Knight of Cliffhaven

A 2/2 for two that walks into play as a fair ground attacker, but never a true vanilla creature: the level-up ability is sitting on the card from turn one, waiting for the mana to spare. That is the whole pitch. Early, the body trades and blocks like any small white knight. Later, once the opening attacks have stopped mattering and lands keep untapping with nothing to spend on, paying per counter turns that flood into stat upgrades, the upgrade a modest white creature almost never gets from its dead mana. The progression climbs in two stages. The first counter pushes it to a 2/3 with flying, lifting a ground-bound body into the air. Reach the fourth and it becomes a 4/4 with flying and vigilance, applying pressure overhead while still holding the ground on defense. There is no game-warping trigger waiting at the top, and that restraint is the design: leveling here buys stats and evergreen keywords, nothing you bend a deck around to protect. Because the is paid at sorcery speed, one counter at a time, the climb is public; an opponent watching the bank knows the top end is coming and can sequence around it. No surprise blowout, no combat-step ambush. The distance between the opening body and the finished one is two power, two toughness, and two keywords: enough to stay relevant across a long game without ever pretending to be a finisher.