Volrath the Fallen

Most pump effects spend resources to grow a creature one step at a time; this one converts the size of what you throw away directly into combat stats, which inverts the usual cost math. The bigger the creature in your hand, the more it pays out: discard a fat finisher you would never cast and the dead card becomes a single-turn growth spurt scaling with mana value rather than a fixed amount. That makes the discard a feature instead of a tax. The boost lands as +X/+X, so it pushes toughness as hard as power: a profitable pump does not just crash through a blocker, it lets the body survive whatever the defender throws back. With no ceiling beyond the cards you are willing to lose, a single connection can end the game once you stack enough mana values into one attack, and the same activation hardens the creature against removal in response.

There is a quieter line buried in the discard clause: it is a sanctioned way to put creatures into the graveyard, which matters anywhere a creature card is worth more dead than in hand. Reanimation shells and graveyard payoffs get to use it as a discard outlet that also threatens lethal, so the cost is rarely pure loss. The flavor lands too: a shapeshifter who takes on the shape and mass of whatever he consumes, growing larger by feeding on the bodies discarded to him.