Havengul Skaab

On rate alone, a 4/5 attacker that hands a creature back to you every time it swings reads like a tax on its own offense: a sturdy body that undermines the reason you turned it sideways. The design only resolves once you read the bounce as machinery rather than a fee. This exists to recur enters-the-battlefield triggers on a clock: declare the attack, return a creature that already paid off when it arrived, replay it next turn for the same value. That turns a clunky midrange shell into the engine half of a loop, supplying the trigger while your other permanents supply the payload. The catch that keeps it honest is where the trigger keys off. The bounce fires only on a declared attack, capped at one creature apiece, so ordinarily the loop turns over once per turn; give the skaab extra combat steps or additional attack triggers, though, and it will return a creature each time it swings, stacking the value within a single turn. That same attack-keyed timing is also the ceiling on its defensive use: you cannot hold it in reserve to pull a creature out from under removal or a sweeper, because there is no window to react. Any rescue it performs has to be scheduled into your combat step, committed in advance rather than held back. A reusable bounce wrapped in an awkward frame, inert on its own and patient in a deck stocked with bodies worth replaying.