The archetype reminds me of a gameplay truism that Magic players like to use: The only life point that matters is the last one. Its like that but more extreme, where the only card in your opponents deck that matters is the last one
The ability to prevent life loss can also come in handy, although it wont save you from poison counters or commander damage
Where does Alania, Divergent Storm rank compared to the rest
While it looks much stronger than the Mothman in general, it doesnt interact with the +1/+1 counter theme at all, so Im sticking with West Virginias cryptid of choice out-of-the-box
We didnt want to waste a spot on it as a result, so its sitting here eating its lunch away from the cool kids
Suppose you play against a deck like Daretti, Scrap Savant that can assemble combos like: cheat Darksteel Forge and Mycosynth Lattice into play, and follow that up with mass artifact destruction