Vanguard of Brimaz
Heroic was the era's mechanic for rewarding a deck that already wanted to do something: target your own creatures with combat tricks and protection, and get paid for the spells you were casting anyway. Most heroic payoffs buffed the targeted creature, which doubled down on a single threat and left it vulnerable to a clean removal answer. This one breaks that pattern by spending the trigger sideways: every targeted spell builds a 1/1 Cat Soldier with vigilance, so the reward survives the death of the creature that earned it. The vigilance is doing quiet structural work in both halves. On the tokens, it means each heroic trigger adds to the board without committing to the attack, so a kicked-off engine widens the battlefield and keeps blockers back at the same time. On the body itself, vigilance lets it attack into the targeting it wants without giving up the tap, which matters because the spells that trigger it are the same ones you cast at instant speed during combat. The result is a heroic enabler whose value bank is a horizontal board rather than a single inflated attacker, which changes how removal answers it: kill the namesake and the Cats it already made are still standing, vigilant and ready to block.
