Horned Cheetah

Lifegain stapled to damage is one of green-white's oldest comfort effects, and this is among the plainest versions of it: a four-mana 2/2 whose trigger pays back exactly as much life as it deals, to a player or to a blocker, every time. That breadth is the kindest thing to say about it, because the trigger keys off any damage at all, a Giant Growth or a pump effect turns into a life swing on top of the extra damage. The bind is the body underneath. A damage-triggered lifegain ability wants to ride a creature the opponent cannot profitably stop, so the trigger fires on big, repeated chunks; bolting it to a 2/2 with no evasion means the life comes in two-point trickles, the increment that matters least and the size most easily chump-blocked or traded away. The trigger keeps it off the vanilla list, but only barely; functionally it is a green-white midrange body with a thematic life cushion rather than a card built to threaten the board. On-color and coherent, it has been thoroughly supplanted by lifelink Cats and beaters that gain on every point dealt without asking you to spend a card making them connect.