Charge Across the Araba

Sweep was the era's experiment in paying for an effect with your own developed board, and the white member of its cycle asks the most pointed question: how many Plains are you willing to put back in your hand right now? Each one returned swells your entire team +1/+1 until end of turn, so bouncing four lands hands you a +4/+4 alpha strike at instant speed, often lethal from a board that looked stalled. The bill comes due on the following turn, when you have un-developed your mana the same turn you spent five to cast this. That trade is the design's pivot point: every land you return widens the swing and deepens the hole. A go-wide board can cash the surge into damage immediately; a deck that needs those lands online next turn cannot afford the gesture. Instant timing is the lever that makes it more than a desperation pump. Hold it past declared blockers and the bonus lands after your opponent has locked in their combat math, converting an even-looking trade into a profitable one or a kill outright. Fire it before combat and it reads as a surprise overrun. Both lines share one constraint: it has to resolve during a combat step where the +X/+X actually becomes damage, because anywhere else the cost is pure downside and the buff vanishes when the turn does.