Atog

The progenitor of an entire creature subtype, and the design seed for one of Magic's longest-running mechanical jokes. Born from a set overflowing with artifacts, it answers the obvious follow-up: what does a red creature look like that eats them? The activation cost is the whole design. There is no tap, no per-turn limit, no mana investment beyond the sacrifice itself, which means the pump scales linearly with whatever artifact pile you can assemble. The small body is the discipline that makes the rate work; this is a finisher rigged to a fuel supply, not a midrange threat, and the power band is set entirely by the deck around it. Every subsequent Atog (Auratog eating enchantments, Necratog feeding on the graveyard, the famous Psychatog converting hand and yard into a one-shot kill) is a variation on the template: a cheap creature whose attack step converts a resource you were already planning to spend into lethal damage. The tribe Wizards eventually built around it (Foratog, Necratog, Psychatog, Chronatog, Auratog) is one of the rare cases where a Magic creature type exists because a single early design proved generative enough to spawn a whole color-pie exercise. Psychatog is the one everyone remembers. This is the one it descends from.