Fortunately, Wizards of the Coast has been messing around with lighter versions of subgames - Enter the Dungeon forces you to play a subgame under the table
Dynaheir is a Commander eligible in a beloved three-color combo that has Blue for counters and card flow, Red and White for removal like Chaos Warp and Wrath of God, and then loads of good stuff like Cyclonic Rift and Esper Sentinel and ramp like Land Tax and Smothering Tithe
One thing we've seen over the past year of Standard is that the combination of cheap removal and heavily played planeswalkers that incidentally answer creatures (basically every Teferi, Oko, Thief of Crowns, etc.) makes it difficult to build around cards like Captain Sisay
"Magic: The Gathering's most popular formats explained"
Connive allows you to draw then discard a card, and if you discard a non-land card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on that creature
Dont mean to Sugar Coat the truth, but this is very, very underplayed