Elvish Archers

First strike on a green two-drop reads, by modern color-pie standards, as a printing in the wrong color. The body tells the story: two power with first strike means this elf outpunches a Grizzly Bear and walks away, and on either side of combat it deals its damage before any smaller creature can swing back. Attack into a 2/2 and the blocker dies before it connects; block a 2/2 and the same thing happens. That cut across what Alpha green was nominally for. Green was supposed to buy efficient stats with combat tricks and ramp; white was supposed to own the combat step through first strike and banding. Archers planted a flag in the other guy's territory and became one of the early reference points for what green could do in combat math: win the exchange, eat smaller creatures clean, yet still fold to any single point of damage thanks to that fragile one toughness. Later development largely kept first strike off green creatures, and when it appears it tends to be gated (an anthem effect, a kicker, a counter on the battlefield), which makes this unconditional version read as something the modern pie would price differently or refuse outright. The cleanest defense is the flavor: elves with drawn bows shoot first, and the rules text simply follows the picture. That tight fit between art and ability is the kind of from-flavor design the earliest sets stumbled into by instinct and that later sets learned to engineer on purpose.