Since the eras of Zendikar's vampires and
Theros' heroic mechanic, we've gotten used to
black cards that interact positively with +1/+1
counters, which were somewhat less common in
Magic's early and middle years. And that's
probably a good thing - the mechanic is very
popular and more options are always welcome.
This is a particularly versatile one, letting
you use either mode by itself it you don't need
the other, and while it's not a huge impact even
when you do have both, it's the sort of little
thing that adds up to a much bigger sum over
time.
Subtle Strike is a nice bit of “role
compression”; it's not a great removal spell or
a great pump spell, but it does both rather
nicely (and can, if needed, just be used for
one). It’s a nice combat trick, and any card
that does multiple decent things is worth a look
in Limited.
Outside of Limited, the removal is a lot better,
and the pump is even better still, so I’d steer
clear of this.
