Sunset Saboteur

The attack trigger points the wrong way on purpose. Growing an opponent's creature is normally a drawback, but on a 4/1 with menace that needs to connect exactly once or twice before it dies to a stiff breeze, the counter is the price of admission for a body that closes fast: the aggressive shell running this doesn't care that the blocker got bigger, because the plan is to be racing, not trading. The wrinkle is where you can aim the counter. It reads as strictly benefitting the defender until you pair it with removal that scales off power, or your own deathtouch and edict lines, at which point the trigger becomes a setup for a two-for-one rather than a gift. Ward paid with a discarded card is the softer half of the modern ward suite: cheap enough that a committed opponent still kills it, but expensive enough to tax the reactive decks that would otherwise trade a one-mana spell for the beater. What holds it together is the four power on a two-drop. Menace plus that much damage forces bad blocks, and the self-inflicted counter only matters in a game this rogue is already losing. Built to end things before the math catches up.