Armor of Faith

A repeatable pump aura is a quiet design idea: rather than front-loading all its value, it pays a static +1/+1 and then leaves an open spigot, letting white sink leftover mana into toughness at instant speed to win a combat trade or survive a burn spell. The static bonus is the floor; the activated ability is the reason to keep it on a creature worth defending. That repeatability cuts both ways, which is the friction the rate is built around: it is still an Aura, so a single removal spell on the enchanted creature eats the card and the mana behind it in one swing, and pumping only toughness means it never helps you race, only stall. The design reflects a moment when white was treated as the color of defensive attrition, comfortable letting a one-mana enchantment ask for incremental investment over many turns. The +0/+1-per-mana shape later turned up in cleaner, more aggressive forms (creatures that pump themselves without the two-for-one risk), which is part of why the long-tail aura model faded: stapling your mana to a body that can be killed is a worse deal than carrying the ability on the body itself.