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Moxonomy

Purestrain Genestealer

Creature — Tyranid2 generic manaGreen mana

Ramp packaged as a countdown. The body arrives already grown, then spends itself down over its first two attacks, each swing converting a +1/+1 counter into a basic land onto the battlefield until the creature deflates back to its printed 1/1. That structure inverts the usual ramp math: instead of paying up front for a Rampant Growth and getting a body separately, you get the body first and pay for the fixing in combat, one land per attack. The tension is deliberate. Removing counters to fetch lands makes the attacker progressively easier to block and kill, so the card asks whether you would rather keep a threat on the board or accelerate your mana, and it forces that choice each combat rather than once. The ramp is also gated behind a green player being willing to attack with a shrinking creature into open mana, which is a real cost when your early turns are supposed to build toward something bigger. What makes the design tidy is that the counters do double duty: they are both the stat line that justifies the attack and the resource that pays for the fixing, so the card never feels like it is doing two unrelated things stapled together. It is a fixing engine that reads as an aggressive creature, and the further you push one function the more you drain the other.

Purestrain Genestealer (40k)
40K · #97uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.40
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

This creature enters with two +1/+1 counters on it. Vanguard Species — Whenever this creature attacks, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from it. If you do, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
N/A
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
Legal
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