Illuminator Virtuoso

Every combat trick or aura you cast on this creature pays back once as connive card selection and once as a growing double-striking body. That inverts the usual liability of pouring resources into a single creature: normally targeting one attacker invites a two-for-one, because a removal spell in response answers both the creature and the spell you spent pumping it. Here the connive trigger fires the moment your own spell targets the Rogue, so if the opponent lets your spell resolve you have already replaced a card and, if you pitched a nonland, added a +1/+1 counter before the pump even lands. The trap is that this does not make the play safe. A removal spell in response still kills the creature, and any counter that resolves first sits on a body that is about to die (worthless); respond to the connive trigger itself and there is no creature left to counter at all. The card rewards the aura-deck play pattern without erasing its fragility; it just changes what you are paying for. Double strike is the multiplier that justifies the whole enterprise: a single +1/+1 counter is two damage, and every point of power you stack turns directly into a clock that ends games in a swing or two. It is a two-drop that wants to be the entire game plan rather than a component of one, betting that a single unanswered turn of pumping outraces whatever the interaction costs.