Longsuffering Cavalier
Creature -- Soldier
3/4
Longsuffering Cavalier comes into play with three woe counters on it.
Vigilance, first strike
As long as Longsuffering Cavalier has a woe counter on it, it has defender.
Whenver a creature you control is put into a graveyard, remove a woe counter from Longsuffering Cavalier.
***
This card is somewhat patterned after Ageless Sentinels. I am not sure how vigilance + first strike compares to flying. The other aspects of this card, however, suggest that it should cost less than Ageless Sentinels. Its power is slightly less, its condition is harder to meet, and the fact that it has first strike actually hampers the removal of woe counters. Since it is such a good defender, it ought to protect your creatures from dying as often as they otherwise would (although you're still free to chump block if you want to.) Of course, given the right infrastructure, this card is very aggressively costed. Obviously, saying that a card is broken with Skullclamp is not saying much, but this sort of card could make a nice addition to a weenie deck, providing a midrange creature at a reasonable cost, which capitalizes on the fact that by turn 3 or 4, the cheap creatures that have been laid down may shortly be obsolete anyhow.
