Istvan, Butcher of Eln

Modern demands immediate value or exceptional synergy. Combat-only protection, forced attacks, and 1BBB leave Istvan well below established 3-4 mana threats.

Could be wrong if A black shell that reliably kills opposing creatures while exploiting a hard-to-combat creature could create a niche use.

Even accelerated by Dark Ritual, it lacks immediate disruption and remains exposed to efficient noncombat answers; its creature-damage prevention is too narrow.

Could be wrong if A specialized Ritual-based fair deck could value a threat that dominates creature combat more than expected.

As a commander it can safely attack through creature combat and grow from removal, but needs evasion and setup and remains vulnerable to noncombat interaction.

Could be wrong if Multiplayer sacrifice and removal density may supply enough opposing deaths for it to become a more credible Voltron payoff.

Combat immunity makes attacks safe and creature deaths can snowball it, but a forced-attacking 1/3 is initially easy to chump and poor at stabilizing.

Could be wrong if Unknown removal, token density, and format speed could make its scaling much stronger or leave it stranded behind larger blockers.