Kjeldoran Javelineer

The cleverest thing here is that the cost and the payoff are the same number climbing in lockstep. Cumulative upkeep usually buys you a large static effect against a doom clock you cannot escape; this design wires the clock straight into the weapon, so each age counter both raises the rent and adds a point to the spear. The first activation comes the turn after it resolves, once summoning sickness lifts and the tap ability is available: by then it has already taken its first upkeep counter, so the opening shot lands for one. From there the math escalates symmetrically. By the time the pinger throws three damage into a block, you are paying three every upkeep to keep it on the table, which turns "when do I let it die" into the same decision as "how hard do I want it to hit." The targeting clause is what keeps it a combat instrument rather than a free-fire Prodigal Sorcerer: it can only fire at attackers or blockers, so its value lives in long ground stalls where a 1/2 that suddenly deals three or four damage mid-combat blows up an exchange the opponent thought was even. It is a self-financing arms race against your own mana base, a body that pays escalating coin for an increasingly dangerous javelin until the bill finally outruns the swing.