Duskwalker

A 1/1 for that draws fine on turn one and dead by turn six is exactly the curve problem black aggro lived with in the early years, and the extra here buys its way out of that trap. Pay the kicker late and the body arrives as a 3/3 with fear, an evasive threat that races the opponent rather than chump-blocking them. The structure is the whole appeal: a curve-filler when you cast it cheap, a finisher when you don't, with no wasted draws on either end. The fear is what justifies the kicked cost, since a 3/3 on the ground is unremarkable but a 3/3 that only black and artifact creatures can block is a clock the opponent has to either race or remove. Nothing about the rate excites in isolation, which is the point: you choose whether you're holding a vanilla beater or a real threat based on how much mana you have when it leaves your hand. A modest piece of the mechanic that gave its block an identity, and a clean demonstration of kicker doing its quietest and most characteristic work: spreading one card's usefulness across the entire length of a game.