Aerial Formation

Strive asks a single question: how much would you pay to scale a one-mana trick into a board-wide one? The base case is modest, a +1/+1 and evasion for one blue, but the tax per additional target makes the curve steep on purpose. Two creatures runs (four mana), three runs (seven), so every extra flier you create costs strictly more than a standalone trick would have. That math is the whole reason the card can never mass-pump an army for free; you pay the going rate for every wing you grant. What gives the card its range is that the scaling lives in your untapped lands rather than in any one printed value. Cast for one mana, it sneaks a creature over a blocker or saves one in combat. Held open through a combat step with seven mana available, it threatens to convert a stalled attack into a lethal alpha strike across three creatures at once, and the opponent has to respect the full ceiling of what your mana could buy at any moment. The strive cost is what lets the same card be a cheap surprise early and a board-wide finisher late without ever being a dead draw. That elasticity, one card covering a sliding scale of mana investment and board states, is exactly what the mechanic was built to deliver.