Disciplined Duelist
Double strike on two power is math that stays quiet until it resolves: this connects for four, and it connects more often than a fragile body should because the entering counter buys one free pass through a block or a removal spell. The two abilities cover each other's weakness. Double strike wants to survive combat so it can keep dealing damage; the counter is what lets it survive the first attempt to kill it, whether that comes from a chump blocker, targeted removal, or a sweeper. But that protection is single-use, coming off the moment damage or destruction would land and never returning, so the card asks to be sent into the red zone early, before an opponent strips the counter with a throwaway blocker and then answers the naked body at leisure. The tension is genuine: hold it back and the protection rots unused; push it in and it either trades up in card economy or lands four in a single swing. Its Bant identity is the tell that this was built as an aggressive-tempo threat for a shard that usually grinds toward the long game, a beater carrying its own guard rather than needing a spell to shield it. That resilience is cheaper than a combat trick and costs you no card to deploy, even if it only absorbs one hit before the body is exposed.


