Keldon Marauders
Most aggressive creatures want to outlive their welcome; this one is built to die on a timer, and that timer is the engine rather than a tax on it. Vanishing 2 guarantees the body leaves after two upkeeps no matter what the opponent does, which would be pure downside if the enters-and-leaves trigger didn't convert the countdown into damage on both ends. One point arrives with it, one point arrives when it goes, and those two are locked in the moment it resolves: an opponent who answers it early still eats the leaving trigger, so their removal trades down. What actually attacks is the variable part of the deal, blockable and preventable like any other beater, but the two pings underneath it are inevitable. That guaranteed reach gives it a floor a generic red two-drop never has. The damage points at a player or planeswalker, not at creatures, so it cannot be aimed at a blocker to push combat through; its sole job is to close the last gap in a race, and it does that whether it connects or simply runs out of counters. The design leans on one of red's oldest instincts: a small, doomed thing should still extract its full price before it leaves, and here the price is paid up front and on the way out, with the beats in the middle as a bonus the opponent gets to argue about.



