Apprentice Sharpshooter

Training as a mechanic quietly solves a problem defensive creatures have always had: a big-toughness body wants to attack for the growth but rarely dares to commit to the red zone. This one leans into the contradiction rather than resolving it cleanly. Reach and a 1/4 frame read as a blocker's stat line, the sort of card you leave back to shoot down flyers and eat early aggression. But Training only fires when the archer attacks alongside something with greater power, and without vigilance, swinging taps it out: the turn you grow it is the turn it stops holding the ground. That is the wager the card asks you to make each combat, whether the +1/+1 counter is worth surrendering a block. The 1/4 is deliberate. It needs a beefier partner to trigger, and because Training checks power rather than toughness, that partner is easy to supply without inflating the archer past the fragile threshold where it still trades up against fliers. Every attack alongside a larger ally nudges it upward, so a wall slowly accrues offensive value while keeping its reach relevant. It is a green-weenie curve piece for a go-wide board, an anchor blocker that can defect into a slow-cooking beater when the board tips, so long as you are willing to pay for the growth by leaving the door open behind it.