Gideon's Reproach

The conditional is the entire pricing argument. Four damage for two mana would be premium burn-grade removal in white, a color that pays a tax for reach and direct damage; the restriction to creatures that are attacking or blocking is what buys that rate back. It cannot answer a threat sitting idle, cannot clear a mana dork or a value engine that never enters combat, and cannot be aimed at a face or a planeswalker. What it can do is win combat math at instant speed: ambush an attacker after blocks are declared, kill a blocker to save your own creature and keep the damage flowing, or punish an opponent who overcommits to an alpha strike. That combat window is the whole design, and it cuts both ways: the spell needs a legal target, so on a static board with nothing swinging or blocking it sits uncastable in hand until someone commits a creature to the red zone. The four damage is generous enough to handle most midrange threats, which keeps it relevant against bigger bodies than a typical two-mana white spell could touch, but only ever on the turn those creatures are attacking or blocking. It belongs to the long lineage of white removal that trades unconditional flexibility for efficiency by leaning on the combat step, the same structural bargain conditional combat tricks have always struck. Hold it up, bait a swing, and it overperforms.