Sephiroth, Planet's Heir
The entrance effect and the growth engine are designed to feed each other, which is the whole trick. The -2/-2 sweep on arrival isn't just a tempo swing; it's a deliberate kill-trigger generator, wiping out a board of small creatures and converting every one of those deaths into a permanent +1/+1 counter. A turn that starts with a cluttered enemy board of small bodies can end with that board swept clean and a 4/4 grown several sizes larger, and the counter clause keeps the growth running long after the entry trigger resolves: chump blockers, removal-bait tokens, anything an opponent loses across the rest of the game pumps the body. Vigilance closes the loop by letting the creature attack without surrendering its blocking duties, so the accumulating stats threaten on both axes. The color identity matters to the design: blue-black isn't a combat-aggression pairing by default, and stapling a board-control sweep to a self-growing beater gives those colors a midrange threat that punishes go-wide strategies specifically. The character framing fits the mechanics: a figure who feeds on the destruction around him, getting stronger from every casualty. As a build-around, the card rewards decks that can manufacture opponent deaths on demand, but even unsupported it functions as a removal spell, a clock, and a payoff folded into one six-mana package.
