Glissa, Herald of Predation

What the modal structure buys is a Phyrexian factory that never stops producing but forces a choice about tempo each combat. Incubate 2 twice generates two Incubator tokens, each a 0/0-in-waiting with two counters; the second mode flips the whole stockpile at once; the third turns whatever you already have into a lethal swarm with first strike and deathtouch. The tension is that you can only pick one line per turn, so the card is always asking whether you are building a board, cashing it, or arming it. That cadence is the design idea: a value engine whose bottleneck is your own combat step rather than mana or card advantage. The Phyrexian tribal payoff (mode three) quietly reframes the Incubator tokens as more than bodies; every 0/0 that transforms becomes a first-strike deathtouch attacker, and the black-green toolbox rewards patience over any single explosive turn.

The name carries its own history. This is the third distinct Glissa in the game's story, and the arc is the point: a golden-age Mirran hero, then an undead revenant, now a fully compleated herald of the machine invasion. The 3/5 body reads defensive, but the compleation reframes her from swordbearer to production line, the character's transformation mirrored in a card that spends its abilities transforming things. It is a rare case where the flavor of a legend's fall is legible in the mechanics rather than just the flavor text.