Thriss, Nantuko Primus

Repeatable +5/+5 at instant speed is a strange, lopsided amount of power to hang on a seven-mana green body, and that mismatch is exactly what makes this a build-around rather than a beater. The Nantuko clergy of Otaria were the green-aligned mantis-monks of the era, and their primus arrives as a pump engine: the +5/+5 can be pointed at any creature, including itself, but the tap symbol in the cost forces a real decision each turn. Granting the bonus locks the 5/5 down, so amplifying a creature already in combat means holding the body back from attacking, while a creature with a clear lane forgoes the boost. The tap also caps the engine at one activation per turn without outside help, which is where the design gets sharper: an untap effect like Seedborn Muse lets it fire again on an opponent's turn, threatening a blocker's-bane combat trick at instant speed that most green pump never offers, since the bonus expires at end of turn rather than carrying forward. What balances the engine is its fragility: it wants to commit one big creature into combat and trusts the open mana not to hold removal, so a single point of failure undoes a whole turn's investment. That tension (a recurring boost of stats against one vulnerable target) is the payoff expensive green legends tend to reserve for a board already full of bodies, and it does nothing toward building one.