Paired Tactician

A 3/2 that does nothing on its own and grows only when it swings beside another Warrior: that contingency is the entire design. Rather than a lord that pumps the board once and statically, the counter model builds permanence into the aggression. Every profitable Warrior swing leaves this creature bigger, so a deck that keeps attacking watches its curve-topper accrue lasting size across turns without spending another card. The distinction between a +1/+1 counter and a temporary buff matters here: the growth persists through end-of-turn effects and combat that a pump spell would not survive, so long as the creature stays on the battlefield. The catch lives in that same permanence: like any creature, it loses its counters and resets to a base 3/2 the moment it changes zones, so a bounce spell or a blink strips the accumulated size clean. It cares only about the attack step, contributing nothing on defense and rewarding the deck that dictates when combat happens. This is common-rarity payoff design for a go-wide tribal aggro shell: a piece that makes early Warrior investments compound rather than a standalone finisher, and one that punishes you hardest exactly when your board gets answered mid-swing.