Quest for the Gravelord
The Quest cycle's central bet was that a one-mana enchantment could grow into a payoff if you fed it the right kind of game, and this one ties its trigger to the most universal event on the battlefield: creatures dying. That makes it among the least demanding of the cycle to charge, since combat, removal, and your own sacrifices all count, regardless of who controls the dying creature. The friction is structural rather than conditional: three counters is a long count by attrition standards, and the moment you cash in you lose the enchantment entirely, so the 5/5 black Zombie Giant is a one-shot reward rather than an engine. That single-payout shape is what keeps a one-mana investment from generating an army. The design also rewards patience over board presence, because the counters tick up while you are losing creatures, turning a grindy, trade-heavy game into eventual material instead of leaving you empty-handed. It is the cheapest way to bank a five-power body against decks built to trade resources down to nothing, paid for in the time it takes the deaths to accumulate.
