The Simic Combine welcomes you back to Prerelease Primer Week at the Rules Tips Blog. Today we’ll be going over our lab notes to discuss the findings of our latest experimentation on Adapt.

Following Graft and Evolve, the Simic’s mechanic this time around is Adapt, which will always come in the form of {COST}: Adapt N. The savvy among you will recognize this as an activated ability- pay the cost, get the effect. When you are told to Adapt a creature, you check to see if it has any +1/+1 counters on it as the ability resolves; if it does not, then you’ll place N +1/+1 counters on it. So for example, Aeromunculus has Adapt 1. If we activate that, and Aeromunculus has no counters on it as Adapt resolves, we’ll place a single +1/+1 counter on it. Sauroform Hybrid has Adapt 4, which means it would get four counters, not one. Also important to note, it only checks “does this creature have counters?” as the ability RESOLVES. It could gain and lose a +1/+1 counter inbetween activation and resolution, so long as it has none once the Adapt ability is actually resolving.

But unchecked growth and evolution are dangerous (and hard to study), so Adapt is more controlled. The counters are only given if the creature was utterly lacking them as Adapt resolved; you can’t keep pumping 2GU into Aeromunculus to make it bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s completely legal to activate it if it’s already got a counter, just… nothing will happen. It also doesn’t matter how many counters the creature has, or where they came from! Putting a single +1/+1 counter onto your Zegana, Utopian Speaker via Stony Strength it’ll basically disable her Adapt 4 ability, since she has counters now- even though it’s 1 and not 4, and it didn’t come from Adapt. That said, if you can yank that counter off of her for fun and profit (with, say, Combine Guildmage) you’re welcome to fire up that Adapt and put 4 more on to replace that one.

That’s really all there is to Adapt- be mindful of your counters, and don’t get too greedy. Happy Adapting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for our last mechanic overview to get you ready for your Prereleases!

Today’s Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez