Guided Strike

The cantrip is what separates this from the era's pump spells. Most combat tricks of the period asked you to spend a card to win a fight, so a declined trade left you down material for nothing; the replacement-draw rider refunds that cost, making the worst case (your opponent simply doesn't block) a wash rather than a loss. First strike is the operative half of the buff. Held until blocks are locked in, +1/+0 plus first strike lets a small attacker land its blow before the blocker can answer, which is how a two-power creature eats a three-toughness one and survives the exchange untouched. That turns a tempo-neutral trick into a clean two-for-one when it lands in combat, and a two-mana cantrip when combat never materializes. The choice of +1/+0 over +1/+1 is the tell: the power bump feeds the first-strike kill while leaving toughness flat, so this wins attacks and trades up rather than rescuing a creature from burn or keeping a blocked attacker alive. A modest effect carrying a card-advantage engine, the kind of curve-smoothing common that lets an aggressive deck reward good combat reads without ever spending gas to do it.