Price$2.27 – $6.19
Buy on TCGplayerKarn's Bastion
Land
LegalRank #201
: Add 
.
, : Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
KeywordsProliferate
Why is this card good?
Karn's Bastion is one of the best proliferate sources in Commander because it's repeatable and costs you almost nothing on deckbuilding — it's a colorless land that taps for mana when you don't need the ability. The proliferate cost is steep at six total mana per activation, but it's a mana sink that scales every turn.
The card shines in any +1/+1 counters deck (Atraxa, Ezuri, Hamza), planeswalker-heavy builds, and especially anything with infect or poison. It's also sneaky-good in superfriends and "counter soup" decks where each proliferate ticks loyalty, charge counters, and Saga chapters simultaneously. Atraxa decks love it as redundancy alongside Doubling Season effects.
Don't run it in decks with no counter synergy — it's just a colorless land that enters fine but produces only generic mana and a dead ability. In two- or three-color decks needing reliable color, the colorless tap can stall hands. Only include it when you're actively building around counters.
Related cards
Inkmoth Nexus
Land that supports +1/+1 and poison counter strategies alongside proliferate.
Contagion Engine
Repeatable proliferate engine in colorless artifact form.
Contagion Clasp
Cheap colorless proliferate source for counter decks.
Evolution Sage
Proliferates whenever a land enters, complementing land-based proliferate.
Flux Channeler
Proliferates on noncreature spell casts for counter strategies.
Tezzeret's Gambit
Draws and proliferates, fitting counter-matters builds.
Doubling Season
Boosts counter and token strategies that proliferate supports.
Throne of Geth
Sacrifices an artifact to proliferate, another colorless option.
Printings (12)
Played by these commanders
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel100% of 1
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa100% of 1
Perrie, the Pulverizer100% of 1
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos100% of 1
Hakbal of the Surging Soul100% of 1
Commodore Guff100% of 1
Combos (8)
- Magosi, the Waterveil + Nesting Grounds + Karn's Bastion
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus + Magistrate's Scepter + Lithoform Engine + Karn's Bastion
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient + Magistrate's Scepter + Karn's Bastion
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Magistrate's Scepter + Lithoform Engine + Karn's Bastion + Doubling Season
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider + Magistrate's Scepter + Lithoform Engine + Karn's Bastion
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Lost Jitte + Karn's Bastion + Cryptic Trilobite + Hardened Scales
→ Infinite proliferate
Rulings (6)
- 2023-02-04
To proliferate, you can choose any permanent that has a counter, including ones controlled by opponents. You can choose any player who has a counter, including opponents. You can't choose cards in any zone other than the battlefield, even if they have counters on them.
- 2023-02-04
You don't have to choose every permanent or player that has a counter, only the ones you want to add another counter to. Since "any number" includes zero, you don't have to choose any permanents at all, and you don't have to choose any players at all.
- 2023-02-04
If a player or permanent has more than one kind of counter on it, and you choose for it to get additional counters, it must get one of each kind of counter it already has. You can't have it get just one kind of counter it already has and not the others.
- 2023-02-04
An ability that triggers "Whenever you proliferate" triggers even if you chose no permanents or players while doing so.
- 2023-02-04
Players can respond to a spell or ability whose effect includes proliferating. Once that spell or ability starts to resolve, however, and its controller chooses which permanents and players will get new counters, it's too late for anyone to respond.
- 2023-02-04
If a permanent ever has both +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it at the same time, they're removed in pairs as a state-based action so that the permanent has only one of those kinds of counters on it.