Malamet Veteran

In Commander, Malamet Veteran earns a slot in dedicated +1/+1 counter builds — Atraxa, Hamza, and similar commanders can trigger it reliably, and a 4/4 for three is genuinely above-rate in a multiplayer context. Outside of that synergy niche, it's too conditional to compete with the format's deep card pool. In competitive 1v1 formats like Modern and Pioneer, a 2/2 for three that needs an external trigger to become relevant is well below the curve — those formats have proactive threats that don't ask anything of the rest of your deck. Pauper is where Malamet Veteran has the most theoretical reach, since the common card pool sets a lower power baseline, but even there the counter-enabling infrastructure is narrow enough that it stays fringe.