Was opp exiling him or just couldn't draw a -/- for him?

He's a pretty important roll player for the deck. You need something that offers value for dumping -/- counters on your T3 plays (or to get Exemplar out as a 4/4 T3). Could be a Blisterpod/Carrier Thrall/Scrounger/Dread Wanderer instead, but I prefer DDs to the former 2 because I haven't found the deck needing Scions to ramp into anything and prefer the 2/2 zombie instead (bigger token body who also helps get a point of damage in with Belcher). In the case of the latter 2, the recursion is conditional and I've been preferring the immediate payoff so far.

So basically, the roll DD fills is important - but there are other options if you're not happy w/ him.