Flame Channeler // Embodiment of Flame

The trigger is the whole design: this front face doesn't care what you attack with, only that a spell you control connects with something. Burn to the face, a bolt at a blocker, a shock split among two creatures; any spell that deals damage flips the switch. The word that matters is "spell," not "source," so a ping from an activated ability won't do it: this face rewards a deck built on damage-dealing spells specifically, and without a steady stream of them it stalls out as a plain 2/2. Flipped, it stops counting flips and starts banking them: each spell that deals damage stacks a flame counter, and those counters convert into repeatable card advantage. Paying one mana and removing a counter exiles the top of your library and lets you play it that turn, so the engine costs both a resource you built up and fresh mana to spend it. The design closes a loop spellslinger decks have always struggled with, which is running out of gas after the burn resolves. Here the burn itself is the fuel, and the payoff scales with how hard you commit to the plan. The counter economy is what governs the ceiling: you can only cash in as much as you've dealt damage, so the engine rewards a deck actually connecting with spells rather than sitting on a value creature. It is a compact statement of what a spells-matter deck wants its two-drop to be.