Cloudfin Raptor

The whole proposition is deferred: a one-mana flyer that does nothing on the turn it lands, whose entire value lives in the curve you build after it. Evolve rewards casting creatures in ascending size, and starting from a 0/1 means almost any follow-up triggers it, then the next, then the next. The reward is steep precisely because the floor is so low: an aggressive opening can have this attacking as a 2/3 or 3/4 flyer by turn three, ahead of where any one-drop has a right to be, while a clunky hand leaves a worthless body on the table. That asymmetry is the design's honesty. Evolve checks each entering creature's power against this creature's power and its toughness against this creature's toughness independently, triggering if either stat on the newcomer is strictly higher, so a high-power glass cannon grows it on power and a fat-but-flimsy wall grows it on toughness; the comparison is per-stat, not a contest between a creature's own two numbers. The counters are permanent, which matters: a single removal spell aimed at this card spends a card to undo several triggers' worth of investment, so the flyer functions as a tempo magnet as much as a clock. Among the cheap evolve enablers, this is the one with the lowest body and therefore the steepest payoff, and the one most punished for a bad draw: a card that asks you to sequence your turns around it rather than jam it on turn one and forget it.