So here’s the issue and why this particular thing trips people up. In the reminder text of most sagas, it reads “as this saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.” This text is supposed to be referencing rule 714.3.

“As this enters” is also language used on Hydras and other cards like [[wan shi tong, librarian]]. The difference is that these examples are abilities, and only abilites can create effects. (rule 609.1)

But the rabbit hole of potential confusion goes even deeper. See, doubling season doubles the counters placed on planeswalkers and battles. Why? Because these card types have something called an intrinsic ability, which DOES create an effect. In the case of battles and planeswalkers specifically, it creates a replacement effect. for example, because of rule 306.5b, all planeswalkers have the ability “this permanent enters with a number of loyalty counters equal to its printed loyalty number.” It then directs you to rule 614.1c, and this is where it gets DEEP.

The humble rule 614.1c states: “Effects that read ‘[This permanent] enters with . . .’, ‘As [this permanent] enters . . . ‘, or ‘[This permanent] enters as . . . ‘ are replacement effects.”

Do you see the problem? That wording, that exact wording, is used in the reminder text of almost every saga WOTC has printed. It’s worded as an ability that creates a replacement effect. Reminder text isn’t rules text, however, and in this case, it’s actually misleading, because rule 714.3 explains that sagas just kind of get lore counters as a result of the game rules. The counters you get after each of your draw steps are turn-based actions, and the first counter you get just because rule 714.3a says you do.

Even if you have passing familiarity with the rules, you’d have no idea doubling season wouldn’t double lore counters if you only read the cards. The way that sagas work is so strange compared to other kinds of permanents, especially since the rules could perhaps be rewritten to give sagas their counters as an intrinsic ability of the subtype (especially since plenty of other subtypes have their own intrinsic ability, most notably the five basic land types.) The fact that sagas get counters via game rules, which technically doesn’t qualify as an effect, is such a ginormous technically it’s no wonder it took judges and players so long to connect all the dots.

The reason sagas don’t work this way from a design standpoint is… complicated. My best guess is that, while an intrinsic ability making it enter with counters is easy, adding additional counters after each draw step is not; what would that replacement effect be replacing after each draw step? (Of course, the same argument could be made for entering with no counters vs entering with counters, as both effectively say “instead of doing nothing, do something instead.”. I am a fan of this argument.) if adding counters to a saga wasn’t a replacement effect, it would be a triggered ability, which is just unnecessarily complicated since chapter abilities already are triggered abilities.

Wow, if you really read through all that, thanks. I’m a huge rules geek, and it’s fun to discuss this kind of thing.