Overgrowth Elemental

Elementals have always been a creature type without a mechanical throughline: red burst tokens, green ramp, blue flyers, a keyword-less grab-bag held together by nothing but the word on the type line. This is a rare attempt to give the tribe an actual engine, using +1/+1 counters as the connective tissue a payoff like this would otherwise lack. The design splits its two triggers along a deliberate fault line. The entry ability only wants to buff another Elemental, so it presumes a board already in place rather than rewarding you for casting it into empty space. The death trigger then draws a sharp distinction between generic fodder and tribal fodder: any creature dying returns a point of life, but only an Elemental death grows this one with a counter. That asymmetry lets it live in two homes at once. In an aristocrats-style sacrifice shell where the board runs mixed, the lifegain keeps it relevant even when nothing on-type is dying; in a pure tribal deck, the counters snowball fast. The 3/2 body can convert a handful of sacrifices into a real clock quickly, but two toughness leaves it exposed before the counters stack up, which is the restraint that stops it from being a standalone bomb: it wants a table already set, not a solo act.