Nemesis of Mortals

The graveyard funds both halves of this Snake. The printed price of is a ceiling, not a floor: each creature card in the bin shaves a mana off the cast, and the same discount applies again to the monstrosity activation, so a deck built to fill its yard pays twice for the favor. That is the design tension worth dwelling on. A 5/5 for six is unremarkable, and the unmodified monstrosity cost of is a number no one would ever pay at face value. The card only makes sense as the payoff at the end of a self-mill or sacrifice plan, where the discounts compound until both the body and the upgrade arrive far ahead of curve. It belongs to the small family of green fatties whose effective cost is a function of the graveyard rather than a fixed line: a rate that punishes opponents who let the game grind. The risk mirrors the reward. Empty your yard to exile-based hate or a timely graveyard wipe and the cost reductions evaporate, leaving you with a six-mana 5/5 whose monstrosity sits at a full nine mana, which is to say a card that no longer does anything you wanted it to. Build around the discount and it becomes a creature you can deploy on turn three and turn monstrous a turn or two later, the whole sequence financed by cards you were happy to discard anyway.