Brave Brawler

Power-up reads as a design solution to an old problem: how do you make a small early body relevant late without printing two separate cards? The mechanic folds the "grow later" clause into the creature itself, then charges a real premium for it. The full activation cost is steep, but the reduction when the creature entered this turn is the tell about intent: pay the whole thing early and it stings, so the ability is built for the late game, when a spare mana pile is looking for something to do and a modest attacker needs to become a threat that closes. Dropping the creature and immediately paying the reduced cost still asks for a large total commitment, which is why this is a top-of-curve luxury rather than an on-curve tempo play. The once-per-ability limit keeps it from snowballing into an unchecked mana sink: you get exactly two counters, once, and then that line of text is spent. Lifelink is the color-appropriate glue that makes the growth pay off beyond raw stats, turning each combat step into a life swing that scales with the counters you have bought. The starting body trades toughness for the ability to attack early and bank life while the game is still cheap; the power-up is the payoff you cash in once the game slows and mana is no longer the constraint. It is a clean expression of white's aggressive-to-resilient axis wrapped around a keyword that lets a single card be a two-drop now and a finisher later.