There was a time when counters didn’t cancel each other out on the same permanent; you could have a bunch of +1/+1 counters and a few -1/-1 counters on a creature and they’d just co-exist happily on that creature, in case anything cared. With the Lorwyn block, that got changed up because it was a little confusing, and it also allowed you to do cool stuff like use +1/+1 counters to cancel out the -1/-1 counters from Persist, ‘resetting’ the creatures (or using -1/-1 counters to do the same with Undying, though that came a bit later!)

But it’s worth noting that this is the ONLY time counters cancel out. Blaze counter and Ice counter on the same Dark Depths? That’s fine. Your Wall of Roots shrunk for mana production over the past few turns, and you want to try and cancel that out with Sacred Boon or Living Armor? No dice. Sleep and Awakening counters, Despair and Devotion counters, Healing and Death counters, no matter how silly they seem together, they do NOT cancel out. Only +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters cancel, and only with each other. So you’re not gonna be able to ‘reset’ your Wall of Roots with any sort of counters! Not with +0/+1, not with +1/+1, not with Fungus, etc, etc.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Trevor Nunez