A-Peerless Samurai

The lone-attacker payoff, built into the color that least wants to attack alone. Samurai as a mechanic reward committing a single creature to combat, and the discount here is the aggro engine's answer to running out of gas: swing with one Samurai or Warrior, then follow up cheaper, whether that is a second threat, a burn spell, or a combat trick to protect the attacker you just exposed. Menace is what makes the lone attack survivable rather than suicidal. A creature that opponents can chump-block with a single body rarely gets to connect on its own terms; forcing two blockers means the aggressor is likelier to keep the attacker alive to press the advantage, turning the drawback of solo combat (walking into open mana) into a repeatable resource. The tension the card resolves is that lone-attacker rewards usually punish wide boards, since the more creatures you have, the harder it is to justify sending one. This one leans the other way: the discount funds whatever comes after the attack, so a developing board and a lone swing stop being mutually exclusive. The reward is modest, one generic mana per turn, and it is priced accordingly, but the sequencing it enables (attack first, cast second) is a small structural nudge toward playing combat before spells rather than the reverse.