This article’s question (and the previous article’s, too) comes from Sidratul Chowdhury, who writes:
I recently made a deck with Daghatar the Adamant as my commander. The deck uses tokens and counters to help its goal of synergy with counter lords like Bramblewood Paragon, or Abzan Battle Priest. I want to follow the theme of the Abzan clan but I’m having a difficult time getting my Krumar (tokens) their dragon scales (counters). Even though this is at heart a theme deck I still want it to be as strong as possible so I am hoping you might have some suggestions on some of the best counter lords, token generators, and counter producers. Any advice you have would be much appreciated.
I have already covered the “token generators” part of Sidratul’s question, so it’s time to cover the rest!
So…what are the best options for widely distributing +1/+1 counters in Abzan colors?
Once again, we have a clear goal:
According to the flavor of the Abzan clan (or perhaps I should say the “Dromoka” clan), ALL THE DICE qualify as dragon scales, to be distributed among the clan’s teeming Krumar (token creatures). Unfortunately for flavor aficionados, I have some bad news: the “bolster” ability from the revised-timeline Dromoka clan, which is the canonical expression of exactly the flavor we are talking about, doesn’t really work well for us here. We are trying to put counters on LOTS of creatures, while “bolstering” means only putting counters on a single creature at a time. You may see the mechanic pop up here and there, but many such cards don’t do what our deck wants to be doing.
Perhaps, in fact, we should return to Sidratul’s question to help determine exactly what we do want our deck to be doing. He is interested in using “counter lords like […] Abzan Battle Priest.” To make those cards most effective, we basically want a lot of creatures, all with +1/+1 counters on them. Fortunately enough for his deck, such a move can be devastatingly effective during a Commander game. If you can get ten 1/1 Saproling tokens in play, then Gavony Township is essentially producing ten power every time you activate it. That’s a very good rate, and it's a good way to win games.
There are lots of cards that can produce tokens and/or +1/+1 counters, but not all of them will get featured in this article. A friend of mine recommended Primeval Bounty, for instance, because it is decent at both jobs—and I am happy to mention it here, but it’s a little bit too firmly situated in the “good stuff” category to get a place in any of the more specialized categories below.
We will cover all the best ways to get +1/+1 counters first, then cover the “lords” that reward you for having those counters.
We will cover all the best ways to get +1/+1 counters first, then cover the “lords” that reward you for having those counters.
Category 1: Putting +1/+1 Counters on All Your Creatures
This is the core of our plan, since we don’t want to be limited by the mana we have available: even if we have twenty creatures in play, there are a lot of cards that will reach all of them.
Cathars’ Crusade; Gavony Township; Mikaeus, the Lunarch; Ajani Goldmane; Ajani Steadfast; and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. These are the most straightforward, repeatable ways to put +1/+1 counters on all your creatures. Cathars’ Crusade is absurdly powerful in decks that put token creatures into play, getting out of control very quickly and making “counter lords” like Abzan Battle Priest have some really large creatures to work with. Gavony Township is the most reliable of these effects; although it costs quite a bit of mana to activate, it should be in any token-centric deck that can run it. Mikaeus, the Lunarch is a surprisingly good creature that should see more play in Commander, rather than being overshadowed by his “edgy” undead incarnation; even when you don’t have tokens to buff, he can always just pump himself up. Ajani Goldmane, Ajani Steadfast, and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar are all relatively similar—they cannot give creatures +1/+1 counters every single turn, but if you can protect them (with, say, tokens) then they can give you a new helping of counters every two or three turns. Ajani Goldmane, in particular, is the best at handing out +1/+1 counters since it only costs him one loyalty and also provides vigilance for the turn.
Archangel of Thune; Curse of Predation; Fangren Firstborn; Drana, Liberator of Malakir; and Necropolis Regent. These are the repeatable sources of global +1/+1 counters that take a bit more work: they require attacking and are therefore a bit harder to manage than the set of cards I discussed above. Archangel of Thune, to be honest, doesn’t actually require attacking (since it is amazing with, for instance, Soul Warden plus tokens), but the easiest way to trigger its ability is to attack with it and use lifelink. Fortunately, though, you don’t have to attack with any of your other creatures—though that is not the case with the other cards in this section. Curse of Predation and Fangren Firstborn are fairly similar, giving their +1/+1 counters as soon as your creatures attack, except that Curse is focused on only one player (but helps everyone else) while the Firstborn (as a low-toughness creature) is vastly more fragile than the enchantment. Drana, Liberator of Malakir is the harder-to-trigger version of this effect, since she has to actually deal damage to a player in order to provide any +1/+1 counters. (It’s worth noting, though, that you can sometimes use politics to get her through blockers: if you send a bunch of creatures at a strong player while sending only Drana at another player, that other player may be willing to take two damage in order to let your other forces hit a shared enemy harder.) Necropolis Regent is by far the most powerful of these cards, since she allows your creatures to get +1/+1 counters equal to the damage they deal, but she is also the hardest to trigger. If your token creatures are all quite small, then you’re likely going to be better served by a more streamlined and cheaper card.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest; Celestial Ancient; Munda’s Vanguard; and Phalanx Leader. These are the cards that put +1/+1 counters on all your creatures if you can meet some kind of specific condition. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is by far the best of them, since his condition is easiest to meet: opponents will often sacrifice permanents of their own accord (using any kind of fetchland, for instance), and having Mazirek alongside a Spawning Pit and some token creatures can produce a lot of counters very quickly. Celestial Ancient is clearly good in a deck that plays a lot of enchantments, Munda’s Vanguard is unplayable unless you can reliably produce an Ally buddy for him, and Phalanx Leader requires you to be able to target him. Perhaps both Phalanx Leader and Celestial Ancient would be satisfied with casting and sacrificing Rancor or Spirit Loop again and again?
Collective Effort, Abzan Ascendancy, Meadowboon, Titania’s Boon, Tempt with Glory, and Decree of Savagery. These are the cards that only provide global +1/+1 counters once. Collective Effort is definitely the best of the options here, since “killing a big creature” and “destroying an enchantment” are amazing bonuses to have stapled onto exactly the effect we want for only three mana. Abzan Ascendancy, in addition to its +1/+1 counters, is a great card for the kind of deck that Sidratul outlined at the beginning of this article in another way: people are definitely going to kill your “counter lords,” and getting a Spirit token for each dead nontoken creature is going to add up. Meadowboon and Titania’s Boon are very similar (especially if you use the evoke cost on the Elemental), although if you are doing any shenanigans with bouncing or reanimating creatures then Meadowboon is definitely the better card. Tempt With Glory is only worth playing when you will be relatively happy to get a single counter on all your creatures, since it is very unwise to assume that any opponents will go for your “tempting offer” unless you have some interesting politics going on. Decree of Savagery is well-named: it will absolutely murder people since it is an instant that can be cast after people choose their blockers. Most decks run cheaper effects like Beastmaster Ascension or Overwhelming Stampede instead of paying the nine mana for the decree, but being able to dump this many +1/+1 counters onto your creatures might make the Decree get the nod over those options. Its cycling trigger can be quite good on your commander, too, since it is uncounterable and draws you a card.
Category 1B: +1/+1 Counters on Creatures As They Appear
These are cards that you can set up ahead of time—with one of these on the battlefield, you can just play token-producing effects and have your creatures automatically enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters, no shenanigans required. Unfortunately, most of them can’t affect creatures that are already on the battlefield, so you will also want to include other cards from Category 1, above.
Juniper Order Ranger and Bloodspore Thrinax. These are the only options in Abzan colors (sorry, Master Biomancer) that can simply add a counter to every creature as it enters the battlefield. Juniper Order Ranger not only gives each new creature a counter but also grows huge in the process. Play this card! Bloodspore Thrinax is similarly perfect for a deck that wants to make tokens (that is, creatures to feed to its devour ability) and decks that want to distribute +1/+1 counters to those tokens—even if you don’t devour anything, any counters placed on this lizard will get shared with any new creatures entering your side of the battlefield.
Sigil Captain; Ivy Lane Denizen; Oran-Rief, the Vastwood; and Bramblewood Paragon. Here are the cards that are capable of putting +1/+1 counters onto certain subsets of creatures as they enter the battlefield. Sigil Captain is a fantastic card for Sidratul’s original deck concept, since the best way to get a lot of tokens is to settle for 1/1 creatures…that then become 3/3 creatures with the Captain on the field. Ivy Lane Denizen is a little weird, here: he can affect creatures that are already on the battlefield, and he can (instead of spreading out the +1/+1 counters) pile them all up onto fewer creatures. The Denizen is surprisingly effective if you are making a lot of green tokens (as with Aura Mutation or Avenger of Zendikar), but it’s worth noting that a lot of the best token-generation effects are white; check your token-generation colors before playing this card. The same advice goes for Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, which only gives its love to green creatures but should certainly be in your deck anyway since it only takes up a land slot. Bramblewood Paragon is already quite good as a cheap “counter lord” (and we will discuss her later on in this article in that role), but she is particularly excellent if you are playing enough Warrior tokens to trigger her ability frequently. If you’re playing several of these cards, and particularly Secure the Wastes / Sylvan Offering, then the Paragon is going to be particularly excellent.
Category 2: Swathes of +1/+1 Counters
These cards let you get a burst of +1/+1 counter production that may cover quite a few creatures but aren’t guaranteed to hit all of them. Generally, you just want to take the cards that appeal most to you from this category, rather than trying to play lots and lots of them.
Forgotten Ancient, Unspeakable Symbol, and Gladehart Cavalry. The first two cards here are the most open-ended and wide-ranging options available in this category: they are not even constrained by mana production. Forgotten Ancient is an amazing Magic card that should be in every deck that wants to play with +1/+1 counters, so I am not going to spend time explaining its many virtues—just play the thing and be happy that it exists. Unspeakable Symbol is a strange card that is better in Commander (since we start with 40 life) but still not actively good. Unless you are playing a lot of cards like Soul’s Attendant, Blighted Steppe, or Congregate, Unspeakable Symbol will have very limited returns: for three mana and nine life, you only get three +1/+1 counters, and the rate doesn’t get much better from there. In fact, that is the reason Gladehart Cavalry is included in this section, even though it is not technically “open-ended”: I wanted to put it next to Unspeakable Symbol because of the synergistic lifegain it represents. It is quite a powerful token-distributor in its own right, too, of course.
Strength of the Tajuru, Thrive, and Spoils of War. These are the “x-spell” options, capable of producing +1/+1 counters based on how much mana you have available. Strength of the Tajuru is a very powerful instant once you get into the late game, but it’s actually at its least efficient if you use it to spread single +1/+1 counters to as many creatures as possible (or to pile a bunch of counters onto a single creature). The sweet spot lies in the middle—with, say, nine mana, you will get the most overall power by putting four +1/+1 counters on each of four different creatures. Thrive is a very simple and effective spell for our purposes, even if its upside isn’t nearly as good as that of Strength of the Tajuru. Spoils of War is an interesting card that lets you distribute its counters wherever you want. It is limited by graveyards, but Commander graveyards are notorious for filling up; particularly late in a game, you may find that some opponents have too many creatures/artifacts in their graveyards for you to be able to pay the required X cost. To solve this issue, you could run the classic (and flavorful!) companion to this card: Spoils of Evil.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes; Abzan Charm; and Nissa’s Judgment. These are the cards that distribute +1/+1 counters while also having really significant OTHER benefits. Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is clearly very good at handing out counters, but he can also dig for cards to refill your hand. Abzan Charm can be an amazing removal spell or a card-draw spell if you don’t need to distribute two +1/+1 counters to your creatures. Nissa’s Judgment is primarily a really strong removal spell (in green!), but it also happens to hand out two counters in the process. If you have built your deck around +1/+1 counters, it is easy to imagine this spell dealing upwards of 20 damage.
Elven Rite, Lead by Example, Shoulder to Shoulder, Common Bond, and Stand Together. These are the normal, boring ways to quickly throw out +1/+1 counters to two creatures. Elven Rite and Lead by Example are identical except that the Rite is a sorcery; Shoulder to Shoulder is a cantrip, while Common Bond can technically put both its counters on a single creature. Stand Together is the only one that sticks out, here: it can be a really significant combat trick by throwing out four power at instant speed, but it does cost five mana, and you probably have better things to do at five mana in Commander.
Travel Preparations, Relief Captain, Reap What Is Sown, Incremental Growth, Blessings of Nature, and Verdant Confluence. These cards are the heavier hitters since they each provide +1/+1 counters to at least three creatures, which can go a long way toward buffing a decent percentage of your total creatures. Travel Preparations is one of the most efficient since it can tailor itself to your situation: if you only have two creatures that need counters, you can save the flashback for later. Relief Captain brings along a 3/2 body to go with its three +1/+1 counters and is very good with any creature-recursion plans you may have. Reap What Is Sown, Incremental Growth, and Blessings of Nature are all relatively similar, with some tweaks to distinguish them: Reap What Is Sown is an instant, Incremental Growth gives some additional power to two of its targets, and Blessings of Nature can hit a fourth creature (and is amazing if you hit the miracle cost). Verdant Confluence is (quite obviously) the card here with the most options available—it may not even seem primarily like a +1/+1-counter-distribution card, since most people use it as a ramp and recursion tool. In a deck that really cares about +1/+1 counters, though, the Confluence is even more powerful than it is in normal decks: putting two counters on each of two different creatures while returning an Elite Scaleguard from the graveyard can be a powerful play.
Jugan, the Rising Star; Vastwood Hydra; and Death’s Presence. All of these cards let you maintain your board presence after your creatures' death by giving away +1/+1 counters. Jugan, the Rising Star and Vastwood Hydra are very similar in that they both let you distribute those counters however you want, so they can actually turn into very effective ways to pump up a lot of creatures. Death’s Presence is slightly more awkward since you have to put each creature’s worth of counters on a single target, but that doesn’t matter if you’re playing with a lot of 1/1 creatures, and it can make killing your creatures into an actively bad idea for your opponents—which is always a good thing.
All three of these cards are vastly more effective if you play with sacrifice outlets, of course, and it’s wise to be playing with those outlets in a token-creature-centric deck anyway, so feel free to check the link I just included and choose your favorites.
Category 3: A Slow, Steady Drip of +1/+1 Counters
This category contains some cards that are less impressive but more reliable than the others we have talked about. They generally add counters to only one creature each turn, so they’re never going to be able to supply a full board of ten-plus creatures, but if you’re planning on a very long game then they can definitely pull their weight.
Bow of Nylea, Citadel Siege, Feast on the Fallen, and Retreat to Kazandu. These cards are all generally going to produce a counter or so a turn, for a long time: these enchantments are quite durable, since any enchantment removal at the table is likely to go to higher-priority targets. Bow of Nylea is actually really valuable for its “deathtouch while attacking” function, since it allows you to attack with some very weak creatures that nobody wants to trade their good creatures for. Its activated ability is versatile but not very powerful: the +1/+1 counter option (the one we care about) is probably the most impressive, but it’s still nothing to write home about. Still, the total package is quite solid. Citadel Siege is a fantastic card for Commander in general, and any deck that cares about +1/+1 counters can make good use of the steady flow that the “Khans” mode can provide. Feast on the Fallen can actually distribute quite a few counters since it triggers on all upkeeps rather than just your own, and any life loss at all will trigger it. Retreat to Kazandu is not a particularly powerful counter-producing effect (unless you cast Boundless Realms), but it can still give an intermittent stream of +1/+1 counters for no activation cost.
Anafenza, the Foremost; Dromoka, the Eternal; Dragonscale General; and Immaculate Magistrate. These are creatures that can add some +1/+1 counters to a single creature every turn, mostly by attacking. Anafenza, the Foremost is a good card in general (as a 4/4 for three mana who hoses opponents’ graveyards), and she happens to be able to distribute +1/+1 counters. That part of the card is a bit awkward, since the benefiting creature has to be tapped, but she’s worth playing anyway. Dromoka the Eternal is similarly a strong card in its own right, and its bolster ability is more powerful than Anafenza’s, but you don’t have a free choice of where to put the counters (because they have to go to a creature with the lowest toughness). Dragonscale General is similarly a “bolster” card and therefore a bit limited in its choice of which creatures to pump up, but if you’re attacking with a lot of tokens, you can get some huge piles of counters from the General. Immaculate Magistrate is either terrible or amazing: tapping to put one +1/+1 counter on a creature is pretty bad, but if you’re playing with lots of cards that make Elf tokens, it can become quite impressive.
Echoes of the Kin Tree, High Sentinels of Arashin, Golgari Guildmage, and Joraga Auxiliary. All of these cards let you pay a cost as many times as you want in order to distribute +1/+1 counters; because they are repeatable, they tend not to be very efficient. Echoes of the Kin Tree, as an enchantment that doesn’t look scary, will stay on the board for a long time, and it only costs three mana to distribute a counter to one of your most fragile creatures—this makes it a decent backup choice for when you MUST have +1/+1 counters on your creatures. High Sentinels of Arashin is a great card for a deck that wants to spread around +1/+1 counters: it will become a huge flying creature in no time, and if you have nothing better to do with your mana, you can hand out a counter every once in a while. Golgari Guildmage is the least efficient of all these options, but it has a solid other ability: in a token deck, being able to sacrifice an Insect token to get Ant Queen back from the graveyard is valuable, and in a “counter lords” deck, being able to sacrifice anything to get Abzan Falconer back is almost necessary. Joraga Auxiliary is probably a bit too expensive and single-minded to actually play, but if you’re looking for repeatable use of the “support” ability, she is literally the only option.
(As a final note regarding the generation of +1/+1 counters: if you are playing multiple ways to make Human tokens, then you can consider Deranged Outcast and Dearly Departed as ways to generate +1/+1 counters.)
Category 4: “Counter Lords” and Other Rewards
These are the reasons to put +1/+1 counters on as many creatures as possible. There are actually quite a lot of cards in Abzan colors that care whether or not your creatures have counters on them, and most of them are great at the kind of large-scale warfare that a token-based Commander deck is interested in.
Abzan Falconer, Abzan Battle Priest, Ivorytusk Fortress, Ainok Bond-Kin, Longshot Squad, Cenn’s Tactician, Mer-Ek Nightblade, Elite Scaleguard, and Oona’s Blackguard. These are the “top tier” counter lords since they provide relevant abilities to all qualifying creatures without your having to pay any mana costs. Abzan Falconer is quite possibly the best of all of them, since flying is such a powerful ability when you can give it to all of your creatures: on the turn you play the Falconer, it is quite possible that you can kill a player with your suddenly-flying forces. Abzan Battle Priest is similarly powerful, since there is only one problem with swinging all your creatures to kill a player: the other players. The life you gain from the Battle Priest can often be the only thing keeping you alive after you decide to alpha-strike a problematic opponent (and the other players get scared enough to swing at you). Ivorytusk Fortress gives your creatures a form of pseudo-vigilance, which is another way to attack but not let down your defenses. Remember: if it is absolutely critical that you untap your creatures, you should play the Fortress after combat, once people have already used their removal spells in efforts to blunt your attack. Similarly, Ainok Bond-Kin is fantastic as a defensive card: first-striking token creatures may not be a huge problem for opponents while attacking, but those tokens can gang up to kill just about anything (and not take any losses) while blocking. Longshot Squad is another good defensive creature that can be essential for token-based decks that might otherwise be lacking in aerial defense. Speaking of good defense, Cenn’s Tactician can not only distribute +1/+1 counters to some of your creatures but also let you cover two attackers with each blocker. Mer-Ek Nightblade is good on both offense and defense, especially if your creatures bearing +1/+1 counters are relatively disposable token creatures. Elite Scaleguard and Oona’s Blackguard are much more single-mindedly offensive, but they are good individually and can work together to run away with the game. The Scaleguard makes it incredibly difficult to block any of your creatures, and the Blackguard’s presence on the battlefield means that opponents’ sweeper effects and countermeasures (like Cyclonic Rift, Final Judgment, or Decree of Pain) can be stripped from their surprised hands with a successful swing. If you are ahead on the battlefield, suddenly casting Oona’s Blackguard and then sneaking through even a few creatures can put your opponents in topdeck mode, praying for a solution.
(Before we move on, just take a moment to imagine Ainok Bond-Kin, Longshot Squad, Cenn’s Tactician, and Mer-Ek Nightblade on the battlefield together. Now THAT is some good blocking.)
Battlefront Krushok, Bramblewood Paragon, Tuskguard Captain, Crowned Ceratok, Steppe Glider, Aquastrand Spider, Sporeback Troll, and Simic Basilisk. As we have seen, counter lords are often great in combination with each other, so we want to play as many as possible. These are the “second tier” counter lords for our token-based deck—either they provide abilities that don’t matter as much for a mass of token creatures, or they require you to spend some mana to get their benefits—but they can definitely be worth playing. Battlefront Krushok is much better with large creatures of the Giant Adephage variety that people might actually consider double-blocking, so you should check the composition of your deck before including it. Bramblewood Paragon, Tuskguard Captain, and Crowned Ceratok all have the same trample-granting ability, with minor stair-step changes in their power/toughness and costs. Sure, there are some differences—the Paragon likes Warriors and the Captain can use the outlast ability—but they are basically the same, and they, just like the Krushok, are better with larger creatures rather than tokens. (Note that there are a bunch of worse ways to grant trample to your creatures with +1/+1 counters, like Sunbringer’s Touch and Cytospawn Shambler, that I don’t consider particularly playable.) Steppe Glider is an interesting card: it is reminiscent of Helium Squirter, but it has a more cumbersome activation cost. That being said, vigilance plus flying is a great combination of abilities for Commander and can really make a difference in a game. Aquastrand Spider is like the little cousin of Longshot Squad, but its activation cost is reasonable and it’s a cheap card to begin with, so it will often make the cut. Sporeback Troll is actually quite good, since the ability to regenerate key creatures is really important to a deck that wants to keep its counter lords around. Simic Basilisk is definitely not as good as Mer-Ek Nightblade, but at least its ability is still good in a token-creature-heavy deck since it gives your creatures the ability to trade with much bigger ones.
Avatar of the Resolute, High Sentinels of Arashin, Fungal Behemoth, Gleam of Authority, and Enduring Scalelord. These are the cards that get incredibly powerful if you can distribute several +1/+1 counters to a lot of token creatures, which means that most of these should probably be in your deck if that is your goal. Avatar of the Resolute has it all: trample for offense, reach for defense, early-game power (as a good two-drop), and late-game punch (as a follow-up to some tokens and +1/+1 counter distribution). It is rare that a single card can do so many jobs, which should probably earn it a slot. I already talked about High Sentinels of Arashin as a counter-producer earlier in this article, but because of the high cost of its activated ability we should consider it primarily as a huge flying creature for four mana. Sounds pretty good! Fungal Behemoth and Gleam of Authority are actually really similar: they both have (or provide) power and toughness equal to the total number of +1/+1 counters on your creatures, and they can both provide a +1/+1 counter every turn. Since they can play both supporting and starring roles, it is probably best to run both of them—unless, that is, your metagame is extremely hostile to creatures. Their only drawback, after all, is that they only work if you have a significant board presence already. Enduring Scalelord is a bit more awkward than the other cards in this category, since it needs to have already been on the battlefield to benefit from your putting counters on your creatures, but it can definitely become a huge flying creature very quickly in the right deck.
Inspiring Call, Hindervines, Gladehart Cavalry, Ooze Flux, and Retribution of the Ancients. These cards give you all kinds of different ancillary benefits for having a bunch of +1/+1 counters piled up on your creatures. Inspiring Call is probably the best of them, since it is both a really powerful card-draw spell and a protection effect at the same time; you just have to remember that you don’t always have to save it for a Wrath of God. Sometimes, it’s best to just fire the Call off as a proactive draw spell. Hindervines is not actually that powerful, but it can sometimes completely blow people out, and Fog effects are actually surprisingly valuable in Commander in general. We have already discussed Gladehart Cavalry earlier on in this article, but it’s worth mentioning again here because of how powerful its lifegain ability can be—if you have ten creatures on the battlefield with +1/+1 counters on them, that’s twenty life. Ooze Flux and Retribution of the Ancients have similar mechanics but opposite goals: the Flux wants to help you maintain some of your board’s power in the face of spot removal, while the Retribution wants to be spot removal. Because you can remove any number of counters for the same low-mana activation cost, these cards can actually be incredibly powerful if you have a prolific source of +1/+1 counters active (like Cathars’ Crusade, a big Bloodspore Thrinax, or Necropolis Regent).
Cytoplast Root-Kin, Patron of the Valiant, Scale Blessing, Kalonian Hydra, and Solidarity of Heroes. These cards reward you for having +1/+1 counters…by giving you more +1/+1 counters. Cytoplast Root-Kin is actually fantastic for decks that care about +1/+1 counters because it provides an immediate buff, it can rescue counters from dying creatures, and it can even provide counters to new creatures (through its graft ability). Patron of the Valiant is a more straightforward, less impressive, flying version of the same effect, while Scale Blessing is also fairly unimpressive but capable of being a good surprise because of its status as an instant. Kalonian Hydra has the most raw power of all these options: by itself, it is already going to attack as an 8/8 trample creature for five mana. When surrounded by cards that distribute and care about +1/+1 counters, the Hydra can lead to a win within a few turns at most. Solidarity of Heroes is a pale shadow of the Hydra, but any cards that remind us of the Hydra should be worth a shot… and the fact that it is an instant can lead to some serious blowouts as a few of your creatures get much larger.
(Note that there is another card that fits into this general subsection—Renegade Krasis—that is decent but not good enough to get a full recommendation from me. It only hands out free counters if it evolves, which is harder to do than it sounds in a deck that wants its creatures to start small and then acquire +1/+1 counters.)
Contagion Clasp, Contagion Engine, Plaguemaw Beast, and Spread the Sickness. The proliferate cards that are playable in Abzan colors are also great ways (if not particularly efficient ways) to add +1/+1 counters to creatures that already have some. Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine both cost quite a bit to activate, but they are very consistent: you will always be able to get those counters every turn if you have four mana to spend. If you only play one of them, I recommend the Engine, since it can serve as a form of slow mass removal, and triggering proliferate twice is a lot more powerful than just once. Plaguemaw Beast is actually quite good in decks that produce a lot of token creatures: there is frequently a Soldier or Saproling on chump-blocking duty that you can sacrifice to gain a lot of benefit for all your other creatures (while adding a counter to, say, Ajani Goldmane). Spread the Sickness may look really underwhelming because it can only proliferate once, but don’t forget that it also kills any creature. Sometimes, you just really need to kill a Dragon or whatever is threatening to kill you. Two proliferate cards that I don’t think are really playable for our purposes are Grim Affliction and Throne of Geth: Grim Affliction just doesn’t do enough, while Throne of Geth is going to struggle to find enough sacrificial artifacts. Unless you are really playing hard with Pentavus (and its cousins—see Dig Through Time #7 for a breakdown of them), Myr Battlesphere, and Thopter Assembly, you should probably leave the Throne on the bench. (Or should that be “leave the Throne as a bench”?)
Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, Doubling Season, and Primal Vigor. Much like the cards of the previous subsection, these cards reward you for generating +1/+1 counters by giving you more of the same. The only difference is that these have to be on the battlefield ahead of time. Hardened Scales is the perfect card for any deck that wants to invest in +1/+1 counters, and it should be in all of them, no questions asked. Corpsejack Menace is a relatively aggressively-costed 4/4 creature that has an ability that is perfect for what we are trying to do, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer along with Hardened Scales. Doubling Season and Primal Vigor are the more full-featured versions of these effects, although Primal Vigor is clearly the worse card: it helps out your opponents, too, and only affects +1/+1 counters. Still, any effect that can double your tokens and your +1/+1 counters—in a deck that is trying to maximize both—should be seriously considered.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter; Sekki, Seasons’ Guide; Fertilid; Gyre Sage; Spike Weaver; and Spike Breeder. Finally, here are a few leftover creatures that also happen to work really well with a wide distribution of +1/+1 counters. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter is just an absolutely fantastic creature in Commander, partially because he can kill creatures for zero mana by removing +1/+1 counters from himself, and if you are focused on putting +1/+1 counters on all your creatures then he gets even better. Sekki, Season’s Guide is not nearly as good a card as Vish Kal, but it is a resilient threat that plays very well with both +1/+1 counters and token generation. (Note, too, that if Sekki takes a lot of damage at once, it provides a Spirit for each damage, even if it didn't have that many +1/+1 counters. Thirteen damage means thirteen 1/1s, even if Sekki was only 2/2 at the time.) Fertilid and Gyre Sage are both creatures that can directly convert +1/+1 counters into mana generation, which is always a good thing to have in Commander. Spike Weaver is an absolutely critical card to have in any deck that can generate extra +1/+1 counters since its repeatable protection effect is so strong, and Spike Breeder can convert +1/+1 counters into token creatures for only two mana. In fact, it may be a good idea to look at all the Spike creatures, since they play well with our themes here. Additionally, they are all great with Hardened Scales, Doubling Season, or Primal Vigor—because you get double the reward for their “put a +1/+1 counter on target creature” ability, you can essentially pay two generic mana to get a free +1/+1 counter anytime you want.
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All right, that just about covers the best ways to distribute +1/+1 counters across a lot of creatures! Sidratul, I hope this article and the previous one have answered your question adequately, and that you have more than enough material from which to build a deck! It turns out that, if you want to make Abzan Falconer and Abzan Battle Priest into cards that can handle the power level of a four-player Commander game, they have plenty of cards to back them up. Please share this article with any of your friends who have decks (or are thinking of building decks) that play with +1/+1 counters.
Now, please head to the comments and give me some requests for future Dig Through Time articles! We all know how hard and how satisfying deckbuilding in the Commander format can be, and there are often cards out there, lost in the mists of time, that are exactly what you’re looking for to make your deck run like clockwork.
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