Branching Evolution

Doubling effects are a lever green pulls when it wants counters to spiral rather than tick, and this one applies the multiplier at the source: the +1/+1 counters double as they land, not once they are there, so every trigger, every combat pump, every proliferate spins through the same math. The "would be put on... instead" replacement wording is the load-bearing part. It rewrites the placement event before it resolves, which means it stacks with itself and with other doublers geometrically rather than additively, and it applies to any +1/+1 counter placement regardless of origin: an evolve trigger, a graft, an outlast, a modular death payout, a proliferate step. The engine depends on a steady supply of small increments, and that dependency is what keeps a three-mana enchantment from being oppressive: a creature already grown huge gains nothing from it, and a deck that scales its board by any route other than +1/+1 counters never turns the multiplier on at all. Note the restriction that separates it from Doubling Season, which multiplies both counters and tokens: this touches +1/+1 counters only, ignoring shield counters, keyword counters, and the -1/-1 counters an opponent might load onto your board. What it buys is a green counters deck that no longer needs its individual payoffs to be large, because the multiplier makes every trickle arrive twice.