Greenhilt Trainee

The activation clause is the whole design problem in miniature: a creature whose power must reach 4 before it can hand out +4/+4, but whose own printed body is a 2/3. It cannot turn itself on. That gating is what separates it from the run of unconditional pump engines: you have to solve the power-4 threshold with something outside the card before the tap ability comes online. A counter, an Aura, an anthem, or simply another creature that shoves it past 3 power unlocks a repeatable combat trick that doubles as evasion math. And the threshold has to stay solved, because the +4/+4 it grants expires before its next untap step and the ability costs a tap: pumping the Trainee itself does nothing for next turn's activation, since it reverts to a 2/3 before it can swing again. The enabler has to be a standing source of power, not a one-shot buff. That is the honest reason it never anchored a deck on its own: it is a second-mover by design, a multiplier you add once a go-wide-and-tall board is already running and already keeping it switched on. The card that supplies the persistent power boost usually does the heavier lifting; the Trainee rewards setup rather than providing it.