Aliban's Tower

A combat trick that keys off a creature being blocked or blocking, which is a stranger restriction than it first looks. Most pump spells let you choose your moment: ambush an attacker, push through a blocked creature, save a dying body in any combat. This one keys specifically to a creature that is blocking, so it can rarely help a creature you are swinging with. It does exactly one job: it turns a defensive block into a survived trade or an unexpected kill, sitting dead in your hand until the opponent commits to attacking into you. The +3/+1 split is built for that job, the +3 power letting a small blocker kill something it had no business killing, the +1 toughness nudging it out of a damage trade it would otherwise lose. The targeting clause is the whole design: it cheapens the rate (compare the era's more flexible pump spells, which cost the same or more for unrestricted use) in exchange for narrowing the card to a single combat posture. It is a clean example of a design philosophy that has largely fallen away, where rate was paid for with situational text rather than the modern approach of attaching upside that always does something. Played to its purpose, it punishes an overcommitted attack; held when the opponent never swings, it does nothing at all.