial loyalty, not counters
• The loyalty of a planeswalker is not modified by Doubling Season
• Planeswalkers will lose all their loyalty if a board wipe is played

Additional Resources

For further reading on planeswalkers and Doubling Season, we recommend checking out the official Magic: The Gathering rules and FAQ.