Citadel Castellan
The vigilance is what makes the renown work here, and the pairing is the whole logic: a creature that wants to attack in order to grow but stay back to defend is exactly the body this keyword was built around, since it never has to choose between firing the trigger and holding a blocking assignment. Land the hit once and the 2/3 becomes a 4/5 that swings and guards in the same turn, a genuine anchor for a green-white midrange board. The friction is that renown is a one-time payoff gated behind unblocked combat damage, precisely the thing a blocker or a removal spell denies; the counters never arrive against a board that can trade or chump, and the floor is a vigilant 2/3 that may never collect its upgrade. That conditionality is why the keyword never stuck as a recurring mechanic: it asked for the hardest outcome in combat (connection) and gave nothing on the turns the attack was contested. As a snapshot of that design, this card is honest about both halves: the upgraded threat when the swing resolves, and the modest body when it doesn't.
