Garruk, Apex Predator
Most planeswalkers ask you to pick a lane: defend, advance, or threaten. This Garruk refuses the choice, stapling a planeswalker-killing plus, a body-making plus, a removal-plus-lifegain minus, and a game-ending ultimate onto a single card. The result is a planeswalker that has an answer to whatever the board presents, which is the whole reason a five-loyalty seven-drop can justify its cost: it does not need protection because every ability either removes a threat or builds one. The +1 that destroys another planeswalker is the rare ability that turns a mirror of superfriends decks into a one-sided exchange, and the −3 stabilizes against aggression while the +1s refill the loyalty it spends. The flavor reading is load-bearing too: this is Garruk after the curse, the hunter turned to black, and the ultimate weaponizes that menace by handing an opponent's attackers the trample and the +5/+5 that turns their own creatures suicidal. It is one of the few emblems written as a punishment rather than a reward. The cost is the honest counterweight: at seven mana, it asks for a deck that can survive long enough to untap with it, and once it lands the question stops being whether it wins and becomes how many turns the opponent has left.
