Rodolf Duskbringer

Most lifegain payoffs treat the life total as a threshold to cross or a pool to burn down. Here, each turn's gained life sets a reanimation budget, and that reframing is what elevates the end-step ability past a tacked-on kicker. The amount you gain becomes the mana value ceiling on what returns, so lifegain gets counted in increments rather than lumps: nine points of incidental drain in a turn brings back a nine-mana creature for at your end step, two mana with a single hybrid pip. The 4/4's own lifelink already feeds the loop, so a connecting attack sets the size of the target waiting at that same end step. The indestructible trigger is the quieter piece: any life gained, from any source, shields the body from removal and combat until the turn ends, so a lifegain deck rarely has to choose between defending its engine and firing it. Sequencing keeps the whole thing honest. Reanimation only fires at the end step, meaning the life has to be banked before you cash in, the target has to already sit in the graveyard, and the trigger reads only life gained this turn. A deck that gains life early and often within a single turn converts that accumulated total into one large body while the round is still its own.