Elite Javelineer

The trigger fires on the block declaration, before combat damage resolves, and that timing window is the whole point. A 2/2 that pings on block kills a one-toughness attacker outright, and against a sturdier creature it shaves a point so that pairing it with even a single bit of additional damage flips a losing combat into a profitable one. The Javelineer does not have to win the fight; it bends the combat math before damage is dealt. The honest restriction is that the trigger only fires when this creature blocks, so it is purely reactive: it commits to combat on the defensive turn and contributes nothing on the turns you want to attack. Note the target, though, is any attacking creature, not necessarily the one it blocked, so it can soak one attacker with its body while picking off a smaller one elsewhere in the same combat step. White has returned to this template many times since: a small body that taxes attackers for the privilege of swinging into it, with the damage frontloaded to the block rather than the strike. The design teaches a lesson aggressive players already know and defensive players have to learn: in combat, the order of operations matters more than the raw stat line, and a point of damage applied at the right instant is worth more than a point applied at the wrong one.