Redemptor Dreadnought

The additional cost is the whole strategic pivot: you pay in graveyard material, and the size of what you pay dictates the size of the threat. A 4/4 trampler for five is a nonstarter on rate alone, but the Plasma Incinerator trigger converts a dead creature card into a recurring combat swing, pumping the Dreadnought by the exiled card's power every time it attacks with that card still tucked underneath it. The buff itself is only until end of turn, so it resets each combat; what persists is the exiled card as a marker, meaning the trigger fires again on the next attack rather than the pump lingering. Feed it a fat brawler off the top of the yard and the 4/4 becomes a genuine finisher swing after swing; feed it a mana dork and you have paid a real cost for a modest bump. The Fallen Warrior mechanic frames graveyard fodder not as fuel for a one-shot reanimation but as a permanent augment welded onto a chassis, which flips the usual reanimator calculus: instead of returning your biggest creature to the battlefield, you strap its power onto something with trample and attack. It rewards a graveyard stocked with high-power bodies you would rather commit as an augment than recast, and it turns creatures that died in combat into the raw material for the next attack.