Jackal Familiar

The buddy clause is one of the oldest levers in red's design kit: hand a color a 2/2 it has no business getting at the one-mana slot, then forbid it from acting unless a partner acts with it. The drawback is sharper than it reads, but it bites at one precise moment. The check happens only when you declare attackers or blockers; nothing afterward matters. Send this in alongside another creature and the gate is open, and even if that partner dies later in the same combat, the Familiar stays committed, because the legality was settled at declaration. So the restriction is a setup cost, never an ongoing one. That makes it nearly invisible when you have bodies to spare and crippling the moment you are reduced to a single threat, since this card cannot start a swing by itself. Defense is where it stings worst: a lone blocker is exactly what you want when you are behind on the board, and that is precisely the spot where the Familiar refuses to stand in front of anything. The card is priced for a curve, not a grind. It rewards committing to the board and punishes attrition, which is about as direct a statement of red's combat philosophy as a one-drop can make.