Cards that can remove defensive power from an MTG creature or player include cards like: Arcane Lighthouse
The effect triggers whenever Fairy Godmother, Mystic Armorer quests, granting all of your characters Challenger +3 - boosting their strength by three when they challenge an opponents character - and giving them the ability to return to your hand when banished in a challenge
To have a permanent connive N, the permanents controller draws N cards, discards N cards, then puts a number of +1/+1 counters on the permanent equal to the number of nonland cards discarded this way
Except for centering issues uncommon in modern Japanese sets, its relatively easy to send a mint Japanese card to PSA and obtain a gem mint grade
Saruman, the White Hand Saruman, the White Hand allows you to cast plenty of noncreature spells without worrying that you dont have enough of a boardstate