Sunblade Samurai
A five-mana 4/4 with vigilance is filler on its own, which is precisely why the discard mode carries the card: it can always be cashed in as a fixing spell instead of sitting dead in an opening hand. The lineage runs back through cards like Krosan Tusker, which let you trade a bulky creature for a land off the top when the game did not want the body. This one narrows the fetch to a basic Plains and staples two life onto it, then wraps the whole package in a flat cost you pay to unlock the fixing at any point. The mana value reads as five, but the card practically has two prices: the full cost to deploy a vigilant attacker-and-blocker, or a cheap discard to smooth a draw and stay alive. That optionality is what balances it. A pure 4/4 with vigilance would be a body nobody builds around; a pure land-tutor would be a spell that never blocks. Binding both to one card means every copy is a live draw in the early game and a real threat in the late one, and the deck never has to choose which role to prioritize because the card resolves that question at the moment you need it.


