Sanctuary Smasher

Cycling has almost always been a clean exit: the front side is dead, so you pitch it, draw a card, and leave no trace on the board. This one refuses to let the discard be a quiet concession. Cycling it for still cantrips, but it also drops a first strike counter on a creature you control, so the "I gave up on the beater" line becomes "I made your attacker or blocker win a fight it was going to lose." That reframes what the card is for. A 6/4 first striker for is a serviceable top-end body, but the design's real work is in the floor: even when the six-drop is stranded and uncastable, the discard mode develops your combat math by converting a smaller creature into a one-sided threat, and because the counter is permanent it outlasts the turn you spent it on. The tension being resolved is the classic cycler's problem, that the "just draw a card" mode always feels like an admission the card was wrong for the moment. Here the discard leaves a mark regardless of what you draw back. It is a small hook, but it is the kind that rewards holding the card for the combat step that wants the counter rather than reflexively pitching it on curve for the cantrip alone.