Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres

$1.01

Ezuri does two things. When it enters, you may pay {3} to proliferate twice, and whenever you proliferate, you draw a card. That turns every proliferate effect in the deck into a cantrip, so the build is packed with cards that proliferate on their own or repeatedly, plus permanents that care about counters. Some versions push +1/+1 counters onto a board of creatures, others add infect and toxic so each proliferate also ticks up poison on opponents. Ezuri doesn't put counters anywhere by itself, so the deck needs a steady supply of counters to work with.

In the recorded games, the deck mostly played a slow counters game. Incubation Druid and Pollenbright Druid ramped and spread counters early, and Simic Manipulator stole creatures once enough counters had built up. A few games leaned on poison, where proliferating opposing poison counters as well as its own mattered a lot. The card draw from Ezuri kept the hand full, but the threats grew gradually, and the plan often depended on being left alone. Several games ended without a win, as the board never got big enough before faster decks closed things out.