Centaur Archer

Early sets handed each color pair its own answer to the flying problem, and this is what Gruul got: a 3/2 body that hits hard enough to matter on the attack, with a tap ability that polices the skies one point at a time. That single point of damage is the whole tell. It is not a removal spell; it is a deterrent, a tax on small fliers that asks an aggressor to commit a 1/1 into a guaranteed trade and reconsider. The friction is severe by modern standards: the ability only reaches creatures with flying, it deals exactly one, and it costs a tap, so the Archer cannot swing and shoot in the same turn. That restriction is what made the rate fair back when red and green had almost no clean way to touch evasive threats. It belongs to a long line of ground-pounders with built-in reach-by-activation, defensive curve-fillers from before flash-in flying answers and instant-speed pingers made the role redundant. The Archer is a snapshot of early design solving evasion piecemeal, color pair by color pair, handing Gruul a creature that earned its keep on the board and kept a thumb on the scale against anything trying to fly over it.