Experiment Kraj

The activated-ability theft here is unlike anything else in the game's vocabulary. Most stealing effects grab a whole creature, or its color, or its keywords; this one reaches in and copies only the activated abilities, and only of creatures wearing a +1/+1 counter. The tap ability supplies its own enabler: place a counter on another creature, and that creature's activated abilities become Kraj's to use. Aim it at your own board and Kraj becomes a Swiss Army knife, firing off mana dorks, sacrifice outlets, and pump effects on a 4/6 frame. Aim the counter at an opponent's creature and Kraj annexes their tools too. The wrinkle that makes it sing is that the counter is the only requirement for the copy to stick; remove the counter and the ability leaves, but as long as it sits there, every activation is yours. Because counters multiply across a board with proliferate or doublers, Kraj scales from toolbox to engine without ever changing a single line of its text. It is a build-around in the truest sense: a creature whose function is defined entirely by whatever else you assemble around it, which is why it has lived for years as a quiet centerpiece for players who treat a deck like a machine shop rather than a curve. The body does enough to survive a swing; the real work is the ability-laundering, and no card before or since has done it on quite these terms.