Stromkirk Occultist
Repeatable card advantage that has to be earned in the red zone. The 3/2 trample body is sized to push at least a point past a chump blocker, and connecting once per combat exiles the top card of your library to play before the turn ends. Note the limits the design leans on: the exiled card is impulse-drawn, not free (you still pay its cost), and the trigger fires on the combat damage event itself, so a four-power swing nets the same single card as a one-power one. That end-of-turn deadline is what shapes the deck around it. The bonus card can't be banked, which rewards a low curve that can spend it the same turn rather than a control shell that wants to hold up answers. Madness closes the loop from the other direction. A discard outlet turns the cost into a cheaper madness cast, dropping the body onto the board early so it can start attacking before defenses are set. The two abilities describe one deck: empty your hand fast, then refill it through combat. The 3/2 frame is the tension at the center of the design. It is large enough to demand a real block but small enough that the engine sputters the instant the board clogs and nothing gets through. This is aggression that funds its own follow-up, conditional on staying ahead in the race.






