Magma Phoenix

The death trigger is the entire point, and it changes how you think about losing the body. Most creatures dread removal; this one is built to weaponize it. The 3 damage to each creature and each player on death turns chump-blocking, board wipes, and edicts into a board-clearing payoff rather than a setback, and the recursion clause means the cycle is repeatable: pay five, swing or sacrifice, sweep the board, then buy it back and do it again. That loop is the load-bearing design, and it does double duty as a clock. Three damage to every player every time it dies adds up faster than the symmetrical creature damage suggests, so the card pressures life totals from the graveyard even when it never connects in the air. The cost discipline keeps it fair: the buyback is a full five mana, not a trivial reanimation, so a deck has to commit real resources to keep the engine spinning. The body itself, a 3/3 flier for five, is almost incidental; nobody runs this to attack. It is a removal-magnet that punishes the removal, a Phoenix whose return-from-graveyard ability is the literal mechanical expression of the flavor. The downside, and the reason it never warped anything, is that its own death damage hits you too, which makes it a self-limiting engine: you can only loop it as long as your life total can pay the toll.