Denethor, Ruling Steward

The engine and the outlet folded into one three-mana body, and neither half asks much of the other. The end-step trigger only wants a creature to have died under your control that turn, and the sacrifice ability is a reliable way to guarantee exactly that: pay two, feed a token to the drain, watch an opponent slip a point while you replace the fodder at your next end step. That loop is the whole design tension resolved cleanly. Most aristocrats commanders lean on a separate outlet plus a separate payoff plus a separate token-maker; here the outlet and the token engine share a card, and the 2/4 frame lets it sit back and grind rather than race. The friction is deliberate: the token comes at your end step, one per turn, so the sacrifice ability outpaces the token faucet if you push it, and the two-mana tax on each activation keeps the drain from spiraling. It is a value nucleus rather than a combo piece, a Human Noble that turns any creature death into incremental board presence and a slow, steady bleed. Flavor and function line up unusually well: a steward husbanding a dwindling garrison, spending soldiers one at a time to buy another day.