Whenever you draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Lyla turns every card draw into a +1/+1 counter, so you flood the board with cheap card-advantage engines and cantrips, then funnel counters onto a single threat to win via combat or commander damage. Early turns you set up draw engines and protection; mid-game you draw multiple cards per turn and grow an evasive carrier into a one-shot kill.
Mono-blue gives access to the deck's best card draw and counterspells
Turns incidental cantrips into board development for free
Flexible counter placement lets you build a Voltron threat or buff a token army
Artifact creature works with artifact synergies and recursion
Can win out of nowhere once a wheel or burst-draw spell resolves
Counters do nothing if your carrier creature is removed in response
Mono-blue lacks reliable enchantment/artifact removal and creature board wipes
Trigger requires you to keep a target creature in play and draw cards
Slow to close games without an evasive or trampling threat
Vulnerable to graveyard/draw hate and counter-removal effects
Proliferate on every spell stacks beautifully with the counters Lyla generates.
Lower your curve and pack more efficient repeatable draw (Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel-style taxes) so Lyla triggers multiple times per turn cycle. Add evasion and protection for your carrier—Whispersilk Cloak, Shadow Spear, or hexproof granters like Aqueous Form plus counterspell backup—so a single removal spell doesn't undo your work. Top-end upgrades include proliferate payoffs (Inexorable Tide, Evolution Sage) and burst-draw finishers (Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius) to convert a big draw into a lethal attack.
Legendary Artifact Creature — Illusion Advisor
