Sage of Fables

The interesting half is not the anthem; it is the conversion. Plenty of lords pump a tribe, but stapling a +1/+1 counter onto every Wizard you play and then offering a way to spend those counters for cards reframes the whole board as a fuel tank. Each Wizard enters carrying a stored card draw, and the activated ability lets you cash that stored value in at any time, on any creature you control rather than only the Wizards. That distinction matters: a token that arrives with a counter, a creature about to die in combat, an attacker whose counter has done its job can all be drained for cardflow before they leave. Note that the ability removes a counter rather than sacrificing the creature, so the body sticks around even after you have wrung the card out of it. The cost is a steady mana commitment, two for each card, which keeps the engine honest as a grind tool rather than a one-turn burst. Counters are also where this card meets persist: an entering Wizard's +1/+1 counter and a returning creature's -1/-1 counter annihilate as a state-based action, which is the game resetting the creature for free rather than anything the Sage activates. Strip away the tribe and what remains is a colorless idea: a body that prints latent card advantage onto creatures and a button that spends it. The Wizard text is the wrapper. The counter-to-card conversion is the design.