What it does
Adapt is an activated ability that lets you pay a cost to put a number of +1/+1 counters on a creature—but only if that creature has no +1/+1 counters on it already. "Adapt N" means: if this creature has no +1/+1 counters, put N +1/+1 counters on it. Once it's adapted, those counters stay permanently like any other.
The nuance people miss is the conditional check. If the creature already has even one +1/+1 counter (from anything—another effect, a previous adapt), activating adapt does nothing; you've wasted the mana. So you can't keep adapting to stack more counters. Conversely, if those counters get removed, you can adapt again.
In Commander, adapt shines as a mana sink in grindy games, and it dodges sorcery-speed removal windows since you can activate it at instant speed to ambush blockers or save a creature with a pump.
Iconic cards with Adapt
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