Flayed Nim

The wrinkle worth dwelling on is who the drain targets. Most creatures that bleed life on damage point the trigger at players; this Skeleton's only fires when it connects with another creature, draining that creature's controller for the damage dealt: its 2 power, before any pumps. That reroutes the punishment off the life total and onto the act of blocking. A defender who throws a body in front of it pays two life for the trade, then watches the Skeleton refuse to die. The regenerate cost is the half that dates the design to an earlier era, when black creatures routinely bought their survival with a recurring mana sink rather than a static keyword. Here the loop is deliberate: a 2/2 that wants to be blocked, bills the blocker's controller two life for the privilege, and pays to rebuild itself and renew the offer each combat. The damage trigger and the regeneration are built to compound, turning a small body into a slow tax on every creature the opponent commits to stopping it. Read on its own terms, it is a grinder rather than a clock, more interested in attriting the board and chipping away at a life total two points at a time than in racing one.