Extraction Specialist

Reanimation in white usually comes with a leash, and this is the leash rendered literally: the returned creature can't attack or block for as long as its rescuer stays on the battlefield. That clause reframes the whole effect. You are not buying a body to swing with; you are buying whatever the creature does on arrival, the death payoff, the mana-producing dork, the sacrifice fodder that never needed to enter combat in the first place. The mana-value-2-or-less cap keeps the target list honest, pointing the reanimation at cheap utility rather than a marquee finisher, so the card grinds value instead of cheating out a threat. The dependency runs both ways, too: kill the Specialist and the borrowed creature is freed to attack and block again, so an opponent's removal doesn't just trade for a 3/2 lifelinker, it hands you a fully operational creature back. Lifelink on a body that wants to be defended rather than raced pulls it toward a grind plan, where the recurring life swing matters more than three points of pressure. It is a compact statement of a specific white idea: recursion as engine fuel, gated tightly enough that the reward is repetition and card advantage rather than a game-ending swing.