Price$1.61 – $18.02
Buy on TCGplayerHardened Scales
Enchantment
LegalRank #188
If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, that many plus one +1/+1 counters are put on it instead.
Why is this card good?
Hardened Scales is a one-mana engine that quietly snowballs every +1/+1 counter your deck generates. The value scales with how many separate counter events you trigger — each instance gets +1, so cards that add counters in many small bursts (proliferate, repeated activations, evolve, adapt) gain the most.
This is a staple in dedicated +1/+1 counters decks: Ghave, Hamza, Ezuri, Kalonian counters builds, and especially the broken Hardened Scales/Walking Ballista/Heliod combo lines in cEDH-adjacent shells. It's also great in superfriends-ish proliferate decks and any go-wide counter token strategy.
The catch: it does nothing on its own. With one mana invested you need a critical mass of counter sources to make it worthwhile — it's a multiplier, not a payoff. In a deck running only a handful of counter cards, it's a dead enchantment.
Don't play it outside counters-matters builds, and remember it doesn't help +1/+1 counters from other players or planeswalker loyalty.
Related cards
Branching Evolution
Doubles +1/+1 counters placed, scaling harder than Hardened Scales.
Doubling Season
Doubles counters and tokens, premier counter multiplier.
Corpsejack Menace
Doubles +1/+1 counters in BG counter decks.
Kalonian Hydra
Doubles all +1/+1 counters on attack, big payoff.
Conclave Mentor
Adds an extra counter, redundant Hardened Scales effect.
Innkeeper's Talent
Doubles counters and adds counter synergies.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal
Adds one extra counter whenever counters are placed.
The Ozolith
Stores counters and amplifies counter strategies.
Printings (19)
Show all 19 printingsShow fewer
Played by these commanders
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian100% of 2
The Swarmlord100% of 2
The Wise Mothman100% of 1
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice100% of 2
Zimone, Infinite Analyst100% of 1
Hakbal of the Surging Soul100% of 1
Combos (8)
- Gatta and Luzzu + Hardened Scales + Walking Ballista
→ Infinite damage, Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
- Vigor + Hardened Scales + Walking Ballista
→ Infinite damage, Infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures you control
- Ghave, Guru of Spores + Cryptic Trilobite + Hardened Scales
→ Infinite death triggers, Infinite ETB, Infinite LTB
- Marath, Will of the Wild + Cryptic Trilobite + Hardened Scales
→ Infinite colorless mana that can only be spent to activate abilities, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite damage
- Crystalline Crawler + Simic Ascendancy + Hardened Scales + Branching Evolution
→ Infinite colored mana, Win the game at the beginning of your next upkeep, Infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures you control
- Strength of Will + Walking Ballista + Hardened Scales
→ Infinite damage, Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
Rulings (3)
- 2023-09-01
If a creature you control would enter the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it, it enters with that many plus one instead.
- 2023-09-01
If two or more effects attempt to modify how many counters would be put on a creature you control, you choose the order to apply those effects, no matter who controls the sources of those effects.
- 2023-09-01
Each additional Hardened Scales you control will increase the number of +1/+1 counters placed on a creature you control by one.